Roasted Eggplant with Feta and Parsley

I've always been fond of roasted vegetables. They are just so good at preserving the vegetable's natural flavours without wholly destroying all the nutrients compared to other methods of cooking, such as sautéing and frying. Combinations are quite flexible as well  - you can simply roast pretty much anything. Potatoes, tomatoes, peppers, whatever you like. For the recent Valentine's Dinner Series, we decided to make this colourfully roasted eggplant with tomato and feta "sprinkles" on top. The eggplants and the Greek-like salad could also be eaten separately if you're too lazy to spoon them on top (if you're eating just for the sake of it..."who cares about pictures anyway?")

These are actually super quick to make, an easy and healthier alternative to fried eggplants. 

ORU Cuisine

Located on the westcoast seashore, Vancouver has been long well known for its fresh and diverse selection of seafood. Restaurateurs have skillfully played with local ingredients and created some of the finest dishes I’ve ever tasted. One of them is ORU, Fairmont Pacific Rim's local concept restaurant. 

ORU uses locally-sourced ingredients inspired by the flavors of the Pacific Rim, taking a play on traditional modern American restaurant with a twist by changing to Pacific Northeast cuisine. Open kitchens, modern furnitures and casual servers all contribute to creating a lounge-like environment to the guests.

 When we sat down, the server brought us an iPad instead of the menu, which defied the paper menu concept but also added a sense of modern-ness to our experience. Detailed descriptions were included with every food and beverage item, which was very helpful to us. 

The Dim Sum Industry of Vancouver

When one travels to Vancouver for the first time, dim sum is a must-try activity here. Rumors say that due to the Hong Kong Transfer of Soverignty in 1997,  Hong Kong residents immigrated to North America in hopes of fleeing from possible rebellions and other conflicts, many of them were chefs from five-star hotels and the best restaurants. The arrival of the chefs quickly added a diverse dim sum scene which eventually became Richmond, a region in the Greater Vancouver area well-known for its Chinese food. Here are some of the most unique ones I've found so far. 

Chef Tony's Seafood Restaurant 

Opened somewhat recently in January 2014, Chef Tony's hit the crowds like a smooth waterfall and won the Top 10 Best New Restaurants of the Year. The secret? creative, unique dim sum dishes. Chef Tony moved to Canada in 1996, just before the 1997 event. After opening one of the oldest (and still one of the most popular ones) Chinese restaurants, Sea Harbour Seafood Restaurant for over fourteen years, he finally decided to open his own take of traditional dim sum. 

Picture above are the black truffle shrimp dumplings, taro yolk steamed buns, bitter melon-infused rice wraps, steamed shrimp mini buns, and savoury sausage taro rice. As weird as the names might sound, each dish was very good despite its twist on traditional flavors.

Farmer's Apprentice

The concept of "Farm-to-Table" has been a newly popular restaurant concept sweeping through numerous major cities across North America. In this type of restaurant, owners partner with local producers in delivering the freshest ingredients possible for everyday dining. Therefore, the menus are often different everyday depending on availability. I had the chance to visit Farmer's Apprentice, a 20-seats Farm-to-Table restaurant located just outside of Downtown Vancouver. Due to its limited seating capacity and fewer demands, the cooks in the restaurant also serves as servers, presenting their product elegantly to the guests. As we sat down, I immediately felt a sense of being in a summer garden though it was winter at the time. 

The furnitures and decorations all pertained to the theme of local farm-style and freshness.

The owner handed us today's menu and told us about the portion sizes. At Farmer's Apprentice, all dishes are meant to be shared instead and served at random orders, depending on the time it takes to prepare. This was very different from traditional restaurants where people order individual dishes for entreés. 

Valentine's Day 2015 Dinner Series

Valentine's Day "Going-All-Out" Menu

I know, I know - I've procrastinated with this post again.  When other schools have snow days with even a few inches of snow, Cornell would still open. However, Cornell have this thing called "February Break", which is actually a 4-day break starting on Valentine's Day! (Does your school have that? Weird, I know.

Since it's cold outside and we (as in international students and Californians) aren't going anywhere, a group of us got together and decided to make this year's Valentines a little bit nicer than the weather. Because "food gives us the strength to love".

