Breakfasts are Happiest Meal of the Day – November 9, 2009

I am in love with McDonald’s. I just can’t get enough of it. I watched “Super Size Me” while eating a BigMac meal with iced tea, extra pickles on the burger, and 10 chicken McNuggets on the side. While I don’t eat McDonald’s for every meal every day, I definitely eat it more than I should.

My favourite sandwich from McDonald’s is the Sausage Egg McMuffin. It’s a salty, greasy breakfast sandwich straight from a dieter’s hell. I’ve tried to duplicate them at home, but to no avail. I’m not sure what it is, but the sausage patties from the grocery store just don’t taste the same, effectively ruining my homemade efforts. I’ve since realized that the Bacon Egg McMuffin is easier to make.

It’s a super heavy breakfast that makes me want to nap. I usually forgo my usual glass of milk and drink juice or coffee to help cut through the grease. Otherwise, it’s snoozeville for me.

Anyway, this is DEFINITELY not Diet-friendly. I only make this as a treat to myself on the weekends, but this morning, I felt I deserved a reward for waking up at 8:00 AM on a Monday without my alarm.



Homemade Bacon Egg McMuffin

1-2 strips of bacon, cooked
1 tsp fat (bacon fat, butter, or vegetable oil)
1 egg
1 slice of cheese
1 English muffin, split in two
Margarine, for spreading

First, heat up a small non-stick pan with fat. Make sure the pan is warm when you add the egg, and then turn up the heat to medium-high.

Cook until the whites are half-cooked (for a runny yolk) or 90% cooked (for a hard yolk). Flip over and add cheese. For a runny yolk, turn off the heat and let the egg cook in the residual heat. For a firm yolk, turn down the heat to medium-low and cook until the toast pops.

After adding the cheese to the egg, toast the English muffin. When it’s done, spread both slices with margarine.



Assemble the bacon on the bottom slice (denser and has smaller holes), and top with the fried egg. Place the top slice on the sandwich, squeeze happily, and enjoy!

I Think I Have a Sushi Problem – November 6 and 7 2009

I had JUST finished writing that Jimmy and I would save Sima Sushi for special occasions in my last post, and now, we’ve eaten there twice this past weekend. For no apparent reason. Friday’s dinner celebrated the weekend (it's Friday!), and Saturday’s lunch (not pictured)… well, there’s no excuse for Saturday. We were out shopping, realized we were hungry, and stopped at the closest open restaurant… which happened to be Sima Sushi.

Yeah, we may have a sushi addiction on our hands.

We decided to visit Sima Sushi again after Jimmy watched me edit the previous pictures and type up a post. “Stop blogging about Sima Sushi. The pictures are making me crave sushi,” he complained. Twenty minutes later, we were getting ready to go out for more Sima Sushi.

We were pleasantly surprised that the place was packed when we arrived. Mostly small groups of friends, a few couples on dates, and the loud buzz meant that everyone was having a good time. In fact, when I looked around, there was a nice mix of demographics. They were undergrads mostly but also older graduate students, tourists, and Kingston couples and families. Although most of the crowd was white, there was sprinkling of Asians, too. It looked like the type of crowd that Ta-Ke Sushi used to attract.

Once we were seated, we both agreed that we weren’t going to mess around. Jimmy wanted sashimi, and I was craving their rolls. We both had a small bowl of salad and miso soup included with our meals (no pictures).



Jimmy ordered the regular sashimi dinner (as opposed to the deluxe), and he really enjoyed it. It came with a platter of the usual suspects: salmon, tuna, and red snapper. It also had butterfish (that wonderfully porky stuff I couldn’t identify last week), tuna tataki (seared tuna), and a squid roll. This was served with a small bowl of rice that had a single soybean on top. Jimmy didn’t like the rice because it was scraped from the bottom of the pot, ruining his expectation for fluffy, sticky, sushi rice.



Jimmy loved the fact that he received two servings of salmon, his favourite, but he was even more impressed with the tuna tataki. It was slightly seared and lightly marinated, which both intensified and mellowed out the flavours. The thin layer of cooked tuna contrasted really nicely with the suppleness of the raw part. This became Jimmy’s new favourite.

