What did you have for lunch today Part 3

[huiray]

Time for a new thread, the old one was getting unwieldy.
Part 2 was: http://www.chow.com/topics/853504

Lunch today at Sakura, one of the oldest Japanese places around in Indy and still one of the best.

• Complimentary bowl of miso soup; and bowl of chopped crisp cool iceberg lettuce w/ Japanese ginger salad dressing.
• Yakko Dofu (Hiyayakko).
• Selection of nigirizushi - tuna, yellow tail, salmon, flying fish roe, eel.
• Zaru soba.
• Hot green tea, nice and richly infused.

Sakura Japanese Restaurant
7201 N Keystone Ave Indianapolis, IN 46240.

[huiray]

Come on over to the new thread (Part 4) for lunches you had or are having:

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/875754

[melpy]

Leftover braised duck and parsnips from Sunday night's panicky cooking with Sandy.

Think we should start a new thread? Getting a little cumbersome.

[huiray]

"...panicky cooking with Sandy..."
-----
Sounds very intriguing - do tell!

Yes, I suppose you're right about a new thread. I'll start one.

[melpy]

I was in a panic every time I cooked this week because I was afraid I would look power mid cooking! Luckily there was a flicker or two and that was all. Now I have a bunch of junk food and water that I don't know what with to do.

[Harters]

Impala pate, toast, cornichons.

Such a beautiful animal and damn tasty as well.

[huiray]

That certainly qualifies as an unusual lunch outside of the East/SE African Savanna and South Africa. I am guessing you got it from a specialty place in your area? If so, do they carry many less-common foodstuffs? Can you describe the taste?

[Harters]

Nope. I got it in South Africa somewhere last year.

Taste is rich and meaty - very similar to a chicken liver pate

[huiray]

Monday lunch:
T-bone steak w/ broiled French breakfast radishes & boiled fingerling potatoes.
Watercress in chicken stock soup.

Tuesday lunch:
Wonton noodles w/ shui-gao dumplings & Chinese roast duck; in pork-bone stock**, w/ chopped scallions & blanched baby bok-choy.

**4 lbs meaty shin bones w/ lotsa marrow, pre-parboiled & washed; a bit of ginger & salt; water to cover; simmer ~8 hrs. (+ON/RT).

[klyeoh]

Wow, that's a long simmering time to get the stock. I read somewhere (when I was in Vietnam) that to obtain the broth for their pho, the large pho specialty restaurants in Hanoi boiled entire ox backbones in huge vats over intense heat - so strong, it would set your home kitchen on fire if you're to try & replicate that at home.

[huiray]

Well, I make my own phở from time to time. No, I don't use a whole ox backbone :-) and I do it with a much smaller fire. :-D I usually end up simmering *that* for 6-8 hrs or more also, although one can do it in less. Pork bone stock needs a long time to acquire the full gelatin extraction effect and to get that nice milkiness of good stock.

[klyeoh]

Nyonya chicken curry noodles at Nyonya Colours, Mid-Valley Megamall, Kuala Lumpur. Spicy!!!

[huiray]

I think I'd have needed two portions of that to be satisfied. :-) Looks nice.

[klyeoh]

Lunched at Kelantan Delights restaurant, which featured cuisine from the Malaysian north-eastern state of Kelantan, bordering Thailand. The native Kelantanese people originated from the ancient Cambodian Hindu kingdom of Champa but emigrated down the Malay peninsula centuries ago. Their cuisine today still showed some similarities with Cambodian cuisine, but with heavy Thai influences these days due to its geographical proximity with Thailand.

What I had today:
- "Nasi tumpeng", a huge cone-shaped banana-leaf-wrapped pack of steamed & mashed white rice , interspersed with curried beef, curried fish & curried chicken. It's served with a piece of spiced, barbecued chicken, some cucumber-carrot pickles & a bowl of turmeric-scented fish curry.
- Dessert was called "Lompat Tikam" (literally meant "Jump-and-Stab"), consisting of a custard pudding, a mound of pink-colored glutinous rice smothered with warm coconut creme and brown molasses.

The first 2 photos below showed the "Nasi Tumpeng" before and after it's unwrapped - the banana leaf wrapping imparted an intoxicatingly delicious scent onto the warm cooked rice and its condiments.

[huiray]

Nasi Tumpeng in THAT SMALL of a manifestation? HEH!!

I presume it was tasty enough?

Where did you have this meal? (For future reference)

Not sure I get the reference with regards to the dessert...

[klyeoh]

It was at Kelantan Delights, Sooka Sentral:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/805688

I'd Googled even in Malay language sites, but could never find the origins of the name of the dessert, and its significance. I think I'd met and asked at least a dozen native Kelantanese-Malays here in KL, but all of them didn't know why the dessert was named as such. But then, Kelantan has been traditionally known to give unusual names to their desserts, some more "colorful" ones include: "Puteri Mandi" (Bathing Princess), "Tahi Itik" (Duck Shit), "Cik Mek Molek"(Little Miss Cutie) & "Badak Berendam" (Soaking Hippo). Imagine inviting your dinner guest to "have a taste of some 'duck shit'". :-D

[huiray]

LOL! I can just imagine some Kelantanese restaurant setting up shop in the West somewhere and furnishing a literally-translated-into-English menu... Y'know, like those wonderful Chinese-English menus... :-)

[huiray]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHjzXZCU5vc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZR1pdQpaAg
:-D

OK, to keep it food-centered...
http://i-can-bake-too.blogspot.com/20...

[Harters]

Pizza margherita - homemade from scratch

[huiray]

Bravo.

[huiray]

Lunch yesterday:
• Stir-fried pork strips (pre-marinated), sliced tofu puffs, garlic, and chopped Chinese yellow chives ("gau wong"; 韭黃).
• Stir-fried Chinese spinach ("por choy"; 菠菜; long-stemmed variety with pointy bottom edged large leaves) w/ lightly smashed large cloves of garlic.
• Steamed white rice.

Pics of the trimmed yellow chives and the spinach before cooking.

[huiray]

Yong Tau Foo.
Using soft tofu, tofu puffs, tofu rolls (unstuffed), sweet orange mini peppers, red & green shishito peppers. Chopped Wong Nga Pak (Napa cabbage) in the poaching stock for veggie soup. Yes, there were lots of leftovers.

[klyeoh]

Indian-Muslim briyani rice, drenched with 5 types of gravy (it's a quirky Malaysian practice, similar to that done by Penang's "Nasi Kandar" vendors), with a peice of chicken cooked in sweet-sour gravy, an Indian-style egg omelette with chopped chilois & long beans, pickled vegetables (pineapple, cucumber, onions, carrots) & a fried papadum.

[huiray]

Tasty, I'm sure! I must say the rice *does* look drowned in sauce.

[huiray]

Late lunch on Tuesday:
Fried rice, with large prawns, chopped char-siu, chopped de-stringed celery, scallions, peas, shallots; and chopped egg omelet. Done with day-old basmati rice, left at room temp. Eaten w/ pickled chopped long hot green chillies.

[mudcat]

Sardine and Onion sandwich with Abita beer.

[klyeoh]

Indian paratha (called "roti chanai" in Malaysia) and "murtabak" (paratha stuffed with spiced minced chicken, egg & onions), served with a dhal curry.

[huiray]

Looks nice.

[huiray]

Indian lunch buffet. I selected:

Veggie pakoras
Veggie samosas
Tandoori chicken legs w/ onions & peppers
Cucumber slices
Green mango chutney
Mint chutney
Yoghurt raita.

Lamb kofta
Chicken [coriander] curry (house special)
Basmati rice spiced w/ cumin
Shredded lettuce & cucumbers.

Gajar halwa (sweet carrots & milk dessert)
Gulab jamun (fried milk balls in honey w/ cardamom & etc)

[klyeoh]

Whoa - I hope the food tasted better than they look (those were some nasty-looking samosas)! How's Indian cuisine in general in your city, by the way, huiray?

[huiray]

They tasted OK. Those samosas were nothing special, but had a fair bit of peas (plus the usual potato & spices etc) - maybe that's why they looked sort of greenish. :-) This place cranks out the same-old, same-old for their buffet. OK/mediocre for this town, and heavily patronized by locals (mostly Caucasians) with a few Indian-origin folks as well. No heat to speak of (buffet dishes) and with spicing dialed way down. Their rice is always nicely done, though. Cheap and convenient to my place.

Indian food in Indy isn't particularly good. It has some places better than others and there aren't many places to start with. :-( There's a vegetarian place further from me that's popular w/ the local Indians - which, astonishingly, I haven't tried yet. Maybe because I like my meat.

[klyeoh]

I couldn't seem to find *really* good Indian chow in the US - somehow, just like Chinese food, when the cuisine makes its transition across the continents, something went missing. I'd been recommended some supposedly good Indian places in Los Angeles (Artesia) and San Francisco Bay Area (Mountain View, Sunnyvale), but the great Indian flavors remained elusive.

I put it down to variations in the raw ingredients used in cooking. Take for example, in Singapore, where we can get:
- Indian mango ginger, which has a fruity, refreshing aroma for pickles/relishes;
- Malaysian Bentong ginger, on the other hand, is extremely pungent, and treasured by the Chinese to be used in their hot dessert soups;
- Australian ginger is available - fruity, lemony, satiny-smooth: perfect for making jams & sauces;
- China ginger which has a milder pungency & aroma - thinner skin and juicier flesh - often used for Chinese soups, and julienned into garnishes for steamed fish, or mixed into sharp Chinese-Nyonya pickles & salads.
- Indonesian ginger, which has more rounded lobes, with a sweet, warm, citrusy aroma - perfect for making candied ginger, making hot Korean-style lemon-ginger drinks, or cooking Chinese-style pig's trotters with black vinegar & palm sugar.

Using a different type of ginger will definitely give your curry a subtle but distinguishable difference in flavor.

Don't let me go into the various types of onions we have here in Singapore! :-D

I guess, when one cooks an Indian curry using the same recipe, but using ginger, onions, garlic, etc available in California, for instance, it'll never taste like the same dish cooked in India or in Singapore, using the corresponding local ingredients.

[huiray]

True enough. That's a nice description of the ginger differences, klyeoh.

I think one can get decent to great food of different cultural origins in places other than the native lands from whence the cuisine came - but it may not be *exactly* the same as where it came from, as you say, but still "true" to the cuisine. It depends on what one is looking for or expecting. This involves those tricky terms "authentic" and "traditional", about which much ink and blood has been spilled. :-)

There are also those who say that an "authentic" dining experience of culture X can *only* be achieved in the country of culture X and nowhere else, including the atmosphere, surroundings, the way the meals are composed and served, the specificity of the meal items and the "non-mixing" of various stuff (:::rolleyes:::), the little tics of restauranteurs and patrons, etc etc etc. Japanese, in particular, with regards to some posters on CH.

[melpy]

I did homemade leftovers today: Pakistani goat curry with potatoes over ginger masoor dal.

[huiray]

Lunch yesterday: Fried rice w/ chicken (pre-marinated), celery, eggs, scallions.

Lunch today:
Part 1: Spaghetti w/ today's "marinara" - soffritto of celery, red onions [lots], grated carrot [lots]; chopped garlic, fresh tomatoes (deskinned, deseeded), bay leaves, salt, rice vinegar, Morita ryorishu mirin, oregano, thyme.
Part 2: Local smoked kielbasa w/ sauerkraut (both from the German butcher), simmered w/ water, some vinegar, white pepper.

[Harters]

Bubble & Squeak. Ham. Big dollop of HP's BBQ sauce

[huiray]

Wednesday lunch:
• Sliced pork marinated w/ cornstarch, shaohsing wine, sesame oil, soy sauce, Morita ryori-shu; stir-fried w/ sliced bamboo shoots, sliced Shishito peppers, garlic-chili sauce, sliced fried tofu puffs.
• Stir-fried "wong nga pak" (Napa cabbage).
• Steamed white rice.

[chocolatetartguy]

Curry chicken, more spicy, Great China style again. My officemate, Honey Don't Don't, is gone for the day and I have to take advantage of being able to eat it in my office. She complains that the curry is too pungent. Whatever.

[huiray]

Heh. Her loss.

I sometimes took some bak kut teh with rice in to work for lunch and used the microwave in the lunch room to rewarm it. On occasion I would also eat it in the lunch room, at other times I would go outside and have it sitting at one of the "picnic tables", especially when it was clear the fumigation aspect of the garlic fumes wafting from it was just too much for the surrounding folks. :-)

[chocolatetartguy]

Today I have a choice: my normal VN crispy pork chops or chicharrone in a red sauce which I mainly bought because Maria will stop selling now that the weather is turning bad. She also had whole fried dorado with green salsa.

[huiray]

So which one did you get?
(Why not both...) :-)

[chocolatetartguy]

Both of course. I actually bought a third lunch when I went up on campus with some co-workers to get free ice milk bars. The Afghani Student Association was selling food and I got a plate with some sort of beef kabob (looked like a ground meat patty), some sort of batter/crust with spinach filling, salad, white basmati rice and brown basmati rice (maybe brown rice, maybe just the added spices). I have to figure out when I am going to eat all this food!

[Harters]

Prok & mushroom pate; baguette, pickled onions, apple & date chutney. The latter homemade, 2010 vintage.

[huiray]

I don't think I've ever had apple & date chutney. Not that I remember, anyway. I looked around and see there are various recipes for it and that there are lots of other stuff that gets added to the apple & date combination, including chillies, tomatoes, ginger, etc. it also seems there is what is claimed to be a "classic" apple, date & walnut chutney? http://brightonbaker.blogspot.com/201...

[Harters]

This one consists of dates, cooking apples, tomatoes, onions, malt vinegar, soft dark brown sugar, ground cloves, ground cinnamon, mace, mustard powder.

[klyeoh]

Buffet lunch - Singapore-style Indian paratha (which we call "roti prata"), "palak makhani", curried mushrooms and peas, and a spicy-tomatoey prawn curry.

