Canton-i The Garden

After an arguement decided where to having our lunch. Here for my opted dim sum restuarant, which is serving for Hong Kong food. Overall, their serving good food and for sure i'll revisit here again. It's actually sister branch of Dragon-I

The restaurant

Dragon I

Whole glass fully occupied by the fresh dragon fruit, fruitti juice

BBQ Bun

Surface just like Po Lo Bun, inside stuffed with the BBQ minced pork

Roasted Pork and Char Siew Wanton Noodle

Tenderness of the noodle, cripsy roasted pork. Just not really adore the taste of sauce

Silky Teng Chai Porridge

Highlight of the noon, must try this! I never tried such a beautiful porridge in my life. The porridge was so smooth, until you not to found shape of rice.

Canton-i The Garden
LG202-203A, Lower Ground Floor,
The Garden, Mid Valley
03-22846888

新入手 EF 85/1.8 USM 夜间对焦测试

入手的第一个星期....小弟只放一些对焦准确的照片...跑焦的就不放啦... :D

















就这么一些了...小弟告辞... :D

Roast with Garlic Mustard Rub

Three years ago, I heard about Bonnie Stern, the Canadian cookbook author from Toronto, for the first time while enjoying an amazing butternut squash soup at Corryn's apt. The recipe made its way into my "most used recipes" every fall & I passed it on to my mom, who now makes it too.

Bonnie recently released a beautiful cookbook, "Friday Night Dinners", that has great family dinner recipes with inspirations from around the globe. With little time to cook, I keep looking at the very homey photos of the food and her family and wanting to start cooking. The perfect occasion came up last night when my parents came in from Montreal.

The recipes in the cookbook live up to the photo hype so far! I made a boneless top sirloin roast for the first time with a meat thermometer and all. It was not only unbelievably easy, it was a perfectly juicy medium rare with a crispy crust. Rave reviews from the Braude clan!
I suggest it for Friday nights or anytime you want to impress! Works great with carrots & parsnips roasted at 425 with olive oil, thyme and honey. Popovers would make a great accompaniment too...

My sister insisted on taking the rustic, non-plated photo..

Check out this link to see Bonnie live on YouTube making this rib roast on CBC tv (she used a standing rib roast, I opted for a boneless top loin)...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U5vzp4toY1E. She is so cute, she reminds me of my mom and even pronounces "shallots" the same way!

Rib Roast with Garlic Mustard Rub
Serves 10

If you are using a standing rib roast, be sure to tell the butcher to cut off the chine bone to make it easy to carve between the ribs. If this means the roast won't stand up in the roasting pan, just wedge a couple of peeled onions underneath.

Use a meat thermometer to make sure the roast is cooked to medium-rare. (Don't take a chance after paying so much for such a gorgeous roast).

1/4 cup (50 mL) Dijon mustard
2 tbsp (25 mL) extra-virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp (15 mL) finely chopped fresh rosemary or 1 tsp (5 mL) dried
1 tbsp (15 mL) fresh thyme, or 1 tsp (5 mL) dried
1 tbsp (15 mL) kosher salt
1 tbsp (15 mL) pepper
1 6-lb (3 kg) standing rib roast, boneless rib roast or strip sirloin roast
2 shallots, thinly sliced
3/4 cup (175 mL) dry red wine
1 cup (250 mL) beef stock

In a small bowl, combine mustard, oil, garlic, rosemary, thyme, salt and pepper. Smear roast all over with mustard rub. Place in a shallow roasting pan, fat side up.

Roast meat in a preheated 425 degrees F oven for 20 minutes. Reduce heat to 375 degrees F and continue to roast for 1 1/4 to 2 hours, or until a meat thermometer reaches 130 degrees F for medium-rare. (I did a 4.25 lb boneless top loin for 5 people and it took 20 minutes at 425 and 1.5 hours at 375)

Transfer roast to a cutting board and allow to rest for 20 minutes before carving. While roast is resting, place roasting pan on stove over medium-high heat and skim off fat. Add shallots and wine and cook until reduce to 2 tbsp (25 mL). Add stock and cook until reduced to a 1/2 cup (125 mL). To carve, remove string from roast.

If using standing rib roast, cut off bones in one piece by cutting between meat and bones. Cut bones apart and serve with meat (to guests who want them the most!). Turn roast over on carving board so it is sitting boned side down and carve into slices.

Spoon juices over roast when serving. Enjoy with your family & friends

Ram replacement after my Team Xtreem + Crucial Ballistix Tracer

Hehehe...it's the Corsair Dominator PC8500 DDR2 1066 5-5-5-15 2.1v Rev1.1 4GB kit.






