Suum Cuique

'Mom! Is that char siu? Can I have some char siu??'
'Mom!! I'm hungry. Can I have some char siu with noodles?'
'Mom! Later can we buy some doughnuts? I want to eat doughnuts.'

Mom leaves the computer to prepare food for the pesky kid. Boils water to cook pasta. While waiting for the water to boil, she starts measuring ingredients for the doughnut batter.

Chucks spaghetti into the boiling water. Melts butter and mixes it with milk and egg. Sifts the flour, baking powder and custard flour 3 times. Turns on the oven to preheat.

Lights up the stove. Throws siew yoke into hot pan. Sautes with some sugar and garlic. Sploshes in some soya sauce. Transfers spaghetti from pot to pan. A quick stirfry and lunch is done.

Mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with a fork for the doughnut batter. Spoon batter 1/2 full into doughnut pan. Bonk pan into oven and bake for 8 minutes. Wash up while waiting. Remove, place on wire rack and dust with cinnamon-laced icing sugar.

Boy, remember this 20 years from now when I need you to take me to the bank/hospital/so-and-so's house. And no backtalk from you, y'hear?


Mini Doughnuts

80 g Plain flour
1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tbsp custard flour

50 g sugar
1/4 tsp. salt

75 ml. fresh milk
1 large egg
30 g melted butter

Sift dry ingredients 3 times.
Mix the wet ingredients, then add sugar and salt and stir until sugar dissolves.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and quickly and lightly mix to bind everything together. Do not overmix. Fill doughnut tray 1/2 full and bake at 190C for 8 minutes.

Labels: baked donuts, donuts

Do you think it's open?

I think I see the neon sign is lit!

Let's go in and have a look.

Hope there's no queue.

Yippee!

It's open!

And no queue!!






We went a bit ballistic and got a dozen donuts. Esp when you save slightly more than RM1 per donut. As you can see, they are nowhere as colourful and decorative as J.Co's or B.Apple's or even Dunkin's. I was a bit disappointed when I first saw them, but hey it's the taste that counts! So on with the review! :D



Sugar - I love this!! Soft and fluffy, even when overnight. Not as dense as Dunkin's but has more 'bite' than B.Apple's. Would have been even better if I had heated it up a bit.


Strawberry jelly - very generous with the jelly (take a couple more bites and the jelly spurts out), soft and fluffy like the sugar one. The icing sugar does get a bit messy though. And because there is a jelly filling and icing sugar, they made the donut less sweet. Thumbs up!


Choc cake - it's like a donut-shaped chocolate muffin with a sugar glaze. Didn't particularly like it as I don't like dense donuts (which is why I am no fan of Dunkin's).


The little fella enjoying his donut. He's a visual little guy - zoomed in right at the 'snowy' one. Left him with a sugar moustache..



Of course the 4 of us can't finish 12 donuts! He took 6 donuts to work, so I'm afraid I will have to visit the store again to get some more so that I can taste them... :D


And after the kids took their share to school, I am left with the NY cheesecake and original glazed. The cheesecake is topped with biscuit crumbs and filled with a sweet cheesy cream (which I felt wasn't cheesy enough). The glaze was incredibly sweet, even more so than the sugar coated one. But both were still soft and fluffy even though I had them cold the day after I bought them. Very nice.


Good offer, no? Especially when you see the price of these babies..


It's RM4 per original glazed donut, RM5 per assorted donut (the ones with fillings and toppings), RM30 per 1/2 dozen, RM45 per dozen and RM55 per double dozen! And there I was grumbling about the price of B.Apple donuts at Rm17 per dozen (RM2 per piece)...

Verdict: Excellent donuts - soft, fluffy and yet not hollow.

Now I must find out when they roll these out, as I must have one piping hot without any glaze or sugar on it..

Labels: donuts

The malls in Dubai are quite interesting, architecturally. We visited 2 of the more elaborate ones over the recent Eid Al Adha holidays. They aren't very big (1Utama and MidValley win hands down), and the tenants aren't that any more different than the other many malls in Dubai or AD. But visually, they are stunning, and worth at least one visit. So we obediently did our touristy duty, lest we get questioning looks when we shake our heads upon queries on shopping in Dubai..

Souk Madinat Jumeirah - traditional Arabic design, a bit surreal actually to see shops like Rodeo Drive and Oxbow with modern advertising banners amidst such ancient architecture. It really is a gorgeous piece of work, I liked it very much. Even the toilet looked ancient, but luckily it comes with modern sanitation and plumbing. It looks even more beautiful at night (Kenny has very good shots of the buildings lit up).

The shops and stalls there are very touristy with plenty of (expensive) souvenir shops to get your usual mini shishas and brass lamps, camel paraphernalias, Persian carpets, Kashmir shawls, etc. Meandering walkways everywhere, we were done within 2 hours.




Next stop, is the Renaissance-style Mercato Mall. Walking in was like entering an Italian town square. Another visually stunning building, again it was a bit strange seeing the familiar green logo of St*rbaks, the stark M of Mango (MNG) and omnipresent golden arches of McD against the traditional architecture of olden-day Italy. For some reason, I kept thinking of Romeo and Juliet as we walked through the corridors and half expected to see men with bouffant sleeves in tights strolling about with ladies in long dresses and conical hats..



All that walking has worked out our appetite, so we indulged in the next favourite past-time of Malaysians... FOOD! Particularly of the non-halal kind...



BBQ Pork Ribs, Baked Sausage Roll and Bangers & Mash with Peas. From Harvester's Pub in one of our favourite hotels, the Crowne Plaza Dubai (yup, many hotels here served porcine delights). Washed down with a pint of German beer.. *burp* Oops! Excuse me! :)

It was a pleasant outing. Rather like KL on a major festive holiday, as most of the expats took the opportunity of the long holiday (this was a few of days before Christmas) to return home for the festive season. So we managed to avoid the crowds and usual horrendous traffic jam Dubai is infamous for.

In the meantime, I am eagerly awaiting the opening of this place. After reading countless postings on Big Apple and J.Co and not getting to try any, it's only fair I get to sample the king of them all. Dang! I hope there won't be any queues!!

Labels: donuts, mall, pork