Picnicing Fun at Buntzen Lake!

Well, this time around my family went out for a real outdoor picnic (unlike the backyard one me and my sisters had a couple weeks ago :P). We met up with some church friends and prepared for a lovely time outdoors. Buntzen Lake was fun, although it could have been warmer... perhaps then I would have ventured into the frigid water. But, I was content to sit on the pier and watch the little kids fish and dip my toes in the cool lake. We played some card games, ran around on the beach and of course... ate!

Playing Uno! The best card-game in the world!

My contribution to the picnic was a Marbled Matcha Loaf and some Marbled Mini Matcha Cupcakes. I used the same old matcha cake recipe from matchasource.com but instead of adding green tea powder to all the batter, I added it only to 1/2 the batter. I then proceeded to add some vanilla extract to the "white" batter and then marbled the cakes as usual. I planned on making all of the batter into mini-cupcakes, but I only had one mini-muffin pan and making all the batter 12 cupcakes at a time was going to be tedious. I gave up and just made a loaf :P

Another lady from the church made these beautiful konnyaku jellies in the shape of koi. The taste was amazing, I must attempt this recipe sometime soon. But first I must buy some konnyaku!

The picnic was a success! If you take a close look at the first picture in this post, you'll see a KFC bucket of chicken :P Yup, I just can't escape the colonel and his deep-fried poultry. Well, since my boss goes to my church it was inevitable that he would bring his beloved chicken. I actually overheard another picnic-ing group talking about the chicken, they joked about coming over to join us and have some of the "Summer Picnic Meal". We were about ready to go home around 8:45pm since the park closed at 9pm, but the rain beat us to the punch. At first when it started to drizzle, we thought it was just the boys playing with their water-guns and spraying us... but then we realized that the down-pour was increasing. We grabbed our gear and made our way back to the cars as quickly as possible. Even with the rain, I must say I had a great time at the Lake.

What's for Breakie?

First off, you may be asking yourself, "What is that purple thing on her plate?" Well, it just so happens that the purple thing is my quick and easy breakfast. It seems like I'm getting into the "quick & easy" business, but don't worry... (I'm still my ol' baking & cooking self) I just love rice dumplings. Savoury or sweet I'll eat them all!!! Muahahaha... they're so yummy, gooey and simple to cook up. You buy them frozen, and whenever you want to eat one just pop it into your steamer for 15 minutes and you have an instant meal. This one is made with glutinous and red rice, filled with sweet adzuki bean paste... super delicious when sprinkled with sugar!

Lunch-time Delight: Chicken Fajitas

I was feeling super lazy for lunch today! What to do, what to do? I have been working 6 days a week at KFC and closing each night means that I have tons of chicken to bring home! You may think that I am a chicken-lover (which I am), but after a while you grow weary of the Kentucky Fried variety. I wanted to use up some of my KFC chicken but was unsure of what to do. Then I remembered that I had a whole bag of peppers to use up, and a bunch of mini-tortillas... that means "Fajitas Time"! I went out to Save-on-Foods and bought the Taco Time brand Chicken Fajitas seasoning, and voila... instantly delicious and semi-healthy lunch! My sisters weren't too keen on the veggies, but they pounced on the chicken. Yeah! This was actually the first time my sisters had ever eaten Fajitas. (They've only ever had burritos with their tortillas, but I'm trying to ween them off beef :P)

Dim Sum in Vancouver

Rating: ** out of *****

Last weekend my family went out for yum cha, but instead of driving all the way to Richmond we decided to try out this place in Vancouver. We went there right after church (12pm) and had to wait 15 minutes for a table (not too bad, considering we were there at peak time). The restaurant was very crowded and it seemed as if they squeezed as many tables as they could into the restaurant while giving minimal space for the push-carts to move. I had my chair hit a couple of times by the food-carts, but I didn't mind... the smell of the food distracted me :P

The food they wheeled around on the push-carts was well varied. They had noodles and many different types of baos, dumplings and vegetable dishes.

Braised Beef Tripe, I didn't find it flavourful enough. I thought it needed more ginger.

