Nostalgic dinner

Dried stuff from Tai O - I made a nostalgic dinner. Yes, it was almost like 15-20 years ago I made these for my grand mother and sisters. Besides, I use my old method - cooking while cutting/preparing the food. So my friend asked me how long I made all these done. I simply told her I tried to test my time to finish it all before the rice is done (30 minutes). Oops... exceeding 5 minutes - failed!

1. I haven't seen this kind of salty egg york for a long time. I usually put them on the (almost done but still with some hot bubble on the rice) rice. Wow - the egg york oil slips into the rice and makes the rice so fragrant! That's how I took 3-4 bowls of steamed rice at younger time.

2. Tofu with minced pork in shrimp paste sauce. First put some chopped garlic into the wok and brown it. Then put the minced pork (first marinated with some soy sauce, dash of sugar, white pepper powder, little corn starch, sesame oil) into the wok. Brown it. Then put aside the pork on the wok (not taking it out). Put 3 tea spoon of shrimp paste. Brown it a bit. Then put the big cut of Tofu (about 2" x 2"). Don't cut them in small pieces as it will lose the juice inside easily when you pan fry it. So brown the tofu. Then cut the tofu in the wok into smaller pieces. Put half bowl of water and cover it. Shimmer for about 1-2 minutes until the sauce gets a bit thick. Then done!

3: Dried fish with Chinese zucchini - this is the favourite dish of my grand mom as well as my aunts and father. A typical sea village dish. First use a bit more oil as the dried fish aborbs the oil quite much. Then pan fry it a bit with slices of ginger until you smell a bit burnt aroma. Then put the thick cut of this Chinese zucchini (not sure about the exact term) and brown it a bit. Don't stir it too much as it will make the zucchini smashed. Then put 3/4 bowl of water. Put a dash of salt and sugar. Cover it and shimmer it for 5-6 minutes until you see the zucchini gets soft and the sauce gets a bit thick (I don't recommend using corn starch to thicken the sauce but use it when needed).

4: steamed red fish

5: rice dumpling from Tai O - the taste is good but somehow the lotus leaf was not rinsed well enough and made the dumpling a bit brown and some dirt on the outside. A bit disappointing.

6: a meal for 3.

7: My friend from Paris - Miki and Maria from Hong Kong

8: preparing fruit salad

9: finished. We just put some orange juice for the salad. No need to have those miracle whip. Simply fresh enough.