A Packed Weekend

Hi everyone! Hope you all had a lovely weekend. It’s been a while since I had a chance to meet up with my girlfriends and chat. So as busy as I was, I managed to fit in some time this weekend. When you’re a mom, time becomes one of the most cherished elements in your life and OCD becomes your best friend.

We started out the day having dim sum with an aunt who was visiting from Hong Kong. Then we went to WEM and I did some shopping for a birthday gift (at least that’s what I told the hubby…teehee) while hubby took the kiddies to Galaxyland. After that, he took the kids for a couple of hours while I met up with some of my girlfriends at Joey Tomatoes.

Most of us had dinner plans afterwards so we decided to order all the desserts (so proud of my girls) and some chicken wings (again, PROUD). All three desserts came out at the same time – BOOYAH! Usually someone orders a salad, but not today, ain’t no salad touching this table. My girls are growing up so fast, it was a very proud moment for me…teehee.

We ordered a lava cake,

an apple pie,

a banana cake,

and some salt & pepper wings with Tobasco sauce on the side.

Since being a mom, I’ve always ordered my wings this way because 1. ) you can adjust the “heat” level, 2.) they’re more crispy and my kids like their wings crispy, and 3.) your hands don’t get all dirty and red.

We only chatted for about an hour, but we all know that when girls chat, there’s no room for breathing ;-). Good times, good times. Can’t wait till our next get together ladies.

Thank you to the waitress who was able to work my camera and take a proper picture.

After girlfriends time, it was family time again. Gary picked me up and we decided to try out a new ramen place called Nomiya. (click on the link for the address)

I wasn’t expecting it to be full, but it was jam-packed. We got there at six o-clock and there was already a half an hour wait for a table of four. I wanted to leave, but K insisted we stay, so stay it was. The place was quite small. This was the best shot I could get of the restaurant (sorry).

I ordered the vegetarian ramen which came with corn, enoki and shiitake mushrooms, bamboo, broccoli, and spinach (although I just realized as I’m typing this that I didn’t get any spinach in mine…hmmm?).  I’d give this dish a 4 out of 10. The soup wasn’t anything special, the ingredients looked pretty, but like the soup, was just blah. Size wise though it was a pretty big bowl. For $8.95 it wasn’t too bad, but I don’t think I would order this dish again. If you want something more on the bland side for the kids, then I’d suggest this, otherwise get something else.

Gary ordered the Spicy Miso (what I wanted to get in the first place but didn’t want to double order). It included sliced pieces of pork (good thing I didn’t order it), bamboo, bean sprouts, and kamaboko. I had a sip of the soup. It was quite tasty (much better than mine) and slightly spicy, not spicy enough for me though. Hubby gave this a 7 out of 10. He seemed to enjoy it and said he would order it again. This was $10 a bowl.

I shared my ramen with the kiddies and we also ordered a Paradise roll (mango, cucumber, shrimp, imitation crab stick, sweet mayo dressing, and deep fried). Yup, this place also serves sushi. It was the mango that caught my attention.

At $10.95, I found the portion a bit small, but I really enjoyed this dish. The sweetness of the mango blended well with the saltiness of the crab and shrimp, but also complimented the sweet mayo dressing very well. I loved the crunch and texture that the deep-frying added to this. If I didn’t already just share 3 desserts, I probably would’ve ordered another one of these. K enjoyed this very much as well. I almost didn’t want to share with her (teehee), hence the contemplation of a second order. I know, mother of the year :-D.

All in all we had a pretty good experience at this restaurant. Other than my vegetarian ramen being rather disappointing, everything else held up. The service was extremely attentive. For such a small restaurant, they had about 3 or 4 servers running around. As soon as we were seated, everything ran pretty smoothly. I’d love to come back and try some of the other items on their menu. I’m not sure if they take reservations, but I would suggest you call to try to make one if you’re going to visit, or go really early. Like I said before, we got there at 6 and there was already a half an hour wait for a table.