Dessert: Selection of traditional Nyonya "kuehs".

[huiray]

I hope you had seconds! :-)

The kueh-kueh looked good.

[klyeoh]

I actually had some Chinese dim sum items which tasted pretty average, plus a couple of very good Malay chicken satay :-)

[jeanmarieok]

I made salmon patties with a cucumber/ yogurt sauce. I used the Ina Garten recipe from the foodtv website. It was very yummy.

[huiray]

Sounds good. Any pics?

[chocolatetartguy]

Chinese chicken curry from Mandarin Garden with slices of some small fiery red chili pepper (Thai? Not Serrano) prepared by a relocated cook from my favorite Chinese restaurant which closed due to a fire. Hot enough to raise beads of sweat on my forehead. Chicken curry, more spicy, Great China-style.

[huiray]

Interesting, CTG. I presume it was quite tasty too! Could you say something more about what you are referring to by "China-style curry"?

[chocolatetartguy]

Great China-style is in the style of the now burned out hollow shell of the restaurant Great China. I believe it is the classic Chinese curry style with a golden brown gravy. My Cantonese mother had a big jar of that curry powder that she used for Chinese dishes ans also an "Anglo" version with diced apples, celery and carrots that I learned when I was in college.

[huiray]

Ah, thanks. I presume the gravy would be the more runny/watery kind with more heat than the only slight heat more typical of "Chinese curries". I suppose there were onion, potatoes...green peppers or tomatoes?

[chocolatetartguy]

No, the gravy was moderately thick but saucy and with lots of heat. Besides the chicken, there were slices of onion, some green peas. Served with white rice. My favorite Chinese dish.

[melpy]

Leftover sausage filling from stuffed eggplant, cottage cheese, babybel cheese, raw sugar snap peas. In my bento again.

[Harters]

Cheddar and celery on barmcakes.

[melpy]

What is a barmcake?

[Harters]

In my immediate part of the world, it's what we call a bread roll.

If I drive the ten miles to the town where I used to work, the locals call it a bap. And, if I drive twenty miles the other way, from home, it becomes a cob. Isn't English a great and varied language?

[huiray]

Salmon & Leek soup - with celery, collard greens, carrots, parsley & thyme as well. :-)

[cgarner]

A tuna and white bean salad with lemon juice, tomato, parsley and olive oil…and sadly too much garlic!

(I’ve made a mental note of this, because otherwise it was a good recipe…)

[melpy]

Using my Laptop Lunches bento box: grapes, chips with salsa, babybel cheese.

Obviously in serious need of a grocery trip.

[mamachef]

I'm meeting a friend for lunch today at The Smokehouse, a Berkeley/Cal institution. It's a seriously funky little shack where they flame-broil everything, and the preferred seating is at one of three crappy picnic tables, which is ridiculous considering the size of the lines that build up there at lunch time. I think the message is, "get/eat your food, and get out." But these mmmmburgers are good. Nothing remotely gourmet about them, either, although they do let you customize. I'm having a regular double cheeseburger w/ Swiss cheese and a roasted mild green chile; the onion rings that are so good there, and either a shake (don't know what flavor yet) or my usual Pepsi. I'm looking forward to those two spheres of crusty brown, juice-dripping beef, just ever-so-slightly pink in the middle, with the melting nuttiness of the cheese contrasting with the tang of the chile. The three together are a total delicious hit of spine-tingling umami. Coupled w/ the crispy sweetness of the onions and the cold refreshing drink to wash it all down - a great lunch on a great day with a dear friend.

[huiray]

Sounds wonderful. *Clearly* you have been there before judging from your detailed description. :-)

[chocolatetartguy]

Used to go there all the time when I lived in Rockridge. That and Oliveto were my favorite places in the hood.

I favored the double chili burger and a root beer float. Their fries used to be the best but seem not as good recently. My cousin used to cook there and the band Grootna used to come in all the time.

[huiray]

Lunch Pt 2 : Dim sum at Shanghai Lil. (Late lunch)
Har gao, shark fin dumplings, pan-fried tofu skin rolls with shrimp, chicken feet ("fung jao") in house sauce, shrimp siu-mai ["Japanese-style", "日式蝦燒賣" per the menu], sticky rice & pork wrapped in bamboo leaves, seafood puffs ["海鮮角" per the menu].

Poor to mediocre. Not much taste. The har gow had a very thick wrapper; 6 folds, blah filling. The "Japanese" shrimp siu-mai had a paste filling ("Japanese" style; I was wondering how it would come out like at this place) tasting vaguely of shrimp but mostly of filler. The "seafood puffs" turned out to be Crab Rangoons! I asked the waiter about it and he mumbled that the name ("seafood puffs", "海鮮角"] were "their" name for Crab Rangoons. I consider that to be underhanded and misleading. I abandoned this after eating one of the three. The sticky rice was insipid and I basically also abandoned it. The best thing was the tofu skin roll [腐皮蝦卷] followed by the shark fin dumplings, which were the only two dishes that I finished off. Pot of very weak Oolong tea. Cost with tax plus tip, US$36. Waste of money.

Shanghai Lil
8505 Keystone Crossing,
Indianapolis, IN 46278.

[mamachef]

Your rice was gorgeous. So sorry about the part 2 of it; although the pictures were mouth-watering. I was jealous until I read your take on it, and then I was only jealous of your rice. :)

[huiray]

Heh.

As for that dim sum meal - I had dim sum there quite a while back and was underwhelmed also. I'd been thinking recently of revisiting and now having done so think I won't rush back to the place. Funny, for whatever reason I had a tummy ache this time, just like the last time, a few hours after the meal. I'm sure it was just coincidence. It's interesting to me that this place is greatly favored by many folks, judging from glowing reports on it on other websites (like the one that starts with a "Y"; or the one that starts with a "U")

[chocolatetartguy]

Is Shanghai Lil a Mississippi belle?

[huiray]

Not sure what you have in mind - but no, not in the least, in my mind anyway.

Shanghai Lil is a supposedly-upscale Chinese-Taiwanese restaurant, touted by some as having the best Chinese food in Indy. (see: Yelp) I don't quite agree.
http://mikadoindy.com/shanghai-lil.com/

An old post of mine with my personal opinions on the place: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/3520...

[chocolatetartguy]

All I meant was that these lyrics from Proud Mary applied to both?

Cleaned a lot of plates in Memphis
Pumped a lot of pain down in New Orleans
But I never saw the good side of the city
'Til I hitched a ride on a river boat queen

[huiray]

Oh, OK. I confess I don't think I know any Proud Mary songs and I doubt I've ever consciously heard any. :-/

[klyeoh]

huiray!! You don't listen to Creedence Clearwater Revival?!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ROalK...

[huiray]

Uh, no.

[chocolatetartguy]

I'm pretty sure you do know that song. It's the one that Tina Turner is famous for. Anyway, my comment makes little or no sense.

Is Shanghai on some river in China? That certainly would affect the cuisine there, maybe in similar ways in Mississippi and China.

[linguafood]

Ahem. It's "pumped a lot of 'tane (octane) in Memphis".

Just sayin' as someone who sings this regularly '-)

[huiray]

Lunch Pt 1 (brunch) : Yeung Chow fried rice. Pics of some of the ingredients as well.

[mamachef]

Not today's (Sunday) lunch, but yesterday's: pappardelle w/ a light Parmigiano sauce that I hit with lemon to brighten it up, peas added at the last (organic, frozen - which I have found to be consistently of higher-quality than those things that pass for peas these days) and crispy brown pancetta atop. Delicious. Sided it with French bread to mop up the sauce, and a small green salad with tomatoes, and a citrus vinaigrette.

[huiray]

Sounds nice!

[huiray]

• Pork hock stewed w/ bamboo shoots, lots of ginger, a few cloves of garlic, generous star anise, couple of sticks of cinnamon, generous rice vinegar, shaohsing wine. Salted to taste.
• Stir-fried fresh broccoli florets.
• Steamed white rice.

[Harters]

Brown shrimps on wholemeal baps. Squeeze of lemon juice, grind of pepper.

[mamachef]

Broccoli/shard Cheddar soup that was the perfect thing on this particular day; sided with a small chopped salad w/ vinaigrette and a bread roll w/ butter. Washed down w/ watermelon agua fresca. Yum! :)

[James Cristinian]

Real Tex Mex enchiladas, one beef, one cheese with onions, Mexican rice and refried beans. Really good, all washed down with Modelo Especial.

[huiray]

• Claus'** "Schnecken", coils of seasoned pork mixture sausage "fastened" with a wooden skewer; pan fried w/ lots of browned/caramelized sliced shallots.
• Sautéed chopped fennel bulb & halved baby zucchini & yellow squash.
• Basmati rice tossed w/ chopped garlic in olive oil then cooked w/ bay leaves & cardamom pods added.

**CLAUS’ GERMAN SAUSAGE & MEATS, INC. (formerly Klemm’s)
Wholesale & Retail Market
1845 South Shelby Street,
Indianapolis, IN 46203.

[huiray]

BTW, Claus' has a fairly detailed instruction webpage for bringing in your wild game for processing... :-)
http://www.clausgermansausageandmeats...

[Harters]

Pissaladiere. Handful of salad leaves. A little chopped potato & carrot mixed with mayo.

[klyeoh]

Curried pork-rib noodles, with spongey strips of pig-skin, cockles & tofu-puffs. Plate of "cha-siu" & "siu-yuk", and some "yong tau fu".

[huiray]

Looks scrumptious. Heh, no greens? ;-)

[klyeoh]

Afraid not - I was out for lunch with an office colleague who do *not* touch vegetables of any sort! He's Hakka, and was selecting the Hakka "yong tau fu" items to be shared. I actually wanted to try the aubergines and bittergourd but thought, hey, since he's buying lunch today, I shouldn't impose on him. Am I being too ... "Chinese"? :-D

[mamachef]

klyeoh, obviously I'm not huiray, but I think you were very respectful of your colleague. I don't know enough about Chinese culture and etiquette to say if you were being "too Chinese," but I'm sure he appreciated your sensitivity. Bitter gourd? Is that the same as bitter melon?

[Harters]

Mamac. - in similar vein, I'm obviously not klyeoh but, yes, I think they are they same.

At least they appear to be so in English English - although I think we tend to use "gourd" more usually. There's a Kashmiri restaurant about an hour away from me, that does a really good lamb curry using it - I don't find it bitter, as such, but it is an interesting savoury taste.

[huiray]

@mamachef & Harters:
It should be the same, yes. I don't think I've come across occasions when the two terms "bitter gourd" and "bitter melon" did not refer to the same thing IN GENERAL, although there are various varieties including Chinese-types and Indian-types. I find the smaller, ovoid-with-pointy-ends Indian ones to be more bitter than the elongated Chinese phenotypic ones. The wiki article is useful as a jumping-off point.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitter_melon
and: https://www.google.com/search?q=varie...

[mamachef]

@ Huiray and Harters: thank you for the good information; I find it very interesting to use, but have only used it in soups. I didn't find it bitter either, but others at the table did, so.....I make it now and again for myself. I got turned onto it in Chinatown; bought one and asked the store owner what to do with it, and she was kind enough to write down a recipe for me. That curry sounds wonderful; I think the lamb and melon would play together very nicely.

[huiray]

mamachef, a classic dish using the Chinese-type bittergourd is a stir-fry of deseeded, sliced gourd/melon with garlic and sliced beef, of the typical "thin" slices typical for stir-fries. Get your wok or pan hot. Season to taste.

Another dish to consider might also be bittergourd omelette.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/859983#7572974
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/8535...

[mamachef]

Oh, that sounds wonderful. Savory and easy. Just garlic, no ginger or anything else? What do you use?

[huiray]

Just garlic and salt to taste. Don't be shy with the amount of garlic. :-) Make sure you slice the beef across the grain even for the relatively thin slices you will be using (maybe 1/8th + inch, less than 2/8ths inch) Fry the chopped garlic in veggie or peanut oil, toss in the beef slices & salt, stir & cook (cover) --> the beef mixture acquires this "thickening juice" slight "caramelization" (if you know what I mean?), toss in the bittergourd pieces, stir, cover, cook to "done-ness" but still with a slight crunch. If you like, you could marinate the beef slices with whatever strikes your fancy (but keep it simple) or to "velvet" it a little (with cornstarch) but the straightforwards way is fine by me.

[mamachef]

huiray; thanks so much for taking the time. Sure, I know exactly what you mean about the caramelization: it's when the juices mix with the fond you've created by searing the beef. I think I'd stick to the straightforward way as well, because the beef will brown much better without the additional water and cornstarch.
I am never shy about garlic. I've given dinners both at home and for clients where garlic was the theme, and every course contained it. Probably the one allium I couldn't live without......though I'd sure miss shallots, and white onions, and spring onions.

[klyeoh]

huiray & Harters are right - bitter gourd & bitter melon are often used interchangeably to refer to the same thing.

Some folks do find the vegetable too bitter for their taste. To remove its bitterness, I was taught by a Filipino friend (who's a great cook) to thinly cut the vegetable, sprinkle some salt on the slices and leave those to drain away the juices for a while. Rinse before cooking.

[mamachef]

klyeoh, thanks! I'll keep it in mind - I do it with eggplant and sometimes cucumber, for the exact same reasons.

[huiray]

Nah, you were just being a good "guest". :-)

Your colleague does seem to me to be a bit "unusual" in his strong preferences (as a Hakka - i.e. of Chinese extraction) as vegetable-eating is commonplace and normal in non-banquet Chinese cuisine. But that's just my opinion.

[klyeoh]

You're right. But I'm sure we know how, as "good" guests in a Chinese traditional sense, we often let the host of the meal do all the ordering. As Chinese meals often consist of several dishes meant to be shared, we often just pick & choose which to eat from the spread in front of us.

[huiray]

The remnants of that pickled sour mustard, tofu, and fish cake soup; plus a spicy chitterlings-flavored glass noodles soup.

