pastry arts

Cookies for Fundraising Bake sale! & A walking dream's last blog post :)

2012-02-14T00:42:00.003+08:00

Was quite happy to give a hand when my cousin told me she (her college?) needed cupcakes to sell for fundraising! I agreed readily since I don't have to work today, but because they wont have proper storage for cakes I felt that cookies will be the best alternative.

the classic cookie dough

remember my 6kg cacao barry chocolate chips? LOL. couldnt feel happier to use them :P heehee!!

Decided to bake chocolate fudge chip cookies (standard sweet fix) and raisin-cornflake cookies which is a recipe given by my best friend. She gave me these cookies on one of my birthdays, I loved it so much we made it together after that! :D

Packing. The chocolate cookies are soft cookies, so I wanted to make sure they were sealed.

So much fun, been long since I made something that tastes so comfy and homely :)

Ingredient list, just to be safe!!

Yup, a cookie post to end A wAlKiNG dReAm. (gayyy).

Just thought to say, food blogging is something I enjoy doing a lot. I get to share a lot of things through this space which makes me happy. I really hope ppl distinguish the difference between sharing and showing off...... I've decided to put this food blog to a stop after a terrible encounter which happened last week, I took good time to reflect as I didn't want to write an emotional post.

I've never felt turned off running a food blog before. I receive emails from people occasionally and I try to help them in any ways I can as I think they are just curious and friendly? (including giving them recipes they want, which btw I've stopped posting PURELY because I'm really lazy -.- especially desserts. There are too many components) But I got played a bad prank on this time. The thing that hit me hardest was how I didn't expect it coming from "friendly readers" because I've never imagine food blogging will get back at me this way. How I was omg-so-patient-and-stupid to reply not just nicely but excitedly thinking it was another pastry enthusiast who genuinely wanted to know more. (I know you're reading this). Right, and how I ignorantly believed someone *just moving into Singapore and thus welcoming her into my beautiful city with all my heart*.

WOWS, when I discovered the plot I was........ sort of: dorz you fucking idiot.

Maybe even that is an understatement. This person (quite obviously from the local F&B industry) was trying to retrieve some information by using an identity that doesn't even exist. I was beyond shocked. I can't believe someone tried to do sthg like that to a noob who hasn't even turned 19 yet. Trying to pull me down, get me into the deepest shitzx by making me speak badly of other establishments LOL (LONG STORY SHORT, I've carefully evaluated the emails, and I know what exactly is going on), which unfortunately for him/her. because I am not the kinda person.

Throughout the past few days the only thing making me less sad at this incident is the fact that I'm not gossipy, whatsmore spreading stuffs about chefs or places I don't even know.

So amidst the drama, I FINALLY noted the little hints mocking me in the email too. Is it funny or silly I didn't think I was being mocked initally as I am THAT open-minded? Don't people get the importance of being receptive towards new ideas. No? Honestly, if you don't like me, why give me so much attention over cooking/pastry? I don't even know when I will put down this passion. In fact, I feel that the day will eventually come. Know why I'm saying this? Because your insecurity is manifesting. I can't believe I was so nice and sincere when I replied you. If I knew what was going on at all, I wouldn't have bothered saying anything. I'm not so pretentious as to playing along. Quite clearly you tried taking advantage of my immaturity (which FAILED) and def took advantage of my naiveness.

I've LOOOONNNG considered putting this food blog to a stop although I won't delete it. It has documented the best time of my life in Australia and pictures which mean a lot to me. Thank you everyone who actually enjoyed visiting this space from the bottom of my heart, but I know I'll be happier food-blogging for my friends. I just don't even want to be associated with such contemptible stuffs anymore........ if my food blog is generating haters, this space will become meaningless.

/// No words can express my regret telling you where I'll be working at, knowing that there are ppl so scary like you reading my space is the reason why I'm not breathing a clue about my new workplace now. Don't bother replying me as I've already woken up from my idiocy and the drama you wonderfully fabricated has ended. I have nothing else to say to you.

But you need to know this, I'm utterly disgusted.

WHY SO SERIOUS?

2012-02-11T01:55:00.002+08:00

I can make you a cocktail if that pleases you a little.

On a side note, this space will probably be abandoned by for awhile. Work is starting soon, I don't want to blog the wrong stuffs, someone is getting very personal at me. LOL.

Ending off with a quote from my housemate that I've always wanted to share
"没有人有义务对任何人好"
Its really true, one should never think that people are obligated to be nice to you.

IMPORTANT: Counting calories & Running

2012-02-09T21:37:00.001+08:00

I came across this article on Yahoo SG by coach Jon on 'calories count'. Its kinda funny if you read my previous blog post. It was even bolded in the article that

"Calorie counting is useless if you have not got the correct food type first."

LOL well that post was written by a professional gym trainer, so please read that up (I don't want to mislead anyone with a bit of my crap!). But bodybuilders freak me out in a lot of ways because I always feel that there's this excessive-obsession towards their own body and diet which is extremely disturbing.

Of course there's a vast difference between 500cal of meat/veg and 500cal of ice creams, but why don't people ever realize they are such unhappy & ANGSTY living things because they don't take enough sweets? unlike me ha-ha! I'M SERIOUS. that's why I figured out all primary, secondary schools and colleges should have a decent cake shop :) Then we'll have less moody teachers LOL.

Watching my total calories is already a ****ing pain in my ass so I wouldn't forbid myself from my share of pastries?

Meal 1: Black bean soup + Jacobs Weetameal biscuits

(its not my fixed breakfast, I change it every day according to what I have at home lol)

Meal 2: Mandarin orange (thats leftover from CNY HAHA) & dried fig

-I actually have a bodybuilder friend telling me not to eat fruits/milk as it contains sugar: sugar encourages the absorption of fat. I CANT BELIEVE THIS!!!! See what I meant by their EXTREME practices to achieve that sorta body? FAINT*

Meal 3: Tuna & Enoki mushrooms pasta

My kinda lunchbox back in Australia SOOOOO EASYYY. Overseas students' life is priceless, treasure it if you are going through it!! :)))) My mum claimed that it was gross though _._

Meal 4: Pecan granola cereals w soymilk

(The only two kinds of milk I drink are strawberry milk and BUBBLE MILK TEA! When it comes to cereals I prefer soymilk! ^^)

Then went for sauna:

Not sure if you have seen a mobile sauna before. I have this in my m'sia house (yup I'm in M'sia now). It conducts heat through infrared waves but I usually stay inside for max. 30minutes as its so BORING. I always tell my brother I am someone who cannot sit down and do nothing. HAHA

I don't believe this helps lose weight btw, so please don't use sauna as part of your "WORKOUT" LOL!!!

Meal 5: Apple

*4.8km run on the treadmill. Ran lesser because I thought I ate quite little.
My usual 8km track consists of 10min walking, 20min running, 10min walking, 20min running and 10min walking! A whopping 70minutes!! Feel free to stop for a rest 'cze the calories you burnt running 10km in 2 sets or in 1 set is ACTUALLY THE SAME! :)) I ran at a faster speed for a shorter time today because my brother wanted to use the treadmill as well.

I actually hate using the treadmill but M'sia just isn't as safe as Singapore is. Totally wouldn't want to go running outside alone. I use runkeeper app on my iPhone when I run outdoor, it tracks the distance, your speed and calories burnt too!

Meal 6: Carrot soup, rice, veg, fish, meat + oyster mushroom.

This was for two person! Plus I had rice and carrot soup too. LOL. Er, I eat a lot ? :(

Meal 7: half a dragonfruit and one more apple

From the number of meals relating to the number of times I crave for something, can you imagine how much I eat when I'm not planning to lose weight? LOL but Im still watching my calories and thats why I workout to complement my calorie intake!

Total food calories: 1586
Total calories burnt from running: 245 (I ran lesser today)
Total net calories: 1341

I'm going to do a bit of gym later. Last day in M'sia. No more gym tmr!~ On a side note my weight has gone down close to 2kg (told ya the wt goes down quickly in the beginning. PROVIDED YOU ARE NOT ALREADY SKINNY. Lets face the fact: skinny girls are more afraid of calories than fatter girls -.-).
This blog post is extremely significant to me, because I just realized that I can still eat lesser!!! Starting Saturday? I'm gg to enjoy myself tomorrow night :P

ANYWAY, something freaking funny to share on my single eyelids. Recently my single-eyelid classmate pulled her second eyelids out to show me and I was like ***AMAZEDDDD*** LOL. So I went home and realized I could do the same. I took the pictures with my iphone!

OMG freaking compare single (left) vs double (right) eyelids :S no wonder its so sought after!!! T_T my double eyelids disappear once I blink lol!!!

If your wondering how I did it: ..... hahahahahhahah!!!

its ok. im cranky like that :)

THE CALORIE COUNT DIET. Never fails doZ! :D

2012-02-08T00:25:00.000+08:00

Before I begin, I just remember that I haven't mentioned anything about my pastry scholarship written assessment for so long! Truth is, the results aren't out yet and I'm quite sure I will not make it LOL.

CALORIE COUNT: The net calorie rule!

First of all, check your estimated daily calorie intake online based on your weight, height, gender and level of activity. The basic rule is for every 3000 calories you burn, you lose a kg.

E.G I need 1800cal/day to sustain my daily tasks, so if I consume only 1400cal/day for a week, I'll be taking in 2800cal less than what is required for my body & I can lose approximately 1kg within 7days.

Do you know that when your body doesn't has enough fluid, it tries to store water whenever you take in water & the most obvious sign of it is a swollen face. So if your face is getting rounder for no reason, it might be the result of insufficient body fluid.

*The whole idea is about creating a calorie deficit in your overall weekly diet

I'll predict that when you first begin this 'calorie count' program, you actually lose 2kg in the first week and then the weight loss slows down after that!

My favorite part about calorie count dieting is that I eat anything I want (including ice creams, bubble tea, whatever you name it!) as long as at the end of the day you still do not exceed your targeted net calorie goal. Also, when you spread out the decreased intake of calories, it is unlikely that you'll gain back what you lost.

I resist my insane intake of sugar without completely removing it from my diet. Chocolates are pretty essential stuffs y'know. Plus I strongly believe in a sustainable diet which I'm working towards so it is meaningless to abstain from a particular snack.

The downside of doing calorie count is how tedious it is to "clock" the amount of calories you have gained/lost each time you consume food or do a workout. Download health/fitness App on your iPhone, Android or BB. It will help significantly.

Meeting the targeted net calorie goal!

The reason why its called a "net calorie" goal is because I can consume 2000cal if I wish to and still be on track as long as I burn 600cal running, reaching my intended "net calorie" of 1400cal/day.

Personally, I'll NEVER put my metabolism at risk, so my tip is to never consume lesser than 1200cal/day. Although many have said to eat more small meals throughout the day, I just do what is more convenient because as long as you are hitting the net calorie goal, you will be absolutely fine!

Cereals & milk as part of my snack. If you do realize, the healthier cereals containing whole grains and granola are way more caloric than what is just made from corn, wheat & sugar!? So if you prefer quantity, go for the cornflakes.

I would too, but this is the only one I have at home -.- LOL.

Exercising :)

I give lesser attention to the calories I consume. I like to burn enough calories to maintain my overall net calorie goal through running. It is almost 3years ago that I was a sportsplayer, & my running speed has dropped tremendously. Now when I'm getting ready to run I'm just like *OMG IM SO TIREDDDD* LOL.

Rmb the sustainability of your diet plan. Don't execute something that you cant even carry out for a week.

I try to lift or punch these weights when I'm warming up + warming down because my arms are so-NOT-TONED that I CANNOT believe I'm actually from the kitchen LOL :(

I will be exercising 6days a week to regain my fitness until Uni starts, which is when I am too busy for these aggressive workouts. When I just returned from NYC, I ran on such a strict training plan for 7weeks only stopping because I injured my toe. Its really bad for the knees considering I'll run 6-11km each time I go on the treadmill. INSANE.

If you planning to be running long distance too, then do lots of stretching, I think that prevents muscular calves! This time I've decided not to focus on running because I've lost my athleticism. Four more days on the treadmill & I'm switching over to Bikram Yoga for a week. Try to change your diet + workout plans so that it doesn't get mundane after awhile.

Skyped with my sister who is in Jakarta now!! Same age but I really like treating her as my princess because she is the nicest and coolest person I know HAHAHAHAHA. Ok IM SO GAY.

TODAY, the routine:
sauna in the morning, 8km walk/jog in the evening, gym at night.
I'll try eating lesser tmr so that I don't have to run so much!! I am working hard to do better than hitting the net calorie goal because I have a degustation dinner this Friday at Dempsey which I am extremely excited for. YAY! :)

Also, if I'm not lazy I shall do up an example of what to eat~exercise soon.

MOST IMPORTANTLY, EVERYTHING I WRITE ABOVE ARE FROM MY EXPERIENCE. I AM NOT A PROFESSIONAL IN CASE YOU HAVE BEEN FOOLED BY MY KNOWLEDGE TOWARDS DIETING. LOLOLLL

A little bit of Xiamen - Fujian, China

2012-02-06T21:45:00.002+08:00

Landed in Singapore ytd after 4 days of superb chilly weather in Xiamen. I'm going to move to somewhere cold like that 'cze I wanna buy and wear the winter-clothes!!!!! :D

Just arrived in Xiamen after the 4hours' flight.

Xiamen is actually WAY MORE pleasant than I thought, I was extremely surprised by the level of cleanliness, volume of traffic on the roads and the brightness of streetlights. It certainly beats KL (m'sia) in these aspects!

Their 'Orchard Road', called "Zhong Shang Lu"

In fact Xiamen has a pretty efficient public transport system!!! Their special economic zones after Tiananmen incident (studied this in college HAHA) encouraged a lot of foreign investments so the entire city is also very developed. Its actually China's second best city to live in!!

The worse thing I saw there was definitely their spitting habits, though. OMGGGGGG it makes me wanna shriek at how unhygienic that is T.T

Mian xian with TWO EGGS. Chinese' tradition.

IS THIS SORREL LEAVES?!!! I miss Australia :DD

I really like this Popiah. Its different from Singapore's one because its less moist! So it holds the shape very well tgthr w the delicious filling :)

Headed back to rest after being welcomed with some very delicious meals. Everything was prepared for us so I've no idea what exactly were we eating LOL. No I don't like that. Seriously. I prefer planning my own trip. We stayed at Pan Pacific Hotel Xiamen.

The lobby. Quite luxurious rooms we were sleeping in :))

Bought their cafe's macaron! Its giant macaron, taste good but too huge for my liking.

Had breakfast at the hotel twice :) Its called Caesars' On 3.

We drank A LOT of local Tie Guan Yin tea. Its a kind of Oolong tea :) I LOVE TEA ART! I'm quite good at it ok :P My dad taught me a lot.

and some random food we ate along Xiamen's "Little Taiwan Snack Street" - Tai Wan Xiao Chi Jie.

Yes Xiamen resembles Taiwan!!?!?!! In fact a lot of Taiwanese immigrants were from Xiamen very long ago. This is why they all speak Hokkien language and have a more similar chinese accents :)

My favorite deep fried sweet potato from the Taiwanese Snack street :D It only costs S$1!?

Overall I like Xiamen quite a bit! There's alot of shopping districts which we didn't visit 'cze I was traveling with my family. The most important element lacking in the city IN MY OPINION, is good food? Its mainly chinese food!! Not somewhere I'd live in for even a month :S

So I'm back now which means DIET STARTS! I'm competing with my dad, if I lose 8kg before he loses 5kg, I'll win S$2000! LOL Of course if I lose the game I'll have to give him S$2000 too. In fact I set 8kg because I know I can drop 5kg easily (my weight is THAT volatile) so losing the 6th kg onwards will be my breakthrough! YESSSS jiayouu.

My MAHJONG/POKER partners'd say "Its not the money, ITS THE DIGNITY!"

LOL!!! Right.

ooooh. PINCH MY CHEEEKS

punch.

:)) BYE FAT FACE. I don't want to see you anymore. I want my S$2000 and good eating habits forever!

So dieting? I swear by calorie count. That was how I lost the 7kg I gained in NYC in 2months' time. Share with you guys tomorrow?? It works 100% for me, hope it will be useful for anyone wanting to lose weight! :DD

TODAY: sauna in the morning, 8km jog, and I shall gym before sleeping later! I CAN DO IT. Mind over body! 8KG 8KG 8KG!!! Hahahahhahh!

Bye Singapore. again~

2012-02-01T22:41:00.000+08:00

I'm leaving Singapore tomorrow morning for Xiamen, China. Will be back in a few days' time and then heading to M'sia for a couple days as well. Most probably my last time traveling before Uni/work. Hopefully.

Excited. To. Start. Working.

On a side note, I'm about to sunk into depression (just for laughs). I am disturbed by my own nonchalance towards myself. Is gaining 4kg hurting anyone. I'm still SAFELY in the healthy weight!! Yet I have some loudspeakers reminding me. I'm just too gluttony &........ does it says more than the kinda person I actually am.? Its kinda funny, but Luke from my previous kitchen (Amuse) ever told me that I 'shouldnt go on a diet' because I'm a 'growing girl' WOAHZXZX!! he was serious about it, plus I thought that was completely an overstatement LOL! Touched.

I miss them! :) Haha.

Best friend's early 19th Birthday celebration! (:

2012-01-31T15:20:00.003+08:00

A quick post before I clean the house & meet my family for sushis + movie.

Was at Dempsey two days ago because my BF loves pizza! It has been too many times that I told her La Forketta's pizzas are WAYYYY better than those we had at other places, so Dempsey Hill it is, then. It was probably my 7th or 8th time here. (Mozza's pizzas are good too, but L.Forketta's has a stronger gluten texture I feel!)

Greeted with a warm assorted bread basket. Like always!

Best friend :) Her birthday in a few days' time! I'll be in China, so here's an early celebration (L)

Despite their uniquely crusted pizza with the (most) beautiful crumb structure in my recent memory, I can only say it is not place I'll visit again if not for my family or best friend? LOL. Reason being: THEIR MENU NEVER CHANGE! Gosh....... I like changes, you know? So 7 or 8 times reading the same menu. I can't believe it. Plus there are still so many other restaurants for us to visit at Dempsey.

