How much can one person eat in a day? That depends, I will have small portions, but many times a day. I am really excited as I have one weekend in September coming up when I will be visiting a school friend. Well, she's my junior, in my sister's class but I have always hung out with her gang in school, so Lin is like adopted sister to me.
When I first got here, it was pretty emotional times, I didn't think my marriage would end in a week of holidaying in Australia. To cut a long story short, I stayed on, not returning back to New Zealand where I had immigrated to. My baby was only 3 months old and I was a mess. I live with my mother in law for six months till I had my own home. Hubby had taken off with his sl*******t... so yeah.. here I am today, back on my feet, all is good!
Err, just to get back to the original story, Lin is like an adopted sister. I also love my Asian community on my social media. The friends that I have made along the way. I keep up with the daily banter on Facebook and Twitter and speak in my slang just so I don't feel so homesick and alone. You gotta have your little community when you are alone overseas, am I right?
What does this got to do with eating? Oh yeah, Lin and I, do you remember my foreign correspondent from Paris in my Laduree post? What? You don't? That's lame.. go read it! LOL
Okay, so you see, in the weekend of September, Lin and I, we are going on a foodie trail in Melbourne. So far, I have booked in Movida, Omah's and going to stop in LuxBite to buy loads of macarons and have some durian gelato in Lygon? Plus go on another asian grocery heist. I am going to be eating chilli crabs, Peking Duck, some vietnamese pho, Dim sum, Malaysian food.. I want to stop by Chillipadi too even if it is for takeaway... so how much can one eat in a day? I am hoping a lot ;) I wished I was an eating machine like my foodie friend Suze from http://www.chocolatesuze.com How is she so skinny?? Grrrrr!
Lin, just think.. Melbourne this time... Singapore and KL next! Whoohooo!!!
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Happy Blog Birthday
Hi there, when I first started this blog, it was just so I can channel out my daily stress and to focus on things that matters and are important to me, which was cooking and eating! I wanted to share and remember my mum recipes' and could recall that her happiest time was in the kitchen, not the naggy grumpy woman that she is now... bahahhahaa... and also to leave behind my footprint in this world, you know, for when I am no longer here. This way my son can read all about his lunatic mum's ravings and her obsession with food.
On a more serious note, my mum is a wonderful cook and it must be very hard for her to lose her youthful mobility, her cooking non stop for us, so yeah, I can understand the grumpiness. Okay, I am not going to go JOY LUCK CLUB on you guys, my blog is a mere reflection of my mum's love for cooking, mine is more of a talent for eating ;)
As you can see from my blog, there's more eating than cooking going on, meh! It's all good! I am not so talented as Mum and I can't bake to save my life. Food has always been about family and friends to me and that will not change. I read somewhere, that those who ate together, stay together and I believe that.
http://www.yummystuffgoeshere.com/2011/06/scanpan-giveaway.html
So on this blog birthday year, I asked Brad from Kitchenware Direct to sponsor a gift and he did! What an amazing guy! So, you guys have entered the giveaway with some really amazing responces, and it was so hard to choose the comments so I put all entries in the hat and got my boy to draw them out.
And now for the winner.......
The winner is Karen Choo. Congratulations Karen!! Karen's comment was
Karen has nominated an Australian address for this prize and I will be in touch shortly with Brad from Kitchenware Direct to send out the prize.
Thank you all for participating... love your work. More giveaways to come in the coming months ;) It's my birthday but you're getting the gift ;)
XOXO
Jackie
On a more serious note, my mum is a wonderful cook and it must be very hard for her to lose her youthful mobility, her cooking non stop for us, so yeah, I can understand the grumpiness. Okay, I am not going to go JOY LUCK CLUB on you guys, my blog is a mere reflection of my mum's love for cooking, mine is more of a talent for eating ;)
As you can see from my blog, there's more eating than cooking going on, meh! It's all good! I am not so talented as Mum and I can't bake to save my life. Food has always been about family and friends to me and that will not change. I read somewhere, that those who ate together, stay together and I believe that.
http://www.yummystuffgoeshere.com/2011/06/scanpan-giveaway.html
So on this blog birthday year, I asked Brad from Kitchenware Direct to sponsor a gift and he did! What an amazing guy! So, you guys have entered the giveaway with some really amazing responces, and it was so hard to choose the comments so I put all entries in the hat and got my boy to draw them out.
