hungry?
Giant Pau, originally uploaded by happymouse.
Giant buns to last you through breakfast, lunch & dinner... and maybe even supper.Labels: travel, yumyum
cuppa cakes!
Well, for some reason... I think I make perfectly delicious and relatively good-looking cupcakes when I'm at home and doing it on my own; much unlike the ones Sam ended up with yesterday and I really don't know why!
I've made many guesses but I suppose it'll only be through trial and error can we confirm our suspicions. As for now, I'm utterly pleased with my cheese cupcakes! They don't actually taste of cheese, but it may also be because I used vegetarian cheese (I didn't even know there was such a thing, but well. It's my vegetarian mother lah.)
Yay. (:
Oh! And I found a photo of the cupcakes I did for zongren, taken before I got to decorating the other four cupcakes.
 Labels: yumyum
sushi : more raw than you think
Organic Vegetarian Sushi, originally uploaded by Th♥mås Lǔ ~ 5th & 6th in Milan.
I taught my mom how to use the bamboo sushi rolling mat today. (Okay, I've no idea if it has got a proper name, but just for convenience sake, I'm calling it THE MAT for now.)
You see, my mom went to a organic food store's special erm... "open house?" and they taught everyone how to make Vegan Organic Sushi using carrots, alfafa, beetroot and a host of other erm... delicious organic vegetables. So she returned home feeling all geared up to try her own and even bought herself two packets of MADE-IN-CHINA nori (dried seaweed, that is). But when she got back, she realised she has never rolled sushi in her whole life and has no idea how THE MAT can be used.
So she asked me to demonstrate.
By the way, cooking demonstrations are $50 per session. Speak to me for details.
No, I'm just kidding.
Well, we did make some organic vegan sushi -- which I didn't try; looks disgusting. :P But I doubt my mom understands how it works. I have a feeling she's going to get me to do them again the next time she gets in the mood.
But what was funny is the way she asked me how this is done and how that is done, and how long can the nori be kept, and why is it so soft compared to the ones she had at the store etc. etc. etc.
So you see, I became Culinary Master for the day. (:
PS. Don't buy MADE-IN-CHINA nori, even though they are usually a tad bit cheaper. They tend to be of a lower grade and less tasty. But if in any case, you already bought 'em nua nori pieces, you can actually do what I told my mom. Toast them! This is so there's a little more crunch when you bite into your sushi... rather than having to struggle to bite a piece off, if you know what I mean. Just be careful you don't over-toast, because then you can't roll them at all. *duh
And just in case you're like my mom and want to ask me where I learned to do something like that... I didn't. I really thought it's quite common sense, which I now know to be my own assumption that happens to really work. LOL. (:
Anyway, this wasn't the only dish my mom was probing me about. The last time I made tuna puffs, chicken pie and egg tarts, she was curious as well. In fact, she stopped her vegetarian diet just to try what I was up to.
My mom actually makes great egg tarts but I was making the Portuguese flaky pastry type, while hers are the traditional Cantonese kind.
For that, I actually miss Hong Kong. I love the egg tarts, bo luo pau, chee cheong fun, wantan mee and yeah... all kinds of random Cantonese food! Oooooh yes. I like the curry fishballs and some dessert drink I had -- I forgot what it was. Other than that, everything else I remember of Hong Kong isn't that fantastic; I'd rather be anywhere else. I think it's the people; they are not very nice... much like meeting a Singaporean, but maybe a bit worse. :P *oops*
But back to where I was... Cooking is fun! And while I get really impatient with my mom most of the time, I enjoy these little moments with her -- really. When our conversations are not about money, and about her being displeased with me.Labels: yumyum
banana choco -- again
My third attempt at ice cream. This time made sinfully with thickened cream! I have a feeling the cream was about to curdle. I don't know why. Grrr... ice cream is not as easy as it seems after all.
I hope it'll turn out well.Labels: yumyum
mixed up
So here it is. My chocolate & banana ice cream, made healthily with soya milk! Thus, it's not as creamy as it probably could have been with thickened cream. I suppose. Hmmm...
This was how it looked like before I froze it. It would have looked a little like mayonnaise if thickened cream was used.
Anyway, I should really get a better cake mixer.
And yes, I am rather fond of these China girls. Zheng Jie & Li Na.
 
pssst...in case the pictures don't appear, that's because I'm deep-linking them from other sites. hurhur.
