A tall glass of... whatever strikes your fancy

So our train of epicurean adventures made a pit stop in Taipei, Taiwan. Yours truly spent 3 days in Asia's food paradise, and came out with its beverages leaving the strongest impression. Taiwan, the birth place of everybody's favorite Bubble Tea, is where the many fruit and herbal iced teas first became a craze. Taiwanese people are more inventive and daring with their beverages, here are the English translations of the beverage names below: Kumquat Lemon Tea, Winter Melon Tea, Fizzy Grape Juice and Pickled Sour Berry Juice.

The only drink out of the four there that's not widely available in Hong Kong is 冬瓜茶 (winter melon tea), pictured below. Winter-melon is good for reducing the heat in your body, the heat in your body is what causes an acne break out, which I'm a victim of right now, sigh! Always happens in this heat, a lot of people will drink the Pickled Sour Berry Juice to reduce their heat too, which really helps a breakout. I'm not very fond of the taste, it was just plain sweet with a very vegetable-like flavor. Vegetables belong in soup, not in sweet drinks! And you can take that to the bank.

My brother Chris taking a sip before he reacted with utter disgust. Sadly, it was the same reaction from me. Winter melon really does belong in soup, let's keep it that way.


Now this is for the ladies: did your mother ever tell you eating papaya will make your bosom bigger? My mother sure did, and I always cleared the plate every time we have it at home. Sadly, the magical effects have yet to reveal themselves, but papayas are absolutely delicious. And the one thing even better than that is Papaya Milk (木瓜奶) in Taiwan, which grows some of the yummiest papayas. The ingredients are very simple: ice, milk and chunks of beautiful, reddish-orange papaya.

And now I'm thirsty for some lychee green tea with tapioca balls, Taiwanese-style. Although too many iced drinks is really unhealthy, not only does the sugar end up on your waistline, but it's no good to put something so cold into your body. On the rare occasion that Joey from Friends actually said something wise: One moment on the hips, forever on the hips. We should really just stick to plain lukewarm water, but at the same time we're all losing enough calories from sweating profusely in this searing heat, so serve up that cold beverage!

Bon voyage and quench your thirst,
Jenny Cheng

Cantonese Hot Dog with Mayo

This is how I know I'm Canto through and through. I, Cheng Ting-Yan, like mayo on my hot dog. And you'll be a fan too, if you've tried the Cantonese hot dogs at Wing Lok Yuen Restaurant (永樂園) on Chiu Long Street (昭隆街) , Central. They are the self-acclaimed King of Double Sausage Hot Dogs (雙腸熱狗王). The need for double dogs because Canto weiners are teeny weeny. The 30-year-old restaurant uses the cheapest sausages that money can buy - the pinkish pork sausages that Hong Kongers love to cook at barbecues. The sausages are cooked with very little oil in the rolling pan, which doesn't burn the skin of the sausage and it keeps it heated, so it's still nice and warm when it's put inside the bun. The buns are also kept warm in an oven and are only taken out when a hot dog is ordered. The bun is different from American ones, because the crust of the bread is crisp.

Instead of adding relish, ketchup and mustard, Wing Lok Yuen has its own secret formula of a honey mustard mixed with mayo topping that makes it the best part of this Cantonese-style hot dog. The topping is sweet and sour, and leaves a nice aftertaste in your mouth. It's a light lunch, perfect for this Indian summer. I've been feeling nauseous a lot this summer from being too full, so this lunch, which I gladly ate while strolling through Central with my brother was perfect. I don't think I could've survived on a hot dog for lunch in Syracuse, but my stomach's shrunk into the size of a walnut since coming back to Hong Kong. We Cantos have always known the delicate enjoyment of small portions anyway!

The lady pouring on a dollop of the famous honey mustard mayo! Yummers, teehee!
Bon voyage, and cheers to small portions!
Jenny Cheng

Childhood Snack: Pudding in a Bowl

Passengers, allow me to introduce you to my favorite childhood/teenagehood snack: Bowl Pudding （砵仔糕). Every time I see bowl pudding sold on the street, I always buy one, preferably with brown sugar (pictured above) because when they use white sugar, it tastes a bit sickeningly sweet. And always with red bean, because it gives it a contrasting texture with the smooth and... taut pudding, and yes, those two adjectives also describe a baby's bottom. Give me this instead of ice cream any day, and I'll be a happy camper.

