Happy Halloween!

I have this cute little mini pumpkin sitting in the house. I didn’t have time to carve it, or make any Halloween treats for that matter. Well, actually to tell you the truth I don’t really make Halloween treats. But I wonder what I should make with this pumpkin: Pie, bread, muffins? Ideas are brewing in my [...]

Whole Wheat Boule | Sponge method.

Somewhat inspired by Yakitate!! Japan, I decided it was time to make some bread. Well, it was long overdue anyway, and I had wanted to get my hands in some dough badly. So I made a simple lean bread – a whole wheat boule. I started a sponge the night before with just yeast and [...]

Felicos – Redux and Greekier.

 
Felicos Restaurant closed for months this summer and went through a major renovation. They re-opened earlier this month. They’ve looked busy ever since their reopening, but waited a little while so they can get everything going before coming. Very posh and more Greek-looking than before. Pillars seem to be a theme. They now have a hip, bluish [...]

Thai Sweet Chili Salmon

Thai Sweet Chili Salmon
Like I said, I eat a lot of salmon. I like the flavor of the fish, I like it simple but I also love experimenting with different flavors in general. It felt like a sweet and savoury, saucy type of salmon night. So I made a sweet chili marinade: I started with some Thai sweet chili sauce, [...]

Yakitate!! Japan

Yakitate!! Japan
I’m hooked on Yakitate!! Japan right now. This is a 69-episode anime about a young and talented bread-maker named Azuma Kazuma who wants to create the ultimate Japanese national bread, or “Ja-pan” (pan = Japanese for bread). Azuma leaves the country side for Tokyo to train at Pantasia, the biggest bakery chain in Japan. [...]

Needed a new mug

I have been coping with my old Thermos mug since forever. Coping - as it leaks and I would often end up with a pool of liquid on my lap, or on my books, after taking a sip. Unfortunately I am too loyal when it comes to tools and utensils in general, especially when I have [...]

Solly’s Bagelry

Solly’s Cinnamon Bun – Best in the City
Solly’s Bagelry – a Jewish bakery/deli with 3 stores in Vancouver – supposedly make the best cinnamon buns in town. They also make awesome bagels. I like cinnamon buns, but I am not a big fan of bagels. I have to admit, though, Solly’s bagels could quite possibly [...]

Plain Old Jasmine Rice, Herbed.

A leaving home conversation, Chinese style:
“Mom, I’m moving out.”
“OK!”
“OK? Is that are you’re gonna say?”
“Hm, no. Do get a good rice cooker before you go.” 

 
Being Chinese, I probably learned how to operate a rice cooker before a toaster: Add rice, add water, press the button, go take a shower, and come back to perfectly cooked rice. The [...]

Supersize Me Pineapple Bun: 1 Month Mark

 Pineapple Bun @ 1 Month
My Super Size Me Pineapple Bun has spent 1 month in its Glad box! (You can see its progress – or lack thereof - from earlier weeks here.) I’d say minimal change, aside from the tiny little black dots which have not significantly worsened. It hasn’t even begun to show any signs [...]

World Food Day (And World Bread Day)

The right to food is more than the right to basic staples or to sufficient dietary energy. It means an amount and variety of food sufficient to meet all of one’s nutritional needs for a healthy and active life.
-The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Today is World Food Day. This year’s theme is [...]

Kei’s Bakery

Mt. Matcha 
After having the best Japanese melonpans last year at Plaire, a bakery at the Sensoji Temple in Asakusa (to which I shall later devote an entire post), I have been searching for an authentic Japanese bakery in Vancouver. Maybe I’m not looking hard enough, but there just doesn’t seem to be a whole lot of these [...]

Autumn @ Stanley Park | Sequoia Grill

Autumn and totems @ Stanley Park
Beautiful, dry, autumn weekends are rare in Vancouver. So when it arrived we went down to Stanley Park for a walk and lunch. I haven’t been in the park for a long time now. In December 2006, a giant storm leveled 45 hectares of the park and knocked out 2 km of [...]

媽媽的冬菇瑤柱節瓜 Mom’s Fuzzy Melon with Shitake and Conpoy

My mother makes this great fuzzy melon (also called tseet gwa 節瓜, or Mo gwa 毛瓜) dish. It is a delicious medley of thick fuzzy melon slices, shredded conpoy (dried scallops 瑤柱), and shitake mushrooms, braised in a bit of thick broth. Since I was little, this has been one of my ultimate favorite Mom-dishes of all time. [...]

Back in the day: 出前一丁 (instant noodle) lunches

I was digging through some old pictures and found this, which made me chuckle. Back when I didn’t know how to cook, this was one of my favorite snacks/lunches to make in a jiffy: instant noodles cooked with an egg broken and poached right in the soup, topped with some cha siu (barbequed pork), soy chicken… [...]

Green Lemongrass Vietnamese

Vietnamese green papaya salad
If you have been around for a little while, you would know that this Vietnamese restaurant used to be Mad Greek on Westminster Hwy, before Mad Greek moved … down the street. It is thus the only restaurant in the city where you can enjoy Phở at a tropical Greek villa. (They [...]