Love for the Locals: Japango!

This past week has been crazy, so I will be publishing a couple more posts, but I'm finishing this one just before I need to make a quick lunch, and dash off to my afternoon class! 

Over the Thanksgiving break, P paid me a visit in London, and we took a short trip to Toronto. While we were there, just like he really wanted ramen...

This was the ramen and salmon rice combination from Santouka (91 Dundas Street East, Toronto ON). It's a very small, and evidently popular ramen shop in downtown Toronto that actually belongs to a chain in Japan. According to P, there are only 2 locations in Canada - Vancouver and Toronto. I opted for the "Miso Ramen". With a Miso soup base, it had ramen noodles, naruto (spirally fish cake), bamboo shoots, pork belly, kikurage ("jelly/cloud ear" fungus - this does not come from ears :P), topped off with green onion. The salmon rice was very simple - a bed of sushi rice topped with some shavings of nori (seaweed), a helping of cooked salmon, and interestingly enough, some alfalfa sprouts. The other side dish was half of a boiled egg which was stewed in a soup base (it was actually so enticing that I ate it, which happens rarely with me and boiled eggs) and some umeboshi (pickled plum).

and Korean BBQ...

Our Korean BBQ experience in Toronto was at Korean Grill House (214 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON). At a very reasonable price of $16.95 per person (as opposed to the ridiculous price at Edmonton's Ginseng of about $30 - although, you do get a lot more variety including bacon, and you could get a segregated room which is good for parties), you could have pork, beef, chicken, kalbi (beef short ribs), ox tongue, ox liver, squid, white fish fillet, squid, and salmon belly. This all came with unlimited side dishes including bean sprouts, spicy bean sprouts (which P and I agreed didn't have much flavour), tofu, garlic potatoes, kimchi, short grain rice, and beef broth. For an additional $3, you could get unlimited vegetables including lettuce, onion, cucumber, mushrooms, and...pineapple. For the price, it was actually quite decent, and it was nice that the grill was embedded in a deep pit between us, so that the oils from cooking didn't splatter all over us during dinner. 

My first plate of Korean BBQ that night - kalbi (beef short ribs), pork sausage, kimchi, tofu, potatoes, and beansprouts. I had a total of 3 dishes of kimchi, 4 dishes of beansprouts, and 1 1/2 dishes of potatoes all to myself :) *insert feeling of accomplishment*

I really wanted buns from a Chinese bakery...

In London, there isn't any Chinese bakery. They only have a baked goods section in the 2 Asian supermarkets that exist, but they're delivered from somewhere else (possibly T&T in Toronto :/), so I kind of went a bit overboard. Recommended by Charles, we went to a bakery in Toronto's Chinatown called Ding Dong Pastries (321 Spadina Avenue, Toronto, ON), and came back with 1 milk tart with flaky crust, 1 egg tart with flaky crust, 2 egg tarts with pastry crust, 2 pineapple buns, 1 pineapple bun with red bean paste filling, 1 custard bun, 1 bun we don't remember getting that tasted like guava, 1 taro paste bun, 1 BBQ pork bun, 2 steamed pork and vegetable buns, 1 chicken bun, 1 beef curry bun, and 1 pork floss bun. This all came to a total of slightly over $8. It was beautiful QQ...We grabbed them on the way to dinner on our last day in Toronto, and ate some after arriving back at my suite.

As you can see, the buns didn't survive that well on the train ride, but they were still very delicious :D Here, we have 1 milk tart with flaky crust, 1 egg tart with flaky crust, 1 pineapple bun, 1 pineapple bun with red bean paste filling, 1 chicken bun, and 1 BBQ pork bun, in addition to the 2 steamed pork and vegetable buns that we ate then.

And one sushi dinner. Why is food so good in Toronto? :(

With the recommendation by P's friend, Charles, we grabbed an earlier dinner at Japango just before catching the train back to London. Japango (122 Elizabeth Street, Toronto, ON) is one of those little hole-in-the-wall places that I love so much. It's hidden around a corner and sandwiched between a few of the many other restaurants stuffed into downtown Toronto. Run by an entirely Japanese staff, they really knew what they were doing. The tiny place, about 18 seats take up half of the shop, with the other half devoted to the sushi preparation area. Japango is so narrow that they don't really have a sushi bar!

