Sunday, August 31, 2008

accumulated birthday celebrations

Yesterday we had a belated birthday celebration for my sister, my niece and myself. For some reason, all these birthday celebrations have been accumulated since July to August. Then later on, we went to Ap Lei Chau market for buying seafood and cooking at home. Sorry I made a mistake for not uncovering one of the dishes. Guess what - it's my nieces' and nephew's favourite dish "(white rice - means tiny) fish omelette" (白飯魚煎蛋). Yesterday, all the seafood were so fresh. Besides, it's really cheap. HK$93 for 3 small garoupas. $45 for 1.2 catties of razor clams. $25 for 1 catty of "PP shrimp". $30 for 2 catties of clams. $25 for 1 catty of snails. $24 for 0.75 catty of "white rice" fish. $20 for 0.4 catty of red clams (北寄貝) without shells. $24 for 0.6 catty of spare ribs. $25 for 1.5 catties of chicken thigs. $5 for 1 catty of bean sprouts. $15 for 1.25 catties of Beijing Choy Sum (vegetable). So total is around $350 (incl. eggs/scallions...etc.). $350 for 12 people on a seafood dinner - amazing! Besides, I enjoy cooking as always. I even like cooking until sweating. It is a good exercise. I really hope I can go to those professional kitchen in the restaurants someday and try cooking there, as it will make me sweat even further.

-The left one is for all the dishes (oops. made a mistake for not uncovering the omelette!)

-The middle one is the red clams with bean sprouts. Ok for this one, I prepared the sauce first as it is a quick stir fry. The sauce is oyster sauce, soy sauce, sugar, white pepper powder, sesame oil, corn starch. Then I used some chopped garlic and scallions to quick stir fry the clams first with quite a large amount of oil 3 soup spoon (for this kind of clams, we need to be generous with using oil.). Then the clam meat will become more tender and the juice will be stored inside and not to be hard to chew. Remember the wok should be heated up quite much but the oil should be cool. Then for the bean sprouts, you need to drain it well. Again the wok should be heated up. Then put more oil as well (about 1.5 soup spoon. Actually it should be more to 2.5 soup spoon but I cut down a bit for health purpose.). Put the ginger slices and garlic and the white parts of scallions into the wok and make it a bit brown. Then put the bean sprouts and very very quick stir fry it for a 30 seconds. Cover the lid and cook for another 30 seconds. Then put back the clams for another quick stir fry. Remember it should be high heat all the way. Then put the sauce in the middle and thicken it. Done!

-the left one is easy. PP shrimp in boiling water. But remember to put some ginger slices in the boiling water and some wine.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

What went wrong?

Well, for the past week, I have waited if there are anyone other than Man who would suspect on the photos I have recently posted on the last 2 sections for Le Cardin and Wong Hong Seng.  Actually the game has started and only Man could have some traces but he was so kind not to point those out first but instead thought if I was much too busy to mix up the photos.  OK, now this round of game is to find out where the photos of Le Cardin and Wong Hong Seng were originally from?

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Wong Hong Seng Kitchen, Pak Kret Nonthaburi, Greater Bangkok





After one hour boat ride to Nonthaburi, we found this interesting Thai Chinese food restaurant called Wong Hong Seng Kitchen. What a pleasant surprise for finding some Thai Chinese food:

1. See all the press critics on the side of the shop's reception. It's a highly recommended restaurant by the major newspapers in Bangkok.
2. 3 spices spare ribs: in Thai cuisine, you often find the sweet, hot and sour. It looks like sweet and sour pork but it tastes totally different. The chef used 3 different types of hot and spicy herb. From what we taste, we think they put basil chili paste, birdeye chili and paprika. It's extra hot and subtle smell of all the various hot.
3. Moonlight Prawn cakes: Hong Seng's special recipe. Interesting that they put some bean sprout to make it taste like a Cantonese dish Fu Yung Omelette.
4. Ginger pepper salty marinated deep fried chicken: According to the Chef, they first marinated the chicken with ginger first for over night. Then on the second night, they put the pepper for marinating overnight. So the third night is rock salty marinating for over night. So the Chicken after deep fried has 3 different layers of taste and aroma. Must try.
5. Don't think it's just a stir fried morning glory. It's a Cambodian stir fried morning glory. Pak Kret used to be a Non ethic legacy (a Cambodian ancient ethic group). They quick stir fry the morning glory and then put the garlic on it. And this type of glory morning is only found in Pak Kret but be careful with this extra hot dish. Cambodian food is so hot!

