the idea of importance

When I first laid my eyes on Meseidy’s Coconut Shrimp Soup, I knew it was something I had to try as well. I love Thai food and I love Italian. This recipe seemed like the perfect marriage between the two and I couldn’t wait to taste it.

Sadly, the cilantro I bought on Friday evening had wilted, so I substituted with basil and arugula instead. I also added in half a red capsicum, for a bit more sweetness.

This was pretty good. I honestly wouldn’t mind making it again, perhaps with a dash of fish sauce the next time, which I think flavours Thai dishes so well. It was also a big hit with le hubby :-)

I still had one little nectarine sitting by it’s lonesome in the fridge. So, I chopped half up, scooped some Baskin Robbins vanilla ice cream in and poured some maple syrup. I really need to get more fruits for dessert. Eating them plain is not very exciting.

I puttered around the house for most of the day, doing some light housework and mostly just lazing about. I really like my weekends this way. A lot of people think le hubby and I are the most boring couple since we hardly ever socialise or go out to do anything “important”. Well, we just happen to enjoy time alone (with each other) and our idea of importance is quite different from others.

What ranks as paramount to me:

• getting a Microplane grater (I tried using a grater I had lying about in the house and the stupid thing just smooshed the ginger… I eventually had to try to chop the ginger as finely as I could but it was difficult without a good knife);
  

• which brings me to getting a good chef’s knife (le hubby helped sharpen our existing knives with a whetstone but they still weren’t as sharp, I tried slicing a lime and nearly cut my finger off);
  

With this in mind, I managed to convince le hubby to take me to The Gardens shopping mall, a place we both usually avoid due to the insane traffic. I know there's a shop there that sells Microplanes and several German knives (from my research, they seem to be the sharpest in the market). Since it was the Raya weekend, when most people have balik kampung (gone back to their hometowns) and KL would be relatively empty during this time of the year, the drive there was easy and le hubby didn’t complain.

He wanted to eat first and I suggested going to Din Tai Fung. I had always thought this restaurant was a Hong Kong franchise but it actually originates from Taiwan. I guess the name threw me off because it sounded Cantonese to me. I can’t read Chinese and le hubby corrected me saying that it is actually Mandarin.

We had to queue up and take a number. The wait wasn’t long though and within 10 minutes, we were seated at a table.

The restaurant is famed for its xiaolongbao (steamed dumplings), so we ordered a basket of six along with several other dishes. I thought it wasn’t soupy enough. It’s the broth contained within that’s supposed to be what a xiaolongbao is all about. That was just a slight let-down. The other dish I liked was the chilled cucumber, which was served as an appetizer. It was savoury, crunchy and cool, perfect for hot weather. I must try to re-create this at home.

In all honesty, I don’t really see what the hype about Din Tai Fung is about. The restaurant was ranked as the world’s top ten restaurants in 1993 by The New York Times and even has it’s own Wikipedia page. But it’s been more than fifteen years since, perhaps the quality has slid? Perhaps New Yorkers did not get to experience “great Chinese cooking” during that time (the world was not as globalised then)?

At least we got to finally try it out. Anyway, remember what we originally came to The Garden’s for? The shop was closed and I have to put off getting a Microplane until another day.