Tepee

Oh, Ben-Sook! Don't laugh at me! I was trying to sound as serious and un-quack as possible. Seriously. There are indeed some amongst us - my sister's MIL and my MIL for instance...notice the keyword MIL - who are obsessed with how the food is going to affect their system. Tell them what you're going to cook that evening, and, if you're not careful with your menu, you'll be bombarded with, "This will make you...blah blah blah..." sigh....I've to shoot off again. To be continued.

I thought I might as well start the Yin/Yang ball rolling. Carrot Top posed this question on The Lychee Thread ^ Well...to answer this question, we have to look into: 1. The constitution of a person...whether he is more Yin or Yang 2. The effects/properties/flavor of the food 3. Yin and Yang Illnesses 4. How the Yin and the Yang is affected by the seasons People, feel free to expound on the above. I'll chip in later...er...I'm a bit busy at the moment. This is going to be interesting because Yin-Yang describes a relative state....a thing is never just Yin or Yang.

Ah Leung Gaw, because of this magnificent demo, you've gained a daughter and a mother....might as well add a sister ----> ME! The more the merrier!

Luckily for me, lychees do not cause any disharmony to my body. Maybe, I'm immune...owing to my nickname, when I was young ---> jeot wut lai chee...lychee with a tiny seed...most priced.

Michael....I agree with you. Having said that, the seating at Toh Yuen was very good...spacious. You can have spirited conversation without disturbing your neighbours. LOL, that evening, my table consisted of 6 girls who haven't seen one another for 20 years....chatter chatter chatter.... Shiewie...Taiping Lang is in Puchong Jaya, last shop diagonally opposite Leong Ya Yeong Tau Fu. Next to Leong Ya, there's a Taiwanese restaurant...you'll miss it if someone didn't point it out to you. We like it too...nice Taiwanese dishes and handmade noodles with vinegar in them, and they have the toffee apples dessert as well as toffee sweet potato dessert which is dunked in iced water. Only thing is the menu is in chinese and everyone there only speaks mandarin. BTW, Shiewie, you should be posting in this thread...you eat out much more than I do! We noticed quite a few new restaurants in the vicinity. Will be visiting them one by one.

My bad.

When it comes to good belgian chocolate, I'm not choosy...just get me Leonidas anything! The latest indulgence well-worth marring my complexion with the odd youthful 'beans', is Royce Nama Chocolate flown daily from Japan. I had the one flavored with champagne. Mmmm... Droste dark chocolate is a good stand-by fix.

Aye, aye!!! Aaargggh! Why did I have to buy my 2 chickens chopped up into bite sizes this week????

The fact that I have only posted one restaurant thus far doesn't mean there's a dearth of restaurants in M'sia nor does it mean I don't dine in restaurants. Sigh, I should strap my camera to my wrist because I keep forgetting to bring it along. Besides, sometimes, there's the odd establishment which doesn't encourage pix-taking. Recent eats: At Toh Yuen , a chinese restaurant within a 5-star hotel. The dinner (relatively simple dishes chosen by a friend) cost around RM60 per head (equivalent of US$16). Last night, as for most Saturdays, we drove around looking to try a new restaurant, and, indeed, we were lucky to find Taiping Lang. Taiping (meaning Eternal Peace) is a town 3 hrs' drive north of KL. Lang, pronounced Lahng, is Hokkien/Fuchien for Ren (mandarin), yan (cantonese), meaning people. The whole meal cost RM46, which is a tad higher than what we normally pay for homestyle food, but we were very happy with every item on the table. Yum!

I can get Karo's corn syrup if I search hard enough in my neck of the woods, but it's expensive. Stumbled on a substitute in a modelling chocolate recipe. Please refer to this thread. As you can see in Sugarella's recipe, it's 500g chocolate to 5 oz corn syrup. The recipe I use has 500g chocolate to 5 oz liquid glucose plus 2 oz liquid sugar. Works fine.

Not rj, but, a dish looking like that in Msia, will be a cold prawn (shrimp, whatevah!) dish, topped with what is usually referred to as 'salad sauce', otherwise known as mayonnaise. What? Malaysia is exotic? LOL, does that make Msians exotic too?

That's about on a par with what we would pay here, only we pay in Malaysian dollars. biggrin.gif

Ginger dipping sauce for Hainanese Chicken Rice. Sometimes, we add a dollop of dark soy sauce in this ginger sauce for even extra oomph!

