My best cake, papaya cake-bread

Didn't really expect that papaya could be turned into a cake or bread, until this week. This experiment came about all because of my inexperience in choosing papaya from the supermarket last week. I chose the prettiest instead of the ripest. I then had, even after waiting for 3 days, a papaya that wouldn't ripened evenly. The top half and the bottom were already turning orange but the middle was still so green. Worse, some of the latex from the skin had begun to ooze out from a tiny hole which somehow managed to escape my preinspection prior to purchasing it. So what else could I do apart from cutting it. I had hoped that it might be ripe enough to eat but that was not the case. Which brought me to a while new knowledge of papaya as another star in the culinary world!

Before this week, I know papaya could be eaten raw, made into drinks, ingredient in the famous thai salad, and boiled into a soup, although the latter I only knew about just recently. Having a whole container of cut up papaya, neither ripe nor raw, I was adamant not to waste them. So I searched the web for recipes and ideas. 

What I came across was a goldmine of information on papaya recipes. Seemed like I was living the limited papaya knowledge life. Out there, papayas are being turned into salads, used in a wide range of cooking recipes, made into breads, cakes, tarts, you name it! Do began my readings and choosing of the best recipe for my papaya. 

After a few days of reading and digesting, I narrowed 2 kinds of things that I most liked, soups and cake-bread recipes. Soup recipes varied widely, from Asian to western styled soups. I could do the western style soup easily enough as it called for minimal ingredients whereas most of the Asian soups wanted ingredients which I didn't have.

Me being me, though, after a while, I gravitated strongly towards the cake-bread recipes. They just seemed more appealing to me. Sifting through the mountain of recipes online, I finally settled one, which ironically was not for a papaya cake bread recipe. It was for recipe for a banana cake bread instead, and I adapted it for my version of papaya cake bread, substituting the banana with, of course, papaya.

I had to tweak the recipe a little for the lack of ingredients, namely butter and baking soda. In lieu, I used oil and baking powder. Not wanting a very sweet cake bread, I also lessened the sugar amount, but just slightly. I added some raisins, just as a safety net, in case I didn't like the outcome of the papaya cake bread. At least the raisins will provide some familiar taste and texture.

It was a very fast cake to prepare. I pureed about 2 and a third cups of papaya in the new blender, then measured out 2 cups of all purpose flour, 2 and a half teaspoonful of baking powder, half a cup of brown sugar, 3 eighths of a cup of oil, and beat 2 eggs flavored with some vanilla essense, cinnamon powder and 5 spice powder in a cup.

The flour, the baking powder were mixed together with some sprinkling of salt in a bowl. I added the oil into the eggs and mixed well. Then, I poured the wet ingredients went into dry ingredients, stirring it slowly and gently. The papaya puree went in 2 batches, with me constantly mixing slowly, trying really hard to do what bakers called overmixing. 

The batter was slightly heavier than what I was accustomed to create. It was a batter where people in cake world calls quick bread batter, just mixing around the batter just enough before pouring into the loaf pan to bake. I changed this too, as I did not have any loaf pan and instead used my spring form pan. I waited for almost 40 minutes for the oven to do its magic at 170 degrees celsius approximately.

Again,it was a very long, restless and apprehensive wait. I was a little anxious in the early minutes when I noticed the batter was just not changing into anything. The uneven top was not smoothening out, as a usual cake batter that used creaming method does but instead holding out to the original state still. This of course stemmed out only because I was trying too hard to be a smarty pants and subbed the original call of butter with oil. Oh, well, resigning to fate thereafter, with my fingers kept crossed all the time, praying for a good enough outcome if excellence decided to abandon me.

So imagine my ecstasy upon finding the cake bread done so prettily in the end. The color was just so sweet, a beautiful mix of soft red with golden brown and dots of dark raisins littered obout. The cake bread didn't rise up too high but did it so evenly well, that I was so proud of myself for staying clear of the temperature dial on the oven. I did have the tendency to panic and would then normally start to play around with the oven. I didn't this time. I couldn't wait to cut into the case bread. The texture was soft, slightly crumbly when it was still hit. 

The smell was very nice, nothing overpowering, and certainly no hint of anything papaya in there. Waiting for it too cool off on the wire rack was torturous, as the wonderful smell and the lovely sight was just in front of me. But wait I did yesterday and indeed it was well worth the wait. Really one of my best-est cake ever made. Thank you!!!

Kaya

It's a weird thing. When you crave for something which you know is not easy to attain, you start to see it everywhere. And if you are like me, stuck in the apartment the whole day, with only the not so idiotic flat screen and lappie as your besties, then everything you watch and go and surf would somehow find a way to blast the thought to you. Then your craving get magnified by a million with no means to satisfy it. Which gets you slightly under the weather, or in my case yesterday, up and about.

The agenda on this week's crave list was kaya. Again, what was a subtle thought of how nice to have a simple breakfast with homemade style kaya and a cup of black coffee turned into a full blown craving when afc programs, reruns at that, started showing episodes related to kaya as well! It was like the program directors at the channel knew what I was I thinking about and went out all the way to tease me. Remember the nasi lemak craving I told you about a couple weeks ago, well this was the same! Suddenly, it was kaya on the telly whenever I chose to surf the channels!

And this morning, I had my fix! Thanks to my patience for a not so excellent effort to dish out kaya yesterday! It was an eye opening experience on how labour intensive kaya making from scratch was. That too, I halved the recipe I got from the net, not wanting to make that much and also I realized now that it was probably a good move that halved the cooking time subsequently. 

Inadequate utensils meant I had to improvise. I used the saucepan to melt the eggs in, I used the lacking in grams range measuring cup and eye guess work to measure out the sugar, I used a normal plastic strainer instead of a bag strainer, I used 3 chopsticks to create a pot stand in the pot for my double boil, and lastly I used rice cooker pot, well, as the smaller pot, for I was lacking a pot small enough to go into my self double boiler. They all seemed to be a little crude and made up to the unrefined way to cook kaya, but I had to make do with what I have.

The ingredients were easy to enough to get from the local supermarket, but difficult to authenticate due to language barriers. Sugar was simple enough, eggs were from the fridge but the coconut milk was from the box. That was the closest thing I could lay my hands on for a think coconut milk. I got the pandan leaves from the apartment garden.

