I got mail

Ever since my son, Nick left college, I haven't had the occasion to visit a campus. Last month I received an email from Samantha Mah of Taylor’s University, Lakeside Campus, inviting me to attend a pastry class at the college. I accepted the invitation because I knew that Taylor's University has an extensiive culinary course for aspiring chefs. I had no idea where Taylor’s Lakeside Campus was so I sent a text to my son’s girlfriend asking for directions as she is a graduate from there. With her help I found the place with no problem and arrived at 9.15am. The class started at 9.30am. I was greeted by Samantha’s colleague, Sharon and she led me to the classroom. I met Chef Karamvi Godrei  who conducted the class. Before the class started, Sharon briefed me that I am not allowed to share the recipes that I would learn that day. I was very disappointed, aren't you? OOPS! So what am I going to share with you today? Well, just some photos I guess.

everything you need to make a strawberry shortcake

Strawberry shortcake that I made. There should be three layers but mine only two layers

because I overfold the batter.

everything you need to make a black forest cake

The Black forest cake that I made

everything you need to make a creme caramel

The creme caramel I made

The tired "me" and my two cakes LOL!

The overall experience attending the class conducted by Chef Karamvi Godrei was pleasant and his style of teaching is clear and simple to follow. 

The classroom

Chef Karamvi Godrei and Quay Po

Here are the tips he stressed about making genoise sponge:

1)) Whisk eggs and sugar till "ribbon stage" before adding flour.

2) Sift flour over batter.

3) Do not overfold or overmix the batter
4) Do not apply too thick frosting
5) When using gelatin, always "bloom it" (let it soak in water for 15 mins) first.

For those who are interested in taking a baking course at Taylor's, you may email Samantha at PhuiSan.Mah@taylors.edu.my or click on the photo below to contact them through their facebook account. Weekend courses and single courses are avaiable for anyone wanting to brush up their skills and knowledge and learn from professionals.

A Guest post for Ping's Pickings

When Ping of Ping's Pickings asked if I would do a guest post for her because she needed to return to her hometown to take care of some important matters, I did not even have to think but told her that I would. I was glad she thought of me and I am happy to help out in whatever way I can. This is what friends are for, right? So I did a guest post for her and it was published on her blog yesterday. If you are interested to make some macaroons (two 'Os') not macarons, do hop over to her blog to get the recipe. It is a fantastic recipe and yielded very tasty macaroons. At least that was what my Quay Lo's expression told me when he took the first bite. Another strong evidence that they must be good is, when I woke up the next morning, they were all gone! LOL!

Please click on the photo to go to the Guest Post at Ping's Pickings

Sharing "Lucy Moments" is good for the soul

When the Golden Girls of Class of 72 have a gathering, we not only have delicious food ….

....but we also share our “Lucy Moments” and have a good laugh together. Laughter is such a great thing, that's why we always hear that, "Laughter is the best medicine." Did you know that is true? There is strong evidence that laughter can actually improve health and help fight disease. Our brains can make us healthier and happier through laughter.

My new readers may be wondering what a “Lucy Moment” is? A Lucy moment is when your plans backfire on you because of your own impulsive behavior and create public embarassment, which, of course, ends up being funny to everyone...except you of course. And of course some more - I am an expert. (Lucy comes from the famous comedienne Lucille Ball who specialized in comedic skits in which she unwittingly fell victim to her own best intentions. The resulting TV show, "I Love Lucy" was one of the most successful in history.

Our Golden Girls group all agreed that sharing Lucy Moments with our girlfriends is good for the soul and we do that every time we meet up. There is so much to laugh about and by sharing we are comforted by knowing that we are not alone. Would you agree with me that when one is happy, one will look younger? We don't look like ladies who are more than half a century old, do we?

Wait, don't answer that. Whenever I attend a gathering with the Golden Girls, I always bring a dessert to share with them. This time it was an upside down pineapple cake and here is the recipe .

(p.s. This is simply out of this world with a scoop of vanilla ice cream)

Upside down pineapple cake

Largely adapted from Betty Crocker

Ingredient:

¼ cup butter or margarine

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

9 slices pineapple in juice (from 14-oz can), drained

9 maraschino cherries without stems, if desired

1 1/3 all-purpose flour

1 cup granulated sugar

1/3 cup butter

1 tsp cinnamon,

½ tsp nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon salt 

¾ cup milk

1 egg

Method:

Heat oven to 350°F. In 9-inch square pan, melt butter in oven. Sprinkle brown sugar evenly over melted butter. Arrange pineapple slices over brown sugar. Place cherry in center of each pineapple slice.

In medium bowl, beat remaining ingredients with electric mixer on low speed 30 seconds, scraping bowl constantly. Beat on high speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Pour batter over pineapple and cherries.

Bake 50 to 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Immediately place heatproof serving plate upside down over pan; turn plate and pan over. Leave pan over cake a few minutes so brown sugar mixture can drizzle over cake; remove pan. Serve warm. Store cake loosely covered.

Killing 3 birds with one stone

When my son, Nick chose to be an actor, 

A scene from the 7th BoH Cameronian Award

Winning play, AIRCON

a singer songwriter, 
Nick wrote this and
the music was jointly arranged
with his friend, Savy

a vocalist in a rock band, 
A big moment for Rosevelt.
They opened the show for the famous
American rock band Incubus 

I knew that Nick had chosen a tough road, especially here in Malaysia. We, Malaysians are not very supportive towards our artististic community. We are willing to spend big money to watch an international show but even if our local talent is comparable, we are not willing to spend much to see a local show. We have a mind set that local talent is not as good. If that were true, why are there so many of our local artists who have done well overseas? Then, when they have become famous overseas, they are recognized in our own country. There is truly something wrong with the logic. Don't you think?

