Grilled Cuban Chicken

Like the faux ant near the chickens?

[ts]
Latino Julio at [eatingclub] vancouver continues!

[js]
For some reason, I've been calling this "Cuban" chicken, maybe because of the orange and the lime in the marinade.

The other day, when I had some time in the afternoon, I decided to go ahead and marinate some chickens for grilling in the next couple of days. I was trying to save myself some prep time.

I cut out the backbone, tried to break the breast bone, and flattened the joints. I made a marinade consisting of garlic, oregano, lime and orange zest and juices, cumin, then put the chickens in a bag with the marinade and bided my time.


[ts] Chickens always look funny to me. Look at its pose!

[js]
Then, two days later, all I had to do was put the chickens on the grill, cover, and wait for them to get done.

On a scale of one to ten, this was a pretty relaxing day.

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Recipe
Grilled Cuban Chicken

2 chickens, butterflied

3 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp ground cumin
3 bay leaves, crumbled
8 tbsp garlic, chopped
1/2 cup lime juice
1/2 cup orange juice
2 tbsp vinegar
1 tbsp pepper
1 1/2 tbsp salt
zest of 1 lime, 1 orange

Combine all ingredients and pour over butterflied chickens. Marinate overnight to 2 days. Grill chickens until done.

Mexican Ancho Guajillo Chicken

[ts]
For some reason, all our July posts so far have a decidedly "Latin" feel to them. Welcome to eatingclub Latino Julio! I had to throw in that Taiwanese Stewed Minced Pork post for a little variety.

Here's yet another "Latin" dish; it's a Mexican dish inspired by Mexico: The Beautiful Cookbook.

I've been flipping through this book, wanting to make something. However, some people in the house have an aversion to cumin. (Didn't we mention we cook for picky people?) As you can imagine, trying to find a cumin-less dish in a Mexican cookbook can be a little challenging.

But, here's one! In the book, the dish is called Pollo a las Hierbas de la Sierra (Chicken with Mountain Herbs). However, the recipe called for avocado leaves.
Avocado leaves!

It's certainly the first time I've heard of avocado leaves being used for cooking something. Needless to say, we did not have avocado leaves in the house. So, I did my best and came up with what I'm calling "Ancho Guajillo Chicken" instead.

I've made a few changes to the recipe, but I'm copying the original at the end of the post.

Ancho Guajillo Marinade


[ts]
Here is how that concoction in the blender came to be.



[ts]
I don't really know much about the different qualities of dried chiles, except to know that anchos smell like raisins. =)

I toasted the anchos and guajillos in a dry pan first, then removed the seeds and membrane. Back into the pot they went, along with chopped tomatoes. They cooked until softened.

They went into the blender with some garlic, onion, and some plain old white vinegar.



[ts]
The resulting purée went onto some chicken that have been seasoned with salt and pepper. We only had drumsticks, so that's what I used. They sat marinating for about 20 minutes or so.

Hierbas de la Sierra (Mountain Herbs)
[ts]
Um, yeah. Be it known that it seemed like I did not actually have any of these hierbas on hand; fresh ones, that is.

Here's what I did.



[ts]
I made the herb infusion using dried Mexican oregano (at least I got the Mexican part correct!) and some dried rosemary (all the way from the Provence! Thanks again, Dhanggit!). No avocado leaves, kids, sorry. The dried herbs steeped in some boiling water.

I then added the chicken and marinade. To add the "bulk" that was supposed to be provided by the avocado leaves, I used cilantro instead. We do love our cilantro, after all, and cilantro is still "Mexican", right? Right?



This simply simmered away until the chicken was cooked.



[ts]
I wasn't sure how the chicken would taste, given my limited experience with these red chiles. I was a little surprised that the chicken tasted quite familiar. The chicken was juicy and fall-off-the-bone tender.

The overall taste of the sauce is quite complex, enveloping the chicken in a kind of rich, smoky, earthy sweetness. It was quite delicious, albeit a little difficult to parse right now. We have to go on a chile education -- and perhaps Latino Julio is the month to do that.


Like my ghetto backdrop?