The pudding is steamed and used to sell for HKD$3, the cheapest food item money could buy. The brown sugar bowl pudding is always sold out at the end of day, especially when students got off school at around 4pm. Perhaps due to its popularity but most likely to inflation, the bowl pudding is now sold for HKD$4. The pudding is scooped out of the ceramic bowl using the two bamboo sticks.

I lived in Chi Fu, a middle class residential area with a cutesy shopping mall. Nothing crazy, just your regular wet market, supermarket, hardware store, a few restaurants, all frequented by the same folks who live in the area. The shop that sells bowl pudding is at the wet market where they also sell curry fish balls, shrimp and pork dumplings, noodles and other Cantonese comfort foods. My cousin Gloria and I went to the same secondary school school, so we'd hop off the school bus and head over for after noon tea. Sometimes we'd go to McDonalds or Pizza Hut, but most of the time, I enjoyed bowl pudding or other non-chain store food. I tried bowl pudding at this place that claims to be the King of Bowl Puddings (砵仔王) which has chain stores all over HK, but it tasted so mass-produced, and it was over-steamed so the pudding was all mushy. Too bad these small, privately-owned eateries are slowly being gobbled up by boring, tasteless chain stores.

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Sweet and Salty Sprite: an old school favorite

Here's a Delight Express fun fact: adding a dash of salt in a cake batter can enhance the sweetness. Us clever Hongkies took this idea and used it on refreshments. Sprite/7 Up with Salty Lime (咸檸七) is an old school favorite and can still be sold in Cantonese cafes (茶餐廳/冰室）. And I don't mean saltiness in a savory sense. It actually tastes even more refreshing than ordinary sprite with lemon. The lime, a specific type from Guangdong province in China, is pickled lightly to give it the salty zesty flavor. It complements the fizzy tanginess of sprite perfectly. I personally don't like overly sweet desserts, and always drink a cup of tea to wash out the taste. So I like that the salty lime makes the sprite less sweet, and it doesn't taste like someone just dropped in a tablespoon of salt. The flavors are delicately balanced. And don't compare it to seawater, it's nowhere near as extreme.

The saltiness is also good for replenishing fluids lost from sweating. Hong Kong is so dusty and sticky that one is constantly on a lookout for the perfect ice cold summer beverage. I met a Brazilian-Chinese girl the other day, and she told me Hong Kong is actually hotter than Brazil. Shocking, shocking, we're only sub-tropical! Imagine what it's like in Singapore, where it's right on the equator and a hot beverage is probably the most unpopular item in restaurants. Passengers, thankfully on Delight Express, we serve up four distinct seasons, giving you an equal dose of boiling point summers and brain freeze winters i.e. Syracuse, New York (where we station during the academic year). In Chinese, Syracuse (雪城）translates into Snow City. Look forward to our updates from Snow City arriving shortly later this month!

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Rice Rolls for Breakfast

Rise and shine, passengers! For breakfast today, you have two options: Chinese breakfast or a Western breakfast. The difference is a Chinese breakfast is only savory, and a Western breakfast can be sweet or savory. Think waffles, pancakes, sausages, eggs. A Chinese breakfast can be a glass of soya milk, congee, fried noodles with soya sauce, or glutinous rice rolls （粢飯）, pictured below.

The rice is glutinous so it's sticky, a bit like the rice in sushi. The filling is pork floss (豬肉松）, fried dough stick (油條）and pickled vegetables（榨菜). And I went to a famous place for it in Causway Bay on Jardine's Bazaar. It's a Shanghainese eatery on a small side street that has signs all over advertising their famous piping hot rice rolls. I was looking for something to eat for lunch that I could carry in my hand and eat while I walk, and a rice roll was perfect for the occasion. They make their rice rolls fresh at lunchtime and breakfast time, and it's so piping hot that I felt it was going to melt the cling film. The big pot behind the rice rolls is hot soya milk, I prefer it cold and sweetened in summertime.

Last summer on my way to work, I'd buy one at the corner shop and bring it to the office. I love the texture of the rice, it's not mushy or soft but chewy. The filling is only mildly salty and doesn't taste too overpowering for the morning. The one thing is, it's a little too filling for breakfast. It gives me food coma for the rest of the morning because it's literally one bowl of rice, and glutinous rice is usually more starchy and filling than regular rice. I've never seen rice rolls being made, so I stuck around and asked the two ladies if I could take some photos. They worked together, one rolled and the other wrapped cling film. Just like how you make sushi, you need strong hands to shape the rice.

