Recipe: Banana Choco-Chip Cake

I was having dinner with family last night, and apparently it came up that when my aunt sees ripe, black bananas, she thinks of me. I suppose I should feel flattered that she was thinking of me. :)

This recipe has been in my repertoire for a while. I made it in high school after my aunt found me the recipe to satisfy her cravings. I've tweaked it a little for my liking as the original recipe was a little sweet, and it is a really yummy snack cake. The sour cream, bananas, extra baking powder and baking soda make for a light, moist cake, but the chocolate chips and cream also add some beautiful richness. Mmmm. As I'm writing this, the smell of rich dairy notes, chocolate, and a hint of cinnamon are wafting through my place.



Ingredients
3 c all purpose flour
2 t baking soda
2 t baking powder

1 c butter, softened
1 1/2 c white sugar
2 eggs
1 t vanilla
4 ripe bananas

1 c sour cream

1/3 c brown or yellow sugar (brown sugar yields a more flavorful cake, but use what you have on hand)
1 t cinnamon

1 c chocolate chips (you could experiment and try dark chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, or white chocolate...mmm.)

Method
Preheat oven to 350ºF.

In a medium bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and white sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until uniform. Mix in vanilla and bananas until combined. (If they are a little on the un-ripe side, I mash the bananas in a separate bowl first. If they're competely ripe and syrupy, I just add them directly to the mix - I love the texture it gives to the final product!)

Alternately add the flour and sour cream to the mixture, beginning and ending with the flour. Mix until just combined.

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar and cinnamon.

Spread half the batter into a greased 9 x 13" pan. Smooth top.

Sprinkle with half the brown sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle with half of the chocolate chips. Repeat layers.

Bake at 350ºF for 45-50 minutes.




Since the cake has sour cream and bananas as moisteners, it keeps well! Store, wrapped, for up to a week (it rarely lasts that long). Yay to my big yee yee and her love of black bananas. I believe she was one of the first people to buy me a cookbook. :)

Tenku Bakudanyaki (Richmond, BC)

I spend a lot of time on the road. My current commute is probably one of the shortest ones ever at thirty to fifty minutes, but when I worked my *longest* commute, I picked up some (cool and no-so-cool) habits.

When I worked in Maple Ridge, there was a great deal of morning activities that took place in the car. I learnt to utilize time at stoplights to put on make up. I started making phone calls (that you could only make during 8am-5pm) during the commutes. Since some of the commute to Pitt Meadows / Maple Ridge included waiting at bridges and/or traintracks, I even packed a book, and later, knitting projects that whittled away the time. And finally, I ate a lot in the car.

Sometimes they'd be snacks on the way home - granola bars, fast food, fruit. But mostly it would be breakfast on the way to work. Sure, breakfast bars and toast were easy, but where's the challenge in that?? No, I was a cold cereal with milk person. There's nothing that wakes you up in the morning other than the game of you against the law of physics.



I was reminded of my bad habits when I visited Tenku Bakudanyaki for a giant molten ball of *everything* from their location at Elmbridge & Gilbert in Richmond.

I'd been meaning to visit them ever since I read about them on Eat, Snap, Repeat, then later on Sherman's Food Adventures. Later reviews of Tenku have been popping up everywhere.

There were probably really big expectations for the product, which is why I have to clarify that the bakudanyaki at Tenku are not *exactly* like takoyaki, but rather, as Eat, Snap, Repeat puts it, "giant bombs".



Tenku has six bakudanyaki offerings, and each consist of a batter with cabbage, mochi, egg, shrimp, squid, octopus, and sausage cooked over a cast-iron mold. I ordered the special, which happened to be balsamic black sesame. It came in a cute stickered takeout box with a folded napkin tucked into one side, and a pair of chopsticks tucked into another. The special was an interesting combination, with the tart-sweet balsamic complementing the savoury of the fritter. The bakudanyaki, with a green tea drink cost me $7.



Here is where it should be noted that eating bakudanyaki in rush hour traffic is *much* harder than eating cereal in milk. Or rather, the gooey innards of a bakudanyaki! Eating it in traffic offered that much more "je ne sais quoi". You never really know what you're eating until you put it in your mouth - and sometimes, you still don't know!



I have to admit, the (small) food inspector part of me had some issues about the size of the fritters posing a problem with the items cooking properly. However, seeing as how the product was *still* super-hot after I took a number of photos, AND that I could almost hear the roof of my mouth sear off after blindly putting a chunk of bakudanyaki in my mouth, those fears have qualmed.

I do hope that Tenku makes it through this economy. I think they have a niche novelty product, and although it isn't for everyone, I'm sure a lot of people in Richmond (or visiting Richmond!) should give it a try.

Tenku Bakudanyaki

12831 Clarke Pl
Richmond, BC

Recipe: Simply Sunny Fruit Salad

It is a week of sunshine like this, with the cherry blossoms blooming and clear blue skies that make Vancouver such a likeable city.

The sun also made me indulge in a bunch of fresh fruit and melon - perfect for snacking on, or an accompaniment to a healthy lunch!



Feel free to incorporate any of your favourite fruits!

Ingredients
1 baby watermelon, diced
4 small organic kiwis, peeled & diced
2 Alphonso (Philipine) mangoes, peeled & diced
1/2 fresh pineapple, peeled, cored, and diced

Method
Mix all ingredients together gently. Enjoy within 2-3 days!

I've been eating this all week - the tart kiwis with the fragrant mangoes and the sweet pineapple *all* go so well together!