Mochachocolata-Rita

Sesame Grilled Chicken with Veggie Rice - the Benefits of Cooking at Home

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 07:31:00 +0000

Some friends who did not understand my new found passion for experimenting in my kitchen (Yes, experiments. More failures than successes. :p) and writing about them in a blog always wonder why the heck I carry my camera at all times and take pictures of everything I eat like a scoop hungry paparazzi (the difference is, things I am after can't be considered a scoop)...and most of all, they were wondering why the heck I bother cooking at home??!!! Isn't that such a waste of my super valuable time??!! I live in HONG KONG, for freak's sake! Heaven of convenience as well as cheap and tasty food! The home of HK$10/bowl wonton noodles, served faster than I could finish saying "one wonton noodles, please" as well as 100001 other choices of yummy treats, local and international.

I asked myself the very question, and I concluded that
Cooking at home....
- is cost saving. I generally spend HK$40-50 to prepare 4 meals (HK$12.5/meal = US$1.6/meal) compared to HK$30-40/meal dining out. I don't count my man hour as I enjoy doing it hehe
- at least allows you to say "I cook" (add barely, badly or well as desired/required) with pride
- impresses your in-laws (or in-laws to be). Who doesn't like a homely girl who cooks? They don't really need to know that this girl/boy might party like an animal outside LOL...and the result of the "cooking" might be inedible most of the time LOL
- keeps your sous chef happy. It shows you care. Plus, outside, he/she can proudly say "my girl/man does this wayyyy better!". Yep, home cooking keep them home ^_*
- is the perfect activity for you and your sous chef. You guys can brain storm, throw ideas, annoy/seduce each other in the kitchen (handle with care, please. We don't wanna see any kitchen appliances related "accidents"), gaze into each others eyes admiringly at dinner table, sing sweet praises about each other's skills (or at least efforts), fight about who's the top chef in the house, use the results of "cooking" in other places such as bedroom, etc etc etc (I had to stop here before it goes beyond R-rated :p). Doesn't it sound like FUN? ^_*

Don't get me started on the benefits of food blogging...hehehe...

Anyways, here's my...
Sesame Grilled Chicken

Recipe
(serves 4)
- 3 chicken leg fillets, cut each fillet into 2, trim excess fat, keep skin on
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 3 cloves of shallot, finely chopped
- honey
- sesame paste
- white sesame seeds, toasted
- salt, pepper
- butter, olive oil

Boil chicken with some salt and pepper until just cooked, keep the stock. Preheat oven to 250C. Lay chicken pieces on an oven tray, add butter, olive oil, garlic and shallot pieces, salt and pepper, sesame paste, honey, mix and rub until all the chicken pieces are well covered, sprinkle sesame seeds, grill until chicken skin is golden brown and crisp. I cut each fillet into bite sized chunks (optional). To avoid cooking a separate veggie dish, serve it with...

Veggie Rice

Recipe
(serves 4)
- 1 head of Chinese lettuce, finely chopped
- 1.5 cups of rice
- a sprig of spring onions, finely chopped
- a bit of olive oil
- salt, pepper
- chicken stock (optional)
- fried garlic/shallot to garnish

Pour rice, add chicken stock according to the rice cooker (if you don't have a rice cooker, the liquid should be up to 1 cm above the rice - I like my rice a bit mushy, you can add less liquid for harder texture), add water if you don't have enough chicken stock (alternatively, you can use just water, without chicken stock). Add chopped spring onion, veggie, some olive oil, salt and pepper, mix well. Turn on your rice cooker, sprinkle fried garlic or shallots to garnish.

This meal is sooo going to score me major brownie points from my sous chef...pssst, I want a pressure cooker!

Summer Fresh - Tangy & Spicy Beef Rice Noodle Soup

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 05:48:00 +0000

During winter, here are some stuff I hoped to do this summer:
- Running around at the beach in my bikini ala Sisheido's sun block ads
- Get fabulously smooth and tanned
- Roaming around Hong Kong's old and georgeous street corners taking pictures on weekend mornings
- Finally learn how to make desserts which contain anything other than chocolate or banana

but, instead....

- I got less bikini ready than what I already was LOL! But I still did get my butt off to the beach....put on my biking and ran around ala slimming centre ads (the "before" shots LOL)
- I realised I look terrible tanned. It's so not me. Thus, I planned to stay away from the sun this summer and hope to emerge smooth and porcelain-like for winter. Plus, my original skin color looks has a good contrast against dark chocolate hehe
- I sleep through most weekend mornings, comfortably curled under my summer blanket in my air conditioned room, and woke up just to eat and stare at the fierce sun glaring outside LOL
- I still have no clue on how to make anything other than my usual banana-chocolate baked goods. Now I have a couple of pears and oranges threatening to be spoilt soon. I need to try using them urgently! Help! Help!

....at least I tried using sliced beef for something other than my normal beef-tomato-tofu combo...it's citrusy, spicy, light, simple, easy...perfect for summer dinner!

Tangy & Spicy Beef Rice Noodle Soup

Recipe
- 0.7 lb thinly sliced, nicely marbled beef
- 1/2 onion, thinly sliced
- 2 small cloves of garlic
- a bunch of fresh corriander, chopped
- salt, pepper, sugar, vinegar
- 1 lemon, cut into wedges
- olive oil, hot water
- 2 packs of dry rice noodles (you can use other noodles if you want)
- 2 red chilli or more, depending on how spicy you want it to be

Saute onions, garlic, and a bit of chopped corriander in hot oil, add a bit of the beef, add water, season with salt, pepper, sugar and vinegar. At the same time, prepare rice noodles/other noodles according to the instructions on the package, then add into the soup, add the remaining of the beef on top, cook until they are just almost done. Serve with fresh corriander, lemon wedges and chilli, to be added according to individual taste.

