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rarerollingobject

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Everything posted by rarerollingobject

  1. I really love Vanderwee chocolates, in the Skygarden Mall..especially the cherry manon truffle.. Their website is here.
  2. Ah Leung, I have been DYING for the rest of your trip photos, but feared it rude to hassle you about it! Seriously, am soo excited you're posting the rest. Now, resume, dammit!
  3. Kylie Kwong (whom I in every aspect find intensely annoying, is my disclaimer, though her restaurant is down the street from me and it does do some tasty grub) gives her poaching recipe here.
  4. Am trying to work out the Chinese name for these boiled dumplings. The filling is generally made only of prawns and cloud ear funghi, and perhaps bamboo shoots - with a "fun gor" type wrapper; that is, a frilly wheat flour type, not rice pastry. And in yum cha restaurants where they serve from carts, these are always kept on a dedicated cart with boiling water, and a serving boiled to order at the cart - sometimes this is the same cart that serves the gai lan with oyster sauce. Dipping sauce is generally a mix of soy, sesame oil, sugar, sliced scallions, ginger and chilli. I simply cannot hold out till next yum cha visit to ask the trolley ladies, so please sally forth with your wisdom, dear eGulleteers!
  5. rarerollingobject

    Fish Sauce

    The best in my opinion is Viet Huong (Three Crabs brand); though foodmiles-wise, am a little freaked out that my bottle says it's produced in Thailand, processed in Hong Kong, and distributed from the US - and purchased by me in Sydney! It's much less salty than Squid brand and is wonderfully caramelly and umami-er. The other best one IMO is the one with white pigeons on the label; I think it's a Phu Quoc based manufacturer - Phu Quoc being the island on which the premium Vietnamese fish sauce is supposedly produced.
  6. There's a Sichuanese brand in my Asian supermarket that is labelled on the main label "yellow bean sauce" but has a sticker from the Japanese distributor overlaid saying "tenmenjang". Cannot recall the Chinese characters. Some clues perhaps here.
  7. I think there are 2 main reasons: 1) The Chinese (who don't work in the restaurant business) have Christmas holiday off. Family gathering time. 2) Those who don't celebrate Christmas come to eat Chinese, because we (and other Asians) are about the only restaurants who are not closed on Christmas day. ← Agreed re these possibilities, although the interesting part was that the crowd had much greater Caucasian presence than I was expecting, and more than this restaurant normally has.. and some of them celebrate Christmas or at least like the trappings of it, as had brought along Christmas crackers and party hats..! We were speculating that perhaps many were tourists/travellers who happened to be in town for Christmas day, or, like us, had no distinguishing reason for being there, other than a serious addiction to yum cha and a serious aversion to the Christmas day cook-up/clean-up. Either way, the more the merrier..nothing worse than an EMPTY yum cha restaurant!
  8. We went for yum cha, godless heathens that we are. AND it was really crowded, interestingly. Moreso than usual, even.
  9. I'm pretty sure I've seen this at Randwick Oriental Supermarket, on Belmore Rd in Randwick. And I've also used thawed spring roll wrappers before as substitutes..not too bad, but a little stiffer than proper popiah skins. But a sprinkle of water and a short zap on low in the microwave to steam the roll a little helped somewhat.
  10. Looking for a source of lardo, which is Italian cured pork fatback, essentially. Anyone?? Thanks
  11. Wow..they look great....am full of admiration over here!
  12. Oh, and there's also Chez Pascal, though that's in a slightly awkward location if you're staying centrally - a $30 or so taxi ride from the CBD. But good, old-fashioned French favourites.
  13. I quite like Mere Catherine, in Potts Point. It's tiny, kitschy and very old-school French. La Guillotine in the CBD is good too. Their website is here.
  14. This isn't a bad chef trick, it's really more something they DON'T do that drives me nuts.. Virtually every chef show I watch includes a bit where they've used an expensive knife to chop something up on a board, and they then take that board over to the pot or whatever, and scrape the chopped up food into the pot with the knife, blade-side down!! Didn't their mothers ever teach them that's a surefire way to dull their knives double-time?? Am I (and obviously my mother) the only ones who turn the knife upside down and uses the TOP of the blade to scrape off the board?? Wait, don't answer that.
  15. Thanks, Nakji! That would go a long way to explaining the lack of banh cuon..having to be up looking for it before 9am!! And thanks for the fantastic Hanoi foodblog you contributed to eG..it's truly a treasure.
  16. That looks great, Ce'nedra! What cut of meat do you use? My humble contribution: ga xao xa ot (lemongrass, chilli and caramel chicken).
  17. Hi..anyone in Hanoi? Am trying to find out if the Banh Cuon restaurant that was at 17 Cha Ca St is still there..or where else good banh cuon can be had in Hanoi. This was the one food item I could NOT find on my last trip there and so now that I'm going back, I'm determined!
  18. I had just had wisdom tooth surgery and was in lots of pain..he came over for our second date, promising to cook me "something soft". So he made risotto - for the first time in his life. I'm not sure he realised how long risotto takes, but slaved away dutifully and evidently nervously, and was SO proud when he finally managed to present me with the meal - I crunched through grains of par cooked rice on a raw wisdom tooth for oh, a tiny bowlful. That's when I realised I must quite like him! No way I would be that "polite" now!
  19. rarerollingobject

    Whitebait

    Uh, yes. When I was about 7, and happily scarfing a plate of whitebait, my big brother suggested I think about "all those eyes, looking around my throat on the way down". I lost it, figuratively and literally. Lost it all over 'im.
  20. This is almost embarrassing, immediately following Bruce's feast - but a very simple 'breakfast' mezze plate for a lazy Sunday night..labneh (homemade yoghurt cheese) sprinkled with mint and olive oil, beautiful truss tomatoes, Sicilian olives and a beetroot and sumac relish, with warm pita bread.
  21. rarerollingobject

    Whitebait

    Whitebait is the generic name for the small fry of various fish. When I lived in New Zealand (where whitebait are something of a national obsession), they'd either be deep fried or made into fritters. Soba, this doesn't take you away from frying completely, but making fritters (whitebait bound with egg white and herbs etc) generally only require shallow frying or sauteeing. I've also had whitebait omelettes that were quite tasty. There's a small collection of whitebait recipes here, some of which avoid frying.
  22. nonblonde, labneh is spectaculary easy and yum, do try it! Just stir a little salt into a tub of store-bought Greek yoghurt and drain it through a cheesecloth-lined colander in the fridge overnight and voila - it's essentially just yoghurt with the majority of its liquid drained out. I also often roll it into balls and then roll the balls in crushed chilli, mint, crushed peppercorns etc and store them in a jar of olive oil. Today's breakfast - giant Greek lima beans sauteed with onion, bacon, garlic and chopped tomato, adorned with a very runny fried egg. Apologies for the blurry pic.
  23. I don't think I've ever made spaghetti with meatballs..now I'm tempted to..perhaps a mix of veal and pork. Dinner last night, inspired by hzrt8w's pictorials: chicken in ginger and green onion sauce. Or more correctly, ginger, with chicken and green onion sauce. Is a full hand of ginger for two people excessive? I looooooove ginger.
  24. Shelby, that looks GOOOOD.. Lebanese breakfast today; labneh (homemade yoghurt cheese) with olive oil, thickly sliced fresh tomatoes, pickled chillis and pita bread. Some sumac and dried mint sprinkled on the labneh just before eating.
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