Archive for August, 2006
Asam Fish
Wai Bing brought me this Assam Fish paste from Malaysia recently when she and her family landed in Vancouver early this month. Assam is better known as tamarind and is a popular spice used in Asian and Latin American cuisines. It is also the same stuff used to make Worcestershire sauce and HP sauce.
We love assam fish with lady fingers. The sour and spicy gravy is best eaten with steam rice.
Ingredients
- 1 packet of asam fish paste
- 1/4 lb lady fingers
- 1 tomato if desired
- 1 lb fish fillet, I used salmon.
Click on the link below for the instructions.
Simple Stone Fruit Tart
I found this simple recipe from a newspaper and it’s a perfect dessert to enjoy the sweet taste of summer. You may use any stone fruit for this recipe like plums, cherries, apricots, nectarines, peaches, etc. All these stone fruits are high in fiber and rich in vitamins A and C and low in calories.
The Simple Fruit Tart is best served warm with ice-cream as a topping. The pastry is flaky and the taste is a mix of sourness (depending on the fruit) and sweetness. I think you will like this.
Ingredients
- 1/2 package frozen puff pastry, thawed
- 2 cups pitted and sliced stone fruit (you may mix the fruit)
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon powder, or to taste
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
- turbinado sugar, such as sugar in the raw (optional)
Click on the link below for the instructions.
Blackberry Shrubs
There is a bumper crop of blackberries this year in Vancouver. This has been brought about by lots of rain in June followed by hot, dry weather after, creating ideal condition.
Blackberry shrubs are found all over the lower mainland — roadsides, fence lines, stream banks, railway tracks — and they grow just about anywhere.
I bike to work on most days in summer. Along the bike route there are also a lot of blackberry shrubs. These shrubs I find along the route are largely untouched because unless you are on the route you will not know they are there.
There are two spots that I find a lot of unpicked blackberry shrubs. The first is the Kent Bike Route near Ontario St in Vancouver. The shrubs is parallel to the railway tracks. If you walk over to the side on the railway, you get even more blackberries.
The other secret spot is the shrubs under the Oak St Bridge in Richmond (see picture below). If you bike between Richmond and Vancouver across the Oak St Bridge, you will see the untouched shrubs.
If you drive, you can turn off Hwy 99 north bound just before getting on the bridge. Drive round under the bridge and you’ll see them shrubs. (Polly, you should check this out on this Google Map. Amanda and Anna would love this)
The blackberries are at various stages of ripening. The pictures here were taken about 4 days ago. I think by now there are even more ripe ones.
One thing though, the blackberry shrubs are very hardy plants and have very sharp spines. If you really want to pick a lot of them, you bring something to cut the long stems and wear gloves so that you don’t get cut by the sharp thorns. You just need to cut away a few stems and you’ll be able to get to the better ones in the middle of the shrub.
Duffin’s Donuts on Main St.
This restaurant had closed, updated on 11th Oct 2008
I can’t really describe this place. Duffin’s Donuts had been an icon in Vancouver Eastside for a long time. Driving past a Duffin’s Donuts, one gets the impression that it’s a shop selling donuts only but when you get into the store, you’ll find that it’s definitely much much more than just donuts.
Duffin’s is actually a Cambodian family owned joint, originally located on Main and 33rd. They are famous for their homemade fresh donuts and Vietnamese subs. But then they also serve all kinds of food from Mexican Tortas, bubble tea, fried chicken, Chinese rice and noodles, — the selection is amazing.
We went to the Duffin’s Donuts on 41st and Main.
Arkensen ordered a double cheese burger for $4.79. The burger looks juicy. I like the buns in that it’s does not look dry at all.
Suanne ordered Machaca sandwich for $3.50. The hot sandwich is made up of shredded beef, lettuce, tomato, slice onion, pickled pepper, avocado on a crusty roll — tasty and filing.
