Fri 3 Sep 2010

Eighteen27 Girls night

Posted by admin under Restaurant Reviews
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I have to admit, I have some of the BEST girlfriends ever. We all went out for a girl’s night to Eighteen27 at 9185 Glover Road Fort Langley to celebrate my friend’s and my birthday. I had never been here before but based on what my other girlfriend said I was very excited to go. I had also checked out the menu ahead of time and knew I was in for some tough decisions to come!

Their menu is primarily tapas right down to their desserts. They have a huge martini selection and a pretty decent wine variety as well. This place also has 2 for 1 tapas on Wednesdays, Date night Tuesday’s (4 courses for 29.99), and a ladies 80’s night on Thursday where they have live 80’s music and 5.00 martini’s.  We couldn’t have picked a better place to have a girl’s night in the middle of the week!

The first thing I tried was the Candied Pecan Brie, which is a puff pastries shell, with cranberry relish/compote and artisan bread.  When it arrived it didn’t really look like brie until we moved some of the cranberries to the side. Basically the take a round puff pastry, cookie cutter the center out and put the brie inside and cover with the cranberry compote. The amount of brie is actually very little and is just enough to cover the 4 pieces of small bread. The cranberry always tastes great with brie so it was very enjoyable but I am not sure where the pecan part of the dish is. I didn’t detect any pecan.

Next up was the 3 cheese fondue. I really enjoyed the flavour of the cheese. There is a slight garlic aftertaste and a small amount of parsley as well in the sauce. It tasted great on the accompaniment that it was served with. The fondue was a little on the hot side and ended up burning by the end, but it was pretty much empty by that point. This was the perfect amount to share as a tapas plate.

My favourite dish of the night was the Seared Ahi Tuna. It was served on waffle chips, with a spicy aioli and soy sesame slaw. The little waffle chips were very similar to a potato chip and added a great crush to the soft texture of the tuna. The tuna itself was cooked perfectly, seared on the outside and rare in the middle. The spicy aioli was had the perfect level of bite. The soy sesame slaw is hiding under the tuna and gives it a slight Asian taste but very subtle. The cilantro that is sprinkled on top does really hit you until the end when you mouth is still tingling from the aioli and just makes you want to another. I absolutely loved this one!

We also ordered a traditional Margarita Pizza to share. This was a thin crusted grilled pizza with oven roasted tomato sauce, vine ripen tomato slices, bocconchini and basil. The pizza crust was crispy but not overly crisp with a generous amount of bocconchini. The tomato in my opinion was sliced a little on the thick side but that is minor. I loved the balsamic drizzled on top. That reminded me of capresse salad which I love!

Another thing that was ordered was the Tail Dip. This is Atlantic lobster mixed with spinach and cream cheese served with baguette. I didn’t make it back down to that end of the table so I didn’t try this one. It looks amazing and I regret not remembering to have some. Maybe one of the girls will be nice enough to post their opinion. 

The yam fries were also ordered, and I did taste these. They were cooked perfectly and served with a wasabi aioli. I had forgotten it was wasabi and when I took a bit it was a surprise to have that style of spice. I wouldn’t normally put yam and wasabi together but it was actually really good.  Another dish that was ordered was the truffle gnocchi and this came later and by this time I was stuffed so I didn’t try it.  It looked great, and I could smell the garlic when sitting next to it.

The atmosphere is eighteen27 is a lot of fun and the all the staff entertained us by joking around and playing along to our teasing. At one point one of the male staff brought shots for the 2 birthday girls too. I don’t know what they were but they tasted great and you can’t not love a free birthday shot! My great friends also brought a cake for us too which the staff were more then accommodating with. We might make eighteen27 a monthly girl’s night from now on since we had such a great time!

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Wed 1 Sep 2010

Agave Grill

Posted by admin under Mexican, Restaurant Reviews
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For some reason there seems to be a total lack of Mexican restaurants but Langley is lucky enough to have a few. Since its one of my favourite foods I have put these places on the top of my list. I have been to Viva Mexico in the past, before my blogging days and loved it but I have been very excited to try the newest one Agave grill at 19988 84 Avenue. Their website has been under construction since they’ve opened which is a little frustrating because I like to check out menus prior to eating and I know I am not alone in this weird habit. Regardless J was nice enough to take me, so the menu was just going to have to be a surprise.  

