prasantrin

That's nuoc cham, though lime juice is preferred over vinegar. Sometimes it's called nuoc mam cham, perhaps that's the source of the confusion. But nuoc mam is just fish sauce.

Nuoc mam is, as far as I know, just plain fish sauce. Nuoc cham has lime juice.

Thanks for posting this! I've been craving char siu bao since I got back to Japan--no good char siu bao here (but lots of bao with ground pork inside!). About how many bao would that make? I'd be making my bao for one, so I'm thinking I'd get more than enough if I quartered that recipe. And do you really mean 2.2 lb of milk, or 2.2 litres? Or.... Care to share your char siu recipe, too? I have yet to find one that I'm happy with, even after going through all 5 pages of the char siu bao cook off!

Last month, for our last large meal, my mother and I had a very late lunch/early dinner at Smoque. Both Ronnie S and molto e recommended it very highly, so we had to go! Good barbecue is impossible to find in Japan, as well as in Winnipeg, and both my mother and I had been having cravings for it. I was a little worried when we arrived--being 2pm-ish, I didn't think the food would be as fresh, but I think it was just as good as it would have been during prime meal-times. We wanted to try everything, but we settled on Pulled pork platter, with baked beans and mac and cheese for our sides (plus the coleslaw) Beef brisket (sliced) a la carte and a side of St. Louis ribs (4 ribs) We both enjoyed the beef brisket. When I first saw it, I didn't think it looked very tender, but it was. This was the only meat dish we agreed upon. I didn't care for the pulled pork, but my mother loved it. I loved the ribs, but my mother didn't think they were very flavourful (I took the two with the fatty layer, and she got the leaner section, so hers may not have been quite as tasty as mine ). I didn't like the baked beans (they were too sweet, I thought, and had too much onion), but my mother really enjoyed them. She also liked the coleslaw--it was her favourite side dish. But the mac and cheese was my favourite--it could have been cheesier, but the crunchy topping is what made it great. We ordered much too much food (as usual), but luckily, they have to-go containers over by the drink dispensers. We took all our leftovers home, and it was a good thing we did. The next day, our flight going out of ORD was delayed a few hours, so we had some bbq for lunch. Then our delay turned in to a cancellation, which turned in to an overnight stay at ORD on some very uncomfortable cots. Guess what we had for dinner, and for breakfast the next morning? Well, my mother did, combined with some of the leftovers from our b&b. If I go back to Chicago, Smoque is on my must-eat list. Thanks to Ronnie and Eliot for the rec!

I had lunch at Frontera Grill last month with my mother and a board member of the corporation that hired me for my current position. We arrived just before 11:30, and we were the last in line--there were a dozen or so people in front of us. Who knew it would be so busy on a Tuesday! I had not seen our guest for more than a year, so we had some catching up to do. Our waiter, however, seemed annoyed at our "catching up" and I distinctly felt he was trying to rush us. It took us a little longer to decide on our orders (because we were chatting), and everytime he came by our table, he would look at his watch in an annoyed fashion, and the manner in which he spoke was brusque and unfriendly (to my ears). None of us was terribly hungry, so we settled on the appetizer platter for 3, the sopes, and our guest also had the tortilla soup, and I had a mojito. The sopes were very good, as was the carpaccio of the appetizer platter. The rest was not really memorable. We still had quite a bit of food on our appetizer platter, but the busser kept trying to clear our plates. Another sign they wanted us out as fast as possible. I understand lunch is a busy time, and they try to turnover as many tables as possible (more tips for the waitstaff), but I would expect more from a restaurant such as this. When I had lunch here alone several years ago, I had no such problems. The food came to about $40, the drink was $10, and I left a $14 tip (probably a little less, but my credit card statement shows a $64 total). I think I overtipped, given that I felt so shabbily treated. We were there for maybe an hour to ninety minutes in total. If you want me out within a certain time, let it be known before I sit down. But I hate being made to feel unwanted.

I want sloppy joes. I've got some chile con carne spice mix from Penzey's. They say Can I adapt this to make sloppy joes? Any idea how I would do it? I would guess to use 2 tsp/lb of meat, then add some tomato paste and water, and perhaps some sugar. I was thinking 1 can of tomato paste, but how much water? Maybe 1/2 cup?

