origamicrane

hiya well on my recent trip to hong kong i popped into a Citysuper store and bought 5 bottles of sake ranging from ginjyo to junmai daiginjyo. and i can say that the expensive stuff does taste better. the five bottle i bought are rihaku jumai daiginjyo HK$318 - large bottle masumi jumai daiginjyo - www.masumi.co.jp - HK$165 -small bottle okunomatsu ginjyo - www.okunomatsu.co.jp - HK$50 -small bottle Yuka junmai ginjyo - HK$75 -small bottle ichinokura mukansa junmai ginjyo - HK$72 -small bottle I'm drinking two bottle at the same time so i can get a taste comparision and the winner of the first round is Yuka junmai ginjo that beat ichinokura mukansa junmai ginjyo. Yuka had a much cleaner taste where as the ichinokura mukansa had a definite chemically sweet aftertaste. anyway i will be drinking the rest next week and will post the results of the second round then i will also scan in the labels for the bottles i bought.

so i think we established that as chinese we don't really have a dessert course in our dinners. But we do have sweets dishes, drinks and snacks and things that would fit right in as a dessert course.The idea is i want to introduce some of our oriental sweeties to the western world or adapt them to suit western tastes. So lets talk chinese/oriental sweets, desserts, candy , bubble teas, red bean things, fruit cocktail things, funky ice cream, black sesame paste, super thin pancakes, papaya and sea coral and almond sweet soups, almond/ mango/ tofu puddings, green bean and seaweed sweet soup, taro ice cream, coconut paste, steamed cheesecake, etc etc

no no no its a combination oven as in a microwave as well as a convection oven and grill. I used the sharp 9 series combination microwave to great effect. can roast a medium chicken perfectly in 40 minutes:) has microwave destroy bread but in this case when you use the oven function it just acts as an oven and not microwave. haven't used the pizza stone for bready things but as the microwave has a normal oven function i don't see why it wouldn't work. i will report back when i have a spare weekend to make a pizza :)

if it tasted crucnhy had leaves and slightly bitter probably kai lan. if it had a leaves a watery texture possibly choi sum, if its looked like french beans might be garlic shoots, if the flavour was non distinct it might actually be elderly asparagus thats been peeled.

well i really like tofu ice cream it has a very light and clean flavour it actually tastes like a healthy ice cream. Wasabi ice cream is yummy and very strange if you never tried it before its not actually hot just a touch of wasabi. Cardamon ice cream is lovely too. hmmm.. what other flavours? oh yes Tonka bean ice cream its very aromatic like very strong vanilla its really nice but its carcinogenic oh if you want to make the above flavours just get your normal ice cream base and mix in a shot of milk and a teaspoon of wasabi powder, or a shot of pureed tofu and soya milk, boil a shot of milk and a few cardamon seed and allow to infuse. all nice and different :)

time for some thread hitch hiking so we deep in discussion about char siu but does anyone know how to make char siu puffs? I assume its just chop up some char sui and onions fry it up with a little sauce and wrap in puff pastry. so what i want to know is whats the sauce?

damn!! wish my chinese reading and typing was stronger :) well its still good post your chinese recipe website links too if there naything that looks cool i will pull a translation and post it here thanks for the sesame roll recipe i will give it a go :) as to the mango pancake yeah it a yellow thin crepe almost like a wonton wrapper filled with cubed mango chunks and whipped cream. I got a recipe for the crepe but it just doesn't seem the same as the ones you get in the dessert stores in sai kung or even the food hall of city super. 5 oz flour 1 egg 1 oz custard powder 1 oz milk powder 16 oz water sift all the powder together, add the egg and water mix to form the crepe batter. pour a thin layer in a frying pan and cook both sides. its close to the right texture but seems to be missing a certain something

yeah i think it a Malaysian thing really but there are certain desserts that are so popular with chinese people that it just get absorbed into the popular consciousness.

