Chapter 3: Daily Home Cooking

While enjoying great coastal scenery, Torquay is some distance away from the main urban areas. This meant that the nearest Chinese grocery store was in Plymouth (one hour drive away). However, these days, I hear that there are at least 4 Asian grocery stores in Exeter which makes things easier. To supplement our Asian diets, my mother would order some ingredients from the “beansprouts man” – vendors set up to deliver beansprouts, mushrooms and other necessities to a Chinese takeaway business. She could order various green vegetables such as choi sum, blocks of tofu and wonton wrappers. 

At other times, my mother would get hold of some special ingredients via friends and family that have come back from visiting Hong Kong. These were usually food stuffs such as dried shittake mushrooms, dried scallops for soups and even expensive ingredients such as bird’s nest and other obscure delicacies. I remember being given a double-steamed sweet soup “tong shui” on the night before an important exam. There were translucent jelly-like pearls in the soup. Mum did not explain what they were. It tasted fine so I drank it with no suspicions. In my early 20's, I had the same sweet soup in Hong Kong with friends. They were more than happy to tell me that the jelly-like pearls were frog ovaries. Full of estrogen and great for the skin! I never had it again. 

Family dinner was at 5pm sharp every evening and it was nearly always Chinese home-cooked dishes. The food was very different from what we sold in the takeaway. Aside from steamed or pan-fried fish or shellfish, boiled vegetables, my mother's repertoire also included dishes with plenty of sauce - a favourite for my siblings and I. Home-style pork & tofu is the first dish whereby I asked Mum for the recipe. Here it is: 

Home-style Pork & Tofu

Home-style Pork & Tofu (top right)

Ingredients

Small piece of steak or pork loin

Marinated pickled vegetable "ja choi" (0.5 packet)

1 block of soft tofu, cut into cubes

2 dried scallops

2 garlic gloves, finely diced

1 tablespoon of oyster sauce

cornflour, soy sauce, cooking wine, salt and oil for the marinade

1 spring onion, finely diced

Steps

1. Soak dried scallops in boiling hot water for 1 hour. When shredded, chop finely

2. Finely dice the steak or pork loin, marinade in salt, cooking wine, soy sauce, cornflour and oil

3. Finely dice the pickled vegetable "ja choi" and mix in with the marinaded meat

4. Heat 2 tablespoons of cooking oil in  wok, cook the meat first. Add dried scallops and garlic

5. When meat is cooked through, add 0.25 teaspoon of sugar, 1 tablespoon of soy sauce and some water

6. Add the cubes of tofu and 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce and let simmer for 1 minute, with the lid on

7. Stir 0.5 teaspoon of cornflour with cold water and add to the dish to thicken the sauce

8. Turn off the heat and stir in the finely chopped spring onions just before serving. 

- - - - - - - 

Steamed pork ribs

This simple homely dish relies on the quality of the pork. Feel free to use more garlic or white pepper depending on your taste preference. 

Ingredients

Chopped pork ribs, raw

Diced garlic

Sugar

Salt

Soy sauce

White pepper

Cornstarch

Steps

1. Marinade the chopped ribs with all the ingredients in a shallow dish for a few hours. 
2. Steam the dish for approximately 30 minutes. Bring the water to a boil, and then turn the heat to a low setting so there is constant steam. You can steam for longer e.g. 1 hour on a simmer if you prefer the pork to be more tender.

  

Chapter 2: Hakka Food

Both my parents are of Hakka origin – having grown up in neighboring villages in the New Territories of Hong Kong. The Laws are one of the 4 indigenous surnames in the Man Uk Pin village near Sha Tau Kok. Our lineage book recording male ancestry goes back 20 generations which is approximately 400 years. This means the Laws were in Hong Kong before the British arrived and created the colony. 

Mum is from the Wan Family in Tam Shui Hang village which is just outside Sha Tau Kok. The Wans have also been in Hong Kong for a long time.

Hakka women were known to be particularly hard-working and expected to help with all the agricultural duties. They were never subject to foot-binding as they had to work the land - in the rice paddies, driving oxen and so on. My mum would be the first to tell you that her early childhood chore was leading the oxen to the field during the day. 

