Chicago China Town Captain Bakery

I love bakery. Sometime I wish I went to a culinary or pastry school instead of the current field I am in which I have absolutely no interest with. Anyway, I want to show you some bakery treats we bought from Chicago China Town.

We don't have any Chinese bakery at my home area, so I am especially excited when I saw those lovely cakes and breads displayed in those Chinese bakery stores and wish I could try them all.

We didn't know how many bakeries they have in Chicago China Town, while we were shopping we just ran into this Captain Bakery where their cakes and bun looks quite attractive.

We picked up a few items from the store. I don't think they are especially delicious but i think it's quite tasty.

After bakery shopping, we also stop by one of the locals and visitors favourite place Joy Yee Noodle shop for some dessert. Even though Joy Yee was named as noodle shop but they actually quite famous with their specialty drinks Bubble Tea or Asian Flavor Smoothies. They offers variety of mixed drinks and you have the choice whether to add the tapioca to you drinks or not. I ordered an Avocado Coconut with tapioca. Very rich and creamy which I think it's little too much for an afternoon snack especially after a full meal. I would recommend stop Joy Yee for some sweet smoothies or bubble tea if you go to Chicago China Town.

Penang Restaurant in Chicago

I believe this is the only Malaysian restaurant you can find in China Town Chicago. Not sure if it is chain or franchises, I have been few different Penang restaurants in the United State: Chicago, Philly and Atlanta. The menu are a little different, some taste better than other. I have to admit that Chicago Penang wasn't my favorite among all the Penang I have been but I couldn't resist myself from going to the restaurant to have some Malaysian food. This are what we order from Penang: Penang rojak consist of cucumber, Jicama and ripe mango mixed with Shrimp paste sauce and crush peanut and balacan powder. I was quite disappointed with this dish. Even though the ingredient can be hard to get in the state but I think this can be much done in a better way. Or Maybe I should make my own rojak.
Mee Goreng means Fried Noodles Indian Style. The taste was alright, not as spicy as the Mee Goreng you found in Malaysia.
Sambal Udang or my hubby calls it Sambal Onion because 70% of the servings were onions.
In my opinion, this place is a bit run down and we weren't very impress with the service and food. If you never try any Malaysian cuisine, I think it is worth to give it a try.

Mitsuwa Marketplace

This is one of my Chicago must go destination. Hubby and I love Japanese food. In this market place, not only you can get food related items and also other japanese products such books, electronic, cosmetic item etc..Be warn, the price are not cheap for sure.

Our trip to Mitsuwa was mainly for lunch. There is a food court in this market place where you can try some delicious Japanese fast food menu. I hope they are as authentic as you can get because some of the menu are written in Japanese language which I have absolutely no clue, thanks to all the sample display on the side, hubby and I manage to order some nice food the try.

I ordered Okonomi-Yaki, A Japanese pizza or pan cake with grated yam, eggs and shredded cabbage top with bonito flakes and Okonomi-Yaki sauce. Cost $3

Hubby order a ramen set lunch meal which come with a bowl of noodle, a bowl of rice and an egg.
The ramen noodle was well decorated with a piece of pork belly, some fish cake, mushroom and a preserved plum for garnish.
The rice top with water crest, scallion and the Japanese rice flavor mix.
Aren't they looks delicious? They actually taste delicious especially the noodle soup. Cost $7.50

For dessert, we ordered the Matcha parfait which start with match jelly at the bottom on the cup, follow by 1 layer of whipped cream, vanilla ice cream, sponge cake, matcha and vanilla soft served, a dash of sweeten red bead and some mochi pieces. The parfait cost $3.50. All can I say is Yummy!

After lunch, we went to the Bakery to get some breakfast for the next day. There weren't many choice but we manage to get some cute bakery item.

Strawberry Daifuku - saw this from some blog, they look interested and tasty so we decided to get one to try it out. It turned out quite good, the rice cake were very soft and never know that red bean paste and strawberry go well together.

