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Thanks for dropping by!
Thanks for coming by to check out my blog. This is where I’ll talk about my cooking, the activities I’m doing & my general musings on the F&B world here in China. I have a great love of food, wine and travel, and I look forward to sharing my thoughts with you. Sit back, and relax with a cup of coffee as you read my blog.
Cheers, David.
Greek Salad
Serves one
Ingredients:
- 1 medium Cucumber, (about 120g)
- 1 small/medium Tomato, (about 90g)
- Red bell pepper 30g
- Red onion, sliced 10g
- A pinch of fresh parsley , fresh oregano, and dried oregano
- Feta, about two ounces (approx 60g)
- Olive oil, 1 tsp
- A few pitted olives to your taste
- Salt to taste
Directions
- Peel cucumbers and slice ½“ thick
- Cut tomatoes into wedges
- Place the cucumbers, tomatoes, bell peppers, red onion, oregano, parsley, olives, and olive oil in a bowl and toss
- Season to taste and place into serving bowl
- Top with feta and sprinkle dried oregano on top of feta
Food Service in Shanghai
Being in the food industry for quite a while, I’ve always been asked for my thoughts about Shanghai’s food service changes and improvements.
I think that the overall standard of food and service in Shanghai has improved over the last few years. This had a positive effect on better trained and more professional chefs and service people in the city. There is no question the many great hotel and individual operators here who have invested their time, money and passion into inspiring these individuals to raise their game and want to to better. This has made for a much broader selection of good people on the market.
There is still however a long away to go and there are still a lot of jumpers out there, people who are not concerned with making a career out of this industry but just jump from one opening to the next for a little extra money. However, these sorts of employees eventually get taken over and replaced by the people who have invested long term in their future by being stable and learning from good teaches and working for serious establishment.
A proper accredited entrepreneurship scheme and salary range control would also see us continue to improve the standards, hopefully more good things to come in this area. Definitely a stronger free standing industry has also helped overall with the development of more creative cooks. Over all it is getting a lot better and I have had the pleasure to work with some great local talents over the years.
A new fav’ Congee & Noodle Place in Hong Kong
I was always a big fan of Pete’s noodles, a famous wonton mee place. When I lived in HK, I would religiously go there. I still go there now. A while ago, I did some research and asked some local friends what they thought was the best. Even though Pete’s is famous, there was another one I had to try.It turned out to be right around corner from Fiat and when I ended up eating there four times during that stay in HK. It’s a place where when it’s busy, you sit next to strangers.
I was next to a middle aged lady who looked up and said, “Do you know what you want?”
Then, she explained a whole bunch of congee and wonton options. With her help, I ended up picking pork meatballs, wonton mee, and choy sum. The was cooked in the light broth the wonton noodles come in. The congee was super silky and just perfect. The wontons and the shrimp in them were scrumptious and fresh.
PS. Dusting your congee with pepper is really good.
Fennel Salad
A small refreshing recipe from the Fat Olive for the upcoming warm weather.
Fennel Salad
Ingredients
- Cabbage julienned, 90 g
- Fennel sliced, 80 g
- Red onion sliced, 20 g
- a pinch of Basil
- a pinch of Dill
- a pinch of Chives
- Vinegar, 10 g
- Salt and pepper, to taste
Method
1. Place the cabbage, fennel, basil, red onion, dill, chives, and vinegar in a bowl and toss
2. Season to taste and place into serving bowl
Moganshan
Over the last couple of years I found myself increasingly getting engaged with what’s happening in Moganshan.I realized what these guys are doing up here is incredible. They do organic growing. They hope to change the way China goes with food now. They want China to look at food in a way with traceability, organic focused. We must care about where our food comes from. These farmers collected fruits, vegetables, and harvested rice. Then, we sat in a shack and there were ladies knocking out dishes. We ate awesome food. The farmers were telling me: “I just got the winter bamboo grown here. This okra was harvested yesterday. This is the green rice I got from Japan and is growing organically there. This bullfrog was caught in the rice patties where the green rice was grown. This fish is grown in the rice water drain off ponds.” Everything I ate has its source, and that is phenomenal.
Music is from http://www.freesoundtrackmusic.com/ by Arif_Banto
Thailand Eats
A while ago, I visited Thailand. I loved the street food there. Everyday, I went to grab something from the vendors and brought it to the nearby beach to sit an enjoy it. I usually got bbq thai chicken leg or green papaya salad.
This is a box of takeout I got from the vendor, I don’t know the name of this dish.
In this box, there is a deep fried green curry rice ball.
You eat this curry rice ball with these jungle leaves. I think they might be called beetle leaves.
The bottom compartment of this box is the curry rice ball that the vendor crushes it up with a bunch of stuff, peanut, chili, dried coconut shreds, fresh local herbs. This mix mash on the bottom is also eaten with the leaves. You wrap it and eat it like this:
Featured on Jetsetter HK!
Ladies and gentlemen, I have exciting news for you all.
I’ve been featured on the March Jetsetter HK publication!
Check it out here:
To find the issue, here is the cover.
Fiat’s Affogato
This is a little sweet indulgence I made for people who have the chance to stop by Cafe Fiat.
The key ingredient to this treat was the illy crema (a frozen coffee drink offered on our menu). It had such a magical balance of sweet and ice, I couldn’t hold back the temptation to make it part of a dessert.
On the bottom of this is layered traditional Italian lady fingers awash with home brewed coffee and frangrant brandy syrup. On top of this rests a bed of unsweetened mascarpone. Finally it is topped off with the illy crema and dusted with dark cocoa.
Tell me what you think about it if you happen to try it!
The Caffe Fiat Prologue
I am in Hong Kong working with one of my clients to create a true Italian Cafe concept in the Fiat show room. There are only a few days left until opening. Today, I put the finishing touches on the new menu, worked on training the kitchen team, and we had our photo shoot.
The cafe is located in Causeway Bay. If you know Hong Kong, this area is considered the densest and most populated shopping areas (in the world). On a Sunday, it is literally a sea of people. I have created a menu that will give shoppers and office workers in the area an experience of a small italian country café during their busy day.
Just a sampling of the Fiat Caffe menu:
• amazing Paninis
12 Chairs’ Modern Weekly Award
For anyone living in China, you know that Modern Weekly is one of the key Chinese language publications when it comes to food, drink, fashion, events. I was really happy to find out today that my private dining room has won best fine dining at their 2011 restaurant awards! Continue Reading →