B'fast cravings, though I don't know whether this is called a B'fast dish

Well, I remembered posting bout creating a b'fast dish a while back... well I've made it, however I don't think this dish can be classified as a b'fast dish...

Why don't you guys be the judge for it^^

Its a four-minute boiled egg with tempanade crostinni served with some smoked salmon & a spicy pineapple chutney on the side^^

The runny yolk actually complements the whole dish and acts like a simple sauce to tie in all the components of the dish^^

New Phone, New Applications^^

Well, I guess the six months of using a bust up phone has been kinda worth it^^

I finally picked up a new phone, the HTC Touch Pro 2 to be exact, its soooo fun playing around with new things; my mind is easily entertained these days, wonder whats up with that? hahaha;p

Here's another look at my former fone, the sony ericsson P1:

It was fun using the P1 for 3years, but I guess its time I needed a new fone, as the touchscreen got busted, the alram didn't work and the sides were starting to come off^^

Now its time to get use to a HTC, this should be fun^^

I'm not high maintenance!!

This month seems to have it for me, I seem to get smacked left, right, up & centre....

Here I was the other day, hanging out at Jurong Point with Selina, Elizabeth & Mushin and the topic of where we should head for dinner be.... I was outvoted (again!! I won't ever win any election if I were ever planning to run for one hahaha;p) 3 to 1. Dinner was decided to be at KFC, yes, you guys heard me right, at a fast food joint, which I almost never step foot in with the only exception of a mcD's sausage egg mcmuffin hehe;p

When we got there, it was packed to my amusement, I've never seen this many people enjoying fast food like here on the island.... We managed to find a spot to place our stuff, and I decided to sit and try to soak up the atmosphere(when there clearly was none hahaha;p) while Selina & Mushin went to get their orders. when the 2 came back with their orders I was very intrigued with what they order, it was just fried chicken with some fried covered with simple cheddar...

It looked interesting and all but I was not planning on buying anything as some of you might recall my escapades into these establishment, I never fare well hahahaha;p Selina was making fun of me as I was clearly looking round the outlet and trying to analyse why people were coming here for dinner. In the end I decided to go and try to order....

Imagine a person standing and staring at the menu for 15mins. yup, that's me, I didn't know how to order and the staff that served me thought I was playing a joke with her, bless her soul. Seriously the one here looks soooo much different from the one back home and I'm not even fond of the one back home especially with the mashed potato incident (Ange did tell me I'll regret it, but what was I to do with a grumpy and cheeky stomach?hehe;p)

I didn't even know I was allowed to change my drink from a coke to ice lemon tea hahaha;p

It was fun, though I highly doubt I'll be setting foot in one fast food joint such as KFC any time soon, as Selina pointed out maybe I'm high maintenance I should stick to my bars and restauarnts at my usual haunt at Clarke quay hahahaha;p

Just when you thought life couldn't get funny enough...

Funny thing happened to me on my way to work today; seriously of all things life can throw at you I never saw this one coming.... Its ridiculously embarassing and totally uncalled for.

I left home 'exposing' myself- I didn't realise the seam leading to my zipper was torn (seriously guys, I don't know how i manage to tear that area and completely not realise it -_-'). Imagine the embarasssment when one of the boys at work mentioned why I wasn't feeling breezy down there!!

As soon as I looked down i could almost see my boxers and I turned bright red as a tomato!! I bolted out of my kitchen and zoomed down to the mall's G2000 to get a new pair stat... And to add insult to injury I had to wait another 30mins for the sweet lady attending to me to sew & resize the length of my new pants before I could wear them... She was wondering why I was sooooo anxious to wear those new pants...

Oh well, lets see whatelse gets thrown my way in the coming few days^^

Suddenly had the urge...

I've got this urge to try and create a breakfast dish... problem is, its been floating in the head for the past couple of days and I've not finished conceptualizing it yet. I've got an idea of how it should look, however I don't know what components I'm gonna use to build it.

Funny how this reads like as if I'm building a house hahahaha;p

Lets hope the idea strikes me soon, I'm really itching to create a new dish as it been awhile^^

Great Tribute to Julia Child^^

So what does one do when one is feeling down and out at the moment?

Watch movies about food to make you feel better!!

