Discovering L'Affaire est Ketchup

Nous sommes allés à L'Affaire est Ketchup pour célébrer une occasion spéciale avec un ami, et le repas était incroyable! En plus du ce repas délicieux, il y avait une grande sélection de vins. La serveuse était impressionnante: le volume de sa voix, qu'elle a mémorisé tout le menu, et son énergie! Tout le monde était très sympathique, et l'on nous a donné des shooters gratuits. On était très heureux d'y aller et c'était tellement agréable!

(Continue for English/閱讀中文請看續文)

Kale-Lettuce Salad with Sea Vegetables and Lemony Yogurt Dressing

This summer we thought we were going to move, so we did a lot of walking around through different neighborhoods. Even though we didn't find anything we liked at the end, it helped us to learn a lot about the different areas in Quebec. One of my favorite new discoveries is this cute little organic food store in Limoilou, which is just 5-minute drive away from downtown Quebec City. Most of the produce there is supplied by their own local farm. I love going there as much as the farmers market. Since most of the produce there is local and seasonal, every time I go there, I find a different variety of vegetables, and I even get to see them grow larger as the season progresses. I especially love that they have a huge section of sprouts!

Soft-Boiled Eggs (法式水煮蛋)

I'm an eggy person, you might call me an egg freak. Therefore, I'm very particular about my eggs! If you've ever had a brunch at a French restaurant, you probably have had some soft-boiled eggs before. I don't know about you, but I love having my eggs underdone most of the time. It is fairly easy to prepare; the trick is just the timing. The creamy runny yolk makes it a perfect accompaniment for salads, vegetables, on toasted English muffins, or any breakfast dish.

Soij's Adventure in Battlefields Park (Plaines d'Abraham)

Cat care-takers, have you ever seen anyone out with their cat freely and wondered if you and your cat could do the same? I've asked myself that many times, and as close as we are to the largest park here, we never thought about taking our cat there. However, since we've been getting much nicer weather this summer, we said to ourselves, "Why not try to take her to the park?"

We're very fortunate to live 1 minute away from the Plaines d'Abraham, which is the equivalent of NY Central Park in Quebec City. The park is also where the British defeated the French in 1759 and lead to Canada becoming a bilingual country. You wouldn't have imagined that all that happened on such a peaceful and beautiful field. 

Kung Pao Tofu/宮保豆腐

Typically this dish is made with marinated chicken, a lot of chili peppers, and peanuts, but since I have to make it with tofu, I worried that it might be a little bland if I only used tofu and chili. I wanted it to be as flavorful and as colorful as it can be, not to mention healthy as well. Inspired by the seasonal vegetables, I'm bringing some in to "jazz it up." If you don't like one of these vegetables, feel free to skip or replace it with something else. Instead of peanuts, I prefer cashews myself, since they are lower in fat content but are very high in protein and still taste fairly like peanuts. Also, if you cannot eat spicy food like me, you might want to consider either using less dried chili pepper and removing their seeds, or just skip it all together like I did.

Easy Double Chocolate Cupcakes with Mocha Ganache

摩卡濃情黑巧小蛋糕

When it comes to baking chocolate desserts, one of the keys is to use a good 
quality baking chocolate or cocoa. I always try to use dark chocolate or semi-sweet chocolate if possible. The result is rich and chocolaty and is perfect for chocolate lovers (like my hubby). It also makes the dessert tastes less sweet, as the cocoa content goes higher in the chocolate.

You might ask how is it so easy to make this? It looks so complicated! Well, that's the impression you want to give others! For this cupcake, you just need to mix all the ingredients together. If you don't have an electric mixer, you can just do it by hand with a large whisk. As for the decoration, which is the scariest part for most people (including myself), just follow my instructions, and you don't need any special tool or piping bag. I just tried it with a zip-lock bag and it worked fine. The only thing is you have to really make sure you don't cut the hole too big. 

Chinese Valentine's Day (七夕情人節)

Before I decided to post this, I got a special request a few days ago from my little sis in Taiwan. Apparently August 23rd is Chinese Valentine's Day! (Actually, it's July 7th on the Chinese lunar calendar.) I've been living outside of Taiwan for so long that not only I did not know when the holiday is, but I don't have much of a clue about it either! Yes, shame on me! I guess out of "guilt", I'd better post the two recipes she requested for this special holiday.

She told me that she wanted to make 2 things for her special "other half": One is a chocolate dessert so she can write her messages to him; the other one is the famous Chinese dish, Kung Pao Tofu (宮保豆腐). Why Kung Pao tofu, and not chicken? Well, her beloved one does not like eating meat, she explained.

As a Taiwanese person raised on traditional Taiwanese food, I never had this dish while I was growing up, until I went to NY and saw it in all the Chinese restaurants. It's kind of a standard, must-have dish in Chinese restaurants for Westerners (like her "other half"). It is typically quite a flavorful dish, with marinated chicken and lots of chilis, but when you think of tofu, it's rather bland and boring, so to make it as good as the traditional chicken dish is a challenge! I tried my best to fulfill my little sis' wish, so if you're looking for a healthy alternative for this dish, hopefully you'll take a peek at my vegetarian version and maybe even try it.