My Lovely Blogaki

I have always been wanting to try Chinese Roast Duck, but I have not tried so far, because... I wasn't sure if I like it.

I like duck, but I am not particularly keen on the Chinese spices used for the roast. I did not have the courage to eat a plateful of roast duck that I might not like. So I decided to go for Take Away!

If I can take it home, I can eat as much as I can/want, and keep the rest in the fridge.

This is half a duck.



I did order half a duck, but it seems there is more than a half. I think I am seeing two legs. Did they put two legs, instead of putting one breast and one leg? Who knows, as this is my first try.

Cost of half a duck is £8.50 and a whole duck is £16 I believe.

In Birmingham Chinatown, there are 5 or 6 shops selling various kinds of roasted meat both to eat in and take away. I don't know if the meats are cooked on the promises or they just buy in from whole sellers. These shops are really small and I don't see such a large oven to cook big birds like ducks. It is not about cooking a 5 or 6 birds a day; it should be order of tens, as these roasts sell as if fly away!



Close-up of duck.

Do you see the holy trinity of crispy skin, white fat and pink-grey meat? Wow, beautiful. And taste? It was heavenly. It was fragrant, soft, juicy and ... meaty-fatty. Spicing was not strong as I was afraid. It was very nice!

However, I could not manage to eat more then 5 or 6 pieces at a time as it was so full of fat! And I don't through fat away, as it is the best part of duck! He he . The rest of the bird is sleeping in the fridge, and I will enjoy it for some days!

In Japan, people barely eat tamarind. I might have eaten it in Thai or Indian restaurants in Tokyo, but I never recognised as such. It is here in UK I discovered I like tamarind. And even more recently I learned assam is the Malay word for tamarind (correct me if I am wrong ) [read fbaggins' comment below]. Before, I knew Assam only as a place in India (like 'Assam' tea). This is why I decided to try Assam laksa in one of the Chinese-Malay diners in Birmingham.

If we want to find a good food, we need to do some research . I googled "assam laksa, Birmingham", and I found a blog post from a Malay guy who ate a bowl of assam laksa in a restaurant and found it a far-cry from the authentic ones he eat in Malaysia, even though he paid more than £5.

He did not mention the name of the restaurant, but I happenend to know which restaurant serves assam laksa for £5 ca. So I decided to try it in another restaurant paying even more.

This is what I got.



As garnish, there is a wedge of lemon, one small sardine, shredded pineapple and cucumber, sliced red chili, and rather oddly, a sprig of mint. I would have prefered coriander or Thai basil instead of mint (that said, according to this article in Wikipedia, it is normal Asam laksa is served with mint), and lime instead of lemon. The noodles are made of white rice-flour, and thick not very thick noodles).

So, as garnish wise, there is nothing spectacular. Only one small fish and no meat.

What is remarable for this dish, however, is the broth. It is thick, tangy (from tamarind) and full of flavour with exceptional fishiness. It was not a simple fish stock, but, I think, the fish was dissolved into the broth by the power of mixer.

Very nice!

Next time, I will try also at the other restaurant selling it for less. I am so investigative!

OK. Japanese eat natto (fermented soy beans) with white steamed rice (see my previous post) or sometimes with soba (backwheat noodles).

And we eat it sometimes with Italian spaghetti!



Here, I put boiled spaghetti in the bowl and on top of it, seasoned natto, one raw egg, chopped spring onion, and extra soy sauce.

From here, it is same with eating it with white rice: mix mix mix.



How is that!?

DISGUSTING!

If you can smell it, I tall you that it is even more disgusting.

Oh, I am just joking. For natto lovers, the smell is one of the best things about it. And, wow, natto is a magic. You don't really have to cook anything but spaghetti: you just open a packet of natto, with a raw egg, it makes a excellent sauce.

Another dinner done!

This morning, I woke up to see this view. It was at 6 o'clock.



This is our garden. Check out how deep is the snow.



This is about one hour later.



Ok. UK is cold, but it is rare that it snows so much in Central England in April.

And on the other hand, we have also this.



How crazy is this?

How to eat Japanese fermented soy beans (Nattō)

If you have Japanese friends, probably you have heard about Nattō.

It is fermented soy beans that one part of the Japanese people love so much that they cannot live without. And the other part, however, hates it. It is popular food in eastern part of Japan, but less so in the western part.

The reason of this deep divide is mainly the small of Nattō. As all the fermented foods, Nattō has a very particular and strong smell which is, if you are not used to it, a bad odour. Some say that the Chinese black beans are smelly, but there is no comparison with Nattō.

Also the non-Japanese people find this food disgusting. For foreigners, the problem is not only the smell, but also its sliminess. The Japanese people in general love slimy foods, but it is not the case for other nations. I have met only a couple of non-Japanese who said they like these fermented soy beans.

I heard that the Indonesians have something similar called "tempe", but they cook in a way that it does not smell as much as its Japanese cousin.

As I belong to the group that love Nattō, I enjoy enjoy eating it. Fortunately in Birmingham, we can find frozen Nattō in Chinese or Korean grocery stores. It costs three times more expensive than in Japan, but, I won't complain as it is probably brought frozen by air cargo (but it makes me feel guilty of carbon foot printing).

This is a packet of Nattō. I paid £1.40.




This packet contains 4 small containers of Nattō, as you see below. In a container, there are also a small packet of soy sauce based sauce and another of mustard.




I eat Nattō with raw egg. I put also some Japanese seven flavour chili. The white thing beneath is steamed rice.



And mix mix mix. Then I get this.



It is almost soupy because I did not put much rice, but normally there is more rice and it looks more dry. The mixture of Nattō odour and raw egg smell is almost obscene. It is sooooo good.

I would not recommend this to anybody, as it is not for feint hearted, but if you happen to be lover of smelly food, this is the one for you.