Home Cook Chrysanthemum Tea

Recipe for Home Cook Chrysanthemum Tea:

Mandatory
- 50-70g dried tai-ju chrysanthemum flowers (胎菊)
- 1.5 litres of water
- 50g rock sugar

Steps

1. Prepare mandatory and optional ingredients. I didn't have any optional ingredients, so just the mandatory ones.       
2. In a small pot using medium heat, bring the water to a boil.

3. Once water starts boiling, add in rock sugar.
4. Switch to using low heat
5. Stir water consistently using soup ladle till sugar completely dissolved.
6. Once sugar completely dissolved, add in the chrysanthemums flowers.
7. Close pot with lid and immediately switch off the fire.

8. Let it simmer for at least an hour or longer. (I left it till the pot is slightly warm/around room temperature as I wanted to chill it in fridge.)

9. Remove flowers using a sieve and stored/served as required (I removed partially of it as the flowers looked nice.)

Optional Ingredients (For the optional ingredients, can add it/them in together during step 6.)

- Wolfberries (枸杞子/枸杞 - Gou Qi Zi/Gou Qi) - Nourish liver and kidney yin, supplement blood and essence, and improve vision.
          - Wash wolfberries with normal temperature water before use.

- Honeysuckle Flower (金银花 - Jin Yin Hua) - Clear heat and remove toxicity, disperse wind-heat, clear summer-heat.

- Liquorice (甘草 - Gan Cao) - Tonify qi of heart and spleen, dispel phlegm, relieve cough and dyspnea, relieve spasm and pain, clear heat and relieve toxicity, and harmonize property of medicine.

Note: The optional ingredients are advised by the Chinese medical store staffs. Please asked for their advice again. I have tried using them all and so far I am quite well.

Most of the ingredients can be found in local Chinese medical stores. Some even comes pre-packed.
For the Chrysanthemum flowers, there are a few variety to choose from. I prefer tai ju as the smell and fragrance is nice. Pricing for tai ju was around a pack for $4-$4.50. No longer have their packaging so not very sure how big pack it is...

Easy to cook Tomato Rice

Recipe for tomato rice:

A. The base for tomato rice
2 tsps olive oil (I actually used canola oil since I didn't have olive oil)
2 tsps black pepper (Or more if u like black pepper)
1 fully ripe tomato (not those small tomatoes)
2 cups of Thailand Rice Grains (The number of cups varied on your needs. 2 cups of rice can actually serves 4-5 person. I've tried both Thailand long-grain Rice and Japanese short gain Rice and still turns out well)
2 cups of water (the usual volume that you need for cooking your rice)

B. Optional Ingredients
Shitake/Chinese Mushroom - sliced
Ham - sliced/diced
Corn - remove corn from cob
Carrot - sliced/diced
Broccoli -  Removed the leaves and cut into smaller stalks

Steps

1. Prepare the portion under B. Optional Ingredients

2. Prepare the rice as you usually does... Wash it and fill up with the usual amount of water.

3. Scoop/Cut off the top of tomato where the brown color portion.

4. Place the tomato in the centre of your rice pot, with the top of the tomato facing downwards.

5. Add in olive oil and black pepper.

6. Place the optional ingredients into the rice pot.

7. Put the rice into your rice cooker and cook as usual

8. Once cooked, the tomato will be soft. Using your rice ladle, press the tomato down and mixed till all rice grain are looks completely mixed with the tomato and ingredients.

Side Notes

I saw this recipe after signing up a Facebook group and it seemed easy. Tried it out once and now I am all into this recipe. The optional ingredients varies. I have tried with french beans, sausages, hotdogs, Enokitake, Chinese fish cakes etc.

French beans and enokitake turned brown after a few reheat so better not reheat too many times.

Sausages and hams lost much of it's original taste so I still prefer using hot dogs. Alternatively, if the sausage/ham you are using is already cooked, then don't add them in (at step 6). Wait till at step 8 then add in to the cooked rice and mixed well. Keep the rice cooker in the warm mode to heat up the sausage/ham.

