COCONUT JELLY

Coconut Jelly (gluten free)

Hello Kitty Coconut Jelly!

I have two plastic jelly molds I purchased to make kiddie jellies.  The huge Hello Kitty face mold above turned out really well and the facial features turned out quite well.

Miffy?

Sorry, I don't know the Hello Kitty characters too well.  The 4-character set produces smaller sized jellies and their features didn't turn out as distinct.  Each jelly is about 2 inches in length.  I used a thin rubber spatula to help ease out the jellies.

 Who's this bear?  Oh well, obviously I'm not learned about Hello Kitty characters.

While my daughters enjoyed the cute characters in coconut jelly form, I preferred the little cubes.  The coconut jelly is firm enough to eat with your fingers, just like the kind you get at DimSum restaurants.  

This version of the Coconut Jelly is not very sweet and isn't spongey like my previous recipe which incorporates whipped egg whites.  It's gluten free but not dairy free.  I suppose if you wanted to, you could replaced the cow's milk with more coconut milk or substitute almond milk or soy milk.  

COCONUT JELLY (Gluten Free)

1 cup (250 ml) water

5 oz (125 g) evaporated cane sugar

1 oz (25 g) gelatine

1 cup (250 ml) coconut milk (ensure you mix the contents in the can well before measuring)

1 cup (250 ml) 2% milk (you may substitute with soy, almond or more coconut milk)

• Boil water, add sugar and stir to dissolve. Cool slightly and add gelatine. Stir well to dissolve. Add coconut milk and 2% milk.
• Immediately pour mixture into plastic-lined pan or molds and chill until firm and set.
• Cut into cubes; serve cold

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GOOD CHOICE FOR DIM SUM

Spicy Pan Fried Radish Cake. 


Having had a great dining experience the last time we ate at Good Choice, we gave it a go for Dim Sum today.

The pan fried radish cake had just the right amount of heat.  It had fresh chilies, fresh bean sprouts and the cubes of radish cake held well with a light crispy exterior and soft interior.   Rating:  6/6

Scallions and Pork Neck in Soy sauce. 

By far, my favourite dish of the whole lunch!  It was so good!   The meat was a little springy, very tender and not fatty at all.  I loved the abundance of scallion.  Very savoury and I would definitely order it again.  Rating:  6/6

Black bean sauce clams. 

This dish was okay.  I liked the portion size.  The sauce was on the watery side and I don’t like like it so “wet”.  I liked a drier version myself.  Rating:  4/6

Har Gow.

Stomach is the har gow expert.  He liked it very much.  The skin was pretty good and the shrimp inside flavourful.  Rating:  5/6

Lotus Leaf Sticky Rice.

The filling of the sticky rice consisted of pork, Chinese sausage and a piece of salted duck egg yolk.  This is the kids’ favourite and Bebe ate a whole one on her own (after flicking they yolk on to Stomach’s dish).    Rating:  5/6

Green Onion Pancake.

This version  is fried.  Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.  But it is definitely not as flaky done this way in my opinion.  Rating:  4/6

Black Bean Sauce Spareribs.

Juicy, plump, tender morsels or pork ribs and just the right amount of black beans…and seasoned just right.  This dish was good.  Rating: 5.5/6

The clear disappointment of the whole meal was the Singapore Fried Rice Vermicelli.  Though it looks pretty enough, the noodles were hard (not soaked long enough) and needed flavour. 

Though this dish had plump shrimp, I was disappointed with the insipid flavour.  There was no heat and not enough "wok hei” or caramelizing going on.  If it had more heat, more curry flavour or more meat/shrimp and scallion, it would have been saved.  I took the whole dish home and fixed it by adding curry powder and cooking it until the noodles softened more.

Deep Fried Meat-stuffed Dumplings.

This dish was good and had plenty of meat filling.  The exteriors were crisp and the dough was nice and chewy just like it’s supposed to be.  Rating:  5/6

Coconut Pudding .

Really, it’s more like a hard jello.  Anyhow, what’s a meal without dessert?  This coconut pudding was nicely set and tasted cool, milky and refreshing.

Just click on the menus to see the Dim Sum menu up close.   

Good Choice was actually very good for Dim Sum.  I was happy and would come back again.  I just wouldn't order the noodles dishes now that I know that the Singapore Rice Vermicelli was a flop.  The regular items on the dim sum menu were all really good though and I'd like to order some other ones to see how they are too.  There are some interesting items on the menu that are more innovative than the regular Dim Sum fare.

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BAAK TONG GOH FROM NEW TOWN BAKERY

Lookit those great bubbles!

New Town Bakery’s White Sugar Rice Steamed Rice Cake (baak tong goh) are good.  They don’t have that overly-yeasted/fermented taste.  They are soft and white and kids love them. 

