Hope you enjoy this little series :)
Sunday 18 March 2012
Unionville Series!
Hope you enjoy this little series :)
Friday 9 March 2012
滷肉: Taiwanese stewed pork over rice
Since C and I were craving some comfort food on this cold day, we thought it'd be fun to try and make some "lo ba", aka Taiwanese stewed pork over rice.
Lo ba is like the Taiwanese mac-n-cheese; it is simple, versatile, and traditional! It is comprised of minced pork simmered in a delicious and savoury stew for at least 2.5 hours and is usually served on a steaming bed of rice or soft chewy noodles. The first time I ever tried lo ba was at a bubble tea shop, and ever since then, I have simply just loved this hearty and comforting dish.
SO! Let's start, shall we?
Ingredients + apparatus
1/3 cup chopped shallot
2 tbsp minced garlic
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup chinese rice wine
6 cups water
1/4 cup cooking oil
2 tbsp sugar
2 star anise (for first-time users like me:star anise?)
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder (or more to suit your taste)
a deep pan *TIP: C and I used a pot because it has less surface area, decreasing the chances of the pork becoming burnt/tough due to prolonged simmering*
Method
2. Add the ground pork and stir quickly, constantly jabbing your stirring spoon into the sticky pork to break it apart. Try to get as much as the liquid around the pork.
4. Add your six cups of water then cover the lid, set the heat to low, and let it simmer for 2.5-3 hours.
*if you would like, start boiling a couple of eggs after you set the pork to simmer. after the eggs are done, peel the shells and add them to your stew. you will be rewarded with the most flavourful stewed eggs ever*
end result...
Overall, this dish was hands-down a SUCCESS *click it!*
The meat was extremely tender and just melted in your mouth when eaten. All of the stew seeped deep into each particle-niche possible in the pork, creating tiny bits of savoury heaven. To top the dish off, we added some chopped spring onion which served to add some crunch texture, as well as enhance the taste of the pork. The stew was slightly salty on its own, but when paired with steamy rice, it turned out just fine. But, if you are very conscious about your salt-intake, you can try to revise this by adding a low-sodium soya sauce or adding less soya sauce. Mind you, this may compromise the flavour intensity. As for the egg, since it had been exposed to prolonged heat from the boiling and simmering, there was a slight sulphur ring around the yolk, but it did not significantly affect the taste. In fact, even if the sulphur ring had been large, I doubt C and I would've tasted it anyway due to the immense flavour of the stew. If you would like, you can also add some chopped soya beans and mushrooms at the same time when you would add the eggs. These will add a wider variety of textures to your dish, raising it up a notch.
 |
| we boiled some "yu choi" in slightly salted water and drizzled some oyster sauce over it, but you can add any vegetable side you want, if any at all |
Alas, my first cooking post has come to an end. The Taiwanese stewed pork was a terrific success and C and I will definitely be making this simple dish again. The prep work took at maximum only 10 minutes, and the rest of the time was allocated to letting the stew simmer, a plus since it gives you plenty of time to do other things. The great part of this dish is that it's extremely versatile, meaning you can eat it with either hot rice, noodles, or even bread! I'm sure it would delicious in all three situations :). I hope you enjoyed this post, and may you have as much fun and be as successful in making this dish!
Happy eating!
xoxo,
-A
Sunday 4 March 2012
Sushi Bong
Hello hello! For today I will be reviewing Sushi Bong, a little sushi place famous for their large dynamite rolls.
Sushi Bong...I have no idea where to start, even though I've been to this restaurant the most compared to all my other reviews. Since the highschool I attended is really close to Sushi Bong, my friends and I were frequent lunchtime visitors, so it was only natural that a lot of good memories were made over Sushi Bong's food, whether it be when we got takeaway or sat in. Unfortunately though, when we all graduated, our trips to Sushi Bong got replaced by trips to cafes and coffee shops instead.
Then one eventful day, 3 years later, I was stricken with a very random and immense craving for sushi, in particular, a dynamite roll. Instantly, a plethora of images of Sushi Bong popped up in my head like a crazy vortex of memories, and I just knew that I had to go there to satisfy my craving. I invited C to come along, for I wanted him to have a glimpse of what my highschool life was somewhat like, as well as to have him become a part of that vortex of memories.
