Squeeze 'N' Spread Kaya

Squeeze 'N' Spread Kaya

What an interesting find! Squeeze 'N' Spread Kaya... Now we can forget about having to open up a glass or plastic jar containing the kaya / jam and finding a butter knife to dip into the jar to spread the kaya / jam onto our sliced bread.

With the increasing competitiveness of the food industry, more companies are looking into new way of packaging traditional foods to attract the consumers.

If you have any interesting finds like this, feel free to drop me an email at samscakes@gmail.com

Dragon Boat Festival (Duan Wu Jie)

Dragon Boat Festival (Duan Wu Jie)

The Dragon Boat Festival, Duan Wu Jie, Duan Yang meaning the "Upright Sun" or "Double Fifth", Fifth Month Festival (common name amongst the Chinese), a Chinese festivity tracing its origins to Southern China, falling on the fifth day of the fifth month around the Summer Solstice, involving boat races and rice dumplings. The festivity evolved from the practice of revering the River Dragon, to what later became a festival to commemorate Qu Yuan, a third century poet and political figure of the State of Chu.

Primitive worship of the river dragon was often practised during the Summer Solstice. The Dragon Boat Festival was tied to Qu Yuan's story only in the second century A. D. Qu Yuan was a councillor and a patriotic Chu Minister who lived in the third century B.C. In the midst of turmoil during the period of Warring States, Qu Yuan had warned his king, Lord Huai of the threat that the northern Qing posed toward the southern state of Chu. However, political intrigue led Lord Huai to banish Qu Yuan instead. The ministry was left in the hands of corrupt statesmen and Qu Yuan helplessly watched his motherland decline. Depressed, he began to pen beautiful, patriotic poetry such as Li Sao (an allegorical poem stating his political aspirations), Jiu Ge (or "Nine Songs") and Huai Sha (pointing to his eventual suicide), all of which gained Qu Yuan great renown. In 278 B. C., General Bai Qi led the Qing armies to occupy Ying and destroyed the Imperial palace. Several months later, on the fifth day of the fifth moon in 279 B.C. Qu Yuan, driven to despair, threw himself into the Mi-Luo River, giving his life to his country.Here the legend varies. Some suggest that fishermen at hand attempted to save their Minister. Having failed, they sought to appease his spirit by throwing out rice stuffed in bamboo stems into the river to prevent the fish from eating the body of their beloved Minister. Others say that the rice offerings had been snatched by a river dragon and the rice needed to be bundled in chinaberry leaves instead and tied with five different coloured silk threads in order to be effective. The triangular rice dumplings or zong zi thus became entwined with the festivities. Another version has the farmers rowing out in dragon boats in their attempt to save Qu Yuan. Thus the practise of the dragon boat races.

(Blue Text Source: http://infopedia.nlb.gov.sg/articles/SIP_67_2004-12-27.html)

Today is the actual Dragon Boat Festival Day, the fifth day of the fifth lunar month. Over the weekends, my mother, grandmother, aunties and uncles were helping to tie the rice dumplings (Bak Changs). Having grandparents from two different dialect groups (Cantonese and Teochew) allows me to see the difference in the type of rice dumplings made. Generally, the key difference between the two types of rice dumplings is that my Cantonese grandmother's rice dumplings are darker and the rice have been fried with lots of soya sauce, five spice powder and coriander powder. Her rice dumplings are very close to those available outside with sliced shitake mushrooms, minced pork, chestnuts, salted eggs, etc...

On the other hand, my Teochew grandmother's rice dumplings (as seen in this bake journal entry) are lighter in colour and one corner of the rice dumpling is red bean paste. According to my Teochew grandmother, this style of rice dumpling is very traditionally Teochew. When one savours the rice dumplings, one tends to eat from the salty end and ends off with a sweet red bean paste finish. Do note that there are red bean paste dumplings available outside, but they are generally plain glutinuous rice wrapped with red bean paste.

Another of my Teochew grandmother's specialty is her chilli rice dumplings. The minced pork is fried with her special chilli paste and then used as a filling. As compared to the first rice dumpling, this is much easier as there are only two fillings (plain glutinuous rice and chilli minced pork).

Left: Fillings for the traditional rice dumplings, Right: Chilli minced pork fillings for the chilli rice dumplings.

Left: Filling the bamboo leaves with glutinuous rice, Right: Tying the rice dumplings securely.

Left: More rice dumplings waiting to be cooked, Right: Rice dumplings cooking in hot boiling water.

Seedless Lychees???

Seedless Lychees???

My parents just bought these lychees back from Guangzhou, China and it was sitting in the fridge. Being the food technologist in the house, I decided to snap a photo of the two types of lychees and blog about it in my bake journal entry.

You would probably have seen seedless watermelons, seedless oranges, seedless grapes... I bet you have not seen seedless lychees! I must say that in Singapore, it is not impossible to see lychees with very small seed, in some cases, would be classified as "seedless". The lychees on the right of the picture is what a normal lychee should look like on the outside and inside. Generally, they are small, slightly rough skin and sweet and juicy on the inside with a seed in the centre.

