HOW MUCH DO YOU KNOW ABOUT COFFEE CULTURE?

Interviewed two Auckland-base NZ National Champion-barista and Singapore National Champion-barista at their Catalyst coffee, Remuera, Auckland, NZ. 新西兰咖啡文化

Publish Dates: November 1st and 2nd, 2017. Printed and Online NZ Mandarin Pages

Children’s Mood and Food

Did you feed your child with the wrong kind of food? 

I have not taught young beginners ’piano for at least 20 years after I designed an instructional music appreciation course for the very young beginners, Kinder Virtuoso Program (KVP).  The earliest batch of children that I taught under this KVP probably are now professionals around the globes, some of these children had been very privileging to have a uniformed driver and nanny to bring them for the lesson, they got extremely busy parents, it also hinted me they severely deprived of their parents’ immediate attention and cuddles.

I vividly remember, it was an early Saturday morning exactly 20 years ago, a little 5-year old girl popped in the classroom, without uttering any response to my greeting, she picked up a pencil angrily poking a chair’s red plastic cushion seat in a fast speed. I couldn’t stop her on time, so I let her did it curiously, after she destroyed the whole chair, she quiet down, I didn’t utter a single word to her, I pretended never see what had just happened. I never informed her nanny or told anyone what she did.  I told myself, “Well, at least she did it in front of me, but there were many kids would poke it or draw something on the wall behind my other teaching staff or me!” Eventually, all these red chairs only lasted for a year, I decided to change the whole music school’s chairs to solid metal chairs!

Often, people just saw that music teachers earned high teaching fees, they didn’t see other hidden problems that caused some of the best full-time music teachers to receive the least stable income, due to their inconsistent income, they appeared insecure and not so confident. Of course, we are not going to talk here about the majority of the female piano teachers who have a professionally eminent husband to back them up morally and financially.

I learned that if a mother doesn’t spend her full attention, time and playing with her little children, children would express their emotion and boredom by drawing on the wall, playing high heel shoes and even umbrellas. And imagine this, how about if you developed their musical notation recognition as earlier as possible, if you are busy, at least they could go play the piano to hit some simple tunes instead, or you can start to ask your children to help you in the kitchen to peel carrots, but please don’t do it if you have a hyperactive kid who may stick his finger to your cutting blade unexpectedly.

However, beside spending their full attention, playing and teaching kids, most parents have ignored the facts that food can cause children’s moodiness. I learned through the years that good diet is one of the key factors to children’s physical and emotional stability and development. The most difficult children to take care of are those who have allergic, is it developed in the fetus during the pregnancy period due to genetical reason, a mother’s inappropriate diet habit or imbalance diet?

One of my ex piano student, now a professional piano teacher WhatsApp me told me frustratedly that he plans to leave Singapore permanently due to he is allergic to the filtered tap water from waste water.  He and his piano students’ families even bought the $6K Kogan filter machine to filter such filtered waste water and then boiled it, unfortunately, they still developed rashes or diarrhea, he told me if they changed to drink bottled water, their allergic reactions would be gone immediately. Now this shows us diet or even simple water not just plays an important part to our health but it also could bother our mood.

Otago University’s research scientists already has proven that some properties from fresh vegetables and fruits that could give us good mood but during cooking would be denatured. It means that if you eat more fresh fruits and vegetables, you will have higher EQ and happier as well.  However, this cause a problem to children and even adult who don’t like to eat fruits and raw vegetables, in this case, especially the children’s parents have to be creative in their recipes and cooking method to coax the children to eat a yummy version of raw fruits and vegetables.

I noticed the serving vegetable’s portion in most Chinese families, normally they only serve a plate of stir-fry vegetable for the whole family, which is actually not sufficient to the dietary requirement, that’s why intestines or tummy cancer is quite common amongst Chinese. We need at least 3 servings of vegetable and 2 serving of fruits a day, a portion size in fact can be measured according to an eater’s individual palm size.

So, after twenty years, I decided to return to New Zealand which I acquired a PR more than a decade ago. Initially, I stayed with my extremely busy tiger-sister’s family, I couldn’t teach piano in her house, so I became her housekeeper, gardener and cook, initially she wants a cook who knows about food and safety, so she taught me basic food handling knowledge started from grocery shopping and later, her thought has evolved to a higher level, she wants a professionally trained chef to cook for her and a family, so I ended up in a chef school.

