origamicrane

teriyaki beef and asparagus TERIYAKI BEEF AND ASPARAGUS 750 g beef fillet cut into 1in x 3in strips 1 bunch asparagus MARINADE 1 T mirin 1 T soy sauce 1 Egg white 1 inch of ginger, ground 1 T Cornstarch 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tsp Ground Black Pepper 1 peeled kiwi fruit blitz marinade ingredients in a blender and marinate beef for 3 hours. Microwave asparagus for 1 minute on max power and refresh in cold water. Wrap asparagus in beef strips. skewer and grill until done. ( RG1367 )

teriyaki beef and asparagus TERIYAKI BEEF AND ASPARAGUS 750 g beef fillet cut into 1in x 3in strips 1 bunch asparagus MARINADE 1 T mirin 1 T soy sauce 1 Egg white 1 inch of ginger, ground 1 T Cornstarch 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 tsp Ground Black Pepper 1 peeled kiwi fruit blitz marinade ingredients in a blender and marinate beef for 3 hours. Microwave asparagus for 1 minute on max power and refresh in cold water. Wrap asparagus in beef strips. skewer and grill until done. ( RG1367 )

Rosemary, mint and garlic lamb kebabs ROSEMARY, MINT, GARLIC LAMB KEBABS 500 g lamb neck fillet cubed MARINADE 1/2 small red onion 4 garlic cloves 1 T fresh rosemary 1 T fresh mint 2 T olive oil 1 tsp honey 1 tsp salt 1 tsp soya sauce 1 tsp fresh finely ground black pepper Blitz in a blender and marinate lamb for 4 hours. skewer and grill Keywords: Appetizer, Easy, Lamb, Dinner, Marinade, British, Grill ( RG1366 )

Rosemary, mint and garlic lamb kebabs ROSEMARY, MINT, GARLIC LAMB KEBABS 500 g lamb neck fillet cubed MARINADE 1/2 small red onion 4 garlic cloves 1 T fresh rosemary 1 T fresh mint 2 T olive oil 1 tsp honey 1 tsp salt 1 tsp soya sauce 1 tsp fresh finely ground black pepper Blitz in a blender and marinate lamb for 4 hours. skewer and grill Keywords: Appetizer, Easy, Lamb, Dinner, Marinade, British, Grill ( RG1366 )

piri piri prawns PIRI PIRI PRAWNS MARINADE 750 g Prawns /shrimp 1 large Bay leaf 4 large chili peppers sliced 1 large lemon juice 4 T olive oil 4 T coarse pepper 1 tsp sea salt 6 cloves minced garlic 2 T cider vinegar blitz everything in a blender and marinate prawns for 4 hours. skewer and grill until done Keywords: Appetizer, Seafood, Easy, Shrimp, Dinner, Marinade, Mediterranean, Grill ( RG1365 )

piri piri prawns PIRI PIRI PRAWNS MARINADE 750 g Prawns /shrimp 1 large Bay leaf 4 large chili peppers sliced 1 large lemon juice 4 T olive oil 4 T coarse pepper 1 tsp sea salt 6 cloves minced garlic 2 T cider vinegar blitz everything in a blender and marinate prawns for 4 hours. skewer and grill until done Keywords: Appetizer, Seafood, Easy, Shrimp, Dinner, Marinade, Mediterranean, Grill ( RG1365 )

Mmm. Haven't been - are they any good? I like the idea of a bit of judicious tampering with otherwise authentic eastern cuisine... if the result is interesting and successful, of course.. ← Asia de Cuba's food is a feast for the eyes, the room is pretty funky, the presentation and quantity is impressive too so are the high prices!! It's definitely style over content but having said that i thought the food was pretty interesting. Their crispy squid salad with banana, chayote and orange sesame dressing is really nice almost floral in flavor and the braised belly of pork served with deep fried plantain and gari I thought was excellent really juicy and moist pork and the plantaint gave it crispy almost crackling texture. And the desserts are massive 3 of us shared the bay of pigs dessert is like a massive ice cream and chocolate bust of mickey mouse. This is in my top ten places to go on a first date. But would the food make my list of top ten restaurants? nope! Do you think there is sometimes an arbitrary/disrespectful plundering of eastern ingredients, which doesn't respect the culinary traditions surrounding their use and development? Any specific examples? ← Oh defintiely! but that is the nature of fusion. The problem for western chefs is its difficult for them to throughly research an eastern ingredient properly as often there not much written on them, at least not in english anyway. Some examples of bad fusion i have had: 1. roast cod with a deep fried chinese wax sausage! nasty! nasty! this would be like deep frying a whole salami and plating it. They should have steamed the sausage first then sliced and pan fried it. But beyond that the sausage they used was really low quality, the meat disintegrated on the tongue and was really fatty. 2. Not bad fusion more like bad description i had a "lobster won ton" which was in fact a very plain and very small lobster ravioli. 3. And this was the worst one i had, a ginger and spring onion pan fried scallop wrapped in pancetta, the scallop was juicy and perfectly seared but was rendered inedible as it was literally swimming in 1cm of dark soya sauce. yep i will check out providore. The personal reviews i heard from friend range from "very good" through to "too much going on on the plate". But no one actually slated the food or the cooking so thats a good sign.

