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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Wednesday 30 March 2011

More impressions of London, and sights in a day

I am really liking London. It is full of old historical buildings yet not in a dingy decrepit way. It is pretty easy to get around on foot (better than the underground tube especially with a toddler and stroller), and the streetscape is lovelier than Hong Kong's. In addition, the people are quite amicable and a high proportion of the population is good-looking. Now, that might seem like a superficial thing to say, but it's true: most everyone I encounter of all races, genders, sizes and ages – whether on the streets, at the supermarket or on the tube – they are blessed with natural good looks. I would love to know the reason why. Taking the underground tube is an experience on its own (especially with a toddler), and last Thursday I took the underground tube to the Natural History Museum. On my own, with Zak and the stroller. Both stations at either end had no elevators or even escalators, just lots of stairs. Fortunately, the stroller is pretty light and easy to collapse, and Zak can walk the stairs fine so it wasn't too bad, and I had a few passers-by offering to lend a hand. That's the other nice thing about the people in London – strangers offering to help when they see that help may be needed, and I often saw people offering a seat on the tube to someone else who needed it more. At the museum, we saw lots of dinosaurs, but the boy's attention waned really quickly so we didn't stay very long at the museum (I also didn't fancy Zak falling asleep in the stroller on the way home which would make it rather difficult to do the stairs between street level and underground).

(Images are unedited, taken from both the dSLR and the point-and-shoot)

The Natural History Museum (which is an architectural beauty itself), and the stairs we took from the underground tube to street-level:

Since we only had one weekend in London, we had a full day planned for Saturday: to see most of the sights of central London on foot (the Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace) and to squeeze in afternoon tea at Sketch (because having afternoon tea is such an English thing to do, and Sketch is one of the best places in London city to go for afternoon tea). Shortly after arriving at Westminster by the underground tube, I made the unfortunate discovery that my dSLR AND my point-and-shoot cameras were both running low on battery power. To make matters worse, we realised from seeing the large number of police presence on the streets together with people holding banners and handing out flyers that some huge protest was scheduled to be held that day. Since this was our only weekend in London, we had no choice but to go ahead with the plans and to put up with the craziness that was happening around us.

The sight of the famous London clock tower that greeted us as we exited from the underground level at Westminster station:

The beautiful and historical Westminster Abbey:

The wide tree-lined road leading towards Buckingham Palace. The gorgeous St James Park is on the right:

Encounter with a cute squirrel in St James Park on the way to the palace:

More cute animals in St James Park:

Buckingham Palace and the golden statue of the Queen Victoria Memorial in front of the palace just beyond St James Park:

The ornate gate shutting off the public from the palace grounds at Buckingham:

One of the most boring (but probably well-paid) jobs – a palace guard on duty:

Takeaway lunch at Inn The Park (yes, that is the name of the restaurant/cafe) in St James Park included a butternut squash and vegetable pasty which would have been nicer if it had a meat filling. Smoked salmon and cream cheese made for a simple but good sandwich filling. The salads were about as exciting as salads can get, and nothing special really:

Heading out to the palace and having lunch at St James Park kept us away from the main areas of the protest, but we couldn't avoid it because our route coincided with the protest march route. I personally thought the protest would be relatively civil and low-key (having no previous knowledge of what it was), so imagine how I felt when we stepped out from our arvo tea at Sketch to be greeted with the sight of police squads decked out in protective anti-riot gear (complete with helmet and shield) marching out to Regent Street where some riot had apparently been happening while we were enjoying our quaint little afternoon tea experience. Police vehicles and many businesses in the area were the target of unsightly paint-bombs. Not very pleasant, especially when you have to consider the safety of your 2-year-old, but it certainly added an interesting dimension to our London sightseeing experience.

Cops in anti-riot gear, standing at the ready for more riots. Permission was asked and granted to take a photo of them (Rob informed me that I could get my camera confiscated otherwise!):

At one end of Regent Street, which would probably be buzzing with traffic had it not been shut off to motor traffic for the protest march. Love the way the building curves so gracefully along with the road curvature:

We also paid a visit to Hamleys Toy Store, which is heaven for the little people (and big people who are young at heart):

We then walked home via Oxford Street, which took us about 1 ¼ hours. All in all, it was a good day. I was pretty pleased with how much we managed to fit in one day. I just love exploring new cities on foot because I would miss too much if I took the train, bus or taxi everywhere. You can even feel the vibe of the local culture and atmosphere just by walking through the area. This method of travel is not for everyone, and needless to say, I slept very soundly that night. We looked at a bit more of London on Sunday too, but that will be another post for now.

