'Tis the season for morning glory

It never used to be so available in Chinese supermarkets, but in recent years, morning glory is fairly common when it's in season (right around now) in Toronto markets.  They are considered "special" in restaurants with corresponding special prices.  In reality, they sell for under $2 a pound and are surprisingly easy to make.  I made it a couple of times last year after I came back from a trip to Vietnam where it was "the" vegetable.  All I used was oil and soy sauce and it tasted great.
When I saw them this week at the local market, I bought some spicy fermented bean curd to make the veggie the traditional Chinese way - 腐乳通菜.

Morning glory, or water spinach (you'll recognize it by its hollow stems), tastes better than it looks. The hollow stems gave the impression that it might be chewy.  But cooked right, the stems are crisp and crunchy, contrasting nicely against the soft texture of the leaves.

After you've washed it, cut the leafy part from the stems and cut the stems up into 3 inch pieces.  Heat up oil in a pan - you may need to use a bit more oil than usual because morning glory likes oil! While oil is heating up, mash up 1-2 bricks of spicy fermented bean curd.  Add the bean curd to the hot oil and when you can smell the flavour, add the stems first.  Stir and mix the bean curd sauce with the stems until it's almost cooked (you can tell from the bright green colour), then add the leaves, a dash of sugar and stir some more.  A couple more minutes and it's done!  
Note:  No need to add salt or soy sauce as the bean curd is very salty as is.

Spicy fermented bean curd in a small jar

Spicy bean curd mashed up

Morning glory cut up with stems on top

Done - you can tell from the colour

First foray into Middle Eastern cuisine

Well, it's not the first time we've tried Middle Eastern food but the first time we have ventured into a restaurant serving it in Toronto.  We've visited Morocco and have served hummus forever at home but to taste it at an actual Middle Eastern restaurant is a first for us.  Our Summerlicious experience at Tabule was tasty and fun - from the water jug to the hanging lamp and quaint teapot, it was all a new experience.

The appetizer - a combination platter of humus, babaganuj, tabule and falafel served with chewy flatbread (I love it!) - was a meal in itself.  The falafel was delicious - I could have gone home then and not need anything more for the night.  But I had my eye on the dessert, the Knaffa Ashta, angel hair filo topped with custard and topped off with rosewater syrup.  So I stuck around for the skewered ground beef and lamb (nice sauce but the meat was a little overcooked).  It was served with tasty spiced rice and grilled veggies.  But truly, the highlight was the Knaffa Ashta, served warm - it was a heavenly dessert!

This is just a foretaste of what we might expect on our upcoming trip to Istanbul - a variation on similar themes, no doubt - substitute an "a" for an "e" and it's the same dish, almost...

Love that water jug!

Pickles

Combination platter of humus, babaganuj, tabule and falafel

Skewered chicken breast, tender and moist, served on rice and grilled vegetables

Kefta Banadura - skewered ground beef and lamb

Knaffa Ashta - angel hair filo topped with custard and topped off with rosewater syrup

Pork Belly - Popo's way

Pork belly has become increasingly popular in recent years particularly with the new generation of youthful foodies who are not cholesterol shy.   I recall from when I was growing up in Hong Kong that the best kind of pork belly was the "five layered belly" (五花腩) and this was especially a treat when you saw this cut on the roast pig sitting in the BBQ shop window.  These days, it's not as difficult to find this cut in North American supermarkets as it was 30 years ago.  When my mother (my children called her Popo) made braised pork then, she was stuck with pork shoulder if she wanted skin.  Now we have the luxury of choice.

I was thrilled to find a perfect sample of this "five layered belly" at the supermarket the other day - skin, fat, meat, fat, meat in five thin layers.  The way I cooked it is a combination of my mother's method and Mr. A's method of using Le Creuset in the oven.  My mother would let the pork braise on the stove for a couple of hours, turning it every half hour or so and in general fussing over it.  Mr. A's use of Le Creuset is more streamlined.

Start by dipping the pork in dark soy to colour the skin.  Then brown the skin in a heavy pan over medium high heat. Remove from heat when slightly brown.  Pour off any pork fat that has been rendered.  Heat up a tablespoon of vegetable oil in the Le Creuset pot and sauté garlic and a large chopped up onion.  Add red bean curd for flavour.  

Red bean curd comes in a ceramic jar as you can see below and easily available in Chinese markets in North America (and yes, even in San Jose). One and a half squares of this red bean curd, mashed up with a little bit of sugar added would be sufficient for this piece of pork belly.  Finally add high quality fermented soy sauce, dark soy and rock sugar. When the mixture is boiling add pork belly. Put the covered pot in a 300 degree oven for approximately two hours.  Flip over the pork belly at the half way mark.  It's done when you can easily insert a chopstick.  

For cholesterol shy people, cook the pork belly the day before so you can peel off that solid layer of fat over the sauce the following day.  Like most braised meat, the pork belly tastes better overnight.

"Five-layered" pork belly

Dipped in dark soy

Red bean curd

Braised in Le Creuset pot

The finished pork belly - five layers still visible

Winterlicious inToronto

I discovered this post in my draft folder from more than 6 weeks ago - something started but forgotten. It' seems a little late now since Winterlicious has long gone but it's not too late to look forward to Summerlicious in July, when you can try these restaurants again.

I love the idea of Winterlicious (and Summerlicious) in Toronto.  Restaurants offer a prix fixe menu for two weeks in the midst of winter (or summer) when business is usually slower.  Diners are enticed to try out new restaurants, especially expensive ones which may normally be beyond their reach.  It's a win-win situation.

