A Hearty Snack - Mashed Potatoes with "Chili Con Carne" and Melted Cheese

This is the aftermath of a chili dog and mashed potato dinner...one heck of a hearty snack.

The hot dogs and buns are longgg gone, but I am left with a big bowl of "chili con carne" (quote marks as I am pretty sure that my version isn't authentic) and mashed potatoes. What to do? Put them together, top them with grated cheese...and nuke 'it to melt the cheese (I thought of putting them in the oven for a beautiful golden brown finish...but I worried that I would dry my mashed potatoes...I might try that next time).

Here's how I made my easy version of everything.

Mashed Potatoes
(serves two as side dish)
- 2 large potatoes, cleaned, peeled and cubed (around 1 x 1 x 1 cm)
- 3 tbsp butter, or more? (uh huh)
- a dash of milk
- salt, pepper, nutmeg

Place potato cubes in a microwave safe bowl, add a dash of milk and microwave on high for 15 minutes. Check if the potatoes are soft enough, microwave for 5 or more minutes if needed. Once the potato cubes are soft enough, mash them with a fork, stir in butter bit by bit, season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

"Chili Con Carne"
(yields quite a lot, depends on how you want to use it, as a topping for hotdog/potatoes or...eat it with rice?)
I apologize for not being able to find the source of this recipe... T_T
- 1/2 lb ground beef
- half an onion, cubed
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- 4 smallish fresh tomatoes, cubed
- 1 green bell pepper, cubed
- 10 pieces of sliced, jalapeno from a jar, chopped (I used El Paso)
- 1 small can of tomato paste
- 1 can of mixed beans
- 2 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp all spice
- 2 pieces of cloves
- olive oil, butter, hot water (or chicken or beef stock), salt, cayenne pepper

Saute garlic and onion in olive oil with a touch of butter, add ground beef, add chopped tomatoes and green bell pepper, let cook for a bit, add tomato paste, add a bit of hot water or stock (depends on how thick you want it to be, and depends on how long you want to cook it, since I plan to make a speedy one, I didn't add much water to the mixture), bring to boil, add spices and seasonings, add mixed beans, cook until heated through, adjust seasoning if necessary, add chopped jalapeno at the end, mix well, and serve.

I used a mix of grated mozzarela and sharp cheddar for this snack. After the cheese melted and everything's heated through...

Who was I kidding? One tiny ramekin is never enough!

My Hot Dog & Poutine Wannabe Dinner

I've never tried Poutine in my life...so, how weird of me to try "recreating" it at home. How was I supposed to know how it tasted like? Therefore, please excuse my beyond inauthentic poutine wannabe and just go along this yummy ride, will ya?

From what I heard, poutine is essentially french fries served with cheese curd and gravy.
They had me at cheese.
Heck, they had me at fries!

So, here we go...
My Poutine Wannabe
The Fries

I planned to use store bought french fries or frozen fries. But since I couldn't find any that day, I just sliced a couple of potatoes, rinse them until the water runs clear to get rid of the excess starch, pat 'em dry, and oven baked them with some butter and olive oil. I try to avoid deep frying whenever I can.

The cheese

In a sauce pan, I threw in 2 tsp butter, 1/2 cup of skim milk, plenty of grated cheddar cheese, a pinch of salt, white pepper, a dash of paprika (I just did it for the love of red dust) and a bit of corn starch dilluted in water to thicken. I added a few chunks of cheddar at the end.

The gravy

I despise store bought gravy, plus, I need to prepare my lunch for the next working day, so I used the gravy of this beef dish on my "poutine". Saute a clove of crushed garlic and a quarter of diced onion with a bit of butter and olive oil, add beef chunks, add mushrooms, drizzle some red wine, add some diced vegetables (I used peas, carrots and corn), add beef/chicken stock (optional) or just hot water, add mixed herbs (I used rosemary, oregano, and thyme), season with salt and black pepper, thicken with a bit of corn starch dilluted in water...and I got my version of gravy sorted.

The assembly

Two servings of "fries". Since they will get soaked in sauces anyway, don't worry too much about them being not as fluffy or crispy as normal french fries...and you don't need to season them.


I couldn't resist but adding a few chunks of beef before pouring some gravy over 'em.


Topped with the liquid gold...cheese sauce with chunks of cheddar cheese...
Yum. Amen.

I went even more inauthentic with the next serving...but I didn't regret it...

I added the whole beef, veggie, and mushrooms with the gravy altogether before pouring the cheese.
At least it is healthy---er, right?

