Friday, September 17, 2010
Time for a lengthy & quick update!
The week's been full of ups and downs, and right now at the time of blogging I must admit that it's at the lowest point of the week! Oh well, whatever. I'll get over it.
Anyway, for the better part of the week!
Monday- Went to Udders with the good o'friends after work! I didn't like most of the flavours I tried, since most were either too strong, or a particular flavour was over emphasized. To play safe I had the vanilla bean icecream, which wasn't spectacular either since there was no lingering vanilla taste, and after a few mouthfuls things became monotonous. Enjoyed the time spent with the rest of them, and felt a sense of sadness that we had to part!
Below are some hard boiled soy sauce quail eggs that my sis bought while holidaying in Jap! I admit that they were delish! But of course a person must take the number of quail eggs into consideration, since 1 chicken egg is equivalent to 3 quail eggs's worth of cholesterol =X
Cream! Mom cooked this on a tuesday, using a recipe found on the back of the package itself! Unlike the recipe, we used spaghetti instead of rice...but perhaps rice would have been a much better choice since the sauce had the consistency of soup =X
On to Weds! I had CL for the rest of the week so I went out with Pet for lunch at baikohken! We got a little lost while trying to find the shop since it was located at an obscure corner of raffles place! Below(or rather, both pics feature the half size bowl) is the shoyu soup!
I had the corn and butter ramen which cost $11! Unlike the previous time when I had this with another person, this bowl had more ingredients! Perhaps timing had to do with it, since I arrived during lunch time(1.30+pm?) on Wed as compared to the previous experience whereby I ate just when the shop opened for the day =D
After lunch, we made our way down to robertson quay! Didn't know that there's a Taiwan food fair going on, can't wait to try some of the food actually =D but most unfortunately they were still in the midst of setting up the stalls, so didn't have the chance( and a good thing anyway since was pretty full & on our way for dessert!)
Lookie here! The mini icecream stand! Notice that they've changed the shelter thing(forgot the name =X) to red instead of the previous which was green? Below is the shop itself, and unfortunately there was a no photography sign so couldn't take pics of my food! So let me describe what I ate instead =D
I had the vanilla bean icecream($4.50) & choc tart($7.80) while Pet had the black forest cake($7.80)! Was a little hesitant to get the choc tart at 1st since it was kinda small(I can probably hold and crush it with one hand)! The dark chocolate shavings on the BFC was intense, and I enjoyed the accompanying tart cherry sauce when I tried a little off my friend's plate. My VB icecream had too much vanilla flavour haha =X cos not only did it taste vanilla bean but also the essense...gah!
The choc tart was rich! Very rich indeed. I had to drink at least 2 glasses of water to feel better, but it was good! The base was impossible to cut with the fork, so I gave up eating with it and proceeded to sink my teeth into the tart as it was! There was a bit too much dark chocolate at some point, but still I liked my tart. The accompanying raspberry sauce tasted too sour though. Hmm.
After dessert, we remained seated and reminisced about the past! Only after a while did we leave, and seriously when I return I'd like to try their choc drinks! Or perhaps this icecream sundae which costs $14( 3 scoops of icecream etc)
Robertson Quay's a beautiful place with the relaxing vibe. It was a part of sg which I didn't go to before until weds, 150910. Truth to be told, I encountered a no. of expats...perhaps they live nearby in homes such as the 1 shown in the pic abv!!
The water fountain and the chairs from a nearby restaurant! The whole place just looks awesome enough to sit back on a super comfy chair and perhaps cuddle up to a gd magazine/book and read til u doze off...or drink sth fancy & chat the afternoon away, accompanied by petit fours =D
Why is the Frigidarium icecream sign doing here?! Seriously I'm not sure if somebody stole the sign and left it at the sidewalk at RQ, as I was at Frigi a few months back for the 2nd time and didn't see this there!
On Thurs I made panna cotta from a recipe which I found on the internet! I started at around 2.30pm, and tediously washed every container and cover with detergent & water...gah. 15 of each! =S Nevermind, once that was done I proceeded to cook my whipping cream & sugar! The whipping cream smelt lovely on its own, and I am glad that I bought it instead of the smaller packed variety which would have cost more at $12-13 instead of this 1L pack at $8+! Used 1 tsp of vanilla essense since the original recipe called for 2 tsp of vanilla extract(which is alcohol based & I didn't have that in the house). Read from the net that vanilla extract is much weaker than vanilla essense, so reduced to 1 tsp! The aroma reminded me of custard...but they're different, as custard needed eggs.