The menu is pretty much your basic Mexican menu, no surprises there and they had a pretty decent selection. The prices on some of the dishes are a little on the high side in my opinion but since there is so much to chose from you can definitely find something in any price range.

 Unlike pretty much all Mexican restaurants they don’t start you off with complimentary chips and salsa but you can order this off the menu for a great price. Only 6.00 for guacamole and chips. J and I ordered a trio dip and chips for 5.00 which came with Guacamole, Pico de gallo, and Ceviche. This wasn’t in their regular menu but their promotion menu or seasonal menu.  For 5.00 it was definitely worth it. I loved the guacamole, it was chunky and wonderful. The ceviche was a little on the sweet side but also amazing and the first thing we polished off. The pico de gallo was not really memorable, it was bland and basically a tomato/onion salad.

 It didn’t take much longer for our meals to arrive which was nice because I was starving. I ordered the Fajita Chicken Burrito which is a giant tortilla stuffed with grilled chicken, re-fried beams, green sauce, Monterey jack cheese, and topped with a sour cream sauce on top of rice. Served with Pico de Gallo and Guac. The burrito was very good. The chicken was perfectly cooked and the fajita marinade was amazing. The sour cream sauce on top was sort of like a ranch style sauce. It was really tasty.  I didn’t really notice much green sauce but I’m thinking the marinade, being red, just blended it into the burrito. There wasn’t too much re-fried beans in the burrito either which was nice, majority of the burrito was chicken. The only down side was the rice. It was undercooked or something. The texture was just off.

 Jason ordered something off the promotion menu that isn’t on their regular menu. The Agave Enchiladas, which were 2 tortillas stuffed with chicken topped with their flag sauces (reg sauce, green sauce, and white sour cream sauce) Topped with cheese and served on top of rice. I didn’t’ get a chance to try his food but he said it was good. He wasn’t really in a descriptive mood, but I will take this as a good thing. His rice was also the same undercooked weird rice as I got as well. We later overheard the kitchen say that the rice didn’t turn out and if people complain to take it off their bill so I will take it as an off night. 

 I don’t know if our server was new but she was a little off. She started off okay but at the end she just seemed to stop caring. I had asked her to pack up my leftover burrito but not the rice since it wasn’t good and she didn’t comment on this at all, ignored me and walked away. It would have been nice if she acknowledged this, especially since we overhear the chef say the rice was bad. I wasn’t looking for a refund and clearly they already knew it was bad but I would have appreciated to be acknowledged. Once she dropped of my to-go box she sort of disappeared. That would have been the perfect opportunity to offer a dessert, coffee or the bill. Technically I am there for the food and other then the rice the food was great but the last thing you do in a restaurant is pay the server and if she isn’t around it sort of leaves a bad imprint. I will forgive them though because the server did remember to pack the leftover guacamole with my burrito!
Agave Grill on Urbanspoon

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Tue 31 Aug 2010

Pulled Pork, Coleslaw and buns

Posted by admin under Recipes
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I’ve wanted to make pulled pork for a long time now. I have enjoyed some pretty amazing pulled pork and for some reason I was super scared to make it. I had convinced myself that it was going to be something I would definitely ruin. I finally just bite the bullet and made pulled pork for the first time and it was surprising easy! I found several recipes online but once I got started I found myself reaching for everything I could and just throwing it in. The only think I didn’t have was an onion which I probably would have added but it was still great! 

Rub

  • 1 tbs chilli powder
  • 1/2tsp of chipotle powder (it’s all I had left)
  • ½ tsp black pepper

 

At this point you could wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for as long as you want but I didn’t have time.

Heat a skillet on high and sear all sides for a few min until browned.  Remove put in slow cooker and add wet ingredients, cook on high for 4-8 hours depending how big your pork loin is.  

Wet ingredients

  • 1-2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tbsp sriracha sauce
  • 1 tbsp chipotle sauce or 2-3 chipotle peppers mashed and blended
  • ¼ cup dark rum (Bermuda rum a friend bought me, but any kind is fine )
  • 1 tbsp black pepper  and salt
  • ½ tsp liquid smoke (optional)
  • 1 tsp chilli powder
  • ½ tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp lemon juice or lime
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic
  • 2-2 tbsp of olive oil
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 2 tbsp ketchup or 1 tbsp tomato paste

I would add all the wet ingredients together first and make sure it is good before pouring on the pork roast. To test when its done just poke it with a fork and it should come apart really easily. Take it out of the slowcooker and shred with a fork removing the fat. Pour the sauce from the slow cooker to a saucepot and put on stove and reduce. Put pork back in slow cooker and pour reduced sauce over top, keep in cooker to keep warm until you’re to eat!

