Baak Wan (White Cloud) Chicken Wings -- 白雲雞翼

Baak Wan Chicken Wings (白雲雞翼) is a great summer recipe. It's a little sweet and sour, really open up your appetite during a hot, humid, summer day. But of course, I'm making it during one of the coldest days we have in the dead of the winter! (I woke up to 19F, or -7C, in the morning, with the temperature all the way down to 12F, or -11C, at night!!! I'm sure Steph deals with even colder days most of the time, but it doesn't mean it's still not cold!!!) I figured if I was making Coca-Cola wings, I might as well save a few pieces to try another recipe.

Baak Wan literally means "white cloud". I tried looking up the history/story behind it, but I wasn't able to find anything. To be honest, the version I'm more familiar with is actually made with chicken feet. But I think chicken feet is one of those things that you have to acquire a taste for. Otherwise, um, I think most people are kind of scared of it. (I, on the other hand, love it.)

This is a super easy recipe, I'd recommend only using chicken wings and chicken feet only. Parts with very little fat, collagen/skin, would become rubbery and bland. In another word, chicken breast is out.

Ingredients:

• Dozen chicken wings
• Optional: 1 Thai/ Bird's Eye chili, sliced (deseed and devein if you don't want it too spicy)

Marinade:

• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of vinegar
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1/4 tsp of salt (adjust according to personal taste)

Directions:

1. Wash chicken wings and boil in water for 10-15 minutes until thoroughly cooked.
2. Rinse chicken wings with cool boiled water and rid of excess fat. Drain and let chill completely.
3. In a separate pot, bring water and vinegar to a boil. Add sugar and salt till dissolved. Remove from heat and let chill completely. This should take about 30-45 minutes.
4. Add chicken wings and marinade to a ziplock bag, add chili if using, chill overnight for at least 8-10 hours. (Only add wings to marinade when both are cool off completely.)
5. Serve wings with sesame seeds.

Optional:
Double the marinade and marinade julienne carrot and daikon separately for a refreshing summer pickle.

Baak Wan Chicken Wings. Taken with my new camera!!!!!!!

I just checked the weather. It's 14F, feeling like 1F!!!! Bundle and be warm, kids! I probably will revisit this recipe again when the weather gets warmer!!! I hope you'll enjoy it. I'll be making more chicken wings in the near future.

Jewellery: Charoite Ring

I'm not a particularly large person -- I'm huge for Asian, but not a particularly large person in the States. Some might even say I'm "small", but that's only because I'm usually standing next to people who are significantly larger than me.

With that being said, I prefer dainty, smaller pieces of jewellery. Well, particularly rings. I can't really pull off large necklaces, earrings, or rings. Working with smaller stones is kind of a pain (and does strain your eyes), and I have A LOT of beautiful large cabochons (flat-back stones) laying around, so what was I supposed to do with them?

I can't make earrings out of them, since I don't really have two of the same stones. (Okay, I guess I could make mismatching earrings...) I could make pendants with them, but I only wear same one pendant 364 days out of the year. I could make bracelets... Wait, I still haven't actually made a bracelet before -- so I just can't commit to that just yet. Or, I could make rings.

But I questioned, could I pull off a big ring? And I realised a lot of it really lies in one's attitude. If you think you could pull it off, then you could pull it off. (Okay, that might not be applicable to everything in life, but in this instance, I think it works.) Anyway, I made the big ring a while ago with a really beautiful charoite that I had and I honestly loved how ridiculous it is. When I made it, I left some "room" for improvement/add ons. I wanted to attach a chain to it, so I could wear it as a bracelet/ring combo. Well, I never got around to doing it. So while cleaning out my box of materials a while ago, I found another teardrop shaped charoite, and I thought maybe I could attach it to the existing ring and make it even more ridiculous.

Well. I did. I kept the style the same and now the ring is ridiculously heavy, but I think I'm loving it. The best part is that I have the flexibility to detach the "pendant" piece and add something else to it. You could see how dry my hand is. A small price to pay when you want to make fun jewellery to wear.

Charoite cocktail ring, with a ridiculous attachment dangling off of it.

