Vietnamese Noodles

Originally uploaded by TeaIight

From a shop in the market beside Pacific Mall.

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Kent International Airport

Croatian Salad, Shopska

Originally uploaded by zannnielim

Time ago I made a salad and I called it the 'T.O.C' Salad. It was just because it was made from tomatoes, onions and cucumber. Originally, it is a Bulgarian salad and has to be with Feta Cheese. Today, this salad is also made with the same ingredients and it is the Croatian Shopska salad. I guess the shape of the goat cheese grated in this manner by the Croatians differs it from the Bulgarian (usually in cubes or crumbled). We had this Croatian Shopska in Zagreb before our trip to Plitvice Lakes.

ćevapi/ćevapčići (Croatian and Serbian)

Originally uploaded by zannnielim

Ćevapi or ćevapčići/ćевапчићи is a Balkan dish of grilled minced meat, a legacy of the Ottoman Empire found in the countries of South Eastern Europe. We were in Plitvice and of course we must eat something Croatian :)

The Croatian made them from pork and beef. They are considered a national dish in Bosnia and Herzegovina and in Serbia too. They are also common in Montenegro, Slovenia, as well as in Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Czech Republic, Slovakia and the border between Italy and Slovenia (provinces of Trieste, Udine and Gorizia). They may be served on a plate or in a flatbread (lepinja or somun), often with chopped onions, sour cream, kajmak, ajvar, and even cottage cheese.

Read our Croatia related posts:

Summer roadtrip preparation: Budapest-Zagreb

Plitvice Lake, Croatia

Plitvice Lake National Park

Menza's Duck Breast (Hungarian)

Originally uploaded by zannnielim
Duck breast served with mashed potatoes with onion and bacon and creamy cabbage

The way the duck breast meat has been prepared made it a very delicious meal! It was cook to medium. The creamy cabbage is very unique too! Loved it, love the entire meal, those mashed potatoes tasted great too......so much to compliment about this food!

I've ordered this last evening for celebrating my birthday. It was a wonderful dinner with Zsolt. I love the ambience of this restaurant too, sitting and eating in the outdoor is more popular.

T.O.C SALAD

Originally uploaded by zannnielim
Although it tastes very much like the bulgarian or croatian 'Shopska' Salad, but due to the fact that it is without goat cheese on it, my husband Zsolt forbade me to say it is a 'Shopska' :)

So as simple as it gets, I named it 'T.O.C' cos you know why? Its ingredients are just the tomatoes, onions and cucumber :) Taking the initials of these three main ingredients, hence its name. Hope you'll like it.

(On top of it, I've added blanched cauliflower, capsicum and sprigs of fresh Oregano which I've harvested this morning)

So my T.O.C Salad Recipe as follows:-

Ingredients (serves 2)
For the salad:
2 medium size tomatoes (cut into wedges)
8 Cherry tomatoes (cut into halves)
1 large Red Onion
One medium Cucumber (cut to bite-sized)
1/2 red california pepper (capsicum, diced it)
100g of Blanched Cauliflower (Blanching*)
A bunch of parsley, chopped (I've substituted with Oregano)
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tsp Coriander powder
2 tbsp olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Steps:-

1. Cut all the ingredients in to slices, wedges, halves or diced.
2. Season with salt and pepper, add the coriander powder, red wine vinegar and olive oil.
3. Toss to mix well.
4. Sprinkle with a thick layer of cheese, and enjoy! :D

*Blanching is a cooking term that describes a process of food preparation wherein the food substance, usually a vegetable or fruit, is plunged into boiling water, removed after a brief, timed interval, and finally plunged into iced water or placed under cold running water (shocked) to halt the cooking process.

Hot and Sour Soup (Beijing/Sichuan)

Originally uploaded by photosbyjas



Hot and sour soup is a Chinese soup and popular regional cuisines of Beijing and Sichuan as a regional dish. The Chinese hot and sour soup is usually meat-based, and often contains ingredients such as day wood ear fungus, bamboo shoots, and tofu, in a broth. It is typically made hot (spicy) by white pepper, and sour by vinegar.

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Halloween costumes

Buddha Jumps over the Wall 佛跳墙 | Cantonese

Originally uploaded by ALAN Life

The first pot of delicious and nutritious homemade Chinese soup was made when I was 17. I loved double boiled Chinese soups such as sharks' fin soup, they're so delicious.

To increase the repertoire of Chinese soups in the DeelishRecipes' collections, I've chosen the Buddha Jumps over the Wall. Funny name? Well, this 佛跳墙 fo tiao qiang is a Cantonese and Fujian cuisine has been regarded as a Chinese delicacy due to its rich taste. It uses various high-quality ingredients and the way to cook it is very special too.

This is a soup that is high in calcium and protein. Some people specially order it at restaurants to celebrate Mother's day or birthdays. As a Chinese, we have homemade Chinese soups at our dinner table all the time. There are many health benefits of drinking Chinese soups, some even lose weight just having cabbage soup. My grandmother has a way to make it tastes really sweet and heartwarming. She added my favourite sea-cucumber all the time. We have it even for the Chinese New Year as part of the reunion dinner.

I love to explore the different cooking techniques and types of Chinese soup pots. No Chinese will not know about these famous soups, namely wonton soup, Chinese congee, hot and sour soups and egg drop soups.

The common Chinese soup ingredients are lotus root, chicken, Chinese herbs, and tofu. As for Buddha Jumps Over the Wall, the soup or stew consists of many ingredients of non-vegetarian origin and requires one to two full days to prepare. Its ingredients includes quail eggs, bamboo shoots, scallops, sea cucumber, abalone, shark fin, chicken, Jinhua ham, pork tendon, ginseng, mushrooms, and taro.

Palacsinta (Hungarian) Pancakes

Originally uploaded by zannnielim
One of my favourite Hungarian snacks is the Palacsinta. Actually, it is the same as pancakes. Its ingredients are egg, flour, milk & water. It is absolutely easy to make! I just love it with Nutella :) Sometimes I go for the Hungarian cottage cheese filling too :) It smells great especially with some fresh lemon juice on the cheese. The key difference of these Palacsinta to the american pancakes is that, you got to make it very very thin :)


Ingredients
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
Pinch salt
1 cup carbonated mineral water
Oil for cooking pancakes

Directions
Mix eggs, flour, milk and salt to make a smooth pancake batter. Let the batter rest for 1 hour.

Stir in the carbonated water at the last moment, just before cooking the pancakes.

Heat an 8-inch frying pan. When the pan is hot, add 1/4 teaspoon oil. Swirl to cover the bottom of the pan.

Pour a ladle of the batter into the pan and gently tip and twist the pan so that the batter THINLY covers the entire bottom of the pan. When the top of the batter bubbles, turn the pancake over and cook for 4 or 5 seconds longer. Remove the pancake. Continue until the batter is all cooked; add a little oil before cooking each pancake.

Serve by spreading your favourite fruit jam, cocoa mix, Nutella, cottage cheese with drips of lemon juice or any of your favorite filling and roll up the pancake, serve with fresh berries.

Enjoy!

Hainanese Chicken Rice 海南鸡饭 (Singaporean)

Originally uploaded by cabayarea



Hainanese chicken rice is often considered as the "national dish" of Singapore, and is often served at international expositions and global events abroad, and in Singaporean-run restaurants overseas. It is also one of the few local dishes served on Singapore Airlines flights.

In Singapore, Hainanese chicken rice is served at stalls and food courts. There are Hainanese chicken rice stalls that have established franchise or branch outlets, The price range is around S$2-4 (the latter if the dish includes a drumstick).