Buns making in Process!

Took the below images and recipe from cousin's blog! LOL!

Was initially heading down for acupuncture at cousin's place last Wednesday, but because the doc was packed so headed over to her place to rot before heading home.

Upon reaching, saw her tidying up her stuff, and followed her into the kitchen to be kpo abt what shes doing. And I realised, since young, I've always got this habit of following her ard, even thou its just at her place! LOL! I always like to see people being busy and somehow it makes me feel happy hahah!

While I was seated in the Kitchen, cousin opened up the dough which was made earlier on. Mayb not very early, but abt an hour or so earlier. She then started kneading them and putting kaya into the bun. So being the curious one, I put my hands on the dough and give it a try!

After all the kneading and stuffing are done, we placed them into the steamer to steam the buns for approx 20mins if im not wrong. And here you go! At first we are still unsure if the first batch could be eaten because cousin had forgotten one step which is to let the dough rise before placing them into the steamer. 

But somehow it seems like a success! Apart that the dough may be a little thick on certaiin sides, the rest are just fine (:

Check out the kaya ooozing out of the bun! (:

 

This is me, with the all done buns! (:

Below is the recipe if you are interested to give it a try! (:

Recipe (makes 12-14 buns depending on your bun size)

Modified from happyhomebaking

Ingredients
300g Hong Kong pau flour
3g baking powder
3g instant yeast
30g caster sugar
150ml water
15g vegetable oil
A jar of kaya paste (Mine is NTUC brand)

Procedures

1. Sieve Hong Kong pau flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Add yeast, caster sugar and mix well.
2. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture, add in water and mix to form a dough. Transfer dough onto a lightly floured work surface. Knead dough until it becomes smooth (about 5 mins). Knead in the vegetable oil and continue to knead for another 10-15 mins or until the dough becomes smooth and elastic. Take a piece of dough (about the size of a table tennis ball) and stretch it, you should be able to stretch it to a fairly thin membrane without tearing off easily, if not continue to knead for another 5 to 10mins.
3. Roll dough into a smooth round, place in a lightly greased mixing bowl, cover with cling wrap and let it proof for about 1 hr or until it doubles in bulk.
4. Punch down the dough and give a few light kneading to release the trapped air bubbles. Divide the dough into 12 portions (about 40g each). Roll each portion into a smooth round.
   
   
5. Flatten each dough into a small disc with your palm or a small rolling pin, make the edges thinner and the centre portion thicker. Wrap each dough with a dollop of kaya paste the size of a 50 cent coin. Pinch and seal the seams. Place dough seam side down on a square piece of parchment paper. Cover loosely with cling wrap and leave buns to proof for 20-25 mins.
6. Place buns in a steamer or wok and space them apart so that they do not touch one another. Steam at medium to high heat for 12mins (make sure the water is already boiling before steaming). When ready, remove the lid carefully to prevent water from dripping over the buns. Remove immediately and serve warm. Keep any leftovers in fridge (covered with cling wrap or store in airtight containers) and re-steam till hot before serving.

Dinning: Alfresco Gusto

Headed over to Alfresco Gusto for lunch yesterday for a belated birthday celebration for mommy!

Met the brother over at Ion at 1pm, drove down to meet them at this dining area.

But it was raining pretty heavy when we were on our way there, but after which once we have settled down, the rain seems to get smaller =D

Ion has never been a place that the boyfriend and I would have gone to search for awesome food! But somehow or rather, this secluded area has this Italian restaurant which serves pretty good food =D Would definitely head down for more if I had the time, but shopping and dining at Orchard area was really a killer!

Chalkboards to show what are the promotions they had! But I suppose this is what most of the restaurants do especially those located ard Clarke Quay area.

Did not manage to take a better shot of the area, but it was rather cooling and breezy that day because of the rain. 

While waiting for the rest to come, boyfriend and I headed in to grab the seats first.

And took a look at the menus, oh on a side note, I like now clean cut the menu looks! =D

Not a fan of messy menus! 

Clearer image of the dining areas!

They have pretty cute names for the drinks they are serving too! 

This is my younger brother looking at the menu.


And me, taking photos while waiting for them to place orders.


Two shots with the boyfriend and one shot with mommy love! =D
 

Hello Momma!!


And one more nicer shot! Le boyfriend hasnt been a fan of photos! LOL! but he always tries to take whenever I try to force him LOL! Thank you for accommodating <3


While the young ones continue with the menus, brother always took his own sweet time in ordering or looking at things or even packing his stuff to go back into camp! Such a slooow-mo!

