Monday, January 4, 2010

Christmas Lunch

Holiday season is officially finish for me now. Until 2 weeks later then another long long break coming up :D Major backlog with posts though. Let's just do those more 'time critical' stuff first shall we? I don't think it's good to do Christmas lunch post during Easter break :p 
Had a lunch party on Boxing Day. It's not 1 of those traditional Christmas lunch though, as in no turkey or leg of ham or something like that. It's more an Asian style feast :D 

Here's a close up of a yummy snack you would normally find on the street in Hong Kong - Curry fishball. It's not just fishballs though, we had sotong (squid) ball, pig's skin, beef balls and the square tofu fish. 

Here's 1 of my favourite Chinese dessert - 豆腐花 ("tau fu fah" in Cantonese, "tou huay" in Hokkian, dou4 hua1 in Mandarin - no idea what's the name in English though, other than literrally it means tofu flower). This is homemade fresh though. Still warm when it got there. Normally I prefer it cold though. In Malaysia I used to buy them in tubs with gula Melaka (dark coconut sugar) in pasar malam (night markets). 

Here's some onigiri (Japanese rice ball) served with seaweed. There are 2 types, 1 with bonito in the centre, another with the purple flakey stuff - I think those are the sour plum flakes thingy, but not 100% sure. Need to check with the chef who made those again :) I'm very sure these are as authentic as they can be being made by a Japanese chef. 




As I was busy "taste testing" the curry fishballs and snapping away, someone has nicely stacked those prawns in a bowl. If it was me, I would just pour them out from the bag and straight to a plate. Some creative person actually managed to create a pyramid of prawns :) New things learnt - stack prawns in a bowl to make them more presentable and more inviting. 

This is what you get when you have a chef making gyoza (Japanese dumplings) at home. Even the way the gyoza being served is so artistic. New things learnt - arrange gyoza in a flower pattern while frying and flip them straight onto plate. Isn't it cool to have lunch with a family with 3 chefs? :D 

Yummy chrunchy salad - salad leaves with cashew nuts and Asian crunchy noodles and some balsemic dressing and sesame oil. Very refreshing and it's the only greens on the table to complement all the heavier stuff like rice and meat. 

Here's our table. We also had a whole roast duck and some Hainanese chicken and chicken rice. 

Here's our very nice looking Christmas Tree with lots of presents :)  Very satisfying lunch and we had lots of fun opening presents. 

11 comments:

  1. Wow looks like you had a yummy holiday :) And there are so many presents under your tree! I love tau fu fa, I hardly ever find it served cold, I can't even remember which way I prefer it served!

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  2. haha.. yeah, can't really find them served cold in Sydney.. I can only think of pasar malam in M'sia that have stalls selling them cold.. oh actually, those chinese grocery shops in Sydney might have them cold in their fridge with the normal tofu..

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  3. Beautiful blog, beautiful food. Don't worry about the writing bit, YW - you say it well enough with photos! Thanks for joining Foodbuzz so I can enjoy your pan-Asian offerings.
    Cheers from Rainy Seattle

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  4. Great photos! I love your styled and captured the prawns! :D You are so lucky to have a Japanese chef making gyoza and onigiri and what a bountiful tree :D

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  5. Thanks Sortachef! You have a very nice blog yourself too! Looking forward to see more food from your woodfired oven :)

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  6. Thanks Lorraine! Yes, I like the way they stacked the prawns too! Good trick learnt on that day :D Gyoza was definitely 1 of the best I've had.. and I had two onigiri all by myself heheeh.. :D very very lucky indeed :)

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  7. Tau fu fah is soya beancurd in English.

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  8. soya beancurd is also normal tofu too... not quite tau fu fah mar...

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  9. Yum what a feast. I love tofu fah (which I guess you'd call tofu dessert?) and the onigiri look exquisite. The gyoza flower is gorgeous too!

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  10. wow! delicious feast :) I guess I would call tofu far soy beancurd pudding? Love the Gyoza!

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  11. Hi Helen! yes, gyoza flower was very pretty. The other day we tried to make gyoza and plate it up like that, but our gyoza was a bit burnt, so our flower was black.. kekekee.. hence no photo :p tofu dessert sounds right .. :)

    Hi Ellie! soy beancurd pudding sounds about right too :) also a dessert sounding name hehee..

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