20150712 Toronto Trip: Messini & Chatime

We had brunch earlier at Pho Dau Bo. Andrew and I had a free day, so we called our cousin, JT, and met her at Vaughan Mills. We browsed through a few stores and then made our way to Chatime.


There are so many choices! I went with the usual grass jelly roasted milk tea. Andrew wanted to try something new. Hilarity ensues.

20150711 Toronto Trip: Wedding and Bubble Tea

My cousin, JS, got married back in July. It was a gorgeous wedding! The morning began with the traditional Chinese ceremonies at the bride's family home. After the Chinese ceremony, we all had a quick lunch in the garage. My aunt had decided to get it catered by one of their favourite restaurants. There was rice noodles with beef, stir-fried Singaporean curry noodle, salt and pepper shrimp, and other dishes. We all had a quick bite to eat and then drove to the chapel. Once that was finished, we took a bunch of photos outside and inside.


At that point, the cousins and I were getting a bit hungry so we thought about going somewhere for bubble tea and a snack. The two choices were either go to a place called Destiny or go to Chatime and then head back to the house. KG chose Destiny since they made savoury food.








I was floored. Look at their extensive menu! It actually didn't take too long to order. Everyone already knew what they wanted.






Among the food that we ordered, the star had to be the plate of Popcorn Chicken ($6.99).


Oh, did I forget about all the bubble tea?

~*~
Destiny
165 York Blvd,
Richmond Hill
905-889-7899

Brunch at Pacific Mall, ChaTime

On the Friday of my trip to Toronto, JT (our cousin) and I went to Pacific Mall (aka P-Mall) for lunch.  JT was really hungry so we snaked through the top floor in search of something to eat. It was a tough decision. On one hand, JT wanted noodles with soup but also something stir-fried. I wanted almost everything! There were so many options and so little stomach space. We split up and decided to meet back up at a table by Beard Papa's.


JT returned with Singaporean curry noodles. It was slightly spicy with a hint of smokiness from the wok. JT inhaled the first half and then hit a wall. I can't remember what the restaurant is called, but it's from the place on the right side of the noodle-pulling place. You know, that place.


Since we both like beef cheung fun, I got an order for us to share from Good Taste Garden, a place in the same area as Beard Papa's. We both found the noodles were underdone and the filling was lacking in both the taste and quantity. I do remember that their cheung fun was solid a few years back.


Despite knowing that shrimp wonton noodle soup would be better if we go elsewhere in the Markham area, I gave it a try. The shrimp wontons were juicy and plump, however, they didn't have that sweet freshness taste.

We were beyond full and had to bring the Singaporean noodles back home. We waddled back down through the mall and visited a few candy shops. I was hoping to find the elusive green tea KitKat that I've heard so much about. There are green tea Pocky in Ottawa but not the KitKat bars, I suspect it's because the KitKat bars are a Japanese product. Through the interwebs, I found out that they usually do carry the sweet treats in the mall.


I spy, with my little eyes... Yaaaa! There it iiiiiis!

We left P-Mall with a few goods and headed to Chatime nearby to decide what else to do with our day. At this point, our little tummies were still full but we fought on. I'm not sure if I ever talked about Chatime, but their milk tea is freaking remarkable! I'm was elated when I heard that they were expanding around the GTA. And now apparently they have one at P-Mall? What the what?


Large pearl milk tea with less ice and pudding pour moi. I actually only wanted pearls. The pudding was accidental. The convo between me and the guy, who manned the cash, went something like this:

Me: "Hi, can we get a regular taro milk tea with pearls?"
Him: "Regular milk tea with pearls."
Me: "Can we also get a large pearl milk tea, but can you put in less ice?"
Him: "Huh? Pu*indiscernible audio* less ice?"
Me: Uh... *smile and nod*
Him: "Okay. No problem."

Yeah, so I failed. "Can you put in less ice?" Gah! "Less ice" would've been fine. Lesson learned. It's actually a similar lesson to the "mo' sauce" thing. Anyway, we grabbed our drinks and sat at one of the empty tables. For a few minutes, we just stared at the drinks while cooling off in the AC. I didn't mentioned it before, but that day was hot and sunny!

