Saturday, July 25, 2009

Pictures!

Some more pictures of recent delicious things I ate:

Potato and Chicken Flautas @ Maria Gallos in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico trip:
They're like little fried enchiladas. I got 2 stuffed with a savory potato mixture, and two with shredded chicken, topped with a sour cream sauce and cabbage. It was the most "authentic" thing I had while in Mexico, from this really cute cafe called "Maria Gallos". The chef was originally from PV but studied cooking in San Francisco and worked around the US before returning back to PV to open his own restaurant. It's located 2 blocks from his grandmother's restaurant, which we went to for dessert afterwards.


Fish Fajitas @ Pepe's in Mexico:
Pepe's is a famous Mexican restaurant for tourists in PV. It's a bit over the top, though not to the extreme of Senor Frogs. The wall has a huge slogan painted inside that reads "Don't drink the water, drink a margarita!" Right when we arrived and were seated, a man came around with a hysterical laugh and a tray toting guacamole making-stuffs. He made delicious guacamole table-side, which we tipped him $6 for. I ordered fish fajitas, and was given an American-sized serving of food. The fish was a bit dry, but all together, it tasted pretty good. So much food, but was good because I had downed a large Margarita on the rocks right before. :)


Shanghai dumplings @ Shanghai River Restaurant in Vancouver, BC:
This is our favorite place to go for a snacks-dinner in Canada. The Shanghai dumplings are a famous dish. Little delicate dumplings that encase pork and soup. When you bite into it, the soup gushes out, so you must be experienced in eating it. What I do is take a tiny bite, and then slurp out the soup, then spoon in tasty black vinegar and ginger slivers. It's delicious. I ate 20 of them while in Shanghai at the Yuyuan Garden where they are famous :) Too bad it's way cheaper there, 20 for about 2 dollars. Here it's like 8 for $10. The side dishes here are a green onion pancake and glass noodles and chicken in a peanut sauce.


Salmon sashimi on top of an avocado roll @ Shabusen in Vancouver, BC:
Our other favorite restaurant to visit is Shabusen, where we get all you can eat sushi and Korean bbq. This is one of my sister's ingenious ideas- we ordered a bunch of salmon sashimi and avocado rolls and topped one on the other. It's the of both worlds, delicious salmon and avocado. And all you can eat! The Korean bbq is also delicious.


Lastly, more HOT POT! :) @ home:
One of my favorite meals! Using "Little Sheep" soup base we buy in Canada, hot pot is a delicious feast. Don't remember if I've written about it before. But it's basically like Chinese fondue - you dip foods into hot bubbling broth and then eat them right after. This time we had a lot of mushrooms (enoki, shitake, button, etc), pan fried taro, meat balls, sliced pork and beef, yam noodles, tofu, and other good stuff I can't remember. Usually we use a dipping sauce of sesame oil, cilantro, and minced garlic. So you can tell what we had for dinner the night before if you see one of us with crazy garlic the next day.


That's it for now!
- Belinda

Back Again...

I've been reading more food novels lately, my favorite being The Sharper Your Knife, The Less You Cry, by Katheleen Flinn. She's actually a local journalist from Seattle, who writes about a mid-life crisis that led her to going to Le Cordon Bleu, the imfamous cooking school in Paris. [She's also making an apperance at Bumbershoot with Tom Douglas Sept. 5th!]

Now I've started to read Julie and Julia, by Julia Powell, which incidentally is coming in theathers in August with Amy Adams and Meryl Streep. Julie attempts to make every single one of Julia Child's dishes from Mastering The Art of French Cooking. And Julia Child rox my sox. Must finish book before movie comes out. I feel more inspired to cook and experiment, so hopefully this blog will become more utilized. [Watching The Brady Bunch Movie... it's hilarious! Those kids are so dumb.]


Just a note: cooked avocados are not so tasty. I made a breakfast scramble by sauteing onions, then adding eggs, basil, rosemary, and cilantro from my garden, and decided to throw in some diced avocado into the pan. The warmed texture just makes the avocado lose it's tastyness. I think because avocado is so soft, it sort of just melts into the background, and tastes a bit like cheese with that softened warm texture, and rich buttery taste. Next time I'll just add the avocados on top after everything is cooked.