A Short Adventure in Brussels

This weekend I visited Brussels, which was my prize for being a finallist in Godiva's Chocolate Challenge earlier this year. Brussels being Foodie Heaven, I took plenty of picture and ate plenty of food.

I decided to write about it in my baking blog instead of on Where I Like to Eat since that's where I originally wrote about the competition and where I published the recipe, so head on over to Tashcakes! for the full photostory.

Here is a 'taster' (geddit?) of what I experienced.

Find out where I ate all of these, and why I ended up speaking in languages- English, French and Mandarin- during my short stay in this wonderful city. Also, look! I met a kitty!

His name is Moka, and he's the restaurant Mokafe's resident cat. Isn't he sho shweet?

The Malaysiafiles: Part 3- Kuih and Sweets

One of my favourite, favourite foods of all time: nyonya kuih.

Nyonya refers to the fusion of Chinese and Malay-style cooking in particular, but can also include fusions from other areas in South East Asia. 'Kuih' is Malay for 'cake', although rather than the spongy cakes we're used to, they're often made from glutinous rice flour and are dense and custard-y.

This is kuih talam, my favourite of all the kuihs: it's got a sweet green pandan custard layer, and a white coconut layer that's slightly salty as well as sweet on top: the flavours balance each other out perfectly.

Some other kuis include kuih lapis ('layer cake'), which is made of many colourful layers,  and kuih dadar, a pandan-flavoured crêpe rolled up with gula melaka (palm sugar)-sweetened coconut inside. I've actually made my own versions of kuih dadar and kuih lapis on my blog Tashcakes!, although I'm working on a more improved recipe for kuih lapis.

(The centre sweet it a glutinous rice ball with sweet peanut filling)

The test of a good kuih lapis is if you can peel the layers apart from each other- I need to work on that when I improve my recipe!

As you can see on the plate above, there were also more Chinese-y style glutinous rice sweets, such as the peanut-filled ball in the middle. There were also banana-flavoured ones with red bean, green pandan or pink food colouring in the middle, and one very strange one...

The strange one I'm referring to is the dark grey sticky rice cake at the bottom left of the last pic up there. It's dyed that colour by the herb that's used to flavour it. It had a bland, herbal taste to it, and wasn't helped by the fact that the herb is affectionately nicknamed 'chicken poo leaf'. Still, an interesting thing to try, and of course there were plenty of other personal favourites to eat such as pisang goreng (fried bananas: banana fritters):

There were also purple sweet potato fritters, look at how pretty!

Something else I had never tried before was honeycomb cake, so-called because of the air bubbles that become trapped in the cake batter during baking. It was delicious and caramel-y, and really soft and light.

One more unusual but awesome thing I tried seemed like a standard Western-style pastry at first, but it turned out to have a twist:

Cinnamon swirl danish pastry, right? Well, not quite. It is sweet like a danish pastry, but instead of danish pastry, it's a deep fried doughnut-type affair; and instead of cinnamon, it's five spice. Surprising if you're not expecting it, but it worked very well.

Finally, we also ate durian pancakes: thin, delicate crêpes filled with sweetened fresh cream and fresh durian. True to durian form, you could smell these things from tables away (a signature pungent smell of custard, caramel and rotting onions), and also true to form, they were absolutely delicious.

Next time, during Part 4 of the Malaysiafiles, I'll be continuing with sweet food to explore delicious shaved ice desserts and drinks.

The Malaysiafiles: Part 1- Unique Eats from Sabah

2012 brought you the Australiafiles: this year I bring you the Malaysiafiles!

I visited my jiapo, aunt and uncle in Kota Kinabalu this month (I got back three days ago and I'm STILL jet lagged as hell). From the UK came myself, mum, aunt, uncle and two cousins. From Texas came another aunt, and from Australia came another aunt and uncle (the parents of my cousin who got married during my trip to Oz). It was more of a mini reunion this time round, but I assure you no less food was eaten.

