Spanakopita
While the Beef Stew is simmering away, Mona, also another relatively new member of the community kitchen, demonstrated how to make Spanakopita, a Greek finger food. Mona is a cancer survivor and she is very careful with her food intake. She tries her best to buy organic food and she never uses the microwave oven.
Spanakopita
The Spanakopita is crispy on the outside and the filings is very fragrance and slightly salty and cheesy.
Ingredients
- A package of phyllo pastry (16 – 18 sheets)
- a big bunch of parsley
- a bunch of green onion or chives
- a bunch of fresh spinach
- a bunch of dill, leaves only (Mona used dills from her garden which she had frozen)
- 2 tablespoons butter (Mona used home made butter from organic milk)
- 2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 cups shredded Mozzarella cheese
- 200g feta cheese
- 2 eggs
All the vegetables are organic vegetables and Mona bought them from a farm which her friend operates.
Click yellow thumbie on the left if you like this postBeef Stew with Split Peas a la Lime (Gheimeh)
In the Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen, we had a new member to demonstrate a Persian recipe. Azar is an Iranian and she enjoys the community kitchen as she can learn about food from other cultures and also practice her English. Azar is a beautician and I was told that she does a very good job in threading, an ancient method of hair removal which originated in India and gaining popularity in the Middle and Far East.
The Beef Stew has a very lemony flavour. The flavour comes from the dried lime which can be found in Persian stores and is relatively cheap. Minoo volunteers to get us some the next time she goes groceries shopping at a Persian store.
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 teaspoons tumeric powder
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 1 cup split peas
- 1 lb beef or lamb, cubed
- 3 dried lime
- 2 teaspoons lemon powder
- 3 cups water
- salt and cinnamon to taste
- 2 large potatoes, cut into sticks for making fries
Click on Read More for the instructions.
Mix The Bakery revisited
When Polly and I first visited Mix the Bakery in Vancouver, we said we will return to try other types of cakes. Surely, we did after a long time. The bakery is very busy, just like our previous visit. It was a rainy day and the rain did not stop people from coming for a cup of coffee and some great dessert. Lots of people came to buy their bread.
Polly and I ordered 3 items to share this time. We remembered our mistake of ordering 4 items to share the last time and it was way too much sweet treat for a day.
The first item we ordered was a Pumpkin Cheesecake as pumpkin is in season. It is quite a dense cheesecake and just the way we like cheesecake.
The second item is a Lemon Passion Fruit Cake. It is a cake layered with a lightly tangy custardy filing and top with whipped cream and lemon curd. I like this too as the sourness cuts back the feeling of fullness or ‘lau’ in Cantonese. The two slices of cake above cost $4.95 each.
The last item was ordered impromptu as we were about to pay. It looks very delicious with the chocolate topping. This is called Pienik Spice Cake. It is made with apple, nuts and spice. It tastes very much like Christmas fruit cake and it’s quite crumbly. This slice costs less than $4.
The total bill came to $17.74 with 2 medium house brew coffee.
Dragon Garden Restaurant in Langley
Geoff and Joy and our family took a drive to Langley to visit Whitney and Ken on a Saturday. We wanted to introduce our new friends who had just landed in Vancouver from NZ recently. It was a long drive but was glad to find that they had finally completed the upgrade to Route 10 which makes the drive much more faster and easier.
For dinner, Whitney recommended that we go to a Chinese restaurant. The way she put it is as if there are hardly any good Chinese restaurant in Langley and Dragon Garden is about the best it could get.
Dragon Garden is more of a Chop Suey, Sweet and Sour Pork and Fortune Cookies type of Chinese restaurant, if you know what I mean. Even the name tells you as much. You see most of these Chinese restaurant are not quite creative in naming the restaurant and uses a combination of words like Golden, Dragon, Inn, Garden, Gate, Imperial, Pheonix, Silver, Fortune, Lucky, etc.
It was a Saturday evening and for the whole time we were about the only customer there. If not for us taking up a table for 11 people, they would probably have almost no business for the day.
Let’s talk about table arrangements. In Chinese restaurants, larger tables are ALWAYS round and NEVER long. Most large tables will fit about 10 people. I find this arrangement more practical as one gets to interact with one another all round this way. Moreover, food are normally shared (i.e. formal dinners are not served individually) and it makes the sharing of dishes easier.
Dishes are not normally passed around but one unique thing is the “lazy susan” (see above). Tell me … are the Chinese the only cuisine that uses “lazy susans” on the dining table? I think they are.
Whitney did all the ordering. Because of so many kids around, she ordered dishes that kids likes.
Do you know what is the heaviest food in the world? It is called the 1-ton-soup.
Anyway, we had the large serving which has 18 pcs of wontons and costs $9.95. This works to be about $1 per 100kg, give or take. :-)
The Assorted Meat with Tofu Hot Pot was pretty good. I felt the hot pot is somewhat small. $12.95.
Everyone love the Mandarin Pork Chops ($10.95). They had a very odd reddish color. We asked the waitress what makes the color like this and she said “it must be coloring”!! Beeep!! Wrong answer! LOL!
She should not have been so honest. Saying “I don’t know” sounds more acceptable than “it must be coloring”. Right?
The Szechuan Chicken is supposed to be hot but it was not. This $9.95 dish was alright but I was not too excited over it.
The above is from the Chop Suey section and described as “Lo-Hon-Chai” and in brackets “(Very Special Chinese Vegetarian Dish)”. $9.95 … and we had some left overs.