Sharing this with Presto Pasta Night's Gang, hosted this week by Thyme for Cooking

My sincere apologies to those who had to see my jiggly bits at the beach :p

South East Asian Scrambled Eggs with Shrimps

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 03:44:00 +0000

How do you like your eggs?

Generally I am not a picky eater. I eat pretty much anything...including durian, which even Andrew Zimmern of Bizarre Food couldn't handle, and I can tolerate eating lukewarm food, soggy french fries, and I even love burnt foods.

But, when it comes to eggs, I like them cooked in certain ways, and despise them any other way, I began to hate myself for being such a diva:
- Scrambled: I like it moist, well seasoned and creamy. The best one in Hong Kong so far is Fairwood's breakfast set, they do scrambled eggs perfectly! Dry, overcooked, tasteless scrambled eggs? Thanks but no thanks.
- Fried: I like eggs fried on both sides, the egg white can be a little crispy and burnt, but the yolk must still be partially soft/liquid. It has to be just right, you can't overcook the egg yolks, and no sunny side up for me, please.
- Boiled: I hate hard boiled eggs. I love it still soft and partially liquid, eaten with a mini spoon off the shell, lightly seasoned with salt and pepper...oh, my!
- Fried, Indonesian style: beaten, fried with salt and pepper until golden brown, pour kecap manis all over, devour with steamed rice. Gulp!

Scrambled Eggs with shrimps is a classic home cooked dish. I've been to dinner at local friend's place, and I've been taking peeks at everyone's lunch boxes, and this dish appears more often than Paris Hilton on PerezHilton.com! So, I tried to create my own version and as always, I made South East Asianize it *grin*

South East Asian Scrambled Eggs with Shrimps

Recipe
- 4 eggs, beaten
- 1 small shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 red chilli, chopped
- 1 can corn kernels, drained
- 1/4 cup coconut milk
- a small bunch of fresh corriander, chopped
- half pound shrimps, deshelled, deveined
- 2 tbsp corn starch, dissolved in a bit of water
- salt, pepper
- olive oil
- fried shallot to garnish

Mix beaten eggs with coconut milk and dissolved corn starch. Saute shallot, chilli and corriander in hot oil until fragrant, add corn kernels, shrimps until just pink, add eggs, cook until browned a bit at the bottom, mix it about until you get your desired texture (I like it creamy, not firm) garnish with fresh corriander and fried shallot. Serve with rice.

I hope I am not the only egg diva around here ^_^

Banana Choco Chip Oatmeal Muffins - The Wake Up Call

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:16:00 +0000

Do you sleep like a log? Are you a light sleeper? Do you snore? Do you sleep walk?...and what does it take to wake you up?

I am a light sleeper, I don't generally sleep a lot, I hate the feeling when I woke up from an afternoon nap (feverish and even more tired instead of refreshed), and it is super easy to wake me up.

Ironically, people around me seem to love sleeping very much. Some of them could sleep their way through a weekend...and believe me, it is really challenging to wake them up:

- There's a friend who wouldn't wake up even when I went to his room, dragged his blanket off him in a cold winter morning, and kicked him off his bed. He finally woke up when I pour icy cold water over his head
- Another friend needs to set at least 4 super loud alarm clocks, all placed out of her reach. The alarm clocks woke up her whole family, but her
- A friend's boyfriend won't wake up until my friend promised a morning "activity" or "service", if you know what I mean ;)
- Another friend's boyfriend won't wake up until my friend yapped, nagged, screamed and shouted for at least an hour
- Another friend needs to snooze her alarm clock repeatedly every five minutes for at least half an hour

Now tell me your stories :) ...and look at what's waiting on the breakfast table!
A basket of...
Banana Choco Chip Oatmeal Muffins

Recipe
- 3/4 cup of self raising flour
- 1/2 cup of instant oatmeal
- 3 tbsp caster sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 5 small ripe bananas, mashed
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla essence
- 1/4 cup peanut oil
- 1/4 cup milk
- a handful of semi sweet choco chip

Preheat oven to 175C. In a mixing bowl, mix flour, oatmeal, sugar, salt. In a separate bowl, mix egg, oil, milk, and vanilla essence. Make a well in the middle of flour mixture, pour the egg mixture and mix well. Add mashed bananas and choco chip, pour the mixture into greased muffin tray (or you can use muffin paper cup lining), and bake until the top is crisp and toothpick inserted at the center comes out clean.

To wake my sous chef up, you just need one word...
"Breakfast"

Spicy Spinach with Miso Sauce - Quotable Quotes?

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:53:00 +0000

Some of my friends love collecting inspirational quotes.
They are generally super profound, highly philosophical, inspirational, motivational, clever, and bursting with positiveness to the level of life changing...and normally, they are quoted from noble, profound, smart, clever, famous people who are no longer with us, such as Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Einstein, Confusius, and so on...these quotes are normally used as instant messenger additional nicknames or facebook status ^_^

Some possible objectives are:
- self inspiration/motivation- inspiring/motivating others
- a reflection of current mood/state of mind/current personal events/one's principals/emotional experiences
- serving as a hidden passive-aggressive message for the "benefit" of others (hehe)
- perception management, i.e. trying to make others think that I am wise, smart, emotionally stable, etc LOL
- simply showing off

While I too, use quotable quotes to achieve all of the above objectives at some point, most quotes that I chose sometimes make me feel intellectually and philosophically inferior. I am sure you'll agree after reading my recent, newly discovered quote:

