Duvel

Lunch on Friday was a quick bite at the airport of Zhengzhou, China: Liang Pi (cold flat rice noodles, doused with vinegar and sesame paste and a couple of herbs and spices), accompanied by Rou Jia Mo (griddled flat bread with braised meat filling, in this case donkey). Satisfying ...

The funny thing is that is completely against anything I know about tasty bread - no long fermentation time, very limited kneading, no stretch-n-folds to give structure ... But it works. The yoghurts imparts a certain tartness, helps to form gluten and I believe that the uneven distribution of the baking powder creates airpockets that resemble those of a retarded dough. And of charring from course high heat of a gas grill plus fat/salt/garlic at the end compensate for shortcomings of the dough tona certain extend This one will go into my regular rotation ...

Grilled garlic naan ... Just flour, baking powder, salt and full-fat yoghurt. Kneaded, rolled out, stretched by hand and thrown on a hot grill - literally took 5 minutes. Maybe 1-2 min per side, then brushed with melted butter containing salt and microplaned garlic. Sprinkled with cilantro. Heaven !

Thanks, that'll go on my "weekend" list

Thanks ... I like this a lot.

The Möet & Chandon Nectar imperial is exactly what you are looking for then. Essentially an off-dry sparkling wine. Very pleasant and good with raw salmon ...

"JNW's Magic Dust" - a delectable spice rub for any occasion

That's great - good for him

Indeed. But then again I would expect some heavy duty equipment, if I use it every day, combined with the precision you mentioned. Talk about reproducibility. When I was working in a lab, most of the sophisticated equipment was still cheap compared to the substances I was working with ...

Kudos to him if he keeps his LCD still up ... hope he's getting some results for leaving those lovely hash browns to the kids.

On my way to the wild, wild west (of northern China) one stop-over at Shanghai Hongqiao. And when in Shanghai ... Xiaolongbao And because I like Sichuan food much better (even when prepared in Shanghai) ... Dan Dan Mian Tea-smoked duck

Thanks for all the egg yolk porn ! I usually don't eat breakfast, but credit to all you enablers I ordered the Eggs Benedict at the airport lounge this morning. Very good and very dangerous ... this could be habit-forming

Long weekend trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand. Had to get an emergency root canal treatment on the first day, so mostly liquid food until Saturday night. My first meal out was the last meal of the trip: Grilled fish, grilled squid, some potstickers, fried chicken and smoothies. All from a busy night market at the south gate of the old city. Pictures don't do the meal justice - it was heaven. Maybe because I was super hungry, maybe because of the relief after a successful treatment or maybe the combination of Leo beer and my meds ... It was a fantastic evening !

Wow, that looks intriguing... could you point me towards the name for this or perhaps a recipe ?

Viva Las Vegas - I am going to enjoy this a lot ! Thanks, @Smokeydoke

That's a lovely idea ... I will definitely copy that ! Thanks, @Anna N

Thanks, @kayb and @dcarch! And the best thing is that the fibers of the tablecloth are somehow coated and you can just wipe over it with a wet cloth to remove stains ... It still feels like regular fabric.

The festivities might go on here as well, but I am expected at work tomorrow

Last night of the CNY holidays here in Hong Kong ... time for hot pot ! Two differents broths: chicken/pork with mushrooms and goji berries as the Chinese element and dashi with dried sardines and a bit of miso for the Japanese part. Something for everyone ... It was good - my in-laws enjoyed it and even more so my son. Happy me

If you want to go "Chinese" I'd skip the roasting and par-boil instead ...

Since you are working on your wonton soup base, I'll start with the classics: ginger, scallion, bit of white pepper, maybe some cabbage trimmings and ham (cured, but not smoked). If you have access to dried shrimps you could add them, too ...

After running around the whole day, visiting a temple and fighting our way through the "spectacular" Snoopy World in Sha Tin (seriously, don't go there) we came back at 18.30h, I was neither in the mood for shopping nor cooking. Thankfully most of the family opted for cornflakes and fruit (not pictured). For my FIL and me I dug out some goodies from the stockroom: "Motsu" (intestines) flavoured corn crisps. Braised camel meat from Xinjiang, China. followed by: Ippudo Ramen, spicy red miso flavour (from Kyushu, Japan, given by a very dear friend). Veeeery good ! La Mian Laksa from Singapore (referenced recently by @Anna N). Enjoyed with two fine Japanese beers. Lovely meal with zero work ...

Let's compromise and call it fusion Smørrebrød ?

Noma ?

Second day of the Chinese New Year celebrations. We went to a heritage trail in the new territories - essentially alone, as everyone else in HK was busy visiting relatives and the Gweilos are normally on vacation in Thailand, Vietnam or the Philippines... There was not a single restaurant found to be open. Zero. Only one takeaway sushi was in business, but clever me had - in a spurt of alcohol-induced home sickness - put a pork belly to dry cure four days ago. Roasted in a low oven for three hours with a blast at full 250 oC to crisp up the skin - perfect! Potato salad, sugar-glazed peas & carrots and onion gravy ... Certainly not the most photogenic meal but soooo satisfying