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Happy 2006!
Albeit belated, greetings to the new year ahead!
Christmas had come and gone.
New Year's had come and gone.
Meng Yew had came and gone.
Looks like it's time to settle down and prepare for school starting next week.
Ushering me into the new year:
My new ASUS W5E18 laptop.
Ooooohhhh I simply love it to bits.
It's
specs are pretty good (12.1" screen, Intel Pentium M 740, 1.86 Ghz, 80
GB, DVD-writer) and it's only 1.5 kg light!!! It even has a built-in
1.3 megapixels webcam (sony vaio is the only other laptop) which is
practiclly crystal clear for webcam standard.
Best thing, of course, is that it is absolutely absolutely absolutely gorgeous.
Meng Yew came on New Year's Day itself.
I spent New Year's Eve at home watching Harry Potter with my siblings, haha!
And also spent it trying out variations for my 'fillet of beef' that I was serving for New Year's Day dinner.
Thank goodness I did! Because somehow it did not register in my puny little brain that roasted fillet of beef equates to roast beef, and although that wouldn't have tasted so bad, my guests were all hoping for yummy juicy steak.
Parents
wanted to invite some family friends for dinner, and I was made to
think of a reasonably priced place.... and I couldn't. So, I made them
a proposition, that I would cook for a party of 10 and they would pay
me for costs and labour accordingly.
A pretty good deal for me,
I think! Because I had been urging to do a 'grand' 3 course plus sides
meal since I came back to Singapore but could never find the incentive.
So
I spent half of Saturday preparing the appetizer and dessert, and the
remainder of Sunday preparing the salad, sides and main.
Meng
Yew was such a darling helping me out in the kitchen pan-frying those
beef steaks. We also had quite an efficient production line consisting
of my sister, MY and I in charge of various steps of presentation of
dishes and my brother and sam in charge of bringing out the food.
The menu
Starter
Cream of mushroom soup
Main
Fillet of beef wrapped in streak bacon, pan-fried.
Sides
Twice baked potato souffle with gruyere cheese
Flinders mixed salad with home-made basil, pinenuts and garlic dressing
Sauteed shitake mushrooms with garlic
Dessert
Chocolate lava cake with french vanilla ice-cream
The pictures
Mushroom soup, tastes better than it looks.
Proof that it was the most well-recieved course of that evening.
My factory of mains
Amy, Michelle and I
Work in progress
Highlight of the night
The dinner party
And lastly, my sous chef :D
Very enjoyable dinner.
The food: $380 (could have bought a better cut of beef, but I was under a budget)
The champagne, the red wine, the strawberries @ $1 a pop and cherries @ $0.50 a pop: courtesy of mom
The company: Uncle Low, Auntie Linda, Amy, Sam and Michelle
The experience: Priceless.
Second day of the New Year, Monday:
Dim sum at Wan Hao,
Marriot Hotel. Not too bad, but with limited variety. I don't think it
is actually a dim sum place, people go there and order the main dishes.
Decor was pretty fine.
Shopping at Tangs! MY bought cologne and I bought a pretty Dior lipgloss!
Dinner at some coffee shop near Alexander Village.
Really good variety of noodles! Ask me, and I will try to direct you.
Order the black pepper with black bean sauce beef hor fun, seafood
sauce with egg noodles (choose beehoon or horfun), crispy noodles with seafood sauce, and get their speciality deep-fried chicken. That should fill you up.
After that, my brother, MY and I went to Labrador Park and I actually tried the skate board! That was quite fun.
Third day of the New Year, Tuesday:
MY and I went to Sentosa
for a picnic! I made yummilicious pan-fried chicken sandwiches, a
modified recipe of Cordoroy and Finch, which was bursting with flavour!
(Really easy actually)
And then, we went to meet Felix at Cordoroy and Finch itself for some desserts.
Finally dinner at Hua Ting,
Orchard Hotel. Parents treated MY and I, although I did the ordering.
The food is good! We actually got a private room, because the place was
unbelieveably full on a tuesday night.
The price is pretty reasonable if you don't order the proper seafood. Each noodle or meat dish is $20-ish.
