Meatless Monday Potluck Lunch Party - Japanese Food

What did we bring to our #MeatlessMonday potluck party this time?

Here we go!

Vegetarian sashimi.
They are made of konyaku, I was amazed how close the texture and taste to real sashimi.


Vegetarian yakitori including mock beef and mock sausages.


Tangy cold noodles salad. Glass noodles and shredded vegetables in sesame oil & vinegars.
Very refreshing!


Vegetarian pork chop - again, really close to the real deal. I was completely shocked.

To go with the pork chop cutlet, I made this.

Vegetable Japanese curry.
It went really well with the vegetarian pork chop.
I generally have no access to mock meat, so I try to make do without.
The curry has carrot, potatoes, baby corn, broccoli, and mushrooms. Very colorful!
I used my favourite S&B Japanese curry cubes.
Oh, actually I can't take any credits for this. My wonderful helper did it, I simply gave her instructions ;)


Soft tofu with vegetarian "meat floss"


Soy sauce konyaku noodles with mock shrimps.


Cold spinach side dish.
Blanched spinach with soy sauce, black vinegar, manuka honey, sesame oil.


Beansprouts spicy side dish.
Blanched beansprouts, spicy 7 spice powder, sesame oil, soy sauce, salt and pepper.

And the star of the show...

Toblerone Cheesecake!
Cream cheese & cream & melted toblerone on chocolate crust, topped with shaved toblerone.
There is no way it is no

Who says meatless means not good (or must be healthy?)?
Ahem!

We're having a break next week because Mid Autumn Festival Holiday.

'Til next time~!

Meatless Monday Potluck Party

How to combat Monday blues?
We do it by having #MeatlessMonday potluck party every week and it works!
We choose a theme and plan what we're going to bring (we can't have 6 noodle dishes, no? Nobody would be able to work after that).

We love our #meatlessmonday so far.
It's exciting, it makes us look forward to Mondays, it challenges us, and it makes us realise that meatless does not mean not good!

So here's our menu this week.
The theme is Asian.

Mushrooms and veggies lettuce wraps.


How adorable! Tasty too!


Nam yue (fermented tofu) "pork belly", dried shiitake mushrooms, glass noodles, napa cabbage and beancurd sheets stew.


Vegetarian "pork belly"!
It's amazing how they can mimick the appearance and texture of the fatty part of pork belly.


Beancurd wrapped sticky rice cake and glass noodles in tomato broth.


Too cute!

What did I make?
I made gado-gado, a very popular Indonesian salad.

Blanched: long beans, mini napa cabbage (because I dislike cabbage), beansprouts.
Boiled potatoes and hard boiled eggs.
Fresh tomatoes & cucumber.
Fried: tempe chunks, tofu puffs, crispy sweet potato or crackers.
Dressing: gado-gado peanut dressing + lime.


Yum!
I made a version without boiled egg and dressing without garlic and shallot for our vegetarian friend (dressing = crushed roasted peanuts + salt + palm sugar + lime).

And our dessert!
Our dessert was given a freedom not to follow the Asian theme, because.. cheesecake.
We want cheesecake. Cheesecake is Asian. Cheesecake is everything.

It's no-bake blueberry cheesecake, with reduced sugar and no egg too!


So light and yummy!

Next week's theme: Japanese.
Looking forward to it :)

Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden - Where To Go On Weekends in Hong Kong?

Want a breath of fresh air? Get out of the malls (I know it's hard because of all the mega mega SALE going on...) and explore Hong Kong's new territories! We absolutely fell in love with Kadoorie park! So easy to go to.. and I don't have to say much. Enjoy the photos, the place is heaven!

Beautiful flowers everywhere!


A treat for nature photographers, with all the cherry blossoms blooming everywhere.


Dewy foliage everywhere we look...


Simply stunning!


Beautiful rose garden...

... there's an orchid garden and butterfly garden too! Get your zoom and macro lenses clean up and haul them here.

Hello bee...sorry to interrupt your snacking time...



SC & baby M's cactus encounter. It's a great place for kids to explore. Baby M was so happy there despite having to walk a lot. You can bring a stroller too if your kid would sit on it (M won't)



Baby M's favorite character, the owl.


There's a wild boar, and reindeer too... upon seeing the reindeer, baby M broke into a song. Can you guess which song?

There are sections where they grow organic vegetables, fruits, etc...


... and you can buy some produce too!


There's a beautiful beautiful place for you to chill out and eat...

...it serves vegetarian only though. If you can't live without bacon, BYOB then :)

We ordered pumpkin soup (yum), Hong Kong style samosas (yum)...

Omelette with mushrooms and sweetcorn (yum, the sweetcorn so sweet but you gotta season it yourself), and my favorite was this mushrooms and cheese toasties. Yum.

I was intrigued by their orange pancake, so I ordered it... but too bad the pancake's not nice at all T_T

SC had orange juice which was freshly squeezed then and there, and I had a cup of mocha, but I didn't like it.

