A La Kitchen for Lunch

Of all the Chinese cuisines, perhaps Shanghainese cuisine would be my favourite.  Though Shanghai is located south of the Chang Jiang/Yangtze, its cuisine is argued to be associated with the northern half of the cuisine by virtue of breads and noodles being staple foods instead of rice, as well as the comparatively heavier dishes offered in Shanghainese cuisine compared to southern Chinese styles like Cantonese.  Perhaps the prevalence of noodles and dumplings better associated with northern Chinese cuisine could explain my love for Shanghainese cuisine.  My parents knowing this, they suggested that our family go to A La Kitchen for lunch.  A La Kitchen recently expanded, virtually doubling its seating capacity, and we did not have to endure a waiting line even though it was fairly busy.

Chinese Cress with Minced Bean Curd

A Golden Court Dinner

A dinner with the maternal grandparents was in order, especially since I for one had not seen them since my last Christmas break.  Though my family and I have noticed the existence of Golden Court Abalone Restaurant several times, only my parents and sister tried it last year due to a banquet event being held there.  Having enjoyed the cuisine there, they thought it was a good place to try for just a more casual dinner.  The Chinese cuisine offered at this restaurant, along with the price tag, was definitely on the higher end, with quite a few dishes on the menus offering various Chinese delicacies like shark's fin, conpoy and swallow's nest.  Even with some of the simpler dishes, greater attention was given to presentation compared to most other Chinese restaurants.

A personal serving of Snake Soup.

Winter Solstice 2011 Feast

I had completely forgotten that the Chinese traditionally has a festival to celebrate or commemorate the Winter Solstice.  Known as Dongzhi, the main (southern) Chinese traditional activity is for family to get together and have some tangyuan.  Feasts can also occur, especially in light of the family get-together, a significant event in any world culture.  Unfortunately, work commitments meant that my sister couldn't join us in time for Dongzhi.  Aside from tangyuan, neither my family or I have been aware of other traditional dishes from where my parents were raised, so my mother decided to make a few dishes involving food items I've really enjoyed at home.

Ginger and Green Onion Beef

Like Stir-Fried Shrimp and Eggs, this dish was also reminiscent of my childhood.  However, not only was this a quick and easy dish to make, it was also quite belly-warming.  My mother usually would've used a stovetop-safe earthenware pot to make Ginger and Green Onion Beef, and it would've been served piping hot on the dinner table.

Though I wouldn't (and still to this day won't) eat ginger slices or green onion sprigs, I still appreciated the flavours they brought to the beef.  This dish is great to have on a cool evening.

A Quick Dinner Dish from Childhood

I'm sure my faithful readers will have noticed that there has been quite a time gap since I last wrote an entry related to a dish I made or cooked.  Unfortunately time just hadn't been on my side and I mainly cooked dishes that were already made familiar in earlier posts, or variations thereof, or that were probably not worth of mention (yet) for various reasons.  However, a recent splurge on eggs thanks to a sale, along with a relative lull in my schedule, allowed me an opportunity to cook a dish I hadn't had in years, Stir-Fried Shrimp and Eggs.

Bringing "Guangzhou" to Vancouver

In spite of walking all over downtown Vancouver my hunger hadn't returned in time for dinner thanks to the two snacks my parents and I had mid-afternoon.  However, we decided to end our Saturday sojourn with a dinner at a more unsophisticated Chinese restaurant called Kwong Chow Congee & Noodle House.  Using the Cantonese pronunciation of the city of Guangzhou in its name, the restaurant naturally features Cantonese cuisine, with a greater focus on congee and noodle dishes.  At least one congee dish was in order for us, as congee is easy on the digestive system and is considered as a food therapy dish.  Though perhaps plain congee was the healthiest choice, it was also the blandest, so we opted for one of the healtheir flavoured ones.

Congee with Conpoy and Dried Bok Choy

Red Star Revisited

Since Friday was the last day when we could have dinner together as an extended family, we returned to Red Star Seafood Restaurant for dinner.  Of course, it's a no-brainer that one should have seafood when in Vancouver, so this time there was a greater focus on seafood this dinner.  There were some other dishes that were seen in the previous entry for this restaurant, so I only photographed the untried ones as highlights.

