Postcards from Nepal

Zipped off to Kathmandu last week on a rather last minute trip/assignment and have a bunch of photographs (and gastro-enteritis) to show for it!

It was an eventful trip even before I touched down. The plane had to circle for 45 minutes while been surrounded on all sides by lightning flashes. It was amazing to watch until the nepali girl next to me turned and asked, "um.. isn't this... dangerous?" (followed by nervous laughter from the both of us) She was great fun though and I called her up a few days later to help me translate the interviews we had.



Couldn't resist admiring the cakes at the numerous german bakeries around. They were of course too sweet and creamy for words, but real candy for the eye. I miss those old fashion cakes where there's real cake inside and not fussy mouse or precious wafer-thin sponge layers.



Fresh juicy carrots are sold on the streets by farmers in summer as thirst quenchers. And if you look carefully at the weeds growing at the side... wild hemp, just growing off the streets. My friend, W, said that if he had known this while he was younger, he would have upped and moved here years ago...

Here are some pictures from the trip:

I... make... BREAD!!!

I feel like Tom Hanks in 'Castaway' when he finally gets the fire going. "I... MAKE.... FIRRREEE!!!" A real 'who the man' moment, except in my case, it's really more like "WHO THE BAKER??" hahhahahha... (bear with me, please.. hehe..)



I know that it's only plain white loaf bread I made but bread making is a real extravagant way to spend time in Asia (I was at it till 2 am last night) since you could always pop by the supermarket just 5 minutes away and get a loaf for less than 10 HK dollars.

However, the store bought bread you get in Hong Kong doesn't quite taste like Gardenia brand breads that I'm used to. The Garden brand bread has this weird rancid milk aftertaste.. smells weird, tastes weird, even feels weirdly damp... Other brands like Maxim's are much better but they always seem to run out of them quick (probably cos no one else wants to end up with the Garden ones either) It was the same in Shanghai as well. I just ended up not eating bread for a year or so.

Since I'm probably not going to do this often.. (there is a lot of waiting involved, though, steps are few and quite straightforward), I'm just going to keep more pictures for remembrance.



The texture on the crust is really quite intriguing. What I'll probably do differently, if I make it again, is to have the dough ready and bake it the morning I intend to eat it.. The crust does get a little stiff when you keep it overnight. But nothing hard to manage.. I just don't like crust.

All this effort though.. simply so that we can enjoy toast with the lovely Yakun Kaya that we got from our friends a week ago. Yummy.... well worth it!



I used this recipe from Nigella Lawson:

500g bread flour
2tsp salt
20g unsalted butter, softened
2tsp caster sugar
7g (1 sachets) easyblend/instant yeast (NOT dry-active)
300ml lukewarm water

(1) Pop the flour in the microwave for 20 sec. Mix the salt with the flour and rub in the butter gently until the mixture resembles fine crumbs. Stir in the sugar and yeast well.

(2) Make a well in the flour and pour in approx 3/4 of the warm water. Using a wooden spoon, start mixing in the flour. Add the rest of the water if necessary.

(3) I gave up at this stage and used my hands and kneaded for approx 5 minutes. The dough will feel firmer, very smooth and pliable. If it's too sticky, use more flour.. Return the dough to the mixing bowl (wash it out and lightly oil), cover with clingfilm and leave to rise in a warm place for about one hour until doubled in size.

(4) Punch down into the dough and knead for a short while and fashion into a roll to be put into the loaf. Cover with warm tea towel or clingfilm for 30 mins. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 230 C.

(5) When the dough has risen to almost double the size, dust some flour over the top and pop it in for 30-35 mins.

(6) Remove when ready and let cool.

I stand aloaf

And C (flatmatie and best friend) finally gets her chocolate pound cake...

heheh.. sorry for always getting distracted and emerging from the kitchen with anything BUT chocolate pound cake (even though I always say that's what I'm making when I first step in)

I have to stop being so self-congratulatory.. (maybe after this entry!!) but it really tastes quite good! hahah...



Chocolate Pound Cake
modified from a great blog, a spoonful of sugar
which was in turn modified from "Chocolate and The Art of Low-Fat Desserts"

125g plain flour
60g cocoa powder
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
2 large egg whites
1 tbsp coffee powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
150g yoghurt
100g unsalted butter
200g caster sugar

Position the rack in lower-third of oven and preheat to 180 C.

