Post Holiday Food Posts: Hong Kong Breads Edition.

What do you do in Hong Kong apart from shop? You eat of course! three2tea's HK breakfast normally consists of bread, well, my HK breakfast mostly consists of bread. Hong Kong has so many wonderful bakeries and all so cheap as well. It's hard not to walk past a bakery and not want to go in and buy something to eat.

Lots and lots of tasty breads!
From top left to top right:

1. A bun I thought was a "Gai Mei Bau", the bun with the sweet, coconut filling in, BUT, I picked up the wrong one, all I got was a plain ole butter roll T_T So dry!
2. A Bau Lau Bao, or pineapple bun, it's good to eat an authentic one!
3. A bun stuffed with ham and cheese for breakfast?! Yum yum, yes please.

2nd row from left to right:

1. I think this one was a blueberry and cheese bun?
2. A Green Tea and Red Bean Mochi Bread
3. The inside of the mochi bread! Mochi bread is a denser bread, with the red bean inside, this combination was delicious. I need to go find me a mochi bread recipe.....

3rd row from left to right:

1. A Cream Horn!
2. A Chestnut filled Bun
3. The inside of the chestnut filled bun, I love anything with chestnut in and I have to make sure I eat something with chestnut in whilst in HK because they are the best!

4th row from left to right:

1. Another Chestnut filled Bread, this one was a little pricy at HKD$10.90, nearly £1 for this! But it was tasty, but not £1 tasty!
2. A Raisin and Cookie Dough Topping Bread
3. A Red Bean and Almond Bread. Red Bean is another favourite ingredient of mine, red bean in anything tastes great!

Wash these breads down with a glass of ginger soya milk in the morning! Nothing tastes better :P

Satsuma-imo.

Post Holiday Food Posts! Taiwan Edition.

So, the three2tea gang headed off to Hong Kong for a mini holiday, the idea was that we would update regularly with food posts whilst we were there, but due to limited internet access and not being in a lot, that idea never happened! So,instead I will just post a summary of all the delicious foods we ate out there!

Definitely not for people who are on a diet! I came back really fat haha.

We spent 4 days in Taiwan and ate a lot of great tasting food, foods that we've never tried before and were traditionally Taiwanese food. Unfortunately, I do not know the names of these foods,  but if you recognise the dishes then please let me know what they are called!

The first night we ate at a market, where we had an Oyster Omelet, Stinky Tofu and Deep Fried Crab! Stinky Tofu was a new experience for me, it wasn't as bad as I expected it to me but I don't think I would eat it again, it's not a flavour I love haha.

The second day, one of my relatives sister took us out for a day trip and we had this noodle dish that was wrapped up in tofu. It was actually really nice, but very filling. We were given a fish ball soup as well to eat at the same time. Needless to say, we were pretty full at the end of this meal!

She also took us to eat "Dau Fu Fa", which is a Tofu Pudding in sweet syrup, we added toppings to ours, the one pictured in the far right column, 2nd row down, is the one containing Black Pearls, the same pearls found in Bubble Tea.

On our tour group, we were taken to a Ninja Themed Restaurant, where all the waitresses there cos played as ninjas. This restaurant is definitely aimed at males! Whilst in there we ate Deep Fried Bananas wrapped in Bacon! Now that was a first and something that I would like to try myself someday. It was really yummy!

For dinner, we went to a traditional Taiwanese restaurant, where they served us traditional Taiwanese dishes. three2tea actually really liked all the dishes because they were flavours we've never tried before and it's always good to discover new foods especially if you are on holiday in a certain country. What annoyed me in this dinner was that other members of the tour group were complaining that the foods "were not to their tastes" and they kept on and on about it. Why bother going on holiday to a different country if you are just going to complain about their food that is native to them? Would you rather eat the same old foods you get to eat all the time in your home country?!

Enough ranting, three2tea were very happy with this meal and if I could recreate some of these dishes, I would!

