nom nom nom

Food pretty much sums up our lives. Sonya has a delicious red velvet cupcake recipe that we all love and decided to make, but with a bit of a twist. Oh and I forgot my camera, but got to use Peter’s T2i.

Harrrrrow.

Basically, the night started with Andrew (on the right) making a bet with the loser having to wear the heart-design apron (on the right) to Safeway. It’s pretty clear who lost the bet. It wasn’t as embarrassing as expected because it was 10 at night, but we got some good laughs out of it. SO, onto the cupcake making.

Nick did most of the baking

Purple Swirls

Kristen Scooping out some Batter

Sony and Andrew...BFF.

Oscar the Grouch done by Peter

Cupcakes!

Sorry I don’t have a recipe for everyone, but you get the gist of it. Purple Velvet Cupcakes. It’s quick n dirty and doesn’t need a lot of ingredients. We made three colours of cream cheese/butter icing and had a contest for who could make the best Cupcakes. These are delish, but quite obviously really unhealthy for us ie: butter, sugar, and cream cheese). It was a ton of fun baking with everyone and maybe next time we’ll tackle a triple layered cake, ACE of cakes styles.

Peter showing off his stuff

And the winner is…Peter’s Incredible Hulk (bottom middle left). It was a really good rendition of Edward Norton as the Incredible Hulk, with Andrew’s House (top middle) coming in with the award for the most life-like. Nick’s creativity astounded us with his series of four cupcakes.

Check out the rest of the set here on my flickr.

I remember the first reason she told me for going back to China were for these delicious creepy looking shrimp-lobster hybrid shell-fish that they only have in her home-city. So, I pretty much told her she had to do a guest post for me and share some of the delicious food on her trip, and here it is!

I recently had the chance to go to Sanya, Hainan with one of my favorite cousins and her twenty-something friends. While we are all residing in the northeast section of China, our destination was the southern most point of the country.

If you think Canadians have little in common from coast to coast, it would be an understatement to say that the Chinese is much worse. There is a tangible mutual distrust between Northerners and Southerners. It doesn’t help, of course, that many parts of China have enigmatic dialects. As a result, traveling with my cousin meant constantly seeking out the best prices –  meaning, prices that ripped us off the least. This constant quest resulted in more walking, more sweating, and more uneven tan lines, probably, than if we had just paid whatever we were asked. It did also, however, lead us to streets and alleyways of amazing foods.

What I really loved about eating in Sanya was the atmosphere. All the restaurants placed their tables and chairs outside, with trees and their luscious leaves as ceilings, and the buzz of conversations. It was lively and relaxed all at once… I mean, what could you do but relax in 33 degree weather?

The First Market Place (Di Yi Shi Chang) in Sanya was the place to buy seafood. For tourists who have no idea what to do with feisty little blue crabs and giant, leaf shaped shellfish, there are dozens of “processing shops” which were more than willing to cook the seafood for us, for lovely prices, of course.

(A shellfish I can’t name, stir-fried with potato noodles and green onions)

While waiting for our processed seafood, we also found a place that made fresh juices from an array of tropical fruits, and also Chao Bing, which literally translates to stir-fried ice.

Tropical fruits like papayas, mangoes, coconut are puréed together in various combinations. Then the fruit purée is “stir-fried” with great speed and expertise on a cold surface and made, with a dash of condensed milk, into Chao Bing. These little cups of iced fruit goodness definitely made me forget my 6-week (and counting) depravation of Vancouver summer favorites like Qoola and slushy bubble teas.

Sanya had the best papayas and dragon fruits. It helps, of course, that these fruits are picked probably ripe from trees, instead of left to ripen in some truck crossing bridges and highways.

And of course, a trip to Hainan just isn’t complete without Hainanese Chicken. One day when we gave up looking for a semi-deserted beach, we found a restaurant that specialized in duck. When we especially requested chicken, the young girl (she looked maybe 14) gladly ran down the street to get us some, since it was a holiday and they had run out. The restaurant also had really delicious Cha Siu.

All that Food looks DELICIOUS! The Chao Bing looks like it’d be excellent for the upcoming 30+ degree weather in Vancouver!

Our little Chef

So this is the famous beef stew I rave about (or beef short-ribs). As we had some leftover AAA Flat Iron sitting around, I choose to use it instead of my usual bone-in shortribs and they turned out awesome! Flat Iron comes from the chuck (shoulder) of the beef and is naturally a bit chewy, but it is full of marbly fat which is what makes the meat full of flavour and tender after a couple hours in the oven. It also has a nice chunk of cartilage which turns nice and tender. SO, from the professional chef, here’s my adaptation of the recipe.

