♥ korean rice cakes A$2.40
I bought this the other day in Chatswood's Lemon Grove foodcourt. The slimy green colour with bright yellow-coloured mung-bean paste might not seem to be one of the tasty colour combination.
The rice cakes has a weird interaction between the sweet and the savoury. The rice cakes are actually rather tasteless on its own. It's not sweet but there is a certain amount of saltiness in it. The mung-bean paste on the other hand, is very sweet.
The verdict? I like it. It's very chewy. I didnt like it on first bite mainly because of the salty flavour in the greenish rice-cakes. I was expecting a sweet rice cake. Apparently most korean rice cakes can be rather tasteless with a slight hint of saltiness.
Just dont expect too much flavour from this rice cakes. Many non-koreans find the rice cakes bland. I remembered a friend on his first encouter with korean rice cakes screamed "darn, this is tasteless" and thereafter spitted out what he had eaten. A little rude but that tells you if you like heavily flavoured food, this is just not for you.:-)
Continue Reading not a sweet darling: korean rice cakes
ShinChan brought back this pack of munchies for me (or so he claimed) when he came back from Taiwan. So, why did I ever have any doubts that this snacks was specially brought back for me? If you have got a good eyesight and you can read chinese, you could see that the pack actually says '
goes well with beer' (second vertical line from left). Alcohol is no-no to pinkcocoa. Now you get the picture? :p
♥ candied almond crunchies or crisps
This is a very more-ish taiwanese snacks. I couldnt stop when I started. You definitely need a sense of self-control here. ;-p
In direct translation, this is called "almond-fragrance slice" (
xing ren xiang pian). This is actually another version of
ma hua (hemp flower), a deep-fried dough of flour, eggs and sugar coated in chewy sticky maltose in shape that resembles hemp flower. This almond version, however, is in rectangular shape. I guess it's so that the almond flakes could coat easily.
♥ soft chewy maltose coating
The bite-size almond-pastry pieces are crunchy and crispy yet soft and very chewy. Actually, it's crunchy when you take a bite. You could hear a wonderful crunching sound when you bite into it. The soft chewy bit comes from the thick sticky maltose coating. Each time you chew, you feel the crunch first and then the chewy part sets in. Very nice! I like it even without beer. hehe. It goes well with a pot of tea too.
It reminds me of
san qi ma, a chinese snacks of deep-fried egg dough coated in caramel or maltose that comes in small blocks or cubes. But
san qi ma has a more egg-ish taste and sometimes with a slight greasy taste. This almond crunch pieces are actually denser but gentle to the teeth except for the chewy bits. You get some maltose stuck to your teeth.
It's not overly sweet too that's why you cant stop when you start. So, here I am trying to type with my one hand because the other hand is busy feeding me this yummy almond crunchies!
♥ candied almond crunchies or crisps (xing ren xiang pian) from:
Jin Ri Mi Ma Hua Zhi Jia
(direct translation: The House of Jin Ri's candied hemp-flowers crackers)
no. 12, lane 7, zhong-xing area
zhong-xing street, taichung-west
taichung city
tel: +886 4 23052099
ps. jin ri in mandarin = today
Continue Reading crunch along with a bottle of beer
I know you guys are probably bored right now with mooncakes after my mooncake posts
here,
here,
here and
here. It's been a month since the mid-autumn festival! Okay, this one is the last one, I promise! At least for this year.
♥ the three treasures before the kidnap
If you remember, in the post about
the little mooncake, I have also mentioned there are three differently packaged mooncakes in the mooncakes gift-box. These three mooncakes come in very Japanese packaging. I fell in love with them the moment I opened the gift box. I immediately kidnapped them into my bags.
♥ the three treasure after the kidnap.
Here you are seeing the three treasures that's under pinkcocoa's abduction. You can tell they had been well-cared and pampered (that is until they got dissected)! They are called the three treasures of
Pao Chuan (
Bao Quan san bao). I am not sure why these are called the three treasure. I guess this means these are the top three selling or most popular Japanese sweets at
Pao Chuan (
Bao Quan san bao).
♥ the double happiness origami box
This cute
origami box catches my eyes first. A double happiness (
shuang xi) mark is printed on both side of the box. The chinese text at the bottom simply tells you to eat the sweets on the day you bought it or else please refridgerate it.
♥ heart on top of origami box for the special one in my heart! (xin shang ren)
I simply love the cute heart on top of the
origami box! Isnt it just so adorably cute!
The cute heart along with the double happiness mark on this
origami box makes it seems like the type of chinese cakes you would receive when a couple that you know become engaged. This type of 'engagement cake' is called
xi bing (happy cake) and it is customary of Taiwanese to distribute
xi bing to friends, families and seniors at workplace when they got engaged.
♥ "heart-broken" origami box
Dismantling the
origami box to reveal a dark brown cake wrapped in plastic package. At first, I thought it would be Pao Chuan's famous little mooncake except with a different flavoured fillings. I guess I was wrong.
♥ chestnut sweet cake
A deep sweet honey smell escaped when the plastic package was removed. I think I am going to like this because I love honey!
Cut it open, you see a thick caramel-brown crust with a sweet white paste. The crust is soft and a little 'doughy'. There is tiny bits of charred caramel zing attached to the crust. Not too bad but I find it a little too soft. And what's the white paste? It's
kuri (chestnut in Japanese)!
I think this must be a
kuri manju (or is it not called manju?) from Japan. Can someone enlighten me about this?
♥ the two lucky pouches taking it off!
Moving on to the two pretty soft paper pouches. It reminds of Japanese lucky pouch (
fu dai in mandarin, I wonder what's the Japanese term for this?). I like the ribbons.
♥ simple yet exquisite form of packaging
This is just gorgeous! Who would thought the combination of a paperbag and a ribbon could be so exquisite. It got me bewitched!
♥ what's inside the soft-paper pouches?
I pulled out the ribbons and let's have a look what's inside the two lucky pouches. Something similar to the little mooncake but a little bit darker.
♥ pickled plum or sour plum sweet cake
It's not little mooncake with a different flavour. It appears to be something in between the
kuri manju and the little mooncake. Sorry about the mess here. I didnt know there was a pickled plum (
ume in japanese,
mei zhi in mandarin) inside.
Here you see the crust has a glossy caramel-brown colour on the outside but the inside is a pale golden colour. The crust like the
kuri manju is soft and chewy. The pale orangey filling is probably sword bean paste infused with pickled plum extract but I am not exactly sure of this. It tasted a little weird to me but still acceptable.
♥ kumquat sweet cake
This really delighted me. A kumquat in the sweet cake! This kumquat sweet cake has a slightly different crust to the pickled plum. The crust is a lot denser and much paler with only the top that is a dark golden brown. I cant work out what's the white paste. My guess is it's still made of sword bean.
I didnt like this sweet cake though. The paste was soaked with the juices of kumquat. I felt like eating a wet lump of cake that has been soaked in sugar water! The crust is very soft too. The texture of the crust is almost like the paste so it kinda felt like you are only eating the paste without the crust.
♥ the three treasures of pao chuan
from left to right:
♥ chestnut sweet cake - origami box
♥ kumquat sweet cake - orangey-pink lucky pouch
♥ pickled plum sweet cake - purple lucky pouch
Looks to me these are in fact Japanese sweet cakes (
wagashi in Japanese). Personally, I like the chestnut the best. It's not too sweet with an enticing honey flavour.
hm. I am actually not sure if these
wagashi has to do with mooncakes. Would this be the type of mooncakes eaten on mid-autumn in Japan? I have yet to find out myself. Anyone out there who would kindly provide your valuable knowledge?
