Craving for Wantan Mee and Char Siu

Seems like spring is coming & the sun's coming up! :D

As always in life, there's always a tradeoff, ... there's lots of crazy winds coming up as well which tends to blow you off track on the road. Just remember to apply the Phythagoras' Theorem under these circumstances when cycling (an advice from an economist) :P

Anyways, cravings round 2 hit last week and this time it was Char siu (BBQ roast pork).
I started getting really tired of Western styled breakfasts and in the UK there seems to be only cereal, toasts or the standard English fry ups for breakfast. Running out of ideas and having tried the American pancake solution previously, I'm looking for new stuff & something to look forward to at the start of the day.

And THEN I realized I missed the konlo mee (wantan mee) back home, and so what are we waiting for? Let's do it!

First, there are a few obstacles to overcome. Raw ingredients, i.e. the fresh egg noodles and pak choy which are not available in Sainsbury's or any other non Asian supermarkets basically. Made a trip and bought these before hand in the strive for authenticity of my beloved konlo mee. Since my main aim was more for the char siew, I decided to ignore the wantan (pork/prawn dumplings) this time. So all I needed was noodles, pak choy and char siew.

Simple?

Maybe ;)

So how on EARTH do I make/get char siu? Having given up all my hopes on getting good char siu in the UK (yes, even London chinese restaurants) as I find them too chewy, hard, tasteless and the general absence of the charred burnt crispy bits at the end. Ok, maybe you can say I'm a bit too meticulous there, but hey, when cravings strike, let's say we only settle with the best (within your means of course!).

So, now that the latter option is extinguished, sounds like it's a fun project of making your own char siu! I've been looking and eyeing on a particular recipe for some time and this sounds like the opportunity to finally experiment and mess about the kitchen, heheh

It's not that difficult, probably more of procedural steps that makes it more time consuming, as it is in Chinese cooking in general. Anyways, to cut the long story short, I'll let the picture do the talking:

This is the 3 pieces of pork shoulder that was marinaded overnight and put into the preheated oven:


This is another upclose snapshot of it after 20 minutes or so of grlling ... I had to open the oven to turn and baste the meat. Check out the SMOKE! LOL, this is definitely my favorite picture


It's surprisingly hard to check whether it's cooked as the marinade has darkened the color of the meat in the first place! This is how it looked once it was done (notice we get the slightly charred burnt bit at the edges :D)


So time to slice up the meat (& a round of tasting session) and making the gravy (not shown) :


Blanch the pak choy and the noodles, seasoned with some sesame oil and dark soy sauce and

VOILA!

A very satisfying dinner with cravings fulfilled :D

Recipe will be up for those who want it, but I will probably post it up next time when I'm free.
Wasted half an hour already and yes, I still have 14 essays waiting for me LOL

What a procrastinator ....