exordinarily ordinary » foodieviews

Awesome America: Jimmy Buff’s

sourrain — Tue, 18 Jan 2011 22:15:09 +0000

Where we were staying in New Jersey, there were blocks and blocks of bog standard strip malls, like anywhere across North America. I have an affinity for these strip malls, they tend to contain nail salons, the usual big names like Walmart and Target to smaller establishments like Trader’s Joe (I love Trader’s Joe!) and other independent stores and restaurants; from clothing stores to a pizzaria and locksmiths. You just never know what will you find next. It is most definately preferable to the high streets in so many towns across the UK which are usually full of just big name shops.

I would love to say that I found Jimmy Buff’s in one of my drive-throughs; but the fact was I first found out about Jimmy Buff’s on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives – my latest favourite TV show. The host, Guy Fieri, goes around the US visiting great independent diners and ‘dives’ – this range from large pancake diners to chinese restaurants to a food truck.

However the beauty of strip malls was that I did not even need to hunt it down; we spotted it as we were driving out of the car park from clothes shopping and I had to stop. It was about 11am in the morning, but we had not have any breakfast, so we ordered the trio of pushcart hotdogs. I would’ve loved to get a selection of their giant hotdogs, but I thought that it would be too heavy for us as we were planning for lunch as well.

The seating area

The simple counter

Our hotdogs were cooked fresh – deep fried, not flat top cooked, boiled or grilled.

The chilli dog. Very delicious indeed – this is probably the best chilli dog I tasted up until then. The skinny hot dog is deep fried, which preserves the juiciness contained within the dog casing. The chilli was bolognase-like…but it went very well with the dog.

The cheese dog. Yeah, we could’ve probably gone for chilli cheese, but the generous amount of all the toppings would probably not be able to contain more than one topping. As it were, the bun was falling apart before we finish eating it.

The beauty of Jimmy Buff’s? Bacon recognised the person that cooked our hotdogs from tv – it was the owner’s son . A family business through and through; and not just for TV. How great is that?

Jimmy Buff’s
CASTLE RIDGE PLAZA
354 Rt 10 west bound & River Rd.
Tel: (877) 9HOTDOG

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Awesome America: Korean Fried Chicken War!

sourrain — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 22:05:56 +0000

Hello it’s me! I’ve been away for quite some time – spent about two weeks travelling in New York, New Jersey, D.C and Philly. It was seriously the most ‘adventurous’ trip – I made it to Newark but my suitcase didn’t until a few days ago. Bacon being the nice person he is said that he was glad it was me and not him. Yup. Then on the day we were supposed to be coming back, our flight got cancelled due to airport closure in Paris. Then a whole load of that white stuff dumped it down in the Northeast, and JFK closed for business, which meant we were effectively stuck. It wasn’t until three days later that we eventually manage to get on the plane….whew!

Upon returning home I was struck by the ugh flu bug that have been doing its rounds…bleark. It was so bad I took three days off work – the longest sickie I’ve had in ages. Anyway – thought it was time I continue my Awesome America series or I may start forgetting…so let’s see….maybe we can start with the war of the Korean Fried Chicken.

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I love fried chicken of all types, and have been hearing about this marvel that is Korean-styled fried chicken. Apparently the fried chicken is dipped into some sort of cramazing sauce – sweet & spicy. Hmm. Sounds yum. Obviously with the UK being a general all-round desert for Korean food, it’s not available here. I had noticed a few restaurants specialising in Korean Fried Chicken during my previous trip to the Big Apple – so I couldn’t wait to go back and actually try some.

I did some research prior, and it seems that the most popular chain is Bon Chon. Established in Korea, it is expanding speedily in the US at the moment. The inside of Bon Chon looked more like a sports bar than a chicken restaurant – hm. Not quite sure I like that; I have an idea in my head of what a chicken restaurant should look like, but thats just me.

We ordered the spicy chicken drums – when I ordered drums I thought it was the drummet of the chicken wing, not the actual drumSTICKS. That really sucks, because bacon hates drumsticks! Anyway, we ordered 10 wings, which apparently translated into 5 drumsticks. It would really had helped if the waitress had explained this before – all she asked me was drum or wing.

The skin – as you can see, is super duper paper thin crispy and separated from the meat.

This was served with a side of pickled mooli, which was supposed to temper the heat slightly. However, we found that the marinade, although we asked for the hot version, was very, VERY mild. I can taste the sweet soy and ginger flavour, but the spiciness was very tame. Hm. Not entirely convinced. Amazing skin, so-so marinade and flavour. It could probably do with a dip as well?

