it’s K-Rad y0!   Starting from scratch

When we purchased our oven in late October, Telford mall was having a promotion where, if you spend a certain amount at the mall, you would be treated to a free dinner at one of their restaurants. We picked that day to buy our oven, because we like Pokka Cafe. If you haven’t heard of it, Pokka Cafe is a Japanese restaurant chain based in Singapore. They offer a wide variety of Japanese style food, from noodles to steaks to izakaya style food. The flavours are pretty authentic, but you pay for it. Dishes are at least $100 ($14 CAD) each, and a coffee is about $40 ($5.50 CAD). To give  you an idea, we rarely spend more than $40 each for an entire meal (hey, it’s one of the reasons we live here!)

Anyway, we endured a 45 minute lineup to get a chance to enjoy a $600 ($82 CAD) meal for two. We recognized all the dishes from the regular menu, including a nice looking tenderloin that I had often eyed when dining there (it’s about $200 for a 100g slice of beef, so I never ordered it). Mostly though, I just wanted a chance to have their awesome coffee for free.

I have to say though, had this been my first ever visit to Pokka Cafe, I probably wouldn’t go there again. Here’s how our meal went:

First of all, we gave the waitress our voucher, and she took our order. We told her how we wanted our steak done, etc. Before she left, we thought she forgot to take our drink order (a free drink is included). She looked at us strange when we asked for our drinks, and then asked if we would like our dessert first too. Huh?

Soup: Pumpkin Soup with Crab “Sticks”

I didn’t have high hopes for this dish, as the gift voucher listed it as “Crab Sticks”. Since crabs usually don’t come in “stick” form, I just assumed they meant the concoction that is created by mixing sea bream or pollock with starch, water, and artificial flavouring. But to my surprise, they actually used real crab meat! Unfortunately, each bowl of soup had but a tiny shred of meat in it. Not enough to even describe as being a “bite” of crab. The soup tasted diluted and wasn’t very hot.

Before we could even get started on our soup, the first appetizer came:

Appetizer: Baked Oysters

People who frequent Canadian and American Japanese restaurants will surely have tried Oyster Motoyaki. A delicious dish, if not at all Japanese, where an oyster is baked in its own shell after being topped with Japanese mayonnaise. It is normally one of my favourites, delicious with a few drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice. See this page for an oyster motoyaki recipe to see what I mean.

Unfortunately, the baked oysters served at Pokka aren’t quite up to those standards:

By the time we finished our soup, these were cold and hard. There was hardly any sauce at all, although the oyster part tasted OK.

We were still finishing our soup when they brought out the pasta.

Pasta: Sauteed Spaghetti with Unagi

It was quite tasty (I only had a little bit, not the biggest pasta eater these days). This is probably a dish Andrea would order during any other visit to Pokka, and she enjoyed it. Too bad it was cold by the time we finished our soup and oysters.

We were just finishing our soup (yes, the very first dish brought to the table) when the main course came. That’s right, within 5 or 10 minutes, we had every single dish sitting at our table, waiting to be eaten (and getting cold while waiting). We didn’t even have time to ask them to slow down – they just came out one by one. It was ridiculous! Now, Chinese restaurants aren’t known for their meal pacing (if you’ve ever been to one, you have probably been in the situation where one person is finished their meal while another still hasn’t received theirs – especially if one orders a baked dish or something). But this was ridiculous! A set meal, and they brought out the entire set (minus dessert) before we even finished the soup!

Main Course: Beef Loin Filet in “Wine Sauce”:

It was incredibly small, but the meat was delicious. Mine was slightly overcooked (we asked for medium-rare, which the waitress confirmed as being “40%” rather than our other choice of “70%” which sounds horrendously overcooked). Andrea’s was perfect though, meaning they knew how it was supposed to be cooked. The sauce had not a hint of wine flavour, or any flavour really. That was fine by me though, anything else would have masked the delicious natural beef flavour these premium cuts had.

Finally, after we finished all our lukewarm food, out came dessert:

Dessert: Tofu and Gelatin with a couple Blueberries

If you are a fan of mild desserts, then this one is for you. Unflavoured tofu with unflavoured gelatin, and a couple sweetened blueberries. This would have been fine if they had included more than three individual blueberries (Andrea got 3.5).

Like I said, if this was my first visit to Pokka, there’s no way I would have come back. We’ve been there three or four times, and have always had good food and good service. I think they may be just getting tired of serving these free full course meals (they gave away hundreds that day, and apparently everyone is redeeming them this week, as the promotion ends tomorrow).

