Richmond Sushi

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Health food makes me sick. ~ Calvin Trillian (1935 - ) Today is our anniversary as new Canadians. Coincidentally, this week is also the week we landed in Canada. We decided to celebrate these two special occasions by eating out somewhere more than our regular budget -- as we always do every year. I wanted to try out this new Malaysian restaurant (called Cafe D'light) along West Broadway which was featured in the local papers but Norcus both wanted sushi, all-you-can-eat sushi! We had all-you-can-eat sushi last year in Sui Sha Ya but we decided this year to go to Richmond Sushi in Union Square along Capstan Way. We have been to Richmond Sushi once before -- it was decent and not too expensive. There are a lot of nice restaurants in Union Square.

Well, this place has both ala-carte and all-you-can-eat. We opted for all-you-can-eat. We asked for a pick list and left the first round selection to Suanne. Of course, both Norcus wanted to weigh in on what is chosen.

Norman asked for a total of 12 salmon sushi! Norman loves raw salmon and can eat just that and nothing else. The all-you-can-eat menu does not have shashimi for lunch and so the next best thing for Norman is the salmon sushi. Here he is picking off the salmon pieces first:

Marcus will eat just about anything except for green peas. Marcus started off with his beef udon. His favourite was the spicy tuna rolls. He had quite a lot of that.

Here are some of the pictures of the other selections we made. I wish I could have taken more pictures. The first picture of the teriyaki salmon below is surprisingly good. Other items we selected were miso soup, motoyaki (Suanne's favourite!), fried smelt, fried rice, yaki soba, grilled salmon head, gyoza and some tofu.

As always, we ended up stuffing ourselves too full. Norman was the first one to give up and to our surprise, Marcus was the sole survivor! We had quite a bit left over. Suanne left this eye from her grilled salmon head. Here it is looking at you ...

Overall damage was $53 (that is inclusive of taxes and tips). We had a walk around the block after the heavy meal. We went also to the chinese market next door and bought some globe grapes (Ben's favourite). Here are our ratings ... from a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being the best):

Norman: 5 Marcus: 5 Mum: 4 Dad: 3.8796

Myojo Ramen Char Mee 100

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One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not eaten well. ~ Virginia Woolf This is our favourite instant noodle -- we call it the Myojo Pedas 100. No other instant noodles comes close in comparison and it has no peers in the spicy-ness department. Although we have found some other Myojo instant noodles in many shops we have not come across this specific type. So, everytime we hear someone coming over from Malaysia or Singapore, we would go on the carpet begging friends or family to bring over some. This latest consignment comes courtesy of Rachel, little Angela and little Gabriel ... specially imported from Singapore. [Rachel, Angela and Gabriel, we dedicate this blog to you!] We now have precious 15 packets -- got to ration really closely because it'll be a long while before we get our next replenishment! BTW, this is a dry noodle and not the normal soup type. This is how it looks like:

Of all the in family, Marcus is the one that goes ga-ga over this the most. For a small guy, he can really take spicy food. So, the honor of eating the first pack goes to him. He has kindly consented to showing the world how he prepares the noodle. KIDS, DO NOT TRY THIS YOURSELF AT HOME. ALWAYS REMEMBER, SAFETY FIRST AND GET AN ADULT TO SUPERVISE YOU.

[Dad]: Over to you Marcus.

[Marcus]: Ahem. Hello everyone. You MUST first of all make sure you have all the utensils you need. You don't want to start looking for it midway cooking or you might rush and cause little accidents. This is what you need: a plate, pair of chopsticks, a small cooking pot with cover, and a sieve.

Make sure you have a safe environment while cooking. For a little man like me, I use an Ikea stool so that I can safely see over the inside of the pot.

You must boil the water. Turn the heat to very hot and put the cover over the pot. This will make the water boils faster. You will know it's ready when the water bubbles.

The Myojo Pedas 100 come with two small sachets of spicy seasoning and oil. I think the oil is a kind of chilli oil that gives the noodles the spicy-ness and extra kick!

Once the water is boiled, carefully put the noodles into the pot. I know it is hot around the boiling pot but don't throw in the noodles or else the hot water might splash out of the pot. Don't put the contents of the sachets into the pot at this point.

Stir the noodles until it is soft. Do it very gently and carefully.