The mixing process itself was easy. Kaya is like a three step process of mixing. Mix the eggs, then mix in the sugar, then mix in the coconut milk. The real challenge in this homemade goodness is patience. You really need to have lots and lots of patience if you wanted to make a nice smooth kaya. Time and patience. Overall, I took about half an hour to mix all the ingredients and another close to 3 hours to thicken and cook the kaya.

My first attempt was alright, I gave myself 5 out of a scale of 10. The taste is there, but slightly on the sweeter side. The kaya is not that smooth, at least not as smooth as those I had when my mother or late grandmother made them, and it's slightly watery. I wonder why. This morning, taking out the refrigerated kaya, the golden yellow was slightly on the paler side. But oh well, I still enjoyed the fruits of my labour tremendously at breakfast this morning. I am content, for now and the next 2 months, I hope.

Had a Burst

Make sentences with "had a burst..."

Having a burst of hot rays again this morning.
Had a burst of caffeine from the coffee cup.
Had a burst of new vocabs last night.
Had a burst of sadness late last night.
Had a burst of flaming hotness in the mouth yesterday evening.
Had a burst of lactic acid yesterday.
Had a burst of ideas before calling it a day last night.

Can't think of more..

just do it!

My friend said, just do it!

My hubby said, just do it!

Nike said, just do it!

Just do it!

My friend said, no but, just do it!

My hubby might say, no but, just do it!

Nike would not say no but, just do it!

So, no but, just do it!

Breakfast Creation

Oh I love my breakfast creation today!

Yes, it is a creation, not a tried and tested recipe. Personally, I don't think others would be able to stomach this. The comments that I would hear would be, too bland, too boring, tasteless, too chewy, not interesting!

Bland, boring, not tasty enough, too chewy, and totally uninteresting, that would be the words to describe the product of this experiment, I believe. And I concur, but love it anyway.

I needed a distraction and needed to do something this morning. So I woke up with the single mindedness to bake another loaf bread. I had not decided what kind of bread but I wanted to make bread. In the kitchen however, I was forced to let go my decision, after noticing there were not enough flour for a nice loaf of bread.

In a state of blurriness, I took out enough ingredients to make fried rice. Placed everything all over the kitchen then decided I was going to use the flour after all, to make pancakes. The one egg was left behind while the rest of things went back into the fridge, where they came from. I took out the bottle of milk, took my saucepan and placed them on the counter. 

All the flour were sifted into the saucepan, for the lack of big bowls, with salt and a pinch of cinnamon powder. In a split second decision, I decided to bake the batter which had oats. So 3 spoon full of oats went in, egg and milk got beaten up with some sugar added in. Then all the wet ingredient were poured into the little well made from the dry ingredients in the middle of the saucepan.

Stir, stir, stir. That was what I didn't for the next five minutes, slowing but surely, incorporating the wet and dry together gently, trying to avoid making lumps in the process. The oven was heated up and pans greased. Now, I only have one big pan, so I flipped my square tray upside down and greased the base. My last pan was from the springform cake pan that I have. I used the base of that too, removing the side ring.

By the time the oven was hot enough, I was done with dropping batter on the biggest tray. In went the tray, the second part of my experiment starting. With the temperature set at about 180 degC, I hoped that all will turn out well. No baking powder this time, so I was pretty sure that I would not be subjected to that horrible baking powder taste. The downside was I knew I batter would not be able to rise or fluff up, for the lack of a leavening agent.

40 minutes later with some minor adjustment to increase the temperature slightly, the  baking was done, and my breakfast was ready. I felt so healthy seeing the outcome of my experiment. They were not tasty but not tasteless either, not greasy, not colourful or too sweet. Or too chewy. They were not crispy but also not chewy. It was just nice, just like eating a mixture of oats on pancakes, without the butter or oil. So far, I had taken almost 5 of them, too many for one morning.

I might cook some simple pork curry later, so that I would be able to use my creation as dips. Or as little cousins of Mexican tortillas. Perfection!

Know your ABCs!

ABC DEFG 

HIJK LMNOP 

QRSTU and V 

WXY and Z. 

Now I know my ABC, next time won't you sing with me?

Why that song? Simply.

I made some ABC soup today, and that song always comes into my whenever I make that soup.

Or have that soup.

The easiest soup one can make.

My version always consists of loads of carrots for the vitamin A, minimal potatoes for vitamin B and some onions, not sure if that's for the vitamin C, and of course some meat, be it pork ribs or pieces of chicken. And salt and pepper to taste. Or kluea & prik thai dam in thai since I am making them here, eh?

Throw them all together and boil for a while until everything is tender. Alternatively you boil for a 'longer' while if you like the veges to be super soft until they almost disappear.

It's that simple. 

Maybe that's why it's called ABC soup, as simple as reciting the ABC! Though, that might not be simple to some..hhmm.. I am rambling now..

I used to have this soup quite often when I was staying with my friends, as one of the them, the one who taught me how to cook me this soup, likes cooking it and she is good at it. Also, she knew I liked hers. Thanks to her, I  now can have this soup here, even when I am away from her. Thanks, girl.

So ABC soup, ABC song. 

A-B-C S-O-U-P 

Chic-Ken-Car-Rots-Po-Ta-Toes-O-Nions, 

Add-Some-Salt-&-Pep-Per-Totaste, 

Boil-Then-Get-Rea--Dy-To-Eat. 

Now I know my ABC, next time won't you cook with me?

Simple, easy, short, fast. Delicious!

Awe the Mind

Good morning, World!

Another hot day in Krung Thep.

But I'm welcoming it. 

2 coincidences happened yesterday.

First one, I browsed for something earlier yesterday, and came across a cafe at some place.

Some few hours later, a friend posted picture of cakes from that cafe!

They are mind readers!!!!!

The second, I lamented about the difficulty to find Nasi Lemak here.

Guess what? The idiot box decided to feed my desire visually, as a program with a segment showing Nasi Lemak came on! 

Goodness!

Talk about the power of the mind!

I am pretty sure that my subconscious were, without me controlling it, sending out SOS signals out there. Some merciful people caught on the waves and had deciphered the meaning of the signals. Thus coincidences happened last night.

