Tepee

This world is so foreign to me, in more than one sense. Fascinating! Blogs like this one is the reason I feel so unworthy to blog.

LOL, the houses, not being western-sized ones, will be manageable. I had a GB house decorating party one year, with 6 teams. My guests had a lot of fun and kept thanking me for such a great time for a long while after. I can't believe there are more lovely fresh ideas with a personal touch coming up this year! Reading andiesenji's wreath project, how nice if I could make fresh laurel ones (or receive one). I made some bread wreaths (with salted dead dough) last year and sent to 2 american friends and one german. All developed a nice fuzz on reaching their destination (5 - 8 days). Moral of the story. Make sure they are baked real nice and dry. On hindsight, I think packing with dessicants might have helped. Or not.

There are so many excellent ideas in this thread, it's difficult to shortlist. As I was talking to somebody yesterday on what to make, he gave me the idea of making gingerbread houses. So, this year, I'm going to make GB house kits* (bought the packaging for it yesterday), some to sell, some to give as gifts, in addition to cookie boxes ( MUST include cuccidati) and mini 5" decorated fruit cakes (also just bought the moulds yesterday - the cutest little chiffon cake moulds). * Problem I have is we don't have meringue powder here. I can only pack in confectioner's sugar and include instructions to make royal icing with egg whites.

Thanks for contributing to the thread, Ce'nedra. Looks great. What meat did you add to your CKT? Pork? Chicken? First time I've seen baby corns in a CKT. LOL, I see we share something in common...I also add non-traditional ingredients as the mood takes me.

Apart from the couple of times we 'played' with making sushi rolls, this must be the first time I'm cooking japanese. I recently bought my first Japanese recipe book and also finally found mirin and instant dashi powder. So here I am....tonight's gyudon and salad (made by my 8yo daughter) with sesame seed dressing. Please excuse the rather large picture. I tried to delete it to replace with a smaller one but wasn't allowed to delete? Yep...we're getting warmed up for our trip next month.

Thanks, Ce'nedra. I'd swap for your stuffed tofu anytime. I love stuffed anything, food that is. The salted threadfin (in the small square dish towards the front left) is chopped into smaller bits and then shallowfried.

Nah! That was an honest-to-goodness mistake. It's a personal taste. To me, salted fish soaked in oil tastes soooooo oily (duh?), it's as if you're not getting the full flavour of the fish. I dunno...I keep thinking I might hit on a bottle with oil that isn't very fresh.

You're welcome, Ce'nedra. I prefer dried salted fish; fortunately, we have many kinds here. So, nope, mine isn't soaked in oil. I'm not a fish expert by a long shot, but I think threadfin is the name of the fish. It doesn't mean the fin of the fish, although, you can indeed buy a whole salted fish, or any desired parts of one.

Awww.... When we don't get our pork belly from the wet market, I get them from the nearby hypermarkets. Those on the counters are only about 2-inch thick. But I ask (very nicely) the resident butchers and they bring out their uncut meat for me to choose exactly how much I want.

Forgot to wish your oven a speedy recovery, prawncrackers. Recipes or names? Afraid I can't help you there. I think there's a thread somewhere in the forum about what folks make with siu yook. A favourite of mine is this dish. Today's hunk of pork belly weighed 2 kg plus. What I did was: 1. give a quarter to my MIL, 2. ate a quarter for lunch as it is to really enjoy the crackling, 3. apportion the remainder to 3 packs, all chopped up, 2 to freeze, for whenever I want to make a vegetable/noodle dish more exciting, 4. chop into small slivers to fry with rice and a host of other add-ons for dinner tonight.

Thanks, prawncrackers! Your detailed steps helped a lot. It especially made me brave to allow part of the belly to char away. Never knew I'd find wonderful crackling underneath. What a feeling to get this right!

I say! Shiewie! I must have been making my siu yook the same time you were posting this. Prawncrackers did mention that part, but, if I had seen your post (I need people to knock things into my head sometimes), I'd have wised up and do that extra part. As it turned out, I did have a bit of 'leather' but just a bit. Guys! Guys! I'm happy to report that I have finally succeeded! I did 2 things differently this time... i) Since I didn't have that torture implement nor was I in a great need for some crazy spiking and jabbing work-out, this time I used a gillette blade and made very close and fine scores. No sweat. Literally. ii) I baked the belly skin side down for an hour. Then flipped it upright and broiled it. Behold the crackling! After scraping the charred parts... Oooh....the feel of the different textures and tastes of the melt-in-the-mouth fats against the light crispy crunchy skin. Yummmmm!! Thank you, all, for your generous help!

