♥ Longevity Peach BunIsn't this peach such a cutie?
Sou tao (literally longevity peach) is a special Chinese steamed bun eaten during birthdays. Not just any birthday but birthday of elderly folks. In Chinese culture, peach is long associated with longevity. It is believed that peach of the Heaven (
pan tao) can grant one an extra 500 years of life once eaten. Thus, it is of utmost importance that we have these longevity buns on Granny's 80th Birthday.
So, I woke up on Sunday morning to find our house overflown with these longevity buns which have proven to be most popular amongst the many guests. There was none left after the morning ceremonies.
♥ tabeshimashita @ Pinkcocoa's Brunei Home on 17 July 2005
♥ Peach bun with red bean filling
Longevity buns are basically a normal chinese steamed bun shaped to resemble the auspicious peach. This particularly bun we had here has a red bean paste filling, one of the most common filling used. You can also find buns filled with lotus paste, another favourite of Chinese.
♥ Ang Koo Kueh
Ang Koo Kueh is actually the pronunciation in Chinese dialect of Hokkien. Literally translated, it means red(ang) turtle(koo) cake(kueh). I haven't yet heard anyone called these cute little red cake-lets in Mandarin term. It would have sounded rather strange to call it hong gui gao!
♥ Ang Koo Kueh with mung bean filling
Ang koo kueh are seen in most Chinese festivals as it bears auspicious meaning. There are, once again, many different types of fillings used in making ang koo kueh. My faviourite is peanut. The one shown here has a mung bean filling. You can also find red bean paste filling. The skin is made of glutinous rice flour so it's very soft, sticky and chewy.
♥ Peach Shaped Kueh
I am not sure what to call this peach shaped kueh. It is shaped to resemble a peach. We had thought it was a sweet kueh but it had turned out to be a savoury one. We had also thought it had the same skin as ang koo keuh but apparently it was not!
♥ Peach Shaped Kueh with savoury peanut filling
The skin is not quite as soft and bears a slight texture of jelly. The skin was like a cross between a glutinous rice flour skin and a jelly! The peanut filling was not sweet. It was slightly savoury and together with the light jello skin made a rather light snack.
♥ Kuching Wife Pastry
This Lo Po Beng (Cantonese meaning wife pastry) was air flown all the way from Kuching! I was told this particular lo po beng is very famous and highly popular as a souviner for people going abroad.
♥ Flaky pastry with a sweet centre
The pastry is light and the skin very flaky with a sweet centre that is chewy and not overly sweet. No wonder people could eat one after another of these pastry!
My favourite among these local chinese delicacies would have to be ang koo kueh but it has gotta have a sweet peanut filling. I just love the soft chewy skin with a sweet crunchy and nutty filling!
Continue Reading Grandma's 80th Birthday Celebration - Traditional Longevity Goodies
♥ Birthday Gift PackThe morning of Grandma's 80th birthday celebration went past in a breeze with us "kids" being shovelled aside and given some labour-intensive tasks. Apart from running around to do errands, we had also been waitresses serving up
sou tao (literally longevity peach, a Chinese birthday bun in the shape of peach) and
ang koo kueh (literally red turtle cake, a type of Chinese delicacy in the form of turtle with a red sticky skin).
We have had quite a lot of guests arriving to
zhu sou ie. to wish Granny a happy birthday. Each guest was given a pink gift pack, inside which contains a red (an auspicious colour) Chinese bowl, a red Chinese spoon and a pair of red chopstick. The gift was given as a sign of luck and prosperity. It was also as a symbol that Granny's longevity might pass on to the guest so the guest can be long life too.
♥ tabeshimashita @ pinkcocoa's brunei home on 17 July 2005
♥ Endless trays of red birthday eggs
Coming from a tradition Chinese-Cantonese family, Granny's birthday was celebrated in a very traditional matter with the morning dedicated to a long and slightly complicated tea ceremony as well as thanksgiving ceremony where we gave thanks to god and goddess for granting granny such long life.
The night before the big day, the women spent long hours in the kitchen boiling eggs and dipping them in red dye to make red birthday eggs, a tradition of Chinese culture to have red eggs on birthday. Since we had a large number of guests visiting, we had to dye tray after tray of eggs!
