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Showing posts from July, 2011

Strawberry Jam

A highlight of summer's arrival is the return of strawberries to the farmers' markets in the area. These fruits are great to eat as is; fresh from the farmer's market, they are bright and sweet like candy. However, strawberries can be used in other applications-- they can be a fresh fruit topping for a sweet item, or a sauce for a dessert. We were inspired to make strawberry jam after we saw Ina Garten making strawberry jam in two episodes of Barefoot Contessa . She stated that the process is really simple, and it really is! Our version of strawberry only has three ingredients--lemon, rock sugar, and strawberries--and the whole process can be done in less than an hour. Personally we like to use rock sugar for the clean, cool sweetness that it provides, but feel free to experiment with various types of sugars, as substituting different sugars will result in jams with a different flavor profile.The lemon provides a brightness to the taste of the jam that helps accentua

Day 6: Walking Around Wan Chai- Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre, Grand Hyatt Hong Kong, Hong Kong Arts Centre, Yoshinoya

With the holidays comes a plethora of various expos in Hong Kong, and so after breakfast we decided to head towards the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre (HKCEC) to visit the game expo. There, we found out there was not only just the game expo, but also lots of other festivals/expos like the Hong Kong Food Festvial. The expos however were already quite full; there were plenty of attendees-- a wide variety of cosplay donned on some people, and cameras on other people like yours truly. Instead of attending an expo like we had planned, we instead decided to walk around and explore the area. Right outside HKCEC is Golden Bahunia Square/Expo Promenade, where the Golden Bahunia is located. This sculpture commemorates the return of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China and the formation of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region; but other than that, it's a beautiful piece of architecture to look at and to take pictures of! Seemingly popular these days, the

Day 6: Breakfast at cafe TOO in Island Shangri-La- Central, Hong Kong

After a few days everyone felt better and as a result we all went to cafe TOO for breakfast. This breakfast was quite special; there were items that we had never seen at cafe TOO in the past-- baked cha siu /barbequed pork buns, chicken egg drop soup, and some "cat ears." Maybe cafe TOO featured these items since it was Christmas Eve, but either way we enjoyed this meal quite a lot. All of the items as usual were a delight to eat; the baked barbequed pork bun was definitely freshly made if not a bit on the sweet side, and the chicken and corn egg drop soup had minced corn in addition to the minced chicken. Along with a cup of green tea, this breakfast was a great start to a finally more eventful day on the trip. It took long enough! cafe TOO at Island Shangri-La Pacific Place Supreme Court Road Central, Hong Kong Tel: (852) 2820 8571 After breakfast I tried a new lens-- the Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR . I did not take it out onto the streets as

Tea Station- Temple City

After dinner at Hong Kong Kitchen- San Gabriel , we thought it would be pleasant to have some sort of dessert. So, we visited Tea Station, a recently opened tea shop in Temple City that takes the location of a clothing store. There we decided to only order one or two items to share, but found out that every person has to order one item for dine-in service. One of my companions decided on a glass of bubble green tea with tapioca pearls/boba. Out of all the places we have tried, Tea Station (or any Tea Ren place) seems to retain most of the tea's flavor and fragrance. Although we like the chewy, tender tapioca pearls and the overall quality of the tea, the bubble green tea is on the sweeter side for our preferences. Asking for half of the amount of sugar will allow the tea to stand out more. Another companion ordered the Caribbean fruit tea, which happened to be on a discount at 3.99 USD during our visit. This tea is also on the sweeter side, but has plenty of fragrance and rich