I tried the squid roll, but I didn’t like the way that the ingredients fell apart in my mouth when I chewed. It was a little unsettling, and I felt like a little bit of rice would have gone a long way to harmonizing the different textures (chewy squid, tiny popping pearls of roe, and creamy avocado).



Having a serious craving for their makimono, I ordered a trio of rolls: tekka, spicy salmon, and the Rockstar.



The tekka (tuna) roll was quite delicious in its simplicity. I attribute this to the freshness of the fish itself. There are only three elements to a tekka maki: the nori, the sushi rice, and the tuna. The tuna was very fresh and it really showed. Other tekka rolls are often boring and uninteresting, but Sima Sushi’s version was delicious. The texture and flavour of not-so-fresh fish can’t be disguised in this simple roll, and this roll was actually outstanding.



Moving up on the maki complexity chart, I had the spicy salmon roll. I can’t normally tell the difference between a spicy salmon and a spicy tuna, but I definitely can at Sima Sushi. The flavour is both similar (the ingredients) and completely different (the fish) at the same time. I ordered the salmon because I already ordered a tekka maki.

It was delicious! The salmon actually tasted like salmon, and the cucumbers balanced well with the tempura crisps, the spicy mayo, and the fish. While eating this, I came to the realization that this was my favourite version of the spicy salmon/tuna maki because it wasn’t rolled inside out (rice on the outside). The rice acts like a buffer between the flavourful filling and the texturally different nori. I’ll have to keep this in mind when I eat at other places now.



At the very top of the maki food chain, the Rockstar roll was a garish monstrosity compared to the tekka and spicy salmon rolls. The Rockstar had all of my favourite maki ingredients: shrimp tempura, avocado, roe, spicy salmon, and cucumbers. This was sinfully delicious and very rich. It is the ultimate decadent roll. Unfortunately, I ended up eating too much of this, and the plain grease and heft of it filled me up within fifteen minutes.

Note to self: one big roll and a small roll is enough for dinner. Three rolls was overkill.

We finished with hot green tea (free) and took our time digesting. It was amazing to see how quickly the tables turned over, as well as the sheer amount of tables they turned while we were there. It was at capacity from 6:30 to 7:30, but since the tables were turned so quickly, no one waited more than five minutes for their table.



The final bill came to $43.84 before tip, a cheap price for dinner in comparison with a steak dinner (just as filling, though with less variety) which easily costs twice that amount, even without drinks. We blissfully meandered our way back home, promising that we’d visit again soon. We didn’t realize just HOW soon we would be seeing them.

(There aren’t any pictures after this point, so feel free to skip it if you’re here for the food porn.)

The very next morning, Jimmy and I went shopping for brunch materials. On our way back home, Jimmy proclaimed that he was starving, so we agreed that we would eat at the next open restaurant. Somehow, that turned out to be Sima Sushi.

It’s bad when the sushi chefs and waitress recognize you from the night before and greet you with, “You’re back? You’re having sushi for breakfast?” It was shameful, but we really couldn’t get enough.

Jimmy ordered the regular sashimi lunch, and I had the sushi lunch A. I don’t remember exactly what it came with, but they were the usual selection: salmon, tuna, red snapper, California roll. I still can’t get over how delicious their California rolls are. For all you California roll haters, have some at Sima Sushi, and you’ll be blown away!

We still had room for more after finishing our lunches, so we ordered a spicy salmon (or was it tuna) roll to share. It was gooooooooood.

The bill came to $30 (including tax and tip), and while it’s expensive for a lunch option, it’s perfect for a special occasion.

While we were eating lunch (we were the first customers), people trickled in steadily. In fact, there were four other tables by the time we finished about a half hour later. It’s obvious that the word is getting out about Sima Sushi.

It makes me happy to see this new place thrive, and I just hope that the quality doesn’t decline. Either way, Jimmy and I plan on visiting often enough to be able to see the difference. I’m not sure this sushi addiction will be going away any time soon!