Combine and sift together the flour, cocoa, baking soda, powder and salt. Set aside. Whisk the whole eggs with the egg whites in a small bowl. Set aside. Dissolve the espresso powder in 1 1/2 tbsp warm water and combine with the vanilla and yoghurt in a small bowl.

Beat the butter, adding sugar gradually. Gradually pour eggs into sugar mixture.

Pour in half the dry mixture, and gradually dribble in half of the yoghurt mixture. Use a wooden spoon and fold in the rest of the dry mixture and yoghurt mixture

Scrape batter into the pan and smooth the top as necessary. Bake loaf for 45-50 mins, or until cake starts to shrink from the sides of the pan and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out barely clean. Do not overbake.

What to eat to beat the heat

It's almost summer... It's the time when I get sore throats, breakouts, and when I always seem to bite myself on the lip 'by accident'. All signs of 'heatiness' - not just on the outside, but on the inside too. Or simply put, an imbalance in the body, probably as we adjust to change of seasons.

How do you know if you're 'heaty'? I'm not sure of the scientific signs, but anecdotally, I generally fall sick more easily and react adversely to food that are fried or inherently heaty by nature such as chocolate, lychee et.. (this doesn't help.. i know..)

Ayurvedic and chinese traditional medicine outlooks seem to be on the same page on this:

"summer's heat symptoms are usually caused by loss of fluid, inappropriate diet, and insufficient nutrient intake due to lack of appetite, which lead to imbalance and disrupts metabolism. Symptoms include thirst, fever, burning sensation, irritability, heaviness of the head and/or body, vertigo, nausea, stuffiness, abdominal distention, general weakness, scanty urination (????)and profuse sweating."

I don't take it lightly cos I really do believe that long-term effects will "lead to the depletion of the body's abilities to fight off infection when the seasons change." Turning 30 has just made me less open to making assumptions to my body!

Avoid coffee, cereals, root vegetables, sweets, fried foods, spicy foods, red meats and heavy gravies. Avoid frying, baking and roast-ing, try steaming, boiling or stir-frying foods. What's the best thing to eat at this time? Lots of melons, curds (like below), fresh fruits, cucumbers, water-based herbal drinks

By all counts, drinks are the fastest and easiest way of combating and beating the heat (in every sense of the word):



Sugar Cane and Carrot Drink (Cooling)

1 carrot
400 g sugar cane
5-6 water chestnuts
Something called imperatae that you can see in the foreground of the picture above
(I don't really know what this root is, it's optional)
1.25 litre of water
Rock sugar to taste

Put all the ingredients into boiling hot water
Simmer for 2 hours and add rock sugar to taste
It should be a fairly clear, light brown and sweet smelling drink (mine looks dark as I added brown sugar)

Hot food for a cold day

It's been pouring since Sunday. With any luck, we might get a typhoon 8 signal sooner than July!!!! Which just means a free day huddled at home with company and home cooked meals.. sounds like a great plan. (I obviously don't work in retail!)

Anyway, cold and wet days like these cry out for comfort food. And nothing brings more comfort than hot and sour sichuan soup and steaming hot claypot rice.



The best part of claypot rice (a rather ubiquitous dish in HK) is of course the end - scrapping off the burnt rice bits off the bottom of the pot. A nice toasted crunchiness that adds special bite to this dish. They even have a special name for that part of the dish. It's called guoba in mandarin (literally, pot scar). I've even seen some Chinese restaurants feature guoba dishes, making full use of the roasted flavour in soup and gravy based dish offsprings. It's really a little known delicacy.

I can just see my mum screaming, "DON"T EAT THE BLACK BITS!!! WILL GET CANCER!!!".. and dig in anyway!

As for sichuan hot and sour soup, it's one of those things that you'd think is a lot of work to make but is really quite easy to whisk out. And it's totally customisable to your 'texture' preference: If you like a 'crunchy' soup, use carrots, bamboo shoots, beans sprout, preserved vegetable, black fungus, green peas etc..., for a more smooth soup, use soft bean curd, eggs, shredded chicken, mushrooms etc..