[huiray]

Garlic stir-fried marinated sliced pork and chopped Chinese long beans.
Soup - pickled sour mustard, soft tofu, fried prepared fish cakes, and ginger.
Steamed white rice.

[alliegator]

Trying to use up some stuff I had, I made a quesadilla with cheddar and some lightly pickled shredded veggies I made yesterday to go with some rice and satay. And a little hot sauce of course :)

[jujuthomas]

I got soup and a salad today from the cafeteria here at work... the salad was nothing outstanding, except for the roasted carrots and parsnips. The soup was delicious tho - vegetarian carrot with dill. I'm not a huge fan of dill... it can get too dill-y so easily. this was very nicely balanced! one thing I love about our cafeteria is the little tasting cups they put out next to the soups - so you don't end up with something you hate!

[Harters]

Ham omelette. Salad of watercress, rocket, spring onion & tomatoes. Couple of slices of soya & linseed bread.

[chocolatetartguy]

Hey Ray, I had the best lunch Sunday at the Alameda Flea Market Taste of Europe stand and I know you will appreciate it: Indy style pork tenderloin sandwich (actually called pork schnitzel but I think the same thing). A huge pork tenderloin on a medium soft roll which I dressed with a white sauce flecked with dill and some tangy cole slaw. On the side a scoop of German potato salad with lots of parsley and green onion and a pile of the best sauerkraut I have ever had. Savory not sour and cooked with bacon. To gild the lily, the owner wouldn't take my money!

[huiray]

CTG, that sounds quite wonderful! Yum!

You must have charmed the owner to bits. :-) Did you relate "Indy Pork Tenderloin" tales to him or her? :-D

[chocolatetartguy]

Of course, I told her my Indy story. I have told her several times how good her schnitzel is: the best food stand at that market in its 15 year life. The other possibility is that she is mistaking me for my friend who was an earlier customer at a small Saturday market. Either way I got a free lunch. Actually I persuaded her to let me pay for my bottle of water and left a $5 in the tip dish. Still saved a few bucks and I will definitely be back in November. She also made beef & veal? goulash which she served over potato pancakes. Another winner might be those latke with a deep purple berry preserve.

[huiray]

I would love to partake of her offerings. PICTURES, please, if you could, the next time you visit her!!

[mamachef]

Amazing good happy best.lunch.evers. OMG. Droooooool. It's the salad part that's killing it.

[melpy]

A version of baked ziti made with cavatappi and sausage and not baked. Leftovers from last night...

[klyeoh]

Japanese Katsu Curry bento set at Sen-ya, Isetan KLCC. The set came with miso soup (tofu, wakame seaweed), two California rolls and a small fresh salad of leafy greens & baby tomatoes with wasabi-soy dressing. Cup of refillable hot green tea on the side.

The chicken katsu was on the smallish side, but then, the whole set costs less than RM20 or US$6.50.

[huiray]

Interesting. Is this - or closely similar variations thereof - commonplace at Japanese restaurants in the area?

I presume the "curry" was of the Japanese variety.

[klyeoh]

Oh yes, very standard bento set anywhere in KL. Very Japanese curry - sweetish and not spicy. Sen-ya is part of the large Isetan supermarket complex where hundreds of Japanese home-makers come to shop for groceries *every day*, so it's quite well-patronised and pretty authentic.

The entree dish can be teriyaki or tempura, or a selection of sashimi/sushi.

[Harters]

Cod, chips, mushy peas. Followed by apple & blackberry crumble. With a 7-Up.

[huiray]

Rice congee.

Cooked w/
• short-cut pork spare ribs sautéed w/ lots of julienned fresh ginger in vegetable & peanut oils,
• some smashed garlic,
• Fuling Zha Cai [涪陵榨菜; Fuling preserved mustard tuber; Yale Cantonese: ja3 choi3, "pressed vegetable"],
• "Nature's Soy" (fried) soy puffs [油豆腐], halved,
• Sea salt to taste,
• Zebra basmati rice.

Served/eaten w/ chopped scallions & cilantro, Tianjin preserved vegetable ["tung choy"], fried sliced shallots.

[melpy]

Frank Pepe's in Fairfield- small white mozz with garlic and small red mozz with half bacon and half sausage.

[mamachef]

melpy, I didn't know you were a local!! Yummmmm on the 'za!

[melpy]

Living in Central PA but born in Milford. Came up to visit family and had to stop at A And S Market in Fairfield. While lamenting that we hasn't made it to Jimmie's of Savin Rock or any of our pizza places in New Haven we realized that Pepe's had a location where we were. Got the two smalls to go and ate them in the car driving down the Merritt Parkway. Only wish the food in PA was this good :(

[mamachef]

Needed easy comforting lunchtime food, which ended up being a Skippy creamy p/b and Bonne Maman black raspberry jam sandwich on some good dense white bread, and cream of tomato soup made w/ whole milk. Infantile, but boyoboy did it ever hit the spot.

[huiray]

I haven't had Bonne Maman jam for YEARS!!!

[Harters]

Bubble & squeak; couple of slices of ham, couple of slices of bread.

[huiray]

How about vegggie (& ham?) soup instead of B&S?

[huiray]

Szechuanese buffet brunch.

What I had:
Tea-smoked duck.
Marinated sliced "jellyfish".
Beef tripe in spiced chili oil.
Pork maw in garlic sauce.
Pork tongue.
Chicken slices in spicy chili oil w/ sesame seeds & scallions.
Glass noodles in spiced chili oil w/ sprouts & scallions.
Marinated cucumber chunks.
Marinated mung bean sprouts.
Marinated julienned carrots, Western celery & Chinese celery.
Dan-dan noodles.
Deep-fried skinny spring rolls.
Pork & scallion pot stickers w/ sweet/savory soy dipping sauce.
Beef brisket (“ngow lam”) stewed w/ daikon, star anise, black cardamom, ginger, & other spices.
Spicy large shrimp shell-on pan-fried w/ hot dried red chilies & scallions.
Stir-fried baby bok choy.
Mapo tofu with boiled white rice.
Fresh orange slices.
Hot tea.

[mamachef]

Damn, huiray!! Didja hurt yourself? :)

[huiray]

No, no damage. :-)

The trick is to have small portions of the various offerings, of course. A "tasting menu" of sorts, with slightly larger portions (or seconds) for favored stuff. :-D

[huiray]

Short Knockwurst browned w/ chopped shallots in Californian olive oil, simmered w/ finely chopped Savoy cabbage, bay leaves, Kikkoman rice wine, halved fingerling potatoes, salt; then chopped Napa cabbage.

[mamachef]

Gawd, that sounds just divine, huiray. Why do your meals always sound so much better than mine? :)
"Me have sandwich and tato chip and drink. Yay!" While your meals are creative and delicious-sounding.

[huiray]

Oh but I think your meals are delicious sounding too!

[KrumTx]

Damn, you can cook. This is my first time looking at this thread and I am blown away by your dishes. Well done, huiray. I bow before you (but don't try to kick me) :)

[huiray]

You're too kind. ::blush::

Please do join in if you wish, the current Part 4 is here: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/875754

[Lillipop]

huiray.......Your food looks and sounds so delicious and satisfying.You have a talent for writing about it.Do you cook some of it yourself?....

Cherie

[huiray]

Thanks.

I cook a lot of it myself. What I posted about above (the knockwurst itself was store-bought from a local German butcher who makes it on his premises) was done Chez huiray, for example.

[Lillipop]

I certainly do enjoy your posts.I am a fan!!!! Thank you for the quick response.

[mamachef]

A great big Reuben sandwich on dark seeded sourdough rye - but I used coarse mustard instead of Russian dressing. That and a bag of Lay's plain chips did the trick, along w/ a lemon presse. and a pecan brownie.

[Harters]

Big handful of mixed salad, topped with contents of cheap tin of salmon (from Lidl). Oven bottom muffin providing the carb.

[klyeoh]

Invited to a Malaccan "laksa" lunch party - egg noodles with spicy, coconut-milk-enriched gravy, garnished with shrimps, cockles, tofu puffs, fishballs (yech!), beansprouts, toasted cashewnuts, julienned cucumber and Vietnamese mint.

[huiray]

Was it a "DIY party" or in a restaurant? How was it, other than the fishballs? No bunga kantan? Cashewnuts?

[klyeoh]

The hostess served the noodles with the sauce & ingredients, whilst the guests helped themselves to the shrimps, cockles, cucumber & Vietnamese mint on the table, plus some really burn-the-tongue chili paste (no "belachan"/shrimp paste in the chili paste, unlike the Singapore version).

No "bunga kantan" used here, whilst I'm surprised to learn from the hostess, plus other Malaccan guests that adding toasted cashewnuts to their "Nyonya laksa" for some added nutty crunch was actually pretty common. Well, *excuse me*, I never knew that - but then, how often does one get invited into a Malaccan Nyonya home for a true-blue Peranakan culinary experience. All these years, my main experience with Malaccan food has always been in its restaurants.

[huiray]

Interesting!

[chocolatetartguy]

Today I had a commonplace lunch of black bean sauce beef, eggplant with tofu and white rice with the usual Vietnamese iced coffee. Then I had another half lunch of thin VN style jook with what appeared to be pork neck bones, a big piece of pork skin and cubed jellied blood (which I tried, but them chickened out on). What can you do when the staff offers you a big half bowl of what they and the owner are having for lunch!? Immediately after that I attended a farewell party and had a chocolate cupcake and vanilla ice cream.

[huiray]

• Minced pork marinated w/ sesame oil, salt, white pepper, Morita ryorishu; sautéed w/ julienned ginger & chopped garlic, sliced shishito peppers (green and red), orange small sweet peppers, orange-red bell pepper; then cubed soft tofu folded in and simmered to finish. Garnished w/ sliced scallions.
• Ground sirloin stir-fried w/ chopped garlic and chopped turnip greens.
• Steamed basmati rice.

[huiray]

Southern-fried chicken (all dark meat).
Collard greens w/ pot likker.
Fried cabbage w/ juices.
Green beans.
Mac n cheese.
Hot water corn bread w/ raw onion & tomato slices.
Southern sweet tea.

I asked for the tea to be cut/diluted in half as the "normal sweet tea" there is mind-blowingly teeth-meltingly sweet. I also once watched them make a jug of it and I had a heart attack seeing the amount of sugar going into it. :-)

Seconds on the chicken and cabbage and corn bread. :-D

Mississippi Belle,
2170 East 54th Street, Indianapolis, IN.

[klyeoh]

Good restaurants can sometimes produce *bad* food. My meal today at Wondermama (my fave spot for laksa in KL) was a let-down:
- Fried Maggi Mee with Seafood. Malaysians will surely know about streetside hawkers taking Maggi instant noodles, blanch the noodles then fry those over high heat with various ingredients & condiments. Well, Wondermama seeked to elevate this street food item to cafe fare using better quality seafood, etc. Unfortunately, the one I had today was greasy and lacked character. Not ordering this again :-(
- The garlic butter-"kaya" (sweet egg-coconut custard)-tobiko toast also turned out "yuks".

That's it - I'm sticking to Wondermama's tried-and-tested laksa from now on.

[huiray]

That's too bad. :-(
I looked again at the pic of Wondermama and the menu board outside it (on that thread) and there does seem to be quite a mish-mash of stuff offered; with "modernist" twists for some, it seems. (Beef nachos?) Nyonya laksa for the win, it seems then.

[klyeoh]

My first time having fried Maggi Mee, which is a unique Malaysian-Mamak (Indian-Muslim)-inspired street food dish. You find it in *every* Mamak spot in KL or elsewhere in Malaysia, but it doesn't exist in Singapore.

Singapore's fave instant noodle dish is the soupy one found in HK-style noodle spots/cafes, using Nissin instant noodles, topped with fried egg, luncheon meat, etc.

[kcshigekawa]

Leftover veggie drawer/shrimp Thai curry -- saute an onion and some garlic, add whatever veggies are in the house (in this case, sweet potato, kale, tomatoes), add red Thai curry paste, one can coconut milk, simmer til veg nearly done. Add shrimp, cook 'til shrimp are done. Serve with rice. Yum!

Makes enough for dinner for the two of us, and at least two leftover lunches the next day.

[huiray]

Cantonese-style pan-fried noodles lightly dressed w/ a sauce of stir-fried ginger, marinated pork, shrimp & Chinese celery.
Stir-fried bean sprouts w/ ginger, scallions & coriander leaves.

[jw615]

Italian beef sandwich on a toasted onion bun with sauteed onions, baked potato.

[huiray]

Pork & Shrimp (and Napa cabbage) dumplings [鮮蝦豬肉水餃] in sour mustard & chicken stock soup.

[huiray]

Late lunch/early dinner:

Teochew-style steamed bass. (w/ sour plums. ginger, sour mustard, light soy sauce, rice wine, etc)
Garlic stir-fried pea shoots.
Steamed white Basmati rice.

[huiray]

Pic.

[huiray]

Late breakfast – early lunch today:
Bak kut teh w/ steamed Hitomebore rice and flash-sautéed fresh broccoli and leftover zucchini.

I used a Taiwanese herbal seasoning packet this time, from "Tomax" (International) as they call themselves in English. [小磨坊國際] Pretty good flavor from the packet - it contained a selection of larger loose herbs/sliced roots which you put into the cloth sleeve provided, plus another sealed packet with smaller stuff (anise, pepper, etc). The packet is simply labeled as ("South Seas = 'Nanyang' = old name for SE Asia/Malay Archipelago) "Bak Kut Teh" [南洋 肉骨茶]. I added more cinnamon, cloves and star anise towards the end of cooking anyway, as I was in the mood for a potent Kapow! brew...plus being generous w/ the soy sauce (both light and dark) and adequate oyster sauce... and garlic... :-)

[RUK]

Lunch with the young granddaughters today, Roast Duck cut into chunks along with some soft rolls and a couple of Mooncakes ( cut for easier sampling).