~ * ~

Sima Sushi
66 Princess Street
(Between Wellington and King)
Kingston, ON
(613) 542-8040

Learning to Love Japanese Food All Over Again at Sima Sushi – October 29, 2009

Last week, neither Jimmy nor I wanted to cook, so we went out for sushi. We had enjoyed Sima Sushi in the summer, and we wanted to see if it was as good as we remembered.

We both ordered meals that came with a bowl of miso soup and salad. No pictures of the miso soup, but it looks exactly the same as every other bowl of miso soup. The soup wasn’t as rich in colour (they must not have used red miso) or flavour (no kelp and bonito broth?) as Totoya’s in Ottawa. It was decent.



The salad, as you can see, is the regular house salad served in Japanese and Korean joints. While the ingredients are the same, the dressing for this one had more citrus in it, which is a good thing. It was so strong that even Jimmy was able to pick it out. I liked the brightness of it.



We ordered edamame to snack on while we waited for our dinners. The soy beans were sprinkled with table salt, so it wasn’t as flavourful as sea salt. Jimmy couldn’t taste a difference, so he was pretty happy with it. The beans weren’t cooked to mush, and I appreciated that.



The spicy salmon roll is a favourite of ours, and yes, we know it’s not exactly authentic. This version was damn good—on the same level as Totoya, for sure. This roll was slightly larger than we expected, and it contained slivered cucumbers, a nice touch. The salmon was finely chopped, but the roll still tasted like fish. This is a good thing. Totoya’s version maintains the texture of the fish, while Sima Sushi allows the diner to enjoy the flavour of the fish. Jimmy liked this, too.

Sadly, all of my pictures of Jimmy’s main dish (unagi-don) were blurred to hell, and I couldn’t justify posting them. Apparently I have standards for posting pictures now. I know, shocking!

Anyway, it was, by far, the best barbecued eel bowl we’ve ever had. Unassuming in its small lacquered box, we were entranced by the smoky smell of barbecue. The eel was cut thick and laid directly over top of the rice, with no layer of nori to distract from the eel. It was juicy and tender, and there wasn’t a hint of fishiness. The sauce was mild, enhancing the unagi’s natural flavour instead of disguising it. I was amazed. Jimmy proclaimed it was the best unagi he has ever eaten, and I agreed. The balance between fish, sauce, and rice was perfect. Used to eating thinner slices of unagi over larger quantities of rice, Jimmy almost ran out of rice. He’s been craving this dish ever since.



I ordered the deluxe sushi dinner, which comes with chef’s choice of nigiri sushi and a makimono on the side (usually California roll).

First, the sushi. I was pleasantly surprised by the uni (sea urchin roe) on the far right of the plate. Having never eaten this delicacy before, I was a little scared that I might not like it, as what happened with Taiwanese stinky tofu. My reaction to the uni went from, “Wow, this is kinda briny,” then “Holy crap, it’s so creamy!” to “OH MY GOD, THIS IS SEAFOODY CUSTARD HEAVEN!” It left quite an impression. Now if someone asks me what uni tastes like, I can confidently answer, “Creamy seafood custard.” I loved it.

Going to the left of the uni: amaebi, which translates to sweet shrimp. This was a delicate piece of raw shrimp on sushi rice. It really was sweet, but not unnaturally sweet. It was like eating the best piece of shrimp times ten. That shrimp flavour, however you would describe it, was magnified. Each bite was filled with shrimpiness. (I know that’s not a word, but that’s how I’m going to describe it.) Loved it!

The next piece of sushi was ika (squid). This was a rather thick slice of squid, gently scored and lightly blowtorched. I didn’t enjoy this one as much because I found the ika too thick and difficult to chew. It took me almost five minutes to chew through it, so I didn’t enjoy it as much. Although each bite released more of the fat and mingled with the rice in my mouth, having to chew for that long really grossed me out. I would pass on this next time.