Prosciutto, Fungi, Mozzarella, Tomato

Yummy pizza!! Of course... It was my first time having this. My family's choice of pizzas are pretty fixed on the Awaianas (hawaiian one, since my mum loves pineapples) and Parma ham finished with arugula/rocket salad. My dad's favorite!

Pumpkin tortellini.

Shared both with BF. Its my first time trying this as well. Very good but heavy! My family usually orders their seafood antipasti as well as their lobster linguine. If you are looking for a main course, I STRONGLY suggest their pork (they only have a pork I think). Can't remember the name. It is served with potatoes and mushrooms. Any pork lovers will LOVEEEEE it. (not me! But I definitely appreciate the taste and flavor of it)

GONEE....

We spent $80 on the meal. I've been spending A LOT LOL. Luckily I earned some money playing cards/mahjong! To sidetrack, I really dislike it when I'm broke and people along Orchard Rd approaches me for donation (the $10 rose to help the community). 'cause I cannot reject such acts so that makes me more broke LOL $_$ I just can't. Thats why if I'm with a friend I WISH my friend will say NO. 'cze if my friend looks at me to say something I'll just 'oh..... okayeee'. LOL.

B&J for desserts. Always b&j icecreams with my family after Pizzas.

Busy Sunday!

Our double Brownie sundae w granola & chocolate fudge

Happy after the brownie :)

My body against the light thats why its dark :S
Btw, my face is healing VERY quickly from the Body shop toner/moisturizer. Its not dry now :)

Was at Dempsey again last night to meet a 'friend' from the kitchen. My first time at Dempsey on a Monday night, so peacefully and beautifully situated among the greenery :'DD Anyway we chatted a bit and it might be smooth-sailing for me to land a FREAKING FULL-TIME JOB in their kitchen (Er yes, at Dempsey). It sounded really exciting, half the team size of Restaurant Amuse. WOAHZ. I like it :P & its probably the ONLY restaurant in the S'pore that feels like Amuse (which leaves me in disbelief at my luck).

Plus N said we will all rotate, there's no option, I will learn savory as well. SCREAMMMMM~~~ Yup I wanna do savory too, but as long as I can choose not to, I prefer to give in to my fear and stick to pastry. My knife skills is beyond shit!!! N said I'll do meat and fish eventually. EXCITED!! How is that possible right?!!! I'm gg to get scolded like shit LOLLLLL I cabbed home after that which cost me $27 and I reckoned that'll be doreen's life if I end up there. In fact I am dining there on the 10th, so you will know where that is after I blog about their food. HAHAHA.

Supper with the college mates tonight as they are all returning to Australia already!? JEALOUS. HAHAHA side note: with most of my friends waiting for Alevels results / poly students planning to do their undergrad, I have been continuously raving the good of Australia?! LOL. So if you are considering overseas uni too, my two cents' worth: forget England or U.S!!! GO TO AUSTRALIA LOL. I seriously want to too, but not now. &trust me about one thing -although my next Aust. destination will be Melbourne-, Perth is FREAKING awesome. Its too underrated!!

An unrelated food post :D

2012-01-29T01:30:00.000+08:00

I feel the sudden excitement to show you guys something very cool. (in my opinion! considering I've been lazy to blog for awhile already?!) But its completely unrelated to food, as stated on my heading haha!

Its probably the dumbest post you'd have come across here. Just let me be. 'cze this is my life-changing moment. & I wanna document it. LOL.

LEFT TO RIGHT:

eye liner - mascara - sunscreen for face - CREAMY FOUNDATION

Eye liner was given by one of my aunts when I just came back from NYC (OMG HOW LONG AGO WAS THAT LOL). I'm going to start using it now because its quite fun - hope my determination would last longer than a week ha-ha-ha

Mascara was bought when I started clubbing in Perth and it was my lovely housemates who taught me how to use it LOL. See, I'm so noob I feel proud of myself today for having so much 'cosmetics' stuffs.

Sunscreen. I've been ordered to use this by my doctor since 4years ago? But I rarely do T_T (not even in PERTH, considering the intensity of sunlight there!) All the sunblock lotion I owned either expire or go missing even before I use 1/2 of it LOL. For my extent of laziness, I always wish I have the perfect features? You can totally afford to be lazy when you are pretty!!!

Creamy foundation. I JUST BOUGHT IT TODAY! Its different from powder or the liquid one (don't ask me the difference because I've never used any kinds of foundation in my life). I was feeling like how expensive it is to be a girl T.T If my mum knows I got this, she will say "are you sure you'll use it?"

Nothing new! Lenses. I prefer wearing specs unless I'm working or playing sports.

& some cool stuffs to use when I get home

Got this is w the mascara in Perth. It was only 30minutes ago that I realized an 'eye makeup remover' is not the same as 'face makeup remover' omggg!

I just prepared some cottons (?? not sure what you call that LOL) for myself ytd :DD

Its all the random brands because I'm definitely feeling the pain of spending $30 on each of these products which cannot be used without the other. I'd rather spend them on pastry equipments or baking books!?! -.- Cannot be more glad that I've already survived 18years with little vanity.

Cleansing foam!

I bought this recently, it was my first time walking into Etude House. LOL & I wouldn't have gone in if not for my housemate who visited Singapore -.-" But it made me realized Etude House has very cute stuffs!!!

Anyway, I started washing my face everyday 2weeks ago. Was I very disgusting last time? LOL. When I was in secondary school I boasted to XJ too much on my complexion (which explains the karma hitting on me today argh!!!). & what's happening now is that my face got extremely dry with the 'oil' removed so frequently...........

HYDRATING TONER

Woahhhhzzzzz, YES!? I'll start using this now. You gotta use it with the cotton (as shown in the background)!! I hope I am not the only brainless one who didn't know it until ytd hee~

Summary -

Step 1: remove makeup

Step 2: wash your face

Step 3: use the toner

Step 4: ..........

Apply the moisturizer!!!

This was expensive too. FOR ME... do you feel my pain? lol!

Btw, all the products I got ytd/today are from Body Shop because they SUPPORTS COMMUNITY TRADE AND DEFENDS THE HUMAN RIGHTS (in case you didn't know that!)

okay thats about it. I spent too much money. I eat too much. Tmr will be awesome w my best friend. BYEEEEE.

p.s. my diet must start when I return to Singapore from China. PLEASE BELIEVE ME!!! HAHAHAHHA

CNY Dessert - peeking into menu

2012-01-21T15:18:00.000+08:00

Desserts making for the next 2days. Its will be Chinese New Year Eve tomorrow! I'm planning a very simple "4-course" menu as I don't wanna deviate too much from the 'CNY' theme. Used a lot of chinese ingredients and incorporated a lot of components which mustn't be missed during this important festive occasion :)

I'm not so good with Chinese so I'll just use English to describe and introduce what I'm making!! I don't have names for each course unlike my Dessert Party as I felt that they will all sound VERY corny LOL.

Pumpkin / Bird's nest
roasted pumpkin puree, bird's nest, pumpkin seeds

Firecracker / Almond / Pineapple
pine nut caramel popcorn, pop-rocks, almond milk sorbet, pineapple tart

Sweet broth the very VERY classic of CNY must-have
longan & red dates jelly, lotus seeds, goji berries, lily bulbs, tangyuan

Mandarin / Chocolate / Pomelo
this is my main dessert! The only which I allow myself to be more creative with the CNY ingredients :DD

I expect there to be a little changes along the way though :) I hope my family will enjoy it! No petit fours 'cze I M LAZY. Hehe.

RANDOM: Pre-CNY dinner - Malaysia

2012-01-16T18:43:00.001+08:00

Company "Thank-you dinner" with 500 guests.

I went back to M'sia yesterday morning for my dad's event (kinda). 19hours after I arrived at our place in M'sia I left for Singapore again. LOL. In other words, I'm back to Sg now.

Self-proclaimed Champion Nomad!

IM PRETTY CLOSE TO IT NO? I'm leaving for M'sia again in two days' time. Really can't wait for Uni to commence so that I can settle down in Sg 'permanently'.

Attended quite a lot of dinners in Muar, I can say this was really the best I came across.

Is it confusing you that I'm so frequently in both countries? I'm a hybrid - although my heart is definitely closer to S'pore. I told my dad I'm going to serve National Service after I complete Uni and he was like......... LOL! Quite a number of people told me they wouldn't think I'm Singaporean actually.

My cousins :D

My 2 brothers.

We had a photographer on duty ytd, so I wasn't too bothered by my blurry shots. My DSLR is losing control LOL. I probably dropped it 100 times because I run with my camera all the times (no, not going for a run with my DSLR but chasing after buses w that in my hand ok? HAH)

cartons of wine!

Cousins.

Our table! My dad's friends and partner.

The ladies in the company w my mum and mum's friend.

Never mentioned this before but I don't fancy going to M'sia for a few reasons. I'll just talk about one today. My relatives LOVE telling me I'm fat (IKR! nvm if nobody ever told you such things before) which I think is annoying... I really feel that health is more important than going on a damn diet. I do not like to put up with people who incessantly bothers me about my size. OMG, the fats are growing on me, not you?! Anyhow, there's this part of me hoping to rebuild my nutrients level asap, thats why I don't compromise when it comes to eating at all.

I used to never comprehend (and completely do not care either) about how distorted some girls' perception of skinny can be. Because it gets so extreme girls barely 3/4 my size are more anxious than me to lose weight!?! I don't bother honestly, I mean..... its their opinion and their body! From what I hear, some mothers at home put a lot of stress on their daughters (NOT TO BE RUDE, BUT WTF!?) to lose weight when they are perfectly healthy. WHY? I don't get it!!!! #TrueStoryBTW. I don't even like talking about this topic frankly speaking.

On a side note, there's nothing I do more badly than going on a diet. I hate myself for being such a glutton! But still, I don't like being imposed by others' opinion when it comes to size. I eat enough to have the REAL things okay!?!?!?!??! LOL.

Aunties, grandma and grand aunt!

SOME ALCOHOL.

:)

awwww

SHRIMPS. I'm not posting other food pictures because they are super blur. My DSLR is retiring soon :'( NOOOOOOOO! I'm not planning to get a new one.

Just in case you haven't realized how much I moved from a food blog to a lifestyle blog~ I decided to post this just for fun. Not food-related. In fact I rarely submit pictures to food gallery anymore, it generates a lot of blog traffic for me but I figured out that its quite pointless haha?

& I have broken away completely from food photography. My pictures are 'nice' (I don't think so but some people insist) because of a DSLR!!! I'm lazy to do food styling, they do so much wonders I've stopped visiting food blogs for very long. I lost my ability to judge baked goods when I was too crazy about virtual presentation :\

Before my dad got drunk. Er... apparently yes lol

brothers..

EMPTY

DRINKING TOO MUCH :S

Yay! Group picture with the VIPs on our table. Thats me and second brother on the right.

P.S. I am definitely above the average size -also partly due to my height ok!? Thats the downside of being tall. You get associated with words like 'BIG' & 'giant' when you are slightly fat. I was ever told I have the same size as my 2nd brother. I always react very politely and just smile because I am BRAVE *pats back HAHAHAHAHHA*. I am bigger than my male cousins too!? T_T BUT. me? same size as brother? LIKE REAAAALL!! Thats why eventually it just makes me wonder whats the intention behind telling me I'm fat?!

Most important note to you if you experience the same thing. Don't go on a diet because of such mean comments especially if you are perfectly healthy OK? LOL :)

Living up to my insanity indeed :P

2012-01-14T01:41:00.001+08:00

I got to meet up with a lot of people this week! So busy and fun that I didn't blog ha ha :D Settled a couple of upcoming birthday presents and shopping for CNY. Telling you I'm broke now is an understatement. The highlight for the past 5 days were basically:

Awesome 12 hours of mahjong, poker and daidee with my sec4 classmates

I have not heard myself spoke and laughed this much for so long!! :') I actually have a sore throat now omg. It was just so crazy and explicit going 'oh you ~!#$%^&* -for winning all my money-!!!!'. I was telling my best friend I don't even need to eat when I'm playing cards HAHAHAHAH OK. Errr, are we weird?? Nvm, maybe this is the AHS culture LOL. Serious. I wouldn't bother counting the number of mahjong/poker mates I can possibly find in my school :P

Clubbing with my housemate (Jasmine) who visited Singapore the past few days.

10hours straight of shopping while eating CHIPPY, tako yaki, bubble tea TWICE, tori Q, chewy junior, dimsum, muah chee, cakes and finishing off the day with supper at the hawker next to Esplanade! Satays, carrot cake, oyster omelette. LIKEATOURIST. HA HA HA! Massive eating journey, surely. I'm really happy that J enjoyed her stay so much she even wants to buy the "I LOVE SG" t-shirt OMG. Funny hahaha :P She returned to KL this afternoon but there are still a lot of places I wanna take her to!?

Farewell gathering with a darling sister who is leaving Singapore for a few months this Sunday :(

Went to Singapore River just now (3rd consecutive day there!?) to have dinner after shopping around Orchard. Got home before 12am *pats back* because I have been having so much fun till 3/4am in the morning recently [imagine how much money spent on cabbing] LOLOL! BEYOND AWESOME. I have this *uhh. VERY PLEASED* feeling that I'm doing my undergraduate studies in Singapore hehe!

Conclusion - its almost 2am now and I need to dive into my pastry TB soon because my written test is starting in around 8 hours' time -.- Ok, I really........ know myself too well. LOL. Not surprising if I end up slacking until 4am later before I start reading my book = not sleeping already, if that really happens #MyLifeInPerth haha! I HOPE IT GOES WELL!!!

RANDOM: PASTRY, CHOCOLATE :)

2012-01-07T14:45:00.002+08:00

At Espressamente Illy: Smoked salmon, avocado and cream cheese on a bagel which I requested for ciabatta instead.

Woke up at 9am today but mum was still in bed, so I went for breakfast alone planning to do some reading after that.

Iced mocha. A must for anyone on diet - like me (AS IF -.- LOL).
honestly, coffee does kill appetite for awhile dont you think so???

Probably my third/fourth time here. I recently found out that they won the best coffee in Time Out KL 2011.

Highlighting the importance of THIS closed-up view:
The foamy layer and bubbles in this iced mocha is *creepy*.

Do baristas use texturas in drinks as well? It was so shiny and stable. It made me realize how H felt when I let him try my coconut cloud (dessert party) and he told me I was 'irritating' to come up with something like that. LOL.

Cinnamon swirl. my life sweet like that :D Yup, you should scroll up again and look at how small the ciabatta served was -___-"

Spent almost RM50 for breakfast which I'm like .......... OK THATS PRICEY!~ Especially when I think of yesterday's dimsum at Grand Palace with mum spending under RM80 _._

Read the summarized notes of my pastry notes at the cafe for more than two hours. Glad that I've started some revision :\

My file of FCI summarized notes and all the past written tests I took in school. Bear card from my V.I.Ps

made by my little sister YINA. Yup. and our father BXJ. LOL.

Puff pastry products. Flipping through these papers to realize how much I have FORGOTTEN.

Not going to keep my faithful readers in suspense LOL (I'm curious who reads this space although I always think its better not to know :P)

I have signed up for World Gourmet Series (WGS) Valrhona Patisserie Scholarship 2012 - the deadline for application is on the 12th this month. It was introduced by a kitchen-mate I worked with at S'pore MBS previously and the scholarship is contested through a 3-phase competition (duh. WELCOME TO SINGAPORE, no results no talk!~)

Written exam (14 Jan) - only the top scorers can proceed.

I didn't study pastry in Sg, so I'm clueless about what will be examined T.T Plus from my experience, singapore loves twisting their questions around in exams?! _._ Besides the possible deviation of syllabus taught in FCI and locally, it will be the written/theory pastry where we learnt everything in DEGREES FAHRENHEIT. So even after I convert them to degree celsius, all the figures just look very peculiar!? I am also only comfortable with tempering chocolates in dF -.-

That's why I'm not confident of making past this round :S But definitely hope I do!

The second phase is a dessert making competition followed by an interview. Btw, applicants are aged between 18 and 29 = I'm obviously going to be least experienced. I'll be very happy as long as I can move on to the round 2!!!

This is the reason why I used to tell a good friend his notes are not as sought after as mine are: my handwriting is legible. LOL!! Ok just disturbing him :P (misplacing physics/chemistry notes while O'levels approach are just freaky. In reality they are worthless after the exams lol -.-)

Unlikely to win the scholarship but I'll still give it a try. My chef in Australia once told me 3 classic words "just do it". Maybe its obvious I hesitate a lot even in the kitchen (it manifests on court when I played basketball back then, I was too afraid of attacking. That was my deepest regret throughout my time as a basketballer although at that point of time I just couldn't overcome it at all!) I think I took away quite a bit of masculine traits from Amuse - girls are generally more tentative no?

To sidetrack a bit: I bought 6kg of chocolates online and in the process of purchasing custom-made chocolate transfer sheets! SO EXCITING!!!! They are for my dad, I shall share the pictures when I receive them! :D

Dim Sum @ Grand Palace Restaurant - Kuala Lumpur, Pavilion

2012-01-06T16:41:00.000+08:00

Mum's hot cafe latte and my iced white chocolate mocha before getting lunch (I still prefer the standard iced mocha though!)

RIGHT, SO I HAVE TELEPORTED FROM MUAR TO KUALA LUMPUR YESTERDAY! Dined at Grand Palace for lunch just now. We reached the restaurant a little early (11.17am) and was told they will only open at 11.30am - I am usually not bothered by restaurants that refuse guests to sit in before the kitchen opens.

But the person who spoke to me, spoke to me with her back facing me after looking at me. OMG. Can you believe that!? -.- Its really rude to converse with people in this manner, regardless of who the other party is (rich/poor), or who you are? (unless you're working with your own team, e.g. in the kitchen, because I know chefs do this all the time while doing their prep).

BASICALLY, it left me confused as I've no idea know what she was so 'ZUAI' about. Even my mum gave a disturbed expression _._ Bad service are turn-offs to begin our day. That was why we walked over to Starbucks to get a drink before the restaurant opens.

Cold appetizer. Nice dressing although the cucumbers were softening in the center already

Note: We still dine here eventually because my mum and I were both very curious with the standard of dim sum they serve after being greeted by such an appalling attitude. LOL. I believe most people know I usually don't comment on service/food in my dining reviews. I simply share pictures of what we ate and some picture perfect moments with family & friends. but this was just.......!?