The restaurants are quite packed to the point if you hadnt make any reservations, you are only able to get the seats over at the smoking area. So we are quite glad we actually made reservations.

The first item that came up was momma's drinks! 

Momma and I bought ordered Milkshake!

Momma ordered Hoho Choco which taste somehow like Chocolate milkshake but more dense!


Mine came after Momma's was called Sleepless in Paterson!
Saw the coffee beans in it? Yup! Its milkshake of Espresso and Chocolate!
Which taste pretty good too! (:


Le boyfriend being the old uncle of the day, he ordered Americano!
I wasnt a fan of Kopi-O, so I didnt tried it! ahahha! But according to him, he said he prefer the ones from Starbucks more! LOL!


Comes the appetizers! First was was this Sauteed Mushrooms with Garlic Bread! (:
Because I have this thing for mushrooms, so I would definitely say this is a must try!
The sauce mixed well with the mushrooms, which also goes well with the Garlic Bread! As I was typing this, I was really hoping for a serving right in front of me now! Slurps!

Brother ordered Soup of the Day (Mushroom Soup) for himself which also comes with Garlic Bread! hahah! Too much garlic on that day! But this wasnt really up to my expectations. Probably I've gotten too much expectations after trying the one over at Poulet which I blogged earlier on, this was really just mehh.

Momma's main dish came first!
Seafood Risotto which was Saffron and white wine risotto with different kinds of sauteed seafood! I tried one of the mussels and it was really good! The mussels are so fresh and it tasted sweet! (: But somehow risotto tasted like porridge to me, so i wasnt really into that.
But momma loves it!


Boyfriend ordered Carbonara, he's aim was to try out different carbonara at different places! LOL!
This was a little watery but surprisingly it was up to the boyfriend's expectation and he says its good! (:

Mine came next, Chicken Pappardelle!
It comes with homemade pappardelle in cream sauce cooked with Chicken and fresh basil!
The Pappardelle tasted like the chinese homemade noodles (Mee Hoon Kueh), but of course the texture was so much softer and tender! Finally I've found my new love! =D The chicken was so tender and juicy that it actually absorb the cream sauce and a little basil makes it perfectoo! =D

The brother ordered Chicken Ballotine which comes with roasted chicken leg, stuffed with mushrooms duxellex, together with creamy couscous, vegetables and pan roasted jus. Even thou I had no idea what was added, but the chicken stuffed mushrooms tasted quite good! Soft and juicy! But a little tad salty for my liking. =X


And pizza for all of us to share! This pizza was called Pizza Pollo which consist of Grilled Chicken, Pineapple and bell peppers, with extra cheese added! This pizza was really good! It wasnt too dry like how some other pizzas may tasted! The chicken was grilled to just nice and the texture was done so well!

But because of all us are already full to the brim, this dish didnt come at the right time =X

I wasnt a fan of Tiramisu because in the past when I first took a bite, it was all so mousy! And realised that i wasnt my cup of tea at all! But after the ones cousin made for her boyfriend, I took a bit and it totally changed my perception! =D It was so good that I wanted more!

So I've decided to give this Tiramisu was the first thing that came across my mine because I could totally remember the taste of the tiramisu that couzzie made the other time! The bad news was, this tiramisu was rather bitter to my liking. But the short bread was good! Fresh and tasted crunchy! I took a bit and left about half the tiramisu untouch and momma had to finish it for me. 

Thanks momma!

Brother and his girlfriend tried this Pear Tart Tartin which was caramelized pear tart with gelato. I suppose it was nice? Because both of them finish every single bit without leaving traces! hahah! But the smell was too sweet, oh yea, because of the caramel! =D But no trying for me! hahah! I got to stop taking in sweet stuff!

Overall the experience was quite okay, despite the heavy downpour, every dishes were so nice!

But the prices are rather steep but delicious food I would say. So I suppose you get what you paid? Oh on the other hand, one reason why I might head back would be because of their service. Even thou they might be full house, but their service was really good that they pay attention to your needs. 

Overall Rating: 8/10

Total Spending: SGD$304.84

Where to find it:

Alfresco Gusto

#01-15, Ion Orchard

2 Orchard Turn

Singapore 238801

Tel: 6509 9380

Lunch at Selfish Gene

Took leave on one of the days just to have brunch with le boyfriend!

And after reading so many blogs, and decided to head down to Selfish Gene to try out their all day breakfast set! =D

They do not have a wide variety of set meals that we can choose from. But somehow I like how clear-cut their menus look! 