Here's the story why I've changed my ram.
I'm an overclocker who just overclock to meet the decent performance for daily usage.
Previously I was running 2GB of Team Xtreem PC6400 CL4 + 2GB of Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC6400 Cl4 and Intel C2D E8400 @ 450mhz X 9. Since it was 4 sticks of ram,
it's needed to pump a bit of vdimm to them stabilized.

So I've pumped to 2.0vdimm to run 4 of them.... After few months of usage, roughly 4-5 months, One of the Crucial has died. I tried to run 3 sticks, it can't operate.
So I just stick only with Team for a moment.

I found 2GB Ram for my daily usage is seriously not enough, and I'm thinking of upgrading.
But the horrible price of another pair of 2GB team xtreem pc6400 CL4 just turned me off.
You know what ? It cost Rm300 for a new pair. LOL !!!
I know it's D9 guaranteed but I think I'm not gonna pay for the premium price.

So I decided to sell my team ram yes and it is sold within few days, with relatively cheap price =.=... In the mean time, I saw an 4GB OCZ Reaper HPC PC8500 ram for Rm400.
The price satisfied me in that time. But since the online seller was offed to holiday for 1 week ,
my patient can't hold me even the seller will be back in few days.

I was searching around the forum, I just saw this second hand corsair ram for sale.... and the price was reasonable since it's 1.1revision.
I know it's a good overclocker and 100% suits my not-super-extreme-daily-usage-setting, and after that I bought it without any hesitation. It cost me Rm380 by the way.

I've an online friend told me, even the Crucial ram rated 2.0v on their ram, due to the 4-layer PCB, it still can't handle 2.0vdimm on daily usage. Until I tried this, I only realized and believed.
I buy the crucial at first because it's cheap, just for Rm110 but don't have warranty since there is no more Heat spreader on it.

Just in case you don't know how my crucial ram looks like.





and my ex Team Xtreem






Lastly, my advice is, NEVER buy Crucial ram. They sucks. That's it.

Organic Vegan Fertilizer

Anyone who's ever read through the ingredients on store-bought garden fertilizer will know that it's like reading a horror story...fish meal, bone meal, blood meal....yuck! Not to mention that those things are totally not vegan. Being a good vegan, I never buy that stuff and prefer to put together a gentle fertilizer for my veggies.

Here's a fertilizer recipe as given by Steve Solomon in his book Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades. The recipe is published online here, so I think I can safely list the ingredients on this blog without any copyright problems.

Mr. Solomon calls this formula a Complete Organic Fertilizer (COF) because it provides a balance of the macro-nutrients as well as micro-nutrients and trace minerals that plants need to grow, thrive, and be nutritious. It's a fairly slow-release formula--basically a function of how long it takes for the ingredients to be broken down by soil organisms. He developed this particular blend to bouy trace minerals, calcium, and magnesium and also provide good levels of both nitrogen and phosphorus. Here are the vegan ingredients...measures are by volume: cups/ jars/ sacks, what ever works for the quantity you need:

4 parts seed meal (cottonseed or canola meal, or other seed meal that is locally available in your area)
1/2 part lime ( equal mix of agricultural lime and dolomite lime)
1/2 part phosphate rock
1/2 part kelp meal

Mix all ingredienst together...it is stable and can be stored long-term tightly covered in a cool, dry place. You can work it into the soil before planting or as a side dressing for already established plants. Steve Solomon recommends 1 to 2 gallons per 100 square feet as a general rule, but of course this will vary depending on how fertile your soil is naturally, seasonal growth rates, plant nutrition needs, and so on. The NPK ratio is 5-5-1 (5% Nitrogen, 5% Phosphorus, 1% Potassium).

I should also mention that Mr Solomon formulated this blend for soils specifically in the Pacific Northwest region west of the Cascade Mountains, our soils tend to be deficient in many trace minerals, and they tend to be slightly acidic with lower levels of nitrogen and phosphorus.

If you have a well-stocked garden center, you should be able to find these in smaller amounts like the ones shown in the picture. For larger scale production, you'd probably want to source these in larger quantities.

Ciao for now :)

Recipes from the Blogosphere: Super Healthy Salad

I was thrilled when I saw this recipe for Wilted Kale and Mustard Greens Salad over on Manifest:Vegan blog (thanks for the recipe Manifest: Vegan!). In addition to the great recipe, the post contains an interview with "The Blissful Chef," a lovely macrobiotic chef from LA, which is really interesting too.