Char Siew Bao aka steamed BBQ Pork buns which was surprisingly decent. (I used the term 'surprisingly' not because I was judging their food based on the first impression they gave us, but because my mum and I are quite picky with this dim sum in particular)

Deep fried sesame balls

should be lotus seed paste filling! We like the mini portion :)

The dining experience throughout was not worth mentioning. The waiters were clueless about what they were bringing to our table. I wasn't expecting a fine-dining service here where they explain the dishes to us (although GRAND PALACE IS SUPPOSEDLY A "HIGH-END" FINE-DINING RESTAURANT), but apparently they didn't even know the name of the food served when we asked.

I asked because: I didn't know how the name of dish would differentiate from appearance of the dish!?

Honey BBQ pork with crispy skin. Not our favorite.

My mum dislikes minced meat, she feels that its normally all the unwanted/leftover meat blended together LOL. True enough, she discourages eating McNuggets for the same reason. But I still eat it, lah. & I got this because it didn't says "minced meat" in the menu (that's why I was surprised when it came to our table and I asked what is the name of this dish to confirm that it was actually what I ordered)

Glutinous chicken rice. Good but wasn't special. We expected it to be served wrapped in the lotus leaves actually.

EGG TARTS. Must-order-when-I-eat-dimsum.

Pastry layer was perfect, custard was gloriously baked. My only complaint would be that the layer of egg custard was too thin? That has to be their downfall because it just wasn't satisfying at all :\

Sidetracking a bit: there's only one restaurant which my family frequents for dim sum in Singapore. Their dim sum chefs are pretty amazing but the biggest 'branch' closed down probably 7years ago and the standards of their 2 smaller restaurants in Singapore definitely deviated from their best one (which we only started patronizing after the main branch stopped operating)... I'm pretty sure a lot of Singapore diners know which restaurant group I'm talking about!?!! :)

[7years ago meaning I was only in primary school then, but I remember it so clearly because we literally turn up at the restaurant EVERY WEEK. My dad was completely obsessed with their custard buns and when we ordered their chee cheong fun, its always one portion for each of us. We are very well-fed, indeed haha!]

Okay the main lead of the day? May not be your favorite, but definitely mine. Pan-fried Carrot cake!

I love it crusted so well. LOL

Ok, one more shot since I think this was the best!

Left the restaurant stuffed with food (well there was only my mum and me to eat so much, AND my mum is a small-eater, AND I was there after drinking a tall iced mocha). I have this problem of eating even when I'm full, which means I just keep eating *oink!*

I got home and started googling other food blogs on this restaurant as well... GLAD TO SAY, I'm not the only one who feels this way!! Their unwelcoming service I mean.

Spent less than RM80 here. I leave it up to you to decide if thats value for money or not because I'd convert that to SGD and comfort myself that it is pretty affordable. (food wasn't the issue but the experience of dining there. for a claimed "fine-dining restaurant" particularly)

Grand Palace Restaurant (by the Palace Group)
Pavilion Kuala Lumpur
Lot No. : 6.39.00, Level 6
Tel. : 03-2143 1128

Post-college: in M'sia

2012-01-05T01:57:00.001+08:00

Claypot Chicken Rice!!!!!!!!!!

Claypot mushroom & chicken noodles!

in Malaysia. I like this!! Hehe :D :D

Trying to be healthy. Eat CAI ! (vege in chinese haha)

& went to the market to get fish. Been here quite a number of times, its really an eye-opener if you are a Singaporean (or Australian etc.) because it is quite different

Oh poor crab :( lol?

The next picture is quite bloody......

!?!?!?!
Thats why I'm not going to be a savory chef. (erm, ok this is not really the reason) LOL

You tiao aka you char kway aka fried dough fritters. Had this yesterday and today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SO TINY !!!!

And tidied my wardrobe in Malaysia because I was quite free. My mum always gets me to move all my stuffs from Singapore to M'sia due to *SPACE CONSTRAINTS* LOL.

left: my student council formal wear back in secondary school which was expensive yet I rarely wore it (due to leaving the committee within less than a year -.-)
right: my PRIMARY SCHOOL brownies uniform!! I still keep it because I love it :D LOL

*SUPER TANNED AFTER ROTTNEST ISLAND TRIP*
Okay I can still wear my brownies uniform. CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?!! I used to be DAMN FAT in primary school (like overweight)

I know you don't believe me, I have EVIDENCE! LOL!
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priceless shot. my surface area was big enough to hide my mum. REALLY.

The interesting thing is, my 'weight loss' at that time was completely unintentional?! I was playing basketball so crazily at 12yrs old, that I would skip lunch everyday during breaks.

Then all of a sudden people were telling me I lost a lot of weight. But I still insisted I did not because it wasn't my weight that went down, instead, my height shot up lol? & fact is I am currently more than 15kg heavier than I was in this picture. WTH RIGHT? HAHAHA

YES, NOW. 16KG HEAVIER THAN ABOVE. LOL.
I wish such weight loss can occur in my life TWICE. *muahhahaha*, that'll make me very skinny and then comes my opportunity to feast like a PIG :D (Actually my weight just keeps increasing now. SIGHS -.-)

also dug out my FCI pastry books for some important purposes (yes I keep them in Malaysia due to SPACE CONSTRAINTS in Singapore as well -.-)

time to start studying again!~

Rakuichi Japanese Restaurant - Dempsey, Singapore

2012-01-03T01:25:00.002+08:00

'Overdued' lunch post with mum. Japanese cuisine for lunch when I just got back to Singapore 10days ago (but I'm in Malaysia now. Told you I'm nomadic lol) I'm usually to lazy to blog about old pictures but I'm wide awake now, so...... kill time!

My mum and I intended to have dimsum but ended up at Dempsey Hill because the thought of the traffic in Orchard Rd just turned us off :S Mum got the set meal while I got a sushi plate at Rakuichi Restaurant!

Salad which came with mum's set meal

Sashimi (mum's set meal and our a la carte both here!)

We also ordered gyoza! This tasted very different from the usual ones, it was actually less crisp (if you thought otherwise from the picture lol)

Chawanmushi, rice, pickled vegetable, miso soup, mixed tempura and cod fish in mum's set meal!

Cod fish

closed-up picture

MINE!!!

Assorted Sushi plate :D :D

Sushis please me easily as long as the Japanese rice is decent and the seafood isn't overcooked! I really like it but I wished that the chef went easier on the dressing LOL. The creaminess was a little overwhelming.

Sesame ice cream that came with mum's set meal. But we still got Ben&Jerry's after that anyway haha! :D

I can't remember how much we spent there because it has been almost 2 weeks. The sushi plate was more pricey (sushi platter always are :\) but the set meal was kinda value for money!

Rakuichi Japanese Restaurant
website (They have other branches too)
Lunch: 11:30am to 2:30pm
Dinner: 6:00pm to 10:00pm

2011 & the 2012 New Year Resolutions! (:

2012-01-02T00:05:00.003+08:00

2011: the year I turned 18. Its strange how I find it so hard to sum up the entire year, but Australia has been the best part of 2011. Studying in W.A. is very different from S'pore and I believe that other schoolmates of mine missing Perth after returning home not a coincidence at all. We are really lucky to have the opportunity to study abroad and experience something so enjoyable. For me, I'm even more blessed to be working and studying at the same time as I suppose Singaporeans'll know that this is impossible for any Alevels student to do so.

But 2012 is here and I have an instinct its gonna be an awesome year as well :) We should always be looking forward anyway. My new year resolutions:

1) Eat like a normal person and rebuild my ferritin level! (which is terribly low). Hates it :'( because it has severely affected my metabolism, I used to lose weight very quickly (not anymore)

2) PRIORITIZING ACADEMICS in university, of course. I crowned the title of being a 'nerd forever' in my college (Perth). Ok, don't be jealous now :) LOL.

3) Lead an active life. I'm planning to return bikram yoga.

4) Organize my time VERY well. Hope to spend quality time with family & friends as I still intend to:

5) STAGE! LOL. I'm told (actually, convinced) that no restaurants will hire a full-time Uni student. So with such a commitment, I don't have much to offer to my ideal restaurants in S'pore :'(( I'm okay with staging again (unpaid), perhaps 4 days a week since my experience (5days) in Perth last year was super busy I neglected some stuffs. This year'll be funner with yoga alongside with school and pastry. I'm going to be a very happy and healthy girl!!

6) last but not least, the classic ones I make every year - live 2012 with no regrets & playing a supportive role among all the important people in my life.

2012 to begin with:
hosting mahjong & cards game this January with lots of ice creams and cheesecakes for my secondary schoolmates at my place :D :D we're absolutely crazy when it comes to this, mahjong one day before our prelim. exams and group studying during our Olevels period turned into 5hours straight of poker/daidee/21pts :O

I'm excited. 2012 I'm ready!!! :)

2011 Dolly's Dessert Party (dessert degustation!)

2011-12-31T02:01:00.000+08:00

From the Backyard: lime coulis / aloe vera / lemon balm granite / lemongrass cremeux

the uniqueness of it is such that it is a 100% vegan, gluten-free and nut-free dessert. I'm almost damn sure everyone can consume this unless they can't eat plants!!!

Hosted Dolly's Dessert Party for the second time today (an annual thing!) with my theme on Regional Agriculture & supporting sustainable living. There were almost 30guests last year but I cut down the number to 8 this time. Thank you everyone for coming!

Before I go into detail, I just want to credit the entire dessert degustation to my dearest Restaurant Amuse team (doubt they will read this but .... yeah). Without chef, Jake and Paul in particular, I'll never come to feel that this year has been so fruitful in the kitchen. The techniques and creativity I was picking up from them are invaluable, I just gotta say it manifests throughout the 4 courses today.

all ingredients sourced from home and neighbours. picture taken by Yina.

before it began. pretty serviettes sponsored by best friend haha!

While they were having their first course. All my sportsclass-mates back in AHS :)

Apiacea Tasting Plate: 2-texture carrot jelly / chervil gel / star aniseed cake crumbs / pop rocks / celery-anise sorbet / chocolate tempura

[note: all sorbet/ice creams are pre-scooped for convenience sake as I don't want them to melt on the plate if I do it last minute]

Apiacea is the name of the Parsley family, aromatic plants with hollow stems such as carrot, chervil, parsley, star anise, celery, fennel, dill etc. I wrote this dessert when I first worked with fennel in restaurant amuse, did some research on it and discovered the Apiaceae family! The chocolate tempura is to add a little fat to the dessert so that it doesn't taste too tart.

making the chervil gel. didn't turn out that good. I wasn't 100% certain which stabilizer to use haha

my 2-texture carrot jelly consisting of carrot puree and carrot juice!

I altered the plating after doing one for myself before the party started. I decided that the portion can be decreased since its really only a tasting plate. The celery-anise sorbet was pretty well-received.

Tropical Harvest: a dessert I started creating using colors - dehydrated starfruit / pineapple caviars / salted crumble / black sesame ice cream / passionfruit cheesecake foam / black sesame powder. All regional produce, clearly!

The most popular dessert for the day..! Dehydrated starfruit didn't turn out ideally as I used an oven instead LOL.

Pineapple caviars. It was HELL LOT OF FUN making this. without a microscale. Right. Haha!!

The direction which they were served :)

That's me plating. Taken by Yina! Look at my tiny kitchen. I was working at the sink already LOL! Last year's 30guests was downright insane, it lasted for almost 6hours, I was deadbeat by the time it ended!?

2004 Malborough Late Harvest Riesling (New Zealand)
a dessert wine given by a friend in the same 'line' who insisted this shouldn't be missed! Haha, THANKSSS :)

Two to One: blue pea flower glutinous rice / poached rosellas / rosella pudding ice cream / coconut cloud

shared between every pair to encourage the spirit of sharing! (like the party theme ^^)

'coconut cloud' - the most AMAZING creation and discovery made for the past few days. I didn't plan to achieve such a texture so this result is truly priceless!!! It really is as light as a cloud (they said I described as if I tasted cloud before LOL. well......)

& it actually is a solid until it lands in your tongue and. DISAPPEAR!

the blue pea flowers, if you are wondering. I'll not be surprised if you see this in your neighbourhood. They were picked by my mum's friend around a primary school! HAHA :) See, local stuffs can be quite awesome too.

My rosella ice creams. Practicing how to do this. I will perfect it! SOON!

a group photo :) the 8th guest who was missing was in gorgeous green uniform - national service LOL.

from them!! Thank you very much :))

With little notes of encouragement for me. They are the bestest mates ever :)

EXCLUDING BXJ (rightest), these girls are my basketball teammates, I wish I'm able to handle more guests because...... NOT ALL MY TEAMMATES WERE INVITED :'( Sorry!

So the tiring preparations have come to an end. I've enjoyed the entire process a lot although it really is quite challenging. I hope that next year's will be even better. Thank you everyone for coming and showing your support xx!

Wishing everyone a happy new year :)

A summary of my menu:

2011 Dolly's Dessert Party

'Regional Agriculture' & supporting sustainable living

From the Backyard

ingredients sourced from the plants grown by my mum and neighbours

Apiaceae Tasting Plate

aromatic plants with hollow stems which are family members of Parsley

Tropical Harvest

a dessert created using my most favorite method - starting with colors using regional produce

Two to One

encourages the spirit of sharing, just like the theme of my party

Restaurant ANDRE 'Octaphilosophy' - Singapore

2011-12-30T03:04:00.000+08:00

Celebrated my brother's 21st birthday at Restaurant ANDRE!

We were all very excited for our second degustation experience after the first at Restaurant Amuse in Perth! -which is I where was staging- :)

Sparkling. A standard~

The birthday boy :) Don't look 21?? Its OK. We don't look our age. LOL zzz. Some people do not believe I'm 18 either!

with my brother!

Finger food to begin :) We got a mushroom, "raw fish" wrapped in a tuile (KINDA) and then popcorn (my descriptions will be really short because I can't remember the EXACT name of all the different food I have eaten today. LOL)

the popcornnnnn

Chicken skin (similar to Amuse's chook!!), spanish prawn and tiny potatoes which were awesome

the 'raw fish' I mentioned. Such fine foods!

dad and mum!

'PURE' without seasoning! Mussels (Y) + zucchini and pistachio consumme thats just awesome cause I love green!?! HAHA

'SALT'. One of my favorite. Seaweed wrapped oyster (OYSTERS' MY CURRENT FAVORITE) with granny smith apple foam. The plate 'dotted' with a lot of diced cucumber and apples, insane or insane? Just blew me away. It must be a pain doing this every plate! LOL. But I like it :P

Warm tiny baguette. Yummness :D

'ARTISAN'.

'SOUTH' Coral, tomato sorbet, persimmon

'SOUTH' scallop, sea urchin, sea bass

'TEXTURE'. cauliflower puree, bamboo charcoal cracker, squid and risotto

What more can I say?!!!

'UNIQUE'. very very unique indeed, never tasted this fish before so I didn't even catch what the server said. I'm terrible at savory anyway :'( Apparently this was my parents' favorite and it got mentioned most among the other courses :)

'MEMORY'. a 14 years old dish by chef Andre! Foie gras and black truffle coulis. Gotta say I really loved this! Plus my family's not such a fan of exotic food (foie gras). Enjoyed it very much, like a warm creme brulee :D :D

'TERROIR'. Duck meat from France, pumpkin puree, garlic soil, mustard seed

Not my favorite, sadly. I guess I'm just less receptive towards red meat?

Pre-dessert

RIGHT, A BIRTHDAY CAKE FOR MY BROTHER!

3 of us and the cake!

my family and the cake. (LOL)

Birthday card from the Restaurant ANDRE team. This is beyond cool! OMGGGG

Dessert. Chocolate sphere, chocolate sponge, chocolate tuile, beurre noisette icecream, fromage blanc. Basically offering various texture of chocolate :)

The birthday cake which the kitchen portioned out for us!

PETIT FOURS! passionfruit marshie, hazelnut madeleine, popcorn (w pop rocks), grapefruit jelly

End of our meal! It was a fabulous dining experience at Restaurant ANDRE. I really enjoyed it, my favorite dish would probably be the oyster ('SALT') and 'SOUTH'. I asked my family if they enjoyed Restaurant Amuse or Restaurant ANDRE more out of curiosity (expecting them to say the later) but it turned out that my parents like Amuse! LOL!!! OK not to be rude, but I'm just like pretty much beaming at it since that was where I worked? HAHAHAHA. As for my brothers and me, we'd agree that this is just a different experience. I guess there's a very high expectation set here also because of how pricey their menu is?

IN ANY CASE WE WERE INVITED TO TAKE A LOOK AT THEIR KITCHEN. OMG HOW AWESOME IS THAT?!!!! I was so freaking excited!!! :)))))) We must be really lucky right! Not sure if all the guests are asked to go in anot since we actually don't know chef Andre or anyone inside personaly.

Gorgeous. Compact. Professional!!

Pastry!

The ceiling! Their high-tech exhaust fans which automatically and efficiently cleans itself. Cool right!

A family shot!

My brother and I took a picture with chef Andre himself after dinner but OMG THAT PICTURE IS SO BLUR I CAN JUST SLAP MYSELF :'( LOL. Oh well. FATED? T.T When the chef came out to say hello my dad told him I wanna work for him and I was like *GASP. SHYY* HAHAHA. That'll be a priceless opportunity But I'm actually hoping to go to another restaurant because I'm considering the location that will be most convenient for me to go from home and school!

Happy 21st birthday brother :)

We spent a little over $2000 for dinner (including wine)! Yes damn costly, but such an entertaining and lovely dining experience for us. Pure indulgence!! Can't wait for the next birthday at home. He he he!

Restaurant ANDRE

website

41 Bukit Pasoh Road
Lunch: Tues - Fri / $128++
Dinner: Tues – Sun / $288++

Preparing for Dessert Party!~

2011-12-29T03:08:00.001+08:00

Making my Celery-anise sorbet.

The reasons why I've been so busy lately. Its 2.45am now, just got home after running and chatting with my best brother (not the real one lol). I changed the menu slightly because I figured out that one of my desserts is going to taste messy. I will post the real one together with the dessert party itself, which is on the 30th December!