This may have been mentioned, but Williams-Sonoma has a 2 3/4 qt oval dutch oven for only $79.95. I'm kicking myself for not getting one when I was in the US last month, but I thought I'd get it cheaper at the outlet--not so...it was more than $100 at the outlet, and those were the seconds! For some reason, I thought the ones I saw in the store were 3 1/2 qt, but the website says 2 3/4 qt. The perfect size for half a no-knead bread loaf!

(quoting a bit out of order) My mother always does the same things with menus! Except she never asks for the dim sum menus--she just takes them. Places that have order-based dim sum usually have them on the front desk counter, so she just grabs one on the way out. I wonder if my mother has had them. She loves tendons, too! I read her your post, and she wants to try the tripe with black pepper, next. It, and the chicken, were the only ones you mentioned that she hasn't tried. She likes their spicy beef tripe, and of course their spicy chicken feet. I don't remember the staty beef, one, but the consume one was my favourite! I saw that somewhere else, recently, but can't remember where.

Pille? She was my first thought after Alinka. She also has the same particular style of food photography that makes me want to eat whatever it is she has photographed. She and Alinka could take pictures of a soda cracker, and I'd want to eat it...

This is one of my favourite dishes! Could you tell me the name of the steamed version? I prefer the steamed one, but it's not usually on the menu of the restaurants I frequent (the fried one is). They sometimes let us special order things, though, so I could ask for it by name, it would be helpful. I've tried ordering it by asking for the fried one, but for them to steam the chicken, but the last time I did that I got steamed boneless skinless chicken breast pieces that were steamed in a dish with the oil and soy sauce, or something like that. Not what I wanted for sure!

Was the crispy chicken from the dim sum menu or the regular menu? My mother hasn't yet been there for a meal from their menu, but she really wants to go. I wonder if they could do the steamed/poached version of the dish you had. We prefer it to the fried version, but it's hard to find nowadays. I'm really glad you enjoyed the food, even if the service was crappy!

I'd like to think Alinka, but she hasn't been online in months, and is so busy with her new(ish) baby, I'm sure!

Looks like lemon glow it is! I think I have that recipe somewhere on my computer, too! I will probably have to halve the recipe, since my oven is quite small and I don't want the batter to sit around too long while so many batches are baking. Do you think it will stand up to a cream cheese frosting?

Japanese restaurants (in Japan) often serve that way. I don't think it's considered rude in Japan. They want you to eat each dish as it's prepared (at its freshest), regardless of whether everyone has their food or not. My pet peeve is when the waitstaff keeps checking their watches, as though we are taking up too much of their prime-time space (i.e. lowering their tips/hour). That happened to me recently at Frontera Grill in Chicago, and I was unimpressed. I left a better tip than the guy deserved (to help make up for the slower turnover of our table), but I was still pissed off.

I recently had the Lemon Drop cupcake from Cupcakes in Vancouver and thought, well, that it sucked. The cupcake was dry and heavy, and the frosting was like eating pure icing sugar. I thought I could surely do better, despite my lack of prowess in the kitchen. I've settled on the lemon cream cheese frosting from Fine Cooking (which really go with a ginger cupcake I want to make, too). But what do I do about the cupcake? I'd like something light and airy, but with a lemony punch. I don't have any lemon extract or flavouring, so I'd like to use lemon juice. I've been searching and found some recipes, but most reviews said the cake was heavy and/or dry. Any tried and true light lemony cupcakes out there?

Tavern in the Park--my mother was there for lunch yesterday, and she wrote [q]The food at Tavern on the Park is not that great! I had seafood crepe which was filled with 2 large scallops, 2 shrimps and 2 cubes of farmed salmon. Not even the sauce can hold a candle to the one we ate in chicago-what was the name of the place?...That cost me 20+with service charge and taxes. [/q] I know the original owners left (again?) sometime ago, but has the food changed that much? Or is it just that the restaurant spends less effort on their lunches than dinners?

I won't usually buy products for philanthropic reasons, unless it's a product I normally purchase. I prefer to donate my money directly, rather than through large companies who need the tax credit far less than I do. I find it less than generous for those companies to base their donations on products sold, rather than on just donating outright, with no strings attached. I'd have far more respect for (and be far more likely to buy products from) a company that did the latter.

I got the impression that's the direction they're going. When I went in for my fourth lemon drop, and was told they didn't them any more, I was also told they were promoting some other baked goods that month--I think they were mini-turnovers or mini-danishes. Their website doesn't have any indication of special promotions, though, so maybe it was just a summer thing??

