Snowed in! So we must bake a banana chocolate walnut loaf.

Look at me, all suave and sexy

 
My apologies to those who've been following this blog only to find my last post all the way from last year!

It's been quite manic yet eventful over the last couple of weeks, and today, oh snowy friday, was the perfect day to bake. One sorry and bruised banana sat on the kitchen counter, calling out desperately with its sad sad brown 'eyes' ....for mercy.

OK then.

Banana bread it is!

(Anything involving sorry bananas can be turn into a deliciously sexy loaf :)

Below is a recipe adapted from the Food Network for Marbled Banana Bread:

Ingredients:

1 large over ripe banana

1/2 cup full fat plain yogurt or buttermilk
1/4 cup canola oil
2/3 cup brown sugar, loosely packed
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
About 120 g roughly chopped 70% dark chocolate
About 75 g roughly chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Mash banana with a fork until liquid. Combine with yogurt, oil, sugar, eggs, and vanilla and mix until homogeneous.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, powder, soda, and salt.

Add flour mixture into banana mixture and mix until well incorporated.

Add chocolate and walnuts.

Pour into greased 7 inch x 4 inch loaf pan. Bake for roughly 40 - 50 mins depending on your oven, temperature, weather, power, country, etc. Have a long toothpick/wooden skewer thing on hand so that you can stick it into your loaf - to see if it comes out clean!

Bon appetit!

Non-stop snow for at least 12 hours now....

Girls' Night with frvanilla

Hi there! I am Jen’s friend frvanilla. When Jen asked me to be a guest contributor to write about our recent girls’ night food venture, I quickly agreed (because I was under the influence) and now I am only hoping I am not turning away her followers.

 

I love food. Although I don’t cook or bake, my specialty is eating and I am a huge fan of Jen’s creative recipes.   When I travelled, I created itinerary of restaurants to go to and dreamed I can fit all the goodies in my tummy without getting fat. 

We have planned this long overdue girls’ night for us few old school friends. Betsy, who always knows some cool places, suggested we go for some good Mexican food in the Junction and then chilled at a cool Jukebox bar. While navigating the city and close to getting lost, a point to take home for girls’ night: follow the directions from the GPS. He might be or might sound stupid, but he had a point.

First stop: Le Revolucion (2848 Dundas St W, Toronto)

We were led to the back of the restaurant when we arrived and we fell in love with the décor. The back was a lot darker than the front, and the many artworks hanging on the wall reminded me of Emily the Strange. 

We ordered a delicious guacamole and tamale to start. The guacamole was creamy and chunky; the corn tortilla chips were so fresh and tasted so much better than Tostitos, which always smelled like greasy plastic bags to me. I remembered watching on FoodNetwork the work it takes to make tamale. The vegetarian tamale was very meaty and tasted like our Chinese version of wrapped steamed rice.

Tacos and enchiladas. Instead of flour tortillas this place made their own corn tortillas. The green salsa sauce was spicy and sour and we loaded up on every bite of our food.

This ceviche had a lot of jumbo shrimps! The portion size was definitely a lot bigger than some other Mexican restaurants. 

The food was good but the service was really slow. But it didn’t matter because we were having good times and enjoying the musicians playing on the small stage. I wish these live performances get promoted more in Toronto.

Off we go to our second destination of the night. Another point to take home: If you have a GPS, plug it in!

Second stop: Black Dice Café (1574 Dundas St W, Toronto)

Black Dice Café was a very cute and cozy bar to chill. The place was very small with the bar at the back. It blended the retro 50s-style well with the kitschy posters from the 80s. Food menu was very small, mostly made up of instant food like Pogo, Japanese cup noodles, and Hungry-man dinner. The bar had a lot more interesting items in comparison ranging from various sake cocktails to retro Japanese marble soda.

The retro 50s jukebox was very appealing. At 25 cents per song, we were having fun choosing songs and watching the old machine slowly withdraw a vinyl record and agonized when the machine failed to play the song we chose. It certainly took some skills.

It was an amazing night with good friends, good food, and good music. I like to challenge the phrase “it's not where you are but who you're with” because the excitement of discovering new places to hang out is equally chill.

Fortune cookie apple crumble and where is the snow?

Have you ever visited a fortune teller? What was it like? Did they have the glass orb or tarot cards or read your palms?

