Last night’s supper was more grilled sandwich and salad. It was good, but no photo.
Tonight: pepperoni pan pizza with black olives – plenty of extra for leftovers. Romaine with homemade Caesar dressing.
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" Starchiva Cuisine, East Beaver Creek, Richmond Hill " - Delicious ‘dinner quality’ meal at luncheon pricing.
For lunch, our party of three ordered a super-generous sized ’ Gone-Chau-Ngau-Ho, aka stirred fry Ho-Fun flat rice noodles with sliced beef ', a Sauteed Filet-Mignon cubes - Chinese style and a Stirred fry Squid and Flowering Chives with XO sauce. Overall, dishes were well executed and delectable…though the squid dish was a touch too spicy for my palate! The impressive looking, well caramelised and seared beef steak cubes was superb. The often raved about Beef Ho-Fun, IMO, was just OK with hints of wok-hay but nothing to write home about!
For us, the real action and attraction came from the two elderly ladies who occupied the table next to us! Their food order impressed the hell out of us!! In their 60’s?! For lunch, the two of them ordered a giant 5 pound+ lobster prepared Maggi sauce style, half a marinated free-range chicken, a stirred fry meat with seasonal greens, a sweet and sour pork and a huge plate of Yang-Chow fried rice! WOW!! Have they just escaped from some secret concentration camp we don’t know?
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It was more like how large parts of the rest of the world has cooked.
Last night we made Chicken Manchurian. This is an Indo-Chinese dish that typically uses cauliflower (Gobi Manchurian) but can be adapted for almost any meat. However, the recipe did suggest mincing the chicken rather than using whole chunks. So BF chopped the meat finely and added soy sauce, spices, an egg, and corn starch and essentially made meatballs out of the mixture. They were then tossed with diced green chilis and onions in a sweet and sour sauce. A very interesting and “different” dish both in flavor and texture.
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“ Kyoto Katsugyu, Toronto “ - A wonderful, unique and delicious dining experience amongst loved-ones!
Nowadays, when dining out, I try not to ingest too much ‘cholesterol induced‘ fatty fried food. However, my daughter had been raving about this favorite downtown eating spot of hers for a while and insisted that the rest of us should give it a try. Therefore tonight, with her leading the way, I decided to tag along with an open mind and join the party at this unique GTA venue!
Man! Am I glad I did! The beef-centric, Kyoto Japanese style, Panko crusted fried food were all perfectly prepared, expertly timed, totally grease-less and absolutely delicious with the accompaniment of some wonderfully tasting condiments and sauces!
First off, a special mention about their fried beef burgers! OMG! What a delight to bite into that piece of medium rare, light, crispy, well seasoned and ultra-moist and juicy beef pattie! A truly fine, addictive ‘ to-die-for ‘ product! Sooo good!..and at $9.50 for two large pieces….an amazing value!
For mains, we ordered a potpourri of combo meat Bento-boxes consisting of different cuts of protein……Rib steak, Chuck-flap, Tongue….etc. All cooked perfect to medium rare, they were tasty and most satisfying!
The only damper for an otherwise greatly enjoyable and entertaining evening surrounded by loving family members was the absence of my wife who is abroad 
and the order of a ‘ funky ‘ tasting Macha beer
r!
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I don’t think food science / analysis was about how the rest of the world cooked.
Martin yan, Julia child, Jacques pepin, Lidia Bastianich, sure, those were windows to the world.
But ATK / SE and the rest of what’s considered “science”-y (whether truly or pseudo) are a different bucket.
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Nicely done @gcaggiano!
There’s actually an invention story for Manchurian, and it happened in our lifetimes — it was created in Mumbai by a famous Indian Chinese restaurateur, and this was one of the dishes that catapulted his career (previous high end chinese restaurants had tried to stay true to their roots, he embraced the Indianization at the high end level for the first time).
I had never encountered orange/red Manchurian (ketchup added) until a friend ordered it nyc, and seeet-sour is a good description.
The OG Manchurian is an unattractive but delicious brown - just soy sauce with all the aromatics and peppers.
And you made the real deal “balls” aka kofta – cabbage and cornflour based (plus chicken for the meat-eaters)! (Cauliflower florets or paneer cubes or chicken chunks were all later - easier - additions to the same tasty sauce.)
