Pineapple & Bitter Gourd Chicken Soup

I get the idea of cooking this soup from my recent Taiwan Trip which we have a similar soup during one of our lunch meal. From the soup ingredients that they served, I replicate a similar soup, which taste just as closed as what we had. I was delighted with the end result even though initially I was still worrying about the outcome due to the different type of Bitter Gourd that we have in Singapore.

During my trip at Taiwan, what we mostly saw is this White Bitter Gourd which is available at their supermarket or vegetable stall. It is kind of different from the Green Bitter Gourd that we have over here. This White Bitter Gourd is cultivates by Taiwan agriculture and is known as “白玉苦瓜” which is a very common vegetable used in most household or restaurants. It is very popular among the Taiwanese because of its colour and it does not have any bitter taste at all too. It is normally used to cook this soup dish known as “Pineapple & Bitter Gourd Chicken Soup -凤梨苦瓜鸡” which is what I am going to share today.

Since we cannot find any "White Bitter Gourd - 白玉苦瓜" in Singapore(if anyone of you know where we can get this in Singapore, please share with me) we have to focus on another key ingredient which is the "Pineapple - 凤梨". Try to get the good grade pineapple which is golden in colour and most important it must be sweet and fragrant so that your soup will be burst with that light and refreshing taste. And according to the fruit seller, what I got over here is known as the "Honey Pineapple" from Thailand which cost S$2.00 for half of the portion.

Ingredients: (serves 4)
4 Chicken Drumsticks
1 Medium Size Bitter Gourd, 500g
1/2 Thai Honey Pineapple, cut into big chunks
1 Medium Carrot, cut into chunks
8 - 10 Red Dates(红枣)
1/2 Tablespoon Wolfberries(枸杞)
1.5 Litres of Water
1/2 Chicken Stock Cube, optional

Method:
1. Trim the fat and remove the skin from the drumsticks, rinse and set aside.
2. Bring a pot of water to boil, blanched the drumsticks for about 5 minutes in boiling water, removed and rinse again.
3. Add 1.5 Litres of water to the soup pot and bring it to boil.
3. While waiting for the water to boil, cut the bitter gourd length-wise into half, scraped off all the seeds and white pits in it then cut into 1"/1.5" thick slices.
4. Place the bitter gourd slices in a big mixing bowl or so, add in 1 teaspoon of salt briefly rub it/massage together with the bitter gourd slices for a few seconds. (this is helps to reduce the bitterness of the bitter gourd)
5. Next, rinse it well and drop it into the boiling water together with all the above ingredients except the wolfberries.
6. When the soup mixture comes to boil again, reduce the heat to medium low and simmer it for about 30 - 40 minutes.
7. Add in the wolfberries in the last 5 minutes and you can season the soup with some salt or chicken stock cube to taste if you prefer.


If you are curious with the taste of this soup, I can guarantee you that it is not bitter at all. And when cooking this soup, you will be delighted with the fragrance that is being release from the pineapple as it smell so wonderful. But a point to note:- as this is a very cooling soup due to the combination of bitter gourd and pineapple, for those who is weak, just recover from sickness or after menses perhaps you should avoid taking this soup or if you want just take it in small amount. If you do try out this soup, please leave me your feedback and share with me your opinion :)

Foodfare @ Ang Mo Kio Hub

There are about 6 NTUC Foodfare outlets located at different parts of Singapore such as at Simei MRT, Rivervale Mall, Admiralty MRT and etc. Today the outlet that we went to is located at the 3rd level of Ang Mo Kio Hub. You can find a large varieties of food like Chicken Rice, Korea/Japanese Food, Fish Soup, Wanton Noodles, Dim Sum and a lot more. I am sure you can find something that you like over there.

While roaming around to look for our brunch today, I decided to get a plate of this Chai Tow Kway which is also known as "Fried Carrot Cake - 菜头粿". In Singapore, there is two version of fried carrot cake which is either "Black" or "White". The Black version is usually rice cake fried with garlic, eggs and thick sweet soy sauce. While the White version which shown on the photo above does not use any sweet soy sauce and the carrot cake is fried on top of the beaten egg to form a nice golden crust. Sometime they are served with some extra chilli and spring onion accordingly to individual preference.

Stall No. 06
Thye Hong @ #03-12


While waiting for the Fried Carrot Cake, I was attracted to the Congee stall next to it. Other than selling different varieties of Claypot Congee, this stall also have a few Hot Plate with rice dishes. Since it is brunch, I decided to try their "Hong Kong Style Porridge" which cost, S$4.90 per claypot.

There are a lot of ingredients in it such as fish slices, peanut, ikan bilis, scallop, cuttlefish and fried fritter - 油条. This porridge texture and taste of this porridge is kind of different from the normal Cantonese porridge which those creamy texture. As you can see from the photo, you still can see grain of rice in the porridge and it's very fragrant and tasty due to the added ingredients.

Stall No. 07
Congee/Hot Plate @ #03-12


Due to the hot weather recently, most of the drink stalls are always packed with long queue of people. Even the drinks stall at this Foodfare is also packed with crowds getting their drinks, desserts or toasts. While getting our drinks, I spotted mum's favourite Soupsop dessert which I think she would love to have it for after meal dessert. But I was kind of disappointed that those shaved ice is actually more than the soursop topping which make this dessert kind of expensive for the price of S$2.00.

2010 Taiwan Trip - Day 5

Today we will be visiting a Peacock Garden - 孔雀园 along our trip at "Sun Moon Lake - 日月潭" which is the largest natural lake in Taiwan as well as a tourist attraction. Although we have seen peacocks in Singapore too, but this is the very first time we saw White Peacocks appeared before us. The White Peacock is sometime being mistaken for an albino, but it is a colour variety of Blue Peacock. We all think that its white colour makes it looks really magnificent and elegant.

