Rant 265 / Food, Mostly.

Yet another completion. Death Toll. 44% accuracy!!







Last night, I made gravlax (pronounced "grahv-lahks"). Seemed so simple. Only uncommon item in the recipe is the dill. Dill is expensive. I spent $4 on 2 packets of dill from Cold Storage. And that was enough to cover about half a pound of salmon.

Double wrapped it as tightly as I could and placed it in a plastic container to prevent juices from running out and odours (if any) from running it. Also prevents it from thawing when my mom takes her time to pick ingredients from the fridge (She opens the fridge for so long I bet it's always warm inside when she's done.).Buried it deep, right next to the fan.

Some people recommend alcohol, others recommend putting something heavy on it. Some also recommend turning it over every 12 hours. I'm following the last, or at least trying to.

I hope it doesn't just rot. I put more than enough salt, sugar and pepper in the pack, but very little on the side with the skin.

Need to wait till tomorrow before I can finally open it. This is my first time handling dill and I must say it's got a very pleasant smell. In Chinese, it's 莳萝. Never heard of it before. Probably not used in any traditional Chinese cuisine.

Will take pics soon.






My mum bought this Big Bun from Ginza Plaza. Wanted to show me and my bro what my grandfather used to eat when he was a teenager. This bun in the picture below is the traditional Big Bun, unheated and probably only barely cooked. The restaurant meant this to be steamed at home, which will enlarge it even further to the proper size (about as big as my hand).

It is big. What we see in most Singaporean restaurants is a much smaller, modern version of it. The bun itself should be soft and fluffy, the filling should include pork with a piece of chicken, a piece of boiled egg, a piece of Chinese preserved sausage and small pieces of bamboo shoots. The modern Singaporean version is just an enlarged pork/chicken bun with a tough skin.

In the past, the Big Bun was meant to be a whole meal by itself, which explains the variety of stuff in the filling. My grandfather used to grow up in a rich family before WWII and because he was the favourite of his father, my great grandfather, he had $1 a day as pocket money. So he got to eat Big Buns everyday, which cost around $0.10 each. And now I see what it used to be like.

The chef in the restaurant is probably from Guangzhou because even in Hong Kong, Big Buns aren't this huge anymore. The variety is still the same and being improved upon, but this size is rather uneconomical.