I just recently watched the movie called Julie & Julia (well my school was featured in it and they kept sending newsletters bout it so it was kinda hard to ignore^^).

This movie is actually 2 stories made into one and I must say it was done in a very interesting way where plots are constantly being passed from the past to the present and shows how these 2 extraordinary women dealt with their obstacles in their lives at that time. For those of you who are regular foodies, you would obviuosly know who Julia Child is as this lady needs no introduction; she was the pioneer for the food industry in the States and because of her the States as we know is a major powerhouse today!! And Julie Powell is just an inoccent blogger turned foodie as she wanted to try and cook all 562 recipes of Julia's in 365days.

I don't wanna spoil much from the movie, but I hope you guys can catch it before you miss it in cinemas and have to wait for the dvds, its a spectacular movie for me; Meryl Streep captured and emulated Julia in such a way you would think she's still alive and acting in her own role!! Amy Adams also played a really good Julie Powell as she showed that anyone can really cook if you've mustered the courage and passion to challenge yourself^^

Been down in the dumps!!

I don't know what's really up with me recently... I've just been feeling uninspired to create new dishes. Even going to work feels like a major drag right now... Whats up with me? hahaha;p I think I might have the case of the burn-out...

Or could it be that I've been thinking of finding new pastures and challenging myself... I hope this mood goes away REAL soon...this just feels really really crappy^^ maybe I'll make a crappy sandwich to cheer me up hahaha;p

Funny Foods^^

Tell me what does this remind most of you of? Yup, this might not look like your regular entry but I can assure you guys it is related to food^^ Yes, I looks like a band aid, yea a band aid with mint?! What the heck? Well its not really a band aid, its actually chocolate mints^^

This interesting item came from Taiwan. One of the part timer who went there for a holiday actually found something interesting to bring back for show & tell. And now I get to show & tell too^^ These items are basically chocolates being made into everyday and our not so everyday items^^

Yea, in case if your wondering. this was a surprise, even I was fooled first when I saw this, but then again when have you ever seen the wrapper by the name of delicious? hehe;p Its motto is that its better than sex haha;p

And the finale (trust me, some of you guys wouldn't want to know what this is hehe^^)....

2 Days of no sleep!!

Its funny when you realise that 24hrs in a day sometimes aint ever enough for a person. I was up for 2 days recently due to the fact that I was working dinner shifts and breakfast shifts back to back and also at the same time, I had alot of paperwork to catch up on and to top that off, there was still the impeding promo briefing that needed to be carried out for the staff - busy much you say? hahaha;p

So on one of those days when I just got home round 12ish, I decided to squeeze in some paperwork and I thought I could be done by 1ish - I didn't get it done till 3ish!! So I figured what the heck, since I gotta leave home by 5:30am for my b'fast shift I might as well catch up on some tv series as my little R&R before heading back to work.

Halfway watching Grey's Anatomy my hands were itchy to make something, and since I don't eat late at night, I thought I might as well practice my pastry skills which I've not done in awhile...



I soon realise how rusty I am, but hey, its the best one can pull off with no sleep in a day^^

Whats in the food?

I just recently watched this film called Food Inc. and I must say, I was impressed and also abit disturbed by the facts which have been brought to light in the film. I would say this film is very insightful in explaining how the food industry have evovled in the States and how it would affect the industry in other countries.

It even brought to fact that food is processed in the same way as a production or 'assembled' on an assembly line. It also pointed out that there are just a few companies who run a majority of the processed food when you might litreally find thousands upon thousands of labels but when in fact they are only really manufactured by roughly a handful of companies - not a good thing in my opinion...

Of course the movie documentary does showcase the advancements of the food indursty, however at the same time it makes you think whether these advancements are really for the good of the public or just for profits for those coporations. For example, before chickens, used to be bred for roughly 75 days for slaughter, now in the present, the breeding time has been almost cut to half that, they've developed ways to breed chickens in 38days for slaughter and when you see the conditions of those chickens you wonder if its worth eating that meat as its pumped full of antibiotics and hormones. Those chickens are literally bloated on the breast area as its been noted that more and more people nowadays prefer the breast meat so the feed has been designed to grow those areas of the chicken at such a rate that the body of those chicken can't keep up with the exponential growth rate.

