Meatless Monday Potluck Party

How to combat Monday blues?
We do it by having #MeatlessMonday potluck party every week and it works!
We choose a theme and plan what we're going to bring (we can't have 6 noodle dishes, no? Nobody would be able to work after that).

We love our #meatlessmonday so far.
It's exciting, it makes us look forward to Mondays, it challenges us, and it makes us realise that meatless does not mean not good!

So here's our menu this week.
The theme is Asian.

Mushrooms and veggies lettuce wraps.


How adorable! Tasty too!


Nam yue (fermented tofu) "pork belly", dried shiitake mushrooms, glass noodles, napa cabbage and beancurd sheets stew.


Vegetarian "pork belly"!
It's amazing how they can mimick the appearance and texture of the fatty part of pork belly.


Beancurd wrapped sticky rice cake and glass noodles in tomato broth.


Too cute!

What did I make?
I made gado-gado, a very popular Indonesian salad.

Blanched: long beans, mini napa cabbage (because I dislike cabbage), beansprouts.
Boiled potatoes and hard boiled eggs.
Fresh tomatoes & cucumber.
Fried: tempe chunks, tofu puffs, crispy sweet potato or crackers.
Dressing: gado-gado peanut dressing + lime.


Yum!
I made a version without boiled egg and dressing without garlic and shallot for our vegetarian friend (dressing = crushed roasted peanuts + salt + palm sugar + lime).

And our dessert!
Our dessert was given a freedom not to follow the Asian theme, because.. cheesecake.
We want cheesecake. Cheesecake is Asian. Cheesecake is everything.

It's no-bake blueberry cheesecake, with reduced sugar and no egg too!


So light and yummy!

Next week's theme: Japanese.
Looking forward to it :)

Breakfast - Green Apple, Cheddar & Smoked Salmon Salad with Lemon & Honey

In an effort to steer away from my usual (super unhealthy) eggs-sausage-cheese low carb breakfast combo, I am trying something new today. I simply cut a green apple into cubes, tossed them with lemon and a bit of honey, added cheddar chunks and smoked salmon.

Yum. But I'm gonna need a bigger portion of this ^_^'
Hungry!

Do you have any healthy low carb breakfast ideas? Please share them with me. I desperately need more :)

Light Dinner? Bellota Ham Open Sandwiches

One fine weekend, a good friend of mine came over and she brought goodies. Whew, and what goodies she brought, two packs of Bellota ham! Let's just say that our plan to have a light dinner was effectively ruined.

We devoured the ham with chunks of sweet melon and with slices of goat cheese...


And we also made sandwiches. Slices of sourdough; salad lightly dressed with olive oil, balsamic vinegar and lemon juice, goat cheese and the ham. Still sounds like a light dinner?

Ahem, we consumed our melon ham and sandwiches with this roasted corn, coriander and chicken soup..


...and glasses of this bastardized Sangria


...and this coffee cream soda granita

Light dinner...fail.

Anyway, gotta go stuff my face soon, diet's off on weekends. Yippie!
Happy Friday & happy weekend, everyone!

Cooked Veggie & Mushroom Salad with Japanese Creamy Sesame Dressing

I am sure we have all watched cliched, unoriginal, uncreative movies with fully predictable plots...
My blog is dangerously becoming predictable.

E.g:
- I used to hate X, but now I love
- I used to love X, but now can't stand it
- I failed X, it looked like shit, but still tasted good
- I followed X's recipe, but I screwed it up
- I've screwed up then, I succeeded this time
- Something's on sale, bought it, cooked it, ate it, liked it
- Relate something entirely irrelevant...to food

yada yada yada, blablabla.

Sounds familiar? Uh huh! My cliched, expected, predictable formulas, out in the open.

Does it mean that I'm gonna try doing something entirely different? Innovative? Amazingly creative?

You wish. I wish.

Annnyway...

Let's talk salad.
This time, I want a salad, but not in the mood for raw veggie, or anything with caesar dressing, parmesan and (gasp!) bacon. I must be sick.

Let's do some cooked vegetables and store bought dressing.

Wash and chop your veggie of choice.
Dip veggie of choice into boiling water.
I chose Chinese cabbage, it survives cooking well.
The Chinese cabbage was a little lonely, I added fresh shitake.
I dropped the fresh shitake into the water for literally just a couple of seconds before I drop everything into a strainer.

Pour cold water over vegetables to stop them from cooking further,

...and drain as much water as possible.

I've bought this Japanese creamy sesame dressing a while ago from City Super.
Freaking love it.

Remind me to keep using it before it expires.

Place vegetables on plate, drizzle with dressing. Generously.

What an easy side dish.
It gives a little touch of health to my fried SPAM lunch.
:D

The Ultimate Bday Indulgence

The meal we've been saving for, long for, wore elastic waistband for and didn't eat the whole....afternoon for (as if we could stand not eating the whole day), our ultimate indulgence...a scrumptious, decadent buffet dinner at Mr. Steak Buffet a la Minute! Woohooo!!! Dig in!

Hors D'Oeuvres

Silky smooth tofu with soy and pork floss. Light and refreshing...and I love the huge gingerbread town decorating the buffet spread!

Bits of thinly sliced ham on sweet chunks of melon got me ready into the next food adventure...


A vast array of seafood...I am not a big fan of cold seafood, but I managed to down a crab head full of roe. Yum! Hello cholesterol....


