Had some visitors from Singapore was visiting Vancouver and I hung out with them a little :)

I took them to Meat and Bread, it was my first time there too~!

It was a cloudy and sometimes rainy day, quite windy too, but I was glad to meet them, one of them being a friend from “Friday Weekly”, a student paper’s reporter/editor from my teenage days who watched me grow up :P

We had Pork and bread sandwich, the pork is very juicy, I didn’t like the fatty part tho, and they had really crispy bits — probably the skin lol, mustard on the side is very mild and goes well with the meat and bread was chewy with a slightly crispy skin ^o^

Quinoa salad, it was interesting — don’t think I ever eaten it before!

After walking around and doing some shopping for souvenirs (omiyage) we my friends, we had a short drink break and a Honey cruller from Tim Horton’s — shared between 3 people lol! For some reason it is a lot sweeter from what I remembered ^^; I guess maybe that is why we don’t go there as much as before ^^;

Omake:

Hotel which they were staying at

It was their first time visiting Vancouver, and since it’s autumn, they were very excited about the colourful autumn leaves :D

Chubby sparrows getting ready for winter?

:)

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1. Tabemono~!

Had a fabulous birthday sometime last month :) secret cake was snuck into the house by husband after he came back from work lol

Yoshi being a guard cat?

And either just before/during the busy period (forgot ^^;) , had the great pleasure to work with Danny  Choo on the Winter Uniform Design for Mirai Suenaga chan <3

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I dug out the clover seeds given to me years back (the seeds supposedly expired but they still work ^^; ) I have a black thumb… so I hope these guys make it :P

The next 4 photos of the clover seedlings are taken using the LX3, in P mode, with manual focus setting! It was quite awesome :P

9 May 2011

12 May 2011

Adorable Jessie girl <3!!!

Okay ready for evil food pix? You been warned!

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I wasn’t intending to have another crepe but the night before I saw some very evil and tempting dessert photos from my husband who was in HK at the time… and got my excuse to eat one :P

Had company one evening and they took me to eat Vera’s burger :3

The decor is a bit different from what I remember :P It has a more “fast food” chain feel now?

I tried the turkey burger, lots of flavor — well marinated patty ^^ Fresh fries are fresh XP I shouldn’t have had the whole burger tho ^^; was so full that evening, I couldn’t sleep XP

Husband back nao! :P We went to Torarenbo (last minute decision :P) for sushi after going to pick something up.

Salmon sashimi

Chopped scallop sushi

House roll

Random: If you ever see this person on this weird looking bike on the streets, try to get out of her way, cos she may run over you ^^;

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I missed Japanese (short grain) rice, so I got tonkatsu don from the food court just so I can eat some Japanese rice lol!

Too bad tonkatsu was only so so :P the tonkatsu was so thinly sliced,  it felt like it was around 0.5 cm thick, some parts I can barely see the meat… ^^; Luckily rice was decent ^^;

Moving along… random snow drops photos :P

Mai chan took us to Sanpachi Ramen last nite, oiishii kata XD I am kinda glad I walked a lot yesterday, I enjoyed the ramen without feeling too guilty LOL, I ordered Shio Ramen, the broth is clear and tasty :) I like that the ramen include vegetables and the Naruto slice on top is a nice touch ^^

Mai ordered Shoyu ramen this time ^^ I think it was a little salty?

Husband tried the tonkotsu ramen, I took a taste of the broth, quite tasty, there’s a hint of mushroom in it :3 the seaweed slice was covering the cha siew XD, husband also ordered some gyoza on the side ^^/

Thanks again Mai and Jon for hanging with us :D Tanoshii kata! ^o^

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Food arrived rather quickly :3 the seaweed pieces are to wrap the chopped scallops with fish roe (bowl in the middle)

Beef sashimi

Marinated tuna

Soft shell crab maki

Deep fried baby shrimps and vegetables with a dipping sauce.

Tuna sashimi, melt in mouth :3

Crab meat salad

Maki sushi

omake: It was a very cold but very beautiful weekend! :D The blue skies looks unreal!

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Over the weekend, me and husband to check out this place called BBT cafe, above is their festive display to welcome the Lunar New Year :)

We’re pleased to say that their food and drink was yummy too!

