Memories of Macau

The most memorable food experience I had in Macau was having the good fortune of tasting the best Portuguese tart ever.  We were doing our own walking tour of Macau and basically followed our noses to this bakery.  It was not in a touristy area, just on a side street we happened to be walking along but I smelled it a block away.  And when I paid for just one to try, it turned out to be the best I'd ever tasted.  Could be it's hot and just out of the oven, could be that I was hungry, but I've never had such flaky pastry and the custard centre with exactly the right consistency.  I gobbled that one up on the street and bought another one to take with me to wherever we were going to eat lunch.  Then on the return trip on the way to dinner, I bought another one.  I was surprised that I didn't get indigestion from all this indulgence!  The store called itself a "bread specialty" store, an unusual name for a bakery in this part of the world and the closest thing I could think of was "artisanal" - which indeed it was.  By the time we got to Senado Square where there were lots of Portuguese tarts but no enticing aroma, I knew I didn't need to try them - they just didn't look as good as this one.

The store was on Rua do Padre Antonio, for anyone who would like to find it

Much of this trip was for us nostalgic and the almond cookies from Macau were fond childhood memories.  The local bakeries had taken advantage of this general nostalgia and created a store with a history display of the evolution of the cookie.  Lots of food sampling - in fact, we tried so many we didn't have to buy any!  The  best was still the almond cookie with almond chunks in them.

Beef and pork jerky galore

We walked off most of the calories from all these samplings so there was still room for dinner.  This was at a small cozy, purportedly authentic Portuguese restaurant A Lorcha - fish cakes were good but the best was the grilled sardines. The "Portuguese" chicken was okay.  It was a fine end to a long day.  See Travelswithrarecat for the rest of our day.

Fish cakes

Grilled sardines

"Portuguese" chicken

No knead bread - whole wheat

So I experimented with whole wheat no knead bread.  It worked as expected.  I followed the ingredients in the recipe on the Jo Cooks blog, but used the same technique as for the white bread - 4 cups of wheat flour, 2 tsp salt, 2 cups water and 1 tsp yeast overnight  (Jo used 3/4 tsp but I used 1 tsp for lack of a proper measure).  

I noticed that the NY Times whole wheat recipe added rye and corn meal to the wheat flour and took less rising time.  Since my dough was quite cool in the morning, I decided to leave it longer in the kitchen which was quickly warming up with a south facing exposure. But I'll definitely try mixing in the rye flour and corn meal next time to perhaps  give it a lighter texture.  Unlike the white bread recipe, this NY Times recipe did not use a cast iron pot but used a regular loaf pan instead, which would be a plus for bakers who don't own a cast iron pot, however useful it can be.

Given the almost anything goes nature of this no knead bread, I think one can safely try experimenting with different times, ingredients, utensils, etc. I am certainly going to continue the experiment when I get home!

Fold after taking it out of the bowl

Floured and flipped over on a cotton towel, cover, let rise for two hours, and flip again seam side down into Dutch oven.

This is what it looked like when done

Great texture!

No knead bread!

The first time I heard about the "No knead bread" was at a dinner which I blogged about in my last post "Portuguese homecooking".  My hostess, who baked the delicious bread, told us it was like the bread her grandmother used to bake in Portugal.  When she told us how simple the recipe was, I (and I'm sure everyone else who first heard it) listened with some skepticism.  When I googled "no knead bread", the first thing that came up was the New York Times recipe.  With a video and step by step instructions, it seemed almost too good to be true.  It's inevitable that I'd try it.

It didn't take long for the opportunity to come up.  New Year's Eve, I was showing my dinner host this blog and he questioned me about the No knead bread in the Portuguese homecooking post - whether I have tried it.  So here I was, at my son's house for an extended stay and with time on my hands after an early dinner.  My sister had left her Le Creuset pot with me for the week.  I checked the cupboards and found unbleached flour, a package of active dry yeast (with a 2016 expiry date - what a surprise, considering that there isn't a baker in the house!). And then water and salt are the only other ingredients. 

