Postcard from Bangkok

I am on a trip to Bangkok and was taken by the jumble of overhead cables - see photograph below. Definitely, there were telephone cables in that bundle – as you can see from the photograph of a telephone booth. But, I wondered if there were also electricity cables. Walking up the stairs to catch a ride on the Skytrain, I could have reached out and touched these cables and wondered if it is a safety hazard?




Hope you are all having a great time celebrating the Lunar New Year with your family and friends. I am so glad to escape the freezing temperatures in Hong Kong - it’s sizzling hot here in Bangkok. I went to the massive Chatuchak Weekend Market (nicknamed JJ Market) with a reputed 15,000 stalls yesterday. It’s conveniently located near the Mo Chit Skytrain stop. What a monstrous jumble. I had no idea where to start when I got there. The cold juice straight from a freshly opened green coconut was definitely the highlight of the trip. The tourist brochure says you can find everything there, even live snakes – well I can’t verify that as I did not see any but I can definitely say that it would not surprise me if I did.

Goldfish pudding mould

I have had a few queries about the mould for making the goldfish new year pudding. So here is how it looks like.

This is the large sized mould. When you use it during cooking, it will be "upside down". You will have to balance it in a dish by resting the edges on the edge of the bowl. However, if your dish is too big, rest 2 chopsticks across the top of the dish to support your goldfish mould. Ensure the mould is level before fillling it with the mixture.

Coconut pudding 年年有馀

Wow! Chinese New Year is only 15 days away. I realised this morning that I have a mountain of things to organise such as the food gifts to senior relatives and the "return gifts" for the younger relatives and then the presents to the little ones. In addition, I need to stock up my pantry with the appropriate ingredients such as dried scallops, mushrooms, dried mussels, abalone, sea cucumber etc. I'll also need to organise the red packets which means a trip to the bank.

Here is a recipe to kick start the preparations. I'll be making these for my close relatives. It is a pudding made from coconut milk and glutinous rice flour called 椰汁糕 in Cantonese. It can be sliced and eaten whilst warm or kept in the refrigerator until needed. If eaten later, you will need to cut the pudding in slices and pan fry till warmed through. For the Chinese New Year, I make mine in the shape of goldfish to symbolise 年年有余. The recipe below is for the goldfish version. You could steam the mixture in a regular shaped pan. Omit colouring in this case.

Ingredients300 gm glutinous rice flour
2 Tbsp Tang flour
1 ¼ cup coconut milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp condensed milk
210 gm sugar
100 ml water
Orange food colour (approx. 1 drop of red to 3 drops of yellow colour)



Method

1. Boil sugar with water until sugar is dissolved. Set aside to cool.


2. Sift flour into a mixing bowl.


3. Mix coconut milk, oil and condensed milk with the sugar syrup.
4. Pour mixture into the mixing bowl and stir to mix with the sifted flour. Stir until mixture is smooth and free of lumps.
5. Spoon 3 tablespoonsful of this mixture into a separate bowl and color this portion orange. Make sure that this color is quite vibrant.
6. Lightly oil the goldfish steaming mould.
7. Carefully spoon the orange mixture in small areas around the mould. Then carefully fill with the white mixture.
8. Steam for 30 minutes.

Notes: the goldfish mould is plastic and is available from specialty cookery shops (eg DIY in Wanchai) and occasionally from household goods shops such as Jusco $10 or Japan Home. It is also available from a kitchenware shop in Sheung Wan (see post 20 July 2010).

This recipe makes 1 large, 2 medium or 6 small goldfish.