So several weeks back Julien and I went to go pick up our appliances. We didnt realize how crazy that adventure would be! We started out by meeting at the rental center, which was harder to find than we imagined. Both of us had google mapped it, looked at the aerial view, and still circled the street three times before guessing it was ahead of us - which is was. So, we picked up our big yellow truck which was missing a side view mirror, and we headed out around 6pm. We decided we were majorly hungry before we would be lifting a fridge, washer, dryer, stove out of this lady's condo and then later into our apartment, so we stopped at Thai Express. I happen to love asian food, and recognizing 99% of the things on the menu, choosing Pad Sew pretty fast. Julien, not as frequent of a Thai Express/asian food eatery as I am, just took my advice and got the same thing. We sat down with our paper plates full of food on our trays and ate it all. He loved it saying he'd be back to try it again sometime soon.
Since the delivery story is one to remember, Ill continue on the timeline of that evening. We left with our bellies full for the 2 hour drive to St. Saveur. We blasted the old classic rock hits and laughed at the cheesy songs to pass the time. When we arrived at our exit - we were both excited, and it was a site to see as well! The town is basically on a ski slope. It has wonderful fun shops and eateries and people walking around everywhere. There is even an outlet mall, which I of course, would like to go back to some day. Well, at this point our google directions fail us again. Take a right at the first light - ok we do that. the next street should be your street! - Well, its not. And so we stop at the gas station. The attendant and the locals have NO idea where this street is. So, we go for a ride, exploring the tiny town with its tiny streets. It's getting dark outside, and this place is nowhere to be seen. At this point, were losing our excitement and sort of worried this lady is going to think we aren't coming. So, my final idea is to go back to the highway exit and turn left instead of right into town like the directions say.... and about 10 turns later - we find the street! Only problem is.... where did we put that house number? Frantic now, we realize that google maps delivered us to the street and cut out the number (most likely it didnt register on the map). So, we grab his original notes and voila. Now, where are the house numbers? We go back and forth 4 times on that street until we finally stop at this condo complex which has a closed gate on the front, and we find it. So, two hours later, we have everything loaded and taken care of. We make the ritual Tim Horton's stop for some frozen cappuchinos and head on home.
You prolly think the story is done at this point, but no. We arrive at about 11:30pm and have to now get these appliances up a narrow staircase that turns at the top. The stove, the washer, dryer, we get in, no problem other than the weight. The fridge........... NOT so easy. We had the fridge on the hand cart moving it step by step up the stairs. Near the top, we get in a jam. one wheel lifts up, the other is stuck under the stair edge. Julien's lifting with all his might from above with me below this thing... waiting for it to fall on my body and crush me to death. With about 15 tries and me pushing from the bottom we finally get the last 5 stairs without any bodily damage to us. We we soo tired we went straight to bed without barely talking to one another other than joking that my death wouldn't have been very news worthy or cool so were both glad it didnt happen. So, welcome to the life of apartment living on the second floor without having appliances come with the place!
SOOO Finally
Dinner 4. I decided we needed a reminder of our hard work and our adventure into the beautiful town of St. Saveur. So, I made Pad Sew. Now mind you, I don't have a seasoned wok here. I have never cooked thai food. I dont know about frying noodles. But, I believe that if you have patience and can follow a recipe, you can make anything. ANYTHING. So, I went the the International Asia market and found all the ingredients I was looking for - the flat rice noodles, fish sauce, oyster sauce, rice vinegar, and SPECIAL dark soy, and sesame oil. Now, I couldnt find the soy at first, but I found that if you add sugar to your soy and then cook it and let it thicken, its about the same thing as the original. So - first marinade your meat. I like chicken, and had it in the fridge, so we did chicken instead of the traditional pork. I couldn't find chinese broccoli, so I got rapini instead. As for the noodles, they need to be softened enough to cook without being brittle. Throw them in water for a while, or like me, put them in boiling water for about 5 minutes. You don't want them limp, but you want them soft enough to be edible. It took me two attempts to do this right and the first was just a wasted crisp bowl that I threw away.
So heat up your Wok. Stir fry the broccoli with a dash of fish sauce. You may want to start with the stems, then toss in the leafs. When it all looks a bit wilted, dump the wok out into a bowl. Your veggies are done for now.
Noodle time - make sure you dry them off a bit with a paper towel or they will spray hot oil at you in the wok. Add lots of oil and toss in your noodles. Add 1 tbsp thick soy and a dash of fish sauce. Mix the sauce into the noodles to give them nice colour, add some more oil if things start to stick badly. Spread the noodles in a thin layer over the wok and let them cook a bit. Dump the wok out into the same bowl as the vegetables.
Finally the meat. Throw it into the wok with a little bit of oil Once its browned nicely, spread the meat away from the hot part of the wok and crack the egg into that spot. Scramble the egg and mix the meat in. Once the meat and egg are cooked, dump the bowl with the noodles and vegetables back in. Add the rice vinegar and stir.
1/2 a container (~400g) of flat rice noodle
1 egg
200g Chinese broccoli
2 cloves garlic, sliced
3 tbsp cooking oil
1 tbsp dark soy
dash of fish sauce
1 tbsp rice vinegar
Meat & Marinade
250g chicken - you can use pork
1/2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce
splash sesame oil
