#whatsfood2u, a hashtag to think again

No doubt we are living in a technology driven era: getting and stay connected is never been easier. Sharing and viewing via social media platforms like Facebook / Instagram / Twitter is becoming norm. When i wrote how bad food affects health (click here for full article) and how to eat healthier (click here for full article), i was actually thinking what is the meaning of food for us? For me, food serves a very complicated role in our daily life. For some people, basic bread is too luxurious while others has option of caviar or white truffle as ingredient. I know everyone of us will have different answer, so please give an answer(s) follow by hashtag #whatsfood2u whenever you posting and i will update this page for our answers to be listed here regularly. I hope this will then be a reference point for what is the meaning of food to you.

Before you do, would you please spend 5 minutes to search and read the facts and figures from "World Food Programme". 

So, #whatsfood2u, the list goes on:

Last Update:26/4/2014

• Taste, @maxmax5ig
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5 Ways to Eat Healthy

We all want to stay healthy but do we actually act for it? Increasingly, it is undeniable that one of the key factory to stay healthy is to eat healthy. There are a lot of misperceptions of healthy eating, i.e. this beverage is low in sugar because i don't feel it it sweet, Im a vegan because it is healthier than eating meat ...etc.  Well, I can tell you above is not 100% correct, read the 5 ways from below to find out why and how can we eat healthier. 

1. No Processed Food/Beverages

Nuggets, sausages, meat balls, fish cakes, carbonated drinks, concentrated juice...  these are all foods that you can see in the supermarket. Why they are there? Because it is 'cheap, easy and tasty'. Im not saying whatever listed above are 100% processed but if you see a sausage has no flaky fiber (cooked meat) in it, then it is almost certain that it is processed food. So why no process food? Because you are not eating/drinking what you paid for. Example: concentrated juice, it is all nothing but approved artificial colourant, juicy flavour and preservative. Well maybe few drops of real juicy (so that they can claim in the packaging "contain real fruit juice"). And these chemicals are all unnecessary by our body and in fact, no good to it, so why we want to buy them when we have choice?

2. Read the Label

We all have taste memory in our mind. Each time we eat, unconsciously we store the taste into our mind. So when we describe something is sweet or not, we will just compare it with the taste memory. That is not very correct and scientific because it is just mere descriptive words. When we buy from supermarket, almost all packaged foods/beverages are labeled. There are possibilities that a beverage contains 11g sugar per 100ml taste less sweet compare to another with just 6g per 100ml. So always read the labels to understand what you are actually buying.  Also in the ingredient list, if you see a lot of component with chemical names, don't buy it. Never buy those with the ingredients that you don't know. 

3. Eat Whole Food

Whole food means it is unprocessed and or maybe processed as little as possible. A very simple way to distinguish the difference between processed and whole food is by the look: If you can't tell what it is on your plate, don't eat it. A chicken nugget should be made of chicken meat not mixture of carcass, skins, flour and other disgusting stuffs. A fruit juice should be just juice as main contain. Whole food is all natural food and not only it means no added chemicals but also it means no harm to our body. 

4. A Balanced Diet

There are 6 major classes of nutrients: carbohydrates, fats, minerals, protein, vitamins, fibers, and water. A balanced diet means you eat all 6 classes in a proportional way. A very simple guide is using the Food Pyramids, i.e. you should more vegetables than meat...etc. But most people think that by eating only vegetable, they will be healthier. Put a side the cooking method, as mentioned, a healthy diet it's a balanced diet. By eating only vegetables, one actually restricts themselves by taking in only certain classes of nutrients and ignore others hence not a balanced diet. Example: Proteins (amino acids) are the building blocks of our body, especially muscle and other body tissues and it is mainly come from meat/poultry, eggs and dairy. Although certain type of vegetable do contains protein like Tofu (soybean product) but its only contains 2.3g of protein every 1 oz. While there are 10g of protein in every 1oz of chicken breast. 

5. Homemade Meals

This is kind of like summary of all above points: We are in control of what to put into our body. It is sort of an ultimate way to ensure the food are at the healthiest level as it can be because and most importantly, we have the option to choose what to be added and what not. And by that way, we can be worry free from preservative, colourant, flavouring and other nasty chemicals. 

Having said all above, maybe one might claims that it is difficult to avoid processed foods and to cook at home in modern life. What i want to share lastly in this post is a classic phrase by a French physiologist in 1826: "Tell me what you eat and i will tell you what you are". 

Penang Wantan Mee: My Recommendation Part 1

Follow up with the earlier post about the making of egg noodles for the all famous Wantan Mee (click here for the post). This time, let see how various hawker put them in use. Introducing here are 8 different stalls of Wantan mee across Penang Island. Lets see what makes some really good business and vice versa. 

If you can remember from the earlier post, we discussed about how ingredients can make a whole different of texture, colour and taste of mee (noodle) itself. As it is carries more than, well i'd say 70% of the entire ingredients, so the quality of the noodle will be one of the key factors to decide if the Wantan Mee is a good one or bad. 2 more general factors are the "other ingredients" like "the Wantan itself, the CharSiew (Barbecue Pork), some greens and also the gravy/soup. 

