When I attend Chinese Wedding Banquets, one of the dishes I look forward to is the dessert and the Honey Dew and Sago Dessert is one of my favourites. This dessert combines the sweet and fragrant taste of fresh honey dew fruit with the jelly-like texture of sago in a refreshing syrup-based drink. What makes this different from the Yam and Sago Delight dessert is the fact that no real cooking process is involved, unless melting sugar syrup is defined as cooking for you.

This dessert tastes great eaten cold and is suitable for kids and adults. Very refreshing indeed on a hot and humid day in Malaysia.

This is my recipe for Honey Dew and Sago Dessert Read the rest of this entry »

I have a problem naming this dessert. You see, I have no problems with yam. But I have a problem with the other ingredient namely nian gao. Nian Gao is mandarin for the word Year Cake. Nian is Year and Gao is Cake. In Hokkien dialect, it is known as Tee Kueh (sweet cake) and in the Cantonese dialect, it is known as Nin Kou (Year Cake). Nian Gao is sweet. Very sweet. It is made of rice flour, very sticky and traditionally thought to be a form of sweetener offered to the Kitchen God just before the Chinese New Year so that the Kitchen God will say good things about the household. Anyway, after much thought, I decided that I will call this the Fried Yam and Nian Gao Sandwich. Read the rest of this entry »

It was truly a Yam and Sago Delight over the weekend. I bought a yam on Sunday and decided to make dessert out of it. It is my very first yam purchase in my entire life! And it is all because of this blog. You see, having this blog motivates me to try new recipes now and then so as to keep things going. So, anyway, after discussing some potential ingredients with my wife, we decided to have a dessert consisting yam, sago, pandan leaves (screwpine leaves), gula melaka and evaporated milk. Read the rest of this entry »

Ginkgo Barley Dessert with Foo Chuk is one dessert which my wife loves. It is known to be nutritious as cooling. Some chinese restaurants serve this dessert as part of a banquet, though usually for the more expensive menus because the ginkgo nut is rather expensive.

When purchased, the ginkgo nuts usually need to be broken either using a nut cracker or a mortar & pestle with a gentle knock. Ideally, take a toothpick and push the toothpick through the middle section of the nut to remove an “embryo”-like structure. This part of the nut is usually bitter tasting. Read the rest of this entry »