A reminisce to our past

As I was looking at Amy Carroll's photography, it just reminded me again about my own's wedding photos. It is actually very sweet to just reminisce the wedding days again...

I decided to compile some shots that I really like that weren't the main photo features during my wedding but I adore how Weiming took the shots. I like how he makes wedding shots no pretend and totally natural!

Pork chop (my very own creation)

Recently Mr Hoby and I were chatting about how many generation food that are passed down from our parents, and even grandparents, I can cooked by now? As we were chatting, I thought that it would be nice to invent my own kinda food and pass it down to the next generationS? Isn't it cool? 

And I realised I have one! And that's my famous pork chops! The taste to the pork chop is the sauce- made from the juice from the fried pork chops, cream and the orange flavoured mustard sauce! 

The pork chops must be pan-fried with very little oil and on medium heat till it is cooked. The juice from the pork will ooze out and it will then be used as part of the sauce! 

I served it with boiled vegies- Broccoli and carrots.  

And this is it! An easy dish but one that will hype up your senses! Yumzzzzzz......... 

Backdated updates

A few weeks ago, I blogged about the grilled vegies  and chicken stew that I wanna try cooking, and I did! Both turned out really well! 

For the grilled vegies, I had a marinate that consists of orange juice, sugar, olive oil, salt and black pepper! 

For the stew chicken, I modified by using chicken thighs (marinating with soya sauce, sugar, corn flour, pepper)  and stewed it with carrots, onions and corn. Mr Hoby actually likes it! It is an easy dish to cook and great dish to warm ourselves in this cold weather!

A last minute laksa meal

This is the first meal that I cooked after my last paper as a Masters student! It marks the end of my course  and also the beginning of another adventurous journey with the Lord! 

  

Side dish: Vegie spring rolls that I made it for the 1st time. They all gave me a thumbs up! (With my special sauce) 

Originally we were supposed to get 2 Singaporean friends over for dinner as I have decided to cook laksa and thought that maybe Singaporeans would appreciate such local food! However, our friend fell ill and we had to call in our great friends the very last minute to enjoy this meal with us. Interestingly, I also discovered that they love laksa! Thank GOD and isn't it such a good timing to celebrate my finishing line with our bestest friends here? 

Laksa with a twist from the usual premix pack 

Replace HUM with prawns and fish cake with fish tofu 

My premix laksa sauce with a twist 

Tada: Overseas students' laksa 

The replacement ingredients still tasted as great! 

Randy's donuts

Mr Hoby always complain why there are so many women's fashion blogs but none for guys. I know he secretly wants to shop online like me! To satisfy his vanity desires, I was looking around for some guys blog and came across this blog a continuous lean shop! It has super funky unique guy stuff and I am thrilled. Too expensive to buy for now but no harm just browsing aint it? As I was reading the blog, I saw this blog post that featured my friend, Randy's donuts! I didn't know he is so famous! Gotcha! Of course not lah, it's not my friend shop but funny enough for me to blog about it!

Best scrambled eggs recipe instruction

I was reading smitten kitchen and came across the best scrambled eggs recipe instruction given ever! And I love scrambled eggs...if u are a lover like me, give it a try!

Kylie Kwong

I was introduced to Kylie Kwong's cooking while watching the Master Chef TV program at a friend's place. I must say that she is a daring, serious and creative chinese cook in Australia!

I am gonna try her recipe for Braised Eggplant with Sichuan Pepper and Chilli ! 

3 medium eggplants (aubergines), peeled
2 tablespoons sea salt
4 tablespoons peanut oil
5cm (2in) piece ginger, finely sliced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons brown sugar
½ cup shao hsing wine
½ cup water
2 tablespoons tamari
1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
1 large red chilli, finely chopped
pinch Sichuan pepper and salt
1 large red chilli, finely sliced on the diagonal – optional

Cut eggplants into 2cm (3/4 in) slices, then cut each slice into 2.5 (1 in) cm strips. Sprinkle eggplant strips with salt and place on a tray in a single layer. Set aside for 1 hour.
Rinse eggplant in a colander under cold running water, then drain and pat dry with kitchen paper.

Heat peanut oil in a hot wok until surface seems to shimmer slightly. Add ginger, garlic and eggplant and stir-fry for 3 minutes. Add sugar and allow  to caramelise for 30 seconds, stirring constantly to prevent eggplant from burning. Add shao hsing wine and stir-fry for 1 minute, then add water and cook for 2 minutes.

