Chinese New Year Holiday Homemade Breakfast

Just sharing one of my many lovely breakfasts during the Chinese New Year holiday :)
The yummies are all homemade by....(not me!) SC's uncle who lives in Guang Zhou, brought all the way back to Hong Kong! I am so grateful!


Ultra delish curry steamed glutinous rice.


Heavenly!


We received a tin full of homemade nam yue (Chinese fermented beancurd sauce) crisps. We ate lotsss of these while watching trashy holiday TV and playing mah jong (yes! I finally learnt how to play!)


Sticky dumpling with red bean filling. Greasy deliciousness!

And we polished everything off with pots of hot Chinese tea.
Perfection.

Tom Kha Steamed Fish

It's been a while since I shared a lazy and tasty food huh?

One of my recent lazy tasty discovery is....using instant seasoning mixes (bumped up with fresh herbs and spices) to steam fish!

I can't believe I haven't done this earlier. Very easy, and it offers more variety of flavor combos when I am bored of the classic soy sauce or black bean steamed fish. I used tom kha instant seasoning mix this time, but I've also tried tom yum, opor, and rendang. All yummy! I will surely try more flavors...welcome to the world of endless instant seasoning possibilities!

If you hate using instant seasoning mixes (I bow in respect to you), feel free to grind your own paste using fresh ingredients, it could be as quick as a few pulses in a food processor, and I am sure it will be as tasty, if not tastier ;)


Ingredients
Fresh herbs & spices (you can omit all of these fresh herbs and spices if you are feeling lazy)
- a stalk of lemongrass, cut into sections and bruised
- galangal, bruised
- some kaffir lime leaves, cut thinly
- 1 or 2 red chillies, cut thinly

Main ones
- 1 of your favorite fish, cleaned and pat dry
- 1 pack of your favorite instant seasoning mix (I used Tom Kha)

Rub the fish with instant seasoning paste, scatter the fresh herbs and spices on top, and steam until the fish is just done.

Check the doneness by inserting a chopstick into the thickest part of the fish, the chopstick should go through easily, mine took about 10 minutes. Now I am really just saying stuff to make this "recipe" look longer...actually it is really one-sentence easy ^_^'

Experiment, enjoy and share!

Village Dining - Tai O Fishing Village, Hong Kong

During our last trip to Tai O, we also had a chance to dine in the village, where our local hosts cooked us simple but delish food. Let's have a look at how the kitchen looks like.


Where's the sous vide machine? Heheheh


Simple gas stove, old school rice cooker, a good start for a yummy meal.


Simple and fresh ingredients.


...and a wood stove for the soup. When was the last time you saw something like this?


Fresh mushrooms.


Stir fried tomatoes and eggs.


Self service soup station.


Corn, egg and tofu soup.


Potato and veggie curry.


Lettuce and mushrooms in soy sauce.


Pan fried tofu in soy sauce.

WTH? Isn't this Tai O Fishing Village? Where are all the seafood? Heheheh. Since this meal is organized by the company that I work for, it is strictly vegetarian. The hosts admitted that they've never prepared any vegetarian meal before and was pretty taken-aback by the request. Nevertheless, they still did a good job preparing a nice meal for us, my coworkers and I had a fantastic experience dining there.

I'll surely go back for seafood next time ^_^

Making Salted Egg Yolks - Tai O Fishing Village

Don't we all love the rich savory flavors we get from salted egg yolks? I do! I love salted egg yolks with almost everything! Mooncakes, prawns, crabs,...hmm I need to experiment more with salted egg yolks. Anyway, a couple of months ago, I had a chance to experience making salted egg yolks during our company's cultural visit to Tai O Fishing Village. It's a lot easier than I expected, we had a lot of fun trying not to break the yolks!

Here are the pictures from the salted egg yolk making session :)

We need duck eggs, a bucket of water, a bucket for rubbish, a tray lined with salt and a net, and some more salt to sprinkle.


First, crack the eggs carefully.


Gently remove as much egg white as possible, pinch the clingy part with your finger without breaking the yolk and rinse in water. Don't waste the egg white, drop them into the bucket of water and use the water for planting.


Place the yolks gently on tray and sprinkle with salt.


And simply let them "cure" for about three days.


Look at all the salted yolks we did!


Hello yummy cholesterol!

After this session, we stuffed our faces with local delicacies and shopped 'til we dropped. I can't wait to visit Tai O again!

Here's how to get there:
Tai O Fishing Village, Lantau Island (Outlying Island)
1. Catch ferry from Central Pier 6 (MTR Hong Kong Station Exit E1. Walk through ifc mall) to Mui Wo, then bus 1 to Tai O.
or
2. MTR Tung Chung Station, then bus 11 from Tung Chung Town Centre.

I've also posted some black and white pictures of Tai O here.

The Bin Tai II - Indomie, Sausages, Cheese & Mayo Sandwich

To celebrate the last working day of the year, here's my bin tai (Canto for pervert - or click the word to see the definition from urban dictionary) gift to you all...the sequel to the bin tai.
Muhahahahaha.


The idea started from how in Hong Kong we have a typical breakfast set menu of instant noodles, toasts and sausages and eggs. Why don't I put them all in one package of a sandwich? Aha! So I did, except I forgot the eggs. Ugh. Typical me.

I think you pretty much know how everything's prepared, but I'm gonna share how it's done anyway. I'm show-offy like that ;)

"Recipe"
- Buns or bread, and butter
- Your favorite sausages (or ham, or bacon, whatever pushes your buttons). I used chipotle cheese sausages
- Your favorite cheese(es). Ideally a combo of something that will melt well and something that will turn golden brown, but I only had cheddar, so I just used cheddar. Sobs
- Your favorite dry instant noodles. I used Indomie goreng. You can also use soup noodles but make it dry by excluding the soup and some of the seasoning to prevent it from going too salty
- Mayo and chilli sauce (or whatever sauces you want)

Prepare the noodles, undercook them to give the sandwich a bit of crunchiness and let the noodles withstand the additional heating the sandwich might need later. Once prepared, set aside. Butter the buns or bread generously and toast until golden brown. Slice and pan fry sausages, grate cheeses. Slather the buns with mayo and sauces, add fillings until the sandwich resembles an exploding, tumbling hot mess. Reheat the whole package in the oven, or you can blow torch the cheeses to melt and turn them golden.

Imagining how it tastes won't help much. Go ahead and create your own version of perverse yumminess!

And, Happy last Friday of 2011! Yayyyy!!!