Chinese Food Culture

Some cool food images:

Lilian and David’s Club Sandwich – Just Fine Food


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Lilian and David’s Club Sandwich – Just Fine Food AUD16.50

Lilian and David were smart. They ordered a club sandwich to share, so that they could have a vanilla slice as well!
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We had lunch at Just Fine Food, just to try the vanilla slice, which was pretty good, but the vanilla flavour wasn’t as strong as I’d liked and the custard seemed to be too starchy, and less eggy and creamy. Still pretty good though. While we were there, about an hour, we saw 2 and a half trays sold. Each tray hadń8 slices! Amazing.

Just Fine Food Delicatessen
23 Ocean Beach Rd Sorrento 3943
(03) 5984 4666
reviews:
- Just Fine Food – Mietta’s
- Just Fine Food / Coasting Along, The Age November 22, 2003

Photos:
- Vanilla Slices and Cakes
- Alpha’s Just Fine Burger
- Lilian and David’s Club Sandwic
- Julia’s Turkey and Cranberry Sandwich
- Raymond’s Vanilla Slice

that food is – interesting


Image by Lichtbildner_64
my son enjoying chinese food and almost completely lost in the sensations delivered by his mouth.
Jan-Meinhart

Food crisis to cause malnutrition: UN


Image by publik16
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon announced on Tuesday that he was launching a task force to ensure a solid, coordinated international response to the food crisis. The task force will work to draft a strategy on both short- and long-term responses to food supply strains, which economists have linked to factors including high fuel and fertiliser costs, the use of crops for biofuels, and commodity market speculation.

publik18.blogspot.com/2008/05/food-crisis-to-cause-malnut…

December 16th, 2010 | Miscellaneous | 2 Comments

Are you done shopping? Some readers requested some last minute shopping ideas and here is my easy holiday gift guide.

Cookbooks are often a good gift. I personally enjoy to receive a gift of cookbook, and here are my recommendations:

Southeast Asian Flavors
Robert Danhi

Coming from Malaysia, I am a Massive fan of Southeast Asian food. Southeast Asian Flavors by Robert Danhi is my go-to cookbook when it comes to preparing authentic and delicious Southeast Asian dishes, especially Thai and Vietnamese. I have personally tried a couple of recipes from Southeast Asian Flavors and the recipes are spot-on and totally scrumptious: chicken satay, banh xeo, and roti canai/paratha. As a Rasa Malaysia reader, you can get the cookbook at 50% off, or two for the price of a single. Promo code: Rasamalaysia2010. Obtain now!

Prepared for Desserts
David Lebovitz

I am a hopeless case when it comes to baking and desserts, that’s why I picked up a copy of Ready for Dessert: My Best Recipes by author and food blogger extraordinaire David Lebovitz. It has lots of recipes for novices and other far more ambitious recipes. All in all, this is a brilliant cookbook to give to baking beginners or enthusiasts.

Gluten Free Girl and the Chef
Shauna James Ahern & Daniel Ahern

I generally get emails from readers asking me how to make my recipes gluten-free, which I am entirely clueless about. Gluten No cost Girl and the Chef is a have to-have for these who want to eat gluten-absolutely free; it offers irresistible stories and 100 mouth-watering recipes. From the authors of the considerably-loved food blog, Gluten-Free Girl.

This year, I got myself a few kitchen and household objects that are absolutely efficient. I really like them and they have seriously simplified my life. Here they are:

Shark Vac-Then-Steam

I am a clean freak and put to use to vacuum and then mop my home, but it all changed when I got myself a Shark Vac-Then-Steam, a complete hard floor cleaning system that includes vacuum and steamer in one. It’s so effective and I practically cut my cleaning time in half. Really like it!

Zojirushi rice Cooker

I had a few rice cookers (unsatisfactory ones) prior to I got myself a Zojirushi, which is the Ideal rice cooker ever that makes the fluffiest, moist, and softest steamed rice ever. If you pay a visit to this webpage, it is likely that you appreciate Asian food. Trust me, invest in a excellent rice cooker and every thing you make will taste so a lot superior with a terrific bowl of rice.

Mavea Elemaris XL Water Filtration Pitcher

The excellent of water we consume is extremely critical. I got a Elemaris pitcher that removes chlorine and bacterial contaminants. It also softens the tap water devoid of adding any sodium. I cook all my dishes with the filtered water now, and I think it imparts a better and a lot more “organic” flavor to my cooking.

Happy holidays!

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December 8th, 2010 | Endorsement, Japanese Recipes, Sponsorship | 1 Comment

How to make sushi rice?