In the spirit of the carnival, I've always been curious to visit a fortune teller's tent. I imagine it is like walking into an interactive theatrical play. However, the prices always hold me back.

The next closest thing would be to read my fortune in cookie form. A friendly waitress gave us about two large handfuls of fortune cookies so as a tribute to her and to these crunchy things, here is an apple fortune cookie crumble!


Ingredients:

3 small Gala apples, sliced thinly
Handful of dried cranberries
Juice of half lemon (about 2 Tbsp)
1 tsp cinnamon
3 Tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp cornstarch
Crumble:
12 finely crushed fortune cookies
1 tsp cinnamon
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp brown sugar
2 - 3 Tbsp melted butter

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Toss together apple slices and cranberries with lemon, cinnamon, sugar, cornstarch mix. Layer into baking dish about 8" x 5" x 1.5" size.

Combine all crumble ingredients together and mix roughly. It should have a crumbly consistency, if not, add a bit more flour or melted butter to achieve this.

Top apples with crumble and bake covered for about 40 mins. Remove cover and continue baking for 10 - 15 mins until browned slightly. 

Let cool for about 5 mins and serve warm!

Cranberry and orange scones .... a somewhat snowy and x-massy send off to the sister!

She's going to Australia!!!!!!!!

What does one pack for such a major move like this?

Definitely lots of underwear, towels, swim goggles......a wetsuit.... maybe?

How much does the luggage weigh? How much can it weigh?

Why are the dogs attacking each other??!!

This chocolate cake is so fudgy and making me sleepy......

These are some of the comments floating around during the few hours before my sister's flight to Sydney.

It had snowed a teeny tiny bit that morning and we decorated the house with some x-mas lights and bows. We made a yummy olivey baked pasta, some cranberry orange scones, and my friend and current roommate bought a HuUUGe chocolate fudge cake.

A perfect pre-x-mas Huen family celebration I call it!

My sister bought me an awesome running watch (an early birthday/x-mas gift YAY!!) that just uploads all my run times/distances by plugging into the computer - technology is so great (that is...when I know how to use it).

It also allows you to connect and share your runs with other users, which is so very cool if your sister lives on the other side of the world and you can see where she's jogged!

So now the sister also has a running watch, and being an awesome yoga teacher, she got 20% off regular price. And in about...... 4 hours, she should hit the Sydney airport tarmac and potentially begin her Australian running routine.

Go San Go!!!!!!

To bring a little bit of early x-massy joy to everyone around the world, below is a recipe for cranberry orange scones from the Barefoot Contessa with a few measurement modifications.

Ingredients:
2 + 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 + 1/3 Tbsp baking powder
1 + 1/3 tsp salt
1 cup (2 sticks) of softened butter
Zest of 3 medium oranges
1/6 cup white sugar
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 cup whipping cream, cold
2/3 cup dried sweetened cranberries
Juice of 1 orange

1/2 cup icing sugar
1 Tbsp orange juice

Mix together flour, baking powder and salt.

In a separate bowl, cut butter with orange zest and sugar until roughly combined, then place inside fridge to re-harden the butter. Keeping the butter cold actually helps give a nice fluffy flaky scone.

In another bowl, beat eggs with vanilla and cream.

In yet another bowl (I swear this is the last bowl!) soak cranberries in orange juice.

Take out butter mixture and add in egg mixture and mix. I use a blunt knife and just combine manually. It doesn't have to be homogeneous, but as long as it's about 70% combined, it should be fine.

Add in flour mixture spoon by spoon (I use a large spoon) and continue to combine. If the mixture gets too tough for the knife, use your hands!

Add in soaked cranberries (but not the juice) and continue to mix. It doesn't have to be evenly combined, and try not to over mix as that tends to make them too chewy. About 70% combined is good.

Shape dough into a huge circle and cut into slices. I cut them into large slices (about 100g each slice, 9 slices in total - don't ask me how I got 9) but feel free to cut them into any shape/size you like. Some like to use cookie cutters to get equal sizes. 

Wrap each scone and place in freezer for at least 30 mins.

Before baking, preheat the oven to 400 deg C. Bake for 16 to 20 mins, and check often. The top should be golden and crispy looking when done!

To make icing, mix icing sugar with orange juice until thickened and drizzle over scones.