We were there mid-afternoon, and the place was pretty quiet. The wait staff kept coming over to ask if we were ok and if we wanted anything else…like every FIVE minutes. That gets very annoying and grating after the second time. Ugh. It was not cheap, but affordable.

Earlier that day (yeah, we hit two Korean Fried Chicken place in ONE day!) we were also at Kyo Chon, another Korean Fried Chicken place in NYC. This at one end of K-town, just around the corner from the largest Macy’s ever. This place resembles a McDonalds rather than a sports bar – complete with paper boxes to eat out from and a separate counter to pay and collect.

When we ordered, the cashier actually told us that the hot was going to be VERY hot. We obviously paid that no heed and told her that it was ok. Boy oh boy….

We ordered 10 of the signature (non-grilled) wings. In HOT.

As with most Korean Fried Chicken, this wa cooked fresh, and we were given a buzzer to alert us when it is cooked. I sent bacon to get us a selection of sauces. It wasn’t too bad a wait, but then again it was 11am, no lunch crowd in sight yet.

The last time I saw wings as beautiful as this was when I visited the home (literally) of the buffalo wings. These were absolutely great to look at – lovely crisp crust, completely covered by sauce. And when I bit into it, I nearly died. Boy was it spicy OR WHAT?! In three bites, we were flushed red, fanning our tongues…the whole nine yards. The piping hot fresh-out-of-hot-oil did not help in tempering the heat. However, I soon found out that dipping it in one of the sauce (my favourite is the honey dijon) helped tremendously. The slight sweetness of the sauce complemented really well with the spicy chicken – not to mention that the creamy texture did justice to the crunchy chicken skin. To die for.

It was all very delicious – I give it my two thumbs up! Compared to Bon Chon, Kyo Chon was more like what I expected it to be, buffalo wings on steriods. Super spicy, super tasty, and super yummy. I love buffalo wings, and these babies feel/taste like the buffalo wings that I know, just edgier. Things might have gone better at bon chon if I ate there before trying Kyo Chon. Don’t get me wrong, Bon Chon was delicious, with that amazingly crispy skin; but Kyo Chon blew my mind. Top fried chicken. I get what the hype is now. I totally get it.

Kyo Chon
319 5th Avenue (at 32nd Street)
New York City, NY 100
Tel: 1-212-725-9292

Bon Chon Chicken
314 5th Ave 2nd Floor, (between 31st St & 32nd St),
New York City, NY 100

Psst. Are you still reading? Seeing that we’re on a fried chicken post…some bonus material for you then.

The American KFC! Some people may not like it; but it’s still miles and miles better than the English KFC. It has hot & spicy, it is CRISPY (unlike the mostly soggy KFC in the UK), serves mashed potatoes and whip up a pretty good coleslaw. And serves Southern biscuits. Delicious; but nothing compared to the other KFC .

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Dining in the Dark

sourrain — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 21:23:33 +0000

Complete with brightly coloured bags resembling children’s luggage , I was swept off to a couple of days in London last week for a secret recognition event organized at work. It was touching to be picked as one of the ‘recognized’ members of staff after a short six-month at this company…and it’s always nice getting time off from work!

The Houses of Parliament & Big Ben looks fab at night
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We went up on the London Eye with a champagne reception – and it was beautiful in the night. I’ve been up the London eye a few times already but never at night, and certainly never with a full champagne reception. The only issue I had with that was that we were made to wait 15 minutes in -ve weather conditions – completely decked out in evening finery = not very warm! The food was ok, but the champagne was most definately a nice touch and the view was amazing thanks to the clear skies.

When dinner came around, I thought there would be no suprises anymore..expecting a regular three-course dinner with maybe a band or something. Boy, was I going to be shocked. We pulled up (in a old Routemaster no less) to a restaurant in the middle of nowhere – and even from the name, I knew it was going to be an adventure. Dans le Noir? looked like a posh bar from the outside completele with a dimly lit reception area. However, there is where all the similarities to a bar end. There was a bank of lockers on the left as we stepped in, where we were instructed to lock our coats, watches, phones, cameras – everything basically including lipstick.

Guessed what it was yet?

