Dasarang Korean Cuisines

Spicy Fried Chicken

My wife and I went out with some Malaysian friends that have just arrived from Malaysia for a late dinner at a Korean diner. The reason for the choice of restaurant was because we wanted to introduce Dasarang's spicy fried chicken to them. We were on the way back from Surrey, doing grocery shopping and on the way back to Burnaby Mountain. Since we were passing through the Korean village so conveniently we just drop in.

Seafood and Rice Cake

We ordered a couple of simple Korean cuisines and the house special which was the spicy fried chicken. My wife and I just had Korean dinner a week ago with another group of friends and was still kinda reminiscing from that feast. Also, before going out with this group of friends to Surrey, we just had an early dinner. So, we were just going to limit ourselves from eating too much. Lately, we have been eating too much. Especially during dinner.

Fried Female Capelins

Other than the Seafood and Rice Cake plater, all the other servings were rather small. And for the price that they charged for each of the cuisine, I consider Dasarang to be be really one of the most expensive places to dine. The fried female capelins was an example of really expensive serving of fried fish. Just five miserable small finger size fish, we were charged for about two bucks each. Paying the same price, I could get a whole platter in HONs Wuntun House. Even the fried squid platter was smaller serving portion than any Chinese restaurant for the same price. Dasarang might be focusing too much on cuisine spiciness and presentation, their cuisines now lack the authentic Korean cuisine flavours.

Honey Garlic Pork from Costco Wholesale

Honey Garlic Pork

I was shopping in Costco Wholesale a few days ago and as I was passing by the frozen food aisle I noticed several shoppers filling up their shopping carts with boxes. Because of curiosity, I approached to investigate. And they were stacking up their shopping carts which boxes of honey garlic pork. The product was the new Honey Garlic Pork recently retailed at Costco Wholesale. The product was on sale and these shoppers were stacking up their carts faster than the store staff could replenish the product.

Cooked Honey Garlic Pork

So, I too join in the crowd. But I only took six boxes which I felt was plenty enough. Any more, I might have problem with storage. At that time, I was think that my freezer at home was almost full already. In the morning today, my wife decided to open one box of the honey garlic pork and prepare it for the kids take to school lunch. The honey garlic pork turned out to be really good. The kids loved it. So, after dropping them off at school, I when back to Costco and picked up another six boxes.

Steam Tofus

The Honey Garlic Pork was a cooked product. And all that is required in the preparation at home was reheating the meat (in bite size nuggets) in the oven for twenty minutes on three hundred seventy five degrees Celsius. So, the kids home cooked lunch was white steam rice with honey garlic pork and steam tofu. The tofu were sliced and steamed then after it was done, garnished with garlic oil and oyster flavoured sauce. My wife and I eat the same food for our lunch too. The honey garlic pork was really good and fresh.

2017 Chinese New Year Potluck

Nasi Tomato

2016, year of monkey was generally a good year that has gone by with some memorable achievements and accomplishments for most of my friends, notable the graduation of their children from various universities. Before I continue and as we all usher in the year of the rooster, I would like to wish all my readers, a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year. Keong Hee Huat Chai as we greet in Penang, from my family to your's, and may your year ahead be prosperous and full of joy. Similar to the years before since we landed in Vancouver, my family celebrated this year's Chinese New Year with a small group of close friends over a get together.

Fried Shanghai Noodle

So happen this year, the first day of Chinese New Year falls on a Saturday. We gathered with our usual potluck and a roasted pig to share. But, my family like every Chinese New Year, celebrate the first day by maintaining a vegetarian diet throughout the day. Tomorrow will be different, we will be hosting a group of international students, mostly Chinese Malaysians, in our humble home to celebrate the auspicious occasion with them.

Barbecue Chicken Wings

This is the time of the year that these students misses their families most as it is also an occasion for family members to reunite at the homes of their elders'. Besides the gathering of people, food is always a plenty on Chinese New Year. This is also the day where we celebrate, "Plenty", everything around must be plenty and overflowing. We also wear red, give red packets and decorate our homes with red and gold colored ornaments.