The pale pink sushi was so delicate and sweet, I really wish I had asked the server what type of fish it was. It was sprinkled with tiny shreds of green onion, and that added a different dimension to the flavour. I liked this one too much to enjoy it, unfortunately, and I gobbled it up without stopping to think about it.

I didn’t get to eat the salmon, but Jimmy said it was comparable to Discover Japan’s salmon sushi. I’ll take his word for it.

The milky white fish was an unexpected winner. I have always been wary of opaque slices of raw fish. I can’t explain why, but I try to avoid eating them if possible. I have it in my mind that they’re going to taste unpleasantly fishy. After eating this sushi, I have decided that I’ve been ridiculous my entire life, and that I need to start eating all sorts of fish. This was spectacularly buttery and delicious. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that I was eating a slice of fatty pork. The flavour was quite strong and the texture quite meaty, so it probably won’t be for everyone. I have to find out what kind of fish this is.

The dark pink is the ubiquitous tuna. It was sweet and had a lighter tuna flavour than I had thought, judging by the colour. Because it was light, I wolfed this one down to move onto stronger flavours.

The almost translucent fish was very good as well. I only remember that it had a hint of smoke and was slightly drier than the others.



The California roll shocked us by being delicious! The fake crab, the avocado, the shredded cucumber, and the little bits of roe were all packed full of flavour. I normally scoff at California rolls because they’re not really Japanese, but this has converted me. It can be just as amazing as any other roll, as long as you pay attention to the ingredients you use. Jimmy and I fought over these!



We decided to forgo the dessert, and instead, indulge in hot green tea. It was very cleansing after eating such a rich dinner, and we slowly wound down after dinner’s excitement.

I’ve learned a lot from Sima Sushi.

1. Food tastes better when you keep it simple and focus on the natural flavours.
2. Eating slowly and enjoying the food makes for a nicer dinner than stuffing one’s face.
3. I should probably bring a mini bendable tripod when I dine out. I can’t believe I don’t have any focussed pictures of the unagi!
4. I need to learn more about seafood to identify the sushi I eat.
5. Dessert is overrated.
6. Yes, Sima Sushi is my new favourite Japanese restaurant in Kingston!

We ended up spending $54, including tax and tip, on an unexpectedly spectacular dinner. We were full, happy, and determined to save Sima Sushi to celebrate special occasions. I don’t ever want to dine there on a fluke night and ruin this bubble of mine.

~ * ~

Sima Sushi
66 Princess Street
(Between Wellington and King)
Kingston, ON
(613) 542-8040

Moan-Inducing Cakes from Card’s Bakery in Kingston

For the past few years, Card’s Bakery has been my bakery of choice. I often dropped by for a small pick-me-up (lemon-cranberry loaf, brownies, seasonally decorated sugar cookies, cupcakes) while heading home from grocery shopping at Food Basics. It’s an inconspicuous store-front, but if you take another look, you’ll see a few elegant wedding cake displays in the window.

It actually wasn’t until last year that I started ordering cakes (Cakes by Krista) for special occasions that I really fell in love with the place.

This year, I ordered two cakes: one for Jimmy’s brother’s birthday and one for Jimmy’s own birthday.



I ordered a small chocolate cake (one size up from a baby cake, but one size down from the 9-inch) with mocha filling and buttercream icing. This cost $22, I think. I wish I took a video of everyone’s reaction when we ate our first bite. There were moans and gasps!



The cake was so moist and dense, it was almost fudgy! The mocha filling didn’t stand out much because of the richness of the cake. The buttercream, however, was able to stand up to the cake and made each bite creamy, with a touch of sweetness. I loved the fact that the cake itself wasn’t sweet and relied on the filling and the icing for the sugar hit. Some people were scared off by the massive amount of icing (about a quarter inch thick!), but it wasn’t too sweet as long as you ate it with the cake and not on its own.



Since Jimmy liked the chocolate cake, I ordered a similar one for his birthday. It was a 9-inch chocolate l’orange (chocolate with a hint of orange) cake with mocha filling and chocolate icing. Because it was larger, it cost $35.

