Yes! honey garlic ribs for lunch from the New Century restaurant.  I know you rarely see me eat something that sweet – but I can’t resist it !  so I order the today’s lunch for that day – with loads of vegies as you can see – and rice (my favorite) of course.  So how was lunch ??  FUL – FILLING !

Chinese New Year was yesterday and as usual, a few friends with chinese kids like mine loved to gather and preserved a little of our chinese tradition even though we are so far away from home.  So a fruit basket full of good wishes for the Zhu’s at the Chinese restaurant and hoping it will bring them good luck and lots of money at the restaurant.

Some traditional chinese goodies from home for tasting and sharing.

Chloe all dressed up in cheong sum bought by her kai mah Lina from Singapore.

Eating at the restaurant, special noodles cooked for her.

Eating her favorite fried chicken with chinese noodles.

I had the buffet – yummy!

And here Ms Jasmine chomping down the peking duck with gusto – just loved the way she tried everything.

The chinese kids.

Adele and Sarah.

Normally, we don’t have supper at the New Century Restaurant or any restaurant unless we have a huge event going on, but a few days ago, my g/f and I decided to just hang out – so we went to pay the New Century restaurant a visit.  Not many people eating out that day – probably because the weather wasn’t that good.  But we ordered the Honululu Seafood plate and a plate of dumplings fried and some rice.

The fried pork knuckles were complimentary from the chef and it was pretty good even though I don’t quite like pork as much.

The Honululu plate comes with plenty of seafood and veggies and it goes great with rice.

And the fried dumpling was just as good.  We had a very good meal – only $20 in total.

Whenever we are in Halifax, we try to go for dim sum – and this trip I was hoping to order more because I had my sister from another come with me to the city.  But overall, it doesn’t seems like we’ve had a lot.  The hor fun was really good as usual but the kid just wouldn’t eat it.  PB ate some but not a lot – but the hor fun is by far the best I’ve had in Canada.

Then we had radish cake – pan fried – it doesn’t have a lot of small dried shrimp in them but it did have some mushrooms and chestnuts.

Fried wanton with mayo was something I wanted to try new – and it was ok – with a huge ball of shrimp in the middle.

We ordered 2 glutinous rice because the brat would only eat this – but alas, it came so late and the poor girl was starving and didn’t eat a lot.  This trip up to halifax – Chloe definitely didn’t eat a lot at all.

This is how the glutinous rice looked like.  The Great Wall in Halifax does have one of the best dim sum – authentic that I’ve eaten here in Canada.

Chloe eating with chopsticks of course – showing off.

And my special find this trip – was egg tarts – so yummy! to die for – they actually don’t have it anymore – but they specially made some for us.  So nice of  the people from The Great Wall. Located in downtown Halifax – Bedford Row – right off sackville street. Dim sum serves every sunday from 11.30am – 3pm but don’t be too late because all good stuff will be sold out if you are late.

So everyone asked me – have I tried eating at the new restaurant – but actually it isn’t a new restaurant, just new owners.  I think the Wongs are from PEI – but don’t quote me ok – it’s just what I’ve heard.  Anyhow, I decided to check out the new owners and their food and was kinda surprised to see the old owners working there as well.  So I’m guessing that the food would be just as good as before.  And as you can see here – there were addition buffet arrangement and an ice cream counter.   So for those with kids, – I’m sure you would loved it.

We ordered some chinese tea to go with our food – for we loved how chinese tea can wash away the oil that you take in during your meals.

We ordered the lunch for the day – a choice between chicken balls and scallop balls.  So I ordered a scallop – while my g/f ordered chicken balls.

I have to say that both were pretty good and wasn’t just flour in the chicken balls or scallop balls as you can see here.  I really liked that the batter weren’t much and the sauce was nice.  But the rice could have more flavor to it.

I do liked their egg rolls – it had a hint of curry powder in them.   Overall, it’s a good restaurant – but like all new restaurants and owners, they need to have time to plant their feet down, so do give them a chance.

The New Century Restaurant has a new dessert menu for the buffet – did you know that?  yup !  cream puffs, coconut pies, cheese cakes and ice cream – don’t forget the fruit cocktail too!  Very nice addition to the buffet table – and I see that the buffet was really crowded today too – food must be good eh.

Asparagus are not as expensive as they are back home.  My daughter’s godmother from Singapore was cooking some with baby abalones the other day and showed me how expensive they were.  I think we paid like $4.99 a bunch !  unfortunately, no one eats asparagus at our home, my mother in law used to cook them for me – and i loved it but now that she ain’t around – you know I don’t get to eat them anymore.

Chloe showing her godma Lina – the good asparagus.