Suckling Roast Pig

During these kind of gatherings, we have all kinds of Malaysian cuisines that each of us contribute to the potluck. The host prepared fried shanghai noodles, barbecue chicken wings and the beverages. I came with a plater of tomato rice and another fried noodles. There were stir fried vegetables, mushrooms and tofu cuisines, popular Malaysian desserts, fruit cocktails, cookies and cakes of all taste and flavours. And importantly, the suckling roast pig. Every year, we would order one whole roasted pig and share the cost of it among everyone that comes to the potluck. Then, we would chop the roasted pig down to smaller portions to be shared by everyone to take home.

Mushrooms, Soy Bean Curd and Glass Noodle Cuisine

The Chinese New Year gathering has somewhat become a tradition for these few Malaysian families living in Vancouver. And we all put in the effort to make it happen each year. We involved our whole family in this gathering, our kids, the second generation immigrants also attend to celebrate the occasion. Especially, this year, there is no excuse not to come because the first day of Chinese New year is actually a non working day for most of us.

Penang Char Keow Teow

Penang Char Keow Teow with Crab Meat

I decided to cook the famous Penang Char Keow Teow at home yesterday. Ready with all the ingredients, I fried about twelve servings in total. The frying only took me about thirty minutes. After that, my wife and I delivered to the home cooked Penang Char Keow Teow to our friends. It has been awhile since the last time we had a cookout. So, we thought it would be nice to share Penang Char Keow Teow with some of our friends living in the area.

The Famous Penang Char Keow Teow

The other day, I think it was last week, when we fried the Penang style noodle we used the vermicelli and shanghai type noodles. So, this time round we actually fried with the keow teow instead. Most of our friends like the keow teow more than the other type of noodles. I like either noodles but frying with the keow teow is easier than vermicelli because the vermicelli tend to be sticky. The vermicelli leaves a layer of crust at the bottom of the wok which has to be cleaned after each frying.

Authentic Penang Char Keow Teow

In comparison, it takes a bit longer to fry each serving of the vermicelli but some people loves the eating the fried crust. I also posted the photos of the Penang Char Keow Teow on my FB Vancouver Makan Club pages and people started asking where is the Penang Char Keow Teow avaialble in Vancouver. One even suggested I should open a restaurant. The point is, up until today there is no Malaysian restaurant in Vancouver that can serve the authentic Penang Char Keow Teow.

All You Can Eat Fish And Chips in New Westminster

Fish and Chips

We dined at the New Westminster's Cockney Kings Seafood Restaurant yesterday evening. The diner is located within Columbia Square about a block from the New Westminster Skytrain Station. We have not been here for quite awhile now. If I remembered correctly the last time we dined here was when we came for the premiere of the Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens about thirteen months ago which was in the cineplex in the mall where the skytrain station is located.

Fried Fish Fillet with Fries

And Cockney Kings is the only All You Can Eat Fish and Chips within Burnaby and New Westminster. Although they have another branch on Hasting Street, we found this location to be more convinient. Especially with lots of parking stalls around the diner. And, they may not serve the best fish and chips in town but the price they charge for the meal and considering the, "All You Can Eat" is irresistibly good. The diner is usually full when we come but waiting time is approximately ten to thirty minutes.

Generous Serving of Fried Fish Fillet

For the All You Can Eat Fish and Chips offer, you will get bottomless Pollock Fish Fillet, bottomless chips and bottomless beverages. And, that is what we usually go for when we dined here. On their menu, they also serve the fish and chips with different fish fillet and a range of other seafood. But majority of their food are fried with their specially blended batter. Cockney Kings is also very generous with their serving sizes. The fried fish that they serve are usually large pieces. Large than most other restaurants serve.