Wonder what will today bring to awe the mind.

NLiB@kao kathi

chan yaak "kao kathi" nai Krung Thep mak mak ka.

I am really craving for Nasi Lemak in Bangkok.

Seriously where do you find Nasi Lemak in Bangkok, apart in Sutthisan, in my own kitchen?

chan yaak "kao kathi" nai Krung Thep mak mak ka.

I am not sure why but of late, I am really always craving for  Nasi Lemak. No, I am not pregnant neither have I been given any death sentence. I just feel like having Nasi Lemak. I am but Malaysian, I guess.

chan yaak "kao kathi" nai Krung Thep mak mak ka.

I went to the net, as others would have done, to scour for any information on this. I found a mentioned about Cilipadi, but the link to their restaurant is not available and I did hear, from hubby it seemed like it had closed down. Another article did say that Secret Recipe has them. The picture that accompany it didn't look that inviting though. My last information about Nasi Lemak in Kopitiam@Central Ladphrao didn't check out either. I didn't search further, dejection beginning to sweep over me.

chan yaak "kao kathi" nai Krung Thep mak mak ka.

Apart from starting from a scratch to satisfy my one plate craving, I can't seem to find another alternative. I could make more and share I guess, but with whom, I wonder....

chan yaak "kao kathi" nai Krung Thep mak mak ka.

Orange cake for redemption

As if to redeem myself from yesterday's failure, I baked something earlier today. A simple cake. Using a butter cake mix, as I didn't have that many tools to build a cake from a scratch. I tweaked the instructions a little though, halving the amount of egg asked as I though it called for too many eggs for such a small amount of mix. The others I followed, to measurement.

Of course me being me, I couldn't stop just at that. I added some orange zest and vanilla essence into the mix. Just to more flavour to it, lift it up a little bit. Oh ya, and some cinnamon powder too, simply cost it was there.

After a vigorously stirring the old fashion way, for a good 10 minutes, in hopes to mimic 'mix at high speed for 10 minutes' of the electric mixer, I was ready to pour the batter into the greased baking pan. The sweaty, tired me steadily held the pot holding the batter over the pan. Gently, the runny mixture came slushing down into the pan. The runniness of the mixture made me a little worried. I wondered if it was supposed to be that way.

Into the preheated oven and then the waiting game ensued. I knew I should not be doing nothing at that point as if I didn't busy myself with things to do, I would just be in a squat, watching like a hawk, as the batter bakes, transforming itself into cake! Hahaha.. how that rhymed, a little.

Cleaning up, tidying up, washing up, I did all that. The cake baked and baked away, while I peeped and peeped all the time. Finally, after almost 40 minutes baking, I noticed the browns on the sides of the cake. Ah, the moment of truth. I took a skewer and did the insertion test. 1st point clean, 2nd point clean, and final point clean.

I cut off the power to the oven and took out the cake. It's now sitting beside me, cooling down on a white plate, ready to be cut in. I am optimistic though, the smell is wonderful! Happy birthday to my father back home!

Horrible, horrible cookies!

Now where should start? The end? Or the beginning? Doesn't matter, I guess, as right now as I sit here typing, I can say all my confidence has been shattered and my tastebuds ruined by today's endeavour!

Yes, I tried my hand at making cookies today, riding high on the confidence that I had since last week after my successful bread making. I had all the ingredients, I had the recipe at hand, I had the necessary tools, I had me. But what I didn't have was the discipline, and that vital in cookie making, I see now. The recipe was read, understood but not followed. Never improvise when you don't understand fully the nature of all your ingredients at hand, I supposed. I did just that and now faced the terrible consequence.

It was that atrocious, really. As I took at bite into one from the first tray out from the oven, I felt my tongue cringed. My tastebuds just went into overdrive, sending the word 'Eewwww!' to my head. The cookies weren't edible, at least for my standards. The taste of baking soda was simply too overpowering. Horrible, horrible cookies!

But I still had more mixture to go, to bake. Now that think about it now, sitting here with the cool living room without the pressure of baking, I should have stopped the baking then and remixed batter. Yes, I should have fixed the batter to make it better. But I didn't and now I'm stuck with 3 containers full of cookies, all with very strong baking soda taste.

So I'm scouring the internet to find ways to salvage the cookies. Redo, reuse, recycle the cookies. I don't want to just discard them into our cute little blue bin, and I know I definitely cannot share this with others, but I also know that I cannot eat them all, definitely not. Hopefully, there's something out there that can help me save these cookies from their impending waste.

May Gift

If the weather keeps, I will be happy. At least for a few days, though, not the rest of the year. It has been way too hot and since I came back to Bangkok a few days before Songkran this year, I don't think it had rained until this morning.

Drizzle yes, but that doesn't count. The one drizzle that I got caught in was negligible, really! I was in the pool swimming, the evening wasn't bright but it was hot, then it drizzled. At first, I thought it might continue to a rain, as the droplets seemed to get more coarse. I got up, put my towel and shirt in the gym room and continued swimming. Barely a minute of doing so, the drizzle stopped. What drama!

So when it poured this morning, I was ecstatic. Though the rain wasn't as long as I would love for it to be, at least it was hard and long enough to cool down Sutthisan a little. A great gift to start the weekend. The weather is cooler, the air more fresh. It may make going out slightly of a hassle but I don't mind. So if this weather keeps for a few more days, it's really a great May gift.

What A Frenzied Morning, Yesterday Was!

It was a frenzy of activities yesterday morning was!

Right after the minute I woke up, it was move, move, and move!

With the list of things to do pasted on the kitchen door, I strived to follow the flow chart I drafted the night before. My blurriness was still in the way, though, as I read the first item in the box, toast the black sesame seeds.

Quite groggily, I turned on the stove and placed the non stick wok on it. Then I poured some of the seeds into the wok, enough to cover the flat base. The rest, I poured into a clean, empty jam bottle. While that went on to heat up, I set the kettle to boil. I must have my coffee, I thought.

By now, I could feel the heat of the strong morning sun. The sun shines directly into the kitchen of this little apartment, which makes it like a little hot oven come each morning during the hot season. Hurray for seasonal weather here, even though not distinct! My sweat glands were starting to wake up, I could them! The little beads of salt water slowly forming all over my body.

