Tepee

You know, I don't take cockles, but I never ask them to withhold the cockles. I just push it aside. You're so right, CKT without hum is like cendol without gula melaka.

Hey, never thought of adding ginger juice although we do make steamed ginger juice custard for rainy nights. Tks, Shiewie.

Oh my! Sue-On! What a feast! Was it your birthday? Happy Belated Birthday!

PCL...I empathise with you...so I went iso a good CKT in Melbourne (you're there right now?). Here you go.

A thousand apologies, Joni! I didn't hear you...do pm me if I don't respond for a day because I practically reside in the china forum. No hard and fast rules for my bao filling; feel free to add mushrooms and water chestnuts if you like, I think I didn't for that one, or did I? I don't remember how many baos it can fill. Do like I did, make a rice with the leftovers. Chicken Filling 1 lb chicken thigh meat, diced 1 tsp pepper 1 tsp sesame oil 2 T vegetable oil 2 large onions, chopped 1 T sesame seeds (optional) 5 big chinese mushrooms, soaked and diced (optional) 10 water chestnuts, roughly chopped (I used fresh ones) (optional) Combine the following sauce ingredients: 1 T hoisin sauce 2 T oyster sauce 1 T light soya sauce 1 T thick dark soya sauce 1 T sugar If you can get hold of rose wine jelly (mui kwai loh), a tablespoon adds a nice sweet taste to the filling. 1 T cornflour, combined with 2 T water Method Season chicken with pepper and sesame oil. Saute chopped onions in vegetable oil till lightly browned. Add chicken and mushroom; cook till chicken changes color. Stir in sesame seeds. Add combined sauce ingredients and stir 1 minute. For more oomph, grind in some black pepper. Thicken with cornflour solution. Cool before using. As for the shortening, there's no need to melt it. In fact, I just used it to grease my hook.

Why? Does it have raisins in it? (re: Foochow version of oh-nee)

Don't know if it's been mentioned upthread, but my family fries finely grated coconut (we get that from the grocer's) to season a wok. Lots of oil is produced from the frying. Fry till the coconut is burnt.

Thanks, Michael. I guess, from the pics, the bulb at the bottom looked similar to me.

I don't think I've come across this vegetable before. Learning something new everyday. Is it similar to jicama?

TP: when you get your mooncakes from Kam Lun Tai, does the filling of the mooncakes (especially the Pearly Jade flavor) look that green like the one in the pictures? ← Not surprised that y'all are fazed by the color of the mooncakes. I am, too. But, being the wai sik or adventurous eater that I am, I like to try new 'modern' mooncake variations, sacrilegious or not, as they do sell it individually. And, yes, they almost always disappoint. Like this jade one, not only do they add unnatural-looking coloring to the paste, the taste is enhanced by pandan paste or essence. I accept that most commercial food needs some of these additions, but sometimes they are too much. I have problems with fake tastes. Having said all that, I still buy their lotus paste and red bean ones. I find they are least sweet and the paste is smooth and the oil composition just right.

The degree of difficulty depends on which mooncake you're making. Ping Pei - Easiest Jelly - Easy Peasy, but a little bit more time-consuming Shanghai - Also Easy Teochew Spiral - Not too bad Traditional - The most time-consuming of all. The skin has to be given a few washes of egg and finally tea. Bare in mind, that I'm saying they are easy because I'll probably be using store-bought fillings. I don't mind making the filling if it's a batch or 2, but I definitely don't have the arm-strength to make more. I usually try to find the filling which is the least sweet. I'll be getting my traditional mooncakes from here. Here's an interesting article on Jade Mooncake Another one on why Malaysia thinks they lead in the variety of mooncakes. There are many places where we can get the moulds (not online, though), but it seems to be increasing in price every year . However, a good one will last you a lifetime.

The recipe I'll be using is this, but I'll probably add various light shades of green, pink and yellow to prettify it. Remember to post your pics!

Yes...the moon is unusually large and bright over here too. I noticed it while walking my girls home from chinese tuition classes last night, and I was pointing out to them that it wasn't a full moon yet.

Wull, I've been spoilt with homemade mooncakes ever since my mom learnt to make it 25 years ago. Homemade filling and all. To our taste preference. Remember my horror story? However, I'll only be making the traditional one if I've plenty of time on my hands. And I probably won't be making the filling myself if I can't find a willing assistant to do all that stirring.

Exactly! Alright, I won't call you an old man if you don't talk like one. Hmmm, I don't call myself an old woman, just a dinosaur. Don't you play with food, hz? How do you eat your food...do you eat the good stuff first, or leave it to savor at the end? That's sorta like playing with food, no? OK, OK, I admit I'm as much a kid as my kids - sometimes. Hurray, it's Saturday tomorrow...will go look for some Bubble Tea and 'score'!

This year I'll be making jelly mooncake, shanghai mooncake, ping pei mooncake and teochew spiral mooncake. Anyone wants to join me?

Woo hoo...Shiewie! Thanks for the waisikkai link. Some of the places that guy went to, I've been. Wish he was more wordy, though. And, I don't necessarily agree with some of his reviews. Like his XLB at Suzhou Noodles, the Dragon one beats it hands down. The Suzhou one tasted very porky. Went back to your old link and looked at the CKT. Didn't know the Ipoh one is also black like KL's. Somehow, I'm partial to the KL CKT. Definitely, no curry powder in CKT, hz. Somehow, HK-gers and Sporeans tend to do much damage to the original Msian version of food. (Ducking head to avoid rotten eggs.....!)

No wonder black vinegar is optionally provided for sharks fin soup.

hz, you've been here before? You've got the list spot on! ...And Claypot chicken rice Yong dau foo Talking about laksa, there are many kinds... Chilli Crabs and.....

Shucks, shucks! You guys are too kind! Of course, I know a particular someone is currying favors... Mudbug, I'll post the recipe in a bit, OK?

Oh my suffering salivating glands!!! Jue Giok Cho has got to be my fav confinement food. Sometimes, I think I become a mom just to get to eat it for a couple of weeks straight! Here's the recipe. We also discovered, from a Taiwan restaurant we go to, that black vinegar added to noodles adds a dimension to the dish. Really good. I've started to do that when I cook noodles at home too.

Father wanted a simple dinner...so no one other than our mothers-in-law (no FILs) were invited. Two tables. The menu was posted here. Since there's not enough numbers for a tiered cake, and, besides, it had been very hot/humid the past month, the family requested a jelly cake, which actually is made from agar-agar and coconut milk, fragranced with pandan leaves. It's the in-thing in Msia at the moment (but mine is ultra-simple compared to those). I'm quite shy to show this because it's so simple. You can't see from the pic but 'cake' has 8 layers of different hues of green, blue and clear. Inside - and I buried them too deep - swims 8 koi fishies made from agar-agar. You can barely make them out too. Lotus flower is made of white chocolate and as I took the photo, I saw it melting right before my eyes. It was upright and pristine when I made it...sob. However, it was very well-received.

Welcome, Racheld! Your culinary concoctions sound delicious too! Oh, tby the way, those are not mooncakes. For pics of mooncakes, stay tuned....

Ben, you know, I've been compiling a mental list of "must eats" for you, which includes curry fish head. Now is that a greater incentive or what?

Lexy, have you tried ping pei (snowskin) mooncake before? It's exactly the same ingredients presented in a different way. One wing has red bean filling while the other is filled with peanut/sugar. I love it so much I'm going to attempt to make this real soon, since I've made ping pei mooncake before...and mooncake festival is around the corner. The pastry is made of koh fun (cooked glutinous rice flour).