焗三文鱼 及 蒸番薯 飯

焗三文鱼 及 蒸番薯 飯

Salmon is one of my favorite fish. I used to use a recipe from Whole Foods where I made slits into the salmon fillet to stuff it with dried (or fresh) basil, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil and topped with some lemon wheels, baked it. Quite delish.

Tonight’s dish, however was slightly different. Basil was sprinkled all over and baked with extra virgin olive oil, baked, and then topped with fresh cilantro.

I’m a big fan of yams (sweet potatoes). Back in my dad’s hometown in 台山, there’s a phrase “go plant yams” to tell someone off. It basically means “go die” because the way yams are planted in rows with the soil in little mounds looks like fresh burial grounds. Hehe but that’s not the reason I like yams of course. They’re great as a side with rice. We cut the yam into pieces and then chuck them in with the rice in the rice cooker and then steam them together.

 

蠔豉 腐竹 粥

蠔豉 腐竹 粥

Our 蠔豉 腐竹 粥 is one of my favorite seafood congees that’s seldom sold in Hong Kong even. Topped with fresh cilantro, whose flavor perfectly complements the dried oysters (蠔豉), it also has pork meatballs (貢/肉丸) and dried scallops (瑤柱).

One important aspect to making excellent congee (粥) is controlling the heat at which the congee is simmered. The rice in this congee is not cooked as long as our other congees so that the kernels of the rice have just opened up and is relatively thin for congee. This offsets the strong taste of the other ingredients and highlights the seafood aromas of this congee.

I’ve never liked 肉丸 that much – until my dad told me to try it with soy sauce and white pepper. And that has made all the difference! The 肉丸 are absolutely delicious this way (I still tend to dig out all of them and dip them into the soy sauce before eating the rest of the congee.. saving the best for last – out of habit : P).

 

Mashed Potatoes Recipe

Easy mashed potatoes list of ingredients

1. Peeled Idaho potatoes
2. Warmed milk
3. Basil or Cilantro (if cilantro, add lime)
4. Salt & pepper
5. Unsalted butter
6. Clove of garlic

 

炸纸雞, 腐竹白菜汤 & 菜心 Dinner

One of our newest additions to our soup repertoire is the 腐竹白菜汤 which was suggested from newspapers that the PRC president’s, 胡錦濤 (Hu Jintao), chef regularly made to maintain the president’s good health. Well, 白菜 (bok choy) is always yummy to eat and versatile as with many foods in our ‘fridge. I do stir-fry and soups with it. There’s what we call “old fire” method of cooking soup, which is to simmer it on lower heat settings for many hours (anywhere between 2-5 hours). But anyways, this soup is made with 白菜,  腐竹 (dried bean curd sticks), red dates, and we added carrots to it for sweeter flavor and because we thought it belonged there. We tried this soup with 炸纸雞 (it’s chicken that is marinated and then drenched with boiling hot oil to make the skin “paper thin” and very crispy which is where its signature name is derived from) that we bought from Asia City restaurant (~$22.95). Chicken was a little overdone and small but otherwise, tasted great. Most of our dinners have an accompanying veggie dish; tonight it was 菜心 (choy sum). Topped it all off with a little XO Cognac (which, by the way is a little too bitter for me) as a drink.

And actually we had dessert first, which was our lovely traditional 生果 生日蛋糕 that we handmade ourselves.

炸纸雞, 腐竹白菜汤 & 菜心 dinner

腐竹白菜汤

炸纸雞

Dessert: 生日蛋糕

 

Asia City Restaurant Dim Sum 點心

Asia City Restaurant (Dim Sum/Chinese Restaurant) 2905 Washtenaw Ave. Ypsilanti, MI 48197  Tel: (734)829-0999

We had heard that the newest Asian cuisine restaurant in Ann Arbor boasts of a dim sum chef hailing from Hong Kong. Being Hong Kong-ese (but mostly because our taste buds were starved of some good honest Canto dim sum),  we had to go check it out – and it did not disappoint!

The dining room was clean and tidy, which is priority – but of course, it’s also what we expected being a newly built restaurant (from scratch actually too). The dim sum was served via carts, like how it is traditionally so for folks who want to get this full effect, this is a good place for that as well. First we ordered 焗叉燒包 (baked char siu pork buns) and 芋角 (deep fried taro dumplings). The 焗叉燒包 were a little dry but when we re-microwaved it at home, it actually tasted pretty good. What’s unique about these buns here is that I tasted a hint of coconut juice used. What I usually for as a key to good dim sum is trying out their 蒸叉燒包 (steamed char siu pork buns). The texture of the bun has to be light, fluffy, and not dry and crumbly, and the filling should be moist and the meat tender. Asia City’s 蒸叉燒包 is up there with this kind of quality. 鮮竹卷 was also especially good. Pricing wise for dim sum here, however, is a little bit expensive. Usually dim sum dishes are categorized into small, medium, large, specials, etc. but all of Asia City’s dim sum start as medium dishes at $2.99 each which can add up pretty easily. Still, I would say that in the Ann Arbor area, this is still definitely worth the price.

