The Colours of Art

Found a very interesting website and created this piece using the tools available. Try it to discover another hidden talent in you. Have fun folks!

My Soupy Life

Every Chinese mom have to know one important dish in their life ... SOUP! This is some sort of culture passed down from the grandma to the mom to the daughter. Soup is not an appetizer. It's one of the 'must' dish for the Chinese.

You don't need to have excellent cooking skill to boil soup. Just buy the necessary ingredients and dump everything in a pot and let it boil for 4 - 5 hours. Astro once showed a programme on boiling chinese soups which I never heard before ... impressive!

My mom loves to boil soup. It starts every Monday and alternate days after that. At least 3x a week.

The normal ones ...

Lotus soup (lin ngau thong)


Watercress soup (sai yong choy thong)


Chinese Herbal soup (yok choy thong)


Carrot soup

The occasionally treats ...

Arrowroot soup (fern kot thong)


Dried vege soup (choy kon thong)


Salted vege and tofu soup (harm choy tau foo thong) - this is my favorite

If anyone want a taste of my mom's soup, just let me know and I'm happy to pack for you.

An Unforgettable Experience

I seldom do any food review because I'm not a food expert. Besides there are lots of food bloggers (or floggers) out there who can describe the taste of a roasted duck in 1 whole paragraph!

One of those bloggers, Precious Pea who is also my colleague was raving about some Chocolate Durian Cake she tasted from this place called Just Heavenly.


Frankly speaking, I'm not a fan of durian. The last durian-related food I had tasted was in 2005 when I was invited for lunch by Mandarin Oriental @ Lai Po Heen Restaurant. It was a durian pancake which is their best-seller. The pastry which was wrapping the durian was so thin that it was like eating a chilled durian minus the seed.

Somehow I was skeptical on how a durian can be mixed with chocolate and cause my colleague to go oh-la-la after eating the cake ... so I decided to get one and try it myself.


Ok back to the best-seller from Just Heavenly, the cake is covered with chocolate and the inside of the cake is filled with durian mousse. You will also find chunks of durian flesh inside (I found out from Precious Pea they used D24). The durian smell will hit you first when you cut the cake. A thin layer of chocolate wrapped with durian paste stuffed in the cake. The sweetness of the durian with a very very slight bitter of the chocolate can form another level of tastiness when they are blended inside your mouth.

I've to finished off the whole piece because my sister can't stand the durian smell. You need to share this with someone because it can be a little too much for one person's consumption. After this experience, I will never see durian as just durian again.

My verdict:
A must-try for all durian lovers.
An unforgettable taste for me but a good one.

Citrus Ginger Marmalade from Just Heavenly


I also bought a jar of Citrus Ginger Marmalade jam from Just Heavenly. Slices of orange and lemons can be found in the jam. On a piece of toast ... nice.

Soya Sauce Chicken Rice

As me and my sister were debating on what to eat on a Saturday afternoon, she suddenly reminded me that now is already July and I still have not done any cooking for June's quota.

So I got my butt of the sofa and searched for the Soya Sauce Chicken (Si Yau Kai) receipe, courtesy of Precious Pea who generously shared her recipe with me ... thanks girl (and also thanks to her mom-in-law in one way or other).

Ingredients:
Chicken drumstick or other parts
Light Soya Sauce
Thick Soya Sauce (1 teaspoon for the colour)
Garlic
Star Anise
Rock Sugar


For the chicken rice, just use one of these and add in garlic, ginger and pandan leaves


The ingredients


The process

For 1/2 bowl of soya sauce, add in 1 1/2 bowl of water. Then add in a handful of rock sugar, star anise and 1 garlic bulb. Cook the chicken for 15 minutes. You need to taste on the sauce and decide on the saltiness (add in more soya sauce if necessary). Off the stove and leave the chicken in the wok for another 5 minutes.

Once the chicken has been removed from the wok, add in 2 teaspoons of normal sugar to the balance of the sauce and cook until thick. Then pour the sauce on top of the chicken.

Precious Pea also taught me to add in hard-boiled egg as well ... taste good.



The result

Well, the taste is surprisingly good. But it's different from those chicken rice stall. I've tried my aunt's recipe and hers is also delicious. Maybe next time can asked her to teach me.

So what's next for July ... hmm just give me another month to think ya.

Quote of the Day - 4 July 2007

Had a really lousy shit day @ work (1st bloody time after 9 years working in the same company!) Trying very hard to control my emotion and blood pressure from shooting sky high until God show me this quote ...

"One of the greatest victories you can gain over someone is to beat him at politeness" - Josh Billings (1818 - 1885)

How true and I'll just have to do that.