Add tamari, vinegar and chopped chilli and stir-fry for 2 minutes. Serve immediately, sprinkled with Sichuan pepper and salt, and garnished with sliced chilli if desired.

Serves 4-6 as part of a shared meal

Proud Singaporean

As I was serving some overseas online chic shops, I notice that our local brand SOON LEE is being featured on US website!I know...it may seem like a OBIANG name but it isn't! They have really a good selection of new vintage clothing.

I love their stuff. Their self-designed vintage looking clothes and accessories are unique and even before they got THIS famous, I have already visited their store in Haji lane! Saying this hoping that one day if they read my website, they can give me discount!

We have decided!

We have decided on a eccletic colourful design when we revamp our home back in SG! Super excited lah and what do you think of a no TV living room? You think its feasible? 

Colourful biscuits

I am always attracted to colourful desserts and one of them is macaroon! Last night, I was serving the net and came across this website that teaches peeps how to make authentic macaroon! There is video instruction somemore! 

100 layer cakes

Recently, we made some new friends and were requested to show our wedding photos. Our wedding photos are taken by Lin Weimin who was still a student in 2006 and since then become ridiculously good and famous! We are so blessed to be one of his first guinea pigs for pre-wedding shots. The photos turned out to be phenomenal!

I had a full lace gown when I got married because I don't like sequins and I absolutely adore lace! This is a simple, yet elegant lacy gown from 100 layer cake blog! For those friends who are getting married, may you draw many inspirations from it!

Hooked on this show

Mr Hoby borrowed the cooking program "Surfing the menu" for me from the library! I am hooked to the cooking show because of hot dudes who are fun good cooks, the interesting places they visit in Aussie that I never heard before (Brome, New Norcia, Abrolhos island), interesting kitchens (outdoor cooking, hot oven cooking, cooking in a monastery) and it de-stresses me from my difficult assignments! 

I think you can watch it online. Try it out and see if you like it as much as me! I am gonna try out some of their recommended recipes! Can't wait!  

Going green weekend

It is such a beautiful Saturday! Isn't God's creation so amazing? Nature runs by itself and we are seeing God's hands in it every minute of our lives.

We took a nice walk at the weekend market early this morning (have been forcing ourselves out the bed in this cold winter morning). We bought many fresh vegetables and fruits in preparation for tonight's vegie meal with 2 friends that we are hosting from Singapore. I am gonna try grilling the delicious vegies tonight  and am excited about it! May your weekend be as green as ours!

A break from 2 assignments

It is about 5pm in school and already dark outside. I am so tired after sleeping at about 2am last night and finally submitting the 2 assignments that I have been working on for the last 2 weeks. I had enough of doing them and reading them. I have decided that I shall not dwell on it further and just submit them praying very hard to GOD that I will do well. 

I can't wait to go home and do some cooking therapy. I am going to cook veggie chicken stew tonight. It is the first dish I learnt from my mum when I got married and also the first dish I cooked when we moved into our little ban in Brisbane. Mr Hoby doesn't really enjoy this dish, so I hope that I can change his tastebud by modifying it tonight! Wish me best to my assignment and my experiment. =P 

I wanna eat this now!

It is officially winter from yesterday and I have been feeling cold and craving for YU PIAN MEE FEN (Fish-slice noodles). Well, I made my own the other day and it was alot of hardwork. I have decided NOT to make it again because it was so much work... BUT maybe for the sake of my craving, I might just have to endure the hardship and make it! What am I talking about??Haiz...stress from all the papers.... 

I find it amazing to find the thick bee hoon at Woolies frozen section and it was Mr Hoby who spotted them!  

I boiled the fish stock with pork bones, ikan bilies for many hours, together with some fish bones and big sweet dates. See how creamy and thick the stock is? 

And here is my very own version! I want to eat it now!!!!!! 

BBQ during winter

I can't wait for our 2 good pals to visit us here! We can go BBQ together and it is DAMN SHIOK to BBQ during winter. I just had one few weeks ago and I was busy taking pictures than eating.. 

The Aussie BBQ is very different from our usual Singaporean charcoal BBQ. They use gas operated hot stove. It is almost like Teppanyaki. The base of the BBQ is onions and lots of onions.. 

My favourite BBQ food is the white button mushroom (you can actually eat it raw)! It is so yummy when fry with the melted butter and onions! 

Marinara mix is commonly sold all over the supermarkets and it is also one of the top choice for BBQ! 

Talking about retail therapy

I am proud to announce that I am left with 2 more assignments to go before graduation. To award for hard work on the rest of 16-17 reports/papers that I have written so far, I decided that some retail therapy would do me good.