Yup – we’re dining in the dark! Dans le Noir? is a culinary experience – diners eat in pitch black darkness served by blind servers. Three courses complete with wine and drinks, this was the most surreal experience ever. Some people in the party were creeped out by the idea and chose to sit out on this experience…you can dine upstairs in the lit bar if you should choose to, but that really defies the purpose doesn’t it?

Obviously I was not able to snap and pictures in the dark (I couldn’t even see my hand right in front of my face. Starters we had a lovely rocket salad with a balsamic dressing and two cheese tartlets which were only ok (feels store bought). Some of us thought we only had one cheese tartelets – either dropped by our visually imparied servers or pushed out of the plate by the visually impaired diners – more likely the latter.

For mains, we had a choice of meat, fish or vegetarian – and that was all the information we got. I had the fish, which was frankly dissapointing. I recognized the texture of shark (one of my favourite fish but also one that I try not to eat at all – love sharks!), totally did not get the red mullet and the scallop was a massive dissapointment. Scallops are one of my all time favourite shellfish, however, mine was so badly cooked it felt like chewing through a piece of fat. It did not taste of the sea at all, and the texture seemed like a piece of boiled fat. Totally put me off scallops. Desserts was some honey-ginger poached pear and melon (we found out after) ; but the soggy texture completely put me off and I just could not eat it.

What I did not expect was that when you are unable to see, you tend to use your fingers a lot more than utensils. I ended up eating all three courses with my fingers – yup, even salad. We had to pour our own wine and water, and to ensure that it does not spill over, stick a finger in the glass. Was my senses sharpened? Not really – I could not smell any better; but the whole night seemed to be extremely loud to me with babbling people everywhere. I found myself squinting alot, even though I can’t actually see anything – we all did, and I eventually just closed my eyes to relax. I found myself questioning the textures that I feel on my tounge, on my fingers, the lack of flavours, a general non-enjoyment of the meal. Food is served tepid, probably expecting you to eat wiht your fingers – and that did not help with the lack of flavour in the food.

It was interesting and definately pushed the boundaries, but it is not something that I would be looking to do again anytime soon. I would recommend everyone to try this experience once in the life.

If you’re thinking of going – make sure everyone in your party WASHES THEIR HANDS FIRST!! They are open daily for lunch (booked parties of 16 and above only) and does two seatings per night. You will be seated in a communal table next to other parties, giving a different meaning to ‘can you pass the bread please’. And by the way, bread is passed on without butter, butter knife or plate – just in a communal basket. Jay Rayner has a good review here.

Dans le Noir?
30-31 Clerkenwell Green
Clerkenwell, City of London EC1R 0DU,
United Kingdom

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Koya Japanese Udon

sourrain — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 21:35:28 +0000

Continuing our adventures in London, we were at Koya for dinner after our meal at Gary Rhodes. Koya is well-known for its handmade udon noodles – a rarity in the UK. This little cafe-like establishment even made London’s top 100 restaurants! There is nothing 5 star about the deco or the service – the proof of the pudding is all in the handmade noodle.

As we were a party of 8, they had thought it appropriate to squeeze us into a table for 6. With a little organisation we could’ve been seated more comfortably – bacon was squeezed in a corner and could not move a muscle all throughout the meal. I had to balance my handbag between me & bacon, as there was just NO SPACE LEFT. There was a queue forming outside, but on the inside the service was most definately subpar. We waited ages for the sake to arrive, after all other drinks had already arrived. Orders were taken as soon as we’re ready, so I guess that’s not that bad.

The starters are pretty inventive -

Fish & chips/ battered cod served with thinly sliced deepfried renkon/lotus root £ 7.50.

Smoked duck breast – think this was ellefie’s – And yeah, they did not even bother wiping the mustard smear off the plate.

Vinegered mackerel – which was what I had. Deelish, but why soooooo tiny for £5.50?!?

My lonely tempura prawn udon

ellefie‘s vegetarian tempura cold udon with hot broth – looks better, at least there is more than ONE item!

Bacon’s gyu udon – thinly sliced beef with ginger & spring onion broth. I think his is the best amongst the lot – yummy, even though it is pretty simple. The flavours of beef, spring onions & ginger was lovely.

Kelvin’s chicken udon.

KJ’s kinoko (mushrooms) udon with walnut miso – the walnut miso is pretty special taste-wise.

