musings.schelley.org

I've developed a love affair with cupcakes. There's something just perfect about the cupcake, a little piece of cake in its own container with a generous dollop of frosting. Inherently, it's perfect, and while the experience could be replicated with a simple slice of cake, it is in its own way better, more desirable, more wanted.

Cupcakes are the rage right now, but really, have cupcakes ever gone out of style? I remember baking cupcakes with my mom when I was a little girl for my kindergarten teacher Audrey Zipp's surprise birthday party. It's the perfect mother-daughter dish - easy to make, lots of room for error and always, always fun to frost each litte cup of cake.

Over the past few years, Cooks Illustrated has published two different cupcake recipes, white and chocolate cakes. As expected, both are excellent, and many batches have been made as dessert for dinner parties, and fairly recently, a champagne fueled divorce celebration. Cupcakes are not pretentious, but elegant enough to go nicely with champagne. Go figure - how many desserts can really make that claim?

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 7:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I haven't been as diligent as I should about entries, but then, have I ever been?

A few thoughts...

Pizzeria Delfina: WOW. I LOVE this place. Located next door to Deflina, one of my all-time favorites, it carries over a few of the dishes (mainly sides) from the formal place, but the primary focus is on an original menu, centered around, of all things, pizza. The pizza is simply amazing - perfect crusts, not too thick, not too thin, with great toppings. One with mozzarella and heirloom tomatoes. The other with a rich red sauce, capers, anchovies and nicoise olives. I want to go back, right now.

Scallops: Of late, I've experimented with scallops. My cooking method is still not perfected, but salt and peppering each scallop and then searing in butter is showing promise.

Range: I heard raves from two different people about this new place in the Mission. Thus, I ducked out a tourney round of flip cup with the Dusters to join Gabe and Jason for a late night dinner. My white sangria drink at the bar was so so. My escarole soup was fabulous - creamy soup with an escarole base, topped with a poached egg and drizzled with olive oil. The waiter didn't ask me how well I wanted my salmon cooked, and it was overdone. The "melted" fennel was decent, but the blob of mayo (probably aoili) on top of the salmon was simply distracting. Dessert was a disappointment, best not to dredge up bad memories.

Zuni Brunch: Using aged balsamic vinegar, Zuni makes excellent bloody mary's for Sunday brunch (the cute bartender who talks sports helps the situation, of course). Besides the alcohol kick, brunch at Zuni is quite tasty. I've been twice in the past two months, both times dining on eggs. The first folded fresh corn and goat cheese and chives into the creamy scrambled eggs. The second combined some type of cheese and squash blossoms with scrambled eggs. Both were simply wonderful. I bought fresh corn at Whole foods and added it to my eggs the following two weekends. Wow.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 9:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

"I can't believe you lived you went to Berkeley and never ate at Top Dog!" was repeated emphatically by a guy I had just met at the Patel sibling party (which btw, kudos to Nilay for his incredible grilled cedar plank salmon). I didn't really have a good explanation - I was a vegetarian for a good many years while living in Berkeley, I never paid attention, I'm not quite sure why not.

So while walking to the Cal football game a few days ago, Top Dog on Durant became a destination point, for lunch and in part, so I could try to figure out the appeal. I had chicken apple, it was served on a slightly stale bun, and frankly, after eating the dog and throwing away about a quarter of the bun, I realized I didn't miss out on much. Maybe the experience is different on a non-football day, when Top Dog's mission is to make good dogs, not simply feed the hungry masses passing by on their way to the stadium. But I have to say, the dogs we bbq every Thursday at kickball are better.

On the other hand, I had an excellent margharita pizza, and of course, beer, at Jupiter. It's a great bar on Shattuck, near the BART station, that I used to frequent after I graduated from college. I closed down the bar several times (Marty, if you're out there, I won't forget) and I celebrated my 27th? 28th? birthday at Jupiter...I'll never how excited I became when the guy I had a crush on appeared at Jupiter to help me celebrate my birthday...

Did I miss anything by not eating at Top Dog? NO. I frequented other Berkeley places, some of which still exist, others of which are now legend. Barneys. Zachary's. Zona Rosa. Raleighs. The salad places on both sides of Raleighs, one which was really popular, but the other was so much better, Coffee Source maybe? The Japanese Place, which moved from Durant to Durant Alley. Steve's Korean BBQ, with a giant rice cooker. Togo's. Noah's. Yogurt Park. Campus dining. SO I can't quite remember what happened ten years ago...but I can try, right?

Maybe I'll try Top Dog again. But I have a feeling, Top Dog is good because it is cheap for college students who just don't have a lot of $$ for food after writing checks to "the UC Regents". Even when the monetary situation improves with real jobs, Top Dog plays on nostalgia, allowing one to relive the memories of college. I'm glad I finally got there....at least now, I can say I ate at Top Dog.

Posted by Schelley Olhava at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)