CATS ‘N CHEESE

Cats ‘n Cheese:  Caramelized onions, sundried tomatoes, creamy cheese sauce and toasty breadcrumbs with Cats Ears.



What? you thought this was going to be a recipe for something else?


Besides, I’m allergic to cats.


meow.


CAKEBRAIN’S CATS ‘N CHEESE RECIPE


Actually, I'm just pulling your leg...this isn’t really a recipe--just a bunch of general instructions.  You're smart.  You can figure it out.  I made up this sophisticated version of Mac 'n Cheese along the way.  Add whatever else you want…sauteed mushrooms, asparagus, artichokes.  MMMM.   Grab a bag of orecchiette; cook according to package instructions and drain.  Make a Bechamel (white sauce) and stir in 4 cups of grated cheddar cheese (I used half white and half orange).   In a saute pan, add 1/4 cup chopped sundried tomatoes (packed in olive oil) and 1  finely chopped onion.  Saute gently until the onions are transparent.  Buzz up a slice of good white sandwich bread in your handy dandy food processor; drizzle crumbs with EVOO and toss to mix thoroughly.  Pour the pasta, the onions & sundried tomatoes mixture and sauce into a large shallow casserole.  Sprinkle the crumbs over the surface.  Bake for 30 minutes  at 350 degrees F. or until crumbs are golden and sauce  is bubbly.

CREPES

Crepes remind me of my trip to France in 2001.  Ahhh.  I lived with my penpal of over 27 years, V. and travelled throughout France with her and her now-husband, P.  I had the time of my life.  We lived for awhile in P’s brother’s home in Annecy for a while.  There, we made homemade crepes on a brand new specialty T-Fal pan that V. purchased at the T-Fal factory. 

You don’t know the pain I suffered as a foodie in France, visiting all those wonderful shops around France; woefully conscious of the lack of space in my luggage that I would have to drag up and down those imposing Metro stairs (no elevators!)  on my own on the way back home.  I had already purchased a huge copper pan from our travels and handmade bowls made by nuns in a convent we passed by.  I had no more room for T-Fal products, but I wanted wanted wanted!  The T-Fal nonstick crepe pan had a larger surface area than what we would find in North America.    It was also way shallower.   It even came with a handy wooden dowel to smooth the crepe batter.  The pan was a cinch to hold as it was light…and you could also flip the crepes easily this way.  In Vancouver, I looked high and low for these pans but alas, there were none. 

Here are some pics from France, of me trying my hand with the T-Fal pan.  The dowel allowed you to make a super thin crepe that wasn’t bumpy.

Here I am deftly flippy the huge crepe. 

In Vancouver, I purchased a similarly large crepe pan but it was made of cast iron and covered with an enamel surface.  There’s no flipping this baby.  It’s so heavy…but I think that’s designed to distribute the heat more evenly.

In France, my favourite filling for sweet crepes was Nutella, of course.   My favourite savoury crepe was ham and cheese.  My daughters, being allergic to nuts (too bad!) love crepes with jam.    Anything goes in my opinion. 

Interestingly, V. & P.  never used recipes when they cooked.   However, I have included one if you are inclined to try your hand at it.  Do use a nonstick pan and your life will be a lot easier.


CREPES

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon sugar
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1 2/3 cups milk
• 1 tablespoon melted butter
• 1/3 cup water
• butter, oil or nonstick spray for frying

1. Sift the flour, salt and sugar into a bowl and make a well in the centre.  Mix the liquid ingredients together with 1/3 cup water and pour slowly into the well, whisking all the time to incorporate the flour until you have a smooth batter.  Stir in the melted butter.  Cover and refrigerate 20 minutes or overnight.
2. Heat a crepe pan or a nonstick frying pan and grease with butter, oil or nonstick spray.  Pour in enough batter to coat the bottom of the pan in a thin even layer and pour out any excess.  Cook over moderate heat until the top of the crepe is dry and the crepe starts to come away from the side of the pan.  Turn the crepe on a plate with pieces of waxed paper between them and cover with aluminum foil while you cook the rest of the batter.
3. Serve with preserves, Nutella, butter/sugar/cinnamon, fruit & whipped cream, ham & cheese or whatever your heart desires.
4. Remaining crepes can be stored in the refrigerator for a few days.

DERA INDIAN RESTAURANT

Veggie Samosas from Dera Indian Restaurant.  2 pieces for $1.50.  Cakebrain's rating: 2/6…my bar is high and these didn’t make it over the bar. 

I yearn for Indian food quite often.  As you can see from my Twitter feed where I “Foodspot” pictures of the restaurants we have been eating at around Vancouver, the rest of my family likes Asian food.  I’m outnumbered.  Stomach and Bib love all Chinese regional dishes, especially Cantonese and Shanghai.  Bebe, at 8 years old, prefers Italian and Greek.  Her favourite Greek dish is Spanakopita. 

