Market finds

Yesterday we went out for dinner with Michelle and Alvin. We wanted a place that is cheap so we picked this Korean place that looks pretty shabby from the outside lol. Michelle said it's not bad so we decided to give it a go. When we looked at the "Mains" which comes with a rice and a side dish, it was priced at around $12-16, which we thought wasn't that cheap actually. We went on and ordered a main each anyway. Honestly, I thought it was a single-serving dish and so did everyone. Wk's plate of Chicken Bulgogi with Cheese was the first to be served and when we saw it... our eyes bulged and our jaws all dropped.

IT WAS MAAASSIVE OK!

Look at the abundance of cheese! And X 4 for the four of us wtf. We ordered different stuff but they were all equally humongous! They tasted pretty good too. The place is called CJ Lunchbar if anyone's interested. Cheap but generously portioned, tasty stuff. I had the Spicy Beef Ribs (Galbijjim) and I loved it.

The other weekend when we were at the market in Footscray we spotted these pomfrets! I grew up with pomfrets. The sight and taste of it instantly reminded me of home. Unfortunately we couldn't find the big ones, these were small pomfrets which are usually better off fried. But it was still good to have since I haven't had it in a while now. Super easy; clean the fish (intestines), season it, simply steam it with some spring onion and ginger, pour the sauce over, crisp up some chopped garlic and then drizzle the hot oil with garlic over the top. This step is extremely important, I find that doing this pushes the sauce and the chopped spring onion to a whole new level.

That same day in the market, we were looking for some fish fillet when we spotted this tray of fish steaks going at only $5. I think these were baby mackarels, not sure but whatever. They were actually quite fresh for only $5. I panfried them after seasoning them with salt and pepper and coating them with a little bit of cornflour. Then quickly stir up some sauce and chopped spring onion and drizzled over it. The amount as a main served with rice was enough to serve 4!

Omg did I sound like an aunty talking about buying cheap fishes in market??? Lol.

Lastly, what else but a dessert.

This is my 3rd attempt at lemon meringue tart(lets) now and I'm still not happy with the way they turn out. The first time I made it, the pastry was as hard as rock, the curd was spongy?! The second time, everything was good, good curd, good flaky pastry but I oversalted the pastry it was disgustingly salty. This time, I decided to be lazy and entrust the pastry bit to premade frozen shortcrust pastry. I followed the cooking time in the instructions behind the packet, but the freaking pastry didn't cook enough. -.- AAAAAGH. 

I think the next time I do this I shall do it with limes since I prefer the taste of limes anyway. And originally this was supposed to be in a pie or a big tart shape but I only have little tartlet tins so have to go with that hahaha.

Ok time to finish up my assignment and clean my makeup brushes because I am supposed to do a photography makeup unit tomorrow! Yay can't wait :)

This is what we've been up to.

An ordinarily special day.

10 years ago, who knew what's going to happen today? No one. Starting off as lovebirds in high school, we went separate ways after school, we were thrown the long distance challenge for 4 years. We embraced it, we learned from it and grew with it... 10 years later, look where we are now! It's like a test which we've passed with flying colours. It's been a year and 4 months since we reunited, it's like a roller coaster ride but it's a good ride :)

Happy anniversary to the both of us. *virtual champagne toast*

Dear readers, friends and family, please stop asking "When are you guys getting married?". Being together for so long doesn't define "just get married". Marriage doesn't only need commitment, it needs money. $$$. Cold hard cash. In case you didn't know, you need to work hard to earn that shit. Unless I grow a money tree, that's a different story. Until that shit piles up, I'll say wait patiently :)

I have no idea what title to put.

Day 4 of flu and I'm finally feeling much better. Finally able to eat without having to throw up hours later, which is the worst feeling ever. Yesterday I threw up the cereal I ate in the morning which I ate dry because I wasn't bothered to mix it with milk. Wk thinks it needed some 'lubricant' to help with the digestion that's why I threw up hahaha. Ok TMI...

This is the 2nd time getting influenza this year and the last I had was in what? March? Wtf, that's less than 2 months ago! I don't remember myself falling sick so often in Malaysia except when I'm extremely stressed or exhausted which of course, doesn't happen all the time. Seriously need to consider getting one of those flu jabs but then again, I hate jabs or any sort of needles, with a passion. Aaaagh. 

