Faluda

Cheese and onion bread plait (tangzhong method)

Image 1: Cheese and onion plait

Food synopsis: Soft bread plait, with shredded tasty cheese and onion braided throughout the roll. Topped with extra cheese and onion.

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Was still soft even after 3 days sitting in the cold.


Method (from what I remember):
Make dough according to Tangzhong method
Divide a portion into 3 - roll out as strips ~20 cm long
Plait the strips
Sprinkle grated cheese and finely diced onion pieces on top
Bake for ~25 min or until brown!

Mashed taro chickees

Image 1: Mashed taro chickees

Location: Mei Jing Chinese restaurant, 703 Boronia Rd, Wantirna

Food Synopsis:  Smoothly mashed  purple and white taro/yam, deep fried to form a crispy and airy shell. The little chicken is born by decorating with peanuts for the beak, hands and feet, and something unknown for the eyes...

Vanilla bar and cafe, Oakleigh

Image 1: Orange paste

Location: Vanilla bar and cafe, Oakleigh

I can't really fault this place. Although it was only the 3rd time I've been back, I can say with confidence that these guys have done a great job with providing consistent service and food quality

That's not saying that the service is great, or the food is amazing, but it is a pretty good standard. But it is decent enough.


I just can't see myself coming here very often, purely because the food isn't particularly healthy. Sure there are healthy options like salads, but not all salads are healthy. In example, see Image 4 which is a chicken caesar salad. The portion size for 1 person was way too

Apple and cinnamon scrolls (tangzhong method)

Image 1: Apple and cinnamon scrolls (front) with Cheese buns (Back)

Food synopsis: Tangzhong style bread, rolled with cinnamon sugar and diced apple pieces.

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Recipe

Can hardly remember but would have included:

Ingredients
1 portion of tangzhong-style bread dough
cinnamon sugar
diced apple, like canned apple pieces

Method
1. After the 1st proving of the dough, roll out dough onto a floured surface to a rectangular shape and ~1cm thick.
2. Sprinkle entire surface of the dough with cinnamon sugar. Can leave ~ 1 cm or more on each edge free of cinnamon sugar.
3. Sprinkle apple pieces on top of sugar
4. Roll the dough from the bottom to the top. and seal by squeezing the log tightly and pressing down along the joining edges

Carrot and walnut loaf

Image 1: Carrot and walnut loaf, sliced

Food synopsis: Soft and moist quickbread with nice thin crust on all 4 sides of each slice, containing shredded carrot and plenty of crushed walnuts with each bite. The aroma of olives complements and brings out the walnut-y flavour, a divine combination with the springy, moist bread. Each sweet slice is great toasted warm or as it is.

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This recipe was adapted from a carrot cake recipe. But upon seeing that the carrot cake recipe needed 1 cup of oil, I decided to cut it in half to avoid making such an energy dense food.

Orange and yoghurt quickie

Image 1: Orange and yoghurt quickie

Food synopsis: Soft and moist, flavoured with fresh oranges, this springy slab of quick bread is topped with a layer of fresh oranges and a lightly brushed sugary glaze. Perfect afternoon accompaniment to a homely mug of tea or quick morning snack.

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Simple story to this no recipe experiment once again. Had 1 kg worth of overdue yoghurt sitting in the fridge. It was only slightly overdue (it was 'best before' so it doesn't really count...) only by 8 days.

Mum was already baking a cake in the oven with the timer set for 50 mins, so I thought - might as well make the most out of the electricity (the carbon tax makes use electricity much more efficiently nowadays) and time and whip up something quick with this over-due yoghurt and have it out the oven the same time as the cake. So I decided on making this.

Hong Kong Style Egg Waffle (雞蛋仔 "gai daan jai")

Image 1: My home-made Hong Kong Style Egg waffle

Other English names: Eggette, egg puff, bubble waffle, Hong Kong cakes (U.S)
Direct translation: "Little chicken eggs"



Food synopsis: Crispy-shelled with a soft and springy centre, egg waffles are essentially a unique mixture of eggs, flour and sugar. It's distinct flavour comes from a  particular 'secret ingredient'. See if you can work out which one it is from the recipe below.