This is a half order of Chef #8 – Honolulu Seafood Supreme with lobsters, scallops and prawns (shrimp), stir fried with pineapple and a bed of mixed veggies and broccoli.  You can eat it with rice or with noodles or it is as it is.  I usually ask for rice and it’s $15.95 for a whole order – but you can order half if you cannot finish them or have other dishes you eat with.  I loved the taste of this dish because it’s sweet and it has got some pineapple bits in it making the dish a bit fruity – great for children who loved seafood – healthy too.  The dish may looked plain but don’t be deceived by the looks because it really is pretty good.

Yong Chow Fried Rice is usually the dish we all order when we have kids with us or when we need something to fill our tummy.  The reason is because Yong Chow Fried Rice is usually with a lot of goodies in them, from shrimp to veggies and BBQ pork and of course rice fried together.  I ordered a half an order of Yong Chow Fried Rice the other day to show you how it looks like  - the rice is fried with eggs, fresh shrimp and yummy bbq pork – I like my Yong Chow Fried Rice without any sauce – but this one comes with some soya sauce to give it a bit of color and more taste.  The Yong Chow Fried Rice is $9.75 + tax and half an order is about $5 + tax at the New Century Restaurant downtown Yarmouth.  - You can call to order in advance if you like at 7429288.

The pan fried dumplings at the New Century Restaurant that I newly discovered that they had.  This is also called Gyoza back home and it’s as chinese as you can get here.  Famous in Japanese restaurants as well but in a Japanese restaurant they used a different dipping sauce.  Here you can dipped them in plum sauce or plain soya sauce but we asked for red vinegar with some julienne ginger but diced ginger is fine too.  The Pan Fried dumpling is fried till a little crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.  Wrapped in gyoza wrapper and with meat filling inside, it’s yummy to the max.  You can eat it as a meal itself and a soup or you can just have them as an appetizer and then order a main meal. At $8.25 definitely worth eating.

So today I’ve decided to order SzeChuan Special #29 Vermicelli Singapore Style (Hot) – now why they called this Singapore noodles I don’t know because truth be told, Singapore don’t have this kinda noodles.  How do I know?  I’m from Singapore !!!!!  hahahahha!!! but go to any Canadian Chinese restaurant or any restaurant in the States and even in UK – you will have this in the menu.  But nevertheless, it was quite yummy – a bit spicy for some people but you can order it with less curry powder if you don’t want it to be so spicy.   The skinny rice noodles comes with bbq pork, shrimp, onions, beansprouts, eggs and corn – stirred fried together with a special sauce and of course, some curry powder.   This is but a half an order – so if you don’t want to eat so much, you can always tell the girls at New Century Restaurant on Main Street – you want only half an order.  A full order is $13.95 – so enjoy! for i certainly did.

This is just half an order of Chef Special #2 at the New Century Restaurant and I chose not to have green pepper or chicken because I don’t like the two of them.  With a bed of cantonese noodles, you see there are lots of veggies, some char siew (BBQ pork) and of course large shrimps.  It’s  alot even for me – just half a portion – but it is something I like very much because it is pretty closed to the Chinese food I get at home.  So if you want real chinese food, try the Chef Special # 2 at the New Century Restaurant at downtown Yarmouth, Main Street.

I cooked some coconut rice aka Nasi Lemak and some sambal (spicy) prawns because I missed home cooked food once again.  So I just wanted a taste of home out of a sudden and found some Nasi Lemak paste in my pantry and of course some sambal (spices) to stir fry some prawns that I had bought and frozen a long time ago.   I had also wanted to let one of my girl pal taste my food from home and being Korean, you know they can eat a lot of spicy food but after tasting it – she too said it was truly spicy.  Therefore, I didn’t bring any to share with Chloe’s teachers the next day.

Making Nasi lemak is pretty easy, some coconut juice and pandan leaves and you are all set.  Plus, you can add just about anything into that sambal sauce, Ikan bilis is recommended and really cheap and some peanuts would be nice too.  But I had mine with sambal prawns, cucumber and a fried egg.  You can have yours with boil egg if you desire or some people add some tomatoes with it too.  I had chicken wings with mine as well and that’s pretty common back home too.  So yes, I enjoyed my rice very much and for those who loved spicy – you should definitely try some.

We don’t really celebrate mid-autumn festival in Nova Scotia because there isn’t much people in my town that is Chinese and knows the meaning of Mid-Autumn festival and playing with lanterns and eating mooncakes.  But that did not prevent me from getting some mooncake from a famous Hong Kong brand – with the help of a dear friend in Toronto.  Jen from Passion4food.ca – dear Jen was so busy with her own baby – because he was sick and yet had to get the mooncake for me and mail them out to me.  How nice is she!  so folks – want good food from Toronto – visit Jen’s blog – www.passion4food.ca.

