Gift Bearing Huggy Bear Cookies

Just in time for this merry season, we present our latest Christmas cookie, our Gift Bearing Huggy Bear Cookies!  This is one of the slew of Christmas cookies we've made this year and my little girl and I think it's the cutiest of the lot!  Little animal cookies bearing wee gifts in their arms are too cool for school, doncha think dear readers?

Homemade Turkish Delight Candy

I first discovered the mysterious name 'Turkish Delight' when immersed in magical world of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, reading of poor Edmund lost in wickedly wintry Narnia and captivated by the evil White Witch, the Queen of Narnia, after one deliriously delicious bite of Turkish Delight candy.

"Is it dull, Son of Adam, to drink without eating," said the Queen presently.  "What would you like best to eat?"

Turkish Delight, please, your Majesty," said Edmund.

The Queen let another drop fall from her bottle on to the snow, and instantly there appeared a round box, tied with green silk ribbon, which, when opened, turned out to contain several pounds of the best Turkish Delight.  Each piece was sweet and light to the very centre and Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious.  He was quite warm now, and comfortable." -The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

Baked Sweet Potato 烤番薯

Dear readers...winter draws ever nearer.  And as the chill winds of the season sweep over us what should appear on street corners all over Asia but the wonderful street hawkers that sell roasted sweet potato.  OMgosh, the aroma of that roasting sweet potato!  So good!  That hot plump sweet potato is exactly the thing to hold in your chilly hands.  Not to mention that first luscious bite of the creamy, sweet hot potato flesh.  Just the thing to warm you up and put you to rights inside and out!

And if, poor darlings, you don't have a friendly neighborhood sweet potato hawker, don't worry a bit, we're here to save the day!  Cuz, guess what, you can easily make superb baked sweet potato at home that tastes just as good as any you can get from a street vendor. 

Baked sweet potato 烤番薯 is so super simple to make.  And oh so yummy to eat: hot, sweet and creamy.  It just warms the ol' heart, it does.

Best and Easiest Pie Crust Ever

Do you love pie?  At our house we love, love, love us some pie!  There's just something so elegantly yummilicious about scrummy pie fillings neatly tucked into a golden flaky crust.  

The only thing is, pie crust is kinda a bitch to make, imho, what with having to blind bake, dealing with dough shrinkage after the bake, sometimes not flaky enough, sometimes not tender enough, etc.  We've tried all kinds of pie crust recipes until we finally found the ONE!

This is the one and only pie crust recipe that we use anymore.  The Best and Easiest Pie Crust Ever is just that, easy peasy, there's no blind bake and it bakes up perfectly golden, buttery and flaky every single time!  With the holidays just around the corner, get ready to make some pie!

Flat Croissants Dipped in Chocolate

Have y'all heard of these lovelies?  Flat croissants, that's right, completely flattened croissants are all the rage right now!  These flat croissants began in South Korea, then got picked up by some TikToker's and the rest is history.  They are now everywhere, at least in HK.  

Why flatten a croisssant, for gosh's sake, you may be asking.  Indeed, at first, that is what I thought.  Why the heck would anyone want to flatten the darn things after making so much effort to puff it out with layers upon layers.  But after I finally tasted one of these flat croissants I changed my mind!  The many, many layers of the original croissant, when flattened, create a crispy kinda of cookie now wrapped inside a caramelized exterior.  And to top it off many of these flat croissants are further dipped in a flavored coatings, yum!

We decided to recreate these flat croissants in time for my little girl's annual school picnic.  There was a bit of struggle at first but once we got the hang of it the going was pretty easy.  Check out our guide on making flat croissants with all our tips and tricks to make the going smooth and easy as peasy.  Result?  Only totally yummilicious caramel coated crispy on the inside amazingly flat croissants dipped in luscious chocolate and sprinkled with your favorite sprinkles!  Nom, nom...

