Dejah

So do you ask for "ham sui gok?" Do they have the fluffy taro on the outside but juicy velvety pork filling inside? Kind makes your mouth water talking about them. I did mention it to my students. It seems the ones I have now are a lot more mobile because the previous students have driver's license and cars. I also told my daughter and she's supposed to go there soon. I'm glad your Mom liked the tendons. Darn! I was hoping they were commercial so I can save myself work! One of these days when I can get into Wpg without hubby, I will arrange with you to spend a day of eating with your mom! Haven't been to Chinada, but I remember seeing it when we drove by. I commented that it was such a strange name. WHY do Chinese restaurants have such terrible service?! It drives me crazy and I keep thinking I need to open a training centre for these people! Speaking of fried rice, we don't have any place that serves salted fish fried rice, but the fried rice at the newly opened Sushi Hut in Brandon has great wok hay in their fried rice. I enjoyed that the most the two times we were there. As with Chinese restaurants, the service was lousy! On another note, our local Assiniboine Community College's Culinary Arts has moved to their newly renovated facilities on what was the Mental Health Hospital grounds. They are using the former nurses' residence as classrooms, admin offices, and the noted 6-weeks-a -year Grey Owl Restaurant. The kitchen is an incredible 5400 sq. feet new structure with huge windows facing the park-like grounds. I am registered for 2 Sunday classes. To tie this to the dim sum thread, I was talking to the executive chef about doing a dim sum class. And, if he needs an instructor...ahem! I'd do anything to work in that kitchen!

I prefer Tim Ho's coffee to Starbucks (duck and run!). Seriously, the coffee I get at Starbucks always smell and taste like cigarette butts. I like the Breakfast Blend or, I think it was Sonora blend, which is no long available here. I don't go to TH for coffee, I buy and brew myself, every morning and evening. Donuts - haven't had one for many moons. I used to love the Bavarian creams, but the filling they've been using seem to be more chemical tasting. I still like the honey cruellers when my resistence breaks down. Never cared for the KKs that my niece insist on bringing from the west coast. I did like Robin's, but they were brought down by TH, as was Country Style. Like Pam, I appreciated TH's in the hospital lobby while hubby was in the hospital a couple years ago.

Tepee! The five nut mooncakes are my favourite! FedEx please. When Ben-Sook was here, he ate the last of the mooncakes I had on hand. He's retired and enjoying life!

June: Watercress soup is one of our family favourites. I get it whenever I see good bunches at the store. The "bacon" you showed, was it side pork/pork belly that you used? When you say bacon, I think North American bacon that is served for breakfast or BLT sandwiches. Was that what you used - a big unsliced slab of cured bacon? It looks delicious BTW...in all three pictures.

Tepee So good to see you posting. It's good to know your cake decorating biz is doing so well that you need a 2 week break! I loved that omelette with the sausages and bitter gourd. Now I know what to do with my duck eggs and gourd - for supper tomorrow. Keep posting!

Liuzhou: What kind of fish did you use? Lunch yesterday - a quick one from the freezer: steamed beef meat balls (dim sum style), daikon wedges, romain lettuce, and saffron rice. I diluted some oyster sauce and ladled it over the meatballs and lettuce. Tummy warming on a rainy windy fall day. Last night was traditional Canadian Thanksgiving turkey, ham and the fixings. Tonight we are having a mixed-up supper according to requests from the kids who are home this weekend: lotus and ocotpus soup, a Thai beef curry dish, some kind of stir-fry vegetable, cumin basmati rice, banana cream pie and pumpkin pie.

Yes, Sheena. That's the Cantonese method. I know Ah Leung mentioned that a slurry is not needed, but we learned to add the thickener the hard way. At one of my niece's weddings, my Mom had bought the premium grade of shark fins for the banquet. The cook followed the steps but didn't add the slurry. By itself, the fins do not add enough gel from the cartilage itself, especially if you are making large or huge quantities. Then, when they were ladelling into serving bowls, they didn't dip the ladel to the bottom where all the delicious strands had settled. My Mom kept asking what happened to the shark fin? We felt so embarassed to serve this soup "without the shark fin"! WE didn't know what happened until they were cleaning out the pots. Although we salvaged the ingrdient for ourselves, the guests were not able to find many strands. We found that adding slurry helps suspend the strands evenly throughout the soup.

Same here! And it's also slightly thicker than the normal soups I usually have. ← Crab meat is good in the soup - texture and complementary mild flavour. The soup is usually thicker because a light cornstarch slurry is often added at the last minute.

Ahem...Not ALL Chinese restaurant food is "obviosuly msg-laden oil-swimming". That's stereotyping. And, chilis ARE healthy. Any of the regions will have healthy and not-so-healthy choices. Thick layers of juicy scrumptious melt-in-your-mouth fat on pork belly can't be that healthy!

