Stephen Fung DOT NET

Dot Com Pho - The Sort of HD’ish Edition

Stephen — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 07:55:42 +0000

The Dot Com Pho Crew has made treks to many different Pho restaurants in the lower mainland of BC. Well, at least most of us have. We’ve been to the happiest Pho Restaurant to the angriest Pho restaurant to the fakest Pho restaurant.

This past weekend, John Chow, Leo Chiang (back from banging chicks on set), and Ed Lau (after he woke up), joined Rory Hansen and Ray (who shall remain last-nameless) for a bowl of Pho. Also joining us this week were Dot Com Pho n00bs Parm and Moneca. we headed to a Pho restaurant that none of us had ever been to. Pho Trang An is one of the newer Pho establishments to pop up on the busy Pho Insterstate of Kingsway. With dozens of restaurants in the same block, let’s see how it stacks up…

The verdict on Pho Trang An? Well, it’s definitely expensive. At $7.25 for a small bowl (a VERY small bowl), there’s definitely a price to pay for going to the cleanest Pho restaurant in the lower mainland. Also, we didn’t particularly find the broth to be the best. Despite a weak hint of “star anise”, a load of MSG, and way too much ginger, the only saving grace was that it was hot. The noodles were done right though and the meat was indeed very fresh (sliced per bowl).

If Pho Trang An wants to survive, they are going to have to lower those prices and work on the speed of the service. They were pretty slow and forgot our orders during our visit.

This week’s Dot Com Pho was filmed using the new FLIP Mino HD. Instead of full HD, it was merely HD look. Stay tuned for a review at Futurelooks coming up shortly.

So who’s Pho chops do we bust next week?

The Next Battle - Bison Stroganoff

Stephen — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 05:11:06 +0000

With all the big meat done in a night of pure Bison Bliss, it was time to see what other things this quarter of a bison had to offer. One of the things that looked interesting was a bag of sliced bison labelled “stir fry”. Since simply following the direction that the bag was leading me in was not an option, I decided to find something more interesting to treat these tender morsels of bison to. I decided that we were going to head to Russia on this bison battle…

Beef Stroganoff or Beef Stroganov as it is known in Russian, is a classic dish made with sauteed beef served in a sauce made with sour cream. I don’t know what Bison is in Russian, but today we make Bison Stroganov comrade!

Tender pieces of bison were slowly cooked in a mixture of mushrooms, onions, beef stock and wine. It’s seasoned with salt and pepper, dijon mustard, baby dill and finished off with a few dabs of sour cream in the last few minutes before serving.

After this savoury mixture thickens, it is then served on top of a bed of buttered egg noodles and garnished with some freshly chopped parsley. Eat up comrade!

An Epic Battle With Bison…

Stephen — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:06:26 +0000

Here are some of the visuals from an EPIC BATTLE that I had brewing with bison last night. Although I’ve had other bison battles, this one was the biggest one yet. A good chunk of that quarter of the animal that I procured would be put to good use this evening. My test kitchen guinea pigs would be members of CrossFit Vancouver.

Here we’ve got a bison roast going into the slow cooker with carrots, onions, celery, port and tons of brown mushrooms. The beast was heavily marinated in spices and beer before taking this long slow bath.

Next, we’ve got a bison brisket in a red wine and crushed tomato sauce. This is going to be wicked. I actually test kitchened this particular recipe with a roast, but you really do need the extra fat content of this cut of meet to make it successful. Bison was pre-marinated overnight with thyme, garlic, oregano and copious amounts of olive oil and garlic with salt and pepper.

Finally, meatball of all sorts made from bison were concocted. In total, there are three kinds here. As soon as I recover from my wine and bison hangover, I’ll look for my camera and hopefully find more pictures.

Dot Com Dinner Chef - Battle Mushrooms

Stephen — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 02:46:20 +0000

After cooking so much meat, I decided to try something a little different so I went to town in the mushroom section at the grocery store. I had picked out a bunch of Shittake, Portobello and regular white button mushrooms. So what do you do with a whole bunch of your favourite mushrooms? I created this…

Mushroom soup has always been one of my favourite soups for as long as I remember. The fresher, the better. None of this canned Campbells crap. Since I hadn’t created any soups for a while, I thought I’d take a crack at creating my own mushroom soup from scratch. Here are the steps to creating one of the best mushroom soups ever…

Starting off with some leeks, shallots, salt and pepper and thyme, I sauted things for a little bit until tender.

Next I added the mushrooms and sauted till all the liquid coming from the mushrooms is evaporated. I took a quarter of the mushrooms aside to add back in later.

I then added some wine and continued to cook till the wine was nearly evaporated. When the wine hit the mushrooms, it smelt so good!

I then added some flour slowly to the mushrooms and cooked the mix till the flour was well incorporated. I know it looks a little gross, but trust me, this will turn into a thing of beauty.

At this point, I added chicken broth and cooked til the mixture was well incorporated into the broth. I also adjusted the taste with nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste.

In order to get that mushroom to the creamed stage, you’ll need to blend the mixture. I chose to use a handheld blender, but some people may find it easier to just use a blender.

Finally, you’ll want to add some heavy cream and some sour cream to get that signature smooth and creamy look.

Just give it a final whisk, add in the mushrooms that were pulled earlier on and serve with fresh chopped parsley and some of your favourite dipping bread. You can even use a bread bowl if you want. That’s how you make a wicked mushroom soup from scratch. Bon Appetit!

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Cool KYMCO Scooter Ad from Taiwan…

Stephen — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:35:31 +0000

In North America, KYMCO isn’t that well known of a brand name. However, in places like Taiwan, they are considered one of the cooler brands, especially when it comes to Scooters. Now I know that some of you don’t equate “cool” with “scooters” but I thought it was pretty interesting to see the effort that this company puts into their branding…

The scooter in the ad is called the KYMCO Racing 150. It’s sort of a factory riced out version of my KYMCO Bet&Win 150, but with sport suspension and some other performance upgrades. However, I find it highly unlikely that it could really chase down a Ferrari no matter how many degrees it can bank a corner at. But then again, traffic rules are really suggestions in Taiwan. Go Scooter!

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