And herewith, I shall conclude my five part series of mooncake galores for the year 2004. :-)
FYI
the three treasure of taiwan (tai wan san bao) are
1 tea
2 sugarcane
3 camphor
they are the top three exports of taiwan.
Continue Reading mooncake galore part 5:
the three treasures
ShinChan came back from Taiwan with 5 large boxes of his favourite mooncake:
xiao yue bing (little or mini mooncake). He claimed that this is not just any other ordinary
xiao yue bing but from it is Japanese mini mooncake from
Pao Chuan bakery.
Pao Chuan (pinyin:
bao quan, meaning spring of treasure) bakery was actually first set up in Kyoto, Japan in 1943 by a Taiwanese. It goes by the name of
Housendo in Japan and bears the same meaning with its chinese title.
Pao Chuan bakery is the first bakery in Taiwan to come up with the idea of having small bite-sized mooncakes that can be downed in a couple of bites. Traditional Taiwanese mooncakes are usually too big to be chowed down at once, even if you share. The mini mooncake is more convenient and becomes well-received and popular soon after its release. This idea of bite-sized mooncakes are widely copied nowadays.
♥ 12xiao yue bing and the three treasures of pao chuan
Inside the
xiao yue bing li he (little mooncake gift pack) are are 12 mini mooncakes. The three very distinctive packages in the middle are the three treasures of
Pao Chuan bakery (
Bao Quan San Bao).
♥ xiao yue bing - individually packed little mooncake
I couldnt wait to try this little mooncake that ShinChan has been raving about many times. It must be good. Though in my heart, I still long for my favourite Taiwanese mooncake:
luu dou peng. Alright, I really have to promise this is my last time mentioning
luu dou peng. It must be getting on everyone's nerve that I mentioned it everytime I write about mooncakes. :p
Anyway I reckon these individually packed little mooncakes are really cute and very presentable as a gift on its own even when you dont have a gift box to put it in. So what we did was we took out all the little mooncakes from one of the boxes and distribute these mooncakes to friends. Everyone get one!
♥ a mini moon in my room! kawaii~
Sorry guys, no nice picture here because I simple could not wait. When a girl wants her mooncake, she has just got to have it now!
A sweet milky aroma filled the room once the pack was torn open. Nice!The crust is soft to the touch and not as flaky as the normal traditional type. I think I have forgotten to mention this little mooncake is actually a mini version of the traditional Taiwanese mooncake except that it has a different filling. More on this later.
The pale yellow colour of the crust sure resembled a bright round moon!
♥ pale golden flaky crust, just like a moon!
Here is another pic of the little mooncake. This looks a little drier than the one above and not as plumb too. Nope. This is not a result of uneven qualities. This particular little mooncake had been kept in the freezer for about a week. Why store in a freezer you might ask. Mind you, we had really hot weather 2 weeks ago resulting on mouldy pineapple cakes. You had no idea how heart-broken I was when I awoke one morning to find most of my pineapple cakes had gone mouldy!
Henceforth, into the freezer they went. Freezing prolongs their perishable lives....or so we thought!
♥ soft, fluffy and velvety contents
Once again apologies! You are seeing the remnant of a little mooncake after your highness took her first humble bite.
ooh la la! The mooncake seemed to have melted inside my mouth immediately. My mouth was filled with a punch of lustrous creamy velvety flavour. The filling was feathery, fluffy, silky, smooth, milky, rich. Oh. Just so lush!
As with the crust...what crust? I couldnt even taste the crust! The creamy filling with a strong hint of milky scent over-power the crust. Not good for crust-lovers. :-(
Traditional Taiwanese mooncake has a flaky crust, unlike the soft-chewy crust found in cantonese mooncakes. This version of mooncake is believed to have originated from the northern region of China. As with the filling, it is usually filled with a blend of mung bean paste and mince meat. Sometimes pork floss is added instead or vegetarian pork floss for vegan. For yolk-lovers, there is also a version with yolk. There is also one with curry flavour.
This
xiao yue bing however is not filled with mung bea. It is not savoury too with no sight of minced meat or pork floss. It is filled with the paste of jack bean, or
bai feng dou (white phoenix bean), an indigenous plant in Taiwan.
♥ sweet and creamy jack bean paste with thin light flaky crust
I was about to develop a headache after three bites. The goodness of the white paste was a little over-empowering. Too sweet. It felt like eating a condensed milk paste. I decided that I still like my other mooncake more. (phew~ I was about to mention
the name) But then again, I wonder if it was because I didnt have a pot of chinese tea to go with it.
I still havent figured out why this is called Japanese-style little mooncake (
ri shi xiao yue bing). It is simply a mini version of the larger mooncake. Maybe the small-sized concept stems out from Japan?
Pao Chuan Bakery
♥ in Taiwan: Pao Chuan Food Co.
♥ in Japan: Housendo, Kyoto
FYI:
♥ bai feng dou (white phoenix bean) is also known as
- sword bean
- dao dou in mandarin
- natamame in Japanese
- kacang parang in Malay or Indonesian
These all come to mean sword bean!
Continue Reading mooncake galore part 4:
mini moon from japan in my room
I am a true believer in fate. I believe things must happen for a reason. When two events fused into one and seemingly been arranged beforehand yet it was really accidental, this is termed coincidence in english.How many times have you experienced this in your life? I am sure there have been heaps!
What a coincidence it was when
Dennis started a japanese tea ceremony conversation with
fishfish. I happened to attend one myself that very afternoon! It must be fate or what we call
yuan fen in mandarin.
We jumped immediately at the chances to attend a traditional Japanese tea ceremony with
sydney good food month's Taste It workshop:
Cha No Yu. It was really too good to be missed. We joined Christina Simpson of
Tea Temple and visited a traditional Japanese tea room right here in Sydney!
♥ very pretty hand-drawn invitation
I received these pretty hand-drawn
cha no yu invitation cards in my mailbox from Christina. I was surprised to have received these though Christina had told me she would mail the invitation out. I didnt expect the invitations to be so lovely! What I mean is how long has it been since you last received handmade invitation cards?
The norm today is to use standardised commercial invitation cards in many different themes, colours and occasions for you to choose. All you have to do is pick one, pay, fill in the blanks then mail. Very simple. If you are fast, it can be done in an hour.
These pretty floral prints invitation cards had me in flowery and happy mood for days even during the wet gloomy weather that had been embracing Sydney for almost a week.
tabeshimashita on 21 Oct 2004
tabeshimashita @ Chahitsu in the
art gallery of nsw
Chado is the Japanese way of tea. It is the practice of making and serving tea, through which one is believed to be able to reach a calm state of mind and reflect on themselves at the present moment. Chado is deeply connected to the Buddhist Zen philosophy.
In fact, you will find many traditional Japanese arts (or martial arts) are actually a tool or a way to achieve the highest level of the Zen philosophy ie. a calm state of mind. This essentially is what the japanese word
do means: the road, the pathway. Some other examples are kendo (Japanese way of Sword) and kyudo (Japanese way of Archery), both of which I would love to try some day! Oh of course there is the very popular
bushido (Samurai!)