[eatingclub] vancouver Mexican
Tacos... then
Tacos... now
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Semi-Lime-cooked, Semi-Yucatecan Shrimp with Garlic Chips
Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese with Pipían Verde
Quickie Turkey Tortilla Soup
Tacos of Carnitas with Pineapple, with Roasted Salsa and Sweet Potato
Shrimp a la Mexicana (Camarones a la Plancha)
Enchiladas Verdes
Mexican Ancho Guajillo Chicken

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Recipe
Pollo a las Hierbas de la Sierra
(Chicken with Mountain Herbs)
from Mexico: The Beautiful Cookbook
Serves 4

1 large chicken, about 4 lb (2 kg), quartered
salt and freshly ground pepper
3 chiles anchos
2 chiles guajillos
1 cup chopped tomato
4 cloves garlic
1/2 small onion
1/4 cup white vinegar
2 cups water
12 avocado leaves with stems
1 sprig rosemary
1/2 cup fresh oregano

Season the chicken with salt and pepper and set aside.

Toast the chiles and remove their seeds and membranes. In a small saucepan, cook the chiles with the tomato over medium heat until softened. Transfer to a blender, add the garlic, onion and vinegar and purée. Coat the chicken pieces with this purée and let marinate at room temperature for 20 minutes.

Bring the water to a boil. In a deep cazuela or pot, prepare an infusion by pouring the water over half of the herbs. Add the chicken and cover with the other half of the herbs. Cook over low heat, covered, for 40 minutes. When the chicken is tender, serve it on the leaves with which it cooked.

Taiwanese Stewed Eggs (滷蛋) with Stewed Minced Pork (魯肉 or 肉燥)

[js]
For as long as I can remember eating Taiwanese food, I have always loved the stewed minced pork on rice (魯肉飯 or 肉燥飯).

It is always the first thing I order when trying out a previously uneaten-at Taiwanese restaurant. It is my mother's favourite dish too, and often, she'll just have that one bowl of rice with this pork sauce.

[ts]
Just butting in here with an aside. Our mother refers to it as "rou zao" (肉燥), but I've also heard it referred to as "lu rou" (魯肉).

Confusion.

I saw that CL (AL's brother) was online and started bombarding him with my out-of-nowhere questions about ground pork. With some fast googling on CL's part, we have discovered that these two terms refer to the same dish, with one term used primarily in the north, and the other in the south of Taiwan.

Thanks CL!

Stewed Minced Pork (魯肉 or 肉燥)

Whoa, the blur!

[js]
There are as many variations of this dish (as well as names for this dish, apparently) as there are cooks, but I have always been partial to the versions served at Lin's (Richmond BC, now closed) and at Q Noodle House (Rowland Heights CA).

Thing is, everybody's quite secretive about their recipe and I can never get a straight answer. Thus, what I have dubbed the "taste of Formosa" has eluded me for so long. . .

Anyways, this is my second attempt at this dish and I am pretty satisfied with the result. It seems close enough to my favourite versions of the dish. (I adapted my version from a recipe from chezpei.)

It's another one of those dump-everything-into-a-pot dishes that we lazy folk love to make.

Pork, some mushrooms, garlic, green onions, soy sauce and other seasonings, spices such as star anise, cloves, dried tangerine peel...

Stewed Eggs (滷蛋)


[js]
I made some stewed eggs as well, using the same flavorings for stewing the egg as I did the minced pork. Stewed eggs are similar to tea eggs, minus the tea. They're also called marinated eggs.

Stewed minced pork (魯肉; 肉燥) with stewed eggs (滷蛋) makes a very happy meal (served over rice, of course).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taiwanese_cuisine#Typical_dishes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soy_egg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_egg



Some more "tastes" of Formosa
Taiwan trip 2009
Taiwanese Bakery Goods (including ChiaTe Bakery)
Dan Shui 淡水, Taiwan (including food)
Taipei Quick Eats: Mos Burger, Hong Ya Breakfast, Ay Chung Flour-Rice Noodle

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Recipe
Stewed Minced Pork (魯肉飯 or 肉燥飯)
Adapted from chezpei

1 pound ground pork
1 cup button mushrooms, chopped (I used approximately 16 medium-sized button mushrooms)
8 stalks green onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped

1/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup rice wine
2 tbsp soya paste
1 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp five-spice powder
2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, roasted and crushed
1 star anise
2 cloves
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 piece dried orange peel

1 cup water

Brown ground pork in a hot pan. Add mushrooms, green onions, and garlic and cook until fragrant. Add the rest of the ingredients and add enough water to cover. Stew mixture for about 45 minutes. Finish with sesame oil.