This is probably one of the most fundamental questions when it comes to Japanese cuisine, thanks to the increasing popularity of sushi in the world. Home cooks who are interested in Japanese cuisine will ultimately want to learn how to make perfect sushi rice—the vinegared rice which is the building block of all sorts of sushi. Once you master a great sushi rice recipe, you can make just about any sushi to your liking…

A basic sushi rice is made with short grain rice with three basic ingredients:

1. Rice Vinegar
2. Sugar
3. Salt

Other than the rice, the most important ingredient is the rice vinegar, which is pretty much the soul of the sushi rice. The sugar and salt are added to flavor the sushi rice to one’s liking. Therefore, a perfect sushi rice starts with a good rice vinegar and I always use Mizkan Rice Vinegar. As the #1 brand for vinegar and vinegar-related condiments in Japan, Mizkan is the brand that my Japanese friends recommended when I first learned how to make sushi many years ago. If you want something easier, you can use Mizkan Sushi Seasoning, which is widely used in Japan. This all-in-one sushi seasoning has the perfect and authentic flavor so anyone can make sushi if they want.

Here are some tips that I would like to share with you when making sushi rice:

1. Use only high quality Japanese white short-grain rice. You can get the rice at Asian supermarkets or Japanese food stores.
2. Wash the rice thoroughly with water before cooking. The rice is ready to be cooked when the water becomes clearâ€�an indication that the “starch” coating the rice is completely washed off.
3. Use an electric rice cooker to cook the rice.
4. Add rice vinegar or sushi seasoning right after the rice is cooked, mix it while it is hot and then cool it.
5. Preferably, use a wooden bowl and spoon to prepare the sushi rice. Traditionally, sushi rice is made in a wooden tub called hangiri.
6. Always use fresh sushi rice to make sushi. Refrigerated sushi rice loses its original texture.

Stay tuned for the next installment as I will be sharing my hand roll recipe with you.

October 22nd, 2010 | Korean Recipes | 1 Comment

I am done with my confinement but am a little overwhelmed at the moment. Please enjoy this guest post by Beyond Kimchee, a fabulous Korean food blog that I recently discovered. Authored by Hyegyoung (aka Holly), a native of South Korea, Beyond Kimchee is a chronicle of Holly’s recipes and the food she prepares for her two kids and husband. If you love Korean food, you ought to check it out as the step-by-step picture instructions on her site are absolutely awesome and makes learning Korean food so much more fun and easier! Welcome to Rasa Malaysia, Holly. (Please click on the image above to view the step-by-step cooking guide.)

It is so exciting to see more and more people trying Korean recipes in their homes these days. I was blown away to see how many Galbi or Kimchee recipes are on the web when I first thought of having my own Korean food blog about 6 months ago. Some recipes are very excellent and some, well�€¦ I had to raise my eyebrow. I must have been hibernating in the cave all these years while Korean Bulgogi Taco swiped the valley of California, or Kimchee stew had become an addictive to some of those K-pop lovers.

Korean food is earthy and somewhat rustic I would say. There’s no exotic ingredients and you don’t need special tools or gadgets to create wonderful meals. Your knife and hands are your best friends in the kitchen. The biggest challenge I face every time I organize my recipes into my blog is converting a little bit of this into tablespoons, and a little bit of that into teaspoons. Most Korean home cooks don’t use measuring cups or spoons. I bet that goes same to other Asian home cooks as well. We just trust our senses and finger tips, don’t we?

I am thrilled to post as a guest blogger on Bee’s the famous “Rasa Malaysia”. I have been a fan of her blog and thrilled for the opportunity to be part of it. The Recipe I am introducing is called â€�Bean Sprout Beef Rice Bowl with Chive Sauce”. Wow, what a long name! Let’s just call it “Bean sprout rice”. That’s what we call in Korea. This is quite common dish among Koreans and everyone loves it. It is basically part of Bibimbop family but you only need one vegetable, the bean sprouts. It is simple (regardless of the long list), easy, budget friendly, and most of all, it’s delicious!

Ground beef is seasoned in basic Bulgogi marinade. Bean sprouts are cooked in a little bit of water with dried anchovies and sea kelp reserving the broth afterward. Rice should be soaked in the water for 30 minutes and cooked later in the reserved bean sprout broth. Make the chive dressing with given ingredients and you are set to go.

May I give a serving suggestion how to eat this? Like Bibimbop you need to mix in everything in the large bowl. Bibimbop mixing is an important step!

I have to confess that after the photo shot of this dish I dumped everything into a bigger mixing bowl, drizzled more sesame oil and mixed all in until they get nicely incorporated. The taste? Well, all I can say is, Mmmmmmmm�¦, Goooooood!

Enjoy!

P.S : Any questions on the recipes, ingredients, or just simply want to say, hi…?
“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you�

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August 19th, 2010 | | 4 Comments

When I first started blogging on Rasa Malaysia 4+ years ago, there weren’t that many food bloggers back then, and Hui Leng Tay (AKA Tigerfish) of Teczcape: An Escape to Food is one of my very first blogging friends. We have become good friends over the years, even though we have only met once.

