Lobsta Madness

I thought while we were out celebrating my Dad's birthday today, that I'd have some lobster. It's in season now, and I've only ever had it one other time (and even then, only the tail), and as a Nova Scotian, that simply wouldn't do! We are well known for out lobster, after all...

My mother's brothers and their kids can each finish off a lobster in under 10 minutes - I have fond childhood memories of get-togethers where they would have a huge lobster boil. Out would come the bibs, claw-breakers, and melted butter, and they would just inhale lobster after lobster, the live ones still scuttling around the kitchen floor, awaiting their turn in the pot. They REALLY enjoyed the whole experience! But I couldn't bring myself to try it - I'm not good at eating things that still have their eyes on. :)

So, I thought it was time to try it again. However, when I ordered a 1/2 lobster, I assumed for some reason that that meant just the tail (1/2 the meat is in there, after all). But I was rather taken aback to get an entire half lobster on my plate, split lengthwise. Woah! It had an eye, and an antenna, and legs and all sorts of other bits. I was stumped! And sitting at a table full of Nova Scotians, none of whom had eaten a lobster before either! :D My Dad helped, first by covering the eye over for me delicately with a lettuce leaf from the bed of lettuce the lobster was served on, and secondly by eating the little legs for me. Thanks Pa!

These pictures tell the story rather well:

Before Talking to the Waitress

"Lost at sea" - I have no freakin' clue what to do - could I look more tentative? I spent a lot of time poking at the lobster with the long stick, and getting to know the anatomy of the lobster better. (It was quite interesting, really, I'd never seen one that close-up before). As it turns out, most of the meat is in the tail and the claws, with a little for more intrepid eaters in the front of the body.

After Talking to the Waitress

God love her, she walked me through step by step! And look at me now, beaming with confidence, tossin' around a lobster claw like I've been doing this my whole life! Like the bib? heh heh heh

It's not easy to see on the pic, but there are some sharp-ish bumps on parts of the claw, which the waitress warned me about ahead of time, so keep that in mind as you're separating the joints.


So, if you don't want this to happen to you (you don't know if you'll have as helpful a waitress as I did!), check out this illustrated guide: - incredibly helpful, wish I had read it before I went out!

And thanks to the Dartmouth Boomerang's and their very helpful staff - always a great meal to be had (for real, TRY THE CATALINA DRESSING on your salad!! They make it themselves (actually, they make everything themselves there, except for the ketchup) - it is totally amazing!)

Birthday Dinner - Mr. Chang's

My favorite place to eat when I was living in Halifax was Mr. Chang's Chinese Food Emporium (corner of Morris & Birmingham Streets, just off Spring Garden Road, downtown Halifax). I haven't been there in YEARS, and so I was really excited to get back there for my birthday this year.

Happy to report that the food is just as awesome as always. I know some people who don't like Mr. Chang's, but I really can't see why you wouldn't like it! Everything is so freshly prepared, with nice sized, identifiable vegetables (and not all just celery like some places). Most restaurants around here use the VH Sauces that are found in every grocery store for their foods, but if you order from the authentic/specialty section of Mr. Chang's menu, you get incredibly awesome sauces you haven't tasted everywhere a dozen times before. So tasty! (but if you want the tastes you know, just order from the regular menu section). Seriously though, take a chance and order some of the authentic dishes, you will be SO glad you did!

The lo mein (bbq pork or beef) are incredible - nice chunks of veggies nestled into big udon type noodles. We had it the very first time we went there, recommended by the waitress, and it is the one dish we've had consistently every time we've gone. Great complimentary textures in this dish.

Chinese chicken and black mushrooms - wow. So incredible. Tastes like it has a sauce made with chinese 5 spice powder, shittake mushrooms in big yummy chunks (again, so you can enjoy the texture), chicken, and finely chopped strips of bamboo shoots. Delish!

But I think the hands-down favorite for everyone was Mr. Chang's Authentic Sweet and Sour chicken. Just an amazing sauce - perfect balance of sweet with sour, the chicken is breaded and fried before being coated in sauce, with nice chunks of well done peppers, onions and pineapple. Just incredible!

Aside from the dishes mentioned here, we also had wonderful egg rolls - we've never tried the vegetable ones, but the meat ones are very delicious!

Hopefully you'll get a chance to enjoy Mr. Chang's for yourself one day! It certainly helped make my birthday more special! Mr. Chang's is open for lunch and dinner, and open every day of the week.

