Random Food Thoughts

Thank you to those of you who replied and/or emailed me about my cookware question. Your advice and comments were very helpful and I will take all of them into consideration when I make my choice on which one to buy. Anyways, I’d like to share some random food thoughts I had throughout the week with you . My parents had a couple of boxes of these at their salon for their customers so I decided to try a pack. Now I don’t consider myself a coffee drinker but ever since my first instant bag of this frothy yumminess, I was hooked.

Neither my hubby nor I drink coffee so we don’t have a coffee maker and we’re too cheap to buy a fancy espresso or cappuccino maker. But we do love this machine. Can you spot my OCD in this picture? 

If you’re Asian, you either have one of these in your home or have a relative who has one. We actually got this machine when Kayla was born to heat up her milk bottles. Instead of spending money on a bottle warmer that we’d probably use for only a year, we opted to buy this instead so we could continue to use it years down the road. I love the fact that at the press of a button I have instant hot water for tea or now my instant FROTHY cappuccino.

Check out that froth…mmm.

Another random thought:

We had the pleasure of visiting Vietnam about 3 years ago. It was there that I was introduced to a coconut dessert that I’ll never forget and till this day am still searching for anything that comes close to it here in Canada. Basically it’s a young coconut filled with coconut juice and coconut jelly dessert. If you’ve been to dim sum and have ordered those white cubes of coconut milk desserts then you’ll know what I’m talking about.

Oh yummy coconut dessert, when will we meet again?

(Vietnam 2007)

This is the closest thing I’ve found here.

It came in a vacuum sealed bag and came nothing close to tasting like the ones I had in Vietnam  

Here’s something else from Vietnam that I LOVE to eat:

Dried squid. Have any of you tried these before? These actually came from Vietnam. We have some friends visiting us from there this month and they brought some over for us. Pop these babies into the mini oven at 375 degrees F for about 5 mins or until they curl up into a tube and you’ve got yourself some dried deliciousness. We love eating these so much that my parents actually got a machine from Vietnam that compresses and rolls out the squid to make it more tender. It’s almost like a pasta roller.

So how do you eat these? Rip into shreds and pop them in your mouth. I like to eat these squid plain, without any dipping sauce but my parents like to mix hoisin sauce, shredded carrots, and chili sauce to use as a dip. I should warn you though, once heated in the oven your house is going stink.

If you ever get a chance to visit Vietnam I would highly recommend it. They’ve got some pretty good eats there. The only thing I avoided was their street food (which looked so tempting) and their ice and tap water. Not that I’m a street food snob, (I’ve had some pretty awesome street food before ) but being brought up in Canada almost all my life I don’t think my stomach would be able to handle the street food in Vietnam. I’m sure most of you know what I’m talking about. Have any of you been to Vietnam? Would you eat street food and if so, where was the best street food you’ve ever had or would like to try? Well I’ll leave you with those random thoughts for now. I hope all of you have a spectacular weekend! Until next time friends and family

Brunch at The Kitchen Buffet and Bistro

Thank you for all your comments on the last post. As always, I enjoyed reading all of them. This weekend we did some Costco shopping. My kiddies love it when we go to Costco cause that means they get to eat samples. I’m not going to lie, I get excited going to Costco too Yes, I live such an exciting life.  Do you think Lex knows he’s at Costco?

We also dropped by the Home Depot (again, exciting life). That has to be the most boring place for kids to go to. I used to hate going to those places with my Dad. And now it’s my turn to drag my kiddies there.

But then some genius came up with this brilliant shopping cart idea. LUV LUV LUV these! I haven’t been to the Home Depot in a while so this is new to me. Whoever thought of this, THANK YOU!

We also visited Grandma and Grandpa.

And we had brunch a the River Cree. This is our go to brunch place. Here’s  their rack of lamb, waffles, and omelette station.

Gary loves their rack of lamb, but I’m really picky when it comes to meat so I usually pass on these. I just can’t stand the smell and the gamey taste of lamb. Although Gary does say that their lamb is not gamey at all and that it’s quite succulent, tender, and cooked to perfection (medium rare). Everyone we’ve taken to this brunch seemed to love these as well. I can stand the smell of durian but not lamb…hmmm…go figure.

They also have a bread station which includes croissants, bagels, muffins, strudel,  bread (of course), and a toaster.

Here’s their appetizers station. Be warned though, this changes every week. So if you do decide to give this brunch a try and then decide to bring some friends on another weekend, don’t expect to have the same appetizers. Right beside their appetizers they have a salad station as well but I forgot to take a picture of that.