Saturday 26 March 2011

A visit to a London city farm, and Chicken Cacciatore recipe

Earlier this week, I took the 2-year-old to a nearby city farm. Rather than tackling the underground tube with a stroller (the access to the tube system from street level is usually stairs), I walked the 2km distance there and back, which gave me a good chance to see the streets of London and admire the beautiful (old) architecture that I enccountered along the way. Zak loved chasing the uncaged chickens around the farm yard, and he kept edging up to the large geese that were as big as him! He gawked at the sheep, but barely gave a glance at the pigs. I wonder at when he will - in that little brain of his - associate those flappy clucky chickens with the chicken dishes I put on the dinner table. That boy loves eating chicken drumsticks, and nothing pleases me more than seeing him enthusiastically eat his dinner (Lord knows what we sometimes go through at the dining table trying to get him to eat).

Zak getting acquainted with chickens at a London city farm:

I cooked this Chicken Cacciatore a couple of weeks ago back home in Hong Kong, and I need to write it down before it gets left forgotten behind a backlog pile of photos of our trip to London and Italy. This is a pretty quick and easy recipe to execute, which is great for weekday dinners. The olives add a fantastic flavour punch, and it's a versatile dish that goes well with pasta, rice, couscous, bread, polenta, potato – any plain carbs to soak up the yummy sauce. I used this recipe from taste.com.au, but with a few modifications (but of course! I hardly follow recipes to the tee). I skipped flouring the drumsticks, added lots of mushrooms and used dried parsley. The first thing Rob said when stepping through the door after work was “Mmm, smells yummy”, and he was full of praises when eating it too. Zak ate his dinner, which was good enough for me!

Chicken Cacciatore


Ingredients

1kg (about 8) chicken drumsticks
Olive oil
1 brown onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
200g mushrooms
400g can whole peeled tomatoes
250ml (1 cup) chicken stock
140g (3/4 cup) pitted kalamata olives
dried parsley
salt and pepper, to taste

Method

1. Heat some oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add half the drumsticks and cook, turning occasionally, for 4-6 minutes or until well browned. Transfer to a plate. Heat another 2 tsp of olive oil in the frypan and repeat with the remaining drumsticks.
2. Heat some oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring often, for 2 minutes or until it softens slightly. Add the garlic and mushrooms, and cook, stirring, for another 2 minutes.
3. Add the browned drumsticks to the pot. Stir in the undrained tomatoes and stock, using the spoon to break up the tomatoes. Bring to the boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, uncovered, for 25-30 minutes or until the chicken is tender.
4. Stir in the olives and dried parsley, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook, uncovered, for a further 5 minutes.
5. Serve with your choice of carbs (e.g. rice, pasta, couscous) and vegetables for a complete meal.

Monday 21 March 2011

First impressions of London

We are here in London, after a 1 hour flight delay and 13 hours in the air. I am short on sleep, but thankfully not jet-lagged (unlike that time we went to New York). I dozed for about 10 minutes on the plane (sleep and me, we hardly meet on planes), so I zonked out on the bed quite easily after we arrived at our London apartment around 10pm. Zak, on the other hand, slept unusually well during the flight, so he is still adjusting and hence the reason why I am short on sleep.

(Images in this post are unedited because I am using the tiny ASUS that can't even handle viewing images.)

