Hi-Chew for me and you!

Thanks to my dear Channy chan-chan, I replenished my collection of weird-flavoured Hi-Chew candy today!

(Hi-Chew, in case anyone wants to know, is a highly chewy but flavourful Japanese candy that can also be used as a substitute for squash or tennis balls, hence the ).


[TOP: High conc. [sic] black sesame milk candy which are not Hi-Chews. I think the "conc" is for "concrete"; BOTTOM: A new kora (cola) Hi-Chew package!]


[I think this one says is is spadorini flavour or something. I can't really read but maybe spadorini is Japanese for cheese drink.]


[I think this ones is sour plum, or umeshu something-something.]


[An older cola flavoured Hi-Chew packaging with the red banner! Untouched and unscathed! ]

[Ramune soda flavour (a nutsoid Japanese soda that has a bottle with a fandangled bottle with a marble in it. Ramune is supposed to be a transliteration of "lemonade" but as we all know, Japanese people went to the washroom when they were handing out the letter L so now they can't pronounce them.]

I don't really eat candy which is why they tend to accumulate but I like the packaging for Hi-Chews. Nothing tastes like aged vintage candy!

m-m-m-my my my macarons

i've been spoiled! my cousin* rayray brought a boxful of ladurée's famous macarons back from paris, just in time for my birthday!

(the most intriguing flavour in the batch was cardamom but it was fantastic.)

and it also came in a new purse:

[fact(ually unproven): 96% of women in hong kong use paper shopping bags for purses. they are frequently filled with wallets, lunches, dried orange peels, fake eyebrows and ugly stuffed animals.]

* again, he's not exactly blood-related but closely related-enough that i can scold him for his foibles.

sweet soups

chinese sweet soups are the weird dessert/snacks that most westerners don't understand – think of it as chocolate pudding, except minus the chocolate and milk; then replace them with ground nuts or sesame seeds and finely ground rice and then cooked to thicken it, and then delicately sweetened.

and then the big surprise in bowl are the tiny delicate glutinous rice dumpling-type balls filled with ground peanuts and sugar, called tong yuen (soup balls).

sometimes eaten therapeutically, these sweet soups are more or less a winter treat... read more and you'll see what i mean.


(this one is roasted walnut sweet soup with tong yuen; background is some sort of watermelon or strawberry ice cream with tong yuen and served cold [the sesame, hong hum, kowloon, HK])

beware of this this guy (frawley)... some call him the dessert monster. he can eat his giant bowl of almond sweet soup and then finish everyone else's when they aren't looking... see that grin on his face? you know he did something with that spoon that he shouldn't have:


(look at the hypoplasia on that guy!! so deviant...)


(background: almond sweet soup; foreground: black sesame sweet soup)

here's fat auntie's recipe for almond sweet soup:

6 oz (around 2/3 cup) almonds, skins left on*
1 oz (between 1/8 and 1/4 cup) rice (uncooked)
6 oz water (around 2/3 cup)
1/2 to 1 stick of block or rock sugar (about 4 to 6 oz). or use a simple syrup (1:1 sugar to water)

1. make a sugar syrup: heat sugar in water until completely dissolved, stirring occasionally to ensure sugar completely dissolves. avoid boiling the mixture.
2. don't burn yourself.
3. remove from heat and soak the rice in the sugar syrup (a few hours to overnight).
4. lightly toast the almonds at a low heat in a wok until fragrant (between 5 and 10 minutes). do not burn them nor yourself. let them cool down enough to handle.
5. in a blender or food processor, finely grind the almonds with the sugar/rice mixture. this should take at least 20 minutes. the mixture should look fine like pancake batter, though it is not colloidal (it will separate eventually)
   
6. filter the mix in a metal coffee filter to remove bits that didn't get ground.
7. cook mixture it over medium heat until thickened, stirring constantly (avoid boiling). serve warm. hopefully there aren't any leftovers that you need to refrigerate.
   

*almonds can be substituted for walnuts, white sesame, black sesame, cashews. you can also use chinese almonds (which are actually apricot kernels) and mix them with regular almonds.

tong yuen recipe to come...

dan dan mein (also known as dan dan noodles)

slippery little wheat noodles, steaming hot and spicy broth with a peanutty/sesame-y flavour, topped with ground pork and oftentimes green onions, and cheap, to boot.. what more could i say?



(the best one of the bunch)


try it! eat more! get fat! you deserve a bowl of heaven!

noodles noodles noodles

one of the best foods ever popularized (and likely invented) by the chinese is noodles (from which stems italian pasta, german spätzle, japanese noodles, et cetera). when i say ever, i mean, ever.

[i really don't remember eating this but i believe it is some sort of chow mei-fun (stir-fried rice noodles) in butchered chinese transliteration. i can imagine that it was good and pretend that i remember eating it just to make this posting sound more legit.]