Finally we followed up the dim sum with 肉絲炒麵 (pan fried pork chow mein $10.95) which was delicious. It was loaded with chinese mushrooms and the noodles were pan fried rather than at some places where they deep fry the noodles.

Very nice dim sum and lunch place to eat out at. I would recommend.

from left: 焗叉燒包; 芋角

from left: 蒸叉燒包; 豉汁蒸鳳爪; 豉汁蒸排骨

from left: 豉汁蒸排骨; 蠔油鮮竹卷

Asia City restaurant dining

廣東 肉絲炒麵

 

Birthday Cake for Mom, success, woohoo!

This was probably the best birthday cake we’ve made by far! Woohoo! And we really didn’t expect it to turn out well at all. I’ll probably share the recipe once it we get it right for sure but we’re getting close!

I have to admit that the birthday card – was totally made it the night before like at 11pm. Maybe this is the time when the time crunch pressure turns out into something good rather than disastrous. I’m proud of the 3D effect with the ribbon and I also have to say, I do enjoy basking in the glory of my artistic creations. The cake success just sweetens the glory.

The box of Snoopy chocos were cute too (bought it at Georgetown Gifts next door to Panera while I was on break for $1.39 – woo, all 1.39 goes to supporting my local businesses : P) and the carnations I bought from PROVIDES. Oh the memories of Valentine’s Day flower sales. Last year, Dad and I had to battle with the car and a nice big snow storm so whoever those lovers were that bought flowers from us, we risked our lives for their love. Just kidding of course.

Anyways, we went out to dim sum at Asia City (another post to follow for the food convo) which was nice. Went to make copies for tax returns for a ridiculous 1/2 hour. Drove mom to work and then went cake ingredient shopping. Came back home and from 5p-10p, we worked on the cake. Yes, that is crazy long to make one single cake but at least our efforts paid off!

Compare to last time which was 2 months ago for Dad’s birthday, the cake was much better .. and probably safer to eat too. The bowl we use is this old metal rice cooker bowl and since we use the mixer on it, the metal from it turns our cakes into a nice gray-green hue. Yes, very appetizing. Add on top of that, dry crumbling texture and denseness. Cake failure.

But this time it was a nice light yellow color, and had much more moisture! But I’ll leave that for when I share the recipe .. if and when I do get to that.

Feb.16.2010 Happy Birthday Mom!

Feb.16.2010

Feb.16.2010

 

Asia City Restaurant (Dim Sum/Chinese)

Asia City Restaurant (Dim Sum/Chinese Restaurant) 2905 Washtenaw Ave. Ypsilanti, MI 48197  Tel: (734)829-0999

Asia City Restaurant lives up to its sister next door, being located right next to HuaXing in size, quality, and price for the most part. Its elaborate outer and inner decor seems target the American or non-Asian population of Ann Arbor. It is practically a replica of the Forbidden City if you will. But at the very bare minimum, at least it has proper doors like a restaurant should (ahem, if you have been down Carpenter Rd., you will know what I mean but that’s for another review). I feared that its food would also follow that philosophy but I was surprised that it held up well to my Asian standards. I had take out this time so there will actually be a part II with better photos of the dim sum dishes. However, I did enjoy the 乾炒牛河 that I ordered very much. Although oily (which is really kind of unavoidable for something like 乾炒牛河), it was stir-fried very well so that the flavor of the rice noodles were delicious. There was a good portion of beef, which while wasn’t premium flank steak, still tasted good and wasn’t chewy. I was fairly impressed and the price ($10.95 for the entrée) was not too outrageous either. From the local Ann Arbor area, Asia City did not disappoint and has become one of the best, if not the best, Chinese restaurant in the area in terms of taste and quality.

Asia City Restaurant

乾炒牛河

 

Lunar New Year Dinner: Most authentic 台山 (Toi Shan) style Chai dinner

Toi Shan style Chai chips

Right after frying, the mountain of  “potato chips”.. making a colorful New Year festivity. And lettuce to make 生菜包! Delicious dinner that actually well er… turned into 6 more dinners haha!

Toi Shan Lunar New Year Dinner

 

Seafood Noodle Soup

Seafood Noodle Soup

 

Coconut Bread – fail, oh darn.

Bread is getting expensive these days.  No more of those 15 cents for 2 buns type deal, which was what it was like way back in the 50′s in Hong Kong.  But anyways, even in A2 because there’s only this one monopoly Asian superstore (HuaXing), Asian delicacies and commodities are getting a tad expensive. So we decide that of course, we can make cheaper coconut bread that would satiate our Asian bun cravings..

So when I came home from work, the dough was rising…

coconut bread stage 1

and the flour is all pretty like the snow outside, waiting patiently…

the most basic of ingredients for bread

and then we rolled the bread.. mine were especially chubby for some odd reason… and then wait wait to re-fluff/dough rises some more – which I’m afraid didn’t quite happen..?  Ha.

fluffing bread

then stuck it into the oven for 20 minutes @ 360 degrees.. and

final product: coconut bread

and Gah! Dry, crispy hard, really dry coconut stuffing… dry………. o_O  I guess we’re not quite there yet haha.  It was probably at 30% success so maybe we will still have to go broke buying bread from the local Asian store for a while longer… a long while longer haha.