Cooking

So. Cooking class.

Honestly speaking, i like to be the one eating, not the one cooking. xD

Especially so when it comes to finger food. It's a major thrill to be knocking back piece after piece after piece but when it comes to preparing them bloody unnecessarily pretty things... Bah!

I enjoyed the lesson immensely nonetheless.

Voila!

This is what the class churned out after.. about 5 hours. Spectacular, ain't it? Well, mostly done by Nathalie (Arbefeuille, apparently a professional French chef) who was our teacher. Sorta. Lecturer. Instructor...

The thing about finger food is that they can be easily be improvised, or modified into mains / starters / desserts and so i jumped at the chance to learn how to make 9 types of finger food from Nathalie.

#1 Coffee Liegeois.

Some sorta coffee caramel cream dessert, and is pretty fantastic.

#2 Pear and Gorgonzola Toasts

Strange combination. But surprisingly tasty.

#3 Crab Toasts with Chili, Lemon and Parsley.

Nothing to say about this. You can easily imagine the taste, right?

#4 Tomato Tiramisu

The best! Ever! wtf! The tomato tiramisu is the most pesky one to make. Pesky! Each layer requires some attention to ingredients. Two types of tomatoes, vinaigrette etc. But the end product is something... remarkable. Very very delicious, and rich.

#5 Thin Apple Tarts

Oh this one i can definitely make! Ahaha! Easy peasy. It's a thin sorta apple tart without any custard filling in the middle, but it's crisp and has a slight sourish apple tinge to it. Not bad.

#6 Pumpkin Cream and Goat Cheese Ravioli

By right the ravioli wasn't supposed to puff up like that but due to some unprofessional ravioli wrapping skills, some air got trapped and it expanded like hell when deep fried. Goat cheese ravioli was cool combo, something like a cheese wan tan and it's absolutely delicious when hot from the frying pan.

Pumpkin cream was passable, but pales in comparison to the one my mum can make. xD

#7 Quail Egg Tapenade Toasts

Oh this was way fun. The quail eggs were nicely cut out into round shapes. And gently laid onto tapenaded toast. Tapenade is basically some black olive anchovy pate. V. salty.

#8 Smoked Salmon Potato Toasts with Dill Chantilly

This is pretty simple also la. Just potato with smoked salmon. The chantilly needs a bit of work [see below].

#9 Prawn Skewers with Lemon Soya and Coriander

This is the only dish that required actual stir-frying on a pan.



To make the finger food above, one does not really have to have much advanced cooking skills (like wok-flipping, stir-frying, deep-frying etc) but it does require quite some whisking and even more baking. So you can fare pretty well with a trusty oven, and a electric hand-whisk

Whisk whisk whisk. This is the dill chantilly which is whisked cream, pretty much the same concept for the Coffee Liegeois. Sinful.. Sigh.

Golden brown toasts, as the toast base for #3 and #7. Toasts, lightly smeared with olive oil and baked for 5 minutes. Like i said, once you have this, you can easily modify with whatever toppings. The sky's the limit. Just pop open one of those canned tuna mayo and boom! It's done. No need to grab chili-ed crab meat into balls.

Getting ready for the Quail Egg Tapenade Toast. Apparently she once made 200 of these for some event at the French embassy. Ganas. XD

Nyahaha! Triple quail omelette, Evolution Style!

Sliced gala apples for #5 thin apple tarts. She had a whole OCD about neatly sliced, neatly stacked apple slices to be neatly arranged on the tarts. :P

The pro herself, squishing mascarpone mixture onto the tomatomisu.

imo, the best ones were the ones that were more pesky to make. These two in cups. The tomato tiramisu and the coffee liegeois. :P

am interested to experiment. and more interested to take up something that requires real cooking skills, i.e. frying stuff. geez, i still remember the exploding butter incident. will just ask dad to teach me.

Bang (sar)

Yea. Uh huh. I was having these fantastic midnight cake cravings, so i went to Bangsar the other day to diminish them, a little. I dragged Nico along since we haven't met up for ages (he came back from the UK with a burgeoning wig of wavy hair which i call the "rambut bergelombang!")

First stop, Marmalade, at Bangsar Village II. Remember my birthday cake of divinest awesomeness? Oreo Cheesecake, from Marmalade!