If you're a curious epicurean interested in knowing how your food is made then you should visit this eatery. You can watch the two ladies roll and pack, before they nudge you for getting in the way of their business. The rice roll is HKD$11, a bit pricey since it's their top selling item, but if you go to other breakfast places you can get it for around HKD$8. That's only around USD$1, just imagine, a delicious USD$1 meal!

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Bouncy Fishballs of Aberdeen

Aberdeen (香港仔）used to be a fishery so it's famous for fishballs. And the best place to eat fish ball noodles is Tse Kee (謝記山窿魚蛋) on Aberdeen Main Road (香港仔舊大街). Tse Kee used to be a hawker stall and set up tables on the street. It was next to a huge boulder that the kitchen was next to, and it made the eatery look like it was in a cave. The restaurant is run almost entirely by family. Tse Kee is also famous for their fish cakes (魚片), fried fish skin （炸魚皮), deep fried dumpling wrapped in fish skin (魚皮餃） The fish balls are famous for their bounciness. There is a myth that the best fish balls can bounce up and down on the table.


They have two types of fish balls, both pictured above. Fried is golden and not fried is gray. If you just buy fish balls or a block of fish cake, it's very expensive and can cost over HKD$100. I like to eat it with thin yellow noodles, but most people like to eat it with the thick white vermicelli. Tse Kee is also one of the last places left that still serve bottled cream soda (pictured up top). I think it tastes better than canned cream soda, not sure if this has been proven though so it's probably just psychological. Glass bottles are actually very environmentally-friendly because you can reuse it.

The bowl of noodles was around HKD$16 but I was sort of bored with what was in the bowl. No doubt it's of a higher quality, but nothing I can't find in the rest of Hong Kong. Passengers, if you ever find yourself craving noodles in Aberdeen, go for the less healthy but much more delicious options like the fish skin dumplings. It's deep-fried but guilty good.

Aberdeen is dear to my heart. My grandpa made a living making fish sauce in Aberdeen, and my mum went to primary school there. This was also a hang-out spot for many an afternoons during high school days. Aberdeen, which in Chinese means Little Hong Kong, is like a mini city that seems to have minimal Western influence, which is rare to find on Hong Kong island.

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Green Summer Treats

Passengers on board Delight Express, I'm going to switch up the AC because the heat + humidity in Hong Kong is unearthly. Don't you think we feel we deserve more junk food in summer time? Somehow when you feel like you've sweated the equivalent of a swimming pool, you darn-right deserve a scoop of ice cream! I found here two ice-cold summer treats that are both healthy and refreshing.

At Prince Edward (太子) the other day, my best buddies Melanie, Janette and I were hustled into this brightly-lit dessert shop on the intersection of Sai Yeung Choi South Street (西洋菜南街) and Bute Street (弼街). On the way in, she saw a huge mountain of brown stuff that looks sort of doughy and immediately labelled it 'mud'. Little did she know, that fueled my curiosity to try it. It's actually a Taiwanese dessert and comes in many flavors. If you look below, I'll point out the flavors to you.

Brown: chocolate ('mud') / Yellow: mango / Black: sesame / White: Taro / Green: Green Tea / Beige: Durian


I ordered the green tea one just because the thin layers piled on top of each other looked so much like lettuce, it's quite beautiful in a strange way. Turns out, it's not dough at all but sheets of ice! Janette describes it as like drinking a smoothie, because it melts as soon as it's in your mouth. It costs HKD$25, a little bit pricey so share it with your significant other, like the next table did, or with a bunch of friends. The name of the dessert is cotton ice （棉冰）, I guess because it looks like a piece of scrunched-up fabric, I'll give the Taiwanese credit for creativity.

And to make it seem more like a drink in solid form, there were tapioca balls, sago and jellies right next to it. The ice was very refreshing, but a little cold on the teeth, and way too much for one person to finish, even though it's mostly just ice. The couple at the next table ordered the mango one and could barely finish it. It tastes a little bit like ice cream, but much healthier since there's no milk in it.

It's an interesting summer alternative to the usual summer treats, but I still think nothing can beat a classic scoop of vanilla ice cream.