From top left going clockwise: scallop and pineapple salsa, tuna tartar on crouton, Thai beef salad on wonton, and shrimp cocktail. Sometimes on my lucky days they even have lobster sashimi.

I couldn’t get a good picture of their main cooked food station cause there was always a huge line up so I’ll show you pics of some of our plates instead (sorry).

Here are some mixed greens and some kind of raspberry dressing which I tried for the first time. Not bad. Wasn’t as raspberry-ey (yes, I’m just making up words) as I expected though. I’m still on a search for a favorite dressing when it comes to salads. What’s your favorite salad dressing? Any suggestions?

Here’s one of Gary’s plates. Yes, I said one of. I don’t bother keeping track of how many plates dude eats at buffets anymore…sigh. Oh and I guess I should mention that this is an all you can eat brunch buffet.

If I remember correctly he had scallops, halibut, smoked salmon, prime rib, shrimp, rack of lamb, and some kind of pork all on that one plate. Don’t worry, he did get a plate of vegetables, salad, and fruits as well later. Other cooked items included in this buffet but not shown here were salmon Wellington, eggs Benedict, hash browns, bacon, oatmeal, and vegetables.

Now here’s my favorite station:

Yup yup, that IS a chocolate fountain you see. They have a beautiful selection of desserts but this also changes every week.

And the thing I love about this buffet is that they are kid friendly. So how much does it cost? It used to be $25.95 per person but they raised it to $27.95.  I blame Gary, I think he single-handedly raised their price by eating so much…teehee. All non-alcoholic drinks are included in the price and kids under 5 eat FREE. I love that word  Considering the number of plates of lamb Gary eats, and the amount of seafood they have, we think it’s worth the price. Aaack! I almost forgot to mention that if you go and sign up for a Player’s Club membership card, you get a 20% discount. So it actually works out to about $22.50  per person with the discount. Click here if you want more info.

All right time to get some shut-eye. This is an older picture but it’s one of my faves so I thought I’d share. I like to call it, “Sleeping With the Enemy” For those of you who are new to this blog, my son’s name is Lex.

I almost forgot to ask, my hubby has been wanting to get some All Clad cookware lately. I know some of you who read this blog are foodies so I wanted to get some of your advice. Have you ever used All Clad, and what do you think of it? If not, what line do you like or use? Right now we’re using Saladmaster but we’re looking at other lines just to keep our options open. Hope everyone had a great weekend. Don’t forget to check the giveaways page. Until next time friends and family

I’m an Eater, Not a Hater

I’ve been meaning to post this earlier but since the weather has gotten so much nicer, it’s only fair to take the kiddies out more. Gotta take advantage of the 2 months of really great weather us Canadians only get My in-laws came into town from Vancouver so we tried out a dim sum place in Chinatown called Urban China.

Those eggplants are my fave at dim sum. And we usually order anything and everything with shrimp.

These durian pastries were mmm…mmmm…good I almost had the whole plate to myself. Durian is definitely one of those you either really hate it or really love it type of food.

We thought the food was pretty good but the service was lacking a bit. I’d probably go again though.

Okay before I forget, I have to share this cool trick with you. I was telling Jessie about this and thought why not share it with the rest of you on my blog. Are any of you out there plant lovers? I love looking at flowers and plants but I’m really bad at keeping them alive so rather than having the poor plants suffer, I choose to leave them in the stores so they can find a better home. My Dad on the other hand is a plant lover. Okay so here’s the cool trick I learned from him. Take a really ripe banana, peel it, wrap the banana in a piece of cloth and squeeze the juice out. Then use that juice to wipe the leaves and you’ll get a shine like this:

Yes, if you’re retired and have absolutely nothing to do but wipe every leaf on your plant then this is pretty cool. But if you’re like me and think your time could be better spent on MANY, MANY other things then yes, this is pretty crazy. Oh and I’m no expert on plants so please try this at your own risk. Not sure if the banana juice would be harmful to the leaves or not. I don’t see why it would be though. Anyone know? My Dad wiped his plant once about 2 months ago and this is a very recent picture. Oh and another great thing is that he says it keeps the dust off too. Just thought I’d share.

Anyways, I never shared my birthday meal with you so I’ll let the pictures do the talking. We decided to have a barbecue at my parents’ house so I made sure I wore my eating pants  When we barbecue, Gary is usually in charge of the grill. “Be a man, do the right thing.” Sorry, that Russell Peters quote just popped in my head for some reason. 

My sister in-law was sweet enough to make tamarind crab for us. She didn’t want to be in the picture.

