Nettle Pasta

It has been a good week. Aside from the paper cuts. Things related to this little monster are coming together, and unless I've totally blown it, packages should start going out as planned in the coming weeks. There might even have be a preview ready in the next few days. Maybe! In the meantime, there are a couple things I'm excited to share. First, a nettle pasta recipe I've been in love with lately. And then, a few snapshots from a walk I took to the Golden Gate bridge the night of its 75th birthday celebration.

The pasta is a breeze. For those of you who've never cooked with nettles (I suspect this might be a good number of you), buy some the next time you come across them. They're easier to deal with than you think. Here I quickly blanch them straight from the bag they came in, in the same water I cook the pasta. One pot, no stings. I add toasted almonds for crunch, feta because it's tangy creaminess plays nice with the nettles, and onion sprouts. Bit of garlic.

I really should have packed the leftovers (and more layers!) for our expedi! tion to the bridge, but we went on a bit of a whim, and I didn't think it through entirely. There was a news report predicting half a million people would attend the celebration, they were closing the span to all traffic for an hour, and it seemed worth checking out. So we walked out the front door around 6pm, and, over the next few hours, made our way to the ridge just to the right of the south tower.

There were a lot of people, and it was a beautiful San Francisco evening, and thankfully there was plenty of space from everyone. People were spread out for miles along the hills and shoreline. It was one of those things that turned San Francisco into something its typically not - a city where people are out and about late at night, bustling to get here or there. Because of the lack of parking (and buses and taxis), it felt like everyone walked in. Which meant they also walked out. Anyway, it was nice in a lot of ways. And it was a nice reminder that sometimes a really long walk, fireworks or not, is a perfect way to spend a night out. xo -h

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Japanese brewer offers icy suds for long, hot summer

Bak chang (glutinous rice dumpling) workshop at Lai Ching Yuen, Grand Millennium KL

"Luck is like having a rice dumpling fly into your mouth"..

The Duanwu Festival, also known as the Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month in the lunar calendar - in 2012, it falls on June 23. During this celebration, the Chinese would eat "zongzi" or "bak chang"(), also known as glutinous rice dumpling,drinkingrealgar wine xionghuangjiu () and racing dragon boats.

Duanwu Festival is believed to have originated from ancient China. The best known story is that the festival commemorates the death of poet Qu Yuan of the ancient state of Chu. Qu was a descendant of the Chu royal house, serving in high offices, however when the king decided to ally with the state of Qin, Qu was accused of treason and banished. Twenty eight years later, Qin conquered the capital of Chy and Qu Yuan commited suicide by drowning himself on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. The local people who admired him (Qu wrote a great deal of poetry) dropped sticky rice triangles wrapped in bamboo leaves into the river to the feed Qu in the afterlife. The rice was wrapped so that the fish would not eat it. This is said to be the origin of zongzi. The local people are also said to paddle on dragon boats to scare the fish or retrieve the body- this is said to be the origin of the dragon boat racing.

I have always been fascinated about how a zongzi is made. My parents love eating them during the festival, so when the opportunity arose to attend a dumpling workshop at Lai Ching Yuen at Grand Millennium KL, I grabbed it.

Chef Kong of Lai Chi! ng Yuen was our "sifu" (master/teacher) of the day. We knew that we would be in for a treat, just by looking at thesumptuousingredients that would be used in making the dumpling. There was pork belly, duck, salted egg yolk, and dry scallop amongst them. At first, Chef Kong demonstrated to us how to put the ingredients together, before showing us how to wrap the dumplings. He makes it look simple, but trust me, it needs quite a bit of practice before getting right! I know because after he demonstrated it to us twice, each of us got to make our own dumpling which we got to take home with us. Mine actually turned out looking quite nice :) Btw, recipe will be shared in the bottom of this post, courtesy of GMKL. There are also videos which I recorded during the workshop.

All the ingredients for the dumpling workshop

The glutinous rice has been marinated in five spice powder

Lotus and bamboo leaves for wrapping the dumplings

Putting the ! ingredie nts together

Wrapping

Using the string, you have to repeat the tying process three times until you have formed a square in the centre

Part 1 - Putting the ingredients together

Part 2, Wrapping the dumpling

Ready!

The dumplings that Chef Kong made

The other participant's dumplings - not bad f! or first timers :)

Mine!

The dumpling that we learnt during the workshop was the glutinous rice dumpling with dried scallops and roasted duck meat. Other than that, we also got to sample the glutinous rice dumplings with abalone and Chinese mushroom, glutinous rice dumpling with roasted pork and sweet glutinous rice dumpling with white lotus paste. Lai Ching Yuen rice dumplings are available from 9 June to 23 June 2012 and are priced from RM28++ to RM68++.