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Egg waffles are characteristically egg-shaped spherical balls of wheat-flour batter, interconnected to each other in a hexagonal shape. In Chinese it’s called 雞蛋仔 (literally means little chicken eggs), and has been a popular street foods in Hong Kong for a long time. Clearly from my picture, I was too keen to try a piece before taking the photo, hence why it doesn't appear to be hexagonal.

Breakfast: Pineapple bun

Image 1: Pineapple bun

Location: 百事吉餅店 Pak See Kut Cake Shop
62 Wan Chai Road, Wan Chai, Ho ng Kong
香港島‎灣仔灣仔道62號

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Disappointment really, explained all in Image 2. As with all Asian style breads, I expected this bun to be soft and springy. I mean, when you bit down, it naturally springs back up to its original height.

Yes, this bread was fresh. I saw it come out of their oven at 3:30 pm when I visited their shop. It was even still warm by the time I walked home.

When I bit down into one of the halves, the bun was compacted at the location of my bite. This was highly unappetising since the more I ate, the more the bun became a compacted piece of dough. By the last bite, I pretty much had a yellow piece of sweet playdough.

Snack: Tofu cake

Image 1: Tofu cake

Location: 櫻島麵包餅店 Sakurashima bakery
Corner Triangle Street / Wan Chai Road
55 Wan Chai Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
香港島‎灣仔灣仔道55號


Food synopsis: Sweet springy sponge cake, with no particular flavour such as egginess or tofu.


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I was curious to try this 'tofu cake'. I bought it only because I thought they used tofu in making it, but after tasting it, there seemed to be no tofu or soy flavour at all. In fact, it was just a nice symmetrical piece of sponge cake. A bit like 'Malai goh' / Malaysian cake but I think this was baked instead of steamed. Very springy though. The holes were also very fine and generally quite even. 

Now I think its called tofu cake because it looks like a piece of tofu...? Perhaps they did use some tofu in it, after all tofu is quite a bland flavour. Not quite worth the HKD$5. Better choices available.

Snack: Hong Kong-style custard tart

Image 1: Hong Kong Style custard tart with butter (biscuit) pastry

Location: 櫻島麵包餅店 Sakurashima bakery
Corner Triangle Street / Wan Chai Road
55 Wan Chai Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong
香港島‎灣仔灣仔道55號


Food synopsis: Warm buttery biscuit pastry and creamy custard filling.

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Fresh out of the oven, this was a real treat, purchased and eaten at the just the right time of day. The trays of custard tarts had just come out of the oven and the small wafting from this corner stall was too enticing. No matter what time, they always seem to be customers, but at this particular time, there seemed to be more customers packed into the small stall. 

At HKD$2.50 each or 10 for HKD$15, this custard tart has been the cheapest and the most delicious I've ever tasted. The buttery biscuit pastry and the custard were both still warm as I stood outside the shop corner, slowly savouring each sweet creamy bite trying not to get in the way of the bustling housewives doing their shopping along the street. Each time I ducked my head into take another bite, there was always several busy shoppers passing by with both hand filled with red, white plastic bags, some dripping wet from the fresh fish, others bulging with leafy greens, lychees, or bread from this shop.

Dinner: 'Salt and oil' rice with poached egg and bok choi

Image 1:  'Salt and oil' rice with egg and bok choi

Food synopsis: White rice flavoured with salt and olive oil with a 'poached' egg poached, served with blanched bok choi with garlic.
N.b. Need to learn how to choose the freshest eggs from a basket selling "fresh eggs". For some reason, the yolk of this one is half yellow half greyish-white, which I am sure isn't right...

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There is a reason why the food description cannot get any more complicated than the above.

1. Trying to use minimal ingredients
2. Minimal pots, pans and utensils
3. Minimal space for chopping, washing, general preparing and serving
4. Personally aiming for minimal grease in the kitchen and clean up afterwards
4. Little time when compared to magnitude of hunger in my stomach

Snack: Beef balls with satay sauce

Image 1: Beef balls with satay sauce

Location: Corner 475 King's Road / Kam Hong Street, North Point, Hong Kong
香港北角英皇道~475號 (英皇道 / 琴行街)

Food synopsis: Beef balls were steaming hot, and were soft but bouncy and textured with bits of beef tendons ... Certainly sounds disgusting when described anatomically, but it was really street food. The satay sauce really added a extra kick to the beef flavour. It was slightly spicy, and ladled onto the balls resting on a silver plate at the window of the street stall, just before serving. Sure, the plate had a the remaining drips of sauce from previous customers orders, but sure enough my order left a similar trail of sauce behind.


