DreamersLoft

Bak Kwa Cookies

2012-01-29T10:00:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year! Today is the 7th day of the Lunar New Year, which is known as 人日 symbolising everyone's birthday. Happy birthday to all!

This year, I didn't manage to bake any new year goodies except for these Bak Kwa Cookies. Since dear son's birthday was 1 week before the Lunar New Year, I already had my hands full with his birthday cake and cupcakes for celebration with family and at his childcare centre. Plus, I had an order fulfillment of 3 tubs of salted chocolate chip cookies. So after a week of intense baking and celebrations, I simply couldn't muster the energy to bake more stuff.

Nevertheless, when I came across Jane's recipe on Bak Kwa Cookies, I was completely sold! I mean, it was brilliant, combining the richness and crunchiness of butter cookies with sweet, oily, gooey, chewy, fragrant bak kwa. How would the taste be like? The thought kept lingering in my mind. So the moment I got hold of a packet of bak kwa, I got down to work.

The recipe was actually quite easy and straightforward. Cutting up the bak kwa into mini dices was pretty tedious though, but an essential step to ensure that the bite-size pieces of cookies were not overwhelmed by too much bak kwa.

I made 2 batches of cookies, one batch using Bee Cheng Hiang bak kwa and the other Lim Chee Guan. Also made very minor changes to the recipe, like reducing the amount of icing sugar by 20g and brushing the dough with some egg yolk to give it a glossy finish. For the first batch, I weighed each cookie to be about 8 to 8.5g and yielded 107 cookies. For the second batch, I made half the recipe, and weighed part of the dough to about 7 - 7.5g. I think I managed to get more than 60 cookies.

The aroma of butter and bak kwa filled the entire house and I was eagerly waiting to try how the cookie would taste like. These were brushed with some egg yolk and I thought they looked more CNY-like. They could even pass off as pineapple tart or some almond cookie :)

Taste-wise, the cookie was buttery, almost melt-in-the-mouth, yet with bits of chewy bak kwa. Very unique indeed. I think it's perfect for people who like the best of both worlds, or for those who find eating bak kwa neat too jiat lat (overwhelming). And like what Jane said, it's very addictive! I found myself popping one after another, as it was not oily nor too sweet. Hubby claimed that the ones made using Lim Chee Guan bak kwa tasted better (well he's very biased coz he only likes LCG bak kwa). I think there's just a very subtle difference, the ones made using Bee Cheng Hiang bak kwa were a tad dryer, as in the bak kwa bits inside the cookie were drier. Anyways, both batches were equally nice.

First batch of cookie made using Bee Cheng Hiang bak kwa. These were not brushed with egg yolk. I thought they looked like those old-school fish ball snack with a slight tinge of golden brown.

The ones brushed with egg yolk looked more like the typical CNY snacks.

I think from the next CNY onwards, I'm going to make this bak kwa cookie my regular bake! Or after CNY, if you have leftover bak kwa, this is the perfect solution! Tempted yet? Hop over to Jane's blog for the recipe :)

Hiroshima/Miyajima Nov 2011 - Final Part

2012-01-25T17:16:00.000+08:00

Continued from Part I, II, III, IV and V.

Here's some sharing of my haul from the Hiroshima/Miyajima trip.

Our favourite Yuzu honey drink from Sugi Yohoen. There are many other flavours available like grape, lemon, blueberry, acerola, maple, rasberry... but we still like yuzu the best. The last time we purchased the honey was 3-4 years ago when we went Nikko. Glad to find a branch on Miyajima island itself.

This is a very interesting jam which I found at Yutori No Kitchen (Mitsukoshi), by Harumi Kurihara, one of the best-known cookery writers in Japan. The jam is milky, thick and creamy with a tinge of earl grey flavour.

Strawberry jam which dear son loves, available at most supermarkets.

Crochet linen, coaster and a fork. Bought at Natural Kitchen.

These 2 pouches are from Miyajima, they open up to a cloth bag and fold into a cube. Super kawaii.

Calbee veggie chips, bought at convenience store.

When I saw this electric weighing scale at Tokyu Hands, I simple have to buy it, so pretty :p I already owned a similar Tanita scale (green colour also bought at Tokyu Hands) but this is even better. There's an anti-slip silicone mat, the measurements come in g and ml (ml only for water and milk) and precision up to 0.1g. You know, sometimes I need 2 weighing scales at one go :p

The spatula with yellow handle is from Tokyu Hands, sold in Singapore for close to $10 but only $7 there. It's one of the most handy and useful spatula I owned. I already have 2 at home but one is a little worn out so I bought another 2.

The 3 other items, mini melon baller, chiffon knife and cake decorator are bought from Daiso at 200 yen each.

Fell in love with this watch the moment I saw it. Bought at cache cache, Shareo Underground Shopping Mall.

Read from a fashion magazine that this particular brand of curl lash fixer is good and the make-up remover sheets are very effective too. Bought them from France-ya which is a beauty shop selling beauty products from France.

Travel pillow bought from Tokyu Hands. Since we travel so much, both air and car, I reckoned a good quality travel pillow is important! This has a t-shirt material so the surface feels really soft and comfy.

Souvenirs from Miyajima. The spatula on the right was a gift from the Momiji-so Ryokan in Miyajima. Hubby just couldn't resist buying the 2 lucky charm for his fishing! I got a mini one for luck too :)

These are just some of the interesting items, the actual haul was ahem, more :p Haha.

Travel resources
Yutori No Kitchen - http://www.yutori.co.jp/en/about_harumi/index.html
Tokyu Hands - http://www.tokyu-hands.co.jp/en/
Sugi Yohoen - http://www.0038.co.jp/top/
Natural Kitchen - http://www.natural-kitchen.jp/
France-ya http://www.france-ya.co.jp/

Hiroshima/Miyajima Nov 2011 - Part V

2012-01-22T16:27:00.003+08:00

Continued from Parts I, II, III and IV.

After departing Miyajima, we took the tram bound for Hiroshima Station. Halfway through the journey we stopped by a fishing tackle store (which I spotted the previous day when we were heading towards Miyajima pier) for hubby to shop. After browsing around the store for more than an hour and purchased a rod that he has been looking for, we headed back to the tram station.

By the time we reached Hiroshima station and checked into Sheraton Hotel, it was already late afternoon. The room was big and luxe indeed.

Very comfy and cosy King-size bed.

Bathroom with all the amenities.

The bathroom is sort of open-concept.

Work area and flatscreen TV with cabinets that conceal fridge, crockery and cutlery, coffee/tea making facilities, wine, snacks and etc.

Wished I could linger in the room more but I was running out of time to shop!! LOL. So I left hubby in the room and went towards downtown Hiroshima for my shopping marathon. Only had time for Sogo Departmental Store and the connecting AQ'A; Loft (one of my must-visit shop in Japan) is located at Level 8 of AQ'A. Both stores are huge but close at 8pm.

Met hubby for dinner. Ate at a Tonkatsu restaurant at the top level of Sogo. Not sure if it was due to late hours (8+pm) or a weekday, the restaurants were all quite empty. Ordered a Curry Tonkatsu which was ok, but not the best that we've eaten.

After dinner, we went back to JR Hiroshima Station area, browsed at a bookstore and supermarket and then back to the hotel.

The next day, hubby had to go for his meetings already, whereas I had about 6hrs to short before catching the night flight back to Singapore.

Hubby set off for breakfast quite early whereas I lingered in the room, enjoying the scenery and comforts of the room. How I wish I could stay longer. In fact, I was so dumb for not staying for more days.

Lingered for a while more before heading out. The stores open at around 10-10.30am, so I reckoned I had time for breakfast and then a quick tour of A-Bomb Dome.

Had a ham and egg sandwich set breakfast at Cafe Doutor which is similar to Star Bucks/Coffee Bean. The sandwich was delish!

Then I took the tram to the Genbaku Dome-mae station which is near the Atomic Bomb Domb and Hiroshima Peace Memorial.

The whole area was peaceful and serene, with some groups of visitors taking photos.

After the short tour around the area, I headed back to the downtown shopping district where I started my crazy shopping marathon.

I was quite ambitious as I aimed to walk through all the major malls around the area, covering Mitsukoshi Department Store, Tenmaya Department Store, Fukuya Department Store, Parco Department Store as well as Shareo Underground Shopping Mall. Due to limited time, I merely browsed through the stores quickly, only stopping longer for shops that I was interested in, such as Laura Ashley and Watashi No Heya located at Mitsukoshi, Muji and Francfranc at Parco. At Muji, I found some toddler t-shirts on sale at half price, like 250 yen for a t-shirt! Didn't know what I was thinking, only bought a few pieces and totally regretted not buying more pieces to keep since it was such a bargain and the material of the t-shirts was good too. Till now, I still regretted terribly!

After covering the department stores, I went in search of a zakka cafe located off Hondori, called AIDA with Cafe. Quite easy to find as the downtown area of Hiroshima is planned in grids and not too complicated.

Ordered a Winter Special afternoon tea set (actually hadn't eat lunch yet but I was more keen in dessert) which was caramel chiffon cake with tea.

Love the decor of the cafe. The shop was divided between into 2 sections, cafe and zakka shop.

The Caramel Chiffon Cake came with a scoop of vanilla ice cream too. As I was quite hot from all the walking, got an iced earl grey.

The chiffon cake was really good! It was lightly toasted on the surface and dusted with some icing sugar and a light drizzle of caramel sauce. The cake was crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside, and was slightly warm which complimented perfectly with the cold ice-cream. Heavenly!

Didn't have much time to linger around too much, so after the tea, browsed around the zakka shop for a while before heading to the Shareo Underground Shopping Mall which is at the underground cross junction at Kamiya-Cho.

There are a number of zakka shops there too, like my favourite Afternoon Tea and Natural Kitchen.

Could only do very quick and brief shopping at the shops as I had to rush back to the hotel to pack my luggage already. Didn't even have time to shop at the JR ASSE which is just next to the hotel. There are a few zakka shops there which I wanted to check out but ran out of time! *sigh* why didn't I stay for just one more day?

Back in the hotel, I quickly packed my luggage and took a warm bath, just as hubby knocked off from work. We took the Airport Limousine Bus to Hiroshima Airport and had udon for dinner.

After the dinner, I bade hubby farewell and checked in. All the shops at the public area of the airport closed at 8pm and there was only 1-2 small shops at the departure lounge. Anyway, didn't have to wait for too long before boarding the domestic flight bound for Haneda Airport. Once again the flight took about an hour and half. Once I reached Haneda, I had to take a shuttle bus to transfer to the international terminal. Had planned to shop at the international terminal but unfortunately the shops closed (around 10pm) by the time I reached. Well, no choice I could only shopped at the departure lounge . Found my favourite Yojiya yuzu lipbalm at one of the DFS shop, and managed to spend all my yen!! Heehee...

The flight back home was uneventful, couldn't really sleep well as usual. Upon touched down at 6am, I went home for a quick wash-up and had to go fetch dear son from his grandma's place already :(((

So this ended my short 4D3N trip to Hiroshima and Miyajima. Next and final entry, I will share some of my haul :p Stay tuned!

Travel resources
Aida with Cafe http://www.aida-inc.com/shop/hiroshima_naka.html
Francfranc http://www.francfranc.com/
Afternoon Tea http://www.afternoon-tea.net/pc/
Muji http://www.muji.net/
Natural Kitchen http://www.natural-kitchen.jp/
Sheraton Hiroshima Hotel http://www.starwoodhotels.com/sheraton/property/overview/index.html?propertyID=3595

Hiroshima/Miyajima Nov 2011 - Part IV

2012-01-18T09:16:00.003+08:00

Continued from Part I, II and III.

After viewing sunset at the beautiful torii gate, we headed back to the Ryokan and found our room already laid with futon beds. Felt tempted to fall directly into the cosy futon but dinner was beckoning us :)

Dinner at Momiji-So was prepared by the old Granny who's over 70 years old. She's very proud of her culinary skills and went around the tables chatting with guests and insisted good naturedly we finished every item served even the garnishes.

For starters and appetizers, we had sashimi, vinegared prawns and scallops, spinach/carrot/radish in sesame dressing, pickled veg with konnyaku and seaweed/cucumber with eel. All were very refreshing and appetising and we couldn't wait to taste the main dishes!

Grilled prawn with sea salt. The prawn was huge, nicely grilled, very crunchy and juicy.

Even the rice was nicely cooked and served with toasted white sesame seeds. I wished I could have a second helping but stopped myself as I was controlling my carbo intake :p The pickles were also very tasty too!

Miso soup with oyster. Another way of cooking oyster; this cooking method enhanced the flavour of the oyster with miso.

Grilled beef and salad. The beef was juicy and succulent but I thought it was a tad too tough. The salad at the side was really refreshing with a citrius dressing.

Simmered sea bream in soy sauce. I love the fish, the sauce complimented the fish meat very well indeed. Some bits of lime zest were added to give the fish a tangy and refreshing taste too. The greens at the side was a type of Japanese pasley; initially I didn't eat it but old Granny said to try and true enough it helped cleanse the palate.

Dessert was cheese cake with pear and grapes. The cheese cake was smooth and creamy. The grapes was big and juicy, taste was very different from our usual grapes. You know those grape-flavoured candy? They tasted just like those. The pears were very juicy, crunchy and sweet :)

Although the meal was not extravagant like those kaiseki meals served at big Ryokans, a home-cooked meal prepared with love and pride by granny and her family was a more precious experience.

After dining, we just retired back to the room, enjoyed a soak in the hot bath, watched some TV and then fell asleep in the cosy futon.

The next morning, we woke up bright and early and proceeded for breakfast at around 8am.

There was buttered thick toast with strawberry jam, yogurt, coffee and orange juice. I love the thick toast, crispy on the outside yet fluffy when you bite into it. The yogurt was yummy too! Too bad it can't be found here! I don't normally drink coffee, but this coffee was really aromatic.

Smoked ham slad with citrius dressing, very refreshing.

I love this scrambled eggs!!! It was rich and creamy and tasted so good.

Vegetable soup to warm the stomach.

Some fruits for Vitamin C. I love the orange and pineapple.

After the hearty breakfast, we decided to take a stroll around the Ryokan and Momijidani Park.

It was quite chilly in the morning.

We saw water vapour coming out of the moss growing on the tree bark. It was as if the tree was letting off steam.

Many lovely waterfalls and streams around the park.

After the stroll, we headed back to the Ryokan, packed and lazed a bit before checking out.

Walked around the island and decided to visit the Miyajima Aquarium.

The sea lions were adorable, so were the kids who were wildly excited.

Soon, it was time for lunch again. We just popped one of the eatery near Omotesando Shopping Street.

My set lunch which came with soup, appetizers, deep fried breaded oyster, pickles and rice. Well, must try the different methods of cooking the oysters right?

Hubby ordered a soba and eel with rice set. Eel is also a specialty of Miyajima.

The weather was much better with clear blue skies but too bad we didn't have time to ascend Mount Misen again. It would have been beautiful with this perfect weather.

Once again, we bade farewell to the torii gate.

Walked through the shopping street and saw this particular stall selling Gratin Oyster.

Couldn't resist and ordered 2. Like I said we must try the different methods of cooking the oysters. Indeed, this was good too, surprisingly the cheese and creamy complemented the oyster very well.

Finally, we made our way to the pier and took the ferry back to mainland Hiroshima.

Travel Resource
Miyajima Public Aquarium http://www.miyajima-aqua.jp/

Dear son is TWO!!

2012-01-15T23:50:00.002+08:00

It's dear son's birthday today! No party this year unlike last year as we thought it's not necessary to hold parties every year. Instead we just planned a get-together meal at a restaurant with close family members. Since Chinese New Year is a week away, we also made use of this opportunity as a "pre-reunion" meal.

Was thinking that dining out would save us lots of time and effort, but itchy finger mummy decided to bake her son a birthday cake instead of buying one, and strawberry shortcake no less. It turned out to be a huge effort as it's my first time attempting a strawberry shortcake. The cake itself was rather easy to bake but layering and frosting the cake turned out to be a nightmare as it was so difficult to get a perfectly smooth surface no better how I tried to smoothen the chantilly cream. Oh well, will post about my strawberry shortcake attempt in another post. On top of this cake, I also baked 40 mini cupcakes for dear son's celebration in his CCC. Being a mummy is a tough job!

Anyway, now that he's officially into his terrible twos stage, we could already see some of the traits, such as screaming and whining whenever he demands something, and testing our patience all the time. He's turning into a cheeky and attention seeking fellow, making us laugh and mad at the same time. Really not sure how I can survive this upcoming year. The past year had already been challenging enough with him going from baby to toddlerhood, learning and growing fast each day. We'll take each day as it comes, I suppose.

Happy Birthday dear son, may you be healthy and happy every day (and stop screaming for mummy every single minute okay)?

Celebration with close family

Celebration at Childcare Centre

Hiroshima/Miyajima Nov 2011 - Part III

2012-01-13T12:42:00.000+08:00

Continued from Part I and II.

