Christmas Day

So for Christmas Day (I guess night) dinner, my aunt Amelia cooked. No Chinese this time...

spinach soup

spaghetti with shrimp, eggplant, and tomato

asparagus with mustard vinaigrette and "SECRET SPICES" I think this is the first time I've had a full-on Western meal by my aunt Amelia. The spinach soup was very good; flavorful and spinachy. The spaghetti was also good. The shrimp were tasty and plentiful. The asparagus was great - I guess the so-called "SECRET SPICES" worked. I just got back to SF. Still have many posts from Vancouver. My cousin Geoff is coming to visit on Wednesday for a few days, so there should be plenty of eating during that time.
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Christmas Eve Dinner

Happy 2005 everyone! I'll be heading back to San Francisco tomorrow, but I've got about a week's worth of Vancouver posts. Here is what I had for Christmas Eve at the Kwok house, which is where we always have our family Christmas dinner party.

christmas dinner - roast beef, turkey, ham, ribs, sticky rice, various veggies, noodles As is now customary we have a sort of east meets west buffet type of thing, mixing stuff like roast beef and turkey with chow mein and chinese vegetables. I thought everything actually tasted better this year - the roast beef, turkey and gravy were particularly tasty. And who doesn't love cranberry sauce?
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Che Family Cooking

Now this is something you can really only get in Hong Kong - Che-style home cooking. It can be mainly summed up with one key word: dumplings.


chicken with chili sauce chicken with chili sauce


cucumber with scrambled egg cucumber with scrambled egg


homemade pork dumplings homemade pork dumplings The main chef in the family is my Aunt Amy, with some help from my grandma (and dare I say a little help from my Aunt Agnes). Now don't let the picture fool you, there seemed to be an infinite number of dumplings. Full plates just kept on coming. Nonstop. And they're soooo good. Skin with perfect texture, delicious filling... better than in any restaurant. This stuff is the real deal; the picture probably doesn't do them justice. The chicken and the cucumber/egg were also tasty as a change of pace from the dumplings. Then again, I could probably just eat dumplings forever. Mmmmmmmmmm.
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Veal Chops

Here's some home cooking from my mom.


arugula salad with cherry tomatoes and radishes arugula salad with cherry tomatoes and radishes


veal chops with butter and sage veal chops with butter and sage Yummy... The salad was really good. All the stuff was from the Ferry Building (though not on a market day). Tomatoes right now taste really good. The radishes were great too.
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Pork Chops

As promised, here's another simple recipe from the same AskMeFi thread.


pork chops with red wine vinegar reduction pork chops with red wine vinegar reduction It turned out really good. Sauce is just red wine vinegar, chicken broth, garlic and sugar, all reduced down to a syrupy thickness. Veggies are just leftover takeout. Gonna make this one again... it was easy.
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Curry Rice

I made this the other day with the help of this recipe on AskMefi.


ground beef, mushrooms, onions, garlic, with curry rice ground beef, mushrooms, onions, garlic, with curry rice Looked easy enough to make and wasn't sure what to expect. The rice is just normal rice with a little curry powder thrown into the rice cooker. I thought it was pretty good, and it got some favorable reviews. I plan on trying quite a few recipes from that thread... looks like a lot of good easy stuff.
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A1 Steak

Our place is really clean now and there's a lot more cooking going on. Threw some cheap steaks in the broiler the other night.


steak with A1 sauce, spinach, rice Smothered it with A1 and cooked it in the oven on broil... actually turned out pretty good. Steak is not hard to make though. Probably gonna start making them more.
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Marc's Pot Roast

We're back from Montreal now. Marc made pot roast the other night...


pot roast pot roast Good stuff. He thinks the meat was too soft but it was fine with me. I look forward to mooching off more home cooking in the future.
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Flank Steak

Had a busy week so I didn't get to update. Anyway, here is what I cooked for V-Day...


