Hong Kong: FOOD

Our first meal in Hong Kong was a typical dinner at a Chinese restaurant with my grandparents and a plethora of cousins. The experience was similar to any of my family dinners in Markham; the difference was that everyone except for my grandparents had literally just arrived in Hong Kong from somewhere in North America, so we were all falling asleep!

In any case, while I had lots and lots of food in Hong Kong, I did not always find it extremely exciting because I am constantly surrounded by Hong Kong cuisine even in Canada, and thus, I will highlight only two restaurants that Dangerous Dan and I visited. However, honourable mentions go out to Café de Coral (which Dangerous Dan insisted on having breakfast at … EVERY DAY) and Pizza Express in Times Square, where we didn’t speak a lick of Cantonese, even to the waiters, and felt like we were back in North America again. (Even the people beside us were speaking in English!)

GREENHOUSE / 10/F, Times Square, 1 Matheson Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

We passed by Greenhouse the first time when we were on our way to Pizza Express (which is in the same mall). Greenhouse looked interesting and said it was “Asian cuisine with a Western twist,” so we decided to go back to try it later on during our trip. The restaurant has a nice cozy feel and so much plant-based decor!

To start, Dangerous Dan and I shared an appetizer, a Curry Crab Bruschetta. It wasn’t really bruschetta (very few tomatoes), but it was a sort of dip at least! It tasted really good, especially with the toasted bread and shrimp crackers!

For the main event, I had Fresh Salmon Spaghetti. I asked the waiter if I could have it as mild, but I guess my spice tolerance is too low because I still had trouble tasting the food amidst the spiciness! The salmon was delicious and I love cherry tomatoes though, so I still had a good time.

I also ate some of Dangerous Dan’s dish, which was simply named Singapore Noodles. It was so much more exciting than that though! The noodles were fried along with a smooth egg in a skillet, and it was all so interesting. I think I preferred his dish more than my own.

LAN FONG YUEN (蘭芳園) / Shop 26, WK Square, 36-44 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

This cha chaan teng is famous and important and world-renowned! The original location is somewhere in Central, but we went to this second location in TST because it was right by our hotel.

The whole process of getting in to the restaurant was hilariously intense! Since this location of Lan Fong Yuen is in a mall (sports-themed, at that!), we had to wait for the mall to open at 10:30 before we could go in, and a long line started to form at around 10:15. At 10:30 exactly, the metal door slowly moved upwards, and a staff member was standing there, warning us we couldn’t go in until the door was completely raised. This woman might as well have waved a checkered flag and screamed “GO!”, because once the door was completely raised, people ran in to the mall. We snaked through walls of running shoes and racks of soccer jerseys, and I shouted to my mother, “Mom, where are we going?! Do you know where this restaurant is?!” She responded that she did not know where she was going, but we continued to blindly follow the parade of joggers through the mall. We finally arrived at the storefront and quickly sat down in the restaurant, and the people who had been at the end of the line outside even had to continue waiting inside the mall. (That’s why we all ran!)

The food tasted pretty good and was classic Hong Kong-style cafe food. I decided to try something different and had fried instant noodles with BBQ chicken wings and a fried egg. It was all very tasty, although the chicken wings were a little spicy.

Fried instant noodles, BBQ chicken wings, and a fried egg.

Classic instant noodles in soup with a fried egg on top!

A pork bun.

And to finish things off, delicious milk tea!

This was the last meal we ate before coming back to Canada, so it was a perfect way to say goodbye to Asia!

Pizza Disaster

So the other day I decided to be adventurous and try to make my own pizza. I’ve done this before with store-bought crust, but I didn’t feel like eating the usual tomato pizza, and the local NoFrills pizza crusts came with the tomato sauce in the little bag. Also, people keep saying that eating too many carbs is bad for you so I was trying to find a less carb-y alternative as well!

I wanted to use tortillas, but I couldn’t find them so I bought pita instead. It was also called “World’s Best Pita Bread” so I felt quite confident.

I will say that although I messed up big time in the execution of this pizza, I think the overall idea behind it is not bad so I’m going to go ahead and tell you what I did.