You know what completely sucks when you're sick? It's when you feel so headache-y or exhausted that all you can do is lie down otherwise you'll feel like crap. And when you lie down too much, you get a backache. And despite having those fantastic time off work or school, you can't enjoy or do anything productive because you're so bed-ridden.

Ok enough of the whinging.

I made Chai Kueh 菜粿 around last week. My mom used to buy Chai Kueh on Sunday mornings when she goes to the morning market to get groceries. My favourite, favourite part of eating Chai Kueh is dipping it into the sweet, garlic chilli sauce which usually comes with it. I couldn't find a recipe to the chilli sauce so I dipped it into a regular garlic chilli sauce and it tasted perfectly fine. As you can see, my skin is on the thicker side. The thinner the skin, the more translucent it'll be. I guess I need to practice my wrapping skills then because I couldn't roll it any thinner without puncturing the skin while wrapping it. Please ignore my hideous wrapping lol. The skin didn't taste like what I remember them to be... it tasted more like.. Har Gau skin? Which isn't bad but just different. Maybe it's because of the thickness, I don't know. 

This stupid cake was supposed to be a Purple Sweet Potato White Sesame Marble Pound Cake. I know that's a mouthful, and I know cakes have no inteligence for me to call it stupid but so many things went wrong with it... aaaagh. So frustrating. The cake may look good as a whole here but only I know what's wrong with it and I wish I can just pick it up and slam it onto a wall until it breaks into a million pathetic pieces, just to show how frustrated I am with it.

We were at Prahran and I discovered this Japanese supply store which made me really happy =D I love walking in specialised food supply store. There're so many things there that I wish I could buy everything! Decided to give this Daifuku a try since I've seen many recipes of it but never tried one. It's basically glutinous rice cake with adzuki bean paste as filling inside. Tastes pretty interesting. It's soft, sweet... and freaking powdery. As I was eating it the corn/potato starch coating was flying everywhere. My mouth, my jeans, Wk's jeans... goodness.

Awesome, awesome drink from PappaRich. Don't remember what it's called, Ribena something. Basically it's Ribena, with either watermelon pulp or blended ice, and then there's watermelon spheres in it, Nata de Coco, and canned lychee. YUM! So refreshing that I didn't even bother about it being a cold drink eventhough it was so cold outside that day. This reminds me so much of those crazy, funky drinks you can get at SS2 Murni.

 

This however, was a complete disappointment. It's their Roti Telur Bawang with Curry Chicken. I was craving for roti that day and I was sooooo looking forward to this and all I got was some sloppy, soggy roti. How outrageous! Just looking at this picture can already tell you how 'soft' it looks, how it's lacking some serious colour which depicts the crispy texture a roti should have. Aaaagh disappointing. Come on PappaRich, I've had good roti from you in the past. What's with the inconsistency in quality! I can easily get a perfect Roti Telur Bawang from Modern (mamak in Klang)!

What's best for a sick person and it's freezing cold outside? Congee takeaway of course! =) Congee with the classic pork and century egg.

Alright time to start on some assignments. Waiting for Wk to come home with my lunch. Can't wait, I've been food deprived for daysssss.

Foodventure: Sichuan, Vietnamese, Asian

Sichuan House

I love Sichuan food period. My favourite Sichuan dish by far is this Fish Fragrant Eggplant. So good! The Cumin Pork Ribs are really good as well. There's also another very popular dish, Spicy Fish, its good but I'm not crazy over it. Sichuan food is all about rich, full-bodied flavour using chili and Sichuan Pepper which gives a numbing effect, very addictive!

Dong Ba

Never been to Vietnam, never had Vietnamese food until I came to Melbourne. Some of their popular dishes are noodle soup and rice paper rolls. Their soup are always rich in flavour, noodles are springy, you usually eat it with fresh Asian herbs and bean sprouts. The rice paper rolls are eaten with dipping sauce. Packed with fresh ingredients, its very refreshing. I like how most things are eaten fresh and raw, so healthy! Dong Ba is a place owned by my classmate's relative. I tried their Spicy Beef Noodle (bún bò Huế) and it's really good! It's not chili spice-y, but more lemon grass spice-y. The broth flavour is stronger than the regular pho though.

