Angel Food Cake with Vanilla Strawberries

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Real talk:

Ive never once made an Angel Food Cake.

Real talk:

It has scared the heck out of me.

Wait I need how many eggs? Wait I dont grease the pan? Hold on just a second I have to hang the cake upside down!?

What is this? Is this science? Is this some sort of trick?

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Real talk:

I finally made my own Angel Food Cake.

Real talk:

There were only two moments during the making and cooling of this cake that I thought I had completely ruined the whole thing. I hadnt. I was just kinda freaking out for no good reason.

Real talk:

You need a fancy pan (not that fancy, its just a tube pan), and enough faith to hang this cake upside down for a bit but its totally worth it. These are true words.

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Angel Food Cake, if youre unfamiliar, is a super light cake made from eggs whites lots of egg whites.

This particular recipe calls for a dozen large egg whites.

Im totes making ice cream with the yolks trust.

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Youll also need a bit of flour, sugar, and salt.

Without these things youd probably just have a frittata. Thats not cake.

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Egg whites get beaten to medium peaks. Sugar is added, so theyre a bit glossy.

Dreamtown.

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Once the eggs are beaten, you gently fold in the dry ingredients.

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Folding is different from stirring. Folding flour into egg whites means swooping the spatula from the bottom of the bowl, over atop itself. Bring egg whites from the bottom up and over. Were incorporating ingredients without deflating the eggs.

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Thats a full, ungreased cake pan.

Ungreased!? Yea dont freak out. I kinda did. We use an ungreased pan so that the egg whites have something to hold on to (the pan) as they rises.

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Oh man thats baked.

Make sure you give the cake the skewer te! st. A sk ewer is poked inside of the cake, and if it comes out dry perfect!

A wet/underbaked cake will sink as it cools. Not cool.

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Smash some sugar and vanilla bean into sliced strawberries. Let rest in the fridge while the cake cools (upside down) ((totally weird and awesome)).

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As the cake cools, it will begin to separate itself from the sides of the pan. Phew. When the came comes out of the oven youll (if youre anything like me) wonder how the dang cake is going to be removed from the pan.

After cooling it totally wants to come out. It may need a little coaxing with a butter knife but I promise with a little tapping and fudging, youre golden!

This cake is light as air and sweet as sugar because theres totally sugar in here.

The strawberry topping is a simple mixture of sliced strawberries, sugar and vanilla bean. Add a touch of whipped c

Angel Food Cake with Vanilla Strawberries

makes one cake

recipe from Alton Brown

Print this Recipe!

1 3/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup cake flour, sifted

12 large egg whites, at room temperature

1/3 cup warm water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract, or 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 pint fre! sh straw berries

2 to 4 teaspoons granulated sugar (depending on how sweet your berries are)

1/2 scraped vanilla bean

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In the bowl of a food processor, fitted with the blade attachment, grind sugar for about 2 minutes. This will help create a super fine sugar that will be better absorbed into the egg whites.

Place half of the sugar in a small bowl.

In a large bowl, sift together the remaining sugar, salt, and cake flour. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric stand mixer, fitted with a whisk attachment, beat together the egg whites, water, extract, and cream of tartar medium speed. If youre worried that the cream of tartar is too chunky dont worry, itll smooth itself out. Beat on medium high, gradually adding the sugar from the small bowl, until medium (not stiff) peaks form. The meringue will hold a trail of the beaters through it, be glossy, and wont be overly foamy.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and sift in one quarter of the flour and sugar mixture. Fold with a spatula. Try to avoid stirring the mixture too much. Instead, sweep the egg whites from the bottom of the bowl to the top, incorporating the flour. Add flour mixture in three more batches. Fold until thoroughly combine, but dont overmix or deflate the egg whites.

Spoon battering into an ungreased tube pan. Ungreased in is important, as it will help the cake rise. The tube pan will be full.

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean. Remove cake from the oven and carefully invert upside down, propped up on a bottle. This cake cools upside down. Let rest for at least an hour before trying to remove from the pan.

Slice strawberries and mix with sugar and vanilla bean. Let rest in the fridge to create juices while the cake cools.

As the cake cools, it will begin to pull away from the sides of the pan. To remove from the pan, tap the pan with a butter knife, or carefully run a! butter knife around the edges between the cake and the pan.