This time, the icing was spread thinner. I also noticed that the chocolate icing wasn’t as sweet as the buttercream. I enjoyed it, but Jimmy preferred the creamy punch of the buttercream more. He was also a little put off by the texture of the grated orange rinds in the otherwise smooth cake. I really enjoyed the subtleness of it all, so I thought he was nuts. In the future, though, I’ll be buying him the basic chocolate with buttercream.



Although the first cake’s mocha filling didn’t impart any flavour to the cake, I hoped that it was a fluke. Unfortunately, the filling didn’t do much for Jimmy’s cake either. I think I’ll ask for a fruity filling—something lighter that can withstand the cocoa’s assault.

I completely overestimated how much cake we would eat, so there’s still two-thirds of a cake sitting in our fridge. Not that I’m complaining, of course!

Thank you for two beautiful and delicious cakes, Krista!

~ * ~

Card's Bakery / Cakes by Krista
304 Bagot Street
(between Princess and Queen)
Kingston, ON
(613) 544-4448

Almost-Vegetarian Tomato Vegetable Soup – September 15, 2009

When I first started The Diet, I got into a month-long soup kick. I realized that soups were one of the easiest way to pile in vegetables without missing the meat. I made many variations of this vegetable soup, with whatever vegetables we had on hand, because it’s so easy and filling.

The title of the post is “almost-vegetarian” to reflect the fact that I use chicken broth powder to give the soup more depth. Feel free to substitute it with vegetable stock powder to make it completely vegetarian.

I added a scoop of leftover rice to bulk it up a little bit. The starch also thickens the soup, which makes it look better.

Unfortunately, Jimmy and I devoured this soup, and I forgot to take a picture of the finished dish. Just imagine a red soup with chunks of vegetables.

It only took me 20 minutes to make this soup in the morning, and I think it was a nice alternative to the usual cereal, toast, or congee for breakfast.

~ * ~

Tomato Vegetable Soup



2 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
¼ cup diced onions
¼ cup diced carrots
¼ cup diced green zucchini
¼ cup diced yellow zucchini
Few shakes of Italian spice seasoning (if you have dried herbs on hand, use oregano, parsley, red pepper flakes, and basil)
2 medium tomatoes, skinned and chopped
1 cup tomato sauce
4 cups water
3 tsp chicken broth powder
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup cooked rice (optional)
Squirt of Sriracha (optional)
Grated parmesan for garnish

Heat up oil in a pot, and sauté garlic and onions until the onions are clear. Add the vegetables (except for tomatoes) and spice seasoning.



Once the carrots have softened, add chopped tomatoes. Stir constantly until about half of the tomatoes have disintegrated.

Add tomato sauce, water, and chicken broth powder. Bring to a boil. Add cooked rice, if desired. Adjust the seasoning. Add Sriracha hot sauce, if desired.

Ladle into bowls, and sprinkle with grated parmesan. Serve hot with crackers or bread.

Lazy Stir-Fry Dinners – September 13, 2009

Although I’m always complaining about not having time to make dinner, it really isn’t that difficult to pull together a decent dinner if the kitchen is stocked. This stir-fry dinner took less than 45 minutes to make, and it was delicious! I made a black pepper beef stir-fry, a ginger chicken stir-fry, and a simple seaweed soup. It ended up being way too much food, but Jimmy was more than happy to bring the leftovers to school the next day.

The fantastic thing about stir-fries is that the pattern is always the same: hot pan, hot oil, fragrant ingredients, hard vegetables, meat, soft vegetables, season, cornstarch, adjust seasoning, plate, and garnish. At times, you’ll have to change a step or two, depending on the dish, but you can always rely on the pattern to turn out a good dish—even if it’s not quite what you were aiming for!

~ * ~

The Ingredients

Start by making a pot of rice. Depending on how you cook your rice (on the stove, with a rice cooker), it may take more or less than half an hour to cook. If you manage your time wisely, everything will finish cooking at the same time (other than the stir-fries).



Next, chop up your vegetables. Going clockwise from the top: minced garlic, sliced onions for the chicken dish, slivered ginger, sliced red peppers, sliced green onions, chopped green onions, and more sliced onions for the beef dish. I used these ingredients to make two dishes: black pepper beef and ginger chicken.



