hopes.dreams.aspirations

Hainanese Chicken Rice

As I nibbled and drank my way around the Auckland Food Show preview day, one thought hrough my head the entire time: what was I going to cook for dinner that night? I knew it would be something from the show and there were plenty of ideas and options: Venison burger, kumara hash brown, falafel…

Milk Chocolate Tart with Ombre Chocolate Swiss Meringue Buttercream

Chocolate tart is a much loved dessert in our home. It is a taste sensation, with a smooth velvety ganache, melting in your mouth against a backdrop of crunchy tart biscuit. It can be sweet and bright (milk chocolate) or dark and salted (Salted dark chocolate). Use your favourite chocolate and this will be a…

Hong Kong Steamed Rice Noodle Rolls, 豬腸粉

Other than rice congee, the second item of food we always get after our flight back into Hong Kong, is rice noodle rolls. Be it rice noodles rolls, simply served with a trio of sauces and sprinkling of sesame seeds (豬腸粉) or the steamed rice rolls at yum char with fillings such as prawns, beef…

Chocolate brownie crinkle cookies with powdered sugar and olive oil

These remind me of the view from 35,000 feet high, flying from Auckland to Christchurch for work. It was in the middle of winter and the Southern Alps was thickly covered by a blanket of snow – it was such a serene and beautiful scene. J requested these cookies after sampling a version of them…

Borscht soup, Hong Kong style 羅宋湯

The other night the topic of food trends came up at home. S and I talked about the food we had in our teenage years and shared with J, our fond memories of Hong Kong restaurants that were born out of the then-growing western influence in the 1980s. Their menus typically include pasta, pizza and…