What's next, I thought, as I rushed over to check the list. On the way, I took my usual red mug and long teaspoon from the dish rack and placed them beside the boiling kettle. I took another glance at the list. Oh, the chicken! And the bread! I took my current favourite 3-1 coffee mix and poured the whole thing into the mug. Kettle was still not done yet. Stirred the sesame seeds a little on the way to the fridge.

From the freezer, I grabbed out the bag of chicken thighs and carton of milk. Suddenly, there weren't much space for me to dump the chicken. In haste I left in the sink as I went over the wok to give the seeds some loving stir, again. The milk I set precariously at the small space at side of the dish rack. The push button on the kettle snapped, indicating the water was boiled.

I turned off the heat on the stove and I removed the hot wok and placed it near the sink. In its place on the stove, I placed a saucepan and poured some cold milk. Then I poured some hot water into my cup, and gave it a quite stir. After that, I took the bottle with muesli and threw in a spoonful of them into the saucepan. It was mixed with some spoonfuls of oats. I could feel the saucepan heating up. I grabbed a bowl and spoon, using the spoon to stir the mixture in the hot saucepan. Oh, too slow, I thought, as I felt a slight lumpiness on the base of the saucepan. I quickly poured some water into the saucepan and gave the whole thorough stir.

Taking a cup, I emptied the contents of the wok into the cup. I removed the saucepan which by held a thicken mixture of oats, muesli and milk and placed the wok again on the still hot stove. I threw in some white sesame seeds, not wanting to waste the heat that it was still generating. Then, I poured out the porridge like mixture of oats into my bowl. I took the bag of chicken and placed them into a tray, and left the tray high on the microwave, out of the way. That would be a good place, I heard myself thinking.

After soaking the saucepan in some water, I brought my bowl of oats porridge and cup of coffee out to the coffee table. Need to clear up to create space for bread making, I thought, as I hastily went in again to bring out the jug of water as well. 

By then, I was already drenched in sweat. It was no longer beads of perspiration but more like raindrops of perspiration! Sweat was tingling down from my forehead, my hair was damp, my shirt wet. I went to the cupboard and grabbed a towel and wiped myself. I could feel the sweat beads forming immediately after that! With a quick gesture, I circled the towel around my neck and went back to the kitchen. Time to tackle the bread, and mash, I thought.

I washed the saucepan and collected some water. Removing the wok, I then placed the saucepan on the stove, and started up the heat. After clearing the work and its content appropriately, I took a couple of potatoes and washed them before sliding them gently into the saucepan. I didn't peel the skins off.

Surveying around, I saw that most of the things minor things were done and out of the way. Happily, I set to start making my bread. I brought out the large pot, our only pot actually. Snugly sitting at the side of the sink, I sifted 3 full mugs of all purpose flour into it. It was a long process since the siever was really small. But at long last, the tedious process was done. Adding a super large pinch of salt and a generous amount of yeast, I gave them a rough stir.

The potatoes on the stove were already on a slow boil at that time. I measured some warm milk in a cup and at the very last minute, decided to add in the leftover melted butter in the fridge. Reheating the melted the butter was brutal. I was drenched all the way, standing in front of the boiling potatoes, holding the little cup above the saucepan to capture of the heat. It was not fast but it got done after a while. I poured some milk into the melted butter and then dumped the whole thing into the big pot of flour mixture. The rest of the milk was treated the same way.

Using a wooden ladle, I tried to mix them thoroughly to create a dough. After a while, I knew I had to add more water. Too much flour, or too little liquid. This what you get when you are over ambitious without a recipe. After adding a few spoonfuls more of warm water, the dough was ready to loved.

I dusted the little space of the counter I had cleared with some flour and dropped the dough there. Here goes, I thought. I had specifically wanted to knead longer this time compared to the last time and also increase the proving time for this batch, just to check out the result of the bread. With hand covered with flour, I worked my way with the dough, pulling and folding with slight squishing and squashing. I tried to recall what the River Cottage guy said about kneading bread dough, and attempted to follow his tips. Pull as long as you can, it's ready with it's quite smooth, and cup the dough in a ball by folding underneath in circles, some things along those lines.

I think I spent about ten minutes kneading, the longest I had knead before. My right forearm was quite sore actually, sign of my general lack of exercise. But I was quite pleased with the outcome. The dough balled up quite nicely, not as smooth as I thought it should and could be, but almost there. I dabbed oil all round the dough ball and placed it lovingly into the pot again. With clean hands, I took covered the pot and brought my little baby to the little balcony outside, super hot little balcony, where the sun was shining right at it. Finally, a real need for the heat!

By then the potatoes were already done. The stick I used to prick them went in right through without much effort. I took them out into a bowl to cool down. I left the hot water in the saucepan. From the fridge, I took out the garlics and red onions. Brought those, a knife and a bowl out and in front of the tv, while waiting for the dough to rise, I watched Kyle XY while I had my breakfast, skinned off the potatoes, peeled the garlics and onions, and felt my heartbeat slowing down and sweating easing off after almost 2 hours toiling in the kitchen.

What a frenzied morning!

To Ikea-Bangna!

So it is possible to go the newly opened Ikea-Bangna in Bangkok without getting on the taxi or driving there.

I finally made the trip to check out the first Ikea outlet in Bangkok last Friday, almost half a year after they opened their doors on Thai soil. With a tip from Hubby and some minor research on the internet, I found out that you can hop on the MRT to Sukhumvit, get on the BTS from there towards Udomsok station on the Onnut/Bearing direction. From there Ikea provides shuttle buses to their store, approximately every thirty minutes.

And I had to pick the most convenient time do it, lunch time on high noon! I didn't have enough change to get the ticket and so had to join in the long, long queue to get my change. Luckily it was fast enough and soon, I was waiting on the platform above. It's 25baht from Asoke to Udomsuk, by the way.

Out in Udumsok, I tried to look for any signs that points to the Ikea shuttle bus stop but couldn't find any. So, off I went to ask the lady officer there. Take exit 5 and go straight down the stairs and the bus stop is there, she had said or something like that. I thanked her and followed her instructions. 