I also made a simple coleslaw to go inside the sandwiches. The dressing was super easy, but you could use bottled if you’re feeling lazy.

  • ½ cup Yogurt
  • ¼ mayo
  • 1 tsp Poppy seeds
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 1 tsp lemon
  • 1 tsp celery salt
  • 1 tsp dill weed
  • 1 tsp sugar or honey
  • Salt and pepper

I also used a pre made bag of mix because I wasn’t in the mood to cut up cabbage, carrot and all the other junk that you want to add. I did cut up an apple and added it to my mix.

I also attempted to make my own buns for these sandwiches as well and confirmed that baking is really not my thing. I am too impatient and don’t like following directions. They weren’t a complete flop but too dense for this kind of sandwich. I’m not sure where I went wrong since I felt like I followed the recipe; any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! I used a recipe Coconut & Lime blog, thanks for the recipe. Maybe I just need more practice.

Ingredients:
2 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 oz active dry yeast

for the egg wash
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon water

to sprinkle:
sesame or poppy seeds

Directions:
Stir together the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt in a saucepan. Bring to a boil then remove from heat and allow the mixture to cool to lukewarm. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the flour and yeast. Pour in the milk mixture and stir until the dough starts to come together, adding more water of the mixture looks dry or more flour if the mixture looks wet. If you have a stand mixer, use the dough hook to mix for about 8 minutes. If not, knead the dough on a floured surface for about 10 minutes. Place the dough in a greased bowl. Cover with a towel and wait until it has doubled in size, about 1 hour. Punch down the dough and divide into 6* even portions. Make tight balls out of the dough by pulling the dough towards the bottom and gently stretching until a ball with a smooth top forms. Place seam-side down on a baking stone or metal baking sheet. I actually just used my silipat and baking sheet. Allow the rolls to sit for a minute. Flatten each dough ball with your hand or the back of a large spatula until it is about 3 to 4 inches wide. Cover the rolls with the towel again and set aside until they have just about doubled in size, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 400. Whisk together the water and yolk to make the egg wash. Brush onto the tops of the rolls. Sprinkle with seeds. Bake for about 20 minutes or until golden brown on both the top and the bottom and when tapped, they sound hollow. Allow to cool, then slice.

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Mon 30 Aug 2010

Grandpa’s Birthday and 100th POST!!

Posted by admin under Locations
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How exciting, my 100th post! I love how it is also a post about my Grandpa, what a great day!

This past weekend was my grandpa’s birthday and my parents had the entire family over for a bbq. Now I didn’t make or help you with any of the food but I still wanted to show the delicious meal that we had for such a great celebration!

My Dad bbq’d a cedar plank salmon on the bbq using some planks he purchased at Costco. These fish that he caught were so big that they drooped over the sides of the plank. The sauce they used made the fish literally turn into candy. It was soooo good. Lots if Ginger, garlic and turned into a glace that cooked right into the fish.

My Aunt brought a Greek salad, and a quinoa salad which were amazing. Quinoa is basically a seed that fluffs up when cooked and it super healthy and tasty!

We also had Chilliwack corn on the cob, and chicken skewers as well.

Everything was absolutely delicious and it was great to visit with the entire family.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDPA!

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Mon 30 Aug 2010

A&W Spicy Mama Burger

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When going to fast food joints my expectations are usually set to zero and I don’t usually like eating in these kinds of places but every once in a while I get lazy and make my way over. I think the worst part of fast food joints in the poor treatment of the staff by customers and management and it really bothers me. These poor kids get paid min wage to give you crappy food, it’s not their fault, and they just need some money!

