Who’s up for noodles?

Well, not just any type of noodles actually.

The finer but just as elegant cousin of the udon noodle is the somen noodle. Often considered the queen of all noodles, because it originated from the aristocrats and hence is the nobility’s favourite noodle, somen is made similar to hand-pulled noodles. However, somen require a longer pulling and resting time. The noodles are made from wheat flour, salt and water. They are moistened with sesame or cottonseed oil to prevent their thin lengths from breaking. It is not difficult to find affordable packets of machine-made somen noodles in grocery stores or your Asian supermarket these days but handmade somen noodles, made the previous year, are most-prized. The reason for this is that handmade ‘overwintered’ somen changes texture as they dry out during storage and the oil on the noodles changes the noodles’s taste with time. It is recommended to wait a year before cooking handmade somen to really enjoy the flavour of somen.

Somen is the star of the show during Japan’s Star Festival in the summer. The festival of Tanabata is based on a famous Chinese legend about 2 lovers. Once a year, only on the evening of the 7th of July, the young cattleman, the star of Altair, is allowed to cross the Milky Way to meet his beloved - the weaver Vega. As a child, we’d celebrate this by placing handmade paper boats with a lighted candle on top of it on river surfaces and let it float along in hopes that all the lighted candles on the water surfaces can guide the weaver and cattleman to meet. Of course, it is not common to see anyone doing this anymore. At this time of the year, it is said that it’ll be difficult to spot any sparrow in sight as sparrows will be busy bringing the lovers together. In Japan, children used to decorate bamboo branches with their origami creations and tie coloured paper tags which bore their wishes. These decorated bamboos were then thrown into nearby rivers.

Somen noodles are usually served cold and eaten with a, similarly, cold dipping sauce. In winter, a variation of it called ‘nyu men’ is served in hot broth - and this is what I’ve prepared tonight. The house is absolutely freezing so there was no way in hell I was gonna pick out a cold somen salad recipe. When buying somen in supermarkets or grocery stores, somen are usually available in 3 appealing flavours : cha somen (addition of green tea), tamago somen (yellow due to egg yolk) and ume somen (pink from the addition of plum). Not only do they look great, they’re fabulous to the tastebuds too. I initially thought it wasn’t gonna be any different to regular somen but these ume somen packed a punch! The moment the somen is put in hot water, you can already start to smell the lovely fragrance of ume and the taste is even better. Slightly salty but definitely holds a distinctive ume flavour.

My choice of vegetable topping wasn’t anything greatly inspired but more about what was available in the fridge, and also at a near rotting stage. I haven’t come across a traditional nyumen recipe so this is something of a as-I-have-it nyumen demi-ramen broth recipe.

Check out Kimiko Barber’s The Japanese Kitchen for more info on somen and the Japanese noodle tradition. Here is my quick and easy recipe for 2.

Nyumen Fit For A Lady
Ingredients

2 servings of ume somen
1 clove of garlic
1 tsp ginger, sliced into thin strips
1 cup konbu dashi stock
2 cup chicken stock
1 tbs sake
1 tbs mirin
2 tbs soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tbs sesame oil
spring onions, chopped, for garnish (use the green and white bits near the ends of the stalk)
black sesame seeds, for garnish
various vegetables of choice, for topping (highly recommended to stir-fry them in butter)

To prepare the soup:
Place sesame oil in heated pan. Sauté ginger and garlic in oil. Reduce heat and add both types of stock to the pan. Let it boil then add sake, mirin, soy sauce and sugar. Once it boils, reduce the heat and let it sit to simmer.

Boil sufficient water to cook the noodles in a large saucepan. Add the somen. The cooking time needed will depend on the type of somen noodles purchased. When done, strain noodles then run under cold water and keep in pan of cold water till other ingredients are done.

Stir fry vegetables of choice in butter.

To assemble:
Simple place somen in a bowl. Place toppings on and carefully ladle soup into the bowl. Garnish and serve whilst hot.

Last Wednesday, my brain blacked out - short-circuited for a few seconds before it jumpstarted back on again with full sugar power - on a slice of Chocolate Blackout cake. A customer of mine had highly recommended PS Cafe’s chocolate cake and after having a spoon of the warm fudginess soaked in warm chocolate fudge (or ’soup’ as I prefer to call it) with a little of that just-beautiful vanilla ice cream, I very gladly label it one of the best chocolate cakes out there.

The menu spoilt me for choice and it came down to splitting two dishes between my mate and I since we were both pretty torn between all the choices available. The Big Nihon salad was top-notch with very fresh perfectly-flavoured sashimi and a beautiful mix of salad leaves, thinly sliced vegetables, edamame and soba noodles. The dressing was lovely as well and not too heavy or greasy. However, I wouldn’t be hyping about the salad in days to come. Despite how delicious it was, it wasn’t something that left a great impression on me and I’d pass it up for Mum’s Japanese homecooking any day!

