Banh Xeo: Do You Wrap or Mix

Banh xeo is a Vietnamese savoury pancake. We fill it with a meat mixture of ground pork or chicken, onions, toasted shredded coconut, soy sauce and fish sauce. Then we add blanched beansprouts before folding them over.




Since we grow our own thai basil, mint, and fish herbs, we usually eat banh xeo in the midst of a heatwave -- when the herbs grow like crazy. Now, depending on personal preferences, you either wrap the banh xeo in lettuce or chop/rip everything into a bowl and mix it up. Mom says it tastes better when you eat with your hands. I agree -- only in the summertime though. Where do you stand on your banh xeo?

Do you wrap it or mix it?

Sparks Street Ribfest 2015 & Pure Gelato

Last week was the Sparks Street Ribfest. We're veterans when it comes to the ribfest. If you aren't familiar with it, don't fret. We're here to help. We have a few tips on how to conquer the ribfest (adjusted from the 2011 post):

1. Bring cash, patience, and, depending on the weather, a raincoat and maybe an umbrella too.
2. Go with at least one other person. The more friends, the better cause you’ll be able to cover more stalls that way.
3. If you are planning to enjoy ribfest with a group of people, you should try getting some things from a bunch of the vendors. Make sure to figure out who will be getting what and where.
4. Unless you plan to eat on one of the patios on Sparks Street, you should bring a re-useable bag to carry your boxes. You can enjoy your chicken and pork products along Spark Street if you don't want to take them very far. You can only sit and enjoy your meal at the various patios if you buy a beverage from them.
5. Grab lots of extra paper.
6. Add lots of extra sauce on the side. Most vendors will have a table on the side where you can get paper towels, forks, and extra sauce.

Richard, Andrew, and myself were the runners this time. We figured out what we wanted and went out.

Seafood Banquet at O Mei

Mom had a hankering for seafood. We were in the Richmond Hill and Markham area all weekend so there were lots of options. She flip flopped between a Chinese buffet to a Chinese restaurant. I was pushing for something a bit more special, so once she settled on the latter, I did a few searches and found a candidate. We couldn't get a reservation for a decent time, so we went for the second option instead.


There were a few restaurants that served lobsters a few different ways. The place we chose, O Mei, just happened to be very close to where we were staying. O Mei's specialty breaking down a giant lobster of your choosing and cooking them into four different ways: steamed, stir-fried, deep-fried, and added into fried rice -- all with one lobster. Fancy, eh? Our family is used to the ginger and onion sauce. We actually make it at home. This was taking it to the next level. It was just what I was looking for.

We arrived a bit early for our reservation and were seated promptly to the rear corner of the store. The menus were all in Chinese. Luckily two people knew how to read it. Our server arrived and began talking really quickly in Cantonese. When we responded in Mandarin, he quickly stopped and immediately rambled on in Mandarin. When we asked questions, he replied so quickly, I started to think he was being timed. Jimmy ordered and the waiter disappeared with the menus but returned shortly after with a huge lobster.

"This is 8 and a quarter pounds", he said showing the live lobster. Upon first glance, the huge lobster looked closer to 10lbs. Mom thought it was too big as well, so we asked for a smaller one. The other lobster arrived. It looked much closer to 8lb but it was apparently 7.5lb. "We'll take it." We thought we were ready for what was to come. We didn't know exactly what or how many dishes we ordered. In hindsight, I'm not sure why we didn't just ask one of the waiters to be sure. With this uncertainty in mind, we sat in our chairs and O Mei began the ride.


A lazy susan-sized plate of steamed lobster claws with garlic and bean thread noodles arrived. It was lightly seasoned and tame compared to how we normally prepare lobster. The noodles were great with the lobster.


Next up, stir-fried lobster with Maggi. This was new to all of us and was a favourite. It was more on the sweeter side, which was a pleasant surprise. We were all so impressed with this rendition, we wished there was double the amount on the plate. Andrew took the head and picked it clean after failed attempts by Dad, Jimmy, and myself. There wasn't any of the guts aka tomalley (had to google that) though. The kitchen saved that for the last lobster dish.


The waiter came to change our plates, which were already filled with empty lobster shells before the third dish arrived. The lobster was deep-fried and topped with chopped bits chilli, onions, noodle bits and lots of fried garlic.  This was reminiscent of the salt and pepper pork chops at the New Hong Shing. Mom couldn't believe they used so much garlic in this.


And the finale: Chinese fried rice with the tomalley. Why not? At this point, we all began to slow down a bit. Andrew was hilariously just getting started. While everyone else kept trying the dishes as they arrived, he kept his own steady pace. That was the end of our 7.5lb lobster. To sum it up, the fried rice and steamed dish were alright. It was all about that Maggi seasoned lobster.

I began to sip some more tea in anticipation for the desserts. We all were.

But then this happened..