A plate of beef sashimi with a Vietnamese twist. Chopped up mint leaves, red chili peppers, crushed peanuts (which I had to pick off), the juice of a lime, and salt and pepper to taste. Sorry if this grosses some of you out.

I had some of everything. If you’re wondering, that fish beside my steak is salmon sashimi. And yes, we made sure we froze the fish and beef for a certain amount of time before eating it sashimi style. After this I also ate probably one whole crab. Who said little 5 feet Asian girls can’t eat?

No birthday cake for me this year. But after all that pigging out, I’m not sure if I would’ve been able to eat cake. Hope you’re all having a great week. Don’t forget to check the giveaways page as I just added some new ones today. Untill next time friends and family.

Spreading the Love

Hello everyone! First of all, thank you soooo very much for all the birthday wishes. It made my day just reading all your lovely comments. I had a wonderful time with friends and family that day. And what’s better than to start my birthday week off receiving an award and ending it receiving two more awards? It definitely was a great day! Hope everyone else had a nice weekend. So on with business.

I am so honored to have received this award from the lovely Cindy @ This Adventure, Our Life. Congratulations for receiving this award Cindy and thank you so very much for passing it on to me. Cindy has an excellent blog where she compiles the most beautiful writings about her cute as can be daughter Bailey, their exciting family adventures, and useful tips for the many young mothers like me out there (young referring to experience, not age…haha). Her blog brings a smile to my face everyday and I’m so glad to have met such a wonderful friend in the blogging world. Please stop by her blog to say hi and meet this little cutie (her daughter Bailey, but Cindy’s cute too…teehee). I must now share 10 things about myself and pass it on to 8 other lovely bloggers! 

1. I’m a huge sucker for TV infomercials.
2. I don’t live in a big city like LA or Toronto so I actually enjoy driving (Jessie, can we still be friends? )
3. OCD…need I say more?
4. I have at least 20 different superman t-shirts (and that’s not counting the ones my kiddies own)
5. My #1 movie of all time is Saving Face.
6. and so started the Lynn Chen stalking (I know my hubby is shaking his head right about…wait for it…wait for it…NOW)
7. I’m a snake in the Chinese zodiac but have a huge phobia of them.
8. Christmas is my favorite holiday.
9. I LOVE seafood.
10. I speak English, Cantonese, and Chu Chow (another Chinese dialect) fluently and can understand Vietnamese and some Mandarin but can’t speak those very well.

Here are the wonderful bloggers whom I’d like to pass this award on to:

1. Sophia @ Burp and Slurp
2. The Line That Divides Us
3. Melissa @ Mommy Living the Life of Riley
4. Sharon @ Only Here for the Food
5. Valerie @ A Canadian Foodie
6. Lillian @ beyondumami
7. Leah @ Why Deprive
8. tell me to shut up

Thank you to these bloggers for always being straight forward and honest, whether it be on their blogs or commenting on mine. Please do not feel obliged to participate. I just wanted you to know that I appreciate your blogs and your honest opinions.

Another award comes to me from Denise @ Quickies on the dinner table. Congratulations on receiving this award Denise and thank you so very much for passing it on to me as I know there are many others you could have chosen. Denise is the author of the book Quickies Morning Noon & Night. It’s not what you think people, get your minds out of the gutter, haha. Having seen some of Denise’s mouth-watering recipes, I’m itching to get my hands on her book.  Not only is she a great cook, but she’s also great in supporting her fellow bloggers. Denise truly gets to know the person behind the blog by taking the time to comment, question, and reply back to others on their blogs as well as her own. She is definitely “the real deal” when it comes to meeting true blogger friends! Drop by and say hi if you get a chance.

The Sunshine Award is given to bloggers who are deemed warm, inspirational and positive, hence the beautiful sunflower which symbolises it.

To the award winners, here are the rules:

1. Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
2. Pass the award on to 8 bloggers!
3. Link the nominees within your post.
4. Let the nominees know they have received this award by commenting on their blog.
5. Share the love and link to the person from whom you received this  award.

Here are the lovely bloggers whom I’d like to pass this award on to:

1. Jessica @ The Process of Healing
2. Andrea @ Can You Stay For Dinner?
3. Kristen @ Change of Pace
4. Michelle @ Lucky Taste Buds
5. Sophia @ Burp and Slurp
6. Stef @ More to Life Than Lettuce
7. Tou Tou @ Light Delight With Tou Tou
8. Jessie @ The Happiness in Health

Thank you to these lovely bloggers for the warm comments left on my blog, the inspirational dishes you make (which are so out of my league ), and the positive attitudes you have when things go downhill. Once again, please do not feel obliged to participate. I just wanted you to know that I appreciate your blogs and comments.

