I'm back. At least in mind!

Had a good week of "quiet time".

Also had a day off, a romantic dinner at the Pear Tree in Burnaby, and will be attending the annual BCFT (British Columbia Food Technologist) Suppliers Night tomorrow!

Have a great day and great week!

We all need a little break every now and then.

Be back in a couple.

Our cat passed away this weekend, and I'm just dealing with having an "empty" home as a result.

I miss Summer a lot, he was a great cat and just such a friendly guy. I regret not having the chance to say goodbye, but I know that he is having fun and chasing balls of yarn in kitty heaven with no vacuum cleaners, hair blow-dryers, or rustling plastic bags in sight.

Love you Sum Sum. I miss you all the time.

Recipe: Ketchup Prawns

I am sincerely glad that M and I have such varied tastes. Indian, fusion, Chinese, Italian, Greek, Japanese, Afghan - we've had it and we love it all.

As I've said before, I just don't get people who don't like food. Even as a child, I loved food - my favourite foods included my mothers' pillowy soft water-steamed eggs mixed into steamed rice, and steamed broccoli and cauliflower. Yes! I was a four-year-old who loved broccoli!

Since we've been living together for a while, various family and friends have been pushing us to get married, with the ultimate result of having children. I am all for getting married, and I am all for having children, but logically, I realize that our current financial states might not allow us to do this soon.

On an irrational level, part of me fears that I'll have children that don't like food! Or rather, what if they don't like my food? Or even worse, what if they have some crazy food allergy that doesn't allow them to enjoy all the foods that we enjoy???!

yes....my brain is like that.

I came across a Chopstick Recipe for Ketchup Prawns last night. Of course, I just *had* to make it. It conjured up memories of my mothers' ketchup prawns, with their sweet, vinegary and salty flavour - and after all, all kids like ketchup right?

Ahhh. Yes....one day my kids will like ketchup prawns. My ketchup prawns.

Ingredients
2 T oil
5 slices ginger
1 green onion, cut into 2" sections
1 shallot, sliced
3 garlic cloves, smashed



~1/2 pound black tiger shrimp (I used 21/25 sized shrimp, thus I ended up with about 12 good-sized shrimp), peeled and deveined

2 T cooking wine
1/4 c water
3 T ketchup
1 T vinegar
1 t sugar
1/2 t salt
pepper to taste
1/4 t cornstarch

Method
In a medium sized pan, heat oil over medium high heat. Saute ginger, garlic, shallot and onion until fragrant.

Add shrimp and cook for 2-3 minutes. Flip over; deglaise with cooking wine. Allow to reduce slightly, then add water, ketchup, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper to taste. Stir ingredients around in the pan until sauce thickens slightly and shrimp are cooked through (orange and no longer translucent). Dissolve 1/4 t of cornstarch in a teaspoon of water. Add to pan slowly, stirring until a thin glaze is formed.



Plate and serve.

I liked this, simply because it was kind of a nostalgic recipe. Although, if I were to do it over again, I'd make it more "adult" and add some piri-piri or Sambal Oolek hot sauce! (I'm kind of on a spicy sauce binge right now. Can you tell? :) I would also take out some of the sugar as I found it slightly sweet for my tastes (although I'm sure kids would LOVE the sugar), and I would also decrease the amount of water and cornstarch solution that I used. I'm just not a huge fan of cornstarch.

But. There you go. Nostalgic food.

Share

Review: Seri Malaysia (Hastings-Sunrise, Vancouver, BC)

Yes, I know this is a little late.

We had Seri Malaysia in the summer time, but that was simply take out - we enjoyed showing MB our "new" apartment and exposing him to some new experiences (the boy is super-sheltered and had *never* been inside a Chinese grocer. Wtf?! And he’s lived in the Greater Vancouver area for most of his life!)

So our first impression of Seri Malaysia (in the summer) was a definate hit; however, every weekend when we were in the area to grocery shop, we were dismayed to find that the restaurant was closed for the afternoon, or not open until the next day / later in the evening!



This weekend, we had the pleasure of actually eating in the restaurant. The decor is nothing too special, although there are some photographs and posters of Malaysia and some conical woven hats adorning the walls.

It appeared to be a two person show. There were two larger parties and two smaller ones finishing up their meals when we entered the establishment; they seemed to have enjoyed their meals and had food leftover to take home. Service to some could be a little faster, but we enjoyed how it was laid back, Malaysian style.

We ordered Beef Mee Goreng, and Quey Toew Rendang with Seafood, as well as the Beef Rendang for take out. We requested that the dishes be made to medium spiciness.

Both dishes were delicious, generous in portion, and each were garnished liberally with a shower of fried onions / shallots. These were tasty, and added to the complexity of each dish. Both M and I remarked that the portions were almost two to three times the size you get at other "Malaysian" restaurants in the Vancouver area, but at the same price!



We really appreciated the great flavour and the larger portions. Like I told M, "the bad part about Malaysian food, if there is a bad one, is that you can't stop eating it!" It was just so good!

Our bill came to less than $30 for three dishes (we had take out), and we tipped more than our usual amount - we want to come back to enjoy more meals!

We do plan on making Seri Malaysia part of our regular restaurant circuit, and we have recommended the restaurant to others.

Seri Malaysia

2327 East Hastings Street

Vancouver BC

Tel: 604-677-7555

Yummy, Dinner!

We went to Seri Malaysia and had a delicious lunch on the weekend. And, you know. Some goodies to go. (Malaysian food is SOOOOO good!)



From left to right, we have some steamed rice (M insists on making it - he made it a little soggy that night), beef rendang (and such a great deal! $11.50 for a large portion of meat stewed in delicious spices), and pepper sprouts (they were 99 cents for a large bag at Donald's Market, across the street from Seri Malaysia).

I sauteed the sprouts in a little bit of oil and half of a shallot, sliced. I also added some salt, pepper, and nutmeg.