Stirfry, Low Sodium Version

Regular soy sauce is pretty much off limits for me now, and recently a Facebook friend sent me the link to a low sodium soy sauce replacement she used herself as she requires a low sodium diet, too.  I made it yesterday for the first time, and it was OK.  Granted, I didn't have one of the ingredients; I had to substitute vinegars. The original recipe calls for red wine vinegar but I subbed with malt because that's what I had on hand.  The flavour was OK, and seemed like it would go well with beef.  This afternoon, after my obligatory 30 minutes of exercise - walking to the grocery store - I got some stirfry ingredients and made a beef and broccoli stirfry for dinner with the new sauce.

Before I get much further, here is the recipe for the sauce.

For the stirfry, I used a whole recipe of the sauce and added a heaping teaspoon of cornstarch to thicken it before throwing it in the wok.

The end result:

Well, it was different, that's for sure.  I'm going to make the sauce again for sure, but I am going to use red wine vinegar, which I picked up this afternoon, and I'm probably going to adjust the molasses amount because this was a bit too sweet.  But it's got potential for sure, and it was definitely low in sodium.

Thanks to Pale of A Creative Revolution for the sauce recipe!

T&T Takeout

The other day I was having one of those days where I was really, really hungry but didn't fancy anything in particular.  My appetite does this to me once in a while.  I was also out and about deep in the bowels of Surrey and knew I didn't have anything at home to cook since I hadn't had the energy to hike around to do my grocery shopping.  So, I decided to go and get some fast food.  But not at a fast food joint!  The only fast food I will partake in is Subway or Quizno's and I didn't know where either was located when I got the skytrain station at Surrey Central.  But I knew that at the big T&T Supermarket there they would have a lot of really tasty Chinese food on offer, since that location had a huge "hot deli" as they call it, plus sushi, plus other stuff.  It's always very busy.

After pondering all the options, which was very overwhelming, I went with the "hot deli", where they offer a very reasonable 3 dishes for $6.29.  When I ordered, the lady asked me if I wanted steamed rice, and I said sure.  Why not?  But when I saw the portions of the dishes I chose, I went with the 2 dish option for $5.49 since the rice was rather a lot.

I chose sweet & sour pork and a mushroom medley with veggies thingy.

The pork was very good.  Unlike a lot of very westernized Chinese place, this wasn't covered in a thick batter, just a very thin coating of something something.  It also was not a goopy sauce of fake neon red.  The pork was very tender and there were lots of peppers and pineapples in it.  The mushroom dish was outstanding.  Mainly consisting of shitake mushrooms - which I love! - it also had in it regular mushrooms, some baby corn, a tiny bit of onion and cabbage, and a nice, woodsy, mushroomy sauce.  This was a fantastic meal that totally hit the spot.  For the price I was very happy with everything.

This take-out thing might become a habit.

Lunch at Broadway Station Sushi

This week my friend Barb was in town, and she and I and another friend got together for lunch on Tuesday. The consensus was that sushi was in order (all of us being sushi fans) and our friend, who lives and works near Broadway and Commercial in Vancouver, suggested Broadway Station Sushi (1638 E. Broadway), where she'd had a good experience before.

We met at 1pm and the place was quite busy. But we had hit the tail end of the lunch rush so the place emptied out quite quickly. It took us a while to order because we were all chatty as we hadn't seen each other in about a month. Eventually we decided.

I had two rolls, the Jumbo Dynamite and the Salmon & Avocado. Barb ordered the Spider Roll and the Sunshine Roll. Our friend ordered the Spicy Combo. This restaurant makes sushi with brown rice if you request it, and both of my friends did, but I stuck with regular white rice.

My combo.

Spicy combo with brown rice.

Spider roll - excellent. I tried it and loved it.

Sunshine roll. I believe it had smoked salmon in it and I think the topping was a seaweed thingy. It was also very good.

Great meal! I now have another Vancouver sushi place to add to my list to return to!

Cooking with Kylie: Chinese Broccoli with Oyster Sauce

So, I needed a break from bok choy after the caterpillar incident last week, and I went back to Simple Chinese Cooking to find another veggie dish try. Now that I have easy access to a Chinese grocery store, I made a list of veggies Kylie cooks with in the veggie chapter of the book and went to the grocery store to look for them. I found gai choy, AKA Chinese mustard greens, but because I'm not a fan of mustard I kind of didn't want to risk it. Luckily, there was gai lan, AKA Chinese broccoli, in abundance. There were actually two kinds and it looked very similar to another choy of some kind, so I asked a produce staff member to A) help me pick the right veggie and B) explain to me the difference between the two types of gai lan.