Cha no yu literary means tea and hot water. It is the actual ritual of preparing and serving tea where only a small number of guests, usually 4 or 5, are invited. And no, you dont have
Cha no yu as often as you have a backyard barbeque.
Cha no yu is only held on certain occasions in Japan. Such occasions are usually seasonally related.
A typical
Cha no yu usually lasts for about 4 hours, starting with a
kaiseki course, an exquisite Japanese banquet where you start and end by sipping
sake (Japanese wine) in between the many aesthetically arranged tiny plates of seasonal dishes. The guests are then served
koicha (thick tea) after which
usucha (thin tea) is served. We had the last course of a
cha no yu: the usucha.
♥ interior of a typical chashitsu
The Japanese tea room (
chashitsu) is tucked away at the end of the Asian gallery. To the right of
chashitsu are displays and explanation of the setting of a typical
chashitsu and
chado equipments.
In Japan, normally you will find
chashitsu a heritage building with a lot of historical backgrounds. It is rare to have a new
chashitsu built today. However, this
chashitsu is special. It is incorporated as part of the Asian gallery and isdesigned by a
chashitsu specialised architect from Japan.
The
chashitsu is the size of 6
tatami (japanese mat). You dont count the 2
tatami on the raised platform:
tokonoma (alcove). It is the central spot of the room. In
tokonoma you will find only two things:
1.
kakemono: the hanging scroll
2.
chabana: the simple form of flower arrangement in
hanaire (vase)
These are for the guest to admire and study. They also make a good topic for conversation. It is important that the guests have certain level of knowledge on the calligraphy on
kakemono and the arrangement of
ikebana in order to keep a conversation going. In any case when you come across
kakemono that you do not understand, you can make a mild compliment first and then kindly ask your host to enlighten you.
The calligraphy on the scroll sets the theme for the ceremony. The scroll in this particular
chahitsu is written in
kanji. I dont know how to pronounce them in Japanese but in mandarin, it says
xing wai wu fa man mu qing shang (literary heart outside no law, full eye blue mountain). It means something like abandon the mortal laws from your heart to focus your mind so as to set eyes only for the blue mountain (this is where mortals turn into immortals I think).
♥ the prestige order: pinkcocoa - the guest of honour!
Before entering, you must do a shallow bow (
rei). The guests are seated in the order of prestige with the most important guest seated nearest to the alcove. Pinkcocoa was one lucky girl. She was invited to be the first to enter the tea room! Probably because I was seated furthest left outside the tea room. *yay*
oh. that's my shorty legs in black tights you are seeing there. :p Next to me was a psychology honour graduate. ShinChan was the last guest, by the way.
The guest of honour (
shokyaku, literary the first guest) is the main focus of the whole ceremony. It is conducted specially for the main guest. It is also important that the main guest is highly acquainted with
chado because he/she is the one leading the ceremony. So you would thought the person seated furthest away would be the least important one, right? Wrong! The last person is equally important in that he/she is the one ending the ceremony.
We exchanged
rei (bow - a gesture of acknowledgement) with the hostess (
teishu) and then sat down
seiza-style! *Ouch*
♥ japanese dry sweets to be eaten on special papers
Our hostess is Yayoi Maloney Sensei. Here you see her preparing
higashi (sweets) to accompany the
usucha (thin green tea) that she was going to prepare for us.
Maloney sensei has prepared 2 types of
higashi for us. Sorry I havent had any bigger pic of the sweets. The colourful bunch on the left is the modern
higashi, it was not developed until 300years ago but it is still termed modern! The greenish strips on the right is made from the stems of the angelica plant. This sweets is called
fuki which is the name of the angelica plant in japanese.
♥ kaishi (paper you place in the front of your kimono)
Sweets are eaten from special paper called
kaishi. Guests are carries their own
kaishi, usually in a decorative wallet tucked in the front pocket of
kimono.
Kaishi can have many patterns. Maloney sensei had prepared one with three symbols. The three symbols, I am not sure if you can see it clearly from the pic, represent the four seasons in Japan.
Moon: Summer and Autumn
Snowflake: Winter
Sakura (cherry blossom): Spring
♥ higashi (dry sweets)
The guests place their sweets paper to their right. After that, Maloney sensei came over (very elegantly) and placed the plate of
higashi in front of the main guest (ie. pinkcocoa). She then proceed to prepare all the equipments necessary for the ceremony.
Pinkcocoa was kindly advised to proceed with the sweets. I exchanged bow with Maloney sensei. Then bow to the guest to my right saying "
osakini" which means before you (as opposed to 'after you' in english manner). The second guest replied "
dozo" (please). I place my sweets paper in front of myself. Pick up the plate. Took one of each of the two sweets onto my paper and pass the plate to the second guest. This pattern was repeated by the second guest to the third, third to fourth and so on and so on until the last guest.
♥ pinkcocoa tabemasu! (oishii desu ne~)
Here you see me enjoying
fuki. (sorry no face shown here but at least you see my body :p) It is a long green strips rolled in sugar with tiny bits of icing sugar on it. It can occur to be very sweet to those who dont have a sweet tooth. But it is important to eat the sweets before you drink because the sweets helps bring out the flavour of the tea.
♥ Scooping maccha into tea bowl
We watched the graceful yet spontaneous movement of Maloney sensei in the ritual of cleaning and preparation all the utensils one by one. We sat in silence, eyes ungazed and beaming, trying to catch every simple little details our hostess went through. There we sat in the tea room, no conversation. No loud talking. The atmosphere was tranquille and calm. There was the sounds of the water boiling, charcoal crackling. The smells of the incense and tea. The interactions between the utensils.
My mind suddenly came to a blank. I was not thinking. I had no thinking. Aiks. What am I saying here? But at that very moment, I felt a sense of calmness embrace around me.
After the cleaning ritual, Maloney sensei scooped green-tea powder(
matcha or maccha) from the tea-holder (
chaire or
natsume) into the drinking bowl(
chawan: tea bowl) using a bamboo scoop called
chashaku. Each bamboo scoop is different. Usually this is passed down from generations to generations. The text scribed on the bamboo scoop has a special meaning at the time when the scoop was made.
♥ Ladling water
Using a bamboo water ladle called
hishaku, Maloney sensei carefully ladled water from the kettle(
kama) and poured slowly into the tea bowl.
♥ whisking
We watched Maloney sensei whisking the tea using a bamboo whisk called
chasen. Her movement was graceful and elegance yet you can feel a vibrant
chi (spirit) from her that embraces the whole room.
♥ drinking
Once again, the hostess started with the main guest first. We repeated the pattern similar to when we had the sweets except before acknowledging your fellow
chajin (tea people), you thank the hostess for the tea that she/he had prepared. It's a long bunch of Japanese words and I couldnt remember at all. :p
Oh. I forgot to mention the hostess also has helpers called
hanzo. The helpers are the one who helps to gap the hostess and her guests. Here I was given my tea bowl by the helper who sat in front of me, holding the tea bowl and then turning the bowl clockwise twice. She then placed the bowl in front of me. I then thanked my hostess, acknowledged the guest on right. Took up the bowl using right hand first, place my left hand on the side of the bowl. Using my left hand, I turned the bowl clockwise twice.
And then I sipped from the bowl. The portion in the tea bowl are for three and a half sips. It is polite to slurp as loud as you can when you drink. It is a polite gesture in Japan. Slurping (the louder the better) implies that you enjoy the food the host has prepared.
