North Van Adventure - the Boardroom

The Boardroom 10th anniversary sale. But I guess I dint really "need" anything. The only thing I might need is the "ninja suit". But for $129 I will stick to my long-john and hanley.

Butter Nut Squash Soup

This is my first time seeing a white-people-thick-soup being made. My friend said it is easy to make - roasting the squash, caramelizing onion, mashing/blending with broth, seasoning, and add cream etc. The easiness level does not compare to Chinese soup, of which you just chuck everything in water and boil the heck out of it. But the end result is worth the work - sweet nuttiness of the squash, depth of the taste from onion , chicken broth, and apple juice (who would've thunk?!), and a dollop of plain yogurt made the soup very light.

Momos - ready to eat

After 8 minutes of steaming on high heat the momos are ready to eat. We had some pressed tofu with kale on the side. The momos are juicy inside just from the lamb meat. And the dough... well, I don't want to talk about my failures.

Momos - Lebanese Dumplings

So what a challenge it was to make your own dumplings. First I screw up on the dough because I over-worked it, then flattening the dough to a sheet you can work with is painful cuz the dough is very elastic. Luckily my friend did a great job seasoning the fillings (cumin, ground ginger, masala something something... anyway, not the typical spices Chinese people use so I can't remember the names). But the hard part comes, actually wrapping these suckers.

First try is a gigantic fail, but at least it look like shu-mai/dimsum so it is still in the food category. But after watching a clip on YouTube I start to get the hang of it. The trick is keeping your left thumb in the fillings and keep pinch the wrapping against your thumb with your right thumb and index finger. If that doesn't make sense don't worry about it, practice make perfect.

Well we were supposed to make two batches of these dumplings, but the second batch became meat balls at the end of the night, and they will be damned good meat balls I tell yah!

Stew pork on Noodles 魯肉麵

Every Chinese have a good recipe for stewed meats, and mine are pretty much the same way I did my beef noodle except without the rock sugar because I want a good salty dish that goes well with rice. So when it is near the bottom of the pot and you have some good sauces but not much meats left, this is a good way to use those sauces so you don't feel guilty pouring them down the drain.

Basically you just thicken up the sauce with corn starch, add a bit of brown sugar so it's not overly salty, cut up the meats to small bite sizes, and toss in noodles with lots of finely cut up green onion. This is inspired by my best friend's favorite noodle shop in Taiwan, and I am proud to say I did a pretty good job of creating my own version.

Halloween at Metrotown

Made a mistake going to Metrotown on Halloween. Although cute and fun to see kids dressed-up and running around reluctantly excited about candies, they just get in the way of a good shopping day.

Interesting observation - there are two types of parents on Halloween, one that runs around just as excited as the kids with video cameras on their hand filming every single moment of kids grabbing candies (now to think of it, I don't think I even heard the kids say Trick or Treat!), the other type... well, you can tell they just wish they never had children.

Had to take a photo of the pumpkins on display. See how many people are posing in front of the black-spotty pumpkins? Wait, black-spotty? You guessed it, the pumpkins are all moldy and rutting... Metrotown, I know you've spent a significant amount of $$ on these gigantic carved pumpkins, but please treat the pumpkins to a bleach spray so it would last till the actual Halloween.

Joey on Loungheed

So what was once a Sharks Club is now Joey Burnaby. Went on the Friday night before Halloween so there are some funny dressed-up people. But over all the atmosphere is great - excellent services, modern decorations, and very low lighting (hence the gritty photos, sorry). Didn't eat much except the Calamari which is acceptable. But their Irish and Spanish Coffee had became my new favorite drink. Like the Joey on Broadway this one has two levels, supposedly the higher level would be a great patio in the summer - something to look forward to during the long Canadian winter.