And now for the winner.......
The winner is Karen Choo. Congratulations Karen!! Karen's comment was
Karen has nominated an Australian address for this prize and I will be in touch shortly with Brad from Kitchenware Direct to send out the prize.
Thank you all for participating... love your work. More giveaways to come in the coming months ;) It's my birthday but you're getting the gift ;)
XOXO
Jackie
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Durian Macarons with Bittersweet Choc Ganache
Firstly, I have to warn you readers that my macarons attempts have been woeful of late and there has been two epic fails and this is my third try at it. Today the result was; some oddly looking macarons with feets on my third and last tray! Phew!!
I burnt the first tray, too hot, so I adjusted temp and left oven door slightly open and second tray cracked ... go figure! Macaron is like a crazy woman okay, sometimes it is too hot, then it is too cold. God help me, it was driving me batty! I still haven't gotten it completely, but it's getting there.
Troubleshooting.....
My pandan macaron, failed - too wet!
My lavender macaron, failed... just realised I have been using icing mixture not icing sugar. Oven too hot from making friands, so macaron got burnt by the time it went in.
Was hoping for third time lucky.. not to be.. first tray was burned, sigh! Second tray was cracked and it had nipples, Good Lord!!! It reminded me of my tits when I was breastfeeding ages ago.. LOL ;)
Just when I was going to shut up shop in my kitchen, I saw some feets forming.. YAY!!!! my macarons have feets! Weird looking feets but still FEETS!!! I could almost cry!
How good was that??? So all is good now with the world, ganache done and mac are in the fridge now. Oh yeah.. I followed the recipe from Trissa at http://trissalicious.com/2009/09/14/the-macaron-and-the-driving-license/
Happy to share my semi okay macaron pics here. One day it will be perfect!
This was the hardest thing I have ever had to make... I am taking my macs to work tomorrow and you better like it!!!
I burnt the first tray, too hot, so I adjusted temp and left oven door slightly open and second tray cracked ... go figure! Macaron is like a crazy woman okay, sometimes it is too hot, then it is too cold. God help me, it was driving me batty! I still haven't gotten it completely, but it's getting there.
Troubleshooting.....
My pandan macaron, failed - too wet!
My lavender macaron, failed... just realised I have been using icing mixture not icing sugar. Oven too hot from making friands, so macaron got burnt by the time it went in.
Was hoping for third time lucky.. not to be.. first tray was burned, sigh! Second tray was cracked and it had nipples, Good Lord!!! It reminded me of my tits when I was breastfeeding ages ago.. LOL ;)
Just when I was going to shut up shop in my kitchen, I saw some feets forming.. YAY!!!! my macarons have feets! Weird looking feets but still FEETS!!! I could almost cry!
How good was that??? So all is good now with the world, ganache done and mac are in the fridge now. Oh yeah.. I followed the recipe from Trissa at http://trissalicious.com/2009/09/14/the-macaron-and-the-driving-license/
Happy to share my semi okay macaron pics here. One day it will be perfect!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Kuih Pie Tee
I bought the yambeans aka jicama aka sengkuang from Paddy's Market in Sydney. It was so ninja of me to find it ;) I wanted to make some pie tee but could never find yambeans at the local shops.
I really enjoyed making these, it sure brings back memories of my mum and I, late at night, in the kitchen making what seems like thousands of top hat cases for my convent school fete in Sungai Petani. Mum was a trooper making these for me to sell at school. I can't even remember now what the fundraising was for... was it for the new school hall for Father Barres' Convent? Meh, all I know was there was lots of pie tees eaten that day.
I made these today with dried prawn meat ( hae bee) but if you are feeling generous and for special occasion, you can add crab meat to it... super scrumptous I tell ya ;) Perfect finger party food!
Here are the photos ;) I really had fun making these, it was tedious, my top hats are oddly shaped but they taste fabulous...I inhaled six after my photo shoot.
You can find the recipe here at http://www.singaporelocalfavourites.com/2011/08/how-to-make-nyonya-kuih-pie-tee-recipe.html
Friday, July 15, 2011
Yumcha @East Ocean, Sydney
This post is mainly going to be a food porn as I don't really know much about or have much experience in yumcha. I met up with Shierly and Dex and his lovely wife Ella for lunch during my Sydney weekend getaway. Shierly suggested we do yumcha at East Ocean Restaurant in Chinatown Sydney.