Cindy and Denise, I hope you don’t mind me changing the number of bloggers to 8 and 8. I thought that seemed like a nice round, balanced number. But then again it could be the OCD…haahaa. And thank you to the both of you again for thinking of me I’m blessed to have such warm and sincere bloggie friends like the two of you. Well that’s all I have to say for today. Hope everyone is having a great start to their week. Untill next time friends and family. I’m off to spread the love.

I’m Melting

Yipee! It’s my birthday today! Happy happy joy joy! I’m so glad my birthday falls on a Saturday this year because that means I get to spend my whole day with the hubby and kiddies Plus, my in-laws are coming into town to celebrate with me too. How cool are they?! The hubby and I knew we wouldn’t be alone this weekend so we decided to celebrate last weekend. Have any of you ever heard of The Melting Pot? This is Edmonton’s newest fondue restaurant. It may be old news to those of you in the States but this restaurant just opened about a month ago here so we decided to give it a try. Apparently we’re also the first and only city in Canada (so far) that this American franchise has opened in.

Gary and I decided to order the Big Night Out. This was a set four course meal which included a Feng Shui cheese fondue, lettuce wraps, an entrée big enough for two people to share, and a chocolate fondue. If you’re interested in the menu and prices click on this link and then menu.

Our first course was called the Feng Shui Cheese Fondue. The ingredients of the fondue included white wine, mirin, sake, Gruyere cheese, horseradish, and chive Havarti. Along side the fondue the server also brought us some Granny Smith apples, carrots, celery, cauliflower, and bread to dip. The Granny Smith apples were my favorite as the acidity helped to mellow out the rice wine. Everything you see in the picture below was to share between the two of us.

rseradish and chive Havarti.

Our second course was the lettuce wraps. This included cucumber, carrots, bean sprouts, mint, and honey roasted almonds served with a mandarin orange-ginger dressing and a garlic wine seasoning. I really enjoyed this dish because it helped lighten the strong alcohol taste still left over from the cheese fondue. The almonds were a perfect ingredient as they added the perfect crunch to these wraps. I tried one wrap plain (without the dressing or garlic wine seasoning), one wrap with just the mandarin orange-ginger dressing, and one wrap with both the dressing and seasoning. I enjoyed the wrap with both the dressing and seasoning the most. Each person got their own plate like this:

Our entrée came out with this little contraption. Guess it was just to keep the broth from spilling.

For the entrée you get to choose one of four cooking styles. We chose the Coq au Vin which included herbs, mushrooms, garlic, spices and burgundy wine.

And we went with the Lobster Indulgence for the third course. This dish was to be shared between the two of us. It included two lobster tails, citrus-infused pork tenderloin, Ahi tuna, garlic chili chicken breast, kiwi lime shrimp, vegetable dumplings, potatoes, cauliflower, mushrooms, and broccoli.

It also came with an array of dipping sauces. Sorry, I can’t remember any of the names.

The plate that they bring you is perfect for this entrée.

I was a little disappointed with this entrée as it’s supposed to be the main dish but I found that the food was a bit bland. The lobster was the biggest disappointment due to the lack of succulent seafood taste. I could have steamed a lobster at home and gotten better taste out of it. I don’t think I could choose a favorite out of this dish as everything tasted just blah to me.

Finally, what I’ve been waiting for all night….DESSERT! We went with the Yin Yang chocolate fondue. Half dark chocolate and half white chocolate. I’m a huge fan of white chocolate. I swear I could have just eaten that plain by the spoonfuls. MMM..MMM GOOD!

This dessert came with (from bottom going clockwise) some pineapples, cheesecake, pound cake (on both sides of the cheesecake), bananas, strawberries and coated marshmallows (middle). This was way more than enough dessert for the two of us.

The marshmallows were my least favorite as they were too sweet, and I’ve got quite a sweet tooth. I’d have to say I liked the bananas the most. Oh and because I love white chocolate, we tried to keep the chocolates from mixing so I found that the strawberries with the dark chocolate were the perfect match.