[huiray]

That would be Cantonese roast duck, yes? (Since you were having mooncakes as well, meaning someone made a run to some Chinese restaurant/food purveyor?)

[RUK]

Yes, that is correct.
I went to the Asian food Market in Marlboro in the morning (before I greeted the girls on the school bus). The girls didn't care much for the Duck skin, but both really liked the flavorful meat. And the rolls were the typical soft bread rolls one might pick up at a place like that. A nice change.
The Asian Food Market had a huge selection of Mooncakes in gorgeous boxes, see picture and they also sold at the bakery counter some single cakes, which perhaps might have been made in-house. The three of us like the "Green Tea - Mooncake" the best. ( I took a small box home.)

[huiray]

Pickled sour mustard soup – Sliced ginger & short-cut pork spare ribs in simmering water, cut-up drained & soaked/rinsed sour mustard, sliced Japanese Trifele tomato, a bit of extra oil, sea salt, splash of rice vinegar, chunked soft tofu. In that order of addition over a total simmer time of about 1 1/2 hours.

[Harters]

Fried mushrooms and a tin of baked beans - on toast.

[klyeoh]

Mmm, baked beans on toast - one of my fave treats during my schoolboy days back in Australia :-)

[klyeoh]

Back to Ah Loy (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/868804) but tried its curried pork-rib noodles for lunch today. Also added strips of spongey fried-then-poached pig's skin, besides cockles and tofu puffs. The pork-ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender. To-die for!! :-)

[huiray]

Yum! Looks good. I'd love to have a bowl of that right now for breakfast. Oh well, I'm having hot & sour vermicelli with fixings instead.

[klyeoh]

I heard about a legendary "Back Lane" curry noodles spot in OUG from a Singaporean "makan kaki" who visited KL a few years ago. She was totally bowled over by the place & said it was the best curry noodles she'd ever had in her life. But she couldn't tell me much else about the place. Anyway, at that time, I simply Googled using the keywords "back lane", "OUG" & "curry noodles" and lo & behold, I got a couple of URLs on that place.
http://sitbaomang.blogspot.com/2010/07/oug-backlane-curry-noodles-oug.html
http://www.iloveyummyfood.com/food-ty...

I just found out from one of my oldie KL "makan kaki" friends that the OUG Back Lane curry noodles stall is run by an old lady who's a terrific cook. Ah Loy, whose restaurant I lunched at today, is actually her son-in-law! He must've adapted his recipe from hers.

[huiray]

Well how about that! I can guess what your eating plans for the near future are going to include. :-)

[sunflwrsdh]

A Greek salad, with Atrisan Harvest lettuces, tomatoes, (which are still great here in Upstate NY), thinly sliced red onion, kalamata olives, fat free feta and bottled (Ken's) Greek dressing.

[melpy]

Leftover Lebanese from dinner on Saturday night. Included shrimp, lamb, left a, and chicken kebab, veggies, rices and cucumber sauce. Wishing I had more right now. 10:30 is way to early for lunch.

[jeanmarieok]

Poached eggs on toasted English muffin halves, with a sprinkle of fresh grated Parm, and a lot of ground pepper.

[Berheenia]

Sunday we ate at a famous deli so today I made a copycat omelet with spinach and onions and cheddar cheese. Sadly no bialy, just some whole wheat toast.

[Harters]

Salmon & cucumber sandwich. Classic!

[huiray]

A "Yeung Chow style" fried rice. Using steamed basmati rice, diced char-siu, chopped Chinese long beans, chopped green onions, frozen peas (added at the last), "chopped" 3-egg omelette [3 eggs beaten w/ oil, white pepper, salt, a little water; "fried" in a HOT pan w/ generous hot peanut oil].

Pickled chopped hot green chilies.

Yum. :-)

[klyeoh]

Looked and sounded great! Can't remember the last time I had Chinese-style fried rice - a good one, ANY regional type!

[huiray]

Sunday lunch:
• Fish fillets & kai-lan (dinner leftovers from Ken-Kee Restaurant, Chicago).
• Pak chit kai (poached, oiled chicken) w/ scallion & ginger sauce; Char-siu (Cantonese BBQ pork); and Siu-yoke (Cantonese roast pork) - all from Great Wall Restaurant, Chicago).
• Tong-ho (edible chrysanthemum) in chicken stock.
• Steamed Basmati rice.

Monday lunch:
• More of the Char-siu and Siu-yoke.
• Garlic sautéed sliced zucchini & chiffonaded de-ribbed Lacinato kale.
• Steamed Hitomebore rice.

[Harters]

Smoked mackerel, salad leaves, cherry tomatoes, vinaigrette. With homemade sodabread. To follow - the last little bit of Montgomery cheddar that was lurking in the fridge.

[huiray]

Sounds healthy. :-)

[Harters]

Certainly healthier than yesterday's bubble.

[Harters]

Leftovers from Saturday night's roast dinner turned themselves into bubble & squeak, followed by a couple of bites of Montgomery Cheddar and an apple.

[huiray]

Bubble & Squeak! Haven't had that for donkey's years.

[huiray]

Lunch at a place I always drop by when I'm in the area and almost always get prime rib. Nothing special about it - just an idiosyncrasy of mine (and fond memories).

Prime rib, w/ horseradish and jus.
Baked potato w. sour cream (not shown).
Soup [today, cream of mushroom] and salad [just a house ho-hum salad w/ Italian dressing]
:-)
[They were just able to give me the prime rib "by request" as it was sort of early for it and it was barely ready - they usually offer it for dinner service]

Casey's Restaurant & Bar
415 E North Ave
Lombard, IL (Chicagoland)

[huiray]

A couple of lunches from the past few days:

Lunch #1
• Minced beef sautéed with lots of finely julienned ginger, hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, chili-garlic sauce, dash of fish sauce, soft tofu crumbled into it and finished with lots of chopped green onions.
• Sliced chicken meat stir-fried with chopped garlic, sliced green & red Shishito peppers, chiffonaded collard greens, and Shaohsing cooking wine.
• Steamed white rice.

Lunch #2
• Soup – Cut-up meaty country-style pork rib sautéed with lots of garlic, quenched w/ water + chicken stock, rehydrated and trimmed "Snow Fungus" added and simmered till almost tender, chunked deskinned "Chit Kua" (a kind of Chinese melon) added in, simmered till almost done; seasoning corrected, then green bean vermicelli ("Fun See") added in and simmered till tender.

[klyeoh]

Handmade "ban mian" (板麵) noodles, served as a curry noodle dish, with tofu puffs(豆腐泡) , dried beancurd skin, poached chicken & cockles. Not the best version of curry noodles I'd had (didn't eat much of it), so I ordered some KL-style wanton noodles afterwards.

[huiray]

Too bad about the curry noodles. Where was this? Hmm, I see the "char siu" was also the completely lean (food colored?) type... :-(

[klyeoh]

A place called Sun Sun Coffeeshop, Jalan Mega Mendung (beside Plaza OUG), off Old Klang Road. Some office colleagues totally raved about this place's curry noodles last week - almost dragged me there but I was too busy and opted out. Anyway, got curious so visited this place today. Hmph, I guess I did not share the same taste as them.

Off to explore Kam Fatt's curry noodles at Tengkat Tong Shin tomorrow. Many KL food bloggers seem to recommend adding crisp-fried pig's intestines (which would otherwise go with the congee) to the curry noodles - but somehow, I can't imagine those stuff coming together taste-wise.

[steinpilz]

Bratwurst browned in a pan on bread with honey mustard.

@castorpman

[huiray]

Insalata Caprese. Japanese Trifele and Cherokee Purple tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, Italian sea salt, Black pepper, Maussanes olive oil.

[huiray]

Pasta carbonara (pancetta, 2 egg yolks, pecorino romano, black pepper, spaghettini).
Sautéed sliced celery.

[huiray]

Steamed bass, dressed w/ ginger, green onions, cilantro, soy sauce.
Winter melon, "far koo" mushrooms, and pork spare ribs soup.
Steamed white rice.

[klyeoh]

Yum, seabass looked nice :-)

[RUK]

looking at the picture of the Steamed Bass - smile!

[mamachef]

Haven't had it yet, but I'm making "clean out the fridge/use the CSA" Soup today: chicken stock , tomatoes, carrots, celery, onions, corn, zucchini, green beans, potatoes, alphabet pastina - and on the strength of that, I diced a bunch extra which I'll basically make into a hash and top with a fried egg and gobble with toast and jam. Hope everybody has a great weekend.

[huiray]

Sounds delish.

[klyeoh]

Best tempura in Kuala Lumpur - from Tatsu Japanese restaurant, Intercontinental Hotel in Ampang.

[huiray]

Looks scrumptious! Can you describe it more?

[chocolatetartguy]

My usual Friday fare: crispy pork chops, mixed vegetables and tofu, white rice and a Vietnamese iced coffee. Especially good today.

Yesterday: roast chicken, refritos, Mexican rice, a large jalapeno stuffed with some dense, crumbly white cheese. Also especially good.

[huiray]

Aha. From that Vietnamese place where the lady holds some chops for you; and from the lady with her van near the car wash, respectively?

[huiray]

Yong Tau Foo.

[klyeoh]

That's a lot of food!

Coincidentally, a friend of mine who lives in Southern California just made a "yong tau fu" dinner for her family yesterday evening.

[huiray]

There's more! :-)

[huiray]

Some of the leftovers for breakfast/brunch today with some baby bok choy wilted in the remaining poaching stock & soup. :-)

[klyeoh]

Ever thought of trying those with curry or laksa sauce? ;-)

[huiray]

Actually, I haven't. Hmm.

[huiray]

• Sliced chicken thigh meat marinated w/ sesame oil, fish sauce, Shaohsing wine, dash of mirin, ground white pepper, corn starch; then stir-fried w/ garlic in peanut oil and trimmed pea shoots.
• Steamed white rice.

[huiray]

Bak Kut Teh.
Stir-fried chiffonaded collard greens w/ sea salt & mirin.
Steamed rice.

[huiray]

Sunday lunch Part I: Fedelini tossed w/ a sauce of sautéed garlic, shallots, celery and Royal Red shrimp (Pleoticus robustus) tossed in at the end. (seasoned to taste).

Sunday lunch Part II: Peppery daikon & pork meatball soup. **

** Pork stock: 4 lbs meaty pork neck bones, parboiled, washed, placed in fresh water, salted, simmered for >8 hours, all bones & (taste-extracted) meat discarded, filtered through cheese cloth --> ~2.5 quarts milky white very porky stock, all used as-is for the soup. Daikon: farm-fresh (2 days from harvest), peeled, cut into "rectangular" slices. Pork meatballs: fresh-ground pork, mixed/marinated w/ sesame oil, white pepper, chopped green onions, light soy sauce, shaped into balls. Daikon slices simmered in stock till almost soft, 1 heaping table spoon fresh ground pepper added followed by the meatballs, simmered till done.

[huiray]

Leftovers from last night's dinner.
• Sliced chicken thigh meat, marinated w/ Shaohsing wine, sesame oil, Red Boat fish sauce, ground white pepper, finely chopped garlic, chopped green onions; then soft tofu (1/2 block) broken up/crumbled into it, mixed together and marinated further; then steamed in an enameled metal dish till set/done.
• Chinese mustard greens ("kai choy"), stir-fried w/ chopped garlic in peanut oil & splashed w/ Honteri mirin.
• Steamed white rice.

(Pic is of last night's dinner)

[huiray]

Pork & shrimp wontons w/ XO spicy sauce
Pork & shrimp dumplings ("shui kau")
Prawn stock w/ the prawn head cream & oil extracts (also simmered w/ sambal terasi & prawn flesh)
Chicken stock w/ sautéed chopped garlic
Trimmed baby bok choy
Sliced zucchini
Sliced silken tofu

YUM. :-)

[huiray]

• Eldest Maternal Aunt Marries Off Daughter ("tai yee ma kar lui"; 大姨媽嫁女). **
• Fried Bean Curd Package [炸豆包], thinly sliced, drizzled w/ sesame oil & a bit of light soy sauce then zapped.

** "Chit Kua" [a kind of Chinese gourd] sliced into 'sticks', cooked w/ sautéed garlic & softened dried prawns ["har mai'] and glass noodles ["fun see"; 粉絲][Hokkien: "tang hoon"].

[huiray]

Pan-fried NY Strip steak, with sautéed onions & eggplant.
Blanched gai-lan drizzled w/ oyster sauce.
Basmati rice tossed w/ chopped garlic in oil, then cooked w/ chicken stock, bay leaves & cardamom.

[klyeoh]

A "Tiger Pie" from Just Heavenly in KL. Unlike its namesake - the "Tiger Pie" from Harry's Cafe de Wheels in Wooloomooloo, Sydney (Australia), which is a curried beef pie topped with mashed potatoes, mushy peas and lotsa brown gravy, the one I had today was milder and, disappointingly non-curried.

Just Heavenly's "Tiger Pie" was Wagyu beef & carrots, smothered in a rich, (very) garlicky sauce. Baked in an oven-proof bowl and topped with puff pastry. It's accompanied by a separate bowl of mashed potatoes & mushy peas, covered in brown gravy.

Tasty, but the portion was half of what one gets in London or Sydney for a similar order (and a third of the portion an American expects to get served) - Malaysian-sized ;-)

Address details
============
Just Heavenly
S125, 2nd Floor
Bangsar Shopping Center
Jalan Maarof
59100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel: [phone]

[huiray]

It comes served with a spoon stuck in the pie?

Interesting, I've never heard of "Tiger Pie". A bit of transplanted Aussiedomness, then... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry%27... :-)

[klyeoh]

Oh no - I stuck the spoon in, hoping to fish out some chunks of meat. Turned out - there were only TWO pieces of meat, whilst the rest were bits of carrots, potatoes, onions & stuff :-(

Don't you find that bit about Colonel Sanders having Harry's pies (detailed in the Wiki link on your post above) more than a bit fascinating?