Ah, then you have not had the pleasure of trying the Lemon Drop doughnut. If you like lemon, this baby is bliss. It's just a lemon-filled doughnut with lemon glaze (sweet, but with the tartness of the filling, it's not too bad) and sweet/tart lemon sprinkles on top. I had the pleasure of eating three (each on a different day, of course) when I was home this summer, then when I went in for a fourth, I discovered it was a limited thing, only for the month of July. Well, at least I had those three... The rest of their doughnuts suck, but I think Dunkin' Donuts sucks, too. It's hard to find a good doughnut these days.

At my local Safeway, I picked up a copy of Home Baking by Alford and Duguid for only $12. This is a big, heavy hardcover book, probably weighing more than 5 pounds. I bought that, and 2 bananas, and my moron cashier put the bananas and the book in the same bag. I made a point of taking the bananas out of the bag while I was waiting for my change, but I don't think he noticed.

I love their bubble tea, but only the fresh fruit ones (their young coconut is sooooo decadent!). When they first opened they had a very good cook, but after she left, their food was so-so except the little meatballs on a stick (I've always loved those). My parents loved their banh mi, too (as did all my mother relatives). They're such nice people that I really want to support them, even if their new place is sooooooo far from me! I hope they do well with their new place!

Peggy? My mother talked to her a couple of weeks ago, and mentioned the restaurant but Peggy didn't say anything at all about it being closed. Actually, she didn't reply to what my mother had asked, so she might not have heard my mother. He's been with them forever. I'm not sure, but I think he's been with KKG since before Jeff (or is it Ken? Maybe Jeff owns Dim Sum Garden) took over the business. When I first read "Smiling Johnny", the first person I thought of was the guy who was the original owner of Red Fortune (on Main), and before that, he owned a place on South Osborne. We always call him the "perpetually smiling guy". His mother was the best cook--she did everything well, and we were crushed when we found out they had sold Red Fortune and weren't going to open another place (mother wanted to retire). He eats at Kam Ho, too. Victoria Seafood? I think they have an advantage with the Chinese crowd in the south end because they're the only dim sum place in that part of the city (or at least they were until Kam Ho opened). If Kam Ho can fix their staff problems, I think VS will be losing a lot of their Chinese clientele, though. Yup. Maybe halfway between Tache and Bishop Grandin. 757 St. Mary's, so says Google. I wanted to try Asia City during my visit. They opened a full restaurant somewhere in town, but it was somewhere not very convenient for us, so we never made it there. They have dim sum there, as well as a Chinese/Vietnamese menu. I think they closed the Sargent location, which makes it harder for us to get good bubble tea.