So all in all Gary and I both enjoyed the experience, but for the price (our bill came to about $150) we agreed that this would be a “special occasion” type restaurant for us. The service was great, and with all the different dishes and sauces, the waiters/waitresses definitely have their work cut out for them. Also I should add that it took us about three hours to finish our meal, and we had reservations too. The time flew by fairly quickly though. So if you’re planning to try out this restaurant, allow yourself at least 2 and a half hours to spare. The only big complaint I had was that the restaurant was a bit too dark for my liking. I hate dark restaurants. Other than that, it was a great experience. The Melting Pot is located at:

#117 2920 Calgary Trail NW
Edmonton, AB T6J 2G8
780-465-4DIP (4347)
Fax: 780-669-3753

If you missed my last post and you want a great “food read’, be sure to check out this spectacular post written by Valerie @ A Canadian Foodie. Best blog post I’ve read so far. If you’re here looking for your blogger award that I notified you about then click here. And don’t forget to check in on my giveaways page every now and then. Well I’m off to enjoy the rest of my weekend with my family and some friends visiting from Vietnam. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. Until next time friends and family.

My First Blogger Award :-D

Hi everyone! Thank you for the compliments on the tofu dish. Some of you said you were not able to find that kind of tofu in your supermarket so I thought you might be interested in Mary’s egg tofu recipe. Check out the rest of her blog too cause she’s got some fantastic recipes. And I forgot to share this little story about tofu with you on my last post. My hubby once told me that there was this person who tried to get this on his/her license plate: ”I (heart) TOFU.” He was rejected. Being not the sharpest tool in the shed, I had to ask my hubby why? If you’re like me, take a closer look at what it could really mean. Don’t know if that was a true story or not but thought I’d share. See hun, I really do listen when you talk

Anyways, on with business. I was honored to receive this Happy 101 award recently. What better timing than right before my birthday. So I’d like to pass this award to some of you. If you don’t want to participate I totally understand as we all have very busy lives to lead. But I just wanted to pass this on to let you know how much I appreciate your blogs and for helping bring some smiles and laughter into my life. Thanks for allowing me to live life vicariously through all your blogs. Bloggie friends rock!

o

This award is from Melissa @ Mommy Living the Life of Riley. Check out all of the great thoughts, freebies and giveaways she has listed on her site!

Here are the rules:
1. Copy and paste the award on your blog.
2. List who gave the award to you and use a link to her blog (or hyperlink).
3. List 10 things that make you happy.
4. Pass the award on to other bloggers and visit their blog to let them know about the award.

10 things that make me happy (in no particular order):

1. My kiddies.
2. The “always hungry” hubby
3. Having awesome friends/bloggie friends.
4. The laughter and smiles on children’s faces. 
5. Reading other blogs.
6. FOOD of course!
7. A clean house.
8. A clean car.
9. Clean kids (Are you seeing a pattern? Yes I am OCD. There Gary, I said it, are you happy?)
10. Money (Come on, don’t tell me you don’t like money )

 Here are the bloggers I am passing this award to:

Jessie @ The Happiness in Health

Denise @ Quickies on the dinner table

Stella @ The Witchy Kitchen

Tou Tou @ Light Delight With Tou Tou

Ameena @ Fancy That…Fancy This

Lynn and Christy @ The Actor’s Diet

Cindy @ This Adventure, Our Life

Mary @ Keep Learning Keep Smiling

Biren @ Roti n Rice

Amanda @ EATSPINLIVE

Also if you’re looking for a great “food read”, check out Valerie’s post at A Canadian Foodie. This was truly one of the best posts I’ve ever read. Talk about living life vicariously through other’s blogs.

Okay, I’m off to spread the good news!  Have a great day! Don’t forget to check out my giveaways page.

Custard Shrimpfu Surf and Tuft…Say What?

Hope I’ve caught your attention. Hello everyone! Thank you for all of your well wishes while the kiddies and I were recovering from our colds! It really makes my day to see all your comments and emails And that thank you also goes out to those of you who read but don’t comment (absolutely nothing wrong with that) cause then I know at least there’s someone out there reading my bloggie. I’m happy to say that the kids and I have recovered from our colds. But here’s a peak at what happens when Mommy is ill:

On Sunday I started feeling better so that day was dedicated to getting things back in order. The OCD in me couldn’t take it anymore. The laundry got done, floors got swept, vacuumed, and swiffered, dishes got washed, every countertop got wiped down and sanitized, garbage got taken out, and the fridge, microwave, and range all got cleaned as well. The only thing that didn’t get cleaned were the toilets. Maybe I’ll leave that for the hubby keekeekee.

So much better wouldn’t cha say?!

