Pho Viet, the rendez-vu

So you know when there are things that trigger memories? Like a perfume would bring you back to the days and items would rewind some bad memories, well this place was the "rendez-vu" place for me and my boyfriend. I really wanted to get myself some yummy pho in my tummy and I know that my boyfriend doesn't like the one I usually go to because he thinks its dirty. This was the place he brought me the second time we met up and i still remember which table we were sitting in, but we didn't get to sit in the same table. I was really looking forward to the soup, which is the best part and what makes or breaks a good pho place. Sorry guys, i forgot to take a picture of the front of the restaurant but the address is 8291 Westminister highway (at Cooney Road) in Richmond, British Columbia (Canada of course :). This place is really quaint but it was very clean. I love the wall color which was green, my favorite color! LOL The funny thing was that there are random posters which really amused me, espically a random puppy staring at me eating but I don't mind. The really funny thing I found was the "weekly special". Why is it funny? Its because this weekly special is the special for the past 11 monthes LOL and I'm pretty sure it was the weekly special for even before that. My boyfriend ordered this, which was also what he got the second time we met :). Someone is ready to eat :). Hehe look at those dimples! So cute!! My cutey bear :DDD. Sorry, I know...for those that are reading this might be already barfing by now from all my puppy love talk. So this is what the large bowl looks like. its actually really big compared to my small bowl. If i was to estimate the bowl size, it would be about 12 inches in diameter? And the small bowl would be about 9 inches in diameter.

This is the "weekly special" which comes with a beefy soup broth base but I really couldn't tell because by the time I went to try some of his, he already put all the condiments LOL. YUMMY? The noodles are regular pho rice noodles paired with some beef brisket which was AMAZINGLY tender and flavourful. My mouth is watering right now :'(. If i was to grade this bowl of noodles, I'd say B+ for $6.79 CAD

I got the #18 (I believe its that number), the one with chicken, meatballs and quail eggs. I kind of regret getting a chicken one because the chicken was quite tough and dry. Why did I get chicken at a pho place? Because it was something different. Never again ! The chicken was the only part that I didn't like but the soup broth was really good. I can taste that it was really pure and they didn't add any enhancing magic (MSG). The meatballs was really good too and I'd rather just get the meatballs. The qual eggs, ehh not really something I'd expect because the yolk was really...oily? When I cook quail eggs at home, the yolk is just like a chicken egg but this one was somewhat liquidy and oily. For $6, not bad and the price is very resonable. My verdict, B-. The most interesting thing my boyfriend ordered was something called the "Egg soda" (aka. Bird's Nest drink) which is a sweet drink made from egg yolk, sweetened condensed milk and club soda. This was the first time I tried it and was really surprised. I did not expect it to be...so interesting? I don't i know if I like it because I'm not used to it at all but its certainly really interesting. You get the creamyness from the egg yolk but it is very subtle. The sweetness of the condensed milk makes it really yummy but then theres the surprising hit of bubbles from the club soda. I think I'll have to try this again to see if I do really like it. I don't know how much this was because my boyfriend ordered it >_<.

My new baking textbook just came!

So on Feburary 13, I placed an order on book depository for my on baking textbook. This is the baking version of the cooking textbook i normally use and what all cooking schools use here in Canada (well in British Columbia, i don't know about other provinces in Canada). I love the On cooking textbook by Sarah R. Labensky so i naturally wanted to get the other version to extend my knowledge. I'm more of a cooking person becaues I don't like to wait a whole day to finish something and with baking, thats what you have to do. First off, i don't really like the way they packaged my book. I was thinking that it would come in a box with bubble wrap and everything but i guess it didn't :(. It was only packaged with thick-ish cardboard on the outside and thin cardboard thats glued together on the inside. Not a big fan of that but my book came fine.

This order actually came really fast. Out of all the online orders I have done in my entire life, this was the fastest! And it came from United Kingdom! From the time i ordered I know I'm kind of a neat freak and i couldn't help to notice but almost 1/3 of my textbook, the papers came a little bent. I wish it wasn't like that and it somewhat bothers me but oh well. I'll deal with it :'( <>So how much was this textbook? $104.60 CAD!!Omg why are textbooks so stupid expensive. If they had an e-book version of this, i'd rather go out and buy an Ipad. This is the actual cheapest price I could find. Even Amazon was $117. I found this amazing site where you type in either title, subject, author or type of book and it would search the would internet and give you choices like "used, good, decent" and the prices. I love this site :D.


