Hong Kong - Dim Sum at Tim Ho Wan

There are plenty of options for dim sum in Hong Kong. After some deliberation, we settled on Tim Ho Wan because it was both well-regarded (including a much-hyped Michelin star) and inexpensive.



Also, they have menu-based ordering. While I understand the appeal of frantic and chaotic ordering from carts as the dim sum ladies push them about, I prefer being able to get the exact items I want.

Here is the English menu we were presented with as we queued up in line:



We loved everything we had, but perhaps our favorite was the bbq pork rice noodle roll (cheung fan - listed as "vermicelli roll" on the menu):



Lovely thin rice noodle wrapped around delicious pork and topped with a very nicely balanced soy-based sauce.



We had never had chicken feet before, so we figured that we should try them. Turns out that we liked them - a lot. Finicky to eat, but with a fantastic texture and a great sauce.

Tim Ho Wan is perhaps most famous for their baked bbq pork buns, so we had to order them:



The outside is very delicate and slightly sweet. The filling is deliciously savory pork, and not too sweet.



Another favorite of ours was the steamed beancurd skin with a pork filling. Really nice.



Back in Hong Kong on our way home, we couldn't resist a return visit. We repeated the bbq pork rice roll (adding a second, beef version as well), and the filled beancurd skin.

New this time was a dish of steamed rice with chicken and sausage:



This is basically the prototypical clay pot rice contents, but without the crispy rice bottom you get from the clay pot. The sausage was fun, and the chicken was very good.

We also got some steamed spareribs with black bean sauce:



Hard to eat, but super tasty.



We rounded out both visits to Tim Ho Wan with "poached fresh seasonal vegetable" - which turned out to be lettuce. We mostly got it to get some vegetables in us, but it was surprisingly delicious, mostly due to the sauce they poured over.

Tim Ho Wan has a number of locations in Hong Kong - we went to the one in North Point.

Hong Kong - Roasted meats at Joy Hing and Hon Lok

Roasted meats (pork, duck, goose, pigeon...) are everywhere in Hong Kong. It is hard to walk very far in this city before you pass by a shop with delicious looking bronzed roast beasts hanging in the window. Fittingly, then, our first meal in Hong Kong was a roast pork feast at Joy Hing Roasted Meat in the downtown neighborhood of Wan Chai.



Joy Hing, like many well-regarded small restaurants in Hong Kong, is always busy. These places pack people in, though - you generally find yourself sharing a table with others. Even if there is a line, it usually moves quickly. You aren't expected to linger at a place like this.



Service at Joy Hing is brusk, and was less tolerant of our lack of Cantonese than most other places we visited. Despite no English menu, we managed to get a plate of bbq pork (char siu) and roast pork. It was more food than we needed and priced well above what we expected, but was undeniably delicious.

We had better ordering luck at Hon Lok Roasted Restaurant, near our Hotel in Causeway Bay.



Again, communication proved difficult, but a combination of Cantonese, English and finger pointing soon had the friendly staff plopping down plates of roast duck and pork, along with rice and the ubiquitous gai lan (Chinese broccoli) in oyster sauce. Exactly what we wanted.



Delicious, and it also cost a fraction of what we paid at Joy Hing.



A guy at the next table briefly suspended inhaling his own food to chide my inefficient use of chopsticks to eat rice with. His waving of his spoon at me made his point clear. Lesson learned, and one that stuck with me for the rest of the trip.

Food Photo Round-Up #2 - Part 2

We've been on a bit of a Korean food kick lately. Case in point above, Samgyeopsal - slices of grilled pork belly, painted with Korean chili paste and eaten wrapped in a lettuce leaf with some sliced garlic.

And below, our take on Daeji Bulgogi - Korean spicy bbq pork:



We haven't been neglecting Mexican food, though. We recently did up a big batch of tamales:



When we make tamales, we do a variety of fillings. Sherry wraps them in different shapes so that we can tell which is which.

Keeping with the masa theme, here is our first go at making gorditas:



The key to a gordita is that the masa is thicker than a tortilla. When you fry it, it gets crispy on the outside, but still has a soft texture in the middle. These ones were filled with chorizo and cheese.

Rounding out the Mexican fare is a breakfast of Huevos Cubanos - eggs in saucy black beans with fried plantains and bacon:



We had this dish when we were in Veracruz, and finally got around to making it ourselves.

Not a picture of food, but the dining room at Misión 19 in Tijuana:



We went down for dinner with a group of like-minded folks and had a really great meal.