I love urbanoutfitters and if you haven't heard of it, you must visit the website! It has the coolest thing ever! I am so excited that they do ship to Australia and on top of the sales items, they had a promotion- FREE SHIPPING TO AUSTRALIA! My gosh...Yesterday, I asked Mr Hoby 100 times for permission to get some unique kitchenwares/household appliances and he agreed! Hee....can you imagine how thrilled I was????!!!!

Refurbishing my house part 1

This is a project that Mr Hoby and I are looking forward when we return home...to refurbish our nest! We rented out our place when we came to Brissy for studies, and it is almost time we give it a good revamp! We did not renovate when we first moved in because it was in good condition, however, after 3 years, some of the things getting old...BUT in order to do that, we need to start earning money and save up....till then, we can only read all these great home magazines and get ideas....

For friends who are getting your own home, may you also be inspired by all these beautiful homes! 

She eats bears

It has been some time since I last introduced an interesting food blog after Mingmakescupcakes, and now I proudly recommend she eats bears! I know, it is hilarious isn't it? But sheeatsbears is really a creative cook.

Check out her homemade vegetables chips! Isn't it so cool?

Creative wedding cards

Mr Hoby and I helped to design our good friend's wedding card recently and this designing project made me really interested to find out more about unique wedding cards...here is one from project wedding. I was so privileged to have a designer friend to design our cards for us..but if you do not have, how about designing one for yourself? I hope to have more chances to design wedding cards....it is really fun to do it! 

A break for the cook

On Tuesday, Mr Hoby decided to give me a break for cooking everyday and every meal, and he brought me to Park Road (near our place) to have a romantic dinner together. 

Before we came to Brissy, a Singaporean friend who stayed here for many years told me that I have gotten a good place because Toowong is like the Holland V in Singapore. I only understood what he meant when I came here. I love our apartment and the area around it. There is always new restaurants, shops and parks to discover! 

Here is a new restaurant that we decided to try that night...a Thai restaurant, Temple. 

The ambience was actually great but the food was kinda disappointing as it was not as authentic as I imagined it to be! 

I liked the tom yum soup even though I don't really like tum yum soup in general and it was too spicy. However, the soup was thick and there were alot of ingredients. 

We ordered the pineapple rice- regret because it was too tasty, oily and they added raisins, which totally quite spoil the authenticity. Plus, the rice was the soggy kinda that we didn't like! 

We decided to try the padang curry that tasted like green curry. It was very sweet. We ordered for beef meat but it tasted like pork! Haha... 

Overall, we had a really filling meal but was very indigested the whole night. Afterall, I had a good break from cooking and a romantic time with the MAN! 

A taste of the Wagyu steak- our first time experience

We are so privileged to be invited to eat the authentic Wagyu steak at the Ngs place. We felt so so blessed to be able to enjoy this meal with the family. Do you know that to eat a 300g of Wagyu steak will cost us about $45 in a restaurant? 

What is Wagyu? 

Wagyu cattle are genetically predisposed to intense marbling and to producing a high percentage of oleaginous unsaturated fat. Also known as Kobe-style beef, the meat from Wagyu cattle is known worldwide for its marbling characteristics, increased eating quality through a naturally enhanced flavour, tenderness and juiciness, and its high market value.

Wagyu are able to marble without developing excessive amounts of surface subcutaneous fat, which stays with the meat from cooking to plate. Wagyu beef with a MBS3 grading has a fat content of 8%. As the meat is cooked, the fat melts, with the finished product having a fat percentage of 6%. Any product that has a fat content of less than 10% will be endorsed by the Australian Heart Foundation.

The superior flavour of Wagyu meat arises from the presence of a high amount of oleic acid a monounsaturated fat in the meat (these fats have the effect of lowering blood cholesterol). The fat is evenly distributed throughout the muscle, rather than being laid down as subcutaneous deposition - marbling.

Wagyu cattle have the unique ability to marble more rapidly than any other breed found in traditional Australian herds.

The Ngs managed to get wholesale Wagyu steak from their food supplier. They are ALWAYS so resourceful. 

The most amazing thing is you do not need to put any seasoning or oil on the steak. It is as fresh and "real" as it is. 

Fresh salad with homemade Mayo. Mr Hoby felt that it was the BEST Mayo he ever eaten. 

In Aussie, they have a term called eat the Beef with the Reef, and here is our reef, super fresh, big and juicy garlic prawn. 

How to not grow fat here? We are always fed with good food....