Dining in Crystal Mall Food Court

Japanese Sushi

I remembered having dined in Richmond Centre food court about three weeks ago. And yesterday, me and my family went to Crystal Mall dined in the food court after doing grocery shopping in T&T Supermarket nearby. The food court in Crystal Mall has got about twenty or more stalls but they were all Chinese food. Even the sushi place was operated by a Chinese guy. And the sushi that they make does not look like real sushi but more to any normal rice with a piece on seafood on top of it.

Hainanese Chicken Rice

I did order a half chicken portion with three servings of chicken rice from the waffle place for my kids. Which was supposed to be Hainanese Chicken Rice. Although it tasted and flavoured like Hainanese chicken rice but cooking chicken rice from paste is pretty common in Vancouver. Anyone who knows how to cook rice can cook Hainanese Chicken Rice from a pack of Hainanese chicken rice paste. Just follow the instructions on the box and you will have chicken rice. I suspected that was what they were doing.

Mushroom & Seafood Crispy Noodle

I, on the other hand walked around the food court looking for something authentic and ordered a Cantonese style fried noodle from the noodle place on the front side of the food court. At least the plate of noodle I ate was somewhat authentic. Although, I have tasted better ones, the noodle cuisine was the most authentic for that evening among all the food we ate. I guess from the experience we had yesterday, we are not going to be coming back to Crystal Mall food court anytime soon.

Simple Continental Breakfast

Continental Breakfast

Breakfast was really simple this morning. I made continental breakfast for the family before we all went out to work and school. I opened a pack of sausages, put them in pan and fried them with a little bit of cooking oil. Then, on the stove next to it, I had a larger wok with about three cups of cooking oil, deep frying a bag of french fries. The sausages took a bout five minutes and they were done but the french fries need about twenty minutes to cook to golden brown.

Sausages, Scramble Eggs and Fries

After the sausages were done, I continued using the pan to make scramble eggs. I used up about seven large eggs, added a few shakes of pepper and salt, then whisked the eggs before pouring them into the pan. I continued to stir and turn the eggs until they became cooked. With the eggs also done, I started to separate the sausages, fries and eggs into five portions. I also added a slice of tomato and cucumber on each of the plates. Wanted to pan toast a few slices of bread but the kids say they preferred the breakfast without the bread since their lunch were already sandwiches.

Home Cooked Seafood Crispy Fried Noodle

Cantonese Seafood Crispy Noodle

For dinner yesterday, I prepared the Cantonese style Seafood Crispy Fried Noodle. I had bought a pack of chow mien a few days ago and was thinking of cooking it before the noodle is wasted. So, yesterday was perfect because my wife did not have any plans on what she wanted to cook. I quickly told her that I could cook the Seafood Crispy Noodle and I could have dinner ready in less than an hour. While I was preparing the rest of components for the noodle cuisine, I started heating up a pot of cooking oil to deep fry the noodles.

Seafood Crispy Noodle

The pack of noodles was good enough for five portions and after separating them into five portions, I deep fried them one portion at a time. The deep fried chow mien was than placed in separate plates. Next, I removed the cooking oil from the wok and used the balanced that was remaining after I had poured them into a used oil mug. I threw some chopped garlic into the wok then followed by some shrimps. Once the shrimps cooked, I added about five cups of water into the wok.

Cantonese Style Crispy Noodle

I waited until the water boils then add fish fillet, napa cabbage, two spoons of chicken essence, a few drops of sesame seed oil, salt for taste, and two spoons of corn starch. Again waited for the broth to boil then add a cup of eggs (three eggs whisked in a bowl) into the broth. The broth needs to be stirred to prevent the eggs from clumping and immediately turn of the heat. Using a ladle or a steal mug, pour a cup of the gravy on to the crispy noodle in the plate. This seafood crispy noodle is best serve hot.

