Yuki

There are many types of curry available in Asia but in Hong Kong, I think most people grew up with the yellow curry that is not very spicy. Below are the pictures of the two curry product I brought in Macau and Canada but they are made in Macau and Singapore. The curry on the left is made in Macau(I think it is only available in one store) and the other one is the kind that I grew up eating. The left kind is a curry block and requires seasoning(soya sauce, oyster sauce, and what not) when placed into some liquid. The right kind is in powder form and usually just need a bit of salt, sugar and coconut milk(or without coconut milk is okay too). This is the only kind of curry that my grandma makes and frankly, I am really sick of it. So now, in my cupboard and fridge, there is at least 7 different kind of curry product a once. The usual is 1-2 kind of Japanese curry, 2-3 kind of Thai curry, a couple Chinese ones, and then some odd ones. I usually perfer Thai curry due to the liquidy broth and freshness.

Yuki, I did not get to visit the five color lake. Do you remember where it was--close to the White Water Terraces (Baishuitai), what town it was near or what province it was in? I did visit Erhai Lake near Dali and Bita Lake near Zhongdian (Tibetan: Gyalthang). ← I don't remember the exact location but I did search it up online. It is located in Jiuzhaigou, Sichuan. I think Jiuzhaigou is a scenic area that is protected by the government and there are many wonderful sceneries there. Jiuzhaigou

I remember one of my classmates brought a similar salad to our Japanese class celebration. It was crunchy, soggy, and wet at the same time. I think crumbled instant noodle is common to add in a dish for a little "Asian" touch. The 10 cents package of instant noodles can not compare to the more expensive kind. The biggest difference is the texture of the noodles, the more expensive one tends to remain more chewy and elastic.

Thank you for reporting your trip and the wonderful pictures. The White Water Terraces is one of the few memories I have from the trip at three years old. Would you be going to the five colour lake(not sure if this is the exact name) too?

I usually just add an egg, and Chinese meat balls in the soup. Vegetables should not even touch the soup, although my sister likes to throw in frozen vegetables. There is a kind of instant noodles where the noodles are cooked already and is soft. It tasted much better than the dried stuff, but I can not find it in my local market. I also like the Korean kimchi instant noodles since it is more chewy and hot. Instant noodles are usually reserved for weekend breakfast(more like brunch) and a package is split between two people.

Please no music, and if you really feel the need to put music on the page, at least put a button on the page so the user can stop it. Another thing that annoys me is that restaurant trying to scan their menu onto the page because it is a picture file, it takes quite a while to load. I also don't want the menu to lead to a pdf file which is even more annoying than large amount of graphic on a page. The most important components of the site should be the address, contact info, and the menu. Please don't put any tricky and cutesy buttons on the page that will make it difficult to find those components.

Is it the same stuff that is famous in Malaysia and Singapore? I had it in Singapore and it was served with fried long dough and rice. The strong pepper flavor is good in cold weather or when you have a cold. But I know some people hate the herbal flavour so there is some meat bone tea out there made without the herbal medicine. There are packaged meat bone tea spices that I buy, just add pork ribs and lots of garlic and enjoy

If everything is okay then I will be in Asian heaven for four months this year. The first one or two weeks will be spent in Beijing and Shanghai(I didn't get to go last year because my family decided that Japan is better and they don't have time to go to Shanghai and Beijing with me). When I am in Hong Kong, I will go to Guangdong during the weekend. Of course, all of these will depend on my performance in school.

Can I pick the mixed vegetable out from the potato salad? Other than that, I think they are not bad. Just squeeze more mayo on top and they will only get better.

I make a really easy one with melted butter and mentaiko tossed with the spaghetti. There are probably better recipe out there.

I just brought some black bean paste and made up the dish as I was cooking. I added grounded pork, carrot, onion, shallots, and green pepper in the sauce, which I know might not be very traditional. The paste tasted too salty and thick so I added some brown sugar and water to thin it out. It turned out okay, but not the taste that I was looking for. Next time I will find a recipe and cook from it.