The difference, apart from 30¢ in price, is that one gai lan was younger than the other gai lan, and the younger one would be more tender and less fibrous. That is the one I went with. It was $1.99/lb.

The method for this recipe is exactly the same as the method for the bok choy recipe.

Chinese Broccoli (gai lan) with Oyster Sauce, from Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking, page 194

1 bunch Chinese broccoli
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp oyster sauce
dash sesame oil
1 tbsp peanut oil

1. Trim 5cm/2" from ends of broccoli, cut bunch crossways into 3 lengths, and wash thoroughly.

2. Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to the boil. Stir in vegetable oil, add broccoli and simmer until bright green & tender - about 1 minute. Using tongs, immediately remove broccoli from water and place on platter. Drizzle with oyster sauce and sesame oil.

3. Heat peanut oil in small frying pan until moderately hot and carefully pour over broccoli. Serve immediately.

OK, I skipped step 3 all together because I don't do peanut oil, and I didn't bother adding any vegetable oil to the boiling water.


Chinese broccoli is very similar to broccoli rabe, but is only mildly broccoli-flavoured. I made this for my roommate and I tonight, and we both liked it. This is a completely new vegetable for me, and I think it's a keeper (providing I don't find any caterpillars in it). I told the produce guy I spoke to earlier that I might put it in soup, but the look on his face said that was a no-no. He told me they don't usually put it in soup, but rather stir fry it or boil it. Well, I might just add it to soup - probably some Mama noodles - anyway. But, whatever, this was another good side dish to add to my repertoire. Go Kylie!

Adventures in Ramen

First of all, I have to share this with you. I bought more baby bok choy for super cheap at T&T last week, and as I was cutting it and cleaning it to put in this soup I'm about to tell you about, I came across a nice little surprise:


Yes, it's a nice juicy caterpillar! It was dead. But it totally grossed me out to the point where I had to chuck out the rest of the head.

Anyway, on this trip to T&T (I went to the bigger store at Surrey Central), in addition to buying bok choy, I wanted some soup. I love ramen. I know I should not, but there you go. There is a TON of ramen and ramen-like instant noodle packages at T&T it's almost ridiculous. I hardly knew what to choose because I wasn't used to any of the brands other that Sapporo Ichiban, and that was 99¢/package and there was stuff there that was way cheaper. I went for some that was 39¢/package, made by this company from Thailand. The noodles are called Mama something, the something being in the Thai language that I obviously don't read. But this is basically the deal:


Inside the package with the noodles were 3 seasoning packs. One was a powder, one was a paste, and one was marked chili powder. The paste had a shrimpy scent to it, which made sense because it was a package of shrimp-flavoured noodles. I tossed the chili powder.

This is the soup I made, with shrimp and caterpillar-free bok choy:


I will never buy Sapporo Ichiban again! This was great. There was a bit of heat in it, and it did not have a salty fake taste to it like other ramen. This tasted like a more "authentic-ish" broth. The noodles were better, too.

And at 39¢ you can't go wrong, really. I have two more packages in the pantry, one is chicken.

And I think I'll be giving bok choy a break for a while...

Quick Beef Bulgogi

I've bookmarked a lot of recipes from the April 2012 issue of Canadian Living, and this is one of them. This is my first foray into Korean food, which is not a good thing living where I do. I should be way more adventurous and go off to a Korean restaurant and really try the food. I've been hesitant, though, because I once asked a friend who'd eaten Korean what it was like and she said one word, "fiery." OK, that put me off because "fiery" to me is not a good thing. I like a bit of kick, but certainly nothing anywhere approaching "fiery."

This recipe appealed to me because the ingredients were simple and there was no fieriness in it to be found. One thing I substituted out was the mirin for saké. I don't have mirin on hand but I always have saké around because lots of Kylie Kwong's recipes call for it.

The original recipe is HERE.

I have to say, this was a bit on the flavourless side. I let it marinate for an hour, but it seemed like little of the marinade stuck to the beef to flavour it. In theory, this should have been tasty. Was it the saké substitute? Would the mirin have packed more punch? I don't know. But, next time I might try saving the marinade and thickening it with cornstarch to retain some flavour.