Make that vinegared trotters, Dai Gah Cheh...it makes for such an appetizing meal. My dish is simply trotters plus some shoulder, and bentong ginger, 2 types of black vinegar and peen tong. This is the best ginger around, very crunchy and light, yet not fibrous. Some people are happy to eat this dish with the ginger alone. The best thing about this dish is you can top it up with fresh meat on the next day and the next, till the last drop of vinegared soup is gone.

I agree! Today's still an aidil fitri holiday...hubby, being home, did the cooking while I did the mis en place. Teochew congee. The accompaniments are not typically teochew, though. We had shallow-fried fish steaks, quick-fry lettuce (uhm...not quick enough ), salted threadfin fish, omelettes done 2 styles, one with tiny cubes of sea cucumber and the other one tomatoes/onions.

LOL, you were in the chinese forum, and I guess you stumped us. I did think they look Thai. Thanks for putting a name to them!

You're welcome, milgwimper. Hmm...come to think of it, we have been to Australia quite a number of times, but have never tried the chinese food there except for some excellent dim sum in Melbourne. LOL, Dai Gah Cheh. Glad to hear you're cooking Msian dishes; they are quite suitable for your cold climate, aren't they? YUMMMMMMMM! Great food, people! prawncrackers, that's the first time I hear stuffed veg called 'treasures'. I love them, whether cantonese-style or hakka-style. Believe it or not, when I went low-carb to lose all my postnatal fats, I survived on stuffed-this-and-that every day for one whole month. And, it worked wonders! Yay, Rona is going to join in the pix porn!

Thanks for the kind words, milgwimper. No recipe...just cut the tofu roll, steam the pieces, blanch the veg, then make whatever sauce you like. In this case, I fried a lot of garlic (we are a family of garlic lovers), add the gingko nuts, add a bit of oyster sauce, salt, make a slurry, then crack an egg to make egg flower. I use Adobe Photoshop CS2. I'll post today's lunch, but this is going to be the last if I don't see any other contributions. Sniff...I feel so lonely. Vinegared pig trotters (with Bentong ginger) made overnight to develop the flavours, my all-time fav dish. Yam beans/carrots fried and braised with fried dried prawns and dried cuttlefish cut into thin strips. Eat it wrapped with fresh lettuce.

Bak Kut Teh is a meaty soup or a soupy meat dish. Whichever way, the precious flavourful soup is there! How easy it is to add noodles to it. Personally, I feel white rice is the best carb partner for BKT, submitting and playing a quiet supporting role to the rich flavour of the soup. Together it's comfort food. Hey there, Laksa.

True true. Am I admitting that I am getting rich in years? We try to use less salt at home. Except for roast pork belly. Hubby says put MORE! He insists the salt brings out the flavour of the meat. We use french sea salt. I wouldn't 'control' what goes on outside either.

You sound busy and adventurous with your cooking as ever, Peony. I, on the other hand, need detox. Last night, I got lazy and made noodle soup with soup ingredients packed by the medicine hall, meant "to nourish the lungs, strengthen the stomach and digesting function". Today, it's chicken pie (oops, not chinese), barley drink with dried bean curd strips and flavoured with pandan leaves. Dessert (barley drink is not the dessert, lol) is almond tuile with chocolate chantilly topped with fresh raspberries (which I paid an arm and leg for). Also going to make vinegared pig trotters tonight so that the flavour is mmmmmm...for tomorrow.

The series of bokkum'ing pix are awesome, as is the rest of your travelogue, as always.

Oops, I should have expanded... Threadfin/ Ma Yau (cantonese)/ Kurau (malay) is the most 'appreciated' salted fish. But, of course, to each his own. My mother prefers mui heong, with more crumbly meat. I took this pix and bought that piece in Pangkor Island, which is one of the places in M'sia famous for its seafood and dried salted goods. The piece at the back is salted mackerel (tenggiri in malay) I think...the pieces are slimmer and darker.

Helen, if you're talking to me....and my apologies to the OP for swinging the thread off-tangent, It's pretty frustrating...looking at our schedule, it looks packed tight, but we'll be touching down in Osaka and leaving via Narita. How do restaurants, big and small, feel about snap-happy tourists?

Great pix! Thanks so much for sharing. I'm envying you because we're planning a mid-November trip to Japan, more for reconnaissance as not knowing how to speak Japanese, we thought of following a tour group first, though that's the least favourite way of travelling for us. Eldest daughter has a mere 6 months Japanese language class under her belt. Places we'll be whizzed to are Osaka, Nara, Kyoto,Toyohashi, Hamamatsu, Lake Kawaguchi, Tokyo, Disneyland. Gorgeous gorgeous food pix!

Thanks, June! That helps to confirm the high heat prerequisite. Let's roast and post our pork bellies!