Straits Chinese Cuisine - Comforts of Home

The har mee yoke, a soup based concoction of prawny flavours, spicy sauces, hard boiled eggs, tender pork cuts and spinach, is available throughout cafes and food courts in Australia, Singapore and Malaysia.
May be of interest is this blog entry on:

http://kindlyyours.blogspot.com.au/2011/08/making-of-fujian-har-mee-yoke.html

The Jiu Hu Char, or cuttlefish stir fry, can be a test of cutting and cooking skills and maturity.  Most of the ingredients have to be deftly sliced to a fine and consistent texture, for the resulting quality affects the taste and refinement of the dish prepared. Skin peeled yam bean, peeled carrots, cabbage, soaked dried shitake mushrooms, onions, minced garlic, shredded dried cuttlefish (which has to be thoroughly rinsed before use) are the main items to gather and prepare.  Sugar, salt and pepper is utilised to taste as garnish. In addition,m this is not a vegetarian dish, for pork belly or chicken strips are also thrown into the mix.  The mixture is eaten wrapped with lettuce leaves.  At the height of the Straits Chinese culture in the 19th and early 20th centuries, this dish was a favourite of mothers-in-law to ascertain the standards of cooking by the young bride.   The yam bean and carrots are especially challenging, for modern kitchen blenders unfortunately create a mash or pulp, when this dish requires a crunchy texture to be maintained of the finely sliced vegetables.

Sauces are integral to key dishes in Straits Chinese cuisine.  Above photo show accompaniments to the Penang street food special of lobak, deep fried soya skin rolls wrapping finely cut pieces of lean pork, shredded yam beans, chopped big onion and chopped water chestnuts.  Again, experience shows up in the outcomes as one binds such ingredients with five spice powder, tapioca flour and contents of eggs.  Cucumbers are served separately in slices with the lobak rolls.

The acar awak, a spicy pickled kick starter to accompany rice based meals, comes from a blend of traditions of Thai, Malay and Indian influences, adapted quickly by the Straits Chinese as to heighten the appetite at any meal.  Never taken for breakfast, a must at wedding meals, it can be viewed as a healthy concoction, as it uses cucumber, cauliflower, pineapple, brinjal, long bean, French beans, carrots and cabbage.  Again all these ingredients need to be patiently and  finely cut, to provide bite-sized satisfaction and crunchiness and to ensure that all are adequately soaked in the right spice paste. Vegetables are also required to be scalded by a formula to activate the pickling process - and this formula uses salt, sugar, white vinegar and water. The spicy paste is another elaborate affair to make, for it requires several ingredients like tumeric, galangal, candlenuts, toasted belacan, lemon grass, coriander seeds, dried red chillies, shallots and garlic, all pounded happily together with a mortar and pestel.  These days you can find all such ingredients in an Asian outlet, preferably Thai or Malaysian.  Roasted sesame seeds and peanuts are also good to sprinkle over the final mixture before serving.  Belacan refers to the dried shrimp paste and galangal is a staple of Thai cuisine to release heightened flavours.

The above dishes were photographed at the home kitchen of Madam Foo Gaik Hwa.

The Left Bower Cafe, Sutherland, NSW

Its decor, facade and ambiance can be unique. Except for the coffee equipment, I am thrown back to the 70s or early eighties. It does not over emphasise coffee, though it is the main product.  You walk into a lifestyle. You can delve into intimate details of coffee and learn much as to where the origin of all this used in this place.  It can be an unassuming place, but hey why are there headlights at the front of the shop?  You can take your coffee through a ice cream van-like counter.  You could be at a beach or camping ground, but no, you are in the Shire.

I find the coffee slick, mellow and stimulating.  I am offered a choice of whether I want my brew hard and strong, or smooth and easy.  The coffee beans come from two places in Australia, one near Byron Bay and the other from Mount Warning.  The barista can be the same person as the roaster.  What's so good about home grown coffee beans? The breakky and lunch menus support Shire providers and suppliers.

Left Bower is open on Saturdays (not on Sundays) and is not difficult to  locate, being along East Parade near the rail station and not far from the Sutherland branch of Mike's Bar and Grill.  This Sutherland cafe has connections with Jack of Harts in Engadine, a suburb located further down in Sydney's south.  Left Bower has woodwork creations of Ken Phillips, who in another life phase, was a boxer, but I am told that Ken made the rosewood panels at Parliament House.  Staff are usually  friendly, but some may be quiet on early mornings before 7 am. There are deck chairs outside to slide in - one can feel right at home fast.  This is modern Australian with a village and community feel. And to remind us that it can be so nice to be with mates and  family as we hit out on the caravan in January.

Picton, NSW revisited

On a warm December day, the inland suburb of Picton, tucked away 80 kilometers from the Sydney Harbour Bridge,  in the south-west of the greater Sydney region, looks like any New South Wales regional conurbation with its rail station, main street, supermarkets, cottage produce shops, heritage buildings and surrounding farmland.  Coming from Picton Road, and approaching the unique Picton Railway Viaduct, I had to reduce my driving speed to accommodate a residential area before getting into town.  The place looks sparse initially but perhaps I was on the quiet side.

Lunchtime beckoned me to the cafe strip, with several choices in modern Australian themed food, ranging from all day breakfast to burgers to pasta.  There is a Vietnamese bakery offering pork rolls at Aud 4.50 a piece near to the IGA Supermarket, but this is away from the main food and shopping hub. Along the way to the cafe hub, an elderly lady at a furniture shop struck up a conversation with me - she had a large courtyard in various forms of timber and stone furniture for the outlet that her son operated.

The La Crema Cafe at Argyle Street  dished up a delicious sauce for the pasta I requested (picture above), replete with mushrooms, bacon strips and aromatic herbs.   The place had chatter mainly from locals, primarily retirees, tradies and young families.  Service at this cafe was with a smile. Do try the coffee, it's uplifting and aromatic.

Picton NSW  is the administrative centre of the Wollondilly Shire and is close by car to Campbelltown.
It has several buildings of interest and offers convict and ghost orientated tours to curious tourists. Otherwise, the Mowbray Farmhouse home stays and the Picton Botanical Gardens are also highlights.

Picton was established when the Great South Road was built to connect Sydney with Goulburn.  More recently, radio personalities Merrick and Rosso caused a commotion with the airing of "The Picton Song" in which local teenagers were depicted as having widespread under age sex in order to gain benefit form the Federal Labour Government's substantial baby bonus payments to parents.