Tepee

Late as usual....((in my best Eeyore's voice)). I loved looking at all the various styles; they all look so delicious. Just made this following a recipe from a local magazine. I didn't add any pickled radish...don't like it in my noodles. I used glass noodles because we have the flat noodles cooked chinese style all the time. I also don't like my eggs scrambled in so I made an omelette out of the 4 eggs and cut into strips. The other yellow strips are yellow flat tofu.

I think that must be tapioca starch cubes. I can appreciate how you ordered too many dessert. When we go out for a meal at our favorite restaurant which offers a wide range of tong sui (sweet soup), we normally start with one bowl per person, but end up with at least 2 bowls each! And that is after dinner!

Well, we have sweet corn jelly too. Ugh, I think the picture is awful...the color balance is out.

My dear MIL once came along with us for a holiday down under. Before going, I impressed upon her Australia's strict law on food. I was so embarassed when the customs pulled her aside (of course, we had to follow), because their X-ray picked up something in her luggage. Yup, she brought a container load of pickles and munchies. But, guess what? She was just asked to open up her bags to show what that was and was let off without any fuss. She got to keep her pickles and I got a smug look.

Ooooo....oh nee! My favorite Teochew dessert. I only just learnt how to make it, after being married to a Teo'Jew' for 14 years. I love the taste of the shallots fried in lard, syrupped, then covering the pumpkin and taro. Yum.

Hi, Marina! Greetings ((wildly waving)) from a fan from Malaysia! Yes, I managed to catch the taped show. I was rooting for you because you were so unassuming and un-diva-like!

Gosh, these clothes are more colorful than anything I have in my wardrobe!! I'm thinking only someone in the entertainment industry would wear something like this.

Really loving your blog.... From your kids with stunningly good looks The matcha Kit-Kat Pockys The love you have for Japan Your lunch boxes Fascinating. BTW, with our plentiful natural resource of sunlight, it's quite difficult to find dryers in Malaysia. When we lived in an apartment many years ago, we had to hunt high and low for one. Finally got a Japanese one! Along the way, it died, and we can't get it repaired because there just aren't any spare parts for it here. To me, the Japanese people stand out in terms of neatness. I'm ever so amazed at how they dress (so immaculate and tidy) and the food is presented in such a precise and exquisite way.

Playing around with one color, different shades. Thought of adding some peanuts somewhere because it's peanut butter cookies, but can't decide where to put them. I'm not really pleased with the composition either. Will play with more cookies tomorrow.

The chinese words say, 'dried green mangoes'.

Thanks, Richardv, for your suggestions. They are noted. Toliver, you are too kind! Thanks for your (another) invaluable tip.

Maybe we should name the forum, 'Toy Story'! Meantime, we'll grab Jo-Mel before the others get her. Food. Since my mom's Cantonese, we grew up drinking a lot of soup. There seems to be a soup for everything, whether it's to clear heat, to aid digestion, to nourish the blood, to warm the body, to make you smarter (with pig brains, you think?); there's even one purported to help you grow inches (the only danger is you don't get to choose vertical or horizontal inches). My paternal grandfather was a great cook and also a village head. I don't know if it was because I was a small child then, but his wok appeared to me to be humongous, at least 3 feet across. Apparently, there were a lot of uninvited but nevertheless welcomed guests at most of their dinners. My mom learnt to cook very awesome Hakka stuffed taufus and bitter gourd, and char yoke from him. LOL, so am I. We have an ancient jook bo (book of generations) in our possession. I remember seeing it as a child but it is now hoarded by a relative. It shows our Choo roots for quite a few generations; I don't remember exactly how many but I remember being piqued by the fact that daughters are 'terminated' after their name appears; there are no follow-throughs in their family line. I come from a very MCP family.

Well, I only sharpened it once....lemme go see how it looks unsharpened.

Sounds like hsiao loong bao. Love your jiao zies.

Wild boar makes a good curry.

