Vancouver Food Day Part III

My favorite Hong Kong style café in Richmond BC – Lido!

The must-get in Lido was the Hong Kong style milk tea.

Hong Kong style milk tea with corn beef and egg sandwich

Black tea flavor was strong and the milk was silky, velvety smooth and creamy.

The milk tea came unsweetened and each person could adjust their sweetness-liking accordingly.

It was truly a little luxury in a cup and I savored every sip of it.

Alas, no establishment in the Greater Seattle area produced such delicious milk tea — it made crossing boarder a must!

Lido also served excellent Hong Kong style coffee and milk tea mix, yin yang 鴛鴦, which was exceptionally authentic, down to the use of not-so-great coffee.

Perfect balance of tea, coffee and milky goodness, it was another must-try.

To eat: my favorite toasted corn beef and egg sandwich.

At Lido, fantastically fluffy eggs and salted corn beef was sandwiched between 2 slices of perfectly toasted white bread.

Every bite was exciting — first there was the crunch of the toast, followed by soft pillowy eggs and flavored with corn beef.

My only wish was for more corn beef in the sandwich.

These drinks and sandwich brought back nostalgic memory of having these same food with the street vendor in Hong Kong market.

Lido was also famous for their pineapple buns, which were often sold out.

I found pineapple bun with satay beef on the menu and had to try that!

The pineapple bun was fluffy, sweet and lovely as usual.

The best part of the pineapple bun was the top where the sweet flakes fell off as one bit into it.

It was unmistakably buttery and soothing.

The addition of satay beef introduced a sweet salty competition in the mouth.

The satay flavor was very strong albeit a little too salty, and the beef was super tender.

It was a little messy to eat and nonetheless enjoyable.

Another place I loved right next door to Lido was Excellent Tofu and Snack.

They made some really smooth tofu here.

Usually I came for the plain tofu, or tofu fa 豆腐花 with ginger syrup.

The tofu was silky –  upon close inspection, there was no bump on the surface of the tofu.

It had a nice soy bean flavor and each spoonful would melt away in the mouth – it gave away exactly like the inside of seared foie gras.

I believe tofu fa was one of the greatest dessert in the world.

It was healthy — completely vegetarian, low in fat, high in protein and as long as we did not overdo on sugar or syrup, it was also low-calorie.

The shop offered this simple, light and healthy dessert in hot or cold form.

Each tiny table in the store or the counter area had small tubs of brown sugar which was customary to add into the tofu dessert for extra sweetness (also textural crunch), or when someone ordered the tofu plain with no syrup.

There were many flavors or combination possible with this simple food: the addition of red bean, grass jelly, barley; coconut flavor, peanut flavor, taro flavor, options were limitless.

This last visit, I went for something different, almond tofu.

I usually enjoyed the “fake tofu” almond tofu.

The fake one was made with agar, evaporated milk, almond extract and sugar.

This real tofu almond tofu was delivered with sweetened almond syrup.

On top of it, I had the full make up with the addition of fruit cocktail.

It was so delicious!

The shop also sold fresh soy milk and tofu curd for cooking.

I loved their tofu so much that I brought a box from Seattle to buy their tofu curd and transported them back.

Unfortunately it was an utter failure — due to its silky soft nature, the tofu curd did not survive the car ride and turned into tofu mush.

If I recalled, I made the tofu into a very mushy ma po tofu — never again.

Top Gun

For belated Mother’s Day celebration, we brought DH’s mom to Top Gun.

I knew my mother-in-law really loved whole fish with bone-in; and I could trust that Top Gun would deliver a great dish for her.

Decided that we were going to get steamed fish before we arrived.

However, the restaurant threw a little curve-ball on us — upon inquiry, the smallest fish they had that night was a 3.5 lb Ling Cod.

Honestly way too much fish for 3 of us.

At the end, we decided that we were going for it, and asked for the fish to be served 3-way.

It was customary to get live fish, lobster or crab in a Cantonese style Chinese restaurant and had the live seafood divided and prepared as multiple courses.

Usually restaurants would make soup, stir-fried, steamed, or deep-fried (e.g. salt and pepper) with the fish.

For lobster or crabs, restaurants would offer up stir-fried with ginger and scallion, steamed, or deep-fried; sometimes they could make fried rice or noodle with the meat or inert, even bake in shell etc.

