The Brûlée Blog

The older I get, the more I’m noticing that foods I always thought of as ordinary are becoming hot fads.

I first noticed this with ginseng. At first it was just a root that my mother used to force me to drink in a tea form when I had a cold. Now it seems like it’s in every health drink on the store shelves!

And then green and white tea. The Chinese have drunken tea for centuries. To be honest I don’t even like the taste of Jasmine - I prefer Pu-Erh or Chrysanthemum tea. But if you go looking for bottled iced tea, you can have your choice of green, white, and every flavour mix that you can think of.

The most recent one trend that I’ve noticed has been the wolfberry (pronounced in Cantonese as “gay-jee”). You might know it better as the goji berry, the miraculous anti-oxidant that will cure all.  There is advertising for the juice everywhere, and last week I even noticed someone eating a bag of dried berries like they were raisins.

You can use the berries in teas, but my family has always used the dried berries in herbal soups. Most Chinese herbal soups taste horrible and you should run from them at all cost. But I have always enjoyed soups with wolfberries in them, and in the past have actually requested that more of them were added to the soup during the cooking process.

These berries used to be hard to find here; my mother would always get packages from Hong Kong filled with different cooking herbs and a big bag or two of dried wolfberries were included. Later, it became more available in Vancouver and now you can buy it here. When I was growing up we figured out that my best friend next door had a wolfberry bush that they let run wild (imagine a thorny rose bush that hasn’t been pruned for years). They said I could take as many berries as I wanted, so when my mom was making soup I would run out to their yard with a bowl and pick until I got tired. The fresh berries have a lighter, but juicier taste to them and I loved the way they would burst in my mouth as I chewed.

Just before I left on my trip, I found some in the dried fruits section of Save-On-Foods. Bought some just to try because frankly it is more convenient to pick them up from the grocery store than it is to go to Chinatown or have some sent from Vancouver or overseas. They weren’t as dry I was used to, and I wondered if they would work as well. When the soup was made, the taste was sweeter than normal. Oddly enough, the second time we used this new batch, the soup was closer to what I was used to; I think the berries needed to dry out more.

One of the things I brought back from Hong Kong was a bag of dried wolfberries bought from a herbal shop. We haven’t started on those ones yet, but it will be interesting to see how the taste differs from the ones sold in Western stores. There always seems to be a perception in my family that if it comes from Hong Kong the quality and taste must always be better, but that isn’t necessarily true anymore in this day and age of mass communication and globalization. At very least, I think we will have to rely on berries from Chinatown, as I’m not sure the grocery store ones are up to standard.

Got back from my trip at the beginning of June, and have been hammered by horrible jet lag and a cold that has lasted for three weeks and counting. Thank goodness I only got sick after I came home, instead of during the trip. Oh, and I started a brand new job.

But I didn’t forget you, dear food blog. I have lots of foodie stuff to share! Stuff to look forward to include: spicy curries, lots of food on a stick, and a post about a new caterer in town. To quote a friend who looked at a few of my vacation pictures, “Why do you have so many pictures of food?” Stay tuned!

I was in Calgary for work reasons this weekend, and took advantage of it by having brunch with a good friend of mine. Since it was Mother’s Day and most places would be packed, we decided to head out for dim sum as seating is usually on a first come, first served basis.

She suggested Regency Palace, and as I’ve only eaten at a handful of places in town I readily agreed. We got there very early at 10 a.m., which was a good thing as the place started filling up quickly. The dim sum there is fairly standard with one exception; I fell in love with the curried baby squid. It comes served on a small bed of vermicelli noodles, which soaks up the curry sauce. The squid was probably some of the most tender tasting squid I’ve ever had. I would go back there just for this dish. Yum! Sorry, no pictures. I was too busy stuffing my face.

Another interesting part of the restaurant is the buffet where you can take your dim sum card and pick up some of the more traditional dim sum dishes like ha gow and sui mai, as well as dan tat (custard egg tarts) and coconut jello. At the side counter, you can get fried lo bhat gow (daikon radish cakes), wah teep (fried pork dumplings), and gai lan (chinese broccoli). The gai lan was the only really disappointing dish as they hadn’t cooked it quite long enough. Just a little bit longer and it would have been crispy but cooked through, rather than being slightly raw.

I’m still thinking about that squid. Mmmmm.

Regency Palace
3rd floor, Dragon City Mall
4th Ave SE and Centre Street South
Calgary, Alberta
www.regencypalacerestaurant.com

I read this great blog entry today, talking about what it was like working at The French Laundry. That’s one of the places on my life long foodie to-do list.

Chef owners who work the line

Most people, when they know they are travelling somewhere, will read travel books and figure out transportation. Me? I run to foodie sites first. At the end of May I will be going to the food meccas of Malaysia (specifically Penang and Langkawi) and Hong Kong. All I’m planning on doing is eating and shopping!

In preparation for that, I’ve been looking at past blog posts from Rasa Malaysia, scouring the posts on the Asia Chowhound board, and doing Google searches for key words like “hawker stalls.” I even found some quality foodie posts on Tripadvisor.

My mouth is watering already.

I saw this today and thought it was amusing and very clever of them. Kids can be so creative, especially when it comes to fighting with siblings: Food Fight from oneforthetable.com.

Last year started building up my kitchen gadget collection. No longer satisfied with using cheap knives and minimal appliances, I wanted to pick and choose some of the better quality items that would help me to make all those recipes that I had been reading about.

My first gadget was a pepper mill. I love the taste of freshly ground black pepper. It’s just so much more flavourful than the pre-ground stuff. I had been getting by with what was basically a table top-sized pepper grinder, meant for use at the dining table. It had been a part of a set that came with my cheapie set of pots and pans. But when I used the pepper grinder for cooking, it took me forever to grind out the correct amount of pepper. I needed something better, faster, and easier to use.