For the first half of the trip, mum and I stayed round my jiapo, aunt and uncle's house in KK, and for the second we stayed in a hotel. Not only is my jiapo an amazing cook, but my aunt and uncle made sure we ate lots of local delights too. In fact, the very first thing my uncle Herbert plonked down on a table as soon as mum and I arrived was something I've never seen (or smelled!) before in my life.

(Mum on the left, aunt on the right)

This fruit is called a 'tarap', and is native to Borneo. It's related to the breadfruit and jackfruit, and has a distinct, pungently sweet smell. The strong smell can be off-putting for some, but honestly, compared to the slightly rotten smell of a durian fruit, it's like a lightly fragranced bouquet of flowers. I didn't even think the tarap had a particularly bad smell- it sort of reminded me of the way a really ripe banana smells, only stronger.

The outside feels like a stiff wire scrubbing brush, but on the inside are lots of soft, plump kernels of fruit, each with its own large seed inside.

To open it, you just have to grab it and tear it open with your hands- no knife necessary.

It tasted amazing, I'm sad that I won't be able to find it anywhere else- it was sort of like a tropical fruit salad, a cross between bananas, lychees, pineapples and vanilla ice-cream. In fact, if I had free access to these fruits, I'd love to try making tarap ice-cream! I think it'd work really well.

Next on the Unique Eats menu are Sandakan cow pat tarts (also known as UFO tarts). These were originally made in Sandakan and are only really found there, although they are starting to catch on in nearby areas within Sabah.

This one's a UFO shape, with a circular ring of piped meringue and a piped cross in the centre. You can just about see the rich custard filling in the centre, and the base is a light sponge cake.

This one was a 'cow pat' shape, with a swirl of meringue piped all the way around and up from the custard.

I've actually made this before on my blog Tashcakes! In fact, this weekend I had another go at fashioning a recipe for cow pat tarts in an attempt to make them more authentic. I came really close this time- next time they'll be perfect! Head on over there for the recipes I have so far. At least these are easier to create than trying to grow a tarap tree in London!

Last of all on the Unique Eats menu are pineapple jam pastries: flaky, light pastry filled with a rich pineapple jam (a similar pineapple jam you'll find on Chinese-style pineapple tarts). These I've not made before, but I can't wait to get experimenting in the kitchen.

The pastries are at the front of the photo. Behind are two coconut tarts (enriched with egg yolks to make them extra moist and delicious), and behind you can see an intact cow pat tart. =D

As you might have gathered, this will be a series of parts like the Australiafiles. Tomorrow, I'll be posting about the worst food of any trip ever: aeroplane food.

Golden Gate Cake House Revisited

It's been a while since I last visited the Golden Gate Dessert House, even though their rainbow array of cakes calls out to me like little sugary sirens every time I'm around in Chinatown. Luckily for me, my friend Siu Yen visited today, and was game for a colourful cake session there.

To the left we have the mango mousse cake that my friend chose, and to the right the strawberry mousse cake I (eventually) decided upon.

Look at how pretty they are! I could make a collage out of pictures of Golden Gate's cake slices. Just like last time, the sponge was so light it was like eating a cloud, and the mousse was refreshing and not too sweet. I was also rather amused that the plastic wrapping around the cake was unchanged from my last visit, which was in December (see my last post about Golden Gate for pictures)- they're still using the Christmas stuff. Waste not, I guess.

To drink, Siu Yen chose iced soya milk, and I chose a matcha smoothie over a milkshake, thinking it'd be lighter. We were served our cakes, which we eagerly started off, and in a few minutes our drinks followed.

This is what I was presented with.

Ah.

There was a moment of horrified silence as the waitress set this monster down and my friend and I stared at it. Had I just been given an ice cream sundae challenge?

Thankfully it wasn't a horrifying pile of ice-cream: it turned out to be snow ice flavoured with matcha latte, sort of like a green tea frappucino with extra ice. But it was still a pretty horrifying pile of snow ice flavoured with matcha latte. I'm also pretty sure you shouldn't have to eat any smoothie with a spoon. It was refreshing, and had it been a hot and sunny day (and had it been the only thing I'd ordered), I'd have quite enjoyed it. Alas, I was having this on top of cake, and it was cold and rainy outside. In the end, I only managed to battle through half of it before succumbing to a combination of liquid overdose and severe brain freeze.

