BAK CHANG / ZHONG ZI

"Bak Chang" (in Hokkien dialect) or "Zhong Zi" (in Mandarin) which literally means Pork Dumplings made from glutinous rice stuffed with variety of filling and wrapped in bamboo leaves. It falls every year on the fifth day of the fifth month in the Chinese lunar calender. It was a tradition family event to making Bak Chang when my mother was still around. She would gave away most of them to friends and relatives, and kept a whole bunch which filled up half of the fridge for us. At that time i was consider far too young to learn the preparations and wrapping techniques or skills so usually i was not allow to go in the kitchen when my mother was busy preparing it. I didn't get the change to learn it either when I grow up as i had moved out from the house and has been drifting outside the world ever since. Now, sadly to say there is no one in my family knows how to make Bak Chang anymore.

As always Chinese delicacy has its own legend about how and why it was invented. It is prepared during the "Duan Wu" festival, honouring "Qu Yuan", a famous Chinese poet and statesman of the ancient state of Chu in the Warring States period of the Zhou Dynasty. Due to hopelessness of the corrupted government and the defeat of his country, he committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo river on the fifth day of the fifth month in 278 BC. His last poem was:

Many a heavy sigh i have in my despair,
Grieving that I was born in such an unlucky time.
I yoked a team of jade dragons to a phoenix chariot,
And waited for the wind to come,
To soar up on my journey

Upon hearing Qu Yuan's suicide, the local fisherman paddled out in their long boats, beating drums and shouting out loud in the hope to scare the fishes or sea creatures away (it was believed that this is how the Dragon Boat event is related to the festival). At the same time, the local people would also threw in sticky rice balls into the river, so that the fish or sea creatures will be distracted and feast on the rice balls instead of his body (that is how Bak Chang was born).

Most of the Chang is filled with glutinous rice containing fatty pork meat, Chinese mushroom, salted duck yolk, chestnut, dried prawn, etc. There are also those with very little ingredients, some just filled with beans, lye water, black-eye bean, shrimps and many more version and style of Chang.

My colleagues and I were talking the other morning about all sorts of Chang, and only then i found out that eating lye water Chang with caster sugar was origin from Toi San, which is why i realize that was the way my mother taught me when i was small, and her ancestors was from Toi San. 


I come from a family steep with traditions. Thus, when it comes to festivals like this I could feel the emptiness and gloominess setting inside me as the hour approaches for me to go home, eventually.

SCRAMBLED EGGS WITH HAM AND TOASTED CROISSANT

Scrambled eggs are the classic popular breakfast dish where it is also called the perfect English breakfast by some. It looks quick, easy and simple but the truth is, it can be surprisingly difficult to master. The key is in the texture - creamy and hence, it need to cook fast in a low-heat as cooking the eggs at a higher temperature makes them rubbery.

I worked in a restaurant back when I was in London last time and I happened to know a chef who had the chance to work with the Michelin-starred chef,  Gordon Ramsay. He told me that Gordon cooks his egg in a very rare and different way as we thought it is suppose to be. He showed it to me and it is the most superb tasty scrambled egg I had ever eat !

I was craving for a nice scrambled eggs for breakfast one morning (as i am on diet recently due to over gaining of fat where someone said that I will turn to an old and ugly pig - yes, u know who you are ~ ) and nothing else comes to my mind than the recipe I had mastered years ago and added in some extra ingredients of my own. Well, just scrambled eggs will looks dull and bored so I added a little sparks to it, anything will ease my crave but still healthy one way or another.

Simple and very straight forward :

• 3 x eggs
• 1 x plain Croissant
• 3 x slices of ham
• 3 knobs of butter
• dash of salt and black pepper
• shredded Mozzarella cheese 
• 2 x teaspoon of crème fraîche / fresh cream (or else milk will do but it wouldn't gives the creamy texture as crème fraîche)
• dash of mix herbs.

Slice the croissant and season lightly with some salt and pepper. Put it onto a dry pan and toast it. There is no oil needed as the croissant already contain lots of butter in them. Toasted them both side, place on the plate after it is done.

Arrange the slice ham on top of the toasted croissant.

Break the eggs into a cold pan with the knobs of butter. Now here is the tricks, do not whisk the eggs beforehand as it will break down the eggs.

Put the pan onto the heat and all there is to do is stir and stir and more stirring, otherwise the portion of the eggs on the bottom of the pan will be overcooked while the other portions on top won't get cooked properly. When the butter melted with the eggs it will gives a rich creamy texture to it. 

When the eggs feel like thicken but still soft, remove it from the heat and keep on stirring. Scrap the bottom and side to prevent the eggs from over-cooked. The heat on the pan will continue cooking the eggs. 

When it looks cooked and creamy, add salt and pepper. Mix it well, add in the  crème fraîche. It will prevent the eggs from over-cooked as it will cool it down.

Back onto the heat for 30 seconds, add in the cheese. Fold the eggs well and lastly, throw in the mix herbs.

Transfer the scrambled eggs onto of the ham,  garnish it with some crispy salad and there it is, the  simple and yet, nicest breakfast of all, Scrambled eggs with Ham and toasted Croissant.