Tawdry Tai Tai Tales - Scent of Organic Green Papayas

A lot of friends have been asking me lately whether I'm a Tai Tai (read: a chick bum who lives off her husband's earnings) over here. Well, the answer is yes, I'm certainly not working. The only difference between me and a Tai Tai is that I don't subsist on facials, manicures and tea sessions at the Peninsula. I run, photograph and cook like a fiend without a dishwasher.Still, my tawdry tai tai tales seem to interest some folks lately. So here's another, inspired by a visit to an organic farmers’ Market at Central Star Ferry Pier on a Sunday.

Now, visiting a farmer's market gets me all excited since there isn't one in Singapore। What I saw were lots of locally grown green produce, harvested at the peak of their incredible flavours and sold at a reasonable prices since there's no pesky middle man.The first thing that caught my eye over there were Thai snake beans ( see picture).

They were long, lovely and luscious. Using my pidgin Cantonese, I bought a huge bunch right away (HK$15). I must have tickled the farmer since she rewarded with a stalk of fresh basil. So what did I do in return? I bought some more basil, a bouquet of mint and a bunch of okra. In the midst of my buying frenzy, I suddenly noticed green papayas. Yes, GREEN PAPAYAS, that meant I could make Som Tum!

I nearly cried tears of joy when I got those papayas. Reason? I was craving for gd ol' Thai food since all the Som Tum that I've tried over here were sissified versions of the real thing. Limp green papaya with loads of vinegar and little chilli. Horrors! There was even one eatery which replaced real chilli with chilli sauce.Good Som Tom required fresh, crisp green papayas, flavoured by salty nam pla (fish sauce) , balanced by sweet nam taan bik (palm sugar) and spiked with stinging bird's eye chilli. It's really a celebration of flavours. In BKK, the Som Tum is so spicy that it numbs your tongue and brings tears to your eyes. Yeah, this is one sadistic salad to die for.

Fortunately for moi, I had my hidden stach of real Thai ingredients, bought at the sleazy Metro Golden Mile Thai supermart just before I left Singapore. Hubby thought I was crazy to lug this to HK. Well, no more. Suddenly, it dawned to him why I lugged along an authentic thai motar and pestle.

I made a successful batch of Som Tom and it was so good that we finished it before I could photograph it. We ran out of snake beans when I finally photograph the damm dish and it didn't last too long in the bowl either. Now, all we need to complete the meal is some Beer Chang. Now, where can I get some Thai beer over here?

Details on the Organic Farmer's Market@ Star Ferry Terminal over here.

Recipe: Use a traditional Thai Mortar and Pestle , a stone one like this will last you for ages. Pound these ingredients in systematically, 2 cloves of skinned garlic, 2 shallots(eschalots), 1-2 strings of snake bean(long bean) snapped into 3cm lengths, 5-6 halved cherry tomatoes, 1/2 green papaya, shredded ( Use a vegetable shredder to minimise loss of fingers), 3 tsp of Thai Fish Sauce, freshly squeezed juice of 1 Thai Lime (they're big, fleshy and green), 2-3 tsp of crushed Thai Palm Sugar
Top it off with crunchy roasted peanuts before you serve.

On black rainstorms and running - Jun 08

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When it rains in Hong Kong, it pours*. Unlike the benign rains back at home in Singapore, it gets really destructive when it pours over here.

Flights get delayed (345 to be exact at HKIA)...

(Picture from WierdAsia- Flooded Airport highway, see car in front of picture. Drivers reportedly had to escape from their cars through the windows.)

Roads get turned into rivers and...

(Picture from Xinhua)

slippery landslides can be fatal ( 2 deaths in Tuen Mun).

Just like the typhoons, the rainstorms come with their own vernacular. They can be amber, red and black. Yes, the bad rainstorm we had on Sat was black. Plus it came with a little sign with a rockface and crumbling stones. Well, it sure didn't mean that rockclimbing wasn't not safe during this period, it meant that a bloody landslide could occur, so stay home !