...and while I prepared the hotdogs, I keep them in low oven to keep warm...

It's amazing how I could peel myself off them.

They were begging to be consumed right away.

Oh my~

The hotdogs

Johnsonsville's Turkey Cheddar hot dogs on lightly buttered and toasted hot dog buns, served with mayo, ketchup, relish, sambal ABC (Indonesian chilli sauce) and grated mixed cheese.

Nothing else I could say but yum!

PS. SC blamed me for the 2 lbs he gained after this meal :(

Baked Indonesian Croquettes - Kroket Panggang

Love Indonesian croquettes so much, but not in love with the idea of deep frying (as always).
I wonder if I could get away with baking it...if I could bake shrimp cakes, surely I can bake these too?
Yayaya, so I thought.

Here's how I made my version, yields about 6 large croquettes:

Stuffing
- 1/2 cup of minced meat (beef/pork/chicken/corned beef/etc)
- 1/2 cup of mixed vegetables (I used frozen green peas, diced carrot and corn kernels)
- 1 small clove of garlic, finely minced
- 1 small clove of shallot, finely minced
- salt, white pepper, sugar, ground nutmeg, olive oil
- Cheddar cheese, cut into 1x1x1 cm cubes (optional)

Saute garlic and shallot, add minced meat let cook until almost done, add mixed veggies, season and cook until done. Set aside. Keep the cheddar cheese cubes refrigerated

Potato part
- 4 large potatoes
- salt, pepper, sugar, butter, ground nutmeg, milk powder
- egg, beaten
- breadcrumbs
- olive oil

Bake potatoes until soft enough to mash (about 2 hours in 180C oven). I've tried boiling/microwaving before, but the result was just too watery....

Once soft, mash potatoes, add 1 tsp butter, 2 tsp milk powder (skip if you don't have, it's not worth buying a whole tin of milk powder), season with salt, pepper, sugar, and ground nutmeg, mix well.

Assembly
Grab a heaping tbsp of potato, add mixed veggie and meat filling in the middle, add a cube of cheddar cheese, cover with another tbsp of potato, roll into an oval-ish ball shape. Continue until you've finished all the potatoes. You might end up with leftover filling, feel free to eat it with rice. I also ate all of the leftover cheddar cheese cubes :D

Eggwash the croquettes and roll them into breadcrumbs. Lay them in baking sheet/plate and refrigerate for a couple of hours (my impatient self skipped this step and kept opening my oven to check on my croquettes, so they cracked and went out of shape T_T).


Baking
Preheat oven to 200C, line a baking sheet with foil (if your baking sheet is all burnt like mine), lightly grease with olive oil. Line croquettes on baking sheets, leaving some space in between, brush them lightly with olive oil or melted butter, bake until golden brown.

Or...of course, you can also deep fry them :D

See I made a tiny croquette ball? It doesn't have any meat/veggie filling, just a cube of cheddar cheese and it tasted fantastical! I'm gonna make these tiny babies next time.

Despite the cracks and the flattened bottoms, when I took these out of the oven, I could still kinda mold them back into a decent shape...and they get firmer once they've cooled down...and they tasted good. I will try perfecting them again soon.

Now, I really have to show you this...
SC's idea of cool food styling is...

of course, sticking the parsley into the croquette like a mini tree :D
He went mad when I rolled my eyes and refused to take this shot.

What do you think? You likey?

Oven Baked Yoghurt Chicken Strips and Mushroom Balsamic Potatoes

What if you miss fried chickens so dearly, but not allowed to have some?
Oven bake them.

What if you love chicken legs so much, but not allowed to have some?
Tenderize, juicify, and flavor up those breasts.

Like how?

Marinate boneless, skinless chicken breasts in yoghurt (to tenderize) and some spices (to inject some flavors. I used garlic salt, sugar, paprika, dried oregano, black pepper, lemon zest, tiny wee bit of olive oil), refrigerate for a few hours or overnight. You don't even have to whack them flat (Who likes flat breasts? Well, I believe many people do. Wat?!! They were lying???!!!). They'll be amazingly tender.

Before serving, drench them in a mix of breadcrumbs, garlic salt, sugar, paprika, dried oregano, lemon zest, and black pepper. Preheat oven to 200C, lay chicken breast pieces on a baking tray brushed thinly with olive oil.

Bake until gloriously golden.

I served them with potato cubes and mushrooms cooked with balsamic vinegar, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar, and dried oregano. Simply saute aromatics, add mushrooms, add potatoes, cook covered until tender and serve.