"In 1974, Colonel Sanders stopped at Harry's and enjoyed the food so much that he ate three 'pies and peas' while leaning on his walking stick in front of the caravan. A picture of Sanders taken during the visit still hangs in the caravan today."

[klyeoh]

:-)

[Tripeler]

Klyeoh,
Thanks for this photo. It has a weird surreal quality about it. Sort of as though the Colonel was kidnapped and subjected to some sort of LSD test.

[klyeoh]

ROFL! Indeed - the thought that the legendary founder-icon of KFC was actually eating another type of fast food and really enjoying it (granted, Harry's Cafe De Wheels was just a one-stand pie place for the longest time, and Australia is on the other side of the world anyway) did seem incredible.

[huiray]

Yes, that's quite a bit of trivia! I looked around too and it seems there might be some uncertainty about when Col. Sanders visited the place - the framed photos at the place (according to Google images) appear to have the notation "circa 1972" on them, whereas the images and blurb elsewhere (including Wiki and Nigella Lawson's blog) seem to indicate 1974...

[Lambowner]

Guatemala's chain Pollo Campero: 1/4 citrus grilled chicken (leg and thigh), sides of black beans and rice and fresh tomato and cucumber salad = $7.57. Pretty tasty for a quick lunch.

[huiray]

Tuesday lunch:

• Tomato, fennel & onion soup, drizzled w/ Maussanes olive oil and w/ basil leaves garnish.
• Pan-fried salmon fillet w/ Dijon mustard, julienned Poblano & Red Shishito peppers.
• Fried rice w/ chopped celery & chopped scallions.
• Sautéed zucchini sticks.

[huiray]

Monday lunch:
• Chinese roast pork.
• Edible amaranth ("yin choy/seng choy") stir-fried with soaked dried prawns ("har mai") & garlic.
• Steamed rice.

[huiray]

Whoops. That was Sunday lunch.

[klyeoh]

KL-style curry noodles with poached chicken, cockles, tofu-puffs, pig-skin, long beans, aubergines, bean-sprouts and yellow Hokkien noodles - from one of the 3 stalls selling curry noodles - all side-by-side in one row along Madras Lane, KL Chinatown.

[huiray]

Looks nice. I guess the other two stalls had similar offerings? Heh, I see you had it with cockles this time. :-) [http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/805239#6797130]

Here's a pleasant walk down the lane by a blogger: http://ccfoodtravel.com/2012/02/a-wal...

[klyeoh]

I haven't gotten beyond the first stall yet - had the curry noodles three times from that lady already. The ingredients/garnishes all looked the same for the 3 stalls - maybe I should try the other ones to compare & see. Madras Lane stalls are *very* partciular about seating arrangements - each stall has a few allocated tables/stools just for their own customers. In order to try 3 stalls, I may have to change my seating location each time :-D

I know it sounds silly, but it's probably an arrangement to settle some old territorial disputes amongst the stall-owners.

[huiray]

Yes, the seating specificity in Madras Lane has been a "feature" of the place for quite a while... Well, perhaps you might consider trying one of the other stalls next time; or, :::grin::: have a bowl at one stall, then take a postprandial constitutional - for the digestion, you see - out one end and circle back in through the other end and have a bowl of the stuff at the next stall. :-D Repeat as desired. ;-P

[klyeoh]

Oh, I *am* definitely going back there again to try the other 2 stalls :-)

[huiray]

Lunch on Thursday:
• Spaghettini tossed w/ a sauce of sautéed onions, garlic, sliced Andouille sausage, chopped Japanese Trifele Black tomatoes, poblano peppers, zucchini ribbons, button mushrooms; dusted w/ black pepper.
• Sliced blanched Gai Lan stems drizzled w/ oyster sauce, plus white pepper.

Dinner on Friday:
• Pan-fried skinny noodles ("sang meen") dressed with a sauce of large prawns stir-fried w/ baby bok choy, scallions, ginger and prawn stock reduction (made using the heads and shells of the prawns)

Lunch on Saturday:
• Teochew-style steamed big-mouth bass. (alive in a tank the day before). [before-and-after-steaming pics]
• Garlic stir-fried pea shoots.
• Steamed rice.

[klyeoh]

The noodles looked great!

[huiray]

:-)

[JungMann]

Shish taouk salad with romaine, cucumbers, red bells, scallions and just enough feta to keep virtue from becoming vice.

[huiray]

Lunch at a new Japanese place today, open all of a week or two.
Agedashidofu.
Chirashi.
Additional uni and ikura nigirizushi (test of the place).
Some miso soup at the end too.
Not bad at all. Generous cuts of pretty fresh fish. The hamachi pieces were unctuous and nice. The tamago was decent. The nori for the nigiri could have been thinner and toasted a bit more. Prices slightly elevated, maybe because of the location.

Sushi Bar
911 Broad Ripple Ave
Indianapolis IN 46220.

[cgarner]

leftovers from dinner last night
grilled beef kefka
cous cous
swiss chard

[Harters]

Warm salad of rocket, streaky bacon, borlotti beans and red peppers, balsamic dressing. With homemade focaccia and rosettas.

To follow - a little cheddar and Red Leicester and an apple.

[huiray]

"rosettas"?
Are these rosette cookies?

"Red Leicester" = Leicestershire cheese, yes?

[huiray]

Monday late lunch:
• Pork spare ribs (short cut) marinated w/ prepared black beans, chili-garlic sauce, Mutenka shiro miso, chopped Thai (Bird's Eye) chilies, a little oil; then steamed till done; garnished w/ green onions.
• Sautéed zucchini.
• Steamed rice.

[Terrie H.]

I whipped up a batch of gazpacho for lunch today (and tomorrow, and the next day, more than likely). One of the best parts of summer!

[huiray]

Dim sum at "On Time".

"Seen har cheong fun" (rice noodle rolls/crepes with shrimp & soy sauce)
"Pei tan jook" (century egg rice congee, with fried shallots & green onions)
"Har gow" (shrimp dumplings)
"Fu pei guen" (stuffed bean curd skin rolls)
"Fung jau" (fried then stewed chicken feet in sauce)
"Siu lung bao" (xiaolongbao; small "soup dumplings", pork & gelatin-soup filling)
"Heong jin lo baak gou" (Pan fried turnip cakes)
"Guk pou cha" ("po lei" [pu-erh] tea with dried chrysanthemum flowers added in)

On Time Chinese Restaurant
3623 Commercial Drive
Indianapolis, IN 46222.

[chefathome]

Simply Vichyssoise soup. I adore the stuff.

[huiray]

I haven't had that in a very long time.

[suzigirl]

A classic. Tuna/egg salad sandwich. Cream of tomato soup. Simple and timeless

[mpjmph]

I'm at the beach for the week, so eating more freely than usual. Lunchwas pb&j on toasted sourdough with mac and cheese and leftover baked beans. Hit the spot after a morning in the surf.

[linguafood]

Leftover BLT salad. Tiny bowl, unfortunately, but better that way :-)

[klyeoh]

Lunch in Kuala Lumpur: Nasi Lemak from Madam Kwan's @ Suria KLCC mall.

Coconut-scented rice, served with a rich chicken curry redolent of galangal & lemongrass and probably the best spice mix in KL, a spicy-sweet-sour 'ikan bilis'-onion relish, half a hard-boiled egg, dried shrimp floss, a couple of slices of fresh cucumber, and a Penang-Nyonya-style 'achar' - sweet-vinegary turmeric-scented cucumber-carrot-cabbage pickle with crushed peanuts.

We have a similar lunch-plate offered by the Grandma's Restaurant @ Paragon back in Singapore, but the standards couldn't approach anywhere near that of Madam Kwan's!

[linguafood]

Love chat. We have a fairly mediocre "Indonesian/Malaysian" place in town called Penang. This is one of their more successful (side)dishes/appetizers.

The chicken rice was a major disappointment.

[klyeoh]

"Penang" is a chain in the US, right? I'd walked past the one in San Francisco Chinatown a few times but never went in - a peek at their menu sort of indicated that their dishes had been modified to "suit local tastes".

As soon as they know I'm visiting from Singapore, Chinatown residents/shopowners along Grant Street (still call "Dupont-gai" or Dupont Street in local Canto-speak, as that was the street's old 19th-century name) inadvertently pointed out to me either Great Eastern or R&G Lounge as serving the type of food which "suit our (meaning Chinese) tastes" if I choose to eat in Chinatown ;-)

[huiray]

linguafood may be referring to a place in Berlin...

[klyeoh]

Berlin??

One of my few experiences with Asian food in Berlin (when I was there last year) was at Nu on Schlüterstraße (off Kurfurstendamm). It was kitsch but was quite enjoyable. Not authentic though, unfortunately. Just look at the menu:

[klyeoh]

To be fair to the Berliners, my experience at the Vietnamese-run Samadhi was amazing:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/791208

[huiray]

I took a closer look at this menu...it's entertaining in a way.
"Ikan Laut - tuna fish sashimion, filled with wasabi-potatos and teriykati-sauce, cucumber salad in hibiskus-chili-sauce"
I wouldn't have thought of this as a Malay dish called "Sea Fish". :-)

[klyeoh]

My sentiments precisely :-)

[linguafood]

This is in State College, PA, and not a chain, AFAIK. They do some dishes better than others.

http://www.penangpa.com/catalog/alldi...

[huiray]

What kind of "chicken rice" was what you had trying to be? Just curious.

[linguafood]

Hainanese chicken with rice -- which I've thought to be one of THE litmus dishes for Singapore/Malaysian food.... boring rice, steamed chicken w/out much seasoning. Perhaps that's how it's supposed to be, but I found it incredibly forgettable.

http://www.penangpa.com/catalog/Rice%...

Their beef rendang isn't bad. I've had the nasi lemak, too, but don't remember it well enough, as it's been a while since I've gone there. Maybe I'll hit it up in the coming weeks to see what it's like these days.

[klyeoh]

Linguafood - the litmus test for good chicken rice here in Singapore or Malaysia is that you buy a takeaway pack of chicken rice, bring it home, open the pack an hour later, and your whole house will be perfumed by the delicious scent from the chicken-flavored rice.

And coincidentally, I just found the BEST chicken rice spot in KL yesterday :-D
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/865070

[linguafood]

Were it that we were this lucky out here in the boonies. That said, the dining scene here has improved greatly over the last 2 decades (only one of which I've witnessed so far), so I'm not complaining too much :-)

Plus I have those 3 months in Berlin every year to compensate for any cuisine I may be missing on my (other) home turf.

[huiray]

I would suggest that you do not judge Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine entirely on what you get in one restaurant in State College PA.

Even in San Francisco what is passed off as "Malaysian cuisine" is not necessarily so.
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/861644

[linguafood]

Thank you for your very kind suggestion, but I am not judging an entire cuisine (or would that be two?) based on some watered-down version of a single dish ingested at a (possible chain) restaurant in bumble-fuck nowhere.

[huiray]

Glad to hear. I'm sure you weren't and am sure you'll find better Hainanese Chicken Rice somewhere else. It's also worth mentioning that the dipping sauces that normally are served with the chicken in this dish are important components of the overall meal and various restaurants in M'sia and S'pore are famed for their sauces as much as for the rice or the chicken.

[huiray]

Looks really nice.

A question - why are the servings of nasi (whether nasi lemak or not) on plates all around KL nowadays clearly "cupped" servings (as in measured out into a bowl, squeezed into said bowl then plopped onto plate) rather than a "looser" serving where it did not have that "squeezed cup" look? Does no one serve rice portions "as-an-approximation" anymore?

[klyeoh]

Very probably because the servers/kitchen staff these days are Myanmarese/Nepalis/Bangladeshis who're often not very well-versed with local dishes and ways to serve them - so the preparation and plating process had been modified to become "fool-proof".

I was at Isetan supermarket in KLCC this evening to do some grocery shopping. In Singapore, most of the service staff at Isetan are Chinese-Singaporeans with Japanese supervisors. Over in KL, you get a whole phalanx of Myanmarese cashiers and floor staff! I keep wondering - who's helping Aung San Suu Kyi rebuild Burma if all her countrymen/women are working in Malaysia, Thailand, etc!

[huiray]

Egads.

Just curious, what language does one usually use to communicate with them as needed? (and with the Myanmarese staff at other places around town)

[klyeoh]

In English, albeit at a rudimentary level.But I hear from folks here (tthose working for NGOs helping refugees) that Rohinya-Muslim refugees from Myanmar get Malaysian citizenship almost immediately when they're here.

[jmcarthur8]

We visited my sister, and she made a lunch for us that was very tasty. It was a shrimp boil/potato salad that included cut up red potatoes, corn off the cob, sliced smoked sausage and shrimp. It was all cooked in one pot, amd I noticed she pulled out two bags of crab boil spices when she drained it all.

[klyeoh]

That sounded real good!

[jmcarthur8]

It was, and I'm waiting for her to email me the recipe. I think there were some other herbs in there, besides the crab boil.

[kubasd]

Insomnia is hitting me hard the past couple days.... amazing how hard emotional times compound your misery by not letting you sleep. Comfort food was in order for lunch today. I made Spaghetti aglio, olio e peperoncino with some basil oil I made last week subbing in for the straight olio. Spicy, garlicky, basil-y, and fruity (from the wonderful oil).... oh and carby, can't forget that. At least my belly is happy.

[linguafood]

Yumboski! I was semi-virtuous and had scrambled eggs with chopped up baby bellas and green peppers.

[huiray]

I hope your situation improves in the near future.

That said, your meal reads quite delicious!

[middleagedfoodie]

Handfuls of dry roasted pistachios while stopped at red lights running between home, manicure, dry cleaner and gym. Who thought a retired person would be so busy?

[huiray]

Heh. STOP eating just pistachios and sit down sometime and have a better meal?

I *did* hear a comment from someone I know who advised me after he had retired that he found himself busier than he had been before his retirement. :-)

[mamachef]

Killer Korean fried chicken; kimchi fried rice; pickled turnips; Pepsi.