Serve with berries and cream.

Cake will last, well wrapped at room temperature, for up to 3 days.


Ghee Biscuits - The Latest In My Series of Weird Cravings

I've been having some strange culinary cravings lately. On Monday, I craved a Macdonald's apple pie. Something about that deep fried goodness and crunchy apple that draws me to it like a camel to an oasis. Then yesterday, through some very bad inceptionizing by fellow twitters, GFAD posted a link to LARD COOKIES WITH DULCE DELECHE ICE CREAM. Since lard is out of the question, I thought of my tin of QBB Ghee that has been sitting pretty on the larder shelf, and thought, hmm, I should make ghee biscuits with Salty Caramel Ice Cream instead. By the way, I am not pregnant. I might look it, around 5 - 6 months, but I can assure you, its just a cute little fart.



























Anyway, Babe In the City KL promptly directed me to one of her recipes for easy Ghee Cookies. Yay, I thought. Easy. I like. Happy as a lark, I open the tin of ghee, the bovine smell that would probably cause my late grandmother to vomit, (sou, as they call it) hit the nostrils like a Spartan sword digs their nose. As always, being a very bad student, I always never read thee exam questions, or in case, the recipe, properly. Suddenly, I see that the sugar has to be MILLED! Who mills anything in this day and age? Luckily I have one of these handy at home.




Moral of the story, always keep your ass handy, you never know when you might need it to mill some su! gar.






















Thank goodness we have the automatic version of the miller with the ass, imagine, in my greatgrandmother's time, they had to use this manual one, with no horsepower. Or asspower.



























There's something very gratifying about rolling balls, especially greasy ones. I am a ghee biscuit virgin, so I was not very delicate in handling them. With all gluten, too much kneading produces a tough cookie, unlike humans, when too much needing makes one soft. [when I shared this with Awhiffoflemongrass, she said, ah, I see a blog post coming].

Incidentally, milled castor sugar has the texture of what I imagine coke would look like....or a more child friendly example, icing sugar. But you cant use icing sugar, according to BabeKL because it contains cornstarch which makes your balls hard.



Ah, my first attempt at Ghee Biscuits. I have to say, they weren't bad at all. Rather melt in the mouth, goes well with a hot mug of black coffee, no sugar.

Thanks BabeKL for the recipe. I shall attempt it again with a lighter touch on the balls for a more melt in the mouth experience.

Choices

I've been asked, "Do I shop at Ralph Lauren", "Why don't you donate more money to charity", "Why don't you join the group" and "Why do you own this blog".


Why? The answer is simple: Choices.

Sometimes, the choices I make can come across as against the norm for others but like everyone, there is a reason for the choices I make.

For instance, I don't donate money to charity because I just don't donate money. I donate food, blood, books and clothes but never money because I cannot see where the money is going. I donate my time and energy, rather than money. Just because I give coins and not dollar bills, people started wondering if I was actually trying to make people's life miserable. In my mom's and my opinion, coins are still money. I pick up 1 cent coins all the time, hey.

I may appear really pretentious but it's just an "appearance". And as the saying goes, you don't judge the book by its cover. I never think of myself highly.am a mere mortal. Not Jesus Christ. I do not claim to be good yet it is wrong to see me as evil. The reason why I don't do group dinners is just because I don't. It's awkward to dine in a group because it's just awkward. Also, I have a mission to fulfill, which I feel, is best done in private. The mission relates to tapping into restaurants and share the experience to my family members and the public. It looks voyeuristic because it is as if you are seeing the entire experience from my personal lenses. I do not deny that it is not but there is a point in doing this.

I never claimed that the choices I make are superior than the rest.I do not just go fine dining every single day. I just happen to enjoy good food and not eat fast food because I was not raised to do so.Good food, for me can be a piece of fruit that I really like or chicken testicles. It does ! not have to be white Alba truffles (never ate that before) or some expensive cut of meat.

This blog is just an opinion like any other opinion. And it is a miracle that this opinion is valued. Sometimes, even the most random people drop me an email, thanking me for blogging about the places they do not usually go because they need someone to assure them that their choices are correct. Other times, I make mistakes because the opinion is flawed. For that, I can have only myself to blame.

