Happy Chinese New Year 2010

Chinese New Year is never complete without Chinese New Year Cookies. Strange enough, one of the best Chinese New Year cookies I have eaten is eaten in Sydney. Thank you Carol from bringing these goodies all the way from Malaysia. Another battery charger this one. =)

Chilli Crab- Made in Sydney

You know how people have certain places they have to go or friends and family they have to talk to, to recharge themselves so that they can continue doing whatever they are doing? Home food is one of my batteries. Really glad to eat chilli crab in my first week. Thanks William.

End.

Sydney: A new chapter

When you see food like these appearing in my blog, it means I'm really back in Sydney.

After a year long break in Singapore (lazying around, working, learning a foreign language, meeting new people), I have returned to Sydney to complete my management course in Le Cordon Bleu. No running away this time.

I feel really comfortable now, in Sydney. No crying bouts, no homesickness. Strange, because I usually make a mess of myself during the first week of arrival. That fact I held out for nearly 3 weeks is an accomplishment. I guess now that I found direction, knowing what I want in life, I feel much more confident than the wondering, lost me when I first graduated from Superior Patisserie. Very focused now in my studies, which is absurdly easy compared to A-levels.... I plan to become one of the top students of my class, heh heh, one of the more realistic goals I made for the year. Part of my studies, an extra-curricular activity I made up myself, is to look for new pastry ideas- by eating lots and lots of pastry. See how fat I'll grow this time...

Just to show that I am not joking when I say I am very serious in my studies. These are the pastries that I have tried so far in my busy first month. Bottom left: Chocolate pistachio escargot. Right: Tart au citron.

Expect much more.

K-ki (ケーキ), the cake shop

K-ki is a cute little shop nestled in a quiet corner of Ann Siang Hill. This little shop comprises of two parts, a patisserie and a boutique selling paraphernalia (The Little Drom Store). Being a foodie, I'm only interested in the cake shop, though a boutique can be quite a bonus.

K-ki (ケーキ), pronounced "ke-ki", literally means cake. ケーキ (note the usage of Katakana here) is a direct import of the English language, because the original Japanese language do not have a word for western-type cake. Instead they have wagashi (和菓子), the traditional Japanese confectionery. Therefore ケーキ not only means cake, it also implies western-type pastry.

I like the interior of K-ki. The beauty of it is in its simplicity itself. White walls, with wooden elements and minimal decoration. It has the perfect image of a Japanese lifestyle shop.

Their selection of pastries is quite few for now, I guess it is because they have just opened. Flourless chocolate cake, cheese souffle, mont blanc, pumpkin creme caramel, antoinette, cafe dumo are some that sit in the cake counter. On the side, they also have little tea biscuits for sale. An interesting fact about K-ki, the owners do have have formal training in patisserie. I was told that the chef taught himself to make pastries from cookbooks. What's more, the owners are Singaporean, managing a Japanese lifestyle cafe from scratch. Impressive.

A latte with a tea biscuit, $4.50. Coffee is Nespresso. It was my first time drinking Nespresso, you know the capsule kind. I was pretty against it at first, thinking how it this different from those store bought ready ground coffee? But it turned out alright... haha

On the right, Mont Blanc. This Mont Blanc is different from the one we make in Glace Patisserie. It is much heavier, taste is stronger (sweeter in this case) and the texture is more rough. I prefer Glace's Mont Blanc. I thought K-ki's Mont Blanc did not reflect the taste and texture a Japanese Mont Blanc should have, which is light in both taste and texture. The owner explained to me because they modeled their Mont Blanc after the French traditional variety, therefore it wasn't what I had expected. On the other hand, the pumpkin creme caramel (on the left) was lovely! Very smooth and full of flavour, though it tasted a bit eggy to me that day, don't know why... Still good!

no. 7 ann siang hill

End.

Koh Samui, Bangkok

This is going to be a very long travel post again.

A new year holiday my mum decided to treat us to. January 5th to 10th, 2010.

