Monday, May 6

The first weekend of May

The Mister is away on a week-long baby-less, wife-free vacation work trip to Houston and my folks came by for dinner. I, ahem yes, yours truly, made dinner for them and ... didn't have to resort to emergency food delivery service. That alone warrants some applause and a daybed for those naysayers to lie down on. 


I'll admit one of the dishes - the soup - called for some CP wantons but that was a last-minute switch and I assure you the rest of the dishes required a wee bit more effort. Cross my heart xx.


5-spice Honey Roast Chicken with Momofuku Octo Vinaigrette (recipe here)


I though the chicken itself was a little flat despite the use of 5-spice powder. However, the dressing is a keeper. A keeper! If you love vinegarish stuff, you will absolutely relish the twang with every bite. 


400g of udon + 2 mint cucumbers, finely slice + 
ko ebi, toasted + Japanese goma dressing

There is a Japanese take on the Chinese zha jiang mian and sakura ebi cappellini so commonly found in both fine dining and budget fine dining restaurants. A winning dish - the first to be wiped clean. 


Jing Du Pai Gu - 京都排骨 (recipe here)

A really tasty dish though I swopped pork ribs for pork soft bone as the latter has much more meat going for it. And I popped them into the slow cooker a day earlier to let the flavours intensify. I'm sure the leftovers will be even more gratifying; I just need some Gardenia white bread to kiap the meat to create low-brow comfort food. 

Topping it off was brunch with a couple of dear friends and some quality one-on-one with the bub. What a lovely start to May!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The udon looks so refreshing! Can I ask if mint cucumber refers to mint and cucumber? Also, what brand of goma dressing do you use? There's quite a lot in the jap supermarkets. Thank u!

yixiao said...

hello there, i used Kobe Ichibankan Arabiki Goma (Sesame Dressing) and mint cucumbers are er, mint cucumbers (haha!), not mint AND cucumber.