It was even more disturbing to find out that because of these new and 'improved' practises, bacteria which is usually not found in those food are contaminated but at the same time being sold to the general public!! It makes you wonder if you should really grow your own food (talk about being in a dilemma, on one hand there's not enough land, on the other, how much can you really grow by yourself to be sustainable?)

Well for those of you who would be interested to see the good & bad of the industry which everyone seems to take for granted this would be a good docu-movie to impart some awareness to you guys^^

Before you Enlist - the wishlist;)

Time sure flies when you're not really keeping tabs on it, well how do you keep tabs on it?!? haha;p Jason was telling me he was feeling peckish the other day and it was roughly a week before he was due to enlist and serve his country; he told me the one thing he wanted to try before he does go for the enlistment was to try a pavlova ( seriously, the last time I made one was way way back when I was still working in Melbourne hehe;p)

I took up his challenge and he also requested for some pasta & soup for him to try.. and I must say I was quite surprised with some of the results^^



First up is this double boiled chicken soup with ginger & asparagus, sounds like a very odd combination but honestly, it turned out quite well. It was very cleansing on the palate and also it prepared you for the upcoming course which was the pasta; well the pasta was not a new creation, just a classic which I brought back(Ange would drool for this hehe;p)^^



Its the rustic remake of the olio I made a while back and yes, ange, I'll make it for the group when I get back, lets hope we'll have enough space in out tummys since every time I'm back we'll be just eating only^^
The pasta dish as always was a crowd favorite, even my staff went ecstatic for it^^



Well I was a little disappointed with this one due to the fact that I almost burnt it when I first baked it, it almost turned into a golden brown - we don't want that with a pavlova!! Well good thing I checked it during the 5mins intervals I planned orelse there was no saving this, and the second baking too alot longer as I was not used to the other oven we had^^ Shows how long since I last made this hehe;p Jason, when you do visit Brunei one day, I'll treat you to one which is sooo sooo divine, and its from the restaurant that I always promote even though I'm across the pond^^

Yes, you guys back home, I'm talking about Saffron^^ Lady Fa will be so please with my PR for her restaurant hahaha;p

Well that's it for my updates for awhile, will be busy with work as my boss will be on leave till next week and I'll be in the weeds with paperwork and meetings^^ Till then, Jason have fun with your NS and guys at home, can't wait to catch up with the chaos form the other side of the pond^^

And the answer is....

Last time, I checked I remembered that the guessing game was still on, however, I think everyone got discouraged from the last answer hehe;p

Sad though, this one was a very edible one^^

well here's one more look at the item:



And here's the anwser: Its actually a sweet paste made from Almonds, Sesame seeds & Sugar^^ I made this out of the whim and I thought it would be a nice guessing game since the last one drew quite a few attention from you guys^^



This one's the fried bread stuffed with the almond paste^^



This other one was baked and I must say, I didn't know which I preferred better.... Well you guys can decide for me^^

Sheperd's Pie Again? Well not quite^^

Here I was watching Top Chef the other day and they were deconstructing classical dishes. One of them happen to chance onto one of my favorite comfort foods - the Sheperd's Pie^^

Unfortunately for the contestant, he's only ever tried his own sheperd's pie, so we couldn't really see the real deconstruction process^^ As for me, I've had quite a few in my time in the industry, and I can still remember the one I had in the land down under, chunky chunks of lamb and veal braised in veal & chicken stock, tomatoes, carrots & a generous helping of mashed potatoes on top, gratinated to a crisp;)


So this is what a regular sheperd's pie looks like, somewhat, depending on the chef who's making it... This one's mine^^

And this is what my deconstructed one looked like:



For those of you wondering, a deconstruction is basically when one breaks down a dish so that all the components are allowed to shine on their own and when eaten together comes together in the mouth as the complete dish it was^^ It sounds confusing and all, however, the experience of trying dishes that are executed properly, you'll really fall in love with the dish no matter how it looks like;) Boy would my lecturer's back from school would love to smack me in the head for writing this down. Though they've probably always known I've always taken my food far left field, its always risky but I'm akways capable of executing it just right^^



This is my up close and personal shot of my dish^^ Cool huh? One dish executed two ways^^

Vegan Salad

You know how, when you're trying out something new, everyone around you will be curious and would want to try it out too? Well this so goes with my vegan diet right now, It was funny when I made this salad, everyone was eyeing it and they wanted to have a nice bite at it too... cheeky people I work with...