The quality of the noodles were indeed superb, but that was all there is – the dashi in mine was pretty watered down and tasteless. Tempura batter was ok – but I found myself having to fish out the batter bits as I was otherwise only eating noodles in a weak broth. Portions are minute, my starter looks like a hors d’ouveres and my main dish looks like a starter. It’s pretty expensive for what it is – if my noodles came with 3 prawns (or even TWO!) , I wouldn’t mind paying £9 for it. But for it to just come with one measly tempura prawn – that just broke my heart. The service is ok if it was a cafe – but most definately not worth the service charge they levied on our bill as they masquerade as a 5-starred establishment.

Would I go again? Hm. Probably not by choice. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed the fresh noodles. I would still encourage you to go and try the noodles, just once if nothing else to see that udon noodles are not the usual stringy noodles that is served in noodle bars. But Koya had left me very disillusioned about their grasp of basic Japanese flavour combinations of mirin, soy sauce, sugar & dashi. There are ingenious spark here and there (i.e. walnut miso & renkon chips) but maybe I was just too upset with my lonely tempura prawn…drowning in a bowl of underflavoured dashi. Maybe I have been spoilt as I had tasted one of the best during my visit to David Chang’s momofuku, but I would say that Koya is miles better than other noodle joints that I have been to in the UK – just, not the very best there is. Koya have been the toast of London town since opening their doors earlier in the year, and I will probably be public enemy no. 1 (Just look at the queue outside on the first picture!!!) ; but seriously, I just didn’t feel that (other than their smooth and lovely udon) there was much there.

Koya
49 Frith Street
Soho, London W1D 4SQ

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Rhodes W1

sourrain — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 18:01:50 +0000

As part of the London Loves Food campaign, we were at Rhodes W1 (by Gary Rhodes) a few weekends ago. Gary Rhodes had always been bacon’s favourite ‘celebrity chef’ and he is well known for producing British staples. Bacon had never eaten at any of his restaurants before, but have a large-ish collection of his cookbooks. So I thought it would be a great time for us to pay them a visit at their Michelin-starred establishment in London.
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Located near the Marble Arch, Rhodes W1 is pretty easy to get to by tube; just be on the lookout for the Guoman Hotel as the restaurant is inside. Dark and moody sets the tone for lunch – it seemed more like a hip bar rather than a restaurant. Service was quick, efficient and pretty good. We both ended up ordering from the set menu (2 course for £15), but the main menu looks good as well with steaks, lamb ect.

For starters, I had the salmon with an apple and celeriac remoulade. The salmon seems to have been cooked sous vide and then gently steamed, making it delectably melt in the mouth and delicately flavoured. There is nothing worse than overcooked salmon. The apple remoulade compliments the salmon very well indeed, with tiny tart lemon pieces bringing it all to life. It whet my appetite for the main course instead of making me overly full like some starters can do to you.

Bacon had his favourite classic caesar salad. The sauce was on the mark, the super crispy bacon added complimentary texture and the anchovy filet completes it. Just one teeny weensy problem – they’ve used little gem lettuce instead of the classic romaine. Not a massive problem, but for a restaurant this level it was pretty strange – did they think we did not know what caesar salad was made of?

My main was the mushroom risotto with parmesan crisp. I had never, ever ordered risotto in my life before. It always looked overly rich, undercooked and resembles a big giant pile of mush. I am a big fan of rice, but risotto I could never stomach. However, for some odd reason I decided to go with risotto that day, and it did not dissapoint. It was extremely well flavoured with the woody taste of the chestnut & oyster mushrooms, just the right amount of creaminess, and perfectly cooked risotto rice. The extra sauteed mushrooms and the perfectly round parmesan crisp just gave it extra oomph – I loved this dish.

Bacon had the sea bream. Another new, I had never known bacon to order fish before. The vierge oil was light and complements the filet of sea bream extremely well with the fennel, spring onions, tomatoes and olives. The skin was deliciously crispy – so good that bacon actually ate it. He hates fish skin with a vengence, one of the reasons he dislikes fish. But this one, he mopped it all up. We paid an extra £3.50 for a side of boiled potatoes. Very nice, but not too sure if its worth the £3.50 they charged us for 4 baby potatoes.

I declined dessert, but bacon went for the whole orange cake. We were fully expecting a whole mini-cake (possibly a cupcake?) so was sorely dissapointed when out came two slices of a loaf cake. Hm. It tastes very moist, spongy and orangey, but a whole cake it most definately isnt. Not exactly a decadent dessert that we were expecting, but ‘nice’ nonetheless. It is not a bad cake for a bake sale, but not what we expected in an establishment like this.