Yum yum yum! I couldn't eat it fast enough! It was hot, the sauce of dripping, I was in a crowded street corner waiting for the lights to turn green in the heat of summer clinging onto my clothes on my sweaty back. Consequently, I had to do what most people do: Stick out my butt, lean forward to let the sauce drip directly onto the floor rather than my shoes, bag or clothes and take it one bite at a time whilst juggling the mouthful of beef ball in my mouth to prevent it from burning my tongue too much.

Snack: Steamed mango cake

Image 1: Steamed mango cake

Location: Purchased from Saint Etoile (Saint Star) a "boulangerie chaud" on ground floor of JUSCO Kornhill, Hong Kong


Food Synopsis: Light sponge with mango flavour in a muffin shape, with 'what-you-see-is-what-you-get" mango pieces scattered on the curved top of the cake. Sponge was slightly too sweet for my liking, but probably attributed to my liking for milder flavours. Cake bounced back easily when squashed with a finger and was very 'light', as in, didn't have that oily feeling as with oven-baked cakes. Reminded me of a mango spinoff of "Malaysian cake" (Mah Lai Goh) served in a Western, muffin-shape style.

This cake really could've done with mango pieces throughout the cake. Although, I probably should've learned after purchasing a raisin loaf with a total of 10 raisins throughout the entire 500g loaf that Hong Kong breads/cakes/muffins with additional fruit/nut pieces are merely to describe their scant presence in the product. Maybe it's being cheap, or maybe its just the way it is.

Snack: Custard tart cup

Image 1: Custard tart cup with plastic spoon

Location: Purchased from Saint Etoile (Saint Star) a "boulangerie chaude" on ground floor of JUSCO Kornhill, Hong Kong


Food synopsis: Tastes like the the typical Hong Kong style custard tart, except the biscuit base was approximately 5 cm in height and filled with more custard. Basically, its an enlarged custard tart with a greater amount of custard to biscuit base. It was as if it was made in a tall muffin tin. This one was sweet, minimal egg-y flavour in the custard, so the bright yellow probably due to colouring or premix custard powder rather than custard made with real eggs.

Interestingly, it was served with a plastic spoon, which didn't quite work in terms of scooping out the custard. In any case, I've always most enjoyed eating custard tart by having a bit of the biscuit base and the custard in a single bite.

This is probably a great snack for those who love custard, which I do. But this one just didn't hit the spot. I love custard, but I like custard tarts more. If I ever want more of custard tarts, I don't think I'll have a custard tart cup, I'll just have 2 custard tarts or more...!

Lunch: Vegetarian meal at Po Lin (Buddhist) monastery

Location: Po Lin Monastery

Image 1: (Clockwise from top left) Plain white rice, pear soup, bok choi with mushrooms and carrot garnish, stirfry vegetables (cucumber, celery, capsicum/chilli) with tofu, deepfried beancurd sheets wrapped around white raddish, carrot and mushrooms

Really filling, probably due to the sheer size of the meal for 1! Cost a total of HKD65 for entry into the Big Buddha exhibition and for the meal. Entry only into the Big Buddha exhibition was HKD25; buying the meal separately was HKD 65. Not sure how they calculated the prices, but was worth every cent.

Dinner: Rice and vegetables

Image 1: Short grain rice and boiled vegetables with olive oil and soy sauce

Due to the lack of ingredients at home and motivation to cook something more. I actually had double the amount of vegetables seen here. Ate the first half whilst waiting for the rice to cook. Only have 1 pot to cook in.

Dinner: Wonton noodle soup with vegetables

Location: Chi Gei in food court in Langham Place, Mong Kok, Hong Kong

Image 1: Dinner set "Meal A" Wonton noodle soup with vegetables

Dinner: Wonton noodle soup with vegetables

Location:

麥奀雲吞麵世家 - 銅鑼灣渣甸街44號地下

Mak’s (stingy) Noodle Ltd - G/F, 44 Jardine's Bazaar, Causeway Bay

Apparently, this is one of the branches of the best wonton noodles in Hong Kong. I've definitely tasted better. Noodles were a bit hard, slightly undercooked. Very fast service though.

