little hungry heart

Fusilli Chorizo and Summer Tomato

2011-12-19T18:29:00.004+13:00

So my cooktop broke at the same time I was to start cooking again. Today, a magic gas man work his airy talents and skills. And we are back in business...

I miss having a bit of a free time to do stuff.

I miss having to cook again, with all the available fresh ingredients I love and the kitchen I cherish.

I miss pasta.

Fusilli Chorizo and Summer Tomato
serves 2

4 cups dry Fusilli pasta

6 medium tomatoes, cored and halved
4 garlic cloves, sliced thin
1/2 onion, chopped
1 red chili, chopped

3 Tbs vodka (optional)
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce

2 Chorizo sausage, sliced

salt, sugar, pepper
extra virgin olive oil
Italian parsley, chopped
pecorino or parmesan, grated

1. Heat 1 Tbs oil in saucepan and sweat garlic until fragrant but not coloured in low heat. Stir in onion and red chili for 1 minute. Increase heat, stir in tomato and mash with wooden spoon slightly. Add in a pinch of salt, 1 heaping ts sugar, pepper, vodka and Worcestershire. Bring to boil. Close saucepan with lid, lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. With a handheld blender or conventional blender, puree the tomatoes until smooth. Simmer.
3. In another saucepan, boil pasta with generous amount of salt.
4. Gently fry off Chorizo with a little oil until crusty on outside in a frying pan. Add in tomato puree in 5 lots, reducing the puree to thick and brown as you add and stir in. Add in pasta.
5. Turn off heat. Stir in cheese, parsley and 1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil. Serve!

I miss her.

I really miss her.

November Starter

2011-11-29T22:17:00.009+13:00

First, I'd like to welcome myself back.
Second, I'd like to thank you, hungry-hearters, for such comforting support.
Third, I am an official doctor on duty now. (Warning: Stay away from Wellington ;P)

Yeap, Joinin the Movember

Fourth, well I think... I feel... I am... in love with the one I've been praying for every night on my empty bed. But when God gives, that Guy/Lady never make things easy. So here is me, wooing her with the most wonderful of technology:

"You can't always get what you want... but if you try sometime... you might just find... you get what you need."-The Rolling Stones

Here we go... a brand new journey!

Chocolate Clay

2011-09-24T15:50:00.007+12:00

I am about to share to you one of my precious recipe. Why? Because I can and it rarely is shown in a typical cookbook. I want to push myself by sharing my secrets one by one, so that I won't be lazy to discover more secrets.

When I grew up as a kid, I was fortunate enough to see many beautiful cartoon theme birthday cakes of my friends' birthday. There were all beautiful and amazing looking. I was instinctively jealous deeply to the root of my heart. But there was a consolation, the cake tasted worst than my mum's badminton racket smack to the bum (I was naughty too, you know). The colours did not taste fruity at all! It was just tasteless sugar, a dose so high it'd bless a kid with diabetes for each birthday we attend. The cream wasn't even flavoured with vanilla or any thing that taste like it. Topping the horror, the figurines, which were super awesome looking and some are edible, are made of icing sugar or marzipan!!!! Yuck!!!! So sugary, it stabs the teeth like you've had none.

Sometimes though, some fancy-smancy bragging acquaintance of my parents gave us some really good cakes, the chocolate kind... with 'real chocolate' flowers! Now I always dreamt that one day this world will consist of real chocolate figurines exclusively; no more shitty diabetic-ending. (Sorry, strong opinion here).

As some of you may have shared my hatred of conventional icing sugar toppings in cupcakes, I would also like to draw your attention to flawlessly white iced wedding cake that's just mostly disappointing. Please do try this clay with white chocolate and see the huge difference to your wedding (or even a divorce party). It could be slightly difficult though, but practise yields perfection.

The clay is pretty much like a hard version of play-doh. You need to warm it up with your hand to make it more malleable but not too warm that it'd stick and melt.

Do use cheap chocolate, don't waste on expensive one. The mixture will alter the expensive taste of your chocolate you've paid for. Anyway, the recipe is so damn ridiculously simple. I am embarrassed to keep it a secret. If you want to make a coloured chocolate clay, don't use water based colouring. Use oil based or powder colouring.

Chocolate clay
yields about 350g

300g chocolate
1/3 cup glucose syrup (or light corn syrup)
1-3 drops of colouring (optional)

1. Prepare 30x30cm non-stick baking paper on a bench.
2. Melt chocolate over double broiler but never let the chocolate exceed 37.5celcius. Stir in glucose and colouring with rubber spatula. Stir with folding motion until homogenous. Don't overmix.
3. Pour the chocolate mixture to baking paper. Pat to 20x20cm square shape with spatula. Cool in room temperature for 2-3 hours. The clay is ready to use. Or store in chocolate in baking paper and airtight container for 2 months.

To make a rose, Adri & Surya had kindly shoot simultaneous photos of my hands making a rough concept model of a basic pink rose:

That concludes all the elements of my Panna Cotta with Cocoa Cookies and Pink White Chocolate Rose recipe.

Go ahead, share the love!

Lonesome Bittersweetness: For The Love of God

2011-09-12T15:26:00.010+12:00

Reading a charming philosophical lit on a cool avo over a glass of warm tea in a chic Seoul metropolitan cafe, it's a sweet introverted treat to my peculiarity, a rarity in the recent years of mine. In the wanders of my imaginary retreat, the theme of love is the most popular hit on my playlist.

Like eating a bag of freshly toasted peanut, knowledge enthuses many to feedback positively by yielding more questions as it is being gained virally. If anything, the awe of philosophy is within the formulation of inspired thoughts.

I was reading 'The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work", the latest publication from my all-time favourite English writter, Alain de Botton. His decorative words are akin to that of a fine aged wine, bursting with depth of characters and sprinkles of after-taste, leaving a beautiful consensual impression with plenty of rooms for added subjective opinion. Each sentence savours like a psalm in the bible.

There was a little sip of Alain's collage about loneliness, a paradigm of a lighthouse beaming its purposeful light in the midst of Western Australian desert, that instantenously set the background theme for my afternoon cup of wandering thoughts.

"Pierre, why are you so sentimental sometimes?", asked a dull or inquiring mind.
"Hmmm, when you have them all: fame, power, fortune, prestige and sex; what's there left to your desire?" - a question for a God, the lonesome supreme whose soul reside as a lighthouse shining in the vast emptiness of a Western Australian desert.

A theory, impossible of prove, came to reach my mind. Perhaps we are free-willed puppets, overlooked by the master, who's awaiting for His/Her love in return.

"Does God need us?"
Could the query cause an everlasting dilemma?
In abandonment, we would lost our soul to its entire meaning. In opposition, reciprocally, does that mean that God, too, is lonely and created us to contest His predicament?
Could that contentious selfish act, from His longing to be loved, made us to be a variation of his image, who has a universal thirst; of love?

A Buddhist monk or a Catholic nun, who's life's devoted to solitude and altruism, is prized heavenly to its level of worth. Pragmatically, two such acts embellish the power of wisdom, the virtue of a God. A self-reflection and an act of giving, during the full span of a lifetime, may be perceived as the confident will-power of resisting the thirst of love, the martyr turning a saint from the absent expression of a hungry heart (pardon the pun ;P), the wisdom of a single lonesome being.

One exception to this altruistic selfish act is that God, in His singular state, would create a different meaning of selfishness. "If you are the one-and-only, can you be referred as selfish?"

"Does God have fear?"
Yes seems to defeat the purpose of God. Yet the denial of the inquisition brings out another mystery of our existence in His light. Why would God tests our faith if He does not fear?

In the end, on the harmony of complex humanity, does that mean that God is playing a crazy little game called love, with us?
So who would you be, and how would you proceed?

Maybe God is never yes, no or maybe; 'cos to its entirety, faith of God is as to be or not to be.

And as for me, the sentimental me, this is just a theory, of what love could be.

"Lord, can You hear me now...?"-Damien Rice

Day 3 Taiwan Travel: The Motion Emotion

2011-09-08T04:04:00.012+12:00

I guess I was missing for a bit, somewhat...
I've been having tech issues with my Taiwan photos and I've been having a 'life' ;P
No, not all that grand and exciting as you'd imagine.

So on the third day of my Taiwan trip, I was starting to feel a little nudge in my little heart that I missed home. As one mentioned in the past, travel, for most- be it conscious or unconscious, is a journey to appreciate home. I woke up on Monday and I've missed cooking a gamey and juicy NZ scotch-fillet glazed with button mushroom and port wine reduction from Portugal. I then realised that it would be a little while until I could step up to my own kitchen again, I had 3 more months to 'appreciate' home.

If there is a natural sightseeing place I'd recommend near Taipei, I would say it's Wulai. 'Natural' in Asia is not what an imagination would yield. Anything that's natural in Asia will be fully developed to its full commercial purpose, that's just because we're Asian.

The abuse of nature, however, is relative to the culture and the officials on duty. I like how Taiwan still keeps up with the almost-ideal zen of commercial nature.

To get to Wulai, you'd take a subway trip to Xindian and jump in to 849 bus to Wulai. When I say 'jump', I mean that in a literal sort of experience. The crowded bus trip is so fiercely brutal that you'd start to wonder about 3 things: the skills of Michael Schumacher blessed through the bus driver within each narrow and cliff-bearing corner he tackled, the unanticipated pleasing moment that I was kite-surfing in a tight-with-elderlies and gracefully aircon'ed bus, and the safety of my well-being; sanity included. The 40minute pole dancing rodeo was decorated with lusciously deep green scenery as we ascended through the altitude.

Arriving in Wulai, it was, still, hot. Heck, I was glad to get off the bus.

So why Wulai?
Why don't I start with a teaser that the place is pleasantly filled with all things Taiwan-aborigines; food too!

I can safely say that this shop is beautifully located in the vicinity of Wulai village entrance. The lady gave away free, but substantial, sips of jelly in citrus and locally-grown sugar cane breezeful drink.

She gave away sips of heaven everyday...

Lots of curious-inducing things were on display at the village, but it was too early on the day for a pre-climb feast. About 2km, uphill from the village is where you want to be.

The choice is left to you whether you'd use the limbs you have or the miniature train marching on top a relic Japanese colony train track. Walking up, I prefered to have the choice of any season other than summer, since it seemed that there would be more waterfalls to be seen during the rain, and I would stop brewing melanoma daily. Another option I wasn't crazy about, Wulai's a nice place for hot water bath. However, the solitary waterfall was a photogenic gem, you'd be able to catch your bits of nostalgia memorabilia in one shot of thousand words.

A cup of sweat later, it was a time more climbing, fully assisted with machine. The touristly-priced gondola ticket pictured a trip in autumn or spring will/may be the optimal time to catch the blooming cherry blossoms at its vulnerably eye-feasting peak.

It's still a worthy of experience.

When observing anything at a different angle, a mind sometimes twists the heart. I am not talking about the more you see a girl, the more likely somewhat your mind likely to wander to subconsciously liften her attraction; I'm just saying that I've walked pretty far! Look at that village, I was there a few steps ago?!

Off the gondola-up, I was greeted by more waterfalls. Again, the thought of romantic and beauty never left me that summer was not the magnets of those. It was quite obscure on what to do next when you reached the top, but through the maze of a run-down establishment, you'd be greeted by ambiantly matching sets of stairs.

And then...

Man-made beauty can invite a lot of... men,

...who may have a few bucks to spare in a 3/4-star hotel.
But rarely those men who can afford the bucks, can afford the time.

The 'time' that the soul invites everything within the surrounding, the moment a little jewel of ponders struck like a 'ding' sensation accompanied an image of a globe of light turning on, like how I might see why Koi fish is highly prized: how it may live up to hundreds of years, how I used to breed a few dozens of them as a little pet-loving boy, how they moved gracefully like a gentle Chinese woman dressed in a meticulously elaborate robe and dancing for her life to be wedded as one of her king's hundred wives, how... you know touchy-feelly 'bla bla bla' like that.

And the 'time' when I could try out the true capability of my Canon S95 powershot point-and-shoot camera. The more I use this compact camera, the more I fall in love with its limit.

If you're feeling peckish, when your mind play a little game of 'whether I'm hungry or bored', try the 7 km trek around the top of the hotel. It's full of probably-for-youth-camp hurdles.

At one crossing, you can choose how to test your agility in multiples of ways.

I chose the one of top, I got stuck in the middle. I can't remember how I actually made it out.
Like I said, if you have spare cash, there's a nice place nestled on top of the Wulai waterfall that's waiting to embracing you with your conveniently Asian-commercialised adventure.

When journeying to a different country, many people like to experiment with a different personality. Most people would know a typical office-bound Englishman who speaks in thick Oxford accent in urban Sydney metropolitan bars because of the advantageous individuality it entails, and of course, when he'd head home to Manchester, he would swing the absurdly thick ozzie accent to... shine out the 'unique personality'. A whiteman's identity crisis? or pathetic attempts to be loved... a dilemma to have attention...bla bla bla.
Well for the next hour, I was a little kid, walking and balancing my whole body on a narrow road pavement, and sucking on mango cordial popsicle.

The aborigine history seemed to be in my childish notion, based on their native art: the odd colour combination, the primitive symmetry-inspired shapes and the repetition.

Hey! What!?!

Longan tree?!?!!!! I never seen one before.

Of course, the inner naughty-boy-who-loved-to-steal-a-few-rambutan-from-the-neighbour's-tree could not resist such opportunity! Threw out my half eaten popsicle, for a piece of FRESH longan! Best trade ever!

Anyway, back to the Wulai village, back to the time, back to food...

Pork, especially the belly, was a popular sights presented to my Monday visit to Wulai.

So as the anonymous alcoholic brews.

What's that you say!!! Mochi!!! (Yes, I am a cold-blooded mochiholic!)

What I love about the mochi here are
1. They're soft like a pretty girl's lips, or any other anatomical bits that should be appropriately soft.
2. The base looks brown because the sweetener is from a locally-grown sugar cane!
3. They have melon flavours :D :D :d :D
4. 100% recommended!

Lonely Planet is synonymous with giving me a random, undiscoverable, and highly-likely disappointing hints for places to eat and stay. I guess there are great exceptions, like...
Taiya Popo, 14 Wulai Street

You can see from the English version menu (after miming my impression of ' no no wopu ce tau...(I don't understand)), that this place is a Mecca for the hungry heart! It's also a traditional aboriginal foodie spot. Bamboo shoot... hmm... fish... hmmm.... shrimp... hmmm... fish and shrimp...hmmm a combo... bees... hmmm.....

If an old man can take it, I'd be a wuss not to dunk in.

My Charlie Chaplin skills awarded me sips of the three interesting chilled drinks on offer: ginger and dark sugar cane, bitter tea/random leaves brew, and...

... this white sour, sweet and a little cheerfully salty drink. I say it's some sort of fermented dairy product, though, I hardly see cows around Wulai. It's akin to uncarbonated Korean 'Milkis' or Japanese 'Ambasa' or Indonesian 'Calpico', but this is a little more tasty and fresh. (100% recommended)

Stir-fry pork, basil and garlic. Other than a typical tough Asian meat, I truly love this simple bits of comfort. (100% recommended).

Skip the steamed rice, try this sticky rice with mushrooms steamed/charred in a bamboo, cracked open in front of your table. The aroma sent me on an imaginary historical trip of China. (100% recommended).

Deep fried bees tossed in a sesame, leeks, fried basil and probably MSG based seasonings. This is surprisingly an easy-eat. A westerner may describe it as a popcorn experience, but as a chef, it's almost ditto to deep fried seasoned soft-shelled crab, minus the seafood aroma and the dreaded visual effect. It tasted very very Korean... (200% recommended).
I will return to Wulai if I ever slide back in to Taiwan, that's how good was my box of sweet moments.

Last night (Day 2), Megan (from the lovely tea shop) told me that National Palace Museum is a 'must' and 'no 1' place to visit in Taiwan. I am not sure if she was hinting anything, since she was actually working there as well, but I like Megan. ;)

The museum consisted of three massive buildings that displays countless excellent historical craftmanships. The collections are so huge, they can't fit everything on display all at once and thus alternatively re-displaying different collections across the year. Unfortunately, no cameras allowed. They have allocated a person to watch every single room for cheeky buggers like me.

Megan was right. It was a true feat of Taiwan, even for non-museum go-ers.
My favourite part was in the donated area, 3rd floor, turn left as you get in, look at the middle set of display and on the right section, there's a piece of wine serving vase that looks very French and renaissancely sexy (plump and curvy). Ow! and they have good selection of souvenirs... and the stylish, high-tech and wonderfully clean toilets too!
The fact that it was beautiful and I didn't get to 'accidentally' struck a moment with Megan, derived a strong impression that I probably had taken the signs to an over-optimistic-somewhat-narcissistic delusional level. ;P

If you are heading to a popular spot in Taiwan, a good rule of thumb is to follow the lions. They usually guide you to a place worth securing... with a pair of lions.

Touching base to the centre of Taipei, I realised another one of my Westernised evolution. Even though I had been walking all day, I still love the stairs. I just feel that they are good for you and the world. Queuing up for escalators in Taiwan/Korea/Japan/other idiosyncratical place is like wrestling for a government subsidised rice in the mist of 1998 Indonesian economy drastic crisis.

Another thing I like in Underground K mall (located in the Taipei Main Station), is this stationery shop. They have chic collections of inspiration blanks. I bought a few linen book covers, though Jacqueline @ socuteithurts seems to blow away the standard of linen book covers.

My third day of beef noodle soup fell out of my optimistic aspirations. The fiercely macho twang about the restaurant is very inviting, especially with all the ('wrong') recommendation from Taiwanese friends that it's better to stay on fancy looking places. The beef was dry, the noodle was instant, the soup was sad.

Going up above the underworld, you'd be seen a minute being amongst the many students who had finished their school and waiting for elevators to transfer groups of motivation-drained minds to the level of tutor-the-hell-out-of-my-Asian-brain.

That's f%ckin' dedication there!
Still wonder why Asian kids are smarter?
But... I don't know... if the queue is that long, why not take the stairs...?

Having a camera whilst travelling is like an itch for someone to take any frozen bits of visual memories, regardless of its personal significance. Like the building above...

Taking too many random pictures with Canon S95, brings out the worst feature of the camera, the life of battery. Shows up really well on top, the last picture I took before my camera gave away.

That's OK! I still got my cheap as Samsung phone to cover me.

It's OK rite...? It says National Taiwan (presumably) Normal University
(No, it's not blurry. It's you who's tipsy!)

Night 3, Night Market 3, Shida Night Market.

If you are a girl who is hard to pin-down, which literary covers all women with ovary aging between 13 and 30, then Shida is a 'reasonable' place for you to visit. Trust me, your shopping experience here will definitely brings out a lot of interesting 'reason' to whomever is the poor bugger financing you. In other words, this is a nice place for young gals to shop for urban Taiwanese classy dresses at decent prices. (Sorry guys, this is not a place for you to spend for yourself).

If it's any consolation, it may be a great place to pick up 'normal' chicks, since it's located right next to that 'normal' uni. I'm a little unconvinced by the fact that this baby cookies stall is packed with university girls though. Well...what is 'normal' anyway?

As I previously mentioned, there are yummy foods everywhere in any night markets in Taiwan; most of which you'd find repetitively. And so, on top my dead camera, I didn't have much to share about Shida.

Except, my best bite.

This place, right in one of the entrance to the market, may have the best dumpling in all of the night markets of Taipei. My stomach is rumbling in synchrony with every punch of the keyboard letter at this current point of time. If you like to wash it down with something fun, try Green tea Yakult drink, for a truly refreshing and inspiring wave of joy dancing on your tongue. Just go to a bubble tea place over in Shida market. Both are 200% recommended!

I'm in to dry French film noir.
I like how life is not always exciting and full of explosions.
I like how the ending can be disappointing.
Doesn't this whole experience ring a bell that it's what it is: 'life'?
Yet in the cocktail of life, you may stumble upon the perfect moment, like Audrey Tautou smile.
A smile that's made with an anticipated Neverlasting joy, but left an everlasting dent of bliss in the heart.
For that real 'life' smile experience, try Shuanglian station.
It's where the delicious run down solitary restaurants are encircling. It's where the Tea shop (in day 2 post) is. It's manythings (a new word I invented today), like a group of silent elderlies sitting in the closed underground Shuanglian station mall and a bunch of kindergarten graduates screaming as they run for their roles in hide and seek. Sitting in the middle are tasteless pricey art?work of fish.

Does it get drier than that?
Lets take a look down the dry lane...

Nope! It got better!
Many of Taiwanese youngins are born in to a world of hip hop dance. It was 9 p.m. and you see teenagers (boys and gals) turnin up their boom-box and dominating the 10 available gigantic mirrors to practise their art of anatomical synchronisation. There weren't any Timberlake, but the spirits were sacriligious.

Nearby the Shuanglian Station, I hopped in to a random run-down but unusually crowded place and ordered a bowl of noodle (is it Tiger noodle???... 'Meow').

I wasn't sure what it was, but it was the 'no 1' on the menu, spicy fermented beancurd noodle with ground sesame sauce?
Damn it was 100% recommended.

If you have any electronic issues or wants a new electronic, it would be foolish not to get it sorted expertly and cheaply right in the heart of Taipei. I thought a second battery would be a wise investment for my Canon S 95.

There is a collection of camera shops located closed to Taipei main train station, heading towards Ximen outdoor mall area. At 3 US dollars a pop, it was cheaper than a New Zealand orange juice. Just like that my camera was revived to present to you: Ximen!

I wouldn't say that Ximen is a night market. It had 'civilised' stated all over my actively acquiring-image mind.

Girls definitely wear milkshake thick make-up there. And you'd see lensless glasses in outrageously dense proportions. On a random note, I met a girl, who bursted and jumped me, giving me a longlasting intermittent mental re-imagination during and after seeing her, from her universal ways of explaining the art of massive reproduction with her slender fingers. Yeah... I was too poor to pay (for her creativity and AIDS).

