Favorite things...

Scone with homemade strawberry jam & whipped cream

Just out of the oven scone with homemade strawberry jam and whipped cream. Mariage Freres Darjeeling Rose Camelia tea at the back.

Identify things that make your like taste like blessed. Then repeat it.

Strawberry and chestnut sponge cake

Some desserts just can give you a sweet smile. A soft aromatic sponge is definitely one of them!

上海蛋餃

不懂得做蛋餃就不能算是上海新抱啦！

傳統上造蛋餃時的餡料為生豬肉碎，然後於農歷新年開席前蒸熟，餃內有鮮甜的豬肉汁爆出來。

但其實剛煎香的蛋皮最香，所以今次先將餡炒熟，再放入蛋皮內，兩種吃法各有所長。

Macaroons 不只一個樣！

法國各地有不同形態的Macaroons, 例如南錫由修道院所製表面光澤帶裂紋的、巴斯克區口感柔軟像我們雞蛋餅的、波爾多順理成章加入紅酒製成的，和亞眠城又厚又黏成圓柱狀的。而我們常見到色彩多變以兩塊帶蕾絲腳小圓餅間夾甜餡料的，是macaroons傳入巴黎後才演變產生的。但macaroons原來不是創自法國，而是嫁去法國的意大利籍皇后帶過去的家鄉甜點！

這樣看來，我這又薄又脆帶薑黃口味的macaroons,就是澳門特別行政區的地方風味macaroons喇！XD

Exotic Indian-spice Macaroons with Salty Fillings

My another to-die-for signature dish!
My intention was to make macaroons in salty flavor instead of sweet, and to use brightly yellowish turmeric as natural coloring at the same time matching the taste of the filling.
And this failing batch of macaroons turn out to be very crunchy (in a high-class manner!) instead of airy like traditional. The turmeric gives such exotic sense of Indian-spice feeling to these crunchily sweet almond biscuits, and the whole thing is such a perfect companion with the tenderly salty salmon pâté!
A bite to heaven, exotically, sweetly salty, I feel like a royal. With the F. Mariage tea I now know the trick to bring out its special qualities, I'm eating better than Q. Elizabeth in the palace. Envy me.

日食堂拉麵

好一朵迎春花~~~

For more immediate sharing of food photos, please follow "julesvong" on Instagram - a Starving Artist's Food Diary!

金網成撈，步步高升！

新年! 新年! 新年! 新年! 恭喜發財! :)

薑蔥炒肉蟹 / 豉椒炒花甲 / 白焯有膏瀨尿蝦

炒花甲做法：

斤半花甲，洗淨浸在鹽水三小時以吐沙。煲滾一鑊水，下花甲煮一會，將打開了蓋的逐一夾起隔水，不開蓋的丟掉。洗淨鑊，大火下油爆香蒜薑紅辣椒，再下豆豉碎炒香，下花甲兜炒，下青尖椒炒，灒酒，加一杯水，加蓋煮至滾起，下一小撮鹽，一湯匙糖，兩湯匙老油，兜勻，下生粉水，兜至汁都粘在花甲上，下一小碗的蔥及芫荽碎，兜均，上碟！

Panna Cotta

Last time when I made portuguese egg tart, I have a leftover box of cream in fridge. So with vanilla seeds straight from vanilla pod, some milk, sugar and gelatin sheets, I have made these Panna Cotta as the dessert on a Sunday night!

椒鹽蝦碌

Can't help but sharing the pics if my homemade prawn dish last night! So crunchy and delicious! Even the shells can be eaten, good source of calcium, too!

Only made with the Vietnam frozen tiger prawns from supermarket! Try!

印尼沙律醬 - 驚艷！推介！

Very often salad is the side dish and works well when u have a big piece of meat or can go on its own if u have a few pounds to lose.

Aside from the coconut oil I suggested couple of days earlier, I have a brand new experience to share on salad and salad dressing. It's this - Indonesian salad dressing which tastes a but like satay, of the rich flavor and texture of peanuts and garlic. It just made my European salad more marvelous than ever! So appetizing, so exotic!

It comes in a brick like form, I'm cutting half of it into small pieces and melt it in 75ml of hot water. It needs some pressing and some stir. But the thick sauce just goes so well with my very unwelcomed raw carrots! Greens and eggs of course! It just bring everybody together! Two more pieces of bacon completes the salad bowl and I never feel so satisfied about a salad!

I have eaten two big bowls of such salad just now, without my fork stoping!

Salad does not make you hungry again!

I bought The salad dressing brick from supermarket, but I also see it in dried goods stall at traditional market. It's cheap, 10 dollars maybe, but half of it enough for 2-3 salads. And I'm thinking to make it as a sauce to my satay skewers.

魚到爆！魚頭豆腐湯及煎封魚腩

It's how the story started. I have a left over piece of tofu and thinking what to do with it while wandering in the city. I ran into a traditional market as I decided to buy big fish head for this milky color fish head tofu soup! I bought some fish belly for frying in the same stall, too. Why not? I'm getting myself a nutritious fish lunch for today.

The challenge is not the cooking, but buying bloody fresh fish in the wet market. The plastic bags are still stained with blood no matter how may bags the stall owner tries to give you. And the change he handed to you is with a big fish scale on it, and its soaky wet with the fish blood and sea water... I spend the soaky money immediately for the mushrooms and green onions... And it's also about washing and cutting the slippery fish up. It's not that enjoyable so I'm gonna cut it short.

The dish comes up great and that's every housewife survived the market scene I suppose! And I definitely treated the fish soup like a hotpot that I add in mushrooms, three kinds of fishballs (white fishball, fresh fishball, and deep fried fresh fishball), and even sesame sweet dumplings (芝麻湯丸)! The flavor is so intense, color is so beautiful, and the savory sweet sesame dumpling is the highlight to my fish soup and fish meal as a whole today!

You know, whatever works!

烏東的造成

I know you love udon, though its unreasonably fattening like a spoiled pretty.

My tricks to a good bowl of home cooked udon, are dried udon noodles from the right origin (讚岐), a decent bottle of udon sauce, and a lot of finely chopped green onions and some fried sesame. Chop the onions to more than u think u should. It gives out the freshening herbal flavor will help the heavily carbon hydrated noodle to taste more lively.