Now this is crab

If you ever need proof of me being a massive procrastinator, well, here it is now. This is a long overdue post from July.

Coming from a family of rather spontaneous travellers (say, for example, our first trip ever to Kanto region of Japan was planned within 2 weeks, accommodation and flights confirmed a week before departure), we made the decision to go on a cruise about 2 days after it was suggested by a family friend. A 7 day cruise on the Diamond Princess, up the Alaskan Inner Passage from Vancouver to Anchorage. Unfortunately, I was the only one against the plan (what 20-something year old would want to be stuck on a ship for 7 days?) but given the overwhelming majority, I was overruled.

But I'm glad I went. And all because of this one dish. Or should I say, bucket.

Real Jumbo Alaskan King Crab.

After half a day on an el cheapo local tour (our pre-booked helicopter glacier excursion was cancelled due to heavy fog), we found ourselves rather cold and hungry (Alaska summer temperatures = Sydney winter climate). The Hangar on the Wharf Pub was suggested as a good local hangout for a beer and pub food, so that was where we found ourselves. Hearty food, awesome burgers, great local beers, at reasonable prices.  

Having had "crab legs" on the ship the night before, the Alaskan King crab legs on the menu at $65US for 4 legs (not including tips and taxes) seemed a bit too pricey. We were ready to grab the bill and go when we spotted another table being served the jumbo king crab legs.

The legs that were served on the ship the night before were tiny compared with the jumbo legs. That one leg had the same amount of meat I managed to scrape from my serving of about 2 dozen leg segments. The legs were so incredibly fresh, it didn't need much after being steamed.

With the legs were segments of fresh lemon, and, to our confusion, a tapas pot of melted butter. While the rest of the table went for the lemon (all being overly health conscious), I was the only one who went for the butter. Oh man, crab and butter ... it worked so well. The meat was actually quite delicate, so the acidity of the lemon juice actually was too harsh and didn't complement as well. The butter brought an extra dimension of richness and silkiness to the perfectly steamed meat, and heightened the sweetness and briny freshness of the crab even more. Mum had always said "whoever was the first to eat crab was a true food adventurer"; well, the consensus after the meal was "whoever came up with having crab with melted butter was a true food genius".

It was also the first time I had a dark beer. This is a local dark from the Alaskan Brewing Company, a rich, slightly bitter, nutty concoction that strangely had a Coke-ish aftertaste. It really cleansed the palate between each bite of crab, and brought out the nuttiness of the butter quite well.

To be honest, this was the best meal of the entire trip. Ship food was lackluster, other food on the land excursions weren't that memorable. As for the famed Alaskan salmon, it really is quite different to the salmon we get here in Australia. The King is a rich, fatty, delicately flavoured variety, and so probably better cold smoked, and the Sockeye much more robust and stronger in the salmon taste, and my preferred one for hot smoked. Unfortunately I forgot to take photos, but there really weren't any of the fresh fish at the time I visited, and not a lot of point taking photos of the pre-packed stuff.

Hopefully I'll be less of a procrastinator on my next trip, which is happening in less than 2 weeks!

The Hangar on the Wharf Pub
2 Marine Way #106
Juneau, Alaska
(907) 586 5018

Healthy desserts?

It probably doesn't look like much, but this is one of the best winter dessert in my repertoire.

Sweet potato in brown sugar ginger tea.

Ginger, according to doctrines of Chinese medicine, warms up the body. Brown sugar helps with blood circulation, which in turn improves the flow of chi in the body. Sweet potato helps with reducing water retention in the body, and being high in fiber, helps also with digestion.

The ginger tea featured here is one I brought back from Taiwan. Sold in bags, it resembles nothing like the sugar we are familiar with in Australia. 

Sold in 5cm blocks, this is basically enough to make 2 large mugs of sweet ginger tea. The perfect balance of sugar, the spiciness of ginger, with the aroma of dried dates and longan (both improve circulation and warm the body), the perfect winter drink.

With all the rich and fatty food we tend to consume in winter, and general colder weather, this is a delicious way to restore a balance of health.

