Quay Po Cooks: macaron

Showing posts with label macaron. Show all posts

Sunday, October 2, 2011

The earth moves under my macs’ hidden feet!

Just a last week, I felt on top of the world because I thought I have conquered the intimidation of making macarons. The reason being I had received lots of compliments and congratulations from you all. Alan of Travelling Foodies said this to me, “wow! your days of macawrongs are over, sista! This recent batch looks perfect!” My answer to him was, “Please don't say that so soon, I can tell you now it is not over yet and you will read about it in my next post:D LOL!” You will know why I said that when you read on. Oh if you want to see some really professionally made macarons, go check out Alan's blog especially his Pierre Herme's Macaron Montebello.

Since I am still having the mac fever, I tried to make another batch of macs yesterday. The intention was to make these for one of my girlfriend's kiddies because she told me they wanted more after eating some of my maca-rights.

For this batch, here is my story. After putting the batter in the oven for baking, I did my usual. I placed my mum's low stool in front of the oven and waited patiently to see the feet of my macs grow. It is funny how this can give me so much joy, it comes within and it is a nice feeling. Sadly, this time around, it did not happen as anticipated. What happened was, my macs felt the earth moved under their hidden feet! LOOK!

For those who had failed many times at making macs, I say, don’t despair, you are not alone. If you want to feel better when your macs had no feet, come to Quay Po Cooks and look at these “after earthquick” macs of mine! Yours cannot be worst than this right? One consolation though, they tasted good when paired with vanilla ice cream. They melt in your mouth not in your hands. Want to help me finish them? However, I am not giving up, I am going to make another batch soon. Hope you all are having a beautiful Sunday!

A LITTLE ABOUT THIS QUAY PO

Before I was married to my "Quay Lo" (Guaylo) husband, I did not know how to bake or cook. Subsequently I learned some baking and cooking Western cuisine from him, and providing his food for him launched an interest in cooking in general. Many of my Chinese friends and family told me that "Quay" is the wrong spelling for devil in Cantonese. The right spelling should be "Kwai" or "Guay". Well, somehow I like the spelling "Quay" better although I have to agree that it does not sound very Cantonese. Try asking a Westerner to pronounce "Kwai" and you will probably hear "Quay" haha. Whether is "Quay" or "Kwai" or "Guay, just know the devil woman is me when you see Quay Po Cooks. My hubby said if people pronounce "Quay" as "Key" is even better because I am the key to his heart. LOL!

Only now, have I started to learn the traditional Cantonese cuisine of my Mum. She cooks fabulously and all her specialties are divine. These two interests, my husband's Western food, and my mother's traditional food, prompted me to document them so they will not be lost.

Here, I wish to share my cooking and baking experience with my readers. I also hope to inspire those who do not know how to cook or bake to do so because, trust me, if I can, you can too.

Something I'd like to mention is that I find that many people are rather unwilling to share their recipes. However, for me, I think differently. I think good recipes should be shared thus allowing as many people to enjoy it as possible. Unless those recipes are for doing business, I don't see why we want to keep them all to ourselves. So if you are generous in sharing your recipes, you are welcome to share on my blog. Send the recipes to me and better still with pictures of the final products and I will be very happy to post them them with credits to you of course.

Our cuisine is a deeply embedded part of our culture. When two cultures come together under the same roof the results in the kitchen can sometimes be comedic, sometimes confrontational, but more often it is a journey full of surprises and discovery. There is joy in our food. If we think upon this, it is intuitively obvious. This blog is a journey of joy and sharing, reflecting what the French like to call "joie de vivre" (joy of living). No one could be more different from one another then my husband and my mother. Yet one thing they share in common is knowing intuitively that food, cooking, and sharing can be avenues of joy in life itself. So herein, help yourself, to a little joy and , if you like it, share it with your own family and friends. Joy is something that should be shared.