All Entries Tagged With: "Snack"
Churros from Empanada Hut in Lansdowne Mall, Richmond
We are still searching for the perfect Churros in Metro Vancouver ever since we tried that great Spanish snack during our vacation in Spain this past summer.
So when Jonnek twitter’d me saying that he found Churros in Richmond, Suanne and I was pretty excited. BTW, did you know that we are on Twitter too? If you are interested to also follow us on Twitter, it is on http://twitter.com/chowtimes.
Our boys wanted to get the newly released Modern Warfare 2 from Best Buy (MW2 is an amazing game). So, we all took a drive to the Lansdowne Mall to pick up the game from Best Buy and then pop over to the food court to check out the Churros.
Jonnek informed us that the Churros can be found at the Empanada Hut.
Empanada Hut is famous for their empanadas. Having just had lunch, we decided not to try them although they looked very mouth-watering. Foodosophy did a write-up once on these empanadas, so you might want to check it out here.
Our mission here was the Churros. Here it is … More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Kale Chips
I had heard of Kale Chips from Arzeena’s facebook posting but had never try it before. Apparently, it is very easy to make. This is a very healthy snack. As a matter of fact, I would even call this a vegetarian chips because it is made of vegetables. I’m glad that Frank and Christina will be making Kale Chips in the South Arm Cooking Club for Seniors.
The Kale Chips have the texture of potato chips and taste like Japanese dried seaweed. It’s amazing what a quick roast in the oven can do to these greens!
Ingredients
- 1 bunch of kale, try to get those with flatter leaves for a crispier texture
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Excellent Tofu and Snacks on Hazelbridge Way and Browngate, Richmond
On the way home after tasting “Mao Ze Dong’s Most Favoured Dish“, I suggested to Suanne that we go get some sweet dessert.
I actually am not that crazy over dessert but I know Suanne will definitely say yes.
We had always wanted to try the Tofu Pudding from Excellent Tofu and Snack. They are located on the strip mall by Hazelbridge and Browngate. It is just a couple of doors away from Lido.
Service was terrible here. The lady manning the long low counter sure looked grumpy and has a face as long as my arms. No smiles but that’s OK with us. She was kind of not too pleased when we try to asked questions about her menu.
And then she sweetened up when she noticed that we pull out a camera and notebook. She was MUCH more sweeter to us after that and her tone changed. LOL!
Excellent Tofu is basically a soy pudding place. Their menu is simple. It is either soy pudding with toppings or flavoured ones. They have some tofu based snacks too.
I ordered the one with black glutinous rice. I had an option for either More on following page. Click here to continue reading
Taro Cake
Back to the South Arm Community Kitchen, Peggy demonstrated to us how to make Taro Cake. Taro Cake is a common dim sum item. It can be eaten fresh from the steamer or lightly pan fry to give it a crispy outer layer. The Taro Cake can be eaten as a snack or even as a meal.
Peggy made two loaves of Taro Cake in the kitchen. She also brought one which she made earlier as the cake needs to be cooled down before you can slice it up into pieces for frying. The Taro Cake is so good that the group finish all the three loaves of Taro Cake.
Peggy’s Taro Cake is filled with pork and mushroom. However, you can substitute the filings with dried shrimp and Chinese sausage which are more commonly found in Dim Sum places.
Ingredients
- 2 cups grated Taro
- 1/2 cup ground pork
- 1/4 cup chopped shallot
- 1/4 cup thinly sliced dried mushroom
- 2 cups rice flour
- 1 cup cold water
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- soy sauce paste as dipping sauce
Home-made Beef Jerky
We are glad to have Lucy demonstrates in the Gilmore Park Church Community Kitchen. Lucy has signed up for a pharmacy course and once her class starts in early March, she will not be able to attend the community kitchen anymore. We do wish her the best in her future undertakings.
Lucy made this spicy Beef Jerky in the community kitchen. She brought some of these Home-made Beef Jerky for us to try on a previous meeting and all of us love it. We are glad that she can show us how to make it. These spicy beef jerky is so good that we cant stop snacking on it. If you cant eat spicy food, you can leave out the hot chili powder. We actually made two batches, one with hot chili powder and another without because Frank cant take spicy food. They are both good but I preferred the spicy one, of course. According to Lucy, after refrigeration, it will not tastes as spicy as it just comes out from the oven.