Nanzaro ordered fried rice noodle with honey pork and chicken. They were just ho-hum but I guess Nanzaro just wanted some dry noodles and did not care much about what sides it came with.
For me, I ordered a seafood chowmien which is loaded with prawn, squid, pollock, fish, sweet pea and carrot. The seafood portion were surprising large considering that it costs about $8.
We also ordered a coffee mocha with pearl to share.
It’s not in any sense elegant dining but for us, this place sure beats McDonalds for a fast, and cheap meal.
PNE
It has been a ritual for Vancouverites to attend the PNE every summer. The crowds at the PNE is at times unbearable. So, I took a day off work during the week to bring the boys when the crowds are much thinner. During the weekend, it’s quite impossible to get from attraction to another.
The PNE (Pacific National Exhibition) is normally held the last two weeks just before school reopens. It is because if this timing that Vancouverites had considered the PNE to be the final event of summer.
The exhibition has been held in Hastings Park since it first took place in 1910. The biggest attractions of the two-week fair are its numerous shops, stalls, performances, a nightly fireworks show, and the PNE Prize Home.
We love the Wiggle Chips at the PNE, having first tried it in Revelstoke. A bag costs $3 or for $5 you get two bags of freshly sliced and fried potatoes. It’s served hot straight out of the fryer — yummy!
The sign on the stall reads “We slice’em, You spice’em”. There’s a table full of all kinds of seasonings to spice up your potatoes. We tried almost everyone of the spices!
Family owned & operated since the 1920?s, Jimmy?s Lunch serves the famous hamburgers loaded with fried onions. Hot Dogs, fish & chips and french fries are among other traditional favourites at
the PNE.
They fry their onions in the front of the stall where they take your orders. Just looking at them and the smell itself will pull you to have a closer look. I like the huge pile of onions.
We ordered the two-piece fish and chips just because of the size of the fish. Reminded me of the fish and chips I had in London once.
We cannot remember exactly how much it costs — seems like about $9.
We had also the funnel cake below for $5.
For more pictures around the PNE, click the link below.
Banana Blueberry Muffin
This Banana-Blueberry Muffin is a recipe from Betty Crocker. Banana and blueberries blend well together with the sweetness from the banana and tartness from the blueberries.
I got this recipe from the web in my early days of learning how to cooking six years ago. Since then, it’s been a classic in my family every blueberry season.
Ingredients
- 2/3 cup milk
- 1/4 cup vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup mashed very ripe banana (1 medium)
- 1 egg
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 cup fresh or frozen (thawed and well drained) blueberries.
Click on the link below for the instructions.
U-Pick Blueberries
Polly invited us to the U-Pick Blueberries last weekend. We have never been to pick blueberries before and never knew where the U-Picks were; even though there are a lot of blueberry farms all over Richmond.
Polly found one on 11071 Blundell Rd. Coincidentally the owner of the farm were from Malaysia too. We found it spooky when another customer in the farm on that day were also from Malaysia. You can always spot a Malaysian accent with their unique version of English — I call it Manglish!
This farm does not sell blueberries at all because he apparently had a lot of orders. He told us that he had already orders for batches of 50lbs or 100lbs that he can hardly fulfill!
Blueberries are native to North America and Eastern Asia. They grow on shrubs as high as 8 ft tall. The blueberry season typically runs from May to October every year.
The fruit are pale-greenish at first, then turns redish-purple before ripening and turning blue or dark purple.
The blueberries in this farm are organic. The organic blueberries costs $1.75 per pound for u-pick. This is much cheaper than buying it from the stores which could cost up to $3 per pound or $5 for organic ones. The owner of the farm can pick to order for $2.25/lb.
This is an old farm where the shrubs were planted very close to one another. It was difficult getting through some part. We were wearing shorts and short sleeved Ts. We ended with quite a bit of scratches.
We only managed to pick less than 2 lbs after 1 hour. It was hard work but fun. During that time the four of us took to pick 2lbs, the owner were out also picking. He picked about 20lbs … alone!