[huiray]

How do you do your kimchi fried rice?

[mamachef]

Well, I generally have cold cooked rice around, and since it's imperative there be leftovers:
4 c. cold cooked rice
Generous slug light sesame oil
2 eggs, beaten
1 lg. clove minced garlic
1 1/8" coin fresh minced ginger
1/4 lb. minced pork, ground beef, whatever....
3/4 c. kimchi,chopped - extra liquid set aside if desired
3 green onions, sliced" 1/4" bias, tops set aside
Soy sauce, fish sauce to taste

Scramble eggs; set aside. Heat oil in wok; saute garlic and ginger 'til softened. Raise heat; add rice and toss-fry briefly; mix well and set aside. In same wok, saute pork or beef 'til browned, add salt and pepper and kimchi and green onion bottoms; saute briefly, and mix in rice. Season to taste w/ soy; fish sauce; garlic oil; kimchi juice; sesame oil. Top with green onions.
Of course you can omit the eggs, or fry them instead and serve them atop, which is pretty screamin' too. And also sounds like breakfast manana. :)

[huiray]

Thanks. Not dissimilar from how I do my fried rice in a general sense. I don't use kimchi in it with any frequency, however; and I usually scramble my eggs in the pan in situ (with the meat, if any, already in it) then add the rice in and continue.

[kubasd]

Yum!! I LOVE kimchi fried rice!

[huiray]

Pan-fried (crispy-skin) wild coho salmon fillet.
Parboiled trimmed gai-lan stems.
Whole-grain mustard w/ jalapeños and fried onion sauce.

Fresh zucchini ribbons (planed), julienned sweet red banana peppers & parsley florets tossed w/ Maussanes-les-Alpilles huile d'olive (Moulin Jean Marie Cornille), coarse Italian sea salt & ground black pepper.

[StringerBell]

I made tostadas. Fried corn tortilla topped with grilled chicken and a mixture of black beans, corn, serranos, tomatoes, onion, lime and cilantro. Then topped with queso fresco and a pureed avocado/lime/heavy cream sauce.

[huiray]

Sounds good!

[huiray]

• Fried rice - with sliced steamed lap cheong (spicy flavor; soy sauce flavor), trimmed Chinese chives, scrambled eggs, chopped green onions.
• Fresh-popped Krupuk Udang (Prawn crackers).
• Pickled chopped long green hot chiles.

[klyeoh]

Take-away sushi from Jason's supermarket in KL. Awful - machine-made sushi then to be more tightly-compressed compared to hand-made ones, where the sushi rice would be loosely-pressed together. But for RM11.90 or less than US$4, I guess I can't really complain ;-)

[huiray]

Hopefully you had better Japanese between this meal and when you had that Korean meal a month ago.

[klyeoh]

The best Japanese spot I'd found in KL so far was Kuriya at Bangsar Shopping Centre. Fabulous sushi - I need to post about this place sometime.

[jmcarthur8]

We were back at Miller's Bread-Basket in Blackville SC. Had fried chicken, mac & cheese and shoo-fly pie. Tall unsweet tea. I need to eat salad for a few days now.

[huiray]

Heh. Clearly this place has become one of your go-to/return-to places.

[jmcarthur8]

Yes, huiray! There's a dearth of good food between Aiken and Charleston, which is where we are when lunchtime rolls around on our visits to our son, so we are thrilled to have found this place. Real food, owned by a Mennonite family.

[kubasd]

For the first time in my life I had a pickle and peanut butter sandwich. I had pickle chips that I'd bought, thinking that the smaller chip would slow down my consumption. They were a slightly sweet, very crisp, horseradish pickle (OMG phenomenal). I toasted upsome Martin's potato bread, put a thick slather of PB on one side, a thinner on the other (mainly for "glue" purposes). I arranged the pickle chips so as to cover the PB, slapped the lid on, and cut into two triangles. Sooooo good!!! I was mad at myself for having put off trying it for so long, that's how much I liked it. This is a dangerous discovery :P

[huiray]

Interesting.

I must say that PB isn't one of my favorite/go-to things either, although I've had freshly-ground PB from a local place a few times and it was delicious on crackers.

[huiray]

Sort-of Agedashidofu, with the sauce separate.
Chicken stir-fried w/ sliced garlic & trimmed kale. (Shaohshing wine, sesame oil, white pepper, nuoc mam, soy sauce marinade of chicken).
Steamed white rice.

[linguafood]

Open-faced BLT with toasted "multigrain" bread, Duke's mayo, homegrown tomato slice, Kunzler bacon, green lettuce. Niiiiice.

[jmcarthur8]

That is the perfect sandwich. Absolutely perfect.

[Harters]

Butternut squash soup, cheese & onion bread.

[Berheenia]

Fell back on an old fave from the freezer- Dr. Praeger california veggie burger broiled and topped with swiss in one of those 100 calorie sandwich breads. The quinoa salad I made is way too bland and resting until I can doctor it up with lemon and some heat.

[cgarner]

went freezer diving, pulled out a container of beef veggie soup (it's delicious, but I don't like the texture of the potatoes.... note to self, if freezing veggie soup, no potatoes)

[Veil26]

Toasted everything bagel with spread made of canned salmon, whipped cream cheese, sliced red onions, and capers. If I hadn't had to pilot a plane today, I would also have had dark beer!

[huiray]

• Wonton-type "sang meen"; with minced pork sautéed w/ chopped garlic, sliced red & orange & yellow sweet mini banana peppers, thin-sliced zucchini, oyster sauce, splash of fish sauce (nước mắm); and chopped green onions.
• Finely sliced Savoy Cabbage, simmered in chicken stock; dressed w/ chopped cilantro.

[alliegator]

Ramen noodles with some leftover shredded chicken, and my hodge-podge, whatever tastes good at the moment sauce. In a bowl, because my very full dishwasher is running...
Sorry for the bright pic.

[huiray]

• Pickled sour mustard, duck and chicken soup.**
• Garlic stir-fried Taiwanese A Choy.
• "Chicken rice" cooked w/ ginger & scallion sauce added in; eaten w/ pickled chopped long hot green chilies.

**using duck leg confit, chicken thigh, sliced Black Krim tomato, sliced ginger, plus a few "chan pui mui" (preserved plum).

[kubasd]

I woke up with a craving for peanut noodles, but as my kitchen is BADLY in need of restocking, I made do with what I had. I julienned some cut "baby" carrots (not my purchase, hate the things!) Mixed together peanut butter, sriracha, LS soy sauce, Ginger, onion, and garlic powder (gasp.... ugh... where's my fresh??), five spice powder, white balsamic vinegar, and sesame seeds. I topped with some bean sprouts, and voilà. A semi-decent substitute.

[huiray]

Heh. That's quite inventive. :-) I'm sure it was satisfyingly tasty!
I like the photo sequence showing the process.

[kubasd]

Yeah, possibly the furthest from real peanut noodles EVER, but it actually sort of came together. The pics started cuz I was pissed we only had those stupid baby carrots, and I cut each one into 24 matchsticks, so I wanted to document the source of my ire.

[huiray]

Saturday lunch:
• Bittergourd omelette.
• Chicken thighs stir-fried w/ chopped garlic, zucchini, Thai eggplants, Thai basil & black bean-garlic sauce.
• Steamed white rice.

[JungMann]

How do you make the bittergourd omelette? I just made sauteed bittergourds with eggs, shrimp and pork for dinner last night and while I saved one bittergourd to put up as preserves, I might be enticed to try something new.

[huiray]

JungMann, my apologies - I seem to have missed this post of yours.

Bittergourd omelette:
One medium bittergourd, halved lengthwise, deseeded, cut into half-moon crescents. (Optional: toss w/ a bit of salt and/or blanch w/ hot water and drained. Rinse if just salting. The bittergourd needs to be still very definitely crunchy, NOT already-soft.) Two-to-three eggs, beaten lightly with some oil added in before beating. Hot pan, peanut or veggie oil, finely chopped garlic, sauté; add bittergourd, toss a bit, add beaten egg, let cook, flip over w/ spatula (can flip in pieces or in sections, an "intact" flap/piece is of no consequence - to me, anyway); overall "doneness" is to be still slightly/*just* runny in the middle, or *just* beyond runny. Eat. (Salt as desired; I tend to use very little salt in my omelettes)

[JungMann]

Ah, I already canned the last of my bittergourds! Your recipe, however, sounds pretty similar to my family recipe for bittermelon. The main difference is that we start with a base saute of onions and tomatoes and allow the eggs to scramble into distinct clouds rather than keeping the thing whole. The shrimp and pork I mentioned above are optional.

[klyeoh]

Scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and cream cheese on a toasted bagel - from Dean & Deluca's Singapore outlet on Orchard Road.

[kubasd]

Between huiray and you, I always know what threads to go to if I want to drool.... here and the breakfast thread. Thanks :P

[klyeoh]

LOL! Call on me if you ever drop by KL or Singapore.

[huiray]

• Rice congee made w/ pork spare ribs (short cut against the bone) sautéed w/ lots of chopped ginger, and sliced fresh shiitake mushrooms. Eaten w/ a scattering of chopped green onions and crispy deep fried chopped shallots.
• Stir-fried "wong nga pak" (Napa cabbage).

[huiray]

• Chicken (deboned thighs, sliced) marinated w/ black bean-garlic sauce, chili-garlic sauce, sesame oil, fish sauce, Shaohsing wine, white pepper; stir-fried w/ chopped garlic, halved deseeded shishito peppers & chopped Chinese celery.
• Steamed basmati white rice.

[klyeoh]

A new offering from Kentucky Fried Chicken in Malaysia - the famous KFC chicken, but served with rice and, get this, Thai green curry!

Apparently, it was a runaway success for KFC in neighboring Thailand, and they are hoping to replicate the success in Malaysia, which shared the same affinity as the Thais for (1) fried chicken, (2) served with rice, and (3) with an accompanying spicy curry sauce.

Hmm, wonder if this'll work in the US.

P.S. - This was surprisingly delicious. The combination of Thai green curry sauce, rice and fried chicken actually really works!

[huiray]

Dunno - might work in certain areas with certain demographics. I suspect (but could be wrong) that folks in large swaths of the US would consider it sacriledge. I'd certainly eat it. :-)

Those are peas that I see, not pea eggplants, I presume?

[klyeoh]

Yep, those were peas instead of "makheau phuang".

Seriously - I can't imagine KFC introducing that to the US :-D

[jmcarthur8]

Chicken & dumplings, crowder peas, cornbread and a biscuit. And a taste of hubby's collards. Even though we live in the deep South, we don't go to Southern diners often, but I just wanted some ol' comfort food.

[cgarner]

a salad with leftover porterhouse steak silced over top and a crumble of maytag blue cheese (no 'dressing' the cheese is good enough for me)

[chefathome]

Yesterday I made some delicious soy-glazed sole with toasted sesame seeds, herbed garden potatoes and cucumber with a guava pink peppercorn vinaigrette.

Today I have a hankering for Eggs Benedict so that is on the menu.

[linguafood]

Lunch on Sunday: two wonderful soups -- one with red pork, meat balls, and the usual accoutrements; one with various seafood shenanigans and thicker noodles -- from the awesome soup lady at the Thai-Wiese, a bunch of fried chicken, some not-so-great desserts (but then I'm not a dessert person).

Damn, I will miss that place for the next months.....

[huiray]

I see fish balls (white; as opposed to greyish-brownish which would be "meat" balls) and sliced fish cake in your pic of the noodle bowl - so is that the second bowl you mentioned, the "various seafood shenanigans" ?

What did the meat balls soup dish look like? :-)

Oh well, I guess you are returning to PA shortly. When do you return to Berlin next?

[linguafood]

Fish balls, some sliced up seafood cakes, something that looked like tripe but I'm not sure whether it was.

This was the second soup, yes. I wonder if I took a pic of the pork/meat balls soup somewhere, I'll have to check.

I didn't like the second soup as much, as the lady poured in a bunch of that red sauce (perhaps this is used on the pork, but I found it too sweet in that amount); not even copious amounts of fish sauce & hot peppers could make up for it.

That said, these soups are the closest to what I've had in Thailand.

I'll be back in Berlin in May. Wah.

[huiray]

Lunch today:
• Insalata Caprese, with Black Krim and Purple Cherokee tomatoes.
• Soup dumplings (Xiaolongbao; 小籠包; siu2 lung4 baau1), pork & oyster sauce variety.

[huiray]

Lunch yesterday:
• Fresh tomato soup, served two ways - with fresh basil & a dollop of pesto, and simply with black pepper.
• Fresh garlic spaghetti tossed w/ sautéed Andouille sausage, cut into strips; and thin (planed) zucchini slices.

[mamachef]

Lunch today was really, really good. I topped bean sprouts and briefly blanched them and then shocked 'em. Sliced celery, cukes and green onion on the bias, and shredded some leftover Teriyaki chicken breast. I fried the rice noodles for about 30 seconds *poof*, and made a dressing from sesame oil, rice vinegar, lemon juice, sugar, sesame seeds, salt, and a finely minced jalapeno; tossed it all, topped it w/ minced cilantro and crushed peanuts, and served it with miso/tofu/rice soup.
And a big bag of m&m's. :) Have a great safe week, y'all.

[huiray]

Sunday lunch:

Shredded chicken in Aspic.*
Marinated artichoke hearts & red peppers.
Pan-roasted shishito peppers.**

* Leftover Hainanese-style chicken, dark & white meat shredded, mixed with chopped green onions, layered alternatingly w/ sliced hard-boiled eggs, set w/ aspic formed from the gingered salted chicken poaching stock concentrated down a bit then warmed w/ additional non-flavored gelatin. Refrigerated 24+ hours.

** Roasted in a very hot pan slicked w/ a little olive oil, turning over, till blistered & softening, heat shut off, sea salt scattered liberally over it, tossed.