Visiting the 3 Brewers

Full disclosure:
I don't enjoy alcohol. I rarely drink for that reason. Watered down juice is my beverage of choice. That or water. I can't tell if beer tastes good or if wine tastes good. I just don't drink enough and I'm perfectly fine with that.

When JL suggested that we should either go to 3 Brewers or Mill Street I wanted to try both actually, but I wanted to try the 3 Brewers more. Mainly because they had liege waffles on their menu. Okay, that was the only reason.


We met at the Kanata location right after I finished work. It was a long week and a long day. I didn't have a big appetite. We agreed to order and share some things, like the 2lbs of honey BBQ wings. They were great wings! The sauce wasn't overly sweet, the wings were still crisp and juicy inside. We were all really fans of them.




We also shared the star platter which had potato skins, mozzarella sticks, and spicy onion scoops. The spicy onion scoops were the star. Think of spicy onion rings. That's essentially what they tasted like.

We chased all of the salt and grease down with some cold beer. IPA for myself, blonde for JL, and the white beer for CA.


After all of the savoury things were polished off, we looked at the dessert section of the menu and discussed. We got the coffee and dessert combo which included a slice of cheesecake (CA opted for the strawberry drizzle), cup of coffee, and chocolate mouse (underneath that whipped cream).


And I couldn't have left without having their liege waffles. It was a sweet end to a fun night. I'd definitely return to the 3 Brewers. Have you been there yet?

CNY at Grandma's

We headed to Grandma's house last Sunday to celebrate Chinese new year. Our feast last year was remarkably fancy; snow crab legs, dungeness crab, and a whole roasted pig! The spread this year was closer to the typical dishes we usually have. It was nice that we celebrated it early, cause I'm sure the local Chinese establishments were swamped this weekend. Again, the meal summed up in photos.















The highlights of the meal had to go to Grandma's soup, the meats from Double Happiness, and the sesame balls filled with lotus paste and red beans from Kowloon Market.

CNY Celebrations at Grandpa's

Happy Chinese new years! Chuc mung nam moi! Or to generalize it, happy lunar new year!


Although the holiday begins on Friday, our whole extended family got together and celebrated it this past weekend. First up, here's Saturday in photos.















Once we began to eat, I got carried away and inhaled all the food without taking photos. But I made a mental note. We were going over to Grandma's the next day.

2013 Xmas Holiday Baking

Let's start this by saying that I'm not much of a baker. I'd rather cook something instead. Don't you find that you're also baking a lot during the Christmas holidays?

For our Christmas dinner, which we held at Aunt IS's house, I knew I wanted to make at least two kinds of cookies. I was thinking of trying to make the DoubleTree chocolate walnut cookies again, and maybe some Biscoff cookies, or some chocolate chip cookies.

I used more chopped walnuts, less chocolate chunks, and less oatmeal flour for this batch of DoubleTree cookies. After I got started with the DoubleTree cookies, Richard into the kitchen and was also in a baking mood. He wanted to make Mom's chocolate chip cakey cookies. I suggested the Serious Eats' Food Lab recipe for "The Best Chocolate Chip Cookies." We made the cookies on Christmas Eve and then put them in the fridge to bake on Christmas afternoon.

Both bags of cookie dough were taken out to warm up a bit. After popping them into the oven, the remaining cookie dough was put in the freezer. Once the cookies were done and had cooled enough, we dug in. The results of the DoubleTree cookies were great! The ratio of walnuts to chocolate was perfect for me and they were slightly crisp on the edges while being chewy in the middle.

As for the cookies Richard made, they were disappointing. When he browned the butter the night before, the house smelled like caramel. It was so promising. The baked products were not only short on that depth of flavour, but they needed more flour (human error) too.

~

For the Xmas party with some friends, VN and I were thinking about attempting to make macarons again. Our last experience didn't turn out the greatest -- visually, that is. We thought we had everything, but we realized that I had forgot the icing sugar. Oops. We postponed it until Boxing Day.

After having lunch at the Authentic Vietnamese Pho House, we picked up some things to make macarons. We went to Bulk Barn and then went back to the kitchen. I had forgotten the icing sugar again. So fail. There was luckily a small bag of icing sugar left in the cupboards. Phew! The almond meal wasn't fine at all. We tried using a blender. Fail. We tried a coffee grinder. More fail. And then finally we resorted to a mortar and pestle to try and crush them finer. That didn't work too well either. We went on though.

Everything was gently mixed together and we were almost ready to pipe the macarons before VN brought something up. We had forgotten the icing sugar! Wow. I tried folding in the icing sugar in 20, 000 times as delicately as I could. But it didn't work. We had enough ingredients to make only one final batch.

It looked great. All the ingredients were added.

After a quick exchange, we agreed that it wouldn't be a big deal if we piped the macarons directly onto the pan. It was non-stick after all. It would be okay? Right? Riiiight?

