While in Chinatown for the tour, I was able to sample Chee Cheong Fun.  It is basically a rice roll.  When I first heard that, I pictured something along the lines of sushi.  It’s a roll.  It has rice on it.  Must be sushi!  I was really wrong (reference the picture above.)  It is a realllllllllllly big rice noodle that is steamed, and rolled with your choice of filling.  I had the roast pork.  The noodle had an amazing texture that held on to the peanut sauce, sriracha, and hoisin perfectly.  The filling was a little lacking, but the delicious sauce definitely made up for it.  They’re all made to order and served steaming hot, as evidenced by the burns in my mouth (so worth it.)   I can’t wait to go back and try every variety of rice roll.

Sponge Cake is a common thing in the pastry world.  They can be tasty, light, and airy.  Or bland, dense, and rubbery.  During our walking tour today, I tasted a sponge cake from Chinatown.  It was everything a Twinkie wanted to be.  The cake was super airy, like no cake I’ve ever tried before.  Each bite was like taking a piece out of a lightly sweetened cloud.  The cakes are steamed, which preserve the moisture of the cake while providing it with its light texture.  I may have to frequent Chinatown for my new addiction…

It’s 2016.  Poisonous mushrooms are easily identifiable, and as far as I know, not sold in supermarkets  My brain knows that mushrooms are edible, my heart knows it too.  But some instinct deep within me says “STAY AWAY!”  I don’t know why I have this subconscious distrust of mushrooms, but it’s there.  Maybe one of my ancestors died from eating a poisonous one and this is evolution trying to keep me alive.  Before today I never had a mushroom.  After today I will never have another mushroom.  I was at a get together and the host prepared stuffed mushrooms.  I was there fresh from this class, and with a cocktail in hand I asked myself, “what’s the worst that could happen?”, if anything I had a drink to kill the taste.  Something stuffed with breadcrumbs shouldn’t taste so bad.  The flavor isn’t what killed me, more so the texture; a rubbery, pseudo-meaty, almost-gelatinous blob from hell.  Darwin was trying to keep me around because my first instinct was to remove this thing from my body.  But I was at a party and not the Galapagos so I washed it down with some Tito’s and complimented the flavor.  If I’m not in class next week, you know why.

This past Monday in my Deluxe Desserts class, one team was garnishing their plates with dragon fruit.  I had never tasted this before, only seen it in pictures.  The beautiful exterior as well as interior promised a lush tropical flavor.  However, I was met with a very mild- almost neutral tasting fruit.  The flavor reminded me of an underripe apple.  The texture was weird for me, it felt like a mealy apple with kiwi seeds in it.  Overall, I’d eat it again if it was part of a dessert or meal.  The price of it is not worth the taste, but perhaps it is worth it for the dramatic visual it brings.

I’ve never experienced durian before.  I’ve only heard the horror stories of its description.  And the horror stories that people actually enjoy it.  What I gathered about it from others’ experiences is that it smells like rotting meat and doesn’t taste much better that that.  I was skeptical; how could a fruit taste like rotting meat?  Why would it?  Why would people continue to incorporate it into their menu if it was such a disgusting fruit?  This internal debate led me to try the ice cream.  Oh my god.  They were right.  They were all right.  I thought it couldn’t be that bad because the ice cream had banana in it.  I trusted the good people at Morgenstern’s to not assault my tastebuds (at least not in a negative way.)  It was the worst thing I ever tasted.  The flavor was strong and pungent; any chance the banana had at coming through was masked by the durian.  It tasted off.  Like really off.  Like the milk used in the ice cream was left in the sun for a few days before it was churned.  Never again.  I tried something new; but at what cost?