Christmas and New Year 2017

It has been feasting and more feasting for the past two weeks! Family, friends, colleagues - I think I've not had so much year-end celebrations before. I'd planned to use my Christmas leave for spring cleaning and 'healthy' living but in the end I only managed to clock in 1 session for both. Not really productive in the sense of goal-hitting.

Well, another session is coming up this week and I've prepared small goodies as belated Christmas gifts. Just an idea for gift-wrapping - I love Christmas colours!

Christmas goodie bags with the last of my ribbons

Cooking Experiments: Spaghetti Carbonara Scrambled

When the cat is out, the mouse comes out to play. It's just so awesome to have all the ingredients at hand and the only 'need' is to get into the mood. Today, after a long day at work and dinner-less, I decided to try cooking carbonara. A friend had said it's really easy and you basically only need eggs!

So I modified a recipe to suit... well, actually I just like modifying things according to gut feel! haha! It turned out...

Somewhat spaghetti carbonara - maybe next time...

Baking Experiments: Baked Cheese Tarts

When we were in Japan (a few years back), I remember buying this Pablo 'rare cheese tart' because (1) there was a long queue (kiasu lah) and (2) I was curious why they called it "rare" since I've only seen the term used in steak. It turned out to be a light cheese cake with a wobbly centre - we took the medium rare. At that time, we were greenhorns and put up all our mental barriers that it was too oozy for our schmoozy time.

Recently there's been a craze for Hokkaido baked cheese tarts. A slew of stores have been popping up in all the malls and there are a few brands which are all yellow with black text - I haven't been paying attention, I thought they were all the same. The tarts would sell for around RM5 each (but I've not bought any in Malaysia so far). The only time I had it was in Bangkok earlier this year - and it was gooood!

Bake Cheese Tarts we had while waiting for a seat in After You Cafe in Central World, Bangkok

Cooking Experiments: Creamy Curry Pasta

Over the weekend I bought some cooking cream in the hopes of trying my hand at carbonara (my fav which causes fatty ass but I probably need some adipose there!). When I got home and started googling for a recipe, to my surprise most of the recipes only used eggs and no cooking cream! A moment of enlightenment for me.

So over to today's lunch. The lunch gang decided that Friday is a splurge day after the crazy week we've had. And so we drove out to the nearby New Chapter by The Owls Cafe. Going into CCC reminded me of the Sponsor a Brick from many many years ago and now I was a stranger entering.

Creamy curry pasta - New Chapter (left) & homemade (right)

Baking Experiments: Blackout Brownies, Roasted Vegetables, Baked Eggs, Berries with Yoghurt, Pizza & Salted Caramel Chocolate Tarts

For the past few months I have been experimenting whenever time permitted. The success rate was somewhat mixed but I am just happy that I completed them and eventually someone ate them up.

First Birthday Trip: Boracay

Our conversation during New Year's Eve had sparked a yearning to do things differently in Year 2016. So, overnight we had decided and booked a trip to Boracay, Philippines to "celebrate" our three birthdays which spanned from late January to early February (although none of our birthdays were during our trip dates!).

Getting there was an adventure in itself. We boarded a morning AirAsia flight and was about 2 hours into the journey when the captain announced that we were turning back to KL due to "technical problems". Everyone thought it was a joke but it wasn't. This was the first time I have had to fly from KL and transit in KL too! We heard that the reason we turned back was because strong winds were pushing the plane off course and the captain didn't want to take any chances.

We finally got onto the replacement flight at 3.15 p.m. (without any compensation for the delay from AirAsia) and reached Kalibo International Airport after 7 p.m. The immigration counter was like a soapbox, which was amusing.

Kalibo International Airport - one of two airports which we can land in to get to Boracay

Baking Experiments: Cheese Tarts

Last weekend, I decided to stay home and make something useful of my time. I was looking around for what I could do and found a cheese tart recipe on the MFM superfine flour box. It looked simple, so I went out to buy some butter and started on it.

This was the outcome:

Home baked cheese tarts from scratch

Starting with Many Firsts

It's the 5th day of the year and already there's been quite a few firsts for me. But first, let me share my first dessert plate for 2016.

Cakes, tarts and puffs in Grand Millennium Hotel, KL

Part 2: Kyoto and Osaka

Continuing from where I left off in my earlier post, with Fujisan checked off our list we headed into the second leg of our trip. Upon C's recommendation, we bought the Hikari shinkansen and hotel package from Japanican to Kyoto for 3 days 2 nights. Our plan was to take a day trip to Osaka using a local train.

As this post is really really late (and I can't remember the details from 2014 anymore), I'll just post my photos and comment on them as we go along.

M had read that there was a famous okonomiyaki place near the Nishiki Market in Kyoto. So when we arrived and found our way to our hotel (which was just outside one of the train stations a couple of stops away from Kyoto Station), we asked for directions from the hotel reception and headed out for dinner. It was well worth the visit - Nishiki Warai.

Okonomiyaki in Nishiki Warai, Kyoto

Baking Experiments: Hokkaido Cake

After class, practice makes perfect. So since my first baking class, I have practiced baking Hokkaido cakes twice. The more I practice, the less panic I get and the squeaking is minimised. Mum taught me that mixing the batter into the meringue is best done with bare hands and it is true!