Hong Kongers can be creative with food too. Tsui Wah (翠華) has a line of creative summer treats. They've paired mango slices with fried fish, but the kale with ice (冰鎮芥蘭）HKD20, is the most creative thing I've seen in awhile. You basically eat the kale like you'd eat sashimi, chill it first and then dip it in soya sauce and wasabi.

I prefer normal hot vegetables but definitely give this dish a try. The vegetables are kind of hard from being chilled, and the dash of wasabi is a fresh take on a traditional Chinese dish. It's great to see creative dishes, and if more people have curious appetites then food developers will be motivated to create it. So passengers, I'd encourage everyone to have an open mind and be brave, you'll discover a lot of pleasant surprises along the way!

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Chinese Mango Dessert

mango dessert
Tin Hau's a little underrated. It has some of the best restaurants on Hong Kong island waiting to be explored, if you're willing to venture out of the usual Causeway Bay-Wanchai-Central.

I visited 甜姨姨私房甜品 (Auntie Sweet Desserts) on 13 Tsing Fung Street, Tin Hau yesterday with an Indian friend who adores mangoes, (Indian mangoes are delectable, he says) to have some desserts. Now this place is famous for their 阿旺芒果凍湯丸 (Chilled Mango Dumplings), pictured below. If you've ever tried the regular Chinese 湯丸 tang yuan dumplings that have sesame paste or peanut paste wrapped around with dough served hot in boiling soup; then this is exactly what it is, except the filling is egg yolk and mango and served cold, it's a fresh take on a dessert with age-old traditions. Now, it's worth a try but share it with a few people. The dumplings were acceptable, the dough was soggy and the filling wasn't anything spectacular. The mango soup was too thick and overwhelming, it might as well have been a mango smoothie and not in a pleasant way. The only good part was the tropical fruits laden in the soup that had a nice chewy texture.

The dumplings were made famous from TVB drama 阿旺新傳 (Life Made Simple). Now, the way 湯丸 dumplings is pronounced in Mandarin sounds a lot like 團圓 meaning reunion. So 湯丸 dumplings are often eaten during Chinese New Year when the whole family has dinner together, so this dessert has a very sweet tradition. And in the drama, 阿旺 (Ah Wong) is a mentally handicapped guy who makes these chilled mango dumplings he calls 老婆湯丸 (wifey dumplings)，because every dumpling is made out of love for his favorite lady. It's a very, very sweet (no pun intended) drama, one of the most successful that TVB ever made. And the guy who owns Auntie Sweet Dessert used to work at TVB, so his dessert shop is famous now thanks to that connection. The first time I went there a few years ago, right at the peak of the show's fame, the shop was a tiny place that had to set tables and chairs onto the pavement. Now, they've moved to a new location and to bank more on their famous mango dumplings, the tiles on the floor and wall are mango yellow. I took a picture to see just how similar the color of the tiles are to the mangoes, and it's almost exactly the same. And if you notice, even the spoon is yellow!

The chilled mango dumplings in mango soup is HKD$25, but remember to share it with a few people!

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Daily Bread

'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" - Matthew 4:4

Point taken! And the word of God is often referred to as the daily bread, because it fills us up, a meal wouldn't be a meal without some good ol' carbo! I've always loved bakeries, Chinese or Western. When I was young, my friends and I would save money and buy food from the supermarket to sneak into the cinema, while everyone bought chips and sweets, I'd be a geek and buy French rolls. As I got older, I stopped liking French bread and returned to childhood tastes and began to grow fond of Cantonese bakeries. Every time I return home from the US, I'd go straight to a bakery and pick my all-time favorite pineapple bun （波蘿包）. Now that's my bread 'n butter.

The last time I made bread was years ago for Food Tech class, and now I'm giving it another try. I was following a recipe and wanted to try adding a green tea flavor, so I used Nestle's foamy green tea powder which give the dough blue spots for some reason. Aha, they used food coloring to make the powder green! How unnatural, tsk tsk tsk. Anyway, I was too cheap to buy matcha, real green tea powder.

Kneading the dough is my favorite part of breadmaking, because it's like playing with playdoh. Bread kneaded well will be very soft.

Cutting a slit to make the insides cook faster.

Waiting for an hour for the bread to prove, or the yeast to rise. During Passover, only unleavened bread is served which is bread with no yeast, some like to call it the 'Feast Without Yeast.' The yeast is supposed to symbolize arrogance, literally causing one's ego to rise.

