WeFeast

Tobacco Dock, London

The Long Table was the first night market I visited in London. I would never have thought people in London would queue up in the cold, on a rainy day, to go to an uncovered venue for food. Not everyone loved the idea but there was certainly enough demand to start the ‘night food market trend’. And a few other bigger food markets such as TheStockMKT and WeFeast have proven to be highly successful since then.

A few weeks ago I went to WeFeast at Tobacco Dock – a converted warehouse in Wapping. The venue was 80% covered, and set up with several communal tables. More than 20 street food vendors had participated in this event. They were evenly spread out on the ground and first floors, leaving plenty of room for the guests to explore, and more importantly to form queues. At first I found the entry fee a bit pricey (starting at £8 + booking fee), but in return we got a line-up of some of London’s best street vendors and restaurants. Together with the entertainment and the very helpful on-site staff, the price seemed reasonable.

So, as the name of the event stated, it was a feast so we ate a lot. Besides my favourites - Elliot’s Café, Bone Daddies, The Bowler and Pizza Pilgrims - I also had my first tastes of Patty and Bun, Meringue Girls, The Last Days of Pisco and Hix Fish Dog. Among those, the sea bass ceviche by The Last Days of Pisco and the ginger and rhubarb Eton mess by the Meringue Girls were the real highpoints of the night. I even convinced Pizza Pilgrims to make me a custom oyster pizza. I know it sounds disgusting but with the addition of nduja it tasted SO GOOD.

Full set of photos here. Keep your eyes peeled for the next Feast!

WeFeast

Purple Sweet Potato Mochi

One of my favourite Asian desserts is mochi - glutinous rice cakes with a sweet filling. In particular, there is a Japanese company called Mochi Cream, who sells a wide variety (15+) of flavoured mochi. My favourite ones are peach/blueberry yoghurt, green tea and cherry blossom. A few years ago they went global and opened a branch in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong. But unfortunately on my last trip to Hong Kong I found that it had closed, so I do not think I can have mochi cream again any time soon…

So I have decided to make my own, using the purple sweet potato puree recipe from my last post. Making the mochi dough is very straight forward, but shaping is not. You have to seal the opening while the dough is still warm, so the sides stick together without leaving a line. The ones I made tasted good but they were certainly not as pretty and neat as those by Mochi Cream. More practise is needed!

Purple sweet potato mochi

Makes 10

220g Glutinous Rice Flour

15g Glutinous Rice Flour (for dusting)

110g Caster Sugar

200ml Full Fat Milk

150g Purple Sweet Potato Puree

1 tsp Icing sugar

1 tsp Vegetable Oil

Combine 220g glutinous rice flour and the sugar, and then gradually add the milk. Mix until the batter is smooth. Oil a plate with vegetable oil, and then evenly spread the batter on it. Steam the mixture on a medium heat for 20 minutes. 

Meanwhile, divide the potato puree into 10 portions. Cook 15g glutinous flour in a microwave on full power for 50 seconds. When the dough is nearly done, dust your hands and work surface with the cooked flour.

Leave the dough to cool for a couple of minutes so you can handle it with your hands. Use a circular cookie cutter (I use 68mm diameter) to cut the dough, and then gently pull the side of the skin outwards so it is thicker in the middle.

Place a portion of the puree in the middle of the skin, fold it in half without squashing the puree. Repeat on the other side. Seal the opening by grabbing the four corners together, then twist and cut off the end. The closing should face downwards. Dust the mochi with icing sugar to finish.

Purple Sweet Potatoes And Green Tea Swiss Roll

When I was small, my family used to take me and my brother for barbeques in a country park in 'Tai Mo Shan' (literally 'Big Hat Mountain'), Hong Kong. Barbeque is a very different affair over there. There are stone barbeques and benches in the park, where people sit around, skewer the food on special metal forks, and grill them over a bed of charcoal. I would always start with two Frankfurter sausages (with a coat of honey) and end with a roast sweet potato. Since purple sweet potatoes are more rare and expensive than the normal ones, my parents would buy a mixture of both and then wrap them in tin foil. And if I was lucky, I would get a purple one.

There are not many Chinese sweet potato desserts. The most common one we eat in Hong Kong is called 番薯糖水 (sweet potato sweet soup) – boiled chunks of sweet potato in ginger syrup. However, cakes made from sweet potato are very popular in Japan, and that is where the influence for this recipe came from. A few weeks ago I got hold of some purple sweet potatoes. I baked them in the oven until soft, and then added... erm... condensed milk. I know it is not very conventional, but it tasted damn good. So trust me on this one.

I used the puree as a filling for a green tea Swiss roll, which I made for last month's Band of Bakers ‘Vegetable’ themed event. The green tea is quite subtle in this recipe, just enough in the background to complement the earthy taste of the sweet potato.

Sweet potato puree

Makes around 300g

3 Purple Sweet Potatoes (around 420g)

4 tbsp Condensed Milk

2 tsp Full Fat Milk

Preheat a fan oven to 200C. Bake the whole purple sweet potatoes (skin on) for at least 50 minutes. Use a fork to poke the potatoes to check that they are soft enough.

One by one, cut the potatoes in half, and then use a teaspoon to scoop out the flesh into a bowl. Use the back of a fork to mash the potatoes. Add the condensed milk and full fat milk. Mix well.

