Stir-Fry Mung Bean Noodles

It's about time to make something out of this wonderful noodles. I tend to cook rice noodles at home, because we alway have a huge stock of them. But mung beans noodles, tend to be neglected, although I always have some. 

I made this stir  fry noodles with sweet beans, cabbage, green onion, chicken and mushroom. There were some chopped garlic and onion too, seasoned with soy sauce and went soy sauce plus white pepper. Some sliced red chillies were added for extra spicy kick. 

About Going To London

As we approached 24 hours prior to the departure to London, we still felt uncertain whether we should go or to stay back. Many reasons for that, aside from the fact that European countries have been on alert mode. 

As usual and it's really typical of me that I let reluctance dominate my feeling for going away. I always think about carrying the bags along the airports, going through securities, sitting in the plane for really long hours and walking a long way in Heathrow to the train station and taking another transport to the hotel upon arriving in Paddington. Argh, not exciting. Such a long way to go. 

I am aware that most of the times, the plane rides are not that bad and even they can be enjoyable. In fact going to London is pleasant because we don't need to stop over anywhere. It's basically you sit, eat, watch movies, listen to music, eat more, sleep, eat again and you will be in Heathrow. That's not bad isn't it?

Now weather. Right now, London is cold, wet and foggy. It even snowed a couple of days ago. I don't mind the snow, I prefer snow than rain. If the weather forecast is correct, we won't see see snow during our stay. But. London is still going to be cold. Cold. Piercing cold. 

What made me go? I think the encouragement from my traveling mate that did it. After all, I was not really on saying no or yes. I was okay both ways. His main point was, "I want to see London before Christmas." Well, me too. I had never done it before. 

Okay. So packing continued. Limo ride to airport was not cancelled. Packed layers, gloves and thick jacket. To London we go. 

Cheese Shortbread

Cheese shortbread or known as kaastengels for Durch and Indonesian people, are so scrumptious. Originally they are shaped as cheese fingers, but these days, these cheese cookies seem to come in different sizes and shapes. I have been making these for the longest time and I did not really use particular recipe, but there's always a guidelines that I remember in terms of amount of cheese and butter used. Recipe is below.

Recipe

Ingredients:

100 gr butter

1/4 tsp salt

25 gr almond flour

1 egg yolk

125 gr flour

50 gram grated cheddar or gouda

egg wash (beat 1 egg and 1 Tbs of water)

Directions:

In a medium size bowl, beat the butter and salt until they are slightly creamy, add almond flour and the egg yolk and mix them well until they are combined.

Add the flour and mix well, mix in the grated cheese and mix further until they are combined. Tip the mixture onto a lightly floured surface and knead to a soft dough. Wrap the dough using a plastic wrap and store in the fridge for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 170C.

Take out the dough and knead a little bit if needed and roll out to 4-5mm thickness. Using a cookie cutter or a knife, cut the dough into preferred shapes. Brush the top of the shortbread using the egg wash and sprinkle generously with grated parmesan cheese.

Bake for 10 minutes at 170C, and further 10-15 minutes at 160C, until they are golden brown. Leave on the baking tray for a few minutes until they are firmer and transfer to wire rack to cool. 

Pandan Cupcakes

I was craving for some pandan cakes and as usual, I tried to make as little as possible. However, it was still a bit much, there were 12 of them using three eggs. I converted the measurement from cup to grams and somewhere along during conversion, I must have done something wrong. I ended up with having a bit more flour than needed, I had a little denser than usual cupcakes, the cakes did not collapse too much from their peak, but still taste really good.

About Betrayal ..

Sometimes you are put in a bad situation that you do not exactly ask for. Some are insignificant. Like you are sitting in a church and someone came along and sitting next to you. This person loves to sing but she or he is tone deaf. Painful, I know. You could move away or you could simply sit there because it is not important enough to move. But there are times when you are in bad spot because people surround you with inappropriate things that you do not deserve. Maybe your husband cheat on you and have kids with some other women. Maybe someone you know, use your money without your permission and try to cover it up from you until you find out. Maybe someone that you do not know park their cars in your house without your permission when you are abroad and let your corrupted and extremely stupid housekeeper let it happen and try to cover up when she was caught.

People lie to protect themselves, people lie because they know that they are wrong and they are afraid of what you will do. They are afraid of the consequences for telling the truth.  They are afraid of what people think of them when they discover that you cheat, you lie, you have affairs with many women and you have kids with them too. They are ashamed of themselves. They should be.  Some people tell a little truth to show that they put effort into helping you, which you know may not be not true as well. But because you are smart enough, you know how to put things together, then you can safely arrive at a conclusion that these fools are trying to fool you. Only a fool does that, what an insult to our intelligence, don't you think?

