Vegetarian Curry Laksa - Guest Post @ Notabilia

Those who have been reading my blog may be aware that I have a sister who decided to become a vegetarian when she came back from her first trip to India some 10 years ago. The family was initially shocked by her sudden conversion and I admit at one point, I had wondered if she had been hypnotised and  brain washed by some religious cult group in India.... As time went by, she continued to stick to her conviction and we came to accept her choice and stopped questioning her. Although, at times, I have to admit she still gets on my nerves when she righteously suggests that I should do all my baking with molasses and wholewheat flour... Anyway... so when Pooja of Notabilia contacted me to ask if I could do a local vegetarian dish for her blog, I was not altogether at a loss because eating out with my vegetarian sister has exposed me to a myriad of local dishes from vegetarian indian 'mutton' dum briyani to vegetarian 'minced meat' noodles to vegetarian curry 'fish head'... yes, it is definitely much more interesting to be a vegetarian here in Singapore.

Laksa is easily my favourite local dish. Filled with rich, beautiful spices and spiked with coconut milk, this curry laksa (to differentiate it more the more tangy Penang Assam Laksa) , has remained the favourite noodle dish of many here. Hop over to Notabilia to find out how my vegetarian version turns out. 

XO Sauce Stir Fried Loh Shu Fun / Mee Tai Mak

Mee Tai Mak/ Bee Tai Mak is one of the many forms of rice noodles that we eat in Asia. Very much like a shorter and more wriggly cousin of the Japanese Udon, the cantonese name of this noodle (Loh Shu Fun) literally translates to mean Rat's Noodle. Not too difficult to understand for the tapering shape of the noodle does somewhat reminds one of the wriggly tip of a rat's tail...

Interestingly though, I had always referred to the noodle as Mee Tai Mak/ Bee Tai Mak when I was growing up. It was only until when I was much older , a widely reported outbreak of food poisoning in Malaysia exposed me to the more colourful ratty term. The food poisoning was traced back to a batch of contaminated Mee Tai Mak. The papers were rife with reports and stories of how people would fall sick after they ate Lou Shu Fun..( the pronounciation of the term can also be interpreted as  rat's powder / rat's poison). I was dumbfounded when I read the reports and started to ask my friends why on earth would those people in Malaysia want to eat Rat Poison??  Only then, did I learn that the Rat Poison was actually Mee Tai Mak...

I was invited to join a bloggers' gathering last weekend. Initiated by ZY of Baking Library, it was a small gathering among some of the Singapore food bloggers whom I have come to know over the last 2 years. I knew I had to bring a savoury dish for the event (I brought Mee Rebus for our first gathering last year) as most of the others I knew would be bringing sweet treats.


Fried with XO sauce and prawns, this is a relatively easy dish to prepare. However, dishes like these (as is true for most Chinese dishes) would taste best when cooked over strong heat. The Mee Tai Mak especially needs to be tossed very quickly over high heat to prevent it from turning soggy and mushy over prolong stir frying. Hence what I did was, I first poached the noodles in boiling water for 5 seconds before frying them quickly in small batches over very high heat in my wok. As a result, I had to divide and fry my potluck portion into 3 lots.
If you are only cooking for a small family at home, this is definitely more manageable - just make sure the wok is very hot.

Overall, I think my efforts were met with reasonable success... good enough to open shop? Maybe but I am still not consistent from batch to batch and I wouldn't want to stand in front of a blasting hot wok the whole day... :)


Recipe :

Mee Tai Mak               200g  (enough for 2)

Prawns                        6 -8 medium to large size prawns, shelled and deveined.
Spring Onion              4 stalks, chopped
Chili Padi                    Chopped finely. (you can also replace with sambal chili paste)
Bean Sprouts              50g (poached for 10 seconds in boiling water. For this post, I ran out of bean
                                   sprouts, so I omitted them)

Eggs                           2, beaten
Oil                              1 tbsp

Seasoning
XO Sauce                   1 tbsp
Oyster Sauce              1 tbsp
Sugar                          1/2 tbsp
Light Soya Sauce       1 tbsp
Dark Soya Sauce        1/2 tsp
Sesame Oil                  1/2 tsp
White Pepper               Dash
(For those who prefer a stronger taste, the seasoning portion can be increased in proportion)

Method :

1. Poach Mee Tai Mak in boiling water for 5 seconds, remove from water with a slotted spoon and set aside. (do not over cook Mee Tai Mak)

2. Heat up the wok until smoking. Add 1 tbsp oil and add beaten eggs. When eggs just begin to set, scramble with frying ladle and add Mee Tai Mak, Prawns, Spring Onion, Bean sprouts and seasoning.