That’s it for this week dear readers, it’s always a pleasure to have you dropping by and visiting. Until next time, friends and family :-D.

Eat Alberta Food Conference

 

 

Slow Food Edmonton is pleased to announce a hands-on food conference called Eat Alberta: A Celebration of Our Local Food Heroes. It will be held in downtown Edmonton on April 30^th, 2011.

This is a DIY conference! Some of the hands on sessions include:

·       Sausage making

·       Cheese making demonstration

·       Apple pie and pastry making

·       Bread making

·       Pasta making

Tasting sessions include:

·       Fruit wine tasting

·       Honey tasting

·       Coffee tasting

·       Canadian wine and cheese pairing

·       Goat Cheese Tasting

There will also be opening and closing keynote sessions on urban gardening and urban homesteading, respectively.

What the day looks like:

·       8:30 to 5 p.m.

·       Continental Breakfast followed by the morning keynote

·       Two morning break out sessions (choose from 8 different sessions)

·       A charcuterie and cheesetasting lunch with artisan breads

·       Two afternoon break out sessions (choose from 8 different sessions)

·       Closing session followed by a “wine” down

To register for this hands-on conference or for more information, please click the following link: www.eatalberta.ca.

Side note: We are “attempting” a local food blogger BLOG OUT to advertise this grass roots conference. I have agreed to participate in hopes that it will make a difference to my local food community. 

All comments have been closed for this post. Thank you for dropping by this week. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend, see you next week.

Metabolism, I want to be Friends Again (Let me Bribe you with a Recipe)

Warning: Lame post coming up. Read at your own risk.

Metabolism, are you there? It’s me, LeeQs. Remember the good old junior high, high school, and university days? You had my back every time. Didn’t matter what I shoved into my mouth, you were there. Be it the whole bag of Cheetos I had for lunch, the cans and cans of soft drinks I used to wash down said bag of Cheetos with, the chocolate bars I had after badminton, volleyball, or basketball practice. Whatever processed food caught my eye that day, YOU were there.

In junior high, people would stare in amazement as this short little 4 foot 9  Asian girl wolfed down a foot long Subway. Now I’m a whopping 5 feet. Yes, what a growth spurt I had. Which reminds me, how come you never showed up at my doorstep Ms. Growth Spurt? I waited and waited and waited, but I’ll get back to you after I’m done dealing with sellout Metabolism here. Anyways, those were the days weren’t they old friend?

Then one day I had a child and you seemed to disappear. You allowed me to maintain the same weight from junior high all the way through to my early motherhood years. After that, it seemed like a part of me was missing. I even tried to start eating better in hopes that you’d come back, but no matter how hard I tried, you still refused. You know I’ve never been one to worry about weight, but your absence is really starting to make me want to step on that evil scale more often these days. I want you to know that just because I have kids now, doesn’t mean we can’t be friends anymore. My door will always be open to you. Just between you and I though, there IS someone who I really don’t want to be friends with anymore, Insomnia. Gosh, she can be such a pain, but shhh…..don’t tell her I said that. I miss you my dear Metabolism, please come back soon.

The moral of this: Exercise and eat right, your metabolism will love you for it (so will your body).

If you’ve gotten this far, pat yourself on the back my friend. Let’s at least try to end this properly, with a recipe. Yeah, now I’m talking right?

Ketchup Shrimp (on top of Enoki Mushrooms)

Note: The chilies on the side are just part of my plate design. You can definitely add sliced chilies to this dish if you’d like. I highly recommend it, but I didn’t because of my kiddies.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb shrimp deveined (shell on or off is up to you)
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1 tbsp sesame oil
• 3 cloves garlic chopped
• 2 stalks green onions cut into thirds
• ketchup
• salt to taste

I don’t know how much ketchup I used, about a big glop like this:

Instructions:

Heat up cooking oil in a hot pan or wok. Add in green onions and garlic. Cook until garlic starts to turn golden brown. Push green onions to the side. Add shrimp and sesame oil. Cook until shrimp have turned pink and start to curl. Add in ketchup, mix everything together and cook for another minute. Add salt to taste, give it a final mix and plate.