Hakka cuisine is very savory - strong in flavor but not spicy. Common ingredients are pickled vegetables such as “mui choi”, pickled radishes and preserved salty fish. The Hakka were migrants throughout history which led to the prevalent trend for pickling food through salt for preservation purposes.

Stuffed Tofu and Peppers

This is a classic Hakka dish whereby blocks of tofu, peppers or aubergines are stuffed with a mince pork & shrimp filling. If avoiding seafood, you can add finely-diced water chestnut, carrot or wood-ear fungus to the pork mince to provide crunch. 

Stuffed fresh tofu, ready for pan-frying

Braised stuffed tofu in oyster sauce

Braised Taro and Pork Belly

This is a well-known Hakka dish in which my Grandfather Wan has a particularly good recipe! The recipe has passed down to my mother and my uncles. Every Lunar New Year, the family still continues to make several dishes to give as gifts to villagers and friends. It's a time-consuming dish to make so making a large batch is an all-day affair for several hands! 

All hands on deck!

The epic steamer

30 dishes ready for steaming

Tofu Lover Heaven: Sorano

Do you love tofu? Its soft, silky texture, its versatility as it changes forms and absorbs different flavors? If so, Japan is for you. For tofu lovers, there are restaurants dedicated to the stuff. This is not the rough and ready way tofu is prepared for salads in the West. Along an unassuming street along the train tracks at Shibuya, white noran curtains reveal Sorano. A tofu restaurant dedicated to illustrating how incredible tofu can be. We got the most basic tasting menu which was priced at a very reasonable JPY3,500.

Our amuse-bouche was an entry into how tofu can take on other flavors. This was "tomato" tofu - cold square of silky tofu infused with the tangy flavor of tomato juice. Note the strategic insertion of a green maple leaf - tofu masquerading as a tomato!

This was followed by a little hammo (dagger tooth pike eel) on a bed of crunchy summer cucumber and a piquant sauce.

Excitedly, a cooking vessel was brought out next to our table. A tray of fresh tofu was being cooked in front of us! It would take 15 minutes, we were told.

While the fresh tofu was cooking, we were brought more dishes to sample. This was a tofu puff cake smeared with some savory sauce with some shavings of japanese negi (similar to scallion but not as strong).

We also enjoyed some deep-fried prawn meat wrapped in yuba and deep-fried. Yuba is the thin tofu sheet which we often use to make Chinese sweet soup "tong shiu".

By now, the tofu cooking at our table was ready. Opening the lid was a tofu lover's dream. The tofu was silky, hot and fresh. Some soy sauce as well as sea salt and lime was also offered. We ate the tofu on its own - so good!

Taking a break from the tofu, we were given a manageable piece of grilled white fish with daikon. The fish was marinated in soy sauce and mirin so was a little sweet.

The rice dish was in a light broth with soft yuba (tofu sheet) and pickles.

Finally, we finished with dessert! This was a tofu(?) cake rolled in some finely-chopped nuts. It was sweet and a little chewy - almost like a soft nougat. I'm not sure how successful this dish was but it was certainly a fitting end to the meal.

A great choice for tofu lovers. The two stand-out dishes was the tomato-infused tofu and the fresh tofu that was cooked at our table. More details including its location with a map can be found at: http://www.timeout.com/tokyo/restaurants/sorano

Singapore = Amazing Food!

 I last visited Singapore approximately 10 years ago and I thought it paled in comparison to Hong Kong. I remembered a very sterilized version of Asia - great for families with young children only. It was a claustrophobic place where you had to walk when the green man said so and the streets of Chinatown were un-authentically clean!

Fast forward to 2013 and life in Singapore looked very enticing. With so many new structures - from Marina Bay Sands with its rooftop infinity pool; the modern Helix bridge to the beautiful Gardens by the Bay, suddenly Singapore seemed an exciting place to play.