Food and caffeine @ Starbucks - blueberry yogurt, greek yogurt with granola, babyccino for Zak, grilled beef and cheese panini, and a tall cappuccino (not in shot). Coffee is pretty cheap in London:

On our first day in London yesterday, we spent some time getting food supplies and acquainting ourselves with the neighbourhood. However, the very first thing we did was to get some breakfast at Starbucks. Rob was starving and was very happy when we sat down in Starbucks for some late breakfast. We had nothing in the apartment, and because it was Sunday, most shops were shut. Thankfully there is a really nice supermarket (Waitrose) just around the corner from here which opens on Sundays but only from 11am. I could get everything from fresh groceries and cleaning stuff to allergy medication and thermometer. Being Sunday, the roads were quite dead, but we saw plenty of bicyclists and special bicycle lanes marked out on the roads. Nice change after Tokyo (where there are lots of bicycles but not encouraged on the roads, which then makes it unsafe for pedestrians) and Hong Kong (just plain unsafe on the roads with the shocking driving, and impractical to go with pedestrian traffic down the underground subway system and/or up the overhead footpaths).

Zak chillaxing on this massive swing at the playground:

One thing that took us by surprise was how friendly Londoners are. Through tales of others who'd been to London before me, I got the impression that people here are usually unsmiling, always gloomy to match the weather. I'm glad to report that it is definitely not like that at all! For example, I found a lovely park with playground near our apartment, and there I met a mum who introduced to me a "stay-and-play" playgroup at the school next to the park that is open to the public for free. Informational treasures like this can only come from local knowledge, or by doing some hard homework of scouring the internet. I probably won't use the playgroup much in the next 11 days because I intend to explore London a bit, but it is definitely good to know something like that exists in the area just in case my plans for the day don't work out. So far I like what I've seen of London, and I can understand why so many of my friends love it here.

Friday 18 March 2011

Off to London we go

I was really hoping to get out another blog post before we left for London, but it looks like it won't happen. It has been an incredibly busy week, sorting out flights and accommodation for our trip to Italy in two weeks' time and preparing for our stay in London during hubby's business trip - all in addition to the crazy daily life running around after a 2-year-old kid. Our flight to London is in less than 24 hours time, and I haven't even started packing! Anyway, I will no doubt have plenty of photos to share about our Europe experience, so check back to this blog occasionally for updates.

Ciao!

Wednesday 16 March 2011

Breakfast buffet @ Garden Cafe (Conrad), Hong Kong

It seems that I can't keep myself away from buffets! I had every intention of eating light when we met Rob's aunt and her hubby for breakfast at Garden Café in the Conrad, but everyone else had decided to have the breakfast buffet, and I went along because I didn't want to be the odd one out. The cappuccino I ordered to start with was lovely, much better than the one we had at another buffet recently. The buffet selection was very nice and the quality was pretty good, as to be expected for a dining institution inside an upscale luxury hotel. Service was excellent, with staff standing by to clear away the plate soon after it's emptied.

My plate, first round of many: eggs florentine (that tasted more cheesy than eggy), juicy grilled tomato, delicious panfried turnip cake, perfectly steamed har gow. I was so busy eating that I only took one food photo:

You could choose Chinese breakfast items such as dim sum, congee, noodles and fried rice. Or you could go for a Japanese-style breakfast with salted fish, pickled vegetables and rice. Standard Western-style breakfast fare was also available, including waffles, pancakes, hash browns, eggs (any style), ham and baked beans. The continental breakfast items looked good, but I didn't feel like having cheese, ham and pastries at the time. For those who just want a plain, healthy breakfast (the one I should have had, that everyone should be eating), a range of cereals, muesli, yoghurt, fruit and milk were also for the taking, but that corner didn't prove too popular. I didn't eat everything, but what I did eat was very tasty. The drinks selection was quite good too - a wide variety of fruit juices, milk (plain, soy, chocolate), and there was even smoothies! The only thing I could fault was the placement of some food items which didn't seem well-thought out. For example, I could not find glasses near the milk jugs, which were placed in a separate area to where the rest of the drinks were. I guess the staff thought that the milk would only be needed for the cereals, but I know I wouldn't eat my cereal with chocolate milk. The fruits were also placed on different tables, so I had to flit from one table to another when I wanted to take some fruits to go with the Greek yoghurt. I also wished they made available a jug of water for drinking.

This place caters well to kiddies! We loved the kid's plate set, complete with a two-handled mug. Zak enjoyed the waffle and fruit juices (he'd had breakfast at home beforehand, in case there wasn't anything suitable for him out at breakfast due to his multiple food allergies):

Overall breakfast was good. I know that hotel buffets are kinda boring, yet it's hard to go wrong especially if it's in an upscale hotel. Delicious food, good service and most importantly, wonderful company. Although we live in the same city as Rob's aunt and her husband, we get to catch up with them only once every few months. We always eat well whenever we see them.