CHURNED!

Well if you can't tell from this picture, it is actually very smooth?! I increased the sugar density to achieve smaller ice crystals. By the way this taste great!!! I'm v. pleased with the flavor :D :D

Black sesame powder (pure black sesame paste on the left). It looks like dust in this picture LOL

My dessert party on sustainable living. These were generously given by my neighbour!

Needless to say, my tiny kitchen has a hopelessly tiny fridge. If there's something I was going to boast about my dessert party, it'd be how I managed to squeeze SO MANY components within the little space! HAHAHA Since I have more ice creams to make and churn, I gave away a portion of the celery-anise sorbet to a neighbour & I'll have another batch of black sesame ice cream done tomorrow afternoon. I'm going to give half of that to the neighbour who shared their family's pandan leaves + lemongrass with me! :)

I know, so excited to rebuild my closely-knitted community. They have been telling me how rarely I drop by their house ever since I started secondary school? :/

You gotta smash them in these 'nyonya pots' lol.

I shall keep the rest of this lemongrass component as secret :P You'll see it after my dessert party!!!

Rosella ice cream. CHURNED!

Urm, yup I said I altered the menu slightly. This was one of the changes. SADLY, I didn't like it very much. I would say this is my least favorite thing up till now. But I'm still glad I executed this~

Lemon Balm

I was going to fix the problem I had with my pink guava and I literally cracked my brains hard to find something suitable to substitute it on that plate, yet still fulfilling my 'eco-friendly' motto for this theme HAHA. Used this lemon balm plant in the end! (:

Lemon Balm foam. Just playing!

Pineapple foam. Just for fun too!

Will not hesitate to admit I SUCK at this. Very embarrassing, certainly :'( But.... That's why I'm practicing it!

Since the Rosella I/C is definitely my least favorite I didn't want to give it away at all. I'm just like *bleah*, simply used the entire tub of ice cream to practice more scooping.

Star aniseed cake!! My mum loves it. Super soft with a very very aromatic toasted aniseed flavor. Made with olive oil! :)

OKAY ITS MY DARLING BROTHER (REAL ONE)'S BIRTHDAY TODAY (kinda, its alr 3.09am)! HE'S TURNING 21 :) :) I HAVE NOTHING TO GIVE HIM BUT A HUG (WHICH I OFFER HIM WHEN HE COMES HOME AFTER WORK LOL). TONIGHT, WE ARE GOING TO RESTAURANT ANDRE FOR DINNER. OMG! THIS IS SO EXCITING!!!!!!!! :D :D

My Art Space, Haji Lane, Skinny Pizza

2011-12-28T20:51:00.000+08:00

with my best friend T!

Have been super busy!!! Christmas day spent with 8 of my sportsclass friends, had dinner at Brewerkz and then we 'lepak' LOL (thats a new word I learnt which amuses me very much). Didn't bring my DSLR out that night as we clubbed after dinner.

Samosa

Went to MBS with my grandma the next day for lunch and walked around Chinatown for desserts. Met my best friend after that to have dinner at Dhoby Ghaut but the shopping mall was SO CROWDED!! We walked from the underpass to the side opposite Plaza Sing and settled down at My Art Space (which is an art studio and they conduct art classes, except on public holidays).

FINALLY I FEEL, SEE, HEAR AND SENSE PEACE :)

We got pizzas. Their food are relatively cheap! Less than $7 for this I think.

If you can't stand crowd like me, this is the perfect place to have a drink and grab a bite. Its a really lovely place and the service's great. Went home earlier because I was SO tired!?!!!

Yesterday: dropped by Simei Hans' Bakery to visit my OLD FRIENDS HAHAHA

Really my friends!! LOL

Making breads. Opened kitchen, I guess everyone staying in the Singapore east would probably know Hans Bakery at Simei is rather big..

I got to know these group of bakers when I was 15 (or 14 actually). I would stand outside the kitchen and freaking watch them knead + shape their bread doughs before or after my basketball trainings!!! I guess what made them remember me after a couple of times was the fact when I was there, I'd be there for as long as 3hours (sometimes more, LIKE REALLY!).

So it has been 3-4 years! Some of them left and even those who are new eventually are my friends too. We chat over their lunch or dinner times and they'd always warn me how tiring and tough this line is. LOL (ikr).

Visited Haji Lane with a friend after that. SO COOOL! My first time!

A classic? haha looks familiar :)

& then it started raining

settled down at a Moroccan Cafe for lunch

Scrambled egg & cheese sandwich + Mushroom soup~

Went back to Bugis and we played the arcade (omg when was the last time I stepped into one?) then off to meet mum at Raffles City

Skinny Pizza for dinner, had wanted to try it for ages...

Mum :)

My cucumber-pineapple juice. Damn cool, and it has a light shade of green.

Squid-ink pizza~

SMILING~ Anyway, I'm not a UWA student, clearly. LOL. I got the shirt after winning the academic award in school, but I'm back in Singapore for university already :( There's no UWA campus in S'pore!

Black pepper prawn linguine (overcooked :S)

To finish off. Very healthy right! (: This was because GONG CHA HAD A LONG QUEUE _._ & I hate queueing!

Pre-Christmas! Baking in Singapore :)

2011-12-24T17:45:00.000+08:00

Had lunch at Dempsey Hill and conveniently drove over to B&J for icecreams. Mum had the coffee one while I got the Mint and choc chunk~

Pictures in random order for this post !

Finally unpacked a couple of my new equipments and tidy up the stuffs here. I have a lot of bakeware and pastry tools in M'sia as well, but when it comes to equipments....... I take them with me in the car back and forth LOL. (I can't possibly have a set of these in all my kitchens _._)

I took a really long time to build this up. Many important people have played a part in contributing to my collection of baking tools over the past 2 years :))

After an hour of tidying, ALL NEAT NOW!! (:

Bottom left: my chocolate bonbon molds and chocolate transfer sheets!

Bottom right: see how I rarely make muffins/cupcakes but just can't resist buying cute muffin/cupcake liners!! The box on the right is my making-bento-toolbox. For sushi molding haha :D

You probably know how 90% of the houses in S'pore are quite small, much less the kitchen :S I do the baking from my humble kitchen, to the dining area, to this "corner" of my house. Not forgetting the living room for making chocolates as I need the AIRCON! LOL. & the reason why my pastry equipments /bakeware are outside the kitchen is because my mini kitchen is overloaded with ingredients already :O

Personal pastry box aside from other pastry tools. I'm very nomadic...... That's why last year I decided that I should just have a *mobile* box containing what I most likely need in the kitchen and carry it with me everywhere I go. It just gets heavier and heavier, though LOL

Our National Flower! Orchid :) Its really the prettiest flower on Earth hehe, too bad they are inedible or they'll look even more graceful on a dessert plate ^^ Saw these at Hougang with my mum. My mum is a gardening pro, she is the QUEEN OF CACTUS. Not kidding!!! LOL [OK my pictures are really in random order]

Anyway there was a mini family gathering at home last night. I made 3 simple sweets because I just got back to Singapore 3days ago only so there wasn't too much time to prepare either.

Peanut butter parfait with salted cookie crumbs and toasted hazelnuts :) I go slightly heavy on the salt whenever there's chocolate and nuts. It brings out more flavor and curbs the 'fat' a lot.

I am crazy about taking pictures AND PRINTING PICTURES
My brother in the NS and my mum + me in Taiwan this year. Why do I look 10years younger when its not even 10 months ago!! D:

Also part of what I made last night:

Coffee creme anglaise after chilling in the iced bath.

Super THICK, there's quite a lot of yolks in it which I love but I'm still going to purchase emulsifiers soon because I don't quite fancy home-made ice creams' texture. I like them STICKY LOL. (like Gelare's! You can lick so much without 'breaking' it!! Yum-ness)

Had I not step into a real kitchen, I'd be among the first to object emulsifiers and chemical compounds like stabilizers in creme anglaise. But honestly I'm even considering to add glucose syrup to my homemade ice creams because it makes the ice crystals smaller (smoother results) and I believe, lowers the freezing point (I HATE EATING HARD ROCK ICE CREAMS IN HOUSEHOLD FRIDGE T.T that's why I'm always happy to pay more for REAL ice creams!)

AWESOME PINK THING. Ate loads of coffee ice cream heh!

Baking the little almond cakes

The second sweet 'served' at the gathering haha.

Last but not least! CHOCOLATE SOUFFLE (I used up the egg whites from my yolks in the ice creams :P)

Hot chocolate souffle with coffee ice cream :D

My pre-scooped ice cream looks terrible! :( I already suck at this, and the ice cream was giving me problem as it was softening too quickly. Very tricky issue I have here without emulsifiers in the creme anglaise. Hope to resolve it before my dessert party or they're going to look terrible on all the plates!

EDIBLE FLOWERS! First got to know her at restaurant Amuse on our preDessert :P
I bought the plant! :) Scientific name is 'Dianthus barbatus' aka Sweet William. Going on my dessert plate for sure!

blue pea flowers 'seed' ? My mum is growing this plant for me!! She got it from her best friend in Malaysia. It is also known as bunga telang cooked with glutinous rice in traditional Nynoya rice dumplings (ba zhang). It stains the rice with it light blue dye. I'm using this in my dessert party too!!!!

LOOK MY PINK FINGERNAILS. HAHAHA, Yes yes the freedom of colors on nails before I start work in February!~

sUnFlOwEr ! :)))

Visiting pineapple plantation & a sneak peak into my dessert party!

2011-12-22T00:39:00.001+08:00

Uncountable Pineapples in the plantation!

I'm finally back in Singapore!! My dad took me to the Pineapple farm at Bakri / Ayer Hitam yesterday and it was such an amazing sight. I felt so blessed stepping in it despite encountering mosquitoes which attacked me mercilessly. Hehe (L).

I'd move into the little wooden hut if there's a proper bathroom in it :P

The pineapple plants on the other section. Still growing!

It was such an eyeopener, reminds me of the other time picking flora and plucking mulberries with the Restaurant Amuse team in Perth!!!!!!!!! By the way, I've diverted my interest largely towards agriculture and my future goal is to own a farm growing my own crops, I wanna support local economy and sustainable living :D

Surrounded by electric fences. My dad said its to protect the fruits from wild animals!

Different kinds of pineapples within the huge plantation. & Lots of cute little flowers growing along the paths

Sky turning dark but the breeze was just awesome!!

The 'red' specie'?

:D :D

OVERRIPE PINEAPPLES! MASSIVE!!!!

We drove out of the plantation to buy some pineapples home after that :) Classic of Malaysia to have fruit stalls along the road, so ......

"Honey Pineapple" The fruit stall owned by a very very nice and friendly Malay lady!

It started raining already and she insisted that we seek shelter there before going home. Haha =))

IS THIS CUTE OR CUTE? I LOVE IT! I want to have something like that in my future farm! and look at the bushes of fruits hanging above it....

RAMBUTANS!! (unripe for now)

Rainy..... I love rainy days :) We don't have snow in M'sia / Singapore but plenty of rain towards the end of year!

Went home with Sarawak pineapple and Honey pineapples (one of which is for my dessert party as I have mentioned that I'll be focusing on regional produce). We're going to see more passionfruit farms and mango farm soon!!!!!!

Anyway a couple of pictures before you get blinded by the green images above....

Saw this at my dad's office before we visited the pineapple farm. My dad LOVES chinese calligraphy although his chinese is pretty terrible LOL (he was from an English school). This is undeniably one of his favorite quotes. It means it is 'heaven's law to reward the diligent' quite awesome right!! I wish I can write like that :O

That's my name!!! 谢琳 (apparently my chinese name is only one character. 谢 is my family name). This was written by a handicapped girl my dad encountered previously. My dad admired her independence and I believe she is really impressive too because she lost both her arms yet she can write SO WELL (better than people who have hands!?!!)

I can't explicate the meaning of this couplet as my chinese is not of that HIGH level LOL. But basically it revolves around compassion and kindness as hinted by the word '善'.

Right, soo.. my dessert party menu! I'm posting the menu revealed to my 'guests' :D 4 course + petit fours! A friend said that its just so 'me' to come up with desserts so insane for one to handle. LOLL, I kept the number of components for each plate at a maximum of 7 though. I only invited 8 friends so I think I'll be fine!!

Regional Agriculture

From the Backyard

aloe vera / lime / lemongrass / pink guava

The family of Apiaceae (parsley)

carrot / anise / parsley / celery / chocolate

Tropical Farm Harvest

passion fruit / pineapple / cream cheese / starfruit / black sesame

Local Sweet -redesigned-

blue pea flower / rice / ginger / sweet potato / red bean / pandan

Petit fours

Aloe vera. Truly from the backyard ;)

Lime. This is planted in M'sia.

My mum grows the coolest pink guava plant ever but there's abit of problem now so I hope I can find alternative sources to fix this. As for lemongrass, I'll be asking my neighbours if she can share with me some :D Having the ingredients obtained almost directly from nature, the first course is meant to elaborate the support towards local agriculture and sustainable living. Making do with what we have is possible!! Recently I have been exchanging opinions with a friend in the food industry regards to food VS novelty.

I see the absolute need to come up with something different on the menu every time (its just not me to do the same thing twice because I love changes) but I hope that while I remain curious and study cooking science (or the big words 'molecular gastronomy'), they are not at the expense of exploiting our environment or society. So, SUPPORT ORGANIC AND FAIR-TRADE BRANDS! (:

Fisherman's Cove, Starhill Gallery - Kuala Lumper, Malaysia

2011-12-20T19:39:00.000+08:00

Highlight of our lunch! OYSTERS!

Walked over to Starhill Gallery with my mum as we wanted to try something different but didn't want to travel around the KL city (its always congested :\)

They served some mini mantous when we sat down hahaha?? But it was good :)

Why we love Starhill: THE LEAST CROWDED MALL IN KL, almost. LOL Even the restaurants are quiet :P

Our starter. Oysters with wasabi aioli. My mum and me LOVED this. Omg, this is the best part of the meal (L) (L).

Grilled Seabass & Shrimps with mashed potato and tomatoes

This isn't on the menu but as I had ordered their lobster which wasn't available, the manager told me their chef could offer me something else. I was both curious and excited but it turned out to be rather boring? Plus the shrimps were slightly overcooked. & this dish 'specially prepared' actually cost RM130 so I was expecting more than this.

Mum's Blackened Red Snapper and sauteed potatoes with mango salad

The flavors got a bit too overpowering after awhile and my mum couldn't finish this. But I believe the biggest weakness of this fish - OVERCOOKED! :\ Not good. I just want to highlight though, that I really appreciate the restaurant's service. I wouldn't bring up any issues with the food unless they asked which they did!

Complimentary dessert brought out by the manager

Not sure if this was because of the "complaint" we had! It comprises of a slightly caramelized, chewy tuile, strawberries, chocolate mousse and mint icecream :)

The meal cost over RM300, but for my first attempt at ordering fresh oysters in M'sia, I actually still find this surprise very rewarding :P Loved it!!!

Iced Mochaaaa. With my mum while waiting for dad!

Holiday Mood! (: Day 1 & 2 - KL, Malaysia

2011-12-16T21:06:00.001+08:00

Posting pictures of yesterday's and today's meals!! Starting with: Lunch at Tokyo-Don (Tokyo Street, Pavilion KL)

Salmon Sashimi. YUMMMZZZ FAVORITE X1000

Now that I'm home I'm trying to be more conscious of my diet. No more mocha with muffin and croissant for breakfast. No icecreams and muffins for dinner either!! No cereals, oreos or potato chips which I ate endlessly anymore! Its pretty hard because of my dependence on pastries but I hope I will be able to resist it for at least 3months because of my blood report which reflected a low haemoglobin level and quite severe insufficiency of ferritin.

(I just love replacing every meal with sugar, my housemate often asked me if I can even remember the last time I ate a proper meal. LOL. Actually received the report a month ago but had been too busy to do something about it)

Increasing iron intake. ASPARAGUS!~ Got my parents here to make me eat all the healthy food now (:

This is my second time dining at Tokyo-don. Honestly nothing special, and I wouldn't come back again if not for my dad who wanted to eat here. (main reason why I didn't enjoy the food during my first visit was their japanese rice..... too disappointing T.T)

Parents insisted that I eat red meat. I did, only because I wanna get well too. The lack of iron is working a lot of unexpected effects on me which I feel for myself?! My body was never like that.. & yes, I'm not a fan of meat especially RED MEAT.

This was yummy :) Wagyu steak. Is this the first time I ordered steak?! Anyway I don't know if its because I'm EXTREMELY inexperienced with the price of steak, I thought RM90 for this was quite expensive (is it me??).

Popped over to Ginza Cafe with parents. They both had latte!

I didn't drink mocha! *RESIST!!!!! Apparently coffee, tea and chocolate (my daily commodities in Perth) inhibit iron absorption. Not surprised when my iron intake since my last term in college was close to zero -working after school everyday. although I really did love it ZZZ.

MADE MY JAWS DROPPED. MY PARENTS NOW TAKE PICTURES OF THEIR FOOD. BECAUSE OF ME?! LOL.

Went to The Loaf for more food............! My dad loves it.

Greeted with some healthy bread et butter.

Seafood Pasta. Not so good :S

Mushroom Salad. Shrimp & Avocado Salad. LOVE IT! Simple but good.

We had Chinese food, but because of how they are always served on the huge table I had problems taking pictures with the correct angle -___- Decided not to upload them!

Saw this at the supermarket. I wish I can buy edible flowers in Singapore too :( Anyone knows where??

Reached home and then hit the gym with mum :) Ran 4km for a warmup too. I've FINALLY figured out what caused my quick gain in weight during my one week exams. I ate A LOT (I always do, I eat so much even my boy friends in Australia called me a landfill LOL. I eat more than 90% of the guys I know -.-), but anyway I didn't expect myself to get fatter as I usually wouldn't. So I was quite puzzled I even told my housemate that this is very strange. Yesterday I then realize that the lack of iron affected the thyroid which I am sure biology students know better than me.

Conclusion is: I feel like I'm in a health crisis because my metabolism is critically at stake :'( WHY DID I DO THIS TO MYSELF?!?!?!!!! I hope to rebuild my ferritin first and foremost, so that I can be healthy and retrieve my past eating habits (in moderation, DEFINITELY) without gaining weight like what's happening to me now. Feels like a terrible nightmare.