Marmalade serves one of the best carrot cakes in town, from what i read in several food blogs.

Marmalade has a cheery kindergarten sort of feel to it. Seems like a good place to start your mornings, you know, so sunshiney, with cutesy drawings on the walls.

Most unfortunately, however, i didn't really taste the carrot cake at Marmalade. When i discovered that Alexis was just down the street, i decided to save dessert for Alexis, and instead ordered one of their "sandwiches".

Nico's Salmon Quiche.. Let's just say, if you're at Marmalade, don't order this. It has frickin' green peas inside, geez. Definitely not worth the 17 bucks.

Ok not a sandwich, but categorized under "sandwiches", i guess coz of its two accompanying pieces of pita bread. Now this! Arabian Adventures was scrumptious. Costs just 1 buck more than the quiche, but ultimately satisfying. Grilled lamb patties, hummus, some sorta caramelized onions. Excellent. And did i mention i have developed a liking for hummus...? Oh yeah!

After that, Alexis, down the street. Seems like a chic street cafe concept.

The waiter shown in this photo was pesky. We'd barely settled down (on these scarily spindly wooden seats that threatened to collapse... under my weight, at least) and he was already waiting, pen in hand, looking expectantly for us to make our order. -_-"

So i tried to shoo him away using powerful eye contact but he was immune. So we asked for a few minutes to peruse the menu but he was back in 2, pen in hand, looking expectantly for us to make our order.... -_-"

What an array of attractive desserts!! Sigh.. There was a lemon tart! I was v. intrigued by lemon pies after viewing the lemon meringue pie war between Bree Van de Kamp and Katherine Mayfair.

Pretty cool decor. A more classy approach, maybe.. with all the wood and wine-lined walls.

Appealing as they were, i had to forgo the lemon tarts for supposedly one of the best Tiramisu in KL. And since i've had my fair share of god-awful tiramisu (or some cacat coffee cream cake masquerading as tiramisu), i needed to try a highly-recommended one.

Sigh.. My earliest recollections of good tiramisu was the one from La Fontana, some Italian restaurant opposite my mum's place I was a wee child then and mum would order a huge slab of it and whoa.. it was delightful. Anyway La Fontana closed down afterwards, sadly. But i will always remember their tiramisu.

Digression aside, the one at Alexis most certainly didn't disappoint me. Cognac-laced sponge with mascarpone. Cool. And they've made some interesting tweaks to the recipe, like the layer of freakin' divine candied nuts on the outside. I'm just a sucker for crunchy nuts. The strawberry sauce gives the cake an unconventional tang... Not sure whether i like it or not. But i'm sure i'll wanna order this for my birthday. xD

The pavlova. Looks pretty. But tastes a tad too sweet. The bottom layer was very sweet, and had a marshmallowy soft texture. Upper layer was rich, dense cream, perhaps to tone down the sweetness. Strawberries provided a nice sourish taste which wasn't half bad. I would have preferred that they replace the blueberries with something more sour, like blackberries or raspberries. Sour is the way to go i guess.

Talk

sometimes, i just need to vent. i keep too much bottled inside. i wish i had a Pensieve to unload my memories in. or a vent dummy. it just has to be dead.

you see, most people are trained to be social and don't do well listening to others ramble on and on about something or another. but i think i am quite a good listener. i don't judge. i don't don't make unnecessary comments. i just listen.

and at times, i find myself in need of said good listener. but i haven't had the good fortune to chance upon such an individual, a tight-lidded one at that. geez.

hypothetical situation. i'm ranting about my mum who's gone psycho, hypothetically speaking, of course.

"My mum's gone crazy".

A: "How can you say that, she's still your mum and you need to respect her."
B: "Maybe she's concerned about you."
C: "Maybe she's just tired and in a bad mood."
D: "Be grateful, kids whose parents have died in the war have no one to take care of them."
E: "Wa. That whowhowho is such a brat, he say his mum's gone crazy, damn rude right?"
F: "Wa. That whowhowho's mother is freakin' crazy man, he say she's done this this this and that."
G: "Yeah your mum's freakin' crazy."

So the above are likely responses from people and they all irritate the hell out of me. except G, maybe, at first, for a little while, but after that they just make me feel like choking someone.