Thankfully I didn’t have to pay one cent for this meal. If I did, I think I would have told them to take all the dishes back, recook them, and bring them out at a proper pace.

The coffee was really good though, as usual, so I was satisfied overall

December is here, and it’s time to get fat! No really, we love to bake goods this time of year, for ourselves, family, and friends. Last night we made this apple pie, and honestly, it is the best apple pie I ever had in my life. No joke. The recipe is quite unique, and the differences are clever solutions to various problems that are often encountered when baking a pie.

Ingredients

• Your favourite 9 inch double pie crust recipe
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 3 tbsp flour
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
• 1/4 cup water
• 7-8 Granny Smith apples, peeled & sliced
• Cinnamon

Directions

• Preheat oven to 425 Fahrenheit (220 C)
• Melt butter in a sauce pan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add white sugar, brown sugar and water; bring to a boil. Reduce temperature, and simmer 5 minutes.
• In a bowl, toss the sliced apples with enough cinnamon to coat them lightly
• Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, and use lattice method for top crust

This is where the major difference is. Notice that the pie filling is still sitting in a saucepan, while you made a lattice top pie crust. This is very important! Lattice crusts are easier to do than they look, it only takes about 10 strips to cover a pie.

• Now gently pour the pie filling mixture over the top of the crust, being careful not to spill over the edges. First try to fill the ‘gaps’ in the crust, then feel free to cover the thing entirely

• Bake at 425 F (220 C) for 15 minutes. Lower temperature to 350 F (175 C) for another 35 to 45 minutes

Because the sauce is on top of the crust, it not only forms a nice presentation with an amazing sticky gooey top crust, but the bottom crust does not get wet, so is able to quickly cook and ’set’ in the first 15 minutes of baking. After that, the sauce moves down, blends with the juices and sugars from the apples, and results in what I think is the best apple pie ever.

Let me know if you use this recipe! Credit: All Recipes.

Talk about awesome luck.

As I was leaving Harizanmai after my tattoo consultation, I noticed this little cafe underneath it that was closed at the time. Actually, I was borrowing their Wi-Fi for a few minutes, but don’t tell anyone okay?

Peeking inside, I noticed that it had an arcade cabinet with Street Fighter II. A cafe with an arcade game? Curious, I did a google at the net cafe, and as it turns out, Cafe La Siesta is a retro-gaming inspired bar/cafe. Yes, you read that right – a retro gaming bar, right below the tattoo place I am visiting. Right down the road from my hotel.

I am sitting there now, enjoying a draft Sapporo Pilsner (yes, they make a pilsner too). I’ll grab a bite to eat in a bit, but not before I play some original Famicom games (they have a whole box of games) while listening to some whacky Japanese pop and chiptune music.

EDIT: I just finished dinner and it was pretty good! I ordered “Loco Moco” or “Hamburg” as it is often called. Invented by a Japanese chef in Hawaii, basically, it’s like having a hamburger but instead of a bun, it sits on a bed of rice. Talk about true soul-food! There is also a fried egg on top – something I am always a huge fan of. Fried egg + rice = ultimate meal.

Yeah, I’ll be visiting quite a bit in the next week

Here are some pics I quickly snapped:

Note: The original version of this post was lost during The Big Crash of 2008. I am copying this from an archived version before it is lost forever. A lot of people find this post to be useful, so it will be staying around. I’ll have to take all new pictures though. Due to the diet, I haven’t been able to have one of these in months! It will taste nice I’m sure

If you’ve ever been to a Vietnamese restaurant, you’ve surely tried the ice coffee, or cà phê sữa đá. If you have, you either love it, or you hate it. Vietnamese style ice coffee is likely the boldest, thickest, strongest, sweetest coffee you’ll ever try. And I absolutely love it.

Here’s how you can make it at home. Follow these instructions, and your home-made Vietnamese ice coffee will be just as good, or better, than at authentic restaurants.

What you need

The requirements to make Vietnamese ice coffee are somewhat specialized. You will need the following:

French ground coffee, fresh as possible. If possible, buy your own grinder, and you can buy a bag of roast whole coffee beans at the grocery store or coffee shop. If not, use their grinder, and buy in small quantities. Once ground, coffee only lasts about a week. Be sure to get the darkest roast possible. I prefer french roast and espresso roast. I still haven’t found a source of true Vietnamese coffee beans however.

When grinding the coffee, you want it to be finer than you’d use for typical drip-coffee, but not as fine as with an espresso machine (since you don’t have steam power to push the coffee through). Slow percolation is what makes this coffee so great.

