Success!

New baking powder, new flour, and a whole lot less brutal whipping of the batter.

Et voila! Easy-peasy! Steamed banana cake! At least, it's risen! Haha! We'll see whether the taste made all this worthwhile. *waiting impatiently for cake to cool down*

Meanwhile, I've also gotten some green tea powder from the baking shop. Next on the list - Green Tea Steamed Cake!

Nocturnal Adventures

Ever since I had tasted 4th Aunt's yellow wine chicken in KL, I've been making a half-hearted search for a bottle of glutinous rice yellow wine to further my culinary adventures back home. Thus far, I had been most unsuccessful.

Until now.

FINALLY! After much googling and asking around (supermarkets, TCM shops, local grocery shop uncle, chatting to customers in TCM shop), I've managed to get my grubby little hands on a bottle of the above - "Kiukiang Glutinous Rice Chiew"! And where was it hiding all this while? Why, in the bottom shelf of the condiments section in the neighbourhood "Shop n Save", of course...

I've never had much confidence in my culinary skills, and would not usually attempt any western recipes which called for any sort of slightly more exotic ingredient than "dried oregano" or which required more than 2 steps in whipping the whole thing together. But when it comes to chinese recipes, I am somehow filled with less trepidation in exploratory adventures.
So, armed with some recipes from the internet, and my magical bottle of yellow glutinous rice wine, I set off on tonight's effort. Ladies and Germs, I present to you *TADA* - Yellow Rice Wine Chicken, with (copious amounts of) Ginger, Red Dates, Wolfberries, and Shitake Mushrooms (the last ingredient is my own addition, mushrooms being one of my favourite food). Not half bad, if I say so myself! Good enough for me to offer to share some of it. Hehe! Chucked in a good half bottle of the good stuff. Once you're through slurping up all the soupy goodness, I'm sure you'd (be drunk enough to) give me the same compliment for this dish too! HAH!

Alas, the other experiment tonight (Steamed Banana Cake) failed miserably to rise (to the occasion). Our Friend blames it on the flour. This means, of course, that we'll have to scout for fresh new flour, and MORE ripe bananas, to test out the recipe. So off to the baking shop we'll go tomorrow...

To celebrate the start of our long weekend, we trooped down to Shashlik, and feasted on Borsch soup and Chicken Kiev. It was all a quaint experience for Our Friend, but one that evokes warm memories of the place my parents used to bring us to, for a "western treat" of steak on a hotplate. Dim lights, old fashioned slightly grumpy service, and the smell of food lingering in the air. I was particularly amused that the Chicken Kiev was served with a piece of paper decoration resembling a chef's hat on what looked like the chicken's BUTT...! :) That old place is long gone now. But the memory flashbacks I get when I drive past where I guess the old restaurant used to stand along Orchard Road still brings a smile to my face.
Kick-starting the morning (well, it was noon by the time Our Friend deemed it appropriate to roll out of bed on a weekend), I'd planned ahead and shopping for stuff to make our breakfast with. It being the long weekend, a greasy, salty, sinful breakfast of fried bacon is DEFINITELY called for! The only redeeming features are the vegetables (portobello mushrooms and vine-ripened tomatoes) accompanying the greasy bacon (hey, I patted them down with paper towels first, you know!). Aah, satisfaction! And, there's more where THAT came from! :D

Ok, we tried to burn off some of the sinfully greasy becon (and some of the cabin fever) with a brisk walk round the reservoir, before hitting the local supermart for some chicken pieces to attempt this - Chicken with big dates and wine. Tasty! Now, let's see. With the long weekend ahead, what else shall I attempt? Hmm... Where can I get me some yellow wine?? *-)

Meow!

Left to my own devices for another evening, inspiration struck.

Our Friend is no fan of the King of Fruits. Which means, I've been deprived the entire recent durian marathon season...I've been casting longing looks at stalls packed with huge baskets of the fruit, sniffing at the aroma lingering in the air.

