My car’s air-conditioner broke down yesterday and today, while I was driving to the Japanese supermarket to buy gyoza wrappers, I had two options: to roll down the windows and suffocate in the toxic fumes of Bangkok pollution, or keep them closed and asphyxiate in the sweltering heat (the outside air temperature was 35ºC). I chose the latter. At least I’d die with cleaner lungs.

By the time I reached the supermarket, I was an oily-faced, sticky, sweaty mess. Still, I was determined to get those gyoza wrappers. A quick splash of cold water on my face made me look civilized enough to enter the supermarket without them alerting the security guards, and after filling my cart with all the necessities and lingering for a bit, (oh, but the air-con at the supermarket was so cool!) I made my way back with a box of popsicles in the passenger seat and a popsicle in my mouth…as if that would help. After being stuck in traffic, I gave in – forget the clean lungs, I need air now! And so it went for another hour, with me intermittently rolling down the windows and up again when the air got really bad, until I finally got home. By this time, all thoughts of making gyoza was out of my spinning head and I could only conjure the image of my bathroom. A nice cool shower and a change of clothes later, I was in the right state of mind to start making gyoza.

Here you go, the fruits of my torture-filled struggle:

Jup’s Better-Be-Worth-It Gyoza
(Makes 40 pieces)

• 40 gyoza wrappers
• 1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup water

For the filling:

• 400 g. ground pork
• 1/2 head cabbage, finely diced
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 green onions, finely chopped
• 1 tsp. grated ginger
• 1 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• pepper to taste

For the sauce:

• 2 Tbsp. soy sauce
• 5 Tbsp. vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. sesame oil

Mix all the ingredients for the filling in a bowl.

Spoon about 2 teaspoons of filling onto the gyoza wrapper and put water along the edge of the gyoza wrapper. Fold the wrapper over the filling so that it forms a semicircle, and fold the front together to seal the top.

Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan over high heat. Once the oil is hot, place the gyoza in the pan. Let the bottom brown for a few minutes without touching it. Do not turn it over.

Add enough water to the pan to cover half the height of the gyoza and put a lid over the pan. Let it steam for about 5 minutes on low heat or until all the water has evaporated and lift off the lid.

Scrape the gyoza off the bottom of the pan and serve with the crispy brown side up. Shredded cabbages are a nice condiment with gyoza.

For the sauce, mix all the ingredients together and serve with the gyoza.

Categories: Recipes
10 Comments »

I’ve been having cravings for dim sum and all things Chinese lately, so I went to Shanghai Xiao Long Pao for dinner yesterday. There are at least 10 branches all over Bangkok and I went to the one at MBK, since that was the closest one to me.

The restaurant had simple decorations - light beige tables scattered all over the place with a tiny open area where you can see the chefs cooking. I was quite surprised to see that the majority of the customers here were foreigners. It must’ve been because of the quick and tasty food, since the wait staff weren’t all that helpful.

You can probably guess from the name of the restaurant that their specialty is xiaolongbao (70 baht for 6 pieces), but the xiaolongbao here is no match for the first-ever xiaolongbao I had in Macau with K, middle J, and KT. Still, since it’s hard to find a place that sells xiaolongbao in Bangkok, this place will have to do for now. Xiaolongbao is a type of meat dumpling/mini-bun that contains soup inside the dough. To eat this dish, you first have to dip the dumpling into a sour sauce with julienned ginger. Next, take a tiny bite of the dough and with a spoon underneath the dumpling to catch any juices seeping out, suck out the soup, but be careful it doesn’t scald your mouth. Finally, the rest of the dumpling is eaten. Just thinking about it makes me salivate.

On top of this, M and I ordered a number of other dishes. The first to arrive was the Szechuan soup (70 baht), which was very concentrated and bursting with flavor. It was hot and spicy, but also very sour. Floating inside the bowl were pieces of tofu, shiitake mushrooms, eggs, and shrimp. This is definitely a dish for someone who enjoys strong, bold flavors.

The next dishes that came were moo saam chun nam dang (130 baht). The moo saam chun nam dang, or the stewed pork belly, came in a big square chunk in the middle of the plate, surrounded by boiled vegetables. It tasted like Thai stewed pork leg, but the meat was very soft. It was so tender you could use chopsticks to tear the meat apart. With the faint aroma of Chinese herbs, one mouthful of it could swoon you to the moon – but only if you eat the fatty skin and the meat together will you feel the effect of the whole thing. Yes, it was really fatty and you’ll probably agonize over your weight the next day but you just HAVE to taste this!

