Asian | Sybaritica

I always rather think of Fish Sauce as being the south-east Asian equivalent of soy sauce as it is employed in much the same way, being ubiquitous in use as a cooking ingredient, a base for other sauces, and as a stand-alone condiment in its own right. Anybody who has ever eaten in a Vietnamese or Thai restaurant has likely consumed the sauce, even if not conscious of the fact, but, as yet, it does not appear as a regular item in many western pantries…  Read more

Many years ago, I came across a recipe for grilled corn on the cob and it was something of a revelation to me as I had never really considered any other ways of cooking cobs other than by the traditional method of boiling it. There are plenty of ways of cooking corn on the grill, of course, and the preparation featured in today’s post, with its roots in the cuisines of South-east Asia,  reproduces the first recipe I came across as best as I can remember it…  Read more

Date of Visit: July 11, 2013

I ate at this tiny restaurant with my wife around ten years ago although I didn’t recognize it until I had a peek inside and saw the same, shot-gun narrow little eatery divided into an upper and lower floor with just a few tables on each. I hadn’t especially planned on Vietnamese cuisine for supper on this particular occasion but after a quick perusal of the menu I decided to give the place a second try… Read more

Date of Visit:  July 7, 2013

On a shopping trip to Ottawa’s Chinatown one Monday afternoon, I planned to hit Ju Xiang Yuan to sample a few appetizers but, unfortunately, it turned out that they are not open on that particular day of the week. Instead, I happened to spy Wei’s Noodle House, which I have never noticed before and which , I think, may be relatively new. I wasn’t especially in the mood for a large, filling noodle meal by any means but I figured they must have a few other things on the menu and decided to give the place a try… Read more

Asian pears have been appearing fairly regularly in our local Co-op lately. I am not a huge fan of pears generally, although I enjoy pear juice, and I rarely buy or eat the western varieties. I have eaten an Asian pear once before making this current purchase, but it was many years ago and I really can’t now recall my initial impressions (which suggests they weren’t particularly strong, one way or the other). Anyway, after having passed them by several times without being tempted, I decided to pick one up to re-acquaint myself with the fruit… Read more

775 Somerset St W, Ottawa – 613-230-9934

Whenever I get to make an excursion to Ottawa’s Chinatown, I always make a point of visiting the Kowloon Market and Wa Kiu Foods to purchase food supplies for home. Depending on how much I have purchased at these two aforementioned places, I also usually stop in to Manphong as well. Very probably, this post will not be particularly interesting to my non-Ottawa based readers, but for those of you who live in the capital, or will be visiting sometime, this place is really worth a look… Read more

I like noodles well enough but I don’t make soup style noodles very often. I had been thinking of doing a vaguely Indonesian version with beef but then I decided I would try it with some of the Aquastar Brand Seafood Medley  I featured in a recent post. Rather than using one of my homemade spice blends, as I originally planned to do with the beef, I went with a Sichuan chili bean paste instead… Read more

Pickled Mustard Greens are a fairly common Asian cuisine and are especially popular in China where they are often simply called ‘suan cai’ (酸菜), or ‘sour vegetable’. Homemade versions are often pickled in brine only, and thus tend to be very sour from the lactic acid alone, but commercial varieties often include vinegar and sugar and can thus be quite sweet. The brand you see pictured above is a product of Thailand rather than China and is one I have bought many times. It does list sugar as an ingredient but it is still really quite sour (and also pretty salty), at the same time… Read more

In a series of upcoming articles, I am looking forward to cooking a variety of different dumpling recipes and the whole point in today’s post is to provide a ‘reference’ recipe for the basic dough in order to avoid repeating myself several times later.

Before we begin, I should first specify exactly what it is I mean by ‘dumpling’…

If you do a search of the term at Wikipedia, you will find that the word dumpling encompasses a whole range of different culinary preparations and that, essentially, there are two main categories: those that are solid masses of dough cooked chiefly in liquid dishes such as stews, and the like, and those that consists of ‘wrappers’ around some sort of stuffing. In my upcoming posts, will be concentrating exclusively on the latter sort, with special emphasis on Chinese varieties.

Even when one considers Chinese cuisine alone, the range of dumpling types is incredible. Aside from the infinite varieties of fillings, there are multiple types depending on cooking method (boiled, steamed, deep-fried, shallow fried etc.), and also on the constitution of the dough. The various flours employed in the different doughs include glutinous (and non-glutinous) rice flour, corn starch, tapioca flour and wheat flour, all of which produce different results. As noted in the title, our basic dough will be of the all-purpose wheat flour variety. It is a very versatile and easy dough to make, typically used in such commonly known Chinese specialties such as Jiaozi (餃子), Shui Jiao (水餃), Wonton, Xiaolongbao (小籠包), the very popular Guotie (鍋貼) known as ‘Potstickers’ here in the West, and a whole range of other types beyond.

Let’s begin … Read more

Just a brief, rather light sort of post for today… I usually feature actual foodstuffs rather than beverages but, on my last trip to Ottawa, I happened to come across a couple of drinks at a Vietnamese grocery store that are definitely not on the list of common liquid refreshments amongst the majority of Canadians. Coke and 7Up are ubiquitous, of course, but ‘Tamarind juice’ and ‘Grass Jelly Drink’ don’t seem to have made the popular rounds yet as far as I can tell… Read more