Price-wise, it was probably slightly below average which made the meal very reasonable given the amazing quality of our food. P even mentioned that it was probably the best Japanese meal he had in Canada. You would have to dine there to really experience it yourself, but it was so delicious. Even down to the soy sauce and wasabi, it was delicious. Wasabi is supposed to be edible on its own with a slight sweetness, a nice horseradish-like kick, and a smooth melt-in-your-mouth texture. The food was so lovely in its presentation that I asked P to take all of the photos for this post, feeling that the usual captures from the built-in camera of my year old Samsung Galaxy SII really didn't do them justice.

Japango! Such a small place tucked away in the abyss of downtown Toronto, but very much worth the visit!

Here, we have the "Spicy Tuna" and "Salmon and Green Onion" Maki. Both, in a way, are staples for P and I. P usually opts for "Negi Toro", which is essentially green onions and tuna. Simple, but very tasty! Japango didn't have "Negi Toro", but it was very similar, just with salmon in place of the tuna. 

The quality of the wasabi was amazing. It was the type that you could take bits from and pop them into your mouth with nothing else. There was a subtle sweetness from the raw wasabi, and it's usual sharpness, that just dissolved and mellowed out on your palate. I know, it sounds weird, but it was actually really good. The wasabi was so good that I was almost tempted to try the pickled ginger. Almost.

This was the "Japango Roll" - basically, their house/signature roll. It had avocado and crab in its centre, topped with seared scallop and salmon or tuna, a little bit of masago (fish roe), and a light drizzle of their house sauce. What was interesting was that there were 8 pieces, but in sets of 2, they had very minute differences. This was so perfect in that P and I could try the same delicate taste at the same time and compare them together.

This was their "Sashimi Don". It had such an amazing variety of simple flavours that worked together so beautifully. I felt myself to be almost in a slow motion trance while eating it. There was fatty tuna, red tuna, salmon, cucumber, tamago (sweet egg), crab, turnip, nori (seaweed), and masago (fish roe), all over a bed of sushi rice. It came with a dish of hot sauce, similar to gochujang (Korean hot sauce), but we didn't want to tarnish everything going on in that magical bowl...

Even given all of the options available in the Canadian New York that is Toronto, if I was in town, I would go back to Japango in a heartbeat. This is the sort of place that calms my fury with the 13% tax in Ontario. Our dinner was only around $40, which in some sense is pretty amazing for a sushi dinner for 2. Part of it was that most other items on the menu (with the exception of things like blue fin tuna D:) were not as unique as what we had picked. So, we decided to leave dinner as it was. All in all, it was a perfect ending to our brief, but food-filled vacation!

-M

Cardio and Cooking: In Alberta, we eat cows.

I really needed a beef fix. I didn't know I'd actually have that Albertan withdrawal, but I did. I've already sworn that upon my return to Edmonton for Christmas, I am going to have a steak. A really good steak. Probably a tenderloin while I'm at it. But for now, I am sticking to ground beef here, because steaks don't look as awesome unless they're from the butcher or the farmer's market, but then they're realllllly expensive.

Sooo, I got myself some lean ground beef from Loblaws. Today, I made my first homemade burgers AND buns. The size of my burgers are smaller than normal, but larger than sliders, so I have dubbed them, "Less Than Burgers".

Things I have learned today about burgers:
- Burgers are a lot easier to make than you would think.
- Cooking ground meat isn't actually that scary :D Just make sure that you cook it through.
- You can make burger patties without using chopped onion or breadcrumbs.
- A burger without bacon just isn't the same...always opt for bacon if you have it. :)
- According to Wikipedia, "burger" is apparently also the name of a grape used to make white wine. (I don't know anything about wine. I just know names because I went on a winery tour in the Okanagan with my parents, but I wasn't of legal drinking age yet, so I just had a lot of fancy sparkling grape juices. I'm of legal drinking age now, but I still haven't had my first alcoholic beverage. I'm just one of those, I guess...)

Apparently, I still need to work on this "divide the dough into even portions" thing.