Phew, I never wanna get sick again. Oh speaking of getting sick, how many of you get your yearly flu shots? I usually don’t get the flu shot and I’m usually fine. I think the longest I went was 3 years without having a cold. But this past Christmas we went on a cruise with the little ones, so not wanting to take any risks we all got our H1N1 shots, plus the flu shots, plus whatever else shots we had to get. As soon as we got back from the cruise I got sick. It was almost like the flu shot weakened my immune system…hmmm…go figure. So from now on I’m not getting a flu shot. Anyone else experience the same thing?

Anyways, here’s the recipe to that tofu, spinach, and shrimp dish I told you I would post. This dish, like the other dishes I make is very easy and non time-consuming. My dishes have to be simple and easy cause I don’t think my brain could handle more than 5 ingredients. Teehee. I wished I could create such delectable and uniquely wonderful dishes like many of you do but the simplicity of my klutzy brain doesn’t allow for that. So with that said I’m proud to share this simple recipe with you. And by the way, these measurements are just a guideline as to approximately how much you can use of each ingredient. If you’ve experienced trying to learn Chinese cooking, you’ll agree it’s usually a bit of this, a little of that, a dash of this, a drizzle of that type measurements rather than the teaspoons/cups measurement.

Ingredients:

• 3 teaspoons chopped garlic
• 15 – 20 medium-sized shrimp peeled and deveined (I used more)
• 2 packages of tofu
• 2 bunches of spinach
• cooking oil
• white cooking wine

sauce:

• 1 tablespoon chicken broth powder
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/2 cup water

In a small bowl mix all the sauce ingredients together and stir until you achieve a smooth consistency. Set aside for later use.

Slice tofu into approximately 1 inch thick slices. This is the type of tofu I like to use. I luv luv luv this tofu because the egg inside gives it a custard-like taste and texture. If you’re allergic to eggs there is another type that doesn’t have eggs. I’m pretty sure you can get these at any Chinese supermarket.

In a pan or wok heat up 2 teaspoons of cooking oil on high heat and pan-fry the tofu on each side until a golden brown colour. Take out the tofu and place them on a plate for later use.

Yeah yeah, so I need a little work on making my slices evenly sized.

In a pan or wok heat up 1 tablespoon of cooking oil on high heat. Add 1 teaspoon of chopped garlic. Cook till the garlic turns a golden brown colour and throw in the shrimp. Toss the shrimp around until they are 3/4 cooked (pink, translucent colour). Scoop out the shrimp onto a plate and set aside for later use.

In a wok heat up 2 tablespoons of cooking oil on high heat and add 1 tablespoon of chopped garlic. Cook until the garlic turns a golden brown colour. Throw in 2 bunches of spinach, add 3 tablespoons of white cooking wine and cook for about 3 minutes. Once the spinach is cooked, throw the shrimp into the same wok as the cooked spinach. Pour in the sauce mixture. Cook and toss together for about 2 minutes or until the sauce coats everything. Turn off the heat and plate.

If you’d like, rather than cooking the tofu off the start, you can cook the tofu at the same time that you’re cooking the spinach so by the time you’re done, the tofu is still hot rather than sitting there all that time getting cold. I didn’t do that cause hello, simple-minded klutz here remember? If you do decide to make this dish, I hope you enjoy it. But most of all don’t forget to invite me

Thank you to those of you who suggested names for this dish. I really enjoyed reading them. I should do this more often. Check them out:

Michelle @ Lucky Taste Buds wrote, “Hmmm maybe “Custard tofu shrimp”?? hahah I think i fail”

The Line That Divides Us wrote, “that last dish looks scrumptious! shrimpfu! hahahha.”

Sophia @ Burp and Slurp wrote, “Let’s call it…surf and tuft. Because surf = the shrimp (seafood) and tuft= plants = soy= vegetarian = that tofu. LOL! Haha!”

I loved all 3 suggestions. So now you know where the title of my post came from

And here’s the rest of our dinner: pan-fried salmon which we like to just dip in Worcestershire sauce, and salmon sashimi. With white rice of course.

So just a few things before I leave. I’ve added a giveaways page at the top of my blog to help support my fellow blog friends. Rather than having to go back and add links to my posts, I can just add giveaways to this page. So please check that page every so often for new giveaways. I’ve seen a page like this on some of your blogs so I thought I’d steal the idea, thanks for the idea guys. If you don’t see your giveaway on the page please feel free to shoot me an email lynnchenrocks@hotmail.com with the link to your giveaway and I’d be glad to add it. Hope you’re all having a wonderful start to your week. Until next time friends and family.

Mothering Before Blogging

Hi friends and family. Been off of blogging for a while (but have still been enjoying reading your blogs) cause my kiddies have been a bit sick and now I think I’m coming down with something.  Always a mother before a blogger right  So this is going to be a really short post.