Sushi Bong is a very humble store located along Yonge, close to Finch. It is rather hidden, as it's in a circular plaza at the base of two condominiums, so due to a combination of location obscurity, horrible directions, and a mini snowstorm, C had missed the turn point and we had to go in a big round circle! Also, parking there is quite difficult due to limited space and many restrictions. C and I were lucky to have found a parking spot, but this place is easier to walk to if anything.
C and I quickly rushed into the mini store, and already I could feel all the memories flooding back. As we entered, we were greeted by a Korean woman, who told us we could sit anywhere we wanted, although to be honest, there wasn't much of a selection. The sushi bar takes up a lot of room in the store, so there is around only 4 tables inside the restaurant. Also, the door was frequently opened and due to probably un-oiled hinges, had a high latent period before it closed, making the little place very chilly. Taking this into account, C and I opted on a mini table close to the self-serve tea dispenser, in hopes that maybe a constant supply of tea could keep us warm. After sitting on their old wooden chairs, the woman gave us a black and white laminated menu outlining the choices we could select, and after much scrutiny, C and I decided on three dishes, two of which I had never tried at Sushi Bong before.
Unagi Donburi ($8.95)
Since C and I were in the mood for something warm and comforting, we ordered this eel-rice dish. This yummy meal was comprised of barbecued fresh-water eel on a bed of hot steaming rice, covered in unagi sauce and sprinkled with spring onions and seaweed strips. Honestly, this dish was pretty damn good, although on the salty side (everything seems salty nowadays!!). The eel was lightly seared, giving it a very soft, slightly chewy, and mildly slippery texture, that matched perfectly with the steaming semi-sticky rice. The main taste of this dish, though, did not really come from the meal but rather from the unagi sauce that it was drenched in. So, what is unagi sauce? It is basically a slightly-viscous dark brown sauce that harbors a savoury yet sweet taste and is usually paired with grilled eel, which is no surprise since a direct translation of the word would show that it means "eel sauce" in English. The sauce is made in two components; a base and the "finished" product. The base is a reduction of eel bone broth, soya sauce, rice wine, and sugar and the "finished product" is made by using the base (suprise!), and constantly dipping grilled eel into the sauce to add flavour. Although dipping a grilled eel into a sauce may sound slightly unappealing, dipping eel in unagi sauce is a part of the cooking process for eel, so if you notice that your eel isn't quite so tasty, here's a potential reason why. Most restaurants use a manufactured unagi sauce, which usually only tastes like the base sauce and not the authentic completed version, but nevertheless, the dishes still come out just as yummy. The unagi sauce at Sushi Bong somewhat threw me off because not only did the sauce have that distinctive sweet and savoury flavour, it was also spicy!! Overall, the comforting rice dish with its soft and savoury eel was very satisfying and I would go back to eat it again.
Spicy Salmon Roll ($4.65)
I know this picture has two rolls in it, and it was a mistake on my part for not taking a close-up on the spicy salmon roll. Anyhow, the spicy salmon roll is the smaller set of maki. This photo is a very useful picture to also show how BIG the dynamite rolls are in comparison to normal maki rolls! But, moving on...
Spicy salmon rolls have become a real favourite of mine since the summer of 2009. What drew me in was the soft, cool chunks of salmon, and the creaminess of the spicy sauce that covered every inch of the salmon. Now, have you ever wondered what mystical sauce they use in these maki? Well, whether you have or not, I have the answer for you. It is simply spicy mayonnaise! Yes, that delicious creamy sauce is nothing more than combination of mayonnaise, hot chili, and hot sesame oil. At Sushi Bong, I am unsure of whether or not they made their own spicy mayonnaise but whatever they used, it was delicious! Superbly creamy and lightly savoury, the sauce provided me with the perfect level of tongue-tingling pleasure that made every bite enjoyable. The only complaint I'd have is that there wasn't enough sauce! The salmon chunks inside were a little on the smaller side, but they were beautifully smooth, not at all squishy, indicating that it was fresh salmon used. As for the sesame seeds scattered all along the roll, I honestly didn't taste them due to the strong taste of the spicy mayonnaise.
