What We Ate on the Train

Not cheap!

Mon mari's lunch of ham & cheese sandwich and a slice of flan for dessert

These were what we brought with us to eat on the train from Lyon to Brussels.
I hardly ever buy chinese food in Europe
because it's too expensive for something that I can easy make at home at a fraction of the price.
But I was super craving for chinese food before we get on the train
and I really didn't feel like having a sandwich.
 

Chinese Wok

Fried yam ring with cashew, shrimp and veg

Crispy noodles with egg and seafood sauce

Sauteed beef with scallions

Nai Bai with 3 different eggs (salted duck egg, century egg and fresh egg)

Cereal Prawns (A favorite of mine. Here's a recipe)

Braised Stuffed Tofu

My gallerist invited a bunch of us to dinner at a Chinese restaurant called Kok Sen in Chinatown.
We call this sort of restaurant Chi-Char (which means Cook-Saute in local dialect)
It's great to over-eat in a busy, noisy restaurant with good company.   

Dim Sum again

That's mum admiring the live seafood tanks.

Yes, they are for food.

Har Gow (Shrimp Dumplings)

Siew Mai (Steamed Pork with crab meat wrapped in Wanton skin)

Pan fried Carrot Cake (but really, it's raddish)

Spring Rolls

Char Siew Bao (Steamed Roasted Pork Buns)

I forgot what's it was (I was in the moment & busy eating!)

Oh, I ate more than these on the plate.

Peking Duck. (not the loveliest face now but it's very tasty. We took the rest of the duck home, of course.)

Some crispy fat Peking duck skin, with a smirch of bbq sauce, freah cucumber wrapped in crepe.

Steamed custard buns

Lei Garden is a Hong Kong restaurant group that has 2 restaurants in Singapore.
They served great Cantonese food and yo! they have 2 Michelin Stars.
Yeah, their dim sum is awesome
but of course, it's more expensive.... my baby sister, the yuppy bought the check :)

Dim Sum

Fried shrimp dumplings, glutinous rice in lotus leaves & radish cake.

steamed meat buns and siew mai (shrimp and pork balls wrapped in wanton skin)

Shrimp and banana rolls.

Century egg congee

the inside of a glutinous rice wrapped in lotus leaf.
(it's with chicken and salted duck egg yolk)

Pan fried chive cakes.

Oui! The peking duck! ☺
The head waiter presented us with the duck.
He will then take it away and prepares the dish. 

Voila! Peking duck skin wrapped in thin crepes
and served with fresh cucumbers and barbecue sauce. 好吃！

The duck meat was served later with plum sauce. No waste.

Ok. A little bit of vegetable won't harm anyone.

Custard buns with salted duck egg yolk for dessert.
I ♥ them custard buns.
They are sweet with custard and salty with the yolk.

The inside of a custard bun.
Ok. It may look kind of kinky. I'll give you that.
But rest assured it's GOOD.

My sister treated us to dim sum and peking duck this weekend :)
Gee... peking duck. So good.

Xiao Long Bao

Din Tai Fung's cold dish appetizers :)
Crunchy mini cucumber in spicy sauce & Vegetarian delight in vinegar dressing.

Braised beef noodle soup with beef brisket.

Xiao Long Bao. (Steamed pork dumplings)
Gotta be careful. There's scalding meat juice when you bite into one of these!

Din Tai Fung's chefs making fresh Xiao Long Baos.

Din Tai Fung is a 1 michelin star dumpling restaurant from Taiwan.
It has restaurants all over the asia and I heard there's one in L.A.
(Why not in New York???)
There are quite a few Din Tai Fung in Singapore. SO GLAD.
好吃！

Chinese Mitten Crabs

It's chinese mitten crab season!
They are constantly mentioned on TV these days that I just got to taste them.
These crabs are imported from China
and are more expensive than regular crabs we got here in Singapore.


Dad bought 5 home and we steamed them for dinner.
Yum!
The flesh and the roe are so succulent and sweet!

Teochew Kuehs

Chive filling with sauteed mushroom and dried shrimps

Kueh dough made with glutinous rice flour

Knead the dough into a cup and fill in the chives

Ready to be steamed for 10 mins

Glutinous rice filling with sauteed mushrooms, dried shrimps and boiled peanuts

Glutinous rice kuehs are traditionally made with pink tinted dough

Molding the glutinous rice kueh.
It's also traditionally molded in peach shape but mum lost her peach mold.

This round one works as well because it's the right serving size.

Ready to steam for 10 mins

Finished product

Teochew Kuehs are my mum's specialty.

We don't eat any kuehs, other than mum's

because there are no comparable ones from shops or other homes.

Mum makes them in 4 different fillings:

Jicama, Chives, Glutinous Rice & Yam.

They are all good.

I can't really choose a favourite