Bak Gua Warrior

It's less than a month toward Chinese New Year and my challenge is coming too... While the relatives were pampered with the branded bak gua last year, should I get up early morning again to q for the name and quality (only in Singapore) again? I'm still struggling... I'm worrying the expectation from relatives still stay at last year...

I read from the blog that a newly open bak gua retail shop name Kim Joo Guan which was told is the supplier of Lim Chee Guan for years has decided to sell its own bak gua to public recently.

I shall go down some of these days to test on the bak gua see whether the quality is similar to Lim Ghee Guan.

Meal for Birthday

Wifey father is crazy for oysters,so both wifey and me decided to give him a surprise during his birthday. Instead of going for the hotels' seafood buffet which will cost us not less than $60 pax, we actually save the budget and have a special mean at home last evening. A combination of roasted chicken, foie gras (actually is duck liver, cheaper), with 1 and 1/2 dozen of fresh oysters.

We got the rock oysters from Culina @ Dempsey, it's extremely fresh and you can even taste the salty sea flavour, serve best with bit of lemon juice and tabasco, it's shiookk... $3.5 each.
This is the leftover shelf, I was busying shuck the oyster and forgot to take the picture
After happily buying the oysters, we realised we still short of the knife for shuck the oysters, and these are our tools...


Tabasco should heal my cough faster >_<

Pan fried foiegras served with sesame baguette from wifey exam's final product and with few lemon zest as topping. It's not as crispy as we imagined, still exploring the way to cook foie gras. We only cook 3 pieces as it just too oily and fatty. Package frozen duck liver in 6 pieces (325gm) @ $45.50

Roasting chicken in frenchzzzzzz style, when mentioning french style means BUTTER... lot lot of butter... It's a simple marination yet it taste heavenly! We marinated the chicken with garlic, butter, salt, pepper for 3 days, remember stuff the butter between the skin and meat, this will make the skin much more crispy after roasting.
This is my first time using the rotating function on my 小黑
Roast it for 45 mins in about 175'c and let it cool down for 10 mins, apply the sauce over the chicken, then continue to roast it for about 15 mins with 200'c.
For the sauce, heat up the sauce pan in medium fire, put in about 1/3 cup of soy sauce, after fragrant is out, pour in 1/3 cup of water, let it reduce to half then whisk in the butter, yes butter again. You can left some of the sauce to sprinkle over the chicken before serving. For the best taste and enjoyment, use your hand instead of fork, knife...
Final Product

How To Eat a Chicken Wing

I used to put the whole chicken wing inside my mouth and let my tongue and teeth do the jobs before spitting the clean bones out from my mouth. What's your way of eating a yummy chicken wing? Here is another solution for you to finish a chicken wing neat and clean. Errrmmm... I'm atually still prefer my way of eating, it taste better to me... =)

The 5th Basic Taste

I heard wifey mentioned about the fifth taste previously and finally get to know about it from an article on magazine.

When we say the dish was simply delicious, how do we define 'delicious' in more specific way? The biggest contribution on our satisfaction is taste. Through the scientific experiment over the years, we manage to indentify the various tastes receptor on our tongues which are sour, sweet, bitter, salty, plus addition qualities such as spiciness or astringency.

The receptors for each basic taste transfer information to the brain through taste nerves. As a result, we recognize different flavours.

In the 19th century, a japanese professor of science came across a flavour now recognized as an additional basic taste, unami (旨味), produced mainly by the amino acid glutamate.

Generations of food connoisseurs have described the subtle savoury or meaty taste of unami as the foundation for what we perceive as delicious...

Written records show that fish sauce, which is rich in glutamate, was popular among the ancient Greeks and Romans as for back as 2,500 years ago. Soy sauce, another glutamate-rich seasoning, become popular in Japan arounf the 13th or 14th century...


Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami

都是肉干惹的祸 (3) - 「肉干大比拼」

到底LZY的肉干有什么魅力，足以让各个年龄层的为之疯狂呢？当1938年的LZY遇上1933年的MZX还有后起之秀的XW，不同点又是什么呢？我们就按三种品牌的切片肉干，让几个朋友在不知道肉干属于何种品牌的情况下，同时尝试三种品牌的肉干...

