Oops i did it again?

Yeah i know this wasn't supposed to be about food. And if u think about it, it's actually me hanging out with my friends, over food! so somehow i'll have to talk about the food, right? right. hahaha.

Anyways i don't know why, but recently i've been having really wacky dreams... on consecutive nights too! I can't recall what they were about though. They say that having dreams is an indication that you haven't been sleeping well. The best kinda sleep is those that you knockout till the next morning, not dreaming at all.. Maybe i'll get my mum to knock my daylights out one night. See how that works out. haha.

So back to how yesterday (friday) went... i woke up in the morning and i prepared some of the quiche i made recently for Merry & Christina, whom i met for lunch later in the afternoon. My dear Chloe came up to me in the kitchen and gave me the yearning look... hahah just look at her! Apparently she likes my quiche too, so i made just a little bit for her. hehe she's so spoilt.

I then set off to have lunch with Sherms, Christina and Merry @ Aglio Olios. Got to see Brigette there as well. Man the world is just so small. haha. Anyways i had chicken cream pasta which wasn't too bad... but sherm's mushroom and bacon olio was the best!! Tasted really good! And slightly spicy too... which i find unique about their pastas. They're all spicy! of cos u could opt for mild spice... which i did. My tongue doesn't really get along with spice. hehehe.

And guess what we had for dessert?? Fried Chicken Wings!! woohooo! We just couldn't take it (or rather, I couldn't take it) anymore cos we were tempted by the other people around us having the chicken wings... and it looked too good to resist! And indeed we weren't disappointed! They were very delicious!!

It was just so funny how Merry had to cover her jaw when taking pictures. hahaha ... Oh and Sherms was really tired... can't blame her though... she has been stressed these few days.

Yeap and that's the yummy Mushroom and bacon olio that Sherms had.

But overall it was very very nice meeting Merry (my dear neighbour) and Christina again. Hope to catch up with them again soon! Maybe we could go back there for the chicken wings!!! Or we could have our Ching teng night @ bedok corner! muahahahah.

And at night i got to meet up with Faizal! hahah now i know how much i really miss that joker. It's just amazing how someone can go on and on talking about his life and be so dramatic and hilarious at the same time. Well of course besides being a funny guy, he's also a great person to talk to. You know, in retrospect, he was the one who made it easier for me to get over my homophobia. hahah Anyway the poor guy was been so busy at work... hope things clear up for him soon. And hope to catch up again, Zal! thanks for dinner!

It seems that quite a few of my friends (those who are working, at least) have been really busy recently... while i'm just chilling around enjoying my holidays. muahahah okok sorry, didn't mean to wind you guys up... what i meant to say was, hope you guys get through this busy period....

Like the saying goes "when the going gets tough, the tough takes a coffee break"...

And "Line the dough in the tart tin and bake for 12 mins until golden brown". Got that last line from my baking book. There's no link whatsoever so please stop cracking ur brain over this one. hahaha.

Ted Baker in town? So is Jonny Baker. ( & Lame Riddle #6)

Yes yes i know this blog is turning out to be some kinda food blog (bloody cafe cartel and Crystal Jade! why haven't they approached me to endorse them yet?!?! hahaha)... hopefully this will be my last food entry till... er... next week perhaps. muhahaha.

But u see, i MUST blog this. Today, i finally kicked start my baking rituals again after a long long abstinence. the baking recipe book i received as my bday present is the main catalyst in this. Plus the fact that i have lots of time nowadays. hehe..

And instead of baking my usual cookies and muffins and cakes, i decided to try pies! and today's specialty was.... QUICHE! hehe mushroom quiche, to be exact.

That's my workspace... small little table space in the kitchen.. hehe. well a skillful chef like me wouldn't need too much space to perform my magic, would i? muahahah.

This is my FIRST attempt... haha made a few mistakes here and there... but it tasted alright!! i'm gonna make my family the guinea pigs for this one... hehehe shhhhh... as u can see, my mum already tried some! luckily she said it was nice. My dad and Justin said it was good too! (or maybe they're being nice. SIGH)

Well here's the final (and hopefully better) attempt! The mushrooms don't look as abundant as the previous one, but it certainly looked and smelled tastier. I'm gonna let sherms and her family try this one. *cross fingers*

Similar to my previous stuff i baked before, it's just so scary to actually see what goes into the dish. the amount of butter, cream and eggs... yikey doodles. it's no joke. that's why my policy (as a responsible friend and baker) is to give my guinea pigs small amounts of the food... enough to let them taste the heavenly, scrumptious, mouthwatering masterpiece (yeah, right), but not enough to raise their chances of dying from heart attack or diabetes. That's what i call baking with a heart, man. Oh my, i'm so noble!! can't take it!! wooohhooo!!

Anyway here's a lame riddle! This should be simple!

What do you call people who steal quiches in the Bahamas?

PIE-rates of the Carribean!! muahaha. okay i know it's damn lame. so bite me. keke.

