What an eye opening

Finally, Le Cordon Bleu courses are here in Malaysia. 

There is a network of educational institutions dedicated to providing the highest level of culinary and hospitality instruction through world class programs in gastronomy. Le Cordon Bleu is considered to be the guardian of French culinary technique through its culinary programs that continue to preserve and pass on the mastery and appreciation of the culinary arts that have been the cornerstone of French gastronomy for over 500 years.

Anyone who would like to pursue a degree in either pastry or cuisine with Le Cordon Bleu, you can now do it right here in Malaysia. Programmes offered are Certificate programmes, Diploma in cuisine and Diploma in patiserrie. If you are interested to find out more about all the courses, you might want to contact these two friendly and nice ladies to arrange a tour of the institute and meet the instructors. I believe after that, you will be convinced that this is the institute you would like to pursue your career as a chef. 

Here are the contacts:
Sherlyn Lee at +6012 366 1378 or Ming at +6012 2423522. Ming is the General Manager.

From left: Evelyn of Missyblurkit, Quay Po, 
and Ming, GM of Sunway Le Cordon Bleu

I was so happy to be invited to attend The Duo Chefs Cooking demo on Vol Au Vent A La Parisienne by the head Pastry Chef, Chef Tierry Lerallu

and the Technical Director and Cuisine Chef, Chef Frank Bruwier.

Upon my arrival, I was greeted by the Student Recruitment and Marketing Executive, Sherlyn Lee and guess what? We were given a goody bag and served with platters of delicious pastries prepared by Chef Tierry. What a warm welcome!

On the way to the cooking demo room, we were brief how classes were conducted and we were shown how the kitchen was set up in the classes. According to Sherlyn, each student will have their own station and kitchen tools and there will be no sharing.

Shortly after we arrived at the demo room, we were introduced to the two chefs. Chef Frank is a humorous guy and so is Chef Tierry. It is obvious that the both of them truly enjoys what they do. 

Chef Frank said that pastry and cuisine always work hand in hand, just like the dish, Vol Au Vent A La Parisienne.

The demo class was fun, interesting and easy to understand. Most of all was the unforgettable gastronomy experience. The dish was out of this world delicious.

Ready to see how the Vol Au Vent A La Parisienne take shape? There you go.

Chef Frank preparing the chicken mousse

Chef Tierry making the pastry

Chef Frank preparing the fillings for the pastry
Preparing the smoke duck and bacon

Preparing the butter glazed mushroom


It was interesting to see how Chef Frank clean up the mushrooms.
I tried doing that but all my mushrooms were broken! LOL!

Preparing the gravy

Assembling the dish

Drum roll!! - The final product

I will definitely try to replicate this dish, maybe a fusion version, then, I shall share the recipe with all of you.

Once again, I would like to thank Sherlyn and Ming of Sunway Le Cordon Bleu Institute of Culinary Arts for the invitation. A big hug to Eveyln Ang Loo of Missyblurkit and Kevin of Ah Tee Kitchen for taking the photos for me and with me. Kevin, it was so nice of you to come over to say hello. It was a pleasure to meet you in person.

Quay Po with Kevin of Ah Tee Kitchen

It has been a long time since I last seen my friend, Cheng Yi of Fat Boy Bakes, a famous blogger whom I am sure you all know. I am glad to meet him at this event and we managed to have a little chat over tea and pastry before the demo started. We missed taking a photo with him because he left immediately after the demo. By the way, if you guys want to buy some unique yummy cakes for special occasion, you might want to check out his bakes for sale at his website. My Quay Lo's favorite is his OOZY chocolate caramel cake with sea salt. Cheng Yi has inspired me to make the pavlova and now it is a dessert I make for my friends and family very often and they all love it.

You may click on the pic to get the recipe I used

Regrets of the dying

My Quay Lo tweeted this article back in February. I learned something from it so I would like to share this with you all about top five regrets of dying. 