Japanese Herbs Red Bean Bun - No sure exactly what Japanese herb but i think it just taste like a regular bread with Red Bean Paste filling.
Doraemon Bun - I bought this because of it's cute looking bun. I just blogged about Dorayaki which is Doraemon favourite food, thought maybe this is a great treat to show you what is Doraemon looks like.
Salmon Roe French Bread- as describe French bread top with salmon roe, parsley and some cheese.

IKEA Breakfast

Chowtimes once mentioned about IKEA 99 cents breakfast, we decided to give it a try the one in Schaumburg Chicago. The 99 cents small plate breakfast consist of scrambled Egg, bacon and hash browns. The serving portion seems to be quite small, in stead of the small plate breakfast we opted the regular size breakfast which cost $1 more with a larger portion and additional toast on the side.

The business hour is 10AM to 9PM Monday to Thursday but the Café hour start at 9:30AM with a free Coffee before 10AM. By the time we arrived, we missed the free coffee hours. After all 99 cents a cup of coffee with free refill wasn't sound too bad.

One more thing about Ikea that absolutely blew me away is how kids and babies friendly place you can find in the state. No only they offer the play area for the kids, they also provided a bottle warming station with a microwave and disposable bibs for the baby; free milk and cookies between 3pm to 5pm and they even sell baby jar food in the café for 79 cent each. What else you can ask for?

Aidan is enjoying his breakfast as well and his friend Mr. Panda is patiently waiting for him to finish the food.

Tick.. Tick.. Tick.. Are We There Yet?

The clock is ticking... but I am still in the office reading some blog, check out some website and waiting to get off from work so we can start driving. So I thought maybe I can post my itinerary for the trip :

Friday
4:30PM - Start driving to Iowa, hopefully my son will fall asleep in the car
7:30PM - Dinner at some fast food place
9:30PM - Plan to arrive at Des Moise to meet with my friend and stay for overnight

Saturday
6AM - Start the trip again...
7:30AM - Breakfast at the Tiffany, oops.. actually some place that serve breakfast by the highway
11AM - Another stop for lunch, and no we are not there yet.
3PM - Check in the hotel and get some rest.....
6PM -Dinner at Todai and back the hotel to recharge...

Sunday - Day trip in Chicago downtown and the great lake....

Monday - Shopping Day

Tueday - Heading home.. another day of driving and driving..( are we home yet?)

Chicago here we come

The long weekend is finally here, 1 more day to go and we are outta here. I have been looking forward this trip since January. This is not the first trip to Chicago; In fact, we have been there for so many times. So what's makes the trip so special this time? Traveling with a 9th month old baby. This is my son's first road trip. Without my son, it take us about 9 hours to get there, so I will find out how long it take us to get there this time. Everyone wish us luck when they were told we are heading to Chicago with a baby in the car. I have been hearing all the "horror' story about driving with a baby. I hope I am fully prepared and will try to take it easy.

Our main purpose for the trip is all about food and shopping. Hubby has been craving for Japanese seafood buffet since last year, one place that we definitely will not miss is Todai the Japanese seafood buffet. Next stop - IKEA. We love shopping at IKEA, too bad they don't have any plan to open one near our area, driving 9 hours to get there is quite painful. So I better enjoy myself while I am there.

Dorayaki (Japanese Red Bean Cake)

Have you ever watch the Japaneses animation called Doraemon? Dorayaki is Doraemon favorite’s food. I never had Dorayaki until I came to the US. Since then I am addicted to the cake. You can find this cake from most of the Korean or Japanese groceries store but I think they are quite pricey. I found this recipe from the web and decided to give it a try and they turns out great. They are very easy to make but need a lot of patient when making the pan cake.
Ingredients:

• 3 large eggs
• 8 tbsp sugar
• 5 tbsp milk
• 2 tsp Honey
• 180g self rising flour
• 400g Anko (Sweet red bean) or enough for the filling

