Pasta la cuisine de style chinois

Whenever I need to prepare a quick dinner, sometimes I will cook pasta, ala the Chinese stir-fry style.

Ingredients used are usually Capsicum, young corn, mushroom (can be chinese mushroom or white button mushroom or shitake mushroom), lots of chopped onions and a meat of your choice. I usually use Chicken cut into pieces. Before that, I will marinate the chicken with sesame oil, light soya sauce, black pepper, little corn flour and sometimes a dash of Cajun seasoning. Optional: You can add in pork and prawns to make the dish even 'sweeter'.

And of course the pasta. I like to use Fusilli because it is more springy and it looks nice. For condiments, I use Woh Hup Shitake Mushroom Sauce  (or Oyster Sauce) and white cooking wine. Actually you can improvise with whatever sauces you have till you get the taste you like. There are no hard and fast rules about it. To me, it is just a normal stir-fry dish.

First you need to cook the pasta in a big pot of boiling water. I use slightly more than one pack of 700gm pasta for my family of seven. Add a little olive oil and salt. After 8-10 minutes, sieve the pasta and let it cool and dry. 

Next prepare to stir fry the ingredients. Saute the chopped onions in hot oil until they turn golden brown and fragrant. Next add the chicken and stir fry till about 50% cooked, and throw in the young corn and then capsicum (depending how crunchy you like your capsicum. You can also have red capsicum to make the dish moe colourful). Add some water and let them cook. Leave the mushroom to the last till almost all the ingredients are almost cooked. Add a little of the white cooking wine. Then add in the cooked pasta and mix with the rest of the ingredients. Add the Shitake Mushroom sauce and salt to taste. Do a quick stir fry and you are done.

Tadah! This is my Pasta la cuisine de style chinois.

Actually I have blogged about this dish a couple of times, like when I was on vegetarian, I made Pasta de Vegan or the more colourful version. My next challenge is how to make this dish with "wok hei", the delicious 'burnt' taste so popular with Chinese stir-fry dishes. 

I love how easy and fast it is to cook this dish. It took me less than an hour to prepare dinner. And sometimes it is nicer than fried rice. Yummy! 

Bishamon Sapporo Ramen - an honest opinion

One of the week days, I met up with a friend for a short lunch at Bugis Junction. Since we did not have much time, we decided to try one of the small eating joints at the basement. Bishamon is not a restaurant, it is together with other eating joints selling takeaway food as well. There are a few tables in a dedicated cordoned off area.

Bishamon sells Sapporo ramen, curry rice, and a number of side dishes. They have 7 outlets in Singapore.

I ordered a small bowl portion of the Shoyu Ramen. Generally I do not like Shio Ramen flavour as I find it a little bland. I prefer the richnesss of Shoyu broth base, which is made of of chicken, pork together with other ingredients like seafood and greens and cooked for 2 hours or more. Besides the broth which was delectably rich as I wanted, the next most important item was the noodles itself. I was terribly disappointed with the ramen. A good bowl of ramen, the noodles must not be overcooked or too soggy. It should be firm and springy. Unfortunately, Bishamon ramen was too soggy for my liking. Looks were deceiving.

The piece of Char Siu (pork) is made from a special Tamari Japanese soy sauce. Compared to other popular ramen like Tampopo, Santouka and Marutama, this Char Siu was very lean with no slightest hint of fat. I still prefer the smooth, melt in the mouth fragrant Char Siu  with a little fatty meat, from Marutama. The broiled egg is always my favourite in ramen, no complaints here.

We shared a side dish which was steamed dumplings. They have 3 variations of dumplings, we chose Okonomiyaki Gyoza. 

I absolutely love the Katsuo Bushi (bonita shavings) so generously sprinkled on top of the Gyoza that they totally disguised the dumpling. The combination of the mayonnaise and okonomiyaki sauce, bonita shavings and the warm steamed dumplings was so juicy and oh-so comforting.

Unhidden, the gyoza itself was a modest size and not too fat like the Chinese type of dumplings which is filled bursting with meat fillings.

