30 Jan 2014
Bak Kwa Madness for coming Chinese New Year??
Chinese New Year is justwith my friend since the start of January.
I came across an article on New Paper - 'Behind the scenes in a bak kwa shop' which featured Lim Chee
Guan. There was even a video to give public a peek at its HQ at Pandan Loop. Obviously the secret recipe
was not included in this article.
My eyes almost popped out of my socket when I saw that 1kg of Bak Kwa was going for $50.00 at the
shop! Gosh! Those people have been queuing for hours too and they mentioned that it was worth the wait.
Is it a tradition that Chinese New Year means Bak Kwa time?
The link of the article can be found here.
Another article which I came across last Monday with the heading
HED CHEF EXTRA: How to make your own bak kwa
HED CHEF EXTRA: How to make your own bak kwa
sparked my interest.
The recipe given was:
-1kg minced pork (shoulder butt)
-220g fine sugar
-1½ tsp salt
-1 tsp light soya sauce
-1 tbsp oyster sauce
-½ tsp five spice powder
-1½ tbsp Chinese rice wine
-Pinch of red food colouring powder
I guessed many people who tried making it would be greatly disappointed as it would never turn out the
same as those commercialized outlets like Lim Chee Guan, Bee Cheng Hiang or Fragrance Bak Kwa.
The reason of me writing this post was because I was a bit pissed off. I have already tried making Bak Kwa
even before this article's recipe was published, using the oven, even with barbecuing, and the results was so off! It could be found on my previous post here. Not to mention the texture was not right too...
Notice the article's recipe above contained sugar as the main sweetening agent? My friend and I did a batch
with only sugar and no honey (the recipe I used have), the taste turned out really flat! Honey not only
sweetened the Bak Kwa but also provides flavor. (Different brand, different flower, different flavor also.)
Be careful as honey is sweeter than sugar too.
Another thing that would happen when you place the marinated meat into the oven would be the oozing out
of marination which I experienced many times before. To prevent that from happening, I suggested using the
dehydrator which I did not expect my friend to actually buy it
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| The same dehydrator that could be used to make fruit and vegetable chips! It cost my friend about $250. Basically he dehydrated the marinated meat for about an hour, about 65 degrees (high). (Also have low and medium heat options.) |
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| After that, the marinated meat is smoked with his own-made smoker, made from a 3 tier Ikea rack, covered by some board used for artwork. (Sushi bamboo racks to place the marinated meat on.) |
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| (Top view) An opening for smoke to escape and and thermometer to determine the temperature of the smoking. |
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| Just a tin with hickory wood/charcoal to produce the smoke. |
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| Final outcome of the Bak Kwa! Do not use hickory wood but stick to charcoal instead as the smokey flavor was overwhelming. It made the Bak Kwa taste like Lap Cheong (Chinese sausages) instead. The Bak Kwa was also like a sponge, absorbing all the moisture from my mouth, making it dry. Almost there!!!! |
(Everything stated is based on personal opinion ; open to suggestions and advice)
Crystal Jade Jiang Nan - A Rainbow!
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| Visited Crystal Jade Jiang Nan at Vivocity with my friend and we shared these colourful xiao long bao! Due to the broth contained inside which make it impossible to share, I only tried 4 flavors while my friend tried the other 4. I started off with the vegetables (green), cheese (yellow), spicy beef (pink) and lastly the foie gras (brown). It happened to be the order of my favourite too! The vegetable tasted clear and refreshing, the cheese was savoury and salty while both the minced spicy beef and foie gras were tasteless and disgusting. My friend had the original (white), spicy chicken (orange), prawn (pale orange) and truffle (black). The ball in the middle was filled with custard. (Just to fill up the centre as the blankness would feel awkward.) Of course we had ordered other dishes too but I decided to post only this since the rainbow colours gave a lasting impression. |
28 Jan 2014
Secret Recipe Cakes - Take-away from JB
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| I missed out posting some Secret Recipe Cakes which I 'smuggled' (brought) back to Singapore when I visited Johor Bahru City Square some time back. No harm bringing back some cakes for the next day's breakfast right? Durian Cake with alternating layers of plain sponge and durian flavored 'paste'. I guessed one of the trademark of Secret Recipe Cakes would be the excessive amount of cream (filling or coating). My other JB posts can be found here (Sushi King), here (KSL City Street Food) and here (Bear Paw Cafe)! |
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| I bought this durian cheesecake for my mum since she has always been a fan of durian. I should have at least taken a bite so that I could comment on it. Anyway, my mum ate it up without any complains or comments. |
26 Jan 2014
Gelateria Italia - 8 Flavors at a time!
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| Guys DO enjoy ice cream with waffles too! 6 guys, 8 flavors and 4 waffles! Don't ask me what flavors they were since I was not the one picking them and I could not recall anyway. Thanks to one of my friend who bought the groupon voucher to share the deal with the rest of us. I was once an addicted fan of groupon deals too and the deals I bought were food related ones. I stopped myself from buying as some of these deals were not worth it. Anyway, this outlet at Jem shopping mall only have 1 waffle machine. Prepare to wait like us since they could only prepare your waffle one at a time LOL! |
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| Another day which I had the green tea and baileys! Too bad the green tea tasted flat and disappointing and I was easily pleased with the mildly alcoholic and creamy baileys. I would be back blogging since I have 2 weeks of holiday again! |
15 Jan 2014
Bear Paw Cafe (Johor Bahru City Square) - Cute and yummy bear paws!
