Picture of the Day: Harvesting Peanuts

Mui Wo farmer holds bunch of fresh peanuts

A friend lives in Mui Wo, a rural town on the east coast of Lantau in Hong Kong. Every morning he walks around with his dog in a bid to avoid the midday heat.

He recently took several pictures and videos of his neighbourhood to show me.

Aside from showing off his new blue bicycle, the path he walked on was very clean, as in it was cleared of debris. Another was a doggy parlour, where the dogs posed post-spa/haircut to show them off.

And then one of the pictures showed a hand holding a bunch of peanuts that were harvested from the earth. 

It turns out Lantau is a good place to grow crops like rice, sweet potato, taro, red onions, and peanuts!

Peanuts are grown under the ground, similar to carrots.

When the peanuts are ready, they are harvested from the ground and then dried before they can be shelled by the consumer, or they are dried and then shelled before being sold or processed into products like peanut oil, peanut butter, or seasoned with salt to package into snack food.

Old School Chiu Chow in Vancouver

Delicious and large portion of the oyster omelet at Chuan Yue

Whenever Cantonese people get together, the conversation inevitably turns to the subject of food. They talk about which restaurant they have been to recently, which dishes were delicious and which ones were a pass. 

Recently my parents heard from their friends about a Chiu Chow restaurant in Vancouver and we decided to check it out. "It's not a nice place or anything," my father warned, as if I was there to critique the decor.

The restaurant is located in a mini strip mall

The place is called Chuan Yue on Oak Street and 67th Avenue, located on a mini strip mall, next to a pizza joint. 

And indeed the decor is nothing to look at -- in fact it reminds me of being back in China, where the doorways to the kitchen and washroom are shielded with fabric, in this case embroidered ones. That is hardly hygienic... The furniture needed updating, but again we were just here for the food.

Sitting at an adjacent table were family friends my parents haven't seen in a few years so it was a friendly catch-up. Since I have been away for so long I hadn't seen them for over 20 years. They now have a granddaughter who's a sassy five year-old. When we asked her name, she told us, adding, "of course".

Cute.

The chef and owner wore a baseball cap and chatted with us and seeing as our two tables knew each other he took our orders at the same time. He was a humble bragger, liked to talk about his achievements but not try to seem too boastful (but in fact he was). 

The pork stomach soup with pickled vegetables

He went on about how he was arguably one of the most authentic Chiu Chow chef in Vancouver, and that the others working in other (and better decorated restaurants) could not produce the same dishes as him. 

So we tried them out. The soup of pork stomach and preserved pickled vegetables was not a promising start. The soup lacked flavour as it hadn't simmered long enough and did not have a milky appearance. It was also missing ginger and peanuts, and used black instead of white pepper, but the pork stomach was tender and not too chewy.

However things improved considerably with the arrival of the oyster omelet. It was as big as a medium-sized pizza and choc full of little plump oysters. The omelet itself was so fluffy that it was delight to eat with some rice (though that was dry and tasteless). 

We also had the crab and shrimp balls that were delicately deep-fried, and again very light, hardly oily and not dense at all like others I have eaten before. Gai lan was added to the mix, and the young shoots were very good, though served in a pond of oil.

Deep-fried crab and shrimp balls

The chef-owner later came out to chat again with our two tables, asking if any of us could speak the Chiu Chow dialect. The uncle on the other table said he only could speak a few words, but could understand it and again the humble bragger tried to keep talking to the uncle in Chiu Chow, but he couldn't keep up.

We ordered half a marinated goose for take out and it was impressive, the flavour of the master sauce full soaked into the meat and not salty.

Meanwhile the chef also boasted he could make the best crispy fried noodles served with vinegar and sugar. But we were too full to order it. 

Now if he can deftly make the crispy sugar taro dessert without burning the sugar then he deserves to be a humble bragger, but for now we're still on the fence.

Chuan Yue

8329 Oak Street

Vancouver

604 336 6238

San Diego: Din Tai Fung

Love this xiaolongbao guy who greets everyone at the door!