We picked our 3-way: soup, stir-fried with vegetables and steamed.

First was the soup.

Absolutely loved it.

It was done in a traditional way that was milky, aromatic and creamy.

My grandmother made this kind of fish soup as well and the secret was frying the fish first.

Cooked along with cilantro, gai choy (a bitter Chinese vegetables), carrots, Chinese mushrooms and silky tofu, this soup was irresistible.

It was sweet, creamy, milky and a lovely white peppery taste to temper the fishy-ness.

Next was steamed.

My love was the sweet soy sauce that accompanied the fish.

I could eat lots of rice with just the sauce and a little of the crisp green onions and ginger.

Fish itself was again tender.

This was my mother-in-laws favorite as she enjoyed working around the fish bones and savoring them.

It was too much work for both DH and I for the most part, and we were certainly digging around for meat.

Lastly was stir-fried.

The tender Ling Cod fish fillet was lightly sautéed with green onions, carrots, celery, straw mushrooms, snow peas and most importantly ginger.

Every piece of the fish melted in the mouth with a light hint of sweetness just naturally from the fish.

The aromatics of ginger and green onions gave the flavors and the crisp and cooked just right vegetables delivered crunchiness to the overall dish.

I still have not master stir-frying fish fillet at home unfortunately; usually they would fell apart brilliantly — the skill in Chinese cooking I have yet to learn!

This was DH’s favorite as there was no work required to eat the fish fillet.

Overall, the Ling Cod was not a meaty fish, and positively for bone lovers.

I believe my mother-in-law had a good time — and it was all worth it.

Top Gun serves dim sum for lunch and it is the only eastside restaurant I am willing to go for dim sum; it is however, with eastside price tag as well, especially compare to our usual dim sum fort, Jade Garden.

Their dinners were great as well with my favorite such as Singaporean noodle, stir-fried broccoli with fish fillet and tofu clay pot.

L: Singaporean noodle — R top: pork chop in peking sauce — M: garlic fried bok choy — L bottom: eggplant with oysters

 On our recent to-go gluttony, we had my super spicy heavily curried flavor (how I liked it!) Singaporean noodle with shrimp, bbq pork, egg, green onions, onions and crisp bean sprouts.  It was always dry as how it should be and delicious.

I craved for the sweetness and slight tangy sauce of the pork chop with Peking sauce; with Top Gun’s, I could even feel the crispness of the very tender pork chop underneath the super addictive sauce.

Bok Choy was fresh, crisp, sweet with garlic, and the eggplant was a bit on the greasy side but flavor still lovely with satay sauce and oysters.

Top Gun was a decent all round Cantonese style restaurant, and the owner would be opening Dim Sum Factory soon where dim sum would be served from 8 in the morning to midnight!

I can’t wait!

Panama Hotel Tea and Coffee House and Strawberries

The Panama Hotel Tea and Coffee in the International District was truly a hidden gem.

Set in a historic hotel built in 1910 by Japanese architect, the building had a long history in Seattle and stood as an iconic witness of the past.

Once we stepped into the café, it felt like we had stepped back in time.

The beautiful hard wood floor and counters, and the many items that were on display brought the history of early Japanese immigrants to live.

My friend had donated a lot of their old pictures on the wall from her parents’ most beloved collection.

It was as much a little museum as a comforting café.

The Panama hotel had the oldest surviving Japanese bath house in the building and they offered tour to visit the site — on my to-do list.

This charming place served great coffees, and even better teas.

The day I was there with out-of-town guests, I had an herbal tea called the Scarlet Red with rose hip and currant, which was bright red, aromatic, soothing and yet slightly tart.

Aside from the usual cookies and pastries, they also served Japanese Confectionary by Tokara.

They were pricey for their sizes; however, this would be a case to admire quality and not quantity.

Not only that we were consuming delicious little snacks and treats, we were presented with a beautiful art form.

The day we were at the café, there were 3 types of wagashi – traditional Kyoto style sweets.

Tokara made their sweets based on seasonal appropriateness.

Each one of the wagashi was elegant and exquisite.

Each was hand-made, and I could taste the special care and tremendous time it took to make each one of these treats.

All of them had smooth red bean filling which was excellent and not sweet at all.

