*** No more update on this blog for a long time ***

I am quite disappointed at Google and their whole system. Therefore I have decided to stop this blog, at least for the coming few months. I am considering to post my recipes/dishes at another website.

For this post, I would like to share with you a few pictures of the dishes that my mom and brother have cooked. My mom specially took those pictures for my blog and insisted to the fact that all the dishes, even the burger bread, are made from scratch. As she puts so much effort, I thought that it would be nice to post the pictures of her cooking. If I have a new site, I will very likely post the recipes of those dishes.

Until then, there will be no more new update on this blog !Thanks for all the people who have followed and supported my blog. If you wish to know any recipe, you are most welcome to contact me.

Here are the final pictures on this blog:

I hope you had enjoyed my blog !

Sea Cucumber with veggies

Today has been an extremely busy day for me, with unforecasted events and some problems to deal from long distance. With this busy schedule, I did not have a chance to cook much nor take cooking picture. So my mother told me to write about her cooking for today's blog. Since my mom knew about my blog, she has started to take picture of every of her cooking, making my brother to tease her. One of her latest dish is to stir fry "Hoi Sam" with Chinese mushroom and garden pea. If you are not Chinese or if you are not familiar to my phonetic writing style, you would wonder what is "Hoi Sam". "Hoi Sam" is the cantonese word for Sea Cucumber.
The recipe of my mother is very simple. I have not tasted this dish using her recipe but I believe it should be tasty and decent according to the list of ingredients. So here is the recipe for "Stir Fry Sea Cucumber With Veggies".

Ingredients:
300 gram Sea Cucumber
5 Chinese mushroom
10 garden peas (Some people would call it "Holland peas")
1 tablespoon of chopped ginger
a bit of oil


Seasoning:
1 red chili
1 tablespoon of chicken stock
1 teaspoon of Hoi Sin sauce
1 teaspoon of salt

Procedure:
1) Boil the Chinese mushrooms until cooked and parboil the garden pea. When it is done, take it out and set aside.

2) Heat a wok to medium high heat. When the wok is warm, add the oil and the chopped gingers. Stir few seconds then add the Hoi Sam into the wok. Stir fry for 2 to 3 minutes then add the mushrooms and garden pea into the wok. Stir fry for 2 minutes.

3) Add the seasoning into the wok and stir fry for 1 minute then switch off the heat.

As you can see, this recipe in itself quite simple. However, it takes quite some time to prepare and clean the dried Hoi Sam. That is why I usually prefer to eat Hoi Sam at Chinese restaurants. There are several steps to prepare and clean the dried Hoi Sam. An other alternative is to buy the prepared frozen Hoi Sam, however the quality of the frozen ones are usually lower. So if you have to cook Hoi Sam, I would advise you to buy the dried ones.

Enjoy it !

Steamed Eel With Bean Curd

While last Sunday 12 June was father's day in Belgium (the country where I grew up - see my post of 12 June), today is father's day in most countries. Chinese restaurants are usually fully booked on this day and usually have a special father's day menu that consists of several dishes. Among these, the most common one is a steamed fish, which is healthy, light and delicious. Even me, being not a great fan of fish, I like to eat those steamed fishes. However, if I eat a steamed fish, I prefer to cook myself this dish as the restaurant usually only offers limited choices or they are not always able to "remove the stinky smell/flavor" of the fish. When I cook fish, I often use cod or swordfish as they do not taste nor smell too strongly. But, recently I have discovered a steamed fish recipe from a famous Chinese chef (Mr. Chow) using eel. Except sushi, I rarely eat eel as I usually find the taste and smell a bit too strong. To my surprise, I find this dish quite simple to cook and tasty.  Therefore, today, I would like to share with you this dish, called "Steamed Eel With Bean Curd In Black Bean Sauce".  I have adjusted the recipe of Chef Chow, in order to make the smell and flavor less "fishy" and the fish meat more tasty.
Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
- 1 Soft Bean Curd
- 1/2 Eel

Sauce:
- 1 tablespoon Water
- 2 teaspoon Black Bean sauce
- 1 teaspoon Dark Soy Sauce
- 1.5 teaspoon Chopped Ginger
- 2 teaspoon Spring Onion (chopped)
- 1 teaspoon Crushed Garlic
- 1 teaspoon Red Chili Shreds
- 1 teaspoon  Oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Oyster Sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon Sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon of Chinese Cooking Wine
- a pinch of Corn Starch
- 1 teaspoon of Sesame Oil
- a pinch of Pepper

Procedure:
1) Remove the bone of the eel. Parboil the eel with water and scale the slime with a knife.

2) Cut the bean curd into slices of 0.5 inch thick. Place the bean curd slices on a plate.

3) Make some pattern on the eel meat and cut into pieces. Place on top of the bean curd.

4) Mix the sauce well and pour it on top of the eel.

5) Steam over boiling water for 8 to 10 minutes.