Ehem! Some food in Ximen are attractive looking too. But I had tried crab soup in Keelung, I had a limit to my tasting quota so that no (child?) food got left behind.

Ximen's not too far from where I stayed, Taipei Garden Hotel. Across the hotel, you'd find a 24 hour carrefour.

Pretty awesome, except that they've got no nail clippers, sunblock or small scissors.

So I guess, I would just swim and brew myself with the sun rapping the hell out of me, without a condom, leaving me dry and brown. Just like the pungent eggs available on every 7/11 in Taipei (which is quite a lot of eggs).

Thank You, and You!

2011-08-29T23:50:00.004+12:00

It's been a great middle of the year for me. I guess it is my 'rabbit' voodoo working (Yes, that's my Chinese Zodiac). So many things had happen and yet to come. One thing I notice is how I get to know heaps more hungry hearters out there. I'm not saying 'foodie' cos not all of you are food bloggers, more like a 'hungry hearter'.

I've been tagged, shipped, sold and awarded lately. It's quite sweet and awesome of you, friends!
I'd like to thank Nessie @Baking=Love, Germaine @Kiddothings, Michael @ Me, My Food and I, Dee@ Deelicious Sweets and Jo @ChicGorgeous who gave me such cool awards and mentionings! You are now added to my 3rd lots of socks collection (trust me, I mean well)
Do check on 'not a sock missing' !
Don't worry there are more of you added to my drawer too.

So here are some bits I'd share...
Fave colour
Chestnut brown.
Though everyone thinks it's blue, cos my home has a partly blue interior touch, blue car and boys tend to wear lots of blue.

Fave song
According to my iTunes, my no. 1 is:

Favorite dessert
Classic Panna Cotta

What piss me off?
Sounds of ticking clock when I'm sleeping. It's like I'm timed to live, sleep and die.

When I'm upset, I...
Cook or listen to Bobby McFerrin's 'Don't worry be happy'... the illicit version... F-F-F-F's slipped in the lyrics.

Black or White
White's kinda high maintenance. So back to black.

Biggest Fear
Getting alzheimer's or losing my memory.

Best feature
"I like your voice, it's sexy", said the male gender chief plastic surgeon
"My voice...?"

Everyday attitude
Easy going, stupid looking, not-too-caring but still notice everything.
Feeling I'm living a life of purpose and meaning.

What's perfection?
"Hey babe, taste this!"
"Why are you awake and baking at 3 a.m.... OMG! That's f*cking amazing!"
"I know rite!?!"... I miss these moments.

Guilty pleasures
My reserved love of penguins!

Most beautiful post

Cocoa Cookies/'Oreo's take on Panna Cotta'
Tremendously high sentimental value.
Popular here and also my annually-active tumblr.
The chocolate flower recipe will come out, by the way!

Most popular post

Gado-gado(Indonesian Peanut Salad)
Presented non-traditionally = Pierre's way.
My favourite food in the whole planet and of choice for "What's your last meal before you get killed on an electric chair tomorrow?"

Most controversial post

Gay Pig
Do you know how many visitors who googled 'Gay Pig' that visits here every day?

Most helpful post
Recipe-wise

Porcini & Sausage risotto
From people googling "why is my risotto gritty, hard, lumpy, overcook, burnt,etc?" to "How to make authentic Italian risotto?"

Writing-wise

16 Things that make food taste better

Post that's surprisingly successful
My Sop Kambing (Indonesian Goat Soup/Stew) gets the 2nd most popular of all time?!

Post that didn't get the attention it deserves
I should have made my pizza in the video... cos it's like how it tasted in Italy.

Pizza Margherita

Post you're most proud of

'The Heart Breaker Burger!'
Speaks to every inner child within, nuff said.

There you go sweet hearters!
Thanks for sharing and caring!
Do check out 'not a sock missing' for more awesomeness and love!

Salam Manis!

Day 2 Taiwan Travel: Sunburn & Diarrhoea

2011-08-27T10:25:00.010+12:00

Let begin my late start holiday/morning-ish to Taipei 101 Tower. I had a presumption that the tower is just that, a tower.

On the bottom of the tower, there's a flash mall with all the top expensive boutique stuff that most 'real' people wouldn't shop in to. I was pleased by the upper architecture of the mall. It's quite modern yet classically resembling Milan.

On top of that, they charge quite a lot for going up; about 15 US dollars.

Going up, though, was an unique experience. It was so fast! Faster than most girls run on a boxing day sale. I am guessing somewhat this won't be safe for a diver (beware Divers to Taiwan! Do this 1st then dive, not the opposite).

Right on top, it was true to my presumption that it was just a tower. The fact that it was Sunday makes it even less impressive, because the loud Chinese/Taiwanese-whisperers around (keep it down guys). I guess when you find a quiet spot and sit down to savour the miniscular feast for your eyes, you've get the find more appreciation of your travel.

I recommend that you visit Taipei 101 early in your venture and bring in a map because it'd serve you nicely as a bearing of where you want to go and what you want to do... or you can do the exact opposite, where were you and what you did. Also if you're a bit of a Ted Mosby (Architect), you may be inspired with a tower or two underneath you.

Right inside is located the infamous balancing spherical structure of Taipei 101. I felt a soulless experience on pondering the ball, even in various different angles and levels. Hey, it seems to serve the purpose though.

There are also many touristey paraphernalias on offer at ridiculous price and of doubtful tradition, authenticity and origins. I say skip that bit.

I mean some of the stuffs are beautiful but not Taiwan-beautiful.

After the climb, I was reluctant to do my next thing in Taipei 101: 'Foodcourting'; because of the Westernised ambiance around the place. So I got back to the main train station and started off that way. 'Foodcourting' is recommended in the Lonely planet book and they mentioned a few place. I chose the Shin Kong tower.

There were a lot of traditional Taiwanese stuff on offer, but I thought if I were in food court I should really order the stuff that other people eat. So I did.

A choice well-resented bitterly. It tasted like a newly wedded career-driven young wife on the bed and in the kitchen... well maybe more towards the kitchen; Confused, 'not right', messy, unefficient, you get the gist...
In fact, I say skip the whole food court experience all together if you were in Taiwan. Just get out of that place and roam around the streets, look for random run-down establishments that are just too well-packed for dunch/brunch.
Ow just for the note, if the food taste bad, I throw it out. Yes, indeed!
I think the problem in the world now is hunger AND obesity. So don't lecture me on not finishing my food.

Of course, it's not Taiwan if you don't have 'bubble tea'. For those of you, food newbie, 'bubble tea' is a Taiwanese invention of combining milk, black tea, sugar and sago pearls in a glass. If cheap kegs of piss is what your teens in to, Taiwanese tends to swing this way.
I think this place, which is in the vicinity of Shin Kong Tower, is the best bubble tea I had. The tip from everyone is to stick to the 'commercialised' looking store. All and all I thought, they all taste pretty the same. I've got to say though, all the tea tasted like a real tea in Taiwan, as oppose to powdered tea elsewhere in the world.

Keep heading the back direction of Shin Kong, you'd find a little charming Maritime Museum nestled in like a piece of Italian official ground. I didn't come in, I was just looking for a good place to suck out my 'bubbles'.

There were a few picks on the park. But it was too hot to be outdoors, bubble walk it was.

I am very pleased to see the wildlife roaming around the urban high-tech Taipei everywhere. In Jakarta, we never see a bird anymore since the early 1990's. In Taipei, I saw numerous white doves, butterflies and this:

A little roam later, I found the crab soup that I was too full to try last nite.

The whole place is quite packed. I felt a good vibe in this establisment, especially when you see old people; their tastebuds are like kids.

But... my 'ee no. 1 of ee' trick would not work here. Help???

OK most people in Taiwan thought I was Japanese or something... because of my unshaven face? my style? Anyway, so when asking for help to the waitress, I seem to get lots of Japanese disappointments or the most expensive items. The moral of the story is when asking for menu help, make sure that you get one item in first 5-7 rows.

I am loving the condiments and artilleries available on Taiwanese tables. Chilies!... and etc.
Tissues are available everywhere for free, unlike the stingy Singaporeans.

This restaurant is located near to the Taipei Main train station. It was a great treat, even though I then realised it's a vegetarian restaurant, which made me wanna be a vegetarian again.
And another great way to order is to snoop around diner's table and point the ones people/you like.

The vegetarian restaurant is located next to a lotto shop. Lotto shops are everywhere in Taiwan. I went to one and demanded for the winning ticket... I didn't win a penny but made a few friends.

Here are two important landmarks to be familiar with. It's the main bus station where you'd catch the bus anywhere in Taipei, Airport and Taiwan.

The one on top is the main train station to get anywhere in Taiwan. It's located in front of Shin Kong Tower and Computer Nova place, which enlightened me that electronics are damn cheap and latest in tech in Taiwan, not in Computer Nova particularly. Don't be fooled that electronics are cheap in South Korea or Japan, they're not.

Right underneath main train station, there is a little mall with shops to hinder a few minutes of your travel; like this panda place that specialise in panda things, except the real one.

I know who'd love to be here and smile droolingly to be embraced in all things panda *wink.
I think girls who likes pandas are a bit like 'oreo' gals. Just personal experiences...

The underground mall is called the K underground mall. And I think this is the best place to stop whilst you're there. It's a little shop that serves the aroma. It's an amazing concept.

You've got lots to choose from and they have them on samples, you just open the box drawers and smell the little bottle within.

They cater for all sorts of clients...
From a racist mafia- the black russian
A true scots at heart- the haddock
to the emo/goth/Edward Cullen's(Twilight) fans- the funeral home
The New Zealand aroma was no where near the real stuff sadly...

When you decide which aroma you like, you can buy the 'expensive' eau de toilette/perfume for that smell. I personally love the cucumber and the strawberry ice cream. At 40US dollars for a small pot, I could only afford one. I bought the strawberry one in case I'd meet someone special on my journey that I love to lick all nite, without the calorie load. I certainly love the attention to detail on the packaging, mimicking a book.

"Where are you from?"

"Where do you think I'm from?"
"I think you dress up like a Hong Kong men but you look different."
"Not HK, how different?"
"Like a Japanese but nice face like Korean."
"Yeah... I'm Indonesian and a little Korean. Thanks though...bla bla bla"
The shopkeeper got pretty close to identifying my origins. She was friend... somewhat suggestive but unsure on that. I think she may be correct that I don't use make-up like Korean men and I love earthy inspired clean fashion (not in a hippie way). I think it's harder to pull off a natural look than those tiny, pale, make-up drenched and girl's handbag loving urban Korean men.

Now before I mention further about Keelung's night market. I am only showing things that are sparticular to Keelung here. On top of the stuff I posted here, all the night markets in Taiwan are similar. So you can find most food in Shilin, just as you would here.

As I said earlier, it's better to visit Taipei 101 Tower earlier on your trip because in the queue you'd be exposed these cute animations of iconic Taiwanese places... like Keelung!

Heading to Keelung is pretty damn easy. It's about 40 minutes and 10 dollars train ride North-east of Taipei. It's a different train line to the main inner Taipei MRT subway, but you'd use the same 'easy card'. Make sure you get some hydration before you swipe the ticket, once you're in the train platform, nothing is sold because you can't eat or drink in the train. I love the selections of unsweetened green tea available in Taiwan. In fact, it's pretty difficult to choose a good sweetened ones.

Keelung gave me an initial impression that it's a port-city and it's about seafood.

I consulted to my 'Lonely Planet' that showed a direction of Siandong cave, which was written 'just 500m' out side of the map shown in the book.

Lets just say that 500 metres is more like 5 km of doubts in a sunburning day. I ponder upon the existence of my life, soul and the point of my travel. I thank God that I had my sunnies and the chilled green tea I bought earlier.
I think the direction for 'the monument of the martyr's' are for a pretty clear reason.

...because the cave was tiny. Not worth the sweats.
Another name for the cave was Buddha's hand cave, supposedly the guy knicked a little cave on a tiny hill, but everything inside was deliberately man made and a little amateurish.

If you want head there, you might need a taxi. It'd cost about 3 dollars from Keelung's train station. So much cheaper than brewing a melanoma or having doubts about life.

On the north east of the train station and passed the city centre, you should climb up the Zhongzheng park towards the Guayin statue. You'd find the real beauty of Keelung. The temple, on top, is hosting a special August festival that each different local clan rotate annually.

Shamefully, the Guayin statue is tarnished bad time. Every time I see a sight like this, I always remember the story in the bible when Jesus went psycho, strucking out the stores with whip and wooden blocks, "This is the house of my father! Piss off!" (not reported to the exact word)
I mean, it's pretty understandable that you want a nice historical place to be solemn and peaceful so you can find a eureka perspective for your soul. It's hard to concentrate in the place with lots of dogs barking, kids screaming and merry-go-round rounding?

I didn't go psycho like Jesus. Well I'm not Buddhist, so... not yet.

I still pray to God every time I come these places though. I think all God's the same.

Apparently the Guayin statue is akin to a lighthouse. Hmm... Asian and their money saving schemes!

Ding!

There are various ways to head up and down. I chose to get down the road less travelled to immerse my thirst for the everyday Joe life.

When you head down this alley, it's application or a gamble for either an experience about the urban village life or getting mugged.

I didn't get lost and still have my camera. Road well-chosen.

I think Keelung's people are simple-minded, or is it just a coincidence that they need to remind themselves that they are in 'Keelung' over and over and over again, all over Keelung? Pride over-indulgence?

The night charm's blanketing over the blue sky. And it's Night Market time!

If you hate the hustle and bustle of Shilin, Keelung's a little cousin that seems to be more civilised and friendly.

There were kids coming back from schools, trying to waste away their pocket money just like way many generations repetitively do... buying a fish/turtle.

Rule no. 1 in Asia. Never eat sushi outdoors like this. It's a recipe for disaster...
If you think eating chilies with street food reminds you of David Bowie's song 'Ring of Fire' around about the time you move do your toilet thing, then outdoor sushi is that exact song played live, loud and followed by a never ending encore!
I think the combination of rice and raw seafood are vulnerable to bacterial proliferation, since I am not condoning any practises of outdoor sashimi (exclusively raw seafood) eating.

I think the crab statue speaks for itself that I am in a bit of a heaven. I didn't get to try the crab soup yet, but I did try the crab rice in Shilin overnight.

Besides the coriander that I didn't touch, I love this soup. The broth is meaty and mushroom based. The slurp is filled with bamboo shoot bite, crab tenderness, mungbean glass noodle and stuff of heavens. (100% recommended)

Across the stall, there's a sesame/red bean filled glutinous rice ball in warm gingery syrup soup. It's pretty hard to resist but I knew I can make that at home, so moved on I did.

Taiwanese salads are pretty unique everywhere. The combination and contents are bound to the chef's choice. It's lovely to be healthy in Taiwan.

The point of Keelung Night Market is seafood.

Seafood.

Seafood,

and more seafood.

and boiled fresh crabs with secret sprinkles and zingy sauce.
(100% recommended)

Pork hock's soup/stew is always a hit in every night market in Taiwan. I understand why: it's simple, stickilious bowl of homey love. (100% recommended).

Blood, offals and tofu on a stick... grilled... fried... boiled... you name them.

I had a bowl of boiled offal in a ginger pork consomme. (100% recommended)

Curry chow mien tasted like ones in Wellington. A total face-losing experience for the cook's family. It's too amateurish.

Dumplings in Taiwan's street are the same in content, pork, they're just mainly different in the wrapper/presentation.

Deep fried pastry, soaked in syrup, rolled in ground sesame/peanuts... it's aaaallrriiite....

OK let me give you a little tutorial on how to make my best bite in Keelung, Oyster's omellete.

You take a sweaty guy.

Add whole chomp full of fresh oysters to the grill.

Duck eggs, Sago/tapioca batter, chinese greens and leeks/chives...

Wait and spin.

Look around... ask for the other guy to get you a bowl of that blood cube soup whilst you're waiting.

Ta dah! Served with a little sweet soy and sour & spicy sauce.
There's a crisp part, a crunch part, a tender goeey part... and a part where I smiled with the time pausing. (200% recommended)

During summer, the afternoon seems to be rainy. No problemo, the pitchers are highly efficient.
I think it's pretty crucial not to travel with an umbrella, just buy it if you need one. 99.99% case, you don't.

By day 2, I have derived that there are TEMPLES everywhere. It's like churches in Rome.

I loved Keelung.
Shoppings for clothes are great too, since it's a port-city,where quarantine stuff are done.
Seafoods are not too shabby for a world's standard.
Shilin may present their feast more enticingly like a full-frontal nudity, but once you've been married I think a little skin shows more meaning and sexiness, and that's Keelung.
I finished off the night with a little bubble tea. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I love the quality of real tea used for the Bubble tea all over Taiwan.

If you ever get to Taipei and wanted to buy a tea but you have no clue, come right over to 'Ten Shang's Tea Co.' (No 156, Jilin Road, phone 02-25426542) and asked for a gal named Megan Chang. Why?

I came off the Shuanglian station in Taipei's MRT and headed east to find this tea place that's written in Lonely Planet. It was a task to figure out the numbering of the streets. I had to walk about 10 km to find the exact place. It was a saunating nite and when I found the place, I realised that I've passed the shop 5 times. There's no obvious English signage on the place.

I entered,"Uhmm... do you speak English?"
"Yes come right in! Have a seat!"
And that's how Megan and I started the teacher and happy pupil nite.

Megan's a young lady who's a lovely attender of National Palace museum and her dad owns the shop. They have been on tea business for many generations. I was soooo glad that she opened my eyes to Taiwanese tea, and with a little tailoring to my favourite -the green tea. She guided me through the way of green Oolong tea. Taiwan's famous for Oolong (non-green) tea, by the way.
I tell you what the first sip of warm tea had a 'Yin' power so great, my sweaty drenched chest started to feel inner coolness in matters of seconds.
With a great tea comes a great responsibility?

Tea is a complex art and culture. It is the exact spit image to wine.
A great tea is also like a great wine. Grown, hand-picked and processed with love, soul and generations of traditions.

Megan gave 2-hour interractive and ultimate tea experience for no cost. If she was a little younger, I'd somewhat embark on a romantic idea. But I think, I don't want to start off my journey with one foot strung to the ground.
I can't share everything she told me in this post. I guess I just share her top three most important thing about tea making: the tea, the temperature and the time. There is no exact universal recipe for all three, but when they meet, perfection grows with the slow-motion set of your smile. For example, Daryuling green tea goes well with 90-100 celcius water that needs to be brewed using, washing out on the first pour, 30 seconds brew on the first brew, 40s on 2nd and 50s on the 3rd... maximum of 4 brews for optimal experience. And that's just one tea.

Let me give you a little pricing on Taiwan green Oolong tea and its relation...
25% fermentation Mt Ali 2010 (1500m altitude) 20US/150gram
Tastes a bit like conventional Japanese matcha, very creamy and very sweet... goes well with strawberry shortcake and cream.
25% fermentation Sanlinshi 2010 (2000m) 30US/150g
very green and humid, goes with a simple stirfried chinese greens.
25% fermentation Daryuling 2010 (2600m) 80US/150g
If you had an East-asian kid experience, you may recollect the experience of melon, apple, lime candies. This is similar to that. The tea is Megan's dad's favourite (he came and joint us during the tea time, he offered me this expensive tea because he thought I was a nice guy from NZ. ;P). A perfectly brewed Daryuling gives out progressive and also intermittent various after taste so sweet and light, it's like cucumber and honey dew jelly. 'Cheerful' is my perfect description of this tea, similar to that of a perfect semi-sweet Otago Riesling 2009.

I bought the Mt Ali (on left) and Daryuling (right). 150gram will yield about 2-4 litres of perfect tea. Very expensive but think of it like wine.

After all that tea, I thought I had a little room for my daily Taiwanese beef noodle soup. It was late night and I saw this place next to the Shuanglian station. The noodle's broth wasn't bad, but the rest was.

Now before I end this post, can you identify what's wrong with these 3 gals? Fashion wise.

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The two gals on the left wore a nerdy glasses without the lens!
Yes! It's like Korean men wearing women's handbag, Taiwanese girls love to their frameless 2010 hipster lensless glasses (Both western origin phenomena that's 'lost in translation')...

(The girl on the right just spreads her legs to wide. ;P)

I mean why?! Why this fashion faux-pas?

Why not with lenses?

Are they too poor or too stupid to be know what's chic?

Are they trying hard to be Taylor Swift?!?!

Shut up!!!!
Taylor Swift's awesome OK!!!
;P

Most of us would know the ending of a brilliant poem by Robert Frost, I'd like to add to that for Day 2 of my travel.

"...Two roads diverged in a wood,

and I,

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

And I,

I think today that road is about Melanoma and Salmonella."

(Damn Sun's roasting my skin to crispy brown... Too much food, shocked my internal system!)

P.S. Super huge 'Thank you' to Megan Chang at Ten Shang's Tea Co.

Day 1 Taiwan Travel: The Revelation

2011-08-25T01:14:00.002+12:00

Before I say anything about my trip in Taiwan, I would like to share a little about my body. I consider myself to be fit. For the past year I run 100km per week and spends 5 hours of gym after a long active day in hospital, plus cooking and studying. I have tried this much of activity for only 500kcalories of fuel a day (about 1 big Mars bar worth).Am I a gym nutter? Nope, I get to paid to be fit from Indonesia since I'm a listed no. 2 nationally for a sport I love (it's a secret ;P). So I have no problem to walk 12 hours straight and, though I hate summer, I can withstand that too.

