Cinnamon Scones

After an early routine ultrasound at the Civic Hospital, I needed breakfast or at least a snack. I wandered over to the cafeteria and was immediately drawn to the cookies, muffins, and scones. Unsure of what to get, I grabbed a cup of coffee first and then returned. Staring at all the options for a bit, I picked the cinnamon scone because it stood out. Remembering the scones I had in Toronto, I excitedly paid for my breakfast and tried to find a clean table that was well lit -- for the photos, of course.


I took a bite and began to chew. Not too dry, not too sweet. Woah! I bit into something sweet and slightly crunchy. Cinnamon bark? No, it's soft and sweet. And that's when I realized that there were cinnamon sugar pearls in it. I thought I had picked up a cinnamon raisin scone. This was so much better than that!


On my way home, I tried to remember if I ever made a tasty scone. There was this one time when I attempted to make buttery biscuits. They ended up turning into scones because of over mixing. Other than that, I couldn't recall making scones.


Then one rainy day, I woke up with the urge to eat cinnamon scones again. With a few quick searches, I realized that I actually had to buy the cinnamon sugar pearls. I'm sure I could've made something like it, but it would probably take too long. Instead, I thought about using Skor toffee pieces to make *drumroll* cinnamon toffee scones. Doooone!




I found a recipe, added more cinnamon into the dough, replaced the cinnamon sugar pearls with toffee bits. I made both regular-sized scones and mini-scones. When these were in the oven, the house was filled with the perfume of cinnamon and sugar.



Boom. They turned out d-e-ricious! I'll definitely be making more scones from now on.

Escape into Silence - Lilom Fish Sanctuary

Greetings from across the world! What a whirlwind summer it has been for me! Between work and sleep, it's been hard finding the time (and more importantly money!) to travel around the beautiful Philippines. 

Of course, I will try my hardest not to transform this into a travel blog and will stay true to the food.

So here is my latest trip! During the first weekend of September I was invited my a coworker to celebrate his birthday at a beautiful resort called Lilom. The resort is located in Batangas - what is considered the best region for snorkeling and scuba diving - in the small town of Anilao. 

I'm told that Lilom is the native word for Shade and it could not have been more mysterious. We arrived around 8pm due to a broken down car and some delays but it definitely added to the mystery arriving at night. 

Some brief history on the resort: originally it was a privately-owned resort that was also a fish sanctuary. As such, there were many restrictions about how many people could snorkel in the water at a time (15 max if you wanted to know) and what gear you could use. There was a sign but I was too relaxed to remember to take pictures. Within the year, the family opened up to the public and charge about 2000 Pesos (around $50) a night with breakfast, lunch, dinner and merienda (snacks remember!) included - what a deal! 

In order to get to the resort, we had to walk along the shore at low tide some distance from the parking lot and loading dock. In the picture above, you can see that it was no white sand beach but a rough kind of beach with coral reefs just 20 ft from the shore. 

We arrived just in time for dinner - buffet style. Oh man, this was some of the most delicious food I have eaten in the Philippines! On a bed of rice, I picked some teriyaki chicken: sweet of course but also just salty enough for my palate - similar to Mom's marinade for BBQ chicken during the summer but I think they shallow simmered the meat as it was quite tender.

I scooped up some delicious mushrooms stewed with pork belly and eggs. I guess this was the Filipino version of Three Layered Pork but the star was really the shitake mushrooms (or at least I think it's shitake - same texture but slightly sour flavour). Hard-boiled eggs were stewed in the sauce as well. And then, some delicious pancit (noodles!). These white, glass rice noodles were stir-fried with deep-fried garlic and some stuff that made it perfectly salty - just enough to linger on your palate and make you crave more.

What you're not seeing is the most delicious mangos I have ever eaten. I think we all consumed a good 10 mangos because they were the sweetest, creamiest, most melt-in-your-mouth deliciousness that has ever blessed my tongue. It tasted so mango-y you'd think it was pumped with mango flavour extract (I hope it wasn't!)

The next morning we woke up to overcast skies that finally gave way to an intense Filipino sun around 10am. Oh yeah, we slept in these amazing bamboo houses called Kubo's that are very traditional. I got a king-sized bed to myself and while the lights were out, the room was absolutely black. It was the soundest sleep ever and for the first time since Ottawa I was able to wake up to natural light (my apartment is facing another building so we don't get natural light ever, plus we live off a major road called EDSA...honk honk all the time...)

Breakfast was AMAZING! We were served the BEST coffee I've had in the Philippines (they don't do coffee well at all) in a French press and banana pancakes which I ate with a heaping spoonful of butter and mango jelly. They also made a (canned) tuna omelette which was alright - I mean I needed an egg with my breakfast somehow...

