Seattle: Piroshky, Piroshky in Pike Place Market

There is never a lack of eating places in the Seattle’s Pike Place Market. Everywhere you turn, you will come across food from every corner of the world and all of them seems so authentic.

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We came across this small little dank looking shop and had a long queue of customers. The queue was so long that it spilled out to the sidewalk. Well, with a line that long, this place would certainly be something.

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The name of the place is called Piroshky, Piroshky. It sounds a lot like a Russian — I wasn’t particularly sure. I had expected to see Russian looking people running the place but the person who attended to us looked very much like Chinese. But other than that, the place does look authentic Russian.

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The line moved quite fast. We could see them making whatever they call it from the outside window. They do look very delicious. (more…)

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Bak Kwa

We had a picnic among friends just in the past weekend. It was perhaps the largest we had organized with over 50 adults and children attending. We could not have chosen a better weekend as the day was simply beautiful and a great time to be outdoors. Feels like summer already to us!

It was a pot luck picnic and as usual, everyone tries to bring something unique to the picnic to share. Suanne had a great idea to make something new for a change — Bak Kwa (or Rougan in Mandarin or Yoke Kon in Cantonese). Bak Kwa is basically dried meat … perhaps like the western Jerky but not quite. Bak Kwa is miles better than any Jerkies in the world, I swear.

Surprisingly the way to make it is a simple process although it could be tedious and time consuming to prepare the slices. There is a two step process … the first is to prepare dried slices from minced meat (Suanne used pork) and then the second part is to grill it to release the juiciness.

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The pictures below does not do justice to the taste. Well, it was my first time grilling the Bak Kwa but really it should look like this (click here). However it looked, it actually tastes not bad … not great but really good.

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Update 03-Mar-2010: Someone wrote that this recipe originates from the site Lily’s Wai Sek Hong. Because this recipe had been posted almost 3 years ago, I cannot recall exactly where this recipe originates from.

Here is how you make it …

Ingredients

  • 1 kg ground pork (from the part called Mui Tao Sao)

Marinate:

  • 1 1/2 tablespoons fish sauce
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 200g sugar (more if you like it sweeter)
  • 1/8 teaspoon five spiced powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon kam cho (licorice) powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon white pepper
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 2 tablespoons rose wine
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons honey

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Click on the link below for the instructions.

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Oyster Motoyaki

We decided that we should blog on Oyster Motoyaki. It is because we find that we have quite a bit of hits from Google where people were looking for “oyster motoyaki recipes” and landed on our site. In fact, Suanne had never blogged on any Motoyaki recipes at all. Google just picked these words from our All-You-Can-Eat Sushi entries and indexed us. Suanne loves Oyster Motoyaki and makes it a point to order a lot when we have Sushi.

We went to the Real Canadian Superstore to buy some fresh oysters. We bought the larger ones. They come in a bag of six and costs $5.99. Oysters can be eaten in many ways, including raw!

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Oysters must be alive before you eat it. It is important to check this. The easiest way to determine if it is still alive is when they are tightly closed because opened ones could already been dead. Try knocking on the shell if the oyster is opened, if it is still alive, it will close when you knock it.

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It is not easy to open oysters. Use a short strong knife if you don’t have a shucking knife. Start from the back of the shell and cut the muscle that holds the shell shut. Be careful in applying excessive force because the knife could slip and cut your fingers. Use a wet towel to hold the oyster firmly in place.

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The oysters we got were really large, way much larger than the ones we had at sushi restaurants. Oh yes, when you open the shells, keep the shell level. This is because you want keep the “juice” — just don’t discard the juice.

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Fresh Fruit Cake

Juanna Zhou made two delicious cakes in the Gilmore Park Church Cooking Club meet. She made a Fresh Fruit Cake and a Mango Swiss Roll. For this blog entry, I am blogging on her Fresh Fruit Cake.

