STICKY - Traditional Handmade Yummy

Wednesday, November 26, 2008 Posted by YY on 11:14 PM comments (0)

Chanced upon this new setup at the basement of The Central..to our amazement, we saw two young men wrestling with semi hard candy.

They are making candies by hand.... O.O

Presenting STICKY - Traditional Handmade Yummy



A small crowd soon gathered and we were watching a 'live' show on the making of candies. One of the guys was arranging the "pattern" for the candy by layering the green, red, white colored candy strips..while another flattens the white candy sheet. We also noticed that there seems to be 3 different workspaces, ranging from very hot, warm to cool.



Time to wrap the "pattern" into the white candy sheet.



Roll roll..press press..



Surprisingly, the thickly rolled candy can be pulled into such thin strands.



At the other end, one of them is stationed at the 'cool' workspace and will chop the candy strand into equal length rods before knocking them with his tool (see pic)



The end product is something like the above. The design in the middle of the candy is what I meant by "pattern". It really takes some artistic talent and visualisation to create such beautiful candies =D




Of course we patronised them, Kiwi Rock 70g for $2.90 . Taste wise it is not bad and there is also free sampling available at the counter.



Do drop by to visit them to see how these beautiful colorful candies are made. It will be an eye opener for you =D

Cake Intermediate Stage - Lesson 3

Sunday, November 23, 2008 Posted by YY on 10:11 PM comments (0)

It's cake lessons again and today we are doing two cakes:
1.) Pistachio Slices (foam type cake)
2.) Choconana cake (butter cake)



Took a pic of some of the ingredients prepare for us beforehand. Hmm~ later we realised that flour was missing! -_-'



Today, K will do the folding of one cake by himself. Ok, today he's more stable but I think cake foundation lessons are darn important >_> cos it makes one more familiar with the amount of strength to use for folding in stuffs. The batter made it to the oven..now let's wait for 25 minutes.


Starting the other cake, heating up the water+ sugar to get sugar syrup.



This cake is mainly folded by me. Above pic melting the butter together with chocolate using double boiler method. Meanwhile, K was whisking the eggs and we added in the chocolate mixture above, then flour and the sugar syrup. This cake is a watery butter cake O.O , so off it went into the oven for the next 40mins.



Meanwhile, K's cake is done. Hmm~ it sunk in the middle but hey it happens to many tables too. Mixing problem according to Judy ..hmmm o.0



Cooking custard cream *same as those you get in fruit tarts* for the pistachio cake filling.
From clockwise top left: Heating the sugar, cream and milk together; cooking the starch and egg yolk together with above mixture; Once mixture is smooth, remove from heat and add butter when mixture is below 40 degrees then STIR LIKE MAD; the final custard cream.



Making of German Buttercream for the Pistachio cake filling. The above is on mixing of butter and icing sugar which is combined with the custard cream later.



This green slimy looking thing is Pistachio Paste o.0 Add 3 tsp to the mixture above.



Now the buttercream filling is done with toasted grounded pistachio in it.



40mins later the chocolate cake is out~ Some cracking but it seems to occur at every table.



Now time to spread filling on the Pistachio cake. The cake is sliced into 3 layers.



Final product, Pistachio Slices. K piped his cream vertically while mine is slanted. K got pissed about the piping bag cos the auntie cut his queue LOL~ Anyway, we got it piped and placed two nuts on each slice of cake.



Now the tedious work on decorating the choconana cake.
Clockwise from top left: Spreading chocolate over the bubble wrap; once done, put into chiller; after the bubble wrap has hardened, tear away and the remaining chocolate are filled with holes; holes are then filled with white chocolate *with yellow coloring*

We were quite amazed at this idea of using bubble wrap XDD



Holes are randomly filled.



Yet another task..using marzipan to make BANANAS, cos the decoration is supposed to reflect what's in the cake..right? In the top pic, we added some yellow coloring to the white marzipan "dough". Roll into round balls, then rub them into long-ish shapes. Use some water to join them together. For the banana stem, mix the marzipan with choco powder till desired color. Next, use chocolate paste and a delicate brush to make finishing brown streaks-> ripen bananas LOOK.

K made two bunches of bananas while I made the one on the right bottom.



Using sour cream and melted chocolate, mix well (top right). Spread on top of cake (3 layers), place banana slices and cover entire cake with the mixture.



The one on the left is K's and mine on the right. We had some difficulties covering the cake cos the chocolate mixture had hardened zzz~ The holey chocolate was used to cover the sides , on top of the cream.