 Anyway, on Saturday I walked over to A&W to shamelessly order myself some lunch. I noticed that there was a small cardboard sign on the counter that said “spicy Mama, 1.99”. Well, I do like mama burgers and cheap ones at that so I decided to give it a try. While the manager was rudely telling the cashier that she inspected a 50.00 dollar bill wrong I was looking for a picture or description of this new burger and also thinking that the manager should really not be doing this in front of the customers. I didn’t bother asking because I didn’t want to get the cashier in any more trouble if she couldn’t tell me what was in the burger. So I really had no idea how they made a boring old mama burger spicy, did they top it with Jalapeno’s? Chipotle Sauce? What could it be?

I unwrapped it to find a mama burger with a GIANT piece of lettuce covered in a creamy pinkish red sauce. HA! I knew it…..Chipotle sauce! Mamas don’t usually have lettuce in them either so it was a nice surprise to see some green among the greasy patty. I had to tear apart the lettuce and take some of the thick white parts out but once I got that under control I noticed another surprise, jalapeno jack cheese (I think). How excellent is that? A cheaper version of the mama burger with extra toppings! The burger itself seemed less salty then there typical mama burger but its probably just being covered up by the spicy sauce. The sauce was also not too spicy, in fact, for me it could have been hotter. I think for some people it might induce some Kleenex worthy sniffles though. I couldn’t really taste the cheese and I feel like they could have made this even better by adding some bacon. It probably wouldn’t have been 1.99 but it would have tasted even better! Overall it was pretty good for those lazy days I don’t bring a lunch to work it will do the trick but like any fast food chain, I would be running back just to get this before the limited time ends.

Sorry no photos, didn’t bring my camera

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Thu 26 Aug 2010

Bok Choy soup with pork meatballs and a Banh Mi from Golden Pizza & Sub

Posted by admin under Recipes
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My mom and I bought a big bag of Bok Choy to share. Normally I would just whip up a stir fry but I actually am getting a little tired of using Bok Choy in stir fry’s so even though it was 29 degrees yesterday I decided to make soup. I found a recipe on another blog called Las Vegas food adventures that included pork meatballs. It was really easy and tasted great! The only thing I would change is adding a little less brown sugar because I found the meat balls to be a little sweet. This could also be because I added a little hoison sauce to the meat balls because I ran out of soy sauce, other than that the recipe was perfect. The meatballs would also be perfect in sandwiches as well!

 

Ingredients

Soup

  • 5 cups basic chicken stock
  • 2-3 slices unpeeled fresh ginger
  • 2 minced green onions
  • 2 tablespoon sherry (or Chinese cooking wine)
  • 2 tablespoon soy sauce
  • 6-8 bunches fresh baby bok choy

Meatballs

  • 1 lb ground pork
  • ½ tsp mashed garlic
  • ½ tsp grated fresh ginger
  • ½ cup very finely minced green onions
  • 2 tsp light brown sugar
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1/2 tsp sesame oil

Bring the soup ingredients-except the bok choy and green onions to a simmer.

Combine all of the meatball ingredients, mix well and form into 1 inch sized balls

Jason also went to Golden Pizza and Subs to grab a chicken banh mi sandwhich. We usually order the Vietnamese meatball but he thought that since the soup had a type of meatball that we should get chicken. I have to admit, I was a little apprehensive because I have only had the meatball. I liked it so much that I never thought to try a different kind before and WOW, the chicken is really good too. Its like a dry shredded chicken breast but with the sauce it was perfect. Now I am excited to try the other sandwiches!

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Wed 25 Aug 2010

Baked Tortellini

Posted by admin under Misc, Recipes
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Okay, so my photos haven’t been great the last couple of days because I left my camera at a friend’s house and J’s camera died. So I apologise for that, and promise that it won’t last long!

It was J’s birthday on Monday so I asked him what he wanted for dinner. I said I would make him anything his little heard desires or we could go out for dinner. He chose the easiest meal on the planet which made me pretty happy, Baked Tortellini with lots of cheese! You don’t even really need a recipe for this unless you’re making your own sauce. I used some left over sauce that I froze from when I made cannelloni last week and combined it with a quick Alfred sauce for a creamy tomato sauce. I pre-cooked the tortellini, drained, added sauce and stirred, topped with cheese and baked at 450 for 10 min, then put the oven on broil to brown the cheese. DONE! I am pretty sure he loved his bday meal since he shoved it back without talking!

