Hennessy Artistry Penang 28th April 2011 @Voodoo Club Penang!

We were rocking the party at Voodoo Club Penang yesterday night! Oh yea we were!

All pics credited to mynjayz.com.

VVIPs yo!

My fav Hennessy Ginger!

With the best party/event photographer Jason Ong & Advertlets Tech turned PARTY Blogger Vernon Chan.

More pics!

We are the Penang gals! ;p

Think you know how to party? Well, this is the way we party!

Wedding Cakes

Since its the Royal Wedding TODAY of Prince William and (soon to be Princess) Kate Middleton, I reckon to ransack my archives and put up some wedding cake photos.

Or wait, are you more excited about the iPad2 launch

Or the Labour Day holidays next Monday ??

What type of wedding cakes would you like ? high and mighty tiered cakes? mini cakes or cupcakes? regal and grand? fun and quirky? or are you the type that is Id take whatever cake the hotel gives Lol Not offending anyone but I know some people who thinks of the latter.

So whether you are enjoying your new iPad2, or anticipating the Royal Wedding, Ill countdown to the long weekend (and maybe wait patiently for Masterchef Australia 3)

Cheers

faq

Saveur Magazine 2011 Best Food Blog Awards

I am so honored and thrilled to know that Saveur magazine has nominated Cannelle Et Vanille for their 2011 Best Food Blog Awards in the Best Food Photo category.

The photo in question was this pear, apple and fennel salad that I blogged about back in November. It is one of my favorite recipes as well.

You can vote here. To vote, you must register first. Anyone in the world can register, but you must selected the United States as your country of residency (Saveur notify us that they are working on updating this form). Voting is open until May 12 and the winners will be announced soon after.

There are so many friends and amazing blogs nominated that, honestly, I am simply ecstatic to be listed amongst them.

Thank you dear readers and good luck to all!

Piriquita

Portugal, Part VII: This cafe is perpetually packed with customers craving the sweet stuff that has long been a specialty of Sintra, which Lord Byron once called the world's most beautiful village.

Queijadas _ basically cakes made of cheese, eggs, flour, sugar & cinnamon. The recipe seems simple, but these are intoxicatingly good; we gobbled up six within minutes (and they're not that small!).

Also loved the travesseiros, puffy treats filled with almond cream. Crisp and fluffy, with every bite informing us how fresh pastries can be the closest thing to heaven.

We needed all that energy (and then some) to hike up Sintra's hills and wander through this U.N. World Heritage Site's Pena National Palace ...

... the Quinta da Regaleira gardens ...

!

... and the Castle of the Moors.

But with this, we wrap up our Portugal series. Adeus!

Piriquita,

Sintra, Portugal.

sour cream cornbread with aleppo

Despite living in New York City, a place where one could theoretically go to some fabulous new restaurant every night and not run out of places to eat for some time, were not big new-hot-thing chasers. When we go out to eat, we want to experience new tastes but also disappear for a couple hours, not ooh and aah over the celebrity at the next table while feeling bad about our clothes. But. Every so often a restaurant gets talked up so much that were unable to resist its magnetism and have to go as soon as humanly possible, and this happened a few weekends ago and Im so glad that it did.

Of course, the Red Rooster isnt just any old restaurant. First, its neither below 14th Street or in Brooklyn, which alone makes it unlike the other 100 restaurants theres been buzz about in recent years. Mostly, though, the food tastes different. The chef, Marcus Samuelsson, was born in Ethiopia, raised in Sweden and moved to New York where he fell in love with soul food and manages to blend these influences together into food like weve never tasted before. Ill spare you the point-by-point on the menu, the web is full of gasping Yard Bird and Uptown Steak Frites reviews. Ill only admit that we ordered too much, which we a! lways do when the menu looks so good it is impossible to make decisions. Also, there was cornbread.

... Read the rest of sour cream cornbread with aleppo on smittenkitchen.com

smitten kitchen 2006-2011. |permalink to sour cream cornbread with aleppo | 16 comments to date | see more: Muffin/Quick Bread, Photo, Quick

Becasse and Quarter 21 open

To get to Becasse, you now have to zip up the escalators at Westfield Sydney and walk through an Alice-in-Wonderland-style passageway. It's a little magical (like the rabbit hole in the fairytale, but minus the head bumps). You pass through the seasons, each step marked by a spectrum of changing leaf colours. And you end up, a little dazed, in a restaurant that only fits 25 diners, surrounded by plush lounges and intricate chandeliers suspended above you. It does not feel like a shopping mall at all.



But it is, and it's part of Justin and Georgia North's expansion into Westfield Sydney. Joining the new Becasse is Quarter 21, which moonlights as a new cooking school, fine-food grocer and restaurant. I only know this 'cos I somehow got invited to the launch yesterday and also did some extracurricular snooping around today, when both places opened. They join the Becasse Bakery, which has been marking its corner of Westfield's Level 5 with its croissants, bread and sweets for a week now. (And, across the floor, there's Charlie & Co., the Norths' gourmet burger venture and first Westfield outing, which had its debut last year.)