Enjoy it !

Chicken Wings Stuffed Shrimp Paste

Today has been a quite busy Saturday for me. Since I did not want to spend too much time cooking and I still have some frozen chicken wings in my refrigerator, I decided to cook fried chicken wings. I use a chicken wing recipe from a famous Chinese Chef, Mr. Chow, called the Chicken Wings Stuffed Shrimp Paste.  However I have adjusted slightly his recipe to make it much more tasty as well as more simple.
So here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
- 4 Chicken Wings
- Some Shrimp Paste (shrimps that are minced until it becomes a paste. Add a bit of salt, peppers and a bit cornstarch flour. Make sure that you use enough shrimp in order to fill the 4 chicken wings. I usually use about 250 gram of shrimps).
- 2 Chinese Water Chestnuts

Seasonings:
- 5 tablespoon Vinegar
- 1 tablespoon Dark Soy Sauce
- 1 tablespoon honey

Procedure:
1) Peel the Chinese water chestnuts and chop. Mix it well with shrimp paste.

2) Remove the bone from the chicken wings and stuff with shrimp paste.

3) Coat the surface of the chicken wing with seasonings.

4) Heat wok at medium high temperature and deep fry the chicken wings to golden brown.

I usually find the chicken wings stuffed shrimp paste enough tasty so I savor those without any sauce.

Enjoy it.

Pho

After having eaten some Chinese and Japanese meal these past days, I wanted to eat a Vietnamese dish. As the weather forecasted some drop in temperature and rain for today, I thought to cook Pho for tonight's dinner since I usually like to eat Pho when the weather is a bit colder. So in the morning, I took various beef meats out of my freezer as I planned to cook it in the afternoon. However, there was no rain nor any drop of temperature today. Since all the various beef meats were already all unfrozen, this leaves me no choice but to cook the Pho dish today.

For people, who do not know what is Pho, here is a brief explanation:
Pho is a famous Vietnamese beef noodle soup, served in a bowl with a specific cut of white rice noodles in clear beef broth, with slim cuts of beef (steak, fatty flank, lean flank, brisket, meatball and even tendon).

To cook Pho, I use the top secret recipe that my mom taught me couple years ago. She always told me that her recipe for Pho is the authentic Vietnamese way to cook and not much people know about it. While I will not take everything my mom says for granted, I have no doubt in her words regarding this authentic recipe. Having travelled a lot around the world, I have had the occasion to eat Pho at several Vietnamese restaurants in Europe (Brussels, The Hague, Paris, Antibes, Cannes, Monaco), North America (Toronto, Houston, Pittsburgh, New York, Madison, Chicago, few island of Hawaii and few cities in New Jersey) and Asia.
I have also seen several recipe for this dish throughout the internet. Personally I think the majority of the Pho recipes on internet do not taste the authentic Pho, and at times, I even wonder why some people post those mediocre recipes. Of course, there are exception but even those exceptions do not meet my standard. I have seen some Pho recipes on internet where the quality of the recipes is OK to eat but I personally would not eat those "OK" Pho. One of my friends used to say that I am picky and having too high standard, but after tasting the Pho I made, he always judges the Pho from any Vietnamese restaurant using my Pho as the benchmark ! It is quite funny to see.

Although the Pho my mom taught me is already the best one I have ever tasted, I still wanted to make it even better. So last year, I have improved her authentic recipe by adding just one simple ingredient, which I could only find in The Netherlands so far. My friend says that my Pho tastes slightly better than the one my mother makes as it is a bit more tasty than the one from my mom. If my dad would be still alive and hear this, he would laugh and says "of course, the student should always become better than the master otherwise there is no improvement in our society."
It is pity that my dad would never be able to taste my Pho cooking. I believe he would love it and say something funny to tease back my mom, which will make me laugh.

So the above picture is a bowl of Pho that I have cooked today from 2 pm to 8 pm. With this amount of cooking time, you can imagine how tasteful is the soup base as the flavor of all the ingredients has been slowly cooked and well dispersed into the soup.
Although the weather was still as warm as yesterday, I still savored every bite of the Pho. I particularly enjoyed this dish with a light breeze coming through my patio door.
Every time my friends eat Pho at my house, they would ask me this top secret recipe. I usually feel sorry to tell them that I cannot give it to them since my mother has passed this on to me and I would only pass this top secret recipe only on to very close friends that I consider as my family. So far, I have passed it on to a very limited amount of close friends who have unconditionally supported me throughout all these years.
Although I cannot disclose my top secret Pho recipe, I would like to recommend you the following two best places to eat Pho:
1) Restaurant Tau Bay in Houston
(8150 SW Fwy, Ste T, Houston, TX 77074. Neighborhoods: Sharpstown, Westwood)

2) Pho 14 in Paris
(129 Avenue de Choisy 75013 Paris 13)

Pho at those restaurants taste good, almost as good as the one my mother or I make. If I have to choose between Tau Bay and Pho 14, I think I prefer to the Pho from Tau Bay as it tastes slightly superior. Furthermore Tau Bay restaurant is more clean than Pho 14 restaurant and the waiters at Tau Bay are much more pleasant.

