New England Ice Cream Trip(I) -Massachusetts

Ice cream is exquisite.  What a pity it isn't illegal.  ~Voltaire

In eating  ice cream ,  we meet God, and lose God, eat God, as it were, become God( as in 'You are what you eat') and lose God(as in 'You can't eat your cake and have it too')

Coordinator

Yiwen Gao

Judge committee

Hongmin Fan,
Yiman Hou,
Yuqian Li,
Creence Lin,
Wanyu Wang
,Sheng You,
Yue Zhang

Time
05/02/2010 11:00am-9:00pm
( including a lunch@Top Garden - Tewksbury, MA)

Mission

As the first trip of the significant Ice cream tasting trip, we only stopped by the stores in Massachusetts. Due to the time limitation, there are still some famous stores that we missed out,  we will try to stop by in the future trip. For each store, the candidate flavors we pick up are: vanilla flavors, chocolate flavors, fruit flavors, nut flavors and featured flavors. After tasting, the judger graded the ice cream from 1-5(5 is the highest).

Confession

Our judger tried to grade equitably and objectively, but it's difficult not to involve individual preferences, for example, most of the judger don't like the pistachio flavors, which results in the overall low grading of pistachio ice cream. And since the judgers all prefer Asian flavors, it's not surprised to see the Green Tea flavor is extremely popular, so does Adzuki bean (red bean). So I hope you are reviewing our report with awareness of those points.

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Ice cream Stores Profiles:

Report( with grades)

Kimball (Carlisle, MA *multi-locations)

Vanilla:       Vanilla Cherry chip    (3.7)

                   Big , plentiful of cherries, with chocolate chip

Chocolate:  Chocolate Almond    (2.2)

                   Very disappointing ( Maybe I should not have it as the candidate flavor)

Fruit:          Vanilla Cherry           (3.7)

Nut:             Pistachio                   (2)

                    Very disappointing, very few pistachio

Featured:     Kahlua Crunch         (4.2)

                     Coffee flavor with fudge swirl, chocolate crispy(or something) , very good 

** we didn't go to the Westford store, which is famous with those mini golf,  the Carlisle store is not facilitated well, but with tables

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Richardson (Reading, MA, * multi-locations)

Vanilla:       Vanilla Cherry                  (3.3)

                    not very pleasant, fake cherry, with pink color(seems artificial) vanilla ice cream

Chocolate:  Death  by Chocolate         (4)

                    This is really chocolate ice cream, rich, very good

Fruit:          Vanilla Cherry

Nut:             Pistachio                          (3.1)    

              loads of pistachio, it claims itself as the green color of ice cream is naturally from pistachio, but  most of the judges are not fans of pistachio ice cream :(

Featured:    Reversed Chocolate chips (3.8)

                    this white chocolate chip with chocolate ice cream

** we visited the Reading store in the Jordan furniture, got to watch some musical fountain show :))

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Christina(Cambridge, MA)

Vanilla:      Vanilla Bean                (3.5)

                    Rich, but no surprise

Chocolate:  Mexican  Chocolate    (3.4)

                   with cinnamon that brings in the spiciness, I am a Mexican chocolate fan( Spicy!), I love it, but if  you are not into that, you probably feel weird 

Fruit:          Mango                        (4.5)

                 Very creamy,  Mangony , which is not created by cream, but taste like lots of mango puree,  I can't believe it's a fruit ice cream, but it's definitely ice cream but not sorbet  

Nut:            

Featured:    Green Tea                   (4.2)

                    We all love it, not very sweet, characteristically Asian ice cream 

                    Burnt Sugar                 (3.6)

                    Rich, intense, but only if you like burnt sugar 

                    Adzuki Bean               (4.4)

             this one got raved right away, since I actually only got one spoon of it, I subconsciously feel it is the best :-|

                    Gingersnap Mollassa   (3.8)

                    I love Ginger ice cream and this one is absolutely cold gingersnap mollassa cookie in the form of ice cream. But not all of our judger loves gingersnap, so it doesn't hit a very high score

** the staffs are not very friendly, which is kinda expected, but the long waiting line is always there

      a folk waiting in the line also recommended carrot ice cream to us

*   expensive than all the other stores

---------------------------------

Peaceful Meadow(Whiteman, MA)

Vanilla:       

Chocolate:  Coconut Chocolate Almond   (4.5)

                this one could be the super star of that day, it 's actually not chocolate ice cream but vanilla ice cream with  mini chocolate chip, coconut, and almond, everything is balanced so well there, everyone loves it!