I have reasons for the choices I make and sometimes, they do not make much sense for those who are not in my position. I do not expect to be understood. Having said that, I am glad that from this blog, I know a group of people who share the same passions as I do.

To finish this non-food post, I shall quoteParanoid Android, who wrote such a timely post, when I was about to write one like his with less finesse:

"I have been accused of being an elitist, a pseudo intellectual and a snob so many times in life, I've lost count.I don't just hang out with people who fine dine. The quantum of satisfaction I get from beautifully prepared nyonya fish and a perfect piece of Toro is probably the same.Nor do I hang around elitists who quote Sartre and discuss post modernist art over salmon and cocktails all the time." -Paranoid Android

What he had written in this paragraph, was what I wanted to express in this blog. And Paranoid Android is a perfectionist when it comes to food. In the food blogging community, he is one of a kind and as part of the community, I really appreciate that. Paranoid Android, if you are reading this, can we please have lunch someday?



When The Heart Yearns For Something Simple. Tanjung Bunga Nyonya Cuisine, SS2, PJ.


"Dedicated to people who has the tenacity to consider me a friend despite my inadequacies and eccentricity, I humbly seek forgiveness for my failings.

To workaholics who forge on, in the hope that you will attain your goals in life someday.

And finally to weirdos whopersevere on with their unconventionality. It is you who add colour and charm to my dreary life."

(non halal)

Nasi UlamLiving in a heartless city can be reassuring. Sometimes. Moving along as abustlingherd of humanity like a swarm ofassiduousspermatozoa, I feign being preoccupied, being lost in my little world of makebelieve. But in reality, I am in a state of non purposeful industriousness.Spermatozoado not stop to make small talk with each other as they race to fertilize the ovum, and neither do have to bow to this ritual of pretending to be interested in the lives ofpeopleI encounter daily as a necessity, not a desire. I suspect others feel the same about me too, I am but another potential human to take some advantage of in a heartless city whose soul is corrupted to the core either by economic necessity or greed.

It suits me fine being an anonymous. Putting on a nameless face means I can go through life here with minimal distractions. It is easier to be nasty and uncaring if you do not know the other person. I drift with no fixed purpose except to work and the ultimate goal of fulfilling my desire for material comfort as a compensation for a life devoid of romantic emotional attachment which is an abstract concept to me having experienced it vicariously through books, movies and opera.

Work. A four letter word that takes up more than half of my time for the last couple of years, sometimes more.

Work. Amonosy! llabicgr unt, a vulgar and fractious word that begins with a gentle W, pronounced lips puckered like kissing and ends with a sneer and a smirk of a death mask as the final K is pronounced.

Work. My ovum. My farcical ovum, which instead of giving me life, destroys my essence and purpose.

Sambal Petai UdangIt is only when I am unfettered by work a strange yearning overcomes me. An unexplained feeling of melancholia that unseats reason and practicality which I foolishly hold as the master of my cerebrum. My external facade of feigned aloofness crumbles in the early hours of morning when my bed turns into a wide and deep dark chasm that engulfs me.

A biting cold loneliness that permeates through every cell of my body. My resilience crumbles and for a few fleeting seconds I would feel lonely, the vulnerability exposed seems tofeed on the darkness of the night before a toss on the bed dispels it into the deepest recesses of my memory before being summoned out again by periods of emotional vulnerability.

Myunrelentingworking hours does offer me some refuge from these pangs ofemptiness, but it is discomforting for me to admit the irony of finding find solace in the very thing that saps up my zest for life.

I have chosen to be alone and fault nobody for my predicament, if I am allowed to call it so. Sharing a bed with someone means baring my soul, my entire being, my paranoia and eccentricity which will scare the average red blooded human. Something I can never do, and never am proud of.

I have sought a compromise by attempts to forge friendships which offers some temporary respite in which I attempt to be normal. Friends are not with me every moment of the day and I can choose what to share with them.

Inchi KabinI have been blessed with many caring people in my life and part of the fun in hunting for good food is hunting for dining companions to share little adventures with which comes from all walks of life. Fellow weirdos who understand me without having to explain myself. People who shower me with love and attention.

Take for instance, M whom I met through blogging. After a particular two months of harrowing workload, we finally met for lunch almost at her insistence. I gave her a free hand to decide the venue and sheinstinctivelychose this little quaint but plain restaurant to dine.

