How to Make Dorayaki

Let me introduce one of my childhood friends to you.  He is a cute blue robot cat, and he can fly with a propeller coming out of his head.  Can you guess his name?

Yup, it's Doraemon! And no, he's not a Pokemon.  C'mon.

Doraemon is pretty much the epitome of a cool cartoon character.  He has pockets which whip out the coolest items from the future, such as magic doors and flying propellers.  His only weakness is that he loves dorayaki.  He's pretty much addicted to it.  And he has good reason to. They are just so delicious!

I had a lot of red bean paste leftover from making taiyaki, so I thought, hey, why not make dorayaki?

I used the recipe from Cooking with Dog (video recipe here), but made a few changes.

Here are the ingredients you need to make this addicting dessert:

2 Eggs

80 g White sugar

1 T Honey

1 t Baking powder

130 g Cake flour

~3 T water

1 can Red Bean Paste

Steps:

1)  Lightly beat the eggs.  (Use room temperature eggs.)  Add in the white sugar, honey, and baking powder.

2) Add in the cake flour through a sieve.  Lightly mix by folding the batter.

3)  Cover the batter with plastic wrap, and let it sit for 30 minutes.  You can go watch an episode of Doraemon if you want!

Letting the batter sit for 30 minutes.

4) Add water 1 T at a time, to get the desired consistency.  It should be toward the thick side, but still flowy.  

5) Oil a non-stick pan very lightly, and heat with medium-low heat.  You only need to oil once.

6)  Drop the batter with a ladle.  Getting the circle shape is actually very easy.  Just drop it from a higher height, and the batter should flatten naturally into a circle.

7)  When bubbles start forming on the top, flip the pancake, and let it bake for about 20 seconds.

8)  Remove from heat, place on cooling rack, and cover your pancakes with a moist towel.

Dorayaki buns

My recipe made 10 buns, but it depends on how big you make your pancakes.

Now, just scoop red bean paste into 2 buns, and you are done!

NO!  Not enough red bean paste!

YES!  Red bean paste galore!

I am pretty much a red bean addict, so any dessert with red bean in it automatically gets +10 red bean points.  I mean brownie points...hehe

Made by Cathy.

Tea Time just never ends!

There are some places where you wish that time would freeze so that you could chill for as long as you wanted.  Places on my list include:

 1) Disneyland - the happiest place on Earth where dreams come true;

2) Vegas - the grandiose place where you can forget your worries;

 and 3) Ten Ren's Tea Time - the humble tea cafe where you can eat and drink your heart out!

Kung Pao Chicken 

Sizzling Spaghetti spaghetti topped with meaty marinara sauce and a fried egg, served on a sizzling plate

And now, the drinks!  Like I've said before, I think Ten Ren's has the best boba tea drinks ever!  Ten Ren's is actually split into Ten Ren's Tea Station and Ten Ren's Tea Time, but their drinks are equally wonderful.  I think Tea Station tends to be more family oriented, while Tea Time attracts a younger crowd.  But, I love both!

Boba and Pudding Snow milk tea ice with boba and pudding, drizzled with molasses

Today, when ordering drinks, I had an eye-opening experience (kind of) that made me realize that I needed to improve my Chinese skills.  Here's what happened.

When I went with my friends, they both ordered their drinks in Mandarin.  When it was my turn, I instinctively defaulted to ordering in English.  Here's how it went:

Me:  "Can I have the boba and pudding snow, with uh...molasses?"

Waitress:  "Uh......"

Me: "Uh......"

I was at a lost of words!  Luckily, my friend came to the rescue and translated.

Anyways, on the menu, the syrup is called "molasses."  MOLASSES.  I mean, technically that's what it is, but MOLASSES is not a common word, so the waitress was super confused.  If only I was confident enough in my Chinese skills, I could have avoided that awkward "uh..." moment with the waitress.

closer look at the pudding

My Chinese skills (or lack thereof) aside, the drink was well worth it!  It was like SWEET HEAVEN in my mouth.  Perfectly chewy boba and silky egg pudding, mixed with icy milk snow, and topped with sweet sugar syrup! I mean, uh...MOLASSES.

Eaten by Cathy.

Ten Ren's Tea Time (for the drinks)

18423 E Colima Rd

Rowland Heights, CA 91748

(626) 854-6045

www.tenrensteatime.com

Ten Ren's Tea Time (for the food)

515 N Grand Ave

Ste F

Walnut, CA 91788

(909) 839-2665

www.tenrensteatime.com

There are shrimp swimming at ABC Seafood Restaurant

Have I mentioned that I don't like shrimp?  No, I don't think I have.  I don't like looking at them alive and I don't like eating them when they're dead.  Or I mean cooked.  Either way, shrimp is just no good.

Actually, there's (kind of) a story behind this.  I loved shrimp as a child but that all changed within a seconds.  I was eating a bowl of sticky rice which had shrimp in it.  My mom was chatting with my dad and I wasn't paying much attention to them.  

"Blah blah blah bloop blah shrimp blah..." 

And that moment, I just all of sudden lost my taste for shrimp.  I don't have the slightest idea what happened!  Some psychological thing or witchery?  But anyways, I still blame my mom for my dislike for shrimp.

I think one of the main reasons I don't like shrimp is because the texture.  When you bite into a shrimp, it kind of has a crunch to it and it feels like I'm  biting and popping veins!

So we ate at ABC Seafood Restaurant again for dim sum.  My grandfather's fangirl wasn't here today so we didn't get any free dishes. 

Shrimp Dumpling (Har Gau)

Look, shrimp!  We ordered so many shrimp dishes that day.  It was like a shrimp fest!  But a fest I couldn't join...

Golden Shrimp Dumpling

Mango Shrimp Roll

So we got the shrimp steamed, deep-fried, and rolled!  We got to cover all the bases!  I haven't tried any of these dishes but my family loves the Mango Shrimp Roll.  My mom swears it's the best dish at ABC.

I ended up ordering a few dishes myself.

Deep Fried Taro Dumpling taro filled with minced meat

 

Started the lunch off with some good old deep fried food!  And these delicious dumplings sure did it well!  The meat inside is a bit salty but in an amazing way because the taro helps balance it out and the deep fried outside adds a nice crisp shell.

Steamed Vegetarian Dumpling

Next, I decided on something healthier to help squeeze the oil out of my pores.  I know I already wrote about these vegetarian dumplings the last time but they're my favorite dish here!  And this time, they put different colored vegetable on top which makes them the perfect food for photos.  

Minced Beef Ball

As I said before, my grandfather's girl wasn't in today, so we didn't get the free Sesame Rolls like last time...But I really wanted something sweet to end my meal and I was really craving mango pudding.  Technically, you could make mango pudding at home with one of those boxes of mango pudding mix you buy from the supermarkets.  And you could probably make ten servings of it with the money you pay for one at ABC.  But hey, technically you can make anything at home!  So my sister and I ended up splitting one.

I "heart" Mango Pudding!

Eaten by Jocelyn.

ABC Seafood Restaurant

782 Barber Ln

Milpitas, CA 95035

(408)435-8888
www.abcseafoodrestaurant.com