Nepal By Foot - Day 01

On 7 March 2009, I boarded the plane to a much fantasized country - the country with the world's highest mountain. For the next 8 days, I would walk the mountains by foot, ready to be awed by the sights before me.

From the Kathmandu capital, I took a tourist bus to the lakeside town of Pokhara where I met up with my trekking guide, Mr. Ang Dendi Sherpa. And from Pokhara (930m), we took a coach to Nayapul. This would be the starting point of my trek.


The route is 'well-trekked' and it was not long before we made a stop for lunch at a local hut. Lunch was a simple affair of Dhal Bhaat which literally translates to Lentil and Rice. This is the Nepalese national dish and soon enough, I would learn that one has to love Dhal Bhaat in order to love Nepal!

By early afternoon, we reached Tikedungha (1540m) and spent the rest of the day relaxing at the lodge. With the lovely hills spread out before me, I learnt to slow down my pace and take in the view.

There is a general lack of electricity in Nepal and as night fell, I had a romantic candlelit dinner.

Bird's Nest

I bought these swiftlets bird's nest from Sabah where the price is considerably lower than if you were to buy them from reputable medicinal halls in Singapore. There are various grades of bird's nest depending on when the nest was harvested. The first harvest is considered the best and subsequently the 3rd harvest is the lowest grade as the then exhausted birds doesn't produce as much nutrients as when it built it's 1st nest. Also the 3rd harvest is done when the baby birds have left the nest and hence the nest is considerably dirtier and requires more work to clean before it can be consumed.

Nest built on the walls of caves are also considerably more expensive than nests built in man-made houses which are used to attract the swiftlets to build their nests. It is believed that the natural caves imparts certain amount of minerals to the nests as compared to none from the wooden planks in houses. This might have accounted for the varying colors in the cave nests as different minerals are deposited on the nests.

Bird's nests should be kept in a cool dry place. Bird's nests dries up during storage and so large quantity shouldn't be bought and kept for a long time. Usual quantity is about 1 qian which is about 7-8 pieces of nests. Each piece when cooked can provide enough quantity for about 7 days of consumption. I usually cook one piece each time and that will last me for 1 week and I will cook this once a month. Once cooked, I will leave it to cool and store it in a glass bottle and kept in the fridge.

Cooking bird's nest is simple. For the type of nests in the pictures, soak the nest overnight and tear the nest apart while removing any dirt or impurities, if any, embedded in the nest. Place the shredded nest into a double-boil container (typically made of porcelein), add a lump of rock sugar and topped up with water. Place the container in a pot and fill the pot with water up to about half the height of the container. Boil using a small fire for 4 hours.

The cooked bird's nest will give out a fragrance similar to boiled eggs. Consume a piece of bird's nest first thing in the morning after waking up and before consuming anything else.

A1 Hong Kong Porridge @ Upper Thomson Road

A simple dinner of HK Porridges and dishes "香港粥"

Scallop & Gingko Nut Porridge "白果干貝粥"

Mixed Pork Porridge "豬雜粥"

HK Style Ting Zai Porridge "艇仔粥"

Rice with Braised Gravy "卤味饭"

Mushroom Braised Chicken "香菇焖鸡"

Raw Fish Slices "生鱼片"

Fatty Pork with Preserved Veggies "梅菜扣肉"

Fatty Pork with Preserved Veggies "梅菜扣肉"

Location: A1 Hong Kong Porridge @ Jalan Todak (off Upper Thomson Road)

All the porridges were boiled with dried scallops, giving it a natural sweetness. These traditional HK style porridges are cooked using broken rice to give them it's thick creamy consistency, different from the Taiwanese or Teochew Porridge where the rice grains are still whole and intact. Each has it's own merits and offers nice variations to this simple fare. Each claypot of porridge makes a nice single portion.

The meat dishes were decent and gave the porridges a nice boost of saltiness, which I liked. However, all the dishes come as a set, which includes a small dish of veggie and a bowl of rice. Maybe the restaurant can offer the dishes on their own instead of a set, this might encourage more customers to order them and not having to worry about not being able to finish the extra rice. I know I would had ordered more dishes if not for the consideration of that rice.

The price was decent and definitely worth the fare. I like this place in contrast to the over-priced Taiwanese porridge along another stretch of Upper Thomson Road.

Banana Walnut Bread

Ingredients:

1 cup (115g) walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
1-3/4 cup (245g) plain or top flour
3/4 cup (150g) granulated brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs
1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 ripe bananas (about 1lbs or 454 grams), mashed well
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Steps:
1. Preheat oven to 350F (180C) and place oven rack to middle position, Butter and flour the bottom and sides of a 9x5x3 inch (23x13x8cm) loaf pan. Set aside
2. Place the nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 8-10 minutes or until lightly toasted. Let cool and then chop.
3. In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, sat, cinnamon, nuts. Set aside.
4. In a medium bowl combine the mashed banana, eggs, melted butter and vanilla.
5. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients just until combined and the batter is thick and chunky. (the important thing is not to over mix the batter. You do not want it smooth. Over mixing will yield tough rubbery bread)
6. Scrape batter into prepared pan and bake until bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55-60 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan.
7. Serve warm or at room temperature. This bread can be frozen and microwave before serving.