I've been trying to eat either collards, kale, or mustard greens as part of my vegetable intake every day...they are all powerhouses of nutrition and so good for you...so this salad really caught my eye. It's quick and simple, with no added oils, and in addition to the nutritious greens,  it calls for walnuts, which provide Omega 3's.

The salad is essentially raw, but wilted by massaging the greens in grapefruit juice, salt, and agave. I'm sure it's the salt that does the wilting, but I think the citric acid from the grapefruit might also alter the proteins in the greens and make them softer...not sure about that though.

massaged greens

The next time I make it (and I will be making this a lot) I will follow the exact recipe. But  this time, I didn't have any tomato or avocado on hand, so I decided to give it an Asian-y twist. Instead of  tomatoes and avocado, I added yellow pepper, scallions, and cabbage. Instead of the portobella cap, I used shitake mushrooms and sauteed them in equal parts water, Bragg's Aminos, and sake for a teriyaki-type flavor. Also used hemp seeds instead of walnuts. The end result was really tasty...which ever way you make it, I definitely recommend giving it a try.

Happy Chinese New Year

yongjk.blogspot.com hereby wishes all peoples Happy Chinese New Year & a prosperous tiger year. :)

You Always My Mans - What About Now

Not forget, every end of the year would release your new album
Here the day has cames....
11 years was attached by you,
Your voice completely contain with the power of love
Voice with soul, till made me cry everytime, was so amazing!
You inspired my life.
When i was down, you'll be beside me
When i was glad, same you'll be with me
Thanks for your awesome voice.
I love you guys~~

Head-lighted cat

Radicchio, Dandelion, and Blood Oranges

Yesterday, I was out poking around in my garden and came across some radicchio that overwintered. It was growing up in these pretty little rosettes, so I decided to harvest some:
 

I thought the leaves might be bitter, but they weren't...they were actually much sweeter than store-bought radicchio; they worked well with the slightly more bitter dandelion greens. And look at the lovely scarlet colors:

Blood oranges are in season and so delicious at the moment; they were a perfect addition to this salad.  I had the oven on for other items, so I warmed the orange slices and walnuts slightly ( about 1-2 minutes) before adding them. The dressing was fresh blood orange juice, a little drizzle of olive oil, and fresh ground black pepper.

Ratatouille Lasagne

This was a fun experiment. It's ratatouille done up lasagne style. Instead of noodles, I used eggplant and layered it with large chunks of courgette (zucchini), a chunky tomato sauce with red peppers, leek, and garlic, and a pine nut "cheese" filling. 

I sliced the eggplant lengthwise into 1/4-inch slices, and they worked like noodles would...except they released a lot of water while baking. Next time, I will salt the eggplant first to leach out some of the liquid and also make my tomato sauce a little thicker to reduce the amount of water.

For the sauce, I sauteed garlic, leek, red onion, and red peppers, with some Greek oregano, and red chili flakes...then tossed in the tomatoes and let it simmer. Thyme may be more traditional, but I went with oregano...let's face it, you couldn't really go too far wrong with any Mediterranean herb in this.

The pine nut "cheese" was really good...I usually use tofu as the base for these types of fillings, but not anymore...I really liked the way this filling turned out. I followed this recipe for  Lemon Pignoli Ricotta. You'll have to scroll down on the page a little to see the recipe.

Happy Saturday!

Roseann LaPonte

Rosanne Tobin

Slaw with Collards

I've never been a fan of cole slaw with a mayo-based dressing. When I make slaw, I usually just go for trusty old oil and vinegar to dress it. This time, I varied a little and dressed the slaw with the tamari/lime dressing  I used for the sprout salad earlier in the week.

The slaw contains red and green cabbage, and collard greens. I think raw collards have a green, fresh taste. It was good and full of crunchy nutrition. I added sesame seeds, orange zest, and green onion to each serving, but they would be just as good incorporated into the slaw as a whole of course. (Hemp seeds would have been good here too.)

This is another salad that's great for taking to work for lunch. And, my darling spouse, who is generally reticent about eating raw veggies, eats this...so, it's a great way to get some raw veggies into him.

Lemony Mustard Greens Soup

 

 If you like tangy, lemony flavors and/or you are a mustard lover, you might like this soup. I have to warn you in advance that my husband described this soup as "ill-defined and contradictory," which I thought was a very creative critique of soup. You'll have to decide for yourself whether it's something that you might want to try. For my part, I really liked it.