Flat Iron Stew

Here’s what you’ll need:

1. 1.2kgs or about 2lbs of flat iron cut into large chunks (you don’t want them too small, they’ll be in the oven for quite a while)
2. 2 cups of mirepoix (a 2:1 ratio of onion with celery and carrots…ie: 1 cup of onions, 1/2 cup of carrots and 1/2 cup of celery) I used a bit more, but I think around that much should be okay
3. 1 small can of tomato paste
4. 2 cups of veal/beef stock
5. 1 cup of dry red wine
6. salt, pepper, a bit of thyme, 3 bay leafs
7. oil

I began by pre-heating my oven to 250 degrees, lowering my racks to make enough room for the our pot. I used a Le Crusset, which is amazing for slow-braising/cooking, but any cast-iron or oven safe pot is okay.

I cut up my flat iron, mire-poix and got all my ingredients ready to go then  pre-heated the crusset over medium/medium-high with some oil. After seasoning my meat with salt and pepper, I began browning them, leaving them for a couple minutes on each side until they get to a really golden brown.

Bring the heat down to about a medium and throw in the mirepoix, scrapping the bottoms and all around the pot, making sure all the bits are off (this is where all the flavour is). Then let the onions become transluscent and mirepoix cook a bit until its fragrant (about a minute or two). I then added the tomato paste and mixed it all really well. Let it brown for about another minute or two.

Then add the wine and continue to cook until the liquid is about half. Finally, add the meat back in and pour enough stock to cover the stew 3/4 of the way. Stir in the thyme and bay leaf and let it all come to a gentle simmer. Cover it and throw it all into the oven for about 2 hours, when it should all be tender and delicious.

This could easily be one of my favourite recipes to make because it’s easy, looks like it took a whole day and is delicious.

So my dad decided to finally make some apple pie this week! He hasn’t made this in well over a year, and it’s about time he did since the kitchen is now finished. This was a simple pie recipe with a crust LOADED with shortening and all that good stuff to make it flakey. The apple’s were sprinkled with some brown sugar, corn starch cinnamon and a douse of butter to make a nice thick, saucy apple filling.

The recipe was a tad problematic because there was just barely enough dough for the crust, so it came out a little wonky. But nevertheless, it was delish.

Prep

So I’m a big guy. Likewise, I get hungry pretty often, so today I decided to make some noodles for a snack. It’s pretty easy. I just cut up my veggies (zucchini, onions, carrots, garlic and ginger) and tofu then put them aside. After I boiled some ‘Soft Noodles’ (that’s what the package says) for about a minute. Next I heated up my pan on medium/medium high with some oil, dropped in the garlic, ginger and onions then the rest of the veggies. Add about 1/3 of water, covered and let it steam.

Sesame oil, oyster sauce, sweet soy sauce

I added some sweet soy sauce, oyster sauce and a touch of sesame oil to the mix and tossed in the noodles. And voila!

Stir-fry Vegetable Noodles

This was pretty quick and easy to make, but left me with a lot of dishes to do. My snack’s are a little extreme sometimes, especially when I have time on my hand. What are some of your favourites to make?

and...the dishes

Here goes my confession: I used to dread these green, mushy, tasteless testicle shaped fruit’s. In fact, according to Wikipedia, the etymology of the word “avocado” derives from the word Nahuatl, testicle. So the story goes that my parents, being from South America (a prominent location for the growth and production of avocados), were born and raised loving them, as well as my sister (since she had grown a strong liking for them as well). I was the online in my family who didn’t like them and would, from time to time, pick them out of my salad and other dishes. For whatever reason, I never liked them.

However, although I did not like avocados, that didn’t mean I sent them off packing, without any hope of ever entering my life becuase I have a philosophy that comes with my food. As as it’s served at the table, I’ll at least have a try at it. So I assume, that after 19 years, I had a moment, an intervention even, of the taste buds in my tongue. And now, I love them. I can’t get enough of them. For breakfast, in salads, with quesadillas, in my sandwich or with crackers. The buttery and creamy avocado spread over whatever it is with a bit of salt is enough to make my mouth water.

For me, avocados are the best for breakfast. They’re full of energy and healthy fats that will keep you full as well as vitamins B, E, and K. This morning I cut up hard boiled eggs and put them in a quesadilla with avocado, cheese and a pinch of salt. It’s the perfect start to the morning and kept me full until lunch.

