New Year's at Dim Sum Dynasty

For Chinese New Year, we had a banquet style meal at Dim Sum Dynasty (of course) with four table's worth of people! At our table sat my family and some of my friends. The other tables were filled with my dad's co-workers. Ok ok, so it was more like we joined the bash that they wanted. ;) While it was pretty good, I admit that the food is no longer as great as it once were. I'm no longer awed by what the food and the presentation. Well, better than nothing, but what really counted was the company. I enjoyed the great time had with my family and great friends more than the food. The food was quite the afterthought. It was very nearly non-stop laughter, and before I knew it, people were leaving and the restaurant was preparing to close for the evening. On to the food!

Roasted Pig which they don't make themselves. We get ours from a place that makes better roasted pig than the one they chose. Oh well...

First Course-Cold dish with the roasted pig, thin-sliced beef, jelly fish and fish cake

Second Course-Pork with Onions, a perennial favorite

Third Course-Fried Shrimp w/ Mayo & Walnuts w/ Side of Fried Tofu-one of my all-time favorites

Fourth Course-Shark Fin Soup (Lacking in shark fin and taste while being too thick.)

Fifth Course-Fat Choy w/Dried Scallops & Dried Oysters (tasteless)

Sixth Course-Crispy Chicken

Seventh Course-Twin Lobster in Ginger and Scallion Sauce-a standard dish to get

Eighth Course-Steamed Whole Fish-a bit overcooked but otherwise good

Ninth & Tenth Courses were a Fried Rice and a Longevity Noodle (E-fu Noodle with crab meat). Pictures of those is just too boring.

Eleventh Course-Fruit Platter with Mango Pudding and Whipped Cream (fruit was great)

Twelfth Course-Sweet Red Bean Soup with Sesame-filled Sweet Rice Dumplings (mmm!!)

Ok, I thought there were supposed to be 13 courses, but I don't remember what else was eaten then. All of these pictures except the pig were taken by one of my friends who is a great photographer. Many thanks for the great shots. Better than my food pics. =P

Guinness Adventures in the Kitchen *hic* Continue!

I needed bread to go with the Guinness mussels dish (and just for eating too) so why not a Guinness bread? This recipe was super easy to put together and it puffed up amazingly probably due to the leavening agent as well as all that carbonation! And just like all the other Guinness dishes, it smelled great while baking. For the true test, did it taste good? Actually, it did! However, there was a bit of bitter aftertaste most likely due to my using the Extra Stout. It has a super crunchy crust that has a flavor reminiscent of a cracker. =P The bread itself is soft, a bit crumbly and very robust tasting. I'd call it a hearty bread which when slathered with butter...mmmm...Smothering it in different types of goo made it more difficult to taste the bitterness.

Update: I remade this bread using regular Stout Guinness and it had no bitter aftertaste, though it was not as hearty and robust in flavor. Still good! And tastes great toasted too. =9~

New Yeah Shanghai, NYC

I was in Chinatown and decided to try out a restaurant I'd heard good reviews for. New Yeah Shanghai is located at 65 Bayard St. Nearly next door is another Shanghainese restaurant that also received good reviews. What we ate:

Shanghai Fried Dough. I thought it was those white buns that you can order in a fried version, but it wasn't. It's what I've seen and eaten before called Haw Fu or something like that. It was ok, but I found it way too oily. I liked that it was not that salty, but it was lacking in flavor. The spices seemed concentrated in the mushrooms while the gluten was bland.

Scallion pancake-Again, just ok. It was way too salty for me though nicely crisp on the outside while rather soft on the inside. Not quite my style for these, though I've had similar ones. What bothered me about these in particular was how the soft innards stuck to my teeth. I like the flakey kind. =9~

Soup dumplings-Also only ok. The meat was very juicy with plenty of soup but the skin was not thin enough. Too bad they were steamed on paper instead of the traditional cabbage leaf.

