Cooking at Home

I love the privilege of working in a big kitchen, and I mean anything bigger than the 90?! square feet one I have in my HK home. So on the eve before going to the land of scarcity (in space), I prepared my darling sister an early birthday dinner and feasted with my extended family. On the menu:

1.) Maple biscuits with Smoked Salmon tartare
2.) Deviled curry eggs
3.) Organic greens with pears, walnuts and dressed in blue cheese
4.) Maple glazed Salmon with oranges
5.) Baked gnocchi with Asiago cheese

And finished off with chocolate cake that is wholly decorated with skills learned from my latest escapade: Wilton's decorating courses 1 and 2.

I love cooking for my big skinny Chinese family. We show love by feeding and we reciprocate love by eating more. Almost every Chinese kid has the memory of their tiny eighty- two year old grandmother shoving something with her chopsticks into your rice bowl. May it be her famous dumplings, or store bought char siu.

Tonight, as I see my family around the dining table, listening to my cousin embellish her misadventures in Korea, I get that warm and fuzzy feeling of home. The laughs that cause a little spitting, the uncensored second helpings, the wine in whatever mismatched whiskey glass...so unsophisticated, so real, and so loved :)

Nothing like HOME cooking!

So I am spending ONLY one month vacation home...and hoping to keep weight gain at a minimum :) Food highlights so far...

1.) My mom made a bouillabaisse of sorts from the Cooking Light cookbook she purchased in honor of my arrival. It isn't the best or most original french fish soup ever, but it was DELICIOUS! I suppose 'cause my mommy made it and the whole family was there, chowing it down. And of course, we paired it with the family favorites- Little Caesar's pizza, crazy bread, and a bottle of revered Chardonnay that we bought from our wine tour last year.

2.) Now that I have friends who own gigantic homes, bbq and wine on the patio is one of my favorite things to do on hot summer days here in Vancity. Better yet, on a trip to Whistler at a friend's cabin, it truly felt like I was in a movie. You know, sitting around a HUGE dining table in a luxurious log cabin- eating, drinking and being merry with friends.

3.) I make a yearly pilgrimage to the Raincity grill with my good friend Brandy. The food is notoriously well prepared, the service delightful, and the atmosphere exquisite. However, given what is out there in Vancouver for the price point, the reason that I keep coming back is really the tradition of my annual date of catching up, drinking good wine and having a great laugh with Brandy;)

4.) Yes, I almost always across the border whenever I am home- to shop, to eat, and to be merry.
This year, for our annual family fun excursion, my sister suggested Seaside Oregon. I love eating in the US, there is something giddy about being served a gigantic portion of food and having the option of supersizing it. And when quality matches the quantity, that is when it gets dangerous :/

Indulge...

Ahh...summer break.

Time for lazy mornings and long lunches. I don't indulge nearly as much as I used to given the latest obsession with body sculpting and general well being. However, I am totally getting into the holiday spirit and once again, indulging in my gluttony delights...

Hmm... Some highlights:

1.) A Real American Burger

One of the best burgers around HK is at the American Club. It is juicy and flavorful...and for $80, you can have whatever toppings you desire. I had it with the mushrooms, grilled onion, and of course, good ole American cheddar cheese. Also, I cannot eat a burger without a beer, kinda like how I cannot eat dessert without coffee. So upon my friend's suggestion, got a Samuel Adams. Let me just tell you, there is this power from food- this lingering pleasure from just having indulged in one of the best burgers ever, that just keeps me satiated. Side note: my excitement could also be due to the fact that I have lived in Asia for far too long now that I oogle over a good burger.

2.) Leisure lunch at Lucy's.

I live in Stanley where the view is good and the restaurants are not. Ok, to be fair, they are not that bad, just not the kind of places where I EVER have a craving for. The one exception is probably Lucy's. I don't think the food there is exceptional, but it is very good, and I always feel like it is a treat going there because it is the best restaurant in Stanley, and atrocious to get a reservation at night. So my indulgent friend P. and I spent three hours having a divine noon time meal of velvety broccoli soup, risotto with plump chunks of salmon, and the most decadent toffee pudding (he had this delicious pavlova with cream and berries). The best part: catching up and not caring about the time :)

3.) Posh Cafe Gray

So amidst all this kerfuffle with moving and doing my Master's paper, I direly need to indulge and pamper a bit. So my two dear friends, J. and V. and I got decked out and enjoyed an early bird dinner at Cafe Gray. It has been far too long since I shove the diet, budget and other practical matters aside and just purely enjoyed a delicious meal with good friends. We drank loads of wine, nibbled on chocolates and, horror of horrors, emptied one bread basket after another. By the way, they make the most divine yoghurt dip to go with the bread. We all ate pretty much the same things: scallop on cold noodles, barramundi in Lavendar sauce, and the girls had the apricot tart while I lapped up the panna cotta. We all agreed that the scallops were nothing to write up about, but the barramundi was a sensuous dance of complex flavors on the palate. I normally don't like things like lavender in food items, but it really worked with the other spices to bring out the delicate flavors of the fish. We did what all great girlfriends gather to do: chat, laugh, eat and walked out of the restaurant 4 hours later :)