Wednesday, May 07, 2008

New Items On Sale

after much procrastination, i've finally came up with three new items to put up my sale list - mini ispahan, mini chocolate raspberry tartlets & mini macarons. i wanna kinda concentrate on doing party favors this time coz i've got quite alot of requests for them - weddings, baby showers, functions etc. so i think it'll be nice to come up with cute, bite-sized finger food items. nx up, i may come up with shot glass desserts like mousses, panna cotta, tiramisu, exquisite puddings etc, another must-haves for parties. so do watch this space! meanwhile, the new items :

NEW!

added on 16 may are mini ispahans - ring of raspberries surrounding fragrant rose petal scented cream and a lychee on two pink macaron shells. i did a little modification by adding real ground rose petals to the cream, so there's double rose fragrance in the little package. original one is close to the size of a hamburger, but the mini ones are about 6cm in diameter. i wanted to go even smaller but there's no way a lychee would fit in the middle, so yea.

innards of the ispahan. recently, not sure if its due to the weather, my macarons are really "well-behaved". they always turn out great with moist chewy insides and crisp outer shell with hardly any air pockets in between.

item #2 - mini chocolate raspberry tartlets made with valrhona 55% equatoriale ganache filling, and topped with fresh raspberry.

i think they're totally suitable for parties. plus, you really cant go wrong with chocolate & raspberries. really bite-sized, each tartlet is about 1.5 inches in diameter.

item #3 - attractively packed mini macarons complete with ribbon & gift tag. shown here are strawberry, macha & mango passion flavors.

these are really cute and addictive. couldn't resist popping them in my mouth one by one :p each container has got 12 mini pieces, and min. order's 3 boxes. the price of 3 boxes of minis are exactly the same as that of 1 box of regular sized macarons. you can email me for the price if you're interested =)

also, do check back on my online shop, dessert couture for more updates on party favor items.

Labels: for sale, french macarons, tarts

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Friday, April 25, 2008

What I Ate In Korea (Warning : Lotsa Pics!)

am back from my korea trip not too long ago. it was really really fantastic, almost close to perfect. in fact i wished i never came home! overall it was alot better than i expected. i'll blog more abt the trip in my next entry but meanwhile, here's some of the food pics. i don't think the food was actually very good, we had pork for almost every meal coz apparently pork is very cheap in korea so it was pretty sickening. only 2 meals consisted of chicken and there was no beef at all. plus the side dishes, its always kimchi, beansprouts, seaweed (and laver/kelp soup), fishcake-like dish etc. pretty boring and predictable i would say. some people who couldnt take in another meal of pork & kimchi actually bought cheesecakes and bread from the bakeries LOL. it was ok i would say, the food is still edible but nothing to shout about. here are some pics of the food :

breakfast in jeju island - abalone porridge, with hardly any abalone in it

side dishes - fishcake-like side dish, kimchi, seaweed are STAPLE food!

in jeju - black pork bbq lunch, one of the better meals. there's cabbage & squid in there and i totally dig the spicy sweet soup base. it was good!

cucumber kimchi - i love this one, very cool, crunchy & appetizing. the taste is sweet & vinegary, somewhat like our local achar.

in jeju - seafood steamboat dinner. i was actually expecting something better, but this is really very yucky! everything's dumped in there, and u can see that the soup base is very diluted & tasteless. i hate seafood being cooked this way. even the steamboat during our CNY reunion dinner taste like 1000x better than this. disappointing.

a breakfast buffet consisting of standard korean fare like porridge, rice, noodles, fried dumplings, tofu, kimchi side dishes, yakkwa (korean donuts), as well as bread, ham, jam. for beverages we had coffee, tea, orange juice & milk.

another view of the breakfast buffet table

and i must mention this! these are traditional korean rice cakes called gul ddeok stuffed with honey and sesame seeds. this is specially arranged for ME by our tour guide coz i asked him where i could get my hands on some of these rice cakes and he said he'll arrange for it for one of our breakfasts. i'm so touched!