Dynamite Roll ($6.11)
Alas, the famous dynamite roll! Sushi Bong became well-known in the community for their delicious and abnormally large dynamite rolls! The ingredients inside this roll are no different than the ones served at other restaurants; the roll is stuffed with fresh cucumber slices, fried tempura, avocado, and fish roe all wrapped in a strip of seaweed and a moderate amount of rice. So, what makes it so special? I honestly don't know. Maybe because of its large size, everything just seemed a lot more enhanced and harmonized. When you bite into one of Sushi Bong's dynamite rolls, you are handed a variety of textures, from the silkiness of the fresh avocado to the crunch of the savoury tempura. The flavour of each ingredient is also very apparent; the avocado and cucumbers are freshingly sweet, the fish roe are wonderfully sweet, full and "poppable", and the tempura is perfectly savoury and juicy. It is a difficult task to eat the whole piece in one shot, but if you try, I am sure you can manage (C and I actually made a game out of it!). I always feel that eating a maki in one shot allows you to taste all the flavours and to experience the harmony of all the ingredients. One of the best parts is the ending piece of the roll. There are only two ends in a roll set that harbor the tails of the tempura shrimps, but two is enough since each piece is jampacked with all the ingredients to the point that trying to shove it all inside your mouth results in a pharyngeal reflex. There are two things that I particularly like of Sushi Bong's dynamite roll. The first one is the fact that it is not overwhelmed with rice. The sushi chefs have generously packed each roll with tons of ingredients so you don't mostly taste the glutinous rice, but rather the precise flavour and texture of each ingredient. Second, the consistency. Sushi Bong has been around for at least 3-4 years, and although I did not return until recently, I have discovered upon eating that the taste and magic of the rolls have managed to remain the same on my palate as they were in my memories.
So here it is: a review of a restaurant, while at the same time, a glimpse into my past. Sushi Bong has filled the scrapbook of my life with pictures of memories ranging from wasabi eating contests, to catching up with a good friend on a park bench while munching on dynamite rolls from a styrofoam box. If you ever go on your own account, I only hope that you enjoy it as much as I did, and as much as I do now!
Conclusively. . .. ...
happy eating!
xoxo,
-A
Sushi Bong...I have no idea where to start, even though I've been to this restaurant the most compared to all my other reviews. Since the highschool I attended is really close to Sushi Bong, my friends and I were frequent lunchtime visitors, so it was only natural that a lot of good memories were made over Sushi Bong's food, whether it be when we got takeaway or sat in. Unfortunately though, when we all graduated, our trips to Sushi Bong got replaced by trips to cafes and coffee shops instead.
Then one eventful day, 3 years later, I was stricken with a very random and immense craving for sushi, in particular, a dynamite roll. Instantly, a plethora of images of Sushi Bong popped up in my head like a crazy vortex of memories, and I just knew that I had to go there to satisfy my craving. I invited C to come along, for I wanted him to have a glimpse of what my highschool life was somewhat like, as well as to have him become a part of that vortex of memories.
Sushi Bong is a very humble store located along Yonge, close to Finch. It is rather hidden, as it's in a circular plaza at the base of two condominiums, so due to a combination of location obscurity, horrible directions, and a mini snowstorm, C had missed the turn point and we had to go in a big round circle! Also, parking there is quite difficult due to limited space and many restrictions. C and I were lucky to have found a parking spot, but this place is easier to walk to if anything.
 |
| image provided by Google |
Since C and I were in the mood for something warm and comforting, we ordered this eel-rice dish. This yummy meal was comprised of barbecued fresh-water eel on a bed of hot steaming rice, covered in unagi sauce and sprinkled with spring onions and seaweed strips. Honestly, this dish was pretty damn good, although on the salty side (everything seems salty nowadays!!). The eel was lightly seared, giving it a very soft, slightly chewy, and mildly slippery texture, that matched perfectly with the steaming semi-sticky rice. The main taste of this dish, though, did not really come from the meal but rather from the unagi sauce that it was drenched in. So, what is unagi sauce? It is basically a slightly-viscous dark brown sauce that harbors a savoury yet sweet taste and is usually paired with grilled eel, which is no surprise since a direct translation of the word would show that it means "eel sauce" in English. The sauce is made in two components; a base and the "finished" product. The base is a reduction of eel bone broth, soya sauce, rice wine, and sugar and the "finished product" is made by using the base (suprise!), and constantly dipping grilled eel into the sauce to add flavour. Although dipping a grilled eel into a sauce may sound slightly unappealing, dipping eel in unagi sauce is a part of the cooking process for eel, so if you notice that your eel isn't quite so tasty, here's a potential reason why. Most restaurants use a manufactured unagi sauce, which usually only tastes like the base sauce and not the authentic completed version, but nevertheless, the dishes still come out just as yummy. The unagi sauce at Sushi Bong somewhat threw me off because not only did the sauce have that distinctive sweet and savoury flavour, it was also spicy!! Overall, the comforting rice dish with its soft and savoury eel was very satisfying and I would go back to eat it again.