One thing to note, throughout this post, I have written Pho in a simplified version without any accent as all my friends know the name of this dish by "Pho". However the correct way to write this dish is Phở. 
If you are not living in Houston or Paris, then I would really encourage you to find a good Vietnamese restaurant nearby your area and just give it a try !

Pâtés chauds

Some days ago, I told my mother that I had started to write a blog regarding delicious food around the world. My mother immediately asked me if I had already written about the famous Vietnamese appetizer, called "Pâtés Chauds", that she and my brother usually make whenever they host guests at home or whenever they need to bring some dishes at parties or important events. If you have read and followed my blog, you already know the answer is "no".
So when I told her "no", she immediately started to tell me the stories behind this dish and the outside look of this dish, as if I have never eaten her famous appetizer. Although I have been living in The Netherlands, every time that I would visit her, I always saw my brother making this dish. So of course, I know about this dish but I thought that it was from French cuisine, as my brother can cook quite well French and Italian dishes. Actually, few years ago, before my brother even started to cook this dish, I have eaten this very similar appetizer when I was on vacation in Antibes (South of France).
When my mother realized that I was surprized about the origin of this dish, she started to tell me the stories about the Pâtés Chauds and all the events she and my brother attended and had to make this appetizer.
The next day, I received an e-mail from my brother attaching few pictures of the Pâtés Chauds they have made. My brother also took his time to write me the full recipe.
Although Pâtés Chauds is not in my top 20 favorite appetizers, I have decided to introduce to you this dish, as my mother loves it so much that she kept advertizing it. I am sure she must have nagged my brother to e-mail me the recipe. Actually one of my friend will be quite happy when he sees the below recipe as I know that he enjoyed eating those pâtés chauds at my mother's house.
So for my mother's marketing campaign about this dish, my brother's time, and my friend, here below is the recipe for the pâtés chauds. I have copied and pasted the original recipe (in French). But don't worry, I will put the English translation in pink color.

Pâtés chauds (20 pièces) = Warm Meat Pie (20 pieces)

Ingredients:

A

****

1 oignon haché = 1 chopped onion

1 échalote hachée = 1 chopped shallot

3 gousses d'ail hachées = 3 cloved of garlic

250g de spiringue de porc hachée ou viande hachée porc/veau = As I am not fan of pork, I rarely even buy pork or order pork dish in English speaking countries. Unfortunately, this word is even not in my Robert & Collins dictionary. So I don't know the English translation for "spiringue". It is some parts of the porc that you need to mince/grind in order to obtain ground meat. "Viande hachée porc/veau" means "ground meat pork/veal".

For those who really want to find "spiringue de porc", here is a picture of spiringue de porc:

3/4 teaspoon sel = 3/4 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons poivre = 2 teaspoons peppers

1 teaspoon sucre = 1 teaspoon sugar

1 blanc d'oeuf à mélanger à la viande = 1 egg white to mix with the meat

B

****

de la pâte feuillée = puff pastry (an other name for this pastry is flaky pastry)

2 jaunes d'oeuf pour dorer la pâte = 2 egg yolk to brown the pastry

Procedure:

1. mélanger les ingrédients A = Mix the ingredients under A

2. prendre la pâte feuillée et couper des rectangles de 10x5cm = Take the puff pastry and cut into rectangles of size 10x5 centimeter.

3. déposer sur la première moitié du rectangle de la viande = Lay the meat on the first half of the rectangle

4. rabattre le rectangle en deux pour faire un carré = Close/fold the rectangle to make it a square

5. fermer en pressant les 4 côtés = Close well by squeezing the 4 sides

6. à l'aide d'une fourchette, faire des traits sur les 4 côtés = with the help of a fork, draw some lines on the 4 sides

7. préchauffer le four à 180°C = preheat the oven at 180 degree celsus

8. déposer les pâtés chauds sur une plaque sur du papier de cuisson (papier sulfurisé) et badigeonner les pâtés chauds de jaune d'oeuf pour dorer = lay a greaseproof paper on a medium cooking sheet. In North America, greaseproof paper is known as parchment paper. Then lay the pâtés chauds on top of the greaseproof paper/parchment paper (which is now on top of the cooking sheet). Then brush some egg yolk on the pâtés chauds to brown it

9. enfourner dans le four et cuire pendant 25 min = put these in the oven and cook for 25 minutes

10. sortir les pâtés chauds du four, les retirer de la plaque et les mettre sur une grille = Remove the pâtés chauds out of the cooking sheet and put them on a grill rack.