I accompanied the dish with Kylie's Bok Choy with Oyster Sauce.

Cooking with Kylie: Bok Choy with Oyster Sauce

I've always liked bok choy. In my new favourite grocery store, T&T Supermarket, I've seen it in three different forms: regular bok choy, baby bok choy, and bok choy sprouts, which looks like mini baby bok choy. Baby bok choy was on for 99¢/lb the other day, bundled up in pre-packaged baggies. One of these baggies cost me $1.66 or something ridiculously cheap like that. I had plans for it, but they kinda fell through (long story involving a piece of salmon I left too long in the fridge...), but today I felt like making some comfort food in the form of Kylie's dressed wontons and after looking through the veggie section in Simple Chinese Cooking, I found exactly what I was looking for: a simple bok choy side dish.

The recipe is HERE.

Incidentally, did you know that bok choy gets pretty yellow flowers?


I adapted this recipe slightly because I don't do peanut oil. Apart from that, I followed the rest of the recipe as written.


It was ridiculously easy, and I'm glad it wasn't stir fried. I like, and always have, the texture of steamed bok choy in soups and stuff like that, so boiling the bok choy appealed to me. This was really good, and I'll definitely make it again. I still have bok choy left, in fact.

Here is a look at my wonton dish, too:


If you have not tried this recipe yet, YOU HAVE TO! It's soooooooooooo good!

Simple Stir Fry

I have at least three more posts coming up of Seattle-related food content, but for now, something simpler and less rich than the fare I had in that fair city: a simple stir fry.

As my trip neared its end - I got home last night, or more correctly this morning, at 12:35am - I knew I had to kind of come down from the eating high I'd been on for six days, so today, once I was up and lucid, I went to get some groceries. Pineapples were on sale at Kin's Farm Market for $2.99 each and they looked great, and Kin's also had asparagus on for cheap as well, two bunches for $4. After that, I made my obligatory trip to Wally World to buy my milk on the cheap, and I also picked up a bag of coleslaw mix, too. I then went to my favourite grocery store in these parts, T&T Supermarket, where I stocked up on veggies - cheap baby bok choy, spinach for salads, mushrooms, and a few other things - and I got a mini watermelon for $2.99. I also scored a piece of west coast salmon that should last me for two meals, and some really nice, thinly sliced sirloin. A can of mini corn and a can of water chestnuts completed the deal. The asparagus I got at Kin's reminded me of a great Kylie Kwong recipe that utilized that particular vegetable and mini corn, so I made myself a nice stir fry tonight. A little bit of rice and voilà.

I really love how Kylie's recipes are versatile and adaptable. I have learned so much from her books, and now that I have access to all kinds of actual Chinese grocery stores, I can start looking for ingredients I couldn't find at LOGS or in the Kootenays, and start exploring her cuisine again.

Vietnamese Lunch

As I said in Sunday's post, I no longer have to rely on LOGS and there is a great variety of places to grocery shop down here. One of my favourite places to go is T&T Supermarket, a large Chinese chain. And I have one within walking distance! Needless to say, I go there often. They have good prices and because it's a large chain, the variety is stunning. The exotic ingredients are both puzzing (pigs uteri) and exciting (fresh keffir lime leaves). The store closest to me has a food court, too, and it has several different cultures represented there. There is Korean food, Thai food, Japanese food, of course Chinese food, and one place I've been to a couple of times, Vietnamese food.

I have always enjoyed Vietnamese food, and one of my favourites is salad rolls with shrimp. I've ordered these a couple of times, for the not-so-bad price of $4.75. They are made fresh (unlike Save-on Foods' ones, which are terrible) and come with a tangy sauce.


But look at what else is in theses salad rolls. On the bottom, there are a couple of slices of that pale sausage similar to the one I encountered in my pho experience last year. I was a little surprised when I first saw this, but once I tried it, I really liked it. The sausage is very mild in flavour and is a touch - just a touch - salty. It's really good!

I also tried something new at my last trip there, Vietnamese carioca. They were described as deep fried rice balls, and I could see that they were coated in coarse sugar and drizzled with caramel. But when I bit into one, it was like biting into soft, mushy marshmallow. They were not balls of whole grain rice. I think this is more of a rice flour dumpling, deep fried. And they were really good! The texture of the balls was quite decadent and they used real caramel for the drizzle, not a caramel sauce. That really impressed me.


Lunch that day was yummy, and it only cost $6!

