My Greek Taverna

Recommended by a close family friend a few years ago, My Greek Taverna has been my family's 'special occasion' restaurant for a while now. They are known for quality and quantity Greek food. Come hungry, and leave with enough leftovers for your next meal.

My Greek Taverna is open for lunch from Monday to Friday and open for dinner every day of the week. The only difference in menu is that at dinner the plates are larger (as if one needs any more food...) and there are some large platters for big groups. The food is equally as good during both times of day. It is rare that my whole family can dine at My Greek on a weekday so we took the opportunity to have lunch there!

Kalamari Lunch ($10.95)

I ordered the calamari (they seem to spell it with a K) lunch plate which includes a pile of bouncy fried squid, a side of Greek salad, a hefty amount of seasoned rice, half a marinated potato and some tzatziki sauce. The calamari here is very good; the batter is thin and evenly coats the squid, there is a mix of tentacles and rings, and the squid is very tender and moist.

Rainbow Thai Quinoa

I've been eying this recipe for the loooooooooongest time, and finally had the opportunity to make it myself last Sunday. Cashews? Colourful veggies? Peanut butter dressing? Sounds like it was like designed for moi :'D

Rainbow of ingredients for Rainbow Thai Quinoa

How can this plate of fresh ingredients not bring a smile to your face? It's the definition of gorgeous! The only colour absent from my plate is yellow, which could easily be filled with some yellow bell pepper, corn, squash, or zucchini. Any dish with a whole rainbow of fresh produce in it has to be healthy for you.

Making this dish (or it could be called a salad, I suppose) is super quick and simple. Minimal cooking and lots of chop, chop, chopping! Most of the time is spent cutting up vegetables and herbs. To speed up the already short process even more, cook the quinoa ahead of time. I cooked mine in the morning before heading off to church, and threw the whole dish together for lunch when I arrived home. Easy and delicious, what more could a lazy chef like me ask for?

Rainbow Thai Quinoa ready to eat!

Although the peanut butter didn't dominate the dish like I had expected, it added the perfect hint of nuttiness and richness. I like everything sweet, so I adjusted the sauce a twinge with more honey. This quinoa dish has so many dimensions, and is a party for the taste buds to try and decipher all the components. Sometimes a little sweet, sometimes a little spicy (raw onions!), sometimes a punch of cilantro... I could eat bowls and bowls of this stuff. For lunch, for dinner, for snack..okay but maybe not breakfast. That's when I need my pancakes.

I highly recommend you push this dish to the top of your 'recipe bucketlist' because it is mind-blowing-ly delicious. This Rainbow Thai Quinoa tastes wonderful slightly warm but also great cold from the fridge. Meaning it make great left-overs, if there is any.

Rainbow Thai Quinoa

Very lightly adapted from Ambitious Kitchen

Yield: 4 really large servings

Ingredients

For quinoa

• ¾ cup uncooked quinoa
• 1½ cup chicken or vegetable stock (or water + crumbled stock cube)
• 3 handfuls of baby spinach
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• ½ red onion, diced*
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• ½ cup chopped cilantro
• 1 green onion, diced
• 3 handfuls of roasted unsalted cashews
• A few squeezes of fresh lime juice, optional

For dressing

• ¼ cup all natural peanut butter
• 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey or agave
• A dash or vinegar (apple cider vinegar is fine)
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• Water to thin, if necessary
• A few cracks of freshly ground pepper

Directions

1. Cook quinoa with stock in a medium pot according to package. I brought mine to a boil over high heat, then turned down the heat to the lowest and cooked for 15 minutes. Let cooked quinoa sit with lid covered for 5 minutes. Add the baby spinach with quinoa and lightly mix together in pot. Cover pot with lid; the residual heat and steam will wilt the spinach.
2. Cut, shred, and chop all vegetables.
3. To prepare the dressing, mix all ingredients together in a small bowl or custard cup. Microwave for 10 seconds or so to melt honey and mix thoroughly. Add water by the tablespoon until dressing reaches desired consistency. A viscous but steady stream flowing off spoon is good.
4. Add sauce to quinoa and spinach mixture, gently mix to combine. 
5. Pour dressed quinoa into a large mixing bowl, add all vegetables and nuts, and mix until combined. Serve with a few squeezes of lime juice if desired.

*If your stomach is very sensitive to acidic foods, omit or cook onion. Or replace with shredded purple cabbage.

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡

French Market

French Market in Disneyland Anaheim

After visiting a few too many restaurants to look at their lunch menus, we finally settled down at French Market in New Orleans Square. A counter-service style restaurant that serves Southern classics with French influences.

Jambalaya ($12.99)

This was a dish recommended on the internet as being large enough to fill two people to the top. It was a spicy stew with chicken, sausage and vegetables over a bed of dirty rice. I didn't remember there was supposed to be shrimp until I stumbled upon one lonely shrimp. And that was the only shrimp in the whole dish; a bit disappointing. The dish must have downsized because it was probably enough to fully feed one person. Overall, the Jambalaya was flavourful yet not too salty, and the jalapeno corn bread that comes with most of the entrees is very good too (although not as moist as Sweet Tomatoes/Souplantation's). It's not the best dish in the park but it isn't a bad choice.

Corn Chowder ($9.29)

The Corn Chowder came in a massive bread bowl and could be considered an entree for one. However, the person hollowing out the bread didn't do a thorough enough of a job so there was not quite enough room for adequate soup. Meaning the soup to bread ratio was rather off. The chunky chowder was packed with tons of corn and was a pleasure to eat.