Here's the entrance to Mt. Misen Ropeway Station. Mt. Misen is the highest peak in Miyajima at 535m above sea level. It takes around 1.5-2hrs to reach the summit by foot, and along the hiking trails there are many beautiful and interesting natural rock structures.

We chose the easy way by taking the Miyajima Ropeway, which operates on 2 types of aerial rope systems. From Momijidani Station (starting point), a Circulating type of ropeway is used; the ride takes about 10 mins. Then at the transfer Kayatani Station, a Funicular type is used. The ride takes about 4 minutes to reach the Shishiiwa Station (ending point).

This is the Circulating type of ropeway. The gondolas are quite small, written on the notice that each can take up to 8 passengers but I think nowadays people getting bigger size so 6 passengers are already quite a squeeze :p (or maybe they mean 8 children, haha).

Nice scenic ride which took us 10 mins.

Then at Kayatani station, we had to change to the Funicular type of ropeway. This is a much bigger carriage taking up to 30 standing passengers. The ride was just a short 5 mins.

Here we were, the ending point Shishiiwa Station. It will take probably another 30 mins uphill hike to reach the summit.

Anyway, we just hanged around at the Shishiiwa Observatory area to enjoy the cool weather and lovely scenery. A pity that the weather was quite cloudy and misty, otherwise the view would even be more breathtaking. There's a little island in the distant which hubby and I named jokingly as the "Hershey's Island" as it looks like Hershey's Kisses chocolate. Don't you think so?

The cloudy and misty weather added a shroud of mystery to the islands and mountain.

Many oyster farms around the bay area.

There are several peep holes to help pinpoint and identify each island around the area.

It was time to check into our Ryokan, so we made our way back via the Ropeway once again and reached Momiji-so Ryokan which is located inside Momijidani Park. Momiji-So is very small family-run Ryokan with only 6 rooms. The ryokan also operates an eatery with alfresco dining. Imagine having a bowl of udon under the maple trees and enjoying the calm and serene surroundings of Momijidani Park? Cool!

We booked our room through Takamakura Online hotel reservation page which provides information about hotels in Miyajima, Iwakuni and Kurashiki in west Japan.

We were ushered to our room, which is very clean and well-kept. Very well maintained for a property that has been established since 1917!

There's a small balcony for guests to relax and enjoy the surroundings.

Very clean and modern washroom with deep bathtub.

After resting for a while, we decided to venture out again to the Omotesando Shopping Street for shopping and hang around till low tide and sunset at around 6.30pm.

So once again, we strolled through Momijidani Park, enjoying the serenity.

Close to 6pm, the sun started to set and the tide had already came in.

We loitered around the area admiring the sight as the sun set.

Decided to go into Itukushima Shrine (entrance fee required) 厳島神社 Itsukushima-jinja.

The shrine was designed and built on pier-like structures over the bay so that it would appear to be floating on the water, separate from the sacred island.

The O-torii Gate appears to be floating at high tide, and is in fact standing under its own weight and not embedded into the sea bed.

We stayed till almost dark before making our way back to the Ryokan, where dinner was awaiting for us!! To be continued...

Travel Resources
Miyajima Ropeway http://miyajima-ropeway.info/
Momiji-so through Takamakura Online hotel reservation website http://www.gambo-ad.com/english/hotel/index.php?ar=1&id=10

Hiroshima/Miyajima Nov 2011 - Part II

2012-01-10T11:30:00.000+08:00

Continued from Part I

Day 2 - to Miyajima 宮島!

We woke up early, packed our luggage and checked out by 9+. Then proceeded to Sheraton Hotel Hiroshima (hubby's corporate hotel for his work trip) to store our luggage there. Next, breakfast at Cafe Danmark which is just outside the JR Hiroshima Station and a stone's throw from Sheraton Hotel.

I love Japanese Bakery, all the breads look and taste good! We bought a ham and cheese toast and black sesame mayo egg sandwich. The breads were really soft and fluffy with generous amount of fillings.

After breakfast, it's time to proceed to Miyajimaguchi ferry pier. We bought the Miyajima Free Pass at ¥2000 (available at Hiroshima tram station) which included 2 days of unlimited Hiroshima tram rides, ferry rides to and fro Miyajima and Mt. Misen ropeway. Very worthwhile since 2-way ropeway already cost ¥1800 and 2-way ferry ¥300, couldn't remember how much tram ride cost. Downside was the tram ride from Hiroshima station to Miyajimaguchi station took more than an hour whereas a JR ride would take only 25 mins.

This was the ferry which could take vehicles into the island as well, but I guess not many people do that due to narrow roads and limited parking on the island.

The island's real name is Itsukushima (厳島), and Miyajima 宮島 is a popular nickname meaning "Shrine Island". The island is most famous for its giant torii gate, which at high tide seems to float on top of the water. The sight is ranked as one of Japan's three best views. The Itsukushima Shinto Shrine is also listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The ferry took just a short 10 min, and on board we could already see the bright red torii gate in the distant. It was quite a cloudy day though and we could see thick mist surrounding the mountains.

Miyajima Port. The island was crowded since it was a weekend, coupled with autumn season where beautiful autumn foliage can be viewed on the island and in the mountains.

Map of the island. Most attractions within walking distance between each other. There are several scenic hiking trails as well, very popular among the Japanese.

Deers roam freely on the island. Beware though as they love eating paper. I got a shock when a deer chased after me for a ticket that I put in the back pocket of my jeans. Well, he got the ticket and ate it, its was aggressive and won't let go!

What caught ~~hubby's~~ our attention were the numerous street vendors selling all kinds of snacks. As it was approaching lunch time, we decided to eat our way through the shopping street. Haha :p

First up was grilled squid with a sauce similar to teriyaki sauce. The squid was chewy with a slightly charred smell/taste, yummy! What a great way to start our exploration in Miyajima.

Next up, grilled oysters. It was a must-have since Miyajima/Hiroshima is famous for oysters. There are many oyster farms around the island as well as Hiroshima Bay and and winter is also the best season for oysters.

My my, the oysters were fat, juicy and extremely fresh!!! Naturally we had to have our fill of oysters these 2 days, simply had to ignore cholesterol level.

A sweet lady selling maple shaped fish cake, a specialty snack of the island.

There's cheese inside. Very bouncy and cheesy (no pun intended). Yummy!

Another must-try, Hiroshima Mikan (orange) Soft Cream (soft-serve ice-cream).

We got the Mikan and Vanilla one. The Mikan flavour was tangy and refreshing, and complemented with the creamy taste of vanilla flavour. Was even thinking of seconds :p

Yet another stall selling grilled fishcake, albeit longish ones.

Once again, very yummy with bits of octopus and spring onion.

Miyajima is also well-known for producing wooden spatulas. This is the World's largest spatula, placed along the shopping street Omotesando.

Shop with very cute mascots.

Oyster shops are aplenty on the island. This particular shop is very interesing with a black theme and a macho uncle grilling oysters all day long. Unfortunately we didn't try this store.

Shopping street has many shops selling the famous souvenirs of Miyajima, like wooden spatulas (use for cooking or lucky charm in different sizes with auspicious writing), Momiji-manju (cake in a maple leave shape with different types of fillings such as custard, red bean, chocolate), pickled Hiroshima leaves/vegetables, Kumano brushes (calligraphy, paint and make-up brushes).

Finally we reached the torii gate. It was low tide so many people walked on the sandy beach to get as close to the gate as possible to take photos.

Good opportunity to take a full frontal view of the Itsukushima Shrine during low tide.

Thereafter we headed towards Mt. Misen. Although hiking in autumn should be quite comfortable, we ~~were lazy~~ decided to maximise the usage of our Miyajima Free Pass :p It would like about 15 mins to get up to Mt. Misen, whereas 1-2 hrs if we were to hike up the scenic walking trail.

Here's a signage showing the way to the ropeway station. Found it quite comical for the translation, 7 mins to reach the station if run a little. Actually even 10 mins walk is understated as the trail cuts through Momijidani Park and slightly uphill, or maybe we just lacked the stamina. Haha.

Well actually it's because Momijidani Park is so beautifula and we took our own sweet time to admire the autumn foliage. It was our first time visiting Japan during autumn season, so far previous trips were either during spring or winter.

Just look at all the beautiful colours.

With the cool weather and breathtaking scenery, we lingered in the park for quite some time.

In fact over the 2 days, we walked around the park a few times as our Ryokan is located right in the middle of the park, enroute to Mt. Misen ropeway station.

Hubby even started collecting the maple leaves of different colours and sizes. Haha.

Shall end this post here with all the lovely pictures of Momijidani Park. Next post will be Mt. Misen and Torii Gate during sunset. Stay tuned.

Travel resources
Miyajima Tourist Association http://www.miyajima.or.jp/
Official website of Miyajima Tourism http://www.miyajima-wch.jp/

Hiroshima/Miyajima Nov 2011 - Part I

2012-01-04T12:00:00.000+08:00

Back in Nov 2011, hubby was supposed to go to Hiroshima on a work trip for one week. Since I've never been there before, decided to follow him. The plan was to reach two days earlier so that we could visit Miyajima 宮島, famous for the Itsukushima Shrine, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, located at the northwest of Hiroshima Bay. I would then stay for another night before heading back home first. In short, it was a 4D3N trip for me which I thoroughly enjoyed! Regrettably I should have stayed for the duration of hubby's work trip but oh well...

Have written this travel journal in 6 parts as I took too many photos, or rather there were so many things to share :p

Part I -- Arrival in Hiroshima

Part II -- Miyajima - Street food, Momijidani Park

Part III -- Miyajima - Mount Misen, Momiji-So (Ryokan), Itsukushima Shrine, Otorii Gate

Part IV -- Miyajima - Momiji-So Dinner and Breakfast

Part V -- Hiroshima A-Bomb Site, Shopping

Part IV -- The shopping loot

We took a red-eye flight (ANA) on Sat past midnight and reached Tokyo (Narita) Airport about 8.30am. From there, we took the Airport Limousine Bus to Haneda (Domestic) Airport (cost 3000 yen) for our transit flight to Hiroshima at 12noon.

The Haneda Domestic Terminal is quite small with a handful of eateries and souvenir shops. We walked around the shops and were dazzled by the variety of bento available. The beauty about domestic flights in Japan, travellers could bring their own bento on board the flight, and beverage service (green tea, water, juice) is provided free-of-charge.

I bought this box of Beef Onigiri, which was supposedly exclusive to Haneda Airport. I think hubby bought some Ikura Onigiri.

The onigiri was yummy, with flavourful chewy Japanese rice and tiny bits of matsusaka beef. Well, can't expect big slices of the beef since one box only cost about 600 yen right?

The flight took about 1hr30mins and there we were, Hiroshima Airport. From Hiroshima, we took the Airport Limousine Bus (1000 yen) to the JR Hiroshima Station.

Our first night of stay was Hotel Kawashima, located 5 mins away from the JR Hiroshima Station.

Our twin room, though small was very well contained with all the necessary amenities. Booked through the Japan Welcome Inn Reservation Centre at 9500 yen a night, which is considered reasonable for Japanese standard, given its proximity to the train and tram station.

After washing up, we decided to go for a quick bite as we were famished (the onigiri we had on board the flight was not enough :p). As it was drizzling and cold, we thought a bowl of ramen would be nice to warm our stomach.

We found this Onomichi Ramen shop at Level 2 of ASSE at the JR Hiroshima Station. Onomichi Ramen is apparently a local specialty from Onomichi Town near Hiroshima.

What's peculiar in this soy-based ramen was the gobs of lard floating around the bowl. I didn't know what it was initially until I bite a piece of the lard. Pretty similar to our chinese deep fried pork lard added to Bar Chor Mee (minced pork noodle), except this was not deep-fried. For fear of cholesterol, I ate only that one piece :p To balance the oily pork lard, lots of finely chopped spring onions were added to the soup as well.

Hubby and I also shared a Tori Karaage (deep-fried chicken) which was fried to perfect crisp on the outside with tender juicy meat inside.

After the late lunch, we decided to explore downtown Hiroshima where the main shopping district is. We took the tram, known as Hiroden 広電 (operated by Hiroshima Electric Railway), which is the main mode of local public transportation in Hiroshima, other than public buses. I think Hiroshima is one of the few prefectures still using tram as its main mode of transportation (rather than subway). Nonetheless, the whole system is very efficient and easy to use, and I do like the nostalgic feel the trams add to the city.

The tram stations are located in the middle of the street with very narrow platforms.

Each tram consists of mostly 2-3 cars. Quite surprised that the trams were not overly crowded even during peak hours, unlike in Tokyo or Osaka.

We alighted at the station (Kamiya-cho) nearest to Hondori, the covered shopping street at downtown Hiroshima, which is 15-18 mins away from the JR Hiroshima Station.

This is similar to Shinsaibashi in Osaka, where rows of shops selling all kinds of merchandise flanked the entire street, and quite crowded as well.

We took our pace to window-shop, enjoying the cool weather and vibe of the town, before heading to Tokyu Hands, one of my favourite shops in Japan :p

After about 1.5hrs at Tokyu Hands, it was dinner time so we headed to this nearby eatery for dinner.

As usual, we had to buy meal tickets from a vending machine (with food photos) which I thought is a very convenient way of taking orders, no worries about language barrier.

Ordered this dinner set consisting of rice, miso soup and 6 dishes of braised pumpkin, grilled saba, deep-fried potato with asparagus, potato salad, braised pork belly and cold tofu. Couldn't remember what the hubby ordered already. Anyway, it was yummy!

By the time we were done, most shops were already closed (about 8-8.30pm). So we took the tram back to the JR Hiroshima Station, walked around the supermarket (close at around 9.30pm) for a while before going back to the hotel for a good night rest.

Travel Resource
Hotel Kawashima http://hotel-kawashima.com/
Welcome Inn Reservation Centre http://www.itcj.jp/eng/634013

2011 - Life as a SAHM. 2012 - Looking forward to something...

2012-01-01T17:30:00.000+08:00

Happy New Year! Goodbye 2011 and Hello 2012 :)

Another year has gone and it's unbelievable that I have been a SAHM for 2 years already. Life as a SAHM is not all rosy and sweet that many thought. I'm not a tai tai ok, I clean, I wash, I cook and I have to face an active and clingy toddler all day long. In fact I feel it's tougher than working life, so I really salute the full time working mums. In a nutshell, year 2011 was all about daily routine of managing the household and taking care of the little one. To make life more ~~bearable~~ pleasurable (you know, work-life balance), I tried injecting more personal activities like baking, cooking, travelling, blogging... and these were the things that helped keep my sanity for the past year :p

My Little Rascal

Can't believe that he's turning 2 in 2 weeks' time. Then again, it also seemed to be a long long year probably coz I faced him all day long. I remember his very first high fever immediately after his first birthday celebration. It was a terrible ordeal for hubby and I since we didn't have experience. I think we went KKH Children's Emergency 2 times and spent 5-6 hours there. Dear son's fever lasted for almost 4-5 days and it took more than a week before he recovered and that week seemed like eternity.

Anyway, he started walking quite steadily from 12-13 month onwards and all the more I had to keep an eye on every minute. He also became more assertive of his needs and demanded my full attention on him constantly. It got tougher to find activities to engage him all day at home so I began bringing him to parent-accompanied playgroups and kids' gyms. But bringing him out daily was also challenging and tiring, and I couldn't do much chores or cooking properly.

It got to a point where I couldn't handle anymore so decided to enroll him in a half-day Child Care Centre when he was about 17 month old. I thought it was also good for him to start learning independence and engage in communal/social activities. Most of the CCC around my area were running full capacity but managed to find one which was further away. The CCC is located 10 minutes away from hubby's workplace so it's quite convenient to send him in the mornings on his way to work. But slightly inconvenient for me to fetch him as I have to take 2 buses to fetch him at noon time. Well, it was better than nothing, at least I could have a few hours in the morning to complete chores and cook. By the time he was 21 month old, he started on school bus home so things became so much easier for me nowadays :)

Well, he's now "officially" into the terrible twos age, I wonder what challenges would there be in this coming year and I hope that I could muster the courage and have more patience to deal with more upcoming tantrums.

Travel/Diving

I'm so glad that we managed more overseas trips in year 2011 =D Being wanderlusts, hubby and I need constant renewal of energy through getaways! We brought dear son to Koh Samui, Genting Highlands, Melaka and KL; also did family trips to Cameron Highlands and Pulau Redang. Best part, just the 2 of us to Bangkok, Tokyo (to attend a wedding), Hong Kong/Macau (with a group of friends), Maldives (our 9th anniversary) and Hiroshima/Miyajima (extension of hubby's worktrip, post upcoming!). So yep, I'm happy! For diving, unfortunately we only managed a few dives in P. Redang and Maldives.

I sincerely hope that I could travel more in year 2012 :p We already have plans for Bangkok, Phuket and Hokkaido (10th anniversary), and probably a dive trip to Manado/Lembeh Straits in the Philippines.

Cooking/Baking/Workshops

Cooking is now a daily affair since it's more healthy for dear son, which also means that it was a challenge devising a weekly menu suitable for the whole family. It was tougher in the first half of the year since I had to cook separate meals for dear son as our food was still not suitable for him. Things got easier after he turned 18 month old, I began adapting our dishes to suit him mostly. Which means more soups and steamed dishes and less spicy or fried food whenever possible. I also acquired more cooking books/recipes naturally :p Some experiments can be found under my food-homecook posts.