I've been catching the US Open (or whatever I can of it) and with Ana Ivanovic out of the game, I've decided to lend my fullest support to................................
RAFAEL!
LOL. Just kidding! Although yes, I will definitely support Nadal for the mens but I'm going to root for Zheng Jie for the womens. I doubt she'll win though, but she has my support no less.
not that it really matters to her. d'oh.
Okay, I think I'm still a little shakened by today's 'ordeal' so my thought-process is a little... erm. Strange. Sobs. It has been a frightening day!!!
But my God is faithful
my ever-present help in time of need!Labels: random, sports, yumyum
childhood noodles
My favourite hokkien mee stall
Like how I keep emphasizing to Vincent, here's the main reason why I cannot have an iPhone. I love the camera on my Sony Ericsson! Not that it's a fantastic one, but that I can take photos wherever I go, whenever I want and MMS it away to people who matter! :) Yeah well, that will unfortunately now exclude both Liwei and Vincent. (Liwei's phones were never able to receive MMS for some strange strange reason, and he calls himself a photographer!)
Anyway, I bought my Hokkien Mee dinner there today and convinced everyone it's the best ever -- with agreeing nods thereafter. The stall and its owners have been in business ever since I can remember. I have been eating their hokkien mee and char kway teow from the time I was a puny little kiddo. Run by a couple, the uncle fries nonstop, the aunty serves and takes orders. They both carry brilliant smiles and excellent service too.
I love. :)Labels: random, yumyum
useless video
Absolutely random video of our mango ice cream making session. I just wanted to try out iMovie. Pretty good! (iMovie, I mean... not the video.) :)Labels: yumyum
nice to see, good to eat!
 
from cuteoverload.com
LOL! :)Labels: yumyum
mangoooooo!
So here's the Mango ice cream we were making yesterday. Hee. Was going to upload this photo for my earlier entry about my ice cream making escapade but without my handy MacBook Pro, I couldn't transfer the file out of my mobile phone.
So well. Here you go. Doesn't look very delicious, does it? It's just a lot of heavy (fattening!) cream, and the mangoes were a little sourish.
I want to try Banana ice cream! Bet it rawks. :PLabels: yumyum
mmmmmm...
homemade berry ice cream, originally uploaded by MatthewA.
I learnt how to make ice cream today! (not the one above, of course. That's just an awesome flickr picture I found.) The irony is that it has been a freezing cold day, what with the heavy rain that never stopped! It's still raining even now as I type. Sigh.
Just for today, I really hate the rain. ): An unruly inconsiderate bus driver sped past us as we were walking by the roadside and *splash* we were soaked. Geez.
And the rain also dampened my mood for ice cream somewhat, even though I did lick up a good lot of it even before it turned icy. I'd promised d that I'd bring him my ice cream but looking at the creamy tub of not-yet-icy 'ice cream', I thought perhaps it wasn't so good an idea. Then after we got splooooshed by the annoying bus, I absolutely gave up the idea of even going to meet him at all. Besides, he was going off for his next rehearsal already so, well...
I was freeeeeezing cold (still am!)
But anyway, I'm quite geared up to try making some ice cream soon. Bananas with Bailey's Mint Chocolate Irish Cream. How about that? ;)Labels: yumyum
more pastry madness
I made Portuguese Egg Tarts today-at least I think it's made this way. Haha. I have a you know what? It actually tastes pretty good! Only problem is, they're not exactly round. Wahaha.
(who says egg tarts must be round!)
Yay. I'm happy. Daddy's happy.Labels: yumyum
pastry goodness
So quite a few days ago, I was trying to make Peng Kueh -- without the peng kueh mould and well, it turned out edible and that's about it. I enjoyed eating the glutinous rice with all the ingredients I added though... and the dough wasn't bad either. But somehow, when the two are put together, it just seems a little sloppy.
But I finally managed to get the mould, although I doubt I will have time to make a new batch anytime soon.
And...
I made pastry!
(no, I didn't bake this. I just stole a photo from www.puffpastry.com. hurhur.)
It's so much easier than handling tapioca flour and glutinous rice. The first night, I made sausage roll. It was dead easy. Simply roll up the sausage and bake. It was delicious!