3. Fry until prawns are cooked. (turns pink)

4. Dish out the noodles and garnish with more chopped spring onions and sesame seed (optional). Serve immediately while hot.

Hong Kong Soya Sauce Fried Noodles - 豉油王炒面

One of the dishes which I simply cannot resist when I am in Hong Kong, is a good plate of the plain, simple Soya Sauce Fried Noodles. Totally simplistic in its make up and yet so flavourful and satisfying. This is somewhat similar to our morning breakfast favourite, the economy Fried Beehoon/ Fried Noodles. These are commonly fried in big herd-feeding batches with just soya sauce and a little bean sprouts and are usually sold in a good fulfilling portion for a humble 80 cents to a dollar - hence the word Economy. We have since then turned affluent and started to add a myriad of side dishes (the likes of fried egg, Luncheon meat, chicken wings, curry vegetables etc...)  to make this into quite a yummilicious  feast. However, as delicious as the Economy Fried Noodles could be, one will never find it on the menu of a Chinese restaurant. The Hong Kong Soya Sauce Fried noodle, however, often comfortably shares a place in the menu with fancy dim sums and gourmet abalones...

The critical component to a great Soya Sauce Fried Noodles is a good soya sauce. A premium grade soya sauce lends nuances of delicate flavour and fragrance to the dish which instantly elevates this otherwise simple, no frills dish to its classic, evergreen status.
After the soya sauce, the choice of noodle would understandably be another important component for this dish. Dried egg noodles are usually quickly blanched in hot water to soften the noodles before they are fried to a dry, glossy consistency. The other accompaniments cooked together with the noodles are as humble as they come - bean sprouts and a little Chinese Chives are the staple fare. Sprinkle on a handful of toasted sesame seeds and this proudly becomes restaurant worthy. Enjoy!


Recipe :
Dried Egg Noodle               200g (blanched quickly in hot water to soften. Drain and set aside)
Premium light soya sauce     2 tbsp (生抽王）
Premium dark soya sauce    1 tbsp (老抽王）
Oyster sauce                       1/2 tbsp
Sugar                                  1/8 tsp
Pepper                                Generous dash

Bean sprouts                       1 loose cup
Chinese Chives                    1/2 loose cup ( I didn't have this with me so I omitted this)
Toasted Seseame seeds       Generous sprinkle.

Method :
1. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a heated wok.
2. Add bean sprouts and fry for 1 minute over medium heat. Add softened noodles and fry for 1/2 minute over high heat.
3. Add all seasoning and continue to fry noodles over high heat for about 2-3 minutes.
4. Add in Chinese chives and fry for another 1/2 minute. Sprinkle on toasted sesame seeds and dish out. Serve with chilli sauce.

Guest Post @ Rasa Malaysia : Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee

Rasa Malaysia is a site that needs little introduction. Owned by Bee, I don't think I exaggerate when I say that, the site presides over the Asian Food niche in the Flogosphere. As such, I was extremely flattered to learn that Bee had actually noticed my humble blog and had generously invited me to do a guest post at her site.

Deciding what to feature in this guest post for Rasa Malaysia is not easy. The site is already so rich in content, it is literally an Asian Food encyclopedia.(especially for Malaysian/Singapore food)



I am glad that I can still bring something new in the form of the Singapore Fried Hokkien Mee. Please head over to Rasa Malaysia to read about my all time favourite Singapore street food.

Su Jae Bee - Korean Style Mee Hoon Kueh

I know many envy me when they hear that I get to travel to Korea for business. My response is usually more lukewarm. I am not a star struck fan of Korean Dramas - I have probably only watched one Korean drama over the last 2 years. The smooth faced actors and actresses are all perfectly beautiful but I have trouble differentiating them.  I also have to admit that I am not crazy over kimchi - apart from the spicy pickled cabbage, all other kimchi are either too cold, too sour or too bland for my liking. I do gush over the latest paper thin LED panels from LG and Samsung and while these are usually the reasons for my work-related visits to Korea, they have little relevance when I wander around Seoul for leisure.