the arthur hungry kitchen the arthur hungry kitchen


penne rigate with a vodka tomato cream sauce penne rigate with a vodka tomato cream sauce


marinated flank steak, sauteed spinach marinated flank steak, sauteed spinach


finale cheesecake finale cheesecake I used a recipe from Food Network for the pasta (From 30 Minute Meals) and a Boston Globe recipe for the steak. The sauce for the pasta was pretty much just shallots, garlic, tomatoes, chicken stock, vodka, and some heavy cream. The steak was marinated in olive oil, red wine, garlic, scallions, rosemary, mustard, brown sugar, and orange zest. It turned out pretty damn good if you ask me... The cheesecake I bought from Finale (expensive!) but it tasted pretty good too.
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A Few Pastas

Happy Chinese New Year all. Another post of food from SF - I'm almost done, I swear. I had lunch with my dad, and he made a couple of pastas using some jarred stuff he got in Italy.


tagliarini with sugo al cinghiale tagliarini with sugo al cinghiale


tagliarini with crema di porcini e tartufo bianchetto and chopped black truffles tagliarini with crema di porcini e tartufo bianchetto and chopped black truffles He used some fresh tagliarini from AG Ferrari in Laurel Village. "Sugo al cinghiale" means boar sauce. I actually liked it a lot... a little tangy with some small bites of boar meat. The truffle one used a cream thing from a jar and also some chopped truffles from a jar (albeit small jars... not sure what to call em). It actually tasted better than the whole truffles in water that my dad got off the shelf.
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White Truffles!

My dad was in Italy and was able to bring back some stuff. He says he couldn't find any fresh truffles, but he was able to get some off the shelf stuff. My mom made some pasta.


spaghetti with white truffles spaghetti with white truffles Sadly, it was pretty underwhelming. Some truffle taste but not the type you associate with the sight of truffles shaved on pasta like that. I guess not-fresh truffles just aren't the real thing...
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Baked Sole

My mom made me dinner the other night. We have some canned foie gras from when she was in France a while ago.


foie gras, arugula salad foie gras, arugula salad


baked sole, spinach and artichoke, risotto baked sole, spinach and artichoke, risotto Good stuff. My mom's a good cook. Still got some of that foie gras to finish off too...
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Auntie Margie's potluck

For New Year's Eve dinner, I went to Auntie Margie's with my mom for a potluck. There was a lot of food... too much for me to really photograph.


Auntie Margie's potluck Auntie Margie's potluck My mom brought some weird kind of tofu dumplings and also a pork knuckle thing. There was also a tofu dish with Shanghai hairy crab. Auntie Margie made a curry... Lots of stuff. I had to leave early to go to Santa Rosa.
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David's Birthday

Forgot to put up a pic of my cousin David's birthday cake.


mango cake mango cake The cake actually used fresh mangos, so it was better than I was expecting. Good stuff.
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Corned Beef with Rice

Well I've been running outta money so I've been "cooking" the past couple of days. Here's a college budget food tip from Keith: corned beef with rice...


corned beef with rice corned beef with rice Beggars can't be choosers. Things'll get better soon... I hope.
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Shabu Shabu

So I ended up eating Thanksgiving dinner with Jeremy & Andrew upstairs. They had some friends over and made shabu shabu.


shabu shabu stuff and some sushi shabu shabu stuff and some sushi


beef before cooking beef before cooking I gotta hand it to 'em... they sure go all out. We used pots on the stove for the soup. Everything turned out really good. They made their own sushi and tamago, which was really awesome. There was too much food to finish...
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Macaroni & Cheese

Been eating pretty boring still. I made some mac and cheese today after Shaw's lured me into buying a 6 pack.


Annie's Shells & White Cheddar Annie's Shells & White Cheddar This stuff is way better than Kraft. It's what they always have at Kirk's house for some reason. Thanks Moons!
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Dave's cooking

Guess what I woke up to today... Dave making something!


David Chang - MASTER CHEF David Chang - MASTER CHEF Turns out they were kinda burnt on the bottom. There's something wrong with our Bagel Bites...
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Kat and Colleen's cooking

Kat and Colleen came over today to cook for us. I don't know how that happened, but I got to eat so it's fine by me. Colleen made LASAGNA and Kat "made" salad (with corn).


Colleen's lasagna Colleen's lasagna


Kat's salad THIS IS FOR YOU MOM - Kat's salad It was really good! I was definitely impressed. I haven't had lasagna in a looong time. And I guess corn in salad is okay. We even have some leftovers, but not as much as I thought we would at first... oh well. Thanks Kat and Colleen!
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