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Homemade Steamed Cheung Fun – 腸粉

Home Made Rice Crepes – Dim Sum

Currently, I’ve been trying to make basic recipes to dim sum such that I can add things to basic recipes to make them better. Vegetarian style cheung fun can become something more when you add goodies in them before you roll up these crepes. This is also gluten-free as it doesn’t use any wheat products. Just be reminding to use a gluten-free soy sauce on the top!

Ingredients:
1 cup Rice Flour
4 tbsp Potato Flour
2 tbsp Cornstarch
2 tbsp oil
1 1/2 cup Water
Pinch of Salt

First, sift all the dry ingredients together. If you don’t have potato flour, I’m sure it’s fine to use tapioca flour. Both flours, you can find either at an Asian grocery store, or sometimes even in the natural section of your grocery store (gluten free flours).

When the dry ingredients is all combined and fine, add the oil and water, plus a pinch of salt. This batter will become a very watery batter which I find it easiest to pour it into a big measuring cup as there is a spout making it easier to pour. Make sure you combine the mixtures well and it becomes smooth.

Once your batter is ready, set up your steaming mechanism – where I use a pot with a rack and a heat proof dish. Pour a thin layer onto this plate – just enough to cover the bottom.

Put the lid on to steam the rice crepes properly and let it steam for at least 7-8 minutes. Once it’s ready take it out of the steamer and let it cool for a little bit and roll it up. Once it’s rolled up nicely, cut it up and enjoy with some condiments.

As you know, there are many variations for this, and some ideas would be to add onions and dried shrimp to the actual batter, so there will be little bits throughout the crepe itself. Or, you can place some goodies at the edge of the crepe before rolling it up as well!

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Fruity Juice Bar

This is a little stall/stand inside Pacific Mall in Toronto. We walked by the stall in the morning, and we could smell the freshly brewed, newly steeped tea for milk tea. Immediately, we knew when the booth opened, we would need to purchase some sort of milk tea from Fruity Juice Bar. This stand is located on the second floor, through the beautiful Asian arch on the left.

We tried the Jasmine Iced Milk Tea with no pearls. I’m not usually a fan of the pearls (boba) in my drinks. It was a really good tasting milk tea flavoured tea, and you do get a jasmine flavour as a background. The drink was a little sweet, but overall it was an amazing drink.

Fruity Juice Bar (Pacific Mall) on Urbanspoon

Fruity Juice Bar – Pacific Mall in Markham

4300 Steeles Ave E
Markham, ON L3R0T4
(905) 470-8785

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Homemade Dun Daan Recipe – 燉蛋

Steamed Egg Custard Sweet Dessert

I really enjoy simple Chinese desserts, and Dun Dan is one of those desserts that is simple and really delicious. I learned this recipe from my aunt and have always kept it in my recipe box. I’ve recently dug it out and now I’ll share this delicious wonder!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of milk
1 egg
2-3 tablespoons of sugar (depending on how sweet you like it)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

First, dissolve the sugar in the milk by whisking it together. You don’t need to heat up the milk or anything as it will dissolve over time.

Then, beat the egg until smooth and frothy – then which together with the milk mixture and add your vanilla extract. If you like a touch of ginger taste, this is when you’ll add some ginger juice.

When the mixture is smooth and mixed, get a strainer and strain the mixture into a steamable bowl (heat-safe bowl) such as a ramekin.

Place some saran wrap or tin foil over the bowl before placing this into the steamer – that way, it ensures no liquid will get into the bowl for a smooth custard. Steam the bowl for around 7 minutes. To test if it’s done, take some chopstick and tap the side of the bowl. If it jiggles like jelly – it’s ready. If it moves more like a liquid, then it hasn’t set.

You can either enjoy this delicious dessert hot from the steamer or let it cool down then chill it for a more refreshing dessert. It tastes wonderful both ways! We like to make 2 and enjoy one fresh and hot, and we eat the other one at a later time cold.

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Radisson Toronto East

We’ve been going to Toronto annually now for the last 3 years and we love it in Toronto. We stay at Radisson Toronto East primarily due to location. Each time we’ve stayed here, it seems to get better – so that’s a major plus. One thing I noticed this year was the fact there was a guest parking fee now of $8! We never had that on our bill before.

We really like the location of this hotel as it’s just off of Macdonald-Cartier Freeway (Highway of Heros – 401) and Victoria Park Avenue which are main arteries for easy commute. Our family lives in the area East of the hotel, and we’re up at Pacific Mall a lot – so the location is just wonderful.

The hotel itself seems like a typical hotel, and it’s been showing it’s age every year. We’ve noticed slight modifications and effort to update the hotel, but I think it still needs more work.

The customer service at this hotel front desk is wonderful. They’re always very accommodating and they take and respond to comments and concerns I address to them. The room we stayed in this year has been updated from the previous years, and the one thing that stands out more than anything else is the convenient single cup coffee maker in the room and a mini-fridge. I really like this feature in my room, as it was really nice and convenient.

Instead of 1 King bed in our suite this year, we had 2 queens, and both beds had the Sleep Number Bed systems which was easy to adjust for comfort. It was really neat as the smaller queen beds still offered a control for both left and right side of the bed, just as the king beds we stayed in previously.

Overall, the hotel is a clean and comfortable place to stay especially with their newly updates to the hotel. The sleep number bed system makes a wonderful bed to unwind and caters to all guests.

Radisson Toronto East

55 Hallcrown Place
Toronto, ON
(416) 493-7000

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Regency Palace – Calgary, Alberta

Dim Sum has been a difficult task to find a good place in Calgary – considering factors like price, location, parking, taste, etc. I had my hopes high as we came for dim sum at Regency Palace since we attended a wedding here and the food was absolutely amazing. Thinking that the food and service was good – we finally came for dim sum.

One of the neat things about Regency Palace is the fact they have stations where you can get food, so you’re not limited to what’s being pushed out on carts only. They have a whole buffet area in one corner or the restaurant, as well as a noodle stand and a flat top grill area. We got some Pan Fried Rice Crepes from the flat grill station near the centre of the restaurant. These are really good and you’re able to pick the sauces you want to dip these crepes in!

As it was Chinese New Year weekend when we went, and even though I’ve been trying to make lo bak gao, we still ordered some anyway. The plate came with 2 pieces of lo bak gao and 1 piece of tara cake. The Lo Bak Gao wasn’t too daikon tasting and was really quite firm. There wasn’t a lot of ingredients in their lo bak gao either, but it was pan fried really nicely!

Then, we ordered some Steamed Rice Noodle Roll with BBQ Pork from one of the carts that went by. This wasn’t bad actually! They had quite a bit of filling and the texture was really good too. The BBQ pork was really good, but I think it would’ve been nicer to have more filling!

From the buffet dim sum area, we picked up some Chicken Feet which wasn’t bad. The skin came right off the bones and packed of flavour. It was quite fresh and really good actually!

Our last item we ate for this dim sum lunch was some Spareribs and even though it looks kind of pale, it was really good. The pieces they use was mostly the ones with the single big bones, instead of the softer bones which made it a pleasant eating experience. The sauce and flavour was all really good – very comparable with other good dim sum locations.

Overall, it was a very decent dim sum place to eat. I love the space as it was really large and the fact it has other options for food for those customers who don’t want to just eat dim sum. As well, the use of the buffet is a smart and convenient idea, as sometimes the carts run out of food by the time it gets to you. So, I really like the location, the options and the prices and food was alright.

Regency Palace – Calgary Chinatown

328 Centre St S
Calgary, AB
(403) 777-2288