I hope that my translation skill is enough good for you to understand how to make these pâtés chauds. Although my mother insisted that it is a Vietnamese dish, I still have some doubts as I have seen those pâtés chauds served in South of France and even in North America where they call it "meat pie". I let you judge whether it should be a Vietnamese dish.

Enjoy it !

Tropical Avocado Eel Roll

With this warm weather, I like to eat really light dish for dinner. Among the light dishes, my favorite one is sushi. Within the wide variety of sushi, Dragon roll, Spider roll, and Metropolitan roll are my all time favorite. Since those rolls are quite popular in North America, you will find an extensive list of recipes if you type on any search engine. Therefore I would like to introduce to you a less well known sushi roll that tastes as delicious as those famous roll and that is perfect for this warm and humid day. This roll is known as the Tropical Avocado Eel Roll.
The Tropical Avocado Eel roll is a roll of cucumber, mango, shrimp, caviar that are topped with avocado and roasted eel and served with lychee wasabi dip.
I like so much the special, refreshing and tropical taste of this roll that I have tried to reproduce this dish. Here is my recipe for the Tropical Avocado Eel Roll.

Ingredients:
- Cucumber
- Mango
- Shrimp (about 10 medium size)
- Tempura Flour (about 1 cup)
- 1 Avocado
- Roasted Eel
- Nori
- Sushi Rice (about 2 cups)
- Japanese Vinegar
- Toasted White Sesame seed
- Japanese Mayonnaise
- Lychee sirup
- Eel sauce
- Wasabi
- Sushi mat (if you use a sushi mat, put a thicken transparent cling so that the rice will not stick on the mat)

Procedure
1) Cook the Sushi Rice

2) In the meantime, slice cucumber and mango into thin long sticks also peel the avocado in thin layers. Put them aside.

3) Then do the Tempura Shrimp:
3.1.) Clean the shrimps and remove the shell of the shrimps. If the shrimp contains the head, remove it.

Remove the black line running down the back of the shrimp by using a small, sharp knife: make a shallow cut along the length of the black line, then lift it out.  After having removed the black line for all the shrimps, put them under cold water to make sure everything is cleaned. Pat them dry with a kitchen towel.

3.2.) Prepare the tempura batter. Either make it from scratch or buy a bag of tempura flour. If you buy the tempura flour, just follow the direction mentioned on the bag to make the tempura batter.

3.3.) Heat up vegetable oil (I usually use Olive oil) in a wok over medium high temperature.

3.4) When the oil is ready, dip the shrimps in the batter. Then gently drop them into the oil. Lightly fry about 2 to 4 minutes per side (this really depends on the heat you are using).

3.5) Remove the tempura shrimps from the wok and put them on a paper towel to remove as much oil as possible from them. Put them aside.

4) Roasted eel are sold in Japanese supermarkets in refrigerated or frozen packages. Re-grill the eel in an oven. (Before putting the eel in the oven, you can brush it with some eel sauce). When it is done, slice them into thin layer and set them aside.

5) When the rice is done, put it all in a big bowl. Pour few spoon of Sushi Vinegar. I usually use this Sushi Vinegar that I used to buy in Chinese supermarkets in The Hague (The Netherlands):

Unfortunately I could not find this brand in North America. Usually the sushi vinegar in North America is tasteless so if you buy those tasteless sushi vinegar, you need to add a bit of salt and sugar into the bowl of rice. Mix all well until all the sugar and salt are melted.

6) Spread the rice on the nori sheet, and spread some white sesame all over the rice. Then flip it over the mat so that you see the nori sheet. Spread some mayonnaise on the nori (not too much mayonnaise otherwise it will be quite heavy !). Then spread the caviar all over the nori then lay the cucumber and mango sticks you have precutted, and line up some tempura shrimps.

7) Roll it inside-out style and cut the endings, but leave the rest whole for now. Although the below video is nothing to do with this recipe, it is still nice to see and it may be helpful for people who do not how how to roll it inside-out style.

8) Cover the top of the roll with the layers of avocado you made with the peeler, and use the bamboo mat to tighten it to the roll.

9) Carefully spread some roasted eel on the top side of the roll.

10) Cut the sushi roll into pieces. You can cut sushi any way you like but the most common method is to cut in the middle then sides. With each next cut the knife will slower and slower slice through sushi as it is covered in sushi rice. Wipe the knife and wet it. Repeat this step for each roll or more.

11) Make the Lychee Wasabi sauce:
2 tablespoon of lychee sirup + 1/2 teaspoon of eel sauce + add a pinch of wasabi. Mix all.


12) Spread the Lychee Wasabi sauce in a diagonal on a plate. Then spread some soy sauce slightly over the Lychee Wasabi sauce. Then place the cut sushi roll on the plate.

It takes some time and patience to make this dish. But the taste of it is so special that it is worth the effort ! It is a nice light dish to savor with some ice tea at the lawn during a warm summer evening. I believe that your guest will be amazed by this sushi roll.


Enjoy it.