The pudding was like a softer version of grass jelly. It was odd. I don't think I'd get it again. The milk tea on the other hand, I wanted to order another one after I finished it. Greed. Pure greed. But the way I saw it was that Ottawa bubble tea places pale in comparison to this amazing worldwide bubble tea giant. JT didn't enjoy her taro milk tea because they blended up taro which resulted in a grainy texture. She preferred the powdered taro version.


Here's one of the treasures that we left P-Mall with. Aw yeah!

We headed back to JT's place for the night and ended up watching stuff like Kings of Pastry on Netflix. Man, is Netflix ever addictive!

~*~

Addresses:

Lunch at Cafe Orient

On Tuesday, I had to go have an ultrasound done in the morning that required me to fast. After the ultrasound, I decided to go to Chinatown for some food.



That morning, the windchill made it feel like -38 degrees Celcius (-36.4F). To thaw myself out, I needed the help of a strong cup of HK milk tea.


For my lunch, I had the beef brisket, shrimp wonton rice noodle soup and a side of deep fried shrimp balls. The soup itself was quite bland. I wish they had added much more of the braising liquid into the soup. I'm glad I went with the rice noodles instead of the regular thin egg noodles.


The beef brisket pieces were super tender. Some of the strands did get in stuck in my teeth - I hate that!


These shrimp balls were a little different. Instead of having a coating of some cornstarch or whatever, these were battered and then fried. They did have green onions mixed in and were very juicy. I think the sweet sauce that accompanied the shrimp balls had some five spice powder. It added a nice depth.

For a post-fasting-ultrasound meal, I say this hit the spot.

~

Toronto Weekend July 2013: Part 1

We did a road trip to Toronto for our cousin's wedding last weekend. I'll break it up into two parts. Here's 1 of 2.

I tend to get car sick on road trips because three main reasons: empty stomach, being too warm, riding with a heavy-footed driver. Sometimes it's a combination of the three. The latter didn't apply during the trip. To prevent the first two, I made sure to have a snack before we hit the road and have a bottle of water to keep me cool during the trip.

Sad Basil, Pho & Westfest

First off, I'd like to update you all on the basil growing in our herb garden.


The bugs are still snacking on the herbs. Since the plants were moved away from the other herbs and flowers, only a few bugs have gotten to them. With all of the rainy dark overcast weather we've had in Ottawa over the past two weeks, the three basil plants are all looking yellow and frail. They are craving heat and lots of sun!



VN and I were going to check out Westfest last week but then decided to try our luck for Sunday. The weather networks were calling for sunny weather. Instead, we went to a friend's BBQ where there were nachos, sausages, burgers, lots of drinks, and hilarious board games. Here's the pitchers of sangria. Mmm... blackberries.



Mom caught a cold last week and so we had homemade pho. The soup was made with pork ribs. It was  a fantastic pot of pho! The iced coffee made my lunch that much better.


I checked out Westfest later in the afternoon. The sunny hot weather was much needed -- and this is coming from someone who loves winter over the summer. To cool off, VN and I grabbed some iced tea at DavidsTea. VN recommended the fruity Buddha's Blend tea. She went with the Pineapple Oolong tea.


With our cold drinks in hand, we went looking for some good eats along Richmond Road. There were some ladies making spinach and cheese-filled parathas. It was very tempting. VN chose to try Railroad Ribs' pulled pork sandwich, while I just kept sipping on my iced tea.


This was my first churro experience. It was so warm, crisp, and yummy! We left Westfest before the bands began playing. I'll check out more of the food options and the concerts next year.

Indian Night: Dal Nirvana, Butter Chicken, Rice Pudding

Last Wednesday was Indian night at CA's. We made dal nirvana, butter chicken, and rice pudding in her tiny kitchen. All three dishes began at the same time, which was fine because the rice pudding was still warm when we were finished eating everything else. Considering the size of her kitchen, we were also efficient and didn't even bump into one another.