Deep-fried Shrimp + Chive Dumplings, I quite liked these. They were stuffed with lots of shrimp, and the crunchy wrapper was nice and light.

Almost like Har Gow, but the skin was a bit thicker. These were pretty good too!

My sisters called for the chicken wings... nothing to rave about.

I really enjoyed the stuffed eggplant, they're larger than the ones at Neptune and have more spice to them.

The water chestnut cake was my favourite dish. It was sweet, soft and chewy.

Their mango pudding was just okay, my mom makes a nicer one.

My sister loved the mai lai koh. The push-cart carrying this cake had a giant bamboo steamer (probably 18-inches in diameter) holding that 18-inch cake!

Although the food was fair, the service was very poor. Albeit, the restaurant was very busy at the time (never go around noon, unless you want to wait long to be seated) but they still need to work on their customer service. This one lady in particular must've been having a crappy day, or something. When we asked her for some chili sauce, she begrudgingly gave us one tiny dish. We then asked her for a second one (because one was for sure not enought for the 5 of us) and she gave us one more, but with a frustrated face. After about 3 dishes, we ran out of chili (yes, my family is renouned for our chili using abilities) so we asked for some more chili. The closest server to our table was, unluckily, the same lady who gave us chili the first time. My mom held out the dish, and the lady walked right past her! When my mom asked again, the lady grabbed her chili bottle and angrily squirted my mom's dish and then quickly stormed away.

It wasn't just the server that made the atmosphere tense, but the whole restaurant seemed to be in a "rushed" mode. The push-carts were being wheeled around like race cars, and the servers were talking so quickly you could barely make out what they were asking. It was as if they wanted you to eat-and-leave ASAP. It was a bit more expensive than Neptune. We were lured to East No. 1 because of it's sign, "Dim sum for $2.00 everyday until 3pm". But when we got the bill, the only dish that was $2.00 was the mango pudding! The false advertising was quite disappointing. Being that this place was more expensive than Neptune, and the service was much, much worse, I do not think we will be returning to East No. 1 in the future.

Way Past Mooncake Season

... but oh well, who cares? The reason I'm making mooncakes now is because I didn't have the moulds to make them before. These moulds are ridiculously difficult to find here in BC. So difficult in fact, that I was planning on ordering some from China or through eBay... but thank goodness for Ming Wo!! Yup, I was browsing around the local mall because there was a sidewalk sale going on... funny thing is that I didn't even buy any sidewalk sale items. I perused the sale goods and then for the heck of it decided to enter the store. I didn't expect to find anything new (since I go into that store quite often) but to my surprise, sitting in a ceramic display bowl were about 6 of these beautiful Mooncake moulds. I was ready to buy them... no matter the price. Amazingly they were only $2.65 each! What a steal, considering it costs $5 online plus shipping and handling... what a rip! I bought the 2 designs and was on my way home to cook up some mooncakes.

I found my recipes from kuali.com, a great website for Malaysian cuisine. There were so many variations on mooncakes, it was hard for me to choose. I literally sat at the computer (trying to find the perfect mooncake recipe) for 2 hrs... kind of obsessive, but hey that's me! I settled on a chocolate-skin mooncake with durian flavoured bean filling.

Durian Flavoured Bean Filling

Ingredients

- 1 1/2 cups white beans (I used black-eyed pease), soaked for 3 hrs

- 2 tsp durian paste

- 1/4 cup sugar

- 1 tsp oil

Method:

1. Drain the beans and place in a pot of boiling water. Boil for 1-2 hrs, or until the beans are soft enough to mash.

2. Strain the beans and place in a wok, use a potato masher or fork to mash the beans into a paste. Add in the durian paste and sugar.

3. Add oil to the wok and fry the bean paste on medium heat for about 2 minutes.

4. Remove paste from wok and allow to cool. Once able to be handled, use filling as directed in mooncake recipe.

My youngest sister was turned off the mooncakes because of the durian, but my other sister found it tasty. My mom isn't particularly found of mooncake, but my dad liked them alot! Personally, I found these mooncakes okay, they weren't awesome (the best ones are with the egg yolk inside) but they weren't bad. I also had some left-over so I brought them to work. My co-workers were intrigued by the durian flavour... some liked it, and some didn't. I chose this recipe because I'd never had a chocolate mooncake before and was also craving some durian flavour. Durian has been freakishly expensive lately, but when it's on sale I will have to buy one... maybe two, who knows. Next time I might try an agar-agar mooncake or a ping-pie (snow-skin) moooncake.

