Last week or so while my family was still in this weird, almost obsessed period of making almost all Chinese sweets and baked goods from scratch, I went along with it and baked dan tats (蛋撻) or egg custard tarts. You may call me crazy but my argument is, there’s nothing like a fresh baked fill in the blank and if I know how to make it, why the hell should I buy it? Unless of course, I’m desperate to eat whatever I’m aping for. I know things like the egg custard tarts and Chinese-style baked pork buns would make your head scratch and wonder why bake it since it’s relatively cheap to buy? To sum up in a word, quality.
Before I keep ranting, here’s how I made them…
I didn’t realize that until my dad translated that for me when I found a recipe via eGullet which took me to this Chinese website called Leisure Cat. Funny thing is, my dad inscribed a bunch of dim sum recipes waay back about three decades ago and actually saved his little notebook. He compared notes and found it to be pretty much legit in terms of ratios. So, I used the crusts portion and went my own way when it came to the egg yolk custard filling.
Mis en place for the “oil crust” and “water crust”
There’s two crusts to make, yes. TWO. The “oil crust” is self-explanatory. It’s made with a pile of butter, lard and a smidge of flour (if you have to compare weights between the fats and the flour). The “water crust” is the low fat part of the dough. Both are essential to give you the crisp, flaky crust. Continue reading “Baking Egg Custard Tarts (aka Dan Tats)” »
A week ago, when it’s the first day of Chinese (or Lunar) New Year, my mom called my phone early in the morning telling me to meet her at Jade Asian Restaurant in Flushing, for dim sum at 8 AM. I’m scratching my head as to “why so early?” But then it dawned on me that it’s a Sunday, prime dim sum days are weekends by default, and it is the first day of Chinese New Year and one must eat a “good” breakfast to start off the year. (To clarify a bit, this holiday is very food-centric and symbolic/superstitious; if you eat a good breakfast (as in eating well), you’ll have a prosperous year.)
Interior
By the time my family and I met up and sat at our table, we’re greeted with a lot of diners. Families and friends (and mildly surprising, several Caucasians who seem to know their way eating around Flushing) were gathered and eating at this time of the morning. So let’s move onto the food, shall we? Continue reading “Jade Asian Restaurant: An Almost Hong Kong Dim Sum Experience” »
As of the past weekend, my entire family have been scheming what to cook and eat for Lunar or Chinese New Year. Coincidentally, Chinese New Year falls on the same date as Valentine’s Day this year.
Proofed, filled buns; Brushing on egg
Anyway, as we’re planning out loud what we can do and must do for tradition and for the sake of ambition of tackling dishes we’ve never done. Going along with the latter, my dad and I collaborated the effort of baking cha siu bao-style buns (aka baked Chinese BBQ pork buns) except we’ve replaced the pork filling with house ground sirloin beef. We are planning to do the real cha siu bao around next week so we won’t ruin his delicious roast pork. (Trust me, you haven’t lived ’til you tried my dad’s pork. Unless you don’t like or can’t eat pork, that’s a different story.) The meat filling must be cooked prior to filling it in your bun. We flavored the ground beef with ginger, garlic, and scallions (all finely chopped) and flavored with oyster sauce and black pepper. Let it cool to room temp and proceed working with your large glob of fermented bread dough.
After kneading, cutting the dough, rolling them out like dumplings, filling, wrapping, and proofing (as in letting the buns rise and get puffy), I brush them on with a beaten whole egg. The reason behind the latter is to give the buns a nice glazed look and it helps the browning (caramelizing) process while it’s baking away in the oven.
Cooling
What pleasantly surprised me was the fact that these buns actually look…pretty and edible. For some strange reason, I tend to be afraid of baking buns more than a loaf of bread. At any rate, they look gloriously golden brown with a beautiful sheen.
Innards, done two ways
When the buns were chomped by the teeth or cut with a knife, a gentle steam exudes from them, releasing the incredible scent of meat, garlic and a gentle hint of scallion. These were tasty. The modifications I have to do next time is to increase the oven temperature I used and shorten the baking time.
My Hong Kong/China vacation took place on April 29 – May 10, 2009. As you might know, I post at a very slow pace, so please bear with me. This is a summary of my two dinners at Sportful Garden Restaurant.
During the evenings of my second and fourth days of vacation, my aunt and uncle planned dinners at Sportful Garden Restaurant to celebrate my cousin’s (their daughter) wedding. (In case you don’t know, there’s a lot of food involved in Chinese wedding traditions.)
My aunt was the mastermind behind these dinners – one was to try it out with us six (me, my aunt, my uncle, my cousin, Samuel, and her in-law’s) before the massive invite of relatives.