Soy Sauce Chicken

More Noodles from Vancouver!

The entrance to Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle in Aberdeen Centre.  The kitchen is visible to all who enter the restaurant.

With virtually another full day spent with the grandparents, my parents and I were admittedly beginning to get tired with the usual haunts my grandparents went for lunch, so my father successfully suggested them to join us and try a different and fairly new place.  It was a bit of a gamble, as the restaurant he had in mind was more casual and budget-friendly than the places my grandparents usually frequented.  Fortunately, partly because it was a newer establishment and partly because it was well managed, my grandparents seemed comfortable to give Chef Hung Taiwanese Beef Noodle a try.

More Than Just Noodles

After a long day of exploring the city on my own, including lunch with some friends I knew from Brandon, I was getting exhausted and hungry.  Fortunately I'd made arrangements to meet my parents near the end of the Canada Line at Lansdowne Station for dinner in Richmond.  It was a few days since we were able to enjoy dinner on our own, and we decided to do so at a restaurant that features more casual Chinese dining, Michigan Noodle Restaurant.  It was a nice change of pace as it also reminded me of my childhood and teenage years when we'd go to these types of restaurants for lunch or dinner when visiting the Toronto area.

A serving of Green Radish and Carrot Soup.

Of Pigeons and Winter Melon Soup

Another dinner with the Vancouver relatives was in order, but this time one of my uncles realized dinner should be had at another place partly for variety and partly to allow us out-of-towners to try something different.  For that, it was decided that dinner should be at Sun Sui Wah Seafood Restaurant on Vancouver's Main St.  Though this restaurant does specialize in dishes made with fresh, live seafood, it also specializes in Roast Squab, or Roast Pigeon.  I'd first discovered this dish when I travelled to Hong Kong at the age of 10.  A restaurant just north of Sha Tin was famous for its Roast Squab, though at that age I was perhaps more enticed by the carp-filled ponds in the courtyard.

Roast Pigeon/Squab

Red Star Dining

Vancouver is arguably one of a handful of Canadian foodie meccas thanks to its proximity to the Pacific Ocean, the wealth of agricultural resources in the region known as the Lower Mainland and being a cultural nexus in Canada for the Asia-Pacific nations.  Though I intended to try a wider variety of cuisines during my Vancouver trip, I couldn't deny myself the opportunity to try some Chinese cuisine here.  (It was also at times unavoidable as I was mainly visiting my grandparents.)  So, for my first dinner in Vancouver in years, we went to Red Star Seafood Restaurant on Granville St.

Soy Sauce Chicken

Dining Out in the House

Earlier this year I'd heard from a friend or two that Brandon had a decently authentic Chinese restaurant.  Curious, late in the winter I tried a couple of noodle dishes for take-out and found them acceptable.  I kept this place at the back of my hand, and it came handy when my parents arrived in town.  Unable to make them dinner after work, I suggested that we go to Wei Na's House for dinner.  Located in the downtown area, it was previously known as Wei Na Restaurant before it became under new ownership.

Eggplant in Yuxiang Sauce

Beef Short Ribs in Black Pepper Sauce

With a Saturday evening free, I decided to clear out my freezer a bit, which meant despatching of some frozen beef short ribs.  Since I didn't have a BBQ grill, I had to cook them by way of my next favourite short rib dish: with black pepper sauce.

Chinese Eggplant Casserole

With my recent cravings for Eggplant with Yuxiang Sauce Casserole, I was inspired to attempt to make my own eggplant casserole.  Until now I've only done stir-fries with eggplant, and even then I've found stir-frying eggplant to be a bit challenging.  Eggplant stuck easily to the wok, but adding more oil to cook eggplant would have made the dishes less healthy.  Steaming was possible, but not suprisingly the pieces closer to the bottom cooked more quickly than the pieces near the top.  To convince myself to try making an eggplant casserole, I rationalized that the pieces should cook more evenly and in a fairly healthy manner as all the pieces would be equally immersed in a liquid.