Yes, exactly like Michael said. Maltose is subtler. I'd use maltose for its stickiness. Palm sugar will not give that. Good gula melaka are very fragrant. Yum! In my little mind, I always associate maltose with toasted sesame seeds, and gula melaka with all things coconut.

Haven't made them before, but, here's the recipe. However, I've stood entranced watching a yau char kway sifu make the YCK and its related goodies (my fav is the caramelly crunchy ma geok or horse's hoof) from the moment he sets up his stall. Really a treat, I tell you, to see him working so deftly. From the recipe, 2 strips are pressed together...but the YCK man I watched, rolled a long rectangle of dough out, then using his pastry cutter, cut 1.5-inch strips, then made a slit in the middle of these. BTW, we have no problem getting alum and ammonia powder here. Would be happy to send to you if you can't find it over there.

Fatmat, chocolate plastic = modeling chocolate = chocolate clay. Used for covering cakes and also some modeling. It can also be combined with fondant (or sugarpaste) 1:1 for even better handling. Pix as promised. Note: The pros should be able to explain it better...I'm just a homebaker. Have been off cake-decorating for a while and was in a hurry...so the cake's not as well executed as I would have liked. Be kind.

Sue-On Jeh-Jeh, haven't got a chance to ask mom yet...she's been out fatt-choying...playing mahjong. Oh...talking about culinary skills, it's yat gaw teen yat gaw dey..absolutely no comparison. Ah Leung Gaw...here's a Vegetarian Yee Sang recipe. Making yee sang is best if you can find a few other enthusiasts so that the shredding (and more shredding) work is shared out. Like you, my husband learnt his cooking from his father, a great and meticulous cook.

If I remember it correctly, in Cantonese practice observed in Hong Kong... on the first day of CNY, we must have a fresh (live) chicken to "open the year". It's on the second day (or is it the third day?) that it is a vegetarian day. On the third day, there is supposed to be no visit ("Gi Hou"). If you visit your relatives on the third day, you risk getting into a quarrel. Oops... this is the third day of CNY (US time). Why am I talking to you??? ← LOL, looks as if we got it the other way around. Our "hoi neen" is on the 2nd day. It's OK, Ah Leung Gaw, your 3rd day is my 4th...we will not lock horns this year.

Ah Leung Gaw, yes, it's 魚生. However, in this case, it refers to the whole dish of pickles, shredded veg, crispies and the raw fish/jellyfish/whatever innovations they've come up with every year, dressed in a gorgeous plum sauce and oil, and spices. I can eat this every day...actually, I think I'm going to have it tonite (my 4th yee sang) at SIL's house.

I don't have Eileen Lo's book, so I don't have any experience with her dough recipe. Like Kathy said, the Ellen-Leong Blonder recipe comes out perfect. Easy to handle too. If you don't want the bao to 'smile' (open up), avoid getting oil from the filling on the part of the dough where you pinch close. Catherine, how long do you steam your baos? Steam over a rolling boil/high heat for 12-15 mins. Uncover quickly, making sure any condensed steam doesn't fall on the bao. Baos which are oversteamed turn yellowish and are slightly tougher.

Gosh, are w'all stuffed or what? After 3 days (of great restraint), I've put on 3 lbs and eaten 3 yee sangs! I hope my weight doesn't increase exponentially with the days of the new year. My Vegetarian Lunch pix as promised earlier. It's a tradition with my family to eat vegetarian on the first day of CNY...something about being kind to all creatures great and small . Although some of the vegetarian gluten is purchased, mom still did a fantastic job converting them into culinary delights. Did I tell you my mother is a great cook? More pix later.....burp! 'scuse me....

Although for this particular recipe, they indicated that the same amount of chocolate is used (whether white, milk, or dark), I've read in other places that for white chocolate, you should add an extra oz. or 2.

Thanks! Really cool site...with step-by-step how-to's. Mmmm...

As a child, I remember I was in my aunt's house when their rat cage snared a pregnant rat. It gave birth to little pink rat babies (er...what do they call them?) bringing much excitement to the household. My uncle promptly put them in a bottle of wine not believing their good fortune. I had the horror of witnessing him down one later. Ewwwwwwww!

What? 3 tables of diners and only Jason takes pix?