SUMMER FOODIE HIGHLIGHTS:DEHYDRATED KALE AND PORTLAND

Forgive me for I have sinned:  I ate this voodoo doughnut.  But when in Portland, one must indulge.  I love it when the red jelly oozes out of the centre of the chocolate frosting covered long-john.  fab.

Oh yah. Summer.  It's been a while since I've posted what with life, teaching and mentoring.  I am taking this summer off and really trying to de-stress.  So what's new? I've purchased a new Fuji X100S camera.  It's retro cool.  All the pics here were taken with it.  I haven't figured out how to use it yet...but that'll come with time and practice.

Portland Creme doughnut from downtown Voodoo Doughnuts

So this is a post about all the groovy foodie things I've experienced so far in July.  geez.  The month's only half over.  Highlights for me are cycling to the various local markets in Vancouver.  We've hit about 4 of them so far and I've fallen hard for the vendors' amazing produce and tasty tiny strawberries!

My fave: the Gaybar!  it's filled with pastry cream and topped with rainbow fruit loops

not my fave: I don't like soggy cereal on my doughnuts apparently.  This is Captain my Captain (crunch--not)

Also, we visited my fave U.S. city...Portland, Oregon a week ago.  We stayed at the Embassy Suites hotel in downtown Portland again because I just love the Art Deco building and the Happy Hour every day (along with the comp cooked to order breakfasts!)  As well, they are a mere 2 blocks' walk from Voodoo Doughnuts! and the Saturday Market! yikes! so much coolness--of course I had to indulge. Yes, I know...gluten.  I did my best to be GF for as long as possible.  I waited until the end of the trip to eat half a doughnut and see how my stomach took it (and in case I doubled-up in pain in the beginning of the trip...not a good thing).  It went relatively well; I ate the other half and brought the box up to Vancouver.

Maple Bacon: another fave.  You can't go wrong with bacon.

Yes, good things DO come in pink boxes.  I'm wondering why we don't use pink boxes in Vancouver, Canada?

But, what was better than Voodoo Doughnuts this time? well, we were wandering around Portland's Chinatown and came across this tea house called Red Robe Tea House & Cafe.  It was the cleanest and coolest place I experienced in this slice of the city.  Inside, there's dark wood and tea ceremony paraphernalia everywhere! I was in heaven.  Of course, they have bubble teas too (which my kids ordered).  I ordered a 2006 Pu Erh.  I don't know my Chinese teas too well but I know that good Pu Erhs are better aged...the older the better.  I also know that Pu Erh suits my constitution because some old Chinese guy told me so when I visited a tea shoppe in Vancouver's Chinatown.  I used to drink tons of green tea and it was too "cooling" since I'm hypothyroid and have Hashimoto's.  So he suggested Pu Erh (Bo Lay in Cantonese).  I haven't gone back to green tea much since then and have since learned of its benefits:  weight loss, vitamins B1, B2, C and E, potassium, magnesium, zinc which I need apparently because of my Hashi's, and a bunch o' others which I think you can google later (anti-oxidants, digestion, lowering cholesterol, lowering blood pressure, increasing metabolism, "blood cleansing"?)  if you want!  All I know from growing up is that my parents always drunk it...it was the default Chinese tea in the pantry.  My father always told me as I recall...that if you eat a lot of greasy food (i.e. dimsum or a huge bag o chips) you've got to accompany it with a huge pot of Pu Erh (Bo Lay) to counteract the grease.  It works.  Trust me.  You'll feel better.  Steep it dark.  Real dark.

Chinese Tea Ceremony with 2006 Pu Erh Tea at Red Robe Tea House and Cafe in Chinatown,  Portland, Oregon.

The service was so friendly and helpful and the waitress I think was the owner's daughter.  She was a cutie and very helpful with informing me about what to order.  The young lady's parents entertained my kids by showing them what the Chinese tea ceremony "tea pets" could do.  My kids wanted a little Yixing clay piggy but alas, I didn't buy it.  I should have.  One of the piggies squirted water when you poured hot water over it! that was so cute.  The resin figurines changed colour when you pour hot water over them.

tea pets: some are made of Yixing Clay (highly prized "purple clay" from China) and others made of resin

pouring hot water on the Yixing clay and resin "tea pets"

I'm hooked: fantastic tea that gives over a dozen or more infusions served in a tiny tea cup and with all the tea paraphernalia.  

You know me, as soon as the chinese tea ceremony started, I knew I wouldn't leave the shoppe without some sort of tea ceremony paraphernalia.  I purchased a few things I'll post about later.  heehee. btw, I already have a collection of a few Yixing teapots that are a few decades old.  As the pots age, they take on the flavour of the tea leaves that you've chosen to use in the pots.

