Green Papaya

School started up again and i've been inundated with homework and books to read so its hard to find time to experiement in the kitchen. Instead, i've taken that semi homemade route with a popular Vietnamese dish, Green Papaya Salad with Beef Jerky.





Ingredients:

1 papaya, shredded (some stores sell them shredded)
1 bag of beef jerky (Hong Ha brand is ok)
Basil (rau que)
Vietnamese Coriander (rau ram)
Soy Sauce
Water
Sugar
Red Vinegar
Red Chili Sauce (Sriracha)
Garlic

Preparation:

1. Mix shredded papaya with chopped basil and Vietnamese Coriander.
2. Cut beef jerky into small strips and put on top of the papaya mix in a nice plate.
3. For the sauce mix 1 portion of soy sauce, 1 portion of water, 1/2 portion of sugar, and 1/2 portion of red vinegar then add a couple slices of garlics and chili sauce to taste. If you like the sauce extra spice, cut a couple of red chilis and add to the sauce.
   

Cheesy Shrimp Toast

For those of you who didn't catch Top Chef last night, Hung Huynh won and i knew he would! Technically he was the best chef on the show this season. I think Bravo has reruns on Thursday nights in case you wanna catch it again. (For a Vietnamese Immigrant's view on Hung's win, check out my friend Monkee's blog.)

If you're looking for something to eat while watching the rerun or any other show tonight, I've got a dish for you! Everyone always requests this dish at gatherings.




Here's what you'll need:

2 loaves of sliced french baguettes about a centimeter thick
1 pound peeled shrimp, cut into small pieces
2 cups of thinly shredded monterey jack and cheddar cheese (they come shredded together at the grocery store)
3 tablespoons of mayo
1 finely chopped scallion
1/2 teaspoon of salt Some pepper

Preparation:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Peel and wash shrimp, then dry with a paper towel before chopping into small pieces
3. Mix Shrimp with, cheese, mayo, salt, and scallions

4. Spoon the shrimp mixture onto the bread Bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes Prior to serving, you can sprinkle some ground pepper on the toast If you're making these for a party, they can be made a day ahead and stored in the fridge.

Senseo Coffee Pod System

Yay!! I just received an email saying I qualify for a free Senseo Coffee Pod System! Well not totally free since I still have to pay $15 shipping and handling, but it's still a good deal!



Thank you for expressing interest in the Senseo® Coffee Pod System. Congratulations! You are eligible to receive a FREE Senseo® Coffee Pod System through the Share Senseo® promotion. This promotion provides an exclusive Share Senseo® kit, which includes: FREE Senseo® Coffee Pod System Bag of Senseo® coffee pods Senseo® Coffee Pod Canister for easy pod storage and long-lasting freshness 5 $20-off Senseo® coffee machine cards to share with friends and family Coupon for $1 off any frozen Sara Lee® dessert As a participant of the Share Senseo® promotion, you will receive over $70 worth of Senseo® products for FREE (plus S&H= $15) to enjoy with your friends and family!
(It also says it'll take 4-6 weeks to ship.)

If you'd like to claim yours just visit the following link and answer the survey questions according to how they'd want you too :D

https://www.sharesenseo.com/q6/1.jsp

Shanghai Bund in Unionville, Canada

I was really excited about spending my birthday in Canada and wanted to try out some new dishes. After spending a great deal of time reading forums, I stumbled upon some wonderful reviews of a place called Shanghai Bund. This place was known for having really good Beggar's Chicken and Xiao Long Bao (soup dumplings). Growing up I've watch many wuxia movies based on Louis Cha's novels and was curious to see what the famous beggar's chicken tasted like. The version made in restaurants these days seem very elaborate and orders must be place a day in advance. I called Shanghai Bund to make reservations the day before my meal and when i got there they told me they ran out!!! i was really disappointed since i wanted to enjoy a nice birthday meal. The service there was also bad, maybe because I'm not chinese?? Instead of the chicken, I had some soup dumplings and spicy crabs. After our food came out, we had to wait almost 10 minutes before they brought out some rice (after reminding them twice). The soup dumplings and crab were pretty good, but I was disapointed about not being able to have the beggar's chicken. Then after we paid our bill and headed out, I saw the waiter bring out an order of beggar's chicken for another table!!! I'm not sure what the deal was, is it because I didn't speak Chinese?? Over all the service everywhere I went just totally SUCKED!



Spicy Szechuan Crabs (at least 62 red chilis in this baby!)

Toronto Chinatown - Pho 88

Okay so you must be wondering what was so bad about Toronto restaurants??Well I ate at 2 asian restaurants while I was there. The first was Pho 88 on Spadina, the decor was nice and the place was packed so I expected good food (and good service with it). But the food was mediocre but the service was horrible We had a party of four and they messed up most of our orders. I ordered the rice with porkchops and shrimp and they brought me rice with porkchips and chicken. After telling them, they messed up my order, the waiter took the food back to the kitchen and ANOTHER person brings out my food for me. HELLO!! Do they not realize that the wrong dish is the wrong dish regardless of who brings it out? I was so hungry and frustrated so I ate it anyway, it was okay not really really good or anything. They also messed up two of our pho orders by putting meatballs in the wrong bowl. It also took them forever to bring out our nem nuong (pork rolls?) appetizer. The nem nuong was rather starchy and didn't taste very good. Instead of serving it before our main meal, they brought it out AFTER we were done with our meal. We asked for the check and the appetizer came out, 5 minutes later, the check. UGHH, i'm never coming back here again!

Chinese Lantern Festival

(I know this post isn't food related but the lanterns were so pretty I had to share some pictures)

One thing I did enjoy in Canada was the Chinese Lantern Festival (http://www.chineselanternfestival.ca/). The nite I went it was nice cool and surprisingly not crowded at all! I guess since it rained in the morning, people didn't want to go? The lanterns this year focused on the Qin, Tang, and Song Dynasties. Some people online said this year wasn't as good as last year's event but I got discount tickets for only $18 per person so I can't complain. Aside from the lanterns, they had some performances, and food and craft kiosks. The strawberry bubble tea I had was good but I think the rest of the food was just mediocre.

These Chinese 2009 Olympics Mascots are so cute!


The Panda Family and Lil' Bunny were cute too :D

Toronto Chinatown - Fruits

We all know that Vancouver B.C. has the best Chinese food outside of China so how does Toronto compare? Well, initially I thought it'd be pretty good, especially after spending hours on chowhound and finding rave restaurant reviews but boy was it a culinary disappointment! The two things that I found really good were: 1) all the yummieeee fruits (I heart mangosteens!) and 2) Banh Mi` Nguyen Huong (delicious banh mi pa te cha for 1.50!).

The "long kong" fruits belong to the same family has a fruit called the "langsat", they're exotic fruits from Thailand. The ones I got this time were pretty sweet!(http://www.simply-thai.com/Thai-Market_Fruit_Langsat.htm)




I could only eat so much fruit so I didn't buy these orangy pomogrante like fruits so I have no idea what they look like inside or taste like. If anyone has any idea, I'm curious to know.


Another fruit I didn't buy...these are Thai Dragonfruits...



I think I'm sticking to the usual reddish dragonfruit, it was a great choice as they were very sweet!


arghh...I didn't buy enough of these mangosteens, next time i'm gona get 2 dozen or more for me, myself, and I!