♥ Longevity Peaches
On the table of woship to Goddess KuanYin was a giant longevity bun surrounded by 9 small longevity buns. The nine tiny buns symbolised the chinese term jiu jiu chang sheng, literary "nine nine long life", where the nine rhymes with "long' (as in a long time). Thus this particular longevity bun(s) symbolises my granny's long life.
♥ Kueh
On the same table was also a plate of two different types of Chinese festivity kueh: the dark pink being the tradition ang koo kueh that comes in the shape of turtle; and the lighter colour one in the shape of a peach. Both peach and turtle are seen as lucky symbols of longevity in Chinese culture.
Of course beside the buns and kueh, there was also the more commonly seen whole boiled chicken and plates of fresh fruits.
♥ Crackling Piglet
While on the table of worship to tian shen (the God of Heaven) was one whole crackling piglet! It does look scrumptious, doesn't it? I still haven't had the chance of trying this one out yet but I can already imagine the crispy skin crackling in my mouth!
♥ Longevity Peach and Ang Koo Kueh
There were also longevity buns and ang koo kueh arranged in a different matter.
♥ Red Birthday Eggs and Savoury Peach Kueh
Oh yes, I almost forgot about the red birthday eggs!
♥ Kuching Wife Biscuit
As waitresses, we kids ran around offering longevity buns and these lo po beng (literary wife biscuit, a type of chinese flaky pastry with a sweet filling) that an aunt brought all the way from Kuching!
We have been so very busy all morning that I didn't get the chance to try out these buns and kueh until later in the afternoon. And dear oh dear, most guests had doggybagged all these buns and kuehs home that we hardly had any left after the busy morning. The longevity buns proved to be the most popular with the ang koo kueh with a close finish. In fact there wasn't any longevity buns left when all the guests had left. We were utterly disappointed at not being able to try the buns. But don't worry, I had save one of each of these buns and kuehs before they ran out and tell me, you are all ready for some cross-sectinal pictures of these kueh in my next post! :-)
Continue Reading Grandma's 80th Birthday Celebration - A Morning of Tea & Thanksgiving Ceremony
♥ Airline MealYup. This is airline meal that you are seeing here, meaning that Pinkcocoa was in fact sitting on a particular airline flying to a particular place. So where exactly is Pinkcocoa now? It's not hard to guess ;-)
I am now back home in
Brunei for granny's big birthday! *yay* I was flying with
Royal Brunei Airlines (RBA) and let me assure you, RBA is as good and as safe as any other airline. Service was great and seats were comfortably sized with plenty of legroom where you can move around in your seat quite comfortably.
♥ tabeshimashita @ Royal Brunei Airline on 14 July 2005
♥ Juice with Peanuts
There was a wide range of juices available as opposed to the usual orange/apple juice. There were the usual orange and apple, as well as pineapple juice and mango juice. I ordered a pineapple mango juice.
♥ Cruncy Peanuts
These peanuts are savoury and very crunchy. I am not sure if it's quite more-ish or it was me who wanted to exercise my teeth quite a bit.
♥ Cutlery Sets
And now back to the airline meal. Cutlery came in a blue paper bag and everything is just usual - spoon, fork, plastic knife, coffee spoon and sugar, salt & pepper. Oh not to forget a toothpick!
♥ Bread Roll with Butter
The longish bread roll is quite soft. I had imagined they would serve a round bread roll -> isn't this what you usually see on the airlines?
♥ Coleslaw
This is probably an asian coleslaw with sweet chili sauce dressing. It was alright. I only wish it was a little more soury to kick up the appetite.
♥ Vegetable Curry with Rice
On the day I was flying, there were two choices of meal: vegetable curry with rice or beef with potato. I wanted to keep my meal light so I chose the vegetable curry with rice. I could smell the curry aroma well before the meal cart reached my row!
The aroma smelled great. Pity about the flavour. It was a little too bland. I had to add salt to make it more flavoursome.
♥ Cheese & Crackers, and Cadbury Chocolate
To the right of the main mail was a slice of Coon tasty cheese and arnotts crackers, butter to go with breadroll and a snack size Cadbury chocolate bar.