The final day, we were taken to a Spring Onion Farm! We were shown how to make the Spring Onion Pancakes and we got to eat them fresh on the day. This again, was delicious, myself tho, I would have added some meat inside it because I'm a meat lover  haha. Again, ppl were complaining because it was deep fried in oil. Come on now, one little oily pancake is not going to damage you too severely :P

Our last lunch was in this ridiculously, abstract designed restaurant, it came complete with a mini pond inside with real live fish! Here we had Sweet Potato Rice as well as various other dishes including Chicken, Deep Fried Mushrooms, Tofu Dishes etc. Good meal again, but too much food! It was impossible to finish it all!

Last but not least, one final Bubble Tea at the airport before we head back to Hong Kong! Full of calories, but we'll worry about that later haha.

Satsuma-imo.

Homemade Chocolate Eclairs

When I was feeling all sorry for myself when I had that little cold (well, I still have it but it's not so bad now!) I decided to make myself some chocolate eclairs following the recipe from Joanne Chang-Myers.

Somehow, my eclairs didn't rise in the oven so that was disappointing, I was one egg short so I'm thinking that threw off the balance of the recipe. Nonetheless, being resourceful, I decided to use two flat eclairs to make up one and it looked like I meant to make them like that!

Chocolate eclairs are one of my fave desserts, although the inside has to be anything but cream, because cream tastes of nothing and it's just empty calories! That's why I was excited to try out Joanne's recipe since her eclairs contains Tropez Cream, which is a mixture of a custard and cream.

I won't plagiarise her recipe so I'll just show you in pictures of each of the components I made.

Here is the Choux pastry done before baking:

Here's what they look like when they came out of the oven T_T

Not one to be dishearten , I continued to make the Tropez Cream:

The Tropez Cream is so delicious. The added Vanilla Bean makes it all that much special ^_^

Next step is to make the Chocolate Ganache, you can't have an eclair without the chocolate ganache on top!
 

Last step is to assemble and let the ganache cool down and you can eat all you want!

Yummy! So what are your favourite variations of the Chocolate Eclair?

Satsuma-imo.

What in the name of Squash?!

It's Squash season and there are so many different types out there, some that I've never even noticed before. Both me and Aubergine get our fruit and vegetables delivered weekly by the good people over at Riverford, they specialise in organic produce and if you visit food festivals, you will probably have seen them. They were selling barbecued sweetcorn in the Abergavenny one!

Riverford were offering Squash boxes and we debated whether or not to get one and in the end decided to go for it. What we didn't expect tho, was for to receive so many!

Even the delivery man commented that we got extra food. Lucky squashes keep for a while because we certainly can't eat all this in a week!

I'm no Squash expert but here are the varieties we received:

 I actually don't know what this one is, so if you do please leave the answer below ^_^

These were the smallest ones there and this is the Crown Prince variety? Again, don't quote me on this!

Again , I don't know what these are called! But super cute looking tho :P

These ones are Green Kabachas, or Japanese Squash. This is delicious Tempura style but can also be made into soups or desserts.

These are the Harlequin variety, there was one variety that didn't taste very nice but I can't remember which one it was. I just hope it wasn't one of these because we have so much to eat.

Look out for Squash related posts using these, I'm thinking Green Kabacha Croquette will taste delicious!

Satsuma-imo

DIY: Coca-cola, Ginger and Lemon Chinese Remedy for Sore Throats and Coughs

Good Morning All!

So, my battle with the cold bug has finally come to an end and I lost o(╥﹏╥)o, I've managed to sleep most of it off but I have the most annoying runny nose and a sore throat. But I'm not one to moan and I thought I would share a little chinese sore throat and cough remedy with you all involving Coca-cola. My mum taught me this and my first reaction was probably the same as yours "What?!?! Boil Coca-cola for my sore throat?!" but trust me, it actually does work!

