Suum Cuique

Whaddya know, it's another Fun birthday. The year has just simply whizzed by! Last year was a tiramisu. What shall it be this year?

I think I thrive on pressure. During school days, despite being given ample notice, I would leave until the very last minute before completing my assignments. And I would cram for an test the night before, after downing cups of super kau Nescafe. Sometimes I do well. Sometime I don't.

And til today, even though I don't have any more deadlines imposed by other people, I still find myself pushing the limit. Like this cake for instance.

The night before, 7pm:
AM :- Tomorrow, P will be hosting a birthday lunch for Fun.
Me :- Hai meh? What should we bring?
AM :- No need lah. P will kau tim everything. I don't think I have time to prepare anything, so last minute.
Me :- Ok. I'll bring the cake.

Went through my cake books, looked at various decorated cakes. Trawled through my flog list, looked at various decorated cakes. Finally decided on using fondant as the weather is sooooo darn hot, a buttercream-ed and whipped cream-ed cake would just melt into a big mess by the time I reach P's hse. Fondant decorating seems easy enough - just knead and roll the ready made fondant and cover the cake. Then just add colouring and make some simple cutouts and/or flowers. Seems do-able..

Now why would I choose to do a fondant decorated cake at such short notice when I have never attempted one before? I was too sleepy to make the cake that night, so I had only the following morning until 11am to finish the cake. I had to wake up at 4:45am to make the cake and prepare breakfast and lunch for the kids, and then send everyone to school and work. Then I had to run to the supermarket to pick up some milk, bread and eggs (oh, I bought some cream cheese for frosting, just in case..) So that left me only 2 hours for my virginal attempt. Pressure... pressure. I'd bought ready made fondant weeks before, but had waited until now to use it. See? I told you I needed pressure to kick me in the butt to get me started.

I'll keep it simple - a rich orange butter cake with white fondant to cover the cake, and decorate with pink rosebuds and pale green leaves and stems (thanking all the kind souls who uploaded the method of creating rosebuds on youtube). Luckily, my sifu was online to help me on my queries. With her helpful tips and confidence in me, ta daa... My first clumsy attempt at fondant decorating:



Phew! Took me almost 2 hours, but thank goodness it turned out passably neat. I need loads of work on the rosebuds, but luckily they came out decent enough. It was a lot of fun working on it, though a pro would have finished such a simple creation in less than a hour!

Many happy returns of the day, Fun! You told me your wish last year was to celebrate with us and have me make a cake for you again this year, so it looks like your wish came true! :) And you made the same wish again this year! Hopefully we will all still be around and I can make you an even better cake next year!

Hugs & kisses,

Kat

I guess it goes without saying Lamb loves cars. The faster, the better. He has boxes of cars. And he gets very excited whenever he sees a Corvette or Cayman or Enzo on the road. Which is pretty common here. Just last evening on the short drive to the beach, we saw 6 sports cars, 2 of which were outside our building. The local men here are rich.

First attempt. I made this on the weekend before his actual birthday. He insisted he wanted his birthday to be on the weekend. He asked for a F1 race track (TF&tF4 is not released here yet. So we watched TF&tF1 on TV instead) But I decided to have a dirt track rally instead (it was a lot easier to make a dirt track..). On hindsight, I should have made the middle circle smaller, so that the choc stones would look less like boulders. It was a fun project. The little chocolate cars are adorable. And the little fler was happy with it.

To make life easier for the teacher (who's a hot babe, btw..), made some cupcakes for the little fler to take to school. Luckily there are only 25 kids in his class. Unlike in H's previous Chinese school where there were 50 students. The logistical requirement of carrying 50 cupcakes was quite a monumental task! Kids - nothing matters but the icing (last year during his nursery celebration, the kids had more fun licking off the icing than eating the cake itself!), so I had a gala time slathering it on!

I felt bad about not giving him a party (his sister had a birthday party every single year until her 8th birthday), so I made him another cake. A 3-dimensional one. I toyed with the idea of making him a Hummer. Nah....
But it was so fun to do!! I kept everything simple - used a white chocolate buttercream for the body, bought licorice candy for the wheels and outline of windows and doors, chocolate coins and Polo mints for the lights, and my personal favourite, Kinder Bueno for a menacing front grille. Kachow!!

Happy Birthday, lamb. We'll attempt F1 next year, okay? And go on singing 'Dancing Queen', baby!

(his version..)
♪ You can dance
You can jump ♪ ♪
♪ Having a time for your life
♪ ♪ See that girl
Watch that scene ♪
♪ dig in the dancing queen. ♪♪



That car was faintly inspired by this car. Sorry ladies, have not been able to snap any photos of him.

Labels: birthday

Local ladies in AD wear abayas. And men kanduras. Kids are exempted, as you can see from the photo above.

It's not such a bad thing, this abaya. Especially when there is a strong wind and the sand gets blown into every piece of clothing you wear. As this is a one-piece robe with the ends trailing the ground, you can be sure your body stays sand-free. And the headpiece (sheyla) is particularly useful for protecting the eyes and hair from the sand.

The surprising thing is, it isn't hot at all when I don the abaya. They are usually made from light, flowing fabrics like crepe, georgette and chiffon but despite that, they fall rather heavily. It's quite comfortable to wear though. In fact I feel rather graceful when I wear the abaya with the skirt swishing around me, kind of like wearing a long evening dress. It takes a bit getting used to, the skirt sweeping the ground and I had the tendency to pull up the skirt whenever I walked.

The best thing about donning the abaya is you appear a lot slimmer! Some of the local ladies are really voluptuous, but you would never know from their abayas. And you don't have to worry about what you wear underneath - you can wear your nightie and no one will know!

It's the same with the kandura. I know this local guy (he lives in the same building) who looks really small sized when he wears his kandura and it doesn't help that he isn't tall. But one day I happened to see him wearing singlet and army pants - my oh my, he is so beefy. Muscular arms and shoulders, and small waist - the classic V shaped body.