We didn't make the naan from scratch this time. I ended up buying some fluffy pita bread on my way home from work. When I was in the bakery area of the grocery store, I couldn't find Greek pitas anywhere. It's a great substitute for the pricey naan (President's Choice brand - 2 for $2.99). I stumbled upon some pita bread (8 for $2.69) and figured it would be fine to get them instead of the naan. The pita breads that I bought were closer to Greek pita breads than it was to the thin pita breads I'm used to. It was more cost efficient too. Second carb option: check.



Simplified Butter Chicken

4 boneless chicken breasts
1 can of diced tomatoes
2 tbsp minced ginger
1 clove garlic, minced
2 small onions, finely diced
1 tsp sugar
Tandoori masala and sour cream to taste
2 tbsp butter
1 tsp olive oil (vegetable oil is fine too)

The chicken breasts were trimmed of the connection tissues and then diced. Tandoori masala was mixed with the chicken breasts to briefly marinate. I'd recommend you do this the night before and then leave it in the fridge overnight, if you have the time.

In a medium-sized pot, the ginger, garlic, and onions were cooked with the olive oil and a bit of butter over medium-high heat until fragrant. (The oil is there to prevent the butter from burning.) The diced tomatoes and sugar were mixed in. Then I seasoned everything in the pot with tandoori masala to taste. The contents were simmered on medium heat for about 5 mins.

The briefly-marinated chicken was added to the pot and cooked for about 10 minutes. Once all of the chicken was fully cooked, the sour cream was added to taste. After getting a second opinion and one final taste, we adjusted the flavour with more tandoori masala. The heat was turned off and then served with steamed rice, warmed flatbread, and dal. I'll get to the dal in a bit.


We had a few issues with the butter chicken. The first problem was that I forgot to drain the diced tomatoes. The addition of water made the sauce really watery, so to thicken it, we made a slurry of water and cornstarch*.
*When we made the slurry, we tempered the slurry instead of mixing it into the butter chicken right away. We added a few spoonfuls of cooking liquid to the slurry to bring up the temperature. After the slurry and cooking liquid was mixed thoroughly together, a few more spoonfuls of cooking liquid was mixed in and then everything was added into the pot. If we tried to mix in the slurry directly into the pot without tempering the slurry, the slurry would've cooked soon after being poured in.

The second issue was that we used yoghurt instead of sour cream. At first, we tried adding a few spoonfuls of 0% fat yoghurt but that separated soon after we mixed it into the butter chicken. (0% fat yoghurt? Does not compute...) The pot was taken off the heat too. We added 2% fat yoghurt afterwards and it didn't separate as easily.



Dal Nirvana
Recipe adapted from Budget Bytes' version

1 can brown lentils
1 can diced tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1-inch ginger, minced
1½ tsp ground cumin
½ tsp cayenne pepper
2 tbsp butter
½ tsp olive oil
½ cup cream

Since the canned lentils were already cooked, we first cooked off the garlic and ginger with the olive oil and a little bit of butter over medium-high heat until fragrant. The canned of diced tomatoes (seasoned with black pepper) was mixed into the pot and was allowed to cook down for about 5 minutes.

The drained and rinsed lentils were poured in with the cumin and cayenne pepper. The heat was turned down until the lentils gently simmered. Everything was cooked for about 10 minutes.

The cream was stirred in when most of the liquid reduced to a creamier consistency. We tasted the lentils and then adjusted the flavour one final time before serving with steamed rice, butter chicken, and warmed flatbread.



Rice Pudding
Recipe adapted from All Recipes' version of Indian rice pudding (kheer)

2 cups coconut milk
2 cups milk
3 tbsp sugar
¼ cup basmati rice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ cup dried cranberries

In a small pot (which was able to hold 5 cups of liquids), the coconut milk, milk and sugar was brought to a simmer over high heat. The basmati rice was stirred in once the milk just before the contents began to boil. Cinnamon and nutmeg was stirred in and the heat was turned down to a gentle simmer.

With the pot uncovered, the contents were allowed to cook for about 15 minutes until the rice was cooked. Once the contents had reduced to a creamy consistency, the pot was taken off the heat. The dried cranberries were mixed into the rice pudding and then covered the pot with the lid. The pot of rice pudding waited patiently off the heat as we ate our entrée.

