SECRET GARDEN TEA COMPANY, KERRISDALE

At the Secret Garden Tea Company, you get lovely real fine bone china and a menu of specialty teas to choose from.  Each person gets her own pot and I chose a lovely green tea.

The tea menu is HERE.

High Tea goodies are served on a pretty three-tiered tray.  The bottom tray has the mini sandwiches.  There are just enough (count ‘em) for each person. 

GOLDEN HARVEST RESTAURANT

Fish maw seafood soup.  Rating:  5/6

I don’t eat fish maw so it always ends up in Stomach’s bowl.  Ha!  I liked the depth of the broth and found the seafood both abundant and cooked perfectly.


Peking Duck.  Love duck.  Rating:  5/6

MUI GARDEN (MAIN STREET)

Chasiu (bbq pork) noodle soup.  Rating:  5/6


Lai Tong (house special soup…comp) Comfort food!


Curry Beef Brisket.  Comes with accompanying steamed rice.  Price:  $8.50     Rating:  6/6

The BEST curried beef brisket in Metro Vancouver…perhaps all of Canada!  I have never had such tender brisket in my life.  The curry is unique; with a coconut base, but it’s not like Thai curry and it definitely isn’t that insipid yellow Chinese curry.  It had great flavour and has to be tried!  That is, if you like Curried beef brisket.  They also have other meats and veg to choose from for their curries, but this is the classic and it always comes with steamed white rice.  You can’t order the curry by itself.  I guess they don’t see the point of doing that because you need a ton of rice to sop up all the great curry.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME…

My birthday cake: a  6” Black Forest cake from St. Germain Bakery, Oakridge Mall, Vancouver, B.C.

Stomach is out of town on a business trip for the week and end of term is near.  I’ve got marking coming out of my ears and I have a big exam coming up (which will entail more marking afterwards)! yahoo.

My birthday comes at a time of the year when everyone’s kind of busy with their day-to-day life and at my stage of life, it’s not always a priority to celebrate.  Let’s face it, nowadays it is way more fun to celebrate a birthday when you are a kid.  I mean, what with the cool cakes your mom makes for you and the huge group of friends amassed at a play palace running around, sweating and screaming, and all those presents?  Come on.  Nothing compares to a kid’s birthday party.  An adult birthday. meh.

Though I no longer celebrate with a huge group of friends and now instead go out to dinner and lunches with each of my girlfriends…primarily to catch up, I still insist on a birthday cake, even if I don’t have time to make one for myself.

Since Stomach was away, on my birthday on Tuesday,  my mother handed me 20 bucks and said “Here, go and buy yourself a cake.”  That’s my mom.  Direct.  No nonsense.  She still gives me a bday card and a red envelope every year with 100 bucks for me to spend on whatever gift I want too.   In my parents’ household growing up, that’s how it was.  Always a cake, usually dinner out and the red envelope.  It makes so much sense.  I think I’ll have to institute the red envelope when the kiddies hit the teenage years. 

I went to St. Germain, an Asian bakery located at the Oakridge Mall shopping centre.  I knew I could get a decent cake for under $20 here.  I chose the 6inch Black Forest because it was…well, chocolate.  The 6” cake was $18.  That’s my primary motive for choosing desserts.  * Chocolate*.   The frosting is a fresh whipped cream and there’s a cherry-kirsch jelly filling that is solid to the point that it resembles an agar jelly.  It slices cleanly and is totally unlike the European cherry fillings that are more sauce-like.  Though the solid texture of the cherry filling was unsettling, it wasn’t unpleasant.    The fresh fruit and the light texture of the whipping cream was refreshing.  The sponge layers are chocolate chiffon. 

I came home with the cake, made Shake ‘n Bake, roasted brussel sprouts, gravy and mashed yukon gold potatoes (my kids’ favourites) for dinner and we had the cake for dessert.  We scarfed down almost half the cake.  The girls loved it--but not the cherry jelly, which I had to eat off of their plates.

Oh, and the ulterior motive for choosing this bakery?  I went on a shopping spree at the mall.  The red envelope was burning a hole in my pocket.  I firmly believe in buying myself a gift, or two or more! for my birthday.   Who knows better than the birthday girl what she wants?

BONE-DRY CHICKEN PIES

Looks promising, eh? 

I have been seeking the perfect recipe for those HK chicken pies that we buy at the local Chinese bakery.  They are unlike western pies because they’re small (tart-sized), they are savoury but also a bit sweet due to the addition of a bit of confectioners’ sugar in the tart dough, and the filling is primarily of chicken (thigh) chunks and ham.  These pies I suspect are made with lard because they taste so good.  I cannot bring myself to use lard (but interestingly I have no problem using pure butter)!

The end-product I am hoping for doesn’t have the requisite white sauce that western pies have; nor is there an abundance of veggies.  I followed the recipe exactly and was very disappointed, though not that surprised, that it was very dry.  The pies I purchase from Anna’s, our favourite chicken pie source, are on the dry side, but they are savoury and the filling kind of sticks together from I am guessing, a sort of cornstarch-thickened sauce made from the filling juices and possibly chicken stock. 
This recipe shows promise.  I made one test pie first and almost gagged from the bone-dry product.  For the rest of the batch, I then doctored the filling with a cornstarch-slurry thickened sauce made with chicken broth and stirred that into the meat filling.  It still needs something…like maybe some sauteed onions and more mushrooms.  I am inclined to add a sauce of some sort because I actually like a really moist filling.  I just worry that it’ll leak out of the little tarts as the dough is more like a shortcrust. 

So now I have about a dozen of these little pies to eat and though they’re not that bad, you really need a cup of hot tea or a tall glass of milk with them.  After I’ve figured out how to improve the recipe, I’ll post it.  I’ll be trying it with mushrooms, sauteed onions and a little white sauce first.   Hope it’ll work out!  I’ll keep you posted on my testing.

PURPLE CUPCAKE BALLS

I have rediscovered the joys of cakeballs.

Since Daylight Saving time, it’s been such a drag what with such little sunshine during waking hours.  My little ones are constantly asking if it’s time for bed yet because it’s dark so early. 

I have little inclination to bake (as you can see from my lack of posts) because I’m so tired from just the daily grind of work and household management.  What I have found time for is cakeballs.  If you're not a baker, or you're too lazy to make a cake and frosting from scratch,  turn to my trusty pal, Betty Crocker (or Duncan Hines).  Horrors!  Yes, it's perfectly fine for cakeballs.  In fact, it's preferable because you'll be expending most of your energy on cakeball decorating--the fun part.