wai sik

Now that we are completely hooked on Vietnamese coffee, I find that we will have leftover sweetened condensed milk that we can't use up before it goes bad.  An Australian friend once told me about SCM in a squeeze tube and I am in search of some.  If any one out there knows where we can buy some locally, please leave a comment.

As I walked through the grocery store the other day, I came across jars of Vegemite.  It has been at least 5 years since I last ate it and I had contemplated buying it before.  So I bought a jar and had it on buttered toast this morning.

Absolutely smashing!  I loved the rich, salty flavour the first time I tried it and I still love it now.  What does it taste like?  Although it's a yeast concentrate, it doesn't taste particularly yeasty--it's salty, rich, mushroomy, almost caramel-like with a definite umami pres

In much the same way as I am obsessed with Ma Po Tofu, Robin (my friend David's best friend's wife from Berkeley) is obsessed with Chicken Fried Rice with Salty Fish. Robin is so obsessed that she carries around the Chinese characters for this dish because sometimes Chinese people won't serve it to her thinking that a non-Chinese person would not like the dish!

Hmmm maybe I should do that with Ma Po Tofu! Luckily today we were able to give Robin a nice fix of Chicken Fried Rice with Salty Fish at Spicy Court.

This evening we were in the City Hall area and decided to pop into City Square to try out Safari Pies. According to David Koop's review, this place sounded great. David was right!

On a recent trip to Victoria, I stopped by the Dutch Bakery and Cafe on Fort Street and discovered a delicious cookie. They called it a flying saucer and it consisted of two discs of spice cookie dough filled with almond paste before baking. The huge cookie (about 3" in diameter!) was slightly spicey and tender...perfect to munch on while strolling along the antique shops!

So now I'm looking for the recipe. If anyone has a recipe vaguely resembling this description or if anyone knows what these are called in the Netherlands, let us know!

"Chowhounds know where the good stuff is, and they never settle for less than optimal deliciousness, whether dining in splanky splendor or grabbing a quick slice of pizza. They are the one in ten who live to eat. " Sounds like the definition of wai sik to me!

Barb and I are certainly chowhounds and I'd wager that most of our readers are! The chowhound website is very interesting and a good read and has some message boards where people can contribute their hole in the wall, obscure but good restaurants.

I finally found some excellent Mohnkuchen (poppy seed cake) at the Fraser Bakery and Konditorei at 6533 Fraser Street (no website; closest cross street is 49th, telephone 325 6612). Unfortunately it's not quite as good as the mohnkuchen I was looking for but it is very close and very delicious!

My thanks to Walter's parents for the tip! Of course they would know since they are German!

I popped into a produce store on Main Street today to buy some oranges and I saw a small display of deep green leaves packed into plastic bags. I was not familiar with these greens so I asked the store owner about them. She said they were yam leaves (I had read about yam leaves in some recipe I can't recall) and she suggested stirfrying the leaves with garlic and salt. Or treat them just like pea shoots (which Roland and I both love!).

I love waffles. I've been wanting a waffle iron for ages and finally got one for Christmas from Kerrie and Toni (thank you!!). So since then, I've been experimenting with different recipes.

Are the British addicted to curry? (via Robot Wisdom)

Don't know about that but when I lived in England, Londoners sure liked their curry especially late at night after going out and drinking too much!

I guess curry addiction would be a variant of "wai sik" !