Food Adventures!

Ham & Cheese Croissant. The Ham slice is thicker than usual.

Chocolate Chip Croissant

Blueberry Cheese Tart

Charcoal bun

One fine Saturday morning, we decided to make our way to Little India for some lovely croissants. Mirabelle makes one of the best croissants I have ever eaten in my entire life. Unless I have a better one, I think I would go all the way for their croissants. First time we had a plain one, second time we had a chocolate chip one, and third time we finally had the ham and cheese. Votes for ham and cheese and the plain ones. The charcoal bun with custard and the blueberry cheese tart is ok.

Had a hot steaming bowl of an ordinary looking prawn noodles. After sipping the hot soup, I proceeded to eat the kway tiao. Excellent. It tastes much better than it looks. Peppery and robust, we sipped the life out of the bowl until it is dry. *snigger*

Prawn noodle

Had an onion masala thosai at Sri Kamala's with some teh tarik before heading down to Crys' place for some cheesecake baking and try her lovely Indian dishes.

Thosai

Teh Tarik!

My first attempt at blueberry cheesecake baking

The dishes were ready. So was my tummy!

Pumpkin Prawn

Lady's Finger

Masala Chicken

My Scones

Haha...and I finally managed to do it properly this time! I baked scones and it tasted nice and fluffy unlike the other times. I did manage to adapt from this recipe but I added raisins instead of cheddar and forgot to add sugar! But all was good and I think I will make this again.

Raisin Scones:
100g butter
2 cups plain flour
pinch of salt
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 cup milk (leave some for glaze)
1 Packet of raisins

Bake them for 10-15mins at 230deg. Enjoy them with clotted cream/butter/jam/plain!

Brunch

I wanna make pancakes, because they are so very tasty...

It has been a while since I made brunch and on this day I had a competent assistant that actually made most of the food whereas I merely gave out instructions and made creamy scrambled eggs and pancakes. Because they are so very tasty. Lol.

Brunch menu:
Boiled asparagus
Bacon
Mushrooms
English sausages
Pancakes
Creamy scrambles

It doesn't sound much but its actually loads of work if its all done by one. Like I said, the competent assistant had done most of the work. Asparagus are being boiled in water. Sausages, bacon and mushrooms are being cooked in the same pan in order respectively.

I have adapted another pancake recipe from here today. This tastes pretty nice. Maybe I could make it with buttermilk next time.

The scrambles were too creamy for some so I'll make some sunny side ups in future or I can make the scrambles less creamy. I added pure cream and butter to the scrambles.

I couldn't do an artistic shot or pour maple syrup over with loads of butter or pepper the scrambles because I was hot and flustered with all the cooking. My hands were greasy. Stomachs were growling. So I just did an obligatory shot but I'll make sure next time I'll do a better shot.

Sausage McGriddles set

After reading this recommendation and hearing that the coffee has indeed improved, I went down today and had the Sausage McGriddles set. This McGriddles does not come with any cheese or egg but the sausage patty seemed visibly thicker. Tasty stuff. I still think the hashbrown/potato sides at Carl's Junior is better.

For this "premium" brewed coffee, the smell and taste seemed to be better than the last time. It has more fragrance, and the brew itself seemed just 20% thicker than previous times.

Not bad.

I just wished that they would provided recyclable paper cups well insulated instead of styrofoam cups.

Vietnamese Coffee

Had one of the coffee filer gadgets from Vietnam some time ago. Due to the fact that I had ran out of Nescafe, my mom opened a pack of ground coffee, Trung Ngyuen (something like that), a Vietnam home brand. I think this was like my 5th time brewing this so I thought of taking some photos to show. The fragrance of this Vietnam coffee is somehow a little different than the gourmet ones and kopitiam ones. I made mine strong with milk and sugar and so I enjoyed this quite a bit. Maybe I can use other types of ground coffee. This filter is not too bad. ;oP

My Packed Lunch

Cheddar cheese sandwich

Lunch box

I had a few considerations when packing my lunch to work. It must be fuss free aka easy to bring and wash. It must be tasty. It must look interesting.

I had prepared all these the night before and kept them refrigerated until I went off to work the next morning. The cheese sandwich was nice and cold and good to eat for breakfast or brunch or as a snack. In my lunch box, I had angel hair pasta, romaine lettuce, strawberry, seaweed and a biscuit. The bottle of pesto that I kept in the office came pretty useful.

As I had no microwave or any other way of cooking my lunch at work, I just boiled some water and used it to scald my pasta and lettuce. Drain the pasta, and toss in the pesto. Occasionally I would bring some lime and give it a good squeeze so that the pasta tastes good. Tear up some seaweed into the pasta and lunch is served!

