Bouillabaisse Créole Royale

Dear Gentle Reader,

There are better reasons to visit markets than just sniffing the texture-heavy air or listening to the babble of feverish buying and selling.

You go to the market to buy ingredients, to make food.

So, today I will share with you a lovely soup that I made the other night.

I call it Bouillabaisse Créole Royale. 

(Your Heroine asked why it was royal... because it has salmon in it. Anyone from British Columbia knows that salmon is the king of fish...)

It is easy and quick to make, which is abnormal for most of the multi-hour/day recipes that your scribe likes to invent, follow (not likely), or extensively modify. 

(Your humble scribe knows his writing needs much more work. His cooking, like his legal argumentation, has passed the 10,000 hours of apprenticeship mark soon to be made popular by Malcolm Gladwell).

Ingredients for Bouillabaisse Créole Royale (for the chef and three guests) in 45 minutes:

(Broken down into 5 stages of cooking, but prepare it all first...)

Ingredients for Stage 1

olive oil (couple of big spoons)

2 red onions (minced)

2 large cloves of garlic (minced)

(Hint with the garlic. Always cut garlic in half and if a "seedling" is growing, remove it. The hormones that instigate growth lead to indigestion...)

Ingredients for stage 2

4 hand-sized tomatoes (quartered)

3 or 4 chilli peppers (cut small then pounded or crushed in a mortar and pestle with the seeds)

Ingredients for stage 3

some fresh thyme

freshly ground nutmeg

salt (1 spoon)

green pepper (freshly ground)

Ingredients for stage 4

salmon (100 g) cut large

mackeral (200 g) cut large

red snapper (200 g) cut large

sole (100 g) cut large

scallops (2 large ones) cut in half (against the grain)

crab (3 large legs) cut in half

crayfish (4) whole

prawns (4) whole

Boiling water (enough to cover the fish once it is added)

Ingredients for stage 5

two good finger pinches of fresh saffron

&

some curry mix 

(I used a Madras (OK, Chennai now) style curry powder I made up, you can use your own. I used a Madras style Garam Masala (two small spoons) to which I added some turmeric (two and a half small spoons) some cayenne pepper (3/4 of a small spoon) some amchur powder (dried bitter pomengranate) (1/2 small spoon) and 1 1/2 small spoons of  ground coriander)

Method of Preparation (Broken down into the 5 stages)

for Bouillabaisse Créole Royale

Stage 1

Put olive oil into a thick-bottomed pan, warm slowly.

Add onions and garlic, cook gently, say 3 minutes at a medium/low heat.

Stage 2

Add ingredients to pot.

Cook over a medium heat for 7-9 minutes. Skin on tomatoes should have broken and tomatoes should be soft but not fully cooked.

Stage 3

Add ingredients to pot.

Sautee for 2 minutes, stirring (if thyme cooks too long it becomes bitter...)

Stage 4

Add all ingredients, bring to boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 15 minutes

Stage 5

Add all ingredients, simmer for 5 minutes.

End.... 

Check salt, adjust if neccesary, and serve.

Bouillabaisse Créole Royale is also nice for the next two days. Please do not warm it up in the microwave, unless you like rubbery fish...

Rye bread is nice with this. Beer is good, so is a fruity, crisp white wine like a drier Gewurtztraminer. Enjoy!

Tschuess,

Chris, Regina, and Pommes with a spoon

Pardon me?

Dear Gentle Reader,

Help! 

There is obviously an orthographical mistake here. 

Did the sign writer mean Birds or Brits? 

For the last two weeks we have looked at viruses, and yesterday SARS was mentioned.

Birds, via SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome), decimated the economy of Hong Kong in 2002. 

Brits ruled Hong Kong until 1997.

Both phenomena are not liked by many Chinese in Hong Kong...

But, looking at the sign, which group are we not to contact or touch, for the first part of the sign to have meaning? Birds or Brits?

As to the second part, why would this be necessary?

Tschuess,

Chris, Regina, and Pommes

My Town Monday for December 8, 2008

NO PICTURE TODAY!
...I'm in Cambodia with no camera to computer connection!


Hello Gentle Reader,

Sepiru Chris is checking in from Phnom Penh today.

The ever effervescent Junosmom and I are hosting Travis Erwin's My Town Monday series for the month that he is taking off.

My post is found here.

The important ones are found here...

Junosmom takes us to Christmas past & present in Kentucky

Debra's skilled hands deliver cups of kindness

Cloudia takes us on a comfort spiral to a beachfront ossuary

Barbara serves up literary Tapas on Vienna's Lipizzaners

UPDATE*** Barbara also takes us in the backcountry of Waskesiu here...

Jenn takes us to Washington (not below B.C.) and Alexandria (but not the library)

Chuck considers redundancy in Kentucky

Packsaddle provides us with his take on a tough slice of Texas

Travis takes us into his head in the Hospital's waiting room here (a being John Malkovich moment?)

Pattinase presents Helen Pearson's, a photographer's, view of Detroit after the credit has stopped flowing and auto sales have frozen...

Glennis takes us to Hammer Springs in New Zealand here...

I will add to MTM's as I find them to this posting at slightly longer gaps than Travis does, this week, due to being in Cambodia.

