Fresh Noodles and Cha Chiang Mien.

I have these friends who are a married couple.

They're off to China for a long-trip mission.

Salute!

Before they left though, they taught me and my friends a thing or two about noodles.

They're wicked easy and heaps tasty.

It's one of the things I cooked for Chinese New Year.

Ingredients

For Noodles:

Plain flour

Warm Water (150ml for every 200g)

Salt (a pinch or two per portion)

For the sauce:

600g pork mince

1 Litre of stock

Cornstarch for thickening

3 tbsp. of cooking oil

3-4 tbsp. of Chinese sweet sauce 

 3 tbsp. minced garlic

1 cup chopped mushrooms

Noodles.

Sprinkle the salt into the flour and gradually pour in the water.

Knead until it comes together.

Not too wet and not too dry either.

Let it rest at room temp for 4 hours or so until it's easy to work with.

Suzhou Dimsum: One of Binondo's BEST Kept Secrets

It's been years since my family has discovered Suzhou, I wonder why I've never properly blogged about it. I had my first real/acceptable/authentic xiao long bao there. I loved it so much, my uncle and I would order a lot of them for lunch. A lot= we wouldn't eat anything else. I find it fantastic that they've opened shop in Greenhills which makes it far more convenient for yours truly!


BTW, for more go to restaurants in Binondo, click here and here!

Specialty Xiao Long Bao- P100 for 4 pieces.
Trust me, 4 are not enough.

Perfect and intricately crafted.

There's a relatively thick wrapper that envelopes the soupy meaty morsel inside. It's tasty and absolutely lovely. More often than not, I wouldn't touch a xiao long bao when I've seen the wrapper broken that's cause all the lovely juice would've dripped out. Now that's a shame.

Shi Lin, The Podium

Shi Lin is one of those places with a chef from China/Taiwan/Hong Kong, what have you? 

..And here are the interiors, nothing flashy.

It's fairly plain and simple with oriental influences.

This is a bowl of their peanut sesame noodles. Apparently, it's a dish that they're popular for. It's amazingly fragrant with peanut and sesame. Duh. It's really moist and at times too rich. The noodles have an unexplained fantastic bite to it. Sorta magical. And it sort of reminds me of a different take on a peanut butter sauce.

Mother's Day Lunch at Emperor's Garden

I actually posted this a couple of days back, but since blogger was really retarded and it sort of malfunctioned, I'm editing everything all over again. POO.

My 5th birthday party!
The theme was fairies and pirates?
Something like that.

I think my mum is wonder woman. I know it sounds quite funny and maybe even a tad bit retarded, but it's entirely true. 

Here are some of the reasons why:

1. She manages to do so many things in one day. She has said before that she wants to be a stay at home mom, but we all know she can't cause she's a stress junkie. 

2. She pretty much cooks all of our lunches and dinners.* Mind you, it's not just cooking for the sake of it, she actually plans a menu and makes sure that we have a balanced diet. Plus she makes most of the stuff from scratch too.

3. She tutors my little sister who is really tricky and naughty**

4. Did I mention she works full time as well? She handles all sorts of difficult people, she's also the glue that binds the company together.

5. She's always got everybody's back no matter what situation we are in.

6. She gives the best advice.

7. She knows how to turn a gray day into one bursting with sunshine.

You see, I've always loved eating.
In this case, it was cotton candy.

Now, do you see why I think she's one in a million wonder woman? I guess her efforts were acknowledged but sometimes under-minded in the past since I'd expect all mums to be flawless like her. But since I've migrated to Australia to study, I've realized how much effort she actually exerts for my life to be such a breeze. She's the BEST! 

Dinner Last Night.

I think my mom is a crazy perfectionist. She has a list of things in her head that she has to accomplish from day to day. You'd be caught dead being with her if in any case that she didn't finish her tasks. Despite what transpires during the day, we could always count on her to deliver us a smashingly good dinner.

So.. You might be wondering what she cooks from day to day that makes me swoon. Nothing ultimately posh or extravagant, but dishes filled with love and passion. Chos!

Tonight, we have more or less, Filipino Fare!

Kare Kare packed with veg!
& PEANUT BUTTER. 

What would Kare Kare be without Bagoong?

First, Kare Kare which is my favorite Filipino Dish (which I still don't know how to cook despite going to ISCAHM every Saturday!) I love PEANUT BUTTER. I'm a PEANUT BUTTER FREAK actually. Yeah, my mom dollops a wad of peanut butter, straight from the jar. Gotta love it. More on peanut butter next time.

Spiral, Sofitel Philippine Plaza

The Grand Stairway

A couple of years ago, there was a buffet craze, everybody was raving about Heat, Circles, and Spiral. Well, I've been to all three, and I seriously think that Spiral has the best selection. That's why we kept returning, or at least for a certain period of time.


More or less after a year since I've last visited Spiral, I'm finally back to chow down some more. And it's good to see that Spiral has progressed and improved with their food.