The cousin to the har gow is this little baby: prawns wrapped in rice noodle sheets (don’t know what the Cantonese name is, if someone would care to enlighten me). It’s a slipperly thing, frequently posing a chopstick challenge, but the slipperiness is part of its charm as the it goes down oh so nicely.
Haven’t been to yum cha in ages, so I was quite excited to go to Zilver for my fix. Yum cha, the Cantonese art of taking tea and assorted morsels, has really been embraced by Sydneysiders of all backgrounds. I was really surprised by the variety of clientele – Western and Asian families, couples, girly catch-ups, even what looked like the beginnings of an Aussie boys bucks day out.
This dish, har gow, is a staple. It’s a steamed dumpling of prawn wrapped in rice paper. Simplicity itself.
Another pudding I’ve been raring to try is sticky date pudding. I’ve tried restaurant versions of this, but I think this is better, despite it not being very photogenic. This one has a quantity of walnut meal in it along with the sticky date mixture. Served with butterscotch sauce and cream, it was very moist and yummy indeed.
To eat our Malaysian feast, we had a beef brisket curry. The flavour is actually subtle – definitely more subtle than its cousin the rendang. I can taste lemongrass and can see curry leaves. By this time we were all actually very full, but I’ve had a nice dinner or three since from the leftovers.
The discovery of the meal was salt and pepper eggplant. It was absolutely delish. The batter was light and not too oily or salty. The eggplant inside was soft and gooey. All in all, very more-ish. Pity that the waiter was over enthusiastic in disposing of it at the end of the meal or I could’ve enjoyed it for a bit more at home.
It’s pretty standard fare. The prawns were lovely and crisp, but Om nom nom nom thinks the garlic isn’t strong enough. I think it’s nice but doesn’t really shine next to the chicken rice and satay.
Ah, Hainan Chicken Rice… I had this dish last time and was so enthusiastic that Om nom nom nom wanted to try it, too. Well, they’ve maintained the standard (although it was strangely missing the soup this time). Still, it’s definitely the best chicken rice I’ve tasted recently. The tender chicken and flavoursome rice beats all the well-known city Malaysian outlets hands down.
I was back again at Satay Inn (seems like I can’t stay away). First up was a couple of skewers of chicken satay, or sate ayam in Bahasa. This satay has got plenty of ground coriander, tumeric, and of course, lots of ground peanuts.
Lemon delicious pudding has been in my radar for a very long time. I found a recipe in my scrapbook dating back perhaps 8 years ago. I eventually got around to it last weekend by using this recipe.
It’s very yummy, although a tad too sweet for me. Next time I’ll cut down the sugar to 1 cup or even 3/4 cup.
This is becoming quite a series… Which isn’t over just yet despite the warmer temperatures in Sydney this past week.
I baked this Orange and almond slice for a weekend lunch with some friends. I actually stuffed it up (hadn’t figured out how to cream butter and sugar correctly when it’s freezing in the kitchen), but thankfully the recipe is very forgiving since it tasted gorgeous when drenched in orange syrup and served with a huge dollop of cream.
Static and Silence 