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Wed 25 Aug 2010

Faux Wood topped Cup Cakes

Posted by admin under Misc, Recipes
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I know J isn’t a young buck anymore and he really didn’t want to celebrate his birthday at all but I still felt the need to make either a cake or something that he could enjoy. I mean, what is a birthday without some kind of cake right? I decided to do cupcakes since it’s easier to pack and he could take some home or work with him but honestly cupcakes aren’t very manly so I googled like a manic to try and find a way to make them more masculine.

Leave it up to Martha Stewart to solve my problems again. She used a wood grain tool and chocolate to create some interesting wood pattern decorations that are edible. GENIUS! Her instructions are pretty simple but it will take a couple of tries/practice to get the wood looking good.

http://www.marthastewart.com/how-to/chocolate-faux-bois-cupcake  Here is her version and instruction.

I used parchments paper and a baking sheet instead of Acetate because I don’t even know what that is and I didn’t use a round cookie cutter, I just broke mine into square pieces because I thought that would look more like wood and it’s easier. Another thing I did was add the milk chocolate to the parchment paper instead of the wood grain tool. Just a thin layer was fine. If you add it to the tool you end up just having to add more and more until the paper is coated anyway so why not just do that in the first place.

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Mon 23 Aug 2010

Jimmy Flynn’s Celtic Snug

Posted by admin under Restaurant Reviews
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J and I had a pretty busy weekend so when J suggested that we go out for lunch on Saturday I immediately said yes. It was beautiful outside and we happened to be out in White Rock so we walked the beach and scoped out the patios for a place to eat. Of course most of them were full except for the expensive places. J remembered that there was a new Celtic pub at 15065 Marine Dr.White Rock (on the strip) so we went down there and as luck would have it, they had an open table on their patio.

Right away our server came out and let us know about the water advisory that was going on in south surrey and also let us know what was on tap. She was one of the friendliest and talkative servers we had in a while.  I decided for a crisp strongbow and J had a Bud.

Our server came back and we started to talk about the menu I ordered a one piece halibut and chips. J ordered the bison sliders while mentioning that they had a bit of competition. He told her all about the bison burgers I had made and how delicious they were, made with my very own whiskey bbq sauce. Then we got talking about my blog and she told me all about twitter, which later enticed me to sign up.

The food came in the perfect amount of time and I was very excited to give it a try. J’s sliders looked so yummy, I was almost more excited to try his then mine. The buns were very soft, almost like a dinner role instead of the usual mini hamburger buns and they had the best beer bbq sauce on them.  J wished that there was a tad more sauce since bison tends to come out on the dryer side but he definitely loved the little sliders. The server did mention that a lot of people order additional sauce on the side and double it as a dip for fries so I am sure J will do that next time.

My fish and chips were also really good. The fish was cooked perfectly and the batter was also one of their own darker beer batters. It was light, crispy and also not too thick. I really dislike thick cakey batter so I was very pleased. The fries were also cooked perfectly and stayed crispy right until the end. Eating in the hot sun could have made them soggy but they were good the whole time. I have to mention the tarter style sauce that is served with the halibut as I absolutely loved it. I also dipped my fries into as I couldn’t get enough of it. It was a creamy light tangy sauce and thinner than your usual tartar sauce.  

After our meal we got the pleasure of meeting one of the owners who was extremely nice and right off the bat you could tell he had a true passion for his pub and wanted nothing but his patrons to enjoy themselves. I was extremely happy with my meal and the friendly service at Jimmy Flynns and I will absolutely go back again.

(sorry about the cell phone camera)
Jimmy Flynn's Celtic Snug on Urbanspoon

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Mon 23 Aug 2010

Vive La Revolution red wine

Posted by admin under Product Reviews
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J picked a bottle of wine the other day and I think I am starting to rub off on him. Picking a bottle based on the label is something I have been doing for a long time. I seriously cannot bring myself to buy wine if the label is boring or looks old and snobby.

Vive La Revolution is one of those wines that just make “red” and doesn’t put it into a specific category. Those kinds of wine are always interesting to see and taste what it will be like. This time we decided to pour it through my decanter and oxygenate it for immediate drinking. I sort of wished we had tasted it before and after using the decanter but we forgot.

This wine was very very smooth. There was a very mild floral aroma at first and finished off with a dry berry taste. It wasn’t too sweet and right on the edge of a perfect dry wine. I would definitely buy this wine again!  

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