Mei Cai Kou Rou

Really tired at the moment... Long day of intermittent nuaing and studying. Whilst searching through my freezer for some dinner the other day, I found this piece of nice pork belly that I bought from Tesco. An idea sprung on to me. that I should make a mei cai kou rou. As you know, I like pork and I should try and eat less of this fatty stuff since I have had so much of it over the last month. Being health conscious is an occupation trait so you can't blame me lol.

It took me about half an hour to get it all ready for the steamer but that time seemed so much longer when the kitchen's slightly messier than most days and I was feeling rather knackered.

The end result, well it tasted alright. The top layer was really nice as it absored all the "chap" (gravy) but the lower layers tasted a wee bit blend. At the end of the day, it fed me to the brim but the effort just wasn't worth as much as going to the restaurant to have it served and eaten.

As a consolation, I manged to take some pictures of it and am quite pleased to see the nice contrast between the green broccoli and the pork. Oh yah, the broccoli's helped to make me less guilty haha.


Ingredients
-----------------
1 Kg Pork belly or less (Rolled up)

MARINATE
4 Tbsp dark soy sauce
6 Tbsp light soy sauce
2 Tbsp Rice wine
1 Tbsp Black bean sauce

6 Cloves of Garlic
2 Tbsp Sugar
1Tbsp Light Soy sauce
150g Preserved vegetables 梅菜


Marinate the belly with the sauces preferbly for 2hours or overnight for better taste. Remove the pork belly, and pat it dry with kitchen towels. Pan fry the pork till all sides are golden brown. Remove it and immerse in cold water. Next fry the garlic in some oil, add in the remaining marinate and the rest of the sauces plus the preserve vegetables. Fry till half of the water has evaporated. Slice the pork as thinly as you can and layer it in a bowl (suitable for steaming) Lastly, place the mei chai mixture over the pork. Steam for 1 hour at least. 2 hours if you got alot of gas (more tender meat). Serve with broccoli that has been par boiled for 2 mins.

Dinner at Asian Gourmet

WY's leaving Glasgow for the weekend so being nice friends, Aa and I decided to acompany him for dinner. Poor Aa... C's just left for Singapore on a FIRST CLASS FLIGHT!!! (lucky you). Anyhow, its been a while since I have been to Asian gourmet. This restaurant is located just round the corner from Asia Style. Its quite difficult to spot because its on the basement.
When it first open, we were quite suprised to find out that they serve quite authentic Sichuan dishes and at really affordable prices of between 7 to 8 pounds per dish. I supposed with inflation, the prices have gone up but still, this dinner only cost each of us 10 pounds and we ate till we were stuffed. (10 pounds is cheap in a Chinese restaurant for 3 people when you jiao Chai)

The first dish that you see is something new for the 3 of us. I read from the menu that it is some beef dish in beef juice.. Well, I couldn't make alot out of the title and the waitress wasn't sure either but she assumed it was stir fried. To be honest, it does look extraordinary but it tasted uniquely ordinary. Confusing eh? yes.. becos it taste exactly confusing. I could taste the beefiness of it but I could not fully work out what sauce was used in it. It taste almost beefy with a hint of sourishness and a strong taste of parsley. Texture wise, it resemble sweet and sour pork but definately did not taste sweet nor as sour as it. Overall, all the guys favoured this dish.

I literally went Huh? when i saw this dish. I had ordered sha po toufu, but totally did not expect this soupy toufu dish in a claypot. Well, one title different intepretations. WY thinks this is the way the Sichuanese have their claypot toufu because they are big fans of soup. Is this dish nice? Ok only, I won't order it again because it wasn't tasty and I can probably cook a better version.

Lastly, a classic favourite for us is the La Zi Ji aka Chilli Chicken. Basically, its a KFC chicken again with a sichuan twist. Nicely deep fried with some sichuan chilli spices. Highly recommended.