Upon reaching the bottom of the stairs, I was a little apprehensive. Eh, where's the bus stop? I guessed I was actually expecting to see the bus stop as soon I reached the end of the stairs. I looked ahead but still no bus stop in sight. I looked to the back, and then saw people forming sort of a waiting crowd, under the stairs, right in front of a 7-11 outlet! 

Oh, so that's where the unofficial bus stop is, I had thought. I went over to join the waiting group. After sometime, I realized that it was really an unofficial bus stop, no signs whatsoever, but all the passing buses stop there to pick passengers up. The raised sidewalk that we were standing on made it easier for the passengers to alight or board their buses. And with the traffic lights just ahead, I could certainly see why the drivers chose to stop there.

Oh, I waited long enough to notice a little sign outside a little travel agency shop that says, Ikea 30-40 and somethings in Thai. I guessed it meant I was on the right spot and I had to be prepared to wait up till 40 minutes for the shuttle bus. I didn't mind, though. Time was what I had. 

Lucky me, I didn't have to wait that long, only for about 15 minutes or so, before I saw the Ikea shuttle heading towards us. The bus was the newer type, the one with air-conditioning and front 4 seats behind the driver facing each other. Which was good. I like that kind of bus. They are normally newer and in better condition. 

Journey there took quite a while. Traffic was quite heavy actually, perhaps due to the fact it was a Friday and it was noon time. Also the driver made another stop on the way at the Central Ramkhamheang, was it, I wasn't sure on that, to pick up more passengers, who Ikea staff I found later. We took about a good half an hour to reach Ikea.

I was surprised to see how huge the place was, actually. MegaBangNa, I think that is the name given to whole area. Quite a number of big names are there, or going to be there. The place looked, smelt and sounded new, with construction workers everywhere, strong paint smell, and tools hard at work. Reminded me a little about the Curve area in Damansara, just bigger.

The driver waited for a while at the end of the road leading towards the entrance of Ikea. Then, he made his way in. At his first stop, a bunch of people got down and while the rest of us were getting ready to get down, the driver said something, which by then a blonde lady already out of the bus walking. Someone got her and got her to come up the bus again, which then I understood, that was the entrance for the staff and he was going to bring us to the real entrance! She got up, thanked the bus driver and sat and he continued driving, bringing us to the real entrance.

Here you go, I had imagined him saying, this is your entrance! And so I got down and followed the crowd towards what I presumed was the entrance to Ikea-Bangna, slightly a little over an hour after starting my journey.

Sesame buns, successfully!

This is a wonderful morning! It may look like any other morning recently, bright, it may feel like any other recent mornings, hot, and it may be like any other mornings, alone. But no, it's not. It's better than the other past few mornings. Really!

I made bread, successfully! Yeah!!!!

Okay, technically I didn't really make bread, I made buns. Oh but I used bread recipe and shaped the dough into 9 buns, so maybe technically I did make bread, but baked it as buns.

I woke up slightly later than I wanted to and got right into making my breakfast and making my bread. I heated up the milk for my oats and made extra for the bread. While the oats were cooking, I sifted the flour. I used all purpose flour, the only flour I had. I used up all my leftover flour. Adding 2 spoonful of sugar and a big tablespoon of instant yeast, I also added some cinnamon powder. For fun. But forgot to throw a pinch of salt into it.

Excitedly, I nearly poured my now luke warm milk into the dry ingredient mixture when I realized I had not added any butter or oil into my recipe. So I stopped myself in time, poured out some oil and mixed with some milk, and poured the mixture into the dry ingredients to kick start my fun. I then poured some more of the milk. Using a wooden spatula, I mixed all of them around and made sure all the flour turned into dough.

Then, I took out the dough and kneaded for a while on the counter. It was tough job. I could feel myself struggling to do it. The dough didn't feel soft, giving me some fear that I might end up with some rock buns. With that fear in mind, I continued to knead, going about it for almost 5 minutes, if not more. Sweat beats were forming all over me. Yes, I am that lousy.

This was the day I am grateful for the sun, the heat really helped to puff up my dough. I oiled the dough and left it to rest in the pot at the balcony where the sun was the strongest. After half an hour or so, I went to check and got really pleased when I saw the dough has more than doubled. It was like a giant ball now. Without further ado, I brought it in, boxed it down to release all the air and took it out to knead again.

After that I cut the dough into 8 parts. I wanted 9 parts but got only 8. Anyhow, I shaped the dough into little balls and dipped the tip into some sesame seeds before placing the little ball into an oiled pan. I did the same with the rest, but pinched out some dough from some of the remaining 7 to make another ball. So in the end, I got my 9 sesame balls arranged in 3x3 in the pan. Not uniformly perfect in size but certainly perfectly arranged.

After letting them proved again for about 15 minutes, it was time to bake. I was so happy and excited to see them in the oven. They really looked good there, all puffed up and boomed up and round and serene. I baked them for almost 20 minutes at 205-210 degree Celcius, taking them out once each to brush them with butter and rotate the pan.

The buns are now sitting on the iron rack cooling while I'm typing this out. They are just screaming to me, eat me, eat me! Hahaha.. I am glad they turned out well! Pat at the back for me!

Malaysian food in Kopitiam, are you sure?

Ok, the only reason I went to Kopitiam Central Ladphrao was because I stumbled across a review on this place while searching for Malaysian food in Bangkok.


The reviewer actually said that this was a Malaysian style Kopitiam and that they served Malaysian food, specifically Nasi Lemak, my current craving. 


Sitting here, only the drinks menu had familiar sounding names, like black coffee, cham, milk tea and ovaltine. As for the food selection, apart from soft boiled egg and toast, the rest didn't sound very Malaysian to me. I searched the whole menu for something along the likes of Nasi Lemak and Mee Siam, but nothing came even close to those. 


After going through the menu for the longest time, hoping against hope I might see something remotely Malaysian, I decided to order something that I thought might turn out as Singapore beehon, some fried vermicelli. It was nothing of that sort. While it might pass as a distant cousin, I believe this is definitely Thai. 


For drinks, I ordered black coffee, and it was really disappointing. The coffee was not thick and not hot enough but the syrup that came with it was way too thick. I made a huge blunder of dumping a teaspoonful into it without actually taking a sip of the coffee bare. It became too sweet, a little too syrupy to drink. I had to abandon ship, really. 


