Goo-Bak-Chor Mee?

Maybe it was because I hadn't had a proper lunch; just a piece of toast. But by 4pm, I knew I was in need of some sort of comfort food. And potato chips did not do the trick this time around. Instead, a familiar image consumed my entire mind and concentration: bak-chor mee!

Of course, I'm sure it was my unsettling time-table for this semester that's really the cause for all the butterflies in my stomach, oh and the growls too. And to make matters worse, I was getting the jitters because I was totally clueless what Dr Michele was rattling about. And that meant I'll probably have to go class shopping and mess up my already unsettling time-table even more. But amidst the discompose, I succumbed to a chuckle when I found these at Coles.

It's globalisation in the flour, erm...flesh: Made in Korea Singapore noodles on sale in an Australian supermarket.

But some things just have to stay the same. Do not, and I mean DO NOT use mince beef to make bak-chor mee. It's not called bak-chor mee (and not goo-bak-chor mee) for nothing. 'Nuff said.

Soba & Salmon Sashimi Salad

I found this recipe which I'd cut out (intended to but somehow never got to making it) some years back buried under a stack of papers...

Ingredients (serves 4)

250g dried soba

3 tbsp sesame oil, 1 tbsp honey

1 tbsp grated ginger, 1 tsp chilli flakes

60ml light soy sauce, 2 tbsp lime juice

300g sashimi grade salmon, sliced into strips

8 spring onions, sliced diagonally

Garnish
1 sheet dried (nori) seaweed, sliced into strips

toasted sesame seeds

To cook

1 Cook soba in a pot of salted water. Drain and run under cold water. Add sesame oil to soba, toss, then chill until ready to serve. 2 Add honey, ginger, chilli and soy sauce in a saucepan and stir occasionally over low heat for 5 minutes. Remove, and let cool. Stir in lime juice. 3 Pour half of the prepared dressing over the salmon. 4 Place noodles on a serving dish, add remaining dressing and toss well. Add salmon and spring onions. 5 Garnish and serve immediately.

Mama's Pantry

Apparently, my mama thinks that I'm too fat coz she's been making this every other day for me for lunch! *LOL*

Sweet Reminders of Love

By 11.59pm, these were the text messages received on my mobile...

Shuting, 12.14am:
Happy Bdae, Ms Yeow! May you be blessed with love and joy throughout the year. ST loves ya always. =)

Priscilla, 12.19am:
Dear, I wrote half a poem intending to tell you how special you are with each letter of your name but God stopped me. He says you are so special you don't need a poem to make you special. As I typed this message, He told me just as Joseph the dreamer was the favourite son of Jacob, so you are favoured by God. Jacob made Joseph a coat of many colours (richly ornamented robe) which signified distinction. So God says you are exceptional. Dare to dream. I LOVE YOU, says God. Happy Birthday. Love, Pris

Brandon, 12.32am:
Happy Birthday

Stephanie, 10.21am:
Good morning. Have a very happy birthday! Drink and party till your heart's content. Catch you soon, Steph.

Laura, 11.06am:
Happy happy birthday to you! Imagine me singing la. Wishing you lots of happiness and good health.

Jenny, 2.49pm:
Happy Birthday. :-)

Raymond, 3.12pm:
Hi Jo, happy birthday! Big bash?

Shan, 4.02pm:
Happy berfday dearie.

Mohana, 5.05pm:
Happy Birthday to you. Hope you enjoy yourself. Have a good time.

Roanna, 5.34pm:
Hey halo, HAPPY BIRTHDAY...enjoy yourself today ar...

Kenneth, 6.02pm:
Hey hey! Happy birthday to you!!! A brand new start to life! Am sure you would agree.

Ginnelle, 7.07pm:
I din forget. Happy 30th bday, gal!

Winston, 8.49pm:
Hey Jo! Happy Birthday! May the Lord smile upon you always! Best wishes! :-D

Sazryna, 11.10pm:
Hello Ah Yeow! Happy birthday! Welcome to the 30s club! :-) May you be blessed with lotsa love, wealth, good health and happiness always! How was your day today?

Cheryl, 1.12pm:
Happy birthday, dear. How many years old le huh?

And the emails and phonecalls, the handshakes and hugs....