We nervously popped the two trays of piped macarons and put it into the 280F to bake. That's what the recipe we used said. The macarons didn't like the high oven temperature. The macarons not only cracked but they weren't fully cooked through. When I took out the tray, this was what I saw. It was like tunnel vision.

Upon further inspection, there was one that looked perfect! Enhance!

Enhance! What a beauty. It was smooth on top and had feet! Unfortunately, all of the macarons -- including the pretty-looking one -- was under baked.

After the 4+ hours that it took VN and I to make macarons, I still tried to make it work. We were going to eat these macarons with some chocolate mint icing! So I grabbed the tub of chocolate icing and as I slid my fingers around the lid to open it, a piece of tinfoil that poked out sliced my fingers.


Yup. I sliced my fingers by trying to open a container of icing. You'd think that after all of those bad omens, VN and I would've stopped. But no. Clearly, me and macarons don't go well together. Just like me and Scrabble.

Despite two failed attempts at making macarons, I'm determined to make at least one good batch. This is not the end.

~


Yesterday (December 30th), I went over to SM's place to hang out. We also did some baking. I brought along some cookie dough from the Christmas Eve batches. I baked the cookies before the World Junior game began, that way we could enjoy them warm when the game began. We were watching Canada play against Slovakia. By the time I brought the cookies downstairs, they were already announcing the starting goalies. Once I got back to my seat and took a bite out of a warm chocolate chunk cookie, Drouin took a major penalty for hitting the head of a Slovenian player. Lame. But the game got better and Canada managed to earn a win with the help of a great hardworking shift by the Lazar-Patan-Reinhart line in the second period.


Once the game had finished, we went upstairs and began to make sugar cookies with a recipe given from SM's co-worker. We had a lot of fun using the cookie cutters to make feet, stars, snowmen, and hearts. There weren't any angels. No angels! SM also had some leftover icing so she topped off some of the cooled sugar cookies. When we were mixing the dough, it looked like the cookie dough needed more liquids. I wasn't sure what to do about it, so we didn't do anything about it. We put it in the fridge to let it set for an hour and hoped that it would turn out. And it did!

The end of December involved lots of baking. There were some successful batches and some that didn't work out. It's all good though. It's not always about the journey, it's about the results. Wait. Uh... whatever. Never mind. Scratch that. Rewind.

Wurch-ch-chi-chi-chi-chit!

The end of December involved lots of baking. It was fun to bake and cook for my friends and family, and even cook and bake with my friends and family. I hope the new year will continue to be full of new adventures, even if they don't turn out the way I want them to. To good health and lots of fun times ahead! Happy new years everyone! Cheers! *raises a glass of watered down juice* *clink*

Revisiting Buster's

Last week, I brought Mom to watch the hockey game. Since the food at the Canadian Tire Center is crappy and overpriced, we went over to Buster's Bar & Grill. With the purchase of a meal or drink the ride on their shuttle bus to the game was free.


Mom settled for the special of the night: Buster's Burger with fried mushrooms added.

I already knew I was going to get wings after my second visit to Buster's. Were they going to be crisp and juicy again? Or was that a fluke?


The 1lb medium wings were remarkably spot on!


We quickly ate what we could, put away the leftovers, and then hopped on the school bus to watch the game. The Sens ended up winning 5-4 in a shootout.

~

On another visit, Andrew and I headed over to Buster's after a long day of work. The bus ruined our original plans to go for some chicken at Zaki. The main reason I suggested Buster's was because it was near the Lincoln Fields bus station. It would be much easier to bus home after we ate.

I was craving something comforting. Their special of the day was lasagna and a salad for $6.99. Tempting. But I find lasagna only tastes good when we make it at home with our simple meat sauce.


Hot turkey sandwich is a special dish that's close to my heart. I knew that the gravy would probably be from a can or made from powder. I was hoping that I was wrong. But if I was right, I was crossing my fingers that the gravy wouldn't be offensive.

The dish didn't live up to the name of hot turkey sandwich. It was warm at best. After a two bites, I sent the plate with the waitress to get it heated up a little more. Once it returned, it was easier to eat even though it was only a tad warmer than when I originally started to eat. The gravy was probably from a can. It was on the sweeter side which was a bit odd. I still found it comforting though.


Andrew didn't know what to get. He was either going to go for the fish and chips, cacciatore chicken parmesan, or breaded chicken parmesan. The random number generator decided that the cacciatore was the one tonight.


There were peppers, mushrooms, and onions underneath that blanket of cheese. He inhaled his ginger ale and dinner, although he argues that the pace was his normal speed. He's probably right. I'm a terribly slow eater.


I tried some of Andrew's dish. Then with the small piece of cheese left I made a little poutine.

The unassuming bar and grill inside the Lincoln Fields Mall has now been added to my rotation of restaurants. Perhaps it has become a pre-Sens-game meal.