Go, Go, Lor Bak Go! (Turnip cake)

Lor Bak Go, translated as turnip cake, is a traditional Chinese savory food that can be eaten at any time of the day. Lor bak go reminds me of my grandmother. She would make them from scratch, wrap it up, and my sister and I would take a 9-inch cake tin-sized loaf home and demolish it within a week, having it for 2 meals every day. My grandmother made many foods from scratch, and I always believed whatever she made were monumental tasks requiring decades of experience.

A few months ago during my school strike, I began searching for a lor bak go recipe to tackle. I was a bit stuck on the specific type of flour to use, but lo and behold - trusty T&T had it in stock for less than $2CAD each bag! I didn't even need 1/4 of each. The other ingredients I needed were a giant white turnip, preserved Chinese sausages, shitake mushrooms, and optional dried scallops, sesame, spring onion, and seasoning.

The turnip needed to be shredded - it was through these little tasks that I found cooking therapeutic. And of course, it was a fun group activity though it got a bit messy in the tiny kitchen.


We needed 3lbs of shredded turnip - but we didn't have a scale nor did we have the slightest idea of weight, so we guesstimated and diced ingredients to half the portion of the recipe. We made one batch vegetarian (shitake mushrooms only) and steamed it first. We had to keep refilling the pan with water because the water kept drying up. And every time we refilled it, it took time for it to get steaming even though we used hot water. The supposedly 30 min process took much longer.


So, the first batch of vegetarian lor bak go was completed. We gave it a taste... it was too bland and watery, even though we let it cool down and set for 10 minutes. I realized I forgot to season it.


So for the batch with preserved sausages and dried scallops, we added more rice flour and corn starch, and seasoned it much more. My friend had to leave so I let it continue and steam. Again, the steaming process took much longer - I think this batch took 90 minutes! It was a long wait but it was definitely worth it! This batch tasted much better, as we assumed, because the preserved sausages would release its savory grease as it was steamed.


I cut a portion and saved it for my friend. My sister - who was supposed to be on a health diet - and I devoured the rest within days. We either microwaved it to achieve the freshly steamed effect or fried slices on both sides until they were golden. If only I had the sweet sauce and sesame sauce like they do at dim sum restaurants! It would be perfect.

I can't wait to go back to Hong Kong and make my grandmother proud!

Macarons and Japanese cakes

La Bamboche - A chef combines Eastern flavours with Western desserts

Lemon Macaron. I love citrusy stuff - it was sooooo good. Not too sweet, and still fresh from a 30 min commute.


Half eaten Lemon Macaron, with its travel companion Vanilla Macaron. I usually don't have a preference for vanilla or regular cream pastries, but this was really good too. The vanilla scent was very rich and not artificial at all.

Inside the box...

Three pieces of cake!


Actually, 2 pieces of cake and one half eaten eclair, lol. The eclair was heavenly. This was the best eclair filling I've ever had. The chocolate flavour was rich, and not too sweet nor fatty.

Next to it is the Green Tea and Sesame mousse cake with crunchy base. Again, key word -- rich. You can taste the matcha and black sesame flavours individually. The base was a graham cracker like base, only crunchier. I wonder what exactly it is!


Last of all, the Strawberry Lavendar mousse cake. This was quite special. I've only tried lavendar teas and Taiwanese lavender milk-tea drinks before, never a cake. The top layer was slightly sour & tarty, but in the good way. There were actually chunks of mushy strawberries , which I guess are preserved ones, like the type you find in jam. The lavendar layer tasted very unique. The two flavours accompanied each other really well. My sister speculated that the piece of twig on top is thyme, and that it was probably mixed into the lavendar mousse. The base was made of fluffy brown cake.

I would like to try the red wine and sake macarons if I get the chance!

Conclusion: La Bamboche - Pricey at $4-$5 per piece (around the size of a ring box), but you are paying for quality organic ingredients, culinary school technique and presentation, and rich flavours in special combinations. Go there when you deserve a treat :)

Good ol' French Toast

Not recommended for those with white-foods only diets.

What a nice and sunny weather! I decided to make some brunch and it turned out so nicely I took a pic of it under the sun! The bread might look really brown like burnt toast... but it's actually burnt sugar on french toast! I used to make french toast the Hong Kong cafe way - coat with eggs then deep fry in oil. I learned the traditional way from my aunt:

For one serving, you need:
2 pieces of bread (even if stale!)
1 egg
sugar (I used brown sugar)
butter

How to:

1. Heat a frying pan at medium. Grease with butter. When frying stuff, it is important for the grease to be hot enough so your food won't end up absorbing it.
   
