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...