Pea Shoot version of Soup dumplings-A meatless version that was interesting. I found it very oily tasting inside. Unfortunately, the skin was way too thick. The filling included mushrooms, but mostly was chopped up pea shoots. The flavoring was not bad at first, but the more I ate it, the more I found it too salty. Overall, not bad but I would most likely not order this one again.

Tung-Po Pork-I'd heard many rave reviews for this dish and it really was very good. The meat was very tender and the fat was all rendered out. The slab of pork butt was served with a thick, white dough-like pancake along with some really good bok choy on the side of the dish (edible garnish?).



Red Bean Pancake/Crepe dessert-Not bad. The "crepe" outside was fried a bit toooo hard. I liked the inside as it was not overly sweet. I prefer Joe Shanghai's version with its crunchy outer skin and softer underlayer. This one did not have such a nuanced outer texture.

My conclusion is that for soup dumplings and scallion pancakes, I would go to the restaurant in Flushing where you can see the master chef make each dumpling fresh! Amazingly good. I'm rather disappointed with this place especially after hearing about the good reviews. =( Or perhaps the place in Flushing has spoiled me? ;)

Makings of a Guinness Fest

I've been experimenting with some dishes that use a good chunk of Guinness in preparation for a meal coming up with some friends. =9~ I started off with two dishes to try and possibly tweak. The first on the list was the typical must have, Beef and Guinness Pie. A classic dish that is well loved by all. It's not particularly hard to make, but just time consuming. The long cooking time, though, means the meat becomes incredibly tender while scenting the kitchen with the rich, malty scent from the Guinness. After the stew part was all cooked up, it looked unctuous and ready for a winter, stick-to-your-ribs meal. This definitely falls under the category of your favorite grandma's comfort food. ;)


Portioning the stew into individual ramekins that were topped with pre-made puff pastry was a breeze. That flaky topping really turned this home-cooked dish into restaurant fare...at least for the eyes. ;) Unfortunately, my excitement at seeing the end product lead me to forget to photograph it.

The other dish I tried out was Mussels in Garlic & Guinness. This too smelled delicious while cooking up, but ended up with an unbearable bitter aftertaste since I used the Extra Stout version which is extra bitter. =P Otherwise, the sauce was quite tasty with the mussels. It also cooks up quite quickly too. I think it took longer to clean and debeard the mussels than it did to cook and eat them. ;) As I didn't have any white bread of any form in the house at the time to sop up the sauce, I went searching for some sort of replacement. Let's see...raisin croissant bread...ice cream wafer cones...salt and pepper Kettle chips...or tortilla chips. Great options, eh? Safest bet seemed to be the tortilla chips. Turns out to have tasted great with the corn chips! It gave me an inkling as to why beer tastes great with salted crunchies like potato chips. =9~ Or are the chips there to make you thirsty and buy more beer?

Onigiri! Girigiri!

I bought some mentaiko the other day wanting to make onigiri, those tasty balls of rice wrapped in seaweed with fillings of your choice. Finally, I got around to making a quickie lunch out of them! Boy, talk about playing with your food! First time I tried (months ago) to make them was a disaster. While they were easier to make this time (found a new technique), I still need to tweak my method a bit for more uniform filling dispersion. I don't like it *all* in the middle but a bit more spread out though that's the way I usually find it. I also found my rice on the bland side. Onigiri I've purchased has what seems to be slightly flavored (salted?) rice? I'm not sure what...just not so bland even when eaten without the filling and just seaweed.


I was able to just about make 4 onigiri as I didn't make enough rice. Only two stomachs to feed, and I didn't want leftovers. Two had a salted olive leaf filling (one of my favorite "pickles" to eat):


One had the mentaiko (spicy cod roe) with Kewpie mayo which is one of my favorite onigiri fillings. I definitely didn't put enough in though:


And the last one had pieces of cha shu (aka char siu aka bbq pork). This one sort of fell apart as it was being eaten, hence no pics. It truly was a quick meal to make and eat and certainly smelled and tasted better than play-doh. I'd love to have a lunch/dinner onigiri theme where all the potential fillings are on the table and the diners make their own. What fun! And what a mess. ;)