Imperial Clam Chicken

The past few months have been quite challenging. However, through this difficult time and especially these past few days, I have seen how caring and genuine all my friends are.
Yesterday, some friends told me that they feel sorry that they could not give me birthday gifts while some other feel guilty for not being able to visit me more often before my trip. Even if I have said to them that my birthday is not a big deal, some of them still feel bad.
There is no doubt in my mind that they care a lot for me. Caring cannot be measured by the amount of gift or time or visit or conversation someone would give me. Caring is from the heart, even one tiny word or intention is enough. For example, I have friends that I haven't seen for a decade but no matter how busy we are, we always check on each other time to time and would not hesitate to help each other even from long distance.
Actually just some simple sentences like "hi, how are you?" or "still busy? don't overload yourself with work." are enough to show their care and good intention towards me. Unfortunately, nowadays, some people do not understand the true meaning of caring and just assess the caring of a person towards another person by the amount of gift or time or visit he/she would give to the other person.
So I want to say to all my friends that I know they care for me very much and would like to take this chance to thank all my friends, who have supported me, advised me, cared for me, helped me and stood by my side throughout all these years. Not all my friends live in the same city or country or even continent. But one thing they have in common is that I know that they will always be available for me at any time I need them. To show my appreciation to this true friendship, today I would like to show how to cook the "Chinese Imperial Clam Chicken", deriving its name very likely from the fact that this dish was served to the Chinese emperor. Only good and superior dishes were served to the emperor. In my heart, all my friends are like an emperor who deserve only the very best in their life. By now, my friends should understand how blessed I feel to have them in my life. So enough said, here is the recipe for the Imperial Clam Chicken.

Ingredients:
- Half of a chicken
- Lettuce

Seasonings:
- 2 Tablespoon Clam Sauce
- 1 teaspoon Sugar
- 2 teaspoon Corn Starch
- 1 teaspoon Rice Wine
- 1 teaspoon Garlic
- Few slices of Ginger
- 1 Stalk of Spring Onion (chopped)

Procedure:
1) Mix all the ingredients under Seasonings.

2) Spread the mixture evenly onto the surface of the chicken as well as inside the belly of the chicken.

3) Steam the chicken for about 30 minutes until done.

4) Take the chicken out and cut into pieces. Then place on a plate.


5) Pour all the sauce and set aside.

6) Blanch the lettuce until done. Then place the lettuce on the plate with the chicken. The lettuce, which is a nice combination to eat with the chicken, gives an enjoyable presentation.

7) Boil the chicken sauce that you have set aside (in step #5) with a bit of corn starch solution. Then pour the sauce onto the chicken.

Enjoy it !

Prawns in Garlic Tomato sauce

Seafood is my all time favorite food. When I do not have much time and I still want to eat seafood, I would usually cook an easy seafood dish. One of the most easy seafood dish that my friends and I like to eat is my sauté of tempura prawns in garlic tomato sauce.

What I like about this recipe is the light crispiness of the tempura prawns combined with the garlic tomato sauce. The tomato and garlic, which enhance the sweet & salty flavor, particularly opens appetite. 

Ingredient:

- 250 gram prawns (about 7 prawns, depending on the size)

- 1 garlic clove finely minced

- Garlic Tomato Sauce: When I have time, I make the sauce from scratch by using sugar, soy sauce, garlic cloves finely minced, tomatoes, tomatoes paste, salted chili peppers, salt, cornstarch, water and honey. When I make this sauce, I usually make it in big quantity and divide the sauce between small containers to put in the freezer. So when I know that I will make this dish in evening, I usually take one small container out of the freezer in the morning. But when I am busy, I just buy the Garlic Tomato sauce from Lee Kum Kee. I would advise you to buy this sauce from Lee Kum Kee to save some time, at least for the first time you make this dish. If you really love this dish, then you may try to make the garlic tomato sauce from scratch.

You can usually buy this Garlic Tomato sauce at Chinese supermarkets:

- Batter to make tempura prawn: When I have time, I make the batter from scratch ( (1 egg, about 1.5 cup ice water, and just a bit more than 1.5 cup flour mixed together). To save your time, I would advise you to buy tempura flour. You can usually find tempura flour in Japanese and Chinese supermarkets. There are several brands depending on the country where you live. I usually use this tempura flour:

Procedure:

1) Clean the prawn and remove the shell of the prawn but leave the head. 

Then check to see if there is a black line running down the back of the prawn. This is the intestinal tract. Remove this black line by using a small, sharp knife: make a shallow cut along the length of the black line, then lift it out.  After having removed the black line for all the prawns, put the prawns under cold water to make sure everything is cleaned. Then pat them dry with a kitchen towel.

2) Prepare the tempura batter. Either make it from scratch or buy a bag of tempura flour. If you buy the tempura flour, just follow the direction mentioned on the bag to make the tempura batter.

3) Heat up vegetable oil (I usually use Olive oil) in a wok over medium high temperature.