Roti and Chicken Curry

Roti Chennai with Curry Toppings

I had chicken curry with roti Chennai today. We cooked a pot of curry chicken early this morning for breakfast. And instead of eating with rice, we had it with roti Chennai. It was roti Chennai in frozen form that we had bought from Foody World over the weekend. Just like frozen bread, we pan toasted the frozen roti and poured the curry chicken onto it when it was still crisp and puffy. In Malaysia, we can get the fresh roti Chennai from almost anywhere but in Vancouver, we have to rely on the imported ones which are frozen.

Curry Chicken on Roti

Nevertheless, I found the Chinese pancake sold in T&T Supermarket to be even better in value as per the weight and also tastier in comparison when toasted. The Chinese pancake uses almost the same ingredients as making the roti Chennai. Therefore, I would prefer them over the imported Roti Prata or Roti Chennai from Singapore, India or Malaysia. For breakfast, I normally have to consume two roti prata in the morning but with the Chinese pancake, I only need one piece of it. The Chinese pancake too needs to be pan toasted but they taste better, crispier and are more flavourful too.

Ta Bom Korean Cuisines

Hot Plate with Beef Bolgogi Sauce

We went out to dine at Ta Bom Korean Cuisines on Austin Avenue in Coquitlum with friends yesterday. We have already anticipated that we will have to wait for a place as this Korean restaurant is one of the more popular diner in Coquitlum. So, we went there half an hour early, hoping that we will get our table when the rest of our friends arrived. It was a rather large group and we would probably fill up one third of the restaurant.

Hot Plate with Octopus Hot Sauce

Surprisingly, we were given a place to dine just fifteen minutes into waiting and had to quickly call our friends that we were already given a table. Luckily, they were already on their way and within five to ten minutes they arrived. While waiting for the rest of the friends, were have placed orders. We ordered the set meal for four with some pretty good selections from the menu and added three large hot plates.

Duck Soup

The set meal came with their house special which is the duck soup. And also, the others were Korean egg pancake, a bowl of rice and beef, sweet and sour fried chicken nuggets, fried glass noodles with beef, and a large bowl of salad. But our main cuisine was the three hot plates which we chose one with octopus, one with beef and the last were with chicken. The three hot plates also have some additions like rice cakes, corns, cheese and eggs. The sauces were also different on all three hot plates.

Penang Char Beehoon and Mee

Penang Char Bee Hoon

Last night, our dinner was simple. I fried Penang Fried Beehoon and Mee for dinner. The reason was that we came home late. I was tide up at work until later in the evening and my wife had been playing chauffeur to a Malaysian family that have just moved in to a rented apartment. And the kids have their usual extracurricular activities but yesterday they had to stay back in school to assist the school teachers with some end of term activities for international students.

Penang Char Mee

The first thing I did was to soak some vermicelli in a pot of hot water and when the noodles were soften, drain away the water. I did the same for the shanghai noodle. I blenched them in a pot of hot water. Usually the blenching takes about four to five minutes. The other ingredients that I had was chives, bean sprouts, Chinese sausages, shrimps and chopped garlic. The chives were  cut in two inch long strips. I also needed to prepare the char keow teow sauce from soy sauce, salt and pepper before I can start frying. Then, the Chinese sausages needed to be sliced thinly. I did not have any fish cake, or else I would have included thinly sliced fish cake too.

Penang Char Beehoon Mee

In the hot wok, pour about three spoons of cooking oil and drop in the chopped garlic then, followed with the shrimps and the sliced Chinese sausages. Once the shrimps are cooked, throw in the chilli paste and bean sprouts. Stir and mix everything in the wok. Add the noodle and continue with the stirring. On top of the noodle, add three spoons of the char keow teow sauce. Break an egg onto the noodle and wait for the egg to cook before stirring. While waiting for the egg to cook, throw in a handful of chives and mix everything in the wok until they are evenly spread out. Gently, turn the noodle over and serve in a plate.