My favorite of all was the brown one, it had a slight chewy but slippery texture: imagine Chinese wide rice noodle in soup, and reduce the thickness of the noodle by 70%, that was how delicate and slippery the outer skin was.

My second favorite was one with the leaf wrapping.

It was for cherry blossom season and the pink cherry blossom flavored sticky rice soaked up the leaf flavors – perfect texture with most unusual flavors.

The last one was the white one with painting.

The outer layer’s texture felt like a very thin layer of cake and it was just beautiful to look at.

My sister’s favorite at Panama Hotel Tea and Coffee was their tea lattes.

Aside from matcha lattes which were getting more popular across the board, they also made hojicha and genmaicha latte as well.

Panama was most certainly a quaint quiet place to spend an afternoon in.

This season’s first 4 strawberries from my yard!

DH and I shared the 4 strawberries and they were juicy, full of bursting ripe strawberry flavors.

I could taste the sun in the strawberries!

After couple years of vegetable-growing hiatus, we have gone back in full force!

Started seeds on beets, arugula, green onions, green beans, English cucumbers and carrots; I have also bought starts for tomatoes, parsley and thyme.

I am really looking forward to this growing season!

In our old house, I had to battle with limited sun exposure, which limited what I could grow; and we also had huge slug problems.

My beloved English cucumbers would not bear any fruit because every time a beautiful leaf came out it would be eaten by slugs.

Now, we have a brand new gardening canvas.

We have plenty of sun but also occasional deer problem.

We planted apples, pear, strawberries and cherries; and deer came by and ate a third of the strawberry flowers and 98% of the pear flowers — very bummed out.

We are left to try natural deer deterrent with these really stinky packets in our garden – it might have worked, but my gut feeling tells me that the deer probably has not returned.

Tis is nature, and I will give me more materials to write about in our food growing adventure!

 

 

Restaurant Roux

My girlfriend’s treat for my birthday was at Restaurant Roux (Thanks ST!).

The restaurant was tucked along Fremont Ave and had a warm, lay-back, comforting and homey feel.

Overall, it was a fun eating experience.

We were really excited with the unusual ingredients on the menu: frog legs, pigs’ ears and gizzards.

Along with the unexpected offer, we had pasta from Il Corvo and octopus.

Here are the breakdown:

The first plate to arrive was the fried chicken gizzard — oh so good!!!

It was fried just right with the crunchiness of the gizzards and their fibrous texture — yet still moist.

The coating was light and delicious.

Gizzards, chicken’s or duck’s, were one of my favorite snack food growing up.

My mom made the duck gizzards as a cold appetizer just with plain salt and “lo shui” , braised flavor.

I would eat them non-stop.

Since I moved to the States, I rarely found them served anywhere.

The last time I had them was at Ezell’s fried chicken which was a huge let down.

It was over-fried resulting in  dry and chewy and cardboard gizzards.

This time, we were in luck!

This chicken gizzards were perfect snack with drinks as well.

Next we had the pigs’ ears, buffalo style; most definitely a first for me as my past encounter with pigs’ ears had been in Chinese cold appetizer.

The pigs’ ears were sliced thinly in strips, coated with a fairly thick coating with strong buffalo spicy flavor and melty blue cheese.

We were disappointed with it because the enjoyment of pigs’ ears were robbed by these strong flavors, its crunchy coating and the thinly-sliced application.

We were not able to savor the best part of pig’s ears — the crunch from the cartilages.

It was a nice snack if one wanted pigs’ ears without really eating pigs’ ears.

Both my girl friend and I preferred the Chinese pigs’ ears preparation which had thicker cuts with detectable cartilage and no coating.

Perhaps a lighter flavor and less coating would also let the pig’s ears shine through more.

The frog legs arrived and I was immediately salivating!

The aromas of the dish was royally appealing: every one of my taste bud was ready for business!!

The frog legs were very tender and flavorful.

Lots of butter, tomatoes, garlic and fresh parsley, the dish was fresh and sweet.

I could not get enough of the sauce!

Flavors were cooked through and through into the frog legs; the dish just screamed rustic, rich and delicious!

I had not had frog legs’ for a very long time, and certainly not in an American restaurant establishment.

I was grateful the Restaurant Roux offered this dish and made it so well!

