27 Feb 2014
Making Sugar Showpieces - An art that I enjoyed!
 |
| Posting this post about sugar showpiece would meant that my graduation day is approaching!! Like finally? Woohoo... Left a week more of school (basically examination week) before my final group presentation and I am out of there. I shall blog about my final presentation next time! Anyway, I had a 5 days module on sugar works and was taught to do sugar casting, sugar pulling as well as blowing. Among the entire 17 months course, this module was my favorite as I could express my artistic style through the showpieces. In a team of 2 throughout the 5 days, my friend and I created 5 showpieces, only to demolish everyone of them (except the last) at the end of the day. The 1st day was basically to hands on and get a feel of the extreme heat! Despite the 2 layers of glove, the heat could still penetrate through, making sure my hands were constantly in perspiration mode. Such heat would not stop us from assembling our masterpiece! Showpiece #1 - Fruit Farm Started blowing sugar in the first day itself! Dam difficult to blow but managed to get an apple done! My friend was practicing doing some twirls and leaves using molds. |
 |
| A bit too much text above? I shall go straight to the point then... Showpiece #2 - Fruit PartyMore blowing to practice my skill although the shapes were slightly (ok, very) mutated. Spot the lemon and bell pepper? A bit of rose petal design on the casting itself. Basically I handled the blowing part while my friend focused on the swirls and leaves. This is what I would call assigning specialization! |
 |
| Showpiece #3 - Do you want to build a snowman? Based on the recent trend of the Disney movie called 'Frozen' and one of the songs 'Do you want to build a snowman?', we too, decided to build a snowman! Not with snow and magic but with heat and sugar LOL! Practiced a bit of shape manipulation to create objects such as the broom. Damn difficult to blow up large regular sphere shape sugar pieces as the room humidity was not right in the first place. I did managed to blow one up as large as your face! |
 |
| Showpiece #4 - Into the depth Day 4 already and we got more enthusiastic and adventurous, so we decided to go for the underwater theme. That day was when I started to blow teardrop and oval shaped sugar pieces, creating whales mating and a bird..? Underwater? Trying out casting for irregular shaped base, with 4 rectangular blocks of water swirling design as backdrop. Not to forget a mesh of spiderweb-like extract for additional contrast. |
 |
| Showpiece #5 - Do you want to build a snowman? Again? The final day of our sugar showpiece module as well as our assessment day! A new improved version of 'Do you want to build a snowman?'. A very Christmas theme with the tree for extended height purpose and presents to showcase fine detailing of ribbons. Hi cute little snowman! It was so much fun and I bet it would be my first and last chance to do sugar showpieces. |
22 Feb 2014
Maison Kaiser - A filling high tea set
 |
| It was a rather random choice that day as I picked Maison Kaiser for high tea with my mum. Being tempted by a couple of other tables who had ordered the 3-tier high tea set for 2, I decided to go for the similar set as well. I am a typical follow-the-crowd person indeed! When the 3-tier stand arrived with 3 large plates of food, it basically occupied most of the table space and it was so annoying to eat with such limited table space. (See from the picture what I meant?) |
 |
| The set came with a pot of tea of our choice and we picked the Lemongrass and Verbena. (Free refill of hot water available but reusing the same tea bag.) I really disliked the cup design, as with such large surface area, the tea turned cold really fast unknowingly. |
 |
| We started off with the sausage quiche (quiche of the day) and we enjoyed it thoroughly! (My personal favourite from the entire set.) The savoury quiche had a somewhat firm eggy custard (not watery) with not- so-salty sausage chunks. The taste was well balanced and it was so addictive, especially for a fan of savoury food like me. The smoked salmon side and salad were refreshing and gave the savoury part a different texture. |
 |
| The desserts were sweetness overload to us, especially the eclair and the chocolate chip cookies. The icing coated eclair was filled with vanilla flavoured ; custard-like cream, thick and sticky. I did not manage to finish my piece of sugar-high cookie though. I loved the moist green tea cake with cream as well as the large slice of mixed berries cream cake. Eat it early or you would witness the meltdown of the gelatin set mixed berries compote (top layer). |
 |
| Last was not least, these assorted open faced sandwiches were decent and fulfilled their duty in filling us up quite a bit. With such a filling high tea session, my mum and I probably had a bit of problems having dinner at a standard 6+ timing that day. |
8 Feb 2014
Helping out at a VIP Event @ Marina Bay Cruise Centre!
 |
| Just a little update - My last day of internship ended over a VIP Event located at Marina Bay Cruise Centre. Fortunate for us trainees as it was our first outdoor event exposure that we get to experience, instead of being enclosed within 4 walls of our production kitchen carrying out our boring routines. |
 |
| Our job here as trainees would be to constantly refill the dessert spread whenever any desserts are running low in numbers. The next few pictures would definitely make you salivate and desperate to dig into the wide array of colourful petite portion desserts! I quickly snapped these pictures before the VIPs (about 800 pax) started swarming in with starving tummies. |
 |
| Some of the lovely desserts available! |
 |
| Colorful background lighting as well as sculpture decorations to enhance the overall presentation of the buffet line. |
 |
| More desserts! Too bad I did not get a chance to try most of them... I could if I wanted to, just that I did not want such high amount of sugar intake in a single day. |
 |
| Refreshing fresh cream with fruits! |
 |
| Different types of cheese, dried fruits, grapes and plain crackers. |
 |
Fact #1 - Do not be surprise if you see many people (ladies especially), going directly towards the dessert
spread before having their main course.
