Hong Kong was home for almost 4 years, and now, again, it’s time to move on. During our stay here, we had a special home, a small “Outlying Island” called Cheung Chau.

Human-scaled Cheung Chau — with more dried fish, bicycles and beaches than cars, elevators or malls — has been the perfect place for my Sammy to be a small child.  I know all too soon, there will be a time when he will be occupied with things other than scooping sand, talking with stray cats, or poking fish in the wet market, but I hope that the soul of Cheung Chau should somehow remain part of his soul, and that, no matter how far in the world we might wander, he might be an “island boy” at heart.

So I started drawing again, in an attempt to capture some of that for him. There are 12 handbound books printed on rice paper, stitched with red thread. And also an e-book, to read on an iPad or iPhone. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can read this version on your e-reader of choice. Or if you prefer a printed copy copy, you can have one custom-printed at Blurb here.

Many moons ago, we spotted a little hand-crank ice cream maker in a shop in Causeway Bay. It didn’t cost much, so we snatched it up and now keep the bowl in the freezer so that whenever ice cream inspiration strikes, it’s ready to go. I have to say that this is probably the best impulse buy we’ve ever made. What a great way to experiment with ice cream flavors and get a little adventurous! Once you taste fresh homemade ice cream, with it’s clean flavors uncluttered by additives and fillers, you won’t want to go back…

Let’s start with a pretty standard ice cream flavor. Do you have fresh blueberries on hand?

1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup fresh cream
1 egg, beaten
1 Tbsp honey
3 Tbsp blueberry jam (I like the St. Dalfour brand because it doesn’t have processed sugar or additives)
1/3 cup blueberries
Put all the ingredients except for the blueberries into a bowl and stir. Pour the mixture into frozen container and crank the handle. It might take 30 minutes. When the mixture gets hard, add the blueberries. Scoop into a serving bowl. Mmmm…

Ok, now for another flavor. I’m used to seeing orange sorbet on dessert menus, but not orange ice cream. That’s a shame because oranges and cream are two tastes that go hand in hand! Tangy citrus sweetness offset by smooth rich creaminess…

1 orange (about 100g)
4 Tbsp marmalade with orange peel (I like to use the St. Dalfour brand)
1/3 cup fresh cream
2-1/2 Tbsp condensed milk
Take the fruit of the orange and cut it into small pieces. Mix with all the ingredients. Pour the mixed ingredients into the frozen container and turn the crank until the mixture gets hard. Transfer the mixture to a container for storage and freeze for about 1 or 2 hours. Scoop the ice cream into a serving bowl. Nom nom nom…

And now for something a little different…. Depending on where you live, it might be hard to get your hands on purple sweet potato. If so, don’t hesitate to try another kind of sweet potato, or pumpkin, or yam!

Purple sweet potato (medium size, about 100g)
1/5 cup whole milk
1/2 cup fresh cream
2 Tbsp honey
Steam the sweet potato until it’s very soft and remove the skin. Cut into small pieces, mash with a fork and mix thoroughly with the milk (you can also use a blender for this part). Add the other ingredients and stir. Pour the mixture into the already frozen container, and crank the handle until it gets hard. Scoop the ice cream int a serving bowl. Chocolate chips or mini marshmallows make great add-ins. Or if you decided to make pumpkin ice cream, don’t forget to sprinkle with cinnamon! Soooo goood!

Now for something a bit more exciting… How about combining the gorgeous mellow flavor of a ripe avocado with a nice kick from a tiny bit of wasabi? It’s a really intriguing combination….

1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup fresh cream
1 egg, beaten
1 small ripe avocado, mashed
1/4 teaspoon wasabi paste
Pour the milk and sugar into a bowl, and mix with the egg and fresh cream. Pour the entire mixture into the frozen container and crank the handle. When the mixture gets hard, add the mashed avocado and wasabi and continue to crank until well mixed with good texture. Scoop into serving bowl. Get ready for that surprise wasabi kick!

And finally, the ice cream flavor that started it all… Many years ago, I heard a song called “White Pepper Ice Cream,” by Cibo Matto. It planted a seed in my mind. I couldn’t stop wondering white pepper ice cream might taste like. Finally we could try it out.

Unfortunately I can’t find the original recipe that we used online. I remember the flavor being a lot milder than I expected, but having a kind of slow burn that mounted so that by the 5th mouthful you could taste the pepper gaining strength. I quite liked it and found the flavor refreshing, sort of like ginger. Here’s one from The New York Times that sounds like it would be good too. It requires a little bit of time on the stovetop. We’ll definitely be giving this one a go again!

A photo of Hong Kong in New York City.

A photo of Chengdu, China in Hong Kong.

We’ve slowed down our travels in the past two years, but here are a few more places we’ve been. The future’s looking bright, and now we’ll have another little traveler joining us on our journeys…

A photo of Hangzhou, China in Chengdu, China

A photo of Langkawi, Malaysia in Hangzhou, China

A photo of Seoul, Korea in Langkawi, Malaysia

A photo of Lopburi, Thailand in Seoul, Korea

A photo of Hong Kong in Lopburi, Thailand

A photo of Seoul, Korea in Hong Kong

And more photos of places in photos of places.

