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Nong Shim – Tako Chips Octopus Flavored

I really love snacks – as you can tell from this wonderful blog! Nong Shim is one of my favourite manufactures of snacks which is Korean! This time, I found a bag of Tako Chips which are octopus flavoured.

No, these snacks don’t actually taste like octopus, but they do have a very interesting taste to them! Instead of a cute octopus shaped chip, these are more “fish shaped” chips that is quite light and crunchy! I found this bag at the Asian grocery store in Toronto, as I haven’t seen it here in Calgary yet!

Overall, I like it as a snack/chip but not for the octopus flavor as there wasn’t much of it. The texture was great and the snack is very flavourful too! It’s not fishy in any way and it just a great munchable munchie!

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Homemade Dou Fu Hua – 豆腐花

Home Made Dau Fu Fa with Gelatin – Soybean Pudding

This chilled dessert isn’t the traditional style, but this recipe is simple and is great for serving it cold with a simple ginger syrup.

Ingredients:
3 cups Unsweetened Soy Milk
1 package (1 tbsp) Gelatin
1/4 cup water

This simple recipe takes no time to make, but takes a lot of time to set. First, you boil the soy milk slowly as soy milk boils over really quickly. You do not need it at a full boil either to prevent the soy film.

Once the soy milk boils, prepare the gelatin mixture by dissolving the gelatin with the water. Mix thoroughly and then pour it into the soy milk.

I like to have my dou fu hua in little individual bowl, so I pour the solution into little bowls and place into the fridge for it to set for at least a few hours.

In the mean time while the bowls are setting up in the fridge, I like to make the ginger syrup so I can refrigerate the solution as well.

If you want, you can make this dessert the “traditional” way which can be served hot or cold! Here’s the Dau Fu Fa recipe!

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Second Cup – Honey Vanilla Tea Latte

I recently stopped into my favourite Second Cup and they had a new seasonal drink called Honey Vanilla Tea Latte. I really love this drink as I do like the taste of vanilla in my coffees or teas! This Honey Vanilla Tea Latte was made with English Breakfast tea steeped with vanilla and honey and finished with creamy microfoam.

The picture doesn’t do it’s justice, but it was quite a delicate drink! It was similar to their London Fog Tea, but better!! I think it is the honey that really elevates this drink to a whole new level! I sometimes find the regular London Fog just lacks a bit of flavour – which is probably why I really like the Christmas Holiday London Fog Latte too!

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Homemade Spicy Sweet Potato Soup

I was wanting to make a soup for lunch – with a sandwich, so I roamed the grocery store and found some nice sweet potatoes. So, I figured I can make a delicious Sweet Potato Soup

Ingredients:
4 Cups Chicken Stock
1 lb chopped sweet potato
1 chopped onion

Seasoning:
Smokey Chipotle
White Pepper
Black Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Salt

I first chop my onions and saute them until they’re golden. While they’re browning away, I chopped up my sweet potatoes into sticks. I got lazy to do them into chunks – which didn’t matter anyway as I use an immersion blender to make the soup thick and smooth afterwards.

When the onions have softened, I add the sweet onions into the pot and give it a few minutes to develop it’s flavours.

After a few minutes, I add the chicken stock into the pot and turn down the heat. After about 45 minutes, the sweet potatoes have soften – so I use the immersion blender in the soup. You will find the soup is quite thin, so let it cook down some more and it’ll thicken more and the flavours will become stronger.

Once the soup is to the right consistency, I then season up the soup and serve. This was my version of spicy sweet potato soup so I added smokey chipotle seasoning, cayenne pepper, white pepper, black pepper and some salt. I served this in a bowl with a gallop of sour cream. I’m not sure how much seasoning I used, but I kept tasting it until I was satisfied with the end result. It’s always best to add a little at a time until instead of adding too much and not knowing how to reduce the flavours.

Serve this soup hot and it’s really delicious. The sour cream helps cool the heat from the spicy, so it was a bowl of soup that was beautifully balanced.

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Fortune House Restaurant

We just arrived as an entire family to Toronto and just in time for Chinese New Years. Well, it’s kind of hard to miss as festivities go on for about 2 weeks! We went to Fortune House Restaurant on Birchmount and celebrated Chinese New Years.

The first dish we ordered was Silky Egg with Shrimp and they used really large shrimps in this dish. The egg was made perfectly as the egg was cooked such that the omelette was silky and soft.

Our next dish was half a Marinated Chicken with Ginger Oil and this is one of my all time favourite chicken dishes. I like a cold chicken and I absolutely adore Chinese ginger oil sauce as it tastes good on anything!

Here, we have this clay pot which is filled with lots of goodies – from shrimp, tofu, bbq pork and veggies.

As this was still apart of CNY dinner, anything long is good, so we had some Long Beans and it’s sauteed with chilies. It’s a simple dish, and when dishes are simple, it’s crucial that it’s done perfectly! This was definitely one of the hits of the evening!

Another dish with veggies was Beef with Mushrooms and onions and to be honest, I can’t remember much about this dish, so it wasn’t anything extraordinary – but, I don’t remember not liking it either. So, it must have been a decent dish that we enjoyed! 🙂

I personally don’t eat a lot of eel, but when it comes to these dinners, you’re required to at least have something of everything, and when the Black Bean Eel came out, I was a little hesitant to try, but I must say, it was pretty good! I think the sauce was a perfect compliment, and even though it was full of bones in the eel, the meat was really soft! The eel was fresh enough that there wasn’t any fishy tastes or smell to it, so it worked well at the end.

My parents were stating that they eat more dishes now days without meat (even though I want to say it’s not true), regardless my aunts ordered Lo Hon Braised Mixed Vegetables in Hot Pot for them. It was full of Chinese fungus and greens, but the flavour they used in the sauce was really quite good! I think they used “fu yu” which is a type of fermented bean curd. It would’ve been even better of a dish if they added more fu yu in as it was really subtle tasting… when it should be more prominent!

Pork is an important dish for Chinese New Years as some say pork symbolizes progress. We ordered Pig Feet and this one was prepared such that the flavours was infused into the meat and it’s very tender. There are many ways to make pig feet, but often it’s quite time consuming – whether you braise it or use the pressure cooker.

Overall, the food was really good and the service was quick too – as they were really trying to turn tables to seat more customers. We later came back another day for lunch and the food was also really delicious! They do everything at this restaurant, so it doesn’t matter what you’re craving – they’ll have it!

Fortune House Restaurant on Urbanspoon

Fortune House Restaurant in Scarborough

2598 Birchmount Road
Toronto, ON M1T
(416) 292-1260