Starting my new life in SINGA with some DOGGIES

Finally here in the land of SINGA, we're back to reality. LONG long long working hours... *SIgh**

Home sweet home

Home sweet home, i'm back to blogging business!! Pity, i forgot my camera USB port, otherwise i would have so much to show. I'm still not satisfied that they blocked blogspot back in BJ, although i do understand the reasons behind (arrggh!). It's good to have blogspot back in KK :-).

One day gone, and i spent almost whole day visiting grandmama. Had my fave muk shu gaos di, all 3 in one go and i can feel my body overdozed with coconut milk, so much that i think i better leave them alone for the next 3 days. No worries, i'll get more than enough to carry on board, hehe just in case i regret bah....

Haven't got the chance to satisty all my other cravings, apart from the tapiocas and coconut milk of course, but thank God i managed to restart my chiffon adventures despite the limited hours i have for myself. The blueberry yogurt chiffon cake smells so good from the oven (let's hope it tastes the same), boy, makes me wanna kiss and hug my chiffon cake tin to sleep tonight (hehe someone is gonna freak out if he can open this website :-P). I still love my bundt tin but it makes so much difference with a proper chiffon tin; my cake looks more 'chiffoney' if there's such word.

Schedule will be awfully tight for the next couple days. Let's pray i can spend my time wisely, and more with my parents and sissies, before the future tells me when is my next visit.

P/S: I'm having fish head noodles tomorrow, and i can't bring myself to sleep just at the thought of it. It's not my brain's fault, it's my tummy growling.

Friday already?

Phew, time flies! Seems like Mother's Day was just yesterday, and it's Friday already. Even me who is considerably the most free person in the world is amazed at how time passes by every day. Every night i would look back and think of the stuff i've done throughout the day. I would feel ashamed, because the answer is often baking. It's only a hobby, but it has become some sort of a daily routine. I would then shake my head and tell myself that i need to focus on something else instead. Or work harder on my Chinese. :-P

As evidenced in the below, I've spent most of this week on baking, again. Starting from our daily breakfast sweet buns of various fillings,

to the first attempt of Guang Su Bing

and more Baguettes

for some Bruschettas (my version).

Not forgeting also, my continuous practice on chinese flaky pastries which has definitely improved a lot:

I also learnt to make hua jian (steamed flower buns) from mom in law, and helped her wrapped some chinese bao zis for dinner.

The only difference this week was i managed to visit a big local market and got some of my favourite foods like asparagus (i heart heart heart asparagus very much!!)

more raw walnuts (very good for hair and brain),

a big Chinese yam, coz i was thinking of making yam buns/ cake,

and more lychees which i can never resist hehe...

Spotted a lot of loquats and got a few since i've not tried any before.

From today onwards, i have a new commitment:

'Upgrade the proficiency of my English which includes fluency in speaking, extensive vocabulary knowledge and usage, and improvement in my writing skill.'

Trust me, as you read this blog, my English seems to be getting to nowhere.

BBQ Pork Buns

I had some leftover char sao filling from the siew bao bake the other day, so decided to make some baked buns. Wanted to imitated the ones from No. 10 or a coffee shop at Lido, but i knew i would not succeed this time as the filling itself is already far from worse in comparison to their buns. Sigh, i miss char sao bao oh :-( and many many other food like muk shu gao, sea water fish (in sweet and sour, thai sauce or asam masam), guava, and my parents' cooking (although it's just baked beans and egg). Haha, sounds like as if i had lost my trademark. It's true, no kidding, go and ask around people who know me what they knew about me, and they'll tell you 'she eats char sao bao everyday' or 'she likes sweet and sour very much'! No longer the case now, so don't be surprised if i'm lighter a few kilos.

Why am i telling you all this? No intention, i was just reminding myself that humans need to update, adapt and change to new things/ environment from time to time. Can't stick on to a habit for long, especially when it has become like an obligation or stronghold if it's the right word. I used to eat char sao bao, muk shu gao and drink countless cups of coffee everyday. Honestly, that was my daily must-have menu. And, when comes to selection of dish in a chinese restaurant, sweet and sour fish would be first on my mind. Also, I barely had any meals without tomato sauce or chilli. Reason, they are my favourites. Today i don't anymore. Not that i dislike them, infact they are still my No. 1 favourites, but i've come to the point of accepting that i can't have everything i want at all times. Every place has a different culture, eating lifestyle and habit. Importantly, i can't bring 'home' with me to wherever i go.

