This afternoon Caitlin came over for a baking date. We made Halloween cookies – chocolate and vanilla. I had forgotten how much work it is to make roll-out cookies. It took us a little over five hours to make what you see on the right – making the dough, rolling out the cookies, baking them, then decorating. We were both pooped by the end of it. Though they did turn out rather pretty with the sprinkles and black glitter. My favourite were the skeleton fish cookies (fish aren’t a staple of the Halloween season, but I couldn’t find the bat cookie cutter – and I wanted more than moons and cats.) Making roll-out cookies is different from other baking in that it’s always more fun to make the cookies than to eat them. The pleasure comes out of choosing which cutter to use, mixing the icing colours and sprinkling with candy-coloured sugar. Looks comes first. Taste - while still good -- is secondary.

Look what Vin made

This message from Vin greeted me when I checked my email today:
So, I know your food blog is about food you eat and make, but I wanted to send you some photos of the turkey I made for thanksgiving. I was very impressed with myself, I made a full meal, potatoes, asparagus, home made stuffing, home made gravy and a pumpkin pie all on my own.
I love it!!

Ick

I'm back in Ottawa! It's nice to sleep in my own bed. Cook in my own kitchen. Knit in my own living room. Today, I discovered something I don't like as much as brussel sprouts: rutabaga. Shudder. It has a very sharp taste. Lee-Lee gave me a chunk of it to try at work. She loves the stuff. Was crunching on rutabaga sticks all afternoon. We both agree that it's an acquired taste. Apparently rutabaga originates from Sweden. I know this because I had to look up how to spell rutabaga just now and the Canadian Oxford Dictionary tells me this. Interestingly, I tried rutabaga -- which originates from Sweden -- on the day the king and queen of Sweden are in town on an official visit. I wonder how they feel about the vegetable.

Chopstick Café

I haven't posted in awhile. It takes a lot more to keep a house running than I thought. By the time I'm done washing the dishes from breakfast, it's time to start thinking about lunch. Then there's the laundry, sweeping and errands to think about. The juggling is better now that mom is back home because I'm no longer balancing the house stuff with visits to the hospital. But I hadn't realized the thought that goes into coming up with meals that are nutritious, appetizing and will please everyone's likes and dislikes. (The good news is that this has given mom a chance to translate more of her Chinese cookbook recipes into English -- I'll post some of my favourite recipes when I get back to Ottawa).On Tuesday I had a break from the cooking when I went for dinner with two of my cousins. Went to Shiru-Bay Chopstick Café in Yaletown. My friend Sheila recommended it, after her cousin took her there the last time she was in Vancouver.The restaurant's been open for under two years. It's kind of bistro influenced Japanese food. According to the website, the restaurant was started by a guy named Kodai Uno. His family is in the restaurant business in Japan and this is the first one outside of the country. Shiru-Bay's ambiance is relaxed posh. Dark woods, dim lighting, servers dressed in black, and an open concept kitchen. When you first step in, you're greeted by the cooks and servers all hollering out a welcome in Japanese. That and a towel for you to wipe your hands.I forgot to make reservations so we were seated at the long sushi-bar-esque table in front of the chefs. Not great for conversation but it was cool to watch the cooks work. We sat face-to-face with the sushi chef and the fryer guy (who really liked milk -- while we were there, he drank three glasses in between all the coating, frying and plating). One of my cousins was intrigued by the bottle of avacado oil sitting on one of the shelves behind the fryer guy. My other cousin was more keen on going through the menu. He got three types of sushi; the dragonball sushi, red dragons sushi and tuna tataki sushi. I got the sashimi salad. My other cousin ordered the vegetarian sushi. And we all shared Japanese tapas -- endamame, a hiya yakku tofu and a cheese tofu with honey and almonds.The cheese tofu was delicate and delicious. It was tofu whipped to a creamy texture with drizzled honey and a slice of strawberry for garnish. It came with toasted baguette. The spread was quite light tasting -- tofu at its minimalist splendor -- but the sweetness from the honey added a nice touch. I had expected the almonds to make more of an appearance, but the dish worked just as well with the honey taking centre stage. My salad was fresh fish and shrimp -- I particularly remember the salmon -- tossed with salad greens, tomatoes and grapes -- all coated with a tangy wasabi-soy marinade. The marinade did a lot to hold the salad together. I got to try some of W.'s sushi. I really liked the red dragons. It's smoked sockeye salmon topped with salmon caviar. The only disappointment was the hiya yakku tofu. It was described on the menu as cold tofu with ginger and green onions -- so I guess we shouldn't have been surprised when we ended up getting pretty much that. It was a bit bland. As my we noshed on our Japanese tapas, me and my cousins got caught up with what is all going on in our lives and our families.The chopstick café (which incidentally, uses pretty chopsticks that just tempt you to swipe them) also serves dessert. But we decided to head elsewhere for that instead.

Mom's Kitchen

One of the reasons why I'm in Vancouver right now is to help out while Mom gets back on her feet. She had a small surgery earlier this week... and is actually recovering pretty fast. I've been doing a lot of cooking the past few days while she gets better. It's weird to slip into her apron be the one deciding what groceries to buy and what dishes to cook. I have a fear of not living up to her expectations of meal planning (are there enough vegetables on the table? rice too hard or soft?) and kitchen cleaniness (have i pre-rinsed the dishes before putting them in the dishwasher?). One thing I've learned is my repetoire of Chinese dishes is not as extensive as I thought it was. I've got enough ideas for six meals, but after that, I think I'm going to start entering repeat mode. I also have a huge yearning to make veggie lasagna, which I'm not sure will get eaten in this househould. Meanwhile, here's one of the dishes I made for dinner this week.

To dive or not to dive?