Being an Indonesian, I've had Malaria, Dengue Fever, Thypoid Fever, atypical pneumonia, untreated Appendicitis and all things Westerners dreaded. I cured myself using textbooks, buying my own lab/x-ray test, getting my own medicine and use homemade sport's water & paracetamol to maintain homeostasis. I am a walking antiviral/antibacterial. I have no problem being severely sick and I know my limits. So my 5 days of Taiwan is not recommended to be copied to its exact timing, especially if you just came out of ICU yesterday.

I never been to Taiwan. The info I've received from my Taiwanese buds are way to westernised and not authentic enough. I didn't do much research though. My only preparation of Taiwan was buying a plane ticket and booking a good-reviewed hotel. In the middle of my transit, I bought a lonely planet book and when I arrived to the airport on Saturday afternoon; I exchanged a few hundreds NZ dollars and asked for a tourist map. Of course I've walked 50% more than I needed because the map sucks and for other reasons I will point out to you. For food pointers, just follow my '100% recommended' next to the photos.

My personal travel essentials:
1. Electric Toothbrush
2. Noise-cancelling Earphone with Airplane plug
3. Hungry heart?

Day 1
Wellington-Auckland
Last bite of NZ beef in Burger Fuel and no more food until 20 hours later in Taiwan. Remember my 6 days in Melbourne? I craved for NZ beef on the 3rd day, badly!
Watch out when you are applying for visa to Taiwan, read the dates carefully. I've indicated my travel dates and applied for the visa 3 months ago, only to find that I've got visa that's been expired 3 days earlier. Another sad thing was that Wellington was snowing for the first time in 40 years or so, and I missed it...
I saw a lot of my classmates on the plane and shared a plane to Auckland with Chamaya, (she was featured here).

Auckland-Singapore
And then I saw Lindsay, another classmate of mine, heading to Dublin on the same flight transit to Singapore. I love the convenience of Changi Airport. It's so lovely once you're on the transit area, the check-in counters people are assholes on my past experiences. I bought a bigger and faster memory card for Canon Powershot S95 (my favourite point-shoot dig cam). Food sucks in Changi and Singaporeans... don't get me started there.... There's just so many offended Indonesians passing each day, by that Airport itself, let alone the whole country. The culture is way to harsh for the gentle, reserved and friendly Indonesians.

I believe that each culture has its norm. If Singaporeans' manner is way out of line for my taste, I always remind myself,' The wiser's the forgiver'. Actually, I was about 11 when I had a big test of moral and ethics. My dad and I were heading back to Indonesia after visiting one of my Godfather in Mauritius. Whilst sitting on a random sit in Changi, I felt a lump on my bump. It was a huge lump of 100US dollar bills! Easily more than 10,000 and my dad wasn't watching as he was too distracted with munching on edmame beans. I certainly know what that money can buy for me... playstation, latest computer, a TV in my room, a trip to Bali, etc. Then, I realised that I just had the best time of my life in Mauritius. What gave me the right to wreck another's journey? I have a dad who's financially able. I have ownership worth more than 50-80% boys of my age in the rest of the world. That lump of cash was a blessing from the devil perhaps? So I returned it to the information centre and the gal asked for my passport number and name, I didn't get the money back nor any thanks, but I felt so much better about life.

Singapore-Taipei
I paid a little extra for better food, entertainment and comfort with Singapore Airline on all trips. I've watched 6 movies on the way, my favourite is a Singaporean movie called '15'. Truly truly moving cinematic treat about real badass 15 year old Singaporean boys with all the feminine culture and psychological dilemma compacted, definitely a must-watch for psychologist! Probably in my top 50 of all time, trust me I've watched too many movies in my life.
And is it just me, or is it that being in plane makes me wanna drink ginger ale? Happens all the time! Even when I had been upgraded to First class for posing as a doctor ;P

I didn't eat much on the plane though, my trip to Taipei is 99% about food.

Taipei
My initial impression of Taipei is 80% Seoul and 20% Jakarta. From the cleanliness and style of the airport ditto to that of Seoul, there are other quirk bits of pieces that resembles Jakarta, especially the trip to city from the airport. I was getting positive vibes, with the good money power and all (it's about 25 Taiwan dollars for 1 NZ or 30 for 1 US).

I headed to town centre where I checked-in to my room. A little tip on how to save cash without sweating over your suitcases, take a bus from airport to town; then pick a good taxi from bus station to your accomodation. I stayed in Taipei garden Hotel, highly recommended, ticks all the boxes in my list.

I've dropped my suitcase and asked for the nearest MRT station. Consulted to my lonely planet book on the night time itinerary, I've picked Shilin Night Market. Before heading there, you will need to buy one of this card in the MRT station.

Just press 'English' button on the most logical machine in the Subway station. Then follow your brain and the instruction. The card is, I repeat, it's super essential. It'll save you time and money. I've passed a lot of 5 hour-wait tourist line just by purchasing this card (of course you need upload money in to the card).

So Shilin...
If there's anything worth experiencing in Taiwan, especially Taipei, it would be the Night Market. It's what Taiwan's urban life's all about. It's lively. It's delicious. It's lovely. It's vivacious.
If you're pressed for time, you just need to visit one market, not Shilin in particular. I will posts about other markets later and take your pick after.
And Shilin's just the King of all market.

It's so simple to get around Taipei. To head for Shilin, just get off Jiantan Station... and you're there.

Boy! The night was warm! I can't imagine how hot it'd be during the day time (I'm a winter lover...;P)
You see when I travel for a holiday, I become lost in time. I solely keep up with either the date or the day, usually not both... well not until I have a nudge that I may need to leave and catch the next plane. Otherwise, my usual holiday's about embracing the moment and getting lost in time. Of course, it's not fool-proof. I chose to come to Shilin Market because I thought it was Sunday and people need to go to work the next day. So late night visit may be a good idea to avoid the overcrowded scene.

Damn! It's actually Saturday night! Arrrghhh so packed!

First foodsight in Taiwan, Chicken's feet glazed with Taiwanese Sauce. Not bad!

Before you know it, I was stuck (well a kinda curious) in a line for food that I had yet to find out.

It was a long wait, if you have a look at the whole foodstall street. You kinda wonder, how to get around this. People people people everywhere.
Taking pictures whilst waiting helps to trace my bearing around the place, in case I get lost, which I didn't, but useful to do if you're paranoid.

Wow! Grills! I love grilled stuff... seems like pork... and stuff?

I was glad to wait on this line. I bought 1 stick since I still want to taste every single thing on this market.

It's not bad, I have to say that meat in NZ taste better and more tender, but this piece of grilled pork belly stuffed with young leeks/spring onion is a great manly starter.

OK, this picture of taken-but-pretty-smile Taiwanese gal reminds me that I should comment about the gals here. When I arrived in Taipei downtown, I realised that all the gals here are pretty. Then I realised, most are make-up pretty. Some just do their make up the wrong way, from 'a little bit more' to 'just right' to 'a tiny too much' to 'where's your face!'
Back to food...

This is a decent snack of dried meat in Taiwanese sauce, then roasted/grilled slowly to crisp.
A little on the pricey side tho.
Textured like a nachos but taste a bit like dried sausage Chinese style

I heard a soft buzz that in Taiwan, oyster's like a candy. You can eat them in masses for prices of nothing. So I started with this:

"One of No. 1 please..."
"Yes, ee (1) that one ee (1)..." (See how owsom's my Taiwanese ordering skills?!)
Grilled oyster with your chosen seasonings on a stick.

Damn f$cking tasty! (100% recommended)

In East Asian countries, deep fried things are quite a common treat. However, they don't eat the deep fried stuff in masses and frequency as the Westerners. This is deep fried octopus/squid, very tender and well-done. Not a surprise but fundamental to those who need to know how to cook octopus.

In the market, you get to see so many stalls with, presumably, actress/actor's photos eating the food they sell. Like this one. Seems to be ...'everyone's favourite'? Who's this everyone?

The idea of lettuce and seafood did not appeal much to the prospect of me surviving this market without food poisoning. So I give that a miss (not on the first night).

So I think I found what the Malaysian called, 'Kompia'.

Seems to be done right. That's why Arthur love this... It's like a child's food, 'easy to like'.

Very tasty bite of carb to balance out all the grilled protein. 100% recommended

Let me tell you why I chose Taiwan out of centres in the world.
When I was little, my dad used to bring us to eat Taiwanese Spicy Beef noodle every month or so. I love love love that noodle. The place was the only Taiwanese place in Jakarta. It closed down a few years later...Why? Maybe because back then Indonesians were to reserved and stupid not to try that awesome bowl of noodle. I was so sad that I couldn't eat Taiwan noodle anymore. I promised myself at that time, that I will visit Taiwan and eat lots of beef noodle. F&*K Yeah!

In general, there are 2 types: spicy or not. Then you can choose the one with stewed beef or with everything including offal. It's not a difficult choice for me... I love offals.

I tried this place in Shilin, it was alrite...
They try to rip me off or thought I was a Jap who loves alcohol with everything.

Taiwan's only beer? It's not bad. Crisp, mild and smooth; definitely caters to Asian drinkers. They didn't even check if I were 16 or not?!

Here's another similar thing between Taiwan and Korea, it's pickling. They do it differently in Taiwan. And just like Kimchi, it's an acquired taste.

You pick anything you want to add to your pickle salad... brocolli, tofu, beansprout... duck's tongue, pork's blood dumpling, foetus egg...(I wonder which crunch is which...? Yum!)

OK, the next tip I heard in the past is to try the delicious ones, follow the crowd/queue. If you wanna try the authentic/unique ones, follow your nose.

It's Deep-Fried Stinky Tofu! With organic seasonings! (That guy's sweat!) Yay!

I love it. (100% recommended)
Actually we do have some thing more potent in Indonesia, more smelly and difficult to digest for the faint hearted... called 'oncom'. Process of making them is pretty similar for both; just let a tofu rot (in a controlled manner).

There are many ways Taiwanese serves their stinky tofu; deep-fried, grilled, boiled, with pickles, with sweet n sour sauce, etc. I like the texture of this deep-fried tofu that I couldn't find anywhere else in Taipei. It's a slightly more unique deep-fried stinky tofu to a conventional one. Served with pickles, sweet soy and chili sauce... in a bag... double bag! Hahaha.

So here's the queuing part:

There are many variation of skin texture to, what I think is, Xiao long bao (Pork dumpling) in Taiwan. Of course many people love it! I didn't follow up on this queue. I'm not here for something originated from Shanghai. This bao's texture is more like a cross between xiao long bao and BBQ pork bun, it's more morish.

I think the cooking show attracts the crowds too. A recipe to success!

So much food! So thirsty!

Head to where you can see WOW Frog eggs.

WOW! They taste so refreshing and soothing!(100% recommended)
Not sure about the relation to the 'frog', but they taste like jelly with sweet lime and honey drink.

Taiwanese dessert has a simple base of crushed ice and sweetener like condensed milk/syrup, but what's on top of the dessert is like an exotic sweet love making. They've got mochi based stuff, sago based stuff, mung bean based stuff, all sorts of fruits that makes your dessert penis stiff.

Back for Round 2!
Like in Korea, where fried-chicken business is political, the Taiwanese does have its edge too!
They like it boneless and LARGE!

Let me give you a little tutorial on how to make 'em...

Pick a corner in the street.
Marinade your chicken with 'unknown' powder in open air and hot warm night.
Dust them with chosen flour.

Deep-friggin-fry them to dead and sterile.

Char grill them to concentrate the taste and let the fat drip.

I don't think they're truly boneless and huge... 'cos I see a lot of foodie-huge-boners. ;P

This is a brilliant inspiration to my future cooking ideas: char-grill sugar cane.

The lingering depth of sweet carameley aroma stopped my soul and camera.

Ah Crabs! My favourite seafood (my least favourite patient's condition).
Cooked gently in Shiitake mushroom, chicken stock and sticky rice. Ricey comfort!

OK all that Xiao long bao buns I passed just makes me want to have one.
There are 2 types: pork and cabbage. Definite pork is (100% recommended).

OK, let me double dose you with the importants of pickle salad for the usual-Taiwanese-Joe.

Even that cut on the girl's face... which may be from the chicken feet's nail or a duck's beak... did not put her off for more and more salad! That's dedication there! Go girl!

I'm seeing lots of UFOs, Unidentified Foodilicious Object.

Meh! Just mix it all in a bowl and enjoy the crunch, crunch, crunch! (100% recommended)

If you don't like them in as a salad, pick one from the top and they'll deep fry them for you.

Nothing's gonna taste bad, deep-fried!

Another thing to deep fry, dough and egg... mixed with perfection!

It's like a baker's multiple orgasm! I know other places in Taipei where they make better ones tho... (it's like saying... I know where to find a better prostitute huh?)

Whatever you do in Shilin, stay off the conventional restaurants!
From looking, I am seeing far too many disappointed curious tasters from outside.
This kind of restaurant gives risotto a bad rep. I freakin hate them!!!
Try my authentic risotto if you wanna make one.

In East Asia, tomatoes are fruit. Yup! Served with thick and glossy sugar syrup, better than apple toffee.

I'm not that typical Asian who must have fruits at the end of their meal. I prefer them before a meal. Either or, do try the peaches and other exotic stuff here. They're refreshing.

My no. 1 pick of Shilin's Night Market! (200% recommended)
Deep fried dough with light caramelised-sugar coating. Just the perfect texture, like a perfect baguette or ciabatta. Airy but has a body to shine. I love my last bite!

There are other stuff you can do in Shilin. Like clothes shopping or trying to shoot a balloon to impress your dates, but I'm just not up to that kinda thing on my first night.

Train system in Taipei is very advanced and convenient! Somewhat a little more advanced that Seoul but more crowded and lively. (Seoul's train is like a funeral... quiet and solemn)

That concludes my first 5 hours in Taipei. It was an epic gastrorgasm!
I definitely bought the right ticket! (just may be a touch too warm for the season)
For more and more food adventure around Taipei, stay in tune for my day 2,3,4,5,6!

Pierre's Spaghetti Carbonara

2011-08-22T01:26:00.004+12:00

As I am writing this post, I am sipping an amazing pot of green tea in Pinglin tea farm, Taiwan. It has been an amazing culinary journey for me.

Today I am going to share you one of my signature dish that had won many hearts in the past. It's just a Spaghetti Carbonara, but done with my standard of perfection. I have actually blind tested this recipe in Milan and Sicily with 27 families with traditional Italian home dweller and psychotic-ly awesome kitchen grandmas, and won with ratio of 21 to 6. Of course, it's been featured many times in the hotels I've worked in- priced AU$30 or more in 2004. So trust me ay ;).To reach the bar, I wanted to have the whole cooking process in video because there are so many countless simple-but-essential techniques I don't want anyone to miss and mess.

Here are the four essentials of my Spagh:
1. Eggs, my sauce is 70-90% eggs. So get the best, I repeat, the best eggs you can find. Try chasing that pregnant Chicken around! (Seriously, I've tried this and it was brutally tasty!)
2. Cheese. I only use the Cheese from Italy. They are pricey. They are hard to find, especially in Asia. There is no substitute, to put it clearly, would you like to have a dog's paw to replace your accidentally amputated finger? You 'can' adjust the quantity and variety of the Cheese from my selection of Parmagiano Reggiano, Pecorino (Sardo, Romano or Toscano) and Grana Padano. If you decide to use crappy Parmesan, don't complain- it's like you just insulted a government but you never voted.
3. Bacon or Pancetta. Just because you can find an Italian pancetta, you cannot brag that the pancetta is good. Just like not all bacon is tasty in UK, not all pancetta is tasty in Italy. I love using local free range DRY-CURED bacon. This is more expensive than the usual bacon you serve for the school fundraising but no omission please. I use Havoc Dry Cured Bacon from a free range Pig Farm in Otago, NZ. I recommend you to use your favourite dry-cured bacon as oppose to blindly try a pancetta so you won't be disappointed.
4. Spaghetti. As a general rule when I cook pasta and combine which sauce with which, I divided them in to the absorption capability: high and low. Fresh and cheap dry pasta tends to be highly absorbable, which is great if you have a runny Bolognese sauce. Now the slightly tricky part is finding the ones with low absorption. They tend to be the pricey ones. They tend to yield a truly al-dente texture when done right, as oppose to cheap dry ones that tend to be spongy. I used San Remo Organic 100% Durum wheat Spaghetti (not the Wholewheat variety). There are other brands, you just have to experiment.

The rest of ingredients are optional and adjustable to your likings. I'd like to note some pointers I did in the video that should be useful for your cooking life:

Sugar, it helps with increasing saltiness (handy for those of you hypertensive) and accentuate the lingering aroma as it caramelise at whatever temperature above 80celcius.
Extra virgin olive oil, I use the peppery variety because fruity olive oil would be just awful for this.
Black pepper, I like the warmth more than the high punchy pungent note of white pepper. All my pepper is always freshly cracked.
Browning/Maillard reaction, have you ever notice why do you need to brown the meat first? Browning does not seal a meat. There's no such thing as 'sealing' in the juice, those chefs are usually talking about sealing in the bullcrap. Wrong browning process and it'd make the meat tough. So why? The sugar on the surface of the meat/pasta/whatever will caramelise as it hit a very high heat. This is where the taste of umami(tastiness/savouriness) originates- in non-MSG driven western cookery. The key factor is to use very high heat and keep it brief. You will be browning and caramelising (not cooking the interior of the meat, never!)
Salty boiling water,as salty as sea water (very very salty). Salt is cheap. Salt won't penetrate too much in to the pasta if you cook it right. You need this amount to make the pasta tasty. Careful when making your sauce, taste your pasta first.
Crispy bacon, not too crispy but not too watery. Render the fat on medium-low heat to avoid burnt, soggy and brined-tasting bacon.
Dairy, use any to your liking. Sometimes the season, pasta, egg, pasta absorption level, cheese,... etc will affect the texture and consistency of the final sauce. Use milk (or even pasta water, but careful of saltiness) to thin, heavy cream to thicken. You can omit them all together.
Chili/Paprika powder, I didn't use in the video. It is optional but it will add the depth and richness. A little pinch is my little perfectionist touch of the orient.
Use metal bowl, glass bowl cools the hot spagh too fast.

The video may rather be dragging for you or entertaining for some. It is longer than a typical Gordon Ramsay's celebrity paraphernalias, but if you set a paradigm of being the cook; I actually did the whole thing (dinner for 7) in less than 20 minutes! So get a pot of salted boiling water ready and the bacon chopped up, then cook along with me.

Pierre's Spaghetti Carbonara
serves 4

1 egg
4 egg yolks
6 strips dry cured bacon or pancetta, cut to 3mm wide
500g (low absorptive) dry spaghetti (see above)
160g Parmagiano Reggiano (or Pecorino/Grana Padano), finely grated

1 garlic clove, bruise
2 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbs cream/milk (optional)
1 ts black pepper
1/2 ts chili/paprika powder (optional)
a small pinch of sugar
salt

1. Fill up large saucepan/pot with water and season generously with salt. Bring to boil.
2. Meanwhile, render and crispened the bacon in a non-stick frying pan slowly over medium heat. Also add garlic at the beginning. Discard as the garlic start to brown or when the bacon start to be crispy but tender. Set aside bacon in the bowl. Leave the bacon fat on the frying pan and bring heat to maximum.
3. When the bacon is rendering, in a large metal bowl; mix egg, egg yolk, cheese, bacon, pepper, sugar, cream/milk and chili/paprika powder.
4. When the spaghetti just almost reach al dente, drain and transfer spaghetti to the hot bacon fat-filled frying pan. Stir occasionally for 2 minutes. Immediately transfer and stir in spaghetti to the egg mixture. Serve!

Like they say, the simplest is the hardest to conceal or follow.

So share the love, won't you?

"And the dreams that you dream of, dreams really do come true..."
- Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

Photos credit to Edi Go & Video credits to Adri Widyanto

Stewed Lamb, Cream Cheese Pine Nuts & Mint Jelly in Zucchini Rolls

2011-08-19T02:58:00.000+12:00

I think it's nice to get people involved when you're hosting a dinner party at this century - you would be from the past century if you're offended. I love to share something that surprisingly simple and tasted great when allowing someone to help in my kitchen, because then they think they can cook. Some of the best teachers, nella mia vita, always complimented my strength and gave me the time and resources to help me. These values of a teacher are rarities in Asia.

"Oh we make one another cry
Break a heart then we say goodbye
Cross our hearts and we hope to die
That the other was to blame" - Joe South

I've made 2 antipasti (or tapas if you like to be Spanish) for my last Sunday supper. I won't be sharing my yummy Spanish prawn because it's so easily found anywhere in the web and everyone should remember it on top of their head (if you're keen, click here for recipe by Yasmeen@WanderingSpice. I've added saffron, fresh tomatoes, chorizo and pan-fried potatoes for mine, otherwise more or less similar).

The other bite actually involved a long process, but the assembling is highly entertaining; so people would think that it's easy. The long complicated process is the lamb stew. However, you can omit lamb all together, and just have the cream cheese filling with other veges for a vegetarian treat. Any meat you want, you can chuck them in. Use your imagination!

Stewed Lamb, Cream Cheese Pine Nuts & Mint Jelly in Zucchini Rolls
serves 8

For Stewed Lamb,
500g lamb neck with bones
3 French shallots, sliced
1 onion, sliced
1 garlic, sliced
1 cup dessert wine, any cheap ones
1 cup port
1 bayleaf
1 small sprig of thyme
3 juniper berries
1 Tbs tomato paste
2 Tbs raisins
1 ts dried oregano
1 ts chili powder
1 Tbs sugar
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
1 Tbs balsamic vinegar
flour
salt & pepper
olive oil

1. Dust lamb neck with flour. Season with salt & pepper. In a heavy cast-iron casserole (le creuset), heat 2 Tbs olive oil to maximum. Brown the lamb for 1 minute each side. Set aside. Stir in 1 Tbs oil, bayleaf, juniper, raisins, thyme, onion, shallot, tomato paste, sugar, chili powder, dried oregano and garlic. Turn heat to medium to slowly sweat the onion to light brown colour. Deglaze with port, Worcestershire, balsamic and wine. Add in lamb neck. Stew over very low heat, semi covered with a lid, for 4 hours. Serve as it is with roast potatoes or set aside to cool overnight.