Last night I dropped off the kiddies with my free babysitters and attended this with the hubby:

He had asked about 3 weeks ahead if I wanted to go with him so despite being sick and hating to cancel on people I still went, now that’s love…haahaa. There wasn’t much to eat there as we expected, just some appetizers. But they did have free alcohol, typical engineer party teehee (no offense to any engineers out there reading). Being the food piggy that I am, I took a piece of everything that didn’t have pork in it. I may be shy at taking pictures when others are in them but when it comes to stuffing my face, ain’t no cold  and shyness gonna hold me back.

It was nice going back to the U of A. Brought back a lot of nice memories of our dating days. After this we picked up the kiddies and headed home. I was pretty full already and wasn’t in much of a mood to go out for dinner (if you’re reading this, sorry babes). I wanted to get home for a nice hot shower and get into my nice comfy bed (sniffle sniffle).

I actually wanted to share the recipe of this dish with you, 

but because I’m feeling a bit under the weather I’m going to have to hold off till my next post. It’s a dish of spinach, tofu, and shrimp stir-fried together. I’m not very creative when it comes to making up names for my dishes but if any of you have a suggestion as to what this could be called for my next post I’m definitely open to all suggestions. Hope all of you are having a better week than I am. Until next time friends and family.

Happy Easter/Long Weekend!

We don’t celebrate Easter so this weekend wasn’t too busy for us. However, my mother in-law Wendy came into town to visit for a day on Saturday. Yes, this is the, “I don’t know who Lynn Chen is and why she has a rock”  Wendy…teehee. Doesn’t my hubby totally look like a boy version of her? Anyways, we took her to dim sum at a restaurant called Beijing Beijing. I took a few pics of the food but then I was so hungry I started eating and forgot to take pics of the rest of the dishes so I decided not to post any at all. I’ll probably do a review of this restaurant later some time anyways.

On Sunday we went to our usual pho restaurant in Chinatown called Pagolac. We frequent this place probably every weekend, if not then for sure every second weekend. Does that picture remind you of anything? Say “cheese” Mr. Cow

Here’s what the inside looks like. Sorry for the dark picture. You know how I’m paranoid about taking pictures with other people in them. I think I may have even shut off the flash on this one to try to quickly snap a shot without anyone noticing…teehee. I just don’t want to disturb anyone while they’re eating and I’m a little bit chicken poop that someone will yell at me. How do you other bloggers do it? Any suggestions/thoughts on this? Or do you just not care cause you’re used to doing it for so long.

Anyways, Gary ordered the Deluxe Rice Noodle Soup (Pho Dac Biet) with spicy soup which had a combination of sliced beef, tenderloin brisket, tripe, and meat balls.

The kiddies had a regular Rice Noodle Soup (Pho Tai) to share, which I forgot to take a picture of.

Don’t worry, we fed Lex as well. We have to make sure nothing is within his reach or it’ll end up on the floor. Isn’t that right fellow parents with one year olds?

I usually order the Pho Tai as well but today I decided to get something different. This is the Pagolac Combination 5A. It’s a vermicelli bowl with grilled pork (I like to substitute for beef), egg roll, shredded pork (I told them to hold off on that), meat ball, and grilled la lop shish-ka-bob. If you’re allergic to peanuts like me, you can ask them to hold the peanuts (which I forgot). Good thing it’s not a “serious” allergy. Or if you’re picky like me and want to substitute an item for something else, I don’t think they charge extra like some restaurants do. I hate that and don’t see why restaurants charge extra for substitutions unless I’m substituting chicken with lobster…haahaa

Pagolac has three locations: downtown, southside, and westside. The downtown location is on 10566 97 street northwest Edmonton. I’m not sure of the addresses for the other two locations.

After lunch we visited Grandma and Grandpa. See, if we didn’t feed him, how would he have the energy to be such a great little helper. Like I always say, “gotta teach em’ young.” ;-)

So those were the main highlights of our weekend, always centered around food lol. If you celebrate Easter I hope you had a Happy Easter. If you don’t celebrate Easter like me, I hope you had a great long weekend! Before I leave I just want to inform you that the lovely ladies at The Happiness in Health, The Actor’s Diet, and Lucky Taste Buds are all having great giveaways. Check them out before their giveaways end. Oh and since I’m still learning the ropes of blogging, do I assume giveaways are US residents only unless stated otherwise? Some blogs don’t state and since I’m a Canadian resident I usually don’t bother entering unless it says US and Canadian residents cause I don’t want to mess up anything for anyone. Hope one of you can clear that up for me. Until next time friends and family.