Red Spice Road

Decided to give this place a try when Beatrice wanted to meet up while she was here for vacation. Oh my their pork belly was heavenly! The other 2 dishes were great too but nothing beats the pork belly! I would so go back just to have it. This place is quite similar to Gingerboy, serves South East Asian cuisine, but it's a lot more casual than Gingerboy (more posh and atas feeling). Guests are seated around communal tables so it's perfect for groups of 2 and above.

Kitchenventure: Flaky Pastry Egg Tarts

I remember making egg tarts years and years ago (probably in my teens) and it was a disaster. The pastry sucked, and the egg custard smelled eggy and it was quite rubbery. Since then I never attempted it again. About 2 weeks ago I came across a youtube cooking video which teaches how to make this flaky pastry egg tart, and it instantly made me want to try it once again.

The thing with flaky pastry is it's very time consuming and it sort of requires some skills when it comes to wrapping and rolling. I remember making flaky pastry once, again years ago, I made some curry puffs and I don't know how I did it, it was my first time making it and I absolutely had no idea about the basics of flaky pastry, but I managed to get the flaky pastry right that time.

For these egg tarts, I made it 3 times. You read that right, 3 freaking times because I just was not happy with the way the pastry turned out. The custard tasted perfect, and it's so easy to prepare.

Egg Tart Attempt 1

My pastry was too thick and it was raw in the middle even though I cooked it longer than what it's supposed to be. And because I wasn't aware that my pastry would shrink, I filled the custard to almost the brim and consequently, it overflowed when the pastry shrank. It was flaky, but not as flaky as I would have liked them to be. Maybe because I used an all butter recipe because I wasn't bothered to get shortening. On the right, it looks as though the pastry was flaky and cooked through but that's because with this one, I left it in the oven for a really long time just to see how long it'll take to completely cook through and achieve the flakiness I like. Approximately 20 minutes but by then, my custard was rubbery already.

Egg Tart Attempt 2

I decided to use shortening this time and because I was trying to act smart, I used a food processor to incorporate the shortening with the flour. It looked alright at the beginning but when everything came together, it was lumpy as hell. And there was no way I could get rid of the lumps. I blame it on the shortening for being a chilled, solid type, not Crisco. I wish we have Crisco here. And also, for unknown reason my pastry shrank like crazy in the oven. Once again lots of the custard overflowed. But the flakiness from using shortening is unbelievable. So flaky and crispy, just the way I have expected them to be!

Egg Tart Attempt 3

I'm still not quite happy with how much the pastry would shrink when baked but with the 3rd attempt, I'm quite satisfied already. No overflowing disasters, pastry cooked through and with this batch, I managed to yield 2 times more than the first 2 batches.

I still need to improve my pastry rolling skills especially when making flaky pastry like this. Using an all butter recipe is a lot more manageable but you won't get the same flakiness and crispiness as when using shortening. Shortening increases the difficulty because when it's chilled, it's almost rock hard and there's no way I can roll the pastry without it cracking. There might be a 4th attempt... we'll see. I am so determined to fix little things here and there so that I can make this perfect.

Hot Hombre

Time for some random pictures update ala Instagram.

Met up with Beatrice while she's here for a vacation and look what she got me! This pack of peanut butter goodness is evillll. Wk and I couldn't stop eating it for as long as it's within our reach until I decided to pack it and put it aside where it's not so visible. But as I'm typing this I'm popping one into my mouth because it's right next to the computer. Evilllll...

Tried this new drink from Starbucks, Cinnamon Dolce Latte. Mmm it was perfect for that rainy cold day.

Macarons from Cacao... yummeh.

Chillin' in my new jammies that I got from DFO. Only $20!

Random message made me cannot stop smiling :) I was smiling to myself in the lunch room when a classmate saw and called me crazy lol.

And so we did went out for dinner and watch a movie.

Had a new burger from Grilled called the Hot Hombre. Homaigaah it was so spicy.

Dessert before the movie! Had a BOGO free short stack at Pancake Parlour. I seriously prefer whipped butter over anything but decided to go with icecream because whipped butter is so fattening :( Ice cream's good but it's just not as good as butter. And after going through half the pancake I feel quite sick of it already lol.

We watched Dark Shadows. It wasn't a fantastically good movie but it was entertaining to watch, especially with Johnny Depp in it. Come on, everybody loves Johnny Depp, admit it. Eva Green was stunning, as she was in Casino Royale as Vesper. I like that name, Vesper, sounds so... venomous hahah. Ok nvm.