Posts in Food

Kenwood kMix Hand Blender

Food

For my darling’s birthday gift, I decided on Kenwood’s HB791 hand-mixer in raspberry red. It totally rocks my white kitchen.

It’s solidly made of aluminum and stainless steel so none of that flimsy plastic stuff. The good thing is you can use it right into the pot so that saves time when you can make a nice tomato or vegetable soup that is easily diced into a creamy soup right at the pot. The detachable attachments make it easy to keep away the main unit after using it. It’s attractive looks means that it can sit on your counter top without looking out of place.

Power is ample so there’s plenty of times when you will be using it turned down but it’s there when you’re going to make mashed potato or something heavy and it’ll be available. It’s a bit on the heavy side but the weight makes it easier to control and manage. I also got the hand mixer (HM791) along but that hasn’t seen use yet. I’ll be saving up for the stand mixer. It’s no kitchen-aid but it’ll suffice.

Home Espresso shots (continued)

Food

The past three weeks have been kinda strange as I’m been mostly in my home (and home office and home studio too!).

Obviously, that meant that I’ve lots of time to work on my espresso pulling on my Evolution. So far, I’ve found that fresh beans will produce superb crema and obviously, taste and aroma as well. Starbucks beans are nicely roasted but are weeks old when you buy them at their stores. Even this pricey tin of espresso from Illy wasn’t fresh enough.

For regular people like me who love their coffee but aren’t too anal about 100% freshness, Coffex provides the easiest solution. As the beans are roasted in Australia and air-flown, you are mostly guaranteed some semblance of freshness. How fresh? No beans I’ve tried (Boncafe, Illy, Starbucks, etc) provided me with instant lovely crema right out of the Evolution and the aroma is absolutely fantastic. My house smells like a little cafe after pulling a couple of shots.

Here’s 18 grams of Coffex Superbar tamped nicely and ready to go!

And of course, the results! Look at that lovely crema!

And my morning double-shot ready to get me started!

The Bee, Jaya One

Food

One early Saturday morning, we found ourselves near the vicinity of Jalan University. Needing breakfast, we made our decision to head to Jaya One. We arrived at the Bee about 9:45am in the morning. It seems that on weekends, they only have their brunch menu which excludes their burgers. So much for that. The Kitchen is also not open till 10am.

Oh, well, it’s only another fifteen minutes. Ordered a latte which came in decent time. The latte was done reasonably well. Probably the beans weren’t as fresh but still pretty decent. Starbucks can pull a decent latte too but their beans are weeks to a month old. Would I expect a cafe like the Bee to have fresher beans? Possibly, but I don’t know the traffic pattern or output to judge.

The waitstaff seem to be rather disorganized and are unable to keep up with even four tables occupied. Our food arrived after a fairly long while – like twenty-five minutes. It’s not like they were full but I’d hate to be sitting there when the place is overflowing with people. Taste wise, nothing to shout about but overall good filling meals. The banana-peanut butter toast was pretty unique and flavorful.

Done with our breakfast (or brunch), we called for the bill. That took another ten minutes and we decided to put it on the card. The nice thing about my Citibank Visa is that the points can be used to buy anything. Of course, the rate isn’t fantastic — they’re a bank and they’re out to make money from you but if you gotta use the money anyway, might as well build up the points to get something… like a new lens or refrigerator, etc. Back to the Bee. The credit slip took them another fifteen minutes to produce for us to sign. Overall, waiting for service, waiting for food and waiting to sign the credit card slip took longer than our entire meal.

Bottom line (NPS-like) is I don’t think I’d recommend friends to the Bee, or at least I’d be neutral which means “negative” in NPS-speak. Food-wise ok but I’d need to try the burgers so means I’d be going back, at least one more time. If the service-delays persist, it’ll be my last.





One double shot coming right up

Food

I’m pretty much a coffee person. Personally, coffee can sometimes make or break my day. Bad coffee stinks and is pretty much undrinkable. This is sadly the average coffee scene here in Malaysia. We don’t really get fresh ground beans and many cafes serve instant coffee powder anyways. So far, I get an acceptable cup at Starbucks or Dome. Otherwise, it’s pretty much a forgettable cup. Of course if you’re after the local brews of robusta beans then I find the ones in Yut Kee in KL and Bentong pretty respectable. For arabica bean coffee, it’s a rare cafe that serves up anything fantastic.

You know what they say… if you want it done right, you do it yourself! Easier said than done considering the high import tax this country slaps on Espresso machines… Since I’m pretty much making shots for myself, I decided that an entry level machine will suffice. I’ll splurge on a good grinder and freshly roasted beans instead.

So, the new addition to my kitchen counter top was a brand new spanking Gaggia Evolution. It’s pretty much the “kancil” of espresso machines. I would really love a Nuova Simonelli Oscar (in red) but it doesn’t really justify the cost at this time. Maybe when I’ve perfected the art of pulling shots with perfect crema and latte art will I upgrade my Evolution.

More to come once I’ve gotten some practice in 🙂

p.s. if anyone’s looking for a gift for me, a nice knocker would be a lovely gift 🙂

Lil’ BBQ at number forty…

Food

Sometimes, it’s nice to have a little BBQ party at home versus going out to a fancy (or even not so fancy) place to dine. There’s a feel and sense of casual-ness and perhaps, more relaxed atmosphere. Parking is a lot easier of course and there’s not opening time or closing time. You’re free to dress-up as much as you want or dress-down. The only downside is probably for the hosts who has to cleanup. I guess I don’t mind that so much as the amount of time we spend with each other. Relationships need time and if you don’t invest time, you can watch them shrivel up and break.

Anyways, here are some photos.

Who says you can make pizzas on a BBQ?







Cupcakes by Audrey

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During my brother’s Birthday last weekend, we had a nice surprise for him (no, not talking about the LX5) in the form of cupcakes as a birthday cake. Cupcakes are getting to be the in-thing nowadays and the good thing is that you don’t need to cut them and they come with their own little plates! Of course if you’re anal about some traditions such as cutting the cake, you’ll be disappointed. Actually, who says you can’t cut a cupcake? You might look silly though.

Anyways, since he’s in the financial industry, we’d get an appropriately themed cake with stuff like bulls, bears, charts and so on but we decided to throw in a few funky things like fishes, boobs and bums. I must say that Audrey does bake some lovely cupcakes and they were nice and moist. A bit of the sweet side but I guess that can be custom tweaked on request (I didn’t order them so I didn’t make that request). Of course the fondant designs were the nicest compared to the regular cream and icing decorations but they come at an added cost.

Time for me to stop talking and the photos to salivate you!