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Suanne and Ben

Egg Custard Tarts

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Thai Son Restaurant on No 3 Road

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Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them ~ Unknown

It was cold and rainy today. Just the type of weather for a hot bowl of noodle soup. We went to the Thai Son Restaurant on No 3 Road. Is just across the road from the Richmond Centre.

The Thai Son Restaurant is owned by a Vietnamese couple. Although the name Thai Son appears to be a Thai restaurant, it is not ... it is a purely Vietnamese restaurant. Thai Son has a restaurant too under the same name in East Broadway in Vancouver.

Apparently, this restaurant was very popular back in the 1990's among the Hong Konger crowd. There are a number of photos hanging on the wall of some old Hong Kong movie stars in the restaurant who emigrated to Vancouver prior to the 1997 handover to China.

As in all Vietnamese restaurants, they always serve first the complementary bean sprout. Thai Son serves the bean sprouts blanched and warm.

Suanne ordered the Rice Noodle in Special Vietnamese Stew. The stew was not thick and the beef chunks were tender. Marcus shared this with his mum.

Norman ordered a large Beef Ball noodles. He finished the entire large bowl. We are glad to see him eat the whole bowl because he normally does not eat much and is underweight for his height. Norman likes to add lots of teriyaki sauce to his noodle.

I ordered the Rice Noodle in Spicy Soup. It was quiet spicy and with the hot soup, I worked out quite a bit of sweat ... just right for a cold and rainy night.

Crescendo Rising Crust Pizza

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We live in a society where pizza gets to your house before the police. ~ Unknown

We stayed in and watched the closing ceremony of the Turin Olympics and did not go out for lunch as we normally do on the weekends. We were actually more interested in the 8 minutes segment of the Vancouver's "Come Play With Us" presentation and seeing our mayor receive the Olympic flag -- don't you think it's cool having none other than Sam Sullivan receiving it. I think it speaks volume of what Vancouver is about. We are all pretty excited about the Olympics coming to Vancouver in 2010.

This box of pizza must have been in our freezer for about, what, 4 weeks? We bought it but never got down to baking it. The pizza we made today is the Crescendo Rising Crust Pizza brand with the Roasted Chicken Deluxe flavour.

The pizza was layered with with rich mozzarella cheese, lots of it. The chunks of chicken pieces were quite big too. Other toppings were onions and green and red peppers.

You can either bake the pizza to a soft crust or crisp crust. We always prefer the crispy crust. The baking took about 20 minutes in the oven.

To me, the best part of the pizza is the crispy and crunchy crust. Small meal but just great for an afternoon in front of the TV.

All-You-Can-Eat Sushi

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A glutton is never satisfied. ~ Namibian Proverb

It's been a while since we had sushi and the boys wanted sushi for lunch too. Suanne also wanted to try the Top Gun Sushi I went to a few weeks ago. So, we made our way to the Top Gun Sushi at the New West Quay.

The all-you-can-eat is more expensive on the weekends. It costs about $11 for adults and $7 for kids age 6-9. He he he ... the waiters thought the boys were below 9 years and we kept quiet ... don't ask, don't tell, right?

All-you-can-eat Shashimi is $2 extra for adults. Norman can just eat shashimi alone. We ordered 28 pieces in all. The pieces are small but rather fresh.

Suanne started off with cold noodles from the salad bar. I don't know what that means when Suanne said they were "refreshing". :-) It's had a bit of lemon and is sourish.

I scooped some fried noodles from the salad bar too. They do look nice and I especially like it that they are not greasy.

We also ordered a lot of nigiri's. We ordered a few of each types. At the background (kind of blurred) was the fried smelt. They don't look good but tastes great.

Suanne's favourite is the motoyaki. She had quite of few of the salmon motoyaki and oyster motoyaki's.

We ordered the beef teriyaki and ginger pork. It would have been better if they are served with rice. Eating them alone does not seem right. We also ordered the grilled salmon belly and cheek.

And finally, tofu and fried chicken wings.

I am full ... no dinner tonight.

Korean Style BBQ Beef on Dried Shrimp Pancake

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When the big fish fight the shrimps must lie low. ~ Creole Proverb

The Richmond Community Kitchen, coincidentally, showed Korean BBQ beef for the session this week. The lesson today was led by Tanni Lee. I like Tanni because she is soooo cheerful and have a smile all the time for everyone.

Tanni made two separate dishes that complements each other. The Korean Style BBQ Beef goes very well with the dried shrimp pancake. For garnishing, she used kiwi fruit. She also used the kiwi fruit juice to marinate and tenderize the beef.

Korean Style BBQ Beef

Ingredients:

• 1.5 lb Beef
• 1.5 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 tablespoon kiwi juice
• 1.5 tablespoon green onions
• 2.5 tablespoon korean soya sauce
• 1 tablespoon chopped garlic
• 1/2 tablespoon chopped ginger
• 2 teaspoon dark soy
• 1.5 tablespoon sesame oil

The marinate includes all the ingredients above.

We need to marinate for a at least 3 hours but preferably overnight.

Fry the marinated beef with a bit of cooking oil.

Frying process is very quick because the beef is thinly sliced.

Dried Shrimp Pancake

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cup flour
• 1.5 tablespoon dried shrimp
• 1 egg
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon oil
• 1 teaspoon green onion
• 1 cup milk
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon sugar

Stir all the ingredients together until you get a smooth batter. You then just pan fry them with a little oil at low heat.

The frying take just a little while. Do so until you get a nice golden brown.

Tanni, thanks for the time taken to show all of us this dish.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

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Mutual gifts cement friendship. ~ Ivorian Proverb

I made a Sour Cream Coffee Cake before I went over to Allie's for her Bulgogi lunch. It has been a while since I made this cake. Since I still have a cup of sour cream in the fridge, I thought I should use it. This goes well with coffee.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

• 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 2 cups sifted flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup sour cream

Instructions

Heat the oven to 350F and grease a 6-cup tube pan. Mix walnuts, brown sugar, and cinnamon to make topping and set aside. Stir or sift flour with baking powder, baking soda, and salt until dry ingredients are well combined. Cream the butter with the sugar until the mixture is light, then beat in the eggs and vanilla. Add the flour mixture in alternate thirds with the sour cream,beating well after each addition. Spoon half the batter into the pan and sprinkle with half the topping, then add remaining batter and sprinkle on the rest of the topping. Bake for 40 minutes without opening the oven, then test fordoneness (a toothpick should come out clean). It may need another 5 to 10 minutes of baking.