Cooking: Wonton noodles

A honkie favourite. If you go to hong kong, this is something you should try. The most popular version is the noodle soup unlike the Malaysians/Singaporeans which prefer the dry version. I've actually never tried a dry version before. In HK, the price of a bowl of wonton noodles can vary greatly. The cheapest and most authentic are found at sidewalk hawker stall places (大排檔) for a couple of dollar(aussie) a bowl. My uncle told me, the way to eat wonton noodles is to eat all the noodles first otherwise they will soak up all the soup and taste soggy. Also some people like to add vinegar to their wanton noodles as sometimes the noodles have an alkaline taste.

Don't exactly have a recipe. Done according to mum's "feel". 

Only thing missing is deep fried fish skin. Sooooo yummy but you can't seem to get it here.


The following day we decided to finish off the other packet of noodles and also the rest of the wontons.

This time I attempted to make a dry noodle. Mixed the noodles with sesame oil, soya sauce, fish sauce, and kecap manis to get the dark colour. With some homemade sambal on the side. Pretty good, except the noodles were stuck together.


To be honest I think I like the dry version more. I always struggle to finish a bowl of wonton noodles in HK, and the bowls are quite small. However I can eat a lot of soya sauce noodles for some reason...

Cooking: Vermicelli Noodles in Dashi Broth

Made this a few days ago for lunch. Have you ever realised that Japanese people don't seem to have vermicelli noodles? I really can't think of any Jap dish that does. So pretty much made some instant dashi stock, chucked in some shiitake mushrooms, chinese cabbage/wombok, made some soft boiled eggs and grilled some pork belly from yonks ago that mum found in the freezer.

Found the secret to making those awesome japanese boiled eggs with the semi set yolk.

• Try and use room temperature eggs. (not sure how much of a difference this makes)
• Place the eggs in a pot, THEN add COLD water to cover. You add the eggs in before water so you don't accidentally crack the eggs when you drop them in and smash on the bottom of the pot. Add cold water so the egg whites will cook slowly before the yolk, and so the egg doesn't crack due to sudden change in temp if you put them in when the water is boiling.
• Bring the eggs+water to the boil.
• Once it comes to a rapid boil, set a timer for 4 mins.
• Boil for 4 mins....then dunk in cold water so you can peel them without burning you're hands =] 
• Cut in half to reveal the awesome deliciousness.

I used to hate eggs with a passion and the only eggs I would try were the crunch whites of a fried egg and mum's chinese omelettes. Nowadays, I don't mind boiled eggs (they used to make me gag), love fried eggs (with chilli flakes =D), still love omelettes but don't really like eggs scrambled. Weird.

Cooking: Tom Yum Soup and Pad Thai

Thai dinner for Friday night. I don't ever cook Thai except for the once or twice a year I make tom yum soup from a jar. That's as far as my Thai cooking experiences go. I realised I don't eat Thai very often either, probably only once or twice a year. However I do really like Pad Thai (how aussie of me), the sweet, sour and chilli goes so well with the rice noodles.

To make tom yum, by a jar of tom yum paste and follow the instructions.
For pad thai I followed trusty David Thompson's recipe I found in Gourmet Traveller (my fav magazine atm). Adjusted it a bit and added prawns and all that. Omitted a few things cos I didn't have them.
Serves 4
Ingredients: Prawns(shelled and deveined). 2 shallots sliced. 3 cloves garlic minced. 2 eggs. one pack of fresh rice stick noodles. 4 tbsp brown sugar (recipe used palm sugar which i did not have). couple of tbsp of tamarind water (to taste). Couple of tbsp of fish sauce. 2 handfuls of beansprouts (i didn't have any in mine, coles sells them for like $2 for a little bag compared to the $2 a kilo at asian supermarkets). 1/3 cup of crushed roasted peanuts. Garlic chives. Chilli Flakes.