Ridiculous? Sure. But I'm loving it. Next time though, however, I am going back to making small dainty stuff. But until then -- this is staying on my hand.

Cooking Challenge with Steph #2 -- Coca Cola Wings

Coca Cola Wings -- apparently it's a very popular dish that came out of China in the recent years. I've only ever heard about it, but never actually had nor made it before.  So Steph and I decided to add this dish to the list when we brainstormed over our list of challenges. I'll let you in on a little secret (it's not a secret) -- Asians love wings. We love chicken wings. Braised, pan-fried, deep-fried, barbecue, steamed, shallow-fried, etc. Any way you could think of cooking it, we probably have done it already. And to show you how popular this dish is, China's PepsiCo (who owns both Pepsi and Lay's) actually made a Pepsi and Chicken-Flavoured potato chips.

Anyway, the dish is really easy to make, the only thing you really have to look out for is not to burn the sauce. Coke will caramelise and burn easily if you don't keep your eyes on it. Another note is that you must use regular coke. Don't use any diet coke that contains artificial sugar, as the "sugar" breaks down, it'll render the dish bitter rather than giving a hint of sweetness. The coke also tenderises the chicken as it cooks, making the wings very flavourful.

My recipe is an adaptation of both Christine's Recipes and Scorpio's recipe. (In Chinese only, sorry.) Christine's Recipes has tons of amazing recipes, they are simple and easy to follow.

Ingredients:

• Dozen of wings
• 3 cloves of garlic, smashed
• Thumb size ginger, sliced
• 2 slices of lemon or lime
• 1 cup of Coca-Cola or Pepsi

Marinade:

• 1/2 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp rice wine

Sauce:

• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1/2 tbsp rice wine

Going clockwise: lime slices, ginger slices, and smashed garlic, chicken wings in marinade, and sauce mixture. Not pictured, Coke.

Directions:

1. Wash and boil the chicken wings for about 1-2 minutes to get rid of excess blood and fat Rinse and marinate in rice wine and soy sauce for about 20 minutes.
2. In a pot, heat about 1/2 tbsp of oil over medium heat and saute the garlic and ginger until fragrant.
3. Drain the chicken wings and add the wings to the pot. Saute until slightly brown on both sides.

4. 

   Chicken wings browning.

5. Add sauce, Coke, and the lemon/lime slices to the pot. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to cook for 20-25 minutes. Turning the wings occasionally to achieve even colouring. Sauce will thicken overtime, add more water if the sauce thickens too soon.
6. Garnish dish with sliced scallion and lemon/lime wedges if desired.

Chicken wings cooking in sauce.

Sauce thickened and caramlised, giving the chicken wings a nice deep brown colour.

In some recipes that I looked over, it said not to put a lid over the pot and let the sauce thickens. By keeping the lid on, it traps the moisture in and the sauce will remain thin -- but that wasn't quite the case for me. The steam still managed to escape, so I kept the lid on for the first 20 minutes, and then kept it off the last 5 to allow it to thicken.

Lemon coke and lime coke are very popular in HK. In the States, we associate lemon with Diet Coke, but that's not the case overseas. (There were many times when I ended up drinking Diet Coke because I wanted some citrus zest to my coke, and didn't remember lemon in coke means it's diet.) The lime slices add a nice citrusy flavour to the dish, which I really liked. The coke only really left a hint of sweetness to the dish and it doesn't actually make it taste like coke at all. Depending on your personal preference, experiment with different types of citrus to give it different flavours each time. Let me know how you like this dish!

I'll declare this dish as a success!

Click here to see Steph's version of the dish!

Just another day...

Worried that I'd look like a glutton by only buying two boxes of cookies from Trader Joe's (hey, I resisted on buying macarons, the raspberry macaron cake, and various other desserts), I ended up buying two boxes of cookies AND a bottle of Scotch. (It was Lismore Single Malt -- never had it, but it had fairly good reviews for its price.) While getting checked out, I asked the staff if they have the TJ's brand Scotch. After I paid for everything, I wonder if the staff secretly wondered what was wrong with me... Cookies and Scotch... And it's only a Monday night...

