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New Armouries Café – Tower of London

Okay, I know it’s not a restaurant review, but it was a perfect snack review as we were looking for a little sugar in our system during our visit to the Tower of London. we popped into a cafe called New Armouries Cafe and it was almost a cafeteria style cafe – where you pick up what you’d like to eat/purchase and the pay for it.

As we were here only for a little treat, when we walked by the Raspberry and Almond Bakewell Tart, that was the solution for our sugar rush! These tarts are priced at £3.50 which isn’t cheap, but they sure were taste!

Once we cut into this tart, it was a Crisp pastry, raspberry jam and a dense almond topping! The overall taste was really good with the raspberry jam, with a hint of sweetness, and the nice crispy tart was a great balance. The contrast between textures and tastes was magnificent!

The Tower Of London
London, UK
(020) 7488 3668

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Homemade Dong Gua Tong – 冬瓜湯

Wintermelon Chinese Soup

In my family, most of my Chinese soups begin with the same base, and for the most part, this soup is no exception.

1 lb of pork bones
1 slice of dong gua
5 or 6 dried shiitake mushrooms
3 tablespoons of dried shrimp
1 or 2 dried scallop
2 tablespoons of ginger
2-3 carrots
1 piece of dried orange peel

It is good to rehydrate all the dry ingredients a few hours ahead if you can. If not, it’s not a big deal as it all cooks together and will soften.

First, take a pot of boiling water and cook the pork bones in the pot of water. Then, when it’s cooked through (or most of it), rinse it with cold water and place into a soup pot.

In a the soup pot with the cooked pork bones, place peeled carrots which is cut into large chunks, dong gua into chunks as well – which I usually leave the peel on as well, so make sure you clean everything, and the ginger! Then, I place all the dry ingredients into the pot and fill it up with cold water.

Once the water boils, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for at least 3 hours. The longer you let it simmer, the more flavours get developed into the soup. When you’re ready to enjoy, skim the fat off the top and add some salt to taste! Then, serve and enjoy this refreshing winter melon soup!

This particular time, we bought the edge of the dong gua and my other half decided it would be fun to make a bowl out of it as a dong gua zhong – winter melon pot. If you’re doing this properly, you steam the soup in this bottom piece and it then acts as a serving platform. Here, we just carved it and he used it as a bowl.

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Chinese Rice Crispies with Peanut

Chinese New Years often entails lots of deep fried goodies, and there are many sweets and snacks associated with Chinese New Years.

Rice Crispy with Peanut – 米通

is often a treat that is made at home and it’s nothing like Rice Crispy treats that are store bought or made with cereal.

These snacks only have a subtle sweetness to them, and much more peanut flavour. Once you open the box that’s the primary smell you’ll notice.

Once you bit down on these treats, you’ll definitely notice the super crispiness of the treat and then the peanut taste and texture fills your mouth. Then, as a back note, you definitely get the ginger taste! It’s a great combination of all the subtle flavours and the remarkable texture makes it such that you want to eat lots!

If you have the time, be sure you try to make these rice crispies at home! Here’s a walk-through on how I made mine Homemade Chinese Rice Crispies!

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Homemade Lo Bak Go – 蘿蔔糕

Turnip Cake Recipe – Luo Bo Gao

Just in time for Chinese New Years, I’ve taken what I know of how to make a Lo Bak Go and tried it! Please note, I like my lo bak go with lots more filling than “go”, so feel free to reduce the amounts of any particular ingredient.

1 large dried scallop (or 2 little ones)
1/2 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
1/4 cup chopped dried shrimp
2 Chinese Sausages (lap cheong)
1 cup of Rice Flour
1 cup of water
1 cup grated lo bak (daikon)

Seasoning (adjust to what you think tastes good)
salt, white pepper, soy sauce

First things first, you have to rehydrate all the dehydrate ingredients, and I like to do soak my shiitake mushrooms, dried shrimp and dried scallop the evening before hand in a bowl with some water.

When I’m ready to start making my lo bak go, I start by grating the lo bak and I place it into a pot of boiling water with some sugar and salt for a few minutes until tender.

While the lo bak is bubbling away, I start by chopping up the Chinese sausage, Shiitake mushrooms and shrimp into little pieces, and shredding the scallop. I heat up a wok and put all the ingredients together to stir fry them until cooked. I also do the seasoning with some white pepper, soy sauce and salt until it’s more flavourful than usual – since the rice flour mixture would add no flavour, it works best this way.

When everything is good and ready, I prepare the rice flour mixture by first starting with 1 cup of water and 1 cup of rice flour. I mix it until it’s dissolved and pour it into the combination of lo bak and all other goodies. I mix thoroughly and judge by the texture how I would like it. If you like your lo bak go firmer, put more rice flour in so that it’s more paste like consistency. The more you mix, the tougher it gets as well. I like my lo bak go soft, so I do minimal mixing. When you figured out how you like it, pour it into a pie pan or something like it and prepare it for steaming.

I steamed my lo bak go for about 45 minutes and I put a toothpick in to check that nothing was sticking to the toothpick. When it was ready, I turned off the heat and put some green onions (scallions) on top for decoration and put the lid on it for about 5 minutes before I took it out and let it cook on a cooling rack. Be careful, the pan and the lo bak go is extremely hot at this point.

Now that it’s cooled down a bit and had some time to set, cut it up and enjoy! I always like to sprinkle extra white pepper, or sweet soy sauce, or even some hot sauce on top of my slices of lo bak go. Sometimes, I do all 3! Now, pick up your chopsticks and enjoy!

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Homemade Slow Cooker Chilli

Chilli Con Carne

1 can of diced tomatoes (796 mL / 28 fl oz)
1 can of tomato paste (6 oz)
1 pound of lean ground beef
2 sticks of celery
1 onion
1 cup of white mushrooms
1 can of bean medley (15 oz)
1/4 cup brown sugar
hot sauce
salt and pepper to taste

The Chilli Con Carne is the spicy stew better known as Chilli – which actually means spicy peppers with meat! I like my chilli’s quite thick and hearty as it’s a meal when I make it, and not a topper. I also like to use beans in my chilli as it helps thicken the chilli. Besides, without the beans, it just doesn’t seem the same.

I first start by chopping up my mushrooms, onions and celery and browning the meat in a pan with a tad of seasoning. When it’s all brown and there are little bits of goodness in the bottom of my pan, this is the stage where I add in the tomato paste and then I place the browned meat in to the crock-pot.

In my empty pan, I now put in my veggies, sauteing them until they are tender – and I put it in my crock-pot.

Now, I basically put everything else into the crock pot – I open up the canned diced tomatoes and pour out the liquids, and just put the tomatoes in. The can of beans needs a good rinsing before going into the crock pot as well, and I mix everything together with a bit of salt, couple dashes of hot sauce and some brown sugar.

I set this on low for 8 hours total. I did dig in when the 8 hours wasn’t up yet for lunch, and it was really good! I bought myself a nice crusty bread to absorb all the sauces and it was a delicious lunch. For dinner, we enjoyed it with some mashed potatoes. Chilli can go with anything, so here’s where you can be creative!