Fruit Juice Chia Seed Drink

Dear readers, this food story starts with one word: 'regular'.  As I'm sure y'all would know, being 'regular' sometimes can be an annoying problem.  So just add more fiber, amirite?  Easy peasy, amirite?  But what happens when one tries prunes, more veg, more fruit and more fibery food and the 'regular' problem still persists, what is one to do?

And all that jazz led us to this new drink we're making in our house these days because we discovered the amazingness of chia seeds!  Easy and quick to make, this Fruit Juice Chia Seed Drink is super yummilicious and super good for the 'regular' you!

Chicken Congee 生滾雞粥

Another classic congee dish: the comforting Chicken Congee 生滾雞粥, a creamy rice porridge infused through and through with yummilicious chickeny flavor and dotted with lusciously tender chicken pieces. 

Congee 粥 is a traditional Cantonese type of rice porridge, wherein the rice grains are cooked down until deliciously thick and creamy before being served with different meats and aromatics.  This congee is made with the 生滾 method, translated as "raw boiled" method.  Raw ingredients are cooked directly in the congee itself, allowing the flavors of the raw ingredients to permeate the congee.  

We've previously used this method with our fabulous Fish Congee 魚粥.  You'll find that it's an easy way to make a most yummilicious and comforting congee!

Chaoshan Raw Pickled Seafood 潮汕生腌海鲜

More traveling eats!  We’re still got more to talk about the absolutely marvelous food we had on our trip to Chaoshan 潮汕 area of Guangdong 廣東.  Oh dear readers, it was so fabulously food fulfilling!  It’s always so lovely to find yourself in a place where everything you eat is delicious, amirite!?

Pssst...check out our other traveling eats posts from this trip, Shantou Street Food 汕頭街頭美食 and Chaoshan Beef Hotpot 潮汕牛肉火鍋.

So this post is about the Chaoshan speciality, Raw Pickled Seafood 潮汕生腌海鲜.  Fresh, fresh seafood pickled in soy sauce, wine and aromatics is a rare delight.  It’s a straightforward process to make, requiring only soy sauce, aromatics, a touch of oil and a bit of time.  The only and important! trick to raw pickled seafood is that the seafood has to be super duper fresh.

We had heard about the famous Chaoshan raw pickled seafood of course.  Oh, how I had drooled away when watching the first season of Flavorful Origins documentary series featuring Chaoshan cuisine.  Omgoshdarnnitall!!  Pickled crabs!  Pickled shrimps!  Pickled every kind of shellfish!  So amazing the raw pickled seafood of Chaoshan!  

Chocolate Lava Mooncake 巧克力流心月餅

Oh chocolate, oh chocolate, how much do I love thee, let me count the ways...

So many ways amirite, fellow chocolate lovers?!  I love chocolate in everything, be it sweet or savory.  Nom, nom...can never get enough of that dark chocolately goodness...  So it was that this year for Mid Autumn Festival 中秋節 I decided that we needed some chocolate to celebrate the moon!

Thus was the birth of a new styled mooncake, a Chocolate Lava Mooncake 巧克力流心月餅, a concoction of moist chocolate flavored filling with a secret heart of molten chocolate ganache, all wrapped in a tender golden skin.  Wasn't too sure how it would turn out, with the lava center and all, but OMgosh it was fantastic.  We were tickled pink with this chocolatey mooncake!  And the center, it was all melty!  Yeah chocolate chocolate!!

Chaoshan Crab Congee 潮汕砂锅粥

Oh, so pretty, amirite?!  We've had lovely, lovely seafood on our minds after our recent trip to Chaoshan 潮汕 where we feasted, among other things, on marinated raw seafood of all kinds, omgosh, sooo good.  (We're still writing that amazing experience up so stay tuned.)  So yummilicious seafood been on our minds alot lately.  

Inspired by our trip and the wonderful food consumed we made this simple congee that is a delectable treat for all seafood lovers.  Just fresh crab and some rice and you're on your way to this authentic super duper Chaoshan Crab Congee 潮汕砂锅粥!