With the beautiful weather shining down, we decided to go snorkeling for a good two hours. I wish I had an underwater camera or a waterproof phone case because snorkeling is absolutely breathtaking! The reef was literally twenty steps from the wading pool in the picture above and was filled with all sorts of exotic fish. After not too long, it was lunch time!

This soup is the most amazing soup I have had. From what I heard, they boil the crap out of chicken bones to get a deep-flavoured broth. Then they throw in young papaya and wild corn (more starchier than the corn I'm used to in Canada) and add young pepper leaves right before serving. I think I had three servings of the soup as it had that delicious umami that made me crave more.

When I pulled myself away from the soup, I got some eggplant and liempo (pork belly). The eggplant was first grilled (it had that charred flavour) then dipped in egg, topped with sauteed onions and then pan fried. The mellow flavour of the eggplant was nicely complemented by the saltiness of the egg and the sharpness of the slightly undercooked onions. The liempo was also delicious but really tasted like any other liempo I've had in Manila.

As if I wasn't full enough after three eggplants, I created this beautiful looking bowl of dessert. Local bananas (starchier than bananas I'm used to but not as starchy as plantains) were sauteed in caramel and served to us. We took it a step further and asked for some crushed ice and yelo (milk and sugar). I peeled some rambutans and assembled this beast that took me a while to crush. But as you can imagine (like everything I ate) it filled me with such happiness that I needed to nap to process it all.

After we all napped, we packed up and took a boat back to our car and returned to the concrete jungle of Manila. I really miss the fresh air and complete serenity I felt while at Lilom. Honestly, time slowed down to a crawl as you take in the beautiful scenery - I never felt an urge to check my phone. It is definitely the perfect place to escape to for a weekend, no more though because I feel like you'd get bored since all you really do is lounge and snorkel. If you're ever in the region, I highly suggest dropping by for a night or two of pure escape and relaxation!

Lunch at T&T

Yesterday's grocery run plan:

• Head to Costco to buy a bunch of snacks that are on sale
• Grab stuff for hot pot at T&T
• Eat lunch at T&T
• Get home in under an hour and a half

What really happened:

• Spent not even 10 minutes in Costco; snacks were sold out
• Spent over 2 hours in T&T; lots of pointless waiting

Instead of shopping in T&T first, we were going to eat but when we went to order some dim sum, we were told that the shrimp siu mai would be ready in 20 minutes. And so we went back to our original plan: shop first; eat later.

When we were walking around, I saw a kid snacking on a hot dog on a stick. But it was topped with green onions. How intriguing!

I wandered over to the former bubble tea stall. It has since been converted into a snack stand selling drinks, ice cream, Taiwanese-style sausages, and even jianbing. Jianbing is a breakfast crepe that's eaten on the streets in China.

They were selling a variety of snacks like this Taiwan-style sausage. For only $3, you could get it dressed with a variety of things. Since we had time to kill, I bought one so that we could snack on it while we waited to eat lunch.

As I was waiting in line, I noticed that the gentleman and the older lady were training a younger lady.

When it was my turn, I asked for a spicy sausage with black pepper paste, garlic, and green onions. The lady cut down the center of the sausage to fill it with stuff. It tasted really good. It tasted sweet at first, then the heat from the black pepper paste washed over the palate, then the garlic, then more sweetness from the sausage, and then finally the cayenne pepper kicked in. The sausages reminds me of the sweet Vietnamese version of Chinese sausages that we eat with congee. Andrew and I were very impressed with how good and addictive it was.

We shopped some more, taking our sweet time snaking down the aisles. Mom checked in on the dim sum and they said it still wasn't ready yet. At this point, Andrew and I were getting impatient. We knew the shrimp siu mai wouldn't be worth the wait. I went back to the snack stand to get some milk tea (without tapioca pearls) to enjoy with our lunch.

The. Service. Was. So. Slow.

The gentleman and younger lady were making the drinks people ordered, while the older lady was making the jianbing. I turned my attention to the older lady making the crepes before I began to lose it.

She was much more efficient with her actions, whereas the trainee looked unsure of every move she made while making the drinks. It didn't look like that was any urgency from the trainee.

Once both milk teas were handed to me, I rushed back to meet Mom and Andrew. They had just started to eat. I just wanted to eat, pay for our groceries, and go home.

Discounted noodles and vegetarian spring rolls.

There were also two orders of shrimp siu mai. This is half an order. 

