No Whip Whipped Cream

My niece asked if she could come and make a pavlova. I've made pavlovas twice and both times they suddenly deflated minutes before they were due out of the oven. But, being a person who enjoys challenges and because a reader wrote a couple of weeks ago asking if I've made pavlovas before, I told her I could give it another try.

This time the pavlova didn't fall. I think the difference is that I didn't reduce the sugar and I also baked the meringue at a lower temperature of 125 C instead of 140 C. The last two times, the pavlovas were an egg-shell brown before they suddenly fell flat. That was quite a frustrating experience watching two pavlovas fall.

Although my third pavlova didn't fall, it was far from being a success. The crust was soft and sticky and the meringue had a ring of clear liquid sugar around it. I didn't know what to do with it so I left it out on my dining table for a whole day and night. The pavlova shrunk a little and the crust crisped up a bit but it was nothing like the crusty pavlovas I've picked up in Australia. I had followed the instructions carefully. My bowl and whisk (borrowed from a friend who doesn't bake; my mixer problem still not solved) were squeaky clean. My egg whites were at room temperature which btw is very warm these days since we are getting into the rice harvest season. I had beaten the whites until they were stiff and shiny. I had put the meringue into the oven at 150 C and turned it down to 125 C less than a minute later. I left the meringue in the oven to cool completely before taking it out. I even baked the meringue for 1 hour 45 minutes, 15 minutes longer than stated in the recipe. Did all that, and the meringue was still soft outside and in, and smelt rather egg-white eggy. If anyone has baked a successful pavlova in this humid weather, please give me some advice.

Niece wanted to bring the disaster meringue home so I filled a plastic peanut butter jar with dairy whipping cream and left it in the fridge until she was ready to leave. As we walked to her car, I started shaking the jar rapidly to see if it would thicken into whipped cream, like those whipping cream in canisters. After about 30 seconds, there was no more slushy sound from the bottle.




Voila!

So although I have no solution or recipe for a no-fail pavlova, I'm sharing with you a quick, easy way to whip up a small amount of cream. No need to drag out the machine or wash extra utensils. No need for electricity. Next time you have a ladies' tea and you are bringing scones, just put your cream in a plastic bottle (I think air and space are important for the cream to whip up so do not fill more than 1/4 of your bottle), chill it and when ready to use, shake the bottle until there's no slushy sound and there you are, whipped cream ready to use, straight from the jar. The whipped cream will not be as stiff as machine-whipped cream so it's best for non-decorating purposes such as for serving with tarts, pavlovas, trifle and so on.

I suppose if you want to be even more resourceful, you can continue shaking the jar and make butter for the bread too.

Note: as with cream whipped by machines or otherwise, results are best if the cream is chilled very well. One way to tell is if the slush sound is slow and dull when you shake the carton. A fast, sharp slush that sounds more like milk than cream will not work. I actually put my carton of cream in the freezer for 5 minutes or so, and use the sound test. Do not leave cream in the freezer to freeze because it will spearate into solids (fat) and liquid.

Kuching In 12 Hours, Part 2

Despite our hurry, we couldn't get to Choon Hui cafe before 11 am when they close and the other place for Kuching laksa as recommended by Kuching's golden blogger boy Kenny was Golden Arch at Golden Arch Mall. We got there but the laksa was all gone and they told us to get it from the cafe behind.


Kuching laksa, RM4/USD1.30. Big portion but not exceptional soup. Maybe we were too full. I think Chinese vermicelli (thicker, more breakable and in individual pieces) is more suitable for soup while Thai vermicelli (thin strands, not easily breakable and usually in a large uncut bundle) is better fried.


Boiled chicken and roasted pork with curry sauce on rice from Golden Arch Cafe RM4.50/USD1.40. Nah.

We sat alfresco behind Golden Arch Cafe. The pavement was uneven and broken, the floor dirty and the air smelt bad. A small roach came from under the table and explored our plates. Golden Arch Mall is such a nightmare, avoid it. It isn't even a mall. It's just two rows of crummy shop houses linked by an overhead shade.

Help came in the form of Greg and Nee, a couple I know through Nee's aunt, Linda. I hadn't intended to meet up with anyone in Kuching because of the lack of time but I messaged Nee for advice on where to eat Fuzhou ding bian hu. It turned out that everything I wanted to eat was in Sibu, the Fuzhou town of Sarawak. Kuching is a Hokkien town. But, true to Malaysians' reputation of being super hosts, Greg, Nee and Nee's bro Roger who was visiting from Melbourne made sure we were happy for the rest of the time that we were there. Greg and Nee are both university lecturers and busy Nee not only owns a cake shop but also became a mom two months ago to a beautiful baby girl.



Nee's cakes are made with the finest ingredients and baked at home with passion. Greg's creative masterpieces liven up the cafe walls.








I especially liked the banana choc mousse cake, the banana cheesecake and the double chocolate cake while Yi loved the Rocher chocolate cake. Oh, the cookies are addictive!