Yes, i know, A and D. I know that, but parents cannot ki siao meh? Har? Still human what. Shut the fuck, go preach somewhere else.

B and C are the ones that annoy me the most. Issue here. Woman's gone ballistic. Not WHY. Just the fact that she's lost it. Shut the fuck and accept that she's gone crazy and stop pondering the random reasons WHY!

And E and F. There's a special place in hell reserved for them. People who cannot shut their pie holes.

**
you know what i said about needing to vent? i think i just did. i love my blog. it is perhaps the deadest, most un-judgemental venting outlet there is.

Gah

Sigh. I have lots of stuff to update. I have a whole pile of pictures to upload, but too little time and patience to do it. So... oh well.

Let's see.

a) Cousin Wei Liang's wedding. Another one. 6 cousins down. 1 more, then it's Sis's turn in line. XD Or mine. But very very unlikely.

b) Cake-whoring at Alexis and Marmalade. I was having these intense cake cravings (damn the food bloggers, for taking such irresistible pictures of the most scrumptious of desserts! sigh), and after some late-night food surfing i just couldn't take it anymore!!

c) COoking class. Yes. COoking class! I just attended a cooking class at the Cooking House at Desa Sri Hartamas with a bunch of house-fraus. Gourmet finger food. I was quite intrigued when i saw the lesson in their website, and i thought of the assortment of marvellous and delicate finger food that EM served during our primary school gathering.

Y'see. EM spent 6 months of training in France for her hospitality degree and is a pro at these kinda stuff.

Let me just upload 1. Tomato tiramisu. Sounds like a freakish combination. But it's good. You gotta hand it to the French. The chef who conducted the lesson was a French woman Nathalie Arbefeuille.

1 word. Clouseau! Hilarious la, Clouseau's face kept popping up in my head when i heard her speak. X( Nathalie's a pro chef though.

Dessert

I've been wanting to pay Dessert's Bar a visit, as i'm a dessert whore. Apparently they serve a selection of "healthier" desserts. Since JC and WL asked me to go there, i jumped at the chance.

Eye-catching red sign board and it first caught my eye while i was driving through Mont Kiara, you see... Dessert's Bar. Tempting.

Not too bad an ambience, i would say. Pretty cozy with a warm, glowing, reddish setting.

Unmistakable red theme. Red sign, red headbands on staff, red wall paper... Wall paper is pretty cool and it has these random facts scribbled all over and these girly designs.

The funky things hanging from the ceiling are just pieces of stringed paper-scrunches. Looks great, no doubt, but i can already picture the wrinkle-nosed expressions of disapproval on my parents' faces. "Can u imagine the dust these will collect, ahhh?"

Quirky menu too. The Dessert's Bar menu is like a desk calendar, to be flipped backwards. The back of each menu page has some funny cartoon drawing like this. Yes, i love you, cupcake. Nice cupcakes, i mean (not those nice-look-bad-taste concoctions that are such a freaking craze nowadays).

JC's honey poached pear with scoopa vanilla ice cream. I didn't really try this, but apparently the poached pear is kinda "difficult" to eat. I dunno what that meant. @@

My hazelnut + sesame icecream with Jing Ting's macha in the background. Not the best around, i have to say. But for its price, the double-scoop is good enough. Hazelnut ice cream was fine, but the characteristic nutty aroma just wasn't strong enough. Ministry of Food serves a better, kick-ass version. Sesame ice cream was also so so laaaa, again too bland. The movenpick kick-ass version was magical... Then again, both MOF and Movenpick would have easily cost double the price so i'm pretty content with a little lack of flavour. xD Silver lining being the wafer. V. good.

Liang's dark chocolate Fondue. I'm not really a fan of fondue as it gets too cloying at times, but it is great to be shared.

Various fruits to be skewed and fondue-ed. Rather tart fruits, except for the banana. I guess the sour tang is supposed to complement the dark chocolate? Not too sure, not a chocoholic here.

Ice cream mini scooplets. Black sesame, raspberry and chocolate raspberry. If i'm not mistaken.

Nuts. I love. And i loved this little glass of nuts and crushed pistachio. Perfect perfect when eaten together with hot melted chocolate. I ended up crunching down spoonfuls of chocolated nuts. Sigh i could practically hear the angels sing.

