One rainy afternoon I met up with Hiro Sakai of the blog Eating and Cooking. The reason we met up was simple: he had a mission. To try several wonton places in Hong Kong that I previously blogged about here and here.
How we found out we knew each other from long ago is not so simple, and involves convoluted, funny, and scary emails sent back and forth for several weeks. We thought we were each other's "stalkers", and had we not discovered each other's identities we probably would never have met up for an afternoon of eating and talking about food.
A wonton, or wanton, is a type of dumpling filled with savoury minced meat or vegetables. I personally love those with one or a combination of the following: shrimp, prawn, minced pork, minced watercress/spinach/courgette/chives. I've tried one with lamb at a famous hotpot place called Little Sheep. It's a chain restaurant from China, and is so huge it was listed in the stock exchange recently.
Hiro S. told me to prepare my tummy for our feast so I didn't eat lunch. Using a tiny umbrella meant for one we walked around Central and tried the following places:
Tsim Tsai Kee, Wellington Street: We shared a bowl full of steaming soup and generous servings of prawn dumplings and some beef noodles.
Mak's Noodle, Wellington Street: We had a bowl of shrimp dumplings and another with beef brisket and tendon.
Sam Tor, Pottinger Street: Again we had a bowl of soup with shrimp dumplings and shared a huge plate of fried fresh fishball with clam sauce. The clams were tiny, fermented and salty. I've tried fried fishball at so many places but this for me was the best- not fishy, no overpowering Chinese herbs, not greasy.
For dessert we relaxed at this place called Antique Tea Room on Lyndhurst Terrace, and Hiro S. remembered to buy some BBQ pork (cha siu) and roast goose from the famous Yung Kee on Wellington Street.
I'll let Hiro S. blog about this foodtrip (which had the best dumplings, prices , ambiance etc...). He took pictures and he's got a great memory for tastes, prices and food in general. He never wrote anything down so you can imagine how much that memory holds- considering how prolific he is when it comes to restaurant hopping.
Thanks Hiro S., that was a fun afternoon! For those who are based abroad and want to know where to eat in Manila, his is the blog to read.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Greek Salad
Inspired by Marketman's posts on Greece, especially this one about a Greek Salad he tried at home, I decided to whip up my own Greek-style salad for lunch today.
I used these lovely grape tomatoes I found from my neighborhood fruit stand (tomato, is, after all, a fruit), cut them in half, and tossed them in with some leftover lettuce, crispy cucumbers (the small kind, like MM suggests), dried oregano, extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar (my red wine vinegar was way, way past its expiry date so I had to bin it), a splash of lemon juice, and I poured in half a pack of cubed feta cheese and kalamata olives marinated in herbs and oil.
Of course I was in a hurry and had to make do. Next time I'd grab some fresh oregano leaves, a huge hunk of feta, some wicked marinated olives from Great, and beautiful tomatoes from the market.
For breakfast today I had some yogurt with Manuka honey (from New Zealand, supposedly with healing properties) and 2 fresh strawberries. How's that for feeling like I'm in Greece?
I used these lovely grape tomatoes I found from my neighborhood fruit stand (tomato, is, after all, a fruit), cut them in half, and tossed them in with some leftover lettuce, crispy cucumbers (the small kind, like MM suggests), dried oregano, extra virgin olive oil, white wine vinegar (my red wine vinegar was way, way past its expiry date so I had to bin it), a splash of lemon juice, and I poured in half a pack of cubed feta cheese and kalamata olives marinated in herbs and oil.
Of course I was in a hurry and had to make do. Next time I'd grab some fresh oregano leaves, a huge hunk of feta, some wicked marinated olives from Great, and beautiful tomatoes from the market.
For breakfast today I had some yogurt with Manuka honey (from New Zealand, supposedly with healing properties) and 2 fresh strawberries. How's that for feeling like I'm in Greece?
Sunday, June 22, 2008
Kitchenware Sale=Naughty Thoughts
Yesterday hubby and I, along with a male friend, went to the most disappointing kitchenware clearance sale ever!!!!!!
It was held in a tiny hotel function room, and most of the wares were either damaged, detached or downright ugly.
I went to a Le Creuset Clearance Sale and it was heaven compared to this one, despite the 1 1/2 hours I had to endure standing in line.
Maybe it was our fault. We arrived at 3pm, 2 hours to closing time. Maybe bargain hunters scrambled for pots and pans in the morning and left the unwanted items sitting forlornly on the tables, looking old, stale and pathetic.
We saw a silicone spatula, it's head detached from its handle. The head was selling for HKD 2. Hmmm, I wonder if it's truly a bargain to buy it considering you'll have to burn your hands since it didn't have a handle. Or maybe the handle was lying somewhere far away, ashamed to be seen in the company of castaways and mutant utensils.
Out of boredom, and sheer naughtiness, we decided to scrutinize some of the stuff on sale and guess what they were. My friend and I being kitchen buffs, it was easy to rattle off names like nutcracker, potato masher, melon baller etc.. Poor hubby had no idea what they were. We decided to take fun to the next level and describe their uses.
Anyone interested in something that will "mash your potato", "scoop your balls", "hold your eggs", "separate your eggs", or, horror of horrors, "crack your nuts"?
It was held in a tiny hotel function room, and most of the wares were either damaged, detached or downright ugly.
I went to a Le Creuset Clearance Sale and it was heaven compared to this one, despite the 1 1/2 hours I had to endure standing in line.
Maybe it was our fault. We arrived at 3pm, 2 hours to closing time. Maybe bargain hunters scrambled for pots and pans in the morning and left the unwanted items sitting forlornly on the tables, looking old, stale and pathetic.
We saw a silicone spatula, it's head detached from its handle. The head was selling for HKD 2. Hmmm, I wonder if it's truly a bargain to buy it considering you'll have to burn your hands since it didn't have a handle. Or maybe the handle was lying somewhere far away, ashamed to be seen in the company of castaways and mutant utensils.
Out of boredom, and sheer naughtiness, we decided to scrutinize some of the stuff on sale and guess what they were. My friend and I being kitchen buffs, it was easy to rattle off names like nutcracker, potato masher, melon baller etc.. Poor hubby had no idea what they were. We decided to take fun to the next level and describe their uses.
Anyone interested in something that will "mash your potato", "scoop your balls", "hold your eggs", "separate your eggs", or, horror of horrors, "crack your nuts"?
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