the famous dakgalbi in chuncheon, one of the filming locations of winter sonata. dakgalbi is spicy hotplate chicken with tube-shaped rice cakes, cabbage and potatoes. and halfway into it, the lady boss would come by and fry rice in there. yummy yum! easily one of the better meals that everyone enjoyed :p

dinner is yellow pollack stew. in chinese yellow pollack is called huang di yu, literally translated as emperor fish. as usual, our pork & the lovely side dishes take centerstage *rolls eyes*

a close-up of the yellow pollack stew.

buffet breakfast @ yongpyong ski resort, another filming location of winter sonata. its funny to see fries there. i don't think people eat fries for breakfast do they? hashbrowns maybe, but not fries!

nevertheless it was quite good. i could never say no to americanized breakfasts LOL

bbq pork lunch, near mt. sorak. koreans' way of eating this - take a piece of bbq pork, rice, garlic and wrap it with fresh lettuce.

close-up of the bbq pork. didnt like it one bit, unfortunately.

dinner is another round of bbq pork + bibimbap (hot stone mixed rice). this is slightly better coz the pork is thinly sliced.

bibimbap

samgyetang - ginseng chicken soup. this is one of the worst i've tasted, and whats more in korea! prior to this, i've tried them twice in sg, and they're really not too bad. but this, the soup is bland with absolutely NO ginseng aroma, the chicken is bland, and there are hardly anything inside the cavity, just lots of glutinous rice. i can confidently say that i can do better than this, MUCH better.

shots of ginseng wine & noodles to add into the soup. unfortunately, its still blah.

tofu steamboat dinner - suprisingly this is one of the better dinners. i love it, but i think i love their potato & saba fish side dishes more :p

close-up of the tofu steamboat. again, u see pork but its really very yummy!

*sigh* writing this post makes me miss korea all over again. despite the fact that i can only give 60/100 for the food, i totally love korea so so much. love their sceneries, the places, the culture. they have very vast lands, something you're not able to see here. and the most regretful part of the trip is not buying enough things (i barely spent 200 bucks), esp at the face shop, korea's homegrown cosmetic chain which is very popular here. they have MUCH wider range of stuffs and at very cheap prices too (about half the price compared to ours). other brands like laneige, missha & beauty credit are also pretty cheap. and so, i'll be going to korea again in october!!! yes, hubby finally relented. hee.

anyhow, spring is a good time to visit korea. we saw rows & rows of cherry blossoms as well as tulips in everland, korea's biggest amusement park. it was really beautiful.

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Friday, March 28, 2008

Windows Vista Sucks

i almost never blog about my personal thoughts & ramblings anymore but i'm so peeved that i have to say this - windows vista sucks. i bought a new notebook abt a week ago and it came with vista home premium, so i happily came home and attempted to install the softwares which i normally use - camera driver, photoshop, nero burning rom, my nokia N80 phone driver etc, and to my dismay i realized they all are NOT compatible with vista! now i can't download my photos onto the pc, i can't edit the photos and i can't burn any cds! this is a case whereby "newer is definitely not better". most of the softwares i use are too old (in today's context where technology moves fast, 2-3 years is considered relatively old) and therefore don't come with patches anymore. and upgrading newer versions mean more money, something which i'm not willing to fork out since there's no reason why i should upgrade them when they're working fine and are not lacking in functions. i'm definitely not a very adventurous person when it comes to new softwares - most of the time i'm too lazy to learn the new features :p

so my advice is this, think twice before you upgrade to vista. its not all that bad since i do love the extra security functions and the sleek interface, but then what good is there if i can't install the softwares that i normally use? if you're holding on to the old programs, there is a high chance, maybe 70% of it that they won't be compatible with vista. i haven't tried installing my printer/scanner software but i'm guessing it won't be compatible too.