Do you believe in a feng shui guru or a God? Two years in the chef school I never missed a single day, I never got sick, I was healthier than any younger classmates, I got the best academic results both practically and theoretically, but the head chefs of different commercial kitchens played a part of either a feng shui guru or a god in my life, they decided I am not fitted even to be their kitchen hand either due to my ethnicity, sex or age, it was very hurting when I saw how my chef school’s past Students of the Year all ended up either as the head chefs or much more higher ranking chef jobs. 

I finally convinced that my fate doesn’t belong to a commercial kitchen after a head chef in Grafton could make me waiting for more than three months for a kitchen hand job, I went there for 9 hours FOC trial,  after the trial, he asked me to email him my passport and the proof of my NZ PR status immediately, as he needed to write a contract for me. He promised me the fastest I could return to work would be 2 days later or the following week’s Monday, but I waited and waited, until I asked someone from WINZ to intercept him, at the end, I received an email after 2 weeks later, I was told the café didn’t have enough budget for a kitchen hand, but I saw there were so many new faces during their Christmas party Instagram last year. 

It gives me the proofs that there are good enough chefs are bloody good liars or mockers when they thought lower ranking apprentices, kitchen hands or an Asian chefs are someone that they could fool, make fun of and bullied, and I know I will be an abused victim if I continue to dwell in the chef industry where there is not a single mentor who genuinely cherish me enough, bravely protects me and treated me honestly and openly,  unfortunately I met all these chefs who valued hierarchy and social status more than a little nobody “cook”, and I was badly misled due to a chef mentor’s secretive behavior to hurt me badly emotionally, feeling, health, self-esteem and pride. They didn’t act like all my past world-class piano professors who helped me unconditionally, and that’s the tradition I also carried to my piano students, what goes wrong to the chefs’ tradition? Hierarchy, snobbishness and lies? I have a limited count of which chefs should I respect.

The day I felt so sad, so cheap, and hurt badly was when I read from an Instagram of a very young Thai executive chef how she sang highly of this mentor whom I admired and respected so much, he helped her, he raised her up and showered her with many sample gifts, and moreover I read how he could revive a career or lavish expensive gifts on someone he truly loves and cherishes, whereas someone 7000km meter away, he knew that I couldn’t find any job, he wooed me probably to check what was my intention on his celebrity status, when he thought I got bad intention he ignored me, when he came to Auckland, he never informed me when he would be coming, this hinted that he actually never planned to meet me. When I got an information from somewhere that he would leave on a certain date, I tried to get hold of him intended to meet him and gave him an interview as well, he told me he was sitting on the plane leaving Auckland already, the next night, someone saw his entourage in Auckland International Airport leaving at midnight. What he didn’t know was I spent my limited income to buy the expensive gifts for him, a token of respect but obviously, he never appreciated them from the way he ignored me. As a matter of fact, executive chefs always received FOC sample gifts from salesmen, perhaps it was the reason, my expensive gifts were inexpensive to him, he plays god again to finally decide my trust and respect on chefs and men. Being secretive often could misled people, I came to him bluntly told him I need his feedback in my thesis, but he probably thought that I had an unknown intention on him. If a person subconsciously thought so, he could act so to mould such a victim to fall into his trap. Deliberate ignoring or ostracizing is the greatest insult and humiliation of a mentor shows to his protégé. Whereas, at the same period of time, I encountered a well-known plastic surgeon on the airplane, immediately he would reveal to me of his happy family, I knew our friendship will last until I go coffin, true enough, last month, he bought his wife, his son and even his GM to Auckland, when he reached Auckland he SMS me immediately, we had such a good meeting. Did I ever harass him? NO, even I got his WhatsApp contact! I am so proud to have a very highly respected and eminent S.E Asian plastic surgeon who not just loves to cook, can bake sourdough bread, co-own an Italian restaurant chain in Hong Kong, a man who is genuine, honest and truthful to himself and other people as well.

Being secretive to someone whom you think is a stranger,  lower rank in your hierarchy,  she is not staying your region, she didn’t know if you are married, a gay or cohabited with a famous woman, you could fool her easily.  She could only read you according to how you try to mold what you want your worldwide readers to know in your social media and promotion. Being a long-distance protégé has a great disadvantage, the mentor is always right even if he played as an authorized figure by acting secretive and manipulative, he could make you revealing everything about yourself which was more than a friendly term, he just wanted an answer that he molded for it obviously, and at the end he only brought shame and disgrace to a woman who fell in love, he told me off that I don’t know how to handle a long distance relationship yet he himself trying to observe me through a peek hole.