And here's my mistake! I didn't brush milk or egg on the surface of the dough, so the dough didn't turn brown. And my brother said it tasted bland and boring. But spreading some jam, nutella or peanut butter will make the bread come alive. I heated up the bread this morning and had it with currant jelly, yep, that's my bread 'n butter.

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Asian Fusion Desserts

In high school, I took a Food Technology class for 2 years where I developed a Chinese fusion cheesecake using sago (西米) to give it a chewy texture, sort of like the tapioca in bubble tea. I find it easy to turn down a sickeningly sweet chocolate mousse after dinner, but when it's a Chinese dessert, you'll have to pry me away from it. In Vancouver one time after I'd put on the freshman 15, my dad said I should lay off my favorite purple rice sago coconut milk soup (椰汁紫米露) because I was a bit blubbery and he had to wrench it off me screaming and kicking. I love it quite literally like a fat kid loves cake.

I don't see a lot of Chinese Western fusion desserts, and am always appreciative when I see it attempted. At the Starbucks in Hong Kong, they sell slices of Green Tea Tofu Cheesecake (pictured below) for HKD$27 (USD$4). The tofu isn't even churned in, you can see an entire cube of tofu lodged right at the bottom yellow layer of mousse. Spot the bean curd!















I tried it for the first time last summer, and I found the taste of tofu too overwhelming. This time around, the green tea cheesecake layer tasted more dominant and the tofu complemented the green tea perfectly in texture and taste. I'd brought it home so my parents ate it while sipping hot Chinese tea, which balanced the sweetness of the cake. The green tea is probably made from matcha (green tea powder), which is used to give the grassy green colour and it's flavor. Anyway, I thought this green tea tofu cake would only be a temporary item at Starbucks, but it's already been there for a year. My mum said that in the fashion industry, when a garment is so popular that it's sold at all times of the year, it's called an 'ongoing' product. And I'm sure this green tea tofu cake must have been received very well to have become 'ongoing.'

I went for dim sum in Tin Shui Wai where they served a pumpkin sago soup (pictured below) for dessert costing HKD$5 (USD$0.60) Now, pumpkins are a very Western ingredient and not used often in Chinese cooking, so to see pumpkin in a Chinese dessert counts as fusion. Fun attempt, and the pumpkin's sunny orange color is so refreshing, but the pumpkin tastes a bit awkward with the coconut milk. I prefer the original with purple rice, after all, classics are classics for a reason.


Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

An All-American Hot Dog Joint in Syracuse

I had the best hot dogs of my 19-year-old life at Heid's in Liverpool, 5 to 10 minutes away from Syracuse. My friend Patrick took me there one time and he absolutely adores this quaint historic hot dog joint that has a remarkable history reaching back to 1917.

And you got two choices of dogs: Hofman Franks or Coneys. Coneys are the white sausages that taste a bit spicy and the Franks are the darker traditional sausages. Make sure you specify which one you want at the counter to avoid blank stares. You can sort of see it in the photo above, the dog on the left is a Coney and the other is a Frank. Click here for a clearer picture of Franks and Coneys. You can order a meal that'll give you two hot dogs so you can try both. One hot dog isn't enough for dinner anyway! It's a toss up between the two, I really can't decide which one's better. I don't know if it was the hype of the place that made the hot dogs extra tasty. But just ask Patrick, and he'll tell you Heid's is his bread and butter.

And don't forget to head next door to the nostalgic '50s era ice cream parlor, also owned by Heid's. There aren't too many of those still left around, so go while you still can. Heid's is at 305 Oswego Street, Liverpool NY 13088.

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Beijing Style Cold Noodles

The Beijing Wong Fu Dumpling Restaurant (北京王府水餃) at 98-102 Wellington Street in Central is one of the most famous places in Hong Kong to have Beijing style dumplings, which are freshly made with absolutely delicious fillings. My favorite is the cabbage and pork filling. They have a Dumpling Of The Day which are sold at a slightly lower price and I would definitely recommend ordering that because it probably means it's cheaper, and you can't go wrong with any options at the famous Wong Fu. The restaurant is frequented by people working in Central who want to eat quickly and go back to work, so this isn't really a place to sit and chit chat for hours on end. One of their lesser-known dishes is their Beef and Tomato Cold Noodles (below).


Now I've tried Japanese soba, which are cold buckwheat noodles served with ice underneath and eaten by dipping it in soya sauce. Cold noodles was very appealing at the time because of the sweltering heat in Hong Kong, but eating cold beef was a bit of a surprise, pleasant at first but slowly became a bit nauseating. The other option was replacing the beef with egg, but eating cold egg didn't seem that appetizing either.