I used to hate sashimi. Blegh! Ew! Yuck!....but now I start to be able to enjoy a slice of buttery salmon...and I grew to love succulent and sweet scallop and shrimp sashimi. Ohhhh this beginning stage of love...always excites, yet scares me. *Shudder*


The sushi section. I love them so much, but I can't eat more than 1-2 pieces, sorry babies, I need to save some space for more good stuff...I still love you, although not equally (I am a firm believer of favoritism).

The Hot Stuff

The Shanghai Xiao Long Bao were tasty and juicy...and the skin was delightfully thin and chewy (unlike mine, which is thick and start to get a lil' droopy)

Sausages, sausages, sausages...no no, size does not matter. The smaller the better *wink*

Nothing beats the sound of Kobe beef strips sizzling on the grill...it's like music to my ears! Ladida dida! Come and dance on my plate...

Wagyu steak, grilled to perfection...was I drunk from the beef scent...was it just me? or does the uncle who's in charge of slicing the beef really start to look very very hot?


All kinds of delicious prime steaks on my plate...this place really deserves the title of "Mr.Steak"

*Rubbing my eyes?* I couldn't believe what I saw....are those....FOIE GRAS???!!!!! Oh my.....forget salad, forget sushi, forget seafood! ME WANT FOIE GRAS!!!! (This explain the bizzare plate below)

Oh yeah! Eerrrrr.....foie gras on toasts....with ehm...tofu? crab? and oysters? Are you MAD???!!! Sorry guys and gals, I just had to have them. Then and there. They were rich, velvety...the ultimate decadence.

Oh My Goodness Gracious! Sweetnesses!!!

Not a big fan of gelee, especially in winter...but these fuji apple jelly topped with fresh raspberries were just perfect! Sweet and refreshing.

Pecan pie, chocolate mousse cake, tiramisu, pomelo and mango dessert...I wish I had multiple stomachs


Can I wash my face in your fountain of chocolatey goodness?

The crepe suzette station, made to order, just for you, by a young-hot-hunky chef...I'd like one with extra everything, please...and your phone number...errr for my friend, you're single, are you?

The place's great, the food's fan-freaking-tastic, the service staff were friendly, funny even...except when I walked around taking pictures and got in their way...and the HK$360 per pax price tag for Sunday dinner is totally worth it! I will definitely go back there again. Now I am exercising my stomach to be able to eat more in my next visit ^_^.

A million thanks to my sweet girls and sc for the amazing dinner, the presents...and most importantly...for eating as much as me most of the time, I can't imagine having closest friends who don't eat. *Grin*

Mr. Steak buffet a la minute
3/F, Hang Lung Centre, 2-20 Paterson Street
Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
Phone: 2881 5756 / 2881 5757

Check out which elastic waistband I wore for this dinner here.
PS. Why start your diet today, if you can postpone it 'til tomorrow?

Seafood n' Scrambled Creamy Egg White and Fresh Cucumber n' Crab Roe Salad

My sous chef found this recipe from youtube, went all mad about it and demanded to try it ASAP! From the video, the dish surely looked gorgeous, seemed easily doable, healthy and delicious. Thus, it managed to push everything on my super long "to try" recipe list down...and we did it!

Whoever did this dish called it "Fried Milk" which made it sound even sexier in my ears. However, judging from the ingredients...it looked more like scrambled egg whites to me...so I am calling this...

Seafood n' Scrambled Creamy Egg White

If you can understand Cantonese, you could simply follow the video instruction.
Otherwise, here's the recipe:
- 320 gr milk
- 320 gr egg white
- 1.5 tbsp corn starch
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2.3 tsp sugar
- 3 tbsp oil
- 50 gr shrimps, deshelled, deveined
- 6 pcs of medium sized scallops
- a sprig of spring onion, finely chopped
- a bit of crab roe

Mix milk with salt, sugar, oil and corn flour in a bowl. Marinate shrimps and scallops with a bit of salt, sugar and corn powder, then pan fried on high heat until cooked, set aside. Heat up another pan, add oil, add the milk mixture and stir slowly, follow just one direction only (either clockwise or anti clockwise) until the mixture looks firmer but still creamy. Turn off the heat, add seafood, spring onion and crab roe on top.

The dish we did looked as pretty as the one on the video, so we were super excited and couldn't wait to taste all the yumminess....

but...

Boy! I was SO WRONG! This was one of those cases which trigger the following question:
"How could something that gorgeous taste so BLAH?"

Normally, I'd adjust any recipes if I thought I saw something which didn't sound right...but this time I followed the recipe exactly, based on souf chef's request. Maybe this recipe is perfect for Hong Kongers? The next time I try this recipe again, I'll keep the yolk and add more seasonings....and yeah, some butter and bacon won't hurt ^_*

Luckily, we also prepared this...
Fresh Cucumber 'n Crab Roe Salad

Since I didn't want to waste the rest of the crab roe...I did this salad, which is generally available in most Japanese eateries in Hong Kong. It's easy and refreshing, perfect for summer, and pretty much saved our otherwise super blah dinner
Recipe
- 1 Japanese cucumber (the skin is dark green and a bit prickly), peel off skin and cut into thin ribbons using a peeler
- faux crab meat, torn into long thin pieces (even better if you have fresh crab meat)
- crab roe
- mayo (in Hong Kong we call it "salad sauce")
Simply mix everything and you're done. ^_^

Now let me remind you (and myself again)...

"Looks is deceiving"