CAB Cooks

Some Revisits

Posted by CAB on 27 January 2012, 9:28 am

I’ve made a couple of trips to Chula Vista in the past month for some revisits. On one visit, I went back to Maye’s Dessert & Bistro (see the first visit here). This time, I got quite a few empanadas to serve as hors d’oeuvres with the in-laws for New Year’s Eve. Maye’s offers 1 free empanada with a purchase of 5.

Each empanada is carefully wrapped in its individual wrapper.

Looks all the same? No problem. They each have their own stickers too.

For savory ones, I got 2 each of Pizza, Carne Asada and Cheesesteak (yum!). For sweet, I got one each of Mazana (apple), Banana Cream and Coconut Cream. The sweet ones were okay and we really didn’t care for the banana cream filling. Tasted a bit artificial. I think the pastry for the empanadas is more suited for savory fillings.

Maye’s Desserts & Bistro
4240-A Bonita Rd.
Bonita, CA 91902

While in Chula Vista, one must visit Hogetsu, right? Here’s the standard box for a dozen.

This time I stocked up on the ones I like. I’m not sure why I got two of the mochi with the kinako (soybean flour) since that wasn’t a favorite but oh well. There are some lemons, oranges, standard pink and white. About half were white bean filling (my favorite), rest were red bean.

This time they had some new varieties that I tried. The bottom three are not like the other mochi but rather more like a red bean bun. They were cute but were just so-so.

And on the last quick trip down to CV, I had to stop by Mariscos El Pascador again because it was lunch time and I was starving! I got there before the lunch crowd hit so the wait was minimal. I had to get a gobernador, which I ate in the car (oo, hot hot hot!). I love this.

I also got a couple of fish tacos, which I didn’t eat until I got home. I really should have ate these in my car but I was in a bit of a rush. They were still good but I’m sure it would have been way better hot. Gives me a reason to go back, right?

Mariscos El Pescador
(In the parking lot of Toys R Us, across from the trolley tracks on Industrial Blvd and L Street)
1008 Industrial Blvd
Chula Vista, CA 91911

I’m so glad it’s Friday! Hope everyone has a terrific weekend. It’s going to be beautiful in SD!

Filed under Bakeries/Desserts, Eating Out, Mexican, San Diego, Seafood.

4 Comments

CC’s Pancit Bihon

Posted by CAB on 25 January 2012, 11:31 am

For Chinese New Year (belated gong xi fa cai to everyone!), one of the dishes I made was CC’s Pancit Bihon. OMG! I did a test run a couple of days before just to be sure. What can I say except this was the best pancit I have ever had and it was pretty easy to put together. If you love pancit bihon like us, you’ve got to try CC’s recipe. It’s awesome (like her!). The great thing about this is that you can use just about any kind of protein you want in it.

If you recall, this has been on my to-make list for some time. And since she had already armed me with this:

I was pretty much all set since the other ingredients I already had ready. I decided to use some Chinese sausage, char siu I bought from Jasmine (bought especially for this dish), shredded thigh and leg meat from a rotisserie chicken (as CC would say, “Costco dude.”) which are hiding under all that char siu, and about 8 shrimp (16-20 size) as my protein. Since the shrimp was quite large, I cut them into pieces. I also had sweet onions and garlic, lots of garlic! I used about 4 large cloves and it was awesome! Use less if you don’t like it so garlicky. It actually wasn’t as garlicky as you might think.

Some finely shredded cabbage, thinly sliced celery, and not-so julienned carrots, they were more matchsticks.

CC’s recipe uses the entire bag (16 oz) of noodles but I ended up only making a half batch. But it turned out that I had waaaaay too much other ingredients, meat especially, for a half batch. So I saved half of ingredients and made it with the rest of the noodles a couple days later for Chinese New Year.

Soaked the noodles for 10 minutes in hot water. The noodles just needs to be soft. Woo, all that steam fogging up my camera lens! I really liked these noodles, thin and easy to work with.

Although oyster sauce is optional, I really love the flavor it added to the dish. So I highly recommend using fish sauce AND oyster sauce with the soy sauce. I’ve added the amounts I used in the half recipe below. Of course add or exclude what you want but I’m just telling you right now, you’ll want to add at least a bit of each.