We've tried their dim sum items before and it was quite lacking. We were eating there for the convenience. You can tell from the photo how processed the siu mai was. It was definitely not worth the wait. The filling definitely had a lot of cornstarch or something.

The milk teas were on the weak side. I think the only place that makes a great version in Ottawa is at My Sweet Tea.

After lunch, we grabbed a few more things and then checked out.

Oh yeah, I got two boxes of Melona bars! Mom was pretty sure they were cheaper at the Superstore, but I bought them anyway because we weren't going there. Turns out the savings would've been about a dollar at the Superstore. Dammit! I could've used that dollar to buy an iced coffee or extra large fountain drink at McD's. I'm just not at that level of being "smart with my money," as Mom likes to say.

~ ~ ~

Side story:
After having brunch at Stoneface Dolly's today (more on that later), VN and I went to buy some Melona bars at the Westboro Superstore. They were all sold out -- of course. I asked for a raincheck but the lady at the customer service desk said that she won't give us one because it wasn't in their flyer. "It is in the Superstore flyer at home! It's on a 'World Flavours' page." I told VN. "I swear, I'm not going crazy." I'm not sure why I was so determined to get the raincheck.

I got on my phone and tried to check the online flyers.

Nothing. There wasn't any "world flavours" section in either the in-store flyer or online flyers. I even checked the regular Loblaws' flyers. Again, nothing -- and yes, I did search the Ottawa flyers. I was so frustrated. "I'll send you a photo of it when I get home," I vowed.

Boom. How is it that the "World Flavours" section is totally missing from the in-store flyer and online flyer? Brutal.

I guess the lesson is to bring the flyers you have with you.

Rediscovering Some Foods

There are three foods that I've happily rediscovered recently.

1 - Mac and cheese


Or at least a twist on the dish. It started with a wicked mornay sauce and penne. I got a sudden craving for baked cheese as I was making it. And then, on a whim, I checked the fridge and found some maple ham. Everything was mixed together in a casserole pan and then I topped it all off with a bit more cheese and Italian breadcrumbs. It. Was. Amazing.

This was the elevated version of the sometimes-monotonous flavour of mac and cheese; the layers of flavours: cheese sauce, fragrant baked cheese, sweet maple ham, and Italian breadcrumbs. I'll try to keep this in mind the next time I make another batch of mac and cheese.


2 - Bread, eggs, and bacon breakfast


Our family rarely eats breakfast. The first meals that we eat are closer to snacks than anything. We do have pancake breakfasts on occasion. But our first meal of the day usually consists of eating some yogurt with cereal, toast, baked goods, and/or oatmeal with milk or hot caffeinated beverage (be it coffee, hot chocolate, Ovaltine, Milo, or milk tea). Nothing substantial.

I picked up some Portuguese rolls from the Lisbon Bakery (2563 Baseline Road), popped some bacon in the oven, and poached some eggs. The thing that took the longest to prepare was the bacon. I have no idea why I don't eat this kind of breakfast more often. I used a aluminum foil-lined tray to bake the bacon for two reasons: firstly, I didn't feel like standing over the stove as the bacon cooked in a pan; secondly, I didn't feel like cleaning the stovetop post-bacon-cooking.


Fluffy carbs from the Lisbon Bakery made a great vehicle for the eggs to my mouth. Mmm! A strong cup of G7 Instant Coffee rounded out the meal.


3 - Club sandwiches


Thinking back, I haven't eaten many club sandwiches at all. My first taste of a club sandwich came in an emergency room. It was late. I was sick. My mom was given a voucher to the (now closed) coffee shop and came back with a club sandwich and chocolate milk. I was really hungry and managed a few bites of the odd sandwich before falling asleep from exhaustion. The sandwich was comforting because it wasn't jello, popsicle, or ice chips.

I've tried to make club sandwiches at home but it just doesn't taste the same. I don't like to order simple sandwiches when I go out because it's so easy to make at home. But I ordered the triple decker turkey club at O'Connor's Irish Pub last week. I didn't regret my choice one bit.


Before that, VN and I shared a plate of sweet potato fries. These were the best sweet potato fries I've had. I find that the fries that most establishments serve are too thin. Because their fries were larger than the typical sweet potato fries that are served, there was more soft sweet potato to enjoy. The ratio between the interior and crisp exterior were just right.


These three dishes made me quite happy. I'm debating whether I want to add these into my food rotation or to only enjoy them once in a while. Do you have any nostalgic foods that you'd want to rediscover?

