Valentine's Day 2015 Dinner Series

Valentine's Day "Going-All-Out" Menu

I know, I know - I've procrastinated with this post again.  When other schools have snow days with even a few inches of snow, Cornell would still open. However, Cornell have this thing called "February Break", which is actually a 4-day break starting on Valentine's Day! (Does your school have that? Weird, I know.

Since it's cold outside and we (as in international students and Californians) aren't going anywhere, a group of us got together and decided to make this year's Valentines a little bit nicer than the weather. Because "food gives us the strength to love".

This year's menu is as follows (and in the picture):
Roasted Eggplant with Capers, Feta and Mint
Garlic Rosemary Steak with Kale Winter Greens Salad
Green Tea Lava Cake (chilled with Ithaca's own windchill)
and the tradition of course - Homemade Chocolate Truffles(assorted flavours)!

Recipes will be in hyperlinks. Thanks to these lovely girls for making the night so much more heartwarming than the -20 life outside <3

Roasted Eggplant Sunshine

With Kale Winter Greens

Garlic Rosemary Steak

Green Tea Lava Cake 

Lava flowing out...

Ispahan Entremét - New Year, New Resolutions

Layered entremét topped with rosewater gel, raspberries and lychees

Rose and white - Valentine's Theme Colors

I originally made this cake for my mom's birthday - as a yearly tradition from back in 2011, I have always took charge of her birthday cake. These traditions may sometimes be quite humorous when you take a look to the past. For example, I got quite horrified at the NYC-Style Cheesecake I made for her in 2011 - burnt edges, excessive amounts of sugar and cream cheese, cracked tops and canned toppings? A kitchen nightmare.  Luckily mom did not know that I was going to make it a tradition back then. 

To create this cake I drew ideas from multiple recipes, which were all fantastic but somewhat challenging. Since the only store that sells rosewater in the village of Raincouver was 40 minutes away from my house, I ended up making my own rosewater from fresh Costco roses (when you go to a school with no Costco in the area, the place becomes a dreamland). Fresh rose water is actually quite simple to make and can be used for many things, from baking to facial treatments (a natural toner). 

clearly better than that burnt NYC cheesecake maybe? 

The Inside
Also, I'm more than happy to announce that The Coffeecat officially launched a Nutrition and Heath section! As a NS major student this is something I've always looked forward in doing but could not start earlier due to the lack of experience and knowledge on this topic. The section will include tips on healthy dieting, battling the freshman 15, opinions on the latest health trends, and many more! Ultimately, this blog serves as a forum for both recipe-sharing, restaurant-hunting, and a record of my college adventures. Every recipe has a story, trust me. 

Chelsea's Market Adventures

Ever since residing in a college in upstate NY, NYC trips have become a very common break destination for many of us - excited freshman students from the countryside especially (sorry Port Moody). This past Thanksgiving, we chose to stay in the city for around 3 days, and the main goal of this trip? Foodie Tours. Let's start with the heart of the city's foodie destination. 

Street View

Located at 14th St, the market's surrounding neighbourhood is rather quiet compared to the noises of uptown NYC. This is a deceptive appearance as you will soon find out. 

Spot Dessert Bar - KTown Adventures

Menu-Sideview

This past weekend, I went with the Big Red Marching Band to NYC for the football game against Columbia and Sy Katz' Parade, which included marching on 5th Avenue in celebration of Cornell's 150th birthday. Aside from the band stuff, our manager was generous enough to give us around 2 hours of free time after dinner to explore the city ourselves. Guess which rebellious sax end up going dessert-hunting with the clarinets? This hardcore foodie right here. 

Since we had limited time, we ran/walked-like-a-New Yorker to the closest opened dessert place - Spot Dessert Bar's branch in Korean Town. Located on the 2nd floor of a busy food court, the place was filled with people on a breezy Saturday night. 

Part of the Display 

 The cooler had a display of Asian-fusioned (would that be the appropriate word? Correct me if I'm wrong) desserts, including taro cake slices with a mini macaron shell on top, green tea éclairs, etc. Aside from the appealing displays, the Signature Dessert Tapas s are the must-trys. 

With a group of approximately 6 people, I had the chance to try (or watch other people try) 4 out of the 8 signature ones. Unfortunately some of them were not the first choice since the cashier said 4 out of the 8 signature tapas are unavailable, which also happened to be 4 of our top choices (Matcha Azuki, Banocoffee, etc...seriously). Maybe something they can try next time is to state the availability beforehand to avoid disappointment from their long-travelled costumers? Just a thought. 

The Signature: Green Tea Chocolate Lava Cake 

Foodie trips with a Food Science major almost always involves a fun "dissection" of the dish. Ethyn and I both thought the cake had a matcha-infused appearance but lacked majorly on the green tea flavour on the inside. Though beautifully plated, the dish is basically green tea ice cream and chocolate lava cake with minimal green tea taste. Though a little disappointed, this was the least sweet dish out of all the ones we've tried, a favourite dessert for those who can't tolerate over-sweetness, I guess. 

Establishment - Cornell's Own Student-Run "Restaurant"

The classic menu at Establishment, a place where a casual dining/studying lounge becomes a "restaurant" at night

Though still busy and exhausted from midst of the second round of prelims (term for midterm exams used in our school), Cathleen and I still decided to take a short break from all the pressure and chose Establishment - the student-ran "Restaurant" at Statler Hotel. This is actually a course for Restaurant Management at Cornell, where Hotel School students become servers, greeters, chefs - staff running a restaurant.

Since the roommate is also a student at the School of Hotel Administration, part of the other reasons  we went was also to let her experience Establishment as a guest before she becomes the server (and serves me haha). 

Occasionally, groups of students host themed-nights where there are new additions to the regular menu. We decided on going to the Hong-Kong Themed Night - a reminisce of home for both of us I guess. 

The regular menu with special additions

happy roommate, happy day

The night's additions included the Wushu Trained Flying Wings, Kung Fu Char Siu Master and Yin Yang Dessert. Very creative course names indeed, let's take a look at the actual products.

We ordered all three of the special courses, with 2 more items from the regular menu - Erza's House Salad and Dashi Salmon. 

Wushu Trained Flying Wings

the menu description described this course as: oyster-sauce glaze. I expected salty wings, as the impression of oyster sauce has always been more on the savoury side. The wings surprised us both- it was sweet, tangy, but not the kind of sweet and sour sauce you get at Americanized Chinese restaurants. Definitely consider re-ordering this if it still exists. 

A Giant Cinnamon Bun - Happy Birthday Cathleen!

Someone should post a video of drizzling the glaze...


So after a few months of playing with different ovens/kitchens, I've found out that baking isn't really impossible in college. Of course, this process did take a few sacrificed cakes - the kitchen in my unit somehow only heats the outside of the cake no matter how long you bake them. At this moment I would like to give a sincere gratitude to all the dear friends who ate those partially uncooked cakes and even complimented on the soft (uncooked!) centers. Again, another reason to apply to Cornell ;)

So it turns out that my chef/housewife/talented singer roommate, Cathleen, is OBSESSED with cinnamon. Therefore for her birthday the brainstorming didn't need a long time of thought - what's more cinnamon-ny than a GIANT cinnamon bun? Adding the maple syrup glaze was more of a Canadian touch (homesick moment). 

A big thank you to all the generous and lovely people who've helped with the production of this "gone-in-10-minutes" cake - Jeanne's bread club and her yeast when I didn't have time to do grocery shopping, Richard and his awesome (functioning) oven, Jenny and her emergency milk, and the countless people who've helped set up for the day. Though the cake probably only played a small role, it was the product of patience and care.