It was so nice to finally meet up with my fellow foodies, it's like catching up with your long lost friends; even though we tweet each other and have our daily banter on Twitter ;)
Let's start with these pics, I was looking at these while I was waiting for them, wow, these are massive.. scary huh?
It was a fantastic spread and Ella did well in ordering. I love it the fried squid and siew mai and prawns dumpling. I didn't know how to eat the chicken feet so I left that alone. I was going "oooh and ahhh" to all the little dishes layout in front of me...yes I only get let off the island once a year ... Just kidding!
You need friends to go yumcha with, and friends I do have but we don't have any place in Wagga Wagga that does yumcha or Dim Sum despite the amount of Chinese Restaurants in town...LAME!!! Sigh! Wished they get on the bandwagon and start doing Yumcha.. it's not just for the Asians, you know! This place was jammed packed with tourist, foreigners and Asians alike.
Oh why am I so deprived? LOL....
It was so nice to finally meet up with my fellow foodies, it's like catching up with your long lost friends; even though we tweet each other and have our daily banter on Twitter ;)
Let's start with these pics, I was looking at these while I was waiting for them, wow, these are massive.. scary huh?
You need friends to go yumcha with, and friends I do have but we don't have any place in Wagga Wagga that does yumcha or Dim Sum despite the amount of Chinese Restaurants in town...LAME!!! Sigh! Wished they get on the bandwagon and start doing Yumcha.. it's not just for the Asians, you know! This place was jammed packed with tourist, foreigners and Asians alike.
Oh why am I so deprived? LOL....
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Lavender Friands
Another weekend project, this weekend I wanted to make macarons again. I thought that the first time I had failed was because my mixture was too wet. This time I followed the instruction to a tee, and I still failed to make a macaron. Sigh!! I even spend all Friday watching video tutorials coz I am a visual learner, I need to see how things are done.
Nope, the Gods in Macaron Heaven must hate me or something.....I am cursed to forever drool at them from afar! Seeing that I can't even make the simplest French cookie!!!! Argh!!!!
My macs are disabled, they have no feet! They did not rise and they burnt underneath even though I used two sheets of baking paper to prevent burn.
While I waited for my macarons to form their skin before going into the oven, I decided to make a batch of lavender friands with the leftover icing sugar. The icing sugar had been infused in lavender all night. It smelt heavenly. Actually the whole house smells divine with butter and lavender at the moment. The friands turned out superbly but my macaron was another epic fail!
So here is some pics of my successful lavender friands. Recipe was from Delicious Baking book.
Recipe:
1 tbsp edible dried lavender flowers
200g icing sugar
60 g plain flour
125 g almond meal
5 egg whites
180 g unsalted butter
Icing
1tsp edible lavender flowers
55g caster sugar
100g icing sugar
Lavender food colouring or mix blue and red to make lavender
Fresh lavender sprig to garnish (optional)
Infused icing sugar with lavender overnight.
The next day, placed icing sugar in processor to process to fine powder, then place in a bowl and mix with almond meal and flour.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites till frothy, then fold it in with dry ingredients. Slowly fold in cooled melted butter.
Divide mixture into patty cases and bake for 10-15 minutes till golden.
For the icing, sift the icing sugar, you can double sift the icing sugar, if the bits of lavenders falls in bowls. Stir in two large tablespoon of warm water. Add food colouring, stir to combine. Spread icing onto the friands and garnish.
Nope, the Gods in Macaron Heaven must hate me or something.....I am cursed to forever drool at them from afar! Seeing that I can't even make the simplest French cookie!!!! Argh!!!!
My macs are disabled, they have no feet! They did not rise and they burnt underneath even though I used two sheets of baking paper to prevent burn.
While I waited for my macarons to form their skin before going into the oven, I decided to make a batch of lavender friands with the leftover icing sugar. The icing sugar had been infused in lavender all night. It smelt heavenly. Actually the whole house smells divine with butter and lavender at the moment. The friands turned out superbly but my macaron was another epic fail!
So here is some pics of my successful lavender friands. Recipe was from Delicious Baking book.
Recipe:
1 tbsp edible dried lavender flowers
200g icing sugar
60 g plain flour
125 g almond meal
5 egg whites
180 g unsalted butter
Icing
1tsp edible lavender flowers
55g caster sugar
100g icing sugar
Lavender food colouring or mix blue and red to make lavender
Fresh lavender sprig to garnish (optional)
Infused icing sugar with lavender overnight.