Till date, I still prefer using broccoli, corn, carrot. Planning to try chinese dried mushroom and chinese sausage. Will update again once I tried.

Taiwan Trip 2014 - Day 3 Cingjing (清境) - Taroko National Park (太魯閣國家公園) - Hualien (花蓮)

Our Itinerary

Day 1: Changi Airport > Taoyuan Airport > Sun Moon Lake (Ita Thao)

Day 2: Sun Moon Lake > Cingjing  

Day 3: Cingjing 清境 > Taroko National Park 太魯閣國家公園 - Hualien 花蓮 

(Wu Ling 武嶺 > Mt He Huan 合歡山 > Taroko Bi Luu Shen Mu 碧綠神木 > Swallow Grotto Trail 燕子口 > Tian Xiang 天祥 > Eternal Shrine 長春祠 > Qingshui Cliff 清水斷崖 > Qi Xing Tan)

Day 4: Hualien 

Day 5: Hualien > Taipei (Huaxi Night Market)

Day 6: Taipei (Jiufen > Gongguan - Retail Outlet & Night Market)

Day 7: Taipei (Beitou > Tamsui)

Day 8: Taipei (Shinkong Mitsukoshi > Ximending > Shilin Night Market)

Day 9: Taipei > Taoyuan Airport

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Woke up early in the morning, I prayed hard for the sunrise.

We camped ourselves outside at the balcony, the weather is VERY cold! OMG
Freezed my body but I shall not give in!!!

Taking a lot and a lot of sunrise pictures, we were all satisfied! hehe...

And it was breakfast time again...
As usual, porridge, toast, eggs, preserved/stir fried vegetables,


After breakfast, we stayed put in our accommodation area to wait for our driver for the next long ride @ 11am.

Wandered around and here's what I took

The view of Senzhilian (view from their cafe)

The view from our balcony

The view of Senzhilian (view from their carpark)

Our driver was very punctual. He came at 11am and that's the start of our 7 hours exploration of Taroko and trip to Hualien. First place of interest is Wu Ling (武嶺) and Mt He Huan (合歡山) The view is superb nice!!

Wu Ling (武嶺) and Mt He Huan (合歡山) view

Stopped for a short break and also change of drivers. Good for us to take a break as we still have a long journey to go.

Upon reaching Taroko's Shen Mu, our driver brought us to this eatery which is just a stairway away from Shen Mu. There, the staff gave us a lot of samples to try. From their peach honey, to dried mushrooms snacks, all tasted delicious. But we weren't in the shopping mode so didn't buy any. We had our lunch at the eatery and the portion they served is quite generous. I highly recommend their hot red tea which they served with the honey peach to substitute the sugar.

The Eatery @ Shen Mu

Our lunch

- Taroko Bi Luu Shen Mu (碧綠神木) 

- Yanzikou (Swallow Grotto) Trail (燕子口) 

Tian Xiang (天祥)

Eternal Shrine (長春祠)

Qingshui Cliff (清水斷崖) 

Qingshui Cliff (清水斷崖)

Qi Xing Tan

Enjoyed the trip tour via car with our friendly guide Ms Tiffany Chang (tiffany_935lk@yahoo.com.tw). She was very responsive through email and is very informative. If you are visiting Hualien and need a guide, do drop her an email.
The whole 7 hours is quite tiring for me although we spend more time in the car then walking. I guess it must be the going up the mountain and coming down from there that cause the tiredness...But I do hope to go for a trekking tour if I revisited Taroko.

Our last destination is Hualien  (花蓮)- Hotel Charming. Ms After unpacking, we went out to look for food again. Chanced upon a eatery selling railway bento.

Drumstick bento

Didn't do much shopping. Shops were already beginning to close. And we were exhausted. Bought snacks from the convenience shop and went back to rest for the day.