The next step should be done with the supervision of an adult. I have my very beautiful mum to help me here. We want to drain the water from the noodle. Remember this is a dry noodle? Pour the softened noodle into your plate and add both the contents of the sachets on the noodle. After this step, the dangerous part of the cooking is over. REMEMBER TO SWITCH OFF THE STOVE.

Stir the noodles until the seasoning is evenly mixed. For some reason, this seasoning tends to clump together, so you need to break them up with your chopstick.

So, world, here it is ... the BESTEST instant noodle in the world. One packet down, fourteen more to go. ENJOY!

Char Siew Wonton Noodle (Without the Wonton)

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My mother's menu consisted of two choices: Take it or leave it. ~ Buddy Hackett Suanne and I had a big debate over how to name this dish. I mean, how can one call this a wonton noodle where there is no wonton. Anyway, it's her dish and she gets to call it what she wants. The star of this simple dinner is the CHAR SIEW (roasted red pork). Suanne made the Char Siew herself. To make perfect char siew, you need pork shoulder butt. Suanne used some Thai made seasoning mix. She can't recall where she bought it but should be in one of the many Asian market along Kingsway or Metrotown area (we hang around that place a lot because there is where I work, Norcus' chinese school and our church). Here is the picture of the Roast Red Pork Seasoning Mix:

Anyway, to cut to the chase (i.e. without showing you the whole roasting process because we did not take pictures), below is what the char siew looks like. I really like it a bit charred but trust me, it taste really GREAT.

Now, hear this. You do NOT eat char siew like STEAK! They are to be sliced in bite size, like below. Here is a secret from Suanne ... leave the slicing until the end or else everyone in the family will munch it all before the noodles is ready. Go, jot it down.

Now, this is what the fuss is about ... the packaging says wonton noodle. I think it should be called egg noodle.

Like spaghetti, you need to cook it to soften it ... but NOT THAT LONG! Spaghetti takes 7-8 minutes but you only cook wonton (egg) noodle in boiling water for just 2 minutes, just enough to soften them.

For some reason, Suanne's late mum always says that after boiling the noodles for two minutes, they should be scooped up and run under cold water before dipping it AGAIN into the boiling water for a split second. No one knows why this step is necessary ... do you know why people do that?

For seasoning, Suanne uses a mix of sesame seed oil, soya sauce and thick/dark soya sauce.

After a good stir and a bit of choy sum for color ... here it is: Char Siew Wonton Noodle (without the Wonton)!

Steamboat

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Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are. ~ Anthelme Brillat-Savarin (1755 - 1826) ~ French gourmet & lawyer Suanne's favourite show ... oh, I mean to say, Suanne's OTHER favourite show is the Iron Chef. She roots for Iron Chef Chinese Chen Kenichi. The Iron Chef show always starts with the above quote. So, with the words "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are", here is Suanne's first presentation. Suanne prepared a steamboat (better known as Hot Pot in Canada) for our January 1st, 2006 dinner. Her thoughts is only with Marcus and Norman and prepared what they like best (meatballs!). Here are the stuff she prepared for the pot: Marinated thinly sliced pork. Suanne says that her marinate is very complicated and cannot be described on the internet.

This is Norman and Marcus' favourites consisting of artificial crab stick, fish balls and pork balls:

This one is for the resident daddy: fried tofu puff (tofu pok?) and inoki mushrooms.

Then we have the staples: Suey Choy, and Vermicelli

The most important part of a great hot pot is the sauce. Suanne used the Bull Head BBQ Sauce mixed with Soya Sauce and some chilli sauce. Also some parsley and ginger. Here is how it looks like:

We use one of those divided pots that people used to prepare two separate types of broth. Suanne bought some "buatan Malaysia" Tom Yam powder but it was not really good (no taste at all). I mean, tom yam are meant to be really spicy right?

Lepas itu, appoint a very patient flame watcher:

And finally ... Ta da!!

Enjoy!

Hello World!

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Food is an important part of a balanced diet. ~ Fran Lebowitz (1950 - )

Hi World:

Got this idea to blog from Jon Ban, a great pal from my old school days. I am blogging primarily on the food Suanne makes. Suanne has never cooked before we came to Canada but has learned very fast out of necessity initially and then fine-tuned her art from Martha Stewart. BTW, she thinks Martha Stewart should NOT have been sent to jail.

To start off let me show you what we have in our fridge today:

So, here we come ...