Em... time flies fast especially during holidays period. Today is already our 5th day in Taiwan and it seems that we have just arrived yesterday. Morning breakfast was served at Nanka Express Hotel - 南嘉饭店 where we stayed last night. Today we are having traditional Taiwan porridge with their local side dishes for porridge.

After breakfast we set off our journey to Sun Moon Lake where we stop by at one of the resting point along the highway. This is the biggest Resting Point - 休息站 that we have come cross during these few days and there is a mini supermarket, food court, cafe and snack shops in it too. Each of us happily grabbed those items that we want before boarding the tour bus. We bought some "Steam Rice Cake - 状元糕" which taste like our Kueh Tutu and peach flavour snow skin cream puff - 冰皮泡芙. The outer skin of the cream puff is soft and chewy and the cream filling is also not too sweet or greasy.

Along the way at Puli, we exit the highway and drop by this famous "Chung Tai Chan Monastery - 中台山佛寺" that is a Taiwan-based Buddhist monastic order founded by the Venerable Master Wei Chueh in 1987. The headquarters monastery itself, Chung Tai Chan Monastery was completed in September 2001 and is located in the town of Puli. The Monastery is mostly made up of stone, which symbolizes the steadfastness of Buddhist belief.

Sun Moon Lake - 日月潭 is situated in Nantou - 南头, Yuchih Township that is in the center of Taiwan which form the island’s largest lake. It is a beautiful alpine lake, divided by the tiny Lalu Island; the eastern part of the lake is round like the sun and the western side is shaped like a crescent moon, hence derive the name “Sun Moon Lake”.

Lunch was at "Jin Sheng Lou - 景圣楼饭店" where they have a wide range of Sun Moon Lake local dishes as well their famous "Aborigines - 原住民" dishes which can only be found in Sun Moon Lake. Here we tried their mountain deer meat cook in hotplate, Aborigines wild vegetables that is only from Sun Moon Lake and etc.

This Peacock Garden - 孔雀园 has over 200 peacocks and other rare and valuable birds. Over 100 other species live in this park, including the mountain chicken, the Formosan blue magpie, the long-tailed pheasant, the golden pheasant, the ampherst pheasant, and the black coot. The park does not charge any entrance fee too and aside from Peacocks, there is also a butterfly garden where butterflies are kept to breed.

From our 2nd day in Taiwan, the tour guide has been recommending the Royal Jelly from "Mao Wang Ye Zhi Jia - 毛王爷之家" in Sun Moon Lake - 日月潭. When we finally arrived at the shop we are impressed by their products and on the benefits that we are able to absorb from those items such as Royal Jelly which is especially good for children.

A small bottle of Royal Jelly which can last for 1.5 - 2 months cost around S$75++ and accordingly to salesperson, if we keep Royal Jelly in the freezer it will be able to store for a few years compare to 1 year in fridge. Since Royal Jelly has an unpleasant taste which is milky and a stinging sensation when swallow, not many people prefer the fresh type compare to the capsule form. And also because Royal Jelly is very rich in protein we are advice to take only about 1/3 teaspoon each day. Another important point to take note is not to used any metal spoon on the Royal Jelly as it will create some chemical reactions and kill all the vitamins in it.

"Fong Jia Night Market - 逢甲夜市" is the night market which is near by the Feng Chia University. You can find a lot of food stalls selling their local snacks as well finding some low-price clothing and shoes. Entering their food street, we are caught by two long ques on the "Spring Onion Pancake - 油葱饼" and "Sausage with Glutinous Rice Wrap - 大肠包小肠". We bought one of this sausage rice roll which is a must try items from our Taiwan Food Searching list. This is indeed a very nice finger food which they grill the sausage and cooked glutinous rice then wrapped them together with some cucumbers and vegetables that make it look like a sausage burger

There are a lot of interesting snacks like deep-fry sweet potato balls, tempura fries, baked sweet potato and most scary "Smelly Beancurd - 臭豆腐" which makes you either hates it or loves it. There is this stall along the road side of the night market selling all kinds of vegetarian food such as "Rice Noodle - 面线", "Kimchi - 泡菜" and "Smelly Beancurd - 臭豆腐". So upon seeing so many people queuing, we decided to join in and we bought a box of vegetarian smelly beancurd which served with some kimchi and special chilli sauce. To our surprised although it really stinks while waiting for them to fried the beancurd but the smell is not that bad when we eat it. Rather the outer layer was very crispy and inside is so soft and juicy with the combination of kimchi and sauce. Overall it is very nice.

Most of the people will agreed that, going to tour is like eating non-stop trying to try all kind of their local food which we can't or seldom see in our own country. After walking around Fong Jia Night Market for an hour or so, we head off to "Royal Family Restaurant - 皇家御品" for dinner. Today's dinner will be buffet and we will be having a steamboat and western set dish of our choice. Since we have four person, we ordered Black Pepper Steak, Chicken Chop, Pork Pork and Cod Fish. Other than the set meal, each of us is given a bucket of steamboat ingredients for us to eat with their special soup broth which they prepared.

As you can see from the photos, we are still entitled for the fresh fruits, salad, ice-cream(this is Rey's favourite counter) and assorted pudding. This was indeed a very fulfilling dinner where we get to try all kinds of items in one meal. With all these, it only cost about NT$288 for the steak + steamboat set which is about S$12.00 and you can have all the above. Worth it right!