PEARL CASTLE, RICHMOND CENTRE

Pearl Milk Tea.  Rating:  5/6

I found the presentation in this honking big glass very nice.  I thought the milk tea was a bit too much on the “milky” side and would have wished for a stronger brew of tea.  Tapioca Bubbles were pretty good.

NING TU RESTAURANT (Shanghai)

Ning Tu’s Beef Roll:  5/6  I would order this again.  I would have liked more scallion and hoisin, but I liked the texture of the wrapping and the meat was thinly sliced and quite delicious.

Peking Duck: 2 courses.  I’ve broken down the elements of the dish… 1st course:  The Peking crepe skins were soft:  5/6

Duck skin was very good: 5/6.  You place a piece of skin, a piece of scallion and hoisin sauce on the Peking crepe.  Wrap it up and eat.  It is a delicious combination of flavours.  Decadent too.

GOLDEN HARVEST RESTAURANT FOR DIM SUM

Golden Harvest’s Salt and Pepper Squid Tentacles



Shrimp Dumplings (Har Gow) were okay.  The skin was good and the filling was full of shrimp.  4.5/6

The Squid Tentacles were the highlight of the meal for me.   All tentacles! No rings!  If you’re a tentacle fiend, this is the dish for you.  They’re crispy dry with garlic and fresh chilies.  5/6


The Siu Mai were meaty-plump and juicy.    5/6


This Mango Pudding was the disappointment of the meal.  I don’t think I’ve assigned a mark any lower than this one dish.   It was Blah. Someone used too much gelatine. The pudding was hard and the kids didn't like it.   They even had a difficult time cutting through it with a spoon.  1/6


You can’t go wrong with fresh bean sprouts!  The rice rolls held together well, they were nicely “wok-fired” and not gummy at all.  5/6


We also had the Steamed Chicken Feet which a certain someone in our family absolutely loves.   It uses fresh red and green peppers and is nicely spicy, juicy and soft as butter. 5.5/6


Good, but rice noodles fell apart.  Not as silky as it could ideally be.  Tender meat filling.  5/6


Just stems!  Where are the leaves?  They were prepped considerately…cut in lengths easy to eat with chopsticks.   I just hate it when you  have a 6 inch long tree of GaiLan sliding around the tips of your plastic chopsticks.  Yes, it is a way to show off your chopstick-prowess, but it can get awkward.  These veggies were crunchy and cooked to perfection.  Not heavy on garlic but very good.  5.5/6


Egg Tarts are my kids’ favourite dim sum dessert.  Bebe likes the centres and Bib likes the puff pastry crust.  Everybody’s happy if both components are so well made that each girl eats all of both components.  As you can see, the pastry was flaky.  These were also piping hot; freshly made.  The custard was jiggly soft.   Perhaps because of the fact that they were still piping hot, the flavour of the custard didn’t come through as well.  They would have rated higher perhaps if  the custard was set a tad more.  4.5/6


Here’s a pic of the dim sum menu.  We were given a discount because we had a cramped table.  I’m not going to question a discount, so I was happy.  Service was good but the place was quite busy so perhaps if you’re looking for a quiet place with lots of elbow room, you won’t be happy.  There seem to be plenty of “regulars” frequenting the restaurant at this time. 


There’s a dinky little parking lot in the mini plaza out front.  I would rather park far away from all the crazy drivers…on the street.

NORTHERN DELICACY

Orange Peel Beef with steamed buns:  5/6. 

I think this is an impressive dish.  The beef was very tender.  The dish is hot and spicy with dried red chili peppers and the numbing Szechuan Peppercorns. It also is sweet but the dried orange peel is barely detectable.  I would have liked more orange to come out.  There was plenty of sauce so that if you had buns you could sop them up.  Unfortunately, my girls ate all the buns.  They said they were good!  I suppose this would go really well with lots of rice. 

The Bean Sauce with Pork on Handmade Noodles was excellent.   6/6!

APPLE CAKE SMACKDOWN!

Beranbaum’s Apple Cake with Crumble Topping.

What are the elements of a good apple cake? Simplicity? Apple-ness?  Do you prefer a crumbly topping? Nuts? Chunky apples? More apple or more cake?

TOKYO THYME

Tokyo Thyme’s Red and White Tuna Stack. YUM!  6/6


Assemble the Tuna stack by mixing the tuna stack (quail egg optional/extra).  Then  create a cone of nori, rice and tuna mixture.  This is so fresh tasting and the crispy nori is delicious!

