Chinese Restaurant @ Bordeaux - MeiShiCheng

Today is Saturday and is time for grocery shopping at Bordeaux Auchan and Eurasia again. I was there with my hubby and 2 friends. One of my friend suggest that we can go for dinner at one of the Chinese Restaurant at Bordeaux after our shopping. The restaurant serve roast duck rice and noodle. All of us was like OKOK lets go there. This is the first time that we realise that there is roast duck here in our area. Usually when Singaporean who stay in this region have to travel to Paris in order to have a taste of roast duck.

We have the address but do not really know where is the actual location, therefore we have to depend on the GPS to bring us there. When we are about to approach the place then we realise it is exactly located at Bordeaux Central. We pass by the restaurant so many times when we go there for shopping but nobody notice this restaurant.

We are greeted by a Chinese lady when we go in. The place is quite empty except for us and another table. We don't have to consider much longer before we ordered the Duck Noodle. The price for the Duck Noodle is 9eur. Usually when we get to eat any Chinese dishes with noodle here, they used spaghetti, therefore we ask what noodle they are using for this Duck Noodle. The lady say is yellow noodle and not spaghetti. We just missed the yellow noodle back home.

When the Duck Noodle is served, we are all shocked. It looked different from the menu. We thought it is going to be Dry Duck Noodle but they served us with soup noodle. When we asked the lady, they do not serve dry noodle. OK let's taste it. The roast duck was ok but the soup is only soso.

Verdict: You can come if you really missed roast duck otherwise come only if you are really very very free or happen to pass by.

Restaurant: 美食城 Mei Shi Cheng

Address: 2 Rue Tustal 33000 Bordeaux

Opening Hour: 1130 - 2200

Dune Du Pyla

At the foot of the Dune

We went to Dune Du Pyla last Sunday with some friends and colleagues. This is the highest dune is Europe. The place is quite near my house, i think it is about 10 to 15 mins. It is located at Arcachon.
We are supposed to go there last month but the weather wasn't so good. This time round, the bright sunny day welcome us at the dune.
We are allowed to bring our dog there so my friend and i bring our dogs along to have some fun.

On the way up

The dune was quite tall, and by
the time we reached, there are lots of people climbing up the dune. When we are at the foot of the dune, there isn't any nice scenery except the dune. So like the others, we take off our slippers and start climbing. The sand are so soft, its quite difficult to climb. It's like you move up 2 steps and the sand bring you down by 1 step. When i was half way up, i was so exhausted. I lifted up my head and view up the dune, i wondered how much longer then i can reached the top. At this point, we found a better and smarter way to climb. Step on others footsteps. As there are only footsteps left by those who climb passed, the sand has already been more stable and compact, therefore when we step on it, the sand will not be loosen.

At the top of the Dune. This is left side of the view.

 When we are suddenly up there, the scenery was so beautiful. The dune run parallel along with the sea coast. On the left side of the dune, i can see the big green forest and on the right side is the sea.

Dogs are allowed

Sea view at the top of the dune.

When we reached the top, we stop and enjoy the beautiful view of the surrounding. The view at the foot and the top of the dune has such a great difference.

My hubby trying to do a star stunt.

When we finished taking pictures, somebody come out with ideas to do stunts. As the dune is very steep, we saw lots of French trying to roll down the steep dune from the top. Then our friends start the idea of running in the air stunt. We will run and when we reached the edge of the dune we jumped. I will be the one squatting at the edge to help capture the shots when they are in the air.


All of us tried the stunts together and we really have great fun.

Rolling down from the top.

This is so steep and this is where we have the stunts.

All stunters

My hubby and me doing the stunt together.

Chrizelyn Tamagoyaki Japanese Egg

Last month i receive a free Japanese cooking pan for Tamagoyaki from a lady who is going back to Singapore. So i thought i should go search for Tamagoyaki receipe and try this new toy. I guess the difficult part of cooking Tamagoyaki is not the recipe but the method of cooking, so i went YouTube and search for the method. I watched once and decided to give it a try. 

Cooking Method from YouTube (click to view the video)

The difficult part is not on the flipping of the egg mixture but is when to flip it. Below is the picture of my Tamagoyaki on my first attempt. 

Problem 1: When i cut and view the cross-section, i can see that the layers have lots of holes, this is the result when i flipped the egg but did not fold it pack enough.

Solution: I used a spoon to slightly pressed on the egg after i flipped each time.

Problem 2: I can see the egg yolk and egg white separately. 

Solution: Ii add some salt to the egg mixture to further break down the egg white and filter the mixture using a sieve.

Above is the result for my second attempt. Wow.

Ok so where is the recipe? I do not have any recipe for this Tamagoyaki. Why? cos when i found the recipe and out of 5 ingredients, i only have one that is the eggs. hahahaha. So i decided to use my own recipe instead. Below recipe is agar agar one. Is just like when you cook omelette egg, the soy sauce you also agar agar right.

Why i used concentrated milk? I remember the first time i learned to cook Bombay Toast, the ingredient used is concentrated milk. This is to give the sweet taste. From then, whenever i cook egg, i have the habit of adding a bit of concentrated milk to it. 
What is Bombay Toast? Hahaha i have a joke here. I was talking to my girlfriends when we have lunch at my place today. When i mentioned Bombay Toast they start laughing and say it should be French Toast. They have never hear this before. I never create it, as this is what it is being called in the recipe book. I when to goggle it just now and found out that Bombay Toast is used in Burma and is just another name for French toast. I think i should use French toast in future otherwise i will be the joker again.

Chrizelyn Tamagoyaki 
Ingredients
5 eggs
1 tsp of soy sauce
1 tsp of sugar
1 tsp of concentrated milk
1 pinch of salt
1/2 tsp of chicken stock (you can skip this)

Method

1. Break the eggs into a big bowl. Use a spoon to lightly beat the egg. Add the salt to further break down the egg white. Set aside for 15mins.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients into the egg mixture. Stir the mixture evenly.
3. Heat the pan and grease with oil using a kitchen towel.
4. Pour 1/3 of the egg mixture into the pan and do not let the egg overcook. Start to flip the egg to make the layers. 
5. Once the 1/3 of the egg mixture has been layered, continue with another 1/3 and etc.
6. To understand better on when to flip and how to flip, please view the video before cooking.

Prawn Crackers in France - Asia Tibits

I start to miss all the tibits in Singapore. Here i think the french hardly eat tibits as the selection in the supermarket is so limited. And i think the reason why most french are so slim is due to the low consumption of junk food.

My friend passed me some crackers the other day, and i was so excited when i saw it as i did not know i can get it here. She told me i can buy the raw one from EurAsie and fry it myself. So i went to EurAsie with my hubby to get it. There are a handful of different brands and the price is about 1 +/- Euro per packet. I didn't know which one to choose so i picked one from the shelves that is most sellable. How do i know which one is most sellable..hahaha based on the brand that has lesser packets on the shelves.

Its quite easy to cook this. When i opened the packet, the raw crackers is small and very hard. I heat up the oil and put one piece to see how much it will expand. It will actually expand to about 4 times from its original size. I was using a small pot, therefore it can hold about 3 piece at a time. Do not overcrowd the pot. If you allow enough space for the crackers to expand, it will form a flat piece otherwise it will curve up and you get all the uneven shape. One packet can yield about 1 big tin and more.

This tasty prawn crackers is just as nice as the one in Singapore.