Verdict:
1. Top flour makes a much finer bread.
2. This recipe makes a rather cake-like bread, so don't be surprised.
3. Make sure you get very ripened bananas to give it that extra fragrance when baked. unripe or just ripened bananas just doesn't cut it.

Ondeh Ondeh (番薯蛋)

Following the runaway success of The Little Nonya (小娘惹) drama, everything and anything Nonya has become popular with many Singaporeans.

For me, it would have to be the mouth-watering Nonya cuisines. :)

Ondeh Ondeh (番薯蛋)

Ingredients (材料):

50g sweet potatoes (50克 番薯)

200g glutinuous rice flour (200克 糯米粉)

2 pieces gula melaka (两块 椰糖)

2 tsp pandan essence/green colouring (两茶匙 绿色素)

1 bowl water (一碗 清水)

100g grated coconut without skin (100克 去皮椰丝)

Method (做法):

(1) Cook the sweet potatoes in a pot of boiling water. Once cooked, mash it.

蒸熟后的番薯压成泥。

(2) Melt the gula melaka slightly with your hand temperature and roll into small balls.

与糯米粉混合，并慢慢加入清水和绿色素至能搓成软团状。

(3) Mix the mashed sweet potatoes with flour. Slowly incorporate water and the green colouring till a dough forms.

利用手指温度把椰糖捏成小球状。

(4) Roll the dough into balls, flatten it with your palm and add in the gula melaka balls. Shape the dough again into a ball and ensure that the gula melaka does not leak on the outside.

把绿色面团揉扁平，摆入椰糖小球后裹成番薯蛋。需确保椰糖不外露。

(5) Add the ondeh ondeh balls to a pot of boiling water. Once cooked, the balls will float to the water surface. Drain the balls of water and roll them on a plate with the grated coconut.

在锅中滚开水，下番薯蛋至煮熟浮起。取出后，趁热沾上椰丝即可上桌。

Verdict:

- the gula melaka can be a bit sweet so if you do not have such a sweet tooth, you might want to cut down on the sugar

These are a few of my favourite things....

My Favourite Things (from Sound of Music)

"Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels

Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles

Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings

These are a few of my favorite things"

My favourite milk tea would have to be the Hong Kong style bitter-sweet milk tea:

My favourite breakfast set from Starbucks consist of almond croissant and mocha green tea latte:

These are a few of my favourite things... :)

Brotzeit @ VivoCity

Brotzeit in German language translates to "Bread Time". So if one day, Bread Talk decides to launch it's first European branch in Germany, it could be called "Brot Sprechen".

Recently, I finally mustered enough courage to try the two dishes which I have grown to like so much during my one year training stint in Austria - Wiener Schnitzer and Goulash - at Brotzeit.

Singaporeans are relatively familiar with Wiener Schnitzer which is a well-known Austrian traditional dish consisting of deep fried veal coated with breadcrumbs served with lingonberry jam, potato salad and a slice of lemon. The taste was very similar to those served in Austria but the veal was relatively thin. For me, the magic lies in the combination of lingonberry jam with every mouthful of schnitzer.


Goulash, interestingly, originates from Hungary. It is a stew made from beef, onion, paprika and various spices. Armed with a french loaf, I could easily glup down a big bowl of goulash. Such were my fond memory of this simple dish formerly made by cattle stockmen.



While the beef cubes were tender, the gravy was quite a disappointment. It was too thick and salty so after a few mouthful, I had to wash it down with some plain water. Halfway through, I was already quite full with half my tummy filled with water and there was no way I could finish the entire serving of goulash.

I could imagine myself going back to the restaurant for the ambience and the casual bench-style sitting arrangement. As for the choice of food, it would have to be somewhere else.

Happy 牛 Year (年初一)

It has always been the tradition in my family to observe strict vegetarian dietary rules before noon on the first day of Chinese New Year. Lunch would be served at around 11am and it would always be the same two vegetable dishes accompanied by Cheng Teng (sweet dessert soup).



In addition to the reunion dinner, we would all be looking forward to this special vegetarian lunch. As of today, we still do not know why our mother never recreates all three dishes on any of the 364 days of the year.

Any of the dishes when presented on any other day alone without the other two simply doesn't taste as nice. :)

Happy 牛 Year - Reunion Dinner 2009

I realised something interesting during reunion dinner this year. While we are having increasing family members gathered around the dining table each year, there's ironically lesser varieties spread across the table.

But I'm not complaining as long as my favourite fish haw soup, fishballs, scallops, ngoh hiam and mango sago makes their usual appearances. :)

祝大家身体健康，笑口常开！

Japanese Cheesecake - Take 2 & Take 3!

I tried out the recipe for the Japanese Cheesecake as posted in an earlier blog entry and found to my dismay that while it is generally a good idea to use a cake tin with removable base in most instances (it saves the hassle of laying the base with baking paper), it is quite the opposite in this case.

The recipe calls for the placement of the cake tin in a water bath during baking and seemingly, it's quite "fill-in-the-blank" of me to use a cake tin with removable base. So in the end, the base of the cake was wet and I guess I could have baked for a longer period of time as the top of the cake is still quite moist to the touch.



On the second day following the flop attempt, I used a 'normal' rectangular cake tin and baked for a longer period of time, checking the cake with a wooden stick from time to time. This time, it turned out better. :)



Moral of the story: "Cutting corners to save a little effort could end up with disastrous result" or simply put in Singaporean term "It's okay to be smart, but don't ever try to act smart!"