Not all is lost – Cranberry Filone from Save On Foods

I like bread with dried fruit in it – if not a satisfying breakfast it is always nice as a snack or even dessert on its own. Raisin bread is always good. Aside from the raisin-buns from Asian bakeries (which are essentially little sweet buns made from a dough with considerable sugar and eggs and raisins mixed [...]

Oden 関東煮

On a visit to Tokyo’s Sensoji Temple during Hatsumode (first shrine visit of the new year), I once had this oden from one of many many food stands there. They were selling each item for a whopping 500Yen (you get to choose 5 items, making this dish of a daikon slice, 3 fish balls, a [...]

American Grille @ The Marriott Vancouver Airport

The American Grille is located at the Marriott in downtown Richmond. Went for a weekend brunch. Pretty typical hotel dining-fare: Nothing fancy, but not terrible. Their menu has decent choices and also quite a few healthy options (low cholesterol, low fat, low carb, vegetarian), which is nice.
Thai shrimp salad with mangos, good-sized shrimp, not actually [...]

OY! Bagels from Save On Foods

It was a lazy, get-all-my-groceries-done-at-one-supermarket kind of day, so I was tricked into buying bagels at Save-On-Foods. Supermarket bagels are essentially baked rolls with holes in the middle that aren’t boiled, and look exactly like it. (See IGA’s, for example.) These ones looked OK from the outside, and were on sale. Probably a bad idea, but the mantra of my Bagel Quest [...]

2008 Golden Plates Awards

The results for the Reader’s Choice 2008 Golden Plates Awards were published in The Straight today, with West Restaurant getting top honours.
There are some pretty bad choices that should never have even ended up on the list (Hons, for example.) But there are a few I agree with: Terra Breads beat out Cobs in the [...]

Oral Allergy Syndrome and Honeydew

I used to have a thing against melons, I really did. I hated melons of all sorts – watermelons, cantaloupes and honeydews were my 3 most-hated fruits. I found them to be rather flavorless, and I hated the sandy texture of watermelon aboveall. I went so far as to declare myself deathly allergic to melons so [...]

Broccoflower

I love cauliflower. And broccoli.  I prefer them raw and crunchy, though I also like them cooked, or pureed into a soup. If I had to choose, though, cauilflower edges out broccoli for me. They are crunchier, sturdier, and doesn’t have as strong a smell. You also don’t get little green flowers stuck in your teeth after. I always have [...]

“Egg Shatters” 蛋散 – Dimsum @ Kirin

蛋散 - which roughly translates into “egg shatters” – is a Cantonese dim sum dessert. It is made from a dough of eggs, flour, sugar, and lard (hmm!). The dough is rolled out flat, cut into strips, then twisted and deep fried. Malt syrup (or sometimes honey) is drizzled over the cooled finished product, which is sometimes also [...]

Mushroom-Stuffed Ocean Perch

I bought a huge bag of mushrooms last week.  It’s a good thing that there is so much you can do with these fungi, and they taste so good. Or else sitting there and brushing all the crap off them would not have been worth it.
What did I do with these mushrooms? Chopped them up with some celery and [...]

Breakfast cereals were created by doctors

The first breakfast cereal was created Dr. James Caleb Jackson in 1863; it was called Granula. Granula was made from heavy grains of Graham flour rolled into sheets, baked, dried, then broken into bits. This early version of today’s granola was dense and difficult to chew. Not exactly breakfast friendly.
Dr. John Harvey Kellogg ran a sanitarium for [...]

Dressing up my Dutch Oven: That fat Italian dude’s silicon Mitts

I went everywhere looking for these Mario Batalli silicon mitts for my dutch oven. (Because, heck, those handles get hot and the pot is so heavy.) The first time I saw them was at the T Room Bakery on 4th. Looked for them everywhere else and couldn’t find them. Finally went back to the T Room. (The [...]

Lotsa Buns!

I know I have been lazy lately. It’s been busy. But I’ll try harder. In the mean time, let me post some pictures from a recent trip to one of my favorite Chinese bakeries in town, Happy Date.
Hmmm, could it be? A present for meeee?

Aaah, a box full of my favorite 菠蘿包 (pineapple buns), and 雞尾包 (cocktail/coconut [...]