Here is the article:
"Top Five Regrets Of The Dying"

Posted by Jacob Sloan on February 2, 2012

I immediately replied to his tweet by saying my last regret would probably be none of what was stated in the article. It is more likely that I would wish that I did not "sweat the small stuff" and choose to be more happy than to be right in some arguments. What will yours be? Or, is it too scary to think about it?

A week before the article, my Quay Lo and I were talking about death and what our wishes would be for all the neccessary arrangements. We both wanted our loved ones to celebrate our lives rather than mourn the loss. To those who loved and survived us, we want them to open champagne and put on all our favorite music and remember the good times we had together.  We hope they will share some food, and share their memories of us. We both think it would be nice to know that among the food they share, some of our favorites are included. We laughed as we talked about this. My husband said that it sounded like "hungry ghosts" and we laughed some more. (While we mean no offense to anyone, we don't really believe in ghosts.) Later, after our conversation, I decided to examine the question of what would be the best food for our friends to share at our memorial feasts. I didn't think about this because I didn't expect anyone to follow the suggestions literally. This isn't a dying wish or anything that anyone should feel is binding at all. Our main interest is that our friends and family celebrate our lives that were, instead of mourning our lives that are no longer.

I may be the only foodie to blog a suggested menu for her own memorial service. So here I go, with some ideas about food that is nourishing and comforting and that we like. It is food that is best taken with a favorite wine. We hope it is food that will make our family and friends feel at ease, contented, and thoughtful.

Feel free to click on the pictures to get the recipe. Oh, before that, I would like to share a very inspiring video with you about how Ric Elias who was given a second chance to live. He had eliminated those regrets he had thought of, when he thought he was dying.

Frittata

Cod in lemon grass sauce

Lettuce cup with minced Pork croquettes 

and salsa

Stitch's Magarita in case you don't want wine

QPC Snow White Cocktail

Choy Geok

Carrot Cake

Pavlova

Chocolate croissant pudding with whiskey sauce

This post is a good reminder for me to pay more attention to the people that matter most to me and not waste the little time I have on earth on those who are not. Hugs to all.

CNY Day 4 – Potluck at my neighbors’ home

Last Sunday, we had a potluck dinner at my neighbors, Andrew and Annie’s home.  There are four families and each cooked a dish or two for the dinner. Dr. Hall brought some great wines and his wife, Dr. Lee cooked one of the famous Peranakan dish “Ju Hu Cha”.  Another neighbor, Mr. Meta share with us a bottle of fine champagne, Mrs. Meta brought curry chicken, while I made three dishes, garlic yellow squash, roasted butternut squash with rosemary and thyme and deep fried prawn in tamarind sauce. The host made two favorite Hakka dishes, stew pork belly and yam and braised pork belly with wood’s ear bean curd sauce. There were all very delicious. 

We all enjoyed the dinner and the company especially when we had Uncle Meta telling us so many funny stories.  He is such an adorable guy, his stories made me laugh so hard that my jaw hurts.  Both Mr. and Mrs. Meta are in their eighties who has just celebrated their Golden Wedding anniversary. What a charming couple!  It warms my heart to see such a loving couple growing old together. They truly enjoys each other company, love life and find humor and laugh at anything positive or negative.  I saw Uncle Meta laughed at his aches and pain and cracked jokes about it instead of whining. He did not let that deter him from spending good times with his friends. I marvel at his positive attitude towards life. Oh and he is a lucky man because Mrs. Meta is a gorgeous lady and a good cook.

I think it is very important to know our neighbors and be on friendly basis with them because they are the closest friends in distance to us.  During times of emergency, neighbors can definitely fill in the need.  There were many times in the past when I was in need of help, my neighbors came to my rescue. So, do not just leave your house, drove off and then when you come home, go straight into your house and don’t even say “hello” to your neighbors.  Socialize with them, be their caring friends but not a nosy one. LOL!  I said,  friends nearby is worth two far away. Do you agree? 


Once I gather the recipes from all the foods in the picture, I will definitely share with you all. 

