seafood | Memorable Dishes

St. Lawrence Market Lunch & Goodies

June 20, 2016 8:23 am , Leave a Comment , Winnie N

Our family doesn’t live in the city so we don’t frequent the St. Lawrence Market in downtown Toronto to buy their fresh meats and produce. We actually go there to eat lunch and buy some yummy goodies to take home. My main goal of heading down there every time is to buy some good cheeses. But along the way, we always end up buying a lot more than we planned for.

Alex Farm Products

I call Alex Farm Products cheese pushers because my aim is to buy one or two types of cheese but I always end up with five 😉 . I usually ask for strong cheeses because that’s what I like. The cheesemonger shaves off the different variety of cheeses and lets us sample them. This time he even gave us samples of soft cheeses, which I normally don’t get, and I ended up loving them! It’s like he can read my mind and knows what I like. I brought the cheeses home hoping the boys would try them. Of course they didn’t even try any of them. It was my toddler girl who ate every piece of cheese I gave her, even the stinky ones – she even asked for more! Maybe girls have a more sophisticated palette 😉 .

Alex Farm Products and Scheffler’s Delicatessen & Cheese

Scheffler’s Delicatessen & Cheese

I remember having homemade prosciutto at a friend’s house and it was so delicious that I was tempted to make my own. Since I am not planning to cure a pork leg to make prosciutto anytime soon, I have to get my prosciutto fix at Scheffler’s Delicatessen & Cheese. I’m not sure if it’s the best place to get prosciutto at the Market but it’s definitely the most visible. They were super friendly and helpful and I ended up buying some pancetta and olives as well.

Prosciutto & Cheese Plate

Buster’s Sea Cove

Every time we head down to St. Lawrence Market, we always head to Buster’s Sea Cove for lunch because the boys love seafood. We sat by the bar area while waiting for our food. I told the boys to watch the chef cook and learn some tips because they say they want to open a food truck when they grow up. The chef was super friendly and was chatting with the boys and he ended up adding some sauteed olives and red pepper topping to our grilled halibut. How nice!

Grilled Calamari with Fries – The boys’ favourite! Fresh and flavourful calamari. Perfectly cooked.

Grilled Halibut with Salad – Big pieces of grilled halibut also cooked perfectly. The salad and coleslaw were equally as good.

Clam Chowder – My favourite! Creamy with chunks of clam – delicious! Even the boys loved it. (They usually don’t have clam chowder. They must’ve been really hungry!

Buster’s Sea Cove – Grilled Calamari, Grilled Halibut, Clam Chowder

Uno Mustachio

Another eatery that we never miss is Uno Mustachio for their famous Italian sandwiches. I didn’t know the place was called Uno Mustachio. We always refer it as the big Italian sandwich place downstairs. Even if we are too full to eat there, we usually buy one or two sandwiches to take home. You can never go wrong with the Veal Eggplant Parmagiano sandwich. If you can’t decide, check out their menu first before heading there because it can get overwhelming with so many options.

Uno Mustachio – Italian Sandwich

Stonemill Bakery

Another must-go-to place while we are at the Market—Stonemill Bakery. Get there early because they sell out by late afternoon.

Italian Roasted Garlic Bread – The best bread ever! This bread makes the best croutons if you end up having any leftovers.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Cookie and Chocolate Cookie with White Chocolate Chips – Chewy and soft.

Double Chocolate Croissant and Almond Croissant – Flaky with the perfect amount of filling.

Stonemill Bakery – Baked Goods

Eve’s Temptations

If you know my husband, you know he’s a dessert lover. I thought the cookies and croissants were enough but he had to buy more to take home. We saw some delicious treats at Eve’s Temptations and of course we had to buy some. Here are the five desserts we got: Key Lime Chocolate Pie, Chocolate Peanut Butter Square, Lemon Square, Rum Ball, German Brownie and Peanut Butter Brownie.

Eve’s Temptations – Desserts

St. Lawrence Market is definitely a Memorable Place to visit for us. I remember going with just my husband before we had kids. Now bring the kids with us to these outings. They enjoy sampling the food as much as we do.

This concludes our outing to the St. Lawrence Market. We didn’t even hit the other food places we normally go to like the peameal bacon sandwich place and the Portuguese tart place. We’ll have to go back to the Market again soon to eat and explore some more!

