On the sushi train...

As my son would say..."Choo-choooooo.....!!!"  For the last 2 weeks, I've embarked on a one-way journey on the sushi train with no return in sight.

I don't eat sashimi or any of the raw stuff most people love about sushi, I just want a simple maki roll with my grilled unagi with teriyaki sauce, crunchy cucumber slices, creamy avocado, warm sushi rice with that vinegar tang, all wrapped around the nori seaweed.  In 5mins, I can devour the whole roll dipped in soya sauce with my chopsticks and then ponder about my next meal in ernesty.

Salmon is not my favourite fish and I did try it in its various forms; smoked, grilled, sashimi-style, and in curry even!  I just can't stand the taste of this fish.  I never thought I would say this, but right now, I wish I am a salmon-eater.  If I am, then I can devour more different types of sushi instead of just my unagi maki.  Life would be a rainbow then.

This constant food mental torture during my pregnancy has definitely taken its toll on my poor soul, my overall well-being and possibly my mental state.  I miss more than ever Singapore food.  Even the simple sliced fish soup with tofu and seaweed has me moaning in agony at times.  Every waking minute of my time is consumed by mental images of these unavailable food flashing before my eyes, food that I have never even given second thought to before the whole time I lived in Singapore!  Just thinking of char siew steamed buns(available in coffeshops that you can buy ANYTIME of the day) makes me wanna rush to Montreal's chinatown to buy a whole truckload of frozen buns to stock up my fridge for days of emergency(kinda like everyday).     

I never know exactly what kinda food I can stomach these days so the days of planning ahead and cooking in large batches are over for me - I simply can't microwave food anymore.  The smell of heated food wafting in the kitchen can literally kill me in 2 sniffs.  I lost count of how many times I have actually died.

Sunday night was a night of sheer bliss and joy for us.  We went to a Japanese sushi restaurant called Samurai and gorged ourselves silly on really good sushi, delicate agedashi tofu(O.M.G!), tempura shrimps and vegetables, gyozas and miso soup;  "Just like they make them in Japan!", as my husband declared happily.  What I enjoyed very much was the fresh green tea they served, with the little rice pops mixed in with the tea leaves to give it that distinctive taste.  Ooh...j'adore!!!  We left the restaurant beaming to the moon and knowing there is a touch of Asian salvation left in Quebec afterall.

 As a tribute to my last blog entry, here is the mee hoon kueh that my dear husband made from scratch for me!!!  Lots of ikan bilis!  Mmm... the only thing missing is the authentic chilli sauce lah!  Tant pis!

Tough times...

For the poor, tough times ahead means eating fast food every day.  For the rich, it means buying less houses and diamonds.  For the pregnant maman, tough times mean alternating between heartburn and nausea every waking hour.  

For two weeks, we travelled through mid-west USA where prime beef is on every menu and you can't escape the french fries and mashed potatoes as sides.  I love beef.  I do.  But for that two weeks, I was tortured every time I had to go to a restaurant for lunch or dinner, and only order a soup or salad.  Don't get me wrong, I am not on a diet.  Hell, no.  I just can't smell, taste, chew or swallow any parts of a cow during my pregnancy.  So, soup it is.  

I tried every soup there is in South Dakota, Wyoming and Colorado.  There is always the trusty chicken noodle soup, vegetable and beef soup, tomato and basil soup and... an occasional treat - roasted red pepper and gouda soup!  That was during dinner at the Old Faithful Inn at Yellowstone and I must say it blew me away(surprisingly).  

Right now, I want nothing more than to slowly slurp a steaming bowl of Qiu Lian Mee Hoon Kueh.  Or the Zhen Bu Tong mee hoon kueh or even the one at Creative's staff canteen where I used to frequent while working at Sony.  I want that clear soup tasting of ikan bilis and pork, with a cracked egg trickily  manoeuvring its way around the noodles, then slowly diminishing the green kai-lan in the bowl with my chopsticks, and of course, dipping the tender pork slices into what I love best - the chilli dip.  Every time I finish a bowl of mee hoon kueh, satisfaction slowly radiates from my tummy into my brain - sending me waves of happiness that only a bowl of mee hoon kueh can. Does this sound crazy?  Well, I suspect only a preggie can write about mee hoon kueh like this.

