Happy Halloween!

This year I figure I'll get into the spirit and celebrate Halloween. So I decorated my cubical and pulled out my wear-once-a-year shirt. But unfortunately on the day of Halloween I was stuck at my desk working on numbers coming from unreliable sources and getting the blame, while all the excitement happens just steps away from me. Oh well, such is life, SSDD.

Thanksgiving Lunch at Wings?

Here is my bird and here is my yam side dish. Who says I am not a traditional guy?

A Wall to Remember and Thank Steve

I made a trip to Apple Store this weekend and saw on the wall of the newly opened Metrotown Apple Store, people wrote thank you notes to Steve. Being the true Vancouver culture, the notes are in so many different languages. Mr. Jobs really changed the world.

Dressing Free Salad

I am sure all foodies will agree, we would rather eat good food than counting our calories all the time. So if there is any simple tricks to cut down on calories and does not change the taste (so we can live longer to eat more) then we are all for it. So my trick is throw away any salad dressings. There are plenty of things to add flavor without the fat and here are my favorites - egg (sunny side with yolk still runny), your favourite pickle, fruit, raisin (can't really see it in the photo), and lots of fresh grounded pepper.

Chashu Don at Q-Go Ramen

For only $6.50, this is really quite a good value. A large bowl of hot steaming rice, very nice juicy chashu (almost equal in amount to the rice), covered by Japanese mayonnaise and BBQ sauce, plenty of veggie (sprouts), topped by a good amount of shredded seaweed, and two halves of the golden half-cooked egg. The portion is really enough for two small lunches, and I am sure the calories are way up there too >_<

Burnaby Metrotown Apple Store Grand Opening

Same as all other Apple Store opening, hundreds and thousands of people lined up to be one of the first to enter the store. The energetic Apple employees sure made the opening an exciting event. Even though I only arrived 5 minutes before the store opened, I got in within 20 minutes. Not sure this is good or bad, cus this would mean people didn't buy anything? But never the less, all the shiny new Apple products sure are pretty! And I got my free Apple T-shirt! Out of the 4 Apple stores opened in lower mainland, I have been to two grand openings. Do we really need 4 Apple Stores?

Taiwanese Pickled Cabbage

Oh how I miss the stinky tofu in Taiwan's night markets. The crispy deep fried tofu with also crispy and refreshing picked cabbage on the side. Unfortunately in Vancouver stinky tofu is not at all available (or even legal! According to the owner of Corner 23, who also own a restaurant in Victoria that do serve stinky tofu), so I guess the pickled veggie would be a consolation prize. 

First, cut up daikon and carrots, and massage them with lots of salt. They are harder vegetables so you want to give them more time to pickle.

Then, tear up and wash the Taiwanese cabbage, also massage them with lots of salt.

Once you can see the veggies are soften, color turned slightly transparent, and a lot of liquid have been drained from them, it is time to put them in a jar. Stuff the cabbage, daikon, and carrot in layers, add a little bit of hot pepper if you want a little kick. Tightly stuff everything in, so that you won't need to add too much vinaigrette.

The vinaigrette is simply one part sugar to two parts white vinegar. Pour in the vinegar into the stuffed jar, and shake the jar all around to make sure air bubble have risen to the top and filled the jar with more vinegar. Basically you just want a full jar.

So there you go, so simple and it is a great side / appetizer on a summer day.

Zha Jiang Mian (Fried Sauce Noodle)

So on Monday I ordered the Zha Jiang Mian from Ling's... and it was good, but not as good as some of the ones I've had before. Shaolin Noodle Place, which looks like it finally reopened, actually have good ones. But I figure since I have all the ingredients at home, why not make a batch myself?

So you starts with infusing the flavour of ginger, garlic, and green onion.

 Throw in the pork, either grounded or cut to small pieces. You can choose to marinate it with some cooking wine and corn starch first, but I was lazy.

 When the pork had changed color, throw in the diced pressed tofu. I had some Japanese fried pressed tofu at home, but I found them to be too soft, so it is still better to use the traditional Chinese pressed tofu.

 Heat everything up a bit, then add brown sugar, then stir some more.

 Now the main ingredient, the yellow paste is miso paste, and the black paste is the "sweet bean paste" or in Chinese it is called "sweet noodle paste". I used miso paste because I don't have the Chinese version of the bean paste, or in Chinese it is called "yellow paste". But pretty much both paste is some kind of fermented soy bean, that is the main flavour in Zha Jiang Mian.

 Then stir really hard, add water to get the consistency that is good for mixing with noodles. Taste it and if you think the sauce is missing some flavour, then you can add hoisin sauce to add a level of flavour.