I am very happy to announce that her first cookbook—The Everything Rice Cooker Cookbook—is finally launched. Published by Adams Media, the book is part of the popular “The Everything” series. As the name suggests, the book is all about cooking with a rice cooker, with a whopping 300+ recipes using the magical electronic rice cooker. And the sweetest thing is that they are not all rice recipes because a rice cooker is so versatile that you can use it to make so many different things: soups, desserts, steaming, vegetables, pasta, seafood, and more…

If you are still debating if you should buy a rice cooker, I say go ahead. It’s probably one of the best investments you will ever made in the kitchen. What’s more, now you have a perfect cookbook to start expanding your cooking repertoire.

I would like to congratulate Hui Leng for launching this cookbook. To buy �€œThe Everything Rice Cooker Cookbook”, please head over to:

1. Amazon – US.85
2. Barnes and Noble – US.48
3. Borders – US.95

August 19th, 2010 | | 4 Comments

When I first started blogging on Rasa Malaysia 4+ years ago, there weren’t that many food bloggers back then, and Hui Leng Tay (AKA Tigerfish) of Teczcape: An Escape to Food is one of my very first blogging friends. We have become good friends over the years, even though we have only met once.

I am very happy to announce that her first cookbook—The Everything Rice Cooker Cookbook—is finally launched. Published by Adams Media, the book is part of the popular “The Everything” series. As the name suggests, the book is all about cooking with a rice cooker, with a whopping 300+ recipes using the magical electronic rice cooker. And the sweetest thing is that they are not all rice recipes because a rice cooker is so versatile that you can use it to make so many different things: soups, desserts, steaming, vegetables, pasta, seafood, and more…

If you are still debating if you should buy a rice cooker, I say go ahead. It’s probably one of the best investments you will ever made in the kitchen. What’s more, now you have a perfect cookbook to start expanding your cooking repertoire.

I would like to congratulate Hui Leng for launching this cookbook. To buy �€œThe Everything Rice Cooker Cookbook”, please head over to:

1. Amazon – US.85
2. Barnes and Noble – US.48
3. Borders – US.95

When I 1st started blogging on Chinese Food Cultureń years ago, there weren��t that numerous food bloggers back then, and Hui Leng Tay (AKA Tigerfish) of Teczcape: An Escape to Food is one particular of my quite very first blogging good friends. We have turn out to be very good good friends over the many years, even though we have only met as soon as.

I am very happy to announce that her very first cookbook—The Everything Rice Cooker Cookbook—is finally launched. Published by Adams Media, the book is component from the famous “The Everything” series. As the name suggests, the book is all about cooking using a rice cooker, which has a whopping 300 recipes using the magical electronic rice cooker. And the sweetest point is that they are not all rice recipes mainly because a rice cooker is so versatile which you can use it to make so many distinct issues: soups, desserts, steaming, vegetables, pasta, seafood, and more…

Should you be still debating if you should buy a rice cooker, I say go ahead. It’s probably one in the best investments you’ll ever created inside kitchen. What’s far more, now you have a best cookbook to begin expanding your cooking repertoire.

I am lazy by nature, quite lazy.

If I were to select something to describe my laziness, it is most likely snake. Yeah, I’m kind of like a snake. I do not like to move around too much, unless I truly have to, for instance: when I must eat or when nature calls. My ideal way of spending time is just to sit around and do practically nothing. In my opinion, being idle is one of life�€™s greatest luxuries. Sitting around, lying about, curling up in a ball on the couch, inside the bed, just do nothing. Well, throw in some day dreaming here and there…you get the idea.

But I feel lazier than usual recently. I must have been bitten by a giant lazy bug���I am lethargic, unmotivated, sluggish, and blah. My laziness has affected my daily rituals; I haven’t mopped my floor for two weeks, haven’t cleaned the kitchen countertop within the last three weeks, haven’t vacuumed since last month. (Yeah, my house will soon become a natural habitat for Spiderman as cobwebs are popping up everywhere.)

Perhaps it’s just the hot hot summer. The heat drains energy and vitality, plus summer beckons outdoor activities. So, I spend less time inside the kitchen and a lot more time outside having fun (which I ought to be)…

I still cook, but I cheat a lot, for example this claypot chicken rice without claypot. I love claypot chicken rice but I am too lazy to cook it from scratch. So, for convenience purposes, I used rice cooker. Why not? Who has time to stand there in front from the stove and wait for eternity for the chicken rice to cook inside the claypot while there can be a do-it-all-by-itself rice cooker? Duh. I have far better things to do outside from the kitchen.