WHATS GOING ON!?!?!

Planned to swim/run with mum this morning.....

The pool was still under maintenance. Me & the super delicious Korea Persimmon omggg! Read my book while waiting for the pool to be cleaned!

Reason why I love DSLR. Water drops ((:

I tanned 80% of the time hehe. Lovely weather.

Proud of my delicious persimmon. Yes, eating more fruits now + Enjoying the J A C U Z Z I !

My complexion is also SHIT partly because of lack of sleep I believe? (my whole body is just screwed up now that I have the time to think about it -.-) My schoolmates plus housemate had told me how much my face changed ever since I started working a lot, literally..... And they are right because even when I was training basketball 4times a week back in AHS, interacting with so much dust in the indoor court & these didn't happen to me?

Then my family visited me in Perth, my brothers PARTICULARLY were freaking out by the state of my forehead WHICH YOU CAN SEE IN THE TOP LEFT PICTURE ABOVE. The funny thing is, I'm not a vain girl, thats why I can say they were way more concerned than I am at the state of my skin now? I just feel really awkward with so many people telling me this, so I SUPER WISH it gets well too. Anyone who sees me now will surely think my picture in my blog profile page here is completely edited. LOL! That picture was taken when I just began staging at the restaurant and my face was still the way it used to be.

I'm pretty screwed _._

Got up the pool and changed before meeting the dearie, Wei Jean for lunch. Pavilion again because I'm an absolute KL noob and don't wanna travel too much to other unfamiliar places.

California. Classic~

Settled down at Ichiban Boshi because it was lunch hours and we were more excited to catch up sitting down :DD Yes I just had Japanese food yesterday and I will be eating Japanese food tomorrow. I LOVE JAP CUISINE! I'm a sucker for sushis. I can eat them for takeaway everyday in NYC LOL.

Must have. eat more fish!! It helps I believe :))))

Salmon & Cream Cheese roll

Unagi + Juice roll. Yummy mayo LOLOLOL!!!

Such loving hands! :))

Pats back for choosing such a HEALTHY dessert. LOL. It was damn grainy!?!!! I'm glad this is not the first time I got J.CO Yogurt, cause otherwise I'd never get it again :S

Shopped around with mum after that and settled for dinner at Crystal Jade. DAMN HEALTHY:

Baby Kailan :D

FISH CONGEE.

I should send what I ate to my housemate. She will be so proud of my change. LOLOL! (no choice T.T)

'What is your personal career objective'

2011-12-15T23:45:00.000+08:00

Hello folks, I've landed in KL last night! Glad to be home (kind of, my dad insists that I tell everybody Singapore AND Malaysia are both my first home LOL ..........), will be in my "first" homeS for the next two years, and I can't wait to revamp the kitchen in Singapore since I'm studying in Sg. I'm planning to start working by February - taking January off since it will be CNY in no time and I don't want my parents at home saying that I'm not helping with the shopping *pats back.

Anyway, I actually have a plan. I dream a lot (but there's nothing wrong with that ^^). One day I want to run a farm cultivating fruits and vegetables, harvesting all organic produce and supporting local economy. If I'm rich enough (which I might never be, so JUST SAYING HA HA), I'll do it in Singapore for sure, because the culture in S'pore lacks this SO MUCH more than the Australians'! Its strange how people at home loves imported goods ZZZ. Sadly, I wouldn't have the ability to advocate such a meaningful change lol.

I'm meet the Brooklyn lady tomorrow :P HEE, my FCI classmate, in other words!!!!! Going to have lunch, hope we end up somewhere nice so I can share with you the pictures :))

Cleaning, Packing, Blogging. Goodbye Perth!

2011-12-12T21:44:00.000+08:00

Puptosis. My sourdough (Pommetosis)'s best friend. Hehe. Took a last picture with him as there's no way I can bring it home with me. He's going elsewhere, but that's a secret for now. SHHHHH!

So, I'm leaving Perth in less than 24hours' time. Just a short summary of my time spent here. I really like Western Australia very much!

Taylors College Graduation Beach Party @ Cottesloe!

Perth is the place I met the best kinds of people in my life. Their helpfulness have made my jaws dropped like 100 times when I first arrived. LOL. I actually had a friend who even prepared notes for me when I casually said that 'I can't remember organic chemistry'!?!

doreen and jasmine's mess. I will miss staying with her! Watching Jasmine pack her luggage(S) is a nightmare! LOL. We've got too much stuffs. Actually got to go down to Salvation Army Store twice with her to give away the stuffs we know we should just forget about bringing home -__-

Favorite memory of college: sitting under the sun during Autumn when we are having our break.

can't possibly miss out Rottnest Island. This's like the highlight of Perth & Taylors College!!!

some pictures just make you feel as if time stopped at that very second

with the very talented photographer :)

Read: my Rottnest Island trip here!

The restaurant I spent 6months with!

Read: Dinner at Restaurant Amuse with family!

Read: My last Service at Restaurant Amuse

FROM JAKE! & messages written by the team. Laura wrote "who's going to feed me petit fours now?! I'll starve!" LOLOL. Thanks Jake, I love all of you forever!! I do :)))))

THIS BOOK JUST MAKES ME WANNA SMILE :'))))

Its from Chef Hadleigh and Caz!!!!

crumbling at the sight of a dessert so graceful and gorgeous *CRYY!!!!!!* Really looking forward to drinking iced mocha and reading this book slowly this December.

WHY AM I SO LUCKY!?!! :))))))))))))))

I love my chef (I never wanna admit this because its so gay, which stagiair actually post such things!? LOL) but I'm too excited and I can't be bothered about my public image now. At times I think about my chef, and then I think about my dad..... 'cause I bet my dad sometimes questions why do I listen to my chef more than I listen to him. Especially since I'm really protective of restaurant amuse (how every time my results drop slightly and my dad just brings in the restaurant and I'm like *WHAT !!!?!!*).

Not kidding HA HA.

I've now got a 50+kg baggage when my limit is only 30kg!? I still got this anyway *PATS BACK* FINALLY!!! :)

I have wanted an ICE CREAM MAKER even before I was born. (hmm I certainly am getting better and better at writing :P), thats why I didn't care that this's going to add on to my OVERLOAD LUGGAGE and that I gotta purchase another transformer since S'pore and Australia doesn't use the same kinda plug. I feel so proud of myself, CAN'T WAIT TO USE IT!

Packing and seeing the number of HELLO KITTYs appearing in my luggage. One in another.

This was given by my pastry sous chef at Cafe Boulud (he's a Japanese!)

I brought it to Australia w me 'cause I thought I would need it for work too. But I did a lot more baking when I was working in NYC.. Like every pastry cook has his/her own timer! :D

Also another very significant Hello Kitty I received - from my brother on my 15th birthday! When he first gave it to me, the Hello Kitty was in apron, with rolling pin, and cooking utensils. OMG RIGHT!!!! (that's why I keep showing off I have the best brothers in the world. LOL, OOPS.)

So, just about 3weeks ago when he came to attend my graduation ceremony with my family, he got a new set of clothes for my hello kitty- REGALIA + the CLASSIC GRADUATING 'HEADWEAR' and gave it to me on that day. He loves me forever! HAHAHAHAHA!

I once kid that his girlfriend cannot be thinner than me and he went 'wow, thats tough!' LOL .__. (tsk tsk), he continued 'then your boyfriend can't be taller than me either', & I was like 'WOW THATS TOUGH!'. LOL!! Know why we get along so well tgthr? He's born in the year of horse while I'm in the year of rooster. We are both farm animals!! This's doreen's theory btw.

Wagamama & Gelare - Subiaco, Western Australia

2011-12-12T20:57:00.000+08:00

Housemate's seafood ramen. I can cook this too!?!! LOL oops.

Visited Subiaco on Sunday for lunch with Jasmine. Wanted to just pop around the area before leaving Perth :) But many shops were closed and the place was really quiet. I like it though. It just felt so comfy and peaceful... Ate at Wagamama without much hesitation 'cause we were both hungry :P

MY FRIED RICE. HAHA. I was craving for it. Strangely. I don't EVER crave for fried rice. I don't even order fried rice unless someone puts it in front of me and tell me to eat it lol. (Well I eat most things in front of me anyway)

They have an opened kitchen and serve japanese/asian cuisine.

I can't remember how much the food cost - it was $18 or more each. Which I think is COMPLETELY OVERPRICED LOL. But I can bring in what I study in economics and say I value having my fried rice at that point of time more than the cost of it so I'd just close two eyes and dig in. Heh. Plus the restaurant was situated at one of the corners which meant: breeze + peace......... Its been so long since I have time to sit down and enjoy my food slowly. So damn blissful.

Then we had DESSERTS~~~~

My waffle with cookies n creme I/C. I've told my housemate I wanna eat it for ages!?!?!??! LIKE FINALLY AGAIN :)

Housemate's chocolate chunk yogurt I/C.

So, after desserts... second round of desserts. DUH!~ :P

MINE! Pistachio I/C on waffle cone. I LOVE GELARE~ They just keep closing down in S'pore! :( WHY WHY WHY WHY. There used to be one super near my house!!! :'((

"Quickly, Softly"

2011-12-11T20:00:00.000+08:00

The picture I printed for everyone. It was taken during the Perth Commonwealth Festival 'Eating the Archives' just awhile ago by one of the photographer/journalist?

Ytd was my last service at the restaurant. I'm left with lots to do before I leave Perth in a couple days' time for good. I first stepped into the kitchen of Restaurant Amusé in July without expecting sucha dynamic experience (its been 6months, honey..... time flies). On my first day, I remember startling over doing dinner service very much as I've been at the pastry production since 'forever' and you've absolutely no idea how doing service intimidated me a lot. But that night was just so cool and service turns out to be the major scope of what I do at the restaurant.

Rocket flowers. Fragile and pretty little things :)

My last dinner service with the team yesterday

What got me unusually enthusiastic was the fact that I have finally broken off with the classic pastry arts I worked with in all the restaurants I had been to. Every thing here is just so modern, so unfamiliar and compelling! I was exhilarated to see different stuffs every few days, change is a constant and there're simply endless to learn.

Being able to interact with savory ingredients have also been enjoyable because it made me realize so suddenly how only knowing fruits and chocolates are insufficient in pastry. I never knew I actually like savory so much until I started staging here and the only reason why I wouldn't do savory is because not doing pastry makes me insecure. I'm not kidding, cause that's exactly what I felt when I took the week off during my exams .__.

My last staff meal cooked by Luke

I took awhile to understand this haha

Most importantly, it has been the entire restaurant/kitchen relationship that I treasure and admire most. It is what I am certain I will never come across again. I've always thought about it and when Jake asked me what's the thing I learnt most at Restaurant Amuse, I didn't hesitate to reply 'working and helping one another'. Handling with liquid nitrogen and sous vide / water oven, making breads by hand, growing sourdoughs are all the things I'm not worried about learning later although I am definitely glad having done so now.

Guests' dietary highlights for their degustation menu!

Never have I felt the unity of a kitchen this strongly (savory and pastry are not segregated at all) and everyone's just on the same pace. Always happy to give a hand because one day you might be the one who's going to need it.... I think I grew up with the more self-centered kinda practice because even the singapore culture itself IS too, people who selfishly wants to watch others going down -thats how we are trained to anyway, to be result-oriented. It makes us glad that there are ppl at the bottom so that we are on the top 10th percentile instead of top 20th across the nation alongside with *the-worse-you-are-the-better-i-appear* theory. It sucks but there's no choice because this didn't only apply to academics. When I played sports in secondary school, even coming in second in zonals competition will be deemed horrifying.

But this kitchen is really collectivistic. There're plenty of sharing and mutual-supporting which made me a very, very happy team player. I value this culture of Restaurant Amuse over other technical things I've learnt because of how I firmly want to be like them no matter which establishments I proceed to from now on. & this's what I think is my most precious takeaway from them.

:'( I WILL MISS THEM TOO (Gizmo & Tonka, if I didnt spell their names wrongly).

dodgy. much. LOL.

I just want to thank everyone at the restaurant for making Western Australia so special to me, for the endless patience and guidance.... for treating me like one of you. Special thanks to Paul for sharing with me his DUBSTEP soundtracks (lol), traveling experiences and trusting me so much with pastry mise en place. Jake, who loves teaching me breads & pastry, for his concern over my school grades & whenever I goes to club hahahah!! Most importantly, chef Hadleigh, whom I can never thank enough for taking me into this unbelievable kitchen where I have come to see and experience the best I ever had. Thank you for giving me so much throughout this period of time =)

Made for chef Hadleigh. I did most of it during my exam week. One thing at the restaurant I'll always remember is when my chef insisted that my offset spatula has to be tuned. LOL. I asked 'why' and he said 'it has to be'. It was very funny. Eventually I gave it to him and he really tuned it:

TUNED. LOL!

Leaving on Wednesday but I'll be landing in KL instead of Singapore and spending a week in Malaysia with my family :) Surely hitting the gym or pool + eating proper food everyday because I've been too unhealthy living off 50 boxes of cereals and oreos (at least. honestly).

Greenhouse - Perth, Western Australia

2011-12-11T17:24:00.001+08:00

Exams officially ended on Monday for me :) Stayed with the restaurant 'fulltime' this week which was really fun. Started on Tuesday where I spent almost 14hours straight in the kitchen for the first time - RECORD BREAKING FOR ME!! But it wasn't as tiring as before since I don't have to attend school already :D

Had brunch with my housemate on Friday at Greenhouse restaurant before going to the restaurant because we had wanted to try it for SUPER long. I recommended it to my family when they were in Perth two weeks ago and they enjoyed it very much too!

Plus the head chef, Matt Stone of Greenhouse is actually Jake's brother. HA HA. Okay just in case you forgot who Jake is......

Jake :)

So Greenhouse is a really beautiful place. Sustainable living has my utmost support particularly after studying the book on 'The Story of Stuffs' by Annie Leonard in my college which is about how the world's finite resources have been exploited. Australia changed me very much in one aspect which is the importance of supporting local economy, going organic and purchasing from farmers instead of imported goods!

(In fact my dessert degustation menu coming up the end of this December will be featuring regional agriculture!!!! :P It will be SO fun because I know that obtaining the ingredients will be even more challenging than the making of the desserts. 'gna be visiting tropical fruit plantations in M'sia as well as farms in S'pore. I even have a dessert created using ONLY ingredients planted by my mum and neighbours. One of my favorite quote in the book is its not that we don't have enough in the planet but there is simply 'a lack of sharing'!)

We got a chai latte, mocha, donut (yummyz) and added on tomatoes :)

Housemate's grilled polenta and slow-cooked egg with wild mushrooms. Love the grilled polenta, its really good!!! :D

My bacon and english muffin which I enjoyed. Very pleasing to the eyes :P Plus, I don't eat bacons! I'M SERIOUS, the only reason why I got it was because I wanted english muffins? (which it turned out to be nothing like the usual english muffins I prefer, but still unique). So the bacons were awesome and my housemate went 'ITS SO NICE!!!!!!!!!!'

Don't ask why I'm not a fan of bacons though. I think I get enough fat from almond croissants everyday anyway hehe :P

We spent $40 plus here. Overall a damn lovely ambience!

Greenhouse
100 St. Georges Terrace
Perth WA 6000
website
Mon & Tues 7am—late
Wed to Sat 7am—12am

Love love

2011-12-02T07:17:00.001+08:00

Finally completed this canvas which I started in Autumn. Can't wait to make a scrapbook on 2011 from Singapore to Taiwan to Malaysia to Hongkong and Australia (which I will be spamming pictures from Rottnest Island and Restaurant Amuse :p)

Anyway I'm desperate to return to Singapore, there are a lot of things to do which I want to get over with before 2012 (less than 2weeks):

University admission which is a bother. Work. Meeting friends and spending time with family. My dessert party - a Dolly's annual thing held at the end of the year :D It will be my second one hehe, this time I plan to come up with a lot of little surprises. I should write out my dessert degustation and send out invitations on FB soon! (last year's was a 3-course dessert party) I think signs of restaurant amuse will be manifesting in my menu LOL. Its going to be SO SO SO different from my first! Omg!!!!!

p.s.

accounting paper in an hour's time.

a little note worth remembering

2011-11-30T23:22:00.000+08:00

I really love working with chefs, they have very admirable dispositions and self-effacements which inspire me a lot. If there comes a day I ever leave the food industry, I will surely move on with the attitudes they have so perpetually displayed :)

No, its not my conviction that I won't be in the kitchen eventually - which btw, everyone I've worked with seriously thinks so, OR have asked me if I would. I find it very amusing. LOL. I believe they got this notion because I'll be going through university (2012) even after completing my diploma in pastry arts. Honestly, I might as well justify it this way: I'm another Singaporean who frets over insufficient academic qualification and this "I-cant-lose-out-in-our-highly-competitive-island-!!" has long been instilled in me.

Furthermore, university education will not be at the expense of spending less time in the kitchen. I'm going to work full-time as of next year (that's why I'm returning to Singapore - student visa doesn't allows that). I know exactly where I want to work at, just crossing my fingers about getting in (its secret for now haha!) & more truthfully speaking, the day I leave the professional kitchen will probably be nothing close to stepping into finance industry, but getting married and just baking at home HAHAHAHAAHHAA. I so love fantasizing about creating a family (:P) which I will spend a lot of time with - although I'm still single and unwanted -.- *NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!*

Oh wait, unless I marry a guy who so happens to be a chef, then I'll continue working in a restaurant. HAHAHA.

p.s.

exams start tmr. good luck everyone!! I'm very sad because I screwed this term's coursework. This means I have to work extremely hard for my exams, which I'm starting a little late sighs. Can't freaking bear to see my average drop :'(((

Restaurant Amusé - East Perth, Western Australia

2011-11-27T02:37:00.001+08:00

I'm going to update on my dinner at Restaurant Amusé with my family last Tuesday, (which came in first among Top 10 restaurants in Western Australia 2012!) It was a completely different, yet incredible experience being one of their guests instead of sticking around the miniscule kitchen (which I love. Correction, LOVEEEE!!)

