Presenting The Faux Gourmet!

The Faux Gourmet has been on hiatus for a while. I began this blog as a creative outlet during law school. After law school, I started other blogs on other topics and no longer needed this as a creative outlet, not to mention my diminishing free time.

But I kept cooking, kept taking food pictures and garden pictures, kept wanting to share the little tidbits of what I'd made. I occasionally did this on my personal blog (to which, I'm sure, people yawned and wondered when I'd post another cat picture). But I started to miss this space. Of all the blogs I have, this format, culled over several dedicated years and incorporating that adorable illustration by Sam Wedelich (see info the left) is by far my favorite.

So I'm back!

Expect short and sweet posts. Less food porn, more recipes and tips. If you want food porn you can look at any of the 5000 million existing food blogs. I don't have good lighting in my apartment and don't have time to style plates. I just want to make something yummy and eat it. If that sounds ok with you, stick around.

Looking forward to being back in touch!

xx

The Faux Gourmet

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    Thursday, February 26, 2009

    Cheap Tricks Vol. 2

    Short but sweet. Literally.


    Taste & See: I owe this cheap trick to one of my all-time favorite coffee shops, Barefoot Coffee Roasters in Santa Clara, CA. I know, Santa Clara, not your top pick for cafe scene. And it is in a strip mall. But the coffee is of the highest quality of almost any place I've ever been. The baristas are totally committed to coffee as art. They even have free coffee classes! Be still my heart!

    And there are all kinds of inventive drinks, like vanilla bean latte, vietnamese latte, a particularly odd-but-incredibly curry-lime-coconut milk coffee that won an award at a barista competition. The process of making the drink is described as:

    "She coats the rims of two fancy glass mugs with lime juice and sugar, mixes the espresso with curry powder, turmeric, allspice and caramel, and steams a combination of coconut and nonfat milk. She sprinkles the saucer with Citron Oolong tea to accent the aroma and then torches the top of the foam to create a sweet crust. "

    (I know, sounds awful, and even though I can't explain--or recreate--it, I remain scintillated at the very memory. Read about other wild & crazy signature drinks here.)

    My favorite, though, was the creme brulee latte. Brulee pretty much anything and it is delicious, but what compares to a crackly crispy sugar crust laying atop a cloud of silky foam and intense espresso? Nada. Very simple to make- just cover the foamy top of your cappuccino with sugar and torch with your brulee torch. What, you don't have one? Excuse me! Good thing toaster oven (better) and broiler (acceptable) will also work--but in that case use a heat safe mug and be careful with the fingers.

    Enjoy!

    1 comment:

    christy.olsen.field said...

    Wow...this sounds like an explosion of flavor in your mouth! It wouldn't even know what to expect: lime juice, coconut milk, curry powder, and caramel! Wish I could try it.