Chicken stock is more subtle and complements the delicate flavour of shark fin. Pork is ...too porky and will overpower the shark fin. Don't add Chinese mushrooms! The soup should be simple - shark fins, chicken. I don't even want ham in mine. Sometimes, egg white is swirled in just before serving.

Pickled chili garlic?

My CBC kids loved McD's when they were small. I think this is because they had Chinese food everyday at our restaurant and often at home. I remember when we took a trip across the four western provinces, we hit every McD's along the TransCanada highway. There's also the playstructure and toys attraction. Now, it's dim sum, Chinese everytime. My 9 year old grandson loves dim sum and especially joongzi. He'll go to McD's once in a while for a cheeseburger, prefers A&W for their onion rings, but given the choose, he'd choose dim sum (siu mai) and joongzi. He stayed with us last week while the parents were away. For supper, he ate 2 of my full-sized joongzi!

Sheena, Ah Leung has a pictorial on tofu puffs with minced fish: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=74885 As you mentioned you only had pork on hand, you could mince the pork with some waterchestnuts, green onion, seasonings, a little oil, cornstarch to bind, then stuff the tofu puffs. Pan fry according to Ah Leung's pcitorial. Or, I like to add the puffs to a sandpot recipe (chicken, mushrooms, etc) so it can soak up the juice and flavours.

Guess I won't be trying that place! ETA: My mother said she talked to someone there, and it's true that the cooks are the same, plus two new ones. The original owners sold because they wanted to retire. And the place was packed Friday at lunch. ← Well, I can't imagine taro spring rolls - powdery, dry... I imagine Kam Ho will be back in business now that they've had their holiday. My son's gf lives around that area and they are going to try it soon, as well as VS. As you enter Chinatown, the New Canton was the first of the restaurants on the left hand side of the street, before Shanghai, the now Golden terrace and Kum Koon. The building is still there, but I don't know how it is used. It was owned by my uncle Chan Bak. They had 2 sons, both named James! (James and Jimmy, actually) James owns Universal Enterprizes who produces beansprouts for Superstores, etc. I am ready for dim sum in Wpg!

Terrific show, Peter! I am still staggering from "visual foodfests" of your other blogs! Great job, Serena! Beansprouts and rice is one of my comfort foods, as are Panni potato dumplins. I use them as dumplings in stew - the only kind my family likes. I always have acouple of pkgs in my pantry - but a case!? I guess accessibilty is the problem. Your lamb looks great. Must get a tangine...must get a tangine... Congratualtions on your anniversary!

Ce'nedra: Beautiful looking shrimp! No pictures, but Chinese forum's Venerable Uncle Ben Hong from New Brunswick was here tonight. He and two American buddies are in the area upland bird hunting. He warned me about their coming, but I wasn't sure exactly when! Grandson is staying with us this week while his parents are in Las Vegas. Luckily, he requested joongzi for supper tonight, so I had pulled out a bag of 10 from the freezer. I was in the process of heating some up for supper when Ben called from a lake resort an hour away. So, we introduced his American buddies to homemade joongzi, gai lan and oyster sauce, Chinese beef meatballs, AND MOONCAKE! For first-timers, his buddies licked the bamboo leaves clean! We drank "Go San Cha" with our meal.

Holy Smokes! Was that Chan's Moon Room on Main Street? I remember seeing the place but never went in. What is now KKG was the restaurant New Nanking. Shanghai is still there, but does your Mom remember the New Canton? That was my uncle's restaurant. When I was "banished" to live with them (because I had a Caucasian bf - a no-no in the 60s - I married him!), I used to work there on the weekends. I don't remember any dim sum in those days. I think we had cheung fun at Double Greeting. I have gone to Foon Hai - for their hot'n'sour soup. Haven't been for some time. Creatures of habit, we are. We have been loyal to Ken's. He died a few years ago now. They have his picture at the front desk. I must try some of their dim sum items next time. Must also check out the frozen dim sum at Sun Wah. They have quite a selection, but I didn't realize Mrs. Chan? made them. One of the ladies who used to help her make them was a Mrs. Goh. She was from Brandon before she moved into the "new apartments" in Chinatown. When Grand Garden was still in operation,. Peggy used to have fresh cheung fun for sale. Frankly, I don't mind the ones shipped from Vancouver - Yeo's? Reheated in the microwave, splash of sweet soya, chili oil, and it'll do in a pinch! ETA: I want to meet your mother!

I don't think Ken's really serve dim sum - more like a few items a la carte. Can't remember how we found it, but it used to be on Edmonton before they razed everything to build Portage Place. We were blown away by the hot'n'sour soup the first time, and we've been going there ever since. Kitchen and wait staff have changed many times, and Ken has since died. But, Mrs. "Ken" is always there watching her TV, reading the newspaper, and eating melon seeds at a table at the entrance to the dining room. Next time in, I must check for the elusive xiaolong bao.