Stewed Eggs (滷蛋)

eggs, quantity desired
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup rice wine
2 tbsp soya paste
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp five-spice powder
2 tsp Sichuan peppercorns, roasted and crushed
1 star anise
2 cloves
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 piece dried orange peel
water

Hardboil eggs. Crack the shell by tapping the egg on the counter.

Add all the other ingredients to a small pot and simmer. Add cracked, hardboiled eggs. Let simmer for at least 15 minutes (longer is OK). One can keep the simmered eggs in the simmering liquid.

Strawberry Cilantro Salsa, on Grilled Flank Steak

[ts]
We wanted to do another entry for Weekend Wokking because our first entry we made, cilantro horchata, was very simple to do. But, as mentioned before, our dipping level of energy prevented us from thinking about, let alone executing, an elaborate dish.

So we thought of something so simple, one doesn't even need a recipe.



[js]
I've been seeing strawberries popping up around here and even scored some local strawberries at Richmond Country Farms Market. In terms of fruit-herb pairings, strawberries are most often paired with sweet basil, but we thought why not switch up and pair them with cilantro instead.

We both agreed that beef tasted particularly swell with cilantro. (To wit, Mama's Dancing Cilantro Beef. Which reminds me, it has been quite a while since we've made that: it is due.)

Hence, this dish was born. Again, it is a very easy dish, perfect for days when we atone for our "hard-relaxing" (DVDs till dawn) lifestyle.

Grilled Flank Steak


[js]
I did a quick-marinate of a couple of flank steaks 30 minutes prior to grilling, rubbing it vigorously with cumin, salt, and black pepper.

The steaks were put on the grill and it really was as simple as that. After a brief rest, TS proceeded to slice them.

Strawberry Cilantro Salsa


[ts]
This was simply a matter of mixing together diced strawberries, a whackload of cilantro, a couple of green onions, a jalapeño pepper, salt, pepper, a touch of sugar, and the zest and juice of a couple of limes.

All we needed to do was introduce the two to each other, and our work was done.


Flank, meet Strawberry Cilantro.
Strawberry Cilantro, meet Flank.



Awww, we knew the two of you would get together in the end.

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[eatingclub] vancouver Weekend Wokking posts:
Ravioli "Caprese": Tomato, Basil, Bocconcini
Eggplant "Clafouti"
Bibingka
Pumpkin Congee w/ Pumpkin "Beignets" & Sesame-Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese w/ Pipián Verde
Adobo Mushroom Tart
Duck and Orange Crêpes with Orange-White Wine Sauce
Almond Eggplant "Bisteeya" (Bastilla)
"Mashed Potato Beef Burger" (Red-skinned Potato Salad in Taiwanese Sacha Cheeseburger)
Korean Soybean Sprouts Pancake (Kongnamul Jeon)
Lemon Chamomile Tiramisu
Cilantro Horchata
Strawberry Cilantro Salsa, on Grilled Flank Steak

We're submitting this recipe to Weekend Wokking, a world-wide food blogging event created by Wandering Chopsticks celebrating the multiple ways we can cook one ingredient.

The host this month is Darlene of Blazing Hot Wok.

If you would like to participate or to see the secret ingredient, check who's hosting next month.

Check out all Weekend Wokking Roundups.

Cilantro Horchata

[ts]
It's that time again: Weekend Wokking time!

We knew we couldn't miss an edition of Weekend Wokking, and since the ingredient was CILANTRO (a favorite), we doubly couldn't miss this edition. It's a tough ingredient, for sure, for how does one make cilantro the star of a dish?

So, what to make?

It seems like our energy levels the past few weeks have been dipping considerably, and we seem to be "very busy" for unknown reasons, but we didn't want to just phone this one in. So, we thought something simple, yet something that's still a little unique, was in order.

We present to you, Cilantro Horchata!



[ts]
Actually, I believe our first idea was a rice pudding, but we were even too lazy to make that.

Oh, by the way, JS has just made a groundbreaking discovery as to our dipping level of energy. Ready for it?

