Day 28: The highlight of my trip!

The highlight of this trip was when I had the luck to meet up with Ms Annabel Jackson. Having lived in Hong Kong for the past 19 years, she has been actively involved in the food business, be it writing cookbooks or consulting for restaurants. Amidst her extremely hectic schedule (please click on her link for more information about what she does), she took time to hear out and advise on my interest in heading into the food industry. As she spoke about her own experiences, I grew more confident about the decisions I were about to make for my career. The bonus came when she invited me down to a party she was going to have with her 20-odd students from the HKIS. They were making a cultural trip down to Vietnam, and she wanted to introduce some of the local delicacies of the country.

And of course, I happily (and greedily) agreed.

Who likes a little bit of food porn????? I DO! I DO!

Appetisers first...

Marinated beef wrapped in la lot leaf. This leaf has a peppery aftertaste, and is related to the betel leaf.

Beef skewers. Kinda like satay, I guess.

Fresh prawns rice paper rolls – YUMMY!

Green mango salad

Sliced cabbage with shredded chicken. This was supposed to be “my station” to take charge of, and it was hilarious watching the students trying to put the salad together. The assembling is actually quite a no-brainer – simply add the cabbage, chicken, mint leaves, lime juice, salt and pepper, to taste. The students, I must say, did a wonderful job, under the leadership of one boy, who oddly seemed determined to add some tomatoes, salad sauce, and cheese to turn it into a Caesar salad instead!

The mains

Clams cooked in lemongrass.

Beef curry (with coconut) – Although I don’t take beef, I tried some of the sauce with steamed rice and it was delicious (the coconut really helps to uplift the taste). It’s more of a soup I think.

In my greediness, I forgot to take a photograph of the sour fish soup we had. The fish was marinated in tamarind, the soup was perfectly sour. Writing this down now is making my mouth water.

Finally, dessert! 

Coconut creme caramel. I am especially proud of showing off this photograph because I had baked it the day before! Annabel very graciously invited me to come help her with making this dessert at her place. While the creme caramel has French origins, the Vietnamese version has been infused with coconut, a very Asian ingredient. I suggested infusing some gula melaka, a kind of raw sugar very often used in Peranakan desserts, into the caramel. More interestingly, we replaced the liquid vanilla essence with Madagascan vanilla pods. As a virgin handler of the quite pricey vanilla pod, I was embarrassingly excited to slice open, remove the beans and stir it into the custard. And upon tasting the creme caramel, I now am truly a believer of how spending a little bit more on fresh, authentic ingredients will really help to give the dessert that much more oomph.

Friends, I will be making this once I am back in Singapore. Keep my number on speed-dial. 

At the party, I met the executive chef of Chiram Strategic Restaurants Ltd, Chef Jeffrey LeBon. While we were in the living area chomping down our food, he slaved away in the small kitchen, which, to him, must have felt like cooking on board a ship cabin. He was kind enough to take me down to Shanghai Street, which is a place where both chefs and food enthusiasts meet to look through almost anything related to food and cooking.

A box full of interesting cutters – There were some shaped of Chinese characters and even poisonous animals, like scorpions (I wonder what they are used for).

I think my lucky stars must have been shining bright when I had the chance to meet Annabel. I really cannot thank her enough.

PS: I have a surprise interview coming up, which I am quite excited about. It’s on Thursday and I hope that it goes well. Again, wish me luck!