For Cream Cheese filling,
250g cream cheese
1 cup Greek yoghurt
2 Tbs Dijon mustard
1 cup toasted pine nuts
1/4 ts freshly grated nutmeg
3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
1 ts sugar
pepper

1. Mix everything until smooth in a bowl. Set aside to chill in a fridge for 2 hours or more.

For Zucchini rolls,
2 Zucchini
about 1/2 cup mint jelly (store bought is fine)
stewed lamb, pulled/torn and re-grilled without oil, then cool (see above)
cream cheese filling (see above)
extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds

1. Using vegetable peeler, slice zucchini lengthwise from end to end. Lie the slices on baking tray. Brush them with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle a little salt and pepper.
2. Scoop 1 ts worth of cream cheese filling and put on top of 1 zucchine slice in one of the end. Roll the slice lengthwise. Turn to stand and press the filling down gently. Add in 1/4 ts mint jelly and top with the lamb. Repeat. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve!

Coming up next, Spaghetti Carbonara...!
(Mango tart recipe will come at the end of the year, left the recipe at home)

Homemade Pasta Bolognese

2011-08-17T02:11:00.008+12:00

Photo of Edi Go

Wellington is snowing for the first time in 4 decades, and I missed it by 'one' day. It's very sad to be in hot Taiwan to know such wonders in my own home. I am having a jolly good time here though.

I think global warming makes the summer longer and the winter more fierce in Wellington this year. We should really understand that extremes of weather are bad signs. I can only do so much tho, I have other things to cook other than hugging a tree.

Stuck in a very comfy hotel, slouching lazily on a sweet bed and recollecting the beautiful journey of the day; made me only be able to do only so much in my blog. This is another one of my classic recipe:

Busy holiday, lazy thoughts... bla bla bla... penis.

Tagliatelle Bolognese
For pasta, (click here)
For Bolognese sauce, (click here)
Enjoy!

Photo of Edi Go

Hot Chocolate: Last Sunday Supper

2011-08-13T07:54:00.003+12:00

Last Sunday of being a medical student/chef in my own kitchen. It shall be epic. It shall be awesome. It shall be a classic.

We need bad-ass colossal line-up to showcase what the last stretch's all about. The whole Sunday started with Edi who kindly fulfilled my mum's wish to get pictures of my medical action. She said to me,"You know it's been a dozen years you're not home. It's kinda nice to see how you turn out in the end."

The Sunday Menu

Of course a man's gotta eat. So I invited Edi for a dinner and just so happen the busy-saving-the-world Adri was available to bite in and have a shoot off with Edi. I have cooked a truly disappointing, from a situationally-coerced-by-someone-to-cook, Spaghetti Carbonara 5 years ago. Thankfully Adri didn't remember much except that he said it was good, well I was set to stamp the record straight to 'amazing'. Adri is like one of those people whom you can't never hate and never get tired of. Though I never worked with him, I do consult a lot of pharmaceutical dilemma with him. I also invited friends who was featured here a little more than a month ago; Edi & Surya. So with Edi, Adri and Surya to freeze the epicness to a mesmerising nostalgia, it's the 'way' to end. If sometimes I hang out with my chef buddies for a 'cook off', this is gonna be a Sunday of a 'shoot-off'.

Of course we have to have a variety. I invited a classmate of mine, Achala, who thought that my blog was poetic?! If you ever get to Wellington and be in the hands of Achala, you'd be rather very safe indeed. She has a great sensitivity to your sickie needs. I think Achala had tasted my food ages ago at my old kitchen in Dunedin, NZ. I hope this time around is better for her too.

And then there's Darren and John, we've been in the same health science first year class back half a decade ago. Since then we've parted ways but been running in to each other on and off. They are serious bunch of blast with quirky hilarious critical comments about anything and everything. Surely they're in the list!

We kinda experimented on taking some cool moving pictures for the night. Just to add a little bit of an 'uhm!' to whatever it'd turn out to be. I was actually hosting a little masterclass on how to make a damn authentic Spaghetti Carbonara - a chance to redeem myself for Adri and the rest of the world. Recipes of them will come one future post at a time; some of which is recorded in video. So feel free to mock me and try the recipes at home!

I'm gonna start with an embarrassingly simple recipe as a practice video-take for the crew before the main event. It's a hot chocolate recipe. Feel free to add anything to the recipe; like liquor, chili powder, etc. Music's 'Take Five' by Dave Brubeck.

Hot Chocolate
serves 1

a handful of milk chocolate, chopped
3/4 cup milk
1 ts cocoa powder (optional)
1/2 cinnamon quill (optional)
1 ts chestnut powder (optional)

1. Heat milk and cinnamon to boiling. Meanwhile, add the rest to a bowl. Pour and whisk in the hot milk to chocolate until smooth. Serve!

PS. It's Sunday, why bother shaving whilst you can be an Asian Jesus ;P

"Wake up Lazarus!"

Pan-Fried Chives Chinese Dumpling

2011-08-10T05:18:00.007+12:00

On a note of ups and downs, I have to say that I enjoy pretty much all parts of medicine. From the puzzle work of medicine, the humanity of rehab, the hands-on of surgery, the empathy of psych or the detailing of radiology; they all appeal to someone who loves to think and become someone with a 'purpose' in life. At this stage of my life, I am loving the prospective of becoming a psychiatrist or an ENT surgeon.

My practical surgical skills are actually not too bad. I got a lot of," You're being a (adjective of something really positive) assistant here. Are you keen on surgery?"
"Well I like ENT and psych and I do a lot of butchering in the restaurant."
That's pretty much like an automatic answer. The three unrelated things about what I love to do in life.

Special Photo Courtesy of Edi Go

I think my fingers are pretty damn priceless. Plucking multiple string instruments, garnishing a plate, performing surgical procedures, or palpating and retaining every sensation on her skin are just some examples of what they do. They can withstand the scorching hot hotel dishwashing water for hours unend, but still sensitive enough to find the tiny hidden vein in the fattest of patients. Long story short, try making this super yummy dumpling and I reckon you'd be convinced I should be your surgeon, instead of those smart nerd who kept on dropping his keys and leaving food droppings all over the place.

Pan-Fried Chives Dumpling
yields about 15

For wrapper,
120g wheat starch (not wheat flour)
25g glutinous rice flour
pinch salt
1 Tbs canola oil

1. Mix everything in a bowl. Pour 3/4 cup hot boiling water. Stir with fork until resembling crumbly feta. Knead for 2 minutes or until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap. Set aside.

For filling,
200g garlic chives (Chinese chives), cut to 1/2 inches sizes
150g raw prawn meat, cut to 1cm size
1 Tbs light soy sauce
1 Tbs Michiu or gin
1/2 ts sesame oil
1 Tbs pork lard, melted
1/2 ts salt
pinch sugar
pinch white pepper
1 Tbs tapioca starch or cornstarch

1. In a bowl, mix everything.

To shape and cook,
a handful of wheat starch
canola oil

1. Divide the skin dough to 15 portions. Roll to 3-inches rounds in between 2 nonstick baking paper, with a rolling pin. Dust one side of the rolled-skin with wheat starch. Lie the dusted side of skin on your left hand. Add 1 heaping teaspoon of filling to middle of skin. Pinch the outer ends of skin to make a star. Fold all the pinched skin towards one side. Slightly tuck in and twist the top end of the pinched-skin to form a closed dumpling. Set aside on a floured bench or floured plate.
2. In a non-stick frying pan, heat 1 ts canola oil to smoking hot. Pan fry dumpling for about 1 minute each side in medium heat. Turn heat to high. Pour 1/4-1/3 cup water on the hot pan and cover with lid straight away. 10 seconds later, open the lid and boil away the liquid. Let the dumpling brown and crispen on bottom and turn for same effect the other side. Serve!

P.S. This concludes my dim sum bonanza for now. More yummy stuff with new and classic take on a new theme to come!

Yeung Chow Fried Rice/Yangzhou Chao Fan/揚州炒飯

2011-08-08T01:00:00.001+12:00

Just like there are so many bastardised risotto, Chinese fried rice has been bastardised about 99.99% of the time. It's so fake, most of us don't even know what the real one tastes like. Think about it, for an authentic Chinese fried rice from thousands of years ago, would there be peas and carrots?

During my years a 'boss' chef, I saw a lot of Chinese-chef wannabes (pretending they had excellent authentic Chinese cookery training with fake certificate and desire to have a residency) who wanted to apply for a job. Of course I gave them the test of a real Italian chef with risotto,"Make me a fried rice".
"Little boss, I've been cooking for 30 years now. I can cook you abalone and shark's fin! Do you want?"
"Lets see if your 30 years worth more than my 3. Cook me a fried rice."
You can tell how good they are by just a simple 30 minute test; better than 30 days of regrets.
(Trust me, being a 5-star hotel executive chef at 17 is a billion times better than being in Masterchef ;P)

Like Nasi Goreng (Indonesian Fried Rice), the real fried rice usually has not much in the department of vegetables. I mean even in the name, it only mention rice. Nothing should overpower that.

"All I could pray for is that you'd please wait for me
until I am a Master of Art,
until I have done everything."-Laura Stevenson and the Cans

The key with mastering the fried rice is getting the right ingredients and timing. In this recipe, I used a very-high heat home kitchen burner, which is still less heat than the Chinese restaurant's but higher heat than most home kitchen stove top out there. How do you overcome this? Cook the meat and egg separately. Set them aside. Add them in to warm up in the last few minute. The rice can take a lot of cooking. In fact just like risotto, it's a little OK to over fry the rice than undercook them because as it cools, the fried rice will release more moisture.

Now you can argue with me, that this is not as authentic as yours or you may even call this a Fujian fried rice, but I reckon this is as authentic as it gets. At least without carrots and peas...

Yangzhou Fried Rice
serves 2

3 cups white rice, one day old (or slightly-underdone-but-not-crunchy freshly cooked)
1 egg
4 raw prawns, cut to 2 cm chunks
100g Char siu, cut to 2 cm chunks

1 spring onion, mince white part finely and slice green part
1 garlic clove, mince
1-inch ginger, bruise

1 Tbs light soy sauce
1 ts oyster sauce
1 ts Michiu or gin
1/2 ts sesame oil
pinch of white pepper
pinch of MSG/chicken stock powder (optional)
2 Tbs pork lard/dripping
salt & sugar

1. In a bowl, mix soy, oyster sauce, michiu, white pepper, MSG, sesame oil, a pinch of sugar and 1 Tbs water. Set aside.
2. Heat to a wok with very high heat, add 1 ts lard. Add in egg and stir. As soon as it's not runny, about 30 seconds, take out to a plate and set aside.
3. Heat wok to smoking hot again with the rest of lard. Add in ginger. Stir for 2 seconds. Add in white part of spring onion, garlic. Stir for 2 seconds. Stir in prawn and char siu. Stir for 30 seconds. Add in rice, egg and soy mixture. Stir often for 3-5 minutes. Until you see some of the rice bounces and dances ('pop!'). Make sure you break the clumps of rice. Remove ginger. Transfer to a plate and garnish with green part of spring onion. Serve!

Follow the steps and you might just get a job from my future establishment...

Talking about Char Siu, look at Trinke attempting my recent Char Siu recipe with her awesome mum, Lyn @ •••ʿᶬˠ ᶩᶤᵗᵗᶥᵋ ᵐᵋˢˢᵞ ᴻ ᶜʱᵋᵋᵏᵞʾ••• !

I see a lot of this in Drug & Alcohol clinic, but this one's the best! ;D

Melbourne Psych & Eats

2011-08-06T01:39:00.004+12:00

I guess I could somewhat sum up my Melbourne experience similar to my experience of Asian psychiatry conference whilst I was there; eye-opening but not too surprising.

Coming to an Asian psychiatry conference seems like a big jump from my medical journey, not that I can't handle the highly technical info, but more like I'm the youngest medical student that other attractive Asian psychiatrist kept flirting on. I guess being a graduate from Australia or NZ does have its own prestige. There were no other medical student I could identify there, so everyone calls everyone else 'doctor'.

I was minisculy reluctant to come back to my favourite city in the world, Melbourne. I was traumatised from the last incident I was here; the tram incident. I was searching for a guitar shop about 5 years ago. I asked the information desk from the central train station in town about how to get there. The man was helpful and even said which ticket I should purchase. So I did.

Little did I know that the shop is located between 2 zones of tram fees allocation. When the tram passed the zone, a tram-officer-concealed-in-civilian-clothes revealed himself in the cart and asked about my ticket. I had the wrong ticket. I was trying to explain my situation and why I purchased that ticket. I also explained that I was a tourist with my passport and NZ medical school card. Annoyingly, the officer didn't believe me, especially with my natural OZ-NZ accent. Why? Well, I have this thing that I always tour around the world looking like a student - jeans, indie tops and satchel. It serves me well in Europe from the scam artist, muggers or rip-offs. Unfortunately, that day I was stopped in front of Macquire University. Then, the officer tried to confirm my background, I gave him my cousin's number. My cousin, who is a Melbournian, loved to make excuses and lies to tram officers. She automatically lied on the phone that I was an Australian University student, whilst I only wanted her to tell the truth. That didn't serve me well; fined $250AUD from a lie that my cousin told with her good intention.

There you go. My little trauma.
If you don't know me personally, I am pretty damn awesome law-abiding non-permanent resident. I never get a single detention in school. I never have a single ticket for my driving. You get the idea.

Prior to that I visited Melbourne every year. Because... well just like I re-discovered it again this time, Melbourne is a damn best city I ever seen in the world. After my numerous travels to Seoul last year, which left me with an impression of the most romantic place in the world (especially in Autumn), I'd like to take that back and return it to Melbourne. It's not as grandly designed and vintaged like a fine European city, but it's good enough and realistic for me to want to live there. Being a winter lover, Melbourne is at its beauty peak during the chill. I was a little bit disappointed on how warm it was this time. However, the leafless greyish olive-green branches with the grey concrete settings really soothed my soul. I didn't sight-see around much on this visit, 'cos I've been here too many times.

Since I began bloggin', I was really surprised by the number of Melbourne foodie bloggers I've met. Over time, they did feed my ego and cravings in to trying out the Melbourne I have missed out. I would like to extent my huge thank you's to Leaf@ the indolent cook and Viv @ Green Cilantro for the amazing pointers and reminders.

I couldn't try as much restaurants as I wanted but I wasn't left with a feeling of being left-out, because I was surprised as well as a little unimpressed. I don't review restaurants a lot because I just don't, but if you'd like to know a little bit of what I think:

Movida, it's my top place-to-try pending on my mind (thanks to Leaf for the reminder, I almost forgotten). I saw lots of buzz about the place a few years back. It did live up to my expectation. Good service. The food was excellent BUT salty. Sadly disappointed with the paella that was wayyyy tooo salty and with seafood that wasn't fresh. Try the tomato sorbet with anchovies tapas, a definite highlight! 7.2/10(should have been around 9 but the salt was aching).

LuxBite, I guess I'm a little biased as a pastry chef that my Macarons are better. So not overtly wow'ed there. I think they do need more selection to call themselves a dessert place. But definitely try the Watermelon meringue/alaska, it's right up my alley! Service was good. 7.5/10

Hutong Dumpling Bar, my cuz tried to get me in this place on Sunday but the bookings were full until Thursday night. I say 'worth the wait!' Service was excellent for a Chinese restaurant (unsure about the smile the waitress kept giving me, and my cuz told me I should ask her out). Food was up to the standard, and slightly better in some department. Try the pan-fried dumpling, not to shabby for a place in Melbourne! 8.4/10.

ChinChin, it's like no. 1 on urban spoon's hottest place. The service and decor were urban retro with a touch of emo couture and awkward interactions. We had a lot of freebies sitting on the kitchen tables, which were nice - ever nicer than the paid ones maybe. The Asian-to-Asian fusion works somewhat, leaving me with a Malay-Vietnamese impression judging from the mild spiciness and Malaysian (high) level of coconut creaminess. Lets just say I would bring an Asian girl there, but not most Asian parents because they wouldn't get it. Truly disappointing white rice (basic first, fusion second). Despite the excessive coriander for my liking, do try the duck soup! It's awesomely balanced for a fusion. 7.4/10.

Hardware Societe, surprised by how crowded it was during non-office hours (thanks to Viv for letting me know a great brunch joint, really want to try Attica but yeah...). It's set like on a cupcake-like-establishment-in-your-urban-suburb. I couldn't decide what was the best. I am a breakfast person and ate everything so... 7.8/10

My ratings are based on how close it is to one Michelin star in August 2011 (10/10=1 star). Sorry no pictures, I just don't find taking photo as a natural process of my restaurant fine-dining experience. I have eaten in other places but I think this is enough.

My cousin, she is pregnant at the moment. But pregnant or not, my cuz and her hubby are not foodies in simile to a cliche` Asian parents; 'tasteless, small expensive food?!' So I ate mostly with my old friends here.

I think being here this time around gave me an insight into the cause and effect of psychiatric things, especially depression- a little topic I'm keen on. So much inspirations, perhaps I could do a side medical research about food and mood; publish them in a book one day. Also, I am now more confident that being out-of-restaurants for many years, my food skills are still up to scratch for my future culinary aspirations.

I'd like to thank all my Melbourne friends here (hope you all like the best water in the world from NZ). Thanks again to Viv & Leaf for giving me hints for the start of my travel!

Oh by the way!
"Dear Dr Wibawa,
On behalf of Capital & Coast, Hutt Valley and Wairarapa District Health Boards, I am pleased to offer you an appointment as a First Year House Officer at Capital & Coast, Hutt Valley and Wairarapa District Health Boards..."

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOUR BLESSINGS AND PRAYER!

"And then you called me, and it's not so bad..."-Dido

Turnip Cake/ 蘿蔔糕/ 萝卜糕

2011-08-01T02:38:00.001+12:00

Uncertainty: the drama, the misery and the sparks of life.
This is one week when a little thing will change the whole direction of my life. It's a little thing when seen very far and out of my body and mind. Living in a revolving bridge of uncertainty, I learnt to feel alive with embracing the direction of my emotions to uncertainty. Yet I don't take the disappointments personally because... well I had too much of them.

I am talking about when you are on the tip of your toe, when you are just restlessly roaming around the house, when your teeth grinds away each curve of your nails, when you are so tired but you can't sleep, when you feel so useless and tiny in the whole gigantic world, when you're just... unsure.

This time around I am waiting for the job offer. Will I get one? Where will I be? What if I don't want to be there? What does that mean?

Yesterday, I was uncertain whether I can pull off a good potluck dinner without a menu in plan.
Last week, whether I should call her and let her know the bursting beats of my heart.
Last month, whether I would need to redo obstetrics exam.
Last year, whether I'd pass 5th year medicine.
Last decade, whether I ever be able to make a good dim sum meal.

I guess it's about the impact and the wait. I hate the wait. The time wasted, like watching a big balloon drilled ever so slowly with a blunt pencil, awaiting for a blast to come and destiny to collide. The questions are circling around...
Was that worth the sweat?
Did I do enough?
What if...?

Turnip Cake
serves 4-6

350g daikon radish, finely grated
1 Tbs small dried prawns, soaked in salted hot water for 30 minutes
2 Tbs pork lard, melted
1 Chinese sausage, diced to 1/2 cm
1 Tbs garlic chives, chopped to 1 cm
1 spring onion (white and pale green part), finely sliced
2 cups rice flour
1 ts salt
1/2 ts sugar
1 Tbs light soy sauce
1/2 ts chicken stock powder/bullion/MSG
pinch of white pepper

extra canola oil

1. In a saucepan, boil radish with 2 cups water. Simmer for 15 minutes. Cool to room temperature.
2. In a frying pan, fry lard with sausage and dried prawn until golden (about 2 minutes). Turn off heat, stir in spring onion and chives.
3. Measure radish and its boiling liquid to 3 cups worth (add more water if needed) to a bowl. Stir in everything. Pour mixture to a 15x25cm casserole dish. Steam for 30 minutes or microwave on high for 8-12 minutes (covered with plastic cling wrap).
4. Uncovered and cool to room temperature. Cut to desired portion and shape. Heat non-stick frying pan with 1 Tbs oil. Brown each side of turnip cake. Serve!

I think the different between us human and them/her/him God is time.
If we control them, we are not us anymore.

That's what makes us special!

"Heaven can wait, and hell's too far to go. Somewhere between what you need and what you know."-Charlotte Gainsbourg

Char Siu Bao/BBQ Pork Bun/叉燒包/叉烧包

2011-07-28T02:30:00.006+12:00

I think I can still remember all the times that my dad had offered to buy a me a char siu bun or mung bean bun (red bean sometimes, not as common in Jakarta 1990s). The act was always perceived gracefully because my dad rarely offered me anything available on the streets. Yet I never managed to savour the buns, because Jakarta street buns tasted like washed out vomit.

Since so, I never am fond of Char siu bun like the rest of Chinese kids around the block. The idea of someone offering me the bun gives me a dread in my gut. Along the line of time, I opened my heart or was pressed to a corner with the bun. Some actually tasted not too bad... OK, a few were amazing.

I remember one of the awesome one was from my ex's mum. She kept on offering me the bun ever since I mentioned that I had liked it to my ex. "Well, you're so hard to please. You can cook everything. You know where to find all the delicious spot to eat in Jakarta. My mum's just making sure that your cravings are covered."

"It's kinda hard to swallow if I got to come here everyday, don't you think?"

Somewhat I have this pattern of being good with mums. Seems like most of them like me more than the daughter sometimes.(awkward!)

Light texture of Char Siu Bao reminds me of...

