2010 Taiwan Trip - Day 2

After a good night rest upon arriving at Tao Yuan(桃园), some where outskirt of old Taipei. We are advice by the tour leader to wake up, get ready and have our morning breakfast around 7.15pm before proceeding to the HSR (Taiwan High Speed Rail - 台灣高速鐵路) station at Tao Yuan.


According to the Jackson(our Taiwan tour guide) if we were to travel by coach from Tao Yuan to Taipei it will takes about 45 minutes to an hour ride. But if we travel by HSR from Tao Yuan station, the journey will be shorten to about 15 minutes or so. It has being more than 10 years since my last ride of this type of bullet train during my school time in Europe. The Taiwan HSR station is very bright and clean and each ticket is label clearly with the cabin number so that it won't be over crowded in each cabin.

From Taipei HSR station, our coach is there waiting to pick us up to Yeliu - 野柳 where they have this beautiful Yeliu Geopark (野柳地质公园) which is about 1.5 hours away from Taipei. Before heading to the Geopark, we have our seafood lunch at Mei Guan Yuan - 美观圆海鲜餐厅. Look at those tanks of fresh seafood and the beautiful sea creature design outside the restaurant.

These are some of our lunch dishes served at Mei Guan Yuan - 美观圆海鲜餐厅. I find the stir-fry Tofu with oyster dish very appetising and I am interested in replicate it when I am free. The seafood served at this restaurant are very fresh and sweet compare to most of the stalls we had in Singapore.

After a good lunch, the tour guide lead us to the opposite side of the road where we begin to start our exploring journey in this beautiful Yeliu Geopark (野柳地质公园) where you can find a lot of interesting rock formations which have been given imaginative names based on their shapes. The most well-known is the "The Queen's Head" (女王頭), an iconic image in Taiwan.

Although the weather is cloudy with drizzling rain, there are still crowds of tourists gathering around taking photos of the rocks. Rey was totally excited about this place and he took a lot of photos of these rocks.

After admiring at those special rocks, it is time for some snacks again.... Here we walk along the "Gift Of Yeliu - 野柳特产街" just beside the exit. You can get all kinds of dried products here range from shrimp, ikan bilis, cod fish and etc. Or if you are hungry, you can grab a bite with some local BBQ seafood or their famous fried oyster cake or rice noodles. Yeliu is famous for their salmon fish floss too.... Grace aunty even ask us to get some of their salmon floss for her because she find it very nice during her previous visit to Yeliu.

At about 3pm in the afternoon, we arrived at Jiufen - 九份 which is mountain town in Taipei country near JiLong - 基隆. My knowledge about Jiufen is only on their famous Jiufen dumpling - 九份芋圆 which I saw it from the TV program in Singapore. So when talking about Jiufen, my aim is to go there and try their Yam Dumpling.........

Due to the narrow street and heavy traffic at Jiufen during weekends, we have to take their public bus transport at the foot of the mountain to go to their market street where they sell all kinds of their signature foods. Look at the photos on 2nd row, that is their famous Jiufen Yuyuan - 九份芋圆 which we ate two bowl in a row... The bowl of dessert consist of a mixture of yam, sweet potato and purple huai shan dumpling together with red bean, green bean, lotus seeds, and etc serving in their special sweet soup. Other than dumplings, there is another famous Handmade Fishball soup near the entrance of the food street. The soup is sweet, light and fragrant to taste and their fishball is so Q, juicy and tender.

Further down the stretch, you can find all kinds of food stall from ice-cream pancake, steam honey comb cupcake, candied fruits, BBQ King Oyster Mushroom, Sesame Mochi, Hong Zao(红槽) meat dumpling and etc.

After Jiufen we travel for about another 1 hour or so to reach Yilan - 宜兰 at about 6.00pm. According to the itinerary , we are staying at "Shangrila Leisure Farming - 香格里拉休閒農場" where we can experience European style romantic vacation villa located in the forest. All the buildings there are made by whole log, and the atmosphere is very country-style living. As we reach there pretty late in the evening, we are unable to go to their fruit garden where we can experience plucking all kinds fresh fruits from the tree.