Lots of pictures (that goes without saying :PpP), but I'm lazy to elaborate on the menu. Basically its also degustation, 10 course and we got the wine-pairings!!!! Plus every thing I'm going to write might just be perceived as biased because I work there. I'm too tempted to flung my vocabulary and the synonyms for 'AMAZING' in this blog entry :D

With the best brothers I have in the world. Second brother on the left is 3 years older than me, big brother on the right is 7 years older than me. Just in case I suddenly look very small in this picture I shall tell you our height from left to right: 1.76m, 1.70m, 1.82m LOL

Snacks! (Canape / Finger food). I have seen this XXX number of times, but it was just so lovely enjoying it front-house that night. Haha, plus every thing on the menu was a pleasant surprise for my family. Beyond pleasant, to be honest. They actually took out their phones to take pictures. *OMG, first time!

House-made sourdough (Rye bread and white bread), olive oil SPREAD and smoked butter w hawaiian black salt which are both made in the restaurant.

I have been wondering the extent of my family's astonishment while the food were served considering that they were clueless about our menu. I might be able to write a better blog post had I entered Restaurant Amusé that night knowing nothing - then I can describe more precisely how far I was blown away. LOL.

Blueridge marron, fennel pollen, lemon-thyme, orange gel, avocado on risotto crisp which we were told to 'use our hands' and 'have some fun'

This picture was taken pretty long ago, not sure if I posted it before since I probably have 101 albums on Restaurant Amusé :P So much Richard joked that I can have an Amusé blog on its own HAHAHA he's right, truthfully.

heirloom tomatoes, tomato espuma, goats' cheese, dehydrated black olives (this plate changed on the next day after we had dinner there. The new one is even prettier!)

CHICKEN AND EGG!~ which comes first? HMMMM!~~~~

Don't you just love the smoke? Haha, here we got Kalbarri free range egg, sweet corn puree, corn kernels, crispy chicken skin, buttered chicken thigh and cucumber sage. This was my mum's favorite.

I'm not sure what you think of these pictures, but one thing I always feel at Amusé is how the food taste impressive, even when it looks ordinary (e.g. the breads. My brother ate 3 slices of it, which is just unconvincing based on the pictures itself?! I'm saying this because my brother usually eats HALF of each kind of bread!! He is extremely true to his 'food-tasting' instead of 'eating' philosophy LOL)

A lot of wine glasses (: Kim 'wined' our table!! Her little stories that came with every wine was awesome. My mum was drunk even before desserts were served. The wines were great btw!!!! (my favorite was the dessert wine: muscat from Victoria, Australia. I found it least 'smoky' too)

Scallop, cuttlefish, white asparagus (only in-season for 6weeks and our dinner was the last day it was served on the menu too!?), beetroot puree, beetroot, carrots.

Pork jowl, prawn, kimchi-spiced compressed watermelon = my dad LOVEDD it!!!!!!! (my brothers and I don't have a favorite because we really like all) This was paired with shiraz from Barossa Valley and I remember very clearly that it was a very perfect combination!!

Veal, spring onion-ricotta puree, oxtail 'springroll', mushrooms and tongue.

cute mushies!

Palate cleanser: passionfruit gel, freeze-dried lychee and lime sherbit

JAKE AND OUR PRE DESSERTS!

There you go ;) Peach mousse, peach compote, rice krispies, white asparagus sorbet, persian feta panna cotta, yuzu granita

CHEF HADLEIGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) *DOZ, STOP FLASHING THE CAMERA LIGHT* Hahaha, when he came out to say hello my family was so excited :)

Richard 'spilling' our desserts. (OH RIGHT, before I go on leaving you all confused, I dont think I ever mentioned that at Amusé, we go out of the kitchen to introduce the desserts to the diners! always the desserts^^)

Strawberry fool, hazelnut-cocoa soil, strawberry sorbet, strawberry brulee and strawberry meringue poached in LN2.

Kim also wined us the Amusé's very special wine which has been with the restaurant since they began!! Omggggggggg, it was poured into a different glass which spurred on the fragrance of the wine. Thank you chef and Caz! Haha :)

Chocolate dessert. I know you have seen this before :P Rum & raisin icecream sprayed with yogurt, caramelized white chocolate, frozen chocolate ganache, yogurt and buttermilk jelly balls

PETIT FOURS: pink peppercorn marshmallows, pineapple jupes with vanilla salt and chocolate chip cookies. (I can recite this backwards already, haha)

When my family was ready to leave for the airport to catch their flight, we called for the bill realizing that the meal was on chef and Caz!! IKRRR, very cool, I didn't anticipate that at all. Thank you! =)

Restaurant Amusé

degustation menu (also serves menu with dietary requirements)

$125pp ( +75pp for wine pairing)

opens Tues-Saturday, 6.30pm

64 Bronte Street,

East Perth, WA 6004

With the team. Thank you guys, the coolest team I've ever worked together with! (L)

Lately, I have been leaving the kitchen at night with a lot of emotions and thoughts. I guess its because I'm very clear of how little days I am left with to spend in Perth..... Stopping work for a week to prepare for exams this week feels even more bitter, I just dread leaving them.

I have a love story to write about Restaurant Amusé.

Halo - Perth City, Western Australia

2011-11-24T12:13:00.001+08:00

Halo is situated by the jetty and this has always been the restaurant my family visits every single time in Perth. My two brothers were both in Perth for 3 years before I came over and during those times whenever we fly in for a holiday, we'll surely dine here!!

The setting of the restaurant is just so lovely and if you're lucky (my parents were!), you'll get to see dolphins swimming in the waters just next to you :D Not forgetting to mention their service is beyond amazing and I've never been to another restaurant which serves their dishes at a more comfortable pace than Halo. Of course that is a subjective opinion, because not every diners would like to spend hours sitting and enjoying their meal unless they, too, are on a holiday! :)

We arrived at around 6.20pm when the sky was still relatively bright.

For a try, I decided to make a reservation for their degustation menu. Its $105pp without wine pairing. 6 courses (excluding the breads, amuse bouche/finger food and cleansers).

THIS WAS SOOOOO GOOOD! It reminded me of Cafe Boulud, seriously.

Ocean trout, Citrus mayo

Prosciutto, wasabi & (cant rmb LOL).

We then had blood orange sorbet as the palate cleansers!

Pancake (Crepe), white asparagus, lamb

Sun setting !

Pistachio friand, Pistachio ice cream, vanilla froth, candied pistachios, macerated strawberries and strawberry jellies. (HELL YEAH, I CAN DESCRIBE DESSERTS BETTER HA HA HA)

We were supposed to have the cheese plate which I quickly told them that we'd like to skip that and the chef kindly replaced it with his 'signature chocolate fondant' with white chocolate icecream and coffee ganache (the small little cubes).

Their petit fours; lemon meringue tart and a chocolate truffle/candy. I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We finished at 10.30pm haha, the sky was already dark by then.

Overall a pleasant experience of their degustation menu. Super classic and French-ish (especially the sweets).

Halo Restaurant

Barrack St Jetty, Perth

Had coffee before my graduation ceremony (dinner at Halo was after the graduation). Can't feel like I've graduated at all though. Perhaps because finals are only starting next week. Don't ask me why is the graduation ceremony before our exams because I don't know either LOL. (That was the case for Singapore Olevels students too right?!! We had our graduation before the Olevels exam itself) In any case, I topped my college business school and won the DUX Business Award! I'm so pleased having proved one thing to my dad: WHO SAYS I CAN'T STUDY AND WORK TOGETHER?! :p

Harvest - North Fremantle, Western Australia

2011-11-24T11:42:00.001+08:00

Outdoor Sitting :D :D

My mum and brother both got this. The 'standard'!

Breakfast at Harvest Restaurant last Sunday. The first meal my family had upon landing in Perth!! They picked me up at home before driving down to North Freo :)) It wasn't very hard to locate the restaurant because its just along Stirling Highway (which is also where I live!)

Mexican style. I can't spell that it but this was OKAY. My second brother got this :)

The best coffee my brother felt he had during their stay in Perth!

Now a picture with them. Tiring flight which arrived at 6am + in the morning! (I was tired too -.- LOL like beach party, and then club, and then work, and then woke up at 7am for them. I deserve it haha)

All of us also got the fruit juice (beetroot, carrot, ginger) which I loved! Chocolate croissant for all to share :D

Mine, the belgian waffle with banana brulee and maple icecream!!

We also tried their toasted banana bread with butter :)

IMAGE BLURR! sorry :P This is the 'Freo'. My dad's. We all liked the huge slice of toast haha.

Overall breakfast was good!! Very comfortable and pleasing atmosphere, I love the layout of the restaurant and it'll be nice if I can visit the place again to try their lunch or dinner menu!! :)

Harvest Restaurant

1 Harvest Road,
North Fremantle, WA 6159
Tues - Sat: Dinner from 6pm
Fri - Sun: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner from 8am

Chocolateria San Churro - Northbridge, Perth

2011-11-22T16:02:00.001+08:00

Fiesta Churros!!! AWWWWWWW~

Yum yum yum with 6 different dips. Pure indulgence, my family enjoyed it :)

Banana bomba!

With my parents!

My DSLR is going to retire VERY SOON. lots of blurry shots especially during my graduation ceremony!!??!! *pissed :(

Brother's affogato (Did I spell this correctly? haha)

Northbridge San Churro opens till 2am!! Thats a very good reason to hang out there after dinner. They have massive chocolate cakes which look extremely pleasing to the mouth and heart :P I've tried their chocolates and several shakes as well. They are really good but I totally recommend the mint one! :))

I will be uploading pictures of the places I've been taking my family to dine at these 3 days. The best are kept for the last :P (WE ARE GOING TO RESTAURANT AMUSE TONIGHT! YAY)

La Galette de France - Nedlands, Perth

2011-11-22T15:50:00.001+08:00

Almond Croissant with pastry cream :)

La Galette is supposedly best known for the almond croissants, at least in Perth! My brothers love the croissants but I really still like the day-old croissants filled with almond cream and baked till dry and crisp. Those are my favorites :D :D

We tried the minced beef pie and vegetable pie for my parents. It was served warm!

Quiche Lorraine. SO-SO! I think the one I was taught at FCI really beat this hahahaha

Tried their petit fours: Almond tart, Coffee cream puff (which was VERY GOOD), and blood orange macaron (picture not here). Ham & Cheese croissant!

Taylors' College Graduation Party - Ocean Beach Hotel, Cottesloe

2011-11-20T22:15:00.001+08:00

Friday Night 18 November.
Original images! Took some of them from the photos I was tagged on FB :)

p.s.
Family are in Perth now, hopefully I have time to upload all the pictures (which is unlikely ha ha T_T) & I just realized my exams start next Thursday. OH GOD. Seriously I found out that it'll be approaching super quickly but even then two weeks didnt feel so fast until I opened my tiny eyes (seriously very tiny anyway LOL) and looked at my calendar very very closely. Big fat sighs. Got to tell my kitchen I've to stop for awhile :(

p.s.s.
I'm super heavy now. I WANT TO GO ON A DIET!! -but every one just ignores me when I say this. because it never happens -.-" i cannot never do it! T_T even my chef asked me how did i get so massive LOL (funny) Its true though, Asians as tall & big as I am are really the minority!? Thats why I dread going home a little, I totally STAND OUT among my cousins __.__

Rottnest Island is absolutely stunning!!

2011-11-14T23:10:00.001+08:00

Visited Rottnest Island with my college leavers on Saturday. The past two weeks were insane, hectic, totally packed with school, work and fun. Pretty nice although I got so mad and tired at one point of time I just felt like smashing some people (of course I wouldn't let myself do it LOL, I'm really good at suppressing my fury).

This coming week will be worse with projects, tests, and reports due. I decided to just share my beauuuuutiful pictures taken at super beauuuuuuutiful Rottnest before I hit the bed. I've been too deprived of sleep, too much to do on my Sundays and Mondays (working all other days). Plus, I slack half the time on my rest days which leaves me sleeping even later at night because I simply have difficulties completing my assignments!?!

Gorgeous, gorgeous. Looking at these, I seriously can't believe I was right there, immersing in the waters just two days ago. That said, its my last 30 days in Western Australia, I am really hoping that I will be able to make some time to visit the Scarborough beach or Penguin Island before departing for good :D

This Friday night will be our Graduation Beach Party at Cottesloe. Looking forward!! The following Monday would be our Graduation ceremony held at UWA (awesome uni. sadly I won't be doing my undergraduate there!) & guess what.........

MY FAMILY IS VISITING ON SUNDAY!! Yes, arriving on Sunday so that they can attend my graduation on Monday, dine at Restaurant Amuse on Tuesday (which is where I presently stage at) and heading straight to airport right after dinner. I kept telling them how AMAZING Restaurant Amuse is, that's why! Hahahaha (IT REALLY IS. Its the best one I ever had!?)

I almost just gave this trip a miss because of the restaurant (Thank you Jasmine, my darling housemate for insisting I have to go haha!). I really wanted to join in for Project which is done on Saturdays, but my chef said I could do it on Friday since I want to do it so badly -omg right, unbelievable-

Although eventually I think it was a bad idea because we were hell busy before service began, I was still very very glad I did it. I just felt terribly bad about it. It was rushed through so I don't have a picture that shows the entire dessert details completely. I wanted something simple, something that is different, and also something that I can experiment with different techniques I have been taught at Amuse: A deconstructed vacherin, comprising of 4 classic components - whipped cream, meringue, ice cream and fruits.

I used japanese flavors for my vacherin!

Dehydrated miniature green tea meringue (I did it in two shades of green)

Black sesame meringue in liquid nitrogen (for a different texture)

Fresh peaches

Miso butterscotch ice cream (persimmon I/C intended!)

Apricot & peach whipped cream (persimmon whipped cream intended!)

Chef said that my only downfall was the black sesame meringue which was grainy (I actually flavored it with black sesame POWDER). It was good overall and I was happy with it too :D

We returned to Fremantle from Rottnest at 4.30pm and I headed home to grab my stuffs before heading to work again (yes I am absolutely crazy. I swear my average sleeping hours a day was lesser than 6 last week, I'm crossing my fingers for this week. Sighs.... plus I'm going to be taking my family around!) I just love going to the restaurant. My housemate can relate my passion and enthusiasm but she has probably told me 100 times that I'm 'silly'.

A mountain-pile of homework and LAUNDRY awaits me every Sunday & Monday, yet I can still tell her 'crap, why ain't the restaurant opened on sundays and mondays?!' LOL.

Lovesssss taking pictures. The weather at Rottnest was perfect despite being relatively sunny. I am sun-burnt which hurts when I sleep and bathe, but so totally worth it! Amanda and me were probably the only two in the entire island traveling by FOOT. Mad! All our friends were on bikes, we wanted to capture more pictures :P 12km in total for the afternoon!

Freaking amazing. If the waters in Singapore is half as beautiful, I WILL CRY! LOL.

In the loop..... Awesome backdrop of the image. I love it! :D

Hahahaha my favorite group picture!!!!!! :p

P.S. Most of the pictures are taken by my lovely schoolmate, Amanda Mabel. She gave it to me and I had them edited this afternoon :) Visit her Facebook photography page to see her awesome work!!

Pre-Halloween Celebration (:

2011-10-30T20:57:00.002+08:00

Pumpkin Linzer Pie. Like the Raspberry Linzer Torte! (:

Almost exactly a year ago I was busy preparing for the final exam of my Classic Pastry Arts course in NYC. I remember being so anxious when we had to draw lots for what to make comprising of cake/tart, a petit fours/cookies, chocolates and breads. On top of that was building our showpiece as a platform to display all our pastry 'goods' on it! You can read more about that in this entry.

Part of the exam was making a Raspberry linzer torte. Just so you know, I absolutely love linzer dough - the one made with hazelnut flour!! FCI has a really good linzer dough recipe, unfortunately my textbooks are all left at home :( So I looked for one online to proceed with my Pumpkin pie using a linzer dough. Heh.

Roasted my Japanese pumpkin at 190dC for 2hours in the oven to get it all mashed :) The caramelization of its sugar smelled so glorious!

Linzer dough is surely one of the tenderest dough ever. It would crack and break even with the gentlest lifting so I chilled it very well and freeze them before cutting the halloween pumpkin shapes!

Made dinner too - beef burger with cheddar cheese and roasted vegetables. Its my first time making a burger patty. I'm serious!! LOL I was very impressed by how delicious it taste :P Honestly, if doreen can make burger, SO CAN YOU!!! hahaha. The only stuffs going in it were minced beef, onions, olive oil, half an egg (for 500g for beef) and honey bbq sauce.

The thick-cut cheddar was very very good! My housemate Jasmine looking cute!

Now with some roasted vegetables. Eggplant was beyond disgusting, somehow -__-

And then we had our pumpkin pie for dessert with mint chip icecreams!! Played cards and then dressed up to celebrate Halloween!~

Okay, I've been partying a lot this term. BUT STILL COPING W WORK AND SCHOOL - this means I should have led this kind of life since the first term!!??! Alright back to books! :P bye.

Eating the Archives, Commonwealth Festival Perth (CHOGM 2011)

2011-10-29T02:47:00.001+08:00

Weather was all sunny and breezy in the afternoon, simply perfect!

For the opening ceremony of Commonwealth Head of Government Meeting (CHOGM), yesterday was made public holiday in Australia (yay, who doesn't loves long weekends?). Slept for a full 10hours before waking up to Eating the Archives, an event of the Commonwealth Festival in Perth with the Restaurant Amuse team :P

Kitchen was in a mini tent this time! Plating for 30 guests.

First course: Prawn and scallop mousse with cocktail and mayonnaise jelly balls. Crispy turkey skin with compressed watermelon in pork stock and pork gel.

Its my favorite on the Eating the Archives menu because I think its totally unexpected, out of this world! Okay, maybe I'm just so ignorant when it comes to savory -.- The compressed watermelon REALLY resembled bacon. Its so brilliant, I'm not telling you how its made. HAHAHAHAH! (alright............... I'm still so cranky at 1.50am)

My chef, chef Hadleigh!! :)

I have to say this today - this is my first time working for a savory chef / working with a team of all-savory-people and for the past 4 months, I've been astounded by the difference between a pastry chef and a savory chef. They are........... absolutely contrastive!!! As a matter of fact I think working here is a hell lot of fun because of how dramatic and exaggerated all the guys in the kitchen are. The stuffs they do actually entertained me very much LOL.

