FF: Last Sydney suppers
This is a long overdue Foodie Friday entry. So I've put together three dishes or meals that I've had towards my last week in Sydney. Only one being something I've attempted to cook - the Bak Kut Teh dish I mentioned I was making.
On one of our unusual grocery shopping trip (unsual meaning, not shopping next door at Woolly's), I found a packet of Claypot brand Bak Kut Teh herbs. Somehow I've become a hoarder every time I find a Malaysian brand spice packet, and bought this not knowing if I will even make it for Lee one day. Of course, it ended up not as a choice of meal for just the two of us, but a dish for entertaining a couple of new friends.
After proper deliberation on whether I would attempt making a curry dish or Bak Kut Teh for my kwai loh guests, I decided on the latter as a definitely more authentic Malaysian "experience". And also because of the herbal content, I thought it appropriate for the cool autumn weather we were having. Then came my quest to find out which version of the pork bone tea I was going to make, and where to find the must have Yu Char Kwai (Chinese crullers).
The pork bone tea eventually found itself simmering with three types of pork meat from the butchers - diced pork, pork belly and pork ribs; enoki mushrooms, sliced button mushrooms, tofu puffs and later on, iceberg lettuce leaves blanched in its serving bowl.
So yeah, for a nice quiet homemade Valentine's dinner, I improvised on the bacon and chili pasta sauce by adding chili oil for a bit more spice, and Parmesan cheese for a bit more bite. The cheese makes a good replacement for salt, plus I love how it's chewy when it melts. I swear I could've overdone it with the chili oil, if it weren't for my thinking if Lee could take this much sting. Heheh... I think the same sauce can be used with seafood like calamari and prawns because it has a lighter taste than if you made it with beef mince. Lee thinks it would work well with chicken bits too. Anything spicy works for me.
