September 13, 2007: Time flies. And it seems that I've hardly completed any of my papers. This afternoon at 15:00 hrs, I went to the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies for a seminar on "Vietnam: Challenges of Growth and Globalization".
I'd make some quick entries here. The challenge for me right now is to get my paper on this Chinese community written and done with. Time is running out. Let's see...September 5 was the night I'd dinner alone because A went across the border.
We haven't got over our cravings for cze char yet, and I thought on which dish I'd miss in Beijing? (I thought of Beijing because I'd be there next week). The dish would be sar hor fun with seafood. This smooth noodle dish is Cantonese; it's got to be steaming wok mei (the fragrance of the wok) before it could be deemed passable. It's hard to describe what this fragrance is. Apparently to achieve it, the wok has got to be hot and fuming and the ingredients swirled very swiftly around it. The other thing is never to scrub the wok clean with detergent. Splashes of boiling water over it before commencing cooking is the key.
My Hong Kong friend, with whom I had dinner at the East Coast Jumbo Seafood last year, commented that the sar hor fun that she was eating in Singapore at that time did not have the charred fragrance (wok mei). I would agree perhaps; but a characteristic that would differentiate the sar hor fun here and that of Hong Kong is the pickled green chillies -- they resemble Mexican pickles, but taste a hemisphere different. Also, the heavenly scent of the obei leaf (dried bark of the palm) that we use to wrap this noodle in sometimes does not seem to be replicable elsewhere.
Anyway I paired this sar hor fun with Penfold's Semillon-Chardonnay and what delightful combination! I'd recommend Penfold's Semillon-Chardonnay over Rosemount's. I think the "depth" factor matches the lingering fragrance of the noodle, even if it didn't originate from the wok, but in the slippery rice strands.
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