Oh by the way, skimming through the menu, at the very last page i saw the words "...growing up.. in chinatown, Bangkok..."

Wait, isn't Kopi a Malay word?? I understand tiam is a Chinese word but the Thai word for coffee is cafe, so why the use of Kopitiam? Bu then, I didn't finish reading through the passage, so maybe the creator grew up in Bangkok but moved to Malaysia later? Anythinglah!


I really should seriously consider opening a little cafe that serves Malaysian food in Bangkok and good old Malaysian@Melakan coffee. I welcome sponsors!! 


Here, the article by Cassandra James published on Oct 30, 2011,  that enticed me to give it a go : http://voices.yahoo.com/review-kopitiam-central-ladprao-10321165.html?cat=16

3 day MRT exploitation

Okay, I officially started my Bangkok-MRT exploitation for this year. I just purchased a 3 day pass, hence the plan.

Yes, MRT still carries the day pass, the 3 day pass and the monthly pass. They, however, decided to discontinue the 2 week pass almost a year and half ago. I used to get the monthly passes last year. And when I came back earlier this month, I had forgotten about the existence of the other passes, since they don't really advertise the day passes. I was reminded of these passes again when I was researching ways to get to the newly opened Ikea-BangNa.

The 3 day pass cost me a lot, at least for my standards. So I must make full use of this and ensure all my shopping are done within these 3 days. I also should take the chance to reacquaint myself with this city, and check out the stops along the line. The new, the changed and the disappear, although I am not sure if I can notice any disappearing act.

I think this 3 day pass is ideal for those who plan to stay here for the weekend to shop along the various shopping malls along the MRT line. With a minimum fare of 15 baht between 3 stations, the 3 day pass is worth the buy since there are like a minimum of at least 5 stops that are marketed as shopping havens.

My 3 day MRT exploitation started at Sun Watanatum this afternoon.

Suda-san

What was supposed to be a short dip in the pool upstairs on a hot morning ended up as a long soak under the sun! And I came back with a slight tan, not that I'm complaining.

I went upstairs with the intention of swimming. Under the shower pre jumping into the pool, I realized I managed to somehow snapped by goggles into 2, effectively rendering me handicap for swimming. Since I was already wet, I decided to just go ahead and soak myself in the empty pool.

After a while, an uncle came in. I was struggling to swim while all the while keeping my head above the water. After a while I gave up, and decided to just while the time away by kicking water at the side of the pool. Uncle swam a little, waddled water a little.

Then he came over and talked. And yakked we did. I found out he was Japanese and has been staying in Thailand for a total of almost 10 years now, with the past 2 years in here. He was able to speak everyday conversational Thai, while keeping his fluency in Japanese intact and steadily improving his English. 

This was only his second time up here, using the pool as he traveled Chonburi for worked for the past 2 years. He would leave at half past 6 in the morning each day for a journey that takes an hour and half and would only reached home late in the night, too tired to make use of the amenities provided. He had since resigned, hence the free time to try out the pool.

He had stayed in Malaysia and surprisingly he had traveled to Sharp in BP and Pioneer in Muar, among others. He was a bit surprised when I told him I worked the latter for a short while. He reminded me of Tobita-san. The similarities were there, especially in the overall face shape, except that his was slightly smaller and he wasn't as tough looking as Tobita-san.

He has traveled and lived in many countries, including Hong Kong, for the past 25-30 years. He seemed to know Malaysia quite extensively, naming Penang, Melaka, BP, KL and east Malaysia as places that he has been to. I believe he has been to more places in Malaysia than I have. Haha..

We left the pool when a guy, mostly the maintenance guy informed that they wanted to clean the pool. He gave his name as Suda. He was contemplating to find another apartment nearer his next office, which would be nearer to Chao Phraya River, as he didn't want to travel there each day.

Nice meeting Suda-san and all the best to him!

6 sausages for dinner!

I had six sausages for dinner today! Can you believe it? For those of know me, six is a lot!

You guessed it, there must be a reason behind it, else firstly, I wouldn't have taken six and secondly, it wouldn't have made it here, unless something happened. And something did happen.

I am not a frequent user of the microwave oven. I actually prefer to go the traditional way of cooking things over the stove, or baking it using a conventional oven. Microwave was just something I took to lately to defrost meat stuff and heat leftover meals in a hurry. Except for the time when I was in Hanoi, where I used it extensively to prepare meals for me. But that was because it wasn't my kitchen and I didn't have much utensil or things to cook and cook with aside from frozen food and instant noodles. Another story altogether.

Back to the six sausages for dinner. How can I right? Had my tummy grew so big? Was my appetite that huge now? Was I starving after performing some heavy duty exercise which burnt off chunks of my energy? Well, nothing of the sorts, actually! My ration went up simply because of my incompetence in using the microwave oven.

I rationed myself to 3 sausages, yes, just three, actually. T-H-R-E-E only. I took out the 3, removed their individual plastic wrapper, set them on a plate and placed them in the microwave. Now I really didn't what was the suitable duration to cook the sausages. So far, I've only defrost things using this microwave. 

There were some basic pictorial instruction on the microwave, which I referred to normally. However, as I said, it was only basic, covering vegetables, beef, fruit and defrost suggestions. Since sausage were made of meat, I concluded that if I should follow anything, it should be the suggestion for the beef. Well, I halved the time since I had only sausages instead of fresh meat, and only three of them. It suggested 9-10 minutes for beef, I set it to 4 minutes.

The smell and the sound that permeated through my tiny kitchen certainly didn't betray anything. I didn't think much except that they were cooking pretty well and that I might as well add some sauce to go with the sausages. So once the sausages were done, I added a scoop of leftover sambal on the plate and adjusted the timer for a further half minute.

When all was done, I took it out, ready to eat. I started to suspect something was amiss with the sausages when I saw how set and crispy the sausages had been. They didn't look hard, just, well, set. Without further ado, I poked one sausage using a fork.  Oh my, what a surprise! The fork wouldn't go through easily! I then took a finger and gave it a poke it, wanting to feel the texture myself. It was definitely not soft. The crispiness wasn't just on the outsides of the sausages, it was crispy the whole way through. My sausages essentially dried up in the microwave! A little longer, and they would have turned paper thin black, I am sure.

