When I met up with Karen Dar Woon at the Squash workshop, I asked her if she has a recipe for Eggless Brownie which Dalia requested some time earlier.  Karen gave me this recipe.

This is more like a rich chocolate cake as it lacks the density of a brownie made with eggs.  Nevertheless, Nanzaro had made this a couple of times himself as he likes this Eggless Brownies.

Click on Read More for the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup cocoa powder, sifted to remove lumps
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons melted butter, olive oil or vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup buttermilk (I substituted with 1 tablespoon of white vinegar + milk to make up 1 cup)
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee, dissolved in 1 tablespoon hot water (or one espresso shot)

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F
• Measure dry ingredients in a large bowl.  Stir with a whisk or fork to combine.
• Measure wet ingredients in a small bowl.  Stir to combine.
• Pour wet ingredients into dry ingredients, all at once.  Stir with a spatula or spoon, just until all the dry ingredients are moistened.
• Pour the batter into a greased 8″ square pan or a 11″x7″ rectangular pan.
• Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or just until the top springs back when lightly touched.
• Cool on rack.  This may be hard to remove from the pan unless totally cooled.

Karen, thank you for sharing this recipe.

Since Elaina asked for the Papaya Dessert Soup recipe from the Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen Christmas Potluck 2008, I decided to post it here to share with everyone.  Lorna, thank you for sharing the recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 Hawaii Papayas —– peel and cut into big cubes
• 3 White Fungus —– wash, soak in water till soft, core out the centre hard part and cut into small pieces, scald in boiling water and drain
• 10 Figs (Chinese white figs) —– wash and cut to quarters
• 20 Red Dates (Chinese dried red dates) —– wash, soak in water till soft cut to halves
• 3 tablespoons Chinese sweet and bitter almonds* ( skinless ) —– wash
• 1 pack Crystal Sugar (small cubes) 400 g.—– or rock sugar
• 16 cups of water

Instructions

• Bring the water to boil and add in the white fungus, figs, red dates, sweet & bitter almonds
• Bring to boil and simmer on low heat for an hour
• Bring the soup to a boil again on high heat, add in the crystal sugar, stir till melt
• Add in the Papaya cubes, turn off the stove, cover and let sit for 5 minutes
• Serve while hot or chilled.

Did I mention that the day we went to Schololade Cafe was a really cold day with temperatures dipped down to -6C or below?  You wont believe me if I tell you that on that frigid cold day, we went for ice-cream after the chocolate treat at Schololade Cafe.

Polly brought me to La Casa Gelato at 1033 Venables St, Vancouver.   Polly came across this place when she had her Christmas dinner but she did not try it at the time as it was getting late and she was too full at the time.

La Casa Gelato claimed to be the only place in the world with 218 flavours.  It was just mesmerizing coming into the display showrooms with so much flavours to choose from.  The helpers behind the counters did not rush us as they know that all their customers need time to look at all the flavours before they can decide what to get.

After circulating two rounds, we still cant decide flavour to get.  So, we approached the attendee for recommendation.  Polly tried the papaya flavour and she liked it.  A one scoop cone cost $4.00.

I opted for something sourish to couter the richness of the chocolate cake we had earlier.  I picked the raspberry passion fruit flavour.  I would have chosen something chocothy otherwise if I had not came from Schololade Cafe.

It was quite an experience eating ice-cream at subzero temperatures.  The ice-cream would not even melt despite we took time to take a picture of the beautifully painted mural of La Casa’s parking lot.

Polly and I went for a last cake meet just before the school closed for winter vacation.  I suggested we go to Schokolade Cafe located at 2263 East Hastings St.  I had marked this place down on my cake meet places to go since we went to Seri Malaysia which is just a block away from Schokolade Cafe.

Schokolade Cafe specializes on freshly made artisan chocolate truffles, fine pastries, cakes and real hot chocolate.  All their chocolates are made with Swiss Lindt premium chocolates couvertures.