We
tried the chef's specialitly of deep-fried chicken with shrimp paste
and mango sauce, stewed beancurd with black fungus and lily buds,
stewed roasted belly of pork with mushrooms and beancurd (I really
like!!), stewed vermicilli with seafood sauce (I also really really
like!) and a portion of the sea perch pan-fried with plum sauce (very
very nicely done).
My parents are surprised that I have taken to appreciating chinese food.
Wish me luck juggling two courses this semester! | | |
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Melbourne 2005
Touched down Singapore @ 2225 hours, 051205.
I wished I extended my stay for a longer period!!!
And to think that I had wanted to change my flight to travel home with my family. They had returned on the 3rd Dec.
It's
the second time that I have been to Melbourne but I can say without
hesitation that I would gladly make another trip there again.
I love the place!!!!
And I love the friends I know there who take time off to bring me around.
I love everything.
*blissful sigh*
Anyway, this was my itinery:
- Arrived
in Melbourne on wednesday at 6.30 am, parents picked me up from the
airport. went back to the hotel that they were staying (Royal Automobile Club Victoria), and had breakfast. yum! Went to Bridge Road to do some shopping and dinner at a lovely italian restaurant in Lygon Street. Finished reading 'Whores on the hill'.
- Thursday: Great Ocean Road!
The weather was really sunny that day, pictures will be uploaded. Many
say that it is not worth it driving almost 4 hours to see the 12
apostles. I suppose that to a certain extent that is true, but like all
road trips, it is the trip itself that is fun, the destination being a
bonus, and of course all the stops along the way. Geelong, Lorne,
Apollo Bay, Simpson, Port Campbell. Arrived back in Melbourne City at
8.30pm and went for dinner at Sharks Fin House, Chinatown. Finished reading 'The Innocent', Harlen Coben.
- Friday: Melbourne University for my sister. Later to Chapel Street
where we shopped somemore and had lunch at Angelucci's. Dreadful
London-ish weather, I say. Rested in hotel and hit the city streets for
more shopping. Dinner at Sharks Fin House again, parents sure love that place, and so did I. Finished reading 'The Pact'.
- Saturday: Queens Victoria Market. Probably the biggest market I have seen in my life. Shopped somemore. Checked into Saville on Russell, no more rooms for me at the RACV. Dim sum at SFH, again. Bade farewell to family and shopped in the city streets, again.
- Rainer came by to pick me up and we went for dinner at Crown Casino, followed by desserts and subsequently drinks at St. Kildas.
Met a group of his friends, all very freidnly people. MET 2
MAURITIANS!!!! Dead tired, knocked out at 1.30a.m. Read UK Cosmo
magazine.
- Sunday: Jeremy Thia!!! Walked all the way to Brunswick Street
via Lygon, 40 minutes. Lovely weather with breeze. I love that
bohemian-ish charm of that place, with cafes littering the streets on
both sides. Jem brought me to try gelati from Trampoline! Had lunch at a corner cafe and desserts at Babka. Oh my god, the lemon tart and the prune & apricot crumble cake with homemade cream is absolutely to die for. Checked out the shops and walked all the way back to his place. Of course tired!!!
- Knocked out there for about 15 minutes before Rainer came to pick me up for dinner. Went to 3 Station Pier at Port Melbourne. One of the best seafood that I have tried. Lovely waterfront view with an elegant charm that St Kilda lacks.
- House party at one of his friend's place. MET MORE MAURITIANS!!! the
first mauritians I know whom are my age! How bloody exciting is that! 5
of them in total who one by one tested out my Creole knowledge on me.
Failed miserably of course, to which they said, good then we can talk
behind your back. I told them that I would tape it and ask my dad to
translate. Felt kinda bad about not knowing more about Mauritius, I
mean I know that it is lovely and everything, but I don't even know the
location of where my relatives live. All I know is that the beaches and
the food is fantastic. I loved hearing them speak amongst themselves,
it's really funny and rather nostalgic.