Everything was just really systematic. You really got to know what you are doing. No wonder the first guest and the last guest are important because they start and end the ceremony!
♥ sensei at full concentration
Here's our elegant sensei at work! I hope she doesnt mind me putting so many pictures of hers up here. She wore a green kimono to reflect on the freshness of greens that sprouts during the season of spring.
♥ tea temple gift packs
The ceremony ends with yet another surprise from Christina! We all received a gift packs from her. Inside are three sample tea bags.
From top to bottom:
♥ Serenity
♥ Coco Lime (Japanese Green)
♥ Genmaicha (Japanese Green)
I had a really good time. I felt calm and relaxed after the tea ceremony. Really! I am telling the truth. If only I could go to a
cha no yu more often!
One more thing before my super long post, I am not sure if all the details I have written here are correct. This is simply a gather of my thoughts and what I have learnt in that short one and a half hour with Maloney Sensei.
FYI:
♥ Tea Temple
s24 south dowling st
paddington nsw 2021
tel & fax: 61 2 9360 1371
♥ Urasenke Foundation, Sydney
130/19-23 herbert st
st leonards nsw 2065
tel: 61 2 9439 5251
fax: 61 2 9968 2165
♥ Urasenke Tradition of Tea
Japanese Term Associated with Cha no Yu
♥ cha no yu: japanese tea ceremony
♥ chabana: arranged flower in a vase
♥ chado: the way of tea
♥ chahitsu: tea room
♥ chaire: tea tin
♥ chajin: people who practice chado
♥ chasen: bamboo whisk
♥ chawan: tea bowl
♥ dozo: please
♥ fuki: angelica plant
♥ hanaire: vase
♥ hanzo: helper of host
♥ higashi: dry sweets
♥ hishaku: bamboo water ladle
♥ ichigo ichie: one time one meeting
♥ kaishi: paper to eat higashi on
♥ kaiseki ryori: kaiseki course
♥ kakemono: hanging scroll with handwritten calligraphic script
♥ koicha: thick green tea (more paste like)
♥ kama: kettle
♥ osakini: before you
♥ rei: bow or literally it means the act of being polite
♥ sake: Japanese rice wine
♥ tatami: japanese reed mat
♥ teishu: host or hostess
♥ tokonoma: alcove, focal of room
♥ ushucha: thin green tea
♥ maccha: japanese green tea powder
Continue Reading Drinking a little piece of Japan in Sydney:
Cha no Yu
My dearest dearest friend whom I met on my second day of commerce school is back in town! It has been about six month since I last saw her. Boy, do I miss her! Thanks to the very advanced IT that we have here and one that I definitely cannot live without:
msn messenger, we kept in touch almost everyday. But alas, chatting on msn is definitely very different from chatting in person. The latter is so much more fun plus we can nibbles and drinks during our chat session.
Of course we met up for some girls-only bonding session. We were going to go to one of the
good food month events but the idea was scrapped not only because of the bad rainy weather Sydney has been having from last weekend but also we were a little worried about getting home late at night. It's not that safe in Sydney, if you really want to know.
We decided to have tea but what kind of tea? Last time we turned into asian '
si lai' (a cantonese term refering to middle-aged women) and indulged in a long chatty session over
yumcha in chinatown. The thought of this doesnt sound that...exotic and elegant, eh? It sounded like we were some
san ba po (literary three eight women, meaning very nosy women who like to listen and spread rumours). So this time we decided we want to be elegant. We want to be graceful. We want to be chic.
Let's go and indulge ourselves in a traditional english afternoon tea!
tabemashita on 19 Oct 2004
tabemashita @: the tea room,
QVB
♥ Earl Grey for Jess and Chai for Pinkcocoa
Right, did I say we were going to afternoon tea? I think I did. I hope i didnt mention that I was going to go for high tea because high tea and afternoon tea are two different thing. Afternoon tea is also known as 'low tea' with light refreshments consumed between 3 to 5pm. High tea, on the other hand, served after 6pm is on the heavier side. This is usually taken as dinner by the English.
Well, we didnt actually have a very traditional afternoon tea. It's more like we had lunch tea or an early afternoon tea. We started our tea at 11.30am. So much for being traditional! We selected
the tea room up on level 3 in
Queen Victoria Building (QVB) because pinkcocoa long wanted to try their afternoon tea after reading about it in a newspaper articles. We made a booking at 11am, this is when their afternoon tea starts. We ran a little late and arrived at about 11.30am and found ourselves their first table of customers!
Sitting underneath the tall pale-white original Victorian ornate ceilings, classic chandeliers (not made of glass or crystal!), relaxing over a cup of gourmet tea, Jess and pinkcocoa had indeed transformed into graceful and elegant english ladies on the spot!
Jess was very non-adventurous and went for earl grey after consulting our table steward on the japanese green tea (cant remember the name). Anyway the reason she chose earl grey was because it goes with milk. Afternoon tea has just got to be tea with milk. Green tea? Nawwww. I went for Chai tea, not very english I guess but I love the aromatic spices in this Indian tea. My Chai tea cames with warm frothy milk. Jess' earl grey came with normal milk.
♥ the delightful three-tier stand
Soon after some giggles over our hot tea, we were enchanted by the arrival of this lovely three-tier stand full of scrumptious yummies! We did a few whooo and aaahhhh, snapped a few pictures before we managed to stop our very un-ladylike behaviours. *Oops*
I was a little doubtful with the order of the type of food in this particular three-tier stand. If my memory hadnt failed me, I remembered the order of the tier would be:
top: sweets
middle: scones with cream and preserves
bottom: finger sandwiches
*Jess, I forgot to mention this to you when we were eating. :p
You start from the bottom tier and work your way up to the top. I didnt remember this rule of thumb at the tea room. It just didnt occur to me that we should start from the bottom because the savouries were placed on the top tier. Naturally, we thought we should start from top to bottom and this was the order we had our afternoon tea.
It was a little odd though with our order. You start with savouries then move on to sweets and then end with something plain and rather filling. But if you start from bottom to top, it would be a little odd as well. Plain taste to sweets to savouries. Perhaps someone out there could enlighten me on the order?
♥ top tier: savouries
on the top tier, we had 2 type of finger sandwiches with baby watercress and 2 very cute filo pastry cups.
♥ middle tier: sweets
The sweets caught our eyes first. We were joyous when we saw the two dark chunks. *yippeee* chocolate cake!
♥ bottom tier: pastries and scones
On the bottom one, we had two pastries and two different types of scones. We couldnt tell what kind of puff we were going to have. Oh, the scones were served with clotted cream and preserves. We havent seen clotted cream before and we thought it was butter. The preserves I think was strawberry.
Alrightey! Let's start our palatable journey into the great kingdom :-)
♥ fingers sandwich: ham and apple chutney
This particular sandwich was made with brown bread. I didnt notice the apple chutney until my last bite when I bit into a large apple chunk. Very nice! I only wish there was more apply chutney in there.
Jess had a tiny bite on this sandwich. She's vegetarian so the ham sandwich was out for her. Me? I am half-and-half. I dont mind having some bits of meat here and there once in a while.
