H1N1 Virus

Its official. I have the H1N1 virus. My parents sent me to the hospital last night because it was getting worse and the doctor said that I have be infected with the H1N1 virus. I must be quarantined for 7 days. By the way, I am totally NOT happy about this because my grades will drop dramatically. Totally missing out on the whole block! 20 marks GONE!!! Argh!!! I wonder if I can still get an A.

Oh well, I feel much better than yesterday already. More energy. So thats good :)

Sick

I have been so sick for the past 2 days. I had a bit of headache when I woke up on Thursday morning but I thought it was nothing so I went to school. It got worse after lunch so I took my temperature and it was 37.7ºC. Since the day was almost over, I decided to hang in there. After school, I took my temperature again and it was 38.3ºC. The cycle back home was the longest EVER!

For that night, it was just horrible. I kept vomiting for at least 5 times. Terrible headache, it was so uncomfortable! The next day, my mom brought me to the polyclinic and there were so many people having a fever. So i was there for like 2 hours. It was so so cold even though i had my jacket.

Well, I am getting better now. I hope I will be fine by Monday because that when we start a new block (Sugarloaf Production). Its not good to miss out on that.

Weird

I always say time flies, time flies. But do we actually embrace the time that we have? Can someone please tell me? When we lose the time, we say time flies. It is when we lose it, we do not make use of our time properly. Of course this is not always true because when we have fun, time flies too. But does that mean that we did not make use of it properly? It does not. 

Now that the holiday is almost over, i am starting to miss it. Term 2 will be more hellish than term 1 I think because of the Commis Challenge and stuff. Plus I will be having the dining experience THIS COMING WEDNESDAY!!! Gosh...I have not even remember the flavours and the descriptive words! I am so dead.

Black Pepper Crab

Sorry G. that this took so long to be posted. But here it is now. To tell you the truth, I have never cooked black pepper crab before (but I still have the recipe). My mom and I always cook chilli crab.

Ingredients

• 3 - 4 crabs, washed
• 4 tbs freshly ground black pepper
• 3 - 4 fresh red chilli, seeded, minced
• 4 tbs butter
• 10 cloves garlic, peeled, minced
• 10 slices ginger 
• 2 tbs oyster sauce
• 2 tsp dark soy sauce
• 2 tsp sugar (optional)
• Coriander leaves for garnish

Method

1. Chop off the 2 clippers of the crab, separate the body of crab from its top shell, chop the body part into half.
2. Dry-fry black pepper in frying pan till fragrant.
   
3. Remove and set it aside.
   
4. Heat the wok/ whatever that can hold the crabs & the sauce, add butter.
5. When it melts, add garlic, ginger and chilli, stir-fry until its fragrant, about 3 - 4 minutes.
6. Add oyster sauce, soy sauce and sugar (if using), stir well.
7. Add the crabs and stir to cover the crabs with the sauce, stir-fry for about 5 minutes.
8. Add the dry-fried black pepper and stir-fry on high heat for a few more minutes.
9. Serve with the garnish.

P.S. Each slice of ginger is about 3 mm thick.

P.S. Dry-frying is frying without any oil.

P.S. It depends on how big your crab is, if its big, you need to cook it longer.

Kitchen From Hell

It has been more than a month since I blogged. I have been extremely busy (and a bit lazy too) with school. Its really hell! Let me start with my typical day: I will wake up at 6:00 am, have breakfast and shower and leave my house latest by 6:55 am. We need to be there by 7:50 am for the roll call in full chef uniform. After that we will go into the culinary theatre for a demo & explanation of what we will be doing that day. And immediately after that, we will proceed down to the kitchen to cook. We will be marked on the dishes we produce each and every day (so we have to be on our top every single day). 

After the cookery, we will have a 45 minutes break and start the lecture/ knife skills. All these will end only at 4:00 pm or 5:00 pm (depends on how fast we work). To add on, we still have lessons on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm. After that, when I get home and shower, it will be almost 7:00 pm already. Have dinner till like 7:30 pm and need to print the recipes for the next day and read them well. By the time I am done with that, it will be at least 8:30 pm or 9 pm already. And not forgetting that I will need to iron my chef uniform for the next day. After that, I will need to get ready for bed because of the early next day. And it goes all over again. 

