Restaurant Notes

I'm going to summarize the three other meals I had with my parents during their visit.

First off, lunch at Cafe Select on 109th. I have some ambivalence toward Cafe Select. This stems mainly from having dinner there before the Phantom of the Opera. My duck breast entree was completely inadequate for my appetite and I ended up being hungry during the show. My friend Mark was also hungry after his beef fillet entree. I'm pretty sure there wasn't even a bread basket. My other previous meals at Cafe Select included a mind bogglingly fluffy omelet and a too cheesy duck pizza.

Anyways, on Saturday I ordered the "shrimp and blue salad" featuring blue cheese, shrimp, and lettuce. This was obviously another light selection with the potential for a still empty stomach afterwards. Not that it was really "light" being heavy on the blue cheese and creamy dressing. I'm a fan of blue cheese and this salad was generous with the stuff so I was happy. The shrimp were tasty as well and the greens were fresh. Afterwards, my mother and sister were examining desserts after their hot squid salads. So, I of course got in on the action ordering a creme brulee all for myself. It was good, although I haven't eaten any other ones recently. The sugar was nicely caramelized on top and the custard part was very rich and not too sweet. Overall, I was quite a satisfying lunch.

For dinner that night, we went to Murrieta's on Whyte Ave. I like this restaurant, the food is really good. The service is good too and we were moved from the lounge area to the dining room due to a draft that I couldn't stand. To start with we had an order of steamed PEI mussels. We've ordered the mussels numerous times and it is always a generous serving with a delicious sauce around it. This time, the sauce was updated to feature a citrus tomato sauce and bacon. With the mussels, we got the complementary bread. It was a delectable mulitgrain, perfect for dipping in the mussel sauce.

Now for our mains, my mom had the duck breast, my sister had seared scallop linguine, my dad had lamb meatball spaghetti, and I had the Westcoast paella. The duck was not too large a portion and my mother appreciated this and ate it all. The seared scallop linguine featured really good scallops but my sister didn't eat it all because it was heavy on the olive oil. The spaghetti is good, I know because I've had it before, but not nearly as many times as my dad. He loves it, and it's good if you like lamb and spaghetti, which I do but I was looking to branch out. The serving seems to be slightly smaller before with six meatballs instead of eight. But really that's okay, because I always made two meals out of it before. The paella was delicious and I ate all of the rice in sweet tomato sauce. It contains a variety and seafood and chorizo sausage. I really liked being able to eat large shrimp, a little salmon, succulent scallops, and mussels in one dish with the perfect pork chorizo.

The next morning, at way too late for breakfast (about 11), we went for brunch at The Sugarbowl. I also like this restaurant both as a good place to drink beer and eat chili lime popcorn, and for breakfast and dinners like their lamb burger. On this particular morning I went with the spinach and feta omelet. It came with pan potatoes and a piece of whole-wheat toast. The potatoes were good, with some kind of red seasoning/sauce, which left them devoid of the need for ketchup. The Sugarbowl also serves pan fried potatoes with sandwiches. The toast did not come heavily buttered, unlike at most places and I enjoyed it with raspberry jam. The omelet was laden with green spinach and salty feta. I quite liked it. As if eating all that wasn't enough, my dad ordered a cinnamon bun in addition to his breakfast for us to share. I had been wondering about these big buns. They looked goooood, but I'm not usually up for that much sugar. And here's my conclusion: they are good. The cinnamon sugar on the outside is crispy and caramelized in places and the bread is deliciously soft. Go ahead and order one of those bad-boys, if you can eat it all without a sugar induced stomach ache, I'll be impressed.

The Conclusion of Papaya Watch 2007

I promised an update when my Hawaiian papaya ripened. And I'm sure you waited and checked here constantly like it's Facebook for the results. Actually, I'm sure nobody did, but it is my sworn duty to report.

First we get a look at the ripe papaya. I actually decided it was ripe on Sunday, but then I put it in the fridge until today, because it wasn't a good eating opportunity.

The ripe papaya is mostly yellow and was somewhat soft to the touch. So, I cut it open.

The flesh is orange, I remember something redder before, but I think this is the right colour for a Hawaiian papaya. Correct me if I'm wrong. Note the round black seeds, these reminded me a bit of seeds in a winter squash. They were easily removed with a spoon. This brings me to a "my stupid dad" story. He saw a freshly cut papaya in Hawaii a few months ago and asked "What's that stuff in it?" I thought we all expected seeds in fruit.

Anyways, the papaya texture was quite soft. The flavour, was not very sweet and maybe too subtle for my taste. It seemed kind of fragrant and I guess it was nice but, the mango's taste kicked it's a$$. Papaya watch 2007. . . worth it only for curiosity's sake. Eat more mangoes.