A dumpling feast

Glutinous rice dumpling with dried scallops and roasted duck meat

Sweet glutinous rice dumpling with white lotus paste

Glutinous rice dumpling with roasted pork

Glutinous rice dumplings with abalone and Chinese mushroom

Recipe for glutinous rice dumpling with dry scallops and roasted duck meat
Makes 1

Ingredients:
50g of streaky pork (pork belly)
50g of Pork Fat
1 pc of Salted Egg Yolk
200g of Glutinous Rice
100g of green bean
100g of Dry Lotus Leaves
30g of Dry Chestnuts
20g of Bamboo Leaves
15g of Strong Salt Ham
10g of Dry Scallop
80g of Roasted Duck Meat
5g of Salt
10g of Chicken Powder
10g of Five Spice Powder
20g of Vegetable Oil
1 Whole Garlic
5 pcs of Shallots

Method:

Heat 2 tablespoons cooking oil in wok and fry the garlic and shallots till lightly browned. Add glutinous rice, 1 tablespoon of dark soyasauce, 1 tablespoon of ketumbar and 1/2 teaspoon of white pepper powder. Stir well. Remove and leave to cool.

Place the lotus leaf followed by the bamboo leaf. Apply some vegetable oil on the bamboo leaf. First, place the mushroom, top side down, followed by half the glutinous rice and green bean. Top with pork, duck, pork fat, chestnuts, scallops and salted egg yolk. Cover with the remaining glutinous rice and green bean.

Wrap the Bak Changs. Bring to boil a large pot of water and throw in the pandan leaves. Boil Bak Chang for 4 1/2 hours completelysubmerged and covered and leave to stand for 30 mins. For best results, use a charcoal stove. For quick cooking, use a pressure cooker and boil forapproximately 45 minutes on pressure and 15 minutes standing.

< b>This is bak chang that I made during the workshop and brought home. One word.. YUM!

Lai Ching Yuen rice dumplings are available from 9 June to 23 June 2012 and are priced from RM28++ to RM68++.

Non-halal.

Opening times: Lunch; Monday to Friday 12.00pm - 2.30pm, Sat & Sun 11.00am - 2.30pm. Dinner; 6.30pm - 10.30pm daily.

Location: Lai Ching Yuen, Grand Millennium Hotel, 160 Jalan Bukit Bintang, 55100 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 03-2117 4180

GPS Coordinates: 3.147694, 101.712338

Restoran Uncle Seng - Fresh & Own Made Noodle

Section 15 Subang Jaya has been my regular place of visit due to my work and there are many food outlets to try. I tried Uncle Seng for the first time and it's good. Something diffirent from norm..I ordered a small noodle but with 2 different choices of meat Char Siu and fried pork.Another characteristic of eating this noodle is the special chili sauce where it's mixed with the noodle like what Malaccan eat their wan tan mee. This is awesome and must try if you have not done so.

UncleSengFresh Homemade Noodles

68,Jalanss15/4B

SubangJaya,Selangor

GPS : 3.076727,101.588698

Opening Hours:

8am - 4pm everyday except Mondays

Hell @ Bistro a Table

Abandon all hope of slim waistlines, ye who enter here: this fire-breathing, scythe-bearing demon welcomed us into Dante's third circle of hell, reserved for gluttons and relocated to Bistro a Table for an eight-course, hell-themed degustation dinner.

Hell temporarily froze over for the opening salvo of asparagus ice with house-smoked salmon, which featured familiar flavors in an unconventional textural combination.

Temperatures climbed with each subsequent serving: prepared at six degrees Celcius, this Deconstructed Bloody Mary Soup surfaced as a crimson lake of tomato, with chili seeds on the side to sear the taste buds with teeth-gnashing punishment.

Seventy degrees and rising: capellini with diabolically delicious poached Irish oysters and Avruga caviar in creamy veloute. The dinner this week was meant to mark Bistro's one-year birthday on the 6th of June (that's today!) at ! its No. 6 address. Many happy returns!

Ninety degrees: lobster ravioli with Pernod-infused bisque. June's a double whammy for degustation fans: Bistro will host Chef Vicky Cheng of Hong Kong's Liberty Private Works on Saturday, June 16, when he'll collaborate with Bistro's Isadora Chai for one evening only. Make reservations soon; hell hath no fury like a chef scorned.

At 170 degrees: Deep-fried onion soup might sound like culinary blasphemy, but while it wasn't as heavenly as the other courses, we'll forgive it for its sin of stodginess.

Is this lamb? Hell, no! Italian venison, smothered in foie gras emulsion.

Deliver us into temptation: the wine pairings for this meal included warm, tangy-spiced sips of French Pinot Noir.

Too hot to handle: white cherry clafoutis, buttery and sugary. Potentially a thought-I'd died-and-gone-to-heaven sort of dessert.

There's a fire starting in our Cointreau-flamed Passion Fruit Bombe Alaska, reaching a fever pitch and bringing us out the dark.

Burn, baby, burn _ Bistro Inferno! You know what I mean.

Bistro a Table,

Section 17, Petaling Jaya.