Not forgetting that we still have homework, which is to cut up carrots into different sizes and that will take at least 30 minutes. So, to conclude, I really do not have much time for anything else. Well, thats the life of a chef-in-training. What to do..... except to live through it (hopefully).

Finale

Oh finally!!!! The big big day tomorrow. I am finally getting out of Singapore. Will be leaving home at 7am. The coach is 9am and its at harbour front (I know, its so far). And everything is almost packed now, just need to put in the medicines, toothbrush and thats it I guess. I am so so excited already. I hope I can sleep tonight.

But still have some last minute school stuff to do. Need to pass the injection certificate to my friend because the school needs it by 14 April and I will not be in Singapore. They will have the kitchen orientation on 14 April and I will miss that. So disappointed. I don't want to miss out anything. But no choice, the tickets are already booked. And don't get me wrong, I am equally excited about the trip and the orientation.

So, see you guys when I am back!

P.S. I will be bringing a journal so I can write down everything and will be posting it on here after I am back.

Time

Time flies. I have not ben blogging because I was busy preparing for the music exam, buying my friend's birthday present (gosh, that was long, but worth it), and work.

I just came back from work at the Holiday Inn ParkView Hotel. My feet are absolutely killing me. They need to be soaked in warm water hehe. Last Wednesday was the CCM Dinner and Dance and it was just all right. The food was absolutely divine but the activities they planned were boring and meaningless (as expected though). Well, that was the last day of 1J02 and that was the saddest part of it all. We love our class so much! A bunch of weird people (including me) but still, we love each other :D

离开的快乐？

Yesterday was R.'s Singapore Farewell Party at the Equinox with many of his cute friends. I did enjoy myself very much until the moment I saw Marc across the street when we were walking to Chinatown. Already the farewell party was like sad and happy at the same time and everything just went downhill from the moment I saw "you-know-who".

我会永远爱他的。他可能是我唯一最爱的人。所以当一个你最爱的人离开时，我想你也会很伤心吧。那就是我的感受。

A Grave Dug Up For Myself?

Exams are coming again. And this is the first time I am so worried. I did not do well in the mid-semester exams and that pulled my coursework grades down. So now, I am really studying my butts and brains off. Every night when it hit 10 pm, my brain cells will be totally dry and useless. I want to absorb more and fast!

As long as I can pass this semester and go to year 2, I will be the happiest man boy on earth. This semester is really tough. I just want to get into the kitchen and do what I wanted to in the first place: Cook! Please please please, let me get through this semester!

Food Seduction...

I know, I have not been blogging for quite a while about myself. But who's reading? I doubt anyone will be reading this. Okay, lets get down to the food business. 

We finally went to the Top Table. For those who doesn't know what it is, it is a restaurant run by the students of Culinary and Catering Management. Normally we just go there to look at the facilities and never to sit down and enjoy the food, or hear about how they will torture us next semester but always telling us not to worry.

Okay okay, back to the food. It was a 3 course meal and for the appetizer, I had tomato soup which was just pure pure pure! No msg, no colouring, just plain tomato! The best I have tasted so far I would say.

The main course would be the chicken with ham wrapped around it, with rocket lettuce and salad dressing. That one was a hit also. They used herbs which just go so well with the chicken, just divine! From this angle, it looks like something else, but it sure taste nice! :P

The dessert was really worth dying for! Chocolate pudding. The chocolate was just oozing out from the outer shell, fighting to come out. A flow of dark plight, so dangerous that you don't dare to eat it. Actually, it looked so damn nice that I didn't want to eat it hehe.

Oh those were the many times when the food seduced me so much! I would like to have it over and over again :P

Home-made Pineapple Tarts...

I am not going to write any introduction about this because you just HAVE to try it for yourself and surprise yourself!

FILLING

Ingredients

• 2 medium-sized pineapples, skinned & cut into small pieces
• 120g sugar

Method

1. Put pieces of pineapple into food processor and blitz until it becomes mushy.
2. Put the mushy pineapple on a clean cloth and squeeze out all the juice.
3. Cook the remains (not the juice!) of pineapple in a saucepan over low heat (keep stirring).
4. After 5 minutes, add sugar to it gradually. Mix well.
5. Continue stirring over low heat for about 30 minutes or until the mixture looks dry.
6. Cool the filling before putting it into the fridge for 20 minutes.
7. Remove from fridge, take a teaspoon of it and form a ball with your palms. 
8. Set them aside.