A friend said to me one day "Kuching people are so lucky! How come they get a place like Nee's but not us?" I agree. Every piece of Nee's beautiful cakes was awesome. Her cakes are perfect in texture and taste, rich yet not cloying and the sweetness level just right. I am inspired by this young woman who only started baking seriously less than 6 years ago. I'm sure that if her cake shop is in a city like KL, she'll have big investors knocking on her door.

Our dinner, hosted by Greg and Nee, was at Stall ABC on the rooftop of Permata Carpark, the place where the locals will without fail take their visitors. The rooftop is the place to go for good seafood dishes.

A thick seafood soup.


My favorite dish of the meal, very fresh and sweet baby razor clams in soy sauce and lemon grass. 


An oyster 'pizza', something new for us. I think this was the only dish I didn't like because the oysters were too fishy and the sauce too gooey.


Done very well if not too oily but then it was butter prawns.


This is midin, a jungle fern. It tastes like a cross between the pakis and sayur manis. Love it and wish we have it in KK.

I was probably wrong about Kuching being the second best place in Malaysia for food after Penang. I actually think that KK is better because whatever they have in Kuching, we have too in KK and more, maybe because there is a sizable Sarawakian community here but not the other way around. The upside to Kuching is the much lower cost of living and the city is less crime-prone.

Kuching reminds me of colonial KK: big trees, big old bungalow houses, a lot of land and greenery. I can imagine that growing up there must be fun and coming home to a place that hasn't changed much is comforting.  It does feel homey, even for me, and would I prefer to live in peaceful Kuching than chaotic KL. However, I didn't expect the city to be so far behind KK. Some say that Kuching is left behind because of its immigration policy. The state government is very careful about the people going into the state and although I am from the same country, I was only given 2 months' stay.  The official reason is to protect the state from unwanted people and influence but this protective stance is a double-edged sword as it isolates the state. That still doesn't explain Kuching's lack of progress because Sabah has the same immigration policy although not as stringently enforced. I think that there are political reasons in keeping Sarawakians in the backwaters.  While development is not always necessary for the better, the young and educated are not going back to Kuching because jobs are scarce. Every family that I know in Kuching has family members (some are whole families) who have emigrated. The same situation exists in KK but I'm guessing that it's not as bad as in Kuching.  Kuching should be a much better city given that Sarawak is the biggest and one of the most resource-endowed states in Malaysia. I may be wrong, but this is my impression of Kuching (Malay word for cat), the City of Cats.

p.s. The best Kuching laksa according to Nee is found at Chong Choon Cafe.

Happy Mother's Day!

Wey came to my bed an hour ago with a breakfast tray. What is it about breakfast in bed on Mother's Day? It just melts me and makes me happy to be a mom!


"The milk has gone bad, there's no juice and I can't find the maple syrup. If I could drive, I would shop and make you a better breakfast."  The pancakes were soft  and fluffy, the egg perfect and the nutella and jam a nice change from maple syrup. And I love the scented rose from our garden. Wey, this is the best breakfast ever.

My two older kids used to compete with each other to make Mother's Day breakfast for me. One year one of them made bacon n eggs with toast and the other instant noodles. I had to eat everything. Both older kids haven't been around for Mother's Day for many years. Yi has lived and studied in Australia the last 7 years and left last Friday to start work in the Shanghai branch of Australia's largest architecture firm while Ming is studying in Australia. I miss them but hey I have my Wey.

Motherhood is bittersweet but I won't complain today.

Happy Mother's Day to all!

Kuching In 12 Hours, Part 1

It's always been a hassle for us Sabahans to get a Chinese visa because the Chinese embassy maintains only two branches in the country, one in KL and one in Kuching. The runners make their trips on Tuesdays and Fridays and if your schedule doesn't fit, you need to fly to those cities yourself. And that was what Yi and I did yesterday. We flew into Kuching in the morning and left the same night.

I've been to Kuching once, more than 10 years ago and I can't remember much of it. Kuching is said to have  some of the best food in Malaysia, after Penang. Some would say Malacca too but I wasn't impressed on my previous trip there so Malacca's not on my food wish list.



My first impression of Kuching's airport was that it was better than the budget Terminal Two in KK but Yi informed me that Kuching has only one airport. Strike One KK, because we have a Terminal One and it's an in-ter-na-tion-al airport. On the way into the airport, I was walking up the steps when I suddenly bumped my head against a ledge overhead. If the steps are crowded and you are taller than 5 feet, you will get a nasty bump if you walk up on the left of the stairs. While I was rubbing the bump on my head, another lady hit her head too and it wasn't funny because I could see she was in pain.



After submitting the forms at the Chinese embassy, we found ourselves in the middle of no where, with no taxis. A vehicle that looked like a bus came along. We got on excitedly since it's been ages since we've been in a bus in Malaysia. In my excitement, I didn't take a photo of the bus, a relic kind of vehicle which was last seen in KK (Strike 2) in the 1970s. Here's a photo taken inside the bus. I think that's how it must be like in Cambodia.



My impression of Kuching from the bus (fare was RM2/USD 70 cents per person; inflation has caught Kuching up) was that it is very big and widely spread out. There's no proper zoning and the city and residential areas are all merged so that there's no distinct city center. I'm not sure where the CBD is, or if there's any (not that we have much of a CBD in KK) and all the buildings were low rise, the tallest being about 10 storeys.

