Posts tagged as:

chinese

International Noodles Incident Party – Homemade Ban Mian with minced pork and mushrooms

by jeroxie June 20, 2010

The Chinese has been making and eating noodles since 2000BC. Like rice, it is a part of the staple diet. It is always part of many Chinese festivals like Chinese New Year and also a must have dish on birthdays. I remember that my grandma would make us a bowl of mee sua. We aren’t allowed to ‘cut’ the noodles while eating it as it signifies longevity.

We are spoilt in Melbourne with great food and produce. But there are just some dishes that rarely hit the right spot. One of these dishes is Ban Mian. It is a type of egg noodle that is very popular in both Malaysia and Singapore. Some use anchovies as the base soup and some places have different toppings. I find the broth served here either very bland and the noodles not well made. Or maybe I am just not looking the right places.

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International Dumplings Incident Party – Tang Yuan

by jeroxie May 12, 2010

Masterchef Australia has began and in its first challenge, the contestants were told to create something from their childhood memories. We were away in Hobart and so I missed out on that series but I heard that almost everyone had tears! I guess that is the part of being on reality TV. They need tears and stories to hit top ratings. I am sure they succeeded. Even though many will think that contestants should not cry on TV but if it is something touching as childhood memories, then I am sure tears will flow irregardless. It is just that TV makes use of the opportunity to capture it as this is what most audience are after. They love the tears and it is something to bitch about.

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Meatless Day Challenge #12 Daikon, carrots & mushroom stew

by jeroxie March 11, 2010

I am always on the lookout for simple and yummy meatless recipe every week. This week’s meatless day dish is inspired by Christine’s Stewed Beancurd Puffs with Daikon & Carrot. It fits the bill and it has been awhile since we have cooked with daikon or also known as white radish. Daikon has a nice subtle sweet but clean taste and it takes on flavour really well. I love it chunky in soups or julienne raw and served in salads.

After a trip to Footscray market, I decided to ditch the tofu puffs and got Enoki mushroom, baby corns and fresh shitake mushrooms. This dish is a collaboration of myself and Mister. I prepped the ingredients, he cooked and I took the photos. And I have to say it turned out pretty good.

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My delicious Chinese New Year 2010

by jeroxie March 4, 2010

I need to take a break from all the feasting after this hectic 2 weeks of eating and drinking. It all started a couple of weeks before Chinese New Year where we spent my weekends making pineapple tarts, cashew nut cookies and kuih bangkit. And I made heart-shaped ones because the first day of Chinese New Year falls on Valentine’s Day as well. So more love around for everyone!
A small group of us decided to celebrate both eve and first day of Chinese New Year together. And our place were opened to them. On the eve, we opted to have steamboat. As usual, I volunteered to shop and make 2 types of broth for the evening. The night before was the 30th birthday of 2 friends. Mister and I were shopping totally hungover. We were not a pretty sight. But the party must go on and so we dragged our sorry self to the markets.

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Meatless Day Challenge #10 – Hakka Luicha

by jeroxie February 25, 2010

Chinese New Year is celebrated for 15 days. There is almost a different event for each day of celebration. Vegetarian meals are eaten on some days and certain Gods need to be prayed to on others. The seventh day is the birthday of all human beings. In the past, farmers in the villages will gather and make a almost vegetarian dish that consists of a green soup and seven different types of vegetables to celebrate the occasion. So I thought for this week’s challenge, it will be a good idea to introduce to this really amazing peasant dish that was prepared and cooked by a friend’s mum.

These days many Chinese dialect groups will celebrate by having yeesheng. But the Hakka still have the tradition of having luicha for this occasion instead. The soup is made up of mainly basil, coriander, mint, peanuts, sesame seeds, dried anchovies (ikan bilis) and tea leaves. They are cooked, blended together and then placed in the middle of the table.

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Cashew nut cookie

by jeroxie February 12, 2010

It was such a lovely sunny day. We really wanted to be outside enjoying the sun but alas Chinese New Year was in a week and a lot more baking needs to be done. I really wanted to have more festive vibes this year. Not being back to Asia for Chinese New Year for more than a decade means those festive celebrations is becoming a distant memories.

After baking a big batch of pineapple tarts the previous day, we opted for something easier and faster. It was Sunday and there was heaps to do. I was slogging in the kitchen making bacon jam and prepping the flour for baking kuih bangkit. Mister found this cookie recipe in the Nonya book and it is his one of his favourite festive goodies. So he jumped in and got his hands dirty. I have admit he is a much better in baking than me. I really suck.

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Cookbook Challenge W13 (Love) – Pineapple Tarts

by jeroxie February 11, 2010

Valentine day falls on the first day of Chinese New Year. We have decided to spend it with friends as some of them have become like family. There isn’t much of a festive mood here as we are away from family. So this year, I thought it will be a good idea to make more effort in creating a mood by baking some Chinese New Year favourites.