The Fresh Fruit Cake is a soft sponge cake and decorated with thin slices of fruits. She used soft fruits like strawberries, kiwi fruit and cantaloupe. I think you can’t really use harder fruits like apples and pears for obvious reasons that it will be impossible to cut them. Moreover apples and pears can oxidize and turn brownish.

The fresh fruit cake is pleasing to the eyes and palate. What else could you think of using for this?

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The Fresh Fruit Cake is very light and not overly sweet. A great cake for almost any occasion.

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Both the Fresh Fruit Cake and Swiss Roll use the same base. The base is a sponge cake. Here is the first recipe for the Fresh Fruit Cake.

Ingredients

  • 4 eggs
  • 1/2 cup sugar, divided
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
  • 1/2 cup cake flour
  • 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon vinegar/lemon juice
  • 50ml milk
  • fresh fruits – strawberries, cantaloupe, kiwi fruit
  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • 3 tablespoons icing sugar

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Kuejadas (Portuguese Tart)

While I was browsing through my recipe collections this week, I found this Portuguese Tart recipe. I don’t remember if I have ever made it before. I love to collect recipes and most of the recipes just lay in my collection and never being used at all. Do you have the same feeling?

I’m wanted something sweet and I remember the ingredients of the Portuguese Tart do spell ‘SWEET’ in it. So, I decided to give it a try.

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The Portuguese Tart is caramelized on the outside and has a custard like texture inside. It satisfies any sweet tooth and I’ll bet you just can’t eat one only.

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Ingredients

  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 1/2 tablespoons margarine, melted
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 can 14oz condensed milk
  • 2 cups milk

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Shredded Dried Pork (a.k.a. Meat Floss)

UPDATE ON 07-NOV-2009: We now have the recipe for making Pork Floss from scratch. Here is the Recipe for Pork Floss.

UPDATE ON 22-MAY-2006: He he he … guess the name Meat Floss sounds disgusting to some people. So, I have used a better sounding name for the entry … Shredded Dried Pork. Happy? 🙂

Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork (also known as Rousong and Yoke Song in Mandarin and Cantonese respectively) is a dried chinese meat item that is commonly used as a topping for many foods. There are many variants of the Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork with the most common one being Pork Floss.

In Vancouver, the Meat Floss product seems pretty dominated by the Soo Singapore Jerky company. You will be able to find these Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork in just about any Asian grocery stores. I believe they make Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork and other Asian jerky products under a few brand names. Their most famous brand is Soo. We have seen the Soo’s brand getting more expensive over the year. It’s now about $10 for a jar of 454g (about 1lb).

We bought a cheaper version. It’s branded as Pork Sung and the label said that it’s made by Soo Singapore Jerky too. The 340g jar below costs only $5.58.

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Wikipedia describes the how Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork are made as follows:

Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork is made by stewing cheap cuts of pork in a sweetened soy sauce mixture until individual muscle fibres can be easily teased apart with a fork. This usually happens when the collagen and elastin that normally hold the fibres have been cooked out of the meat. The teased-apart meat is then strained and dried in the oven. After a light drying, the meat is mashed and beaten while being dry cooked in a large wok until it is completely dry. Additional flavourings are usually added while the mixture is being dry fried. 5 kg of meat will usually produce about 1 kg of rousong.

Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork has a light and fluffy texture quite similar to coarse cotton. It can be eaten just as a snack. It comes in soft or crisp versions. For snacking, I recommend the crisp version. Some are flavoured with sesame seed and seaweed.

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It goes well too with rice porridge. However, I find that the taste of the Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork gets drowned out unless you put in a lot of it.

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I prefer Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork with rice. You should use pretty dry and cold rice. Mix it well into the rice and that’s a quick meal — not very balanced though but still a nice meal nevertheless.

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We also make sandwiches with Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork. The ones below are made using a sandwich maker which helps seals in the Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork in the sandwich.

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Suanne has the instructions below on making the Meat Floss Shredded Dried Pork Sandwich in the link below.

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