Absolut Mango vs The Real Mango

The Real Mango tastes better and is better for you too!! (and A LOT cheaper :p)

Also, since this post is dedicated entirely to all things strictly mango-related, I think everyone should know that I'm craving mango with sticky rice right now :(

(not quite)The End of Exams + MoVida

OMG!!! I am waiting for Wednesday, the 25th of November to be here so that I will not have to force myself to study things that I don't want to study anymore.

Despite the fact that I have one more exam paper left, I feel as if my holidays have already started...

Went out for a slightly extravagant (by uni student standards) dinner on Thursday night with my Civil Eng friends - Suvrat, Shanika and George. I was actually trying to get us a table in MoVida Bar de Tapas but since their evenings are apparently fully booked till December 14 (ke-ra-zee!) we had to settle for MoVida Next Door which is right next to the original MoVida but has a strict 'walk-in, no reservations' policy.

We tried out about 7 of the tapas offerings on the menu (I'm keen to go back to try more!) and spanish beer - Pagoa (which is quite awesome tasting - smooth, sweet, only a slight aftertaste, and a nice rich golden tone) and some red wine (can't remember the name, but it was what was recommended to us after Shanika told the waiter that she wanted something "sweet but not too sour-ish". LOL.). As expected, what we got was a red wine that was just that - sweet, but not too sour-ish :p

I shall make a reservation well in advance for when I come back to uni next year so that I can try out the original MoVida and see how it compares to MoVida Next Door. Can't wait!! :)

I couldn't fit my camera in my little (but awesomely cool) sling bag so I couldn't take pictures of the food like I usually do. However, I've ripped a few photos of the dishes we had from the MoVida website:

The original MoVida (which we couldn't get a table at. Boo. )

MoVida Next Door (woo-hoo!!)

Yummy, chewy (deep-fried?) bread; a-may-zing grilled prawns; grilled lamb

My Little Whipper :)

I walked into 'Let's Cook & Shop' today with Nishi and Yvonne and found this awesome little appliance aptly (and cheekily :p) named 'Little Whipper'. Hehe. It's a battery operated whipping thingo that whips anything that can be whipped... i.e. milk, eggs, cream, etc.

Of course, I HAD to buy it :) Especially since it was on 'special' - it was practically begging to be bought!

Headed back to Nishi's place and had a test-run with it:

The 'Little Whipper'

The froth we made...

Our 'pro' cappuccino which ended up looking like a latte :)

A special tribute to our friend, Bob :p

We destroyed the Bob tribute after and made this swirly pattern instead

tira miss u

A few days back Bel, Tasha and I tried our hand at making tiramisu. Wasn't too bad :p

Some pics here...

I baked the sponge layers the day before.



Caramelised the sugar and coated the almonds with it.



Us noobs furiously slathering the mascarpone on, around and in-between. It was melting fast in the KL heat :(



The aforementioned noobs (minus myself)



Slapping the caramelised almond bits on the sides.



The finished cake after we'd refrigerated it for about 5 hours.

Yummay :p

NOTE: I should mention that I ripped these photos off Annabel's facebook album :D

The T-word :p

I bought turkey by accident at the supermarket. Came home, read the packaging for the first time, and realised that it wasn't chicken, but turkey! Meh. Only someone called Shobie could do something as silly as that :p It said 'TURKEY' on the front. But I didn't realise that when I was buying it :s

Didn't want to waste it. So I cooked it anyway. Surprisingly, it tasted good! Probably because it was fake turkey... tasted a lot like chicken... and quite unlike the turkey I usually have... but that's only roast turkey, for Christmas - so maybe it's meant to taste different :p

So having the other turkey breast today. Yumm :)

I think I'm going to start using short sentences from now on. Like this. Hee.

(NOT YET PSYCHO... but getting there... as you can probably tell)


And just a little something on the side - found this printing error on a sign at the Asian grocer's here :)

I've become a fan of the Australian Masterchef series that's been showing on Channel 10 for the past 3 weeks and it makes me want to be able to cook as well as the contestants and chefs in the show!!! I've always been a huge fan of cooking shows and watching this show has shown me that ordinary people (even 'kids' my age!!) can come up with awesome looking and tasting dishes. I always get the urge to raid my 'pantry' for ingredients to come up with my own (hopefully not-too-awful) culinary inventions. Some have been good... Some were... pretty awful :p

Of course, I don't dream of owning a restaurant of my own... I would melt/disintegrate (oh wow! btw, I didn't know that this blogger thing had a spell-check which corrects my spelling :p) from all the pressure!! And then there's the reality check - that I'm not anywhere as good as those people in Masterchef. But it doesn't keep me from trying to up my game :p Try and try again, right? And if all fails, CHEAT. Hehe. Though I'm not sure how to cheat with cooking... (Use ready-made/pre-mixed ingredients??)

