Bak Kwa @ Yoke Gon @ Chinese Pork Jerky 猪肉干

I have been making these since I was a teen. For each Chinese New Year, my mom will order 4kg of minced pork from the butcher, get it sent to our home and I will be doing the marinating and sun drying. When mom comes back from work, she would start the charcoal grill and it's grilling time.

I haven't been making these for many many years, until a blogger's gathering 7 years ago. I tried to recall the ratio and the outcome was a bit too salty, maybe I got it wrong. Then, two years back, I tried to make it again. The taste was just right, but the colour was too dark due to the addition of just 1/2 Tbsp of dark caramel sauce. This time, I made it again and it was just nice. Sweet, sticky, not too salty and the colour was what I wanted.

Pork Belly and Daikon Stew 萝卜焖猪肉

I love this dish from Mixed Rice Stalls.
Found a recipe online and made it few years back.
Can't quote the source because the link I copied from years ago seem to be broken now.

Hokkaido Soup Curry (video)

*All pictures and video taken with my Iphone 7 because my camera was in repair*

Last year, I went to Hokkaido for a road trip. I had a wonderful time driving 1200km around the island together with my husband. We ate a lot of local delicacies and one of it is Soup Curry.

Frankly, when I read about this dish, I was skeptical about it. I thought it's a sweet spiced broth with no punch. I was wrong, so wrong!!

We went to Samurai Soup Curry, it was one of the nearer ones to our hotel in Sapporo. Out of 10 levels of heat, I ordered heat level 7 and my husband ordered one at level 4. I thought... oh what... it's just Japanese standards, how hot can it be for a Malaysian?

Bean Paste Pork Belly 豆酱爆猪腩肉

I'm back to staying home as a full time mother and wife. Left my life-long paying job. This is my first post after quitting but I guess I can't blog at the same pace as I did years ago.

Back in 2011, After I won Blogger’s Masterchef, we had a dinner with his side of relatives at SuperTanker somewhere in TTDI the same night itself. We ordered this plate of pork belly and my hubby loved it.

My man is a belly lover.

Guangxi Taro Kourou 广西芋头扣肉

Kourou is a dish that consist of thrice cooked pork belly that has been boiled, fried, and steamed.
There are many versions of kourou, and famous two is the MeiCai Kourou 梅菜扣肉 and Yutou Kourou 芋头扣肉.

Now, it seems that everyone seems to associate kourou with Hakka cuisine. Not really.
According to Chinese Wikipedia or you can just do a google search about kourou on Mainland China's websites, you will find that

"客家梅菜扣肉。
广西芋头扣肉。
广东中山沙溪粉葛扣肉。"

Translation:
Hakka Preserved Vegetable Kourou
Guangxi Taro Kourou
Cantonese Arrowroot Kourou

So you see, kourou is a dish that is cooked by the other dialects and other provinces as well.

Teochew Ngoh Hiang ~ Five Spice Meat Rolls

There are many versions of Chinese 5 Spice Meat Rolls.
Some call it Lor Bak, some call it Chun Juan, Some call it Wu Xiang.

Basically, it's a meat roll, filled with pork that is minced or cut into thin strips, marinated with seasoning and spices, wrapped in beancurd sheets and cooked. If I am not wrong, the differences will be; Penang Style Lor Bak is made with pork strips, Hokkien Chun Juan/Lor Bak is minced pork and Teochew Wu Xiang/Ngoh Hiang is minced pork with the addition of taro. They are all seasoned with the essential 5 spice powder.

Pork Stewed in Coconut Juice ~ Thit Kho Tau~ The Asian Kitchen BookReview and Giveaway

The second book I received from Tuttle Publishers.
I went through the book a a few times.. and I needed to convince myself that there is something good in there.

I've never been to Vietnam. My experience of eating Vietnamese food depends on the restaurants. The more variety it offers, then only, I get to try something new.

Pan Fried Pork 煎猪肉

In memory of Grandaunt. Happy 102 birthday, if you were still here.

This was the only “cha siu” made at home. Though not a char siew, but it’s the closest. My grandaunt is particular about names of dishes and will never teach us to call this char siew. It’s Pan Fried Pork, Pan Fried Pork, Pan Fried Pork according to her. She’s a very strict cook… just by observing her when I was a kid, I have learnt a lot. And I try to recreate her dishes from memory, all thanks to the opportunity to watch her in the kitchen

Bamboo Leaf Belly Rolls 竹叶扣肉（祝你财源滚滚来）- CNY Spread #4

Showing you this recipe for now seems..... weird.

I know it seems hard to find bamboo leaves at this moment, but I think some of you might have some half used packs left over from the last dumpling session. But then again, if you really want to get it, it's usually still available at Chinese ingredient grocery shops. We do eat dumpling the whole year long, just that it's more festive to eat it during the festival.