Garden Café (Conrad)
Lower Lobby Conrad Hong Kong
Pacific Place
88 Queensway
Admiralty
Tel: +85 2 2521 3838

Tuesday 15 March 2011

A short note about Japan

This is a short post in regards what happened to Japan a few days ago. It is totally unrelated food and travel, yet I felt I must say something because Japan is very dear to me, having lived there for 4 years before moving to Hong Kong. Part of me is glad we moved out of Tokyo a few months ago so that we didn't have to experience that earthquake, yet at the same time I wish I was back in Japan so that I could help somehow. Having experienced a major earthquake myself a few years ago, I can sort of relate with my friends who are on the east side of Japan at the moment, although you can't really compare the devastation because the Noto is a small area with a much smaller population and much lower buildings and structures. Seeing images of the earthquake aftermath and reading the news about the devastation is very sombering and depressing, yet it helps me to keep things in perspective that there are much bigger problems out there than my tiny little complaints about life. I do believe that Japan will recover very quickly (having witnessed it firsthand after the Noto earthquake), but it won't be any small feat. Help out where you can - this page lists 7 simple ways to help.

Friday 11 March 2011

Pork Shepherd's Pie Recipe

My 2 year old son loves eating fish and chicken drumsticks, but he won't be trying out beef steak anytime soon. Red meat is just too tough-textured for his little mouth, and this is another mince meal made for the boy's benefit. I actually cooked this meal a couple of months ago, and the photos and notes have been waiting for me to do a write-up. This Pork Shepherd's Pie was pretty easy to do because I basically used the bolognese recipe and omitted the tomatoes for the mince. The hardest part was peeling and chopping the vegetables, which wasn't actually that difficult but it took a long time. The extra effort paid off because the amount was enough for two meals for our little family, and I saved half the mince filling for another busy day when I need only to peel, cook and mash potatoes for the topping and then pop into the oven for a quick meal. With carbs, protein and vegetables, this is a true complete meal in one dish.

The oyster sauce might seem like a strange condiment to add, but I wanted to add an extra depth of flavour to the meat filling without having to buy yet another condiment (Worcestershire, barbecue and A1 sauces are popular choices in most shepherd's pie recipes), and it worked! You can't taste the oyster sauce but I'm sure it helped to flavour the dish.

Pork Shepherd's Pie


Ingredients

Olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, chopped
2 large carrots, diced
4 celery stalks, diced
1 medium capsicum, diced
1 medium head of broccoli, cut up into smaller pieces
7 or 8 mushrooms, sliced
500g minced pork
3 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons tomato sauce/ketchup
1 tablespoon oyster sauce
1/2 cup of water
1/2 cup frozen corn
Dried Italian herb mix (basil, rosemary, thyme) and dried parsley, to taste
Salt and pepper to taste
800g potatoes, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon butter
1/2 cup (125mL) milk

Method

1. Heat some oil in a pot and sauté the onion, garlic, carrots and celery on medium heat until soft, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the capsicum, broccoli, mushrooms and minced pork. If necessary, break any large meat clumps apart, and cook until the meat is cooked.
4. Add the tomato paste, tomato sauce, oyster sauce and water and stir well. At this point, the mixture may seem dry, but keep in mind that the vegetables will release moisture during the cooking process. Add more water if necessary.
5. Add the frozen corn and stir to combine. Bring to a simmer and simmer on low heat for 10-15 minutes until vegetables are tender. Season well with salt, pepper and loads of herbs.
6. Meanwhile, make the potato mash. Boil potatoes for 10 minutes until tender. Drain, add butter and milk and mash until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Preheat the oven to 200degC. Spoon the meat mixture into a baking dish. Top with mashed potato and use a fork to spread over the meat mixture. Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes or until the potato topping is brown.
8. Serve while hot.