What I do get out of every Korean trip are humbling experiences and a mega dose of appreciation for what we have here at home.

I am not sure how many of us out there still remember that under all that shiny veneer, South Korea is a country that has only recently just walked out of poverty. Through sheer determination and will, they have propelled the nation to become a formidable player in just about every market they participate in. When the Korean war ended in the 1950s and possibly until the early 1970's, South Korea was actually poorer than their North Korean counter parts.

My colleague who is of the same age as I am, remembers that when he was in elementary school in the early 1980s, fruits like bananas, pineapples and oranges were luxury items. My colleague had told me how he and his friends would look on with envy when a kid from a rich family bring a banana to school for snack.  I had my first Mac Donalds in Singapore when I was about 8 or 9 years old. My Korean colleague could not afford to eat Mac Donalds until he was 20.  Another colleague recalled how he would rummage through garbage bins at the American Naval base for discarded copies of Playboy magazines so that he could sell them off in the black market for pocket money. I am in awe because these stories were typically what we would hear from our parents' or grandparents' generation - when these experiences come from your own peers,they have a strangely sobering effect. When one couples these with the country's amazing rate of growth and stellar achievement in such a short time, one cannot help but be immensely humbled.

South Korea will continue to forge ahead to refine their craft but if you look under the veneer that is presented to the world now, you will immediately see elements of their more humble beginnings. They are every where. Food experience is one of the most obvious. I recalled how when I had my first Bibimpap (stone bowl rice) in Korea, I had felt grossly let down and unsatisfied. The Bibimpap I used to have outside Korea was always fulfilling with colourful vegetables and generous portion of beef. For that first Bibimpap in Korea,I recalled turning over the contents in my bowl to see if the beef was hidden any where under the vegetables... there was probably about a teaspoon of minced meat in that bowl... The famous Jajangmyon (soy paste noodle) , served with a thick soy paste sauce of onions,carrots and potatoes comes in strangely huge portion in Korea, with enough noodles to feed a hungry labourer. My colleague told me Koreans will generally finish eating these in 10 seconds and return back to work again. The famous Korean barbeque is still considered a luxury for most Koreans and most would only limit themselves to pork barbeque. The beef barbeque is reserved for the most important guests. I also recall how I had to get used to the fact that most normal restuarants only serve one specialty dish. Do not expect to see a menu with a selection of meat, seafood, dessert etc. If you have problem with any particular type of food, make sure you voice out otherwise, you will have nothing else to eat at that restaurant. I was once taken to a restuarant that only served beef tripe soup. I ended up nibbling on kimchi for that lunch.


During my trip there last week, my colleague took me to a very popular restuarant that sells Su Jae Bee - for all I can tell, this is just like our Mee Hoon Kueh - pinched flour dough cooked in a rich flavourful anchovy broth. A restaurant with a humble setting, this serves only Su Jae Bee and some starchy potato pancake. The handful of dishes offered were written on the wall,complete with price indication. On a cold chilly night, this was the perfect comfort food. I was inspired upon my first sip of the broth. I knew I could replicate this quite reasonably. The flour dough which was tender, thin and smooth was the thing that intimidated me. As I watched the cooks work effortlesly at stretching and pinching the dough behind the kitchen counter, I knew this is no easy feat. They have mastered the dough so well, this has to be the key differentiating factor that sets them apart. I had eaten similar Mee Hoon Kueh before in Singapore but I had never quite liked them because these were thicker and tougher than the Su Jae Bee I had at this restuarant. There is very little else in the bowl other than pieces of flour, a few forlorn pieces of dried shrimps, shredded cabbage and potatoes. Another humble, unpretentious high carb, energy giving dish, which my colleague told me became popular when the Korean war ended and the Americans came in bearing gifts in the form of sacks of wheat flour.

The experience had been so memorable that this became the first dish I wanted to cook when I touched down in Singapore. Forget about DaChangJin (大常今)... nobody eats like that in Korea. Everyday Korean food is conservative, humble, honest and comforting. I  prepared the broth with the large anchovies and dried clams I bought in Korea. I knew I would never be able to replicate the texture of the flour dough on my own. With the aid of my pasta maker, I then tried to get this as thin as I could ( a little thicker than pasta noodles) before cutting them up into pieces. Suprisingly, it turned out really good. My Su Jae Bee is not as spectacular as the one I ate in Korea but is good enough for me to be proud of myself :)... I had another 5 minutes genius moment...:)


Recipe :

Soup Base
1 liter          Water
50g             Dried anchovies, washed.
30g             Dried clams,washed.
20g             Dried scallops.