Grilled Pork Rice @ Bai Sach Chrouk - AFF Indochina~ Cambodian #2

Bai Sach Chrouk is a popular breakfast item in Cambodia.

In this dish, grilled meats are served with broken rice. Not only pork is used, but beef, chicken, duck fish, egg or whatever you prefer can be the topping for broken rice. Broken rice is rice that has broken to about less than 3/4 of their original length. A humble rice that was meant to feed chickens has now become a popular thing. There is a tale behind this dish and you can read about it here.

Dangshen Pork Rib Stew 党参焖排骨 - Pork Ribs #3

Today.... is my first day back to work.
After 5 years of staying home, my child care leave has ended and I'm back to my teaching career.
There are many concerns, particularly about my kids, and my in laws are currently taking care of them while I'm at work. It's going to be tiring as I might work 6 days a week at times.

Cooking will be greatly reduced at home, probably to once or twice a week, as I only reach home by 7.15pm. But this blog will still be running with new recipes weekly. As some of you know, I always have too much back logs to clear. I hope I can still bake in the morning before I leave for work. The blog goes on... as this blog was born back in 2007, when I was teaching.

Pork Rib Noodles - Pork Ribs #2

When I was a kid, there was this noodle stall next to my family's coffee stall, that was known as "Har Look". We were operating just next to the town field. The noodle stall was always busy busy busy and the couple would work until they were quarrelling all the time. Sometimes, when the day is less busy... then they will joke, "no quarrel, no money", hahaha!

Black Vinegar Ribs 排骨醋- Pork Ribs #1

A dish that I made on impulse.

Initially I wanted to make sweet vinegar ribs 糖醋排骨. I bought a bottle of sweet vinegar and thought of experimenting with this. I tasted some, it wasn’t too sour and so I daringly used 250ml of it. In the end, the whole dish was sooo dark, I chose to leave it soupy and tadah… it became this dish

Shredded Egg Ball 金丝球 - Balls #2

Chinese New Year is coming soon. Haha, Christmas isn't over yet.
This dish taste pretty good and it feels like eating dimsum. You can prepare the egg balls earlier and steam it or just reheat when it's almost dinner time.

I think I bought the wrong vegetable for garnish. Everything looks too shreddy. I think baby bokchoy or nai-bak will look better. I only realised that when I plated it. But oh well... can't do anything about it. Just went ahead.

Pork Panang Curry - Thai Curries AFF #2

We seriously love this!

If you avoid consuming coconut milk, then it's hard for you to make this because I used 350ml coconut milk to cook this plate of curry. Personally, I love coconut milk for it's health benefits with all the short and middle chain fatty acids that used to be confused as BAD. Rich with lauric acid that benefits the heart. It helps with weight loss and I will need it desperately if I ever get Alzheimers. Read here . 

If you have never drank freshly squeezed coconut milk, you don't know what you're missing. That's why you always see coconut trees in places that people nickname as Paradise! Joking.

Buta Kakuni - AFF Japan Butakakuni # 3

My husband loves buta kakuni. He will order this whenever possible during out dine outs at his current fav Japanese restaurant in Ipoh. Of which is why I wanted to cook it.

I went through a few recipes and found Nami's recipe to be quite similiar to what we ate as I knew the meat was once fried.
The preparation take a lot of time, as said by Nami herself, the result is worth it.

Rolled Chashu - AFF Japan Butaniku #2

The 2nd Butaniku (Pork in Japanese) dish I am posting :)

I wanted to complete my tonkotsu ramen with chashu and I love how it looks like when rolled.

I did a bit of mistake. I think I should cut the corners off the belly where the ends meet, so that when rolled up, it will be a nice cylinder. I only realised that when I have tied up everything.
A bit lazy to open up the whole thing and wrap again, so I just let it be

Fly Head Stir Fry 苍蝇头 - Flowers #1

Fly swatters, keep at bay. Don’t worry.

There aren’t any Drosophilas  used here. Nothing flies or has wings in this recipe. That is unless the pig can fly, LOL.

Penang Hainanese Pork Satay- Penang MFF #9

actual amount of satay  from recipe

Satay is skewered thin pieces of meat that is grilled. Commonly found in South East Asia and usually made with either chicken or beef, but non Muslims have the pork version as well. You can also find pork satay in Bali. The Hainanese migrants that arrived on Penang's shores have made a version to call their own.

Hainanese Pork Satay is found in a few places in Malaysia, and Singapore as well. But Penang's version is something different.
I came to know of this dish via surfing the internet. I have never eaten this before.

Penang Nyonya Hong Bak (Braised Pork with Aromatic Spices) - MFF Penang #6

Hong Bak is a dish common among the Hokkiens. Somehow I do get confused with the Hokkien's version of Tau Yew Bak and Hong Bak, what's the difference? Please let me know because they do look similar to me. Hope to learn more :)

From what I know the East Coast Chinese descendants in Kelantan and Terengganu makes another version and they combine pork with chicken and the ingredients are different too.