I was trying out salad combinations in my mind and somehow I got to this creation... Its a very interesting combination, one somehow I've taken a liking to once I actually sat down to munch on it hehe;p



So here's to my Fruit & vegetable salad with Gula Melaka Dressing.
I enjoyed eating it though, it actually balances out the sweetness of the dressing and cos lettuce^^ Though on reflecting, I think I could've added some nuts into the mix to give it that extra bite^^

Well, there's always another trial run^^

Pop! Goes the Popcorn

Well here's another day of being a vegan, and surprisingly enough I was craving for something sweet^^ And of all things, I wanted Popcorn^^ Well i got one of the boys to go buy some corn kernels which I could use to make them, however the store only sold microwaveable ones-_-''' Totally uncalled for, so what do i do when I was presented this option? I ripped out the bag, washed the corn kernels and made them myself^^ hehe;p



Doesn't look half bad eh? You couldn't even tell it was popped in the pot^^ and drizzle some caramel topping and say hello to extra pounds haha;p

Vegan, I'm going vegan

Vegan... Surprisingly alot of my coworkers have been asking me why I've decided to become a vegan. Honestly, I don't know... its just that I've been on vegan diets before and no, its not from a religous aspect, I think its more on personal well being^^

However before I bore whomever is reading about me going on and on about my vegan stint, FYI I'm probably gonna stick to this indefinietly - yes, its very hard as there are plenty of temptations in the kitchen; what with everyone munching on tender juicy steaks, and crispy fried chicken but I disgress^^

So here's to my first week as a vegan (trust me I've got tons and tons of dishes whcih are completely catered to vegans so I know in a sense I aint really missing out - much hehe;p).


So here's one of the first few dishes I made which is cooked without any garlic, onions(well this is more of the buddhist belief, am not really sure how it relates to being a vegan but apparently they don't belong on the diet - will probably have to get some research done) and anything that is of animal origin^^ Looks yummy huh? I knew you guys will have a hard time believing this but everyone wanted to try some and I was left with just small scraps (thanks guys, I owe ya one-_-').



Till then, I'll be posting more soon^^

Sheperd pie, one of my comfort foods^^

This little guy will probably be one of my last carnivorous meal in a while and I've been hankering to make some pie in the kitchen for awhile since its been raining quite frequently on the little island^^

Since we've got an excess of mutton in the kitchen the other day, I thought I might as well make some comfort food which I've yet to have in a loooooooong while^^



I gotta admit, I've always liked sheperd's pie since the time I went to the land down under for my studies in the field and it is easily one of the things I can make at home with my eyes closed hehe;p well not literally;)



And what's more better than one sheperd's pie? Its having more than one.... boy have I become a glutton hahaha;p

And the answer is....

Here's to you guys & gals who have been squaring off in my facebook about what this particular thing was^^



Well the answer is.... wait for it... wait for it.... Its (you guys are gonna kill me hahaha;p) just a plain ol' simple egg, which I've removed the yolk & whites and just markered it black hehe;p

It was fun though guys & gals, Lets see if you'll have better luck with this one^^

Bon-Journo Italiano

Recently I've been feeling down in the rut, so my cooking has been kind of off lately. This was one of the interesting outcomes I've had, however the only thing that made it not such a great dish was that I was kinda short on the seasoning^^



I was trying for a rustic Italian feel, sure I was lacking in alot of particular ingredients from the region, so you do what you need to do^^ If only my company would ever start to understand and use 'real' food one day, but eh, one can wish hehe;p

If only I had some olives, sun-dried tomatoes, black truffles & shaved parmesan cheese, this dish would've been heaven....I should probably find a way to incorporate aioli...hmmm now that has gotten me to start thinking again....Till next time, I wonder whats in the works hehe;p

From a Hole in the head to a Toad in a Hole - Go figure...