Method: Mix sugar, tamarind water and fish sauce together, taste and adjust. Stir fry prawns until almost cooked in wok. Take out and set aside. Heat a tablespoon or two of oil. Throw in half the shallots and stir fry for 10secs add half the garlic. Add chilli flakes (about 1/4 tsp). Crack one egg into wok and stir until scrambled. Throw in half the noodles and break them up and stir fry. Once noodles have separated pour in half the sauce, half the beansprouts and half the prawns. Mix it all together. Add 2 tbsp of roasted peanuts and half the garlic chives. Mix in. Place onto serving plate. Repeat process with the rest of the ingredients.
Make in two batches so the high heat is maintained throughout the process. Also it is easier to mix the noodles together when there is less. Serve with a sprinkling of roasted peanuts, chilli flakes and a squeeze of lime.

My tom yum soup turned out very very bad. Used prawn stock so it turned out like a cross between tom yum and the malaysian har mee soup(prawn noodle soup). It was sooooo salty it was unbearable.

The pad thai was much much better. Tasted so very very nice. Probably not like what a pad thai should taste like but I liked it.

Cooking: Tonkatsu and Udon in Dashi Broth

Japanese is probably my #1 favourite cuisine. Not just because of tastes but just the whole concept. Everything it so precise, so thought through, everything I'm not but I strive to achieve. So after deciding to make Japanese for dinner last night I dragged K仔 shopping with me for ingredients. Bought some udon and panko from Colonial Fresh Food Market (or what ever that place is called) at Doncaster Shoppingtown. They have an awesome asian section and an incredible Italian section + deli.

Finally learned the difference between Tonkatsu and Tonkotsu. Tonkatsu being the deep fried pork chop and Tonkotsu being my favourite rich creamy pork bone soup ramen.

Ingredients:
Pork: Pork Chops, flour to dust, egg to coat, Panko breadcrumbs (these make the biggest difference, not going back to normal breadcrumbs again), oil to fry
Noodle Soup: Water. Dashi powder. Shitake mushrooms. Corn cobs. Egg (soft boiled). Vegetables. Carrot. Salt. Udon noodles.

Method:
Crumb pork chops by dipping into flour, then egg wash, then panko. Make sure you immediately fry the pork chops after coating with breadcrumbs so the breadcrumbs stay crisp and don't soak up the egg wash and become soggy. Whilst the pork chops are frying. Add dashi powder to boiling water. Add in mushrooms, corn and egg. Fish out eggs after 5 mins and cool. Cook udon noodles according to packet. Place into bowls ready to serve. Chuck in vegies to cook in the dashi broth. Drain pork chops on paper towel. Peel egg. Spoon broth(without the vegies) over noodles. Arrange vegies into bowl. Cut egg in half and place on top. Chop pork chop into strips. Serve.

Eating Out: Yoyogi, Eastland, Ringwood

Spent the morning shopping at Eastland in Ringwood trying to find a present for my awesome friend. Managed to walk the entire Eastland then deciding to go with something I found within 5 minutes of walking into the shopping centre =.=" Ooooooo, and I saw Dora the Explorer "in real life" and she looked very very scary. She was taking pics with lots of little kids, some were pretty scared.
So after all that walking, mum and I were pretty tired and hungry, however one round of the food court and nothing particularly interesting appealed to me. I wanted sushi, and food court sushi is probably the worst sushi you can get. Opted for the sushi deluxe at Yoyogi to share for part one of lunch.

Sushi Deluxe $9.80

I have to say it wasn't as bad as I expected. The rice was a little too vinegared and not sweet enough. Everything else was pretty good. The white fish had no taste like usual, however the salmon was pretty good and mum said the tuna was pretty good as well.

Food: 6.5/10 Of course there is much better sushi out there but in food court sushi terms, it's quite good.

Service: 8/10 Very quickly served although it was lunch hour and the man did quite a good job understanding us in the very very noisy environment. But then again, he should be used to it.

Environment: 6/10 It's a food court at lunch hour...what more can i say.

Verdict? Quite impressed considering it is from the food court. If I had to eat at the food court again I would seriously consider coming here again. 

Lunch part two consisted of a CUP NOODLE XD Shrimp Creamy Tom Yum flavour, loved it, sooooooooooo nice except for the msg. And less than $1 for one. Bought 6 yesterday when I was at Box Hill, they're supposed to be for my locker so I can have them at school, I hope they'll last till school starts.