Shark's fin melon and dried longan sweet soup

 

 

Yesterday when I saw shark's fin melon in organic shop for the very first time, I put it in my recycle bag without hesistation. Shark's fin melon tonifies Qi and blood, expels cold, harmonises the blood, induces bowel movements and has many other wonderful benefits.

 

 

It is very easy to boil shark's fin melon sweet soup. Just cut the shark's fin melon to smaller pieces, remove seeds and boil in water. After about 30 minutes, take out the shark's fin melon, use a fork to mash it, it will turn into shreds easily. The shreds look like the real shark's fin, that is where it gets its name. Put the melon shreds back to the pot, add in dried longan and slow cook for another 15 minutes. Add sugar to taste and it is done.

 

 

I packed the sweet soup into few thermos for everyone to bring to office/school. Then I filled two ceramic stew pot and kept them in fridge. Phin Zhe's daddy will love this after his badminton tonight. :)

Soya Bean Milk

Last Sunday, my plan to make chinese crullers(油条） and soya bean for tea break was not successful. I only have time for a glass of hot soya bean milk. Luckily my mum brought me a box of cream puffs. So instead of chinese crullers, I have cream puffs. ;)

I prefer the soya bean milk to have stronger bean taste and less sweet and this is my ratio.
60ml soya bean
500ml water
1 pandan leaf
2 tbsp sugar

Method:
1. Soak the bean.(optional)
2. Blend all together.
3. Filter and bring to boil.(optional)

Optional steps are depends on blender.

Working Day Lunch Gathering

A few friends came to my house for a speedy lunch on a working day. Since recent lunch and tea break topics are all about photography, Mark brought his reflector, flash and wireless trigger along. It was not convinient to bring their expensive but bulky DSLRs to the office, so they had no choice but to use my LX3.

While I was busy in the kitchen, they were entertaining themselves with the photograhing session. The lunch was just simple one dish meal, Black Pepper Chicken Chop paired with Mojito Mocktail. And of course, we were not going back to work before sipping a cup of espresso.

Here are the food photos taken by the talented photographers. And thanks to Mark for editing the photos.







Mojito Mocktail

Ingredients:
Lemon(cut into cubes)
Lime(cut into cubes)
Mint leaves
Lychee(Canned, cut into cubes)
Soda/Sprite/7-Up
Ice cubes

Mix all ingredients together. To make Mojito Cocktail, just replace the soft drink to Rum/Vodka.

Cendol

Finally I made Cendol at home.
It was Saturday afternoon, the weather was burning hot outside.
No one would like to go out and buy some cold drinks.
Nevermind, I was going to make Cendol.
Cendol in ready package from Jusco Supermarket,
Palm sugar from Malacca,
Coconut Milk bought from wet market in the morning...
and most important, ice cubes.





Other recipe with Malacca Palm Sugar:
Green Bean Soup

Enjoying coffee at home

I have owned this Delonghi Coffee Machine for more than a year. It was not cheap but I did not regret buying it. When I was searching for a coffee machine, I could not find much reviews from the internet. Therefore while I was enjoying a cup of fresh espresso this morning, I decided to write up a review so that others can benefit from it.

This is a fully automatic machine with patented automatic cappuccino system. With just a single touch, the machine will grind the coffee bean(if bean is used) and brew a cup of coffee with 15 bar pump pressure. The whole bean-to-cup process takes about 15 seconds or less.

Even though it is an automatic machine, users are still able to personalize their coffee. First, users can select to start from roasted coffee bean or ground coffee. For the grinder, there are 7 adjustable settings for coarseness. Not only that, users can choose to have a short, medium or long coffee with mild aroma or strong taste. Users can even save their settings which I have not tried so far. :p

I am 100% satisfied with this product. Now I can have a cup of good quality coffee at home anytime I wish.


stylish coffee machine


Next to the cup warmer tray is the ground cofee container.


Coffee bean container and the grinding coarseness regulator


double short coffee


Separate milk container for cappuccino

When Taiwan and Hong Kong meet

This is a very famous snack in taiwan night market. The chicken cube was marinated overnight, coated with cream crackers and then fried together with fresh Sweet Basil leaves. Yes, the secret of this dish were the Basil leaves. It gave a very unique fragrant to the fried chicken.





What about a cup of hong kong honey lemon drink after the fried chicken? Lemon has vitamin C and honey has many benefits! First, I started with hot honey lemon drink. When I was left with half cup, I added some ice and enjoyed the iced honey lemon drink. And, it was not the end yet. Can you see the lemon slice? I poured some water and had lemon water, few rounds.

Taiwan Fried Chicken with Herb and Hong Kong Honey Lemon drink. Happy gathering.