Anyhow, the mid-autumn festival is mostly celebrated with family and a huge meal with the children playing with lighted paper lanterns and the adults would sit around and chat and enjoy the mooncake after dinner and enjoy the round moon.  The mid-autumn festival is celebrated to celebrate the harvest of the lunar year.

But it had long since been tied to the dragon boats and a chinese mythology  -  Houyi and Chang’e.  Anyhow, back to the mooncake, they are made with lotus paste and duck egg yolk.  I never used to like mooncake when I lived in Asia but now that I can’t find it anymore, of course I had to have them.   Humans are really strange aren’t they?  so do cherish the things you have now and not regret not having them later.

This is long overdue too – because I received this box of food and goodies like in July and already finished eating it hahah!!  Jen from Toronto sent them to me because she knows how much I missed my food from home.  Thank you so much Jen and Chapman – you too are an angel.

Whenever we are up in the city, we try and eat some Manchu Wok because it’s chinese and quite authentic at the food court in Halifax.  The food is pretty good but I’ll have to say that each time I eat Manchu Wok they seems to get more expensive.  This plate of food is about $10 – darn expensive right?  if i go to a sit down restaurant and they charge this price, it’s entirely understandable but a food court?  wow!  of course, back home if we are charge more than $3 it’s expensive already and $10 – I better get a piece of abalone – not just sweet and sour pork – hahahha!!  so although I do like the convenience – and the food, I don’t find it worthwhile to eat there.

Sorry ! this had been long overdue – I’ve had so many good food places that I’ve been to in the last few months, I haven’t gotten to all the reviews yet.  So bear with me, I will be showing you more good food around Nova Scotia and Canada.  Wok by the Bay in Digby is in Digby, Nova Scotia, we were on our way to Halifax when we had stopped  by to Digby to have lunch.  Firstly, the waitresses were very nice and very accommodating – the menu was good – they had a full range of food to choose from, the place was clean and so were their washrooms.

Here’s Chloe and PB messing around while waiting for the food to come.  It didn’t take long and like I said the waitresses were very nice – and so were the owners who happened to work many years in the other Chinese restaurant in town and opened up his own business about a year ago.

They do have Canadian food as well – like grilled cheese and french fries.  PB had those – he is so boring with food – not adventurous as you all know by now.

Chloe had hotdog and fries.

And I had an egg roll.

It had lots of cabbage in it – not really what I’m used to but nice nevertheless.

And sweet and sour fish with beef rice.  The portion was huge as you can see here.  And the fish are like fish nuggets and really fresh.  I couldn’t finished it all but I tried my best.

Wok by the Bay is a great place to stop by for lunch or supper – I would go there again – the next time I’m up in Digby.

This place used to be a small cafe if I remember correctly.

They have saturday buffet as well – give it a try and let me know what you think.

I loved cooking – especially food from home and inviting friends from Asia to share them with me.  I can’t cook for PB or Chloe because they don’t enjoy spicy food like I do.  Jen from Toronto had sent some tom yum soup paste to me – and it was so easy to cook – took less than 30 mins and with some rice – my girlfriend and I had a wonderful meal that day.  Fresh mushrooms and some hot pot fish cakes and fish balls and tofu – absolutely healthy and absolutely spicy.

Chee cheong fun is my absolute favorite for breakfast and supper – when I was home but it had been a long time since I last had some – so when i saw some in Halifax at the Asian grocery store at Queens Street – it figured I should try some out.  And guess what?  I should have bought more than just 2 packets because they were absolutely yummy!  i loved them.

They may not be as good as the ones back home but something is definitely better than nothing right.  So I finished it all – in 2 days – and they were like $3.50 a pack – which was ridiculously expensive but it was good – next time I will buy more.

When I’m hungry and don’t know what to eat – I loved to cook food from home – like a plate of good wanton noodles.  The wanton is made with chicken and the wanton noodles were bought from Halifax – veggies from local Sobeys and within a few minutes – a bowl of home -cooked wanton noodles.  All the goodness from home – I guess all Asians loved their noodles and rice and we can’t go without it for too long.

I learned how to make my own wanton noodles a few years ago – after having Chloe and I cant go to Halifax as much as I would like and even in Halifax – they don’t make wanton noodles like that.  Only in Singapore and Malaysia – you find authentic wanton noodles.

I would loved to cook these for Chloe’s teachers but you have to eat it instantly to taste the goodness of the noodles.