:D Me. Computer chair potato more like. Should send this over to zy.

**
After Dessert's Bar we scooted off to Piccadilly's which is near Jaya 33, if i'm not mistaken. One of the buildings there la, near Digital Mall. At the hilly, back portion of the buildings, actually, and to get there you need to use some winding Section 14 ulu roads.

Sorta Murni-style crazy-siao-all-types-of-food-also-got fusion place. Except that they had beer, and shisha. God the place was reeking of stomach-turning saccharine fruitiness. And like most places that serve a little bit of everything, everything is passable but nothing too noteworthy.

Except this, i guess. The monte cristo. Something like William's Triple H. French toast with ham / bacon and cheese inside. Ham / bacon was fantastic, with a smoky sort of aroma. Just the type i like. :)

Exo

Fuck. Marketing Law textbook costs RM290. Fucking exorbitant leh! And i am typing this in extreme indignation!

Well, then again. Brown Bear's textbook in Australia is 175AUD, which is way over RM500 so i shouldn't be complaining. but i wanna complain. pah! Compulsory somemore, as it is open book exam and they won't allow photocopied versions. Sigh.

Anyway, first marketing law lecture was fun. Elsa is witty, and snarky, and completely brilliant. Definitely lives up to her reputation. I'm pretty sure she's quite strict during tutorials, damn. And i need the doggone textbook to do tute questions.

*sigh

Sejak pindah Puncak Alam ni, my lyfe sangatlah berubah. Daripada tanak bawak keta, survive first week je, second week dah bawak keta. *so what sukati akulah!
Personally aku ta enjoy langsung duk sane.. despite from tempat tu sangat ceruk, aku ade sedikit masalah dalaman dengan orang2 yang sangat busuk hati. Malas na citer kat sini, walaupun aku tau semua orang sedang bercerita mengata mengadu domba, aku tidak akan melawan menafi atau mengiyakan kerana aku lebih tau. Dan aku percaya tuhan sentiasa bersama-sama dengan orang yang sabar dan teraniaya. Silence is the best answer. I really missed my friends... my real friends back home... :(

Secara purata, aku cume blogging bile berada di rumah, memandangkan saya mana ade laptop. Lepas kelas tadi terus balik rumah sebab dari malam semalam, mak antar msg2 yg emo. Rasa sgt pelik sebab mak ta penah se-emo ini. Kalo bole malam tadi jugak na blk ruma, sbb aku rasa sgt risau membaca msg2 tersebut *tapi ta brani na drive kat tepi hutan yg tade lampu jln tu memalam menyebabkan aku bersabar dan nangis sorang2 di bilik.. sebab mak tanak angkat tepon slps anta msg yg merisaukan tu..mak tinggal sorang2.. ayah g outstation.. bukan ta penah, tp nampaknya die sgt sedey kali ni.. Tapi die ta kasi aku balik, suh concentrate study. Tapi aku yang degil ni blk jugak.. Jd td before balik aku singgah giant beli lauk ingat na masak tuk suprisekan mak.. Tapi balik2 td aku yang suprise sbb bile balik mak ada kat ruma.. tak g keje pon.. aku tgk die tgh tido dgn selimut tebal menandakan die tgh demam.. sayu hati aku.. masuk dapur tgk, ade sisa megi makan tak abis... memang berjurai la aku sensorang kat situ..
*Kadang2 aku rasa macam adik beradik aku sgmk sorang je.. Adik beradik reramai kalo menyakitkan hati, menyusahkan mak bapak, lebey baik tayah ade. Seyes aku tengah marah skrg!!!