厚度:
MZX与XW基本相同，而LZY会比另二者稍为厚实

外观:
MZX烤焦部分交少，但略嫌表面油分太多，腻嘴
XW几乎没有烤焦部分，略嫌烤得不够火侯
LZY表面有较明显的烤焦部分， 有点酥脆的感觉 (效果与锅粑相似)

口感与味道:
MZX吃起来比较硬， 比较不适合老人家， 略有甜味有嚼劲年轻人会喜欢，香味与烟熏味略淡。
XW腌制得不够入味，口味有点似腊肠的味道，不讨喜，香味与烟熏味不足
LZY因为厚度的关系， 吃起来也有嚼劲， 但是不是硬的那种，香味与烟熏味较浓郁

综合所有人的意见，LZY肉干无论在外香味、口感等方面都胜于另外两者。MZX则在口感方面稍微逊色。XW则有待改善。

虽然LZY的确在个方面胜出，但是我却觉得并不值得大清出门，然后再耗上好几个小时排队就为了小小的一片肉干。这是这里独有的Kiasu心理！年关将近了，除了排队买肉干，一定还有许多事情更值得我们去做！你有是否会抽出一点点时间多关心你的家人呢？你有是否会用一两个小时的时间去关心一下其他需要帮助、就快被社会遗忘的不幸一群呢？

明年? 恕不奉陪...

**以上纯属个人意见，评价因个人口味偏好差异而有所不同。

都是肉干惹的祸 (2)

经过上周六的挫败，前天终于重振旗鼓6点钟就拖着疲惫的“躯壳”（头脑还是休息着）出门啦！7点钟抵达店门口...哇靠！竟然已有进20人已经排在前头！有阿公、阿嬷、年轻人，竟然还有Ah Neh哦！哇唠，赢完了咯！8点钟，我已经看不到队伍的尽头啦!

挨了两个小时(9am)店门终于打开，充满期待的心已经迫不及待的想尽快达成任务，但速度确实非常非常非常的慢！原来前头的aunty团与几个Ah Neh都是买了20公斤的购买顶限，加起来都有上百公斤啦！然后500克和1公斤慢慢的包...天啊~ 都可以吃到下一个过年啦！

又痴痴的等了3个小时(12pm)，终于到我啦！真的感动到差点儿流眼泪... wooo~~

= 任务完成 =

下一个任务，就是要找出人们俯首甘为“肉干”牛的原因。口感是否真如许多人所说那么好么？看见众多阿公、阿嬷的对于自己体能与意志力的极限挑战，在排对买肉干上表现的淋漓尽致！他们是可爱的，跟其他Kiasu一族几十公斤的购买量比较，阿公阿嬷们是可爱的，看见阿公阿嬷他们拿着手中一小包的肉干，一脸的无可掩饰的满足感，让人不禁慧心一笑阿公阿嬷的“童真”...


接下来，就是追根究底的时候啦....

「肉干大比拼」To Be Continue...

都是肉干惹的祸 (1)

“排长龙”，以我们这里的标准意为20人以上（人数可上数百）为达某种目的（多为食/住+吉蒂猫），甘愿承受风吹雨打、牺牲睡眠起早摸黑就为了达到共同的目的。

在这里，年关将近提到“排长龙”的现象时，很多人都会联想到LZY肉干。一个星期前到早晨到ChinaTown照相，看见在LZY肉干店开门前已经有人在排队啦！我一直想不通，这里有那么多肉干，到底是什么原因LZY肉干能够拥有这么多hardcore 支持者？都可以成立fans club 咯！当我在暗自纳闷（加上一点点的嘲笑）的当儿，一项任务落在我手上啦！过年要买LZY肉干给阿嫲，天啊~ 我也要排队啊!!!???

周五下午去了一趟，3点多钟猪肉干早已售完！没办法啦... 只好周六一早再去排队！8点左右到了ChinaTown，店们未开却早已经有近80人的长龙！结果排了两个小时的我就放弃等待。前面的大婶还一直在为我可惜，但对身为邻国子民的我来说，跟本不值得为了这一片小小的肉干而牺牲我的时间啊！（虽然现在我最多的就是时间啦！）家乡的“我XX"肉干好吃多了！

任务失败的我开始挣扎着，明天一早是否“再战江湖”还是爽爽睡到天亮再去游泳呢？几不甘愿一下(联邦腔），明天还是早起吧！真的很想看看LZY真的有‘传说中’那么好吃么?...

18.01.2009

To Be Continue...