First, I cooked some minced turkey on the stove. While that was cooking, I prepared the pizza. I lined my dish with tin foil and rubbed some olive oil on it (not sure why I did this, but it seems like the thing to do). I laid down two pitas and inexplicably rubbed some olive oil on them too. Next, I slathered some leftover pesto sauce that a friend had gotten for me from Italy! Then a spinach and arugula mix made its way on to the pita. I started adding slices of mushrooms and zucchini as well, and the pizza was looking very full and heavy. But I hadn’t added the turkey yet! So I added that and covered it all in cheese to glue it all in place.

I placed it in the oven at 375°F for about 12 minutes while I cleaned up the kitchen.

That’s when things took a turn for the worse …

I decided to start broiling the pizza because I wanted that nice golden crust on my cheese. But then I got sidetracked looking for something to watch on Netflix …

Needless to say, I burned the pizza. I ate it anyway though, cutting away the cancerous sections, and it still tasted pretty good! As for the utility of pita bread as pizza crust – nothing really stayed on and the middle of the pizza was quite droopy, but it was nothing a knife and fork couldn’t fix!

Look at that cheeeeese.

I promise my recipes aren’t that bad! Although I feel like a large percentage of the recipes I share on this blog involve some sort of major issue …

P.S. The last time I cooked, which amazingly, didn’t end horribly.

Woodstone Eatery

There’s a cool new Hong Kong/Macau-style cafe in town, and it’s already extremely popular. Seriously, I have never seen this plaza’s parking lot so full. The funny thing is that Woodstone Eatery did exist in some form in this same plaza! But a move to a different unit, a fancy renovation, and an updated (completely different) menu have transformed this restaurant from an empty cafe to a bustling and busy restaurant.

Look at this cool wall!

I visited Woodstone Eatery at least four times in the last two weeks, so I’ve tried a number of items on the menu (although I didn’t take pictures for all). The food is decent and the prices are still relatively low. (One thing that I would like to try which I haven’t yet is the take-out special: a pork chop bun that comes with a can of pop, for only $5.99! People who work near here, take note!)

My first time there, I got the BBQ Pork Topped with a Fried Egg on Rice (left photo). I appreciated the two florets of broccoli, since most HK-style cafes are pretty stingy when it comes to vegetables. The BBQ pork was pretty tasty, the fried egg nice and crispy, and there was a little dipping bowl of extra soy sauce if you were feeling really salty! I’ve also had the Macau Style Stewed Beef Brisket in Udon which came in a funny metal tray! Most HK-style cafes don’t care much for presentation so these extra little touches are quite fun!

(Food that I’ve eaten here of which I did not take a picture: Thai Lemon Chicken Wings and Baked Chicken in Portuguese Sauce on Rice. Both were pretty standard!)

Here is my milk tea, not yet stirred.

Drinking tea is one of my favourite parts of dining at a HK-style cafe, and the milk tea here was not bad. My mom was not a huge fan (we’re stubborn loyalists when it comes to tea at HK-style cafes … we really only like one place), but the tea here is smooth enough and not too sweet!

There are still a lot of different menu items that I’d like to try at Woodstone so I’ll definitely be back! I have yet to try the breakfast and afternoon tea menus.

Woodstone Eatery / 10 Apple Creek Boulevard, Unit B2, Markham / facebook

 

Pasta Shells

The other night, I attended a potluck. Since it is summer and I’m not working, I decided to really push myself and make something exciting instead of buying packs of Coke last-minute at Walmart. I had some leftover spinach in my fridge that I needed to use, so I tried to find a dish that would allow me to use some spinach. I got the idea of pasta shells from the internet, and then I abandoned the recipe and just did things my own way because I’m bad at following instructions.

I started off with some cooking first. (My plan was to bake, but I just wanted to be sure that everything would be safe and fully cooked!) Here are my pasta shells and ground pork. I accidentally put too much parsley, as you can see, but I decided to just mix it around and it actually wasn’t too overpowering. As for the pasta shells, you have to be very careful when you buy them at the supermarket! Many of the boxes already had broken shells in them, but I carefully chose one of the boxes at the back of the shelf. I put each shell into the water with extreme care so that nothing would crack, and nothing did! Cooking the pasta caused some of it to rip though, but it wasn’t too much of a problem!

Next, it was time to do some stuffing! I first put in the spinach (a few leaves for each shell), then the meat, then some grated mozzarella cheese, and finally, I doused the whole thing in tomato sauce. Then I realized that if I wanted a nice golden brown top, I would need to add more cheese. So I did. (I forgot to take a picture of the unbaked shells with the tomato sauce; I was sort of in a rush!)

