Scenes from a Pool Party!

It's the middle of summer here in South East Asia, the perfect time to indulge in some yummy ice cream with all the fun stuff added into it!!! Enjoy!

Braised Lion's Head 狮子头 in clay pot

Braised Lion's Head
Originally uploaded by cutejoos

It's been awhile since mother-earth made Braised Lion's Head, a dish that evokes memories of my childhood growing up with my sister on D. T. Street. Having decided that I would make this for our dinner tonight, I went online to see if I could find the origins of this classic family favorite of ours. I was really surprised to find that this was a dish that traced it's roots to Shanghai, I always assumed that with it's popularity, it would be a dish from Fujian province where my grandparents are from. Now I'm really curious as to how my grandmother and the other chinese families here in The Pines got introduced to this dish because I can remember eating this since I was but a wee little sprite which was some 30 odd years ago (scary thought!), a time when the internet was non existent. I have been a fan of cookbook author Eileen Yin Fei Lo for quite sometime now, she does things old school, meaning she still uses mainly traditional chinese ingredients in her cooking & she doesn't do short-cuts, (buddha jumps over the wall soup takes 3 days), you can tell that she "honors" those classic chinese dishes that have been around for generations. Her version of this dish was quite simple enough and I had all the ingredients on-hand which was the key thing. The secret to the success of this dish is that the ground meat has to be marinated first before they are formed into huge baseball sized patties, then pan fried till its gets a nice golden brown crust. I did this first step yesterday and placed the patties in the fridge, then after coming home from work I continued on to the next step which is to place some chinese cabbage in claypot with some stock then put in the patties & let it braise for an hour or so till done.

Cyma Lemon Chicken

Cyma Lemon Chicken
Originally uploaded by cutejoos

A recent discovery or should I say discovered by someone else but was brought to my attention, was the Lemon Chicken at this local greek restaurant chain named Cyma. I had been hearing raves about this place for sometime and when I finally did try it out last year I was so disappointed by the lamb that I ordered, I had to send it back to the kitchen because the meat was so tough. I went back again early this year with much hesitation, but my aunt who was with me was a big fan of the place & encouraged me to try out this chicken dish of theirs which she really loved. Lo and behold I was totally blown away, the chicken was falling off the bone tender (which is how I like my roast chicken), you could taste the lemon & rosemary in every bite, the sauce was tangy yet sweet yet not overtly so, plus I loved the addition of feta cheese as a topping. Price wise it was around P350 (US$9) which is pretty reasonable considering how good it was. So today since father-earth wasn't going to be around for lunch ,me & Xtiane indulged ourselves in this heavenly greek fare and stuffed ourselves silly. Just stay away from the lamb though.

San Bei Ji (3 Cups Chicken)三杯雞

San Bei Ji (3 Cups Chicken)
Originally uploaded by cutejoos

With mother-earth out & about traveling to the Land of our Forefathers, I have been whipping up dishes that I know she doesn't like but which I and father-earth like a lot. One of them is the dish that I cooked for dinner tonight San Bei Ji which literally means 3 Cups Chicken. The name stems from the original recipe which calls for 1 cup Sesame Oil (que horror!), 1 cup Soy Sauce and 1 cup rice wine as the main sauce ingredients that is then cooked with the chicken. This dish is quite popular in Taiwan but traces it's origins to Jiangxi province in southern China. I had to research quite a bit online as there were numerous recipe versions to choose from. The one I finally decided on used only 1/3 cup each of sesame oil, rice wine & soy sauce, which to me sounded like a reasonable portion of ingredients. Cooking this dish was quite easy, I just sauteed the garlic, ginger & chilis in the sesame oil then added the chicken pieces & poured in the sauce mix of rice wine, soy sauce & sugar then let it simmer for 30 mins. I then added the basil leaves & scallions at the very end before serving. That was it, easy peasy and super yummy!!! Go on and try lah!