How to keep your fresh parsley/cilantro fresh?

As usually recipes call for only a quarter or at best half the bunch of fresh parsley/cilantro you just bought at the store, so what to do and how to keep the rest for future recipes?

1- Wash only when using them. Dry the leaves.
2- Put them in a pot with water.
3- Cover with a plastic bag and put them in the fridge.
(I heard that parsley don't need to be put in the fridge, so left it on the counter)

Baked Falafel

Don't feel like eating meat? Try this recipe. 

Please finely chopped the herbs/onions, otherwise it won't hold together because they will be too big (several trials and errors caused by my laziness).

Baked Falafel 

Ingredients : 

2 cans 19oz fl chickpea, rinsed and drained

2 TBSP white/whole wheat flour

3 TBSP fresh parsley, finely chopped

1 TBSP fresh cilantro, finely chopped

1/2 onion, finely chopped

2 tsp cumin, coriander, hot pepper flakes

2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp baking soda

salt to taste

Directions :

1- Use a fork/potato masher and press against the bowl to mash the chickpeas until no more whole chickpeas visible.

2- Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well.

3- Use your hands/spoon and form balls on a baking sheets then flatten them.
(more they are flat, more they will be crispy/dry)

4- Bake at 375°F (preheated oven) for 15 min each side. 

(Lazy advice : as I don't want to fatigue myself from flipping them, I switch bake mode to grill mode).

Enjoy plain or make pita sandwich with mint yogurt/tomatoes, according to your laziness level :)

~V.Cat~

Eating less meat

When I moved alone in appartement and had to start cooking by and for myself, I realized that touching meat repulse me. It was kind of weird at first because I have always eaten meat without problem. It is the texture and the coldness of touching it which give me chills. I also have to admit with my background of nursing, germs freak me out. Therefore the fear of bacteria propagation from raw meat doesn't help, because I have to say I am a lazy person, so always thinking about cleaning well after preparing meat makes me want to decrease my meat intake. Yes I am that kind of lazy person. Stupid reason maybe but that's me.

The turning that blog will take for the next year coming is to post more vegetarian recipes to share with you my followers and my friends having the same fear as me.

~V.Cat~

Bitter Gourd - Chinese style

I like and feel eating something bitter and this is the perfect vegetable. I find it easy to cook and healthy. How easy? 2 ingredients : bitter gourd and eggs. 

How it looks inside

Bitter Gourd Eggs
Directions :
1- Cut the gourd lengthwise, remove the white fiber and the seeds.
2- Slice it.
3- Beat 3 eggs with a pinch of salt. Add sliced gourd.
4- Cook.

~V.Cat~

Tiramisu

At my friend's farewell party, her mom made TIRAMISU! It was amazing. The day after, it was even better. As it was so good and she is a generous friend, she accepted to share her mother's famous well kept recipe with you guys :P

Tiramisu
Ingredients : 
4 eggs
120 g sugar
500 g mascarpone
400 g ladyfingers
Strong expresso

1-2 TBSP Amaretto/Baileys/Tia Maria/Rhum
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions :1- Beat egg white + 1 TBSP sugar until forms peak.
2- Whisk egg yolks + sugar until all lighter in color.
3- Add mascarpone to egg yolks mixture -- add Amaretto/Baileys/Tia Maria/Rhum -- vanilla extract.
4- Delicately add egg white in the egg yolks mixture.
5- Assemble a) ladyfingers dipped in coffee (FAST otherwise become soggy)                          
                     b) creamy mixture just prepared.... repeat and finish with the creamy mixture.
6- Sprinkle some cacao.
7- Reserve in the fridge 24h with a plastic wrap. 

~V.Cat~

The Friendly Thaï

Hello everybody,

First day in Toronto and my friend's brother living there suggested us a Thai restaurant called The Friendly Thai. He said a lot of good thing about it, so we simply said «Why not?». It is food and we never tried it, so let's go!

Appetizers : Friendly Thai Appetizer Plate (hot and cold spring rolls, calamari, shrimp satay and mango salad served with plum and peanut sauce) (15.99$)

Appetizers plate

The spring rolls hot and cold were vegetarian and bland taste. The shrimp were good, but did they taste satay sauce? not sure...The calamari were well fried : crispy outside. Mango salad was super yummy : the mangoes were crunchy under the teeth and well marinated.

Sauces (left to right) : Plum, peanut and sweet/spicy/vinegar sauce.