4) When the oil is ready, dip the prawns in the batter. Then gently drop them into the oil. Lightly fry about 2 to 4 minutes per side (this really depends on the heat you are using).

5) Remove the tempura prawns from the wok and put them on a paper towel to remove as much oil as possible from them.

6) When you have finished to fry all the prawns, take another wok. Heat medium-high this wok. When the wok is warm, add just a bit of oil (about 1 teaspoon). When the oil is also warm, drop 1 clove of garlic that is finely minced and the tempura prawns. Stir for just a few seconds then add the "garlic tomato sauce" (either from Lee Kum Kee or from the one you have made from scratch). Stir for about 1 minute (medium heat). Then it is ready to serve.

The tempura prawns in the garlic tomato sauce is so tasteful that I would advise you to cook a big quantity of Chinese white rice to accompany and balance of its flavor.

Enjoy it !

Durian

In memory of my most beloved dad that will always be in my heart.

12 June is a special day for me, a bit bitter sweet and strange as well. Most people, who know me, would probably think that it is something to do with my birthday.
Actually I have never made my birthday a big deal. As a child & teenager, I was always busy with studying for my exams; while as an adult, I was either overloaded with work or travelling away from home and couldn't celebrate it.
However, one thing has never changed: No matter where I was and how busy I was, my dad always managed to find me, just to wish me a Happy Birthday. However, last year, with the time difference between the city I was and the city my dad lived, he over-slept and didn't call me on the agreed time, so he left me a Happy Birthday voicemail. He promised me that next year (i.e. 2011) he would call me on time and make sure to talk to me directly in order to wish me a Happy Birthday. Unfortunately, my dad would never be able to keep this promise, nor his plan to travel with me.
Beside my birthday, today is also father's day in Belgium, the country where I grew up and where my dad was laid to rest. Although we do not really celebrate father's day in our family, I would sometimes give him some small gifts. I think if my dad would be still alive today, he would ask me an i-phone 4th generation with as much storage capacity as possible.
So it is the first time that my birthday and father's day fall on the same day, but it is also the first time that my dad is not around.
In memory of my dad, today I would first like to introduce to everyone a fruit that both my dad and I love very much. It is actually the only fruit that my dad really like to eat. This fruit, as displayed below, is called DURIAN.

If you do a google search on "durian", you will find an extensive list of results. So I will just give here a brief information about this fruit. Durian is very famous in South East Asia and is often called the "king of fruits". Durian is very unique for its huge size and distinctive odour, taste and thorn covered husk. While some people, like my dad and me, are addicted to durian, other cannot even stand the smell.
Although my dad was not a fan of sweet things, he loved to eat any desert that contained durian, especially my mom's durian cake. This durian cake is actually a bavarois cake that combines a "Gâteau Génoise" and  1 kg of real durian. The below picture shows the durian cake my mom made:

This cake is actually quite a heaven for durian lovers. I have tried to make this cake following the recipe of my mom two times and it was quite a success. Even the dad of my best friend, who never compliments anyone, say that it is "extremely good".

Two years ago, I have found a famous "Durian Pancake" made from fresh durian everyday at a Chinese desert restaurant in Canada. It is so famous and popular that you need to pre-order this dish before you go to the restaurant. This desert is really unforgettably delicious ! I wish my dad could have tasted this durian pancake. I am sure he would loved it.

If you have never tasted durian, you should really give it a try. If you can overcome the odour and the texture, I believe that you will also fall in love with this wonderful "king of fruits" !!!

Deep Fried Soft Shell Crab

One of my very favorite appetizer is the deep fried soft shell crab. Outside China, this dish can be found in some Chinese/Shanghai restaurants in New York, Toronto and Vancouver. I love so much this appetizer that when I am not in those cities, I even sometimes dream about the crispiness of the shells of the crabs combined with the creamy & soft meat that just melt in my mouth.
Recently I have had the occasion to visit some Chinese restaurants that offer this dish. However I have been quite disappointed with the outcome: it was either too oily or oversauced. It was not anymore like the one I tasted the very first time. At some restaurants, there was a clear disporportion between the batter and the soft shell crab: I could not even see any piece of soft shell crabs !
So I guess that if I want to eat a good crispy soft shell crab, I would need to cook myself. After researching and doing some experiments by combining a few recipes that I have found for this dish, here is the best recipe for deep fried soft shell crabs, crispy from outside and melting in the mouth from inside ! The soft shell crab in itself tastes so good that I find it really pity to cover this wonderful flavor with some heavy sauces.
What I like about this recipe is the simplicity of the ingredients & spices that just help to lift up & balance the flavor of the deep fried soft shell crabs, without covering its true taste ! So there is no need for any sauce to savor this appetizer !