This year's menu is as follows (and in the picture):
Roasted Eggplant with Capers, Feta and Mint
Garlic Rosemary Steak with Kale Winter Greens Salad
Green Tea Lava Cake (chilled with Ithaca's own windchill)
and the tradition of course - Homemade Chocolate Truffles(assorted flavours)!

Recipes will be in hyperlinks. Thanks to these lovely girls for making the night so much more heartwarming than the -20 life outside <3

Roasted Eggplant Sunshine

With Kale Winter Greens

Garlic Rosemary Steak

Green Tea Lava Cake 

Lava flowing out...

Ispahan Entremét - New Year, New Resolutions

Layered entremét topped with rosewater gel, raspberries and lychees

Rose and white - Valentine's Theme Colors

I originally made this cake for my mom's birthday - as a yearly tradition from back in 2011, I have always took charge of her birthday cake. These traditions may sometimes be quite humorous when you take a look to the past. For example, I got quite horrified at the NYC-Style Cheesecake I made for her in 2011 - burnt edges, excessive amounts of sugar and cream cheese, cracked tops and canned toppings? A kitchen nightmare.  Luckily mom did not know that I was going to make it a tradition back then. 

To create this cake I drew ideas from multiple recipes, which were all fantastic but somewhat challenging. Since the only store that sells rosewater in the village of Raincouver was 40 minutes away from my house, I ended up making my own rosewater from fresh Costco roses (when you go to a school with no Costco in the area, the place becomes a dreamland). Fresh rose water is actually quite simple to make and can be used for many things, from baking to facial treatments (a natural toner). 

clearly better than that burnt NYC cheesecake maybe? 

The Inside
Also, I'm more than happy to announce that The Coffeecat officially launched a Nutrition and Heath section! As a NS major student this is something I've always looked forward in doing but could not start earlier due to the lack of experience and knowledge on this topic. The section will include tips on healthy dieting, battling the freshman 15, opinions on the latest health trends, and many more! Ultimately, this blog serves as a forum for both recipe-sharing, restaurant-hunting, and a record of my college adventures. Every recipe has a story, trust me. 

Chelsea's Market Adventures

Ever since residing in a college in upstate NY, NYC trips have become a very common break destination for many of us - excited freshman students from the countryside especially (sorry Port Moody). This past Thanksgiving, we chose to stay in the city for around 3 days, and the main goal of this trip? Foodie Tours. Let's start with the heart of the city's foodie destination. 

Street View

Located at 14th St, the market's surrounding neighbourhood is rather quiet compared to the noises of uptown NYC. This is a deceptive appearance as you will soon find out. 

Spot Dessert Bar - KTown Adventures

Menu-Sideview

This past weekend, I went with the Big Red Marching Band to NYC for the football game against Columbia and Sy Katz' Parade, which included marching on 5th Avenue in celebration of Cornell's 150th birthday. Aside from the band stuff, our manager was generous enough to give us around 2 hours of free time after dinner to explore the city ourselves. Guess which rebellious sax end up going dessert-hunting with the clarinets? This hardcore foodie right here. 

Since we had limited time, we ran/walked-like-a-New Yorker to the closest opened dessert place - Spot Dessert Bar's branch in Korean Town. Located on the 2nd floor of a busy food court, the place was filled with people on a breezy Saturday night. 

Part of the Display 

 The cooler had a display of Asian-fusioned (would that be the appropriate word? Correct me if I'm wrong) desserts, including taro cake slices with a mini macaron shell on top, green tea éclairs, etc. Aside from the appealing displays, the Signature Dessert Tapas s are the must-trys. 

With a group of approximately 6 people, I had the chance to try (or watch other people try) 4 out of the 8 signature ones. Unfortunately some of them were not the first choice since the cashier said 4 out of the 8 signature tapas are unavailable, which also happened to be 4 of our top choices (Matcha Azuki, Banocoffee, etc...seriously). Maybe something they can try next time is to state the availability beforehand to avoid disappointment from their long-travelled costumers? Just a thought. 

The Signature: Green Tea Chocolate Lava Cake 

Foodie trips with a Food Science major almost always involves a fun "dissection" of the dish. Ethyn and I both thought the cake had a matcha-infused appearance but lacked majorly on the green tea flavour on the inside. Though beautifully plated, the dish is basically green tea ice cream and chocolate lava cake with minimal green tea taste. Though a little disappointed, this was the least sweet dish out of all the ones we've tried, a favourite dessert for those who can't tolerate over-sweetness, I guess. 

