eat.

cheers, norm.

eat.

razor clams

fresh from the fish market. grilled with some garlic butter.

korean pork chops

a ken hom east meets west recipe. good eating.

eat.

van scoff. aha ahahahahahahahahaha

tauntaun

braaaaainnnss. and cake.

cheers, bb.

eat.

korean beef, from a ken hom recipe.

it was sweet. it was cheap.

eat.

Best belly ever

Possibly the best meal i’ve had in London, 4 hours of lunch, each course was absoultly faultless

courses: Ed-

1. smoked trout with poached egg and bearnaise sauce
2. pork belly with creamed potato
3. hot chocolate pudding with praline parfait

kt-

1. foie gras and chicken liver parfait with toasted brioche
2. pork belly
3. treacle tart with clotted cream

but i would happily go back and have the entire menu, twice.

oh, and incidentally: best. belly. ever.

eat.

the double down sandwich.

“it’s made of two deep fried chicken breasts used as bread for a bacon and cheese sandwich.”

what a time to be alive.

cheers, consumerist/neatorama.

eat.

very nice

worth following the rice instructions

brocolli beef from simply recipes.

shrimp fried rice from steamy kitchen. i cooked the rice yesterday, left it in the fridge overnight and then cooked along with everything else today. works well.

eat.

after two hours soaking.

yep, i fucking ruined that pot.

after deciding to go to the pet store, i thought i’d braise the belly i’d defrosted following the seasaltwithfood recipe.

i blanched, i mixed and set it up for the two hours cooking time. i thought there wasn’t enough liquid to braise, but followed the recipe and put the pan on the lowest setting. i came back an hour and bit later and it smelled nice. i tried to take the lid off the pot with some trouble and it looked like it’d been napalmed. i chipped away what i could and crunched some very dry belly in my teeth before giving up and putting the sink to try and save the pot.

the only saving grace is that i had soup left over from yesterday.

it's pretty good, followed a ken hom recipe from one of his books.

eat.

ah, the duck.

i was given a jar of sauce from my mentor and had been waiting to test it out. i bought a duck the other day, covered in sauce and marinated overnight. today i cooked it and it wasn’t bad, i think i should have left it in a bit longer to dry it out a bit, but it was really juicy. i cut it up and put the rest with the udon noodles i’ve had in the cupboard for a while for just this moment. i used to buy ’shredded roast duck with udon” fromoriental city in emsworth and it was fantastic. i’ll definately do it again, but speak to mr. tang first.

peking duck with udon noodles

kung po king prawn

its been a good couple of days of eating. earlier in the week i saw this sauce in the supermarket, and as ever, hoped that it might take me one step closer to the king of kung po – the dragon inn in hillingdon.

its a good sauce

its as close to the dragon kung po i’ve had, much better than any recipe i’ve found. i didn’t deep fry the prawns so next time will take it closer to what i hope will be a lifetime of delicious, delicious po. i recommend it until i find something better.

eat.

lunch.

it all came together today.

i cook the pork last night and just thought of having a few slices with some rice. then i opened the fridge, remembered i still had dumplings left over and some pak choi.

all of it is easy to make (apart from the dumplings, but you just need to get the wrappers first). its cheap too.

pak choi recipe from ching

dumplings recipe from gastronomy domine

pork fillet based on mr. tang’s suggestion, but i used gastronomy domine for the actual cooking. mr tang told me to just get a fillet, put a few deep cuts in and cover with a jar of hoisin (lee kum kee), leaving overnight.

since i got the wok it feels like i’ve been working towards something and i think i reached it today.

its time for a new challenge, steamed pork buns have always been a favourite.

cheers, gd/ bbc.

eat.

before - after

they’re so crunchy. i’ve got at least sixteen left and they still taste good a couple of hours later.

i also have a buttload of mixture,  so i might make spring rolls tomorrow.

its the same recipe as before, but i used the proper wonton wrappers instead of trying to make my own pastry this time. i’d recommend it.

it took a while but i put on a jared diamond lecture and it went smoothly until the scaldings during deep frying. for some reason about a minute in they really start fizzing and bubbling. i stood most of the way across the kitchen after that and just turned them a couple of times before slotted-spooning out.

i should have done the dipping sauce though.

cheers, gastronomy domine, bb.

