Korean Sweet Potato Vermicelli

Ever heard of Korean noodle made from sweet potato starch?
As you can see , it is a thin long, translucent noodle with a chewy texture. They are perfect for steam boat, stir fired and even soup! They are similar to cellophane noodles, except they are slightly thicker and tougher.

To prepare: Place the noodles in a heatproof bowl, pour boiling water over the noodles, and let them stand for 10 to 15 minutes, until noodles have soften.
Cooking Time: When the noodles are added to a stir-fry or to soup, further cooking is accomplished during the cooking of the dish.

I have been sick these day, really no apetite at all! Soup is normally what I eat when I am sick. My Mum used to make bee hoon soup for me, it´s just like a comfort food where I only get it from Mum who specially prepared it just for me when I am sick! Nowaday, Mum not there anymore! But I have someone who are just like my Mum, he gave me alot of advise on what I should eat and how to prepared it. Yes, he is my savior, Doctor Fabio!

My chinese girlfriend had this Korean Noodle at her steam boat party some weeks ago, I thought I really like the consistence of the noodle, kids love it too! Even Nelina who is not so fond of noodles love it!

To make this wonderful noodles, I first cooked the noodle as stated from the packing..with hot boiling water and later cooled it in ice cold water to restore it´s elasticity. No oil is needed to spearate the noodle because it does´nt really stick to one another.


I then prepare the soup with chicken broth, soya sauce, seasame oil and lots of white pepper. I like it peppery so all my germs from my nostril could be clear once it and for all!
I also prepared some boiled vegetables and chicken meat. Instead of cooking together with the noodle, I like to stir-fried it separately. I know, this step is not typical chinese, I did this because the chicken are more tastier this way.
I marinated the chicken with ginger juice, soya sauce, corn floor and pepper..
then stir fried them for 15 mins in a hot pan till golden in colour.
To serve this, I reboil the noodle & vegetables in the soup for 30 seconds, I later pour everything in a big bowl and garnish it with stir-fried chicken, chilly sambal and more white pepper! Serve this noodle piping hot!!!

Thai - Tom Yum Soup

It´s minus 25 degree cold today..when I was driving to work this morning, I thought..damn it! I feel I am gonna catch a cold soon! I just feel the cold air rushing into my body system and I knew I need a good remedie to stop the cold before it is too late. My Mum used to cook very spicy food when she noticed a cold syptom.

I made a Tom Yum Chicken soup when I got home..it´s so simple and fast you can´t believe. For this soup, I used ready Tomyum paste my sister brought me from last visit.
This is so conveinent to use, it really saved alot of my time because making curry paste can be a pain in the ass sometime!


All I did was to cut the chicken breast, egg plant and mushroom into pieces and them into a pan filled with 1 liter of boiling water & the mixed spices then let it cook for 20 mintues.

Nelina was not a home, so I enjoyed this hot moment all myself infront of fire place, with a blanket, 2 cats keeping my feet warm on each leg, some light Jack Johnson and Jason Marz music at spotify and soft candle lights..
I love the way the heat rushed into my body & keep me away from the cold and make me feel alive!!

Chinese New year ..traditional food

I remember when I was a child, one of my favourite food is steamboat. Steamboat during the 80´s is consider a luxury food. We only eat them a few times a year..and to many chinese family steamboat is one of the most popular dinner during the reunion dinner during Chinese new year. Steamboat is perfect in Sweden irregardless of the seasons.
Best, I think is during winter.The spicy hot herb soup is what a cold body need.
Here are a few picture I took at my last steamboat party..

First I boiled the soup with some chinese herb, like Goji berry (very good antioxidant)when people heard about the magic power of this berry, the scientist claimed that this Goji berry is good remedie for many critical illness..this berry is quite expensive here, people respect it alot, but it´s so cheap in Asian and of the best quality too! and also some dried red dates, ginger to keep body temperature, salt, spring onion, yellow onion and a fried fish for flavour.


While the soup is cooking, I prepare the marinate. I used moose fliér here. If you like your meat to be tender, use a little bi-carbonate powder to marinate the meat 20 mintues..rinse off with cold water after that.Then marinate it with crushed garlic, light soya sause, salt, seasame oil, ginger juice, corn flour and black pepper.


I love vegetable, especially marinate one. I used fresh mushroom and egg plant as side dish..I marinate them with some crushed garlic, soya, sugar, olive oil, & black pepper.



Nelina love meat balls in the soup, so I mixed some salt, pepper, spring onions, seasame oil and corn flour with minced beef. If you want the meat ball to bounch to reach the ceiling...use potatos flour instead of corn flour!


I brought this korean style 2 in 1 steamboat and BBQ hotplate in Singapore. Yeah, I know it´s kind of too big..but I often bring empty lagguaes and filled it with lots of goodies..as thought there´s a war coming!
I love this kind of stuff, very difficult to find it here..if I could find them, it probably cost a bomb!

Eat with your eyes!

There´s one common phase about eating in Sweden ..they said "Eat your eye!" This mean food presentation is very important here, the swedish like to know what they are eating, preferbaly food that look as it original form, the look of swedish food is often kept clean and simple. I think Asian would find it too simple and tasteless cos it did´nt look so "prepared". I notice this term when I tasted seafood in Göterborg and Stockholm last summer. The city are well know for it famous seafood. The concept of seafood here are very different from Asian, I think Asian people who are so used to freshly prepared seafood will not agree with the way seafood is served..probaly to the point they might even complain.."Eeee why the food is not cooked? So it´s just salt added for seasoning, no way!?"
This was what I thought in my mind initially too..but after some thinking and tasting I think it´s after all one of the best way to serve seafood as it should be in it´s most natural form inorder to taste the natural flavour of oceans. This is just my personal taste and point of view. I hope the Asians dont throw rotten egg at me ok?