Schokolade also customs made all the fresh chocolate truffles for their VIP corporate clients and for any company special events.  Polly and I were quite curious when we saw the Singopore Lion Head chocolates on display at the counter.  Only later we were told by the owner that she is from Singapore and the cafe had just opened for 1 1/2 years.

This cafe is relatively small with only 3 small tables which seats 2 each and a few counter high chair seats.

Polly and I ordered their real hot chocolate drinks for a change.  Polly opted for their Spicy ginger Oriental Express Hot Chocolate (left).  We can pick either milk chocolate or dark chocolate and Polly opted for milk chocolate.  The gingery permeated hot chocolate is great for a the cold weather.  My Spicy Ancient Aztec Hot Chocolate with 70% Dark Chocolate is equally great with the spiciness from the chili powder.  The medium drink cost $4.00 each.

We ordered their famous chocolate cake.  The cake is about 2 inches tall and has 6 layers of cream fillings.  This small slice of cake costs $3.95.  It is a very rich cake.

Click on read more for more items.

The next item we ordered is a Salmon Quiche.  It is flavoured with dill and served warm as we chosed.  This piece costs $3.95.

We also ordered a Walnut Tart for $3.50.  This tart is not too sweet and filled with lots of walnut pieces and the pastry is flaky.

We ended up bringing this Florentine home as the cake is simply too rich and we simply cant take another bite of sweet stuff.  This Florentine is layered with almonds and dried cranberries and raisins.  It is actually very good as it is not densed but crunchy and light.  This costs only $2.50.

We also brought home this two pieces of complementary truffles.  The story is when I presented the coupon from their website, we were told that the coupon is not valid anymore and in place, they let us pick a truffle each.  Well, they should have updated their website to prevent any more confusion in the future.  Anyway, Polly had the coconut ginger truflle as she seemed to be obsessed with ginger lately.  I had the Mango Jalapeno truffle which the spiciness did come through.  The truffles were sold by weight and it’s approximately $1 per each truffle as we were told.

The bill came up to $23.00.  If you are a chocolate lover, this is a place you should visit.

Charlene also demonstrated some Holiday Cutout Cookies in the Peach Mennonite Church Community Kitchen.   This is a fun session as everyone can participate in rolling out the dough, cutting out the cookies, and decorate the cookies.

Above are some samples of the decorated Holiday Cutout Cookies.

Ingredients:

For cookies:

• refer Raspberry Diamonds

For Icing:

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 2-3 tablespoons water

For decoration:

• food coloring
• sprinkles

Tool:

• cookies cutters

Click on Read More for the instructions.

Instructions

Prepare the cookie dough as per Raspberry Diamonds.  Divide the dough into 3 portions.  Flatten each piece into a 1-inch disk, and wrap in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate until firm, about 20 minutes. Roll each piece of dough between two sheets of parchment paper until 1/4 inch thick.  Loosen parchment paper on both sides, but remove only the top sheet.

With floured cookie cutters, cut dough into shapes.  Plan your cutting properly so that there will be minimum scraps for re-rolling.  Roll scraps together and repeat.

Place shapes 1 inch apart on cookie sheets lined with parchment paper.

It is important to place different size shapes on separate cookie sheet as the baking time differs depending on the size. Bake cookies in a 350F preheated oven until golden, about 12-15 minutes, switching pan positions halfway through baking. Let cookies cool on sheet for two minutes, then transfer to rack to cool completely.

To make the icing, mix powdered sugar, vanilla, and water together until smooth, and the icing can hold its shape when drizzled onto a flat surface.

Divide icing into several bowls and tint with food coloring to obtain desired colors.  Use one drop of coloring at a time.

Here are some colored icings.  You may combine different food coloring to achieve more colors.

Spoon icing into ziplock bags, cut a very tiny hole in one corner.

Ice cookies when they are completely cooled.

Icing idea: Cover a cookie completely with one color icing, then use a different color to create lines or dots.  Use a toothpick to swirl colors. Charlene, thank you so much for such a fun cookie making session.