   
2. Whisk egg and sugar in a flat dish. Add lots of sugar if you've got a sweet tooth!
   
   
3. Dip both sides of bread in egg, then place in pan.
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Stay close to the stove! The sugar burns quickly, so you'll be getting burnt toast before you know it -- like one of mine.
   
   
5. When it looks brown and no liquid egg is left, flip and cook the other side until desired burnt-ness.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Serve with jam, syrup, honey, icing sugar, or any sweet or savory spread you like. Goes well with your favourite breakfast food!
   

Spring eating!

Old post, forgot to publish!

What's this?Assorted egg based tarts custard tarts and egg based chocolate tarts; topped with pecans, almonds, banana slices, apple wedges, and semi sweet chocolate chunks.

Of course, I didn't do a thing. My sis made it for her dinner party and I got the leftovers :P

Healthy brunch. Going into fish addiction!!

Grilled/pan seared salmon fillet strip on blanched baby spinach. Poached egg on buttered wheat toast.

The salmon was delicious - required absolutely no seasoning. The leftover oil in the pan can be used to sautee mushrooms so they can absorb all the flavour. Mmm fishy fungus. hahaa
I bought a strip of salmon fillet the size of a small keyboard, only having portions the width of a ruler each time. Still, I managed to finish half in 2-3 days before my sis got to it. She resorted to putting a post it on the ziploc box containing last remaining strip, with MINE written in Sharpie.

Also, I planned on making my usual Eggs Benedict but didn't have English muffins. (Tip to yummier muffins: smear butter as usual, but pan fry instead of toasting. Mmmmmm.) I also had to make hollandaise sauce from scratch:

LOL. It works! Hollandaise sauce is based on fat, which you can get from mayo. Just add a dot of mustard and a dash of lemon juice, mix it all together, then you get what I consider "frat boy's" version of hollandaise sauce. It is much more appealing than watching yourself put a fist size amount of butter to mix with the powder form.

Sigh to poor lighting in kitchen + lack of photography knowledge with digital camera. Must ask le BF.
Next: I want to try make fish tacos!

"Substitute the bread for plantains."

+

"For those who don't dig on swine, beef, poultry, or fish, a roasted vegetable sandwich"

=
Next culinary attempt for Mr. Cow.

Ideas for an atypical sandwich >>

Harvest!

Today is a day of harvest!!

Downtown - went to Urban Outfitter's to wait for my friend, then met her up there instead. I wanted to go on Friday with another friend but forgot and bought a shirt dress at F21. Anyway, bought a loose fit varsity cardigan on sale for twenty dollahs and the famous origami/ geometric dress. You know which I'm talking about?

Considering to return it... a) if I see other people on the street with it. I've seen it on that "bikini girl" from American Idol -_- b) if my friend retrieves a cheaper version across the border next week! Stilllll craving for the watercolour silk skirt and Jefferey Campbell sandals... I need a trip to Buffalo!!

Secondly, while having dinner in Chinatown I bought a whole bunch of Chinese bakery pastries due to lack of opportunity to catch a ride for major grocery shopping... (deep fried curry beef bun, pineapple bun with red bean filling... mmm).

Then later that night my dearest neighbour across the street gave me a whole bunch of mini cakes! Food overload. Then an hour later, le BF happened to be free and needed to go grocery shopping too. So much fooooood! I just stacked everything into the fridge, and 10 minutes later, which is just 2 seconds ago, my sis returned from her neighbour friend with our chairs, and brought cinnamon buns back!! Okay, I'm stocked up for last 2 weeks of school eveeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

PS. tempted to have one of the many pastries for midnight snack...

LOLSindy

iz hapeez todai. had Popeye's fried chikun and browneez fur dinnah. wuz very produktiv too. and see post beeloh! gnitez

WTF

me: i want fries
i want food from thisiswhyyourefat.com
i had lots of bread but kinda wana eat

PL: what do u want to eeaaattttttt

me: i said frrieess
cheese, bacon, potato skin potato wedges
too bad Milestone's offer isnt today =/

PL: what the faaatt
:((((((

me: LOOOOLLL

Seriously, this is me inside:

Shit, I need to claim whatthefat.com. Um... check out WTF on blogger if you wanaa....

Proper Meals

Idea for brunch or snack: scrambled eggs and cheese wrapped with whole wheat toast, fried in parsley and breadcrumbs. Serve immediately!