I also baked more, and a lot of times were just simple recipes that were suitable for toddlers. Baking continued to be a form of therapy for me, and somehow I found that I became more efficient these days, probably due to experience gained over the past few years :) Some examples can be found under my Baking posts.

Managed to attend a few Baking and Cooking Workshops, but I was more selective since I didn't have the luxury of time.

I guess I would be continuing to cook in 2012, and probably would need to spend more effort in coming up with different menus since dear son is becoming quite a discerning eater. As for baking, definitely I want to bake more, I have a long list of to-bake recipes to complete!

Blogging

Glad that I managed more posts in 2011, than the previous 2 years. So hope that I could keep up with momentum and pace. Have also changed my blogskin recently and there are some pages I have in mind to update like my travel, spa, recipe lists... yep gonna find that to complete the task in 2012.

Looking ahead

So what does 2012 entail? Well, we are looking for a new place and really hope that we can make a move within these 2 years. And if we manage to settle, I would probably look for a part-time or contract job and then convert dear son to full day CC.

2012, may be a year of change and hopefully change for the better.

Festive Treats 2011 - Chewy Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

2011-12-28T09:00:00.000+08:00

It's time of the year for my JC friends annual year-end celebration once again. We used to exchange gifts among ourselves, but nowadays we focused on getting gifts for the kids instead. Nevertheless I still wish to bake something for my dear friends; last year I baked Carrot & Walnut cupcakes. This year, I had many ideas like macarons and cake pops... but in the end settled for a Salted Chocolate Chip Cookie which is more manageable than macarons and cake pops (after considering the tight schedule; I still had to bake a Sticky Date Toffee Pudding, and Lychee Rose Cupcakes). Moreover, ever since I baked my first salted choc chip cookie, I was obsessed with it.

I first came across this idea of topping sea salt on chocolate chip cookies from Delicious Day's blog. I do like salted caramel treats so I thought this would be a worthy recipe to try. And try I did. Her recipe is slightly different from the usual, bread flour is used and butter is first browned before adding to the batter. The result was a very fragrant and scrumptious cookie. I love how the sea salt hit you subtly amidst the sweetness of the chocolate chip. I tried looking for fleur de sel but couldn't find so had to settle for Maldon Sea Salt flakes which is already quite a good quality sea salt.

I mentioned in the previous post that I adore ice-cream scoop as a baking tool now. Yep, besides cupcakes, I love using the scoop for drop cookies. How else could I get uniform sizes of dough neatly onto the baking sheet? To get small size cookies, I actually searched high and low for an extra small ice-cream scoop and finally found a 32mm size one at Tott. The ice-cream scoop I have at home is 44mm by the way. Yes, I only own 2 scoops in case you'd think I own a dozen :p I'm considering for an even smaller size ice-cream scoop as these cookies (using 32mm scoop) spreaded to about 5cm in diameter after baking which is still too big for my liking. Saw a 25mm size one on Amazon and still considering whether to buy :p

For this batch of giveaways, I adapted Chef Joycelyn's Classic Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that I learnt in her class two years ago. I baked them for a shorter duration to get the chewy texture which I like! Couldn't stop pigging on the cookies :p

Chewy Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies (makes 62 pcs using 32mm ice-cream scoop)

Ingredients
210g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp fine salt
120g unsalted butter, softened
150g dark brown sugar
50g caster sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
240g chocolate chip/Valrhona Perles
Maldon sea salt flakes or Fleur De Sel
Method
Preheat oven to 170 degree celsius.
Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.
Cream butter and both sugars in a mixing bowl until well blended, stopping to scrap down the bowl as necessary.
Add egg and vanilla extract, the batter will look curdled.
Add flour mixture in three additions, mixing until just combined.
Add chocolate chips/baking perles using a spatula, until evenly distributed.
Clingwrap the bowl of dough and refrigerate at least 30 mins. *If chilled overnight, thaw the dough for 15 mins before use.
Using a 32mm ice-cream scoop (for uniform size) or two teaspoons, scoop up balls of dough and space them apart from each other (as the dough will spread) on baking trays lined with non-stick baking parchment or Silpat mats. Keep remaining dough in fridge.
Sprinkle sea salt flakes according to preference over the balls of dough.
Bake the dough for 13 mins (to get a soft and chewy texture of cookie).
Repeat steps 8 to 10 for the remaining dough.

Although I already reduced the sugar by as much as 100g in total, I still found the cookies quite sweet, probably due to the baking perles. Probably would reduce the sugar even further next time.

As for the packaging, initially I wanted to get glass jars from Daiso but couldn't find the time to make a trip there. Then I thought of small round plastic containers but those could only hold four cookies per container (I'm packing six each). After digging my cupboards, I found that I still have a pack of clear plastic bag as well as some cute sticker labels. Viola! Here they are. I wanted to write "Chewy Salted Choc Chip Cookies" but realised after writing two labels that I wrote as "...chocolate cookies" missing the chip. Oh well. Anyway, hope that my friends would like those cookies as much as I do.

Lychee Rose Cupcakes

2011-12-25T17:59:00.000+08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

Hubby and I had a really peaceful, silent night on Christmas eve and a quiet Christmas Day =D (as we left dear son with his grandma over the weekend). Our family isn't big on Christmas so no celebrations or anything, just enjoying the much-appreciated me-time to indulge in our own favourite activities. Before dear son came along, we would be having a winter holiday somewhere around the world. Oh well...

I spent the whole of today baking, and wrapping presents for a gathering with my long-time JC friends tomorrow. Really looking forward it. Will talk about the baked treats I prepared for this year's gathering in the next post :)

First up is this Lychee Rose Cupcake that I've KIV-ed for a long time and finally got down to baking it last week. Today is my second time, fine-tuning the recipe based on my first attempt. When I first saw the recipe from Evan's blog, I was really intrigued by the pretty pink hue of the cake, but was hesitant as the measurements are given in cups (too used to grams), the use of self-raising flour (seldom use), rose syrup (our family doesn't drink cordial and 1 large bottle is really a lot albeit the small quantity used in the recipe) as well as rose water (hardly use too).

I had to convert the measurements painstakingly into grams which was a little confusing as there are many types of conversion tables on the internet. Also invested in a bottle of Rose Brand (the glass bottle one) Rose Syrup and Nielsen-Massey Rose Water. I guess I can make rose syrup drink or even bandung drink from time to time now, and attempt recipes that use rose water more often now. Evan's recipe yields 24 regular sized cupcakes which are too many for me, therefore I also cut the recipe by half. In addition, I also reduced the amount of sugar further since lychee inside the cupcake is already quite sweet.

During my first attempt, I added too much batter into the cupcake holder and the batter overflowed, this time, I managed the proportion quite well and the cupcake rose into a beautiful dome. I only had to trim a little of the top so that my frosting can sit nicely. For the frosting, I simply whipped some unsalted butter, cream cheese, icing sugar, rose syrup and rose water (without rasberry puree or jam as suggested).

On a separate note, I totally adore using ice-cream scoop to scoop batter into the cupcake holders. Previously, I used a spoon and spatula but it could get a little messy; with the use of an ice-cream scoop, I just scoop and click, absolutely fuss-free. Yeah! Now I understand why Chef Joycelyn loves using ice-cream scoops (she mentioned before in her class that she owned many different sizes of scoops). What I don't understand is, why does a stainless steel ice-cream scoop cost so much, about $23? Wow. Whatever, it's one of the baking essentials like Microplane, Silpat that I have to have :p

Lychee Rose Cupcakes (makes 12 regular size cupcakes)

Ingredients
94g self raising flour
62.5g plain flour
12.5g ground almond
125g unsalted butter, slightly softened at room temperature
120g caster sugar
2 large eggs
48g fresh milk
30g rose syrup water (10g rose syrup, 20g water)
1 tsp rose water
12 pcs canned lychees (cut lychees into half if the lychees are big)
Frosting: 35g unsalted butter, 135g cream cheese, 40g icing sugar, 1 tsp rose syrup, 1/2 tsp rose water
Steps
Preheat oven at 170 degree celsius.
Rinse 12 pcs of lychees, pat dry with kitchen towel and set aside. *I use 6pcs and halved them as the lychees I got are big. It's advisable to dry the lychees so that the cake doesn't turn soggy.
Sieve self-raising flour with plain flour, then mix well with ground almond and set aside.
Beat butter and sugar using a mixer until light and fluffy, add eggs one at a time and mix until combined.
Add flour mixture in 3 additions, alternating between milk and rose syrup water. Fold in batter until just combined, do not overmix.
Scoop 1/3 batter into cupcake holder, top with lychee and pour in another 1/3 batter (total height should come up to slightly less than 3/4 of holder).
Bake the cupcakes for 20-25mins, until skewer inserted comes out clean. Set aside to cool completely.
Whip unsalted butter, cream cheese till light, then add icing sugar, rose syrup and rose water, and mix till creamy and fluffy.
Shave top of cupcake (if necessary) and pipe frosting onto cupcake as desired.

Taste-wise, I thought the combination of lychee and rose is a matchmade in heaven, and the aroma is really intoxicating. The cake is tender and moist, complemented by a juicy lychee innard. Yums!

These cupcakes are made for a group of texas poker friends that hubby is meeting tonight. Hope they will like it :)

Macau-Hong Kong Sep 2011 - Part II

2011-12-20T11:30:00.000+08:00

Continued from here.

Couldn't remember how long the ferry journey took, all of us were concussed :p Anyway, upon reaching Hong Kong island, we took the subway to Causeway Bay station where our hotel, Holiday Inn Express is located. It was too early to check-in, so after leaving our luggage at the hotel, we went to a nearby eatery for our late lunch.

My char siew and prok dumpling noodles. Not bad, char siew tender, and dumplings juicy. The noodles were those HK-style chewy type but I found them a bit dry.

The century egg was so good that we ordered seconds. The egg was very fragrant and the yolk slightly mushy.

Deep fried dumplings. These little buggers were good! Crispy on the outside and juicy inside. Was perfect with a special sweet chilli sauce provided.

As usual, some veggies. The kailan was fresh and crunchy. Somehow, the veggies in Hong Kong all look fresh and plump and tasted very sweet and crunchy.

After lunch, all of us went separate ways for shopping. Hubby and I went to the seafood delicacies street 海产街 to pick up some sea cucumber, black fungus as well as some Lap Cheong (chinese sausage).

Overwhelmed by the different types of Lap Cheong available. Decided to buy a few of each type.

Then we went back to Holiday Inn Express and met our friends for some desserts. This dessert shop at level one of Holiday Inn Express is apparently very famous for the desserts and usually there would be long queues.

I ordered a bowl of mango pomelo with sago. Not bad, quite smooth and creamy with sweet bits of mango, tangy pomelo and sago.

After our dessert, we finally checked into our room. Holiday Inn Express is basically a no-frills budget hotel but we were pretty impressed by the quality.

After resting and washing up, we headed out (yet again) for dinner :p

Our dinner place is highly recommended by our friends' friends (who are staying in Hong Kong for work) who brought us to Tung Po Restaurant located on level three of a hawker centre near North Point 北角station. This restaurant turned out to be the best of the best food that we had eaten for this trip. Till now, we still missed this place dearly and hope to return one day :)

Reservation is strongly recommended especially for weekends. As you can see, the place was very crowded and I really like the boisterous atmosphere where people dine, chat and yum seng without care.

Steamed Mantis Shrimp 濑尿虾. This is considered a delicacy in Hong Kong.

The meat was very juicy, sweet, succulent and firm. So much nicer than lobster!

Squid ink noodles with squid balls. This was actually quite tasty, especially the bouncy sotong balls but I ate only a bit for fear that my whole mouth and tongue would turn black. LOL.

Steamed clams in chinese wine. These were nice, despite their small sizes, very juicy and chewy with hints of alcohol.

Stir-fried morning glory with nam yee. Likewise the veggies very fresh and I love the special nam yee sauce.

Oh!!!! This deep-fried abalone was sooooo yummy! I thought that it would be tough and hard to chew but I was wrong! The skin was slightly crispy with perfectly tender and juice meat. Wish I could have more! This would be a dish that I would order again next time I go back.

Deep-fried river fish. Another nice dish, with a perfectly crispy batter and tender fish meat. Tossed with some spicy pepper salt which gave a very nice kick to the tastebud.

Roasted chicken with garlic. This was yummy! Perfectly roasted meat with paper thin crispy skin topped with bits of fried garlic. The chicken meat was tender and juicy.

Steamed bamboo clams with garlic and spring onions. The clams were very fresh and chewy. But the star who stole its show was a different rendition, making this dish paled in comparison.

Stir-fried bamboo clams in spicy bean sauce. Wow, this was so much better than the steamed version. I mean, the steamed version was already very tasty but this, was a notch better with the compliments of the spicy bean sauce.

Although we were literally bursting at the seams, we just couldn't resist this steamed rice in lotus leaf. I could smell the fragrant of the lotus leaf the second it was opened. The rice absorbed the flavours of the chicken, mushroom and lap cheong, and was so soft and fluffy. It gave a warm and fuzzy feeling, and even though I was so full, I had 2 bowls of this! Such gluttony but I just couldn't help it :p And the meal wasn't very expensive, I think S$20-30 per person, well worth it for such quality food and cooking.

If there's a reason to go back to Hong Kong again soon, it has to be this restaurant! As we left, we saw other tables ordered deep-fried pig's trotters and vowed to try it the next time.

After dinner, we went back to the hotel to rest and wash up and then went to a nearby spa for some foot and shoulder massage.

Totally knocked out as the therapist soothed our tired muscles. Thereafter, headed back to the hotel and promptly KO-ed.

The next morning, all of us woke up late and went to a nearby restaurant for dim sum brunch. Please don't be shocked by the following photos. We really ordered a lot of food for just five of us. Confession: we ordered more food than what was pictured (too embarassed to declare LOL).

We thought the quality was so-so only, as our tastebuds were already quite jaded from the past two days of feasting. After the brunch, we went for some last minute shopping before heading to the airport to catch our flight home.

Overall, it was a very intensive and sinful (imagine the amount of calories and cholestrol we piled on) trip but truly enjoyable!

Resources:
Holiday Inn Express Causeway Bay Hong Kong http://www.hiexpress.com/hotels/us/en/hong-kong/hkgcw/hoteldetail
Tung Po Sea Food Restaurant - 99 Java Road, North Point (2/F Java Road Cooked Food Centre)

Macau-Hong Kong Sep 2011 - Part I

2011-12-18T16:21:00.000+08:00

Hubby and I went on an intensive 3D2N trip with a few Uni friends to Macau and Hong Kong back in Sep. It was basically a EAT and ~~GAMBLE~~ PLAY trip, and unfortunately we didn't shop much due to time constraint. Food was indeed the highlight and we went to many makan places that were really impressionable. So I'm going to focus a lot on food for this update with lots of yummy-looking photos to whet your appetite :p

We took an early morning flight via Tigerair and reached Macau in the late morning. Our friends actually departed a day ahead of us and so we took a free shuttle bus to meet them at the hotel. As it was still too early for us to check-in, we decided to head off to Rua Do Chunha 官也街 for lunch. It was also a little early for lunch, so we walked around and went into a little cafe for some luncheon meat and egg sandwiches 餐蛋治. Oooh, I love luncheon meat and egg sandwiches from HK, they are just so yummy! Forgot to take photos in my frenzy to gooble down the sandwiches.

Finally we headed to Seng Cheong Restaurant which was recommended by hubby's cousin. Apparently the specialty here is Crab Porridge. Sounds decadent already ya?

Deep-fried calamari. The calamari was fried to a perfect crisp and tasted so good with its chewy (not tough) texture. The dipping sauce was a little salty and sour, great combination!

Some veggies for a balanced meal. Stir-fried broccoli with baby clams. Nicely cooked too with a delicious sauce.

Here's the highlight, Crab Porridge. What can I say? The porridge tasted so sweet and fresh! Must be hours of slow cooking with the broth of chicken/pork with crab? It was so yummy that I had 2 bowls.

Steamed river eel in fermented bean and chilli. The eel looked menacing, I thought it would taste a little fishy but surprisingly not. Probably due to the use of fermented bean and chilli. The meat was quite tender as well. Not too bad.

Stir-fried spicy chicken. This was good, chicken meat was really tender and the sauce was tantalising.

After the satisfying lunch, we went casino-hopping and finally settled down at Wynn for Texas Hold'em Poker. Couldn't remember how long we played at the table, but by the time we realised, it was already past 8pm and we hadn't even checked in yet. Haha.

We decided to go for dinner first at a nearby restaurant, which served quite good food. We concluded that most restaurants in Macau/Hong Kong serve reasonably good food.

Stir-fried Kailan with garlic. Juicy and crunchy, nice.

Soothing and nourishing soup. Hong Kong/Macau people are really expert in boiling soup.