After the Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen Christmas Potluck, a few of us went to Peace Mennonite Church Community Kitchen for a cookie making session.  This cookies making session is sponsored by Family Services and demonstrated by Charlene.

We made 2 types of cookies, one filled with raspberry jam and the other one is just holiday cutout cookies decorated with icings.   The dough for both the cookies are the same except that for the holiday cutout cookies, the dough has to be refrigerated for a firmer texture.

Ingredients

For cookies:

• 2 1/2 cups (11 1/4 oz) all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (8oz) unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• zest of 1 lemon, grated
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

For filing:

• 1/2 cup raspberry jam

For glaze:

• 1 cup confectioner’s sugar
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• drop of almond extract (optional)

Click on Read More for the instructions.

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a medium bowl, sieve the flour, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

In another medium bowl, cut up the butter for easier creaming.  The butter should be in room temperature.  However, on the day we had this cookie making session, it was a very cold day and the butter was still relatively hard.

Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes, using a hand mixer.

Zest the lemon.  Add the lemon zest to the butter/sugar mixture.

Add the lemon juice to the butter/sugar mixture.

Add vanilla extract and beat until blended.

Add the flour mixture, in a few batches, and blend well.  Divide the dough equally into 6 logs.  If the dough is very soft, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until slightly firmer.

Fill a ziplock bag with jam, snip off one tiny corner of the ziplock bag.

Grease two baking sheets or line with parchment paper. Remove dough from refrigerator and unwrap. Roll each log into a 12-inch rope, then place on the baking sheets and flatten slightly.  Use a chopstick, spoon handle or your finger  to make an indentation in the center of the log.

Squeeze a thin line of jam into the depression in each log.  Do not fill with too much jam or else the jam will overflow.

Bake in a 350F preheated oven until the cookie strips are lightly browned, about 20 minutes.  Let the cookie strips cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then transfer to a cutting board.  With a serrated knife, slice each log diagonally into 12 pieces, but dont separate.  Leave to cool. Make a glaze by combining confectioner’s sugar, lemon juice, and almond extract, if using.  When the cookies have completely cooled, drizzle glaze with a fork or fill a ziplock bag and snip a tiny corner to drizzle. Separate slices.  Cookies may be stored in an airtight container for one week.

Some of the attendees prefer to make thumbprint cookies.  So, they made a batch of them.

The thumbprint cookies were filled with raspberry jam and bake until lightly browned.

The Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen celebrated Christmas with a potluck as previous year.

We are glad to have Lorna (standing 3rd from left) to join us again.   Lorna gave us a very priceless gift from her late husband.  It is an art collection of Lorna’s husband arts with the title “Fascinating Mind of Nigel Tam”.  Nigel (1937-2008) was born and raised in an artistic family in Shanghai, China.  Nigel graduated from TaiNan Polytechnic and Taiwan Normal University with honour in Fine Arts.

Nigel was married to Lorna in 1971 and had two daughters.  In 1992, Nigel and family moved to Canada and established the “Tam’s Studio”, teaching art.  Nigel managed to publish his art works in the book “Fascinating Mind of Nigel Tam” just before he passed away.  This book contains art work from oil painting, ink painting and digital art work.  Lorna, thank you so much for sharing Nigel’s dream with us.

Besides sharing food, Karen made everyone a cute little ornament bell to be hang on our Christmas tree.  Karen, thank you for the crafted gift.  Frank also gave everyone some Japanese cookies and beautifully written Christmas cards.

Back to food, Heidi made this very fragrant 5 spice duck.  She told us she marinated the duck with 4 tablespoons of salt and 4 teaspoons of five-spice powder for 48 hours, wrapped with layers of paper towel to absorb all the moisture.  She then use some Shioxing wine to rinse the inside of the duck before steaming the duck for 40 minutes.  This 5-spice duck is her husband’s favourite.

Lorna made this dessert soup which is supposed to have healing effect for cough.  According to Chinese medicinal point of view, this dessert soup warms your lungs.  This soup has papaya, red dates, fig, white fungus (or snow ear fungus), north and south almond and sweetened with rock sugar.  According to Lorna, the dry white fungus has to be soaked and blanched to remove the sulfuric taste in it.