Random thoughts for the day

Well i had my last 3 school shows (Chicky) today.... It was all really quick, considering it started exactly one week ago! 10 shows gone. Now waiting for more shows to happen... man i suddenly felt as though i lost my self worth.

Anyway i decided to do more cooking today again! Yeap the chef at work... by force! My mum just hurled to me the responsibility of making some food for the family. geeeez. Well i went for the easy option: Fried rice, boiled vegetables and some char siew and siew bak my mum bought earlier in the morning. Oh and i made oyakadon for myself! check it out!


























YEap that's my oyakodon with my complete meal. hahah It tasted really good actually. got the omelette topping for $2 from Daiso. they sell really good stuff. hope to be heading down there again soon though.

Was watching this cheesy HK movie... where this heoric guy walked into a burning building, rescued a dog, WALKED along the burning corridor in slow motion... and as he approaches the camera, flames explode from behind him... but still he remains un-frazzled. HAhaha SO CHEESY. reminds me of other cheesy scenes like how the evil guy measures up his victim, walks eerily and slowly towards her, talking about how he's going to kill her or why she deserves to die or how no one would hear her even if she screams... and the bloody guy just takes his damn sweet time to pull the damn trigger... and before he could do so, the hero of the show makes an explosive entry and saves the day. these kinda scenes happen sooooo often! but notice how we're just suckers for them??


Well i guess my 'holidays' have officially begun. time to meet up with some of my friends... esp those who are about to fly off for exchange. And also set aside time to bake!! woohoo!

My Birthday Celebrations part 3

Following the trend of trilogies, here's my 3rd celebration... this time, with my family! We were supposed to be gorging down siew mais, har kaus and paper-wrapped chicken at Crystal Jade, but unfortunately the queue was just wasn't budging. So we decided to head down to this restaurant called Tonkishi... famous for its katsu (cutlets). Here's how it went:

As you can see, there was a copious amount of food... Lots and lots of deep-fried stuff. hehe i like. For the katsus ranged from pork to fish, sweet potato, egg plant, loin, prawn etc... and we had sides like jap curry, potato salad (yummy), miso soup, edamame and fried tofu (damn friggin good). On top of that the restaurant offered free flow of rice and cabbage! something we didn't have stomach for, actually.

Seems like Justin was looking to steal some food from Sheryl, while Ivan was just bracing himself for the feast ahead. Notice: both my bros have the same way of holding their chopstick while choosing a 'target' item on the table.

My parents were rather satisfied with the meal, i think. While as for me... you could tell from that pic how i felt about it. hahha. Yummy.

Believe it or not, this is the picture of when we were done with the food. Seems like there's some food left here and there, but our tummies forbade us from consuming anymore. haha.

I wanna thank Ivan and Yuki for the watch they got for me! It's an orange "Smash" watch. Hope the brand name doesn't suggest what will happen to the watch in the future. Hehe

And Thanks to Justin and Sheryl for the very nice blue Nike shirt!

I would also like to thank a few of my dear friends for their well-wishes! Thanks Janet, Liling, Tzi Hon, Ning Xia, Louis, Sherm's parents, Brigette, Grace, Nabs, Joycelyn and others...

And a happy birthday to Jeremy Soh too! yeah man 29th July Rocks!! woohoooo

My Birthday Celebrations part 2

And it's the 28th of July! one day till my actual birthday! I arranged with my gf to go watch Genevieve's play "Happy Endings: Asian Boys Volume 3"... It's the 2nd last day of her performance and i really wanted to catch it. And i didn't regret it at all!! IT's such a nice play! Even though it's about gays and their love life, i thought it was tastefully done! as in, it didn't scare straight people like me. It was actually a rather touching story. I must say, the scriptwriter's brilliant. The cast was very strong too!

And of cos dear Gen was brilliant!! hehe well done, girl! So so proud of you... hope you liked the pretty (and rather expensive) sunflower!! U better not throw it away too quickly!! hahaha.
Oh and galvin belongs to theatre man. he was excellent too.

And so my gf brought me to the 'surprise' place for my birthday dinner... it was at Graze, in rochester park... very nice place too bad i didn't take a lot of pictures of the place itself though.. but u can check it out online. hehe

While we waited for our food, we had some water and a phallic-looking bread. haha. So you can roughly see the restaurant settings in the background... pretty much al-fresco, and very nice choice of furniture and lighting.

Looking at the menu, I was wondering what "barramundi" was... Sherms said it was a fish. I told her she was thinking of "baracuda". We were laughing over it for awhile until the waiter told us it IS a fish. hahah well steal my slippers and call me susie! who would have known?? haha anyway the top left pic's the barramundi (not fantastic, but fresh nonetheless) and sherm's totally delectable wild mushroom risotto. She enjoyed it of course... i mean, she loves risotto and wild mushrooms individually...so when u combine them, u get a very happy shermeen. hahaha

We also shared a plate of BBQ sausages... not too bad~

My 'dessert' is at the other end of the table. Muahaha...