Turning to inspiration from across the pond, we recently made fondant potatoes for the first time:



A popular side dish in the UK that you rarely see on menus here, fondant potatoes get browned in olive oil and then get finished in the oven with the addition of stock and butter. The result is golden on the outside and tender on the inside.

Sherry was craving crêpes the other day, so she got out Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" and found this Gâteau de Crêpes à la Florentine:



Rich and decadent. I love the way it feels to take a bite as your fork cuts through the many layers of crêpes.

And finally over to Spain for some gazpacho:



We had a record tomato harvest this year, and gazpacho is a great way to use them when they are ripe. We used to make gazpacho in the blender, but we've migrated to a more rustic, chunky version that we like a lot better.

Grilled Sardines

We've been on the lookout for sardines ever since we had them a few years back at Sea Rocket Bistro. When fresh pacific sardines showed up at Catalina Offshore last week, we jumped at the chance to get some.



After gutting them (they had already been scaled), the prep was a simple marinade of garlic, lemon juice, parsley, salt, pepper, and just a drizzle of olive oil.

A wooden skewer through the mouth and down the center keeps them flat and makes them easier to eat.



A few minutes on the grill, and they are done:



To eat them, you grab the skewer and use a fork, starting just below the head, to peel away the meat from each side. If you do it right, the bones stay on your plate and you get a nice sardine filet.



Sardine filet not pictured above because it was in my belly.

Breaking In Our New Weber Genesis Grill

We finally decided a few months ago that our old Charbroil grill's life was at an end. It wasn't a bad grill - it lasted us for almost ten years - but it was falling apart, and trying to fix it would cost as much as replacing it.

So, a new grill it was. After some shopping around, we decided on the Weber Genesis E330. We wanted something that would last a long time and be easy to get parts/accessories for. The great reviews for the Genesis, along with how happy we've been with our Weber Smokey Mountain, made it a pretty easy decision.

Sicilian Sausage with Onions and Peppers


We had the new grill assembled and in use a few hours after it arrived. The inaugural grilling event was sausage and peppers. The sausages were Sicilian Sausages, from Rytek Kutas' "Great Sausage Recipes" - one of our favorites of the sausages we have made.

BBQ Chicken


This grilled chicken with barbecue sauce is something I grew up with. I need to have it at least once a year.

Fire-Roasted Artichokes


We weren't sure what to expect when we tried this recipe from Mario Batali's "Molto Italiano", but it has quickly become one of our favorite ways of cooking artichokes. The outside gets completely charred, but you don't eat that anyway. The bits of garlic and lemon that get pushed in between the petals get condensed down into bright, tangy bits of flavor.

Thai Steak Salad


A simple staple in our house when the weather is warm. I never get tired of the blend of flavors and textures of grilled meat, chiles, fish sauce and crisp salad.

Kalbi with Cab Cooks' Korean Cucumber Salad


We wanted to make Cab Cooks' recipe for Korean Cucumber Salad (it is very good - you should try it), so we complemented it with some pre-marinated meat (boneless beef short rib and marinated pork collar) from Zion Market.

Roast Pork Belly with Lentils and Chard


Roast pork belly isn't a typical dish to do on the grill, but we had some already brined (using the recipe from Fergus Henderson's "Nose To Tail") and our oven was on the fritz. We put the belly on a small sheet pan and used the grill like an oven. It worked great.

In the short time we've had it, our new Weber grill has seen a lot of use and we couldn't be happier with it. We look forward to getting a lot of good years of grilling out of it.

Happy Fourth!

Ok, so this picture is actually from a few years ago, but we've got a nice rack of pork spare ribs all coated with spice rub and ready to hit the smoker later today.

Have a great Fourth!

Pork Butt on the Smoker

Ahh, the first pulled pork of the season has arrived and all is well with the world!

The butt was rubbed and on the smoker first thing yesterday morning:



12 1/2 hours later, it was perfect:



For dinner, we feasted on pulled pork tacos:



Rub and cooking technique were pretty much what we've done before. You can find more info about that in our Smoked Pork Butt post from a few years back.

Hot-Smoked Chicken

While "Low and Slow" may be the rule when it comes to us using our smoker, every rule has its exceptions. We sometimes use it more like a standard barbecue, but with smoke as an added bonus.

Hot-smoking chicken is one of our favorite applications of this technique. The smoking takes less than a couple of hours, so as long as you've prepped your chicken ahead of time you can smoke it and eat it for dinner all in one evening.

We put a spice rub (see the recipe at the end of the post) on the bird either the night before or the morning of smoking. While it is better with more time, it still works fine even if you only do it a few hours before you want to start smoking the bird.