Enjoy with a beautiful cup of coffee or tea :)

Anything in your kitchen Quinoa salad and all those Beautiful Bloggers.......

Why do you like blogging? 

This question is probably the same as asking me, why do you like cooking?

Here's one scenario that might help explain why...

You didn't sleep well.

Your dog was barking at odd hours, probably from hearing some angry doggie conversation 20 km away that only doggies can hear.

You are grumpy, out of lunch ideas, and don't want to waste precious dollars on overpriced cafeteria food.


Opening the cupboard, you spot almonds.

Opening the fridge: parsley, cilantro...

Then you divert your eyes to the doggie sitting in the middle of the kitchen and behind her on the countertop sits the dried cranberries, the plump raisins.

Some bright yellow lemons in the fruit basket catch your eye.

Almonds, parsley, cilantro, craisins, lemons, AH. Quinoa it is.

And in about 20 mins, a few chops and mixing, you come out of your sallow mood and realize that this quinoa is damn yummy. And that you want to share this recipe with everyone. And that sharing and writing and posting and even photography have become a pretty important part of connecting with others who love the same things you do. 

ALL OF YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL BLOGGERS!

That's probably the best answer I can give for "why I like blogging/cooking".....

A special thanks goes to Choco Chip Uru for nominating this award to me - this woman is one clever baker. She's also one of the sweetest bloggers around with awesome dessert ideas and always brings a smile to my face.

Ok, here goes:

1. Copy the Beautiful Blogger Award logo and place it in your post.
2. Thank the person who nominated you, and link back to their blog.
3. Tell six things about yourself.
4. Nominate six other bloggers for their own Beautiful Blogger Award (and let them know you have done so)

Instead of listing 6 things about myself, I'll just improvise my thoughts at the moment:

- I met CCU through FoodBuzz when FoodBuzz was still alive and kickin' and it's great that she's still an active blogger so that I could get my CCU-fix!
- Many foodies in Australia and by looking at lots of Australian food blogs, restaurant reviews/cafe reviews/whatnot, I need to get myself down there to EAT!
- My sister and her boyfriend will be moving to Australia in a few days so I've actually got this continent/country in my mind for awhile now.
- I guess lastly, some open questions to you: what's a good place to eat? To surf? To do yoga? And why do you like blogging and baking/cooking?
 
Of course, the list of 6 beautiful bloggers (but not limited to):
http://traceysculinaryadventures.blogspot.ca/
http://swirlandscramble.blogspot.ca/
http://prairiesummers.wordpress.com/
http://www.boxofstolensocks.com/
http://heoyeahyum.com/
http://yuehandicrafts.blogspot.ca/


And the recipe. Something nutritious for the body and nourishing for the soul, always good for just one-of-those-days:

1 cup dried quinoa, cooked according to package instructions
1/2 cup dried sweetened cranberries
1/4 cup Thompson raisins
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 cup chopped Italian parsley
1/3 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup chevre
1 medium tomato, diced
1 medium ripe avocado, diced
1 small red sweet bell pepper, diced
3 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 cup beet juice
salt and pepper to taste
chili flakes optional

Mix everything into a large bowl and serve immediately although it tastes better the next day because the quinoa, raisins, and cranberries have absorbs some of the fruit juices and plumped up. 

Blueberry agar pie - experiment time!

A friend has been living with us for the past week or so and she brought with her a big box of goodies. In it was a bag of agar-agar, the same type used in chinese style jello desserts.

So now we must do some agar experiments!

We received lots of great food magazines and fliers over the past few weeks and this one is the inspiration for the experiment. For vegan option, substitute whole milk and condensed milk with soy milk/almond milk and condensed vegan soy milk or sugar. Also substitute pie crust for one that is vegan.

Ingredients:
1 9-inch Tenderflake pie crust, baked according to manufacturer's instructions
400 mL whole milk (3.5% MF)
7g dried agar
125g condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
500g wild blueberries (if using fresh berries, dry them on a paper towel to absorb all the moisture)
250mL 35% whipping cream, whipped

In a skillet, heat up milk and agar until bubbling, then reduce heat to let mixture simmer. Add in condensed milk and vanilla and stir until agar dissolves entirely. Remove from heat and let cool for about 5 mins.

