My Boyfriend Is Cheating

I never saw it coming. Ever.

But often, I found myself wondering why and how. Why it was always peculiarly perfect, and how managed to make it so. I never found the answer. Or a clue to the answer.

So I started questioning myself. Maybe it was I who had the problem. Who was the problem. And then I started punishing myself for not being able to measure up.

Today, as I opened the door that only last night, he had shut, I found the answer. It has been right there all along, waiting to face me.

CleverRice. It's for people like T, who grew up never having to worry about cooking rice, because they really didn't eat it much. And for people like me, who grew up in a country that eats rice at least 3 times a day, we never had to worry about cooking rice manually because every household has a rice cooker.

Hard to overcook. Perfect. Always.

DBay Turon

I would like to give one of my best friends, Chris, credit for this easy-to-prepare yet heavenly dessert. Whether it was really he who came up with this, or his partner, AJ, or whether it was somebody else, I do not really know. Point is, it was Chris who brought this to our Ma Wan Tsuen kitchen, so it is Chris who gets the credit. In this blog, at least.

Quirky as it may sound, Dbay Turon brings together two simple banana-based desserts from two very different families of sweets-- the turon and the banana split (geographically, Cubao and Discovery Bay respectively)-- into one hearty delight. Quirky, indeed, but in a very, very mouth-watering way. It has a wholesome quality too, so it's definietly for anyone that has a sweet tooth, no matter what the age is.

Ingredients:

• 4 pcs., saging na saba
• lumpia wrapper
• 4 tbsps. brown sugar
• 4 tbsps. white sugar
• shreds of jackfruit (optional)
  
• cooking oil (Canola, to make it less sinful)
  
• 4-8 scoops Dreyer's Toasted Almonds Ice Cream

Procedure:

• Slice bananas lengthwise.
• Sprinkle some white sugar on the banana.
• Wrap them by halves.
• Coat each wrap with brown sugar.
• Fry until brown sugar caramelizes.
• Serve 2 pcs per plate.
• Top with a scoop or 2 of ice cream.
• Serve while turon is hot and the ice cream hasn't completely melted.

Serves 4.

Beacon

If in the Vatican, the people has the Pope as their beacon, here in HK, the sausage has one too. And it's very affordable.


But that's not all they've got. They a few other items on the menu too..
Found in Fu Tung, Tung Chung, right at the foot of the escalators from Maple. Open till 1am, daily. Affordable and tasty. Of course, it's not 5-star quality, but it's only $8.00 per stick, come on!

Winewalk 09

If you think Saturday afternoons in HK are boring and uneventful, then you probably haven't seen the red-and-black posters scattered around Central.

This Saturday, April 18, from 2-6pm, Timeout HK will lead a flock of wine connoisseurs to a wine tasting rally around Central* for only $280.00. With that minimal fee, participants will:

• Visit top restaurants at The Landmark, Lan Kwai Fong and Wyndham Street
• Taste fine wines from around the world
• Dine on delectable morsels provided by participating venues

*CENTRAL includes Alexandra House, Chater House, Exchange Square, Jardine House, Prince's Building and The Landmark.


What's more, part of that fee will be donated to charities supporting children with cancer and building children's libraries in developing countries.


Participating Restaurants (view the map here.)

Bombay Dreams, California, Dakota Prime, Di Vino, Finds Bar & Restaurant, Frog Face Fish, Goccia, La Bodega, Lotus, LUX, Mrs Jones, Pickled Pelican, Solas, Thai Lemongrass, The Priory, TIVO Restaurant, Kyoto Joe, TRU, Yun Fu, Zest, Zuma

Online ticket sales are now SOLD OUT.

For enquiries please contact info@timeout.com.hk or call: 3583-5678

Cafe Roma

Cafe Roma brings country-style Italian cooking to Hong Kong and features the food of "Il Paese", the country. The dishes focus on the cooking of southern Italy starting from the beautiful city of Rome and Sicily in the south and Puglia on the east coast.

All the dishes we serve are country-style-- simple, fresh and tasty-- and involve less butter and cream and more Meditteranean ingredients such as olive oil, tomatoes, capers, lemons and fresh herbs as well as whole wheat pastas and grains.

