Menu of the week

Warm weather costs me money. 


When it's warm in the winter like today (higher than -10C) I end up going on a large food shopping tour. Today I headed to Chinatown first to buy some pastries at Harmonie (6$), a dozen Egg Rolls (8.5$) and 1 pound of lean roasted pork (7.5$) at the butcher below Keung Kee (I don't kow the store's name!). I then headed to a market to buy tofu and gai lan (4$). I finished at the Hoang Oanh banh mi chain with some chả lụa and thach (5.5$).


I then took the 55 bus on St-Laurent to get to the corner of Mont-Royal. I walked to Kouign Amann for the 2nd best croissant (6 for 10.25$) in the city (store number one is closed on Sundays) and also got a slice of tomato+leek quiche for lunch (2.65$). I made my way to Romados for their famous roasted chicken (11$) and an apricot marzipan tart (10$) but they gave me an almond one instead. I walked to St-Urbain to take the 55 bus going south and stopped at Prince-Arthur St.


I walked to Marché Lobo to get cilantro and green onion (2.25$) for my omelet, 2 bags of cherries (6$) and Provigo for my whole wheat bread (3$). This concludes a shopping trip that cost me close to 70$. It yielded 5 breakfast sandwiches and 4 lunch boxes and extra vegetables and cherries and dessert.


The breakfast sandwich is the crab mix omelet slice and slices of chả lụa with Kraft Singles cheese on whole wheat 3g-per-slice bread. I mixed mayonnaise and cilantro stems and green onions for a spread. Material cost is 1.90$ per sandwich.


The lunch box has roasted pork pieces at the bottom, boiled gai lan and a cube of tofu over, and soba noodles on top. I will take the soba out first then reheat the rest in the microwave. Material cost for each box is 3$ with 2$ for the pork roast.

restaurant review: Furusato

This is my favorite japanese restaurant in Montreal. I don't eat a lot of raw fish so sushi and sashimi is not what attracts me although Furusato (formerly named Osaka) has never disappointed me on it. I haven't been to Tri Express, Jun-I, 

I prefer dishes that japanese people eat at home rather than the business/bar sushi. I also like appetizers and this place has most of what I was able to have in California. I have tried most of what they offer on the english menu and I often make a meal out of 4 appetizers.

I have been eating here since 2007 when I started to work again and I go at least once a week. The staff knows me well and these days I always get extra food. Here are my favorites:

Chicken Karaage

Agedashi Tofu

Shrimp + Vegetable Tempura

Petit Sukiyaki

Chawan Mushi

Fried Squid (no longer available)

Nabeyaki Udon

Oyakodon

Unadon

Tamago (sweet omelet)

On the raw side I like (in sashimi form)

Sake (fresh salmon)

Maguro (tuna)

Toro (fatty tuna, usually belly)

Ikura (salmon roe)

Tobiko (flying fish roe)

Finally there is a special maki using pickled plum (umeboshi) and perilla (shiso) that is a very good combination of tartness and herbal. Shiso (tía tô in vietnamese) is my 2nd favorite herb in the world, after cilantro.

There are some dishes that I like but they don't have: amaebi (raw sweet shrimp), tempura'd "golden" california roll (from Satsuma Sushi in Sunnyvale), fried fish,  Teridon (from Shogun Restaurant in Mountain View), 

Bun Rieu

There are many soup dishes in Vietnamese cuisine and my favorite is Bun Rieu. The recipe is simple but the preparation takes time. My aunt has a simpler recipe that uses less ingredients What I end up doing most of the time is to use the crab meat mixture in an omelet to get the main taste of the dish. I would eat the omelet in strips with noodle or rice and I even use it as a sandwich filling.

I made some this weekend for my super-breakfast sandwich. Eggs, crab mixture, scallions. Whole wheat pita bread (bag of 6 for 1$ at Marché Lobo), Kewpie mayonnaise and a slice of cheese.

Eggs II

I read about a method to parcook soft boiled egg and then use them later by simply reheating in warm water. This will result in perfect liquid yolk egg any time you want. I have to buy a food thermometer to try it out but in the mean time here's an example of the application: Eggs Bacalao. If you have a deep fryer please try it out for me.


Another fancy preparation using eggs is the famous Arpege Egg made popular by the Arpege restaurant in France. The original recipe is quite involved so I made a simpler version that I served to friends at a New Year party. As people were leaving the party around 4am we made this as a goodbye snack that you can just eat in one gulp. I got a lot of suprised looks but everyone enjoyed it once they got past the fact that it was a dessert and not a savory dish.


Simpler Arpege Egg


soft boiled egg, with yolk liquid and white solid
maple syrup
heavy cream
sea salt flakes


Once the egg is boiled, cut the top of the shelf 1/3 way down. Place the egg in an egg cup to keep it stabilized. Pour in some maple syrup and top with a dollop of cream. Sprinkle sea salt flakes on top and serve before the yolk has solidified.


When I was trying this out for the first time, the eggs' yolk was not as liquid as I wanted so I ended up with a dozen eggs with a mushy yolk. I decided to use it anyway and I ended up with a sweet deviled egg dish. The yolk was mixed with whipped cream and maple syrup and spooned back into the egg white halves. You can also use the yolk mix to spread over toast for a nice breakfast-dessert combo.

This Week in Holy Crimes

The customers are keeping me busy today so I'll just link to a regular blog I read.


Every Monday it compiles a list of church sins.