It's Dexter!
Well, Dexter and age!

We've had the first season of Dexter on DVD for the longest time, purchased at Costco so long ago, and finally decided to watch it. We finished the season in three or four nights, staying up until only 2am or so. So, we decided to test fate. After discovering that Costco did not have Dexter for sale, I bought Season 2 via Amazon. We had about 5 days of rest before Season 2 arrived, and so were very cocky.

We watched Season 2in a mere two nights, staying awake until 4-ish (ok, 5-ish) in the morning. Holy, that took its toll! That was a week ago, and it seems the two of us are still paying for it. Age!

Good thing there's quite a bit of time before Dexter: The Complete Third Season comes out on DVD. ;D



Back to our horchata.

Cilantro Syrup


[ts]
The cilantro portion of this item comes in syrup form. I made simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water), and steeped cilantro stems from a few bunches of cilantro in it.

After an overnight stay, they were strained out, leaving me this amber-y simple syrup.



Horchata


[ts]
When one refers to "horchata" in North America, they usually refer to the Mexican rice-based horchata usually flavored with cinnamon. For Asians, think "rice milk".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horchata
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rice_milk

To make the horchata, I soaked some rice in water overnight. The next day, I buzzed the whole lot in a blender with more water until liquified.

At first, I strained the mixture through a coffee filter, but found that it strained out all the rice sediment! It left me just water, more or less. So I simply strained everything through a fine sieve.

The resulting drink was a tiniest bit gritty, and had to be stirred occasionally. Any tips on how to prevent the rice and the water from separating?



[ts]
Oh yes, that is our cilantro plant. Our garden is in a state of... non-growth, let's just say. Everybody's bolting in there! So yes, our cilantro plant is now flowering, not yielding any leaves for us to use at all. I used the flowers as garnish for our cilantro horchata.

As for the flavor of the cilantro horchata, it certainly was refreshing and cilantro-y. Although, I believe that, as in all things cilantro, it is probably an acquired taste. =)



[ts]
If Wandering Chopsticks and Darlene of Blazing Hot Wok (the host for this edition) will indulge us, we have one more cilantro entry for Weekend Wokking coming up (tomorrow's post)!

update: Our second entry is posted!
Strawberry Cilantro Salsa, on Grilled Flank Steak

[eatingclub] vancouver Weekend Wokking posts:
Ravioli "Caprese": Tomato, Basil, Bocconcini
Eggplant "Clafouti"
Bibingka
Pumpkin Congee w/ Pumpkin "Beignets" & Sesame-Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese w/ Pipián Verde
Adobo Mushroom Tart
Duck and Orange Crêpes with Orange-White Wine Sauce
Almond Eggplant "Bisteeya" (Bastilla)
"Mashed Potato Beef Burger" (Red-skinned Potato Salad in Taiwanese Sacha Cheeseburger)
Korean Soybean Sprouts Pancake (Kongnamul Jeon)
Lemon Chamomile Tiramisu
Cilantro Horchata
Strawberry Cilantro Salsa, on Grilled Flank Steak

Enjoyed this post? Why not subscribe to our blog? Subscribe via reader or subscribe via email. Thank you!

Recipe
Cilantro Horchata
Makes approximately 1 liter (1 quart)

Cilantro Sugar Syrup
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
cilantro stems, 2 to 4 bunches

Horchata
1 cup raw rice
1 1/2 cups water
4 cups water

Make the cilantro syrup by simmering the sugar and water in a small saucepan until the sugar has completely dissolved. Add the cilantro stems to the syrup and steep, minimum 1 hour, or overnight. Strain out the stems and set syrup aside.

For the horchata, soak the rice grains in the 1 1/2 cups of water overnight, covered. The next day, place soaked rice and liquid in a blender and process until very smooth/liquified. Add the additional 4 cups of water. Strain though a fine sieve while chilling in the refrigerator. Stir well before serving.

Individuals can add cilantro syrup to taste, or simply mix together the syrup and horchata in a pitcher and serve.

We're submitting this recipe to Weekend Wokking, a world-wide food blogging event created by Wandering Chopsticks celebrating the multiple ways we can cook one ingredient.

The host this month is Darlene of Blazing Hot Wok.

