Korean Frenzy

The food scene here is very different from Sydney. There is a lack of authenticity here. Perhaps because there are lots of migrants of many different countries in Australia, particularly in Sydney, the taste of the international cuisine is somehow very real. In the middle of Sydney, Korean, Japanese, Thai and HK restaurants are easily found. Here in Singapore, even at the well known Orchard Road, hardly, you can find a decent Korean restaurant.

So here in Singapore I have to look for Korean grocers (Thank God I found 1 at Cineleissure).Bought the chilli flakes at $13+ for a 200 g pack. Ouchhhh... too expensive for chilli flakes... but the desire to cook the Hot soup was too great to stop me from buying:)

Ok so here is the recipe for

Korean Prawn and Hot Dog Spicy Soup

8 grey prawns

4-5 Hot Dog

raddish cut lenghwise 8 cm

bean sprout

spring onion, cut lengthwise 8 cm

3 chilli

1 tbs of Korean chilli flakes

sesame seed

Tang Oh (Garland Chrysanthemum) a kind of green leaf vegetables

1/2 onion, sliced

1 clove of garlic (minced)

salt, little bit of sugar

Bring 1.5 bowl of water to boil, add raddish as it needs few minutes to be soft, chilli flakes, onion, and garlic. Add hot dog, prawn, and spring onion. Finally bean sprout and tang oh. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on your rice and into the soup...

Nice to be eaten with bulgogi or fried tempura.... will update that soon.

Creating Your Own Flavours...

I always love Green Tea flavoured ice cream, beverages, and even cake. Was inspired to make my own when I was still in Sydney. I rushed down to the Korean shop, just opposite my apartment to look for "maccha"- high quality green tea powder. Got it, tho quite pricey for a student on budget:). And of course I have to get the main ingredient, the cheating ingredient-- The Vanilla Ice Cream;). So I crossed over to World Square to the the Coles Vanilla Ice Cream.

Green Tea Ice Cream

Basically, this ice cream is very easy:) Just let the ice cream to sit in room temperature, depending on the weather, it takes forever in winter. If it's winter, bring the tub into your sink filled with warm water. However make sure it's still creamy, not watery!

Scoop 4 spoon full of melten ice cream into a bowl, and mix 2 teaspoons of maccha into it. Make sure they r well mixed. Now, transfer this mixture to your ice cream tub. Mix with the rest of the ice cream. Fridge it. After 45 minutes, take out the tub again and stir the ice cream well. Repeat 4 times. This is to ensure that the texture of the ice cream is smooth and not crystallized.

With maccha, I made "Green Tea Cappuchino" just like the one in IchibanBoshi Australia. Many was tricked by the name of the cold beverage. With 'cappuchinno tagged on the name of the beverage, it's understandble that many thought it's a coffee based one. Well NO, it's actually green tea milk drink, shaked, hence lots of froth resulted. The restaurant serves it cold with a tall glass with some brown sugar sprinkle. It comes with a small pot of syrup for you to satisfy your taste bud. I just mix maccha, milk and ice.Shake shake shake. Hoooolaaa, my own Maccha Cappuchino:)

I have used this method to make Durian Ice Cream here in Singapore. It's nicer than than those sold in the supermarket, with real durian pieces in your ice cream! My bro gave me a 10/10 score, not knowing that I didn't make it from scratch. But who cares... as long as it's nice.

This week, if I can find cheap manggo, I will make Mango Ice Cream. Mango is too expensive to be smashed, I prefer to eat good grade mangos fresh.

Mango Salad

I never liked Thai Salad, as the fish sauce is too overwhelming for me until a fren of mine from Sydney forced me to try it. To my surprised, it tastes beautiful! I love the finely shredded raw mango with the combination of coriander. The sauce is slightly sour with a hint of sweetness in it.

The ingredients seem to be readily available from the supermarket, so here I am with my new














recipe:

1 raw manggo (finely shredded)
1/2 carrot (finely shredded)
1 cucumber (trim the seeds, shredded)
1/8 onion, chopped
corriander ( roughly chopped)
1/2 cup of fried peanut ( chopped)
lime grind (grated)

Sauce:

2 tbs of fish sauce
2-3 lime
1 tbs honey
1/2 tbs sugar

Mix all, making sure that the sugar has diluted

Arrange the grated manggo and vegies. Sprinkle the chopped peanuts. Spoon in the sauce.
Easy and fresh salad.

