Post #100

Wow~ Post No. 100!!!!

its been fun recording this cooking diary, which sometimes motivates me to come up with some diff food ideas and urges me to keep learning, experimenting and enjoying food! :)

so chinese food continues to be the theme this week! hubby and i have developed this bad dry cough since we came back home, so i think its time for some soothing chinese soup.


-Apple carrot + corn soup-

one of my fav soups and one that i've had since i dont remember when. the addition of corn and chinese large dried dates is an absolute must for this soup! as to the apple, it doesnt really matter which type and a mixture can be used. actually, any overripe apple or pear would do!

speaking about domestic cantonese food, one part of the chicken that we always cook at home is chicken wing. i dont think any other culture is as obsessed with chicken wings as the cantonese! this time i tried out 2 diff marinades.


-Baked lemongrass wings + Shrimp paste wings-

lemongrass wings on the left with lemongrass, garlic, fresh ginger, fish sauce and chilli, all pounded in a mortar n pestle. shrimp paste wings on the right with shrimp paste, finely chopped dried shrimp, mirin and a little drop of honey. both wings are v tasty! the shrimp paste and the dried shrimp work really nicely together and go well with chicken meat. but be cautious with the amount of shrimp paste as its v salty!

this last dish seems to be a classic cantonese dish, but strangely one that i see quite frequently made by westerners than by chinese. its actually my first time too.


-Chinese cabbage rolls with veal mince + woodear-

i wasnt exactly sure what normally fills inside the rolls, but i used veal mince, woodear, carrots and finely chopped dried shrimps. also i wasnt sure whether the filling should be rolled raw or cooked. i opted for partly cooked filling in the end and shorten the steaming time afterwards. then finish it off with clear xo thick sauce.

my word of advice with this dish is this - dont buy half a chinese cabbage if you want to have proper rolls. otherwise you'd end up like me battling with pieces of broken leaves, trying to overlap 2 pieces of broken leaves here and there, and taking twice the time n effort than i would have had i bought a whole cabbage. =.=

Post #99

We're back.

G'bye europe, g'bye laduree macaron, crepes, berthillon ice cream, croissant, leon mussles, laderach chocolate, cheese fondue, wiener schnitzel, burnwurst, goulash, souvlaki, tzatziki and greek salad. G'bye holiday~ *sob sob*

after these 3 weeks, we came up with this one piece of culinary wisdom - eat what a place is famous for and stick to it! NEVER attempt to eat your hometown food even if you feel nostalgic and homesick, because chances are, they'd do a crap job and you'd miss home even more. this is what i felt after eye witnessing the scooping of fried rice and oyster sauce veg into a plastic box, and then shoving the box into a microwave over the counter, right before your eyes. disappointment.

anyways, so logically, the first food we had on our return was chinese. and it was chinese food in its simplest domestic form.. or maybe thats laziness on my part :p


-Scrambled egg with bbq pork-

i used homemade bbq pork *thanks to mum's donation* and i like my egg scramble partly soft and partly golden.


-Stir fry chinese cabbage with chopped dried shrimp-

simple, but comforting.

Post #98

will be out of action for 3 whole weeks - EUROPE HERE WE COME!!! ^^

its been a crazy week at work whilst also trying to find a tiny bit of time to finalise our trip planning etc. absolutely no cooking in the last week... hardly much eating, let alone cooking >.<~

anyways, here i have in store a special risotto cooked a while back - the idea coming from sis, when she gave me 2 tiny sachets of black stuff, plus some large king prawns and a squid.

never tried cooking with squid ink before, but apparently its just like any other pasta, you squeeze the sachets of squid ink in when you cook the sauce.

cooking in process:



so what does squid ink really tastes like?! just a bit of saltiness is all my palette could taste. and the ink does stain the fingers a bit =.= but it was kinda fun!!


-Squid ink and prawn risotto-

we're aiming to do a squid ink pasta with squid ink sauce next time!!! :)