So what you will need is:

• 250mls Coca-cola - you can use more but have you seen how much sugar is in it?!?!
• A few slices of Ginger - now I really like ginger so I used about 1 and half inch slice and then sliced those thinly. You can use less if you don't like the fieriness of the Ginger as much as me!
• A few slices of Lemon - I used 3 slices but feel free to use less if you don't like lemon

Look! 26.5g of Sugar for half a bottle! Craziness!

Just put all the ingredients in a saucepan, let it come to a boil and then simmer for about 5-10 minutes to allow the Ginger and Lemon to infuse into the Coca-cola.

Basically, when the Coca-cola boils, the sugar starts to caramelize slightly, making a thin syrup which helps to coat your throat when you drink it, thus making it less sore and helps ease a dry cough. Ginger has very good anti-inflammatory properties and so really helps for a sore throat. Ginger also has "warming" properties, Asians will probably know what I mean by this, but it's kind of hard to explain in english! But basically, it can help to induce sweating and is useful for a cold, as it helps detoxify the body. Lemons are known to be anti-bacterial and they contain high levels of Vitamin C, so again, beneficial as cold remedy.

So, next time those cold germs are too strong for your body, grab a can of Coca-cola and give this remedy a go. It really does work!

For now, I'm going to enjoy lounging around with my favourite mug. ^_^

Satsuma-imo.

Homemade Baked Custard Tart

One of the desserts that I always purchase when I'm in Marks and Spencers is their Custard Tarts, they are so tasty. I had always wanted to try making one myself but was always put off by the amount of egg yolks needed...uggg my cholesterol levels....

Finally! I decided to screw the cholesterol and tried making my own. The recipe I used was from Marcus Wareing (you may know him :P) the link to it is HERE. 9 egg yolks isn't so bad....If you read my previous post about my lunch, you now know the reason why I had so many egg whites left.

The only thing I didn't use from his recipe was the lemon zest because I didn't have any lemons. I also added a vanilla pod into the custard and boiled the beans and the pod together in the cream. I also used half single cream and half whipping cream instead of 500mls of whipping cream like the recipe. That was all I had in the fridge, but it still turned out fine.

Here's how mine turned out:

You want to know another reason why I love Custard Tarts? The nutmeg! I love nutmeg, especially when it's freshly grated, absolutely delicious!

I was so worried the custard wouldn't set and that it would be destroyed when I took it out of the tin, but it was fine!!! Not perfect, as you can see, the pastry is a little thick haha I think I'll need to line it a little better next time.

So what are you waiting for? If I can make this, then you most definately can! Go on, ignore the egg yolks, just this once :P

Satsuma-imo.

Mochi Sweets

Hello Everyone! Negi here, yes Negi! The third blogger on here, with me our blog title finally makes sense (albeit the rumours of it changing to Two2Tea).
I've been uuuh relatively busy or lazy which is why I've yet to make my first post until now but yes! its time to make amends with a spam on posts (I hope).

Right now I'm on holiday in Hong Kong so I won't be posting any of my hand-made treats if you were looking to gauge my skills :). I will however be posting about the delicacies in Hong Kong, I know, I bet you didn't see that one coming. So please enjoy reading my posts and I hope you find something unique in them.

Now onto what this post is really about.

The delicious 'Mochi Sweets' confectionery, their certain trade is included in their brand name, mochi! Ok that's not quite right but it does include mochi, what they are selling is basically Daifuku, though not like traditional one where it just has with azuki filling. 'Mochi Sweets' go a bit more adventurous with flavours such as mango cream, chocolate cream, purple potato, blueberry cream etc.

Attractive display right? haha It definitely lured me in and I definitely wasn't leaving without purchasing some.
When I was there which was around 20:00, they had quite a few flavours unavailable but thankfully they were mainly the generic ones.

