Summer Vacation 2012 – Copenhagen

This year for our summer vacation we decided to be in DK (Denmark) - primarily to spend max time with the family. And again this year we wanted to make a reservation at Noma but they were closed - for their summer vacation . (NOMA is closed by the way between end July to mid Aug). Dang…! I may need to write a private note to Rene Redzepi now as it is getting too frustrating. This is the 3rd year in a row we have tried.

For the first week we rented a summer house in Naestved by a coastal town called Kaerrebaeksminde (what a mouthful – the name!) on a little island called Enoe – off a fjord.  Here is a site on the town. www.visitnaestved.com/international/en-gb/…/karrebaeksminde.htm

There are several popular seaside villages dotted along the coast line of Sjaelland (the island where Copenhagen – the capital is located). Enoe holds a special place for my husband because he has had many fond memories of this quiet town from his childhood. The area has certainly developed since, and can be quite busy during the peak summer months. Down there too, you have the outlet by the local danish design brand Kahler who is famous for ceramic works. For the shophardy fans , there is something to do after all.

Thank god the weather held, and what a relief! Beautiful danish summer weatheris one needs when you are planning a vacation by the danish seaside.  Having lived in Denmark,  I truly understand what’s all the excitement about. It is the unpredictability of the danish weather system that can throw any ideal assumptions of a nice seaside vacation down the drain and when you have to face 6 months or so with rain/grey weather – yeah a good sunny day is very precious.

Each morning started typically Danish, with pastries and fresh breads from the bakery. One of our favourites are romsnegle and tebirkes (photo above) . Tebirkes – is a mix between pastry and bread, topped with poppyseeds and a buttery and slightly sweet coating in the middle. It is so light and delicate (if made right) – something I have yet to see outside Denmark.

The seafood shops were abundant with their catch from the nearby seas daily. I don’t even know how to translate what they have there to English. One of my favourites are “roedspaette” (plaice) ,the “forel” (trout), kulmulle and the smoked fish like herring,salmon and mackerel. And ‘fiskefrikadeller’ on ryebread (photo below) - fresh from the fish shop is ultimate. One of the classic danish dishes is ‘roedspaette med persillesovs’ – plaice with parsley sauce – tastes absolutely sublime by the seaside, when especially home made! A post on that to follow – courtesy of my mother in law!

Denmark is famous for their beers too for those of you thinking, why is she going on about food only? Yes but since I dont’ drink I won’t pretend I know more than the little I know of beers and don’t forget ‘snaps’ – quintessential akvavit paired with your smoerreboerd (danish open sandwiches)!

Coincidentally during this trip the Olympics were on throughout. So it was really a hectic time racing to the beach  plus long afternoon walks and timing it to come back in time to catch some sports. While watching tv, we were stuffing our faces with danish jordbaertaerte and droemmekage. Life is good – yeah!

All in all had a wonderful vacation – at Enoe. Thank you to everyone in the family for making it great..muah!

Chinese New Year 2011

Below post was supposed to be uploaded during Chinese New Year – got delayed and I supposed it is never too late.

Mooncake Festival

Chinatown in Singapore – street decorations

Mid autumn festival for me represents 2 things, mooncakes and lanterns. It is one of the most romantic celebrations, firstly because it is in honour of the moon Goddess of Immortality and lanterns, lighting up in various forms of flowers, animal shapes, or large lanterns send alight and afloat up in the air, sparkles in the dark of the night all over, like stars.

Buying mooncakes at a chinese confecrtionary stall

It coincides with the autumnal equinox (of the solar calendar), the 15th day of the 8th month of the chinese lunar calendar, when the moon is at her fullest and roundest.

A mooncake

Mooncake festival started like last week culminating on the 22nd Sept 2010 . The restaurant, bakeries and hotels are producing and selling them like hotcakes. These delicious cakes are a delicacy on its own, heavy in calories and popular gifts to family and friends this time of the year. The perfect accompaniment is the chinese tea.

