Space Food of Space Shuttle Atlantis

ChowtimesNoWord32x32This post is written upon free samples from beefjerky.com. Beefjerky.com sent us 2 packets of jerky to try. We are not paid for this post.

Last week, on November 16th, NASA launched it’s latest Space Shuttle mission.

Image Credit: wikipedia.org
Image Credit: wikipedia.org

That mission, code named STS-129 is to send spare equipments to the International Space Station to prolong the operations of the 11-year old space research facility. STS-129 is the first of five missions needed to complete its objectives.

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A few weeks ago, a food manufacturer wrote to us asking if we would like samples of one of the food that had been selected for this NASA mission. What do you think?? I know this will be interesting reading to our readers … so we said, bring them on.

Three days before Space Shuttle Atlantis lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, a package landed in the chowtimes Operations Center in Richmond. That is Richmond, BC … not Richmond, VA.

Have you ever tried Space Food before? I bet you have. Tangs comes to mind for one. Do they still make it these days? Anyway, we did not get Tangs. What we had was … (more…)

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Churros from Empanada Hut in Lansdowne Mall, Richmond

Updated: 7th March 2011: This outlet is closed according to Urbanspoon.com.

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.

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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.

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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…)

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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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!

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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…)

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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.

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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

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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…)

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Canape

The last dish Minoo made for the seniors Christmas celebration is Canape. Canape is a finger food which often served during cocktail hours. Canape are usually salty or spicy. Traditionally, canape are build on stale while bread but for simplicity, we use baguette as the base and topped with a mixture of olives and nuts.

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Minoo made two different flavours of canape, one with black olives and another with green olives. I prefer the one with black olives as it’s milder in taste. For those who love olives, the green one has a more intense olives flavour.

Ingredients

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Click on Read More for the instructions.

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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.

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The Spanakopita is crispy on the outside and the filings is very fragrance and slightly salty and cheesy.

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Ingredients

  • A package of phyllo pastry (16 – 18 sheets)
  • a big bunch of parsley, finely chopped
  • a bunch of green onion or chives, finely chopped
  • a bunch of fresh spinach
  • a bunch of dill, leaves only (Mona used dills from her garden which she had frozen), finely chopped
  • 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

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All the vegetables are organic vegetables and Mona bought them from a farm which her friend operates.

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