Shark's Fin broth with rice 鱼翅捞饭. The shark's fin broth was served in a hot stone bowl, we were supposed to pour the broth over rice for this. The broth was rich and went well with rice indeed.

Hong Kong/Macau is famous for its roast meats and so we simply had to try. The duck meat was juicy, tender and succulent. Thumbs up.

Seafood delicacies 包罗万有. A hot stone bowl full of seafood like scallops, abalone, sea cucumber and etc. Such decadence but actually not very ex.

We were greedy after whacking the duck meat and ordered some roast pork and char siew. The char siew was very nice, sweet and juicy. The roast pork was crispy but a tad too saltish.

Finally after the sumptious dinner, we headed back to our hotel, Hard Rock Hotel Macau to check in. But after washing up, we went back to Wynn Casino for more Texas Poker. Haha. Yes, we were crazy as it was already close to midnight. Well, since we were leaving for Hong Kong island the next day, we just had to maximise our time!

The deluxe room at Hard Rock Hotel was really spacious and well-appointed.

Such a pity that we spent so little time in the room. While the hotel is nice, it's located at the City of Dreams at Cotai, whereas our preferred casino is Wynn at the main Macau island. Probably next time we will stay directly at Wynn instead of having to travel a long distance between the hotel and casino.

We played till about 3-4am until almost KO. Headed back to the hotel and slept till late morning for check-out.

After check-out, we took a free shuttle bus to the ferry terminal bound for Hong Kong - our next leg of the trip. Had these scrumptious Portuguese egg tarts for brunch on board the ferry :p

The next post, I'll cover the Hong Kong leg of the trip, which was basically FOOD, FOOD and more FOOD. LOL :p Stay tuned!

Grilled Salmon with Potato Salad

2011-12-10T13:31:00.000+08:00

There was a period of time (when I was still breastfeeding) where I had salmon once or twice a week, until I was totally sick of it. Nowadays, I hardly touched salmon as I still had this phobia of over-dosage.

Recently I came across a recipe in I-Weekly which featured Grilled Salmon with Potato Salad which was slightly different from how I used to prepare salmon. Basically the mashed potato salad was spreaded on top of a slab of pre-panfried salmon and then grilled. Well, I thought, why not give it a try? The recipe included sides/garnishes like deep-fried lotus root and broccoli but I just substituted with baby spinach and grilled cherry tomatoes. The dish turned out to be quite yummy; the grilled potato salad was a nice twist which was crispy on the surface and creamy on the inside. Not bad at all, I guess I could make this as my lunch once in a while.

Grilled Salmon with Potato Salad (serves 1-2)

Ingredients
2 pc salmon (about 70g each)
1 pc white onion
100g russet potato, peeled
1 pc hard boil egg, separated into egg white and egg yolk
1/4 pc red paprika (I omitted)
30g mayonnaise
10ml olive oil
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
seaweed powder (to taste, I substituted with mixed herbs)
Sides/Garnishes like broccoli, baby spinach, cherry tomatoes
Method
Preheat oven to 200 degree celsius.
Chop up boiled egg white and dice onion finely.
Boil potato till soft and mash. Place in big bowl.
Mix mashed potato with egg yolk, egg white, mayonnaise, onions, olive oil, salt and pepper.
Wash salmon and pat dry with kitchen towel. Marinate salmon with salt and pepper.
Pan fry salmon in a pan till slightly brown then place on a baking tray with aluminium foil.
Spread the mashed potato salad onto the salmon.
Grill salmon in oven at 200 degree celsius for 8-10 mins till golden brown. Sprinkle with seaweed powder or mixed herbs and garnish with cherry tomatoes, baby spinach etc. Serve hot.

Chicken and Potato Curry Puff

2011-12-08T19:48:00.000+08:00

I hereby declare this was my last attempt on curry puff/puff pastry (or until I could get a new house with dry kitchen that has A/C - yeah dream on I know). Making puff pastry in our hot and humid weather is just impossible!

During my previous attempt which was 2 years back, I already knew how tough it was to handle the rough puff pastry which threatened to melt just seconds out from the chiller, but my itchy fingers decided to try an updated recipe by Chef Christopher. Preparing and frying the potato and chicken curry from scratch took much effort as well. In the end, I reckoned it was easier to buy curry puff than to make them. Period.

Steamed Flax Seed Milk Flower Rolls

2011-12-06T22:14:00.000+08:00

The other day, I came across this Steamed Flax Seed Milk Flower Rolls recipe by Wendy of Table For 2, and decided to have a go at it as I have a bottle of ground flax seed sitting in my fridge for some time now. I bought it for dear son to add in his cereal but it's taking forever to finish.

Armed with techniques learnt from Chef Valerie's Pau Workshop and experience gained from my previous attempt on Homemade Pau, it was quite a smooth process; moreover Wendy provided a very comprehensive step-by-step pictorial guide on how to roll and twist the dough into beautiful flower shapes. More practise needed though as I just couldn't twist the rolls nicely enough like Wendy's.

I love the aroma of the steamed rolls which were really fragrant with the addition of flax seed and milk. But somehow the rolls didn't turn out as fluffy as Wendy's. Hers had light and fluffy strands but mine didn't. The rolls tasted nice when hot/warm but turned hard when cold. Luckily dear son and hubby still found them edible. I guess I need more practise then. Fret not as I still have half a bottle of ground flax seed :)

9th Anniversary Celebration - Maldives August 2011 Part V

2011-11-29T22:48:00.000+08:00

Continued from Introduction, Male, Seaplane Transfer and Land/Seascape, Accommodation and Food.

Activities - Spa & Diving

There are many activities available around the island offered by the Dive Centre and Water Sports Centre, such as diving, Big Game Fishing, Sunset Fishing, Champagne Cruise, Dolphin Sunset Cruise, visit to local villages, canoeing, snorkelling, windsurfing etc. Most of these activities are chargeable and quite costly I would say. There's also a Recreation Centre which offers free book and DVD rentals, darts, table tennis; as well as a spa.
While hubby was very tempted to try sunset fishing, the less than desirable weather conditions held him back. In the end, we only did a spa treatment and 3 dives.

The Spa, open daily from 1000hrs to 2200hrs.

We made a booking a day in advance as spa treatments were rather popular especially when the weather was bad rendering outdoor activities unsuitable.

Main entrance to the spa.

Walk through a tranquil garden and pond before reaching the spa reception.

We were served hot herbal tea and cold towel upon arrival. Was also required to complete a personal particular and healthy declaration form, which is the practise for all spas.

Thereafter, we were led by our therapists to our private couple spa treatment room.

The room is surprisingly very simply decorated. I chose Balinese Massage, and hence an elevated spa bed.

Hubby opted for his favourite Thai Massage. Apparently, his therapist is from Thailand.

Some bath salt for a foot scrub first.

Both of us had a heavenly time with our massages; the therapists were quite skilful and kneaded our muscle aches away. After that, we were brought to the relaxation lounge for some cold herbal tea.

So overall, we were quite satisfied with the service and quality of the massages. But once again prices were not cheap.

Dive Centre, open daily from 0830hrs to 1800hrs.

We were really looking forward to diving in Maldives since the atolls are so beautiful, so would expect a large array of sea creatures for us to explore.

It was already too late to do a check out dive (mandatory) when we arrived on the first day so we had to settle for the check out dive at the House Reef on the second day and 2 boat dives on the third day.

The dive centre is the large building to the left; the buildings on the right are the seaplane platforms and excursion platforms.

There are around 6-7 divermasters, with 2 Chinese ladies and 1 Japanese lady.

Overall the Dive Centre is very well kept with well maintained equipment. This is the back area for washing up and briefing before the check out dive.

This is the platform for descent.

A dive map of Noonu Atoll.

Our dive boat on the third day. There was only one other guy who joined us for the diving. So one DM (Jessica the Jap lady) to three divers.

1st Dive - House Reef

The House Reef is located slightly away from the Dive Centre, we had to swim along an anchored rope out towards a slope, then the sandy bottom about 20m depth. Some interesting corals well surviving with lots of reef fishes. Here we spotted a large stingray which is probably about 2+m in length and 1.2m in width. Other sightings included Dog Puffer, Yellow Box Puffer, not too bad.

2nd Dive - Kan'doodhoo, which is about 30 min away from the island.

This is an interesting wall dive with several overhangs. Spotted large moray, lion fish, shrimps, a few nudibranch, with lots of beautiful sea fans. Unfortunately the visibility was only about 10-15m, otherwise we reckon it would be even nicer.

3rd Diver - Snow White, 15 mins away from Kan'doodhoo.

Jessica told us this is mainly a reef site, but there's an interesting cleaning station for mantas, so I was pretty excited. Overall very boring site with nothing much or new to see, worst the visibility wasn't good. Somehow, we also didn't go to the cleaning station she mentioned.

In the end, both hubby and I were pretty disappointed with the diving. The Chinese DM told us not to expect something like Sipadan where we could see many different sea creatures in one site. Yeah, I was expecting sea turtles everywhere just like Sipadan but I guess I was wrong. They did arrange a dive to Shark Point (on our fourth day) which promises lots of shark action but we decided to skip it.

Ok, this final post concluded our trip to Maldives. The location itself was lovely just slightly marred by some service lapse. Would we return again? Unlikely... maybe 10 years later? But whatever it is, certainly not Hilton Iru Fushi. I mean, not that we were still sore over the incident but there are so many properties in Maldives that we could try. Next time for sure, no seaplane anymore. We were contemplating on Velassaru or Baros (nearer to Male, only speedboat required) previously. So maybe, just maybe, 10 years later.

Here's a parting photo, with yours truly in front of the airbus :) To me, it's rare to be able to board an airbus on ground so must take photo lah. Haha.

9th Anniversary Celebration - Maldives August 2011 Part IV

2011-11-27T13:33:00.000+08:00

Continued from Introduction, Male, Seaplane Transfer and Land/Seascape and Accommodation.

Food at Hilton Iru Fushi

There are 10 Restaurants and Bars on Hilton Iru Fushi and in addition In-Villa Dining as well as Destination Dining. For our travel package, we opted for only breakfast inclusive. There's half board meal plan available but the price wasn't attractive and usually limited to the main restaurant and buffet only. We thought that it would be more interesting to try different restaurants on the island, and we weren't keen in buffets either.

Food and beverage is certainly not cheap on the island, as many travellers have forewarned. A bowl of ramen noodles could easily cost more than USD20. Understandably so since everything had to be imported. We spent USD60 to 200 for each meal, depending on what we ordered. Some food portions were quite big so for those with small appetite, sharing a main and sides could be an option. Anyway since we were on holiday, no point being too calculative.

One very important note though, due to limited capacity, it's advisable to make reservations one day ahead or at least early in the morning. Somehow, the restaurants were always fully booked and we had some trouble getting the restaurants and timeslots we wanted. The phone reservation staff wasn't very helpful and everytime we called, either no one picked up and we were asked to call another number. It was only towards the second last day that we realised there is actually a restaurant reservation counter at the main restaurant where we had breakfast. Our host didn't inform us about such a service during our check-in :(

Anyways, here's sharing some of the restaurants and food we had.

Bamboo is an Asian-style light fare on the deck featuring moodles, dim sum, sushi and sashimi; open for lunch and dinner. We had two meals here, dinner on the last night and lunch on the third day.

A very small restaurant with open concept kitchen. When weather permits, alfresco seating available.

During our first night, we walked-in for dinner at 5.30pm as we were famished but the restaurant won't open till 6pm. They really had a strict policy about opening hours! So we requested for reservation and were told that the restaurant was fully booked till 8pm! We had no choice but to go back to our villa first as all restaurants won't open till 6pm anyway. Two other places we wanted were also fully booked; we didn't want buffet nor in-villa dining. Hence decided to call Bamboo to try our luck, since there was a thunderstorm and other guests may probably delay going out :p As predicted, we could go in at 6.30pm! It's quite pathetic such situations could happen as we were the paying guests!

Anyways, we ordered a small sushi and sashimi platter for sharing. The sashimi was quite fresh.

Since it was raining, I opted for a hot bowl of chicken ramen to warm my tummy. The serving was huge. Taste-wise it was definitely not the authentic Jap ramen, but the broth was still not bad.

Hubby had a bowl of Chow Mein (Hong Kong style fried noodles), which I think he didn't like it very much. Haha.

Hubby ordered a sticky rice and mango dessert, whereas I had a bowl of fresh fruits.

Lunch on our third day. We just returned from diving and were famished :)

I had a bowl of tempura soba, which to my surprise, the soba was fried instead of in soup. And the tempura was laid over the soba, how interesting. Anyway, the taste was ok and once again I couldn't finish the entire serving.

Hubby had Thai Red Curry with rice and it was quite yummy, thick, creamy but not too spicy.

Next, Iru Restaurant, a casual buffet dining with tropical island flair; open for breakfast and dinner. We only had our buffet breakfast there. The first night we arrived, there was a Maldivian themed buffet, but we weren't really keen in buffets so didn't go in. Come to think of it, we should have tried the buffet since we won't get any chance of trying Maldivian food again.

The restaurant was huge with two separate areas of seating, according to one's preference.

A kid's corner was available but basically just taking some of the items from the main buffet.

Spread of the breakfast was pretty reasonable, with the usual bread and pastry, cereal, cold cuts, salads, juices, milk, yogurt, hot selections, fruits...

They have a large selection of pastries.

Fried noodles freshly cooked to order.

Ever popular egg station.

Pancakes, french toast, waffles.

I ordered a plate of fried noodles and surprisingly glass noodles was used and the taste was quite good.

Spread of what I ate over the next few breakfasts. There was this sausage-lookalike food which was actually fried dough. Funny that I thought it was sausage and doused chilli sauce over it :p

The pastries were ok, I thought I could make better. Haha :p

Overall, we were quite satisfied with the variety and quality, although we have had better buffet breakfasts elsewhere.

Fluid - Chilled drinks and 'light fare'around a pool with a jungle atmosphere; all day dining. We had lunch here on our second day.

The pizza was good!! Thinly crusted oozing with cheese. We liked!

Couldn't remember what drink this was, I think some lychee lime juice hubby ordered.

Hubby ordered a beef burger and it was huge. We could have just ordered one pizza to share as the portions were really big here. The beef patty was a tad dry. What I liked was these cute little bottles of ketchup and mayonnaise that came along with the orders. Kawaii!

Islander's Grill - Intriguing epicurean selections; open for lunch and dinner. We had dinner here on the second night. The seafood was highly recommended by many reviewers on Tripadvisor, so we decided to give the grilled seafood here a try.

Too bad the it was raining during that night, otherwise we could have a chance to dine alfresco on the beach. On second thoughts, maybe not since it might get too windy?

The complimentary breads were yummy, had to stop myself from eating more else no room for the main course later.

We ordered the seafood platter for two, which consisted of one lobster, two flower crab, four prawns, four osyters, some squid and two yellow fin tuna steak. Overall, the seafood wasn't very fresh and hence this platter which cost USD120 wasn't really worth it. The only saving grace was the yellow fin tuna steak which was juicy, sweet and bouncy. It was a bit like chicken but much smoother texture. Should have just ordered the yellow fin tuna steak. We also had two sides of mixed salad and mashed potatoes to go along with the main course.

In-Villa Dining, round the clock. We decided to order from the In-Villa Menu on the third day, as we were rather exhausted and lazy to go out after the villa shifting saga.

Hubby ordered this creamy pasta (couldn't remember what it was now), not bad.

Whereas I ordered a simple Club Sandwich. Couldn't go wrong with a sandwich right? Well, the bread was a little hard and dry but the innards were not bad, and fries! Fries (transfat) would always be a saviour.

As well as a Sticky Date Pudding. Oh, this was yummy! Moist, rich and sweet with a creamy vanilla sauce.

Reflections - Bliss zone by day, chill out spot by sunset. Snack from morning till evening. We came here on our fourth day for a mid afternoon snack. Had a very heavy breakfast and didn't take lunch, so felt a little peckish by mid afternoon.

I ordered a mango orange yogurt smoothie, whereas hubby, a Fanta Orange :D The cheery yellow and orange reflected the great sunshine we had that afternoon.

For snack, we ordered a plate of deep fried vegetable spring roll. Oh I must say these spring rolls tasted really good, especially with the sweet chilli sauce; crispy on the outside, moist, crunchy and savory inside.

The Trio - Food, wine, great ambience inspired by the Mediterranean. Open for dinner. We had dinner here on our final night. Had trouble booking the previous nights as the seating capacity was very limited.

Ambience was quite good.

This Consommé was complimentary before start of our dinner. Warmed our stomach and body as it was raining and quite cold.

As usual the breads were yummy, especially with EVOO and vinegar.

I ordered Lamb Chop with Risotto, which was quite nicely done, juicy and succulent.

Whereas hubby ordered a beef steak. He claimed that it was so-so only.

There is another restaurant, Flavours which features Asian and Far East culinary extravaganza, but was unfortunately closed during the period of our stay.

In conclusion, we found the choices of dining quite limited on the island, given that Flavours Restaurant was closed. In addition, the food quality didn't really blow us away. With the high costs, we would expect better quality but maybe we were just overly discerning.