There is no way I can locate a bowl of mee hoon kueh in mid-west USA but I had to eat chinese food.  There is no chinatown where I live now, so I am acting the part of the  deprived pregnant woman.  C'est normale.  During the road trip, we drove past more rolling hills and mountain ranges and the only big city we encountered was Denver.  Everywhere else was small-town USA.  There were probably more cows than humans where we went.  Eating chinese seemed like a pretty bleak forecast.

After days on end of meat, soup and potatoes, salvation presented itself in Cody(big cowboy town) and another small town in Wyoming(which we drove past and I don't even remember the name).  Cos the towns are so small, it is very easy to spot a billboard with chinese food.  There is usually just one chinese restaurant in town anyway(I doubt two would survive the competition).  Usually, they are called Dragon's Beard Restaurant, Great Wall Chinese Buffet, or simply Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant.  

Both restaurants churned out superbly good chinese food and I ate as much as I could, or rather, as much space as my baby allowed me to fill in my tummy.  Home-made tofu, black bean paste chicken, beef hor fun, char siew fried rice...food that I had not tasted for a really long time.  And they actually taste authentic too!  As good as I can get back home!  I really wish I could find a chinese restaurant that good in Quebec soon, just so I know there is always an escape route if I needed one.

The chinese food experience was kinda weird in Cody.  Just after polishing off our meal, we headed to the historic Irma hotel built by Buffalo Bill for his daughter, to watch a gunslinger's show.  Basically, it is  a show of cowboys shooting up the sidewalk with a saloon in the setting and some sultry barmaids thrown in for the effect.  I think the tofu and char siew did a jump each time the guns went off.

At an unplanned stop in Deadwood(the Las Vegas of the Cowboyland), we had an excellent walleye fish with garlic mashed potatoes and steamed vegetables at the Frontier Club, and that simply blew me away.  I thought that by then I am done with mashed potatoes, but this one went all the way down to my tummy in no time.  =)  

Officially, my second child is due 9 April 2010, so technically, I am in my 10th week of pregnancy.   From my previous experience, the tough times should subside as I inch towards the second trimester.  I wish Singapore Tourism Board would bring Makansutra festival to Quebec and line the streets with hawker food. Oh, how I wish...!!!!  Hopefully, in a month's time, I can eat normal, and not gag every time I smell food heating in the microwave. 

Meanwhile, the only way I can get through MY TOUGH TIMES is probably to make my very own mee hoon kueh this weekend.  ;p

Eating Nyonya Kueh in Quebec is nothing but surreal...

There is a Chinatown (or even 2)in almost every city I know - except for Quebec City.  They have a mysterious Chinese Pâté here, and a Chinese fondue where steamboat comes to mind but in fact, it is something else altogether.  I've had it on several occasions and it doesn't taste chinese to me at all.  The chinese food here must have evolved over the years to become authentic Quebecois cuisine instead.

The "Chinese food" here puzzles me.  So far, the chinese food I have eaten here are way too sweet, adapted for North American tastes and not for me.  The only way I can get my hands on any half decent chinese food, is Chez Moi(at my house).

The funny thing is, my most memorable simple home-cooking chinese food are in Europe.  They truly caught me by surprise.  Once in Munich, and another in Prague.  One restaurant was Teochew, known for their light, simple cooking and the other was from Zhejiang, also very simple and fresh.  I aspire to cook like them, since I am already Teochew, I should have it in me to actually cook like them!  

The trick to chinese cooking is all in the fire.  BUT, I have an electric cookstove in my kitchen, I ain't gonna control no fire unfortunately.  :(  And so, I am doomed to half-decent chinese food for the rest of my life. 

And so, I steam.  Yesterday, after watching a few episodes of the "Little Nyonya" and watching them taste delectable Nyonya kueh after another, I couldn't take it no more and got down to some serious steaming.  

I had never known that the Seri Muka was so easy to make.  Since I could always buy them easily from Malay vendors in Singapore or even from the islandwide Bengawan Solo cakeshops, who would even think of making it themselves?  

My first bite was out of this world.  I paired it with Gula Melaka Kaya(the Malaysian way of eating) and nearly had an overdose of Nyonya-ness altogether.  It was sooooo.....GOOD!  I had to curb my monstrous appetite - too much of a good things can indeed kill ya.