The tacky decor is nothing to shout about with some kitschy Dutch windows hanging on the wall. Food is served on cheap melamine and dining was under almost bare energy saving bulbs that cast a strange jaundiced glow to our complexion. But it was just what a tired soul needed. Not Foie, not truffles nor fancy desserts.

Their Nasi Ulam may not be the best that I have ever had but the effort was commendable, with slivers of the usual herbal condiments. Mint, Daun Kantan, Basil and Kerisik adorned the rice that was served strangely with some chips.

Their Inchi-Kabin was perfectly double fried and crispy with hints of cumin, shallots and corriander powder. It came with the traditional syrupy dip that was redolent of Worcester Sauce.

I loved their Joo Hoo Char which is julliened slivers of Sengkuang, Carrot and Dried Mushroom with Grilled Dried Cuttlefish hiding in between the strips to lend the dish antantalizing aroma. Place them in a piece of Lettuce leaf and roll it like a spring roll with a dab of Sambal Belacan and you will be biting on pieces of heaven.

Their Sambal Petai Udang was an interesting break for intermission but the spotlight shined on the Nyonya Fried fish with was ravishing. Perfectly fried fish in a be! guiling mix of tart Tamarind with nuances of spices, Daun Limau Purut and Preserved Leek.

Desserts were limited to 3 choices.

Nyonya Fried FishThe meal was not perfect but genuine. It did not use expensive exotic ingredients but the love and pride of the Chef in it's Nyonya Heritage wasalmostpalpable.

It's just like friendship, where once accept and maybe even treasure flaws and imperfections of others as long as it is genuine.

I have been accused of being an elitist, a pseudo intellectual and a snob so many times in life, I've lost count.

I don't just hang out with people who fine dine. The quantum of satisfaction I get from beautifully prepared nyonya fish and a perfect piece of Toro is probably the same.

Nor do I hang around elitists who quote Sartre and discuss post modernist art over salmon and cocktails all the time.

If there is one thing that either amuses me is the superficiality of some people I meet and their inane desire to impress or show off usually with hilarious consequences. Wealth and power does not impress me, for I know the people who posses them will never part with it without me doing something for them in return. I have to recall something very funny that happened a few weeks back.

I stumbled across anacquaintance from my College days whom I have not met for years and after the preliminary how do you do's he proceeded to ask me "What car are you driving now?".

I replied, "Why? Is your job so bad that you have to sell cars to supplement your income?". That ended our conversation pretty quickly and each of us probably think the other is a dickhead. At least I do.

I guess he does not know that the owner of Ikea drives a 20 year old Volvo and some of the slimiest Bankrupts in town whizz a! round in Porsche SUVs. I suppose a lot of people are trained to asses a person by the car he drives, the handbag she owns and where their family goes for holidays.

Even more irritating are meeting people who try to impress me with their intellectualprowess when they clearly have none. They claim to have read books that they haven't and try to critique movies when they have absolutely no inkling about. But things do break out into a comical farce when they dig deeper intotheirown grave when they are unable to stop talking.

The the species that deserves the vilest contempt will be those who put themselves on a pedestal for some unknown reason. Sharing a meal with them is just likesuppressing a bad case of jock itch. I am just dying to bare it all on the table and give it a good scratch.

Joo Hoo CharLife is not a competition. Meeting up withacquaintances in a social event is not a job interview or a sales pitch. There is no point competing, to brag and to impress. If there is anything that impresses me at all, it will be your honesty and genuine warmth. There is no need to put on a front and be kissy wissy with every one and the moment they turn their back, start the ritual of gossip and back stabbing. I find it juvenile, petty and revolting.

Some evenings and weekends, I hang out with some migrant factory workers at their quarters and their Restaurants at Jalan Silang. Their lives are simple and uncomplicated but lived with dignity and quiet perseverance. Never on any occasion have they taken advantage of me nor used me for for their personal gain. We spend out time together teaching each other to cook, with them teaching me reading and writing Burmese and me teaching them English and Facebook. Strangely enough, our lingua franca is Bahasa Melayu (go figure) whic! h I seld om use with my Malaysian friends. One day, I may blog about them.

A lot of people who consider themselves hoity toity could learn a thing or two about leading their life from these migrant workers.

I can only agree if anybody comments that I am very selective with friends. This is how I am.

