20 Feb'2010
A Chinese New Year gathering with my groupie.
It was rather last minute to get (almost) everybody together. Everyone have their own agenda - some going away for holidays and some going back to their hometown.
(click on collages for full view)
The obligatory 'Lo-hei'.
Yummy 'Pen-Cai' 盆菜 or 'Poon Choi (in Cantonese)'
Extracted from Daniel's Food Diary
It was said that Pen Cai (Poon Choi) was invented when Mongol troops invaded Song China. To feed the fleeing Emperor who escaped to Guangdong, the locals collected all their best food available. After cooking it, they put it in wooden washing basins as there wasn’t a bowl big enough for the army, coiling the term ‘pen cai’ (vegetables in a basin).
Most would attribute the popularity of the dish to the Hakkas, who contributed root vegetables like yam and tapioca to the dish.
As to what are the actual ingredients that go into it, there are really no hard and fast rules. Almost anything goes! The Cantonese are known to serve the basin with expensive seafood like abalone, scallops, dried oysters, mushrooms, duck, chicken meat and ham. Other versions could include ginseng, dried eel, fish maw, prawns and beancurd.
The main difficulty is not in cooking, but presenting. Every ingredient has to be layered and stacked up properly. Chicken and duck meat are usually placed on the top, implying that birds return to the nests. Though those who know would reach for the bottom where the gravy trickles over the ingredients.
We had our 'Pen-Cai' at :
Lao Beijing
Plaza Singapura
Next stop : PS Cafe at Palais Renaissance
Yummy cakes. Prices averaging about $12-14 per cake, rather ex I feel, though the size is bigger than the usual slice.
Guess the feet and hands.
The lush greenery outside is actually the garden of the Thai Embassy - hmm..... not very safe and secure for the embassy isn't it?
There is another PS.Cafe at Dempsey which I prefer.
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