If you come across “dry” Manchurian, don’t be fooled — that just means a thicker gravy, not actually dry 
. Great with chicken wings!
I like this base recipe which I cooked for the first time during the pandemic — easy to make the sauce and then vary the additions: we did beyond meatballs or tofu or paneer for the vegetarians, and (velveted) chicken chunks or chicken wings for the non.
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Yes to the history you shared.
Plus there was a slide that happened, where the ‘gobhi’ for Manchurian originally meant ‘bandh-gobhi’ (cabbage), but then some inventive cook decided that florets of ‘phool-gobhi’ (cauliflower) would do just as great a job.
Many veg iterations of Gobhi Manchurian now use cauliflower florets dipped in that savory batter and fried, no grating and kofta-making needed.
Other variations on the gravy use tomato paste and a little tomato ketchup.
All are good.
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Actually it was never Gobi Manchurian, just Veg Manchurian — which was just cabbage kofta (as a riff on Malai kofta)
Then came Paneer Manchurian (obviously, because paneer was a fancier thing to order at a high end restaurant than cabbage kofta).
Then someone had the idea to take cauliflower pakodas and stick them in the sauce 
— et voila, Gobi Manchurian!
But ketchup. I don’t know who did that. Probably someone who thought “we love sweet and sour sauce, who not make the Manchurian sweet and sour too?”
(Meanwhile, my dad is a purist, so we never ate any Punjabi Chinese growing up, only at the Calcutta Chinese places, and so I didn’t even encounter Manchurian till high school when friends ordered it at an Udipi / South Indian+ Punjabi + Chinese restaurant, and my reaction was WHAT is this exactly??? OTOH my grandmother LOVED Manchurian )
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I think the same inventive person went from Gobi Desert ----> many leaps of logic later ----> Gobhi Manchurian
I mean if they are using cabbage to make the veg balls, calling cabbage by its name of Gobhi is a small step.
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@Saregama @Rasam thanks as always for your HO continuing education classes! I have learned so much from both of you!
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A repeat of Eric Ripert’s Sole with Artichokes, Mushrooms, and Pink Peppercorns, this time stuffed and baked using the leftover vegetables. Since everything but the fish itself was already prepped, it was very easy to do on a week night. I added pearl couscous to make a one dish meal Excellent!
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That looks really good! I love Le B, but have never made anything from the book because it seemed too fussy when I first read through it. I’ll have to take another look after the holidays!
Some of it is. In all honesty, for this dish I subbed frozen artichoke hearts for the ones he has you cook from fresh. I also used More Than Gourmet Chicken Demi base instead of the fish stock. Otherwise, it came together relatively straightforwardly. I would make this again in the spring when I could get baby artichokes, I think.
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I thought dinner was going to be quick assembly of leftovers plus baked salmon, but I forgot what I had eaten through, so had to cook some more before I could get to actually eat.
Rava (semolina)nand spice-crusted salmon, spinach sautéed with onions and garlic, and jeera (cumin) and brown onion pulao.
Only leftover, as it turned out, was dal
(As an aside, I bought parboiled Basmati rice the last time I was at the Indian store, and have been trying to find a cooking method to make it palatable. Tonight was the best trial so far — sauteed first, then cooked in 2x water. But I won’t be buying it again — no aroma of flavor of Basmati, such a waste.)
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Asian pork noodles: onion, garlic, carrot, mushrooms, snap peas, gochujang roasted pork tenderloin in a dashi, miso broth with green onions and soft boiled egg. Smashed cucumber and pickled carrots and daikon. Double Beefeater on the rocks.
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Another perennial favorite and totally inappropriate for the weather and the season! Chinese chicken salad.
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Last week I tried to order beef birria tacos, for the first time, at a newly opened taco place near me. I pre-ordered them at 1 PM, for pickup at 4:15 PM. Unfortunately, when I got there at 4:15 they told me that they sold out of the beef (due to a large business order). They apologized and offered me a free order of beef burria tacos next time. I called today for my order and the owner graciously honored it. The tacos were awesome. The beef melted in your mouth and the broth had such depth to it. I also ordered a beef and cheese empanada which was very good.
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