It was close to bedtime.  I did the calculations and figured that if it's that easy I could get the batter ready in 5 minutes (just mixing the flour, yeast, salt and water together), and it would be ready around noon the following day (recipe says 12-18 hours). Allow another 2 hours for it to rise, 45 minutes for it to bake, and I'd still be able to leave for a dinner date at 4 pm. It all turned out as the recipe indicated, and I was even able to go out for a walk while waiting for the bread to rise. 

Yes, it seemed that working out the logistics was the hardest part of the recipe.  No wonder it was the most popular recipe on the New York Times cooking page!  Check out the recipe and try it.  Since it came out there have been whole wheat and sour dough among other versions.  I know what I will experiment with next...

Finished bread in the French oven which was slightly too big for it 

Enticing on the rack

Visibly great texture and crust

Portuguese Homecooking

We tasted some delicious Portuguese homecooking last night and it's hard to let it go by without sharing it.  The highlight for me was the cod cakes.  My hostess made this for us several years ago and I have yet to taste any cod cakes that tasted better, not even in Newfoundland, the Canadian home of cod cakes.  

The Portuguese cod cakes (Bolinhos de bacalhau) were made from dried salted cod fish (soaked in water for at least two days) and potatoes. The proportion of cod to potatoes is the key to the tasty treat.  It's likely that the cod cakes we had in most restaurants had more potatoes than cod due to the cost factor so we have never been able to taste anything like the flaky homemade cod cakes our hostess pan fried in a minimum amount of oil.  The starch from the potatoes together with some eggs enabled the browning of the cakes without a batter.  Onions, garlic and parsley enhanced the flavour.  It was served as an appetizer although we would have been perfectly happy gobbling up all the cod cakes had we not been held back by the thought of more food to come.  (Recipe)

And indeed there were, as you can see below.  Chicken and four different kinds of Portuguese sausages, including blood sausage.  Cabbage greens, edoes (or taros), potatoes and carrots complemented the meat.  Our hostess drizzled everything on her plate with vinegar and olive oil (that's how it was done in Portugal).  I tried it, it certainly added a tang to the food. 

Our hostess made the "No knead bread" made famous by the New York Times and it tasted so good we had to restrain ourselves - the texture of the bread was unbelievable.  I will have to try making it myself!

We finished with Portuguese egg tarts.  These do not have the flaky crusts that we are used to getting in Chinese bakeries.  But according to my hostess, both are authentic Portuguese. They are both very good.  But this one, without the crust, is healthier.  

Bolinhos de bacalhau (Portuguese salted cod cakes)

"No knead bread"

Blood sausages, smoked sausages, hot and mild, chiken

The veggies

Portuguese egg tarts!

Tapas lunch

What a novel idea, I thought, when I first saw the noodle-wrapped shrimp, one of the tapas we had for lunch today at the West Hill Wine Bar.  The shrimp was wrapped in egg noodles and then deep-fried. The noodles protected the shrimp and sealed in the flavour, you get the crunch from the noodle instead of from the batter.  I can see this can be a fail-safe way to get crunchy shrimp and not having to worry about preparing a batter, avoid the mess often associated with it and the uncertainty when it comes to crunchiness.

Of course, when I looked it up on the internet, there is really nothing novel about it at all. There were lots of recipes and variations on this primarily Thai dish.  The shrimp could be wrapped in all kinds of noodles, from single strand egg noodles to a whole mass of egg noodles, tightly bound or loosely fluffed, vermicelli, or basically any kind of soft noodle - your imagination is the limit.  Some recipes called for marinating the shrimp but I would nix that as shrimp tastes best in its natural state.   At the Wine Bar, it was served with a mango slaw and a tamarind soy dip - all very refreshing contrast to the deep-fried shrimp.

We also had fried egg plant with sesame, wild mushrooms, grilled calamari, grilled sirloin, sweet potato tower and Baba Ganoush with nan.  All quite tasty although slightly on the salty side.  This is the first time we had tapas for lunch and when I come to think of it, it is actually a format more suited to lunch than dinner - rather like Chinese dim sum!

Noodle-wrapped shrimp with mango salad; fried egg plant with sesame

Grilled calamari

Grilled sirloin and sweet potato tower

Baba Ganoush with nan - such drama in the presentation!  Nothing Spanish about that but then this is a Toronto version of tapas - a celebration of cultures by Chef Chris Kanka, one of the competitors for the Top Chef of Canada title.  Good luck with his new restaurant - fine dining in "Scarberia".