If you would like to participate or to see the secret ingredient, check who's hosting next month.

Check out all Weekend Wokking Roundups.

Enchiladas Verdes

[js]
Consider these our starter enchiladas.

I've been wanting to make enchiladas for quite some time now but it has never come to fruition. Sometimes, we have no cheese. Sometimes, we have no chicken stock. Sometimes, we have no... well, really, most of the time, I'm just too plain lazy. Tacos and fajitas make the cut more often because they, at least to my mind, are easier to do.

One fine Friday afternoon, we finally had all of the ingredients to make green enchiladas in stock. We used the recipe from Mexico: The Beautiful Cookbook as our guide.



Salsa Verde (Green Sauce )


[js]
I had stopped by at a Mexican grocery store earlier and bought canned tomatillos, in anticipation of making a salsa verde of sorts.

I bought canned because the fresh tomatillos I see on sale look so small and shrivelled, like they've seen better days. I figure I'd take my chances on canned tomatillos this time around.



To add more flavour to my green sauce and to boost the tomatillos, I thought hopefully, I did the additional step of roasting the onions, garlic, and the jalapeño and serrano peppers.

I simply popped them into a hot oven for about 30 minutes, while I waited for my chicken breasts to poach.

Poaching Chicken


[js]
The chicken breasts were poached in a pot of water with onions, parsley, garlic and a carrot. The resulting liquid is reserved and some of it will be used to make the salsa verde a tad runnier.

I reserved the task of shredding the chicken for TS. ;)

After the onions and the peppers were sufficiently roasted, it was just a matter of puréeing them with the tomatillos, with a bunch of cilantro, in a blender.



[js]
I kept the salsa verde clean and did not add any other herb or spices to it. I just wanted a very fresh green flavour for my enchiladas. I suppose the next time we make it I can experiment with different combinations of herbs and spices for a more complex flavour.

Salsa Verde Attack!


[ts]
After puréeing the sauce, they needed to be cooked. Actually, one needs to add the green sauce to hot oil. Have you heard about that bit about oil and water not mixing? Yeah.

As expected, our salsa verde bubbled and attacked! I knew enough to keep the **!#@** back, but our newly-cleaned stovetop was not so lucky.


Before and After

Corn Tortilla


Just one more component needed: the tortillas. They needed to be quickly pan-fried to become pliable.

Assembly

Soaking the corn tortilla in the salsa verde.

[js]
Assembly of the enchiladas was a two-person job.

I figure rolling the enchiladas was not going to be my forte, so TS went ahead and did that part. My job was frying the corn tortillas and handing the pliable tortillas to her to soak in the salsa verde and roll.



[ts]
Each pan-fried tortilla was dipped into the salsa verde, filled with the shredded chicken, then rolled. We did 13 rolls. Actually, there were 12 rolls with chicken, and one lone chicken-less roll.

The whole lot was topped with the remaining salsa verde. The only cheese we had in the house was some pre-sliced Monterey Jack. Hey, that works, right?




Into the oven, and out.



[js]
These enchiladas verdes were super-duper good!

[ts]
The recipe says that this makes six servings. They were too good to make it to six. JS, CSC and I finished all of it!

Just make this.



[eatingclub] vancouver Mexican
Tacos... then
Tacos... now
Chicken Tortilla Soup
Semi-Lime-cooked, Semi-Yucatecan Shrimp with Garlic Chips
Chicken, Broccoli and Cheese with Pipían Verde
Quickie Turkey Tortilla Soup
Tacos of Carnitas with Pineapple, with Roasted Salsa and Sweet Potato
Shrimp a la Mexicana (Camarones a la Plancha)
Enchiladas Verdes
Mexican Ancho Guajillo Chicken

Enjoyed this post? Why not subscribe to our blog? Subscribe via reader or subscribe via email. Thank you!

Recipe
Enchiladas Verdes
adapted from Mexico: The Beautiful Cookbook
Makes 6 servings

2 chicken breasts
4 cloves garlic
1 onion
3-5 sprigs parsley
1 carrot
salt
water to cover

2 onions
3 serrano peppers
3 jalapeño peppers
4 cloves garlic
1 can tomatillos (1.5 lbs), drained
1 tablespoon oil
1 bunch cilantro

12 corn tortillas

grated Monterey Jack cheese, or queso fresco, crumbled

Poach chicken:
Place the breasts, 4 cloves garlic, 1 onion, parsley, carrot and salt in a pot. Add water to cover. Cover and simmer until the chicken is tender. Remove chicken and shred. Reserve the broth.