Dinner was held in one of their lodge restaurant where they served all kind of fresh vegetables, meat and fruits that they rear and plant in their plantation. Out of the 10 dishes, I love herbal pork ribs soup, deep-fried glutinous rice chicken soup (they actually add the glutinous rice flour to the chicken stock to make into a paste texture, cut it into cubes then deep-fried and served with pepper salt) and some other homecook dishes too....

After dinner, almost all the guests will be gathering at the performance square where everyone can participate in a series of creative activities such as: making your very own "Dumplings - 汤圆" with hands, the match of spinning tops and also writing and putting "Tian Deng -天灯" for praying and blessings etc. After putting off the Tian Deng, we also join in their special event "Fireflies Tour - 营火虫之旅" where we follower the person-in-charge to a 15 - 20 minutes night walk in the forest without any light accessible. As the person mention that fireflies are afraid of strong light which will hurt them, so we are all not allow to bring torch or take photos with flash light mode.

Overall this is a very fruitful farm-stay experience where Rey gets to experience another kind of living standard in the country side which is so much different from what we have in Singapore. He really enjoys the activities there especially, the Fireflies Tour.

P/s: For more photos of the trip check us out @ Cuisine Paradise Fan Page, click HERE.

Double-Boiled Amercian Ginseng With Lean Pork

Recently mum has being complaining that she is feeling fatigue and body aching due to the weather and amount of household chore she is coping as well as taking care of her precious grandson. So in order to reward her, I decided to make a bowl of this Ginseng Soup for her.

This is a very good and reviving soup for adult or even youngsters whom always stay up late for studies. American Ginseng or known as 花旗參/西洋参 is sweet in taste, with a hint of bitterness and cool in nature. It nourishes the Yin energy in the lungs, clears Asthenic Fire, benefit the Stomach and promotes secretion of body fluid. It mainly treats Dryness of Lungs and Stomach and dire thirst and Qi, therefore strengthens the internal organs.

Dried Longan taste sweet and of neutral nature where it nourishes the heart and the spleen, benefits bloods and calms the spirit. It works well for treating tensions, palpitation, insomnia and forgetfulness.

Ingredients: (server 1)
10-12 Slices Of American Ginseng(花旗参)
10 Dried Longan (桂圆肉)
1 Teaspoon Wolfberries
60g Pork Fillet, sliced
400ml Boiling Water
1 Hard-boiled Egg, shelled, optional

Methods:
1. Rinse the American Ginseng slices and Dried Longan in hot water then drain off.
2. Blanched the pork fillet in boiled water for 30 seconds, removed, rinse and set aside.
2. Put all the ingredients except wolfberries in a small double-boiler pot in a slow-cooker and double-boiled for about 2 hours on low heat.
3. Add in wolfberries at the last 15 minutes, cover and continue to cook before serving it warm 30 minutes to an hour before bedtime.

Notes: When taking this drink it is best that you don't eat any dish or soup that contain raddish or beans for 1 - 2 days, because Chinese believed that raddish will drain and absorb all the good source from the Ginseng.

The purpose of adding pork fillet is to sweeten and enhance the taste of this soup. If you want it to be a vegetarian soup, omit pork and egg or you can replace pork with chicken if you prefer poultry.

Sweet Potato Mantou

During my recent trip to Taiwan, almost every morning we can find some freshly made Mantou in our breakfast menu. In Taiwan, most of their breakfast dishes are Mantou, Porridge with preserved vegetables like caixin, bamboo shoot, salted egg and etc. And other than Mantou, you can also find their famous Baked Golden Sweet Potato in some shops or street market.

So for last weekend, I decided to combine some orange flesh sweet potato with the Japanese sweet potato that can be easily found in any supermarket. This Mantou will give you two different textures, as I have shredded the orange flesh sweet potato as filling and combined the mashed Japanese Sweet Potato together with the flour ingredients.