There has been queues everywhere and people snapping them up like there is no tomorrow. These chinese pastries come with various pasty fillings. Today the array is mindboggling too – from traditional ones like lotus seed paste to modern fusiony flavours like chocolate ganache , durian, green tea , ice cream, etc.  However, I am rather a purist – when it comes to traditional celebrations I like to stick to traditional versions of the mooncakes. The ones I knew growing up were the piglet biscuits, baked mooncakes with the lotus seed paste and melon seeds , with or without salted duck yolk, or red bean paste or the ultimate decadence - jin hua ham and wu ren, 5 nuts, consisting of walnuts, pumpkin seeds, almonds, sesame, pistachio, macademia, watermelon seeds and winter melon) -  it really reminds me of the Italian paneforte.

Jin hua ham and nuts mooncake

Due to the convergence of regional specialities throughout China showing up in our shores, both Malaysia and Singapore – we now can get besides the baked mooncakes, the snow skin (unbaked) or flaky pastry (shanghainese).

So what is a good  mooncake? How does one judge? In my humble opinion, it is so individual. The addition of salted duck egg yolk gives it a harmonised balance  of salty savoury angle to the otherwise cloying sweetness of the lotus seed paste or red bean paste. Melon seeds give it a nice crunch. Traditionally one judge a good mooncake from the finished look, the imprints should be clear, skin is baked smooth, and golden brown. The skin should not be too thicked, with a slight separation from the filling itself. The filling must have the right consistency, not overly sweet or heavy and yet when one takes a bite, the paste should not be overly sticky or oily but yet holds together in a semi solid form. Have a few and be the judge yourself what you like best! I personally go for mooncakes made from known chinese restaurants or bakeries , hand made and are famed for using good quality ingredients.

As for the legends related to this celebration, there are many versions. A story about an Imperial General Houyi, a very skilled archer, was ordered to shoot 9 suns out of 10, as the earth was heating up. Succeeding he was given a pill for immortality which he hid . Unfortunately his wife Chang ‘ e found it and swallowed the pill, she flew away ( or was banished) to the moon. There, she coughed out the pill. She befriended the Jade Hare on the moon who is still pounding the pill so she could return back to earth. She lives in a palace on the moon, while her husband who made himself a palace on the sun, visits her once a year on the 15th day of the 8th month. Hence you see many mooncake imprints show a lady silhouette on the moon.

Snowskin mooncake – this is rose flavoured with red bean paste filling and melon seeds

Another story is about a revolt overthrowing the Mongul rulers by the Chinese. Secret messages were hidden in the mooncakes and distributed to the chinese inhabitants, to organise a revolt which was eventually successful.

A paper lantern using a thin candle.

As for the lanterns, rather unsure how it came about to be a part of the mooncake festival, either to recreate light on a mid autumn night or representing the 10 suns, or maybe to show Chang’e her way home to earth. Whatever the reason may be, it is a delightful addition to the festival  especially for the children and romantics like myself.

And for the mooncake recipe – I don’t have it, my mom does, but she has not made one for a very long time. Truth be told, it is a lot of work , if you intend to make everything on your own, from the lotus seed paste to the pastry. When I do manage to dig her recipe out one day, I will post it on my blog , and if any one of you are game to try it out – let me know how it went.

Rice Dumpling Festival

Above is ‘kee chang’ – made from lye water and glutinous rice, eaten with gula malacca syrup. My all time favourite

Or otherwise known as ‘chang’ festival. In Singapore somehow, one does not realise the passing of many traditional chinese festivals despite the fact that Singapore’s population is predominantly Chinese (although of various ethnic groups). I supposed I would have to head to Tiong Bahru or Chinatown (I always feel weird to speak of Chinatown as an area in Singapore when we are surrounded by chinese anyway). Maybe I am living in the wrong neighbourhood.

Chang festival, falls on the 5th day of the 5th month every year – which is also the chinese summer solstice. In China, Taiwan and Hong Kong,it is a public holiday.

Duan Wu Jie is a widely celebrated festival amongst the Chinese, to pay respect to the patriotic poet, Qu Yuan (pronounced as Chue Yuan). The legend involves a really long and complicated throne-fighting war and political history. But to make a long story short: Qu Yuan was an important minister back in Chu Kingdom in ancient China. He had been known for his loyalty for the emperor of Chu, and loved his country greatly. However, His Majesty had not taken Qu Yuan’s advice seriously, and he eventually got himself trapped and captured in a foreign land by his enemies, which then lead to his own death.