♥ fingers sandwich: tomato and red onion
This is a vegetarian sandwich using white bread. We picked out the red onion. We dont want to catch onion breath! *yuck*
♥ tomato and herb salsa in cute filo pastry cups, served with avocado dip
Is there a particular name for this cute little filo pastry cup? The tomato salsa (is it a salsa i wonder) was very appetizing. The tomato chunks were well-dressed with flavours and herbs (we couldnt work out what herbs but thought that it was something similar to parsley or coriander). The greenish cream is actually guacamole (avocado dip). It didnt taste that avocado-ish and was quite full of flavour (salty!). The filo pastry was alright though I wish it could be a little crispier.
♥ chocolate mud cake
And then we moved on to my favourite tier: sweets! I couldnt help but start out with this black beauty: chocolate mud cake. It was moist and soft. The sweetness was well balanced between the very sweet chocolate ganache and the bitter-sweet dark chocolate cake.
One more piece of this? hm. no thanks. It was too rich!
♥ orange and almond cake with lemon curd
This is a very typical english afternoon tea cake. I like the lemon curd. It was sour but sweet enough not to burn your throat and mouth with the lemony acidity. I couldnt remember much about this cake however. (Jess, do you remember?) The lemon curd has such strong flavour that the flavours of orange and almond in the cake were concealed.
♥ passionfruit shortbread
This is bite sized pieces. It's very passionfruit-ful! The cream in the middle is enhanced with passionfruit flavours. I just love the combination of sweet and sour. Yum~
♥ strawberry boat
It's marinated strawberries cubes on a shortcrust boat lined with cream. This was okay. The shortcrust was a little soft and plain. Not the crunchy tart-crust I was expecting. But it's strawberries,
takara pinkcocoa tabemashita!
♥ our little devil: caramelised onion pastries
We couldnt tell from the outside what's inside this pastry nor could we smell anything.
jess: what is this puff?
pinkcocoa: hmm. It looks like curry puff. I hope it's not curry puff
jess: If it is curry puff then it isnt that imaginative!
pinkcocoa: but..but..how come we would have curry puff in english afternoon tea? weird~
jess: oh. maybe it's indian-influenced? you know, there are a lot of indians there.
pinkcocoa: er....
jess: hmmm...
...silence...both girls stared at the puff
pinkcocoa: let's cut open and find out!
I cut the puff in half and still couldnt figure out what's inside. There was very little filling in there. So I did something very unladylike again. I used my tea-spoon to poke open the puff and tried to spoon out the fillings. Yes, I know this is bad table manner but who's there to watch right? Beside you are supposed to be comfortable with the food you are eating and the way you eat. You are supposed to enjoy food.
Turned out that it was caramelised onion in there. We couldnt taste much of the caramelised onion. The pastry crust was thick compared to the amount of onion inside.
♥ plain scone with clotted cream and preserve
We were getting very full by the time we reached the bottom tier. I reckon it was the sweets that made us feel full faster. We shared the two scones so we got to taste a bit of both.
jess: is that butter? (pointing at the clotted cream)
pinkcocoa: i dont think so. i think it is cream
jess: but it looks like butter.
pinkcocoa: i thought we usually have cream and jam with scones?
jess: let me try then.
*jess scoop and spread then munch munch*
jess: the texture feels and tasted like butter but a little sour. I dont think it is cream. Not soft enough and look at the yellowish colour. isnt cream supposed to be white?
pinkcocoa: yeah. i think it said clotted cream on the menu. let me try
*pinkcocoa scoop and spread then munch munch*
pinkcocoa: i think it is cream...clotted cream....
jess: what kind of a name is clotted cream...
(?_?)......
♥ Raisin Scone with clotted cream and preserves
This is raisin scone. See the black little bits in the scones. These are raisins. I like the raisin scone better than the plain one. The plain scone had a tit bit of savoury taste whereas the raisin one was sweeter. It was also a tad bit more moist.
For two and a half hours, Madame jess and madame pinkcocoa sat under the beautiful Victorian ornate ceilings at a table with views (yes, we could catch a tiny slice of darling harbour from the tiny windows), indulging in good food, good tea and a good lengthy girl bonding session!
The tea room is definitely a good place for a small get-together. It is rather quiet. There is a sense of tranquile floating in the air and we felt comfortable sitting there for a long time. We would have sat longer if we could but
the tea room was becoming very busy and we felt the need to leave so as to make room for more customers.
We are definitely going to come back here again. It's a very good place to catch up with long-time-no-see friend. Next time, we would have to try out their lunch. We noticed a large bowl of dainty looking fries on the table next us. hmmmm. Comfort food on a cold rainy day!
We felt very full by the time we reached the bottom tier. Nonetheless, we tried to finish up the scones (no, the mission was not accomplished). Odd enough, even though we were very full from the afternoon tea, there was no sense of the bulging-feeling from over-eating. We were just feeling full but not overly full. Our palatable tastebuds were delightly satisfied.
thetearoom
level 3, the northern end
queen victoria building
455 george st
sydney 2000
tel: (02) 9283 7279
fax: (02) 9283 7276
♥ afternoon tea $20pp
Continue Reading An Elegant Life: Two English Ladies in the Making
Now, what does this look like to you? This white solid chunk sitting in a non-stick springform cake tin. This was taken way back when we had an
outdoor barbeque to celebrate mid-autumn festival.
This white chunk sitting oddly inside a cake tin had all of us wondered. We touched it, pressed it, smelled it but none of us could tell what exactly it was. I was feeling slightly excited when I noticed this white chunk sitting on the table. My first instinct shouted '
chai tao kueh' but there were several different opinions on the floor. Some said it didnt smell like chai tao kueh and some said it was too hard to be any kind of kueh. I think some even suggested that it was
nian gao, which literary means 'year cake': a type of chinese sticky glutinous rice cake usually enjoyed during chinese new year.
Chai tao kueh is a hokkien term for chinese radish cake. It is sometimes translated in english as carrot cake but as
Dennis has pointed out
in his post here: the term carrot cake is actually a misnomer because it is in fact made of white radish or
daikon radish in japanese. This confusion probably stems out from the chinese term for white radish and carrots. The Chinese called white radish as
bai luo bo and carrot as
hong luo bo.
Luo bo probably refers to the root vegetables families while
bai (white) and
hong (red) refers to the colour of the root vegetables.
However, sometimes we would just refer both of them as
luo bo omitting the colour references. In the olden days when the Chinese still had very little knowledge in vegetables terms,
bai luo bo was easily mis-translated as carrot (maybe even white carrot! :p) instead of white radish. So the next time you see carrot cake on a chinese menu, it might not be the red orangey type of carrot cakes you are looking for!
♥ chai tao kueh it is!
Anyway, back to the identity crisis of the white chunk in the cake tin. A heated debate was about to start up on the white chunk's identity when the answer was finally revealed upon the arrival of madame chef of the
Liu family. (thanks so much~
Liu Mama)
*fake dry cough*
Your highness here was correct!
Chai tao keuh it was. See, you should always trust a woman's instinct!
My heart was leaping with joy when it was officially announced that the white chunk was in fact
chai tao kueh. This is one of my favourite savoury chinese cake. Strange enough, I have always only liked homemade
chai tao kueh. It is the same with cantonese savoury taro cake (
wu tao gou) which you can normally find inside the pan-fried radish cake carts at yumcha. My tastebuds have truely been spoiled rotten by my grandmothers' cooking. My paternal grandma is known for her savoury taro cake whereas my maternal grandma makes the best
cai tao kueh! Sad enough, pinkcocoa hasnt inherited any of their cooking genes so to these days I still had no idea how to make any savoury cakes.