So lets see what i actually look for for my perfect bowl of Wantan Mee. Im a Cantonese, so under the influence of Hong Kong Wonton Noodle, my ideal type of Wantan Mee must has springy noodle but not to the extend like chewing rubber. An open secret for making springy noodle is simply knead it with attention and love. Kneading (squashing, stretching, pulling, reshaping) develops the gluten within the flour mixture and because each match of raw flour comes in different quality, so by hand and love, it will always be a consistent quality because of timing adjustment. Adding Borax (硼砂) into the dough can actually increase the springiness but again, we should be talking about all natural ingredients. Moreover, it has been identified this chemical, is harmful to our health, so why risk?

By the name, another very important ingredient is the Wantan (Chine Dumpling). Many often confuse the Wantan vs. Sui Jiao. In general, Wantan is in ball shape while the Sui Jiao is in half round shape. I believe Wantan is originated from Hong Kong style of Wonton Noodle while the Sui Jiao is from mainland China. Supposedly Wantan is be filled with ONLY fresh prawn while Sui Jiao is mainly minced pork. But due to pricing issue, i cant find (so far) any Wantan in Penang is using the original recipe but mostly using pork (lower cost). See how the good old original recipe is diminishing?   :( While because Sui Jiao always served as side, so it sometimes consist of prawn in the minced pork (charge higher price). 

Other common ingredients like Char Siew (BBQ Pork), boiled Choy Sam and pickled green chilli can also be found in typical Penang style Wantan Mee. Not only the filling of the wantan is no longer original but also in most of the cases, the Char Siew is seen as the main topping. To make it a beautiful word, i call it localisation. Some other examples include, but not limit to: Fried Wantan, sambal (blended chilli with other aromatic veg like garlic, onnion ..etc). As for this part, i have no specific requirement as long as Char Siew is good and the Choy Sam is cooked. Note: I think it is interesting to create another topic about Recipe: Originality vs. Localisation/Reinvented. 

As on the gravy side, very often in Penang, you will see Wantan Mee covered in thick black sauce that mixed from dark soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil and other seasonings. I think it is the hokkean style (correct me if im wrong). The cantonese style is using the broth from shitake mushroom and it is often found watery and lighter in colour. I prefer the clearer gravy because the thick one will cover the flavour of the noodle, most of the time, cover the stench of nasty chemicals like: lye (for yellowish colour) and borax (for springiness of noodle) too. A clear gravy on the other hand, if formulated correctly, will binds all flavours of all ingredients, making every type to compliment each other. A key point to any cooking to make a good tasty dish. 

There are other factors too will affect the experience like bowl or plate, ceramic, paper or plastic. Let's dont talk further but to see the 3 Wantan Mee in Penang I recommend for this round:

(1) 高佬 (鸿记) 云吞面 in Yi Garden, Lorong Selamat.
Served in bowl and the wantans are hiding underneath the noodle:
a traditional Cantonese way of presentation. 

(2) 佳记巧手云吞面 in Kheng Pin Cafe, Jalan Penang. The shitake
mushroom broth taste really good and with the varieties of
toppings, I can finish it in no time. 

Name Unknown. Located in 铭园咖啡馆 within Sunway Tunas in Bayan
Lepas. Served in bowl (my fav), this Wantan Mee is packed with sesame
oil aroma and the proportion of each ingredients are just nice. 

Located within 77 Food Yard in Pulau Tikus, this Wantan Mee is
packed with Char Siew. 

Wantan Mee in Kuta Bali Farlim. A decent Wantan Mee

Another decent Wantan Mee in Goodal Cafe, Tg Tokong. 

In Kafe Sri Nibong, Bayan Lepas. Can you see the soft and flabby noodle?

In Sin Kim San Cafe, another bad example of Wantan Mee

That's it for this round. I think im gonna stop eating Wantan Mee for a while :P   Let me know what you want me to recommend and i will try to make it happen. Good night. 

5 Tips to Make life Easier in Kitchen

Kitchen should be a fun place in the house because it is here where the foods are created for the joy of the entire family, or simply your beloved one. So we all deserve a better life working in the kitchen and Im going to show you my 5 tips to make life easier when you are cooking.