Squeeze some lemon juice on them..and oh my!
Flavorful, tender, juicy, tasty...everything I love on breasts.
Yum!
These are super satisfying...

....but PS. It does not mean that I now don't want fried chicken legs.

Baked Potato Cakes with Corned Beef - Perkedel Corned Panggang

Some experiences are bound to fail.

Yet, I was stubborn enough to still try them. Sometimes I fail the food, sometimes I fail the photography. This time, I record-breakingly failed both. Haha, this calls for a celebration.

I blamed these failures solely to my stubbornness:
- I knew I had to follow a true and tested recipe properly (I didn't plan to fail perkedel another time), yet I chose to deviate from it. Dammit
- I knew I should not have experimented taking photographs with harsh lighting and no light diffuser of any sort, but I bloody did it anyway

So, the results:
- Ugly looking perkedels
- Ugly pictures

So, guys, please do not try these at home.

Baked Potato Cakes with Corned Beef - Perkedel Corned Panggang

After failing perkedels (Indonesia potato cakes) a few times, I kinda gave up and almost vowed never to try making them again. But my good blogging pal, Lidia, encouraged me to try her fool-proof recipe, which sounded doable and her perkedels look incredible!

I should not have trusted my ability to follow recipes. Based on my chronic fear of deep frying, I insisted on microwaving the potatoes, which made turned them into a bowl of mushy mess. Furthermore, due to my pure greed, I added too much canned corned beef, thus when I was trying to pan fry the potato cakes...potato and beef bits and pieces floated everywhere...it was disastrous.

Finally, I decided to throw the rest of the dough into a lightly greased muffin mold and baked 'em. They tasted decent, but nothing like how perkedels should taste nor look like.

Since I don't want you to do what I did, I am not sharing my modification of the recipe. Please follow Lidia's recipes linked above...

...and 'til my next failure.....stay delicious ^_^

Beef Shin in Red Wine with Baked Potatoes in Cheese, Garlic & Herbs

I hate wine.
Red. White. Rose. Champagne. All of them.
To those who appreciate it, wine might taste fruity, chocolatey, oak-ish, sending them back to a chateau in France or a valley in California, whatever. To me, wine tasted sour, bitter, and smelt weird.
Oucchhhhhh! (Got hit by gadzillions of saute pans thrown at me by avid wine fans. Opps)
I'm sorry but it was my truth. Was.

Sous chef, recently enlightened by the great health benefits of a glass of red wine a day regime, which apparently is greater than a cup of broccoli a day, started bringing crappy cheapest-of-the-bunch bottles of red wine home, and insisted that I drink half a cup a day. Boy, it was a torture.

Later on, I thought I've found a great way to enjoy ruin wine. Ehm, by mixing it with loads of sprite and ice. All the sugar I drank probably exceeded the health benefits of red wine, antioxidants and all. Opps again. But after my recent cheddar cookies and red wine experience, I discovered that to enjoy wine, I gotta drink it with something I love, something that's gonna make the wine sweeter, something which magically gets rid of all the sourness and bitterness. Something like what I had last night.

Beef Shin in Red Wine

Recipe
(adapted from here)
- 1 kg beef shin (you can change this to other parts of beef, the original recipe called for chuck steak, but I only had beef shin :p)
- 4 cloves of garlic (peeled, crushed)
- 1 whole onion (cut into large chunks)
- 2 sticks of celery (cut 1 cm thick pieces)
- 1 carrot (cut into 1 cm thick pieces)
- thyme (I used dry)
- 3 bay leaves (I used dry)
- chicken stock (I used powdered version, 3 tsp)
- red wine (the recipe called for 1 whole bottle, but I used just 1-2 cups of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon, just until it's fragrant)
- bacon (I skipped this, cos I didn't have any, but it's still delicious)
- olive oil, hot water (just enough to cover everything), salt (1 tsp), black pepper, sugar (2 tsp)

I used pressure cooker, so "slow cooked" beef turned "fast cooked" beef. Hehehe. In the pressure cooker, I sauteed garlic and onion, threw the beef in, threw the rest of the ingredients, close the lid and pressure cook for 20 minutes, adjust flavors before serving. If you don't have a pressure cooker, simply bring to boil and cook on low heat until the meat is tender.

