I guess I burnt myself out

Because the last time I posted was in mid-October. Lots has been going on since the review in the NYT and the readers choice awards. Restaurant business has been picking up, seeing a lot of new faces. And we are busy creating new dishes, trying to promote the restaurant with new gift certificates and photos of our dishes for our front windows. 

Then on top of all that, I decided I wanted to open my etsy shop [still trying to get it open--soon!!!]. OYE!!

Didn't realize what I needed to do to open up. I created a logo but still need labels.I have to figure out what to do about shipping and pricing. And I have to finish up couple of pieces. I hope I can get it all done this weekend. I don't miss the holiday shopping season. 

I think I may have dug a very deep hole for myself.

But I think I have to stop complaining and get going. Here's a picture of the leaves from the neighborhood before they all came down I took on my way into the NYC. 

Looks quiet and peaceful, exactly what I need right now!

Stay tune for news on my etsy shop.

What I did on my early summer vacation--part 1 . . .

Here's a little teaser picture from my early summer vacation. 


C and Mom with artisan ice pops from Rutgers Famers Market


It was just a stay-cation that includes visiting family(5) and a birthday party (add 4 more) over a course of 12 days. It's been 3 days since the last visitors left and I'm still exhausted and trying to synced back into my everyday life. I guess it doesn't help that I got a head cold on vacation. 

Munchmobile 2011 "Best of" list

I'm shamelessly promoting our restaurant. But I want spread the good news. We made the munchmobile 2011 "Best of" list. And so did our Hot and Sour Soup. Here's the link to the article.

Brownies

Been wanting to test this brownie recipe for a while. Thought that it probably would sell well at the restaurant. So I left the restaurant early today, [I was crabby, not a good mood for being around people] and decided to bake.

First things first, cheesecake. Needed to get this week's cheesecake done. [check]

I've made these brownies before, it is very chocolate-y. Over a pound of chocolate [no, wait, it's closer 2 pounds] divided into 20 pieces. I wanted to test them to see if the customers would like them. And of course, I'll bring some into the office. They are really my official taste testers [last weeks tasting was nutella rice crispie treats, thumbs up].

I must admit this baking sure help my bad mood [or could it be I just need a break from the restaurant].

OMG!

UPDATE
The article is up! Here's the link: Munchmobile 2011: Reader's choice trip ends season
Can you tell I'm excited? Happy Reading! 



Ran out earlier to the market to get the Star Ledger. Stop @ SB for an iced mocha and read the article. It was great! We got the Top Dog honors for their Reader's Choice visit. Wow! I'm feeling a little jittery--not sure if it from the article or my ice mocha. 

This whole event has come as such a wonderful unexpected surprise. It makes all the hard work that we have been doing so worth it. Thanks everyone for all the support!


If you can get the Star Ledger, it the September 2 Munchmobile article. If not, here's the link to the munchmobile site. Article not up yet but will post everywhere when it is. Here's what the article looks like.

CafeBua: Star Ledger Munchmobile

CafeBua: Star Ledger Munchmobile: Check out the Star Ledger, Munchmobile section this Friday, September 2 to read about us. You can also see the article at http://www.nj.com...

boxes of cupcakes

Just wanted to show off few more cupcake photos. I got a bit obsessed with the batches [most of my recipes make 18 to 24 cupcakes] and how I was going to get to a 100. Ended up making the last box with raspberry [1/2 batch] and red velvet [1/2 batch to event. 1/2 batch to restaurant and the customer's favorite] to soothe my obsession and putting me over 100.

100+ cupcakes

And yes, I'm crazy and exhausted.

Decided to do this project/job a couple of weeks ago. I thought I could get word out about the restaurant and what an accomplishment to make 100+ cupcakes.

Here's some pics of the cupcakes I wanted to share.

Naked

Frosted

Flavors made: Red Velvet with ganache filling and vanilla cream cheese frosting; Fresh Raspberry with Vanilla buttercream; Chocolate with nutella filling and Chocolate buttercream; Chai Tea with orange marmalade filling and caradomon spice cream cheese frosting; Orange  with passion fruit filling and passion fruit buttercream topped with toffee crunch; White Peach with vanilla cream cheese frosting. 

