Wonton Wednesdays

A colleague of ours has been off work with a concussion for an extended while now, and so a group of us thought it would be nice to prepare some frozen, easy cook meals for him, to help make his recovery smoother. I present to you: GEORGE's FAMOUS NINJA WONTONS. They're NINJA wontons cause their awesome flavour is hidden, but will smash your taste buds like nunchuks to your face. I know that totally makes zero sense, but whatever, I spent the evening wrapping wontons when I should have been packing for Portland (we fly out tomorrow)... gonna be a long night.















Recipe:

Ingredients:
1 lb. medium ground pork
2 green onion stalks (finely chopped)
1.5 tbsp sesame oil
1 egg white
couple pinches ginger powder
white and black pepper to taste

1 lb of small shrimp
1 package wonton wrappers

Preparation:
Combine pork, green onions, egg white, oil, ginger, and pepper. Mix until evenly distributed, and sticky. Place ~1 tsp of mixture into centre of wonton wrapper. Add 1 shrimp. Wet two edges of wrapper with water, fold in half to form triangular shaped dumpling. Pinch edges as shown above. Freeze until needed.

Cooking Instructions:
Cook from frozen - bring water or chicken stock to boil. Drop wontons in and boil for ~10 min (or until pork fully cooked). Serve in chicken stock. Add cooked egg noodles for an extra dose of awesome. Prepare for a NINJA assault to your taste buds.

Five for Five...? Scrambles - Mt. St. Piran

Is the question of whether I kept the streak alive (five mountains, five weeks) burning in your mind like a fiery habanero making its way through your colon? No? I didn't think so. But for the two faithful readers of mine unworthy blog that actually care, YES, I did maintain the streak. Anita sat this one out, and I ended up summiting Mt. St. Piran in the Lake Louise area with Gregg instead. St. Piran has a total 900m elevation gain, but is mostly a straight forward hike with very few difficulties up a steepish trail all the way to the summit. Enjoy!




"How much further??!!"




That's Chateau Lake Louise way off in the distance by the Lake.



















Last three photos taken on Fuji Instax mini film, using a Diana F+ with Instax back.

Fat George, and a Fish Market

I have a fasting blood test scheduled for tomorrow morning at 8:40am. That means I need to start fasting at 8:40pm tonight. So when I absent mindedly eat an ice cream bar and a handful of almonds at 11pm, I try to rationalize it as Anita's fault for tempting me with the jar of almonds. Even though I ate the ice cream first, of my own free will. Hahaha... I'm an idiot, and will have to reschedule this appointment yet again. Apparently I have the self control of a fish when it comes to food...

On the topic of fish, we have this thing for exploring fish markets when we travel. These are some shots taken at an outdoor (ie: unrefrigerated, hot, unsanitary, and smelly) fish market in Nha Trang, Vietnam. I'd be afraid to eat anything from here, but the vendors and their stalls made for some interesting candid photos.

Preludes, Patagonia... You Know the Drill By Now

Four weeks, four peaks. Gotta be proud of Anita, as I managed to convince her to do one more scramble with me this season in our continuing prep for Patagonia (and she totally kicked ass up this one). We started trekking up the trail towards Mt. Lawrence Grassi at around 11:30, and were eventually joined by a newlywed couple from Ontario, our new friends Amanda and Brandon. As we slogged up the relentlessly steep trail, it turns out they thought we were hiking up Ha Ling (a much shorter climb). The giveaway that this wasn't Ha Ling? Yep, that would be the complete lack of other people hiking it. Ooops. Between us four, and the two dudes who descended on our way up, we had the mountain to ourselves. By that point though, Nan and Bran were largely committed, and despite a few moments of panic, they soldiered up this steep scramble with us like experienced mountain warriors. Not bad, considering it was their first hike up a 'real' mountain. Good job guys, you did Woodstock, ON proud.




















I love this Victory Pose photo!


While this peak is not far from the summit of Ha Ling, the summit offers a phenomenally better view of the Three Sisters.



















Also, at the beginning of the Chinese New Year, I had set a goal of scrambling at least 5 peaks this year. Mission accomplished. With at least another good month of scrambling weather left, I'm going to try for 7 now.

Man of the Hour

It's the Father-in-law's birthday. This is a man that cooks for us EVERY SINGLE WEEKNIGHT, and makes enough so we have left overs for lunch the next day. He also picks up our mail, checks on our house daily, and takes care of everything when we go on month long vacations. Short of folding our laundry, this guy does it all. So it only feels right that for at least this ONE day of the year, we take him out for some fine dining. With the incredible variety of upscale, contemporary, and/or ethnic dining options to choose from in Calgary, it would be an understatement to say I was slightly disappointed when he chose the Yangze Buffet (a cheap faux Chinese buffet joint in a ghost town-esque outlet mall)... sigh.

And may I present, the MAN OF THE HOUR himself, Johnny 'I don't smile for pictures EVER' Wong.



Taken with a Polaroid SX-70 Sonar, on Impossible Project Colour Protection film. Also, check out those rad shades the mother in law is rocking. I was like, did you just buy those? And she tells me she dug them out from her dresser recently, but that they hailed from the 70's. Fashion truly is cyclical. I can't wait until 80's era leotards and leg warmers become cool again!

And just for funzies, here are more examples of the Colour Protection film from the Impossible Project. While this stuff is super fun to shoot, it's also prohibitively expensive, averaging over 4 bucks per shot (the 10 photos in this post cost over 40 bucks to shoot).