Le Cardin French restaurant, Bangkok





All right, on a sunny afternoon, before our long boat ride to Nonthaburi, we had a nice lunch at this Le Cardin Restaurant at Saphan Taksin:

1. the bread is freshly oven baked.  The French baquette is really nice and we had 2 baskets.
2. Salad Nicoise.  Very fresh veggie!
3. Steak in mushroom sauce.
4. French fried chicken.  Very crispy coating and juicy inside!
5. Glaces (French word for Ice Cream) of Chocolate and Caramel.  I can taste it's a home made ice cream but it's a bit sweet to me.  

Monday, August 18, 2008

on the boat to Nonthaburi


This noon we took a boat ride from Saphan Taksin to Nonthaburi. Along the river side, besides the hotel area from Shangrila to Sheraton, there are lots to see. It's a beautiful sunny day. I didn't notice we spent already one hour something to reach the final destination Nonthaburi. Afterwards, we take a taxi to Pak Kret.... to be continued. Stay tuned.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Do you know?

OK, now this time another guessing game. However, this one is for the Chinese speaking people. We are now talking about some Chinese words inspired by other habits or languages. So here are:

1. 你究竟玩什麼"花臣"? So do you know where this word 花臣 comes from?
2. 我想食"蛇果"。Wow, the first time I know this word, I was thinking if the snake likes it or there will be a snake coming from this apple. Then do you know why it's called "snake apple"?

OK, I will post more later...

Yun Nan noodle by Nan Kee 南記小鍋米線, Wanchai, Hong Kong

Finished a busy meeting this evening and felt like something exciting my taste buds. So try this hot and sour noodle (Yun Nan style - south west of China - I really like the name Yun Nan - south of the cloud). So this shop Nan Kee has been very popular with its fish ball noodle and this one with fish meat spring roll. I like this one especially they put a lot of bean sprouts and chives and pickled vegetable. Together with a soy milk, it's a perfect meal for me. Made me happy.

Saturday, August 09, 2008

The Oriental, Bangkok





As now this hotel becomes a hot topic again, here are the photos I took in the summer of 2006. My sister's family and I had such an unforgettable time, especially my nephew Jason, because all the staff in the Oriental called him "Mr. Jason". At the breakfast, he was given much attention and given some special mango Tango drink. This is the good part of the Oriental's services. In summer of 2007, my another sister's family went there and the staff were so attentive. My niece asked for a "cold" chocolate, then they served a cold chocolate without ice. The next day, she ordered an ice chocolate, then they gave her a icy cold chocolate with ice. Ain't it something?

1/2. bath room - so big, with one bath tub, one shower, 2 washing basin and a big jar of bathing salt and many bathing amentities.
3. the bedroom - the bed with some very nice silk beddings and the bed is perfect!
4. the corridor - on every floor they will have a staff taking care of your need 24 hours a day
5. breakfast by the river - the breakfast is superb with more than 10 kinds of fresh juices. We spent 2.5 hours on the breakfast.
6. the swimming pool for the kids - we had so much fun time in this pool.
7. the Oriental Bangkok


Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Furious typhoon Kammuri and my apt. got hit



Since last night I couldn't sleep due to the strong wind and rain hitting my window. Then this morning at around 10am something I heard some heavy stuff broken quite close to my apt. At first, I was wondering if it was my rooftop storage room got ripped off. However, if that was the case, there was nothing I could do at such a strong wind. Actually since Island East (the giant commercial building next to my apt.) was built, the wind from north east is almost 2 to 3 times stronger than before as it narrows the wind channel in a bottle neck.