As for the lychees on the right, I must say that they are mutants. Seedless! As to the overall taste of the fruit, it tasted very artificially sweet and the skin of the seedless lychees are smooth and thin.

All I can say, this is what the world is heading towards, convenience fruits... Soon, there maybe even seedless mangoes, seedless durians, seedless longans, seedless rambutans, etc...

Prawns...

Prawns...
You must be thinking, what is so unique about these prawns. They are just steamed prawns presented in a beautiful way hanging over a coconut shell. I must say, there is so much more that meets the eye.

Usually, when we eat steamed prawns, they are either overcooked, dry, not sweet, mashy or very bouncy (which is due to the alkaline solution that they have been soaked in).

This may look like a simple prawn dish presented in a unique way, but there is a lot to learn from it. Firstly, the prawns are boiled in the coconut water to retain and further enhanced the prawns sweetness. Secondly, they are put over the sides of the coconut shell. This coconut shell is placed over some solid fuel and lighted. The sweet fragrance of the prawns is evolved.

The gastronomy science behind cooking the prawns ends here, but there is still the savouring side. As we take one prawn out of the coconut shell, the outer shell is warm and does not scald our fingers which ease peeling of the prawns. Next, you will observed that the prawns are cooked to perfection in terms of colour and texture. As you placed it into your mouth, the prawn is naturally bouncy, free of the alkaline taste.

Definitely a dish to whip up for parties and it will surely be a conversational piece. You can wow your guest by telling them the gastronomical science of cooking and eating prawns.

Doughnuts!

Doughnuts!

Doughnuts... The picture above shows how the shape and design of doughnuts can vary. Look at the first picture, these are doughnuts from Vietnam. At a first glance, these were once upon a time, the most basic form of doughnuts (fried ring shaped dough coated with a layer of powdered sugar). Nowadays, you see that doughnuts have taken on a new look (coloured glazed, jam filled centres, etc...). This is a very evident example of how the food that we eat also evolves with time. Here is a poem written by my culinary teacher, Chef Judy Koh, "Doughnuts with holes in the middle".

Doughnuts with holes in the middle

hands kneading to silky smoothness

stretched so thin it forms skin over timpani

make music the magic of dough

and hear it grow

cut to circles

then in bubbling oil they go

sink, then float and rise

like golden sunshines

golden sunshines

with holes in center

eclipses that mar

the perfect wheel of life

yet little hands will grab

doughnuts with holes in the middle

and laugh at each bite

and doughnuts with holes in the middle

will fill the eclipses that

mar the perfect wheel of life

- Judy Koh, 8th December 2003.

A very interesting food poem to ponder upon. Comparing how life is never perfect just like doughnuts with holes in the middle, yet at every bite of it, you could taste the joys of life and forgets the imperfections of life. To my loyal bake journal readers out there, if you too have a good food poem to share, email me at samscakes@gmail.com

Summary of my Vietnam OITP Experience (The end of 7 weeks in Vietnam)

Summary of my Vietnam OITP Experience (The end of 7 weeks in Vietnam)

I was suppose to keep you all (Sam’s Bake Journal loyal readers) updated about what I do in Vietnam. However, given the working hours, I often returned back to the hotel feeling very tired. Nonetheless, I will give a full blog summary on my overall experience in Vietnam over the past 7 weeks.

Indeed it was a good exposure and experience for me to be working in a bakery in Vietnam. Not only did it open my eyes to see how mass production using both semi-automated machines and high labour, it also showed me how easily satisfied the workers were in the bakery.

Despite the language barrier, we were lucky to have 3 ladies who knew how to speak English, Mandarin and Cantonese respectively. This was one of those times that I was really grateful to my paternal grandparents for teaching me to speak Cantonese whilst they were looking after me when I was much younger. From these 3 ladies, we managed to pick up some simple Vietnamese phrases and words, enough for us to get by our day to day life in the bakery. This was further put to the test when we had two Chinese chefs from China coming to the bakery to conduct some demonstrations on the use of their butter which the boss of the bakery had bought. I had to translate the recipes in Mandarin to Vietnamese.

With respect to the Vietnamese people in general, they are very friendly and very outgoing. They are easily satisfied. When they start working, the two important goals that they want to achieve are to buy a motorcycle and second to that is a mobile phone. They do not have to worry about having a house and paying installments or even paying credit card bills as they are used to making transactions in cash. As they do not have much recreation here, one of their favorite past times is to sing karaoke and they are really great singers.

As pictures say a thousand words, here are some of the pictures we took together with the workers both at work and when we are out together.

