IT'S COMING OUT THE EARS

Yesterday was dominated by food. Bought some fruit and vegs for my Indonesian Chinese neighbor woman downstairs, as well as dim sum items for my landlady in the back of the building. I hung the bag on her doorknob. In the evening she rang our doorbell to gift us some delicious pastry items from an Asian bakery. I answered with acid indigestion.
As I had pigged out on chocolate cake earlier.

Then I read about a restaurant which I know having relocated from their Kwun Tong location where they had been for decades to the West Kowloon Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui. Plus twice cooked pork (回鍋肉 'wui wo yiuk') one of their signature dishes. And, elsewhere on the internet, sizzled eel noodles (鱔絲拌麵 'sin si pun min').

[Heretical idea: make your twice cooked pork with bacon.]

Perhaps I should not have had the chocolate cake. But it was dense and delicious.


Note, by the way, that in parts of the Chinese world they use Italian spaghetti (意粉 'yi fan') in lieu of sticky noodles (粗面 'chou min'). They are very similar. Great with pork, great with shellfish or squid. And hence popular all along the coast.

It is dangerous, by the way, that is to say ill-advised, to let a Dutchman loose on Chinese ingredients. One thing I like to do is sizzle some chopped smoky bacon with rehydrated dried oysters (蠔豉 'hou si') and chilies stirfried with either spaghetti or sticky noodles, garlic, dash of ketjap manis (dark Indonesian sweet soy sauce) and a splash of sherry to flame, sprinkle of chopped scallion to finish. Dried oysters have an intense flavour that combines well with fatty pork. Mi goreng babi dan tiram kering (蠔豉辣椒炒粗面 'hou si laat jiu chaau chou min'). Dried oysters are often used in congee, but they're much more versatile than that. Try them in steamed eggs (蒸水蛋 'jing seui daan' sometime, or an Irish stew.


Please be advised that preparing this as a late night snack may wake up your apartment mate, as well as the turkey vulture that's sleeping in her room. You don't want to do that.
One of those two is always hungry.



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