- Monday: Dim sum at Red Emporer,
Southgate. Jiahui, Paul and Rainer. The last time I met them was when I
visited Melbourne 2 years ago and now they are happily married!!! R
dropped me off to the airport where
I gobbled some yummy butter cookies sold at Starbucks for $2.50 a
piece! Did somemore shopping and boarded BA home. Didn't manage to get
the aisle seat this time, but talked to the girl sitting on my right
from Dorset. She's 23 and engaged! Why is everyone getting married???[[
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Scarlett Hotel, 25th November 2005It was a triple celebration: Amy's belated birthday, My upcoming birthday and Joanna's finishing of exams. And then MY came down last minute, so we made it a quadruple celebration since his birthday is on Monday, ie TODAY!  Joanna, Adeline, Amy and Me aka the noisiest girls in NJ Snapper on a bed of pasta  Caesar salad with bbq chicken, ie bak gua The
food was 'alright' despite rave reviews of that place. I think what
really made the restauarant worth visiting was the theme (desire) so
everthing was red and black. And their menus were thicker than my law
tbs with erotic quotes and half naked bodies. So if you are
looking for a kinky place to rendezvous, dine at the restaurant, then
check yourself into one of their opulent suites and order yourself some
champagne and strawberries. Botanic Gardens Waterfall!  Random cute doggies, and they usually come in pairs!  The garden gnome
Meet the second garden gnome
Don't ask me why our clothes were so weird, and comprising of the same
weird combination of colours AND ending up at Botanic Gardens where the
scenery is green and yellow.
Sheer coincidence.
 The Shaw Foundation Symphony Stage  It was an impromptu outing actually. He had arrived in the afternoon so we went out for some sandwiches at Simply Bread. I think that place has droppedin standard, either that or I have come to know of better places. So after stuffing ourselves with bread, we wanted to take a walk at a park and ended up at Botanic Gardens.
He had classes on saturday, so he couldn't stay for my birthday celebrations with my family that night.
We went to Blu, Shangri-La and there was a guest chef from Les Moui-sth sth french. A two star michelin restaurant at St Tropez.
I didnt take photos because the place seemed too posh to whip up my
battered camera and start flashing away. And the restaurant, being true
to it's name, was dimly lit with blue-ish light.
I went for the degustation menu, $165 before taxes.
Before you gulp, it's my birthday!!! And... I shared it with my
brother, so it actually works out to be more worth it than if I had
ordered a sole portion of the wagyu beef ($85) which my parents did.
Certain items were simply exquisite, but then when the main course came ( wagyu beef), it was a disappointment. The one at St Pierre was so much better. So I guess that kinda dropped all praises for that place.
I had very tender seared scallops, a cold green beans soup and a simply
exquisite risotto-like pasta. They claimed that this special pasta is
very .... special and is produced only in limited quantity. Basically
its a pasta grain, but just slightly bigger than the size of a risotto,
done risotto style with winter morels and truffles.
Really good.
And of course, we heartily filled ourselves up on the free flow of
bread which was baked in a form of a wheat, really interesting.
Although they did cease to top up our dips (butter, olive oil, olive
pesto and mustard) after awhile.
The Cellar Door
You MUST try that place. I love it!
In fact, I dare say it is better than Cordoroy and Finch, which appeal is starting to fade on me.
It quite a small place and its walls are lined with bottles of wine and
posters, with thick wooden tables and equally thick chairs.
And everything that I had was so good.
Roast beef sandwich with onion jam (it's a first, and it works!), eggs
benedict with salmon (i think its better than my sandwich), raisin
scone with passionfruit curd (better than Royal Copenhagen), Steak and
Guinness pie (better than mine, hah) and finally, a bread and butter
pudding with passionfruit and vanilla cream.
Now that was a mouthful just to mention, let alone to stomach.
Anyway, that was a long entry, despite my exam tomorrow.
LAST PAPER!!!!!!!!!!!!
Like, finally.
And then I would be off to Melbourne that very night. Whole family left
today, leaving me behind, abandoned, and left alone to slog for my
exam. Meanies.
Will be back on monday!!!!!!
Till then.
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I am so happy!   
I
had just flipped through my latest Jamie Oliver recipe book, which I
had gotten my dad to buy for me just the other day at Borders.
HAPPY DAYS WITH THE NAKED CHEF!
