For the last few years, having wonton soup has become a bit of a Christmas tradition for us. Not going out for wonton soup, but making it at home from the wontons themselves to the broth.
The first year I made a whole bunch of wontons and broth, and left it in the slow cooker while we were out for the midnight Christmas Mass. It ended up being way too much and turned into a big (but still tasty) mess in the slow cooker. In retrospect, I probably should have anticipated that.
Over the years, the wonton making and cooking process has been refined. This year we made fewer wontons and cooked them when we got back home from the 10AM Christmas Mass.
A tray of wontons
The filling mixture was made the day before. The Sunday before Christmas, we roasted a chicken and the bones were supposed to have been saved to make the wonton broth with, but I forgot this year. Fortunately there was some leftover broth from another batch in the freezer.
Christmas wontons turned out pretty good this year.
It’s not difficult to find tutorials online for making French press coffee. I’ve tried a few, and settled on this method. It makes a cup that I enjoy black, or with a splash of cream.
My French press comes from IKEA, a 16 oz press (or a 32 oz press, depending on how caffeinated I want/need to be). You can find fancier ones out there, but these were reasonably inexpensive and do a perfectly good job.
Small (16 oz) on the left and Biggie (32 oz) on the right
New 16 oz Clemson alumni mug for scale.
I like to use an electric kettle to cook my water. Cooks the water quickly, pours nicely, and the one we have holds just enough water to fill the big press. Get one with an automatic shut off feature.
Electric kettle for cooking the water.
Most French press recipes call for very coarsely ground coffee and long brewing times. Since I don’t want to deal with having to adjust my grinder whenever I want to brew with the French press or Aeropress, I go with the same medium-ish grind that I use with the Aeropress. The grind size is pretty close to what you’d use for a regular drip coffee machine. I’ve found that one very heaping Aeropress scoop (17 grams or about 3 tablespoons) of coffee (double that if I’m using the big press) makes a cup of coffee that I like.
17 grams of ground coffee (about 3 tablespoons)
Dump the coffee into the press and add a tiny dash of salt (something I picked up from a Good Eats episode). I find it helps enhance the coffee flavour but doesn’t make it salty (unless you add too much).
Coffee into the press with a dash of salt.
Add water to about the top of the metal band, give it a bit of a stir, and put the press part on. I like to push the press down a bit so that all the grounds are submerged. Let it sit for about 3 minutes. Set a timer if you like.
Add water and stirPress down a bit to submerge the grounds
After the brewing time, press the grounds all the way to the bottom, and gently pour into your coffee receptacle of choice.
Press the grounds and pour.
The press uses a fine metal mesh to filter out the grounds, but really fine particles will still get through. Towards the end, I slow down the pouring and leave a bit in the press so that I’m not pouring all the fine stuff into my cup. That will help reduce the amount of sludge at the bottom of your cup. If you pour too quickly, the grounds get stirred up and you’ll end up with a bunch of sludge at the bottom of your cup. If you like sludge, then pour however you like.
Enjoy your coffee!
Drink straight up, or doctor it up however you like.
My favourite coffee bean dealer shop, Coastal Coffee Roasters, has grown quite a bit over the years, and has been offering tasty baked goods in the cafe part for a while now.
Stopped by today to grab some more coffee, and thought I’d grab one of their giant cinnamon rolls while I was there. These things are seriously huge, like the size of your head. They also had similarly sized scones today, but I’ll try those another day.
Over by the Tanger Outlet Mall in North Charleston, just a few doors down from Mr. K’s Used Bookstore on International Blvd is a new Thai restaurant, Thai East Fusion. I learned about it from a recent article in the Post & Courier and we decided to check it out this afternoon.
Rows of benches line the side of the strip mall space, with a row of tables running down the middle. Inside is comfortable, brightly lit and not overly decorated.
We started off with a dish of kimchi and the ginger salad. The salad that came out was larger than expected with a nice amount of sweet ginger dressing that wasn’t too gingery.
Thai East Fusion Salad and Kimchi
The kimchi, according to the P&C article, is made in-house using the family’s secret recipe. Crisp, pungent, spicy, and delicious. Probably some of the best kimchi I’ve had in the area.
Thai East Fusion Kimchi
Entrees come in 5 levels of spiciness: No spice, mild, medium, spicy, and Thai spicy. For dinner, I chose the Pad Thai with beef (Thai spicy), and Connie got the Basil Chicken (medium). Generously laden plates came out, each enough for three or four people (two or three if everybody is really hungry).
The Pad Thai was pretty tasty with the good flavourful kind of spicy. A few squirts of Sriracha sauce can be used to bump up the spice level even more.
Thai East Fusion Pad Thai
The Basil Chicken was quite good with a nice coconut-y curry sauce. The chicken was nicely cooked and very tasty. The medium spicy-ness was perfect for Connie. For fellow anti-cilantro types, the cilantro on the Basil was just a garnish and is easily removed (or just ask to leave off the cilantro).
Thai East Fusion Basil Chicken
Everything we had was delicious. We quite enjoyed the meal, and are looking forward to going back to try the mango sticky rice, which they unfortunately didn’t have when we were there.
