Pancake Brekky

This morning z made Pancakes, it was much better than the 1st attempt, i like it crispy and thinner, he insist i take pictures and blog abt it! i decide to help him add the magical touch to his pancakes with a dollop of butter and some drizzle maple syrup, haahah! so there you go!

叉烧 rice at Middle St.

my kitchen is about 2 by 4 metres, very very tiny to work with. But in my little kitchen, i am able to do wonders and whip up quick and yummy meals! This is my very first attempt at making Char Siew (叉烧) Rice - Cantonese Style Roast Pork, my dad loves 叉烧 & Roast Pork Combination rice, and for me, things would be perfect if there was roasted duck and spicy spicy chili!

i adapted this version of 'oven-cooked' 叉烧 from this lady's blog - 'MyWokLife'. i have used tons of her recipes and i must say they are fantastic. her blog is one of my favourite as the ingredients involved are inexpensive and most of them would already exist within your household, hence you wouldn't have to go hunting for weird ingredients that you may never have heard of. Cooking and experimenting with all sorts of flavors is how i keep myself from being extremely homesick over these 3 years here, as i could have a taste of local delights from home, it would cost alot more to enjoy such lavish food out. i must say z was pretty impressed with my 叉烧, he wiped out every drop of gravy on his plate!




Recipe as follow -

Serves 4

Ingredients:
500 gram of long strips pork shoulder cut (could use pork
belly, but that would be toooo guilty..)
1 small cucumber, sliced (as side dish)

Seasoning:
1 teaspoon of ground white pepper
1 teaspoon of light soy sauce 1 tablespoon of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of dark soy sauce (thick soy sauce) 1 tablespoon of honey
5 tablespoon of sugar (add more, if desired)
1 teaspoon of Hua Diao Rice Wine
1 teaspoon of sesame oil
½ teaspoon of Zedoary, ground, or in 3 - 4 small pieces (Chinese translation: 沙姜)
(Or, replace with 1 teaspoon of ginger juice.)

Use oven-baking:
1) Preheat oven to 250ºC.

2) Line baking dish with aluminum foil, and place pork strips on it.

3) Place baking dish in the center of preheated oven.

4) Bake one side for 10 minutes. Turn pork strips over and bake for another 10 min, or until caramelized.

5) Remove from oven. Thinly slice when strips are cooled. Serve with Char Siew sauce, and cucumbers.

Tips: I would cook a side dish of boiled veggies as the amount of pork is a little overwhelming for me.

Also, do not leave the pork in the oven for too long, as it would not keep the meat tender.

Drizzle pork strips with the seasoning mixes during marination to intermingle meat and the sauce further.

I have not added red food coloring to my 叉烧 as i do not really like food addictive, especially with the huge amount of sauces in this recipe, and secondly, i wouldn't be able to use the red coloring any where else, hence decided to go without it!

According to the author, Zedoary (沙姜) is a mild Indian spice, it has benefits of helping food digestion hence i guess it would highly recommend it since this dish is quite meaty.

Good luck trying, and do visit 'MyWokLife' for very healthy and easy-to-cook recipes!

P.S Many thanks to MyWokLife for this wonderful recipe.

First time stepping into a Cinema in Aus

I am not exactly a fan of fiction books, but Jodi Picoult titles has been a rave amongst my friends who does lots of reading. Because of that, i bought 'My Sister's Keeper' about 3 years ago from memory, very heart-wrenching book, that could make you tear. Recently, or not very recently, a movie on this book was filmed. I was very excited when i heard about it and i was wanting to catch it when it was first out but because of schoolwork, i could only catch it this afternoon, it is my first movie in australia over the 3 years i have been living here!

I was a little disappointed after the movie, not that i didn't enjoy it but it felt abit too draggy, maybe it was because i knew where the story line was heading.. Cameron Diaz being the mom of Kate. Cameron looked old on screen, i think it was deliberate to make her look as such, worn-out from her duties of keeping her daughter alive. But still, she played the role well. z treated me to the movie, 28 Aud for student tickets, so expensive isn't it? we could have watched 2 movies if we were in sg! Very much surprising, there was a Max Brenner's at Bondi, just a level below the cinemas! Obviously, i couldn't let that go! by the way, this outlet closes at midnight!!

We're on the bus, heading to Bondi Junction!
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ER'S MAX BRENNER'S MAX BRENNER'S MAX BRE

very popular in Syd, they have over 7 outlets in NSW

Ooooooooh Yeaaaahhhh

Tucked in that little corner is where you could select their house pralines from white to dark chocs, i think they are pretty pricey though

Look at the colorfully painted walls, i am sure the girls will go mad, wanting to take pictures with the nice walls! Reminded me of this all mango dessert stall in Bangkok where they had mango-filled pictures (look below). if i have a cafe one day, i will paint it like that too, How vibrant it brings to the shop!

Mango dessert shop in BKK

The interesting bit, look at the pipes saying 100% chocolate, we had no doubts the pipes were filled with chocolate, and goes all the way into the counter-area where they had this machine that segregates the White, Milk & Dark chocolate..(look below)

Following the pipes....Can you see the chocolate pumps? isn't that so cooool?

Apart from our drinks, we had belgian waffles x 2, drizzled with their milk chocolate sauce

'Drink me' - Dark Chocolate Mocha Frappe, do they have such mugs in singapore?? I didn't see many people having the signature 'Chocolate Suckaos' like they do in Sg, and the weather was pretty warm today..