But then again, not everybody can be like M. She knows I will never be cheerful ebullient and accepts my mood swings and I am sure she would let me know immediately if I cross the line. And as a treat for all my sleepless nights and midnight travel, she brought me to a place that she instinctively knew would cheer me up. She knew I was yearning for a simple uncomplicated meal. A meal served in a place unadorned by the trappings of materialism, where genuine food is served with pride and a heart.

Just like a goodfriendship.

Tanjung Bunga (same row as Chow Yang)
117 Jalan SS 2/6
47300 Petaling Jaya, Taman Sea, Malaysia
+6.03.78.77.45.31

Sugarpaste Crazy

It's past 1 am and I can't sleep! I've been making sugarpaste (fondant) roses all night and just not getting them right.The first practice rose I made was a mixture of the techniques I learnt from a sugarpaste course when Wey was a toddler and from You Tube videos. I was pretty happy with the result, considering that the last time I made roses for a wedding cake was more than a decade ago, and proceeded to the second rose, sticking to what my teacher had taught: roses come in odd petals of 3, 5, 7 and so on. By the time I got to the 3rd row of 7 petals my rose looked like a pink cabbage. No good. I decided reluctantly to forget about rules.

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The first rose.


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The second rose: a pink cabbage.

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Third rose, petals too thick.

The third rose looked better but still didn't look right. I plugged in Hub's laptop on the dining table and spent the next 1/2 hour ogling at Zurin's vintage roses, looking so real and beautiful that it's hard to believe they are made of sugar. They look too difficult and intimidating for me. I will have to fly to KL one day to learn how to make roses from Zurin. I spent another 1/2 hour at Cupcake Dlights, my top cupcakes and sugarpaste cakes blog crush. Zahirah's only in her late 20s and already made a big name with her creations. My sugarpaste teacher was trained in Australia, a world leader in sugarpaste work, and she mentioned South Africa as being one of the world's best in sugarpaste art and Zahirah is in Durban, South Africa. If you go to her blog, click on any photo and that will take you to her Flickr account which is filled with the most amazing cakes. I am just AWED by her skills and her classy designs. Her work is so elegant and classy, I've not seen any gaudy designs, not one. Even her colors are incomparable. I think she mixes them and I don't think it's Wilton colors. If only she gives some tutorials on her blog.Her work is so amazing that I felt like I was in a different world, a wonderland of roses, fairy tale characters and all things nice. My major crush for photography is Norjlus for travel and outdoor photos (another fairy tale world), Stone Soup for her to-die-for food photo skills (I absolutely adore her photos!) and Cupcakes Dlight for the world's most gorgeous gorgeous cakes and lately photography too.

I'm not as worried as I should be about this assignment because I have enlisted two of the best people for the job--A, who said she first learnt sugarcraft from my blog only 9 months ago but now is so good at it that I look up to her as my teacher and E, who's an excellent cook and expert at handicraft. What have I got to fear but the wet weather, which prevents the sugarpaste flowers from drying. I am a little bit anxious about whether V will like our creations because she came back from Australia last weekend to arrange her wedding anniversary celebrations and I haven't yet had a chance to see her. She's leaving everything to me, just giving a few instructions abo! ut color s and type of flowers.

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I enjoy having a free hand at making the cake. It shall be 6 tiers, the 6th being the table. I will bake the top cake but the cupcakes will be baked by a professional baker because I just can't bake and decorate 320 cupcakes. Now I should get some sleep because tomorrow I'm going to make the REAL roses for the cake.

TLC (Astro Channel 707) Samantha Brown's Asia Debuts on July 25

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Recently Kuala Lumpur was treated to a glimpse into the life of travel goddess Samantha Brown during her promotional tour for her latest show Samantha Brown's Asia.


Regular TLC viewers would be familiar with the bubbly blonde who headlined shows such as Passport to Europe with Samantha Brown, Passport to Latin America with Samantha Brown or Girl Meets Hawaii. She's got everyone's dream job - globe trotting for 230 days in a year with a crew in tow including her personal stylist!


