Sharing in the misery

Tonight we went to an A's (!) game with Sister K and her hubby M. The A's unfortunately lost to the Angels, 3-1, but as I'm not the biggest A's fan out there, I wasn't too bent out of shape. In fact, a small part of me rejoiced in their struggles. After all, if the Giants are sucking, the A's might as well, too, right? Of course, that leaves me no one to root for, doesn't it? Eh. As Jim phrased it, the last time we were there for the A's-Giants series last year, we walked out hanging our heads with defeat and trying to avoid getting razzed by the A's fans, and this time, at least we were all sharing in the misery.

We actually didn't end up getting any food at all at the ballpark because we went to Vik's Chaat House beforehand. Vik's is an Indian restaurant that L introduced us to our last boat wakeboarding outing last year. That was Jim's first time eating Indian food. He had previously been hesitant to give it a shot, but since we were in a group, he went along and to his surprise, he loved it. The rest, as they say, is history. Sister K & M told us they loved Indian food, so Jim and I decided that they had to try this place. It's just an added bonus that they're a seemingly permanent fixture on the Chronicle's Top 100 list.

Although we warned them that it was a serious hole in the wall, they were both shocked (and I think slightly horrified) when we drove past the place. They both gave a "Wowww," in the not excited or happy way of saying the word at the same time. But they gamely walked into the restaurant and seemed relieved that despite the warehouse look to it, the inside was much nicer than the outside.

It took us a while to figure out what we wanted. The first time we didn't read the menu carefully and picked mostly stuff from the weekend menu. So we revamped our order a bit and were served up our food scant minutes later. At Vik's, it's practically a fast food environment. You go up to the cashier to order, and then your name is called out on a loudspeaker when your food is ready. Unlike a fast food place, they serve you piecemeal, as the food gets done. In this case, our food came out in three rounds.

The first thing up was M's curried sea bass. Well, maybe not sea bass. I don't quite remember. But it was definitely fish! We couldn't figure out what it was, so we had to ask when our second platter of food came out. The curry crepes came out next. I don't remember what they were called either, but I know I had one my first time there. It was absolutely delicious, with curried potatoes and a super tasty garbanzo and curry dipping sauce. Their crepes are enormous, and with 2 orders, each of us ate a half.

The rest of our food came out in a huge clump. These were all off of the "appetizer" menu. We all love samosas, so we went with two orders of Samosa Cholle, so each of us got one. I absolutely love the chutney it came with--sweet, tart, and spicy all at the same time. The veggie pakoras were little fritter balls with a tamarind chutney. That has to be my favorite dipping sauce because of the slight sweetness to it. It's so flavorful and refreshing. We also got an Aloo Tikki Cholle, which were potato patties with a garbanzo bean chutney. I really liked that one, too. The pakoras were just okay. I would have much preferred another samosa, personally.

I was super relieved that Sister K and M said that they liked the restaurant. They said it put their usual Indian restaurant to shame and that the prices were reasonable, too. Sister K said it was a real treat. I'm always nervous about recommending restaurants to people. I would feel awful if they didn't like the food. So that was definitely a weight off of my chest.

Jim and I, of course, loved the food. We were bummed about the non-weekend menu, but that just means we'll have to come back on the weekend. I have to admit, mango lassi is amazingly effective at cutting through the spiciness. Also, it was way better than our first try. I honestly had no desire to drink lassi, but Jim bought one, so I tried it just for the heck of it and was very pleasantly surprised at how much tastier it was. And it wasn't just me being crazy--Jim agreed that it was better. It wasn't as cloyingly sweet and had a better overall flavor. Because it's been almost a year since I had the first one, I can't directly compare the two. Suffice to say, it was better. 'Nuff said.

We missed the first inning, but that was fine with me. As I've made very clear, I'm not a huge A's fan. So while I enjoy watching baseball, it's not like seeing the Giants play. We had some pretty decent seats in Section 104, Row 24, which were on the right field side. The view was pretty awesome, and that is definitely one of the best things about McAfee. For $15, you'd get pretty much nothing at AT&T, but here, we got great seats (okay, they were discounted, but still).

The game literally flew by and was over around 9:15, which was crazy. It took us a little while to get back to North Berkeley taking BART, but there's something to be said about the convenience of taking BART to A's games. We got back home before 11 pm, which was great, because I needed to do some serious baking.

Okay, so I didn't technically NEED to bake. I wanted to bake, because it was A and B's b-days. They turned 10 and 9, respectively this past week, and I have a very soft spot in my heart for them for several different reasons. But what compelled me most was that they made it a point to remind me about their upcoming b-days last week. So I decided to make them cupcakes to share with their church class.

I chose a cupcake recipe by Bobby Flay that sounded amazing. It was a chocolate cupcake filled with peanut butter frosting. Now for me, there's nothing better than chocolate and peanut butter mixed together. Love the stuff. And even though Bobby isn't a baker per se, he's got such an incredible palette and knowledge of ingredient pairings that I trust him completely in the flavor department.

Thankfully, once again, Bobby earned my unwavering trust because the cupcakes were fantastic. It was a more like a cake batter with cake flour, butter, and buttermilk, and I incorporated the ingredients cake-style, alternating the dry mixture with the wet one in thirds. Unusual ingredients included unsweetened cocoa (el cheap-o Hershey's, not Dutch processed like he called for) and hot coffee. The recipe yielded 23 cupcakes (not the 12 listed in the recipe) and lots of extra peanut butter and ganache. But I'm getting ahead of myself here.

After the cupcakes came out of the oven, they cooled and I started in on the peanut butter filling. It was very simple: peanut butter, butter, and powdered sugar. I personally found it a tad too sweet, but with the chocolate, it balanced out nicely. I think I may like Ina's peanut butter frosting recipe better (the one with heavy cream). I filled each of the cupcakes with the peanut butter by fitting a double-lined parchment paper pastry bag with a tip, inserting the tip into each cupcake and depositing the filling in. I was so happy that it held up better than the marscapone filling that I made with that Giada recipe. The parchment paper was perfectly sufficient for the job.

At this point, Jim and I tried a cupcake. Oh my gosh. The chocolate cupcake was so amazing. It was incredibly tender, moist, and light. I mean, I know it wasn't really light, but the taste was very delicate and not overpowering in the least, although there was plenty of chocolate flavor to it.

Like the reviews stated, at least half of my cupcakes ended up with cracked tops, but who cares? I covered them with a chocolate ganache anyway. It took me a few tries to get my dipping technique down, but by the end, I was a pro.

When I got home, I baked a box of Pillsbury instant cake mix into more cupcakes. I figured I needed a non-peanut butter based offering just in case there were allergies. I don't have much to say about instant cake mix except that I don't really like using it. But one thing I have learned about kids and baked goods is this: the cake part is simply the vehicle for what they actually like, the frosting. And since I make a macking buttercream frosting, boxed cake wasn't going to matter. But I saved the frosting for tomorrow because it was after 3 am when I finished.