Ingredients:
 - 4 Soft shell crabs
- Half onion cut in small cubic pieces
- 1/4 of Green Peper cut in small cubic pieces
- 1/4 of Red Peper cut in small cubic pieces
- 1 small red chili cut in pieces
- 1.5 teaspoon Pepper Salt powder (more if you like more salty)
- Oil

To make the batter

-  2/3 cup rice flour

- 1/3 cup cornstarch

- 1 teaspoon salt (a bit less if you don't want less salty)

- 1.5 teaspoons baking soda

Procedure:

1) Clean the four soft shell crabs. In case you don't know how to clean it, you can find the steps on this site: link to teach how to clean soft shell crabs

2) Pat them dry with a kitchen towel.

3) This step #3 depends on your taste. Cut each crab in 2 pieces or 4 pieces or leave it as a whole. Sometimes I do not even cut the crab in pieces and I just deep fry the whole soft shell crab. In the picture, the crabs are cut in 4 pieces. (If you have more guests, cut them in pieces, then you don't need to buy so many soft shell crabs).

4)  Prepare the batter: Mix all the ingredients (as stated in green color above) together then whisk in just enough water to make the batter. The texture of the batter should be like a stirred sour cream.

5) Heat up veggetavle oil (I usually use Olive oil) in a wok over medium high temperature. The oil is about 5 centimeter in depth.

6) When the oil is ready, dip the crabs in the batter. Make sure that all the parts of the crabs are covered. Then gently drop them into the oil. Deep fry about 2 to 4 minutes per side (this really depends on the heat you are using).

7) Remove the crabs from the wok and put them on a paper towel to remove as much oil as possible from the deep fried soft shell crabs.

8) When you have finished to deep fry every pieces of the soft shell crabs, take another wok. Heat medium-high this wok. When the wok is warm, add just a bit of oil. When the oil is also warm, drop the onion, green peper, red peper, and red chili into the wok. Stir fry until you see that the pieces of onion start to be brown, then put the deep fried soft shell crabs into this wok. Stir fry everything then add about 1.5 teaspoon of "Pepper Salt Powder". Sometimes I add more than 1 teaspoon as I like to eat it salty. Stir all well for 1 to 2 minutes then it is ready to serve. It is very important to add this "Pepper Salt Powder", otherwise it would not taste much.

In case you do not know what is the "Pepper Salt Powder", here is a picture of the one I use:

Enjoy it !

Crème Brûlée

One of my favorite desert is Crème Brûlée. Few years ago, I have researched and found over twenty good recipes of this amazing delicatesse. Some recipes, which give a good outcome, require quite a lot of preparation time while the ones not needing much effort produce a poor quality of crème brûlée.
Some of my friends in Europe, who also love this dish, usually buy this desert pre-packed at a supermarket.
When I am lazy, I also buy those pre-packed crème brûlée. However not all the pre-packed crème brûlée taste good. Having tasted quite a few pre-packed ones, the only one that is up to standard and that I would eat is the one from Nestlé. Unfortunately, this pre packed crème brûlée from Netslé is not available in all the European countries. So far, I could only find them in Belgium and France's supermarkets.

When I cannot find this pre-packed crème brûlée from Netslé, I would rather make my crème brûlée from scratch, which has the advantage to cost less and to taste better than any pre packed one.
After several experiments by combining recipes and adding ingredients, I have come up with this best and easy recipe for a perfect crème brûlée.
 

Ingredients:

·                          500 ml “crème fleurette” (if you cannot find crème fleurette, replace it with  heavy cream”)

·                          4 egg yolks

·                          100 gram sugar

·                          1 tablespoon vanilla extract

·                          1/2 cup or so of light brown sugar.

In case you don't know what is crème fleurette: 

Procedure:

1) Preheat oven to 100 degrees celsus.

2) Whisk the egg yolks and sugar until the mixture becomes white and foamy.

Then add the vanilla extract and crème fleurette into the mixture. Mix it all up until it gets nice and creamy.

3) Pour this mixture into ramekins (those little ceramic dishes). Place the ramekins in a baking pan.

4) Fill the baking pan with hot water, about halfway up the sides of the ramekins.

5) Place the pan with the ramekins in the oven for 30 minutes to an hour or so. After 30 minutes or so check them every ten minutes. They are done when you can stick a knife in one and it comes out clean.

6) Remove the ramekins from the baking pan, set them on the counter, and let them cool for 30 minutes.

7) Then put them in the refrigerator and let them chill overnight.

8) Sprinkle a thin layer of the light brown sugar on the top of each. Make sure it is thin layer, but also make sure it completely covers the custard.

9) Now torch it! You need to caramelize (melt and let harden) the sugar.

(If you don't have a torch, you may try to put them in the oven (pre-heat the top at high heat) for a minute or so.)

Enjoy it !