The second night, I decided to try "chicken pie" so I wandered around the supermarket picking ingredients I told I'd need. Ended up with some Portobello mushrooms, bacon bits, mozzarella cheese, whipped cream cheese and Worcester sauce. I eventually didn't use all of the ingredients… and if you're wondering why I didn't buy chicken, it's because I have a lot of chicken thighs at home – meant to feed my dogs. Not that they are dog food, but that my dogs eat human food.
So anyway, I used some garlic and shallots left over from my peng kueh stock of ingredients and added some chicken stock, tomatoes & herbs for the sauce. Mixed it with the mushrooms (which I sliced) and some cream cheese. I lightly steamed the chicken, cut them into bite size pieces and mixed everything together.
The final step before baking is of course, wrapping on the dough and glaze!
I didn't take photos, but it was good. My papa liked it very much and so did I. I've decided to made a new batch and pass it to the girls before we set off on Saturday.
Mmmmm Mmmmm...
Did you know that puff pastry is really fattening?Labels: yumyum
our firsts
--- japanese : day two ---
salted saba
katsu curry rice
tomato omu rice
--- german : day one ---
fischplatter for 2
paulaner
Miracles do happen: when we close our eyes, open our hearts, and believe.
Just a little while more, love. Just a little while.Labels: random, yumyum
*smile*
Hur. Our Korean spread: kim chi & beef bulgogi (not enough sauce, haha) Yum yum. (:
And... here's the video of the fireworks we watched that night
Ratagoodie!
I love Remy! (And I love Emile, his brother, too!)
The movie's fantastic :) I loved the graphics. I loved the story. And I loved the characters - so much! (Especially Emile, he's so flabbeliciously funny) The food in the film looked so real and yummy.
The only problem is... Rats don't really eat cheese. *oops* It's a common misconception. Cheese - and other lactose laden dairy - causes diarrhoea.
The picture above is from one of my favourite scenes in the movie when Remy cooks up an omelette for Linguini and a mini one for himself. The mini omelette was so cute! Hur hur.
I love it I love it I love it!
Best birthday movie ever!Labels: animals, random, yumyum
So busy, still can cook
I haven't had time for so many things but one thing for sure... I need to feed myself. Haha.
I've been so broke lately. Actually I'm not, but because I want to save up for my month-end trip, I think I'm overspending a little. So I have been preparing my own lunches - not that I haven't been previously, I love preparing my own lunch! - and today's recipe is....
*drumroll*
Japanese Curry!
No meaty stuff inside though - since I have stopped eating meat for a couple of months now. But there are crabsticks - yes, I only don't eat mammals. Fish, crabs, prawns (umm... yucks) and even frogs are still welcomed in my diet. Haha.
And I loev it! Japanese curry is like the most delicious thing after eggs, broccoli, crabsticks, sushi... and ok. Never mind that. It's just really yum yum. I think I really enjoyed the curry at Kareben so I'm hooked - for now. :)
Yes, I know the shop name is like... my name. But no, I don't own it nor have any share in the business. I just happened to dine there one sunny afternoon because my colleague, Wendy, decided that we should eat there.
Oh you know what? My mom bought a packet of Australian Calrose Rice and kept telling me she bought Japanese Rice. So there I was searching frantically for that packet of Japanese Rice until I finally realised, she thought the rice looked the same. Well, she isn't wrong because they are both short grain rice but I was expecting Japanese import type. Not Australian short grains. Haha.
Oh well.
Mothers. :PLabels: yumyum
Sesame Street
Not exactly Big Bird type, but I made a Black Sesame Pudding today. Heehee. :)
It's a little sweeter than I wanted but I think it's because of the condensed milk. I was 50ml short of fresh milk, so I substituted it with dilute condensed milk. Oops. :P Nonetheless, a delightful treat. Want some?Labels: yumyum
At Home with Gong Bao Chicken
Went to the doc's today - finally. He said there is a bug going around and I've caught it, so he asked me to return next week for a jab. Anyway, I decided to try out my new Gong Bao Chicken recipe and here's what I whipped up!
Shiokadoodles!
Save for the lack of ingredients (cashew nut, spring onion etc.), it was a pretty decent dish. My mom had some leftover rice from this morning, so I had this and the rice for dinner. Yum :)Labels: yumyum
Yaki Udon
With Seasoned Mackerel, Kyuri, Crabsticks, Cabbage and Onions. :)Labels: yumyum
Sushi Day!
 Labels: yumyum
My Udon Lunch
Yumyum. Hehe. I made Udon with baked marinated chicken! Tomorrow I will heat up the soup and pour it in for my yummy yummy homemade lunch. Yay!