[update: what do you think about jared diamond, wemp and isum? cheers, io9]

eat.

if anything, they were too big.

these are chinese dumplings version 1.1 and they weren’t great. in fact i had to throw half of them away, and the half i did eat almost made me phone my mum. it all started not last sunday, but the sunday before…

eat.

the belly

what to say.

i might have a belly problem. i’m on about a kg every couple of weeks. i went to the meat counter and asked for another on thursday, the guy said “do you just want the 2.5kg piece?”. i hesitated before saying no.

its so good. its so easy. its so cheap.

i’ve been sticking to the crisp recipe (right) so thought i’d go for some braised yesterday. i knew it was going to be about three hours cooking time but it took me about six hours before i ate.

i got the recipe from chez pim and prepped the ingredients. it calls for a dutch oven which i’ve taken in other recipes to mean casserole dish. i’ve never put my porcelain one directly on the flame before and within about five minutes i heard a massive crack. apparently you can’t do that. its in the bin. i ended up going to tesco and buying a cast iron one (£35) and eventually ate around seven last night. i didn’t have it with noodles though (because i was so hungry and the dish took up most of the stove) opting to have it on wooden board. it was great, but doesn’t look as nice as pim’s.

oh – and in worst.meal.ever. news i had another go at making that kung-ish po. instead of the chilli bean lee kum kee sauce, i tried the chilli garlic sauce. petrified of saltifying my blood even further i just put chicken in cornflour and when browned, added the sauce. nothing else. it looked gross, but i thought – it comes in a jar and the hoisin sauce i used for the pork was nice.

it was the second saltiest thing i’ve ever tasted. next time i go to the supermarket i’m going to talk to mr. tang about it. the bad news is as a leaving present from school they got me a few more jars of the stuff.

cheers, chez pim.

eat.

i was in london for a few days last week and ate very well.

"...was so good, wish i was eating it right now"

i’d recommend:

* the burger at the swimmers

* the ginger beef and calamari side at busaba eathai

* everything at mien tay

* the pork board and steak at the princess victoria

* the dumplings and everything else at leongs legend

cheers, justathought

eat.

blergh

worst.meal.ever.

my mouth is dying. and i think i’m going to puke.

imagine a burning sensation so strong combined with the saltiest thing you’ve ever tasted – balancing each other out into a fucking disaster , and the worst thing i have ever put in my mouth. i only ate half a bowl, and that was mainly out of pity.

i knew something was wrong when the egg fried rice i cooked tasted a little funny. the eggs are on the last day so i thought they would be fine.

i was trying a new version of kung po chicken recommended to me by mr. tang. i was using the directions from another kung po and the paste he recommended. it called for salt with the cooking wine (half tsp, marinate) and what i put in must have been close to a tbsp. i wanted some cut chilli’s in for the proper kung po look – he’d already said not to use dried chillies because it would be too strong. so i used fresh ones.

the paste looked okay but as soon as it hit the wok i knew it was going to be fucking spicy. my eyes watered. i was prepared and had some juice standing by. it was straight from the wok so i knew it would be hot. i didn’t expect the salt and almost spat it back into the bowl. i looked again at the original recipe which called for sugar. i went back into the kitchen and heaped a couple of teaspoons into the bowl and mixed it around.

no good.

the worst thing is i’ve got at least three more bowls of this stuff.

[edit - after speaking to ed he recommended looking up a fix, which i did. potatoes are widely suggested, but i don't have any so the next best thing was ketchup. a ton of it. its not salty any more but is still the spiciest thing i've eaten for a while]

cheers, guy.

eat.

the belly.

i wanted something easy and pork belly related. i’d recommend this recipe, its easy and fairly cheap.

i got about five meals out of it.

cheers, goodfood.

eat.

mine

i ended up using another recipe because i realised that laocook measures his ingredients in “some”.

within the first couple of minutes of steaming i could tell it was going to be delicious.

cheers, mmm-yoso.

eat.

i love ching

i’m still improving my wok skills and have used quite a few of ching’s recipes.

i got my kung po chicken recipe from mamachinesecooking and there’s a couple of others i want to try.

i plan to start using tigers and strawberries too.

here’s some of the recipes i’ve been using – some are from books i picked up at a charity shop but others from the links above.

cheers, y’all.

eat.

i bet your lunch

i love my new wok. every meal i’ve cooked in the last two weeks has been chinese food and i’ve just finished the last of my ginger chicken. it was fantastic.

get ginger powder, rub all over chicken (i used thighs), put in steamer for 45mins.

my thanks to the owner of the great china food store in southsea for giving me the recipe and helping me pick out the ingredients.

eat.

the wok o' choice.

ask the hive mind.

cheers, mefi.

eat.

inamo restaurant, london.

cheers, gizmodo.

eat.

£7.95.

i’m sitting in a pub blogging and feel guily for ordering just a pint of coke. i’ve been here for about two hours so i thought i’d get a spot of lunch. i challenge anyone to eat a club sandwich without trouble. its everywhere and my face is almost as messy as the three year old sat on the next table.

cheers, napkin.

eat.

last meals delivery service

also, here’s an archive of last meals from texas death row.

cheers, neatorama.

eat.

poutine

100 things you should eat before you die.

cheers, foodproof/fark.

eat.

i’ve been on a casserole journey since i posted a while back. this week featured the moroccan baked chicken dish (pictured), my most ingredient heavy creation.

i came across this one from the bbc foods website. i recommend it.

i just ate the last of an ‘oirish stuu’ (ie potato, onion, parsley and seven quids worth of lamb) which wasn’t that great.

oh, and if you’re wondering – too late. the designer who came up with the kitchen work surface pattern killed himself after creating this masterpiece.