Octopus followed the frog legs.

The flavors of the grilled octopus was very nice, simply salted and a bit of charred flavor.

However, it was a little overcooked for my taste, at the cusp of just turning chewy from tender.

The potato salad with pickled celery on the bed was excellent.

Potatoes were cooked tender and savory with horseradish-like flavor.

Lastly, we had the most excellent Il Corvo spaghetti with oysters, bacon and melted leek.

Another to-die-for aromas from this dish!

The sauce was buttery, dense with flavors of the earth and the sea, and came across sweet.

The symphony of smokiness and meatiness of bacon, the plump and sweet small oysters, and the sweetness of aromatic leek worked fantastically well together.

Every bite was creamy and luscious.

We had cocktails with our meal — unfortunately I already forgot their names!

They were very strong and quite delicious.

The orange one above did not work for me as it reminded me too much of cough syrup.

Our waitress was very nice and swapped out mine to the one my girlfriend was having which was sweet, bitter, smooth with a hint of lime flavor — extremely delicious, palatable and great compliment to our food.

Flavors were awesome at Restaurant Roux, but one note of caution: the food were exxtremely salty.

I remained very thirsty on the drive home and continued drinking water well into bed.

I wish the salt usage could be dramatically reduced — the meal would be perfect!

Santouka Ramen

Second attempt, finally got to Santouka.

My girlfriend and I arrived right at 11am when they opened on a Monday and there was already a line.

Luckily, we were able to get seated fairly quickly.

The shop was not big — seat maybe about 40 people.

A very simple menu was offered: tonkotsu ramen with shouyu, shio, karamiso and miso base.

Eggs were extra; and there was toroniku – special pork cheek meats that were highly coveted.

We ordered different soup bases so we could try their variety and found ourselves comparing Santouka to Jin Ya throughout our meal.

I got the toroniku ramen with karamiso, egg on the side, and my girlfriend had the shio ramen.

We also had the pork bun as the appetizer.

Pork bun came first — and I would say overall, it was a disappointment.

The pork was fantastic — tender and fatty — but a thin slice, tucked in a bun that was on the hard side (not fluffy) with a wimpy stick of cilantro which was yellowing and some sweet miso paste.

I would actually call the pork bun bland.

I was not expecting flavor and texture bursting in my mouth (e.g. Taiwanese gua bao) since this was a Japanese style pork bun; however, I still expected better bun quality and more flavor.

Next was our ramen.

First, I had to try my girlfriend’s Shio Ramen since it was the plain unadulterated tonkotsu broth.

It was delicious!

Creamy, rich flavors of pork and pork bones, and without stickiness in the palate.

The flavors were subtle, and yet one could tell that it was a broth that was cooked over a long period of time, and that every ounce of the pork that was used had transformed into the broth.

Fantastic milky color, the broth was clearly the star, and what Santouka was famous for.

With the accent of fresh green onion, thinly sliced peppers, and pickled plum, it was a delicate, tasty broth to savor on.

For broth: Santouka vs. Jin Ya, Santouka 1.

My karamiso was delicious as well; however, as expected, the miso covered up the elegant and gentle pork flavor.

L: karamiso ramen — R:toroniku pork cheek meat

I wish they would offer a spicy version without miso; and their spiciness delivery was fairly low.

Moving onto the noodles.

I actually found my noodle too cooked, and too soft, and was not Q Q bouncy anymore.

It was the yellow egg noodle traditional ramen — it was not bad, but just expected a top notch ramen store not to overcook their noodle .

For noodle: Santouka vs. Jin Ya, Jin Ya 1.

Then, the pork.

The regular chashu was quite fatty, soft and tasty!

The meat portion was small, but their quality definitely shone through the bowl.

It was well-flavored – simply salted, and very little soy sauce flavor; quality meat was used to create the chashu and their website said they used rib meat only.

Just when I thought the chashu was good, my toroniku was out of this world!

Super tender, not very fatty, and amazingly melted in my mouth.

The texture of the pork cheek was clearly visible with a nice thin roasty skin and small layer of fat.

The portion on the pork cheek was generous and well worth the up charge for them.

I was just amazed by how buttery melty the pork was even without much fat!

For meat: Santouka vs. Jin Ya, Santouka 1.

Finally, the must-try egg.