Stay tuned for the final post on Activities - Spa & Diving!

9th Anniversary Celebration - Maldives August 2011 Part III

2011-11-24T11:23:00.000+08:00

Continued from Introduction and Male, Seaplane Transfer & Land/Seascape of Hilton Iru Fushi.

Accommodation - Beach Villa, Water Villa and Infinity Water Villa

As mentioned, we stayed two nights at a Beach Villa, and two nights at a Water Villa. There are other types of villas available which include private pool but we reckon it's not necessary when there is the sea and also two public pools on the island.

The Beach Villa is made up of two circular buildings, one big and one small, with a dome-shaped thatched roof. Each villa also comes with a private pavilion.

Our unit is not located next to the beach (unlike the above photo), we've got to go through a short hidden path before hitting the beach, which allows more privacy.

That's our private pavilion, which we didn't get to use at all, since weather wasn't very good during our stay in the beach villa. I believe it would be nice to laze around the pavilion which overlooks the beach and sea while enjoying a cuppa and good book.

A lounge area outside the villa, which we also didn't use.

The comfortable bed, which was heavenly.

Customised furniture to fit the unique circular structure of the villa. Full set of amenities are provided like mini bar (chargeable), drinking water (two free bottles a day), coffee and tea making facilities.

Another lounge area inside the villa itself which we made use most often.

Huge bathroom, with a jacuzzi bathtub and yet another lounge sofa. Haha, the idea here is to laze around wherever we are in the villa. The jacuzzi bathtub was great as it's deep and spacious :)

His and hers wash areas, no more fighting for space :p The indoor shower and toilet are located below both wash areas respectively.

A trolley of bath amenities. The toiletries supplied here are from Crabtree & Evelyn.

There's even an outdoor open-air shower area.

Wardrobe and dressing area, with access to the bathroom.

All in all, we were very satisfied with the Beach Villa, which was well-appointed and offered very luxurious space and facilities.

That said, we looked forward to our shift to the water villa on our third day, since it offers another different type of lodging experience. Nevertheless, the shift wasn't a pleasant one but fortunately turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

On the morning of the third day, we went diving and won't be back till after 1pm which was the check-out time for our beach villa (in order to check-in to our water villa). We requested for a late check-out of the beach villa but was turned down (due to full occupancy, which was bulls*** we thought). We had no choice but to check-out early in the morning, just before we went for our dives. The front office assured us that our water villa would be ready by 1pm, and that our luggage (which we packed and left in the beach villa) would be sent directly to the water villa by then too. Ok,we trusted them since this is supposed to be a basic service, yes?

So we happily went for our dives and was back by 12+pm, and we went for lunch first. By 1+pm, we were done and proceeded to the reception/front office to check-in for our water villa. We asked if our luggage was in the villa already and the staff said yes. Then a buggy was arranged to send us to our water villa.

To our dismay, our luggage were not in the villa :( The staff said they would check and send them immediately. So I took the opportunity to take photos of the villa while waiting.

There's a living room.

The king-size bed which opens to the balcony.

The signature "glass-hole" on the floor which peers into the sea.

A large bathtub overlooking the sea. I was already looking foward to my bath since I was all sticky and uncomfortable after the diving in the morning.

The bathroom was quite spacious with a sofa set.

The balcony, with lounge sofa.

Sunbathing deck chairs and seating area.

Platform and stairs which lead directly into the sea :)

20 mins past while I happily explored the villa and our luggage has still not arrived. So we called the reception and the staff told us that they were actually sent to the wrong villa and someone would be going to that villa to get them; and please give them another 15 mins. We were like huh??

In addition to our woes, the air-conditioning wasn't working properly and we requested the reception to send a staff to check as well. After waiting for another 15 mins, our luggage were still not here, neither were there any staff to check the air-con. We called the reception again, and the staff told us the guests were Chinese-speaking and they couldn't communicate??? They would send a staff to bring us to that villa to get back our luggage. By then we were exasperated as we were hot and sticky from the diving and malfunctioned air-con and nothing to change into. We waited for 10 mins but no staff came, so we took matters to our own hands and walked to the villa which was a few units away (we called the reception to ask) to ask. The guests told us our luggage were not there. They were quite helpful and told us, probably could check with their friends since they checked in as a group. So we walked under the hot sun to two other villas which were some distance away, and once again, no luggage! By then, we were fuming. I was getting flustered as we had a spa appointment in 30 mins' time, and we certainly had to bath and change before that.

I called the reception, blasted at the receptionist and demanded to see the General Manager of the resort. The call was somehow cut off and I called again. The receptionist gave some excuse that the GM was in a meeting. Then the front office manager took over and promised to look into the matter (of both the missing luggage and malfunctioning air-con). Finally after 10 more mins, our luggage arrived. We told the buggy to wait for us and hastily bathed/changed before heading to the spa, just in time.

BUT upon returned to the villa after the spa, we discovered that the air-con was still not working. Once again, we got worked up since the front office manager had promised that it would be fixed during the hour that we were away. Once again, we called the front office and the staff said they needed to check again. So we waited for 10 mins before a staff appeared who told us that the air-con was working! We were flabbergasted. I called the front office again and insisted on speaking to the GM. This time they said the GM was off-duty (WHAT?). I was like, ok whatever, and demanded a room change. The front office manager took over and said he would come to our villa with an engineer to check (yet again??). When he came in, both hubby and I blasted at him (for wasting so much of our time, losing our luggage, not fixing the air-con). He was apologetic and would make some arrangements in 15 mins' time, requested us to pack our luggage for the shift.

By then, both of us were exhausted and just wanted to settle into a new room quickly. 15 mins later, the front office manager came and brought us to the other wing of the water villas.

And to our pleasant surprise, upgraded us to the Infinity Water Villa. We were pacified by this act and decided not to raise the matter to the GM anymore since the front office manager was sincere in his apologies and had tried his best in service recovery.

So ok, here we were, at the Infinity Water Villa, the size was like two times that of the water villa.

Upon entrance to the villa is the mini-bar area, followed by the spacious living room.

This was where we lazed and watched DVD during the next day's stormy afternoon.

Next to the living room is the bedroom, separated by sliding doors.

And next the huge bathroom, with wardrobe and dressing area, toilet, two shower areas (open-air and sheltered), large jacuzzi bathtub and sofa.

Wow, I was certainly impressed by the size of the bathroom.

There's of course an infinity dip pool, which was actually not a bad idea. We would swim in the sea first, followed by a dip in the pool.

Seating area. Nice for refreshment or even dining if weather permits.

Pavillion with lounge sofas.

Deck chairs and platform leading directly into the sea.

While lazing around the deck in the last morning, I even spotted an eagle ray swimming past our villa :)

It was quite nice to soak in the infinity pool while admiring at the scenery. The sea did get choppy at times and took too much effort to swim.

Even managed to catch sunrise :) Well, the sun had already risen by the time we woke up, but still a beautiful sight nonetheless.

So there you have it, the three different types of lodging experience we had in Hilton Iru Fushi. Next up, will share some activities we did, as well as the food!

9th Anniversary Celebration - Maldives August 2011 Part II

2011-11-21T12:00:00.000+08:00

Continued from Introduction

Male, Seaplane transfer, Land & Seascape of Hilton Iru Fushi

We took the morning flight from Singapore and landed at Male before noon. After exiting from the airport, with the help of a local guide, we proceeded to check in for our seaplane transfer. Thereafter, we boarded a mini van and headed towards the Seaplane Terminal which was just a short 8 min drive away.

Didn't have a chance to visit Male city at all as we didn't have time both to and fro journeys to make a tour. And we certainly didn't want to take a 45 min (one-way) seaplane journey just to take a look. If we choose an island that is nearer to Male, probably we could have spared some time.

Anyways, upon reaching the Seaplane (or Air Taxi) Terminal, we were ushered to a lounge to relax while waiting for our flight to Hilton Iru Fushi Resort & Spa.

Quite a spacious lounge with lots of comfy sofa for us to laze around.

Including a mini food and beverage corner. I took some fruits and juice.

Even an alfresco area.

The lounge overlooks the docking platforms for the seaplanes.

Soon it was time to board the plane and we were ushered to our ride. I was pretty excited, first seaplane ride of my life! And look at the pilots and co-pilots, they were either wearing slippers or none at all with casual bermudas. Must be the most relaxed pilots in the whole world :)

It was free seating, but we only managed to get the second row, not a good view coz blocked by the propeller. The seaplane is very small and non air-conditioned. I think seating capacity is less than 15 and seats are quite tight, so the ride wasn't really comfortable.

Here's our pilot, he's driving the plane barefooted, how cool is that? =D

The seaplane flew at quite a low altitude so we could have a bird's eye view of the islands. Unfortunately, it was cloudy and started rainy not long after, so we couldn't see much of the sights. Ride was also rather turbulent due to the heavy rain and wind. It was so boring that we fell asleep.

The following photos were taken during our return flight from Hilton Iru Fushi to Male. The skies were clear and we could then catch the breathtaking views of the atolls and islands. We took the seats at the second last row and could take better photos.

Beautiful and amazing wasn't it :)

This looked a little spooky like ghost, haha :)

This was the overview of Hilton Iru Fushi, quite a large island. In fact, one of the larger properties in the atolls.

The two photos below were taken when we were departing on the last day, that's our sea plane for the return flight.

Ok, we have landed on Hilton Maldives Iru Fushi Resort & Spa. All excited and raring to go!

We were requested to check our luggage, and found out that only one piece has arrived with us, the other would only arrive the next flight :(((( Why was it so? The concierge assured us that the luggage would reach us in an hour's time (but eventually we waited for two hours and had to call the concierge two times to check the whereabouts of our luggage). We realised the concierge/porters/management had a luggage problem as we had another nasty encounter two day's later (will talk about it in the accommodation post).

Anyway, our host brought us to the Water Edge's Bar for our check-in.

Our welcome drink, a Pineapple and Lime juice, quite refreshing after the boring and uncomfortable ride earlier on.

While waiting for our host to help us with the check-in procedures, we admired at the architecture of the buildings here, really like the dome-shaped ceiling, which makes the whole place look spacious and airy too.

After check-in, we were led to our Beach Villa. As mentioned, we would be staying two nights in a Beach Villa, and two nights in a Water Villa.

Will do a run-through of the land and seascape of the island here. The photos were taken over the few days whenever there was great sunshine. In fact, it rained quite a fair bit (apparently the rainy season, afternoons on first, third and fourth day, night on second day).

However, when there was sunshine, the whole island looked brilliant, just like what we saw on postcards and stock photos on the internet. And it was so glaring that we couldn't open our eyes!

Surprisingly the sand on some parts of the the sea are rather coarse, we would expect powdery sand, but apparently not.

Poor coconut trees almost bending over.

Lots of hammock around the island for people to laze around.

We walked around the whole island one of the days, along the long stretches of beach.

We swam in the sea quite a fair bit in the last two days as well.

Love the long stretches of wooden bridges.

The two retail boutiques on the island, Fire and Sand, selling ornaments, souvenirs, jewellery, clothing and accessories. Everything on the island is in US dollar and no cash transaction (charge to room only).

The Reflections Infinity Pool, which we didn't use at all. Heard that it's great to catch sunset here, but it was either raining or cloudy during the days we were there.

Ok, this concludes my post. Will touch on the accommodation, food, spa and diving in the next few posts. Stay tuned!

9th Anniversary Celebration - Maldives August 2011 Part I

2011-11-17T10:30:00.000+08:00

Introduction

August 2011 marked our 9th (ROM) Anniversary, and in celebration we embarked on a 5D4N vacation to atoll paradise Maldives! Our initial plan was to go Maldives for our 10th Anniversary, but when we saw Singapore Airlines having an airfare promotion, we jumped at the chance :) Well, we'll think of where to go for our 10th Anniversary next year :p

Since this could probably be "once-in-a-lifetime" journey for us, we decided to stay at Hilton Iru Fushi which required us to take a 45min seaplane transfer from Male Airport. We thought it would be a great experience to have a bird's eye view of the atolls. And we opted for 2 nights' stay at a Beach Villa and 2 nights' stay at a Water Villa. Must experience both types of accommodation mah :p

We booked the resort package through an online agent Atoll Paradise based in Male, which offered us a good deal including seaplane transfers, four nights accommodation (Beach & Water Villas) and buffet breakfast. Service was very prompt and the travel consultants were very helpful even though it was an online agent.

So how is the "Atoll Paradise"? Well, both of us agreed that while the island(s) is beautiful, the overall experience didn't totally overwhelm us. You know, those kind of feelings where you go "OH WOW!""? Perhaps it was due to the boring and uncomfortable 45min seaplane transfer to the island (Hilton Iru Fushi) we were going (it was rainy heavily so lots of turbulence and no view of course); perhaps it was due to the bad weather (it rained heavily for 2-3 mornings/afternoons we were there); perhaps the bad weather affected the sea visibility so diving was blah (anyway, dive guides told us not to expect a feast like Sipadan); or perhaps the less-than-satisfactory service standards of Hilton Iru Fushi (on arrival our luggage took more than an hour to reach us, our luggage got lost when we transfered villas, air-con was spoilt for our water villa, staff didn't deliver their promises to us...). In the end, we got upgraded to an Infinity Water Villa but that was after a few hours of waiting, frustrations and demands to see the General Manager. So I guess all these added up to just an OK trip to us, unlike the raving reviews of other travellers.

Nevertheless, Hilton Iru Fushi is lovely for the days where there were great sunshine, brilliant blue sky with fluffy white clouds and sparkling clears waters of turquoise blue. As always I took thousands of photos and had a hard time selecting which to feature, and how to write my posts here. After deliberating (yes, for 3 months :p), decided to post based on the following themes:

Male, Seaplane transfer, Land & Seascape of Hilton Iru Fushi
Accommodation - Beach Villa, Water Villa, Infinity Water Villa
Food
Activities - Spa & Diving

So yep, please stay tuned for the next few posts ya? Promise to have lots of photos (I really mean it, many many photos!!!)

Travelling Resources

Atoll Paradise - http://www.atollparadise.com/
Hilton Maldives Iru Fushi - http://www1.hilton.com/en_US/hi/hotel/MLEIRHI-Hilton-Maldives-Iru-Fushi-Resort-Spa/index.do

Tofu Pandan Chiffon Cake

2011-11-11T13:00:00.000+08:00

I just came back from a 5D3N trip (2D being red-eye flights) to Hiroshima/Miyajima, totally deadbeat. Hopefully could regain my energy soon to sort out the photos and blog about the trip (as well as 2 other previous trips to Maldives and Hong Kong, GOSH, I'm so slacked!).

Anyway, I did this before my trip and realised that I forgot to publish the post. Here goes :p

I came across this Tofu Pandan Chiffon Cake in a Tofu Recipe Book called Hanky-Panky with Beancurd "吃豆腐" (I know, such corny titles!) recently and was totally drawn to it (to the recipe and not the title)! The recipe is slightly different from the usual Pandan Chiffon Cake that I'm familiar with. Baking powder and coconut milk are not used; in replacement of coconut milk, silken tofu/soft beancurd is used. Some steps are also new to me, such as preheating the chiffon pan.

Tofu is definitely a healthy alternative to coconut milk so I was raring to try the recipe. Yes, I bought the recipe book as it features 50 recipes using tofu. Since tofu has such high nutritional value, the book will definitely come in handy for my family meals (perfect excuse to buy yet another recipe book :p).

So the very first recipe I attempted was the Tofu Pandan Chiffon Cake :) With the experience gained from past attempts on Pandan Chiffon Cake and Orange Chiffon Cake, the steps were fairly manageable this time. As usual, extracting pandan juice is tedious and luckily it was only a small quantity. The arm breaking part came with the beating of the egg whites till stiff peak form. I should have used my electric mixer but decided to "exercise" my arm muscles :p

After 50 minutes of baking, the chiffon cake turned out quite alright though not as pretty as my other attempts. The top part cracked a little but at least the cake looked decent enough. It was raining when I took this photo so the photo didn't turn out well (heehee, lousy excuse).

Now for the taste test. The cake texture was cottony light, moist and fluffy with tender crumbs. The tofu taste was not very distinct, just a tinge from the bits of mashed tofu in the cake. I only mashed the tofu this time, and I wondered whether the results would be different if I were to puree the tofu? Shall try that next time. Yep, I'm definitely baking this cake again. Will update the result of pureeing the tofu then.

And oh yes, hubby and son love the cake too :) But it's better not to keep the cake for more than a day, as I think the tofu turned a little sourish the next day.