here's a bit of a conincidence. A family friend is going to give birth in september and the husband has asked my mum to teach them how to make Pig trotters with ginger and vinegar. Well even though I don't drink the stuff as a cookie I am interested in how to make this. So I'm going to compile my mum's recipe and take photos of the process I will post it once its all done. So far my mum washed and peeled a load of ginger. What I didn't know is that you should keep the peeled ginger skin, dry it and give it to the mother-to-be to wash/shower with to "ko fung".

hmmm.. I was watching this program while eating it made for a very interesting experience The thing that freaked me out was the conveyor belt machine in the chicken farm spewing out little chicks! watching that was just strange. Thing is you can't really avoid this stuff, If you eat prepackage sandwiches, fast food, takeaways, in restaurants and ready meals.

photos? photos? nope haven't received any ????

I find most asian fusion places are quite conservative. Like Asia De Cuba, for a lot of their dishes they just adds a few western garnishes to what is basically, a very good but very normal japanese dish. Western bias fusion places are usually more ambitious but IMO they are far more hit and miss because of this. But i know this is due to me judging their use of asian ingredients by traditonal asian cooking. Haven't been to Providore yet, I've had mixed reviews. so i will have to go and make up my own mind. I see if i can get down there next week. Pictures will follow (and this time i have the right camera settings)

yeah he moved back to oz a long time ago.

when my old man makes this at the shop we usually hang the pork for a day over the kitchen stove to allow the skin to dry out this allows the skin to become even more crispy.

Yeah strange evertime I come to mju I know i've left with a smile on my face but I really can't remember many of the dishes I have eaten there. The last time I had the tasting menu it was 8 courses and the only courses I can remember are the sushi course that was excellent and one course that was a prawn served on a teaspoon