♥ Crunchy Chocolate Muesli Slice
I particularly like the dessert - crunchy chocolate muesli slice. The slice was very crunchy and was drenched in this honey/treacle syrup that I found very satisfying.
♥ Muffin & Milktea
After a short nap and about two hour away from te desitination, I was awaken by the smell of sweet buttery muffin! I had orange and poppyseed muffin with milk tea. The muffin was soft and very yummy.
♥ Foxs Candies
Just before landing, we were served some Fox's Candies. I am not sure about other airlines but RBA always have this candy before landing service. My favourite is the purple colour - black current flavour!
So yes, Pinkcocoa is now safe and sound back home in Brunei! I shall try to post a bit about the food in Brunei but with limited computer access, I can't promise too much. Or else I shall post about them when I am back in Sydney a week later! :-)
Continue Reading Where in the World is Pinkcocoa?
♥ Janani Take-AwaySo we walked away with a very full stomach after a great Indian/Sri Lankan lunch but there was just a tid bit that was missing. No great meal is completed without a sweet ending!
Right after lunch, I was very eager to head towards the take-away section of Janani, located just at one end of the restaurant but with a different entrance, where Saffron told us we could get some great Indian sweets there. As we walked towards the take-away section, it was camera action time again as AugustusGloop and I had fun snapping up pics of the very distinctive Indian posters on the wall, the symbols/logos, and decorative ornaments at Janani.
♥ tabeshimashita @ Janani, Homebush on 26 June 2005
♥ Gulab Jamun
It was hard work to squeeze past an endless queue of locals at the take-away section to check out all the yummies we could bring home as souvenir or as a show-off. What appeared in front of us was an amazing array of sweets in the one shelf and on the other, there was a selection of savoury buns and snacks.
I, of course, had eyes only for sweet things! The gulab jamun (above) drenched in shiny syrup looked totally inviting. These round little caramelly balls drowned in syrup are milk balls made from a mixture of milk, flour and milk powder, then deep fried until brown. The syrup is probably a mix of rose water, cardamon pods and sugar.
♥ Indian Almond Milk Sweets
There was many different type of Indian sweets on display. This is one of them and I am guessing that this is almond milk sweets.
pinkcocoa: excuse me (pointing at one of the sweets), can you tell me what sort of sweets this is?
shopkeeper: (looking at pinkcocoa very very strangely) er...these are just Indian sweets! Now, which one do you want?
♥ Boxes of Coconutty Looking Balls
Piles high up on the display counters were boxes of coconutty looking balls that I could not identify. Saffron did mention to me what these were but alas, I was a lazy foodie and couldn't be bothered to take down all these different and interesting names. Actually I could not even remember if these were savoury or sweet. So Saffron, pleaseeee help!
Both AugustusGloop and I were two very happy and satisfied foodie as we bid farewell to Saffron who headed in the opposite direction from us. And there we were, AG and I at the Homebush station waiting for the train to come.
♥ Pinkcocoa's Bag of Goodies
As we sat waiting, AG and I cast a look at each other and then we both started to sort our shopping bags. We took out each item one by one and as dedicated foodie, we started a photographic session right there, on the station bench.
♥ AG doing decorative Photographic Touches
Here's AG sorting out her shopping bag. Ha! Now I have showcased both Saffron's and AG's fingers/hands :"p
From the corner of my eyes, I noticed two Chinese couples sitting on the bench next to ours, looking at us very very strangely. Shortly after, the two started to discuss what the two of us were doing rather loudly, and in Mandarin. I didn't catch what they were talking about though but the conversation had involved something like tourist, weird...strange..that sort of words. *yikes*
♥ Assorted Indian Sweets
These were the Indian sweets I bought from Janani. Clockwise from top: burnt milk sweets, milk sweets, and I think the dark brown jelly-like sweets is vattilappam but I am not sure.
The milk sweets have the texture that melt-in-your-mouth! It's very sweet, slightly powdery and very very milky as well as buttery. It tasted a little like kuih mor (bite-sized milk cookies) from Brunei! I think both the milk sweets and kuih mor must have been made using very similar ingredients. Perhaps kuih mor stems from Indian milk sweets as they share the same main ingredient - ghee.