♥ pan-fried chai tao kueh (jian luo bo gao)
This is an old photo that I digged out from my photo album way back in January this year. I am sorry the
chai tao kueh doesnt look very appetizing here. I was the one to blame. I was skimpy on the oil when I was pan-frying the cakes so some of them were really burnt. Looks like I still have a lot to learn!
This is taiwanese radish cake that I am showing here. Taiwanese radish cake is in fact a little different from cantonese radish cake. Cantonese radish cake usually has chinese waxed or preserved sausages called
lak mei in cantonese (
la wei in mandarin) added inside. This type of radish cake is also called
la wei luo bo gao. This is the one you get at yum-cha where they pan-fried the radish cake. This radish cake is chunkier and has quite a bit of bites with it. This extra addition of
la wei marks the difference between cantonese and taiwanese radish cake. Taiwanese radish cake is a lot softer, smoother and silkier. Sometimes deep fried red scallions
(hong cong tou) is added but usually it is just plain white radish. The flavour of the white radish is more intensed. This silkeness is not lost even after you pan-fried the cakes. You can find similar radish cake at yum cha called
zheng luo bo gao (steamed radish cake).
My maternal grandma always have her homemade
chai tao kueh ready on the dining table for me whenever I visit her. I would just feast on her
chai tao kueh for breakfast, lunch and dinner for however long I stay with her. We usually pan-fried the radish cakes and eat it with soy-sauce paste (
jiang you gao) or taiwanese sweet and spicy sauce (
tian la jiang).
♥ south-east asian style stir-fry radish cake
I brought back a quarter of
Liu Mama (this is how you would call your friend's mum in taiwan: surname + mother in mandarin) radish cake after the barbeque. I actually wanted to bring back half of the radish cake but I better not be such a greedy pig. *oink*
I was telling ShinChan about stirfry radish cake that we usually enjoyed at yum-cha when I was a kid in Brunei. He hasnt heard about it and have not seen it. In fact, many of my hong kong friends have not had stirfry radish cake before. So I guess this must be a south-east asian dish.
Once again, apologies about the rather eye-soring photo. I am one lazy pig. My stirfry radish cake was lacking so many ingredients (beansprouts and spring onions) but I was too lazy to go out to get them. I used whatever I had in the pantry. I couldnt find the wok in the kitchen. I wonder where my flatmate has taken it. So I have been cooking all my meals in a small saucepan lately. The dish didnt look very appetizing but it was quite well-received by ShinChan.
Stirfry Chinese Radish Cake
4 thick slices of chinese radish cake, diced into small cube
1/2 cup of minced pickled chinese radish* (
cai pu in mandarin or
cai poh in hokkien)
2 eggs, beaten
1 large handful of beansprouts
2 spring onions, chop into 4-5cm length
2-3 tbsp oil + extra 1-2 tbsp
1 tbsp spicy bean sauce** (
la dou ba jiang)
2 tbsp sweet bean sauce*** (
tian mian jiang)
1. Heat oil in wok. Add pickled chinese radish, spicy bean sauce and sweet bean sauce. Fry until you can smell the spicy aroma of the spicy bean sauce and the salty aroma of the pickled radish.
2. Add chinese radish cake and gently stir to coat them with sauce. Be gentle at this stage because the radish cake is very soft and fragile. If you stir too hard or too quickly, the radish cake would break up into even smaller pieces. Another way you can do this is to add whole slices of radish cake, undiced. Do your normal stir and turn (no need be so gentle here), eventually the radish cake would break up into bite-size pieces. If it doesnt, dice it up using the wok spatula.
3. Once the radish cake is evenly coated with the sauce and has already been heated through, push it to one side in your wok so that you are leave with an empty space in the wok. It doesnt have to be big. Add the extra oil to this empty space. Once heated, add in beaten eggs and stir. And stir. And stir. When the egg is almost set, stir and mix the radish cakes with the eggs.
4. Turn heat off, add in beansprouts and spring onions and stir to mix them in.
5. Serve and ready to eat!
extra notes:
* You can find ready-minced pickled chinese radish in the dried food sections at any asian groceries stores. If it is not available, you can buy whole pickled chinese radish (there's usually about 3 to 4 large chunk of pickled radish in a pack) and then chop them up yourself. Be sure to taste the pickled radish before you use them in cooking because some pickled radish can be overly salty while some is mild. If it's very salty, rinse them with water and squeeze them dry. Taste it again. If it's still too salty, rinse again and taste once again, else it is ready to use.
** The quantity of sauces here is only as a guide. You can adjust the amount to your liking. You can also use other sauces that you like e.g. oyster sauce, tomato sauce, bbq sauce. If you fancy it a lot spicier, omit the sweet bean sauce and add in a few more tablespoon spicy bean sauce, and vice versa.
*** I added more sweet bean sauce than the spicy bean sauce because we were after a very mild spiced dish. The sweet bean sauce is not a necessary ingredient. I had intended to use chinese bean sauce (
dou ba jiang) but I didnt have any so I used sweet bean sauce instead. The result was a mildly spiced radish cake with a hint of sweetness from the sweet bean sauce.
♥ sui sui ping an
Here's a more presentable stir-fry radish cake. This dish made it to our chinese new year dinner earlier this year! We had a large plate of radish cakes in broken pieces. Talk about carelessness in transporting the very important radish cakes! We called this dish
sui sui ping an because
sui (age) rhymes with broken pieces in mandarin.
Sui sui ping an is a chinese proverb meaning a year older a year (
sui sui) more cherished or safer (
ping an). This is a term used extensively in a typical chinese family whenever something went broken into pieces. During the chinese new year, it is deemed bad luck if something broke into pieces eg. plates, vases. If this bad luck behold upon you, dont worry. Simply recite the term
sui sui ping an 3 times and bad luck will go away!
In taiwan,
cai tao is a lucky vegetable because it is believed that
cai tao would bring good luck and blessing, thus the term
hao cai tou (forseeing good luck).
Hao meaning good or well.
Cai tou (this is mandarin) which rhymes with
cai tao (this is hokkien) means colourful blessing shining over the top of your head.
This
hao cai tou and
sui sui ping an dish was very well received and the bottom of the plate was soon sighted not long after dinner commenced. Pinkcocoa couldnt be prouder for bringing a piece of south east asian culture into a Taiwanese household.
♥ sui sui ping an - non-veg (left) and vegetarian version (top right)
If you have noticed, the ingredients I have listed are not for vegetarians. Most vegetarians of religious reason cannot consume food that has a hint of spiciness inside. Some examples are onion, spring onions and garlics. We have a few religious vegetarians in the household so we also had a vegetarian version stirfry radish cake. It is that tiny plate with a yellow and white mixture almost top right in the pic. The spicy bean sauce or any type of bean sauce was omitted and a sprinkle of salt and soy sauce was added in stead. Spring onions was also left out. The next day we had a vegetarian stirfry radish cake using vegetarian bean sauce. It was yummy too though I am not sure about the difference between a normal bean sauce with the vegetarian one.
mommy, is that a cake?
yes, darling. It is a cake: a savoury carrot (radish) cake.
ps. this is so much more healthier than the gweilo carrot cake! but i love them both :p
Continue Reading Mommy, is that a cake?