"Sleep 'til you're hungry, eat 'til you're sleepy. " ~Author Unknown

OHOHOHOHOHO....I swear by it and really practice it (which was the other night's case, where I had a truckload of carbs before 19:00, slept right after meal until 22:00, woke up, had a super late supper and slept again at 1:00 am 'til the next morning LOL)...

and this dish tastes superb with rice:
Spicy Spinach with Miso Sauce

Recipe
- a bunch of spinach, cleaned, chopped length-wise into 3 parts
- 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 or 2 small red chilli, chopped
- 2 tbsp miso paste
- 1 tsp sugar
- olive oil and water

Saute garlic and chilli in hot oil, add spinach until slightly cooked, add miso paste, stir in sugar, add a bit of water (I like it saucy) bring to boil, serve with steamed rice and a meat dish

For all the celebrity chefs out there, here's a spinach quote for you:
"Never eat spinach just before going on the air" ~ Dan Rather

Fashionably Tall & Slim Shrimp Rolls

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 01:21:00 +0000

In Hong Kong, it is all about fashion.

What are so NOW at this very moment?
1. Rain boots: they are all over the city, in a myriad of colors (I am sooo out as I don't own a pair T_T)
2. Baseball caps, worn just barely touching your head, could be blown away by wind as strong as 0 mph (unless glued down by excessive hair products)
3. Long t-shirts, bearing English sentences with severe grammatical/typo errors, worn to reveal 1 shoulder (cos revealing both shoulders are just so wrong! It's all about asymmetry, baby!)
4. Super short shorts, preferably shorter than the long t-shirt

In terms of spring rolls (or egg rolls)...those stubby short ones or the triangle ones are so OUT! The food fashion police is seeing the long thin ones everywhere! Just like size -2 Eurasian supermodels taking over Hong Kong's hottest clubs, these slim rolls are taking over hottest snack joints. My wild guess is because they don't need as much fillings (LOL).

I might be out of style in terms of dressing myself appropriately for the rain, but I am determined to try for once, to be tall and slim. Or at least my shrimp rolls should be :p

Fashionably Tall & Slim Shrimp Rolls

Recipe
- 1 pound medium shrimps, just turned pink, remove excess water, season in salt, pepper and sugar
- 1 packet of spring roll pastry
- olive oil for frying
- water & corn flour to seal the pastry
- damp towels to prevent the pastry from drying out

Follow 3 easy steps below to roll these babies:

and fry 'em in high heat until golden...wow, aren't they HOT?

Dip-A-Dip Dip
I did a Creamy Sesame Dip
- A couple of tablespoon sesame paste
- A dash of fish sauce
- A dash of Kecap Manis (Indonesian sweet soy sauce)
- chopped chilli
- chopped corriander

If only eating these will get myself taller and slimmer .....

Oven Baked Potato Shrimp Cakes - Perkedel Udang

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:30:00 +0000

I adore deep fried food. I know I shouldn't, they are not good for me, yada yada yada...but I just can't help it. The love is just SO uncontrollable, it is to the point where I will act crazy and junkie-like (shamelessly sobbing, frantically begging, pleading, demanding, screaming for them) without them. Even when I was super sick from a super seriously sore throat (where I could hardly speak well enough to order them), I still craved them, deep fried goodies.

Referring to the concept of "Our body will tell us what's good for us", I concluded that it's either:
1. Deep fried goodies are good for my body
or
2. The above concept is absolutely wrong

Hehehe...I remember watching Anthony Bourdain saying that Singapore's Yong Tau Foo is so healthy (he said it as he was stuffing the deep fried goodies into his mouth) and it made him understand why the Chinese are so slim and healthy. It's because they eat Yong Tau Foo!! LOL! Hey, no offense, I love Tony, I love deep fried food, and I love him loving deep fried food, but it made me doubt his knowledge of what's healthy and what's not. LOL...well if Tony said so, they must be healthy, eh?

Ironically, while proclaiming myself as a deep fried junkie, I totally hate having to do my own deep frying at home. I hate having to use a lot of oil, cleaning the kitchen, getting rid of the hot oil smell, cleaning the exhaust fan, cleaning the wok, etc, the whole "Me vs Mr. Tough Grease" extravaganza. No, I do not own a deep frier, and I don't plan to, unless they are self cleaning ^_* (did I just demand too much?..yes)

This is why...despite my great love for perkedels (Indonesian deep fried potato cakes), I hardly do them at home, due to the deep frying, and boy...potatoes love oil. They absorb so much, I was always left with no oil in the wok and ultra greasy perkedels. So, the idea of oven baking them tempted me. I know the taste will be compromised, but at least I could get some perkedels with deep fried-like crispiness fix ^_^ and maybe live my happy life a little longer to eat more deep fried goodies *grin*

Oven Baked Potato Shrimp Cakes - Perkedel Udang

Recipe
- 1 large potato, mashed
- 1 cup of small shrimp, peeled, roughly chopped
- 1 small clove of garlic, very finely chopped
- 1 small clove of shallot, very finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon white pepper
- a bit of grated nutmeg (or ground nutmeg powder)
- a bit of finely chopped corriander/spring onion
- breadcrumbs, mixed with a bit of salt, sugar and pepper
- olive oil

Preheat oven to 200C. In a mixing bowl, mix everything well (except breadcrumbs), roll into perkedel shape (round-ish? lol). Roll each perkedel to cover with breadcrumbs, lay on an oven proof tray with a bit of olive oil, bake until golden brown. Serve with soy-chilli-corriander-vinegar dip or chilli sauce and your choice of cold poison ^_^

Cheers! Here's to Tony, to fried food, to good health!