Sad and angry at the corrupted, dying Kingdom, Qu Yuan tied himself to a big rock and threw himself into the River of Puo Luo. The people then made rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves and threw them into the river. They believed this would stop the fish from eating Qu Yuan’s body. Some would even row down stream in a boat, beating drums and shouting out loud in the hope to scare the fish away (it was believed that it is how the Dragon Boat event is related to the festival.

Since then, the 5th day of the 5th month in the Chinese calendar has been set as Duan Wu Festival to remember the incident. Although there were versions of legends and stories that indicate Duan Wu has existed way before Qu Yuan’s death, the tradition still carries on.

from http://www.knowingfood.com/rice/rice_dumpling_festival.html

I know, why must all chinese festivals involve food? Because us Chinese love food too much – that is why!

A stall selling ‘chang’

The chang comes in many different flavours, like bak chang – hokkien style, has tau eu pork (pork cooked in soya sauce), mushroom, chestnut and salted egg yolk, encased in glutinous rice seasoned with black tau ee, wrapped in lotus leaves or bamboo leaves. Others are the nyonya style (called pua kiam tee meaning sweet  & salty), made from peanuts, candied winter melon, shredded pork, shallots, etc – another would be the cantonese tau chang, with mung bean filling and pork. One of my favourites. Some are filled with red bean paste or black eye peas.

Tomorrow marks the day of the festival, 16th June 2010 – and I will be off to hunt for some dumplings in Singapore. If anyone knows of a good place to get them, please let me know!

ps- I was told Hoo Kee Rice Dumplings at Amoy Street (7 Maxwell Road #01-18 Amoy Street Food Centre)  is very popular, sold out daily by 1pm. Other places to check out would be the major hotels, most of their chinese restaurants would make dumplings of their own concoction to celebrate the festival.

I found out from my friend Pei Fern, there is apparently an activity – egg standing game, popular amongst young people and children. The peak time to do it is 12noon, on this chinese summer solstice day. Only once in a year you can try to defy gravity.

NB – She tried it and well it worked! See photo above from her FB.

Laksa in Penang

Further on about my food trip in Penang, I finally had time to check out the famous Penang Laksa stall in Jelutong. It was a very hot afternoon, and having laksa at that time is really asking for it. With the spicy fish soup dunking deep fried springrolls into it, was heavenly but a torture at the same time. I left a bucket of sweat on my seat when I got up, I promised you. But it was all worth it. Nothing beats laksa with spring rolls, eaten the true Penangite way.

The stall is in fact a van, parked at the roadside, just after you turn into the small road before the Jelutong Post office if you are coming from Gelugor on Jalan Jelutong. Manned by 3 ladies (sensed the irony?) , they only sell their yummy laksa in the afternoons.. see no choice but for me to eat it in the heat.

Seagate Coast Road

Just some of the food trips made while in Penang last week. A few quick posts recapping my experiences, nothing beats a lazy sunday afternoon, hanging out at Seagate Coastal Road in Penang, with a view of Pulau Jerejak while seating underneath the casuarina trees sipping coconut water and eating goreng ubi or pisang (fried bananas or sweet potatoes).

One of the many stalls and places to relax with your fresh coconut juice.  The island in the backdrop is Pulau Jerejak

A stall selling coconuts

Fishing boats moored closeby

A family of geese, at the nearby coconut plantation

Fish kerepek

Goreng ubi, fried sweet potatoes

Goreng pisang, fried bananas

ps Since you are around the neighbourhood, for those of you who loves mee kuah and mee goreng Penang style (Mee Pitchai), do check out Medan Suri Sungei Nibong (next to the mosque at Lip Sin, opposite the rumah orang tua Jubilee). They are open from lunch through late evening. Best time to come is around 3-4pm for your afternoon snack!

Johore Laksa

Johore laksa’s uniqueness is its use of spaghetti instead of the usual thick rice noodles. Laksa variants are abound, almost each state or part of the South East Asia region has their own version of this flavourful spicy fish or seafood based soup with noodles and local herbs. Some are more sour than others, while some has coconut milk added to it.  Whatever the version, everyone has their own favourite. Johore laksa is one of mine.

Johore is the southernmost state of Peninsula Malaysia, just a stone’s throw away from Singapore.