The key is lots of garlic!

~ * ~

Seaweed (Laver) Soup

I cheat with my soups because I never plan on having soup until just before I start cooking. I use powdered chicken broth (the Asian kind with TONS of MSG) as the base of my soups. I know it’s bad, but it’s a quick way to get dinner on the table without having to simmer a pot of bones for hours.



Start boiling four cups of water in a pot. Add half a teaspoon of salt and two teaspoons of chicken broth powder. For an optional boost of flavour, add a few squirts of fish sauce. It will round out the flavour.

Once the water boils, cut a piece of laver that is a little larger than your hand. Using scissors, cut all of this into little pieces into the soup.

Turn down to a simmer, and crack an egg into the soup. Stir the soup a few times to make sure that the egg doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pot.

Just before serving, stir in the chopped green onions, and ladle into a large bowl.

~ * ~

Black Pepper Beef Stir-Fry



When beef goes on sale, I buy a large roast, slice it up thinly for stir-fries, cube the fatty and chewy bits for stew, and freeze them flat in individual portions. That way, when I need beef, I just thaw out what I need in a little bit of warm water. Because I pack them flat, they defrost a lot quicker, and I find that it saves more space in the freezer.

Anyway, I thawed one serving of sliced beef for this stir-fry.

Start with a hot pan and a teaspoon of oil. When the oil is hot, toss in the minced garlic and half of the onions. Fry until fragrant and add the red peppers, taking care not to burn the garlic.

Once the onions begin to soften and release their liquid, crank the heat up and toss in the thawed beef.

Season the dish by adding a pinch of salt, a pinch of sugar, a generous spoonful of black pepper, a squirt of dark soy sauce (just for colour), and a tablespoon of oyster sauce. Stir-fry until evenly coated. Toss in the rest of the onions.

In a small dish, combine a teaspoon of cornstarch with two tablespoons of cold water. Mix well until there are no lumps, and add it to the pan. Stir the ingredients quickly, to prevent lumps from forming. The sauce should be a little slimy, but definitely not pasty.



Taste the sauce, and adjust seasoning (oyster sauce, pepper). Once it tastes good, plate it and top with sliced green onions.

~ * ~

Ginger Chicken

To ensure that I always have chicken pieces for stir-fries, I do the same thing as the beef—buy boneless, skinless chicken thighs on sale, slice up into bite-sized pieces, pack flat in individual portions, and freeze. Super convenient.

For this dish, I used two servings of chicken, which turned out to be too much. I’ve got to remember to make smaller dishes, so that we’re not left with containers full of leftovers.



Heat up a pan with a teaspoon of oil. Fry the garlic and ginger until it becomes fragrant. Then toss in the onions.

When the onions begin to soften, add the thawed chicken pieces. Sprinkle salt and pepper, and add a tablespoon of oyster sauce. This time, I also used a teaspoon of regular soy sauce, which darkened the dish too much. It didn’t change the flavour much, just the colour.

Stir-fry until the onions are translucent. Add a teaspoon of cornstarch dissolved in two tablespoons of cold water. Adjust the seasonings if necessary.

Transfer it to a plate, and serve hot with steamed rice.

~ * ~

Black Soy Milk



To complete this Chinese dinner, we drank ice-cold black soy milk. The soy milk is refreshing and cooling. My dinner turned out a little greasy, so this helped tone it down a little.

~ * ~

As I mentioned above, this dinner took about 45 minutes to pull together. It’s absolutely essential that you have your ingredients ready, and your seasonings ready to go. Otherwise, you’ll overcook the stir-fry while you search for other things. The actual cooking time in a stir-fry is only five minutes, and no more than ten minutes, so you have to be on top of everything.

However, once you master the rhythm of stir-frying (hot pan, hot oil, fragrant ingredients, hard vegetables, meat, soft vegetables, season, cornstarch, adjust seasoning, plate, and garnish), the variations on dishes and combinations of ingredients are endless!