The 3 unfortunate sausages were still edible tough, but I didn't have any satisfaction eating them. It was like eating paper shaped into sausages. A slight tingling of the taste of the meat still remained. 10 minutes after finishing my latest dinner creation using sausages, I still felt the unsatisfied craving of having sausages.

So that was how I ended up having 6 sausages for dinner tonight. The second batch came out as plain old cooked sausages from the microwave. I should just kill myself if they too turned into crisp, papery sausages, this time not due to my incompetency but stupidity, right?

Leffe Art

I'm pretty sure with that many of us have heard of Leffe? One of the famous brand of Belgian beer, created by monks in monastries using their very own ingredients.

Well, I got to know this brand of beer after getting together with hubby as he is one lover of the beer. And when he got a nice Belgian as his boss, now former boss, he was introduced to none other than Leffe. The rest is history, as they say it.

They usual frequent a pub here which promotes various kinds of beers, especially those from Belgium. Leffe naturally took the centerstage. Now, what I like it about this fact is that the decor in this place has a stain glass art work, quite big, though not humongous. I am not sure if that is a focal point of attraction apart from the bar, but it really push forth Leffe, the abbey beer, for the stain glass artwork is none other than the iconic picture of a monk holding a glass of Leffe blond.

When I googled Leffe, this image is one of the many associated with this beer. So powerful that most the artwork is almost similar is not the same. Made me think that the art work is another branding of sorts for the Leffe brand. The monk holding the brew he created with his knowledge, sharing with the world.

Now, like I said before, I don't really drink beer, nor do I know how to enjoy and appreciate the taste of beer. What smoothness, what richness, what bitterness, let me try them all but still I cannot fathom the slightest of what those terms mean in world of beer. But what I like is this artwork. Definitely.

It's one of those things which I cannot forget. Which I find so pretty and beautiful and creative and peaceful all the together. Which lead me to do something about it, now that I am too free. Recreate the artwork, or the style of it, on paper using pencil colours and marker pens. Well, they are the only few art stuff that I have with me right now.

I was very pleased with myself when I came up with the idea of doing that and inserting my own twist in it, all for the special dedication to my hubby, the abbey beer lover. In the same style of the composition of the stained glass monk with beer, I redrew it, substituting the monk with my version, a polar bear. I crowned the polar and made him wear the robe and hold the Leffe glass, all in the spirit of the Leffe.

Why polar bear you might ask? Well, I know polar bear is associated with my hubby, but why is it polar bear and not other animals is beyond me. I didn't come up with that, merely borrowing the label. The whole construction of the art work was  not difficult when you have a reference and no time limit. The only challenge would be my talent, or the lack of it. I did try my best to make it as realistic as I can, though.

Colouring was that easy as I found out the art paper that I used, had some texture on it that if you coloured lightly, the texture became too apparent, making the colours a little uneven. I had to colour a few layers, especially using the white to blend the colours into the texture. But all in all, it was a good work done. Finished when the black lines were drawn to mimic stain glass.

And I named my art work, Polar Monk with Leffe. Leffe Art, especially for my hubby!

Nasi Lemak Goreng!

Today is leftover day! So I had nasi lemak goreng for lunch. With a twist! Leftover rice, leftover sambal, leftover peanuts, leftover cucumber, leftover omelette all dumped into the wok and stir fried. I included two sausages and added in some soy sauce to taste.

Loved it! Really loved it!

And no, this isn't my creation. I had tried nasi lemak goreng before somewhere at home and it was a really good invention.

Today the opportunity presented itself, and so I grabbed it. I am very much delighted with the outcome. It's gone now, and my mouth is still salivating! Simply delicious!

Only in Sutthisan, Krung Thep can you find flower nasi lemak and nasi lemak goreng! Hehehe...

Delicious pretty Nasi Lemak

Imagine...

Warm, fragrant rice, cooked in coconut milk, shaped into 5 petaled flower..

Imagine...

2 peanuts on each petals to create more texture..

Imagine...

A big dollop of hot, spicy sambal right on the top of the middle of the flower shaped rice...

Imagine...

Green, lightly stir-fried kangkung styled out to make the stem of the of the flower...

Imagine...

3 cool half crescent shaped slices of cucumber on each sides of the kangkung stem to mimic leaves...

Imagine...

3 omelette butterflies flying towards the flower from the left...

Imagine...

Can you see the image in your head?

Can smell the wonderful, fragrance of the rice?

Can you taste the spiciness of the sambal on your tongue?

Can you feel the coolness of the cucumber on your skin?

Can you hear the crunchiness of the peanuts as you bite them?

Do you feel yourself falling into an absolute blissful state, that the world stopped spinning for a moment as all your senses threw you into ecstasy?

Nasi lemak, oh, nasi lemak, you are so pretty today...deliciously pretty!

Sketch, if you can!

Sketch, if you find it difficult to imagine!

I am one that cannot visualise things easily in my head. I find it difficult to construct the image, with all the layers, the colours, every detail that I can think of, in my head from thin air. I will try to the visualization, but without much success. It's an important enough of an idea, I will try to sketch it out.

So I am pretty happy that I took the time to visual and then transfer my nasi lemak flower on the paper last night. I took the effort to identify a few designs actually, but stuck to the flower pattern as it was the more the pretty and doable of them.

I couldn't be more pleased with the outcome this morning. Even better than what I anticipated. Adaptation became easier, construction became more precise. Luckily then, I sketched the night before. Kitchen tornado avoided at all cost! Hopefully, the receiver loved it as much I as was proud of it!

So lesson learnt, sketch if you can! It might just help you :)

I need Spring!

Spring...

Perhaps, the reason for springs and autumns is because god has mercy on us humans!

Flying off from Hanoi right into Krung Thep in April seemed like a bad move. It is like putting taking your head our from the freezer and putting it straight into a super hot oven, if you can do those without your head cracking open!

