6 May 2014
Manning The Egg Station - Eggs Eggs Eggs
Have you stayed at any hotel which serve breakfast buffets before? Be it complimentary or not?
If yes, there would be a high chance that the hotel would have a station where you could 'order' your eggs anyway you like. Of course I meant the standard ones and not the sous vide to whatever degrees celsius kind or eggs benedict. Those half boiled, soft boiled and hard boiled eggs can be requested and were done in the kitchen of course.
Anyway, I got the chance to mend the egg station for breakfast before and it was my virgin experience preparing those eggs ala minute for people. At first, it was really nerve wrecking for a newbie like me. But then, practice makes perfect and I focused on whipping up perfect omelettes and fried eggs for costumers instead of rushing through the cooking process. Speed of course was another issue depending on the crowd.
There are many ways to cook an egg but I shall just list down the common types of specification in which people would want their eggs to be cooked.
'Fried' — eggs are fried on both sides with the yolks broken until set or hard.
'Over well', also called 'over hard' or 'hard' — cooked on both sides until the yolk has solidified.
'Over medium' — cooked on both sides; the yolk is of medium consistency and the egg white is thoroughly cooked.
'Over easy', also called 'runny' — cooked on both sides; the yolk is a thin liquid, while the egg white is partially cooked.
'Sunny side up' — cooked only on one side; yolk is liquid. The egg white is often still rather runny as well.
Omelet — very lightly scrambled in the fry pan, but cooked flat and rolled up.
Not to forget, Chinese people would normally say 荷包蛋 (he bao dan) which means 'pocket eggs' in translation. It is just fried eggs that are folded and fried to a desired consistency.
There are strange people with unique requests, even when 'ordering' eggs.
I came across a person who requested an omelet with 5 big spoonful of diced onions, capsicums and tomatoes each. He mentioned that he loved vegetables and he requested the same serving for the following 3 days. I felt like I was making a vegetable roll instead of an omelet for him.
There are also health conscious people who requested no oil on the pan. The moment I heard the word no oil, I was like 'O shit'....high chance the egg (especially the omelet) would stick to the pan!
Some would request only egg white omelet. An evil though just came in mind - I should request that in future to bring inconvenience to the cook who prepares it for me! (Nah!)
Since I am still a newbie, I have experienced a few embarrassing moments before. Care to know what?
Firstly, I busted yolks while flipping the egg over. People may wonder why this chef can't flip an egg properly.
A couple of times, annoying people would just request their orders and walk away. This really can confuse the order especially when a few people does that at once. People! Please queue up... because some people
actually took others' order and left the explanation part to me.
Once, the kitchen serviette tissue that was used to wrap around the handle of my pan caught fire from the stove's flames. (The kitchen serviette tissue is to prevent the heat that transmitted upwards from burning my hand.) I quickly removed it and put out the flames by hand within a few seconds and threw it into the bin beneath me.
Beside that, I really love it when people gave me compliments about my nicely done omelet or fried eggs!
No harm praising the chef who did your eggs in future right? It will make his day happier too!
3 May 2014
Domino's Pizza Kicks Off Footy Online Contest!
Hey! All the Football and Domino's Pizza Fans out there! Domino's Pizza once again launched something new and exciting for everybody! I was quite eager to attend since I had a great experience from the
previous Domino's Pizza event.
See the staffs were all so enthusiastic and eager to share about Domino's Pizza Kicks Off Footy Online Contest! (Picture taken from William) |
Check this poster out! The football season is here! More pizza, more football! The staff sure could pose better than me as I am a seriously bad poser... Check out the poster below! |
Decided to take a selfie with the soccer ball above my head! I am no fan of soccer, but a fan of yummy pizzas! Duh! Before the food arrived, lecture first....we viewed a demonstration on the newly launched football game that you could win great prizes from, such as an Ipad and a 60'' LED HDTV! More details can be found at http://www.dominos.com.sg/ ! |
As for the game, log on to dominos.com.sg/kickoff to start. Remember to like the page first and it will direct you to this screen. |
Click to start playing this Flash game! |
Savored the other baked snacks that would be worthy to munch on while watching soccer! Spotted something new?? |
See all the bloggers (including myself) enjoying ourselves at Domino's Pizza? (Picture taken from William) |
Ending the night with a group shot! #typicalbloggers (Picture taken from William) Thank you The Influencer Network and Domino's Pizza for the invite! |
29 Apr 2014
The Public Izakaya by Hachi - Over Fusion??
28 Apr 2014
The Corner Place Korean BBQ Buffet - In general, I would want to avoid in future
I don't usually fancy going for a BBQ or a Steamboat buffet meal since I knew that the quality of those frozen/raw food usually sucks. I am referring to those standard $20 - $30 range of buffets which I had tried that has been listed on the side column of this blog.
You may question why I go for yet another BBQ buffet then?
You may question why I go for yet another BBQ buffet then?