Ingredients: (makes about 6)
125g Plain Flour
1/2 Teaspoon Active Dry Yeast
20ml Lukewarm Water
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
2.5 Tablespoons Caster Sugar
100 - 120g Japanese Sweet Potato, skin removed
50g Orange Flesh Sweet Potato, shredded
1/2 Tablespoon Vegetable Oil
20ml Water

Method:
1. Sift the plain flour and baking powder together in a big bowl together with the caster sugar till combined.
2. Remove the outer skin of the Japanese sweet potato, cut into small cubes (about 1cm) then rinse it with water and place in a microwave safe bowl together with 20ml of water and cook on High heat together with a cup of water for about 4 minutes. (Stop 1 minutes in between and give it a stir so that it will cook evenly)
3. Use a fork or food masher to mash the sweet potato cubes to form a paste, set aside for later use.
4. Add the dry yeast into the lukewarm water and give it a quick stir then set aside for about 5 minutes till bubbles appeared(refer to the picture above).
5. Next slowly stir in the yeast water into the flour mixture and using a pair of chopstick then follow by the mashed pumpkin till it form a soft dough.
6. Rub some oil on your hand then give the dough a quick knead till well combine.
7. Set the dough aside in a lightly flour/oil bowl and let it proof for about 20 - 30 minutes so that the dough will raise slightly bigger.
8. Knead proof dough on a lightly floured work surface for a few second, flatten and roll into a rectangular shape shown in the above photo, sprinkle some shredded orange flesh sweet potato on it, roll it up lengthwise into an oblong shape.
9. Repeat the process once or twice till the shredded sweet potato finished.
10. Roll the final dough into oblong shape, cut them into equal portion.
11. Place each shaped mantou on the steamer rack with greaseproof paper below it sprinkle the mantou with some water.
12. Place the steamer rack in the boiling water and steam the mantou over medium heat for about 8 - 10 minutes. (depending on the size)
13. When done, removed and served hot/warm.

Note:
a) Lukewarm is about 36 - 37 degree Celsius
b) If the sweet potato dough is too dry, you can add about extra 5 - 10ml of water to knead the dough.
c) You might need to cook the sweet potato for about 3 - 5 minutes more before it will be soften depend on the power of your microwave.


This is an interesting Mantou with dual sweet potato texture. So if you like sweet potato, do give this a try. I am sure you and your family will loves this healthy snack for a chance during tea-time or breakfast.

2010 Taiwan Trip - Day 1

10 April 2010, we have being preparing and looking forward to this special day since January 2010. And finally today is the "Big Day" for us. Everyone of us wake up pretty early in the morning and get ready for our last minutes packing/checking before heading to the Airport.

Our flight to Taiwan is leaving at about 12.30pm and accordingly to the tour leader we have to reach Terminal 3 @ Changi Airport around 10.30 for early check-in and briefing. After check-in, we roam around at the duty-free shops and to my surprised I spot "Sakae Sushi" mini counter.

Although are able to board the flight around 12pm but the plane did not take off till 1.30pm due to heavy traffic congestion at the run-way. So sad... everyone of us has to wait patiently for the plane to move forward accordingly to the queue number.... we are number 10 on the list.

As usual, as a food blogger, I won't missed out any chances to take some photo shots on the food that we eat. And this round I am quiet satisfy with the quality of the food served on board. Here are some shots of the food range from Child Meal - Chicken Pasta, and two choices of Adult Meal which is Honey Mustard Chicken and Char Siew Rice. Each meal served with bun, salad, snack and drink of your choice. Rey was very excited with his meal as this is the 1st time he travels with Singapore Airlines.

After meal, we sit back to relax on the on board entertainment like movies, games and etc during the 4 hours journey to Taipei. At about 5.20pm we arrived at the Tao Yuan International Airport - Taipei (台湾桃园国际机场) and were greeted by their local tour guide - Jackson whom will be bringing us around during our visit at Taiwan. Upon arrival, we are bought to "City Suites - Gateway" for our dinner before going to the hotel.