Posted in: Places Visited, Special Meals , Tagged: cheeses, cookies, desserts, Italian sandwiches, olives, proscuitto, seafood, St. Lawrence Market

Hawaiian Food Trip: Oahu: Part 1 (Pearl Harbor)

February 29, 2016 7:38 am , Leave a Comment , Winnie N

We will commence our Hawaiian Food Trip with a direct 10-hour flight from Toronto to Honolulu with Air Canada which lands us in Honolulu at 9:15 PM (Hawaii-Aleutian Standard Time). With a small flight delay, a missing car seat (the airport gave us a brand new car seat to keep due to the airline’s transporting issues) and by the time we gather our luggage, get our rental car and drive to our condo, it’s past 11:00 PM. I actually packed a tetra box almond milk in our checked luggage and brought my homemade banana muffins in one of our carry-ons so that the next day we don’t have to scramble around looking for breakfast.

With three kids, you just can’t freestyle travel. We planned ahead and pre-bought and pre-booked some activities. I would suggest to plan at least one major activity for the day and if you have time, plan others as backups but manoeuvre them as needed once you get there. If you’re a Canadian planning to visit some of the major attractions in Oahu and if you’re a Costco member (once again, I’m not being paid by Costco but this is really a great deal!), then go get yourself a Go Oahu® 4-day Card. It’s a great deal and if you pick a couple of major places to visit, you get your money’s worth. Plus, we pay Canadian prices for the Go Card online, which is a bonus.

Before planning every trip, I always ask friends to recommend places to visit, where to eat, and any other helpful tips. We were also lucky that we have Canadian friends living in Honolulu and they hosted a nice family dinner for us 🙂 She also recommended places to check out and restaurants to eat – it was helpful to have a local’s perspective. I told her she should be a tour guide expert for Canadian tourists!

Pearl Harbor

People who have been to Pearl Harbor would probably tell you that you cannot spend the whole day there. Very true unless you’re travelling with small children. We got there around 8:45 AM and left there around 4 PM. Start your tour with USS Arizona Memorial and get there early (they open at 7:00 AM) because the National Park Service gives out over 1,300 free walk up tickets each day on a first come, first serve basis. We were lucky that we got to go to the 9:00 AM tour and on we went. By the time it was finished, it was 10:30 ish. Even though it was only almost 11:00 AM, the kids were hungry. Luckily there was an outdoor food area on the premise. I’m usually not crazy about the food at tourist sites. They’re usually not the greatest so I was very surprised to find their hot dogs came with complimentary cheese and chili sauce. They also sold soups there too! Again, I was a bit skeptical especially because the soups were served in paper coffee cups. But the clam chowder and corn chowder were piping hot and surprisingly delicious. (Notice I forgot to take photos of these food items. I think my hand would’ve been bitten off if I took photos of the hot dogs and soups while my famished children looked on 😛 .)

After the animals, I mean, children were fed, we proceeded to visit the Battleship Missouri Memorial and Pacific Aviation Museum. You’ll need to take a complimentary shuttle to get there once you buy your tickets. Everything is clearly labelled and there are lots of people to ask questions if you get confused. When we got back to the main site, we checked out the USS Bowfin Submarine and museum. The kids, including our toddler girl had fun playing battleship control inside the museum. It was almost closing time so hardly anyone was there and they got to spend lots of time running around.

Pearl Harbor

Tips for visiting Pearl Harbor

You cannot bring backpacks, not even diaper bags when visiting any of the Pearl Harbor historic sites. A great tip I read was to bring several clear large zip loc bags. I put all the baby essentials in the clear bags. (It was actually very liberating not having to carry so many things.) I had my pockets to put my wallet and cell phone.

Also, kids under 4 cannot go into the submarine but are allowed in the museum. So my husband and I took turns watching our toddler. After my husband came back with the boys, they allowed me to take the boys onto the submarine again, which was very nice.

Papa’s Tea House

Part of our Hawaii trip planning involved deciding where to eat. I am so happy now that we have Yelp, so we can pick and review the restaurants beforehand. I remember going to Santorini, Greece pre-Yelp days and we had to rely on outdated travel book restaurant reviews. One seaside restaurant had the audacity to tell us that they didn’t serve octopus! I thought to myself, their restaurant was right by the sea! As you could tell, it was one of those tourist trap restaurants. Meanwhile, we happened to discovered a neighbourhood restaurant (not by the sea) and they served the most delicious octopus and other great foods.

