Hi from Taiwan!
Posted by: susi on: June 23, 2009
- In: Food| Travel
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After an entire day of traveling, I have made it to Taiwan! I spent the day relaxing indoors, trying to fix the jet lag. The internship orientation begins tomorrow, so I’ll be catching the high speed train in the morning. Before I head off, I wanted to mark the beginning of my 2-month food fest with photos of delicious mangoes. My dad spoiled me with my favourite fruit as soon as I arrived!
I don’t know how local these are, but they are most likely GM-ed. I’m not an advocate for GMO’s, but I am also not protesting against engineered deliciousness!! Life is too short, my friend.
If you can’t tell from the photo, the huge mango on top is bigger than my size-8 sneakers (weird reference, I know). Yet the fruit tastes milder and creamier, with no hairs at all. It literally tastes like mango pudding from nature!
Here’s a close up:
The little kidney mango, on the other hand, was like a little bomb of tropical explosion. It’s amazing that basically the same fruit can taste so different!
I’m so cheesy. Food inspires me, can you tell?
Brisket Noodle Soup
Posted by: susi on: June 19, 2009
- In: Food| Life
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I know it has been quiet around my blog, however life behind the scenes has been anything but! For one, I will be embarking on a short new chapter soon.. in Taiwan! It’ll be for a summer internship at the NHRI, where I’ll hopefully learn lots about health policy and development. While that’s incredibly exciting, there’s been little time to prepare for it at all. Including today, I only have two days to pack for two months… a little too last minute for a planning freak like me!
The good thing is that my mom has been the most helpful in getting things ready for me in Taiwan. During her visit a few weeks ago, she patiently helped me create a Google map with useful places in Kaohsiung city, and also cooked up a ton of Taiwanese food. Deliciousness! My appetite is ready!
As much of a glutton as I am, Taiwanese cooking is still kind of a mystery to me, so those learning sessions in the kitchen were just so precious. The very first thing we made together was brisket noodle soup (牛肉麵). Thinking that the peppercorn would add enough heat, we didn’t include any hot peppers. But we all agreed that we should add them next time, as per recipe below. Other than that, it was awesome!
Brisket Noodle Soup 牛肉麵
(serves about 6)
For Stew:
- large pork bones
- 1kg brisket, chunks
- 2 tbsp oil
- 2 tbsp peppercorn
- 2 sliced red peppers
- 1 garlic head, cloves smashed
- 1 medium ginger with skin, smashed
- 6 scallions, chopped 2 inch wide
- 1/2 cup soybean paste (about 1 pack 豆辦醬)
- 1/3 cup rice wine
- 2 tsp sugar
- 1 large chinese radish
- 2 large carrots
- 1 tsp star anise (a couple stars plus seeds)
- 1 onion, cubed (optional)
- Boil pork bones in water. Remove bones and blanch brisket with same water. Discard this first batch of broth. Reserve brisket.
- In a large pot, cover pork bones in water again and let simmer in medium low heat for at least 1h to make broth. This can be made ahead of time.
- In a large pan or wok, heat oil in medium heat and fry peppercorn until fragrant. Careful, they will pop! Filter out the peppercorns and keep oil.
- With the peppercorn oil, fry hot peppers, garlic, ginger, and scallions.
- Add soybean paste, rice wine, sugar, then brisket.
- Remove bones from broth. Cook all fried ingredients in the broth. If needed, add more water to cover everything.
- Add star anise to stew and bring to boil. Add root vegetables: radish, carrots and onions if desired. Stew covered for at least 1h.
Topping:
- 1 pack shantou pickles (酸菜)
- 1 tbsp oil
- 1/4 cup thinly minced ginger
- 1/2 – 1 hot pepper, sliced
- 5 tbsp sugar
- Soak and rinse shantou pickles several times (we did it 5 times, it was really salty). Mince.
- Fry ginger in oil until fragrant. Add shantou pickles and hot pepper.
- Add sugar near the end so not to over caramelize. Adjust to taste. Reserve for serving.
To Serve:
- noodles (ie. fresh Shanghai noodles)
- bok choy
- Boil noodles (1 pack serves 3). Put into serving bowls.
- Blanch bok choy with same water. Meanwhile add stew to bowls.
- Add bok choy when ready. Top with shantou pickles to serve.
Enjoy!
New Bike!
Posted by: susi on: April 21, 2009
Lookie, this is my very first bike ever! It is purple, like my middle name..
And it came with its own coffee cup ;)
I was originally going for a simple cruiser, but this comfort hybrid turned out to be a better choice. By the way, I know next to nothing about bikes, including how to ride them. But it has been so much fun to finally learn, and now I can practice on my own bike instead of having to borrow friends’ who don’t really fit me. This one is really comfy and near perfect – the seat is just a tad high for my abnormally short legs.
I spent much of the weekend riding around Aaron’s house, and even dreamt about not having a bike lock. So the next day we went back to Canadian Tire to get one and wow, it was bike-buying frenzy in there! Luckily I snagged this baby early and got to enjoy the weekend outside!
Home Renovation Tax Credit
Posted by: susi on: February 13, 2009
Have you heard? Canada has introduced a new tax credit for home renovations! Although it is temporary, we can get 15% tax credit on expenses between $1000-$9000. The aim is to promote economic activity by increasing the demand for labour and supplies.
And retailers may be offering other incentives to go with this new credit. For example, Rona (PDF) will give cash back of up to $750 for eligible purchases and services. So save your receipts!
Diana and I have been wanting to redo our kitchen and bathroom(s), especially since our condo suite failed to sell last spring. A lot of our original cabinets are falling apart. We have both really been into interior design and decor lately, so it sounds like the perfect time for home projects. Sweet!
