Vietnamese Salad Roll

First, I need to apologize for not being able to blog for a loooooooooooooong time. It's my last semester before graduation and I was taking an additional certification course as well. Now that it's all over, I hope I have more time to post topics and pictures of food. Some of these posts, including this one, has pictures which I took previously since the last post.

The first picture here shows your basic salad roll ingredients which include the rice paper, rice vermicelli noodle, lettuce and bean sprouts. The only meat I used for this recipe is shrimp but the real version has this very delicious Vietnamese ham as well as pickled carrots with it.

As with any recipe posted on this food blog, it's very easy to modify to your own taste. Using the basic ingredients on the first picture is what makes it a "salad roll". This next picture is the ingredient for the peanut sauce. I got it from my Vietnamese classmate back in highschool who got the ingredient from her grandmother. So you bet.. this is the real deal!!

Want the exact recipe for the sauce? Post your email address on the comment section and I'll send it to you. But I can tell you now... the secret ingredient is fried garlic!

When you're done making the sauce leave it aside and set up your wrapping station. Now wrapping is another whole deal. For the longest time, I made salad rolls which were too soggy. Hence putting cling wrap over them to save them for tomorrow's lunch was impossible. The problem was that I over soaked the rice paper on warm water. The trick is you just give it a quick dip and the laws of physics will take place making the water spread out and soften the rice paper for you. Probably soak it anywhere from 20-50 seconds on water that is a bit above lukewarm. Don't use newly boiled hot water as it could completely dissolve the rice paper.

If you want to make a nice presentation use the lettuce leaf as a base to hold all the noodles and other veggies in place. The meat should be placed in between the rice paper layer and the lettuce leaf. From there you just roll away and do your fancy plating. Some people like sauce on the side in a small saucer. Some people like the sauce drizzled on top. I've done both for the purposes of this food blog. Notice the fried garlic bits?

Scallopyaki (Variant of Takoyaki)

So for those who know me, I've recently got my hands on a brand new takoyaki grill imported from Japan. Any Vancouverite knows its hard to find the authentic grill and they usually settle for what is known as the aebleskiver pan. It does the trick but if die hard takoyaki lovers do a bit more of research, they can find that one place in the whole of Vancouver that does sell the grill. Let me introduce you to Konbiniya. It's a small Japanese convenience store downtown, about 3-5 blocks away from Burrard Station. They sell the 18-mold takoyaki electric grill for $40. I've checked online stores and they sell the same thing for $60. Although, I'd advice you to email the manager/owners first through their website and ask if they have the grills in stock. I was told that they only sell the grills on select seasons.

While you're there, you might wanna buy the ingredients for takoyaki as well. But first, what is takoyaki? Well, it's basically this round cooked batter ball with octopus meat (or scallop in this case) inside and seasoned with Japanese mayo, takoyaki sauce, bonito flakes and seaweed bits on top. A famous Japanese street food that is readily available during most festivals. More info here.

Konbiniya sells instant takoyaki batter mix; excellent for first time cookers who may not know what the consistency of the batter is supposed to be which is a bit watery

The first time I made takoyaki I used the instant mix and it tasted pretty good, although making it from scratch (which is what I did today for the first time ever) is not that hard. In fact, I liked the taste from the scratch version better. I used this recipe with slight changes. For example, we didn't have octopus meat in the freezer (not that we always do) so I used scallop instead. I skipped the benishoga, dried sakura ebi and aonori then used okonomi sauce instead of takoyaki sauce.

Other utensils you may need are round oil brush (to spread the oil evenly on the divots) and takoyaki pick (makes it easier to flip and roll em around). If you can't find those, just buy PAM and spray on a light layer of oil on the grill then use metal skewers as the pick. That's what I did and the takoyakis turned out fine.

Lastly, if you don't wanna make takoyaki but just wanna try it... you can find them in the Night Markets, Aberdeen food court, Crystal Mall food court and select Asian restaurants (thought I can't vouch for the taste for all of em).