When I was searching, I tried to find Hawaiian style food that we normally can’t eat back home. I found this restaurant called Papa’s Tea House in Aiea which is five minutes away from the Pearl Harbor memorials. This restaurant is located in an ubiquitous suburban plaza. We ordered fried calamari (requested by the boys), takoyaki, spicy ahi don, pork katsu curry, seafood combo laksa and a large taro milk tea to share. Once again I forgot to take pics of the pork katsu and laksa because of my famished children.

Taro Milk Tea, Fried Calamari, Takoyaki

Taro Milk Tea – Let me tell you it was the BEST taro milk tea ever! They actually use real taro and not powder.

Fried Calamari – Love the garlic and chili sprinkled on top.

Takoyaki – Crunchy on the outside and perfectly moist on the inside.

Spicy Ahi Don – Basically spicy tuna poke on top of rice. Poke was my addiction while I was in Hawaii and of course it was delicious.

Pork Katsu Curry – Pork cutlet was delicious. However, the curry didn’t taste like the Japanese curry I’m used to but almost like a Chinese curry.

Seafood Combo Laksa – Was OK but not very authentic. The taste of the broth wasn’t as complex compared to what I’m used to.

Stay tuned for Hawaiian Food Trip: Oahu: Part 2 in my next post for more Hawaiian Memorable Dishes!

Posted in: Places Visited, Special Meals , Tagged: calamari, Hawaii, Honolulu, milk tea, Oahu, Pearl Harbor, pork, seafood, takoyaki

Chinese Hot Pot

January 4, 2016 8:14 am , Leave a Comment , Winnie N

Hot pot is something that I crave during the cold winter months. The boys also look forward to eating it every winter. Chinese hot pot consists of using broth to cook slices of meats, seafood, dumplings and vegetables in a boiling pot of broth. You set this up on the dining table and everyone cooks their own food. It’s like a fondue except you cook with boiling broth.

This is definitely a Memorable Dish for our whole family because we all look forward to it during the winter months. Thinking about eating hot pot always makes me hungry. The kids love picking their own pieces of meat and dumping them into the bubbling broth. They especially love the baby cuttlefish. My second son always forgets that the meat is piping hot after it’s just done cooking and usually ends up burning his tongue.

I remember my maternal grandmother used to have hot pot practically every evening during the winter months! In Hong Kong, there’s no central heating because it doesn’t snow and doesn’t get super cold. However, you need to wear thicker clothes inside the house or you might have a space heater if you’re really cold. To keep warm, my grandparents used to have hot pot in this mini pot that just serves one or two people.

We like using plain broth because of the kids. But you can spice it up by making your own spicy broth. If you dare, you can make a mala sauce which consists of Sichuan peppercorns, chilies and various spices. The Sichuan peppercorns create a numbing effect on your tongue – people either love it or hate it. But for now, we’ll stick to our regular broth hot pot.

Chinese Hot Pot

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Serving Size: Slice about 1/2 pound of meat per person.

Ingredients

Slices of Chicken
Slices of Beef
Slices of Pork
Slices of Fish
Cuttlefish
Shrimp
Oysters
Tofu
Frozen Dumplings
Udon Noodles
Leafy Vegetables (Spinach, Bak Choy, etc.)
Chicken Broth
For dipping sauces:
Scallions, julienned
Ginger, julienned
Vegetable Oil
Soy Sauce
Satay Sauce
Hot Sauce

Preparation

Slice up all your meats if you’re not using frozen pre-sliced ones.
For your dipping sauce, put your ginger and scallions in a bowl.
Heat up the oil until it sizzles. You can check by putting a small piece of ginger in it.
Once the oil is heated, pour the hot oil onto the ginger and scallions. Then pour in soy sauce.
You can mix in satay sauce or use the satay sauce on the side.
Set your butane burner on your dining table. (We also have an electric one.)
Heat up your broth in a pot used for hot pot cooking on the stove.
Once the broth is boiled, carefully transfer it onto your butane burner.
Cook your meats in the broth and enjoy.
You can make steamed rice to go with it if you want.
As you cook, the broth will evaporate. Add boiling water to the pot so you’ll have enough liquid to cook the food.

Notes

Note #1: You can find butane burners and hot pot cooking pots at an Asian grocery store. The hot pot cooking pots are usually thinner and may have a divider in the middle so that you can split between a plain or spicy broth.

Note #2: You can purchase thin slices of meat in the frozen section at large Chinese grocery stores.

https://www.memorabledishes.com/chinese-hot-pot/

Recipe by Memorable Dishes | www.memorabledishes.com