And due to the delay of the flight and tiredness, most of us did not really eat much at the Buffet Dinner. Em... But I have found some interesting dishes which is the "Stir-fry Herbal Chicken Hearts" and "Pan-fry Sardines" that serves with pepper salt.

P/s: For more photos of the trip check us out @ Cuisine Paradise Fan Page, click HERE.

Chocolate Chip Madeleines

After about almost a year, finally I get the chance to use my "Scallop Shell Madeleine Tin" which one of my blog friend bought it for me from Japan during her visit to Singapore. With that I replicated these Chocolate Madeleines which is one of my son's favourite tea-snack .

Huai Shan & Lily Bulbs Congee

Recently I have shared with you "Steam Chicken Fillet With Huai Shan" using fresh Huai Shan and "Double-boiled Fresh Lily Bulbs Soup" with Fresh Lily Bulbs respectively. Accordingly to Chinese Physicians, these two ingredients are very nutritious and benefits the Lungs and and strengthens the Spleen.

Huai Shan is used to strengths the Spleen and Stomach and it is a very good Chinese herbal medicine to strengthen the body. So this congee is a good choice to remove Dampness in the body and flu in summer which is great for kids. Adding lean pork and lily bulb brings out the extra sweetness and flavour of this congee which is a very healthy meal for the kids or elderly.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
100g Fresh Huai Shan(鲜淮山)
1/2 Cup Of Rice
100g Lean Pork, cut into thin slices
2 Fresh Lily Bulbs(鲜百合)
1 Litre Of Water

Method:
1. Rinse and use a vegetable peeler to peel off the outer skin of the Fresh Huai Shan, rinse and cut into big chunks.
2. Rinse, clean and remove the petals from the bulbs, soak in water for a few seconds to remove dirt.
3. Rinse the rice for about 3 to 4 times, then soak with some water while preparing the soup base.
4. Bring 1 litre of water to boil in a medium pot, add in fresh huai shan and lily bulbs simmer over low heat for about 15 minutes, add in the drained rice.
5. When the mixture comes to boil again, add in the lean pork and cook the congee over medium low heat for about 15 minutes or till done to your liking, remember to stir on and off.
6. When done, cover and let it stand for 5 minutes before serving.


This congee helps to strengthens the Spleen and Stomach and as well helps regulating the body system. If your prefer, you can also add some fresh lily petals on the congee before serving to bring out that extra lovely fragrance and extra crunchiness.

Steam Chicken Fillet With Huai Shan

Are you interested to try something simple, light and healthy but at the same time with those kind restaurant serving presentation to impress your family this weekend. If your answer is "Yes" then why not, try out this quick and simple one dish meal with Fresh Huai Shan, Chicken Fillet and Mushroom to conquer their taste buds.

For most of the frequent readers here, you will know that I love to use "Fresh Huai Shan" in my cooking especially - soup. Huai Shan benefits the spleen and stomach as well as strengthens the body.

There are a few types of Huai Shan various from Fresh to Dried type. In most supermarkets or wet market, you will find two type of fresh huai shan from either China or Japan. Japan Huai Shan will be much more expensive ranging from S$8.00 - S$10.00 per kilogram. Some people might find it difficult to handle fresh huai shan as it's kind of slippy and the gluey starch might make your hand itchy. Perhaps you can wear a disposal gloves or plastic bag before handling it.

This is a very nutritious and healthy watching dish that use fresh huai shan from Japan, lean chicken fillet and dried mushroom. The fresh huai shan slices and dried mushroom are pre-steam using chicken stock in order for them to absorb the flavour from the stock.