Butter chicken: Done.

Dal: Check.

Steamed basmati rice: Yup.

Pita bread: Lightly toasted and buttered.

CA, JL, and I plated up as we continued our conversation. We didn't even stop at all. We passed the plates back and forth in a coordinated dance.

Service please! *Ding* Oh wait... we're the servers too.


We sat down and took a few photos before we began eating. Since we thickened up the watery butter chicken with cornstarch and also used yoghurt instead of sour cream, I felt like the flavour wasn't as rich as the last time I made butter chicken. I tried my best to adjust it with more tandoori masala and salt, but it wasn't the same. CA, AA, and JL were fond of the butter chicken though.

The dal was pretty good. I ended up adding a bit more cumin at the end, which I regretted. The cumin was on the stronger side. I think the dish needed diced onions and bursts of fresh cilantro.

There were enough leftovers for two generous lunch portions.


The table was cleared and then we brought out the warm rice pudding. I wouldn't call it an Indian rice pudding though, since we omitted the spices. Hahaa! The rice pudding still looked great in the glasses. The pudding wasn't overly sweet and the addition of coconut milk added a nice touch of richness. The flavour of the coconut milk was in the background and complimented the cinnamon and nutmeg pretty well. I was skeptical of the flavour combinations when I heard the recipe at first but it worked.

We washed down the rice pudding with green tea -- not very Indian, we know. It was still a fun night of cooking and catching up. From start to finish, it only took us about an hour and a half to make the three dishes. Not bad at all.

Dim Sum at Hung Sum Restaurant; Bubble Tea at My Sweet Tea

When I first heard about Hung Sum Restaurant, I was told that their dim sum was "amazeballs." Then I kind of forgot about it until I read Peter Hum's write up on the restaurant. I'm always up for trying a new place for dim sum.

Hung Sum is a small place on Somerset (between Rochester St and Preston St). It's on the opposite side of the pho joints. When my friend, S, and I walked in, it felt like we were walking into someone's house.

Once we sat down by the window, we were given a piece of paper which listed of all their dim sum items (the link should take you to Hung Sum's facebook album, where it is posted). S put me in charge of ordering, so I choose the following:


We had some deep fried shrimp dumpling ($3.35). I thought the vinegar in the sweet sauce was a nice touch.


A plate of zhaliang (aka rice noodle roll with crispy donut - $3, youtiao cheung fan, or Chinese donut stick noodle rolls) was garnished with lightly toasted sesame seeds. There was a little bit of hoisin sauce on the other side of the plate. Look how thick the noodle was. I wish there was more sweet soy sauce to be soaked up and some sesame sauce on the side. Other than that, the small portion of zhaliang tasted fine to me. I think many dim sum-serving establishments actually make this dish, but I rarely see it on the menu/dim sum carts. You should try this carb-on-carb action if you haven't already.


The beef cheung fan (noodle roll with beef - $3) and shrimp cheung fan (noodle roll with shrimp - $3.35) was alright. The skin was pretty thick again. Okay, is it just me, or have all the restaurants in Ottawa been skimping on the beef filling? The other two noodle rolls didn't have much beef, sadly.




One of our favourite dishes of our meal was the steamer of [edited on Sept. 18th, 2013] coriander dumplings ($3) steamed green onion ginger beef dumpling ($3.10). The flavour was similar to the filling in noodle rolls with beef. I found it quite bouncy, plump, and juicy. The ginger sauce was alright.

A steamer of shrimp siu mai ($3.35). I was taken back at how small it all looked, but I think it just looks that way because Hung Sum used smaller steamers (as opposed to the medium-sized steamers) for the siu mai. I felt like the dumplings could've tasted a lot better with green onions.

After all of that food, S was still hungry and wanted to order more food. I warned her that we ate three plates of cheung fan and that we'd feel really full in about half an hour. She insisted in ordering a small plate of rice noodles with bean sprouts (bean sprout fried rice noodles - $3.35). We planned on going for some bubble tea, too. Okaaaay...