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| I was enjoying my 2 weeks long holiday break and that was when I decided to explore Johor Bahru for more as well as cheaper food options. It was during my virgin trip to Johor Bahru City Square when I came across this Bear Paw Cafe that sounds rather familiar. It didn't take too long for me to recall that I actually tried it before from Taiwan's Night Market (the original source)! Singapore has already opened an outlet not quite long ago at Scape, known as Bear Bites. Despite having more bun flavors, less choice of patties and different variation of sauces, I did not try the set meal because it did not seems substantial to me. |
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| Unlike Singapore, the set meal here at Bear Paw Cafe have a huge range of bubble tea to pick from! All drinks were in (L) size so you either have to finish it or complain about being too full after drinking halfway. I had the slightly sourish Assam Milk Tea while my friend choose the Brown Rice Milk Tea. |
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| It felt like a DIY burger where you can customise your own bun, patty and sauce. Just pray hard that your combination turns out delicious. (Not to worry as everything would be yummy.) My friend went for Milk bun + Fish patty + Tartar sauce while I opted for the Brown Sugar bun + Squid patty + Teriyaki sauce. |
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| The mildly sweetened brown sugar bun was so soft and fluffy that I fell in love eating it! Was it Hong Kong flour that gave the bun its texture? A bit like the Chinese version's kong bak bao but much fluffier! I went to ask if they sell the bun itself but too bad they don't. The cashier even told me that I was not the first to make such a request. Since the squid patty was slightly hard and dry, skip that and try the fish instead. |
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| The 3rd time I went to Johor Bahru City Square the following week (yes, yet another round for me), with another friend. We ate at Nandos for our late lunch and in less than 3 hours, we were already seated at Bear Paw Cafe waiting for our cute paws to be served! This time I went for Brown Rice Milk Tea which I felt it tasted a bit like hojicha (roasted Japanese green tea) while my friend had the Mango Yakult. He was too bloated and could only finish half a cup! What a waste... |
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| This time I had the Milk bun + Fish patty +Tartar sauce while my friend had the Whole Wheat bun + Fish patty + Tartar sauce. It seems like the choices were pretty default and people tend to go for the same few standard choices. Upon my first bite, I was simply impressed with the generous portion, crispy exterior and moist interior of the fish patty! My friend strongly agreed as well as he continued munching on his paw. I would definitely be back again!!! |
14 Jan 2014
Back to Johor Bahru (JB) - Reds Salon & KSL City Street Food
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| After my 1st trip to Johor Bahru City Square, I am back again with another friend (within the same week). Awkwardness as a typical food blogger usually post pictures of food and not selfies! Since my friend's priority was to colour his hair to cover up those greys, I decided to do mine too. There were like 5-6 hair salons around and we randomly picked Reds Salon since my friend heard of that brand name before. The salon seems to be rather packed and shorthanded that day and I spinned about on the chair while waiting to be attended to. I regretted not taking a picture of myself while undergoing the dyeing process! Not sure how fast it would take, but it was only like about 10 minutes or so before the hairstylist told me that the colour had came out and would be ready to wash soon. I was like 'So fast'? |
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| Yay! My hair was done and tainted with light brown which was only more noticeable under direct light. I had already began snapping away more selfie shots, only to capture a picture with my friend behind, waiting for his hair to absorb the colour. O shit, I still got to wait after all as he still wanted a haircut after that. |
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| Another shot which I used as my FB display picture LOL. My hair was towards the gold-light brown while my friend went for the brownish-red. At least we both were different! |
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| With our newly colored hair, we paid 1.5 RM each and headed down to KSL city (shopping mall) to shop! Not exactly to shop for clothes or stuffs but from a foodie mindset, I meant shopping for FOOD! The mall was quite boring maybe because all my enthusiasm was focused on the pasar malam that was located right beside KSL city. Thankfully by coincidence it was MONDAY that day and the pasar malam only operates on Mondays! |
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| I did not managed to capture much photos due to so much yummy food all around which posed quite a distraction for someone hungry and it was drizzling too! I kept hoping that the drizzle would quickly stop so that I could do my food shopping in peace. Thank God it stopped! Besides having cooked food, some stalls also sell raw fishes, dried goods and fruits and vegetables, just like a normal marketplace. |
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| This was one yummy carrot cake stall which I bought my black carrot cake from. It was fried on the spot and I waited only less than 10 minutes before having my packet of piping hot carrot cake. |
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| Super fresh and undiluted sugar cane juice which was also available to quench our thirst! We bought a big bottle to share and continued shopping after that. In the end, we had muah chee, a couple of different kuehs, popiah, carrot cake, sugar cane drink, pancakes and roasted pork belly as snacks. After purchasing a whole load of food, we went back into KSL, found a spot and stuffed ourselves bloated. That was for the day and when could we come back again? |