now, i'm trying to find a way to downgrade to XP. but if the good people at the computer store won't allow me to do it for free, i'll hv to fork out another S$135 for the XP software. but i think it's worth it, consider that i'll be spending much more if i have to upgrade ALL my current softwares to new versions. so, no new photos for the time being. i haven't taken any new photos since 14 march coz even if i do, i wont be able to edit them. it sucks, really. i think if i don't try taking anymore photos soon, i'll just forget how to do it. i'm also wasting my flickr pro account *sigh*

on a lighter note, would love to share this video clip with you guys. its really funny, elaine darling showed it to me a few weeks ago. real classic :p title of the clip is called "ken lee". if you havent already, watch on to find out why its called "ken lee". LOL.

Labels: ramblings

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Friday, March 14, 2008

Thai Mango Sticky Rice

prior to this, i've never tried my hands at glutinous rice, so while this dessert looks simple to put together, it was actually pretty challenging, at least to me. i'm not sure why i suddenly hv this craving for thai food (stuffs like thai green curry, tom yum soup, spicy minced chicken salad suddenly became so appealing). at siam kitchen the other day, i ordered their thai mango sticky rice too but it left me unsatisfied coz the rice was of a really pathetic portion, the mango wasnt sweet enough but most of it all, i don't think it was worth the money. and so i decided to come home to try making this myself. at the same time, i could try playing around with glutinous rice :p

the rice turned out pretty well done, soft yet not mushy. thanks to ellena who provided me with so many tips on making this dessert, and patiently answering all my questions on phone, sms & MSN. thx sis, i really appreciate it!! the following recipe is also provided by her =)

ingredients:

serves 2

100g glutinous rice, soaked for 30 mins to 1 hr

200ml coconut milk

80ml water (omit this if you're using chilled or fresh coconut milk)

4-5 tbsp sugar, or to taste

1 tbsp corn flour

mangoes, diced (i used chukanlam mangoes but u could also try other varieties)

directions :

1. steam glutinous rice on bamboo or electric steamer for 30 mins or until soft.

2. combine coconut milk, water (if using), sugar & corn flour. bring to a boil and allow mixture to thicken.

3. reserving 1-2 tbsps of coconut milk mixture to drizzle onto rice prior to serving, pour the rest of the coconut milk mixture onto rice while hot & stir well to combine.

4. serve warm with diced mangoes and drizzle the remaining coconut milk onto rice.

Labels: asian, desserts

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Friday, February 29, 2008

Jones The Grocer @ Dempsey Hill

my first visit to dempsey hill proved 2b an enjoyable one. went there with sihan & claire, and it was really great hanging out with these two lovely ladies =) i know this is a grossly overdue post but hey, better late than never!

jones the grocer is an australian grocer shop which carries really fantastic stuffs like tea, vanilla sugar, apple balsamic vinegar, chocolates, candies, pasta, brandy butter, wasabi mayo etc. totally dig the minimalist concept and this place has an IKEA feel to it. there's even a walk-in cheese room whereby i was really tempted to try (and buy) some of their cheeses! i set my eyes on the blue cheese actually :p there's also a sit-in cafe where we had our dinner. the food's really expensive and in my opinion, not worth the money. like the main course which i ordered - the veal meatballs in jones neapolitana sauce w/ ma'kaira organic guitar string pasta n shaved parmigiano reggiano cheese ($27), it was really overpriced and the meatballs were overcooked. on the whole, this was a very normal pasta dish and the so-called guitar string pasta didnt look any different from the normal spaghetti to me. but according to sihan, her lemon roasted spatchcock (i think its spring chicken) wasnt too bad.

nevertheless it was quite a nice place to shop, if you love western/european kind of supermarkets or grocery stores, like me. i shall let the pictures above do the talking :p you can also mouseover for notes at the bottom right of the pictures.

Labels: eat-outs

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