Anyways, and so I had a craving, posted a HELP question to my fellow friends on FB for a recipe. The beauty of this, is someone did come up with a recipe, Ms Wanis – old friend from high school, although the day I made it, I didn’t have all the  goods, so improvised and adapted the recipe a teenyweeny bit! Wanis, hope you are proud of me!

daun kesum, galangal and lemongrass

Recipe (4 persons)

• 500g spaghetti cooked according to packet instructions
• Cucumber, fresh beansprouts (blanched quickly in hot water, leave to cool), fresh mint leaves, bunga kantan (sliced finely)

Laksa Soup

• 3 cm x 4 cm galangal (or blue ginger)
• 2 cm x 2 cm ginger
• 5 stalks of lemon grass (i peel outside layers and discard them as they are more fibrous)
• 1 large local onion
• 5 shallots
• 2 pips of garlic
• 4-5 dried red chillies soaked in hot water
• 1/2 red capsicum
• 1/4 cup of dried shrimps (hae bee /udang kering)
• 1/4 cup of dried anchovies (ikan billis)

Grind the above into a paste (blender is better as it makes the paste finer) – add a little water to the blender if mixture is too dry.

• 1/2 cup kerisik (toasted dessicated coconut)
• 1/2 cup santan (coconut milk)
• 4-5 pieces of asam keping (dried tamarind slices)
• 2 tbp of fish curry powder
• 1 tsp of biji ketumbar (coriander seeds)
• 4-5 sprigs of daun kesum (laksa leaves)
• 2 stalks of lemongrass pounded
• 3-4 tbp of cooking oil
• 1 cup water
• 1 large can of mackerel in tomato sauce ( I know, cheats way of making this laksa)
• 1/4 cup tomato puree (not paste)
• 1 tbp of sugar
• salt to taste

Using a fork, lightly mash the mackerel fish meat into smaller chunks, or put into a blender to shred the meat finer. I normally would pick out the bones if I can before doing that.

Heat oil in a pot, add the lemon grass stalks, and then, the blended spice paste, saute til fragrant, that takes about 2 minutes on medium to high heat.

Now add in the mashed fish, tomato puree, - give it a stir, then the curry powder, daun kesum, coriander seeds, asam keping and kerisik, and finally water, give it another stir. Let it slowly simmer for about 15 minutes. Remember to stir the pot occassionally.

Add salt and sugar to taste and finally the coconut milk. Continue to simmer for another 5 minutes or so. Once you noticed the oil has separated slightly and the taste from the asam and spices have been infused to the soup , you can switch off the heat.

Let it sit for about 5 minutes before serving with your spaghetti and garnished with the fresh vegetables. Oh yeah, if you  have limes, – cut them into wedges and squeeze some lime juice to the noodles.

Jambalaya (Cajun)

Jambalaya is one of the tastiest seafood rice dish I find around. It has the seafoody taste to it, almost like the paella but spicy, yay! It is a cajun/creole dish from New Orleans. Its history? Here is an excerpt from about.com:

“The Dictionary of American Food and Drink” offers a more colorful origin of the name: A gentleman stopped by a New Orleans inn late one night to find nothing left for him to dine upon. The owner thereupon told the cook, whose name was Jean, to “mix some things together” –balayez, in the dialect of Louisiana — so the grateful guest pronounced the dish of odds-and-ends wonderful and named it “Jean Balayez.” The first reference to the word in print was in 1872, and “The Picayune’s Creole Cook Book” (1900) calls it a “Spanish-Creole dish.

The recipe is taken from
http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/tigerprawnjambalaya_68037.shtml 
see below

Ingredients

• 8 raw tiger prawns, shell on, fresh or frozen, or you could use cooked Mediterranean prawns in their shells
• 4 oz/110g chorizo sausage, peeled and cut into 3/4 inch (2 cm) pieces
• 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch (1 cm) slices
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 2 sticks celery, trimmed and sliced into 1/2 inch (1 cm) pieces on the diagonal
• 1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 yellow pepper, deseeded and cut into 1/2 inch (1 cm) slices
• 6fl oz/175ml white basmati rice
• 2 tsp Tabasco sauce  (  I like it  hotter)
• 2-3 medium tomatoes, dropped into boiling water for 1 minute, then peeled and chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 tbsp roughly chopped flat-leaf parsley, to garnish
• 2 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced, to garnish
• salt and freshly milled black pepperYou will also need a 10 inch (25.5 cm) frying pan with a lid or a deep wok with a lid.

