Wassup Frog??

For the past ~10 or so years, green tree frogs of all different shapes and sizes (mini to large) appear at the entrance to our house always staring through the door....waiting and waiting.....They sometimes come making stange noises from horn sounds of a car to barking like a dog (seriously) - fellow translator hermit sook sook doesnt know why! ...However I always wondered what the frog is waiting for? Does it want shelter? Does it want food? ...what does it taste like?


Here's one green tree frog that appeared today at the door when I arrived home...It was very...green! Anyway today I also made another cupcake to experiment with vanilla beans - The Vanilla Bean Frosted Cupcake -




Made with 2 2/3 cups plain flour, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 3/4 cup butter, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 eggs, then is combined with 1/2 vanilla bean (got ripped off at $6 a bean), and 3/4 cup milk, 1 2/3 cup vanilla suger and No frogs. Cooked for 20-25 mins at 180 degrees, then frosted with 1/2 cup butter combined with 125g cream cheese, 1/4 vanilla bean, 1tsp vanilla essense and 2 cups of icing suger and wateva..

After the cake cooking the green tree frog was eaten...ing with its other friends while I ate the very vanilla tasting cake...

Cooking Experiment 1#

Last weekend was start of the new Chinese Year "year of the moo" and also the Australia day falling on the exact same day. We spent most of the time catching up with long time no C friends and relatives, along with the noisy fire-quackers, lion dancing , decorations and the food. I have also experimented in cooking a couple new dishes including the Italian Fusilli pasta in Creamy Pesto Sauce topped with Oven Salt Cooked Chicken

And the Pineapple Tarts (~50% Butter) which is usually eaten during this festive season of Chinese New Year in Singapore..Realised after some research it was made in the wrong shape tho..should be pineapple wrapped around with pastry...not the pineapple sitting on top of pastry...haiii!!!

Anyway hope everyone also had a great time during the CNY time and another great week ahead...

The "Yes" and "No" of Haich Kay?

Just a short random post about some experiences in Hongkong ~

Shorrr Ping Ar? – Besides all the eating and site seeing in Hongkong, shopping has become a major form of entertainment for both the locals and visitors from overseas. Famous shopping centres include Sogo, New Town Plaza, City Gate Shopping Centre and more. Other than actually shopping for goods, there are sometimes live performances to watch out for during the season of sales (not normal in australia) -

This includes the never-ending flow of seelai’s providing free ‘forced’ transport for you to other department sections of the store. I refer this as the S.T.R System (Seelai's That Run). Quite reliable source of transport before you decide to pay them the (fake) H5N2.
-the frequent seelai pileups around ‘red ticket’ so-called sale items, as seen from far away, it appears they are all swinging their arms around like dancing the hongkie Saturday night fever without the music.
-The unified expressions when selecting (sales) clothing - seelai picks up the shirt, pulls both sides of the shirt (maybe to test its stength), follow by a funny 'hmm' expression, and throw it back to the pile of items agressively if not satisfied.
-Tug-of-war between a sales item.... and more...

No Steak lah! - If you enjoy the australian steaks then the following may be relavent to you. Steaks are not recommended for eating in general hongkong restaurants as they will tend to be either specially treated to produce a much tender meat, or either will get a rubbery/plastic steak swimming in a litre of sauce. Edible steaks are usually found in hotels and higher end restaurants (such as promenade restaurant in Hung Hom).

"tai gwai lar, yuw mo pehn deeeeeeeeeee ar" - bargaining in general stores in hongkong is usually not possible as prices are quite standardised for the 'real' non 'farn barn' items. However when visiting the ladies market ("Lui Yun Gar'y"), it become an essential activity to take part in and sometimes very entertaining. Goods are usually bargained according to their type -

clothes - 15% - 20% depending on the quantity you buy. 30% usually results in an immediate elimination from the store.
plastic toys -20%-50%
fake watches - 20%

If you are not satisfied with the price, just say 'tai gwai orr' and slowly walk away. Usually the price suffers a negative inflation as the number of walking steps increase.

"Sik Farn Mei?" - Hongkong is a place to go when it comes to food and eating, however is usually a struggle just to settle your mind where to eat? where is good? ... a simple rule of thumb "common sense" when searching for a nice place to eat is make sure the restraunt is busy and full of customers to confirm its reliability (other than it being newly opened). Empty and quiet ones are usually not nice and to Hongkong people they refer this as ‘part wooy yiing’ ~ so quiet the waitors are busy performing the act of fly swatting.

What are your interesting experiences in Hongkong?~ to be continued....

Ling Moong Cake!

Yesterday I experimented a very quick and simple cheesecake recipe that was found on the net - the lemon creme cheesecake cups ("ling moong cheesy darn gou jai"). The cake came out quite nice with a melting effect as you eat it follow by a vehh lee lemony and cheesy taste, the desert is well served with chinese green tea. The recipe is as follows -


Cake
130g Cake Flour (darn go mein fun)
1/2 tsp Soda Powder (sorrr dar fun)
1/2 tsp Baking Powder (mm jee do?)
125g Cream Cheese (I used 1/2 block of phile cheese)
135g Butter (uw yuw)
145g Caster Suger (bah torn)
1 tsp Lemon Rind (ling moong pei)
2 eggs (darn darn)
1 tbsp Lemon juice (ling moong jup)

Lemon Icing
1 tbsp Lemon juice
40g Icing suger


The instructions are quite simple, just sift the flour,soda powder and baking powder into a bowl.

In a seperate bowl cream the butter and cheese. Then gradually add the suger, lemon rind, lemon juice. Once complete add the eggs one at a time. Then fold in the sifted flour and combine. And is now ready to eat!(Sik dut larr) ....... almost (Gorn Seeew)

Now equally divide the mixture into 12 large sized cupcake cups and bake for about 25 minutes at 180degrees C. Take the cakes out the oven to cool in a rack.

For the icing, just heat the lemon juice in the microwave for 15seconds on high and combine in icing suger. Put the mixture onto the cakes and whatever decoration you want to add (ie. lemon rind etc) and chill before you eat. (Jun hai sik dut larr)

Fit or not?

Today was my first day back at gym since the long christmas break, and was surely a major struggle to begin with. For first time, 2 kilo weights felt like carrying a sheep, push-ups suffered an increased gravity, stretches cracked like thunder “kee kee kaa kaa”, and the six pacs attended their reunion ....haiii!

Wonder when those long lost fitness levels come back....hmmm? ”jun hai charm”, for I dunno who to blame for, the KFC “See lai” or Macdonald “Sook Sook” or the ones who never resist from consuming their famous cooking’s?

This year a new goal has been confirmed, ' to eat healthy......er and to become fitter....for there is the need for strength and health to do something meaningful in this world and for others needs!

The hunt for seafood -->

Today was a very nice and relaxing day hunting for seafood at the heart of Scarborough located within the redcliffe peninsula. The weather was very windy with interesting rain that reappears only when I get out of the car.

During the trip, we caught a range of seafood consisting of barramundi, hake, prawns, scallops, cuttlefish, and potato chips swimming lively through the 豬油 'joo yuw' waters of Morgan as well as fresh oysters in families of 6.

Fact of the day - did you know oysters has many nutritional benifits including high in protein and vitamins and is also natures best source of zinc (~strengthening of the bodys immune system and supports of healing).

Welcome lah!

Welcome to Wheres Will blog,

This will be new place to share some interesting experiences with food, travel, events, and bla bla desu, Hope you have a nice time reading!

Also, Wish everyone a Happy and Enjoyable New Year 2009!!