Paris Baguette and Back to bread (whole wheat sandwich bread)

A few weeks ago I ventured out to try some new things after a doctor visit. I had fasted overnight and before the appointment so I could get some blood pulled. However that left me hungry after my visit. I decided to try one of our local coffee roasters that has cold brew coffee on nitro.

First impression was that it looked like a beer. It had a nice foamy head and was nice and chilled. I must say that when taps use nitro, it certainly makes for a much smoother mouth feel of the liquid. I thoroughly enjoyed my first cold brew coffee on nitro. I got the coffee at Chocolate Fish Coffee Roasters. It’s a quaint little coffee shop that is no frills.

With my coffee in hand, I headed over to the relatively new Paris Baguette. This chain recently moved up here to northern California after I guess it grew big in southern California. This bakery reminds me of a Taiwanese bakery called 85 Degrees. You walk in and grab a tray and all the bread/pastry products are out on trays or in cubbies. You pick what you want and then take your tray to the register to pay and order drinks as well. I ended up getting a buttered croissant, chocolate croissant, and a croissant with an italian sausage in the middle. They were all delicious.

———– Continue reading “Paris Baguette and Back to bread (whole wheat sandwich bread)” →

Mt. Whitney Hike

***I wanted to document some past hikes/trips that I’ve taken. I actually wrote the following shortly after the hike (way back in 2001). I made some minor edits to the text but overall they are my words from 16 years ago. ***

It all started while I was still at school. During spring quarter of my freshman year at Northwestern University, my dad sent me an e-mail asking if I would like to participate in a hiking trip. He informed me that the trip would be to Mount Whitney, the highest peak in the lower 48 states. Other aspects of the trip comprised of the group being made up of five individuals. I was the only one under the age of fifty. The other group members included my father, my uncle, Mr. I-fu Shih, and Mr. Hsu.

To prepare for this hiking expedition, our group held practice hikes at a nearby mountain. Mount San Antonio, a.k.a. Mount Baldy, is the third highest peak in the southern California area. With a peak elevation of 10,064 feet, our group traversed this peak once as an entire group. However, each member individually climbed the peak at least twice, sometimes three times, in his own separate groups. These climbs were to help ensure that we would be in shape and ready for hiking the many miles of Mount Whitney. There are four different trails one can take to reach the top of Mount Baldy. I have taken two of the four routes. The first route requires taking a chair lift to the start of the trailhead. From the trailhead, the peak can be reached in 3.7 miles with an elevation gain of around 2,000 feet. The other trail is considerably more difficult. With an elevation gain close to 3,500 feet, the trail continuously climbs upwards, pushing my body’s limit. That trail has a length of 4.3 miles. A separate hiking experience I had to further my training occurred while on vacation in Alaska. One of the expeditions offered at Juneau was a hiking trip. I decided to take this expedition to help keep myself ready for hiking in the wilderness. One other preparation tool I had been taking advantage of was that of running. I would jog at least a mile everyday for a few weeks prior to our trip to Mount Whitney. Continue reading “Mt. Whitney Hike” →

Miyajima Island, Hiroshima, and last day in Tokyo

Even though I was under the weather and tied to being close to a bathroom, the show had to go on and our trip wasn’t going to just end (even though I had fleeting thoughts of telling my wife to go ahead and I’d just go back to Tokyo and hole up in a motel until our flight home). I’m glad that I pushed forward and finished off the trip.

From Kyoto we hopped on the Shinkansen again and continued our trip westward. Our destination was Itsukushima, or Miyajima Island, which is located just off the coast of Hiroshima. We initially thought we’d stop in Hiroshima first prior to heading to the island. However given the time of day when we arrived in Hiroshima, we altered our plans and decided to go to the island first and would check out Hiroshima on our way back to Tokyo the following day. To get to the island you need to take a ferry. Strangely enough there are two competing companies but they operate right next to each other at the ports. One of the ferries is operated by JR and since we had the JR pass, we could ride for free. It was a very short trip (10 minutes) to get across the channel.

As we approached the island, we sailed right near the large Torii gate that sits in the middle of the water. I managed to snag a few shots even though it was quite foggy. Continue reading “Miyajima Island, Hiroshima, and last day in Tokyo” →

Hot dog (hamburger) buns

For the 4th of July, we decided to do the ultra-traditional hamburgers and hot dogs. I decided I’d like to try my hand at making hot dog buns. I had previously made some burger buns from a random recipe I found online. I didn’t realize that you can use the same formula for both hot dog and hamburger buns. This time I found another recipe on a random blog. For the most part I followed the recipe that was laid out (since this was my first time making it). I amended it due to the fact that I don’t have a stand mixer and therefore have to do all my mixing/kneading by hand. The recipe called for letting the dough rest in the fridge for up to 24 hours so I made up the dough the night before July 4th.

Ingredients:

500g All purpose flour
½ cup warm milk
¾ cup warm water
2 tsp yeast
1½ tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
1 egg
2 tbsp butter (can use butter as well)
extra oil to oil the bowl
1 egg for the egg-wash

First I mixed up the flour, yeast, salt and sugar. Continue reading “Hot dog (hamburger) buns” →

Birthday run

I woke up early on a Sunday morning to get a run in before it became too warm. Somewhere along the way I went from sleeping in really late (especially in college) to waking up early without any alarm. Nowadays I wake up automatically around 5:30 am on workdays and between 6 and 7 am on weekends. For my birthday I knew that I wanted to get an outside run and for that I had to get up early. I have been mostly logging treadmill miles because of the heat wave that has been plaguing Sacramento.

Once outside I came across a momma turkey and two poults (young baby turkeys).

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Continue reading “Birthday run” →

StewsCat

Running, baking, cooking, drinking