White Asparagus Experiment

I've bought white asparagus a few times in the past when they were on sale.  Since I'd no experience nor exposure to cooking with white asparagus, cooking this vegetable has been more of an experimental experience for me, even though recipes are available everywhere.  I decided this time around to cook something less conventional, Stir-Fried White Asparagus with Shrimp and Mushrooms in Green Curry Sauce.

Bamboo - Part 2 of 2

After making the Bamboo, Preserved Vegetable & Beef Stir-Fry one evening, the following week I opted to use the remaining unused segments of bamboo shoots.  Having at the time recently returned from my latest Winnipeg daytrip on Louis Riel Day, I decided to marry the bamboo shoots with another one of my favourite vegetables, mushrooms.  I'd managed to buy a decently-sized package package of fresh oyster & shiitake mushrooms at a Winnipeg Chinese supermarket and was looking forward to cooking them that week.  The result of this inspiration to cook with bamboo was Stir-Fried Beef, Bamboo Shoots & Oyster Mushrooms.

Bamboo - Part 1 of 2

I've always enjoyed eating bamboo shoots since I was a kid.  They have a nice crunch to them which, unlike most other vegetables, isn't lost when cooked.  They are also usually found in canned form in supermarkets, which makes them good vegetables to use when fresh vegetables are in shorter supply.  I remember how my mom would, usually due to lack of time, create simpler dishes for dinner on weeknights, and sometimes that involved using cans of bamboo shoots.  One of those dishes I remember well is Bamboo, Preserved Vegetable & Beef Stir-Fry.

Head South to Go North

I'm still not sure why a restaurant in the southern quarter of Winnipeg would be named "North Garden", especially since its focus isn't on Northern Chinese cuisine.  Whatever the case may be, it has become my favourite Chinese restaurant in Winnipeg, and so far it is the restaurant I've visited the most whenever I'm in Winnipeg.  It offers a wide selection of authentic Chinese dishes, at times adapting with certain more local ingredients (such as steaming fresh Manitoba pickerel instead of more traditional saltwater fish like tilapia).  On days I've been there, which has either been on weekends or on holidays (my most recent visit being on Louis Riel Day), one has had to show up before 6:00pm to get a table; a line-up for both dining in the restaurant and to complete take-out orders was almost certain by 6:30pm.

A Weekend of International Indulgence

So, to follow up on my last post... for Chinese New Year, with what little time I had that evening before running off for some extra-curricular activities, I made myself a dinner with two dishes, Salt and Pepper Shrimp and Braised Nappa Cabbage in Milk Sauce.  Well, my sister beat me to the post (pardon the pun) in posting about Salt and Pepper Shrimp, and since we both used the same recipe (minus the ginger juice on my part), I won't write the recipe here.

Chinese New Year and Lieutenant-Governor's Winter Festival 2011

Gung Hei Fat Choy/Gong Xi Fa Cai!  May you and yours have good health, good wealth and plenty of good fortune!

Today is the Lunar New Year and it's the beginning of another Year of the Rabbit.  My time to make dinner tonight will be limited, but I intend to make something decent to ring in the new year before I proceed to other activities tonight; expect a blog post on that.

Also, to all the Brandonites, Western Manitobans and all others able to visit Brandon this weekend, starting tonight is the 8th Annual Lieutenant-Governor's Winter Festival.  Though this year the ever popular German and Chinese pavilions may be missed, there are still thirteen pavilions across the city featuring cultures from around the world, celebrating them and sharing them with others through food, drink and entertainment.  New pavilions include the Brazilian and the Ethiopian ones, while other mainstays like the Métis, Ukrainian and Irish pavilions are back once again.  For once since I've moved here, the weather gods have heard our prayers, and the weather will be very comfortable; the only potential drawback is that many others will be more tolerant of the line-ups to enter the pavilions.  Don't let the line-ups scare you, though.  If you've never experienced this, you're missing out on something fun to do with friends and family on a mid-winter weekend.  This event runs tonight (Thursday), Friday night and Saturday from 1pm-11pm.  Yes, I'll try to take pics of my culinary adventures through these pavilions and post them here; from bison stew to perogies and beers and liquors from the featured cultures, there's plenty to tempt the tastebuds!