[linguine con vongole -- wasn't very good but it looked ok].

the first purportedly written record of noodles (miàn or mein 麵 in mandarin/cantonese) was before 300 C.E. during the east han dynasty. likely these noodles were likely made of types of millet, unlike today's noodles which are mostly made of wheat or rice.
.
[some tong mein (soup noodles) that i had and devoured].

today, it is estimated that at least 30% of all wheat production in the world is consumed in the form of noodles (though i would like to find out where that number comes from). in chinese culture, noodles represent longevity (likely the longer you live, the more noodles one can eat). in chinese receptions, noodles are one of the 8 to 11 dishes that are served, each dish representing something i can't remember (something to do with babies, money and/or finding a wife who's not fideous).

anyways, all i wanted to say this post was that lai-mein (pulled noodles) is so farking awesome.

[the best lai-mein i've had in the last 4 months at d & j shanghai restaurant. frawley ate most of it though.]

lai-mein is something else, especially if you can watch it being made... will post more on that in the near future.

[i might have forgotten to mention that i don't actually live in hong kong but if i did, i would be one fatass.]

grossness burger

"freshness burger" is the mismatched noun agreement of a name for a japanese burger chain that serves... well, burgers. burgers, hot dogs, doughnuts and beer and some other fast food crap. one opened in hong kong on the boardwalk (next to avenue of the stars) this past winter.

the wrapping itself should have given it away: "there's no fun in this package".



frankly, the burger i had (i believe it was a negimiso burger) was like eating a mcdonald's hamburger, and instead of a beef patty, it was a dry, breaded pork patty, and instead of wilted iceberg lettuce, it was wilted cabbage, and instead of special sauce, it was with goopy teriyaki-like sauce.

i mean, look at it:


looks like a horse pooped it out of it rear end and someone slapped yellow wonder bread on either side of it. this picture just made it look nicer cause i had put it on a plate.

needless to say, i should have had street food instead.

rating: 3 out of 10.

a discussion on egg tarts

those who know me know that i am an egg tart fiend (the likely culprit behind my "extra luggage" from my expeditions in the far east).


["chieu-pei" or "flaky crust" egg tart. actually this one tasted kind of gross and lardy, like eating a spoonful of tenderflake.]

egg tarts ("dan-tat") abound in hong kong and macau, where they were popularized around WWII by "cha-chaan tengs" (tea and food restaurants). in north america, you can find egg tarts in chinese bakeries and also in "cha-laus" where dim sum is served.

story goes either the british brought custard pies to hong kong (from which the chinese eggier version was adapted), and/or they were influenced by the portuguese egg tarts (see below).

the basic ingredients are simple: a buttload of eggs, milk and sugar, and sometimes food colouring. ginger, chocolate, papaya or other stuff (like bird's nest) can be added, but make them weird-flavoured.

[milk tarts, weaklings of the egg tart family.]

there are two main types of tart crusts:
- shortcrust. butter-based, more flavourful, and slightly denser.
- puff-pastry. lard-based, flakier, considered more genuine ("chieu-pei").

portuguese egg tarts ("po-tat" as my chinese kinfolk call them) are by far my favourite. called pastel de nata in their native portugal, the macanese ones delicate eggy cups of heaven, topped with slightly burned deliciousness... best. thing. ever.

(you can even get them right here in montreal, on the plateau.)

[macanese po-tart: flaky, eggy, and slightly burned... just like the way i like my boys.]


[a half dozen of po-tarts (minus one) from macau that quickly disappeared as soon as they were boxed... and no, i did not share.]

in hong kong however, the best one i had was from kfc, i kid you not. and do not judge me lest ye be judged.

let's begin with macanese almond cookies

i'm a little unsure as to how to start off this food blogging thing, but as i flipped through the 2000+ photos i took while in hong kong, i came across these ones of almond cookies in macau.


these macanese delectables are one of macau's more famous exports, along with eat jerky, and the best egg tarts i've ever had in the world (though i've never been to portugal so i might be mistaken... humour me for now).

the main street leading up to the remains of st. paul's church in macau are lined with shops that sell these cookies. barkers for the stores literally shove them in your hands to lure you into buying more. i think i got slightly ripped off ($100 MOP for 4 boxes) but i didn't really care cause this was the real deal. there are a few major competitors on that strip but the one i went to was pastelaria koi kei.


made of mung bean powder, sugar, almonds, vegetable oil, peanut butter, milk powder and water, they're slightly toasted on that big round toaster plate thing when they hand them to you.


[that's the ominous hand of mr. frawley who likes to ruin pictures i take].

imagine a light, slightly sweet, dry and crumbly biscuit, flavoured with almonds. and sometimes mixed with walnuts, coconuts, or whole almonds... and imagine sipping some hot tea or almond milk with one of these suckers and you're soaking in it!

though some liken these cookies to eating chalk, i say, to each his own... and i like chalk.