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Wednesday 31 October 2007

Divali Festival 2007,Britomart, Auckland 26-28 October 2007




This is the second time Divali Festival is being held in Auckland and fortunately, I made it this time having missed it last year before moving back from KL. In Malaysia, we would call it Deepavali but the Indians calls it Divali. As usual, I will try not to miss any good chances where food is present.

The weather was not very forgiving but overall pleasant on Sunday after a failed attempt to go on Saturday during the sudden downpour.Unlike the famed Lantern Festival which is held during the Chap Goh Mei ( last day of Chinese New Year) in Albert Park every year, the Divali Festival saw a smaller but rather impressive crowd, mostly local Indian migrants. Divali Fest is fast becoming a must see yearly agenda for many Aucklanders and also tourists alike.

Compared to the Lantern Festival, which is fiercely popular amongst the locals where you will see more Pakehas ( Europeans) than Chinese, Divali Fest is drawing the Indian crowd more than the Pakehas. Good sign for authentic Indian food.
Pakoras, samosas, dhal, rice....etc.....

Indian sweets
An indian friend bought this dish, if not mistaken is called Bhel Puri. He told us that you either love it or hate it. The little round puris are very light and crispy. What you do is you crack open a little hole and fill it with the spiced peas and potatoes......
and then you dunk it into the tamarind base sauce and dip a little chutney and ready to eat. It tastes sour followed by a rather sharp tingle on my tongue. Love? Hmm...not exactly but I would eat it again for sure!
Idli burger, the idli is similar to putu pirings we get at home. Here, it is made into a burger form with coconut and spices filling.

so fast and intricate...too bad it takes 4 weeks to wash off otherwise i would have gotten one too...
Same performers for every festival here

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Friday 19 October 2007

Sichuan Cuisine : Feng Lin Restaurant, Howick

Howick is a melting pot of gatronomic diversity and with its unofficial title of Chinatown of Auckland, it certainly has some hidden kitchen bad-boys to live up to its unsurpassed concentration of great offerings of authentic mainland Chinese food and ardent followings.
we really had our 'sik san' ( eating spirit) when we decided to have dinner there last night despite a few failed attempts to even wedge our foot into its door. This place is usually booked out on weekends and reservations are a must to avoid eating McDs.La Zhi Xhia (Spicy Prawns)

The first dish we got was the La Zhi Xhia, it was a simple yet flavorful large prawns stir fried with Sichuan chili oil and some veges.....it certainly look more spicy than it really is. It's a very appetising first dish with the burst of freshness with the slight hint of sweetness.
Cold Marinated Beef Omasum and Beef Shin

This dish was really appetising and should have been the first to be served. I like that there's always plenty of coriander and spring onions in Sichuan dishes...it enhances the aromatic chili oil that is used widely in its dishes.
Cumin Lamb
Spiced BBQ Lamb...nice but a bit too dry
Fried Man Tou...super yummy!!! perfect texture!!
Spiced pork mince with eggplants....cannot see eggplants cos it's at the bottom...more meat than eggplant.
Long boiled duck with chinese ham soup....very clear but tasty!

Feng Lin is a new haunt for my craving of yummy authentic Chinese food and stay tuned for the my next trip!
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Monday 1 October 2007

Home-cooked Lobster E- Meen


The other day we were invited to friend's birthday dinner and was treated to a meal of lobster E-meen. I have never cooked lobster before and it looks a lot easier than what it seems.
These yummy buggers relaxing in the sink before becoming our dinner



My friend being a Hong Kongese, used the Hong Kong style E-meen. It looked very different from the Malaysian type....it's thicker and more al dente and the combination of the E-meen with the gorgeous lobster is totally heavenly. The lobsters were so fresh, with sweet juicy flesh and the E-meen totally absorbed all the nice flavours, together with the spring onions and ginger it was perfect !! The sauce is very simple : just oyster sauce, sugar, salt, chinese cooking wine and water....simply perfecto. As you can see from the pictures, there are more lobsters than E-meen...hahaha....sure nice lah. Will try to make this dish on my own when there are fresh lobsters available soon....yummmm!!!

Lastly, a yummy chestnut filled fruit topped cake for dessert to compliment our perfect dinner.
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