9 Apr 2014
Orh Nee Roll - My Rendition of Orh Nee
Decided to do up a post before going to dreamland to recharge my energy for a crazy day of work tomorrow! It is FHA week and the morning crowd is so CRAZY! Too bad my off days are after FHA and I could not go although I had complementary ticket from my chef. (Gave away the ticket already...) I posted about my last day of school and my presentation previously (click here to view) and below is the dessert I created. The recipe I used included if anyone want to try making it?
(Picture taken from my school instructor's album.) Nicely taken from his DSLR! |
A summarized version of my report (modified)
Orh Nee Roll is my rendition of the popular Teochew dessert
that goes a long way back.
Orh Nee in Teochew means Taro Paste and memories of this
dish come from attending
wedding banquets, where it is almost customary for it to be
served as the last course in resturants.
The main ingredient used is yam, which is one of the oldest
food plants known. It is also a common plant found around the rustic and rural
kampung environment in the past. Yams are a good source of potassium,
manganese, copper, vitamin C, dietary fiber, and vitamin B6.
The other secondary ingredients used are coconut cream, pandan
leaves, shallots and pumpkin seed (to replace the actual pumpkin flesh).
Since the
past, coconut cream is added to Orh Nee to enhance the flavor, giving it a
creamier texture. As for shallots, when fried, they produce a fragrant aroma
which would mask the undesirable smell of the yam. Pandan leaves are used as
additional flavoring for the skin.
To further depict the kampong style, I choose to present my
Orh Nee rolled up in light pandan fragrance snowskin, looking like a piece of
home made traditional kueh. It is also to break the monotonous habit of serving
Orh Nee in a bowl, looking like a pile of unappetizing dull looking gooey mess.
The spongy texture of the snow skin with fried shallots and pumpkin seed provide a slight contrast to the rich creamy texture of the yam paste itself. This sweet
as well as savory dessert is made from scratch, just like
from the kampung days.
Dessert name: Orh Nee Roll (About 100 pcs)
(Adjust oil and coconut cream base on your desired consistency.)
(Adjust oil and coconut cream base on your desired consistency.)
Ingredient List
Yam Paste
Fresh Yam 1200g
Caster Sugar
200g
Peanut Oil
300g
Shallots 15
no.s
Coconut Cream 600g
Salt
A pinch
Snow Skin
Fried Glutinous Rice Flour (Kou Fien) 600g + (100g for dusting)
Icing Sugar
750g
Shortening
180g
Water (Cold)
600ml
Green Colouring Few
drops
Pandan Leaves
100g
Method
1) Peel
taro and cut into thin slices. Arrange on a dish/tray and steam for 20-30 min
until soft.
2) Once
the taro slices are out of the steamer, mash them up with the back of a fork,
adding caster sugar at the same time. Taste and add more caster sugar if
required. Tweak the level of sweetness to personal preference. Cover with
clingfilm.
3) Peel
shallots and finely slice them.
4) In
a wok or wide saucepan, add oil and sliced shallots. Gently stir-fry on medium
low heat until the shallot discs begin to brown and crisp up. Strain the
shallots from the oil.
5) Return
oil back to the wok, turn down the flame to low. Add mashed taro paste and mix
until well amalgamated. Taste again and add more sugar if required. Also, if
coconut milk is used, it can be added at this point with a pinch of salt. Cut
back the oil by half if so and add accordingly until the desired texture is
achieved.
6)
Allow the taro paste to cool down considerably.
Transfer into a food blender and blitz until smooth. Chill the mixture till firm.
7)
Sift the flour
and mix with icing sugar and add into a bowl
8)
Blend the
pandan leaves for its juice, add into the cold water with a few drops of
colouring.
9)
Add shortening
and water to the flour mixture, mix together to form a smooth dough and keep
aside for 30 minutes.
10) Roll out the
dough into a rectangular flat surface, spread the taro paste across it and roll
it up like a swiss roll.
11) Chill before slicing into portion and serve.
(I had my reference from http://travelling-foodies.com)
2 Apr 2014
Graduated from At-Sunrice! Spice Odyssey 2014
This 18 months was like a whirlwind to me. I enrolled into At-sunrice and started my course almost 4 months after my army days. Even the pictures I am about to post felt like an aftermath of the whirlwind since I am at a loss of what sequence should I start my story line with!
My team that comprises of 3 pastry and 3 culinary students. With kampung theme, we dress kampung style! |
A selfie playing with a paper kite that day. Although badly taken but no choice as this was the only picture my friend sent to me.... |
My Orh Nee Roll which is my own rendition of the popular Teochew dessert. Shall post the recipe next time. Really survival looking right? |
I know it looked quite cheapo in plastic bags but it is Kampung style! Each group was only given $100 to spend on whatever props and stuffs we need for our presentation. |
My classmates! We all dressed accordingly to our theme that day. My dressing is definitely the most 'CUI'! LOL! |
My close cliquey of friends! |
Guys only shot! One of them went for smoke break I think... |
Back at Sats, thank you chef for loaning me some of the equipment for my presentation! |
This is just a brief post and I did not have time to try my friends' food or to take pictures of other teams' layout/food. We all knew we did what we could and to happily graduate from our course, no matter whether we would want to continue this profession in future.