This dish is such a coincidentel experiment, I was listening to a song on the radio the other day which was playing hole in the head by the sugarbabes and when I got home I was rewatching Top Chef Season 2 where Sam made a toad in a hole, on the way to work, while I was reading Larousse on English cookery, it mentioned Toad in a Hole... Fast forward to work, I thought I should try and make it, since its been in my face for the whole day already hehe;p

And to top it off I had a new guinea pig to try my food, he's a new commis who just tansferred from Junction 8...



Well I must say considering the only visual reference I've ever had about a toad in a hole was the one made by Sam on Top Chef, and I must say, it was his own interpertation^^ So this is mine, I've actually made it differently from the regular one, which apparently use yorkshire pudding base, mine was more of the dough type and its flavored with bananas & raisins and 'stuffed' with herb sausages^^

Waffles, I want some Belgium Waffles...

Funnily enough, I was craving for some Belgium waffles, though unfortunately for me the outlet only has its own regular waffles. So what does one do when life gives you lemons, you make lemon meringue pie right? Well that was kind of my case in point, I decided to add fruits and crunchy topping to my own waffles^^

This isn't exactly an original, though I did enjoy sharing it with my cooks^^ and I had a little help from a former staff^^

Trying to be artsy, well you guys make the decision

Just sticking a parsley spring in a cheese shaker made me do this...











So what do you guys think? yay or nay? hahaha...

Multi-tasking you say

"Chef?"

"Yes?"

"Do you still remember the dessert you made the other day?"

"Which one would that be? I've made quite a few for our staff food..."

"Well its the one with the bread and the custard..."

"Oh right, you mean the bread and butter pudding?"

"Yes, could you make it again today for dinner? It was super yummy the last time you made it."

"Umm, Ok, let me go check to see if I still have any bread left over - well you're in luck, I just happen to have some, I'll prepare some now."

"Thanks Chef"

"Your welcome"

That was the conversation between one of my service staff and I, and she's a 17yr old!! Trying to juggle school & work. Kids from where I'm from should take note bout how much kids on the island... They're ready to face reality that not everything can be handed to you if you ask your parents, you should learn to stand on your own two feet when you're about to finish high school. But then again, there are laws from there that state children below 18 can work - urgh I hope things change back there soon enough so that the kids'll be able to see the whole picture that is our world, instead of being satisfied with the small bubble which they've been brought up to believe everything will always be provided for you..

Well back to topic, was getting abit off topic earlier on... apologies.

So when i was going round to making the bread & butter pudding, madam Ange called me all the way from across the pond. And it was kinda funny, she only realise that I was making something whilst talking to her halfway when she heard me whisking the eggs & cream together.

If only you guys could've seen me then, I looked like I was mentally chanllenged, with one head on my shoulder, whisking eggs & cream together and also trying to place everything in the bowl. It was fun, multi tasking, talking on the fone and checking up on my boys and getting the dessert done^^

Crepes, Crepes

Funny how this dish came along, to cut a long story short, my chef was planning on making popiah for late supper and when I was observing his batter it kind of reminded me of crepe batter. I asked him if making popiah batter; shouldn't it be alot more thicker much more resembling a dough, and he said yea, it should, however he's never made those before so he decided to make it similar to a pancake batter...

Well that's one way of going round a problem^^ So while he was busy with his popiah production, I thought, since its been way too long - I decided to make some crepes, to compliment the savory one that he was making^^


So, here's the pancakes or crepes or whichever way you want to call them. I initailly was planning on stacking them to make it like a multilayered cake, however I figured that my kitchen was way too hot and it would make the so called cake kinda look like mush. I decided to make some caramelised bananas infused with maple and ginger and wrapped together with the crepe.



Looks very simple, however the taste was great^^ Yums^^

Maltesers in Bread, that can't be right now can it?

True, its sooo true, i like playing around with food(well not literally per say) but more on trying to find mixes and matches, though this one I actually found kinda amusing^^

I was trying to incorporate some leftover sweet potatoes into my bread and I thought, hey lets add something sweet into the dough for filling and somehow my mind just jumped straight ahead to maltesers - go figure hehe;p

Initially I wanted to bake it, however chocolate and baking aren't always on good terms with each other, so I decided to take another alternative route - deep frying it, and guess what It turned out quite well!!