*Updated* Covering a Marathon as an Official Photographer: My Experience

This upcoming Sunday is the GoodLife Fitness Toronto Marathon 2013. I'll be joining a wonderful team of MarathonFoto photographers to cover the event. It will be my fifth time helping out with the amazing event.



Grab a cup of coffee, or in this case -- a caffé macchiato -- and read how the upcoming weekend typically unfolds for me, an official marathon photographer for the day. There won't be any food porn. I'll write about the food later. Continue if you'd like.

Happy Pi Day 2013!

Not sure what Lucy's plans are tonight. I'll be going out for some pho. But to get in the spirit, here are a couple of pies I've written about. The links will bring you to the corresponding article.


Spicy meat pie (sfiha) from Aladdin Bakery. [link]


Homemade banh pâté chaud (Vietnamese meat pie). [link]


Homemade shepherd's pie. [link]


Homemade meat pie. [link]


Monica's apple pie. [link]


Lemon meringue pie that we had last year. [link]

Teasers: Pho, Stir-Fried Rice Noodles, Greek Food

There are a few great restaurants in Ottawa that I'd like to tell you about. Unfortunately there are no photos. I didn't have Lucy's camera on me and my cell phone's camera is terrible. I'll share more details about these places once I get some photos.

Pizza Bagels

When my stomach began to grumble in the afternoon on Monday, I made my way downstairs to the kitchen. After scavenging around the kitchen, I made myself a pizza bagels. I didn't crave pizza or anything. If we had cold cuts, I would've made an open-faced sandwich or the like. But alas, our fridge was full of condiments and sauces.


There was half a bagel, some passata (unseasoned tomato purée), some wilting basil leaves that I accidently left out yesterday, and some mozzarella cheese.

I toasted the pizza bagel in our toaster oven on the "2 slices of toast" option. When the toaster oven beeped, I broiled the pizza bagels to get the cheese golden by using the button beside a photo of a roast chicken.



As the pizza bagels toasted and broiled, I worried that the watery passata would make the bagels soggy.   I should've added a little butter or something to prevent the watery tomato purée from absorbing into the bagels, as OP once told me. When I took the bagels out, it looked like the bagels could've been a wet mess.

Richard microwaved a curry bun and needed a plate so he used mine. As I was about to take photos of the pizza bagels, he placed a basil leaf atop his snack. I guess he wanted me to take a picture. So I did. Like a squirrel, he took his snack and went upstairs to eat.




I quietly put down my camera and took a bite. The cheese slid a bit, showing the concentrated passata. I grabbed my camera for another frame and then finished the rest.

Other than this snack, I'm not sure why I've craved pizza so much over the past few months. I guess it's just a phase, just like my pho phase a few years back, or my chicken phase in second-year college.

Now that I'm looking at these pizza bagel photos, I'm craving some pizza. I think I have a problem.

We Are Teochew - Eating Congee

I’ve always been jealous of my Cantonese and Mandarin-speaking friends. It’s not hard to find Cantonese-speaking or Mandarin-speaking people but what about Teochew/Chiuchow-speaking people?

Our parents and grandparents were born in Cambodia, but they’ve always reminded us that we are culturally and ethnically Chinese. My great grandparents are from Swatow (aka Shantou), Guangdong, China. My great grandparents left China and emigrated to Cambodia. I never thought much about it. Although my parents tried hard to ingrain the Teochew language at home, we (the siblings and I) have become whitewashed. Instead of being fluent in our language, we speak mostly english at home. Most of our family speaks a mixture of english, Cambodian, and Teochew. Sometimes all three languages are used smoothly in one sentence, but at other times, the sentences are very choppy and full of pauses. We’ve grown quite used to hearing Enbochew (?) Cameoglish (?) and Teobodian (?) sentences. 

While living in Toronto with my relatives in my first year at Humber, a lot of my Teochew came back. It was uncommon to hear English in their household. They spoke 90% Teochew. In fact, it was quite odd to hear them speak English, and I actually felt uncomfortable speaking English to them. My parents would’ve been thrilled had we, their four little trolls, spoke mostly Teochew when we grew up. English comes more naturally to us than Teochew. Using English just takes less effort.

That got me thinking. Since there are few Teochew food bloggers out there, why not start to incorporate more Teochew in ours. But before that, Lucy and I have thought about the way our family speaks Teochew and we’ve come to the conclusion that our ancestors were probably from the countryside in China. The way we pronounce particular words are probably butchered beyond recognition. And with that, let’s begin typing out these words phonetically -- or at least try, shall we? If you’re Teochew, it’ll probably take a couple of tries to understand it since it’s such a difficult language.