Mmmm. . . Korean. . . Good Times at The Bul Go Gi House

My parents are here and everyone knows what that means. . . free restaurant meals. It's been about a year since my last visit to the Bul Go Gi House and I've been craving some more Korean food. Why? Probably because I get to wanting a little bit of all foods, plus there was the memory of a delicious spicy pork dish. A delicious spicy pork dish that led me to a massive pig out on pig last summer. Bul Go Gi House serves more or less family-style platters of meat dishes of the sort that would be expected to be shared by several people. Somehow, I ended up eating the vast majority of a platter of their Doah-Ji-Bul-Go-Gi last summer, which the menu translates as marinated spicy pork with vegetables. Now, why would I eat a whole platter of one meat? I discovered the answer today. It's not surprising. It's because that stuff is amazing. The pork is extremely tender and the sauce is a masterful blend of spicy, sweet, and tart. My parents agreed that it was really tasty and it was the only dish we finished. So try it, even if you doe enjoy it too much and need a long wander down Whyte Ave. to digest it.

Maybe I should backtrack to the beginning of the meal, but that pork was so good it snuck to the start of my post. The meal began with a round of Hite Korean beer followed closely by sticky rice, kimchi*, and bean sprout salad. The Hite was not my favourite kind of beer, it was a little too light and "American." My father noted that even the bottle seems American since it is shaped like a Miller bottle. Nevertheless, after two weeks without a beer for finals, I enjoyed it and thought it went alright with the food. I like the way the side dishes of kimchi and bean sprout salad come out early with the rice. These things make tasty appetizers and give you a little something to eat before the tasty dishes to come. I guess the big mistake you could make is to really fill up one rice. I think it would be tough to eat too much of the other two.

I've noticed that the order they bring out dishes is pretty random, but that's okay when everyone is sharing. Possibly it is the order in which the dishes are ready. First out in our order was Jap-Chae, which the menu describes as "fried, soft clear noodles with black mushrooms and vegetables." This is pretty accurate, if fried is interpreted as stir fried. This was by far our mildest dish, which I expected. In the sauce, the dominant flavour was soy sauce, I think. The vegetables included broccoli, carrots, black mushrooms, and possibly some others I don't recall (alcohol was served). The noodles were good. I sometimes cook Korean sweet potato starch noodles at home in ways that Albert thinks are inappropriate. The texture and character of my creations is similar to what we were served. The difference was mainly the sauce and the fact that I rarely if ever stir fry broccoli and usually include some meat or tofu. My mom was pretty impressed by the black mushrooms, which are tasty and chewy and mushroomy. I think my dad thought they were just okay.

The final dish to appear at our table was O-Jing-Uh-Bock-Kum, fried squid and vegetables. It was stir-fried in a tasty spicy sauce and the vegetables included broccoli, zucchini and cabbage. The squid was present in copious amounts as large pieces. We enjoyed this. There were many comments about the sheer volume of squid. I seriously wonder how many squid it takes to make an order of this dish. My family likes squid and we liked this dish, which featured plenty of reasonably tender squid.

At the Bul-Go-Gi House, although the service was friendly and the food delicious, the decor is pretty bad. I think it's been updated though because before the art on the walls was mountain paintings and this time it was flowers. Anyways, on a Friday night it was quite busy because good food brings people in.

Bul-Go-Gi House
8813-92 Street, Edmonton, AB

* Note: Kimchi is spicy, pickled cabbage and a quintessential Korean food. I heard a guy at a table next to ours describe it as "sauerkraut with a Korean accent" although I don't find it much like sauerkraut at all since it's not as sour. I didn't find the kimchi all that spicy. If you're curious about kimchi, ZenKimchi Korean Food Journal summarizes its history here.

In Praise of Mangoes (plus Papaya Watch 2007)

I mentioned my "special" grocery shopping trip in my porky post. Now I'm on to the magic of produce. I bought a couple of tropical fruits, a mango and a papaya. I love mangoes. I've only ever had the typical mangoes that tend to be large and coloured red and green. But, I saw some much smaller, yellow mangoes. This piqued my interest, so i bought one. They had a name, but I can't remember it. If you happen to be a mango expert, fill me in on what you think this is:

There's nothing there for scale, but I think it was about half the size of the typical mango variety. And when I cut into it, the flesh was so beautiful.