Nonetheless, the first few bites were very refreshing since the restaurant is a bit hot and crowded. But the noodles were completely drenched in oil so I was full very quickly. Now this is when a tall glass of cold soya milk comes in. Boy, the soya milk washed down all the oil and grease like no other, but the oil still sat in my stomach and made me antsy to run 10 laps to feel normal again. So passengers take note, the noodles are worth trying but share it with 2 people or more. And don't forget to order a glass of cold soya milk and a big generous plate of dumplings. Make sure you dip the dumplings in the dark vinegar, not soya sauce! Expect to pay around HKD40 to 50 for lunch per person.

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Pet Cakes from Arome Bakery

Arome Bakery (東海堂) released a line of adorable animal mousse cakes this summer, each one selling for HKD15, pretty pricey for a small piece of cake. And to be honest, it was more for the amusement than for the taste. My family didn't know how to put the fork down, on it's face? Eat the chocolate ear first? Eating a mousse cake never felt so morbid.

Inside the mousse is fruit and a small piece of yellow sponge cake. Honestly, it tastes so generic. My friend Shelley's display picture on her iPhone is the picture of the piggly wiggly because she says it reminds her of her significant other. Maybe this cake would be good for special occasions like V Day or an anniversary, where funny-looking food can be appreciated in a crowd. My brother had too much fun eating his doggy's face, and my dad had way too much fun putting the fork into the pig's face and jiggling the mousse around. My mum chose to eat her bunny's ears first, leaving it looking like a bald sorry bunny. I just tried not to imagine I wasn't eating an animal staring straight at me.

Maybe once in a blue moon I'd want to eat something so amusing in appearance. Otherwise I'd warn all passengers to beware and stay away!

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Katong Laksa in Sheung Wan

Last summer while interning in Sheung Wan, I explored the area every lunch hour trying to discover some hidden gems. Little did I know that the restaurants I "discovered" are already very renowned. One of which is Katong Laksa on Mercer Street, where even my favorite Canto actor Tony Leung has been seen slurping away a bowl of laksa. The entrance of the restaurant has newspaper clippings of all the raving reviews and pictures of celebrities who have visited. I came here yesterday with Anita (that's her in the photo!), who interns in Sheung Wan right now. Anita speaks with a jumbled-up accent from living in so many places, which somehow to me sounds very Singaporean, so it seemed appropriate to bring her to a South Asian restaurant.

I've been here three times already, and each time I couldn't finish the entire bowl. What I love most about laksa is the soup, the heavy coconut milk flavour in the mildly spicy soup. I also adore the tofu puffs that soak up all the soup. I'm not really a fan of the seafood in the noodles because it tastes a bit soggy.

The restaurant decor is very tropical with its orange walls that fit very nicely with the orange-colored soup. It's easy to imagine oneself in Malaysia in the moment. In Singapore, I was a huge fan of barley water, which is a ice-cold sweet drink that's supposed to lower the heat inside you. I'm never free of cankersores in my mouth, which I heard is from too much heat, so hopefully this drink will help. The table next to Anita and I ordered barley water right after us too! Toast Box, another Malaysian eatery also serves barley water too. Anita finished more of the laksa than I did, so props to her! It's not something I'd want to eat daily, and I certainly frequented the Chinese noodle shop next door much more often last summer. But the Hong Kong heat is unbearable, so why not imagine yourself in a tropical country? Hong Kong is 'sub-tropical' which totally should not count. The cheapest bowl of laksa is HKD40.

Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng

Homemade Lemon Squares

Welcome aboard, let me introduce you to our first dish!

So last week, I made lemon squares at home. The first time was a disaster because the cake tin I used was too wide so when I poured the mixture in, the squares turned out to be only about 3cm thick. The second time was a huge success, hooray! I used a quarter cup of lemon juice, and the squares weren't sour at all. Squeezing the lemon juice was a bit hard on the hands without a juice squeezer, but it tastes so much more real and fresh than lemon juice straight out of a bottle. The surface of the squares don't look that appealing from the burnt sugar, so sprinkle on a heap of icing sugar until it's covered like snow. Click here for a Betty Crocker Luscious Lemon Squares recipe.


Bon voyage,
Jenny Cheng