Star Anise Rum Raisin Bread Pudding

This easy elegant pudding is our favorite for a mid morning treat!  Usually we'll make it on a relaxed kinda day when we can all sleep in a bit (a weekend day!)  Once we get up it's the quickest and easiest thing to mix up and slip this pudding into the the oven for a midmorning scrummy and most comforting sweet treat.  This Star Anise Rum Raisin Bread Pudding is golden crispy on the top, soft and creamy on the inside, dotted with plump rummy raisins, and touched with just a hint of sweet and licoricey star anise.  So yummilicious...

Beautiful Baklava

Picture this, dear readers.  Nutty aromatic roasted nuts soaked in sweet scented syrup enveloped in devastatingly crispy thin as a whisper pastry layers.  Sound enticing?   This is Baklava!

This baked treat has a history going all the way back to ancient Assyrians of Mesopotamia in 8th century BC, around 2800 years ago!  From then and there the idea of the baklava has spread, appearing in different permutations as a dessert in many cultures throughout in Asia and Europe.  

Delicately crisp layers of phyllo dough packed with roasty chopped nuts, all clung together through the application of a thick sweet scented syrup, a tray of golden baked Baklava is a beauteous thing to bring to a party, sure to get a lot of wows and yummies!  I’ve wanted to make this for a while now but hesitated, thinking that it looked kinda complicated.  Well it’s true, it does look complicated and fancy but it’s actually quite easy to make!  And ever so impressive to show off and munch on after!

Pistachio Almond Biscotti

Tis the season...for cookies!  One of my absolute favorites is this elegant Italian Pistachio Almond Biscotti cookie studded with nuggets of almonds and pistachio making for a subtly sweet, nutty, and oh so satisfying flavor.  The Italian word 'biscotti' means 'twice cooked', a baking method that creates dense, crunchy textured cookies that are perfect for slow yummy nibbling or for dunking into a hot coffee.  These biscotti are not only super yummilicious but also gorgeous to look at with their flecks of pistachio green.  Just the thing to add to a cookie box!

Japanese Okonomiyaki Savory Pancake

In our last post we wrote about the wonderful Japanese pancake, the okonomiyaki, that we enjoyed so much on our trip to Tokyo.  These tender and moist savory pancakes are packed with all sorts of delectable seafood or meaty bites, topped with umami packed toppings and zigzagged with all kinds of delicious sauces.  Just one of the best comfort foods you can find!

We wanted to share with you about how to make these totally yummilicious savory pancakes at home.  It's not that hard but does require you to source some Japanese ingredients to get the job done.  But it's so worth it, cuz your homemade Okonomiyaki Savory Pancakes are gonna taste so darn good!

Tokyo Okonomiyaki Savory Pancake

I look at these photos as I write and sigh...ahh...such happy memories!  And what exactly might I be sighing over?  It's only one of my favorite Japanese snacks/meals, the okonomiyaki, those delectably fluffy and savory pancakes, mixed with your yummy protein of choice and topped with a generous sprinkle of dried bonito flakes, spring onions and a most dashing slashing of kewpie mayonnaise!   We've gobbled mucho of it here in Hong Kong and actually I've made it at home many times, very popular and super scrumptious!

So on our recent-ish trip to Tokyo, queen amongst cities, we had a major late night Snack Attack while exploring the vibrant Shinjuku area and thus wandered into an okonomiyaki restaurant.  OMgosh...best time ever!  Not only was the okonomiyaki fabulously delish and cooked right on our own personal table grill but the atmosphere in this eatery was too cool for school!

Halloween Decorated Sugar Cookies

Happy Halloween, dear readers!  This post is really just to say 'hey' on our favorite spooky holiday and to share some of the stuff my little girl and I have been churning out this month for a bake sale!  It's the reason behind the belated postings this month, please forgive!

That's right, it's our old favorite holiday cookie activity, making decorated sugar cookies to celebrate the day.  Previously we've made them for Xmas, Valentine's Day and Easter, and now, finally we made them for Halloween!  We're going to share some new cookie decorating tips we tried out that are totally right-on and also share the new royal icing recipe that we're using that totally upped our cookie game!

Papos Secos Portuguese Rolls

One fine day not long ago my hubby asked me if I knew how to make the kind of bread that is used for the famous Macau Pork Chop Bun 澳門豬扒包.  Pork Chop Bun is a super popular snack in Macau, consisting of a deliciously marinated fried pork chop placed inside a bun (locally called a piglet bun or 豬仔包) that is crispy on the outside and deliciously soft on the inside.  Macau's own version of the hamburger, lol.

I was so very tickled pink cuz hubby never asks me to make bread.  He just be weird like that.  So I dove into the research.  What was this mysterious bread that made the Macau pork chop bun so special?

It turns out, I believe, that this bread bun originated from the traditional Portuguese bread rolls called Papos Secos.  Makes sense, since Macau was a Portuguese colony for over 400 years. To test my theory, I made some papos secos and am quite pleased to report that if this bread isn't it, it's darn tootin' yummilicious enough to be it and more!  Bread that's crispy on the outside but oh so soft and luscious on the inside, we were hooked so hard on this bread at once.   And it's the perfect bread for sandwiching a pork chop or whatever else you want in your gosh darn sandwich.  And, ultimate proof of the pudding, hubby has asked for it again and again!

Hangzhou Pian Er Chuan Preserved Vegetable Noodles 片兒川

My hubby became enamoured of this humble little noodle dish after reading a story about the tennis player Wang Xinyu 王欣瑜.  When asked what her favorite food was, she wistfully replied that it was the noodle dish her grandparents always made for her when she visited.

And there it was, that invisible yet undeniable connection between yummilicious food and love.  The amore each of us put into the food we make for our loved ones, unconsciously connecting us together through time and distance.

So what is this favorite noodle dish of Wang Xinyu then?  It is the classic Hangzhou Pian Er Chuan Preserved Vegetable Noodles 片兒川, a specialty of the Hangzhou 杭州 city in Zhejiang 浙江 province (my mama's province!)  Think sliced bamboo shoots, sliced marinated pork, preserved vegetables topping silky noodles in a rich aromatic broth...nom, nom, nom!  Very delicious and easy to make!

Tokyo Yakiniku Yazawa Grilled Wagyu Beef

Dear readers, a Wandering Eats post!  We took our little girl to Tokyo this summer, her first time.  What a city, a city amongst cities, a queen bee for sure!  The Blade Runner energy of it all was something to feel and see!

And the eats. Omgosh, we ate and ate and then ate some more.  Everything was so frick'in-liciously good.  One of the highlights was the grilled wagyu beef restaurant that we found one late night.  Oh my, oh my, seriously AMAZING just melt in the mouth beef-y feast of the ages!

Dubai Chocolate Mooncake 杜拜朱克力月餅

Yeah, yeah, I know.  It's Dubai Chocolate again.  Obssessed much, lol?!  But, seriously, how could I resist?  After successfully making homemade kadayif noodles, pistachio cream and then the gorgeous Dubai Chocolate Mousse Cake, we were pretty much over the moon with how well our efforts came out.  And with our favorite festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋節, just around the corner, well, isn't Dubai Chocolate just the perfect match for a mooncake filling?!  

Our Dubai Chocolate Mooncakes 杜拜朱克力月餅 are filled with nutty, crunchy pistachio kadayif cream at the heart of a chocolate flavored bean paste, all encased in delicate traditional patterned mooncake skins.  So pretty and oh so delicious!  My little girl ate all my first batch already, hehe!