Referring to Wikipedia’s Chiuchow Cuisine page, here are two dishes:

Chinese characters: 咸菜鸭汤

English: Salted vegetable duck soup, or pickled mustard and duck soup

Teochew transliteration (according to wiki): Kiam cai ak terng

My take: Kiam chai ak tung
Kiam chai = salted vegetable
Ak = duck
Tung = soup

Chinese characters: 肉碎面

English: Minced pork noodles

Teochew transliteration (according to wiki): Bak chor mee

My take: Bak chau mee
Bak chau = minced pork
Mee = egg noodles (typically chow mein noodles)

Nu auy do kung bauy?

Are you hungry yet? (Asking someone who is younger than I am)

Ua ha a lao mai gai bak yong!

I love Grandma’s (on my dad’s side) pork floss!

Mai joi seuh. Ua mai giek gu chai guo.
No thanks. I don't want to eat garlic chive dumplings.

Speaking of pork floss, we had muay (aka congee) for brunch a few months back. I love eating my grandma’s ba yong (pork floss) puauy (with) muay. And mee bao (toast). And bagels. And toasted sesame bagels spread with garlic butter. Ahem… unfortunately, we didn’t have any pork floss left but we did have a bunch of other things.

Huoi guoi (preserved cucumbers). This one is slightly sweet. There's a bottle of the see ew (Golden Mountain seasoning sauce; Maggi equivalent) to the left side of the jar of huoi guoi. We'll use the seasoning sauce to drizzle over pan-fried Chinese sausages.

Ga na chai mixed with oh ga na (preserved olive leaves with Chinese olives).

Gong chieng (Chinese sausages). The sausages were thrown back onto the griddle to get some colour after this photo was taken.

Richard made some chai poh nung (preserved daikon omelette). It’s really easy to make.

The chai poh is rinsed and then finely diced. If it isn't, I find the preserved radish has an artificial sweet taste much like aspartame. Unless you like that taste, make sure you give the radishes a good rinse. Sung tao (garlic) is minced and briefly gets sautéed until fragrant.

The mix is taken off the heat and added to a few scrambled eggs. The whole mix was poured out onto the hot griddle, cooked, then flipped/folded. The chai poh nung was a bit overdone as you can see by the colour of the eggs.

We had some leftover gong dao guo (braised dry tofu). Pork and cabbage was braised along with the tofu.

When we make muay, it’s usually looser and more liquid than what’s pictured here. This batch was quite thick.

Other than bak yong, we usually eat congee with who you (preserved tofu and soy beans). Congee is very comforting, especially when you have lots of things to eat it with. Our family typically eats congee when someone is sick, but it's also quite nice to have it for brunch once in a while.


So yeah. We are Teochew. Don't be shy to comment if you are too. Where are all the Teochew nang (people) at?

Pan-Fried Tilapia Fillets with Salad, Mushrooms, and Pasta

Our refrigerator is filled with condiments, dressings, and the like. The cupboards are stocked with stuff ranging from spices (star anise, cloves, galangal, etc.), to dried packages of rice noodles, to cans of coconut milk, and to a variety of dried tea leaves. Did I mention that our freezers are packed full of seafood and undistinguishable cuts of meat? It’s quite tough to scavenge for food in our kitchen.

We (Lucy, Jimmy, Richard, Andrew and I) were looking for an easy dinner on afternoon. So naturally, we came up with some lazy ideas: McD’s, pizza, pho, or Greek food. While some of us were busy in brainstorming for take-out places, Richard suggested that we take a stroll in our nearby grocery store and just cook up a dinner instead. And so we took a stroll…

We brought back some tilapia fillets, packaged pasta and pre-made sauces, and Portobello mushrooms.

The plan of attack was to pan-fry the basa fillets simply with some salt and pepper. We’d make a salad with the cherry tomatoes and baby spinach, the mushrooms would get sautéed and simmered with some bacon, and we’d make the pasta.

The fish was seasoned with sea salt and black pepper. Someone was a bit too heavy handed with the sea salt. Despite efforts of rinsing off the salt, the cooked tilapia fillets tasted like they were in the process of curing.

A package of bacon was cooked and some of it was used for the salad. All of the bacon fat was used to make the Portobello mushrooms. It was a huge hit and will definitely make more appearances in the future.

How about a little appetizer of cherry tomato, Portobello mushroom and a piece of bacon?

The pan used to make the mushrooms was deglazed with a bit of wine. Some cherry tomatoes and one of the sauces was heated up together in the pan too. The other sauce was added to the cooked tortellini.

Most of the pieces of fish were too salty to eat, but the salad and mushrooms picked up the slack. They were both the stars of the dinner.