Hons New Westminster for Dinner

Clay Pot Tofu with Fish Fillet

We went to our local favorite Cantonese cuisine restaurant for dinner yesterday. With cold weather and not too ideal road conditions these days, we rather stay within Burnaby and dine in restaurants in the vicinity than driving twenty kilometres away to Richmond for a meal. HONS Wuntun House serves some of the best Cantonese cuisines that we have tasted. We have been a loyal customer to HONS since we started frequenting there a couple of years back.

Honey Garlic Pork

And among the three HONS restaurants, we still like the one in New Westminster best. The staff there are friendly and serving times are pretty fast. Although, usually they are often full and have a crowd at peak times, they still impress us with their promptness. Other than that, they have good menu range. And the taste and flavours of their cuisines are very consistent. Most often when we dine there, we have to park at the next block as they have limited parking space.

Stir Fried Ginger Beef Strips

Actually, there are a lot of parking space but pay parking. The free ones are usually taken or on the next block. But still the short walk from the parking was still worth it. My kids have been there so frequent that each of them already have their favorite cuisines which would order each time when we dine there. And among the four HONS outlet, the one in New Westminster is the crowded one. I guess it does tell a lot about their services and which the diners like best.

Curry Gulai Asam Fish Head

Gulai Asam Fish Head

One of the most popular among Penang cuisine must be the Gulai Asam Fish or sometimes Gulai Fish Head Curry. There instances that the same curry gravy is cooked with whole mackerel (ikan kembong), black pomfret, or with catfish in Penang. Otherwise, we sometimes like the gulai with fish head. In Vancouver, I often use the Salmon fish head as it is the most commonly found in the supermarkets. And, I also use the other parts of the Salmon for many other fish cuisines.

A Popular Fish Head Curry in Malaysia

So, the leftover fish heads which I don't normally use is kept for cooking curry. Then, depending on how many friends that want to join me for curry fish head, I would cook a large pot of the gulai asam fish head curry to share with them or take the whole pot to a potluck gathering. I would usually cook up to three large fish head at a time but more often just two fish head is ample for two, sometimes three friends to share. I have cooked the gulai asam fish head curry several times before and invited friends over for a feast.

Curry Fish Head

Not many people like the curry fish head. I found that majority that likes eating fish head are men. In Penang in particular, I know of many excellent fish head curry restaurants and roadside stalls that serves really good curry fish head but in Vancouver, I have yet to find any although it is a popular Penang cuisine. The so called Malaysian restaurants here are merely offering their own version of popular Malaysian cuisines.

More Ideas with the Large Cocktail Shrimps

Garlic Pepper Shrimps

With some of the leftovers from the previous day, my wife went ahead to cook the rest of the cocktail shrimps with recipes that she had learned on the internet. Youtube to be more precise. She was looking for a appropriate recipe to cook the shrimps with and after watching the cooking video for several minutes, she just went into the kitchen and did exactly what she had watched on the video. I was so impressed with the shrimp cuisine afterwards.

Home Cooked Shrimp Recipe

The shrimp cuisine is called the Garlic and Pepper Shrimps. Using a very sharp knife, she removed the veins from everyone of shrimps and than placed them in the plater with the backs facing up. And then, garnished with garlic and pepper. Once they were all nicely placed in the plater, she put the plate in a steamer and steamed for about fifteen minutes. This was the first time, she had prepared this cuisine and it turned out to be really tasty and flavourful.

Okra with Oyster Flavoured sauce

With the steamer already being used, we put in another plate of okra and cooked them with garlic and oyster flavoured sauce. With winter days upon us, we are staying home for dinner and also eating home cooked meals a lot more than usual. Once we get home, we don't feel like leaving again. And the cold weather too have been really prolonged. This year's winter is not only cold but also is the coldest in comparison to the previous few winters. So, on cold days like this, home cooked warm food are the best.

Large Cocktail Shrimps for Dinner

Cocktail Shrimps

After work yesterday, I went to Walmart before coming home. I was attracted to drop in at Walmart because of the promotions on some of the regular food items they have published on their weekly brochure. And while I was shopping in the store, I also bought a plater of cocktail shrimps besides picking up some of their other promotional items. I don't normally buy shrimps from Walmart but this plater of shrimps was irresistible due to the very large size and ready to cook.