In spite of heatiness boiling over within my body, I could not let this opportunity pass! Carpe Diem! With Our Friend otherwise occupied this evening, I merrily acquired a box of the famed Cat Mountain durians to feast on.

The verdict? Disappointing. It's tasty and creamy alright, but a tad too light for my taste. My preference is for the pungent ones, bursting with so much flavour it's almost bitter, melting in your mouth, intoxicating your taste buds and sending your brain sensors into overdrive. With all the hype and rave reviews, I wonder if I've been conned into acquiring poor imposters? Nonetheless, I saved the two remaining seeds from the haul to freeze and to decide on manner of hoovering it in at a later date.

*burp*

Tick Tock

While the minions continue trudging through their lives,

autumn arrives on the Little Red Dot (not the Little "RAD" Dot, mind you...*boomz*).

The sun sets on another day.

x

A Birthday Celebration

It's a long time since we'd gone out to "party", so to speak. But for M's mini birthday celebration before she jetted off to Spain, I wanted to depart from the usual food binge routine and so, did some serious googling in the days before.

We eventually settled on a night out with live acoustic music by the Lovejacks at Timbre @ The Arts House.


For the occasion, we got all decked up, trooped down to the riverside, and shared some pretty decent pub food in the warm and humid, non-air conditioned al fresco atmosphere. I have to say, the hand muddled Mango Mojitos went straight to our heads. It was enough for us to sing and clap along to some pretty lame Oktoberfest games before the band struck up.

But when they did, boy was it worth the effort expended! It's been a long time since I'd sat down to a night of serenading by some very competent musicians with dulcet voices, and this night brought back some very pleasant memories of being very impressed with the talent out there, outside of "Singapore Idol"...

After all that "excitement", we rounded off the night with a late supper of prata, roti john and teh si (the horlicks ice cream apparently doesn't serve late night owls like us). *burp*

Something slightly different, yet not too far from the familiar path of what we've always enjoyed.

Plans are being made...

Hole

*Puts hand up and pleads guilty to neglect*

On the one hand, nothing much has happened.

On the other hand, things HAVE been happening. Just not compelling enough to blog about them. Besides, I blame someone else's apnea problems, causing my feeling constantly too tired and uninspired to blog. :P

After the spate of holiday-ing earlier, it's been a big "thump" back down to earth, scurrying around the workplace. A few friends have since become mothers (some first time, some the second time around). I chucked out a whole bunch of stuff to make space for someone else's stuff. Some old furniture got replaced by some new retro stuff. And a piece of my ceiling came down.

In the middle of the night, after I had already crashed landed on LaLa-Land, there was apparently an almighty crash somewhere abouts The Cave. Our Friend, true to horror movie style, went to investigate the cause with nary a baseball bat to arm himself. Lucky for him no horror lurked around the corner... We found the kitchen cornice, with bits of the ceiling, shattered into many pieces and scattered on the kitchen counter and around the floor.

The next day, I called in trusty Ah Ho to offer his professional opinion on cause and rectification, and was duly informed that various other parts of my ceiling were also on the verge of boinking me on the head soon. Serious expertise to assign blame was called for. So I called in the officials this morning for a thorough investigation (from 6 feet away, with a torch light pointed weakly in the general direction of the raw concrete dent in my ceiling). The official verdict was issued on the spot, informing me that they could help me rectify the problem if I would only go join the thronging crowds at the next Meet-the-People session, and beseech the MP to endorse my request for assistance in fixing my crumbling ceiling. What?? I believe the man failed to understand the issue (don't even get my started!).

I didn't need financial assistance in fixing the ceiling! I need to know who would be responsible for the prevention of my being boinked on the head by a piece of falling concrete!

Official Shirker having issued his verdict, I decided I'd rather have someone I trusted to save me from potential harm. Trusty Ah Ho it is then.

Meanwhile, bits of the kitchen ceiling continues to crumble...