Oh alright. That was the entire purpose of this post. I just wanted to talk about my stud muffin this cutie who lives in the same building as me. Did I mention he drives a Mercedes GL450 ML320? The only one in the block. So I always know whether he's in or not.

Gawd!! I sound so like a DOM*!!!

Shall I attempt to snap a photo of him?

Don't hold your breath..

*grin*

* Dirty Old Madam

You know what can be worse than being mad at a close friend? The so-called friend not even being bothered about it.

Imagine if you had always been there for her. And willingly helped her out on numerous occasions. How would you feel if one day you asked for help in return, reminding her that you had never hesitated to helped her out and she turns around and says, 'I never asked you to.'

What a slap to the face! #@&!!&^#*!!$%!!*$#^@&!#@!!!! Cis bedebah!



But damnit!! It hurts, ok?! It hurts that you don't even bother to mend our friendship. It hurts that our friendship mean so little to you. It hurts that I mean so little to you...

My little corner where my Christmas tree stood has now been replaced with pussy willow and plum blossoms. A girlfriend mentioned she couldn't summon the enthusiasm to decorate her house this year. I don't blame her. If it weren't for my munchkins, I'd be disinclined about having the decorations up too! But I do love my new beige flower vase. I got the idea of CNY-fying everything by tying a red ribbon from a friend's mother. She'd tie red bows on everything that wasn't red! Does add some festive spark about, doesn't it? All these splashes of red here and there.

And what is CNY without the prerequisite mandarins? The variety of citrus fruits is just amazing - mandarins, tangerines, kumquats, oranges, clementines, pomeloes. Some of it even still have leaves on them. It made them look so much fresher! I had a basketful of citrus fruits in various shapes and sizes and in such a vibrant shade of orange too!

My CNY bakes? I didn't make that many variety and to my dismay, I only realised I had shot only my tarts after I packed and gave away all the cookies. Just as well, as what's CNY without Pineapple Tarts. As I had no baking supply shops to buy ready-made jam, I decided to roll up my sleeves and made my own pineapple jam from scratch. It wasn't too bad, cooking the jam. Pre-cut pineapple is readily available at supermarkets. I was expecting to slave for hours over the hot stove, enduring splutters of bubbling hot jam as I painstakingly stirred the jam. Hardly the case. I just went about doing my chores in the kitchen as the fruit bubbled in the pan. I used a wide saute pan which greatly facilitated in the speed the fruit pulp dried up. I believe the secret lies in not adding sugar until the fruit is almost dry as the sugar is the culprit that will most likely catch and burn.

I made 3 types of tarts - 2 open and 1 closed. The closed ones were the easiest to make as all I had to do was enclosed a ball of jam inside the pastry, roll it like making tong yuen and pop a clove on it. The open ones were the killer - one was a roll-and-cut-with cookie-cutter version (have to roll, cut, place jam, crimp the sides) while the other was a pipe-out version (dough was kinda hard, so it was darn painful pushing out the dough onto paper cups). On top of that, I had to make little crosses on top of the jam as it looked too empty without it! Laborious indeed!!

So much work, and it disappears into the mouth in a flash! The perennial favourite, needless to say most people enjoyed this cookie the most! Pretty, aren't they? So I made at least 4 batches and did not bother to make much of the other cookies - namely pecan cookies, har-mai biscuits and cashew crispies. Next year I will just concentrate on tarts and nothing else!


Just before CNY, hubs' colleague made a trip to HK and managed to bring back the goodies we requested for (hubs was supposed to go, but last minute had to pull out. So his colleague was kind enough to offer to bring back some stuff for us. Thanks, Richard!)
No thanks to Moonlight Resonance, I could not resist asking for Loh-por Biscuits. I must say their packaging is very good and attractive. And the biscuits taste good too - not too sweet, and just in the right proportion for 1 serving.
As usual, the Macau almond biscuits are scrumptious and egg rolls were really 'soong'. The lap cheongs are not overly salty and really fragrant with wine. They were vacuum-packed in pairs, hence able to maintain their freshness better. We have not had the chance to try their pineapple shortcakes, filled eggrolls and other cookies yet. Slow and easy - kinder to the waistline, yes? ;)

On the eve of CNY, we had a potluck at a friend's house. Even though everyone brought one, or two dishes, the hostess as usual, made more than her share and the table was groaning from the weight of all that food! Curry Chicken, Roast Duck, Seaweed roll, Fish roll, Lorbak, Braised Chee Yoke, Butter Prawn, Yam Cake, Sticky Spare Ribs, Siew Yoke, Mushroom Sea Cucumber, Cold Chicken, etc. But that's good - signifies a bountiful year for everyone, yes? Malaysians always rise to the occasion when it comes to feasting, so don't worry mum. There is plenty of food during the festive season. As you will soon see. And of course, we cannot do without our Yee Sang, the specialty of Ms Kitty (yes, we have been known as Kitty Kat..). I always tell people AD has not been as affected by the economic crisis as Dubai because we lou sang-ed so many times last year!! :D


We also had a steamboat party during one of our ladies coffee morning. Delicious on a cold mid-morning, we had seafood, homemade wantans and dumplings, lots of fresh vegetables. I made pork balls for the first time (see photo on the top right corner above the yee sang) and it was lovely with noodles and vege. Now I can make my own pork noodles!! And of course we lou sang-ed as well..

And yet another party, with even more food! I provided one Chap Chye and two cakes. I must admit, everyone rose to the occasion and outdone themselves! Cold Wine Chicken, Mui Choy Chee Yoke, Lemon Fish, Koo Lou Yoke, Siew Yoke, Vietnamese Rolls, Lotus Leaf Rice, Braised Mushroom-Oyster-Fatt Choy, Curry Fish, Pineapple Prawn, Kuih Lapis, etc. etc. etc. And not forgetting our yee sang. Again. Hey, we need all the luck that we can get!