 Labels: yumyum
Meaty me!
I had an excellent spinach and tuna salad for lunch today and the combination was spectacular. Spinach + Tuna (with dash of pepper) + Olive oil + Cherry tomatoes = Delish! Simple ingredients, simple concoction, quick & easy fix.
Anyway, I decided to finally try out my meatballs recipe. I call it my recipe because I made it up. Heehee. I hurried to Cold Storage after work today (which was really late, they were closing!) and randomly grabbed a pack of minced pork (because it's cheaper than chicken and beef), a bag of shallots and a can of cheapo champignons. All in all, it cost me only $4.40!
I combined the porky with some random ingredients of salt, pepper, cornstarch, garlic, shallots... and decided to throw in some tumeric and rosemary for fun. Hehe. The fun bit was rolling the meat into little balls and here's what I got.
Oily but damn good!
Then I stir-fried some asparagus, capsicum and champignons (I left out the tomatoes here because I don't like them gooey).
I was letting the veggies simmer slightly, to avoid overly crunchy asparagus... that's how I had time to take this photo. Haha.
Finally, I used oyster sauce and threw in the tomatoes for this colourful dish. :)
To complete the meal, I boiled some egg noodles and tomorrow's lunch looks spectacular. Haha. Hope it stays yummy overnight!
 Labels: yumyum
"you chinese eat everything"
Just got back from my day-out with zongren. So tired! And the poor boy still hasn't gotten his shoes for CNY. But I got him to buy a top from TOPMAN, which I really liked (and he liked too). It's not often that we like the same designs... I usually really don't like those he really like. :/
Anyway, last Friday everyone in the office got a bottle of Hashima from Eu Yan Sang - I don't know why but we did la. Miss Lim came in with a box of it, and Chew gave everyone one. Wendy excitedly told me that that is the frog jelly thing she was previously telling me about - to my horror.
You might know how phobic I am of frogs and toads and all amphibious creatures. It takes me quite an effort to eat them, really. And worse, Wendy says it's frog sperm.
So I googled, and Wikipedia-ed - leading to greater horror.
It turns out, it's not frog sperm but it's a female frog's fallopian tube.
#$?@#%?@$^:$%@$
--
On a less disgusting note, I found a bottle of bird's nest in my kitchen. I vaguely remember my mom telling me that I can have it if I want it, 'cuz I'm the only fan of bird's nest at home. Actually I thought the idea of eating bird's saliva is quite gruesome too. But heck, it's a bird, not a disgusting frog. And heck, saliva is not as gruesome as a FALLOPIAN TUBE.
Okay, I'm enjoying my bird's nest now. Hehe. Yum yum.Labels: yumyum
make me a sandwich II
I made yet another sandwich wrap.
The one from two days ago had a great lot of ingredients. This time, I was using Teriyaki Mackerel and figured the whole Japanese flava ain't going to go too well with feta cheese, so I opted for a much simpler version. Just the mackerel with coral lettuce and nori slices. I threw in a dash of Japanese rice seasoning thingy that I isn't really a seasoning but I don't know what is it called. I bought a bottle of it a few weeks back and took really long to select one because it was all in Japanese (obviously) and I couldn't figure why there were different colours and prices... Eventually I did lah, and I chose the Tamago one. (Egg!) Simply because I love egg, and I don't know how else to decide.
Anyway, I love my sandwich wraps. I know it looks like prata. But it's not. It's wholemeal sandwich wraps. I wanted the honey wheat one, but Zong Ren very convincingly said the wholemeal one is the healthiest and roughly psyched me into getting it. Oh well. I'm hoping to get some pita next time round.
Note to self: Buy lemon, olives, pita bread & cherry tomatoes.Labels: yumyum
Lookie what I found!
So funny, hehe. See, this is what you get when you put my favourite plush toys with my recent food hype.
Edible (almost!) plush from MyPaperCrane. Haha. I love these. So fun. And the copywriting that goes along with each plush is really funky too. Mmm..Labels: toys, yumyum
make me a sandwich
I used to watch a lot of Hey Arnold! when I stayed over at Jill's place, and there this old man (I can't remember how's he related to who in the cartoon) who repeatedly said "Make me a sandwich" in this really funny tone. I love watching that. Hehe.