♥ Kalu Dohdol
While on the train, AG had kindly offered half of her kalu dohdol to me. The two of us were trying to snap a good pics of this sweets but argh, the train ride was rather bumpy. We couldn't stop our arms from shaking thus the rather blurry photos here.
The kalu dohdol has a soft and chewy skin that is rather bland, I would say. The filling was sweet with a strong Indian flavours of cardamon, nutmeg and cinnamon. It was quite nutty as well.
pinkcocoa: This is very..er...
AG:: very Indian!
pinkcocoa: yes yes! It's just very Indian!
AG: yup, very Indian.
So this concluded the little Spicy Adventure of three cute little Sydney foodies! I am pretty sure there is more adventure of this sort to come. :-)
♥ Janani
32 Burlington Road
Homebush NSW
Australia
tel. +61 2 9763 2306
♥ Related Posts
Pinkcocoa
A Little Spicy Adventure Part I - Sub-Continental Shopping Spree
A Little Spicy Adventure Part II - Eat Up!
Saffron at Writing on a Paper Napkin
Spice Adventures: Part I
Spice Adventures: Part II
AugustusGloop at Grab Your Fork
Spice Up Your Life Part I: Saffron's Spice Tour
Spice Up Your Life Part II: Janani, Homebush
Spice Up Your Life Part III: Janani Sweets, Homebush
Continue Reading A Little Spicy Adventure Part III - Sweet Ending
After a few hours of
shopping, we are of course hungry! I have long awaited this moment of us setting food in a typical Indian eatery in Sydney. Having said that, we of course deserved nothing better but the best of Indian and Sri Lankan Food.
AG and I were definitely very excited about our little Indian eat-out. We couldn't wait to find out where we will have lunch. This was when
Saffron quoted:
Guys, I hope you don't mind if I bring you to this small and really dodgy looking Sri Lankan/Indian place for lunch.So I was imagining this tiny little eatery at a petty corner, just almost negligible. But Saffron's quote was proved just so so wrong as we approached
Janani! Because the place is not the least any dodgy. It looks bright and chirpy, and bustling with what seems to an endless stream of diners.
♥ tabeshimashita @ Janani, Homebush on 26 June 2005
♥ Chilli Sauces on the Table
I don't know what to say but this place is just so Indian, with tables lined with white plastic lacy sheets, chilli sauce and tomato sauce on the table, and napkins & cutlery in stainless steel container. And I haven't yet mentioned the distinctive Indian/Sri Lankan aroma that floats throughout the restaurant.
I was oozing and aahing at the big shiny stainless steel trays loaded with yummies that were served at other tables. And I couldnt help but kept gazing at the tv at the back of the restaurant that has some sort of Indian/Bollywood soapies running. It did feel a little like the Indian eatery back home except that it is bigger and they speak English here instead of Malay!
♥ Indian Soft Drinks
After deciding on what we wanted to eat with my head nodding vigorously on whether we were to had the dosai, the three of us moved towards the fridge loaded with very interesting looking bottles of softdrink at the corner. The bottles were all very colourful and certainly eye-catching. It didn't take us long to decide what to try though. Saffron had the cream soda (far right), I had the sparkling portello (centre) that Saffron described as a sparkling ribena, and AG had the ginger beer.
A waiter came and opened our bottles of drink. As I watched him opening the bottles one by one, I couldn't help but asked if I could keep the bottle tops, and the whole table collapsed in laughter. Oh yes, AG and Saffron were laughing so hard while I looked at the waiter seriously.
♥ Indian Soft Drinks Bottle Tops
Under my gaze, the waiter agreed to give me the bottle tops. I could tell he was trying hard not to laugh out himself. It was probably because of this that he had some trouble opening the last bottle, which was when I asked him to give me the bottle tops.
My sparkling portello tasted like a mixture of ribena and ice-cream soda. It's sweet and just very lovely.
♥ Idli with Condiments A$5
It didn't take long for the food to arrive. The idli, that comes in 4 pieces a serve for A$5, is a light and fluffy steamed rice cakes roundish in shape, served with sambar (dark brown sauce in pic), red chilli chutney (orangy sauce), and green chilli chutney (green sauce).