The little flower on the tables! They have this mini flower placed on each and ever table! And different colors too!

Because it was a Monday, so I suppose not many would turn up at this little space? 

Unlike other restaurants, they usually took orders from where we sat, but this time round, we had to walk over to the counter to place an order for what we would like to have.

And they would in return give us a cup tgt with the receipt for our purchase. 

Boyfriend ordered San Pell Mandarino which taste quite good! 

A little sweet and sour feeling and slightly gasy! I like! 

Took a piece of name card from the counter! Pretty piece they had too! =D

Here comes my Ice Mocha, but erm, its a little too bitter for my liking.

A little sugar syrup would help i guess? 

Oh this little corner we saw, was just right at the entrance! 

Super cute area where it displays the set of menus which people take to look and plain water to quench our thirst while waiting for our dishes to be served!

*Drum rollssss*

...

..

.

Here comes our main dish!

The boyfriend ordered Bagel & Smoked Salmon (SGD$12.80) a little on the pricey side because the portion is actually quite small! The salmon are thinly sliced but according to le boyfriend, the salmon wasnt really fresh.

Bagel is always something that I love! Esp with cream cheese!

Never had a chance to give this a try, but I suppose it shldnt taste that bad? Since the bf didnt comment much abt it. D:

This is mine! The Breakfast Plate (SGD$15.80). I love how the bread was toasted, crispy and soft!

Apply a little of butter and yummss, makes me feel like having them now!

Oh it comes with scramble eggs, sausage, ham, tomatoes as well as sauteed mushrooms. 

A little on the bad side was, the sauteed mushrooms were not even warm! And me being a mushroom lover, this wasnt really my cup of tea. 

But the rest was good! 

For breakfast lovers, this may be a good chance to give it a try!

This place is not really easy to find, because it was located somewhere near Duxton @ Pinnacle. 

But its at a rather ulu place near Tanjong Pagar. Because we drove there, so we parked at the mall or was it an office building just opp and it was quite near! 

Food wise, the portion was slightly little as compare to elsewhere, but i supposed its worth the try! =D

And price was on a more pricey side, so this is the bad point. 

Total Spending for 2: SGD$39.20

Overall Rating: 7/10

Where to find it?

Selfish Gene Cafe

40 Craig Road

Singapore 089678

Tel: 6423 1324

At the cousins!

This is definitely one of the oldest post I've ever gotten! hahah!

Back dated to Chinese New year Day 2! LOL!

In fact, I didnt blog about day 1!

Usually Day 1 would be rather the same old routine, wake up, head out to Grams.

And off to another Granny's place. But somehow, this CNY was slightly different.

Because Yanshaung didnt turn up, because she went to the temples with her sisters. 

Which means to say, we have lesser things to talk abt, and lesser jokes on that day!

But nevertheless, it was all made up on the next day!

Pretty much started off with heading to Grams place to picked her up and headed down to the usual meeting house where we all camped for the whole day!

Left earlier, and headed off to the Da Jie's place! 

Other than all the tidbits, what we did was to take more pictures! LOL!

Started first off with a full body shot! hahah!

Fatty fats I have! Really gonna slim down someday, otherwise I might just die because of fatty fats! But anyway, this is the XY by my side! 

 

And with Yanshuang! and a self shot of myself! (:

This pictures makes my face look slightly slimer! hahah! My fave of all! =D

And a group shot, without the rest LOL!

Oh ending of with a funny face shot of me! LOL!

Usually Chinese New Year would be a year for gatherings for family and friends! Like many other years, my routine for visiting has never changed much. To and fro relatives places, talking and gossiping has been part of my daily CNY lives! hahah! 

But still, even thou it might just be a short few days, I still love this season very much!

Cant wait for the next to come by, so at least I could have more money! hahah!

And hopefully I could slim down by than? LOL! 

Lets just *Crossfingers*

Monday Bluess

Another week has past with a blink of an eye!
Ive got more things to do and lesser time to handle them!
I'm so tired!!

Last Saturday, I had launch a sales for almost all the instocks that I had at home!
Clearing stocks at the moment! hahah! Nothing above SGD$5.00!

Do hop in if you are interested! Most of the items are left with limited pieces! and some are already gone!

Meanwhile, I bought a pair of running shoe for myself! And a YSL perfume to make myself feel better! )): Hasnt been feeling good abt anything except that I've bought new stuffs for myself to make myself feel better )): Oh wells, this is life, aint it?