Yes. It was the Double Greeting on McDiarmid. It must have been around the late 70s when we used to go there with the kids. I think it was there that we first had fresh made-on-premise Chinese cruellers with jook. We were so thrilled to find them that everytime we went to Wpg, we'd make sure we'd stop there to buy a dozen to bring home. I remember the young woman who served us there. She had a little baby, and her mother would look after it while she served. You are right, they didn't have a large selection, but I think that was even before the larger restaurants served dim sum? But I could be wrong. I know they had rice rolls, jook and cruellers, but what else I can't remember. We went to HKSH acouple of times years ago, and we were not impressed either. Do you remember the little shop that made dim sum for sale in bulk? It burnt down when the Turkish baths caught fire. When we first started doing dim sum, we used to order from that shop - a tiny store front, 4 large freezer display cases, and 4 little old ladies gossiping and making sui mai, har gow, etc around a high counter in the "kitchen". We used to order sui mai, har gow, BBQ pork buns, warteep. I think she even had xiaolungbaos! The fire forced us to recruit our own little Chinese po-pos to help make our supply. Just thinking that Kam Ho should be opened again this week. I'll have to send the daughter there for a taste test! One item I wish someone in Wpg would make: xiaolungbaos. I heard that Ken's on Ellice made them, but I haven't been there for dim sum items. Do you know if they do? That was our usual restaurant for hot'n'sour soup at one time. I still like it there.

I didn't even realize the old Marigold had dim sum! Or do you mean the new restaurant in the old Marigold location? Daughter was at Victoria Seafood last weekend for dim sum. She said the flavours in the dumplings (didn't say which one) were better, but the rice rolls were sloppy and not great. Being a med student without Ah Momma's credit card, she liked the prices at VS better than KK. Can one of you ladies list all the places that do serve dim sum in Wpg? How about Hong Kong Snack House? Or Double Happiness on McDiarmid? We used to go there years ago and got to know the owners quite well. Then the change of owners turned us off when they served stale simmered chicken over rice. ETA: Rona. Can you ask your Mom if she thinks the wrappers on the potstickers are commercial? Does your mom mjake potstickers...with her own wrappers? I bought some Shanghai dumpling wrappers, but they are so small! I had a hard time making them with the amount of meat that I like in them, but they blistered and fried up nicely.

The taste of gai lan and oyster sauce goes very well with congee and century egg. They add crunch and saltiness. I also like chili radish with my congee, again for the crunch, salt and spices. But, gai lan is more substantial if you want to make a bigger meal without devouring 3 or 4 large bowls. As for pickled vegetables, I prefer the salty kind because congee is basically bland (the rice component) unless you add a lot of savory type ingredients: rehydrated dried scallops, oysters, etc) Somehow, sour doesn't seem right to me, but then, that might be the Toisanese/Cantonese influence. For our family, like yesterday's brunch with friends, we had congee (made with leftover rib bones from siu yook) with Chinese crueller, siu mai, har gow, potstickers, and a stir-fried mixed vegetables lettuce wrap. I guess that's like having salad with a meal.

It's their way of showing newly gained wealth, I suppose: "See! I can afford to throw away food 'cos I'm rich." I like the way some buffets are handling "overloading and waste: "Take what you like. Eat what you take. What you don't eat, you take it home, but you have to pay for it!" My mother has a slice of bread every night before she goes to bed. The crust is trimmed off, but she saves it to make bread crumbs. Funny thing tho'. I would use one tea bag to make 2 cups of tea ( dunk in one cup then the other), but she always insist on using one for each cup, not even saving it for refill.

Tallin is beautiful - like a story book town. Thank you for a great blog.

I like "real fresh" vegetables like gai lan and oyster sauce with my congee. And, Of course, Chinese cruellers! You can add dried shredded pork as well - jook see, and lots of cilantro, green onions.

I am usually pretty good about leftovers - lunch for next day. This is working out well this term as I stay at school everyday over lunch hour. I "try" to use up all the vegetables I buy. During the summer is difficult because I want to buy everything at the farmer's market. DH is not much of a veg. eater other than corn, so sometimes, I just cook all the bits of vegetables and eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. healthy, I guess. But, tonight, like acouple of other functions I have been to lately, I was appalled by the wanton waste of food - by newly arrived Chinese immigrants. Tonight was the Harvest Moon Festival social at the university. The food was cooked by volunteers, and served by our students. I saw men and women loaded down with platefuls of food. Some of them have little children - age 3, 4 and they were given huge plates of food - baos, dumplings, meat, veg. I thought, ok, it was just another plateful really for the parents. If they are THAT hungry, fine. BUT, I saw plates of food thrown into the garbage because both the parents and the children couldn't eat that much. How can one explain that, yes, this country offers many opportunity for plentiful, good, healthy food, but not to waste! I am sure they never did that in China. ETA: Just so readers don't think I am bashing Chinese people, I am Chinese. The non-Chinese guests didn't throw away any food. Is it just the newer generation?