Tepee

Susan: The tomatoes look so good, inspiring me to go roast some too! Kristin: Yup, sounds like you had lotus paste mooncakes. Interesting that you haven't tried lotus paste before. Don't they have it as a filling in japanese pastries, considering it's made just like red bean paste?

I can bet my last hoong bao that the bakeries stop their production even before the Mooncake Festival. Gastro, did you miss having your mooncakes during the festival? If you want some fresh ones, get it from Sheetz, who may still be making them....

Shelf life according to..... The stores..................................till sold out. Me, if not put in the fridge............1 week. Stored in the fridge, fresh............1 month. Stored in the freezer, fresh..........1 year. If you look very closely at some lurking in the shops, you may see mould, even with the dessicant inside the pack. Not kidding.

Even for good-sized prawns (as we call it)? Either you have a big....whoops!... Well, my eldest brother and I are the only ones in the family who eats shrimp in the shell with cutlery.

Did some quick sleuthing.... I came across one site which says the duck is roasted in a big barrel-shaped charcoal burning oven, whereas another said, in Beijing, it was traditionally done in a peachwood and cherrywood-burning oven. Both of them would, I presume, give a special flavor to the duck. Para 11 of this site describes how the duck is prepared. Now I see why it can't be done in our home ovens.

This I have to see! Does anyone have a picture? It sounds like an outdoor oven to me. Looks as if without a proper purpose-built oven, there is no way we can replicate the crispiness. Will our oven produce an acceptable duck? <insert hopeful look>

That looks like mini mooncakes, Kristin. Mooncake Festival fell on Sep 18 this year. What was the filling? Red bean paste or lotus paste? Were there any yolks inside? They're very good eaten with tea. Enjoying yours and Susan's blog.......

pei chee pei chee

When that happens, Ben-sook, will you give me the honor of illustrating the book and doing the cover for you?

All's well...lunch has been eaten. No, the kitchen is unscathed...I checked the wind speed/direction etc before I did the flaming act.

I can imagine showmanship features very much in your cooking style!

Lucky you, Gastro! On the duck skin not being rough....can that not be achieved by constant basting and turning the bird?

No suggestions...haven't roasted a duck before. Sheetz, if you're game for a cook-off, and with muichoi guiding us, I'm all for it! I'd like to make Peking Duck, though, because I love to eat it with scallions in wrappers.

First you bite the head off, then you suck the juice out, then you throw the shells awayyyyy............... Seriously, when done like this, throw what etiquette away. No problem in a chinese home or restaurant. Although, it is perfectly acceptable to eat with your fingers, I've developed a very efficient way of peeling the shells with whatever cutlery on hand. Make sure you don't waste those sweet juices now. Slurpilicious! Only etiquette...don't drink out of the finger bowl.

Thanks, Trillium. Does anyone knows what's the chinese name for it?

<Drawing in breath> I'm allergic to prawns (still eat them) but I'm really doing serious damage to my keyboard now.........droooooolllllll.

Thanks, Hz, guess what I'm having for lunch?

Yeah! Trillium! This thread will be kept open for you as long as it takes. Eating lobak with pei dan and preserved (pickled?) ginger sounds sooooooo good. Here it is, the recipe for the lobak dipping sauce and the chilli sauce.

A non-muslim, but, I, for one, have been waiting for Ramadan. "Selamat menunaikan ibadah puasa" (Have a fulfilling ramadan) to all muslims. In my neighborhood, there are many stalls selling buka puasa (breaking fast) spread. Unfortunately, it's also raining a bit these days. Guess who you'll see totting an umbrella with a toddler salivating at all the goodies.......and having a break from cooking dinner?

Yunny, cili padi is bird's eye chillies. The adobo sauce sounds so good...when did you say you'll be making it?

Ben-sook, you painted your memories with a watercolor artist's strokes, fluid, beautiful. I can picture the scenes so well, thanks to your mastery in storytelling. My paternal grandfather had a poultry and vegetable farm (not far from where I stay now), with a pond the size of half a football field, surrounded by an orchard (banana trees, papaya trees, rambutan trees, durian trees, starfruit, ciku and guava too). Fish were also bred in that pond. I wasn't much of a tomboy when I was growing up, so I watched my brothers happily catching fish from a distance. Till one day, in my adulthood, I brought a few colleagues (including future hubby) to fish, and I caught my first fish, quite a prize and the envy of all, because it was a soon hock (marbled goby), a difficult fish to catch as it was so sedentary, its meat so delicious. And, to add insult to injury, the other 'fisherman' couldn't believe I caught it with a dough (mixed with chicken feed) bait, rather than the live bait (ugh) they were using. I gave it to my future FIL who not only didn't have the heart to eat it, he lovingly fed and talked to it for years till its size tripled. Ahhh...my grandfather is gone now, so is the pond...it has been filled up and my relatives have rented out the land for good money. But, at what price? The place is so ugly now, all concrete.....gone too is the laughter and giggles of children enjoying and being one with nature.

That was love at first sight...

The ones I've tried are clear (brown tint) soups, with the other rich stuff in it. Everything can be eaten. If done well, the items shouldn't be chewy, they should be al dente.

Hz..what? No discounts for unfresh mooncakes? Shops here were offering 'mai yat soong yat' (1 for 1) the night before the festivities. During the weekend, at a friend's party, she served mooncakes (storebought); nobody touched it. We expect them to be on the stale side.

Aprilmei, you'll be making sausages? Yay! Don't worry about not taking pics, you're describing them well enough. Not a good pic....don't like to take pics at nite. I can't say that this recipe is the recipe for lobak, because I couldn't find any. Those who know how to make it is very secretive about their recipe. But, I think my recipe is pretty close. Ingredients: 600 gm pork belly (together with fats) - hey, Aprilmei, I worked with 600 g too! (Marinade) 1 big onion 2 T sugar (hmmm...aprilmei's idea of using honey is good) 1 t salt 1 t pepper 3 T 5-spice powder 1 T dark soya sauce 2 T light soya sauce 5 T potato flour 4 T water 5 pcs fu chook (dried soya bean sheet) buy the unsalted one. Method: Trim off fats. Slice meat into 8 X 0.5 cm strips. Where you can't get nice strips, lump them up to chop roughly. Do the same for the fats. Add all the marinade ingredients and keep in the fridge overnight or for at least 6 hours. Wet fu chook by running under the tap. Lightly shake off excess water. You may start cutting each sheet into 4 quite immediately, as the sheet turns soft and translucent. Trim off the hard edges. Place a bit of chopped meat on the fu chook closer to one long edge. Lay your mix of lean/fat meat strips on top of that. Top up with a bit more chopped meat. Prepare a 'glue' of 2 T potato flour with 3 T water. Although I think it's enough just to dab the 'glue' at the edges, I smear this all over the sheet around the filling for insurance. Fold up the bottom edge and make one roll. Fold up the sides and continue to roll to the end as tight as you can. Place finished roll seam side down. Keep all the rolls in the fridge for 1-2 hours for the flavors to develop in the skin. Heat till slightly smoking enough oil for deep-frying. Fry each side for 5 minutes. Drain on absorbent paper. Normally served sliced. Lobak is eaten dipped in a sweet sauce and a chilli sauce. The site where I wanted to get the recipe from is not accessible at the moment. Will try later.