Wednesday 9 March 2011

Pralus Madagascar 75% Criollo Cocoa

Did you know that there are three main varieties of cacao, and that the finest and most expensive one - the Criollo bean - represents less than 5% of the world cocoa production? I certainly didn't know that, and would probably remain ignorant of that fact, had Rob not enlightened me on the matter. Apparently, the taste of Criollo chocolate is quite different from chocolate made from the more common Forastero bean, and so naturally we were quite keen to try a Criollo chocolate. Unfortunately, it wasn't easy to find one, simply because of the fact that 95% of all chocolate is made from Forastero/Trinitario, but that's where living in a huge city like Hong Kong comes in useful. Whilst waiting in line to pay at the supermarket in the mall downstairs, I spotted the word "Criollo" on some chocolate bars near the checkout counters (placing confectionary near the checkout counter is marketing that works). These Francois Pralus chocolates were expensive, more than twice the cost of the last chocolate I reviewed, but it was the first (and so far only) Criollo chocolate I have seen sold in a supermarket (believe me, we looked pretty hard across different stores). Pralus selects cacao for his plantations, where they are grown, harvested and fermented, and then roasted and made into delicious chocolates in his Roanne facility. Pralus makes everything himself, and is one of only three artisan chocolate craftsmen in France. That certainly explains why his chocolates are expensive. I don't think Pralus is a regular item at this supermarket, so I was pretty happy to encounter it. Why are Criollo chocolates so expensive and rare? Because the Criollo tree is so much more susceptible to plant diseases than the more hardy Forastero, so it follows that Criollo plantations have lower yields.

The packaging: "fresh nose, slightly minty and fruity, delicate to the taste, slightly acid":

The first thing that hit me when I opened the package was the aroma. The strong smell wasn't a bad thing, but it certainly didn't smell like the dark chocolates I'm used to. It did not taste bitter, in spite of its 75% cocoa solids content, and in fact has a milder yet complex taste compared to other Forastero or Trinitario chocolates I've eaten. I love the smooth texture on the tongue. The chocolate had a slightly acidic citrus note, which apparently is characteristic of the Criollo. We both really enjoyed it, and wish that Criollo chocolates were cheaper and more readily available.

All that's left of the chocolate at the time of writing:

Monday 7 March 2011

Antipasti Semi-buffet @ Cova, Hong Kong

It seems that antipasto buffets are quite the trend in Hong Kong. Generally this includes a range of all-you-can-eat antipasti and salads, and some restaurants offer the optional choice of main course and/or dessert course for an additional extra. I think buffets are quite evil, but this style of "semi"-buffet set-up is actually great for the health-conscious because there is the option not to have the optional extra courses. It is also great when you have to dine out with a toddler, and you need a quick meal but don't want to eat fast food junk.

Buffet table at Cova:

Last Saturday, we were in the vicinity of Harbour City around lunch time, so we headed in to look for food. This mall is huge and vastly popular - navigating around inside requires quite a bit of patience. We came across Cova in Ocean Centre and we were enticed by their sign advertising the lunch Anti-pasti Semi-buffet for HK$138. It included soup of the day, all-you-can-eat antipasti and salad on the buffet table, and coffee or tea. For those who wished to indulged in dessert, each piece of cake cost an additional HK$52. The buffet table was not large, but there was enough variety to keep the average diner happy. Appetisers included pate crostini, smoked salmon with capers, seafood salad, chicken salad, potato salad, grilled vegetables, smoked duck salad, and a number of cured meats like salami and ham. On the table were also three bowls with different types of lettuce and salad ingredients (croutons, crispy bacon, dressing) to build up your own salad. There were two hot dishes at the front of the buffet table: a potato gratin and a yummy chicken dish that Zak loved. Everything was fresh and they all tasted pretty yummy. We did let Zak eat the bread and the hot food, which didn't seem to contain any of the ingredients he is allergic to, and I was relieved when he did not break out in rashes later on (especially since we were scheduled for a photo shoot the next morning!).

Rob's first round:

Our only problem with this branch of Cova was the service. It wasn't that busy, yet we found it was difficult to get any of the waitstaffs' attention, not once, but twice - first time was to let them know they'd forgotten to serve us our soup, and second time was to get the bill. It was like they put us in a corner and forgot about us, which was amusing because strictly speaking there wasn't any corner. The dining area was actually in the middle of the shopping floor, cordoned off by belts, and the area could accommodate only a few tables. It was a pretty small area, and you would have to be pretty unobservant to not notice someone waving from any of the tables. In fact Rob had to walk over to two girls to get the bill, and he told me they were chatting and not paying much attention on the floor. Poor conduct on the waitstaffs' part, which is a shame because the food was quite good.