Typical fine-dining: Huge plate, with small portions of food.

Okay here was the actual dessert... SO SINFUL i tell you.. It's called pimms poached pear... basically a pear with white chocolate mousse inside, and with sweet walnuts, a slab of pure cream and biscuits by the side. The pear tasted really nice though.

And here's the 'dish' that really took the prize. ahahaha. The one that i'll be having for the rest of my life. hahah thank you so much darling for the wonderful dinner. Yummy!

My Birthday Celebrations part 1

It was the 27th of July, when i spent the evening with my good friends (who else? charlene, zhichao and malik) at Sakura Restaurant at Orchard Shopping Centre. For those of you who have no idea where that is (which i admittedly didn't before before malik told me), it's the run-down building just next to california fitness @ orchard, with the 7-eleven and guardian at the 1st level. But who would have known that beneath the ratty exterior, there lies a haven of absolute gastronomical pleasures!












Round after round, we attacked the glorious variety of food they had there. Our motto: What they would cook, we would eat!

The lamb was exceptionally good though.

In case ure wondering the price for this buffet, it's $22 per pax. But the other costs that come with it like extra pounds gained, guilt from eating more than you should and discomfort from a bloated stomach varies with the person.





The 3 stooges!








As you can see, we came in as warriors: Ready to take on the food in battle. But alas, we met our match. We were utterly defeated. Underestimate the power of the food, we shall never again.














These were the presents from Malik and Chao. haha these bloody prankers gave me a Happy Fathers' Day card lah! and they also returned me my PSP game in disguise as a present! haha but they gave me my real present, which was a baking book! Awesome!! just what i needed! Think very soon i'll be picking up my spatula again. hahaa.

And of cos my dear sis got me something from Australia too! A nice (but slightly over-sized) cardigan! haha she always thinks i'm bigger than i actually am. But thanks babe! i'll wear it!











Charlene was complaining that she looked fat in the 1st picture (top left), so i told the guys to make themselves seem fatter so as to make charlene look thin in comparison. Thus, the 2nd picture. Hehehe their faces damn cartoon lah!




The 4 of us who couldn't resist the tempation of taking a group shot on the way to the bus-stop.
















We made our way to Bukit Timah to play some pool... and we decided to pass time by playing some "dai dee" on the bus! it was something new i must say. haha only SMRT buses with the inward facing chairs could allow us to do this. hahah.














This isn't a very good example, but there were times that Charlene struck a "killbill" pose... very intimidating, but embarrassingly to no effect. She still couldn't pot the ball. At least she made it look good. ehehe.













Yeap so that was the end of the 1st day of my Birthday celebrations!! it was a REALLy fun day. thanks so much guys!!

If you want the pics, try this link: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=3245&l=95b83&id=514938240

A chef is born... Jonny Oliver in da house~

I decided to be a nice boy and cook for my family... since i have a cough and all, i was deliberating what to cook for dinner. Can't be deep fried fried stuff. Nor heaty stuff. No chicken... Man, the restrictions i had to work with!! But then, with sheer effort, i managed to dig up an idea from my brain (surprise surprise!)... and decided to make... SOBA!!












So yeah these were some of the dishes... The Soba (in case my food are cooked beyond recognition, it's the top left picture) took quite some time to make cos after boiling it, you had to drain it with cold water, then layer it with ice... (ice ice baby...)

The pork was marinaded with teriyaki sauce, and i pan fried them with salt and ground pepper.

And the spinach was just... you know... boiled. no biggie there. But i lurve spinach! Popeye-inspired, maybe. Always wanted to have a cocked-up face like his.

Other (rather unimportant) stuff i made: scrambled eggs and dumplings (those u get frozen).











So my customers (my dad & mum. too bad justin couldn't enjoy this as well) sat at the table and tried the food... and they expressed their satisfaction!! Woohooo! They actually liked it! they said the pork was good, although they kept mistaking it for chicken...



Ahhhh... the gratification of it all... As you can probably tell from my expression there. haha I felt very good after the meal... not only cos it wasn't a disaster... But mostly cos i managed to do something good. Not just for myself, but for my family too. My mum especially. Now i know how bloody hard it is to prepare a meal... and my mum does it so often!
Love you, mum.

But i tell you, sometimes my Dad pisses me off. He was SOOO lazy to clear up the dishes and wash them. When i finally got him to clear up, he was so haphazard that he even threw away a porcelain spoon by accident! Ughh.

I think i learn a lot from cooking. It teaches me patience (try waiting for pork chops to be evenly done, and u'll know what i mean). It teaches me to be alert (a second too late, and fried eggs can taste like the wok) and more than anything, it teaches me humility.

You know, we could all learn to celebrate every small victory... it makes us appreciate things more, and also makes you feel happier as a person.

Hopefully this won't be the last of my culinary experiments!