Who told you that a chef school and a NZ PR could guarantee you a chef’s job? It is just another chef trying to tell lies again.  Then, I discovered about the chef industry’s hierarchy which many TV audience didn’t realize, the chefs who have to raise up from hierarchy’s staircase would look at those MasterChef Winner or any chef school’s freshly graduate (in the case even I was awarded as the Student of the Year) with an imbalanced psycho, without any backdoor help, they have to work at least 10 years to become CDP, and another 10 years to become a head chef or executive chef.

What I learned from different trial outs in different cafes, restaurants, catering companies and hotels were they either want a good robot or they want a confident-look chef, as my character trained as a pianist.  I was always careful to approach something new and trying to improve something not right during the course, obviously, my character and competent are not suitable for a normal commercial kitchen.  

For an example, after making non-bake cheese cake for so many times, now I used full-cream milk instead of full cream to prepare it. People who ate it loved it so much, the cost is much lower, preparation time is cut down and it is much easier to prepare. Now, my choir members and students’ parents asking for recipes, I write FOC for NZ Mandarin Pages. I am born to have a tag writing FOC and can be bullied on my karma, even if my recipes are good, they worth nothing, even if I was pretty and intelligent, men just wanted something from me selfishly for themselves for FOC. 

What do you feel when you work hard for something, it is not being rewarded fairly as people around you are actually playing their part as a god to decide your fate? I learned that a life coach’s BS could receive 200 likes and paid so much to listen to her hypocritic smooth honey sweet voice which ones could learn more and FOC from the Bible or Koran.

Why I have to dirty my hands and develop a pair of ugly wrinkled hands during last 4 years for FOC, so I decided to find a piano teaching job that was strongly discouraged by gods surrounded me. When I was not famous yet in Auckland as a piano teacher, a Chinese teenager student asked me, “Teacher, why you are so confident that I can play piano at the end of the day?” I told her it was due to she was NOT the first student I trained, but first of all, I must discipline her mood and practise, so I spent an extra FOC hour to stay back for the lesson so I could teach her how to practise, after 3 months later, she has improved greatly. 

The main failure for a young piano student’s progress is their mood. You would be surprised to hear that most students that I taught were male students, it happened 20 years ago, and now it happens right here in Auckland again that I got more male students than female. But gender doesn’t play the differences on mood, how many of these Chinese children’s moms feed them with enough raw fruits and vegetables daily?

Have you come across or experience a student or a teacher spent 50% of learning or teaching time fussing, acting moody? I experienced both, actually such chef tutor sent me to hell for a while that I almost quitted my chef school half way.  A person’s bad mood not just bothered his teacher or students but he is wasting time on himself and other people.

Although New Zealand produces plentiful vegetables and fruits at different seasons, but what I noticed was Chinese families have been eating too little fresh vegetables or even stir-fry vegetables and fruits. Overdose of bad protein, starch and sugar can lead adult males and menopaused older women to strokes, who says diet knowledge and planning are not important for a family? How many Chinese want to spend on a family diet plan? It is just not a Chinese’s practice, but just remember this simple fact, if you want stable mood, eat your fresh fruits and fresh vegetables daily and sufficiently, you may find there is less arguing and fighting go on among kids or their parents.

SEEKING A CHEF’S JOB BY WALK-IN AND SUBMISSION OF A CHEF’S RESUME

Did I get a job after I distributed over fifty resumes, covering letter and CV?

The chef tutors I encountered were all very kind-hearted and really cherished their young students. They allocated every young Kiwi white and Pasifika student to work at different western restaurants or hotels before or after their NZ Professional Cookery L2 or L4. However, I had to continue the culinary study in the hope that a chef somewhere in this world would finally employ me. After I graduated from my NZ Professional Cookery L5 diploma, probably because I was older, my apprenticeship emails written to all overseas hotels or NZ local restaurants and cafes were somehow detouring to Pluto, that was a year ago. Since sending emails did not work, I was advised to walk into different restaurants and cafes in Auckland city to seek a job as a chef.

But without personal recommendations from any chef, I did not have any luck with this as well. My extended family had never in history fostered a chef. Obviously, all the chefs I somewhat knew were honest and found it difficult to recommend me to their chef friends as none of them knew me well enough. Worse of all, the chefs higher up did not know who I was at all, and why would they employ me if a recommendation from another chef was lacking?

