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.

~

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.

~

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.

 ~

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.


~

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

~

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.


~


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.

~

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...

~

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.