Dinner at The Cactus Club

I went out to the Cactus Club with my friends Shihtzustaff and her partner, Deb, who hosted me during my stay. It was their treat and I was happy to go there because I'd eaten at the CC a few times before and really enjoyed it. The CC, from where I stand, is fairly chi-chi, but when you get there you realize that it's probably one of the places the real wannabe chi-chi people go to pretend they're chi-chi, while the true chi-chi in Vancouver go to places like this.

In any case, the CC does great food, and one of their selling points is that they have a bunch of signature dishes on their menu created by big-name celebrity Chef Rob Feenie, who owned the now-closed Lumière. Deb kept raving and raving about the Hunter Chicken (for a description, go here) and vowed to order this, even though she is a vegetarian. After agonizing over an appy, I ordered the Tuna Tataki, which I'm not sure is a Rob Feenie dish, but it looked good and it was light, and indeed, when it came, it was very tasty. I had never had Tuna Tataki before, and this was a great first time experience.


As for my main course, it was a tough call. The Hunter Chicken, which not only did Deb order, but Shihtzustaff did as well, was very appealing. But I was in the mood for lighter fare, and went against the crowd and didn't order a Rob Feenie dish; I instead ordered the wonton soup. I added shrimp and Cajun chicken to it. My was shaping up to have a very Asian theme to it, as I had just come off my Momo sushi experience in Gastown a few hours earlier.

The wonton soup was amazing. Lots of veggies, the broth was excellent, and the wontons were tasty. The only downfall of the dish was the Cajun spiced chicken; it didn't really go with the Asian flavours so I wouldn't do that again. But it was a lovely bowl of soup, and quite filling, so I was pretty happy.


Dessert was a very tempting affair. Although I was pretty full, the CC dessert menu was gorgeous. I caved and ordered this chocolate thingy - the name escapes me and I'm not sure if it's a Rob Feenie dish, either - and boy was it good. And it was a nice light dessert, too. A great ending to a great meal.


The Cactus Club is a busy place, so if you plan on going and trying it out (which if you find yourself down at the West Coast, I encourage you to do) make a reservation or go at a non-peak time. But it'll be worth it!

Pho!

My brother & SIL live in downtown Vancouver, right at Robson & Seymour, and there are like a zillion options for eating out right within a block's radius. It's ridiculous. When I went to visit Jem last Saturday, after our Miura Waffle experience, we decided a couple of hours later that it was time for dinner. Since Jem was very under the weather, he was in the mood for soup, and he recommended a pho joint near Robson & Richards - a mere two minute walk from his place.

Alas, I did not get the name of this pho place! But as soon as I entered it - it was tiny and had two chairs available at a small window front counter for people to eat at, so it's definitely a take-out place - I was overwhelmed by the smell of broths containing star anise. It made my tummy grumble. There was a small menu that included four types of pho, a few Vietnamese subs, and some salad roll type things. My brother opted for one of the beef phos and I had the chicken one. They were all $6.45. I also ordered a Vietnamese salad roll for $2.75.

This is not environmentally friendly take-out, as you can see. You get with the pho three containers: one for the noodles & meat, one for the broth, one for sauce, and then you get a plastic baggie with bean sprouts and fresh basil. You mix all this up at home.


Plus, I of course had a container for my salad rolls. Mother Nature is no doubt justifiably upset.

Guilt aside, the meal was great. The salad rolls were OK (I've had better other places). The noodles were a rice stick, there was plenty of chicken, the addition of the bean sprouts and basil was great. But I had some surprises in store for me. As I was eating the soup, I came across two small eggs. I am assuming by their size that they are quail's eggs. I was not expecting that. I also was not expecting a few large chunks of pale sausage of unknown origin. It tasted OK, but I was a little leary at first. I doubted it was a pork sausage but I also doubted it was a poultry sausage. In the end, it was a mystery. It tasted fine, though.


The sauce that came with the pho was not to my liking. It was actually a brown sauce with a large squirt of a red spicy sauce, so I just skipped that part of it. All in all, excellent meal at an excellent price. I just wish there was a more environmentally friendly way of doing this particular kind of take-out.

