Happy Autumn weather, it seems how we can break out our beloved sweaters and winter coats and embrace the abundance of pumpkin and sweet potato flavoured things for thanksgiving.

This cake came about because mom made mashed sweet potatoes but with way too much brown sugar and butter. It was rendered impossible to eat as a side. It veered into dessert territory. So I decided,

It's too sweet to eat like this. I'll just make a cake with it.

It was so moist and soft. I didn't notice that I had been eating many slices until the 4th slice because it went down so easily...

You can just make this with mashed sweet potato that doesn't have sugar and butter in it. Recipe is as follows (bracket values are for those who have already sweet sugar and butter = leftover sweetened sweet potato mash)

Ingredients

A

8 yolks

120 g sweet potato mashed

60 g (40 g) oil

60 g milk

B

120 g flour

C

8 whites

100 g (70 g) white sugar

Method

I

Mix A, add in B, mix well

II

Whisk whites in C on low until frothy

Whisk on medium until soft peaks

On high, add sugar in 3 additions, allowing 10 seconds of whisking on high in between each addition

III

Mix 1/3 II into I until well incorporated (don't be afraid to mix hard)

IV

Mix another 1/3 II into I (mix a bit more softly now)

V

Mix last 1/3 II into I (fold gently)

VI

Pour into oiled angel food cake pan.

Bake 350 F 40-45 minutes.

Cover top with foil if it rises too high and browns quickly.

I don't enjoy eating cake without cream. So I went out to Sobeys after the cake cooled to get myself some 35% cream.

Whisking it on high, poured a steady stream of what could be 3-4 shots of Baileys (the creme caramel flavour). And this way, you don't even need to add sugar in your cream. The alcohol cuts the greasy feeling and makes eating whipped cream feel light (though its quite the opposite).

Oh yes, and passing the sweet potato mash through a sieve will get rid of the stringy fibers - if you're not into that stuff weaved through your chiffon (I kept them all in mine - couldn't be bothered and qas quite lazy).

My toes are cold as I'm writing this. I dislike wearing socks at home and dislike wearing boots in the winter, which really doesn't go well with how fast the temperature is dropping these days.
For a girlfriend's birthday we went to get our nails and toes done (probably the girly-est thing we've ever done to date) and had lunch at possibly one of the hipster-est cafe we've ever been to. 

Dear readers, stock up on flour and butter now - the baking season is on its way

We were actually doomed with forever eating dinner at times when the restaurants we wanted to eat were closed. So when walking back to the car, we'd frantically search through restaurants open near Current Location.

That had a table.

That had parking nearby.
So we went to this one. Although I was supposed to go to Phils BBQ as recommended by coworker who is oh so disappointed in me right now (I'll have to make a trip to San Diego again just to have some Phils BBQ).

I went in to get our seats first while the rest of spent a solid 20 minutes to find parking.
I found myself nursing what was called a Loving Cup. I remember it having black pepper, but no, there was not much spice. Very refreshing and thirst quenching. Okay
Was okay, probably wouldn't order again. Not feeling the cheese on this one here. The chips were not super crispy. A bit thick for my liking. Visuals were there but costed functionality: chips at the bottom ended up getting very minimal amounts of guacamole/toppings. Bad
Quesadilla should've been served on a well warmed plate so the cheese could stay melty longer. I think I'm only giving this an okay because I love melted cheese so much. Okay

After having Vallarta Express twice, it's rather difficult to say that there are other good Mexican foods. So this place was just meh.
Salad was far from delicious. The dressing was so not memorable, I honestly don't remember what dressing it was. Probably caesar. Bad
Tacos were not mindblowing. I have yet to ever try a corn tortilla and say "Wow, delicious because the toppings > corn tortilla". Every time I've had corn tortilla, the toppings were not great enough to overpower how much I am not fond of corn tortilla. Is it because it's dry? Am I eating it wrong? Please do tell me where I am failing at this. Okay


Really liked the atmosphere here. Had a nice chat with the owner as well. The workers here seem to love working here, and it's good to see such a nice environment like that.
I think it was 4th of July weekend. There were fireworks. And the TVs played them live.

We actually wanted to try some pepper lunch that night.
Actually we wanted to go to this all-you-can-eat Japanese restaurant that night. When we were seated (at the Japanese place) we realized their menu didn't have sashimi. Which was going to be 80% of what we were going to eat.
It seems Santa Clara/San Jose isn't big on ayce Japanese.
So we went back to the Markham-esque plaza in Milpitas (it was around 2200 I believe). And maybe wanted pepper lunch, but it was closed.
And Sizzling Stone was almost closed. We made it just in time *yay*
I shared the kids bibimbap, soon tofu, and beef short ribs with friend.
The kids style is the same as the regular one (cooked in stone pot, and mixed for you), just not served in stone pot. The portion was generous. I could not finish, although I > child.
The kids one came with capri sun. It was cherry flavoured. I don't drink juice and they didn't have any other flavours, so we returned the drink back to them LOL
They had a self serve cutlery, water, sauce station. The sauces were: curry, teriyaki, spicy, mild. I mixed the teriyaki and spicy (it was sweet and spicy then)
Kimchi was a grated cabbage not fermented at all. Chopped up well so you can mix it into your rice.
I've read this place is like Chipotle but for Bibimbap. Accurate description.
Your choices: 3 kinds of rice, as many veggies as you want, 4 (?) kinds of meat, and +egg.
Then they grill it on the stone pot for you.

The first time I've had honey-lavender flavoured food was in Dolores Park, when Bi-Rite was giving out free ice cream. It was so delicious. I ate the whole thing. 

And so when I saw that they had honey-lavender here I ordered it too.

Along with the green tea because we needed dessert after whatever we had for dinner (I think it was deep dish pizza) and saying our farewells to a friend.

The guys also chose a chocolate or smores flavour which did not entice me very much.

Anyway I would highly recommend coming here just for the honey lavender gelato. Or if you are in SF, to go to Bi-Rite Creamery for their honey lavender ice cream.

Yes, it sounds like it would taste like febreeze but let me assure you that it is going to taste rather heavenly in your mouth.

There's this plaza in Milpitas that resembles Markham food plaza perfectly. They had your ghetto Chinese bbq/hotpot place, bakeries (85C), restaurants you do Chinese weddings in, and this: Pepper Lunch

The corn on the skillet reminded me of the creamy cheesy corn served at korean bars. *yum*

That doesn't mean it was anything like the korean bar corn. It wasn't.

We got udon and ramen versions, all with the beef, one of us plussed an egg.

I didn't like how after eating the ramen, all the niblets of corn were left - which meant it was quite difficult to get a good serving of corn while eating the ramen. This problem would be solved though, if rice was chosen because then you can scoop it all up nicely. Should have thought this through beforehand.



Would probably not come back - nothing minimally mind blowing here.