I baked the whole pan for about 10 minutes at 350°F (or something close to that, can’t remember), and then it came out looking like this!

People at the potluck said it was creative and tasted pretty good. It’s a pretty easy dish to replicate or to adapt to whatever flavours you want! I will probably try this again but with other ingredients. It was simple, didn’t take too long to make, and yummy!

Lettuce See If I Can Still Cook

I graduated from university one and a half years ago, and I haven’t really cooked since then. GREAT. It is a new year, and I’m trying to be more healthy! With that said, I decided to eat out at restaurants less, and cook for myself more. Dangerous Dan said I should eat less carbs (everything in moderation, I suppose!) and so we chose to make some LETTUCE WRAPS as our first cooking project of the year.

*Warning: The pictures are just horrendous. HORRENDOUS!

Here are my ingredients: a head of lettuce, half a white onion, 4-5 stalks of celery, and one carrot. We also got one packet of ground beef and one packet of ground pork.

Everything was very simple to make! We cooked the veggies (except for the lettuce), added in the meat, added some seasoning, and it was done!

This is a picture of half-cooked veggies and meat. Do not consume meat if it looks like this! It is very unsafe!!!!

One of the more difficult parts of this recipe is ripping the lettuce. The lettuce we chose is not the right kind of lettuce for a lettuce wrap. Pieces came out all uneven; some were shaped like a giant star, while others were like little tiny leaves! Some friends have recommended butter lettuce or cabbage.

Finally, the fun part – constructing the lettuce wraps and eating them!

Simply spoon some of the meat/veggie mixture into the leaf, attempt to fold and close it up, then shove it all in your mouth! It’s important to have a plate underneath the lettuce wrap, as stuffing will fall out. Also, a napkin would be very handy, as this can get messy.

I found that this first recipe of 2017 tasted quite delicious, and I was even able to bring it to work for 3 days in a row, so it has great lasting power! (By the fourth day, the lettuce was not cooperating (it was basically a salad), so I just added rice to the mixture and that tasted great too!)

 

New York City: FOOD

Woooowwww am I behind! Towards the end of August, I went to beautiful Bermuda and stopped by New York on my way home. I don’t think I’ll be writing any posts about Bermuda because all we did there was lie on the sand and enjoy the water, but New York was SO COOL and I have a lot of things to share! I feel like in my travel posts I always start with food. I went to a bunch of different restaurants but these are the ones I have decided to highlight in this here blog. Don’t ask me why I chose these four; the trip was so long ago and my memory so poor that the majority of the following information will probably be made up.

 

IPPUDO / 321 West 51st Street / website

My parents and I went to Ippudo on the advice of my brother-in-law. I am not a great food taster (everything tastes delicious to me!), and the ramen was quite yummy here, but tasted pretty similar to something I might find in Toronto. The little pork buns, however, were ridiculously good and maybe that is why the ramen seemed just mediocre in comparison. There is also another location; maybe that one is more exciting!

 

JOE’S SHANGHAI / 9 Pell Street / website

My mom read about this restaurant in some “best places to eat in New York” article that she probably found on a touristy website. I enjoyed being in Chinatown after spending the day in and around tourist-filled Times Square. For some reason though, Chinatown was pretty much shut down and nothing was open and it was getting dark, which made finding the restaurant a bit of a challenge! When we finally arrived, there was a very long line to get into the restaurant. The windows were plastered with extremely good reviews and also warnings against sneaky restaurants which had stolen the good name of Joe (“We only have 3 locations! Any other location that is called ‘Joe’s Shanghai’ is not affiliated with us!”).

We waited quite a long time, but finally made it into the restaurant, where we were seated at a large circular table with several other parties. There was one family in particular at our table that kept asking for teriyaki chicken, so that was kind of entertaining.

The food was delicious but (again) quite similar to what’s available in Toronto. Joe’s Shanghai is known for their xiao long baos (soup dumplings) but everything else was pretty standard. Basically, I’m saying that there is no need to eat here if you are from a place where there is an abundance of tasty Chinese cuisine!

 

SHAKE SHACK / 691 8th Avenue / website

How can you visit New York and not go to Shake Shack?! Shake Shack is basically synonymous with New York City. I was very excited to try the burgers here (I had had a milkshake from Shake Shack a few years prior), but I made a grave mistake this time around.