I forgot to take pictures during my own little CNY coffee morning. Made Lap Mei Farn using lap mei from HK. The tarts disappeared fast. And with the 7th day of CNY being mankind's birthday and the official day to lou sang, we can't not lou sang , right? :)


So here are some of my more recent bakes. A cheese chiffon beautified with fresh whipped cream and grapes. A strawberry birthday cheesecake for Ruby. And a chocolate banana cake for Ms Yee Sang herself. As you can see, my creativity is pretty limited to strawberries and chocolates and nuts. I need to go for some cake decorating classes.

Oh, there was some drama during Ms Yee Sang's birthday. I dropped the cake when I took it out of the container but caught it on my lap. Half the cake was squashed, but luckily the other side was still salvageable enough for the singing of birthday song and blowing of candles!

I should have been more careful - as it is, I had already had some problems even getting the cake ready. One, the original recipe's cake turned out as dense as a gingerbread cake! I ignored the usage of ovalette, and paid the price. Luckily, I managed to make a chocolate sponge in time. Second catastrophe, the filling turned too watery to coat the cake. But it was still fine to be used as a filling as the excess liquid was soaked by the cake, making it deliciously moist. So I had to quickly whip up a chocolate butter cream as I did not have time to make a ganache. So that turned out well. Until the drop.

Sigh. And from hereafter everything started going downhill. I made a banana pineapple cake. It flopped. It refused to come out of my non-stick bundt pan as it was too wet. I made a moist chocolate cake. Same thing - got stuck in the same pan. I made a panettone. It came out fine, but was too dry. All because I was not in the right frame of mind. Kinda like Sarah Michelle Gellar in "Simply Irresistible" - she couldn't cook when she was upset. I had some problems dealing with a friend and it affected my ability to bake. So much so, I did not feel confident I could even bake another cake successfully! Hence...


..Duncan Hines Red Velvet cake mix! Something which I have never used. All my cakes have always been made from scratch - using Lurpak butter and fresh eggs. And this time I have resorted to using a cake mix. Just add corn oil, eggs and water. Idiot-proof. And even this I screwed up. Well, not really. I just overfilled the cake pans and the cake spilled out, looking incredibly grotesque as it was really, really bloody red! And of course I relied on my trusty strawberries and Valentine M&Ms for decorations. Even more shocking, I used instant chocolate frosting!! Super sweet, barely chocolatey but oh-so-convenient! I decorated the cake within 15 minutes. Actually, all I wanted to do was to frost a cake for Valentine's. I just wanted to present a decorated cake for our little Valentine's gathering at the hostess' house. I didn't really want to eat cake. I didn't really care for the taste of the cake. It was alright - perfect spongey texture, I couldn't really discern the taste. Is Red Velvet supposed to be a red chocolate cake??
But I am happy to say my Sotong Kangkung turned out a lot better. Now why didn't I snap a picture of that successful dish?? Oh well. Still wallowing in my problems, I guess.

And finally, a VVIP visit at Shangri-la Qaryat Al Beri. Of course the entourage turned up much later than what was stated in the official itinerary. The gaily-dressed greeters were waiting with the bunga telur. All that was missing were the kompang chaps. Pity. All the food got cold. And speeches cut short. It was time for Friday prayers. Leaving the ladies and non-Muslims to go ahead with lunch. But it was a nice intimate session, no way we'd be able to do that back home. Sure he had at least 4 bodyguards and her 3, one really hefty one who'd put up an arm warningly should anyone dare to approach within 2 feet of her ward. But you could at least talk to them. And snap photos with them. While waiting for our car at the entrance, he walked past within arm's distance after returning from prayers with hardly a crowd surrounding him. Now I know why VIPs and celebrities like to move to UAE - no one blinks an eye at them!

And that is the end of my long-winded account of the main highlights of the past few months.

Sekian terima kasih. Majulah sukan untuk negara!**

Kakakakakakakakaka..... *cackles like a crazy witch high on dope*

** inspired by adrianlee

~ I'll be back later to reply comments. I always try to make it a point to reply every comment in appreciation to the writer who took time to read and comment.

Funny things go through my head whenever I'm at the sink washing dishes. I wash dishes a lot. In fact I wash dishes so much, I once had a dream where I missed my flight home because I was still at home washing dishes which would otherwise be left unwashed in the sink for the entire 3 months I am away.

Sometimes I wish I can have a fancy computer in the wall in front of the sink which I can control with thoughts and a stare. Like I think, 'I want to blog' and Create Post appears. My stare will move the mouse and do everything else that my fingers usually do. You'd see me churning out posts on a daily basis.

The funny things that go through my head? I figured out why talking to your plants make them grow better. It's because of the extra carbon dioxide (cannot figure out how to do the 2 in CO..) from your breath. *beams proudly* And pre-dawn sex is only to be indulged in when you have plenty of time to sleep in because it leaves you drained and sleepy for the rest of the morning when you are supposed to jump up out of bed raring to go. *grins*

Now what did I bake over the Christmas season. Better put them up now before the CNY bakes pixes come in. Oh, and my CNY tree too. My corner looked so empty after I took down my Christmas tree, I just had to get something chingchong for CNY. And whaddya know, I found something perfect! Pictures coming soon.. once my WIP is completed!

I had been really ambitious this Christmas, no thanks to all the creative bloggers who so generously share the recipes and secrets of their wonderful Christmassy creations. Out of my list in my last post, I made 2 items plus another 2 not in the list, so not too bad I guess.

This is an incredibly easy to make chocolate cake. I got this recipe from Kitchen Capers. It is supposed to be steamed but I steam-baked it instead, resulting in a very moist chocolatey cake.