How to Eat Fresh Lotus Seeds 新鮮蓮子

Dear readers, can you guess what this is?  An alien landscape, you say?  Why yes, it does look quite like the weirdly pocked surface of some far off, mysterious planet.  With a gleaming round space pod just landed in the middle of the bumpy green landscape.  

As you've undoubtedly guessed already, this is not at all a glimpse of a far off world .  Rather this is the image of something close at hand, a rather common earth occurrence, its humble beauty perhaps taken for granted.  Tis the closeup of the seed pod of the wonderfully multipurposed lotus flower.  We recently got to try the fresh lotus seed, plucked straight from the pod, for the first time.  Man-oh, it was divine!  Seriously, I would have never guessed that it was so good. 

Pork Floss Cheung Fun 肉鬆腸粉

We’ve made this little dim sum treat before, once using fresh shrimp fillling and once using the dried shrimp and spring onions.  This version is a cheung fun rice roll twist that I discovered online and had to try as I love, love, love Chinese dried pork floss.  Oh it was as good as I hoped it would be, that deliciously intense meaty filling packed the slightest crunch, contrasting wonderfully with the slippery rice sheet wrapping.

These Pork Floss Cheung Fun rice rolls 肉鬆腸粉 are simple to make once you get the trick of making the rather delicate rice wrapping.  But no worries, we’ll show you how to do it!

Shantou Street Food 汕頭街頭美食

More food adventures from our recent trip to the Chaoshan area!  The first night of our trip we arrived in Shantou 汕頭*.  Due to a typhoon affecting the area our speed rail trip was longer than expected.  Arriving, we were tired and hangry as heck!  Luckily we spotted the most gorgeous sight a hungry traveler can see, the gleam of food trucks serving up local street food lighting up the night!  

It was pretty late and the city streets were quiet.  But the crossroads where we spotted parked food trucks was bustling with action.  Most late night food seekers zipped over on scooters while a few drove cars.  We joined in the fun, circling the trucks, sniffing the air, checking out all the food on offer.  Oh man, everything smelled and looked so good!  In no time at all we were on our way back to the hotel, loaded down with yummilicious bags of Shantou street food!!

*Note: The Chaoshan area 潮汕 is located in the province of Guangdong.  Chaoshan area consists of the cities of Chaozhou 潮州, Jieyang 揭阳 and Shantou 汕頭.  For this trip we went first to Shantou and then to Chaozhou.

Chaoshan Beef Hotpot 潮汕牛肉火鍋

Okay, this one was a most pleasant surprise.  We took a trip to Chaoshan 潮汕 and were treated to the local food star the Chaoshan beef hotpot 潮汕牛肉火鍋.  When I first heard about this I have to admit that I rolled my eyes a bit.  Whatever.  I’ve had plenty of beef in hotpots before.  Delicious but how ‘special’ could a beef hot pot be?  

Well, I was totally sucker punched in this one.  We sat down to a Chaoshan style all beef hotpot and it was the most delicious beef hotpot we’ve ever had!!!  I had never even dreamed that beef could be so interestingly yummilicious, each beef cut brimming with flavor and its own unique texture.  It was a powerful food experience, one that I’ll never forget and am already longing to taste again.

Eight Treasures Winter Melon Soup 八寶冬瓜盅

This spectacular traditional Chinese soup Eight Treasures Winter Melon Soup 八寶冬瓜盅 is not only beautiful and decadently delicious but also most excellent for relieving of the summer heat.  The soup is made using all parts of the winter melon: the flesh as an ingredient in the soup and the hollowed out melon itself as the soup 'tureen'.  

With a large sized winter melon this soup makes for a knock your socks off presentation, soup served in a carved and hollowed out melon 'tureen', so cool!  For the home version you can nowadays find the mini winter melon at markets.  We used these to make individual soup tureens of winter melon soup.

Chinese Preserved Plum Lime Soda 話梅檸檬水

This homemade concoction has to be one of the most refreshing drinks ever!  One long slurp of this Chinese Preserved Plum Lime Soda 話梅檸檬水 and you'll be sighing out a long happy ahhhhhh...  It's sooo hot here in HK, endlessly hot, and I'll bet it's like that everywhere these days.  So try out this easy to make traditional southern Chinese summer drink and slough off some of that heat!