Top left: Jake and Luke slicing the lamb. Jake (and Paul) takes care of pastry, but they can cook too! Like awesome, I know. Im so envious of how everyone gets to learn every thing since they rotate around!! - but I'm not going to savory :P pastry is still my thing hehe.

Desserts. YESS!! Desserts at restaurant amuse are always simple yet very very good :)) Chocolate ganache in the LN2. Luke and me were playing 'DRAGONS' by eating the frozen ganache.

End of plating!~~ The strawberry semi sphere is used to enclose the dessert.

Luke and Matthew were very excited, obviously :)) I've come to accept their eccentric behaviors LOLOLL! Perhaps you could say these are the things I will never expect from 'pastry people'. Hahaha!! They are very nice and cute mates in any case. This kitchen is the reason why I'm convinced guys are more creative that girls. Seriously!!! :( I should learn to think in their direction -__-

Now, a group picture. Chef's not here though. Oh btw, JUST LOOK AT THE BEAUTIFUL SKY. Goodness, I have 7 weeks left to admire it :'( Once I return to Singapore, every wallpaper of my photographs would have some sort of buildings in the way -.-

Studied alone after the event ended at a bubble tea cafe, I've got a test on Monday but I'll be having a lot of fun this weekend - spending Halloween with some of my girlfriends. We are cooking, baking and partying, which by the way I've got a pretty japanese pumpkin roasted in the oven for 2 hours. The breakdown of the entire vegetable to the slight caramelization of its sugar is heavenly!!

(We can't celebrate halloween without pumpkin, but I'm not disclosing more information on what we're making :P Shall blog about it if I'm free on Sunday.)

That's about it.

P.S.

My offset spatula. Its tuned..... chef did it on a very faithful evening........... The entire it-has-to-be-tuned-! episode constantly trends in Amuse kitchen. LOL. I'm supposed to be proud of it haha!

After the frost bite incident! Fingers of BOTH hands peeled madly. The dead skin cells disgusted my schoolmates, it disturbed them so much they asked me if I had some sort of disease (very funny, ha ha ha). The bottom left picture shows it how the finger tips hardened before it started tearing. My iphone couldn't even detect when I tapped on it and I dropped my contact lenses twice because I couldn't feel anything. Just imagine how stubbornly I held on that day to be 'burnt' to this extent LOL.
I'm a toughie!!!! :P

Week 2, the dreamcatchers

2011-10-16T18:48:00.002+08:00

Chef Hadleigh!! My head chef at Amusé! HAHAHA, was walking towards the state library when my housemates and me walked past this poster. I stopped, glanced and before I even said anything, my housemates went "..... why does he looks so familiar". LOL! (I show them the pictures I take all the time).

Sourdough (Apple juice one on the left. Fed with water one on the right)! More than 2months already HAHA. Chef said we can freeze them to sleep before vacuum packing so that I can bring them back to Singapore this year end :D

Left: Perfect macaron from Bay Road Pantry!!!!

Right: S'MORES bars which I posted the recipe on FB and my housemates baked them for me few days ago omg, love them :D

Top right: Dimsum at Xin Tian Di during autumn haha!

Bottom left: With our Japanese cotton cheesecake. Have not baked nor cooked together ever since I started working :(

Bottom right: Taylors College ball during autumn.

Housemates, the best ones forever. Jinteng is leaving for good on Tuesday :'( School and home will be so different without her. She's leaving for Russia soon, I wish her all the best although I hate to see her go. I believe we all have to leave at some point of time to pursue our dream. good luck and all the best to my girl!!!

Jinteng, Jasmine, me. THE 3 OF US CLEANING OUR HOUSE :p

Top left: Jinteng and me at KL with Jasmine

Top right: Clubbing at Metro City last night for the last time

Bottom left: Procrastinating on the sofa like always lol!

Bottom right: Jinteng and me with all our weekly recycling materials. (we eat A LOT, which explains the number of cereal boxes, oreo boxes and milk cartons we clear every Sunday haha)

Last night :'(

time to leave soon sweetheart :') always rmb to have faith. come home proud and safe in 6years' time. it will be worth it!

I'm really dreading Tuesday. I don't want to cry in the morning!!!! :'( It never ever occurred to me that this could have been what my friends felt when I left for NYC, its so much easier being the one leaving :(

P.S.
time to hit the books and do all the studying on my only available Sunday. Particularly sleep-deprived this week but will always be reminded by pastry chef Johnny Iuzzini's 'sleep is overrated' HAHAHA. 'm just not too sure if I really want to screw my last term up, it questions all the efforts I have put into achieving the grades for the previous terms zzzz. who doesn't work hard in the kitchen anyway!! I still love my life :P School-work-sleep. REPEAT.

Spring term, week 1

2011-10-09T20:27:00.000+08:00

During our lunch break in school (very sunny!!)

With the flowers I picked around the school buildings.

My hands burnt during my first interaction with liquid nitrogen at the restaurant. Right hand's much worse (ok felt really lousy to be honest). This was the maximum I could go to clench my fists and I copied notes with terrible handwriting. For the remaining week, I had my darling housemate tie my hair because I couldn't even hold a comb properly LOL. It is surely the most memorable pain I have experienced in the kitchen though :P (bring on the LN! hahahahh!!!)

Also during our break, I love the grass here, they smell good! -Taking plenty of pictures now, I have a canvas board with photographs in Perth which is incomplete. I have 3months to fill it up!! (yes, my hair was tied by my housemate :P)

My housemate's soft toy and me. She went to the Royal Perth Show on two consecutive days with a lot of our schoolmates (I know, they are crazy!! They said that it was very fun) and she won this home HAHAHA so cute!!!

Jinteng, who helped me tie my hair, and me. I look so excited bullying her dog.

These pictures were taken after I reached home (past 12am) from work, I think they are very good evidences of how full-of-vigor I am. A friend once said she thinks I have too much energy for a 9-5 job so its better for me to just stuck in the kitchen HAHAHA. In fact whenever I tell my schoolmates I studied till 5am in the morning they usually exclaimed that they can't tell that from my face at all LOL. Plus I go to the restaurant every day after school now, it makes me show off the drive I have by telling my housemates "don't mention the word tired in front of me!!" hahaha.

SATURDAY: before working. Paul and Jake brought me to pick flowers and fruits for the restaurant. So fun right?! I can forget about these in Singapore -__-

Snipping off the saltbush leaves near the waters. Sorrel leaves and Sorrel flowers at the bottom. May I proudly call this the sustainable living? Hee!

Vibrant.

Mulberry tree.

Picking the mulberries!! :D

Gently cleaning and then drying the flowers

During service.

Top right: Lots of tweezers!! I now have one too which is given by Jake :D
Bottom right: Luke!

Offset spatula. Chef bent all of theirs, which is funny. I went NOOOO when he took mine LOLOL!! But I'll have mine 'churned' before I leave Amuse :P

Cleaning~ Lots of cleaning in every kitchen.

Saturday night. After the restaurant closed. Drank only half of that. I don't like drinking apparently, I don't even drink when I go clubbing. I am hyper enough to dance without alcohol :P LOL.

Top left and Bottom right: My favorite! Richard and Jake are cute.

Week #1, Reason #1 I like Amuse:

I really enjoy working with a team whom's passion manifests in the kitchen every day! This is the first time I feel that culinary and pastry are actually on the same page :)

Project Saturday #3!!!

2011-10-02T22:29:00.000+08:00

Chocolate dessert for Spring. Resembles a picture from outer-space (I think so), like Mars and surrounding irregular rocks hahaha. That's caramelized white chocolate, rum-raisin icecream sprayed with yogurt, frozen chocolate ganache and balsamic-yogurt jellies in disguise. Still smoking thanks to the liquid nitrogen haha. I was fooled by the jellies which I initially thought was made using sodium alginate. No algin, apparently!!

Back to the kitchen, there are too many things to look forward to. Its kinda cool to see the slight rotation, and I get to help D a little on the prep for savory heh. I like it because I'm absolutely brainless when it comes to the hot side, every task is my first time. I don't think anyone else will mistake quinoa for mustard seeds (except for me. LOL! *turning red).

Some pictures are taken using my iphone so please excuse the quality of it.

Top left: Jerusalem artichokes, have memorized this by heart already. But no promises that I wouldn't think its ginger if I were to see it in the market. LOL. Seriously, do we have such stuffs in Singapore? I really haven't been paying attention if we do :\

Bottom left: Enoki, Golden oyster and Shimeji mushrooms. *pats back*

Spring menu: Pre-dessert. Caramelized oats, strawberry sorbet, gel & finished with lemon verbena consumme (lemon verbena...... it reminds me of the times back at DB Bistro, MBS haha)

Kangaroo meat on the right with quinoa, roselle gel and eucalyptus powder. (its my first time coming across eucalyptus as an ingredient in the kitchen)

All in the new Spring menu.

& then there was project Saturday. I LOVE IT HAHA, this is the day to bring my DSLR :P Everyone came up with their own dish which is always an eye-opener. I seriously hope that the next restaurant I end up at in Singapore will have something like that too, its SOOO interesting!!!!!

Jake's project: Juniper spiced cake, dehydrated lemon leaves, juniper oil sorbet (which was OMG REALLY GOOD), lemon meringue, lemon powder, poppy flowers, cucumber-sage granita.

This is once again, my first time seeing/smelling/tasting junipers. Staging at Restaurant Amusé has become increasingly exciting and insane. I now go home having to wiki A LOT of different stuffs like Junipers, Borage flower, Saltbush leaves, Eucalyptus, Jerusalem artichokes etc!!

Luke's. Peas and corns, egg and ham. I really can't describe culinary stuffs so please let me off the savory dishes LOL.

Richard's. This is savory too. COUGHHZ.

Okay we got a dessert here!~ :P Fennel, olive oil, yogurt, dehydrated fennel, freeze-dried mandarin orange, fresh mandarin orange segment, fennel candy, vanilla fennel stalk.

By chef and me. I obviously wouldn't be able to come up with something so pretty. Its a really interesting plate though, its my FIRST TIME seeing/smelling/tasting/using fennel as well, I like the green 'dollops' made with fennel leaves, olive oil and yogurt. One of the most brilliant aspects of restaurant amusé is feeling that there are no longer such thing as the "culinary ingredients"because they are seen in pastry as well. I never knew they could be used like that! Here, such ingredients are applied so appropriately that it never fails to fascinate me with the overall flavor combinations.

Fennel flowerheads (pollen), fennel bulbs, stalks. Now, go wiki 'fennel'! HAHA

Chef plating the fennel-olive oil dessert.
Thats the plate J & R bought back from Melbourne. You gna see it a few more times in this post. Everyone clearly likes it a lot lol!!

Okay I have disappointed you with a nice angle but terrible picture here. It makes me ridiculously nervous when I start snapping pictures and the kitchen mates go "blogger" "blogger" at me. LOLL!! I rush it, and this is what happens. Big fat sighs -__-"

Paul.

Done by Paul. His vego dish with beetroots and fennel. Spare me the descriptions :) HAHA this ain't pastry!

Dylan's project. *struggling with savory terms*, I'll just tell you there's caramelized apple on the dish :D :D

Matthew's. Again, with 'savory ingredients' in pastry (HOW COOL!~ That's why I want to learn more about culinary T_T). Persian feta panna cotta, 30-seconds sponge, toasted marshmallow, poppy flowers, chervil powder (goodness, I had to wiki chervil too. Sucks to be a savory idiot) and finished with blueberry sorbet.

Say hello to Richard, Jake and Paul.

That's Matthew for you.

Okay its such a hassle to maintain a foodblog that you've got to edit the lighting of every single picture before uploading and combining and writing them into a post!! I'm not sure how long I can continue doing this. Life is becoming more hectic and thrilling in and out of the kitchen. School is starting on Tuesday. Its officially October and last day of school on first week of December. So fast it scares me, my time at Restaurant Amusé is going to be this short-lived.

p.s.
lost my smart rider at Fremantle today, I just topped up $20 last night. TOUGH LUCK!!!!! :'(

p.s.s.
my kind friend sent my sourdough starters home today. glad to see them HAHA. super well-fed but obviously dehydrated :P LOL. I fed them already, thank you Emmy in any case!!!!!!

Crunchy PB Chocolate Candies

2011-09-29T00:00:00.000+08:00

Chocolates, together with desserts and breads are my favorite units when I was still studying at FCI. But tempering chocolate during our curriculum alone wasn't sufficient at all, my self-assurance in handling chocolates largely came in after I participated in the NY Chocolate Show 2010 with my schoolmates.

We stayed back after class thrice a week to construct a life-size mannequin with numerous boxes of chocolates sponsored by E.Guittard!! It was a really cool experience overall :)

Cutting my base and top coated tempered chocolate candies.

The previous time I tempered chocolate was during my winter break when I made Chestnut-Cognac bonbons (Coconut bonbons made before I left for Australia in April). Tempering chocolate is a technique I will never want to lose touch with so I felt the urge to practice it again this spring break.

Testing the chocolate! (w my beautiful Manjari chocolates in the background ^^)

Although I'm still inconsistently good at making bonbons, I know that I haven't done any dipping of petit fours for a longer time?! Decided to make a huge batch of chocolate candies which will be enrobed in tempered chocolate instead.

It was a really huge batch of chocolate candies, I almost didn't have enough chocolates to enrobe all of them! I divided my huge tray into two. I managed to cut the first half during the chocolate's cutting point (the picture on the left), but the second half set completely before I was done with it (the picture on the right :S).

Peeking into the chocolate candy

Reached Singapore on Monday, heading straight to Sunlik at Seah Street where I spoilt myself with almost a kg of Valrhona Manjari (64%) & Jivara (Milk 40%) chocolates which made me broke instantly. I'm already extremely poor after the Hongkong trip btw, LOL. I kinda regretted it after that because I should just practice with cheaper chocolates until I get better at making chocolate candies.

I like Manjari, nevertheless. The distinctive fruitiness from it does makes my Peanut Butter feuilletine chocolates taste a little less fat :D And if you ask me why PB, I'd tell you its my substitute for the costly praline I decided I shouldn't get T.T (pastry is a very expensive interest. WHYYY)

The top and bottom coated chocolate squares. Now ready to be enrobed entirely in tempered chocolate. I did this in the living room because my Sg kitchen is not equipped with an aircon.

The biggest problem I faced this time:

My PB-chocolate-feuilletine was softening super quickly -I edited the recipe and the proportion of chocolate was too little it didn't retain the squared shapes well- Despite making sure that I did cut them as neatly as possible, I realized that the feuilletine center will not keep hold to itself when I enrobe them in my tempered chocolate :( This is also the reason why the candies did not have straight and pretty sides eventually.

I decided to freeze half of them which were later dipped in Jivara (milk) chocolates but it got very difficult too because the tempered chocolates ended up setting and cooling even faster.

Jivara milk chocolate. Setting like a mess when I repeatedly dipped the frozen chocolate squares into it LOL.

I decorated them in different ways but they all contain the same crunchy PB fillings. This is only my second time using transfer sheets and I am clearly not very experienced with it yet.

One of the joke making these must be the fact that I have cleanly forgotten my SG home had ran out of parchment papers. I couldn't make a paper cornet to decorate the candies with white chocolate so I used a piping bag instead. How brilliant Zzz. Not pretty at all.

Anyway awalkingdream is now featured on Certified Yummly Blogs as baking.love! Previously, Shelley had chosen my Rainbow Macarons with many other Rainbow Treats shown on their website :) Thank you!

-----------------------------------------

I'm returning to Perth on Thursday morning :) Looking forward to my flight, I really like Western Australia and Restaurant Amusé. Its the best thing that happened to me ever since I moved over to study which is why I cannot thank my DB Bistro chef and Restaurant Amusé chef enough. Sadly, this will be my last few months in Perth. After wavering over various England Uni, Australian Uni and even CIA NY, I am resolute to return to Singapore once I complete my UWA foundation program this December. Its very unexpected because I'm finally certain that I want a career in the food industry - I believe that chef A and the whole Rest. Amusé team has played a very crucial role in leading me to think this way :') If possible, I don't even want to continue studying but its a pact made at home that I will, so I have to..

There's no reason to spend more money going through university overseas, thus I submitted my application to another university in Singapore yesterday. Besides, I think its time I work full-time in the kitchen and not being an international student means I do not have to worry about school attendance or student visa being revoked either. If things can proceed smoothly, 2012-2013 will still be pretty exciting for me, its just that I do feel it deeply to be leaving such a beautiful place and amazing kitchen in less than 3 months :( Hope to make the best of my remaining time in Australia.

PB Feuilletine filling

520g peanut butter
420g feuilletine
300g chocolates 70%, melted

Cream PB and feuilletine together and then pour in the melted chocolate. Spread it in between parchment papers and chill for at least 2hours. Pour a thin layer of tempered chocolate over it and spread evenly. Let it set. Flip it to the other side and do the same. Cut them into squares. Chill if necessary or proceed straight to enrobing them in tempered chocolate.

Cooking with my darling brother! (:

2011-09-28T00:19:00.000+08:00

Making breakfast for our parents with my second brother on Sunday, he's 3 years older than me, the apple of my eye! :P

I had an exciting menu prepared: Carrot juice / Soy milk, Yogurt Parfait with banana and granola, Norwegian Benedict and finished off with Petit Fresh Fruit Tarts. VERY FUN SUPPOSEDLY!

Got my sucree dough made and lined in my tart rings, english muffins (!!!) proofed and shaped, granola mixed and ready to go into the oven...................

Not Norwegian Benedict for breakfast in the end :( LOL.

I realize that our oven was faulty, it couldn't even operate - its also my first time using the kitchen in this holiday house. One of my very very pretty kitchens enclosed by glass doors which make the environment really bright. I love it! So it turned out to be a disaster that my tarts and granola were prepared for nothing :( I actually had vanilla pastry cream already done too for fruit tarts! Then I pan-fried my English muffins which I didn't like the crumb texture within so my brother and I decided not to serve it.

Pepper & Orange Smoked Salmon Salads with Portobello Omelette.