Na Awlins Salad ($10.99)

Needing some vegetables with our lunch, we chose to order one Na Awlin Salad. The salad is prepared upon ordering and came with soooo many candied roasted pecans!! Delicious! The slaw makes for a great dressing. Other toppings include plump Crasins and some mysterious black bean looking things. This salad also comes with cornbread. A good salad that could also be an entree for one.

Three dishes was the perfect amount to feed my family of four people. We just drank water with our meal, which is provided free of charge. However, French Market is known for their mint julep, so if that is of interest, I would suggest trying one! Oh, and the Mickey beignets.
 
On our way out of the restaurant after lunch, my dad took a peak at the dinner menu. He was immediately drawn to the red snapper entree and said he wanted to come back for dinner. So, here we are at French Market for the second meal in the park.

Chicken Caesar Salad ($10.99)

The salad choices didn't change so we tried the Chicken Caesar Salad. It was a typical caesar salad except it had black eyed beans! There was a plenty of shaved Parmesan cheese and croutons (my brother's favourite salad topping). The chicken was thin and rather lacking in portion. This salad comes with cornbread too. Does the trick for adding some vegetables but romaine lettuce does not hold much nutritional value. I liked the Na Awlins Salad more than this caesar one.

Panko-Crusted Red Snapper ($14.99)

And finally, we come to the goal of the night, Panko Crusted Red Snapper. We had two of this entree. The fish was borderline dry but still moist enough to enjoy. (Snapper is naturally not very oily) A tomato-y, creamy sauce (not as neon as the photo depicts) dressed this fish and the flavour is very strong, but tasty. It was something I hadn't tried before and I quite enjoyed the pairing. The frozen carrots on the side are bland and has that 'previously frozen' texture that isn't pleasant. Perhaps those that are used to eating frozen vegetables will not find a problem here. The charred corn niblets are good as well as the nicely roasted potatoes, though the potatoes could have been cooked for longer to be more soft. This entree came with a potato bun, but it didn't taste very fresh. We just used this as a vehicle to mop up some sauce. For $15, this is a very affordable dinner entree and provides a balanced meal.

The seating is all outdoors but is covered and very cool. My parents really appreciated the live band playing as we enjoyed our lunch and dinner. If you are able to snag a table by the railing, it's a great place to do some people watching as well. After dinner, we were able to find a great seat on the ground for the viewing of Fantasmic, a nighttime show at the Rivers of America, which is directly across from French Market.

Nothing was overly salty, the service is quick and friendly, and the location is beautiful. If you're looking for a reasonably priced, affordable, yet still tasty meal in Disneyland Anaheim, French Market is a great choice! 

Reviews on Yelp

Anaheim on Dwellable

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡

DIY Summer High Tea

DIY Summer High Tea

Tuesday June twenty-fifth, the day every single one of us has finally been released from the grasp of year end exams. And what better way to celebrate together than a five hour catch-up gossip session over high tea? Paying to experience high tea at a fancy cafe Downtown is not within our poor student budget, and making food ourselves allows us to have a wider variety of food. Our specialty is eating, and eating a lot. This is just the beginning of an awesome summer vacation, with many more get-togethers involving food to come. 

Here is the menu for the Summer High Tea. Please see the recipe posts for more photos!

Clockwise from top left corner: Fruit Jello Parfait, Earl Grey Cupcake, Salad (sans dressing), Green Tea Macaron, savoury bottom tier, Lemon bars

Fresh Salad with Orange Dijon Mustard Vinaigrette

Open-faced Cucumber Sandwich with Smoked Salmon Cream Cheese

Open-faced Avocado Sandwich

Classic Club Sandwich

Black Tea-Infused Garlic Miso Chicken Salad Cone

Bell Pepper, Green Onion, and Gouda Fluffy Mini Quiche 

Mini Beef and Cheese Sandwich Roll

Apricot Gouda Scone

Baby Strawberry Whole Wheat Shortcake

Earl Grey Cupcake

Matcha Macaron with Chocolate Ganache

Lemon Bar

Fruit Jello Parfait

Love from Papaya and Coconut Crumpet and Co.

Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

A quick post today to share one of my favourite salad dressings. I have used this dressing on so many salads as it is a crowd pleaser and can be made in such a short period of time. 

For mother's day brunch earlier today, I made a simple mixed greens side salad involving this Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing. To add some colour, I threw in some sliced strawberries and chopped sweet yellow bell pepper. I actually let the strawberries and peppers sit in the dressing while I attended church and poured it over the greens when it was time to plate. That way, the greens don't get soggy by the time you serve the salad.

Since this is a thin and runny dressing, a little bit goes a long way. Just remember the ratio of balsamic vinegar to honey to olive oil of 2:2:1 so you can use any utensil laying around to measure.

A common combination for this sweet balsamic dressing is with spinach, strawberries, and goat cheese. Maybe throw in a few toasted nuts and dried fruit for more texture. Yum!

Honey Balsamic Vinaigrette Dressing

Yield: Enough for 8 handfuls of greens

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Directions

1. In a small bowl, add all ingredients and whisk until well combined.
2. If the honey is too solid, microwave for a few seconds to melt and whisk again.
3. Can be stored in the fridge until ready to add to veggies.

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡ 

Beet Quinoa with Beet Greens

Beet Quinoa with Beet Greens

I have recently developed an extreme fascination for the vibrant fushia colour of beet juice. After purchasing a bunch of beets from Superstore, I have included them in two of my recipes this past weekend.