Kwik-E-Mart in Coquitlam

I've been anticipating the release of the "Simpsons Movie" and it comes out the same day as my sister's birthday, so maybe it'll be her little birthday treat since she loves the Simpsons too. But until watching the news the other night I was unaware that Canada's own Coquitlam 7-eleven had transformed itself into the Kwik-E-Mart. For those of you who are not familiar with the Simpsons, the Kwik-E-Mart is the local corner store owned by the lovable Apu. I was so excited to visit the store and was impressed that of all the 7-elevens in Canada, the one in Coquitlam had the honor of becoming the Kwik-E-Mart... if I were to guess, I would have thought they'd make it in Toronto or something. But no, they've chosen beautiful British Columbia.

Hey! How did Bart and Millhouse get up there?

Most of the good stuff was gone by the time we arrived. I guess we shouldn't have put off going to the store until so late, seeing as it opened at the beginning of July... but who knew that the Simpsons were so popular :P

We did manage to grab ourselves some refreshing Squishees though. I decided to try out the new Blue Wohoo Vanilla. It was actually pretty good. It tasted almost like a vanilla sherbert, and the best part is that it gives your tongue a dashing blue hue.

Seemed like a very busy day for the Kwik-E-Mart. I had to hang out with Marge and Comic-book Guy while drinking my Squishee... jkjk I just wanted a picture with these two :P

Hey Ralph! Where's your dad?

There he is! Chief Wiggum and his beloved donut... I want one!

And a donut I shall get. Heck! Why not make it 2?

Apu's watching you... remember, "A mounds bar is not a sprinkle. A Twizzler is not a sprinkle. A jolly rancher is not a sprinkle sir. Perhaps in Shangri-la they are, but not here!” ~ Apu

Hehehe... I want one of those Kwik-E-Mart bowling shirts, they're ever so stylish!

Oh, Apu... such smart marketing strategy. Blatantly rip off the customer so that they don't think they're being ripped off!

Over all the trip was fun. Although they didn't have Krusty-O's (which I really wanted to try), Buzz Cola, the collectable cups/straws, the Radioactive Man comic or practically anything I did enjoy myself. Whoever came up with this marketing ploy (probably not Apu) was a genius... I just wish that they would have anticipated the excitement that this promotion would create and stocked up on more of the Simpsons merchandise. I asked around and it seems that they're not getting anymore shipments in anytime soon... which is a bummer, but don't worry the 7-eleven in Coquitlam is not the only one that sells the Simpsons merch. I decided to stake out the 7-eleven in Cloverdale and I managed to grab the 5 collectable cups and a 6-pack of Buzz Cola. Sadly, I am still in search of Krusty-O's... I hear that they'r just like Fruit Loops but 10 times more artificial. So maybe it's a good thing I didn't find it :P

I am definitely going to go see the movie on JULY 27TH!!! It's gonna be great... hopefully I'll get to watch it on the IMAX screen *crosses-fingers*. I should probably buy my tickets soon!

Richmond Candy Finds

I took a wonderous trip down to Richmond a while back and just remembered about these candies I had purchased from "Candy Land". This store is located on the 2nd flour of Yaohan and has the widest array of sweets you've ever seen. I didn't have all the money in the world (darn) or I would have probably bought everything in the store. Some of the candies are priced pretty high, and for good reason. You can only find some of them in little shops like "Candy Land" otherwise you'd have to travel to China to get your hands on things like...

Adzuki Bean Flavoured Kit Kats!!! (They also had the strawberry + almond flavour, but my sister's allergic to nuts) I was actually hoping to find their green tea, melon or passionfruit flavours... but you can't be too picky about these things. I never knew about the crazy world of kit kats before that day, for more info/exciting flavours to try check out the wikipedia webpage on kit kats and be amazed!