I sprinkled 4 1/2 teaspoons of gelatine into cold water...and got a slight scare when the gelatine hardened on its own. As a laugh, I made a smiling face out of the gelatine since I wanted to, ahem, make it look more interesting in picture! 
I reheated my cream+sugar mix and made it warm enough so that I could dissolve the gelatine! A sieve was used to filter the mix b4 each pouring into the individual cups to ensure that the cooked cream was smooth! Made about 13+ cups, then reduced to 13 and popped them into the fridge to harden.
My mom cleared out the fridge, and I got a scare when I opened this container! What was I expecting anyway, keeping a box of fresh( but kind of empty) cheese container in the fridge...threw this out immediately, that's for sure. 
I used raspberries & blueberries for the sauce since I didn't have enough good berries of either! Took the sauce recipe from elsewhere, since the panna cotta recipe didn't have the sauce included!
After dissolving the sugar into the water, I let off the heat and dumped the berries inside! Squished some of the berries first since I wasn't sure if we had the hand held blender, food processor or blender in the cupboards.
While waiting for my mom to find either, I squished the berries further and made them this way haha =X in an attempt to hasten the process later!
Mom took out the blender so we gave it a whiz until they were pureed!
Strained the whole lot, and i admit that the combi was pretty good! Such a pity that this amount made up to 2 small containers, so gave a little more to the 1 which I was giving away to the friends who accompanied me to shop (& the rest who were there 4 dinner).
There u go! Berry sauce! Definitely going to make more of this in the future, but perhaps I should add another raspberry to make it more tart as a foil against the creaminess of the plain panna cotta =D
Not too sure how the rest found it, but glad that most of them(apart from 1 sadly =( ) tried it!Personally I liked plain, pure milk on its own and I was fine without the sauce! Realised today that it was possible to unmold the puddings, but u have to destroy the shapes a little 1st, since it was already oily on its own! Thurs njd class was fun, if a little empty cos YS wasn't around to partner me in the kicks etc! Oh well, on the bright side I could kick the target harder since GM was holding it. Think at 1 chunyatsu(the 5th kick) I almost caused the target to fly out of his hands =X Did too much kicking & was told to stop since I looked pale! It was good to take a little break as I was kinda warm from all the activity, not to mention slightly dizzy from all the turning haha! Learnt the 3rd and 4th defense, was quite fun, if a lil scary! Many apologies to YY =X Here's a pic of the unleavened bread for ZR! LOL. Notice how thin's the crust? It was still good anyway, but got a scare when I heard that my sis managed to chip off 1 of her tooth's fillings after eating this hard crust pizza =X
Guess that's all for now. Have to head for the bed! Perhaps I should blog more in the future, unlike the weekly journals that I seem to be doing these days. It'll be a good thing to keep an update on my studying too, since I've kind of neglected my reading during the times I was working. I will definitely take advantage of this misfortune! I'd be off to bed now, it's kinda late at 1.40am...au revoir!
Why is the Frigidarium icecream sign doing here?! Seriously I'm not sure if somebody stole the sign and left it at the sidewalk at RQ, as I was at Frigi a few months back for the 2nd time and didn't see this there!
On Thurs I made panna cotta from a recipe which I found on the internet! I started at around 2.30pm, and tediously washed every container and cover with detergent & water...gah. 15 of each! =S Nevermind, once that was done I proceeded to cook my whipping cream & sugar! The whipping cream smelt lovely on its own, and I am glad that I bought it instead of the smaller packed variety which would have cost more at $12-13 instead of this 1L pack at $8+! Used 1 tsp of vanilla essense since the original recipe called for 2 tsp of vanilla extract(which is alcohol based & I didn't have that in the house). Read from the net that vanilla extract is much weaker than vanilla essense, so reduced to 1 tsp! The aroma reminded me of custard...but they're different, as custard needed eggs.
I sprinkled 4 1/2 teaspoons of gelatine into cold water...and got a slight scare when the gelatine hardened on its own. As a laugh, I made a smiling face out of the gelatine since I wanted to, ahem, make it look more interesting in picture! I reheated my cream+sugar mix and made it warm enough so that I could dissolve the gelatine! A sieve was used to filter the mix b4 each pouring into the individual cups to ensure that the cooked cream was smooth! Made about 13+ cups, then reduced to 13 and popped them into the fridge to harden.