Avocado Spring Rolls

I didn't have a chance to taste them, but the person who ordered it loves avocado and definitively loved those spring rolls :)

Main plates :

Marinated Grilled Chicken (10.99$)

Was the chicken really marinated? Bland taste! Fortunately, the fish sauce mixed with sugar (top right of the picture) saved the plate. On the good side, the chicken was very tender, not dry at all. The salad underneath the chicken added freshness to it. How I like to eat it : slice of salad, chicken and dip it in the sauce. Hmmmmm 

Shrimp Curry Pad Thaï (12.99$)

Chicken Oodles of Noodles (10.99$)

Chicken Oodles of Noodles is stir-fried noodles with marinated chicken, mixed with broccoli, bok choï, red bell peppers, tofu and bean sprouts, garnished with green onions, and parsley, lemon and orange. It is served with a bowl of peanut sauce. The noodles were well cooked, the sauce thick and a bit sweet. One of our friend told us to mix the noodles with the peanut sauce, verdict : it made the sauce thicker, add richness to the plate but I found it a bit on the heavy side. 

Note : The plate looks small, but they are really filling. Proof : we couldn't finish them.
Disappointment might have come with the fact that I didn't feel the authentic Thai flavor in the cuisine. I found it very americanized, but overall good. 


Rate :
Food : 3.5/5
Service : 4/5
Price/quality : 3.5/5
Overall : 11/15

The Friendly Thai
678, Yonge St
Toronto, ON
M4Y 2A6
(416) 924-5804
http://www.thefriendlythai.com/index.html
(Menu available)

~V.Cat~

El Trompo - Taco Bar & Cactus Grill

Hello everybody,

My friend and I just arrived in Toronto downtown with Megabus (if you want to travel Montreal-Toronto, I would highly suggest it to you, because it is cheap ~15$+tx and it is pretty comfortable, the bus only stops once at Kingston). We walked towards Kensington market and it is already late afternoon, we didn't have lunch yet. We were starving to death from the bus ride and the walk. What's best to do when you don't know where to eat but want to eat something good? Let's ask people :)

Actually, we get lucky and a Mexican Restaurant was recommended. Frankly speaking, we were skeptical about the choice, but still wanted to give a try as we were tired and hungry with no idea where to eat - brains were not working at this time. 

There you go : 

First, 2 sauces were brought to our table : the red one (left) is a basic salsa with tomato and the green one (right) is made with green tomatoes and chipotle (so a little bit spicy). Both sauce enhance the taste of the tacos we ordered. They brought something *humph a little tanginess but not overwhelming the flavor of the tacos. So it was a plus.

We ordered 2 different taquitos : 1) Spicy tangy chicken (chicken cooked in a sauce made from tomato and chipotle - 9.75$); 2) Chorizo (we choose this one because we were told the sausages were homemade, it was served with coriander, onion and lime - 9.75$). Please, try them with the sauce, they were both DELICIOUS. What's special about them is the soft tortilla (what I have not seen in Montreal). 

                                                                        

We completed the meal with 2 beverages which were really refreshing : on the left, it is the Tamarind (sweet and sour, but for the texture, it is thicker than water which doesn't please everyone - 1.50$). On the right, it is the Jamaica (Iced tea made from a tropical flower called Jamaica or Hibiscus - 1.50$), it is a very flavorful drink and not too sweet.

Note : Don't be fool with the size of their tacos, they seem small but you will be full at the end.

Rate :
Food : 4.5/5
Service : 3.5/5
Price/quality : 4/5
Overall : 13/15

Restaurant El Trompo
277, Augusta ave. (corner Oxford)
Toronto, ON
M5T 2M1
(416) 260-0097
http://www.eltrompo.ca/index1.html
(Menu available)

~V.Cat~

5000 ans - Korean Restaurant

Hey everybody,

After helping a friend to pack and move her boxes, we decided to have a supper at 5000 ans, a Korean restaurant close to her place. We were so tired and hungry, we would have been able to eat a whole cow :)

We ordered a combo Budae jigae (~25$) which include a ramen plate with sausages and kimchi and a bowl of bibimbap (vegetables and meat on the top of a stone bowl of rice which you have to mix before eating). The service was quick, but there were only 3 customers at the time we went.

 Stone plate with Ramen, pork, sausages, kimchi and vegetables.

When the broth boils, you mix it and wait until everything is cooked. Time to dig in! It was decent, the soup in which the ramen cooked tasted like the powder you find in the package you buy at the grocery store, so we were kind of disappointed. But we were totally full after the meal. Very filling!