It helps that the food in Singapore has always been incredible - a perfect melting pot of Malaysian, Chinese and everything else in-between. Foodies in Singapore have discerning palates; food blog-like mentalities and do not suffer from lack of choice.

I stuffed myself for one week and no meal was bad - although there were some exceptional highlights. Let's start with a photo of Makansutra Gluttons Bay - an outdoor hawker center that opens in the evening. The picture of a giant plate and chopstick epitomizes my mindset - FEED ME!

Landing in balmy humid Singapore was a deep contrast to frigid North-east US, so I was feeling a bit dazed and bloated as I followed Aunt Alice to the Ghim Moh Market for a hawker center lunch. We enjoyed wanton noodles, duck noodles with gravy and a braised five-spice tofu dish with broth.



Lining up for the food - no air con!

Yummy duck eggy noodles and a braised 5-spice tofu dish with broth - delicious!

Slurping up the noodles - my favorite pastime!

Wantons in broth and a char sui noodle - both very good



Looking hot, sweaty and bloated next to Aunt Alice - body still adjusting to the humidity

Later that day, Aunt Alice's maid cooked up a seafood feast. What an excellent cook she is! Although I enjoyed crab at a restaurant later that week with colleagues, the home-made crab and shrimp dishes were far superior in taste and quantity. We enjoyed cornmeal shrimp with fried curry leaves and home-cooked black pepper crab and curry crab dishes.

Spicy unami-laden black pepper crab

Cornmeal-crusted giant shrimp with fried curry leaves

Curry crab

With Aunt Alice living right behind Orchard Road, some shopping therapy was definitely on the agenda. Interspersed amongst all the brand-name clothing and cosmetic labels, an occasional food stall will catch my eye. Exotic fruits anyone? I couldn't resist this colorful display of ready-to-eat fruits - melon, pineapple, jackfruit, Chinese pear, mango. They had it all. My eyes beelined for the magenta dragonfruit - an incredible variation of the usual hot pink fruit but with grey flesh, this one had flesh the color of fluorescent magenta. I was told to eat quickly and neatly as the fruit juices can easily stain clothes. It was sweet and delicious.


Gorgeous fruits - pret a porter

Magenta dragon fruit

Throughout the week, there were lots of culinary adventures to be had. On our way to the monorail to Sentosa, I couldn't resist this sign I saw at a food court. Who could?



The pork came separate which meant you could use the braising sauce for dipping!

Perfect impromptu snack for two

The braised pork bun was incredible - just as its picture had promised. Now why no place in Boston can duplicate this and can only produce mediocre imitations, I do not know.

Other meals to highlight - one night out with colleagues to eat crab at New Ubin Seafood brought about this artery-clogging dish. Choice ribeye steak on a board with hand-cut fries. The best though was how they used the residual steak fat to cook a delicious fatty fried rice - the rich meaty savory flavors just exploded in your mouth.  Incredibly satisfying.

And finally some simple lunch meals to show how even lunch during a working day brings about immense culinary satisfaction. In one of the many office buildings in the Financial district, an Ippudo Ramen Express delivers hot and luscious ramen. This is the Akasaka  - my favorite Ippudo ramen in its signature red bowl. And to round off this post - a  simple yakitori snack meal at a shopping center food court - cheap but great.

Singapore - your food is amazing. I love you!!

The Akasaka ramen

Japanese yakitori on a bed of nori-laden soy sauce rice - simple but great

Forays into Korean Food

Blame H-mart - the new Korean megastore that has opened up near our home recently. It's a huge store with a great fish/sushi selection, whole area for kimchi, a food court, a posh bakery etc. We go there often at weekends - where you fight with other asians for a parking space. Once in, they are cooking up a storm in food samples - dumplings, fruit, fish, korean bbq etc. Our grocery bills have doubled but food quality of life - definitely have gone up 3 notches! I see odd ingredients, buy them and work out what to do with them on the net. Owning my trusty H-mart calendar (with 12 recipes) plus access to all the correct ingredients means I can now cook jap chae, bibimbap, scallion pancakes, beef bulgogi and the fabulous hot tofu kimchi stew called soondooboo jjiagae.