P.S: Things I don't want to forget...

But of course, what better way to end the day than with great food?

Project Pancake

Wondering what's this? Well, this is pancake batter made with:

1 cup of plain flour

1/2 cup of water

1 egg

salt and pepper

kimchi and kimchi juice

Fry the orangey batter and voila, you'll get this:

The best part? Preparation doesn't take more than 15 minutes but will address the hunger pangs of 4 persons!

And this is what the Koreans call Kimchi Buchimgae and it's eaten by the locals with a special sauce made up of soy sauce, lemon juice, sake/ rice vinegar, mirin, fish sauce and sesame oil.

********

Jo's 2 cents' worth

I'll add 2 pinches of salt and cut up the kimchi into even smaller pieces (try 1cm x 1cm). Perhaps I'll try this pancake recipe with pork and spring onions and maybe, even chopped chilli (for colour) the next time. Oh, and one last thing, my pancake looks really fat here because in my excitement, I poured in all the batter into the frying pan at once (which I'm not supposed to), so remember to make your pancake thin if you do try this recipe (which means you probably have to fry it twice or even 3 times).

Have a Yummy Christmas!

I'm no Remy (damn I wish!) but if Anton Gusteau's culinary philosophy were to be taken seriously, then yes, anyone can cook! For starters, you'll probably get a cramp from crossing your fingers that you do not have to call the fire department when Jo's in the kitchen. Thankfully, I didn't burn down my mum's kitchen today when I decided to make dinner for everybody tonight, erm...that's minus my dad (in case you're interested, dad had a very safe vegetarian dinner cooked by the lady of the house) who mocked at my spending more than 2 hours in the kitchen making "are you sure this is edible?"

Prawn Gochujang
miso paste
12 tiger prawns (shelled and devein)
1/2 carrots cut into strips
spring onions as garnish

Kimchi Jigae
kimchi soup base
1 chicken thigh cut into cubes
1 square tofu cut into cubes
kimchi / cabbage (proportion to your discretion)
spring onions as garnish

Chicken Bulgogi
bulgogi marinate (2 hours in the fridge)
2 chicken thighs cut into long thin slices
1 yellow onion cut into strips
spring onions as garnish

Ta-da! My home-cooked Christmas dinner...

What's in your soup?

Do you like shark's fin soup? Do you know how it taste like without the Ajinomoto to give it flavour? Socially perceived as dangerous marine animals, many adopt a tit-for-tat attitude on man's killing of sharks for their fins. But do you know that out of the thousands who are attacked by sharks a year, 10 persons actually die? In comparison, over ten million are killed to be served on our [Asian] tables. How fair is that?

I've been laughed at countless times over the last 3 years for being silly and not knowing how to enjoy this "delicacy" - these sharks have been killed anyway, I've been told - but I just can't make myself eat it anymore. Can you save the sharks too?

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2002/06/0603_020603_shark1.html

Operation Kimchi

I simply adore Korean food - Bibimbab, Bulgogi, Samgyetang, Yukgaejung - oh my, the list is endless! And it's not just the explosion, er...literally lah, of the robust flavours with every mouthful making me crave for more, more and more! It makes me high too. Funnily, it has the same effect on me as with too much alcohol - I can't think and I can't stop my gibberish or giggling.

Of course, nothwithstanding being weight-conscious, I'm on a permanent prowl for Korean food. Back in Hong Kong, it's either Arirang at Times Square, or Kaya at 8 Russell Street, Causeway Bay, or Nam San Gok at New Town Plaza, Shatin (my all-time favourite, considering it's a stone's throw away from my place). Now on home ground, I swear by the BBQ-anything (seriously!) at Manna located at Telok Ayer, the heavenly tofu soup and the tea at Se Ra Bel at Furama Hotel, the overwhelmingly-yummy condiments (and there's just so many of them!) at Auntie Kim's along Upper Thomson Road and my all-time favourite in the heart of Orchard Road, Han Ka Ram at The Heeren. By golly! The very thought of all these is making me drool. Extra pounds? Bring it on!

PS: Also looking for more kimchi buddies to unearth kimchi hideouts and to scour kimchi-land.