With that being said, the TJ's I went into has Laphroaig 10 year for $50. Sadly, it's the cheapest I've ever seen in the area -- and I know it DOES go for less in other parts of the country. Has anyone in New Jersey seen it going for cheaper? If you've seen it for less, please let me know!

Cooking Challenge with Steph #1 -- HK Style Curry Fishballs

Curry Fishballs. One of my favourite snacks of all time. I have a strange fondness (obsession?) with fishballs and meatballs almost my whole life. These little shaped deep-fried (or unfried) fish paste thingies are my favourite things to have in a hot pot, in noodles, or alone. And I go absolutely crazy over Oden. (I call myself the Oden Monster.)

Of course I'm not alone in this. Fishballs play a huge part in the Hong Kong culture -- it's one of the most popular snacks of all time. People in neighbouring countries and cities know of and seek out this delicacy. Based on a survey done in 2002, Hong Kongers consume approximately 55 tonnes (or 3,750,000 pieces) or fishballs a day! That about 13 billion fishballs in a year, or 196 pieces per person annually. HKers bleed fishballs!!!

With that being said, I'm always craving for this delicacy. I could get fishballs at the Asian grocery store, but I can't really find the "HK street food" flavour anyway, not even Chinatown. So when Steph and I set up this Cooking Challenge, it was the first thing that went on the list. A side story about how obsessed I am with this delicacy. When I was in kindergarten, I had to visit and take exams (and be accepted) to enroll into primary school. The choices were down to two very good private schools. I ended up with Saint Francis because... There was a 7-11 across the street and a few very small mum-and-pop stores on the other side, and the closest store to the school sold fishballs... (The 7-11 closed the year after I enrolled...) There were times after school, I'd ask my classmates who had been picked up by their parents to run across the street to get a skewer or two for me, and I'd share a few with them for their trouble. (We weren't allowed to leave the building unless we were being picked up. The entrances/exits were being watched/guarded.) Ahh... Memory lanes...

What are fishballs anyway? Fishballs are usually made with cheap white fish, minced and then beat repeatedly (by hands in the old days, it's not usually made with machines) under a well controlled and chilled environment until it forms into a paste. The paste is then shaped and deep fried. Sometimes a little bit of starch is added to the paste to help make it "sticky", but unfortunately, some readily-available fishballs have way too much starch and then the fishballs would really lose their flavours. Enough with my rambling, let's get on with the recipe!

Note: In my opinion, I think this recipe resembles fairly close to the flavour of some fishballs I had off the streets of HK. Could be much spicier, but the flavour of the sauce is close to it.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound fried fishballs
• 1 small daikon, peels and cut
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed with side of blade
• 2-3 cloves of shallot, sliced
• 2 tablespoons of curry powder
• 1 block of S&B Golden Curry (I used the Medium Hot one, you could get it from here.)
• 2-3 tablespoons of Thai red curry paste

Pictured going clockwise from 12 o'clock: assorted fishballs, broth, daikon, beef tendon, shallot and onion, curry powder, and reconstituted squid. Not pictured: curry paste and curry roux.

Broth:

• 2.5 cups of water (or chicken stock)
• 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• Pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Wash and boil the fishballs in boiling water for about a minute to get rid of residual oil, rinse well and set aside.
2. In a frying pan, heat curry powder over medium heat until fragrant. Remove from heat.
3. In a large pot, heat some oil and stir fry the garlic and shallot. Add the curry powder, stir fry until fragrant. Take care to not burn anything.
4. Mix all the "broth" ingredients together, and pour it into the large pot. Bring to a boil.
5. Add the Golden Curry and red curry paste to the mix, stir to dissolve everything.
6. Add daikon and fishballs to the pot, bring to a boil and then reduce heat. Let it simmer for about 15-20 minutes until the daikon is cooked thoroughly. Turn off heat and let it rest and absorb the flavour for two-three hours.

Curry fishballs can be enjoyed over rice, noodles, or even alone.

Curry powder on the left is what it looks like after it's heated in the pan. A deeper and more intense colour. The powder on the right is what it looks like originally, a bright and lighter golden yellow.