Tofu Pandan Chiffon Cake
(Makes one 8 inch chiffon cake, serving 10 to 12)

Ingredients
80g low protein flour (I use Prima Cake Flour)
1/8 tsp salt
40g egg yolk
50g caster sugar
35g salad oil (I use canola oil)
50g pandan juice (extracted from about 70g of pandan leaves)
110g silken tofu
160g egg whites (about 4-5 eggs, depending on size)
30g caster sugar
1/8 tsp cream of tartar
Method
Preheat an 8 inch chiffon cake pan at 180 degree celsius for 10 minutes.
Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl and set aside.
Rinse pandan leaves, cut into small pieces and blend them into grassy green using food processor or chopper. Squeeze the grassy green to extract 50g of pandan juice (add a little water will make it easier to squeeze).
Rinse tofu, dry with kitchen towel and mash.
Combine egg yolks with 50g sugar and mix well. Add salad oil, pandan juice and mashed tofu, stir until blended.
Add the egg yolk mixture into the flour mixture and fold till just blended.
Combine egg whites with 30g sugar in a large, clean and grease-free mixing bowl. Beat using a hand whisk till slightly thickened. Add in cream of tartar and beat until stiff, glossy peak form. Do not over-beat. (alternative to manual whisking, an electric mixer could be used, but end off with hand whisking to make sure egg whites at the bottom of the mixing bowl are well blended).
Add one-third of the egg white mixture into the egg yolk-flour batter, and fold gently until almost blended. Add half of the remaining egg white mixture to the batter and likewise fold gently. Lastly, scrape the batter into the egg white mixture bowl and fold into the remainly one third egg whites.
Pour batter gently into the chiffon pan. Bake for 40-50 minutes. If surface of cake browns too fast, cover the top with a piece of aluminium foil after 30-35 minutes of baking.
Remove cake from oven and immediately turn it upside down. Remove the cake from the pan when slightly warm. Best eaten within a day.

Delicious Holiday Gifts Workshop

2011-11-01T22:49:00.002+08:00

I attended the Delicious Holiday Gifts Demo Class by Chef Joycelyn Shu at Shermay's Cooking School the past weekend, mainly because of the Cake Pop recipe. I first knew about Cake Pop from Bakerella's website and was inspired by all the cute and lovely cake pop designs. I even bought the cake pop recipe book. Tried making it previously, it seemed so darn easy but really wasn't. All I could say, it was totally a messy affair dealing with candy melts which was the essential coating for cake pops, and I had a tough time. So, I simply had to attend this class to find out how Joycelyn does it. I was pretty sure she could offer lots of useful tips, as always.

Besides cake pop, other lovely holiday baked goodies recipes include Chocolate Peppermint Whoopie Pies, Luxury Fruitcake Cupcakes, Eggnog Sandwich Cookies, as well as bonus sections on cake pop and cupcake decorating ideas and essential techniques, gifting, packaging and display tips, and even bonus recipes of eggnog and Pâte à Tartiner au Chocolat et Noisette (homemade Nutella).

The Eggnog Sandwich Cookies are basically buttery nutmeg-flavoured shortbread cookies sandwiched with a creamy filling of rum and Madagascar Bourbon vanilla.

We got to taste the cookie in class. The shortbread was almost melt in the mouth and good to eat even on its own. I thought the filling was a tad sweet, would probably reduce the amount of sugar if I were to attempt this. Or probably just skip the filling altogether.

The Fruitcake cupcake was a luxe version of a fruitcake, heavily ladened with dried figs, dates, apricots and hazelnuts. In fact, there were more fruits and nuts than the batter! The result was a very densed and moist cupcake. I thought it was a little too heavy on the palate, would probably omit the dried figs or cut down amount of fruits and nuts.

The cupcake would make a lovely holiday gift, with loads of decorating options. How about topping with some vanilla swiss meringue buttercream and a star moulded from candy melt.

Or pretty snowflakes made from rolled fondant, and tinted with luster dust and crunchy pearls.

I'm sure recipients of these cupcakes won't bear to eat them. Too pretty to eat!

Chocolate Peppermint Whoopie Pies, rich chocolatey tender and cake-like cookies sandwiched with peppermint filling. Unfortunately, I didn't really like the texture of the cake nor peppermint taste...

But oh, these cupcake toppers are too cute and irresistible! I was tempted to buy them, but I have yet to decide on what to bake for my holiday gifts.

And now, for the star of the show! The cake pops! It's basically crumbled chocolate cake mixed with chocolate cream cheese frosting, rolled into balls, inserted with lollipop sticks, coated with Wilton Candy Melts and then decorated with candy melt moulded figurines or other sprinkles.

Joycelyn showed us each step meticuously, to ensure that the process would be smooth and less painful :p Well, it looked easy but needed lots of planning, and patience. One important tip was the handling of the candy melts which was the toughest part (I knew it!!!). The key was to microwave the candy melts and mixed with a little Crisco (veg shortening), to achieve the dipping consistency. Ahhhh! Now I know! Why can't Wilton invent something easier to handle?

Anyways, the cake pops that Joycelyn made were so pretty to look at. Each piece was an art.

One big rose or three small roses? These roses were made from candy melts too.

How about a Christmas Tree Cake pop?

My favourite among all. Tiffany-coloured cake pop with white snowflake and dusted with some luster dust.

I was almost sure that I'm going to make cake pops as holiday gifts to my friends... well, hmmm... ok, under serious consideration.

Each participant brought home a Fruitcake cupcake as well as a cake pop =D I really think that the cake pop makes a nice gift, just one pop per person would do, coz the cake was really really really sweet and one bite itself would send one on a sugar high already.

I only took a bite and dear son saw it and literally snatched the lolly away from me, and refused to return it. Then he savoured it slowly and happily of course. Hmmm... I'm tempted to try making this but let's see if we could reduce the amount of sugar in the cake and frosting, since the candy melt coating is sweet as it is already. Ok, this shall be my mission for the holiday gifts. Wish me luck!

Chocolate Banana Bread/Cake

2011-10-23T12:00:00.000+08:00

I have 2 over riped bananas in my pantry once again. A little tired of making banana muffins and hence searched the internet for new ideas. Came across this Banana Bread/Cake recipe by David Lebovitz and found it interesting as chocolate is added. Actually I was equally baffled about the term "bread", why do they call it bread when it's a cake? Never mind whether it is supposed to be Banana Bread or Banana Cake, I was more intrigued by the chocolate component. Banana and chocolate are always good together, aren't they? I happened to have some Valrhona Araguani 72% dark chocolate in my fridge and decided to have a go at this recipe.

The whole process was fairly simple and quick, just like making muffins actually. I changed some components of the ingredients like Greek-style Yogurt instead of sour cream and almost half the amount of sugar. Instead of chocolate chips or cocoa nibs, I used dark chocolate. The batter was enough to fill one aluminium tray and the balance I used a Winnie-The-Pooh Silicone Mould bought from Hong Kong last year. Hopefully dear son would be attracted to Pooh :) The intense aroma of the banana as well as cinnamon (yes, a bit of cinnamon was added) filled the entire kitchen and I was salivating throughout the 50 minutes wait coz I love cinnamon.

Though the cake didn't look that appetizing but trust me, it tasted good! It was tender and moist, with wonderful combination of banana, chocolate and cinnamon. It was not too sweet (as I reduced the amount of sugar) and had a tinge of bitterness due to the dark chocolate. Hubby brought some to his office and apparently it was quite well received coz the cake was not too sweet.

Pooh didn't turn out too pretty :p and I thought the crust was a little too thick. My son was naturally attracted to the bear-bear (he doesn't know Pooh yet). At first bite, he didn't seem to like the cake and didn't want more. I cut the cake into smaller pieces and used toothpicks for each piece. He became more receptive and even asked for more. Probably he wasn't used to the taste of cinnamon initially.

Ok, another banana recipe added to my list :)

Chocolate Banana Cake

(Adapted from Banana Bread/Cake recipe by David Lebovitz)

(Makes one 8"x 4"x 2" Disposable Aluminium Pan and four 2" silicone mould bears)

(Or one 9" square pan)

210g Plain Flour
1 tsp Double Acting Baking Powder
½ tsp Baking Soda
½ tsp Salt
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
80g Caster Sugar (original recipe uses 150g)
55g Unsalted Butter, melted and cool to room temperature
1 large Egg White, room temperature
1 large Egg, room temperature
2 very ripe medium/large bananas, mashed
115g Greek Style Yogurt (original recipe uses sour cream)
½ tsp Vanilla Extract
60g Dark Chocolate, coarsely chopped (I used Valrona Aruguani 72%, original recipe uses chocolate chips/cocoa nibs)

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celsius. If using square pan, butter and line the bottom with a sheet of parchment paper.

2. Sift together in a bowl the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add the sugar and mix well together.

3. In a separate bowl, mix together the melted butter, egg white, egg, banana puree, yogurt and vanilla extract.

4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and fold in the wet ingredients with a spatula until almost mixed. Add the chocolate chips and fold until just combined, stop when any traces of flour disappear.

5. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

6. Cool on a baking rack and slice only after the cake has cooled down.

Storage: This cake will keep well for 3-4 days, or can be frozen, wrapped in plastic wrap, for a few months.

Homemade Chicken Pau

2011-10-20T11:01:00.000+08:00

After attending Chef Valerie's Pau Workshop back in August, I've finally succeeded in my first Homemade Chicken Pau. Well, actually I attempted a batch of Pork Pau shortly after the workshop, but uh-oh, I'd rather not talk about it (read: failure).

The process was much smoother this time, the pau dough looked ok, with the right texture as I remembered from the class. I do need lots more practice though! Was supposed to roll each piece of dough into a flat disc with the centre being slightly thicker than the sides. But somehow I could never get a perfect piece of round flat disc and I could never manage to roll the sides thinner. When I rolled the sides thinner, the disc became an odd shape; when I didn't/couldn't, the sides were too thick to pleat properly.

I don't know why the pleats of the Pau cracked after steaming. Will ask Chef Valerie if I have a chance to next time. Nevertheless, I was quite happy with the result; the Pau looked pretty decent and edible of course.

I can't share the recipe here due to copyrights stipulated by the Chef and Cooking School. So here's just a pictorial run-through. Top left photo showed the minced chicken aka the filling of the pau. Instead of turnip as stated in the recipe, I added water chestnut. I also reduced the amount of seasonings. Important step in preparing the filling, was to whack it, so that the meat would bind together and more crunchy. Top right photo, started to wrap by putting a bit of filling in the centre of the pau dough. As you could see, my pau dough wasn't very round. Bottom left photo, I topped the filling with hald a quail egg. Bottom right photo, tadah, my wrapped pau. The pleats were a little too thick, as a result of the sides of the dough not rolled thin enough. But still, looked ok lah.

So here's my chicken pau before steaming. I thought I rolled 12 pieces of dough but I realised after wrapping that I had only 11 paus! Haha :p (I think the dough wasn't enough or something, well never mind).

And tadah, the chicken paus after 15 mins of high heat steaming. Not bad, except some of the pleats cracked.

After the paus cooled "sufficiently" (as usual I was dying to try), I quickly took one large bite. Hmmm, the pau was soft and fluffy and the filling juicy. The filling was not as savoury due to less amount of seasonings but I was trying to go more healthy here :p I seriously need to practise more coz the bottom of the pau was quite thin and the top (pleated parts) too thick, a bit unbalanced.

Making pau at home is not that difficult, just tedious and time consuming (and my son couldn't be at home or he'll mess around - he's too young to appreciate or help out at his age). Ok, adding to my to-do list - Vegetable Pau, Char Siew Pau and Egg Yolk Custard Pau. Till then :)

Tofu Burger

2011-10-17T12:10:00.000+08:00

Dear son has taken a very very great interest in fast food recently, you know, burgers and fries. He used to be satisfied with hotcakes when we went McDonalds for breakfast but these days, he wanted my Egg Muffin instead. He ended up eating half of my Egg Muffin and I had to take his hotcakes -_-

Hubby had a dinner appointment the other night and I thought of making tofu burger and oven baked fries for dear son and my dinner. 2 years back, I made Minced Pork & Tofu burger before but this time I wanted to try something slightly different. After taking reference from several blogs and online cooking guides, I decided to concoct my own recipe.

The tofu patties were really easy to make, besides firm tofu (tau kwa), I added minced chicken, carrot, mushroom, broccoli, onion, cheese and breadcrumbs. For flavouring, some sea salt, mixed herbs and spices like ground cumin (whatever I had in my pantry). It's actually quite versatile, different types of veggies could be added. Minced chicken is optional, I just wanted more texture. Next time, I would probably add seaweed and sesame seeds :) I made the tofu patties in the morning and chilled them in the fridge till evening so that the patties would be firmer for pan frying. Didn't have time to make my own burger buns, so I bought the Sunshine Butter Rolls which are the right size for my mini tofu patties (about 2 inch rounds).

To make the burger, I simply pan-fried the patties till slightly golden brown, and sandwiched it between the butter roll with some lettuce. The butter rolls could be lightly toasted with some butter or spread with some mayonaise or even ketchup for additional flavours.

The tofu patties could even be eaten on its own :)

Dear son loves the tofu burger! He ate one whole burger and an additional tofu patty. Besides that, he also ate at least 10 pieces of oven baked fries. Big appetite for a little fellow!

Tofu Patties

(Makes 10 pieces of 2 inch rounds)

Ingredients

1 block firm tofu (tau kwa)
3 tbsp minced chicken breast
1 medium purple onion, finely chopped
1/3 piece carrot, grated
3 fresh shiitake mushroom, finely chopped
3 stalks broccoli, finely chopped
3 tbsp shredded mozzarella cheese
4 tbsp Japanese panko (breadcrumbs) + additional for sprinkling on top of patties
1/4 tsp sea salt
Herbs and spices, dash

Method

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan. Once hot, fry the onion for a few minutes until soft and fragrant. Add the carrot, broccoli and mushroom and stir fry for a few minutes till softened. Set aside and let the mixture cool down.
Mash the tofu using a potato masher or fork, add the minced chicken breast and cooled mixture (1) and mix well together.
Add the shredded mozzarella cheese and breadcrumbs, and mix evenly till mixture is firm. If mixture is too sticky and soft, add more breadcrumbs.
Shape the tofu mixture into patties depending on size and thickness desired. I made them into about 2 inch rounds (to fit the Sunshine Butter Rolls) and got 10 pieces.
Place the patties on a tray with greaseproof paper or Silpat. The patties will be slightly soft as tofu is used instead of all meat.
Sprinkle some bread crumbs on top of each patty and press down gently. Cover with clingwrap and chill in the fridge for 3 - 4 hours.
When ready, fry the burger in a little oil or butter on medium high heat for few minutes, depending on the thickness of the patty. Serve warm, nice eaten on its own or with dips like mayo, ketchup, chilli sauce.

Fruit Jelly

2011-10-14T10:00:00.000+08:00

My final bid to use up the excess strawberries in my fridge *phew* finally! No more strawberries for the next few weeks!

The recipe is a guest post on Cuisine Paradise, by Ann of Anncoo Journal. Dear son hasn't tried agar agar before so I thought I could give this a try. I like the dual layer effect, one layer being milk agar agar and the other plain agar agar with fruits. Besides strawberries, I added peach as I have some in my fridge and I didn't want to buy the additional fruits (blueberries, kiwi) mentioned in the recipe. I halved the recipe and managed to yield 4 plastic cups and additional 2 glasses of the fruit jelly.

For the glasses, I did the exact layering as stated in the recipe but for the plastic cups, I reversed the layering so that when the jelly was turned out, the white part was at the bottom and top part was the jelly with fruits.

Looked quite pretty and sweet right?

These were the plastic cups I used for the jelly. Very nostalgic right? I remember we used similar cups for our jellies when we were young :)

Dear son didn't seem to like the fruit jelly very much, he took only half a cup and wasn't quite enthusiastic about it. Probably the agar agar was a bit too hard. Offered a cup to hubby but he wasn't keen either! Why why why? Now I still have 2 cups and 2 glasses sitting in the fridge. How how how?

Strawberry Crunch

2011-10-11T22:26:00.000+08:00

Another recipe which I attempted (in my quest to use up the excess strawberries) is Strawberry Crunch, from Food 4 Tots.

Once again, it's an easy peasy recipe and I have most of the ingredients in my pantry. I halved the recipe and made just two glasses for our tea break. I love the crunchy bits of oats and sunflower seeds which were dry fried and coated with some honey, as well as the combination of the flavours of strawberries, yogurt and orange juice. Alas, dear son didn't seem to like it very much. He took most of the yogurt and left the oats crunch. Probably he's not used to eating oats like this. I was a little disappointed as this makes a healthy snack/breakfast and I thought I could serve this to him often. Well, we'll try again another time and probably he'd change his mind (you know kids).

If you are interested in this recipe, hop over to Food 4 Tots for details :)

Strawberry Muffin

2011-10-08T20:07:00.000+08:00

I've been making many strawberry desserts recently as I have lots of strawberries left over from making a Strawberry Jelly Heart cake for a gathering. Usually I just buy one big punnet and it would be enough for the cake, but Cold Storage had this promotion of $9.90 for two punnets (usual price $5.90 per punnet), so I thought no harm buying two punnets. Well, I ended up with so many extras that I don't know what to do with them! There is only this much strawberry one can eat. I added diced strawberries to my son's yogurt till he's sick of them, and he won't eat them whole as the strawberries were a little too tangy for his liking. So I started searching for recipes online and attempted a few of them, just to use up the strawberries.