Ready for evil food pix? :P

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We ordered 2 drinks, I had the pudding milk tea with real pudding in it, husband ordered hot brown sugar milk tea with pearls ^^ and we shared a sweet thick toast and vegetable spring rolls.

The thick toast was really fragrant, and crispy on the outside, soft and fluffy inside ^o^

The vegetable spring rolls came first, and was crispy and hot, and complimented the sweet, sour and slightly spicy sauce well :)

Definitely would want to go there again in future to try their other items! (when we go run errands for Ginko and Yoshi)

Before that, we were at Aberdeen center briefly ^^ they’re also ready to celebrate the Lunar New Year!

We bought the “Lion” around this stall :P

Husband took some really nice close up shots on his iphone4 at the same spot :P

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The black forest trifle was spectacular ;P deep dark chocolate decadence torte was pretty good too~!

Nom nom nom… lol food was by Emelle’s catering. ^o^

Music was good, but a bit too loud, so after some shouting to make conversations, I took a break to take some photos of surroundings :3

Happy Holidays!

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I find this particular soup quite easy to make, just need some time to prepare, and a “space pot” – 太空锅 , I mean a “Thermal Magic Cooker”. XD

I documented most of what I did when I prepared the soup this afternoon, must mention tsunamidelta for poking me for it in the first place — I hope this will help you out if/when you do try to make the soup! ^^

Ingredients
- Pork shank one piece (no bones, no skin, kinda look like this http://www.featurepics.com/online/Raw-Pork-Shank-Photo-376261.aspx)
- 1 red carrot
- 1 green radish (how big of a carrot you use depend on how big the pot you have)

(items  below are found in those chinese herbal shops or dry goods shop)
- 3-4 candid dates (sorry I thought these were figs, turns out they were dates too :P)

- about 8-10 dry red dates

- approximately 20 pieces – northern apricot kernels

- approximately 10 pieces – southern apricot kernels (reason why you need only about half amount of this compare to the northern variety as too much of this one can result in trips to the washroom apparently)

Instructions:

1) First, put the pork shank in a bowl, sprinkle salt all over, especially on parts with fat on, set aside on the counter for about half an hour (we use the time to prepare other stuff)

2) Wash and then peel carrot and green radish and cut into approximately half inch thick slices, place them in the pot (for slow cooking)

3) Put Figs, dates, kernels into a bowl large enough to fit, fill with water, mix it around a bit, strain off the water (this is to just remove any dust or whatnot), then add enough water to cover all the items (this 2nd round of water is to be included and is use to soak the items a bit).

Use a small knife to remove the seeds from the dates.

Set aside for them to soak.

4) When half an hour’s up (I use a timer), rinse off the salt from the pork shank by running cold water from the tap, trim off extra fatty bits (if any), the salt will make some of the fat melt off.

Put the pork shank into the pot, and pour the figs/dates/kernels into the pot as well, add enough water to about 1 inch below the rim of the pot, cover and bring to a boil.

As the soup is boiling (do not let it overboil if you can help it!), you’ll see that scum has formed. At this point in time, turn the fire to medium, and then I use a fine wire sieve to carefully scoop out the scum, this will result in a clearer soup at the end ^^ doing this also removes some fat  from the soup at the same time.

When you’re done skimming the scum let the soup boil for about an hour, and put it in the themal container. The soup will continue to cook in the thermal container for about half a day or overnight. (ie. if you prepare it at night, you get a yummy soup the next day ^^) By the time the soup is boiling you’ll smell it lol! (it reminds me of fart ^^;)

Before serving I’ll bring the soup to a boil again, skim off any remaining fat, and serve the soup in bowls for each person. You can taste the soup before hand and add a pinch of salt to taste if you wish. ^^ The pork shank by now is very tender, you can take some of it out, pull it to bite size pieces, and eat with a simple light soy sauce + sesame oil dip with steamed rice. You can eat the carrots too if you like. ^^

If there’s only a couple people having the soup (like me and husband) you can reboil the left over soup with the pork shank (if you haven’t already taken everything out) and put it in the thermal container to continue cooking. After another serving you can just chill the soup for future consumption ^^

I will try to talk about the other pan fried dish you can make with the cooked pork shank next time! :)

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