Image 1: Dinner as set out on the table in the 'restaurant'

Snack: Egg waffle (雞蛋仔)

Location:

Fish ball noodles stall on Moreton Terrace, near corner Moreton Terrace and Causeway Road.

(~33) Moreton Terrace, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

30 摩頓台, 銅鑼灣, 香港島, 香港

Image 1: Egg waffle fresh from the pan

Food Synposis: Crispy shelled with soft centre; sweet waffle with lots of egg-y aroma. Slightly sweeter than what I remember the taste to be.

Dinner: Round rice noodle with fish balls and chicken in fish soup with stirfried garlic and oil vegetables

Location: Hong Kong

豐竹Affluent Kitchen

銅鑼灣銅鑼灣道11-17A號麗晶軒地下1-2號舖

Shop 1&2, Ground floor, Regent Heights, 11-17A Tung Lo Wan Road, Causeway Bay

Image 1: Rice noodle soup; stir-fried vegetables ; my bowl ; my wallet.

Egg Waffle shop (雞蛋仔) in Hong Kong

Location: Corner Matheson Street / Russell Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Street corner opposite the clock in Times Square

2 勿地臣街, 銅鑼灣, 香港島, 香港

Image 1: Hong Kong Style Egg Waffle (雞蛋仔) store at the street corner opposite Times Square. The egg waffle is in the centre of the display cabinet.

Unluckily for this guy, I caught him smoking a cigarette whilst preparing the egg waffles with his

Snack: Portuguese custard tarts

Image 1: Portuguese custard tarts in a shop at the base of Macau's St. Paul's church

Food synopsis: Warm puff pastry with sweet and milky custard filling, slightly caramelised on the the top

Location: Macau, at base of St. Paul's cathedral wall

Cost: HKD $10 for 2...

Equivalent to approx AUD $1.30 for 2... i.e. 65cents each!

For some reason, perhaps purely to distinguish themselves as a separate entity from Hong Kong, Macau describes their currency as MOP, probably secondary to Portuguese influence. No idea what it stands for at the moment.

Funnily enough, although I honestly think its the great idea, MOP are equivalent exactly to HKD.

Lunch: Fried gluten selection platter and E noodles with vegetarian shrimp sauce

Location:

東方小祇園 ("Tung Fong Siu Kee Yuen") - 香港灣仔軒尼詩道261號地下

241 Hennessy Road, Wan Chai, Hong Kong

Established 1905

Image 1: Selection platter of fried gluten (vegetarian/imitation meats). Centre: Sweet and sour; Clockwise from top left: Roasted duck (dark brown) and ?? shared in 1 section, mild curry, char siu and abalone shared in 1 section, ?? (long strips)

QANTAS plane food - Melbourne to Hong Kong

Image 1: QANTAS Lunch tray - Melbourne to Sydney

Dinner: Bouillabaisse

Image 1: Bouillabaisse, untouched

Food synopsis: A warming seafood stew from the south of France. Soup is flavoured from the mix of salmon, mussels, scallops, lobster and other seafood with a hint of saffron and fennel. Served with 3 updated baguette slices and a buttery-mayonnaise like spread and light cheese. 

Location: Chez Olivier
Greville Street Village
121 Greville Street
Prahran
http://www.chezolivier.com.au/



Impressions:
I rather like to define Chez Olivier not as a French restaurant, but a Melbournian restaurant that offers French food.

Soup was flavoursome, but a bit salty, really needed water after and during the meal to quench thirst. They didn't leave a bottle of water for the table during the meal, so we were at the mercy of the

Portuguese custard tarts

Image 1: Portuguese custard tarts

Food synopsis: Canola puff pastry encasing fresh home made custard baked into a tart

Verdict: Sweetness was just right. Custard too runny. Pastry not fluffy enough and not enough in comparison to amount of custard. Didn't use butter puff pastry, so probably the major problem. May need to blind bake canola puff pastry before adding custard.

