BBA: Ciabatta :(

As you can guess by the frown in the title ciabatta and I are no long friends. I love ciabatta and was very eager to make it myself assuming it would turn out as amazing as everything else I had made from this book, but I was incredible disappointed!

However, from reading other baker's responses I think the second way the book states to make it, biga version, works better so next time I get the guts I'll try that.

Here's the crust. I guess in my frustration with my holeless ciabatta I didn't even take a picture of the crumb. Oh well it really wasn't worth looking at anyways. *Sigh*

BBA: Challah

Wow! It's been a long time. It seems that baking and blogging has proven to be too much for me, but I have kept on track with the baking at least. I am going to throw up everything I've made in my absence and recommit myself to writing better blog posts once I move. So here is my apology in advance for all the short posts I'm about to make. Stay tuned and they'll resume to their prior glory in a couple or months :)

A word on Challah: According to the book challah is the braided sabbath bread of Judaism symbolic of God's goodness and bounty. The braids traditionally separate the loaf into twelve distinct sections representing the twelve tribes of Israel.

Oops this on this loaf the top braid slipped off the top. It ended up more of a side-by-side double braid.

The crumb. This was a nice soft, light bread. Actually, I think this could make a delicious french toast as well.

Fruit Slinger

Oh hi. Remember me? I used to blog here, see I wanted to do a food blog with insightful comments and magazine-perfect food photography. But then I kind of realized that I'm way better at reading that stuff than I am at writing it.

I just discovered Fruit Slinger which is a collection of gorgeous fruit photography (this may be an odd thing to love, but whoa, the textures and patterns, the perfect imperfections, always attract me), meditations on seasons and people, and recipes that I know I won't follow but will at least point me in a direction.

Easiest Peach Mint Iced Tea Ever

Ever? Not as easy as turning the metal lid on a glass single serve bottle and hearing that wonderful THWOCK! But... pretty easy. You need:

Two tea bags-- I used Bergamot.
Hot water. Boil that stuff!
Peach nectar. Thick, fresh, peachy...
Sliced lemons
Fresh mint.
A jug or a big old jar.

Steep your tea in the hot water for as long as you like-- remove bags-- muddle in some mint, drop some fresh lemon slices in, glug in your peach nectar to taste, powerchill for 30 minutes in the freezer even if you like... then add ice cubes...

Then, you chug-a-lug! Or sip. You choose.

Delightful! Perfectly delightful!!!

MISTAKE!

There are certain things in life where you know it’s a mistake but you don’t really know it’s a mistake because the only way to really know it’s a mistake is to make the mistake and look back and said ‘YUP THAT WAS A MISTAKE..!' The bigger mistake would be that not make the mistake because then you go your whole life not really knowing if something is a mistake or not!

I got 'em from 'How I Met Your Mother'...and I thought that i should post it!

Rice Cakes Between Wonju and Seoul

Last weekend we drove to Gyeongju, a beautiful tourist spot, for a triathlon. It rained...a lot. We decided to take a new route home and found ourselves in horrible traffic. Eric saved time by driving on the shoulder and flashing his emergency lights. (The Korean "I'm Sorry" signal.)
As usual, merchants emerged selling rice cakes:
These rice cakes resemble the Quaker plain rice cakes, only larger and more rice-like. We opted for food at the next rest area. We both ate Western fast food. I had the chicken sandwich:

Of course, it had a "food story."

It contained mustard, cabbage, and a relish-mayonnaise sauce. Normally I would have avoided the condiments. It's funny how I've become less picky now that I can't communicate special requests.
For dessert we shared our delimanjoos, the custard-filled corn cakes:

As we neared the Banpo bridge, we saw that the lower deck was COMPLETELY flooded:

Normally this bridge has an upper AND lower deck. Also, the bike path was completely submerged! Worst flood we've seen here in four years. I'm glad we were out of town for the weekend.

Hotteok Good-bye

With only an hour of free time, my friend and I decided to go to I-Park mall. She said good-bye to her favorite bun lady and DVD man. We bought one final hotteok. It was cold and dry, the worst we had ever eaten. Definitely a sign that now is the time for departure. Thirteen more days!