A Chinese meal.

Clockwise from top left: Shanghai milk-based veggies, stir fried veggies with smoked tofu, meatballs with diced carrots, homemade mildly spicy dipping sauce, crispy fried fish fillet and zucchini with homemade sweet & sour sauce.

Lately I've been on a diet....

KIDDING!!! I will never go on a diet. I have been trying to have less meat and processed foods for dinner just so I can sleep earlier. Naturally, I started having more fiber and lighter meals. I think I've been eating too lightly like a salad eating homosexual, so I started craving for fries...

... so I made some! Problem solved!


Salad with spring mix, tomato, avocado, cucumber with balsalmic vinegar & olive oil dressing, garlic baked potato wedges, and ripe strawberries for dessert.


..... I want a Dufflet cake so badly now. -_-


PS: While searching for Dufflet cake, I stumbled upon this. I have always wanted a ceremony like this:
... complete with groomsmen reenacting Matrix and dancing little girls! Ontario - truly, Yours to Discover.

OM NOM NOM

The food entry I promised...
I didn't realize how much I loved food until my school had a retarded strike and gave me so much spare time to cook. I've always left that specialty to my chef-wannabe sister, so I didn't have to develop skills in that. I actually follow some food blogs... wait, who am I talking to?? Tangent: Being a Communication Studies major makes me overanalyze these crap. (If you're interested, many forms of texts [any form of media] is directed to an imaginary audience. So if you're reading this, you're a part of my imagination. You don't necessarily exist. MUAHAHAHAHAA). Anywhoooo, FOOD!!!

Snacks

Real chocolate chips!!!

So I was venturing downtown Toronto on Queen St, and came upon a Fine Foods store. Thought the seester would be interested so we took a look. There was a whole giant stack of different flavoured chips. I don't even remember what the flavours were, because the chocolate chips caught my eye, mind, soul, my complete being. On the package it says "TORTILLA CHIPS (it's a dessert, too!) MADE WITH Semi-Sweet Chocolate, Dutch Cocoa, Sea Salt". It was moderately pricey for a pack of chips, but this is friggin' bitter sweet chocolate chips!!! I bought a pack and started eating it on the subway.

Um yeah I took a bite...

The chips were dusted with fine salt, and the bittersweet chocolate flavour lingered as an aftertaste. It wasn't too salty or too sweet. So perfect. So delicious. It's all natural too, so it's a snack that's good for me! :D Dude, I need to go back soon.

It's on the south side of Queen Street, somewhere West of Bathurst.
>> Product site


Walnut cake
I live in a Korean dominated area where Chinese, Japanese, and Korean restaurants can all be owned by Koreans. Too bad I can't take spicy food, or else I would be quite lucky. Anyway, I was having lunch with my super old great-great-granny friend (hi SC mah mah :P) at - guess what! - a Korean owned Japanese restaurant. Sakura has super good lunch/dinner specials, def recommended.
So, after we were super full from lunch, we peeked into this little store next door which had Korean writing all over the store front. I've always only been around there at night and the store was closed. We saw that the store had machinese making these little things:

SC was very familiar with walnut cakes - having photos of them in a facebook album. She hasn't had them in a long time, so we bought 2 bags, 1 of sweet red bean paste filling and the other with custard. I wondered out loud that they'll probably taste good toasted. She agreed and was up for going back to my place to toast them!! Oh, the things we do for food.

We toasted them in the oven... and they were warm and slightly crispy on the outside, while still a little bit chilled from the cold inside. There were actual pieces of chopped walnut in the batter. Heavenly. There were 20 in each bag; by the end of the afternoon, we finished 1/2 of each already, and with great constraint saved the rest for later. Mmmmm.

>> 11 Spring Garden Ave, North York, Toronto.

Meals

I do eat proper meals. But is this entry too wordy? Too much reading for the short attention spanned generation? "Yes," chimed my imaginary audience. Okay, I'll save it for next entry.