I typically would try to get to a new restaurant every year but also would return to an old favourite. Pangaea is one that I go back to every year and it almost always live up to my expectations, including this year.  I also tried out Cafe Boulud and La Societé for dinners, both special occasion locales.

Cafe Boulud, after Daniel Boulud, provided an excellent winterlicious dinner  Although the menu didn't look very exciting, the food came out quite exceptionally well-prepared.  We had salmon and pot-au-feu.  Both were surprisingly different, especially the pot-au-feu which came with a delicious piece of bone marrow on the braised beef and three slices of pink flank steak.  The salmon came with brussels sprouts, exquisitely presented and prepared.  Appetizer scallops were okay but slightly overpowered by the cream sauce.  Game hen terrine was interesting and well-presented.  Pear chocolate cake dessert was delicately flavoured.   Service was attentive - overall a four star meal.

Scallops in cream sauce

Game hen terrine

Salmon with a difference

Pot au feu with bone marrow topped by a piece of flank steak

Pear chocolate cake

   

As expected, lunch at Pangaea was excellent.  I have never had a bad meal at Pangaea and I have eaten there for the past fifteen years.  It was one of the first local food restaurants and still did a superb job of it.  The beef carpaccio was delicious although the presentation was a little scattered.   The roast leg of lamb was perfectly done and I love the rosemary barley.  

Beef carpaccio

Roasted leg of lamb on creamy gorgonzola and rosemary barley

Dark chocolate cake

This was my first time at La Societé - I like the decor although it was a tat too dark.  The braised short rib looked and smelled excellent on other tables so all three of us ordered it - we were not disappointed. It was tender and flavourful, with the meat easily detaching itself from the bone with a nudge of the fork. The warm chocolate cake was the best of the three chocolate cakes I tasted over Winterlicious - possibly because of the temperature.   And yet this is the restaurant that I would least likely return to because the service was indifferent.  It was generally okay but compared poorly to the service at Cafe Boulud where the staff seemed to be the best trained and the most attentive of the three restaurants.  

Braised short rib

Warm chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream

Celtuce - spring veggie

First week of spring after a long winter - it's timely to think about spring vegetables.  I discovered celtuce (篙筍) last year and thought it a nice change from asparagus and the usual spring vegetables.  Celtuce is also called celery lettuce or asparagus lettuce, and is apparently a very popular vegetable in China.  This is what it looks like in the supermarket.  .

The first time I saw the celtuce, I asked a woman who was picking through the pile how she cooks it.   It was great practice for my mandarin as that was the only thing she spoke.  So with a combination of hand signs and half-understood mandarin, I was able to figure out how it's done.

So what do you do with this stick sitting on your counter?

With a sharp knife, slice off the skin side ways, holding on to the top of the celtuce so you don't cut yourself

With skin removed, it's just a matter of cutting it up into chunks or slices.  I cut mine into half inch slices for stir-frying.

While the celtuce is crisp, it can be a little bland.  I would use it mostly for texture and add other vegetables beside it for contrast and flavour.

The lotus root is a good companion as it is even more crisp than the celtuce and it's a different colour.

Peel off skin with a potato peeler.  Cut off the ends.

Slice cross-wise to get the half moon shape

Stir fry the celtuce and lotus root in hot oil. Season to taste with salt and pepper or a dash of fermented soy sauce.  I usually add red peppers and king mushrooms for contrast in colour and texture. This would make a great backdrop for stir-fried shrimp.

 

Food in Taipei

Our first stop after we checked into our hotel in Taipei was the famous Din Tai Fung.  We've tried the famous pork dumplings at the Toronto branch before it closed and found it mediocre at best.  But we were told we have to try it at the Michelin starred original flagship store on Yong Kang Street in Taipei, and so we did.  It was indeed excellent.  I subsequently learned that each dumpling had to have exactly 18 folds at the top to give it the right consistency when one bit into it.  I just counted the folds on the dumplings in my photo - there were indeed 18 folds!

We also ordered drunken chicken and braised pork but we were most impressed with the noodles in meat sauce (炸槳麪), a dish that I remembered from childhood and thought I would never find a place that could duplicate what I had, having ordered them wherever I visited in North America and Hong Kong.  But I found it here in Din Tai Fung.  It was worth the wait!

Al dente noodles in meat sauce that tasted "just right"!

The Din Tai Fung main branch - a very busy main floor that didn't look like a restaurant, with takeout orders and kitchen - guests waited outside on the street; waiting time was noted on an LED board; ushers organized and assigned tables on the upper floors with military precision.

As we were just around the corner from the night market, we decided to explore it right after dinner, which was a mistake as we were really too full to try anything.  But it was an eye-opener at least to see the night market in action.  

What were these people lining up for?

                                                                         

                                                                Scallion pancakes!  

I tried one the following day - layers of flakiness...mmm...

Local oysters ready for making into oyster pancakes (below)

Street dinner...looked yummy!

Restaurant dinner - even yummier!  (Thanks to my cousin for this delicious meal at the Howard Plaza which started with crispy Peking duck)

Grilled yams!  They tasted even better when eaten on the street!

Charcoal grilled dried squid on the way to Golden Falls outside Taipei

More street food on our last day in Taiwan when we travelled to Jiufen, an old town about an hour from Taipei.    Coming up on Travelswithrarecat