Sweetened condensed milk. You must buy the “Longevity Brand” if at all possible. It’s the one with the old Chinese man on the label. I have tried other brands like Eagle, but they do not dilute as well, and don’t taste as good.

Some time after I wrote this article, Longevity have changed their formulation, at least here in Hong Kong. They are now a ‘filled’ condensed milk, meaning that it’s pretty much concentrated and has vegetable oil added to it. It sucks. Hong Kong’s Nestle now has a true condensed milk (and even a filled version, which is clearly labelled). Just check the ingredients and make sure they aren’t much more than MILK and some sugar.

Drip filter. This is of utmost importance. Without it, you will not be able to brew as dark as you need, and you won’t have PERFECT Vietnamese ice coffee. Look for it in Asian household stores. I have tried a french press, and results are not satisfactory. I have even tried using my Moka pot, which makes a pretty strong brew. It still doesn’t taste right.If you can’t find this type of filter, don’t even bother. Stick with restaurants. You may be able to buy a filter online (I found one here at Import Foods.com, but the shipping is more than the item itself, and they only ship to USA).

Tall glass, ice, near-boiling water

Step 1) Boil some water. Do this first, because you don’t want to brew with 100 degree water. By the time the water boils and cools off a bit, it should be the perfect temperature. Unless you’re really slow to do the following steps.

Step 2) Pour some of the sweetened condensed milk into the glass. Remember, you want to use Longevity Brand, with the old Chinese dude on the front. It should be thick and syrupy. This stuff keeps for a week or so in the refrigerator, but gets REALLY thick when it’s cold. I use a small pitcher to store it. It is really messy to pour from the can.

Step 3) Pour some of the finely ground coffee into the drip filter. As you can see, I actually didn’t grind this coffee nearly enough. This glass will NOT be perfect! I have been experimenting with various grind sizes and compression levels of the top filter (next step). I have found that a finer grind with moderate pressure yields the best result. The coffee grind level should be just at the point where the screw pushes through the grinds. You don’t want to use too much or too little. The filter is actually meant to be screwed together, but I prefer to use more coffee and let the next step do its work:

Step 4) Apply the top filter over the coffee. This is the important part; too much pressure, and the water won’t go through. Too little, and the water will flow right through the grinds, leaving you with weak coffee (similar in taste to using a french press, actually). You can start by pressing the top filter down, pouring in the water (next step), and see if the water is going fast enough. If it doesn’t start dripping within a few seconds, use a fork to loosen the top filter a bit.

Step 5) Pour in the water. You should simply pour the water in to reach the top of the filter. I find this to be the perfect amount.

Step 6) Let it drip! Depending on whether you used the right grind size, and proper amount of pressure when applying the top filter, this is where you’ll find out if you did everything right. It should take a moment before the coffee begins to drip through the bottom, and it should take several minutes for this entire step to complete. If the water pours right through, your grinds are too big, and/or there is not enough pressure on the top filter. Play around with this step, and adjust to taste.

Step 7) Once the water stops dripping, you’re ready to stir in the sweetened condensed milk. The coffee itself should be dark, dark, DARK black, and should foam a bit when you stir it. Once the milk is mixed in, add your ice cubes. This is another important step: Too few ice cubes, and your coffee will be warm! Too many, and it will be diluted. For a big glass like this, I use 8 or so cubes. Some people prefer to keep the ice in another glass, and pour from one to the other. This is potentially messy, and creates more dishes to clean. But it may allow for the coffee to cool quicker.

And there you have it. The perfect glass of Vietnamese ice coffee, made at home! In summary, keep these important steps in mind:

1) You want to use FRESH coffee, ground at home if possible. Grind it fine, but not powdery fine. Use a strong roast; I like FRENCH ROAST since this would have been what was introduced to Vietnam by French colonists in the 1800’s, so their own roast may taste similar (I haven’t tried, so this is just my guess).

2) Don’t bother trying unless you can find the type of filter shown. Amazingly, I could not find one of these filters in Hong Kong, so I had to get someone to send me one – from a Chinese home appliance store in Richmond. I am 500 miles from Vietnam right now, but had to import a filter from Canada, 6400 miles away. I have tried a French Press, but it’s not strong enough. I haven’t tried using Espresso or a Moka pot, so I’m not sure how those will work out. Even a Moka pot, which makes very strong coffee will not work. There is something about the simplicity of using a combination of slowed percolation with the grinds under pressure that makes this coffee so great.

3) Longevity Brand A PURE MILK BASED sweetened condensed milk. Accept no substitutes. Make sure it’s not ‘filled’ with vegetable oil.