Like a lady slipping into a gorgeous gown (coated the cake with ganache), the look is incomplete without a pair of stilettos (toasted almonds on the sides), necklace (threw in some Ferrero Rochers) and earrings (plus strawberries). There we go - all dressed for a party!!

Sweet and simple - Christmas tree shortbread, recipe courtesy of Agnes Chang. A simple concoction of rich unsalted butter, golden castor sugar, plain and rice flour. That's it. Produces a buttery crunchy rich biscuit. Lovely with coffee.

Shortbread (from Agnes Chang - I Can Bake)
250g butter
120g sugar
250g plain flour
120g rice flour

Cream butter and sugar. Add sifted flours. Roll and cut into desired shapes. I used a cookie press.
Bake at 180C for 1-20 mins.

Another simple cake, this is a lemon curd cheesecake. A little bit tart, fragrantly lemony and absolutely sinfully rich. Best of all, so easy to make!

Lemon Curd Cheesecake (from AWW - Cheesecakes Baked and Chilled)
Base:
250g biscuits
125g butter

Filling:
750g cream cheese
2 tsp finely grated lemon rind (finally got my microplane!! Such a dream to use!)
110g sugar
3 eggs

I whizzed everything in my food processor. Poured filling over a chilled base, and baked in a water bath at 160C for abt 1 hour.

Lemon curd:
45g butter
110g sugar
1 egg
1 tsp finely grated lemon rind (the microplane was so fun to use, I grated 4 lemons at one go and froze the unused rind)
2 tbsp lemon juice

Combine all ingredients and cook over simmering water until mixture thickens. Remove from hot water, cover with cling film and cool before spreading over cheesecake.


The fiddliest cake of all my bakes, I saw this really cute Santa cake at this baker's blog, and it looked so festive and easy to make, I thought it would be entirely appropriate to make for a pre-Christmas coffee morning with the girls. I did not follow her spongecake recipe though, as I wanted to experiment with making a plain chiffon in a regular 8in cake pan.

Did not quite turn out as I expected, as my pan was too small, resulting in a huge crack in the middle. But that is exactly why I chose to make this cake because the disaster could be hidden under the layers of fresh whipped cream!! (just like how foundation and concealer can make the most uneven, freckly skin appear translucent and porcelain smooth..) *grin*

After cutting the cake into 2 layers, brush some sugar syrup over the cake before spreading with whipped cream and chopped strawberries. Cover the entire cake with whipped cream and decorate with white chocolate curls (except in my case it looked more like shavings!) and whole strawberries. I suppose you can use milk or dark chocolate to make a younger bearded chap, eh?

See you in a while. I'll have to go complete some more cookies and accumulate some more photos. Thank you for stopping by! :)

What is it about the Christmas season that makes it feel so magical and special? Christmas is not our traditional celebration. I'm not a Christian and I've never had a Christmas tree before. But I love all the beautiful decorations and lushly decorated trees. And each time I go online during this season, I will turn to the internet Christmas radio channel just to get in the mood (I'm listening to Christina Aguilera's 'Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas' as I type).

I miss all the outstanding decorations in KL malls. They seem to outdo themselves each year! It's an event by itself just to visit the malls to see their fantastic creations. Over here, mall decorations are very sparse and not very creative at all (eg. big penguins, snowmen, snowflakes hang from the ceiling; a small scale typical snow-laden village; a sad-looking 20ft Christmas tree with with psychedelic coloured baubles, cheap plastic ornaments and eye-blinding blinking spotlights bursting every few seconds..I'll try to get visuals next time but I just can't bring myself to photograph such depressing looking scenes..). Luckily the hotels do a better job. Most of them have quite classy trees and tasteful decorations. And many hotels hold a Christmas tree lighting ceremony where they will serve mulled wine, cookies and cakes accompanied by carol singers. Of course Santa will make an appearance and the children will usually get a little gift pack filled with chocolates and sweets.

This year I have finally succumbed to the commercialisation of Christmas. And got ourselves a 6ft Christmas tree from the Swedish furniture experts.


I don't know if there is an auspicious/customary date to bring out and decorate the tree. Some traditionalists do it on 1 Dec but I did mine on 25 Nov. One full month before the actual day. And it's supposed to come down before 1 Jan. Err.. I think mine will stay up until I decide to decorate for CNY. Or until I get fed up of it.

I am quite happy with my tree. I've spent many a-nights staring at my tree with its twinkling lights - it's so mesmerising!! Not too shabby for a first attempt, I must say (pats self on the back). I had a ball of a time buying ornaments! Some I bought last year when they had the after-Christmas sale. Others I bought as I went about my shopping errands. I was quite particular about theme of my tree (which is red and gold), so I did not use the colourful ornaments that the kids insisted on buying. Maybe next year we can have a rainbow tree. Maybe not.

After decorating the tree, as we viewed our, or rather my, handiwork, we realised that something was missing. It was too bare at the bottom! And I had not bought any presents yet. Instead of using empty boxes, which I didn't have that many, I just made use of the old toys and games that were still in their original boxes. Voila! Instant presents! And made sure the kids knew it was their old toys so that they would not rip the presents open! :D

So what else have I been busy with? Of course by now, I have placed real presents under the tree. Still retained the dummy presents (love a tree with loads of presents! And I don't want my tree to be bare again on Christmas night..), but I attached ribbons onto the real presents. Still have more presents to wrap. Last time, I only had to get presents for my sis and her family of 4. Now after coming here, we have so many extended 'families' to give presents to! But it's all in good fun. I actually enjoy wrapping the gifts (while listening to Michael Buble's and Kenny G's version of the Christmas classics). It's wracking the brains thinking what to get for everyone that gives me headache! And also have to prepare some spare pressies for unexpected guests and last minute parties! Thank goodness I am almost done with Christmas gift shopping!