Vegetables
2                Potates, peeled and diced
1                Stem of Kailan, sliced. (I had wanted to use Zucchini but could not find it at the supermarket)
1/2             Stem of leek, thinly sliced.

Dough
250g          Plain flour
1tbsp         Corn flour
Salt            Pinch
1/2             Egg
1/2 - 1cup  Water

Method :
Dough
1. Place flour and corn flour in a mixing bowl. Form a well in the center of the bowl and add rest of ingredients in the center of the bowl (do not add all water at one time. Adjust accordingly during kneading).
Mix to form a dough. Knead dough on the lightly floured board until smooth.

2. Place dough in a zip lock bag and refrigerate over night.
3. Lightly flour dough ( divide dough into 2-3 manageable portions) and roll out a few times using a pasta maker at setting (1).  Finally, roll out dough at setting (5). Using a knife. cut dough sheets into small pieces lightly flour dough pieces on a tray to prevent them from sticking to each other. Cover tray with a wet towel to prevent them from drying out.

Note : step 3 should be done when soup is ready.

Soup :
1. Boil Anchovies, dried clams and scallops in water over medium heat for about an hour.Season with a dash of pepper and salt.
2. Strain away solids and retain the clear broth.
3. Heat clear broth to boiling. Add more dried clams, potatoes, Kailan stem and cook until potatoes are slightly soft.
4. Continue to boil the broth, add in dough pieces and continue to cook until the dough pieces are cooked. Add sliced leek. Simmer for 3 minutes.
5. Dish out into bowl. Add a drizzle of sesame oil, a generous dash of black peper (important) , a little seaweed and eat while hot.

Poor Man's Fried 'Shark's Fin' - 平民桂花翅

When I was living in Guangzhou, China a few years ago, one of my favourite Cantonese dish was what they called Guai Fa Chi (桂花翅) literally translated to mean Osmanthus Sharks Fin. The Osmanthus really denotes the fried eggs used in the dish. Scrambled to golden yellow crumbs, the eggs resemble the tiny flowers of the Osmanthus plant and for those who are not familiar with the Osmanthus flowers, you must , you must try to look for them at Chinese Tea house next time. Less initmidating than rose and more elegant than Jasmine, the sweet, demure fragrance of the Osmanthus is one of my favourite scents.

I have eaten this dish at many restuarants in China - the more glitzy of which would use real shark's fin for this dish while the less fancy eating outlets would substitute the shark's fin with green bean vermicelli, (transparent noodle) 粉丝 another one of my favourite food - thus the name, Poor man's Fried Sharksfin.



Both tastes equally good when done correctly - which really isn't suprising when you consider that Shark's Fin is really tasteless. What is important when substituting with vermicelli though, is to make sure that the transparent noodle does not get over cooked. Softening the noodles excessively will render it brittle and take the 'gelantinous bite' out of it. 



A successful attempt at should yield noodles that is fried relatively dry. The bottom of the plate, should not be wet or too oily.

Traditionally, duck eggs would be used to augment the fragrance of the fried eggs. However, this is not accessible to me and therefore I substituted with chicken eggs. Poor Man or otherwise, this is a simple but tasty dish - and since I have chosen to abstain from eating Shark's fins, I couldn't be more happy to be a Poor Man.


Recipe : ( Adapted from 真味香港菜)

Transparent Glass Noodles                 50g
Ham (or crab meat)                            30g
Bean Sprouts                                      A handful
Eggs                                                   2
Salt                                                    1/2 tsp
Chicken Stock                                    1/2 cup
Oil                                                      1 tbsp

Method:
1. Soak transparent glass noodles in cold water for 5-10 mins until softened. Cut the glass noodles with scissors to about 6-7cm.
2. Slice ham into thin strips.
3. Blanch bean sprouts in hot water for 1 min.
4. Break eggs seperately into 2 separate bowls. Season with a little soya sauce.
5. Heat wok and add a little oil.  Pour in 1st egg into wok and scramble quickly over low heat with four chopsticks. Remove from heat, dish out and set aside.
6. Heat 1 tbsp oil in heated wok, fry ham until fragrant. Add  (1). Fry quickly in the wok. While frying the noodles, slowly add in chicken stock and salt. Simmer a little to let noodles absorb the flavour. Continue to fry until noodles is a little dry.
7. Slowly add in the 2nd egg. Frying to ensure the eggs get cooked and noodles become quite dry.
8. Add bean sprouts and scrambled eggs and fry for another 30sec.
9. Dish out and serve with rice or eat on its own.