Adding to my dim sum quest, we went on a quest for two dishes--the perfect s&s pork, and the best salted pepper shrimp. We only got to three places, but here goes... On my first night in Winnipeg, we always go directly from the airport to a Chinese place. The past two years, we went to North Garden, but this time we went to Sun Fortune. Both are in my 'hood, so we frequent both of them quite often. Sun Fortune Our opinion of SF has gone up and down over the years. When we first started going there, it was awesome. I don't think there was a bad dish in any we ever ordered, and they were great with special orders (like poached/steamed chicken with ginger and scallions). But a couple of years ago, the flavours were just not the same. Even their ever-present Chinese student university crowd had vanished, and one of their own waitstaff told us she preferred to dine at North Garden. Though we only had a total of 5 dishes over two visits, I'm happy to say I think the situation there was reversed itself, and they have now returned to their former glory. On our first visit, we ordered s&s pork, salted pepper shrimp (on the menu I think it's called "Fried Shrimp with spicy salt"), and gai lan in oyster sauce (gotta have vegetables somewhere, you know?). We had never ordered the salted pepper shrimp before, and were pleasantly surprised to see they served whole unshelled shrimp. My mother was even more pleased, because she got to eat the heads off my shrimp. This dish was outstanding. The coating they used was crispy, and did not overwhelm the shrimp. The dish was perfectly salted and perfectly spicy. We loved it. What was even better was the leftover shrimp I ate the next day were still crispy, and not overly greasy. The s&s pork had a nice balance of sweet and sour, I thought. They use quite a lot of very tender pork without too much breading, and have very little filler in the dish. I liked it. The gai lan in oyster sauce was also good. The gai lan wasn't overcooked, and there was a lot of it. North Garden We followed up with a trip to NG a week or so later. I think we ordered the exact same dishes that we had ordered at SF. The s&s pork here isn't as sweet as at SF. It has as much meat, and as little filler as SF, but the pork isn't as tender, I think. That may be because they use bigger chunks of pork. I think the s&s pork is about the same in ranking as SF's, but I prefer SF because it's just a little sweeter. Shrimp in spicy salt is also served with heads on, unshelled. Again, very tasty, but I still preferred SF's. SF's were crispier, and I liked the flavour balance between the salt and the spiciness better. Gai lan in oyster sauce--I didn't like it so much here. I thought they oversteamed the gai lan, so it was softer than I like. My mother liked it better, though. Kim Sang is actually a Vietnamese place on St. Mary's Road, but most of the menu is more Chinese-Vietnamese than Vietnamese. We dined with my cousins and their partners, so we could order more dishes than we usually do. I don't remember all of them, but I think we had salted pepper shrimp, s&s pork, honey sesame chicken, some kind of soup with seafood, mixed vegetables, and fried rice. (My cousins' partners are both Manitoban, so while one of them is a bit more adventurous, the other is far from it, so we had to cater to her limited tastes.) I don't really have anything good to say about the dishes at Kim Sang. The flavours were muted, the servings were skimpy, and they were definitely catering to the non-Chinese/Vietnamese population. We had asked about gai lan in oyster sauce, and were told that they "couldn't serve it because the people in the area won't eat it." OK.....Nevermind that my friend's Thai restaurant is not that far from Kim Sang, and they serve it in abundance... The salted pepper shrimp was nice and crisp, though. They were small, shelled, and headless (maybe tail-less, too, I don't remember), but anything fried is good, especially if it's crispy. Sun Fortune again... Three days before I left, my mother and I got the shrimp dish to go, knowing that we already had plans to dine at SF the next night with a friend. This dish is even good as a take-out dish. When we arrived home it was still hot and crispy (though we're probably only about a 5 minute drive from SF, so it couldn't suffer too much in transportation), and tasted just as good as the first time we had it. I wanted to note, though, that my mother had an allergic reaction to the shrimp this time around. She usually gets this reaction with shrimp that isn't as fresh. Finally, we went back the next night with a friend. This time we ordered fried squid in spicy salt (because our friend won't eat shrimp with eyes on them...), and seafood chow mein (Cantonese style). There were only two shrimp in our chow mein, but there was a lot of other seafood in it. And the chow mein wasn't too greasy, which is always good. The squid in spicy salt was just as good as the shrimp. The squid was very tender, and perfectly cooked. I'd probably order it over the shrimp, only because it's easier to eat. I eat all of my shrimp (shells, legs, and tails) except the heads, but it gets tiring crunching through all that shell. I'm a lazy eater, and I want instant gratification. The fried squid in spicy salt gives me all the pleasure of fried food, saltiness, and spiciness, without the extra chewing work. Next time, we'll try going out to Chinatown for dinner. Dim Sum Garden used to have the best steamed/poached chicken with scallions and ginger, and I wonder if they still do...

We actually had mostly hot stuff. Timing is crucial at KKG. On this particular visit, it was a weekday shortly after 1. On Sundays, we usually go around 11:30, so we can still get lots of fresh stuff, but there's more variety than when they have just opened. Again, timing is key for hot cart service. Also, when you see there are only a few of an item left on a cart, you should usually assume they're not going to be hot. When that happens, you can ask the cart person if they have any fresh ones, and they'll either get new ones from the kitchen, or get the kitchen to make another batch to go around. We've done that in the past. Another thing we've done to ensure freshness is if we don't see what we want, we ask for it. Then as soon as the batch is finished in the kitchen, they bring us an order before it even makes it to the carts. You might like Kam Ho since the ordering system is like Victoria. The flavour and quality of the meat dishes is much better than Victoria, but the service really did suck. Kam Ho also had some dishes we haven't seen at other places, but I didn't try them. Since I knew I'd be comparing restaurants, I wanted to stick to our usual dishes. Next time, though, we're going to try some new dishes. If you mostly order seafood dishes, though, I'd probably stick to Victoria. We were really impressed with the two we had. Grand Garden? On the second floor above a grocery store? We haven't been there in years. We used to like it a lot, then several years ago the quality of their dim sum went downhill. We thought they had changed chefs, but they denied it. We really should give it another chance, but we have reasons for being wary.