Next to get a move on my Christmas baking. I have grand plans - gingerbread, fruitcake, shortbread, mince pies, stollen, panettone. Let's see how many I actually get down to making!! :D

In case I get too bogged down with the festivities, I wish all of you a very blessed Christmas. Let's not forget that God gave us the power to choose, and choosing to do right is the road to salvation. May the spirit of goodwill and cheer bring hope and peace to our troubled world.

Labels: Christmas

I was never a big fan of soupy noodles. Or soups, for that matter. I don't make soups. I suck at making soups. And most of the time when I do make soups, I end up with more 'liew' (ingredients) than soup. I leave soup making to my mum and MIL. They make good soup. My kids only drink their soup. (my excuse for not making soup - the kids don't like my soups)

But now that winter is practically here, I've found that I yearn for a good bowl of hot soup. Not the western creamy soups, but clear Chinese-style broths. Last winter I was almost dying for BKT so I made sure I brought back a good stock of BKT herbs. And ever so often I would think longingly of the various mee soup available at every kopitiam - yee tarn meen, pan meen, har meen, kari meen, chee-yoke meen, kuay teow th'ng, wantan meen. Doesn't help that the blogs I visit have generous displays of all the wonderful hawker food that is available to them 24/7. Sigh..

But enough is enough. I'm sure if the hawkers can do it, it can't be too difficult for me. I mean who would want to prepare something that is so complicated and laborious day in and day out, even if they can profit from it? So hence after some enquiries from a couple of food-discerning dudes, I decided to go for it! Ta-daaa..

My inaugural kai see hor fun! Everything made from scratch. The stock is made from chicken and prawns. I bought skinned chicken thighs which I poached to make a chicken stock. Then I fried the prawn heads until fragrant and dumped them into the chicken stock. I also poached the prawns in their shells. After that I removed the shells from the prawn and meat from the bones before throwing the shells and bones into the stock. That made the most tasty stock, and the fried prawn heads gave a lovely fragrant red oil.

While the stock was simmering, I prepared the other ingredients necessary for the KSHF. Blanched the taugeh and kucai flowers (couldn't find any kucai today), sliced the prawns and bought fishcake and shredded the chicken meat. Finally boiled the dried flat rice noodles to make my hor fun. Not as silky smooth as Ipoh hor fun, but beggars can't be choosers.

Aahh... taken with a dish of cut chilli and soy sauce, it is oh-so-satisfying on a chilly night. With my limited experience in making soups, it does help tremendously when you use quality ingredients. No MSG, everything freshly made. Hubby was suitably impressed. *grin*

updated 20 Nov 2008:
It's cold today! Winter is almost here!! *happies*

Long time no see!! Much has happened since summer.






So what else happened? Celebrated another birthday.



Flowers from the DH (first in many many years) and a lovely surprise from a fellow foodie. LC (lap cheong) and a book to go with it. Many thanks, dear friend. Your 'survey' served you well..




Alamak! Better post what DH gave me for birthday also. Otherwise next year he will get me a few kilos of LC too..


One of our big makan sessions at our local "MCA Hall" (actually the home of a longtime resident of AD. Almost 15 years! The husband's a hotel executive chef, the wife used to be a hotel pastry chef). Everyone brings a dish, or two. Hence the big spread.

Yet another makan session. Nasi lemak makan session. I provided the siew yoke for the kiddies.



Nothing beats homemade steamboat. Yes, that's what we Malaysians like to do - hold makan sessions!

Another potluck steamboat session. Friends gather round to celebrate DH's birthday. This time I managed to get fish to make fishball.


Made some Vietnamese rice paper rolls. (winn.. the wrappers are the ones you gave me!!) I used grilled lamb chops together with beehoon and vege. Nice and healthy.

Oh ya. Saw this when I was at the Post Office.


There is no door-to-door postal service here. Everyone uses PO Boxes. Looks like the safe deposit boxes in banks, yes?


Makan, makan.. asyik makan aje. You can take us out of Malaysia, but you can't take Malaysia out of us!! :D

So what have YOU been up to?

We take food for granted when there is plentiful. You walk out on the streets and you are spoilt for choice. So many varieties of food, and at all hours of the day. One can never get hungry when one is back in Malaysia. I know I didn't. Don't even ask me how many pounds I piled on during my last visit home.

Breakfast has always been my favourite meal of the day (must be the 'fast' my tummy goes through every night, I always enjoy a hearty breakfast!). Choices in Malaysia are fabulous - rice (nasi lemak, lormaifarn), noodles (har-mee, fish ball noodles), pastries (egg tarts, siew pao), dim sum (pau, har-gau, siew-mai), breads (roti canai, kaya toast) - like I said, spoilt for choice! Where I am right now, you have a choice of either a western sandwich or Arabic sandwich. :P Bore-ring...

I had nasi lemak for breakfast almost every other day when I was back. Perennial favourite. Another breakfast favourite is CCF (Chee Cheong Fun). I like the Ipoh-style with red theem-jeong. And kali-tau-kok-chue-phei (long bean pork-rind curry). And tungku-chap (mushroom gravy). I don't quite like the meen-see-jeong usually found in KL stalls. So when I found this stall in Sentosa PJ that serves it with their 'secret' soya sauce concoction (who knows if it's such a secret. It may simply be sugar and MSG add to the soya sauce for all I know. My tastebuds aren't that fine tuned..) and pickled green chilli, I was hooked and had it as often as I could (which wasn't easy as they sell out very early!). These two are true-blue Malaysian dishes - can't find them anywhere else - and among my most missed local food.. :(

After coming back from a month long visit to KL, you'd think that I would have satiated my cravings for local food. Well, I did. To a certain extent. For a short while. Then I came across this person who blogged about making their own CCF , and it looked sooo easy and the thought of having CCF on demand was too much to resist! Mind you, this is not the super-thin HK style CCF you find in dim sum joint. This is more home-style and a little bit more chunky, but oh-so-satisfying when the nearest kedai kopi is 6oookm away.