My observations go to say that good Char siu bao's pretty much need a good Char Siu. It doesn't matter how different are each bread, they're the forgotten part. It's all about what's inside. In fact, if you like your bread bitey, just use bread flour; if the opposite, use cake flour. I used half bread and half plain here.

Char Siu Bao
yields 15 buns

For filling,
200g cooked Char Siu, diced to 2cm chunks
1 small onion, sliced
1 Tbs dark soy sauce
1 ts sugar
1 ts Michiu or gin
1 ts hoisin sauce
1 ts oyster sauce
1 ts white vinegar (white wine or rice)
1 ts tomato paste
1/2 ts sesame oil
1 Tbs cornstarch (or tapioca starch) mix in 1/2 cup cold water
1 Tbs pork lard

1. In a non-stick frying pan, fry onion slowly in medium heat with lard. When it turn slightly brown, add in everything and stir to boil. Set aside in a bowl and leave to cool.

For dough,
1 Tbs active dry yeast (or 1 Tbs fresh cake yeast)
3 Tbs sugar
1 1/2 cup tepid water
4 cups organic flour (plain, bread or cake)
1 ts salt
3 Tbs melted pork lard or canola oil
2 ts baking powder

extra flour

1. In a large bowl, mix yeast, sugar and tepid water. Leave to froth up some yeasty foam for 10 minutes. If not foamy, buy a new yeast.
2. Stir in flour, salt and lard with fork. Knead until smooth and elastic- about 10 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in warm room for 1-3 hours (until at least doubled).
3. Press down the dough and knead in baking powder for 1 minute. Flour kitchen bench generously. Take about 3 Tbs worth of dough and roll in your hands to make a round ball. Roll out the ball with rolling pin, dust with flour to avoid sticking, to 15cm diameter.
4. Spoon 1 Tbs worth of filling (see above). Pinch the outer ends of the round flattened dough with your right hand whilst cupping your left hand, you'd end up with a flower appearance. Cup the dough fully with left hand, and gather all the pinch ends with right hand whilst doing a twisting and a little pull motion. Set the dough on a floured tray or non-stick baking tray. Repeat until you have about 15. Leave to rise for 30 minutes.
5. Heat steamer to maximum. Steam the dough for about 12 minutes. Serve!

Here's a little pictorial instructions on the tricky bits. Worst comes to worst, you can always have a rounded bun like the second bun photo. It's all about the filling remember!

Starring

Mushing

Waiting

Oh Poor Amy...

"I told you, I was trouble. You know that I'm no good."-Amy Winehouse

Oh! Before I get lost or lost you all, I should probably write down my itinerary here.

Now that I'm finishing my formal training to become a doc, I will spend the next 3 months to travel my heart out... well it's also a formally-informal requirement to graduate...

Here we go,

August 1-6
Melbourne.
Formally, I would attend the Asian Psychiatry Conference 2011. Family wise, my cousin is currently pregnant and planning to have a rabbit scorpio (exactly like me plus 24 years). I thought it's a stupid idea, because I am no good at money handling and I am definitely moody. But hey, it's her choice and I am honoured!

Then, back to Wellington to accept my job offer as a doctor in November.

August 12-18
Taiwan.
Eat. Travel. Eat. Travel. Eat. Sleep. Drink Tea. Visit Tea farm. Drink more tea. Eat. Sleep. Travel.

And Thanks to Maya @Foodiva's Kitchen, she opened my eyes to a breath-taking Taiwanese gal... a gal I am going to find and marry imaginatively, whilst in Taiwan. Here's her video:

"Sketch the trees and daffodils, catch the breeze and winter chill."-Joanna Wang

August 18-October 12
Seoul.
Plastic Surgery in Samsung Hospital, Ir-won. Learning the phenomena of young Korean girls seeking their beauty. Not really keen on being a plastic surgeon, but mum hooked me up with the best Chief plastic surgeon in Korea who does all the celebs.
Visiting my mum's side of family.
Learning Korean and real Korean cooking.
Wondering around Korea, China & Japan impulsively.

October 12-November 5
Perth.
Cardiology in Hollywood hospital. My weakest link of medicine. Will it be my strongest after?
Back to where I drastically grew up to become a man. Visiting my friends and cousin. Having my first birthday without a pending-next-day-end-of-year-exam.

November 6- November 12
Jakarta.
Home Home Home Home Home Home!!!!!

November 12
Back to Wellington. Signing off my medical training.

I definitely need a lot of travel and food recommendations to the places I am about to visit. If you have any suggestions, do share please...
And if you happen to be where I'd be and you'd like to meet up, I am here or in Facebook actively.

My posts and frequency of posts will be a mystery to me. I won't be in my sacred kitchen for a while and I have only a few posts left before I'm off to fill my open book of life.

Pierre's Char Siu / 叉燒 / Char Siew / Chinese BBQ Pork

2011-07-25T06:08:00.003+12:00

One exact week, right to the minute, after I had my 'Sunday Experiments' with Mel (and another Mel), 'Bubbly' Mel had her birthday dinner. No, I didn't cook then. She invited me to dine with our and her Wellingtonian friends. It was an epic night of laugh. Not being racist, there was a lot of NZer-of-East Asian descents on the table. It is great to see how generations adapt. I am grateful of being able to personally lived both worlds of the old and new generations.

Mecca, a friend whom I almost forgotten that I had actually cooked for him, lead a conversation about how he had just finished his first can of shaving cream. It took him 6 years. He went on about how his Indian flatmate had gone through 72 cans to the ratio of his 1 can. Then how he is from Hong Kong and felt bad on how badly is business for Gillette and Nivea Man over there.

As I were laughing my heart off, I realised that it was 'Sunday'. Unlike most Asian, I am somewhat more Westernised with my hair distribution. Ideally, I would have shave 2-3 times a week but I seemed to be lazy this year. So Sunday meant I had a good-going-for-Asian man-hair dangling. Definitely a little awkward to laugh with everyone else, who are mostly Asian guys.

Looking back, I actually got asked about how to grow a decent hair from a few Asian dudes. Those were definitely uncomfortable moments of my life. I certainly don't know the full answer but I do have my own non-medical-so-don't-quote-me-on-this opinion because not everyone in my family is 'blessed'. I figured:
1. It's in the Gene. Sorry guys.
2. Testosterone. Signs of high testosterone are greasy skin & hair, horny, pimples, deep voice, 'hair' everywhere and hair going away from the head. Boy! Teenhood was a mission pour moi.
3. Act like a man. Walk like a man. Talk like a man. Be a man. Man man man. (No offense to women, but this is what my uncle told me on how to approach any difficulties in life).
4. Men food. It's rather controversial: raw meat, egg, full fat things, you get the idea (just listen to your inner manhood). But balance them with lots of veges, you need the vitamin to grow the actual hair.
5. Shave more often. It is lame, I actually don't have to do this; but a lot of Asian friends of mine back in highschool did this, seems to work somewhat.
6. Sports. Sweats= more sweat glands=more hair. Plus more testosterone.
7. Alcohol. Coffee. Jazz. I'm just throwing things out there... hahaha.

Basically just try to be a Western boy, but remember your roots. I am proud to be a I'm-not-quite-sure-how-to-explain-myself-simply-in-exact-country-of origin Asian. If nothing works, remember what is not growing under your chin, you'll accumulate on top of your brain. Life will get you, it's fair you know.

After Mel's birthday dinner, I came home to a pleasant inspirational silence. I, partly 1/4 Chinese, trying to re-learn and re-define Chinese food whilst preserving its authenticity. I attempted to cook up Char Siu. Again it is probably influenced by fellow blogger like Pete@Peteformation Foodie Adventure, I-Hua@The Chronicles of Ms I-Hua and Michelle@The Bake-a-nista that things gradually fed in to my brain centre for cravings. Ding!

"I can feel it coming in the air tonight!"-Naturally 7

I think, with pride, I would say that this is the food that every Chinese kid will not hate. There are thousand of ways, from original to instant, to make it. Taste wise, most are the same but some are just distinctly transformed to a sweet nostalgia. I remember eating the most tender Char siu in Indonesia, Duck King. It was half-way to perfection. Why? It was tender and too tasty (too much umami) without any 'siu'(char-mark) on the meat. It was as seems as the pork was slowly stewed, not roasted. The idea bounced around in my head for years until recently.

This recipe is do-able in every kitchen because you don't need any oven. But! it does have a catch. You need to sous-vide the meat. Sous what?!?! OK technically this qualifies for sous-vide but I am going to show you how to make sous-vide without home vacuum gadget, which I don't have neither. This technique will save 20 times less energy bill than the conventional oven cooking at home. The end product is a medium-done super-tender, super-moist and fully-sterile piece of charred authentic char siu.

I am using an original recipe without colouring. Char siu get its own natural redness from the type of red preserved beancurd. The preservation is from the left-over residue of Chinese wine fermentation. Chinese people being Chinese, even the residues play a huge role in traditional Chinese cookery. Since I won't be using aromatic coal to char my meat, do use some woody honey to enhance the texture (and to smell like a man!). To make it easy for Chinese virgins, I am going to show you a picture of what's in what (stop thinking dirty thoughts).

Pierre's Char Siu/叉燒
yields 2 pork loins

2 pieces boneless pork loins (about 1/2 kg each)

2 ts Michiu (Chinese cooking wine) or gin
1 Tbs light soy sauce
2 Tbs dark soy sauce
1/3 cup honey (manuka or other good quality woody honey)
1 1-inch red preserved bean curd plus 1 Tbs of the preserving liquid
2 Tbs Hoisin sauce
1 Tbs oyster sauce
1/2 ts Chinese five-spice powder
a pinch of white pepper
1 Tbs canola oil

1. In a bowl, mix everything except pork. Marinade pork 1 hour-1 day in a fridge.
2. Remove pork from marinade and set marinade aside. Using a plastic cling wrap, wrap and roll each pork loin with 5 turns of plastic cling wrap tightly. Cut. Wrap another 5 turns. Make sure everything is well sealed, so that water can't penetrate. Repeat for the other loin. In conventional clean supermarket plastic bags, wrap and roll each cling-wrapped loin in two piece of plastic bag each. Trust me, a little penetration in your loin, your life's ruined!
3. In a large saucepan, transfer the covered loins to the bottom of pot. Cover with water. The plastic bag may expand away, don't worry your loins are more protected than Durex condom protection. Do not stir or turn, just cover with water. Bring water to 60-70celcius very very very slowly and then keep at 60-70celcius(dip your hand, about 2 seconds before you feel pain) for 40 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, mix marinade with 2 Tbs water.
5. Measure a large frying pan roughly and cut a round non-stick baking paper to that size. Heat frying pan to smoking hot, lie the baking paper. Transfer the sous-vide pork loins. Grill. Non-stick baking paper helps retained the integrity of tender meat without excessive black carbon on the meat. Grill the meat for about 5 minutes, turning occasionally and spoon baste with the reserved marinade. If the marinade is drying and caramelising, add 1 Tbs water at a time to loosen the sauce. The meat should have some charred bits on it. The sauce should be thick at the end. Rest meat for 5 minutes. Cut to thick chunks. Serve!

And the heavenly angels sing,"Haaaaaaaaaaaa......." ;P

This isn't the end. Stay put for recipe of Char Siu Bao and other goodies!

Pornos!

Har Gow/Har Gau/虾饺/蝦餃

2011-07-23T17:24:00.023+12:00

A senior surgeon said to me," Do it the proper way, or might as well don't do it."

A mum said to the kid, "Enjoy the plate fully, or might as well eat nothing."

I said to her, "Love me fully, or might as well leave me."

Life is about the choices you make with the time you're given. Don't worry, we all have doubts and fear.

I love dim sum and always doubt whether I could ever woke up to find myself making one. My no. 1 fave is Har Gow. This is my favourite dim sum because:

Well... I choose to make one with love, whether I can or not.

Har Gow

yields 12

For dough,
75g wheat starch (not wheat flour)
15g tapioca starch
small pinch of salt
1 Tbs canola oil

1. Mix everything in a bowl and pour 1/2 cup boiling water. Mix with chopstick until it forms a 'crumbly feta'. Knead in the bowl together for 3 minutes or until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap.

For filling,
12 medium prawns, de-veined, chopped to 1cm thick
1 Tbs pork lard, melted
1 Tbs minced canned bamboo shoot, boiled and drain once
1 ts minced white part of spring onion (optional)
1/2 ts soy sauce
1 ts Michiu or gin
1/2 ts sesame oil
1 Tbs cornstarch
a small pinch of salt
a small pinch of white pepper

1. In a bowl, mix everything.
2. Take a tablespoon worth of dough. Flattened the dough as thinly as possible by rolling them in between two sheet of non-stick baking paper. Fill with prawn mixture and pleat the dough (click here to see how, I'm still suck at it).
3. Steam over high heat boiling water with dim sum basket and non-stick baking paper for 5-7 minutes. Serve with soy sauce or Lao Gan Ma!

To all of those who had doubt in my choices and me with regrets, I would like to sing for you my latest drunken morning hits! ;P

"I'm sitting here by myself in the morning
Thinking 'bout the hell you're leaving me.
Last night was sweet sweet loving
but feels like nothing now, since you're not here with me.

I kept on giving in to your fooling, lying, screwing
to each blue misery.
Guess that's what I'm all about
A fool's fooling with the unforgiving company.

Living the weather, stumbling one another.
My head's all in the cemetery.
Something's in me
it's like I'm just not me
cause my heart has been yearning and wanting you...(to).

Say what you wanna say, what you wanna play, which you wanna take in me.
Lie what you wanna lie, what you wanna do, where you wanna hurt in me.

It's rainy here this morning, not that you're caring
Well I figure the season's nicer than me.
Told myself so, stop messing around and leave
This haunting in my head's just another witchery."- Pierre

(Freshly made this morning with a couple bottles of Corona)
Have a nice weekend y'all!

Orange Poppy Seeds Cupcake with Orange Blossom Pistachio Cream Cheese & Peppermint Sherbet

2011-07-21T06:11:00.004+12:00

I want to talk about a rare species in our daily lives, the super nice. I wonder what is it that they gain. I wonder does altruistic gesture really works 100% of the time. Or are they just pathetic? Are they lonely? Are they diverting their misery in a cupcake? Yes, many of us would have know the cupcake lady in our circle of acquaintances. They'd bring joy at random times of the week. Unfortunately, some cupcake girls aren't up to scratch so I tend to stay away. It is an awful task to say how fakely out-of-this-world the cupcake is whilst trying to swallow the metallic fudgey sandpaper iced with a quick trip down the diabetic clinic. Some cupcake ladies should just really stop bringing misery to people.

OK, I am not showing off here. In fact, I am shit at cupcake. I just don't find icing sugar a part of my heart. However, I am the tart/cakeman of the class (not the 'space' variety). I can somewhat relate to the cupcake ladies. I am not sure if I am any good of a cakeman, but I do know a particular cupcake gal who blew my heart away 4 years ago on a wintry morning.

Lismi, a girl from Indonesia, was a friend who stayed in a flat with me whilst we were in Dunedin. She loved baking. She bake, bake and bake. The flat had 7 huge rooms. I dominated the kitchen. On kitchen observation, I never seen Lismi eat anything other than actively baking. Anyway, out of the blue, one morning she offered me an orange poppy seeds cupcake whilst I was making my breakkie. It was divine! Well, she didn't iced it and it was fresh out of the oven. And that's how I love it! The memory sets out another urgent cravings years later. I asked her in Facebook to share the love. She did gave away the recipe without any hesitation. I tweaked around to make it more moist and morish.

Three months ago, I went on a road trip to Mt Ruapehu and Tongariro National Park. It was a definite highlight for North Island, New Zealand. I took up a few pictures whilst on the trip, just to find my camera memory card crashed and magically emptied itself upon uploading to my computer. I was so gutted like a fugu fish. Google google google, I found the most popular solution but I had to purchase the software for a certain price. I am a wary person about obscure things in internet. But my emotion took over anyway, and it paid off. I had all my pictures back.

Just so happen, two months later Lismi fell in to the same hole upon returning from her home trip to Indonesia. She posted her ill fate in Facebook and I was there to talk her through what I did and gave her my password so she doesn't have to pay a cent. I think she was happy then... How do I know? Two weeks ago, this came in to my mail:

Sweet & Spicy Melinjo Crisp and Savoury Nut-stuffed Sesame Fudge

You don't know how bad I am craving for Indonesian things in Wellington. It's so deserted down here. How nice is Lismi huh!?! Now that's a REAL cupcake girl!

So I want to recreate a soothing plate for her orange poppyseeds cupcake. Sunday Farmer's market, this happened:
"Hellooowww, how are you! Do you still have some mint?"
"Mint. (She grabbed the last bunch from her sack). I give you one dollar for handsome boy!"
"Ow! Thank you auntie! You are awesome! I will come back next time."
"OK, next time is free. I bring my daughter, you come."
"...Ow auntie, isn't your daughter only 14 or something?!"
"That's OK, you are handsome boy. She will like you in 4 years time."
"Hahaha. OK...! I will come back in 4 years?!"

It was the first time I bought a bunch of mint from that lady. Nice huh?!
(I've seen her with her daughter a couple times before)

Orange Poppyseeds Cupcake
with Orange Blossom Pistachio Cream Cheese and Peppermint Sherbet
yield 6 cupcakes or 40 mini 1-inch cupcakes

For cupcake,
1 cup plain flour
1 ts baking powder
1/2 ts baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
125g unsalted butter
zest of 2 orange
4 Tbs orange juice
2 eggs
1/4 cup poppy seeds

1. In a bowl, soak poppy seeds with orange juice for 2 hours or overnight.
2. Heat oven 180 celcius, no fan. Prepare silicone baking mould or butter the sides of metal baking mould. Choose any mould you fancy.
3. Rub sugar and orange zest to release the oil. Cream butter and the sugar mix with heavy duty whisk or mixer until pale and fluffy. Whisk in egg one by one. Then whisk in orange juice and poppy seeds. Sift in flour, baking powder and baking soda. Fold gently without over mixing.
4. Transfer batter to mould. Bake: 15 minutes for 1-inch mini cupcake, 25 minutes for generic cupcake, 35 minutes for a square tin cake. Cover with kitchen cloth after taking out from oven. Serve!

For Pistachio cream,
1/2 cup unsalted pistachio
1/3 cup sugar
125g sour cream
250 cream cheese
1/2 lemon juice
2 Tbs orange blossom water

1. Blend pistachio and sugar until smooth. Blend in the rest. Transfer to a bowl, cover with plastic wrap and chill until ready to use.

For peppermint sherbet,
2 cups sugar
2 ts baking soda
1/3 cup citric acid powder
1/3 cup glucose or light corn syrup
1/2 ts peppermint extract
2 Tbs water
1/2 cup icing sugar

1. In a saucepan, heat sugar, water and corn syrup to 150celcius slowly. Once it boils, keep on medium heat to slowly reach the target temperature. Use candy thermometre, make sure it's not touching the metal saucepan when measuring. Brush the sides of the saucepan with water-wet brush if there are sugar crystals forming. Do not over-stir.
2. Meanwhile, lie a non-stick baking paper on a large baking tray. Sprinkle half of citric acid and half of icing sugar on the paper.
3. Take off heat and cool to 140celcius, stir in mint extract and baking soda. Pour the sugar all over the baking paper to spread. Sprinkle with the rest of citric acid and icing sugar on top. Alternatively, you can try keeping the sugar at 140 celcius and shape the sugar carefully to your liking. Use spoon or chopstick or other tools but be careful! Then sprinkle with acid and sugar.
If making sherbet, roughly grind the final product with mortar and pestle or coffee grinder.

To plate,
Mini cupcakes
Pistachio Cream
Peppermint Sherbet
Mint leaves
Edible flower (I use rosemary blossoms from my own pots)

1. Plate with your artistic interpretation. Serve!

The sherbet should foam up in your mouth, giving a sour minty smile.

Maybe some people are just that, gracefully grateful and twice as nice...

"Where'd all the good people go?
I've been changing channels
I don't see them on the TV shows"
-Jack Johnson

Feijoa, Elderflower & Apple Cider Jelly with Rock Melon Granita, Manuka Honey Tamarillo Sago & African White Daisy

2011-07-19T20:23:00.009+12:00

New Zealand is a place of great natural things, from natural scenery to the produce. Shame, that most people here can't cook. That's why recently we become the third fattest nation behind USA and Mexico. In every corner of urban and rural suburbs of NZ, there will be a fish and chips join which usually ran by the Chinese descendants of Otago gold miner back in the days.

Leaving cliché aside, I would like to define a New Zealand cuisine using local unique NZ ingredients. Harmony is key here. I won't start deep-frying everything like the way they'd destroy all fresh amazing seafood in NZ.

Feijoa is as New Zealand as it gets. It tastes like guava but with a sweet soft inner flesh giving off floral aroma - it's like a flower garden in the middle of the ocean. I'm actually not a biggie of guava; it's gritty, slimmey, sour and bland. The outer bits of feijoa is very similar to guava so some people tend to bite off the top of the fruit and suck out the inner bit, then discard the rest. It's so cheap here when in season, we just eat 'em how ever we like 'em. Unfortunately when I made this, it wasn't in season so I used the fresh feijoa juice instead. I would actually like to substitute the green grape with scooped out feijoa without the visually unappealing feijoa juice. This recipe is for the 'ideal'-feijoa-is-available-in-season scenario.

If you walk around NZ supermarket alcohol aisle, it's flooded by indie boutique apple cider brewed locally and internationally. Even though it is not a common confession, the flooding of cider subconsciously fills NZ food and wine scene. If you hate beer, like most newbie drinker and women, you'd probably won't mind or like cider. I love them but I don't want to spoil my wallet and liver too often.

