Sweet treats at Sanxitang 三希堂

I don’t normally write about food that I have tried at restaurants and such. The next few posts coming up are also not meant to be any sort of critical reviews of the food items, but more of a sharing since they are all beautiful and interesting.

Came across two items at a cafe restaurant when I was at Taipei National Palace Museum recently.  I love the name of this cafe restaurant – 三希堂 – very poetic. Later, I found out that it is named after the study room of Qianlong Emperor of the Qing Dynasty.

First, the Sugar Soaked Round Kumquat. I just had to try it. Kumquat is a kind of mandarin orange. It was true to its name, the kumquat felt dense and heavy when lifted, just like it was soaked. In the mouth, it was a super sensation. Heavy with cloying sweetness, yet the fragrance of the kumquat came through, and it was just a little tart as well. Perfect size, which is quite small. Perfect for my sweet tooth.

Next was the Sweet Potato in Lemon Syrup. Sweet potato is a definite must-try in Taiwan, it is one of more popular produces. This one was a yellow sweet potato. Pairing it with lemon got my curiosity – sweet and sour – how would the result be? Again, it was wonderful, from presentation to taste. It was served in a perfectly sized glassware, its shape reminiscent of one of the artifacts that we have just viewed. The syrup was lightly and refreshingly lemony, without the sourness, which complemented the starchy sweet potato really well.

It isn’t often that I come across tasty Chinese desserts that are also presented in a contemporary and thoughtful manner. Highly memorable and worth commending, in my opinion.

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I Win!

Hey! I got my hands on one of the Taiwanese 愛文 mangoes! Otherwise known euphemistically as ‘I Win’ mangoes in English. It has a vibrant reddish, orangey and slightly yellowish colour that is unlike most mangoes. It is also rounder in shape than most.

Once cut open, wOoOoo! Rich, succulent golden flesh says hello to me! I cut it into criss-cross cubes, which you can then easily turn it upwards and eat straight off the skin, or you can use a teaspoon to scoop the cubes up. It was a fully ripened one, so it gave off a strong mango fragrance. I decided to forego using the teaspoon and took a bite straight off. How the deliciously sticky nectar flowed! I slurped and licked away every drop of the liquid. The taste of an ‘I Win’ is exquisite – rich, smooth, juicy, very sweet, not as acidic and fibrous as some other mangoes.

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Books from Kinokuniya

I miss Kinokuniya! Or rather, I miss the feeling of roaming around in a nice, large bookstore filled with glossy covers and the smell of new books. Not forgetting the stationery department where Pilot pens, Tombo highlighters, fancy papers and such rule the day.  I wish Kinokuniya would open a branch in Hong Kong. It is in Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia but just not in Hong Kong, where there are so many Japanese expats and a more deeply entrenched Japanese culture here.

So when I saw Kinokuniya at Sapporo, I almost went into a trance. It was huge – 2 sprawling floors. I pecked from book to book under the Food category and 2 hours later, I had moved only 3 rows from where I first started. Of course, this also had something to do with the fact that my speed of reading Japanese is only slightly faster than snail’s pace.

I was determined not to leave the place without a purchase and finally decided on 2 books.

One was a encyclopedia of sorts on Japanese fruits and vegetables, which was more comprehensive than a book that I already have. Packed full of information. I love the feel of its pages.

The other was a recipe book for steamed food, which I was very excited to see. I developed a penchant for steaming food a few months ago and had exchanged some credit card points for an electric steamer. Since then, I have only used it to steam fish and simple vegetables. This new recipe book would undoubtedly give my limited repertoire of steamed dishes a much needed boost.

Check out these cute little steamed cupcakes! I am looking forward to making them soon!

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Prince melon プリンスメロン

I bought this very unique looking melon a couple of days ago. I thought it might be a cross-breed of melon (a.k.a. honeydew) and watermelon at first. As it turned out, this was a cross-breed between a Western melon and a Japanese まくわうりvariety called ‘Prince’ melon.

It was small – about 1.5 times the size of a large apple. It had a smooth surface. Its skin was thinner and softer compared to the usual melon. The perfume of the fruit was stronger at the top of the fruit and strongest at the bottom. I took a sniff and could barely contain my excitement! I knew it was going to be very, very sweet.

Look at the light orange nectar that flows out from its centre! I tried to carefully toss as many seeds out as possible while still leaving some of the viscous liquid behind.

The skin of the melon was quite thin, so even the flesh close to the skin was not hard and still very sweet. You could almost eat the whole slice with very little wastage. The texture of the flesh made it a real pleasure to eat – it was dense but gave a ‘soft bite’, not hard or crunchy at all. And each time you took a bite of its succulent flesh, the juice just oozed into your mouth. Some of that may accidentally stain the sides of your face (as it did to mine), leaving behind sticky trails of evidence that you had just eaten a very delicious melon.

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Baked potato curry puffs

Been having a craving for curry puffs for a while now, so finally decided to make my own. I tried to resist the craving initially as I recoiled at the memory of having to make technically challenging rough puff pastry.

