Mother's Dumplings and Big Chills

Mother's Dumplings and Big Chills

a perfect summer evening consists of very simply, good food and conversation with friends. we checked out Mike and Lindsay's new apartment, along with richard and darted across to mother's dumplings. we hadn't been to the new location, which is ten times bigger than the last.


mike is a huge fan of mother's dumplings, and rightfully so. he usually suggests it, its so good.


the dumplings selection is deep, and i'd say its up there in quality and home made goodness. i just like watching all the auntie's making the dumplings.


for me, i think i especially like all the special side dishes and appetisers. here we have a spicy cucumber salad, seaweed salad and tofu strip salad. i think my favourite is the tofu strips.


this dish we all tried for the first time. it was if i remember correctly a sweet sour shredded asian salad. the name doesn't do justice, but this had peanuts, apple, cucumber, sprouts and sandy sugar crystals. weird but super yummy




and we finished off the night at the big chill on college. i can't quite remember but i think may had cappuccino and i had the spiced pistachio.

a post to catch up

a post to catch up

I was sorting through some photos, and it hit me that there were so many great meals we had that hasn't been posted, so this is going to a rather long post.

We heard about Konichiwa from the Owner of Sanko when Gabe was looking for the sesame grinder. The owner said they have the most authentic Japanese ramen there. I've been craving for good ramen for ages! We finally went to Konichiwa with Celine and Jin a month ago. The food is really great. We ordered ramen and katsu-don, and both dishes tasted very authentic and home-y. The interior decorations are also quite cute. You can tell that it's a Japanese operated restaurant right when you walked into the place.

I love french crepes, but I've never had eastern european crepes before we went to Krepesz in Kensington Market. The crepe there is quite different from the french crepes, these ones are a lot thinner and lighter. I had a sour cherry crepe (pictured above), Amy had a fruit salad crepe with ice-cream, and Gabe had the chicken stew crepe, which I thought was the best out of the 3. I'm definitely going back to try more of the savoury crepes.


Scoop & Bean is just a 2 minute walk from where we used to live in the Annex. We wanted to go there because we read on Blog TO that they serve ice-cream in coffee (what's the proper italian term for this?) , it's my two favourite things combined together, how could I resist! When we got there, I decided to get a milk shake, and Gabe got a raspberry ice-cream with white chocolate and some sort of nuts, oh and a cookie plus a latte. I like the ice-cream there, but they only serve vanilla ice-cream in coffee, so I thought that's a little boring, hence didn't pick my original choice.

On a side note, I should really move back in the Annex after I graduate, there's too many good cafes and restaurants that I'm not willing to give up on.

The last thing I got to mentions is a home made breakfast, but I guess you can make it as a side dish/snack too. What's looking very peculiar in the picture above is chinese steamed egg (蛋羹), or what's known as chawanmushi in Japanese (茶碗蒸し). The basics of this dish is egg and milk, one egg would require 1.5 times of milk or water in volume. You can put in pieces of vegetables in there too, but here I made it for breakfast, so I skipped the vegetables. Steam for about 15mins. Sesame oil and soya sauce was put on top for flavouring.

Chocolate Extravaganza

Chocolate Extravaganza

Gabe and I don't celebrate Valentine's Day particularly, but we do love chocolate.

Friday night, we ended up making many different chocolate treats, here are only some of them. The same day I also got a pack of assorted chocolates from my parents, the sweets just kept on coming :)



The dipped strawberries are Gabe's creations.

Crispy chewy chocolate chip cookies are here.

We also made lime leaf and white chocolate ice cream, it turned out really creamy.
It is adapted from this.

a little summer in the winter

a little summer in the winter

just cuz its -17 outside before the windchill factor doesn't mean we ain't gonna make ice cream right?!



so.. here we have mango pineapple on top of may's blackberry buttermilk cake. yummy. she's perfected it btw. seen previously on circular territory



here is a rich chocolate with added dark chocolate shavings. its hard to see them, but they are in there! and of course, there's no such thing as ice cream without cones. although, may would eat ice cream that has fallen to the ground i wouldnt' doubt



speaking of.. don't drop it! =]

stay tuned, as last night we made.. maple walnut ice cream.

pistachio ice cream

pistachio ice cream

so some of you know, we have an ice cream maker. of course may misses it dearly, since she's in rome. and believe it or not, i haven't made any ice cream until this past week



so first, we start with 4 egg yolks, 1/2 cup sugar, vanilla extract



then we roast the pistachos, cool them before you grind them. you can also smash them in a plastic bag (a little more fun)



2 cups whole milk, 2 cups heavy cream is brought to a simmer and then mixed in with the egg/sugar/vanilla extract mixture until it coats the back of a spoon. then cool the mixture in the fridge, then its ready for the ice cream maker!



and that's it! it churns in the ice cream maker for 40 mins then its good to go! this is the first time i've had ice cream since may left actually.. she on the other hand has one gelato a day in rome!!!

i think the best flavour we've made this past summer is peach ginger and chocolate hazelnut. gnom gnom gnom

At my desk

At my desk

Okay so i want to make it little clear, this is not a competition. I would undoubtedly lose that battle. May is kicking my butt with lovely tasty italian meals, colourful markets and the opportunity to cook daily at home. I on the other hand have made a 180 by moving back home to my parents in markham.. and lets just say its completely different than living with your loved one right in the city.



So since, May has all this amazing italian food that i can only dream of.. i'm gonna do my best to make her jealous.. even if i have to stoop as low as oreo ice cream sandwiches! muahah!



We have this chinese resto walking distance by our house called "Lam Yuen" or Richmond Court.. and my mom occassionally brings home goodies from there. This is a "Wu Gwok".. which is a Taro Pastry of sort. or whatever you wanna call them. Deep fried taro with pork filling (usually served at dim sum). May's comfort meat is ground pork.. isn't that right?



So i actually ate this yesterday for lunch.. but i remember only telling May that i was currently eating something frozen and would not specify what. This is by far the best frozen pizza out there.. Its thin..tasty, perfect size and its cheap.. like $4.50 or something. can't go wrong.. although this one only has veggies.. and that's just wrong. I won't be doing that too often.. ;)