Summer weekends are for relaxin' no doubt... Especially in the company of great friends and family, delicious food (from Vietnamese to Chinese to Korean) and just having a grand ol' time with no cares in the world... to me nothing spells chillaxin' more! A beautiful friday night jump-started an incredible weekend, with my most awesome friend joining the boyz for hang out time and some fun in the kitchen.
Smiles all around!
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| Etienne and Shanea wrapping Chinese Dumplings for pan-frying. |
First-time dumpling wrapping was successful (teaching and learning new things- Yay!).... I say who cares what it looks like, as long as the seams are sealed and the filling stays in. See here for my post Dumplings 101. Practice, practice, practice makes for ease-ability, speed and perfection overtime, and it starts with initiation :) Shanea tells me in her native Jamaica, their form of dumplings (because every culture has a dumpling) are more like perogies- using a thicker dough of flour and water to encase contents like ackee and salt fish, potatoes or cheese. Mine usually consist of pork and shrimps, and I also make a version of pure minced and chopped shrimp.
The main meal though was a DIY Vietnamese salad rice rolls with a choice of fillings: shrimps, chicken, bean sprouts, cucumber match sticks, fresh herbs: chives, Thai basil, mint and cilantro atop a leaf of lettuce with a small heap of vermicelli all wrapped up in a softened rice paper, and dipped with nuoc mam (seasoned fish sauce) or peanut-hoisin sauce. See my thorough post for how to recreate this fun food experience at your table. Spring rolls are also another wrap favourite for the Vietnamese... encase in a leaf lettuce, dip and crunch it!
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| Vietnamese Fresh Shrimp and Pork Salad Rolls |
Chowing down!
Ending the night with something sweet-- a cold refreshing Coconut Jackfruit Tapioca Dessert mixed with coloured coconut gels for chewy fun! For more on jackfruit, check out my post.
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| Coconut Jackfruit Tapioca Dessert |
Saturday was spent at my parents for dinner (no cooking for me-- Yay!) while checking out my super artist brother Marten Go's Preserved Dragon's product offerings-- posters, prints and Bruce Lee statues-in-the-making. I am so proud of him and thought this is a good opportunity to show off his work to my readers :D. For more see his recently launched Official web-site (* some pages are under construction) and impressive Facebook fan page.
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| Title: Fight of the Century (Limited Edition) B/W Vintage Premium Poster by Marten Go |
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| Preserved Dragons |
My favourite of all of his nine completed statues has to be none-other-than Conan from Conan The Barbarian. Twelve different materials were used to clothe this immaculate and meticulous hand-sized statuesque. It's even more remarkable up close and personal.
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| Conan, Jackie Chan & Benny (Meals on Wheels) and Bruce Lee (Way of the Dragon). |
A simple Chinese dinner with steamed rice from top left clockwise: Five-Spice Chicken Wings, Jellyfish and Cucumber shreds, Steamed Chinese Greens (Yu choy), Stewed Soy Pig Hocks (pig feet) and Pan-Fried Tofu with Korean dressing.
And Sunday after a good late afternoon chase in our Korean town 'hood for Pokemon, a satisfying Korean Dinner at Nak Won cooking popular DIY BBQ equipped with all the tasty complimentary side dishes (panchan): Chap Chae (glass noodles), seaweed, home-made kimchi, seasoned bean sprouts and spicy fried fish cake. Try Korean BBQ at home-- it is simple to do and so delicious, wrapping up parcels of grilled meats in lettuce, garlic and jalapeno slices and seasoned bean paste... See my Post.
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| Grilling pork belly! |
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| Grilling marinated kalbi beef ribs! |
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| Finished the meal off with spicy tofu soup (sundubu-jigae) |
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