With the relocated Becasse, it'll be interesting to see how people take to fine-dining in a Sydney mall. The cost is no less high-end three-course a la carte is $120, a five-course tasting menu is $150 ! and nine -course degustation is $190. I guess the pricing is the premium you pay for eating in a place with such limited seating, like the idea of first-class.



Evocative ingredients seem to get top billing on the menu ("forgotten vegetables, Coorong pipis, cranberry red potatoes, watermelon radish") and featured dishes include Bespoke Autumn Vegetable Garden, Marinated Local Yellowfin Tuna, Abalone Ham, Earl Grey Jelly, Wakame and Celeriac and Silken Lemongrass and Lime Caramel, Passionfruit Crunch with Vanilla Yogurt Sorbet. I'd love to know how it translates in this new, cosier space. (It's a beautiful spot and I imagine it'd be like dining in a really fancy hotel suite.)

Quarter 21 has more elbow room and is less of a special-occasion restaurant although don't expect food-court prices (an Autumn Vegetale Lasagna with Beurre Noisette and Charred Pumpkin Puree is $32). I guess for the average Westfield shopper, though, a gateway Becasse purchase is more likely to be a small baguette at the bakery or a take-home meal from the Quarter 21 shop.

It's an interesting experiment and you can only wish the best to anyone who takes the instance of dining in a shopping centre an experience usually freighted with low, grumbly expectations and tries to inject it with originality and ambition.

Becasse, Level 5, Westfield Sydney, Cnr Pitt St Mall and Market St Sydney NSW (02) 9283 3440, www.becasse.com.au. Quarter 21 is next to Becasse. For details on cooking classes at Quarter 21, visit www.quartertwentyone.com.au And opposite is Becasse Bakery, where you can watch pastry chefs through the window while having! a pastr y.

Second Time's the Charm?

Doubtful, considering the competition.

But that's really OK. We're tickled just to have been nominated, by Saveur magazine's editors -- and for the 2nd year in a row -- for a Best Culinary Travel blog award.

If you're so inclined, you can vote for us here. You'll have to register (ignore the fact that the United States is your only residence country of choice) first.

You have until May 12 to vote.

Congratulations to our fellow nominees: David Lebovitz, Rambling Spoon, My Kugelhopf, Souvlaki for the Soul, and Traveler's Lunchbox.

And to you, our readers --- a heartfelt thank you, as always, for reading (or even just looking at the photos!).

Pumpkin Soup

We had a couple of pumpkin vines in our back yard and there were so many pumpkins that the people I gave them to refused my second round of the bounty so we've been eating pumpkin with dashiand pumpkin soup, the only ways I cook pumpkin. I found the last pumpkin among the leaves of my mango tree. It had dropped off from the vine but was still hanging by the string that held it to the tree. I don't know how long it had been there but the pumpkin when cut was a deep orange color, exactly the way I like my pumpkin. A deep orange pumpkin guarantees sweet, fluffy and fragrant pumpkin flesh and plenty of beta carotene, an antioxidant that is converted into vitamin A in the body.

One of my best loved cook book is San Francisco's Cooking Secrets by Kathleen DeVanna Fish from which my best recipes are adapted, including a yolkless tiramisu which has no comparison. There are no photos in the book but it is filled with recipes for simple, elegant dishes from the top restaurants in San Francisco.

The winter squash (such as butter squash and pumpkin) soup in the book is a quick two-step recipe but makes the best pumpkin soup ever. The recipe doesn't say how much pumpkin ("a large butternut squash") so I use quite a lot so that the soup is real thick and rich without the need for lots of cream. I found the one tablespoon of ground cardamon in the original recipe too over whelming and prefer to add it in small amounts until I get the right spiking. I also reduced the butter from 3 tablespoons to a healthy 1 tablespoon only and instead of adding one cup of cream to the soup, I serve the cream separately because the soup without cream is already heav! enly. A couple of slices of toasted baguettes and this soup makes a great simple snack or light lunch.


Winter Squash Soup
800 gm to 1 kg pumpkin
1/2 brown onion, chopped
1 T butter
500 ml chicken stock
1/8 t freshly ground cardamons
salt & freshly ground pepper
cream

1. Peeland cut pumpkin into small pieces.In a medium-sized pot, fry onions in the butter until the onions are soft. Add the pumpkin and cardamon (sparingly and to taste), stirring well. Add the stock, cover and simmer 15 minutes or until pumpkin is soft.

2. Use an electric hand blender to puree the soup. If too thick, add some water or stock. Season lightly with the salt and pepper. You can either add 1 cup of heavy cream now or serve it separately.