Garlic Fried Shrimps

And finally, the price was also very good, may be that was the irresistible part. The only other times that I have eaten cocktail shrimps were in functions in hotels or conferences. And that too was never this large. So, I wanted to try this at home and at the same time, this large shrimp plater could be one of the dishes for dinner as well. Otherwise, I could combine the shrimps with salad for lunch tomorrow or even fry them with other stuff. And that was exactly what I did with the leftovers this morning.

Malaysian Dry Red Curry Chicken

Dry Red Curry Chicken

Woke up early this morning to prepare breakfast and lunch for the family. With about two hours to spare before leaving for work, my wife decided to cook curry chicken. In fact, she had already cleaned and cut about three pounds of chicken drumsticks the previous night. That was why she was focused on cooking curry this early in the morning. Also, she had planned to use a pre-packed curry gravy instead of preparing from scratch which should reduce the preparation time significantly.

Steam Okra with Garlic Oil

Usually, if we were to bring rice for lunch to work and to school, we would only prepare two dishes instead of three that we normally have in our meals at home. The second dish was a simple steam okra with garlic oil. While she was preparing and cooking the curry chicken, she had a plater of okras in the steamer on the stove next to the wok she was using for the curry chicken. So, to save on time, we had the same cuisines for breakfast and lunch today. Since we woke up earlier than usual this morning, I prepared an additional dish.

Toasted Tofus with Garlic and Shallots

Also a simple dish which only required the use of the steamer, I put into the steamer a plate of sliced tofus after we had removed the okras from it. But before steaming the slice tofus, I had them toasted on a pan with a few drops of cooking oil. And to make it simple, I garnished the tofu with fried garlic, fried shallots, and oyster flavoured sauce. The three cuisines took us less than an hour to prepare and cook. And that leaves us a lot of time to get ready for work and school. At my work place, I only have to reheat my container and enjoy another home cooked meal.

How do we know the rice we eat is genuine?

Unagi and Rice Plater

My wife and I went to Crystal Mall's market place to do our weekly grocery shopping this morning. And since it was already about time for lunch, we walked outside the mall towards the Willingdon Street entrance with the intention of dining in the Green Bamboo Vietnamese Cuisine. But when we got there, we changed our mine and decided to dine in Ali Shan Chinese Restaurant instead because we have never dine there before. When we entered, there were already a crowd in the diner. I ordered the kimchi flavoured seafood soup that comes with a bowl of rice and a drink. And my wife ordered the unagi fish and rice plater. We waited for quite a while before our orders arrived but we were perfectly fine with that because there were a lot people in the diner.

Is This Rice Too Perfect?

My wife's order were served first. The presentation was well decorated with the rice in the middle and the dishes around the cup of rice. Before eating, she noticed that the rice looks so perfect. There were no broken rice and every single grain were perfect in shape and colour. And they were not basmati nor jasmine type of rice. We cook basmati and jasmine rice at home, the rice grains may be loose but never perfect in shape and colour. So, she took a grain of rice from the centre of the plate, pressed it between her thumb and first finger. And the grain of rice was tough, it would not break no matter how much pressure was put on it.

Is this fake?

The rice grain was not sticky at all but could be reshaped, neither did the rice grain stick to the skin of her finger. When we put two grains together it combined into a larger grain and could be reshaped into a longer grain of rice. And due to this we became sceptic, we decided not to eat the rice. When my order came, I too, did not eat the rice but finished the kimchi flavoured seafood soup. Both the unagi rice and the kimchi flavoured seafood soup were actually tasty and flavourful. But the diner next door which we often dine in serves better and slightly cheaper cuisines, and do not serve suspicious fake rice. I don't know, I may be wrong about the rice but I am not willing to eat something that I am not sure of. With the crowd in the diner, I do not want to create a scene either. So, we just walked away after that.