The Malaysian Insider :: Food
The Malaysian Insider :: Food |
| French chocolatier Jean-Paul Hévin launches CNY bonbons Posted: 02 Feb 2013 10:12 PM PST  Jean-Paul Hévin's special Chinese New Year bonbons. Handcrafted in Paris before being flown to his Hong Kong boutiques, the limited edition chocolates have been created to help usher in the year of the snake. The Boite Gourmande, for instance, is a red faux snake-skin box wrapped in a gold ribbon that comes with 28 bonbons including the Sichuan chili chocolate, all adorned with the Chinese symbol for the word 'lucky.' For those with ultra luxurious palates and budgets, the boutique is also offering an Exclusive New Year Hamper that comes with the Boite Gourmande; a bottle of 12-year-old single malt Glenlivet whisky; a tablette tasting coffret; a box of chocolate cigars; a bonbon box of 16 chocolates; and a mini tin of chocolate almonds for HKD2,370 (RM949). The company's Fireworks Hamper and Explosive Hamper, meanwhile, come with an assortment of macarons including the new chocolate mandarin ganache macaron with a chestnut cream filling. Other flavours include signature dark chocolate, passion fruit, raspberry, vanilla, as well as a selection of chocolates, truffles, jams and spreads. Under the mentorship of legendary chef Joël Robuchon in Paris, Jean-Paul Hévin received one of the top honours in France for artisan craftsmanship, the title of "Meilleur Ouvrier de France." Since opening his own chocolate boutique in Paris, he's since exported the brand to Japan, Hong Kong, China and Taiwan. The special Chinese New Year coffrets like the Boite Gourmande, which costs HKD560, are available at the trio of Jean-Paul Hévin boutiques in Hong Kong. Likewise, premium luxury chocolate brand Valrhona has also released a Chinese New Year's Gift Box of four Grand Crus Chocolates, as well as chocolate-covered almonds and hazelnuts, while Godiva has also launched special Gold Ballotin Chinese New Year gift boxes. — AFP/Relaxnews |
| Green shoots in Australia’s bush tucker boom Posted: 02 Feb 2013 06:20 PM PST  "Bush tucker" are enjoying something of a renaissance Down Under. But so-called "bush tucker" — the local fruits, shoots and creatures that also include kangaroo and crocodile — are enjoying something of a renaissance on dining tables Down Under. Beryl van Oploo, a self-proclaimed "foodie" from central Australia's Gamilaroi people has just opened Sydney's first bush tucker café — offering a "rustic menu with a bush flavour" inspired by the knowledge of her elders. There is a kangaroo pie with bush tomato sauce, native greens, and fruits and berries which most Australians wouldn't even realise they were able to eat. "We always knew that there was food on the land and that's how we survived for many of thousands of years," van Oploo told AFP. "The younger generation never took advantage of that, we just got caught up in whatever was given to us." Van Oploo was raised by her aunt in a household of 17 children where resources were scarce and "we always had to survive off the land, even in my time". "You went out and put a line into the river and caught a fish and cooked it on an open fire," she said.  Evan Yanna Muru takes people on "walkabouts" in the Blue Mountains to educate them about the Darug clan. "Bush tucker is very close to the culture because culture is the lore of the land and bush tucker is part of the land," said Evan Yanna Muru, who leads cultural hikes or "walkabouts" in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, educating tourists about the local Darug clan. "When the bush tucker's in season somewhere, that's where we are." According to cultural lore, The Darug, who get their name from the yams or sweet potatoes that grow in the region, were vegetarians until a terrible drought withered the mountains and their "sky god" Baiame gave permission for them to eat meat sparingly. So began a great tradition of possum-hunting, both for the meat and the pelt which was used to make cloaks and blankets to shelter from the bitter, snowy winters. "The women would dig with the yam sticks to get all them yams down on the river flats, and the men would climb the trees and smoke out them possums," said Yanna Muru. Their diet was rich in the vitamins and minerals of local plants and roots — a typical day would begin with water sweetened with banksia flower and a bread made from ground swordgrass seeds. Between meals of possum or swamp wallaby, lizard, snake or wombat, the Darug ate tiny sour apples, sweet purple dianela berries and mambara, tiny lychee-tasting fruits squeezed out of a green skin. Woodgrubs were highly prized, both for their flavour and unusually high fat content — 35 per cent compared with six percent for a kangaroo. Warrabura, what Yanna Muru calls "bush chewing gum" — was chewed throughout the day. High in vitamin C and with a licorice flavour, the dark green leaves were considered both bush tucker and bush medicine. Aboriginal people lived in delicate balance with nature, moving with the seasons, and eating what the land offered. "It gives you a rich connection to country, it gives you meaning in your life, understanding, interacting with nature," Yanna Muru said of the connection between food and culture.  Woodgrubs are highly prized for their flavour and fat content. She runs a hospitality school for indigenous students marrying modern skills with bush tucker knowledge as a new generation of Australians seeks to reconnect with traditions stretching back some 40,000 years. Visitors to Sydney Tower, which boasts 360-degree vistas of the city from its upper levels, can feast on crocodile chipolatas or kangaroo rump. Celebrity chef Kylie Kwong is also experimenting with Asian-bush fusion cooking. Pork and goji berry dumplings and stir-fried pasture-fed wallaby tail with black bean and chilli feature on the current menu at her popular Sydney restaurant Billy Kwong, along with a variety of native fruit sauces and local greens including Warrigal spinach and saltbush. Van Oploo sampled the bush degustation at Billy Kwong and said it was a welcome sign of changing attitudes to Australia's native foods, with farms beginning to spring up as demand grows. "For all of Australia I think we lost a generation whether we're white or indigenous or whatever, and I think now it's starting to turn around a little," she said. "Every country has its own cuisine and I think it's time for us to do that as well." — AFP/Relaxnews |
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LONDON, Feb 2 — A missed penalty from Adel Taarabt cost relegation-threatened Queens Park Rangers victory against Norwich City as the early Premier League kickoff ended in a 0-0 stalemate today. 
LONDON, Feb 2 ― PowerTable is predicting a tight affair when Europa League-chasing West Bromwich Albion host fourth-placed Tottenham Hotspur at the Hawthorns tomorrow.
KUALA LUMPUR, 2 Feb — Ulama Muda Umno Fathul Bari Mat Jahya hari ini menafikan telah menarik diri daripada menghadiri dialog bertajuk "Pelaksanaan Islam di Malaysia" > bersama bekas Mufti Perlis, Prof Madya Datuk Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin yang dijadualkan berlangsung malam ini di Pusat Dagangan Dunia Putra (PWTC).