Butterfly Pea Flower Drink 蝴蝶豌豆花茶

Goshdarnnit, it's been so hot these days.  Not only in HK but everywhere...sigh.  No fear, HK Cookery to the rescue, here's a refreshing and beautiful drink for you to revitalize your body from the heat!

Are you not tempted?  Isn't this Butterfly Pea Flower Drink 蝴蝶豌豆花茶 just the most sublime color?  Just looking at it makes you feel a bit cooler, no?  This totally natural color is from the amazing butterfly pea flower 蝴蝶豌豆花.  This little blue flower provides color, is packed with antioxidants and is said to work as a mood enhancer, busting the stress and anxiety right outta your life.

Fermented Gooseberries

Okay, this whole food adventure happened because of a show about food that led me to a book that is all about fermentation!  The show that I stumbled on was "The Bear", the quirkiest, craziest show about chefs? restaurant business? food?   Umm...not actually sure but it was totally fun to watch.  

Anyways at one point one of the restaurant employees wanders in totally engrossed with a thick cook book in hand.  A quick screen grab and some furious searching later, I realized it was a real life cookbook, The Noma Guide to Fermentation.  Wow.  I had to get my grubby little hands on that book!

Once I finally managed to wrangle a copy of the book I gobbled away at it and here is our first 'making' from the book, fermented gooseberries, tangy little bursts of intense flavor and texture.  I've never pickled fruit before.  Aren't they beautiful?!

Mangosteen Fruit

Another fruity post!  I  know, I know.  We've gone completely fruity!  But how could I resist?  The  tropical mangosteen is in season now!  We've seen heaps and heaps of these ball shaped purple fruit with its cute green hat everywhere recently.  This small and humble looking fruit hides a most delicious taste sensation inside, delicate white juicy flesh, lusciously sweet and tangy, reminiscent of the flavors of peach, pineapple and lychee.  Taste buds say 'Wow!'

Homemade Passion Fruit Soda

Deliriously delicious passion fruit soda!  Heady tropical scent and flavors burst out in this most refreshing concoction and it's so easy to make!  The best thing to do with passion fruit if you ask me.  And super duper easy to make it right at home!

Homemade Passion Fruit Syrup

Ooolaalaa!!  We're really excited about this one!  The fruits of the warmer months are starting to appear on the store shelves and we're going completely fruity over it all!  On an impulse I bought some passion fruit (they smelled so good!) and then didn't know what to do with them cuz they were pretty sour to eat straight.  So I left the fruit in a basket until the other day when I had a 'lightbulb'.  Why not make a syrup like we do with pomegranate (see our fabulous grenadine syrup recipe)?  

And so we made passion fruit syrup (it was so easy!) and the result was just as fabulous than our previous favorite grenadine syrup!  Passion fruit syrup infuses with the heady, exotic and sexy tropical scent and flavor of the passion fruit into a gorgeous orange fruit syrup that is out of this world.  It's so good that I had quickly to scour the neighborhood for more passion fruit due to immediate strong consumer demand (i.e. my little girl's demands ;)  Ahh...the joys of fruit...

Sweet Tofu Skin Smoothie 腐竹糖水沙冰

This smooth, creamy, ice-ilicious Sweet Tofu Skin Smoothie 腐竹糖水沙冰 is the most unexpected delight.  Made with old style traditional Chinese ingredients, it is transformed with a modern method of treatment into a powerfully enjoyable and addictive treat.  

We discovered this neato drink at a local restaurant that serves HK traditional cha chaan teng 茶餐廳 foods.  But I'm pretty sure that this is no traditional HK treat.  But no matter, all is fair in love and food.  This smoothie was absolutely yummilicious, just the thing to cool off and soothe away a hot day.  We have recreated this Sweet Tofu Skin Smoothie at home for all our dear readers to enjoy as well.  Cold, sweetly creamy, tofu-y, this smoothie is really far out!