All in all, we enjoyed it there, and would return. The glitches were minor, which made it even more annoying. If they had used romaine, included potatoes with the fish and served up a whole mini cake instead of two slices of a loaf, the experience would have been perfect. We are looking forward to going for the Sunday Lunch at the bistro, £20 for 3 courses is a bargin price to pay.

Rhodes W1
Great Cumberland Place,
London W1H 7DL
020 7616 5930

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Koya Japanese Udon

Taco rice & Taco Soup!

sourrain — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 19:28:13 +0000

Another cross-posting, but as this was an ‘adventurous’ dinner, thought it belonged here as well. The taco soup tastes divine, recipe is included here but not at ‘the other’ blog . That’s cause this blog is SPECIAL . Maybe Skipps would have a comment on this post re taco rice.

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If you’ve been following me on twitter, you would’ve seen a large flurry of twitter taco party messages yesterday! A bunch of us on twitter decided to hold a virtual taco party and make tacos!!! It was amazing that all our tacos are completely different, and I seriously wished we could’ve actually do this in real, all the tacos from the vietnamese version to the soyrizo version looks fabulous! The other tweeps who ‘attended’ this fun-filled taco party were @hapabento @fujimama @passthepocky @sherimiya & @LovelyLanvin . Go drool at their yummy taco pictures!

I fell asleep long before the twitter taco party started – what can I say, it had been a looooong monday and I’m on GMT 0! I made taco soup, with home made tortilla chips cut from a large tortilla. Just oil them slightly, pop in the oven at 250 F until it crisps up! I left mine in for 10-15 mins as I forgot about them, and were slightly burnt. Sprinkle some paprika over it when it gets out of the oven – I did it before and it burnt in the oven . Very pretty addition, and may I say, even nicer than your regular tortilla chips as I made it extra crispy to dunk in the taco soup. Mm Mm good. I first had taco soup in New York this year (recommeded by another tweeter friend, Megan! ), and had not looked back since. It’s perfect for the perpetually bleah weather that we get in the UK, a hot bowl of steaming taco .

Taco soup recipe

1 can tinned tomatoes
300g lean mince beef
1 pack taco meat seasoning
1/2 diced ripe avocado
1 red onion & 1 clove minced garlic
1 can beans (I used soy cooked in tomato sauce)
1/2 jar salsa
pickled jalapenos
sour cream
cilantro (I forgot to buy any!)
nachos
grated cheddar
shredded lettuce

Brown onions and ginger in a large pan

Add in beef, and brown. Add in the taco seasoning and mix well.

Tip in the avocado and 1/2 jar (around 50-100ml) salsa – or make your own if you have time

Add the chopped tomatoes and can of beans – you should be using some red beans, but my soy beans in tomato tastes awesome

Let it boil and bubble for 10-15 minutes, adding water if it dries out

Spoon into flat wide bowls, and top with jalapenos, sour cream, grated cheese, shredded lettuce, more salsa, nachos and anything else that you love with your taco! Bacon like to dunk soft tortillas into his

I was going to turn the taco soup into a bento, but as it was so delicious, we actually finished it for dinner. Uh- oh. Fear not, I had prepared and saved 1/2 my taco-seasoned beef before I turned it into taco soup! My submission was actually between taco soup and taco rice, and I had saved the taco beef to turn into taco rice. Therefore, tomorrow would be taco rice lunch.

Taco rice is a REAL dish (no, I didn’t make it up) from Japan. Okinawa to be precise, and is also known as takoraisu. The invention for this crazy dish was accredited to the US Marines located in Okinawa. Homesickness for good ole tex mex food paired taco staples with rice (tortillas are pretty hard to come by out of the Americas – or North America to be precise) transformed this tex mex staple into something that is quinessentially Japanese. And I love Japanese take on foods from other cultures – youshouku (western-influenced) and chuka (chinese-influenced) food love all around!

Taco rice contains all the fixings of tacos – with rice replacing the main job of the taco. My taco rice is slightly deconstructed (like my taco soup) , usually all taco fixings are piled on top of a plateful of rice. It’s still all there though – rice, taco beef, salsa, jalapenos, cheese, lettuce and a small pot of sour cream. You could replace the beef with taco-flavoured soy beans for a veggie version. I popped in some of my homemade flower tortilla chips as well for additional crunch…I love their shape

Aren’t they just the cutest?

