French buttercream for macarons and cupcakes

Oh wow, and it's now the last day of 2010. Thank gosh. I must say that it hasn't been a very good year for me...but oh well, as long as I'm well-fed (too well-fed in fact), healthy, alive, I really shouldn't be mumbling or grousing much...

2010 has been a tremendously busy year for my oven, and sadly, it finally gave up on me (or was it the other way round hmmmm...), so we replaced it with a new one! I must say that I'm falling more and more in love with the new one day by day. It takes only 10 minutes pre heating time (compared to 20-30 minutes for the ol' one!), the temperature is reasonably correct (the ol' wonky one was off by 10 degrees higher!), oh oh oh, new things always seem so much better, shinier and prettier, don't you think so? (:

Coconut mango passionfruit macarons

Wild Honey (revisited)

Wild Honey seems to be a popular dining place among my friends and family members. I've been back there twice since my last post. I met my cousin and a girlfriend for dinner and the three of us ordered four sets. Ooooo, greedy.

the Basque; the Belgian

Madeleines and macarons

Well, here I am again. It's not that I bake every other day, just that it's coming to the end of the year, and I would really really like to clear my backlog so I won't keep having a long list of backlogs that get posted like months later...and I'm proud to say I've clear like pretty much of my backlogs with the frantic postings I do lately. ;) I'm already posting stuff that I've baked in December! *gasp*

Two weeks ago, I baked some macarons and madeleines for the colleagues and packaged them up in small party favour bags. I made - Brown butter cinnamon praline madeleines, chai chocolate macarons and coconut macarons with a mango passion fruit filling. I've decided to split the pictures up in two posts cos I'll be including recipes for some items...

Chai macaron shells with cinnamon chocolate ganache

Merry Christmas...not.

It's Christmas day today. Although it's the season of joy and giving, however, my Christmas this year started out on the wrong foot. I lost my mobile phone just two days ago (an iPhone 3G) while out shopping in town. My girlfriend had asked if I could help her bake some macarons for some Christmas parties that she was attending. I was more than happy to help her out cos my mind was full of reds and greens...

The lovely girlfriend of mine treated me to lunch, I passed her the macs, and then we decided to take a short walk around the mall. My suggestion (it was a mistake). I should have gone home instead of dawdling around.  She left first after accompanying me for a while as she had dinner plans, so I walked around on my own for like ten minutes. After which when I realised my phone was gone. It was either carelessness on my part, or a pickpocket. But either way, my phone was gone. Sigh. It all happened within minutes. I immediately retraced my steps and got a shop employee to help me ring my mobile. It was switched off already. :(

I had to report to security, rushed home to locate the serial number, then head down to the police station to report the loss. Sigh. My dad was furious, so I doubt I'll be getting myself another iPhone soon...And to think I was so dependent on it. I used it for checking mails, tweeting, facebook-ing, the games apps for entertainment and the camera apps for fun's sake. It was even my alarm clock. It's only an object I know, but I really feel a pang of loss for the phone, which I've had for all of say a year? Sigh.

Boxes of macarons

Brandy caramel vanilla poached pears tart

I realised that I'm a simple girl. Erm, I meant I have simple tastes, not that I'm simple simple. I mean, gimme any common fruit and I'll be happy. While I do love my berries (raspberries especially!), and sweet juicy cherries, these fruits arent' cheap in Singapore as we import them from other countries. However, I do love my apples, oranges and pears too. Though seen as everyday fruits, I believe that simplicity works wonders for these sturdier fruits that keep well even after a few weeks in the fridge.

Poached pear tart with brandy caramel sauce

Bibimbap (비빔밥)

It could be the Korean lessons I'm taking. Or it could be the cold weather. But I seem to crave Korean food very frequently these few days. The ultimate craving being for good ol' simple 비빔밥 - Korean bibimbap. 비빔밥 literally translates into "mixed rice" - a bowl of rice topped with a variety of vegetables (meat optional) and red pepper paste sauce. Add a fried egg and sprinkling of sesame seeds and you're good to go. The ingredients are all mixed together right before consumption.

