Bye Bye Imbi & Itchy

Nigel was singing German Christmas Carols. We were talking about German Sausages, and Imbi & Itchy said, "oh, in that town, the sausages are very small", after Nigel had just announced that German Sausages are all large. I don't know what them innocent young bloggers were thinking. I think Lemongrass and Me single handed raised the age average on the table as we had the young and radiant Kampung Boy and City Gal there, and young young photographer Dwayne and girlfriend Serene.

Precious Pea and Boolicious were also on the table, ....hmmm, come to think of it, I think the aforementioned young bloggers brought DOWN the average age, not vice versa.

Yeah, so after much preamble, and waiting for everyone to arrive, the food finally arrived. Oh, the venue, King Crab, along the LDP. Except it is one helluva detour from the first time you actually sight the place on the other side of the LDP, to actually getting there, coz you gotta go past the Kelana Station, make a U Turn almost near Giant, come back the opposite direction, and make ANOTHER U Turn miles further down, to finally get there. Imagine a Z shape.

Of course, VIP guest Precious Pea is no stranger in these parts, and with just one wave of the camera bag, the waitress downstairs said, "Oh, Precious Pea ah, 2nd floor". We were given the space that looked like it was reserved for weddings.... and the like.

I often wonder what restaurants do with all the leftover chilli. Looking at the price of chillis these days, I think I should start carrying a little tupperware in my camera bag, and start doggy bagging chilli and garlic. Then again, I shouldn't share these brilliant ideas in public....lest they release the sniffer dogs on me.

Ah, my favourite combination....I think they call it the 4 heavenly kings or something. Petai, (aka smelly bean), brinjal, long beans and four angle beans. Very well cooked, and very flavoursome. The petais were large and luscious, and potent in their odour.

Scallops, macadamias and lotus roots. It doens't take a genius not to botch up this combination, I mean, the sum of the parts is greater than the parts? But nicely done, and the nuts were nicely toasted, and most importantly, not rancid. I shudder at some places where the walnuts or macadamias have gone a bit off....

If a fish made love to a chicken, this would be the resulting animal. A Ficken. The Skin of the Chicken, with the flesh of the fish. Crispy chicken skin, with a layer of lovely fish paste. Of course, connoiseurs like precious pea pointed out that there was still some evidence of chicken meat there, (which i like), which isn't meant to be.

Guinness Stout Spare Ribs. Yummy. Alcohol, and pork. A more glorious combination could not exist in this world of pain and suffering. The meat was succulent and tender....though sadly, I couldn't really taste the guinness. But its something I'd definitely order again.

The famous butter crab. Truth be told, I found the sauce a bit too thick, you can almost stand a spoon in it. (although the spoon in question isn't really standing, but more reclining like Cleopatra on her love couch). It overpowered the crab, so I didn't really like this dish.

The second crab dish, chilli crab, was far more palatable to my taste buds. The sauce went well with the deep friend mantaus, and the crabs themselves were meaty and sweet. Very nice. I think I shall have my crabs plainly steamed the next time.

I would seriously like to send this to a lab to really measure the cholesterol content. I bet its an urban myth. I bet in real life, it's actually very healthy for you, probably choc ful of calcium, vitamins and proteins. It'll probably add to your youth, and make you live to a hundred.

Despite the fact that I didn't care much for the butter sauce, (which according to Nigel, is all milk), I did quite like the crab claw.

The famous mantis prawn. Beheaded like Anne Boleyn, and de shelled on one side, I thought it strange that they should go through the efforts of deshelling the top, but leaving the bottom skeleton intact. Not my favourite dish. Give me regular prawns any day.

The little headies of the prawnies.

Anyway, I couldn't stay on for the rest, wonder if there was dessert, as I had to rush off for Bible Study, and after that another party at Twenty One in Changkat Bukit Bintang. But that's another story altogether.

Well, Imbi & Itchy, wishing you all the very best in your new life in Germany. Although we only met a few times, (can count on both hands), I'm glad we got along so well, and look forward to reading about your exploits with the bratwurst and saurkraut.

Pink Cakes, Green Cakes, and Yellow Pies

When it rains it pours. Was swamped with cake orders on Saturday, which hasn't happened in awhile. Maybe the novelty has worn out, maybe the increased fuel prices have driven people to austerity, maybe sigh, my stuff is inedible, .... haha, but oh well, yeah, last Saturday, the convection oven must have complained to the microwave who lives in the apartment above, about how overworked it was. And the refrigerator couldn't have been too thrilled about being stuffed to its full capacity.

