Oodles …

Of Noodles.

Participated in a focus group that lasted until late. Dinner of soup noodles at Sunflower Cafe (1157 Maunakea Street, Honolulu, Hawaii). We used to frequent this place quite often, but the location, especially at night, is a little spooky (not ghost spooky, wrong side of the tracks spooky).

Anyway, The Cat ordered roast duck noodle (she forgot to substitute look funn).

Roast Duck Soup Noodles

The Mouse had trouble making up his mind, either won ton noodles or char siu noodles. Asked if they could do a combo, they did.

Won Ton and Char Siu Soup Noodles

The Cat forgot how good this place is. Hopefully we can become regulars again, just not night time.

Enjoy. Eat well.

The Mouse

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Consume Mass Quantities

Brunch/lunch buffet this morning at Hee Hing Restaurant (449 Kapahulu Avenue, Honolulu, Hawaii).

A sampling of our consumption of mass quantities.

The Cat’s Plate I

The Cat’s Plate II

High points for The Cat were Szechuan style eggplant (which was not spicy at all), and the tofu salad. It was the first time The Cat experienced tofu salad with canned salmon (one of the original recipes).

The Mouse’s Plate I

The Mouse’s Plate II

High points for The Mouse were the roast pork (with crispy skin) and char siu (was there any doubt?). Notice my first plate was mostly vegetables so I wouldn’t feel  guilty about the second plate? Hee hee!

The kitchen also made a little Hawaiian food. The bowl of pork luau on at the 3 o’clock position in the second picture (taro leaves cooked with a small amount of pork and coconut milk). Not bad, just okay. The raw leaves have a chemical irritant that is nullified by cooking long and slow. Think Hawaiian-style collared/mustard greens.

Enjoy. Eat well.

The Mouse

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Kau Yuk?

Last week, eating out, impromptu at Nice Day Chinese Seafood Restaurant (1425 Liliha Street, Honolulu, Hawaii). We were in the area.

Eggplant and Tofu

The Cat liked.

Vegetables with Glass Noodles

Not bad.

Chinese Style Pot Roast Pork with Taro

Detailed Shot

I know the dish as “Kau Yuk” (don’t as me to translate it). The Cat doesn’t even know what I’m talking about. And the internet has very little info except referencing to Hawai`i. Might be a regional thing.

It’s pork, usually the belly, seasoned with fermented bean curd, and cooked for a very long time. The bean curd is preserved in rice wine (white or red), and  sometimes with chili.  Because of the fermented bean curd, the meat takes on  the fermented, salty taste. It’s an acquired taste, but ask most old timers about it, and their eyes light up and they start to drool.

If my memory is correct, one of my father’s last solid foods he had was an order of kau yuk I snuck into his hospital room. The meat also wasn’t red, but he scarfed it down like a starving man (he hated hospital food).

This version was not bad, pretty good. Well prepared (like buttah), tasty, but … the taste (and color) I grew up with was somewhat different.

To get a better reference point, let’s channel The Doctor, H.G. Wells, Dr. Samuel Beckett, or any other time traveller.

One of my father’s favorite dishes. He was old school. The kau yuk had to be red. Almost like an Asian lacquer red. My palate was not so developed back then and I couldn’t appreciate the flavors and textures of a well prepared pork belly.

These are some examples (pulled from the internet) that would’ve gotten my father drooling.

Pot Roast Pork Belly (Red)

Source: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=449178&page=100

Pot Roast Pork Belly (Red)

Source: http://www.yelp.com/biz_photos/kunia-chinese-restaurant-waipahu?select=UoKJYuZyjYiwq6kYSBkLVQ#UoKJYuZyjYiwq6kYSBkLVQ

Not sure what these restaurants are using to achieve the red coloring. I’m curious.

Got a hold of a jar of the red fermented bean curd.

Label

This is the same brand featured in a Ken Hom cookbook, so I feeling good about this.

The Stuff of Legends

Got some belly pork.

Belly Pork

Followed a couple of recipes I found on the internet.

Parboiled the belly pork (I think this renders some of the fat out of the meat).

Sliced the pork into chunks, tried to crisp the skin a little.

And here’s where the recipes and I diverted.

Most of the recipes call for the pork to be marinated in the fermented bean curd mixture (along with sugar, soy sauce, or oyster sauce, or “hoi sin” sauce) then steamed with raw sliced taro.

Didn’t have taro nor a proper steamer to fit a dish to accommodate the pork (we have a make shift steamer that fits a bowl of rice or something similar).

So, I slowly simmered the “kau yuk” with the bean curd mixture.

Kau Yuk?

The results were just okay, not great. The simmering liquid wasn’t the thick consistency of memory (a little cornstarch helped but not enough). You probably can’t tell from the picture but the coloring was redder than the dish we had at the restaurant but not the lacquer red I was hoping to achieve. The Cat said the taste was spot on though. The bits you see on the pork is the fermented bean curd not completely dissolving. I liked it. I compare it to undissolved salt crystals, I get bits of intense salt hits. Nom!

Turns out, one recipe calls for red food coloring. Uhm, no. Decades ago, I thought there was a ban on red dye No. 2 that’s still in effect.  I know it’s not the same red dye chemical, but still, eww. I’m contemplating the possibility of using a little beet juice the next time I try this. Not enough to change the flavor, but to add some “color” to the meat.

Anyway, bent your ear long enough.

Enjoy. Eat well.

The Mouse

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Jurassic Lemonade

No, not really, just me exaggerating.

Helped The Cat clean out her refrigerator at the office the other day and came across these.

Li Hing Mui

Or salty dried plum seeds. At first glance I could have sworn they were petrified dinosaur droppings (just my overactive imagination).

Now Chinese salted dried plum seeds are inherently dry, but “fresh” ones have a bit of moisture to them. These were almost fossilized. Super dry.

I was almost going to toss it but being “pake”, I thought I would try something first. If it failed, I could toss them later.

Tried to replicate the lemonade with sour plum drink from Taste Tea (see post here).

Simmered the dried seeds in water, added sugar to dissolve, chilled the mixture until cool, and added the juice of one lemon.

Jurassic Lemonade

Ta dah! The picture was taken before I added the ice cubes. For the first time, not bad. I had too many li hing mui seeds and too much  sugar (have to cut back on both).

I think the same thing could be done for hot lemonade too. Have to think about that one.

All in all, I would do this one again, with adjustments.

Notice how the seeds turned color from white to dark? All the salt and flavor were leeched out of the seeds. The seeds from the Tasty Tea drink were edible, the seeds from the homemade drink were tossed.

It’s an acquired taste. salty, sweet, sour, maybe even a little bit of umami. Bitter was not represented.

Enjoy. Eat well.

The Mouse

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Chinese Take-Out

Stayed out late. Cooking would take too long. Picked up Chinese take-out on the way Asian Mix (1234 South Beretania Street, Honolulu, Hawaii). It was near closing time, the steam tables were a little sparse. Owner gave us more than normal (he didn’t want leftovers).

The Cat’s Dinner

White  rice, greens with tofu, “spicy” eggplant (it was pretty mild), and pot roast duck. The Cat liked.

The Mouse’s Dinner

Fried rice, bitter melon, pot roast chicken, “spicy” eggplant, and  steamed vegetables. Comfort food.

This place has just become one of The Cat’s favorite places.

Enjoy. Eat well.

The Mouse

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