Shanghai 456

Another person I know who also enjoy eating at holes in the wall is A, a coworker of mine.  She was the one who first took me to Shanghai 456 for lunch.  This place is a little cafeteria that is located inside an airport hangar.  The place was pretty good, and so I took B to it and let him have a try.

Shanghai 456 - Building 18, 49 Airport Road in Edmonton

When you eat Shanghainese food, you have to order Xiao Long Bao (小龍包).  However, typical places that claim they make these well make them not so well.  They are usually very dry. Shanghai 456 makes them the way they should be made: a doughy pocket enclosing the meat AND the juice. Yum.  

小龍包 - there were six or seven, but I forgot to take the photo before eating them

Can you see the juice inside?

Another good dish that they had was the dumplings.  They also had juice inside.  Since I didn't want to order the same thing I had for my first lunch here, we ordered some noodles and this beef flank and tendon dish.  They were pretty good as well.  B was pretty happy and would like to go again.  However, we'll let the grease settle for a bit before coming back.

Won Jung Gak

One thing I love to do is search out local "hole in the wall" restaurants. They typically have the homemade tasty and usually, delicious food. This past weekend, I was a little tired of our neighborhood cuisine, and decided to look for another hole in the wall in Edmonton: Won Jung Gak.

I came upon this place by looking for restaurants in Edmonton and also searching "Edmonton hole in the wall", and funny, restaurant listings do come up! There were quite a number of good reviews for this place and a good warning about its MSG usage!

Anyways, this place truly defines "hole in the wall". It is hidden among blocks of semi run-down concrete blocked, light industrial buildings on the south end of the city. B was like, "Are you sure there will be a restaurant here?" because all we saw were closed car and machine shops. However, the little building came into view, and it could not be missed since it's the only building in the area with Korean and Chinese characters on it!

Won Jung Gak, a little Korean restaurant at 9655 62 Avenue 

Too bad we were not too hungry that day. So we just ordered something 'light'. I read good things about their noodles topped with black bean sauce, and their spicy soup noodles. What was great was that they had a "double bowl" serving both. It's a typical Asian noodle soup bowl, but with a divider in the middle. The brain of this restaurant is genius!

This bowl is genius!

The noodles were GLORIOUS. I just love chewy (彈牙) noodles. The black bean sauce topping was interestingly good. It's nothing like the Lee Kum Kee jar of black bean sauce in my fridge. I can't quite describe it.  It's not very salty, but just flavorful in its own way.  And damn, the spicy soup was spicy. For certain, I was chomping down mouthful of MSG. Usually when I intake MSG, I have this stingy feeling in my mouth, but here, it could also be mistaken by that spicy soup. B also ordered a noodle soup, but in a beef broth. It was pretty good, but bland compared to my dish. However, that's because my dish was on the flavorful (MSG filled) side!

Would I come back again? Oh yeah, and on an empty stomach to taste other Korean dishes - bulgogi, my favorite.

Weekend Cooking

Weekends are the time to make big meals so that there will be leftovers for most of the remaining week.  The more leftovers, the less cooking I will have to do during the week.  I cooked plenty this past weekend.  This is what I made:

 
The green dish contained cod and tomatoes. Unfortunately the cod fillets were frozen so it tasted quite fishy.

The round dish with handles has my favorite: fun-see (clear vermicelli).  Love this stuff.

The last dish is B's favorite, stir fried beef in bulgogi sauce.

New Toy!

B's original birthday present for me was dancing lessons, which I think is very romantic since that is how we met. However, at that time (April) he might have forgotten that spending time with me outside the home equals spending time away from his computer, and away from Diablo 3 (I hate that game). Since I wanted a tablet, it's his way to keep me busy while he's playing. It's a pretty sweet toy, but I still think I want his attention more.

Asus Transformer Pad TF300 with keyboard dock

It's June already?!

Wow, it has been four months since I'd last posted, and so much had happened!  Even the layout of Blogger changed!!!  I guess I did had time to post something, but I got lazy.

So in April, I hit the big 3-0.  Do I feel 30?  No.  Do I look 30?  I got my ID checked not too long ago.  So guess not!  Although I'm nothing like 30, being at that number does scare me a bit.  Me being older also means my parents are getting older as well.  The biggest fear in my life is not my own death, but my parents'. Since I'm the only child, their passing means I will be the only one left.  To me, that is very scary.

However, since May 2, I got married.  However, to me, a husband is not the same as parents.  Husbands can come and go (although I shun upon that idea), but parents are blood.  With them physically gone, it's like a part of me will go missing.

But let's forget that depressing topic and back to my wedding!  We had a small little wedding ceremony and dinner in beautiful Hawaii.  I love Hawaii.  It's one of those places I could always go to.  After the wedding, B and I ditched our friends and family (kind of, they also left pretty much soon after the whole wedding was over) and hopped on a cruise and sail around the islands.  Because of this cruise, I will HAVE TO return to Hawaii to see it some more. Did I mention I love Hawaii?!

After being back to Alberta, we had a dinner reception in Calgary to celebrate some more.  Our friends did an awesome job MC-ing the reception.  From the feedbacks I got, everyone had a great time.  My "little" photobooth set up was also a hit.  Great photos!

Just last week, I had my first trip to Grande Prairie.  If I was an engineer in the O&G sector, Grande Prairie would likely be a town I would go often.  Since I'm not, it was my first.  Surprisingly, I didn't mind it.  However, their best sushi restaurant was the worse I ever tasted.  Sad.

And now June is here.  Nothing big planned, but I might have another trip to Compeer, Alberta.  I didn't even know this place existed.  It's going to be a long drive and long day.  Oh well, that's work!