My Birthday dinner

Yes .. i know!! It has been about 20 over days since my birthday and I have just gotten round to blogging about my birthday. Well, blame my inertia ... my lackdaisical nature ... my whatever.



Anyway, first off I have to thank C-kun for organising it. Thanks to the everyone who came - (I tried to do the usual first letter of the last name, but it got too long. You pp know who you are. *another manifestation of my laziness?!*). We went to Cordury and Finch - food was ok but the company was great. So I can't complain. Ha!

So here's too one more year that has passed. May I become wiser...

Thai food at Golden Mile

Finally met up with Mr Anus after a long time. He has been studying for the last month so this would probably be the first time he is out. Poor boy .. haha. We went to Golden Mile because I have been telling him about the great Thai food there - cheap and good.

Reaching there, it was almost like entering another country - thai workers everywhere. You even have the occasional tranny walking by. How authentic!!




We went to this store and ordered seafood tom yum, black pepper beef, chicken curry and pad thai. The tom yum was good - hot, spicy (a little too spicy for my taste), and sour. So was the beef, although i have to say that it would have been better if they used a better cut from the beef - the beef had some stringy bits. The chicken was ok at the start but got a little too heavy towards the end - I think the sauce had too much coconut. The pad thai was rather authentic. Overall, I would say that it was a good meal and not too expensive. With drinks and rice, it cost $33. Will come back again to try other dishes.

Mocha Banana Chocolate Chip Muffin

Fresh out of the oven...



These came out good. The crust was crispy and the inside moist. I am becoming quite good at baking muffins *pat myself on the back*.

You can get the recipe here or below:

I added more coffee though since I love coffee and decreased the amount of sugar to up the "mocha" taste. I used vegetable oil too instead of magarine or butter.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup margarine
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1 egg
3 ripe bananas
1 tablespoon instant coffee granules, dissolved in
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Blend butter or margarine, sugar, egg, banana, dissolved coffee, and vanilla in food processor for 2 minutes. Add flour, salt, baking powder, and soda, and blend just until flour disappears. Add chocolate chips and mix in with wooden spoon. Spoon mixture into 15 to 18 paper-lined muffin cups.
3. Bake for 25 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Weiner Kaffehaus

I am having blogg-iahroe.


During the last few days, it was a big-boss-free and together with Ms. X, Y and L, I went to Weiner Kaffehaus on Cantonment Road. It serves Austrian food but it's similar to German food. The owner, anton, was friendly and walked around chatting to the customers - it gave the place a very European feel. The wait staff was a little gun-du though - we kept having to reminding them to get our things, partly because we were quite demanding. In the end, we ended up getting the forks, knives, water ourselves. But I have to say that the food is really Delish!

Too Bad Bee-hoon and Chua-kun cannot join us. Maybe next time ... Anyway, Dec will be truely a boss-free month.

the Veal Brutwurst


Wedges - it was deep fried to perfection: crispy on the outside, soft and fluffly potato on the inside. God, I sound like an Ad.


Beef Gulash - yes i know ... that is how the menu spelt it. It even had the little dumplings at the side. Sorry that the photo was a little blurred.


Slaughter Platter - the coup de grace. The pork knuckle was fantastic: not that much fats (all of it probably melted into the sauce), tender meat and very crispy skin. The smoked pork was good. But I felt that the burtwurst wasn't as nice as the Veal one. And don't think that it was all meat. There was the suarkruat too which was good too.

It's been a while - Little shop of Horrors

I have been negligent in blogging. Cos I have been lazy, choosing instead to surf, chat or read books. But I will give more updates ..

So I will be donig many flash backs ... the birthday dinner that Chua-kun so kindly help organised, some food pictures, more food pictures and hopefully more things to come. :)


First off, the office went for a play/musical "Little shop of Horrors" - a really really off broadway production, with the Dim Sum Dollies. I have to say that the dim sum dollies were the highlight for me. They were hilarious. Made me regret that I did not catch their previous productions. However, the 3 dim sums were not the main stars. I would say that the actress playing Audrey (brenda something) was surprisingly good. It was Hossan again in the lead - *does Singapore not have other actors. Seems like there is only a finite number of guys willing to go into acting*.

The ending was a little let-down though. It was a little strange - everyone died and the plant was cloned and its terror spread all over Singapore. It ended with the warning "Don't Feed the Plants!!" 0_0 *huh??!!*

Anyway, it was enjoyable nonetheless and I got to see Jade from America's Next Top Model. According to our resident TV guide, Jade is in town doing some photo shots. I really wanted to take a photo of her but I thought it was a little desperate. I can't say whether she is pretty or not - she was wearing a LARGE sunglasses when she was standing in the lobby. But she has style, i will give her that. And she got her poofy hair back. ...

Quarter Life Crisis

It is past 12 midnight.

I can officially declare that I am having a Quarter life crisis. :( ... although this is assuming that i am going to live to 100 years old. (Judging by my eating habits ... maybe not).

Well ... have been wallowing for the past two weeks. Is it in anticipation for this day? The realisation that time is passing again and I am standing still ... *sigh*.

I need a compass...

Trip to Algeria

Finally blogging about the algeria trip in OCt ...


Had a rather long stopover in paris .. because was not allowed to go into the business lounge with Mr T, i had to rough it out in the cafe myself for (i think) 5 hours. There was cigerette smoke everywhere. And the sad thing is, I only had work with me :( So i did my work ... and was actually able to puzzle out the whole thing and produced a powerpoint presentation at the end of it. Good on me!! haha.


Then to Algeria. There was nothing there ... or rather i could nto venture out cos i was with *ahem* someone elderly and not very adventureous. Well .. at least on the last day of meeting we were ferried around the town area. It looked nice and interesting. I had many issues on this trip. It was Ramadan so many of the restaurants were closed during the day. And it did not help that I was in a hotel that was about 1/2 hour away from the city. Also, it was french or arabic speaking so English will not get you far.


But one thing i saw was that at least it was not the usual desert and white buildings. I find those rather depressing. There was a nice garden beside our hotel but it was closed for renovation so all i got was this picture.

Banana Crumb Muffin

Hi Mr Anus,

I have made my banana crumb muffin. It has had rave reviews although some have said that they liked my apple cinnamon muffins better ("but next time, hold the burnt bits and the overcooked top" :). Some have also mentioned that it is a little salty.

Too bad you could not try this one. Next time then. .. hee.
website
And for those that are interested, here is the recipe from the allrecipe.com website.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin papers.
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

My Apple Cinnamon Muffins

I have been looking for a muffin tray for a long time. Cos I am not sure whether I will continue to make muffins after the first try, I wanted to get a cheap muffin tray. Got one from some dept store in chinatown for $5. What a steal!!

Anyway made my first muffins - Apple Cinnamon muffins. (See pix).
According to pp in office and home, it is not bad .. some even ventured a "good". I find it so fulfilling to cook / bake!

The recipe if you are interested:
3 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup milk
2/3 cup butter, melted
2 eggs, slightly beaten
2 cups finely chopped tart apples

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking powder and cinnamon. Mix together.
3. Add all remaining ingredients and stir until flour mixture is moistened.
4. Spoon batter into 2 greased or paper-lined 12-cup muffin pans.
5. Bake at 375 for 19-23 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool for about 5 minutes before removing from pan.