Anyway, I made my own sandwich wraps with coral lettuce, green peppers, asparagus, cucumbers and feta cheese (yummmy!!!)
Hee. Pardon the cameraphone pic. I left my digicam in the office.
Looks really green, huh? The white bits are from the cheese...the oh-so-delightful cheese. I love feta cheese!Labels: yumyum
scrummilicious II
Remember my post on the Mocha Souffle? running with tweezers ran a Hay Hay It's Donna Day - The Souffle Challenge and produced some amazing results.
I can't wait to make one of my own!Labels: yumyum
scrummilicious
Found this food blog and couldn't resist swiping some of her photos to plonk here for you to drool along with me. Haha. Now I'm getting rather hyped up about cooking something yummy!Labels: yumyum
Salad cravings
I'm into this veg craving of late. Last night I was pining for some Viet rice paper rolls - specifically the ones I had during a class party for racial harmony day, which happened a good EIGHT years ago! I had a vietnamese classmate, Thuy, who got her mom to make some traditional viet food that turned out so very light yet deliciously scrumptious. Eight years down the road, I'm still craving for some. The veggie fillings were not overly heavy on flavour yet not bland at all. I can't exactly describe it anymore since I've pretty much forgotten how it really tasted - but as far as my memory serves, it was heavenly.
And I've also been craving for some Greek salad. The last time I had a good one was at Father Flanagan where the Feta cheese totally made my day. Okay, so it was the dairy that did the trick not the veg but hey, you can't have no Greek Salad without some tomatoes and olives! Yum!
Okay, that was totally random. I just felt really greedy.Labels: yumyum
Mocha Souffle
The Mocha Souffle Low Calorie, low fat recipe in the latest issue of delicious uk looks extremely tempting. So tempting that I think I'm going to try it out tonight. Hee hee.Labels: yumyum
cupcake magic
I really love these little cupcake pincushions done up by betz, and some of which, for Booja J's Pincushion challenge.
I wonder if I could do a few of these little fellas with the felt pieces I have. Hmm...
I also discovered lili confetti whilst browsing thru betz's blog and wow, this site is so cute! It's an online shop but I really love the little kitschy design of the website itself!
look at how cute the rabbit and the bird in the tree is!
Wow. I feel extremely inspired - to do so many things! I hope I can haul up a good amount of fabric and material when I visit Bangkok this weekend!Labels: yumyum
food!
more photos from my phone.
my favourite bibimbap, my favourite kueh kuehs, my favourite fresh banana ice cream with rainbow toppings (from island creamery!) and a box of heritage O's - which I love too!
Yum!Labels: yumyum
Yummy yummy little dragon buns
Zong Ren & I had dinner at Nanxiang Steamed Bun Restaurant at Bugis Junction sometime back. We actually had no idea what we wanted to eat but decided that we wanna treat ourselves to something good - aka. no hawkers and food courts, not that they don't have good food, but we decided to indulge in pricey items for the sake of it. :P
And we didn't regret it. :)
The noodles were yummy. So yummy, we finished it waaaay before the other table did and it was because we saw the next table eating it that we ordered it. So you can imagine, the other table already had their share before we ordered our food but when we finished it all, they still had half the dish left. Hahaha.
Ok, maybe they were damn slow.
I didn't take photos any of the noodles and rice (which was not too bad, but not fantastic) but these... little dragon buns (ala xiao long bao) were so delicious! 'cept zr had to spoil my gastronomical experience by telling me those he had in Shanghai were better.
Okay lor. Fine.
I was rather fascinated by the ceiling decor, which doubles up as a lamp.
I like how it's rather structured yet seems so very flexible... as though you could turn it around all over and it would still work out. Almost makes me wanna flip the photo and then it would look like it's standing on the ground.
And there were all these scribblys on the wall.
Yup, I know they're Chinese words and not scribblys. And I can read them too. It's rather nice, don't you think? Reminds me of old period dramas where the "restaurants" have their menus scribbled on blocks of wood stuck on the wall. :) Nice.
*
Anyway....
Look at the time! I only just got home from work about half an hour ago. Lately, there have been so many projects and meetings that I'm at the brink of breaking down. But ah. How blessed I am to have encouraging and supportive colleagues, friends and a dear beloved bf who cheers me on every step of the way. I'm always thanking God for the miracle of encouragement!
Stand still and consider the wondrous works of God.
Job 37:14
Keep me strong, Lord! :)
Labels: yumyum
|