Cynthia's Personal Blog

Good friend Chris visited a year ago, had a good time and decided it's about time to check on me to make sure my food is still good! ;) He emails me every now and then and tells me he had met people in London who knew my restaurant or had been to my restaurant! That's amazing! A customer also had told me when they were at an afternoon A's game and trying to decide coming to Furenzu for dinner, they heard someone sitting behind them were just deciding to go to Furenzu also! It just always excites me when I hear people talk about my tiny humble restaurant!

Since I need to stay put at the restaurant most of the time and couldn't go too far, during Chris' visit; we decided to go water rafting at Cache Canyon, something I hadn't done for more than 5 years! Karin and her assistant joined us also. Of course I was in charged of the food! Choices were limited because I had to make sure it tasted good while it's cold and it could toss around inside the cooler as we might flip the boat!

It was a hot day, so I had only made 3 dishes: Roasted sweet pepper and herbed goat cheese roll w/ balsamic reduction, organic yellow watermelon w/ prosciutto, and jumbo shrimp cocktail w/ Cynthia's cocktail sauce. Well the honest truth is, after being in the water for 3+ hours, anything would taste just great! ;) And of course we had a great time too!

Oh, have I mentioned it was a HOT day!? Yes I got major sun burn on my legs! It was horrible and painful! Be sure to apply your sunscreen...and keep re-applying it if you're in the water!! :-S

Posted by Cynthia at 11:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So I was asked to cook a tasting dinner, and I was also asked to make sure I would serve foie gras! Therefore I did a 10-course dinner with wine pairing. Was a lot of fun! And who knows the following week I was asked again to cook another tasting dinner but this time 6-course, with both sake and wine pairing. Here're some samples from the two evenings! Enjoy and if you're interested in hosting any, please feel free to contact me and I'll work with your budget and choice of food!

Software shell crab and homegrown cherry tomato salad:

Foie Gras with poached pear and lychee puree in port demi-glace:

Pan grilled Kompachi in lemon soy glaze with avocado & mango salsa:

Oven grilled lamb chop with cilantro rice:

Avocado and mango salad with cilantro and hot chill oil:

Oven grilled duck breast in cognac and orange ginger reduction:

Posted by Cynthia at 12:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This is why we live in the bay area and this is why we PAY so much to live in this great bay area! A place so full of cultures, a place of opportunities where it allows us to create and makes our dreams come true!

I had been noticing big iron sculptures being built around the West Grand bart station, but didn't know what's that about. Until a few days before the fire festival, I was driving my ex-coworker/good friend; Jean to the station, then we saw even more sculptures were being built. We drove around and noticed postings were up about Crucible Fire Festival. Amazing huge sculptures. Then we learned about these were all part of the burning man.

"Great!" I thought, since I have never been to the burning man, and with the restaurant; I doubt if I'd ever be able to make it there. So this would give me a taste of it. I drove by Friday night just to check it out and planning to attend on Sat night and hopefully to watch the show. However I didn't get the ticket since I didn't know how busy the restaurant would get and what time I would be able to get there. While I thought I would just get ticket when I got there, sure enough, tickets were all sold out. So I could only capture some pictures and video from outside the fence.

If you're familiar with the dancing game from the 1st generation of Play Station, then you'd know what I'm talking about. (Believe it or not, that was my mother's favorite game and she even bought me a Play Station and two dancing pads! So that I could compete with my friends, she said! Yeah...and I won't tell you how old I was! ;) There at the festival, they sure brought the game to the next level! If you made a mistake, you'd "get fired!"

Here's a little taste of it for you:

Posted by Cynthia at 11:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)