You see, I had quit my job at GP 3 months in advance of the start of my school term with the intention of going on a month-long trip to Taiwan; food, shopping, walking, onsen...heaven. Alas, it did not happen. Time really does fly. Two months disappeared and I still found myself in Singapore... Thank god my mum has generously decided that we should take a family trip to somewhere near, since I was on a really tight schedule with driving. We decided on Koh Samui and Bangkok.

We took a connecting flight to Koh Samui via Bangkok. The waiting time is shorter though the tickets are alot more expensive. Some background information, Koh Samui is an island about an hour flight from Bangkok. It is now a popular travel destination for many westerners. When I got there, the first thing I noticed is: Ang Mohs! (the hokkien word for Caucasians!)

The lovely boutique resort we stayed in: Zazen Boutique Resort. Service staff is superb, goes all out to make you comfortable. Welcome fruit juice upon arrival. The resort has its own private beach and a pool (small one). We swam in both. Spa, is very expensive, and very good, hee hee. The restaurant in Zazen is unanimously the best place we have eaten. The Italian semi fine-dining is very good, excellent duck breast by the way. Thai room-service is great too. Damn, even coffee is good. We can actually stay in the resort for 3 whole days and not go out at all.

Moroccan style architecture with lots of plants and flowing water.

On our second morning, we went for the next best thing after Zazen, Canopy tree-top walk.

The little red bugger we saw running across a moss-covered rock.

The canopy tree-top walk is actually more like tree-top to tree-top flying fox. See the harness cradling our butts? It weighs a ton. We had to buckle up at the halfway kiosk on the hill, carry that weight and continue another 20minutes of climbing to the first "swing-off" point. It was the most tiring climb of my current short life. ._.

After a couple of practice, we went for the real thing. You slide off the platform and suddenly you find you are dangling above nothing, just trees and more trees and the occasional river. The wind blows against your face as you slide down the cable, you close your eyes and go "YEEEHAAA", like Tarzan.

For lunch, after all that swinging, we ordered room-service. Phat thai and pineapple rice.

Dinner at the Zazen Restaurant. We had to book to get a table, or else it'll be full-house since they also accept outside guests.

A refreshing Mojito and a Mai Thai (my first time drinking, I like!) The rest of the fantastic dinner cannot be published due to bad lighting. But I must say, if you come to eat at Zazen, you must try the ice-creams here, the Chef makes his own ice-cream.

A good cup of latte.

Another dinner at The Library, another boutique hotel. Completely over-rated. Looks good on the plate, tastes not-so-good in the mouth.

Tuna tartare is overpowered by pepper, petunia sea trout is overcooked...

Onto Bangkok. The real shopping begins. Muahaha.

Once in Bangkok, we dove straight into local fare. We were kind of sick of all that prissy fine international food in Koh Samui. First was dried wonton noodle, from the push-cart. Yumm-yumm.

Sausage wrapped in crepe, from another push cart, junk food material.

The standard traffic you see everyday in Bangkok. Even so, the taxi is real cheap. For a half an hour ride, you pay about S$6.

At this time of the year, you can find bags of strawberries everywhere, though they are not too sweet, and the local orange juice.

I don't know what is this called, but it taste qutie nice. A very sweet coconut kueh.

The best wonton noodle in Bangkok, so my mum says. Along street 19, opposite Phan Tip Plaza.

In this eatery, they only serve two things: braised pork with rice and wonton noodle. It is really good. Especially the braised pork! Just look at the fats...

At night, we found this really cute Japanese restaurant in one of the shopping strips in World Square. I like the interior of the restaurant, white walls and wood elements.

Matcha au lait, matcha adzuki shake, mabo tofu rice, tonkastu rice and salmon teriyaki rice. Not fantastic but for the price, I say it's fine.

Last morning in Bangkok, we headed down to Chinatown for breakfast.

Thai kway chap, anyone? In terms of the ingredients it is very similar to the kway chap we have in Singapore, pig's intestines, egg, beancurd, except that the soup base is slightly sour and the "kway" (flat rice noodle) that they use is thicker and curled.

Min Jiang Kueh, peanut pancake. I prefer the Singapore variety anytime. This pancake is uncooked.

Chinatown.

Arrival, Singapore- 8pm. End.