Taco rice FTW! Actually, TacoTwitterParty FTW. It had been so much fun – and I think we’re going to be doing this monthly, which is so great! Not only it gives me the motivation to do something different, it was so fun seeing everyone else’s take on the humble taco. Everyone’s invited, so come join in our party for next month!

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Chinese sweet meat jerky – Bah Kwa

sourrain — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 22:57:33 +0000

UPDATED 12 Feb 2011: Step by step pictures

I have been meaning to publish this recipe for ages now. Since making it the first time around, I’ve reproduced it with varying success – mostly due to me changing the recipes slightly and tweaking thickness. ‘Bah Kwa’ is a traditional favourite within the chinese community in South East Asia and Taiwan. ‘Bah Kwa’ is literally translated from the Fujian dialect to mean dried meat. It is pronounced as ‘Yuk Kwong’ in Cantonese, but most people irregardles of dialect, understands bah kwa. Especially popular during Chinese New Year as a gift for family and friends, the price of bah kwa shoots up during that period, with a corresponding hike in demand. However, l I love it at any time during the year and I can just eat it….all…day…long. It tastes fantastic grilled and sandwiched in a sweet bun; I regularly have this for breakfast and just microwave the whole bun for 15 seconds when I get to work. It brings back a rush of childhood memories of watching chinese opera and then heading to the charcoal-fired pushcart hawker for a freshly grilled bah kwa sandwich .

I would have been more than willing to pay through the nose for this delicacy in the years that I’ve spent abroad – alas, I had never managed to source some authentic tasting bah kwa. They were mostly too dried, under flavoured and not to mention way too overpriced for the quality and quantity. So this recipe is heaven-sent for a bah kwa addict like me, I no longer have to import it from Malaysia nor miss it !

Some people associate this with the American-styled beef jerky, but the depth of flavour and the texture is completely and utterly different from the dry stringy meat of the American styled jerky. I have tweaked this recipe from various others that I found online, and you might want to experiment yourself on the amount of sugars and seasoning – or even using minced chicken or beef! Caution: if you are using 5-spice powder purchased from the supermarket, it might be an idea to put more in – the one I use is freshly mixed 5-spice powder which is way more fragant than the supermarket version. Too much 5-spice powder can make food taste slightly bitter, so just becareful, but do not be afraid to season away! It’s the same with all other ingredients, do not be afraid to change and tweak the levels, this has been tweaked to my taste, but I do sometimes add an extra splash of soy sauce or different sugars i.e. muscavodo.

Recipe for Bah Kwa – Chinese sweet meat jerky

500g minced pork (slightly fatty)
2 Tbs five spice powder
150g sugar (more sugar will caramalise the meat more, but less with be tasteless)
2 Tbs shaoxing wine
1 Tbs fish sauce (this is very important)
3 Tbs light soy sauce
red food colouring – optional, it turns out brownish otherwise. I do not use this

waxed/parchment paper
cookie trays

Step 1
Marinate all the inggredients for at least 6 hours; best if left overnight.
Ensure that it is well combined before leaving it in the fridge.

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Step 2

Cut two pieces of parchment paper that is the same size as the cookie sheet
Lay one sheet on the upturned cookie sheet (turn it upside down)
Scoop about 1.5 cup of the meat mixture on the bottom parchment that is resting on the cookie sheet (approx – depending on tray size)
With the other parchment sheet, slowly press the mixture down from the top, trying to spread the meat mixture as evenly as possible over the cookie sheet.
Try to get it to cover the whole cookie sheet, using more meat mixture as needed and another cookie sheet if it is not large enough
Your meat mixture should be around 5-7mm thick, and even all around.Use a rolling pin over the top parchment paper if needed; I usually only use my fingers to flatten it out.

Step 3

Traditionally, this meat mixture is then air-dried for a day or two in the sun. The modern way would be:

Leave it in a 80c oven for 50 -60 minutes to dry it out. Do NOT turn the oven up higher than 100 degrees as this will cook the meat.
We want to dry it out, not cook it.
After about 1 hour, the meat layer should be ‘welded’ together from the fats in the mince.
Leave to cool, and then carefully cut it into squares at this point.
You can freeze this for later, OR

Step 4

Turn on the grill (charcoal bbq is best) and grill it for about 4-5 mins on each side
The bah-kwa should sizzle and spit and be slightly charred on both sides
Leave it to cool before tucking in – or stuff it into some sweet buns immediately for a great snack
You can keep this (wrapped in more parchment paper) in the fridge for at least a month in a tightly sealed container.
It tastes best warmed- up, you could grill it again prior to consumption or I just stick it in the microwave for 15 seconds

UPDATED INSTRUCTIONS: Step by step pictures

1) Empty cookie tray with parchment paper
2) Marinated meat
3)Spread meat on tray with fingers
4)Flatten it out an oiled spoon

5) Should look pretty flat like this
6) Place another piece of parchment paper on top. Flip the parchment sandwich paper over; so the top paper is now on the bottom.
7) Slowly peel the top parchment off. Use your fingers if nessacary to ensure all the meat is ‘peeled’ off.
The meat-sheet should now be flat on both sides. Stick in oven at under 100C for 50 minutes.

