Easiest Breakfast Idea - French Toast

This is the thing - I love french toast and it's extremely easy to make, not to mention super yummy too. But, it seldom cross my mind to make it for breakfast! WHYYYY? >_<


So, because of that, I must write this post to remind myself and all my readers out there to make some french toast for brekkie!! :D


You know, for more than 2 decades, I've always make my french toast with only 2 ingredients - egg and sugar. And only recently, I found out from a friend that the original recipe (well most people) add milk or cream! >_< Anyways, it was my first time adding milk in my french toast and I absolutely love it! LOL. Maybe one day I should make both versions and test it on my guinea pigs!! Hehehe :P


Here's my super simple and yummy breakfast:

Fluffy Yummy French Toast

The bread alone is already very yummy. But you can always add toppings to jazz it up a bit e.g. honey, butter, jam or fruits.


Now, go make some already!

Enjoy! :D

The Best Mango Dessert @ Dessert Story

 I'm a huge fan of mango desserts and when a friend brought me to Dessert Story, I fell in love. 

Dessert Heaven on Earth :)

Dessert Story, as it's name suggests, is a dessert heaven, offering a broad range of cold and hot desserts commonly found in Taiwan and Hong Kong. They are a franchise operating a growing number of outlets mainly in Victoria (Link to stores in Vic). Besides desserts, they also offer a selection of Taiwanese Hot Food series ranging from fried dumplings to braised pork rice and beef noodles! But, who goes to a place which is obviously a dessert bar for heavy meals? Not me! >_<


Anyways, back to the desserts! :D


I was really amazed with the Mango Snow Ice. For $9.90, I was presented with a tower of smooth ribbons of milky snow ice, drizzled with thick mango juice, surrounded by chunks of mango and generous amount of juicy mango pearls! Slurp! Just imagine how each bite in your mouth explodes into a heavenly flavor of mango goodness!! :D Don't try to be greedy though, the portion is quite huge and enough to be shared among 2-3 people.

Milk Snow Ice With Crystal Jelly and Mango Juice with Popping Pearls

Both times, we went to their outlet in Glen Waverly. From the outside, the shop looks quite small, but surprisingly though, they are able to fit about 10 small tables (for 4 person) indoors and a few tables outdoor as well. The ambiance is very warm and casual (although it can be quite noisy if there were large groups in the shop) which is perfect for large group gatherings, girls day out, casual first date or a perfect hangout place after Sunday brunch. That's what we did...twice! Heh! :D


We tried their Black Sesame with Red Bean soup too (which is a hot dessert) and honestly, not too impressed. Maybe because we can easily make them at home...if we are not lazy. Hehe.


In my personal opinion, their Mango Snow Ice alone is enough for me to go back again and again and again...and again! Heh! :D


I can't wait for the weekends again!


See you in dessert heaven! Ciao!

Salad Recipe - Olives, Feta Cheese, Lettuce and Red Capsicum

I haven't mentioned to you yet but there's another Masterchef at home, aside from my boyfriend. Heh!

Imagine how stressful it is to cook for these guys! >_< But, luckily they are kind enough to enjoy my cooking too. Hehehe.

Anyways, I would love to share his salad recipe because it was very refreshing to me and I really really love it. Mainly because there were olives in it (my absolute favourite)! And it's also because it was my first time having red capsicum in my salad. Very sweet and crunchy! I love it! :D

Ingredients:
Chopped lettuce
Chopped red capsicum
Crushed Feta Cheese
Olives
Olive Oil

Step 1: Add all the ingredients in a huge salad bowl. Toss and serve. Done. Lol. I love salad! :D

Crispy red capsicum hiding underneath :P

I have to give credit to the olives because it was really good.

Yummy Olives

Hope you like this one!

Enjoy! :D

Puff Pastry Part 2!

I just got myself a new packet of Puff Pastry! ^_^ Looks like I'm getting quite addicted! And I'm not the only one! Haha...the bf has been requesting for pastries too! Lol.

I got my puff pastry from Woolies. Don't look down at homebrands - it's actually quite good (for newbies like me!) and I have no complaints about it. :D

Cheap but Good :D

Anyways, I accidentally cracked the last piece of puff pastry I had in the freezer:

URGH

But! I'm the kind of person who sees the glass as half full! So, thanks to YOU, you ugly cracks because you inspire me to try something new! Haha! :D

So what I did was I added more damage to it, shredding it into smaller pieces and line them in ramekins!

Pretty smart huh? LOL.

And then add my favourite ingredients - cheese, kransky and baked beans. :D

Add more broken pieces on top to cover it. Brush some egg wash before throwing them into preheated oven at 180C. Sit back, relax and wait for the magic to happen! (About 20mins)

And then....TA-DA! Perfect brekkie with my hot Milo :)

Throw in some cherry tomatoes for some colour :P

Another close-up photo to show you how flaky and yummy it was! Hehe...

Looks more like Tau Sar Piah (mung bean pastry) huh? LOL

The moral of the story is - Always find opportunities in difficult or challenged situations! It may lead you to something better :) In this case, a yummy pastry which looks like Tau Sar Piah.


