Coffee, tea & biscotti

Some interesting information about coffee/tea is found here.

And as a good reminder: Before you buy a home expresso machine.


Biscotti receipe with lots of pictures from Cooking for Engineers. ;)
Incidentally, I have that book Toast by Nigel Slater mentioned on the website. Started reading the book while on a trip to Bali in 2005 Oct (yes, when the Bali bombing happened), and didn't manage to finish the book.

Mushroom + vegetables dish

I cooked this dish for lunch yesterday, using mainly Buna Shimeiji mushrooms and fresh shitake mushrooms. It was supposed to be a mushroom dish, but in the end, I threw in the leftover green beans, and a few slices of cabbage and carrots, all stir-fried with chicken stock and topped with a teaspoon of Hua Tiao Jiu (Chinese wine).


It was yummilicious!

Japanese treats

Gleefully, I bought dinner from Isetan Orchard's basement food court last Monday. I was gleeful because I didn't have to pay much for the dinner, because I had been given some shopping vouchers. All I had to pay was a few dollars since my total purchases did not round up to $10, and the supermarket wasn't going to give me change for using the vouchers.

California Roll & Sushi Maki



Katsu Don (Fried pork cutlet cooked with egg, onion and sweet sauce)



For dessert, freshly-made Dorayaki, the favourite food of Doraemon (Japanese Robot Cat)



Incidentally, I've always like Doraemon and Dorayaki (with red bean paste) since I was a kid. :)

The hard-to-get tea

I've finally opened and drank the Lapsang Souchong tea that I'd bought during our Europe trip last November. I'd first heard of this tea many donkey years ago in my early career days when I worked at a motor company where some of the managers and directors have fat entertainment expense accounts. Of course, being a junior executive, I didn't have such a privilege, but I was often invited to join the numerous dinners meant to entertain the Japanese principals, and sometimes, to lunches that were meant to erm...entertain the managers themselves. ;P

Anyway, it was at Movenpick restaurant where my high-class, overseas-educated and more widely-exposed colleague introduced me to this Lapsang Souchong tea. This black tea has a unique smoky, earthy flavour that gives it more body than its plainer cousins - the Chinese tea. I thought the name "Soochong" sounds rather Chinese, but I realised later that "Lapsang" is probably Tibetan....but I was wrong. Actually, it originates from China, according to Wikipedia:

* Lapsang souchong (正山小种 or 烟小种): originally from Mount Wuyi, Fujian Province, China. Lapsang souchong is a black tea which is dried over burning pine, thereby developing a strong smoky flavour.


For many years, I had not been able to find this tea in Singapore, and I bought my first can of LS tea from Harvey Nichols in London while on a business trip to UK, many years later. Since then, I would occasionally ask friends who were visiting London to bring a can of this tea back for me, if it was convenient. Last year, I discovered (a bit too late!) that Harrods at Takashimaya actually carries this tea as well, so at least I now know where to get my supply locally.

Edit: Wikipedia's entry on Lapsang Souchong tea