Method

Begin by bringing a pan with 1 pint (570 ml) of water to simmering point. If using raw prawns, drop them into the water for 3 minutes. After that, remove them with a draining spoon, reserving the cooking liquid. (Cooked prawns will not need this pre-cooking.) Now set aside two whole prawns and shell the rest. To do this, just remove the heads by giving them a sharp tug, then simply peel off the rest – which comes away very easily – but leave the tails intact as this makes them look nicer. Now remove the black vein from the back of each prawn, which will come away easily using the point of a sharp knife. Next place the shells in the pan of water and simmer for 30 minutes, without a lid, to make a nice prawn-flavoured stock, then drain and discard the shells. Pour the hot stock into a jug and cover with a plate to keep warm.

Now heat the frying pan over a high heat and brown the pieces of chorizo sausage, without adding any fat, then remove them from the pan to a plate and set aside. Then add a tablespoon of the oil and, when it’s hot, fry the onions for 2-3 minutes to brown them a little at the edges, then return the chorizo to the pan and add the garlic, celery, chilli and sliced pepper. Continue to fry for 4-5 minutes, till the celery and pepper are also softened and lightly tinged brown at the edges, adding a little more oil if you need to. Now stir in the rice to get a good coating of oil, then measure out 12 fl oz (340 ml) of the reserved stock and add the Tabasco to it. Next add the chopped tomatoes and bay leaf to the pan, then pour in the stock. Season with salt and freshly milled black pepper, give it all one stir and push the rice down into the liquid. Now turn the heat to low, put a lid on and let it barely simmer for 20 minutes. Then, check the rice is cooked and return the shelled and the two reserved shell-on prawns to the pan, adding a little more stock if necessary. Cover with a lid for 5 more minutes, then serve garnished with the chopped parsley and spring onions.

Streets of Georgetown

Prewar houses @ Stewart Lane

In July 2008, Penang (Georgetown) became a designated UNESCO Heritage Site (together with Malacca), thanks to the efforts of conservationist who have worked tirelessly to preserve Penang , the historical parts as they are and have been. This should prevent further demolition of historical homes and sites to make way for modern and tall buildings and a reminder to Penangites and visitors alike how lucky we are in fact to be able to visit or live in a historical site which is still thriving as it was before, okay – plus a few minor adjustments to modernisation. There is still some work to be done on the side of the Penangites and the local government, to restore dilapidated buildings, preventing further pollution and congestion in the historical parts of Penang and keeping the areas clean.

Pathway between the prewar houses

The most intense part of Georgetown that reminds you well why it was awarded the UNESCO Heritage Site in the first place , is the older part of Georgetown, close to the port. (Weld Quay). Penang has been a port since time immemorial, where traders from near and far have docked and traded. As such you see a cacophony of people, some settling down and eventually became local Penangites. You have Armenians, Jews, Arabs, Indians, Sumaterans, Jawanese, Chinese , Dutch, Portugese and English to  name a few who have ventured to Penang and made her their home.

Airwells typical in the prewar houses

Sir Francis Light accordingly in the history books, has been rather pivotal in the development of Penang as a trading port. He ‘founded’ Penang 1786. He moved his famil from Thailand (then Siam) to Penang and died there in 1794 from malaria. You can find his tomb and statue in the Protestant Cemetery at Jalan Sultan Ahmad Shah (Northam Road).

One of Dr. Sun Yat Sen’s base in Penang

With that development, the building and heritage sites you find in Penang are such mix blend of architectures – it is as precious as Venice. I hope it will never be neglected lest the future generations will never come to know of their hometown’s  rich and unique history.