It is common practice for some people to ask for extra pair of chopsticks for serving if they are not provided during meal to avoid germs. It annoys some people at the table but it just makes others feel much safer. The strange thing is that we do it during family meals at home too....... Hope that you will have a great trip!

Happy new year to everyone too! But all the Chinese kids know when is the real new year(hint... red pocket).

People usually go out to a specialty dessert restaurant after a meal to get dessert in Hong Kong(if they are looking for something special). Most of the time we only get sweet soup, fruit, or nothing in the restaurant. Dessert is usually served as snack or in tea time....

Hehehe, that's what I do too.

I try to abstain myself from junk food that I had a lot of in Christmas and eat really plain food before school starts. It will be chicken congee and noodles for a while... I will need to lose the 4 lbs that I gained during the winter break.

If you don't want the sticky rice to stick together, I think one trick you can use is after you soak the grains and drain them (and before you steam the grains), pour in some cooking oil. Then thoroughly stir the oil/grain mixture to make some each grain is slightly coated with a film of oil. Then proceed to steam the rice. Try it and see if it works. ← Today, I mixed some oil and salt before steaming the sticky rice with a crab on top. It came out a success, and the rice was so good absorbing all the crab flavour.

The problem I had was that after the steaming, the rice all stuck together in one big piece. It is impossible to stir it together without a wok. I will try to it again once my stomach gets better.

I think we are thinking about different things.... I am talking about the sticky rice that has lots of chinese sausage, preserved meat, and soya sauce in it. The best sticky rice is made by stir frying in the wok, and you can pick out each grain afterward. It is like fried rice but only with sticky rice.

I am trying to cook good sticky rice without a wok at home(is that even possible) and failed twice already. First time I soaked the rice for at least 10 hrs and cooked it in the rice cooker. I ended up with really mushy sticky rice..... Second time I soaked it for 4 hrs and steamed it. It turned out not as mushy but I can not see individual grain that well. It is not bad sticky rice but just not very impressive. So I am looking for a way to cook sticky rice that would give me individual grain(that is either too soft or hard) without a wok. Anyone have any ideas?

When I put vegetables in the fillings, I will first boil them until really soft. Then they will be cut into little pieces and squeezed with the cleaver.

Another way to cook chicken feet in my family is to cook them with abalone. Put the chicken feet at the bottom of the pot to absorb all the flavour from the chicken bones, pig pones, and roasted duck bones. In the end, the best part is not the abalone but the chicken feet which is now really soft and flavourful. To tell the truth, I don't like abalone but love the thick sauce and chicken feet.

In my university, I would rather bring my own lunch than to eat there everyday. Certainly there are some decent restaurant but I can't imagine myself eating from those couple restaurants for four years. The business in the school is a monopoly and they can put out whatever they want. The Chinese food is gross even when comparing to other fast food style Chinese. There is an A&W, taco time, pasta & fried food place, Dairy queen, Teriyaki place, salad bar, and a coffee shop in the main cafeteria. It is like any food court that you would find in a mall, but with much longer line up. The students have to buy whatever is available if they don't bring their own lunch. Overall I would say students are buying food to fill their stomach and not because they are good food. You won't see anyone around here lining up in a restaurant because they have something really good............ Most of the time I would starve myself until school is over at around four o'clock and go to downtown to grab something.

Yeah, I might be able to find the banana and chocolate flavour again now! Although this type of pocky seems to be too much coating. I grew up with with the chocolate pocky, strawberry pocky, the dipping biscuit sticks, and the milk flavoured biscuit stick. The chocolate dip is on the left and the milk one is on the right.

The part about boil then pan fry sounded a bit odd to me. To make pot sticker 1.) Heat up a pan with some oil 2.) Put the raw dumplings in it until the bottom turn golden brown 3.) Add some water and cover 4.) After the water is dried up, remove cover and cook until the bottom of the dumplings are crispy It seemed a bit odd to combine lobster and dried mushroom since I think the flavour of the mushroom will overpower the lobster. If the dumplings were wrapped tightly then using a dry or wet fillings shouldn't be a big problem. So the wrapper is squre shaped instead of circular?