Mayo's Mui Fun

Now I'm about to introduce an Asian dish that will be very strange & foreign to many of you. We call it 'Mui Fan' which is loosely translated from the Cantonese words 'Mixed Soupy Rice'. It's a light dish that will fill your stomach without being oily & overpowering. The subtle sweetened chicken broth stirred together with corn starch for that thickened texture mixed with eggs & beancurd form the base of this dish while the hot white rice is the main staple that absorbs the tasty broth into them. To top things up, I added some savory salted fish bits for a contrasting flavor & to whet the appetite. Not too much though. Every spoonful is such a satisfying sensation as the hot soup & the semi melted rice dissolves into your mouth.

PS: If you prefer something heavier, you can either add in seafood or meat of your choice.

The simplistic 'Mui Fan' ready for serving.

A fulfilling gastronomic symphony of sweet & salty goodness minus the guilt.

I had extra servings of the broth and decided to make full use of it by wrapping some fresh whole shrimps with chopped water chestnuts in wanton skin wraps. A 5-10 minute preparation for thawing and wrapping & you have the best complimenting side dish for my 'Mui Fan' dish. Enjoy!

Mayo's dinner #7

I've been so caught up with work recently that I decided to take a break from everything & just travel. Here I'm writing about one of my simple & easy to prepare dinners for your family & you. Might not be a meat lovers type of menu but try it & I'm sure you'll love it. Healthy, delicious & a myriad of sensations for your tastebuds. Read on.

French long beans with spicy shrimp paste & red onions.

Lady's finger with sambal chilli mixed with minced chicken topping.

Minced chicken stir fried with dried shrimps, chopped garlic & spring onions.

Shitake mushroom stuffed with steamed minced pork topped with salty egg yolk & pepper.


Chopped french long beans with egg omelette.

Mayo's dinner #6

Recently I've been dragging myself to work everyday and facing a boring job with some people that live in their own dream world yet they want to control people's creativity & direction! Everyone keep telling me what they want but no one is asking what I want! Mr K has been asking me what happened to my designs lately? It's below par & not my style at all. Well, my answer is that I'm creating whatever they want instead. I guess my passion is gone for my job but I've move my new passion into food, trying to learn how to cook food in a creative way, experimenting in all sorts of food & styles, trying to read as much as I can about food, nutrition & facts about the combination of ingredients, trying to learn how to style the food in a tastier way, the lighting, the color, little info about the chef... Basically everything about food. I have never really gone through any cooking classes at all but what I cook comes from the heart & I listen to the comments before I cook therefore creating something that satisfies the stomach & warms the heart. I'm wondering if my new found passion is a experimental phase or is it because of the unhappiness of my job? But cooking & creating new food for people really makes me happy as I can control everything according to what I want. Although so far only a handful of people get to taste my cooking but hopefully someday everyone can get to sample it too!

Here is a random creation of mine which is sauteed brinjal cooked with dried shrimp & garlic. The added taste that I have used here is a dash of Thai fish sauce which can be easily bought from any supermarket.

Japanese white beech mushroom (Bunapi-shimeji)

Soba with Bonito broth

Stay tuned for more home cooked soul food from Mayo...

Mayo's dinner #5

Hi guys, I know it's been quite a while since I've updated my blog but I've been really busy with work & stuff. I've accumulated quite a bit of pictures in the meanwhile so please stay tuned for more yummy delights & insights from Mayo ok? : )

I've recently made it a point to have some sort of green vegetables into my meals. So for my dinner, I made thick oyster sauce diced chicken with shitake mushrooms (I love mushrooms!) with a side of freshly sliced lettuce on a bed of white fluffy rice. The finishing touch was what else but a beautifully done sunny side up egg (Mr K has a habit of breaking the soft egg yolk center & letting it drip all over his food/rice :p). The fresh cold lettuce slices gave the dish an added crunch & somehow managed to balance out the saltiness from the oyster sauce making it a healthy & tasty meal.

Oyster sauce diced chicken with mushrooms & lettuce with egg



Another quick meal I would strongly recommend you all to try out is the home made version of a Korean all time favourite. Mix some minced pork in dark soya sauce & oyster sauce with corn flour, add some salt, sesame oil, cooking wine & pepper for taste, stir fry them in a wok/flat pan, maintain a steady flame while adding in some sliced onions & dried chilli towards the end & stop when everything comes nicely soft & moist.

Wash several pieces of fresh lettuce which serves as the 'wrap'. Just simply add in your yummy sauced pork bits in, wrap it tightly into a ball & eat it in one swift mouthful.

Dark sauced minced pork wrapped in fresh lettuce. Eat it wrapped up into a ball in one mouthful. *Bliss*

Next up, is a simply vegetable dish of stir fried broccoli with dried shrimp, coarsely chopped garlic bits & topped off with a sprinkle of deep fried onion. Flavorsome & delicious.