Add blueberries and stir gently to combine. I actually used some frozen wild berries which held a lot more moisture so I first cooked it down into a jam, then added the agar, condensed milk and vanilla, and whole milk (which should be heated separately first, then incorporated slowly into the berry mix to prevent curdling).

Let cool for 5 more minutes and spoon onto pie crust. Let it set in the fridge for at least 1 hr then spoon whipped cream over and serve.

Enjoy!

Pizza party!

 
Last Friday, we decided to make a pizza party with a couple of friends.

I made three doughs that morning but there were only two doughs after work. Sister sandy and her boyfriend Steven were hungry and gobbled up one pizza before I could take pictures. However! They really enjoyed it :).

The pizza dough is very simple and can be made in the morning, let rise over the day, then about 8 hours later, ready to be kneed.

One pizza was deep-dish and made in a 9-inch cast iron, the second was thin-crust and spread on a large baking sheet.

Our toppings... well..... Sandy had cooked up a bunch of veggies, shredded lots of good cheeses, chopped up some fresh herbs, made a delicious and simple tomato sauce so really, the boyfriend and I didn't do much except let our creative juices flow.

Feel free to use any veggie topping, just make sure they have been cooked thoroughly and most of the water has been cooked out. If using meats or fish, cook them through as well and let cool before topping on dough.

For one flat dough on 13inch x 18inch baking sheet:

2 tsp dried active yeast (for bread machine)
1 cup warm water (about 30 deg C)

Mix and let bubble for about 5 mins.

1 3/4 cup bread flour
3/4 tbsp salt

Add into yeast water and mix until thoroughly combined, about 5-7 mins. I use a bread machine to mix and turn him out onto a large floured surface to knead by hand for another 5 mins. Proof covered in a large bowl in an oven with a small hot water bath to increase humidity.

After proofing for about 8 to 9 hours, punch dough down and turn out onto floured surface. Preheat oven to 425 deg C. Knead for 2 minutes and then start to knead outwards into a baking sheet shape (-ish). Flip over and knead outwards, flip over and knead outwards, flour surface as needed. I also lift up the dough to help stretch it thin.

Using a rolling pin, flip dough onto pin and gently lay down onto baking sheet.

Bake for about 5 - 7 minutes until slightly cooked and the surface hardens a bit. Take out and cool for about 2 mins then start loading 'em up!

The boyfriend decorated the flat dough pizza with some lovely mozzarella cheese, then sauce, then roasted peppers, olives, zucchinis and more cheese. I was responsible for the cast iron and forgot the sauce, but loaded it up with lots of mozzarella and parmesan and artichokes, olives, tomatoes, eggplants, and mushrooms.

Both were just delicious :).

Bon appetit!

Paris Oct 21, 2012

The last leg of our trip was in Paris, city of loooove.

On our first night we had to stop at the Tour d' Eiffel and when we emerged from the station and walked the few minutes toward it, our breaths just lodged our throats. There is sat, all tall and commanding and I just gawked awkwardly, amazed, like it was my first time seeing someone eat fire.

We then started our tourist routine, click click click click about a million times. I'm fairly proud of how we exploited our tourist status, because we were fast on our feet so as not to obstruct traffic or locals and fast with our cameras, taking the necessary pictures then moving on!

We got up lazy and late the next morning, with only 3 minutes remaining for breakfast. This was the moment I've been training for, all those years of running. I made it downstairs with about 1.2 minutes to spare, grabbed about 4 mini croissants that had just come out of the oven, some yogurt, and two cups of strong coffee.

We set off to Musee du Louvre and dove right into the art.

The painting on the right depicts the Roman ruins with people and animals going about their business. I'm not an art connoisseur but boy do I like this painting. The creatures are all proportional so my eyes and brain are not trying to adjust and the scene is almost pastoral, which of course is awesome. Did I mention I wanted to become a farmer one day?

On the left is a still life painting of fruits and veggies from around 1600s by Samuel Hoffman. Perhaps set out for the chef to cook up a delicious meal. But I think the chef must be late because those veggies back there are wilting a bit. Or Hoffman is taking longer than the veggies can stand. (Well, kudos to him for making them so life-like)
There are plump and fresh cherries, some apricots and figs and plums and..... are those gooseberries? cranberries? goji berries?
At the front appears to be some celery and in the bucket asparagus, chard.... kale? I wonder how they prepared their food and how it tasted back then.....