Personalised theme

I tried to create my own personalise theme for this blog the entire day. Trying to be IT language smart, I changed those pictures URL under the template index. The header came out, but it's out of place! I guess I shld hold up my ambition to creat my very personalised one, unless Mr C is kind enough to help:)

I wonder how those people could have a nice layout on their blog, especially those homemaker food bloggers. Any tips anyone? I tried out blogsome yesterday, but it's harder for a beginner like me. The setting is a little confusing and also, it seems that it loads slower than blogspot. Hm, ok my complaints won't stop, I still not satisfied with the appearance of my blog. I want a classy white with some contrasting colours on the layout.

Anyway, blogging has caused severe back and neck pains to me. As I wrote before, I am always very enthu for starting everything, let it be cooking, trying something new, patchworks, beading, etc. Hm... looking back, I managed to get some projects done on those categories, but they always end. Now the passion for patchworking and beading is no more burning:)

Hope blogging will be burning hot for a longer period...

Tiramisu

Walking along the dairy product section of Coles, I was attracted to the discounted Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Was even more amazed when it provides free recipes at the back of the box. Tiramisu, Strawberry Semifreddo Cheesecake and Classic Baked Lemon Cheesecake were some of the examples of those free recipes. I went home without getting it, and soon after I found myself seaching for easy Tiramisu recipes from the net. I found many. So with basic recipe, I went back to Coles the following day to buy the ingredients. From then on, Tiramisu is one of my favourite cake to make if there is any pot luck. After experimenting with a number of recipes, I came up with a new modified version from all the recipes i have gathered.



Ingredients:

250g of ladyfingers
4-5 teaspoon of instant coffee (lots of true blue Tiramisu lovers say it’s best to use real esspresso but I find instant coffee perfect for this)
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup Kahluah/Bayleys

250g Philly Cream Cheese
2 eggs separated
1/2 cup thickened cream
1/2 cup caster sugar

What you need to do...

Mix coffee, water and Liquor in a shallow bowl.
Beat egg whites until soft peaks formed. Beat thickened cream. Beat Philly Cheese until soft and add in egg yolks and sugar until the mixture is smooth. Add cream and fold in egg whites into the mixture.

Dip the lady fingers quickly into the coffee mixture. Too much coffee mixture results in soggy tiramisu. So make sure that you do it really quick. Some may want to brush the mixture over the lady fingers. Lay the ladyfingers in a serving dish. Spread half of the cream mixture on the top. Repeat dipping ladyfingers into the coffee liquid one at a time and laying them on the dish. Finally spoon the remaining cream mixture onto the dish. Sprinkel with cocoa powder.

Happy trying… it might be hard to find some of the items here for example right here in Singapore, it is hard to find ladyfingers in normal supermarkets, only the big and those in town will have it. You can substitute ladyfingers with sponge cake. Just slice them up around 8x2x2cm and toast them until they turn brownish.

Beautiful Sydney...

I had a wonderful trip with my sister to Sydney for 2 weeks recently. The main purpose for this trip was for my graduation ceremony but the primary personal reasons for me to go there were slightly different. It's a valid exucuse to see my bf C, friends and yes to eat! I miss the food there. I should say that as there are many migrants from different countries in Sydney, the food is more authentic. Thai chefs cook Pad Kapraw and Pad See Ew, Korean chefs cook Altang and bulgogi, Italian chef cook pasta, Hk chefs cook pork chop with tomato rice etc...
We were lucky to get a room at Astoria Tower in the middle of the city (thx C).

Paid $280 a room for a week, this was one of the reason that we could shop more:) The place is just a few roads, and blocks away from C's place (which was my room b4 I left Sydney, C took over my room). We dragged ourself to C's place after our shopping/sightseeing, normally after he came back from work. We need his computer to load pictures and to check emails.

This trip was too short, I wish I could stay a week longer. On the second week, we headed south to Melbourne. We were too happy to stay at a posh serviced apartment in the middle of the city. You wouldn't believe the price that we paid for. It's only the 25% of the regular room rate! Well, again thx to C's friend! Personally, I prefer Sydney than Melb. The city is messy with the trams running around. Pavements are v.v. small and you have to wait for the traffic light to go green with lots of pple squeeshing into you. However, Architecural n the royal botanical garden are better than Sydney's.