Knowing me and my money saving abilities, you can probably guess that I went for some candies that were on sale. This box of various chocolate goodies was originally priced at $2.99, but today I found it marked for $1.99 ... Wahoo!

Inside the box were little triangular packets of chocolate. The banana shaped/flavoured ones were amazing and did not taste artificial at all. The strawberry ones were 2nd only to the banana ones. There were also "smarties" and the chocolate "jimmie-like" candies which weren't anything to rave about. There were 11 packet in all; 2 each of the "jimmies", strawberries and bananas... and 5 stupid packs of the "smarties". Oh well, next time maybe I'll buy one big box of the banana ones :)

Ratatouille

What kind of foodie would I be if I didn't go to watch the movie about a rat who cooks? Well, I went to go see the animated, pixar creation about cooking, paris and rats. I quite enjoyed the film... you may think that since it's animated, it's only for kids. But this movie was packed full of children and adults alike. It garnered a ton of laughs, using Patton Oswawlt as the voice of the main character was a good choice. He sounded sincere when he needed too and laugh-out-loud funny at other times.

One of my favourite scenes is when Remy (the rat) is fixing the Gusteau soup that Linguini ruined... and especially when Remy is spotted and he drops the spices into the pot.

A true foodie will find this movie adorable. The title itself captures the essence of the entire movie. Ratatouille: its about Paris, cooking and a rat. Go see it for yourself...

Richmond Night Market!! 2007 (Part 2)

Alrighty, here we are at the Night Market... see the sign? :) This year wasn't as packed as last year, maybe because we came a bit early... but still, some of the stalls weren't being occupied by vendors? Last year, I think every stall was full and there were people elbowing each other to get through... well, not literally elbowing but you know what I mean.

Being early to the Night Market has it's perks, you can actually find good parking! If you want to park in the RNM lot, you'll have to fork over $5.50, and if you choose to park in a lot adjacent to the night market it'll cost you $5. But if you're crafty like my family (and a handful of others) you'll park on the road side. Sure it's a bit of a longer walk to the RNM but hey, it's free! You can save your hard-earned $5 on something like a pair of shoes, stuffies or food... which I believe it more worth it.

There was a lot of walking, but we didn't mind. That's the whole RNM experience. Walking around, as if you're in chinatown... except that all the awesome stores are in one concentrated location and you don't have to drive all the way to downtown Vancouver.

I wasn't too intrigued by the electronics vendors (mainly because they were really pricey, and I don't have an Ipod to "trick out"). But me and my sister were eager to hit all the stationary and stuffed animal stalls. We bought quite a couple pens, pencils, eraser and other accessories. They are pretty cheap, but you have to really shop around for the best deals. You also have to know what you're looking for, and be able to spot the cheapo products from the genuine thing.

I don't usually buy clothes at the NM (because you can't really try them on, unless you want to change infront of watchful eyes), but I actually managed to find this really nice top that fit me. I was just walking by this clothing stall and it caught my eye... it was just the right color, style and size and there was only 1 left. It was originally marked for $12, but my mom managed to haggle it down to $10 (yes, she is amazing!).

But of course, since this is a food blog you know that I couldn't post about the Richmond Night Market and not about it's wonderful treats. It took me a while to find what I wanted... usually I get the taiyaki, but this year they jacked up the price! I was appauled, usually they cost $0.50 each but this year they were $1!! I was saddened, because I was really craving something hot and sweet. The NM has a lot of food that's cold and sweet, or hot and savoury... but not hot and sweet. If I had the time/energy/money I would probably open up a stall at the NM that sold all of the tasty South-east Asian goodies... nonya kuehs, tong sui, bulut hitam, pulut inti, etc.

My sister ordered her usual mango bubble tea, while my other sister ate 2 skewers (one chicken and one beef). My mom ordered her sharkfin soup and then tried one of the red bean pancakes (which I admit was actually pretty good, but for $1 a piece I wouldn't buy one). My dad got fresh sugar cane juice, and let me tell you... it tastes nothing like the juice boxes. But I was still in search for my perfect dessert to end off the perfect night.

