Making Financiers

Financier is a small French teatime cake. The difference between financier and the normal sponge cake is that it contains ground almond and egg whites only. The key to the moist texture of financier is the ground almond itself and adding some honey to the batter.

Eat in Vue de Monde, Melbourne (Australia)

Vue de Monde is one of the top ten restaurants in Australia, featuring a modern Australian cuisine. The Head Chef, Shannen Bennett's vision is to make Vue de Monde a sustainable restaurant by utilising the most cutting edge technology in his kitchen to preserve the energy, also uses recycled products, homegrown and small-farm organic produce wherever possible. 

The restaurant is located at Level 55, Melbourne's iconic Rialto Building, with 365 degree views over the city. The atmosphere of this restaurant was cozy and sophisticated. We went there for lunch. The food was fabulous with an absolutely stunning presentation.  

Starfruit Smoothie

Eat in Melbourne (Australia)

Here are the top 8 restaurants/cafes I went during my holiday in Melbourne. 

1. Kinfolk @673 Bourke St. 

Kinfolk is a social-enterprise cafe that re-directs their profits to various development projects. The people who work there are mostly volunteers.

Eat in La Maison 1888, Danang (Vietnam)

La Maison 1888 is opened by the world renowned Chef Michel Roux. It is located at the InterContinental Danang Sun Peninsula Resort, at the beautiful Son Tra Peninsula.

Image Source: Vietnamdiscoveries.com

Cooking Class in Siem Reap (Cambodia)

I joined this cooking class during my holiday in Siem Reap, Cambodia. I thought it's a good experience to share.

It was a 3-hour class and we learned to cook 3 local dishes - Fish Amok, Khmer Mango Salad and Sticky Rice Balls with Palm Sugar. We were first introduced to the local ingredients by touring around the farm just beside the place where we learned cooking.

Roti Paratha (Indian Flatbread)

A quick recipe for a basic roti paratha. From this recipe, you can make a lot of roti variations, e.g. you can add compound butter, onion, cheese, egg, banana, whatever you desire.

Potato Curry (Indian Style)

This potato curry is a great company for the homemade roti paratha.

Eat in Fujiya 1935, Osaka (Japan)

Fujiya 1935 is one of those few 3-Michelin Star restaurants in Osaka. The whole experience was great, I must admit - the food, course by course, was like a little bundle of surprise. The atmosphere and the service was pleasant and casual. 

1. The first appetiser is Fig from Osaka with Sauce of Rhubarb. It was a refreshing appetiser to awaken the tastebud.

Osaka Fig & Sauce of Rhubarb

Eat in Osaka (Japan)

Here are the reviews of some of the foods I ate during my holiday in Osaka last year (Sep 2013), including the famous kobe beef, fugu (the poisonous blowfish), a snapshot of a 3-michelin star restaurant dining experience (Fujiya 1935), ramen restaurant, grill and beer house, some cafes, tea house and random street foods, delis and food souvenirs that I bought back. 

1. Kobe Beef @Steak Land, Kobe

Eating Kobe beef is one of the highlights of my Osaka trip. We traveled to Kobe, about half an hour train ride from Dobutsuen-mai Station (2 stations away from Namba shopping district), to Sannomiya Station. The restaurant is just within walking distance from Sannomiya Station. It was quite easy to find.

Lemongrass Pork Chop with Ginger & Spring Onion Dressing

Here's a quick recipe for the lemongrass pork chop I made this morning. You can serve it with a white rice or a simple fried rice like I did with a sunny side up.

Making Gyoza

Here's a quick post on my first attempt in making gyoza. It's not bad at all.

Stuffed Tofu Dumpling

This is the stuffed tofu dumplings that I put in my previous post (yellow curry), with chicken, potato and rice vermicelli.

Yellow Curry

I just made this yellow curry and post in my IG, and one of my friends asked for the recipe, so I thought why not I share it here too. So here it goes.

Eat in Medan (Indonesia) Pt.5-8

Part 5: Snacks & Exotic Foods

1. Satay Padang @Jl. Malaka 

Satay Padang is characterised by its signature rich-spicy sauce. The satay itself you can choose from beef, lamb, chicken, beef intestines, beef tripe, beef tongue and many more. 