Some Vancouver Sushi

During my trip to the coast in March, which was 5 days long, I didn't get any sushi. None. It was very disappointing indeed. During this most recent trip last week, I made sure I got some sushi in. Sushi is ridiculously cheap and easy to come by at the coast. It's everywhere and it's good and it's very economical. Here in this one horse town, I can get a sushi roll at LOGS for about $7 - $8. At the specialty grocery stores at the coast, like T&T Supermarket, which is Chinese, H Mart, which is Korean, and Fujiya, which is Japanese, there is excellent supermarket sushi (and bento boxes and other roll-ish foods) in copious amounts and for super cheap prices. It's like heaven. Seriously.

The first sushi I had was at a place in Gastown called Momo Sushi. I had just had a busy afternoon of shopping and visiting with blog pal Scout of Harper Valley, and after we parted I had some time to kill before my ride went to take me back to Shihtzustaff's place, where I was staying. So, I saw this Momo place along Water Street and looked at their menu. To my shock, I could get a duo of sushi rolls - Dynamite and California - for $7.25! I was in! I got a seat, ordered, and was soon in sushi bliss.

It was absolutely wonderful sushi, and beautifully presented. I couldn't believe how much sushi I got for $7.25! I was blown away when the waitress brought me my board full of sushi.

I highly recommend this place if you're in the Gastown area and in need of a sushi fix!

I used to shop at T&T Supermarket when I lived in Coquitlam when I was in culinary school and it was always such a cool experience. It's like no other grocery store I've been in. There are so many live fish available for purchase that you practically feel like you're at the Vancouver aquarium (no, you don't eat the fish at the Vancouver Aquarium, but you get what I'm saying). T&T has pretty good grocery store sushi, so I got myself a spicy shrimp roll as I was in the store looking for some cooking ingredients I can't find here. This was just OK; not terribly fresh, but tasty enough and it was good enough considering it cost like $4.


Fujiya is where I hit the jackpot with awesome grocery store sushi. In fact, I also got a bento box for good measure. This is a spider roll, made with deep fried soft shell crab. With an exotic ingredient like that, I was super stoked about the pricetag:


$4.95! That is unheard of in these parts! And it was really tasty and fresh, and the crab had a bit of a kick to it in the batter. Awesome!

I also got a bento box for frakking $5!


This was a bit odd, I have to say. The shrimp were great, the rice was great, the green sesame salady thing (top left) was great, but the potato salad (bottom right) was brutal and contained frozen peas & carrots (ew!) and the other seafood items were weird. They included two fake scallops. I have never heard of a fake scallop, but it was much like fake crab meat only scallop-shaped and not pink. There was one deep fried shrimp, which was fine, and then there was a small piece of other fish I couldn't identify. This was accompanied by tartar sauce. Next time, I'd go for something else because this was nothing to write home about and the combinations were really strange.

Believe it or not, that was all the sushi I had. I could have had more, but there are so many foodie options down there it's just too much!

Vegan Black Metal Chef!

OMG! If you haven't seen this video yet, I highly recommend you sit back and prepare to be entertained!

I'm a metal fan, but not really a black metal fan, however, this is awesome! And it's hilarious and clever! I don't really like the looks of the sauce (too much sugar), but seriously, this is funny, brilliant stuff! This video is getting a lot of attention, and so it should! The lyrics are fantastic and there are so many priceless lines in it. This is the most entertaining cooking video I think I've ever seen.

Check it!

Spoil-myself Food

When I feel like spoiling myself, I often make these shrimp salad rolls. They have fresh mint in them from my AeroGarden. They are very easy to make, but are a bit finicky. They are so worth it, however! And when I feel I'm worth it, I make them. This afternoon was such a day for such a treat!

AeroGarden Herb Usage #1

My AeroGardens continue to pay off and today I harvested some herbs and made a dish I've been craving for a while.

I have a TON of dill ready to pick, I just need to feel inspired to use it. The mint and the basil, however, was another story. I have no idea what brought on a craving for Asian salad rolls, but a craving I did have and as soon as the mint was big enough I was in business. Mint goes for $1.99 for a small package, and fresh basil is the same. The herbs were delicious!

My salad rolls contained both mint and basil, and also lettuce from my lettuce garden. Also in there was rice vermicelli and shrimp. The sauce I used was the Vietnamese-Must Have Table Sauce (AKA nuoc cham) from Hot Sour Salty Sweet. This is an awesome sauce: fresh and zingy and it went perfectly with the salad rolls. The original recipe contains a bird chile, but I A) don't have access to such a thing and B) don't like spicy.