Following recipes passed down through generations and the simplest cooking methods, our dishes are full of robust flavors.

That was the promise of Cafe Roma.

I went there with my boyfriend yesterday for dinner. We were to meet up with his good friend, Mirko. Mirko is a full-bred Italian who has spent more than 7 years living here in Hong Kong. (Later on in the evening, I learned through him that bruschetta wasn't pronounced as broo-she-ta but brus-ke-ta) With those information factored in, I was assured that Cafe Roma wasn't gonna let me down.

Their bruschetta looked different from the bruschetta that I became familiar with.It was a 6-inch loaf of bread halved crosswise and cut into smaller pieces irregularly. The tomatoes were diced, as opposed to sliced thinly. ("That's bruschetta! You cut the tomatoes thinly."-- Jack from The Broken Hearts' Club) On top was a heap--- a heap, not a layer--- of rocket leaves. The bread was toasted focaccia, not baguette. Winner!

My boyfriend, T, ordered minestone to start with. Tasty, it sure was. But the portion was too small. When his soup arrived, T said, "Do they think I'm on a diet?" And he's not even a big eater like me.

My Penne Ciociara finally arrived 25 minutes after we placed my order. It was a bit too long. But because their kitchen was visible from the small dining area, I didn't complain. I could see that they were preparing everything on-the spot, and not reheating the sauce. On the menu, my pasta was described as Penne with olives, capers, anchovies, pine nuts and tomato sauce. Appetizing. When my food came, it was better than I had expected. The anchovies didn't taste too fishy or too salty. The flavor of the capers didn't fight with the anchovies. The flavors were subtle and pleasantly balanced. It could use just a little more pine nuts though.

Mirko, T and Jacklin all ordered Rigatoni Integrale Caffe Roma--- whole wheat large tubular pasta with prosciutto, ricotta and spinach. The prosciutto and the spinach provided the contrasting flavors and texture with every bite. The ricotta gave me an orgasm.

The ambience was casually Italian. Not snooty like other Italian places. In fact, it was cozy and accommodating. But not fastfood-y either, like Sbarro. They had vintage black and white photos on the wall, and miniature wine bottles as centerpiece for each table. While you're there and waiting for your order, try to look at the photos and see which they hung upside down. Intentional or not, there's no way we could know. The place was small, making it feel very intimate, but it would also make you think twice about coming at lunchtime.
The staff was very friendly and attentive. They were very courteous even when T complained about how small their serving was. They're probably used to hearing that from people.

Cafe Roma is located at Shop 1, Ground Floor, Jervois House, 1 Jervois Street, Central, HK-- right at the corner of the fork across the street from Fitness First Sheung Wan. You may call them at 25178484 for reservation or delivery (yes! they do deliver). Feel free to drop in for a taste anytime, just be sure you have a back-up sandwich, just in case.

Save The Human! Project

Munggo Guisado, HK-Style

So I thought of posting recipes from friends, that I tasted here in HK. Here's the first one; this is not from a friend, though, but my own experiment. A favorite dish cooked using local ingredients: Munggo Guisado HK-Style


Ingredients:

• 3 tbsps. cooking oil (anything but peanut, peanut oil has a potent taste which will overpower the other flavors)
• 8 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 3 small shallots, sliced thinly
• 1 medium-sized tomato, sliced thinly
• a can of fried dace with black beans
• spinach (stalks included)
• 2 cups of munggo beans
• dried fish skin (available at your local suking supermarket or dai pai dong)
• patis and pepper to taste

Cooking Procedure:

• Boil munggo beans in a pot until they're just a bit over their half-cooked stage. You may practice your cartwheels while doing this so that you don't get bored.
• When this is achieved, sautee garlic, onions and tomato in a separate pot. Add the dace, including the black beans, depending on your taste.
• Transfer the munggo beans into the sautee pot and continue cooking. If the phone rings, don't answer so as to prevent the beans from spilling.Keep stirring so that the dace flakes on its own, but doesn't get mashed.
• Keep adding water until the beans are cooked.
• Taste. If the saltiness of the dace doesn't satisfy you, add patis. Add pepper.
• Keep simmering until the desired flavor and consistency are achieved. While waiting, log on to http://www.rainbowbloggers.com and vote for TD&RS for Blog Of The Week. Afterwards, turn off heat, add the spinach and cover. The spinach should be cooked in 2 minutes.
• Before serving, crack the fish skin and sprinkle on top. Fish skin may also be eaten as a side.
• Lastly, leave a comment on this site, thanking me for the recipe.

