Lee's Fried Chicken on Kingsway

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A chicken with beautiful plumage does not sit in a corner. ~ African Proverb

Our boys love fried chicken. They normally wants this for lunch after their chinese classes on Saturdays. Although, the most common fried chicken places in Vancouver is KFC and Church's Chicken, we don't really fancy them.

Instead, we like this rather unknown place called Lee's Fried Chicken. We tried it once out of curiosity some years back and has since been going there quite regularly. It is located along Kingsway between Royal Oak and Nelson. BTW, although this place serves primarily fried chicken, they also serve Korean and Japanese food like sushi, noodles, etc during weekdays.

The husband-wife owners of this outlet are Koreans. Since we were such regulars over the years, we get very good service from the owners -- they give us real plates and cutlery instead of styrofoam and plastic ones!

The boys love the fries the most. It's always served hot and is crispy on the outside and soft on the insides -- made perfectly. It also has the right touch of salt. Norman always says that it has good texture and great taste. The serving is large enough for the four of us.

We always ordered the 10-piece fried chicken combo. It costs $17.11, after taxes. If you try this, you must order it with "extra crispy and spicy" option. You will like the crispiness. Like the fries, they are always served piping hot. The skin is crunchy and underneath it, the meat is moist. Perfecto!

The combo includes the fries and chicken gravy. The gravy is nothing to shout about. We normally do not finish all 10 pieces and bring whatever we can't finish for dinner at home.

I know a lot of the readers of our blog work or church around this area. So, I highly recommend you to at least try this place out. I think you will find that Lee's Chicken beats KFC and Church's Chicken. Tell the owner Chowtimes sent you. :-)

Lo Bak Go (Chinese Turnip Cake)

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The only unsinkable ship is friendship. ~ Jeff Sczpanski

Polly came over and helped me make Lo Bak Go. I am glad she came over because it's a lot of work making this. I learned this from a previous Community Kitchen class.

Lo bak go (蘿蔔糕 lo bak go, 萝卜糕 luóbogāo) are savory cakes are made from grated daikon radishes. The daikons are mixed with bits of dried shrimp and chinese sausages that are steamed and then cut into slices and pan-fried. Chinese people normally make Lo Bak Go in the Chinese New Year.

As the name implies, the main ingredient is the daikon radish, which is also known as chinese turnip (or lo bak). The rice flour and corn starch is used to hold the cake together. The other ingredients such as chinese sausage, mushrooms, shallots and dried shrimp are used for flavouring.

Here is how Polly and I make the dish:

We started off grating the daikon. It was easy with the food processor.

We then cooked the daikon with some water for 20 minutes. This will soften the daikon.

While waiting for the Daikon to cook, we chopped the flavouring ingredients into small pieces. This is really hard work. I am not sure if I should use the food processor for this because the ingredients are pretty hard.

We then fried the ingredients at the same time until they are fragrant. We forgot to add in the seasonings, like salt, pepper and sugar!!

We mixed the corn starch and rice flour in water before we pour it over the fried ingredients together with the cooked daikon.

We need to stir the mixture until it turns into paste. This is a difficult part because we need a lot of arm strength to stir through the thick mixture. After this, we steamed the mixture for one hour.

The lo bak go could be served warm or if you chose to freeze it, you need to fry it before serving. It is best eaten with sweet chilli sauce (lat jiu jeong) or sweet sauce (tim jeong).

We are bringing this dish to our little Chinese New Year gathering this weekend at Sabrina and Eric's new house. Thanks Polly for coming over today. Let me know how your kids like it.

Korean Pancake

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He who goes to bed hungry dreams of pancakes. ~ Maltese Proverb I prepared Korean Pancakes for a light dinner tonight. It is a batter with vegetables and meat. For meat, I used luncheon meat. Pancakes are apparently popular in the Korean culture. There are many types but the one I prepared tonight is the vegetable pancake. The pancake mix costs about $2-$3. Other ingredients used are carrot, suey choy, cilantro and luncheon meat. You may substitude the luncheon meat with other meat like prawns, baby oysters, etc.

Here is how I prepare it:

I first grate the ingredients into small pieces.

I then mix the batter with same amount of water and the mix. I whisk the batter until it is not lumpy.

The chopped ingredients goes in at the same time -- and mixed well.

I put a ladle of mixture into the pan -- and pan fried each side for two minutes

I then turn the pancake over after two minutes to fry the other side. I serve it in hoi-sin (seafood) sauce.

This is a quick and healthy meal. It just took me about 20 minutes to prepare the meal.

Richmond Community Kitchen

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Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. ~ Margaret Mead I started going to the Richmond Community Kitchen not too long ago. I found it from the community pages of the Richmond News and decided to check it out. They are organized by the Family Services of Greater Vancouver (FSGV). Check out their website here: http://www.fsgv.ca/ The Cooking Club (known as the Richmond Community Kitchen) typically meets once every two weeks. The schedule of meeting differs from location to location. I attend the one at the South Arm Community Centre which meets every 2nd and 4th Wednesday mornings.

I enjoy going to the meetings. I not only get to learn new recipes but it also allow me to meet new people. The people are friendly, supportive and encouraging. Most of the attendees are regulars.

The meetings normally lasts about two hours. We take turns sharing recipes. We pay a share for buying the ingredients which goes to the person who does the demonstration of the day. Today's meeting is just $1.50 -- and you get to taste the food at the end. We normally finish off the food before we go home. Jean S shared with us two recipes this week: Cinnamon Bun and Beef Filled Buns.

Jean's Cinnamon Buns

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Jean demonstrated how to make the dough by hand, unlike how I used the bread machine to do it. This is new to me and learned how to proof the yeast and how to knead the dough by hand. The manual method took almost four hours. I think I will stick to the bread machine.