The Crab Tart scored beautifully in my books. It sure outdid the Nihon for me as the tart pastry was quite well done and the chef was awfully generous with the crab meat. It was warm, creamy, so delicious with just the right amount of bite in the pastry. Topped with slightly crispy grilled cheese on the top, served with a prawn bisque sauce, a few drops of an accompanying lemony sauce and a belachan of mild heat, I was completely blown away. One, I HEART CRAB. Two, I believe tarts are beautiful creations and are little edible pots of joy. Three, crab + tart + belachan??? is genius! It was so good I’m almost convinced to always have my crab tarts with belachan now.

At the end of the day, Chocolate Blackout was still the best 30minutes of my life. And yes, the cake was massive enough to be shared amongst 8 persons. Hence, the length of time that was needed to consume this gorgeous piece of work. Cake consumed, every drop of chocolate ’soup’ licked and scraped off the plate and not a bit of evidence of the existence of vanilla ice cream on the plate was how we left it.

Desire Satisfied is Us.

And that very evening, the second birthday cake of the day was a Matcha Adzuki Bean Cake with loads of gorgeous sweet Japanese pastry cream. It was heaven. My birthdays are sweeeeeet!

PS Cafe
Palais Renaissance #02-09A
390 Orchard Road
Singapore
Phone: 6887 2207

Great news - I’m finally back in England. It’s autumn. I’ve had chocolate for supper.

Three generations of women coming together to make dumplings. It’s almost poetic.

The first generation Chinese-influenced. The second generation Japanese-influenced. The next generation (me) Western-influenced. It was a rather thrilling experience to be in the same kitchen working on the same thing and I’m very pleased to say the results were safe to eat (since I was the one with the responsibility of boiling them) and very yummy indeed, thanks to my maternal Gramma’s guidance.

Boiled dumplings, or shuijiao (水餃), are one of the variations of Chinese dumplings, also known as jiaozi (餃子) or gyoza (with the same characters) which are the Japanese version of dumplings. The difference between the Japanese and Chinese variety is the type of skin used and the flavouring of the fillings. Japanese gyoza are more modestly flavoured with sauces and contain garlic. Chinese dumplings are flavoured with wine, soy sauce, etc. and contain no garlic. The skin is also slightly different. It is like wonton skins, having a yellow tint to it unlike its cousin - the Japanese white gyoza skin is similar to the dough used to make noodles. Nonetheless, it is common to find jiaozi with white skins in restaurants these days. 

These dumplings are rather easy to prepare. As they will form its own shape during the boiling process, no fancy wrapping style is needed or patterning at the edges. Simply seal and place in boiling water and you’ve got the real McCoy. However, as meat is involved, one must be careful and ensure that the meat is fully cooked before removing from the hot water.I love these dumplings with Chinese pulled noodles and roast pork. It’s one of the dishes I love to order when I’m at the hawker centres or food republics or kopitiams, whatever they’re fancy new names are. They’re also fantastic in hot noodle soup as the skins get all soft, silky and so delicate with an almost-melt-in-your-mouth consistency.

But I’m a fickle woman. And I have no qualms about being fickle, especially when it concerns matters of the tastebuds. There’s no trawthe or fidelity in my tale of Roman de la Rose (of my tastebuds! haha). So I’ll tell you about the delights I found in Taiwan’s potstickers…

Boiled dumplings are generally the same as potstickers except the cooking method is slightly different. Potstickers, known as guotie (鍋貼) or jianjiao (煎餃), are steamed then shallow fried and often eaten with special dipping sauces for extra kick. These dumplings are popular in Northern areas, so I’ve learnt, and often appear as a street food or appetizer in Chinese, Japanese (yaki-gyōza 焼き餃子) and Korean cuisines. Now that Gramma’s educated me in the Way of the Dumpling, I believe I won’t be running to Wagamama’s for any last minute mental cravings for dumplings - not if I can whip this up on my own, freeze and pop em out to boil whenever I want them.

These potstickers I tasted in Taiwan were the best pick-me-up of the nightmarkets. Aside from the fact that I ate loads of dorayaki in the week I was there, I had never tasted potstickers as good as these guys. Trudging through RaoHe Night Market, I was famished and knackered from walking all day. I would have fallen over like a spastic wally-brain if not for this tub of dumplings. Perfectly cooked and flavoured with a great balance of the softness of the dumpling skin but golden-brown crispiness at the edges - it was deeeee-lish! My sister insisted it was just the comforting warmth of the first cooked food we had all day that was getting me all teary-eyed about it, but I honestly doubt it. They were good, and that’s that.

The dipping sauce was poured over the dumplings. After a little research on the net, it seems the dipping sauce comprises soy sauce, sesame oil, Chinese red rice vinegar, ginger and fresh chili. It was really good since the dumplings on their own might’ve been slightly lacking.

This recipe here produces about 50 odd regular-sized boiled dumplings. You may reduce the recipe accordingly or freeze prepared dumplings for later use.

