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Aka Teppan

After all these years, a Pepper Lunch inspired restaurant has finally made its way to Markham. Within a week of opening, news traveled fast - everyone must be Pepper Lunch fans! So I made my way here with dad and sis on a Thursday night. We waited for almost an hour for a table - it was packed. While waiting, I thought the white / grey decor looked oddly familiar and turns out I was right - same tables as Dessert Kitchen!




I ordered the Supreme Beef Rice. At first bite, of course it's sizzling hot with peppery taste and I was pleasantly surprised that the sauce was hidden in the middle. But later on, I realized the beef had no taste, only saved a bit by the sweet corn. For $0.50 you can add extra toppings like garlic chips, green onion, corn, cheese, etc. I would suggest them to give more sauce, such as garlic soy sauce, sweet honey sauce, or even hot sauce, or maybe season the beef a bit? As my sister said, for the signature dish, this wasn't memorable enough.




Duck Breast Spaghetti in Tom Yum Sauce

Tried a bit of the Duck Breast Spaghetti in Tom Yum Sauce. I like the creaminess of the sauce, but it was too spicy for me. Now this was more flavorful and special, but probably oily/heavy to finish myself.

For pasta teppan, they have a variety of sauces (cream, tomato, spicy, curry) and protein (chicken, salmon, seafood), as well as topping additions (egg for $1).



Chef's Special Chicken Wings

Cut in half like Greyhound Cafe, these were crispy with a slight sweet honey flavor, but it wasn't spicy. Good :)

Magic Noodle 大塊樹

After badminton, we were in the area to try this lanzhou noodle place (兰州拉麵 ) for dinner on Saturday. There was a wait but luckily seated quickly. I was already disappointed by the rude service but the food made up for it. 

*Cash Only*

Sliced Noodle ~ Braised Pork

Wow, the pork is super flavorful. Not sure what spices, it's good but at the same time sort of tastes like the pork is spoiled (?) Broth is also flavorful albeit oily. Noodles are short, thick, chewy and doughy. To my surprise, I liked this more than my own order of hand pulled noodles!

Hand Pulled Noodle ~ Beef Broth, Beef Brisket

Noodles are cooked just right, flavorful broth with hint of parsley, but there weren't many pieces of beef brisket.

Khao San Road

Made my way to Khao San Road with sis and friend on a Wednesday night. By 5:45, it was already packed and super loud! Interesting decor - it's not traditional Thai at all; industrial feel with grey walls and wood tables, servers without uniform.

Thai Iced Tea

Not as sweet as I expected. Thick and creamy condensed milk~ highly addictive and huge portion, couldn't finish.

Squash Fritters

Super crispy without being oily, but couldn't taste squash.

Beef Khao Soi

I like the slightly sweet golden curry. Egg noodles are the flat type similar to the Chinese type, beef brisket was a bit tough for the larger pieces. Eat the crispy noodles before they get soggy.. but either way not a fan of them.

P&L Burger

Tried The Castor (BBQ sauce) and The Philly (mushrooms in every bite!). Feels less greasy than Priest, but meat still not that juicy (am I just imagining a juicy burger?) Highlight was the Kale Caesar - so. good. at first bite. "I will never eat regular Caesar salad again". but anyway.. I think I need to stay off burgers/cheese/fatty foods for a while. My stomach can't handle so much grease/meat ><" 

Winterlicious @ Auberge du Pommier

Second time at Auberge and while the menu wasn't as great as Summerlicious 2012, I still had a wonderful lunch in this cozy relaxing environment. Once again we were seated in the front dining room.. If I ever come again I want to sit inside!

I love warm bread. This was delicious with the artichoke spread and we got seconds :)

Salt-Baked Potato Soup ~ bacon lardons, candied onions, XO Gouda

Love this warm soup! Slightly cheesy, slightly sweet from the onions, and sharp green onion to balance it all out.

Fav Cafe 鍾意坊

Hainanese Chicken Rice

Last week I tried a new hk cafe place for lunch. Very small and packed place run by young people with cool English music posters on the walls. Their menu is pretty appealing, more on the pricey side, reminds me of more Westernized items like Firefly/Dickens.

海南雞飯 4/5
Rice - flavor packed with oily & salty goodness
Chicken - average, meaty and tender
Sauces - this was the highlight for me! Ginger oil sauce, a sweet-thick soy sauce, and fresh garlic sour red sauce (too bad soup is covering in this pic) I usually just eat the ginger sauce with the rice, but this time I really love the other two sauces, so flavorful, different and fresh.

Terroni (Adelaide)

 Carpaccio - always one of my favorites, this was thin and good texture

 Potato Croquettes - deep fried potato and proscuitto

The croquette was nice and hot, soft, fluffy creamy potato inside with a crisp coating. Could not taste proscuitto though. Good with the pesto sauce.

Sake Bar Kushi

Sake Bar Kushi is the latest izakaya I visited in Yonge & Eglinton area. kushi means ‘skewers’ in Japanese. Skewers are half price on Tuesday, original price from $2-$4 each.

I came here last Tuesday for dinner to celebrate my sister’s birthday. I made reservations ahead of time, requesting a booth. It was really large, love the dark wood and the privacy, but too bad it was at the end so I couldn’t see the rest of the restaurant.

Tuna tataki – my must order for izakayas. This one was a bit plain though, not much sauce.

Honey sweet potato sticks – small portion of sweet potato fries covered in honey – sweet combo

Maguro Avocado Tartar – love creamy avocado, but could not taste tuna as this dish was overpowered by the mayo overload!!