Well, it doesn't look that special, just golden and juicy like a mango should be and I guess a mango is special. And you're probably wondering: what about the taste? I don't buy mangoes for looks and I devoured this one with my breakfast. The texture was unusually smooth aside from the fibrous bits near the pit. The flavour was sweet and mangolicious, better than most mangoes. (Mangolicious refers to the uniquely delicious flavour of mangoes.) Plus, it was small enough to eat in one sitting without feeling like a mango hog, which is rather convenient. If you see a little yellow mango, but it, it will be delicious assuming this single mango was a representative sample of all little yellow mangoes, perhaps a dubious assumption. The only downside was a slight bitterness near the skin, best not to try to shave the flesh off too close to the skin, but I think I've noticed this with all mangoes.

And now, onto my other tropical fruit, the Hawaiian papaya. I ate some papaya in Hawaii two Decembers ago, it was out of season and not that amazing. I think it had potential for deliciousness though and the rest of my family raved about ones they'd eaten earlier, while I was enduring final exams. Wanting to give papaya another go, I bought one. It was hard and quite green when I bought it. To be honest, I didn't know what qualities I was looking for. At home, I read that a ripe papaya is mostly yellow and yields slightly to gentle pressure. Mine was mostly green and hard. Right now it's ripening, and this is the progress (on the yellowest side):

Will it ripen? When? How will it taste? Come back next week. . . or whenever it happens. Same bat channel, same bat time. (You may wonder, "What's with the Batman references?" I think i live in a cave.)

You Are What You Eat

In that case, what am I you might ask? Assuming I'm not a grain, fruit, or vegetable.......I'm probably a pig. That's me....

Living in Alberta, you would think I would eat a lot of beef. Or being a North American in general, a lot of chicken. . . because everything else tastes like chicken anyways. It's not that I never eat those things, it's just that in the last couple of weeks I don't think I've eaten chicken or beef since April 13. I know I ate burgers on that day.

So if I've been chicken and beef free, what have I been eating for that all important protein? As far as animal protein goes mainly pork and a touch of lamb. I've also been eating eggs and various seafood. Plus, I've had beans in my delectable vegetarian chili. I prefer it to my beef chili. I guess that's just because I love beans. But today, I want to talk pork.

I think pork is incredibly varied in its applications. A lot of people think of bacon when they think of tasty pig flesh. I'm not really a fan of bacon, I eat it on occasion and never make it at home. I do like back bacon though, that stuff is lean and tasty. Pork is also found in sausages, hams, pork chops, pork roast, cured meats, and many other things. I would love to cause someone with a religious ban on eating pork to lapse. . . I'm a little evil like that. I also want to see vegetarians lapse.

Anyways, I went on a "special" food shopping trip yesterday. The stuff I bought mainly fell into three categories: produce, cheese, and pork. Obviously, Canada's Food Guide recommends that we all eat mainly full fat cheese and pork. I'm probably going to post about cheese later, so let's talk about the pork products.

I'm a very, very frequent sandwich eater. So naturally, I got something made of pork for my sandwiches....hot, lean capicollo. It's pretty good stuff, I like the spiciness. It beats my usual hams because of that and makes me feel like a proper Italian, even if my mom doesn't make great cannelloni all the time.

I was more excited about the sausage I got, a Spolumbo's spicy Italian sausage. This is the most decent Italian sausage I know of in Alberta. I always hear about how great the sausages are at the Italian grocery stores my uncles visit in Ontario. I haven't been there in three years, so I don't know much about them. Anyways, I was inspired to combine my sausage with a really long eggplant, pictured here:

You might notice a theme with this meal....everything is a bit phallic. So anyways, I cobbled together my culinary not-quite-masterpiece by roasting the chopped eggplant with olive oil, pepper, and salt in a 400 degree oven for about 25 minutes until it was a bit brown. Meanwhile in the bat cave, I partially cooked the sausage by boiling it in a frying pan. . . kinda weird I guess. Then, I cut it up and browned it in a saucepan. When the sausage was cooked, I added a chopped zucchini (phallus number 3), and a chopped clove of garlic and sauteed those a bit. Then, I added about half a cup of water to deglace the pan--that means to remove the brown tasty bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. When the eggplant was ready, I stirred it in and kept it cooking a bit longer. The end result, severed on a piece of toast because I always need me some carbs, looked like this:

It looks weird and not necessarily appetizing. You might wonder how it tasted, or you might not care. Either way, I'm going to say: it was okay. The sausage was good, but somehow I think it's better in a tomato sauce on pasta. I quite enjoy zucchini, so it's good if you like that. The eggplant though is interesting. I like it, but I could see how a lot of other people would be turned off by the texture. It can be a touch slimy, but I like unusual textures so it was good. Maybe this would have been better with couscous, but I'm out of that. Also, I think the sausage wasn't spicy enough to flavour everything like I thought it would.

