Day 5

5 September 2004

Hood Canel, WA
 

Kelly went to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, around 4:30am and found the garage door was
not closed. So he shut the garage door as a security precaution. Soon afterwards, he heard a bucket drop noise
and saw out of the window someone ran frantically back and forth of the property with a flash-light in hand. Could
that be Tom? So he got out of bed and opened the garage door before going back to sleep. More on this
later, read on.

Kelly got out of bed around 6:30am in the morning to prepare the buns for breakfast. Simon and Jamie were
already up walking in the backgard enjoying some fresh morning air. Around 7:30am, the buns were all prepared
and in their final rise process. Kelly went back to bed. Simon and Jamie also tried to catch a few more
sleep, despite the sun had come out.

At 8am in the morning, "the snoring contest" was still on as observed by Teddy as he woke up to visit the bathroom.

Around 9:30am, the aroma of fresh baked buns could be smelled in most part of the house. The batch
of BBQ Pork Buns (义燒飽) was first out of the oven. After failed to taste the fresh bakery two evenings ago,
Anthony established his authority by proclaiming himself as the
"Official bun taster" that he had exclusive access rights to the BBQ buns. After his initial tasting, he declared
"all buns are not suitable for general consumption as it poses some health risks". Teddy and Tom
ignored Anthony's statement citing "willing to accept those risks when it comes to buns". Then a batch of
Cream-filled Buns with Shedded Coconut Topping (椰絲奶油飽) were made. Finally came the batch of the
popular "Pineapple" buns (菠蘿酥皮飽). While Tom was eating his favorite 椰絲奶油飽, he said he was mystified by a "strange
phenomena" that happened to him in the morning -- while harvesting clams in the middle of the night, upon
returning to the house, the garage door was closed. Not wanting to knock on the door and wake up the
entire house occupants, he went back out to the shore and harvested some more clams. Upon his second
return, the garage door was open! Could the house
be haunted and of a ghost? With the "ghost" mystery solved, Tom returned to his loft to catch some
more sleep, while the rest of the gang were out of bed to enjoy breakfast.

After breakfast, the entire gang was taking their leisure time enjoying themselves as there was no golf
game. Some resumed their oyster harvesting while some helped cleaning the oysters for lunch.

The lunch featured baked oysters with sliced ginger roots and scallion (薑葱蠔), SzeYauWong ChowMein(豉油皇炒麵), stirred
frined clams with spicy black bean sauce (an oncore), and left over fried rice from the previous dinner.

Since the buns were in hot demand, Kelly prepared two more batches of dough in preparation of buns to be
consumed while driving back home the next day (a.k.a. take-out service) . After the dough was
prepared, Kelly, Salina and Lana took the house boat for a boating trip on this sunny afternoon.
Among the 3, Lana is the youngest but
the most experienced sailor. Tom spent 5 mintues explaining to Kelly and Salina on boat safety, how to
operate the motor, and the emergency procedures. He reminded Kelly to lifting the motor when in
shallow water to avoid any damage, as
the motor costs over $2000. Out onto the water they went. The three tried rowing the boat at first,
but could not determine if the water current was going east or west direction. After some 30min, they
were still rowing in circles and patience went thin, so they decided to start the motor. Vvrooommmm,
"now the boat is traveling!" as Salina exclaimed. The three toured the coastline
and admired some of the expensive housing along the south shore. After cruising the open water for
over one hour, they turned back to the house. On their way back, they stopped by a platoon (owned by
the next door neighbor) to enjoy a quick dance and some photo opportunity. Upon returning to shore,
Pamela and Catherine wanted to cruise on the house boat also. Since neither knew how to drive the
motor, Tom voluteered to provide the boating service.