My Recipe (slightly modified from Sinner's due to unavailability of certain ingredients):

150g rice flour
20g (2Tbsp) tapioca flour
20g (2 Tbsp) Corn flour
1 Tbsp Oil
450ml Water
½ tsp Salt

Just mix everything together and let rest while you prepare your steamer.

Plonked my bamboo steamer with a greased metal plate (I have since bought two 8" non-stick cake pans specially to make CCF as it is easier to remove the CCF with minimal oil) inside over boiling water to heat up the plate. Then pour a thin layer of watery batter (I added some har-mai in it) onto the hot plate. It may not be enough to cover the plate, so swirl the batter around the plate to get a think coating. Don't be tempted to add enough batter to cover the plate as we don't want to have a thick layer of CCF. You will need to try a few times before you get the right amount to pour in. Cover and steam for about 5-8 minutes. There will be bubbles all over the batter when it is cooked and it will look slightly translucent.

Bring out the cooked CCF and put in another metal plate to heat up while you roll up the cooked batter. It will be hot, so use a spatula. Roll as tightly as you can and voila! your own CCF! Make sure the plate you place it on is well-greased as they have a tendency to stick. Didn't have any theem-jeong, or hoisin sauce (this was an ad hoc thing. I saw the recipe, and how incredibly easy it was to make it, I simply had to do it there and then!). I made do with a simple dressing of fried shallots, toasted sesame seeds and soya sauce. Springy and slightly chewy, with the added flavour of har-mai, it was very good! Almost as good as those you buy from the kedai kopi uncle! My only complaint is that it takes ages to make a decent quantity! I don't even know how many rolls we made in total. We ate and cooked at the same time as we couldn't resist the hot CCF!

Then I remembered I had some leftover prawn and mussel green curry. Had that with my CCF. Not as great as with kali-chue-phei, but it went very well together. Had it been the thin HK-style CCF, it would not have gone as well. Curry and CCF - definitely a Malaysian flavour!

BTW, this recipe can also be slightly modified to make kuay teow. Just add less water to the batter. Method's the same. I think I will be making CKT (Char Kuay Teow) soon. Hubby is soooo going to love me for this. CKT is this Pg boy's fave. And it's just a coincidence that my birthday is not too far away..

You can take me out of Malaysia, but you will never take Malaysia out of me. I hope the current events herald a new era in Malaysian history. A more positive and promising one. Happy 51st birthday, Malaysia.

Many thanks to Sinner for a foolproof recipe and excellent tutorial and to babe for organising this.

School's out! Until end of August!! Yay!! A break from everything! And we are going home! See y'all soon!

When one holds a privilege card, one would tend to spend more in order to save more (that's the twisted logic every retailer/restauranteur would have you believe..). Ours include F&B discounts at the Starwood chain of hotels whereby the member gets to eat free when there is one or more paying customer, which translates to 50% off whenever we order 2 meals. And to add to that, prices in most stand alone restaurants including those in malls, aren't that much different from those in hotels. So great incentive to dine in hotels sometimes! Oh did I mention? Only hotels are licensed to serve alcohol and pork, so that's even greater incentive!!

Recently we were at the Le Méridien Mina Seyahi Beach Resort, looking for a quick meal. We ended up at the Bussola which is a pizza joint - they serve nothing but pizzas - in a casual setting. A good place to hang out with friends as they have quite comfy seats with lots of cushions!


During winter, it's almost a sin not to dine al fresco as the cool weather and gorgeous surroundings make a fabulous dining experience.

It's always impossible for us to order starters and mains as one pizza is usually big enough for 2 persons. It's a pity as the insalatas and bruschettas are really lovely. And even though the pizzas come in thin crusts, 2 pizzas is enough for us 2 adults and the 2 kids .





All of that for the price of one . We ordered 2 mains and 2 desserts and even though it was shared among 4 of us, 1 main and 1 dessert is considered member's free meal. Nice.

Labels: restaurant, review

Never know a good thing until you lose it. Food here is good, there's no doubt about it. Chinese (from the motherland), Indian, Philippine, Chindian (Chinese food cooked by Indian/Nepalese cooks), Arabic, Western/Continental, and more. But there just so much rogan josh, paneer tikka, prawn sinigang, chicken adobo, momos, lamb manchurian, chicken chow-chow, tabbouleh, shawarma, pizza margherita and seafood linguine one can take. After a while you start to yearn for good old Malaysian favourites - teh tarik, nasi lemak, char kuay teow kar see harm, har meen, kai farn, siew ngap, roti sardin, banana leaf rice, chap farn, assam laksa, siew mai, har gau....

*just a few more weeks, just a few more weeks...*

Anyway, even the Chinese food here is different from what we are used to. After a while, we get so homesick for our own familiar food. And because over here there is no Kanna Curry House, Kedai Kopi Teck Sing or Warung Pak Din, I have to learn to make my own. Can't be that difficult, right?? After almost a year, getting a bit desperate here!

First stop - steamed pastries. People here do not sell steamed food. Lots of grilled stuff, plenty deep fried, but very little steamed. Chinese steamed pastries always mean kneading. And I have never kneaded anything before. All my kneading have always been done with my breadmaker. So after careful consultations with my Agnes Chang's Delightful Snacks and Dim Sum, this is the result of my first experiment:

My very first wor tip aka pot stickers aka gyoza. The skin was quite easy to do, but it does get a bit tedious after your 20th piece when you are doing it alone in the kitchen. Pop them into a lightly oiled pan, add some hot water, a bit of vinegar and salt, cover and let cook until the water dries up. After the water has evaporated, let the bottom of the dumpling fry a bit until golden.

A plateful of wor tip, scrummy when taken hot and dipped in a mixture of soy, vinegar and sesame oil.