The most interesting area is downtown Georgetown – from Beach Street, Church Street Armenian Street, Muntri Street, King and Queen Street – stretching all the way to Light Street and Penang Street. See Map below:

Penang was also a major stronghold of the Peranakans (nyonyas and babas) and Mamaks (Indian Muslims, Indians originating from the Southern part of India) besides the local Malays and Chinese Hokkiens and to a degree Eurasians and Jews. This rich fusion of cultures quite likely has made Penang  a food paradise. As time passes, Penang became well known for her cuisine and hawker street foods and mamak stalls – reflecting the lifestyle of her forefathers, the settlers – quite unchanged, fast food for the common people, this food heritage grew, so much so, Penang was and is known first and foremost for her food, later the beaches and lately now her heritage too.

Typical finishing of the facade, patterned tiles

And if you are already at Weld Quay, you must not forget to pop into the Jetty Clans, where chinese settlers divided into clans lived on houses built on stilts sprawled out to the sea. Each clan (according to their surnames) are accorded a part of the jetty to build their homes. They still live there until today. 

For more on Penang Heritage please visit these websites:

http://www.journeymalaysia.com/MI_penang.htm

http://www.pht.org.my/

http://www.penangstory.net.my/main-story.html

Therefore if any of you are in Penang, you must visit these heritage sites – they are truly unique and Penang is the only few places you can walk around in this living museum and still get the feeling as if you are peeping into the past, in a casual and laid back atmosphere.

Sugee Cake

Sugee cake is a semolina buttery cake  infused with rosewater (or rose essence) , brandy and almonds which originates from another sub-ethnic group in Malaysia – the Eurasians – a mix of Indian, local, Portuguese or Dutch blood, some may trace their ancestries to Spain (and the mixed bloodline with the Moors).  The word ‘sugee’ is in fact in Hindi for semolina.

This cake is so popular, it has been adopted by many Malaysians especially the peranakan (nyonya) households adapting it to their own taste – you will see the addition of candied kumquats and melons – your typical sweetener for the chinese ‘tong sooi’ – sweet soups.

This cake is unique as it has rosewater  (or rose essence included) besides sugee, no doubt there is a strong influence from the Middle Eastern /South Mediterranean region. This cake is rather popular with the locals hence you can find these exotic ingredients available easily in most stores in Malaysia or Singapore.

As this cake is quite heavy so a small piece each is sufficient for most people, normally made for very very vspecial occasion or festivities.

For more on Eurasian ethnic group please see my post on Pineapple Tarts or on Eurasians in Malacca (specifically the Cristang people ) please read Celine Marbeck’s website on their culture and food heritage.

The flipside with a multicultural society is , sometimes the blending has been so well intergrated – the origins get blurred. Each subculture starts adopting one another’s cuisine heritage, sort of like cherry picking the best from one another and incorporating into their own repertoire. And the result is the younger generation have no idea of its history. That is why you see sometimes local folks themselves get confused thinking sugee cake is a nyonya delicacy which may not be entirely wrong, but it definitely does not originate from them.

I find the traditional fusion of  food cultures  in South East Asia, parts of Africa, Mediterranean and the Middle East, to the United States – particularly California, New Orleans very fascinating. I have not travelled to South America or the Caribbean but I am quite convinced you will find a colourful blend of fusiony foods there too.

Anyways here is a home recipe of a sugee cake. You can ice it with marzipan, buttercream (but being in Singapore due to the humidty and heat, this frosting sweats too much) or in this case simply dust icing sugar over the cake and sprinkle some organic dried rose bud petals.  They are very popular as wedding cakes in Singapore and Malaysia.

Recipe

• 4 oz of Self Raising Flour
• 4 oz of sugee (fine semolina)
• 2 oz of tang kua teow (candied melon pieces)+ 2 oz of candied tangerines or kumquats chopped (pulsed it through the food processor) into small pieces but not fine.
• 2 oz finely chopped almonds but not ground.
• 1 tsp rose essence or 1 tbp of rose water
• 1 tbp of brandy
• 6-8oz sugar castor depending how sweet you like the cake to  be
• 8oz salted regular butter soften
• 5 eggs + 1 egg yolk – beat the eggs till fluffy and pale yellow.

Cream the butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add the egg mixture and blend well. Add the brandy, rose essence after. Fold in the flour + sugee into the butter/egg mixture carefully , followed by the candied melon +  kumquats and almonds. Mix until well incorporated.

Pour the batter into an 8inch square baking tin lined with greased parchment paper.

Bake in 150 degrees preheated oven for 50mins-1hr or cake skewer comes out clean.