Ingredients: (Serves 2)
200g Chicken Fillet
100g Fresh Huai Shan(鲜淮山)
5 Small Dried Mushrooms
5g Wolfberries
80 - 100ml Chicken Stock

Marinade:
1 Teaspoon Light Soy Sauce
1/2 Teaspoon Ginger Juice
1/2 Teaspoon Cornflour
Dash of Sesame Oil

Method:
1. Remove the stalks from the dried mushrooms then soak them in hot water till soften.
2. Peel of the outer skin of the fresh huai shan, rinse then cut it into 0.5cm thick circle slices.
3. Place the fresh huai shan, soaked mushrooms and chicken stock in a deep plate, steam them for about 10 minutes.
4. Meanwhile, rinse and slice chicken fillet into strips then mix it with marinade.
5. When the huai shan mixture is done, lower the heat, slowly arrange the marinated chicken fillet on top of the huai shan with the wolfberries on top.
6. Steam the mixture for about 8 minutes or till done on medium high heat.
7. Serve hot on the plate itself or re-arrange it on individual serving plates.

After steaming, the fresh huai shan taste wonderfully soft and full of flavour due to the chicken stock, mushroom and fillet. This dish goes very well with either steam rice or porridge especially it's gravy which is so tasty and sweet.

5th Anniversary Blog Event

Time flies, Cuisine Paradise is going to be 5 years old this coming 30 April 2010. Last year, thank you for all the blog event participants for their support and hope they enjoy their gifts. This year, we will shall have something different and challenging. This event is open to all readers of my blogs irregardless of where you are from as long as you wish to take part in this event :)

This year we will be having Mother's Day Vs Father's Day quick and easy recipe competition.

All you need to do are:-
1. Submit a quick and simple recipe of your own creativity base on either one of the above category. It can be either on snack, cookies/cakes, dishes or dessert. (preferable with a photo of your dish attached)
2. Email me Your Entry Details as shown below together with your Recipe to ellenaguan@hotmail.com : (please put eg: Mother's Day, Father's Day on your email subject, in order for me to do the sorting as well compare your details in case i didn't received your email. Thanks)

Example:
RE: Mother's Day Breakfast Idea:
Your Name: Linda Lim
Country You are From: Singapore
Blog URL (if you maintain one):www.linda.blogspot.com
Email add for contact if you are the winner:

AND
3. Leave me your Name and Event Category that you wish to participate on the Post Comment Link(the comments will only appear after I approved it)


Winner:
There will be one winner for each category and each winner will walk away with a S$20.00 cash voucher that can be used in Local Supermarket such as "Cold Storage, Market Place, Giant or Shop N Save" to reward them for their effort, creativity, presentation and simplicity of the dish.

For overseas winner, you will get a mystery gift of equivalent value :)


Please Note:
Only ONE ENTRY per visitor is allow for each category, There will be a limit of 20 entries per Category and I will update each category so that you will know which category is closed for the event. Thanks for your support and enjoy the fun............



This Blog Event end on 18 April 2010 (2359hr Singapore Time). I would like to thank all of you for the regular visits, comments, feedback and sharing in all my related blogs to Cuisine Paradise all these years.

Chocolate Hot Cross Buns

Often Easter isn't complete without eating some warm hot cross buns straight from the oven. So for this coming Easter, perhaps you would like to give this recipe a try and bake a batch of your own. I saw this recipe from one of the Australia best selling Food Magazine known as "Super Food Idea". I am a big fan of this magazine during my stay in Australia a few years back and today all thanks to my dear friend, Quinn who stays in Adelaide. With her help on getting this magazine for us, we are able to try out this wonderful Chocolate Chip Hot Cross Bun. She is so sweet and helpful that she even take photo of the recipes and email to me in case we don't received the book before Easter.

Nested Easter

Today is exactly 1 more week to Easter Sunday. Christians celebrate Easter Sunday because they believed Jesus rose from death. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the fundamental principles and beliefs of Christianity and they celebrate Easter Sunday because they believe, Jesus died for their sin on the Cross-on Good Friday, buried and rose from death on Sunday.

Double-Boiled Fresh Lily Bulbs Soup

Recently a lot of my son's classmates as well as a few members in our family are suffering for dry cough/sore throat due to the hot and humid weather. And while chatting with one of my son's classmate parent, she has shared with me some remedies for smoothing throat as well as cough which they practice way back in her hometown, in China. Although the ingredients that they used are rather simple and inexpensive, but the result is so effective and some of it can also be treated as one of the summer cooling dessert too.....

