Hong Kong, Macau and Australia Trip—Part 3 And a Giveaway

 

Many of you already knew Hong Kong is my home country.  Therefore, we didn’t really go to any site-seeing locations in Hong Kong.  Mainly, we spent our time with friends and family, and planned some fun activities for the kids.  Plus, visiting different places to enjoy food that we grew up with and missed dearly.  Such as authentic Dim Sum at Chinese restaurants; freshest seafood feast, which in some restaurants, you can pick out your choices of live seafood from the tanks right outside the restaurant and the chef prepared your selections right away; street food as shown in the picture below, this particular vender offered fish balls, beef balls, fish cakes, sausages, octopus, stuffed veggies, and mini egg waffles, etc.



My favorite of all time?  This soft-serve ice cream cones from this Mobile Softee (see picture below).  This brand/truck for soft-serve ice cream has been in business for ages.  I think my very first consumption of this Softee was possibly in my mommy’s tummy!  LOL



There’s more I wanted to share with you about the adventure we had in Hong Kong.  But, I’ll save those on another post because there were quite many pictures and details.  For now, let’s do the giveaway!  For those of you familiar with my blog, you probably know I had the logo with the Paper Wrapped Cakes pictures since the day this blog was born.  Here’s the recipe.  Quite a few of you inquired about where to purchase these molds.  Unfortunately, they only sell them in Kong Kong.  So, I thought of all of you while I was there.  So here we go, the giveaway includes….



A)  10 Paper Wrapped Cakes Cake Molds (aluminum)
B)  20 Paper Cups that fitted perfectly with these molds
C)  2 Pairs of Wooden Chopsticks with Cloth Covers
D)  Some of my favorite candies from Hong Kong (Coke Cola flavor mentos—tempting? Frutips—black currant fruit drops, mango flavor hard candies with fructose filling)
Sorry, table cloth not included!  :P

Rules for the giveaway:

This giveaway is open to anyone, anywhere.  Deadline to enter is June 12th by Mid-night PST.  Must be a uTry.it follower to enter.  To enter, simply leave a comment to tell me if you dare to try the street food if you ever travel to Hong Kong.


Extra chance to win: you can do all or any of the following (please leave a separate comment for each additional entry):

1) Like uTry.it on Facebook  (Here’s the link)
2) Sign up and confirm email subscription on my blog (See right hand side bar that said “SUBSCRIBE TO”)
3) Share this giveaway with your Facebook friends
4)  Share this giveaway on Twitter

Winner will be announced shortly after the deadline of the giveaway. Good luck!


This post is shared with:
Foodie Friday
Full Plate Thursday
Sweets for Saturday

Orange Duck Salad

Yes, another salad for dinner.  This time, it is not just any salad though.  Duck is the star of this dish.  Somehow, I think duck is a very special ingredient to cook with.   Not that we don’t eat ducks often (we get BBQ ducks from the Chinese restaurants all the time).  It’s just that I don’t cook with it a lot.  Maybe because the duck seems too hard to handle?  However, this Orange Duck Salad is quite easy to make and it’s definitely one of my new favorite. 





I love using ingredients that are in season.  Not only they are in their best quality, they are very affordable as well.  These beautiful mini heirloom tomatoes (in assorted colors too) were sitting on the trays in the market that I couldn’t resisted bringing home.  My husband loves the spicy and crisp Belgium Endives, they balance well with the sweetness of the orange vinaigrette.  So, they’re all coming home with me.



I got this Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar from Trader Joe's.  If you don't have one near by, you can purchase the vinegar online from here.



The Orange Duck Salad pairs perfectly with a glass of red.  It was such a perfect meal for summer weekend.  Really look forward to making this salad again, very soon.







Orange Duck Salad: Printable Recipe

Servings: 2

To brine the duck:
2 Teaspoon Kosher Salt
1/2 Cup Pineapple Orange Juice
5 Whole Black Peppercorns
5 Springs of Fresh Thyme
1 Garlic Clove, smashed
1 Shallot, minced
2 Duck Breast, bone in and skin on

For the vinaigrette:
1 Shallot, minced
2 Tablespoons of Orange Champagne Vinegar (or regular champagne vinegar)
2 Tablespoons Good Quality Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon Fresh Orange Juice
1 Teaspoon Grated Orange Zest
Salt and Pepper, to taste

For the Salad:
1 Orange, segmented and cut into bite size pieces
3 Belgium Endives, trim the bottom half-inch and cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 Cup Arugula
A handful of Mini Heirloom Tomatoes, split in half
2 Cups of Springs Mix Greens or Mesclun

Clean and dry the duck breasts, lay your knife flat against the skin and make 3 marks in one direction and then in the other, making an X. Make sure that you are cutting through the skin and not the meat.
Combine all brine ingredients and duck breasts in a zip lock bag. Seal the bag, ensuring that all air is removed from the bag. Place the bag in a plastic container and brine the duck over night in the refrigerator.

Heat a heavy duty or cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Sear the duck breasts, skin side down for 2 minutes. Reduce heat to medium low and cook for another 2 minutes. Drain out the duck fat from the skillet often. Flip the breast and cook other sides. Total cook time should be around 8 to 10 minutes or until medium-rare, depending on the size. Remove duck from skillet and cover with foil to rest the meat.

For the vinaigrette, combine the shallots, vinegar, orange juice, orange zest, salt and pepper. Whisk in olive oil and set aside.

Remove the duck breast from the rib bones. Slice the duck breasts into 1/4- inch thickness. Toss all vegetables in a large mixing bowl. Drizzle enough vinaigrette to moisten . Place duck breast slices on top and serve.