Use cling film to shape the puree into a long tube, twist to tighten both ends and then keep cool in the fridge.

Green tea Swiss roll with purple sweet potato puree

Serves 8

Sponge:

6 Medium Eggs (separated)

100g Caster Sugar

50g Self-Raising Flour

10g Matcha Powder

10g Ground Almond

40ml Full Fat milk

1 tsp Icing Sugar (for dusting)

Filling:

250ml Double Cream

30g Icing Sugar

160g Purple Sweet Potato Puree

Sugar Syrup:

20g Caster Sugar

60ml Water

Preheat oven to 200C. Line a 25cm x 38cm tin with greaseproof paper. Make the sugar syrup by dissolving the sugar in the water, and bring to boil until reduced by half. Leave it aside to cool.

Beat the yolks with 50g caster sugar until pale and creamy. Add half of the flour, mix well. Repeat for the remaining half. Add the ground almond, then slowly sift in the green tea powder, add the milk to loosen the mixture in between.

Using an electric whisk, beat the egg whites at a medium speed until you see lots of small air bubbles. Switch to high speed, and then add the 50g caster sugar, spoon by spoon, into the egg whites. Stop mixing when stiff peaks form. Do not overwork it.

Mix a quarter of the egg white into the cake batter. Fold in the remaining egg whites, a quarter at a time, until fully incorporated. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, and gently spread out with a spatula. Bake in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes.

Remove the sponge from oven. Cool it in the tin for a few minutes, and then cool (with the greaseproof paper still in place) completely on a wire rack. Place a piece of greaseproof paper (a bit bigger than the size of the tin) on a work surface, turn the sponge upside down.

Carefully remove the paper on the top. This 'smooth' side is the outer layer of the Swiss roll. Turn the sponge over (i.e. 'rough' side up). Brush the sugar syrup onto the sponge, including the edges.

Whip the fresh cream with icing sugar until soft peaks form, and then evenly spread it onto the sponge. With the shorter side facing you, line the puree around 6 to 8 cm from the bottom of the sponge. Roll the sponge over the puree and carry on until it is done.

Use the greaseproof paper to wrap around the roll, twist to tighten both ends and then put in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Cut both ends off when ready, dust with icing sugar and serve.

Seoul Cafés

I like the taste of coffee, but I cannot really drink much due my hyperactive nature. It would only take one shot to send me to restless-land. Despite that, I love going to cafés, particularly the Asian ones. They sell cakes made from light fluffy sponge, layered with fruit or tea flavoured cream. I like to eat them with a cup of rich green tea latte.

We went to a few cafés during our trip in Seoul, here are the two that I really liked, located in my favourite areas Samchungdong and Sinsadong.

Samchungdong is an ‘old’ part of Seoul to the east of the Gyeongbokgung Palace. Here you will find a group of traditional houses on a hill overlooking the rest of Seoul, known as the Bukchon Hanok Village. Most of them now serve as guest houses or cultural centers. There are also plenty of little alleyways you can explore in Samchungdong, featuring art galleries, cafés and small shops.

Retrona Pie is a three story café specialising in sweet American style pies. My guide book said the chef was trained in Japan before starting his own business here, no wonder why the pastries looked so immaculately pretty. We ordered a slice of raspberry and green tea pie, and a slice of earl grey and chocolate pie. The cream was light yet full of flavour, just what we needed for a mid afternoon break.

Retrona Pie

Unlike in London, the posh part of Seoul is South of the Han River. Sinsadong is modern and full of trendy and relatively high end shops, and it is also the capital of plastic surgery. It was not hard to notice the advertisements at the station showing the “before” and “after” images. Apart from that, Sinsadong is lovely to walk around with no shortage of good restaurants and bars.

We popped into Deux Amis for dessert after binging on some KFC nearby. It was still very busy even though it was past ten o’clock, I wish London had somewhere like this. We shared a slice of salted caramel and chocolate cake, how cute is the little macaroon on top? My husband was very happy with his pink lychee juice and raspberry sorbet in a sundae glass.

Deux Amis

My first attempt at making macarons

"I can't eat anymore!!!" said by one of my best friends, Kyile. We were sitting in the lounge of a hotel in Hong Kong, stuffing ourselves with cakes, truffles, puddings and 10+ other desserts. Did I mention it was a dessert buffet? I cannot remember whose idea was it, but we did have a great time. An hour into eating, we all said we couldn't eat anymore, appreciating the harbour view, chatting away... but every 5 minutes someone would disappear and return with a plate of treats, claiming 'This is my last one...'. I remember my last dessert was a small plate of very cute, colourful and irresistible macarons.


This was my first attempt at making macarons. I followed a recipe in the book "I Love Macarons" by Hisako Ogita. I love the book. The amount of detail is incredible, each step is illustrated by a photo to show exactly what you need to do. It also covers many different fillings. Although the recipe does not seem complex, there are lots of things which can go wrong, especially getting the 'drying time' right before baking. I had to make a few batches to perfect the timing.


Going through my cupboard in the kitchen, I couldn't help but adding the blueberry honey I bought in Italy to the butter cream. It gave the cream a lovely tangy favour. Hopefully these will clear the Monday blues in the office tomorrow.