In BJ, i'm trained to eat lotsa vegetables (of which some i've never seen before) and nutritious snacks like walnuts, dried dates, fresh fruits and seaweed etc and drink tea instead of coffee. My meat intake has reduced a lot this year, but beef consumption seems to have doubled. In terms of fish, we have them almost every week; fresh water ones though. And oh ya, i also have an apple a day. It's my must-have now.

Nothing is impossible when comes to kicking off some old habits or routine. As long as one is willing to give up and take in new things. And this is what i'm learning hard now.

Of course home is still the best, because that's where i grew up and spent most of my years. That's the place i know i can get the best 'char sao bao' although it may not be to many people, and where i can drink good soups because my grandma and mom boil the best nutritious soup. And where i can eat lots and lots of good fresh seawater fish!

Chinese Flaky Pastries Part II

I'm still practising hard on my chinese pastry skill and for the past couple of days, i've made the followings:

i. Curry puffs, still pretty lacking in terms of shape. I understand some people use special moulds to shape their puffs perfectly, infact i've seen these moulds myself on KK supermarket shelves. Too bad i can't get any here, so had to depend on my amateur skill to bring out that crescent shape on the edge.

And then i got too tired of shaping, so popped all curry fillings and twisted them upwards like 'siew bao' instead. Easily 'gao dim'.

ii. Siew bao, or char sao kok. This is classic, hehe. Just last Friday, i told Hub i was craving for some BBQ red pork, or 'char sao' despite the swine flu hit, (ok, by eating pork you don't get infected!) and by that afternoon he bought me some from Dao Xiang Cun. People here don't eat 'char sao' which they consider as a GuangDong dish, and for whatever reason i don't know, it's not easy to buy them here. Most restaurants or gourmet shops don't sell them, and even if they do, they probably don't taste very good. Good thing Hub knows only Dao Xiang Cun has them but as i had predicted, the meat tasted far from average than those back home. It was hard and solid! (Gosh, i miss the Merdeka char sao a lot! And my fave char sao bao too!).

Well despite, i was thankful i had them. Because i could then cook them up and make siew bao! And here they are, my first made char sao kok:

Of course, when your raw material is not very good, your end product will not turn out far. Also, my cooking sucks, this time round gravy was too little making the filling a bit 'dry'. Pastry wise, ok i guess, buttery and flaky as how it should be.

Shall attempt again, until i succeed.

Korean BBQ n Cuisine

There's something about Korean food that i'm curious about. It's the slightly sweet spiciness that i can never find in Japanese food but among all, it's their grilled meat that i heart the most.

Just yesterday, we celebrated the occasion of Mother's Day at a very nearby Korean restaurant that we frequented a lot. It's funny when i think of it, i had never initiated to take my camera along in our past visits although i had ranked it one of my most favourite restaurants in BJ. Since it was Mother's Day, this time round i had my camera with me but sadly, we didn't order any grilled meat set, instead we had typical Korean cuisine (at least i think it's original, unless they fuse it to suit the Chinese's tastebud). The restaurant itself is famous for their Korean grilled meat. Gas grill burners are built into each table and the waitress would grill all meat as you sit and enjoy. Fresh lettuce and good dips are available for wrapping the grilled meats. Almost like eating Hakka Kiu Nyuk. Apart that the marinated or seasoned meat can range from sirloin to pork to chicken. Yummzz. I'm sorry as i do not have any photos to show but i promise, on my next visit i will definitely capture some.