Fruit:          Black Raspberries   (3.3)

                   not very impressive

                   Orange pineapple    (4)

                   our girls loved it, very fresh

Nut:            Maple Walnut          (4)

                 this is the best maple flavor ice cream I have ever had so far, the maple flavor is so intense, love it!

Featured:   Coffee Fudge           (4.2)

                    very coffeey, bitter coffee balanced well with sweet fudge

* After traveling so many stores, eating so much ice cream , we all kinda were surprised we loved this place so much(right after Christina!)  but overall, ice cream there is  sweeter than in Christina, but I don't rule out the factor that we ordered some Asian flavors in Christina. 

**You can also see cows there, but not smell good. 

***The lines are all long, no tables that you can sit down and enjoy your ice cream though

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Racantore (Belmont MA)

Vanilla:        

Chocolate:  Bittersweet Chocolate   (3.4)

                    sweeter than 'death by chocolate' in Richardson

Fruit:          Strawberries                  (3.4)

                    no surprise

Nut:            Hazelnut                        (3.7)

                   a little bit subtle

Featured:   Espresso                         (4.2)

                   this is the best coffee ice cream I have ever had

But in this place, the super surprise is: 

Chocolate chop Cookie cone, Pretzel cone!!

Unfortunately the  cookie cone were sold out

Pretzel cone was unexpectedly good to be served with ice cream

Do we look fatter than in the first picture??

(this is the last stop-)

Prize

Best Chocolate Ice cream

Coconut Chocolate Almond from Peaceful Meadow

( this doesn't count actually, it's not chocolate ice cream)

Death by Chocolate from Richardson

Best Fruit Ice cream

Mango from Christina 

Best Nut Ice cream

Maple Walnut from Peaceful Meadow 

Best Coffee Ice cream

Coffee Fudge from Peaceful Meadow 

Espresso t from Racantore

Best Special Flavor Ice cream 

Adzuki Bean(Red Bean) from Christina

Best Ice Cream store in this trip

Peaceful Meadow (4)

Christina(3.9)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks to

all the committee members

SPECIAL THANKS TO

Hongmin Fan

(One of the driver,

the only guy in the team)

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Brain storm Time

How to select candidate flavor to make sure they are characteristic , best representative?

How to grade ice cream with involving minimum personal preference?

what should be the standards to represent the best ice cream?

......................................

"I had always thought that once you grew up you could do anything you wanted - stay up all night or eat ice-cream straight out of the container. "

Thanks god, we have grown up and you do too

I hope you can help me think about those questions when you are in bed and eating ice cream straight out of the  container.

Let Google calendar my life, then I can save some memory to remember the value of Pie

Roasted Balsamic Mushroom, Arugula pesto, Cherry wood Smoke mozzarella Pizza(Naan bread)

If I have Google calendar completely guide my life, helping me work, help me love my beloves, I wonder how much memory it can free from my brain in my whole life, what should I do with the 'extra' memory ??? 

Will I be able to remember the value of Pie ? Quite possible,then at the moment before I die, I will be able to recite it, but can't remember my beloves' birthdays, because my calendar may not be on hand....

part of pie value

Not sure if I want to do that, but I do check my own blog for recipes of the food I made before

Arugula Pesto: 

Roasted garlic

Arugula +basil (2 cups)

3-4Tbsp nuts( pine nuts+pecan)

lemon juice

oliver oil

Parmesan

Everything is alright-chicken pot pie in late April

Sit back and relax, everything is alright

,let me love you @

Outdoor:  70F

Indoor : 72F

Oven : 400F

Chicken pie: 200 F

Chicken pot pie: 

for chicken: chicken thigh, pan fried

for pie filling:  roux, milk, chicken broth

                    cubed  chicken, 

                    pearl, onion, parsnip, carrot, pea, mushroom,thyme , shrimp(optional)

Biscuit crust:

It's supposed to use butter and vegetable shortening together but I don't have shortening, using bacon grease instead

*Butter has to be cubed ahead, chilled

* never overdo your dough if you want it to be flaky

Still very new to making pastry dough,  a long way to be perfect

--------who hasn't taken his piece of pie?

gaogao: me, me!!!