Vietnamese-Must Have Table Sauce (page 28 of Hot Sour Salty Sweet by Jeffry Alford & Naomi Duguid)

1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup Thai fish sauce
1/4 cup water
2 tsp rice or cider vinegar
1 tbsp sugar
1 small clove garlic, minced

Combine!

Awesomeness! Go AeroGardens!

Magazine Monday #71 (Yes, a day late): Asian Pork Burgers with Hoisin Mayo

I really am enjoying the subscription to Food Network Magazine my mom got me for my birthday. I've been craving a burgers lately, and a recipe in the most recent issue of FNM caught my eye. It's actually a recipe for Asian meatball subs, but because I'm not in the mood these days to putz around making finicky things like meatballs (or at least making meatballs seems like a rather finicky activity to me right now) I decided to turn these into burgers. I think ground pork makes such excellent burgers - moist, juicy, and the flavour of the meat is mild & neutral enough to add all kinds of flavourings to it that work very well. You might recall the Curried Pork Burgers I made a while back; they have become a favourite of my brother & SIL. They might like this pork burger, too, as might you!

The recipe is here.

Frakking fantastic! Now, I made some adjustments. I didn't use any bread or milk or eggs as filler in my burger meat; I have moved away from doing that after reading Bobby Flay's burger book, and quite frankly, I think the burgers are better without all that stuff in them. I've never had a burger fall apart or crumble during cooking so I don't think it's necessary to add eggs & bread crumbs etc. I also didn't use the Asian chili sauce, and I broiled my burgers instead of frying them.

I loved these burgers so much I totally indulged and ate two! The Asian flavourings were wonderful, and I loved the crunch of the chopped chestnuts in them. I loved the bean sprout topping, too - also crunchy and tasty. As for the hoisin mayo...OMG...AMAZING! It was one incredible burger for sure, and that mayo was the cherry on the proverbial sundae.

Definitely give these a try if you're looking for a change in your same old, same old burger repertoire!

Magazine Monday #69: Sesame Chicken with Snow Peas - and Hostessing Duties

Thanks to my mom, I now have a subscription to Food Network Magazine! I love it!

After a series of heavy meals around Thanksgiving, I craved something lighter. I found a deal on snow peas at LOGS, and after a cross border shopping trip a few weeks ago, I finally had some chicken breasts on hand. And I found a recipe for this meal, which is actually supposed to be a healthier version a take-out dish, nutritionized by Ellie Krieger. I actually adapted the recipe to suit me more, leaving out the chili paste and doing this as a stir fry instead of steaming the snow peas separately. It was a tad bland, however. I love the idea of this recipe but next time I'll have to up the flavour a bit to make it pop a bit more.

The recipe is here.

This week I am also hosting Magazine Monday in order to help my good buddy Creampuff out, so here is a run-down of the other magazine recipes that were submitted by busy foodies intent on getting through their piles of magazine clippings!

Lynn of I'll Have What She's Having made Summer Rolls with Peanut Sauce from Gourmet Quick Kitchen.

Lorie of A Savory Nest made Roasted Winter Vegetables with Feta from the March 2010 edition of Food & Wine.

Sue of Couscous & Consciousness made Fig & Blue Cheese Wontons from Dish Magazine's spring 2004 issue.

The awesome Heather of Girlichef made two things: Currywurst Sauce from Saveur and Bacon & Four Cheese Mac from the Oct. 2010 issue of Family Circle.

Jamie of Life's a Feast made a beautiful French Apple Flognarde (AKA a clafoutis) from Saveurs' Sept./Oct. edition.

Ranjani of Four Seasons of Food made Peanut Butter & Banana Bread from Cooking Light's Oct. 2010 issue.

Jan over at Kitchen Heals Soul made Pumpkin & Spinach Lasagna from the Jan. 1998 issue of Food & Wine Magazine.

Thanks for entering, everyone!

Edit @ 9:15pm: We have a late addition! Melissa of It's the Way She... made Rustic Spinach & Cornmeal Soup from this month's Bon Appetit.

I Ate Sashimi!

Last weekend's trip to Calgary was a very awesome experience, and I have a zillion stories to tell but one I thought might be interesting for my readership here was a sushi restaurant I visited with my one of my BFFs, J.

J loves sushi and she knows I love sushi, so she took me off to a place whose name I cannot remember, though it began with a K, on McLeod Trail. What's fascinating about it is that this was one of those sushi restaurants that has the little boats on a moving waterway carrying colour-coded plates of food around the bar, and you just pick off what you want as it comes around. I have heard of these places in Vancouver, but never been to one, so this was exciting for me.