My Grandma used to make this and ketchup mussels for me when I was younger. I still love those dishes to this day. I added Enoki mushrooms because they were on sale at my grocery store ($1/pack), and I’m cheap like that 😀 .

I hope you all have a lovely week. Until next time, friends and family. Do you have a favorite or memorable childhood dish?

Vietnamese Sweet and Sour Soup With Shrimp

 Thank you for all your supportive comments on my last post. I’ve never been one to hold back on what I eat, but posting it on the internet for everyone to see is a whole different story. So thank you to each and every one of you for your honesty and support.

This week I’d like to share one of my favorite soups with you, Vietnamese sweet and sour soup. Let’s get down to business, shall we?

There is an ingredient in this recipe that is quite unfamiliar to many people. In Vietnamese it’s called bac ha. Upon googling bac ha, I found that the English name is known as Elephant Ear. This vegetable is sold in stalks at Asian grocery stores. 

The insides are quite spongy looking. When cooked, they absorb a lot of soup and have a slight crunch when bitten into. This is my favorite vegetable in this soup. If you cannot find this, you can easily substitute with celery. Have you tried this vegetable before?

(Feeds eight)

Ingredients:

• 2 liters vegetable broth
• 500 ml water
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 3 – 4 stalks bac ha sliced into half inch thick slices
• 1 cup chopped pineapple
• 2 tomatoes, chopped
• 2 cups king oyster mushrooms sliced into 2 inch lengths
• 2 cups oyster mushrooms separated by the stem
• 2 cups bean sprouts
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 4 tbsp fish sauce
• 7 tbsb tamarind pulp (more or less to taste, I like my soup more on the sour side) 
• 1 – 2 lbs shrimp (preferably head and shell on)

Instructions:

To prepare tamarind pulp, empty a 227 gram bag of tamarind into a bowl. Add 2/3 cups hot water (not boiling water) to submerge the tamarind for about 15 minutes. Once cooled, squeeze the seeds out of the pulp and press pulp through a fine strainer.

Have all your vegetables washed, cut up and ready to be added into the soup.

Heat up oil in a 9 quarts pot and fry minced garlic until golden brown.

Add vegetable broth and water. Keep heat at high and bring broth to a boil. Once broth boils, add in shrimp. Cook shrimp until they turn pink and have fully curled up. Remove shrimp from the soup so they don’t shrink and set aside for later.

Add in all vegetables and bring soup to a boil.

Once boiling, allow vegetables to continue to cook for another 15 minutes.

When ready to serve, return shrimps back into the soup and boil for another 2 minutes. Serve immediately before shrimp start to shrink.

Note: Use shrimp with heads and shell on for better presentation and flavor in the soup. I ran out and had to use whatever shrimp I had in my freezer.

We ate this with rice, but you can also eat it with vermicelli noodles. The sauce you see on the side is a mixture of 3 tablespoons fish sauce, 1 tablespoon lime juice, and 1 sliced red chili pepper. It is used as a dip to accompany the vegetables and shrimp when eating with rice. If you like spicy soup, you can definitely add chili sauce or red chili peppers. I left those out of this recipe for the sakes of my kiddies. Cut the recipe in half if you’re not planning on feeding more than four people.

My mom makes this soup with fish instead of shrimp and sometimes adds okra. You can even substitute the shrimp with chicken if you don’t like seafood. If you want a vegetarian version, substitute the shrimp with tofu and the fish sauce with soy sauce. This soup is quite versatile and everybody can enjoy it.

I hope you’re all having a wonderful week. Until next time, friends and family :-D.

