Flowers of JAPAN

Let me SNORE

Another sleepless night... I wonder if it is due to the jet lag or simply because I am just not used to sleeping at night. Haven't had a good sleep for days, and recently, I was shocked to discover a couple of white hairs appearing. It may be usual for some people, but never for me. I never had a single strand of white hair till now. What is causing the stress and worries? Is it due to my jaw pain? Insomnia? Decisions of the future?

I hate hate hate lying on bed and not falling asleep. Oh God... Please grant me some sleep!

C.H.O.C.O.L.A.T.E

Chocolate cake... delicious, warm and moist chocolate cake. I woke up from my nap and decided to bake something with loads of chocolate in it. Definitely too lazy to head out for any ingredients since I just returned this morning and have to head out again tomorrow night. Decided on a simple chocolate cake, something like 'Gateau au Chocolat', nothing fancy but it will do its job as a dessert. I am quite sure my sis-in-law and bro will enjoy that.

It's really simple, to get it going, I melted butter with dark chocolate using the bain-marie technique. Mix the eggs, egg yolk, sugar and vanilla extract. What I like about this cake - it contains minimal flour and sugar, you get most of the sweetness from the dark chocolate itself. Fold in the smooth chocolate mixture and flour into the eggy mix and it's ready for the oven.

I baked two mini ones with a piece of additional chocolate in it, and two small ones for my sis-in-law and bro. Well, I can't help but finish the two mini ones before dinner.

Finished the one above in less than ten minutes and I had to stop the urge of reaching out for the rest...

Well, my bro likes it with loads of ice cream, that explains the start of the bump at his waist, wonder when will it become full-blown.. *giggles*. Sis-in-law likes it the way it is, next time, she have to try it warm, just out of the oven!

Laughters

Slogging more than 12 hours later, I have finally arrived on the land that belongs to "Little Mermaid". On this land, the fame of the Little Mermaid is widely known and it is one of the most photographed statue in Copenhagen, the city of Denmark. Most of us got to know this statue through the fairy tale of The Little Mermaid, written by Hans Christian Anderson in 1837.

Every little girl who watched the Walt Disney movie will never forget Ariel, the beautiful mermaid with a lovely voice who sang "Part of your world". Though it may be embarrassing, but I am proud to reveal that I knew every word to that song. Of course, the red crab, Sebestian - "Under the sea, under the sea. Darling, its better down where its wetter. Take it from me..." Haha, I find myself singing to it while blogging. Well, if you haven't seen it, WATCH IT!

On the way to the Island hotel, I was chatting to Anand and Richard. We found out that we do have a common friend. Karen Chu! Dragon brother told me to say hi to you! We found out the story behind the scar on his forehead *giggles* I cannot help but miss you. It reminds me of the times that we used to make each other laughed and giggled till all those around us were annoyed. Let's do that again soon! *LOH*

Looking forward to your gig, Chu.

=)

Some Past Creations

Some pictures of food that I whipped up in the past, with much help from my mum, especially the washing part *giggles* And I have to thank my sis-in-law for taking the photos for the dishes, since I was too lazy to do so.

Hello GUYS

Finally, I reveal to some closer people in my life there I do keep a blog though it isn't one that is updated regularly, but I will try to do so in the future and maybe include some pictures too. Well, the blog was meant to be a personal diary at first, so there are things that I wrote, ahem.. maybe it was only meant for my eyes.. but well, read and forget yeah?

Anyway, welcome =)

Crab Cakkies

Out of nowhere, I decided to try my hand at making some crab cakes, maybe I was missing the mouth-watering+delicious+juicy +huge crab cake sandwich from Houston and believe me, that was the only thing I ate when I was there. And I packed it to go for my way to Moscow too!

Well, one may think what is so hard about making crab cakes? The ready-to-eat crab meat that one is able to buy from supermarket are total crap, smells and taste bad! So I had to obtain my crab meat by extracting it from the shell itself and it was no easy job, my friend... Four crabs took me almost two to three hours, but believing that it was going to be worth all the effort, I managed to finish that most daunting process of all.

Mixing the extracted crab meat with Worcestershire, tabasco, mayonnaise, egg, parsley, mixed seasoning and saltine crackers. The final product was achieved by shaping "the delicious mess" into small sized patties, around an inch thick. Coat with a layer of bread crumbs. Refrigerate it for half an hour and it will be ready for the pan.

I can't help feeling excited with the final taste and outcome. Butter was used to pan-fry the patties and when it was finally golden-brown. The patties looks great since it managed to keep its shapes. First bite into the crispy and golden crust, the juicy crab meat with the fresh aroma of parsley, it was heavenly.

There will definitely be a next.