Ridiculous excuses

Yes, yet another ridiculous excuse instead of a proper post.

However, I put the blame squarely on the shoulders of Apple and O2.

Switching computers with my Mom for a Mac might not have been a good idea before a massive life changing move....

And damn it, will O2 please deliver the broadband package as promised already???

Ah yes... El Bulli..... hmmmm.... initial thoughts is that he is an artist of food, absolutely beautiful..... I think I will have to divide the photos and my review (used in the loosest sense, of course) into a series of posts, once my computer and broadband kicks in.

Sitting in the basement of a smelly cafe with a constant whining sound and the wafting, ripe smell of sweaty armpit from the man next to me doesn't inspire me to write somehow....

"Hoi Wei"

Sometimes in Shanghainese restaurants, you get given little dishes of pickled onions or pickled vegetables. As opposed to peanuts, which are designed to stave off that intense hunger that makes you bolt the first few dishes, leaving you less able to enjoy the rest of your meal, these are designed to make you hungrier.

That's right, hungrier. These sour, slightly tangy vegetables get the salivary glands going and are what we call "hoi wei". Or, in English, 'open your stomach', which should make you hungry for the dishes to come.

Which is exactly what this little post is. A small, tangy little bit that should make you hungry for more. But first, a bit of a drought because I'm off to Spain.

And which restaurant should be in Spain? Any hugely famous ones?

That's right kids, I'm going to El Bulli. This is thanks to a kind invite by a very, very well respected blogger. I'm also going with some other special people but I'll leave it up to them to "hoi" your "wei”.

F-odd: Cornolate

Yes, I've been slacking off. You would too if you had to deal with the millions of utterly thankless exhausting tasks I've had to do lately. Or maybe you wouldn't. You wouldn't whinge, whine, stamp your feet and take deep, deep breaths to calm yourself down when faced with someone in the service industry whom you've waited in a long queue to see, turn down your perfectly reasonable request. All I know is that I am no saint and I don't like being told no.

What I do like is chocolate. And corn.

But corn chocolate? That's a different story.

As opposed to how corn is seen in France, us Asian peeps love the stuff. From soft serve sweet corn ice cream served at 7-11 (ick and so, so wrong), to hot steaming cups of buttered nibblets to keep you company while waiting in line for the bus, to just the little corn on the corb skewers they serve at the local KFC. This is definitely a place that doesn't believe that corn is only fit for animal consumption.

But this particular treat, the corn chocolate, first appeared on my radar about 6 years ago, when a colleague brought back a package from her trip to Hokkaido. I was given a single piece out of her stash. Since then, I've seen it appear from time to time wrapped in a box ready to be gifted (another thing us Asians like to do). But now, you can often find them in the large Japanese supermarkets in a foil packet. Expensive enough to hesitate over but not as expensive as the high end boxed chocolates.

Seeing how these are wrapped and how crazy my colleagues went over them, I'll be the first to admit. They ain't all that. Seriously. It's CORN chocolate for one thing. Not a flavor I associate with chocolate. Oh, and it's white chocolate. Not something I like anyways.

But this one smells cloyingly sweet when unwrapped, very milky and pale yellow, with clear nuggets of corn (kind of like firmer rice crispies), when tasting it, its very crunchy, not as sweet as it smells and tastes wrong. Like it was a salty puffed rice treat that had been accidentally dipped in a sugar coating. It has a fragrant corn taste to it, which I'm guessing is the draw. All I can say is, you can keep it. Give me and my cheap ass a Tolberone any day.

You can find more on Corn Chocolate here.

Late Zhong

Yes, I know its been almost two weeks since Tuen Ng Festival but I've been busy stuffing my face with 'zhong', the official food of Tuen Ng.

I looove zhong but have been discouraged from eating it most of my life from friends and family whose concern that my body shape looks more zhongzi like by the mouthful.

However, my mother thankfully brought back some that a family friend wrapped herself. Being Taiwanese, these were Taiwanese zhong, somewhat smaller than its Cantonese counterparts and chubbier in status than its Shanghainese ones, which are elegantly long. Who says we're not what we eat?

Unlike the zhong that I blogged about during previous Tuen Ng Festivals, these were filled with glutinous rice, salted egg yolk, stewed pork, dried conpoy and shrimp as well as soft blanched peanuts. Rather than dark soy or granulated sugar, the Taiwanese prefer sweet chili sauce as accompaniment. Sweet with a slight tangy kick, it is perfect with the rich, fatty tasting zhong.

Definitely worth looking like a zhong for.

Head of the family

We were having dinner at home the other day, having bought half a roast duck for dinner when my Dad suddenly asked:

"Anyone want the head?"

We all looked at him incredulously, my Mom and I never ever dream of eating, let alone fighting anyone for a half a duck head.

When I asked to take a picture before he demolished it, he said:

"Why? It's only a duck head! You're wasting your time. No one wants to read about me eating a duck head!"