Defeated.

I'll be coming here again for more cake, but next time I'll beware the monster drinks and stick with a cup of tea.

Afterword

I only just noticed something about my matcha smoothie after uploading the pictures. Can you see it?

Look closer.

How about now?

It's a Chinese lion!

Chinatown: Longji

Or Long Ji. The character for the 'long' part I know is 'dragon', but I wasn't so sure about the 'ji' part. I looked it up and apparently it's 'remember' or 'note down', so maybe 'longji' means 'remember dragon'? 'Dragon's memory'? Please tell me if you know.

This is where Vicky and I went before visiting the Golden Gate Dessert House.

Where?

Chinatown, London, 47-49 Charing Cross Road. Nearest station is Leicester Square.

What?

Formerly Cafe de Hong Kong until relatively recently, It's a Hong Kong café that offers various noodle-based and rice-based one plate meals, as well as many fun icy drinks like bubble tea and ice red bean drink (the latter of which I had this time).

What, no bubble tea this time? I've actually mentioned this place before in previous posts, and usually to say that they do the best taro bubble tea (which is, as you may know by now, my favourite flavour for bubble tea). However ice red bean drink happens to be one of my favourite fun iced drinks, so I'll just as often order it instead.

Ice red bean's basic ingredients consist of red beans boiled until tender, then served with a glass with plenty of ice, along with sugar syrup and a milky substance (often evaporated milk- which is what I got here). Plenty of versions have coconut milk and/ or condensed milk instead, though. Sometimes it's mixed with cendol (the actual cendol, not the whole dessert), sweetcorn, other things... but then with a lot of other stuff it becomes ice kacang.

Longji is awesome in terms of portion size verses what you pay (and it's one of the more affordable places to eat in Chinatown). It's not haute cuisine, but don't forget you're in a café rather than a fancy restaurant. In any case, it's a good place to sit down and grab a bite to eat. Back to portion sizes though: usually I order their ho fun noodles, but I knew that having ice red bean drink along with a main would kill me (there are beans in ice red bean drink. Beans are pretty filling, y'know.) So I went with an appetiser.

Sticky steamed glutinous rice parcels with chicken.

Even the portion size of this appetiser was quite substantial! I was quite happy.

I was a bit of a noob and tried to eat the leaf wrapping at first. Don't eat the leaf wrapping.

These tasted amazing, sort of like a chicken baozi but with sticky rice instead of a bread bun. With two of these parcels it was more than enough for me, along with the ice red bean drink. Vicky went for the ho fun, and even without a fun iced drink it nearly defeated her.

Don't be caught offguard by the 10% service charge added onto your bill- I've seen one review where someone's been incensed by it and gotten into a hot disagreement with the staff about paying. Personally I think it is a bit awkward to say it's an optional charge but stick it on anyway (which would instantly make you look like the bad guy if you wanted to opt out): then again, I always tip anyway unless service is actually bad, and I've found the staff of Longji nothing but helpful. Maybe it's also because I used to be a waitress, and I know what I long-houred, messy, exhausting and often thankless job it can be. Also, a lot of places put on an automatic service charge on the end of the bill, so it's not just Longji. I'm not saying it's right, but I'm not saying it's unforgivable.

I recommend this place because the food is decent for a café and not too pricey, there's a great selection of Fun Iced Drinks (which I shall capitalise from now on since I seem to be constantly going on about them), and I've always found the staff to be pleasant. It's probably more of a lunch-y place, but I have no problem with going there for dinner in the evening (as I did this time).

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

I'll be doing some Japanese food posts soon, for a change!

Chinatown: Rasa Sayang

If you didn't already know, I'm half-Chinese, and my Chinese family lives in Malaysia.

Where?

Chinatown London, 5 Macclesfield Street. Nearest tube station is Leicester Square.

What?