My Guilty Pleasure, Because I’m Shameless

Deep fried oyster wraps. Yes, you read right, deep fried oyster wraps. Don’t knock em till you’ve tried em ;-). I wasn’t going to post this because well… honestly? I was a bit ashamed to. It’s no secret, when some people hear the words “deep fried”, they turn and run in the other direction. So when the BFF came over and asked if I’ve been making anything new? These of course came straight to mind (there are no secrets between BFF’s).  Then when she asked if I was going to do a post on them, my response was, “Heck no, woman! Are you crazy?!’. The truth was that I didn’t want the blogging world knowing that I eat this kind of stuff. By “this kind of stuff” I mean something Richard Simmons wouldn’t touch even with a five foot pole.

Truth be told, I’m no Richard Simmons. I mean, dude is adorable and all but, well…let’s just stop there for both our sakes. Anyways, this is what I eat, this is my blog, and I really enjoyed the meal so why not share it? My blog is not a health blog and I am not here to try to make myself look like an all around healthy eater. So BFF, this one’s for you ;-). This recipe makes about 6 oysters. I used one oyster per wrap. My hubby, also known as “The Hungry Hubby”, used 2 oysters per wrap. What veggies you choose to use in the wrap is up to you. Also, I don’t have a deep fryer so these instructions are for deep frying in a 5 – 6 quart sauce pan.

Ingredients for deep fried oysters (makes about 6 medium sized oysters):

• 1/3 cup all purpose flour
• 2 large eggs beaten 
• 1 cup Panko bread crumbs
• 2 quarts vegetable oil (or just enough to cover the oysters)

Instructions:

1. Have everything for deep frying laid out and ready to go. Place flour, eggs, and bread crumbs in separate containers.

2. Fill a sauce pan with enough vegetable oil to cover two oysters at a time and heat the oil on high heat for five minutes.

3. After five minutes, turn oil down to medium heat.

4. Roll oyster around in flour until completely covered. Shake off extra flour.

5. Dip oyster in eggs until fully covered. Flip to cover the other side.

6. Roll oyster in Panko bread crumbs until fully covered.

7. Carefully and slowly slide oyster into the oil and fry for about one and a half minutes per side or until both sides are golden brown. (No longer than two minutes per side.)

8. Drain fried oysters on paper towel.

Because I’m such a (in the words of my hubby) “DORK”, no worries, I’ve called him much worse (naughty wink and smirk), I used my tomato plate in an attempt to make it look more healthy, but who am I kidding? This is pure guilty pleasure. There, consider that your warning ;-).

Ingredients for wraps: (makes 2 wraps)

• 1 handful spinach
• 1 handful bean sprouts
• 1 small sweet pepper sliced into strips
• 1/2 cup shredded cheese
• Thai sweet red chili sauce
• 2 tortilla shells
• 1 or 2 deep fried oysters per wrap

I bought this Thai sweet red chili sauce from Costco – LOVE IT!

The assembly:

A bit of an Asian wrap, I’d say :-).

Can’t forget my beloved cheese :-P.

This is optional, but I wrapped it and microwaved it for 30 seconds just to melt the cheese. I like my cheese ooey gooey. I left one end open because it was too hard to wrap up both ends.

Peek-a-boo.

I-see-you!

See those streaks? Sauce started dripping out the bottom end so I shamelessly tried to swipe it up with my wrap. 

This was the best wrap I’ve ever had. Hubby agreed and we both wondered why nobody sells these (not that we know of at least). They’re so so easy, quick, and delicious. Definitely not an eat two or three times a week type of meal, but if you’re looking for something quick, fun, a bit naughty and delicious to eat, this is your meal. If you don’t have the sauce, please look for it. This sauce and the deep fried oysters are the stars of this meal. This recipe and wrap would work well with shrimp also. Enjoy!

I washed this down with some Chrysanthemum Tea.