It was so cold for Hanoi for me then that I had to wear socks almost all the time when I was in the apartment. I needed the jacket all the time when I was out and on worse days scenario, I even wore it while I was in the apartment. I might be exaggeration with the coldness but being a Malaysian, 18-20 degrees daily was too way to cold for me and I had a tough time adjusting, especially during the first 2 weeks.

Now, back in Krung Thep at the height of the Songkran season, I am experiencing massive headaches daily. It has only been 3 days here, yet, I cannot seem to adjust to the weather. It's almost like 35-38 degrees daily since I've landed. It's so hot I am tempted to have the airconditioning switched on almost all the time.

Which got me thinking, maybe the reason for spring and autumn to be stuck in the between winter and summer, and summer and winter, respectively, is to help our body to adjust better to the temperature change. That the world is designed to protect it's living things and not to kill it.

An extreme change from super hot to super cold or vice versa will just wipe us out!

Sigh.. where's my (mini)spring to help save me?

Hanoi Apartment Curse

Did I bring the 'apartment' curse with me to Hanoi?

I've been in here for almost 3 weeks, and in that 3 weeks, I've moved 3 apartments, due to reasons not under my control.

I reached here on a Tuesday. Come Thursday, I was asked to help pack up everything of ours and get ready to move. Another apartment, somewhere else, still unconfirmed then. The main thing was we needed to vacate that unit, that night!

So off we went in search of the 2nd place to stay. We had two options thrown to us, though they didn't differ much. In the end, we chose the 2nd unit as the interim unit as it was brighter, at least for me, even though that meant we would have a club/karaoke as our left neighbour. It was a walk up apartment.

Problem arose almost right after the agent left us that night. The kitchen sink was stank terribly whenever it was used and the kettle wasn't in a that dared me to use it. 2 nights later we got a rude shock in the wee morning. A drunk neighbour mistook our unit as his and managed to get in! Luckily Hubby was awake at that time. Else I wouldn't know what to do!

The technician came the following Monday to do the necessary repair work. About 3 hours of hardwork, with an hour of interruption to get another round of supplies after the initial diagnose, he managed to reveal quite a good job done! I wasn't able to open the replaced lock with my existing key, which I could after his first try and the kitchen sink actually smell better as you used.

It was smooth riding after that. No more complaints. Until we got here, apartment number #3, the apartment we originally wanted after being kicked out. The headaches came back, fast! First problem was the bedroom door couldn't close. The lock simply didn't catch. That simple problem was rectified quickly.

We thought that that was it, when after 2 days, we noticed the kitchen floor damp. The dampness didn't go away, instead, it got worse as the days went by. Water started dripping from the ceiling! At first it was a patch on the ceiling, and then later, it was almost the whole ceiling!

Tired now. The ceiling is bare, there's a staircase chair in the kitchen but the men are gone, for now. I'm hungry.

Walk to Museum of Ethnology, Hanoi

Another day of exploration, this time following a plan. No surprises today.

Since I had time to kill, I decided than rather surfing virtually, it would be better to do the actual surfing, though not that literal sense. I don't want to boast to others that I spent my time in Hanoi, staying online.

The Museum of Ethnology was the most eye catching thing nearby here. So, once I got rid of the blurriness after waking up, I took off. I had made up my mind to walk there, instead of taking the easy way out of hiring a taxi. It wasn't far, really. Looking at the map, it was doable on foot, with the distance given as only slightly less than 2km away.

Walking along the main road of the not so cold street of Dao Tan/Hanoi anymore, I must had stuck out wearing my black jacket. All the locals were casually dressed. I wanted to get some lunch on the way, but somehow managed to skip it. I did go into a very nondescript cafe along the way, thinking that perhaps I could get a 'ca phe' with some food, but alas, they seemed to serve only coffee. Well, a factor that I have to learn early, I guess.

After sipping my very strong coffee, I headed on. I walked and walked, following the map that I had memorised in my head. It was a pretty straight forward route, which had me going straight for the moment I came out find myself on Dao Tan Street. I passed the first junction, which led me onto Nguyen Khanh Toan Road. From there, I walked straight ahead until I reached the junction. The museum was, unknowned to me then, located to my right. Around 20 minutes of walk.

I didn't know the exact location, except the museum was supposed to be within the vicinity of that area. Seeing something like a park area, I crossed the road, thinking that might be it. From that other side, I looked back and saw that I just left the museum. How stupid of me! Unnecessary risk crossing the busy street again to get to the entrance.

The admission fee was set at 25k d for a normal entry, which meant no 'professional' cameras allowed, whatever that meant. I paid the normal price to a very unsmiling booth operator. Really, the face was really not nice to look at. Wonder what was her problem.

The museum itself was quite huge. It was divided into 2 sections, indoor exhibition hall and outdoor exhibition park. I followed one large crowd with got there almost at the same time as me, going into the exhibition hall first.

As the name suggested, the whole of the museum displayed things associated to the various ethnic groups in Vietnam. I am not one very interested in cultural/ethnology stuff, so I just got confused. In summary, what I realized was Vietnam is made of people of various ethnicities, which differs from the north to the south. Major religious influences came from Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism, although I have no idea which is greater. There is a little mention of Islam too.

Clothes among the various tribes looked similarly the same, so were their weapons, household things, hunting gears, and the likes. Trades, house styles, and food depended of their locality. Old Vietnamese seems to be very much influenced by the Chinese way of living. Anyhow, I felt that if you understood Chinese culture through and through, then you would be able to understand Vietnamese culture easier.

The outdoor exhibition showcased the houses of the various tribes. This was much more interesting as it was outdoor and not much reading was required. But again, there were similarities to the Chinese architecture or designs, especially with the carvings, the door designs, pillars, and layout in the house. Why, certain of the houses actually reminded me of certain parts of my grandparents' houses and houses in old Melaka!

Anyhow, I spent the whole good portion of my afternoon there. I left almost at the closing time of the museum. That too, I rushed through the last few houses, after checking the time. It was a good experience though. It was nice to see and of course I took lots of pictures when I was outdoor.

I stopped by for my dinner on the way back at one of the shops and had some 'pho ga'. I really must stop having this dish for dinner, as this is the 2nd day in a row that I had this for dinner. Rush hour traffic entertaining me, my walk back was uneventful, faster but more relaxing. Another satisfying way to spend the afternoon.