well... i should known not to buy chinese pastries from HBC

It's been a rather blah morning - nothing horrendously horrible, but nothing particularly exciting either. Somehow I ended up at the Bay food counter on my daily lunch quest. Food is cheap, it's decent, and I was in the neighbourhood anyway. AND... they carry Dufflet's pastries... which is really cool when you're craving a decent sweet snack that isn't a chocolate bar from the corner convenience store.

Imagine my surprise as I perused today's offering and saw... OMG... CHINESE BUNS! The ULTIMATE lunch food of my childhood (or cold, lumpy mac and cheese). So I had to buy one. BBQ pork the sign said.

One bite in and alas, I should have known better than to buy chinese buns from HBC. T'was not BBQ pork to be had... but rather, some type of curried meat... could be chicken, could be pork. All taste same.

it ain't pretty...

This is my New Year fish. I have no idea what it is called in English. In Chinese, it is called "lang yu" and I only get to have it once a year - at Chinese New Year. I believe it's imported from China, but since I have no idea what it's called, I can't Google anything about it. My grandmother makes it every year on New Year's eve, but we have to wait until the New Year to eat it - old superstition about how abundance (Chinese word sounds like the word for fish) in the old year will lead into abundance in the new year.

It's an extremely boney little sucker. The bones are extremely sharp and are forked, so swallowing one could be really uncomfortable. It takes a lot of patience (and a lot of silence) to eat one of these properly. Pan fried with just a bit of light soy... yum... my fav.

cooking for one can be fun...

As much as I love to cook, cooking for one is a really big pain in the ass. There are always leftovers to contend with and sometimes freezing said leftovers isn't a viable option. (I refer you to the infamous freezer incident of 2006.)

My self-restraint at portion control is nonexistant and because I tend to want to use up all my ingredients (i.e. say the WHOLE bulb of fennel instead of HALF the bulb of fennel), I tend to make much, much more than the recipe promises. I have authority issues. Following directions is extremely difficult for me. And I pay for it by having to eat the same thing day after day for about a week. Not an ideal situation in my world.

Last week, I took advantage of having the kitchen to myself (FINALLY!!) and cooked up a storm - mushroom strudel, homemade red wine vinaigrette, bouillabaisse with fresh, crispy (store-bought) baguettes. My friends and I went to town, gorged ourselves silly and in the end, there was still had a ton of leftovers. But the leftovers were so good the next day... and the day after... and the day after that.

bouillabaisse schmassion style

INGREDIENTS

1 small bulb of fennel - diced (reserve fronds)
1 - 1.5 cup chopped onions
couple of cloves minced garlic
1 - 1.5 cups peeled and chopped tomatoes
1 lb or so of small white potatoes - cubed 1"
2 - 3lbs of seafood (cubed salmon, mussels, clams, scallops, etc.)
0.5 cups white wine
stock (chicken or fish or both)
a few good splashes of gin/annisette etc
salt & pepper to taste
2 sprigs of thyme
hot chili pepper (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Heat up some oil in a large pot. Throw in garlic, onions, fennel and cook until soft. Deglaze with the white wine. Add tomatoes, cook some more. Splash in some gin/annisette etc, cook a couple of minutes and throw in potatoes, fennel fronds, stock. Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes are tender. Throw in thyme and the whole chili pepper (optional, for spicier, cut open and throw in deseeded pepper... pepper seeds can be nasty).

Here's where you have options.

If you don't have perpetually late friends (unlike me), gently slide your seafood into the soup. I kid. Just throw it in according to size and required cooking time. Simmer until seafood is done, remove thyme and chili pepper, season and serve.

If you have perpetually late friends, simmer the soup until they get there. Bitch about it when they get there, and maybe drink the rest of the bottle of white wine while you wait. Depending on how late your friends are, you might want to pour in more stock or wine if your soup base has simmered away. Bring to a boil, throw in seafood as above.

Feeds a party of 6 with 4 days of leftovers for 1.

And for dessert on Day 4 of leftovers... swirly choco chip cookies... YUM!

mimolette… a cheese of cannonballic proportions

Cheese is the food that I crave on a daily basis. Even if it’s just a nanosecond of the day, the desire for the luscious milky goodness of cheese is intense.

My foray into the world of cheese did not begin at an early age. I grew up on Mini Baby Bels and Kraft Singles donuts – a slice of Kraft Singles folded neatly in half, a bite taken out of the middle of the fold, and unfolded to get a toothy hole in the middle of the orange square. It wasn’t until my early teens that I experienced anything other than mozzarella, cheddar and the occasional piece of edam. A small wedge of camembert at a monastery lunch and I’ve been hooked every since.


Mimolette (or “Boule de Lille”) caught my eye during Tuesday’s lunchtime trip to the market. Frankly put, it looks like a cantaloupe. The outside rind is a textured, pockmarked beige-brown while the hard cheese on the inside is a bright carrot orange. I asked for a taste and then… WOW. Blown away.

It is a cheese that crumbles and melts away slowly in your mouth. There is a buttery, salty nuttiness to the flavour but also a hint of something fruity or perfumey; maybe even a touch of caramel if you think about it hard enough. The finish is clean with no lingering cheesy memories on your breath (note to self: good date cheese!).

where: chris’ cheesemongers (st. lawrence market)
caveat: $$ at $63/kg, it's not cheap! yikes!

pearl on the waterfront...

For as long as I can remember, weekends were always about food. Early morning memories are filled with all the women sitting around the kitchen table making rice dumplings for various festivals, while the younger generation squished out pot sticker wrappers with tortilla presses. Giant pots of congee sat on the stove, simmering away while everyone gossipped and chatted away.

What I always loved most, though, was dim sum. Early morning or late afternoon, dim sum was always an occasion where family would get together. People dropped by when they could, have a few nibbles and a cup of tea, and then depart for the next piano lesson or badminton tournament. Inevitably, there was always an extended family member or friend of the family to bump into, and a lot of catching up to be done.

The wonderful thing about living in Toronto is the abundance and variety of dim sum that can be found. Though only a handful of restaurants can lay claim to being truly authentic, it's that neverending search for that perfect quintessential dish that keeps one coming back for more.

where: pearl, queens quay terminal

personal raves: char sui sow, fung jow, eggtarts

congee, you make everything better...

There is nothing better than a hot bowl of congee on a cold fall day. The salty warmth of the thick rice porridge is enough to sooth even the most savage of moods.

Every spoonful brings back memories of a childhood long past and of Sunday lunches filled with family, laughter and happiness.

Ladened with salted pork, conpoy and thousand-year-old-egg, every bite is wonderful and leaves you wanting more. Alas, my stomach can only hold so much...

Best: Mom's homemade
Second Best: Congee Wong

Everyone's interpretation of congee is different and it is very much subject to taste. Meats vary, fillings vary. Some places make the porridge thicker, some a little more soupy with the rice boiled down to almost nothing. Chiu Chow style looks like boiled rice water with nearly whole grain rice and little bits of meat or veggies.

Me, I like mine a little more soupy and salty than the rest of my family, so I find Congee Wong perfect to suit my congee needs... whenever I can't get homemade, that is.

My Flav Raves: salted pork with 1000yr-old-egg, chicken & duck with a raw egg, white fish & pig jello