Hotpots (Steamboats) in Vietnam and Miscellaneous foods

Hotpots (Steamboats) in Vietnam and Miscellaneous foods

Hotpots or Steamboats are a hot favourite here in Vietnam. In Singapore, this is served as a complete meal, however, in Vietnam, this is a soup dish that complements rice or noodles. The hotpot contains seafood, vegetables and a few slices of meat in a variety of soup stocks (Thai Tom Yum, Chicken, etc.) Almost every street corner, you can see these hotpots stalls and restaurants.

Safety have been of little concern whenever we eat them in Singapore, until this incident struck during one of my hotpot meals in Vietnam. We were only about 3 tables away from this fire which took 3 big bottles of fire extinguishers to extinguish. In most cases, these fire hazards are due to the re-using of gas tanks by pumping in gas into the finished tanks. Over time, they get worn out and explosions like these occurs. In this case, it could be due to the oily drips from the food which came into contact with the big flames of the fire and with water and wind the fire spread very fast across the table.

Here are some of the foods that we tried in Vietnam.

Left: Squid Salad, Right: Roasted Mouse Meat
Squid Salad: Steamed squid mixed with onion, pineapples, sliced chilli, parsley and lemon juice.
Roasted Mouse Meat: Lots of bones, very little meat. Tastes like chicken breast meat.

Celebrating Pin Da's Birthday in Vietnam

Celebrating Pin Da's Birthday in Vietnam

Today, the four of us celebrated Pin Da's birthday. After we arrived at the bakery, we decided to source for a plain vanilla sponge cake. Following that, we brought the cake down to the cake decoration department (the place where the May and Siew Lee are working). With the help of some of the workers, they applied the skills that they have learnt on the cake (piping roses, flowers, edges, etc...). To further give Pin Da a surprise, May managed to get a sugared dragon decoration for the cake. What a day! Happy 19th Birthday, Pin Da!

The end of 1 week in Vietnam

The end of 1 week in Vietnam
On Thursday, we tried the 2nd of the 3 choices (Baguette with fried eggs, Noodles or Bee Hoon Soup, Porridge with salted eggs, peanuts, vegetables and pickles) available for breakfast at our hotel – Noodles Soup.

And to kick start our morning, what better way than to have a cup of ca phe (Vietnamese Coffee). The coffee here is very thick and sweet (Haha! What we would call in Singapore… Espresso with condensed milk).

We proceeded to the bakery as usual with 3 other Singaporean consultants (Mr Foo, Mr & Mrs Kum). At the R&D laboratory, Pin Da and I were taught to use the frozen sweet bun dough to shape into 3 different breads (Pork floss buns, Ham Buns, Hot dog Buns). Here are the thawed frozen sweet bun doughs and half finished products in the proofer.

We were also taught how to make Bahn Mi (Vietnamese Baguette). While waiting, for all the breads to be proofed, we saw Chef Meng doing some chocolate decorations and asked him to show us. Amidst all the chocolate decorations, this one caught my attention and we learn how to make this chocolate decoration pattern.

Our buns baked and out of the oven, with some finishing touches!

After lunch, we would usually head to this sugarcane stall just outside the bakery. Often, we would see other staffs of the bakery and would try to make conversations with them (Most of the time, we would be figuring out what they are trying to say rather than start a proper conversation). The afternoon was spent rounding the plain sweet buns (frozen dough) which is used in huge amounts daily!

On Friday, when we first entered the R&D laboratory, these cute animal breads were sitting on the table next to the oven. From this, you can see that the Vietnamese bakers are very good at handicrafts.
Our Bahn Mi… Proofed and ready to go into the oven to bake!
Our baked buns… 100% done by ourselves.
This is an interesting bread. Korea Bread. It is packed with black sesame and on top of that, a high amount of modified starch is used to make this bread. You can see the difference in the gluten structure of the bread. Crusty on the outside, chewy on the inside, sweet and fragrant!

For dinner, we were recommended to try this place “Hai Lou” which is about 2km from our hotel.

The famous Vietnamese sticky rice.

Boy! Saturday… Yes we are working 6 full days here. First thing that was done in the morning, making this frozen hot dogs buns (notice the pattern… very similar to Danish pastries, but they are actually normal hot dog buns).

Rondo Sheeter… Extremely useful in a bakery.

Laksa for lunch??? (Haha. More like Curry Bee Hoon. Anyway, the curry here is slightly sweet).

Croissant Buns…

And we have the privilege of learning some baking skills and technique from Mr Kao himself. He taught us Financiers, French Puddings and a new pattern of shaping sandwich loaves. Financiers…

French Puddings (using all the remainder egg yolks… as the financiers use egg whites).

New pattern of shaping sandwich loaves…

Today is Sunday!!! Our off day!!! We explored the area around our hotel, did some shopping and spend the afternoon chilling at Trung Ngyuen Coffee (an equivalent of Starbucks or Coffee Bean here in Vietnam).

Well, it seems like this Bake Journal is becoming a day to day narration of what I do at Duc Phat Vina Bread Company… I will blog about more interesting finds in Vietnam soon.