For this restaurant, they offer a prix-fixe, family-style meal as well as the typical a la carte. I don’t really recall the pricing of the dinner but I believe came out roughly about $40-50 (USD) per person for a menu that can feed a typical banquet table. Here’s the menu:
Appetizers
Plate of apps
Fried stuffed beancurd
Most of the appetizers contain at least a portion of crispy suckling pig, fried dried bean curd stuffed with black trumpet mushrooms, and cold jelly fish. The obvious differences between the two dinners is the portion size but both times, the appetizers were delicious – fresh, balanced flavors and it’s delicious. Continue reading “Dinners at Sportful Garden Restaurant, Hong Kong” »
My Hong Kong/China vacation took place on April 29 – May 10, 2009. I know I’m way overdue on these posts but at least I’m writing it – in a sloth-like pace. This post is an overall review of the multiple times (four, if you need to know) I’ve eaten dim sum at Sportful Garden Restaurant, with my aunt and uncle or with a larger crowd of relatives. It’s mostly food porn rather than a useful review, perhaps. I’ll let you be the judge.
Part of the Interior
When my aunt took me to Sportful Garden Restaurant for the first time, I am a bit astounded how the decor isn’t garish unlike NYC’s Chinese restaurants. It’s understated in neutral color palate with a touch of gold and the expected fish tanks near the kitchen. (Note: The English name doesn’t come close to the translation of the restaurant’s Chinese name.)
Tea with some snacks
The typical pot of tea (we like chrysanthemum) with roasted peanuts on the side for snacking. What is sort of unusual is the pot of hot water is served with the pot of tea – to reduce the amount of times you need the server to refill your pot. Good idea.
Wilted Romaine Lettuce
My aunt is a health nut and always order a plate (or plates, depending how large is the party) of wilted romaine lettuce with light soy sauce on the side. It’s healthy, fresh and it tastes good.
Pork congee
During the weekend before I left Hong Kong, one of the specials that day was pork congee for $9 HK (equivalent to $1.20 US). A bowl that is large enough to share with three people. It’s filled with lots of marinated salted pork meat and little bits of what I think is watercress. Delicious and cheap. Continue reading “Dim Sums at Sportful Garden Restaurant, Hong Kong” »
Apologies for the almost non-existence of me blogging. It’s been hectic for the past month with my mom’s health went on limbo; going back and forth from home to the hospital. She’s fine for the time being and at home. As for me, I haven’t been eating out a whole lot because of my mom and been living off of lots of coffee but still tired despite being caffeinated. Buh. I can’t win. Anyhoo, here’s where I’ve been to whilst I have a few hours to myself during the month of March.
Discovery of Soup Dumplings in the Upper East Side
For a very long time, like during mid-winter, I’ve been craving for soup dumplings. Why? Well, because I never had one but seen a vast amount of soup dumpling food porn from Robyn‘s Flickr photostream are feeding the fire. I’ve read somewhere on Chowhound that there were restaurants that serve soup dumplings! So, I had to make arrangements to eat out with a few people so I’ve brought along my co-workers, Mary and Liz to join me for lunch at Shanghai Pavillion. (It’s not a typo, it’s how they spelled “pavilion” it.)
Interior and my friends
Stepping in from the chilly, windy streets of the Upper East Side, we settled in our seats to an upscale Chinese restaurant filled with mostly non-Asian diners. Not unusual but I was hoping there would be some besides myself and Mary. Continue reading “Summary of Meals During The Month of March” »
[I hope I'll write a "normal" (helps if it's somewhat current, too) review soon. It's just the fact that my mom's going to have surgery this coming week, life's a bit insane for the time being. Probably, I'll end up doing an intense session of posting up this weekend. Apologies to you all!]
On Wednesday, I was craving for a burger for lunch. I don’t know why exactly but I just want some juicy ground beef sandwiched in a good, soft hamburger bun. Since it’s almost 12, I know it’s going to be crowded to try Burger Joint since it’s not a huge space to start with. (I know this since I visited the space but didn’t try anything.) What I ended up deciding is to try Burger Heaven. You might be wondering why the heck would I try a small chain burger at all. Well, two of my male friends, Ariel and Dave told me that their burgers are awesome. Actually, to quote Ariel he said, “The burgers are heavenly.”
I know I haven’t written in a loong time. It’s not that I’m ignoring you intentionally, it’s just that my life is flooded with a lot of drama that I don’t want to go into depth. If you can recall recently about my mom being sick and all, she has been operated a couple of days ago and she’s doing okay so far. She’s just fatigued and a bit dizzy since she’s been in bed for a while and the surgery has taken a bit of a toll on her. As I’ve said earlier I’m behind so I’ll catch you up with the food things that happened since my last post that was notable.
Back two Friday mornings ago, my parents and I went to Mt. Sinai Hospital to meet the surgeon and consult about what will happen to my mom and schedule the surgery. After that, I have to run a few errands in regards to school so I left my parents and walked down Madison Avenue. Somehow I was curious to about Yura & Company’s food when I was about to pass by, and just dropped in to see what they have.