yeah my mum makes Bubur Cha Cha sometimes its quite nice. The think that a lot of the older school sweet soups and dessert recipes i can actually find but its the newer desserts that are difficult to find recipes for. The black sesame porridge/paste is good haven't had that in years though here's a recipe from one of my cookbooks 3 oz toasted black sesame seed 1 oz toasted white sesame seed 4 oz calrose rice, presoaked in water for an hour 1 litre of water 4 oz sugar or to taste stick everything but the sugar into a blender and blitz to a fine paste filter through a sieve. Put the filtered paste in to a pot and bring to a gentle simmer the paste will thicken up add the sugar to taste and dilute with water for the desired thickness. actually if you want to make sesame ice cream just pound the toasted sesame in a mortar and simmer in 250ml of milk and then add to a standard ice cream base and churn its lovely.

morning its 6am and i'm suffering from jet lag as just got back from HK yesterday! anyway been digging through the whole chinese forum and we do not have a thread for desserts!!! why not!!!! so are there any chinese dessert meister out there? what your favourite chinese dessert? do you have any recipes? or anyone got a good chinese dessert cook book? Anyway things i would like some help on. mango pancake - what the recipe/technique for the pancake? as it is so thin and seems more like a rolled out raw dough then a pancake? black sesame roll - you know the dark transparent sesame jelly rolls , how do you make those? tapioca and mango and grapefruit pudding (wong gum je lo) this one i imagine is just simply tapioca, coconut milk, mango puree and cubes, grapefruit or pomelo pieces am i correct? all those nice drinks you get out there like reb bean ice , longan green tea,etc come on everybody lets get sweet!!

went yesterday yummy really nice juicy and flavourful. and the pork chop bun was nice too :) will have to go back to try the curry crab next time. actually went to Tai ping Koon for their giant souffle have to admit it taste wasn;t amazing but it was definitely a feast for the eyes!! a souffle the size of my head (big!!!)

It's on Lock Road. That's the road behind the Hyatt, parallel to and one block west of Nathan Road. Macau Restaurant is near the Haiphong Road end of Lock Road. Tsimshatsui MTR Exit A1 is very close. ← cool thanks will got here for lunch tomorrow :)

hey just going to hitch hike on this thread currently in hk too and looking for the macau restaurant that serves roast baby pigeon (yu garp) now there's meant to be too in tsim sha tsui on a road running oppostie to mrt station. anyone got an address for either of them? thanks in advance

fondue

ohmigod !!! i just bought this crab from CPSB THIS TASTES SO BAD FOR YOU !!!!!!! It looks like its swimming in red thermonuclear chilli with large lumps of garlic and cucumber, scallion and chilli!! The flesh is like crab and chilli flavoured pulp the brown meat and tamale taste like chilli crab and cholestrol!!!!! The texture is on the silky slimy texture if you are mushy food phobic you won't like this but the flavour is so good!!!! I just had two bits of this and was instantly addicted but after the 5 bite i realised i felt really bloated already!!! :) you have to eat this with rice i think as eating it purely on its own would be overwhelming on the taste buds, it be like eating a block of foie gras on its own!!! but yeah its really good but i can see why you wouldn;t want to eat this too often !!!

hmmm.... home cooking is on the decline but i don't believe it is just an economic reason. The following is a list of random thoughts. Incoming sexist comment !!! in the previous generations it was typically the woman of the house that cooked the daily meals. But in our generation with the longer working hours and the equality in the work place woman are more likely to go out and work after a hard day no one really wants to cook? Following on from above because more woman are going out to work the handing down of granma's secret recipes to her children has also stopped so the culinary pool has also been reduced. Naturally if you not good at cooking you won't want to cook right? I think the populations is slowly become more polarised in the kithchen stakes, at present you will have those that just microwave ready meals and those that can cook up a complete storm, its the people in the middle i think that are in decline. People see cooking as a chore rather then something fun. Home cooking is on the decline but home entertaining isn't, you be hard pushed to have a party with out a good kitchen. Also final point is home cooking will always be healthier, there is less fat, sugar, salt, flavorings and calories in home cooking then in eating out. If you want to do the maths on home cooking versus eating out, how would you quantify the cost on your health? Look at the problem first world countries are having with obesity, diabetes and other eating disorders. I think alot, if not all of these problems are due to convenience food and the increase in people eating out. It has only been in the last few decades that the number of child diabetes case has exploded. Admittedly this is down to more then just the food they eat, lack of exercise is a major contributor.

yauatcha and hakkasan are probably the only places that take their tea really seriously, don't think there is as big enough customer base for any really competition in tea selling (yet). There is the tea shop in covent garden and nearly all the japanese and chinese supermarket carry a selection of green and oolong tea, quality is variable. But failing that I would hope that selfridges and harrods food hall would have a selection of high end teas. But to be honest i get all my tea when i go on holiday to the far east.