I’m going to appreciate this summer and take things slow. So be prepared to obtain one or two posts a week from me. Be rest assured, even though I’m lazy, I never sacrifice taste or authenticity when it comes to my cooking.

OK, I just got lazy again, so I will have to share my claypot chicken rice recipe later. *wink*

Claypot chicken rice is favorite in a lot of Asian countries, for example: Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore, but I’ve generally cheated using a rice cooker when making it at household. I’m so glad that Danielle of Bon Vivant—a gorgeous food blog with great writing, mouthwatering recipes and food photographyâ€�is sharing her claypot chicken rice Recipe with us. Danielle can be a Singaporean who lives in the bay area; I applaud her dedication and patience in preparing this claypot chicken rice. Check out her amazing guest post below and don’t forget to hop throughout to Bon Vivant for additional awesomeness. I’m really certain that you’ll like what you see on Bon Vivant!

You can find so numerous fantastic ways to cook a meal these days—from the blink of a microwave to the meditative warmth of braising in an oven. Despite the array of ‘modern�™ gadgets like the slow cooker, pressure cooker and also the microwave, I must profess that I’m decidedly old school in owning none of these. Within the contrary, I in fact appreciate the waiting (along with the work) involved using the slow cooking process. It is like having front-row seats at the Evolution of Dinner you are witnessing the transformation of food from it is raw, organic state into one capable of bringing you to gustatory heaven.

When I started cooking for myself, I appreciated the “quick weeknight” recipes discovered in the pages of any magazine. These were functional, utilitarian meals developed to satisfy hunger and send me off to bed for any good night’s rest. What I actually looked forward to about the weekends though, was the time I could must spend from the kitchen: I relished the four hours it took to transform perfectly smooth tomatoes into scabs of tomato confit and thought nothing of burying soft, plump pieces of cod in salt for a month for home-made bacalao. I loved having to plan for any meal, sometimes weeks in advance, savoring the prelude of daily preparations just before the big show…

The ultimate goal of these seemingly unnecessary, laborious processes (inside face of modern appliances), was in coaxing out the real, true flavor of whatever was being prepared. Prior to I tasted my own, I tempted myself with the imagination, envisioning what the final dish would be like, aided by Thomas Keller’s poetic prose and suchlike. After the meal, the memory would linger, along using a satisfaction deepened by the knowledge that it was a meal that I felt I had truly worked for, in a manner so tangible, concrete and worlds apart from the conventional notion of ���work’ that we subject ourselves to everyday.

So, in a tribute to slow-cooking as well as the primal, mouth-watering reactions borne out of wrestling with taunting aromas on an empty stomach, here’s a classic Chinese claypot dish, just the way my mother prepares it. It’s a breeze to put together and tastes absolutely delicious, but you will must give it time, around low heat, to obtain there. Although traditionally cooked throughout a short and stocky charcoal stove and monitored having a hawk’s eye, you could also use a deep cast-iron pot over the stove or the always reliable rice cooker to do the job. You will just be missing out on the spirals of smoke that work its way into the claypot to augment the heady combination of rice wine and sesame oil for any deeper complexity about the palate.

The timings in this recipe were tailored for claypot use on a gas or an electric stove, so adjust the cooking time accordingly if you’re planning to cook this above a charcoal fire. Also, really don’t fret if the ingredients at the base of the pot burn a little – these are in fact the greatest bits from the dish, adding a satisfying crunch to every single bite. You can read much more about claypot cooking here and here.

Here’s How:

1. Find a good brand of jasmine rice, from Thailand if possible (I use Golden Phoenix).
2. Rinse the rice once, moving your fingers through the rice, until the water runs pure without any milkiness. Drain.
3. Place the rice in a pot. Add enough water to cover the rice by 3/4 inch. An easy way to measure the water is to use the knuckle test – the water should come up to the first joint of your knuckle. (For 1 1/2 cups rice, I use just over 1 3/4 cups water).
4. Bring the rice to a boil, uncovered.
5. Turn the heat down to the lowest setting. Cover and simmer until the rice is cooked through (about 20 minutes).
6. Remove the rice from the heat and allow to sit, still covered, for at least 10 minutes.
7. Fluff with chopsticks or a fork before serving.

Tips:

1. The amount of water to add can vary depending on the rice. New crop rice – rice grown in the same year – is not as dry and needs less water.
2. Cooking jasmine rice in a rice cooker can be tricky. Try reducing the amount of water called for in the rice cooker’s directions – even to a 1:1 ratio if necessary.
3. 1 1/2 cups jasmine rice gives about 3 1/2 cups cooked rice.
4. Cold jasmine rice is very good for making fried rice.

What You Need:

• Jasmine Rice
• Dish to Drain Rice
• Pot for Cooking
• Measuring Cup
• Chopsticks or Fork