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.... :)

Christmas Dinner.....

Had an unconventional christmas dinner last year... finally am blogging about it... haha!! I went to Elcerdo... after many ppl telling me bout this place, I finally managed to gather the right amount of ppl to go piggy eating with me...

First up... mini sausages wrapped in bacon served with saurkraut!! Nice!!! This is the yummiest sausages I have tasted... :D (dun mind the picture, flash was too bright!!)
Next up was my ribs... really tasty.. a bit mongolian-like but it would taste much better if there was more meat on it... hehe!!
Now, for the star of the nite!! My suckling piglet!!! it was cut traditionally with a plate which Ai Li so graciously did!! and it was time to tuck in some tasty, crispy piglet!!! OOohhlala!! the skin was so crispy...the meat was tasty... the only complain I had was how much fat was between the two.. but oh well.. it was still a tasty piggy...
We then had seafood paella which to my disappointment really didnt live up to my expectations... No thumbs up for this...:(


After the paella we were still a tad hungry so we ordered additional spicy pork sausages with bacon again.. haha!! this one is also so so yummy... Think anything porkish is good here... haha!!

Finally came deserts... we had the werner's special and some other special.. they were quite interesting desserts... wouldnt say good not bad though but nice enough to finish the meal...

Time to go home with our tummies nicely filled... It was a great christmas dinner this year... Coz for the rare occasions... my entire family including my brother in law was back... Nice!!! :D

Elcero

No. 43 & 45, Changkat Bukit Bintang,

50200 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Tel: 603 2145 0511

Baking escapades... Cupcakes....

It was another one of those baking weekends... hehe!! This time round, I was having a trial sessions on christmas cupcakes... Wondering which to make and give out...

I made butter cupcakes, chocolate cupcakes and lemon cupcakes... The lemons were my favourite.. sweet with a hint of tangy-ness... yum yum...

The butter cupcake batter...

Ooohhh.. fresh out of the oven... These cupcakes are perfect for the eating.. too high for the frosting though... so need to reduce for next batch...

The chocolate cupcake batter.... (less this time...)

Aaah... just the right height for my topping.... :)

The final outcome... Cupcakes with buttercream frostings.....
Chocolate cupcakes with chocolate ganache....

The winner of my session is the lemon cupcakes with chocolate ganache topping... Yum Yum... watch out for it... :D What's your pick?

Tradition - an art almost lost....

I took the opportunity of a long weekend to make "Bak Chang" last Monday... The festival is coming up... actually it is on 7th June 2008 but since this was the best time, I did it early.

Have always thought that "Bak Chang" was one of the chinese traditions which should be kept and practiced so that future generations will also know how to do it.... Many younger generations now are not bothered to learn and always opt for the easy way of out of just buying from the stores... but then again, even the store ones are made by the older generation.. so what happens when they get too old to make it anymore?

So I was on a quest to preserve the art of tying "Bak Chang"... (the cooking part is not too difficult to learn...) So here was my journey... to make my "Ahma Bak Chang" - fusion of hokkien and nyonya "chang"....

The preparations started on Saturday and continued on to Sunday and some of Monday.. of course it wasnt full 3 days la... just that there was lots of things to prepare.. the ingredients needs to be cut to size, the leaf needs to be boiled and washed, the rice needed to be soaked and fried and the fillings needed to be cooked as well.. so come monday morning... we were ready to tie...

the rice...

the filling....

the leaf...

all tied up and ready for the pot....

in the boiling pot.....

after more than 2 hours... they are out of the pot!!one for testing... ;)
looking good....
yummy!!! All efforts not wasted... it was a success...

Now for the final test, mass distribution.... for all those who have eaten it, please feedback for future improvements... :)

Hope you all liked it!!

After all the hard work, I have decided I will do this biannually... haha!! too much work for an annual event...

Another yummy place...

Once again I had the opportunity to try out a new place on other ppl's expense.. hehe!! so nice.. :)
But once again not to embarass myself I was not able to get a visual representative of what I have eaten...

Where did I eat?



Yup... the place is called REUNION and it is situated in Bangsar Village II on the second floor on the opposite end of MPH.... This place was highly recommended and it has live up and above its recommendation... They served supposely simply home cook style cantonese food but excellently executed... :) Once again I shall attempt to whet your pallete with a written description....

We started of the meal with seaweed soup cooked with seafood and egg flower (direct translation)... this was just nicely done... not too salty or full of Ajinamoto nor was it too fishy tasting coz the seafood was fresh... a refreshing soup to drink.. just like mum's cooking literally.. Next came a platter of "Char Siew & Siew Yok"... This also was particularly good.. the Char Siew was really tasty... Althought some say it is better than the Oversea one but for me I would put them on par which was still good since Oversea Char Siew is most wellknown... The siew yok was without the thick layer of fat which was really good... Next came the Roasted Duck... The skin was crispy but surprising the meat was still tender and succulent... a far cry from the rough and dry meat you usually get when the skin is too crisps from over frying.. Up next was the vegetable.. nothing much to say... all vegetables are about the same but I must say they didnt serve up some super fat and bitter tasting kailan.. theirs were thinner which is to my personal taste... After that, a stir fry beef dish came our way... now this was really tasty and tender.. yum yum.. :) Next came something that was very special.. it is not something you find in a high end restaurant or the larger establishments. We had steam mince pork which is a typical home cook dish which usually you find in the 'chap farn' line up as well... Although a normal dish, it tasted much better than the ones in the coffeeshop... but of course my mum's one is better no doubt.. hehe!!