We nearly had to carry two boxes home, luckily we managed to squeeze the cake in..now they are packed like sardines lol~

During the lesson, Judy talked about some people close to her being down with cancer and she mentioned sadly that she lost people so close to her. Also how the disease torture those people around those down with it. And Judy said,"Sometimes also duno we work so hard for what. Haiz..when you are young, you want to be famous, want to be rich ..at the end of all these, what's left? At the end of the day, we come with nothing and go with nothing. Sometimes ah..really friendship and kinship is more important than all these."

Update on cross section of Choconana Cake:



I still think K had the bananas sliced too thick as the result we had not enough bananas -> got lobang in the cake ._.''

Guai shu shu Part II (21/11/08)

Posted by YY on 12:15 AM comments (0)

I was feeding the kitties alone and zaizai ran to the lift landing after the meal.
Suddenly, I turned to my right and there was the GSS I met last friday.

GSS: AAAAA!
ME : Oh hi!
GSS: I am stanley *extends hand*
ME : Oh, joey here. *shakes hand*
GSS: 你又来喂猫啊?
ME : 是啊
GSS: 刚放工啊?
ME : 对啊
GSS: 交换个电话号码嘛~
ME : 不需要吧?
GSS: 就当交多个朋友嘛

*Buibin who missed the dinner suddenly came out from the drink machine area and went MEOOOWWWW, saying that it wants its usual wet food for dinner*

ME : Oh buibinnn..how come you are suddenly awake? Come..come
Buibin: MEEEOOOWWWW!!! Attempts bua(rub) GSS at the feet.
Zaizai : *Runs towards buibin's direction and circles at GSS's feet too*
GSS : Ahhhhh...*takes his feet up to avoid rubbing from the cats*
ME : *Sniggers*
GSS : 对不起。。我怕小动物! *continues to avoid the cats but they keep circling him cos they recognise pple by feet, as such maybe they think he's(<- K cos K wears jeans)
ME : *Laughs aloud*
ME : Ookok *pours dried food for buibin*
GSS : In this case, I give you my number. 9xxxxxxx
ME : *Keys in number*
GSS : S t a n l e y . Give me a miss call please.
ME : Oh later ba, I have alot of things on hand.
GSS : Need help? Do you want a drink? I buy you a drink.
ME : Ah..no need lah. I am going off soon.
GSS : Then shall I walk you to the bus stop?
ME : No need..I am going to the other bus stop. *points to afar*
GSS : Oh ok, you want any drink?
ME : No need lah, see you..
Buibin: *Looks at me with forlorn looks cos there's no wet food for dinner*
Luilui : *Follows me*
ME : *Hides one corner to play with luilui* *faked departure* ~_~

Till date, I haven give him a miss call yet hehe~

Where did zaizai go? (20/11/08)

Saturday, November 22, 2008 Posted by YY on 12:04 AM comments (0)

We didn't visit the kitties on 19th Nov morning *cos we were supposed to bring them for sterilization* and in the afternoon, zaizai was missing in action -> spared the ordeal.

The following morning, 20th nov..zaizai was still missing. It didn't appear for breakfast.
It got me worried but zaizai is such a sleepy head it won't be surprising if it overslept. So we fed the other 2 kitties and left for work.

While walking towards the overhead bridge, we both heard some soft mews coming from the grass near the multi storey carpark. As I walked nearer, the mews sounds urgent..thinking it maybe the new white kitten we saw on 18th Nov, I took out my dried food container and started shaking it as I traced the source of the mews. *Shake shake shake* then I heard "MEOWWWW MEOWWWWWWW MEOOOOOOOOWWWW!!!" with echos. K then went into the carpark to investigate cos we were sure that the cat is trapped somewhere. However, instincts told me that the cat could be trapped in the meter room, so I unlatched the door..

AND THERE IS ZAIZAI! Trapped in the meter room -.-''' Why on earth is it doing inside..I have no idea totally. After opening the door, zaizai came out after awhile *prolly adjusting to the light* and it was totally lost and even followed the wrong pair of legs -> got kicked -_-''

Then I fed it 1 whole can of dried food..poor zaizai his stomach was flat, I guess it got trapped for about 1 day at least.