Hope people enjoy it!

Farmer's Market goodies

Strawberries for this weekend's baking. I'm thinking cheesecake.


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New flavor cupcake flavor

Chai cupcakes with cardamon spice cream cheese frosting. Trying to be creative with what I'm baking. Saw a recipe for Milk Tea cupcakes from justjenn and thought I could adapted it to a using Chai tea and with a cardamom frosting.

Here's some picture of the cupcakes, before frosting and after. I just took a bite and this may be a new favorite. Nice mild chai tea taste with a little bit of spice from the frosting. Not overly sweet. Added so lemon zest to the frosting. Hope people like as much as I do.

Hawaiians in the middle of NJ

I know I said I wouldn't post about the restaurant here but I thought this story would be more of an appropriate at Princess Hot Flash. 


It's so funny why draws us Hawaiian's together. I knew there were a few running around in Central NJ but in the middle of winter after 6 snow storms, who would have thought shave ice would be the drawing point. 


After seeing the article about the restaurant in the Courier News, Several Hawaiians have come in the past few weeks. And how we could go on about the our love of our favorite icy sweet. I've been serving up a ice cream, azuki beans, fresh fruit, shave ice top with either strawberry or brown sugar syrup and condensed milk. And so far, it seems like a hit. 


Hope more Hawaiians drop by and give us a try.

The restaurant got a facebook page

Our wonderful neighbor, Brian put up our facebook page. I'm so happy. I've been so swamped at work that I couldn't even get to that. So thank you, thank you, thank you Brian. You have just made my day. 

Here's the the link: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/pages/Cafe-Bua-of-Piscataway/180139312015830

I wanted to let all my readers know what a great neighbor and about his restaurant in Jamesburg, NJ. It's called Fiddleheads Restaurant. Please visit his restaurant website to see what going on at his restaurant:  http://www.fiddleheadsjamesburg.com/ or facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/FiddleheadsJamesburg.

I also wanted to let you know that I'm going to stop posting about the restaurant here and move all of that to cafebua.blogspot.com. It's purely the happenings in PrincessHotFlash. Hope you keep reading.

We're open!

As of 6:00am, 12/9/10, we are officially open. Still working out things. Started a blog for the restaurant to feature new dishes and things that are happening there. Here's the link: CafeBua.blogspot.com

Still have posted anything there. It has a banner. Will try and get to it this weekend. 

Restaurant Update

Got new tables and chairs a week before Thanksgiving and we passed one of inspections last Wednesday. 2 more to go. 

Recipes testing are starting in full force. 1) Dumplings with fried garlic and sweet soy  2) Roast duck on steam bread with hoisin sauce, cucumbers and scallions.

Signs are up

We are getting there but not quite open yet.






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Got the keys!

We officially got the keys on Friday. Saturday started the major cleaning and it continues on. Power washing and degreaser are our new friends.


Got a couple of pictures. All the furniture is moved around because we are cleaning the kitchen and need to move equipment out. Will post more as we have more progress.

Why all the baking?

The other day WG was out @ one the big box store and came home with 4 dozen eggs and as he was taking it out of the car, it drop out of his hands. The first top layer was cracked, 24 eggs. So I tried to rescue as many as I could. And this is the reason for baking so much. I'm trying use up the eggs. 


This is what I've made so far:
Banana cake--2 loaves
Crack pie--2 pies
French Toast-10 slices of bread (I used my leftover ends)


Tomorrow, I'll use up the last of the eggs making a brown sugar cake (did I mention I have too much brown sugar, too. This what happens when you don't look before you go shopping). It takes 5 eggs. That will be it. 


I'm trying to test stuff I want to make for the restaurant. But this batch was just about making the eggs go away. Somebody will be happy with all the stuff I've made.

WG's food research

One of the benefit of the starting a restaurant is the food research. WG went into the city today to get some Banh Mi to try. He did some research and found where he could get some good ones. So for my lunch today--since I'm working from home (did I mention I'm so happy today--could it be because I didn't have to get up at 5:30 in the morning and drive in for crap traffic), I got a delicious Pork Banh Mi. Yum!