TART

Ingredients

• 250g butter, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 1 egg yolk
• 440g plain flour 
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 egg, beaten (for glazing)

Method

1. Preheat oven to 165 Degree Celsius.
2. Cream butter and vanilla essence on medium speed for 4 minutes.
3. Add egg yolk and continue mixing until well incorporated.
4. Mix in dry ingredients on low speed until a coarse, crumbly texture forms.
5. Add in the milk.
6. Place dough on a surface and knead for 2 minutes.
7. Seal it with cling wrap and chill it for 30 minutes.
8. Remove from fridge and pull out some to form 2.5 cm diameter ball.
9. Flatten ball and put pineapple filling in.
10. Wrap the dough around filling and make it into a ball.
11. Brush pineapple tarts with egg wash.
12. Bake for 15 minutes.

Makes about 40.

P.S. While waiting for the filling to cool, you can start with the tart. Just put both the filling ad the tart in at the same time and after 20 minutes, take out the filling and start rolling. By the time you finish, the tart will be ready to be taken out.

P.S. Brush as much egg wash on them as possible, it will give them a very nice golden-brown colour. 

For Those Cookies Lovers...

I was making this yesterday using the "Professional Chef" book. It was called "Chocolate Chunk Cookies". However, I was out of chocolate chips, so I decided to change it to almonds. And I added a twist to the recipe. Hope you guys like it.

Ingredients

• 163g flour
• 3 teaspoon of cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 pinch of salt
• 100g butter, SOFT
• 35g sugar
• 25g light brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract/ essence 
• 7 - 10 pieces of almonds

Method

1. Cream butter and sugars on medium speed, until smooth and light in colour (5 minutes).
2. Mix eggs and vanilla essence in a small bowl.
3. Chop almonds to tiny pieces.
4. Add to butter-sugar mixture in 5 additions, until fully mixed (scrape down if needed)
5. Measure dry ingredients.
6. On low speed, mix in dry ingredients and chopped almonds.
7. Mix till just incorporated.
8. Prepare a sheet of cling wrap. Scoop the batter and put on cling wrap, wrap up, put in the freezer. Freeze for 30 minutes (or until it is hard enough to roll on your palms)
9. Chop any chocolate into 1.5 cm wide, roll each chocolate into a ball of cookie batter.
10. Flatten cookies with a fork (that will create a pattern for the cookies also).
11. Put into oven for 12 - 14 minutes, 190 Degree Celsius.

Makes 25 (depends on the size of each cookies)

P.S. Adding the egg-vanilla mixture to butter-sugar mixture in 5 additions will help the eggs incorporate better. Mix till it looks a bit fluffy.

P.S. If the cookies are still a bit soft on the underside after cooling, don't scream! Just flip them over and bake for another 6 minutes in the same temperature.

Two Birds With One Stone...

It has been such a hectic weekend and hectic monday also. We (group members) stayed in Changi Airport from friday night all the way to saturday afternoon just to complete the HT Marketing report. And I must say, it has really paid off BIG time. 

We had 2 presentations today. One is Food Hygiene and Safety, the other one is Marketing in Hospitality and Tourism. So had to go through both of the presentations and familiarise myself with them in just one night! Just too rush, but I managed to familiarise 85% of both of the presentations. 

For the Food Hygiene presentation, we have not gotten back any comments from our teacher yet because there was one group who has yet to present to the class due to the lack of time. For the HT Marketing, although we exceeded the time limit which is 15 minutes per group, we received excellent remarks from our teacher. "Very detailed and good research and the promotional ways were really interesting and that is the main focus of the report, Well Done!" We were SO proud of ourselves. 

So today is quite a stressful day but very VERY enjoyable!!!

Incredibly Stupid...

This week is just a horrible week. All the papers from mid-semester tests have been given back to us and I must say, I am terribly disappointed in myself. Nothing more I could say.