More details on eligibility of expenses:
Eligible
- Renovating a kitchen, bathroom, or basement
- New carpet or hardwood floors
- Building an addition, deck, fence or retaining wall
- A new furnace or water heater
- Painting the interior or exterior of a house
- Resurfacing a driveway
- Laying new sod
Ineligible
- Furniture and appliances (refrigerator, stove, couch)
- Purchase of tools
- Carpet cleaning
- Maintenance contracts (furnace cleaning, snow removal, lawn care, pool cleaning, etc.)
Happy 2009!
Posted by: susi on: January 12, 2009
- In: Life| Macarons
- 2 Comments
Happy new year! I don’t know who really reads my blog anymore… this used to be my medium to catch up with people, but I think I have been good with emailing and seeing friends over the holidays. If I missed you, I hope your holidays were wonderful and full of loved ones! Do drop by and say hello, I’ve been enjoying catching up with really old friends!
I was away in Asia for the past month, and missed several snowstorms in Toronto. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind staying in the warmer continent a little longer! Plus, I got to see such beautiful and fun places… such as San Francisco (California, not Asia), Bali in Indonesia and Hualien in Taiwan. Hong Kong was sooo much fun because of all the friends I met up with. Everyone is there now!
Still not feeling completely back to “real life” yet, but I’m definitely excited to begin the new year fresh.
The macarons above were made before I went on my trip. I used chocolate caramel cocoa powder from Godiva, which D got as a gift. Although it looked fine, it was still a little too crispy and not soft. I got lazy with the filling, so the quick and delicious alternative was hazelnut spread (fake nutella, hmmm). This year my hobby-related goals include perfecting the macaron. I also want to have more fun with photography, and learn a couple of new songs on the piano.
All in all, sounds like I have pretty fun resolutions for 2009!!
Wonky produce
Posted by: susi on: November 16, 2008
- In: Food| Nutrition
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Who knew it was illegal to sell imperfectly shaped produce?!
Never having heard of it, I didn’t believe it at first. Oops! Looks like it is true, and the EU is planning to change that. They are changing (or removing) regulations that ban oddly shaped fruits and vegetables from being sold. For example, carrots can’t be forked (with secondary rootlets) and cucumbers can’t be too curved. Cauliflowers must be greater than 11cm in diameter and asparagus must be at least 80% green.
Turns out that Canada also has such regulations for fruits and vegetables. Lifting these restrictions will allow for cheaper and less wasted food. Maybe we should follow the European footsteps?
It’s not that I thought everything grew perfectly in nature. After all, we have all seen knobbly and wonky vegetables sold in farmers’ markets, or maybe even grown our own. You can also easily see grade differences between certain supermarkets (ie. Loblaw’s vs. No Frills). I just assumed stores chose whatever products based on price. If you want a nicer looking carrot, you’ll have to pay slightly more.
I also thought that agriculturists had pretty much bred for prettier vegetables by now, not to mention the genetically modified ones. What happens with the rejects? They are either classified to be used for processed foods, or basically thrown out because it is too costly to transport to manufacturers.
What a silly restriction. Deregulation does not mean we have to buy ugly fresh produce. I do enjoy beautiful food and am a huge fan of food photography. It’ll simply be good to have a choice, or at least realize that fruits and vegetables can be just as healthy — and tasty! — no matter how they look.
La Bamboche – Macarons
Posted by: susi on: October 27, 2008
- In: Food| Macarons
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Here comes the macaron obsession again. This weekend I finally visited La Bamboche, a French-Japanese patisserie in midtown Toronto. This place always came up when I searched online for macarons in the city, but I never got around to checking the place out myself.
I think I’ve finally experienced what a macaron should taste like!!
The cookies were soft and moist, with the mot delicate outer shell. The fillings – jam, buttercream or ganache – were very generous and delicious! A couple of us thought it tasted like ice cream, as each bite melted away.
Each cookie cost $2.25, so I tried to choose the more unique flavours out of the fifteen or so available. It was really hard since there were so many!
I chose (from top clockwise) chestnut, lavender, blueberry, sesame, strawberry, and red wine is hidden in the back. We sampled a piece of matcha macaron (which I made once), and it was simply amazing…
The candied chestnut in the first filling tasted like a special christmas treat. Hmm! Fresh ingredients make a difference indeed.
Lavender was probably the moistest. It tasted like flowers and smelled like a fragrant sachet! The lavender scent really came through, and was probably the most distinctive cookie out of the bunch. It had dark chocolate ganache inside, which I thought was a good combination.
Blueberry was filled with both buttercream and jam. It was lovely and not too sweet. I wanted more of this one!
Sesame was super airy and also not too sweet. I liked that the sesame flavour was not masked by overuse of sugar (like in my own attempts).
Strawberry also had buttercream and jam, I believe. It was like strawberry shortcake ice cream. I also wanted more of this one, I guess I enjoyed the berries :)
Red wine was the most unique one of all. The cookie definitely had the fragrance of red wine, but combined with a dark chocolate ganache, it almost tasted like black forest cake. The red wine’s sweetness was rich like that of black cherries. Divine!
Since were were sharing, we tried cutting the macarons with a warm knife, but they were still being crushed. Biting into the cookies is actually part of the experience, so I’d rather not take that away.
I’ve made macarons several times and some turned out with the right ‘look’, with the frilly little feet. They never melted in my mouth though, and would always stick to my teeth. Now that I know what I’m aiming for, I can’t wait to try making some more in my kitchen!
La Bamboche
4 Manor Road East, Toronto, Ontario
416-481-6735
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