While the ramen was disappointing (only the broth saved the day), I would recommend you try this Okonomiyaki Gyoza instead. If you want a good bowl of ramen, go to the above-mentioned big boys instead.

Princess Di exploited even in death

When Bobobimbo tweeted about this advert blogged by copyranter, I was a little disturbed. Yesterday, a China company, Jealousy International, launched their Diana® line of lingerie featuring Princess Diana (complete with a tiara). The adverts coincided with the death anniversary of the Princess of Wales with billboards across the country and the slogan proclaiming "Feel the romance of British royalty."

Trust a Chinese company to come up with such adverts, exploiting the dead even in death. Such a cheesy, badly designed ad too.

I wonder how would The People's Republic of China feel if their national icon is also being exploited and mocked in these ?  

Wait a minute.... someone already did....

Mao's Last Banquet by Zhang Hongtu. This painting speaks volumes of the cult-like image that Mao has created and expected the Chinese population to pay reverence to himself the Marxist dictator.

In 2008, French car maker Citroën launched an ad featuring a doctored portrait of former Chinese leader Mao Zedong. In the ad, carried in Spanish newspaper El Pais, Mao scowls at a hatchback  "It's true, we are leaders, but at Citroën the revolution never stops," reads the text below the portrait. Citroën eventually withdrew the ad and apologised for the "inappropriate" ad, which the Chinese people online complained "hurts our national pride". Source: BBC News.

I hope companies will be more sensitive to the sentiments of the place and its people where they introduce and launch a product / service. While riding on the name of a famous personality may make sense, sensitivity and respect are much more valued in the long run.

When in Paris a while back, I passed by the tunnel where Princess Diana had died in a  tragic car accident. My mood was perplexed, a poignant sight of a sad reminder of the past. This was taken near the tunnel. The golden statue of the eternal flame near the tunnel was an original tribute to Franco-Americian friendship, but now it has been adopted as the unofficial shrine to Princess Diana following her death. Many people have placed cards, flowers and her photos around the statue. I adored Princess Diana and it was sad being so "near" her for the very first time, albeit upon her death.

Please stop exploiting the dead.

Eng Kee Chicken Rice from Eunos

I'm not exactly a fervent fan of Hainanese Chicken Rice, but from time to time, I do appreciate a quality authentic serving of chicken rice, its tender chicken, and yes, the garlic chilli sauce. I do tend to stick to one or two chicken rice stalls which are just "different" from others. The rest just taste the same to me everywhere.

Upon recommendation by juzmarc about a chicken rice stall in Eunos which he has been patronising for more than 10 years, I ventured into the old idyllic neighbourhood next to Eunos MRT station. With the blocks of flats painted in bright orange and white, it reminded me of my old house in a neighbourhood nearby in Aljunied. I found Eng Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice in Hong Lee Eating House, a coffeeshop next to the hawker centre and wet market.

I ordered a plate of roasted chicken rice, with additional order of liver and braised egg. I love braised eggs or herbal eggs. The whole plate with roasted chicken, liver and one braised egg, cucumber, soup and chilli sauce costs about $4. The chicken rice was fragrant, fluffy and moist with the right mix of soya sauce and sesame oil. The boneless chicken was tender and also moist.

Whenever I eat chicken rice, I do like to add a helping of chicken liver. I think the only reason why I bothered to visit this stall was because juzmarc highlighted about the liver. So, I'm 'sold'. The taste of powdery yet firm liver is utterly shiok with a dash of the lime-infused and garlic chilli sauce.

I so loved the chilli sauce I poured it all over the whole plate of chicken rice. It was one of the most satisfying meal I had from a hawker stall in recent times.

If you're nearby, I do recommend you to try this stall, and also the Lor Mee from the market, as well as Sin Thor Bak Kut Teh in the coffeeshop behind Eunos MRT Station.

Eng Kee Hainanese Chicken Rice & Porridge

Blk 7 Eunos Crescent #01-2651 Tel: 6743 5520

Opening Hours: 8am to 10pm, daily