Balanced Diet

I've been eating a bit healthier lately. I'm trying to not sleep as late, so I decided that I can't have midnight snacks or heavy meals that'll keep me awake. And by doing that, I shifted all heavier foods to earlier in the day (lunch/tea time). And by doing that, I have shifted tons of veggies and fruits to the end of the day, instead of having pastas and meat and oily foods. I don't necessarily eat healthier, but a bit more balanced. For example, last 2 day's meals:

Mon:
Breakfast- 2 scrambled eggs, buttered whole wheat toast
Lunch - 2 slices pepperoni pizza
Dinner - spinach salad and 2 potato croquettes (with lots of Japanese mayo, yum)

Tues:
Breakfast - 2 hash browns and sausage mcmuffin :D :D :D
Lunch - home - leftover (super lean and dry) salmon and 2 slices of whole wheat brownie cake
1 banana
Dinner - spinach salad w/ avocado, tomato, cucumber, and chicken breast, with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, sesame oil, and sesame dressing. another slice of cake xD

I guess every meal focuses on one food group?
And yes I've been sleeping earlier, but b/c I had to wake up earlier for various reasons. I hope I can wake up early tomorrow too, cuz I still have some work to get done for tmr's 2:30 class.

I already feel so much more productive. I procrastinate still, but I get so much more done waking earlier. Maybe b/c of the nice weather and extra daylight? And maybe cuz there are happy things on my mind... I am more conscious of reasons to wake up and do things.

Maintenant, il fait beau.

You mean.. you don't really eat infants from Europe?

As a followup to pancakes, I tried out this recipe for Dutch Baby Pancakes. They're actually a German recipe; oven pancakes that puff up as it is baked in a hot skillet, and then deflate a little when served. I was tempted by Orangette's recipe. I modified by cutting it down to one serving, used whole wheat flour, and a regular cake springpan -- had to make do with what I had

The lamp in my oven didn't work, so I was not able to observe and take photos as the Baby inflated. But this is how it looked like straight out of the oven:

Looks nice and golden, eh? But there isn't much activity going on. I would have expected it to be heaving. I took it out of the pan and onto a plate, but it didn't seem to deflate much as well. Maybe I should have used the recommended casserole or pie dish next time.


Serve with lemon juice and some icing sugar, and tah-dah!


It wasn't as great as I had expected from all the raving reviews. Maybe it was the whole wheat flour, or the lack of a generous helping of butter, or maybe even the pan itself.
The edges were a little crispy, which would have been a great contrast if the general pancake was fluffier. It tasted quite bland. It's a bit too healthy and unhearty for me. I had to satisfy my tummy with some good ol' bacon, eggs, and buttered toast. Maybe next time!

What I did:

RECIPE: Dutch Baby Pancake - 1 serving
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup skim milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 450F, with pan in it.
Put butter in heated pan to grease it.
Mix flour, milk, and eggs, and poured mixture into pan.
Bake for 20 minutes.
Serve with icing sugar and lemon juice. (and bacon!)

A Ladle of Happiness

I don't know when it started, but my favourite meal of the day has always been Breakfast/Brunch.
Maybe it started with McDonald's hash browns which were only limited to early mornings, and McDonald's perfectly scrambled eggs and sausage patties. Then I realized they were available in supermarkets and had them almost everyday. I've always loved eggs since I was little. Dinner was enough if I had a sunny side up or soft-boiled egg with rice. Spam was also a favourite. Then there were sugary cereals with chocolate milk, congee with deep fried dough sticks, dimsum, and homemade waffles. It was in this fully occupied home that I, at the young age of 5, learned about the tiny jars of jam, waffle machines, grilled toast machines, and the exquisite maple syrup which was a splurge in Hong Kong (and even in North America for good quality ones). It was always a magical experience having a meal at that home. Every other weekend, several women would whisk up batters and sauces for novel dishes and comfort foods in this tiny kitchen smaller than most North American bathrooms. That's when I fell in love with... pancakes.

Recently, I have participated in many potlucks and had a lot of spare time to check out different recipes. I enjoyed cooking for other people much more than just for myself. The only time I enjoyed cooking for myself is brunch. I fell in love with and perfected the lazy Eggs Benedict (the perfect poached eggs, and hollandaise sauce from stuff at home). Scrambled eggs, which may seem like the simplest food to make, is still under practice. I don't think I would stop talking, so I'll jump right to my topic:


Pictured above are the Chocolate Chip pancakes I made this morning. I tried thinning out the batter, and I think I prefer that. I made it by using Aunt Jemima's Buttermilk pancake mix and Dark Chocolate Chips. The trick is to add the chips after the batter is in the pan.

I love chocolate, so I tried making chocolate pancakes. A guest left some cocoa powder after a brownie-baking session, so I tried to add some to my regular pancake mix.



I cooked it as usual, but realized it was a bit too heavy on the cocoa, so sprinkled some brown sugar on them.



And finished with some icing sugar to really bring more sweetness to it.




Serve sweet, fluffy pancakes strips of slightly crispy bacon.