Let's sing in the rain

Seared Bluefish with sweet corn tomatillo sauce,

arugula,basil with lemon vinaigrette in paprika asiago  frico basket

tomato confit 

sweet corn tomatillo sauce: using sweet corn, tomatillo , jalapeño, onion,garlic, cream, asiago cheese, making corn soup, using blender to make puree, drain the puree

paprika asiago frico basket: mix paprika, black pepper with shredded asiago cheese, make a thin round layer on parchment paper, 375F, 5-7min( it is bulbing ), fit the soft asiago round into muffin pan, let it cool to form a basket

tomato confit: mix cherry tomato with thyme, garlic, salt pepper, oliver oil, bake 350F about 30-40 mins, let it cool, put them in a jar, fill in oliver oil

One day, submarine was crossing the rainbow bridge, 

then she found out, the world over the rainbow is nothing special

if it rains here, so is the other side...

but she thinks she can sing , at least

this is the Ricola wrapper I collected,now it's difficult to close the box, 

time to make something out of them...

Fun Easter

Special Thanks to Yue,

if not you, popped up the easter eggs topic

I wouldn't have myself dedicated to trying those fun stuffs

wouldn't have so much fun from making all kinds of things

I'd love to thank you by the peepshi

Eggs

using all natural colors:

red: beets

blue: red cabbage:

yellow: curry, turmeric

orange: saffron, paprika( failed)

green: spinach (failed)

Peepshi

It's not origin from me( I am not that creative), 

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2010/03/peeps-recipes-how-to-make-peepshi-sushi-rice-krispies-treats-easter.html?ref=brkbox

But I made wasabi from green peeps( this is invented by me), and I made Rice Crispy treats from Rice Crispy , so that it was easier for me to shape the 'sushi rice'

Ginger Mango Glazed ham with Parsnip-carrot puree, hazelnut butter green beans

At last,  I want to tell everyone, if you can't find your bunny, remember to look up at the moon, she probably will be there :)

Waiting for a superman(by Iron and Wine)

Saffron Cod soup

(parsnip,carrot, tarragon, saffron,celery, tomato paste)

It becomes more and more frustrating, when will my Savior come?

Waiting for my superman, not has to be very powerful, just right will be fine

Sun Factory-my duty is to manufacture *sun* to cheep you up!

Salmon gravlax tartaree with orange ginger sauce, dill oil, broiled salmon skin

Organge ginge sauce: orange juice , ginger juice, hosin sauce, dijon mustart, rice vinegar, olive oil, honey

salmon gravlax:

the products from sun factory:

                                                        

                                                    

                                        

                                        

                                                

A play about spring

(Please adjust your volume to the maximum)

Golden beets, pear red beets puree, dill oil, beet emulsion, walnut dill arugula salad with truffle vinaigrette

Slow cook beet, Lemon ice cream, baby kiwi, fig balsamic syrup, basil lemon syrup

It looks like everybody is cheered up by the warm weather, so we are uplifting  each other. This is the spring from my note book:

1. Green sprouts

2.My neighbour took their griil out

3. Strawberry with reasonable price is back

4.STREET CLEANING > <

A captain but not a pilot

Pork Belly Confit, Hoison Glazed Turnip,Celery Root&Roasted Garlic Puree, Shiitake Mushroom Port Jus

The first five things that can cheer me up:( 2010 Spring version)

1. Interview

2. Cooking

3. Strawberry©

4. Eating good food

what is the last one.....................................

oh right , Flying a kite!

I guess everyone likes flying a kite for the same reason, it is at the other end the of string,  no matter how high it goes, it is always there, just me and kite, kite and me.. and the string is stretched tightly, I can feel the tension, the real strong connection with the kite . how could I do that with something else? 

But when it gets really high,  the tension on the string gets very strong, I will start to worry, then I will wind the strings to get my babe back, and carry it  home...