On the right is a rather famous painting by unknown artist from the school of Fontainebleau, which was like a group of artists during the late 1500s-early 1600s that pumped out lots of scultures, paintings, and other art for the Fontainebleau royalty.

So why is there this nipple pinching action? The pinched is Gabrielle d'Estrees, mistress of King Henry the 4th, being pinched by her sister. The pinching represents that Gabrielle is with child. And because Gabby is hold one of Henry's rings, the child is probably going to have half his chromosomes. The maid at the back is preparing for the child and the painting on the mantle represents fertility although I just see some abs and legs, which could also mean he's enjoying his comfortable silky bed. Buck-naked.

Oh how I love art.

L'astronome on the left by Johannes Vermeer is another famous painting (but I think he's more known for his "Girl with a Pearl Earring", thank you Scarlett Johansson) which I also really really like because this astronomer looks a bit plump as if he spends most of his time physically idle, contemplating the world, the universe. His hair is ill-kept (am I being too presumptuous? maybe that was the style back then) and there are ruffled papers on his desk.
The books above the shelf, the chart, the globe shows that he must be a brainiac and probably just realized the meaning of life. Or maybe where he should go for dinner.

Above is a beeeaaautiful chess set probably for royalty. My inept french can only translate ".... of Saint Louis..... crystal.... ceder wood,..... money..... bronze". Notice how within each square there are small figurines acting out a scene. Playing on this set and not become distracted with the set itself would probably be an ultimate test of skill.  

Also at the Louvre were pieces from Napoleon's house, plush and velvet-like chairs and tables and tapestries for his entertaining area complete with harpsichord and the grand dining area.

Exhausted from what seemed to be a 10 mile hike, we chose to splurge at Angelina, the museum's classy cafe.

The chocolate eclair was decadent. So very worth the 7.5 euros and perfect with their dark coffee.

While I was writing this post, I came across another Parisian post by Not Quite Nigella: THIS IS ANOTHER PARIS I HAVEN'T EVEN SEEN!!!!

That's it, I'll have to go back to France and do it right. ;)

Toulouse Oct 19, 2012

My coworker and I set off to Toulouse, the next leg of our France adventure, after the last set of talks at the Bordeaux university.

Our Toulouse hotel was situated 3 minutes quick stroll away from the Gare de Matabiau train station and was right in the heart of strip-club central (I promise I did not plan it this way!) but a nice 15-minute leisurely saunter towards the city centre.

Toulouse is known as the pink city for the many pinkish hue buildings. Something about their bricks...... it was a great time to visit since it was breast cancer awareness month :)

A great thing about France was that most of their coffee shops serve Lavazza coffee, an Italian brand of really great coffees (above photo shows cafe advertising Lavazza). This coffee is a staple at our home in Toronto and if I could attach a permanent funneling device on my head that feeds into my mouth and thus maintaining a constant stream of coffee intake wherever I go, I would. So I guess my point is, it was nice to see Lavazza in France :)



Powered with strong coffee, we went exploring: stumbled upon Musee des Augustins and lost ourselves in ancient french culture and art, the Toulouse Capitole, and the Cathedral St. Sernin.

The museum was small but packed with old relics, sculptures, and a beautiful veggie garden in the square centre. Below are some of the veggies and fruits of the garden. The tree on the left was producing very nice figs, most of them ready for harvest (squirrels are not common in Europe because they are native to the new world so seeing fruits intact on trees was new to me). I am not sure the identity of the plant in the middle, although I'm hazarding a guess: baby radishes..... On the right are some grapes still on vine, probably not enough to make into wine because the garden is very small. 

We headed to the St. Sernin cathedral which is shaped as a cross with each arm with podium and pews to accomodate different congregation sizes. The church interior is very beautiful but unfortunately my photos are too horrible!

We ventured into the central part of Toulouse for some shopping and to see the Capitol. In the square, a sporting event (I think cycling) had finished and a marching band performed. It appeared people of all ages were celebrating and dancing. I caught two young men galloping the "gangnam style", and unfortunately, one of them stopped when he caught me photographing them!

We arrived back at the hotel exhausted but relaxed and of course, ready for our visit to the city of romance: Paris!