I'm surprised no ones actually written up this restaurant?? (sorry if the photos are a little soft had the wrong ISO/aperture settings on my camera last night. doh! ) Context: My 29th birthday dinner. Yeah next year is the big 3-0 Sigh!! Can’t claim to be no spring chicken no more. This is my forth visit to mju and the second time I have had the tasting menu. The weather was grey, dark and rainy and I had a crap day at work and I wasn't feeling 100% as I'm currently ill. All my previous visits to mju have been positive and I am looking forward to this meal. Restaurant: Mju Millennium Hotel 17 Sloane Street SW1X 9NU Tel: 020 7201 6330 The Blurb on the website: The food at Mju is arguably one of London’s best-kept secrets and, When expertly matched by Mju’s executive chef Tom Thomsen and sommelier Stuart Hudson to wines from one of South Africa’s most dynamic wineries, it produced a meal ‘made in heaven.’ Throughout July the six-course menu will be available at dinner, Priced at £71 per person (or £46 without wine). Closest tube: Knightsbridge - Piccadilly Line Date & Time: 27/07/05 @ 8pm Cast: A trio of Orientals representing China, Singapore and Thailand. Decor: The decor at Mju is nothing to shout about. Its a nice spacious hotel dining room with a high and large glass ceiling. One of the things I like about this place is that the tables are quite spread out, you can have a private conversation at normal volume without it being eavedropped by neighbouring tables. It also has a small chilled out bar area. Menu: GRAHAM BECK DÉGUSTATION MENU Rock oysters, with tobiko & rice vinegar Graham Beck, Blanc de Blanc, 1999 (£4 supplement) Duo of scallops, sashimi of scallop with wasabi ice cream seared scallop with chorizo Graham Beck, Viognier, 2004 Lobster linguini, light aromatic oil, kunbo, garlic & laksa Graham Beck, Old Road Pinotage, 2000 Raviolio open raviolio of celeriac, free-range egg, truffle & wild mushroom Graham Beck, Chardonnay, 2003 Wagyu beef seared & braised, horseradish, pepper oil, watercress Graham Beck, The Ridge Syrah, 2001 Summer strawberries coriander syrup, coconut sorbet & hibiscus Graham Beck, Rhona Muscadel, 1999 We ordered: My friends ordered the full menu with the wines. I decided to skip the wines as I wasn't feeling too well. Friend also ordered a cheese board. Cauliflower foam and langoustine. hmmm.... for me the jury is still out on foams. Although I can understand the use of them, I'm not sure I can really appreciate them. From an aesthetic point of view they do look interesting and from a cooking point of view they allow a little bit of liquid to go a very long way. But from a diners point of view, I always think foams are a bit of a con. Thats just me, feel free to disagree. But having said that, this was quite delicious, very deep and intense langoustine flavour. Rock oysters, with tobiko & rice vinegar. These were excellent oysters, very sweet, very fresh, did they sweeten the rice vinegar? probably. They might have been a little small but heck, they tasted amazing. Not sure the tobiko actually added anything apart from a very slight texture. Duo of scallops, The presentation is a bit wierd? but it did look interesting. TOP sashimi of scallop with wasabi ice cream. paper thin slices of scallop sashimi topped with wasabi ice cream and nori. This was damn good!! pretty sure they did something to the scallop as the outer edges tasted like they had been caramelized. The wasabi ice cream was very subtle but the sweetness and creaminess of the ice cream really added to the scallops. I wish there was more !! BOTTOM seared scallop with chorizo a very dense and firm scallop with a crisp slice of chorizo. The scallop and chorizo was good but this is where the chinese side of me starts to speak the taste was approaching that of conpoy (dried scallops) and to me, thats not a good thing for a fresh scallop. Don't get me wrong this dish wasn't overcooked, just not as juicy as i think it could have been. I like a fresh scallop to taste like a fresh scallop, this tasted like they were trying too hard. Lobster linguini,light aromatic oil, kunbo, garlic & laksa lovely, very rich and strong flavoured pasta, juicy pieces of lobster. This actually tasted like chinese lobster noodles with ginger and spring onions but this had a more aromatic flavour from the laksa. I've always been a sucker for lobster and pasta. Man i could have eaten a whole bowl of this! (in fact i will this friday when i go for a lobster spaghetti at Mimmo D'ishcia) I think next time i cook pasta i will try cooking it in a seafood stock. The maitre'd made me smile when he introduced this dish, one of the ingredients in the dish is shiitake and he said this in a perfect cantonese accent "dong gwou". It's the little things you remember. Raviolio open raviolio of celeriac, free-range egg,truffle & wild mushroom I recognise this dish I made something like this on the leith's cooking course last year, think we had ricotta in ours. Basically it a raw egg yolk inside the ravioli. This is an amazingly tasty little dish, very light and clean flavour but very messy to eat with a knife and fork, the egg yolk bursts as soon as you cut into the pasta, would have been easier to eat with a spoon. Wagyu beef seared & braised, horseradish, pepper oil, watercres not sure about the presentation of this one again. Wagyu beef was yummy but actually like mine hurt, bleeding and wounded quote-unquote touaregsand Olive ice cream with mango and tarragon. This was very interesting, it was actually the only new flavour in the entire meal. I would describe it as like a cold, very smooth tapanade with little bits of olive. Eaten with the mango and tarragon it tasted strangely oriental, the flavour reminded me of thai olive and basil fried rice I wouldn't say it be something I would consciously order but in the flow of the meal made an interesting addition. Summer strawberries coriander syrup, coconut sorbet & hibiscus nice and simple. extremely sweet strawberries. a perfect end to a lovely meal. Drinks: 2 bottles of voss mineral water 1 Mojito 1 Sakitini 1 G&T 1 glass of Graham Beck, The Ridge Syrah, 2001 1 expresso 2 Hine antique XO & 2 cigars Total Bill: £318 (S.C. included) Service: Staff were very efficient and friendly. We didn't feel rushed or anything but we felt that the courses came out a little bit too quickly we would have liked to have a couple of minutes between courses to reflect and disgest. Value/Quality/Quantity ratio: Good. At £100 per person can hardly call this a cheap meal but with the amount of food and drinks we had I would say the bill was quite reasonable. The quality of the food was excellent and I don't think I could really pick out any faults in any of the dishes. Although not sure about the presentation of the wagyu beef or the inverted martini glass scallop dish. The quantity I think was spot on and we left feeling just full. Complaints: none Nit picks: Friends said they weren't particularly impressed by the wine pairings guess this is due to them being limited to Graham Beck wines. Hopefully the two of them will add to this review later. Conclusion: A lovely meal, quality food, good service but strangely enough pretty forgettable. The three of us came to the conclusion that although each dish was good the meal as a whole just didn't seem to be special. The only really interesting flavour was the olive ice cream with mango and tarragon. All the other dishes were good but just lacking a little "wow" factor but i guess I maybe asking for too much? Overall I gave the food 8.5/10, friends gave it a 7.5/10 but that might have been to do with the wine parings. Thanks to Tien and Vee for coming out for dinner.

