birth of Malarkey on the Move

checking out the Neihu-Wudu section

home-made sandwiches

self-taken photo

the moment Malarkey on the Move was born

but is it art?

Tight Bends SCTC3

Photograph

Mark Caltonhill

(copyright details contact jiyue.publications@gmail.com)

fish (recipe) of the day

fish cake
You can find fish-cake recipes in just about every cookbook. VftH includes the recipe today because of two “home cooking” hints that other recipes don’t include (see below).
Ingredients (serves 2-4 depending on what you serve with it):

i) 300g potatoes
ii)300g fish (vary the potato/fish ratio according to your diners’ tastes)
(You can use all manner of fish, probably even tinned tuna or sardines, but Malarkey says “fresh is best”. This time Malarkey used 石斑魚, whatever that is [Dr. Eye says “grouper, you scurvy dogs], because it was white and flaky, a bit like cod.)
iii) 4 spring onions
iv) 1/2 lemon
v)2 eggs
vi) 100ml milk
vii) 4 sprigs parsley
viii) salt and pepper
ix) 2 tbsp flour
x) 4 slices bread
xi) vegetable oil
xii) mayonnaise/ketchup to serve

Method:
1. Toast the bread at 90℃ until brown and crispy. Blend in food processor into small crumbs.
2. Peel, cut, steam and mash potatoes. Cool.
3. Cover the fish with milk (and water) in frying pan, then simmer till soft. Break gently into small pieces.
4. Grind 1tsp of lemon rind, squeeze 2 tbsp of lemon juice, slice spring onion, chop parsley, lightly beat one egg. Mix all with mashed potatoes, flaked fish, salt and pepper. Form into 4-8 cakes (depending on diners’ ages). Cover and refrigerate for 30 min (or overnight).
5. Place flour, beaten second egg, and breadcrumbs in three separate flat bowls.
6. Dip each cake thoroughly in the flour, egg and breadcrumbs IN THAT ORDER.
7. Heat oil over medium flame heat. Fry cakes turning occasionally, until golden brown on both sides.
8. Serve.

Malarkey says:

a. Fish cakes are a great vehicle for leftovers from your fridge/pantry; you don’t have to follow a recipe blind and go stock up on special ingredients.
b. So that you don’t end up with milk in your pan, flour on your board, egg on your plate etc., cook up some extra potatoes and make potato cakes as these use many of the same ingredients (as long as you don’t mind a slight fishy taste in your potato cakes)

fish of the day

Friday

I missed a day -- am i getting obsessive? when did FOTD become a daily necessity?

btw, the Portuguese claim to have at least 365 ways of cooking bacalhau (dried and salted cod), a different one for each day of the year.

and apparently they salt it because they've ate it and traded it long before the invention of refrigeration, so the first step in any recipe is to soak it in water, milk or oil.

among the offspring of Portuguese bacalhau recipes are the "fish" of Britain's "national dish"--fish and chips--(while the chips come from Belgium), and Japan's tempura, which are essentially the same thing, i guess (Malarkey's uses a tempura-style batter for its "British Chips and Fish").

I've only been to Portugal once, a couple of weeks cycling in the south--but it was (is) one of my favorite places. Nice countryside, great food, friendly people. We just stopped at small restaurants that had lots of vehicles parked outside, and had, almost without exception, excellent meals at reasonable prices.

fish of the day

smoked salmon again

("beans again! that's not a proper vegetable" my mother would say,

--it's because i already had the tin open

--no waste, Mum

and beans are only available because i was in Thailand, where they sell Malaysian baked beans at a price i can afford

[unlike Jason's]

--one good result of British imperialism!)

fish of the day

more malarkey

fish of the day

Malarkey's home-cooked fish&chips,

the original and the best

old verse

with no more excuse than the mention of “Mongolian dust” on it’s way to Taiwan ["Heavy dust on the way"]

as well as the general approach of summer

and today's photo of C.B. sellers at the Chatuchak Weekend Market in Bangkok



















here is my "Ode to C.B., my summer love":

As sun slides into humid dusk,
when bats take wing from idle trees,
my throat choked by Mongolian dust
and slight is hope of cool sea breeze,
there grows within a hankering
for my summer soulmate, Chwa Bing (挫冰).
White hair as soft as mi-tai-mu (米苔目),
tree ears, almond eyes (and peanut zits),
red ripe jujubes, such kissable lips,
sometimes, I feel like eating you.

Modest or bejeweled; love has two alchemists:
black sugar veil, thick cream bandana,
fruit d’amour broach, taro amethysts,
barley pearls, necklace of banana;
and multicolored QQ candy bling—
nothing’s too fine, for my precious Bao Bing (刨冰).
Some jellies: hsien-tsao (仙草) and ai-yu (愛玉),
beans: red, green and honey,
chewy things: o-yee (芋圓) and hwun-yee (粉圓),
oh mysterious ineffable you.

Your complexion changes by the season,
as with fruit, most colorful,
peach, grape, mango, persimmon,
coconut, strawberry and pineapple,
on top, a snub nosed caramel pudding,
oh, how I love you, cute Bing Bing.
Peaches stop coughs, grapes strengthen tendons,
while mangoes quench my thirst,
all of which makes you the perfect first
or last dish for a meal to end on.

Grapefruit detox the alcoholic,
guavas plug my diarrhea,
lotus seeds are a blood-and-chi tonic,
consumed on ice, a great panacea;
it seems, therefore, our summer fling
is both a healthy and zestful thing.
The more beans one eats, the more one pees,
papayas aid digestion,
plums kill worms of the intestine,
but eat too fast and you’ll get brain freeze.

As summer suns give autumn moons,
the grass is wet, from trees fall leaves,
it’s not just twilight’s mood that cools,
of glacial swims, no one conceives:
and sad to say, dear sweet Chwa Bing
you’re somewhat less to my liking.
When rains fall heavier, winds blow more’n’more,
bronchitic germs invade my chest,
my new-found interest, I must confess,
is for your spicy cousin, Huo Guo (火鍋).