Shiewie

Like the fruit in this link? I believe they are 'haw fruit' and if I remember correctly, they were sour. http://members.aol.com/lumabner/china/grap...2000/hawboy.jpg Ahhh - that's what fresh haw looks like. Have always wondered about that. Thought the fruit things on the sticks were little apples like crab apples.

Here are links to recipes for sweet peanut paste/soup and sweet seasme paste/soup. Hmmm - the recipes have milk in them though - bit strange, perhaps it was added for a richer tasting soup.

no peel for me. ginger candy is good though. what are kueh lapis, ABC, chendol, and love letters? I like the preserved orange peel too - shiny black foil packages - they help keep me awake when I'm really bored and sleepy. Ginger candy - the preserved ginger that's coloured red? Kueh / kuih lapis - a Nyonya / Straits Chinese / Malay (or does it exist in Southern Chinese cuisine, I get confused between what's Nyona and what's Chinese at times) cake of rice flour, green bean flour and coconut milk. It's called Kaou Chung Gou in Cantonese meaningNine Layer Cake. I used to like eating it really slowly layer by layer as a kid. ABC - an acronym for "Air Batu Campur" which translates to Mixed Ice or "Chap Shuet" in Cantonese. Also known as Ice Kacang. It's a Malaysian/ Singaporean shaved ice dessert with boiled sweetened red beans, grass jelly ("leong fun"), creamed corn, chendol (green wormy looking jelly made from green bean flour), bits of agar-agar and some peanuts (don't like them in this though) and covered with shaved ice topped with syrup (usually rose or sometimes palm sugar syrup), evaporated milk and topped with a scoop of ice-cream. It's similar to the Hawaiian shaved ice or one those Vietnamese ice desserts. Chendol / cendol - short green wormy looking jelly made from green bean flour (the green colouring is from crushed pandan leaves) served with crushed ice, palm sugar syrup (gula melaka) and coconut milk. Some add boiled sweetened red/kidney beans to it. There's even one in Melaka with dollops of gooey caramelised durian paste. Again, am confused by its origins - think its Straits Chinese but it's also commonly sold by Indians (typically next to a rojak stall) and Malays too. Love letters - these are basically egg rolls but localised in Malaysia and Singapore to include coconut milk in the batter. Also known as 'kuih kapit' meaning pressed cake as the moulds are 2 flat metal rounds each attached to a long metal handle. It's thinner than egg rolls (the ideal kuih kapit should be wafer thin, crisp and as light as possible) and the moulds traditionally have pretty flowery designs on them. They're baked over a charcoal fire, immediately removed from the mould once cooked and quickly folded into quarters (some are rolled) and packed into air-tight tins. It's a must-have for Chinese New Year over in Malaysia and Singapore.

How long did you live in Papua New Guinea? What kind of food do people in PNG normally eat? We get Twisties here in KL - at least we used to when we were little but I haven't checked in a long while. Other stuff I miss are: - real chips - big fat chips with loads of salt and vinegar - not the skinny french fries - burgers with the lot - bacon, fried egg and beetroot - Minties (chewy mint candy)

I love to see the dragon's beard candy maker at work - sort of like making fresh noodles when they stretch and fold the candy into the fine strands. Are these like the candied apples that always shown in documentaries on Beijing?

Is it cut into big cubes? There's one we called 'macaroni cake'. Don't know the chinese name. It looks like lots of small broken pieces of dough coated with caramel and sesame seeds. Wish I could have the recipe for this. Yes - think they're the same - strips of curly-wurly deep fried eggy dough placed on a deep tray, coated with treacle / caramel and cut into big squares, right? No recipe though - will browse at the chinese cookery books section the next time I go to the bookstore and see if any of the HK / Taiwanese books have a recipe. (It'll have to be a bi-lingual book though.) Are the sesame balls the deep-fried ones coated with sesame seeds? Think they're called 'jeen dui'. The flat puff pastry like cake with red bean filling - think it's called 'wor paeng'. They call it Chinese pancake here in Malaysia and it's usually one of the desserts at a Chinese banquet (together with a sweet soup). It also comes with a lotus paste filling.

My favourite Chinese dessert would be tong sui (sweet soup) - gingko nut, barley and soy sheets - red bean soup (with some glutinous rice balls in them) - dried longan with snow fungus and lotus seeds. Also like - steamed custard buns - steamed sponge cake - wife biscuits (can't get good ones in KL though - pastry is not flaky enough and filling is not sufficiently chew and is way too sweet. So they're usually a request if anyone goes to Hong Kong. Herbacidal - what are the ones in Philadelphia like?) - the mochi like glutinous rice balls with crushed peanuts and sugar (lor mai chee) - the eggy dough stuff coated with treacle (sutt kay mah) - various preserved plums I used eat loads of the haw flake stuff as well - remember my mum saying that they're good for giving you a good appetite but I sure don't need any help there. Does anyone else remember the white rock candy - a tray of hard white candy that would be chipped off with a little chisel and hammer? That said, think I too prefer a Western dessert over a Chinese one.

