I got a tortilla press and warmer for my birthday. I can now have perfectly formed tortillas. There are a couple of differences between this and my hand rolled tortillas. These have a more even thickness, and they are thicker. I would almost call them roti. My hand rolled ones are thinner but obviously not round. I might use these for roti…
I got my hands on a good sized zucchini squash. I wasn’t sure what to do with so much of it, so I decided on a chocolate cake. The recipe itself was easy to make, and the results were tasty. I did notice, there were some seeds in the cake and there were some strands of zucchini left. Need to do a better job of food processing. The recipe is available here.
Having had our reservation cancelled at another restaurant, we decided to take our party of eight to Inti. I phoned ahead to ensure there was space, and they set aside a table for us. They are located in a strip mall with a couple other restaurants on my wishlist: Clay Oven and Fat Kee.
I remember trying Peruvian food at a place in Inglewood long ago. I was fascinated that french fries were a part of their cuisine. I suspect that Peru is a melting pot of culinary culture.
We were quite impressed with the food. We all had the dinner buffet. They had a salad bar, complete with nine sauces and salad dressings. I quite liked their spicy brasa sauce. They had a small main course section with: fried yucca (cassava) root, french fries, french bread, steamed rice, soy sauce fried rice, roast chicken, spicy chicken, baked beans, quinoa, beef stew, loma saltado (beef stir fry), and seafood soup. I really enjoyed the whitefish and squid ceviche. Many of the flavors were unique, as I had not tasted them before.
The dessert table had a tapioca style pudding, a berry cinnamon jam/pudding, creme caramel, and a cake was dense and sweet. It was all very tasty.
The service was good. This place definitely deserves a repeat visit.
This week, we have: celery, leek, potatoes, carrots, peppers, garlic, onions, dragon tongue beans and yellow beans, and flowers. Looks a like a roasted root vegetable and soup kind of a week. Still have parsnips, potatoes and beets from previous deliveries.
This week, we have: mixed greens, basil, onion, coloured carrots, parsnips, zucchini, tomato, garlic, sunflower and basil
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.
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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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.
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.
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.