T'was an ordinary Saturday, except that I was home alone today. I expected coffee in the morning, right after I got up, followed and simultaneously by checking the news and mails and browsing anything I wanted to see on the net, I minded my own business. It went that way. At least for a while, until I received bad news that basically can be translated as betrayal by the person that we had trusted for a long time. Unexpectedly. Do not imagine that it was such a massive magnitude. It was actually rather small thing. But it was still bad.  Nobody likes to get cheated or lied to. I know it is wrong to expect that life sail smoothly all the time.  Just like everyone else, when things do not go your way, I am disappointed. I have been disappointed before.  Many times. But when the same thing comes across, I could not help getting hurt and upset.

It always takes time to digest. It always takes more time to process. It takes longer times to figure out what to do. And it takes the longest time to accept and move on. Maybe. But. Just think of the people that have betrayed us as worthless human being that do not even deserve a second of our time. There are so much more precious and beautiful things in life that you rather spend your time on.   There are always a bunch of people that constantly do not appreciate what they have gotten from us and think that they all deserve to take things that do not belong to them. You probably know what i am talking about.

Simply, these idiots are not worth our time and I am doing my best to remove these cancerous bugs out of my life. I am moving on with my wonderful life. My WONDERFUL and BEAUTIFUL life.

Granola Breakfast

I always like to have a more elaborate granola for breakfast. It is a bit too plain if I have granola with yoghurt alone, especially when time permits. I tend to eat fruits in the morning anyway. It's my ritual that is hard to break. So here is my granola breakfast.  I had it with pomegranate, raspberries, persimmon, dried figs, blueberries and mint leaves and sprinkled them with chia seeds for extra boost for health. 

Curried Chick Pea Salad

I like salad. With the right combination of what you put and the right dressing, salad can be the most delicious yet healthiest thing on earth. Salad makes me feel less guilty when I eat non-veggie and non-fruit things.

This one is greens with curried chick peas (garbanzo beans) and pomegranate only. I merely topped it up with a poached egg and seasoned with olive oil, salt and pepper. Simple, but delicious.

Tagliatelle With Scallops

I grew up in a big family that we celebrate birthdays. Our mom or someone in the family would cook a noodle dish, because noodles represent long life. I know that store bought dry pasta like spaghetti or tagliatelle are not exactly long enough, but I still think they are qualified to celebrate birthday. 

It was DH's birthday and he loves pasta. He also loves scallops. I just put them together with some chili flakes and other delicious stuff and came up with a birthday dish for the night, the very same dish that I cooked about a couple of months ago. 

Freshly Baked Croissants

We woke up to the third week of November. Times certainly flies, I can't say it enough again and again. It seems like yesterday when I tried to adjust to writing 2015 and now we are about to end it. The streets and shops have been decorated for Christmas.  I see tons of advertisements for Christmas  products and gifts on the paper.  Thanksgiving is around the corner and before you know it, it will be Christmas and New Year all over again. No slowing down. Just enjoy this fast ride and make the best of it every day if that's possible. 

The amount of active work involved to make these babies actually is not too much, it is the waiting time that is long. Some people would take 2 to 3 days to make them. But, it's well worth the effort. Imagine sitting down in a cool morning with a cup of coffee and warm homemade croissants...... So heavenly!

I started making the dough for these croissants yesterday afternoon. It took me overnight. I wanted them badly for breakfast today and I made sure it happened. It was a good way to start the week. These croissants are so flaky, buttery, crusty on the outside and soft inside. So. Yummy. 

Recipe.

Sunday 15 nov 2015

Sunday should be the time to relax. My Sunday this time was slightly different than usual, because routines have changed a bit. DH left for a business trip on Sunday morning instead of on a weekday. So, I thought today was another working day. To begin with, I woke up very early again, probably it was before 5AM. After DH left, I thought I was trying to take things slowly, completely forgetting my plan to go for a mass at 9. Subsequently, I decided to go for 11 AM mass. 

The haze had gone away for now. The sky was quite clear, this morning, although it was a bit cloudy. It was a nice time to walk and I did take a walk to church and back and took some pictures too.

Tatsuya Lunch

Saturday morning and I woke up early. Really early, it was actually just after 4AM. I had so many ideas and thoughts so early in the morning. I wish I could write them down, but I was too sleepy to grab my phone and type up my thoughts. When I finally got up, it was after 6. It was still early. We then mad a plan to drive to Bedok to get noodles for breakfast. 

Forward to lunch time. I don't know why I mentioned the word "Tatsuya", which immediately triggered DH to propose lunch there. It was not a proposal actually, as he insisted on having lunch there because we had not been there for a long while and started calling the restaurant to get a table. Reservation was made and we got ready. Off we went to Scotts rd. 

I knew ahead of time that I was getting a bowl of Chirashi don, a small one, because I was not too hungry. It was really smallish, delicious and outrageously pricey at $150 before tax and service charge. 

DH, being a sushi lover, chose sushi bento, which was such a bargain compared to the one I chose. 

All good. happy tummy, happy us. 