A Korean meal is never complete without kimchi, or pao chai, their fermented vegetables. To be honest, my first time eating kimchi was dated few months ago when a good friend of dad-in-law kindly brought us some. I had no idea it was kimchi until i saw exactly the same thing in this restaurant. It was like cold cabbage marinated in a special sweet and spicy chilli sauce. The taste of the sauce itself is very uncommon to my taste bud, nothing like Thai chilli sauce or the local sauces that i'm known to, but i fall in love with it. Doesn't taste at all like the comments I had heard since young. Later on, I did a bit of research and discovered that the Koreans actually mixed in red pepper powder instead of any sauces i had initially thought. The vegetables which can be any form or type, ranging from cabbage to radish are soaked in brine for a few hours until they are softened before the spices are added. One thing that amazed me is, i don't find these preserved vegetables salty at all! Very unlike the Chinese ones. Then again, I saw how they made kimchi in a Korean serie i'm currently hooked to and it kinda put me off in a way. Hub claimed they are not very clean, yet so far, i've not got any diarrhoea due to eating kimchis. Putting these thoughts behind, we decided anyway, to order a plate of kimchi, which came in cabbage and radish. Very good, slightly sweet and spicy as how i like it.

Next was this 'Korean styled' stir fried vegetables. At least that was what they claimed. If I wasn't aware that it was a Korean restaurant i was dining at, i would have thought this is a Chinese dish! They even added black fungus, or mu er! A bit on the salty side, but pretty good.

Korean Stir Fried Rice Cake! A popular street food in Korea, you can even notice it in some Korean movies! These are actually rice cakes stir fried with carrots, peppers, and onions and then stewed in a Korean sauce known as 'gochujang'. People who love sticky snacks like nian gao or nyonya kuihs would love this. Slightly sweet and spicy also, but can give you a 'pukey' feeling if you had too much.

Hub ordered this bowl of Korean 'zha jiang mian' (fried sauce noodles) to compare with those locally sold in BJ. As predicted, nothing in comparison, and taste wise definitely not as good as Chinese Zha Jiang Mian! (Zha Jiang Mian is thick wheat noodles topped with a mixture of ground pork which had been stir fried with fermented soybean paste)

Last dish was beef tenderloin stewed with ginseng. The gravy was also a bit on the salty side, but in overall i think it was pretty good. Not much meat to be found though, seems like more bones.

This restaurant gives out free ice cream sticks and fruits as dessert, which we happily 'ta pao' home as we were too full by then (only three of us and five dishes!).

The next time i decide to dine at this restaurant again, i'll make sure we order the grilled meat because that's perhaps the only thing that's worth eating when comes to Korean food. No offense, I do like Korean food in a way, but not so much of my preference unless it's grilled meat!

Blessed Mother's Day

Today is a special day for mothers. It's the day to remember, and celebrate a mother's love. A day to thank her and shower her with lotsa kisses, hugs, gifts, etc. For some, it's perhaps the only day throughout the year of 365 days to cook/ treat her a decent dinner or tell her the three simple words "i love you".

I personally think it's pretty awkward. Or sometimes, i regret because out of the 365 days, 12 months, 52 weeks, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes and 31,536,000 seconds we are blessed with throughout the year, we chose only one day to treat our moms as queens and send messages that our moms so long want to hear. Aren't we supposed to tell them we love them everyday?

Tell you what, and this is very true, a child can never give back the same love as equally as how his mom has for him. Motherly love is the most most sacrificial love among mankind in this world. Nobody, not even the love of a husband or lover can compare with the love of a mother for her children. A mother is one who endures that nine months of pregnancy, who drags herself from the middle of a sound sleep to nurse her hungry baby, who forgives her children unconditionally, who thinks her children are the most beautiful creations in the world no matter how 'rascal' they turn into, who tends her children with enough care, who makes sure they're well fed in the midst of her business, who has to make sure her children are home safely before she can go to bed peacefully, who worries this and that for her children, who prays persistently everynight for their well beings and future and who willingly gives all she has for them. Although i'm not a mom myself yet, i understand a mother's role is not easily played, and the list just goes on. I once chanced upon a joke: which job among so many is the busiest, takes up 24 hours, no rest, and no retirement until death? A mother!

Once again today, i was reminded that i have parents because God has blessed me with them. It's a blessing to wake up knowing that your parents may be thinking of you at that very moment, and you have them to think about. Yes, i'm very blessed to have my parents. And my parents in law.

Blessed Mother's Day to all the mothers out there, especially to my dear mom, and mom-in law. I love you always :-) Wo ai ni!

P/S: Made the above cake specially for Mother's day. It's called Double Happiness, strawberry chilled cheese layer sandwiched in between two light cottony cheesecakes with fresh chopped strawberries lined in heart shape on top.