Submitting this to Noble Pig's event:
Potato-Ho Down

Tamarind Grilled Snapper with Noodles

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 03:12:00 +0000

Someone asked me to name a happy place, except from my shit-holey flat. I thought for so long...considering:
- KFC
It is probably heaven, except for the chickens and the slow moving, uninspired, unmotivated staff. But then again, sometimes the slow service pisses me off. So, No. It can't be my top happy place
- The Office
Who am I kidding?!...I should not love my job THAT much, right?
- Exercise classes, whenever that hot hip hop teacher guy is teaching
Although I enjoy exercising and dancing when I am in class, sometimes it really IS kinda hard to drag my ass off my comfy sofa, especially when it is raining cats and dogs outside
- Theme parks
They are supposedly happy places, but sometimes there are so many factors to make them otherwise, such as: sous chef and friends who refused to play any games they deemed "dangerous" such as the merry-go-round (rolling my eyes), too teeny tiny-with very limited games to play (in case of Hong Kong Disneyland), unbeliveably long queue-you can only play a handful of the games nobody wants to play throughout the day (in case of Tokyo Disneyland), etc
- The mall
The cheap ones get me carried away easily, and the expensive ones....there's nothing there I could afford to buy. So, definitely not my favorite happy place
....so I guess it's gotta be.....
- Markets and supermarkets
I loveee markets and supermarkets...there's always something you can buy, and most of the time it won't cost me so much ^_^ (not as much as the latest branded "It" bag at least), and with the teeny tiny seemingly unimportant thing you bought, you can create big, and lotsa yummy things. For daily shopping, I am quite a strict shopper and normally just buy the things which are needed for the day's recipe. However, when I go to supermarkets for FUN, especially INDONESIAN supermarkets, I'd get this and that, and this and that, and I'll end up buying the whole shop.

Sometimes I'd buy something, stash it in my kitchen drawer for "future use" and I'd totally forget that I have it. I've bought a pack of tamarind quite a while ago, and only remember I had it when I saw Wandering Chopsticks' Vietnamese Salt and Pepper Crab with Tamarind, Ginger, Scallions and Garlic!

I dug up my drawer, and found so many buried treasures, such as konyaku jelly powder packets, curry packets, spices, dark chocolate bars (!! How could I?? Maybe cheeky sous chef hid them there?), sweet and sour sauce mix, soup base mix, the list went on and on...and I totally forgot about them!!!

So I've decided to make this
Tamarind Grilled Snapper

Here's the packet of tamarind, I dissolve about 2 tablespoonfuls with a bit of hot water for easy mixing

The marinate/sauce mix
- 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 cloves shallot, thinly sliced
- 1 cm ginger, chop into pieces
- a bunch of fresh corriander, finely chopped
- 2 red chilli, finely chopped
- 2 tbsp tamarind, dissolved in a bit of hot water
- 2 pieces of palm sugar, dissolved in a bit of hot water
- 1 teaspoon salt

Marinate and refrigerate the fish, for at least 1 hour. Preheat oven 150C, grill with the sauce until the meat is almost cooked, turn the oven to 250C and grill until the skin's golden. Alternatively, you can crisp the skin first before dumping it into the oven (I am not into pan frying fish in my tiny flat :p)

The sauce should not go to waste, so, inspired by Wandering Chopsticks, I used the sauce for this plate of ramen. Tasty, hot, sweet, and sour noodles. Sharing this with Presto Pasta Night, hosted this week by A Scientist in the Kitchen

Now let me continue my dig...I remember hiding some mini Snickers from sous chef a while ago...

My Kind of Summer Snack - Refreshing Longan Jelly

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 01:48:00 +0000

What do you fancy on a hot summer day?

- offering to slather sun lotion all over sexy strangers the beach?
- a cold shower?
- roaming around (Hong Kong's) below-zero-air-conditioned shopping malls until your credit card can't take it anymore?
- skinny dipping into your neighbor's pool without permission?
- running away from it all and head to somewhere winter?
- a huge glass of icy cold beer? iced tea? or your favorite soda?
- big chunks of cold, juicy and sweet watermelons?
- a gigantic tub of ice cream?
- a bucket of fried chicken?

all/none of the above?

Here's one of my favorite refreshing hot summer snacks, using one of my favorite fruits, longans.

Peel the skin to reveal these gorgeous, luminuous, pearls (imagine me saying this with a seductive smile ala Nigella and try not to laugh, at least not when this page is still open T_T)

When longans are not in season, you can use canned longans, which you can order online here

Use this code RT03Jul8AM
for a 3% discount and a chance to win a $5 voucher for the next purchase.

If you're too lazy to do jelly, simply mix a bit of cold water with a can of longan including the syrup, add some ice cubes, mint leaves if you wish, and you got yourself a refreshing dessert!

Now, here's my refreshing little cups of...

Longan Jelly

Recipe
- 1 pack of konyaku jelly powder or agar-agar powder
- the syrup from the canned longan
- 1/3 cup of caster sugar (or less if you want it not as sweet)
- cold water> to achieve the needed amount mentioned in the jelly powder pack

Mix konyaku jelly powder with water and juice from the canned longan, add sugar, heat it up until everything is mixed well, pour into moulds (I use tall glasses and shot glasses here) with longans in them. Let cool, refrigerate.

One for sous chef, one for me, another one for me, and another one for me, for me, me, me...

Bag-a-razzi Exclusive!!! An "It" Bag in HK Wet Markets

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 03:57:00 +0000

I used to have a thing for designer hand bags. So, despite being so irritatingly stingy, I managed to build a small collection.