Lucky for you I managed to wrestle it from him before he put half the duck bill in his mouth.

And I managed a snapshot of the remains after he ate all the "edible" bits. I don't know why I'm decidedly unsqueamish about other animal brains but duck, pigeon and chicken freak me out.

Good thing the H5N1 bird flu virus wasn't found and announced until this Monday....

La Bouffe de L'Amérique

As promised, a selection of food eaten in America during our honeymoon.

However, before I start this, I finally "get" why Americans complain and attempt to sue companies for making them obese. While I truly believe in personal choice making one a chubster (ahem, I take responsibility for my "orange shaped" silhouette), I do sympathize with them. The lack of healthy choices and the abundance of cheap, plentiful and convenient fast food in the States is quite a little surprising. On more than a few occasions, the boy and I found ourselves with the choice of buying either a hot fast meal at Roi du Hamburger or paying almost double (!!) for a two day old sandwich and water. Granted this was at an airport but it was a bit shocking how easy it was to just eat rubbish. When faced with a choice like that, we tried to placate the rumblings of our bellies with the trail mix from Paris I had in my travel bag. However, as you will see, we indulged in a LOT of junk! Hey, I may get why Americans complain but I take responsibility for my bad choices!

First up, one of the worst things you can put into your body. We were walking along the depressing and sad area of Fremont Street which was recommended by our guidebook in search of something, anything interesting when we saw the sign: Fried Oreos, Fried Twinkies.

Come on. As if you wouldn't!

So I did. It came in a little cardboard box of three deep fried Oreos sprinkled liberally with icing sugar and chocolate sprinkles. What you see in the background is a chocolate dipped frozen banana with nuts. Very yummy.

Surprisingly, the Oreos became quite soft and cake like after being fried. And was it good? Hell yes they were. I didn't think they would be but they were delicious. And as delicious as it was, the boy and I couldn't finish one each.

In Hawaii, we indulged in macadamia nut pancakes, which were way too heavy and doughy for first thing in the morning.

And in San Francisco, we had to have a bucket of seafood. We couldn't resist the siren call of the classic "Eat at Jo_'s" sign for the Joe's Crab Shack. To the boy's dismay, it was what he described as TGIF with a "crabby" theme. It was done up to look like a Disney interpretation of a crab shack. After some initial hesitation, we decided to stay, if mainly to watch the scaring antics of the "bush man".

Not to worry, we didn't just go for this kind of cheap and cheerful (and average) food, we also went to the somewhat touristy Alioto's where the boy had some impeccable lobster and I had some lovely sweet fleshed crab.

Of course, since we were on the West Coast, I couldn't help but drag the boy to In N Out for a tasty burger...animal style bien sur. We returned twice.... once right before our ride to the airport.

And I am still dreaming about the crab macaroni and cheese I had for breakfast one day.... so SO good..... luckily we had that bike ride across the Golden Gate bridge to burn off the unimaginable amount of fat in that dish.

So while not the best food I've had on vacation, certainly the variety and the fun we had made it all worthwhile.

D'oh!

Sometimes I feel like the female equivalent of Homer J. Simpson. A walking idiot whose brain and tongue don't work in perfect harmony.

I'd been home three days when Susan invited me over for a dinner party yesterday. Despite the 5 hour advance notice, this is not something you turn down. Susan was cooking. 'nuf said.

Anyhow, lo and behold I'm there early and get to meet the Fuschia Dunlop. In those five minutes before someone else saved me from digging myself deeper into the pit of mortification, I have managed to a) insult London, where, unbeknownst to me, she was living; b) admit that I didn't really know who she was; and c) tell her that Londoners were unfriendly.

Upon coming home and googling her, I find out that I've had her books on my Amazon wishlist. D'OH!!!!

I'm an absolute idiot.

However, the dinner party was fabulous fun and Fuschia incredibly gracious. Although I didn't know many of the guests besides Susan and Sunday Driver, they were very nice and thankfully forgiving even after the sharing of embarrassing anecdotes. It wasn't upon coming home that I found out that some of these ladies were professional foodies... I'm actually glad I wasn't forewarned. I think that while I wouldn't have backed out (did I mention Susan was cooking?), I would have been very intimidated. As it was I think I was a little too loose with my tongue.

The food.... well... what can I say? It was delicious of course! My favorites being the pork neck and the desserts. Desserts consisted of Susan-made Meyer lemon sorbet, mango sorbet and the intoxicatingly addictive chocolate cherry ice cream. That's not all though... there were canneles.

Yes, you heard right, deliciously rich with a caramelized crunchy exterior giving way to a plush, chewy, pudding-like interior... painstakingly made with molds specially bought from France, beeswax ordered online to brush the molds with and an hour of baking of the thumb-sized treats.

And if you feel like learning to cook in Hong Kong, check out Corner Kitchen!