Some fillings I'd like to try in the future both traditional and not so traditional: unagi (roasted eel), sake (salted salmon), kimuchi (kim chi), curry whatever, other bbq or grilled meat/fish, seaweeds, japanese pickles, soy-sauce simmered hard-boiled egg, spicy raw tuna, chinese sausages, avocado, spicy roasted eel, spam, spam and egg, canned tuna with soy sauce, bonito flakes with soy sauce, marinated tofu, flavored seitan, fish/pork floss (aka fish/pork sung) ....ah, the possibilities are endless!! Next time, maybe I'll try toasting the whole onigiri! =9~ That's actually best for leftover onigiri...baste it with some soy sauce first...mmm...

Toad in the hole

Another trip to England! This is actually my second attempt at 'Toad in the Hole' which I first had in England when my mates cooked it up for us. What? You ate toads? What is this? Basically, it's yorkshire pudding baked up with sausages peeking out. My first attempt was made with too much oil and too much time in the oven which resulted in a bit of a burnt mess. In the meat version, I used Irish bangers from Whole Foods which turned out to be too salty and not authentic tasting enough. The vegetarian version were made with some veg sausages that were ehhh. I forget the brand now. For the batter from Jamie Oliver, I had split the mixture between the two using only half the amount of sausages for each version.

On this try, I got me some Cumberland sausages from Myers of Keswick in Greenwich Village, NYC. Now those puppies are authentic! For the vegetarian version, I used some German style (not bratwurst) Smart Dogs. After a chat with really nice guy behind the counter at Myers about my fiasco last time, he suggested I try Goldenfry's brand of Yorkshire Pudding mix which was quite popular. Ok, why not since the last one came out so beautifully black. So the prepackaged mixed was used with the Cumberland sausages while the veg sausages got the 'from scratch' treatment. I decided to try the recipe in my British cookbook: Great British Cooking.

The verdict? Ahhh...the verdict. The box mix of Yorkshire pudding was incredibly salty. Unbelievably salty! The sausages were excellent though and infused with herbs. It smelled mouth-wateringly good as it fried up in the pan, and then while baking in the oven. The pudding puffed up beautifully (unlike the previous attempt) but was still slightly on the oily side which was my fault. I was afraid the oil (fat really) that oozed out from the sausages would not be enough so I added some olive oil to compensate. Oops! The vegetarian version was a reversed version of the meat one where the sausages were horribly salty but the pudding was better tasting (than the last time that is) and there wasn't enough oil. =P The pudding wasn't fabulous, but way better. It was quite eggy in taste and puffed up great on the sides, but not quite in the middle. So far, none of the pudding versions have recreated what I had taste in England. =( And how to uniformly puff the pudding up? Interestinly enough, both versions did not have the sausages "hiding" in the pudding whereas the first attempt, they did as they should.

Perhaps the next attempt will be the winner. =D The strategy to make that happen? Use those sausages from Myer's again! Make yorkshire pudding on it's own (maybe make the typical roast to go with it) to get that down pat. Find better vegetarian sausages or use marinated tofu or even marinate my own. I'm tired of how all the vegetarian 'soy-based' meatless meats are vessels for sodium. Yuck. If not for this dish, I don't even touch the stuff anymore.

As for my experience at Myer's, it was a long awaited trip to check them out. Previously, I'd gone to a Brit shop in Montclair (London Food Company) which was fun, but I'd heard rave reviews of authenticity for Myer's sausages and other pre-made goods like Cornish Pasties (yum!!!), sausage rolls (mmm!), Scotch eggs (must haves!) and various pies. All very yum and found in a nice little shop with friendly folk and pretty good variety in the dry goods department. =9~ It was most definitely well worth the trudge into the city on a very sleet-peling, slushy (unplowed streets!!), windy and bitterly cold day. It's also very easy to get to by subway. This place is highly recommended! The Montclair shop will tide me over for the most part though until my next visit to Myers. =) I really don't understand why British food gets such a bad rap. I did not encounter any bad food while there. On the contrary, all the native food was delicious and the international food was phenomenal!

