Doesn't TaZte Like Chicken

Location: Gingeri Chinese Cuisine
Lansdowne Shopping Centre
Richmond

Author: My Husband

While shopping at Costco several weeks ago, we saw the seafood stand selling frozen King Crab legs. The product looked nice and meaty, but the prices were jaw-dropping. Christina and I looked at each other and tacitly agreed that we wouldn’t buy any that day. We would wait for next spring – when the crabs are in season – and go to a restaurant to eat them for a fraction of the Costco price.

I’d been meaning to post some photos of a King Crab meal we had earlier this year, but didn’t get around to it until now. Better late than never I suppose…

We ordered a 9.5 lb crab to be prepared two ways. We received two plates of steamed legs and one plate of deep-fried body pieces. The meat was full of umami goodness and the freshness of the product really shone through in the taste and texture. The resultant broth was lip-smackingly good and, surpringly, did not contain much MSG.

For those who have yet to eat King Crabs, the meat’s taste and texture is a combination of lobster and dungeness crabs. It is not to be missed by crab enthusiasts.

We also had some soup. It was pretty tasty, but it had to be eaten quickly lest it cooled and the corn-starch thickening agent started breaking down.

Yi mein (乾炒伊麵) is a favorite of mine, and this was decent. It didn’t have enough wok-hei (I like them a little caramelized), but the flavours were good. A huge positive was that the noodles were not drowning in oil.

I’ve eaten at Gingeri many times and I must say the chefs do a good job of controlling oil usage. We’ve never had a meal at Gingeri where an excess of cooking oil was used, and we really appreciate that in restaurant food.

This might seem strange. Why did we have congee for dinner? Well, my wife had her wisdom teeth extracted only two days before this meal, so we ordered something that she could comfortably eat. That didn’t prevent her from braving the pain and chowing down on the crabs though. She’s a trooper, my wife.

So, looking at the photos again, spring can’t come soon enough for us. What are good places to have King Crabs? We like Kirin and Gingeri, which are places where we have consistently gotten what we paid for. Other restaurants may sell the crabs more cheaply, but caveat emptor. When we went to another restaurant for King crabs with some friends, we ordered an 11 pounder and got smaller portions that what was served at our Gingeri dinner.

Location: My tiny kitchen

It was only yesterday that I heard of chimichurri and I have never tasted it before. Once I found out what it is, I bought a rib prime rib, roasted the beef, made the sauce, and served the sauce on the beef. After all, how bad could a sauce taste if it is made with loads of minced garlic, finely chopped parsley and a drizzle of good olive oil? In Argentina, chimichurri is often eaten with grilled meat or used as a meat marinate. I don’t have any friend from Argentina, but I can safely say Argentineans surely know their meat.

Here is the recipe for the prime rib roast.

To make the chimichurri, you will need:

- 1 head of garlic (yes, and you will use all of it, make sure you have plenty of mouth wash if you are going out afterwards )
- 1 bouquet of fresh parsley
- 1 tbsp red pepper flakes
- Juice of 1/2 of a lemon
- 1/4 cup of olive oil

The garlic and parsley will need to be finely minced. You can either use a food processor or do it manually. I wanted to give my arms a workout and so I chopped everything by hands

1. Finely mince the garlic.
2. Finely mince the parsley.
3. In a bowl, mix the garlic, parsley, red pepper flakes, olive oil and lemon juice together. Add salt and freshly ground pepper to taste.
4. Serve on beef while the beef is hot.

I also made some rosemary roasted potatoes as a side dish. I’ll post the recipes of these potatoes in my next post.

Location: My tiny kitchen

As ts mentioned in her blog, Eating Club Vancouver, the three of us couldn’t help recreating the pork dish that we enjoyed together for dim sum.

Pork jowl is an interesting piece of meat. It is tender and yet full of texture. When uncooked, you can see a good amount of fat evenly distributed all over the meat. During cooking, the fat melts and keeps the pork moist. The fat also gives the meat a lot of flavour.

I used a Korean BBQ sauce in this recipe. This sauce tastes sweet and it goes really well with the fattiness of the pork.

Ingredients

- 2 pieces of pork jowl
- 3/4 cup of Korean BBQ sauce
- 6 cloves of minced garlic (yes, the pork will taste very garlicky!)
- salt and pepper

Steps

1. Rub 1 tbsp of salt, minced garlic and freshly ground pepper on both sides of the pork
2. Pour the BBQ sauce over the pork, making sure the sauce covers both sides. Marinate the pork in the fridge for 24 hours.
3. Turn oven on to 350F.
4. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a stainless steel skillet. Sear both sides of pork until brown, which takes about 2 minutes for each side.
5. Put the pork in the oven and roast for 20 minutes.
6. Let pork cool for 20 minutes. Slice and serve.