But anyway, work has been crappy, because I always ended up falling asleep at my desk? or rather stoning and hoping something would pop out just for me to complete them! Gosh!!! Days like this had to keep coming in and...

I shall update this space when I've gotten free time! )):

Week pass by too soon!

Ive gotten a few outdated post to be done up!
But before all those, just a simple update to keep my blog alive LOL!

But anyway, my life has been too hectic these few days!
After coming back from Batam just last weekend, came back with another Labour day, which most of the time was spent at Le Boyfriend's place nuaing and catching up on sleep!
But not so much, head out for dinners with friends and attended event on thursday, clubbing on friday! And staying up late on Saturday! Oh my, practically I didnt have much rest.

Pffft, but anyway, shall look forward to start school, or rather, was suppose to start school during the weekends, but in the end it was all cancelled because they had too many students in that cohort. Yay or Nay? I couldnt decide.

Bought mommy love a bracelet for her upcoming birthday and Mother's day! So hopes she likes them! Haven been talking to her and eating dinner with her for the past few nights and this is making me feel guilty! booo~

Montigo Resort: Sun, Sea, Sand and Rain!

Booked a trip to Batam one month ago together with Le boyfriend's friends! (:

And since its a getaway, it got me all excited to this trip, because I had always wanted to try out Montigo Resort since I've seen some of my friends heading there so yea, this is my chance! hahah!

But before i start, beware that this is going to be a post with a lot of images! So it might take sometime to load. =X

Us waiting for the ferry!

This time round we will be taking Batam Fast Ferry! They comes in different timings, so choose your most preferred timing (: If you are interested, you may look through their website for more information, http://www.batamfast.com/home/index.ashx. Prices of the ferry tickets are rather fixed if I'm not wrong. All the 6 of us paid SGD282 for 6 tickets (SGD47/pax).

Finally we get to board the ferry! And pictures during the ferry ride (: It has been a while since i've brought Sona out for a walk! (: And btw, Sona is my Sony Camera! hahahah! =D

We decided to head out to take more peekchures during the ferry ride! It was super windy, but the scenery was really awesome.

And soon after (45mins later), we reached our destination. Oh yes, before I forgot abt it, Montigo Resort was located at Nongsapura, but because they do not have good timings for us to go and return, so we choose to take from Harbourfront Ferry Terminal to Batam Centre instead.

We searched for our drivers and after we have seen him, because the time was 940am (Singapore timing), we decided to head for breakfast. So we got the driver aka the tour guide, to bring us to places for breakfast. And we settled for this coffeeshop for breakfast. According to the driver, the bak kut tehs here are quite good too! (: But I didnt had that, because I was craving for Meehoon Soto! hahahha!

Sorry, i'm not too sure of the name of this coffee shop, but i shall take note next time =X

Very nice teh peng they had too! (:

After breakfast, because we had sometime to spare, we headed to visit some of the chinese temples before we head elsewhere. Pretty statues they had.

Lanterns - I love lanterns btw. And they had 3D drawings up just outside the temples.

And visiting of more temples. =D

This temple that we visited was called Maha Vihara Duta Maitreya (if i didnt spell wrongly). But this temple left me with a huge impression. Not only its magnificent  but it also had a pretty places and big halls/auditoriums for prayers to be held.

Doesnt this tree look like the one bird flow chart? hahah! Thats the reason why I took this picture.

Doesnt the gas tank look cute?

After the temples, we headed off for sight seeing, and the driver took us to this bridge.

And yes, this bridge looks like how the london bridge look like, and its really awesome! Because there are people selling snacks and icecreams and drinks to those who went there for sight seeing. And being me, the glutton one, I couldnt resist and bought a Magnam! Slurp!

Taking picture with a magnam on my hand! haaa Reflections love!

Oh did i mention, the weather was horribleee? It was so warm and hot that day! Given the fact that it rained in the morning? Well, we headed for some coconut drink to keep ourselves cool! Ive never been to road side stores like this when i'm in Batam, and this is the first time. good experience indeed (:

After drinking coconut drink, we headed off to BCS Shopping mall to do some shopping. Because we will be heading for massage later at 5pm, so we headed for little shopping before massage and dinner.

And again, we started looking for food! hhahah! For lunch btw, we settled for this Ayam Penyet store that all of us thinks it was okay. So since Ayam penyet was their famous dish in Batam, we decided to give it a try.