Making these yourself is possible, but buying a few pieces is so much more convenient because there’s no long wait for the fermentation of the yeast and rice batter.  Besides, the best recipe I have calls for grinding your own raw rice in a blender and that is a noisy endeavour.  The versions made from rice flour don’t taste very good to me at all. 

There are other good versions of Baak Tong Goh in bakeries, but New Town’s is good PLUS you can buy those excellent Big Steamed Buns and little round sugar-crusted Apple Tarts while you’re there…which no one else has.

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FORTUNE RESTAURANT, OAKRIDGE… DIM SUM REVISITED

BBQ Pork Pastries. 

These sweet and savoury pies were very good.  Rating:  6/6

Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf:  Something spicy in there...Maybe xo sauce.   Rating:  4/5

Har Gow:  Good skin. Held together well and stuffed with plump shrimp. Rating:  5.5/6

Chicken on Rice.  Rating:  4/6

Panfried Radish Cake.  Rating:  4.5/6

Crispy Honeyed Fried Egg Crepes. 

I love my sweets. My bad...not supposed to eat gluten but I did have a tiny piece with this dessert.  Rating:  6/6

Egg Tarts:   Cute.  But I like the flaky pastry version.  Rating:  3/6

Steamed black bean spareribs.  Excellent chunks of sparerib with fresh peppers and blackbeans.   Great flavour.  Rating:  6/6

Sweet Vinegared Pigs’s Trotters with egg and ginger.  A popular convalescing dish for new mothers.  No.  I’m not a new mother but I like the gingery vinegar!

I always love the egg.  It's mine!  There were two eggs.   The pork had the fuzzies which I had to pick off.    I don't like the 5 o’clock shadow sensation on my tongue. The vinegar broth was not too hot but sweet.   Rating:  4/6.


Fortune Restaurant is quite busy despite some poor reviews.  Whoever is eating here obviously doesn't read Urbanspoon!  I think I heard somewhere that there was a change in ownership and food has improved from the past. I dunno.  This could be heresay but Chinese chefs seem to move around quite a bit and a restaurant can be great one day and crappy the next because of the roaming chefs.   The prices are still higher than some other dim sum establishments due to its prime location in the Oakridge Centre Mall.  I would say the food is okay and the restaurant is conveniently located if you're going to be doing some shopping later on.  We didn’t order any dish that was particularly innovative or creative.  The dim sum was pretty middle-of-the-road with some hits and some misses.   Since this is our second visit, I can say that the food is pretty consistent.  Service is good too. 

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SHI-ART CHINESE CUISINE, RICHMOND

Gai lan with ginger sauce. Rating: 6/6

Tender choice cuts of gai lan in a flavourful ginger sauce.

Green onion pancake.  Rating:  5/6

Great flaky pastry. Could do with more green onion flavour

Sweet vinegared pigs feet with ginger and egg.  Rating:  5.5/6

Really tender pork, ginger slices and boiled egg. The vinegar broth could have been a tad more gingery and could have a stronger vinegar presence, but it was exceptional in the preparation of the pigs feet.

Har gow.  Rating:  5.5/6

Almost perfect. Large shrimp that are plump and juicy. The skin is a bit too thick but good.

Deep fried pork and veg dumpling.  Rating:  5/6

The crispy shell of deep fried glutinous sweet rice dough was chewy inside as is expected.   The savoury pork filling...which I would have liked to see a little more of inside was very good.

Siu Mai.  Rating:  5.5/6 

Juicy, shrimp embedded pork filling topped with tobiko.  Good flavour.

Deep fried taro dumpling filled with curried meat filling.  Rating:  5/6

Honey egg wraps (daan saan).  Rating.  3/6

Oh so disappointing.  Generally, you can’t go wrong with deep fried in my book.  However, this dessert dish was a flavourless dry fried crepe and it was not sweet enough. I suppose it would be okay if you don't like sweet desserts.   However, the crepe was not crispy light and meltingly tender.

Sticky Rice in Lotus Leaf.  Rating:  5/6

Everything was good aside from the tiny slice of sausage.   It had a strange flavour.

Rice noodle with shrimp.  Rating:  4/6

We thought the Rice noodle was too thick and powdery in texture. The flavour was okay.

See that 20% discount?  If you pay your bill  BEFORE 11:00am, you get 20% off.  A minute after 11a.m. and you pay full price.  This doesn’t mean you have to finish eating before 11.  You just have to PAY.  So we did.  The waitress told us we could take our time and eat leisurely after we paid.  Of course we did.

With the discount, I think this was a pretty good deal.  I don’t think I would want to pay the full price for the food you get.  The food was pretty good and the service was good.

The best thing about this restaurant is that it’s located in Richmond Centre and so if you’re in the mall,  it’s a decent place to have dim sum (before 11am) before you start shopping.


There is plenty of parking in the Richmond Centre mall parking lot.  Arrive early (10-11a.m.) and you won’t find yourself waiting beyond the discount time.

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