However, I'm not here to talk about those orders. Last Monday, my mother announced that green apples were cheap in Giant. Those kind of annoucements are usually a euphemism for "apple pie would be nice". Indeed, it would. So for Tuesday dinner, (family dinner night), tah dah.

I actually love my apple pie very cinnamony, with a hint of clove, and some lemon zest. I also like it with raisins, but unfortunately, I am the only fan of dried grapes and dried up old queens, (sultanas), so they're usually omitted from the party. With Haagen Daz now RM30.90 a tub, I think I shall just have to wait for my birthday month (when I get a 30% discount voucher) and buy a year's supply. Where shall I put the freezer?

After the resounding success of the colorful cupcakes, friend who was at that party asked if I could do a birthday cake for her daughter. Alarm bells ring in my head like a fire drill in the hotel as you're about to enter the shower naked, whenever people ask me to do birthday cakes for children, and my first response is NO. However, she insisted all she wanted was a good old fashioned butter cake with some pink icing, and some princess figurines plonked on top. Okay, that didn't sound too hard, except, by Thursday, I couldn't find ANY princess figurines, apart from those Barbie ones, (eugh). Barbie, now talk about versatility, here is a chick that can be ANYTHING she wants to be. Princess, waif, trollop, mermaid, .....

So I call the friend with a distress signal, and she placates me by saying she'll provide the figurines. Phew. That was one girly task off my plate. Then came the day of the icing. PINK. Argh, I swear by the end of it, I had grown an entire cup size, one letter downwards in the alphabet.

With a shaking hand, as a result of allergy to pinky and girliness, I quickly iced the cake and sent it on its merry way. Why doesn't anyone ever have birthday cakes with Disney Villains? If I had a birthday cake, I'd want all my favourite villains on it. Maleficent, Ursula, Snow White's Step Mother.....that reminds me, have any of you read the "The Story from My Side"....it's a account written by the villains.

I love the evil queen's one. It went something like, "That lousy husband of mine, died leaving me to raise his daughter, without so much as a dime in my name. As the years went by, I noticed Snow White was getting a little tubby, so I decided some aerobic household chores would do her good, afterall, we were short staffed and these palace walls are not going to clean themselves".....you get the gist. When you have children, you inevitably pick up these things.

Since the oven was already running, I thought I'd try again to make the Kyoto Matcha Chiffon Cake, and see if my first success was beginner's luck. Turned out quite well, although I have to tweak the recipe again for the quantities, coz my recipe yielded 1½ swiss roll tins...which is neither here nor there. And sssh, I did the unthinkable. Look at the snow white cream! One look and you'll know its fake non dairy. Gasp. That's a whole other story, but rest assured, I do NOT ever use fake cream. All my cream is pure thick creamy gobs of fattening milky goodness.

And yesterday, I thought I'd whip up a lemon meringue pie for Tuesday dinner, since I reached home early, and had time to make it. It doesn't take much time as such, but the waiting time, ie, letting the pastry sit in fridge for 30 minutes, etc....does require chronological time frame. If you had a ready crust, the process will take 10 minutes. (for me that is). Excluding the baking time for the meringue. But once its in the oven for meringue to bake, you can basically go off and perform your chores.

Lemon Meringue anyone?

When The Hosting Bar is Raised Too High

Whenever fellow gym member, Lionheart, announces that he is going to host a home cooked dinner, we all know that this is bad news, calorifically. His dinners, more like banquets, keeps one in serious anticipation for weeks, knowing the feast that is to come, and keeps one in guilt for weeks after, for having indulged in too much. But as such festivities occur as regularly as Easter and Christmas, one must take the fullest advantage and indulge all you can.

The minute you enter his home, you feel happy, and content, like a child who's been out in the field all day only to return home to the aroma of mother's cooking. Alright, that may seem a sexist, unfair to mothers (esp those who don't cook) remark, but you get the drift. The smells wafting through engulf the nostrils the way a mist engulfs a shrouded mountain....filling every orifice and tingling all the senses. (I'm highly drugged on antibiotics, antihistamines and paracetamol as I write this, so excuse the waffling).

He was busy slaving over his Foo Chow Red Wine Chicken. Look at the glorious crimson of this dish.

It being a gym crowd dinner, the cursory healthy dish of vegetables, crackers and dips were served as a starter. One of the dips was made by Mrs Lionheart, and comprised cheese spread, yoghurt, pineapple. Absolutely divine, and nothing healthy.

Lionheart was bemoaning the absence of oxtail in Village Grocer and the greater Bangsar area, as oxtail was one of the dishes requested by one of the guests. However, he substituted it with baby beef back ribs. With meat falling off the bone, it was absolutely scrumptious.