Old buildings such as the one in the photo above are still standing and they give a nostalgic air to the city (is Kuching a city?). Kuching reminds me of KK in the old days when I was growing up. I think what I like most about Kuching is the large expanse of greenery here and there although I think that whoever cut those dozens of big trees along the road from the airport should be jailed, if not executed.



This looks like some parts of Penang.



Shiou bee are like siew mai but not as tasty. I couldn't tell what meat was in them, but there were bits of crunchy stuff which I think were jicama (bangkuang). Yi thinks that shiou bee are the precursors of the Ausssie dim sims, those awful giant meatballs you find in fish and chips places.



Kuching's got character. Unlike Malacca or Singapore where old shop lots with wooden shutters have been perfectly copied or touched up, the ones on Kuching are authentically old and the 1st storeys of the shop lots are still occupied by the shop owners.



They even have columns with carvings, so European. KK has demolished all the old buildings and the city, like most modern cities in Asia, is characterless and uninteresting.



Yi loves kuey chap (RM4/USD1.30), a noodle dish we don't get in KK. Kuey chap noodles are small broad pieces of rice noodles in a slightly herbal soup with pieces of pig offal. I was told by a shop keeper later that the best kuey chap is in Johor Bahru and it's called kuey chap gia (kuey chap kid) because the noodles are thin, not broad.

Straight from the kuey chap stall on Jalan Ang Cheng Ho, we went to Min Joo, THE place for Kuching kolo mee. Kuching kolo mee (white dry-tossed noodles) is the city's second most famous dish, after Kuching laksa.

Min Joo was crowded and we have heard that it takes an hour to be served. We couldn't spare an hour because we wanted to get to Choon Hui Cafe, about 15 minutes by taxi, for Kuching's best Kuching laksa.



RM6/USD2.90 per bowl. You can choose to have the toppings on the noodles or in soup.

Leaving Min Joo, we went a few steps away to Kim Joo, the copycat. There were lots of seats and we were served immediately. I found the kolo mee in Kim Joo just okay, a 7/10, not something I'll crave for  mainly because I can get the same thing, more or less, in KK.



But this I like, the iced kedongdong juice RM2.50/USD85 cents. KedongdongYi sweated so much she needed to change her top.

How rustic is that. We don't get such places in KK anymore.



 A strategically-placed trishaw in a street for tourists.



This stall by the side of a road serves the best iced cendol in Kuching. I was relieved it wasn't open.



We turned the corner from Bishopgate and found an interesting street where people were selling colorful (but yukky) lapis (layered) cake. There were many souvenir shops too but they banned photo-taking even from the outside so too bad for them because I won't be giving them free ad space here. There were also some shops that sell local hardwood furniture and solid one-piece hardwood table tops which were absolutely gorgeous.



Sarawak is the leading pepper grower in the world and besides the peppercorns, this shop sells pepper roots (for soup) and pepper candies. No pepper spray.



The shop keeper was an elegant lady, beautiful and standing straighter than a soldier at 82. She used a Chinese abacus to total up our purchase and told me to use her calculator and yes, she was faster than me.

Pomelo Pith With Roasted Pork

I don't know if you have experienced this but as I grow older, I begin to appreciate some of the dishes that my parents liked which we kids didn't. Stewed pomelo pith (the mesocarp) and roasted pork is one of them.

This is not a common dish and I think it is Cantonese in origin. I think back in those days in China when people were very poor, they didn't waste food and the skin of the pomelo was not thrown to the pigs but used for cooking. I didn't find pomelo pith tasty because it was like a sponge, without much flavor except for the sauce that it was cooked in. Recently my mom cooked the dish and I was surprised to taste the subtle citrus flavor of the pith. I guess when you're a kid you can't appreciate such things.

Not all pomelos (which is a giant grapefruit, as big as a human head or even a football) have a tasty pith. If you are lucky to get one with a strong citrus flavor, do try and cook this dish just so you know how it tastes.



Pomelo Pith With Roasted Pork
1 medium-sized pomelo
300 gm roasted pork, in small pieces
2 T Chinese fermented soy bean paste
Light soy sauce for seasoning
2 cloves garlic, smashed
2 T spring onions, chopped
500 ml chicken stock
3 T veg oil

1. Peel the skin off the pomelo.  Cut off the rind and cut the pith into slices about 2 cm thick by 5 cm long. Amended prep method: Boil  the pomelo pith until they turn transparent. Soak in room temp water, changing the water two to three times to remove any bitterness.

2. Heat up a heavy pot or a wok. Add the oil and fry the garlic and bean paste until fragrant. Lightly squeeze the water out from the pomelo pith and place into the pot/wok. Add the pork, stirring well to mix. Add about 3 T light soy sauce, stir, then add the stock and cover. Simmer about 5 to 10 minutes. Season to taste with more light soy sauce if needed. Add more stock if necessary. The dish should be quite soupy because when left to sit, the pomelo pith'll soak up the liquid. Garnish with the spring onions.