There are several names for the humble Korean dish, the ones I'm more familiar with are 양념비빔밥 (Yangpun bibimbap) - the ones most commonly shown in Korean dramas where the Koreans dump a whole load of leftover stuff into a kick ass metal bowl and start mixing everything before digging in with a spoon; 돌솥비빔밥 (Dolsot bibimbap) - served in a hot stone pot, where the bottom layer of the rice becomes delicious crispy rice bits and just plain ol' 비빔밥.

비빔밥 lunch bentos

Mango passion fruit panna cotta verrines

I'm a huge passion fruit lover. Singapore's a tropical country with loads of fruits available at all times of the year as we import a lot of fruits from all over the world (from neighbouring Asian countries like Malaysia, Thailand, and China to further countries such as USA and Australia etc). Ironically, I think I started noticing passion fruit only when I was studying in Australia. As I do my own groceries when I was studying there,  I noticed immediately when the wrinkly brown fruits started appearing at the fruit stall. I remember buying pre-packaged packs of six/eight passion fruits and scooping out the yellowy pulp and eating it with my granola and yogurt for breakfast.  The sour-y tang of the passion fruit, and the crunchy bite that the seeds always perked up my simple breakfast meal.

I've been on the look out for passion fruit puree for the longest time ever, and when I finally bought a tub of frozen passion fruit puree, I was so excited at the possible desserts I could make - macarons, ice creams, mousses etc etc. After browsing through all my bookmarked recipes, I finally settled on making mango passion fruit panna cotta verrines, inspired by Vi's (L' Atelier Vi) version here.

Mango passion fruit panna cotta verrines

Paradise Dynasty

I kept seeing the advertisements for Paradist Dynasty's famed xiaolongbaos. The bamboo basket filled with  eight xiaolongbaos in rainbow hues against a black backdrop was seriously everywhere. In the newspapers, on the Internet, magazines etc. It was like a sign. I knew somehow that I would definitely be trying those devilish morsels that were seducing me right from their unattainable position in the ad pages.

Paradise Dynasty

Rabokki (라볶이)

I must thank my Korean housemate, Woo Aa, whom I stayed with for the three years that I was studying in Brisbane. She being Korean, introduced me to the Korean dish, 떡볶이 (ddeokbokki). Or to be specific, her aunt did. I remember the first time I tried the dish, it was cos her aunt from Korea was visiting, and one of the dishes that her aunt cooked was ddeokbokki. Her aunt offered us roomies some to try, and me, seeing that it was red (woohoo! red to me means that the dish is spicy - i love spicy food), I didn't think twice before putting a piece of the foreign looking ddeok into my mouth.

I've never looked back since that first bite, and probably never will. I fell so in love with the dish that I shamelessly asked Woo Aa's aunt for her recipe. During the span of my university education in Brisbane, I made this dish frequently (often during winter cos the hot dish is so apt for the cold weather). My cousin, who came over a few semesters later, was also as in love with Korean food as I was. Guess what cuisine we ended up cooking most of the time whenever we were over at each other's place? :)

On a side note, I'm actually learning Korean now with a couple of my girlfriends. We've just started and I must say it's a bit hard! I can't wait to become adept at the language properly though, cos it will be so fun to actually understand the Korean dramas better. Haha. That and it's always interesting to learn something new.