It's been quite a while since i last updated my 'lunch in the city' database. I guess there isnt so much excitement about city food. There are of course a lot of good restaurants and cafes in the city, after all this is Sydney we are talking about.
But what about something healthy, delicious and most importantly with prices that would not stir up a heart attack when you sight the bills? Kinda hard to think of places like that in Sydney, isnt it? Besides our bodies are feeling more and more sluggish. We definitely need to stop eating out so much.
A simple solution: bring our own lunch.
♥ pinkcocoa's spring inspired colourful baguette:
corn-fritter with grilled bacon and roasted tomato on a bed of baby rocket with a generous drizzle of sweet chili sauce
It has also been a long time since I have lunched with ShinChan in the city. This weird baguette combo was actually made and eaten about 3 weeks back just before ShinChan went to Taiwan. We had a few days of very spring weather: warm and sunny! So we took advantage of the weather and went across to Hyde Park to have a mini picnic. I have to say I definitely enjoy eating outdoor than sitting on the tiny food-court table inside the very noisy and stuffy food court.
Right now, I am waiting for Sydney's weather to become sunny again. We have a rainy week ahead of us. Let's hope that by Sunday, the rain will clear. It has to clear because I am so looking forward to the
Spring Picnic at Centennial Park this coming sunday!
Bill Granger's Corn Fritter:
(recipes from Bill Granger's Sydney Food)
1 cup plain (all-purpose) flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp paprika
1 tbsp sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
2 cups fresh corn kernels, cut from the cob
1/2 cup diced red capsicum
1/2 cup sliced spring onions
1/4 cup chopped coriander and parsley
4 tbsp vegetable oil
Sift flour, baking powder, salt and paprika into a large bowl, stir in sugar and make a well in the centre. In a separate bowl, combine eggs and milk. Gradually add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients and whisk until you have a smooth, lump-free batter. The batter will be quite stiff.
Place corn, capsicum, spring onions and herbs in a mixing bowl and add just enough batter to lightly bind them (about 3/4 cup). Heat 2 tablespoons vegetable oil in a non-stick fying pan on medium heat, then drop in 2 tablespoons of batter per fritter and cook 4 fritters at a time, Cook for 2 minutes, or until the underside of each fritter is golden. Turn over and cook fritters on the other side. Transfer to a plate and keep warm while cooking the remaining batter.
Notes from Bill:
The fritter batter can be kept for up to 3 days, but do not mix the batter with the vegetables more than an hour before you're ready to cook, or the fritters will be soggy.
Continue Reading Lunch in the City
A Springy Baguette
apologies for my lack of post lately. my dearest dearest computer has kinda died down on me. i finally have it fixed so i could go online at the very least. fingers crossed it will be ok at least for the next week or so. *fingers & toes crossed*
so i was expecting my favourite mooncakes: taiwanese mung bean pastry (
luu dou peng). ShinChan is back from Taiwan. i should be thrilled with excitement but i am not. why is that? the answer is simple. he didnt bring back any taiwanese mooncakes. *sigh* *sob*
instead he brought back his favourite mooncakes (grrrrrrr):
xiao yue bing (literally little mooncake) and
feng li su (pineapple cake). oh well.
mei yu xia ye hao (chinese proverbs: no fish, prawns also can do, meaning better than having nothing at all).
♥ pretty little paper bags with bright colours
the
feng li su (pineapple cake) comes prepacked in very cute tiny little individual paper bags. arent they just gorgeous especially the cute origami paper-fan at the top! this is one of the most common type of packaging for
feng li su in taiwan. leaning more towards the upper class market is a shiny golden cardboard paperbox. unfortunately i havent got any with me this time.
feng li su is a western-influenced taiwanese delicacies. i am not so sure of the stories behind feng li su. come to think of it, i have never heard any stories relating to feng li su.
feng li su actually a snack for all occasion and not just the mid-autumn festival though it is a must during the mid-autumn festival.
♥ a squarish shortcrust pastry
opening up the bright yellow paperbag, i found this squarish little pastry. it's a little hard to tell what's inside unless you cut it open. nonetheless, if you have got a good sense of smell (think dogs!) you might be able to sniff up tiny bits of the pineapple aroma. but then again, it's really too hard to tell from sniffing because your nose is immediately incensed with a sweet buttery aroma once you open up the pack.
oh. i forgot to mention that these
feng li su are actually homemade by my aunt. ever since my aunt learnt the secrets in the making of
feng li su, we never bought from outside anymore. her
feng li su is one of the best we ever had.
♥ a closer inspection of the cake
feng li su makes very good gift or souviner. apart from the fact that it is yummy and dangerously more-ish, pineapple or
feng li in mandarin bears the symbolic meanings of luck and prosperity in the chinese culture.
in taiwanese dialect (hokkien),
feng li is pronounced as '
ong lai'. this harmonised with a hokkien term:
ong meaning prosperity,
lai meaning come. thus it is believed that pineapple is a lucky fruit that makes one prosperous. similarly, in cantonese culture, the pronunciation of pineapple:
wong lai, vowels with attracting prosperity. this is why pineapple is always present as a sacrificial offering in a chinese temple.
pineapple is also a popular decoration during the chinese new year. beside the prosperity symbolism, pineapple is also a lucky charm that can brings luck , love, money, and anything that you can think of. it's also good for people taking exams too. it is said to help you pass (by luck)! this is probably the reason why
feng li su makes a good gift (and yummy too!).
♥ pineapple cake
cutting open the sweet buttery crust, you see a thick layer of sweet pineapple paste. my room was filled with the sweet and citric aroma of pineapple paste. the sweet pineapple paste has a light tangy kick in it. the combination of the soft sticky and chewy paste together with the dry but buttery-rich crust is delightful. the crust just seems to dissolve and melts into your mouth. it is indeed very more-ish and can be dangerously addictive.
now it is easy to relate the pineapple paste to be made entirely of pineapple. nope! the pineapple paste actually consists mainly of winter-melon flesh. only a portion of the paste is made up of pineapple! surprise! surprise! you have to be careful though when buying pineapple cake. some bakeries add artificial flavouring and colouring to the winter melon paste, completely omitting any pineapple in their pineapple paste. my aunt bought the pineapple paste from a reputable wholesale bakery supplier in taiwan.
♥ the many different varieties of the pineapple cake
from left to right:
♥ pineapple cake (feng li su)
♥ blueberry cake (lan mei su)
♥ taro cake (yu tou su) - my favourite!
there used to be only pineapple paste inside
feng li su. it was only until 1995 that many different types of paste are used as fillings in place of the traditional pineapple paste.this is for yolk-lover: the pineapple paste is mixed together with cooked egg yolk to create the phoenix cake (
feng huang su).
and so the many different types of fillings explains the very colourful paper bags. the colours are used to distinguish the different types of fillings. as a general guide, pineapple cake always come in a yellow bag. pink for strawberry, blue for blueberry and so on and so on. not hard to figure out, aye?
♥ pineapple cake trio
the pineapple cake has very thin crust with a thick filling. this is not always the case. some bakeries have really thick crust with little filling. this would be good for a crust-lover (i.e. your highness here). that is if the crust is tasty.
i usually request my aunt for a thick crust version and she would make a few with extra thick crust. we have tried baking just the crust alone but it didnt work too well. the crust was too crumbly. the crust just fell apart into pieces and crumbs when you try to hold it up.
sydney's weather has been crazy lately. we had a very hot week. this morning i discovered about a quarter of the pineapple cakes are mouldy! *aiks* i was horrified. it's my fault partly too. i forgot to store them in the fridge. i should have done so. all the taro cakes are gone. *sob*
okie dokie. there is only one more mooncake post to go: the japanese mooncake from taiwan '
xiao yue bing'.