Eat in Medan (Indonesia) Pt.1-4

This is a long list of food to eat in my hometown, Medan. FYI, Medan is a heavy Chinese-populated city in Indonesia, so there will be a lot of Chinese food (some are non-halal), Indo-influence Chinese food, North Sumateran ethnic food and Indonesian food in general. 

Part 1: The Local Delicacy

1. Bakso Ayam Cianjur (Chicken Meatball Noodle Soup) @Jl. Sumatera Intersect Jl. Madong Lubis (near Rumah Makan A Hiang)

This is noodle soup with chicken meatball. The soup is very rich in Indonesian spices like clove, cinnamon and candlenuts and nutmeg. Normally they have variety of side dishes such as stuffed bean curd puff, spicy chicken gizzard and liver, spicy clam satay, etc.

 

Eat in Danang (Vietnam)

Before my trip to Danang, I searched some information about what to eat there, from street foods to fancy restaurants. I did not manage to eat all in my list but here’s some that I tried. I will try my best to write what I ate and where to find them. The street food such as noodle normally costs around VND 15-30k /bowl. 

1. Banh Canh (Noodle Soup) @143A Nguyen Chi Thanh St.

The first local food that I tried in Danang is the ‘banh canh’ or noodle soup. It is like a rat tail noodle in a spicy seafood broth, served with ‘you tiao’ (dough fritter), pickled red onion and green chilli, fish sauce, home made chilli sauce and lots of chinese celery leaves. It’s cheap and not too much or heavy. Perfect for people like me who want to hop around and try variety of foods in a day.

Fruitcake (Christmas Cake)

This fruitcake was made 2 years ago, 3 months before Christmas 2012. I brushed with rum once a week until Christmas came. The cake was moist and had that sweet alcoholic fragrant smell to it.

Red Velvet Cake

It was my first attempt making red velvet cake and I was quite satisfied with the result. So let me share the recipe here.

My Egg Curry Benedict

I have these WorldFoods cooking sauces and toppings in my pantry, which is great to prepare any quick and tasty meals. They are available in supermarkets in Malaysia like Village Grocer and Jaya Grocer.

Watch the video instruction here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_8WYehN-Co

My Potato Rosti Breakfast

Here is my fail-proof potato rosti recipe. Cook some sunny side up eggs, bacon, ham, sausage and throw in some salad, you have a good breakfast to start your day!

Avocado Milo Cake

After my visit to Medan, Indonesia last month, I so regret that I did not get to try the avocado chocolate cake. Avocado is so cheap in Indo, and avocado smoothie is a common item in the beverage menu in almost every cafe and restaurant there. So below is my attempt of making ‘Milo’ chocolate sponge cake with avocado butter cream. It’s a trial recipe and I use small round baking tins (only 12.5 cm or 5 inch) to bake it.

My Green Smoothie

So just recently I’m obsessed with green smoothie. As I tried to make it, I found my always-go-to 9-ingredient green smoothie.

Carrot Cake

Recently, I made a carrot cake and I thought to share the recipe here. I have made a few times and the result is not consistent. Below is the recipe that I think has got a better result. It is not perfect yet. So maybe i will update it here if there is any improvement the next time I make it again.

Registration of Marriage (ROM) for Foreign Spouse in Malaysia

Ok, here I am now trying to refresh my memory as much as I can about the whole process of getting my ROM (Registration of Marriage) done in Malaysia early this year, 2014. I am an Indonesian and my husband, a Malaysian. It was not smooth at all as I missed out a lot of documents and had to go back to the offices back and forth. But I will write down the right steps here so that it could be a useful reference. So here it goes.

Applying Long Term Social Visit Pass (Spouse Visa) in Malaysia

I'd like to record down all the processes I've gone through when applying the legal procedures that need to be done as a foreigner wife staying in Malaysia. The steps may vary from case to case but this is based on my experience as per my application in August 2014. I thought that I should share it too and hope it will be useful to other foreign husbands/wives who plan to stay in Malaysia.