Yixing teapot: one mini "purple" clay teapot is used to steep only one variety of tea.  Good reason to have several different teapots! They're so cute

In case you didn't know, a Chinese tea ceremony isn't anything like a Japanese tea ceremony where everything has to be precise and seems quite formal.  A Chinese tea ceremony in fact is more relaxing (you don't have to worry about the details as much) and can be just as zen-like.  

I found not too many good videos on youtube showing the Chinese tea ceremony.  Too many of them are Chinesey---i.e. I have no idea how to translate as I don't speak/understand Chinese.  Some of the videos are shot by tourists; thus the multiple flashes and also there's an air of the performance for the tourist, which to me is kind of meh.  So far, the best take on the tea ceremony I've appreciated aesthetically is this one:

Maybe I like this video simply because I'm addicted to the music, which I happened to go and purchase almost immediately for my ios devices:  the Green Tara Mantra.  I now have 3 versions of the mantra!  I sit out on my deck with my tea ceremony stuff and my buddha statue and loop the 3 songs.  It's so relaxing for me anyways...perhaps my neighbours aren't so happy about me blasting yoga music in my backyard :p

My daughter's fave is called "Mantra of Joy" by Xu Qing-Yuan (which is the one being played in the background in the youtube video I posted).  I also have "Green Tara Mantra" from Surya and "Mantra of the Green Tara" from Imee Ooi.  Sing with me if you've got the ear-worm now:  Om Tara Tuttare Ture Soha... (repeat that 108 times now!)  My 6 year old loves the song because she's memorized the words pretty easily.

By the way, if you're wanting some Chinese tea ceremony stuff and you're in Vancouver, I suggest you go visit The Chinese Tea Shop in Chinatown, Vancouver.  I purchased quality Pu Erh there and they also have the Yixing teapots and stuff too.  I posted about my previous purchase here.

fresh organic Kale...you know what I'm gonna do to you

Another highlight of my summer thus far: dehydrated kale chips.  Yah. I know, you've already had it and think it's great too! However, I had completely forgotten that I had a dehydration feature on my Wolf oven.  I had been baking them at 350 degrees F...which sometimes imparted a burnt flavour to some of the tinier leaves.  Now, I bake at 140 degrees F and they're perfectly dry in a couple of hours.  I like them dehydrated more than baked.  Even the kiddies love 'em and they DON'T EAT VEGGIES!  lol! they think they taste like chips!  *doing the happy dance*!

wash and spin you dry

I think it's important to buy organic kale if you're going to bother dehydrating kale.  I also bought a bag of nutritional yeast and like to toss that in with the oil to create a slurry and then massage the leaves with the mixture.  I find that this more evenly distributes the flavouring on the kale rather than drizzling on the leaves and sprinkling the dry ingredients later.

Mix a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil with garlic powder, nutritional yeast and salt and pepper to taste.  Massage the flavour paste into the leaves and spread on parchment lined sheets

For me, one bunch of kale (a huge bunch!) makes 3 sheets of dehydrated kale.  They shrink down considerably after dehydration and don't last long in the house. The kids inhale the chips like they're junk food.

Dehydrate at 140 degees F for a couple of hours.  I use my Wolf Oven (which incidentally has the ability to go down to 85 degrees F if need be).  I stuck a wooden spoon in the door to keep the door ajar and waited until the leaves were shatteringly crispy.  

These were shatteringly crispy good.

The nutritional yeast gives it a kind of cheesy flavour.  The garlic powder is a must.  You can add a myriad of other seasonings but I like it simple.

July has been mighty fine thus far.  I'm hoping you're having a good one.  Since the doughnut incident, I've eaten GF clean since.  However, in the summer I also dabble in the Paleo lifestyle.  I can't go long without sugar though of course, so I do Paleo part-time but I've been back on the Fitocracy bandwagon almost every day since summer started.  Love that site.  great people.  Love my kettlebells too.

More exciting foodie experiences are coming up so stay tuned!

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LONGEVITY HERBAL TEA

Pu Erh Tea in the "Tuocha shape"

We were in Chinatown for lunch at Phnom Penh (I recommend the Garlic Chicken Wings!) and I walked into a lovely tea shop near Ming Wo. The shop, Jane's Longevity Tea and Arts (41 East Pender Street) had traditional Chinese tea supplies...specialty tea cups and pots, formal tea sets and specialty teas from China. They also served free samples of tea in a ceremony very similar to though very different from a Japanese tea ceremony. I was looking for something to relieve my recent strange asthmatic symptoms. I have a persistent dry cough and my voice is strained from the constant hacking. I even popped a ligment behind my ribcage from coughing so hard a couple of days ago.

I spoke with a man who said he was just "watching the store" because the shop owner had stepped out.  He told me his father was a famous TCM doctor in China and he seemed to know a thing or two about teas and TCM. I told him of my symptoms related to asthma and he said he also had asthma as a child but does not have symptoms now. I learned that my lifelong consumption and preference for green tea might be contributing to some of my symptoms.