Easy peasy.

The strawberry and biscuits are just snacks to munch on when I am hungry. I have tea and coffee to help out in case I feel hungry. But, I did not feel hungry and in fact, I feel much better to have lunch at work.

Any great lunch ideas anyone? Healthy and fuss free ones? Unhealthy and fuss free ones?

Random eats

Cereal killer...with Meiji fresh milk {office brekkie}

Kopi Si {Toast Box}

Blurred pic of cauliflower gratin that I made

Teh Si. Model from Texas posing. {Toast Box}

Maggie Goreng {Al Ameen}

Chocolate cake that tasted like a bar. Too much cocoa. Sick after this.

Steak, medium rare. {Buddy Hoagies}

Chappati from KL kopitiam

Herbed Fish {Manhanttan Fish Market - KL}

Seafood Platter {Manhanttan Fish Market - KL}

Lemon & Herb Chicken {Nandos - KL}

Chicken chop from One Utama, KL

Chicken Adobo from One Utama, KL

Blueberry ball Toast {Old Town White Coffee, JB}

Meat craving {Carnivore}

Silly orange muffin that did not work out at all.

Scrumptious Noodles! {Circular Sumptous Square}

Half a duck. All mine!

I'll just post pictures of what I have eaten so far... In a bid to pack my own lunch and eat better food, I will post my pictures of packed lunches/breakfasts whenever I can.

Eggs & Tomatoes

I was trying to eat well so I cooked a sunny side up and one tomato. A few drops of soya sauce and pepper and this was ready to go into my tummy. It tasted great and I was quite full until some 3 hours later.

Savoury Cheese Muffins

I am jumping for joy as I took the muffins out from the tray last night. This was my first attempt in baking something savoury and I must say I like the smell, taste and looks of it. Gab did not want any sweet bakes anymore because I told her that I wanted to try out olive oil brownies. I thought of a cheese muffin immediately and I really cannot remember the source of recipe.

I have added a few things to the muffin batter and initially wanted to name this as the Cheese & Chives muffin but after much consideration, I think this generic name suits it better as I may just change a few ingredients in the future.

Savoury Cheese Muffins
2 cups self raising flour
2 eggs
1 cup fresh milk
1 cup grated cheddar cheese*
1/4 cup olive oil
1 level tbsp raw sugar
bunch of chives*
chilli flakes*
1/2 tsp salt

• Preheat oven to 180 deg.
• Sift the flour and set aside.
• I used Kraft's Cheddar Cheese and grated them to a little more than a cup.
• Set some grated cheese aside for use later on top of the muffins.
• Mix flour, grated cheese, chilli flakes in a bowl.
• Beat 2 eggs, raw sugar with a fork until it bubbles.
• Stir in the olive oil, followed by the milk and chives.
• Make a well in the flour mixture and pour the egg mix into the well.
• Use a fork and stir everything until it is just combined. DO NOT OVERMIX.
• Line the muffin pan with cupcake liners and spoon until it is 2/3 full.
• Bake them for about 15-20mins.

Garlic mustard sauce
1 clove of garlic minced
1 tsp of English mustard sauce (I used Coleman's)
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tbsp of lemon juice
3 tbsp of mayonnaise

• Mix them well and you get this wonderful sauce!

Notes:

• I made about 11 muffins. You can get 12 or more if the mixture in each cup is lesser or the liner is smaller.
• *You can substitute the ingredients with other alternatives like stronger cheeses, or replace the chives with scallions or chilli flakes with paprika.*
• The sauce can give you dragon's breath because of the raw garlic but it is absolutely delicious!
• This muffin is not very cheesy so it is suitable for many people.
• The tangy sauce can actually make you eat more than one muffin at a go.
• You could use them as a side dish.
• Thanks Gab & Anna!!! For simply everything!!!

Light, golden fluffy goodness!!

Yogurt for Breakfast

Yogurt+Honey+Banana

Occasionally, I would stock up on yogurt and have them for breakfast. On this particular morning, I had Paul's naturally set yogurt, sliced bananas and honey drizzled over them. Hot Ceylon Breakfast Tea to wash them all down. Do you have your yogurt with honey and fruits too?

How do you eat your scones?

How do you like to eat your scones? I like mine warmed, served with butter and jam and if possible, clotted cream. On this breakfast, I had a raisin scone with some soft margarine and strawberry jam with Earl Grey Tea. Yum!

More jam!!

Maybe I should try to make some scones myself. :o)

Breakfast on Monday

A simple breakfast of peanut butter and strawberry jam with my morning cuppa. Just makes my day!