I garnished the soup with lemon zest and broccoli sprouts, and I have to say that they are an essential part of enjoying the soup. The lemon zest enhances the lemon in the soup and the peppery crunch of the broccoli sprouts round it off perfectly. Also, I used organic russet potatoes. Usually, I don't peel them when I use them, but in this case I did because I didn't want the dark skin to darken  the color of the soup (the photo does enough of that on its own, he he:).

Ingredients
1/2 lb mustard greens, roughly chopped (1 large bunch)
1 large leek, both green and white parts (~2 cups chopped into rounds)
2 large or 4 small russet potatoes, peeled and chopped into medium pieces (~ 1 lb)
3 cloves garlic, slivered
pinch of red chili flakes
1 large rib of celery, chopped medium
1/2 tablespoon olive oil
4-6 cups water or veggie broth (enough to reach and maintain desired consistency)
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1.5 - 2  tablespoons Dijon mustard (according to taste)
salt and pepper to taste
lemon zest, broccoli sprouts, and olive oil for topping
lemon wedges for garnish
 
In a large pot, gently saute the potatoes, leeks, celery, garlic and chili flakes  for 3-4  minutes until the leek begins to tender. Add enough water/broth to amply cover the leek and potato mixture, bring to a simmer, cover and let it cook for 20-30 minutes until the potatoes are cooked through and the vegetables are soft enough to puree.

Now, stir in the  mustard greens, cover the pot and remove from the heat. Allow he mustard greens to blanche in the hot pot for 1-2 minutes. Transfer soup to blender and blend until smooth. Return the soup to the stove, stir in the lemon juice and mustard, add salt and pepper to taste, and allow the soup to heat through for a few more minutes.

Serve garnished with olive oil, lemon zest, and broccoli sprouts.

Kota Kinabalu 10th City Day closing ceremony fireworks show

Sprout Salad

 

Here's a recipe for all you sprouters out there...and for all you non-sprouters too. (I used store-bought sprouts...I know...it's a lot cheaper to sprout your own, but I usually can't get organized enough for that to happen.) 

It's a simple salad, but very tasty, crunchy, and nutritious. Here are the ingredients:

~ 1 lb sprouts of your choice: I used mung bean, broccoli, pea, and lentil sprouts

1 cup unsalted, lightly roasted peanuts

1 good-sized handful of fresh cilantro, chopped (~1/2 cup chopped, or more to taste)

1 large carrot, julienne sliced or shredded 

1/4 cup tamari

1 teaspoon fresh, very finely grated ginger (or more to taste)

1/2 teaspoon toasted sesame oil (toasted sesame oil is stronger and more intense than light-colored, plain sesame oils...a little goes a long way)

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice/or garnish with lime wedges and squeeze over each serving to taste

Toss the sprouts, peanuts, carrot, and cilantro together and dress with the tamari/ginger/sesame/lime mixture.

This makes a perfect lunch to take to work; it really satisfies and fills you up without being heavy. If you want to make a large batch without it losing its crunch over a few days, mix the sprouts, carrots, and cilantro and keep the dressing and peanuts separate, dressing and "peanutting" as you go.

The next time I make this, I'll add some watermelon radish, which is making regular appearances at my local co-op these days.

Recipes from the Blogosphere: Thai Butternut Soup & Beet Chips

 

This is a combination of  recipes from two blogs that I follow and really like. The Thai Butternut Soup is from Mangocheeks  at the Allotment 2 Kitchen. The other recipe is Vegan Epicurean's Beet Chips. I've been wanting to try both for a while.

First, the soup: Mangocheeks won an award for it, and it was well-deserved. This soup is not only a creative combination, but  a perfect one. It's sweet, piquant, and rich. The flavors go perfectly together and it becomes rather addictive. I followed the recipe pretty much to a 'T', except that I added some lemon grass. It's wonderful with lime juice squeezed over the top. The soup is even tastier the next day and/or the longer it simmers, as the kaffir lime and other flavors become more pronounced. And I don't know whether this sounds odd to anyone, but I think a tomato soup version of this would be delicious as well.

Mangocheeks topped her soup with some tofu croutons, which I'm sure are delicious, and which I will surely try another day. But oddly, in a strange twist of events, I wasn't in the mood for tofu when I made the soup, so I decided to try Vegan Epicurean's beet chips as the topper instead. They bake up nicely in the oven, and make a great snack as well as a nice garnish. The beet chips worked well with the soup and added a crunchy dimension over the top. 

If you like Thai flavors, my advice is to give this soup a try...and if you like beets, those beet chips are not only fun, but definitely worth your while.