Day 31 and 32: The Cat in the Hat Really is Back!

Cat in the Hat Cake

Status: Homemade!

Complete with Cat in the Hat cake pops.

I spent two full days making my first fondant cake ensemble ever! True, the fondant work is amateur (and I definitely don't have a fondant glider or any other number of supplies), but for the most part it was fun and messy and I made it work. I made this for the annual school-wide Edible Books contest, where you basically pick a book and create a food item inspired by it. Fingers crossed! This thing literally weighs like, 10 pounds.

Associated with: Moby Dick. No, come on. Dr. Seuss, obviously.

Day 30 (4.2.12): Pork and Veggie Steamed Bun (Makes You a World-Class Martial Artist)

Pork and Veggie Steamed Bun

Status: Restaurant (Four Seas Taiwanese Restaurant)

Satisfaction: 3. But maybe that's because I microwaved it.

Associated with: Ranma 1/2

I seriously salivate every time Rumiko Takahashi draws a picture in her manga of Ranma eating a steamed bun. Damn it, I need to find a way to look this cute eating dim sum.

Day 29: Fan Tuan (For One Voracious Little Bug)

Fan Tuan (or Crispy Fried Dough and Dried Pork Bits Wrapped in Rice)

Status: Restaurant (Four Seas Taiwanese Restaurant)

Satisfaction: 9.

Associated with: The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

Cocoon-shaped foods remind me of this little childhood hero: The very hungry caterpillar! Not only does a fan tuan look like a cocoon; it also looks like something this little bug would snarfle up in a second. Good thing he's not the only one who was very hungry.

Day 28 (3.31.12): Buckwheat Waffle and Biscuit & Gravy (Ehh--What's Up, Doc?)

Buckwheat Waffle and Biscuit & Gravy

Status: Restaurant (Roscoe's House of Chicken and Waffles)

Satisfaction: 7.

Associated with: Bugs Bunny

Ehh...what's up, doc? Buckwheat and buck teeth are pretty much the same thing in my book, and the only thing I'll think of next time I order a buckwheat waffle is whether or not a pair of bunny teeth is going to pop up in my waffle (sort of like a piece of chicken liver somehow found its way into my otherwise vegetarian-friendly gravy--ew). 

Day 27 (3.30.12): Starfield Greens Salad (is a Fantasmic Thing to Have)

Starfield Greens (Cranberry/Golden Raisin Goat Cheese Candied Walnut Salad w/Balsamic Vinaigrette)

Status: Restaurant (Disneyland's Pizza Port)

Satisfaction: 7.

Associated with: Fantasmic?

We got so excited to see Fantasmic that after I sprinted to Pizza Port, grabbed my coveted salad (this is the one I mentioned earlier in this blog when I was talking about cranberry walnut cheese salads), and ran to save us spots on the waterfront, I completely forgot to take a picture. Oh, well. Starfield Greens Salad, Mission Accomplished. (It was, however, a dinky salad, and even the cashier last time asked me if the salad had shrunk. It had.)

Day 26 (3.29.12): Salmon Teriyaki & Veggie Tempura Bento (Or the Privilege Divide in War)

Salmon Teriyaki and Veggie Tempura Bento Box

Status: Restaurant (Shin's Sushi)

Satisfaction: 8.

Associated with: Alicia, My Story by Alicia Appleman-Jurman

For some reason, I was having trouble making associations with this particular meal--probably because it's nothing out of the ordinary compared to what I usually eat--and I had been staring at the photo for several minutes when a book I had first read in eighth grade popped into my head: Alice, My Story. The author is a Holocaust survivor who relates her experiences as a fugitive Jew during World War II, and she came to speak at our middle school, which was when I bought her book. In her narrative, she talks about how she used to chew bits of wheat from the fields to keep off the gnawing hunger--and oddly enough, looking at the compartments of my bento must have triggered my memory of this passage, because I imagined her experience to be almost as if she could see into the filled compartments--salmon, tempura--but all she got was the tiny empty compartment in the middle, or the orange peel. It was more of a bizarre trigger than anything else--it certainly wasn't intended to be a deep metaphor--but food for thought nonetheless.

Day 25 (3.28.12): Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies and Cherry Winks (Pretty Please, with a Cherry on Top?)

Chocolate-Covered Cherry Cookies and Cherry Winks

Status: Homemade--per request of the mommy

Satisfaction: 9 for the first, 6 for the second. 

Associated with: Despicable Me

You know when kids ask you for something, please, pretty please, with a cherry on top? Well, how can you say no?

You just can't. As the above picture clearly shows. And yes, it's so fluffy she's going to die--and she's so cute, I think I might just kick the bucket, too.