Roasted Garbanzo Beans

I was going through my pantry and found tons of canned food that I had long forgotten about. Among the stash, I found not one, but two cans of garbanzo beans. Why I needed two cans of garbanzo beans, I have no idea.

Eager to make use of these beans before they expire, and not in the mood for hummus, I decided to make some kachang (roasted nuts or beans) instead.

These are soooo easy to make. Firstly, empty the liquid out of the can of garbanzo beans. Give the beans a good rinse with water to get the slippery coating off.

Pat dry with paper towels. You'll find the skin on the garbanzo beans will come off easily, toss the skin.

Lay them on a baking tray and drizzle with some olive oil.

Bake at 200°C (400°F) for about 45mins or until the garbanzo beans are crunchy. Remove from the oven and season with a little salt and any seasoning of your choice. You can use Cajun seasoning, or just about any seasoning you like. I made guacamole a couple of days back and had some leftover guacamole seasoning so I used that.

Toss and tuck in!

Bone-setting

A friend of mine sprained her ankle over (as she puts it) - politics. She was out and about, having an impassionate conversation with her husband and getting all riled up, when she accidentally tripped and sprained her ankle.

In great pain, and being local, she naturally went the traditional way and sought out a Teed Da doctor, of which I don't quite know how to explain but to say that she went to a bone-setter.

Bone-setting is a traditional Chinese art of...well, setting bones. It involves applying very pungent-smelling herbs and ointments and rubbing the concoction onto the affected area - all to be done by a Teed Da doctor, and not something you can do yourself.

To mend the sprain, she had to go to the Teed Da doctor to get fresh ointment rubbed in and her ankle bandaged up every day for one week. I went with her on one of her visits and found it to be a most interesting place.

Located in Wanchai, Teed Da doctor Leung Kam-Kay learnt his father's art of bone-setting from a young age. He had no formal lessons, but learnt it through observation and experience. He has been doing this for over three decades and took over his father's clinic when he retired some ten years ago. The clinic hasn't changed and looks the way it did when it first opened in 1964.

My friend getting treated:

Many are sceptical of this traditional healing process because of the lack of scientific support, but many (like my friend), swear by this method to mend bruised joints, broken bones and sprains.

And evidently Pelé did too! Curiouser and curiouser!

For what it's worth, my friend's ankle was right as rain one week later. 

Father's Day

Maybe it's tradition, maybe it's poor timing, but Father's Day always seems to get overshadowed by Mother's Day. Determined to make it a special one for my husband who is celebrating his first Father's Day as a dad of two, I set my son to work on a card for him.

I'm most impressed with his work of art because he was intending to draw circles but somehow by a strange miracle, ended up drawing a picture of Dad, complete with an ear, hair, eyes and a smile.

We had brunch at The Pawn, which was a fun gastronomical affair for everyone in the family - my son had a 3-course meal, starting off with tomato soup, followed by a mushroom pasta in cream sauce, and then a brownie for dessert; baby tucked into some warm freshly-baked onion bread; and my husband and I had the very filling pork belly. I managed to squeeze in some sticky toffee pudding, which had a very unusual citrus touch that was just heavenly. 

Big Bro and Little Sis

We went on a junk trip with some friends yesterday, despite it being terrible weather with scattered showers throughout the day.

Summer in Hong Kong is peak junk season, with junks booked out months in advance, so any time there's a junk secured, poor weather is not even a consideration and no one even thinks about cancelling the trip.

Naturally, the waters were extremely choppy and no sooner were we onboard when we all felt a little woozy. But troopers that we were, we gamely sailed out to Lamma Island, which doesn't boast the best beach but was a reasonable sail from the Central Ferry Piers where we set off.

Once we had dropped anchor near Lamma Island, and the junk was more stable, we all felt considerably better. It was the first junk trip for our baby girl and my son was very eager to ensure she was having a good time.

"How are you doing?"

 "Here, have something to eat, you'll feel better."

 "Look, there're some boats."

"I love you, Baby Sister."

Pets from the Past

We were walking through Wanchai the other day and stumbled upon this shop.  

This was how pet shops used to be like when I was growing up. I had kind of forgotten that this is what pet shops were like until I saw this. So old-school and authentic.

It reminded me of a similar pet shop that was just a 2 minute walk from where we lived when I was little. My grandfather liked birds and we used to have a parrot, and an assortment of other birds at home. Those were the pets I grew up with.

Both my son and baby girl were very much taken by the colorful parrots perched outside.

Presumably these are the small birds:

And these the small animals: