Doesn't TaZte Like Chicken

Location:Memphis Blues BBQ House   
1465 West Broadway Ave
Vancouver, B.C. V6H 1H6
Tel: 604.738.6806
http://www.memphisbluesbbq.com

The smoked beef brisket from Memphis Blues is so soft that it melts in your mouth. The meat is also very flavourful. It’s all done by the fat – it keeps the meat moist and tasty. Memphis Blues is one of the best known BBQ houses in Vancouver. Although pulled pork is their signature meat, my favourite is always and will always be the tenderly smoked beef brisket. They sell their meat by pound and half a pound of beef is just the perfect serving for myself. When it comes to enjoying good meat, the key is to be selfish.

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Besides the beef brisket, the juicy smoked sausage is also very irresistible.

Another item I like is the baked beans. Each meat is served with a generous bowl of BBQ sauce. The Memphis Blues BBQ sauce is really great because it is neither too sweet or tangy. It tastes just right.

Right before I was about to leave, I saw “deep fried catfish” on the menu. Catfish is a very common fish among Asia cuisine; however, it is not a common American food except in the southern US. I’m very surprised to see it available on MB’s menu. After eating 1/2 pound of smoked beef brisket and 1 side order of smoked sausage, I was way too full to try the fish. It’s always good to save something for next time.

Location: My tiny kitchen

It has been hot for the whole week. The temperature has been staying in the high 80’s and this means a lot of sweats for us in our apartment. Our apartment is good in a sense that in the winter when the snow falls, we are kept comfortably warm even when the heat is turned on low. We never know why, but our apartment tends to conserve heat really well. Winter in Vancouver generally starts in mid September and ends in early May, but because our apartment is very warm, we can go by without heat year round except for December and January. You can guess how warm our apartment gets in the summer. It is very hot indeed, in spite we have all windows and doors opened, and have two fans blowing at full speed.

When it’s hot, all I want for dinner is something cold. Although I’m usually not a fan of salads, I always miss them when summer gets too hot. I notice that salads served at Japanese izakayas have an interesting dressing that tastes like a combination of soy sauce, lemon juice and oil. I like the soy sauce in the salad; it adds a lot more flavour to the salad than any type of salt can. Of course being a carnivore, I can’t have a salad with only vegetables. The prawns served in this salad are gigantic. Prawns are measured in “counts” and a smaller count means bigger prawns. These prawns are 6/8 count, which means in a pound, there are at most only 6 to 8 prawns.

The apartment doesn’t feel so hot anymore when I have a plate of cold salad with crisp lettuce, sweet tomatoes and succulent prawns. Of course, a glass of chilled semi-dry Riesling also does the trick of cooling down really well

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This recipe makes 2 salads. Quarter 4 small tomatoes and julienne half of a lettuce. Cover the tomatoes and lettuce with a plastic wrap and store them in the fridge.

To make the dressing, put the following into a bowl:

- 1 tsp sugar
- A few drops of sesame oil
- Freshly ground pepper
- 1 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
- Juice of 1/2 lemon

Slowly drizzle 1/3 cup of olive oil into the bowl containing the dressing ingredients. While pouring the olive oil into the bowl, quickly whisk all ingredients together.

Peel the shell off eight 6/8 count prawns (if using smaller prawns, prepare more prawns). Using a paring knife, take the vein out of prawns by making an incision on the back of the prawns. Place the prawns into a bowl.

Onto the prawns add:

- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1 tbsp sweet paprika
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- A few drops of sesame oil
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- Freshly ground pepper

Mix the prawns well. Heat a pan with oil. When the pan is hot, put the prawns into the pan by leaving enough space between each prawn. Over high heat, pan fry one side of the prawns for one minute. Flip prawns over and pan fry the other side for another minute. Be careful not to overcook the prawns. If the prawns are not cooked after 2 minutes, turn the heat to medium-high and check every 20 seconds to see if they are done.

To assemble, place the lettuce on a plate. Put half of the tomatoes on the lettuce. Drizzle the dressing over the lettuce and tomatoes. Place 4 prawns on the salad. Sprinkle deep fried crispy onion flakes all over the salad. Garnish with a sprig of cilantro.

Location: My tiny kitchen

If it weren’t for my mom, I would never thought of making fried rice with roast pork and celery. This fried rice is so creative and yet so simple. The idea of using roast pork and celery to make fried rice sounds strange but when used together, they become very suitable ingredients. I like to use roast pork that has a little bit of fat hanging on the meat. When the pork is fried with the rice, traces of fat are melted into the rice. When this happens, your rice in the pan is singing, “Mamma Mia!”.

This is for you, mom.

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To make this fried rice, you will need the following:

3 cups of cooked rice
1 1/2 cup of diced celery
1 1/2 cup of diced Chinese roast pork, with a little bit of fat on the meat
Soy sauce
Sesame Oil
2 tbsp of minced garlic
Black pepper

Prepare the rice for frying. It is very difficult to make good fried rice when the rice is too moist. To reduce the moisture in rice, use a long grain rice such as jasmine rice. Always cook the rice one night before and leave the rice in the fridge overnight. Before frying, take the rice out of the fridge to let it warmed up to room temperature.

Heat a non stick pan and put in 1 tbsp of oil. Put in the diced celery, 1tsp of salt and freshly ground pepper. Stir fry the celery until translucent, about 1 minute.

Add the roast pork and stir fry for another minute.

Pour the roast pork and celery into a bowl. In the non stick pan, put in 1 tbsp of oil. Put in half of the rice. Using the back of a wooden spatula, gently press the rice to break them apart. Turn the heat to medium and continue gently pressing and stir frying the rice until they are apart. This takes about 2 minutes.

When the rice has been mostly broken apart, put in 1 tbsp of minced garlic and stir the garlic into the rice. Drizzle in a few drops of sesame oil. Make a little space in the middle of the pan, pour in 1 tbsp of soy sauce. Let the soy sauce sizzles and quickly mix the rice with the soy sauce.

Put half of the pork and celery into the rice. Turn the heat to high and stir fry for a minute or until the rice is all mixed together with the pork and celery.

Repeat with the remaining rice, pork and celery.

Frying the rice in two batches prevents the non stick pan from getting over-crowded. It is a lot easier to break the rice apart when there is enough space in the pan.

To me, a perfect fried rice is when each grain of rice is on its own and each grain is infused with the flavour of soy sauce and pork fat. I don’t think I have achieved this level of rice-frying excellence yet. Nevertheless, my husband and I quickly gulped down one big bowl of pork, celery and rice goodness

Life is good when there are differences.