In the evening, zaizai was sleeping at 6pm+ and nearly missed its dinner. Luckily K found it at the gunny sack and ate humongous amounts of food again. It actually whined a few times..first time hearing such sounds from a cat, zaizai went "MMeeeoOOoowWW" *high to low, low to high pitch*

Another lucky thing that happened was, we found crookie's new hideout! As zaizai was mewing desperately, crookie appeared *prolly due to my shaking of dried food* and she's actually living in the multi storey carpark.

My darling kitties <3 <3

2 gongkias, 2 half day leaves and 3 cats (19/11/08)

Thursday, November 20, 2008 Posted by YY on 11:18 PM comments (0)

The story goes like this..
2 humans, Koose and Joose who loved 3 stray cats near their workplace decided to bring them for sterilization. The appointment was 20th Nov and since the cats needed to fast a day before surgery, the humans decided to bring them to the vet on 19th Nov for a stayover *@ the vet's*

19th Nov 12 noon, the two humans took a half day leave and brought 2 carriers with them to carry the 3 cats by cab to the vet located at Choa Chu Kang.

With their hearts thumping the humans walked to the usual feeding area, buibin and luilui appeared and the atmosphere was tensed. Did the cats sense what is about to happen?? O_O

After much difficulty, buibin and luilui were lured and packed into the carriers but where's zaizai??? "Nvm", said Koose. "We will bring the two then" They both then walked slowly down the stairs to bring the "struggling carriers"(struggling cats) to the bus stop where they will flag a cab down to Choa Chu Kang.

Then Luilui started wailing pitifully and knocking her paws and head/body against the carrier. Koose melted and let the carrier down on the floor while Joose followed suit. Suddenly, "BUZZ!"
..the zipped carrier bursted open and Buibin ran up the slope *back to their home* OMG how did she escaped. *K later say we should count our lucky stars that the zipped area was not facing the road else Buibin would have dashed into the traffic* T_T So we let Luilui out of the carrier and she went running up the slope too.

The two humans looked at each other o.o *tio koosed* and went up to look for the kitties again to pacify them and luckily, they still came out for food. 2 half day leaves were over in 30mins.
4 living things were traumatised from this incident.

But still where's zaizai?


Since nothing could be done, we cancelled the vet's appointment and went to try this 1 for 1 lunch at Tomo Izakaya(@ Clarke Quay Area) offer by DBS credit card.



The Joose still traumatized after 1hour. O_O I could only manage this expression.




The Koose.




Ambience restaurant with lotsa orange lights.




Live band sings on weekends.




Lunch offer menu. Get 1 DBS set A or B and choose another set for free.




K's set which costs $25, sashimi, cold noodles, tempura, salad and some fried oyster/prawns.
Verdict: Not worth the money. Sashimi was not fresh enough, cold noodles were NOT COLD -.-'
I would rather be eating at Sun & Moon @ The Central.




My diced beef set that comes with salad, soup and rice as well.
Verdict: The beef CUBES came in about 2cm by 2cm..so thick that even K could not chew them.

Wasabi Tei WINS by thousands of times.



We decided to drop by Haji Lane with 2 huge carriers and rain ._. Suay things come together.
Ahh House of Japan. Well, the smell was not the turn off but the clothes were TOO BIG, TOO LONG RAWR~ Nevermind..



Some interesting shop front. The whole shop was in nicely decorated, ah I wish I live in there.



Tired feet need a rest..so we took shelter from the rain @ this "kopitiam".



Tea break set @ $3.50. I know it looks like breakfast.

After that, K went to meet his seller for his NDS screen at Bugis. Later on, I went for dinner with Beng, Wu and Ks while K returned home for dinner.
What a half day leave we had ~_~

Orgo Bar and Lab @ Central with Mixologist, Tomoyuki Kitazoe

Posted by YY on 11:03 PM comments (0)

What would you expect to see at Clark Quay on a Monday night? People partying?
Strangely, it was a quiet night with not much people..recession hitting fast and hard?



Just in front of Orgo Bar and Lab, is Singapore River littered with all sorts of bars and pubs differentiated by the different neon lights.



Orgo Bar counter*ignore time on pic* , K noticed that they served Grey Goose Vodka not Absolute Vodka.



Other cushion seats located "inland". Cozy fuzzy place.



For a limited time, the mixologist, Tomoyuki Kitazoe will be mixing your drinks at Orgo. The poster says,"Tomoyuki Kitazoe will change your idea of a perfect drink forever." o.O
With that, we decided to have some drinks here after a fulfiling bowl of ramen at Marutama.



