Simon Food Favourites: Chinese New Year

Showing posts with label Chinese New Year. Show all posts

04 February 2012

Chinese New Year Love Letters and Kuih Rose from Malaysia (1 Feb 2011)

Love starts with a rose

Every time my dad has a chance to visit Malaysia, especially around Chinese New Year, he brings back large tins of wafer thin homemade Love Letters from the relatives like last time. This year was an added bonus of the very crunchy and intricate looking Kuih Rose (also known as Honeycomb Cookies or Kuih Loyang it seems), mini Pineapple Tarts and tasty Arrowroot Chips. My aunty in Malaysia says it's quite easy to make the Kuih Rose, perhaps for them anyway, and all you need is 2 cups flour, 1 cup of rice flour, coconut milk (consistency to your liking ), castor sugar, a few drops of rose essence and add in an egg (beaten) into the mixture and viola the batter is ready. Heat the mould in the hot oil before dipping the mould into the bowl of batter. The batter will stick onto the mould and then just dip it into hot oil and the rose biscuit will come out by itself and into the oil. I also found a recipe on A Table For Two for a Kuih Rose with measurements.

They said the arrowroot chips are even easier to make. The preparation is a bit tedious but after that, you can get lots of chips. Just remove the skin of the arrowroot. Slice them evenly with a slicer. Heat up the oil and just deep fry them. When it turns golden brown, remove them with a strainer and put them straight away on greasproof paper and sprinkle salt on the chips immediately. This will keep the chip dry and crispy. When cool, store them into tins. If anyone knows of a shop in Sydney that sells love letters, kuih rose and arrowroot chips please let me know. I'd love to see if they're as good as the ones my dad brings back from the motherland but I'm suspecting they won't be.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Delicate and tasty cookies with an amazing crunch factor, It's Malaysian so it must be good ;-)

CONS: Haven't found anywhere in Sydney that sells the Love Letters and Kuih Rose, You need the special mould and patience to make them yourself

MUST TRY: Maybe making them one day otherwise I'll have to wait until my dad comes back with another batch when he visits Malaysia again

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A few yummy treats I get to enjoy from Malaysia — this was only a tiny sample of some huge tins my dad brought back with him

Kuih Rose aka Kuih Loyang and Honeycomb Cookies

SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

Love Letters

SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

Arrowroot chips

SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

Pineapple tarts

23 January 2012

World Square Shopping Centre: Chinese New Year Free Food Fair, CBD Sydney (23 Jan 2012)

World Square Shopping Centre, 644 George Street, Sydney NSW 2000

http://www.worldsquare.com.au

Foodless Food Fair

Thanks to Keri Kitay from Niche Marketing Group for giving me a heads up about the Free Food Fair happening at World Square to celebrate Chinese New Year. Unfortunately it seemed most of the stalls actually ran out of food within the first hour or less of the two hour lunch session (12–2 pm) making it a bit of a foodless food fair for many. The first rule of Food Club is you must provide food. There were plenty of people queuing up to sample the food although the queue was very slow moving and there didn't seem to be anyone managing the line allowing cut ins to certain stalls. I think I now know what it's like to line up at a soup kitchen. Noodles Your Way served up a pretty nice tasting Braised Beef Noodle Soup. Sea Square failed to keep up with demand so resorted to handing out $5 vouchers for a fish and chips instead. Chatime served up a refreshingly sweet Lychee Black Tea which I didn't mind and a Blue Mountain Green Tea I favoured less.

Fuku Sake & Wine Bar ran out of food just before I got there but thankfully a fresh load of Crispy Pork Belly canapes arrived while waiting in the queue which was snapped up by the crowd like seagulls in a frenzy. These were actually very good but sadly undercatered for the large crowd. Taste of Shanghai provided the largest tasting sample of 4 items. The top up of freshly cooked dumplings that just arrived when I got to the stall were pretty good. Nuts Galore resorted to serving nuts in your hand due to running out of serving cups which was a bit unfortunate but I guess saved the environment of plastic waste. Other stall fails of the day were Mirchi Indian, Pie Face and Taste Baguette that all seemed to run out of food within the hour and there was no sign of Mother's Crepe and New Malaya as advertised. Apart from the Crispy Pork Belly canapes the Jin Wu Koon's stilt jumping Lion Dance Troupe was the highlight of the day. I fondly remember them performing last year. It was generous of World Square Shopping Centre to provide a free food fair but hopefully if they try it again next year they'll actually make sure the stalls know how to cater properly and efficiently.

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Free food samples were available, Lion Dance entertainment

CONS: Some stalls unfortunately ran out of food very quickly, Queuing was long, slow and a little disorganised, Bins weren't freely available to discard your used cutlery and plates (should have been placed next to each stall perhaps), Perhaps serving containers could have been more environmentally sound

MUST TRY: Perhaps checking out Fuku Sake & Wine Bar

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It's time to queue for food that really wasn't all there. Nice idea but I think could have been done better.

Hosts Claudia Chan Shaw, Fashion Designer and Wendell Sailor, St George Illawarra Dragons Ambassador

Noodles Your Way - Braised Beef Noodle Soup. Actually quite nice and they seemed to keep up with demand.