Two Birds With One Stone

Hope you’re all doing well. Long weekend!!! WOOT WOOT!!! I’m going to have to do two posts in one today. I wanted to post one this morning but didn’t have the time. Don’t worry, there’ll be lots of pics and very little talking. On Wednesday we had dinner plans with our friends Nancy and Frankie. Okay I’m going to have to do a little complaining first. We were going to go to a restaurant called Sofra but when Nancy tried to make a reservation they said they don’t accommodate to children under 10 years old. I was SOOOO NOT impressed when I heard that. I mean I’ve heard of dogs not being allowed into restaurants (which I don’t know if I totally agree with) but children??? You’ve gotta be kidding me!!!  Until they change that policy, I will never step foot into that restaurant. Actually even if they do change it I don’t know if I would still go. So there’s my rant, thanx for listening. On with the post.

We decided on the Cactus Club Cafe in West Edmonton Mall.

I couldn’t get a good picture of the inside but it’s very nicely decorated. I didn’t want to disturb anyone’s dinner with flashes from my camera. I don’t mind taking pictures of food but when I have to take a picture of the restaurant and there are people i the shot, I like to respect their privacy.

We started with some crispy yam fries with garlic aioli.

These yams were super tasty and not oily at all. Perfectly crispy on the outside.

Our second dish was the tuna tataki -seared albacore tuna, green papaya slaw, orange, avocado, pine nuts, yuzu vinaigrette 

Another great dish! All the ingredients complimented each other so well that when we were finished, there was not one strand of papaya left on the plate. Delicious!

On with dinner. My hubby had the raincoast greens – grilled chicken, avocado, tomato, feta, egg, pecans, seasonal berries, lemon-thyme vinaigrette. Instead of chicken he asked for salmon. One of the most beautiful salads I’ve seen. I had a bite and it was YUMMS! (and I’m not a salad girl) Don’t know why he ordered this cause if you know Gary, you know how much dude can eat. I know my friends can back me up on this one.

Nancy recommended the butternut squash ravioli. I trust her taste in food so I took a glance at the description and decided to go with that.

pan-seared scallops butternut squash ravioli – truffle beurre blanc, amaretti, pine nuts and crispy sage

Holy moly! Best ravioli I’ve ever had! There were deep-fried mint leaves on top of perfectly seared scallops. The only complaint I had about this dish was that I wish it was bigger. Great recommendation Nancy!

Nancy’s husband Frankie had the four mushroom steak – 9oz certified angus sirloin with shiitake, portabello, button and crimini mushroom demi.

And Nancy had the short rib sandwich – caramelized onions, beef jus and emmental cheese on toasted sourdough.

For dessert we had a chocolate peanut butter crunch bar – with tahitian vanilla ice cream, caramel sauce and crunchy chocolate pearls.

And a white chocolate cheesecake – dark chocolate crust and the sweet in-house made mixed berry compote, topped off with a chocolate fudge sauce.

Needless to say, both desserts were spectacular. I’ve been to the Cactus Club before and every time without reservations cause by the time we tried to make some, they were already all booked so we just went with first come first serve and waited. I’d have to say, they are definitely worth the wait. If you haven’t tried this restaurant, take a look at the menu here . This is definitely one of the tops on my Edmonton restaurants lists. Nancy was extremely generous and paid for our dinner. Thank you dear! Next one is definitely on me!

On with post #2. Today we had dinner at my parents’ house again.

That’s my mom cooking up this dish. It had shrimp, snow peas, oyster mushrooms, wood ear, and celery (my least favorite veggie but I’ll still eat them).

Next it was my turn. After seeing this razor clams recipe on Denise’s blog I had a craving for razor clams but couldn’t find them. So I went and bought some normal clams and made two dishes with them.

A stir-fry clams in black bean sauce. You can definitely add red chili to this but I left them out cause of my kiddies.

Then I tried stir-frying another batch with fish sauce. I liked the black beans recipe better. I think this fish sauce dish would have tasted better if I added some lemon grass.

My mom also made a seafood soup for dinner.

Here’s everything all together.

Because this is the MOMoirs of a Food Enthusiast, I gotta include my kiddies. After dinner when it came time to go home, someone wanted to stay and play longer. He was not very happy.

Gary had to step in and work his magic. Good job hun

Well there you have it, two posts in one. Are you still here? If so, thank you. I hope you all have a great long weekend. Do you celebrate Easter? What is your favorite dish to make for Easter?