My cooking: Bitter gourd omelette 苦瓜菜脯煎蛋/Steamed abalone

1. More than half of my family members don't like bitter gourd. However, when I passed by the veggie stall and found out this seasonal bitter gourd, I had to go against the majority. In order to make them try this, I cut the gourd in very thin small slices and with some chopped preserved turnip (soaked for a few minutes to make it less salty) to make it more aromatic. First heat the pan and without any oil, to low-med. heat to slightly pan fry the gourd slices. Until it gets a bit soft (not too soft), turn off the heat and put some sugar to make the gourd a bit sweet. Then batter the egg with some sesame oil and little salt. Put the gourd and turnip in it. Then heat the pan at medium to med-low heat to pan fry whatever shape of omelette you feel like.

2. Ap Lei Chau food market is so good that we can find a wide variety of wild catch seafood. Lately we found some wild catch abalone (check on the shell if it's with some seaweed like color and in straps with some brown color. These are the wild catch ones.). Don't let the shops clean the abalone for you. Don't be lazy. Do the cleaning by yourself. So get a soft brush (e.g. soft tooth brush) to clean the outer skirt and the surface of the abalone (I also clean the shell too). No need to be very entirely clean. Just to clean those you feel a bit sticky. This way, the abalone won't get shrunk and so the meat wouldn't be too tough. So be happy with them when you clean them, like you are giving the abalone a "spa treatment". Then remember abalone is one of the few seafood need to be steamed at med-low heat for about 8-10 minutes (depending on how many and how big of the abalone), because that wouldn't make them suddenly stress up and so the meat texture would be too chewy. I would put some nice (soaked) dried tangerine peel slices for the steaming, with a final touch of some hot boiling cooking oil and sliced scallion.