And stay at home we did. Hubby had his bike ride cancelled and my weekend long slow run became a hamster trek on the treadmill.Still, I'm thankful that nothing dramtic happened to me this time. I felt really sad for the little kids who lost their parents in Tuen Mun and all the folks who are left stranded in Lantau without electricity or water.

*This note is written to assure all my friends that I'm alright. I live in a pigeonhole in the sky.

Experiencing the Typhoon that never was - Aug 2007

Just when I thought that relocating would be a piece of cake with summery days and delicious gourmet discoveries, I was plunged headlong into my first relocation nightmare.

Typhoons.

Well, to explain myself, typhoons(hurricanes) are as common in summers as dim sum are to teahouses in Hong Kong. We definitely don't have these in Singapore - The closest light and water display we get over here is the musical fountain show in Sentosa. Anyway, since I've married to an over-protective chap, I've been drilled on the common hk typhoon vernacular:

Typhoon signal 1 means I can continue drinking my tea.

Typhoon 3 means that I can carry on shopping.

Typhoon signal 8 means that HK IS in the path of a typhoon with unimaginable windspeeds. Should I see this signal, I should return home even if I am in the midst of a facial, looking like the living dead.

Since I have never encountered any natural disasters in ooh-so-safe Singapore, I poohed poohed the dangers. I barely registered the tawdry typhoon details that till last Friday. And I learnt it the hard way...

On the 10Aug, I ventured out to the city despite an annoying drizzle that registered at signal 3. The reason? I was bloody adamant to collect a pair of coveted shoes ordered from France and a pair of wedding slippers for my friend. Trust me, I'm no shoeholic but when I have to wait 3 months for a pair of ballet pumps, it drives me nuts. Instant gratification is way cooler.

But hunger struck before I could gratify myself. I stopped at IFC Mall to fortify myself for even more buys and was reading Ellen Mcnally feverishly when I noticed something really strange.... There was a definite buzz in the air and the mall was emptying out. All the retail shops pulling down their shutters in broad daylight and I could have sworn I saw some ladies running on their Mahnolo Blahniks. The whole thing seemed surreal.

I didn't know what was happening until I found out I had no telephone signal. Glup.Apparently being a couch potato has its virtues-I've watched enough re-runs of "Twister" to realise a Typhoon was about to hit Hong Kong and soon. I hastily abandoned my delicious liquid Valhrona , made for Central MTR and was shocked when I saw what was before me.

There were thousands of people, shoving, jostling and screaming in Cantonese over at the entrance points. I was witnessing pure mass mayhem and it felt pretty much like I was in some foreign language horror movie without subtitles. The only intelligible thing at that point was a Typhoon 8 warning sign written in English near the turnstiles. It brought me cold comfort, but what else I could I do besides joining the terrible crowds? Public transportation would cease in 2 hours after the announcement and getting a cab/bus in a Hong Kong noon exodus would be like striking the lottery. I just prayed to God that I would get home in time and in one piece despite the melee. It sure didn't help that while I prayed, there were ladies who kept crying and fainting from the poor ventilation. It was both scary and vexing at the same time since the wait was long.By the time I did manage to get on the train, I was squashed by the crowds against the train doors . The queues only thinned out once it went past Kowloon.

Well, I am a little shaken from the experience ( not stirred, haha) but I thank God I emerged unscathed from the event. By nightfall, the typhoon did an about turn and the signal was fizzled to a 3. Transportation soon resumed to normal. So much for the mass panic!

Cooks and Carnivores

I just bought a couple of these succulent little suckers some days ago and steamed them in their own pretty fan shells and juices. Delicious. That's the best thing about living in Hong Kong. The ingredients here are fresh, plentiful and cheap and there are as many options for vegetarians as there are for carnivores and cooks. I feel really excited to cook again.

Recipe

Get a professional to shuck the scallops for you to minimise missing fingers and brain damage. Clean the little suckers well and get rid of the dark flesh and gills.Steam the fresh scallops with a dash of grated ginger, Japanese HonDashi , soy sauce and Chinese Cooking Rice Wine. Top it off with cellophane (bean) noodles(blanched in seafood stock), fried garlic and spring onions.