It's interesting to read her resume that she started out as a working actress and even starred in off-Broadway hits. This she playfully quips when asked about her previous career helps as "when all fails, you can sing and dance away." However, she does credit her acting training to helping her "talk to the camera like a person".


samantha brown


Malaysia holds a special place in her heart. When she first met her husband during their courting days, he impressed her with the story that he spent one year in Malaysia. Her first date with him was even at a Malaysian restaurant in New York called Melaka.


TLC also shared ten things you didn't know about Samantha Brown, like how she always travels with a jar of peanut butter and a book of poetry like Ro! bert Fro st or Mary Oliver. I liked the little story about her being a professional blimp photographer as she happened to catch a shot of a fallen blimp that was sold to Associated Press, and subsequently bought by Time Magazine and USA Today who paid her USD300 for it.


Samantha Brown's Asia_Vietnam 3


Vietnam (Airs on Monday, July 25, 10pm)


The episode sees Samantha venturing into the Sa Pa region in the North, where she stays with a tribal family. Then, she moves on to Hanoi, the cultural capital to explore famous tunnels of Cu Chi and its floating villages. Samantha admitted that she had a different perception of Vietnam with the war (her dad served during the war) and was surprised that the people there, "live, breath and love like everyone else".


Samantha Brown's Asia_China 2


Hong Kong/Macau (Airs on Monday, August 1, 10pm)


In this episode, she discovers another side to Hong Kong's ultra modern facade, its beautiful natural scenery at Lantau island where she goes abseiling. She also visits Tai O fishing village for a look of what Hong Kong used to look like in the olden days.Next she hops over to Macau where she gets a taste of the gamb! ling tab les the city is famous for including its unique cuisine with some pop stars thrown if for some glam factor.


Samantha Brown's Asia_Singapore


Singapore (Airs on Monday, August 8, 10pm)


In this episode, Samantha gets to learn from a Peranakan dance. In contrast to the city life, they also feature laidback Pulau Ubin as a reminder of the old days. Samantha also gets to sample the food (helped by KF Seetoh) and visit the muslim district, Kampung Glam with guide Anita Kapoor.


Samantha Brown's Asia_Cambodia 2


Cambodia (Airs on Monday, August 15, 10pm)


One of her favourite countries, she found the people here to be the friendliest despite its tragic civil war history that she nicknamed them, "The Irish of South East Asia". She get to visit the most amazing temples in Angkor Wat and the bustling city of Phnom Penh.


Samantha Brown's Asia_Thailand 3


Thailand (Airs on Monday, August 22, 10pm)


In this episode, Samantha visits an elephant sanctuary, which houses 15-20 rescued elephants. She has to take care of an elephant - washing, feeding, cleaning and even checking its poo to make sure it is eating right. Samantha also explores Bangkok and its picturesque postcard beaches.


Samantha Brown's Asia_Malaysia


Malaysia (Airs on Sunday, August 28, 10pm)


This is the Merdeka special that TLC is running hence it airs on Sunday compared to the usual Monday viewing time. In this episode, she visits Kuala Lumpur where she drinks beer out of a shoe at the Royal Selangor Club. She also catches the sights in Penang where she indulged in her favourite dish in Malaysia aka wantan noodles, pick tea (one of her favourite beverages) at Cameron Highlands and met the orang asli families in Ipoh. She relates how the Orang Asli kids were a little shy of her but extremely fascinated with her blonde hair. They broke out in laughter when she told them (through an interpreter) that her hair is fake.


Samantha Brown's Asia_Japan

































Japan (Airs on Monday, September 5, 10pm)


Samantha explores the contrasting cities: megatropolis of Tokyo vs ancient Kyoto. This episode also has her visiting Mount Fuji and dressing up like a geisha. Some Japanese businessman even thought she was a real geisha and stopped her to pose for their photos.


Samantha Brown's Asia_Bali 1


Bali (Airs on Monday, September 12, 10pm)


Samantha explores the Island of Gods with its landscapes of lush rice terraces, swaying palm trees and white sandy beaches. She also got to share the spirit of Bali through their colourful festivals and ceremonies. Samantha relates how filming for this episode took place just after the film crew for the Eat Pray Love movie had wrapped up production - one place in Ubud even had a tongue-in-the-chic sign saying, "eat pay leave".


