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Monday, October 6, 2008

Dinner At 6th Aunt's

Hub's 6th Aunt cooked us a 'yumtious' dinner the first day we arrived in HK. She is a fantastic cook, and in the words of her DIL, "Her food is as good as any HK restaurant's" and that is some compliment because the restaurant standards in HK are just so high.

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A well-planned Chinese home-cooked meal like the above will consist of meat dishes that include poultry, seafood and pork/beef, one or two veg and a good nutritious soup.

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Braised ducks' tongues.

I can't quite understand the Shanghainese's love for duck tongues. Duck giblets, especially those from Nanjing, I love, but duck tongues? There's not much meat and they are not particularly flavorful except for the sauce they are cooked in. I think it is more for nibbling, for "chi xuang", eating fun.

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Steamed 'gweiyue'.

Gweiyue (sounds like 'expensive fish' in Mandarin & Cantonese) is a shang deng yue/superior fish and if your host serves it, it is an honor. I am beginning to love fresh water fish. Living in KK where there's abundant tropical fish such as grouper and mackeral, I have always preferred fish with thick chunky flesh. However, I realise now that tropical fish, though sweet, are rather bland in flavor while fresh-water fish, like the gweiyue, are fine-fleshed and more flavorful. These days they rear freshwater fish that don't taste of mud.

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Roasted goose.

6th Uncle bought this from his favorite roasted meat shop in North Point. Yummy. I swear the next time I go to HK, I'm going to eat half a goose, no sharing business.

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Liang bun koo gua (cold bittergourd).

I've never eaten bittergourd cooked this way; love it. I will share the recipe soon, but it's strictly for bittergourd lovers.

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Bai ye pork stew.

Bai ye is a Shanghainese bean curd 'skin'. Apart from adding it to stews, it is also used to make a yummy soup.

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Fried kai lan.

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Hot and sour soup.

This hot and sour soup made with a superior dried scallops stock bought from the market was excellent. Notice how fine the mushrooms and tofu strips are. Even the egg 'flower' are very fine strands. I'll have to re-post my hot and sour soup photo; the ingredients for my hot and sour soup were cut as thick as french fries.

I totally agree with Fiona that her MIL's cooking skills can rival any HK chef. What I learnt from this meal is that I must put in more effort in my dao goong, knife skills. Chinese food is taste first, looks second, so presentation is usually kept simple. If the ingredients are cut well, most of the battle is already won as far as presentation is concerned.

20 comments:

  1. freshwater fish are more "lemak" and some jst taste like cod or salmon..u jst have to try them out haha

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  2. so lucky to be enjoying that spread in a homely HK setting to boot. I regretted not trying roast goose in HK. but there's always another visit? :)

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  3. WOW! So envy of Fiona! Everything looks so yummy! Lucky you!

    I also could not imagine myself chewing a tongue. Did once, cow's tongue but i just couldn't swallow it.

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  4. hmm fish looks nice

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  5. mari kita ramai2 meriahkan lg mjls hr ry thn ini. dsertakan jgk list rmh terbuka slrh dunia;

    http://warisan-marzuki.blogspot.com/2008/10/sywl-jth-dlm-okt-utk-kt-braya-ianya-jgk.html

    jk anda ada info lain, sila emailkan lmn web ATAU no telnya ke sronoknya@gmail.com ATAU sms +60128624623 segera!

    thx... semua d jmpt hdr & jgn malu2


    apa komen anda psl video d bwh ini;

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdXf2iI8ap4

    http://test.chedet.com/che_det/2008/09/selamat-hari-raya-aidilfitri.html#comments

    http://rantingsbymm.blogspot.com/2008/10/open-housing-in-kl-and-jakarta.html

    maaflah TUN... drkm pun ms tgh kecewa, lpr, malu & mrh! ampunkan, x?

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  6. no words can describe how much i yearn for home cook food like these :-(

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  7. exodus: oh so it's the lemak tt gives them the flavor..

    j2kfm: of course! is tt ur dog? a beagle? looks handsome :) shd get her to meet pp's dog.

    pp: cow tongue is good! i've cooked cow's tongue only once or twice in 20+ yrs, once i had leftovers n made sandwiches for my girl. her classmates raided her lunch bag n she was teased about cow tongue answich for a long time aftr tt. doesn't every mother pack cow tongue sandwich for their kids??

    danny: as in pretty or yummy nice?

    lianne: ... know what u mean. but germany is great so cheer up!

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  8. OMG!! COW'S TONGUE SANDWICH??? I bet all her classmates were so envy of your girl to have a super mum like you.

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  9. envy?! she was embarassed to death, still teases me about it! said her friends think we eat cow' tongue all the time!once in 20 yrs n we get caught...

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  11. haha you remember that!
    i was in form4 at that time, and i was the new girl in school.

    i still remember the sandwich being wrapped in Glad Wrap! JD sat beside me then and wanted to have a mouthful of my sandwich until i told him what it was. he contorted his face and announced it to his guy friends.

    hehehe

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  12. Hahahah! Cow's tongue. Its still better than me bringing char siew bao to school in my primary school days. Whats so bad about char siew bao??? The school Im attending is flocked with malays! HAHAHAHA! Glad that no one call me names like pork boy, budak babi, porky or the likes! But they did whisper among themselves and said something like "Dia makan babi!".

    Btw, that doggy on j2kfm avatar looked more like a GR i.e Golden Retriever.

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  13. Logically, rationally and me being a guy, yummy of course :)

    i'd prefer a meal that doesn't look as good but tastes awesome than something that looks awesome and doesn't taste as good.

    but i guess looks do enhance the taste as how smell does too.

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  14. Yum that meal looks great. Just discovered your blog and think it's awesome. I tried your ginger scallion fish recipe (which i've always loved at the restaurant) and it tastes just like the restaurant!

    Still searching for a good hot & sour soup recipe like the restaurant. That one in the photo looks mighty good. Did it taste like your recipe you posted?

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  15. johnathan: u shd tell them "Babi yang paling sedap!!"

    it is a GR??i once had a bad experience with a GR in perth n since then i stay away frm them. loyal but not very clever dogs.a bit of a bumbling fool it was.

    danny: it's ok to be illogical n irrational once in a while...lighten up.

    anon:a war cry??

    anon: thanks, do 'chat' with me ok, i love getting comments smtimes so bad even offensive ones welcome. oh, my hot n sour soup needs more work. i recently cooked tt soup based on 6th aunt's n it was way better than mine. start with a good stock n the mroom shd be cooked longer.will re-post.

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  16. Hi Yi's mum...

    enjoy your food blog. thanks for sharing so much. I am curious about the cold bittergourd ... heard about it but yet to find a recipe for it. So will wait for yours....chris

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  17. Thanks for sharing this article with us. This is very nice of you.

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  18. Will without a doubt come and visit this blog all the more frequently.

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