Refrigerate Eggs or Not?

I'm sure I've written before about my grumpy old egg man at my local Hong Kong wet market and, lo and behold, here is that old sweetheart again, creeping grouchily into my story.  Well, what happened is that one day a while ago I forgot (again!) to keep my mouth shut when I was buying my eggs (he has the best eggs!) and I asked a stupid question (stupid to him, not to me.)  

As I was standing there waiting for my egg man to wrap up my fresh free range eggs in a neat cone of newspaper, it dawned on me that all his eggs were just sitting out in the open air.  In other words, they were not refrigerated!  

In the old days before I discovered him, I had always previously bought refrigerated eggs at the supermarket and kept my eggs in the refrigerator at home.  So I asked my grumpy old egg man why he did not need to refrigerate his eggs.  

Boy oh boy, did I get a long lecture that day about the general lack of food culture, lack of food knowledge, heck, even the overall degeneration of society, before he would hand over the eggs that I had already paid for.  But the thing is, lecture or no, he never did answer my question: Refrigerate Eggs or Not?  雪蛋環是不雪蛋?

Green Bean Dessert Soup 綠豆沙

There is almost nothing so soothing and cooling to drink on a hot, hot summer's day than Chinese Green Bean Dessert Soup.  My grandma used to make big pots of this wonderful soup for us, store it in the fridge and we would help ourselves to big delicious bowls to cool ourselves off after a hot day of play.  

So just as this really hot summer typhoon weather has settled in on us in Hong Kong, I suddenly remembered, (duh! strikes forehead),  the perfect thing to rustle up for taking the edge off this heat is this wonderfully body cooling Green Bean Dessert Soup, or 綠豆沙 or 綠豆湯.

Haw Flake Candy 山楂餅

You know how there are certain things that you loved when you were a little kid, things that to everyone else was just a 'meh' sort of thing, but to you (and you alone!) this thing was so cool and so special!  Well, the other day I stumbled on a package of Haw Flakes, or 山楂餅, and it was like deja vu right to that little kid state of mind.  Haw Flakes was one of my all time favorite treats when I was a still a wee lass!

Fish Maw Creamed Corn Soup 粟米魚肚羹

This classic Cantonese soup, Fish Maw Creamed Corn Soup or 粟米魚肚羹, is a great general favorite with all, both young and old.  Not only is this Chinese soup easy to make, Fish Maw Creamed Corn Soup is delicious, filling and comforting, a thick velvety broth full of a variety of pleasing textures and tastes.  

The creamed corn gives a delightfully sweet crunch while the spongy fish maw absorbs the soup in a lusciously juicy way.  And then there is still the tasty bits of Jin Hua ham and the tasty tendrils of delicately swirled egg.  What a treat for dinner time!

Lychee Fruit Season is Here! 荔枝 - 糯米糍

Lychee season is here!  Yummy yeah!!  The glorious and sexy lychee fruit, beloved by Chinese emperors past, is the herald of real summer here in Hong Kong and the southern China regions.  When one starts to see mounds of these luscious red fruit around you know that 1) the heat is here to stay and 2) that you can start indulging in tasty revels of sun kissed summer fruits.

And of course the Queen of Summer Fruits here is none other than the lovely Lychee fruit, or 荔枝.  And...psst...my fruit vendor told me just the other day that its been a bumper year for the lychee fruit and it's the best crop in terms of sweetest that they've had in many, many years!

Wonton Noodles Mobile Hawker Stall 雲吞麵小販攤檔

One side for making the wonton and storing food supplies and eating implements,
the other side for the broth filled cooking pot and the charcoal brazier beneath

It often fascinates me how much the world has changed in the last, say, six to seven decades.  That sounds like a long time but it really isn't, it encompasses the lives that my parents grew up living (which doesn't really exist anymore.)  Thru the advent of modern technology and science, etc., the world has really changed so much that many of the older generation, like my dear 爸爸, are often times at a loss to cope.  

For myself it's a different kind of problem, I often find a hopeless grey fog in front of me when I try to imagine or reconstruct the way that things used to be done in the past.  I mean how the hell did things get done before the invention of machines that churn out endlessly to meet our every need nowadays?

How, for example, did people make ice cream before ice cream machines?  Or even before electricity for heck sake?!  With such thoughts often in the back of my mind, I was pleasantly surprised the other day when we stumbled upon a display of an old time 1940's Wonton Noodles Mobile Hawker Stall, or  雲吞麵小販攤檔.

Lion's Head Meatball 紅燒獅子頭

Roarrrrr!!  Meatball lovers alert!  Interested in  a light wondrously fluffy tender deliciously tasty pork meatball just dripping with luscious sauce? Well, maybe you'd be surprised to know that this famous Shanghai style Chinese meatball, the Lion's Head Meatball, or 紅燒獅子頭, can probably knock the socks off of its meatball competitors!  The key to this extraordinary Chinese meatball's goodness, I think, is in it's wonderful fluffiness.  Tender tasty almost falling apart lusciousness as you pick a bit of meatball up with your chopsticks.  Yum, yum!