Jean's Beef Filled Buns

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At the end of this week's session, Jean was really pleased when Vanessa got everyone to applause her for the demonstration. It was a lot of work, especially kneading the dough manually for so long. Great work, Jean ... appreciate your effort and we all had fun and the buns were great.

So, Richmond ladies who read my blog, if you can find time to join us, give me (Suanne) a call.

OK, since this blog is about buns and dough, here is something hilarous sent to us courtesy of Eugene ... enjoy it.

Singapore Restaurant on Broadway

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Coarse rice for food, water to drink, and the bended arm for a pillow - happiness may be enjoyed even in these. ~ Confucius

After six years, we still crave good old Malaysian food. We tried to locate the Cafe De Light restaurant this weekend but for some reason we just can't find it. Oh well, we were pretty hungry and just picked the Singapore Restaurant which is located along the same street, Broadway.

We've been to this place once before.

The parking was plentiful seeing that it was a weekend. The restaurant was quite empty too. The owner of the restaurant told us that they get very busy on weekdays but is slow on weekends. I can understand that seeing that Broadway lies smack between office buildings.

The owner was from Indonesia, looks like chinese Indonesian to us. He told us he came over 28 years ago and has since owned this restaurant. I find that amazing because I always thought that restaurants that lasts so many years are rare.

We were not particularly adventurous and stuck with the normal Malaysian fare. We chose from the "lunch special" menu where the price of each dish ranges from $5 to $6.

The lunch special comes with free bowl of chicken broth and spring rolls. The spring rolls are really nice and was served pipping hot and with plum dipping sauce.

Ben ordered the Nasi Lemak. The curry chicken was OK but the sambal was not. I always felt that real nasi lemak much have sambal ikan bilis but this dish comes with plain sambal bawang. It was not spicy. Also, the kacang and ikan bilis goreng was immersed in the chicken curry ... losing its "crunchy-ness".

Suanne tried the Assam Chicken. The serving was really plain -- just rice and a bowl of assam chicken ... no garnishing at all. Presentation-wise, this is really bad. In the taste department, it was very much like the normal curry chicken without coconut milk ... and has a bit of tanginess to it because of the assam (tamarind).

Marcus chose the Hainanese Chicken Rice. There is nothing really special to this. The serving was adequate for a full meal. Marcus finished off the rice first before touching the chicken -- the rice must be really good. BTW, Norman was away camping (yeah, in the snow!!) and did not join us.

The meal ended with a bowl each of bubur char-char. Suanne loves this a lot. Other than the lack of "ubi" (yam), it was perfect. Sweet and rich!

The total bill, including taxes and tips, came up to $22. Not a bad meal. Recommended if you have never tried this restaurant before. Good value for money, if you ask me.

Laksa

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There is no love sincerer than the love of food ~ Geoffrey Neighor Rachel gave us a box of Laksa paste and premixes which they brought for us all the way from Singapore. This was what is rightfully called Laksa Lemak because there are many varieties of Laksa. This version of Laksa is of Peranakan origin, that is, born of the intermarriage of Chinese and Malay cultures. Laksa lemak, also known as nonya laksa, is a type of laksa served in a rich coconut gravy. The presence of the coconut cream (the pressed "milk" of the grated flesh of a fresh coconut) which adds a distinctive richness to the dish. Laksa is traditionally garnished with laksa leaf, also known as Vietnamese coriander or Vietnamese mint. Here are the ingredients we use to prepare the Laksa for lunch.

The Laksa box contained four pouches: (1) the Laksa Premix, (2) the Laksa Paste, (3) Sambal Chili and (4) Dried Laksa Leaves.

For noodles, we use the shanghai thin noodles.

We also had some fried beancurd (tofu-pok).

For meat, we use fishballs and prawns. Cilantro is used to garnish the dish.

The Laksa can be used to make two-three servings.

The premix is basically dehydrated coconut milk powder which is added to water.

The premix is stirred until they are all dissolved.

The Laksa Paste is then added. The Laksa Paste is which give the taste of fresh herbs and spices.

Suanne used a whisk to make sure that the paste are completely mixed evenly.

It's ready to be boiled over high heat. Suanne did not cover the pot so that it does not boil over.

The fried bean curd is cut into triangles so that it absorbs the gravy better.

After adding the fried bean curd and fishballs, the boiling takes another 5 minutes before the prawns are added last.

The Laksa is then scooped into bowls of noodles.

Here is what it looks like before garnishing.

To serve, Suanne added the Sambal chilli which gives the dish the spicyness and the dried Laksa Leaves. The Cilantro is added for garnishing.

Orville Redenbacher's Popcorns

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The truly rich are those who enjoy what they have. ~ Yiddish Proverb It's hockey night today. Marcus wanted to watch the Canucks game against our arch-rival, the Flames. He made popcorns for snack for the game. The popcorn we bought was a mouthful -- it's called the Orville Redenbacher's Ultimate Theatre Style Butter Flavour Popcorn. Each box costs $2.99 and comes with four separate packs.

This brand is different from many other popcorns in that it comes with a separate pour-over flavour pouch. The flavour is made from real butter. That's why they call it the Ultimate Theatre Style.

It's the normal microwaveable popcorn. Very simple to make but got to be careful because it's very hot after the popping.

It just takes 2-4 minutes. You know it's done once the popping stops.

Marcus then poured the flavour over the popcorn.

We also have some popcorn seasoning. Our favourite is the Sour Cream and Onion. The darker bottle is the All Dressed flavour.

Oh yeah, we beat the Flames 3-1 tonight despite being outshot. We're back on top of the Northwest Division. Go-Canucks-Go!