However, people's priorities change. That's bound to be the reason, isn't it? I simply grew wiser (I am hearing people saying "that can't be it" LOL).

Either that or maybe I realized that...
- "the collection" so far has been sitting at the dusty corners of my tiny flat. I got the drift when Little miss Louis Vuitton Trouville screams "OH YAY YAY YAYYYY...I AM GOING OUT!!!" every time I took her out (which is so rarely, if you told her that Hong Kong's sky has now turned shocking pink instead of blue, she will probably believe it)
- although most Hong Kongers clad themselves head to toe with brands (the country should have the highest population of LVs, it can be seen from morning peak hour train rides to the CBD, almost 4 out of 5 girls are carrying branded bags of some sort), I could choose to be the rare ones who do not
- branded hand bags do NOT improve my appearance of confidence. Yes, I am THAT hopeless
- the cost of 1 latest and hottest "it" bag = the cost of multiple short but luxurious culinary trips
- I spent all of my dough on food and shall not even dream about getting a new bag, let alone a designer bag

So, now, the latest "It" designer hand bags do not allure me anymore, not as much as luscious and rich dark chocolate does LOL.

But, recently, I got something in my mail from the good fellows at Foodbuzz. It's an echo friendly bag, which is wayyyyy hotter than Anya Hindmarch's "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" Bag, because IT HAS MY NAME ON IT! Hohoho! OK it's a pin with my name of it, but still...hehe...

So, one fine Saturday, I took it out shopping (I saw Miss LV Trouville went green with envy, poor thing)...and arranged for a bag-a-razzi to catch it in action.

Here's the bag, and me with absolutely no make up, no plastic surgery/botox (just yet), messy hair, and don't even mention the outfit...the bag-a-razzi reported:

Here's Mochachocolata-Rita at a Hong Kong's wet market, she seemed dazed and confused, probably was still hung over from last night's meal of carbs, carbs and more carbs. She should fire her stylist (if she had one), put on a decent face before stepping out of the door, and schedule another much needed lipo

She was a total MESS, but look at the bag she was carrying! Absolutely adorable and eco friendly. This is it. It is the new It bag!

She was in this fish stall, looked puzzled and clueless, until she finally selected a live mangrove red snapper. We bet she had to google the name of the fish.

It took her just a few seconds before she snatched this bunch of corriander. She seems to be addicted to this "substance". We think she's gonna get high later (on corriander!).

She was sooo gonna overstuff the bag, which remained fabulous

She wandered in to this food supply store, probably looking for some easy way out such as instant spice mix packets or instant noodles or feeding her addiction to non diet sodas

Unexpectedly, she got herself a box of powder. We smell some lousy baked goods coming.

Hmmm, the bag does make her look better.

Thanks so much, Foodbuzz!

Kimchi E-Noodles

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 01:38:00 +0000

It's so good to be back to the kitchen. Despite Beijing's yummy treats and gorgeous, spacious, and luxurious hotel room, there's no place like home.

A home is where my..........
- large bottle of sweet soy sauce
- comprehensive collection of instant noodles
- huge sack of rice
- boxes of coconut milk
- crappy photo studio
- cheap but best hair dryer
- many bottles of almost finished fragrances
- wardrobe overflowing with clothes, bags and jewellries I hardly wear or use
&
- sous chef
.......................are LOL!

I was in the mood for kimchi flavored anything, and I miss the chewy but soft texture of e-min (not e-mail, it's e-noodle as in "e-fu noodles")...so I've decided to make

Kimchi E-Noodles

E-Noodles
Sold in large plate-like pieces, dip it into hot water to soften and try to get rid of as mush oil as you can

Cabbage Kimchi
I love its instense flavor. It bites.

Prawn balls and Taiwanese Pork Mushroom Balls
Remember, always accessorize

Nicely Marbled Thinly Sliced Beef

Recipe
(serves 4)
- 2 large pieces of e-min, softened
- 4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 3 red chilli, finely chopped
- a small bunch of spring onions, roughtly chopped
- 1 cup of kimchi (adjust to suit your taste)
- prawn balls, meat balls, beef (or any other choice of meat/shrimps/anything you like)
- fish sauce, dark soy sauce, sweet soy sauce (or sugar)

Saute garlic, onion, chilli, add meat, kimchi, noodles, add sauces, add spring onion, mix well, serve

Sharing this with Presto Pasta Night Gang ^_^

Oh, and home is also where my Internet (with huge bandwidth) and food pictures are ^_^

Food Paparazzi on the Loose in Beijing

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 03:08:00 +0000

More CELEBRITY FOOD pictures from Beijing! Juicy! Tasty! Chewy! Dirrrty! Deeelicccious!

Dong Hua Men Night Market

It was almost empty due to the rain. The price of food here's generally more expensive than Hong Kong (!!!) hehe tourist price

I've certainly marked my territories in Beijing by posing shamelessly everywhere. All eyes were on me. I thought I was so freaking HOT, until I realised that my wet dress turned transparent and everybody could see my underwear (boy, it's a sight which even made my eyes sore)

In the mood for creepy crawlies? Scorpions, worms,...name your worst nightmare (except the one where you were naked in the gymnasium in front of your whole highschool), and they have it here, on a stick. *grin*

Ohhhh, crabbbb!!!! Imagine the juicy and tasty crab meat...as dumpling filling...crab oh crab!

Fried milk (cream), pumpkin pancakes, fried ice cream

Pretty bowls of jelly

Grilled aphrodisiac, anyone?

The afro-like thingies are sea urchins, the golden brown thingies claimed to be bird nests

BBQ'ed sweet corns...reminds me of home...