At first I wanted to make something like a bagel, but with bagels you need to poach them first, and quite frankly I didn't have time for that so I made it into something like a belinier, you know those doughnuts with fillings pumped into them after they've been fried, though mine already had its filling in them already - naughty I know;)


I know what you guys are thinking, I should've been more generous with the fillings, however I was afraid they might explode during frying (Oh well, there's always another time^^)...

Durian, durians, Durian Crumble??

This was made for a staff who was leaving the kitchen (well as of this post he's left a couple of months ago, that's how long I've been away from blogging and the internet hahahaha;p).

I asked him, what he wanted to eat since he was leaving us already and his reply as always by him was anything you make chef, would be good; I don't know whether to take it as a good thing or a bad thing, but one thing was that it felt like I was leaving because it was something I had make and try to impress him hahaha;)



Ta-Dah!! My Durian Crumble;)
I know alot of people are gonna wonder about the smell and all, though I've a;ways been fond of durians, so the smell didn't bother me - it made me wanna eat it before taking a photo of it!!

Though I didn't take the photo of the filling inside, it was bananas macerated in gula melake and some durian puree. Delicious!!

Think poaching, but not in water...

Here's to a post in a loooooooong while, well here I was the other day reading through the Larousse Gastronomique (for those not in the know, its kinda like the french kitchen's bible) and I was reading up on poaching. Its only mentioned that food items are cooked in a liquid which is brought to a simmer which is about to boil and most people poach in water, so I thought for good measure let's try Oil?

Why not right? Its only fun when you get to try and experiment^^



This was kinda my expreiment & breakfast that I shared with my staff and boy were they happy they got a very nice and filling breakfast^^
My Oil Poached Prawn & Egg Salad with a Chilli & Ginger Vinegratte.
I've only realised this when posting it up the egg was also poached albiet in water though not oil hehe;)

Finally Online!!!

Thank GoD!!!!!

Its been ages since my modem's been down and after strangling my housemate to get it done in ages, I'm finally back online!!!
so be prepared for a ridiculous amount of updates in the coming days^^

Till den, I've got to take a shower and sleep because its 1am already hahaha^^

Sweet Potato Bread V2.0

Finally I got to try and make my sweet potato breads again, this time, I was thinking of making as a sort of buttermilk filling in the breadroll. The sweet potatoes were basically roasted in the oven so as to retain most of the sweetness instead of boiling it, where the flavors would be lost in the liquid^^

And with the help(well kinda, she wanted to make a flower?!?) of Selina, we set out to rolling and trying it out.

Well I've basically made 2 types, one was by frying it as much like a belineir and baking it in the oven^^


This one is the fried one, I liked its texture, though what I realised was that the frying actually makes the texture of the dough abit dull and also it masked most of the sweet potato filling...


These ones are the baked ones, yup the odd looking flowery one was done by Selina, she was sooo excited with it that she almost didn't let me take a photo shot of it; she claims she was extremely hungry and wanted to wolf it down hehe;p


I kinda misjudged the amount of filling that had to be in the dough, and turns out that I put in a tab bit too little, oh well now I have to make a V2.1 soon...

Its fun trying to teach yourself the rights and wrongs of cooking^^

Back to your roots per se...

I had a short trip back home to Brunei recently and I can't say enough how much I missed everyone back home, and the best thing was I got to catch up with everyone again^^

It was mad fun, getting into the group dynamics again and we hung out at the Bistro dela Tungku (courtesy of Lady Fa, she's so gonna kill me when she reads this hehe;p) Well this beautiful Bistro is located in Rimba and its location is only known to a few people and the food is always great!! Everyone's always having fun and letting down their hair(well not me, my hair is short enough, though Jasinta was having fun hahaha;p)and this time round we had Argentenian BBQ.

I can still smell(Rina, for your info I've washed my hair hehe;p) the smoke form the BBQ pit, where there was a whole carcass of lamb there Roasting and the Chicken, not to mention the salads & gorgeous spread of food, mmmm droolz....



It was a fun night to catch up(literally, we were there till 2am) and the good food that we had, I still look it up on my taste memory - mmm fingerling potatoes, prawn & avocado salad, tuna pasta, and the list goes on.... And I did bring back something from home - eclairs hehe;p