Soup of the day was minestrone, served after we were done with the buffet. The minestrone could have been seasoned better because it was still a little too tart:

My cappuccino, which we found was not as good as the cappuccino from the Cova branch in Pacific Place (Admiralty). Curiously, Rob's latte tasted exactly the same as my cappuccino:

Overall, it was a good dining experience, but the waitstaff needs to be better trained.

Cova
Ocean Centre
116A&B, Level 1
Harbour City, Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel. +85 2 2992 0720

Wednesday 2 March 2011

Toddler-approved Applesauce Chicken Curry Recipe

Yes, I fed my 2-year-old toddler some curry. And he enjoyed it! I love curry, and I also love cooking various types of curries, but since we decided that I should stop cooking separately for Zak (which I had been doing because of his food allergies), curry ceased being a regular dish at dinner-time. It had been months since I last cooked a curry dish. I've missed it, and apparently Rob also missed eating my curries because he exclaimed "I've missed your curries, Jean" while eating this fruit-based curry I cooked last week. This is not my first time cooking a sweet fruity curry, although I remember being rather apprehensive about the idea of a sweet curry. This dish turned out great, and the 2-year-old really enjoyed it (much to my relief!). Zak pulled a face while scratching his tongue only twice (no doubt due to the spiciness), but he went on to finish everything on his plate. He had been previously exposed to spices and curry, but that was when he was much younger and his taste buds and preferences had not yet fully developed. Looks like I had nothing to worry about regarding the boy being fussy about spicy food.

Zak's plate with the Applesauce curry, steamed rice and veges. He ate about half that drumstick (plenty enough protein for a toddler) and everything else on that plate as well as half a cup of milk for dinner (and a biscuit afterwards as a reward for finishing his dinner):

I briefly mentioned before about Zak's food allergies, and in addition to nut, soy and sesame, coconut is a no-no for the 2-year-old. That meant I couldn't use coconut milk or cream, which is usually used to thicken curry and give it a slightly sweet creamy note. I happened to have an open jar of unsweetened applesauce, and it worked excellently to thicken and give a certain sweet depth to the curry. An added bonus that applesauce is also healthier than the saturated fat-laden coconut milk. In addition to the curry powder for meat, I added ground cinnamon because of how well it goes with apple. Add a handful of raisins, and you have the curry that got my toddler's approval. By the way, the addition of tomato sauce (aka ketchup) may seem strange, but I've always used it in my curry ever since I found out that it is my mum's "secret ingredient" in her glorious chicken curry.

Toddler-approved Applesauce Chicken Curry


Ingredients

2-3 tablespoons oil (I use olive)
1 small onion (~150g), finely chopped
2 teaspoons chopped ginger
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons curry powder (I used Alagappa's brand Malay-style curry powder for meat)
1/2 - 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1kg chicken pieces
2 cups chicken stock
1 cup water
3/4 cup (~170g) unsweetened applesauce
2 tablespoons tomato sauce (aka ketchup)
1 large potato (~300-400g), cut into pieces
a handful of raisins (or sultanas)

Method

1. In a pot over high heat, fry the onion with the oil until the onion begins to brown.
3. Turn down the heat to medium high, add the ginger and garlic and stirfry for half a minute until gorgeously fragrant.
4. Add the curry powder and cinnamon together with the chicken pieces to the pot and stirfry for a minute to lightly toast the spices and briefly brown the chicken (some of the spices will stick to the bottom of the pot, which is fine as long as it doesn't burn).
5. Add the chicken stock, water, applesauce and tomato sauce to the pot, and stir well while scraping the bottom of the pot. At this point there should be plenty of liquid to cover the chicken chunks (if not, add more stock/water).
6. Add the potato chunks and simmer on low heat (it should be barely bubbling) for a good 30 minutes, stirring only occasionally. This helps the flavours to meld and blend together, as well as to cook the chicken and potato pieces.
8. In the last 5 minutes of the cooking, add the raisins and stir well.
9. Serve with rice and veges for a healthy and balanced meal.