Finally, there is always rice to fall back on. You literally get buckets of rice here haha and me being a typical teochew boy loves rice. I still find it difficult to feel full without having rice. Mum thinks that that is a bad habit haha Dad thinks there's nothing wrong with it. I just want to eat rice..

Ba Chor Mee

I love ba chor mee. Its my second most favourite after Chicken rice I think. I basically boiled 2 cakes of scallop mee pok noodles (bought from Chinese super market) and top it up with some left over mince. Drizzle some sesame seed oil and stir in a nice amount of chilli. Lao Gan ma is one my favourite brands in Glasgow. There's this mystery ingredient called prickly ash that goes into it. Anyone know what it is?

Ba Chor Mee, originally uploaded by jiapui.

Mince Pork with Ang Mor Eggplant

Eggplant also got Ang mor Version ah?... Well... its only ang mor because I bought it in Glasgow but the truth is there are so many different varieties of egg plants of different size, shape and color, especially purple, green, or white. The eggplant that I used in this dish is probably one these Harris Special Hibush, Burpee Hybrid, Black Magic, Classic, Dusky, and Black Beauty. To be honest, I am only interested in 2 groups, the Chinese long slender versions versus the Non slender versions.
Interestingly, when i cooked the angmor version it turned green. Anyhow, I made this dish to complement a fish curry that din really turn out the way i expect although Aa said it tasted alright haha.
Here's a dish that is relatively cheap to make and pretty simple as well. Not only that, you can use the left overs for something else.


Ingredients
-----------------
750g mince pork (again buy from Chinese butcher, taste better with the extra fat)
1 Eggplant
2 Tbsp mince garlic
3 Tbsp Oyster Sauce
2 Drizzles of Sesame Seed oil
1 Tbsp dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp Black bean sauce LKK

Stir fry garlic in oil, throw in the mince pork and stir fry till its cook. Throw in the eggplant (you can cube or slice them up to your own preference). MIx in the sauces. Garnish with spring onion and serve hot with rice.


*Read more about eggplants at ---------------> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eggplant

Stewed Soy Sauce Pork Belly

Hmm.. I love stewed pork belly and its likely because of my dad's influence.. WY likes to say we tend to have the same eating habits as our parents. In this instance, I would say its true. My previous attempts with stewed soy sauce pork belly aka Lou Bak have been somewhat of a science experiement. Mum says oh just add sugar, soya sauce garlic cinnamon and can already..... I think in my head ..."ok"... so whats the measurement??
As such, I haven't been able to get that familliar taste back home.
This time round however, I have decided to be a little research. Oh boy, what you see about has to be my most succesful pork belly. Its savoury and not overpowered by sweetness and the pork was of the right consistency. Also, I ve managed to stained the eggs a nice semi-dark brown colour. I strongly urge those of you who are interested to try out this recipe

Ingredients
-------------------------

500g Pork Belly

MARINATE
1 Tbsp light soy sauce
1 Tbsp Oyster
1 Tbsp thick dark soy sauce (not the watery version)
1/2 Tsp Pepper
1/2 Tsp Salt
1/2 Tsp Five spice powder
2 Tbsp Sugar


1 Whole Garlic
1 Tbsp thick dark soy sauce
1 Tbsp Sugar
Pinch of Salt
1 Cup water
Hard Boild Eggs

Cut pork into 1 inch lengths/chunks, marinate with the sauces for half an hour preferbly. I did it for only 15mins. Hardboil some eggs to go along with the pork. Fry the pork with some oil. Add in half a cup of water. Stir the pork well till the water starts to boil. add in the garlic dark soy sauce, sugar and salt. Add the remaining water and eggs. Boil over low flame for half an hour. Serve with rice.