Method:

• Beat eggs in a bowl and whisk it with a hand whisk, then slowly add in sugar and continue whisk very well or until the mixture turn pale
• Add milk and honey in the egg mixture
• Add sifted flour in the egg mixture gradually until the mixture becomes a smooth
• Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and let it stand for 30 minutes
• Heat a non stick pan in medium low heat.
• Pour a scoop of the batter in the pan to make it a small pancake. (I used 1 tbsp size scoop)
• Heat a frying pan and lightly oil it. Pour a scoop of the batter in the pan and make a small pancake.
• Turn over when bubbles appear on the surface (about 3 minutes) and cook the 2nd side for 40 sec to 1 minute max.
• The pan cake should have 1 side with coffee color and another side with pale brown color
• Place the cake on the wire rack and let it cool.
• To assemble the cake, look for 2 pieces with about the same shape and side.
• Place 1 scoop of anko (sweet red bean) on the pale yellow side and cover with another cake with the same side

Makes 14 sandwiches.

If you never heard about Doraemon, you might want to enjoy the video of Doraemon Episode 1 below:

Strawberry Sorbet

Ingredients

• 2 lb of fresh strawberries
• 160 ml water
• 135 grams sugar
• 2 tbsp lemon juice

Method:

• Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan, over low heat, and stir until the sugar is completely dissolved.
• Boil the mixture for one minute then remove from heat and let it cold.
• Place strawberries in a blender and puree the berries until smooth.
• Add the lemon juice and the sugar mixture and refrigerate until the mixture is thoroughly chilled.
• Freeze the mixture according to the instruction provided from your ice cream maker. Usually it takes about 20-30 minutes.

Let's Dish! verdict..

This is a follow up post from the meal I packed from Let's Dish! last weekend. Let's reveal the truth tasting of the dishes...

Rosemary and Mustard Grilled Steak

The marinade consist of rosemary, mustard seed, thyme, garlic and soy sauce.My quickie version to grill the steak is by George Foreman. Placed the marinated steak on the grill and cook for 10 - 15 minutes and let it rest for another 5 minutes before chow in.

Verdict: Quite tasty, better than the plan old grill steak with steak sauce.

Chile Lime chicken with Black Bean Salsa

Chicken breast marinated in lime juice, chili powder and garlic and the black bean salsa consist of black bean, lime juice, roasted bell pepper, tomatoes, onion, cilantro.

Verdict:I am not a black bean fan, but i think the salsa taste quite good even though it has been in the freezer for few days. The chicken tasted great as well and not as spicy as I expected.

Savory Apricot-Crusted Salmon

This is the first dish we made. The fish wasn't as fresh and clean as I wish. The spread consist of apricot preserved, breadcrumb, horseradish, Worcestershire sauce and dill. Rub all the mixture on the salmon fish and bake for 15 minutes with the fish wrapped in aluminum foil and removed the top foil and back for another 5 minutes.

Verdict:This is ok dish for me. I was expecting the crust to be a little crispy. Overall the fish is a little bit too sweet for me. I still prefer the plan old mayonnaise salmon.

Mother's Day Menu

The day started with home cook comfort food Abalone Chicken Porridge serve with some pickle mustard green for lunch.
Follow by Chinese herbal soup consist of Dong Quai aka female ginseng, goji, red dates and chicken. This soup is a special treat for myself.
It was a hot sunny day, spending all day out site working on the fence were not fun. So I made hubby a glass of icy cold limeade with preserved plum. This is my favorite drink. Adding the preserved plum and honey balanced the sourness from the lime.
For dinner, we cooked the dish we prepared from the meal center- Southwest Chicken Wrap. All I need to do is place everything in my multiple purpose rice cookers and set the timer to 5 hours.


The sauce is a little salty taste, so I added some lettuce and cheese on top to kick it up a notch.


Viola.. Dinner is ready.