Wish upon a star..fish

Steamed bird nests for youthful skin and beauty, fried ones for your cholesterol. Hehe
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Wang Fu Jing Market

The fancy gate (miniature palace everywhere!)

I am always partial to souvenirs, but these are available in Hong Kong too! Sob sob, I scored none T_T

Sir Screams-A-Lot. He stopped immediately when I took his pictures. I guess he has YouTube-phobia

Boiled beef stomach with sesame sauce

Oh gosh...they stinkkkkkkk

I actually kinda like the chicken hearts

He said no photo, I said too late LOL! Mr. Seahorse never thought that his adventure outside the ocean would be like this. Poor thing.

Tasty kebabs

Yummmyyy!!!

Talk about sugar coating things...

...and I picked the grapes. They taste fun bloody tastic! The sweet and crunchy sugar coating matches the citrusy grapes perfectly!
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Somewhere outside The Summer Palace

Kung Pao Chicken...hot and spicy

Tasteless beef noodles
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Have you ever thought of dining in...
Forbidden City?

This cafetaria is in a part of the Forbidden City complex. It was so cool to eat overlooking the palace

The beef curry rice was soo good, or we were just hungry? Needed the energy to explore the whole palace. As expected, I got hungry again before even reaching the end of the palace LOL
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Let's see what's an upmarket mall like in Beijing...here's some treats from
Shin Kong Place (Xin Guang Tian Di)

So cheesy, so garlicky, so irresistible

Mouth watering muffins...

If one could stop me by just saying "NO PHOTO", then don't call me no paparazzi

Check out more of my Beijing adventure at Living La Vida Rita ;)

Tasting Tibet at Beijing's Hippest Street

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 01:47:00 +0000

After visiting some of Beijing's famous tourist destinations, I've decided that I could take a little break from checking out old Chinese palaces. I put on my shiny top, mini skirt, long-dangling earrings, heels and head to Beijing's hip and happening Nan Luo Gu Xiang. When I got there, I saw.......more miniature Chinese palaces LOL! The place was totally cool, full of Beijing's young, sexy and gorgeous...then there's me. It was raining cats and dogs, my fab outfit was drenched, my used-to-be-pristine white heels were turned into unrecognizable black and grey, and my legs were covered thigh-high with mud. LOL

No worries, fabulousness comes from within, and determined by my raging desire to get some cool souvenir t-shirts from Plastered 8, Grifted and Passby Bar, I braved the pouring rain and kept spending my RMBs (check out my loot in my other blog later).

"A journey isn't a journey without a bite"

After careful considerations (due to too many fab places I wanted to visit), I was totally attracted by the beautiful colors on this Tibet Cafe. Plus, I haven't tried Tibetan food before. So here goes...

The menu

The gorgeous decor, loving the vibrant colors

At the next table, a bunch of Beijing youngsters were playing cards and munching a bucket of KFC (whoa! I didn't know we could BYOC - Bring Your Own Chicken)!!!

Nan Luo Gu Xiang - a place to see and to be seen - I was busy checking out hotnesses while waiting for my order

Lhasa Beer - RMB20 per can (yes, the city is getting expensive). I tastes ok, I love Tsing Tao Beer more

Butter Tea! Whoa! Gotta try it

It's pretty good. Creamy with a tinge of saltiness

Tomato and Cheese Soup - absolutely flavorless. It's like pieces of tomatoes and coriander in hot water...the cheese was chewy, it tastes like dried minced pork.

Barley and milk soup - again, no seasoning. Not sure if this was supposed to be eaten as dessert or appetizer. But the milk tastes great.

Curry beef rice - I love the flavors of this curry. Unfortunately, the potatoes and the rice were undercooked

What's a MOMO?...ordered them out of curiosity...

Momo turned out to be fried dumplings. These are filled with minced yak meat! Whoaaa! Yak meat tastes good, very similar to beef, only chewier. The skin of the dumplings were rather thick...and they didn't taste like they were freshly fried. Loving the juice squirting out of the dumplings though.

Gosh, I didn't mean to be such a harsh critic....
It's either Tibetan food isn't my thing, or this was NOT it.

Judging from how we generally felt about the food, I guess this is the kind of place to hang out, relax, have a couple of drinks, and enjoy the atmosphere instead of the food.

This explains the BOYC policy.

Back with a Duck, the Beijing Duck

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:14:00 +0000

Apologies for not properly giving everyone a chance to wish me "Bon Voyage" before my recent trip to Beijing. I was desperate to leave Hong Kong's typhoonic weather, only to get stranded in the airport as my flight was delayed for more than 6 hours!!! Welcome to Hong Kong's typhoon no 8 signal. But when I finally got to Beijing...

Oh wow! Beijing has changed A LOT since the last time I visited about 7 years ago. Fortunately, for the better.

These are some of the appalling things I won't miss from the old pre-Olympic preparation Beijing:
- The beyond hideous public toilets (Hello pristine, air conditioned, fully equipped public toilets!)
- Countless beggars harrassing you non stop. Get rid of one, here comes 1000 more
- "Persistent" i.e. the pushiest souvenir hawkers EVER. Yes, they do follow you to the toilet and no, language barrier does not deter them

Despite all of the above changes, there are some things which remained authentic. Such as the public toilets at the rows of restaurants beyond famous tourist destinations...and.....this famous roast duck restaurant.

I found it difficult to believe that it was so hard to locate this famous Li Qun Roast Duck Restaurant which was recommended by most travel books (this is probably why we should not follow what travel books say?). When our taxi driver finally found it (after asking about the whole population of the district), I was shocked to see this unexpected (although kinda cute) signage leading to the restaurant:

Just follow the ducks...quack quack quack...

