May Flowers

A stroll around Pine Street and Locust Walk. Who knew there were so many flowers in so few little blocks?

Another Oldie but Goodie

Ever since I finally learned how to bake a perfectly chewy chocolate chip cookie without burning it (the secret is the baking time! who knew?)  I've been making this this peanut butter chocolate chip cookie recipe.  I absolutely love chocolate and peanut butter together. Peanut butter brownies? delicious. Peanut butter filled pretzels? amazing. Peanut butter & chocolate ice cream? ok. you get the point. Anyways, I've been making these cookies since high school. Every birthday, snack day, whatever you name it, these are my go to cookies. I've modified the recipe by using different types of sugars and different amounts of peanut butter. I personally like my cookies with extra peanut butter but that's just me. Enjoy :)

Trader Joe's has a pretty perfect peanut butter, not very sweet and super peanut buttery. YUM.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips (or in my case, the whole bag)
opt: 1 cup rolled oats

Cream together the butter, peanut butter and sugars. Then add the egg and vanilla.

Slowly add flour, salt and baking soda.

Chocolate chips!

Bake at 375 degrees F for exactly 8 minutes.

Fresh out of the oven.

Lined up (not so neatly) in rows :)

Now I just need to figure out how to package these and ship them without everything getting all smushed. Hmm.

Little Things

Life is full of wonderful little things that never fail to make me (or anyone for that matter) happy, and one of those little things is ice cream. Ice cream in any form is delicious but an ice cream sundae equal childhood happiness.

Located  next to the 2nd Market Street station, 1 block over from Han Dynasty and next to everything Olde City has to offer, Franklin Fountain has been an icon of the Philadelphia food scene since its inception in 2004. It is no surprise that the line we waited in stretched around the block because the ice cream is absolutely delicious.

The place is perfect from its old time radio to the servers in bow-tie to the homemade strawberry lemonade. The founders, the Berley brothers naturally took some of their inspiration from their mother who owned an antique furniture shop in Media. Check out their adorable website and blog.

[Lightening Rod Sundae] Coffee ice cream with a shot of espresso, chocolate covered espresso beans, white chocolate shavings, whipped cream and a pretzel rod. 

Another one of those little things that always makes me feel better is a really good cup of coffee. My roommate and I have literally lived in Capogiro for the past semester, and I have sampled almost everything from the perfectly foamy cappuccino in the cold month of January to the double shot iced latte in the heat of May during reading days (and of course everything in between). Here are some fun shots from the phone.

Sarah, the owner and founder, also has a very cute foodie blog you can check out here. I have this tendency of really disliking anything that turns into a chain or a franchise because the quality of the food and service always inevitably goes downhill. Fortunately for Capogiro, they've managed to keep everything pretty top notch even with three different locations.

An adorable teapot that they sometimes will serve your tea in. 

[double shot iced latte] the perfect way to start a day full of studying

The last little is more of a big meal but you should know by now how obsessed with brunch I am :) What makes brunch so perfect though is all of the wonderful friends you get to share it with. [and of course all of the yummy pictures of food I get to take]

[Hangover Pizza]

[Eggs Benedict] Hollandaise Sauce, Chorizo and Cheddar Biscuit.

[Almond French Toast]

[Steak and Eggs]

Find more brunch posts here and here. Home has been very relaxing and rather unproductive. My goals of cooking up a storm haven't really materialized but maybe that will change tomorrow...

Half way done!

It is official.  50% finished with college. WOW. But since I have already mentioned the sadness that is the end of half of college career, the big news is this blog post. I have been waiting to blog about this meal(s) for two weeks now. The first time, the lighting was really terrible and we were too hungry so I only got a handful of pictures. The second time, the pictures were slightly better and the third time, I was prepared and finally got some proper shots. Yup that's right. I have been to Han Dynasty three times since my last blog post. Some would call it obsessive, I just call it a really good excuse to eat really good food.

This has got to be one my favorite dishes of all time.