떡 (ddeok) - Korean rice cakes

群众 (Qun Zhong eating house)

Some time back, my girlfriend brought the few of us pals to this really yums eating place at Neil Road. It was simple, fuss-free, authentic northern style Chinese food at its best. One bonus point is that it was also cheap. :)

The place is reputed to be quite crowded at peak times (and also a bad service reputation to go along too). My girlfriend who brought us there said that there's always a long queue, and the place is frequented by a lot of Japanese people most of the time too. I arrived around 6-ish pm, I walked there after work as it is quite near my work place at Tanjong Pagar. I think I was the last of our group to arrive, and my friends were saying that the uncle wouldn't give us a table as not all of our party was present (whoops, sorry pals!). But thankfully, we only had to wait a while more before a table was available and we were ushered straight in.

Pictorial menu

Bourke Street Bakery's Ginger Brulee Tarts

I used to hate ginger. No, really. It's true. I avoided gingery items like the plaque. The word ginger, to me, connotes something that is thoroughly repellent. But now that I'm older (and wiser), my taste buds have somewhat changed and gotten the chance to mature (or so I would like to think). I anticipate trying out new flavours, and revisiting older (otherwise hated) flavours.

Ginger. Hmmm, I can't exactly pinpoint when I started liking it again. Perhaps it's the local teh-halia (ginger milk tea), or the spicy gingery soup eaten together with tang yuan (glutinous rice balls), or ginger tea, or the ground ginger I've started using in some of my bakes. Whatever it is, while ginger is not my favourite-st spice, I can gladly say that at least I like it now. In small doses.

When I saw the recipe for Bourke Street Bakery Ginger Brulee Tarts, I knew immediately that I want it. And want it soon. Ginger custard? That sounds right up my alley! I got myself a blowtorch recently (oooooooh, think of the possibilities and fun I can have now...;) heh.), and I knew that the first thing I wanted to make was those Ginger brulee tarts.

Filling the pre-baked tart crusts

Irodori

The Sister had dined at this Japanese buffet previously with her boyfriend, and I remember that she couldn't stop waxing lyrical about the food. A few weeks ago, when we were craving Japanese, she immediately suggested Irodori. Good food. And at affordable rates too. Those were the words that prompted Daddy to make reservations for lunch at the place.

Irodori

Ailette

I wanted to do something special for myself in November (my birthday month). Flipping through all of my newly bought Chinese baking books, I finally settled upon the Ailette. I was drawn in with the words "caramelised bananas" and "caramel mousse"...

Caramelising the bananas

Cedele & Obolo

It's been almost two weeks since I last blogged. My my. Time really flies. I was busy training for the Standard Chartered marathon. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays were spent in the gym with my girlfriend, while Tuesdays and Thursdays were filled with dinner meetings. Weekends were left for baking and relaxing and family time. Thus, the long absence.

Thank gosh the run is over now. I'm happy that I completed my first half marathon, but disappointed that I didn't perform as well as I wanted. The first 12k was a breeze and I thought, hey, I can actually do this! Then right after that, my knees starting aching and I couldn't run even when I felt physically fine (darn my old knees)! I spent the most of the next 9k walking, pausing every now and then to apply the heat rub cream. :( It's okay, I've already made an agreement to join next year's race with one of my girlfriend! Cool. Another year to train. :)

Anyway, first post will be on my second meeting with Evan, and we decided to do brunch and desserts on the same day. Ha! A girl just after my own heart (though my waistline begs to differ cos it's expanding at an exponential rate...).

We met at the Cedele in town, and had a late brunch/lunch first to start off the day. Evan ordered the Big Breakfast set, while I ordered the Poached eggs set. My eyes couldn't be persuaded to move past the words "pancakes" on the menu, and we decided to order a plate to share. Ah. That's the joy of eating with someone who loves food just as much as I do. ;)

Big breakfast set; Pancakes; Poached eggs set

Banana cinnamon pancakes with sausages

Ice cream fever

Ever since we discovered that there was an ice cream machine at home. I just knew (and I was right!) that there was going to be tubs of homemade ice cream(s) in the house, anytime, anyday.