We chose a seat facing the Singapore River. Behind K, is this air conditioned glass window/wall function room which is available upon request. You will need a large group of people to qualify for this room.



Soon, someone came and explained the menu to us. There are three menus covering cocktails, juices, mocktails..etc~ In fact, the staff taking order said the mixologist would be able to whip up anything. If we do not want alcohol, we can order a cocktail item but specify that we want it mocktail style or juice style and the cost would be -$5 from the cocktail's price.

While we were placing our orders, another staff came and gave us each a packet of wet tissue. We were in a dimly lit area, and the staff was so gentle that I felt he was going to invite me for a dance with his hands outstretched *to pass me tissue* LOLOLOL~ "May I?"

A complimentary glass of grapes, red mixed with black and mint leaves for deocration.



K's order: Grilled passion fruit martini.This item comes with a vodka shot which is supposed to be drank before the martini. K feels grey goose vodka rox but its 40% alcoholic content..




My mocktail: Green mango and marojam martini. Marojam is a herb which gives off a citrus flavour. This mocktail is made of fresh mango juice and by adding the herb, it gives the drink a refreshing feel. And the juice was cold for a long time, thats nice.



Cheers~!



*Alert* Underage boy drinking alcohol!
K really looks like 18 lol~ Finally finishing his vodka shot, he tries his fresh passion fruit martini and oh wow..K says the drink is fantastic and never thought martini would be so smooth. After the drink, K proceeds to eat his passion fruit with the fork provided. *yummy*




The total damage. $5 discount for converting martini to mocktail *my order* GST and Service charge is always a killer *rawr*

Verdict: Its abit on the expensive side but its interesting that they use fresh fruits for cocktails/mocktails cos more often than not, you get cordials. So all in all, quite an experience I would say.

Yet another weird stranger

Wednesday, November 19, 2008 Posted by YY on 11:31 PM comments (0)

Was feeding the kitties as usual yesterday (18/11) and cleaning up after them.
I was trying to scrape everything off the ground when suddenly a guy came up to me and offered me tissue. I noticed he was at his car doing some stuffs for a few times, probably living near there or waiting for someone.

Guy: *Walks over with 2 pcs of tissue* 拿去用吧~!
Me : Eh thank you... *proceeds to clear the scrapes*
Guy: 你每天来喂猫啊?看到你几次了
Me : 对啊
Me : *Walks to bin to dump the tissue*
Guy: *Walks over* Tissue 整包给你用吧..
Me : 不用了啦,上班要迟到了 *walks off quickly* O.o

Own a car means big fuck?

Monday, November 17, 2008 Posted by YY on 9:39 AM comments (0)

I "saw" this motorist slammed into car's bck due to sudden stop in traffic flow *opposite queensway shopping centre*

We(those waiting for bus)were seeing the "accident" right in front of us. The sound was so loud that I turned and saw the motorist fell down his bike but got up.

The driver got out stared at him, looking very rude in the face. He then talked to the motorist ..staring down(cos his bike is lower mah) at him. Presumably scolding him cos we could hear some high volume noises at about 3m away. After talking like a Ah Beng, the driver turned and examined HIS BUMPER for a few times with an impatient look on his face. He returned to his car, took a notepad and recorded down the motorist's particulars.

THEN HE EXAMINED HIS NON EXISTENT DAMAGE @ THE BUMPER FOR A FEW TIMES before letting the motorist go. What the fuck lah~

If YOUR CAR is SO PRECIOUS, you can keep it at home. Don't drive please, don't be a hazard to others.

Drive car big fuck ah..your car is just a normal 5 seater *laughs*

Cake Intermediate Stage - Lesson 2 (16/11/08)

Sunday, November 16, 2008 Posted by YY on 10:10 PM comments (0)

Today we are making fruit mousse cakes. Personally, I have never liked mousse stuff its quite yucky to me as cream cakes are..but learning about cakes means learning ALL about em'. And silly me forgot to bring my phone out again, luckily YJ's at home and was about to go out too. *PHEW*

Cakes we are making today:
1.) Mango mousse cake
2.) Strawberry mousse cake

Main cake:
- Sponge cake x 2

Misc stuffs:
- Mango mousse
- Strawberry mousse
- Sponge fingers





Overall stuff for today's lesson: Mango, sugar *and more sugar* , hongkong flour and many egg whites + egg yolks.