Very disappointing, as my egg was not runny at all; it was flavored nicely with sweetened soy sauce, but it was 60% cook through in my yolk.

For egg: Santouka vs. Jin Ya — no winner!  They both failed to deliver a perfectly cooked soft-boiled egg.

It was 2 to 1 on the score board for Santouka vs. Jin Ya from a taste point of view.

Lastly, price.

Santouka was quite a bit more expensive than Jin Ya, so I was definitely sticker-shocked.

With my toroniku karamiso ramen with egg on the side plus tips and tax, it was $20.

Super expensive.

Not sure I will be going there often as it was very pricy (especially compare to Vancouver, where there was delectable and cheaper ramen); it would be an option if I have a severe case of ramen craving and do not want to drive 3 hours.

Santouka is still the best ramen option in the Greater Seattle area.

Vancouver Food Day Part II

Went to Guu Garlic, and we were disappointed.

The dishes were not as good as they used to be — very sad.

We ordered many small dishes to share.

L: sweet shrimp sashimi — R top: roasted garlic — M bottom: fried shrimps — R bottom: chicken wings

The ama ebi, sweet shrimps, was ok and was not popping crunchy fresh.

The fried garlic and fried shrimps were not anything special.

Chicken wings with soy glaze was delicious but I was not wow by them.

L: stir fried udon — R top: salmon sashimi — R bottom: beef carpaccio

In the past, I longed for Garlic Guu’s stir-fried udon.

I was expecting a delivery of my old favorite but not anymore.

It used to be cooked just right in noodle texture, this time around, it was overcooked and soggy.

It used to have this most amazingly mushroomy flavor that I loved, and that was gone — resulting in just a regular beef udon stir-fry.

The wild salmon sashimi was fantastic, fresh, sweet and firm, and my friend said the beef carpaccio was excellent.

To be fair, food was not bad; they just had turned ordinary — without the little something that made them special anymore.

Or perhaps, we were just there on a off night.

I will still go when my friends go, but I will not long for the place anymore.

 

Nero waffle bar, on the other hand — I will be returning in a heart beat — really wish there is one in Seattle of that quality!

The waffles were definitely one of the best I ever had!

This very tiny store on Robson and stone throw from Garlic Guu had about 12 seats inside the store and 6-8 seats outside.

The minute the door was opened, one would be welcomed by the unmistakable creamy, dreamy aroma of sweet eggy waffles.

Nero served both the light and crispy Brussels waffles and the soft and sweet Liège waffles.

On the menu, there were equal numbers of savory and sweet waffle concoctions.

Our party actually stopped by Nero before Garlic Guu to kill time and put more food in the stomach; and I ended up sharing the strawberry cream waffle with DH.

If I knew I would be disappointed with Garlic Guu, I would have eaten another chocolate mousse waffle all by myself!

The Brussels waffle was the lightest I had ever had.

Took a significant bite, and it just disappeared in my mouth — light, airy and yet, the impact of the milky, eggy and buttery flavor was enormous.

The sweet hint of waffle carried through every bite and stayed pleasantly in the mouth afterwards.

The fresh strawberries were only for decoration as the waffle star was shining so bright that there was nothing that can dim its light  (and yes, lovely fresh strawberry flavors and fresh fruit texture).

I kept eyeing the delicious looking chocolate mousse with orange on the next table and I swore to myself that I would return soon!

Of course, must also try their Liège waffles!

Vancouver Food Day Part I

Vancouver eating trip was always the best!!!

I was often surprised by my own flexible stomach at which large amount of food were deposited in a short period of time.

We started our trip at Michigan Noodle Restaurant.

I had heard a lot about the wonton noodle in this place for a very long time and finally made the journey.

L: mixed pan fried noodle — R top: stir fried pea vines — R bottom: won ton noodle and salt and peppers chicken cartilage

The wonton noodle was excellent!

The noodles were thin and Q Q — the best term to describe the perfectly cooked noodle with a slight chewy texture, al dente and bouncy.

I usually avoided ordering egg noodles because most places could not cook them properly and had a soapy flavor.

These egg noodle was prepare fantastically without soapy flavor, and I would most certainly eat this!