Make salsa verde:
Roast onions, serrano and jalapeño peppers, and garlic in a 400F oven for about 30 minutes. Add the roast vegetables and the tomatillos in blender, adding about 1 cup of reserved chicken stock to ease the puréeing. Add cilantro and process briefly.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a saucepan or stockpot. Add the salsa verde (and stand back!). Cook over low heat, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes. Add more chicken broth if too thick. Set aside.

Corn Tortilla:
In a small fry pan, heat oil. Pan-fry tortilla on each side, about 10 seconds each, until pliable.

Assembly:
Divide shredded chicken into 12 portions.

Dip/soak each fried tortilla in salsa verde and place on your platter. Fill with a portion of shredded chicken, then roll. Repeat until you have finished filling and rolling all tortillas. Pour over remaining salsa verde.

Top your enchiladas with cheese. Place in 400F oven until cheese is golden brown and bubbling. Serve.

Caldo Verde (Portuguese Kale and Chorizo Soup)

[ts]
I don't remember exactly how, why, where or when I first discovered caldo verde, but it has been one of my favorites soups since then. It is so simple to make and so satisfying.



[ts]
I start by cooking some chorizo in some olive oil. Look at how the rendered fat colors the oil! I set the cooked chorizo aside, then add diced onion. I let the onions cook until softened.



The diced potatoes go in next, then water to cover. When the potatoes are tender, I process the soup (using a hand blender) to my desired consistency, return the cooked chorizo, then add the kale. I simply let the kale cook and the flavors meld together.

I actually prefer some kale to be really cooked down, and some "fresher". So, I simply divide my kale, letting half cook for a longer time, and the other half for only about 5 minutes or so.

I also find that I prefer less chorizo pieces while I'm eating the soup (blasphemy, I know!), but then, I'm afraid there won't be enough chorizo flavor in the soup if I cut back.

Oh, the problems I have in life!

Since we tend to have a lot of chorizo pieces left in the soup when the liquid has long gone, a simple reusing of the chorizo solves all problems. Add them to eggs! Make fried rice! How can anything not be enhanced by the addition of chorizo?



[ts]
I didn't mind eating this for 4 straight meals in a row. I didn't mind at all.


[eatingclub] vancouver Portuguese
Vinho d'Alhos (Portuguese Wine and Garlic Marinated Pork)
Jag (Jagacida, Cape Verdean Beans & Rice)
Caldo Verde (Portuguese Kale and Chorizo Soup)

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Recipe
Caldo Verde (Portuguese Kale and Chorizo Soup)
Makes 6 generous servings

2 chorizo, cut into slices or cubes
1 onion, diced
3 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes
8 cups water (or, to cover)
2 bunches kale, leaves chopped

In your stockpot, heat a scant amount of olive oil over medium heat. Add chorizo and brown. Remove chorizo and set aside. Remove excess fat, if desired, but leave some in the pot.

Heat the rendered fat in the pot, and add onions, cooking until softened. Add diced potatoes and stir for about 30 seconds. Add water to cover. Bring to a boil, cover, and let simmer until potatoes are tender.

When potatoes are tender, process the soup in a blender, or use a hand blender, until desired consistency. The soup shouldn't be too thick. Thin with water if necessary.

Add back the cooked chorizo and let the soup simmer for about 10 minutes. Stir in kale leaves and let cook until your desired level of doneness. Season to taste. Serve.

Blogger Meet @ Alvin Garden

[ts]
Yes, that's my attempt at drawing a pepper. Why, you ask?

At someone's urging (no.names.mentioned-ahem-Sherman!), even though I don't have any content, I am posting about a Vancouver food blogger dinner I attended. Of course, I didn't have a camera on me, and hence, no pictures.

The chili pepper? We ate Hunan food (read: spicy) and there were a lot of chili peppers peppering our dishes.

Follow the links to read their accounts of the dinner, and more importantly, to look at great images of the food! There were at least 4 DSLRs being whipped out as each dish arrived.