Before that, why cook in the first place when you can easily dine out to save all the troubles? For me, cooking is an expression of how much you care about those who going to eat your food. From the moment you select the ingredients in the market, you want only the best available to be eaten and in the kitchen, you watch and stir every defined interval to ensure the food don't get burn and lastly you taste the food to ensure the seasoning is correctly added.  So having an loving heart, that right, is the first ever ingredient for a perfect cooking. And for those eat the food, will sure feel the warmth. So after the first ingredients, lets see below the 5 tips for a easy peasy cooking session:

1) Plan the flow before cook

Regardless you are serving a 3 course meal or a simple stir fry noodle, it is always good to plan for the sequences, i.e. if you going to serve a blanched vegetable and stir fry pork fillet, it is always good to blanch the veg first because you just need to drain away the water and can immediately start the stir fry (share pot/wok means 1 less to wash later one).  Also if you want 2 separate components to be cooked in about the same time, i.e. white butter sauce and searing a fish fillet, start the one need longer time first on 1 stove, and when you are about to finish the 2nd, the first will be read and both will be serving hot together. So by proper planning, you already prevented half of the possible mess :P

2) 1 in 1 out air flow 

If you are cooking in totally open space, ignore this. Im talking about the vapour, smell of cooking, airborne oil particles. The most common misperception of preventing the spread of these gases are to open all doors/windows while cooking. This is not right. By opening doors and windows, you are actually creating a multiple air flow and that means NO direction will the gases goes and worse, it will just go anywhere it can goes. The correct way is to have ONLY 1 IN and 1 OUT whenever possible. the 1 out, if available, is always the suction fan above the stove and then open 1 door/window only while cooking.   This way, the air will always be extracted OUT by the fan and the only one opening will be the IN flow of fresh air to the kitchen. That means no smell/oil particles will be escape to other part of the house.

3) Sharp Knife

I cannot stress more how important to have a sharp knife at all time when cooking. Not only it will make life easier but also its a safety pre-caution must be made. When cutting, especially rounded and smooth surface like halfed onion, the possibility of the knife getting slipped over and maybe cut your finger is extremely high if your knife is blunt.  Time needed will be longer and the food after cut will not be neat too if it is a blunt knife. The best way to ensure the knife is sharp always is just to grind it for 30 seconds everytime before you start cutting. See below for how to sharpen a knife

4) Knife Skill

Having a sharp knife now is time to have a correct knife skill. I never cut myself after cooking for so many years because i use certain techniques to ensure my fingers/nails are safe while cutting. The key is to curl all your fingers towards your palm while holding the object on 1 hand while the other, of cause holding a knife, get the knife touching the curled fingers while cutting. So you always have a feeling about the knife touching your fingers and this way you will build a feeling eventually for perfecting the cutting skills. See from below for my all time idol Mr. Jamie Olive how he teaches the knife skill

5) Preparing all ingredients before turn on the stove

When in the TV programs, we often see chefs doing the cutting and cooking at the same time and it look so easy watching them doing so. Please do not follow them because they are professional and everything are well prepared for them to perform in the show. In reality, it is always best to get all ingredients ready. Final check with the recipe or run through a mock cook in your mind looking at all ingredients if necessary. This way will ensure you won't end up in messy situation while in cooking.

As mentioned earlier, cooking should be fun and can be as easy as 1 2 3, at least for me, if following the above tips. Looking forward to writing more tips in the coming days, meanwhile, enjoy cooking :)

My Top 10 Chinese New Year Foods

Below are the top 10 Chinese new year foods which i eat only during the CNY. Note that some are not necessary only available in the festive and most of them are really part of my childhood memory. So lets see: 

(10) Beehive Biscuit or my grandmom call it 黄蜂斗 in cantonese. This is one of the many delicacies we make together :)

(9) Also from my grandmom's kitchen,  the Fried Rice Cake a.k.a. Za Nian Kao is a symbol of getting better and better throughout the year

(8) My childhood favourite drink during the reunion dinner. :P 

(7) Kuih Kapit. We do our own every year. I started with serving drinks/foods for the aunties and the progress to folding and lastly, sit in front of 6 moulds to bake this myself. The last challenge will be mixing the ingredients myself. If you want to see more, follow me on Instagram with ID = maxmax5ig

 

(6) My mom will give me and my siblings one box each for every new year wishing each of us have a prosperous year ahead... :)  

(5) Why i like this? Because every 2nd day of the CNY, all my relatives will be visiting our open house and this is the most popular drink and thus eventually it become our memory of together, laughters and joyous. 

(4) I guess no kids do not like this !!!  I particularly LOVE the black current flavour. This is probably my 1st sweet and sour experience. What is your fav colour ?

(3) Im so particular to this Peanut Biscuit to the extend that i only eat it from 2 lovely ladies on earth. My mom and her sister. Their secret recipe is to have a medium grounded peanut (for texture) and add coarse salt on top of most of the common ingredients to improve the flavour contrast. It works for me everyt ime!! 1 box = 2 hours the longest :P   

(2) My mom knows i like this so she will always prepare this in the basket where she uses it to serve the guesses. But i think not many likes it but only me :P so you know why i like ... 

(1) I think this is the MUST HAVE in every chinese house during CNY. I especially like the one from LongKee, the type made with shredded chicken meat.

Actually i need very less time to come out this list because these are the Top 10 CNY Foods i can just think of when i've set the title. These foods definitely brings out a lot of my memory starting from i was just a little boy. Foods that i grew up with. What about your top CNY foods ?   Mind to share ?