Easy & Tasty Peas & Bacon

I shouldn't call this a recipe. I know. I know.
I don't know why I haven't done this combo before. Easy, simple, and of course bacon and bacon grease make everything tasty. Perfect for a quick lunch or dinner, or serve this as a side dish, or add a couple of beaten eggs to turn it into a breakfast. Easy peasy!

Recipe
- a cup of frozen peas
- a few slices of bacon strips (depends how much bacon you want, I used 3 strips)
- salt, black pepper, lemon juice (optional)
Drop frozen peas into a bowl of hot water for a quick defrost, drain, set aside. Cut bacon strips into small pieces. Throw bacon into a frying pan over medium heat. Once bacon becomes a bit brownish, turn the heat up and add frozen peas. Mix peas and bacon, let cook for about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a serving plate/bowl, squeeze fresh lemon juice to balance the bacon fat.

I have a confession to make. I ate mine with steamed rice. How Indonesian of me.

Make Your Own Sandwich DIY Party

Once upon a time... (yes, this happened THAT long ago by Internet standard).
I finally managed to host a small house warming party with my bin tai (twisted) food-mad friends.
It was meant to be a casual afternoon tea party, I planned to make dainty little sandwiches and everything.

But! Somehow, SC made an appointment with our interior designer to have our flat photographed that morning (ARGH!). We thought it's gonna be a one hour affair. Photo photo photo and done, but noooo... the designers moved around stuff and I wasn't able to use my kitchen until right before the party (ARGH ARGH!!!).

Thus, I frantically prepared all of the ingredients to make sandwiches, with the great help of my good friend, Ieie, and decided that all of my guests will have to DIY their sandwiches themselves.

Turned out pretty fun!
Here are the pictures from the party.

The spread
BreadsI prepared an assortment of small sized breads. Mini cheese topped croissant, plain croissant, Japanese chewy cheese donuts, & danish bread.
Fillings
Fried bacon, cheddar hot dogs, cherry tomato-cucumber-feta salad, pineapple-grapes-young mango with lemon honey dressing, Hong Kong roast meats (char siu bbq pork, siu yuk roast pork, & roast duck), Indonesian fried noodles (that's right!), potato chips (uh huh!), and crispy seaweed (ya ha!)
Sauces
Japanese mayo, ketchup, chilli sauce, cream cheese, and if one felt like sweet sandwiches, condensed milk, peanut butter, nutella.
Sweets
Assorted baked goods that I didn't make, and some Indonesian snacks that again, I didn't make (bought from Indonesian restaurant).


Everyone's encouraged to go as crazy (as bin tai) as they could.
Push the envelopes, think outside the sandwich bag!

Here are some of the bin tai sandwiches my friends and I DIY'ed.

Supercharz' creation: seaweed, salad, bacon, & siu yuk in chewy donut. Whew!


e_ting's creation. Bacon, salad, & pineapple in mini croissant. The pineapple made all the diff!


Jasonbonvivant's creation. WOW! Siu yuk, bacon, tomatoes, potato chips, seaweed, & cucumber with feta in a mini croissant.
A tower of yummy madness!


G4gary's creation. Cucumber feta, siu yuk, pineapple & potato chips in danish bread.
Siu yuk (roast pork belly) is a very popular choice huh? I blame David Chang!

Here are mine, and yes I ate all of them.

Bacon, tomatoes, & cucumber with mayo in mini cheese topped croissant. Not too crazy to start.


Huge hot dog, tomatoes and cucumber in chewy Japanese donut with lotsa mayo and cream cheese

Towards the end, I went a bit more mad...

Danish bread topped with char siu, siu yuk & roast duck, Indonesian fried noodles and crispy seaweed.

WE HAD A LOT OF FUN!
What kind of other DIY parties we should do next?

Happy Family Sunday BBQ with A View at Sugar, East Hotel, Hong Kong

Check out where did we go last weekend?
A Sunday BBQ at Sugar, the seksi top floor bar of East Hotel!
I know "sexy" doesn't sound like a venue for a family with a toddler, but we were happy to give it a try as a family.
Thank you for inviting us, East Hotel!

First of all, look at this venue.

May I have a "WOW" please?

Check out this view!

Nothing short of AWESOME! GLORIOUS! MAJESTIC!



Marcus had a fantastic time running around (we should've said yes to the baby chair offer ^_^')

What an amazing backdrop for my salad...


Next stop, the BBQ!


I had a bit of everything...


With bread, salad, and a virgin mojito (so that Marcus can try too).

I ordered my favorites for my second round.

Perfectly cooked prawns with saffron lemon butter sauce. YUM!

I saw this drink at the next table, and I just HAD to have it.

Delicious and very pretty!

Ended my meal with these cute sweeties.

We had to leave in a bit of a hurry as Marcus got bored; started to touch everything; and running around like a lunatic ^_^'


We had a blast!

Visit their website for more info:
Sugar
The food costs HK$285 + 10% per person. 
Do check with Sugar before your visit for the updated menu and price.

Refreshing Green Salad with Feta Cheese & Summac

My good friend's husband, who's a chef in a Lebanese restaurant in Hong Kong, gave me a bag of sumac, the Lebanese ingredient (some sort of spice) they always use in their salad, which I ADORE! It is very citrusy, it adds an extra dimension to their salads.

PS. I always eat stuff off my friends lunch box and leave them starving hahaha.

Finally, I got to use it in my salads too, and this is one of them. Prepare a bowl of your favorite greens, drizzled a bit of olive oil and lemon juice on it, crumble some feta cheese (wow did I put more feta than veggie?) and sprinkle some sumac on it. Toss to mix and serve.

Perfect side dish for hot summer.

Thanks so much, Fabibi and chef Joe!

Longan Soda Summer Drink

You guys know how I love dumping fruits into my drinks. This time, I am feeling a bit exotic. So I peeled fresh longans, removed the seeds and added the flesh into a glass of iced soda (I used sprite).


I wouldn't call this a recipe, as always :)
Simply add fresh fruits in your icy soda to take it up a notch. If you can't find fresh longans, you can use the canned ones. And if you want some alcohol, simply add vodka (I am allergic to vodka - sad sad).

Cheers!

Guilty pleasure.

Tom yum instant noodles, cheddar sausage, fish dumplings, fried eggs, topped with fried shallot.
Exclusively for weekends ;)