SF 1 & 2

And now, we go to San Francisco (SF). Those of you who have been following this blog will know that I flew to SF first, and spent 17 wonderful days there before flying to New York where I spent another 10 wonderful days. I blogged about NY first because it was still fresh on my mind and I wanted to tell you about it before I came back to earth.

My daughter arrived from Shanghai 12 hours ahead of me and was at the SF airport to meet me. We squealed and jumped, something we always do which I know is not very dignified but it had been 15 years since we were last in SF, and it was like a dream to be there again.

I stepped into my friend CY's car, and Yi and I screamed and squealed as we sped down the highway, CY pointing out the Bay Bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, the lights over the city, the lights in Oakland where she lives. I saw familiar stores, smelt the aroma of french fries as we parked the car and walked to a Chinese restaurant in Oakland's Chinatown. It was about 8 pm and we wanted a light meal before we got back to her home in the Oakland hills. Dinner was scrumptious, lobster on noodles, a fabulous long-brewed soup and one or two other dishes (can't remember). I didn't bother to bring my camera so no photos but the meal reminded me of the freshness and abundance of ingredients, especially when plates after plates of yummy dishes landed on the table behind us where a large family was gathered. I thought with irony how it used to be the other way around when I was a student in Canada and longed for the Chinese food back home. Now, if you've been to both countries, you'll know what I mean when I think the tables have turned for us. Good Chinese food can be had in the US and Canada while the Chinese food here just gets worse and worse, price, quality and quantity-wise. I really think that the restaurants in KK are worse than 20 years ago. Yes, there are more restaurants but the standards have dropped. And why not, when we have gone from being the richest state to the poor! est in 3 0 years. The only really good food we have are the morning and lunch time fare, such as ngau chap, sang yuk meen, fish noodles, bun meen and all the meen.

The next day, CY had some friends over for a bbq. It was a treat to chomp on juicy steaks and sausages, tender spring veggies such as asparagus, and thick fresh bell peppers and zucchini, washed down by cold beer and the best home-made lemonade made from CY's lemons. The weather was in the 40s at first but warmed up to the high 50s by the early afternoon, still a little bit cold for someone used to temperatures of 80+. Since we are talking about the US, we'll keep to Fahrenheit. It truly exasperates me why the US can't move forward and use the metric system. Even stuffy old England has changed, a long time ago. Anyway, well and good for the Americans to keep their gallons and yards and continue to think they are always going to be the world's great superpower.


It was 50 F, and the temperatures in the hills were lower than in the city.

I love CY's house in the hills although there were some nights when I was freaked out as I crept down the stairs into the bedrooms and had to pass a wall of windows, which looked out into pitch darkness and silence. Yet I know if I live in the States, I would chose to live in the suburbs too. The city is good for times when I need some excitement.


We woke up from our jet lag to a bbq party, ate and went back to bed again. Bliss.


The pineapple sausages from Cosco were delicious, springy to the bite and juicy.


Tender, juicy, flavorful and sweet.


CY makes the best lemonade, with lemons from her trees and Chinese dried plums.

It was my first day in SF and as I sat around and chatted with CY's friends, this guy said to me "Oh, you are racist. You just said 'White people...'. We are colorblind here." Sure enough, as he spoke, a Chinese woman walked in holding hands with a black guy. The truth is, we Asians think that we are not racists but we are. We are racists not in a racist-supremacy way, but in a very race-conscious way because of our culture and environment. If that brings howls, then explain why political parties here are race-oriented and politicians get away with warning their own race not to be complacent or risk loosing to other races. That's openly racist if you ask me.

When I was a student visiting the States decades ago, most Asians kept to themselves and spoke English with their home accent but the Asians in America now are second, third, fourth generation and they speak American English and people of different races hang out together naturally. I didn't feel the same integration among the races that I felt in the US in other western countries, such as Australia and England but that's likely because Asians in Australia are mostly FOB or second generati! on. I ca n't explain England since I've only been there once. America made me feel at home more than Europe, more than Australia, more than even China. Maybe it's because the whole world has been Americanized. There's no denying that America's melting pot works.




The next evening when Hub arrived, I made sure he had some good old American bbq too, because I knew he'd love some juicy American steaks.






Chicken noodle soup in cold weather reminds me of Toronto and Aunt and Uncle Rees, good folks that I stayed with in my matriculation year.

Chunky Monkey, I'm told, is one of the most popular Ben & Jerry ice cream flavors. I think I've been spoilt by gelato.


I miss English muffins and these ones were Safeway's and they were disappointing. I tried Thomas' too, the most popular brand, and they were good when hot and spread with butter and jam but eaten plain, they tasted horrible, both salty and sweet.

One of the best feelings is sleeping under two layers of comforters in a cosy bed and drifting off to sleep anticipating a new day in a new city. I love travelling, and looking back, I have no regrets about spending our savings on family trips around the world. That is one thing Hub and I did right, I think, forgoing the fancy houses and cars but spending money and time discovering new places and experiences with our kids.