In fact, since the Sis is sort of on an ice cream craze, she's been putting it to full use (making up for the lost time perhaps?) by churning out flavours every few days or so.Yes, I'm talking about an ice cream kingdom here baby. Well, she does make half the quantity of whatever recipe she has on hand, so she gets to experiment with more flavours (and thus explaining the tubs of ice cream residing in our freezer...).

In fact, I can't remember preparing any ice creams myself anymore since she's taken over, and the last two flavours that I remember making are these - honey lavender and pear caramel.

Honey lavender ice cream fizz

Lemon curd and lemon cranberry oatmeal scones

The egg yolks were accumulating. Day after day, three new sunshine yellow orbs will make their appearance in the yolks container in the refrigerator. The bright coloured rounds beckoned to me. I hate the thought of seeing them go to waste. Instead of the usual ice creams that the Sister has been churning out, my mind was on a luscious creamy lemon curd.

Homemade lemon curd

Bangkok Nov 2010 (3)

Day 4: We went back to Health Land again for another round of two hours massage. This time round, the masseurs weren't as good as the other day. They look younger, so perhaps they don't have much experience (and strength) yet? Anyway, after that, it was Chatuchak again for Sis and I! Yeah, it's amazing that we wanted to go back after spending the whole day there the previous day.

Really crowded on a Sunday...

Bangkok Nov 2010 (2)

Day 3: We woke up and had the breakfast buffet at the hotel. Not bad, compared to the previous two meals we had so far. I stuffed myself silly with the yums dark bread and honey and pancakes. Next up on the agenda was - *drumroll* Chatuchak market! Sis and I actually spent almost the whole day day! The place opens from 10am till 6pm on weekends. And it's the first time I actually stayed till shops started closing (about 4,5ish)...normally I'll leave after only a few hours of walking cos I get tired of the confusing aisles in the huge market.

Daily dose of mandarin orange juice to start our shopping trip...

Bangkok Nov 2010 (1)

I'm back from my Bangkok trip! Albeit with an upset tummy that has plagued me for days. :( Alright, putting that aside for a moment, let's get started on my five day trip to the land of massive shopping! ;)

Day 1: The family and I took the early morning flight last Thursday and arrived in Bangkok around nine-ish? Poor Daddy was unwell the first few days (upset tummy) and he didn't get to play golf as he had scheduled. Anyway, we got to the cab stand to get a cab to our hotel, and Mr Cabbie looked at our three luggages and four persons, and you can totally read his mind that it seems just a bit too much load for his car. THEN, you should have seen his face, when I opened the huge EMPTY luggage Sis and I brought to Bkk, and stuffed one of the other medium sized luggages in. Snigger. That's what I call space saving. I know I know, I'm such a smart ass arnt' I? *beams*

The cabbie with zng-ed stereos.

Checking into our hotel

Our hotel is Bkk's tallest building - Baiyoke Sky Hotel

Wild Honey

I was meeting my girlfriend for dinner, and she wanted to dine at Wild Honey. A place that serves all-day breakfast sets. Breakfast for dinner. I was all for it. I mean, I've only been there before just once, with another girlfriend who love brunch, but I didn't dare take pictures that one time cos I heard about how scary the owner is about photo taking in his restaurant.

Well, this time round, I managed to gear up my courage to ask the lady manager if it was alright to take pictures, and she agreed to me taking photos of the food, just no pictures of the counter area. I was perfectly fine with that condition! :)

 English set

Strawberry shortcake

I was craving strawberry shortcake badly. I wanted to make my own from scratch, after my first attempt last year fell short of expectations (in looks and flavour). I scoured the net searching for a strawberry shortcake with a Japanese flair (I prefer the taste of a Japanese strawberry shortcake than the Western style ones). I found one that looked promising, and with that in mind, I crossed my fingers and started work.