Recipe | Beet Velvet Cupcakes

I wanted to make red velvet cupcakes but didn't want to use red food coloring, so I came across a recipe for natural colored cupcakes using beets. When I told B about this, he exclaimed "Beets?!", then after he tried one: "Hey, it doesn't taste like beets, that's pretty cool!" These don't taste like beets, nor do they exactly taste like red velvet, but they are still pretty good! Moist and fluffy, on the dense side. It was a bit sticky at first, but with the cream cheese frosting it's barely noticeable, and even better after two days. I'm quite happy with my first attempt. It was fun to make and the bright color is fantastic.

Recipe | Creme Brûlée

A simple and delicious recipe adapted from BBC UK. No gas for torch this time, but will try to caramelize next time! (but it was still great without; still had a slight crust on top) Love the new red ramekins :) We ate it hot fresh from the oven and saved one in the fridge - even creamier the next day after refrigerating.

Makes 6 to 8 (depending on size of ramekins. I made 8)

Ingredients

• 500 ml cream 
• 6 egg yolks
• 3/8 cup sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 F.
2. Pour cream in saucepan. Bring cream to boiling point, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. 
3. Whisk egg yolks and sugar until pale and fluffy. 
4. Pour cream into egg mixture and mix well until thickened.
5. Pour mixture in ramekins. 
6. Fill large roasting tray with hot water and place ramekins in, making sure water is halfway up the outsides (bain-marie). (I used a shallow pan which covered just a bit but still worked fine)
7. Bake for 40-45 minutes.
8. To caramelize: sprinkle teaspoon of sugar on the surface and caramelize with blow torch.

2013 Holidays

Gingerbread house competition / Best red velvet cupcakes from La Rocca / Ripley's Aquarium / Christmas at home / Curry katsu udon & yam fries @ Raku / Dill salmon on butternut squash puree @ Chef Bryan / Ruth's Chris Steak House / Fondue & housewarming / Souffle @ Sweet Note

Recipe | Oatmeal Cranberry Cookies

Adapted from Here

Instead of my usual holiday cookie (cornflake marshmallow), this year I tried something new - chocolate chip cookies and these soft oatmeal cookies. I like making them small and round - perfect bite size snack.

Makes about 20-30 small cookies.

Ingredients

• 1/2 C unsalted butter (1 stick)
• 1/2 C packed brown sugar
• 1/2 C white sugar
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 C flour
• 1/4 t baking powder
• 1/4 t salt
• 1 1/2 C old-fashioned oats
• 3/4 C dried unsweetened cranberries
• Cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Combine flour, salt, baking powder.
3. Cream butter and sugars for a few minutes, then add egg and cream until light and fluffy.
4. Add the flour mixture and mix until just combined.
5. Stir in the oats and cranberries.
6. Line baking sheet with parchment paper and place balls on sheet.
7. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

Enjoy! :)

Rodney's Oyster House

After a fun time at Ripley's Aquarium, we ventured to Rodney's for oysters around 9pm :D I forgot how much I love oysters until I had my first bite~ We started off with two dozen oysters for four people. The variety the server got us was great. My favorite was the PEI Boughton Bay Prince - perfect size, not too meaty, not too flat, and good flavor that's not too salty. The server also recommended a fantastic dark beer - Neustadt 10w30 ale - dark, roasty, not bitter, smooth. I am a Corona drinker and tend to stay away from dark beer but this was the best I've had! So tasty!

Macaron Diaries: Chocolate Macarons

Attempt #2 – Chocolate Macarons with Chocolate Ganache

 

Piping into circles - batter is smooth and shiny; good size and flat courtesy of B. The key to piping is squeeze from the top with right hand, and point straight down.

Macaron Diaries: Green Tea Macarons

In search of the perfect macaron recipe... experimenting with different methods and learning from mistakes.

First attempt: Green Tea Macarons with Green Tea Buttercream



Piping into circles - batter appears thick and grainy, shells look large

Banh Mi Boys

392 Queen West

I finally tried Banh Mi Boys last week! I don't even like banh mi, but Banh Mi Boys definitely takes the meaning of the cold Vietnamese sandwich to a whole other level, throwing in other Asian influences as well.

By recommendation, we got the Kalbi Banh Mi - the kalbi was so good, I love the flavor, texture and cut of the beef. It went well with the baguette, cold toppings and medium hot sauce.

Pork Belly Bao (left) - I love this soft bun with a touch of sweetness! While the pork belly was not as soft or fatty/melt-in-you-mouth as I imagined, the flavor of the pork was good (a bit burnt on the edges) and paired with the cucumber, carrots, radish(?) and cilantro.

Beef Cheek Bao (right) - the beef cheek is sort of like Taiwanese beef brisket. It was good but definitely I like pork belly was better in terms of overall flavor and how it tied together with other ingredients as a whole.

Hong Kong | Sen-ryo 千兩

Truffle Making @ Chocolate Tales

Belgian truffle prep

Final products - After decorating Belgian & North American truffles - messy but fun

Last Tuesday, I attended the Truffle Making 101 Workshop courtesy of Chocolate Tales. We made three types of truffles - Belgian, French and North American. It was fun! We started with Belgian truffle - first filled the chocolate molds with white chocolate then put in the fridge for 5-10 minutes. Then we capped it with dark chocolate, refrigerate again, and then roll two layers of chocolate and decorate white white and pink drizzle. These were surprisingly good and not too sweet - liquid smooth chocolate inside with hard dark chocolate coating.

LA