I served this dish with...
Baked Potatoes in Cheddar, Garlic and Herbs

Recipe
- 2 large potatoes, halved and sliced thinly (about 3mm thick pieces)
- grated cheddar cheese (or parmesan, just enough to cover the top of the potatoes)
- italian mixed herbs (oregano, rosemary, sage and thyme)
- 4 small cloves of garlic, crushed with skin
- black pepper, salt, olive oil
- lime/lemon zest (optional)

Preheat oven to 200C. I lined a baking pan with foil (lazy to scrap bits and pieces off the pan), scatter potato pieces (if possible in 1 layer), drizzle olive oil, season with salt, pepper and herbs, grate cheese all over, bake until the cheese's golden brown and the potatoes are soft. Grate lime/lemon zest when serving.

Cheers to good health and better sleep!

Quick Indonesian Rawon and Baked Perkedel

Did I just click "Publish" before typing anything? Sorry guys, accidents happen. Oooops. (This is not the first time, and probably ain't gonna be the last time :p).

I have a situation.
- There is a Rawon event, hosted by my blogger friends
- I love Rawon (Indonesian Black Beef Soup)
- I want Rawon
- now I really really want Rawon
but
- I have no time to make Rawon from scratch
- I don't have the ingredients to make Rawon from scratch
- I am lazy to make Rawon from scratch
- Heck, I don't know how to make Rawon from scratch

What to do?
Thank God for Indofood Rawon Instant Seasoning Mix!
Background music: Handel's Hallelujah Chorus

...what else can I do to make
Indonesian Beef Rawon
more of a weekday quick dish?
- Change the beef chunks with Sukiyaki style beef for record-breakingly quick cooking time
- Remove most of the frills which aren't readily available in my pantry (beansprouts, salted eggs, prawn crackers)
- Change the chilli sauce to just freshly chopped chilli
- Try to modify the fried perkedel (potato cake) side dish to the baked version, and fail miserably


Recipes
Quick Beef Rawon
- 1 lb sukiyaki style sliced beef (if possible with nice marbling)
- 1 cm ginger, crushed
- 1-2 packs of rawon instant seasoning mix (depends on how intense you want the flavor to be)
- 200-400ml hot water (depends how soupy you want it to be)
- olive oil
- lemon
- red chilli
- fresh corriander
Saute ginger in hot oil, add beef, when the color turns (it happens really quickly), add hot water, rawon instant seasoning mix, bring to boil. Turn the heat off, squeeze some lemon juice, garnish with fresh corriander, serve with steamed rice and additional lemon slices and red chilli on the side.

Baked Perkedel (Indonesian Potato Cakes)
- 2 large potatoes
- 1/2 small clove of garlic, finely chopped/grated
- salt, pepper, sugar, nutmeg
- 1 egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 220C. Wash potatoes, peel skin off, dice to about 2x2 cm cubes, pat dry, microwave until soft (I did on high, for about 7 minutes), mash, add finely chopped garlic, season with salt, pepper, sugar and nutmeg, form into small shapes (they are originally in a slightly flattened disk shape, but I also did small balls and ovals, just for fun). Line baking sheet with foil, brush with olive oil, lay the perkedels, brush with egg wash, bake until golden brown (mine was about 20 minutes), remove from oven to let cool, serve.

Mine turned out much lighter and fluffier than the normally firm perkedels. They taste alright, but they are a gadzillion miles away from the authentic perkedel T_T.

My friend, Lily, suggested boiling the potatoes until soft (with skin), drain, pat dry, peel skin off, mash with a bit of milk, roll into shape, dip in egg white, roll in breadcrumbs, pan fry quickly and pop in the oven to crisp. I am sooo gonna try this method next time.

You can also add minced meat/spam/ham/bacon/shrimps/fish or just the classic fried shallot and chopped spring onion in the mashed potatoes before rolling.

Gosh. My perkedels rants kinda stole the limelight from the Rawon, didn't they? Opppps (again).

This post is for the folks at Masak Bareng (Cooking Together) Event (February 2009 Edition): my apologies for being such a lazy ass and using instant seasoning mix. Opppps (I realised that saying "oppps" too many times did not make me any cuter or more forgiven hihi)

Potato Choco Chips Muffins

Inspirations come and go, but food is forever. Life without inspiration is like cappucino with no coffee, or lemon tea with no lemon, or chocolates without cocoa? W....whatt??? I guess composing profound philosophical quotes is just so not my thing.

What I was trying to say is...sometimes inspirations come from funny sources. Or at least, mine does.

There was an argument in the office...

