Category Archives: Gastronomy

Chinese New Year Eve Reunion Dinner 2014

07 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by in Gastronomy, Home Cook Food

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I love Chinese New Year. Aside from the long holiday, it is also the time when I get to meet up with most of my relatives whom we usually don’t have much opportunity to catch up with since they are all over the world.

One of my favourite days is the Reunion dinner. The day where all the immediate members of my family sit down for a grand feast.  There will be many different special dishes from stewed pork with sea cucumber, steamed chicken, stir fried prawns, roast pork, braised abalone, and many more.

When I first join hubby’s side for Reunion dinner, I was shocked. They have steamboat ! I later learn that it’s pretty common for a lot of families to have steamboat during reunion dinner. I really enjoy having steamboat for reunion now. In fact, even my mum enjoyed it so much that she adopted steamboat for reunion dinner now too ! hahaha.

2014 CNY eve dinner

This Year’s Steamboat. Nom nom nom… The most important ingredient is the beautifully sliced sakura pork and also the wagyu shabu shabu slices. Followed by Fresh kampung eggs, fresh mushrooms, white soft tofu, freshly sliced salmon belly, tiger prawns, beancurd skin and tons of vege. Not forgetting the garlic oil and specially blended sambal sauce !!!

We were all so full ! The best part about steamboat is any unfinished food can be easily packed away… and to be use again for some other dishes. We usually use some of the leftovers ingredients to prepare a big pot of meehoon noodle soup for breakfast the next day before heading out to make the customary visits to relatives place.

I can’t wait for the next Reunion dinner.

My new toy – Khind Double Boiler (Experiment: Bitter Gourd Soup)

12 Thursday Dec 2013

Posted by in Gastronomy, Home Cook Food, Kitchen wares, Shopping

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I know many of you will cringe when you see bitter gourd (I can literally see my sister making the puking face already! Hohoho…). But, I also know many out there who love this unique melon despite it’s bitter taste.

I remember mum use to utter these Chinese saying, “If you can eat bitter food, you can withstand bitterness in life…” whenever she try to force us to eat bitter gourd when we were young. Interestingly, I grew up loving it. Thankfully, hubby likes bitter gourd too!!!

I love drinking Chinese soup – especially bitter gourd soup. Mum always make sure we have soup daily during our schooling days. How I miss those days. Unfortunately, it’s really tough to make Chinese soup sometimes because it usually means at least 5-6 hours of boiling and keeping a close eye on the pot (making sure the water don’t dry up or water splatter out from the pot). I’m lazy and working from morning to night means that it’s not easy to enjoy Chinese soup at home. When I get desperate, I’ll usually drop by one of those double boiling soup restaurants. But, nothing beats home cook Chinese soup.

Finally, after living on our own for almost 1 year, I decided to hunt for something which might do the job. I’m pretty sure there’s something out there. At first, it would seem that the only option available is slow cooker. Personally, I am not a fan of slow cooker. 1) it takes forever to cook 2) there’s limited pot size.

So when I found an electronic double boiler by Khind, I was so excited!!! It comes in 2 pot sizes (One big pot and 3 smaller pots). Double Boiling bird's nest soup

Unfortunately, there was not much review on this product, leaving me no choice but to be a guinea pig myself. I manage to get one from a local electronic store for about RM189 (It was on promotion then. Yay! )     Ready for cooking

For my first experiment, I made the bitter gourd soup.

First, I clean the chicken breast and pork bones and rinse it with some boiling water. After that, I carefully place the meat at the very bottom of the pot. I chopped one medium size bitter gourd and one carrot. Slot in 4-5 slices of ginger. Fill up the pot with boiling water (leaving a gap of 1 inch from the lid). Place the pot into the double boiler. Fill to the max line of the double boiler with normal water.

Preparation work - Bitter Gourd Soup

There’s a soup function for 2 hours. But, I decided to use the slow double boil for 2 and half hour. The result – BEAUTIFUL. My bitter gourd soup done

The soup was nice and clear. The bitter gourd is really soft but still in one piece. Sometimes, when you boil over the stove, the vegetable breaks into pieces.

I’ve also experimented with the smaller pots. This time, I did bird’s nest soup.Preparation work - Bird's nest

Again I use the slow function…

I love this double boiler. It’s really friendly to use and makes double boiling a breeze. The only drawback is that I can’t disassemble the body to wash. Washing the body is a little awkward as I tried not to get any water into the plug-in area. Another con which my mum don’t like is, it’s fully plastic… ;p

 

Brasserie 1806 – Dusseldorf, Germany

22 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by in Gastronomy, Germany, Oversea Restaurants, Travel

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I read heaps of reviews on this ‘fine-dining’ restaurant nestled inside the Breidenbacher Hof Hotel, closed to the old-town (altstadt). What attracted me to this restaurant is that the Manager at Brasserie 1806 replies reviews people posted on Trip Adviser and make effort to improve (thumbs up for that).

Hence, during our recent trip to Dusseldorf, we decided to head over to this brasserie for lunch. Aside from their normal menu, they also serve plat du jour – Very typical French style (I like!!!). Hubby decided to try their Goose menu.

Goose Menu

While waiting for our food, I took the moment to enjoy the beautiful view outside the window and also the majestic ambiance inside. This restaurant overlooks the old town and you can see that they are setting up for the Christmas market! (OOO… I LOVE Germany’s Christmas market).

Beautiful view

The bread served inside a seal paper package. When the waitress unwrap it, the smell of warm bread and thyme spread all around us. Yum yum… We were both quite impress.

Bread

We were served our soup shortly after.

Chicken broth

I was prepared for it to be a tad salty (from experience, food in Germany tends to lean towards the salty side).

BUT, we were not prepared for it to taste of ONLY salt. Mine tasted nothing like chicken broth.

Consomme with geese dumplingHubby’s consommé was worse. It was so salty he left the whole bowl untouched after 3 spoonfuls. He say it was like drinking sea-water ! hahaha. It was TRUELY a horrific experience. I had NEVER had such salty soup in my life ! and to have it in a ‘fine-dining’ restaurant is seriously unacceptable.

 

 

 

When the main course was placed before me, I actually hesitated. Normally, I would have dig straight in. Thankfully, the venison veal goulash was an acceptable salty level. The sauce was pretty good. The choice of cut for the meat was a little tough in my opinion. It would also be better to have more vegetable in it (chunks of carrots, onion and tomatoes would have add extra texture to the dish).

venison veal goulash

Hubby enjoyed his goose leg. The meat was tender and skin crispy. Overall, the main was slightly above average but nothing spectacular. And, considering the ‘fine-dining’ tag this place is attached to, I’ll say it’s a tad disappointing.

Goose Breast and Leg

Dessert time! I was really looking forward to dessert time as my menu allows me to select from their dessert trolley ! yay!!! I took my time looking thru the whole trolley. My tummy told me to take everything on the trolley. But, my brain only allow me to take 3. Sob sob… I really enjoyed the dessert. The egg custard was really good.

Dessert trolley My Desserts

Hubby’s dessert was pretty good too. The donut was really yummy. The crème bulee was so-so. The sorbet was unique. (hubby is not a fan of cinnamon – so, he was not impressed with it).

Winter Apple Creme Bulee
Truthfully, the food during lunch was not too impressive for us. The presentation for the food was really pretty. But, looks can be deceiving, eh? ;p

The only thing we had really enjoy was the beautiful setting of the restaurant and also the top notch services from the serving team. Perhaps, all the ravings review online was for the dinner. We are not sure. But, from the lunch experience we had, I’m not so tempted to return and try… Oh well.