Sneak Preview : Mee Rebus

A sneak preview at the Mee Rebus which I will be bringing to a potluck gathering initiated by Pei Lin of Dodol & Mochi. This is my first attempt at making Mee Rebus and I've decided to make use of a new recipe which I had picked up at Chef Keong's class at Chef Cooking Studio last month. This potluck session presents the  perfect occasion for me to test the recipe.
Different from standard  Mee Rebus recipes which usually calls for mashed potatoes to make up the thick starchy gravy, this recipe cuts back on the quantity of pototoes and uses Honey Dew Melon and Pineapple instead. Hence, the overall meal feels less starchy and less heavy on the stomach.

This is the pre-test and I thought it was pretty successful. After the photo shoots, I heated up the gravy again and tried cutting it with more water to reduce the viscosity. That got even better!

I shan't publish the recipe as it shall be unfair to Chef Cooking Studio but all you resourceful bloggers out there - I am sure you will be able to find many basic mee rebus recipes on the blogosphere. This will give you a good starting point to tweak the recipe.

Sneak Preview Over! Cheers!

Fish Head Bee Hoon - 鱼头米粉

I cooked Fish Head Bee Hoon for dinner today. It tasted so good that I am beginning to believe that I can actually cook....

Food bloggers like us - we cook at home, we have cookbooks, we watch cooking programs and we attend cooking classes - everyone of us, I suppose, fancy ourselves as a bit of a cook. When we see our own cooking captured on film, it brings us a little closer to the wishful notion that we could perhaps be more than 'a bit of a cook'.... and do I even need to mention that we, food bloggers, have mastered the ethereal art of eating with our eyes?  I remember when I told my friends how we would visit each others' blogs leaving comments on the food - they had asked me, quite matter of factly, ' but they have not tasted your food, how do they comment on your food? '  To that, I replied sagely : we eat with our eyes.

Indeed, perhaps, one of these days, when we do get to taste each others' fare, we could be grossly disappointed and disillusioned but what is also true is that our knowledge of food has become more astute, we have become more aware and informed about the different tastes, ingredients and preparation of food - leading to higher expectation and appreciation of what would perhaps be just lunch or dinner.

When I had told L that I made this for dinner tonight and quite ignorantly asked if they have Fish Head Bee Hoon in KL, he had replied with an almost audible snort, ' of course we do, where do you think Singaporeans copy from? '. Absolutely futile to talk to him about food commonalities between Malaysia and Singapore.

I used the recipe from local celebrity chef, Sam Leong's 'A Taste Of Home'. Sam Leong, who hails from KL (eyes rolling)  is the Corporate Chef and Director of Kitchens for the Tung Lok Group, which own more than 20 world-class restaurants in Singapore, Indonesia, China, Japan and India. 'A Taste Of Home' is his third cookbook and is less stylistic and less intimidating than the first 2 books. The dishes featured in this book are very homely and unpretentious - totally relevant for home cooking for family and friends.
I don't suppose this is the best Fish Head Bee Hoon recipe as it does not really calls for fish bone stock but I had found a total of 3 different recipes, and all of them were using normal chicken stock. I suppose for home preparation, this would be easier to work with - it doesn't quite require one to tackle the possible fishy smell of the stock. What I have done a little differently, is to boil the stock with dried anchovies and impart some flavour of the sea to it.





I had bought a mixture of  fish (with bones) and fish fillet from the market. The fish I bought was Shengyu, also commonly known as Snakehead fish - not cheap. The $4 portion will probably only be good for 2 servings... sometimes, you wonder, what is the point of cooking it by yourself. I probably can get it cheaper at the hawker stall or the food court. These are seasoned with a little salt and deep fried until golden yellow.

I like my soup base with lots of pepper, a discernible hint of Chinese rice wine and the refreshing tang of the fresh tomatoes - all served with the ferocious cut chilli padi. I definitely will be making this again and I hope you will get to try it too.... it may also make you feel like more than a bit of a cook ;).



