Alter ego...

Yesterday I made my mooncake's alter ego.... the snowskin... Looks quite successful huh? :D

Mooncake - The Journey

I have always believed that there are a few chinese traditions which should be kept and passed on from generation to generation so that we never forget such tradition.... There is 3 in particular which I have always wanted to learn..

1. Bak Chang (chinese dumplings)

2. Mooncake

3. Lin Kou

Well I have done the first a number of times and this year I felt extra hardworking so I attempted the second one... So here is my journey...

 

I was highly ambitious so I tried both lotus paste filling and red bean paste filling... fuiyoh!! talk about an ambitious first time!! :D

First you start of with the beans... Red bean is pretty easy... You got the beans... cook them til soft... blend them... sieve them... cook them for an hour and a half...

Tadaa!!! all done.... still took about 5 hours as a whole though....

Next up... the lotus paste... now this one is kinda a toughie.... first you need to remove the pith from the 'lin chi' (lotus seeds) so that you dont get the bitterness of it... Then you boil it to soften the shell....

Then you soak it and piece by piece remove the shell... Fuh!! This was back breaking work.. took me 3 hours to remove all the skin....

Clean babies.... they then go into the pot.. cook til soft... blend then sieve... then cook for about an hour and a half again....

Waalah!!! the paste is at last ready.... I slept at 2am to finish this... haiz.... the things I do for tradition..... Next morning it's rise and shine.... time to make the outer skin... after again having a mixture left over nite now I gotta mix the flour in til I get a dough consistency...

Shape the fillings into little balls...

I am ready to make wrap the filling in my mooncake skin.... The mould is nice and oiled... ready for some stamping... luckily I have the modern contraption and not the traditional wooden knock knock wan... that is only for elaine's fishies...

The raw mooncakes ready for the oven... looks authentic huh? Me so proud of meself... hehe!!!

Made a little piggy for fun.... cute huh?

Final step... into the oven it goes.... Oops... kinda over browned some bits... couldnt estimate the temperature of the oven..thank god nothing got burnt....

Check it out!!! looks good huh?

The inside view....

Well I hope it taste as good or even better than the ones bought... hehe!! For those who got a chance to try... please leave your comments... :D

A burger like no other....

This burger epitomes Malaysian food at it's best... it has survived all evolutions of food... All threats from the more spiffy likes of Burger King, Carls Junior, Wendy and so many more... No other burger hits the spot like this fella over here...

Still operated from a shack like stall on wheels with a flat pan to fry/grill the patties, a scraper that acts as a egg yolk breaker cum egg wrapper, the original Ajinamoto pepper and maggi seasoning and worchestershire sauce for the added tastiness... not to forget the lightly planta-ed bread grilled slightly the flat pan and then piled with a smattering of raw cabbage shreads, chili sauce and mayo....

Who else can I be talking about? Most definitely our dear old Ramly burger... Ramly has truly stood the test of time... What did I have last week? Most definitely the "Burger Ayam Special Double" to appease my appetite... hehe!!! It still taste exactly how I remembered it... Absolutely DELICIOUS!!!

Dinner at BON

This place shall be my new found favourite Korean restaurant... :D

Came here once with Ching Yee, Jae and Renee... Thot the food was pretty decent... Had a craving for Soondubu again last nite and the recent few I had didnt cut it close... so I went to BON again, sat down and ordered my Soondubu.... :D

Lo behold, I was shocked at the amount of side dishes given to me!!! Tadaa!!!

Count em baby...hahaa!! 9!!! Yes 9!! I think the past few times I ate alone in a korean restaurant, they prolly served around 4-5 max... This was 9 full servings and all were super yummy so Aichin became a glutton... haha!! But it was really good.. It is very rare that all the side dishes served are good.. Usually there will always be those nasty tasting ones that you wont eat... but this time... It was all good.... :)

Next up... my Soondubu!!! :D Basically Toufoo and Egg soup with some clams and shrimps.... This place does it the best!! At least from all the ones I have tried la... It is nice and spicy just the way I like it and way tasty.... They got good paste and sauce I suppose... :) NICE!!!

Ai li got jealous when I told her I went to eat Korean so guess what? I will prolly be going again on Sunday!! :D heheh!! Maybe this time we will try the Yukkaejang or the Bibimbap or the Bulgogi or some barbeque meat... We shall see how hungry we are then.... Korean is definitely best eaten in a big (well bout 4-6) group so that you can have more variety and try out their more interesting dishes which comes in huge pots.. :) Too bad it's only me and my sis...

Looking forward to this Sunday!!! Wheee!!! Greedy me!!!

Reunion Dinner...

Every year my family goes through the same routine of packing up on new year's eve and driving down to singapore for our Reunion Dinner with my mum's family... Yeah..u read right.. mum's family... My family is a bit terbalik when it comes to tradition...

How, what was different this year was how much food there was.. haha!! on a norm we would have perhaps 12 dishes max... This year we had 18 dishes... yeap.. count em... 18 dishes for 20 person.. Menu is as below:

1. Sharksfin soup

2. Abalone soup

3. Claypot chicken rice (supposedly with damn good 'ham yu')

4. Fried Mee Sua

5. Tang Hoon in thick soup

6. Pork dumpling

7. Chicken dumpling

8. Tomato curry chicken

9. Stir Fry Beef

10. Pan Fried Beef

11. Chicken stuffed with glutinous rice

12. Vegetarian Pun Choi

13. Tong Po Meat

14. Prawn Fritters

15. Sweet & Sour Fish

16. Mixed Vegetable

17. Beancurd skin roll

18. Fish Maw

Part of all the dishes... some couldnt fit on the table so were left in the kitchen... and as our typical reunion goes... we stood and walked around the table like a buffet spread.... It has been a long time since I have properly sat down around a table and have my reunion dinner.. but I like it this way anyway... It's how my family rolls... :D

Cookies for the New Year...

Baking this year's cookies was a rush... with all the assignments and exams here and there I didnt really have a weekend to myself to bake... Stole a weekday just before the CNY to bake... People would think I am nuts... It took 12 solid hours and 6 batches to complete...
The most challenging part of the process... mixing all the ingredients together... It takes muscles... a lot of em.... shows how pack full of goodies the cookies are... :D
Mom says make em small... Kept complaining mine was big.. :( then have to downsize.. she says they need to be bite size... as if ppl's mouth were that small.. Hmmph!! I bet even with the initial sizes I made they would still be just one mouthful.. a slightly fuller one but still a mouthful.. hehe!! But dun argue with mom.. she knows best...
Hmmm.... the aroma of bakes cookies filled the entire house.. Yum Yum!! I kept making excuse that I needed to try.... ate from every tray eventhough same batch.. haha!! Yum Yum!!!
All packed and ready to be given out... Good thing this year's list of giveaway is slightly shorter than last years or else a day would not suffice.... :)