Here's the recipe:
200g plain flour
150ml boiling water
1 tbsp oil
1 tbsp cold water

Pour hot water into flour and mix quickly. Cover and let rest for 20 minutes.
Add oil and cold water and knead into a smooth dough. Rest for 10 minutes before using.
Divide portions into 20g each and roll into rounds before adding filling.

Filling:
mince pork
spring onion, ginger and garlic, finely chopped
soy sauce, fish sauce, sugar, pepper to taste.

Mix everything together and chill in fridge for 3 hours before using.




I had plenty of meat leftover from my wor tip, so I decided to use it as a filling for pau. This was much easier than I had thought, and within 3 hours we had hot steaming paus! Yay!!

After shaping the wor tip, it was very easy to shape the paus. H does not like pau with fillings, so I made some empty banana-shaped ones for her. The round one is supposed to be the longevity pau with red bean filling. I made 2 of them for fun, made the indent but forgot to make a pointy tip, so the other one looked disgustingly like someone's butt. Too obscene to put up here, so I ate it up.
Not too bad, turned up quite fluffy when it was steaming hot. Colorwise, it wasn't as white as the ones sold commercially. It was quite beige-y actually, like the color of rice.

250g plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tbsp instant yeast
50g castor sugar
120ml water
25g margarine

Mix everything together and knead into a smooth dough. Cover with wet cloth and let it prove for 30mins. Sift 1/2 tbsp baking powder on dough and knead well to distribute the baking powder until the dough is smooth again. Cover and let dough rest for 15 minutes before shaping.

Divide portions into 30g each and roll into rounds before adding filling. Steam over high heat for 15 minutes.




So what's next? Something which we definitely can never order from any restaurants here. My pièce de résistance... Siew Yoke!

The belly cuts here are very good - just the right amounts of fat layered in-between the meat. My favourite part is at the end where you get the salty, fatty and crispy bits.. yummm...

I managed to get 2 beautiful squarish pieces of belly. Pierced it with woodeen skewers for easier handling.
First I scalded the skin with boiling hot water and vinegar. This makes the skin easier to prick (I used a small knife to jab at the skin). Otherwise the uncooked skin is incredible tough and very difficult to poke through unless you have a mini pitchfork. Or an ice pick. You need to prick the skin all over to enable the fat to render when you roast it.
After pricking, turn it over and smear the marinade* all over the meat (which has been lightly scored). Make sure you don't get any marinade on the skin.
Then turn it back so that the skin is on top and let it dry in the fridge overnight.
Just before roasting, sprinkle a thin layer of salt over the skin. Pop it into the oven and roast at 200C. I used a baking tray with a rack so that the bottom does not get soggy as there will be a fair bit of oil oozed out as the meat roasts.
After about 45 minutes, or when the salt forms a crust, remove it from the skin and continue to roast for another 30-45 minutes. Keep a close eye on it (it can burn easily at this stage as you can see from mine..) until you see the skin is blistered. Before this you may want to turn it over so that the bottom is lightly browned too.

* Marinade:
Lam yue (red fermented bean curd)
5 spice powder
Oyster sauce
Soy sauce
Sugar



Okay. That's enough experimenting. I'm looking forward to savouring someone else's fruits of labor for a change. Let's go yumcha soon, shall we? :)

It's another birthday, and this time it's a tiramisu for one of my newfound friends in AD.


Happy happy fun fun Birthday, Ms Fun!! May you stay young and lovely for many years to come!

Ms Fun is a gregarious lady, always full of laughter and like her name, fun!! There is never a dull moment when she is around. Our coffee mornings are always riotous with laughter whenever she joins up with the rest of the FELA (Far Eastern Ladies Association) gang.





For the quick and easy recipe, please go here. I added 4 tsp gelatine dissolved in 40ml hot water into the cream and cheese mix because I wasn't sure if the cake wouldn't collapse on me when I removed it from the mould.

For an excellent pictorial on how to assemble, please go here.

*toot toot*
(blowing my own horn here..)

I am very proud of my tiramisu this time. It looked as good as if it came from a shop (amazing what a ribbon and some fruits can do for a plain-looking cake!). It tasted as good as the one I had at a hotel Italian restaurant (I paid RM25 for a 3inX3in piece with some drops of chocolate sauce). And I had compliments from a former hotel pastry chef. It's always a challenge to bake something that meets her expectations!

*nose kembang a bit.. actually quite a lot* :P

Labels: birthday

Why are some people so calculative?? It's amazing how they can treat strangers so well and yet alienate their own family members. And such pious people too.

Labels: personal, rant

Last night I dreamt that I did something with someone which I never thought I would do. Never with this person anyway.

It was smokin'! It was hawt! It was one of the best experience I have ever had!! It was totally different from what I had ever done before. And to do with it this person was, to put it mildly, brilliant!!

Aahh.. how I wish my dream could become reality...

BTW, I was reading this book before I fell asleep.



What??!! We cooked together. Or rather he taught me how to cook. In his gorgeous commercial kitchen next to his house. Let me tell you, in my dreams he is nothing like what you see in Hell's Kitchen. Gentle, passionate, confident.. wish he could come around and cook with me every day. His weakness? Cars - the bigger and faster the better. Let me share with you a short excerpt from his book:

"The smell of leather gives me as big a hard-on as the sound of the V12 under the bonnet. The willingness of this sex on wheels to do exactly as you command within a nanosecond of your foot pushing pedal to the metal, and the added purr of pleasure from your new partner, confirm your passion as the fuel explodes somewhere deep in the white hot powerhouse."

A man who cooks and drives fast cars... mmmmm... dreamy...