Normally, Shake Shack has a crazy long line. When I arrived, the line was pretty short, but for some reason I kept thinking that I would hold people up if I didn’t make my decision quickly! So, in my haste, I ordered … the ‘shroom burger. HOW COULD I HAVE GOTTEN A MEATLESS BURGER FROM SHAKE SHACK?! I don’t even like veggie burgers unless I add bacon to them. In the end, all was resolved because my burger actually tasted great! Also, I got a milkshake and that was super yummy as well.

(We lived right beside Shake Shack so we just brought the food up to our hotel room to eat!)

 

TACOMBI / 267 Elizabeth Street / website

Tacombi had the coolest eating experience of all. Just look at my photos!

The restaurant itself was really cool because we were in a garage and there was a guy inside that red van just making tacos! The food was also SO GOOD. We got chips and guacamole, a wide assortment of tacos, and we enjoyed some yummy fruit juices, which were very refreshing on such a hot day!

So that is what I ate while in New York! Links to the websites are scattered all over the page, and the addresses listed are the locations I visited. Please enjoy and eat responsibly!

 

 

Naha, Okinawa: FOOD

One of the bad things about travelling via cruise ship is that all the food you eat is delicious and fancy and on the ship, which means you rarely get to experience any local food. In the past, my parents would squeeze as much sightseeing and education as possible into our trips, which meant food was not a priority.

This time, however, in a sudden stroke of spontaneity, my parent decided to let us have lunch in Okinawa! Very exciting.

While we were walking on the street, we passed by a ramen shop. “It smells so good!” I hinted sneakily. “Do you want to go in?” my parents asked. I almost didn’t believe them; I was so excited.

The restaurant we went to was so Japanese it didn’t even have an English name, so to this day I still have no idea what it was called! When we entered, we were greeted by a loud, colourful menu and a vending machine. We chose our dishes, then had to put money in the machine and press the appropriate buttons. It was very cool and different! Once the machine had collected our money, it spit out tickets (one for each order) which we then gave to the chef/waiter (I think he was literally the only person working there).

We didn’t eat any of theses #1 ramens! Sorry.

The vending machine.

The restaurant was full, so we were told to sit at the last table available – one of those very short tables where you have to kneel or sit on your bum! We took off our shoes and I sat cross-legged on a cushion on the floor.

This is how short the table is! There are little chairs in the corner to sit on too.

Our view of the restaurant.

My seat!

The food arrived shortly and it was super yummy! My parents and I each got a big bowl of ramen, plus gyoza (fried dumplings) to share! My father also marvelled at the ingenuity of the spoons; there’s a groove in the handle so that the spoon doesn’t fall into the soup!

I quite enjoyed my authentic Japanese ramen! Even if the restaurant was terrible by Japanese standards or is part of some random ramen restaurant chain (for some reason, I suspect this is the case!), I still loved eating somewhere real Japanese people eat! It made my trip to Okinawa so much more rewarding. And my parents probably liked it too because I wasn’t complaining about being hungry.

Well, that is that for my Asian adventures! Here are all of the other things I did during my trip.

Winter in Asia (Round 2)

This all feels so familiar …

 Now that a set of grandparents has moved back to the motherland, I will be traveling to Asia much more frequently than I did in the past. Since my mom can’t deal with the Hong Kong heat, we usually visit in the winter.

This time around, I (of course) went to Hong Kong, where I mostly spent time with family and friends.

This was the view from our hotel room. OUR HOTEL ROOM. Amazing.

I also went on a cruise, the Quantum of the Seas! Asian cruises are very interesting and, quite frankly, not something I have much interest in doing again. This ship is also full of silly gimmicks, like a robot bartender and a skydiving simulator.

This is a bad picture I took from one of the silly gimmicks, a giant arm that flings you over the side of the ocean! Just joking, it is like a giant glass ball that moves up and down. All I saw was more of the ocean.

Our first stop on the cruise was Xiamen. We took a ferry to neighbouring Gulangyu, which was really cute and fun to explore!

Then we went to Naha in Okinawa, which is a Japanese island that is closer to China than it is to Japan so it’s probably not a good indicator of what Japan is like. We visited a castle and ate ramen!

Shurijo Castle!

Now I am back at home and life is terrible. I shall reminisce about my trip as I upload these blog posts from a much more relaxing time in my life!