I really need to study hard and study smart from now on. No more distractions or what-so-ever. Just go go go until the end.

Family Fish...

I had to translate this recipe into English so that I could upload it here and it took so long! This is because I got this recipe from my mom and she had everything in Chinese. This, again, is really simple. Nothing will burn, nothing will go bad. This is so easy that you could cook it with your eyes closed (I know I am exaggerating a little, but its just to show you how simple it is).

Ingredients

• 3 - 5 spanish mackerel (depends on how many people you are serving)
• 4 - 6 garlics (depends on your liking)
• 1 teaspoon fermented black beans
• 1 teaspoon light soy sauce
• 3 sticks lemongrass
• 4 pieces asam skin
• 1 cup water
• 2 - 3 tablespoon oil (depends on your liking also)

Method

1. Chop garlic finely.
2. Fry chopped onions and fermented back beans in oil until fragrant.
3. Add soy sauce.
4. Immediately after adding soy sauce, add water, lemongrass and asam skin.
5. Mix well and bring it to a boil.
6. When its boiling, put in the mackerels.
7. Simmer for at least 30 minutes. At most 45 minutes.

PS. You can just cook until all the sauce dries up. However, I like it with some sauce so I could dip the fish with some sauce before devouring it. 

PS. You can also use other fishes that you like, as long as you can fit it in whatever you are cooking them with. 

PS. Do not cut the fish into pieces as the fish will be very fragile after cooking.

Banana Chocolate Muffins

This recipe is so easy and fast that I succeeded with the first attempt. A banana muffin recipe of course requires banana. If you have those really REALLY ripe bananas which can't be easily eaten raw, fred not. You can just throw those in this recipe and it will turn out like heaven! As this recipe uses vegetable oil instead of butter or regular oil, it is a lot healthier. So for those health-conscious people, this will be your eating-spree! Enjoy!

Ingredients

• 3 very ripe bananas
  
• 125ml vegetable oil
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 250g flour
  
• 50g caster sugar
  
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
  
• 150g chocolate/ raisins (optional)
  

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200 degree celsius and line a 12-bun muffin tin with muffin papers
2. Pour the oil into a measuring cup and beat in the eggs
3. Measure dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder) and out them in to a large bowl
4. Mash the bananas
5. Mix in the beaten-egg-and-oil mixture, followed by the mashed bananas
6. Fold in your chocolates/ raisins
7. Place equal quantities into prepared muffin tins. Fill them up to 3/4 of each muffin paper, not more. Bake for 20 minutes.

Makes 12

PS. I have already reduced the sugar content by half from its original recipe because I don't like food to be too sweet.

A Whole New Everything...

After hours and hours of mind-draining Marketing in Hospitality and Tourism project, it was finally here! Time to celebrate and enjoy!

Met E. at Tampines MRT as usual then we went to VivoCity and guess what? It was so packed that it became SO noisy (luckily the bookstore was quiet, if not I would have gone crazy). We had dinner at Le Marché. It was quite expensive but the food was quite nice so it balanced out a little. Still, I think its quite expensive. 

We decided to go for a movie since we had a lot of time to spare (we finished dinner at about 8 pm). So we went to get seats for a movie called "The Duchess". It was a good film as it related a lot of emotions and feelings with the audience which was great. However, it totally ruined my mood for the day because I was so sad after the film. When we came out, there were even more people and they were most probably queuing to get to the rooftop for the countdown. 

Well, we had our plans and that is to go to the bars (either Tantric or DYMK). We decided to get to Tantric first to see the crowd there. And guess what again? There were not many people there, sad to say. PLUS, the crowd there were all not really my type so we just went on to check DYMK out and it was SO MUCH better than Tantric. Although there were not as many people as Tantric, it was just such a relaxing place with the bar feeling still there. The crowd there were not as bitchy and arrogant as those in Tantric. It was just nice. I had a sprite (as I was not feeling like drinking anything alcoholic that night) and a mocktail and the mocktail was on one of E.'s friend who is working there! How fabulous! The employees there were really friendly and polite (and of course, cute).

We left around 1.30 pm and caught a train back home. The train people has extended their working hours since it was New Year's Eve and New Year. Oh well, all in all, it was such a great day.