Yeah..how much does it cost to eat seafood in Sweden? It all depend on where you eat. The seafood restuarant I tried at Göterborg was´nt so expensive considering you can eat as much as you like at one fixed price of 400kr (40 Euro).The restuarant I went is a classy one. The concept is more like a up market pub where business man hang out for beer and seafood after work. The seafood are served in a multi-tier plate filled with crushed ice and filled with many different kind of sea harvest.
There were both cooked & smoked shrimps in which I like very much for it´s unique sweetness and smoky flavour..this is something you must try when you visit Sweden, the shrimps... and also some crab, which are steamed, this I find it rather tasteless because I am so used to the Singaporean chilly & black pepper crab! (Which is so far the best I ever know!) some turkish clayfish which is cooked in strong beer and her, some slices of fresh salmond..(may be should advice them to include washabi, and some fresh scallops..(this I am not sure I would recommend it for people with weak stomach, may be it will give you diarea, I will eat it if I ever want to loose 2 kg in a day!) and some a few fresh oysters. The Swedish normally eat seafood with bread, specially homemade butter and some creamy, lemony dipping sauce.

If you like to know where to eat & what to eat in Sweden, let me know ..I will try my best to give you some tips.

Wontan noodles

Ok, may be I was desperate..I badly needed a wontan noddle fix..so despite of what I do not have to make the "real" wontan noodle, I decided to make my own version with all the ingredient I can find at home. Wontan noodle is comfort food for me, I grew up eating that almost 3-5 times a week and I never got sick of it. If I am on my dead bed, I would request for the wontan noodle from Geylang.
To prepare this mouth watering dish, and without pork at home..I created this meal using minced beef as filling for my wontan. First I mixed all the 250 gm of beef, finely chopped leeks and black fungus with 1 egg yolk, 1 table light soya sauce, 1 teaspoon of salt & sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of seasame oil and white pepper. I then left them alone to make-out in the bowl.


Instead of BBQ pork, I used boiled chicken breast cooked with ginger,garlic and salt. After cooking for at least 15 min in medium heat.



I strained the chicken stock and use it to cook the cabbage,once again I do not have choy sum, so I replace it with some italian sallad.


Here in Sweden, it´s not so easy to find fresh vegetable like choy sum, pak choy, kai lan at supermarket. So far I could only buy it once a week at the local Asian food supermarket. This is consider very luxury compare to other part of Sweden inland,in which did´nt even had any Asian store.
I started to appreciate our Singapore wet market, it may not smell good there but you can buy all kind of fresh vegetable, meat, seafood etc.. I missed also the local dialect in Singapore, everybody is so causal..wearing short and t-shirt at market, speaking dialect like no body business..the atmosphere & memories is simply most memorable!
Ok, back to our dish..I wrapped the wontan with ready made wontan skin..and cooked them two ways..boil & deep fried! I like both, the boil one is more healthy of course.
Because I like to serve everything piping hot, I decided to make the gravy in advance so I can mixed it with the freshly cooked noodle once they are ready.
For the gravy, again I used what is available from my fridge..for 1 portion of 150gm noodle, I mixed half table spoon of light, a drop of seasame oil, half tablespoon dark soya, 2 tablespoon of chilly sauce, 1 teaspoon or 2 of ready made thai chilly padi if you like your face to be red, I also add 1 tablespoon of Ketchep..ok I know Fabio is definately gonna comment about ketchep in my food again, but this is exactly what they used in Singapore. So dont be mad at me ok Fabio? You can also add 1 table spoon olive oil if you are not afraid to grow horizontally.


It´s almost impossible to find freshly made noodle here..to get this dry wontan noodle..the chinese say..you have to 偷笑 "Steal a laugh" mean you should consider lucky! I cooked the noodle for 10 mintues, in really hot boiling water , once it is ready..I quickly removed access water & transfer it to my sauce mix.


End result, Nelina was at home when it was done..I quickly picked up my chopstick and dive in! Everything else seem unimportant anymore..just me & the wontan noodles!!! It was no doubt far from the one at Geylang but I enjoyed every bit of it! After 1 big plate , I settled down on my couch infront of the fire place with a my cup of espresso .. feeling satisfied!

Boiled wontan dumpling


Deep fried wontan dumpling

You eating shrimp or prawn?

Am I the only one who is confused between shrimps and prawn?
I found out from internet that there´s actually a slight different between this 2..
Prawns and shrimps belong to the same family as crabs and lobsters and are similar in a number of ways. They are decapod crustaceans, which means that they have 10 legs and a hard shell covering their body, although the shell that covers prawns and shrimps is much thinner and not as hard as the shell of most other crustaceans.
I love shrimps..any dish with shrimps I dived in!
There are three types of shrimps in Sweden..one the typical swedish shrimp (Which is tiny and quite salty..they are normally sold frozen, peeled or unpeeled) The unpeeled on is of course sweeter because the shelf protected the sweetness of the fresh.

Here´s is how the swedish shrimps look like,they are easy to use, perfect for sandwich and quite cheap.


During the autumn, Swedish love to fish for clay fish..I am one of them!
If you did´nt see carefully, you can easily mistaken swedish clayfish for shrimps..
The different is the texture, the clay fish are normally more salty because they are been packed in canned or frozen. Of course the best is freshly hunted clayfish, but you can only hunt them once a year, and a special hunting permised are required and only at certain river only.

Clayfish boiled in strong beer - Lousianna style


Also the Italian way...Clayfish pasta



Here´s a another way of how I like to eat my clay fish..

Clayfish Omelette

Wok raw shrimps with sambal chilly


Wok shrimps with peppers