We then went on to have a seafood claypot which was filled with scallop, fish maw, sea cucumber and broccoli... This was also stewed to perfection.. the fish maw and sea cucumber was not chewy at all (reasons why I dont usually eat them...)... they were tender and to a certain extent have the effect of a melt in your mouth kinda feel coz you didnt need too many chews to swallow... We also had a braised abalone, fish maw and fish stomach dish... once again cook to just the right degree making it easy on your jaw but not losing the original taste inherent of it... Next up we had steam prawns with egg white... the prawns were really fresh... it was a simply dish that showcased the freshness and sweetness of the prawns itself...

Everything was not too overbearing or powerful in taste... I suppose that is why it is supposedly like the home cooked version.. free of Ajinamoto.. hehe!!

I thought we were done since that was all that was ordered... but apparently I was mistaken.. as another 2 dishes were serve... apparently they were ordered later on additionally.. funnily... the first dish was shark's fin soup with crab meat... something that usually comes in the beginning of the meal rather than the end... This is one of my favourite.... It didnt have all those rubbish which restaurants like TT like to put in... it was just simple... sharkfin and crab meat in the broth... and it was delicious... Last dish of the day... salted egg prawn... this has never been my favourite dish coz I dont like the yolk of the salted egg but one bite and I was surprised... there was this thin coating around the prawn which makes it crispy and it wasnt heavily ladden with the salted egg which made it really quite good...

So that was the end of my yummy meal.. I ended it with a bowl of 'gwai leng gou' which was not so great... I am a fan of the "Kwong Woh Tong" version so this one just didnt do it for me.. it was overly bitter... I think they tried to prove the point of 'quality ingredients used' too much in this dish... haha!! it tasted like the black drink that you get when you go to a chinese medicinal shop and tell them you have a sorethroat... haha!!

Oh.. we had wine too.. apparently good wine.. I cant tell how good is good.. but it tasted good... however I think I prefer the one in Nero Teca...

All in all a great meal.. highly recommended... should try....

We each had a fortune cookie at the end and my fortune was aptly timed...

Dont you think so?
Bonus is coming up... heheh!!

How I celebrated my birthday....

Haha!! yup... I feel like dedicating all the postings today to my birthday... :)

Just giving you a glimpse to all my birthday happenings...

Had my first birthday dinner on Friday night... went to Senja at Saujana... no it is not a malay restaurant.. it is an Italian restaurant with malay decor.. haha!! a bit weird huh? But the food was good.. really good... enjoyed myself and the company thoroughly...

So next day was a bit uneventful in the beginning.... went to service my car... then went out shopping with mum and sis... spent a sinful bomb... oops...
Then nite came and I had a little celebration... Benny asked me out to have some drinks with his friends at Sanctuary and since I had nothing lined up so off we went... Wahseh... this friends drink liquor like drink water... I am so scared... finished 2 bottle of VSOP in under an hour and started ordering another bottle... scary... stepped into the ice bar and got challenge to stay in for 20 mins sans the jacket... Brrr... was freezing like hell (erm... not hell per say coz hell is hot but you get what I mean....)but I survived... and the clocked struck midnight and it was officially my birthday!!! Yaay!!! Calls and smses flooded in... So nice of everyone... I was really really happy... :) Thank you all again.... hehe!! So the DJ announced it as well.. good thing no one knew who Ai Chin was so okay ler...hehe!! stayed on for a bit and by then Benny was drunk... so I pulak need to drive him home... hmm... but since he celebrated with me he is forgiven... haha!! Got home by 1 am... my curfew time... see la.. turn 26 and still such a good girl.... where to find? haha!! (I masuk bakul angkat sendiri... dun mind me ya... )

Now on my big day itself....
Had to attend Chew-san's daughter's lunch wedding reception... dragged myself out of bed literally... haha!! got myself there and everyone wished me... so nice... hehhe!! then everything went along as wedding goes.. but after everything ended I had a little surprise... Chew-san asked some of then to sneak out and get me a cake so they got it and after all the guest left except us everyone sang me a birthday song... So sweet... until the point where Chew-san said I could not leave without a drink... uh oh... oh no... out comes a bottle of Martel... Aiyo... I was so worried...and only add water only... no mixer... I was doubly worried..haha!! but after sipping it.. well it aint so bad... so downed the glass and we all went home... Thank you Chew-san... for remembering it was my birthday even though it was your daughter's wedding... :)

After that I went home and found 2 red eggs and a plate of 'mee sua' for me at home... aww... a traditional chinese birthday meal... whallop it all down... eat so much wait fat err.... but since it is my birthday... okay la....hehe!!

Then came dinner... inital plans was to go Hideki.... a Japanese restaurant at One Bangsar but apparently it has already closed down so instead we went to Mizu in Bangsar Village our usual place to go to celebrate birthdays.... The food was superb as usual... highly recommended... As usual I forgot to bring my camera so no food pictures... will try the next time okay? I was so full after that I could hardly walk... but there was still a birthday cake at home... good thing we didnt but a big cake but instead got 4 individual cakes from Bakerzin (aaah... the cakes are really good...)... So sing song, made a wish, blow candle and cut cake... instead of everyone having one slice we cut one cake into 4 and shared... the rest can keep for the next day... really too full liao.... hehe!! but it was a wonderful birthday!!! :)

The whole day my phone was beeping and ringing... hehe!! all with birthday wishes!!! So nice!!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!