Fact #2 - Macarons were the first to be completely wiped out, including the countless trays of spare which
I had to refill constantly throughout that evening. Fact #3 - Some ladies really could eat up to 12 pieces of macarons (more is highly possible).
Fact #4 - Desserts could be ladies' main course instead.
Fact #5 - Top favorite macaron and first to run out was the nutella flavor (probably closest to chocolate
flavor). went at 9.00am in the morning to help out a bit. The experience sure was a load of fun, better than being stuck in a production kitchen (wanted to stress on that point again)! |
3 Feb 2014
Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King Four Seasons - Back again
 |
| I mentioned before that I would quit ramen dining somewhere in my previous post and I was back here in Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King Four Seasons again. Not that I did not stick to my words but it was my friend's decision to queue for it since he have not tried from this outlet before. We ended up queueing for more than 30 minutes while he kept sharing his recent 3 weeks of experience in Japan with me. He also mentioned that in Japan, many dining places required queueing too and he did not mind waiting at all. (Provided you don't faint from huger first.) As for me, it was my 3rd visit and I admit that this outlet was one of the better ones in Singapore. Like finally we could step into the restaurant and were given the counter seats. Interesting to watch the chefs in action but annoying to have smoke flying directly at my face while enjoying my bowl of ramen. |
 |
| I suggested the 'Autumn' ramen to my friend since he loves spicy food. He gobbled it hungrily and agreed with me that it was really delicious, one of the better ones he tried in Singapore, even better than Ramen Keisuke Tori King (its sister outlet). As for me, I tried the Tonkotsu King and it sure was addictive and I could have easily drank 4 bowls of such tasty broth. Another YUM factor was the thinly sliced tender pork with some fats and onions which provided an additional bit of sweetness. I really would not mind eating this bowl of ramen for a week! By the way, my previous posts on Ramen Keisuke Tonkotsu King Four Seasons could be found here and here. |
30 Jan 2014
Bak Kwa Madness for coming Chinese New Year??
Chinese New Year is justwith my friend since the start of January.
I came across an article on New Paper - 'Behind the scenes in a bak kwa shop' which featured Lim Chee
Guan. There was even a video to give public a peek at its HQ at Pandan Loop. Obviously the secret recipe
was not included in this article.
My eyes almost popped out of my socket when I saw that 1kg of Bak Kwa was going for $50.00 at the
shop! Gosh! Those people have been queuing for hours too and they mentioned that it was worth the wait.
Is it a tradition that Chinese New Year means Bak Kwa time?
The link of the article can be found here.
Another article which I came across last Monday with the heading
HED CHEF EXTRA: How to make your own bak kwa
HED CHEF EXTRA: How to make your own bak kwa
sparked my interest.
The recipe given was:
-1kg minced pork (shoulder butt)
-220g fine sugar
-1½ tsp salt
-1 tsp light soya sauce
-1 tbsp oyster sauce
-½ tsp five spice powder
-1½ tbsp Chinese rice wine
-Pinch of red food colouring powder
I guessed many people who tried making it would be greatly disappointed as it would never turn out the
same as those commercialized outlets like Lim Chee Guan, Bee Cheng Hiang or Fragrance Bak Kwa.
The reason of me writing this post was because I was a bit pissed off. I have already tried making Bak Kwa
even before this article's recipe was published, using the oven, even with barbecuing, and the results was so off! It could be found on my previous post here. Not to mention the texture was not right too...
Notice the article's recipe above contained sugar as the main sweetening agent? My friend and I did a batch
with only sugar and no honey (the recipe I used have), the taste turned out really flat! Honey not only
sweetened the Bak Kwa but also provides flavor. (Different brand, different flower, different flavor also.)
Be careful as honey is sweeter than sugar too.
Another thing that would happen when you place the marinated meat into the oven would be the oozing out
of marination which I experienced many times before. To prevent that from happening, I suggested using the
dehydrator which I did not expect my friend to actually buy it
 |
| The same dehydrator that could be used to make fruit and vegetable chips! It cost my friend about $250. Basically he dehydrated the marinated meat for about an hour, about 65 degrees (high). (Also have low and medium heat options.) |
 |
| After that, the marinated meat is smoked with his own-made smoker, made from a 3 tier Ikea rack, covered by some board used for artwork. (Sushi bamboo racks to place the marinated meat on.) |
 |
| (Top view) An opening for smoke to escape and and thermometer to determine the temperature of the smoking. |
 |
| Just a tin with hickory wood/charcoal to produce the smoke. |
 |
| Final outcome of the Bak Kwa! Do not use hickory wood but stick to charcoal instead as the smokey flavor was overwhelming. It made the Bak Kwa taste like Lap Cheong (Chinese sausages) instead. The Bak Kwa was also like a sponge, absorbing all the moisture from my mouth, making it dry. Almost there!!!! |
(Everything stated is based on personal opinion ; open to suggestions and advice)
Crystal Jade Jiang Nan - A Rainbow!
 |
| Visited Crystal Jade Jiang Nan at Vivocity with my friend and we shared these colourful xiao long bao! Due to the broth contained inside which make it impossible to share, I only tried 4 flavors while my friend tried the other 4. I started off with the vegetables (green), cheese (yellow), spicy beef (pink) and lastly the foie gras (brown). It happened to be the order of my favourite too! The vegetable tasted clear and refreshing, the cheese was savoury and salty while both the minced spicy beef and foie gras were tasteless and disgusting. My friend had the original (white), spicy chicken (orange), prawn (pale orange) and truffle (black). The ball in the middle was filled with custard. (Just to fill up the centre as the blankness would feel awkward.) Of course we had ordered other dishes too but I decided to post only this since the rainbow colours gave a lasting impression. |