What can I say? It just happened that three different groups of people all suggested the same restaurant. I'm not going to argue when I get go to a restaurant where the spiciness is measured on a scale from spicy to more spicy. WIN. In my last blog post, I also promised myself to start taking more pictures and also getting around to starting a portfolio.  So the first step of that promise is to start using my Prime lens more often. I haven't been using it too much lately mostly because I seriously don't know how to focus the thing. BUT I think I am finally getting the hang of it. Maybe.

Meal 1: With the roommate and debate partner. On a random Saturday night, we ventured to Olde City and devoured four dishes in 30 minutes.

An array of SPICY.

[Mapo Tofu] Sadly not as spicy as it looks.

[Shui zhu yu aka water boiled fish] More like hot chili oil boiled...hehe. I remember eating this for the first time when I was in China with my grandparents. It was just the three of us, we ordered a feast and then promptly devoured just about everything.

[Garlic Sauce Beef]  I'm still not the biggest fan of bamboo but this dish made them tasty enough to eat :p

Meal 2: Lineage dinner with biggie, twin and little Lisa [yup, there's another Lisa in the sorority now].

[Cucumber Salad] Seriously need to find out what is in that sauce. Mission 1 when I get home is to recreate this dish.

[Wonton in Chili Oil] The key to checking to see if wontons are made well is by seeing how thin the skin is. The thinner the skin, the more pro the cook.

[Dan Dan Mian]. Ok, hands down best noodle dish in existence. Mission 2: Making this for lunch everyday.

 [Scallion Pancakes] Crispy and flaky

[Dry Pepper Chicken] As my Biggie said, this is one Bad ASS dish. SO salty and delicious.

[Walnut Shrimp] I don't think I have ever eaten shrimp so big.

Meal 3: The celebration of the end of Finance 203 with the case group. 8 cases and 80 hours later, we are still alive.

[Bok Choy, Shitake Mushrooms] Another amazing sauce, another dish to recreate.

[Dry Pot Style Chicken] With a medley of veggies including mushrooms, bamboo and celery all covered in dry chili peppers.

[Hot Pepper Style Lamb] Another moment of nostalgia. I actually hated the first time I tried lamb but my mom grew up in Northern Mongolia and basically lived off of lamb meat for 15+ years. So of course, it grew up me too :)

 And in case that wasn't enough, here are some more gratuitous shots to feast your eyes on. Enjoy.

Can you tell I really liked taking pictures of the Bok Choy? One last shot because I promised I would.

Aw aren't they cute? To the hardest working guy I know and the loudest guy I know =p. Thanks for a great semester and for being even better eating buddies.

Speaking of which, the continuation of this blog post is to come! Franklin Fountain will be next. Hurray to the beginning of summer!

Bring on the Colors

Sansom Roll from Vic's sushi. What's in it? More appropriate question to ask is what is not in it :p

Now that Philadelphia has finally begun embrace Spring weather (even if it is still freezing at night), all I can think about are colors and with that :tulips, violets and all those beautiful flowers that follow a flurry of April showers. Our old house used to have a huge flower garden, 2 cherry blossom trees and countless other random flowery plants all over the yard, and in the Spring time, the front of the house looked absolutely gorgeous.  Surprisingly, Penn actually has a lot of blossoming trees all over campus, maybe I'll get some snapshots before I head home next week.

Sushi at Vic's [study break with the roommate]

3 roll combo for  $10.95. Bam. 

Check out that salmon. Best fish in existence.

Speaking of which, I can't believe this semester is wrapping up already! 1/2 way through college...wow, I can still remember getting my hair done for Senior prom...Although to be honest, I am very ready to go home after an inordinately exhausting week of finals. One more final to get through and then it'll be Redbox movies, doing 6 weeks worth of laundry and starting my summer reading list :)  Even though it is May already and half of the year is almost over, my mid-year resolution is to embrace more simplicity. First step is to stop eating so many of those sweet potato fries that I have been raving about, second step is to add more colors to my dinner plate and the third step is to take more pictures! Get excited.