"So have you written about it?" He looks at me expectantly.
"Written about what?"
"The car." Rolls his eyes.
"No." Returns to reading my new Gordon Ramsay book.
"Why not?"
"I didn't even get to drive it." Still absorbed in Ramsay's use of the f-word in every other sentence.
"But you sat in it."
Puts book down and explains patiently, "That's different. You can't write a review about a car without actually driving it."
"I'm sure you were thinking of blogging about it when you took so many pictures of it."
Silence.
"But that's just showing off."
"I thought you didn't write for anyone but yourself."
Shuts book with unnecessary force.
"Fine."

I write from a perspective of a woman who sees a car as a mean of getting from point A to point B quickly, safely and painlessly. I don't look under hoods and spew "revolutionary BI-VANOS fully variable camshaft control", "258bhp magnesium aluminium composite engine" and "new third-generation common rail diesel technology (that includes piezo-injectors, a faster and more efficient form of injection); power is increased by 12 per cent to 228bhp at 4,000rpm while torque is four per cent higher at 520Nm, developed between 2,000 and 2,750rpm."

What I do notice is cabin space. Boot space. Leg room. I have a thing for spaciousness, so sue me. And since this is my writeup, this is what I observed:

My grandfather's 1969 Austin used to have one of these starter buttons. I remember he would stick the key in and pop this button to get the car started. As technology improved, cars were no longer using such buttons and one would turn the key to start the engine. And whaddya know, we've gone the entire circle and come back to popping buttons to start cars. Only difference is, in the olden days the engine would roar to life. The engine on this one, is so quiet that one would be tempted to pop the button once more as there was barely any discernible sound to indicate the engine was running.

This I really like. Electronic controls for seat adjustment. You turn the dial to adjust your seat. Press the lower square button to adjust the height of the seat. Press the upper rectangular one to adjust the back of the seat. And the middle 'L' shaped one to move the seat forward/backward. No more pulling levers and using your body weight to do the adjustments. Best part is, you can actually set to memory all the different adjustments (buttons 1 and 2)!! When you share a car with someone who is off vast different body size from you and find that your optimum driving position is always being shifted around, you will greatly appreciate this underrated feature.

Just look at the number of buttons and dials on and at the side of the steering wheel!! What in the world are the 2 silver buttons on the top for? Ejecting the driver and passenger in times of emergencies?! :P He did try them out, but only after he stopped the car. Nothing happened.

Err.. I presume the eye-like picture refers to the left and right signal lights. What's the the P thingy?? To stick your tongue out at the rude drivers??

Urmm.. to switch off something, I guess. And maybe to adjust the illumination on the dashboard?? You wouldn't want to be blinded by how fast the speedometer needle is moving..

Aah.. finally something I do know! To control the headlights. Strangely enough, it is not located on the steering column but on the dashboard below the driver side aircon vent. This dial is fun - you have the standard switch off, only sidelights, full headlights and one more, auto headlights. Meaning it switches on by itself whenever it gets dark and switches off when it's bright or engine is stopped. Initially we wondered, "If the headlights switches on by itself when it's dark, will it also know how to high beam the idiot who is driving on the wrong side of the road??" D'uh.

And the "P" button next to it is the parking brake. Yup, in this car everything gets done by a push of a button or turn of a dial.

This fancy little handle is the auto gear shift. The usual D-rive N-eutral, R-everse and P-ark, all this with just a slight pull with your fingers. Not unlike what Schumacher does when he goes tearing down the track at 280km/hr.

No idea why I bothered to take a picture of this. Very obviously the windshield wiper control. There is also an automatic function whereby the wiper will turn on by itself at the first sign of rain. But being in a place where rain is about as frequent as hail in KL, we didn't get to see that in action. I guess I just wanted some balance. Took a picture of the controls on the left, so I had to take a picture of the controls on the right.

Couldn't resist taking these shots of the side mirror. It doesn't just fold in, it folds up. So space-ship like..

Now this is a cool gadget! The iDrive is a computer-like system, which allows the driver and front-seat passenger to control such amenities as the climate (aircon and heater), audio, navigation (GPS) and communication systems. The LCD panel is mounted in the dashboard and a controller knob mounted on the center console. I had fun playing with the GPS system - you can opt for a 1 dimensional or 3 dimensional map, with or without the voice navigator.

See the bottom left picture? When you are trying to park, this will pop up and the white area will light up to green, yellow and red depending on how close you are to the next object. Much better than the irritating 'beep.... beep.... beep..beep..beep.. beepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeepbeep'!!

And even more buttons. This time for the sunshades in the rear passenger windows. One button for the sunshade on the main window frame. Another button for the triangle-shaped window. And one more for the rear windshield. The kids had a fun time playing with the sunshades.

Little boys and their cars. Look at the smirk on their faces. They can barely contain themselves.

What else did I like about this car? I liked the solid feel of the door. You don't need to slam the door shut. You don't need the little car icon to light up on your dashboard to tell you a door is not shut. It shuts by itself. And the leather seats don't squeak. I dislike leather seats that squeaks when you climb onto. Feels like I'm sitting on a whoopee cushion.

The performance of the car? This car is meant to be chauffeured driven. The leg room at the back seat is virtually endless and once you sink into the plush leather seat, you don't want to get up. The ride is smooth and glides through speed humps as though they were mere bumps on the road. Most comfortable cruising speed at 140km/hr. It was positively yawn-inducing when going at 110km/hr. Excellent handling - corners like it's on rails. Barely swayed when going round the bend. You just want the journey to last forever.. (what else can I say when I didn't get to drive the car.. *sulks* )

Despite all its gadgetry and electronic wonders, I do have some complaints.

The glove box compartment is small. And there is no proper place to put my handbag. For all the money spent on designing this mechanical wonder, you'd think that they could design something to store a handbag.

Price of this Beastly Monstrous Wonder here? Approx USD74K / RM270K. (jamie, this little snippet of info is especially for you.. :D ). Now that's worth smiling about! :)

Labels: car, review