Soda water

Recently, as B was moving out of his old office, he came into possession of a lot of soda water, specially imported from Thailand. Not wanting to know how long it's been there, I assumed it was still usable and went to work figuring out how to drink it. It's slightly more salty than normal soda water but otherwise it's more tasteless than I imagined. I think of it more along the lines of bottled *real* sparkling mineral water which actually tastes salty, rather than the 'fake' type which just adds gas to distilled water.


Experiment 1: Add to coffee
I didn't honestly think this tasted so bad - think carbonated and salty tangy coffee. Hrm, isn't 'salty' coffee the way the Ethiopians (or was it Turks) take their coffee? :D

Experiment 2: Add to Yakult
I heard that Yakult-inspired drinks are all the rage in Taiwan, just like salted boiled Coke, or boiled Coke with Lemon or boiled Coke with Ginger was in HK at one point. I can't exactly remember how the Taiwanese used Yakult, but I didn't think this would be very bad. And I was right! Altho it was a bit salty, I added the juice of 1 wedge of orange and magically, the salty taste disappeared! :O My most successful experiment so far!


Experiment 3: Kai Tung Kho
This is the popular Cantonese cake traditonally made as an offering to the gods. I remember that my aunt who used to live near us would 'bake' this for us ever so often. Up to this day, I still miss her cake.

I've since experimented until I've gotten a version that involves self-raising flour, but the correct way is to use soda water and steam the cake. I am guessing that if we want to use soda water, then we have to increase the egg and flour.

Ingredients
1 egg: 3 ounces flour: 1 ounce sugar (slightly less for less sweet)

To make 12 cupcakes3 eggs
9 ounces self-raising flour
2 ounces sugar
vanilla essence
salt

Method
1. Beat eggs with sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Add vanilla essence halfway.
3. Fold in flour.
4. Distribute about 1.5 tablespoons mixture into each cupcake.
5. Steam for 20 mins.

If anyone knows the real traditional recipe using soda water, pls share! :)