I know this picture has two rolls in it, and it was a mistake on my part for not taking a close-up on the spicy salmon roll. Anyhow, the spicy salmon roll is the smaller set of maki. This photo is a very useful picture to also show how BIG the dynamite rolls are in comparison to normal maki rolls! But, moving on...
Spicy salmon rolls have become a real favourite of mine since the summer of 2009. What drew me in was the soft, cool chunks of salmon, and the creaminess of the spicy sauce that covered every inch of the salmon. Now, have you ever wondered what mystical sauce they use in these maki? Well, whether you have or not, I have the answer for you. It is simply spicy mayonnaise! Yes, that delicious creamy sauce is nothing more than combination of mayonnaise, hot chili, and hot sesame oil. At Sushi Bong, I am unsure of whether or not they made their own spicy mayonnaise but whatever they used, it was delicious! Superbly creamy and lightly savoury, the sauce provided me with the perfect level of tongue-tingling pleasure that made every bite enjoyable. The only complaint I'd have is that there wasn't enough sauce! The salmon chunks inside were a little on the smaller side, but they were beautifully smooth, not at all squishy, indicating that it was fresh salmon used. As for the sesame seeds scattered all along the roll, I honestly didn't taste them due to the strong taste of the spicy mayonnaise.
Dynamite Roll ($6.11)
Alas, the famous dynamite roll! Sushi Bong became well-known in the community for their delicious and abnormally large dynamite rolls! The ingredients inside this roll are no different than the ones served at other restaurants; the roll is stuffed with fresh cucumber slices, fried tempura, avocado, and fish roe all wrapped in a strip of seaweed and a moderate amount of rice. So, what makes it so special? I honestly don't know. Maybe because of its large size, everything just seemed a lot more enhanced and harmonized. When you bite into one of Sushi Bong's dynamite rolls, you are handed a variety of textures, from the silkiness of the fresh avocado to the crunch of the savoury tempura. The flavour of each ingredient is also very apparent; the avocado and cucumbers are freshingly sweet, the fish roe are wonderfully sweet, full and "poppable", and the tempura is perfectly savoury and juicy. It is a difficult task to eat the whole piece in one shot, but if you try, I am sure you can manage (C and I actually made a game out of it!). I always feel that eating a maki in one shot allows you to taste all the flavours and to experience the harmony of all the ingredients. One of the best parts is the ending piece of the roll. There are only two ends in a roll set that harbor the tails of the tempura shrimps, but two is enough since each piece is jampacked with all the ingredients to the point that trying to shove it all inside your mouth results in a pharyngeal reflex. There are two things that I particularly like of Sushi Bong's dynamite roll. The first one is the fact that it is not overwhelmed with rice. The sushi chefs have generously packed each roll with tons of ingredients so you don't mostly taste the glutinous rice, but rather the precise flavour and texture of each ingredient. Second, the consistency. Sushi Bong has been around for at least 3-4 years, and although I did not return until recently, I have discovered upon eating that the taste and magic of the rolls have managed to remain the same on my palate as they were in my memories.
So here it is: a review of a restaurant, while at the same time, a glimpse into my past. Sushi Bong has filled the scrapbook of my life with pictures of memories ranging from wasabi eating contests, to catching up with a good friend on a park bench while munching on dynamite rolls from a styrofoam box. If you ever go on your own account, I only hope that you enjoy it as much as I did, and as much as I do now!
Conclusively. . .. ...
food: 9.5/10
atmosphere: 7/10 (tight!)
service: 9/10 (little service required)
portion: towards the larger scale
price: reasonable (<$10/dish)
Located at: 5 Northtown Way
Phone Number: (416) 227-0022
atmosphere: 7/10 (tight!)
service: 9/10 (little service required)
portion: towards the larger scale
price: reasonable (<$10/dish)
Located at: 5 Northtown Way
Phone Number: (416) 227-0022
happy eating!
xoxo,
-A
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