Sweet potato in brown sugar ginger tea

Serves 2-3

1 small sweet potato, cut into bite sized chunks

4 heaped tablespoons brown sugar (adjust to taste)

1 knob of old ginger, sliced thinly

3 dried red dates or 2 dried black dates

4 dried longan

1 litre water

1. Wash the sweet potato thoroughly, scrub the skin with steel wool to ensure most of the surface dirt has been removed. Cut into bite sized chunks, then place into a pot with the cold water, and set to the boil.

2. After the sweet potatoes have come to the boil, add the sugar, ginger, dates and longan, and simmer until the sweet potatoes are soft (10-20 minutes). Serve immediately.

Notes:

1. Dried red dates, dried black dates, and dried longan should be available from all good Asian grocers. You should be able to find them at the Chinese or Korean ones.

2. Old ginger should be used for this recipe rather than young ginger. Look for large knobs, golden skin, with wide stripes on the skin. Adjust the amount of ginger to your preference by adding the ginger little by little, keeping in mind the more you cook the ginger, the spicier the tea will become.

3. If you can find Okinawa brown sugar (沖縄黒糖) for cooking (and not as candy), that can be used as well. Otherwise, normal brown sugar from CSR is ok.

Crackles!

It's Election Day. Have you cast your vote yet?

If Crackles was a political party and running in this election, there would have been no doubt at all which party I'd vote for. (Ok, so that was lame...)

Last week, a tweet by Pat Nourse caught my eye. "Today's best reason to leave the house: crisp-skinned slow-cooked kurobuta pork belly rolls at the Crackles stand at the Rozelle markets." The tweet, apparently, has since gone viral, though the virality has nothing to do with my actually going for a roll myself. I trust Pat Nourse and his tastebuds. A man who recommends Sang Kee cannot be wrong about crisp-skinned slow-cooked kurobuta pork belly rolls.

And the fact that they were set up at my nearest polling station was an extra incentive.

So we wandered there at 9:15, hoping to be overwhelmed by the smell of roasting pork. Maybe it was the wind, maybe it was something else, but it was really hard to smell anything at that end of the market. So we wandered around looking for the polling place (turns out there was a last minute change and we had to walk 2 blocks down), cast our votes, and came back. 9:45. We were about to give up and head down a block and grab something from Zumbo, when I saw one of the boys in chef's whites pulling out a roll.

Cue yygall, rushing over with arms full of newspaper, for one pork roll.


Pork!!!!

And there was a barbecue full of that!!!

I watched in awe with saliva dripping down my shirt as the pork was cut, pulled, and de-fatted. A sprinkling of Murray River Salt (it was pink!) over the meat, then everything was piled on top of a fresh bread roll stuffed with salad. When the crackling was cut...HOMG. I swear my heart fluttered.


Roll!!!!

The bread roll was crusty and crunchy on the outside, but really soft inside. Salad was crisp with a fantastically tangy dressing. But the pork! The pork was juicy, tender, and meltingly soft. And the crackling earthshatteringly crisp and fragrant. I totally understand why Pat Nourse said it was "the best reason to leave the house". I would leave the house for that every day.

Best Election Day breakfast ever.

PS: I think we may have ran into our local Liberal candidate as we came out of the market stuffing our faces into the pork rolls. Who cares about politics when there's good food to be had?

Much thanks to Crackles for allowing the photos. And not charging for them. Hehe.

Crackles
Saturdays: Rozelle Markets
9am-4pm

Sundays: Frenchs Forest Organic Food Markets
8:30am-1pm

Pork/Lamb rolls $8
Plate of pork $10
(Prices as of 21 August 2010, subject to change without notice)

