Hong Kong, Guangzhou and Macau

After two days in Beijing, I moved on to Hong Kong, where I attended a conference for work. I've been to Hong Kong before, and it remains one of my favourite cities.

It is so well organised, easy to get around, interesting, beautiful, and friendly. Unfortunately, I had a cold, and tried my hardest to overcome it by staying in on the first evening and taking it easy.

Avenue of Stars

Because we were at the conference, and were fed quite excessively at lunch time, our eating schedules were a bit funny and we didn't end up eating out all that often. And I took zero photos of food. But we did get to see a bit. Like the giant rubber ducky floating in the harbour!

After two days of conference in HK, we got on coaches and headed to Guangzhou for another half-day of conference. Again, we were fed a LOT as part of the conference.

North Gate at Sun Yat-Sen University

We had Saturday to look around Guangzhou before heading home. Because we don't speak or understand Chinese, and we hadn't really prepared well for our trip, we asked locals at the conference what we should do. Everyone answered "shopping!" And so we did. It was a little overwhelming, to be honest, because I'm not much of a shopper (nor is my travel companion, I think). But Guangzhou was pretty! It seemed more affluent than Beijing, was easier to get around, and the air was so much clearer!

The Pearl River at night, viewed from my hotel elevator-lobby

We coached back to Hong Kong for a last night. Our flight wasn't until 9pm, so on Sunday we popped over to Macau for a few hours. It was hot. And glitzy. And we wanted to walk around and see a bit, so we had a look at a map and worked out a route that looked interesting.

And it was, at first, but in a "Who lives like this?" sort of way. It was like Asian Las Vegas (having never been to Las Vegas).

But then we came to a beautiful tiled square.

And we followed the beautiful tiled streets...

... until we found Macau's prime attraction, the ruins of St Paul's Cathedral.

It was crowded, and hot, so we got sorbet which was wonderful. Then we got the ferry back, had a shower, and went to the airport.

It's good to be home, even though I went straight back into crazy work mode! Visiting Hong Kong again made me want to take a proper holiday there in the future, spend a bit more time, and see some of the parts I haven't seen yet.

Beijing

The day after classes ended for the semester, I hopped on a plane, and then another plane, and one more plane, and then I was in Beijing. It was a work trip, and I was travelling with a friend / colleague. We arrived late at night, so went straight to our hotel, and in the morning set out to see some sights.

Tienanmen Square was our first destination. But it was all closed off for some massive VIP-only event involving people dressed in red, or yellow, or blue outfits, some on rollerskates, others with drums. The whole place was closed off, and the smog was pretty intense so we didn't even get a really great look at the square from across the (closed) road.

Zhongshan Park, just outside the Forbidden City, was a bit more rewarding. Cool trees and a break from traffic was what we needed.

From there, we went to Beihai Park, which is located on the former site of Kublai Khan's palace. The day got smoggier, so the views were probably not as spectacular as they could have been, but it was still pretty amazing. Also, there was some kind of giant flash mob, or maybe choir practice, happening in part of the park, so we had nice music in the background as we looked around.

After a slightly harry attempt to get home, we made our way over to the apartment of more friends / colleagues. We all went out to 798 Art District, a very cool, former industrial zone that has been colonised by artists. I got edamame, and we drank some beers, and we looked at art from lots of different genres.

We had takeouts for dinner from a vegan place called Ginkgo Tree. The food was pretty good - we had mapo tofu, some sweet and sour mock fish, spicy vegan chicken, and stir fried bean sprouts. I didn't take any photos, because I was tired and hungry, but it was in takeaway containers so it didn't look that fancy anyways.

After the first 24 hours, when we'd tried to stick to cabs because people had told us the Beijing trains were cray-cray, we realised that cab drivers who don't speak english and don't know where our hotel is and drive like they want to die are actually much more terrifying than the trains. It was a much more pleasant journey after that - the trains are actually pretty easy to use. So if you ever find yourself in Beijing, take it from me - even though cabs are cheap as chips, the trains are easier and even cheaper (2 yuan per ride, or about 30 cents in AU$).

The next day we took an organised tour to the Great Wall, because, duh. The trip was a little bit tourist-trap, beginning at a jade "factory" and finishing at a silk "factory". But we went to the Ming Tombs, going down into the tomb of Emperor Ding Ling.

And then, we went to the Great Wall of China. It was pretty great, actually.

For dinner, we met up with my Beijing-based colleagues / friends at Sunao vegetarian tea house. This place was fancy pantsy. After we ordered, they brought out a smoky plate of melon.

Then we ate plenty. Vegan chicken with walnuts - a nice, earthy twist on the usual cashew-based stir fries.

Deep fried eggplant with lemon-pine nut sauce. This was really delicious, with a sweet yet tart lemon sauce that had more depth, from the pine nuts, than usual lemon sauces.

