My Favorite Cantonese Restaurant

Chu Kong Seafood Restaurant
1661 El Camino Real
Millbrae, California

Everytime I'm in the Bay Area, I try to go back to my favorite Cantonese restaurant from growing up. It's a hole-in-the-wall kind of place. They have the same restaurant staff for years. The interior is not the greatest. It's a tiny restaurant and they don't really bother with their decor. They don't advertise either. But yet, I think they make the best Cantonese food I've ever had. Yes, it's that good. They have specialties that are not on the menu. You'd only know if you go with someone who knows about their specialties. The place can be packed on weekends even though it doesn't look very appealing from the outside.

Now onto a few of my favorite dishes...

Shrimp Ball Soup ( 蝦 丸 湯)
They make these shrimp balls from scratch. Cooked in a clear broth with tofu and spinach.




Typhoon Shelter Crab (避風塘 螃蟹)
Fresh spicy dungeness crab



Chu Kong Chicken ( 珠 江 鹽 水 雞)
Incredibly tender and juicy.



Fried Pork Chops ( 椒 鹽 排骨)




Stir-fried Pea Sprouts ( 清 炒 豆苗)

Hot Pot!

I love Chinese hot pot (huo guo). It's basically like fondue, but Chinese style. Growing up, my family would reserve this for special occasions like Chinese New Year. It's a time for everyone in the family to get-together. Now that the weather has become more cold, coming home to eat hot pot is definitely something that warms my stomach up (even if it's just for two people). It's like drinking chicken soup when you're sick. If my stomach would allow me to have it my way, I'd go for the spicy style (ma la). It's so good, but it totally burns my stomach up. I usually end up with a bad stomachache for a few days thereafter. But I still love it. It's a love and hate relationship.

My list of must haves for hotpot:

- thinly-sliced ribeye and pork
- frozen tofu (the texture becomes chewy when you freeze tofu)
- tofu skin (dou pi)
- enoki mushrooms
- napa cabbage
- pork meatballs (gong wan)
- slices of fish
- shrimp
- squid
- mung bean noodles (the wide kind)

My sauce:

- HOT sauce!!
- soy sauce
- vinegar
- Chinese bbq sauce (sha cha jiang)
- minced scallions
- coarsely chopped cilantro

Azuki Bean Mochiko Cupcakes

I had some leftover sweetened canned azuki bean paste in the fridge that I would hate to see go to waste, so I made some cupcakes- Asian style. Instead of regular flour, this was made with rice flour, specifically Mochiko flour. I can usually find this at our local Asian grocery stores. These cupcakes are like a blend of mochi and cupcakes made with regular flour in the mouth. They are a bit on the chewy side. The dallop of sweetened azuki bean paste in the center is bliss. I couldn't resist them when they were still warm... a few minutes out of the oven.

1/2 box of Mochiko rice flour
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup powder sugar
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp baking powder
azuki bean paste

Mix the eggs, rice flour, oil, powder sugar, milk, vanilla extract, and baking powder together. Grease muffin pan. (I used aluminum cupcake liners and greased them. Avoid paper liners if you want to use any liners. Cupcakes will stick to the paper liners.) Fill each cup with 2/3 of batter, spoon in a dallop of azuki bean paste, then top with 1/3 of batter. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Check to see if they're done with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, then they're done.

Makes 12 cupcakes.

My Love for Chocolate

Thanks to my bestfriend who knows my love for chocolate, I now have a new addition to my library: Scharffen Berger's The Essence of Chocolate.



It actually talked about how Scharffen Berger started. Reading it made me appreciate their products even more. I had some free time last week and experimented with one of their recipes: chocolate sorbet. The finished product was so smooth in the mouth that it tasted almost like a piece of frozen chocolate bar. The great thing was that it was fat-free. Yes, fat free. This will be my newest chocolate treat.

Bacchanalia

Recently I had a privilege to dine at Bacchanalia, a contemporary American restaurant in Atlanta. It was truly an experience I will not forget (next to Rome's Quinzi e Gabrieli).

The entire dining experience, from beginning to the end, was truly enjoyable. It's a four-course prix-fixe menu. The chef threw in a lot of complimentary items in between the courses, like soup, pastries, cookies. We even had a complimentary peach and buttermilk smoothie. Yes, buttermilk.

Everything they served was like a taste explosion in the mouth. I would have never thought of some of the pairings. The gingersnap cookie paired well with the peach buttermilk smoothie. Poached pears went well with my flan.

The timing of each course was perfect. We didn't have to wait too long nor did it feel like we were rushed. Portions were just right. We ate enough to savor each course without feeling stuffed. Service was excellent. Even though it was a dressy restaurant, it did not feel "stuffy" inside. The ambiance was on the casual, laid-back side.

I'd definitely try to hit this place again... maybe when I get a bonus. :)

1198 Howell Mill Road
Atlanta, Georgia
404.365.0410