My first try was one of those electronic pepper mills that disperses ground pepper with the touch of a button. It worked well in the store, and I thought it would save my wrist from becoming sore. Too bad it jammed and stopped working within days. I took it apart and still couldn’t manage to get it fixed properly. I finally returned it in frustration, and hopped on the web to see what people said were some of the better pepper mills.

I ended up spending way too much money. More money than I ever thought I would ever spend on pepper. But I’ve had the mill for about a year now, and it still works wonderfully. I love that thing! And from what my research said, this grinder will go on and on for years. That’s worth the cost, in my opinion.

And the one I ended up getting? It’s the one pictured here, from Peugeot, the car maker. They apparently started out making things like pepper mills, and haven’t stopped. I’ll probably never own a Peugeot car, but I have a feeling I’ll be loyal to this pepper mill for a long time.

Last night, I decided to make my own salad dressing for the first time, instead of using one out of a bottle. I’ve seen salad dressings being made on cooking shows all the time, and I knew it wasn’t hard to do.

Before I started I did a quick Google search for recipes, but nothing really caught my fancy. I had quite a few of the ingredients that the various recipes said I would need for a salad dressing, and a number of vinegars to choose from. Should I use balsamic? Red wine vinegar? Mustard? Do I want something creamy or a light vinagarette?

The salad leaves I would be using had a bit of flavour on their own, so I decided that I needed something with a strong taste of it’s own. Except for Caesar salads, I generally don’t use cream dressings anymore.

The Brûlée Blog’s Honey Mustard Vinagrette

2 teaspoons whole grain dijon mustard
2 teaspoons liquid honey
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
one part apple cider vinegar
one part extra virgin olive oil

Mix throughly, adding the oil gradually as the last step. This makes a strong mustard tasting vinagarette, so you may want to adjust the amount of mustard depending on your personal tastes. I added the amount of vinegar and oil until the dressing became the consistency that I wanted. I ended up with enough dressing for 3-4 large servings of salad.

I’ve seen similar recipes with pressed garlic and/or sugar added to the dressing, but I didn’t think it needed either of those at all.

One of the main reasons why I have cable TV is so that I can watch my food shows. Looking back, I actually began watching cooking shows way before I could even boil water. The two earliest shows in my memory are of Martin Yan on Yan Can Cook and of James Barber, The Urban Peasant, who sadly passed away this past December.

Nowadays, I watch a variety of cooking, entertainment, and informative food shows. Some will actually teach you something, and some are just for mindless entertainment. Here’s a list of what I currently like:

• Top Chef - Fun, but you still learn about food and see innovative cooking. One of my favourite shows.
• Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares - The UK version only, please. Here you see a softer, thoughtful and smart side of Gordon Ramsay as opposed to the screaming demon that Fox wants you to see. I can’t stand the US version.
• Hell’s Kitchen - Okay, I know I just said I didn’t like the screaming bad guy that the US sees when they look at Gordon Ramsey, but I can’t help myself. This show is fun. And every once in a while, the good side of Gordon slips past the editors, like last season when he offered to pay for Julia to attend culinary school. I wish they’d show that side of Gordon more. And pick contestants who can actually cook. They seem to have less and less experience every season.
• Good Eats - Alton Brown is my hero. I haven’t actually cooked from any of his recipes, but he has so much food knowledge and I love his humour. I have followed a couple of his gadget tips though, like buying kitchen shears that can actually come apart so that you can wash off the food contamination from the scissors’ joint.
• Good Deal with Dave Lieberman - I find his recipes easy to follow and simple to cook, and yet very tasty. I’ve actually passed on his recipes to other people, and they rave about the taste. Too bad the show isn’t in production anymore.
• Chef School - Interesting show that follows culinary students through their classes and life while at school. It’s not fast paced like Top Chef or Hell’s Kitchen is, but I’m finding it a nice compliment to reading Michael Ruhlman’s book.
• Ricardo and Friends - At first I wasn’t sure I liked this show, but it’s starting to grow on me. He’s got a great sense of food; I just wish his ingredients were more realistic regarding what I have access to in my city. His Antipasti Loaf really caught my eye and I’m going to have to try and give it a shot sometime soon.
• Chef at Home  - Michael’s Smith’s home cooking show; his Chef at Large show is good too, but I think I’ve seen most, if not all of them and I’m not interested in repeats.
• Cook Like a Chef - This is a fantastic series that I used to watch before I started cooking myself. Now that I’m cooking I’d like to see them again, but they are rebroadcasting the episodes in the early morning. I wish they would bring this one back.
• Diary of a Foodie - Gourmet’s tv show about food from around the world. Beautiful stuff. I just wish I remembered when it was on so that I could watch it more often.
• Jamie at Home - This is the first cooking show of his that I’ve actually liked. Before this, the only thing I’d watch with him in it was Jamie’s School Dinners.
• Ace of Cakes - For pure entertainment value only. I like to see the creative designs. And guess whether or not the cakes are going to collapse under their own weight.
• No Reservations - I’m putting this down even though I’ve never seen this show. I desperately want to, but it’s not broadcast on the channels that I have access to and I don’t have satellite TV. I wish, wish, wish they would put out whole seasons on DVD instead of just a couple of episodes at a time. I loved Tony Bourdain’s A Cook’s Tour.

That’s the majority of what I’m watching right now, although I will occasionally catch bits of other shows. I know there are great shows that I’m not watching like America’s Test Kitchen, but I haven’t gotten around to them yet. Soon, I hope.