Dumplings, stuffed with something like mushrooms.

And maybe the best dish of the night was the vegan spare ribs. The sauce was sticky-sweet, and the spare ribs themselves were yummy and well proportioned. The stick in the middle was some kind of vegetable which I am fairly certain was lotus root. It had tiny, spider web-like strings that sometimes got stuck to my face, but it's all part of the experience, right?!

We also got dessert. The purple potato and blueberry dumplings were actually really starchy and not that great.

But the durian pastries were surprisingly good. Wrapped in flaky, hot pastry, durian loses its sewerage-stench and only the nice flavour makes it through.

We left the next morning very early, to head on in to Hong Kong for the conference which was the real reason for our travel. I'll post about that soon! Beijing wasn't a city that I fell immediately in love with, but it was redeemed by the 798 district, and I think spending more time there would reveal some more of its good features.

Banana Hammock

Just about 12 months ago, we planted our banana suckers (courtesy of Dee) into the ground. Today, we have fruit ripening on them. It was actually about two weeks ago that I noticed the bud. I had been on the lookout for a while, so was pretty excited when I saw it there.

It took a few days to turn red and droop downwards, and then it was only another day before we saw the baby bananas on the stalk. They form under a petal, and the stalk keeps growing down towards the ground.

Each day we get a new hand of bananas - we're up to 6 at the moment, and I'm expecting many more to come.

Once the bananas have all formed, we'll try cooking something with the banana flower, and then we wait for the fruit to ripen.

Let us eat vegan!

We have been loving our new cookbook, Let Them Eat Vegan! by Dreena Burton. We've enjoyed everything that we've tried so far, and have lots more recipes tagged to try. It's healthy, but in a gourmet way. The flavour combinations are sophisticated and the recipes centre on veggies, beans and whole grains - which really suits the sort of food we've been eating a lot this year, anyways.

Our first try from the cookbook was Jerk Chickpeas. I googled it afterwards, and found it all over the internet - my first choice of recipe was one that had been released as a teaser! But I can see why - they were easy to make, and very delicious. We made ours on the BBQ, rather than the oven, roasted some eggplants in them as well, and made them spicy. At the end of cooking, we mixed through some rocket from the garden, and put them in wraps.

White Bean Mashed Potatoes were a yummy and healthy side dish, but a bit more work than I prefer side dishes to be. Potatoes, pumpkin and cannellini beans mixed together were creamy and rich without being super fatty. We had them with eggplant parma, tahini-garlic gai lan, and roasted radishes.

Andy wasn't sold when I told him I would make Lemon-Infused Mediterranean Lentils. He doesn't like the idea of brown lentils just generally, even though when I do cook them, he generally likes them. The same happened with this dish - he liked them so much, he ate two HUGE bowls full. I didn't follow the recipe exactly - I added some zucchini and eggplant to the mix, and made it saucy, and it was fantastic served over rice. The saucy-stewy lentils were a great cold-weather meal, but the lemon juice and zest kept it from feeling stodgy.

Tonight's dinner was similarly "based on" with lots of changes, this time based on Yellow Sweet Potato Chickpea Pie with Basil. I used orange sweet potato and cannellini beans instead of chickpeas. This was much better than most of the quiche-type things we have made in the past, partially because it doesn't try to be a quiche at all. The slight sweetness from the sweet potato, the aniseedy basil, and the creamy beans all combined into something magical. Andy suggested (and I agree wholeheartedly) that these would be great at a party in mini form.

 This is my current go-to book for recipes when we've got veggies I can't decide what to do with. I'm very glad I got this book!

DIY Sponges

Before I get into this very exciting (or maybe that's just me?) post, let me mention that I'm now on Facebook! Personally, I have had a Facebook account since 2004. But The Tropical Vegan now has a Facebook page. If you use Facebook, please like me  - I expect to update it a bit more regularly that I do this blog, at least during busy work-times.

Now, for the post. One of the very exciting things we have growing in our garden is a luffa. I have posted about it previously. In the comments of that post, a lot of you said you'd never heard of luffa before. I suspect that's true when I'm talking about the vegetable, for eating purposes. Most of you would be more familiar with the loofah, the bath sponge. Good for exfoliating, and completely plant-based.

They are closely related to zucchinis, pumpkins, and cucumbers, and grow very similarly, if a bit more vigorously. Our back fence is covered in the lush, green vine, and all summer we've been picking handfuls of the small fruits for eating. They are good stir fried, and added to stews and things like that.

We actually have three plants, one ridiculous and two which have struggled more. But even the struggle-y ones have produced loofahs, like this one here.

Once the fruit get a bit big, the fibres start to form, and they're no longer good for eating. So those ones we have left. They take a while, but eventually get mature enough to pick and turn into sponges. The process is actually ridiculously simple. The hardest part, for me, was knowing when to pick them. I read that you should let them get soft, but I tried a few like that and they weren't mature enough. Then I realised that they are firm when they are very young, they go soft as they grow, but then they firm back up again. I asked my neighbour, who gave me the seeds in the first place - the trick is to wait until they go a little yellow-brown. Size and firmness don't matter as much as this.