But nemo , he is so not good at flying , so most of time, I was helping him climb higher or keep balance with most of my patience, then when we got back to submarine, I noticed that he was more than happy to be the captain of the submarine instead of a pilot :)

It seems today is a perfect day, I have all five things happened,  but I'd rather to trade them for the next sunny weekend( sorry, except interviews)

Pork Confit:

1.Bury the pork belly in salt and other kind of spicy mixture , keep it refridged about 3 days, it is the process of curing

2. Make simple vegetable stock(thyme, carrot, ..onion, garlic, ginger...) , submerge the pork belly in the stock, covered with lard or bacon grease on top, leave it in the oven , 200F, overnight, I did it about 10 hrs

3. Cut it and pan fried it

Hoison Glazed Turnip:

1. Boiling the turnip in salt+sugar water until it gets cooked

2.Pan fried it, add hosin sauce +the stock got from pork belly, carefully turn them over several times until the glaze is formed

Roasted Garlic &Celery Root puree

1. Roasted whole garlics

2. Boiling celery root in the chicken broth

3. Mix them together and use blender to make puree, add heavy cream to adjust the thickness, white pepper , salt season

Shiitake Mushroom Jus

Port, Chicken stock, shiitake mushroom, shallot,  soy sauce, brown sugar, boiling them to reduce

ps: this is the best thing I had made so far, I think

Rainbow moments--Steak with Horseraddish cream and roasted carrot, roasted garlic parsnip puree

Woke up, accidently touched the pandora icon on my phone, surprisedly  it was a beautiful  'Somewhere over the rainbow' by Rufus. I have been stressed out, it was like a little hope that comforted me. Maybe...

Even if in the world over the rainbow, it is still difficult to find a job, I am sure it is a wonderful world, hmm... it should be under the strawberry system with a strawberry in the sky ,instead of a sun.

I can't go over the rainbow, and actually there were not too many rainbow moments in my life, I tried to record all of them ( since I had a camera). I even don't have a good picture under the rainbow. But I still remember the exicitement at each signle time. It's about the beauty of life. I hope I will have a job(full time, spornsoring h1b)  at the next rainbow moment( this summer?)

11/23/2007 Maui, HI

11/26/2007 Maui, HI

08/23/2008 Cambridge, MA

05/01/2009 Olympic National Park, WA

The food:

Steak: coffee spicy rubbed, rare cooked

horseraddish cream: horseraddish sour cream, dill

roaste carrot: fennel seeds, thyme, fennel, truffle oil

parsnip puree: roasted garlic, parsnip, cream

ps: I am craving for big meat sometimes and the dish was from many days ago, no interview, no appetite~~

Strawberry system- Buttercup squash sage polenta cake with bacon and fried sage

Not sure since when , sage becomes a regular stuff in my refrige, fresh sage is just cute itself, as a piece of feather, fuzzy and soft with fabulous smell, warms you up.

I added sage when making the polenta, and added roasted buttercup squash at the end, which brought in the sweetness. To make it as a perfect friends gathering, I can't miss out on bacon.  Well-done..

ah, tonight I had a half of strawberry fromYue's birthday cake( happy birthday, Yue, now it's really your birth DAY), well, I hadn't have strawberry since the winter came, so ,it's another  reason for me to expect the spring/summer's coming. Love strawberry, I would be cheeredup simply by reading or seeing its name.
What if one day, when I look up at the sky, I can see it's actually a giant strawberry in the sky

( even if it is only a balloon or origami~~)
ps:

Addiction--cauliflower , Roasted garlic and Parsnip soup

Went to Mohegan for super band's concert, only for 华健，other guys are fine, I think I have addiction to his voice, it is something magical that can reach my heart.  it has been almost 15 years, I kept liking and unliking different ones, but the favor for him, never lessened.
Very disappointing, they didn't sing '抱着你' .

Since last year, when I addicted to a song, I would listen to it again and again, for the whole day,  the first is love story meets viva la vida  by jon schmidt,  Relient K's ' this is the (end if you want it)', then “最天使”， Rufus‘emotional commontion,  now is '抱着你' .