Mayo's Char Siew Rice

Now if you have been to most parts of Asia while traveling, you would know that Asians love their roasted meats. There's roasted suckling pig, roasted chicken/duck/goose/pigeon etc, you get the idea. Recently my friend had just returned from a trip to Hong Kong & I was inspired to create my very own version of the very popular roasted pork (Char Siew) but in a very home-styled version.

I bought a piece of tender pork shoulder meat and marinated it for half a day with honey, hoi sin sauce, fermented bean paste, salt & pepper for taste. Instead of sweating over a ceramic oven while turning the piece of pork for it to be cooked, I pan fried the meat on all sides evenly before applying an extra layer of sauce for the edges & sides & turning up the heat to deliberately 'burn' to get that smoked taste.

I boiled some stalks of bak choi vegetables in some hot water with a dash of salt to retain their natural nutrients & goodness. I also added a piece of deep fried seafood wanton (dumpling) for some saltiness on the side to balance up the sweetness of the meat. :) Finished up with a fried egg on top of some hot fluffy white rice for a complete meal.

Looks simple but quite tasty.

Hungry yet? :p

Mayo's dinner #4

Mr K challenged me if I was able to create several dishes out of the same basic ingredients that he chose for dinner. I duly accepted the challenge laid before me. Here's what he bought:
Minced pork meat, long beans & fishcake tofu.

I bought a Cute rabbit bowl that I simply adore.

For my first dish, I cooked one of his favourite dark soya sauce minced pork with chopped spring onions.

For the second dish, I created a small side vegetable dish with stir fried long beans, coarsely chopped dried shrimps with garlic bits.

For my third dish, I whipped up a tasty diced long beans with onions & eggs.


For my fourth dish, I diced & pan fried the sides of the fish cake tofu & served it with sliced yellow capsicum covered in homemade sweet & sour sauce.

With all the dishes, I also created a simple Bento that can be consumed the next day for either breakfast, lunch or dinner! : )

The left over rice can be utilized in another way for the next day's morning breakfast. Overnight rice tends to be a little drier & easy to manipulate into most shapes. I simply stuffed the dark soya sauced minced pork into the rice and rolled it into a huge rice dumpling with flattened ends. Carefully scorch the surface of the rice dumpling with light soya sauce in a hot pan till nice & brown (toasted). Top it off with the left over minced pork, throw some toasted sesame seeds & some spring onions.

I won the challenge. :p

Mayo's dinner #3

Gobo Wei Shan (Dioscorea) - Also known as the Chinese yam, dioscorea has been utilized in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries. Although there are approximately 800 different species of dioscorea, the Chinese yam is native to China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. Some of it's medicinal properties include aiding in weight loss, helps digestion, soothes cough, anti cancer abilities etc. For example if you cook the dioscorea with lean pork, it helps make the skin translucent & glowing with health.

Point to take note when handling the 'wei shan' is to wear gloves as the 'sap like' liquid within it is prone to cause skin irritation.

Lean pork meat

Dried scallop

Pour all the different ingredients into a high pot & just add in quality chicken broth to the mix and leave them to simmer to a boil.

Wei Shan soup

Carrot & cucumber slices wrapped with bacon.

Stir fried cucumber and carrot with dried shrimp.

Braised chicken with mushroom and egg with dark soya sauce.

Mayo's dinner #2

With ample time on my hands, I set out to improvise some simple dishes to unleash my culinary ideas. They may look easy but I had a great time cooking them.

Pan fried dory fish topped with Japanese bread crumbs that was cooked in olive oil & spices (garlic, black pepper & spring onion) which subsequently was left to bake in the oven

Spinach, garlic & eggs stir fried before immersing them into a thick vegetable broth with minced seafood bits.

My favourite fish maw soup with assorted mushrooms!

Mayo's reunion dinner

I wanted a simple CNY reunion dinner where everybody would cook their own food & would be easy to clean up thereafter. What better than a nice hot steamboat dinner with precious delicacies from the sea. Here's what was on the table: chicken broth soup base, shitake mushrooms, cabbage, carrots,fish maw, prawns, crab meats, sotong balls, scallops, crab sticks, ngor hiong, kelp etc.

Facts: Benefits for Shitake mushroom. Invigorate your immune system, promote optimal health, a hearty mushroom that's good for your heart, a powerful antioxidant, has been discovered in mushrooms.

Facts for Antioxidant:Antioxidants are nutrients (vitamins and minerals) as well as enzymes (proteins in your body that assist in chemical reactions). They are believed to play a role in preventing the development of such chronic diseases as cancer, heart disease, stroke, Alzheimer's disease, Rheumatoid arthritis, and cataracts.

Palm sized shitake mushroom