Seri Muka Recipe:

Bottom Layer:

300gm or 1.5 cups glutinous rice

50ml or 1/4 cup coconut milk

200ml or 3/4 cup water

1 tsp salt

Top layer:

3 medium or 2 large eggs

150ml or 2/3 cup coconut milk

150ml or 2/3 cup pandan juice* or 1tbsp or pandan paste + 130ml of water

180gm or 3/4 cup sugar

15gm or 1.5 tbsp cornstarch

30gm or 3 tbsp all purpose flour

* To obtain pandan juice, put pandan leaves and water in an electric blender and blend to a fine pulp. Strain the juice and measure out two tablespoonfuls for use.  Pandan paste can be bought in Asian grocery stores in a bottle.

1.  Soak glutinous rice for 2hrs min.  Drain rice well.  Put the rice in a flat baking pan suitable for steaming.  Stir in coconut milk and salt well.  Add in the water and the water level should be about 3-5mm above the rice, not more than 1cm.  

TIP: Depending on how well you drained the rice, the water level may vary, so add more if it is needed.

2.  Steam the rice on high heat for 20-30 mins until the rice turns translucent.  Remove form heat and use a fork to fluff the rice immediately.  Place the rice into an 8" round pan or a 7" square pan.  While the rice is hot, use a banana leaf to compact the rice down and level it as much as possible.  Alternatively, use a flat-bottomed glass container if you don't have banana leaf at hand.  Once compacted and leveled, return the rice to the steamer and continue to steam it while preparing the top layer. 

3.  Mix in the cornstarch and flour well into the pandan juice until the mixture is smooth.  Add in all the ingredients for the top layer into a heavy saucepan and cook on low heat.  Stir slowly and continuously until it thickens slightly.  Ensure that the mixture does not burn.  Once thickened after 4-5minutes, remove from heat.

4.  Pour the mixture over the rice and continue to steam on low heat for 25minutes.  

TIP: To ensure a smooth surface, do not use high heat.  

5.  After it is done, remove from heat and cool the kueh for 2hrs before cutting into diagonal slices or rectangle or even square slices.  

TIP:  If there are any leftovers, store the kueh in the refrigerator overnight and steam it again for 5-10mins on low heat the next day before serving.

The Little Nyonya stirring in my tummy

The Peranakan in me is awakening.

I know the show "Little Nyonya" had hit Singapore a while back, sending all the housewives on a crazy buying spree of mini kebayas for their little daughters and all the old folks spilling into Malacca on weekends for a dose of Peranakan culture and food.

Me?  I missed all the fad, of course but I did hear about it when I was back in Singapore in May.  I didn't watch the show then but I ended up coming home with 2 kebayas, hand-me-down serious Kueh-making molds from my dear grandmother, some lovely Peranakan tiles(they are known for their pain stakingly hand-painted tiles decorating their houses) and of course, a Nyonya cookbook.  

Now, a few months later, I am feeling the sleeping peranakan in me stirring slowly as I watch the show on the internet(thanks, Angie for the site!).  I can literally smell the glorious angku kueh and feel the steady rhythm of the pestle pounding the spices in the solid granite mortar.  Hell, this show makes me hungry. 

The 1st trimester always manages to kill my appetite and numbs my cooking abilities in the kitchen.  It probably was not such a good idea to start a food blog when I am experiencing nausea all day long and can't even thinking of eating.  So, I torture myself further by watching people eat and watching them eat what I would LOVE to eat myself but can't.  Self-torture is mandatory in the first trimester.  It helps me pass the time.

After the first 15mins of the show, I can't help but search for my Nyonya cookbook to sieve through the recipes for my favourite kueh(i.e. dessert or cake) - the white and green Seri Muka.  Sometimes, there will be swirling blue weaving through the white glutinous rice layer of the kueh, a striking indigo blue color derived from the butterfly pea flower.   The Peranakan pound the fresh flowers and then mix it with water to extract the natural blue after.  Somehow, it makes the kueh more tasty looking.  

When I visited Katong with my aunt and sister in May, we visited the Baba House and the kind gentleman inside gave us a tour of his family home and we caught a glimpse of him preparing the butterfly pea flower for making kueh kuehs.  I asked him where did he buy the flowers from and he replied that every morning, he just goes to pick them fresh from around the neighbourhood where they will be growing on creeping vines around fences.  Definitely my kind of shopping! 

Obviously, I don't have any butterfly pea flower growing in my neighbourhood here so I will just have to make do with a kueh kueh that is simply white and green and no blue.  

Right now, I will have to swallow my nausea down and get to work.