I know this is a real shitty picture but I can’t take a picture and wok at the the same time. I mainly wanted to show how much a half batch was in a 14-inch wok. Most of the meat was under the noodles.

This was so damn good! The Mister even had 2 bowls of it for lunch that day. I couldn’t stop eating it. The half batch could feed 4-6 people as a side. Guess it all depends on how much they like pancit bihon. I didn’t have any kalamansi to squeeze over the noodles but a bit of lemon will suffice in a pinch.

CC’s Pancit Bihon (half recipe)
adapted from Canine Cologne

CC’s Pancit Bihon

Author: Canine Cologne

Ingredients

2-3 Tbsp cooking oil
4-5 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped (use less if you don’t like it so garlicky)
1/2 small onion, sliced thin
1/2 small cabbage, sliced thin
2 small carrots, peeled, julienned pieces (or cut into rounds)
6 Tbsp soy sauce, divided (and to taste)
3/4 cup low sodium chicken broth
2 celery stalks, sliced thin
2 Tbsp oyster sauce)
1-2 tsp fish sauce (patis) – use sparingly
1-2 Chinese sausage (lap cheong), sliced thin
1/2 cup char siu (Chinese BBQ pork), diced
1/2 cup shrimp (raw or pre-cooked shrimp can be used)
1/2 shredded roasted chicken breast (rotisserie from Costco dudes)
1/2 package (8 oz) bihon noodles, pre-soak in hot water and drain before using
Pinch of kosher salt
black pepper (to taste)
1 green onion, chopped, greens reserved for garnish
sliced kalamansi to squeeze on top (substitute with lemon)

Directions

In a wok or a large pan on high heat, add cooking oil. Saute the onions, white part of green onion, and garlic until fragrant, for about a minute.
Add the Chinese sausage and cook for several minutes, until cooked through.
Add the carrots, celery and cabbage. Sprinkle on a pinch of kosher salt and saute for about a minute.
Add oyster sauce, fish sauce, and 3 tablespoon of soy sauce. Add freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Add chicken broth, cover wok and simmer until vegetables are cooked through, about 2-3 minutes.
If using raw shrimp, add it now and cook until the shrimp just cooked through.
Add the rest of the meats (shrimp, chicken, char siu). If using precooked shrimp, add it with the rest of the meat.
Mix in the soaked and drained bihon noodles (if they’re too long, you can cut the noodles).
Season again with soy sauce. More ground black pepper if desired. Stir everything together. Most of the broth should be absorbed by now.
Garnish with sliced green onions and squeeze kalamansi (or lemon) on top before serving.

Google Recipe View Microformatting by Easy Recipe

Filed under Asian Noodles/Rice, Filipino, Recipes.

8 Comments

Chef Chin

Posted by CAB on 16 January 2012, 9:53 am

I can’t remember exactly when Chef Chin opened but my first visit was with Cathy of mmm-yoso some time early last year. I’ve been back a few times and we recently decided to have lunch, dine-in rather than my usual take-out.

The inside of the restaurant is pretty clean and dimly light, not really good for picture taking.

I’ve only been seated on the same side of the restaurant each time, the side that has the least amount of light. But I do get a view of this (which happens to be the way to the restrooms, too).

The owner of this Chef Chin also owns restaurants in Hawaii. There are several aerial shots of the Aloha Tower area on the wall (not pictured).

On this visit, I decided to try a dish from their “dim sum” menu. BTW, I thought better than to take pictures of the menus because there are actually 2 menus, a general menu and a Chinese menu. Way too many things to take pictures of but you can see the full menu on their website. The waiter call it a “dim sum” menu, but after looking at it, it’s really a mixture of dim sum dishes and breakfast items (e.g., soy milk, scallion pancakes). I decided to try the Shanghai dumplings, which I guessed was their xiao long bao. The Mister made a face when I ordered it because he doesn’t like to order anything that I can make at home. I told him I don’t make XLB at home but he said it doesn’t matter, a dumpling is a dumpling. Well, his reaction foretold what lied ahead.