Click on Read More for more food.

Tanni made Satay Pork.  The pork is baked and rather lean.  The dipping sauce is not at all spicy to me but it’s enough for Jean to feel the spiciness in it.  I would love to have satay which is barbequed and lots of sambal in the sauce like here.

Jean made BBQ chicken.  Jean’s secret ingredient is the Kraft Chicken BBQ sauce.  Jean first saute some onion and garlic and brown the chicken.  Then she added the Kraft Chicken BBQ sauce and simmer until the chicken is cooked.  This will be great with some rice or noodle to soak up all the sauce.

Karen brought a traditional Canadian Macaroni and Cheese.  Her only complaint is that she could’nt get the old sharp Cheddar for her Mac and Cheese.

Charlene made Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding.

Minoo made Nut Brittle.

Lastly, I made Kuejadas (Portueges Tart).

We had a wonderful Christmas potluck and thank you all for sharing.  We wished everyone a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

As strange as it may seem but Lao Shan Dong is one of my fav eating spots but had never ever gotten to blogging about it.  This is despite also the fact that it is located within a 3 minutes walk from my office.

Lao Shan Dong is located at the busy intersection of Kingsway and Nelson in Burnaby.  The location is less than desired, I reckon.  You see, the restaurant is snucked into a recessed area of a principally an office building.

The looks of this place is just like any ordinary Taiwanese noodle house.  It is small with tables all packed that makes it sometimes impossible to navigate through.  But despite that Lao Shan Dong is steeped in history.  Apparently this Lao Shan Dong is a branch of the legendary Taipei restaurant which dates all the way back 60 years.  The original Lao Shan Dong was opened in 1949.

I finally brought the whole family to eat here.  It is a long drive from Richmond which we do not normally do anymore.  OK, I work around here but driving that distance to work and driving to eat is a different thing altogether.

This restaurant is always busy but I had never had to wait for long even at the busiest of times.  They turn the tables very fast.  Frankly, this place seems very much like a fast food joint.  People come in, order, eat and go.

For starters, we had the House Special Cold Meat Combination.  They have it in two servings … large for $8.95 and small for $6.95.  We had the large one.  It consists mainly of Pig Ear and Beef (?) slices.  It was good except that we find the sauce a little too thick and salty.  If they had diluted it a bit, it would be just perfect.

Their star dish is the one above … called the Braised Beef Flank with Noodle in Soup/Spicy (Small $6.95 and Large $8.75).   Be forewarned, even their small is more than enough for a large person.

They have perfected this dish.  The meat is simply tender and the soup utterly delicious.  I think they specially hand make the noodles too because it sure does not taste like mass produced ones.

I had the same as the Beef Flank Noodle Soup but opted for the version with Beef Tendons instead.  Instead of getting a small one ($7.95), I ordered the large one ($10.25).

The dish is ridiculously large.  It has more than enough food for two people.

Look at the above for size!

All of these looked the same right?  The one above is Beef Flank with Bean Thread.  Bean Thread is not a good idea because it has a tendency to soak up most of the soup rendering it almost like dry noodles very quickly.

Nanzaro bucked the trend by ordering the Dry Noodle with Special Beef Sauce (Spicy).

Total bill was $44.52 before tips and taxes.  I do think they have the best Taiwanese Beef Noodle Soup in Vancouver.

2008 had been a great year for Suanne and I.  Looking back, we know we had been blessed with so many things in life.  We are glad that chowtimes had grown quite a bit last year and it now been such a rewarding thing to do, socially and financially.  All these would not have been possible if not for all of you readers and the tremendous support you gave Suanne and I.

To many, 2009 will be a year to be approached with trepidation.  But that’s life, you get some ups and downs.  For this blog, Suanne and I have just only one wish for the new year … and that we will continue to have this passion to continue blogging on food and travel.  Actually, there is a second wish … that as we continue to blog about food that we maintain our weight throughout the year!  LOL!