Oh joy!! My pilot neighbor just came back from an Indonesian flight and gave us this specot (layer cake)...my fav of favs...just in time for tea! I was all set to make either this or a baumkuchen next week. Now I don't have to be toasted by standing in front of the grill for 2 hours.

Mango and sugar as ingredients only, huh? Don't buy that, Michael. There's always the hidden preservatives and coloring to these stuff. Haven't seen such dried mangoes (peel or flesh) that green before. That should be a warning signal to you. What were your other buys?

Yeah! That'll be my aspiration! Meantime, to update on my journey, my BIL gave me a cute little yellow tripod, and using the point, focus,move, then shoot process as advised by Toliver earlier, here's what I took recently. I still had to use the sharpen feature to edit the picture. The bao in the front is not popping out as much as I would like it to, but I'm reasonably happy with it. Please feel free to comment.

I had a big bowl of bao filling leftover, so I made yau mei fun (cantonese) for dinner. Translated: tasty rice. I parsteamed rice (you can parboil too) with less water than usual because there's some liquid in the filling. At the partially-cooked stage, add the bao filling and walnuts or chinese sausages or whatever you fancy. Stir. Continue boiling or steaming till the rice is fully cooked. Stir till thoroughly mixed. Add chopped spring onion or chinese parsley.

Creative Compositions for Cakes and Patisserie by Andreas Heil - Beautiful pics of marvellous desserts but at this point I'm baffled by some ingredients. Maybe later. Great Good Food by Julee Rosso - Somehow her recipes don't sound as if they taste as good as they're healthful. Tried 2 recipes, though. Not great. Both were gifts. However, I've not regretted a single book I've purchased because I usually do some research on the book before I make my decision. Not any light decision because shipping costs are quite hefty.

I'm dreaming of a smart-reader gadget which can magically make a meal happen just by scanning a recipe. There'll be a range of difficulty function buttons. Button 1 - Make ingredients appear, thus eliminating shopping hassle. The rest is up to you. Button 2 - Choose the ingredients which you want the machine to process for you. Leave cooking to you, just for a sense of accomplishment. Button 3 - Food is cooked for you to plate coz you want to put into practice what you learned from Tony's class. Button 4 - Ready to serve food. Cleaning-up must be taken care of for all the above.

Ooooo...lookie at the pictures of the cutie patooties! Especially Liam Thank you for bringing us through your community meal process. Makes incredible sense. Now I wish we had one because our neighbors are Malays, Indians, Chinese and Indonesians. Just think of the menu we could have.

Thanks, Ed, for sharing these works of art! I love the way the food brings out the beauty of the plate, and vice versa.

Sure, Shiewie <---- tongue twister, that! Starter 2 teasp active dry yeast 1 C lukewarm water 1/2 C sugar (I used only 1/3 C) 1 1/2 C cake flour (I used unbleached organic cake flour) Dough 1/2 teasp salt 1 tablesp rice vinegar 2 C cake flour, plus about 1/4 C for dusting (but I used the mixer and added it in) 1 tablesp baking powder 1/4 teasp baking soda 1 tablesp veg shortening What I did this morning: 9.00 Mix yeast with warm water and sugar Went out to hang laundry 9.15 Mix in the cake flour, cover. Surf the net....actually, I was hard at work figuring out how to transfer my files to my new domain. 10.15 Mixture is nice and bubbly. Add salt and vinegar. Stir. Add sifted flour and rising agents. Combine with wooden spoon. Grease the Kenwood dough hook and knead for 5 minutes, adding the\ additional flour. Actually, you're asked to knead this on a board. Cover. Meantime, I made the filling. 11.15 It has more than doubled in volume. Lightly punch down and use for baos. After you've formed the baos, let them rest for half an hour before steaming.

Baos hot from the steamer! Bao dough recipe is from Ellen Leong Blonder's Dim Sum book. It's excellent! I made a simple chicken filling with onions and fresh water chestnut. Made some bigger ones too with a wedge of boiled egg. Before steaming Lunch is served