And then this stall caught my eye. After seeing their sign, I was hooked... the drinks reminded me of chendol... one of my favourite desserts from Singapore. And although not hot, it was deliciously sweet.

Much more tasty than my now sad looking attempt at making chendol. This vietnamese dessert had just the right coconutiness. The only thing they could have improved on was making the shaved ice more fine. There were small ice chunks that I had to chew up and thus it interrupted the flow of the dessert. Taste-wise it was awesome. It had pandan jelly, red bean, white beans, mung bean paste and tapioca cubes... YUMMERS!

I hope that the Richmond Night Market returns for 2008... it would be a sad break in tradition if they couldn't continue it. Apparently, it's because they can't rent out the location anymore... even if they had to change locations to keep it running I would definitely go. Please stay :)

Richmond Night Market!! 2007 (Part 1)

My family makes it a tradition to go to the Richmond Night Market, at least 2 times during the course of the summer. After hearing that this may be it's final year we had to make an effort to go. On Friday we drove down as usual around 5pm... to beat the heavy traffic going into Richmond. And as always, since the RNM isn't fully up-and-running until 7pm, we had dinner at the Richmond Hon's.

Whenever we go to Hon's I always order their wonton soup with thin egg-noodles... you may say, "Why such a boring meal?". But Hon's is known for their wonton and for their noodles; if you have not tried wonton at Hon's, then you have not tried wonton!

My sister loves udon and will eat it plain if she gets the chance (me, I'm not a huge fan... to doughy for my liking). She ordered the udon noodles with soup and fishballs.

My mom and dad ordered the roasted duck on egg noodles, and I may have helped myself to a nibble... tehehe. My other sister isn't a huge fan of egg/soup noodles, so we order some wat than hor for her to eat.

So, there's our Richmond Hon's dining experience in a nutshell... and it's basically the same everytime we go to Hon's. We usually dine at the coquitlam location, but Richmond is just as good (although they seem to give smaller portions). Anywho, I will continue writing about the Night Market in my next post. Stay tuned...

Backyard Picnic-ing

Wahoo! Summer is really here. Enough of that crazy snow (although it did snow in Kamloops just last week!) and on with the summer sun. And nothing says summer like a good old-fashioned picnic. Since my parents were out working, me and my sisters decided to have a picnic in our grand backyard... okay, it's not so grand but we love it :P

We played some frisbee, some uno and had a ton of fun blowing bubbles. I think my dog actually had the most fun on the picnic... prancing around "his" territory and trying to catch the bubbles.

And of course a picnic is nothing without picnic food...

Your traditional pasta salad... my sisters' favourite

Egg salad sandwich on a white bun, chicken sandwich with basil mayo on 12-grain bread

I also packed some nutritious cantaloupe, as well as skewers consisting of cubed cheese, grapes and pepperoni. Hanging out in the sun was fun, but too much of it and you feel all icky. After the picnic, we headed inside for some time in the shade...

Corn-doggies

Alright, so they're not the most nutritious lunch in the world... but corn dogs are super tasty and bring back a wave of childhood, fair-ground memories. They also solve that age old question "What to do with extra hot-dogs, since they's sold ten to a pack when buns are sold eight to a pack?" <-- corn-dog 'em of course!

I got the recipe off of allrecipes.com, the reviews were right on the ball. I omitted the bacon fat (because I didn't have any) and used chicken dogs instead of pork dogs... still the recipe was a success. These corn dogs turned out nice and fluffy, with the perfect sweetness and a wonderfully moist texture. After dipping in the hotdogs I had quite a bit of batter left over, so I ended up making a couple hush-puppies. These also turned out fantastic, and I couldn't resist gobbling up a handful.

My sisters hadn't eaten corn dogs in a long time, and the Pogo brand ones sold in the grocery stores are quite pricey. Seriously, it is better, cheaper, more fun and tastier to make your own corn dogs than to spend your money on them (and at $7 for a package of 10, they aren't too cheap). My sisters approved of this recipe, so I think it's safe to say that kids will love you if you prepare these corn dogs. I love mine with mustard, and my sisters had their's with ketchup... but any way you dress them up, they're delicious!