Here is wishing all of our readers a very BLESSED New Year and may the new year brings true your dreams and hopes.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

It seems like we Richmondites living south of the City Hall are second class citizens.  Until TODAY, the side streets are still a mess … it is passable but we still have our four lane street relegated to a single lane.  Despite the warmer air the past two days, the hard packed snow is not really melting at all.

Anyway, we ventured out again for lunch.  We wanted to go to Top Shanghai but it was absolutely packed.  So, instead, we pop over the new place next door.  It’s called Tri-ty Cafe … odd name but it looked good.

Tri-ty is located on the strip mall on Akroyd and No 3 Road.  It’s on the side where Safe-On-Food is.  Parking was madness that day because of all the snow piles taking up a lot of the parking bays.  To add to the madness, everyone is taking the advantage of the break in the weather to venture out.

You know the reason behind the Tri-ty name.  Well, it is QualiTY, QuantiTY and TasTY!

Actually, Tri-Ty is a hip place that caters mainly for the younger crowd.  The decor has really clean lines but not spotlessly clean.  It seems like a great place to hang out for youngsters because they pasted a cheap looking sign that says something like you gotta spend a minimum of $3 to hangout here … something like that.  I thought that the sign kind of cheapens the place!

From the looks of it, this seems like a Taiwanese style restaurant.

What I like about this place is that a lot of thought outside-the-box in placed on the little details.  They even have one of those fadish electronic picture frames which flashes the delicious looking food and drinks.  I think it is an awesome idea.  We couldn’t help but kept on looking for what is shown next.  I bet this draws a few extra orders … it is like a more modern version of “would you like fries with that?”.

I have seen chopstick stands quite commonly but the one above beats the rest.  It is both a soup spoon and a chopstick stand.  Pretty neat.  I wonder where I could find one of these.

For appetizers, we ordered the Marinated Intestines because I know my boys had taken to a liking of this.  The intestines were served warm which contrasted very nicely with the cold sourish pickled cabbage.  It came with two types of sauces too (also one hot and one cold).  We expected the texture to be chewy but instead it is soft.  It is simply good.  $4.50.

I had the Hakka Pickled Cabbage Hotpot which is unique in that it came in a wooden platform.  This is safer compared to just the bare metal hotpot.  This $9.50 meal came with a serving of rice and a small dessert.

Although $9.50 is a bit pricey but it is worth the price.  It has a very generous serving of mainly pork stomach and lots of pickled cabbage.

What I did not like was the pig(?) blood.  So, I left it untouched … and not one in the family wants it.  The thought of eating it turns us off but I know many people likes this.

They gave each of us these small saucers of smallish tapioca pearls.  Because it was served in such a small saucer, I thought that for a moment it is some condiment I need to throw into the hotpot.

Suanne also ordered the hotpot (also $9.50) but opted for the more unusual Hokkaido Milk Hotpot.  The whitish soup tastes kind of weird to me but Suanne seems to like it.  Well, I am not exactly a fan of milk anyway.  This hotpot has a chockful of ingredients like fish cakes, pork slices, prawns, artificial crab meat, meat balls and suey choy.

Nanzaro, the “fried rice everyday” boy, ordered the Fried Rice with Deep Fried Fermented Pork.  At $8.50, it is more of a fried pork rice than it is fried rice but is really good.  This is like a step up for Nanzaro!

Arkensen though had noodles … the House Special Beef Noodle in Spicy Soup.  If you like spicy hot food, they make really spicy ones.  I am actually quite pleasantly surprised how spicy this one is.  This one is $8.50.

The total bill before tips and taxes came up to $42.53 which is not too bad.  Tri-ty is a nice surprise find.  We like it a lot and told ourselves we will return again.  Please note that they take cash only.

I had scanned in Tri-Ty’s menu here in PDF.  You should check their menu out.  Ordering is also very simple because they give you the menu in a pamphlet form for you to mark the order you want.  Tri-Ty has a very extensive menu and a very impressive 5-page “Light Meal” and drinks menu.  I highly recommend them.