However, back to the main point of why I wrote this article. I wrote this article because I got really pissed off when I received a call around midnight last Saturday. Getting a call at this time means that the chef who called me had just gotten off from work and just wanted to chat with a girl. This should date back to a year ago, after I distributed a thick pile of my resume at Newmarket seeking a job as a chef, immediately on the next morning a chef called said he could ‘find me a job’. Despite this, I sensed that he was a little too friendly. I did not know who he was and wondered where he got my phone contact from. He said that someone had put my phone number on the NSIA bulletin board. This was strange as I was never an NSIA student, so I found it difficult to trust his words. 

From then on, he would call me on and off, every time I would ask had he found me a chef job yet, but he would only say that he was still looking. With this, my gut instinct told me he was more interested in looking for a girlfriend. True enough, soon he revealed to me that he had a Chinese girlfriend in the past. I was just too nice to tell him that’s none of my business. Seriously, even now I still don’t even know his name. I told him, I was not interested in having a relationship. I kindly told him I probably could be a lot older than him, but the reply from this foreign chef really pissed me off when he said, “Do you know many old Kiwi white women still make love with young men?” From the way he replied to me, I realized I was living in a different world from him. Was it because this was New Zealand and that was why he could talk derogatory words directly from his mind without any censorship? Why did I have to waste my energy to interact with a chef who didn’t know how to respect himself to speak politely?  

Soon, I found that I couldn’t even tolerate anymore even a friendly conversation with him, who was not genuinely wanting to look for a chef job for me but merely a female chef that he could “sleep” with.  Fortunately, he had nothing he could threaten me with. I am a New Zealand indefinite PR, I earned it through my professionalism probably a lot earlier than most foreign migrants, so I wondered what made him keep calling back looking to have a fling with me. Was it all because I answered his call simply without looking at the number when I was busy that gave him the impression I could be a foolish fish that could easily get hooked? Eventually, I had to tell him that I had another chef in mind and he said, “Oh, is he the white chef?” Instead of telling him that it’s none of his business, I replied, “No, he is someone that you don’t know!” Then, he replied, “Too bad, you just missed a GOOD CHEF!” Immediately I sensed he is a chef full of pride, who probably could only flaunt his chef hierarchy’s higher-ranking position to me, an Asian chef who just graduated from a culinary school.

How do I know if he is lying when he says he is not married when in fact he may actually have a stay-in girlfriend like most chefs do? How do I know he is not just like many foreign male chefs all over the world who only bully, make a fool of or make fun of those lower ranking Asian female chefs, but wouldn’t dare to bully any white female chefs or mixed blood females? Once beaten, twice shy, I could smell vagueness as common as roasted garlic!

Yes, he may be a good chef from a country somewhere north of India, but I wonder if he could cook for me a bowl of authentic Sarawak laksa, roll me an authentic Japanese style sushi or bake me a Parisians’ baguette? I got a few countries’ chefs’ secret family recipes and culinary tricks from people I have met. I didn’t go to culinary school to learn how to cook in order to fish a man or for flattery from a potential husband. Good food is used to reward me after a hard day’s work. NEVER in my life anymore I would dream for any smiling, acting really nice, humble and friendly celebrity chef to send me a little sample gift, to come to Auckland to meet me, to cook me an A5 Wagyu steak or prepare me a Japanese fusion Poke either. I learned that he never treated me as his true friend due to his deeply rooted chef hierarchy’s awareness, he only met and cooked for the rich and famous people or 'raise up' young female executive chefs with his heart and his gifts.

What would you do when a stranger's intention by then was very clear to you? He would keep on ringing - when I was driving on Highway 16, when I was working, and when I was talking with my friends. I had no choice but to turn off my mobile. My friend asked me to block him. I told her that it is useless. If a chef’s hierarchy ego reigned, but if he never learns about his limits and something called mutual respect and “human rights”, I would write my personal experience to deal with his case There was once a kind-hearted Asian female chef friend for him to choose in life, but he preferred an indecent fling, and at the end, he missed both. This article is also a warning to all Asian female “lower ranking” chefs. Regardless of age, harassment could be a hidden risk if you plan to submit your resume by walking into a restaurant or café because you never know which chefs could pass your contact details to another idiot! 

