All posts tagged: noodles

Super Sensational Spicy Chicken

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    A dish by many names: Big Plate Chicken, Sensational Spicy Chicken, XinJiang Style Chicken, or Hot and Spicy Chicken. I first met this fiery chicken, potato and capsicum stew at Shaolin Kung Fu Noodle on Dominion Road. At Shaolin, this dish comes in two sizes, large $48 or small $38. Served with their famous hand pulled noodles which are toothsome and filling, a large will feed an army and a small will push two adults into a food coma. Since I first ate this dish, it has been popping up all over the Dom Road as this style of cuisine becomes more common. While I love the flavours in this dish, I have a some issues with it. I’ve made a few tweaks to make this a bit more eater-friendly. The authentic dish has a one or two giant noodles served on the side or placed on top. This is fine if you are a giant who loves a metre-long noodle. Giant noodles look cool (and symbolise long life) but are a bitch …

Dan Dan Noodles and a $100 Prezzy Card giveaway

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This post was made possible thanks to MAGGI 2minute Wholegrain Noodles – Made with the goodness of wholegrain and are 99% fat free. They are available at all supermarkets. Dan Dan. Fun to say. Fun to eat. Dan Dan Noodles are a common street food from China’s Sichuan Province which  is also responsible for Kung Pao Chicken and Mapo Tofu. If you know these dishes, you’ll know the fiery, punchy flavour profile of the region. Dan Dan Noodles are egg or wheat noodles served with a meat topping, preserved or pickled vegetables, peanuts or sesame seeds, a sweet sesame soy sauce or soup and of course, Sichuan pepper.  Served from street food peddlers, these noodles are an inexpensive, filling meal with lots of flavour. Spice level varies, but this is more about the satisfying tingle of Sichuan Pepper than the burn of chilli. There are many variations on this dish but those are the key elements. For the sake of research, I’ve eaten a few bowls of Dan Dan Noodles to get a feel for …

Vege Wonton Noodle Soup

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This post was made possible thanks to MAGGI 2minute Wholegrain Noodles – They are made with the goodness of wholegrain and are 99% fat free. Available at all supermarkets. Do you have a favourite meal? Is it comfort food? I am all about comfort food. As stated on my ABOUT page, wonton noodle soup is my favourite meal. I grew up on wontons and back in the day, I folded many, many wontons for our Chinese take away. Unpretentious. Easy to portion to suit your current appetite. Easy to digest. While I love the Cantonese classic of pork and prawn, I decided it was time to reinvent this old favourite to be vegetarian-friendly. Perfect for spring, this light yet satisfying meal is a hug in a bowl. I make no claims on the authenticity of this recipe. It is fusion at best. Win! MAGGI 2minute Wholegrain noodles come in Chicken or Beef 5 packs, are baked, not fried and are 99% fat free. Thanks to MAGGI’S 2minute Wholegrain Noodles I’m giving away a set of …

Braised beef noodles (Crockpot recipe)

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This post was made possible thanks to Crockpot. I am giving away a Crockpot Traditional CHP200 (RRP $119.99) just complete the entry form at the bottom of this post to enter. I was born in Hong Kong and the Cantonese have a long-standing obsession with food. They love to eat well and they love to eat often. Whenever I visit Hong Kong, my days transition from meal to meal. Almost the entire time is spent eating along with the social fanfare that comes with it. There are many dishes I am inspired by. However, locals typically do not cook at home. After working long hours, grocery shopping, followed by cooking at home is undesirable when eating out is so good and very affordable. Here in New Zealand, not so much. Regularly eating out in NZ is expensive but luckily there are clever ways to cook at home using affordable ingredients which yield maximum flavour. Enter the crockpot Thanks to Crockpot I have created a braised beef noodle recipe inspired by a dish found at Dai Pai Dong …

Freestyler in the Kitchen: Throw-together recipe #2

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I recently took Fisher & Paykel’s online quiz WHAT’S YOUR COOKING STYLE? and was branded the Freestyler. Freestylers have mastered the basics and enjoy pushing the boundaries and going “off-piste”. The quiz was designed to help you get the most out of your time in the kitchen and results in eight distinct personalities, from the Curious Novice to the Professional and everything in between. Understanding your style can help you to choose ingredients, recipes and appliances to make your kitchen time more enjoyable and efficient. You can find out what type of cooking style you have by taking the quick quiz here. Go on, I’ll wait. Thanks to Fisher & Paykel, I’ve created a series of throw-together recipes that celebrate the Freestyler approach to cooking. These recipes are more templates than traditional recipes. I’ve suggested ingredients, but in all honesty, whatever you have in the fridge can be substituted and you’ll only know if you try. If you enjoy this recipe and this style of cooking, please check out the other recipes in this series. …

