Bread and Butter Pudding

1 loaf of day-old bread
2 tablespoons butter, meltad
6 eggs, beaten
3 cups milk
1/2 - 3/4 cups white/brown suger (brown suger and honey)
1 or 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (optional)
1/2 cup raisins (optional but recommended)
sliced/dried fruits (apple/apricots) -- optional

(Allowing the bread to soak in the custard batter for a full hour is the secret to a good bread-and-butter pudding)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Break bread into small pieces into a baking pan. Drizzle melted butter or margarine over bread. If desired, sprinkle with raisins and sliced/dried fruits.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine eggs, milk, sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla. Beat until well mixed. Pour over bread, and lightly push down with a fork until bread is covered and soaking up the egg mixture.

Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until the top springs back when lightly tapped.

One for the night ...

A centimeter won't hurt, i guess. Based on noona's suggestion, i opened the bottle of Korean Raspberry wine. Nice, suprisingly. Smells a bit like the raspberry flavoured vodka, but sweet.

Take a nice sip on a cold night before going to bed. Not a bad idea, noona - kumawo ... ;-)

White fungus with Pear Ya

2 pear ya
25g of white fungus
5 g of ginseng root
20g lili root bugs
10 cups of boil water
half cup of rock sugar

Steps:
1. soak the white fungus with some warm water for about 15 mins and wash and rinse
2. rinse the lili root bugs, ginseng root
3. cut the pear into thin slices
4. put all the ingredients into the boil water and boil it for about 2 hours.
5. put the rock sugar in and boil for another 10 mins.

Done…

5 mins Salad

1 big lemon
some dill
1 teaspoon of sugar
2 gloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 big tomoto
2 sticks of celery
3 leaves of iceberg or
some romanic leaves


Methods
1. get the lemon juice out from a big lemon
2. chop the dill and garlic and mix together with the lemon juice, olive oil and also sugar.
3. chop tomoto in cubes (approx 1cmx1cm)
4. chop the celery
5. chop the iceberg into big pieces.
6. put all the vegs into a salad bowl and mix well.
7. Mix well with the salad dressing.

Done...

In search of that legendary Jiangsu-bing

Have you ever eaten a perfect Jiangsu biscuit? I have. In fact, I would specially go and buy them when I worked on an afternoon shift. But the shop closed and moved away, and I could only dream of that lightly flavoured biscuit. Recently had breakfast (yum-cha) at yook-woo-hin and found that they still sold Jiangsu biscuits (or in cantonese, we call them Khong-sou-baeng). It was a mixed feeling to still be able to find the biscuit at one of my former favourite yumcha places, as the restaurant itself no longer sold the charsiu pao i loved so much. (The skin was handmade, and the filling was a light ochre coloured mix of pork - and perhaps some green onion and sesame) The pao they now served is just run of mill.

Imagine my surprise, when out with the boss the other day. We passed the tiny store opposite the Lee Rubber Popular Bookstore. (Obviously there to visit that place) This tiny store sold freshly baked tarts and cakes for breakfast, and tea, i guess. My boss stopped to buy tarts and lo - behold that packet proclaiming - Jiangsu-Bing!

It looked like it!

Mr Boss bought two packets for moi and the gang. I was looking forward to a taste.

And ...

Sadly, ... it has changed. Maybe the owner/maker changed or 'improved' on the original recipe. Or it could be my taste buds playing tricks on me. Still, i think i remembered it to be sturdier, lighter in flavour and less oily. The taste will remain forever in my memory as the best Jiangsu-Bing ever. And this version, i guess, will do for now.

Breakfast fit for a king!

There is a saying that goes like this: Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a rich man and take dinner like a beggar. I guess it means, eat really well (as in large and wholesome) in the morning, a nice and filling meal in the afternoon and eat lightly in the evening.

Since i'm not working today, and somehow could not go back to sleep after the radio clock went off - i made breakfast for the other half. Who reciprocated with his delicious brewed coffee. Coincidentally, we had bread and bananas, so here it is. The original recipe is suggested by Irene, who has gone AWOL.

Anyway, this is my take on the Bananas on Toast:

1. Butter your sliced bread (Pain de Mie, salted butter)
2. Slice the bananas lengthwise or as long a slice as possible, bcos small bits will drop of the bread
3. Lay them on
4. Toast them!

Eat.

Madame Irene suggests you 'season' with a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar. i don't have any, tho.

This morning, i enjoyed a lovely and leisurely breakfast of Bananas in Toast with a 'short' black. (Key Coffee Mandheling Blend, quite a lovely blend)
And let me tell you - this is the Life!

A fruit called Nam2

Ok. So i keep blogging about outlandish food. Actually, it isn't la. i think that there are so so many fruits and produce which are native to this region, medicinal perhaps and maybe from the forest.

My lovely aunt here is showing the fruit of the Nam-nam tree, as they call it. There is another name which i forget. i remember very very vaguely more than 20 over years ago, having tasted this fruit then never had a chance again until last year.

As you can see the flowers looks like they grow around the trunk of the tree. (i'm not an expert la) And then you can find the fruit looking dried and green, sort of like bits sticking on the trunk. Usually either the birds and bats got to them or they were too shrunken and small.

Last year's crop was bumper. And the nam2 tastes the same. Sourish with a tinge of licoricey.

I like tho.