What’s for Lunch at the Lord Series – Day 1
Dear loyal Finechinagirl readers,
I recently got the newly released Blackberry Onyx (9700) and you cannot believe how excited I am to have it. I have had the Blackberry Pearl, but I never got the data plan because it was much too rich for me. But anyways, I can definitely go on about this amazing phone, but I won’t. Now I can say is that this phone has a 3.2MP camera which I am excited to have and make use of. I don’t need the camera to have such a high megapixels because I didn’t get the phone for the camera capabilities.
With this camera, I can safely whip out my phone and take pictures wherever I go without people staring me down like when I have my camera. Somehow when you carry your camera, especially at work, it is just always shunned upon, unless you work for a photography studio which I’m sure not all of us does. This past Monday, I decided to take pictures of my lunch and send it to my friend Sally over at the Tasty Confection. She has suggested that I post the pictures on my website and I thought, hey why not. So this will be the first of the many lunches that I will post. There are days where it will be the same thing, but I will explain to you the thought process behind choosing that particular dish.
So on Monday, I decided to get a salad from the cafeteria at work and dessert:
Romaine lettuce w/chickpeas, peanuts, cherry tomatoes and cucumbers mixed with olive oil
Not a bad image for a 3.2MP picture! Most of the time I will be eating this unless I’m feeling famished. This is my favorite combo for a salad. It is healthy, fresh, and the different textures makes this an interestingly delicious salad. The chickpeas and the peanuts are the highlight of my salad and I cannot eat it without it. The rest of the toppings are there to lighten the heaviness of the creamy chickpea and the salty peanuts. Absolutely my favorite. Call me crazy, but I love it.
Apple Crisp
At first Sally thought it was a potato kind of a dish, but it is actually an Apple dish. It looks like remnants of an apple pie. This apple crisp isn’t as sweet as I would like it but it was acceptable. The tartness from the apple can be too much, but the top crust is crunchy and subtly sweet just the way I like it. I wish the cafeteria lady gave me more of the crust because it compliments well with the apples, but that is quite alright.
Ok, until next time,
<3 FCG
Happy Birthday with an Oreo Ice Cream Cake!
Dear Loyal Readers of Finechinagirl,
I simply must apologize for not updating the website at all! I have been busy recently and have not had the chance to touch my computer. Funny how time flies and flies and flies! I have gone to a few restaurants which I will post sometime in the near future. But for now I would like to share with you and oreo ice cream cake that I made for my brother’s birthday this past January 14th.
As a busy girl living in New York City, I just don’t have time to make ice cream, even though I have a nice ice cream maker. So, I scoured the web trying to find a simple, and I stress verry simple ice cream cake recipe, which I found through video.about.com. Click on the link to find the recipe on this.
Oreo Ice Cream Birthday Cake
Penang Malaysian Restaurant – Chinatown, NY
Penang
41 Elizabeth Street
New York, NY
(212) 431-8722
Penang Malaysian Restaurant - Chinatown, NY
One of the few Malaysian restaurants in Chinatown, Penang is located right off of Canal Street and right into the heart of Chinatown. Growing up, if I was hankering for Malaysian food, it was either at Penang or Nyonya, which is on Grand Street. There are a few more Malaysian restaurants that has popped up in Chinatown, but they are not as popular as the two that I mentioned about.
To be quite honest, I have always enjoyed the food at Nyonya. But this isn’t a post about Nyonya, it is on Penang. The atmosphere in Penang seems very quiet and desolate. I guess you’ll have to pick the right time, but I came here at 7pm with my party of eight and there were only two people there. No music was playing in the background and let me stress how quiet it was. Not only that, the lighting seems to be kind of dim which made me feel a little creeped out. Let me tell you, the atmosphere/feng-shiu at Nyonya is definitely not like that. I have only eaten the Hainanese chicken and the roti canai here since they were signature dishes which I will talk about that later.
Yes, if you can do take-out, do it!
Penang Menu
When you eat at a restaurant in Chinatown, most locals eat it family style. Hence the nice round tables with multiple seats. Let me know you the dishes my friends and I ordered:
Chinese Steamed Cupcakes – Faat Go/Prosperity Cakes
:Edit:
If you happen to live in New York City and you want to try this faat go recipe, I suggest that you take a visit to Chinatown and purchase a bag of homemade “wet” rice flour which is low-gluten. I can honestly tell you that I don’t know how to make this flour but I can tell you where to buy it. Having the right kind of flour is key to your prosperity cakes.
Fong Inn Too, Inc.
Fong Inn Too Menu
Now in Cantonese it is called, “Zhi mai fun.” Once you tell the clerk that you want this, he will give you a bag of rice flour which is shown below:
Hong Kong Rice Flour
Notice that this flour is clumpy and not dry like most flours. My mother tells me that this flour is essentially rice and flour that has been fermented for two days. Unfortunately I do not possess the know how, but I can tell you how it was made.
Good luck!
***
It all started with an obsession with Chinese cupcakes. AKA faat go (or huat kueh) as you say in Cantonese. My good friend Sally over at the tastyconfection and I wanted to learn how to make Chinese cupcakes because we have always eaten them. These special cupcakes are only available in Chinese bakeries during the time of Chinese New Year since they represent prosperity and success. There’s an old Chinese proverb which my mother always says that translates, “The more the cake blossoms, the more prosperous your year will be.” Something along the lines of this. Sally and I can care less about the superstitious properties that these cakes hold and wanted to eat them whenever we wanted to. The journey to find the most successful recipe was a frustrating one.
Complicated and non-traditional prosperity cupcake recipes disappointed me. I was amazed how I could not find a good old fashion Chinese recipe. There are many Malaysian and Singaporean recipes, but they’re not the ones that I am used to having. Sally tried learning the recipe from her grandmother, but unfortunately the cupcakes’ corners did not form which is why she is uncomfortable with sharing the recipe.
Now one day, my mother decided to make these cupcakes for my father’s birthday. She got the recipe from my aunt and then a couple of hours in the kitchen, she makes this:
Steamed Chinese Cupcakes aka Faat Go