Cajun Cooking at home

We had a different kind of meal last night at a friend's home - a New Orleans themed meal which was a first for us.  We visited New Orleans in the early nineties - it happened to be Halloween and our memories of the place were mostly of erotic costumes in rowdy parades down cobbled streets awash with beer.  It was fun - something I had always associated with New Orleans, in spite of the sombre stories coming out post Katrina.

But back to the meal.  Before dinner, I helped my hostess cut up the corn bread, and being a person who loves bread warmed up, I politely asked her if she would like to warm up the bread.  She said "no" and I  discovered the wisdom of that after we started the meal.

The jambalaya was delicious - rice with chicken, shrimp and the "holy trinity" of Cajun cuisine - bell peppers, celery and onion.  Made in a Le Creuset pot, it retained the moisture and the flavour of a ton of spices.  But the blackened chicken liver beat this hands down in terms of spiciness.  This is when I realized that the "cool" corn bread actually provided a nice soothing contrast to the hot spicy dishes that are the signature of Cajun cuisine.  It literally had a cooling effect - I must have doubled my bread quota for the day, as well as my wine quota.  The Oyster Bay Sauvignon Blanc was a perfect pairing for the spicy dishes and ample quantities were needed.  For spices typical of this cuisine, read this interesting article on Cajun cuisine.  

Delicious jumbalaya 

Blackened chicken liver in butter

Chorizo

Soothing corn bread to the resuce

Mellow George Dickel whisky and dark chocolate pecan pie with ice cream to finish the meal

Eating in Hong Kong - Private Room dining

I wrote about a private room dining experience in Toronto a while back and it sparked some discussion among friends about this increasingly popular trend.  This spring, when I went to Hong Kong, I was shown what private room dining is really like in this foodie heaven.

Celebrity chef Jacky Yu runs a few private dining rooms in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. The one we visited, Xi Yan (囍宴), was somewhere on the road to the south side of the island in a sketchy industrial unit which was quite deserted and dark by the time we arrived.  This seemed to be typical of private dining rooms as they probably need to take advantage of cheaper rents in these areas.  We climbed a few stairs and the whole ambiance changed - we were in a warm contemporary dining room that I could see would be great for a private party.  It was almost like eating in one's own home.  In this instance, there was another larger private party but they were in another room and completely secluded.

Jacky showing us the dining room

The menu (translation in sequence below), custom ordered by our gracious hosts.

We started with three appetizers -

"Drunken" Jumbo Mantis prawns - the wine enhanced the shrimp flavour without overpowering it - nicely done!

Crispy "light-filtering" lotus root slices and fish roe over perfectly seared scallops - the lotus root was garnished with crab roes, Canadian uni and chopped black truffles - my mouth is still watering when I think back on the complex toppings

Bitter melon peel with pepper, sesame, among other things together with a pretty intense sauce. It's the first time I tried bitter melon peel - love it!

"Saliva" chicken - don't know why the name but the chicken is suitably crisp, the way it's supposed to be and the sauce went well with it.  Notice also all the other ingredients in the dish - what a refreshing combination of tastes and textures!  

Steamed crab with coconut egg white sauce which perfectly highlighted the tasty crab meat

Giant grouper belly (very tender) steamed with black garlic and ham.  The dried orange peel really gave the dish a distinct flavour.

What a delicious soup!  And look at the ingredients:  chicken, pork bones, arrowroot, peach, sweet dates, black fungus, polygonatum (玉竹),  almonds, ginger, and snow fungus!

Love this dish - okra and baby oysters with dried shrimp in a broth.  I didn't know that okra could taste so good (it's very fresh).  This is something I am going to try and do at home.

My thoughtful hostess knew I have a craving for almond sweet soup - this was a perfect ending to a perfect meal.

What I really enjoyed about this meal (other than the company) was the very unique dishes. It introduced me to new tastes and combinations of textures as it is not the usual fare you encounter in regular restaurants.  Add to this the creativity behind the design of the dishes and the care taken in their preparation down to the minutest detail, it made for a very special meal. Highly recommended!