The idli on its own was slightly savoury and I found it quite enjoyable even without the condiments. The texture is very similar to bak tong go (steamed sugar cake). It's dense and moist yet light and fluffy at the same time. I am thinking this would be really good with honey!
♥ Lamb Kothu Rotti A$9
Then the kothu rotti came. This is a Sri Lankan dish where rotti (a fluffy bread-like pancake) is chopped up in shreads or cubes and stir fried with egg, vegetable, onion and lamb. It is served with a thick curry sauce. I would have to say this is my favourite dish of the day. The flavour is very much similar to the Malaysian char kuey teow with a slight chargrilled sorta flavour attached. The rotti tasted slightly chunky and once again reminded me of the Chinese dao xiao mian (knife shredded noodles).
As we immerged ourselves into these goodies, we heard a loud "clang clang" noise coming from the kitchen. It had sounded like someone was trying to make some sort of music/drumming code by knocking on a metal plate with a spoon. Saffron explained that the chef in there was having fun chopping up the rotti into tiny pieces for the making of kothu rotti. This chopping skill might come in very handy when you need some stress relieve!
♥ Masala Dosai A$6
*yay* And the masala dosai arrived. The dosai, which I have heard and seen on tv and in magazines or cookbooks on numerous account but never tried, is a thin and crispy Indian crepe made from rice. Masala refers to the potato curries and chutney that come with dosai. The masala dosai is served with condiments similar to idli - sambar and chutneys.
♥ What's Hiding under that piece of crispy pancake?
We gazed at the longish crepe and all had the same thought. You see, great minds think alike. The three of us reached for our cameras and were in action almost at the same time. Our mission was to explore and discover what exactly was hiding underneath the giant crispy crepe.
♥ Saffron in cutting action
The picture above didn't tell us much about the creature (or food) hiding underneath so we urshered Saffron to go ahead and do a dissection. And Saffron sure knows how to dissect the dosai well. Chop, chop, chop. The crepe was cut into 4 equal pieces in no time.
♥ The Potato Curry revealed
The combination of light crispy crust with dense yet soft and very flavourful potato curry was just marvellous! Though I think I love the crust bit better than the filling. I have always been a crust girl. Yes, I admit that I actually enjoy pizza crust more than the bits with fillings on top, and I headed for tart crust and leave the filling for ShinChan when I have any sort of tarts (except daan tart)! :-)
♥ White String Hopper A$4
The string hopper is another Sri Lankan specialty. These are small vermicelli-like strings of rice dough/batter squeezed through a sieve onto small bamboo plate, and steamed, as Saffron explained. It was served with sothi (curry) and coconut sambol.
♥ How to Eat String Hopper - Part I
AG and I followed Saffron on the lead to eat string hopper. First take a piece of string hopper, place it onto your plate. Then sprinkle a few spoonful of the sothi over and topped with coconut sambol.
♥ How to Eat String Hopper - Part II Saffron's Demo
And the best way to eat string hopper? Eat with your hand! Yes, you are seeing Saffron doing a demo on how to eat with your hand here. Mix, mix then pick it up and put it into your mouth.
pinkcocoa (squeking excited at beginning of lunch): Oh Oh! Can I eat with my hand? Please? Pretty please?
Saffron (very patiently): Of course you can.
So we waited and waited. We didn't eat with out hands until our last dish because we didn't want our cameras to end up soaked with curries and chutneys. We got some photos to take, remember? Then the string hopper arrived. We quickly snapped the pics and Saffron had turned into our teacher. The two students watching in excitement on their very first eat-with-fingers-in-restaurant experience.
And blimey, it was totally a different experience when it came to eating with hands/fingers than with cutlery. Aaahhh yes, eating out at Indian is not completed unless you digged into their culture and eat with your own hand! :"p You don't have to worry about getting your hands dirty and having no where to clean them. The eatery has a sink completed with rosey liquid soap and paper towel for you to wipe dry your hands at the very far end of the restaurant!
