Making dinner...

Today, I tried making dinner again....
Had already marinated half a bag of chicken fillets in the fridge, and decided to do a deep fried chicken rendition.


As you can see on the left, the chicken pieces were soaked in a marinate sauce of Chicken marinate, sesame oil, dark soya sauce, and 'hot sauce' (whatever that is....I found it on the kitchen counter top).


Then dipped the fillets in potato starch (corn starch or tapioca starch does fine as well...I just made use of what was available. As always).


A major problem I encountered while frying the stuff was that...I HAD HEATED THE PAN TOO HOT.


Initially wanting to dry out the pan, so that oil wouldn't splatter around when poured into a freshly washed pan, I had turned the hotplate on to full heat (setting '3'). However, when I dipped the chicken fillets into the pan - they started smoking almost immediately! As you could guess, what happened next was that I was left with blackened chicken pieces...that actually tasted alright (if you peeled all the black bits off).

If you notice carefully, the one which is not like the others (the fillet that looks more 'normal' and golden brown), was the result of listening to the advice of Judy.
What advice?
REMEMBER KIDS: When you're cooking batter fried stuff...no matter what...fish/chicken/even goreng pisang...heat the oil up first...and fry your stuff in small to medium flame. NEVER high flame. Or else, you'll get blackened chicken strips like Yours-Truly.
BTW: Judy is the Filipino helper of the young couple down the hallway who have a 10 month old son called "SuenSuen" (I think...that's probably his nickname). Ain't he adorable?? ;)

Because of the rather miserable looking chicken that appeared on my platter (that I had initially intended to be my entree)...I cooked noodles with dumplings. Threw in a few leaves of lettuce, which actually taste quite good together with the noodles.

Yes...I will be cooking on a regular basis here in HK. The food is generally quite good. But good food does come at a price (esp if you're in campus/ard the HKU Pokfulam Area). This place is considered "rich man's territory". While walking to the nearby "Park-N-Shop" to do grocery shopping, I have spotted several Ferraris and Lotuses (Ricky would be so pleased!).
In the school canteens (which are mostly like foodcourts) - prices for a normal meal begin from HKD$10 for the cheapest fare - and are usually priced in the region of about HKD$25 to HKD$40. "Cheapest fare" is not necessarily "Lousy fare", as I can attest to. So far, I've tried "Potato and Pork Rib Rice" and "Stewed Beef Rice" which were both $10 HK. And both were not only filling (with quite a generous serving of meat on top of rice), but tasty too.
That's one thing that Singapore stallholders can take a tip from (stop scrimping on the food you're giving us man!).
Ahh....but I still like 茶餐厅 "cha can ting" food....cheap, good, and lots. That's where u can really taste the local cuisine - much like a Singaporean would always insist on bringing his foreign guests (if they agree), to the grimiest and dingiest hawker stalls in Singapore to try the "D"-for-Delicious Bak Chor Mee or Char Kuay Teow.
Which reminds me...I'm craving for these foods now.
HOW??
HOW?!?!