Mr Belgian Waffles, you're finished.



Presenting you chocolate by Max the 'bald man' , not the one in grey of course..





'i don't invent anything in chocolate, it all exists in people's minds and hearts'
Max Brenner

Max Brenner's Chocolate Bar
Shop 6007, Level 6, Westfield
500 Oxford Street, Bondi Junction
+61 2 9389008

Bondi Beach

This is a late entry. We went to Bondi Beach 2 weeks back as i wanted to pop by the flea market there, the flea market was packed with people that i couldn't take a picture of how the place was, i bought a very nice piece of jewelery there, will show you soon! The beach is nothing compared to our dearest East Coast Park! I remember it was quite cold that afternoon but there were still so many people surfing and sun-tanning!! Shiverrrr..

Blackforest cake after lunch!

Finally after a long wait..

Sorry for the lack of updates in the recent months, was back in Singapore for a short short 1 month in late june, busy catching up with all my close friends and family and also making myself look good! haha! Not forgetting, i had an extremely fabulous 22nd birthday party at Udders, ice cream parlour, nearly all my guests turn up, close to 30 of them, making the celebration a very successful one. I sincerely thank my good friends - esther, char and yue for turning up earlier that morning with the decoration and everything else. Staff at Udders were nevertheless very patient with all my guests. Will post some pictures on them when i am free. Also, back in sg, over the last weekend, i headed to my cousin-in-law's hometown in M'sia, we had a massive seafood galore, ate so much and was so cheap..i can't wait for dec where we would head for our seafood fiesta again with my closer aunties and uncles.

Here i am, relocated to NSW to complete my postgraduate till next july. Short but intensive course! thank goodness, z is here with me too! time passes too quickly whenever you are not alone, that leaves little time to enjoy the good stuff that Sydney brings. It is only week 5 and i have already completed 3 minor quizzes, assignments due in 2 weeks' time, and another quiz next week. School term here is hectic, unlike perth. The grading system here is different too, the distinction is from 75-84, where in perth, it is 70-79, feels kinda hard to score.. Additionally, most of my peers in my course are PRCs, they seem rather smart and have a rather good command of english. UNSW is filled wtih ABCs, don't see many aussies themselves around, and i haven't made much friends here except for my group mates. Still missing my friends back in Perth.

Well, school aside, z and i manage to catch a breather and we headed to sight see today. We had a delicious meal of DIN TAI FENG, i go crazy over their xiao long bao & their taro/yam xiao long bao, char doesn't like DTF that much i remember, she prefers Crystal Jade. The style of food were exactly the same, only thing different i noticed was the wide array of beverages, especially wines, australians love wine, and it is so cheap here! everywhere is BYO, no surcharges for most restaurants..

The interior is kinda different, but they too had that glass panels where you can see Master Xiao Long Bao folding 15 folds of the skin and weighing them equally.

We ordered exactly the same stuff as we would had in back in Sg, but somehow felt too full, perhaps because of the heavy sandwich i made this morning, just to digress a little, the best sandwich i have ever made was tuna with avocado topped with mozerella, toast it, PERFECT breakfast! i bought some kind of sandwich press when i came here, so handy for toasting all sorts of bread stuff, quesadillas and what nots! my favourite kitchen appliance currently, haha! Yue would love it too! i shall blog abt my sandwich receipes some time soon!

okayy, back to the topic..we walked to Sydney Opera from the city and on our way there, saw this hugggeee Mac Shop and TADA..............MAX BRENNER's, i think i am missing the girls so badly, kept craving for the places that we used to hang out! but too full for Max today, the next time round, i promise!


Symbol of Globalisation - Mac



These buildings are so victorian, i love it! z told me Melbourne had much more, can't wait for sept to come where i will be heading to Melb!


Can you see Max behind me? Oh, i remember mentioning it to someone that i saw our local bank, OCBC here! i broke out laughing, i never thought OCBC was that 'global', oops!

These are the underground bar and cafes at Sydney Opera House, aussies were enjoying their cool beer! there was a live band playing when we were there, very nice place.

That's the view of the CBD area

In the afternoon, we had tea at QV building (Queen Victoria). the pictures of QV below was taken about 3 weeks ago, just to show you how QV looks like. QV gives the feeling of the High Court in Sg, very solemn.. The shops in QV are high end, like those in Paragon, Hugo Boss, Roberto etc.







At QV, we had our coffee break, carrot & walnut cake, orange & almond teacake, anyone?

Alright, that's a little bit of Sydney for you, will update more when i get to go out, my next big trip would be in Sept, where i will be meeting my sister and dad in Melbourne before heading back to Perth for my Graduation on the 15th! sounds exciting?

鼎泰豐 Din Tai Feng

World Square, Level 1 Shop 11.04

644 George Street

Sydney NSW 2000

+61 2 9264 6010

P.S > Esther, i've been reading your blog constantly, the things that you put up makes me think about life, about friendships and most imptly, about relationships. You asked how people see of you, well, to me you are more than a faithful church-goer and responsible fellowship of Christianity, your loyalty towards your friends is unwavering and your sincerity makes people think of you all the time. It is so rare to find a friend like you, and i am glad i did. However hard school research and life is, you are not alone, and of course, someone like you would be able to pass the hurdle at the end of the day. In the mean time, if you are reading this, take care and i wish you a Happy Birthday in Advance.