Huh...well, what do you know? They do look kind of "Asian"...

Inside of a bun, courtesy of burnt fingertips. This was a quicker bread recipe, so of course the buns are not as soft and fluffy as they would be with a bit more effort, and instead were a bit denser than your typical hamburger bun. Still, not bad.

Yay, hamburger patties!

So. When you make patties, it may be better to make them thinner and larger circles, because when you cook them, they will shrink a bit in diameter. Also, they don't look as circular anymore :/

My first homemade burgers! It was just the beef patties, some Roma tomato (because they tend to be crisper), Romaine lettuce, shredded Cheddar cheese, and some Dijon mustard. Not bad. I ate another one after badminton, and sauteed some mushrooms along with some Sriracha. Burgers can actually be quite versatile if you want them to be!

Less Than Burgers
Buns (adapted from Taste of Home)
*Makes 12*
1 packet (1/4 oz.) active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1/3 cup canola oil
1/4 cup golden brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp table salt
3 cups all purpose flour

1. Add the warm water to a medium-sized bowl, and dissolve yeast.
2. Add oil and sugar into the yeast mixture, and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes until it starts foaming a little. Take this time to grease or line your baking pan with parchment paper.
3. Add a beaten egg, then the flour with salt, until evenly combined.
4. Knead the dough until it's smooth and elastic, flouring your hands if it gets sticky.
5. Divide the dough evenly into 12 balls, and place them an equal distance apart on the baking pan.
6. Brush the tops of the buns with a beaten egg and some water or milk to make the tops shiny. (I've been told that because I like to do this with my buns, they end up looking and tasting more "Asian".) Allow the buns to rest with a damp cloth over top of the pan for about 10 minutes.
7. Preheat the oven to 425 F, and bake the buns for about 12 minutes - they should be golden brown in colour. (Make sure that you bake the buns for long enough. I've eaten an improperly baked bun or roll before, and even though it tasted really good, I had stomach issues for about a day :/ Yeast that doesn't get killed in the baking process kills your stomach, or at least it feels that way.)
8. Let them cool a bit before slicing them open. I didn't do this, and burned my fingertips because I'm smart like that. You can make your burger patties while they cool!

Beef Patties
*Makes ~6 palm sized patties*
1 package of lean ground beef (My package said 0.688kg. Also, I would have preferred extra lean ground beef, but eh.)
Salt and pepper
Dijon mustard
Worcestershire sauce

1. Break apart the package of ground beef into a bowl, squeeze and mix by hand so that it no longer resembles stiff worms.
2. Add about 1 1/2 Tbsp of dijon mustard and about 1 tsp of Worcestershire sauce and mix by hand until combined and evenly distributed.
3. Divide the beef mixture into 6 even portions, and shape them into balls. Flatten them with your palm to form them into patties.
4. Over low-medium heat, add 1 or 2 patties onto a frying pan, flipping them, to make sure that the ground beef is cooked through. I don't bother adding oil to the pan before because of the fats already in the ground meat, but my pan is nonstick. You should consider this beforehand, and add oil to the pan if you need to. You can always pat dry the excess oil with a paper towel after cooking the patties.
5. When cooked, remove from heat, and transfer to a plate to assemble your burgers.

I look forward to the day that I can eat steak again...Real Albertan AAA beef steak...Mmm...

-M

Cardio and Cooking: Stick it to 'em good!

I've been really getting in touch with my roots lately. This week, my workload wasn't as heavy, so I had a bit of downtime to relax yesterday. I decided to use that time to make some potstickers or Chinese dumplings from scratch.

Things that I learned yesterday about potstickers:
- Dumplings don't actually take as long to make by hand as you think. I accomplished making 68 of them within less than an hour and a half, and I hadn't made them for at least a few years when I helped my mom.
- They are so versatile! You can steam them, boil them, pan fry them, grill them, bake them, or deep fry them!
- I usually eat them with Chinese red vinegar and ginger, but there are a lot of choices, because it will depend on the cuisine. Southern Chinese will differ from Northern Chinese, Japanese, or Korean!
- Usually, Chinese potstickers are filled with pork and leek and/or Chinese black mushrooms with some sort of cabbage, but there are a lot of other kinds with other meats like beef or chicken. I personally prefer using pork over other kinds of meat, because I think it tastes the best, but that's just me.
- Pleating dumplings becomes easier with practice. For me, I got better after making maybe 20 of them last night.
- If you buy the store-bought dumpling wrappers/skins, you do need to be sure of what kind it is. Wonton dumpling wrappers are much thinner, and taste different from those for potstickers.
- To make potstickers, you basically just need dumpling wrappers, some water, and your preferred filling. Easy peasy!