Half way while doing the sponge cake. Well..I think we overbeaten the egg white/mixture. ZZzz~



Some ingredients required for doing the mousses(from bottom left, clockwise): Gelatin, egg whites, strawberry puree, mango puree. Some other stuffs includes sugar, glucose, cream.




The main body, 2 sponge cakes were done but they were flat ='( *meow* I think i needa go do more sponge cakes.




As flat as I am ._.''' and we are supposed to cut this cake into 2 or 3 layers.




Making the mousse in progress. Heated the puree together with gelatin and added lemon juice after the gelatin has melted.




Meanwhile, sugar + glucose + water were mixed together over the flame and boiled till 115 degrees Celsius. In the background, I was whipping the egg whites with the SPAR(brand) mixer. Somehow, I am not used to such a powerful machine that does the same job thrice/twice as fast as a $38 handheld mixer...the powerful machine makes me nervous.




Thud thud thud thud thud.....*metal whisk hitting metal bowl*




Add in the sugar+ glucose + water mixture into egg white and whisk till cool to make italian meringue.

Done and let's leave this aside. Meanwhile, I start whipping the dairy cream too.

Next, the egg white and cream were mixed into the mixture above. Woo so much work and finally we are done for MOUSSE. -_-



Adding the cake + mousse + some fresh mango cubes. Layer by layer then pour the remaining mousse to cover the entire cake.



Color of the strawberry mousse made the same way as above except you put strawberry into it.



I was mixing the sponge fingers' mixture with all my attention but it seems like I took tad too long in mixing -_-'' The above is K spreading the mixture onto a non stick baking paper.



Next, the tool above is used to run through the spreaded mixture to create lines, which turns the baked product into SPONGE FINGERS *after cutting of cos*




The sponge fingers *blur pic* were not very well defined so I gather that we should run this tool through for at least twice instead.



Before we did the sponge fingers, we were doing the gelatine mixture for the top layer of the cake. The mango fruit was thinly sliced and placed on top of the mango mousse cake, then the gelatine mixture*room temperature* was poured over the entire cake. (see 3rd pic from top left)

For the strawberry cake, the gelatine mixture was too light in color so a few drops of red coloring was added to make it look cheery red.



After the cakes have been chilled, its time to remove the mousse tin from the cakes. That's me (bottom left)*ignore my spastic look* and K (top left) using a torch to heat up the mousse tin so that we don't damage the cakes with forceful knocks when removing the tin. The semi finished product strawberry mousse cake(bottom right).

The mango mousse cake(top right) was covered with roasted almond bits at the side and we are done for this cake.



Now for strawberry mousse cake..that's K cutting the sponge fingers *after measuring the height of the cake* , he made sure all the fingers were of the same height. Good job~



Wrapping the sponge fingers around the cake. My sponge fingers did not rise as much as I thought it would but it was not too bad afterall, except that it wasn't well defined.




The final product, Strawberry Charlotte. *Judy says its called a 'Charlotte', when a cake is decorated with sponge fingers round its side* On hindsight, the strawberries could have been added to the centre though.

Somewhere in the middle of the lesson, the koose appeared and was complaining about lack of space on the table. Oh for goodness sake, we have the entire table to ourselves unlike other groups having half the table. I simply don't know what was he frustrated about. I hate it when someone beside me, being involved in the same task (e.g. gaming, shopping..etc) is frustrated but yet I don't know WHY. But anyway, he calmed down and managed to plan his to-do tasks and so we managed to produce the two cakes in the end.

And there were some observations about other tables. There was one group that was doing professionally for all cakes e.g. their cakes rose the most, deco well done..etc. For ourselves, we were obviously lacking in the folding and egg white beating techniques which resulted in not-so nice and fluffy cakes. But I have pretty good faith in our aesthetic skills.

For some of the other tables, they had nice sponges but I wondered what happened when it came to making mousse and gelatin. Some poured hot gelatin over mousse @_@'' As the result, you get a cloudy cake cos the mousse melted. Some had slanted surface, cos others were vying for space in the chiller and shifted their stuffs.

Another one made me quite sad, cos the sponge was quite well done but she did not cut the sponge fingers into equal height which prompted the instructor, Judy to ask,"Can you tell me..will you buy this cake?" The auntie replied her,"Of cos NOT!" and proceeds to giggle. =.=

Went home and next morning K cut the mango cake for breakfast..I need to brush up on cutting a cake horizontally ._.





K's strawberry charlotte and the mango cake done by me, side by side comparison.




The leftover sponge fingers were baked till dry -> into biscuits!