Walaupun minggu ni adalah sangat menyedihkan bagi aku.. sangat menyedihkan.. tapi sangat bersyukur. Blessing in disguise. At least ader satu berita baik dis week. Sidia dapat offer keje baru kat kelana jaya. Sangat dekat dgn subang jaya bukan?? At first die mmg saje2 dtg interview, since the bos notice die background acc, this boss bg die last year log utk test sidia ni wat full set acc. Menurut penceritaan, stgh jam die wat n suprisingly balance! Mule2 dtg mmg expect dpt keje yg cikai2 je.. sbb blum konvo wpun final result da kua. *insyallah die konvo bulan 10 ni.. amin.. So turn out, boss tu hired die as assistant accountant.. Itupon kitorg da cukup hepi, ciap jemput aku kat kolej ajk teman die g shopping baju baru.. na cari stripe slacks la.. baju baru la.. Mase dia kat fitting room, aku lari2 cari tie n byr sbb takut die nampk. Pstu suprise larh kan dlm keta. Alhamdulillah.. Jd today adelah first day die bekerja.. Tibe2 dtg dpt bilik sendiri, ade assistant.. rupanya bos nak cari accountant bkn asst, sbb senior acc yg lame baru bersara... Alhamdulillah sgt hepi la, sbb kita doa siang malam utk die.. Personally im so proud of him la, 21 years old da jadi senior accountant. Dear awak, keje rerajin, jgn na menggatai ngan colleagues, asst u yg berumur 19thn tu, ofis girl, mahupun makcik cleaner.. kalo ta i sumpah u jadi sudip! i sayang u oke. xoxo

Ho

Everyone's going on or have been on trips to some place or another during the semester break and i am jealous. Bah. I was so bored that i just couldn't stomach the prospect of rotting at home for yet another day.

And so i adopted a "Yes Man" policy whereby i said yes to anyone asking me out for an outing. And i had great fun, and spent loads of cash in the process.

My mother's and sister's sage advice: sometimes you just need to splurge to be happy. Kinda extreme, but so very true.

So, 3 days in a row. Last Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

Thursday: Lunch at Tarbush, Ice Age 3 with Wing and gang.

Friday: Dessert's Bar with JC and gang + Piccadilly.

Saturday: Melv's party (can't really say no, since it was my.. 12th consecutive year of attendance)

Well.. And Monday: Badminton. XD

Ice Age 3 + Tarbush at Sunway Pyramid
Wingie's message sorta did the trick and went along the lines of "join us? or would you rather stay at home and rot?" so i tagged along Wing, Mother Teresa and Ming Han on a Thursday outing.

After much aimless strolling all over SyPy, we ended up at Tarbush for lunch. I must have read about it at Yoong's, and MH raves about this place. Serves lebanese / middle-eastern cuisine.

Tarbush was decorated to give a whole Persian magic carpet desert-ish vibe to it, ornate chrome lamps hanging all over with paintings of camels on the walls.

Camel! Or at least i think it is. :D

Menu was chock full of foreign-sounding dishes.

The mahalabia. Mahalaybia. I laughed my ass off at this. Geez.

Strange as they may sound, however, the dishes were excellent. The grilled spring chicken was fantastic. It has a tandoori-esque marinade, but tender and not dry and rock hard as the tandoori you find in mamaks. Served with sides of fries, grilled onions and tomatoes. But the best thing about this dish is the garlic cream paste that came with it. Damn it was freaking divine. wtf!

Lamb Briyani. Served with eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers and some sort of yogurt sauce. This was quite alright. Lamb was remarkably tender. Not to the extent of MH's exaggerations la.. "this lamb melts in your mouth and is heavenly bla bla bla". If you ask me, i would prefer the (microwaved) Irish Lamb Stew from Secret Recipe.

Eggplant Fetish Fetush. Grilled eggplant salad. With nacho strips. This is one major appetizer as it is eye-squintingly sour. Brrr. Must have had loads of lemon juice drizzled in. Delicious, nonetheless. Not usually a fan of slimey eggpants, but these grilled ones are fine.

Mazze. A whole platter combination of salads and other appetizers including hummus, garden salad and whatever. Hummus is marvellous. I have heard of it before and it always reminds me of .. posthumous.. A little bit too morbid, but after Thursday, i changed my mind.

Let's see. Top and bottom consisted of some freak salads with lemon juice and olive oil. Sour. Left and right were hummus and some sorta of eggplant paste. Both incredibly tasty. The ones in the middle were... Wara Ainab, rice wrapped with pickled leaves.

I'm rather taken with guava. So, pink guava ice-blended. Too damn sweet that i felt even more thirsty after drinking.

Ice Age 3 was quite OK if you're looking for some laughs. Half of it was totally ripped off Journey to the Centre of the Earth. -_-"

We opted for the 3D version which, i felt, wasn't really worth the doubled price. Those "spectrespecs" were kinda dark and made my eyes spin. Never again, 3D aminated movies!