I think I'm getting soft. I used to relish dining in divey establishments. I remember once going to a won ton shop where we watched the staff wash the chopsticks by swishing them around in a plastic bucket of soapy water, then drying them off with a rag before handing them out to new customers. My favourite hole-in-the-wall restaurant in Ottawa shut down due to health code violations. It's a bit repulsive. But I've always taken comfort in the fact that I knew these places were gritty, but real street-level restaurants. I think I get it from my father. He shuns esthetics of any sort in the places he chooses to dine. Why pay money for atmosphere, he would say. You can't eat the mood-lighting.So I thought this had been engrained in me. But it appears that I've gotten too comfy eating in Ottawa. The congee and noodle shop we went to today was pretty decent, as far as Chinese diner food goes. That's why I think it's me who's gone soft. The place is on Broadway Avenue. And when you first enter, it looks fine. The floors and tables are a bit sticky, but whatever. What bothered me was the smell. We were seated the farthest back my family has ever been seated in the restaurant -- close to the hallway that leads to the washrooms. The smell of washroom disinfectant tinged with very, um real smells from the washroom would waft into the restaurant every now and again. As I was coming to terms with this, I was watching my father wash our chopsticks in hot tea -- a ritual done in places where we don't trust the vigilance of the restaurant dishwasher. It was enough to make me lose my appetite. Even dad was a bit put off.Things got better after we switched to a different table and the food arrived. That reminded me why we were here to begin with. We shared a fish congee, a fish ball congee, a bowl of won ton noodles and a plate of blanched Chinese broccoli. The fish congee was deliciously thick and flavourful. The fish large, chunky and perfectly cooked. Garnished with slivers of green onion, ginger and roasted peanuts. The won ton was bite after bite of crispy shrimp. Yum.But as we walked out of the restaurant today, I realized that I have lost some of my ability to suck it up and tolerate the grit for the comfort food. Which is sad. I don't know if it's because I live in Ottawa, where there is less grit around. I'd be willing to go back to the restaurant we were at today. But next time, I'll wait longer for a table closer to the front of the restaurant.

Hello from Vancouver

Am very tired right now as I have spent nine hours today either in an airplane or an airport. Thanks to aeroplan, I was able to fly to Vancouver on points this morning. But aeroplan makes you pay for those points in other ways. My journey started at 9 am with a flight to Toronto. Waited an hour for my connector to Calgary. After four hours in the air, I had a four hour lay over in Calgary. Took the transit downtown but didn't do much more than that. I finally boarded the plane that brought me here to Vancouver around 5 pm Calgary time. So needless to say, I'm very happy to have arrived.
I don't want to be a traitor to Ottawa because I love the city and the choice of restaurants it offers. But the quality of food in Vancouver is soooo much better. In fact, I paced breakfast and lunch today because I knew my day would wrap up with a meal in Vancouver (okay, and also because there's a limited selection of options at airport food courts.) Arrived in the city this evening and my family and I immediately went for dinner in Richmond.
Went to a place that the family has become quite partial to recently -- called Won Ton Mein Saga. It's known more as a place to get noodle soups and congee but it does have a separate menu for main dishes. Some people might picture formica tables and florescent lighting when they think of won ton noodle soups. But this place was decorated more like one of those chain restaurants; Moxie's or the White Spot. It was packed with people. We were lucky to get a booth table. My family ordered three item: a garlicky gai choy hearts, half a steamed chicken, and a stir-fry of straw mushroom, scallop and celery. The last dish was my favourite -- because encircling the mushrooms, scallops and celery was a ring of tofu that had been deep fried so that they were crispy on the outside but milky smooth on the inside. I wish I had brought my camera. It was delicious. Now, properly stuffed and satisfied, it is time for bed. Good night.

My French Experience

I was walking my bike home from the mall yesterday when a middle-aged woman walking with an elderly woman stopped me with an "Excusez-moi...". I’m sure I gave her a look of horror. My worst subjects in high school were gym and French. Speaking the language intimidates me to this day. Hence the following train of thoughts in my head:
-Oh god, I think she’s a tourist and she’s about to ask me for directions in French.
-Just cut off her question and say "je ne comprend pas". Then start walking.
-No, you should listen to what she has to say and see if you can understand. It looks like that elderly lady is her mother.
-But if I stay, she’ll think I understand French and she’ll expect me an answer to her question. In French.
Funny how many thoughts can go through your head at once. From what I could make out of the woman’s question, she wanted to know if there were any good restaurants around. We were standing on Sparks Street, deserted on a Saturday afternoon. I didn’t want her impression of Ottawa dining to be Yesterday’s Restaurant or the corner Tim Horton’s. So I opened my mouth and French started coming out. It was horribly broken French, with an ear-bleeding Anglo accent. I told her there weren’t very many restaurants here, but that there are many in the marché (at the same time wondering if I had correctly translated "market", or if I had told here there are many restaurants in the walked). Then she asked me how long it would take to get there. Which I was amazed at, because I thought for sure she would answer me back with a "pardon?". But she understood enough to ask a follow-up question! I quickly counted up to fifteen in French in my head and told her fifteen minutes. She thanked me. And I beamed on my bike ride home... while hoping the woman I gave directions to didn’t end up dining at Oregano’s.

Char-a-thon

Had dinner at Kathy and Etienne’s place on Friday night. Etienne went up to Nunavut recently and brought back an Arctic char that would probably have been the length of my arm, had the head and tail been kept on. She baked it in the oven with a little butter, salt and pepper. Mmmm.... I had three pieces. Tried to take a picture of the fish after Kathy decorated it with lemon wedges and flat-leaf parsley but my camera battery died. Kathy lent me her camera and I'll post the photo once she emails it to me.