It was early evening by the time Kelly, Salina and Lana returned. Anthony was the chef-in-charge for
the dinner. He was busy lighting up the charcoal in the huge bbq pit in the backyard with Teddy
(the Chef-in-training) assisting. He realized he had a major task in the evening that required lots
of energy. So he spent a good afternoon hour on meditation sitting on the bench facing the water
in the backyard. The mix-grill BBQ dinner menu:

While the BBQ chefs were busy grilling outside, Kelly provided training to the group of baker-in-training (BIT)
on how to prepare buns. Lana, Vanessa, and Pat et.al. all enjoyed the hands-on experience in the
making of hotdog buns (腸仔飽) and dough preparation.

Dinner was served! All enjoyed the bbq, especially those meat-lovers (a.k.a. carnivors) really loved Anthony's
mix-grill. Kelly ate 3 sausages but told Salina that he only had one. A slew of post-dinner events followed.

With so much food over the weekend, Simon conducted a body-stretching class in the family room. He demonstrated
how to do Tai-Chi and some KungFu exercise to help elevate one's "chi" within the body. The body stretching
exercise is acknowledged by western medicine experts that  the slow non-vigorous body moment
promotes better blood circulation, resulting in lowering risk in suffering a stroke and also heart attack.

Across from the family room, Kelly was busy baking all the buns which were fully risen. A few could not resist
the aroma of the fresh baked buns and ate some, despite just finished dinner not too long ago. The hands-on
baking training continued with the making of paper-wrapped cup cakes (紙包蛋糕). Pat had already baked a few successful
batches of cup cakes, so she conducted the training lession while Kelly took a back seat acting as a consultant
in answering questions. It was almost 2am in the morning by the time all decided to call the night.

Vincent and his family planned to leave around 4:30am to beat the morning traffic in the Seattle area. The Hos
bid early farewell to the rest of and thanked everyone, very polite indeed.


<< Click on the thumbnail to view the fullsize picture >>

Buns fresh off the oven, meatless and ....

... BBQ meat alike

"Official" tasters claim their front row seat

Anthony said he has the exclusive "tasting" right of the BBQ buns

A fresh cup of coffee ...

... a popular combination with out of the oven "Pineapple" buns

Better save some for late comers

Yum, Yum ...

Urban dwellers always curious about the wild life

The entire gang takes turn in cleaning and opening of oysters

Back inside, Pamela and Catherine prepare the fruit plates

Oysters with ginger, scallions, lemon juice, and a dash of salt and pepper

A rare catch: a tiny abalone

2 large plates of oysters ready for the oven

Lunch is served

The 2nd batch of ChowMein, stirred fried clams to follow

Stirred fried clams with spicy blank bean sauce

Dessert: water melon

Time to settle the money business, who pays and who owes


 

A boat cruise on the Hood Canal ...


 
 

... with Lana, Kelly and Salina on board

Row ...

...row ...

... and row, only to find out rowing in circles

A sealion swimming near by 

Time to turn on the motor ...

 ... and cruise across 

The sealion was spotted again swimming nearby ...

... by disappears fast

Climbed up to a plantoom

Lana's collection on sea shells and a sea star

Wonderful smell from the BBQ pit already 

The gang move the boat out one more time. Tom takes Pamela and Catherine for an afternoon boating adventure

Kelly: "Have fun!"

Back inside, the gang enjoys afternoon snack: ice cream ....

... and Chestnut Cake

You have seen the demo, now is time for audience participation

Hands-on is the best way to learn.
The rest is all just paper/theory talk

Making of the hot dog buns by the apprentices, Your Are Hired!

First there was food preparation demo. Now, it's time for some Ku-Fu demo and exercise.

A good body stretch might help digestion after all the good food

BBQ pork buns

"Pineapple" and "Mexico" buns

Hot dog buns, batch 1

2nd batch of hot dog buns

Buns for the Cream Filled with Shredded Coconut topping

All participate in preparing the paper wrapped cup cakes

Buns with chestnut paste filling

Lana shows her way of  separating egg white from the yolk

The making of PaperWrapped cup cakes

Lana tastes her favorite 

Cup cakes out of the oven

"Food Channel" live demo 2: how to vacumn pack left over food, by Salina