FOOD...glorious food

One word - aphrodisiac. What turns you on? Is it strawberries and champagne? Oysters? Or even scented candles and soothing background music? Or even a hot bubble bath?

Guess what mine is? Korean food! Erm, but you've gotta think asexually, yea?

Bibimbap

Monday night, 27 February 2006.

I ate Bibimbap with a plastic spoon! No, the spoon didn't melt although the hot stone bowl thingy was really hot. No, I don't know what kind of plastic it is. And no, I didn't die from plastic intoxication...not yet.

Mee Pok Dah

Mee Pok Dah aka smelly noodles (term coined by Sazzy)...I kinda miss that. Of course, I also miss the person I eat it with every weekday very much - Cheryl, otherwise fondly referred to as Ong-Ong.

Mee Pok Dah - my staple SKSS breakfast - mee pok with bak chor and tao gay and three slices of mushrooms and one fishball and one pork ball and a little chilli and half a ladle of soup (so that the noodles will not be too dry and hard to swallow)...with a cup of kopi...

So now, I'm terribly missing the mee pok dah and my Ong-Ong...

The day I BURNT the pot

I guess you should be expecting something like this to happen sooner or later, right? Well, I did.

Now...do I hear applause and cheers in the background?

Anyway, despite this little setback, I still ended up with edible chicken wings that's not too burnt (although the skin was stuck to the pot). Why Swedish, you ask? Don't ask me...I've absolutely no idea why the recipe is called Swedish Chicken Wings. (Psst...I think it's more apt to call it 'the 15-minute frozen China mid-joint chicken wings in Lee Kum Kee's Chicken Marinade'.)

Oh yeah, so what if you think I'd cheated? C'mon...instant marinating sauce from the bottle's not that bad...at least, I had to mix water and sugar myself, okay?!!

And in case you're wondering...yes, I managed to salvage the pot too...

The Art of Perfection

I'm obviously not referring to cooking instant noodles - been there, done that. *Chey* I am referring to vermicelli, Hong Kong-style noodles. If I remember correctly, I think it's called min. It actually looks a little like the bee hoon we use in laksa.

Well, this thing about min - If you cook it for too long, it turns soggy; it has to be cooked to, well, if I can borrow the Italian word, al dente. So, the amount of water and the time you boil the min is crucial. And after cooking it repeatedly for a few times, I think I can make a decent bowl of min. Now, I have to experiment with different ingredients. I wonder if it will taste good with chicken wings or even beef. So far, I only know it tastes pretty good with tofu and golden mushrooms. Do I hear anybody salivating yet?

Later...

Ode to McDonald's

It's so true when people say you'll only appreciate the things around you when it has all been taken away from you. I miss those days when I could just go home and yell "I'm hungry and I want to eat now." and I'll be fed. Now, I'll either have to cook (something I'm totally not good in) or I'll have to scout around the neighbourhood for a decent meal. Cooking is troublesome because I'll have to wash, cook and wash again; eating out is not any much easier when everything is written in traditional Chinese characters and sometimes, the words just look so greek. Of course, the universal language of pointing to get something is great, except that I also risk ending up with something I don't eat!

Oh, have I mentioned the universal lifesaving restaurant ever invented? Hah, you've guessed it - McDonald's! Thank God, there's one nearby...

Nutritious Rice Rolls

It's lunch time now and I'm eating a reheated rice roll that I'd bought last night from Sunshine City Plaza. Apparently, it's the Hong Kong culture that lunch is usually packed from home and many people would bring their lunchboxes to school and work everyday.

Now, back to my rice roll. Don't ask me what is in it because obviously I don't know. Most of the time, I don't really know what I'm eating unless it's the usual stuff I consume back home like Macs or Har Gao, Siew Mai and Char Siew Bao. Okay, so how did I even manage to buy that from the shop? Well, the universal body language - I pointed to the picture. Hah!

PS: Nicky, it works and not with your favourite finger =P

And if you're really interested, you can check out this website http://www.qqrice.com.hk/.

The next question that you may be dying to ask: So, is it filling enough to last the entire afternoon? Well, I think so. If not, I just have to drink more water till I get home or go to the canteen to get some food, by pointing, again - what's new?

So, what's next? I don't know, but I guess it'll be whatever catches my eye.

Later...