Tempeh and Prawn Salad (Asian Flavor)

Ingredients:

A package of organic temper (250g), cut into small cubes, salad
3 big Cabbage leaves, shredded finely, salad
10g Carrot,  julienne, salad
1 Chili, julienne, salad
5g Baby cilantro, salad
5g Vietnamese mint, chopped finely, salad
5g Mint, salad
5g Basils, Chiffonaded, salad
5g Onion, shredded finely, salad
1 tbsp Sesame seeds (or any kind of crushed nut), toasted, salad
1 tbsp Fish sauce, salad
1/4 tsp Garlic, minced, salad
1 tbsp Extra virgin oil, salad
1 tsp Sesame oil, salad
1 tsp Honey, salad
1/4 Lime juice, salad
1/4 Lime Zest, salad
1/4 tsp Korean fermented chili powder, dressing
10 Big Prawn, blanch
3 Tbsp Sambah belacan
2 Tbsp Ayam brand coconut cream
TT Salt and black pepper


Method:
1. Sprinkle some salt and pepper to flavor tempeh. Deep fry the tempeh cubes evenly until brown. (Note: If you want really crunchy tempeh, you can dust it with potato starch or glutinous flour before pan frying).
2. Toss the salad with herbs and seasoning.
3. Simmer sambah belacan with coconut cream, add the prawns, let the sambah sauce cools down.
4. Place the fried temper and prawn above the salad, spoon the sambah sauce to the tempeh. 
5. Garnish with your favorite herb.

Tempeh Salad

East meets west's recipe!

By NZ Chef Si



   How is tempeh tasted like? For my taste buds, its texture and taste are like steamed taro. One of my middle east friends loves it so much, I really think some people may need to acquire its taste.

   The following is the recipe that I created, I hope that you all will enjoy tempeh more than before, and if you never heard of it before or never tried it before, why not have a try?

   This salad can turn into a vegetarian dish instantly when you eliminate fish sauce.



Tempeh Salad (Fusion)

Ingredients:
A package of organic temper (250g), cut into small cubes, salad
3 big lettuce leaves, shredded finely, salad
1/2 Big tomato, shredded finely, salad
10g Carrot, shredded finely, salad
5g Baby cilantro, salad
5g Vietnamese mint, chopped finely, dressing
5g Mint, salad
5g Basils, Chiffonaded, dressing
5g Onion, shredded finely, dressing
1 tbsp Sesame seeds (or any kind of crushed nut), toasted, salad
3 tbsp Fish sauce, dressing (Note: If you are a vegetarian, please omit this)
1/2 tsp Garlic, minced, dressing
3 tbsp Extra virgin oil, dressing
2 tsp Sesame oil, salad
1 tbsp Honey, dressing
1 Lime juice, dressing
1 Lime Zest, dressing
1 tsp Korean fermented chili powder, dressing
Oil, pan frying
TT Salt and black pepper


Method:
1. Sprinkle some salt and pepper to flavor tempeh. Deep fry the tempeh cubes evenly until brown. (Note: If you want really crunchy tempeh, you can dust it with potato starch or glutinous flour before pan frying).
2. Toss the salad with herbs, sesame seeds (or crushed nut) and sesame oil.
3. Mix the dressing ingredients.
4. Place the fried tempeh above the salad, spoon the dressing to the tempeh cubes. 
5. Garnish with any herbs you prefer.

Chinese New Year Traditional Sweet Rice (Glutinous Rice) Cake

Let's modify our sweet rice cake to a more nutritious and nicer version!

By NZChefSi@ChefSarawak

Caramelized sweet rice cake is the Chinese traditional dessert, actually, it has not much nutritional value other than starch and sugar. Thus, I decided to come out a modified version for this Chinese New Year. Hope you enjoy it!

You can use the traditional recipe.

Caramelized the sugar, add hot water.

Add Vanilla essence, chopped red jujube, dried logan, fig, sultanate, pine nuts, walnuts, macadamia nuts, pistachio nuts, almond powder, cinnamon powder, basil seeds.

Now you mix in glutinous flour to form into a thick batter, checking seasoning, if too sweet just add more water and more flour. Transfer to a wax paper lined springform tray, grease its side. Sprinkle the top with toasted black sesame seed.

Steam in a steamer for about 30 to 40 minutes depending on the size. Check the doneness with a skewer. After cook,  place into an oven to heat the steamed cake until dried. After cooling down, chill the rice cake in a fridge.

Before serving, cut the cake into bite-size pieces. make a batter with egg, sugar, melted salted butter, water, sweet rice flour, and flour. Dust the pieces with sweet rice flour, dip into the batter, pan fry the sweet rice cake until golden brown. Or simply cut it and eat cold.