Vanilla Icecream with Rock Melon

I haven't been ice cream in quite a while. As most of you know, I like my ice cream alot and my ice cream tub collection can surely justify it.
We decided to open up a tub of B and J's Baked alaska today. This flavour is almost the exact opposite of phish food. Instead of chocolate ice cream, this flavour consists of vanilla icecream, marshmallow swirls and white chocolate polar bars. I thought why not turn this simple dessert into something more up class.
Luckily, Aa has one remaining rock melon in the fridge and "tink" an idea sprang to my mine.
So what I did was scoop out the ice cream and made a fan out of a half slice of melon and
TADA!... You've just made for yourself something that looks like it cost 4 pounds.

3 Cup Chicken

Hello All, was rather tired last night so I did not manage to get down to posting. I made this on Thursday for Aa and C. Poor C going on nights for the next week.

3 Cup chicken or san bei ji is quite a common dish in Singapore but somehow it is not as common here in Glasgow.
You can find lots more trivia on this dish on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanbeiji . Yes I actually bothered to wiki up on dishes that I cook haha. You got to know what you are eating right? lol..OK click on the link and have a read, they will probably do a better explainnation than I can.

Ingredients
-------------------------
3 Tbsp Dark Soy sauce
3 Tbsp Shaoxing Wine
3 Tbsp Sesame oil
8 Chicken thighs deboned
Spring onion
Ginger
Garlic
Pinch Salt and Sugar

Marinate the chicken with the 3 sauces. I like to use chicken thighs deboned and deskined. That way you get meat that is more succulent and less fatty. Stir fry the ginger and garlic. Mind you, ginger is quite important in this dish. Add in the chicken and stir fry for about 10 mins. Add some water if you find that the wok is starting to dry up. (you should get a semi liquid sticky sauce). Add a pinch of salt and sugar and a dash of shaoxing wine or sesame oil if you like. Lastly, throw in the spring onions and allow the heat to evaporate the spring onion oil.

*serve hot with rice. yum yum
*substitute chicken with pork, beef, lamb, or .............. frog ....

Dinner at See Woo Restaurant - A special Treat

Well.. I've got to count myself lucky for having a friend like WY who's not only generous but smart as well. This treat was by him to celebrate his spectacular results for his final year exams.
Aa and I have been thinking about lobster noodles ever since we sank our teeth into this heavenly creation in London. It was by chance that we saw this brochure featuring lobster noodles from See Woo.

So did this dish finally satisfy our craving?... well.... It was not too bad but the version in London was much better. Nevertheless, I would not be complaining about eating lobster especially when its free. The meat was succently and tasted of crustacean freshness, probably because it was still swiming before it finally landed up in the wok. THe noodles on the other hand were not very good. It lack the chewiness of that special london noodles and did not absorb much of the lobster juice.

Overall it was nice but not unmami nice. I will still come back some day to try if I have got a bit of spare cash.

We ordered Stir fried bamboo clams with asparagus in a XO sauce. This was really nice. The texture of the clam was chewy but not rubbery and had that nice meaty taste that leaves one craving for more.

Sweet and sour pork needs no introduction. WY was meant to order a pork rib dish but we had no idea how it turned out to be sweet and sour pork.

Finally, Prawn Hua Dan Hor (Prawn smooth egg Hor ... haha). Basically its prawn horfun with an egg sauce. The prawns were succulent and obviously they overloaded it with msg which made it tasted fantastic haha. I know it looks abit like puke but once you start eating it it was fine..

Thank you WY for this meal

SeeWoo Restaurant
------------------------------
29 Saracen Street
Glasgow, Lanarkshire G22 5HT
0141 331 6105

Guo Tie Japanese Style

You probably would not be able to make out this dish from the picture and that's because Aa decided to overload the Guo Ties aka dumplings with bonito flakes. Yes.. you must be wondering guotie with bonitos no ginger no dark vinegar? and with mayo ?

Yup.. that's our style of eating guotie in this flat. I believe this dish is a creation by Aa and C. C's the resident guotie chef in the flat, the one person who has got the technique all right from the pan frying to the steaming. What you get is a nice crispy base and a succulent juicy meat filling oo yummy.