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*dried fish skin photo credit: flickr.com/superlocal

Fat Angelo's Soho

Fat Angelo's is not only known for their mouth-watering Italian dishes, they also have very tempting happy hour offers. $10 on the second bottle of house wine or second jug of draft beer and sangria!

Their branch in Soho also boasts of being smoker-friendly. Besides the quaint al fresco seating in the back, they have an exciting out-on-the-street cocktail setup.


Their Soho branch is conveniently situated on Elgin Street, just beside the Mid-levels escalator. To call for reservation, the number is 29736808. And fellow Pinoys living or visiting HK, be sure to ask the staff for Heidi. She's a Filipina who heads the wait staff and will always make sure you are getting the best service they could offer.

The Great Divide

The bread industry is infested with amateurs.
Trust only the professional.

Jordan, HK

I Taste HK

Taste is one of the various supermarket brand names by which the A.S. Watson Group operates in Hong Kong. It comes from the same family as the more popular PARKnSHOP. But unlike its big sister, Taste offers a wider variety of products, local and international.

But this entry is not about them. I just had to write something about them because I used a photo of their Rewards card and I don't want to be sued for copyright infringement (or anything like that) for doing so.
----

It took me forever to open this food blog because I didn't know the best way to. Initially, it was my growing fascination for dai pai dongs that made me want to start a food blog. But I figured that if dai pai dongs were to be my sole subject, this blog would be more short-lived than their moribund culture. I thought I had to be more observant, so as to discover what other surprises HK kitchen has in store for a foreigner like me.

Just very recently, my friend, James (a fellow appetite monster and fellow performer who had just recently made a big career leap to F&B), brought me to a Michelin Guide Bib Gourmand receipient Indian restaurant in Lan Kwai Fong. The following day, as I was composing my blog entry about the drunken misadventures we had that night, I came across, in my research, a statement that the Michelin Guide released to answer their critics. Here it is:

"The quite vocal critism is aimed at the fact that in the panel of judges, only 2 seats were occupied by Asians; 1 Hong Kong and 1 mainland Chinese. Critics say that the panel does not understand Chinese food and the whole thing is a hype to increase sales of the book.

In reply the Michelin guide stated that, "One does not have to be French to understand French food"."

(Source : 4Hoteliers.com & sources "Hong Kong/Macau Michelin Guide now official", Wednesday, 3rd December 2008)

Inasmuch as I dream (and sometimes have the grand illusion) of becoming a food critic, I just am not. I am absolutely inexperienced and my culinary vocabulary is extremely limited. But I am adventurous enough to have tried Bo Innovation's sausage ice cream, curious enough to have tried rabbits in Poitiers, pretentious enough to learn the different qualities of cheese and foie gras, and critical enough to compare fried octopus tentacles sold by three different stores in HK. My opinions may not be valid to the authorities, but they are credible to my friends. With that having said, I must say thatI agree with the Michelin Guide on their statement.

I am not chinese. And in the first two years that I spent here in HK, I often complained that chinese food elsewhere is better than chinese food in China; and I often questioned why every dish had to have corn, and why in lauriats rice always came last, when all the side dishes had been consumed. But all it took was to open my mind and activate my tastebuds to understand the Chinese culinary psyche, not just in terms of their local cuisine, but also in terms of how they adopt other cuisines and make it their own. I didn't have to take a crash course in Dietetics & Nutrition to understand why locals, in general, have clear skin, are not overweight, and are deficient in calcium. I didn't even have to read history books to understand their culture. It's all in the food--- in the noodles, or chicken feet, or congee, or fried tofu, or anything that one could find in their menus, which, exploring foreigners like me, usually can't read.