The garnishings below, freshly fried shallots, and mince pork, further down, was a synopsis of the piece de resistance of the night.

The blue bowl and the white quails eggs may reek of someone's signature, ie, mine, and yes, it was because despite the massive array of food, Lion realised being the true Lion that he was, it was an entirely carnivoric meal, so decided he needed help with a salad.

Okay, the picture below sucks, ....its hard to take pictures of meat, for some reason. I really do need classes. Anyway, the dish below is lamb. And very delicious lamb it was too, so don't judge it by the picture.

Move over, all the charsiu greats like meng kee or what have you. This is the char siu to beat, but however, since it's home made, money cannot buy. Succulent pieces of three layered pork, caramelised in his secret sauces, singed a little and then baked, ooooh, divine. Melt in the mouth, the equivalent of swiss chocolate for pigs.

Much as I am not a fan of hers, when Lion made Kylie Kwong's steamed cod fish with ....soya sauce la, must be, her favourite ingredient, it was excellent. And that is saying a lot, because I am not even a cod fan, nor kylie, so kylie cod would be like forcing posion down my throat.

And finally, the dish that I waited a year to resample, Hakka Mee...but heck, by that time I had food coming out of every orifice above the chin, and below the belt, so I only managed to finish one small plate. Sigh.

And for dessert, I brought my brandy truffle cake, and upside down pear and ginger pudding.

The brandy truffle was served with home made brandy chocolate ice cream, made by the Lionness. It was a combination made in heaven.

As usual, a fantastic dinner, which left the rest of us wondering, "how the heck are WE ever going to meet this kind of high standard in hosting".

Cupcakes and The MIFB

It has always been my resolve that I shall never "stoop" to decorating cupcakes, because they're such girly things, and eugh, I can't get myself to pipe pretty pink icing, etc, mainly because I probably lack that particular creative gene. It also explains why I dropped out from finishing the final level of the Wilton course at the ICCA, because after an inordinate amount of flower piping in level 1 & 2, using buttercream and royal icing respectively, I was getting a severe hayfever allergy to piped flowers, and since level 3 consists of MORE flowers, with FONDANT, I decided to put the RM750 to better use. Such as buying a package of 10 spa treatments.

So, when mother of baby heiress called to ask if I would do cupcakes for her daughter's 1st birthday, ....by virtue of the fact that these are old old friends, with whom we have laughed, cried, gotten drunk, ..... I didn't say no outright, but might have inadvertently stumbled on a novel concept that I intend to start marketing right away.

I said, well, why don't we all congregate at your house the night before the party, and YOU can decorate the cupcakes. Nothing appeals to the maternal instinct more that the idea of HANDS ON DECORATING for your baby's first birthday cake. Of course this idea was welcomed faster than a cop accepting a bribe, and in one fell swoop, I had accomplished
1. not having to worry about the birthday present,
2. satisfying an old friend's request,
3. brought more meaning and joy into her life,
4. creating memories that will last a lifetime, and something that can be shown in a powerpoint at the daughter's wedding.

So slaving over the kitchen top on Thursday night, I made approximately 40 vanilla cupcakes, and 30 chocolate cupcakes. To my horror, the 1st batch of choc cupcakes only rose to halfway past the half way mark in the cup. On Friday, I kneaded in the colors to my homemade fondant, (because to my horror, the 1kg packs of pre prepared sugarpaste in Bake With Yen were sold out). I KICK myself, because I forgot to take pictures of all the pre-preparation work.

Friday night, we skip Bible study and head down to the palatial mansion of the birthday girl's parents, and together with the birthday girl's mother, godmother, father, grandmother, wife, (mine), we embark on PROJECT CUPCAKE DECORATION. Half of the contingent stuck to sugarpaste, whilst another two tried their hand on piping buttercream. Unlike the Wilton buttercream, which is mainly shortening, and therefore gloriously fake, but holds its shape well, (just like other fake stuff that hold their shape well), mine was pure butter and icing sugar. Which was a bit stressful. Nevertheless, I'd say, for first timers, it was a mega commendable effort, for these were the finished results.

Of course, credit should be given to me, the mixer and colorer of the icings, for producing such brilliant colors, inspiring the various Matisses and Van Goghs of the icing world.

I think all in all, it turned out fabulously, and I think I shall market this concept under HANDS ON MOTHERS. I'll bring the cakes and the icing, and gently guide you through the piping, so you can tell your chewdren, "mummy made these". Let's make it say, RM5 per cupcake. All you have to do is provide a venue, with a large table. I'll settle for plain water. Unlike in this case, where I was downing Johnny Walker BLUE Label, that costs RM 700 /litre.