Strawberry shortcake

Spruce

My dear bims wanted to do brunch, so brunch it was. I made reservations for two for a lazy Sunday brunch. It was a tad vexing to actually get to the place itself, and after running late for our reservation, with no clue in mind whatsoever even the direction of where the restaurant was, it eventually whittled down to "Let's flag a cab and instruct the driver on where the location is and let him lead the way". No need to explain why we call each other "Bims" then. Snorts.

Spruce

Cookie topped choux puffs

My girlfriend who's into baking had said "Let's bake together one day!" so one Saturday, we decided to meet at my place for a baking session. As we only had a short time to bake, we decided to make something simple. I had just gone to the library earlier that week and I suggested baking profiteroles, since I had borrowed a very cute book on profiteroles. My lovely girlfriend okay-ed the idea, so we arranged to meet about 1pm in the afternoon at my place (lucky for us, we stay quite near each other :)).

Vanilla crème patisserie filled choux puffs

Royal China

Can I just add in a note that before we got to the below scene, it took us several tries to book a table at Royal China for a weekend dim sum affair. Yes. Several tries. While I've been to Royal China twice before, both for its ala carte dinner (which was awesome), I had heard good things about the dim sum treats at the restaurant. Thus, I was determined to get myself there by hook or crook. But the past attempts of booking just one or two days before the dining date, we were informed over the phone that reservations were full. (insert incredulous look)

So, after a long haitus from dim sum, I decided that it was time again for some yummy dim sum love, and started questioning everyone early in the week on their availability. Armed with the knowledge of everyone's availability, I called the Royal China hotline early in the week for a weekend dim sum brunch. HO! And I managed to book a table!

Table with loadsa goodies, more to come...

Halloween!

Happy Halloween! Well, my buddies and I, we were supposed to have a Halloween themed party. We planned that like a month ago. I know, we work fast. We were going all out for it - a full orange and black party with our food and decorations all centred around the party colours. Anyway, just a few days before the party, one of the mates then stated that he can't make it as he's bogged down with school work. We were all pretty bummed and the remaining four of us then decided to scrap the party and just do a potluck instead. Then the very next day, somehow or rather, I don't know how, but the party was back on. We say onward - who cares about the $^$#%&%#!# who decided to jump plane (okay, kiddin' in case that bugger reads this...you know you'll be missed by us! Haha.)

So, I was in charge of caramel apples, pizza muffin-lets and drinks. As it was only the four of us, we didn't want to prepare too much food (like we always do) and stuff ourselves silly trying to finish the food. So it's mini everything! At least in my case. I decided to make a little extra pumpkin tartlets (more on it when I post about the party pictures!) and some mini chocolate muffins I happened to bake the day before.

I'm going to talk about the exciting part in this post - caramel apples! And this is actually a post-on-the-actual-day-I-bake entry (what a rare case ;) indeed.)

Homemade chewy caramel candies

Raspberry rose macarons

Yes I know, yet another macaron post? Groan. I promise this is the last one for the time being. I'm a little sick of macarons myself too. ;)

I was thinking of making dual-coloured macs cos I just find that totally adorable. I'm a dork that way. Anyway, I just realised that this post is so going to be very girly pink. You've been warned.

Raspberry rose macarons

Gattopardo

Gattopardo is situated at Hotel Fort Canning, not quite exactly a very crowded place to head to for a weekend lunch. We made reservations at the restaurant, but when we arrived, there were only a handful of tables that were taken. It probably didn't help the restaurant, but it was drizzling that Saturday afternoon, and also, renovations were taking place and construction workers were working to make the place ready for the opening of the hotel.

Gattopardo

Caramelised onions and triple mushroom quiches

With all that macaron baking I've been doing, I had some cream leftover from making ganache. I was wondering what to do with them, when I suddenly thought of quiches. They would make a great lunch idea and thus, I happily scoured my lists of "to-bakes" for inspiration. I was drawn to a quiche crust recipe made wholly from whole wheat flour (I substituted with wholemeal), and prepared the dough the night before.