9) When it comes out it should look like this, still soft but the meat has all melded together.
10) Cut into squares -the meat sheet now looks like this with the bottom part a lighter brown
11) Put the oven on broil/grill function at circa 180 on the lighter side up, and grill on both sides, around 5 mins each. Watch carefully to ensure it doesn’t burn.
12) Cool on wire rack once both sides of the meat has sufficiently caramalized. Serve up!

I’ve even managed to bring a couple of pieces back to Malaysia over the summer, and everyone agreed that it tasted like the real thing! Amazing! I made a batch for my grandmother as well and she was amazed – I don’t think anyone I know had ever thought that bah kwa can be made at home. It is cheaper, better for you (no preservatives – or colourings if you don’t mind it brown) and as you can control the seasonings and tailor it to your tastebuds. Seriously – the best invention yet from my kitchen. And what’s more, I’ve trained bacon to make this!

If you had never tried bah kwa before, I strongly suggest that you try this recipe out. It is amazing what sweet-salty meat tastes like – I know most people that had not tried this would be pretty skeptical on a ‘sweet’ meat – but it really IS mind blowingly amazing. I can chomp on it all day long….all day every day….

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Viva the italian

sourrain — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 20:53:18 +0000

We very rarely eat out on a weekday, and when we do eat out, it is usually a quick and dirty takeaway, KFC or fish & chips. I both enjoy cooking and eating out, but as bacon don’t get home till after 7 usually, it just makes more sense for me to cook on weekdays and we can eat out on weekends. However, on a rare occassion where I run out of ideas of what to cook and there’s not much left in the fridge, we try to make and effort to eat out.

Like many people, I get trapped with a handful of restaurants that I go to. I make an effort to discover new places, but I do tend to repeat a few places, i.e. Sundays are buffet days, the same old thai, indian or chinese. Delicious, but seriously lacking in creativity. As for italian, we had been going to the same old restaurant for years now – I never try anywhere new because I love it, but it was seriously time for a change. I go past Viva in my bus out of town, but never stepped in before. After changing our minds about 10 times whilst heading into town, we ended up in Viva at last.

The gregarious owner greeted us at the door and shook both our hands in welcome – a big change, I don’t actually remember the last time I’ve been greeted by the owner of a restaurant. All the staff spoke italian inside the cozy restaurant, peppered with some choice English phrases like oki doki. I found this very charming . We were in time for the Early bird deal (up to 7.30pm on weekdays) , which came with any pizza or pasta, choice of starters and desserts. For just over £10, this was an absolute bargain.

For some reason bacon mistook this for the starter we actually ordered. No idea why!

We both went for the deep fried brie. Coated with breadcrumbs, deep fried and drizzled with a balsamic sauce, this was heavenly. It did leave me quite full, but the melty cheese contrasted beautifully with the drizzle of sauce and the salad garnish.

Bacon had the double pepperoni pizza. Unfortunately it was only sparsely populated with pepperoni. Bacon was not entirely impressed. Everything else tasted ok -lovely base, thick with cheese; just not enough pepperoni (I counted 8 slices) to be classified as a double pepperoni pizza.

I had the chicken and spinach calzone. This was better than the pizza, filled with oozing cheese, lovely tomato concasse and enough spinach & chicken in the calzone. Yumms. We could not finish either the calzone nor the pizza, but they were more than happy to wrap it up for us to take away.

However, there is ALWAYS space for desserts! I had the tiramisu, which was seriously one of the best tiramisu I’ve ever had. I raved about Jamie Olivers’ tiramisu, but it doesn’t compare to this. Well-soaked sponge contrasts beautifully with just the right amount of mascarpone. Mm Mm good.

Bacon had the creme brulee, which was lovely as well. We very rarely order the creme brulee, but this was so perfectly faultless. Creamy and sweet, topped with a crunchy layer of burnt sugar.