We had an amazing day, and we'll definitely be back!

Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden
- How to go? Take the MTR West Rail to Kam Sheung Rd Station, and then take the 64K bus (it is quite frequent, and the ride takes about 15 minutes), stop right in front of Kadoorie Farm. So easy!
- The ticket costs HK$20 for adult, free for kids below 3 years old
- Don't go too late, the place is enormous!
- Book the shuttle bus going to the upper side
- If you go with kids or babies that need carrying, after exploring a bit of the lower side, take the shuttle bus to the upper side, but I'd recommend not getting off at the first few stops or the peak. You might have to wait for a long time to get catch the shuttle bus down. We chose to drop off at the owl's sanctuary and it was the perfect distance for us.
- Bring plenty of water and some snacks, we even saw some people bringing in pizza! Hello, picnic!

For more details, check out their website here.

Pickled Vegetables

I fell in love with SC's grandma's pickled vegetables when I visited Guang Zhou during the Chinese New Year. We asked for her recipe and decided to make some at home. These aren't as good as hers...but pretty close.


We were greedy, so we chose lots of different vegetables to pickle :)


We just used the inner part of the mustard greens, and boiled them for a bit. The rest of the veggies didn't need boiling. I think we can get away with not boiling them, but I just followed SC's mom and granny's instructions. These are drained after boiling to be joined by the other veggies.


All the veggies were mixed in the wok, we scattered some sea salt on them and let them be for about an hour. The salt helps draw the water from the veggies so they'll absorb the pickling liquid better.


After an hour, we squeezed the veggies dry. Lots of water came out!


Placed the veggies in a pot, ready for pickling.


During the salting time, you could prepare the pickling liquid. We started with about a cup of vinegar and a cup of sugar...continue adding sugar and vinegar bit by bit until you achieve the perfect balance of sweet and sour. Once done, let cool. Once cooled, pour the pickling liquid into the pot with veggies and let them pickle away. They'd taste fantastic the next day. I love them chilled in the fridge.


In Guang Zhou, we had these with almost any dish...or even eat them as snack.
I gotta make more soon!

Sauteed Mushrooms in Butter, Garlic & White Wine on Butter Toasts - Vegetarian Party Option

Perfect vegetarian option for parties, tea breaks, snacks, or even breakfast!
Super easy to prepare and so tasty!

I got the mushrooms from a farmers market which we visited last weekend.

Wait. A farmers market in Hong Kong???? Really???
Yesss! I'll post about it soon.

Anyway, yes. Fresh produce. Lots of fun. Now, back to the snack.

Recipe
- Your favorite bread, cut the way you like it (I used Yamazaki Onion bread, removed the crust and cut into square-ish shape)
- Your favorite mushrooms
- Garlic, minced
- Butter
- White wine
- salt and pepper

Butter your bread generously, grill on a frying pan or oven until golden brown, set aside. Melt butter in a saute pan, saute garlic until fragrant, add mushrooms, cook until there's a bit of a brownage going, add white wine, cook until the white wine's reduced, season with salt and pepper, done. Add the mushrooms on top of the butter toasts.

Although I am a huge carnivore, no meat does not always mean no good :)

Vegetarian Suckling Pig at Miu Fat Chai, Tsuen Wan - 帶左我個印尼工人去食乳豬

After a serious pigging out session the other day, we went for a vegetarian meal and ordered this vegetarian suckling pig. It surely isn't as good as the real thing, but it's...intriguing. It does have some qualities that remind us of real suckling pig, the crispy "skin" and the smoky roasted flavors. At least it should be good enough to satisfy the cravings of vegetarians who crave meat, or to impress diners who's never had mock meat before. I'd totally order this again.

前幾日食完三隻小豬仔, 今日又帶大家去食豬. 唔係普通既豬咁簡單, 而係仿真豬…(即用齋做既豬)

佢就當然冇真豬咁好食, 但係就咁睇落去, 真係真既一樣的!! 又有乳豬脆皮, 又有燒烤個味. 對素食者黎講, 都係一次過滿足你足有既願望! 哩個齋乳豬真係次次黎都叫的.

These "lion heads" were delicious! Very fluffy and light.

哩碟仿獅子頭, 裏面係炸豆腐來的, 正!

The golden "seafood" fried rice was very bland, since the cooking respects a certain Buddhist teaching, where pungent smelling plants are not supposed to be used as they're not supposed to serve anything that excites the senses. Thus, there's generally no garlic, no shallot and not much seasoning to the dishes. If you need more seasoning, salt and chilli sauce are available upon request.

個黃金炒飯就淡左D, 可能係比出家人食, 唔可以咁濃味. 如果唔夠味, 大家可以叫佢比D辣椒醬同監鹽, 成碟立體晒

Miu Fat Chai 妙法齋

G/F, 79 Ho Pui St, Tsuen Wan
荃灣河背街79號地下
Hong Kong
Tel: +852 2412-0301