Fishballs steeping for flavour. Make sure you use a large enough pot, through heating/cooking, the fishballs will expand.

As you can see, I have a lot more stuff in my photos than what's listed in the recipe. I added beef tendon and reconstituted squid. I soaked the squid for a few hours prior to boiling it and cutting it up. With beef tendon... That's a subject that warrants its own paragraph. Only proceed with this if you like beef tendon.

While preparing for this -- I learned quite a bit and I had some miscalculations. I boiled the tendon in water to get rid of the blood and stuff. Then I proceeded to cut it up... And it was very difficult to do so. Tendon, prior to cooking, is extremely tough. And it takes about 4 hours of cooking until it softens up. I ended up putting it into another pot, with some broth, and stuck it into my Thermos Thermal Cooker. In 4 hours, it was done and delicious. So if you don't have a device that helps you cut down the cooking time (such as a thermal cooker, or a pressure cooker), you could let it simmer over the stovetop for 3-4 hours. But you have to make sure you keep an eye on the broth/water level and make sure not to burn your pot. I'd also recommend cutting the tendons AFTER it's done cooking. The collagen in the tendon will also render your sauce into "jello" once it cools down. It'll reheat just fine though.

Note about daikon. I actually used two types. I used the Korean daikon at first, which turned out really delicious as it absorbed a great deal of the broth. Unfortunately, most of it dissolved into the broth and I was left with very few pieces of daikon... I also used the Chinese daikon, which has a much stronger smell, but it seems to hold up better than the Korean one. Personally, I like the Korean daikon better since it absorbs the flavour real well, and it has a less intense scent than the Chinese one. (The Korean daikon is stumpier with a light green top. The Chinese daikon is skinnier, longer, with a much stronger smell.)

Anyway, curry fishballs is a very simple and delicious side dish/snack. The quality of fishballs does matter. You don't have to make things as complicated as I did by adding that many ingredients. Except the perishables, I have all the other ingredients at home already, and I used whatever curry powder, paste, and roux I had at the time. You could use whichever favourite curry you have. My recipe has a tiny bit of heat to it, if you want it to be hotter, add more curry paste. The curry powder is used primarily for colour and fragrance, but doesn't add a lot of heat to the dish. Pick a spicy curry paste/roux that you like to intensify the heat.

Good luck and I hope you enjoy this dish!

Final product! Serve with dumplings.

Find Steph's version of the recipe here.

And So It Begins...

I know that there are many great food blogs out there, and there are many great cooks. At this day and age, it's difficult to differentiate oneself from others. However, I am not trying to make myself "better" than others, different from others, or do things that haven't been done before. The main purpose of this blog is more less a documenting tool of my "fooding" adventure.

This project begun when Steph, over at Munch I Munch, and I were lamenting over how it's hard to get good Chinese food. In theory, she would have a much harder time than I do, considering the fact that she lives in Utah. I, on the other hand, am on the East Coast, and residing in the Great State of New Jersey. Despite having a number of Chinese restaurants in the area, and NYC being a train ride away, most of the time, I can't find Chinese food I like. People often time tell me, "Go to Flushing for great Taiwanese food", or "Go to the Manhattan Chinatown, they have great Chinese food!" Granted, I haven't been to every Chinese restaurant in Chinatown, the ones I've been to, don't always hit the spot. There are just way too many types of Chinese food. China is a very large country after all, every region is different, and every province within every region is different. And Chinatown is like that -- it has a little bit of every different type of Chinese food, but it doesn't always have the flavours I am craving for.

With that being said, that's why Steph and I challenged each other, if you can't find what you want, make it yourself. We're going to start making 1 Chinese dish (mostly Cantonese style) every other week, in additions to the challenges and goals we've set up for ourselves. And I'll be using this blog to document my progress and the dishes I'll be making. This is actually part of my 2013 New Year's resolution. Cook more. Eat and be merry. Other resolutions include "doing more" and "making more" -- just to test out what I am capable of creating with my own two hands.

Thanks for dropping by and please let me know if you have any comments!