All of my filling ingredients - ground beef (worms), sui choy leaves and stems, white mushroom, soy sauce, and canola oil.

Dumpling filling! 

Stuffing the dumplings. I tended to put too much filling in, but I squished it in with my fingers to make it stay.

Voila! My masterpiece! This is just 60 of them. I went to play badminton after making these, and came back to do the remaining 8, after deciding that potstickers would make a good post-workout night "snack". 

They fit quite nicely in sets of 20 per Ziploc bag!

Homemade Potstickers (taught to me by my mom)

*Makes 34* (I don't know why, but the store-bought dumpling wrappers that I got because I'm too lazy to roll out a bizillion neat little dough circles came in a package of 2 sets of 34.)

Half of a 454g/1 lb package of dumpling wrappers

Half of a 0.688 kg package of lean ground beef

3 napa cabbage/sui choy leaves

1 white mushroom

Soy sauce

Vegetable oil

A small dish of water (better if it's either cold or room temperature)

1. Remove the leafy portion of the sui choy, and slice it into shreds. Add into a medium sized bowl. Dice the stem part into small cubes, and add them to the leaves. Dice the mushroom, and add them to the sui choy. 

2. Add ground beef, about 1 Tbsp of soy sauce, and 1 Tbsp of oil into the vegetable mixture, and stir until combined. 

3. Have a large plate or cookie sheet handy to put your finished dumplings on.

4. Make sure your hands are dry. Place one dumpling wrapper in your hand (better if it's your non-dominant, mine being my left), and add a small spoonful of the filling into the centre of the circle. Try to leave about an inch of space between the filling and the edge of the circle.

5. With your finger, smear some water along the edge of one half of the dough circle. Be careful not to get too much water on the wrapper or it will become quite sticky.

6. Fold the dumpling over the filling, and pinch it closed in the center on the edge. From one end towards the centre, make a couple of pleats, and then make a couple more pleats towards the other end. This gets better with practice. At first, I kept putting way too many pleats, so they didn't look quite right. After reducing to about 4 pleats across, they started looking a lot better. 

7. Place the dumpling with the fold flat on the cookie sheet or plate so that it can stand on its own. This makes it easier for when you pan fry them. 

8. Repeat steps 4-7 until all of your filling and wrappers are gone. At this point, you can either freeze them in Ziploc bags or cook them right away.

Pan-frying dumplings:

1. Add some oil to the bottom of your pot or pan. Arrange your dumplings on the bottom of the pan with the pleats facing upwards. 

2. Cook on high heat for about 1 minute so that the bottoms start to brown.

3. Add water to come halfway up your dumplings, and cover with a lid to steam for about 6 minutes or until most of the water has been steamed away. 

4. Remove the lid, and continue to cook until all of the water is gone. The bottoms should be crispy, and there shouldn't be any white spots on the wrapper. This could indicate that there are parts that are still frozen.

5. Remove from heat, serve on a plate, and enjoy with a sauce of your choice!

These were the 8 I made when I came back after badminton. I put too much oil on the bottom of my pot. Don't do that. (I used a pot because I felt it was easier to steam them in it. I also didn't need to use my big frying pan just for that.)

All puffed up after being steamed. The water is all gone, but so much oil... Sigh. 

My finished panfried potstickers with sauce. I have yet to buy some Chinese red vinegar, so P gave me a recipe for another kind of sauce to make with what I had on hand - 3 parts soy sauce, 1 part sriracha, and 0.5 parts sesame oil. It was pretty good, but I think I've grown accustomed to the nice vinegary taste to complement fried dumplings.

I wonder what other fried night snacks I'll come up with. Maybe I'll actually venture into the world of deepfrying for once?

-M