Sakura

Chestnut

Green Tea

Yep Sakura, Chestnut and Green Tea are the ones I tried. All three were nice, I really love the mochi texture, it's soft and chewy, and goes well with the fillings I had.The one that really stood out was the Sakura flavour which is cherry blossom in Japanese, I'm sure many people have never eaten cherry blossom. It's something you have to try to understand the unique taste but in this you get that refreshing aroma when you bite into it.. It's the one to try if you were to visit this shop, which is located at the bottom floor of Langham Palace in Mong Kok.

Will be posting more at snail pace haha I blame my slow internet!

 Negi out!

Olive Oil Rolls

If you've ever been to the far east you'll know people tend to like their breads light and fluffy as opposed to the hard-crusted loaves favoured by westerners. I like a bit of both. There are occasions where only one will do. Crusty bread has its deserved spot next to a nice warm bowl of soup. Most HK restaurants serve butter rolls with soup and as nice as they are they can never beat a crusty roll in my eyes. It's all about the contrast of textures...

Today I have are recipe for a olive oil roll. I like browsing through Japanese websites to find recipes and this is adapted from a recipe I found on Cookpad. Cookpad is a website where users submit their own recipes and other users can in turn upload photos of how their dishes/baked goods turn out. It's a clever idea of filtering out the bad recipes. As this is a Japanese-inspired bread it is of course a soft textured bread - great for a lunch roll (or for dunking in soup if that is your preference).

This recipe makes 10 medium sized rolls.
Ingredients:
540g white bread flour
60g rye bread flour
350ml warm water
50g soft brown sugar
12g fast action dried yeast
6g salt
60ml olive oil (I've used a light olive oil but obviously you can use extra virgin if you want a much stronger taste)
1 egg, for glazing

Method:

1. Put all ingredients, except the egg, into a bowl and combine.
2. Knead for about 10mins until the dough is smooth and elastic. The dough is wetter than previous recipes I've posted but it will form into a nice ball eventually so be patient.
3. Leave to rise until doubled in size.
4. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and divide the dough into 10 balls. You may need a good dusting of flour when shaping each roll as the dough is very soft.
5. Leave to prove until doubled in size.
6. Lightly beat the egg and brush a thin coating over each roll.
7. Bake in a 220C/200C fan oven for 20mins.

The egg glaze gives the rolls an extra glossy sheen, like its been hit by a spotlight.

-Aubergine

Most Unhealthy Lunch Ever?

Good Afternoon!!

This isn't a recipe post, I just wanted to share what I ate for lunch, look away now if you are health conscious!

A GIANT burger!

This lunch consisted of:

• Homemade Bread
• Homemade Thai Green Curry Flavoured Beef Burgers
• Beetroot
• Egg Whites (I maybe poured like 3?!) You will see why in my next post why I had just egg whites left over!)
• Emmental Cheese

And that's it! Well, apart from the lashings of ketchup on top as well. Yummy!

Satsuma-imo.

Fusion Food Fajita

Well, now that the weather has cooled considerably here, there's no better way to warm yourself up than by eating something spicy!

This recipe I'm going to share with you guys is a bit of an odd one, you might be thinking "what is this?!" but trust me, it actually works out ok!

This was purely experimental, we decided that lunch was going to be fajitas and during the process of making it, there was no sauce!!!!! The decision was then made to use some soy sauce and some mushroom soy sauce and the lunch was a success! Here is how the asian/mexican fajita combination was born:

What you will need:

Some Enoki mushrooms - one of my fave types of mushrooms, especially since I'm allergic to the bog standard Button mushroom.

I also used some celery because that was one of the vegetables we had left over:

Other ingredients include:

• Salami - the one we had contained fennel seeds in. I used about 100g
• Jalapenos - I used red Jalapenos, add according to how spicy you want it to be.
• One Onion
• Soy Sauce - to personal taste
• Mushroom Soy Sauce
• Cheese of your choice
• 4 Tortillas

1. First sweat the celery and onions in a frying pan until soft. (I didn't add any oil because there will be plenty from the salami).
2. Add the Enoki mushrooms, Salami and Jalapenos. Fry until mushrooms have softened.