I won a little piggy! :)

Too fun, had to share: my mom's birthday was yesterday (Happy Birthday, Mom!) and we went to the Dragon Buffet King to celebrate. Yum! Great selection of Chinese food, including soups, salad and dessert bar. Very nice, fresh dishes were brought out from the kitchen constantly. General Tao's Chicken was my favorite, definitely went back for a second helping there. :)

On the way out, I saw they had the Crane Game (like this sort of thing) in their lobby - $2, play till you win. It's not as easy as it looks on tv, that's for sure. :D I had my eye on this little piggy, and we had a lot of time to kill (waiting for the supper hour traffic rush to end so we could drive home), so after about 20 minutes, and several close calls, I was able to get him! I was very happy! :D He's some cutie. Then we went around the corner to Michael's (a big craft store chain from America, this "branch" is the only one I know of in the Halifax Regional Municipality). Holy moley, I've been to big craft stores before, but being in Chain Lake (home of the IMAX and tons of big box stores), this particular craft store is ENORMOUS! I was in Heaven!! The sheer volume of products was almost overwhelming! Showing incredible restraint, I managed to come away with only a few items, but I tell ya: if I ever win the lottery, that's probably the first place I'm going! :D heh heh heh

Doraku - traditional Japanese dinner

On Tuesday night we ate at Doraku - Dave wanted to eat at a traditional Japanese restaurant for his birthday. There are several to choose from in Halifax, but we settled on this one, partly because it had its menu online, so we could figure out ahead of time the types of things we wanted to eat. :)

Our waitress was terrifically helpful and friendly, very easy to talk to. We were blunt: we had no experience, and needed help! :) She said most of the things I had picked (online) were things she would recommend trying (yay! I did good!), and recommended a few others. We ate a LOT. LOT. LOT. But you know what? We were full, but we didn't feel logey (you know, that feeling after you've had a big steak dinner where you don't feel like you can move, and just want to go take a nap?). But here, we were full, but could still move comfortably! It was an interesting sensation, to be sure. We sat in the traditional room, a nice quiet place where the floor just under the table was recessed, so you could sit western-style (or kneel if you chose to, but my knees have never been great, and are especially so since my knee injury last year, so no kneeling for me). :) The waitress still had to kneel to serve you, because the table is on her floor level.

Everything's brought as it's prepared, so you have lots of little dishes on the table, and can pick away, a little of this, a little of that. Fun!

Imported Beer - Sapporo
Solid beer, made a nice compliment to the meal. Sake isn't generally served with sushi, so I understand, because it's a rice based alcohol, and sushi has rice in it - ergo, it's not a good compliment.

Miso Soup - Soya bean soup
Delicate, reminiscent of a mild chicken soup - threads of seaweed and some melt-in-your-mouth tofu were nice additions.

Sashimi Appetizer 3 Kinds - Tuna, Salmon, Octopus
Super-fresh, no worries about food poisoning here. The octopus was really interesting, I saw that the piece Dave took had part of a tentacle sucker on it...hee hee hee, I didn't tell him what that particular one was, until after he ate it. :) It was very chewy, not bad at all - glad I tried them all! I can't say I'd be jonesing for more, but it is certainly worth trying. So elegantly presented as well: lovely shreds of daikon radish, and thin slices of cucumber accompanied it, along with a dab of wasabi. The wasabi was incredibly hot, but only for a very short time, and when it disappeared, it disappeared completely (unlike when you eat hot peppers, for example). Very pleasant!

Tempura Deep fried 2pcs shrimp, sweet potato, zucchini, green pepper
Perfect tempura. Ideal tempura is really an art, having to consist of an ice cold batter, making a super-delicate lightly browned crust around the food when deep-fried. And it was perfect - the shrimp was my favorite, frankly I could have eaten more and more tempura shrimp all night! :D

Yakitori Chicken
Two grilled chicken skewers with yakitori sauce - very nice, basted in a tasty, thick sauce.


Pork Gyoza Pan fried pork dumpling (6pcs)
These were really good! They looked like little mini-perogies, and were DELICIOUS!

Overall, I'm sure I used too much dipping sauce/Japanese Soya sauce on all my foods (I understand that's something westerners do often), but I'm a big "sauce" girl myself - I can't help myself. :) And the Japanese Soya Sauce that they offered in the restaurant was REALLY awesome! It was hot and spicy - like regular Soya sauce, but with a great kick! Yum! They also gave us some extra wasabi and something else that escapes me right now, to put into it, to make it even better. Good good good!

Doraku roll (4pcs)
This is a BIG freakin' sushi roll! Like the sashimi, it was good (and great care was taken in it's preparation), but I don't think I'll be a person who seeks out sushi. They do prepare a great deal of sushi at this restaurant, and even offer you pencils and a separate order form just for sushi when you get your menu. Just check off the ones you want and send it off with the waitress. Very nice!

Harumaki Rice noodle, veggie spring roll (2pcs)
Mmmmm...very tasty! Filled with vermicelli rice noodles, and a little shredded carrot. Nicely browned, crispy coating.

Tonkatsu - Deep fried breaded pork, tonkatsu sauce
Nice thick sauce, Dave enjoyed it, but I preferred the spicy soya sauce. Since it comes breaded, you can dip it in whatever sauce you like.

As I said, the waitress was super-friendly and helpful, and what's also nice is your final receipt after you pay your bill is itemized, so you have a record to take home of what you ordered. Definitely worth a visit if you're in Halifax - Doraku is conveniently located on Dresden Row, just off Spring Garden in the downtown. It's the one with the adorable Maneki Neko on the sign.

Want to learn more about sushi? Learn from the Sushi Otaku! ;)