Recipe
Source: Donna Hay Magazine, Autumn 2012, page 100
Prep 20 min
Baking 30 min

Roast chicken drumsticks & butternut squash

Image 1: Roast chicken drumsticks with butternut squash

Food synopsis: Dry heat applied to chicken drumsticks massaged and marinaded with Italian herbs, freshly ground black peppercorns with a hint of lemon and olive oil.

The chicken flesh is steaming with juicy goodness, semi-encased by crispy skin which really shouldn't be eaten if you're looking after your health.

The pumpkin has that slightly dehydrated and shriveled look. But one bite through the crispy caramel skin reveal so tender  orange flesh soaked with the lemon and juices from the bottom of the pan.
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My first roast, prepared without help from those more experienced at cooking than myself.

Mini pizza scroll (tangzhong method)

Image 1: Mini pizza scrolls with tomato, onion and cheese

Food synopsis: A rolled ball of soft bread, intertwined with freshly diced tomato, onion and a sprinkling of cheese on top.


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It's definitely not the best looking, but the bite-sized flavours that reminded me a bit of  fresh, thick-based pizza, and the cheesy scrolls I used to get at Brumby's at South Yarra for a breakfast on the way to school.

It's quite clear from the photo that this was me experimenting with bread dough, made using the tangzhong method. This was the second time I was making bread using the this method. The first time worked out really well; I couldn't believe how soft and bouncy the bread was even after a day sitting on the counter!. Usually when I've

Sweet Almond Soup aka 杏仁糊 “hun yun wu”

Image 1: Sweet Almond Soup (杏仁糊 “hun yun wu”)

Food Synopsis: 杏仁糊 (“hun yun wu”) is a sweet, thick and hot 'soup'. It is made from almond meal (almond nuts ground into a powder), glutinous rice flour as a thickening agent, sugar to make it taste sweet and boiling water. It’s served in bowl and eaten/drunk with a spoon, so I guess that fits the criteria for being a ‘soup’. Even just a small bowl (~300ml) is very satiating and satisfies my constant craving for steaming hot food in this chilly weather!

I recall it being served to me as a snack or dessert when I was a kid, although I came across one website that suggested that it’d be a “nutritious breakfast”. English translation: ‘Sweet almond soup’.

Honey and Almond Slice

Image 1: Cubes of Honey and almond slice with mandarin

Food Synopsis: Honey and almond slice is a very simple cake made of honey and almond meal. It is dense and sweet, can be eaten straight from the fridge, at room temperature or warmed in the microwave. Whilst most cakes become more stale with time, the flavour of this one improves significantly. The cake becomes more moist the longer it sits in the fridge, probably due to the high concentration of simple sugars in the cake. These simple sugars, being polar molecules, attract moisture from the air, bringing it into the cake and making the cake more moist as time goes by.

In the freshly baked product, there is a crunch to  the edges, but as you bite in, the soft, nutty flavour of the cake is so delicious that the burn from the hot, sweet honey doesn't prevent you from taking the next bite. 

Dinner: salmon, chicken satay, pumpkin

Image 1: (Clockwise from top left) Stir-fried bok choi, satay chicken, steamed butternut pumpkin, white rice and pan-fried salmon

Basic bread using tangzhong (湯種)

Image 1: Breads and scrolls made using tangzhong method

The Tangzhong Method 湯種


Tangzhong (湯種) is a “flour roux”, the secret ingredient to making Asian breads so soft and fluffy. E.g. Bread top bread. Apparently, it can do this because gluten is able to absorb moisture best at 65°C, hence allowing the resulting bread loaf/recipe to keep moist for days when incorporated into bread dough.

Recipe

Adapted from Christine's recipes (great home cook and blogger!) http://en.christinesrecipes.com/2010/03/japanese-style-bacon-and-cheese-bread.html

Ingredients of 湯種
This amount is enough to make two loafs:
50gm/ 1/3 cup bread flour
250ml/ 1cup water (could be replaced by milk, or 50/50 water and milk)

Dinner: Prawn and mayo open sandwich

Image 1: Prawn and mayo open sandwich at Pingvinen, Bergen, Norway

Food Synopsis: Thick slice of bread topped with lashing of fresh lettuce, raw Spanish onions, and cocktail prawns with a creamy mayonnaise dressing. Finished with a sprinkling of cracked black pepper and a wedge of lemon, a good dollop of friendly English-speaking Norwegian hospitality.