I believe coconut oil is at the lower end of the health scale. heard it on a tv game show that it was as bad as lard..... or was the coconut cream?

I would go for simple as it saves the server having to run into the kitchen and asking the chef what all the desserts are. but having said that, I do plan to open a small chain of restaurants called " whatever" , "i don't mind", "dunno", and "anything will do" as whenever i ask someone what they want to eat they will reply with one of the above :) so how about naming the desserts like below remember desserts are the fun part of the meal humour is a good sell. "the white one with the shaved chocolate on top" "the one that looks like a big chunk of chocolate" "something sweet and creamy and loaded with calories" "not sex but almost" "what is life, without chocolate" "go on you deserve it" "if you share this you can pretend you didn't have dessert!" "the cake you wished your momma could make when you were a kid". "one step closer to a coronary" "scooby doo dessert tower" "homer Doh! nuts and waffle skyscraper" "trust me its low fat!" "start the diet tomorrow" "F%$K Atkins!" (please note if you use any of the names above for your desserts. I want it to be attributed to me )

well i believe that the gills and gut of the crab are the areas where the bacteria is most prominent those parts also don't taste nice. Areas where there are high levels of pcb, heavy metal or other chemical nasties would hopefully be banned fishing areas and the critters from those areas hopefully wouldn't reach the shops. The cure is meant to kill of bacteria, the crab is pickled and like ceviche should cook the crab. But if the crab is infected with any really nasty bacteria it shouldn't be eaten raw or cooked!! In London i seriously doubt we be able to get fresh blue crab only fresh crab we get is brown crab. So the question i must ask then is, the gaejang in this korean supermarket must be made from frozen blue crab? is this ok?

it's basically a very powerful food processor that shaves frozen solid liquids very very finely, producing a very fine ice cream. Can also be used for sauces, pate, etc. I had a look on ebay today only 3 available and at the price i might as well buy a new one from pacojet. schneich you said you knew of a asian copycat product ? I think a lot of us here would be interested in having a look at it. Any idea of the name of the product or a website ?? thanks

i can just imagine it now sushi speakeasies

thanks hzrt8w will give that a try and see if there any difference. To answer a previous few questions at the cooking school i went to they said the most humane way of killing of crabs was to stick a skewer into the base of the apron of the crab and straight in between its eyes as it goes direct to the crabs nervous system. But i remeber having a chat with a biology teacher about the lobster's nervous system and that they believe lobster don't really feel pain, they tested this by ripping off one of its claws and then feeding it. It was happily eating away with its remaining claw ie: this is not the behaviour of an animal in extreme pain something i learned was that if you keep live crab or lobster too cold it will have a violent reaction and it will pop off some of its claws and legs!!?? and as soon as lobster and crabs die the naturally bacteris in their guts start to breakdown hence they should be eaten as fresh as possible.

hi all this question is for the times when you only have frozen crab available. naturally we would all want to use fresh live crabs in our cooking. but have any of you had good results from using frozen crabs? if so please let us know how everytime i use frozen crab i seem to get watery flesh thats stuck onto the shell i know its frozen and it will never be as good as the fresh stuff but is there a way of maximising the quality of frozen crab? quick thaw? slow thaw? low simmer? high heat? cheers

hi there I know its a little early for thanks giving or xmas but recently i learnt to make a lovely chicken ballotine and wanted to know if anyone has made a turkey ballotine using the whole turkey? not just breast or leg Tell us all size of bird? what stuffing? deboning technique? string? muslin? cheesecloth? roasting time? results? Mainly asking as i be visiting my friends overseas this xmas and want to really wow them/ show off by making a really toffee nosed high class xmas dinner for them. So what was the most amazing turkey dinner you had? what side dishes and veg accompanied the bird? etc etc looking for ideas to make them go ooouhhh!!!! and arrrr....