Lemon Polenta Cookies

We have a lot of polenta at home, but nobody really eats it. The polenta eater is 15,337 km away and will only be back in December. I tried to use them, but only made a little dent here. I only made half of the recipe and used merely 40 grams of polenta. A dent is still a dent, no matter how small. 

These are lemon polenta cookies, made one afternoon after I was done with my appointment and work. 

Recipes, adapted from Foodidies :

Using an electric mixer, beat 80 grams of butter (room temperature) and 75 grams of sugar until well mixed and pale in color, about 3-4 minutes.

Add 1 egg and continue beating. Add the zest of one lemon and 4 tablespoon of lemon juice, mix well.

In one bowl, whisk together 140 gr of polenta, 120 gr of flour, 2 tsp of baking powder and 1/2 tsp of salt.

Add the flour mixture into the egg mix until they are just combined. Cover and leave in the fridge for one hour.

Preheat the oven 170C.

Divide the batter into 16 parts and make ball shape. Flatten the balls slightly using the back of a wooden spoon or a glass or any tools you wish to use.

Bake for about 15 minutes, cool them on the wire rack when they are done.

Dust lightly with confectioner's sugar

Miharu Ramen For Lunch

Ramen is really delicious but super fattening, it's just not a good idea for me to have it too often. We had a little success to celebrate and I agree to celebrate it with a bowl of ramen today. Mine at the top, was a miso based ramen and the bottom one is a soya based ramen.

About Disappointment

Disappointment hits when reality does not meet expectations. Do not set your expectations too high if you do not want to get disappointed. I am fully aware of that, I have been for a while. For certain things, I try to be as fair as possible in terms of expectations. Have a reasonable goal for the amount of work you put. If you don't study hard, do not expect to get an A on your exam. If you don't work hard, do not expect a promotion at work. And so forth.

Having said that, if the people that you prioritized in your life, that you cared for and dedicated your life for,  that you lost amazing opportunities so that they could advance, do not even care one bit, moreover making you a priority, then being disappointed comes so naturally, don't you think?  Let's not make excuses for these people. We all have 24 hours in a day, no one gets more, nobody gets less.  Everyone has a little bit of  or more money, a roof or more over their heads and plenty of clothes to wear. None of these people that I am talking about are living in poverty, their primary needs are satisfied. It is about gratitude that they are lacking of.  It is about priority that they do not have,  it is about respect that is not shown, it is about love and care for the people that have loved you and given up so much for you, that are not poured out.

I do not get why some people do not understand that. I may not ever comprehend that pitiful behavior. Maybe these people simply do not care. Maybe there's something else. Whatever it is, I trust that disappointment is in order.

Panellets

Shortly after we got back from Shanghai, baking these little goodies were something that I planned and executed. The recipe that I used was adapted from liliscakes.

These are basically made with egg, almond flour and honey. I used pine nuts, sliced almond and sesame seeds to coat the panellets.

Recipe:

Ingredients:

20 gram of beaten egg (the remainder of beaten egg will be used to roll the panellets)
1 tsp lemon zest (optional)
3/4 cup almond flour
2 Tbs honey

Directions:

Preheat oven to 170C
Mix the ingredients well and make 1-inch balls.
Dip the balls in the remaining of beaten egg. Retrieve.
Coat the balls with either pine nuts, almond or sesame seeds and press the coatings gently so that they stick well. Brush lightly the outer part with beaten egg.

Put them on the baking tray and bake for 15 minutes or until they are golden brown

Lunch At Koyama, Xintiandi

Toyama is a popular Japanese restaurant in Shanghai. The last time we tried to have a meal here, we did not make it because the waiting time was too long. It was lunch time this time and again, we had no reservation, we did not plan to have lunch there. Somehow, we got a shared table for the two of us.  We ordered salmon sashimi, various sushi and something that we never saw before, grilled eggplant.

Egg Breakfast

The sea is calm now, for now at least. I had a very draining end of the week, very unexpectedly and had to wake up to a crappy Monday, feeling so beaten up. What a way to begin the week! Life throws curve balls again and again. No matter how experienced you are, they are still curve balls and you don't anticipate the way they come. As they say, life goes on. It does go on, and I have to go on with life, whether I like it or not. Life goes on whether I am ready to move on or not. Life goes on whether I have to walk limping or crawl or cry a super heavy baggage on my back. Life does not care. Life does not stop and gives you a break, so just move on!

I had imagined this breakfast since my days in Shanghai last week. Grilled tomatoes, spinach with gorgonzola, sautéed garbanzo beans and fried egg with runny yolk. 

I was so glad to be back home and had them, they way I wanted them to be. They are filling and they are healthy. Just the way I wanted them to be. I guess some aspects in our life are quite controllable.

Tianzifang, Shanghai

Tianzifang is one of the places in Shanghai that we like to visit. They have little shops that sell arts and crafts, galleries, restaurants and boutiques to name a few. There are many coffee shops and bars too. We just like to walk around, go in some shops and get a thing or two of the stuff we like and take plenty of pictures.