Equally good in taste was the koong phad sauce Szechuan (240 baht), or shrimp sautéed in Szechuan sauce. The first few things I noticed about this dish were that it was very oily and the portions were quite small. Despite that, the fresh shrimps tasted sweet and had a chewy, bouncy texture, and the ginko seed’s unpleasant (or pleasant to some) aftertaste was masked by the salty, slightly spicy sauce.

The last to arrive was the gyoza (70 baht for 5 pieces), which were big and plump. The gyoza here is also filled with soup (even more soup than the xiaolongbao!) and as you drink the mildly sweet soup, your heart will fill with warmth. The only complaint I had was that the dough was a bit too thick.

The quality and taste of the food here is considered superior for a chain restaurant. Word has it that there is at least one chef from Shanghai stationed at all the branches. At least it will keep me satisfied until I find a sponsor for my ticket to Shanghai where the big players are!

Shanghai Xiao Long Pao
3A08, 3rd Floor, Zone A
MBK Center
Phayathai Road, Wangmai
Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330
Tel: 02-611-5722, 02-611-4776
Open: Mon-Thur 11:00am-9:00pm
Fri-Sun 11:00am-10:00pm

Categories: Restaurant Review
6 Comments »

I had my first taste of Brazilian food when I was in Japan. AB, my half-Japanese, half-Thai friend, kept raving about how fabulous the food is and what I was missing out on. I finally knew what he was going on about when he took me to Barbacoa Grill in Tokyo.

Entering the restaurant, the first thing one notices is the rows and rows of plates stuck to the wall. These plates had all been signed by famous people, from Japanese sumo wrestlers to the world-famous Ronaldinho! Well, well, well…if Ronaldinho frequents this place, then the food must be authentic Brazilian.

The place was packed but luckily, we made reservations in advance so as soon as our coats and shopping bags were taken, we were led to a table right by the salad bar. The salad bar had an array of vegetables, ham, rice, and Feijoada black beans. Barbacoa’s menu is very limited. There is the ever-popular Brazilian barbeque, the Churrasco set, priced at 4,200 yen/person (approx. USD 35.00) where diners can have unlimited access to 12 different types of grilled meats and foods, including pineapples and cheese. This price also includes Pao De Queijo, or Brazilian cheese bread that had a crunchy outer crust and was very chewy inside. For customers who wish to have alcoholic beverages with their meal, the restaurant offers a choice of all-you-can-drink sets, paired with the churrasco set and dessert for an additional price, ranging from 6,400 yen to 7,200 yen (USD 53.00 to USD 60.00), depending on the drinks.

AB and I opted for the normal Churrasco set and we were given a token with brown letterings on one side and green on the other. We were to place the token on the table with the green side up if we wished for the Passador, or the Brazilian waiters, to bring us meat.

The passador were all over the place, holding gigantic skewers with huge chunks of meat. There is a cutting board next to each table and when the passador spots your green token, he will come over to your table with his treasure. He will then place the skewer on the cutting board and slice up as many pieces of cuts as you request. The meat is then eaten with the two sauces provided – a white vinegar sauce with chopped onions and a Japanese-style steak sauce.

According to Barbacoa’s menu, the cuts served include Picanha, Garlic Steak, Pepper Steak, Alcatra, Fraudinha, Coracao, Cupim, Batata, Linguica, Coxa de Frango, Cebola, and Abacaxi. Don’t ask me what they all mean…I just know that there were sausages, pineapples, cheese, roasted chicken, lamb, beef…you can’t possibly sample them all! (But we tried…boy, did we try!) AB and I had a grand time there. We both visited the salad bar only once and chose to stuff our faces with the meats instead. By the end of the meal, we were both so full we could hardly breathe! If you get a chance, you should definitely visit this place.

Barbacoa Grill
4-3-24 Evergreen Bldg.
Jingu-mae, Shibuya-ku
Tokyo, Japan 150-0001
Tel: 03-3796-0571
Open: weekday 11:30am-3:00pm and 5:30pm-11:00pm
weekend 11:30am-4:00pm and 5:30pm-10:00pm

Categories: About, Restaurant Review
1 Comment »