So that’s my story for the week. The story of how you should never stop trying the food you like, because one day, maybe one day, you might just fall in love with it. The same’s happened for carrots and tomatoes and now the avocado. I’m still hoping that one day it might happen with the dreaded bitter melon. Drop a comment! Tell me what you have a distaste for and maybe, just maybe, give it a try next time!

To make home made gnocchi all you need are two medium russet potatoes, a cup of flour (and some more for your board), salt and some seasoning for after you make them.

Start off by flouring your board so the dough doesn't stick

Put two boiled russet potatoes (takes about 45 minutes) through a ricer over the board with a tablespoon over salt and a cup of flour

Knead the dough for about 2-3 minutes until it comes together, if its too sticky add some more flour

Cut the dough into 5 equal parts and roll it out and cut them into 1 inch pieces

Place them onto a non-stick pan with flour while waiting too cook them. Place them in a pot of rolling salted water over medium heat. They're ready when they float

I tossed mine in some butter and sage after they cooked

This was a bit of a pain to cook, especially since I was alone, but the end result was delicious. Exams take the life out of you and there’s nothing like a home cooked meal to get you re-energized.

Char and Hannah creeping the pasta

BBQ Baby Back Ribs

Baby romaine with feta cheese and strawberries with a lemon poppyseed dressing

Sitting down to eat

So of course what would be Sunday without the delicious dinner! We ended up eating really late because we decided to cook a turkey, which didn’t end up in the oven until 7:00. So we ate around 9:00. My dad tried a new herbed butter sauce recipe from Saveurs Turkey Issue and it was delicious! Normally we do it Chinese style (With Soy, ginger and garlic) but this was a nice change. To complement the Turkey I made some brussel sprouts and my sister made mashed potatoes. This was the first traditional sunday meal in our new kitchen and believe me, they’ll be lots more coming along.

Turkey with herbed butter

Brussel Sprouts

Mashed Potatoes

Dad carving the turkey

The Famous Smoked Meat Sandwich

Doing his Thang.

Julia, Ivy and Nigel After Schwartz

So after getting out Smoked Meat fix, Ivy and I decided to get some Frozen Yogurt

Frozen Yogurt (Vanilla and Mango) with Reeses Pieces, mochi and strawberries

Later that week, we wanted to go get some French Food and because it was a Monday the place we were planning on going to was closed. So walking around Old Montreal we found a nice bistro, Holder. The first dish was a piece of foie gras with a dried fruit reduction on a piece of ginger bread (it was pretty tasty) and for the main course I had a 6 hour braised short-rib with mashed potatoes. Then finally for dessert, we split a lemon tart with ice cream.

What was left of my Foie Gras

6 hour braised short rib

Lemon Tart

So you basically cannot leave Montreal without having good poutine. On the last day, I had to go for it and get some or else I think I would have regretted it for the rest of the year. I went to Frite Alors, a delicious little place that Ivy Recommended and ordered their Poutine Alors and house salad, both which were incredible. The crispy fries, salty gravy and chewy cheese curds hit the spot and put the finishing touch on my adventure for delicious food in Montreal.

Awesome Staff

Poutine with bacon, onions, mushrooms and peppers

Tin Tin on the walls

The night after Ivy’s Asian themed birthday, we decided to go for some breakfast at Great Eggspectation. It was a huge restaurant and had a beautiful interior. I ordered eggs benny with gruyere and ham on crepes and it was really delicious, I’ve never had eggs benedict with crepes before.

Eggs Benny with ham and gruyere on crepes

That same day we went for a little snack and came across a baked potato place Ivy wanted to go to for a while now. It was really different, I’ve never had baked potato quite like this. He split it in half and mashed all the insides with a huge handful of mozzarella cheese then topped it with green onions and corn and baked the whole thing.

And finally that night with the Martin family (haha), we went for steak and frites at L’entrecote. I wish I took a couple pictures of the interior because it was pretty much amazing, it reminded me of being in a French bistro in Paris. The menu has 2 options, but basically only serves steak and frites. We ordered the larger option with a carrot soup, walnut salad, the steak and frites and chocolate and almond perioferoles for dessert. This had to be one of the best and simplest meals I had in Montreal. The mustard-butter sauce was incredible, I wish I could just dip everything in it.

Steak and Frites with mustard-butter suace

So that was basically part one of two of my stay in Montreal. The food did not disappointment and it was everything I expected and more! The classic dishes (poutine, smoked meat, steak and frites) are all influenced by the French culture and history of the Quebecois. Eating in Montreal is a unique experience because you won’t find this anywhere else in the world.