Damn! Now I'm craving for Tau Sar Piah!! Cryyyy... T____T

The Blaming Game

I'm sure there are people out there who can understand the frustrations, the anger and the disappointments many of us have to go through in our daily lives. But it's not our fault, is it?


It's not our fault that our life screw up. It's all their fault. Who? Everyone. The boss who make our days miserable, the mother who nags, the husband who is irresponsible, the wife who cheated, the best friend who left, the useless government, the tea lady who makes horrible coffee, the dog that poop in your garden everyday, the slow internet, the cheap hard disk that crashed, the stupid car that breaks down every now and then...well, you get the idea. It's always their fault.


Oh, I'm not done yet. I've seen some amusing things in my life. Parents hitting and scolding the table for hurting their child. Parents who slap the shoes for causing their kid to fall. Blame the dog for eating the cat treats because they left it on the edge of a table (yup!). Blame the guy who cause a massive traffic jam in the morning (why must his car break down in the middle of the road?? why???!) Blame the sky for raining on the day you left the umbrella at work. Hmm while you are at it, blame the parents for bringing you to this horrible world, the world that rains on the day you didn't want it to rain. Who created the world? God? Well, blame God for creating the world and ALL the miseries that come with it. Yup, that's right, it's all their fault.


It's so easy, isn't it? To play the blaming game. It gets addictive, too.


Oh, how we love the pleasure to say to the next person (or an inanimate object!), "It's all your fault." It's almost therapeutic, isn't it? *let out a happy sigh* :)


I didn't do much today and it's almost noon. Stupid clock for ticking so fast. I should go out for a walk but stupid weather, I think it's going to rain. Stupid TV has nothing interesting on. Maybe I should play some games on my tablet...but oh damn that stupid tablet just ran out of battery! Sigh.


Hmmm...what else can I blame for a boring day like this?

How to make Tamago or Japanese Omelette

Wiki always explains it best. Tamago or Japanese omelette are basically grilled egg, which is made by rolling together several layers of cooked egg.


If you read my post on Teriyaki Chicken (Read the post here: Teriyaki Chicken), you may notice I made Tamago or Japanese omelette as one of the side dishes.
 
Here it is if you can't recall:

I love my Tamago salty so I usually avoid the Tamago sushi which is usually sweet. >_<

The bestest tamago I've tasted so far was in a famous shabu shabu restaurant called Restaurant Junidanya at Kyoto, Japan.

We were actually walking around Gion trying to spot a geisha when we saw a long queue outside the restaurant. We thought since there was a long queue, it must be good! So being kiasu, we happily joined the queue. :P

Restaurant Junidanya @ Hanamikoji, Kyoto, Japan

The food is pretty pricey but definitely worth the splurge. The shabu shabu was really good but what really impressed us so much was the tamago. It was really the best I've tasted so far - the layers of egg was so soft and delicate. It's really hard to describe but all I can say is it was amazing!

Unfortunately, I don't know why I didn't take a close up photo of the tamago but this was my awesome beef shabu shabu I had that night:

 

Ever since then, I've been wanting to make my own tamago at home and this was actually my first attempt:

Not too bad huh?

Well, of course it can't beat the bestest tamago I had in japan but I was surprised at how easy it was to make and succeed at first attempt! I need to practice more to make the egg layers thinner and softer. Yosh!


Anyways, if you are interested to make your own tamago, I learned it from Cooking with Dog at Youtube:

Have fun while you are at it!

Enjoy! :D

Lazy Sunday Lunch Idea - Instant Noodles!

Instant noodle is bad for you.


But! If you have it once in a while, it's OK! Lol. Especially on lazy days...well specifically Sundays! >_< Influenced by dad who has always been against instant noodles, I try to avoid it too and even if I had to have it, I try to make it as "healthy" as possible. If that makes sense. Haha.

Anyways, here are some tips I would like to share with you:

(1) Reduce wax in the noodles - Boil water to the amount equivalent of cooking for 2 bowls of noodles. Once boil, transfer half to a bowl and put aside. Cook noodles in the pot until soft. Transfer noodles only into the bowl which was put aside earlier (containing hot water).

(2) Never cook the seasoning in boiling water - That is what I read online and hear say from people. Plus I never cook my seasonings in the pot anyways.

(3) Only have it on lazy days - Instant noodles for me are only for "emergency" days when I'm extremely lazy. The advice is once you have instant noodles, you should not have it for at least the next 3 days.

(4) Drink plenty of water - Well, it's only natural to feel extremely thirsty after due to high salt content in the seasonings. But always try to drink more water after to remove the excess salt in the body.

(5) Make it a complete meal - Add vegetables, eggs or meat to complete the meal. :)


Here's my lunch last Sunday prepared by the boyfriend. Hehe. :D We didn't have any greens left in the fridge and I thought it was very brilliant of him to make use of the extra nori sheets we had from the sushi dinner the other day (Read the post here: Sushi Dinner)

Super yummy lunch prepared by the bf <3 Korean instant noodles complete with perfect poached egg and nori sheets.

The moral of the story today is - Be creative! Always make use of what you have! In this case, to avoid food wastage! :) 

Happy Sunday ya'll! :D