We did a dim sum tour of Winnipeg this summer. First stop--Kam Ho. Fairly new place on St. Mary's Road. They don't have cart service, so you order from a menu. We ordered: cha siu bao, sticky lotus rice, hum soi gok, har gau, chicken feet, and bbq pork rice rolls. Their sticky lotus rice is very very good. Lots of filling, and very flavourul. The rice rolls and cha siu bao were OK. They could have had more filling, and I didn't think their bbq pork had a lot of flavour. The har gau is very good--big, moist, tasty shrimp with a decent wrapper. My mother very much liked the chicken feet, and I liked the outside of the hum soi gok--it was much thinner and crispier than at other places, though the filling was not quite as flavourful as I like. At this place, the service sucks, though. I don't think I've ever had service as bad as I've had here. Next, Dim Sum Garden. Here we had cha siu bao, sticky lotus rice, hum soi gok, chicken feet, and fried calamari. The filling of the cha sui bao was tastier than that of Kam Ho, but the dough part was about the same. The sticky lotus rice here is good, but not as good as Kam Ho's. There was quite a bit of filling, but mostly ground pork and some mushrooms, I think. Our fried calamari was not quite fresh (it was one of the last off a cart that I think had gone around a few times), so it wouldn't be fair to judge it. The hum soi gok was very good--the casing was a bit thick, but the filling was plentiful and flavourful. My mother enjoyed the chicken feet, but said the ones at Kam Ho were better. Kum Koon Garden--we've been eating at KKG for decades, though it hasn't always been our favourite. Here we ordered cha siu bao, sticky lotus rice, hum soi gok, chicken feet, fried calamari, and Vietnamese spring rolls. I think we ordered one other thing, but I can't remember what it was. The cha siu bao was the perfect balance of bread and filling. They bread was light, and the filling was ample and flavourful. The hum soi gok was OK. The filling wasn't as plentiful as Dim Sum Garden's, but the casing was a little thinner. The fried calamari was fresh, crispy, and not too heavy with batter. I've only had Vietnamese Spring Rolls here and have not seen it on any other dim sum menu in Winnipeg--they use the same rice paper wrappers used for Vietnamese spring rolls, but they fry the spring roll, and they fill it with meat (ground pork). I like this dish because it's not as greasy as regular spring rolls, and you don't have all that vegetable filler. I hate bean sprouts and cabbage in spring rolls. Victoria Seafood--this was my final lunch in Winnipeg. We ordered cha sui bao, hum soi gok, "deluxe shrimp dumpling", bbq pork rice rolls, sticky lotus rice, and shrimp and scallop dumpling. We received the bbq pork rice rolls first. They were sloppily done--scant filling that spilled out everywhere because the rolls weren't wrapped tightly enough (and the roll part wasn't cooked properly, so it probably didn't wrap well to begin with). The bbq pork had little flavour. The sticky lotus rice had a lot of rice--but mostly just that. The filling, again, was scant and mostly limited to ground pork. I think there may have been a piece or two of Chinese sausage in there, though. The hum soi gok filling, once again, was scant and not very flavourful. The casing part was nice--not as thin as Kam Ho's, but crispy. I really liked it, but the filling just wasn't good enough to save it. The cha siu bao suffered from similar problems of the other meat dishes--the filling is scant and not very flavourful. But the bread part was OK. Finally, the seafood items. This is really where Victoria Seafood shines. The deluxe shrimp dumplings (oddly called "siu mai", but they're really a deluxe har gau that look like siu mai) were excellent--the shrimp are huge and moist, and the casing was light. These had a bit of roe on top. Very very good. The shrimp and scallop dumplings were also packed with filling (the scallop portion of the filling was a bit small, but you could still see the scallops). I wish there were just one place in Winnipeg that did all our favourite dishes well, but in order of flavour, we would rank the above in the following order: Kam Ho--crappy service, but tasty dishes with some outstanding ones Kum Koon--good service (but we know the owners and many of the old-timers on staff), and most of the dishes are good Dim Sum Garden--OK service (we probably get better service than many because we know the owners and many of the old-timers on staff), and some good dishes. Victoria Seafood--So-so service, meat-dishes are mediocre, but the seafood dishes are outstanding In terms of the individual dishes, the best would be: hum soi gok--Dim Sum Garden sticky lotus rice--Kam Ho cha siu bao--Kum Koon chicken feet--Kam Ho fried calamari--Kum Koon Anything seafood--Victoria Seafood bbq rice rolls--we only had these at two places, but from distant memory, I would rank Kum Koon's above the two places where we tried them this time around