OK, the accident was that 2 big window glasses from Island East were blown away and hit the the apt. C from 7th to 10th floor (I was on unit B):

1. the entrance of Westlands Court and you can see the guy cleaning up the scattered glasses.
2. the windows of Island East got blown away.
3. the serious one is on the apt. C of 10th floor. As you can see the cement bare window got torn apart. Not sure if someone got hurt. Then downwards all the windows got broken.
4. note how big that window glass is.

So it's true that for a Chinese saying "該死唔駛病 (When it's time to die, no need to die of any illeness)". Actually my apt. unit is the most vulnerable to being hit as it is on the top floor. Don't I need to sweep my sweat on my forehead?

Monday, August 04, 2008

Peach from Beijing

In every summer, I would eat one peach from Beijing a day, sometimes two peaches. They are so juicy and sweet and also cheap (from HK$3-6, US$0.4 - 0.8). This peach's season is actually August. So now it's the month! With this in my eyes, the summer would never be too hot to me. See the pink color of it and you know why this peach is called 3,000 years of growing in heaven's place.

Saturday, August 02, 2008

the Flava, Dream Hotel, Bangkok

Been there last year actually. Tried their fusion food and not bad. At least, it's not crazily fusion. For the right photo, in the front it is somtum on fried snapper. So instead of those smelly crab or shrimp, fried fish is a good alternate. This is what we call fusion. Then the second behind is beef fillet with tangerine peel. I think it's kind of a Cantonese cuisine actually. The taste is not bad. So further behind is the mixed stir fried green. Not too gravy and this is what I like. The second photo is the dining area of Flava.

Salon 'le Oriental, Bangkok

I guess for those who have ever been to the Emporium shopping mall, they should pass by this open cafe on the ground floor's main hall. I do have a lot of food I like from this restaurant. First is the seasonal lobster bisque, the second is their various salad and their beef noodle. Their hot dog is also nice! So the left one is the chef salad I like the most. Right to it is the typical fried rice. Yummy!

Le Bayan, part II, Bangkok






So after our guessing game on the pressed duck, here are the other dishes we had in Le Banyan:

1. Duck Consomme with truffle ravioli: highly recommended! This soup is what I looked for. Not salty and just in a perfect original taste of the duck.
2. condiments with fish soup
3. Fish soup: it's a bit different from what I had in Cannes. This one is more salty and the texture is with some other veggie. Those I tried in Cannes is with the blended crayfish and herb. The condiments are just tiny toast with some cheeze pattie.
4. inside Le Banyan
5. Rum Orange
6. Apple Tart
7. Profiterate (not sure the exact spelling): it's like a puff with cream custard inside and topped with chocolate sauce. This one really surprised me as they put fruit sorbet inside and it really made the whole dessert so refresh, especially after such a tasty heavy meal.

Hong Kong Restaurant 港式茶餐廳, Central (next to Central market), Hong Kong.

*remarks: this restaurant was named to Tsui Wah in September, 2009.






Brought my sisters' families to this restaurant next to Central Market and it's another branch of Tsui Wah Restaurant 翠華茶餐廳, very successful restaurant chain in Hong Kong. Actually, most people forgot they were first famous for their fish balls in shark's cartilage soup, like Hui Lau Shan famous for its Turtle herbal jelly.

1. Mixed grill
2. toasted "pig" buns
3. beef fillet
4. Hainanese chicken rice
5. thick toast
6. Botisch soup
7. boil young chives (with abalone sauce)
8. grilled scallop and chicken steak

Overall, the food is nice and the environment of this one is better than Tsui Wah. Also good services - they ran out of the junior "pig" buns, then they got us the thick toasts. Then we expressed we were there for the "pig" buns. So immediately they made up for the normal size "pig" buns. Though it's nothing for a bread, they understand the customers. That's important and also leaves a good impression for the customers to re-visit again.