This time, I gave shortcrust pastry a shot using margarine. Have never used margarine before and was pleasantly surprised by the result. The dough came together nicely, rolled easily and most importantly, I could roll it fairly thinly without it breaking when I added the potato filling. (Did I mention before that potato is wonderfully versatile?)

I really like how the curry puffs have turned out this time. The pastry was thin and had a light flakiness to it. I could stuff plenty of pre-fried curry potato filling into each piece of dough and gradually shape it into a crescent-shaped plump looking puff. Looking at one reminds me of a happy, smiling mouth.

Hubby was extremely pleased to find out that I had made one of his favourite snacks.

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Sunday breakfast

I have long held the belief that breakfast is an essential part of one’s diet, or at least my diet. Ever since I learnt to read, I have only read about good things associated with breakfast. Higher level of concentration, better memory, increased longevity, etc. While I cannot testify to all the numerous benefits, what I do get for sure, is a headache and a foul mood if I don’t have breakfast and coffee. I don’t even like going out for breakfast that much because my head would almost certainly be spinning while I am still on the way getting there.

Food aside, I also find myself enjoying breakfast time with a companion, notably my hubby. It is a time to greet each other warmly, share bizarre dreams that we had the night before and eat a hearty meal together knowing that it will fortify us against the day’s challenges. (Ok, so it sounds a little dramatic.) Our weekday breakfasts used to be almost always takeaways from the bakery – eeks. The bane of all breakfasts in my opinion, is undoubtedly the ubiquitous square, white bread – double eeks! No matter how extra soft, calcium enriched, it is still square, white bread. So, for this year, I have made “more hearty breakfasts” as one of my resolutions.

This was what we had for breakfast yesterday. Sautéed mushrooms, baked beans, pan fried hash browns and a vegetarian sausage drizzled with honey. By the way, I love dreaming up various permutations for a good weekend “combo” breakfast. Sometimes, I replace the hash browns with mash potato, baked beans with fried eggs, sauteed mushrooms with grilled tomatoes, sausage with some cut cheese… you get the idea, it is actually a lot of fun!

The vegetarian sausage in particular, is pivotal to a good breakfast. I have never been a fan of mock meat though I am considerably more open to them since turning flexitarian. And this sausage does not disappoint at all – it is arguably better than the real thing! The texture is not quite the same as a real sausage and it tends to break up a bit more easily, presumably since it is made from mostly grain. But, it is amply stuffed with herbs and spices and so full of savoury juices that it is unbelievably tasty.

There is one more flavour made from smoked apples, yukon gold potatoes and sage – equally yummy. It is now one of our favourite staples on the breakfast table.

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New books

My books have arrived! My very first Japanese books – I am so excited!

I couldn’t find them in any bookstore in HK and contemplated buying them on Amazon, but was slightly put off by the horrendous shipping cost. Thankfully, I learnt from a classmate that most Japanese bookstores would be able to place an order for you, so I ordered mine from Asahiya at the Sogo Book Club by giving them the ISBN – easy. Books arrived in less than 2 weeks. I estimate that I paid about 60% less on shipping this way.

Full of gorgeous pictures and vivid colours, the pages all new and crisp, the books look extremely inviting to read. The bigger one explains the features of each vegetable/fruit, how to identify different varieties, how to select, store and eat them.

See the page on tomato!

The smaller book contains recipes that make use of vegetables to make different types of nabemono (soup pots). Hubby and I love soups at all times of the year. One of our favourites when dining out at Japanese restaurants is the Dobinmushi. It is technically soup in a teapot, which is then poured into a tiny teacup for drinking. While it looks very cute, it is never quite enough for us. This is definitely going to be the first recipe that I try from this book. I like the inclusion of sweet potato here – it is very unusual for Dobinmushi, but I think it will go very nicely with the soup.

I am looking forward to getting back into the kitchen soon. I decided to give my hands a rest 2 weeks ago when I realised how parched they were. All the fingertips were cracking up and minor incisions were starting to appear. Then wham! I sprained my pinkie during a kungfu class. It is much better now. It is not completely well yet, but I am getting impatient.

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Award-winning Aomori apple juice

Love this apple juice!

Aomori is probably the most well known region for apple growing in Japan. It is also a top producer of blackcurrants, although this remains a relatively unknown fact since apple growing (and eating) has a much longer history in Japan.

This delicious juice is 100% ストレート(straight), which apparently means that there is no added water and sugar, but made from using 5 kinds of apples from Aomori. 1 litre of this juice needs approximately 6 apples. In fact, some words on the packet seems to suggest that they did not remove the leaves of the fruit, but then it makes me wonder why the juice did not contain any trace of green colour in it? Could be that the leaves were initially included but filtered out at a later stage?

The colour of the juice was a cloudy pale yellow. Unlike some other apple juices with a chalky appearance and heavy sedimentation, this had an even appearance throughout and almost no sedimentation.

At first taste, I was struck by the sweetness of the juice and how “apple-like” it tasted. The sweetness however, did not linger on in the mouth, but mellowed into a refreshing aftertaste, so you can drink cup after cup.

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