Caramelised onions and triple mushrooms quiches

Mogador macarons

As mentioned in my recent macaron post, I first started experimenting with using the Italian method of making macarons for this batch of chocolate passionfruit macarons. After hearing from Allie how easy the Italian method was, I was tempted to try it out cos my latest attempts at macaron making here and here produced less than desired looking shells. I had a list of potential macaron flavours I wanted to make (yes I do have a list specifically for just macarons, in fact I have several lists of "to-makes", categorised accordingly as "Tarts", "Entremets", "Ice-creams", "Panna Cottas"...you get the idea), and the very flavour topping the macarons list was Mogador. So, what should a girl to do, but dive straight into the fray.

Summery Mogador macarons

Ootoya

Finally met up with my one of my dearest girlfriend who just graduated from Melbourne Uni and came back to Singapore for good. In a way, I feel that she's the one I'll talk to most often about Aus/Sg stuff most cos she gets me when I talk about overseas education/lifestyle/experience. So for our first meeting after she came back, we decided to meet in town for some Japanese food...

Ootoya; Black bean side dish; Side dish from part of my set meal; Menu

Farewell macarons

It's the Sis's last day at work today, and we spent the weekend baking macarons for her to give to her colleagues as byebye presents. We made the shells over the weekend and stored them in containers. Then did the fillings over the past two days, and sandwiched them and packed them so she can bring them to work yesterday and today.

Lemon macs with lemon curd filling & Milo macs with Milo buttercream and Valrhona crunchy pearls

Osmanthas apricot crackies

Following the previous rose and cranberries crackies I made, I was also intrigued by the osmanthas crackies I saw alongside the rose ones. Osmanthas flowers? Should be a breeze to get in sunny Singapore. Or so I thought. It took me a while, but I did eventually managed to find them at Chinatown (and then ended up with a surplus as two other people in the household also bought them for me cos I mentioned that I was looking for 'em).

And so, I revisited the recipe to bake up some osmanthas crackies. As the rose one added dried cranberries, I thought that it would be lovely to add up some dried fruit in these osmanthas crackies too. I went ahead, using colours as a theme, and used dried apricots, as I thought they should complement the floral osmanthas notes. I followed the recipe, just replacing the same amount of dried roses to dried osmanthas and using only plain water (no essence cos I couldn't think of what other flavour would mesh well with osmanthas and apricot).

Osmanthas and apricot crackies

Kki

Having heard only rave reviews about Kki, I knew I had to try their pretty looking cakes one day. My original plan was to try it with one of my best girlfriends, when we are out for one of our exploring "trips" to Ann Siang Hill. Alas, our session was almost always postponed due to various reasons, and so, my trip to Kki was also always delayed. Then again, the place is within walking distance from my office. So one fine day, Allie was saying that's she's gonna drop by Kki during lunch and did I want anything from there... Sorry girlfriend, but I hear the cakes beckoning me...

Kki at Ann Siang Hill

Oriole Cafe & Bar

Sis was hankering for Oriole for quite a while, so one Saturday morning, we drove down to town, thinking of having brunch there. Alas, Oriole only serves brunch on Sundays, and so, we had to settle for eating a "brunch" (lunch) instead. :( My mind was already thinking of waffles/pancakes/big breakfasts, and I had to readjust my thoughts to focus on the lunch menu provided instead. Sad. How come Oriole doesn't do brunch on Saturdays??? It's a weekend day too isn't it? Grumpy.

Oriole Cafe & Bar

Figgy season

I've never eaten a fig before until this year. Can you believe it? In fact, there are so many new things that's just waiting for me to give 'em a try. Scouring for food related matters online has really widened my perspective on how much products are available in the markets. Tons and tons apparently. 

Anyway, I've often seen people mentioning figs, and using them in their baked goods, most often in galettes or jams. Figs are also reported to be very sweet, and some people like to mix it with salty stuff such as prosciutto/parma ham and cheese for a salty-sweet appetiser. There was a small article in the papers that it was figs season now, and that the figs were going to be available for only a short season. My eyes arrowed straight on the words "figs" and "in season". I was on a mission to get my hands on those figs!