Establishment - Cornell's Own Student-Run "Restaurant"

The classic menu at Establishment, a place where a casual dining/studying lounge becomes a "restaurant" at night

Though still busy and exhausted from midst of the second round of prelims (term for midterm exams used in our school), Cathleen and I still decided to take a short break from all the pressure and chose Establishment - the student-ran "Restaurant" at Statler Hotel. This is actually a course for Restaurant Management at Cornell, where Hotel School students become servers, greeters, chefs - staff running a restaurant.

Since the roommate is also a student at the School of Hotel Administration, part of the other reasons  we went was also to let her experience Establishment as a guest before she becomes the server (and serves me haha). 

Occasionally, groups of students host themed-nights where there are new additions to the regular menu. We decided on going to the Hong-Kong Themed Night - a reminisce of home for both of us I guess. 

The regular menu with special additions

happy roommate, happy day

The night's additions included the Wushu Trained Flying Wings, Kung Fu Char Siu Master and Yin Yang Dessert. Very creative course names indeed, let's take a look at the actual products.

We ordered all three of the special courses, with 2 more items from the regular menu - Erza's House Salad and Dashi Salmon. 

Wushu Trained Flying Wings

the menu description described this course as: oyster-sauce glaze. I expected salty wings, as the impression of oyster sauce has always been more on the savoury side. The wings surprised us both- it was sweet, tangy, but not the kind of sweet and sour sauce you get at Americanized Chinese restaurants. Definitely consider re-ordering this if it still exists. 

A Giant Cinnamon Bun - Happy Birthday Cathleen!

Someone should post a video of drizzling the glaze...


So after a few months of playing with different ovens/kitchens, I've found out that baking isn't really impossible in college. Of course, this process did take a few sacrificed cakes - the kitchen in my unit somehow only heats the outside of the cake no matter how long you bake them. At this moment I would like to give a sincere gratitude to all the dear friends who ate those partially uncooked cakes and even complimented on the soft (uncooked!) centers. Again, another reason to apply to Cornell ;)

So it turns out that my chef/housewife/talented singer roommate, Cathleen, is OBSESSED with cinnamon. Therefore for her birthday the brainstorming didn't need a long time of thought - what's more cinnamon-ny than a GIANT cinnamon bun? Adding the maple syrup glaze was more of a Canadian touch (homesick moment). 

A big thank you to all the generous and lovely people who've helped with the production of this "gone-in-10-minutes" cake - Jeanne's bread club and her yeast when I didn't have time to do grocery shopping, Richard and his awesome (functioning) oven, Jenny and her emergency milk, and the countless people who've helped set up for the day. Though the cake probably only played a small role, it was the product of patience and care. 

Matcha Sablés - KissmeOrganics Matcha Powder Review

Anyone who took even a small effort to take a look at my post page would probably notice that most of them contain the world matcha or green tea in it. (Clarification: matcha is a type of green tea.) Yes, I'm a little bit obsessed with matcha. How can one resist the temptation of matcha's ability to balance the overly sweet stuff into bittersweet? 

Matcha is the ultimate excuse to eating "healthy desserts", I guess.

Thank you to those who did recognize this obsession and sent me little support packages. Thanks to Maria, I've received a great opportunity to review Kissme Organics' Organic Matcha Powder. After finding my "perfect" matcha powder earlier (see the soufflé post) I had doubts of whether I can accept another brand again. However, Kissme Organics did exceed my expectations. The matcha aroma was there - not too strong or too bitter. 

The powder can be used in many ways - matcha lattés, in yogurt (a spoonful boost to your digestive system in the morning), or in your personal baked goods (seriously, matcha-anything taste pretty good). 

In my example I've used the powder for these cute little matcha sablés, perfect for a studying snack or presents for friends and teachers. You can purchase this powder here , which would also come with an e-book of amazing matcha recipes!

Richmond Night Market 2014 (River Rock)

WARNING: Serious drool-worthy photos contained.

