Merit Vegetarian

As I was driving along Lawrence Expressway, I noticed a new vegetarian restaurant near Arques and immediately my antenna went up! I called V up, and we decided to try it out the same day for lunch. Merit Vegetarian opened just a couple of weeks back and is a Vietnamese “fake-meat” place. We were greeted by the very friendly owner and seated at a booth at our request. The interior has been newly redecorated and is very pleasing and comfortable.

The menu has a separate “Lunch Specials” section which applies Monday through Friday with items priced at $7 each. Each item is served with white or brown rice. The lunch selection is small but interesting and the service is impeccable.
http://meritvegetarian.com/aboutus.html


V’s eyes zeroed in on the “Spicy Lemongrass Beef”, which turned out to be really spicy and flavorful. The pressed tofu had a strong lemongrass zing.

I ordered the “Spicy Mongolian Delight Mine which had a sweet curry taste and contained fake chicken pressed tofu and some vegetables. While we were eating, the cook came out and greeted us and asked us about the food, which was really nice. Also, the owner came out and gave us complimentary desserts (a tofu custard) which was not too sweet – I ate both mine and V’s.

All in all, we loved the place and are planning to go back soon for dinner.

To dunk or not to dunk

One of our projects for the month of August was to make home-made biscotti to dunk in our evening cup of tea.

Must say the project was highly successful and we managed to beat the deadline (barely)! We shared the biscotti with our friends who live in beautiful Ashland when we had gone over there for the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (http://www.orshakes.org/).



Here's the recipe from my friend K. (Contains egg). I made 1/2 the recipe in 2 batches. Added freshly grated lemon zest (about 2 Tbsp) in one batch.

Ingredients:
4 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
-------
2 ¼ cups sliced Almonds (I baked whole almonds in oven at 350C for 15 mins and chopped them roughly)
1 ½ cups Craisins (raisins also work)
4 teaspoons anise seed
-------
4 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon almond extract
4 tablespoons milk

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375C
2. Grease a cookie sheet
3. Sift together in a bowl
   Flour
   Baking soda
   Baking powder
   Sugar
4. Stir in almonds, Craisins and Anise seed to flour mixture.
5. In a small bowl, beat eggs, vanilla, almond extract and milk.
6. Stir liquid mixture into flour mixture.
7. Turn dough onto lightly floured counter, and knead until mixed well.
8. Shape into two logs, about 8 inches long, 5 inches wide, and 1 inch tall. Shape a gentle curve on the top of the shorter distance. The curve will be the ‘top’ of the Biscotti when you cut it into ¾ inch by 5 inch slices.
9. Put on cookie sheet and bake 30 minutes, turning pan after 15 minutes of cooking.
10. Take out of oven, cool for 15 minutes, and slice into slices ¾ inch by 5 inch long.
11. Take these slices and lay them down on the cookie sheet. (This is to brown the outer edges of the Biscotti and crisp them more.)
12. Turn oven down to 300 degrees and put Biscotti back in oven and cook for 15 minutes.

Biscotti, Masala Chai and Taming of the Shrew. What else does one need?!