Apparently, green tea is higher in caffeine than Pu-Erh tea and is also very cooling.  See health benefits of Pu Erh tea HERE.  It's cholesterol lowering, detoxifying and can help with fat loss.  Because I have recently developed asthmatic symptoms (I didn't have asthma as a child)...mainly a persistent dry cough, I am not helping my symptoms by drinking so much green tea. I usually drink from 1 to 4 cups of green tea in a day.

Pu Erh Tea from Yunnan province, China.

He advised me to try Pu-Erh (or Bo Lai...Cantonese pronunciation) which is a sort of fermented tea from Yunnan province in China. The tea leaves are dark and produce a red or dark tea. The one I purchased was not expensive though like fine wine, if you want to, you can pay hundreds of dollars for a Pu Erh brick that is priced by its age and region.  Some bricks can be decades old. 

I paid $15Cdn for my pressed tea ball, which is sort of cute. It is the size of a baseball cut in half. There is a depression that I imagine is part of the pressing and molding process. The tea guy told me you take a small knife and use it to pry the tea ball and break off small pieces to use.

Apparently, though Pu Erh is a dark tea, people mistake it for black tea but it isn't. He told me that it is a very special tea that wealthy people drink because it can be very expensive; it's good for your health too. The density of a brick can indicate how well it can age. The tighter the packing, the slower it will age. The more surface area, the faster the tea will age.

The shape of my teaball is called Tuocha bowl, or nest.

When I took a small paring knife to it, I was surprised by the hardness of the teaball. It was extremely hard and difficult to break into. I broke off a tiny chunk less than a teaspoon to make my cup of tea. You steep the leaves in hot water for a few minutes and drink. It's kind of hot outside and I wanted to drink it right away so I poured my freshly brewed tea over ice in my double-walled Bodum cup.

                      

The tea was smooth and delicious.   It was nothing like the Bo Lei/Pu Erh tea you get at dim sum with your meal.  It was not bitter or astringent (like some I've tasted at restaurants) but almost sweet and I hear that the quality of the tea, like fine wine can fetch hundreds of thousands of dollars as quality aged tea is rare.  The Pu Erh bricks have the region, year and production information on its paper wrapping.  Also, like fine wine, you have to watch how you store it and many variable affect its taste.  If you want to read some history about Pu Erh tea, I found this link helpful.  About an hour after my first cup of the Pu Erh tea I could not believe it. The constant tightness in my throat was eased. I will be drinking this tea from now on as it seems to suit my constitution. I used to think green tea was the be-all and end-all but I guess the tea guy was right. Sometimes you need to match the foods you eat with your body type. He also advised me to limit my consumption of seafood and bitter melon (which is not a problem as I dislike bitter melon).

I am so pleased to have some free TCM advice from this man. I told him my kids were plagued with nosebleeds; up to 3 or 4 a week. He recommended once a week to boil this detoxing tea for 5 minutes and have them drink it. Because of its medicinal flavour from the goji, I asked if I could add sweetener and he said maple syrup or honey would be okay.

I'll let you know how the detox tea works.

Detox Tea

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FAUBOURG PARIS, KERRISDALE, FOR PINK HIGH TEA

The Pink High Tea:  Service for Two.


Faubourg’s window display from the outside.




The reservations for High Tea are seated at the back of the bakery.  The front is the cafe area.


Look up.  Isn’t the chandelier pretty?

The reservations area is located next to the kitchen.  You can take a peek at what’s going on through the window and sometimes when the door swings open.

French  Breakfast Blend.

Mini Lemon Tart.  Crusted with large sugar crystals.

Yogurt Parfait.  A bit tart with fresh berries and a granola crumble

Berry Souffe.  You’re ordered to eat this one first as it will fall.

Chocolate Mousse.  Creamy, lovely, dark.

I forgot what this was.  I think it was a mini gingerbread muffin or a spice muffin. It wasn’t so tender.  I didn’t like it.

Chicken salad sandwich.

Smoked salmon pinwheel.

Poppyseed crusted sandwiches filled with roast meat.

Poppyseed lemon scones served with clotted cream and a little jar of preserves.  Delicious, tender and the sugar crust was crunchy-sweet.

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DRAGON BALL TEA HOUSE

Pearl Milk Tea with Jelly.  Rating:  6/6

Fresh Watermelon slush with bubbles.  Rating:  6/6

I know, I know.  Bubble Tea is carcinogenic.  What with the preservatives in the tapioca pearls (not that plain ol’ tapioca is itself bad) and the carcinogenic Taiwanese emulsifiers employed in the ingredients used to make these delicious concoctions, you’d think I wouldn’t drink these things. 

Well, it must be what a smoker feels like…though I have never smoked in my life, to crave one of these on a hot day.