Well, the only think was that the chicken was slightly smaller as compare to the ones we had in Singapore. And the chilli/balachan was spicy! I'm definitely not someone who can take spicy, but anyway, I didnt take alot of that hahah! (: And ginger tea to make me feel better. After trying the ginger tea at Holiday Inn resort few years back, I'm starting to love ginger tea, but somehow this ginger tea in this store, didnt live up to my expectation. So yeahh..

After which we headed off for massage so no pictures on that. But anyway, we paid 250,000rupiah (SGD33) for the massage and it wasnt really that good. The staffs are not really trained properly and we had to change rooms right after we changed and they started for a while. But anyway, I dont think I will head back to that spa place again )):

Massage done! And comes dinner! =D

Settled for seafood at Siau May Live Seafood. This food court looks similiar to those like Newton Circle in Singapore. But of course, the price you pay here is cheaper thn in Singapore.

They had beer ladies to serve you drinks and also a stage for people to go up to sing! (:

So this is what we have ordered, chinese call this dua tao (Big head = mussels), and we had their signature toufu! (: Quite tasty, but the portion was a little too small for a group of 7 (Including the driver btw).

Ordered Garlic stir fried veges and salted egg prawn! Even thou sometimes i might be allergic to prawns but this prawns are really heavenly! (: Totally in love with them that I had almost 4 of them! =D

According to the lady boss, this fried chicken with garlic was good, but to us was really mehh. It does have the garlic smell when u smell, but it doesnt comes with the taste. And we had fried sotongs, this was good too! The sotongs was deep friend and it was crunchy and easy to cheww!

Lastly was the fish! Never once I was a fish lover, so this was okay for me.

The bill come up to abt 560,000 Rupiah (SGD73) for 7 of us, which I think it was quite reasonable. Even thou we didnt order a lot of seafood this time round, but the meal was good! (:

After dinner, we set back into the mini bus, and headed off to our resort! =D

This was the living room that comes with a mini kitchen at the back which allows you to cook and even heat up your food!

Headed up the the second storey and this is what we saw, 2 bed rooms! The one straight in was the twin room, and the one on the right hand side was the masterbed room.

Pretty Masterbed room that comes with a sofabed and tv!

Check out the humongous toilet!

The twin bed!

Every toilet comes with sanitary kit like this! (:

The third floor comes with a sky terrace! Which is able to let people to sit down and enjoy the scenery! 

This is what we see from our sky terrance!! Isnt this place awesome!? And we asked ourselves why are we only here in the night. -.-" 

We could even see the infinity pool which was located on the first floor!

The next morning, my mission was to take the pictures of this resort we are staying again! hahah! Night view good, morning view shld also be not bad right? LOL!

So below was the toilet in the master bed room! The bathtub that could fit 2 people! And a standing show just right beside the bathtub!

The view from the sky terrace! Awesome right? But too bad because it was raining the whole day, which kinds of dampen our mood. Otherwise this would have been a great place to be in to spend our whole morning!

Check out the splendid view!

Brochures Ive gotten from the recept the night when we checked in. 

The view of the pool again! (:

Oh did i mention this resort comes with Wii for us to play too? =D

We took a ride to the breakfast area for brekkie!

The dining area for our breakfast. (:

The view from the our dining area! How many days can we have our meals just right beside the sea? =D

And swimming pool! 

Oh every table comes with jams like this! 

A group shot before we left this resort! Dont worry! I will be back! hahahah!

 

After a 45mins drive from our resort back to town, we headed for food again!

Settle for this store, and tried their lontong, and it tasted a little different from the ones we had in Singapore, but it was good! (:

Im quite amazed that they actually had this tissue and toothpicks bottle/box in almost all the restaurants. 

Overall experience was really awesome, we had the best of the best! But a little regret was that we shld have spend more time in the resort! So for those we are intending to go, please please, buy food from the Hypermarts in the shopping malls and headed down to the resort directly! 

Also, the resort they offer spa packages, and when we were there we were entitled to 30% off but im not too sure was this offer only applicable for their opening special or what? But anyway, I will definitely head back again for a second experience! =D Enjoy their scenery, their spa and their food! Especially to soak ourselves in the infinity pvt pool we had in the day and not in the night! LOL! 

Where was this place?

Montigo Resort Batam

Address: Jl. Hang Lekir Nongsa – Batam, Indonesia

http://www.montigoresorts.com/

Spending per pax: SGD219 (Excluding food & Shopping)

For those who are interested, you may email me to get the contacts for the personal driver that we have hired. This was the second time we actually engaged him to drive us around. (: 

Email me at jessilyn79@hotmail.com