Bibimbap

Nothing special about this bibimbap, the red sauce on it tasted too sweet for what I would have expected from a Korean restaurant. It seems it was gojuchang (korean spicy sauce) mixed with Ketchup, but a bit too much ketchup in my opinion.

Note : Usually, in the Korean restaurant, they used to serve some side dishes (kimchi, soybean sprouts, potatoes...), but in this one, I can't believe it they didn't :( Big  big disappointment!  

Will we go again? NO!

Rate :
Food : 3.5/5
Service : 4/5
Price/quality : 4/5
Overall : 11.5/15

5000 ans 

2176 Rue Sainte-Catherine West
Montreal, QC H3H 1M6

(514) 932-7565

~V.Cat~

Back to school giveaway

Hi everybody,

Allthingsforsale.com is having a giveaway contest. They sale various bento boxes and accessories. A new way to have a good start or to continue your healthy habits during school session --> bento boxes! Enjoy!

Giveaway - bento boxes

Cacao 70

Hello everybody,

So what's the best place to have a get together with a friend that you haven't seen for a while? Obviously, around chocolate (between girls, it's our péché mignon but which solved and comforted us so many times :P). Moreover, my friend LOVES when i say she loves, I really mean it : She LOVES chocolate! I think it will be difficult for her to chose between chocolate and her husband (just kidding). We choose Cacao 70 for the meeting place.

We both wanted to give a try to this new place, especially after hearing people said that it was better than Juliette & Chocolat. We didn't hold ourself for the order, we wanted to have sample of their various items on the menu, so we picked : «sharing sharing» (for two). Basically, it consists of «1/4 of triple chocolate pizza, banana split waffle, chocolate snacks, warm chocolate sauce, chocolate covered ice cream, strawberries, chocolate hazelnut wafers and milk chocolate fondue served with your own personal grill to roast the marshmallows» (28.95$+tx). I should have checked the description before ordering. It was a lot, a lot and a lot of chocolate, you have to love sweet in order to be able to finish that monster. 

Sincerely, we first received a sample of their chocolate in 2 glasses, it was thick and very chocolaty (milk chocolate). Appreciated but not impressive.

Then, come the chocolate snacks, warm chocolate sauce, chocolate covered ice cream, strawberries, chocolate hazelnut wafers and milk chocolate fondue served with our own personal grill to roast the marshmallows. The small balls in the center are crispy inside like puff rice covered with chocolate, nice texture change of texture.

Here is a closer look of the personal grill which I find it really cute and fun to roast our own marshmallow.

                                        

Sincerely, it was just good for two. But the waiter came with another huge plate with again a lot of chocolate. I thought I was going to have an heart attack with that much sweet (that's why I mentioned earlier that I should have checked the complete description...). However, my friend was super happy, so what do I have to say, let's enjoy it :)

Second plate and last one (fortunately for me) : 1/4 triple chocolate pizza, banana split waffle (the bananas were caramelized before being covered with chocolate, so it added a special touch),  warm chocolate sauce, vanilla ice cream.

Comment : The waffle was just okay, not enough crispy according to me but tasted just fine. My friend loved the chocolate pizza which I found quite boring : just a basic dough covered with chocolate... bofff! There was too much chocolate, it all tasted the same at the end :(

Overall, for people loving chocolate, it is a place to go. Better than Juliette & Chocolat? not sure, they both are quite the same in my opinion, but simply offer different ways of serving the chocolate. Debate still on for fans of chocolate, let me know if you have a preference and why.

Note : I found it a bit pricey for the quality and for what we got.

Rate :
Food : 4/5
Service : 3.5/5
Price/quality : 3.5/5
Overall : 11/15

Cacao 70

2087 Ste. Catherine West

Montreal, QC H3H 1M6

http://cacao70.ca/

(Menu available)

~V.Cat~

Universel Restaurant

Hello everybody,

We were a big group (22 people) going for an anniversary to «Universel». The service was good, they didn't charge us extra fee for being a group. They told us that we needed to pay 1$ per person for slicing the birthday cake, but at the end they didn't charge us :)

Some people took a calamari appetizer. The tomato sauce was tangy and sour. It paired well with those fried seafood. I found them good, crispy on the outside.

Another choice of appetizer was the broccoli and clam cream soup. The clam flavour was strong but didn't overwhelm the soup.