First up, Strawberry Muffins from Noob Cook. A very simple recipe that doesn't require mixer and easily done within 30 mins. I made only 1/3 of the recipe as I just want to make a small batch (my freezer is already filled with a number of baked goods), I also reduced the sugar by a third.

The result? The muffin was tender and moist when warm, and I love how the tangy strawberry bits balanced the sweetness of the muffin. My son liked it so much, he wanted a second one! Now I know what to do with left over strawberries in future :)

Strawberry Muffin

(Makes 9 x 5cm muffin cases)

Ingredients

125g plain flour
1/3 tbsp baking powder
100g caster sugar
83g fresh milk, room temperature
42g unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
1 large egg

1/4 tsp vanilla extract
6-7 strawberries, diced

Method

Sift flour and baking powder together. Add sugar and mix until well incorporated.
Mix milk, melted butter, egg and vanilla extract and stir well.
Add the wet ingredients (2) to the dry ingredients (1) and fold gently till just incorporated. Do not over mix as it will result in a tough texture.
Fold the diced strawberries into the mixture.
Spoon the batter into the muffin cases (each about 2/3 filled).
Bake for 20 minutes in preheated oven of 200C (400F) or until slightly golden brown. Allow to rest for several minutes before serving.

Coconut Banana Muffin

2011-10-04T13:42:00.000+08:00

Saw the latest blog post on a Coconut Banana Muffin by LK of Food-4Tots. Bingo! I have half a packet of dessicated coconut sitting in my fridge for quite sometime now and thinking of where to use it (instead of tossing it away). I also have a few ripened bananas which my son won't be able to finish before they turn too riped. My son loves bananas and whenever he sees them, he would go "nana, nana!", so bananas have sort of become a staple in my pantry but I limit him to one every two days so usually I'll have a few over-riped ones every other day.

I digress. So there, I decided to go ahead with the Coconut Banana Muffin.

This was how the muffin looked like before popping into the oven. The dessicated coconut topping sure looked like panko (Jap breadcrumbs).

The steps are easy to follow and an electric mixer is not even needed. I was able to go grocery shopping, then make a batch of these muffins, prepare dinner, wash and hang two batches of laundry, all in one morning (while my son was in morning childcare). Heehee, talk about multi-tasking!

The aroma of coconut and banana filled my whole house while the muffins were baking. Heavenly scent! I had to wait patiently for the muffins to be baked, and kept peering through the glass panel of the oven to check on them :p

The crust of the muffin was crispy due to the dessicated coconut topping. The muffin itself was tender and moist, tasted yummy with the wonderful combination of coconut and banana. I didn't know that the flavours of coconut and banana complement each other so well! One point to note, the muffin tasted nicer when warm and hardened slightly when cold; so it's best to pop them into a preheated oven or steam for a few mins before eating.

I offered one to dear son for his afternoon tea break and he devoured it hungrily and even asked for more. Well, I only allowed him to have one. When hubby tried one in the evening, he also gave thumbs up :)

If you are keen in this muffin, hop over to Food-4Tots for a very detail recipe with comprehensive photo guide too!

Mini Fluffy Pancakes

2011-09-21T09:31:00.001+08:00

I'm constantly looking out for different ideas for dear son's daily afternoon tea snack. I try to give him variety so that he doesn't get bored of his snack. And as far as possible I try to make the snacks (such as muffins, egg tarts, french toast, yogurt with fruits), rather than give him store bought ones. But of course there are times when convenience over-rule :p. Dear son can be quite picky when it comes to his food, if the taste and texture isn't right or to his liking, he won't eat them, certainly becoming a discerning eater (just like daddy and mummy)! Poor mummy has to make sure his food is yummy yet healthy (or at least not junk food) all the time.

Recently I came across a Mini Fluffy Pancake recipe by LK of Food 4 Tots and it's just what I'm looking for :) I have tried other recipes of pancakes before and they always turn out too "cakey". So this recipe which promises soft and fluffy is perfect! The key is to whip the egg whites separately (till soft peak) so that the pancakes would puff up when cooked. This technique and theory is similar to the concept of chiffon cakes which yield soft and fluffy texture as well. Another great tip is the use of refillable plastic ketchup bottle to control the flow of batter so as to achieve these cute mini size pancakes.

My pancakes turned out ok, not as pretty as the ones by LK, not as round as they should be and the colour not really uniform. Nevertheless they tasted great, soft and fluffy even when turned cold. Dear son was naturally attracted to the cute mini pancakes which were just nice for his little hands, and ate several pieces at one go :) (I ate the rest :p).

I halved the recipe based on LK's and the batter was just nice to fill one plastic bottle. If you are interested, check out her recipe which gave specific details and great tips too. http://food-4tots.com/2011/09/03/mini-fluffy-pancakes/2/

Home-made Char Siew

2011-09-16T22:30:00.000+08:00

Pardon for the long absence. I was busy catching all the episodes of Shining Inheritance/Brilliant Legacy that's currently airing on Channel U. The show time is from 7 to 8pm which coincides with dear son's bath time and bed time preparation, so usually I have to miss the full episode. But I really like the show a lot so hubby rented the full DVD for me. So yep, have been "k-ing" the episodes whenever I have free time and at night :p

I digressed; back to my topic - Home-made Char Siew. Since attending Chef Chris's workshop on Sauces & Seasonings two weeks ago, I have been wanting to make the Char Siew using the tub of Home-made Plum Sauce which I brought home from the class. After procrastinating for so long, I finally made the Char Siew today!

As the recipe is under copyright of the cooking school and chef, I'm not at liberty to share it here. Nevertheless, many versions of home-made char siew recipes can be found in various cook books and other internet sites.

The original recipe calls for 1kg of meat which is too much for my family. Moreover, this is my first time doing it so I cut down the recipe by half; at least it won't be too much of a waste if it turns out inedible :p
I used pork shoulder meat (五花肉) bought from my usual butcher store at the wet market and marinade the meat overnight using a blended mixture of garlic, rose rice wine, maltose, sugar, light soy sauce, taucheo, dark soy sauce and nam yee.

The next morning, first roasted the meat in the oven for 15 mins at 220 degree celsius. Then reduced temperature to 200 degree celsius and glazed the meat with a mixture of the home-made plum sauce, honey and dark soy sauce. Thereafter, baked for another 15 to 20 mins, brushing the meat with glaze repeatedly every 5 mins.

Was actually quite surprised by how simple the whole process was. The end product - delicious, succulent, juicy and chewy char siew! The sauce was slightly sweet and salty and more than that, a special umami taste to it. Hubby liked it too.

Really pleased with my first-ever home-made char siew. I guess will be making it from time to time. But the next time, I need to make the home-made plum sauce first. Ok, another recipe to add to my to-do list! Till then :)

Our Food Heritage: Sauces & Seasonings Workshop

2011-09-01T13:43:00.000+08:00

Sauces and seasonings are a very important part of my life. Seasonings are definitely a must, especially in Chinese cooking, and sauces are like complementary to food, most often to bring out or enhance the taste. I almost always have to have some sauces to go with my food, be it chilli sauce, sweet & sour sauce or sambal, so when I saw Chef Christoper Tan offering a demo class in Sauces and Seasonings at Shermay's Cooking School, I signed up immediately.

Recipes that were demo-ed in class included chilli sauce base, plum sauce, char siew marinade, char siew, fragrant chilli oil, char siew mein and nyonya salad with plum dressing. The recipe pack also included bonus recipes of sweet soy-sauce, tomato sambal and aromatic infused soy sauce.

Nyonya salad with home-made plum dressing. The plum sauce is quite easy to make albeit a little time consuming. But hey, it beats using commercial sauce which has added preservatives. This is made with real plums and boasts of a rich fruity and tangy flavour with a vibrant red-purplish colour. Goes very well with salad! I think I could use this sauce with Yusheng as well :)

Home-made Char Siew with home-made Char Siew Marinade and special glaze. Oh, just look at the gorgeously baked Char Siew, which could be achieved using our home oven. Patience is needed here as the Char Siew needs to be glazed a few times in between baking. The marinate could also be used for chicken wings, pork chops and such.

Home-made Fragrant Chilli Oil or "Lat Jiu Yao". Everyone was raving about this chilli oil as it was so robust and fragrant. Only a quarter left from a full bowl after the food tasting. This was the vegetarian version, for a more luxe version, I thought of adding some dried scallops or shrimps :p

Home-made Char Siew Mein, with home-made chilli sauce base, topped with home-made char siew and some fragrant chilli oil. Oh My Goodness, I would patronise the stall everyday if anyone were to sell Char Siew Mein like this! But then again, with this much hard work put into each and every component, I doubt not many hawkers these days would be willing to sell it, and certainly not for $3 a bowl.

The home-made chilli sauce tasted very special, it was spicy, yet a tad fruity and tangy, gave the noodles an unique umami taste. The char siew was sooooo succulent and bouncy and very well marinated and well grilled with just the right bits of charred meat and also the fatty parts (I like!). Tip of the ice-berg, the fragrant chilli oil, just enhanced all the flavours altogether. Yum!

Each participant brought home a small tub of plum sauce and chilli sauce. I'm thinking of using the plum sauce for salad. For the chilli sauce, thinking of replicating the Char Siew Mein, but oh, so much work to do for the char siew and fragrant chilli oil! Well, the sauce should be able to keep for 2-3 more weeks, I must find time for the Char Siew Mein.

"Tan Tan Tan Tan" Tan-Tart (Egg Tart)

2011-08-26T21:43:00.001+08:00

Hahaha. No, this post isn't about the Singapore Presidential Election nor BreadTalk's latest creation the "Tan-Tart" :p BreadTalk is once again very witty in coming up with this creation :)

This is my very own Egg Tart, a second attempt using Shirley's (Kokken69) recipe :) The first attempt was made 2 weeks ago using Edith's (Precious Moment) recipe.

This time round, I made cutesy mini ones so that it's easier for dear son to eat, and for us adults too, we can pop one directly into the mouth!

Bought this mini 'chwee kueh' moulds which to me, very worthwhile as I can use them to make mini Chwee Kuehs, mini Egg Tarts, mini Kueh Koswee and possibly mini Chicken Pie.

Look at the size of my mini Egg Tart. Dainty and cutesy :)

Shirley's recipe was as straightforward as Edith's. But once again my stumbling block came with the dough which was really soft and pliable, making it impossible to cut into rounds using a cutter then line the moulds. Upon reading her steps closely one more time, I realised she said "Press the dough into a tart mold and press well to line the tart mold". So I took a lump of dough, and just press the dough into the mould as neatly as I could. It worked! And initially was worried that the tart might stick to the mould after baking making it difficult to unmould, but it was actually easy to unmould the tart as the dough itself was quite buttery. Hurray!

As my moulds are really small, I could only use up half of the custard. Thus I made another batch of dough in order to use up all the custard; I yielded about 40-44 pieces of egg tarts based on double portion of dough and single portion of custard. I reduced amount of sugar as I didn't want my tarts to be too sweet, they still turned out quite sweet. I also made some adjustments to the oven temperature. For my first batch of tarts, I baked them at 240C (max temp of my oven) for 10 minutes and some of the tarts were slightly burnt. So for the second batch, I reduced temperature to 220C and the tarts turned out just nice.

Egg Tarts (40-44 mini size)

Pastry

180g Unsalted butter
70g Powdered (Icing) sugar
24g Egg
340g Plain flour
16g Evaporated Milk

Custard

160g Eggs
65g Castor Sugar
50g Evaporated milk
210g Water

Method:

Cream softened butter with sugar until white and creamy.
Add egg (24g) and mix until well incorporated.
Add evaporated milk (16g) and mix until well incorporated.
Add in flour and mix well. A soft dough will form.
Chill the dough in the fridge for an hour
Press the dough into a tart mold and press well to line the tart mold, as evenly and thinly as possible.
Chill the lined tart molds for 15 mins. In the mean time, prepare custard.
Prepare custard by mixing all ingredients for custard together. Sift the custard before using.
Pour custard mixture into tart casings.
Bake at 220C for 10 mins until custard sets. The custard will still be a bit woobly, let cool till lukewarm before eating.

As usual I couldn't wait till the tarts cool completely and pop one into my mouth once they are cooled enough to eat. Hmmm, the crust was slightly crispy and crumbly and egg tarts really silky smooth this time. And the taste tests by hubby and dear son? Hubby said they were good, in fact slightly better than the previous attempt. As for dear son, he ate two pieces, his actions already proved the worth of my egg tarts since he is such a discerning eater.

The tarts turned a little soft the next day despite being kept in an airtight container (I didn't keep them in the fridge), probably due to our high humidity. Just need to pop them into a pre-heated oven (180C) for a couple of minutes and they'd turn crispy again.

Pau Workshop

2011-08-24T13:53:00.001+08:00

Attended a Pau making workshop conducted by Chef Valerie Kong at Shermay's Cooking School the past Saturday. And boy I had so much fun! It's been a while since I last attended any hands-on class and I was really looking forward to this one. I'm hopeless in pleating pau skin (tried before) and hence wish to get some practical tips from Chef Valerie.

The recipe pack included the basic dough, sweet and savoury fillings of red bean (tau sar), chicken and vegetable, as well as bonus recipes on Char Siew Pau, Egg Yolks Custard Pau, Tua Pau and Lotus Bean Paste Longevity Pau.

Chef Valerie first demo-ed the steps in preparing the steamer which is crucial in ensuring that the paus are well-steamed; followed by the three fillings.

Vegetable Pau is supposedly the easiest among the three Paus that we were attempting, in terms of the wrapping. Preparing and frying the vegetable was pretty straightfoward, the filling could also be used for wrapping spring roll.

Followed by Chicken Pau, which even included half a quail's egg. The essential step in preparing the meat filling was 'whacking' the meat to tenderise it.

Don't underestimate the simple, plain looking Red Bean (Tau Sar) Pau. The filling was the hardest and most tedious to prepare, and wrapping the filling was no mean feat! It was even harder than pleating the Veg and Meat Pau, if not wrapped properly, the filling would burst out of the skin during steaming. You'll see how later.

Finally, action time! Chef Valerie first went through with us the weighing of ingredients followed by kneading the dough. Then it's our turn. I would say preparing the dough was rather easy, all you need is to combine the ingredients (carefully), and then put your heart and soul (and strength) into kneading the dough. At first the dough looked rough but after a good kneading of 10 minutes, it became as smooth as a baby's buttocks :p

After that, we let our dough proof while Chef Valerie demo-ed how to wrap the three types of filling.

Like I said earlier, the Vegetable Pau was the easiest to wrap. Actually, I thought the Chicken Pau was easier as the filling was firmer and drier to wrap. The veg filling was oozing with sauce hence quite difficult to pleat properly. The advice was to avoid scooping too much liquid or to squeeze the veg a little before wrapping.

Tadah, the top photo was my wrapped Paus before steaming and the bottom photo after steaming. The Red Bean Pau looked alright before steaming but actually I stretched the skin too much during wrapping so the red bean burst out of the skin during steaming, resulting in the ugly looking buns :( For the Veg Pau, the liquid oozed out a little and stained the skin :( The Chicken Pau looked the 'most presentable' of the lot :)

Nonetheless, not bad for a first timer right? At least I learnt how to pleat the skin properly. With more practice, my Paus could possibly improve in appearance next time?

What mattered at that point was the taste :p Hmmm, the Veg Pau was yummy! The bun was soft and fluffy (my labour of love was worth it) and veg filling savoury.

We also tried the Chicken and Red Bean Paus made by Chef Valerie during the class. The buns tasted great even when cold. Nothing beats home-made buns! Definitely going to try making them one of these days!

Kueh: Asian Desserts 2 Workshop

2011-08-17T10:12:00.001+08:00

Last Friday, I attended an Asian Kueh Demo Workshop by Chef Valerie Kong at Shermay's Cooking School. The recipes demo-ed are local favourites and certainly hubby's and mine too! So I was really keen to join the class.

4 recipes were demo-ed during the 3hr workshop with 2 bonus recipes included in the recipe pack.

Rainbow Lapis - also known as 九层糕, probably due to the 9-layers of pretty colours in the kueh. Made with mainly tapioca, rice flour and coconut milk, not to be mistaken with the Indonesian Kueh Lapis.
Onde Onde - small round balls of pandan-flavoured glutinous rice and sweet potato, coated in grated coconut, filled with melted gula melaka.
Kueh Kochi - Pyramid-shaped gula melaka-flavoured coconut, encased in pandan-flavoured glutinous rice, wrapped in leaves and steamed.
Kueh Koswee - Gula melaka-flavoured kueh made of glutinous rice, covered in grated coconut.
Bonus recipes are mung bean filling for Kueh Kochi and Kueh Dardar.

Hubby loves Onde Onde! Me too :) I love how the sweet caramel flavour gula-melaka syrup bursts into my mouth each time I chew into a piece of the onde onde.

Each participant was given one piece of onde onde to try during class and everyone commented that one was not enough! Yep, the onde onde was addictive indeed, very bouncy, chewy and flavoursome with the tastes of coconut, gula melaka and fragrance of pandan. I like it that each ball was made very small so not a mouthful when popped into the mouth (no pun intended!).