Chrysanthemum tea is known to help aid digestion of greasy foods. It is also “classified as a cool, acrid herb which is good for relieving heat of the upper body“. You can read more about the benefits and nutritional value of chrysanthemum tea here.

So, BFF…when are you coming over for some deep fried oyster wraps? Oh, and it’s obvious by now that I have no problem using the term BFF like a giddy little teenage girl. No offense to any teenage girls reading this. If anything, I’d much rather be your age again, trust me. Until next time, friends and family :-D.

Dinner at Pagolac South Side

 Had another dinner at Pagolac restaurant, but south side this time. I’ve blogged about this restaurant before here. We started out with the deep fried squid.

Then had some butter garlic chicken wings. The other two dishes are raw beef, shrimp, and squid.

Don’t worry, we didn’t eat them sashimi style. They were cooked in this mini hot-pot with sliced white and green onions and a vinegar-y broth.

Then wrapped with vermicelli in rice paper.

Don’t forget the veggies.

Fish sauce, not straight out of the bottle though. This is mixed with sugar, lime juice, water and white vinegar. Most of the time you’ll also find shredded carrots and chopped garlic in your fish sauce at Vietnamese restaurants.

This was not on the menu but the owner made us two dishes of deep fried soft-shell crab. The sauce in the middle is just mayonnaise. Needless to say, this was my favorite dish. If you’ve never had soft-shell crab before, I highly recommend it. The whole crab is dipped in a tempura batter and deep fried. Yes, you eat everything including the shells.

Ended the night with a group picture. From left to right: Pagolac’s owner (uncle), Mom’s friend from Yellow Knife, Dad, Mom, myself , and of course my kiddies. Yes, that’s why we keep going to Pagolac, cause it’s family owned. Don’t get me wrong though, we still pay when we go. Do you see the resemblance between the owner and my Dad?

And there’s my uncle with his famous, “I can dance while balancing a beer bottle on my head” performance. Gosh I love him!

Since this is a family owned restaurant, I didn’t want to comment on the dishes and risk sounding biased. Guess you’ll just have to try for yourselves ;-). This post was actually in my drafts folder so it’s an older one that I forgot to post.

Have you ever tried soft shell crab before? If you ever get a chance to try it, I highly recommend it. Until next time, friends and family :-D.

Olive Oil Flatbread

 A couple of weeks ago I was able to attend the Greek Escapes cooking class, one of Valerie’s culinary classes. We learned how to make hummus, babaganoush, tzatziki, roasted red pepper salad, and olive oil flatbread.

Unfortunately I only snapped a few pictures because well, I was too busy learning how to cook. For that reason, I wasn’t going to do a post on this so I didn’t take anymore pictures when I was done cooking either. I was just going to wait for Valerie’s post so I could comment on how great the class was, but when I heard that Valerie’s pictures didn’t turn out and she wasn’t able to do a post either, I felt really bad. So my dear friend, this post is for you. I hope my flatbread makes you proud.

When we arrived at 8:30 in the morning, Valerie had already laid out this beautiful spread for us. Talk about treating your guests and customers right.

The cooking stations were all ready to go as well. Unfortunately, this was the last picture I got for that cooking lesson. There were 6 of us and believe me, we were all busy, busy, busy (in a good way of course).

Originally I wanted to take the class to learn how to make her amazing red pepper salad. I first got a taste of it at Valerie’s taste tripping party (if I remember correctly). Those were the best red peppers I had ever tasted, so I knew this class was my chance to learn.

As I mentioned above, we made hummus, tzatziki, babaganoush, red pepper salad, and flatbread. I had never even heard of babaganoush until that day, but my first taste blew me away. I absolutely loved it! Even though it’s a dip, I ate it by the spoonfuls when I got home – so good! Although everything tasted fantastic, I’d have to say that the star of the lesson for me was the flatbread.