Melona Bars

Absolutely the BESTEST dessert on a popsicle. Melona bars originally hail from South Korea but its known through out the various Asian communities in other counties such as Canada. It has that unique melon flavor which is not so common in ice cream form. Melona bars are also available in banana, strawberry and mango flavors. I've tried all of them but I still think the melon one is the best. According to wikipedia there's 2 more flavors: red bean and lime. I'm still checking if its available anywhere here in Vancouver.

Melona bars are sold in T&T (around $5) and Save-on-Foods (around $7). Ofcourse there are some Asian mini marts that sells them too.

I really love that it's not just a brick of ice with some sugar and juice blended to it but rather a really creamy smooth mixture of fruity goodness. If I had to describe it to first timers, I'd say its like having a BBTea Honeydew slushie on a popsicle stick. Really yummy!

Taho

Taho is probably one of the best and well-known street food of the Philippines. Other countries have similar dishes but serve it differently (e.g. cold tofu) and treat it more like dessert. Back home, however, I remember eating this right with my breakfast. Probably coz that's when the vendor arrives near our neighborhood.

It has 3 basic ingredients which are silky tofu, caramelized brown sugar and tapioca. These ingredients are common everyday grocery items for most, so it should be easy to make.

Ofcourse in comparison with balot, there's nothing too out-of-the-ordinary about taho.. so first time tasters have nothing to worry about. In fact, if you have a sweet-tooth like me, I'll guarantee you'll love taho.

The best part about it is the sweetness level is upto you. My mom made the syrup this time and she wasn't sure what the exact measurement was since she tends to just eyeball most recipes. But she said about a quarter of the 1 kg Rogers Brown Sugar bag and probably 1-2 cups of water.

So here's my portion for today. Lots of tapioca pearls right? Anyway, you can easily get creative with this dish as well. Add some coconut jelly. Or lessen the syrup and top everything on shaved iced. Taho is easily convertible as a hot snack for winter or cold snack for summer.

Click here for more info about Taho.

PS: Sorry if the 2nd pic is a bit blurry. You try pouring the syrup and taking a picture with a heavy camera at the same time.

Bunashimeji

Also known as beech mushrooms. And no, I didn't grab this pile of mushrooms from a random driftwood on a beach. I actually discovered this while walking around the produce section of T&T Supermarket with a new friend. We were distracted by this wonderful smell which came from a tiny little booth. A pleasant Chinese lady was cooking the mushroom and giving them away for free tasting. We took the last free sample and my friend and I were instantly hooked. We immediately demanded for the recipe which turned out to be just the mushroom itself, sauteed with a bit of oil and oyster sauce.

Today I get to try and cook bunashimeji. Although as you can see, I may have overdone it a bit with the oyster sauce. However, I didn't mind since it wasn't that salty in the end. In fact, my mom and I had to fight over who gets the last mushroom stalk. I'll definitely be buying more of this beech mushroom.

This meal is perfect as an appetizer for 1 to 2 people. It costs $2.00 at T&T. Did I mention, it's 100% organic?

For those who like to experiment a bit with their dishes, you can easily add thin beef slices and other vegetables like carrots, onion and baby corn to make it into some kinda stir fry. You can top it on rice as well to make it into a full load entree.

Although I haven't tried it, I suspect it'll make an excellent vegetable terriyaki mix with udon noodles. Just use terriyaki sauce instead of oyster sauce. No doubt, use Lee Kum Kee.

Happy experimenting!

Under Construction

Hello fellow food and/or photography addicts,

I'm finally starting my own food blog. I've got a back log of stuff I wanted to post but they were all taken by my then impoverished cellphone camera. But now that I've got my own SLR camera, I get to go nuts with eating and taking pictures!

Stay tuned for further updates. Seriously. I can get pretty anal about some things therefore uploading and posting takes awhile for me to do as well.