And just for those interested to know, my trusted internet source for good, tried and tested (and therefore reliable) recipes is www.taste.com.au :) :) It's got loads of recipes from all the Aussie magazines and cooking shows and has reviews by people who've tried them. Do check it out when you can!!

And I also need to mention that almost ALL of my friends have become foodies overnight!! Cool, but a weird coincidence :p

Of Mistake-ridden Horoscopes, Wheatgrass Shots and Ice Cream Fondues...

Cancer: You've been working hard! Take satisfaction in that, even if no one else seems to notice!

That's what my Facebook Horoscopes application says about me for today...
o_O

???

Yeh... So maybe it took a lot of hard work to convince myself to drink the vile smelling (but not that bad tasting) wheatgrass shots that Annabel, Harinderpal, Lea and I decided to try. But that was it! Maybe driving is considered hard work too...

Actually, I think having a wheatgrass shot is for lazy people... Apparently, it's equivalent to 1kg of fruits and veges (in terms of antioxidant content). So I took the shortcut, no?



1st picture: The juice place dude juicing the wheatgrass... Look for the wheatgrass poo that's coming out of the end of the juicer. Hehe.
2nd picture: A wheatgrass shot with an orange wedge to take the bitterness away. (Compare with tequila shot and lemon wedge... :p). I forgot to rotate the picture, so hah! too bad for you :)

And then, to wash off the yuckiness (I thought it wasn't too bad...) of the wheatgrass shots, we had an ice cream fondue at the Baskin Robbins cafe :)

Oh and I had some pretty good canned lemon tea today at Brunetti's - I think it was imported from Italy because the writing on the label was in Italian.

I was really annoyed that I'd paid for canned iced lemon tea. But to my surprise, it tasted good! It wasn't too sweet nor was it acidic. I highly recommend! If they had just poured it straight into the glass, I would never have guessed that it was canned. Hehe :p

Bring It Onnnnn!!! :p

Yup. I've finished my last assignment before Spring Break!!!! So now I'm freeee :p
For now.... Hehe.

The feeling is getting me very excited, so bear with me!! :)

Anywayyyy.....

I have made a list of things I want to do during the break. No travelling, just laid back things like baking, and reading, and watching shows, and sleeping!!!! Hehe. I so cannot wait! Bring it on! Haha.

I sound retarded. Yeah, I'm aware of it :)

To end this post perfectly, I would like to show you a picture of me, my friend Shanika, and my bee-oo-tee-ful shoe :) :) (Who needs men when you have shoes? :p)

I love tofuu :D :D

Ling and I had our housewarming party yesterday and this is what we made for our guests. Yes, we MADE everything on our own :D well, except for the nachos :p

Our feast of sushi, salad, quiche (which looks like eggtarts but apparently tastes really gooood), nachos, mashed potatoes and SATAY (which tasted more like terriyaki :p)

I made these brownie cupcakes!!! Well, they were meant to be baked in a tray but we didn't have one that was big enough for all the batter. My first attempt. Pretty good, huh? :p

Taa-daa!!! My bee-oo-tee-ful cupcakes :D :D

My Trip to Singapore

I went to Singapore during the weekend and got back monday night (28th Jan). I must say it surprised me how closely Singapore resembled Malaysia, only cleaner and with better roads :p

I stayed over with my friend Charissa and we visited Orchard Road, Clarke Quay, Chinatown and Bugis Street. Oh and I even got to visit a Singaporean market (my friend's mom brought me to market with her) and I even had Singapore tau foo fah for breakfast (taste's pretty much like the Malaysian one :p) 2 days really wasn't enough to check out all that Singapore had to offer!

I guess it was worth missing the finals of the Aussie Open for :D

Some pics of the trip:

Yeah... frog porridge :s


Austrian chef dude who gave up his career to make/sell German sausages in Chinatown


Waxed ducks...

More pics on facebook!! :D

My Choc Chip Cookies

As of December, my favourite TV channel of all time is... wait for it... *drumroll*... the Asian Food Channel. Most of the daytime shows focus on Asian cooking but during the primetime time slots, they show really really nice Western cooking and baking shows. Heaven! *sigh*
So I watched one show where the chef made choc chip cookies and she actually gave ALL the measurements needed to make it at home. So I decided to give it a go...



Well, they looked pretty convincing and they tasted pretty real too... except once they had cooled down, they were HARD :s But I must say that they turned out better than I expected. I'll keep trying to get the right texture for my cookies... I really pity my parents and sister who have to be my guinea pigs for this :D