#fail - Sea Square. Thanks for the $5 voucher although I was expecting a free sample instead

Chatime — I didn't mind the Lychee Black Tea

Fuku Sake & Wine Bar - Crispy Pork Belly but was very lucky to get one

SIMON FAVOURITE :-)

Taste of Shanghai — It probably would have been better to just serve up dumplings to keep it simple and quick

Nuts Galore - nothing special

#fail - Mirchi Indian

#fail - Pie Face

#fail - Taste Baguette

Time for the Lion Dance

Whoopsy daisy — one of the performers fell off the stilts but thankfully was OK

View Larger Map

04 February 2011

Din Tai Fung: Chinese New Year at World Square, Sydney (2 Feb 2011)

Corner of Liverpool, George and Pitt Streets, Sydney NSW 2000

http://www.worldsquare.com.au

Din Tai Fung

World Square Shopping Centre
Level 1, Shop 11.04 , 644 George St, Sydney NSW 2000

http://www.dintaifungaustralia.com.au

Kung Hei Fat Choi

Thanks to Alana Chetner from PPR for inviting me along to see the crowd stopping of the award winning stilt-jumping lion dance troupe, Jin Wu Koon followed by a generous banquet style lunch at Din Tai Fung. The stilt-jumping was very impressive and I couldn’t believe how high they stood above the enthralled crowd below. The deafening drum and cymbals certainly woke up the shoppers throughout the World Square as the lion dance troupe paraded past shops, up and down escalators and collected ceremonious lettuces along the way including outside Din Tai Fung. Hot Dollar even gave a red packaged donation outside their store — let’s hope it was more than a dollar. Check out the video below of the lion dance through Din Tai Fung to the delight of customers — all cameras were quickly out to capture the festivities.

After running along side the fast paced lion dance it was time for a refreshing Lychee mint juice ($6) and what may be considered Sydney’s most precise looking dumplings. I’ve previously tried the Pork Dumpling Xiao Long Bao ($10.80 8 pieces) when they first opened and to be totally honest I thought back then the filling wasn’t as flavoursome as the cheaper Sea Bay Chinese Dumpling on Pitt Street, Chinese Noodle Restaurant in Haymarket or Shanghai Night in Ashfield. I’ve since been told that being Taiwanese in style they can tend to be a bit bland compared to others so it definitely helps to make a dipping sauce of your choice from fresh ginger, vinegar, soy sauce or chilli oil to excite the taste buds. I did however discover the Prawn & pork wonton dipped in a spicy sauce ($8.80 6 pieces) which were comparatively bursting with flavour and reminded me of the Zi-Zhuan dry wonton I once enjoyed from Shanghai Night — I'd definitely have these again.

Our banquet continued with so many dishes including a fairly peppery Hot & Sour soup with shredded pork ($7.80 regular), tender Calamari rings lightly battered ($7.80) and a light and slightly crunchy textured Din Tai Fung Vegetarian Delight salad ($3.80). Other precisely made dumplings were the Crab Meat & Crab Roe with Pork Dumpling ($17.80 8 pieces), Vegetarian Jiao Zi ($8.80 6 pieces) and Prawn & Pork Packed in a Parcel Shao Mai ($9.80 4 pieces) which seemed to hold the most broth inside. By this time everyone was getting quite full mainly due to the very hot weather but mains were still to be served. The tasty and crispy coated Crumbed Chicken Fillet ($7.80) was probably my cholesterols worst nightmare. An unusual combination of Jumbo Prawns with Pineapple ($22.80) seemed to work but I probably would have enjoyed it more without the liberal use of mayonnaise looking white sauce on top. The Sesame Noodle ($10.80) was certainly more mild than the Dan Dan Noodle ($10.80) although I think I’d prefer the noodles in a soup which would have made the dish less sauce heavy and to help keep the noodles from clinging together. The challenging looking Silken Tofu with Pork Floss & Century Egg ($6.80) is certainly an acquired taste — I still have yet to fully appreciate it as I’m not used to eating pork floss but it does have its fans.

A refreshing Watermelon juice ($5.50) helps wash down the savouries in preparation for desserts. I think the Golden Red Bean Bread ($5.80 2 rolls) is worth trying if you like red bean which I prefer to the less sweet Golden Taro Bread ($5.80 2 rolls) although one must wonder why they serve them with a piece of parsley on the plate. My Asian/Western combo of Green Tea and Cookies & Cream ice cream ($6.80 2 scoops) is probably sacrilege and I’d probably have one or the other next time or the Black Seasame ice cream ($3.80) on its own. The service was pretty efficient and at times was hard to keep up with the pace of the dishes being served.

Other food blog reviews:

• Food, booze and shoes

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:

PROS: Free festival samplings in The Square until 11 Feb (check website for event details), Precisely made dumplings, Interesting selection of dishes, A good place for sharing dishes

CONS: Dumplings aren’t particularly robust in flavour, Prepare to wait for a table when busy, Shanghainese style Drunken Chicken and Triple Mango Crushed Ice were sold out

MUST TRY: Lychee mint juice, Prawn & pork wonton dipped in a spicy sauce, Pork Dumpling Xiao Long Bao to compare to all others, Golden Red Bean Bread

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