.Babka Smabka: Baking Polish in the Kitchen.

May 27, 2010

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Or at least, I'm trying to!

Suddenly as of late, I found myself missing Max Brenner's Babka... and the dreadful weather didn't help either. As usual the lumpish grey clouds spreading its poison across the skies. The echos of thomping thunder and searing bolt of lightning... finally followed by pitter-patter of rain! Blerghhh....!! Whinging as I may be doing, I can't stand gloomy dull weather.

So... it wasn't long before I found myself in the kitchen again! This time baking a traditional Polish sweet-bread known as Babkha. Let me tell you: there is nothing that soothes and warms the heart than the smell of baking cocoa and cinnamon wafting throughout the whole house during days of rain.

Once it was done baking and I had sliced it, the sight was even better. Swirls upon swirls of chocolate and cinnamon within each bread slice... but the best part about it was: my mother became an addict after one bite :)





A few days ago, Brunei was "celebrating" Energy Day - a 12-hour campaign organised nationwide to raise awareness on the effects of Energy on our environment. To be honest, I'm not sure if the term celebrating is the proper word to describe it: there are hardly any energy-saving festivals or exhibitions taking place. Nothing to commemorate the day... aside from the fact that from 9am to 9pm, the government had decided to pause their subsidy on oil and gas.

So here was the gas station scenario the night before they started Energy day: miles upon miles of cars queue-ing up just so that they could pay B$0.53 p/litre, of gas instead of paying B$0.93 p/litre.... and I wasone of them.

"one of them" meaning to say one of the unfortunates queue-ing up for the gas - not because I wanted to take suck up the cheap gas while I still could but because the red blinker on the oil indicator was bleeping like mad.

What really irked me was that majority of those coming in to gas up their vehicle only wanted to spend B$5 just for a quick top-up to fill their tank! Like... wth...?

Some people can be so ridiculous sometimes...


.Photoblog: Children + Secrets.

May 24, 2010

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"No one keeps secrets so well as a child"


- Quote from Victor Hugo,
1802-1885
(French romantic poet, novelist and dramatist)
Source of quote: ThinkExist


.Meow vs. Woof.

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Cats vs Dogs
Via: Online Schools

.To own my own bakery: C'est mon rêve.

May 22, 2010

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Had a small gathering at one of my aunt's house today so I thought it would be a grand opportunity to bring along my latest creation from the Vanilla Kitchen. My newest kitchen toy has finally arrived and it wasn't long till I was whisking myself happy in the kitchen, covered from head to toe with icing sugar and smelling like vanilla essence.

Speaking of kitchen, I've been slaving away in front of the blazing oven for the past few days (to the point where my life saw no purpose beyond the walls of the kitchen - ok, ok... I might be exaggerating a bit but still!). In the process, I also happened to be a victim of a little accident over the stove top which had rendered my right arm useless for a few days... *sigh* the sacrifices we make to pursue our passion...

But not to worry, my arm is now back in full swing and I'm recovering well. Whilst I am happily baking away in the merry steamy kitchen, the weather has been a plague: intermittent sessions of torrid downpour and blazing humid sunny heat - the two deadly factors that incur huge disastrous impact on baking goods. Argh... so yeah, been having it's been a hellish but fun few days... that at times were frustratingly.... annoying...

As I like to say, much to the annoyance of my brother, in my trying-to-be-poklen accent: "What to do? when your fork becomes sudu? Makan saja..." (literally translated as: what can you do if your fork becomes a spoon? Just keep eating...) In three simple words: Life goes on!

Oh! A totally random fact but did you know that a fork which is also a spoon is known as a Spork? lol Yes, they EXIST!

So anyhow, let's talk about my latest creation the Vanilla Kitchen. My newest bakery toy finally arrived a few days ago from Melbourne and truth be told: I've been eye-ing this baby for a few years now... I just haven't gotten around to buy myself one. Whenever I get the perfect moment for the new purchase, I always get those devilish second thoughts creeping into my head that ALWAYS stop me from buying it.


Now it's here and I'm glad I finally bought it! Worth every dime and penny - yup yup! And after doing a test run, I'm more than happy to begin introducing these babies to VK dessert line. Details here.

Anyhow, back to my Aunt's house. As there was a small gathering, I decided to bake myself ONE. BIG. MOCHA. LATTE. MOTHER. CUP. CAKE... and
BOOM BABY, this is what I got:


.the MOTHER cupcake.

Four kilos of delectable sinful goodness. It was like WHOOOAAAA!! It looked so awesome, I just wanted to freeze it, frame it and not ever ever ever cut it... hehehe but what's the point in that right? So I decided to share the love.


