Crab Meat with E-Fu Noodles in Oyster Sauce (蟹肉伊麵)

E-fu noodles (aka Yi mein in Cantonese, 伊麵), are often consumed on birthday celebrations in Hong Kong, thus they are also named as "Longevity (long) life" noodles (Sau mein 壽麵). They are flat egg-noodles, made by wheat flour. You might easily find them from any Asian stores, that are deep-fried first before packed in a plastic bag for sale. When it comes to cooking e-fu noodles, all you need is to blanch them in boiling water to get rid of any excess oil, and then cook briefly in simmering liquid. Its colour of golden yellow is very attractive, along with its chewy and elastic texture make them stand out of the crowd. Generally speaking, Chinese people categorize e-fu noodles as a kind of only-have-it-on-special occasions one.

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Pumpkin Chiffon Cake (Light and healthy)

Beautiful pumpkins are available throughout the year here. They are so versatile and incredible for making any dishes. I used a small amount of pumpkin puree to make a chiffon cake, that produced a very attractive, natural orange-red colour. The cake's texture is very light and fluffy. Yes, I'm a big fan of light and fluffy cakes. The recipe is adapted from a Taiwaness cookbook writer 薛妃娟. She really knows how to make good use of natural and healthy ingredients and bakes delicious chiffon cakes. The nutrients of pumpkin and pepitas are well known. Guess that I don’t need to explain.

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Crispy Roast Pork Belly (脆皮燒肉)

Both my hubby and father are big fans of crispy roast pork belly, sold from Hong Kong bake shops. So I decided to learn how to make some not long after I moved here. Lucky me, I know a couple who are very talented and have a passion in Cantonese cuisine. As they were afraid that they had to say goodbye to all their most favourite Hong Kong dishes after migrating to Australia, they nearly attended every culinary class taught by professional chefs, and learned all famous, traditional dishes, including roast pork belly (aka siu yuk, 脆皮燒肉).

The tricks of roasting pork belly with a perfect, crispy crackling are quite simple. I had a big success at the first attempt. The crackling and the moist, juicy pork meat were so good, just like those bought from shops. But after a few more tries, I stopped making any more. Why? Cleaning up a greasy and messy oven is not enjoyable at all. Frankly, it’s like a nightmare to me. A few aftermaths have put me off for many years since then.

Until recently, many of my friends started talking about and using convection ovens. Good reports from them after many tried. So I gathered all my courage and used my new kitchen toy – convection oven to roast pork belly again. The verdict: we’re satisfied with the end results. Best of all, the cleaning job is far less fussy.

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Chocolate Pear Pudding (Nigella Lawson’s no-fuss recipe)

Having cooked the poached pear in red wine, I still got several beautiful pears in my fridge. While wondering how I could use up the in-season lovely pears, Nigella Lawson’s cooking show of making chocolate pear pudding came just in time. She always shows cooking delicious dishes without any fuss or pressure. Take a look at the recipe below, you'd see how easy to make the dessert. This luscious chocolate pudding became a perfect ending to our dinner last week.

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How To Remove a Pear Core

After posting the classic dessert, Poached Pear in Red Wine, some readers sent me emails asking how to remove the pear core without doing much damages to the pulp? If you have a little kitchen gadget like mine, removing the pear core is pretty easy.

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Converting Grams to Cups (Problem & Solution)

I received countless questions about how to convert a recipe from gram measurement to cup measurement, or the other way round.

Since I posted the recipes of tangzhong bread, I started receiving emails from readers asking the same question like this, “Could you convert (the recipe of xxx) from grams into cup measurement for me because I don’t have a kitchen scale?” I lost count of how many emails of such I received so far. I think it’s time to write a post to respond to all who might have the similar question.

I pretty understand that it is quite confusing when spotting a recipe with different measurements. It might be disappointing too if you really like to give it a go, but don’t know how to convert to the measurement you used to. As a food blogger, seeing my readers succeed in trying my recipes will definitely motivate me and make me happy.

Unfortunately, there’s no one formula to help convert different ingredients from one kind of measurement to another. The only way is to weight the ingredient one by one, then measure it by a cup/tablespoon, or vice versa.

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