Tamarillo, no this is not even closely related to armadillo (I heard they're poisonous to eat). We, in NZ, have our own unappetising version of passionfruit locally. It's bitter and sour, hence most clueless NZ home cook stir away from these babies. The inner flesh has a beautiful vibrant berrilicious colour and the outer flesh blessed with paw-paw colour (man! I have girl's colour vocabulary). I will marry this beau with the tastiest healthiest honey in the world, NZ Manuka honey.

As per other bits, NZ high-strung foodies love to show off their 'elderflower' in everything they could, these people usually know how to make pavlova and fight about how NZ invented the first pav. (Gheez, pav tastes like a headache triggering sugary piece of gunk. Stop claiming this idiotic piece of nothing New Zealand!). Trust me this issue is big in NZ.

I don't like argument to highlight my plate so I was walking around the reserved hill/forest 2 blocks from where I stay. Due to the fact that it is winter and I'm trying to make a summery dessert, there were no flowers blooming. I drove around Wellington just to find no edible flowers were on sale. On my way home, I saw a school of African White Daisies by the sidewalk. I made a quick steal-and-get away. Hahaha!!! (Sorry).

I think if I recall correctly, all daisies are edible but most are tasteless or bitter. African White Daisy is my favourite flower in the whole wide world. It is a simple flower with subtle depth of drama, capturing my soul bit by bit until I melt away. When I used to live in Tasmania, Australia, I used to run 15 km to school everyday. My favourite bit of the run was the part when I passed across a meadow of sunrisen blooming African White Daisies.

Feijoa, Elderflower & Apple Cider Jelly
with Rock Melon Granita, Manuka Honey Tamarillo Sago & African White Daisy
serves 8

For granita,
1/2 medium rock melon, roughly chopped
1 lemon juice
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup champagne or water

1. In a blender, blend everything until smooth.
2. You may opt to strain the mixture or not. Pour the mixture to a plastic container with lid. Freeze.
3. Using the rule 4-3-2-1, take out the mixture from freezer after 4 hours. Scrape-stir with fork. Return to freezer, take out and do the same after 3 hours, 2 hours and 1 hour. The end product should be a fluffy bowl full of crystals.

For jelly,
8 feijoa
2 cups apple cider (use the high-carbonated variety)
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup elderflower syrup (or soaked fresh elderflower in 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 cup hot water)
1/2 lemon juice
2 gelatin leaves, soaked in cold water for 5 minutes (or 15g gelatin powder)
1/2 cup sugar

1. Cut feijoas lengthwise in half. Scoop out the inner flesh, with a teaspoon, in whole half round shape (like scooping out avocado-halves). Lie the feijoa in single individual/group mould, the round shape facing up.
2. Whisk gelatin with elderflower syrup and lemon juice in a large bowl. Heat water and sugar in a saucepan to boiling. Whisk in gradually the boiling water to the gelatin mixture bowl. The gelatin should melt away, if not return to saucepan, heat and whisk to maximum of 60celcius. Cool to tepid temperature (may take up to 75 minutes). Pour (not stir) in cider gently to keep the bubbles. Pour to the jelly mould. Chill in refrigerator for 6-12 hours.
3. Run a hot blunt knife along the sides of jelly mould, turn upside down to a serving plate. Serve!

For Tamarillo sago,
1/2 cup small sago (1-2mm size)
3 cups water
6 tamarilloes
1/2 lemon juice
1/4 cup honey (Manuka or other good honey)
1/4 cup sugar

1. In a large glass bowl, scoop out the inner flesh of tamarilloes and discard the outer bit. Stir in honey and lemon juice.
2. In a saucepan, heat water to rolling boil. Stir in sago. Bring to boil whilst continuously stirring. When the sago floats, simmer for 2 minutes on low heat whilst continuously stirring. Strain off and discard the water. Transfer the hot sago to the tamarillo mixture. Stir. Chill in refrigerator. Stir before serving. Serve!

To assemble,
Jelly, Sago, Granita
8 organic African White Daisies

1. Plate the ingredients with your artistic interpretation. Serve!

Why don't I include Kiwifruit in this Kiwiland? Well it would be alright as a granita substitute (but I just love the flavour of melon). Kiwi, nashi pear and pineapple has a great ability to tenderise meat. Try marinating your meat with this, if you go too far, you'll end up with a bowl of meaty soup. Gelatin is traditionally a part of an animal, so these fruits don't match up well.

I leave you with the most cliché-est song ever!

"I don't know oh oh oh oh!!!! Why does love do this tooooo meee!!!"-The Exponents

Rosemary Roast Pork Belly with Orange & Manuka Honey Reduction

2011-07-18T06:00:00.004+12:00

I do get a little bit tipsy on a lonesome weekend sometimes. It's a perfect time to just 'do whatever' and slouch on the couch watching rubbish TV. That was how I came to like SpongeBob way before it was a hit (because I was so tipsy and watched the premier early morning kiddies program). About 7 years ago, the draw of my remote punching landed on the 'L' word. For those of you who don't know about L word, it's a poorly made lesbian drama aimed probably for horny guys who never actually get to watch that many sexy scenes even after 20 seasons. (No I was not horny enough to do that).

So the lawyer or corporate looking lady in L word left me with a great life lesson and impression, not a dirty one for the record. She was advising another lesbian girlfriend on how to make a great building. She drew a triangle.

She said to her (and to my permanent memory), "You can only be on two sides, you can never get all three. Make your choices."

Now, pork belly is about time and quality because it friggin' damn cheap. So the triangle is wrong? Not really. I mean if you wanna go gastronomical, you can crispened up the perfect pork belly on a gentle dehumidifier vacuum gadget, which you may probably need to go to RMIT to custom made for you. Talking about real world though, pork belly is pretty hard to fault. All you need is just time, and the belly fat will give you as along as you please.

Rosemary Roast Pork Belly with Orange & Manuka Honey Reduction

with Microsalad & Mash Spuds
serves 4-6

For Roast pork,
1kg pork belly, skin intact and unpierced

3 orange juice and (zest of 1/4 orange)
1/2 cup honey (clover, manuka, any leftover good honey)

1 Tbs coriander seeds
2 star anise
1 bayleaf
2 inch cinnamon quill
1 garlic, bruised
1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
1/2 ts hot chili powder (optional)
1 strip dry cured bacon, chopped roughly (optional)
1 bottle any white wine (optional)
small bunch of rosemary

salt & black pepper
canola oil

1. Heat oven to 150 celcius, no fan. Oil 1 Tbs canola oil and rub 1 Tbs salt on the top skin of pork belly (only the top). Massage the skin for 2 minutes.
2. On a roasting tray with wire rack, dump the rosemary on the wire rack and transfer pork on top, skin facing up. Transfer to oven, pour wine or water on the roasting tray (below wire rack) without touching pork meat. Roast for 4-8 hours. Occasionally top up the water on the tray to prevent drying.
3. After at least 4 hours, heat 1 Tbs canola oil in a saucepan. Lightly toast the coriander seeds, star anise, bacon, cinnamon, bayleaf, and chili powder for 30 seconds. Add in the dripping juice from the roasting tray (transfer pork back to oven whilst waiting to make the sauce), honey, Worcestershire sauce, orange zest and orange juice. Boil and reduced to about 1/3-1/2 cup worth of thick dark sauce. Season with salt and black pepper. Set aside and store; or keep covered on lowest heat setting until pork is ready.
4. 'If' pork is tender but the skin is not golden, heat top oven element (setting on broiling) to maximum, without fan. Crisp the top skin (should take about 3 minutes). Take out pork from oven. Rest pork for 10 minutes. Pour the second lots of dripping on the reduction sauce. Stir.
5. Cut pork to desired portion. Pour the reduction on top of pork. Serve!

For microsalad,
200g microsalad leaves

1 Tbs sherry/red wine vinegar
3 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
salt & black pepper

1. Mix everything together. Season with salt & pepper. Serve!

For mash spuds,
4 large starchy potatoes (agria, maris piper, moonlight)
4 Tbs butter, try Lurpak
1/4 cup milk
salt & pepper
canola oil

1. Roast potatoes with a little oil and salt on baking tray in 220 celcius oven for 40 minutes or until tender when pierced with blunt knife.
2. Remove skin whilst potatoes are hot with knife and kitchen towel. Mash potatoes with vegetable miller. Fold in butter, milk, salt & pepper. Serve!

Messy Quenelles, too hungry to be bothered ;P

Many friends inquired," How do you find the time (to do so much)?"
"Passion mostly... Time will find itself"

I think just like cooking pork belly, I am friends with time as well as the virtue of patience. I was born an insomniac with extra four hours to spare than the rest of sane beings. Patience and insomnia pretty much triple my hours to 'do whatever'.

"Tell me what you want to hear... I'm gonna give all my secrets away."-OneRepublic

Tig Tag

2011-07-17T12:20:00.001+12:00

Hmmm... Blogging can mimic a playground sometimes. I rarely play along with this nor play along in real life (yes, I am a playground loner. I talk to myself and play with the trees when I was little). Well no harm in tagging along ay. Germaine (classy name by the way) @ Kiddothings tagged me tonight, I'm guessing this is the way to play along. Just answer the questions.

1
Do you think you're hot?
So long as she thinks I am.

2
Upload the wallpaper you are currently using.

I don't know where this life will take me, but I know where and how I want it to end. This is a reminder of that. (Yup, my desktop is super clean; just consisted of 'recycle bin' and 'useless shortcuts')

3
Last time you ate a chicken?
Last night. Medschool Cultural night, I made traditional Indonesian roast Chicken. Got the first bite before 28 drum sticks all gone in 2.8 minutes.

4
Last song you listened to?
Taken for a fool - The Strokes

Sorry guys, I am a guilty indie addict.

5
What were you thinking while doing this?
Creating a plate to complement orange poppy seeds cake. Damn food, I never stop thinking about you!

6
Do you have nicknames? What are they?
Boss. Damn people keep calling me this in Indonesia, hard to live up to the name you know!

7
Who are my lucky 7s now... Hmm?
Michelle @ Niche
Selba @ Selby's Food Corner
Michael @ Me, My Food and I
Kay @ Photos and Thoughts of My Home Cooked Meals + some restaurant ones thrown in...
Noelle @ Insouciant
Maya @ Foodiva
Viv @ Green Cilantro

I think just like a playground, this will be fun as well as annoying for others. I may even hate this chained posts in other times. So it's up to you bro and sis! Who knows, it may spark up more friendships. No grudge taken for not playing along. ;p

Salam Manis!

Duck & Scallop with Chinese Ginger & Spring Onion Sauce, Egg Noodles & Crispy Duck Skin

2011-07-16T03:44:00.005+12:00

I used to reside in a boarding school, Perth. It is a 'must-do' experience - taunting and screwing up your teenhood. The struggle really built a lot of character and embedded a lifelong memory. Think about reading Charles Dicken's David Copperfield or any other classic novels that starts with a little kid in a boarding school or orphanage, it is pretty much the same. Despite the negativism, it is a perfect way to send away your little boys on a journey to become a great man. The catch is that many will fall.

A good thing about life in Perth was how close it was for my dad to visit from Jakarta. If you never had Asian parents who let you life overseas alone, you would never realise how awesome they are when they come around to visit you and let you choose the restaurant you want to go. It's the best way to bond with your parents. At first, many of you would have thought that I'd choose the best restaurant in Perth, like Jackson's or something along that line. No, that would be selfish. No one in my family really embrace my cooking the way many foodies do. In a slice of picture, my dad had only taken me to fine-western dining experience for less than three times. To this day, I don't know where I get the 'fine-dining' influences from.

During your time away from your love ones, you began to feel the absent altruistic love of your nurturers. You would really want to make them proud, show your love and understanding; when they come around to visit you. In other words, I intentionally chose the best Chinese restaurant to eat crab because everybody loves them. My dad, as I mentioned before, hates garlic (I know right!) and he dislikes strong flavours. Yet to please him is rather simple, just cook up a mighty fine ginger & spring onion dish, he will talk away about life and subconsciously graze the plate clean. Actually we put a lot of garlic when cooking for dad at home, he just doesn't know it.

The thing with ginger & spring onion sauce is its versatility. I even use it to marry duck and scallop in a mouthful here. Make sure you have smooth egg noodles handy, they are the best bit for soaking up all that serene sauce.

Duck & Scallop with Chinese Ginger & Spring Onion Sauce, Egg Noodles &
Crispy Duck Skin
serves 2-6

2 duck legs (thigh and drumstick), skin on
8 scallops

1 duck and/or chicken carcasses
chopped vegetable scraps, like carrots, celery, celeriac, potato, etc.

7 garlic, bruise
10 cm ginger, bruise
2 spring onions, cut to 1inch long (white and pale green parts only, reserve dark green part for garnish)
a small bunch of coriander

3 Tbs light soy sauce
1 1/2 Tbs sesame oil
1/2 ts chicken stock powder/MSG (optional)
1 Tbs cornflour
3 Tbs Michiu (Chinese cooking wine) or gin
canola oil

2 cups fresh/dried egg noodles
salt, white pepper & sugar

1. Heat oven to 150celcius. Season duck with salt & pepper. Slow-roast duck (skin side up) on a baking tray lined with vegetable scraps (to prevent direct metal heat) for 3-6 hours. Basting with the dripping duck fat every 30 minutes or so. At 3 hours, gently deskin the duck, like de-skining a fish, with a small blunt knife. Roast the skin separate to the meat for 1 hour or until crispy, lie the skin on a non-stick baking paper. Set aside crispy skin on a kitchen paper. Tease away the duck meat with your fingers and set aside in a bowl with the duck drippings, 1 Tbs soy sauce and 1/2 Tbs sesame oil. Discard vegetable scraps.
2. Meanwhile, boil 2-3 litres water, duck and chicken carcasses with 5 garlic and 5cm ginger. When it reaches to boiling, remove the scum on top and turn down heat to medium. Simmer until you have 2 cups left. Strain, set aside and add in coriander, soy sauce, sesame oil and chicken stock powder. Cool and discard coriander. Then stir in cornflour, salt & pepper.
3. In a saucepan, boil water and cook noodles until just loose and semi-cooked (don't cook to al dente). Drain and run over cold water to cool quickly. Set aside.
4. In a non-stick frying pan or wok, heat 1 Tbs canola oil to smoking hot. Sear roasted duck meat for 30 seconds each side. Set aside in a bowl of duck drippings. Heat the same pan with 1 Tbs canola oil. Add in scallops. When it's slightly brown on oneside, turn and add in the rest of ginger, spring onions and garlic. Stir in duck and deglaze with michiu. Then stir in noodle and duck stock. Bring to boil. Discard whole ginger and garlic. Serve with duck skin toppings!

Despite whatever crap life has thrown at me, the best thing I'm ever blessed with is my dad. I remember that I trashed away his Mercedes by doing the exact thing on this video:

I mean it was my first time driving in the Jakarta yearly flood. I drove 200 km around Jakarta to try the 8 different ways to get back home. He wasn't pissed and I managed to tell him,"Daddy, sorry about the Merc. If it's any consolation, I got a 20 grand scholarship for the upcoming year. It's based on medschool performance. So that's like 2 of your old Mercedes." (Thank God!)
"Keep doing what you're doing son." (which part dad? ;P)
Ow by the way, the Mercedes managed to get me home with random bits of dead rats, fish and cockroaches. Car was announced dead on arrival at the front door.

I've lived alone for 12 years now (half of my life) and my dad had only supported me with money and vague scarce advise. I get by OK I reckon. People may say, "So you don't really need parents, all you need is money and you'll be alright?"
I would reply,"Well no parents would dare doing what my dad does. Not if I was him anyway."

"My heart belongs to daddy, so I simply couldn't be bad."-Lisa Ekdahl

Where's my mum in all this? She's still figuring out where exactly is Wellington in Australia. Long story...

Tuna & Crudo Prosciutto with Pea-Wasabi, Celeriac and Salmon Roe

2011-07-14T18:17:00.000+12:00

Wasabi peas are no stranger to us foodies anymore. I love munching on those little babies in a mouthful; perfect to shoot a freezing sensation to the back of palate and cerebellum. Sometimes I do this when I drive, a drive of which I usually get inspired to cook. Tuna and ham are perfect match to peas and mint. I once made a grilled tuna steak with lemon mint sauce during a Chinese new year dinner, that was a healthy delicious hit. Anything that's great with mint would usually be ditto with wasabi.

I love my sushi with brutal amounts of wasabi, the ones that makes you tearful with your hands banging on the table and screaming idiopathically. But not that many people do, so I tame and round everything off with peas. I guess this is a fusion (hate that word) or more like a westernised sashimi/sushi with a presentation to robe your wallet.

Blue Rondo A La Turk-Dave Brubeck

This is a simple recipe to accentuate each ingredients. In regards to celeriac, you can substitute them with anything crunchy and crispy you please, as long as you put something crisp to contrast the soft fatty textures of the dish, try jicama (bangkuang), lettuce, carrot, parsnip, radish, you get the idea.

Tuna & Crudo Prosciutto with Pea-Wasabi, Celeriac and Salmon Roe
serves 4

150g fatty Tuna fillet, cut to 1inch cubes
2 slices Crudo (='fat' in italian) prosciutto, cut diagonally in half

1 cup fresh/frozen peas
1 Tbs wasabi paste
1/2 lemon juice
1 Tbs Japanese/Korean soy sauce
1 Tbs butter
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil (optional)
salt & sugar

2 thin slices of celeriac, thinly julienne (see above for substitute)

1 Tbs Salmon roe (or other fish roes or pink grapefruit)

1. Set up your food blender.
2. In a saucepan, boil 4 cups water with 1 Tbs salt. Add in peas and bring to boil. Once it starts to boil, turn off heat and drain (reserve the boiling liquid in the saucepan). Transfer peas to blender. Add in soy, lemon juice, wasabi, butter and olive oil. Blend. Add the reserved boiling water, a tablespoon at a time, to help the smoothen the sauce until the right consistency of baby food puree. Season with salt & sugar. Transfer to bowl and cool. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use (cover with extra olive oil if wanting to keep for more than 12 hours).
3. Smear about a tablespoon of the pea puree on the plate. Add in a few celeriac julienne. Lie the tuna and salmon roe decoratively as you please on the plate. Roll artistically (sorry hard to explain) crudo and lie on top of tuna. Serve!

No tricks here, just simple fresh ingredients and a little bit of artistic presentation.

Sunday Experiments

2011-07-13T13:38:00.007+12:00

I am so glad that I've finished my obstetrics and gynaecology module last week. It was a great hectic roller coaster ride through the in and outs of the XX owners. There were so many tension on my mind and body then, but now I am back to the generic Internal Medicine; my last 5 weeks before I can pretty much claim myself... Dr. (insert name here). Yay!

It's also nice to be complimented as a good clinician. Well, I am not sure... but I do get a lot of,"Seems like a waste for someone as knowledgeable about most things in medicine and surgery to want to be a psychiatrist", from other senior clinicians. Nice huh?

Anyway, internal medicine means internal peace of mind, which means free time to cook again. Over the weeks of getting babies out safely from many different mummies, I had a lot of nudges of inspirations about food. And just so happen, Mel is currently doing her medical placement in Wellington.

Mel is the most bubbly person I've met in the last decade. I think she can practically lit up a room full of currently grieving widows in a jiffy. With all the energy packed in compact package, it would just blow away PhD logisticians (we were talking about other friends doing PhD in logic... how illogical/useless). I met Mel in my 1st year of medschool in Dunedin, NZ and a group of us hang out often, with or without food. She brought her Wellingtonian boyfriend, Conrad, to the table (alive, not butchered).

Another interesting guest of honour was a daughter of a blogger's buddy of mine; Arthur. Her name was also Mel or Melissa. Just like her dad, she's aspiring to be a great teacher. I admire teachers, it's a calling to be a teacher. It was the first time I met her. Even if we were rather insensitive by talking lots about medical life on the table, I came to a conclusion that Melissa is the complete opposite of the first Mel; quiet, reserved, shy and introverted- kind of like me 12 years ago.

Vik mentioned about his girlfriend, Chamaya (both are classmates of mine), talking about my blog and stuff. Vik is pleasantly creepy in his way of opening my blog exclusively when I sit next to him in the medschool computer room and then inquire me about my personal life and opinion. He said that Chamaya didn't believe that I cook all the stuff in my blog. Vik's been at my place for a few times now, he was feature for our group potluck last year. All of those times I made 'comforting' delicious food for him, and so as Mel, so I decided I pick up my pace for a bit and go a bit flash.

taken by Melissa Wee

Unfortunately due to the experimental nature of the night, the final products didn't break a blissful smile on my face. Still, everyone said everything was great, not sure how much of that is politeness talking. Of my years being a chef, I am my biggest critic. Hence, I will only post my useful recipes in future posts and ditch the others back to the drawing board.

Starting with the menu.

Tuna & Crudo Prosciutto with Pea-Wasabi, Celeriac and Salmon Roe

Saute` Roasted Duck & Scallop with Chinese Ginger & Spring Onion sticky sauce, Egg noodles and Crispy Duck skin.

Rosemary Roast Pork Belly with Orange & Manuka Honey reduction, Microsalads and Mash Spuds.

Feijoa, Elderflower, Grapes & Apple Cider Jelly with Rock Melon Granita, Manuka Honey Tamarillo Sago & Edible African White Daisy.

I think the highlight of my night was Duck and Scallops because it was such a sublime first take of a great ginger & spring onion crab. Though, I reckon everyone loved the pork belly. The first picture is the venison - the one going back to my drawing board.

All and all, it was a great night of laugh.

"Pack up your troubles get your old grin back. Don’t worry ..."- Eliza Doolittle.

The Heart Breaker Burger

2011-07-09T21:42:00.002+12:00

Straying on your last drenches of sweat with your tip-toe affair, it's not a strange concept to most. Someone who shines in the mist of darkness stumbling across something so dark, it drains away your light........ Love on a one-way to misery and melancholy.