Fresh in the oven

Baking Experiments: Kiwi Muffins

This post is a little late. It was the first time I tried out using my then new Electrolux hand mixer. I bought a kiwi muffin mix from Bagus baking supplies shop and one afternoon, when the mood was right, I began experimenting.

All the ingredients needed for the kiwi muffins

Teapsy on Green Tea

Today I attended my first baking class at The Cooking House. I redeemed the free class for my Panasonic oven purchase earlier this year. I remember accompanying my mum when I was little for such classes at the National/Panasonic showroom in Section 13, PJ, but now I think they have closed down that centre.

So, today we learned how to make Hokkaido cake, matcha and red bean swiss roll and sushi handroll. The session was pretty rushed towards the end as we overshot by an hour. Working in a team of 3, our group managed to complete all but the aesthetics part... questionable! haha none of us had any experience in chiffon cake making (both cakes basically used the chiffon technique).

Green tea and red bean swiss roll

My Cheesecake Fell Apart!

Finally made my chilled cheesecake after many months of procrastinating. I tried a recipe given by a colleague and unfortunately it didn't turn out too good (texture wise).

Chilled Cheesecake with chocolate layer

Biggest Super Ring Cheese Ball

Most Malaysian who have had their childhood locally would know and remember this electric blue plastic bag with luminous orange cheese rings - Super Ring! Although Super Ring has evolved through the years to a lighter orange (apparently natural cheese colour), it's taste is unmistakably the same. Just yummy milky cheesy yummy.

Super Ring cheesy goodness!

Waffles Cravings at Inside Scoop KK

I've driven past Inside Scoop many times while on the way to Gamuda Walk in Kota Kemuning, but never had the urge enough to turn into the shophouse area. However, today I had a friend with me and we decided to go for some ice cream after dinner.

Googling revealed that they had waffles and I had been longing to have nice waffles for some time. Can't seem to find one that tasted as good as those we had at Max Brenner in Brisbane many many years ago.

So off we went for some ice cream tasting and eventually ordered charcoal waffles with a scoop of salted caramel and peanut butter jelly.

Inside Scoop's charcoal waffles with Salted Caramel and PBJ ice cream

Part 1: Our trip to the Land of the Rising Sun (post late by a year and some)

Around March last year, the three of us set out to finally visit our dear friend in Tokyo. It took us three years to make the trip and C was already in her final year of PhD studies. Nevertheless, we found some time in between the busyness of us three to agree on a date and just book those darn flight tickets!

So off we went with some level of planning and budgeting. Our itinerary was to spend a few days in Tokyo and then head to Kawaguchiko, back to Tokyo, shinkansen our way to Kyoto, day trip to Osaka and back to Tokyo for the remaining days. Being Asian, we wanted to cover as much as possible (ideally) but reality always pulls us back to earth and enjoy things as it comes rather than chasing a humanly impossible schedule.

First Bake Test

Like many Malaysians, I too had a panic buying streak right before the implementation of GST on April Fool's Day. What did I buy? My long time iWant - a Panasonic 42L Inverter convection microwave oven (NN-CD997S). Yes very "aunty", I know.

But since our previous oven (the great great great grandmother model of my new oven) of over 20 years was ruined by the big flood, I'd been hankering for a replacement but there wasn't a strong enough justification to get one. Until now.

It was an annual bonus gift to myself, besides the GST part. *plop plop* - killed two birds with one stone. KPI achieved!

Although delivery was made in mid-April, I'd only got down to unboxing the oven in late April. And finally the first bake test was on Sunday. I made the only thing I was comfortable baking - chocolate chip cookies!

Chocolate chip cookies baked with Panasonic Inverter oven

Verdict: The oven is easy to use. My baking time needs tweaking - rebaked each tray a couple of times. Taste of the cookies - suits me! Salty yums! A friend had said it tasted like a certain famous cookie brand out there! ;)

What Causes Browning?

"Bake till golden brown" is something commonly found in cookbook instructions. But what does that actually mean?

Crust lover or hater?

I remember while growing up, we used to fight over the cake crusts - especially when mom was making black forest cakes for order. She would apportion the unwanted crusts to appease us and sometimes cut a little extra cake with the crusts.

Visit KL 3.0 - Royal Selangor Visitor Centre

The third installation of our annual self-enlightenment on our city Kuala Lumpur took place over the long weekend right before Hari Raya (yes, that was quite a while back). This year our numbers had increased from a two-men show to five! We had planned to visit 3 places, but in the end we managed to visit only one. Seems like the museums decided to close early for Raya, although their websites had stated otherwise. Silly me for not calling to re-confirm before going ahead with the plans.

Nonetheless, our itinerary numero uno was thoroughly satisfying for all of us - the Royal Selangor Visitor Centre. I was surprised that a Malaysian company (set up by a Chinese pewtersmith, Yong Koon) would invest a considerable amount of capital on creating a mini museum with complimentary guided tour, short workshops (for a fee) and a chic cafe within their factory premises. Of course, given that the objective is probably to preserve the company's heritage and also to associate this strong heritage with its branding.

Entrance to the Royal Selangor Visitor Centre

Being Thankful: Day 77

I'm thankful for:

1. long overdue meetup.
2. sharing of experience.
3. email on May Day - next week it is.
4. finally getting to try the softshell crab burger - now I know what not to order.
5. getting a good kind of nervousness. I've got nothing to lose. I'll just try.
6. this coffee for breakfast!