Brought sis to Hurricane for its gigantic pork ribs. It's beautifully done. Smeared with bbq sauce and not too honeyed flavour, just perfect for a hungry lunch. We orderd 2 full racks, and C finished a full rack by himself! Gosh... Do not fraid... after this meal, we walked along the coast of bondi, up to Tamarama beach. I was cold and windy that afternoon, we were shuddering but the views were too nice to be missed. While walking down back to Bondi, there was a group of seagulls flying across us. If you were fast enough, you could catch one of them while they were in motion. My sis snapped a nice picture of C and I together. We're amazed as the picture came out really nice and natural. So each of us take turn to wait for the seagulls to fly over again... it's never as nice as a snapshot. But we managed to took some nice ones....

Spending more than 4 years there, I miss the food very much. My favourite is Spice I am, located at Surry Hills. We love the Crispy Pork Belly with Basil. the pork belly is crunchy and spicy... a very nice combination of herbs makes this dish A MUST TRY*** Another Thai Rest that we love is Thainatown. This rest offers affordable dishes. Most of the customers are thai/international students and a handful of locals.

Kingsford is a nice neighbourhood for Indonesian food. This suburb is where the UNSW is located. Many Indonesians and HK rest here. One that I like is Ayam Goreng 99. We normally order the Ayam Bakar---bbq chicken, sayur asem, amla goreng. Many times, we dined in at the other Indo rest in Kingsford, but most of the time we were disappointed by the food. Often, we wished we had visited Ayam Goreng 99 instead. At least our tummy is satisfied:)

We had many Korean food there too. Korean Rest. are easily found in the city. We love Altang the spicy fish roe soup and the bulgogi.

Here is the list for Sydney favourite food:

• Spice I am--Thai rest. At Surry Hills, walking distance fr the city, very close to the Central Station.Best dish: Crispy Pork Belly with Basil. fish curry is nice too. Slightly more expensive, but listen, it's worth trying! ($$$)
• Thainatown.Close to World Sq. Affordable meals. Best Pad Kapraw. Love the thai ice milk tea too.($)
  Ayam Goreng 99--Kingsford, Anzac Parade. BBQ chicken, sayur asem, ampla goreng. Lots of students, q can be long ($)
• Min Sook Hoon, Liverpool st, opp. World Tower, V Bar. Affordable Korean Rest. Love the Altang, but not the best in the city.($+)
• Hanabi--Liverpool St, After Pitt St if you are walking from George St. The Restaurant is located slightly under ground. Best Altang! ($$)
• Seoul Ria --Liverpool St too:) Opp World Sq, closer to chinatown area. At level 2 of one building at the junction. Must have: Sweet and Spicy Chicken. The chicken is crispy just perfect with the sweet and tingy sauce. Hot pot is good too. ($$+)
• Hurricane--Bondi. Best Ribs in Sydney. The ribs are gigantic! worth trying! However, walk along the beach after meal to burn off those fat...:)($$$)
• Pancakes at the Rocks--- Best Chicken Caesar Salad. Gals love this dish. Many of my girlfrend order this instead of the pancakes.($$)
• Fish Market---Fresh and cheap sashimi and seafood! ($$+)
• Chu Dumpling King--Burlington Sq. Somewhere in between Market City and UTS library. Tho the restaurant is called dumpling King, but we never ordered the Dumplings. We love the chicken cutlet/pork cutlet with rice. The ice green tea is a nice companion with this dish with just another extra dollar. They have many tiny cold dished too. Chilly anchovy and Pig ears are the must to accompany the meal. ($+)
• Should I add Superbowl.Chinatown, they have 2 branches at Chinatown. Service is Horrible. But for the sake of the Fujian Fried Rice... and they owned the HK cafe next door (Y2K). So you can order the chilli fish ball and bubble tea too. These 2 are nice during cold winter nite.
  

Well I am drooling now... Hope I will go back to Sydney soon....

For The First Time

I am getting bored these days. I still miss Sydney’s life as I have more good friends there. I miss Miss Rowe who always comes up to my place unplanned. Maybe she just needs to go to the bank, perhaps she needs to grap some papers fr erskesley (after 4 yrs of frequent visits to that shop, I still can spell the word). I miss the vibrant life there. Over here in Singapore, all frens are working, and they have little time for hangin out. So it’s no longer like Sydney, where everyone is still enjoying life after our uni life ended. I guess, I have to get used to this. I miss the time when I was a city gal. Everything is within reach. Friends would stop by at your place whenever they’re in the city just to say hi, or perhaps they are waiting for their train to come. How I miss my little room, equipped with a waist height fridge:)

Due to this boredom, I’ve been searching for recipe. I was inspired by Pennylane’s blog. The pictures of the cakes are beautifully taken. So, here I am … starting a new blog.