The next day, placed icing sugar in processor to process to fine powder, then place in a bowl and mix with almond meal and flour.
In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites till frothy, then fold it in with dry ingredients. Slowly fold in cooled melted butter.
Divide mixture into patty cases and bake for 10-15 minutes till golden.
For the icing, sift the icing sugar, you can double sift the icing sugar, if the bits of lavenders falls in bowls. Stir in two large tablespoon of warm water. Add food colouring, stir to combine. Spread icing onto the friands and garnish.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Jackie M
So what does one do after helping out with handing out food samples all day at the Malaysian Kitchen stand at the Sydney Good Food Wine Show? Not sure about you guys but I went out for Malaysian food dinner!
For dinner, I decided to try out Jackie M's at Concord. It's a little out of the way but so worth the travel. The food was fantastic. It didn't take away all of my homesickness but it helps a bit as the food is Halal, authentic Malay dishes and freshly prepared. Just like the ones you would get in a kopitiam or at a hawker stall back home.
To start with, I had to have the chicken satays. How can I not? This was the first dish I had when I landed in Kuala Lumpur last year or was it the year before last? It's practically a Malaysian icon!! See, I really need to get home soon. Okay, back to Jackie M, her satays are of generous portions, 4 sticks of juicy, meaty chicken flame grilled to perfection. It has that smoky caramelised meat flavour with hint of lemongrass coming thru. See, in Malaysia, we don't use a brush on the meat as they are grilling, we use a lemongrass stalk as a brush, it is cut like a brush at the tip and that gives it that flavour too. I must also mention that she has a kickass marinade and peanuts sauce. I can't fault her satays. It was tasty!
For my drink, I had to have the chendul. One day I will learn to make that pandan chendul. For now I am happy sipping this drink. It was delicious and I could drink this all day and nite. So nice..missing it already!
And lastly, to finish off, I just had to have the Chef's Special. Hainanese Chicken Rice. This is my all time favourite chicken rice dish in Malaysia. This dish brings back memories of my parents buying us chicken rice from the local kopitiam (coffee shop) in Sungai Petani. Mum would only buy from the one near the bus station, across the street from Doctor Joe's clinic. My mum is a great cook, she cooks all these lovely nyonya dishes and on the days when she doesn't cook, we would placed our orders, chicken rice, kari mee, hor fun etc... That's our version of takeout day. There were no McDonalds for us then, and so much better and yummier too for us.
OMG!! I got sidetracked again, hahhahahah.....okay, back to Jackie M's chicken rice. It is everything a Hainanese chicken rice should be. I like the fragrant rice, the steamed chicken was so delicately poached, it was juicy and tender. I love the kickass ginger chilli sauce. I ate the whole lot, cucumbers and all! LOL..please don't say it is for decoration! Apologies for the photos, taken via iphone 3GS ;(
Thank you to Jackie M for a very lovely dinner and for letting me joined in the fun at Good Food Wine Show in Sydney 2011. It was my first food event and it gave me the chance to see the behind the scenes of what goes on a Malaysian Kitchen stand.
For those who would like to try out Jackie M, her restaurant is located at
85 Major Bays Road, Concord.
Feel free to contact jackie @ http://www.jackiem.com.au/contact.htm
She is also available online ordering and catering http://www.jackiem.com.au/estore/index.php
For dinner, I decided to try out Jackie M's at Concord. It's a little out of the way but so worth the travel. The food was fantastic. It didn't take away all of my homesickness but it helps a bit as the food is Halal, authentic Malay dishes and freshly prepared. Just like the ones you would get in a kopitiam or at a hawker stall back home.
To start with, I had to have the chicken satays. How can I not? This was the first dish I had when I landed in Kuala Lumpur last year or was it the year before last? It's practically a Malaysian icon!! See, I really need to get home soon. Okay, back to Jackie M, her satays are of generous portions, 4 sticks of juicy, meaty chicken flame grilled to perfection. It has that smoky caramelised meat flavour with hint of lemongrass coming thru. See, in Malaysia, we don't use a brush on the meat as they are grilling, we use a lemongrass stalk as a brush, it is cut like a brush at the tip and that gives it that flavour too. I must also mention that she has a kickass marinade and peanuts sauce. I can't fault her satays. It was tasty!