At work, what would make us feel tinier than small potatoes?
- Job title? "Mochachocolatarita - Dung Sweeper" (Hey! That actually sounds kinda cool!)
- Salary? When it is simply not enough (...to cover essential expenses, don't even think about that piece of foie gras)
- Importance? (we need everybody's opinion on this project. Oh, except you. Remove all the staples from this mountain of documents, make 100000 copies and staple them back, please)
- Workstation? (a spacious corner office with a window, or that square meter spot between the copier and the shredder?)
- The way the tea lady treats you? (instead of calling you "Sir/Mam", washing your cup and serving you tea, she calls you "junior" and asks you to do the cups for her)
- How the upper management remembers your name? (oh yeah, they don't)

Oh my! Sucks, doesn't it? What a depressing discussion!
But the good news is...it got me thinking of a single, leftover small potato left in my spice bin at home. It's too small for a dish, but it's just perfect for baking some breakfast muffins.

Potato Choco Chips Muffins

Recipe
(yields 6 muffins)
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/3 cup caster sugar (you can add more if you like it sweeter)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 small potato, peeled, diced into about 1x1x1 cm pieces, microwave on high for 5 minutes, mashed, let cool
- 2 eggs (you can reduce to just 1 egg to make it taste less eggy)
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 cup milk (or 2/3 cup yoghurt)
- 1 tsp coconut essence (or vanilla essence)
- semisweet chocolate chips (I like lots of it, i.e. at least 10 chips in each muffin HAHA! You can reduce to just around 5-6 chips each)

Preheat oven to 180C (350F), in a mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, sugar, and salt. In another bowl, beat eggs, add milk, oil, coconut essence and mix. Pour egg mixture to flour mixture, mix until just combined. Add mashed potato, mix well. You can add the chocolate chips now, but I like adding mine into individual cups after pouring the batter so that each muffin gets equal amount of chips. Pour 2 tbsp batter into each muffin mold lined with paper cup, add choco chips, pour the remaining batter and bake for 15-20 minutes of until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

The muffins taste absolutely divine. Potatoey, slightly eggy, creamy and chocolatey.

This post is dedicated to small potatoes everywhere. Cheers!
Huge goodnesses can come from a small potato.

Bday Dinner at Domon Sapporo Ramen

On my birthdays, normally we'd go for something extreme. It's either something really fancy, such as last year's French private dining feast at Allez Allez...or something extremely crappy and cheap. Such as my bday junk food medley of KFC, McD, and Pizza Hut, which I had the year before, with no make up, uncombed hair, in my PJs, at home, thus weren't photographed (Dang! I should've taken some pics).

This year, I just want something in between. Something normal. Wait-a-minute! Doesn't a girl always want to be special? Doesn't a birthday mean anything anymore? Yes it does. I means I am getting older, wiser, smarter (oh, shut up!) and I should know better than to eat two huge & pricey meals back to back. Hehe. I have a huge buffet with the girls scheduled the next day. So, on the day itself, I just wanted to eat something ordinary.

Little did I know....that from something ordinary, we could expect something extraordinarily...(good/bad?)

As a huge ramen fan, I generally think that almost any bowl of ramen should be delicious. Plus, I've walked past Domon Sapporo Ramen in Tsim Sha Tsui numerous times before...and I've always seen it super crowded...with an endless queue of young and trendy patrons waiting outside. I thought...it's gotta be good! I've been wanting to try it since then...so when I saw one outlet in Whampoa, and I saw a poster of a famous Hong Kong food critic, posing with of a bowl of Domon butter ramenwith a big smile plastered all over his face, I immedinately wanted to have my "ordinary" bday dinner there.

However, now I know that...
Japanese Ramen + Crowded + Long Queue + Endorsement by famous food critic =/= Good

The food was really disappointing. I ordered a bowl of butter ramen. The ramen noodle was ok...but the broth wasn't tasty, the Japanese BBQ pork was dry, and the butter was unnecessary. Sous chef ordered Japanese curry rice. The curry was watered down, and it wasn't enough for the rice. We also ordered potato croquettes, which luckily, were decent and seafood stuffed chicken wings, which were rather fishy.

In the end...the disappointing food kinda made the day extraordinary ^_^. At least we learnt something from it. Sous chef blamed me for choosing this place, and I said I was entitled to make this mistake, I am the birthday girl after all. HAHA!

Domon Sapporo Ramen (Fashion World)
9 Shung King Street Shop G9, G/F
Fashion World Hung Hom

The day ended with blowing (or spitting on) my birthday cake, a slice of rich and yummy chocolate mousse cake from a bakery nearby. What did I wear and what else did I do that day? Check 'em out here.