604foodtography: Alvin Garden - Burnaby, BC
La Petite Vancouver: Alvin Garden
Ho Yummy: Review: Alvin Garden
I'm Only Here for the Food!: Bloggers Dinner @ Alvin Garden
Sherman's Food Adventures: Alvin Garden
The Best Damn Food Blog There Is™: Bloggers are people too

Also in attendance:
Doesn't Tazte Like Chicken
Yum-O-Rama

This was great fun. I'm still wondering about the kooky name for the restaurant, though. Looking forward to the next dinner! (Will Sherman organize the next one again? All in favor, say "aye.")

Now, back to our regular scheduled programming.

Taipei Quick Eats: Mos Burger, Hong Ya Breakfast, Ay Chung Flour-Rice Noodle

Yakiniku Rice Burger

[ts]
Another Taipei post only three months after the fact! Must be some sort of new record for speediest travel post.

Speaking of speed, here are some quick eats from Taipei. (I know, I know, bad segue.)

MOS Burger


[ts]
MOS Burger is a fast food chain originating from Japan. The first time I saw one during the trip, it was a very small kiosk in a metro station. They didn't seem to have a menu with any descriptions that time, so I didn't know what was going on and decided to get food from a different place.

But, we happened to see another location again some time after that and seeing this poster, we felt we could make somewhat "educated" choices.



MOS is probably famous for their Rice Burger, so we definitely had to order one. For our other combo meal, we decided to test their plain hamburger.



The combo comes with a drink and a choice of some other item. We chose fries. The burger was quite small, viewed from a North American point of view. Not sure if it's detectible from the photo above, but it fit nicely within the palm of my hand. Also, we weren't sure, but the patty may have been made from a combination of ground beef and pork.



[ts]
Teehee, I think it's just me, but I really got a kick out of the packet above. For our other fries + something combo, we chose the fried chicken breast.



Those instructions were for how to use the wrapper to hold your chicken so you don't have to mess up your hands.



Finally, the Rice Burger. We chose the Yakiniku Rice Burger (grilled beef strips). As one may have gathered from the name, the "bun" is made from rice. This was actually quite good. To put it simply, it's like eating sukiyaki beef over rice (very nice), but in a portable form!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mos_Burger
MOS Burger Taiwan

Hong Ya Breakfast & Lunch


[ts]
On our way to the National Palace Museum (an excellent museum, by the way), we decided to grab something to eat for breakfast. However, it seemed that Taipei doesn't wake up until 11am! It's very difficult to find anyplace open at the late morning hour of 10am, let alone earlier.

The only place we could find was a Taiwanese bakery, but I wasn't in the mood for it. JS bought a pork floss bun, but I wanted something else. Good thing we walked past Hong Ya. As there were a few people who were ordering from the counter, I figured this was a safe bet.



It was a little bit of a challenge ordering as the menu was in Chinese. I could tell that a certain item was "chicken", for example, but could discern nothing else. So, I pointed to a "chicken" bun item on a fairly large poster. The woman asked if I wanted an egg in it. Oooooh, I certainly did.



Don't be fooled by its homely appearance. This was actually quite good; it definitely hit the spot.



The reason: this was "real" food, unlike fast food in North America. There is my real marinated chicken on the griddle, beside my fried egg.



Sorry for the partially eaten sandwich there. I just realized I didn't get a shot of my meal. It came with an iced coffee drink (nothing to write home about). There in the background is JS' pork floss bun.

Ay Chung Flour-Rice Noodle, Since 1975


[ts]
We were walking around the Xi Men Ding (西門町) pedestrian area one evening, full from a very late "lunch"/mid-afternoon snack (of beef noodle soup), and whiling away some time before meeting cousins for dinner (at Din Tai Fung), when we saw the scene above.

There were a bunch of people just loitering the streets, eating some sort of noodle dish. We didn't think much of it, seeing as we didn't really have any room for food.



However, we passed by once again after forty-five minutes or so, and, seeing that there were still a lot of people enjoying their noodles, I decided to get one.



