Cheung Chau Island, Hong Kong (Part 1)

Quite a while ago, I started blogging about Hong Kong, but I am not quite over on the subject.
- You will have to excuse the poor picture quality, as I took only a little compact that time, my faithful Optio SV -

I really want to talk to you about the day I spent on my own on the little island of Cheung Chau. I have been totally under its charm at first sight. A very quiet place where life goes slowly, populated by friendly people (who only speak Cantonese by the way so be warned...).
The island is west of Hong Kong island and it takes about an hour by ferry to reach it.

The main business seems to be fishing,

And as soon as one lands, it is obvious looking at the harbour promenade, that tourism and in particular seafood restaurants are the main attraction of the island.

I took a stroll inside the island first, keeping the restaurant string for when I would be hungry later.
A few hundred yards further, after plodding along the narrow street,

I found myself by the beach on the other side of the island, having passed what seemed to be a resort, chinese way. The beach was being worked on, as the month of February is a quiet one.

Coming back into the small town, I came across shrine and church,

And amongst the shopping and workshop streets

A lot of dry fish for sale

And I will always remember the amazing smell of the dried (drying?) noodles...

To be followed.....

A light salad for the summer

When it's hot and sunny, I always crave for fresh ingredients, and a cooling and refreshing dish . Nothing better than a salad, like I've eaten all my youth, when I was living in France. Over there, people decline salad to infinite. today I would like to share a salad with you, my favorite in fact...:

For 2 people:
- 1 can sweetcorn
- 4 medium tomatoes
- Optional: rice, 100g
- 100g hard cheese (emmenthal, gruyere) diced
- 200g cooked (shallow fried or grilled) chicken breast in strips (OR diced surimi sticks OR a vegetarian alternative but you have been warned, chicken works best ...)
- optional: Cervelas (Swiss sausage) diced (Or cooked frankfurters sliced thickly but really not as good as cervelas)

For the vinaigrette sauce:
- 1 tblsp of honey vinegar or Xeres vinegar
- 2 tblsp of rapeseed oil or light tasting olive oil
- 1 tblsp of water
- 1 tblsp honey

Mix all the ingredients together,
Mix the vinaigrette
Pour the vinaigrette on top of the mix, and leave for 10-20 minutes to marinate, then serve.

This salad is rather sweet and sour, and is easy to take to work for lunch. It is balanced, tasty and light, colourful and takes minutes. what else could I say to convince you!?....

Bon Apetit!

The Bubble bar

I picked up aLeaflet at one my local chinese supermarkets, It was about the bubble bar - I love bubble drinks - and decided to visit it as it is 500 yards from my home (no excuse not to go is there??)

The bar is up some stairs, just above the red chilli restaurant, a brilliant northern cuisine chinese. It is a small place, but well lit and fresh, modern and clean looking.great combinations of colours make it pleasant. The background music is not too loud either.

I had a look at the bubble drink menu, which is rather extensive, and I opted without hesitation for the Durian bubble (see below). It is the first bar I can indulge in my durian obsession sins....

For those who don't know about bubble drinks, they are beverages made with milk or soya, either with tea or fruits, served with tapioca black pearls, gelatinous balls of the size of a marble (hence the mega size for the straw). The drink was perfect and looking further on the menu, I realise there was some great common vietnamese snacks/food, bahn mi and pho... How could I resist?? I had a pho, freshly prepared in front of me like it should be. Possibly not as tasty as Marjolaine's, but I suspect that's asking for too much. It was nevertheless very healthy and tasty. I had not planned to eat in the bar, I just got very excited about the food offered there...

Being of french origin, I had to finish the meal on a cafe, and o joy, I could get a vietnamese coffee!

At the moment there is an offer I was told by the owner, and I got a n extra frozen yoghurt - I was already full by then though.

The bar is an excellent alternative for a healthy lunch or for hanging out for all the other cafe places, since it has the great advantage to close at 9pm - two hours after the others....

So thumbs up for this little bar that offers something new in town!

Cherry Bakewell pudding

I have always disliked the Kipling's Bakewell tarts, too sweet, no flavour, and I don't really like the thick icing that tops it. So how did I get to make a Bakewell tart you'll ask?
Well, I saw a brief explanation of what a Bakewell tart was on the 'Economy, Gastronomy' programme on BBC TV (great series by the way...), and I decided to implement the idea (my way of course).

I checked up on the internet and discovered that the name comes from a town called Bakewell in Derbyshire in the Peak District, and [Wikipedia] 'The name is believed to have come from a customer who decided that the tart was "baked well" thus the inn called it their "Bakewell" tart, a pun on the town of Bakewell and a well baked tart. Two shops in Bakewell offer what they both claim is the original recipe pasty :
- The Bakewell Tart Shop & Coffee House sells a "Bakewell Tart", while
- The Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop sells a "Bakewell Pudding"'

I also discovered the difference between a Bakewell tart , a Bakewell cake and a Bakewell Pudding which according to Wikipedia is the following:
Bakewell tart: a shortcrust pastry shell, spread with jam and covered with frangipane.
Bakewell Cake: also known as a Cherry Bakewell is a variation of the tart where the frangipane is covered with a top layer of icing and a single half glacé cherry.
Bakewell Pudding: The recipe still used in The Old Original Bakewell Pudding Shop consists of a puff pastry shell with a layer of jam, covered with a filling of eggs, sugar, butter and almonds.