My mom cleared out the fridge, and I got a scare when I opened this container! What was I expecting anyway, keeping a box of fresh( but kind of empty) cheese container in the fridge...threw this out immediately, that's for sure. I used raspberries & blueberries for the sauce since I didn't have enough good berries of either! Took the sauce recipe from elsewhere, since the panna cotta recipe didn't have the sauce included!
After dissolving the sugar into the water, I let off the heat and dumped the berries inside! Squished some of the berries first since I wasn't sure if we had the hand held blender, food processor or blender in the cupboards.
While waiting for my mom to find either, I squished the berries further and made them this way haha =X in an attempt to hasten the process later!
Mom took out the blender so we gave it a whiz until they were pureed!
Strained the whole lot, and i admit that the combi was pretty good! Such a pity that this amount made up to 2 small containers, so gave a little more to the 1 which I was giving away to the friends who accompanied me to shop (& the rest who were there 4 dinner).
There u go! Berry sauce! Definitely going to make more of this in the future, but perhaps I should add another raspberry to make it more tart as a foil against the creaminess of the plain panna cotta =D
Guess that's all for now. Have to head for the bed! Perhaps I should blog more in the future, unlike the weekly journals that I seem to be doing these days. It'll be a good thing to keep an update on my studying too, since I've kind of neglected my reading during the times I was working. I will definitely take advantage of this misfortune! I'd be off to bed now, it's kinda late at 1.40am...au revoir!
I sprinkled 4 1/2 teaspoons of gelatine into cold water...and got a slight scare when the gelatine hardened on its own. As a laugh, I made a smiling face out of the gelatine since I wanted to, ahem, make it look more interesting in picture! 
I reheated my cream+sugar mix and made it warm enough so that I could dissolve the gelatine! A sieve was used to filter the mix b4 each pouring into the individual cups to ensure that the cooked cream was smooth! Made about 13+ cups, then reduced to 13 and popped them into the fridge to harden.
My mom cleared out the fridge, and I got a scare when I opened this container! What was I expecting anyway, keeping a box of fresh( but kind of empty) cheese container in the fridge...threw this out immediately, that's for sure. 
I used raspberries & blueberries for the sauce since I didn't have enough good berries of either! Took the sauce recipe from elsewhere, since the panna cotta recipe didn't have the sauce included!
After dissolving the sugar into the water, I let off the heat and dumped the berries inside! Squished some of the berries first since I wasn't sure if we had the hand held blender, food processor or blender in the cupboards.
While waiting for my mom to find either, I squished the berries further and made them this way haha =X in an attempt to hasten the process later!Mom took out the blender so we gave it a whiz until they were pureed!
Strained the whole lot, and i admit that the combi was pretty good! Such a pity that this amount made up to 2 small containers, so gave a little more to the 1 which I was giving away to the friends who accompanied me to shop (& the rest who were there 4 dinner).
There u go! Berry sauce! Definitely going to make more of this in the future, but perhaps I should add another raspberry to make it more tart as a foil against the creaminess of the plain panna cotta =D Not too sure how the rest found it, but glad that most of them(apart from 1 sadly =( ) tried it!Personally I liked plain, pure milk on its own and I was fine without the sauce! Realised today that it was possible to unmold the puddings, but u have to destroy the shapes a little 1st, since it was already oily on its own!
Thurs njd class was fun, if a little empty cos YS wasn't around to partner me in the kicks etc! Oh well, on the bright side I could kick the target harder since GM was holding it. Think at 1 chunyatsu(the 5th kick) I almost caused the target to fly out of his hands =X Did too much kicking & was told to stop since I looked pale! It was good to take a little break as I was kinda warm from all the activity, not to mention slightly dizzy from all the turning haha! Learnt the 3rd and 4th defense, was quite fun, if a lil scary! Many apologies to YY =X
Here's a pic of the unleavened bread for ZR! LOL. Notice how thin's the crust? It was still good anyway, but got a scare when I heard that my sis managed to chip off 1 of her tooth's fillings after eating this hard crust pizza =X
Guess that's all for now. Have to head for the bed! Perhaps I should blog more in the future, unlike the weekly journals that I seem to be doing these days. It'll be a good thing to keep an update on my studying too, since I've kind of neglected my reading during the times I was working. I will definitely take advantage of this misfortune! I'd be off to bed now, it's kinda late at 1.40am...au revoir!
Aww you're so cute!!