Two sponge-sized loofahs, and four little food ones.

Step one is to cut off the ends. This isn't a necessary step, but I find it easier to get the seeds out, and the end result is prettier.

These black seeds are mature and can be saved to plant next year. 

Then peel off the skin. It comes off by hand with very little effort, really. Not as easy to peel as a banana, but more like an orange.

Once they're peeled, rinse out the seeds and gunky bits. I've used the hose for this, but the laundry sink is easier. My method is to stick my finger in and scoop out as much as possible. If some seeds stay in, it's no big deal, but too much gunk will make them go mouldy (as I learned from experience). They are pretty flexible, so you can squeeze them and bend them a bit at this point to wring out as much loofah-gunk as possible.

Then I squeeze most of the water out, and find them a sunny spot. Let them hang out and dry for a few days, until they have no moisture left.

I think these make fancy gifts for people - look, I made you a sponge! But they also work well, cut into smaller bits, for washing dishes. We have plenty more to harvest, so we probably won't need to buy sponges again for a long time.

Sure, most discussions of "locavorisim" refer to the food we actually consume, but I think growing my own dish-washing sponges is pretty damn cool.

We've got fever, for Betty Beaver

When I was growing up, we lived about 25 minutes from a petrol station which had a sort of three dimensional sign featuring a massively-busty beaver in a very short, American-flag dress. I was just thinking how much I wish I could share a photo, and lo! Google to the rescue!

Check it: http://aesthetic.gregcookland.com/2007_08_19_archive.html

I mainly saw Betty Beaver when I was on the bus to sporting events (as the team manager, because I was definitely not willing to actually participate in actual sports!). We sang a song whenever we saw her:

We've got the fever, for Betty Beaver... Big teeth; big boobs; Betty Beaver's got the moves! Gooooo Betty.

I was, obviously, pretty cool.

Also when I was growing up, my mum had a food-splattered, red & white checker covered Betty Crocker cookbook. It lived permanently on the counter, and we all referred to it fairly regularly.

This Christmas, I was gifted a cash card that could only be spent in the US. I took the opportunity a few weeks ago to order some cookbooks from Amazon. I got two very healthy cookbooks: The Happy Herbivore and Let them eat vegan! Both are proudly low in fat and sugar, and actively avoid mock meats and things like wheat. The third cookbook I ordered is sort of the opposite, in all the best ways - Betty Goes Vegan by Annie & Dan Shannon.

I made my first recipe tonight for dinner

 

This is "Herb-Roasted Chicken and Vegetables", from p. 143. I used Fry's Vegetarian Chicken Strips, my first go at this frozen mock meat. I did make some substitutions - I used balsamic instead of lemon, I used sweet potato instead of white potato, and green peas instead of green beans. So, maybe I didn't really make this recipe, but in any case, it was fantastic.
So far, Betty Goes Vegan's definitely got the moves. Go Betty!

Pumpkin Risotto, three ways

Andy and I discovered the joys of pressure cooker risotto over a year ago now - some chopping, less than 15 minutes of cooking, and voila! Dinner on the table, and not a bad rendition of risotto for no stirring. As such, it has become a pretty regular staple in our weeknight meal rotation, especially since pumpkin is one of the few veggies that is good and available and inexpensive year-round up here.

As I recounted in my original post, one time we improvised, using a thick soup in place of stock in the recipe.  That was a disaster. But more recently, we have tried some safer improvisations, with some success.

Our first rendition is based on the recipe for pumpkin risotto from Urban Vegan - in fact, the only real difference is that our version is pressure cooked. Red wine, sage, sundried tomatoes and pumpkin. And we added broccoli, because, yum. To get the textures right, we put the broccoli stems in early and pressure cooked them. The florets were stirred in after we took the risotto of the pressure, and sitting in the hot risotto for 5 minutes cooked them enough for our liking.

The second variety is herb-centric. Pumpkin, red capsicum, green peas, and sosomany herbs. There were garlic chives, basil, and parsley mixed through this and they made it delicious. The herbs were added right at the end before we served, so they stayed nice and fresh.

Our final attempt was a little on the weirder side, and wasn't perfect but could easily get there. It was a thai-inspired pumpkin risotto. We cooked the rice in some lime juice, instead of the usual wine that is in risotto; lime zest, lemon grass, ginger and garlic flavoured the stock; pumpkin, red capsicum and spinach were then finished off with just a splash of coconut cream. Unfortunately, the risotto was pretty soupy even before the coconut cream was added - I think more liquid came off the pumpkin than I was expecting. Still, the flavours were fab and thai-inspired risotto should totally be a Thing.