We knowingly eat too much junk food, and reassure ourselves that “in moderation” things will be okay.
 
Oh who knows. 

I was raised on enriched white Sunbeam bread spread with butter and sprinkled with white granulated sugar , KFC, McDonald’s, Tang, Swanson T.V. Dinners, Church’s Chicken and Lee Kum Kee Oyster Sauce and white rice.  I ate the melamine-spiked White Rabbit Candies.  I ingested those carcinogenic Bo Chai Yuen when I was feeling ill.  I don’t doubt that I have overindulged “in moderation” over my lifetime.  Despite eating plenty of veggies, nuts, berries, fish and seeds; drinking green tea everyday and running or exercising especially prior to children, I wonder what that threshold is.

Hey, I  maintain a food blog.  Just looking over my pictures, I can see I have eaten a good deal of carbs…especially on the weekends.   Sure I give most of the sweets away.  But eating out—who knows what those restaurants are putting in my food?

So, a bubble tea once in a while I guess is a drop in the bucket.

I’ve always known the dangers of Bubble Tea, but now with the new information about all the other carcinogens in the other ingredients besides the bubbles, I am too wary to frequent my favourite Bubble Tea house.  Check out the Canadian  Government list here.

I suppose though, I could order a fresh fruit slush, WITHOUT bubbles (preservatives not approved by the Canadian Govt), milk powder (plastics),and  jelly (preservatives again), I’ll be okay.

Geesh.

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PEARL CASTLE, RICHMOND CENTRE

Pearl Milk Tea.  Rating:  5/6

I found the presentation in this honking big glass very nice.  I thought the milk tea was a bit too much on the “milky” side and would have wished for a stronger brew of tea.  Tapioca Bubbles were pretty good.




Chicken nuggets.  You fry it, I usually like it.  Rating:  5/6

Of all the places I’ve had Taiwanese Chicken Nuggets, they have all pretty much tasted the same.  I haven’t encountered any chicken nuggets that were drop dead amazing.  These were freshly made and very good. 


Thick garlic toast.  Rating:  4/6

Bread.  Thick bread.  Thick bread toasted.  It’s panfried as you can see with garlic butter.  After the initial joy of biting into the garlicky crust, you reach the soft cottony interior of this Asian pullman loaf bread.  The bread tasted like bread.  No surprise there; but kind of disappointing.    That’s what it is I guess, but more garlic butter flavour would have been good.


Kimchi Seafood Hotpot.  Rating:  5/6

Stomach always orders something spicy and soupy when we come to these type of joints.  He thought it was really good with lots of different seafood and a good spicy kimchi kick.


Meat sauce on dry noodles.  Rating:  4/6

I ordered this dish, hoping to be impressed by some amazing meat sauce.  However, the Meat Sauce didn’t in fact have a sauce to it; but as advertised the noodles are DRY!  Way too dry for my liking.  I thought a meat sauce would be like the kind you get at Shanghai restaurants…a type of bean sauce, but no way.  It’s just cooked ground pork with some seasonings on top of sprouts and dry boiled noodles.  In fact, I think I was generous with my rating, but perhaps my wishful thinking for a saucy meat sauce may have coloured my rating.  Is this the say it’s supposed to taste, I thought.  I’m not ordering it again.


Lychee juice with bubbles.  Rating:  5/6

I think you can’t go wrong with those canned lychees which my kiddies are all gung-ho over. They sometimes taste better than fresh lychees! 


Condensed Milk Thick Toast.  Rating:  4/6

Again, with the thick toast! I thought that there could have been more condensed milk drizzle as we fought over the remaining bits stuck on the plate, pushing our bread-laden forks around to zamboni  up the thick white syrupy goodness.  The proportion of bread to condensed milk was all wrong.   For this behemoth brick of bread, you definitely need more butter and more condensed milk.  Otherwise, you’re just eating bread.  What’s the point of that?  This is supposed to be like a sweet dessert.

Pearl Castle is located in Richmond Centre and seemed to be pretty busy when we visited.  There are some combo meals and tons of drinks on the menu.  Not being Taiwanese, we are always at a loss as to what to order, but we always give it a go by ordering a couple of what we deem the “traditional” dishes.  If they screw those up, we figure it can’t be that good. 

I thought the pearl drinks were a good size, being served in those big bulbous stemmed glasses and the tapioca pearls were soft albeit seemingly smaller than the ones I’m used to.   I’ll have to ask some of my Taiwanese students what types of things are good to order at Taiwanese restaurants because I’m shooting in the dark it seems. 

Definitely, I’ve learned that fried chicken nuggets are the way to go at these places; as are Bubble tea drinks. 
Pearl Castle is located across from McDonald’s in the Richmond Centre Mall.  Plenty of parking is in the mall lot.

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