Tune into Samantha Brown's Asia on TLC (Astro Channel 707) every Monday 10pm, starting from July 25. Encores on Saturdays, 3pm and following Mondays, 4pm. From October 10, look out for Samantha Brown's Great Weekends Season 3. The series has Samantha showing you how to have a fantabulous weekend all around the US. There's driving along the Route 66 (always a big dream for me!), reliving her childhood at a San Jose circus to helping out homeless dogs in New Orleans.


*All pictures except the first two are courtesy of TLC

Cuisine Gourmet by Nathalie

Cuisine Gourmet: Round Two. Earlier entry: June 28.

Finger food to keep our hands & mouths busy: tuna & avocado mousse on blini, foie gras in brioche & scallop with Szechuan pepper foam. A hefty compilation of starters; not a mere appetite-whetter (though our appetites were whetted for sure).

Beef cheek pot au feu with celery espuma, served cold. A strange recipe; everything was chilled till even the broth turned gelatinous. In terms of texture, it was like leftover stew that had been out of the freezer for one hour. But we loved how it tasted beautifully beefy and earthy, with the root veggies complementing the meat very well.

Tuna tartar with pan-fried duck liver. Fish & fowl? A match made in heaven! Every spoonful of the finely chopped, sweetly herb-scented tuna cohered into something special with the beyond-luscious liver.

Squid ink ravioli stuffed with eggplant-&-mozzarella confit with tomato emulsion. Would fit in seamlessly at KL's top Italian outlets (we're thinking Il Lido or Favola!).

Veal with sweetbread, shallots & carrot jelly. We'd say "ooh la la" to this _ as close to traditional Parisian cooking as Nathalie might get. Note: the menu here is completely changed once a month and is kept different from Nathalie's Gourmet Studio in Solaris Dutamas.

Crepe Aumoniere, stuffed with pears & apples, accompanied by pear sorbet & apple caramel. A pleasant change from ordinary flat crepes. Presented like a purse-like parcel, with crisp edges keeping all the sugary fruit slices sealed within.

Jivara & orange chocolate tart, with cocoa nougatine & vanilla ice cream. Freshly made and served warm, so it took a little longer to reach the table. Worth the wait; kinda like a cross between chocolate lava cake & a lime tart.

Albert Bichot Domaine Long-Depaquit Chablis, Burgundy (2007) & Kaesler Old Vine Semillon, Barossa Valley (2008). In rousing news for fans of wine, Cuisine Gourmet will feature different varieties by the glass every month.

Cuisine Gourmet by Nathalie,
Menara Taipan, Jalan Punchak,
Off Jalan P. Ramlee, Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: 03-2072-4452

skirt steak with bloody mary tomato salad

skirt steak with blood mary tomato salad

Back when I started dreaming up a cookbook I would one day write, all I knew is what I didnt want: I did not want to work every weekday, weekend and evening on it, I did not want to set an insanely close deadline and then have to hastily throw together a book I wasnt pleased with and above all else I did not want the time I had to devote to this web space to become squeezed, although I understood that there would probably be a harried point right near the end that all three rules could be suspended for a good cause. And indeed, they have been. I hope to deliver my manuscript in August and its pretty all-consuming right now in a good way, because Im finally starting to see the whole thing coming together. So, if things are a bit slow between now and then, do understand that I cannot wait until late summer when my attentions can be what they were before my son was 4 months old, and instead of doing normal New Mom things like catching up on sleep or rounding up preschool applications (ha!), I decided that at my earliest convenience, I would write a book instead.

ready to begin
sherry vinegar-ing the onions

Nevertheless, not a day goes by when I do not cook and this past weekend, it was my favor! ite kind : the lazy kind, mostly whims. On Friday, well, Friday was a crazy day and Ill tell you about that real soon. It involved a cake Im auditioning for the cookbook and a late summer dish Ill tell you about even sooner. Also: photographers. It was a little scary, but it ended with some Vermontucky Lemonades, so I didnt mind. On Sunday, I caved to the blueberries and peaches and decided to make two pies, but left one with my in-laws and delivered another to friends at their new house and cant tell you how they came out because I wasnt there when anyone cut into them. But warm pie fresh from the oven? Im going to assume nobody complained. On Monday, I made a slaw and baked America one of those goofy berry-topped birthday cakes before heading out to watch the sun set behind Manhattan and catch the faintest glimpse of the New York Fireworks West Side of Manhattan and New Jersey Fireworks with friends.

so many tomatoes

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