Bordeaux Oct 16, 2012

Place de la Bourse, Bordeaux

First night in Bordeaux and after getting lost, experiencing jet-lag, hunger, and feeling grumpy, the first thing my coworker and I spot is a Pizza hut that was still opened and CRAZY busy and we choose a small veggie pan pizza and some bread sticks, which was actually the crust of a pan pizza with mozzarella cheese and folded over itself.

If I had slowed down to taste it, I'm sure it would have been delicious.

But after a few hours of rest, we were pumped and ready to head to the IECB at the university for the first day of the conference.

St. Andre Cathedral

Let's skip ahead about 8 hours and here we are in front of the beautiful St. Andre Cathedral and Palais Rohan, Bordeaux's city hall. We chose a nearby restaurant to celebrate the end of the first (intense) day and ordered two glasses of Bordeaux's local rose wine with some tuna and steak.

Restaurant in front of Palais Rohan

I'm not a wine connoisseur or even a wine amateur so I can't explain in proper terms the fruitiness or type of barrel-aging taste of the wine (not even sure if these are the correct wine terms) but I can say this:

THIS WINE IS YUMMY!!!

Not so dry like most red wines, it tasted more like a sweet white wine but richer so I downed that baby like there was no tomorrow.

Above left: Seared tuna. Above right: me with wine. Below: Seared steak.

The next evening, after another intensive day of science, our boss invited us for dinner with a few other professors in the central part of Bordeaux near the Place de la Bourse palace (picture above). This area was hoppin! We settled into a nice patio restaurant and wined and dined.

Above: goat cheese and honey walnut salad. Left: beef tartare. Right: Duck confit.

I ordered the goat cheese and honey walnut salad and a few others ordered the beef tartare as a starter. The dressing on the salad was a deliciously warm vinaigrette that they made kind of creamy but without the addition of any cream and it worked so well with the cheese/honey/walnut combo. Normally I don't like croutons in salad but I really enjoyed the little toasts they used as a cheese carrier: just top it with some salad greens and walnuts and munch away!

The beef tartare: according to some, it did not have much taste. It was the smooth texture of the runny, rich egg yolk with the soft feel of the raw ground beef that was unique and needed to be seasoned with strong flavours like mustard and ketchup. The duck confit had a nice crispy skin but unfortunately I cannot tell you how it tasted! It sure smelled good though.

We strolled around the palace after dinner and made our way back to the hotel with tummies and hearts filled with happiness.

Of course, we were a bit late for the meeting the next morning but it was well worth it :)

TED talk by Ben Goldacre and time to refresh (learn) some French

I'm a very lucky girl in that my life can revolve around food and science.

And lately, research has taken front and center stage. Front and center, solo, and with a long dramatic aria.

Leading me to generate stuff like this:

and images like this:

Structure obtained from PDB, ID: 2xsz

(ref: Gorynia et al. JSB. 2011.)

And data crunching late into the wee hours.....

--- --- ---

This is my first science post and I would like to share with you a very grim, very real (and entertaining, Ben Goldacre is a great speaker and I especially like watching his wild hair flying around when he gets excited) talk about negative results, publication bias, and the ramifications of such in health care.

http://www.ted.com/talks/view/lang/en//id/1575

I apologize for my science centered blog post today to my readers who usually find food-related posts. My next science related post will hopefully concentrate on the biochemistry of gluten.... hopefully.

I'm also very fortunate for the opportunity to attend a science conference in Bordeaux this week to meet some brilliant scientists and become part of interesting (and maybe heated?) discussions. Actually, the research topic is very near and dear to my heart (and dissertation.... some would call that my heart ;) so this will be a very special conference for me.

Meanwhile, in preparation for the trip, breakfast of champions:

(The little pumpkin spiced muffin was created by the boyfriend, who also constructed the muffin linings when he realized he didn't have any.)

Research in all fields will likely always have bias, no matter the good intentions of the funding agency/organization/private donors and the scientists doing the work.

To be honest, it is much easier getting published with positive results than negative ones, because positive results means something new or will add to or support an existing hypothesis (which is nicer than refuting it - nobody likes to see their work proven wrong).

But at the same time, negative results are part of research, and journals like the Journal of Negative results in Biomedicine: http://www.jnrbm.com/ are awesome in that we can now see both sides of a certain field of study.

It's always better to see the bigger picture.