Also, MTM folks, though I have read your posts, I will comment later because I am having a nightmare time with my connections. Sorry... so my comments will come in a few days when I return to Hong Kong.

Tschuess,
Sepiru Chris

My Town Market; Hong Kong Street Markets

Dear Gentle Reader,

While there are many supermarkets around town, and spanking new groceries, the markets which your scribe considers super are outside on the street, or under the overpasses.

The market that we are visiting today is in Jordan, Kowloon here in Hong Kong.

I have mentioned before that rent in Hong Kong is expensive (kidneys for rent...).

Well, if you have temporary digs in the street, then rent is a lot less expensive

If the seller's costs are lower, then the seller's prices can be lower. So sellers in street markets have lower costs, lower prices, and tend to sell pretty good volumes; this is productive selling, Gentle Reader.

I wish your nose could be brought along to my market; there is a pungent mix of scents which I would like to share with you.

The sickly sweet smell of organic decay hangs in the air because it is so hot that organic molecules start breaking down quickly.

Various floral notes from the fruit stalls hang high in your nostrils while the sweet protein of dried fish slides below the fruit and vegetal notes but well above the bass of earthy notes created by tables of mushrooms and root vegetables.

Finally, splashes of pork and beef daub the inside of your nostrils liberally to round out the palette of nasal flavours.

And, of course, there is a tang of sweat in the air from massed humanity. It cooks by the lights, under the tarps, that protect from excess sun or rain.

Every market has its own smells that change by the hour and by the season. Similarly, each country has its own "market smell" because each country has its own national diet and its own required ingredient list.

I know that my description of the nasal flavour notes in the markets sounds unpleasant, especially when broken down to its constituent parts, but the whole mass of notes is striking, like Mahler's Second.

It might not be to everyone's taste, but is is undeniably symphonic in its complexity, and, personally, I love the smells of markets.

Besides, the combined scent effect of the market is muted by the carbon dioxide which also gathers under the tarps where the people haggle in a symphony, or cacophany, of mock surprise, outrage, and shouted demands.

Everything is touched, everything is squeezed.

Every colour, texture, prospective flavour, and individual scent is appraised and contrasted with the expected final price.

Relationships between individual sellers and buyers seal some deals, while some are always hungry for a bargain.

This haggling, frequently seen as a low-class, rural bumpkin behaviour in Hong Kong, which boasts rather ordered haggling, has become more common as Hong Kong has slipped into recession.

Hong Kong's behavioural shifts in her markets may augur a thrift that is both second-nature and anathema to Hong Kong's people.

The potatoes, peas, and Taro roots shown in the top image were all inexpensive, but I never did figure out the per kilo price on the Granny...

In Chinese communities there is a tendency towards agglomeration for almost all goods.

Agglomeration refers to the economic practice of competitors setting up shop beside each other. This allows for greater price comparison and greater price competition for the consumers, but it also makes it easier to set floor prices for sellers and it helps drive up foot traffic.

People who come to a certain district, say the food market area are likely to buy, not simply to comparision shop. They walk into four stalls knowing the price will be the same, and they find the selection or the service that they like the most.

So meat is sold in neighbouring meat stalls.

And fish is sold in neighbouring fish stalls...

Note the hygenic conditions... cook well... is it any doubt that with the phenomenal population density of Hong Kong that viral threats are not uncommon?

Ever wonder where the Asian flu strains come from each year? Or where SARS came from, or at least where it exploded in public health practitioners' consciousness?

Your Heroine, Hero, and scribe are all at ground zero...

Tschuess,

Chris, Regina, and Pommes

PS You may be wondering who is shopping in these markets when I previously said that large numbers of residents do not have usable kitchens in their apartments. With seven million people in Hong Kong there are also a number of people that do have usable kitchens. Also, all of those restaurant owners have to shop somewhere... these markets are where the restauranteurs and chefs shop.

Going viral, what does it take?

Dear Gentle Reader,

Talking about yourself can sometimes be as toxic as the Marbug virus pictured above, (The Marburg virus yields Marburg Haemorrhagic Fever, which is very similar to another CDC Category Four Biosafety Agent, Marburg's close relative, Ebola...) but your scribe will risk it.

While quite pleased with the surprising success of the two almost-viral posts mentioned on Tuesday, your scribe always thought that one of these two posts from Taiwan would have become more popular:

The wall of the damned and first contact

or

How I learned to stop worrying and love the Bomb

These two stories are chapters in a travel book I am writting on living in Taiwan.

What would it take for these posts to be "viral worthy" of being spread by word of fingers? I am curious, Gentle Reader, as to what you think and what you think should be changed... (and there is no need to be gentle in critique).

Your Heroine and scribe are in Cambodia, and incommunicado. But, when your scribe returns, he will be keenly interested to see if anyone has offered feedback, and what that feedback is...

I have the impression that everyone else writing a blog is a signed, published,or a soon-to-signed author with a much more extensive set of contacts and knowledge of the system.

So, if I am breaching etiquette here, I apologize.

I would still appreciate feedback.

Your scribe can dream, right? As long as he is willing to back up his dreams with hard work, and if he is somehow able to make the invisible visible...

Tschuess from Cambodia,

Chris and Regina (Pommes, with Macavity's Hidden Paw and some mayo, is striking terror into the fish quivering in their tanks in Hong Kong...)