It took me three supermarkets, but I finally found those elusive figs from the supermarket nearest my house, the NTUC Finest outlet at Bukit Timah. When I saw them on the fruit aisle, I squealed loudly and dashed towards the aisle, trolley in hands.Yeah, I know. Sometimes, I think my own behaviour mystify myself. Snorts.

 Black mission figs

Exploring Singapore: Little India

I didn't realise Little India was so huge (ironic that it's name should be "little"...) and only after I've spent two to three hours walking along the streets (we didn't finish walking everything!) that I realise how large the area was.

My snap-buddy and I, we were both tired as hell after our photo session. In fact, we agree that everytime we complete one of our photo sessions, it's akin to a workout. Our feet are sore, our muscles groan and even our butts could ache! That's right. Walking is exercise.

Yet, I really enjoyed Little India. It's one of my favourite places so far for explore photos as there's just so many interesting things and details to that place. Vivid colours, flower garlands, temples, fresh vegetables, interesting characters. That's just some of the stuff I felt were characteristics of that place. I took like a hundred odd photos, and posted most of them up on Facebook. I felt that it would be overkill if I post everything here, so I've just compiled some of my favourites into collages to share. :)

Sri Veerama Kaliamman Temple; Floral buds

Raindrops Cafe

It was a while since I last met up with one of my university girlfriends. We made plans to have dinner on a weekday to catch up with each other. She suggested Raindrops Cafe in town, and as I've not heard of or tried the place before, I was all game for it.

Raindrops Cafe at Scape Park

A girlfriend's birthday cake

I bought two new cooking books recently. What's surprising is that:

1) I rarely ever buy cooking books, most of the time I borrow books from the library and scan the recipes I like to keep as jpeg files in my laptop.

2) The books are in Chinese! (Okay, one is fully in Chinese, the other is English/Chinese). Although I scored A1s for my O AND A levels (don't ask how I did it, I really have no idea), my Chinese is actually pretty sub-par and it's been so long since I last wrote any Chinese characters that most of the time, I find myself forgetting how to write even the most basic characters...(I'm always fearful that I'll forget how to write my own name in Chinese. Haha). I mean, I can read Chinese pretty okay, just don't ask me to write, so to buy the Chinese cookbooks is really a rarity indeed. It's just that I love layered cakes desserts and most of the pretty intricate looking entremets cookbooks are all in Chinese (or Japanese or French, which sadly I know neither). Thus, it can also be that reading the books I buy will allow me to brush up on my Chinese reading? :)

Anyway, exactly a month ago, it was one of my best girlfriend's birthday. Since I've been baking a cake for most of my besties this year for their birthdays, this was no exception. She, who doesn't like sweets stuff muchos, will probably suit a fruity cake yeah? And looking through one of my new books, I decided to make a grapefruit mousse cake.

Leftover miniature cakes...

Brotzeit

What better to post now that it's Oktoberfest than a German restaurant? Heh. Technically our meal was consumed a month ago, but it's pure coincidence that the next up is...Brotzeit.

 Brotzeit at 313@Somerset

F1 Frenzy

Daddy had some sort of tickets to this Canon sponsored event. Canon invited all the dealers to Fairmont Hotel and they had booked some sorta conference hall for them to catch the Singapore F1 night race 2010. Daddy wasn't interested in F1 or racing or cars (actually neither was Sis and I interested...), so he offered us his invite card. Well, there was going to be free food, and a view, so why not just grab the chance to experience it? I invited Wenli to come along with us for free food and views. Heh. ;)

View from Fairmont Hotel

Samgyeopsal (삼겹살)

I love Korean food. Kimchi, Ramyeon, Deokbokki, Kimchi jeon, Kimchi chigae, Jaeyook bokkeum. You name it, I love it all. ;)

Back when I was studying in Brisbane, the weather (especially during Spring or Winter) is good for having Barbeque. My housemates and I would occasionally gather together and have a mini barbeque session at home. We would shop for groceries together, prepare the dishes, and then proceed to the balcony where we would enjoy our dinner, with a lovely serene riverside view. Ah, those memories are precious...