The wontons were ginormous, crunchy with very fresh shrimps and thin wrappers, every bite was a treat; accompanied by the expected fish broth accented with yellow chives, it was a memorable bowl of wonton soup noodle.

The pan-fried crispy noodle was delicious as well — the contrast of crisp and soft noodle was always an enjoyable eating sensation.

There were some ingredients in our mixed pan-fried noodle I had not seen for a long while – livers and kidneys!

I believed DH had avoided them all as he was not a fan of inert.

I am not a fan of liver but a huge fan of well prepared kidneys.

Kidneys at Michigan was not bad: cooked perfectly – still crunchy and not overcooked, but there was still a little “piggy” flavor in them.

I guess nothing beat the kidneys that my Mom made at home with large amount of ginger and no piggy flavor.

The pea vine was sweet and had a crunch.

I had accepted the fact that vegetables, especially Chinese vegetables, were of much better quality in Canada than in the States.

Fresher and higher quality vegetables yielded a much tastier simple stir-fried vegetable dish.

Well, I will just have to eat lots of vegetables, along with plenty other food the next time I am in Vancouver again!

Must have ramen in Vancouver!

Normally, I went to Motomachi Shokudo.

This time, we heard about this chicken soup ramen place, Marutama Ramen and decided it was a must-try!

I LOVED IT!

The chicken broth was really thick and rich; it was very comforting as if someone had put a blanket on me and tucked me in bed.

I opted for spicy and it made the soup tingly in the mouth both from the hot broth and the peppers.

The noodle texture was fantastic; it was an option to choose how soft we wanted the noodle to be cooked and I picked the chewiest option and I got that exactly.

The egg was excellent with its light soy flavor, runny egg yolk that was cooked just right.

The pork was extremely tender, thinly sliced, well-flavored.

It was such a textural trip: bouncy noodle, thick velvety broth, soft tender pork and the resistance of egg white at the first bite opening up to runny creamy egg yolk.

Every bite was fun, every bite was delicious, and I could drink the soup forever!

 

Persian Sweets II and Yeh Yeh’s

The same trip that I discovered Faloudeh from the Persian market, I also bought Sesame Pashmak — another traditional Iranian dessert made of sesame, sugar, pistachio and vanillin.

I loved the prominent sesame flavor in this dessert; and it was the texture that was really fun.

It reminded me of a traditional Chinese candy that I used to enjoy growing up called dragon beard candy, 龍鬚糖.

Dragon beard candy looked like a cocoon made of pulled super fine sugar strands.

Inside the candy, one would find finely chopped peanuts and sometimes coconut.

Having dragon beard candy was a textural journey of its own; and it was considered a culinary art of China.

Pashmak was very similar to dragon beard candy.

The strands were coarser than dragon bear candy, and it looked like sesame was blended with sugar.

It was not formed like a cocoon and with no stuffing inside.

The initial sensation was a huge hit of vanillin flavor in the mouth; then I could feel the texture of many threads, which disappear relatively quickly — similar to melting cotton candy in the mouth, created this silky and velvety sensation.

Very shortly as the interest in texture faded away, a huge wave of roasted sesame, nutty flavor surged right up.

Pistachio were sparsely interlaced among the strands and gave a crunchy texture to an otherwise soft and delicate texture.

All these sensorial experience happened in manner of seconds — making Pashmak a unique tasting experience.

As a dessert with sugar as one of the primary ingredients,  I was surprised to find it not too sweet.

Pashmak was such a treat!

– — – — – —

This tiny shop, Yeh Yeh’s, in Bellevue specialized in Vietnamese sandwiches, salads and beef stew only.

A cheap(er), dependable, good-eat spot.

I liked their Vietnamese sandwiches especially when it was consumed right after they were ordered — warm and toasty with large amount of well-pickled and sweet carrots and radishes.

Layered with jalapenos and cilantro, the sandwich was aromatic and fresh.

There was many choices of meats: beef, pork, chicken, tofu, brisket, ham and BBQ pork.

I usually stayed with the delicious and traditional soy-garlic marinated pork.

The only potentially inauthentic part was the existence of a tasty mayo-like spread in the sandwich.

I loved the simple noodle salad, Bun.

It was extremely refreshing with the traditional lime dressing and the addition of mint leaves – a very nice touch that gave a simple twist to the flavor dimension.

Under category salad, one could pick either noodles or green papaya.