We brought home two pieces of Onde Onde and hubby finished the two pieces all by himself, claiming that they were very nice! Looks like this recipe has gotten his stamp of approval, will KIV for making some when I have the time.

Actually I have never eaten Kueh Kochi before. But during the class, I learnt that the dough for Kueh Kochi is the same as that of the Onde Onde, just that one is boiled and the other steamed. The inti (means filling) demonstrated during class is grated coconut fried with gula melaka (which is same as the filling for Kueh Dardar). I thought the combination of the dough with the inti was a little heavy for me. Probably the mung bean filling might be better? Well, still not a fan of Kueh Kochi at this point.

Kueh Koswee is actually very easy to make. So far, I like the ones sold at Poison Ivy, Bollywood Veggies. Their version is softer texture, whereas Chef Valerie's is more bouncy and chewy which I now much prefer :)

Chef Valerie made the Kueh Koswee using mini chwee kueh moulds and they looked simply adorable. I like mini versions of kueh and cakes, easier to eat just pop one whole piece into the mouth and let the flavours fill our senses.

I'm sure most of us have this sweet childhood memory of peeling the soft and chewy rainbow lapis and eating them layer by layer. Sometimes, we even stick them on our tongues and pretend that we have extra long colourful tongues :p

Chef Valerie's version of Rainbow Lapis looks more poised and elegant with just three colours, white, green and red. The texture is also much softer and stronger in coconut taste, akin to the ones sold at Bengawan Solo. But I find the coconut taste a little too strong for my liking and the layers a little thin and soft, not easy to peel. Probably would reduce the amount of coconut milk when I attempt this recipe. And try adding more colours too :p

Now I have 3 more recipes to my to-do list. Uh-oh, too many recipes, too little time!

My first attempt at Egg Tarts

2011-08-12T21:34:00.010+08:00

Dear son loves egg tarts. I guess most kids and even many adults like the egg tart, for the crispy crust with silky smooth sweet egg custard, quite a matchmade in heaven. Personally I prefer the Hong Kong Dim Sum type with flaky crust (using oil dough and water dough), rather than the simpler version made using sweet shortcrust pastry.

So far I have hesitated to attempt the egg tart as I know the difficulties in handling such dough in our humid climate. Attended a hands-on class on flaky egg tart at Creative Culinare before and I was totally hopeless in rolling, beating and folding the dough, resulting in really ugly looking egg tarts that were very hard. Therefore, I have not attempted this before at home.

But recently, I came across two recipes using shortcrust pastry method from Precious Moments and Kokken69 and rekindled my interest in making the tarts. The recipes look quite easy to manage with basic ingredients that I already have in my pantry.

Decided to try the recipe from Precious Moments first.

Well, preparing the dough and egg custard was pretty straightforward. And I was happily thinking to myself that I could do this every other day! But the tough part came with cutting the dough into round shape and then moulding the dough into the tart mould. I had already chill the dough sufficiently in the fridge but the dough turned soft very quickly making it very pliable; couldn't even lift up the dough after cutting them using the cutter. I had to stick the dough into the fridge every now and then. Many of my tarts turned out with uneven edges.

Then, I also realised that the surface of the egg custard turned brown rather quickly. I had to remove the tarts from the oven short of the required baking time. Probably my oven was too hot. Anyway, the tarts turned out not too bad, the crust was quite crispy and custard soft (but not silky smooth enough) and sweet. I thought it was a little too sweet even though I had already reduced the amount of sugar, could do with even lesser next time then.

Dear son didn't take well to it though, he ate only half and rejected the rest. Hmmm... wonder what's wrong with the tart or is he too jaded already? Anyway, will attempt the recipe from Kokken69 next to compare the difference.

Egg Tarts(Recipe from Precious Moments. I halved the recipe and yielded 12 egg tarts)

For the crust:

95g unsalted butter, softened
113g plain flour
38g custard powder
30g icing sugar (original recipe uses caster sugar)
1/2 egg (about 27g), beaten

Method:

Crumb the butter with the plain flour, custard powder and icing sugar together into fine crumbs.
Add in the beaten egg and form a dough.
Rest dough in fridge for 10 mins or more till the dough is slightly harder (easy to handle) but not too hard (dough will break easily).
Using a plastic sheet, roll the dough thinly and using a cookie cutter, cut into disc and place into tart mould.
Using a fork, prick some holes into the dough. Set aside.

For filling:

100g boiling water
50g caster sugar (original recipe uses 75g)
2 and 1/2 eggs (about 80g), beaten
125g fresh milk

Method:

Preheat oven at 200C for 15mins
Dissolve sugar in boiling water, let cool, add egg and fresh milk. Do not beat, just stir and mix.
Strain the mixture and pour into the tart mould.
Bake at 180C for 25mins or until cooked.

Teo Soon Loong Chan Teochew Seafood Restaurant, Melaka

2011-08-09T12:02:00.005+08:00

Two Saturdays ago, hubby, dear son and I joined a group of our Uni friends on a Durian Degustation trip to Sim Koa Yen, a large durian estate in Melaka. The durian feast was ok, but our highlight of the trip turned out to be dinner at a Teochew Restaurant in Melaka. If not our friends' recommendation, we wouldn't have know that there's such a gem hidden in Melaka, in the Jonker Street area.

Our friends had to make prior reservations, for this restaurant is strictly by reservations only. I think mainly due to the limited seating capacity, at most 5 or 6 tables, packed brim to brim, and of course food is good.

Judging from the shop front, you hardly realise that it is a restaurant.

And the shop front is the kitchen. Yup, that's right, we entered the restaurant through the kitchen! How cool was that?

The whole place looks dated and very retro but this is the charm of the place. I enjoyed the boisterous atmosphere with loud chatters and laughters as diners tucked in the feast heartily.

Did I mention that the restaurant is tiny?

Yup, I was basically seated next to the vegetables and seafood! See that plate of mangoes to the top left of this photo? Dear son's seat was just next to the mangoes and he kept ~~"stealing"~~ taking them to play :p LOL!! The owner, a very friendly and nice Teochew grandpa, was so gracious and said never mind to dear son's mischief.
Basically, we just look at the seafood and veggies available and place order, cooking methods will be recommended by the chefs.

The first course was their signature oyster noodles aka "black" noodles. The gravy was very savoury and fragrant and the noodles al dente. Dear son loved it!

Braised Pork with bittergourd. The bittergourd was very soft and no longer very bitter; braised pork very tender and succulent. The sauce was perfect with rice!

Deep fried prawn and pork wrapped in beancurd skin. I love this, the skin was very crispy and the innards fresh and juicy.

Stir-fried spinach. Fresh and crunchy, personally I'm a fan of spinach so no complaints.

Steamed Pomfret "Teochew" Style. The fish was quite fresh, dear son kept asking for more.

Stir fried bamboo clams in sambal sauce. I love this, the clams were succulent and the sambal was perfect!

Ginger Wine Chicken. I like the taste of this chicken, very fragrant with ginger and wine. Reminded me of my confinement food :)

And finally Orh Nee (yam paste) dessert which was another signature dish. The yam paste was cooked perfectly, very creamy and smooth and not too sweet. And even better complemented with steamed pumpkin and ginko. A must-try dish here! They even sell convenient packs for this.

All in all, it was a nice dining experience here, good food with great company. Next time we visit Melaka, will definitely be back for a meal and try the other dishes.

For more info, visit their website at http://www.tslcmalaysia.com/. Remember to make reservations!

Tokyo May 2011 - Part III

2011-08-05T13:52:00.117+08:00

Hope you have enjoyed my ramblings on the Tokyo trip in May (Part I and II) :p

Well, here's just a short one sharing some of the interesting pastries and zakka that I brought back.

This was the swiss roll I bought from 自由が丘swiss roll house at Jiyugaoka. Since it was perishable, I ate it immediately upon reaching the hotel. The sponge was so tender and light and perfect with the cream. No wonder it was so popular.

When I was at Isetan Shinjuku, I was totally overwhelmed by the desserts and pastries there. Later I found out that Isetan Shinjuku has the best and largest number of pastries and desserts specialty counters. So for those who are fans of pastries, this would be a haven. Famous brands like Pierre Hermes, Patisserie Sadaharu Aoki, Patisserie Kihachi and soooo many more which I don't even know.

I bought these Canelé and Financiers from Patisserie noix de beurre. Saw many people queueing for them so decided to try too! The financiers were very good, slightly crispy on the outside with tender and moist crumbs. Love it! This could probably replace my lost Financier from Mont-Blanc at Jiyugaoka. The Canelé was quite well done too, with crunchy caramelized crust and soft and tender custard centre. I also bought a lemon cake which was shaped just like a lemon, but forgot to take photo before eating :p

This was a very interesting pound cake from 365 Loriod re-by anniversaries. It's amazing how creative the Japs are, turning an ordinary looking pound cake into something special. This was a lemon pound cake, the top decorated with bits of candied orange peel and ginger, chopped pistachios and some lemon glaze.

And the centre of the pound cake was a heart-shaped apricot jelly-candy. Pretty right? Taste-wise, quite good too, the pound cake was quite moist and tender. There were another rose version, topped with tiny bits of rose petals and chopped pistachios and the jelly-candy was strawberry flavoured.

This was from Yoku Moku, once again at Isetan Shinjuku. Tiny little financiers topped with sugared jelly-sweets, five flavours in total like earl grey, coffee, green tea.... Couldn't resist buying them as they looked so pretty, like little pieces of jewellery. Despite its small size, the financiers tasted good as well.

Another interesting, couldn't remember from which deli already. An earl grey madeleine, topped with white chocolate tinted baby pink and topped with rose petals and chopped pistachios.

How did the Japs managed to make an ordinary looking madeleine look so pretty, simple yet stunning? And unlike some madeleines I tried before, this was not dry at all, quite tender and moist. Anyway, this gave me the inspiration and some ideas on cake decoration.

It was definitely a feast for the eyes at Isetan Shinjuku. As I had very little time there, I could only scan through everything briefly :( Wished I could stay longer. Next time perhaps.

Anyway, these are just some of my shopping. Have ~~hiddened~~ packed everything into my cabinets before taking photo and hence too lazy to take out everything again :p

Cabbage shredder, cutesy food decorating tools from Loft; clock cum kitchen timer from francfranc, large size flour sifter with base lid from Tokyu Hands, mini size glass jar from Natural Kitchen and so on...

Lip gloss, bath gels and hand soaps from Apivita, Timeless Comfort, Afternoon Tea; pouches, umbrellas from Afternoon Tea, pretty iphone counter from Loft....

Zakka Shopping in Japan is really fulfilling! I love Japan!!! LOL :p

Shopping Resources

Isetan Shinjuku http://www.isetan.co.jp/icm2/jsp/store/shinjuku/index.jsp
Patisserie noix de beurre http://noix-de-beurre.com/
Patisserie Yoku Moku http://www.yokumoku.co.jp/
Afternoon Tea http://www.afternoon-tea.net/
Tokyu Hands http://www.tokyu-hands.co.jp/
Loft http://www.loft.co.jp/
Natural Kitchen http://www.natural-kitchen.jp/
francfranc http://www.loft.co.jp/
Timeless Comfort http://www.timelesscomfort.com/
quatre saisons http://www.quatresaisons.co.jp/

Tokyo May 2011 - Part II

2011-08-03T10:25:00.003+08:00

Continued from here.

The next day, we woke up at 9+. We were supposed to go to Meiji Shrine at 2+ to attend the Shinto Wedding and thereafter the wedding reception. I decided to head out for some final shopping since we were taking the early flight home the next morning.

So I headed to Loft across the street which opens at 10am, shopped there for an hour before popping to Uniqlo for clothes, and finally Tokyu Food Show for some pastries and also packed lunch. Then rushed back to the hotel, took my lunch and dressed up for the wedding ceremony. Ladies typically wear a black day dress and accessorize with pearls or kimono whereas men in dark suit and white tie. After making ourselves presentable, we took the JR on the Yamanote Line to Harajuku which is the station nearest to Meiji Shrine.

Entrance of the Meiji Shrine. It has been a long time (probably 8 years) since we last visited. After a long walk on gravel and stones into the shrine, we finally reached the hall. Phew! It was tough walking in heels!

The couple were taking photos in the grounds. I must say the photographer and staff took a lot of effort to ensure that each and every photo was perfect, from adjusting the standing and sitting positions, the clothes and all. Truly professional!

After their photo-taking, we were ushered to the waiting room where we met N's relatives and friends. Not sure if it is a custom/tradition, N's father made introductions of everyone present, including us. The couple as well as guests were also given instructions by the staff of the shrine on what to expect and observe during the ceremony later. Soon it was time to enter the shrine, all of us lined up in a procession and walked towards the shrine, just like what we saw when we visited Japan shrines. This time round, we were the ones in the procession :) It felt surreal and also a little funny as we were the ones being filmed/photographed this time.

The ceremony was around 30 mins, done in a very sacred and solemn manner. We wished we knew more of the Japanese language to understand the meaning of the rituals.

After the ceremony, we were ushered back to the waiting room to wait for cabs which would take us to the wedding reception, held at adding: blue restaurant at Omotesando. This is an intimate French kitchen attached to the Blue Note jazz club next door.

Look at the extensive menu planned by the restaurant specially for this wedding reception! The restaurant took a lot of effort to source for the best and freshest ingredients from all over Japan. The Japanese really took pride in whatever they do.

The restaurant was cozy and elegant, with beautifully decorated florals and glasswares. Throughout the reception, the staff were very attentive and topped up our glasses whenever they were half full, and cleared dishes very promptly.

The reception started with R giving a speech in Japanese. The couple was very thoughtful and gave us a translated script in English so that we could understand. Followed by N's father, who also gave a speech in Japanese. Once again, translated script were given to us. Thereafter, the couple proposed a toast to start off the dinner.

First course - Raw Ham taste Blan-Manger prepare in it Cocktail with YUBARI-Melon Paste. This was a sweet beginning to the dinner. I loved the melon paste which was juicy and sweet and paired with the raw ham very well.

Second Course - Baked French Foie Gras and Apricot Terrine, Honey flavour of the Orange. This was the first time I ate baked foie gras, previously was always grilled. It was very rich and creamy but a tad too overwhelming after eating half a piece. Luckily the slight sourness and sweetness of the apricot and honey balanced the taste. I think I still prefer grilled foie gras.

Third course - Freshwater prawn rolled up with Kadaif served with saute of the Spinach, Balsamico and Lemon taste Vinegar sauce. Ohhh, I loved this dish. The Kadaif was very crispy and prawn very juicy and crunchy, excellent paired with the Spinach as well as the sauce.

Fourth course - Pan-fried Red Snapper with Gnocchi a style of Paris and Green Pea, Beaten White Wine sauce. I loved this fish too, the red snapper was very very fresh and tasted so sweet. The sauce was very special and complemented the gnocchi and fish very well.

Fifth course - Grilled Sirloin of the Japanese Beef served with Red Wine sauce, Stuffed Truffle taste small potato and Rape Blossoms. Although we were already very full, we just had to finish this beef! The beef was sooo juicy and tender!

Sixth course - Mango Pudding and Aloe Marinade with Almond Tile. The mango pudding was so light it almost melted in the mouth, paired well with the aloe vera.

Seventh and final course - The Wedding Cake! Of course we had to eat the wedding cake which was Berries and Vanilla flavoured. Fluffy and tender crumbs topped with chantilly cream and fresh berries. Such a sweet and perfect ending to the course.

Towards the end of the reception, R's father made a speech in English, and N's brother helped to translate into Japanese so that the relatives could understand. One of N's uncle who stayed in Hokkaido (he was ex-Mayor of a town) also made a speech and invited us to Hokkaido next time. In fact, throughout the reception, many of N's relatives came forward to chat with us, made us feel at home as we were the only foreign guests present. They were ever so gracious, despite speaking limited English and I limited Japanese. They kept thanking us for attending the wedding even though it was a trying period for Tokyo, and saying that they were very appreciative and grateful. N's parents even gave us a gift. We were truly very touched by their graciousness and hospitality! This was really one of the best and most cozy wedding reception I have ever attended.

Thereafter, we took a cab back to the hotel. Although we were still high from the reception, we decided to just pack our luggage and rest for the night as we were catching an early flight the next day.

The next day after checking out, we still had 30 mins before the airport limousine bus scheduled arrival. So we quickly went to a nearby ramen shop for breakfast.

It was still very early (6am local time, 7am Sin time), there weren't any others in the shop.

We ordered a set meal which came with a bowl of ramen, half portion fried rice and gyoza. It was nice to warm the tummy with a hot bowl of soupy ramen.

The fried rice was excellent! Not too oily, and very fragrant with the addition of spring onions.

The skin of the gyoza was pan-fried to a crisp and the innards of pork filling oozing with juice. Nice!

Well, with the sumptuous breakfast, we rushed back to the hotel to board the airport limousine bus, off to the airport and back to SG.

This was indeed one of my most memorable trip to Japan, due to the fact that it was after a 2-year hiatus and most significantly, attended a Shinto Wedding followed by a special and cozy reception.

I missed Japan already :(

Stay tuned for the final part, some sharing of my shopping!!!