The only place I booked ahead of arriving in San Diego to make sure we got a table was at Din Tai Fung! There are none of these Taiwanese dumpling chain restaurants in Canada and the last time I ate at Din Tai Fung was in Hong Kong almost a year ago.

Xiaolongbao with kurobuta pork

We drove about 25 minutes south to a shopping mall called Westfield UTC on La Jolla Drive. It's a huge mall complex with Nordstrom's and Macy's, and I later heard in the last few years the mall has blinged its way up the luxury brand ladder with boutiques like Louis Vuitton, Hermes and Michael Kors alongside H&M, Zara and Apple.

The mall is an outdoor shopping format, taking advantage of the weather and giving people lots of space to walk around and grab bites to eat in kiosks and restaurants scattered all over the shopping space.

Din Tai Fung has its format well established, from greeting customers outside the restaurant -- all members of the party must be present before they can be seated -- and watching the kitchen staff making dumplings right by the window. Some don't want to be photographed or videoed (despite wearing masks and head coverings) that they turn their backs slightly to the window.

Vegan dumplings with so many foldes

Over 10 years ago I visited the branch in Arcadia in Los Angeles and was impressed by the Mexicans deftly making xiaolongbao, but here the wait staff were both Asian and non-Asian which threw me off a bit. Almost all of them wore black masks along with their black uniforms, women had their hair in simple buns.

The interior is very contemporary and hardly Asian -- there are elongated booth seatings for up to four that slightly curves in on each side -- another two people can sit on the outside.

The menu is not like Hong Kong's -- was surprised to find there was no kaofu or braised wheat gluten with mushrooms and edamame, but mostly spicy dishes were there like cucumbers in chilli sauce. We ordered the seaweed and beancurd in vinegar dressing and wood ear mushrooms with vinegar dressing.

Sauteed string beans with garlic

These arrived very swiftly, followed by a slew of dumplings. The signature xiaolongbao with kurobuta pork had the memorably thin wrapper, but the filling was too pureed for my taste; it did not have a meaty, firm texture.

A new one for me was chicken dumplings with so many folds, but seemed thin with the filling and also quite pureed. The vegan dumplings were not quite what I remembered. Biting into it you couldn't quite identify everything in there by sight, though the description said there were glass noodles, bok choy, dried bean curd and shiitake mushrooms and spinach juice to dye the wrapper green.

We also had a portion of wontons in soup, sauteed broccoli with garlic and sauteed string beans with garlic, potstickers, as well as the fried rice with chicken which was very good. The vegetables were parboiled before being stir-fried to stay so crispy and fresh looking.

Fried rice with large pieces of chicken

The staff were very friendly and knew answers to all our questions. One person traveling with us has an allergy to sesame seed oil and the waitress immediately pulled out her copy of the menu with items highlighted in pink that had sesame seed oil. Impressive.

We thought we didn't have room for dessert, but we couldn't pass up the taro xiaolongbao; we could also rest our stomachs for around 10 minutes waiting for them.

They definitely hit the spot, 10 pieces and here the filling was rightly pureed, smooth and creamy, but no dairy, encased in a thin wrapper. Glorious.

Afterwards we rolled out of there, and there were many more people waiting outside for their turn to fill their stomachs with dumplings...

Taro xiaolongbao for dessert

Din Tai Fung

4301 La Jolla Village Drive

San Diego, CA

92122

(858) 375 5988

Picture of the Day: Hakka Croquettes

Hakka croquettes made with taro and fish paste

This evening my aunt tried to make taro and fish croquettes that my grandma used to make. It was her first attempt at recreating the dish, and while it tasted good, the texture wasn't crispy enough.

She had used fish paste, but my mother suggested using a fish fillet and mincing it with a knife it to get a firmer texture along with more flour in the mix.

It's a Hakka dish that my grandma used to make around Chinese New Year.

I had never tasted these before and enjoyed the taste, very smooth inside and crispy on the outside, but my aunt said it should be crispy inside too.

Looking forward to the second attempt! They make great hors d'oeuvres with wine or beer!