BACK TO SCHOOL BREAKFAST MEALS SUGGESTION LIST

   Most Asian mothers never use any recipes for their cooking all because they were trained to be flexible since day 1 when they were taught how to cook either by their grandma, mother or sisters. 

   Recipes perhaps are only required when you work as a chef or caterer, you cook in bulks and where consistency is the prime importance.

   Most home cooking is very flexible, most of the time a dish is cooked and improvised based on the ingredients available during the time of cooking. Home cooking meals could never be same as different mothers cooked differently from each other,  just like the different restaurant with different chefs prepared their dish differently, e.g.  Egg Benedict all prepared differently in different cafes or restaurants. 

   I only realized some mothers never cook breakfast for their kids, their kids were basically eating cereal with milk, egg with milk or peanut butter jam sandwich with milk. 

    About four years ago, I overheard a young Chinese boy grumbled bitterly when he saw how I dotted my daughter when I walked her to school, he grumbled, "This is a mom who really loves her kid so much!" He was walking alone; after I heard his grumble, I wondered if he was hungry, no proper breakfast was fed or a proper lunch box was prepared by her mom and I wondered what was happened to his life. This boy is definitely an observer, he is a sensitive boy, he admired other kids who got dotting moms. 

    From there I realized that no matter how busy as a mother or as a poor mother, even if you don't have much time to cultivate or educate them properly, the least you must do is to feed them with some simple healthy home cooked food. Home cooked food is always more hygienic if you know food and safety well enough.

    The following is a suggestion list of recipes that you can always prepare ahead of time to save time. With the prep food kept in the fridge, children can use a toaster or microwave heat the food for their breakfast, snacks or pack for their lunch box.

Mexican Style Tortillas

Ingredients:

1. Hard flour

2. Salt

3. Oil

4. Vinegar (to get rid of floury smell)

Method:

1. Sieve the flour, add salt, a little oil, little vinegar and then water.

2. Knead into a dough, rest in a fridge, this can last for three days.

3. When you have time, take out the rested dough, tapper into a flat disk of tortilla size (about 6 inches diameter).,

4. On a griddle, brush a little oil, grill the tortilla on both sides.

5. Let it cools down, store in the fridge.

6. Always get ready with a container filled with carved meat, minced meat, ham or even smoked salmon (good to keep up 3 days in the fridge), a container of herbs and washed and rinsed lettuce and shredded carrot and a container of shredded cheese.

7. You or your children can roll tortilla with any choice of fillings like cream cheese, shredded cheese, meat stripes, minced meat,  vegetable or avocado.

Giant Crumpet or Muffin

Ingredients:

1. Hard flour

2. Rice flour

3. French yeast or ask your friend for own cultivated yeast

4. Salt and sugar

Method:

1. Prepare the batter right after dinner or during dinner time. Mix the sieved two flour, add yeast, sugar, and salt, then mix it with warm water or lukewarm milk into a thick batter.

2. Transfer to a greased baking tray.

3. Place in a warm place cover overnight, the batter will rise to double.

4. Next morning, turn on the oven to 220 to 240C, place the batter in the oven bakes until golden. Don't open the oven before it is baked, or else it will collapse.

5. Turn off oven, let the crumpet cool down, you can cut crumpet into pieces. It tastes good even it is cold.

6. This crumpet is so good to eat along or sandwiched with a meat patty and a glass of milk (or coffee/tea) for adults.

Savory Pancake

I don't propose to feed too much sugar to kids, thus no sweet pancake is encouraged. 

Ingredients:

1. Mixture of rice and hard flour and baking powder

2. Minced pork and bacon bits

3. Scallion and kale or any vegetable (chiffonaded and chopped finely)

4. Milk, eggs (Optional)

5. Seasoning: salt, pepper, soy sauce, a pinch of cayenne, a pinch of sugar, vinegar to get rid of the floury smell, melted butter, lard or sesame oil.

Method:

1. Prepare the plain batter with sieved rice and hard flour and baking powder, make a batter with milk, egg (optional) or/and water. Add seasoning, salt, vinegar and sugar. Keep in three sterilized containers can last for three days in a fridge.

2. Before you panfry the pancake, mix the plain batter with minced pork, bacon bits, add herbs, spice, vegetable, and seasoning, always check the final seasoning. 

3. Panfry on a brushed nonstick wok or pan, this will use less oil.