With its increasing popularity every year, the new Richmond Nightmarket (there's also an "old" night market, or the International Summer Nightmarket) blooms with visitors every non-rainy weekend (maybe rainy weekend too for desperate ones). As a group of two we saved our appetite for the big trip. Let's take a look at some of our finds in this year's night market: 

EAT! Vancouver 2014

EAT! Vancouver has been one of my favourite foodie event in Vancouver for the past few years.

After my last visit (2 years ago) I've always been longing to go since I couldn't go last year with all the school band's music festival stuff. 

So, what is EAT! Vancouver and why are Vancouverites (and other tourists from all over the country/world) attracted by it every year?

EAT! Van is known as the biggest food and cooking festival in Vancouver, the "ultimate consumer food expo" featuring local restaurants, cafes, wineries, celebrity chefs, cooking tool suppliers and other businesses in presenting the current trend in the industry. 

People can purchase cooking tools, try out new foods, taste some wine, attend cooking lessons and even meet their celebrity chefs in real life (yes). 

As a second-timer I did somewhat know my way around BC Place but there are still some changes that I've felt this time I went. Here's EAT! Van from the perspective of a second-timer student (in other words, did not get to try wine due to age ._.)

Hazelnut Linzer Cookies

Time flies too fast - next week is the last week of senior year, followed by finals, provincials, commencement and prom. Even with all this stuff compiled I'm still procrastinating in the posts (oops)...but I'll try my best to update as much as possible before summer. There are just so many things to make with so little time!

Traditionally, linzer cookies are made with ground almonds to give its nutty aroma and pale colour. However I found some toasted hazelnuts left around in the house, so I "recycled" them for good use. We all know how aromatic these nuts can get (Hazelnut latte from Starbucks anyone?). These nuts proved their "talent" as soon as you take the first bite - like Nutella but the more nutty kind. 

Matcha (Green Tea) Soufflé

It is this dish that made me realize the importance of a good matcha powder.

Before this recipe, I've made my matcha-infused baked goods with random brands I found on internet - not authentic for sure, but I bought it because it was cheap. 

As obvious as it sounds , but please don't be cheap when it comes to stuff like this! 

The powder I've used for this one is a $5.99 (50g) pack I bought from a Japanese supermarket in San Francisco during Christmas. The powder is from a family tea garden in the Kagoshima area, and the flavour can be tasted with just a little bit in amounts. (Back when I used the cheap matcha powders I use to think that lots of powder is needed for flavouring!)

Now enough blabbing....

DIY Mother's Day High Tea

The full high tea with mom's newly found Victorian dish set

Loving the royal tea pot!

 Mother's Day these days is becoming more and more like a competition to see who can spoil his/her mothers the best...(at least in my area that is). 

Even prior to the day, my social network has been filled with Mother's Day news feeds:flowers, cakes, more flowers and cakes.........

Come on. One has ought to have more creative ideas than flowers and cakes.

Since this is the last year I'll be spending Mother's Day with my mom before heading to college (hello internet shopping gifts...), I thought - why not make this time the best one yet.

My mom has been really into tea sets lately. This Victorian style tea set pictured in this post (only some parts, the whole set has about 73 pieces) was found on Craiglist (really mom) for $1000. I first had doubts on this idea of buying vintage dishes on the internet but when she brought the whole set home I was amazed by the intricate details on these dishes - they were lovely indeed! These dishes were pass-downs from the seller's great grandmother and since most dishes those days are either sold in pieces or missing, the whole set was hard to find.

Now, let's take a closer look at the menu....

Sakura (Cherry Blossom) Jelly

The combination of freshness and beauty signifies the arrival of spring.

Who knew wine glasses can be used this way?

 It's cherry blossom season here at the Northwest - though Vancouver is quite far from Japan in distance but the similar latitudes have provided a nice environment for these beautiful flowers to blossom.

Teahouse at Stanley Park

Inside View on a Sunny Sunday.

Outside view- gorgeous!

Before coming here I've been told that the two restaurants located inside Stanley Park- Fish House and Tea House - are known for their beautiful sceneries. "Fine Eating by the Atmosphere", as some would call it.

The scenery from Third Beach is beautiful! With views looking from the garden to the outward sea on a sunny Sunday- who wouldn't resist in even taking a look?

We made reservations for this brunch- and I highly recommend doing so especially for days with fine weather like this one.

[Drooling Pictures INSIDE]