Even the coffees have that personal touch. Call me a pushover, but a little latte art pleases me to no end

Cheap, cheerful, friendly and yummy, I guess Viva will be finding its way to our growing handful of go-to restauraunts:)

Viva Ristorante
9 Bridge End Leeds,
West Yorkshire LS1 7HG
Tel: 0113 242 0185

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The Angry Bird Bento – the yellow one

sourrain — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 21:29:43 +0000

I rarely post my lunches here as I’ve created a separate blog for it, but this creation of mine was way too good to miss

Cross posted from http://notabrownbag.wordpress.com

Today I learnt a lesson on never giving up. I tried making the yellow bird from egg sheet the day before, but had stupidly mixed in the whites & yolks and added tumeric to bring out the yellow-ness. However, this just serve to turn it a dull brown dishwater color. Looking at the state of my eggsheet, I was very upset, and actually did not end up making a bento for myself that day.

EVERYTHING about it was wrong. I was really excited about making it initially, and after an whole hour in the kitchen and producing this really sad bird, I was more than ready to throw in the towel. Gaah! After sleeping on it, I asked Lia, the queen of eggsheets, and she advised me that I should just separate the whites from the yolk and just use the yolk for the yellow eggsheet.

And success!!!!!

Today’s bento is made for the bacon again, a giant bun filled with ham and crumbly onion chutney cheese. I covered the bun with another thin slice of ham to get the contrast. The box is filled with a mini salad, a whole nectarine, a small pot of pickles, a homegrown tomato (our first fruit from the plant!!!) and four wild blackberries.

The speedy yellow bird is made from a base of yellow egg sheet and a half-moon of polony. I used two different cheeses for the eyewhites & eyebrow, a carrot beak and teensy nori eyeball, nori tail and hair.

Here it is, warts and all! You can see I still need to work on my egg sheet.

Just as proof that you don’t need cute boxes to start packing a bento, this sammie have been packed in a well-recycled ice cream container . Yeah I know, here is me saying that you don’t need a cute box for a bento whilst I have a large number stacked up in my kitchen cupboard.

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Awesome America: Red Lobster

sourrain — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 16:16:30 +0000

EDIT: This was part of my Awesome America blog posts – however, I’ve just noticed that I’ve left this in the draft!! So here it is – my love for chain-restaurants revealed!

I’m not entirely sure that a trip to Red Lobster deserves an entire blog post by itself. Heh. Well, I’m going to anyway, as I never did document my visits to Red Lobsters years ago. Red Lobster is a nationwide seafood chain, serving up lobsters (doh), crabs, shrimps and more. However, my favourite memory of Red Lobster is most definately their deliciously naughty Cheddar Bay scones. Served warm, buttery, soft and herby, I had dreamt about them for many years since I left CA.

As usual, when we went in for an early lunch, I was not hungry at all, having just had breakfast. Seeing that the Red Lobster by Times Sq was the only one that we’d seen in New York, we thought we would pop in for a quick lunch anyway and share a platter.

The yummy Cheddar Bay biscuits. The best part is they are FREE – comes complimentary with every main course ordered. OMG. When I was a penniless student, I used to go into Red Lobster, order the cheapest entree, and get two lots of the biscuits. And then doggy bag all of it when I’ve finished with a basket of biscuit. Yeah, I have no shame . The biscuits are really beautiful. So buttery it should be made illegal, as soft as a marshmallow, it literally melts in your mouth. I have to admit though, I don’t really like the main courses as much as I love the free starter.

We ordered a Seafood Platter, which came with a starter of Caesar Salad. Crisp and tasty, like a caesar salad should be – just nice.

And here it was – the shrimp and lobster platter. A pot of buttered shrimp, a shrimp skewer, a lobster tail, wild rice, fries, ketchup and melted butter, this was seafood dipped in butter. It tastes better than it looks, and suprisingly not as greasy as all the butter would lead you to believe. The seafood was suprisingly fresh, and the butter counteracts beautifully with the well seasoned seafood. Bacon even went as far to declare that this was the best meal he had in the States – and with the places that I bring him, this is no easy feat!

I miss Red Lobster already.. It was lovely when I was a student and it is still unpretentiously lovely now. Highly recommended as a family restaurant as they cater for kids, but it serves up good value tasty seafood for adults as well. I wished they would seriously consider opening a branch up in the UK, although it would probably triple the prices!

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