This week, we have: mixed greens, basil, onion, coloured carrots, parsnips, zucchini, tomato, garlic, sunflower and basil
Month: September 2013
Green Onion Pancakes
In my CSA delivery this week, I was the proud recipient of a bunch of super sized green onions. These are not your grocery store variety; these are mutant weeds. What to do, what to do…
This is the first batch of green onion pancakes. I still have half the bundle left. I think I need to more finely chop my green onions, as they look more like dumplings. But still tasty. 葱油饼 Chong yao beng, in Cantonese. This is pretty close to the recipe I used.
Sheraton Wall Centre Event Catering
I went to a gala dinner at the Sheraton Wall Centre last night. I was not optimistic about the food, given the less than stellar reviews on Urbanspoon about room service and Cafe One restaurant.
The event started off with cocktails, where servers walked around with hot canapes. These were really good. I sampled a vegetarian samosa, arancini, chicken meatballs with teriyaki sauce, and sundried tomato bruschetta.
For dinner, we had a . I found it unremarkable. For dinner, we had Grilled Queen Charlotte Halibut Fillet with Sweet Potato Puree, Wilted Greens, Seasonal Baby Vegetables and Smoked Vine-Ripened Tomato Coulis. The halibut was a good portion and flavorful, but a little dry. The vegetables were done to a turn.
For dessert, we had Mango Mousse Layered with Raspberry and Almond Sponge Cake served with Coconut Ice-Cream. That was delicious. Service was good, as I would expect from these type of events. Having been to the coffee shop downstairs in the hotel, and talking to others that have eaten at the restaurant, I conclude that the Sheraton serves good food. But, I suspect their service is lacking in the restaurant.
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Cafe Crepe
I find it difficult to find good breakfast places that open earlier than 9am within a short distance of my hotel. I mean sit down breakfast, not grab and go. So I went to Cafe Crepe, which had been a goto on many occasions.
I find that they serve reliable food and that the service is quick. Good when you’re on the way to the airport. Today, I had the West Coast Eggs Benedict, made with smoked salmon. It tasted pretty good, although the benny was warm in the middle and the outside, room temperature. It’s definitely a serviceable breakfast, for a city that doesn’t seem to have much open early on the weekends.
Feastro The Rolling Bistro
Looking for a quick, small lunch before going to the spa, I walked by Feastro. The menu was mostly seafood so that caught my attention. I settled on the dungeness crab and shrimp cake with smoked cocktail sauce and celeriac sweet bell pepper salad.
There was generous amounts of seafood in the deep fried croquettes. It was fresh and hot off the fryer. The celeriac salad was a nice twist on coleslaw. Nice, satisfying lunch.
Blue Water Cafe and Raw Bar
I was looking for a good seafood restaurant for our only dinner in Vancouver. It was a choice between Rodney’s Oyster House or Blue Water Cafe and Raw Bar.
The place is popular; I’m glad that I made a reservation. One side of the room had a sushi bar, and the other side, an open kitchen. It was loud; definitely not the place for a romantic date. This is a place where you might want to dress up.
On to the food. I like my seafood fresh, raw and minimally prepared. The menu is quite extensive. To start, we were presented with rolls served with a red pepper spread and blue cheese spread. The red pepper was quite good; I didn’t care for the other one. We shared the BC Tasting for Two, which was a tower of dungeness salad, crab scallop ceviche, albacore tuna tartare and smoked salmon terrine. I continued with the Seafood Plateau which consisted of: mussels, clams, prawns, oysters and scallop ceviche. It was served with cocktail sauce and a strongly flavoured mignonette. It normally comes with jellyfish salad, but I asked for a substitution because I have a food intolerance to jellyfish.
We had the warm dark Cuban chocolate cake for dessert. It had hot molten chocolate spilling out of the inside. Delicious. They provided some nice banana bread to close the meal with.
The service was attentive and friendly. I applaud our server for his memory as there was a substantial list of specials.
Pricey, but you pay for what you get. I definitely think it’s worth paying for.
Fresh Local Wild
I’m really eager to sample Vancouver’s food truck culture. Having seen Fresh Local Wild on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives, I decided to try it. They have a variety of seafood menu items. The seafood poutine looked interesting as well as the chicken fried oysters. Looking for something with a generous vegetable content, so I choose the BC fish shawarma salad.
The salad came with pieces of pan fried whitefish. There was a generous portion of salad greens with parsley, tomato, cucumber, red onion with balsamic vinaigrette , a splash of hot sauce and hummus. I found the dressing to be overly heavy. The salad itself was quite tasty.
They have an area on the back of the truck where you can eat, shielded from the weather. I would like to come track and try their seafood poutine.
Joe's Grill
I met up with some of my extended family while I’m in town. We were looking for a breakfast place close to the hotel when we stumbled upon Joe’s Grill. They were serving heartly breakfasts that won’t leave you hungry. All at a reasonable price. I had the breakfast wrap. Sausage, peppers, eggs and beans in a grilled tortilla served with a side of homemade fried potatoes. Great choice for me as I was planning to do my long run afterwards.
CSA Delivery #10
This week, we have: red cabbage, carrots, green onion, potatoes, beets, dill weed, garlic, peppers, swiss chard and sunflower.
Lemon Meringue Pie Has Run Away
I’ve been making lemon meringue pie for as long as I can remember. But it usually doesn’t turn out runny. Except for today. It can go into the books with my less successful cooking experiments such as the blueberry clafoutis and coconut cream pie.
I bought a bag of organic lemons last week. There six in the bag; I think used one for a recipe. I used two and a half for this recipe, and the rest will go into lemon curd.
The recipe I used was from Wanda’s Pie in the Sky Cookbook. It’s similar to most I’ve seen on the net. I didn’t have any cornstarch so I used tapioca flour. I wonder if that was the problem.
I was being lazy, so I used store bought Pillsbury and used my brand new pie dish. Very suitable for this type of pie.
I was doing really well with the sugar, tapioca and water mixture. I let it just start to boil, then turned down the heat until it started to thicken. I turned the heat off, while I combined some of the mixture with the egg yolk. It continued to thicken until I could barely stir it.
Then I put it back on the heat with the remainder and heated gently until it started lightly boiling again. I removed from heat and added the butter. After that dissolved, I added the lemon juice, zest and vanilla. This is the step where it might have messed up. The recipe called for 3/4 C of lemon juice, but I like mine a little tart so I added a little bit more. Along with some pulp. It become runny again, but I thought it would set.
It looked good in the dish, but after cooling to room temperature it was still runny. Next I made the meringue. I made sure the egg whites were room temperature before starting. I used the highest setting on my KA and the whipping blade. This is the best meringue I have ever made. It was stiff and held its shape; it stayed piled high and fluffy even after baking.
It looked so good after it came out of the oven!
Until I cut it…
And then it ran away. I don’t think chilling it could even save it. But the meringue was spectacular (It floats on top of the runny filling) and the filling tasted pretty good too.
Oh here is my failed blueberry clafoutis in a spring form pan. Note: do not use a spring form pan for a custard.