WHO’S GOT BIG BUNS? NEW TOWN BAKERY

Big Bun Identification Guide.  Above is a Pork and Veggie Bun: filling indicated by the circular red stamp on the top.

Ever buy a dozen of these of different varieties only to forget which bun has which filling once you arrived home? Don’t you just hate that?



I usually purchase a dozen freshly steamed buns, individually wrap them in plastic wrap and then put them in a freezer bag for quick lunches and snacks.  Big buns are a meal in themselves.  The New Town Bakery Steamed Big Buns are juicy and the fillings are yummy.   A frozen bun requires a couple of minutes in the microwave.  Sometimes this can dry out the bun, so I use a special “bun steamer” for my microwave.

I bought my bun-sized Microwave Steamers at Daiso and it of course was $2.00.  You put a little water in the bottom half, place the frozen bun on the plastic rack and cover.  It’s a nifty gadget if I don’t want to haul out my stovetop steamer.  However, if I have time, the stovetop wok steamer beats all for moist texture.  It just takes  a heck of a long time to get the centre warmed.  If I decide to steam in my wok, I usually nuke the frozen bun for a minute first to get the inside defrosted and finish up the heating up process in the steamer.  It works well and the results are like bakery fresh.

This is the bottom half where you place a tablespoon or so of water…not too much!

Place the plastic rack on the bottom.  It will elevate the bun above the water so you won’t have soggy buns!

Place the lid on top.   There are little steam vents on the side you can adjust.

New Town Bakery’s Special “Big Bun/Dai Bau”: two red dots indicate this Dai Bau…it has Roast Pork, Salted Duck Egg and a ground pork & veggie mixture that is not unlike siu mai in texture.  This bun has everything but the kitchen sink!

Cha Siu Bau/Barbeque Pork Bun:  plain, unmarked swirl pattern with a pinched knot at top.

My daughters love sticky rice and the ones from this bakery are our favourites.  We like the one with green mung beans.  My kids are allergic to peanuts so we never buy those ones.  There’s always a big fight over the little piece of Chinese Sausage so I solved that readily by cooking up a separate link of Chinese Sausage on the side.  Everyone gets some sausage that way…and way more than what you’d find in these thrifty carb-loading, bamboo leaf wrapped dumplings.  Actually, not too sure in what way they’re really dumplings other than the fact they’re wrapped in an inedible wrapping of bamboo leaves.  Why don’t they call the sticky rice in Lotus Leaves dumplings? Hm? Is it because they’re boiled and the Lotus Leaves dumplings are steamed? ah well.

If you need to heat up a “Dzung/Joan/zongzi” then you need to boil it.  This is how they’re initially cooked.  The glutinous rice dumplings are so dense they require a long boil to cook.  If you’re reheating already cooked dumplings, you still need a good 20-25 minutes of boiling (from refrigerator-cold) to heat it all the way through.  I like to start mine in the microwave first to warm up the centre.  If you have frozen them like I do, then you just need to nuke them first and then follow by cooking them longer in the boiling water.

After heating through, you cut the strings, unwrap and discard the bamboo leaves and eat…sometimes with some soy sauce.  If you’re in our family, you cook up some extra Chinese Sausage to make everyone happy.   This is stick-to-your-ribs sort of food.  If you’re not crazy about rice or sticky rice, it’s not for you.
Usually, these are made for the Dragon Boat/Rice Dumpling Festival which falls on the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar, but you can find them all year round at New Town Bakery.  Grandmas usually know how to make these too and the fillings vary depending on what part of Asia you are from.  I like this version because it has no icky peanuts, and instead has green mung beans, salted pork belly, salted duck egg and Chinese Sausage.  I imagine whatever filling your grandma put in the dumplings is probably what you would prefer. 

If you find yourself at the Chinatown New Town Bakery, I recommend the little puffy Apple Tarts.  They are light and delicious and remind me of the old Hong Kong Cafe that used to be across the street.  They’re round, puffy, sprinkled with sugar on the tops and have hardly any apple filling but they are so addictive!  I also like the deep fried donuts (salty or sweet) and the sugar-coated deep fried Choux puffs.  They are the size and shape of a baseball and the insides are moist…kind of like a cruller.

Unless you want to relive the ‘70s, I would order for take-out if I were you.

PHNOM PEHN

Beef on Rice Vermicelli Bowl.  5.5/6

Yum! My favourite vermicelli bowl so far is this Beef and Rice Vermicelli Bowl because it’s chock full of veggies and there are even more under the vermicelli...there’s fresh cucumber, beansprouts and lettuce at the bottom of the bowl.  You mix it all up with the yummy fish sauce/dip that they serve on the side.  The sensations hit all the right spots: sweet, savoury, crunchy-fresh and soft. Umami. MMMM.