..and the ducks led us here:

Am I really at the right place? This corridor doesn't really scream out "famous and always frequented by celebrities"

But do I love the oldness of it...the old floor tiles...the old Chinese furniture...
the cracked wood frames, cracked mirrors...oh yeah, does dirty also mean authentic?

...here's the award posted on the wall:

Lovely sunlight coming through the roof...

...waiting for my food with my RMB7 instant coffee coming straight out of nescafe packet. The waitress asked me "black or white coffee?" I said white. I didn't know that "white" means "black" in China?? LOL

We were the only customers as it was late afternoon after lunch before dinner time...and the service was...ehm ehm...almost non existent

My "white" coffee was served in one of these Tsing Tao beer glass ^_*

Hot and Spicy Beef and lettuce. This dish was actually pretty damn good. The sauce was hot and spicy, the meat was tender

A line of Chinese wine (I was worried what I'd get if I ordered "house wine")

Various famous people who dined there (or were conned into dining there? LOL)

The skillful young chef, carved the duck in no time (at least it was faster than I could pronounce "Bei Jing Roast Duck with a gorgeous chef on the side" accurately in Mandarin)

The Roast Duck Set RMB190. It comes with a duck, a plate of pancakes, sliced cucumber, chives and the sauce

Soon you won't see this duck anymore...

Pancake, sliced cucumber, chives, duck meat, sauce and roll

Say Ahhh...

...and take a bite...

Bite after bite after bite... (this explains the rapid weight gain LOL)

and I ended up with empty plates...and a thumb up (FYR: the Peking roast duck in Hong Kong's American Peking Restaurant in Wan Chai deserves 2 thumbs up). So, I am sorry to say that the taste of the duck did not justify the much too authentic attitude towards hygiene (i.e. things aren't hygienic there) and good service (i.e . the service sucked).

Li Qun Roast Duck Restaurant
11 Bei Xiang Feng Alley, Zheng Yi Road, off Qian Men Avenue
Beijing China
+86 0 10 6702 5681 / +86 0 10 6705 5578
Opens 12:00 - 22:00 pm

More food from Beijing coming up, stay tuned! ;)

Accessorize, Accessorize - Spicy Prawn Noodles

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 02:20:00 +0000

I never buy the "less is more" concept, and I fell head over heels in love with Nigella Lawson for saying "too much of a good thing can be wonderful"

Now..do you remember these instant noodle packets I've bought in Penang?

I am very particular about the way I like my instant noodles (I think everyone has their own weird instant noodles related thingy too. Do share ^_^).

These are some instant noodle principals I follow religiously:
- It HAS to be springy and chewy
I loathe overcooked, mushy, limp noodles. I literally dip my noodles in hot water and immediately take it out, my friends told me not to even bother dipping the noodles at all. LOL
- I like to keep it tasty
I put just enough water to be able to slurp, but it can't be too soupy, or all the tastiness will just get washed away
- I love it creamy
The trick is to crack and egg and immediately stir it. It jazzes up the soup base instantly
- Accessorize, accessorize, accessorize
I love adding loads of my favorite things into the noodles. Namely, Justin Timberlake. Oppsssss joking. No, seriously. No, joking. Hehe. OK, my all time instant noodle accessories, they are classic and never go out of style: mini cheese hot dogs, taiwanese mushroom porkballs, fish shao mai, and I meant LOADs of them. The more, the better. For special occasions, I add nicely marbled, thinly sliced beef, or shrimps. and eggs, and cheese, and potato chips, deep fried fish skin...more more more!

I could never ever EVER have instant noodles with nothing else. Call me ruining the whole point of instant noodles convenience, but freak it. I wanna enjoy every pound I gain!

So here's what I added to the already wonderful
Spicy Penang Prawn Noodles

Serves 1 (myself):
- 1 packet of Penang Prawn Instant Noodles (cook according to instructions on the packet)
Accessories
- a handful of shrimps, deveined, deshelled, sauteed in butter, salt and pepper, set aside, throw on top of the noodles later
- a bunch of finely chopped fresh corriander
- 2 pieces of fish shao mai
- 4 mini cheese dogs
- fried shallots

Cook fish shao mai and mini cheese dogs in boiling water for about 3 minutes, add noodles, prepare the sauce in a bowl, pour noodles and just enough water into the bowl after about 2-3 minutes, add freshly chopped corriander, shrimps and fried shallot. Slurp away.

Sharing this with Presto Pasta Nights gang, hosted this week by Hillary of Chew On That

Boy. I was THIS close to throwing my sous chef into the noodles. LOL

Tasty Satay Beef Burger - Murphy's Law: The Culinary Experience

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 01:30:00 +0000

Have you experienced these circumstances?