Continue Reading mooncake galore part 3:
where is my favourite mooncake from taiwan?
It's confession time! *yikes*
Alright. Alright. Who's there to cheat? I mean here's a girl who cannot live without chocolate for a day and on the table just a few metres away lies this to-die-for evil looking double chocolate doughnut. It was definitely trying to seduce me, that evil little chocolate dough circle.
so i had another Krispy Kreme doughnut after
the one i had in the afternoon. this time the glazed devil food. even though my chocoholic crave was acting strongly last night, i was actually quite reluctant to have another KK doughnut. I still havent managed to shake off the greasy after-taste of the half that i ate in the afternoon.
♥ the evil thingie
as a matter of fact, my flatmate actually saved up the chocolate doughnut for me (awww. how sweet!). it's a perfect excuse for me to snarl down that 3-highs (calorie - fat - sugar) doughnut. *cheeky grin*
my gluttony last night sent me to punishment today. I am feeling extremely bloated ever since i chowed down half of the chocolate thing. I couldnt shake off the greasy after-taste in my mouth for the whole night. The uncomfort associated with the greasy-feeling almost got to a point where i began to feel nausea. I wonder why is that? Did anyone out there have problem with the after-taste of doughnuts?
♥ Shaved Ice Delights: frozen orange juice with condensed milk
to counteract that greasy feeling, i made this as a light refreshment in the afternoon: shaved ice made from frozen orange juice. lucky i froze one large chunk of orange juice in the freezer last night. all i had to do was take it out from the freezer, chuck it into my ice-shaver. let my arm do a few turns. shave. shave. shave. drizzle over sweeten condensed milk. voila! instant frozen refreshment. perfect for a hot day. :-)
i am a shaved ice fanatic. i eat it even during the cold winter months! it's low fat and low calories. not a great threat to the waistline but you do need to watch the type of toppings you put onto your shaved ice. some toppings are extremely fattening. watch that amount of condensed milk you drizzle too! i actually found the orange juice shaved ice nicer without condensed milk. personal preferences basically.
there is just so many type of shaved ice versions you can come up with. the wonder of shaved ice! i sure am gonna have fun playing around with the shaved ice this summer!
Continue Reading The Day After Krispy Kreme
krispy kreme:
here's yet another american fast food invasion in sydney. this time it's doughnut. sydney fell under the glaze of krispy kreme doughtnuts ever since the first store opened in Penrith. Doughnut-lovers would go all the way to Penrith (about an hour from sydney city) just to queue up for these deep-fried yeast-raised doughy circles.
people were waiting for krispy kreme to mushroom and it did. first we had one in the city (that's after the second store in Liverpool), then we had another in mascot and then another in the international airport and then another and another and another...
♥ assorted krispy kreme doughnuts
my flatmate came home today with a white retro flat paperbox with lots of green dots. she brought home a half boxful of
assorted krispy kreme doughnuts! a sweet-sticky-caramel aroma filled up the kitchen once the box was opened. the unique fragrance of a dough-meet-sugars really lightens up the heart of a sweet tooth.
i am not so much of a doughnut fan. sure, i would eat doughnut but to queue an hour for them? i dont think so. until today, i have only had a small bite of the original glazed. obviously the one small bite didnt immediately cast a krispy-kreme-craze spell on me. perhaps i am immuned to it.
♥ temptation from the land of fatty sugar dough
there are so many different types of doughnuts for me to choose from. they all look so tempting. arghhhh. as a chocoholic, i am naturally and immediately drawn to the dark-coloured doughnut (bottom right). uh oh. the sweet aroma from the cinnamon sugar on the bottom left one looks tempting too.
decision! decision!
aiks.
right at this critical moment, pinkcocoa's health-conscious came to the rescue: never make a decision without a good analysis. what's a good analysis in this case for a girl watching her waistline?
The calorie and nutritional value of each doughnut
♥ half-a-box of krispy kreme doughtnuts
pinkcocoa's caloric analysis:
top row (l-r):
♥ 337kcal glazed devil's food
♥ 337kcal cinammon apple filled
♥ 337kcal glazes sour cream
♥ 303kcal glazed raspberry filled
middle row (l-r):
♥ 289kcal glazed lemon filled
♥ 263kcal chocolate iced with sprinkles
♥ 258kcal powdered strawberry filled
bottom row:
♥ 337kcal glazed blueberry
♥ powdered strawberry filled doughnut
i settled for the powdered strawberry filled doughnut. not hard to see why.
i have already cut open the doughnut in half when i remembered the word of advice from ShinChan: Krispy Kreme doughnuts taste better after warming up in microwave. alright, back to the microwave!
i am not sure if you can see it clearly, the texture of this doughnut resembles that of bread. the inside is fluffy, light and airy. the doughnut was alright. only one problem: the strawberry jam. it tasted like cough syrup to me.
truth be spoken, i still cant see the reason to the krispy kreme craze over the town. i only managed to finish half of the doughnut. i think i prefer a chinese doughnut (
you tiao) to this on any other day. sorry, krispy kreme fans....
fyi:
krispy kreme
♥ where in sydney
♥ how krispy kreme are born
Continue Reading Krispy Kreme: casting a glaze in sydney
look at what i found:
magic cocoa
pink-coloured hot chocolate for baby girls
blue-coloured hot chocolate for baby boys
i wonder if it still taste chocolatey. but i am more excited about finding pinkcocoa finally. hm. are you following me? me ie. pinkcocoa finally found pink-coloured cocoa (pink-cocoa)! whoa.
i actually received quite a bit of queries on my weirdo nic. people think it's strange to find pink-coloured chocolate. many strawberry-flavoured chocolate is pink in colour. it's probably white chocolate with red colouring. then again i am not sure. the only sure thing is i am a
chocoholic with a pink wardrobe.
Continue Reading Found: magical pink-cocoa
♥ cookies from heaven
the wonder of baking.
i dont know about you, but baking helps take the stress out of me. baking is like killing two birds with one stone: i get to de-stressed myself during the process and everyone gets to enjoy the outcome! my baking history is very short: only 3 months. when i say baking, i mean baking something from scratch and not using ready mixes.
i actually wanted to bake
neiman marcus choc chip cookies and see what's the craze about it. so i bought a pack of chocolate chips. and then i found out i dont have all the ingredients needed in the recipes. *aiks* i was so ready to make cookies that day.
kitchen lesson #1: make sure you check your recipes well before you do your shopping!
i am lazy. i couldnt be bothered to go out again. so i flipped through my recipes collection and i found this other recipe for choc chip cookies. i didnt have the exact same ingredients stated in the recipe but i thought that might do.
so here's the recipe
without my twist:
Chocolate Chip Cookies
recipe from Rachel Grisewood of Manna From Heaven*
180g salted butter
180g raw sugar
1.5 egg yolks
100g milk chocolate, finely chopped
160g dark chocolate, finely chopped
300g plain flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
Preheat the oven to 160c. Cream the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg yolks. Fold in the chocolate, flour, baking powder and vanilla essence. Roll into rough balls about the size of a w