[huiray]

Lunch on Saturday:
Big Mouth Bass, steamed (w/ various dressings) then the fish taken and dressed w/ sliced scallions & ginger then splashed w/ sautéed chopped garlic quenched w/ light soy sauce and a bit of the liquids from the steaming.
Taiwan A Choy (a.k.a. "yau mak choy" in some places) stir-fried w/ garlic & "Fu Yee" (wet bean curd in cooking wine, salt, water).
Steamed white rice.

That nice bass was swimming in a tank at my Chinese grocer a few hours before. :-)

[AdamD]

Breakfast tacos!

[klyeoh]

Kelantanese-Malay "Nasi Dagang" - semi-glutinous rice steamed with coconut creme, fenugreek seeds, julienned ginger and thinly-sliced shallots (lots of those!), served with "Gulai Ikan Tongkol" (curried tuna), hard-boiled egg, "Gulai Daging" (a very fluid Kelantanese beef curry) and "Solok Lada" (steamed green pepper stuffed with fresh grated coconut & minced mackerel) - bought from a Kelantanese restaurant at Kampung Baru, KL's ghetto-like ethnic Malay-Muslim enclave.

[huiray]

Is that some nasi merah in the rice that I see? No cucumbers or greens? ;-)

Looks delicious! How did it compare with what you would have got in Kota Bharu?

BTW I thought of Jln Melayu - and took a look at it on Google - annnddd....it's now a (partly) covered mall too!! Any good Malay food stalls left there?

[klyeoh]

The version here in KL mixed normal white rice with the harder-to-obtain "nasi dagang" red-hued rice grains before the steaming process, hence resulting in a paler-looking rice dish. The semi-glutinous consistency was retained from, I suspect, addition of some glutinous rice ("pulot" grains) as well.

I also just realised that I didn't ask for the cucumber or cabbage pickles ("achar") until you pointed it out.

The version here was piquant and delicious - but still differed from the version one will get in Kota Bharu, Kelantan, itself - where the local tastes there demanded a sweeter, even more cloyingly richer coconut creme flavor. Sugar is routinely added to savory dishes there in Kelantan during the cooking process. But the "Nasi Dagang" in Kelantan would have been wrapped in banana leaves, which would impart an intoxicating fragrance to the whole dish when unwrapped.

I bought this from a restaurant along Jalan Raja Muda Musa, Kampung Baru's main thoroughfare (pic I snapped below of the pop-up stalls which appear during the Ramadhan month)

Jln Melayu has become more of a Bangladeshi-Pakistani enclave these days - the Malays have moved out of that area, just as Batu Road/Chow Kit is more an Indonesian quarter nowadays, as the Malays move to the suburbs. You do get more authentic ethnic cuisines in those areas nowadays.

Much of KL's inner city had been taken over by recent immigrants - the area behind Kota Raya (near Bangkok Bank) is now Little Burma, lined with Burmese shops, restaurants, and Burmese language signboards everywhere. I don't remember KL having this before, but then, I'd never really passed by Kota Raya for more than 20 years till recently.

[huiray]

Very very interesting. Thanks.

Sorry to hear that about Jln Melayu as well as Chow Kit Rd areas. I rarely went by Kota Raya back in the day, and as far as Chow Kit Rd was concerned my immediate memories were of "Pisang Goreng". :-)

[huiray]

On looking into this further, it seems that the reddish/purplish speckled variety of rice traditionally used in Kelantan for "nasi dagang" is called "beras lembut".
http://kimmy-cookingpleasure.blogspot.com/2012/05/ez-kelantans-nasi-dagang.html
http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp...

[linguafood]

Yesterday -- spaghetti with truffle butter, parmesan and fresh shaved white truffles on top, followed by whole grilled mackerel. Good eats.

Today - soft-boiled egg, toast with various exciting toppings, milk.

Tomorrow.... one last pig-out at the Thai park. Yessss.

[huiray]

Red snapper fillet, marinated w/ olive oil, fresh lime juice, salt, sugar, black pepper; "pan-fried" (sautéed) in the marinating juices after frying the onions and peppers.
Sliced shallots & red-orange-yellow sweet mini banana peppers, sautéed in olive oil.
Green beans, separately sautéed.
Rose fingerling potatoes, simply boiled.

[westaust]

Salad of mixed greens, grilled chicken, corn, black beans, tomatoes, onion with an avocado creamy vinaigrette

[klyeoh]

Lunch in Kuala Lumpur today:
Minced pork with "koay teow"/flat rice noodles, flavored with soy-sauce, bean-paste & other unidentifiable flavorings. Bowl of light pork broth containing springy pork balls and sliced Chinese sausage ("siu cheong") on the side. The stall was located inside the famous Hutong Lot 10 food-court in downtown KL. The stall was purportedly a counterpart of the famous 63-year-old one at Win Heng Seng coffeeshop on Jalan Imbi.

[huiray]

Aha!! :-) I didn't know they had a stall at Hutong Lot 10. Maybe you'll try the original one day.

There are actually two stalls there at the kopitiam proper selling porky noodles - the pork ball stall and the pork noodles stall. Presumably the pork ball stall (with the trademark "siu cheong") is the one at Hutong Lot 10. The other one serves pork offal (including kidney) as well as pork balls in their noodle soup.
http://kyspeaks.com/2011/12/21/ky-eats-pork-ball-noodle-at-win-heng-seng-jalan-imbi/
http://kyspeaks.com/2011/06/03/ky-eat...

[klyeoh]

The pork & pig's offal noodles looked infinitely more interesting than the pork ball noodle I had. Hmm, maybe I should pop down there this weekend.

[huiray]

Hainanese-type Rice. :-)

"Pak Chit Gai" with cucumber slices, drizzled w/ light soy sauce.
Rice cooked w/ the salted, gingered poaching stock and w/ the chicken fat.
Fresh ginger & green onion sauce.
Lingham's Hot Sauce diluted w/ rice vinegar.
Soup of chopped Rainbow Chard in the poaching stock.

[klyeoh]

Looked really good!

BTW, I have a Hainanese staff in my office here who told me that her mother & grandmother prepared Hainanese-style chicken by steaming the chicken (with bruised ginger and a knot of scallions stuffed into the chicken cavity), instead of par-boiling it. They'd then pour off the oily liquid at the base of the steaming platter and used it to flavor the rice. Interesting.

[huiray]

Thanks. :-)

I've never tried the steaming method, although I've heard of it. I should try it one day. As for the poaching/parboiling way - I've done it both with the "constant simmer" as well as the "bring to a boil then shut off the heat and leave alone (covered) then briefly reboil" methods.

[BeeZee]

Whole wheat pita, warmed/lightly toasted. Smeared inside with Trader Joe's horseradish hummous and stuffed with leftover ratatouille, slightly warmed.

[huiray]

Soup & Fried Rice.

Soup:
Pork spare ribs (short cut against the bone) sautéed w/ chopped smashed garlic, simmered w/ reconstituted “snow mushrooms” [Tremella fuciformis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tremella... ] (w/ sea salt); diagonally sliced “Chinese Okra” [Luffa acutangula; 2ft specimen from the local Farmers’ Market] and halved “Fish Tofu” .

Fried Rice:
Two-day old Basmati rice, stir-fried w/ chopped Chinese chive flower stalks & farm-fresh eggs (broken into the chives simmering in peanut oil and “scrambled”), chopped Amazon Chocolate tomato, sea salt, seasoning.

[Terrie H.]

Salad with mixed greens, peaches, pecans and blue cheese. Of course I couldn't leave well enough alone and added a piece of garlic toast.

[Harters]

Mushroom omelette; handful of salad leaves; couple of slices of homemade bread

[chocolatetartguy]

I went to a sale at an art supply store, so stopped off at the nearby Nations and had a cheese (American) omelet with chopped onion and tomato and two mild green chilis. I substituted a stack of 4 pancakes for the starch. Oh, and a coffee milk shake.

[huiray]

Leftover mapo tofu, sautéed zucchini and steamed white rice.

[klyeoh]

In Penang, Malaysia: Traditional Hainanese-style chicken chop with thick-cut fries, smothered with a lightly-spiced gravy redolent of star-anise, cloves & cinnamon.

[huiray]

A blast from Straits Settlement days.

I assume this would also be served at a place like the Coliseum Café in KL?

[klyeoh]

Yes, indeed. And Sin Seng Nam in Market Square in KL, if I can get round to going there again one of these days.

[huiray]

Sunday lunch:
• Royal Red shrimp, tossed in at the last with stir-fried sliced shallots and halved shishito peppers.
• the day's version of Mapo Tofu, using Youjia Pixian Lao Douban as a main component.
• steamed white rice.

[sunangelmb]

Yay, farmers market Sunday. Got a huge loaf of fresh bread (smothered with provolone), tomatoes, fresh mozzarella , plus some assorted pickled/marinated items (artichokes, red peppers, olives...) sliced up the tomatoes, sprinkled a little salt, added mozzarella, basil and ate it all with a huge chunk of bread. I always debate toasting it up on a sandwich, but I'm too impatient. Going to roast up some corn for dinner. Love jersey produce

[Harters]

Leftover stuffed artichoke bottoms; leftover couscous

[linguafood]

Had some incredible Thai food -- som tam, gua tiew, fried chicken & a whole fried fish for lunch. Gotta go back next week and take some pics.... and also probably correct my blog post (http://bitchinberlin.wordpress.com/20...) to reflect this.

The soup immediately transported me back to Bangkok -- rice vermicelli, fish balls, red pork, sprouts, toasted garlic and other crunchy bits... heaven in a bowl.

[huiray]

Yes, pics would be nice! Sounds like a big lunch - so tasty, of course, that you ate it ALL UP. :-)

[linguafood]

Thankfully, I had two people accompany me including my mom who's a much bigger eater than I am these days. The first time I went, I could only sample a soup and some fried things before I was too full.

Photos forthcoming, for sure. Let's hope the weather plays along come the weekend....

[kubasd]

Frozen then pressed tofu and quartered onions marinated in a mixture of sambal oelek, tamari, toasted sesame oil, and scallions. Then I baked it at 400F til the tofu was crispy and the onion was browned. Served with steamed rice. This came out so good, I'm making it again soon!

[huiray]

Hmm, woldn't it be hard to press out water (presumably) from *frozen* tofu? Sounds good - how about tossing in some black beans and call it your version of a mapo tofu? :-) Do take a pic, if you feel like it, when you make it next.

[kubasd]

I thawed it before pressing, lol And by pressing, I mean I wrapped the block in a kitchen towel and squeezed it til no more would come out (kinda like you do with frozen spinach). And hmmm... I might just do that! I'd def add some more chili-garlic to ramp up the heat level a bit. I was cooking for others as well as myself, so I had to keep it pretty tame :)

[jmcarthur8]

Corned beef, Swiss cheese, horseradish mustard on rye.
Iced tea
Toll House cookies fresh out of the oven.

[huiray]

Minced fatty pork stir-fried/sautéed w/ sliced scallions. chopped green onions, fresh wood ear mushrooms, garlic, chopped basil leaves, chopped de-skinned Purple Cherokee tomatoes & sea salt.

Fresh zucchini sautéed w/ garlic in EVOO.

Steamed basmati rice.

Plus a big bowl of Bing cherries. :-)

[Harters]

Bread, pate.

[vttp926]

Have pretzels baking in the oven and 2 of them are wrapped around hot dogs. So going to have a pretzel dog for lunch.

[wyogal]

Panko-crusted, fried zucchini slices with home made tartar sauce. Flour, egg wash, then panko.

[Oboegal]

Are you from Indy, huiray? I grew up there, and Sakura was my first ever sushi experience. Now I live in NW Indiana and have to put up with very sub par sushi.

[huiray]

I live in Indy, yes.

Heh, Sakura seems to figure in many folks' experiences of Japanese food and sushi. Sorry you haven't found good stuff in NW Indiana. (Is Fuji in Portage any good in your view?) OTOH Chicago isn't far away at all...

[Oboegal]

Sakura was my first sushi experience ever! I live in NW Indiana now, so I have to deal with sub par sushi, unfortunately.

[Harters]

Leftover pork pie, leftover cold potatoes, a few cherry tomatoes, a couple of pickled onions

[BabsW]

Spicy catfish nuggets.

[huiray]

Vietnamese lunch today at Long Thanh (5707 East 71st Street, Indianapolis, IN 46220).

• Gỏi cuốn - soft "summer rolls", with a weak peanut dipping sauce.
• "Butter chicken wings" - lollipops of chicken wings battered (barely seasoned batter) and deep fried, with a sort-of garlic dipping sauce.
• Phố đặc biệt ("special phố" = phố with everything) - no tripe though, and no plate of sprouts/lime /basil given.

[Harters]

Classic ploughman's lunch, except for the addition of some pate.

[jmcarthur8]

I had fried green tomatoes with herbed goat cheese, cucumber corn salsa and a drizzle of balsamic viniagrette, and they were yummy, but I would have traded for your lunch in a heartbeat.

[huiray]

Soup - of smashed garlic, chopped chicken leg quarter, reconstituted mini thick-cap (dried) shiitake mushrooms, Chinese okra [Luffa acutangula], glass noodles; salt,chicken stock.

Fresh spaghetti cooked w/ basil leaves; drained & tossed w/ Pesto Genovese (made w/ mortar & pestle), plated w/ sliced Queen Nefertiti tomatoes.

[kubasd]

Interesting combo! Although both sound/look delicious, especially that soup!

[huiray]

:-)

Have you had this vegetable (Chinese okra; Ridged loofah; various other names) before?

https://www.google.com/search?q=chine...

[kubasd]

not yet, but I've use it in the shower! :-P

[huiray]

Haha! Well, if you wait *that long* before you pick your loofah then the only thing you can do with it *is* use it in the shower. :-)

[kubasd]

I've seen something very similar in my neighbor's garden, but what does it taste like? I haven't really found much on it.

[huiray]

Squash/zucchini-like with a more "green"/"vegetal" edge. Take off the ridges with a potato peeler. (Some people take off all of the skin, I don't) Cut into desired shapes. Cook till it just softens for "more body". Prolonged cooking or extensive rewarming of the dish gives "collapsed" inner parts with the outer parts/skin retaining most of their "body".