So you cook up the noodle, thick noodle is good with this kind of sauce. Traditionally it is julienned cucumber with the noodles, but I am out of cucumber. But any mild flavour veggie that adds crunch is good.

So here it is. Not as hard as I thought, just some cutting and dicing, and other ingredients just can out of a bottle. You can always make a batch and freeze some in a air tight container.

Birthday Tiramisu - La Boulangerie Bakery

So this is the tiramisu that I've mentioned in my own birthday tiramisu post. Supposed to be the best tiramisu my brother ever had. Unfortunately I had to carry it all the way home from downtown, on skytrain, on one of the hottest day of this summer, so the shape might have been messed up a bit. According to my brother the cake would be really nice if it is half frozen, either way it is still very creamy and flavorful. But $25 for a 6" is a bit steep. I would still prefer mine from Bon Bon Bakery.

Steamed Cake with Shallots and Pork Fluff

This is a variation on your everyday sweets. You basically use your favourite sponge cake recipe, but steam the batter in two batches with the shallot / pork fluff mixture in the middle and up top. The sweet and salty mix is always a welcomed conflict to your taste buds (like stewed pork hog on brown sugar shredded ice). The deep fried crisp shallot (preferrably fried in lard... healthy....) when mixed with the pork fluff, create a whole different taste that is unlike the original ingredients... it is weird, better, hard to explain, you just have to try it. 

Wheat Head?

So the Chinese name for the steamed buns is 饅頭, and if my memory serves, it means "wheat head". The story goes that foreign savages had invaded a part of China, so being the passive-aggressive Chinese people, they made steamed buns out of wheat flour, symbolizing the enemy's head, and they chew them up to express their anger. I doubt that drove the enemy away, but this is a good invention that benefited the future Chinese foodies.



My attempt to to make a rabbit, but it look mutated....

So making steamed buns is not as hard as I thought, and adding green onion definitely kicks it up a knotch. But it is important to have a good recipe with secret ingredients. To be a nice guy today, I will tell you guys one of her secret ingredient is egg. Good luck figuring out the rest!

Invader from Another Land

Okay, I lied, there is lots happening in Nanaimo. New houses are being build every day. And where did they find the land to build them? Cutting down trees of course. So now the creatures of the forest have nowhere to find food other than people's yard, in the middle of the day!

Can you see this mama deer is not alone in this photo? Find her kid!

 

So this is what happened to our cherry tree, apparently cherry leaves are one of their favorite food.

What's Growing in Nanaimo

So I went back to Nanaimo to visit my parents this past weekend, and oh my, there is lots happening - with the plants, not with the retired residents of Nanaimo.

The fig tree is budding with fruits. The Japanese pumpkins visibly grow larger and larger everyday. My dad's pride and joy pear tree is overloaded with fruits (as always). But it is not a good year for prunes and plums - it took me a while to actually found any fruits on the two-floor-high trees. Too bad, I like plums...

Sidewalk Cellist - Clara Shandler

In an effort to understand how music and life work together, I ventured out and seeked out this "Sidewalk Cellist" on the busy street of Commercial Drive. It was not a glamourous show, it did not attract hundreds or thousand of fans, but it was a close, friendly, personal, and genuine performance - very Vancouver. The thing that attract me to seek her out is the interesting fact that there was almost no advertisement - the only advertisement was the chalk writing on the sidewalk (how fitting!).

Sorry these photos looks like I was spying on her (well, I guess I was kinda, I wasn't sure if I could take pictures/video). So for the videos you will need to turn the volume way up.

It was really nice to sit in the shade, enjoy her music, and just read a book on my iPhone. Hearing the wind blowing, leaves shaking, having acorns falling on my head(?!). Even though the streets of Vancouver is still busy like usual - garbage truck backing up, fire trucks wizzing by - but it is nice to have a corner where you can really just chill.

For more information on Clara, just google "Sidewalk Cellist". She will be performing free cello concerts every Saturday to the end of August in the Napier Greenway (Napier St. and Commercial Dr., Vancouver by the Britannia Community Centre) from 2:00pm to 4:00pm.

Hope you enjoy her music as much as I did.

Finally, some green

My Ideal Breakfast - at 1:00pm

Should I Stay or Should I Go?!

Confusion at the Super-Duperstore...

Now that I have this song stuck in my head...

I know at least two of my friends would get a kick out of this one, you know who I am talking about ; )

Move - Eat - Learn by STATravel Australia

Make you want to geo out there and do something different

Stanley Park Sights