.After the first initial slice of the cake: can you see the ganache filling in the centre?.
Yummy-ness!


Can you say: MMMMMmmmmmmMMMMMmmmmmmm!!??

These two little girls in the photo are actually my second cousins and they are MAJOR cupcake addicts. It was so funny to see their eyes WIDEN so much when the cake cover was taken off to reveal this mutant cupcake. I swear, you could literally see their eyes sparkle with wonder... hahaha and they couldn't wait to get their hands on it.



.the adorable cupcake addicts.

Throughout dinner time, both these girls were trailing me around the house with plastic cake knives on the ready, waiting
oh-so-patiently for me to give them the green light and cut the cake.

I took the opportunity go do some quick photoshoot for Vanilla Kitchen and it was sooo funny because wherever I went with the mutant cupcake, there they would be waiting in the corner of the screen shot for green light from me.


.waiting oh-so-patiently for the cupcake.


.in this photo, you can actually see how big the cupcake is in comparison to the two girls.

Being little children, you can't help but think to yourself of how cute and how innocent they were and what I loved best about kids is their lack of shyness that makes them the best photo models ever.


.A little pose here and there before cutting the cupcake.


Kids aren't self-conscious and because of their innocence will simply do, say and pose anything on camera, no matter how silly they look and it's wonderful to work with them. You can tell that they truly enjoy it because their eyes, smiles and postures are so genuine. I think it's so cool! :)

.This little girl, Raniah, is so cute: she eats almost everything.

.Eats here.


.Eats here.


.And eats here - this picture I love the most:
She was trying hard to open her mouth WIDE to fit in this huge piece of cake,
as though it was the going to disappear soon or something. hehehe.
It's so cute!



Back in B-town

May 17, 2010

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My mom: Care to join in our feast?

It's been more than two weeks since I've arrived in Brunei and things haven't changed that much which I personally think is both a good and bad thing. The weather here is in such a gloomy state: everyday the sky gets darker and grayer, hovering low... solemn, dreary and menacing... then speckles of water begin to fall down from the sky. Eventually within minutes, more came pouring down... tap tap tap tap - the sound of rain against my window. It drowns out the sound of everything else in the house.

Anyhow...

On a lighter note: had a small family gathering on Saturday afternoon- a belated Mother's Day celebration with all the grandmothers, aunts and mothers on my mother's side. Almost everyone from my mother's side came over for the early evening gathering... and for the first time since I've been back, the house was actually brimming to the top with a flurry of human activities.


Here: my adorable cuz (Saf) and my two aunts


Saf and my brother with another one of my aunt

As usual, where there are people gathering... there are also TONS of food. Quite possibly it was the first time I've seen our dining room table filled from one side to another with food ever since I came back from Belgium. There were lasagne, chicken briyani, chicken satay, ketupat (something like a dumpling comprised of rice and is woven then steamed in coconut leaves - quite flavourful!) and plenty more that unfortunately I didn't have the chance to taste any of them as I was sooo full!



As you can see the selection of food here is quite heavy for an afternoon/evening tea.
So.. consider it as early dinner. Clockwise from the bottom right: Ketupat,
Chicken Curry Puffs, Kolomee, Egg Sandwich Rolls,
Assortments of Pau (far back in the basket) and Yellow rice with raisins.



Chicken Briyani


Don't ask: My aunt just has the SEXIEST expressions when she eats good food!LOL

But I should tell you that the best part I loved about the gathering wasn't the food, it was being able to see my family and especially the kids laugh and joke around. What I especially love is that most of my cousins are good-sports and don't mind having my lens stuck less than 2 inches from the tip of their nose... hahahaha... (what can i say? I was in the moment ok!)


My mom and Aunty Liza having a laugh.
Aunty Liza is holding up her hand against her jaw
because that day she just had tooth surgery.
She's trying hard not to laugh cause it hurts. Hehehe



My cousin: Nas


Homemade Scones in the shape of a star: Awesome!

Tons of laughter, teasing, harmless fun and courage to be silly : that's what I think makes a social occasion so memorable! So that being said: Happy Belated Mother's Day everyone!!


French Dessert: Chocolate Macarons made by yours truly!
(I proudly and without regret admit that I laboured in the kitchen
making these delectable delights)



The new addition to the Vanilla Kitchen Bakery: Vanilla Butterfly Cupcakes


My cuzzies: Ka Rin & Adek


My Cuz: KaTin: food must've been lipsmackingly good!

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