the article did quote some scientific research and anecdotal reports that msg didn't cause chinese restaurant syndrome. After all wasn't that the title of the piece "If MSG is so bad for you, why doesn't everyone in Asia have a headache? " I have been eating MSG for my entire life and the only time i ever had a adverse effect was when this one restaurant used way too much msg in there nasi goreng. During that I felt unbelievable thirst ( went through 2 litre of water in 45 minutes) and had a headache but if the cook had overused the MSG i'm sure he over used the salt too combination of effects i think. I got no scientific proof but my personal belief is that some people may have an allergy to msg like seafood or nuts. That is what i believe chinese restaurant syndrome really is an intolerance to msg or an intolerance to elevated levels of msg. Also my family has been running two chinese restaurant and several takeaways now for 30 years and in that time i never once had a customer complaining about chinese restaurant syndrome and i think that because we don't overuse it.

thats why I said it was for girls only hahahaha!!

I am not being serious about the wa mui and I agree that food is food but in chinese food we do have a lot of ingredients that are actually medicinal "dong gwai" being one. although i am not a doctor i do believe that traditional chinese medicine does have an effect and the basis of heating and cooling of the body, acupuncture, etc although can't be scientifically proved is followed by a vast majority of chinese and non-chinese even those that are western doctors. In this respect there are foods and medicines that are suitable for men and women. For example many food such as soya contain a form of oestrogen and this naturally will have different effects on the sexes. Also chocolate produce endorphins in our brains and i believe it has been shown to have more effect on women then men. So food isn't just the fuel we burn, the chemicals contained within will also have a physical and psychological effect. naturally as everyone is different everyone will react differently to different chemicals but stuff like oestrogen will have a similar effect on all men and women. So back on to topic tradtionally women eat black vinegar pig trotters as a way of rebuilding their strength after child birth, ever wondered why? Or wondered why men don't eat this after they have had a some kind of operation or trauma? I'm not saying men can't eat this stuff but there has to be a reason why women eat this particular dish for a whole month it might not be scientific but a lot of chinese mother subscribe to this belief.

has Centre Point Sushi closed down?? went there last night and it looked like it was closed?

observation of most men's face when asked to try "wa mui" hehe. its kinda like the sucking in their faces look that happens when you give a baby a slice of lemon to eat anyway there are lots of chinese things that guys aren't meant to eat like "dong gwai" if i even have a little bit of that i can't breath properly!!

For girls... and guys who feel very secure about their masculinity. Or guys who simply don't care. ← :P its tastes nasty!! :P like "wa mui" (perserved chinese plums) guys aren't meant to eat it!! :P

just wanted to let the male populace know that the black vinegar pig trotter is for girls only hehehehe! actually saw an interesting use of black vinegar while i was doign a trainee day in a hotel kitchen. They were using it like blasamic reducing it down to a glaze and drizzling it on to some fish dishes it was quite nice much sweeter then a balsamic glaze.

the balls are meant to be flavoured or at least sweetened. Just most of the vendors don't bother doing it no more. If you make it yourself you can flavour and sweeten them makes it much more rewarding drink

sago in coconut milk with mango and grapfruit yeung che gum lo (my cantonese pinyin is non-existent)

sago ~= tapioca. Sago and tapioca technically are different as they come from differnt plants but the end result is pretty much the same little gelatinous pearls. They are pretty much interchangeable when used in desserts.