Top pic: roasted butternut squash with rosemary and thyme, bottom pic: deep fried prawn in tamarind sauce

Left pic: Ju hu Cha, right top pic: curry chicken, right center: stew pork belly and yam, right bottom: deep fried prawn in tamarind sauce

Stylish Blogger Award

Elisabeth of food and thrift finds is always so kind to me.  She gave me the the “Lovely Blog Award” and now she gives me the “Stylish Blogger Award”.  I am very proud to display this award.

To claim this award, I have to do the following three things:

1.      Thank the person who awarded me.

2.      Share 7 things about myself.

3.      Pass the Award on to bloggers I think are fantastic.

Elisabeth, I thank you for giving me two awards in such a short time. I am also very grateful for your frequent visits and take time to leave kind comments on my posts. I want you to know your visits and your comments mean a lot to me.

Now coming to the 7 things about myself. They are:

1.       I am not a good cook and a lousy baker but I know I am getting better everyday. I am also not a good writer either but I write from my heart.

2.      I am not a traveler but now I am hopeful to be able to go to Foodbuzz 2011 to meet with all the wonderful foodies from all over the world.

3.      I believe in not making any enemies and loose no friends because to me, friends are one of life’s many precious thing.

4.      My happiness comes from seeing those I love happy.

5.      I am a hyper person and must have something to do all the time. I do not know how to relax.

6.      When I decided to do something I always give my best. 

7.      When things don't happen the way I wanted, I like to say this, “Man plan, God decides.”

The last thing I need to do now is to give this award to other bloggers whom I think are fantastic. Honestly, I have not come across one blogger that I think don’t deserve this award so if I leave any of you out here, please know that you all are great bloggers and more than deserve just an award. Thanks to all who have visited my blog and left your comments and hope to see you all often.

Congratulations to the following blogger friends:

anedotes and apple cores

http://anecdotesandapples.weebly.com/

Kimba’s Kitchen

http://www.kimbaskitchen.com/

Elin luv’s sweet delight

http://www.elinluvdelights.com/

Zomppa

http://www.zomppa.com/

luv to eat

http://luvtoeat.wordpress.com/

collaborative curry

http://www.collaborativecurry.com/

sidewalk shoes

http://www.sidewalkshoes.com/

Zesty south Indian Kitchen

http://kitchenswathi.blogspot.com/

My life in the Charante

http://lifeincharente.blogspot.com/

Yin’s homemade

http://yinhomemade.blogspot.com/

love to cook

http://love2cook-msia.blogspot.com/

The Kitchen Witch

http://www.thekitchenwitchblog.com/

Anncoo Joural

http://anncoojournal.blogspot.com/

What’s cooking, Italiian Style Cuisine

http://pegasuslegend-whatscookin.blogspot.com/

Simply life

http://www.simplylifeblog.com/

Kitchen gypsies

http://kitchengypsies.blogspot.com/

Teczcape – an escape to food

http://teczcape.blogspot.com/

Pig Pigs Corner

http://www.pigpigscorner.com/

Almost Bourdain

http://almostbourdain.blogspot.com/

6 bittersweets

http://www.6bittersweets.com/

Angie’s recipes

http://schneiderchen.de/

Joy of Cooking

http://joyofcooking247.blogspot.com/

Eat well with others

http://www.joanne-eatswellwithothers.com/

Torview

http://torviewtoronto.blogspot.com/

Nasi lemak lovers

http://nasilemaklover.blogspot.com/

No frills recipe

http://www.cheah2009.blogspot.com/

pen to page

http://davidwaters100.blogspot.com/

Bake for Happy Kids

http://bakeforhappykids.blogspot.com/
Journey of an Italian Cook

http://journeyofanitaliancook.blogspot.com/

Before I go make myself a cup of coffee,  please copy the award from my blog and display it on yours if you wish.  If you do, you know the rules.  Congratulations and once again thank you for allowing me to be part of your culinary journey and also being a part of mine.