Somehow this conocotion probably derived from the tako pachi concept works really well. So well that it has become a lunctime favourite to pair with myojo mee or indo mee..

Gosh.. I am feeling hungry now..

Ingredients
------------------
Pork Guo Tie's 40 pieces for 6.95 approx
kewpee japanese mayo
bonito flakes

Heat a non-stick frying pan (strongly recommend investing in a good teflon pan) with oil in it. Pan fry one side of the guotie from frozen. Once its nicely brown. Add a suitable amount of water and cover with a lid. Steam until all the water has evaporated. Squeeze over the mayo and garnish with bonito flakes.
Unfortunately, I do not have the exact measurements and timings. According to C its all about agaration.


* Bonito flakes = flakes of dried, smoked bonito fish
* http://www.japancentre.com/ --> They do delivery for only 5 pounds.

Lunch at Loon Fung

The group of us came back around lunch time and after 3 days of not having any chinese food, we were really craving for some food close to the heart. Its not very often that we eat chinese for lunch but this was a good opportunity to have dim sum as a group which we probably did like 3 years ago just that there's much less people this time.

The fun thing about eating dim sum is theres always the few dishes that you would order and the ones which you like to eat but don't know what it is called and start giving it names or describing the components of the dish and lastly the delicious looking ones on other tables that you point to and say "can i have a portion of that as well"

We started off the meal with a "pe dan" pork Cheok aka Century egg with pork congee. Century egg is not my favourite egg but I wouldn't mind having the congee. Mum always tells me that they blend the porridge to get the consistency that you find in congee. I find it hard to believe sometimes but she could be right.

We had noodles as well and this time it was something that we saw on another table that made us salivate. Its like a 2 Roast meat with Hor fun type of dish . Its delicious because the roast was nicely done but I found it a wee bit oily but that's probably what made it taste so yummy.

Next up is Siew mai. Nicely packed with 1 whole shrimp inside.

Following that, Har gao or Shrimp dumling. These 2 dishes never fail to make it to the table. Its like the favourite 2 dim sums of all time. Again nice bursty prawns, obviously chemically tampered with haha. I was a little skeptical about the dim sum, knowing that some restaurants actually use frozen dim sums made in factories and basically, the cooks just resteam them. Luckily, I have managed to get some insider info and found out that the dim sum here is actually made fresh. Phew

Ok, this is one dish which I do not know its name. Basically its pork ribs with black beans steamed. Savoury and slightly sweet at the same time.

This is not fried carrot cake haha instead it was listed as fried turnip moose on the menu. I never liked this dish until i came to Glasgow but its like one of my favourite dishes now. Taste wise it was not overly salted which is good but could have do with a bit more chinese sausages. Its fried nicely (just wish it was abit more crispier) but it was too soft.. I kinda expected it to be firmer. Well, its a moose afterall so maybe it was meant to be of the softer consistency.

The BAOs... I seldom eat baos because I find them too filling and you end up missing up on the more yummy stuff. Afterall you can get bao at most places. I am unable to comment on the taste because I did not eat them but they should be fine. The bao in the background is called Nai Yeung Bao. It has an egg yolk custard filling. Ermm.. I am not too familliar with this bao, only encountered it in Glasgow and had just a few.

Prawns in beanurd skin deep fried. Thats probably the way I would describe it. Again not sure what it is called. It would have been nice with some mayonise ..hmm yum..

Chee Cheong Fun with you tiao. There was another plate with prawn filling.

I did not eat this. I was too full after eating one of eat item and probably had too much noodles.. If i am correct there s a savoury sweet filling in the deep fried ball.

So this is our Dim sum Experience and the start of a Chinese food eating extravagenza that proved to be an overdose. Its not that I do not like Chinese food but its the home cook food that I miss more. Haha honestly, we grew up eating our mother's home cook food day after day, how to get bored. You tell me LOL.