I’ve let far too much time pass before posting these photos. I guess I kept hoping to have the time to write up a proper mini-guide for my 10 day trip to Quito last October. But would you take a nano-guide instead?

Hostel:

Hostal Quito Cultural

Language Studies:

Yanapuma Foundation

Voluntouring:

EcuaExplora

Horseback Riding:

Green Horse Ranch Pulalahua

And now for some photos (see the full set here)….

Quito Streets

Street Art

La Basilica

Ecuadorian Food

Street Food

Drinks

The Green Horse Ranch

Hostal Quito Cultural

Hello, again, internet! Hmm, it’s a bit dusty over here on this blog. Didn’t quite mean for the radio silence to go on for so long. Life’s been a bit hectic the last several months, so now that the dust is settling, perhaps an update is in order…

In my last post, I watched a little barn swallow grow, from a tiny dime-sized egg, to a fledgling with a disabled leg, to a youngster flying off — against the odds — to begin his first migratory trip into the great unknown.

I think Jebi taught me a lot. I missed him quite a bit after he flew off, but his tiny feathered courage gave me strength. “Life only moves forward!” said Jebi. And so we, Gavin and I, flew off, too. And now we’re in a different country. And I have a new job that is challenging different parts of my brain. And we’re all a little older, and hopefully a little wiser.

One thing I’ve learned thus far is that for me, to make things is nearly as vital to my being as eating and breathing. So, while future posting here may be sporadic and the posts themselves may be more brief, I plan to continue making things and posting them here.

I think that every time I go somewhere new, I take a little piece of where I’ve been with me. Korea changed me, and Hong Kong will change me too.

A photo of Quito, Ecuador in Seoul, Korea

A photo of Hong Kong, SAR China in Quito, Ecuador

A photo of Bangkok, Thailand in Hong Kong, SAR China

A photo of Dalian, China in Bangkok, Thailand

A photo of New York, NY in Dalian, China

A photo of Kyoto, Japan in New York, NY

A photo of Shanghai, China in Kyoto, Japan

A photo of Seoul, Korea in Shanghai, China

A photo of Seoul, Korea

Steamed egg recipillustration

Lately, I’ve been doing some experiments in making steamed eggs. After a Flickr contact suggested that I try making one of my favorite Korean dishes, Gyeran Jjim (계란찜), literally “steamed eggs,” at home, I Googled around and discovered that it was really quite simple to make.

In the past, I’d attempted my mom’s Chinese version of the dish. In the Chinese version, one generally tries to make the surface of the egg come out flat and smooth, almost like glass. It requires some delicate measuring, and a long, slow fire under a water bath to gradually heat up the mixture of beaten egg and broth without bringing it to a boil — the kind of thing I normally botch because I’m 1) hungry, and 2) impatient.

It turns out the Korean version is actually not really steamed, but set in an earthenware or stone bowl (in Korean, a dolsot / 돌솥) right on top of the stove top and boiled into a textural burbling mass. A straightforward, home-grown, casual approach that is much better suited to my need for speed!

After some various experiments and tinkering with the recipe, I came up my favorite version. The traditional recipe for Korean Gyeran Jjim usually calls for anchovy paste to flavor the broth. I didn’t have any on hand, so I used chicken broth instead. I’d also read that milk could be used instead of broth to give the steamed egg a nice almost-creamy texture. Ultimately I decided that a mixture of 1/2 milk and 1/2 broth is what gave the steamed egg the right balance of flavor and creaminess for me.

Recipes are kind of an interesting challenge in information design. Sometimes, a traditionally written recipe will work for me. Like when the dish simply requires mixing up specific amounts of different ingredients. But other times, when I’m a bit unfamiliar with the cooking process or preparation methods, I find a cooking video to be most helpful. Since cooking can often be a non-narrative process (after way too many kitchen mishaps, I still make often make the critical error of NOT reading a recipe through to the end before I begin), I like the idea of showing the entire cooking process in one big picture.

Anyway, here is a recipillustration for steamed eggs! Feel free to tinker with it to come up with your favorite version. The thing to remember is that you need to make a mixture of 2 parts liquid (whether it’s all broth or some mixture of broth and milk or whatever) to 1 part beaten egg, by volume. The amounts (a 1/2 cup each) of milk and broth in the recipe above are for 3 average-sized eggs.

For a smooth consistency, I mixed all the liquids together with a handmixer. But you can just use a spoon. Another thing I tried was melting 2 slices of cheese into a little bit of the milk over the stove, and then pouring the melted cheese into the final mixture of egg & liquid before steaming. It gave the dish more of an “American” flavor. Next time, I might try the cheesified steamed egg dish again, topped with some slices of fresh tomato. Or maybe, I’ll use a sugar & milk mixture to make it into a dessert, like I’d seen in some Chinese recipes. Hmm… So many variations to explore!

Here are some pics of the finished steamed egg.

Posted on RecipeLook!