Ramen at home

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Autumn is delightful. I’m enjoying the cool, crisp air and the bright sunlight, filtering through the trees into my shady home office (aka lounge), and the food. Oh the FOOD. I’m not a summer salad kind of girl. I’m a steamy bowl of something something queen. Steaming bowls of ramen is up there in my 10 ten things I love about cold weather and I recently tried the Tonkotsu ramen set compiled by WASHOKU Explorer. Tonkotsu is one of the most popular varieties of ramen. The creamy, rich, pork broth is made by boiling pork fat, collagen and well washed pork bones for hours (even days). Due to the labour intensive process, this dish is not often made at home, though you will find it at any ramen shop. The Tonkotsu ramen set comes with comes with a cool ramen bowl, renge (spoon), dried noodles, soup, seaweed, dried green onion and dried kikurage (wood ear mushroom). If you like, you can add a boiled egg or slices of meat – neither of which ship or keep …

14. Ramen Do

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In celebration of Auckland Restaurant Month, I will be posting 31 quick-fire reviews on 31 restaurants and cafes in the Auckland CBD and city fringe. The atmosphere is… More like a cafe rather than a Japanese restaurant. They had a renovation but it’s still quite bare and utilitarian. Only a smattering of Japanese touches so there is not much ambience. Which is why people… Come here for… Ramen of course! A noodle shop first and foremost and most diners order ramen. The most interesting thing on the menu… Tuke Men – ramen noodles served with dipping sauce Unexpectedly wonderful… The beautifully cooked eggs. Boiled and marinated with runny yolks. I would come back to try… All of their ramen, add $1 egg (or extra meat if you prefer). Catering to… Omnis and vegetarians. No gluten free options, although you could order a rice dish and ask for no soy sauce. Vegetarian options available but limited. Expect to spend… $15-$20 per person. The service is… Functional. At the counter or table side. Up to you. Avoid if… …

Live Below The Line Recipe: Satay Fried Noodles

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In two weeks I will be eating my way through the Live Below The Line Challenge. This challenge will see me allocating $2.25 a day for food and drink. Considering I spent $15.50 on my lunch the other day, it makes me nervous to imagine spending just $11.25 over 5 days. The current Live Below The Line recipe collection has only 4 recipes. I think it needs some filling out. Maybe they will want to add my recipes to the list one day. I am determined to have variety, so a pot of dahl for 5 days doesn’t appeal to me. I’ve been looking up cheap recipes and asking friends and family for their suggestions. I’ve been price checking weighing, measuring and working out what foods get me the most bang for my buck. My local Chinese supermarket has been incredible for bargains. A bag of 8 dried egg noodle bundles came in at just 99 cents. Score! Yesterday I tested one of my recipes based on the stuff I’m gathering for the challenge. These …

The Stars of Instant Noodles

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Let me get this out first. I am a rice girl. When given the choice, I will always pick rice over noodles. But while I love rice, I’m a rice addict rather than a connoisseur. With instant noodles, I’m a connoisseur. Instant noodles must be one of the world’s most accessible foods. A true “just add water” food and popular the world over. According to Wiki, “As of 2010, approximately 95 billion servings of instant noodles are eaten worldwide every year.”  That is an average of at least one serving a month for every person on earth. Impressive. Snack or meal? I’ve eaten noodles for breakfast, morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and as a midnight snack. Not all in one day mind you! Noodles are eaten at any time of day all over Asia and while breakfast noodles may seem odd to some people, served in a mild broth, it can be the perfect way to start a day. The first meal I ate when we arrived in Vietnam on a wintery January morning was an eel noodle soup. It was a was …

How to deal with 60+ types of New Zealand seafood

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The Greatest Meal On Earth website has a handy table on New Zealand fish. All the basics about 60+ local seafoods including characteristics of the meat and how to cook each kind. If you come across an unfamiliar fish at the fish markets you can count on this table to tell you what to do with it. I especially like how you can sort by each of the categories. For example, you can choose to view all local seafoods that are eaten raw. There are 16 of them and of those, there is only 1 seafood that is not cooked at all. That would be kina. A Ruby is not a jewel. The other day at the fish shop, I spied some pretty looking Ruby fillets. I’ve never cooked Ruby before and I didn’t know what to do with it. Lucky for me the table recommends: Poach, Smoke, Steam, Bake, BBQ, Casserole, Fry. Which pretty much means I can do whatever the hell I want with it except eat it raw. So I pan fried …

Eating Borneo #8 – New Years at Mañana

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New Year celebrations have always been epic for us. Many businesses are closed during this time in New Zealand so we holiday like there’s no tomorrow. It’s a time when we leave the city and flock to beaches all over the country to get absolutely trashed with their friends. There’s good food and good times to be had and the celebrations often last a week. I saw in last New Years with The Koala, my friend A, my sister Joey, her boyfriend D and the guests and staff at Mañana Borneo. Mañana is a small resort on a private beach about an hour north of Kota Kinabalu in the Sabah north of Borneo Island. It’s not on a separate island but this beach is only accessable by boat. No cars. No shops. No power during the day. Just a private, sheltered beach, snorkeling, swimming, books, hammocks, monsoon every afternoon (mandatory downtime). It was heaven. We stayed in 3 private villas with our own outdoor bathrooms. The menu here was limited but that was fine, it meant …