Plus it's the perfect dish for pack rats like Tara and myself, who hoard all sorts of food bits and ends as it calls for just a small helping of everything.

The recipes are pretty long and I wish I knew how to post them in a different window... Will do this later...

Zhuang Nai - Playing with your food

When I first moved to Hong Kong, desserts were the first things that I got hooked on. There was one dessert, however, that I avoided like a plague - the horrible sounding 'steamed milk'. You'd know when you pass a store selling steamed milk - it usually has a picture of a cow on the sign board, and its windows are filled by rows and rows of chinese bowls.

The menu usually consists of steamed milk with various combinations like chocolate, egg etc... They even have special orders for steamed milk with shuang pi (as in double skin). I mean, to pay for the horrible layer that you get from leaving hot milk to cool, and, pay more to get 2 of those layers!!???!?? the whole concept was just too weird for me, to be honest.

But we were persuaded to give it a try, by a priest, of all people, who swore by it...(ahem... figuratively speaking of course!) We plodded through the tiny alleys of Mongkok to find this hole in the wall shop, I entered somewhat grudgingly.. and emerged A CONVERT! It's a taste that grows on you but what's amazing is how it's made... this shop in particular uses buffalo milk (which I think is thinner) and the lady poured the milk into a bowl and within a minute, it turned from liquid to a soft curd. It was like magic! Of course, like moths to a flame, we ordered more to see her do it again and again (much to her delight... she's a real street magician, this one)

Now we make it at home! It's really a whole load of fun making it.

Steamed milk is also called zhuang nai (or literally, knocked up milk!!) and you'll see why when you see the recipe:


What you need:

- 2 pots with handles (only one needs to be heated over a fire so you can use a plastic container for the other... just as long as they both have handles for maneuvering)
- One old ginger, grated (this tends to be more fibrous, as opposed to a young fresh ginger)
- 1 teaspoons of caster sugar
- 1 glass of fresh milk

(1) Squeeze the juice out of the grated ginger and put 2-5 tablespoons in a boil, depending on how much you like ginger
(2) Heat the milk in one pot till you see smoke rising (do not let it boil)
(3) Quickly stir in sugar to taste (it's meant to be lightly sweetened, so if you're using low fat milk, you can use less sugar)
(4) Here's where you'll need both hands... pour the hot milk from one pot to another for a total of 10 times
(5) Pour it into the bowl with ginger juice... then wait 2-3 minutes for the magic to begin...The milk should curdle nicely

It's a lovely quick dessert to make at home.. It's got a lovely light gingery taste to it and it's much softer than the beancurd dessert (dou hwei) you get. I've put in a table spoon of chocolate into it when heated and it's my favourite version (funnily enough, the chocolate version tastes even better with ginger). Most of all... everyone goes..."wahhhh...." when they see the curd form.. entertainment AND dessert.. what more can you ask for???

There's a scientific explanation to why the milk does this which I'll post when I find it again.

In the meantime, try it! Knock yourself out!!

Making a Fashion Statement

This is soooooo..... embarrassing!!

Just came back from a client meeting and realised that I had been wearing two obviously different earrings on each ear!



It's no wonder that he was looking at me strangely at points during our discussion (especially when I flipped my hair back...) This was on top of getting lost while finding the office....

Sent the following note to the client:

By the way, I’ve just returned to the office where it was promptly pointed out that I was wearing two obviously different earrings on each ear! (I’m embarrassed.. But it was nice of you not to laugh...) Rest assured, while sense of direction and fashion may be slightly impaired, consulting skills have not been in any way compromised!

He sportingly wrote back:

When you've been working with a target consumer aged 12-22yrs for the last 15+ years, where it's all about mixing and nothing matching...  i just assumed you were in tune with fashion....

This ranks as one of the more embarrassing client moments.. even worse than the time I put my hand into my jacket pocket to get my name card holder out and whipped out a half eaten bar of chocolate that I had forgotten about...

Sigh....And it had to be a fashion brand I was talking to today! It figures...

I'm going to redeem myself by cooking a nice dinner...

Pretty please....

Other people cook too you know ma...

See the cake that my friend A made...