Ingredients
- 1kg stewing beef
- 40ml water
- 90ml soy sauce
- 50ml sugar
- 12.5ml (2 1/2 teaspoons) ground Szechuan pepper ground (dry roast whole Szechuan pepper corn until fragrant, place in a ziplock bag and use a rolling pin to crush the pepper until fine)
- 12.5ml (2 1/2 teaspoons) hot chili powder
- 3 to 5 star anise
- 3 to 5 thin slices of ginger
Pineapple Jerky from Jerky.com
Guess what came through the mail last week. A quick scan of the envelope showed that it’s a package from Jerky.com. I was rather surprised this package actually came … and that it passed Canadian Customs.
I received an email from Jerky.com asking if we would like to try one of their latest product. Doug was pretty convincing that what he had is going to be awesome, in his words. Sure thing … awesome is good … so I asked him to send some over all the way from Texas.
The awesome new product he was referring to was … tada … Pineapple Jerky. Yes, PINEAPPLE Jerky. We could not wait to try them out. We had never come across fruity jerkies before … beef jerky yes … fruit jerky no.
We double check to make sure it’s not some pineapple flavored jerky … no siree. It is the real thing. 100% natural … so the packaging said. And made in Maui too. Of course now … pineapples and Hawaii are synonymous.
What I had was sample packages which came in singles. If you order from them, it comes in packs of 5-8 slices in a bag.
Nanzaro commented that it looked like a flower and nothing resembling a pineapple. It is a healthy one-of-a-kind snack. Sticky, sweet and tangy, these hand-sliced pieces of pineapple are dehydrated and drizzled with honey. It has a certain exquisite taste … very unique and makes us wished they had shipped more!
You can order the Pineapple Jerky here. Shipping is free in the US but am not sure if they will also ship free to Canada.
“Yes Virginia … there is such a thing as Gourmet Jerky”!
Corner 23 on Cambie, Vancouver
You know, ever since we stepped into Flo Tea Room, my attention is now focused on BBTs. I have come to learned that BBT is short for Bubble Tea in foodie-speak. It is very much like AYCE and HKSC and TBN.
Come to think of it, we serious foodies must unite and make up a glossary of foodie acronyms. Tell me if you know of any foodie acronyms and I’ll compile a comprehensive list and post it.
OK, I admit. Other than AYCE, I made up HKSC and TBNH. Can anyone tell me what is HKSC and TBNH? LOL!
Bubble Tea is so Asian. I am not sure what exactly it is that makes it appealing mostly to Asians. Whites drink Starbucks and I had hardly heard of any self-respecting Gwei-lo’s liking it. Strange. I remember we once bought some to the office for our visitors from Atlanta. Those guys did not even touch a single cup although they kept asking about that little black balls in them.
Anyway, Jenny of My Secret Eden recommended to us her favourite BBT place. Corner 23 is located at the … well … corner of 23rd and Cambie. It’s easy to remember the address. Parking seems to be a problem when we went there as there are very limited and tight parking at the rear of the restaurant.
We were kind of surprised that there are so many wait staff in this place. And all of them are very young looking too … like I mean, where is the adult supervision in this place? LOL! Actually they were really helpful bunch of people and have lots of energy. I was rather impressed with them all.
Corner 23, like most BBT places, is also a youngster hangout which means it is quite noisy. We did not mind at all.
I know it is winter now in Vancouver. But wanted to try something new. We had BBTs already the last time so we opted for Slush instead. Their Slush’s costs $4.75 each. So we got ourselves a Tangerine Lemon Slush and a Lemon Yogurt Slush.
The Tangerine Lemon Slush has a citrus-ey taste as expected. However I cant taste any yogurt in the Lemon Yogurt Slush. They are fun drinks … that’s what it is to us.
Ahhhh … a chip off the old block. Nanzaro also gets brain freeze drinking slushes … just like his dad. You know, he will grow up to be exactly like me … that’s my boy! LOL.
Corner 23 has a rather extensive menu. If you are new to this place and do not know what to order, just flip over to the “Classical Taiwanese Dish” section of the menu. Pretty much everything you like about Taiwanese food is found here.
We did not even bother with this section. We already know what we wanted. We wanted exactly the same things that Jenny had when she blogged about it on her website.
If there is only one dish you are going to order, this is the ONE. Formally known as Wan Luan Pork Hock, you can just call this Pork Hock and they will know what you want. If you get this, please … please … please … keep this a secret from your doctor, OK? I never let my doctor know I dig this artery clogging good stuff.
This is unbelievably tender and fatty … simple awesome. We ordered the small one ($9) but they also have it in larger serving ($18). I can handle a $9 guilt but not the $18 one. More on following page. Click here to continue reading