Flour-rice noodles turned out to be a type of misua noodles. After a quick look on Wikipedia, I assume that this is the "brown" misua, and my bowl is one of oyster "vermicelli" (or more accurately, oyster noodle threads).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misua
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyster_vermicelli



There were three condiments available: a chili thing, a garlicky thing, and I don't quite remember the third one... could it be soy sauce-based? Or vinegar? I simply added a bit of each.



So, was that crowd warranted? Well, I thought the dish was "OK" (not bad), but I didn't feel a special affinity for it. Frankly, though, I don't remember much about it. Perhaps there was just such a crowd because Ay-Chung uses real bowls, so customers had to eat it right there.

I turned to my friend AL (whose wedding it was that I attended in Taipei) and asked for more information about this "flour-rice noodle" dish. She, in turn, although already having the said information, had it confirmed by her mother!



AL said that when she asked her mother about it, her mother was very vague and then countered with, "Why do you want to know?" AL explained I was asking, in which case, her mother replied: "Oh, then in that case, this and this and blah blah blah goes in..."

Haha. It's nice to know I have some pull with her mother. ;D

Apparently, the stock is each restaurant's secret. For this dish, small oysters are key (not humongous ones) and at times, pork intestines are also added.

AL also wrote that the best complement to this dish is stinky tofu! I must admit, JS and I didn't try any stinky tofu during the trip. In fact, we haven't had stinky tofu ever. I guess we were too afraid. ;)

Oh, fyi, according to AL, Ay Chung is definitely not a good place to get this oyster/pork intestine noodle threads dish.

Taiwan trip 2009
Taiwanese Bakery Goods (including ChiaTe Bakery)
Dan Shui 淡水, Taiwan (including food)
Taipei Quick Eats: Mos Burger, Hong Ya Breakfast, Ay Chung Flour-Rice Noodle

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Italian Skinless Sausages, the meal

[js]
The inspiration for today's meal was fennel.

I had a couple of bulbs lying wait in the fridge and was at a loss to prepare them. I had plans for a pasta dish with fennel or a pork loin with fennel. . . in the end, the best-laid plans having gone awry, I opted to simply chop up the fennel bulbs and sauté the slices.

As I was getting ready to cook the fennel, I suddenly thought how lonely the fennel dish was going to be. We don't usually eat fennel! You might wonder why I picked up a couple of bulbs in the first place, and you wonder appropriately, but that is a topic for another day.



[js]
My lonely fennel needed a companion, a help-meet.

I put on my thinking cap and dreamed of Italian sausages in a bun with the sautéed fennel as a topping. Fortunately, we had some ground pork in the fridge and our spice cupboard was well-stocked.

Making the Italian sausages were not going to be a problem -- or at least, there weren't any material impediments to my making of the sausages, albeit they would just have to be skinless sausages because we did not have casings in the house.

In my dreams, I also thought of a balsamic-tomato-onion relish for my sausages, but that was a little too ambitious, considering I also had to make some skinless Filipino longganisa for the rest of the family.

Do you not sense a recurring theme here? First, it was the pork barbecue skewers gatecrashing our Korean bulgogi party. Now, Filipino longganisa. Ah, these are the trials and tribulations of preparing meals for picky people! ;) Doubles my work!

Self-Sautéed Fennel


[js]
That is why you'll see I even cheated on the fennel slices and didn't sauté them on the stovetop. I simply put them on a tray with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic and let them "sauté" themselves on the grill with the sausages.

They're self-sautéed.



Italian Skinless Sausages


The sausages turned out very well and there was enough Italian flavour in them to make me happy.


before and after

They weren't aggressively Italian though, so if you're looking for something more fierce, then I would double the amount of fennel, bay, and oregano in the recipe.



The sausages looked lonely sitting on a bun; that didn't look right for this meal.

Arugula Spinach Pesto on Penne


TS made this pasta dish with arugula and spinach pesto, and we also had some leftover arugula and spinach leaves that we lightly dressed with balsamic vinaigrette. They seem more fitting companions to our skinless Italian sausages.

The Plate


[js]
It was quite a full plate and this meal left me very satisfied.


Recipe
Italian Skinless Sausages

2 pounds ground pork
6 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ground fennel
1/2 tsp ground bay
4 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp pepper flakes
1 tsp black pepper
1 1/2 tsp salt

Mix everything together in a bowl and form into sausages of desired girth and length. Pan-fry or grill.

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