This recipe was on a slip of paper inserted inside the notebook. I would date it to the early 1980s because of (1) the ball point pen used and (2) the paper is the yellowish, coarse paper that was used for cyclostyled documents – wow, that’s something we haven’t seen since the advent of photocopying! All my lower primary school worksheets were produced by cyclostyling on this kind of paper. Grandmother never wasted any scrap of paper; she would save shopping receipts to write on the back, and cut up used paper into note-sized sheets like this. Maybe this paper was once part of something that came from my grandfather’s office :)? The marks of a rusty paperclip on the top left hand side also give this little scrap of yellowed paper its character.
I’m unfamiliar with the use of bicarbonate of soda for marinating meat, must check up on this when I get the time.
if i’m not wrong, baking soda is also used to tenderise/preserve prawns – that’s how some of those prawns in the tze char stalls look so plump and juicy but taste quite terrible when u bite into them. i once overheard my MIL saying something like this. :)
I’m not sure either about baking soda — in very common Chinese recipes meat is marinaded in this manner, but always with corn starch. For all I know, baking soda performs the same way, but I am skeptical.
bicarbonate is a meat tenderiser commonly used in restaurants. try this. slice beef tenderised it with some bicarbonate for 10 min. the beef becomes tender. the art is knowing how much bicarbonate to put in. blessings.