Shopping and lunch with parents

Yesterday late morning, I drove to an estate in Ang Mo Kio with parents, as mom has been telling me that a stall at the food centre sells cheap and nice shoes and I thought I should visit it soon. I like a few designs and bought 2 pairs :) Lunch was roast chicken and iced cheng teng at the food centre.

Dense chocolate cake

On the spur of moment, on Fri night, I wanted to bake something and I decided on Nigella Lawson's dense chocolate cake. If you were to goggle, there are a number of blogs and links on her recipe. I made 2 mistakes when starting out to make the cake. I used the microwave to soften the hard butter and ended up melting it. Again with the microwave, I burnt the mini choc chip (supposed to melt them) and caused smoke emitting from the back of the microwave :) Luckily after melting another batch of choc chips over a water bath in the saucepan, the rest of the steps went smoothly. My family and S like the cake. But there is room for improvement, so next time, I will soften the butter by leaving it out of the fridge earlier and I will use a good chocolate bar :)

Work trip in Bangkok

From Mon till Thurs, I was in Bangkok with my colleagues for a meeting. I didn't explore the city much as I was in the hotel most of the time or in my room at night. The room was comfortable, the meals at the hotel were quite yummy and the Thai people organising the meeting were nice and hospitable. Like my previous trips, I always missed home, my family, cats and S.

My "new" bag

I bought this bag from a shop in Harajuku, Tokyo some years back. I like its chirpy colours and have been carrying it occasionally on weekends. Recently I was sad to discover that its sling was flaking. I decided to be creative by replace the flaky sling with an unused old belt. Bob, my model, was more interested in chewing the sling :)

Soft buns at last!

This afternoon I tried my hands again at kneading and baking bread using the "Tangzhong" method. The recipe says to knead for about 10mins depending on how fast and hard one kneads. I took more than 30mins and the dough was still quite sticky but I could see a round hole forming when I stretched a piece of dough. So I just left the sticky dough to double before putting in fillings like cheese, choc chips and cranberries. I was happy with the taste of the cheese bun I shared with Sis. Subtly sweet and soft. I declare the bun to be nicer than the SQ flight bun and sis declared that it is nicer than most of the other stuff I have baked :)

white clouds and blue sky

Aren't they lovely? This was captured when I was on the way to the plane that will bring us back to Singapore.

Angkor Wat again

We visited Angkor Wat on our last day in Siem Reap, but at a later time between 9+ to 10+, before heading to the airport.

Dinner at Abacus Cafe at Siem Reap

For our last night in Siem Reap, we went to a French cafe. I like the look of the cafe. Most of my colleagues preferred meats for their main course. I had seabass which was alright. I was more impressed with the chocolate truffle and ginger ice cream. The best dessert I had this week.

Sunrise at Angkor Wat

I have been in Siem Reap for a meeting with my colleagues since Monday afternoon. Yesterday morning we woke up early so that we can catch the sunrise at Angkor Wat. It gave me the opportunity to use my Olympus Pen :)

Baking double chocolate muffins

I really like the chocolate muffins from Choc N Spice at Shunfu Mart, so I have been trying to find a good recipe that will give me nice soft muffins. There were a few I shortlisted and this afternoon I chose one recipe to bake these nice looking muffins. The only variation I did was to put walnuts or cranberries on top. I think it's quite chocolatey but somehow it's still not as soft as I like. I shall see what my family says tomorrow when they eat them.

Handmade card holder

I hand sewed this some months back to hold my staff pass and office key. I have been using the holder I got during my Hong Kong holiday in May last year but one side of it is torn. I could use it as a luggage tag! It's time to activate my new one and I could reuse the lanyard :)

My not so healthy meals today

Lunch was brie cheese capsicum sandwich while dinner was instant oats with toasted wheatgerm and preserved olive leaves, corn and 3 beans. Savoury and yummy :)

Bob's favorite sleeping spots

Next to my head at night at times and in the day, this cheerful lounge with toys he doesn't play with :)

Agy's T-shirt to bag workshop

I joined Agy's workshop held at Bamboo House this afternoon. It was a cosy environment and Agy with her clear instructions and demonstration helped about 13 of us to transform our old T-shirts into useful bags. Erm, mine turns out to be a bit too long :) but I could use it to hold my rolled up clean jacket and office attire in my luggage when I attend the coming few overseas meetings. Hee.

When self medication doesn't work

I will try to take lozenges, non drowsy flu tablets, and this Nin Jom cold remedy when I have slight sore throat and runny nose. However the past week, the symptoms just refused to disappear. I decided to try Dr Qi at Eu Yan Sang Clinic at Tiong Bahru Plaza. I heard from a friend and read online too that she is good at curing cough. She prescribed a week of herbs/ medicine to reduce my heatiness etc. After 2 days, I feel better.

Lunch @ &made

Sis and I decided to check out this new restaurant at Pacific Plaza yesterday for our lunch. She had this burger with dry aged beef and garlic vinegar fried and mocha while I chose the "Nice" salad with tuna, capers, anchovy, veggies and Sencha osmanthus ice tea. The service is good as one of the servers was around to recommend and explain the items and also to take our order. I'm not a fan of creamy savoury food but the salad was quite nice. Sis' burger is good too as it relies on the beef and caramelised onion to give it flavour. I quite like the subtle fragrance of my tea and sis likes her mocha too.