As you can see, it's a Malaysian/ Singaporean restaurant-slash-café. Malaysian eateries are harder to find in London than Chinese, Thai and Japanese places for instance- quite sad for me, since one of this things I love most about visiting Malaysia- aside from seeing my family of course- is the food.

Enter Rasa Sayang. It kills two birds with one stone for me: it offers popular Malay dishes, and scores points on affordability too (a much-prized quality when it comes to eating out in London).

For the main course, I had nasi lemak:

Chicken curry, coconut rice, peanuts, peanut sauce, various veggies and little fried fishies.

This was delicious. It was also really, really spicy. The kind of hot and spicy that makes your nose run and your face steadily go red. In other words, it was perfect. The chicken curry was just like what I remember from previous visits to Malaysia, and the portion size was quite generous- that potato in the far right doesn't look like much, but in real life it was almost the size of my fist (I have really small hands, in case you think this is a bit far-fetched).

For dessert, I had ice kacang (possibly an obvious choice, given that ice kacang is partially known for its colourfulness):

Ice kacang is ice shaved so fine it's like snow, and it usually has all sorts of flavoured syrups and toppings. Rasa Sayang's ice kacang is flavoured with rose syrup and evaporated milk, and also has a rainbow of toppings (well, not really 'toppings'- more like 'bottomings'): creamed sweetcorn, palm seeds in syrup, grass jelly, red beans and cendol (read more about cendol in my Australiafiles post).

Just to recap briefly, cendol is a bit like pasta, flavoured and made green with pandan leaf extract, and often looking a little bit like green worms. It can also be served as its own dessert with ice, coconut cream and syrup.

Rasa Sayang, along with Longji, is definitely one of my go-to places for a cheapish meal when I'm about in the area. Something I keep meaning to try is a drink called a 'Milo dinosaur', made with the malted chocolate Milo drink- anything associated with dinosaurs has to be good, right?

Chinatown: Golden Gate Dessert House

I'm quite backed up on entries and I should really do some of them first before this one, but... dessert house! A place dedicated to dessert! Writing about it straight away is a no-brainer for me.

Where?

Chinatown London, 110 Shaftsbury Avenue. Nearest tube station is Leicester Square.

What?

My friend Vicky was visiting from Germany, so we hit Chinatown this evening and had dinner at Longji (entry soon), and then came here for dessert. Cake. Heaven. Not just cake- Chinese desserts, bubble teas, snow ice, ice cream cakes...  it was so difficult to choose what to have.

So I chose two. (The third belonged to my friend Vicky.)

Good thing I hadn't eaten much for the rest of the day, beforehand.

Vicky (eventually) chose the white one, a yoghurt cake:

Whilst I (also eventually) settled for a pandan layer cake:

... And a little taro mousse cake:

Because purple food is awesome.

They were all delicious- the sponge was like eating sweet and fluffy clouds, the pandan jelly was delicately flavoured and not too sweet, and the taro mousse was gorgeous. It was mostly mousse, but had a thin layer of white sponge buried underneath.

After a bit of digging I put the camera away to enjoy the cake.

They also do a few savoury things, like toasts and sandwiches, in case you're in a group of people and not everyone fancies something sweet- but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who isn't at least a little bit tempted by Golden Gate's rainbow array of cake!

You can also buy large, beautifully decorated celebration cakes, which you can see displayed at the front window:

I think this place is affiliated with Golden Gate Cake Shop on 13 Macclesfield Street (also in Chinatown)- not just because of the shared name of Golden Gate, but also because they seem to sell the same celebration cakes. The Cake Shop's a good place to get buns, but that'll be another entry one day, no doubt.

I used to be a bit scared of visiting the Dessert House- I've known about it for some time, but there was a review a few years ago about the staff being so rude they were borderline mean, so I always bottled out of trying it. I'm pleased to say the ladies there were lovely.

So. If you, like me, love dessert, and happen to be around here, try the Golden Gate Dessert House- just be prepared to spend some time choosing which beautiful confection you want!

Vicky and I got a little bit hyper on sugar, read this entry on my other blog for a short story.