I wished I had gotten a better picture of it, but when I got home my little savages tore right into it. Ok so did I, but can you blame me? Look at this beauty. Well, what’s left of it in this picture anyways.

That wonderful perfectly baked to a golden brown top, sprinkled with fresh rosemary and coarse salt fluffiness had me dreaming of bread making all week. I was in love, in love with the taste of this glorious bread and in love with bread making; and when you’re in love, you chase the object of your affection. Am I right foodies? 😉

Those smiles right there are the reason why I’m learning to bake. 

Valerie is a Richard Bertinet fan, so the technique she taught us to knead our dough was the same technique she learned from Mr. Bertinet himself. For all you bread making lovers (yes Denise and Biren, I’m talking to you) here’s a link to a video of this unique technique. (Thank you for emailing me that link,Valerie.)

After learning this technique and tasting that wonderful olive oil flatbread, I fell in love with bread making. Valerie not only taught me the technique, but she installed baking confidence in me. Confidence that lead me to make my very first bread on my own (bread that involves kneading, that is). If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know that baking and I aren’t very good friends, so for me to actually feel confident in baking is pretty huge.

This dough was so soft and smooth (yes, kinda like a baby’s bum bum), it blew me away. 

Salting the bread before putting it into the oven. You’ll notice I chose to leave out the rosemary as my kiddies were not big fans of it. I highly recommend it though.

Such a classic baking picture isn’t it?

The bread is finally done. Putting one last layer of olive oil on it. Mmm…olive oil.

It didn’t look as pretty without the rosemary though. Valerie, I hope I’ve made you proud with this bread. Thank you for the wonderful cooking lessons, I will never forget them. I’m sorry your pictures didn’t turn out. Hopefully this will at least put a smile on your face and a warm feeling in your heart 😀 

The next day, kiddies had this for a snack (one piece each). I don’t think I will ever buy a bread making machine, kneading is just too fun. Why let the machine have all the fun, right?

So tell me, do you have a favorite bread recipe? Feel free to add links to your comments. Until next time friends and family. Happy bread making 😀

Olive Oil Flatbread  (recipe from the Greek Escapes class)

Ingredients

• 18 ounces, 475g, 3 3/4 to 3 7/8 cups white bread flour
• 2 tablespoons, 30g semolina
• 1/2 ounce fresh, 1/3 ounce dry, 1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
• 2 tablespoons really good fine grain salt (sea salt)
• 5 tablespoons EVOO
• 11 1/2 ounces, just over 12 fl oz, 350g water
• 4 tablespoons EVOO or more
• few sprigs of rosemary
• good quality coarse salt

Instructions:

1. Preheat oven to 500 F.
2. Mix flour and semolina; rub the yeast with finger tips.
3. Add salt, EVOO, and water all at once into the bowl.
4. Mix ingredients until they come together in the bowl and mix for a few minutes more.
5. Turn the dough out onto a very, very lightly floured surface and work the dough until it is ready to proof.
6. Rest dough in an oiled bowl for one hour covered with a lint free cloth in a warm place.
7. Use rounded end of the scraper and turn dough out on an oiled tray.
8. Drizzle oil over the dough; use fingers to push and prod the dough to spread it from the centre toward the edges of the tray trying NOT to stretch or pull it.
9. Cover with lint free dish towel and rest warm and draft free for 45  minutes.
10. Prod the dough again, dimpling it with your fingers, and rest for 30 minutes more.
11. Take rosemary needles and push them gently in evenly over the dough.
12. Sprinkle dough with coarse salt and immediately put it in preheated oven.
13. Turn heat down to 425 F for 25 to 30 minutes until light golden brown.
14. Cook on wire rack and brush with EVOO while still hot.

 

Happy Chinese New Year!

Most of my family are out of town this Chinese New Year so there won’t be any big feast for us. I just wanted to take this time to wish all my Chinese and Vietnamese readers a happy and prosperous Chinese New Year! Also, thank you very much to all of you who left me comments on my guest post over on Mary’s blog. I really enjoyed reading all of them and appreciate you taking the time to drop by.