Unfortunately,as wise as this brain serves me, my heart is my kryptonite. Yes! I am sucker in the department. Thankfully my uncle, who is my practical dad, mentioned about the crucial things in love: stay light on your feet, leave gracefully if should be and move on.

"This thing called love, I just can't handle it."-Queen

Moving on in Wellington is like hmmm... OK let me tell you about my ventures:

So I sat down after my long out-of-town drive in a Korean restaurant that I often eat. There was a new girl serving me. There was just something I couldn't put my head around that got my mind trapped for days unended recollecting over her. Problem was, I was a little unsure of her age. It's a difficult task to age an Asian girl, even for an Asian boy. I don't want to cross the boundary of legal stuff you see. Nonetheless, acting before regretting, I came back.
"Hi, what's your name?"
"xxx."
"What does that mean?"
"xxx."
"That's nice!"
"Thank you. What's your name?" (Yes she talks in words)
"Pierre...Listen, I just want to be honest and asking you out on a date. Would you like to go out sometime?" (Awkward smile)
(Giant pause)"Hmm...I don't even know you."
"And that's why I am asking you out: to get to know you too."
"Hmm. I am not sure."
"OK. I tell you a bit more about me, here and now. What would you like to know?"
"OK. How old are you? And what do you do?"
"I'm old enough. I finishing up my study in University this year."
"Old enough? How old?"
"Older than you."
"How old do you think I am?"
"Hey you have an Australian accent! That's why you sound familiar. Hmm... are you 18?"
"Hahaha!!! You think I am 18?!"
"Well I hope you are not younger. Are younger?? Please don't say you are. I can be in trouble right now."
"No. I am 26."
"What?!?! What?!?! What?!?! That's not possible. What's your secret?!?!"

She said no because I didn't stand on this earth before her. I moved on.

Moving on, I was queuing on a supermarket after my run one day. A beauty sparked a little twang in chest. "Excuse me". She turned as she was purchasing and holding on to a cigarette pack. Never mind, give that miss a miss.

So the next conversation with the next soul,
"I don't even know you. For all I know you could be an unemployed creep with no future."
"That's how you get to know people? That's not nice."
"Well, I am taken anyway."
"You are blushing and looking away there. I can tell that last bit is a cover-up lie. It's OK I am a little creepy in that I am on my way to be a psychiatrist but, hey, it's true that I'm comfortably unemployed- 'Comfortably' not continuing this conversation that start a little too hostile and distrustful for my flavour. Thanks."(Turn away)
"Hey wait! You are kinda amazing for an Asian."
"Well you are kinda racist for a nobody." (Hey she's hooked?)
"So..."
"I don't think so."

Oh Wellington, you bitter-sweet thing.

Role modelling the cliché of chick-flicks romantic comedy, I would like binge my heart breaks away with something as sinful as a tub of triple-cream double-choc caramel peanut ice cream.

Heston Blumenthal had been redeeming a lot of classic dishes that practically inspired many chefs to copy. One of them is burger. He managed to revive burger to the mainstream Über-Chic comforting arena. It's not a faux-pas now to bring your date for a gourmet TGIF burger experience; imagine how cheap you look 10 years ago. Unfortunately, I found that many chefs lost the plot by overkilling the burger experience or going away from the strict classic too far. A perfect dish must be heavy enough to fill but light enough not to kill.

Now I am telling you that I will lose my plot far out of this galaxy by making a possible-to-try-at-home killer burger. I am going well far away from having a comforting perfect experience after you ate the last bite of the burger. This next experience could comparably equal to having sex with an ugly-AIDS-infested-currently-menstruating-but-unsurprisingly-experienced prostitute...and you are still a virgin. So don't blame me for a lifetime of regret and bitter cold resentment that this burger may break your heart, across all level you can imagine, literary on the spot!

Let me describe the proceedings of my assisted suicide:
We gonna start off with the bun. It's not gonna be the complex classic burger bun. It's gonna be a NZ buttery goodness homemade hand-kneaded brioche.

The melting pot of start-from-scratch BBQ pork ribs with beer and then frying off the pork ribs bits to concentrate the flavour will be the base of our sauce.

Tangy sharp mayo-mustard to cream up the dairy note with a little zing from gherkins.

Of course, we need a vegetable as a source of vitamin. Lets get corn... in a powder form, turn it in to a dough, grill and then fry it. Crunchy vitamins!

The bull must be strong to shine, instead of fatty and blending away forgetfully. So it's gamey NZ Angus bathed in sizzling saturated duck fat. We need to pose a smile with a stringy melted smoked aged Cheddar cheese fondue.

To top it up with the best thing on the planet, bacon! Dry-cured and aged from Dunedin pig farm.

Just like a burger king ad, I present to you (drum roll n crank up the Wagner symphony) ,

"The Heart Breaker!!!"

The 'Heart Breaker' Burger
serves 4

For Mustard-Mayo,
1 egg yolk
1 cup canola oil
1 garlic clove, roasted in oven at 150celcius for 1 hour
1 ts Dijon mustard
1/4 lemon juice
salt, sugar & black pepper

1. In a glass bowl (sitting on top of kitchen cloth), whisk egg yolk with a small pinch salt with a balloon whisk for 1 minute. Pour oil drop by drop with left hand, whilst whisking briskly with right hand for 10 seconds per drop for the first 10 drops; then pour gradually more and more whilst keep on whisking. Whisk in the rest of ingredients. Season with salt, pepper and sugar.

For Angus Beef patties,
800g Gamey Premium mince beef
3 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbs duck fat
salt & pepper

1. In a bowl, fork out/crumble/tease away mince beef until it forms miniscule crumbles. Do not compress or knead the mince (ever!). Spoon over Worcestershire sauce. Cover and leave at room temperature for 2 hours.
2. Heat oven to maximum grill setting (220-250celcius). Heat a frying pan with duck fat until smoking hot over medium heat. Season the patties before grilling with salt and pepper. Brown the patties for about 1 minute each side. Transfer to baking tray and cook in oven to preferred doneness (about 3 minutes for medium, 5 for well done). Do not eat 100% raw mince (bacteria risk). Rests for 2 minutes on the baking tray.

For Smoked Cheddar Fondue,
150mL single cream
1 ts cornstarch
50g good-quality aged smoked cheddar cheese, grated
2 cups grated mozzarella cheese

1. In a saucepan, slowly heat cream and cornstarch over very low heat. Stir in the cheeses anytime. Keep stirring now and again until serving.

To Assemble,
4 Brioche burger buns (click here)
2 cups pulled BBQ pork ribs (click here)
2 cups spiced corn chips (click here)

4 beef patties (see above)
Smoked cheddar fondue (see above)
Mustard-mayo (see above)

4 Gherkins, sliced
4-8 rashers dry-cured bacon, fried in a little duck fat until crispy
4 Tbs butter (optional, but might as well)

1. Heat burger buns in oven until warm, cut in half and spread butter. Spread mayo on the top half of bun. Lie sliced gherkins over the mayo. On the bottom half of buns, spread the BBQ sauce and re-fried pork rib bits (with some duck fat). Sprinkle some crushed corn chips.
2. Spoon the cheese fondue over the beef patties on the baking tray. Transfer to top the corn chips layer. Top with fried bacon. Join the top bun with the bottom. Serve and RIP!

OK, this is actually a great burger on the first 7 humanly bites.

Need a good recipe for homemade chips? (click here)

BBQ Pork Ribs

2011-07-08T15:48:00.001+12:00

There are personal milestones when you think you are getting somewhere with your cooking practices. I call it 'practice' because back then I had surrendered to failure. Yet I persisted and in the end, not only I got my perfect ribs, I now know how to cook any animal to the melt-in-your-lick tender.

When I was a fat little boy, my dad took me to Tony Roma's. The rest is just angels singing songs so beautiful I can't believe that I felt heaven on earth. I never seen the kitchen but I imagined the song of 'stairways to heaven' is a tribute about the back door of Tony Roma's.

My first encounter at meat and BBQ cookery were connected to our first microwave. (Talking about microwave, mine just broke down today. Shame. But insurance got me a brand new model of my choice. Yay!). One day, my dad came back from Australia to our home, Jakarta, with a honey-rosemary BBQ marinade packet. He told me," You smear this and marinade it with tenderloin steak and cook it in microwave. That's how you make good steak."

So I did that exact thing. I was only 9, so young that aluminum foils seemed to be logically associated with western cookery. I covered a piece of marinated Australian tenderloin steak with the foil and stick it to the microwave on high. Then, I check every minute. Of course it didn't cook until the 40th check, if anything the foil crackled and lit up on fire (That was terrifying!). As for the steak? The most chewy driest gunk I ever came across.

Next would be the well-done phase. I grew up in a strong Muslim influenced Indonesia. There is only one way to cook meat, and that's well done. So I thought the same marinated tenderloin could be done over a charcoal grill. I didn't know how to work the grill. I thought it was the same as cooking a traditional (thin) goat satays. End product? Dry, Carbon Black Charred and Tough like a Cookbook.

Fast forward to being an experience-lacked 16-years-old executive chef in a 5-star hotel, I mastered the steak but I haven't get any where near the ultimate American ribs BBQ. Recipes after recipes I've tried, they managed to get a soggy tender-but-cardboard-dry ribs. The journey was answered one year later. My midnight after-service secret lonesome experiments yielded a smile so intense it shaped my face for eternity. I was the king of the universe! (This effect does eventually, unfortunately, wear off).

"Who cares if you disagree? You are not me. Who made you king of anything?"-Sara Bareilles

I would like to answer a little American ribs-fanatic dilemma. Pork ribs would usually come with a membrane or sinew covering the meaty part. The war is about taking off the membrane or not. To set my record straight lads and gents, I take off the membrane. Contrary to the popular belief that membrane seals in the juices, I found that the collagen contraction of the membrane compress the juices away from the ribs during cooking. So just run a blunt knife over the bony part of each rib and connect the torn membranes together using tearing/pulling motion.

BBQ Pork Ribs
serves 4

2 kg pork ribs, membrane off

For Dry Rub,
1-2 ts hot chilli powder
2 Tbs paprika powder
1 Tbs garlic granules/powder
1 Tbs onion powder or dried onion
1 Tbs black pepper
1 Tbs dried thyme
1 Tbs dried sage (optional)
1 Tbs dried oregano (optional)
1 ts rock salt

2 cups beer (Pilsner, I use Corona)

1. In a mortar and pestle or coffee grinder, grind the spices and salt until smooth. Sprinkle over the pork ribs and massage for about 2 minutes. Lie an aluminum foil on a baking tray (enough to cover the ribs snugly), transfer ribs on the foil and pour beer on ribs. Fold and cover ribs in the foil. Leave in room temperature for 2 hours.
2. Heat oven to 150celcius, no fan. Slow-roast the aluminum covered ribs for 2-4 hours, until tender.

For BBQ sauce,
2 Tbs butter
1 large green chili, chopped
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 bayleaf
250mL good passata/canned chopped tomato/Italian plain pasta sauce
3 Tbs smoked chipotle tabasco (or mix tabasco with smoked paprika powder)
3 Tbs whiskey (optional)
3 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1 Tbs molasses sugar/molasses
1 Tbs brown/demerara sugar
2 Tbs tomato paste

1. In a saucepan, sweat onion, green chili, bayleaf and garlic with butter for 2 minute, stir often. Add in everything else except whiskey. Simmer for 3 minutes. Using handheld blender or blender, blend the tomato concoction until smooth. Stir in whiskey and turn off heat.

For BBQ Ribs,
1. Take out the tender cooked ribs from the oven. Uncover and smear the BBQ sauce all over the ribs. Cover again and transfer back to oven to infuse further for 15 minutes or more. Remove ribs from oven.
2. Turn up oven to maximum grill setting without fan (220-250celcius). When heated, uncover ribs and transfer to a baking tray lined with baking paper or non-stick oven-proof pan. Char the top and bottom of the ribs, about 2-3 minutes each side. Alternatively you can grill the ribs on your hot BBQ. Serve!

These ribs will be featured in my upcoming burger recipe.

Brioche

2011-07-07T15:52:00.002+12:00

Brioche, or as Indonesian refers them as 'just bread', is how a naive Asian would imagine a perfect bread would be- soft, flaky, buttery, warm and sweet. As with other bread, Western homemade hand-kneaded bread is a healthy source of carb. Searching for organic ingredients, sweating over the stretch and press gym session, and the long restless excited wait; you'd deserve to eat the white sweatilious bread by the end of your journey. However, most people, especially naive Asians, are snobs of the processes and ritual of bread making. In Asia, it is common to dismiss bread as fattening and dull.

just woken up, fresh Brioche, Corona beer, reading your posts
For the record, that's not my wine. Gloria put it there when she took this.

Worked in a sourdough specialty bakery once, I consider myself acquainted with Westerners and their bread. Ditto to my cookery technique, I am actually a virgin at Asian bread making. But sometime last year, my dad sent me on my first professional big-boss business trip to go and assess a gourmet bread factory business in Jakarta. For me, that was an amazing treat, none of it felt like 'work' at all. The head baker was an Internationally experience Frenchman. I hinted on how to make a 'soft' Asian bread, do you use a lot of fat or butter to make it soft like brioche? He sighed,"I wish. Butter here, as you know, is twice the price of the bread. We use sugar and lots of it." (Shame on you Asian bread!). I didn't continue to pursue that further, who needs more bread in Asia? It's like selling Cosmo to a nun.

I have a few general-rule-of-thumb pointers on how to soften your breads:
Aeration
Sugar- adding sugar with enhance the growth and activity of yeast quickly. I am talking about bucket loads of sugar. So quick that Asian breads usually do not have a depth of character other than the filling or the topping. Now that I know a bit about Asian bread, I have a good reason to keep my snob.
Yeast- well this is a 'no no' because yeasty bread taste like 100 day old left-over beer. As a general rule, try to use as little yeast as possible to raise your bread perfectly.

Structuring
Butter, or fat- think about croissant and fried chicken. The skin on the chicken will be crispy, airy and flaky when drench with hot fat.
Layering and folding technique - I don't knead my dough. I stretch and fold/layer repetitively to work the gluten. Kneading will work the gluten but it doesn't do a great job at constructing a back bone for the air to fill. Folding will help trapping and forming a space for the yeast to fart away their goodies. It's harder for yeast to aerate a dense kneaded dough than it is of mine.

Modifying
Dairy- one time there was a hot student nurse who brought a fresh loaf over for her first day. I was taken back then, but I took her hint that even milk powder will soften the heart.
Other additives- When I used to work in an Indian restaurant, they only use baking soda to rise the naan bread. Most curious kids would know baking soda and vinegar will yield soda bubbles. In the context of naan, as the dough ferments and turns sour in open room, the baking soda will bubble away. There are many other additives out there.

You may wonder, "What if I combine all of the above?" Go and think of rank Pizza Hutt base.

"I don't want to be who say goodbye. But I will..."-Ingrid Michaelson

I am posting my own recipe of handmade brioche the way it's suppose to be. This post is an anticipation for my future burger post, hence I sprinkle some sesame seeds on some of the buns. I do recommend to make brioche in winter because the butter holds solid shape better. If you live in tropical side of the world, leave the dough to rise in fridge for all three rising steps.

Brioche
yields 1 loaf or 4 burger buns

320g organic stoneground plain white flour
1/4 cup milk
25g sugar
3 eggs
80g butter, divide to 10 pieces and soften to cool room temperature
1 ts salt
10g fresh compressed yeast

1 Tbs water
1 egg yolk

1. In a large glass bowl, whisk milk, sugar and yeast until smooth. Whisk in 1 Tbs flour, salt and eggs one-by-one. Transfer all the flour and mix with fork.
2. Transfer the dough to a bench. Knead until it comes together. Keep on kneading or use my stretch-fold technique. Pull the dough away using both hands, fold dough in half before the dough break away from the stretch. Repeat the technique for about 7 minutes. The dough will be sticky.
3. Flatten each pieces of butter without melting them away in your hand. Fold in butter to the dough one by one; stretch-fold or knead in between butter for 30 seconds. The dough will be sticky. Continue for 5-10 minutes. When the dough is smooth and not sticky.
4. Transfer dough to a clean large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Leave to rise for 2 hours.
5. Press (don't punch) down the dough gently to release the air. Cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1/2 - 2 days.
6. Take out the dough and cut 4 equal pieces. Knead in a whirling motion to shape a ball dough. Repeat for each pieces. To make a single loaf, transfer each rounds in a single layer (flatten to fit) to a loaf tin/casserole dish. To make a burger bun, transfer each rounds to a baking paper lined baking tray flatten the dough by 1/2 its height gently with your palm.
7. Cover the dough with clean kitchen cloth. Leave to rise further for 1-2 hours. Heat oven to 190celcius, no fan.
8. Make egg wash by mixing egg yolk and water in a bowl. Brush the top of the dough. Sprinkle with sesame seeds if making burger buns. Bake in oven for 17 minutes for burger buns; about 23 minutes for brioche loaf. Rest for 5 minutes. Serve!

What would your facial expression be if your fingers are the ones in the picture?

(Hahaha, you're funny. "Comment!")

Corn Tortilas & Doritos Chips

2011-07-06T14:13:00.001+12:00

In my quest of making 'the burger', I wanted to introduce a good crunch to the picture. Doritos had been the main and only contender to the mix, but I didn't want to be reminded of 'her' again. Actually I've managed to find her in the internet out of the blue. Of course she was taken, she is still pretty, but seemingly not possessing a heart to my liking and a destiny to mine having. I am happy now, just as I am.

Taking the long way around, I started to make my own Doritos corn chips from scratch. I think after eating Doritos for years, I don't even have to see the back of packet to know what could be in it. First I needed to make the a corn tortillas, then fry and season the tortillas.

If you want a perfectly shaped tortillas, buy a tortilla presser. As per the rest of the sane world, just use a rolling pin.

Corn Tortillas
yields 6

1 cup Masa de maiz
1/2 cup water
1/2 ts salt

1. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl. Knead for 2 minutes and form to a ball. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and rest for 30 minutes or more.
2. Divide dough to 6 pieces and form it to a sphere. Meanwhile, heat a flat frying pan to smoking hot. Transfer 1 dough piece between 2 waxed/baking paper, roll flat with rolling pin. Take off the top layer of waxed paper gently. Tip the open side of flattened dough to face the hot frying pan. Take out the bottom waxed paper. Grill the flattened dough for about 2 minutes each side. Repeat the process with other doughs. Set the cooked tortillas aside nestled in a kitchen cloth. Serve!

My spices are Mexican and Doritos inspired. I use mace because of its tangy note on the tip of the tongue. Cumin will round off the taste. I will be honest that you will need some sort of MSG. I use Lee Kum Kee Chicken stock powder. If you've read my past posts, I have nothing against MSG. Better to use it than to add more fat, as most Chinese take-away do nowadays. Shame that most people prefer to believe the fab and myths of MSG with no (decades of) proven health adverse effect, as suppose to reminding themselves that they will need to add a lot of fat to get the same umami effect. And that's diabetes, heart attack and stroke on a plate for you.

Spiced Corn Chips
yields a bowl full

6 corn tortillas (see above), cut to 8 pieces each

1/2 ts mace
1/2 ts cumin seeds
1 Tbs paprika powder
1/2 - 1 ts hot chili powder
1/2 ts black pepper
1 Tbs chicken stock powder/bullion cube

canola oil, for deep-frying

1. In a mortar and pestle or coffee grinder, grind all the spices together. Transfer to large metal bowl.
2. Heat oil to 170celcius. Deep fry the tortillas until there is no sizzle/bubble; about 1-2 minutes. Drain the chips on a kitchen paper.
3. Transfer corn chips to spice mixture bowl. Shake and roll the bowl to disperse the spices evently. Serve!

"Biar hujan menghapus jejakmu..."-Peterpan
(let the rain wipe away your steps )

Kina & Teriyaki Chicken

2011-07-04T22:21:00.011+12:00

Surfing around blog after blog, some stuff does embed subconsciously. Like how Kay @ Photos and Thoughts of My Home Cooked Meals + some restaurant ones thrown in...; Pete @ Peteformation Foodie Adventure and Jo @ ChicGorgeous made Teriyaki Chicken last week.

If you like to put a smile on your little boy, try feeding him a little Teriyaki. It's what I imagine 'home' and 'mum' would be. I vividly remember my mum made a few back in my little days. I think it's also the first Japanese thing I've ever made. As horrible as it gets, pretty much all are edible. Though, I had the greatest Teriyaki experience at Nobu restaurant in Melbourne once.

Ah dreaming about dream home...

Today, I had a little browse through the fishmonger. It's a pity that most NZ fish are sold pre-filleted. I miss Australia in that they treat their fish more respectful. As with NZ, we just dump them to Fish 'n' Chips or sell them to Japan (which profits more). Then I saw Kina, a NZ sea-urchin. It taste pretty much just like a usual sea urchin except without the extremely perfumed fragrant of those in Korea. This is the 'peasant' tasting variety, I reckon, because it does only have that caviar-like taste profile.

Uni, sea-urchin, or Kina is commonly seen in sushi shop. But what's little hungry heart if it's just Kina on sushi rice? (I already posted something about sushi before). I found the eggy after-taste of Kina matches well with a comforting dish... like Teriyaki. Ow, and just to make it a little bit colourful I squirted some of squid ink on the sushi rice. It's presented in an awkward and playful Japanese manner.

