three-coloured steamed egg

the smoothness of steamed egg with chucks of salty eggs and century eggs to complicate the flavour.

brewing high mountain

so apparently high mountain isn't one of the four main teas produced in taiwan, i guess it's just too valuable to be grouped as 'popular'.. lol. i however have always had such privileges tasting its pure liquor and aroma thanks to my beloved relatives living in chiayi. since it's not so popular, cautions should be taken to embrace its full taste and aroma when brewing the tea. but really there's not much difference to brewing any other tea, take the usual process of warming the tea pot and cups, etc. put leaves in the pot about 25% of the pot's capacity (for that the leaves expands once brewed). wash leaves with boiling water for 5 seconds (this process can be omitted). then brew the tea with water temperatured 95-100degree c for 40 second (first flush), water should be added to 95-98% of the pot. from there on brew each flush 30-35 seconds, this process can be repeated for 'as many times as you like'... well, personal experience says around 5 times to still have the same taste and colour and for the leaves to fully expand and be exploited. do not recommend leaving leaves in teapot for longer than 10mins to be brewed again, it just doesn't taste the same.
my aunt used to make tea leaves pillows with the used leaves, they are the perfect companion for summer afternoon naps.

turnip rice cake

So I bought some rice flour ages ago, thought I could make glue out of it -- somehow. Of course that was a stupid idea, therefore I made cake instead. Looked up some recipes and realised I had not got any relevant ingredient except the flour, so I just made up some stuff and steamed it for ages.
It's food.

It's actually not bad. Though, of course, to be authentic you might want to check out this one: http://blog.yam.com/homeeconomics/article/13417378 --> cantonese style turnip rice cake. not to mention it's not my favourite, I prefer taiwanese style rice cake of course.

Spring Onion Oily Pancake

Nicole's made some lovely pancakes, let's see how it's happened.

4 cups of all-purpose flour

1 cup of high grade flour

salt

boiling water 60% of the flour mass

Mix well, knead until smooth and shiny. Cover the dough with a wet cloth for half an hour.

Meanwhile, chop finely spring onion green, mix with sesame oil, salt and pepper.

Pokes her finger in the dough and finds it springs up lightly, means the dough is ready.

Divide the dough into appropriate sizes, a bit smaller than the palm of her hands. Sandwich the spring onion in between 2 flatten dough and fry both sides in hot hot pan.

Serve HOT.

An egg can also be added while frying.

orange dumplings