The kids’ favourites are undoubtedly the Yeung Chow Fried Rice. I just don’t quite understand why fried rice are so popular with kids.
And the Beef with Rice Noodle was the final dish. Whitney said that the skill of a chef boils down to the chef being able to “wok hei” this dish. Is there an equivalent English word for “wok hei”? Sadly, most of us said that this did not measure up … $8.25.
Overall, the food was quite OK and some of the dishes were delicious. The service was superb, friendly and attentive.
He he he … I feel sad for you, Whitney and Ken. You guys should come back and stay in Richmond where real Chinese food are! Anyway, we do not know how much the whole meal was because Ken sneakily went to pay for the dinner and refused to take our share. You see, this is a very Chinese thing … we often fight to have the honor to pay for the meal. So … thanks a lot for paying Whitney and Ken … it was so generous of you as we had always known you to be. We owe you one … next time you come back to the civilization called Richmond, I’ll bring you to a place where they don’t have Chop Sueys and Fortune Cookies. LOL! You’re such a pal!
Howie’s Bistro and Bar on Lougheed Highway, Burnaby
This is a complementary meal from Howie’s Bistro and Bar.
I must admit. It had been a horrid week at work last week. Fresh from a successful roll out of one project, I had been plonked right into a distressed project which had been millions over budget, months overdue and the scope loosely defined. That goes without saying that team morale is not particularly high. I had to virtually reset the project plan and that resulted in 10-12 hour days. At the end of the week, I was totally drained and what I wanted was just forget about work and go out for a drink and a meal.
Of late, we had quite a lot of recommendations for places to try. Maria suggested that we check out Howie’s in Burnaby. I checked Howie’s website and decided that this is exactly what I wanted. Since Suanne was around Kingsway on errands, we made plans for a nice dinner and drinks … just the two of us.
Howie’s Bistro and Bar is located on Lougheed Hwy and Bainsbridge Ave.
We were there just after five and we found that we were the only customer there. We love the setting. It was really well maintained with everything arranged so carefully. They even have a stage and a dance floor. It was after seven that the crowds began to turn up. Apparently, they have nightly events and tonight was a dance night. Suanne and I are not into the dancing scene and we were quite surprised to see how many people actually come by for a dance. They even have karaoke on Thursday nights.
My mind was fixated on a nice drink. This was perfect because Howie had quite an extensive drink and wine menu. We took our time and just ordered the drinks before we figure out the food. For all I care, I wanted to take my own sweet time and forget about work!
I ordered the Howie’s Com’n Gold which is described as “aliz? gold passion, peach schnapps, lychee liqueur, mango & raspberry”. I had no idea what it is but were told that it is like Bellini … fruity and all but with a Howie’s twist. It sounded good to me. This one is $7. This gave me a severe brain freeze when I took my first sip too fast.
Suanne does not (officially) drink alcoholic drinks. So she tried to choose something from the puny 1 page non-alcohol section. There were nothing quite exciting except for the “Nordic Non-alcoholic Beer” which is basically a Molson Exel.
The drinks came and Suanne took a sip of my cocktail and a sip of her “beer” and decided that she likes my one better. She kept the drink. Midway through the meal, she kept on asking me, like for a trillion times, if her face is red. How can I tell, I told her … the place is not exactly very bright. She also kept on telling me her heart is beating like mad. Oh yeah … she likes it alright.
In my dating days with her, I would have gotten her a couple more of this … get her drunk … and then … oh … I digressed. Back to food. LOL!
We next got ourselves a couple of appys. The $8 Coconut Shrimp was awesome. The prawns were huge and very fleshy. The orange marmalade sauce in the middle was the perfect dip for the shredded coconut battered shrimp. I highly recommend this one for an appetizer.
We did not count on the second appetizer being so large. When they brought it to our table, it smelt so wonderful. We were told that this is coated with some Japanese ingredient called “panko” to make the batter lighter.
Although this is called the Hot and Spicy Calamari it is not hot except for the jalapenos which was quite mild. This apparently is a popular one because we overheard the customer who sat behind us immediately ordered this even before they sat down. For $8, it is quite a huge dish … more like an entree sized serving if you ask me.
The bread came next and it was warm and chewy, just the way we like it. I wished that the butter they served were not so hard (perhaps just out from the fridge). Thumbs up.
For the mains, I ordered the Chicken Oscar. It consists of a chicken breast topped a very creamy hollandaise sauce …
… but what I love most is it is also topped with lots of crab meat. I enjoyed this tremendously and am glad I selected this. This is $18. For a cheap person like me, I find it a tad too expensive although I must say it did not disappoint me.
Suanne ordered the Linguine with Prawns. It was beautifully garnished with green onions, don’t you think? Suanne felt that the white wine lemon sauce is too light to her liking but I thought otherwise. The thing we both agree is that the springy prawns were great with the pasta. $16.
I wanted to resist desserts but Suanne insisted on it. I know she is as full as I was but I also know she cannot pass on dessert. You know, I think desserts are girl things … I am not sure why but most girls I know get very delighted with dessert.
We ordered the Banana Foster ($6) which has a delightfully crispy crepe wrapping ice cream with thinly sliced bananas on it.
It was sinfully awesome and we dripped the dessert everywhere (it was kind of hard sharing a dish across the table).
All in all, we totally enjoyed the meal and a total diversion from work. If you are around Burnaby, I really think you should check this place out, especially if you are into dancing as it seems like a very popular event.
This is a good recommendation, Maria and exactly what I needed. Thanks a bunch.