Chinese Boiled Dumplings
Ingredients

450g minced pork
350g tiger prawns, peeled and de-veined and split into half
75g water chestnuts (about 4-5), peeled, finely sliced and then chopped to fine bits
1-2 stalks spring onions, only the green lengths chopped
2 tsp potato starch
4 tbs light soy sauce
3 1/2 tbs sesame oil
2 tbs Chinese Shao Hsing wine
pinch of ground white pepper
about 300g dumpling/gyoza skins (depending on size of dumplings, prepare about 60 sheets; gyoza skins are thinner and whiter but also perfect for these)

Prepare all ingredients beforehand as this may take a while.
Place half of prepared chopped water chestnuts in a large bowl. Add rest of ingredients except prawns and mix well, pressing the starch and sauces into the minced pork till it is smooth and soft. It should start to form a rather sticky texture due to the starch.
Cornflour or cornstarch may be used in replacement of potato starch, however, potato starch is smoother and supposedly more effective. It also keeps longer in the refrigerator than cornflour.
Do not leave this to marinate as there is no need for it and instead, the pork will start to produce water.
Add rest of water chestnuts and mix in.
Prepare a small plate or bowl of water.

To make dumplings:
With 1 dumpling skin in the palm of your hand, spoon about 1/2 tbs of meat into the centre, pressing it out into a rectangular-ish shape. Place a prawn strip on top. Wet finger with water and wet the circumference of the dumpling skin. Fold over the bottom half/top half of skin to form a crescent moon and seal the dumpling. Press gently on the outside of the edges so as not to break the skin to seal. Wet any unsealed areas to re-seal dumpling.

Prepare a pot of water and let boil. Only once water starts to bubble and boil, add a little cooking oil to it. Place about 4 dumplings each time (depends really on the size of your pot) to boiling water and let cook.
Once the dumpling floats up to the surface, allow to cook for another 3-4 minutes (depending on size of dumpling) before removing from the water with a sieve or dumpling spoon.

Serve with soy sauce and sliced chili or in a bowl of your favourite noodles and noodle soup stock.

When a woman’s feeling blue, hitting the hair salon’s always the best medicine. Finally got my hair professionally coloured and highlighted today by the ever lovely Maeda stylist. One reason I’m in a much better mood - yes, my hair looks pretty good. Not as radical as I wanted it to be, but natural looking and easy as a base to style punkish, posh, nerdish looks which I suppose is the whole point of having a good and versatile crop on your head. The trim also got rid of all that nastiness we know as split-ends and dry ends, etc. Two, I’ve waited so long to get my hair done by Maeda it’s a dream come true (yes, he’s that hot)! It’s bad when you totally fancy your stylist.

After washing off all that painted dye on my head, here’s what happened during Maeda’s inspection: (pardon my attempts at typing a Japanese accent…my thoughts are in brackets)

Maeda: AAH! so much black-ku! Soka.
Diva: Yea, I know. Sorry. (too much black dye in the past)
Maeda: Iie. I have idea. -nods away optimistically-
Diva: (gosh I love you.) Great. (I love your ideas.)
Maeda: Hai hai. -continues to nod and work away at my hair-

…time passes…after the second dying attempt and many attempts at forcing the dye into my hair with space-age alien-looking heat machines:

Diva: (scoot aside assistant-boy; you ain’t not wanted here)
Maeda: Waa. Kirei! Nice-su!
Diva: (yea, you’re mighty pretty yourself) Finally. Looks real nice! (reckon we’d look real nice together?) -thousand watt smile-

So much for fantasies. Good thing my stylist has no Mel Gibson What Women Want psychic abilities! Anyway, thought I’d put that little embarrassing excerpt up there since it’s about hair and would relate to this awesome childhood sweet of mine - Dragon Beard!

This Chinese candy is essentially sugar that’s been spun like thread, stretched and pulled till it resembles very fine strands of hair and rolled up to look like a silkworm. I mean, you gotta admit that it really looks like a small plate of worms doesn’t it? What’s inside this wrapped sugar threads is a mix of sweetened peanuts, sugar crystals and sometimes sesame seeds. It’s easy to find this popular candy at traditional sweet stalls in Chinatown or night markets in this country. Other than that, it’ll be pretty hard to find authentic dragon beard candy but always try your luck when you hear a ‘ding ding’ sound as it’s quite often that you’ll find the Dragon Beard Candy man working next to a Ding Ding Tang (ding ding sweet) candy man.

This candy is really soft and delicate and once you bite it, all that sugary fluffiness (and by golly, it’s well fluffy) of the insides comes pouring out. It’s never easy to eat this ladylike but no one really bothers that you’ve got white sugar threads all over your lips and some random peanut bits at the corners of your mouth. It’s just too good for anyone to care about the way you look.

It brings good memories having these guys around. They’re such odd-looking sweets but yet they remind me of the times when money could buy so much more (before inflation), especially my pocket money which was all spent on junk food and sweets. These bad-for-your-teeth snacks of course led to greater rate of socialization amongst the school bus pals. Sweets are always a great bonding technique! Too bad most kids just can’t practice responsible eating or self-control and so things like sugarfree, dentist-approved sweets have been created to quell the hearts of parents. It’s not that I don’t fancy such sugarfree whatevers now and again and definitely have nothing against healthy snacks, but what’s happened to just the good ol’ candy?

*Note: I bought this candy from a nice toothy-grinned old man from the market. I don’t personally know the traditional technique to making this sweet so apologies in advance to those who are curious for a recipe.