In Singapore, no matter that the weather is hot like crazy, I'll still crave Korean barbeque. Nothing beats having a full out feast on meats and vegetables. I prepared a feast for the family to dine at home one weekend instead of dining out.

The works - a Korean meal at home.

Exploring Singapore: Chinatown

Exploring Singapore brings me to Chinatown next. The place that is rich in colours (especially red) and the Chinese heritage.

Chinatown MRT station

Chocolate hazelnut mousse cake

I was in the mood for some chocolate (okay, like when am I ever not?), and a chocolate hazelnut praline mousse cake has been sitting right at the top of my to-do list since...forever. I didn't have a specific recipe in mind, all I knew about my proposed cake was that it should have my beloved hazelnut feuilletine layer, a chocolate sponge, and a chocolate mousse.

With that in mind, I went about collecting recipes from different sources...again. I really must do something about this bad habit of mind, always making a multi-component something sourced from various sources instead of sticking to the original recipes. Tsk tsk.

 

My version of a 'Chocolate Hazelnut Mousse Cake'

Brunch

It's the weekend tomorrow. I can't wait. I have a date with the Sister for brunch at Oriole Cafe (tentative, IF we manage to snag a table) on Saturday morning, (where they have the best coffee in town apparently) and to do some shopping after.

The Sis's girlfriends was over for brunch one weekend. We nibbled on some brie on crackers while prepping for the brunch. One of my Swiss girlfriend can make a really mean summer-ish vegetables salsa, which  I fell in love with straight after my first mouth. I got the recipe from her and has made it a couple of times since then. It's a really easy peasy salad/salsa to make and the colourful vegetables make the dish an extremely visual treat. I've included the recipe below as I find myself always losing it and having trouble looking for it again on my facebook wall where she posted it. It'll be good to place it on the blog so I can find it easily in future. ;)

Brunch plate - Poached eggs, toasted tomato bread, salsa, bacon and mushrooms.

Macarons from Tokyo...

I managed to get my hands on Pierre Herme's macarons! Surreal or not. I mean, a few years ago, I would have been all "Pierre Herme" who? But now that I'm slowly morphing into (gasp) a macaron addict, I would have been mad not to have heard of Pierre Herme. Macarons in Tokyo are (gasp again) freakin' madly priced. Then again, it could have been all patisseries in general? These macs cost like S$5 a pop. Almost two and a half times more than the most expensive macs in town...

Matcha macarons

Macarons are sly and finicky creatures. They slowly creep into your life, eventually overtaking it even, and before you know it, from feeling indifferent towards them, you become addicted to them. However, churning out these devious lil things are not 100 per cent fool-proof. Though from my very first attempt, I've mostly encountered success, lately, the macaron baking fairy seemed to have shun me for others.

These stupid matcha flavoured macs? Took me not one, not two but three attempts to see something remotely resembling macs. The first two batches were disasters that looked severely disfigured beyond words, best buried in the deep recess of soon-to-be-forgotten memories (hey, I've got a very short memory span, which works well in such times). I suspected that they failed because the egg whites weren't beaten properly, so for this fortunate third batch, I made sure to whip the whites longer...

And hey yo, they finally passed the visual test (barely), and though they have really flat feet, as least they resemble macs yeah. I was going to seriously cry and stomp my feet if they failed, cos you know, matcha powder is not cheap. Ha.

Matcha macarons with red bean paste filling

Bintan

Short summary of the getaway trip with the girlfriends through photos...