Eating Food with my Hands

Remember that scene in How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days when Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey go on a date and they’re wearing bibs and eating lobster? That is basically how I felt at The Captain’s Boil except not as clean and beautiful.

The Captain’s Boil is super new (only opened within the last month!), but it is already booming. I would say that this popularity is really due to the novelty of eating like a wild beast! It is the only seafood boil in town.

I visited the restaurant with some friends, so we ordered a bunch of different things to share. My end of the table only got shrimp and mussels because we’re poor. There are four sauces to choose from: Cajun Cajun (spicyyyyy), Lemon Pepper (lemony), Garlic (garlicky), and The Captain’s Boil (a mix of all three!).

The food comes in plastic bags which the waiters just dump in the middle of the table. To enjoy the food, one simply reaches into the bag, chooses a piece of seafood to eat, plops it onto the table, and dives in!

In terms of flavour, the food was delicious. Since the food came in bags, everything was covered with sauce. See how this mussel is filled to the brim with garlic!

Literally everything was on the spicy side, though. My friends and I ordered the “no spice” option but still we screamed for water, faces turning red, tears coming out of our eyes. The spiciest thing of all was the Cajun fries. We had to dip them into the ketchup in order to cool them down. A fun thing we did was put the fries into our saucy, now-empty bags. We made some tasty garlic and lemon fries!

What I really enjoyed about this restaurant was the simple fact that I was eating with my HANDS. And I was really given free reign to do it because the restaurant comes with protection from the seafood! It was just so satisfying to me to not have to worry about my hands getting all oily and gross. Also, have you ever pulled a mussel out of its shell?! It’s strangely exhilarating, and it feels squishy.

Bib and gloves!

All in all, I enjoyed my time at the Captain’s Boil. It was a lot of fun despite the spice! My only concern is that there’s a lot of waste at the end of a meal, since the bibs and cups and bags and seafood remains all get thrown out. Easy to clean up, but sad for the environment.

 

The Captain’s Boil / 5313 Yonge Street, Toronto / thecaptainsboil.com / Facebook

 

 

SongCook’s Authentic* Korean Restaurant

*You know it’s the real deal when the name of the restaurant has the word “authentic” in it.

I have a new food blogging goal. Remember in the summer when I blogged about hip and trendy restaurants in downtown Toronto (e.g. here and here)? Now that I am working and frankly just too tired to venture into the city, I have decided that I will blog about restaurants that are not in the city, places that no one blogs about, restaurants that are (gasp!) north of Steeles!

I’ll start gradually with SongCook’s Authentic Korean Restaurant, which is right on Steeles.

I really enjoy Korean food. My Korean food education has been quite spotty however; for the first 17 years of my life I thought the only thing Koreans ate was Korean BBQ. Then I was slowly introduced to dishes like bibimbap and good ol’ PBS (aka PORK BONE SOUP YUM) so anyway the point of this paragraph is to tell you that I am still shy and new when it comes to trying real Korean food. And I wasn’t that adventurous this time around either.

The first thing anyone gets at a Korean restaurant is those awesome little side dishes.

Here we have kimchi, yellow radishes, bean sprouts, and something brown. All things tasted WONDERFUL. Usually I just stuff my face with bean sprouts, but on this day I had a bit of everything. Those radishes were nice and crisp! That brown stuff tasted good. And I normally don’t eat kimchi because I cannot handle spicy things, but I tried some and I was able to enjoy it! Side dishes: 9/10! (Not a 10 because of the lack of glass noodles; I thought they were a staple!)

I ordered a seafood noodle soup, not sure what its Korean name is but on the menu it was T5.

Those noodles were HANDMADE, and you could tell (in a good way). They just tasted special! In the soup was some nappa cabbage, some green peppers, a shrimp, and some mussels. Seaweed and green onions are always the perfect garnish! This soup was also made soooo much better with the preserved vegetable sauce thing the waiters gave me (pictured on the plate in the top right corner by the ruins of my kimchi).

So if you’re looking for a tasty Korean restaurant, SongCook’s is great! It’s beside a Korean supermarket so again, you know it’s legit.

I also wanted to mention that when I searched up the restaurant on Google to get the website link, there was a little graph that lets you see when the restaurant’s busiest hours are! Truly amazing. Google is taking over the world.

SongCook’s Authentic Korean Restaurant / 72 Steeles Avenue West, Unit 6, Thornhill, Ontario (easier to get in from Yonge!) / www.songcooks.com