I was surprised at how many XLB came in the steamer. They looked, well, not so fresh and tasted even less. There was a funky sour taste to it and we could barely swallow a single mouthful. At first I thought maybe they put some kind of vinegar in or whatever but after examination of the filling, I don’t know, it just didn’t seem right.

Even using the dipping didn’t make these palatable.

I forgot to mention that we also got soup with our meal. Today was Egg Flower Soup. Nothing too exciting but not bad.

I was in the mood for some spare ribs but I should know better than to order spare ribs out. Again, the Mister asked why I order dishes that I can make at home (here, here and here)? Yeah, well, since it’s been a while since we last dined in, I had forgotten I had previously tried their Wu Xin spareribs and remembered that it wasn’t very good.

I think they boil the ribs first because the meat was mushy. The sauce tasted okay but it’s that typical gloppy brown sauce often served in ABCDE places. The spinach was blanched and happened to be the best part of this dish.

The remaining dishes, thankfully, were pretty good. Here is the Hot Braised Sting Bean with Ground Pork (Chinese menu). We’ve had this several times before and one of the Mister’s favorite.

The next dish was the Tangerine Crispy Chicken (General “American” menu). I actually ordered the Tangerine Beef but we got chicken instead. The Mister likes this better than the beef version so it was a good mistake. The coating was crispy without being too thick. The sauce had a nice slight tang and wasn’t overly sweet.

I like the carrot flower that came with the dish.

The last dish was also a new dish, Shrimp with Honey Walnut (Chinese menu). This was really good. The shrimp was perfectly cooked, slightly crispy with a mild sweetness to the sauce.

Again, I liked the decoration that came with this dish. I think it was a rose made from a died radish.

Overall, Chef Chin has a few dishes for return visits for us. Their mu shu pork is standard but not bad since it has a lot of pork (General menu), the Sliced Pork with Spicy Garlic Sauce is good when it’s on (Chinese menu), the Fish Fillet in Spicy Bean Sauce (Chinese menu) has been decent most of the times. My MIL tried their Kung Pao Chicken and said it was not to her taste, not that I would ever order KPC (yuck). She said it had no flavor except heat. There are often 20% or 30% coupons to be found in local flyers so that makes it even nicer. The prices are a little high compared to other local Chinese restaurants but the coupons certainly helps.

Chef Chin
11828 Rancho Bernardo Rd.
San Diego, CA 92128

Filed under Chinese, Eating Out, San Diego.

2 Comments

And Then the Present

Posted by CAB on 14 January 2012, 9:21 am

It always seem like my birthday whenever I meet CC for lunch since she always has a gift for me. This time, it really was a (early) birthday present. Look! A cookbook! And it’s my very first Filipino cookbook (Authentic Recipes from the Philippines)!

I’ve been drooling over CC’s Pancit Bihon since her post last year (and another here). We’ve talked about it a bit here and there and although I love pancit bihon, I’ve never made it at home before. Well, she’s giving me ammo to start. No, sorry, I haven’t made it yet but Chinese New Year is coming up (Jan. 23) so that’s my plan. Look how pretty the inside cover is.

There are so many recipes in this cookbook, many I’ve never had or heard of but my knowledge of Filipino food is pretty limited. But cookbook provides quite a bit of information.

I love the pictures!

And to make sure I start off correctly, CC even made sure I had the right kind of rice sticks to make my first pancit bihon.

Okay, no excuses now. I will make my first pancit bihon. Really, I will.

Filed under Miscellaneous.

8 Comments

And Then Dessert

Posted by CAB on 13 January 2012, 9:16 am

After CC, TC and I had lunch, we decided to get some dessert. We ended up at Sorrento European Bakery first (well, second since our first choice was still closed for the holidays).

A sign in front of the store.

A shot of the baked goods.

And some more.

Here’s what I got. The chocolate mousse-y thingy on the left (very good), then a mango cake in the middle (just so-so), and a strawberry coconut cake on the right for the Mister (it was delicious!).

CC got this, Paris Wafflor, which we shared. So light and the filling was fluffy.

And these, coconut meringue for TC (she shared too and I thought it was good), and the Swedish Damsugar (also known as the Swedish vacuum cleaner), which is the chocolate/green thingy. I liked the wafflor the best out of these three.