Unfortunately the frenetic pace of the place, the yelling of sushi chefs, and the multiple birthdays that necessitated the staff doing a Happy Birthday routine several times during our time there, didn't make the place somewhere conducive to having a good chat. In fact, the high stimulation environment really bothered me to the point of almost not being able to function. But it was fun, and when we were done there, we repaired to a Tim Horton's so we could actually have a good chat.

The food was good. We started off with some tempura and J had some miso soup. We ordered several rolls as we watched plates go by us on the boats. Thankfully, we were provided with a picture menu so we had an idea of what was floating by us.

J ordered some salmon sashimi, I got some interesting octopus rolls and some calamari. The calamari was disappointing and overly greasy, as was, I have to say, the tempura. The octopus was good. We had a variety of other rolls, too, that were very good.

You'd think the plates were just whizzing by when you look at this photo. They were not. I just have a shitty camera.

The calamari. The sauce it came with was spicy, so I skipped it.

This is the octopus roll.

This is the salmon sashimi, and I really did enjoy it. It was my first ever foray into sashimi! It was served on a bed of shredded daikon radish.

And this was my most daring choice of the night, a raw scallop roll with some...stuff on it. Not sure what the stuff was, but it was delicious!

This was a very cool experience, and I'd definitely like to go to one of these places again, especially as there were some very interesting menu items that I'd never seen before. I will say, however, something did upset my stomach that night; I'm not sure what it was, but I was quite uncomfortable for a while. But it was not enough to put me off experimenting with sushi and sashimi again.

Cooking with Kylie: Pork Fried Rice

Yes, two Kylie recipes in a row! This is because I made two Kylie recipes this week!

There is just something so comforting about fried rice, and I have tried Kylie's Chicken Fried Rice and her Prawn Fried Rice. I'm not a huge fan of pork, but I was feeling like I wanted to try something new, so I got some nice pork loin for a decent price and made this dish.

Hoisin sauce and pork are just made for each other, I think. And again, malt vinegar makes an appearance! I actually think this sauce would make a nice glaze for BBQ pork loin, which I might try over the summer since I'll be babysitting my brother's BBQ for a while.

Pork Fried Rice, from Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking, page 260

400g pork fillets (I used pork tenderloin)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (OK, I never use the amount of oil Kylie calls for! I used about 2 tbsp in total for this recipe)
4 eggs, lightly beaten
1 small red onion, finely sliced
1 tbsp chopped ginger (I never remember to buy this so, um, I used dried)
2 tsp white sugar
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp malt vinegar
1/4 tsp sesame oil
4 cups steamed rice
a few finely sliced green onions

1. Slice pork into strips and set aside.

2. Heat half the oil in wok until the surface begins to shimmer slightly. Pour eggs in and scramble; remove.

3. Heat remaining oil in wok and stirfry onion & ginger for 30 seconds. Add sugar and stirfry for 30 seconds. Add pork and stirfry for another 30 seconds. Stir in hoisin sauce, soy sauce, vinegar, and sesame oil, stirring for one minute. Toss in rice and reserved eggs and stirfry, using a spatula to break up egg & any rice clumps. Lastly, add spring onions and stirfry another 30 seconds until well-combined and rice is heated through. Serve.

I loved this! I chose well with the pork, too, because it was so nice & tender. Another great recipe from Kylie!

Cooking with Kylie; Prawn & Mint Salad

Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking is rapidly becoming my most frequently used cookbook these days. The food is simple, delicious, and it really fits my budget. The recipes make enough for me to have leftovers if I want them, which is convenient for my work schedule. I am completely addicted to the Prawn Wontons with Spring Onion, Ginger, and Vinegar Dressing; it's just so amazing and I am really getting quick and adept at putting wontons together.

Two nights ago, after indulging in a pre-menstrual grease-filled pig-out, I decided I needed to eat something light, and I decided to make Kylie's Prawn & Mint Salad. I substituted some of the ingredients for ones I liked (cucumber and celery were out, yellow pepper was in, and I used romaine lettuce instead of iceberg), threw this together, and totally loved it! The mint was so nice & fresh and the dressing was light and tasty. I am really digging Kylie's use of malt vinegar in some of her recipes; it's so flavourful and rich.

The recipe for the salad is here.