So here is My version of the cake:

INGREDIENTS
- The pastry: I decided to use puff pastry as I think it lighter than shortcrust pastry, also less sweet (I am definitely not a sweet tooth..). I used a ready made one (the best ones are the ones sold as squares in the frozen section, and yes you have to roll it yourself, but it's worth it).
- The frangipane: I used the recipe I am used to making for the French 'Galette des rois' (See my previous post) as I know it to be fluffy, moist and light:

• 150g ground almond
• 75g soften butter
• 80g sugar
• 3 eggs
• a few drops of orange blossom water
  

Mix the butter and the sugar until the mix whitens, then add the beaten eggs and the ground almond, mix well.

-The filling: I used a canned fruit filling, since getting hold of fresh cherries at this time of year and at a reasonable price is not an option here (and jam is way too sweet for me):
This filling is again, not too sweet and tastes nicely of cherries.
- The decoration: icing sugar and a few glace cherries.

RECIPE:
Lay the puff pastry in a tart mould, place in the oven at 180 degrees for 8-10 minutes (less if you use a metal mould as opposed to silicone), in order to pre-cook it (it prevents the pastry to go soggy with the filling.

Spread the filling at the bottom of the mould, then top and cover with the frangipane. cook for 10 min at 200degrees then 10 more minutes at 180degrees approx.

When the pudding has browned, take it out of the oven, sprinkle icing sugar on it and arrange a few glace cherries cut in half.

The texture was absolutely superb, the frangipane was moist with a delicately cracking surface under the tooth. It was not too sweet, and very easy to make, very flavoursome too. The puff pastry made it lighter and added to the texture, softly crackly. Nothing comparable to the awful Kiplings Bakewell tartelettes, and a recipe I will make again and again and again....

Bon Apetit!

Source: Info from Wikipedia articles, photos from myself, and recipe a British traditional favorite interpreted by myself.

Traditional Iranian bread

Today as I was walking through the Satwa quarter in Dubai, I came across an Iranian Bakery, intrigued I approached, and the two bakers invited me in the shop, to see how the bread was made, They were really kind and wanted me to discover the process.
You bet, I was up for it! I only had my telephone on me at the time (I know, I did not carry my camera. Shame on me!) so all the photos were taken with my Sony Ericsson. I will return with my SLR, I promised myself!
The balls of dough prepared are flattened,
Then the flat disc of dough is flapped between the hands very quickly,
Then stretched in an instant on a convex shape covered with the cloth.
Then the bread is thrown very abruptly on the inside of the oven where it will stick and cook, forming bubbles. It is then taken on and reserved under a cloth.

The result tastes like a gorgeous crispy crepe! The guys wanted to give me a few of them, and refused that I pay them, so I definitely need to go back to pay for a second lot!

I found that on this stretch of road, people were incredibly kind and interactive, and they are very happy to have their picture taken, I asked every time and they all thought it was crazy but posed for me nonetheless!
I’ll definitely have to come back next week! (my last week in Dubai)…

About a vegetarian wedding meal

Two Saturdays ago I was invited to a wedding that had the particularity to feature a vegetarian meal and an evening vegetarian buffet: the bride is vegan, and it was a great compromise between omnivore and vegan. As you probably know, I am not a vegetarian, but I thoroughly enjoyed the food.On top of being of great quality and very healthy, the quantities were perfect, the presentation was superb and everybody enjoyed it. The meals were nicely balanced and I don't think anybody missed the meat.
I'll take you through the menu :
(I chose the first option of each choice presented)

For starter we had the choice between:

Asparagus, duck egg, Roquette and parmesan salad:

Assiette of tomato (mozarella salad, gazpacho, bloody Mary jelly)

Forest mushroom Risotto, parmesan crisp & truffle vinaigrette

For the main course we could either have:

Pithiviers of English rosary goat cheese, provencal vegetables & butternut squash sauce


Leek, cherry tomato &blue cheese 'cannellonis' with olive potato cake and carrot 'spagetthi'


Fragrant courgette&tomato curry with wilted spinach, quinoa and leek Bahji

and for the desert there was:

Dark Chocolate creme brulee hazelnut sable & vanilla marshmallow

Baked white chocolate cheesecake, passion fruit

Glazed lemon tart creme fraiche raspberry puree

So a good vegetarian mean can satisfy everybody, only rarely have I had such great vegetarian food...

The Buffet was also light, tasty and exciting with wild mushroom canapes, pine nut rice, vegetable kebabs and so on...:

Evening vegetarian buffet

Also the bride had decided to avoid the traditionnal British iced fruit cake to replace it with beautiful and colourful cupcakes:

To top it up, the meal took place in a conservatory, flooded with light, with a view on the peak district, the tables were garnished with fresh decorations, and the atmosphere was assured to be light nd happy.
It was great wedding, and whether the guests were vegetarian or not, the meal was enjoyed without any question...I hope that reassures the vegetarians amongst my readers who would like to plan a vegetarian theme for their wedding food...

A stretch of France in New York

How strange, I found this little bit of france, with all the important details, like the 'tabac' sign, the names, style...in New York, it's quite distcrete really. And the spookiest of all is that just around the corner, there is a huge Newcastle Brown ale sign. it was like a micro jump in my own world, between France and Britain...