The link is right here : http://www.gettextbooks.com/

Wow i just checked the website where i got the textbook and they raised the price to $116.70. What....... That means its basically the same thing as Amazon. Lameee~~ But they do offer free shipping on any order for international orders. But anyways, heres the site.

http://www.bookdepository.com/

This book inculdes a Visual guide, 20 chapters (Professionalism, tools and equipment for bakeshop, principles of baking, bakeshop ingredient, mise en place, quick breads, artisan and yeast breads, enriched yeast breads, laminated dough, cookies and brownies, pies and tarts, pastry and dessert components, cakes and icing, custards/ creams and sauces, ice cream and frozen desserts, healthful and special-needs baking, torte and specialty cakes, petits fours and confections, restaurant and plated desserts and chocolate and sugar work). In the back of the book, it has measurement and conversion charts, fresh fruit availablity chart, volume formula, templates, glossary and all the other boring stuff.

What I like about this textbook is that it is very detailed about every single little thing and it has history on subject that you would be like huh? There's also recipes in it too :D. Its a great overall book and is very well rounded. I would reccommend this book to anyone that wants to know more about pastries.

Sushi night at home :D

Who needs to go out to eat when you know how to cook! I love the fact that it is cheaper do stuff yourself, espically if you learn the skill of cooking. No you don't have to be a professional at cooking but it is nice to know the basics so when it comes time to cooking something in your day, it won't be a stressful thing but a fun thing. Today I was hanging out with my boyfriend at home and we had DIY sushi making :D. It turned out great and we had a lot of fun!California style sushi with tomago, salmon and cucumber sprinkled with toasted seasame seeds.

Tomago recipe:
3 eggs
1 teaspoon soy sauce
2 teaspoon sugar

1)Whisk the eggs really well and then add the sugar and soy sauce.
2) Heat your non-stick pan on medium to low heat and add a generous amount of oil to the pan.
3) Pour a light amount of egg onto pan and swirl the egg around the pan to let it cook. Flip it and let it cook for a little bit and start to layer.
4) Roll the egg gently from one side to the other. Don't break it! Turn off the heat.
5) Put egg into plastic wrap. The egg should be in a roll. Wrap the plastic wrap and cover the egg. This will continue cooking the egg on the inside and also give it the shape.
6) Cut it up into half an 1 cm thick pieces or however you want.

Wasabi Fishie :D with pink ginger roses.Salmon and tuna Makizushi (巻寿司)Salmon sashmi with cucumber, washabi, katsuobushi (dried bonito (type of fish) shavings; same stuff they put on top of the takoyaki), nori flakes and Onkonomiyaki sauceSushi cone (Temakizushi) with everything and then some~

So that's it and it only took about and hour or too. We were watching food network too so we kind of got distracted.

Word of advice when making sushi:
-Cover the whole seaweed sheet with rice
-Leave an inch of space from the top of the seaweed so when you roll it, the sushi will seal properly
-Pack the rice so that it won't be all loosey goosey
-Don't put wayyy too much rice. Put about 3 mm of rice and spread it real good :D.

Spring mixed composed salad

So the other day at work, i was making ten of these for a banquet and boy was this a pain in the ass to do. I can't imagine how long it would take to make 100 or 200 portions of these! What i did with this salad was slice a whole cucumber with a slicer really thinly, almost paper thin so that i could wrap the spring mix. Next i hand bunched different leaves from the spring mix we had and mixed a little bit of frisee. I wrapped all of this little leaf bouquet with the cucumber and placed two of them like a X on the plate.

Beside the bouquet is a simple mixture of cherry tomato sliced in half, then tossed with fresh chives, olive oil and salt and pepper. On the other side is caramelized pear and is topped with some candied pecans. We paired it with some apple cider vinaigrette. Sadly i didn't get to eat it but this is one of my favorite dish i made at work.

Hope you enjoy the eye candy :).

Welcome :)

Welcome to my new food blogging blog. Lol that was funny to say. Anyways a little bit about myself. I love food and the romance simple. I remember when i was a kid and was watching my mom make food in the kitchen and she's the kind of women that loves to experiment and make new types of food. I always wanted to help but my mom would just push me away. I would just do simple things like sifting flour and such but when she's at work and me and my sister are at home, i would be the one cooking on the stove. Yes I was cooking with the stove when i was about eight or something because my sister can't cook if her life depended on it. I remember there was this once where she wanted to cook gyoza and the kitchen started smoking because she forgot turned the wok on and well yea, pan over heated and i had to come save the day. Kept in mine I'm the younger one so yeaaaa. That day on, i was the one that would be the one cooking.

Anyways right now I'm working at a hotel in Canada and I work in the garde manger section but i also an entremetir. I'm certainly a student aiming to earn my Red Seal.


Well i hope you guys will enjoy my blog but let me warn you not to read if your hungry because the pictures i will show you will make you drool :). Peace out for now.