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I had this dish at Pingvinen, a traditional Norwegian restaurant in Bergen, Norway. See http://www.pingvinen.no/english.html

Thai black sticky black rice and adzuki (red) bean pancakes

Image 1: Thai black sticky black rice and adzuki (red) bean pancakes

Sweetcorn and zucchini mini muffins

Image 1: Sweetcorn and zucchini mini muffins

Dinner: Spicy black bean beef and tofu

Image 1: Spicy black bean beef and tofu with rice

Dinner: Fried rice and GL veg

Image 1: Egg fried rice with mixed frozen vegetables and stir-fry bok choy

Dinner: Fried rice and pineapple salad

Image 1: Egg fried rice with frozen mixed vegetables and pineapple and capsicum salad

Classic night of cleaning up left over rice and food getting a bit old in the fridge.

Dinner: Beef rice noodle soup

Image 1: Beef rice noodle soup with extra veges

Dinner: Omelette

Image 1: Plain egg omelette, bok choi, green tea and white rice

Dinner: Pasta shells with salad

Image 1: Cucumber, tomato and corn salad with pasta shells and tomato

I don't know what sort of cuisine to call this.

It is Chinese? Italian? "Modern Australian" (Whatever that means)? Or "home brand"?

Ideas most welcome.

Chickpea curry filo pastries

Image 1: Chickpea curry filo pastries

Coconut yellow split pea pudding aka 椰汁馬豆糕 "yeh jup mah dou goh"

Image 1: Coconut yellow split pea pudding (椰汁馬豆糕)

Food Synopsis: Coconut yellow split pea pudding (椰汁馬豆糕, pronounced "yeh jup mah dou goh") is a sweet dessert made with cornflour and coconut milk, so is nothing like a traditional English pudding made of flour, butter and eggs. It has a jelly-like consistency, and if made correctly, should wobble a bit like jelly too. Dotted throughout the pudding are tender yellow split peas, adding bite and textural contrast to the chilled smoothness of the rest of the pudding.

Although cornstarch is usually used in small quantities in cooking to thicken up sauces, thispudding uses large amounts to cornstarch - so much so that it creates a liquid so thick that its solid. Heat is required for thickening of corn starch in solutions as it is responsible for breaking the granules of starch, releasing individual starch molecules which absorb water and form a thick gel. Getting the correct amount of heat is crucial for this recipe.

Pan fried salmon with rice and stirfry zucchini

Image 1: Stir fry zucchini with garlic, pan fried salmon fillets and plain white rice

Another typical dinner: Carbs, protein and vegetables washed down with hot liquid (tea). Not eaten all in the one night, there's enough protein there for 3 serves!

Fat black cat cookies

Image 1: Fat black cat cookies (Milo powder, lemon icing)

Lemon curd cookies

Image 1: Lemon curd cookies

Corn and zucchini quick bread

Image 1: Corn and Zucchini quick bread

Food synopsis: A bite-sized savoury, wholemeal quick bread.


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Living by yourself isn't an easy thing to do. For example, judging the amount of food to buy and cook.

A colleague brought in her home-grown zucchinis, and one ended up in my fridge at home. On top of my usual fortnightly food shopping, this was another case where I had one zucchini too many and just had to find some way of using it up!

So, getting out my experimenting cap on, this is what I made with 1/2 a large zucchini, some left-over canned corn and a basic quick bread recipe.

Zucchini and onion omelette with rice and veg

Image 1: Zucchini and onion omelette, rice and left over zucchini and onion

Lemon curd butterfly mini cupcakes

Image 1: Lemon curd butterfly mini cupcakes

Food synopsis: A fluffy cupcake filled with fresh lemon curd. The sourness of lemon curd was in harmony with cake, the proportions of curd to cake.


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Being quite a scavenger of food and produce brought in by my colleagues' homes, I thought I should give back a bit of what I take. This week, I had taken a quite a number of lemons - either grown in their backyard, or they'd picked from their neighbour's backyard.

Most of the streets in this town have dusty alleyways between the backyard fences. They're wide enough for a car drive down, but the road isn't