    3. Add in the Soy Sauce and Mushroom Soy Sauce. I used about a tablespoon of it. Fry off until sauce has reduced.

    4. Divide this onto four tortillas that have been placed on a baking tray. Top with the cheese and bake in the oven until the cheese has melted.

     5. Once melted, roll up your tortilla and enjoy!! Simple food right?

Satsuma-imo.

Abergavenny Food Festival Part 2

Onto the next part of our adventure to the Abergavenny Food Festival!

Here's a shot of what it looked like inside the Market Hall,  it was really crowded in here as the day wore on, too many people and not enough space!

There were book signings inside as well from famous chefs. Here is Chef and Baker Richard Bertinet signing. Aubergine is a total fan girl and even had her picture taken with him! Oh Aubergine....:P [What can I say? He made my day (#＾＿＾#) I was gutted when his show sold out but everything turned out alright in the end!]

 Here's evidence of his signature!

The great thing about food festivals, is that you get to try different foods that you can't possibly make yourself. For our lunch we went to a Jamaican Stall because we have never tried Jamaican food before.

Aubergine had the Curried Goat and Rice:

While I just had the Jerk Chicken, I was only supposed to get 3 pieces as advertised on the price board but I got 4 pieces! The lady at the stall must have liked me haha :P

 Both were delicious and not that spicy, I'd definitely eat these again :) [Yup, yup very delicious. Couldn't finish the rice but I tried my best]

We booked to watch a demonstration by Malaysian Chef Norman Musa and we had about 1.5 hrs to kill so we sat down to rest our poor feet! We ended up snacking on these super yummy truffles we bought earlier.

Nothing better than some good quality chocolate right? [I only tried the brandy one but luckily wasn't too overpowering, otherwise would have been drunk for the food demo...]

Inside the Priory Centre for the demonstration, we were greeted with some snacks and a really posh looking table!

 I didn't take a picture of Chef Norman Musa, not quite sure why.....We got to try some of the food he made and it was good! We were a little shocked by how much oil was used for one of the dishes tho! Our arteries.......[Norman's posted some photos on his facebook and you can spot us in one of the photos if you squint really hard]

So what else did we buy then?

You cannot go back to Wales and not buy Welsh Cakes, if we were good, we would've made some ourselves! Well, looking at the package, we thought because the flavours were unusual, we would buy some. Each pack cost £3.50 for six and we bought Cranberry and Pecan flavour. Unfortunately, we didn't like these, super dry and not much flavour, for that price we expected a lot more. Oh well, at least we tried it. [The best is still the brand we can get in the local supermarket back home. The ones sold at the usual Abergavenny Saturday marker are pretty good too - maybe we should do a Welsh Cake feature in future.]

We also bought a loaf from one of the stalls, this one was surprisingly heavy when we received it! [A spelt and honey loaf - if Richard Bertinet had a stall there I would have bought my bread from there instead!!]

Next what did we buy from Trealy Farm?

Why Salami and Pepperoni of course!

I can't exactly remember which ones we bought, but I do know that one contained fennel, one had spicy peppercorns in and one had venison and something else in..... My memory is like a fish.....

Remember that pie I said we bought in our last post? Well, we've already eaten it so I can show you pictures of what it looked inside.

This was jam packed with meat so I guess we got what we paid for! £7 for a pie is expensive but this was worth it. The only thing I would mention tho was that we both found it a little too salty for our taste. Other than that it was good. We especially liked that the pastry wasn't thick like other pies.

So that was our little trip to the Abergavenny Food Festival! We shall be going again next year! [Definitely!]

Did any of you guys go? What did you think?

Unintentional advertising of Sony :P [It's a good phone...]

Satsuma-imo [featuring Aubergine!]