Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Czech Gulash
Gulash. A traditional Czech meal that comes with bread dumplings. It's very hearty, good for the soul, and is best served with a ice-cold Pilsner Urquel (which is a key ingredient in the gravy).
Sunday, October 29, 2006
I Taught Her Everything She Knows
Magi (pronounced Mazi) apparently turned Ukrainian over the weekend and decided to make cabbage rolls. They look so good...I swear I could eat the picture.
I have fond memories of making this Ukrainian favourite with her while in Calgary. I sacrificed the feeling in my fingers to pull the cabbage out of our makeshift steamer while she peeled the leaves off and handed them to me for filling with a mixture of ground pork and rice.
The guy in the picture is her boyfriend, Geoff. All to often, it seemed, he would reap the benefits of our hard work.
Oh, Meat Poet. Roast for Me.
That's right. Above is a pomegranate-infused goat. Masterfully cooked on a spit by a Bedouin Meat Poet. It was an absolutely gorgeous specimen of meat, slow-roasted over coals that the meat poet moved around with his bare hands.
I spent a majority of the evening drooling in front of the spit. The smell was intoxicating and I could taste the juices. At one point I think I was attempting to ask the guy if I could have his children.
See-food
Worked out to about a kilo and a half of calamari, a one-kilo fish, half a kilo of clams, and all the fixins. Needless to say, Tom and I achieved "Seafood Ingestion" glory with our efforts that evening.
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Kebab, Kebab, Kebab
I believe the pictures speak for themselves.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
Full English Breakfast
What's better in the morning than a fried breakfast - buttered toast, sausages, bacon, fried egg, beans, potato croquets (should really have been hash browns) and black pudding (dried congealed pigs blood!) and a glass of orange juice followed by a cup of tea.Sorry heart.
Thursday, October 19, 2006
This time...Lebanese.
You gotta appreciate the tear drop rice if you're any sort of a rice lover. The chicken was decent, but not unlike anything else I've had so far. We did have the luxury of being served the chicken's liver in a gravy, though.
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Tea Fruit Cake
I thought I'd have a go at baking a cake my mum always makes... it's usually really tasty and moist and all that, but being my first attempt at it, and using a sly fan assisted oven, it ended up tasting a little bit burnt and quite hard.
It's really easy to make though, you brew a cup of strong tea, then use it to soak 1lb of dried mixed fruit and 6oz of demerera sugar overnight. Then you just have to mix in self raising flour (8oz) and an egg. Put the mix into a 2lb cake tin, and top with suger and dots of butter, and you're done. It's meant to bake for an hour at 190C, but mine got all messed up because i'm not used to the oven yet.
Perfect with a cuppa, and what could be more British than a cake that already has a cup of tea in it?...
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
1000 Ways to Serve Chicken
Let's rub it with spices, pound it flat, put a cage around it, rotisserie it, and then serve it hot to starving individuals.
Mmmm....chicken.
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Dim Sum, How I Missed You
Dim Sum is one of my favorite things to do with friends. Something about sharing everything and chatting over tea makes it a special experience. Sadly I haven't gone for a very long time. I have very fond memories of living in Hong Kong and going for Dim Sum at least every couple of weeks. Sunday morning at City Hall looking out over the harbor is a little pricey but worth it if you get the chance.
I was lamenting my lack of Dim Sum to a friend last weekend and he decided to take me down to China Town for lunch yesterday. We got on the bus and a few stops latter got off in what is one of the most run down parts of Edmonton. Past the Garden Bakery, an old favorite of mine because it's open till 3AM, we turned into a large unassuming restaurant hall that I'd never been to before. Being lunch on a weekday there was almost no one there and the ladies with carts of bamboo steamers were no where to be seen. Luckily a picture menu and Dim Sum order card appeared with our jasmine green tea and we set to work.
I picked off a few of my favs and tried to remember the Cantonese names. Had to look a few up for this post though; Har Gau (Imperial Shrimp Dumplings), Sui Mai (Pork and Shrimp Dumplings), Lo Mai Gai (Lotus wrapped rice with chicken and pork), char sui bow (steamed pork bun), shrimp with steamed rice noodles (don't know what it's called), and of course I had to finish with an egg tart. Usually I like to order more but with only two of us to tackle the food it seemed prudent to stop there.