I'm sure you're dying for one more pork related comment. My favourite cut of plain pork is the tenderloin--so tender, so lean, so delicious if you don't really, really overcook it like Albert and I did once. I once made this pork tenderloin with mango chutney for Leslie. I cooked the pork in the oven, not on a barbecue. It was really good, easy, and pretty impressive.

That's enough about my pig eating habits, I'm sure you agree.

Sticking Things on Chocolate Cookies

Cookies are one of my favourite things to make. When I was in high school and living with my family, I used to make a batch pretty much every week. At home, we could go through forty, sixty or more cookies in the week. That's because my sister and dad were cookie fiends, plus I ate at least two a day. Since I am away at school, if I bake things, including cookies it seems like I have to eat them all. So, I don't make cookies that often. Except, in the last month I've made chocolate cookies twice for gatherings of friends. I reduced a recipe by a third to come up with this simple recipe:

1 egg
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1.5 ounces unsweetened chocolate
2.5
tablespoons cooking oil
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon
vanilla
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
extra granulated
sugar
toppings

Melt the chocolate in a medium microwave safe bowl, in the microwave. Mix egg, sugar, oil, baking powder, and vanilla into the chocolate until combined. Stir in the flour. Cover and chil dough for at least an hour. Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Roll balls in sugar to coat them. Place balls on an ungreased cookie sheet. Press "toppings" into the balls. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. Tops will crack and edges should be set. Makes about 20 cookies.

I made a couple of variations on these cookies. First before Easter, I used one Cadbury MiniEgg on top of each cookie for Ryan's Shortbus viewing party. The cookies were like little nests made of chocolate. Who doesn't want a cute nest made of chocolate cookie? The cookies go well with The Star Spangled Banner. Most of you probably don't know what that means.

Oh, see how the eggs cracked? I think the chocolate is hatching. There might
be a chocolate monster coming soon or just delicious Cadbury's milk chocolate.

I decided to make these cookies again for Robyn's barbeque on the last day of
classes. It was after Easter and as good as out-of-season Easter candy is, I decided to go with M&Ms as a topping. These cookies were extremely popular--I saw Adam eating two at once—and quite delicious although I only got to eat one. These cookies are crisp on the outside, soft and chewy on the inside, and very chocolaty.

Speaking of out of season Easter candy, how much better do CremeEggs taste when they’re 50 cents? I actually eat much more Easter candy after Easter than before. For anyone else who loves CremeEggs, check out this GIANT one made by some crazy British people.

Why "Synthesize My Breakfast"?

The name is pretty random but, I have this organic chemistry professor who likes to add completely irrelevant stories to his lectures. Usually they were about Britain, but one time he went into this description of how to make porridge for his breakfast. I didn't sound very good, but since we learn about synthesizing compounds in organic chemistry I said they were instructions on how to synthesized his breakfast. For my blog, I will show how to "synthesize" breakfast and many other meals. I much prefer this to organic synthesis. I will also talk about food "synthesized" by other, probably more skilled people.

And this is how you synthsize breakfast for lunch: AKA Buttermilk Pancakes

So, for my first entry I'll tell you about making pancakes instead of studying. Pancakes are one of my many, many favourite foods. I have strange memories of myself as a child trying to eat at least ten pancakes at breakfast on the weekends. I think my dad made them really small when I was younger. As I got older I got confused as to why I couldn't eat as many as I did when I was younger. Was it possible that my breakfast eating capacity--really an enormous capacity--was shrinking while I grew? I think that's quite impossible.



Anyways, now that I live on my own I rarely make complex breakfasts like pancakes for breakfast. Usually, I upgrade them to lunch. Yesterday I decided that I wanted pancakes for lunch. I hadn't eaten them since a breakfast at the High Level Diner almost two months ago. Those pancakes were okay....but oddly tough. I ate them all anyway. The Amateur Gourmet once raved about buttermilk pancakes using this recipe from Epicurious. I always liked buttermilk pancakes from restaurants but had never bought and used buttermilk myself. So I decide that I would go to Safeway and actually buy some buttermilk to make pancakes.



Later, I stirred together the ingredients for half the recipe with a fork--no whisk for me. I dropped the batter into my beloved frying pan and the cooking pancakes looked like this:
















I accidentally undercooked the first batch, but don't they look good with some random accouterments:















As I side note, I'm usually more fond of ham than bacon.....unlike my roommate.

The second round of pancakes were cooked to a more perfect consistency. They look lovely in close-up:

These pancakes were really soft and puffy and delicious. You should make them. They're super easy, as long as you let them brown up enough that they're not raw in the the middle. And buying buttermilk is worth it for the pancakes. I was curious about it so I tasted it plain and it was like drinking the juice in cottage cheese, very odd. And that is the story of my synthesis of a pancake breakfast....or lunch.