Roasted Suckling Pig

Although it is not summer yet, the weather in most Western European countries as well as in many cities of North America has been incredibly warm, leading people to eat on their "terrace" or lawn and even to find ways to cook a whole meal on their lawn. But what I have witnessed most is the smell of barbecue in the late afternoon.
When proncouncing this word "barbecue", it reminds me about my mother who is a big fan of barbecue and roasted suckling pig. Mother loves roasted suckling pig so much that she would order it from Chinese restaurants in Belgium at important events like new year, birthday or marriage.
For Chinese New Year, my dad usually asked me to buy one roasted suckling pig from Chinese restaurants in Rotterdam or The Hague, which have mastered the art of roasting suckling pig and charged much less than the ones in Belgium.
This below picture shows the roasted suckling pig I have purchased in a Chinese restaurants in The Hague:

As you can see, most roasted suckling pig purchased from a Chinese restaurants are "uncut" and comes into a box (not very fancy) but don't judge the book by the cover. My dad, who had tasted this dish times after times in several restaurants in many countries around the world, was a real connaisseur in roasted suckling pig. My dad has told me that the roasted suckling pig bought from Chinese restaurants in The Hague is one of the very best.
For people who do not know what is a roasted suckling pig, I will try to summarize it in few lines.
A suckling pig is a piglet fed on its mother's milk and is between the ages of two and six weeks.
This dish has been a famous dish in China for over 2000 years and is a "must have" at any Chinese wedding banquet. The suckling pig is considered to represent the bride's purity while the color of the red crackling symbolize good fortune.
I am sure that if you type on google "roast suckling pig", you will find an exhaustive list of recipe, from Chinese people as well as from Western people who love so much this dish that they have tried to reproduce it. I really respect and admire their tenacity to reproduce this amazing dish. While some people have adapted so much the recipe that it does not even taste the real Chinese Roasted Suckling Pig, some other have put some good alternatives. However no matter how good the alternative is, there will be still some gap with the authentic Chinese Roasted Suckling Pig. The below video shows how to make a roasted suckling pig in the old fashion and authentic way. The below video shows the authentic way to make a roasted suckling pig from a famous chef in Hong Kong. The show was for Chinese audience so it is unfortunately in Cantonese. However even if you do not understand Cantonese, it is really worth to see the authentic way to make this dish.

As you can see, the original recipe for this dish takes a lot of time and energy. I also doubt that most people have all the necessary materials at home to make this  recipe following accurately this video. Furthermore, unless you live in Asia, I think it is also difficult to buy a small suckling pig.
Therefore I have adjusted slightly the authentic recipe shown in this video by replacing the suckling pig by  the belly pork and using a conventional oven (with a grill rack) instead of the high temperature oven seen in this video. Beside those adjustments, I have tried to stick as much as possible to the recipe shown in this video. The below pictures show the result of my roasted suckling pig:



I put a carpet of jellyfish under the roasted suckling pig to make it look like those suckling pig dish that you would find at Chinese restaurants in The Netherlands. When you eat dim sum in Chinese restaurants in Netherlands, you can order a small portion of roasted suckling pig that is always accompanied with jellyfish. So far, I have not been able to find any restaurants in North America that serve roasted suckling pig accompanied with jellyfish as dim sum. It is really pity as the jellyfish makes the taste of the roasted suckling pig less oily and brings in harmony the overall taste.

You can either make those jelly fish from scratch or buy it pre-pack. I usually buy them in a small package as shown the below picture. Those packages come with a bag of powder to add into the jelly fish. However I usually find those powder not enough tasteful so I usually add some extra seasoning.

If you have a chance to visit The Hague or Rotterdam, I would recommend you to go to Kee Lun restaurant in The Hague or Tai Wu restaurant in The Hague to try their dim sum, including their small portion of roasted suckling pig.

If you cannot find any roasted suckling pig near your area or if you suddenly have a big craving for this dish, I would advise you to try to cook this dish !

Suông Noodle Soup

Most people who go to Vietnam or Vietnamese restaurants in Paris often tell me that they love to eat Pho - a special vietnamese beef noodle soup.
Although I also like to eat Pho a lot, for my first blog, I would like to introduce to you an other vietnamese noodle soup that is as much tasteful and delicious as Pho but that is unfortunately less known to people, as it is usually not offered in Vietnamese restaurants in Europe or North America.
This other Vietnamese noodle soup is called Suông - a special noodle soup cooked with a whole chicken and garnished with schrimp mixtures and Vietnamese herbs.
The original recipe is to cook with porc but I have switched it with a whole chicken which makes it taste even better.
The noodle to accompany with Suông soup is a special "Rice Vermicelli"called "Bún bò Huế". There are several brand for this type of noodle, depending on the country where you live. My favorite brand is "Vermicelle de Hue" that can be found in Brussels (Belgium) and Paris (France). I could not find them in Netherlands, New York nor Toronto.

If you cannot find this brand, you may buy another brand for this type of noodle. One of my chinese friend called this type of noodle "Lai Fan".

If you have never eaten Suông, I really advise you to give a try !