And also since last year, I started to addict to soup,I have to make sure I have soup in refrige all the time. This is a cauliflower , roasted garlic  and parsnip soup , topped with Dijon mustard and shaved parmasan.
Maybe I am just too tired and lazy to chew, : D

The 2800 minutes of WALL-E

Walle, born on 02/16/2010, 17:36pm,  he was alone there most of the time, I felt bad that I didn't make Eva for him, in the 2800 minutes, he witnessed the gorgeous scene after snow, the sunny and bright days, the cold and quiet nights. I guess he was thinking all the time, thought about the people he cared,  wonder why they were so busy, why he couldn't have eva with him.

Walle is gone, I made him a crepe cake, it was a Chocolate crepe cake with Avocado coconut cream. It was a cake involving a lot of work, but sometimes, it is just you care then you don't feel bored. I remember when I ate in 'Craige on Main', I noticed the chef looking at the people there, he was observing, he wanted to know if people enjoyed his food, he put caring in his food, he wanted to make sure people could taste it. As the customers, we are loved by him :)

Chocolate crepe:  flour，almond meal, cocoa powder, (3:2:1, total 1cup), sugar
                           brandy(2Tbs), vanilla, melted butter(3Tbs), egg(2 large)
Avocado coconut cream: avocado, coconut milk
Topping: whipped cream, toasted coconut flakes

Ginger Cream Crepe cake(mille crepe) Giveaway

two more left

Submarine's sadness--Almond crusted tilapia with red and green sauce

Boby Flay made a soup , it was like filled in the plate with half tomato soup and half avocado soup in the avocado battle', Guy Fieri made a pumpkin seeds crusted handcock with cream cilantro sauce.

And I, made this --Almond crusted tilapia with roasted pepper coulius sauce and avocado cilantro tomatillo sauce.( I guess tomato sauce will  be better to go with avocado sauce), but it was just some leftover sauce.

Avocado cilantro tomatillo sauce:

tomatillo , garlic, scallion, cilantro, Serrano  chiles, chicken stock--cooked part

avocado--raw

sour cream

use blender to make  a puree--------I think i made it way too thick

Almond crusted tilapia

first layer: flour, salt, white pepper, coriander

second layer: washed egg

last layer: almond flake

pan fried, medium heat

Recently, I wanted to  draw something under the sea, then  I thought of Ponyo, Yes, submarine can meet ponyo! But after I was done with that, I realized Ponyo would become a real girl and go wherever she wanted, but submarine could go nowhere but staying in the water forever, she could never really celebrate friend's birthday, never really pass a tea , never really get a hug...

isn't it  sad? :(

Spring Dessert-Red wine poached pear with Ginger Anise Syrup, Pistachio, Candied Ginger, Ginger Ice Cream

I actually made this before,but I didn't know the tip of using beets to color it, so I made it again. if let me name it, I can only come up with 'beauty', or things like that.

But you  told me , it looked like a 'spring dessert', how sweet ! It is still winter here, windy, chilly, how could you think of spring?  I guess maybe you so love the summer here, so you are always thinking about spring?

February, March, April, May...then summer will sneak in, but at that time, I will already have moved away,  so unfair ! I am so patient waiting here, for the winter to pass, but when it really ends, I will not be able to enjoy the summer, brief but lovely.

I know you will be here, enjoying the passionate summer and the gorgeous fall which you have been waiting for almost half a year, I can imagine how exicited you will be, I will feel happy for you somewhere else

This is the spring I catched the other day

Dessert Adventure

There is one thing in the world called as: sugar on the snow
it is to drizzle hot syrup on the snow , then you get formed candied like stuff.
It is something MADE IN VERMONT
I love snow , and cooking, but never could make connection between them , so I was so excited to know such a sweet thing. I had been waiting for about one week for a snow shower.Then I got something like this:

Apparenly I failed, I guess one is because the snow is not heavy enough, the other I pure maple syrup but not drizzled it. Well, it still tasted SWEET.

Here is another adventure:

This is called BACON COVERED with MILK CHOCOLATE WITH ALMOND

YES,  it is bacon covered  with milk chocolate with almond

And, it is just so good, DOUBLE HEAVEN

It's not something I made up, there is one thing called: Bacon chocolate bar  from Vosges Haut

    

If you haven't tried, you should ( Luckily, some of you have tried , right ? :) . You deserve it