Nick had not done any acting for about two years to concentrate on building his band’s name with his band mates in the local music scene. They had launched the first album last December.

and their song "Moment" has made it to No.1 on the MET 10 Chart

last month and stayed there for a few weeks.

Now he is back into acting and he was one of the actors in the recent play called “End of the world, now scream and run.”  My Quay Lo and I had planned to see the play but unfortunately, he was not well. Since I had to go alone, I thought it would be a good time to catch up with Yen of "Eat Your Heart Out"  and her hubby. I invited them to go to the play and she asked me to tag along to a food review at Millesime in Publika. That was very convenient since the play was one floor above this fine dining restaurant. This was like "killing two birds with one stone". We could do both and have a grand time of it. 

We were expected to be at Millesime at 5.30 pm and when we arrived, there were already other bloggers and writers present. The founder of Millesime introduced us to their happy hour promotion which is an offering of their delicious finger food on a complimentary basis, once you have ordered a drink. Nowadays in Kuala Lumpur, you can hardly even get a glass of water free. That sounded like a good deal, even better when the finger food was beautifully presented and was very scrumptious.  Millesime had indeed lived up to its reputation of being voted as the top 6 dining must-do’s in 2011 by "Singapore Food and Travel Magazine".

What I loved most was their wide selection of wines.  Wine lovers will find this place abundant with choices. 

You might want to check out their Wednesday or Friday Wine Lunch Menus. The price is affordable at Rm120.00 nett for the Wednesday Wine Lunch Menu and you will be served with delicious food and paired with a matching wine to taste.  The Friday Wine Lunch Menu offers a 5 courses of scrumptious food with the right wine to go with them and I cannot believe it is only RM150.00 nett. As for their Dinner Menu, you have three menus to choose from. Menu Degustation (5 courses), Menu Gourmet (4 courses) and Petite Menu (3 courses). In Millesime, there is no ala carte menu. The daily menu is prepared by their Chef  and offered on a pre fixe basis (one price for all)for your enjoyment. I will definitely be back for dinner one of these nights with my Quay Lo and our good friends who enjoy good food and good service.

After happy hour at Millesime, we adjourned to see the play and it was over at around 10.00pm. Since all of us felt hungry again, we decided to hunt for some food nearby and guess where we end up? Yamagoya Ramen @ Solaris Dutamas. Yen of "Eat Your Heart Out" wrote a great post on this little new Japanese ramen joint in KL. Head over to her blog to find out more. However, here are some photos which I took that evening.

We ordered two kinds of ramen and both were excellent.

They even have a little sesame mill so that you can have freshly ground sesame. How cool! I would love to have one of these in my home.

I will definitely go back with my Quay Lo because not only the ramen is good, the staff there are well trained, and service is top notch. The service of some "fine dining restaurants" that we have been to don't even come near to theirs. I am very impressed and if you like noodles like I do, I highly recommend that you check this ramen place out. I am very sure you will not be disappointed.


So with the Ramen supper we killed not two birds with one stone but three! LOL!

No fees or promotionl considerations were received

 and my remarks are purely my own.

Country road, take us home

We have not been back to the states for three years. So, last month, when I was booking an air ticket for one of my Quay Lo's business trips , I came across an MAS business class ticket promotion. Sure enough, as I read further I found that I could get two tickets for the price of one! "YAY" I thought, but a decision had to be made fast because the offer would end in two days time. I had no time to ponder, I had to grab it.

Both of us dread the long hours in the plane but the thought of  seeing our family again in the U.S. is a great incentive to get through that. Plus, the seats can lie flat; so I think I will survive it.

I am really looking forward to this trip back. Our last trip was for Quay Lo's family reunion and it was awesome. We took a road trip from L.A. to his home town. My Quay Lo rented the latest model Cadillac at that time. It was my first experience travelling in a Cadillac. It was super comfortable, but also super speedy and Quay Lo got a speeding summmons on our first day leaving Los Angeles.

Our rented "Caddy"

There were so much to see on old Route 66, which we followed as we headed east! Called the "Mother Road" it was the first interstate highway and began in St. Louis heading west not ending until reaching Los Angeles. My hubby has always felt a strong connection to this old highway as he grew up in a house that was within a stone's throw of it as it dissected his home town. Though the old highway has been replaced by a newer "super highway" there are still vestiges of the road here and there and many preserved and abandoned places on the old route. Here are some of the scenes and things we saw on the way. These photos were taken by my point and shoot camera so they are not images with high quality. I wish I had our Canon G12 and my 500D back then.

The China woman cow-girl. LOL!

My Quay Lo 

In a Mexican Restaurant with "Quay Lo" and his family.

One thing I had in my Quay Lo's "Kampung" (hometown) is this Coney Island hot dog, such a tantalizing treat! Just unforgettable!! I miss this, you cannot even get this in LA, let alone in KL!  Can only dream.

I think I just have to settled with my own version of hot dog lah! It may not be the best but it is simple and taste good.

QPC hot dog

Ingredients:

100gm minced pork

1 tbs chopped garlic

1 tin chili beans

1/2 tsp brown sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

2 pcs bacon, cut into bite size

1/2 medium white onion, chopped

1/2 medium while onion, thinly sliced

dijon mustard

2 bbq pork sausages

2 hot dog buns

Method:

Sauté onion in butter just until soft in a large skillet. Add in chopped garlic and stir fry till fragrance. Stir in minced pork and bacon and when minced pork is whitish, pour in the can of chili beans. Add sugar, salt and black pepper. Simmer uncovered for about 10 minutes. In the mean time poke some holes on the pork sausages and cook in a pan for about 20 mins. Sliced hot dog buns into half. Spoon chili bean sauce on one half of the bun and place the hot dog on it. Topped with sliced onion and dijon mustard and put on the other half of the bun.