It's my third Jamie Oliver book, my second proper book, the first being Jamie's Dinners.
Happy days.....
Not
only is the food absolutely appetising, the ingredients are so
wholesome, the pictures are so vibrant, the recipes are relatively
simple and most of all, he always looks so happy!
It makes me feel happy.
I can't wait to try out those new recipes!!!!!!!!
A little biography on the man himself:
I was born in May 1975 and straight into the business, really. My dad runs a lovely pub-restaurant, The Cricketers,
in Clavering, Essex, where I grew up. As soon as I was old enough to
peer over the worktops, I remember being fascinated by what went on in
the kitchen. It just seemed such a cool place, everyone working
together to make this lovely stuff and having a laugh doing it.
Me and my sister, Anna
I
guess the chefs got sick of hearing me whining all the time, so when I
was about seven or eight, they let me peel the potatoes and pod peas,
that kind of thing. By the time I was 11, I wasn't half bad at veg prep
and I could chop like a demon! Amazingly, although I loved hanging
around with my mates going fishing and climbing trees, I still thought
that the kitchen was the best place to be. A lot of the boys at school
thought that cooking was a girlie thing. I didn't really care,
especially as I could buy the coolest trainers with what I'd earned
from working at the weekend.
On holiday with mum and dad
When
I was 16, I didn't really have the results to stay on at school -
besides, I knew by then that I wanted to be a chef. So I went to
Westminster Catering College and then did some time in France, learning
as much as I could, before coming back to London to work as head pastry
chef for Antonio Carluccio at The Neal Street Restaurant. I was really
fortunate to have the chance to work at such a renowned restaurant so
early on in my career and I made the most of it. My good mate Gennaro
Contaldo worked there and he would be up at the crack of dawn making
bread and pasta for the restaurant, so I would join him before my
shifts to learn as much as I could. He taught me how to make the best
focaccias and genius fresh pasta, which I still love to make now.
After
The Neal Street Restaurant, I worked for Rose Gray and Ruth Rogers at
the River Café for three and a half years - what an amazing experience
that was. Those two ladies taught me all about the time and effort that
goes into creating the freshest, most honest, totally delicious food.
Of
course it was there that I first got in front of a TV camera. A
documentary about the restaurant was being filmed and the editors
decided to show a lot of this cheeky kid who was so into the cooking
that he'd answer back to the crew... The day after the programme was
shown, I got calls from five production companies all wanting to talk
about a possible show. I couldn't believe it and thought it was my
mates winding me up!
Jools and I on our wedding day
In
the end, I accepted an offer from Optomen Television - the idea behind
The Naked Chef was to strip food down to its bare essentials - to prove
that you didn't need to dress up ingredients or buy a load of fancy
gadgets to make something really tasty. Despite my Nan's worries, it
definitely didn't mean that I was cooking in the nude! I'm well chuffed
that the three Naked Chef books have been a success too. I always
wanted to write a book, though I doubt my old English teacher would
believe it! I think it's all about taking the same straightforward
approach as I do with food.
It
was then time to move on and to leave The Naked Chef behind. I had
always wanted to pass on my passion for food and to help disadvantaged
youngsters, so I decided to mentor fifteen unemployed or homeless
people to train as chefs with the idea that they would then staff a new
restaurant with me at the end of their training. All of this was
captured in a television documentary for Channel 4, called Jamie's
Kitchen and Penguin published my accompanying book. The restaurant is
still up and running and, with the help of the Fifteen Foundation
charity which I set up, we are on our third intake of students at the
moment. I'm really proud of them all and I'm so glad that it all worked
out as I thought it was going to fall flat and break the bank at any
minute!
Left: Me outside Fifteen
Right: My beautiful family
I've never been busier in my life! It's a complete whirlwind - and
right now the only thing I wish I had more time for is my family - my
lovely girls Jools, Poppy and Daisy. Although we now have a place in
the country to spend our weekends at, so I really look forward to
Friday nights when we can pack up and spend the weekends together.
That's what it's all about
http://www.jamieoliver.com
Joethedude: No freaking way! The past three years taught me that British food is fabulous! if you know where to look for it.
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