Recipe (from Sam Leong's A Taste Of Home)

Fresh thick rice vermecilli (Bee Hoon)           400g
Cooking oil for deep frying
Snake head fish, chopped into pieces            200g
Pickled Mustard Cabbage (Harm Choy)       200g (cut into strips)
Ginger                                                          5 pieces
Spring onion                                                 2 cut into short lengths
Tomatoes                                                     2 cut into wedges
Lettuce                                                        A few leaves

Stock
Chicken stock                                             800ml
Salt                                                            1/2 tsp
Sugar                                                         1/2 tsp
Salted plum                                                1 (I omitted this.)
Ground white pepper                                  Dash
Chinese cooking wine                                 Dash
Sesame Oil                                                 Dash
Evaporated milk                                          3 tbsp

Method
1. Bring a pot of water to the boil and blanch Bee Hoon until soft. Drain and set aside and divided into large serving bowls.
2. Heat oil for deep-frying over high heat. Season fish with a little salt. Deep fry until golden brown. Drain and set aside.
3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok and add ingredients for stock,except milk.Bring it to the boil, then add fish, pickled mustard cabbage, ginger, spring onions , tomatoes and milk.
4. Allow stock to return to the boil, then ladle into bowl over noodles.  Garnish with lettuce and serve immediately with red chillies.

1. Bring a pot of water to the boil and blanch Bee Hoon until soft. Drain and set aside and divided into large serving bowls.

2. Heat oil for deep-frying over high heat. Season fish with a little salt. Deep fry until golden brown. Drain and set aside.

3. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a wok and add ingredients for stock,except milk.Bring it to the boil, then add fish, pickled mustard cabbage, ginger, spring onions , tomatoes and milk.

4. Allow stock to return to the boil, then ladle into bowl over noodles. Garnish with lettuce and serve immediately with red chillies.

Sesame Oil Mee Sua 麻油面線

Sometimes, the simple and uninteresting can be deceptively good.

I just came back from my biking and binging vacation in Taipei. Thankfully, we've stayed physically active during the trip otherwise, we would all have grown 1 or 2 dress size bigger. I am not exaggerating for we were eating something or other every hour of the day.

Taiwan, unlike China, does not have its definitive cuisine -e.g. Canton Cuisuine (粤菜）, Shanghainese Cuisine (泸菜), Sichuan Cuisine (川菜), Hunan Cuisine (湘菜), Teochew Cuisine (潮菜) etc... Hence, there isn't a distinctive Taiwanese Restaurant per se. Most restaurants in Taiwan serve one of the Main Cuisines from China. For example, the famous Ding Tai Feng is really a Shanghainese restaurant. Taiwan's gastronomic charms lie in their street food culture. Little snacks (小吃) and quick meals that are usually served in less glamourous settings. Simple and unpretentious stir-fry restaurants (小炒) that often do not even have a menu - where the cook will take the freshest ingredients available for the day and whip up a tasty dish without cracking their heads over recipes, flavour pairing or plating finesse...

A dish that I ate repeatedly over the last 4 days in Taipei is the Mee Sua (面線). Mee Sua (literally means thread noodle), most of us would know, is very thin, fine noodle. When cooked in soup, it takes on an almost congee like, smooth & slippery texture. It can be digested easily and hence is another favourite food for the sick, young and old. The most famous Mee Sua dish in Taiwan is undoubtedly the Oyster Mee Sua - cooked in a starchy flavourful broth and served with Pig Instestines and Oyster, this dish could most likely be the representative Taiwanese food.


Apart from the Oyster Mee Sua, I had also tasted 3 other types of Mee Sua when I was in Taiwan. 2 of which were dry noodles tossed in special dressing. The one that I am reproducing here is the Sesame Oil Mee Sua which I ate at a charming 'mud hut'  stir-fry restaurant at Yangming Shan (Yangming mountain).
We were unimpressed by the bland looking noodles when it was placed in front of us but all fell in love with it when we tasted it. We finished the portion in a flash and had to place a second order.
Simple and unpretentious in taste, the wholesomeness of the noodles and fragrance of the sesame oil (use good quality sesame oil) was undescribably satisfying. So when I saw these hand made Mee Sua at the Airport Duty Free shop, I knew immediately that I had to get them.
Unlike the usual dried Mee Sua we find here in Singapore, these hand made versions are amazingly pliable and remind me of bundles of yarn used for weaving cloth. They look more like raw noodle than dried noodle.

