Anyone still reading? Hahah.
Sorry for the sporadic posts. All I've been doing was go to school, come home and cook, TV, assignments, sometimes have a little bit of fun over the weekend (movie, brunch, chocolates) and that's it. We've been working on our PR visa and trying to get everything sorted out as soon as we can.
Speaking of cooking... I've been watching Masterchef a lot lately. Hrm... 'a lot' might be an understatement. Maybe I should say I watch Masterchef religiously? Hahah. I watch every single episode I can and I've been watching the previous season whenever I'm free. They have it in their website and everyone can watch for free! And it even has all the recipes of the dishes shown in the show! How nice right! These days you can find just about ANYTHING in the internet.
Ok anyway. I've been cooking a lot and venturing a lot as well. The thing I really like about cooking here is that you can find almost any ingredient you need. There are so many things available, there are so many things one can make!
I found this cooking method on Youtube that shows how fried chicken can be done using an oven! How freaking convenient! No need to use up cups of oil and not knowing what to do with it afterwards. And as well as the sauce... or I would rather call it the glaze. So easy to make yet so tasty.
Tried making chicken schnitzels, with sides of supposingly spaghetti Aglio Olio but I went a little heavy handed with the parsley so it turned out looking weirdly green. We didn't have enough breadcrumbs so we used some of our expired, frozen bread. If you're wondering, the breads here expire in about 2-4 days, so to keep it edible we freeze it. To eat, just toast it and eat it immediately, prefectly fine. In our case, chop/blend it up, season it and use it as breadcrumbs! Worked out alright.
Tried this recipe I saw in Youtube, Curry Carbonara. Not too bad but tasted funny. Probably because I went overboard with the curry powder... it tasted a little powdery.
This was just a simple spaghetti with chilli tuna. I tried twirling the pasta like how chefs do (as seen in Masterchef, of course) to give it a better presentation. Quite fun playing and decorating with food :)
Today, I tried making Osso Bucco (modern version). It's just like lamb shank but instead, this one uses veal shank. Braised with stock, herbs and vegetables until the meat is tender. Garnished with gremolata; made of parsley, garlic and lemon zest. We prepared sides of mash potatoes and baby spinach. Have to say, the gravy was really good but some of the veal shins weren't tender enough. And in my opinion, I personally prefer the texture of lamb shanks but this was worth the try.
Finally you know what Osso Bucco is! Hahah. I talked about it in my Facebook and Twitter and a couple of people came asking me what that is lol. I would be too. I've seen this cut of meat in the market and have been wondering what it is until it's introduced and cooked in Masterchef. It's a popular winter, slow cooked meal.
Lastly, I made these:
Pretty little cupcakes!
Naah. Joking. Bought this earlier this afternoon when I saw it in the shop. There's this cupcake shop at QV,
The Cupcake Family which makes amazing cupcakes. I like to eat cupcakes but honestly, not many I've tried were good. The cakes were either too dry or bland in taste, or the frosting wasn't smooth and not sickly sweet. Maggie first introduced me to The Cupcake Family and I've been hooked since!
Their cupcakes may not look the prettiest but its taste will make you go back for more. It's not like you'll be blown away, but it's addictive. Especially when they make new flavours, it makes you wanna go back and see what new stuff they have and you wanna try them all.
Recently they released some deluxe flavours for this winter which after getting these 2 I've officially tried them all; Chocolate Peanut Butter which omg is to die for, Raspberry White which is the white one above, Sticky Date and Chocolate Orange which is the dark one in above. All taste super good, especially when the cupcakes are warm.
They also have mini cupcakes which are cheaper and smaller, which is a good way to test out different flavours. And also macarons, which I found out recently they tasted a lot better than before. And they increased the price of the macarons! Probably because it was selling well...
We were on the way to get groceries when we passed by the shop and I was staring at the cupcakes on display for 10 minutes with that "aww" face and Wk decided to buy me one. And I got another, hee hee. And while waiting for my Osso Bucco to cook I couldn't resist it, I ate both. In the end I was feeling so full I couldn't finish my plate of Osso Bucco lol.
Alright enough about food. Time to sleep. By the way, please don't ask me what I'm studying because I don't feel like revealing yet. Thanks for understanding. And those of you who know, you know I told you because I trust you.
Forgot to mention what we did today. This blog is not my blog if I am not ranting, is it?
We went to Medibank for our visa medical check up, which basically is a health check required from immigration when we applied for our visa. Basically you'll have to do a health check when you apply for whatever visa in Australia... except for traveling visa. Anyway, we had to do blood test and omfg I almost fell off my chair when the nurse took the needle out. I've never done a blood test in my life (except for the one where they use something to prick your finger and get a drop of blood) and today just scared the crap out of me.
So there's also another urine test, which if there's things like blood in it, you're required to redo the test. Naturally, they detected blood and they told me to go see another doctor and have my urine tested (cultured and blablabla) and have the doctor send a report to them. Which means I'll have to pay an additional AUD 60 for consultation and another sum for the pathologists who will be testing my urine. And for the medical check up I already had to spend almost AUD 400! And not forgetting how I had to do another x-ray even when I've already done it a month ago when I applied for my student visa. Which I paid freaking AUD 200+ for it.
SO. DAMN. RIDICULOUS.
I paid so much I would think I have the rights to keep a copy of my x-ray results, no? With that, I can use it and not have to do it again for another health check (for another visa application)! And why the hell can't they let me do the urine test again in the place? Why the hell should I go elsewhere and have it checked, and have to pay more for it??!
In total I would be spending a minimum of AUD 500 (RM 1500) for a very basic health check of urine test, blood test and x-ray. In Malaysia, I would certainly not need to pay RM 1500 for all that. Which makes me even more furious thinking about it. But oh well. Life sucks.
