Yum Yum Tom Yum

I was in Phuket last week for a meeting. Hotel food in the Patong area were so so. At the end of the 3-day meeting, I had requested Sandy, the local guide, to bring us to a good restaurant serving authentic Thai seafood. She recommended Danang Restaurant at Chao Fah Road, which is along the Charong Beach. Now Danang is a restaurant that is patronised mostly by the locals unlike the restaurants in the Patong area, which serves the tourists mainly. So the price was reasonable and the food really authentic unlike the watered-down versions we had earlier in the week.

We had the most incredible S$110 meal that fed the five of us ladies silly.

Best ever Seafood Tom Yum, chockful of prawns, mussels, flower crabs, fish, squids and abalone mushrooms. The soup has a lovely tang and was spicy enough to make your scalp sweat.

Giant Spicy Tiger Prawns the length of your palms, with a sauce so good that makes you go for a second and third helping of rice.


Fresh and sweet Steamed Fish in Lemon Sauce.

Fresh Oysters twice the size of your sauce plate and harvested off the Andaman Sea. As it was so big, I had to take three bites as I cannot slurp it down as with a normal oyster. It was super-delicious and had a 'crunch' to it. The Thais served them with seven kinds of condiments ~ fried shallots, chilli sauce, fine salt, sweet & spicy chilli/bean paste, garlic slivers, prik nam-phla and lime wedge. You add a little bit of each condiment to eat with the oyster.



Mud Crab with Tang Hoon. Springy mungbean vermcelli that has soaked in all the goodness and flavors of the crabs.

The ubiquitous Pineapple Rice.

We also had two different types of stir-fried vegetables, fresh coconuts all round and another round of fresh lime juice to douse the fire at the end of the meal.

Ummh...Danang will now be in my highly recommended list of restaurants.

Takoyaki

It has been almost a year since I last used this Takoyaki Hotplate, which was a present from my brother after one of his trips to Tokyo. After receiving this new toy, I had agreed to help Joanne to buy one should my brother visit Tokyo again. That was almost a year back.

My brother did not forget! Just two weeks ago, he lugged back another Takoyaki Hotplate for Joanne. It was also a reminder that I have left my own hotplate sitting forlornly in the cupboard, out of sight, out of mind. Having used it only twice previously, I thought it was high time I made some Takoyakis (is there a plural form for takoyaki???)again.

The Takoyaki batter cooking in the hotplate.


After turning them over


Served with Japanese mayonnaise, Otafuko sauce and Bonito flakes. Oishi.

It's Blooming Roses

Tried my hands at making roses out of sugarpaste. There is much room for improvement though. I have to roll the paste thinner and learn to overlap the petals at the right position. Now, my rose seems to be lopsided because the petals are concentrated on one side. Nevertheless, I am quite pleased with the results.

Drying the centre buds.


I tried dusting the pink rose on the right with some shimmer dust but instead of creating an overall sheen, what I got were patchy petals.


Back view of the sepals.


A bouquet of roses

Chilled Pork & Cucumber Rolls

Last Saturday, I attended yet another gathering organized by members of the Imperial Kitchen forum. As usual, each one of us brought a dish to share. My contribution, Chilled Pork and Cucumber Rolls, served with a sweet, piquant dip.


Chilled Pork & Cucumber Rolls

Ingredients:
Lean pork
Cucumbers

Sauce:
1/4 cup Char Siew Sauce
1 tbsp hot broad bean paste
2 cloves garlics - chopped finely
3-4 tbsp sugar
1/8 cup Worcestershire Sauce
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp sweet Thai chilli sauce
2 tbsp lemon juice
Toasted sesame seeds for garnishing

Method:
1) Slice pork thinly into strips approximately 4cm x 8cm wide.
2) Bring a pot of water to rolling boil and cook the pork slices in batches.
3) Run the cooked pork slices in cold water, drain well and chill in the fridge till required.
4) Mix all sauce ingredients together and chill in the fridge.
5) Using a vegetable slicer, slice the cucumbers very thinly lengthwise. Place on a napkin-lined plate to absorb any water.

Assembly:
Place a slice of pork on the cucumber.


Roll tightly and secure with a toothpick.


3) Chill all rolls in the fridge.
4) Dip into the sauce just before serving.

Note:
1) In place of lemon juice, you can use plum sauce.
2) Choose medium sized cucumbers. Avoid cucumbers that are too fat as the core will be thick and too seedy.
3) Slice on one side of the cucumbers till you reach the core, stop and then continue slicing from the other side. You do not want slices of cucumber with too many seeds on it.

Two Cakes

The first, a Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting, was made specially for Leana who loaned me her winter coat recently.

The cake was to be decorated with walnut halves and miniature sugarpaste carrots which I made the previous evening. The sugarpaste carrots were added just before photo-taking. As I was taking the photo, I noticed that they started to slide down the cream cheese frosting, leaving behind a trial of unsightly green and orange.

I had no choice but to do some quick rescue work. I removed the carrots, scrapped out the stained portion of frosting, and then patched up the holes with whatever frostings I could scrap out of the mixing bowl. It was fortunate that I have some leftover roasted walnut halves and in the end, I had to use them to hide the repaired area.

Lesson learnt ~ sugarpaste are not buddies with cream cheese (oily?). Next time, use marzipan carrots instead!

Here is the Carrot Cake with the original design:


After the rescue work:

The carrots that never got to see the day!


The second cake which I baked was a Butter Cake that was studded with canned logans and dried logans. The two contrasting texture of logan makes for a very interesting cake. The canned logans were crunchy and juicy, while the reconstituted dried logans were soft and chewy. I will definitely bake this again as it is a nice departure from the usual raisin butter cake.

Toss For Good Luck

It was the last day of the Chinese New Year yesterday and we had our traditional Yue Sheng (Raw Fish Salad) Party at home.

As there are always so many of us, we will usually just throw a piece of new and cleaned plastic sheet over the entire dining table to be used like a giant serving platter. All the veggies will be piled onto the plastic sheet and we would all just toss away for good luck amidst loud shouts of 'Fatt Ah' (Cantonese for Prosperity).

Last year, we had shaped the salad into the outline of the Singapore island.

This year, being the Year of the Golden Pig, we decided to shape the salad into the Chinese character 'Zhu', which means Pig.

The salad, before adding the condiments.


With the condiments scattered all over the character. We added a heart outline to the character as the 15th day is also believed to be a Valentine day of sort whereby, if an unmarried lady were to toss a mandarin orange into a river, she will be blessed with a spouse quickly.


Ready! Set! Go! We have to hold up the sides of the plastic sheet to prevent the 25 overly enthusiatic diners from tossing the salad onto the floor.


Tossed and ready to be eaten.


And after the salad, a nice bowl of Abalone & Chicken Shreds Porridge.