As we finished off our lunch, Saffron had kindly told us the name of each dish again. And suddenly, AG had a tiny notebook out on her hand and a pen on the other, jotting down notes as Saffron continued to explain. Isn't AG just such a dedicated foodblogger? I would be so lazy to take any sorta notes.
The bill arrived and it came to a total of $30! I gasped unbelievably and I caught AG with the same expression - it is just so unbelievably cheap! I mean 4 big dishes completed with drink for only A$10pp and we didn't even manage to finish everthing? And to imagine a pity portion of 2 curries with rice at an Indian fast food store cost around A$8. Yes, I am definitely coming back to Janani the next time I crave for Indian/Sri Lankan food!
♥ Janani
32 Burlington Road
Homebush NSW
Australia
tel. +61 2 9763 2306
♥ Related Posts
Pinkcocoa
A Little Spicy Adventure Part I - Sub-Continental Shopping Spree
Saffron at Writing on a Paper Napkin
Spice Adventures: Part I
Spice Adventures: Part II
AugustusGloop at Grab Your Fork
Spice Up Your Life Part I: Saffron's Spice Tour
Spice Up Your Life Part II: Janani, Homebush
Spice Up Your Life Part III: Janani Sweets, Homebush
Continue Reading A Little Spicy Adventure Part II - Eat Up!
Seems like there are quite a number of meme going around in the foodblogging world. I have been tagged in two different meme in a week! I was actually rather worried that I might be left out because of my absense lately in updating my post. Oh well, I would have deserved that if I totally abandon my blog!
♥ Pinkcocoa's CookbooksSo I was
tagged by Clare of
Clare Eats to write about my cookbooks. Hmmm this is something I never have thought of doing before! I always wonder, with all types of meme, who exactly was the clever one that started a meme. It's really clever of them to think up of all those questions. And I will have to apologise to
Clare here for my super lateness in responding to this meme. Forgive me, please!
♥ tabeshimashita @ pinkcocoa's kitchen bookshelf in July 2005
1. Total number of (cook) books I've owned:
I don't think I have that many cookbooks. I usually borrow them from the library. I also have quite a number of cookbooks back home in Brunei but I don't know how many exactly there are on my bookshelf in Brunei. So, only counting those I have here with me in Sydney, I have 40 cookbooks in both Chinese and English, most of them baking books.
2. Last (cook) book(s) I bought:
♥ Tigerlily's Street Food by Rani King and Chandra Khan
It just so happened that I accidentally won a bid on ebay to buy Tigerlily's Street Food by Rani King and Chandra Khan. There are some pretty exciting recipes in it and I'll see if I can get around to making them. Oh yes, I spotted a Payasam recipe *yay*
3. Last (food) book I read:
The Icing on the Cake. A very cute book that I borrowed from the library. Great if you are after some cake decorating tips!
4. Five (cook) books that mean a lot to me:
♥ One: Modern Classic 2 by Donna Hay
I have never really owned any celebrity chef's books. I usually borrow them from the library so this book is very special because it is my first ever celebrity chef cookbook.
♥ Two: Marie Claire's Kitchen
After noting my sudden passion in food and baking, a dear friend had given this thick book to me as a graduation present. I love the photos inside and how there are so many different types of recipes ranging from breakfast to cocktail party to dinner.
♥ Three: My First Ever Baking Book by Yasuyo Shida
Yet again a gift from another dear friend. She came back from Taiwan and gave me this cute and very informative book that comes with step by step photo instructions. The shortcrust pastry from this book is one of the best I have ever had!
♥ Four: Maggie's Table by Maggie Beer
I fell in love with this book when I was visiting Adelaide more than a year ago so I decided to bought a copy while I was there. It was fairly cheap at A$30, seeing that it is such a huge and heavy book.
Look, it comes with Maggie Beer's signature!
♥ Five: South East Asian Food by Rosemary Brissendon
Oh yes, great minds think alike. Clare and I love this book! This is the first cookbook without any photos that got me hooked. I have cooked several dishes from the book and they are really great! By the way, this book is from the library.
5. Which 5 people would you most like to see fill this out in their blog?
This is a hard one. I guess I will just pass it along to those who want to participate!
Continue Reading Five Favourite Cookbooks Meme
