THE FIRST WEEK OF SUMMER VACATION!
Zoe and I are finally back home in Hong Kong. It almost feels like I’ve never left this place. Utah has been a great home for the past few months, but there really is nothing like being with family, having good food and speaking Chinese again!
This post actually took awhile to put together because there was so much we could share! Since being home, we have been able to cook to our hearts content! (Yes I forgot how much food we have in our fridges and the abundance of fresh produce is incredible). I literally think about food from the moment I wake up to the end of the day! I don’t think there is a better way to spend my summer!
We were really lucky this time that our jetlag didn’t get the worse of us on the first day. I’m surprised considering the fact that we were able to sleep through the first night after a 20 hours delay in Seattle. We were awake enough to make breakfast for our family. Zoe and I made our super quick, super tasty Bombay Omelette for my parents. We whipped up a huge batch of eggs and started frying onions, tomatoes, coriander – the kitchen smelt like heaven. I made the extra effort to leave the eggs slightly runny for my dad – who is the best cook and slightly obsessed with eggs. They both loved the spices and flavors. I think they were surprised at how easy and fast it took, especially since we didn’t even have time to go grocery shopping at all. This Bombay omelette is seriously a recipe that can be made anytime ANYWHERE since ingredients are so accessible and cheap.
You know its good when my dad gives his “nod of approval” with an occasional grunt between his bitefuls. It was a nice change for them compared to their usual plain oatmeal, fruit (apple, pears, plums, grapes) with boiled eggs on the weekday when they are in a rush to get to work. 
One of the things that Zoe and I make sure we do when we get home is cook for our parents. Being halfway across the world for the majority of the year means that they never get to try our cooking so we go all out when we make a meal for our parents. This time we were able to have our aunts, uncles and cousins come over too. My family are all pretty picky eaters, not always hard to please since so many of them are excellent chefs themselves. We decided on a Southeast Asian spread: Braised Beef Massaman Curry, Vegan Pineapple Fried Rice, Thai Egg Salad, Chilled Tofu & Herb Salad; Green Salad on the side. Massaman Curry is my absolute favorite curry in the world. If you’ve never had it before – Try it! It is probably one of the most well loved Thai dishes in the world. The coconut sauce is milder and sweeter than most, with the addition of nuts to make it even more indulgent. This also turned out to be the star of the evening. We used good quality Australian beef ribs from the market and braised it for 2-3 hours making it super tender and soft. I don’t think I’ve ever seen curry being downed so fast in my life. Children, adults alike – everyone kept getting more and more.
The tofu and egg salads were also a unique addition to the table. Zoe and I have made them over and over again whenever we prepare Thai food because they pair so well with rice! The addition of fresh mint, coriander, lemongrass and crunchy vegetables/dried shrimp imparts such a extraordinary freshness and fragrance. Its also so easy to make and never fails to impress your most critical guests. This reminds me I should probably share recipe for the egg salad soon!
Check out the recipes for our vegan pineapple fried Rice and Thai egg salad on the blog. We will be releasing a massaman curry recipe in the future.
We also made sure to prepare a dessert. A meal would not be complete without it. Alongside our dinner, we made our lemon poppyseed cake with whipped cream and berries (click here for the recipe)! This was the cake we had made 3 times from a simple lemon coconut cake we have transformed into a beautiful 2 tiered cake perfect or parties and gatherings. We made the cake the night before and just frosted it the next morning. It was a real struggle keeping it outside without the cream melting from the sweltering humid weather in Hong Kong as Zoe took photos for our latest blog posts. (You need to go check it out here)
A beautiful summer cake to share with your loved ones. Despite their insistence on being “too full”, Our family demolished the cake. Even those who don’t usually like desserts downed it! The coconut sponge cake was moist with a beautiful nutty texture form the poppyseeds. It was lightly sweetened and with the light whipped cream it was a perfect end to a Thai dinner.
Another simple breakfast we had was scrambled eggs, raw broccoli and fresh tomatoes. We like to use organic eggs at home – so they make extra delicious eggs (look at the color? isn’t it gorgeous). The yolks are closer to orange than yellow. This reminds all the reasons why home food is the best.
Dinners are usually the biggest meal in our family, so Zoe and I go light for lunches. We had some chinese veg that we stir-fried in a little water and salt. Pairing it with sunny side up egg and a delicious purple sweet potato. One other thing I miss about being in Hong Kong more than anything is eating sweet potatoes. They taste way better than yams or orange flesh sweet potatoes in the U.S. Here sweet potatoes come in purples and yellows and these taste the best. Once you taste them, you can never go back!
Another example of a simple lunch we had was braised beef with radish and some cooked veg. I try to make a rule to have half my plate piled with veggies to half a plate of meat. The braised beef is a classic Cantonese home cooked dish that we make at home all the time. We happened to have leftovers that we simple reheated. I LOVE this dish. The beef is braised till tender and pairs very well with the sweetness from the radish.
If you haven’t noticed yet, Zoe and I adore hosting dinner parties. We had our best friends over for dinner and prepared a Japanese themed meal for them. One of my friends is vegetarian so we had to do a lot of planning and adapting. We spent 2 days designing a vegetarian friendly menu.
For a low carb alternative, we made pumpkin croquettes with tonkatsu sauce, Tofu Oyakadon and a traditional chicken oyakadon (recipe on the blog); Japanese Cold Noodle Salad; Blanched Broccoli.
The Chicken Oyakadon (click here for the recipe) is one of our favorites on the blog so not surprisingly that was well loved (for our meat-loving friends). The tofu Oyakdon turned out surprisingly delicious as well. The tofu was soft and the runny eggs was still flavorful with the miso based broth (as opposed to dashi stock). This pairs very well with rice. Our pumpkin croquettes was the biggest surprise of the night since it was really something we came up with out of the blue. After looking at a few recipes we made this oven baked “fried Croquettes” that was so addicting! Once you bite into the crispy skin, you will find a soft sweet interior that comes with the pure sweetness of pumpkins.
After a wonderful girls night and sleepover, we hurried to prepare breakfast for our friends the next morning. One of them was rushing to work early on! Zoe and I amazingly threw together this breakfast in about 15-20 minutes. One of my friends requested this omelette after she saw it on our blog. And I am so glad she did! I have to say this Bombay omelette recipe is a life-saver. It was so easy and fast. On top of that, people just love it! Every bite is a like a flavor bomb!
To round up a beautiful evening and morning of good food, we made some peanut butter swirled chocolate chip banana bread. OK. just FYI it was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. We adapted our low carb banana bread (click here for the recipe) and mixed in chocolate chips before swirling some good quality all-natural chunky peanut butter on top. My foolproof banana bread is also one of our go-to-recipes. My younger sister makes it all the time because its easy, its delicious, guilt free and the ingredients are just so accessible!
We sent a picture of our banana bread to our parents whilst they were at work. They were so excited to get home to enjoy it too! They loved it. My mom is not a fan of banana bread at all so thats saying something! Yes and let me say it tastes so good when it is still hot because the peanut butter is all caramelized and gooey.
One of the things I look forward to the most is homemade dumplings. It has been a tradition in our family to have dumplings every Sunday for as long as I remember . This is my grandmother’s very special recipe. Ever since she has passed, my cute grandfather takes an hour long boat to our house just so he can make them for us. I helped them out with the wrapping once I’m home from church. Zoe and I are still trying to master a gluten free dumpling wrapper recipe, but for now I’m dedicated to mastering the art of rolling out paper thin skins and wrapping!
LOVE,
Zoe & Mia
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