And how did these babies taste? Well, with pure butter cake, and pure butter icing, it would take an idiot to really botch that up. I thought the butter icing, (though the usual response is argh, so sweet ah) really complemented the semi bitter chocolate cake. Nor were the vanilla butter cakes sweet at all. Okay, sugarpaste does nothing for me, in terms of edibility, so I honestly wouldn't eat that myself.

On a different note, on Friday afternoon, I decided to pop over to PWTC for the Malaysian International F& B Trade Fair. (MIFB). I was lunching at Oriental Spoon, Sentral, and decided to take the LRT to PWTC, and jostle with the rakyat. It's my first time doing that change of line from Putra to Star, at Masjid Jamek. I was quite impressed with how gorgeous that old mosque looks closeup.

Now, the snag was, to get into the MIFB on Friday, apparently you need to be "trade" related. I can't jolly well say, "don't you know who I am, I'm FATBOYBAKES, doyenne of the local food industry". So, it was timely, that THIS name card, was freshly printed. Some of you may know that I am involved loosely with this new food magazine coming out soon, called MY NOURISHMENT. Roped in by the people of The Cooking House. If you look CAREFULLY, you'd see the designation as CHIEF FOOD EDITOR. Phwah, terror nya.

Anyway, fellow colleague, research chef, Ryan Kang was in the midst of doing a demo on healthy salads, and olive oil.

If you look at the poster above, you'd see MY NOURISHMENT as one of the sponsors for the Cooking Revolution series of Demos. Ahem, that's the magazine I'm involved in. (heart welling up with pride).

The MIFB was interesting for a first timer like me, lots of stuff, from utter junk food, to healthy organics. A wide array of fruits were also on display, obviously not local. Iran appears to be quite a large exporter of temperate fruits. But not cheap.

Ah, I've read about these ridiculously priced watermelons.



Part of Ryan's Salad Demo. People were tucking in, and I overheard some old ladies raving about it. Dunno if they were raving about him, or the salad. He does seem to have that boyish appeal that make the aunties transfixed.

Anyway, will keep you posted on the latest development of the magazine. Of course, there's lots of advertising space, for F&B related business. Feel free to email me for more information.

Serendipitous Satisfaction

Those who know me would know by now Tuesday is the day that spawned my baking interest. It is the day that all the family (not that it's very big) gets together at home for family dinner, and the sound of 7 screaming excited kids permeates the air like the smell of baked apples with cinnamon in a wintery day.

In days of yore, I'd come home after work, and proceed with the latest experiment du jour, to prepare dessert for this family feast. The maid and I jostle for oven space, as inevitably there is a roast roasting in there, and usually at a different baking temperature than that of cakes. As time went by, and I became more ahem, "proficient" at baking, it was no longer a big mammoth project, and I could juggle dessert in between coming back from work, and going to the gym, and after gym. Sometimes, I'd make the dessert on Monday nights. As was the case this week. The oven was running for some other cake order, and with the fuel hike, etc, I am now very conscientious about using the oven for just one cake, so I try to utilise it to the max. The one baking in the oven was a brandy truffle, in a bain marie, (imagine a woman named Marie (not Osmond) soaking in a really hot tub). What other cake, I wondered, wouldn't mind sharing a steam bath? Aha, a cheese cake.

So, utilising my newly found skills, I quickly whipped up a lemon cheese cake and chucked it into the oven, ....knowing for a fact that the oven settings were different than what I usually use. Oh dear oh dear, if this cake was for selling, I'd have had to do some major plastic surgery, but that's the nice thing about home made cakes, the more home made they look, the better.

Ah, just like my .....hmmm, was going to say grandmother, but nah, no one in my family before me baked, so I can't refer to any ancestry, just like ....Aunty Nigella? Rustic and utterly homemade. Complete with cracks and lots of aesthetic flaws.

And then, to my horror, as I returned from the gym, I saw THIS lying on the kitchen top!!! Sacre bleu, gasp, stealing my thunder for Tuesday dessert.

Not just any cupcakes, but from the legendary WONDERMILK CUPPACAKES themselves. Wah, it's like the epic duel between Nadal and Federer at Centre Court. Or not.

Anyway, I'm being overly dramatic here. Of course, the adults all opted for this luscious, light but smooth, flawed but perfect, baked lemon cheese cake. With a dollop of cream, (flush..... (sound of water down a toilet bowl)....I hear the sound of my gym workout gurgling down a whirlpool of clear water)....it was rather heavenly.

The verdict? Oh well, I guess one mustn't be too greedy, and be content with whatever God has given you. Aesthetic beauty is afterall skin deep, or in this case, icing deep.