The food came a little too fast for my liking which meant it was sitting in the kitchen waiting for us to order it. This left the rice paper dumplings a little tough. In the end though I was just thrilled to have some dim sum. We couldn't finish it all as often happens and I ended up going home with my egg tarts in a bag to be enjoyed later. Full and happy we got back on the bus with the cold wind blowing at our backs and headed home.
Not the same as Hong Kong but still good stuff and good memories of food and friends from the past.
I was lamenting my lack of Dim Sum to a friend last weekend and he decided to take me down to China Town for lunch yesterday. We got on the bus and a few stops latter got off in what is one of the most run down parts of Edmonton. Past the Garden Bakery, an old favorite of mine because it's open till 3AM, we turned into a large unassuming restaurant hall that I'd never been to before. Being lunch on a weekday there was almost no one there and the ladies with carts of bamboo steamers were no where to be seen. Luckily a picture menu and Dim Sum order card appeared with our jasmine green tea and we set to work.
I picked off a few of my favs and tried to remember the Cantonese names. Had to look a few up for this post though; Har Gau (Imperial Shrimp Dumplings), Sui Mai (Pork and Shrimp Dumplings), Lo Mai Gai (Lotus wrapped rice with chicken and pork), char sui bow (steamed pork bun), shrimp with steamed rice noodles (don't know what it's called), and of course I had to finish with an egg tart. Usually I like to order more but with only two of us to tackle the food it seemed prudent to stop there.
The food came a little too fast for my liking which meant it was sitting in the kitchen waiting for us to order it. This left the rice paper dumplings a little tough. In the end though I was just thrilled to have some dim sum. We couldn't finish it all as often happens and I ended up going home with my egg tarts in a bag to be enjoyed later. Full and happy we got back on the bus with the cold wind blowing at our backs and headed home.
Not the same as Hong Kong but still good stuff and good memories of food and friends from the past.
Yemeni Iftar
Surprise, surprise, another giant iftar meal after not eating all day. Feast your eyes on half a chicken, rubbed with paprika before roasting, and a delicately-cloved long grain basmati rice with saffron for colour.
Best part about this meal, though, was the bread. It resembled naan, but was thicker and a lot "juicier," for lack of a better word. I think it had something to do with the amount of butter it was drenched in.
No wonder people gain weight during Ramadan.
Monday, October 09, 2006
taiwanese soup
ok, i forgot what kind of soup this was called but its typical taiwanese. the soup broth and the noodles were amazing!!! i don't really like or eat oysters but it gave the soup some flavour. now it also had small intestine which i actually tried without knowing what it was. it tasted fatty but once bob told me what it was, my brain wouldn't let me eat it, i tried, but i couldn't:( it was really cheap too like $1.10 CDN or something like that.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Still on the Chinese theme in India...
My HK guests and I made some Chong Yao Baing today for the PIGS (Punjab International Gourmet Society) brunch. This is basically the only authentically Chinese dish that I know how to make well and boy did it every come out deliciously! You just make the dough from flour, water, salt and sugar. Roll it out, spread on the olive oil, some salt and loads of chopped green onions. Then roll up the dough, separate it delicately into the pieces and roll them out before you fry them to that perfect golden brown colour.
They are so simple, easy and cheap to make. And they're a great comfort food for me. Thanks Grandma!
Authentic Chinese dinner in India?
I have two houseguests staying with me temporarily (AIESEC trainees from HK) and instead of paying me rent, I said they can just cook me delicious HK dishes! Here was a recent dinner we had. The furthest dish away is lemon chicken (it looks really easy to make - just marinate the chicken in some soya sauce and make the sauce to pour over the chicken out of honey, lemon juice water and salt). Then fried Chinese radish (which I used to hate as a child, but liked this time), ma po tofu (using a handy Lim Kee sauce packet they brought from HK), and finally a simple vegetable soup. It was SO yummy!
It was a nice change from the Indian version of Chinese food which has an overdose of Indian spices thrown into everything. Indian food is delicious, but it is not subtle at all, so the Indian spices just overpower the delicate Chinese flavours.
We even had some mooncake for dessert to celebrate the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival! It was delicious and SO comforting to have this food again!