Each order came with 2 choices of proteins (pork, beef, chicken, tofu) including Vietnamese eggroll as one of the options.

The rice vermicelli was always well cooked and never stuck together.

Mixing each bite of the cold noodle with the pickled root vegetables and cucumbers was of the most soothing experience in hot summer days.

Yeh Yeh’s definitely was not the cheapest (still east side price) in the Greater Seattle area, but it was a great place as an eastside option.

Indian Pizza and Berbere Kale Chips

Why would I blog about Can Am Pizza?

Because our neighborhood Can Am Pizza is special!

This Can Am pizza serves Indian pizzas.

They have chicken and paneer pizzas, served with sides of yogurt and extra jalapenos if one wishes.

My favorite is the butter chicken pizza.

L: DH’s favorite Hawaiian without cheese — R: butter chicken pizza

Thick, rich, savory and spicy butter curry chicken on top of soft bready pizza crust, it was most definitely another experience to enjoy Indian food!

The pizza crust was not anything special, but it was good enough as a vehicle for the saucy butter chicken.

I tried their tandoori chicken pizza and it was decent — but I found it less unique as it tasted similar to grilled chicken pizza.

The hotness level was definitely not for spicy wimps — I usually had my mouth and ears burning with mild.

Indian pizza from Can Am was definitely one of those unique, cheap and delicious grub!

 

– – – – – –

I LOVE kale chips!

Easy and fast to make, healthy and delicious!

I have been playing around to spice up the kale chips and really like this recipe with Berbere.

Berbere is a super versatile Ethiopian spice blend — earthy, aromatic and spicy hot!

I got the inspiration to try cooking with Berbere after reading Yes Chef.

Caution: this recipe is pretty spicy hot especially if being consumed non-stop (which was what I did)!

Enjoy!

 

Berbere Kale Chips

INGREDIENTS

1 bunch of curly kale

1/4 tsp salt

1.5 tsp Berbere

1 tbsp. olive oil

 

DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven at 380F

Tear kale leaves only into bite size pieces*

Wash kale leaves and remove excess water in a salad spinner

Coat kale leaves with olive oil thoroughly

Add berbere and salt little bit at a time, mixing the spices throughout kale leaves as uniformly as possible^

Bake for 8 mins and it is done!

 

*I save the stalk of kale for soups

^the curly leaves make it difficult to spread the spices evenly; as a result, adding small amount and mixing evenly is essential for final eating experience

 

 

Bombay House

A new vegetarian Indian Restaurant, Bombay House, opened up on the eastside — and was I glad!!!

I went there several times already, both for lunch and dinner, and both were fantastic!

Lunch was buffet with a very nice spread of curries, rice, soup and a decent all-you-can-drink-chai.

I love that they have a few “fusion Indian” dishes with the usage of tofu rather than paneer, which was rare among Indian restaurants, and excellent vegan option.

The day I was there for the buffet, they had their spinach shorba, a dairy base spinach soup that was just out of this world.

I went for dinner another time with my friends.

I ordered my favorite Punjabi Saag, which tasted very different from usual Saag.

Aside from the common and usual ingredients, spinach, in Saag, it also had mustard leaves and fenugreek leaves.

The resulting dish had more texture than the standard spinach ones which were generally more soggy; and the flavors from the other vegetables made the dish uniquely tasty.

We also had the Tarka yellow dal, tofu vindaloo, and vegetable masala, and they were all delicious along with the fluffy naan bread.

Another time, we got to try mushroom Jalfrazie which was amazingly delicious with all the spices and super spicy!

Most intriguing was the Pashawari naan.

It had coconut, raisins and cashews stuffed in the naan, the sweetness and fruitiness still went amazingly well with the curries, it was an eye-opener!

DH loved their home-made Bombay Lime with fresh lime juice and spices, mostly cardamom, with club soda.

I love their plain vegetable soup.

It was a curry soup with vegetables, quite spicy and garlicky.

I could really drink a large amount of it!

The price point was a little high for dinner or a-la-carte.

All the main courses were over $10.

I was too hungry waiting for my friend and got the Papadam, and it was $3 for a very small portion.

The food was delicious enough and the price point was not high enough to deter me from going.

The lunch buffet was still a steal at $9.95!