Meat version

Vegetarian version

Taste of 'ol England

I had a hankering for a taste of England again so I made fish pie! Granted, I only had a fish pie from Sainsbury's in the form of "Fisherman's Pie" described as: White fish in a parsley sauce with real potato topping. Nevertheless I still wanted a walk (no matter how short) down memory lane especially since my fish pie resulted in a silly venture brought about from a lack of refrigeration. That's right, I bought a single serving, pre-made box of fish pie for dirt cheap (88p). I had no fridge, but being April, the temps were still a bit on the chilly side so I resurrected my college technique of putting food outside the window. Though I did have those mini-fridges, the freezers on those suck, and I didn't want to lose my food in the communal fridges. Boston's winters, though, usually sufficed as a freezer when needed in a pinch. =) In the dorms, I would put stuff between the window and the screen. My windows in London had no screen but did have a bit of ledge though it was on the 2nd floor. =O My food better not fall off! ;) I also put my cheeses, pies and pasties out there too. It's a good thing I don't do meat! =P Well, I haven't killed (or sickened) myself with food poisoning yet.

Wait! So what is fish pie you ask? Something with a crust like chicken pot pie? Nope! It's like...sheperd's pie but with fish...and a white sauce, not a brown one. That didn't help? Ok....so it's fish with some veg in a white sauce completely topped with a layer mashed potato like a shepherd's pie. Can you picture it? No? Just read on and check out the yumminess I successfully created. Woo hoo! Back to *my* fish pie. Was it authentic? It didn't taste like my supermarket version, but who cares! It was pretty darned good!

I started with a roux for the white sauce. I was a bit nervous since the last time I made a roux, it turned out awful. I guess I had just enough experience under my belt because it came out tasting great this time!! For the fish, I used a whole fillet of Japanese sea bass which is new to our local supermarket and hence on sale. I added some frozen peas, a bit of chopped bell pepper and onions and voila, I had the makings of a quick and tasty meal for two (though it supposedly serves one). I topped it all off with some mashed potatoes I quickly whipped up from scratch. Mmm!! One problem was that I was in a rush so I over salted both the white sauce and the mash. Yikes! Nevertheless, it was still good. I can't wait to make this one again! Actually, I'm going to see what happens if I add a bit of Guinness to it. I'm worried about the bitterness with the delicate flavor of the fish. Also, would it be too robust for such a generally mild sauce? If it works, though, I will add this to my Guinness-themed meal to occur next month for some good friends. =)

Instant Fun

I bought some instant curry udon noodles the other day from Mitsuwa. This one is soup based (versus the sauce covered noodles). I had never had instant udon, only fresh or dry noodles. As I opened the packaging, I was fascinated by the design of the bowl so much so that I had to share! I neglected to photograph the underside of the lid which had the cut out for the foil. Amazing! The thought and engineering that went in to a mere bowl of noodles! There were three packets in the bowl: the curry powder with dessicated scallions, a liquid seasoning pack (soy mix of some sort), and a pack with tempura balls, dessicated carrots and pork "jerky". Yes! Real meat!

I had high hopes for something tasty as this packet seemed quite elaborate! At the very least, there are more steps than the casual cup o' ramen. As it turned out, the 'instant' udon was actually 'fresh' but sealed in a plastic bag. In order to get the stove-like preparation of other fresh or frozen udon, boiled water was required to heat up the noodles and which was then subsequently removed through the included foil strainer that caught the noodles like a kangaroo pouch. It worked like a charm and was incredibly effective at preventing spillage. Afterwards, I removed the foil strainer, added the 3 included packs and fresh hot water.

Straining the Noodles

Time to Eat!

The verdict? Well, the soup was thick...too thick really and the curry flavor was inferior in but passable. Strangely, the noodles had a slight sour note to it...no doubt partly due to the preservatives to keep it fresh yet unrefrigerated. I wouldn't buy it again, but it was definitely a fun experience nevertheless! =)