Fire up the smoker to about 300°F and place a foil covered empty water pan into the cooker as a drip tray. Put on smoke wood (pecan and mesquite are nice), and smoke the chicken at 300-330°F for 60-75 minutes or until the temperature of the breast meat is just over 160°F.



The result is tender and juicy, lightly smoky and packs a flavor punch and some heat from the spice rub.



Definitely a great way to enjoy a chicken. If you've been neglecting your smoker, this is an easy way to get yourself back into the groove.

Spicy Chicken Rub

You can make any quantity: if you use teaspoons you'll get about 1/3 cup (enough for about 2 chickens). Use tablespoons and you'll end up with a little less than 1 cup.

Ingredients:

3 parts New Mexican Red Chile Powder (substitute Ancho if needed)
3 parts Mexican Oregano
2 parts Paprika
2 parts Cumin
2 parts Dried Parsley
1 part Garlic Powder
1/2 part Cayenne
1 part Kosher Salt

Mix everything except the salt together. Grind in a spice grinder until the parsley and oregano are chopped very finely. Add the salt and mix thoroughly.

Hot Smoked Chicken

Season the bird either the night before or the morning of smoking. To butterfly your chicken, simply use some kitchen shears to cut down each side of the back bone and remove it. Then turn the bird over and press on the breast bone to flatten it.

Ingredients:

1 4-5 pound Chicken, butterflied
2-3 tablespoons Spicy Chicken Rub
Kosher salt
Smoke woods such as hickory, pecan, alder or mesquite

Sprinkle kosher salt evenly over the bird, on all sides (use about 1/2 teaspoon per pound). Lay the bird on a tray, skin side down and sprinkle with some of the spice rub. Turn the bird over, skin side up and sprinkle a generous portion of spice rub evenly on the skin. Store the chicken in the refrigerator, uncovered until ready to smoke.

Heat the smoker to about 300°F, add smoke wood to the fire, and place bird on the grill (use an empty water pan covered with foil as a drip tray). Smoke at 300-330°F for 60-75 minutes or until the internal temperature of the breast reaches about 160-163°F. Remove from smoker and let rest 15 minutes before carving.

Happy Fourth!

For us, the Fourth of July means sunshine and ribs. While San Diego uncharacteristically let us down on the sunshine front, the ribs definitely shone through.

Happy Fourth!

Beachwood BBQ - Seal Beach

We're off on a quick road trip up the coast - ambling along at a nice leisurely pace. The first leg of our trip was just a couple of hours north to Seal Beach, a little community just south of Long Beach. We immediately liked the place - it reminded us a lot of our own neighborhood in Pacific Beach.

Our destination in town was Beachwood BBQ, a place known for passable barbecue (hey, that's a compliment in Southern California...) and one of the better selection of craft beers in the greater L.A. / Orange County area. The place is pretty small, and is split into two sections: a bar area and a separate seating area with 10 or so small tables.



We generally prefer to sit at the bar, but it was 5:00 on a Sunday and the place was packed - we had to wait a bit for a table. The crowd in the dining area was decidedly food and not beer focused, with the demographic being largely families with kids and older couples. After an appetizer and some drinks, we left for a while and came back later to sit at the bar. Much better.

On the beer front, our visit to Beachwood was definitely a success. After trying the Deschutes Hop Henge (which we quite liked) we moved on to some Belgian selections - the Houblon Chouffe Dobblen IPA Tripel (a favorite of ours) and the Maredsous Triple 10.



The Chouffe was very nice, as usual, but the star of the evening was the Maredsous. It poured with a beautiful, creamy head that lingered nicely. Although a bit maltier than what I think of as typical for the style, I thought it worked really well.

So, what about the food? I have to admit that we did more drinking than eating, but we did try a few of their offerings. They have a set of their sauces at each table:



We had an order of the bbq chicken nachos, which we quite liked - a good sized portion of smoked chicken with some nice guac and salsa. We were intrigued by their "fish sticks" (made with cold smoked ling cod), but they were just ok. The fish had some smoke flavor, but overall was under seasoned and didn't really grab us. Ditto the fried green tomato salad - fine, but fairly bland.

Beachwood is definitely an oasis in the craft beer desert north of Camp Pendleton, and certainly a worthy destination.



Between our two separate stints at Beachwood, we took a sunset stroll on the Seal Beach pier. The view looking north was a fascinating contrast between the serenity of surf and sand, and the industrial and urban sprawl of the Long Beach harbor and skyline.

Beachwood BBQ
131 1/2 Main Street
Seal Beach, California
(562) 493-4500‎