Eating in Hong Kong 2 - Updated Sichuan and nostalgic food

We hardly ever ate Sichuan at home but the day after we arrived in Hong Kong, a friend took us to Yun Yan, reputedly the best Sichuan food place in Hong Kong.  The updated Sichuan style food was indeed very tasty and there were a couple of things that were new to us.

This is a famous traditional dish  燈影牛肉 "Light filtering beef" being a rough translation and self-explanatory.  The beef was so thin light filtered through.   It must have been baked and fried among other things but it was delicious - crisp, crunchy but still retaining the meat texture and flavour, a real treat and a great start to the excellent lunch. 

We've had pork dumplings before of course but never had them "injected" with soup at the table.  A fun novelty dish but also quite "sensational" - I guess the "injection" ensured the meat was swimming in soup and the first bite into the dumpling was an explosion of sensations.

It was a bonus too that the restaurant is in a glitzy mall in Times Square, Causeway Bay - us country bumpkins were gawking at the longest mall escalator ever and the curved escalator, another first for us.

This visit to Hong Kong was partly a nostalgia trip with the accompanying search for nostalgic food.  One of my childhood memories was weekend trips to the New Territories, Fanling in particular where one of my dad's friends owned a photo studio.  This is where we regularly took our family photos.  On the way to Fanling, we always stopped at Luen Wo market and ate at a food stall there that served supposedly the best fish balls.  The old Luen Wo Hui market was no longer open but we found this fish ball place which had a name close to the one in the old market - 水上人魚蛋粉 "Boat Dwellers Fish Balls"   The fish balls were very good,  fluffy but with texture, and the fried fish skin was so crunchy and tasty  we couldn't stop at one order - afterall, fish skin is healthy food, discounting the oil it's fried in...  It's also surprisingly not greasy!

After we finished the fish balls, we crossed the street to the famous 群記 Beef Balls and Pork Knuckles Shop.   It was jam packed with both locals and non and there was quite a lineup.  We were lucky to get a table.  I didn't find the pork knuckles particularly flavourful but it's possibly because we were already full with the fish balls and skin. 

Pork Knuckles

I believe I'm not the only one chasing nostalgia.  The restaurants must be catering to a whole generation of boomers who are at that stage of their lives.  Deep-fried shrimp toast, which used to be popular on restaurant menus when we were growing up but disappeared with the healthier food trend, reappeared on some restaurant menus.  Twice on this trip, we were invited to try this "unhealthy" but yummy dish. - the challenge was of course in deep-frying the toast without allowing it to get soggy with oil.  Dish below was served at the Securities Institute Club House, members only.  And like the rest of the food there, well-prepared and tasty.

This brought up another trend I noticed - "club" dining.  Different institutions run thriving clubhouse members only restaurants downtown, usually with excellent food and attentive service, which together with their exclusivity made them special for their regular customers. The two we were invited to were both packed on weekday evenings.  The other one was the Ning Po Residence Club restaurant, exclusive to members whose ancestors were from Ning Po, China.  

The pork aspic and the "drunken" chicken were two of my favourite dishes.  The pork aspic, in particular, was reminiscent of the ones my mom used to make for Chinese New Year.

The search for the past continued with a trip to Lamma Island, where I used to hike with my dad always finishing up with a good seafood meal on one side of the island or the other.  The memory of  poached fresh shrimp remained vivid all these years, including what fresh shrimp should look like (see below).  It was also an interesting process, the search for the right restaurant to eat at.  They all posted their prices on the tanks of seafood but when you started talking to them, they would offer special deals depending on how busy they were.  We had crab, shrimp, abalone and squid - all fresh-tasting as we were eating beside the fishing boats.

Fresh shrimp, with the head shell removed should have the skin over the "neck" in tact.  It was quite a sensation biting into this almost slightly bitter part of the shrimp when it's fresh.

We also headed to the south side of Hong Kong island to check out old haunt Stanley and was pleasantly surprised to see the beautiful Blake Pier moved here from old Central.  Even more of a surprise was the King Ludwig Beerhall in Murray House where we had lunch.  The pork trotters here tasted even better than the ones in Berlin - and they were huge.  

One trotter was more than enough for two and tasted great with German Bier.  

Next post:  Eating in Hong Kong 3 - Private Room Dining, this time, it's the real thing!