It looked good! I saw great signs: lightly charred noodles and no pool of grease at the bottom of the plate. But there wasn't much smokiness despite the char. Sad.


We walked over to My Sweet Tea afterwards and on our way, I noticed the sidewalks had the animals from the Chinese zodiac.






The rabbit was in front of a pizza place (Seasons Pizza?). That must be a sign (I luuurv pizza!). There was a dragon in front of My Sweet Tea.




S ordered the mango slush and hot milk tea for myself. When we began to enjoy our drinks, S complained that our lunch had finally hit her. She struggled to finish her drink. The hot milk tea hit the spot. It actually helped settle my stomach a bit.

[Updated on Sept. 18th, 2013]
Hung Sum Restaurant's dim sum is better than the average dim sum in Ottawa, but their dishes are on the smaller side. It's actually a good thing that the portions are smaller. You'll be able to order more variety of dishes to share. Right? Since the construction on Somerset has been completed, go give Hung Sum a try. They have a limited dinner menu as well, so you can have a bowl of rice noodle soup with something and a few dim sum items. That's right, you can get their dim sum items for dinner too!

My Sweet Tea is probably the best place to get bubble tea in Ottawa. Their drinks have been consistently tasty over the past few years!

~*~

Addresses:

Hung Sum Restaurant

870 Somerset St

Ottawa, ON

613-238-8828

My Sweet Tea

824 Somerset St

Ottawa, ON

613-695-6543

Bun Bo Hue, Sour Soup, and Durian Cake

A few weekends ago, Aunt IS invited us over to her house for lunch. She had made a large pot of bun bo hue and wanted to see how we liked it. Richard and I didn’t go for lunch, but rather, we went in the afternoon.

After we greeted everyone, I noticed that there were two sheets of pound-like cakes cooling on the table. Aunt L brought some durian custard, which she had mashed and put in a bag. Grandpa complained that there wasn’t enough durian in some past versions, where the durian was “watered down” by coconut milk. You’d rarely find cakes made with pure durian like this.


Even though it wasn't finished yet, the cake looked more appetizing once Aunt L began to spread the durian around. It looked less like a pile of... yeah...


The second layer of cake was pressed onto the durian custard.






Whipped cream was then used to top the durian cake.

Richard and I then had a bowl of bun bo hue. Slurping down the contents was so enjoyable! As we were eating our bun bo hue, Richard said that it felt like we were eating at a street stand in Asia somewhere with Anthony Bourdain. We were both sweating before we were even done eating half of our bowls. It was a combination of the spice blend and the heat. It was a good sweat. I'm struggling to not drool over my laptop as I write this.

Dinner prep began after we finished eating. On the menu, a Cambodian sour soup with fish (known as somlaw maju in Cambodian and canh chua ca in Vietnamese), chicken and pork bulgogi, salt and pepper shrimp, and stir-fried Chinese water spinach with preserved soybeans.




I don't know how to spell it. I've seen it also spelled as samlor machu, samlar machu, and somlah machou. In any case, the soup consisted of skate wings, pork broth, tomato, Chinese water spinach, and tamarind powder. The soup was garnished with fried garlic chips, fried garlic oil, green onions, and thin ribbons of thai basil. The bowl of soup above didn't have the fried garlic chips or oil.




Uncle L fired up the BBQ in the backyard and grilled the two kinds briefly marinated bulgogi. Two platefuls of shrimps, lightly dusted with cornstarch and salt, were deep fried outside on the BBQ element too. The deep fried shrimps were served with a side of salt and pepper.

Both the beef and chicken bulgogi needed a lot more time in the marinade. I wish there was leftover bulgogi sauce to pour over the meat, or at least dip it in, but Aunt IS used up everything in the marinade. *Sad face*




Finally, the Chinese water spinach was stir-fried with minced garlic, preserved soy beans, and some oyster sauce. It was meant to be on the bland side to balance out all the dishes. (I loooove the preserved soy beans in congee and in homemade wonton soup! Ah... how nostalgic...)


Along with a seemingly bottomless teapot of jasmine tea, we ended dinner with durian cake and che dau. Oh yeah, I didn't mention that Mom brought over the batch she had made the previous evening.