Archive for the ‘Festive Food’ Category
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 |
What is Chinese New Year without lou sang? This time round after a hearty yee sang at home with my family, I 捞 生(lou sang-ed, stir the yee sang like mad, LOL!) another yee sang ala-Japanese at Sushi King after seeing it in Allen’s blog. The small set retails at RM8.88. Auspicious, eh?
The plate is too darn small that it spilled everywhere, causing wastage. They don’t have those crispy crackers (neh, those that is known as pok pok chui) either, but instead substituted it with tempura flakes.
I still prefer Chinese traditional style yee sang though.
Popularity: 32% [?]
Posted in Chain Establishments, Eating, Festive Food, Japanese | No Comments »
Monday, February 18th, 2008 |
Spring rolls are one of the must-haves on the reunion dinner menu and its no different this year! While its not hard to make, my grandparents usually get them from this particular vendor who sells awesome spring rolls along with phoenix balls.Spring rolls are made by rolling grounded pork and vegetables in bean curd skin and deep fried. The incorporation of pig’s fat, which looks like a web of white, oily substances in between the meat and the bean curd skin prior to rolling makes the spring rolls taste very much better.Phoenix balls are basically made with the same grounded pork mixture but a salted egg yolk is wrapped with the meat and then shaped into an oval shape and wrapped with bean curd skin, and then deep fried.
The spring rolls came in rolls, and all we had to do is to heat them up in the convection oven before cutting and serving them. I avoided using microwave to heat up the rolls because the skin will be soggy. using the convection oven, however will make the skin crispier.Some day round I will try make my own spring rolls. Right now I will just enjoy this particular spring roll with my family because they are just so sinfully delicious! 
Popularity: 25% [?]
Posted in Chinese, Festive Food, Pork | 2 Comments »
Saturday, February 16th, 2008 |
My first time cooking pork knuckles, and surprisingly they turned out quite well! This dish is for the reunion dinner, so there was some pressure, but luckily they ended up quite well! Even my grandparents gave the nod, surprise!
I don’t exactly follow any strict recipe, so this is roughly what I used.
Ingredients:
1 pork knuckles
2 bulbs roasted garlic
20 black mushrooms, soaked
1 palm size cuttlefish (or dried squid?) for boiling soup, the thing called “tiu pin” in Cantonese
5-10 dried oysters (hou see)
1/2 cup abalone sauce or 1/4 oyster sauce (1 cup of chicken stock or equivalent)
1 tbsp dark soy sauce (add more if you think its not dark enough)
5 tbsp light soy sauce
A dash of black pepper powder
one thumb size of gula Melaka or 5-6 cubes of rock sugar
salt to taste
1 star anise
1 cinnamon stick
1 packet dried black seaweed (fatt choy)
Method:
Clean and blanch the pork knuckles in boiling water to remove the scum. Dish and drain. The pork knuckles were already cut into small pieces so I blanched them; otherwise if its whole I will cut criss cross on the skin and deep fry them for a while in oil instead. A whole pork knuckles would be nice for presentation, but it all boils down to how you want to have them, really.
In a big pot, put in cleaned pork knuckles, garlic bulbs, mushrooms, cuttlefish, star anise and cinammon stick. Add in the abalone sauce, light soy sauce, dark soy sauce, salt, sugar and a dash of black pepper powder. Then, add enough water to let all the ingredients sit nicely in the pot. Turn on high heat and let the water boil. When the water is boiling, turn the heat from medium to low and let the pork knuckles simmer.
In the meantime, clean and deep fry the dried oysters. This is done in order to preserve the shape of the oyster, as they turn mushy if boiled for too long.
Stew the pork knuckles for at least 2 hours, and add the dried oyster and dried seaweed (fatt choy) and hour prior to serving. Serve hot with white rice.
Popularity: 35% [?]
Posted in Chinese, Cooking, Festive Food, Pork | 3 Comments »
Saturday, January 26th, 2008 |
Just went to Yong Sheng the other day because I know they sell really fancy New Year goodies, and after sampling all the varieties and being waited like a princess, I got hooked and get the smallest hamper plus a box (or a tin?) of cheesy pineapple cookies. The hamper is RM50, the only affordable one for a poor student like me.
The two flower shaped tin contains cheesy pineapple cookies and almond cookies. They look like this, and they taste yummy! If you are skeptical, head towards Yong Sheng or find their booth in shopping centers; they give out free samples willingly. 
Pineapple Cheese Cookies are my favourite.
Almond cookies are not bad too!
These pictures were taken two years ago, and I am amazed that I am kind of a loyal customer. Heh!
So, after studying the hamper for awhile, I think its not THAT HARD to wrap a hamper. You will need stuffs like:
-cellophane tape, lots of it
-scissors
-a basket for all the stuffs
-decorations, such as ribbons, flowers, paper cuttings, etc
-clear, transparent plastic wrapper in any hue, with or without patterns or motifs (so that the goodies in the hamper could be seen from outside)
-the stuffs that you want to wrap
Of course, the thing that you bought, it is best to have a bottle of some sort depends on your budget. Wine, champagne and sparkling grape juice are the usual ones found in ready bought hamper.
Some boxes of cookies, chocolate and anything else. Remember, they must be in boxes. And some other plastic bag wrapped stuffs, if you like.
Some canned lychee, longan or abalone, again depends on budgets.
To start, estimate how high your hamper would be. Put the basket in the middle. Start with the biggest box first. Lay them upright with the front facing the supposed front of your hamper. Try to arrange the boxes on the four sides of the hamper, assuming that your basket is rectangular. Place the canned stuffs at the corner. Try stacking all the stuffs, leaving the core or middle empty, but try to cover the empty hole with a box of something. Secure everything with cellophane tape, the more the better. Lastly, put the bottle at the top of the pyramid, and secure that with even more cellophane tape.
Congratulations! You are done stacking! Now all you have to do is to wrap them.
Estimated how much plastic wrapper you need, cut the amount required and put the hamper right at the center.
Lift the two ends up and over the hamper, and try to work on how to wrap the hamper nicely.
Secure everything nicely with cellophane tape. Tie the bottle neck with ribbons and decorate as you wish.
Don’t worry if it looks ugly. Afterall, its the thought that counts!
Popularity: 42% [?]
Posted in Chinese, Cookies, Festive Food, Tips and How-to | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2008 |
I have to confess that I am guilty of not knowing where does these waxed stuffs comes from. Don’t blame me, I only know how to eat. So when mum said she is going to get some waxed meat for Chinese New Year, I tagged along to busybody. Nice waxed sausages eh? Those lap cheongs are my favourite! Good for omelettes or just steam them and serve with rice!
Similarly, these waxed ducks are good to be eaten freshly steamed with arrowroot, served with rice. Very oily, but very nice!
These streaky bacon - like meat, I heard they called it lap yuk. Never eaten this before!
Boneless waxed ducks and lap cheongs!
More assorted waxed stuffs. They come in nice packages, now that I know!
All these will make very nice lap mei fan, or waxed meat rice. OMG I am salivating already!
Question: Is waxed meat the same with cured meat?
Popularity: 18% [?]
Posted in Chinese, Festive Food | No Comments »