Lily bulbs taste slightly sweet and is slightly Cold in nature. It benefits the Lungs and Heart as well as nourishes the Lungs, stops cough and calms the nerves. It has certain effects on cough and helps with anxiety and insomnia. Lily Bulbs are rich in proteins, phosphorous and carbohydrates which is one of the good body tonifying and nerve calming Chinese medicine for those suffering from cough due to coldness and loose stools should not eat. Fresh Lily bulbs are rich in glucose that promotes digestion and they are commonly used in cooking and desserts.

Ginkgo nourishes the lungs and relieves asthma but this cannot be taken too much at a time.

Ingredients: (serves 2)
2 - 3 Medium Size Fresh Lily Bulbs(鲜百合)
8 - 10 Fresh Ginkgo Nuts
500ml Boiling Water
Rock Sugar to Taste
2 Pandan Leaves, optional

Method:
1. Rinse, clean and remove the petals from the bulbs, soak in water for a few seconds to remove dirt.
2. Wash and clean the pandan leave then tie it into a knot and set aside.
3. Bring 500ml of water to boil, add in the fresh ginkgo nuts, lily bulbs petals and pandan leave and bring it to boil.
4. Transfer the mixture to a double-boiler and place it in a slow cooker set on AUTO mode and cook for about 1.5 hour on HIGH.
5. Or alternatively, you can simmer on low heat over the stove for about 30 minutes.
6. Sweeten it with rock sugar and serve warm.


Note:
~ You can purchase Fresh Lily Bulbs and Ginkgo Nuts is most local supermarket at the vegetable chiller section.

This is a very tasty sweet soup that is suitable for all members of the family. And if you are towards the healthy or weight-watching side, perhaps you can omit the adding of rock sugar and consume this soup on base on it's natural sweetness and fragrance that is being released from the lily bulbs petals. My son loves the taste of this soup and also due to the long hour of simmering/double-boiled, the lily petals will be soften with the melt -in your mouth texture.

Beetroot & Sweet Corn Soup

I have very limited encounter with "Beetroot" as I only ate it as one of the ingredients found in some sandwiches. Although I have heard/saw a lot of interesting recipes using "Beetroot" as one of their ingredients, I have never thought of using it till today. And to my surprised this can really blend well into our Asian soup too.....

Beetroot can consider to be a very versatile ingredient that can be in many area of cooking. For eg:- in salad, sandwiches, bakes, cakes, dessert and even soup. Sometime it can also be use as a dye to replace artificial colouring. So today's soup of the day, we will try this together with corn and carrot which will add in extra sweetness to the soup.

Ingredients:- (serves 4)
500g Pork Ribs
2 Medium Size Beetroots
1 Sweet Corn, cut into section
1 Medium Carrot, cut into 1" slices
6-8 Red Dates
1/2 Tablespoon Wolfberries, optional
1.5 Liter of Boiling Water

Method:
1. Rinse, clean and place the pork ribs in boiling water for about 3 minutes, remove and rinse well. Set aside for later use.
2. Rinse the beetroot, peel of the outer skin with a vegetable peeler. Cut it into big cubes or wedges.
3. Remove the husk and leaves of the corn, rinse and cut it into 3 sections.
4. Bring 1.5 Litre of water to boil in a medium soup pot, add in all the above ingredients except wolfberries.
5. When the mixture comes to boil again, lower the heat and simmer for about 45 minutes or alternatively you can transfer the soup to a slow cooker and cook it on AUTO for about 2.5 hours or so. (add in wolfberries 15 minutes before cooking time)

This soup is so sweet and full of flavour that it don't even require any extra seasoning. The sweetness comes naturally from all the ingredients used and the colour of the soup look so gorgeous. From the glance of it, it looks just like any red wine/red currant juice. Em... but just a little sharing, although the soup might give a little "Rooty" flavour but this is indeed a very nutritious soup for kids. We ate all the ingredients except the "beetroot" because it has a very odd taste which my boy feedback that it taste like "roots/wood" :p