Ben - does this "doo soo" (haven't figured out the Cantonese intonation of it yet) look like Thai basil?

In Adelaide and I usually spent semester breaks in Melbourne. Where do you live, misgabi? We get Tim Tams in KL but they don't taste the same as they're made by the Arnotts factory in Indonesia. Same goes for the Kit Kats that are made here or Thailand. Perhaps the difference is due to the milk used here.

Yes, lived there for 5 years. Yummm! I want a Tim Tam now. Tim Tams are the these most delicious chocolate coated chocolate wafers (and I normally don't like chocolate) !

Thanks fifi - was just thinking I might be boring everyone - especially after shiewies exotic sounding blog. misgabi - your foodblog is far from boring. My Australian food experience has generally been seriously good (apart from college food! ) and you're definitely confirming it. I would love to have some luscious fresh berries drowned in Kind Island cream right now.

What Chinese sweet pastries, candy and desserts do you like? Are there any that you used to eat as a kid but can no longer find them? (Edited - Just ignore this part if it's not relevant to you. Was just wondering about this.) Do you prefer Western sweet pastries / candy / desserts to Chinese ones?

misgabi - a city in country NSW half way between Sydney and Melbourne ... do you live in Wagga Wagga?

Thanks herb and Pan - it's been fun here too! It sure made me more conscious of what I've been eating throughout a day... on that thought I think I'll need to do something this week to work it all off .

You're welcome!

Have tagged misgabi for the next foodblog!

Dinner at maukitten's. Had: - "Oh Chien" - oyster omelette - Oyster pasta - angelhair pasta with oysters and diced tomatoes - Roast duck and sun-dried tomato pasta - we used angelhair, think spaghetti would've been better - Roast duck on its own (we bought a whole roast duck, used half for the pasta and ate the other half on its own) - Green salad - Lemon cheesecake - Sauvignon Blanc - Green tea / coffee

Late lunch after the late breakfast. Had: - Penang style 'Chee Cheong Fun' - Chee Cheong Fun are flat rice noodles, traditionally done in rolls and hence their name which means pig intestine noodles. Penang style is with thick black gooey shrimp paste sauce (different from belacan) with roasted sesame seeds and deep fried sliced shallots sprinkled on top - some Yong Tau Foo (a piece of tofu, tofu puff, bitter gourd, fried sui gau and fried bean curd skin roll) - a slice of pineapple - a glass of 'teh si ping' - iced tea with evaporated milk Am boiling some 'tong sui' (Chinese sweet soup) for later - snow fungus, dried longan, red dates and hard-boiled quail eggs.

Papayas are better

The first three things that popped into my head were: - hamburgers - hot dogs - apple pie (if drinks count, then Coke)

Rambutans are heaty and too much of them makes one constipated. Not supposed to have rambutans if you're having a cough as is supposedly makes you cough more.

No - not Chinese definitely Malay. Back in the 50s and 60s, Mum and her cousins used to drive to the kampungs (villages) outside a much smaller KL then looking for durians during durian season and this was something that they picked up from from a pak cik in some kampung. The other thing is to eat mangosteens when you're having durians as mangosteens are 'cooling'.

Sunday Late breakfast of roti chanai (it's the same as roti paratha) with fish curry. Also had a mandarin.

No not a few biji as in few whole durians! Just 3 to 4 'ulas'/sections Nowadays, durians is mainly sold pre-opened where ulas / sections / seeds of durian are packed in styrofroam containers and not as whole durians. Not as much fun as the old way where you'd have to crack open the durian at the 'eye' at the bottom and split in along the sides. This means that you don't get to ward off 'heatiness' from eating durian by drinking some water from placed inside the durian shell or washing your hands on the white inside part of the shell to get rid of the lingering smell from your fingers. It's a lot more convenient though as the the whole neigbourhood won't know that you've been having durians as there won't be conspicuous durian shells in your trash is stinking up the whole place till the garbagemen come!

Had more to eat around 9-ish when my sister when to get some takeaway from hawker stalls: - a piece of fried chicken - a peice of tauhu bakar - grilled tofu puffs with, split in half with a filling of julienned cucumber, lighly blanched bean sprouts and peanut sauce - another mandarin - plus a cold masal vadai from the fridge - a small slice of blue cheese Hmmm...all in all guess it was a rather stinky day with durians and blue cheese. Edited - forgot about eating the cheese so didn't post it earlier