Happy New Year!

恭喜發財!

Chúc Mừng Nǎm Mới!

I’ll be back after the weekend with a food post, I promise. Until next time, friends and family :-D.

Keep Learning, Keep Smiling

Hi everyone! Sorry I’ve been MIA lately. Since we got back from Vancouver, I’ve been doing a lot of shoveling everyday. Finally got a break this week and the snow is starting to melt . Check it:

I’ve also been busy trying to finish up a guest post for my dear friend and fellow food blogger, Mary. Please join me on her blog this week over at Keep Learning, Keep Smiling for my guest post. Don’t forget to check out Mary’s blog while you’re there. She has fantastic dishes and is also one of the nicest people you could meet in this blogosphere. Hope to see you there. Thanks for stopping by everyone!

Super Easy Sesame Chicken

Thank you for the warm comments left on my last post everyone. You all are too sweet. I hope you had a great holiday and happy new year. We just got back from visiting my in-laws in Vancouver. While we were there, Edmonton had a bad snow storm. This is what we came back to: (sorry for the bad iPhone pics)

Hubby and I took turns “digging” cause it was way too much for one person to handle. Plus, someone had to keep and eye on the holy terrors ;-).

A couple of hours later the driveway was finally cleared. Time to invest in a snow blower? Haha. Still proud to be Canadian though. Good thing is, at least the kiddies had fun with the snow. Now onto the title of this post.

I’d like to share this simple sesame chicken recipe with you that I promised from the dinner we had with Valerie and Vanja.

Serves 4 to 6 people.

Ingredients:

• 1 packet Shanghai Bok Choy
• 1 whole chicken
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 3 to 5 Tbsp sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp salt
• a pinch of pepper
• a pinch of MSG (optional, my mom uses it, I prefer not to)
• sesame seeds
• 1 tsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp chicken bouillon
• 1/2 bowl water

Instructions:

Fill a pot big enough to hold your chicken with water to about 3/4 full. When water boils, put in your chicken and boil it for about half an hour to 45 minutes (depending on the size of your chicken) or until chicken is fully cooked. Once the chicken is cooked, take it out and allow to rest for about 10 minutes.

While chicken is cooling and resting, put your Shanghai Bok Choy into the chicken broth to cook. If you like your veggies crispy, boil for about 3 to 5 minutes. If you like your veggies soft, boil for about 10 minutes. Drain the veggies and leave to cool. While the veggies are cooling chop up the chicken.

In a big bowl (big enough to fit all the chicken pieces) mix together the sesame oil, salt, pepper, and MSG. Put all the chicken pieces in with the sesame mixture and give it a couple tosses. Make sure to coat all the chicken pieces.

To plate, in a medium bowl (just big enough to fit all the pieces of chicken) line the edge of the bowl with pieces of Shanghai Bok Choy as shown in the picture below.

Once done, line the bowl with pieces of chicken breast all around, then finish with the rest of the chicken meat filling up the middle. Turn the bowl upside down onto a plate. Cut the bunches of Shanghai Bok Choy in half and place them around the edge of the plate surrounding the chicken. It should look something like the picture below.

To finish the dish, in a bowl mix together chicken bouillon, cornstarch, and water. Stir until everything dissolves. Heat one tsp oil in a sauce pan. When oil is hot, add garlic. As soon as the garlic starts to brown, pour in the chicken bouillon mixture and stir. When mixture thickens, pour it over the plated chicken.

You can also grind more pepper onto the chicken at this point if you wish. Sprinkle some sesame seed onto your chicken (we left it out cause we forgot) and enjoy. We ate this with rice, but it would also go well with noodles.

That’s it for this week. Wherever you are, I hope you’re not snowed in like were were. Until next time, friends and family :-D.