I don't have a recipe to follow but simply tried my best to reproduce what I ate at Yangming Shan. Here goes.


Recipe

Water                 1litre
Mee Sua             2 bundle (or enough to serve)
Chicken stock     1 - 2 cup
Salt                     To season
Sesame Oil
2 cloves garlic
White Sesame

Method
1. Heat water in a heavy saucepan until boiling. Reduce heat so that water is not bubbling vigorously.
2. Put in Mee Sua and cook until the noodles is al dente (with a bite in the center of the noodle). Drain noodle.
3. Heat a wok until very hot. Add sesame oil and garlic (do not mince) and fry for a minute until fragrant.
4. Add chicken stock and cooked Mee Sua. Season with salt. Continue to simmer until chicken stock is almost dried up. Add sesame oil to coat noodle.
5. Dish out noodle and sprinkle with ground white sesame seed. Garnish with Parsely / coriander leaves.

Jajangmyon - 杂酱面

Yesterday, Singapore had its 2nd mass cycling event, the first was held a year ago with great success. This year, it gets even better. I participated in the 40km event which saw more than 6000 participants and am really glad that I finished the race without....coming in last! (LOL)  - in fact, I did better than last year, completing the 40km in 2 hours, without any soreness or pain in my butt as I pedalled furiously to maintain an average speed of 20km/hr.  This, anyone who bikes will know, is snail pace. However, for my fitness level, and with zero training prior, this was the best I could realistically aim for. Honestly, even up to the last minute, I was still trying to conjure up believable excuses to pull out of the event. I started feeling breathless even during the 1st 5km - and was seriously contemplating to pull up at the 1st aid stop to tell them that I had a pinched nerve and had to stop. It was also especially nerve wrecking as I noticed all the road bikes, half the weight of my mountain bike were overtaking me effortlessly - I felt like I was riding on a hippo!


My Pink Hippo...

Then, at some point, I started to ignore those whizzing road bikes and focus on just maintaining the 20-21km/hr figure displayed on my speed indicator. It was then that I found myself panting less and my legs started to acquire the rhythm to pedal with smooth continuity.... and before I realised it, I was already 25km into the race and the remaining 10km or so lying ahead did not look so unachievable anymore.

One of the best part of pushing your body to the limits is the total restfulness that follows the exertion . After showering, I literally spent the rest of my Sunday morning and afternoon, lounging on my couch, watching TV... it felt good to be able to give in to the exhaustion and let the body just slump... it was after 3 episodes of Friends, 2 episodes of American Idol, that I surfed over to the Chinese station that was showing a Korean Drama. It was odd, but over the span of 30mins, Jajangmyon was mentioned more than 10 times in the show. It immediately stirred up my craving for Jajangmyon - which is a Korean noodle dish which originated from China. The key ingredient of this dish is the Chinese bean past sauce, （杂酱) Jajang. It is a favourite dish among Korean children. I remember a Korean colleague once told me he had to cook Jajangmyon for her daughter every Sunday and it is the one dish that she prefers from her dad than her mum.

Such is the power of food craving... it was strong enough to have me drag my listless body out of the couch, and out to the supermarket to get the Korean Bean paste!
I am not sure if I have prepared this correctly but the bean paste was so tasty that I suspect it wouldn't be easy to make this taste bad. Following dinner, I went to bed early and slept like a baby.


Recipe :

1                   potato, diced
1                   small carrot, diced
1                   onion, diced
50g               minced pork
2 tbsp           Jajang (black bean paste)
1tsp              Sugar mixed with 1/2 cup water
1 tbsp           Oil

Noodles ( the Koreans will use wheat noodle. I used a thinner version Japanese Udong)

Method:

1. Heat oil in a hot wok.
2. Add in Jajang and fry until a little dry.
3. Add diced potato, onions and minced pork and fry for a few minutes. Add sugar solution. Cover and cook over low fire until vegetables are softened.
4. If the sauce become too dry, add a little water.
5. In a spearate saucepan, boil some water and once water boils, add and blanch noodles. Drain noodles
6. Divide noodles into 2 portion, lay sauce over the noodle. Garnish with cucumber strips and hard boil egg.