Comfort Food

Congee.
As a child, I hated the bland, tasteless rice gruel that Mum made whenever I was sick. Gloopy, and always too hot, the thought of having congee alone made me determined to stay away from bugs as much as possible.
There is one type of congee I will never say no to, though. Sang Kee.
As a kid growing up, it was always a treat when we went out to Sang Kee for congee. Back then there was one tiny storefront, in the back streets of Sheung Wan in Hong Kong. This place was a favourite of my father, back when he was working in the vicinity in his early career in business. I'm not sure how often he went, but considering the current owner/proprietress still remembers him, I'd say it was pretty often.
A couple of years ago, they started expanding. First they merged with another nearby shop selling beef brisket in clear soup, and became Sang Kee Congee and Beef brisket noodle experts. Business was so good that they soon took over 2 more store fronts. Then it was the opening of the Kowloon branch near Yau Ma Tei station, and then a third store at North Point. I make an effort to go to Sang Kee at least once for the congee each time I go back to HK; a trip to HK is not complete without having a taste of my favourite congee.
For such humble beginnings, though, I can say they are world renowned. Regularly featured in guidebooks to Hong Kong (very prominently in Japanese one; and I recall seeing an entry in Lonely Planet also), Pat Nourse named it as one of the must-visit eateries of Hong Kong in the Gourmet Traveller. Chua Lam (avid Iron Chef viewers may recall that he is featured occasionally as a taster on the judging panel) is a regular visitor, and often writes about it in his magazine and newspaper columns. Speak to 10 Hong Kong gourmets, at least 9 of them will recommend it as a favourite, I reckon.
While they are famous for the fish bone, pork fry and fish ball congee, I've grown up with the beef congee, partly because I lack the patience and skill in eating segments of fish with large pieces of bone attached, and only just recently acquired a taste for fish balls in general. The beef is tender, packed with umami, and the congee scaldingly hot with the subtle sweetness of the pork bone, conpoy, bean curd and gingko seed soup base used to boil the aged jasmine rice coming through. The rice is cooked until it has almost completely disintegrated, forming a thick, soupy goodness that settles any stomach, and calms the mind.



The experience is not complete without a side order of fried dough sticks (you tiu). Soak a few pieces in the congee, the gaps become filled with the hot gruel, and becomes a fantastic vehicle of experiencing the ricey goodness, especially when sprinkled with a few drops of their special soy sauce.

Having been to both the Sheung Wan and Yau Ma Tei shopfronts, I still think it is best at its original location, the hole in the wall where it all started. The atmosphere is completely different: but that may be the memories talking. Taste wise, they are all the same. The head chef spends his day travelling to the three stores, to maintain their famed quality, so there should be no difference.



Sang Kee Congee and Noodles
Ground Floor, 9 Tung Fong Street (Opposite YMCA)
Yau Ma Tei
Yau Ma Tei MTR Station D exit

Mid-morning snacks and random ramblings

When I got back to Australia last week, it was a nice surprise to find good quality fresh lotus roots available at the Asian grocer. I am a huge fan of lotus, from root, to leaf, to flower and seeds. It's one of the few plants that can be used from root to tip.

One of my favourite dishes is glutinous rice stuffed in lotus root, a Shanghai classic. It's simple enough, with only a handful of ingredients, but a great test of judgment, skill, and of patience. Before anything, the right root must be chosen. It can't be too long, or too short; there can't be splits or cracks in the body. The length of the root must be complete, with no holes at each end where the rice may fall through. The rice must first be washed carefully, drained and allowed to dry; the root cleaned and the skin scraped off carefully with a sharp knife. A small section of the top is cut off, and rice patiently filled into the holes of the root. Too much rice, the root may burst or it won't cook properly; too little, everything will collapse and spill out of the root once it is cooked and cooled The top is then reattached, fixed in place with toothpicks, and the entire thing is boiled in water for several hours, until everything is completely cooked. Once cooled to room temperature, it is sliced, and served with a sprinkling of osmanthus sugar.



The entire process takes several hours, and the end result unknown right up until serving. Needless to say, I have had my fair share of disasters with this dish, particularly as I prefer mine to be more packed with sticky rice goodness than some others, making it more prone to undercooked bits of rice still being present in an otherwise healthy and filling dish.

Despite the simplicity of the ingredients, though, I am yet to discover a place in Australia that serves it, despite the abundance of Chinese (specifically, Shanghainese) restaurants here. Served as a "cold dish" or entree at the start of a classic Shanghai banquet, it is a dish that can be found anywhere, from the most humble of homes to the classiest of restaurants in the Jiangsu area. Then again, the 8 styles of Chinese cuisine is poorly represented here, despite the abundance of restaurants...a somewhat disappointing fact despite the importance of food in Chinese culture. (The 8 styles of Chinese cooking...perhaps that calls for series of posts on each? An idea for another day.)

And yes, I went on a holiday. Expect a few posts about it in the near future.