Preparing the salads on the kitchen counter

Had no choice but to leave out the planned benedict, fruit tarts and yogurt-granola parfait in the end. We ate the bananas and yogurt on its own though :)

Top right: intended to layer my granola yogurt parfait on the cute 'Square' plates! T_T

Bottom right: outdoor breakfast. Aren't the very-chinese-looking furnitures cute? Its a tea table. When I was cleaning down this area, there was a frog living in the tea-filter column. LOL

Gone are our plans to have sweet pastry treats before and after our 'main' :( Got a bunch of beautiful raspberries for tarts which weren't used, but omelette and salads were awesome, my family's company was too!

Cooked dinner with brother in the evening as well (my brother desperately wants to learn how to cook, so I taught him some no-brainer-tricks haha!?)

Basil Pesto Fettuccine with Shrimps & Portobello.

Chili's - Kuala Lumpur, KLCC

2011-09-27T00:22:00.000+08:00

My Cajun Club Sandwich!

Love the super buttery toast and smoked chicken. It comes with beef bacon which I requested to be left out.

Jinteng and Jasmine., my housemates in Australia!! They are both from Malaysia, 1 year older than me :) We love lazing around, daydreaming and cooking together LOL.

Jinteng's Chicken Crsiper. Very tender chicken :P Not breast meat *yay. I hate breast meat btw :\

Jinteng and me. Huge portion~

Chilis' Molten Chocolate Cake. Jasmine got the dessert instead. Lovely cake but ice cream wasn't that good.

Spent around RM80 in total! Quite affordable, pretty delicious although a little FAT hehe :P

CHILI'S
KL City Center3rd Floor,
Suria KLCC
Website

The Apartment Downtown - Kuala Lumpur

2011-09-26T01:02:00.000+08:00

I love the layout of the restaurant!

Met my mum and brother for dinner after eating with my darling housemates at Chilis' in KLCC! Hahaha (yes I can EAT :P ). We decided to dine at Apartment Downtown because my oldest brother told us to check out their molten chocolate pudding!

Sesame Salmon with Bok Choy and Rice. (AVERAGE)

(outdoor seating!)

Cod fish with almond crumble. This is pretty good but the dish wasn't served hot!

My second brother, mum and I shared the two main! And then we had desserts :)

Mum and me drinking our pineapple juice. (when my face expands sidewards, I know I put on weight. SIGHS!!!!!!!)

It doesn't looks appealing but it was nice. Smooth, rich center with hazelnuts. I didn't like the icecream though. The texture is kinda off.

The Apartment Downtown
Lot G48 & 139
Suria KLCC, Kuala Lumpur City Centre

Breakkie & French Style Country Bread

2011-09-24T02:15:00.000+08:00

Leafy salads and fruit juice that made my morning perfect :D

I was at Kuala Lumper two days ago for a couple of reasons. Firstly my very sickening housemate, JIN TENG PEH (if you haven't heard of her here), decided to abandon Jasmine and me for good :''( She left Australia suddenly because she'll be moving to Russia to study - that heartless girl!! She kindly handed my sourdough starters to another schoolmate so that they will still be fed haha (L). We met in KL twice to meet up for a meal together with Jasmine which was. Sad :\

French Style Country Bread! A very wet dough that can't rise vertically too much. I wish its taller.

The other reason was to attend the Food & Hotel Malaysia (FHM) 2011 at KL Convention Center. I was curious about it because the Taiwan Bakery Exhibition I'd visited early this year was pretty cool :)

The event turned out to be something similar but less crowded because FHM 2011 is not opened to public. I even had to ask my dad to bring my extra set of uniform to KL so that I could enter as a "student" Haha. Photography not allowed in the two main hall but I do have some other pictures from the event which I'll share with y'all soon. (Too many food-related events all cramped in this Spring break of mine!!)

I didn't have a spray bottle so I baked my country bread with a tray of hot water at the bottom of the oven. I realize that one of my newly-bought bread book is right: this method results in a pretty & slightly chewy crust. Brushing the bread surface with water before baking / spraying water into the oven on the other hand gives a hard crust. I like breads both ways!!

I decided to make use of my very beautiful kitchen there hehe :) Breakkie for my mum who was with me on our first night in KL before my dad joined us. Reason why I made country bread? Our kitchen is literally empty. No baking pans with extremely limited pastry ingredients (which was not unexpected since I'm not the one staying there most of the time HAHA)

Salads, baby mushrooms, oven-baked basil tomatoes and (quite pathetic) scrambled eggs.

You probably don't need me to tell you that I can't cook eggs :S I wanna learn how to COOK!

Proud!! :D :D Its made using the poolish starter. One of the more ambiguous part about bread making is when you have to knead in just enough flour towards the end. Plus wet doughs are great :P They give the uneven crumb size of the breads which are super gorgeous! The only issue I have which tempts me to add 'a little more' flour to it is the fact that I like taller country breads. I find mine a little flat. Wet doughs seem to hinder the rising of it, it just spreads to the sides Zzz.

Top left: my happy poolish starter :D :D

Bottom left: my mum, and the dry kitchen counter

Bottom right: making the sponge starter

I slept past 3am after proofing my country bread. I like final-shaping them and letting them ferment in the fridge overnight, ready to go into the oven.

Love mornings when we have time to sit down for a colorful breakfast :P

Top left: proofed and scored country bread. I think breads sprinkled with flour are pretty, they look so rustic.

Top right: my olive oil, basil and garlic baked tomatoes!

Bottom right: using the 'wet' kitchen' for the first time. A very user-friendly oven there :P

In the oven already! (on my newly bought tray haha)

Helped my mum to clean the balcony for tea-time the next day heh.

Hongkong 2011!!

2011-09-21T14:15:00.000+08:00

Arriving in Hongkong!

The overall trip was super enjoyable with my best girlfriend CTY!!! She did all the planning for our itineraries in HK -thanks darling! haha- So we were equipped with printed google maps and food reviews, all ready to explore Tsim Sha Tsui, Mongkok, Central and Causeway bay :) Everything was awesome in HK from our accommodation to eating to shopping but we were put off by the services quite frequently? :\

This post would be an overview of the entire eating expedition :P Here's a list of cafe/restaurants/bakeries we visited (I will be linking all of them to individual blog entries soon), hope it helps anyone who'll be traveling to HK soon!!

3 Most Amazing Experience in HK;

the best bakery, best dimsum and best desserts.

Tai Cheong Bakery 泰昌饼家

(lifechanging EGG TART and BBQ Char Siew Pie which you will CRY eating!!)

Tim Ho Wan Dimsum 添好运点心专门店

(highlight: Crispy Char Siew Bun and super silky~tender Chee Cheong Fun)

Hui Lau Shan Healthy Desserts 许留山

(its everywhere in HK, we actually visited the shop thrice to try their different desserts!)

where we stopped for a cup of tea, AIRCON (!) and wifi. HAHA! I know its just kinda sad how we can barely live without internet every second today?

love this haha!

the cute Disney/cartoon characters Dimsum at HK Disneyland Hotel

DIM SUM PLACES:
Tim Ho Wan Dimsum 添好运点心专门店 (Top Favorite!)
Crystal Lotus Restaurant, Hongkong Disneyland Hotel
(featuring disney dimsums)

BAKERIES:
Tai Cheong Bakery 泰昌饼家 (Top Favorite!)
Little Mermaid Bakery (love it too ^^ -western bakery-)
Arome Bakery 东海堂, Maxim Pastries 美心

CAFE/EATERIES:
Corner Cafe, Main Street @ DisneyLand
Cafe de Coral 大家乐
Yuen Kee Restaurant 原记
Sea View Congee Shop 海景粥店 (classic Hongkong breakfast!)

DESSERTS:
Hui Lau Shan 许留山 (Top Favorite!)
Kami Teapresso & COME BUY
Milkissimo Gelato, Yo Mama Frozen Yogurt & CRUMBS Frozen Yogurt Station

going back home with our *overweight* luggage haha :D

Yuen Kee Restaurant - Tsim Sha Tsui

2011-09-19T02:46:00.000+08:00

Tender beef noodles in soup w Ham omelette and Shrimp & Egg Horfun

During our HK trip, we were staying in a hotel located at Tsim Sha Tsui. We had our first and last meal at Yuen Kee Restaurant, locating almost directly opposite to where our accommodation was!!

The noodles was decent but not extraordinary while the horfun blew me away :P I'm a huge fan of horfun (aka thick rice noodles), if its a chinese cafe that I'm dining at I usually never hesitate to order this. I love it even when its badly cooked LOL. Its almost like *as-long-as-its-horfun-how-bad-can-it-taste!?!* Most places are able to whip up the dish with acceptable gravy consistency, but this is my first time seeing such a beautiful horfun gravy that is both shiny and smooth. The best thing about it that the horfun did not stick at all! In my memory, this is the first time I've eaten a horfun which slips over one another. I have heard that its really challenging to prevent them from sticking so I was very impressed :D

Our first meal after checking into our hotel!

Very spacious and comfortable. In HK, the shops are usually so tiny that during meal hours, the waiters would put you and strangers to share the same tables which is rather awkward. I'm glad this isn't so much of an issue at Yuen Kee!!

They seem to be really famous for their roast goose and pork which my best friend and I didn't get to try because on our second visit to have breakfast before our flight back home, it was still too early and the meats are not served until 12pm :\ Nevertheless, we ordered a SPREAD knowing its our last meal in HK and we will surely regret not eating our fill hehe!

Dumpling soup noodles! I was craving for this kind of flat, egg noodles called 'mee pok'.

Chicken chop macaroni. We didn't like their kind of macaroni! Its really different, but the chicken chop was superb :P

Also got the classic HK breakfast beehoon to try (which was OK), HK milk tea and Congee!

HIGHLIGHT: HK style French toast!!!!! Filled with my favorite PEANUT BUTTER (yumsss!) and deep fried till gorgeously golden. Hee. We ordered two portions of it!?

Enjoying our breakiee!!

The entire meal costs us less than HKD 200 :)))))

Yuen Kee Restaurant
27-33 Kimberley Road
Shop 6-10, Tsim Sha Tsui

Crystal Lotus Dimsum - Hongkong Disneyland Hotel

2011-09-17T19:29:00.000+08:00

Mickey and Minnie figurines at the HK Disneyland Hotel

Our tea-time at Crystal Lotus restaurant was the most expensive meal we had in HK but the dimsums are too cute to give it a miss. Aside from their a la carte menu they have a special dim sum menu featuring disney characters!

Steamed Shrimp Dumpling

It was quite a long wait for only 3 different dishes..

Lotus paste bun with egg yolk filling. It tasted like mooncake. LOL.

Super cute Char Siew buns (baked BBQ pork)

Overall not fantastic but we still enjoyed it very much because they look so appealing haha!! We spent close to HKD 300 here.

*The dim sum menu only serves from 12pm till 3pm. If you are only visiting the restaurant at 1pm or even later, you are strongly advised to pre-order the disney characters dim sum because they are usually sold out very quickly.

Corner Cafe, Main Street - Hongkong Disneyland

2011-09-17T19:18:00.000+08:00

Simple but yummy salad! Baked pork chop rice are very popular in HK

The pork chops we had are always very very succulent and tender, wonder how they do it :P In fact we ate so much meat during our trip I'm completely abstaining from them this week. Just seafood for me! Overall it tasted alright, we wished there were more cheese though.

Sweltering afternoon, the sun was literally baking us!!!

We had Mickey waffles with ice cream for desserts. Cute :) But waffle was only average and the ice cream was ... disappointing! We spent under HKD 150 for the lunch.

Corner Cafe
@ Hongkong Disneyland Main Street

Tai Cheong Bakery 泰昌饼家 - Hongkong, Central

2011-09-17T15:40:00.000+08:00

TAI CHEONG BAKERY. Its pretty hard to locate the store, we walked up and around the area before finding it (I'm so glad we did!!).

I'm a HUGE fan of egg tart as they resemble creme brulee!! :))

Before trying the egg tart from Tai Cheong, I only buy egg tarts from Singapore Lei Garden Dim Sum restaurant! Very few egg tarts please me because I'm just extremely particular about the tart crust. Lei Garden's puff pastry crust is what I really adore about (chinese puff pastry are leavened by an oil dough instead of butter). Most places use the chinese style sweet tart dough while others that make using (chinese) puff pastry end up with slightly raw crust that is wet on the bottom - which I dislike! Lei Garden does it perfectly though :D

HKD 5

As for now, Tai Cheong's egg tart has definitely topped my favorite egg tart list. The baked custard itself way exceeded my expectations of it!! I can't help feeling excited because I was completely smitten when I had my first bite. I have never thought that egg tart could taste THIS good and special! More interestingly, their tart crust is neither the typical sweet tart dough nor chinese puff pastry dough! It tasted more like a cookie which I found very very delicious and fragrant :D

Beautifully baked hongkong pastries!

Char Siew (BBQ Pork) Pie which you will CRY eating! HKD 8.

My best friend got the Chicken pie while I got the baked BBQ Pork Pie. Its the tenderest and most BUTTERY pie pastry I ever ate in my life!!! Every bite was flavorful and the smell of it lingering in your mouth is simply glorious. I love love love it :D :D But I guess for some people who do not like butter too much will find it insane to finish the entire pie (like my best friend lol!). It gets a little oily when the fat coats your entire palate so it'll be a good idea to pair it with chinese tea. Hahaha.

Tai Cheong Bakery
32 Lyndhurst Terrace
Central, Hong Kong
Tel: (+852) 2544-3475

They also sell packaged chinese goodies which we bought home for our family!

Little Mermaid Bakery - Hongkong, Tsim Sha Tsui / Causeway Bay

2011-09-17T03:33:00.000+08:00

Little Mermaid Bakery @ Harbor City

Maple walnut pastry, Cinnamon roll, Chewy Chocolate Donut

They were all good. I love my cinnamon roll but I wish it had more cinnamon sugar!!

The chewy chocolate donut has a silky rich chocolate center!! It tastes like an in between of a bread and mochi :) My best friend loved it so much she bought this again during our second patronage at Little Mermaid Bakery!

The range of other baked goods in house! Very pretty cakes and tarts made too :)

Vanilla Pastry Cream Puff tasting, smelling and looking awesome.

THIS.WON.ME.OVER! Got this at the Causeway Bay Times Square's outlet. Its been way too long since I had such a decent cream puff!! Its not just the choux pastry that has such an amazing texture. Its beautiful crust is slightly crisp while the vanilla pastry cream is just velvety smooth. I love it!! Although a little heavy for some's palate, I totally appreciate the richness of it :))))))

Little Mermaid Bakery
3/F, Gateway Arcade, Harbour City,
17 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

Little Mermaid Bakery
1 Matheson Street, B1/F
City's Super Times Square, Causeway Bay

Hui Lau Shan Desserts 许留山 - Hongkong

2011-09-16T02:43:00.000+08:00

Its impossible to miss this desserts shop if you travel to HK because its really everywhere! (:

TY and I visited Hui Lau Shan on our first, second and third day consecutively because the hongkong chinese desserts were really unique and we wanted to try more of the different sweets in their menu.

Mango Glutinous balls. Chewy exterior with a pretty and sweet fleshy mango center. Its served cold. I wish we have this in Singapore!!!!!!!

Coconut-Black Glutinous rice desserts with chewy balls and cubed yam.

The coconut milk was a little overwhelming for me but TY enjoyed it fully. I also like the different ingredients served in it as they give contrasting textures to the overall dessert!

Mango Pomelo broth.

Red bean, mini glutinous rice balls, coconut and jelly drink which was also very special. TY said she'd have this over bubble tea!! HAHA!

Red bean ice, rice balls, coconut and other little things *DROOOOOOOLLL

Happy girls enjoying our desserts :D

Overall a MUST-TRY dessert house. It features the Hongkong-style sweets which I haven't come across in Taiwan/Singapore/Malaysia!! None of the things we ordered disappointed us, but I'd highly recommend their Mango Glutinous balls (they also sell durians one which I don't eat) as well as the Coconut-Black glutinous rice dessert!

Hui Lau Shan Desserts
Shop C, G/F 49
Carnarvon Road, Tsim Sha Tsui

There are really a lot more outlets located in HK, you can visit their website but it is in HK-Chinese!

GONE! :P

Tim Ho Wan Dimsum 添好运点心专门店 - Hongkong, Mongkok

2011-09-16T01:17:00.000+08:00

Tim Ho Wan's very famous Crispy Char Siew Bun (kinda similar to Hk style Polo bun with the sweet buttery crust on top)

Recommended in the 2011 Michelin guide, we know that Tim Ho Wan Dimsum cannot be missed during our trip :D TY and I walked a really long way under the relentless sun before reaching the shop!

Its hard to describe the taste of their Crispy Char Siew Bun because you might think I'm exaggerating haha! The beautiful crust lying on top of the baked bun is just out of the world. It has a hint of saltiness which makes the sweet BBQ pork within the bread even more outstanding.

Look at the number of people waiting outside!! We arrived at 1pm, got a queue number which meant an hour's waiting time. (totally worth the wait alright :P)

Clearly a very well-reputed dimsum restaurant in Hongkong!!

Inside the humbly furnished dimsum house :)

Shrimp & minced Pork dumpling!

Char Siew Chee Cheong Fun

Super silky, smooth and beautiful!!!!! Its the BEST chee cheong fun I've ever ate and it has the perfect thickness I'd like it to be!! Together with the crispy char siew bun, they are truly the most outstanding dimsum my best friend and I've had during our HK trip :D

WE LOVE THE GLUTINOUS RICE WITH CHICKEN WRAPPED IN LOTUS LEAVES TOO!!

Honestly speaking, if we were not trying to fill our HK trip with as much food as possible, I'd have finished the steamed glutinous rice!! Its just too much for two person and we had to reserve space for MORE food later in the afternoon. Haha :)

Top right: Interior of the Crispy baked pork bun

Bottom left: Pan fried turnip cake. Extremely tender as you can see!!

We ordered 6 different kinds of dimsum on the menu which cost us HKD 95 in total. Its so affordable and for such delectable hongkong cuisine, I was completely moonstruck!! I wish I live in HK hahaha!

Tim Ho Wan Dimsum
Flt 8, G/F Phase 2, Tsui Yuen Mansion,
2-20 Kwong Wa Street, Mongkok
Opens 10am - 10pm