[kubasd]

Thank you!! That is actually just how I pictured it tasting.

[huiray]

A couple other ways to cook it:
http://img2.laibafile.cn/laiba/images/3006298/12488712610791227974/A/1/m.jpg
http://img2.laibafile.cn/laiba/images...
:-)

[kubasd]

Oh yum, the first one looks great (and probably how I'd cook it in my first attempt)

[klyeoh]

Lunched at Rocky, the oldest eatery in Bangsar suburb in KL: Chinese "economy rice", a local plate lunch, where one selects from a spread of dishes to go with steamed white rice. For mine, I chose a wedge of Chinese luncheon pork-meat, a tofu stuffed with minced pork, chicken & wood-ear fungus stir-fried in soy-fermented fish sauce, and an egg omelette containing onions, chopped long beans & carrots.

[mamachef]

Butter chicken w/ chutney, spinach rice, and a few samosas w/ tamarind chutney. Yum.

[Harters]

Falafel, rocket, pea shoots, salsa, pitta

[klyeoh]

I LOVE falafel!

[klyeoh]

Crisp, fluffy Malaysian "Roti Canai" (also know as Keralan-style paratha in any other part of the world), served with a bowl of thick dhal curry. A glass of frothy "teh tarek" (sweetened milk tea) on the side.

[huiray]

Yum!!

I get frozen packaged roti canai/paratha from the Indian groceries here - not bad, edible, but of course inferior to stuff made and cooked by vendors such as you just described.

[huiray]

Bak Kut Teh - with pork ribs, tofu puffs and silken tofu.
Blanched kai-lan (芥蘭) drizzled with Ponzu sauce and dusted with white pepper.
Steamed basmati rice.

[klyeoh]

Nice - home-cooked BKT? A colleague here who's born in Klang said that he puts extra cinnamon sticks into his pork-rib soup to give that special edge (on top of using the usual BKT mixed herbs bought from the supermarket).

[huiray]

Yes, it was home-cooked. In fact, I also put extra cinnamon, cloves and star anise; as well as dark soy sauce and oyster sauce into this pot (again). :-) Come to think of it, I haven't made my (previously normal) "just cinnamon+cloves+star anise+soy sauce" BKT for a while. Plus lots of garlic each time, of course.

[huiray]

Went back to “Formosa Seafood Buffet” to try their Sunday brunch/lunch to see if it was better than their weekday one. (See: http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/8535...)

Marginally so (if even that), for a couple bucks more.
• Turnip, short-cut pork spare ribs & fresh shiitake mushroom clear soup – OK.
• Century egg congee (“Pei Tan Jook”) – Not bad; after I fished out more pieces of the egg.
• Some siu mai & har gow – They tasted kind-of house-made, but had been sitting out too long as the skins were rubbery; chive dumplings – OK; stewed chicken feet – Meh.
• Deep-fried battered chicken wings & shrimp – these were surprisingly decent. The wings were juicy and succulent and the skin/breading crisp and reasonably tasty, while the shrimp were coated w/ panko and were quite juicy too. Plus grilled dark chicken meat on a skewer – meh.
• Chinese/Cantonese-style soft “fried” mei-fun (thin rice noodles) with stuff – tasteless this time; Soft tofu w/ some sort of gooey brown sauce (“imitation” mapo tofu??) – BLERG…sauce was tasteless and repulsive; some broccoli; and “Ginger prawns” – seemed like a variant of Salt & Pepper Shrimp, heads and shells and legs intact – OK, crunchy skin etc, but pretty salty + ovecooked flesh.**
• Watermelon & mango slices, some sugared lychees.

There was also other stuff like spicy stir-fried squid, saucy pan-fried crayfish, white fish fillets stir-fried prep as before etc plus the usual Chinese-American stuff and pure Western stuff & desserts.

Overall, pretty underwhelming buffet stuff, largely C-A stuff, some quite bad. Would I return? In NO hurry to do so.

** I kept eyeing the couple at the next table…the wife loaded an entire plate with the crayfish from the steam trays, in front of me while we were at the buffet stands (and then sat at the next table to mine); while the husband brought back an entire plate of that quasi-Salt & Pepper Shrimp. I couldn’t see very well what the husband was doing but the wife plowed through most of the crayfish , discarding the heads and all shells etc and eating only the “center” body meat; she then did the same with the shrimp, tossing aside all the tasty crunchy heads, legs, shells, and biting off just the main part of the shrimp body and discarding the tails w/ the tail meat still in it. They still left behind about a third of that plate of shrimp, which got tossed by the waitperson at the end, of course. Oh, of course they “ate” quite some other stuff as well. They weren’t even “large” persons, for that matter. What a waste and a display of gluttony, excess and, yes, disregard for both the restaurant and others in a larger sense.

[jmcarthur8]

Today's lunch was two open-face sandwiches. First was a cucumber on cream cheese mixed with Duke's mayo on whole wheat. Nice and cool and crunchy. With a glass of iced tea.
Second was a recipe from a little cookbook from 1932, Michigan City News Favorite Recipes, for Bacon, Egg and Cheese Sandwiches. It included crisp bacon, shredded cheddar, hardboiled eggs, pimentoes, bacon drippings and mayo, pulsed a couple times in the food processor, spread on whole wheat toast and run under the broiler for a few minutes till bubbly and a little browned. It was a nice lunch after a few hours working in the yard. I think a slice of tomato would be a nice addition to the top of the bacon and egg sandwich before it goes under the broiler.

[klyeoh]

The best "nasi lemak" I'd had in yonks, in the sleepy town of Kuantan on the East Coast of Malaysia. The coconut milk-flavored rice was gently folded in banana leaves whilst still warm. Topped with a spicy-sweet "sambal" sauce, crisp-fried groundnuts & "ikan bilis" (anchovies), and half of a hard-boiled egg, it proved that sometimes, great things do come in (very) small packages.

[huiray]

I hope you had more than just that one package for lunch.

[klyeoh]

Oh, it's only that one pack, coz I'd already had another lunch earlier in Karak at 11.30am (http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/811379) enroute to Kuantan :-D

[huiray]

Royal Red Shrimp (Pleoticus robustus), flash-sautéed w/ chopped shallots & parsley in good olive oil.
Fried rice, w/ day-old Zebra basmati rice, finely julienned fresh ginger and chopped scallions.
Sautéed zucchini sticks w/ minced smashed garlic.
Italian sea salt to taste in each.

Fresh succulent huge Bing cherries,

[huiray]

Fresh spaghettini with a sauce of sautéed sliced shallots, chopped smashed garlic, minced pork, chopped Red Zebra & Purple Cherokee tomatoes, chopped Chinese celery, fresh basil, splash of nước mắm.

[suzigirl]

Nothing special today. Ham and cheese hoagie and a grape slurpee. Lunch on the run. I guess its better than yesterday.... no lunch at all.

[sunangelmb]

I'm so embarrassed, after reading all your lovely lunches, mine seems pathetic. Today's lunch included 1/4 of a watermelon fom our local stand, wasn't as good as the ones I normally get at shoprite :( Then a handful of cherry tomatoes pulled off the vine, and a handful of pretzels.

[huiray]

Sounds like a refreshing and satisfying lunch!

[Harters]

Fried some chunks of chorizo. Tore some bread into rough croutons and fried them. Dumped everything onto a bowl of salad leaves and ate it in the garden, during one of the rare hours of sunshine we're getting this summer.

[linguafood]

Summer will be over again here tomorrow. Ack.

[huiray]

I always thought English weather *was* usually rainy/cloudy/grey-ish with rare sun... :-)
(I lived in England for 8 years)

Simple and tasty. "Salad leaves" = ?

[Harters]

Salad leaves = leaves from mixed salad lettuce.

You still in Berlin, lingua? Take it your weather is no better than our cold little island.

[huiray]

"Salad leaves = leaves from mixed salad lettuce."
-----------
Thanks, but I'm kind of interested in what exactly constitutes these kinds of salad leaves nowadays - what sort of lettuces, greens, etc - actual named varieties or species of "salad greens".

[Harters]

It varies. Sometimes the packs list the varieties. Sometimes, as with this pack, it just says "baby green leaves, baby red leaves" - it's probably so they don't have to keep changing the packaging depending on crop availability.

From memory, leaves regularly appearing (albeit at different times of the year) include - spinach, cos lettuce, frisee, iceberg lettuce, lamb's lettuce, little gem lettuce, mizuna, radicchio, red mustard, oak leaf lettuce, rocket. chard, romaine lettuce.

[linguafood]

Here for another couple weeks, then it's back to crazy land :-)

The weather has been rather crappy, as you well know, but the last few days we got a bit of a break -- 30°C and sunny. That's about to change again, of course. God forbid we have more than 3 days of nice weather in a row......

[linguafood]

Whole grilled mackerel with the usual accoutrements: pickled ginger, seaweed salad, slice of lemon, house-made remoulade sauce, horseradish, red onion. Damn, I'm gonna miss that market.

[huiray]

Was that at the Winterfeldtmarkt on Winterfeldtplatz in Schöneberg as you have named in the previous thread? Sounds yummy.

[linguafood]

Same stand as Winterfeldtmarkt, but different market. Thankfully, the fish dude sets up three times a week (I don't go to all three locations, but two out of three ain't bad), with the Friday market on Arkonaplatz being the closest to our hood.

http://steckerlfisch.com/
http://www.facebook.com/steckerlfisch...

[Harters]

Sandwich - grated Red Leicester, sliced chicory.

[huiray]

Late lunch yesterday - another batch of Yong Tau Foo.
With savoy cabbage & wong nga pak (Napa) soup, using the poaching stock.
Lingham's hot sauce.

[klyeoh]

Wow, that is a *lot* of food!

[huiray]

...and I had some of the leftovers for breakfast today. :-)

[suzigirl]

Huiray an klyeoh, you two have to cut it out. I want to lick the screen on my tablet at least twice a week from the pics you post. You're making me hungry. :-)

[huiray]

:-D

[shaebones]

We had a potluck lunch yesterday at work in honor of our Dietitian visitor from Malaysa. She provided us w recipes and some of us prepared them for our feast. Others brought dishes w an Asian theme. We had pad thai, cold noodle sesame salad, Pan fried shrimp w broccoli, chicken w 2 amazing dipping sauces, rice dish w dried rehydrated shrimp, mushrooms, fresh fruit and coconut soup. Triple berry cobbler w frozen yogurt for dessert. OMG, so good. I'm still stuffed from yesterday.

[huiray]

shaebones, is your visitor still there? Any more nice meals in the same vein?

Were these recipes passed on from her "just for fun" or were they part of some larger project? It's *is* nice, in any case, to read about you folks trying out "Malaysian-inflected" stuff. :-)

[klyeoh]

Soy-braised pork belly with hard-boiled egg & shitake mushrooms, cucumber salad with "sambal belachan" & pounded dried shrimps, and steamed white rice.

[huiray]

Shell-on egg, I see. Interesting. Was it braised together with the pork belly or separately cooked then added in?

[klyeoh]

Oh no, it wasn't shell-on - though I must admit it looked that way in the picture. The egg would've been hard-boiled, peeled, then added to the stew later on so the soy-flavored sauce would give the egg-white a slightly brown tinge.

[RUK]

Bagels with "everything on it", Cream Cheese and Lox today with the 5 year old twin girls (Grandchildren).

[chocolatetartguy]

All American club sandwich with turkey, ham, lettuce, tomato, onion, cranberry sauce topped by bacon cooked so crispy that it turned into bacon bits, all between toasted whole wheat bread. Later an Arctic ? white nectarine and a bag of Zapp's Spicy Creole Tomato chips.

[huiray]

Hmm. I had to look up what "Zapp's Spicy Creole Tomato chips" were. I don't consciously remember ever seeing this. The Zapp's website doesn't seem to list this variety? (http://www.zapps.com/) Then, there's this old (2009) blog that indicates it's a "special edition" sort of chips? (http://www.phoodie.info/2009/11/17/ya...)

[chocolatetartguy]

Small 2 oz bags of Zapp's have been turning up at small convenience stores in the East Bay. The Spicy Creole Tomato variety is spiked with tabasco sauce and has a nice kick and a definite tomatoey flavor. The pull date is August 2012. I've seen them one place in Berkeley and a friend saw them in Pleasanton. If it's a special edition I better go back and score the rest.

[huiray]

• "Quick 'Boiled' Soup" (Kwun Tong) of sliced pickled sour mustard ("Harm Choy") with sliced tomatoes (Red Zebra), julienned fresh ginger and marinated minced pork balls.
• Steamed whole big mouth bass**, with finely diced garlic, julienned ginger, chopped cilantro, sliced scallions and a warm sauce of sautéed garlic & ginger quenched w/ light soy sauce & ryori-shu mirin.
• Boiled white rice (basmati).

**Marinated w/ Shaohshing wine, light soy, macerated ginger, finely sliced scallions, sesame oil; then steamed; then the fish (only) taken, placed on fresh ginger/scallions/cilantro and doused w/ the warm sauce.

[pie22]

i had japanese yesterday as well - it was just a little place in the fancy food court of the mall (they have a fancy and a standard chain food court) and i had unagi donburi with pickles and a side of bok choy which i dipped into sriracha...very enjoyable!

[huiray]

Sounds good.

[linguafood]

A mixed grilled seafood platter (razor & littleneck clams, shrimp, salmon, butterfish, halibut with roast potatoes & a side salad, remoulade sauce & garlic bread. Boy am I stuffed.

http://fischfabrikberlin.de/

[huiray]

Would that be the "gegrillter Fisch nach Wahl (Preis nach Gewicht)" and the "Bratkartoffeln, Salat, Kräuterbaguette und Saucen" ? I don't see a "mixed grill platter" on their menu or at least it isn't obvious to me...

[linguafood]

It was a special that day.