 Salad cesar

Fillet mignon brochette -- The dish came with a pepper sauce which was good but tasted like those you buy from the grocery store. My friend asked for medium, but it was well cooked and the meat was dry. The meat already has pepper on it. I expected that the fillet mignon was tender and didn't have pepper on it letting us to taste the true meat flavour.

 Teryaki chicken fillet -- The poultry was tender, not dry at all. It was covered with a thick and sweet sauce. Not too sweet. It would have been tastier if the marinated the chicken. Although the sauce seems to be industrial, the dish was still good.

Seafood fettuccini -- The dish was rich even if there aren't any cream in the sauce. The sauce tasted okay. There were a lot of mussels (as you can see on the picture).

Salmon pennini

Seafood pizza

Linguine Vongole -- clams, shallots and cream sauce.

British burger -- mushroom and swiss cheese. Charcoal grilled meat... it was so dry. I couldn't taste the swiss cheese and the mushroom had no flavour.

Rib steak -- The first one was burnt and we had to ask to replace it.

 Dessert included in the table d'hôte
3 layers of 3 different chocolate -- too sweet according to my friend.

 Pacane tart

Note : Thanks for my friends being so patient even if they were really hungry, they waited for me finish taking the pictures before eating. THANK YOU!

Rate :

Food : 3.5/5

Service : 3.5/5

Price/quality : 3.5/5

Overall : 10.5/15

Universel Déjeuners et Grillades

2055 rue Peel

Montreal, QC, H3A 1V4

514-840-7136

http://www.restomontreal.ca/fr/4051/Universel-Dejeuners-et-Grillades (menu available)

~V.Cat~

Pizza Napoletana

Hi everybody,
I meet up one of my long time no see friend from my Bachelor degree (at least 5 years we didn't see each other). Fortunately, she insisted so much about not reporting again and again this meeting, we had a good time trying a new restaurant and keeping each other up dated about our respective lives.
Here we go, we choose Pizza Napoletana which is known for being the first traditional Italian pizza of little Italy since 1948. My friend Marmotte said that during her trip to Italy, it was at Naples right in front of her hotel that she ate the most amazing pizza. So we wanted to give a try to this one.

We shared an appetizer called «Polpette di Angelina» which is basically meatballs (around 8$). They were average. Nothing special about them, the tomato sauce doesn't have any special flavour. They were moist and melted in your mouth, but enough solid to stay together when cut.

Then the main reason we got there came : the pizzas!! :)

We ordered : #15 «Vegetariana» which has mushrooms, mozzarella, tomato sauce, olives, onions and green peppers (cost : 15$). I was quite disappointed, because I expected large grilled flavourful vegetables on top of it and what appeared in front of me was basically small diced vegetables. The taste reflected the picture below : Boff! Really nothing special, the crust was a little dry and crispy.

The other one : #35 «Porcini» which includes mozzarella, porcini, arugula and topped with olive oil (note : porcini is a kind of mushroom) (cost : 17$). It was much better only thanks to the sweet and peppery taste of arugula.

Overall, it was acceptable, nothing special or very particular that will invite me going back there.

NOTE : They only accept cash. There is an ATM inside.

Rate :

Food : 3.5/5

Service : 3/5

Price/quality : 3/5

Overall : 9.5/15

Address : 189, Dante street (corner de Gaspé) 

                514-276-8226 

                http://www.napoletana.com/index.html  (menu disponible)

~V.Cat~

Omma

Hey everybody,
My friend heard of a new Korean restaurant opened in Outremont district. We wanted to give it a try as we both like Korean food. So here we go :

It is not the typical Korean restaurant, it has that «Outremont French» vibe in it. I found that the cook tried to force the thing to fit into the neighborhood mold which can be good...

We were first served with one side dish : black soybean simmered in soy sauce.

Sam Dak Bulgogi -- Spicy barbecued chicken fillet, lettuce wrap, rice and kimchi (18$).

Rice

Lettuce with gochujang

Spicy Salmon -- Grilled salmon fillet with a gochujang sauce and spring onions (18$).

 Enjoy!

Overall, the ingredients used were really fresh. Both the chicken and the salmon were well cooked. But if you are looking for a more «authentic» Korean restaurant, that is not the place for you. Although, for a Korean fusion dish, you can sure give it a try.

Rate :

Food : 3.5/5

Service : 4/5

Price/quality : 3.5/5

Overall : 11/15

Restaurant Omma
177 Rue Bernard Ouest
514-274-1464
https://www.facebook.com/restaurantomma