Milk Tea

This is so easy it barely counts as a recipe, but I like it so much I want to include it anyway. The only trick here is to boil the tea bags instead of letting it steep, extracting much more flavor so that the condensed milk doesn't overpower it.

Before 

... and After!

Milk Tea

single serving

Ingredients:
Lipton tea bag - 2
Condensed milk

Directions:
1. In a small pot, boil about two cups of water. You can also measure it out by using the cup you'll be drinking from, plus a little more.
2. Add two tea bags and let simmer on low heat for about 5 minutes. 
3. Pour out the tea (the tea color should be very dark*), and mix in as much condensed milk as you like. I usually use about two large overflowing teaspoons.

* look for this dark coloring of the tea before adding condensed milk

Hong Kong Style Fish Ball Noodle Soup (魚蛋麵)

Noodle soup is such a comfort food. This is a quick DIY version that comes pretty close to the restaurant version (and healthier!). You can play around with the ingredients as you wish. Also, I have tried many different brands of these items and are very specific with what I think is best!

My preferred brands of groceries

Wonton noodles, fresh/fried fishballs (Shung Kee), chicken broth (Swanson)

[missing wonton brand]

Before

[missing pic]

....and After!

Choy sum and fish balls, tons of cilantro.

Nappa cabbage and fish balls.

Added wonton to the mix.

Hong Kong Style Fish Ball Noodle Soup (魚蛋麵)

Ingredients:
Chicken broth - 1 can (Swanson, 99% fat free)
Wonton noodles - 1 (insert band)
Vegetables - any type, I like choy sum/Chinese broccoli/napa cabbage
Fish balls - 4 pieces (Shung Kee Food 宋記)
Dried shrimps - 2 pieces
Dried scallops - half piece
Scallions - 2 pieces (julienne a portion to cook in soup, and chop the rest for garnish)
Cilantro - chopped for garnish
Seasoning - white pepper, soy sauce, sesame oil, hot sauce (optional), MSG (optional)

Directions:
1. Soak dried scallop and dried shrimps in water until re-hydrated.
2. Boil the chicken broth with dried scallops and shrimps. Let it simmer 5-30 minutes for the flavor to develop. Add a splash of salt, soy sauce and white pepper; taste and season accordingly. 
3. Add fish balls to the boiling chicken broth. When fish balls are cooked (they float), add julienned scallions. 
4. In a separate pot, boil water with a splash of salt and canola oil.
5. When the water boils, dip noodles in quickly (less than a minute). Keep stirring to make sure they don't stick. Remove noodles from pot (retain the water), place in a bowl, and rinse under cold water twice. Mix a splash of sesame oil to the noodles.
6. In the boiling pot of noodle water, add the vegetables and let cook thoroughly. Note that the alkaline in the noodles will make the veggies extra green. When it's done cooking, drain water and place cooked veggies in a large serving bowl. 
7. Back in the boiling broth pot, add the noodles back in for about 30 seconds.
8. Pour into the serving bowl along the cooked veggies. Garnish with cilantro, scallions and a dollop of hot sauce and enjoy!