Thanks for the dinner, the cake and the flowers, SC! Let me think of another crappy place to try next year. Haha!

Christmas Feast at Yeh Lam Kwok Restaurant

After my share of home cooking madness, and sous chef's end of low iodine diet...we were like loose canons...shooting from one restaurant to another...

This Christmas, considering my plummeting stocks....despite the generous one month bonus the company gave out...we didn't pick anything fancy. "Anything fancy" normally requires 6 months advance booking, and it could cost more than my one month's rent (seriously!).

Thus, I picked one of my favorite Hong Kong steak restaurant, Yeh Lam Kwok. The service totally sucks, they consistently screw up our orders, their food is nowhere near "fine dining", but I love love love the place...and you'll see why.

We managed to avoid the dining peak hour, by arriving at around 6.30. See all the empty seats there?...they would all be full by 8.


I love set dinners. At HK$148 (plus 10% service charge), I get lots of stuff. Soup, bread, appetizer, main course, dessert and a drink! In places like this...I am more of a quantity girl more than quality. Hehe.

Rich mushroom and seafood soup. Yes, it is rich with corn starch. This is why I hardly ever order cream based soup in Chinese eateries. I made an exception, and I shouldn't have. The raisin dinner rolls though...were heavenly. Soft, fluffy, and fragrant.

When dining in Hong Kong restaurants...the red soup is your safest bet. It is always rich and tasty.

I mentioned earlier that this place's service sucks and it consistently screwed up orders. In my previous visit, a friend of mine ordered a white soup with a puff pastry topping. She was served red soup with puff pastry topping. She couldn't see what's under the puff pastry, so she poked it with a fork...and told the server that it's not what she ordered.

Then the most amazing thing happened. The lady seated at the next table mentioned that she ordered a red soup with puff pastry topping. Our server looked at the soup in his hand (red, with already poked puff pastry), and we could see how he was contemplating giving the soup to the lady at the next table. My friends and I, and the lady and her companion were all staring at him, thinking "NOOOOO WAYYY"...and he DID! He handed the soup to the lady at the next table...and she looked at him with disbelief and said that she could not accept that.
The something more amazing happened. Our server argued "but it has only been poked, she (my friend), hasn't tasted the soup". The lady's companion said "No!"...and our server argued again "Well, if you won't accept this, then I'll order again and you will just have to wait!". He said "We'll wait". Our server stormed away, clearly not looking very happy about his brilliant idea being shut off. We looked at each other...still couldn't believe what we just experienced, and cracked up.

Will they screw up again this time?

My appetizer - Sliced ham and turkey on top of mashed potatoes and pumpkin with gravy
The ham was great, the gravy was tasty, and the mashed potatoes was smooth and creamy. I have never been crazy about turkey...it's a bit too dry and chewy for me.

Sous Chef's Main Course - Sirloin Steak with mashed potatoes and pumpkin, roasted vegetable, and tomato rice.
In places like this, when you ordered your steak "medium well"....don't count on it too much. Most probably you won't get it how you ordered it. It's gambling, really...and you might wonder why they serve mashed potatoes with rice? They're trying to get us high on carb, so that we won't notice the screwed up orders. Hehe

My main course - Steak and soft shell crabs on a bed of (another) mashed potatoes and pumpkin and roasted vegetables with black pepper sauce
The soft shell crabs were the star of this dish. They were crispy and deliciousss...and I love drenching them with black pepper sauce all over. YUM!


The dessert - Waffles with peaches and strawberry sauce, with a side of chocolate sauce
It's really too filling after the multiple appearances of mashed potatoes...but what the heck! It was delicious and we wiped the whole thing off the plate.

Sous chef's drink - Hot pear, ginger and tangerine tea
It's nice and refreshing, lightly sweetened, it's the perfect drink to end this heavy meal.

My drink - Triple Sec Chocolate
Super rich, creamy, orangey, and chocolatey. My all time favorite from this restaurant. It is so worth the HK$8 extra charge for "special drinks"

They did screw up my order and tried to serve me salmon instead of my steak. But I love being overfed...and with such a value for money, the screw ups won't scare me away from going back to Yeh Lam Kwok.

Yeh Lam Kok Restaurant (Hung Wai Building)
3-5 Fa Yuen Street Shop B, 1/F
Hung Wai Building Mong Kok

Holiday snap for the day...

Santa on the loose...spotted in front of Fat Angelo's Restaurant, Soho, Central, Hong Kong.

What did I wear that day? Check it out here...but after this holiday season, I guess I will have to borrow santa's pants. Oh well!