For my drink, I had to have the chendul. One day I will learn to make that pandan chendul. For now I am happy sipping this drink. It was delicious and I could drink this all day and nite. So nice..missing it already!
And lastly, to finish off, I just had to have the Chef's Special. Hainanese Chicken Rice. This is my all time favourite chicken rice dish in Malaysia. This dish brings back memories of my parents buying us chicken rice from the local kopitiam (coffee shop) in Sungai Petani. Mum would only buy from the one near the bus station, across the street from Doctor Joe's clinic. My mum is a great cook, she cooks all these lovely nyonya dishes and on the days when she doesn't cook, we would placed our orders, chicken rice, kari mee, hor fun etc... That's our version of takeout day. There were no McDonalds for us then, and so much better and yummier too for us.
OMG!! I got sidetracked again, hahhahahah.....okay, back to Jackie M's chicken rice. It is everything a Hainanese chicken rice should be. I like the fragrant rice, the steamed chicken was so delicately poached, it was juicy and tender. I love the kickass ginger chilli sauce. I ate the whole lot, cucumbers and all! LOL..please don't say it is for decoration! Apologies for the photos, taken via iphone 3GS ;(
Thank you to Jackie M for a very lovely dinner and for letting me joined in the fun at Good Food Wine Show in Sydney 2011. It was my first food event and it gave me the chance to see the behind the scenes of what goes on a Malaysian Kitchen stand.
For those who would like to try out Jackie M, her restaurant is located at
85 Major Bays Road, Concord.
Feel free to contact jackie @ http://www.jackiem.com.au/contact.htm
She is also available online ordering and catering http://www.jackiem.com.au/estore/index.php
Sunday, July 3, 2011
GFWS Sydney 2011
I really wanted to go to a food event since like forever. After seeing Shellie from http://ironchefshellie.com having so much fun at the #GFWS in Melbourne, I was determined to go to the Sydney show. It was by hook or by crook, not really! I voluntered my services to Jackie M and booked my flight and hotel and declared to the world that I was going to this show....hehehe!
So here I am in Sydney, it was certainly buzzing with activities and excitement. I went straight to the Malaysian stand to help out Jackie and Vani from http://www.jackiem.com.au Jackie gave me my very own Jackie M Tshirt... Thank you Lord that it fits.... bahahhahaah! I really need to lose some weight but how can I when I am surrounded by all these wonderful Malaysian dishes. I had so much fun helping out and even had time to roam around checking out products and celeb spotting ;)
There are more photos in my album at http://www.facebook.com/YummyStuffGoesHere
I didn't get to sample much food at other stands as the lines were long and we were flat out on that first day. There was a huge crowd at the Malaysian stand, we ran out of food for food sampling ;) Jackie M brought more food on the second day for food sampling.
I took some time to get more photos on the second day which was Saturday, the crowd on Saturday was bigger. I would say that it was a very successful event for all and I was so glad that I went.
So here I am in Sydney, it was certainly buzzing with activities and excitement. I went straight to the Malaysian stand to help out Jackie and Vani from http://www.jackiem.com.au Jackie gave me my very own Jackie M Tshirt... Thank you Lord that it fits.... bahahhahaah! I really need to lose some weight but how can I when I am surrounded by all these wonderful Malaysian dishes. I had so much fun helping out and even had time to roam around checking out products and celeb spotting ;)
There are more photos in my album at http://www.facebook.com/YummyStuffGoesHere
I didn't get to sample much food at other stands as the lines were long and we were flat out on that first day. There was a huge crowd at the Malaysian stand, we ran out of food for food sampling ;) Jackie M brought more food on the second day for food sampling.
I took some time to get more photos on the second day which was Saturday, the crowd on Saturday was bigger. I would say that it was a very successful event for all and I was so glad that I went.
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| http://www.malaysiakitchen.com.au |
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| Jackie from Jackie M Malaysian Restaurant |
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| Alvin Quah |
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| Adam Liaw, winner of last year's Masterchef, now an ambassdor for Malaysian Kitchen Australia |
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| Jackie M cooking her char kway teow |
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| SunBeam Kitchen- making cupcakes |
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| Check out the food mural! Fantastic isn't it? It's a Ford Focus! Hope to win a car! |
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| Tea anyone? |
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I need me one of those to carry all my stuff!       |