Kina & Teriyaki Chicken
with Squid ink Sushi rice & Salmon Roe
serves 4

Cooked Sushi Rice (click here for recipe)
2 Tbs squid ink

1/2 cup Japanese/Korean soy sauce
1/2 cup sweet mirin
4-6 Tbs sugar (try mixing with glucose/corn syrup for better gloss)
1 ts sesame oil
1 garlic clove (optional)
1 cm ginger (optional)
salt & white pepper

2 Tbs butter

8 chicken drum sticks, cut bottom flat to keep up right

200g sea urchin
2 Tbs fish roe (salmon, lump fish, beluga, etc)

1. Divide sushi rice to 2 portions just before end of cooking and stir in squid ink. Season with sushi season as directed in the other recipe. Cool. Shape to your likings.
2. Heat oven to 220celcius, season chicken with salt and roast in oven until skin is dark golden colour (about 40 minutes).
3. Meanwhile, for teriyaki sauce, mix mirin, soy and sugar in saucepan. Heat to boil and add garlic and ginger. Simmer for 2 minutes. Stir in sesame sauce.
4. When chicken is cooked, heat butter and teriyaki sauce on frying pan. Transfer chicken and let the sauce seep in to chicken.
5. To plate up, top sushi rice with a little fish roe. Add a couple of drum sticks and Kina. Serve!

little guilty pleasures...

"I'm coming home now real soon."-Mel Tormé

Ciabatta

2011-07-03T15:06:00.006+12:00

To most people in Asia, a bread is just a bread. To most people in Western world, a rice is just a rice. So what bread changed my view about 'just bread'? Ciabatta, of course!

When I first ordered the strange looking sandwich in an Australian cafe 1999, I was asked if I'd like it toasted. My English was barely useful. Deciding between yes or no is exactly like flipping a coin, I was too considerate to ask for a simpler question. "Yes". I said yes to a Ciabatta with mozzarella and mortadella to be toasted.

That yes changed everything I felt about bread. I felt the comfort and the scrumptiousness. I never felt the same way about cheese and ham neither.

I had my fair share of working as an urban cafe chef. Ciabatta is the practical staple of the business. I would put anything I craved and toasted them for my break-time munch. While most cafe source their Ciabatta from other bakeries, I always bake in the quiet moments of the service because the oven was always on 15 hours non-stop daily and it'd be a waste not to bake. It saves cash for the business too. That's what you'd seek in an employer, seizing an opportunity to learn whilst earning; an attribute of someone who calls his/her work as a 'calling'. I do it in hospital too. I am not ashamed to say 'I love my job' in a overtly cheesy way.

There are little things I learnt in life,
"You want to see work ethics? See one's father.
You want to see the ambition? See one's mother."
or
"You wanna see where you are going? look at your mum.
You wanna see how you gonna get there? look at your dad."

Well, it's a personal experience thing that I gathered, especially more applicable to men. I know it's not entirely a black and white rule of life. Not everyone has a mother and a father. It's true in my case that I look up to my daddy's work ethic; yes, I call my dad 'daddy' even if I had independently life my life since I was 12. A daddy who works hard because he enjoys them and great at doing it. It does seem to burden the family time, but we (our Asian family) learnt our traditions pretty quickly. And my mum? She does stir up my ambitions in life.

Attitudes and outlooks in life seems to be embedded early in childhood. We do not merely inherent the gene of our physical projection, but our environment influences the expression of our gene itself. It would seemingly that how your parents act will change your gene. Lets probe a little more on this latest culture of genetic science called epigenetics.

All of us were born with a set of DNA that will be translated to RNA, which then will be turned to protein, then to molecules, then to parts of a cell, then to a complete cell, then to a tissue, then to an organ and finally to whole body. The fundamental science textbook would accentuate how our DNA is basically our destiny- born with a non-adjustable package. The problem with the old school idea is that it only goes one way. In real living life, there is of course a feedback system. For example, if we are having lots of a certain protein in our diet, we would cease to make too much of that protein. Our body wouldn't just run without catering to our needs.

Now this is where the cool thing happen (well I do find it cool). Epigenetic is a branch of genetic science that study the translation between DNA to RNA. New researches suggested that there are endless interplay of biochemical concoction influencing the translation of DNA to RNA which, if you have read the previous paragraph, will change our body as a whole.

Say what?
OK, I'll put it in to a context. There is a lab rat experiment that aimed to see the effect of gene and emotional environment. Two groups of genetically identical female rats were studied; one was left in a very stressful environment and the other with nourishing environment. Both groups of rats were bred individually with the same father. The descents of stressed rats showed poor ability to manage stress itself. When the babies of stress female rats brain were cut open and probed, there was a lower level of a certain hormone that helps with mood control/stress management. On probing further, the DNA gene of these baby rats changed!

Huh?
OK, I'll make it even simpler.
Two groups of genetically identical female rats with different emotional exposure + same dad =

Genetically different baby rats!

Could it be that our emotions evidently affect our DNA?

"Poco a poco, me vuelvo loco (little by little, I'm going crazy)"-Chetes

Hmm... (how did I get here)... talking about Ciabatta to work ethics to epigenetics? Hahaha. Oh well, who knows, my rant may be the passionate talkative Italian epigenetic working its mojo away.

Ciabatta
yields 2 loaves

For la biga (the ferment) 24 hours prior,
150g tipo '00' flour or organic stoneground white flour
100g water
1/2 ts fresh compressed yeast

1. In a bowl, mix yeast and water until dissolved. Stir in flour with fork until it forms a rough lumpy crumble. Knead for 7 minutes. The dough will be sticky and a little on wet side. Transfer dough back to clean bowl, cover with cling plastic wrap. Punch a few holes on the wrap with fork. Cover with kitchen cloth. Leave to ferment for 24 hours.

La biga

For Ciabatta dough,
La biga, see above
250g tipo '00' flour or organic stoneground white flour
150g water
5g fresh compressed yeast
4 Tbs olive oil
1 ts salt

extra olive oil and plain flour

1. In a bowl mix water, salt, oil and yeast until dissolved. Stir in la biga and flour with fork until it forms a lumpy crumble. Knead for 15 minutes, it will be a little sticky in the beginning but it should come off clean from your fingers after 15 minutes of kneading. Transfer to a clean bowl, lightly oil the dough surface. Cover bowl loosely with cling plastic wrap. Leave to proof for 2-3 hours.
2. Heat oven to 220celcius. (Do not punch the dough!) Transfer dough to floured bench and cut the dough in to 2 with a sharp knife. Gently flatten each dough with finger knuckles to form a rough 10 inch square. Imagine the squared dough in 3 horizontal proportion, lift and fold the bottom third portion to the middle third portion. Then gently press with knuckle. Lift and fold the top third portion to the middle double-folded portion. Gently press. Lift and fold the dough in half in the same horizontal plane as the third lift-and-folding. Gently press and pinch the end of the fold. Flour top and bottom of dough. Repeat for the other dough. You should have a small looking ciabatta dough.
3. Transfer the shaped dough to a tray lined with a kitchen cloth and cover with another kitchen cloth. Let the dough rise for 40 minutes.
4. Transfer dough to a baking tray or pre-heated baking stone. Bake for 20 minutes. Let the bread rest for 10 minutes before eating. Serve!

The Proper Density

Note: don't ask or belittle your doctor about epigenetics. Most wouldn't have a clue what it is. It's still a novel science with very obscure complexity. I believe that we live in a bowl of soup, a little Ciabatta crouton will change the whole soup experience, the whole taste, the whole soup and the whole life itself. That's how obscure we are inter-related.

Lao Gan Ma Crackling Roast Pork

2011-07-01T01:06:00.008+12:00

So suddenly my 'ex'-flatmate bursted out,
"F#^% you! You stupid landlord! It's just general wear and tear!", as he claimed about the horrible scratches on my wall and furniture.
"Hey language man. 'General wear and tear!!!!', 'GENERAL WEAR AND TEAR!!!'. 'GENERAL WEAR AND TEAR!!!'Are you talking about your wife's v@%ina?!", I actively replied with an intention of wearing and tearing their marriage just the way they tore away my self-build/designed/nurtured apartment. The fight went on with me being sarcastically calm and them being anxious, pissed-off and gradually unsure about fidelity and meaning of life. (Don't mess with a budding psychiatrist).

Well that's the setback of being a landlord, one day there will be the first fight. Good thing is that they're out now. Bad thing is that the energy bill was half grand for the month. I didn't know a couple can spend that much. Phew!

"It was just one of those nights. Just one of those fabulous fights"-Diana Krall

Winter just set in this week and sadly I have to save up on electricity; like baking a bread and roast a left-over pig on a freezing night. The warmth of the oven truly bless my soul to its deepest coldest bitter well.

I was meant to cook something Moroccan with the pork but I stumbled on a new thing on my pantry. Michelle @ Niche, posted something with Lao Gan Ma a few moments back and convinced me to finally try it. Lao Gan Ma aka 'La Old Grandma' is a dried spices and chili infused oil. I had a suspicion that this stuff is the chili oil that they use in Chinese restaurants but I never get around in to buying it because I was stubborn to find ways to make it.

The Chinese supermarket had 5 different types of Lao Gan Ma, and it got me puzzled. I ended up settling for the crackling GM concoction. I don't even know what it stands for and its safety. Since I saw X-Men:First Class last week, I really wanted to be a mutant and crackling GM (possibly stands for genetically mutant?) sounded much better than bitter fermented salted green vegetable flavour. So far I haven't teleported or grew anything sharp on my body... yet?

In theme of frugality, I used up vegetable scraps like onion skins, old carrots and old chestnuts to provide a base for the meat to avoid direct heat from the casserole base.

Again, simple French technique, simple Chinese flavour. (Well the oven was on, so it's French)

Lao Gan Ma Crackling Roast Pork
serves 4

1kg pork shoulder with skin

2 Tbs Lao Gan Ma
1 ts coriander seeds

5 garlic cloves, bruised
1 inch ginger, chopped roughly
2 onion, sliced roughly
2 carrot, sliced roughly
salt

1. Heat oven to 165celcius, no fan with only top element on.
2. Roughly score/pierce the skin on the pork. Smear Lao Gan Ma and coriander seeds all over pork. Sprinkle 1 ts salt on the skin of pork and massage it for 20 seconds.
3. In a le creuset style casserole, lie the chopped vegetables on the bottom. Transfer pork on top. Roast in oven in middle shelf for 3-5 hours uncovered. Rest for 5 minutes and use the oily drippings to baste the pork after slicing over the juicy meat and high-pitched crackling skin. Serve!

Not too bad for a free heating...

From little hungry heart

Cocoa Cookies

2011-06-27T01:26:00.008+12:00

Based on my personal experiences, girls who like all things 'Oreo's' are potentially nurturing and comforting women/mothers, but a little spoilt at times. I could be wrong but this is how I'd like to begin my blurb.

"Oh simple thing, where have you gone?"-Keane

The significance of Oreo's in foodie community is no stranger to most bloggers; hidden in a choc chip cookie, crumbled and packed in cheesecake, pizzas, donuts, etc. Ditto, this is just another post of deconstructed Oreo.'s It's not 'just another' for me though, since I actually use my favourite dessert on the planet to mimic the Oreosome experience- Panna Cotta.

Most of us would know that Oreo's tastes mediocre by itself but in a mixture, i.e. milkshake, Oreo's shines with a trademark everlasting love. So when I was trying to impress my new buds, I use the Oreo's effect and my personal Panna Cotta effect. I induced a double whammy of easy-loved experience in one bite.

First things first, how do you make Oreo's?

Well Oreo's is actually a hard find in NZ, as compared to OZ. Right about the time when I stumbled upon the goodie in a supermarket aisle, I looked at the ingredient lists and then bake, bake and bake. I was obsessed to impress a loving-all-things-Oreo's girl at that time. It was quiet hard to figure out because the more I make chocolate stuff, the more I hate it. That's why I limit my chocolate cookery and consumption. After figuring my recipes, I tried the ones available on googling. On the making, I realised that I actually like a particular flavour of Ethiopian cocoa. So I just kept a Cocoa Cookies recipe and claim it my version of Oreo's base.

P.S. I am not posting my pink-white chocolate rose recipe because it's an intricate process. I will use visual cues or videos to explain in the future.

Cocoa Cookies
yields 30 cookies

75g good cocoa powder
200g plain flour
150g caster sugar
125g butter
1 egg, beaten
a pinch baking soda

1. In a bowl, whisk egg, sugar and baking soda until creamy and smooth. Stir in flour and cocoa with fork and bring the dough in to 1 smooth lump (do not over knead/mix). Cover and rest in fridge for 1hr-1day.
2. Heat oven to 175celcius, no fan. In between two layers of baking paper, roll out the dough to 1/2 cm thick. Cut to your desired shape. Line a baking paper on a baking tray. Transfer cut out dough to baking tray. Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes depending on size of your dough. Leave to cool on wire rack. Dust with icing sugar if desired. Serve!

Credits to Edi Yang & Surya for this Photo
(other photos are taken & edited by Pierre)

To assemble Panna Cotta with Cocoa Cookies,
Panna Cotta recipe
Unmould panna cotta on the day of serving (not longer) and leave to chill in fridge. Blend or crush cocoa cookies with blender or mortar and pestle. Crumble on to the panna cotta. Decorate with white chocolate. Serve!

Leave gracefully and move on...

Roast Chicken stuffed with Ginseng, Shiitake & Sticky Rice

2011-06-25T10:13:00.008+12:00

Traditionally, a lot of mother's love in times of illness can be felt through her chicken soup. My mum's is Samgyetang (삼계탕). In its essence, it's sticky rice-stuffed chicken, garlic, and ginseng. I guess I can cheekily say that my mum's chicken soup is better than yours because it has a strength boosting and libido enhancing ginseng.

Samgyetang (삼계탕)

But I like all chicken soup from any part of this world as long as it's made with love.

Chicken soup should be a little on the salty side for it actually to be a therapeutic soup. The minerals and protein in the soup acts as a catalyst to boost the absorption of fluid in the body. In other words, mum's chicken soup is an IV saline substitute. On an unrelated note, I also like my chicken soup with white pepper.

I had a chronic nudge in my head of creating a take on my mum's chicken soup. Firstly though, learning how to make it. My mum never teach me anything about cookery. So I called her and she told me about what the soup consisted of, the rest I had to figure out because, well to be honest, my mother never properly learnt Indonesian and neither did I with Korean so our communication can only go so far... That's why we use food, music, etc to show our hearts elaborately.

"Now I'm determined to I'm gonna get it right"-Fairground Attraction

I tend to stir away from experimenting with chicken soup because usually the soup would be good but the chicken would be unappetising. The meat would be dry no matter what and the skin will be slimy, which were why I had a phase of hating chicken for a few years. However, I got in to chicken again when I was forced to please a restaurant owner who loved chicken. Initially, I wanted to discover the basic flavour of chicken, so I just roast a chicken with salt and pepper- nothing else. That was the way that me and my ex-boss loved our chicken. Little did I know that my idol chef, Thomas Keller, also loved his Chicken in almost the same way. Anyway, I am sharing his video in this post so it's easier for you to know how to truss a chicken.

I really like the idea of a roast. It brings caring people together to share. It's simple, traditional and robust. Hence I made a roast chicken, well 2 roast chicken- one with the traditional Samgyetang recipe and another with Chinese fusion. I had to say the latter is better.

Roast Chicken stuffed with Ginseng, Shiitake & Sticky Rice
serves 4

1 whole chicken, preferably free-range and corn-fed
leave covered 4 hrs in room temperature
don't truss yet but take out wishbone

1 chicken carcass (bones of 1 chicken)

7 garlic cloves
2 fresh Korean Ginseng
2 dried Jujube red dates
2 dried or fresh chestnuts

10 dried Shiitake mushrooms, soaked overnight and discard water
1 Tbs light soy sauce

1 1/2 cup uncooked sushi rice
1 cup uncooked glutinous sticky rice

old vegetable scraps, like carrots, leeks, or celery

salt & white pepper

1. In a saucepan, bring chicken carcass, garlic, jujube, ginseng, chestnuts and 6 cups water to boil. Simmer on medium heat for 40 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Drain and reserve the broth, ginseng, chestnuts and 2 garlic. Discard the rest. You should have about 3-4 cups of broth. Return the reserved ingredients to saucepan, add in both types of rice, mushrooms and soy. Bring to boil and cover with lid to cook the rice until just al dente. Season with salt and pepper. Remove and cool. These can be reserved for future cooking for up to 2 days in fridge.
2. Heat oven to maximum (220-250celcius) with no fan. Stuff the chicken with the sticky rice mixture. Stitch the bottom end with kitchen strings to enclose the stuffing. Truss the chicken. Season the skin with salt. Lie the chicken on a bed of old vegetable scraps(i.e. old carrots), so it won't stick or burn to baking tray. Roast for 30-50 minutes, until the skin is golden and crispy. Serve!

For greens,
500g fresh Chinese greens, such as bok choy, kai lan, pak choi, etc.
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 Tbs light soy sauce
1 Tbs gin
canola oil
salt & white pepper

1. In a big saucepan, bring salted water to boil. Meanwhile, heat frying pan/wok to smoking hot with 1 Tbs oil. Blanch the greens for 30 seconds in saucepan, then drain and transfer immediately to hot oiled pan with garlic. Stir in soy and gin. Stir for 1 minute. Serve!

Photos courtesy of Edi Yang & Surya

Pan-fried Red Cod with Saffron-Paprika Chickpeas Purée, Chorizo Avocado Salsa & Chardonnay Grilled Octopus

2011-06-24T03:23:00.008+12:00

How do you remember recipes when you're need to remember billions of medical diagnoses?
Associations.

Everyone does it; number recallers, chest players and possibly even elephants. Lets say a chest player were asked to memorise a certain part of a game on a chest board. The board must have been a set of logical chest moves. If there were random and illogical chest pieces, it would take the chest player 15 times or longer to memorise the board. In other words, the player associates the board with his previous experiences of the game.

For associations to work, they have to be personalised to your special strengths. There are billions of psychological tools to figure out which one is yours. For example, remember the time when you had a great day in the beach. Describe it. Here is how some people may have described it:
1. The sun was shinning and the rolling waves were bursting like white velvets on blue waters.
Someone who visually associates. Usually the person would say, "looks like", "seems like","looking forward", "picture this","imagine".
2. I can hear the birds squawking and the roaring waves marching like a train.
The listener would probably say,"sounds like", "in tune with", etc.
3. There is a mineral taste right up on my upper nostril and the crisp-humid warmth of the sun crept slowly to lift the hair on my arms. I was just dandy.
If I were to self-analysed myself, I'm more on this zone with traces of the listener. The feeler or kinesthetics would unconsciously and uninhibitedly say, "feels like","the vibe when", so on.

These three simple categories are just a simple example tool to figure out how you associate your memory and your senses. I think it would be a useful aid to enhance your memory power. Actually this test is more commonly used to penetrate people with suggestion, aka hypnosis. Sounds cool huh? Well that's why I'm in to psych.

So in a life with a demand for memory, I certainly associate everything with feelings. The key of being a 'feeler' is that you should be a 'thinker'. It's no good to get muddle up with the feelings and memories without analysing and thinking about what feeling I am experiencing and memorising.

I get a lot of questions about how to memorise recipes when you are a doctor. I hope I just answered it.

"Where is my mind?"-The Pixies

The next trick to master is to function the other way around. For example, I previously posted about my feelings about a girl and how I would taste her in S's Stir-fry. Then, now in this post, I had been craving for something warming the back of my uvula and front of my tongue with a filling sensation in my oesophagus and comfort at the back of my upper neck. Hence, I made a paprika-saffron chickpeas purée.

It's how I operate my brain and my heart effectively. How would you operate yours?

Pan-fried Red Cod with Saffron-Paprika Chickpeas Purée,
Chorizo Avocado Salsa & Chardonnay Grilled Octopus.
serves 4

1 kg red cod, filleted (skin on) to 4 servings and reserve the bones

For Octopus,
1-2 Octopus legs, cut to 1/2 chunks transversely
1-2 cups Chardonnay or Sauvignon Blanc wine, enough to cover octopus
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 ts coriander seeds, ground
1 Tbs paprika powder
a pinch of salt & black pepper
2 Tbs olive oil

1. In a glass bowl, combine everything. Cover and marinade in refrigerator overnight.
2. Heat up frying-pan to smoking hot. Add a little extra oil. Grill the octopus until cooked, about 2-3 minutes.

For Saffron-Paprika Chickpeas purée,
1 can of Chickpeas or 250g cooked dried Chickpeas
1 white fish carcass/bone (from the red cod)
3 garlic cloves
1 Tbs paprika powder
1 ts saffron
1 red chili (optional)
2 tomatoes, quartered
1 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs butter
salt & black pepper

1. In a saucepan, boil white fish and garlic with 3-4 cups water for 30 minutes. Drain and reserve the broth, discard the carcass and garlic. Return broth to saucepan. Add in chickpeas, paprika, saffron, chili, tomatoes and olive oil. Boil for 5 minutes. Using hand-held blender or blender, blend the content until smooth. Strain and return to simmer on low heat in saucepan until thick. Stir in butter. Season with salt and pepper.

For Chorizo Avocado Salsa,
1/2 Chorizo sausage, diced
1 avocado, diced
1/2 lime juice
1 Tbs extra virgin olive oil
salt & pepper
olive oil

1. Fry the Chorizo on low heat in a little olive oil until dark red and tasty, about 3 minutes.
2. Mix lime juice and extra virgin olive oil in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper. Add in avocado before it turns brown. Mix in fried chorizo.

For Pan-fried Red Cod,
4 Red cod fillet with skin on
olive oil
salt & pepper

1. In a smoking hot non-stick pan, add in 2 Tbs olive oil. Pan fry fish skin side first and turn halfway. It should take about 1 minute each side.

To assemble,
1 lime, cut to wedges

Spoon the warm purée on a plate. Lie the fish on top. Top with grilled octopus and avocado-chorizo salsa. Serve with lime wedges on the side!

Photos courtesy of Edi Yang

I guess another cool thing once you've associate memories with feelings. You can also dissociate them. It's great to take a lot of pain and maintain the stamina of life but don't do it too much, 'cos you still need pain to feel alive.

From little hungry heart

P.S. I wanna truly thank Edi for the redemption of my fish with his shooting skills and Surya for sharing his Nikon D7000.