Valentina (Italy), Ruby (HK) and Marat (HK)
Saturday, October 07, 2006
Pao Ping
ok, so this is my first post on food for this blog. i always forget to take pics of the food i eat cuz im usually really hungry and dig in as soon as i get my food, lol. Ok so this pic make look really gross but this dessert is actually quite good and refreshing.
i only things that i know that were in it was beans, peanuts and some sort of jellyish type stuff. then its topped off with ice and sugar. i know it looks really gross but trust me its tasts really good, lol. my friend bob said i shouldnt put this pic up cuz it looks bad but hey tell me what you think, lol.
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Ethiopian Food
Location: Lagano Skies (Whyte Ave, Edmonton)
Rating: ***/5
For diner today a couple friends and I headed out to try something a little different. I've had Ethiopian food before in Edmonton from a place downtown called The Blue Nile but more recently I'd heard good things about Langano skies on Whyte Ave.
While the restaurant is pushing out to the boundaries of Whyte Ave into the ghetto, once inside the painted African plain scenes and sky ceiling combined with what I assume was Ethiopian music provide much needed hope after seeing the run down exterior. Cruising through the menu is a quick education in Ethiopian food and history giving a little background and explaining some of the basic ingredients which seemed to be to be largely chilis. We elected to order a chicken dish, beef and vege. It all came served on a flat crepe like bread that had bubbles in it and a spongy sour taste. The fun is that there are no utensils. It was like back in India, tackling chickens legs, beef and a bean and lentil mixture with fingers and bread. I found that the meal was somewhere between Mexican and Indian food with nothing really popping out at me. Maybe it's just the cuisine but the beef in particular lacked flavor and I didn't get a distinctive sense of character from the food.
The highlight of the meal was the Ethiopian coffee. When I saw on the menu, fresh roasted in the restaurant Ethiopian coffee I had to order it. Served in a clay pot or jebena with small china cups, I quickly poured a full cup and as I raised it to my mouth could smell the cloves and strong earthy coffee. The beans were very dark roasted by hand and just the right amount of cloves added to give a sweet but not over powering scent. After tasting that I'm going to try adding some ground cloves to my coffee some mornings. I walked away jittering a little since I also worked as Starbucks today and had more coffee than should be humanly possible but the Ethiopian was a nice finish to my day and a reason to visit Lagano Skies.
Rating: ***/5
For diner today a couple friends and I headed out to try something a little different. I've had Ethiopian food before in Edmonton from a place downtown called The Blue Nile but more recently I'd heard good things about Langano skies on Whyte Ave.
While the restaurant is pushing out to the boundaries of Whyte Ave into the ghetto, once inside the painted African plain scenes and sky ceiling combined with what I assume was Ethiopian music provide much needed hope after seeing the run down exterior. Cruising through the menu is a quick education in Ethiopian food and history giving a little background and explaining some of the basic ingredients which seemed to be to be largely chilis. We elected to order a chicken dish, beef and vege. It all came served on a flat crepe like bread that had bubbles in it and a spongy sour taste. The fun is that there are no utensils. It was like back in India, tackling chickens legs, beef and a bean and lentil mixture with fingers and bread. I found that the meal was somewhere between Mexican and Indian food with nothing really popping out at me. Maybe it's just the cuisine but the beef in particular lacked flavor and I didn't get a distinctive sense of character from the food.
The highlight of the meal was the Ethiopian coffee. When I saw on the menu, fresh roasted in the restaurant Ethiopian coffee I had to order it. Served in a clay pot or jebena with small china cups, I quickly poured a full cup and as I raised it to my mouth could smell the cloves and strong earthy coffee. The beans were very dark roasted by hand and just the right amount of cloves added to give a sweet but not over powering scent. After tasting that I'm going to try adding some ground cloves to my coffee some mornings. I walked away jittering a little since I also worked as Starbucks today and had more coffee than should be humanly possible but the Ethiopian was a nice finish to my day and a reason to visit Lagano Skies.
Street Vending
The infamous "kebda." It's basically liver and apparently you can get any one of the Hep sisters from it. 
The chef chopping up tomatoes. I'm going to help next time, I think.
Random meats. I think it's beef, but it really could be anything. It has a nice spicy/sour tang to it.
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Iftar
Here is the iftar picture I promised. Everything is there, minus the kofta and chicken. This is what we dig into basically every night at sundown.