I have no baking skills. Even when I follow the recipe, something is almost always wrong. So this time, I decided to test run a small batch and have time to make amendments before the New Year. The first batch turned out ugly but tasted good. And the second batch looked better. More presentable. I did increase the amount of cold water that the book had recommended.

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Steamed silky eggs

by jeroxie February 8, 2010

I knew exactly what I wanted to make once I saw this week’s challenge. And as many simple dishes, it is usually the hardest to perfect. As an egg lover, steam eggs has to be one of my favourite egg dishes. I love the way it wobbles when it is done perfectly. I love the silky smooth texture. And it is all eggs!

After a day of Chinese New Year baking and an hour of RPM class, I almost gave up on the challenge this week. This weekend seem to fly by. And Chinese New Year is just round the corner. Sometimes I wish time could slow down but then it waits for no one. And so I just got onto it and made some eggs to include for dinner.

22 comments Full article here

Making Melbourne’s best dumplings

by jeroxie February 7, 2010

A conversation on twitter about dumplings when I posted my disappointment in Hutong and how hard it was to find good dumpling places in Melbourne. When I arrived here more than a decade to go, Camy was the place to go for good, cheap and yummy dumplings. The fried dumplings had a nice crispy bottom and juicy fillings. These days, they serve soggy fried dumplings that tastes like cardboard. Don’t get me wrong, there are good and reasonable places but how hard can it be to serve decent dumplings. They are relatively cheap, easy and quick to make.

Anyway, I believe that the conversation started with @thatjessho, @cloudcontrol and myself. And I thought it would be a great idea to have a dumplings party. We had a good response from twitterverse and tweeps were raising their hands to the occasion. We set a date and venue (much thanks to @thatjessho) and were pumped to attempt to make Melbourne’s best dumplings.

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Golden Harvest Seafood Restaurant

by jeroxie January 31, 2010

Richmond and Prahran has Pacific House and South Melbourne has Linx to provide the community with delicious Chinese roasts. Living in the North West, we have Golden Harvest that caters to our needs. We do regular visits to Footscray on the weekends to pick up Chinese/ Asian groceries. And sometimes, we will take away a box of roast duck, crispy pork belly and/or BBQ pork.

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Meatless Day Challenge #6 – Mushroom, tofu and vegetables

by jeroxie January 29, 2010

It seems like a Chinese stir-fry theme this week for our household. We will usually cook this dish with addition of meat. It was rather unAustralian of us to cook this on Australia Day However, our social calender is packed for the rest of the week and it was the only day that we could do it.

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Our residence Chow Mien

by jeroxie January 27, 2010

We prefer to have home cooked meals for dinner during the weekdays. It can be really expensive eating out and too tiring to cook every day after work. So our trick (not exactly) is to cook very massive meals on Sunday and keep it for the week. And many times, this includes our lunch boxes.

Mister can cook. Actually he cooks better Chinese dishes than me. He won over and impressed my mum when he met her for the first time by cooking his Cantonese style steamed fish. So most Chinese dishes at home is cooked by him. I am just in charge of chopping vegetables which is what I did for this post. So this Mister’s first guest post. He cooks, I took the photos and blog about it. (With his supervision, of course)

26 comments Full article here

Hutong dumplings bar

by jeroxie January 5, 2010

I have always been a fan of Hutong in the city. The service is pretty bad but who cares when the food is good. The xiao long baos are commendable. The mince pork string beans and the szechuan pepper prawns are my personal favourites. But it seems the reviews of the new Hutong in Prahran have been mixed.

The Hutong dumpling bar is part of the Cullen hotel. A nice little bar and outdoor area forms the back of the restaurant. The dining area in the front looks bright and spacious and it has 2 private rooms. With its nicer furnishings, my expectations of the food were definitely higher.

35 comments Full article here

Chun Po

by jeroxie December 15, 2009

Being away from family means that we miss the big family gatherings and dinners. With only 2 of us here and our families are far away from us, we are always up for a big Chinese dinner together. I cannot remember how the twitter conversation started but I believed someone mentioned pork hock and Chun Po came up and somewhat made a decision to catch up for dinner. Bizzare but I do love these adhoc but spontaneous decisions.

27 comments Full article here

Cooking with a microwave

by jeroxie December 13, 2009

We finally moved back just this past weekend. It is great feeling to sleep in our own beds after 6 weeks. There are still walls to paint and things to clean and unpack but we love our house now. It is not luxurious but it is very special for us. We finally have a kitchen with space and room. And we have a bathroom that we are not ashame of. Our friends that came over always laughed at our old bathroom. It was not even a bathroom, it was a cubicle with a broken door and most likely built for not very tall people.

30 comments Full article here

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