you'll never know a good cannolo until you meet one

one hungry afternoon, i felt an appetite for destruction coming on and so i bought some cannoli from alati-caserta to satiate me. boy, did i destroy those things...shredded them like a ninja turtle on a pizza delivery boy. 


[4 cannoli with ricotta and chocolate bits crema]

alati-caserta are undeniably one of the best cannoli-makers in town¹. crunchy rolls of fried dough stuff with a crema made of sweetened ricotta and magic... oh the delight! (though i have heard that some people have been diluting the crema with miracle whip which sounds terrible in itself! barf!)


[the same box of cannoli 20 minutes after purchase]

my friend benny "the sicilian" says there's only "tree places in this city" that you can get good sicilian cannoli, and that the best ones in the world come from palermo (after all, sicily is the birthplace of the cannoli); obtaining a world-class cannolo from palermo, however, might put a dent in my carbon footprint.

however, next time i get hungry for cannoli again, i'm going to my friend's place (aka mamma luigi's house). stay tuned, cause i need to catch up on my yearly cannoli quota soon before i fall behind...

¹this in reference only to retail outlets. if i counted homemade ones, then mamma luigi's is tops. sometimes i wish she were my adoptive italian mom.

secret tofu lair

at the secret tofu lair here in somewhere, montreal, a tofu superhero can get all the tofu supplies he/she needs for his/her secret tofu missions, including fresh soy milk, dessert tofu, hard tofu, fried tofu cubes and more.

a tofu superhero can get 3 x 2lb tubs of fresh soft tofu for $4.20, and a jug of fresh soy milk for $1.20.

now, would a tofu superhero reveal the location of his/her secret tofu lair? ask and ye shall find out... 

habby beerday to meee

i am a little tipsy as i type this, so apologies if i mistype, though with my superior orthographic skills, it is highly unlikely. highly.


the stuff i just drank is made by gods. these gods call themselves le trou du diable, their leader of the pack, andré trudel, and the elixir called la buteuse, the 2009 gold medal winner at mondial de la bière here in the royal mountain city. it's an amazing fragrant, strong, triple-fermented pale ale, complexly toasted-fruity-flavoured and strong (10%). it's strong.enough for sanitizing your toothbrush.

too bad you can't find it anywhere because i think it's only been bottled three times in limited batches in the last 2 years (though my math might be bad).


this one came in a 750ml bottle (at $20 a pop, it's definitely not a poor-man's king-can), but it would be such a delight to try it on tap at the brewery! oh, and the weird priesty-man on the label doesn't freak me out like a real priest would... it's a nice label, in fact! 

and yes it is my birthday. or was. is. wasis.

yi-mein or die

so my arm was twisted by some uninspired glutton who insisted that there should be an example.of what to do with e-fu noodles...

well guess what, pkeller (if that is your REAL name): this is my blogospheric space. and i will do what i want with it. and because i'm such an awesome nice person, i'll share this quick and somewhat easy way of enjoying the delight that is yi-mein with chinese black mushrooms (more often called shiitake because people don't know any better).

after you've boiled your noodles to soften them and left them to drain (they need to be dry), sauteed some garlic and sliced up mushrooms (here are some fa-gou, a type of chinese black mushroom) in some vegetable oil until fragrant.remove them from the heat and set them aside. don't eat them all or you'll have some sorry-looking noodles.

back in the large frying pan/wok/contraption, heat up some oil at medium heat and then return the noodles to the pan to heat it up by turning it gently (use chopsticks if you can).

mix up some basic sauce^a using about 1 Tbsp (15 ml) of quality oyster sauce with about 1/3 cup (~80 ml) of water. add a little bit of the sauce at a time to the noodles while they heat up; ensure the sauce is either soaked up or evaporated before adding more. this will keep the noodles dry, so they don't get mushy like the last time you watched bambi. continue until there's no sauce left and noodles are heated through and dry-ish. add the mushroom mix back to your noodles to heat them up and then finish it off with some sesame oil to taste. garnish with green onions and then eat it like there was no tomorrow.


[this one has some fake crab meat. win!!11one]

^ait's not really a sauce, but let's pretend it is.

two bites don't make a wrong

(that's a terrible pun. i should slap myself because i hate puns.)

my attempt at duplicating two-bite brownies was a win -- popped in the mouth, like the decadent chewy ones you buy in the store supposedly made by some grandmother, except not as sweet and definitely way cheaper than dropping $4 for a bag of 12.


[this picture doesn't do them justice]

i don't actually remember making them. i might have had one too many beers. but i think this is what i did:

melt 1/2 cup (125 ml) of unsalted butter with 7 oz (200g) of dark chocolate in a heat-safe bowl over simmering water. remove from heat and add 2 Tbsp (30 ml) of cocoa powder, and let it cool slightly.

in a separate bowl, i think i beat 3 eggs with 1 cup (250 ml) of sugar, 2 tsp (10 ml) vanilla, and 1/2 tsp salt. stir in the chocolate mixture until well blended. add 1 cup (250 ml) of flour and mix well.

bake them in your greased mini cupcake/two-bit brownie pan for about 10-12 minutes at 350F (180C). they won't be baked all the way through but you don't want them to.

i don't remember how many the batch made but it should make at least 6 or 8 two-bite brownies, the last i counted. my math might have been bad because of the beer.