The Public Transport Experience
When you're trying to get a cab:
- there's no cab in sight, not even after you walked 5 blocks to find one
- oh there were cabs, but all occupied
- in Hong Kong: oh yeah, there were cabs, but all will ONLY go to places other than your destination
- whichever bus you normally waited for more than 30 minutes, kept passing every few minutes
...and vice versa

The Culinary Experience
When I saw this fabulous blogging event, Burger Bonanza, I knew I just have to join! I have just the perfect idea for it, and when I went out to get the materials I needed yesterday morning, feeling all charged and excited...and...
- there's NO MINCED BEEF in the nearest supermarket (normally they are ALWAYS package after package of minced beef, especially when I didn't need them)
- I went to another supermarket which is further from my place, under scorching hot summer sun, and still found none
- I went to the wet market, and the beef stalls were CLOSED

The same thing happened when I needed mushrooms. I found none. When I don't need them, there were mushrooms EVERYWHERE in the market LOL

Anyway, finally I could get HK$30 worth of beef, got it minced and I was ready to South East Asianize my burger (why do I always make everything South East Asian??!!! Well, that's just my thing, get over it LOL)

Tasty Satay Beef Burger

The Satay Sauce
You could use ready made satay sauce, such as Lee Kum Keee's Satay Sauce, dissolve a couple of tablespoons with a bit of hot water, mix in chopped corriander. Add finely chopped chilli if you like your satay sauce hotter

The Caramelized Onions
Half roughly chopped onions, a small clove of garlic (finely chopped), saute with a bit of olive oil, add 2 tbsp soy sauce, 4 tbsp Indonesian sweet soy sauce (or replace with brown sugar or palm sugar), a bit of hot water, cook until the onions are caramelised

The Buttery Buns
Butter your buns and heat them on a fry pan. Yes, I did mine in a wok. Thus the pressing LOL
I don't like my buns too crispy, just a bit of browned edges and I'm a happy girl

The Juicy Burger Patties
Minced beef, salt, pepper and chopped corriander. I browned and grill 'em until well done to get rid of any microscopic creepy crawlies. Add some satay sauce about one minute before you get them off the heat.

Pour more satay sauce on top. That's one juicy 'n tasty patty. Start to build your layers.

Add the caramelized onion and a bit of the sauce

Add sliced cucumber. Fresh or pickled (acar timun : Indonesian pickled cucumber, marinated in vinegar, sugar, shallot and chilli, refrigerated overnight). Add fresh corriander. Serve with oven grilled chips with some satay sauce and a glass of iced dry ginger ale

I polished off this plate while watching a horror movie on a hot and lazy Sunday afternoon. The meal distracted me from the movie. Thus, the movie didn't feel scary at all, it was bloody tasty. Hehe

...see you in my next culinary quest, trying desperately to find a material I needed, which of course will NOT be so easily available :p

Domestic Violence - Beef & Taiwanese Lettuce in Spicy Fermented Beancurd Sauce

noreply@blogger.com (Mochachocolata Rita) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:17:00 +0000

There was a war in Mochachocolata-Rita's household yesterday. My sous chef pissed me off BIG TIME! It was a major one. The kind that makes you feel flaming pissed the whole freaking day. Everything, from the sun to the rain, from the mountain to the sea, simply pissed you off.

Ah...this explained the absence of blog posting yesterday. Luckily. Because. If I were to post something yesterday, the text would have been:
@#$#$#$!$!!!!!! @#$#$$!!!XXXYYYXXASDFLSFIWLQEROR#&#$&#$&!(#$&#(!$&!!!!! ...etc etc...

...with audio...it would've sounded like...

"I cooked this BEEPPPPPPPP with BEEPPPPPPPP and it tasted BEEPPPPPPPP and this BEEPPPPPPPP ate it and I can't believe that one can be so BEEPPPPPPPP . How BEEPPPPPPPP hard is it for one to BEEPPPPPPPP BEEPPPPPPPP . Why one has to be BEEPPPPPPPP . Did NOT BEEPPPPPPPP while one knew that one should BEEPPPPPPPP BEEPPPPPPPP ....and BEEPPPPPPPP is very important for BEEPPPPPPPP..."

Well I think you've caught my drift...there might be many more "BEEPPPPPPPPs" here than in a Jerry Springer show, but the fundamental difference is...instead of bad words, the above words concealed by "BEEPPPPPPPPs" are all loving, kind and caring words, ok?...(Hey! I could hear the snorts of disbelief. I am still BEEPPPPPPPP here, dammit!)

...in video..it would've been like...
Hmm, believe me, you don't wanna know. LOL! There were definitely some woks, an assortment of knives, peeler, can opener and other mean looking kitchen tools and appliances involved. It was wayyy more violent that Kill Bill volume I and II combined.

OK, I think that's enough violence for a day. Now, you guys probably think of me as a blood-thirsty-dirty mouthed maniac...which is kinda true, but at least I am a maniac who is partial to stinky food (wait a minute...this doesn't sound right...)

Having said that...here's what I've used to cook yesterday:
Spicy Fermented Beancurd Sauce

Doesn't that look nasty? Wait 'til you see what's inside...

Hahaha...this might have put you off...but from that pile of disgusting looking goo, we produced this:
Beef & Taiwanese Lettuce (A Choy) in Spicy Fermented Beancurd Sauce

...which was absolutely heavenly! Creamy, tasty, and fragrant...absolutely perfect with steamed rice. I totally blew my plan to eat less and I proceeded to lick my bowl clean instead...mmm mmm mmm!

No one could be pissed with each other after this (a note to me: What's with the hard selling? This doesn't sound like you...you are now dangerously close to handing out free samples in supermarkets)

Recipe
- half pound of Taiwanese lettuce, wash and tear into 2-3 parts length-wise
- half pound of thinly sliced beef (I always get the nicely marbled ones)
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- 1 cm ginger, crushed
- 2 red chilli, thinly sliced
- 4 blocks of spicy fermented beancurd sauce
- 1 teaspoon of sugar
- olive oil

Saute garlic, ginger and chilli, add beef, stir until half cooked, add lettuce, cover wok and cook until wilted, add beancurd sauce, add sugar, mix well, serve

Tasting the bitterness of my medicine, now I have to tidy up the residual ruins from the battle...Quick! before developers start getting ideas and build post-war schools (correction: in case of Hong Kong, it'd more likely be 1001 storey office towers instead of schools) over my tiny flat...