Weekend Social Ostracism?

Czar and hubby loves wine and whenever we have a gathering at their place or elsewhere, we usually get treated to some lovely cask wine, an Australian invention - courtesy of Czar's hubby and his airborne career ;o) .

Well, reading THIS article gave me more insight to the introduction of such a product - due to economic conditions but the last line of the article about enjoying such products made me smile...

For those who are not worried about social ostracism, jump in.

Yalumba's Spatlese Fruity White - Vintage 2007 was lovely, light and fruity! We enjoyed the whole 2 litre of it! If the bunch of us were to be ostracised for that, so be it! Hahaha....

Have A Great Weekend Everyone!


Always strive to excel, but only on weekends.
~ Richard Rorty

Sepang Gold Coast

A friend of mine is interested in taking up one of the villas in Sepang Gold Coast and a bunch of us went on a 50 minute journey to take a first hand look at some of the show units there. Sepang Gold Coast is a stretch of 22km of sandy beach, under development to be an international tourism destination and its Golden Palm Tree Villas are currently 90% sold (completion by end 2009) whilst the Sea Tropics Village (low-rise villas, with built up ranging from studio 500 sq. ft till penthouse 2,050 sq. ft which includes a private swimming pool and an open lanai) will be launched in April 2009. A massive club and retail shops are also in the pipeline.

It has been selling well locally and also overseas as the management has included free handling & processing fees for Malaysia My Second Home programme (MM2H) for foreigners who are interested to take up the villas in Sepang Gold Coast. It is sold with an option to lease back to the developers where owners get a guaranteed return of 8% per annum for the first two years and a projected return of 7%-12% for subsequent years. This villa resort will be managed by Swiss-Belhotel International and owners who lease out their units are given 14 days of free stay at the resort per year.

A personal friend of ours (from the senior management team) arranged for a guided tour of the area. So, off we went on a buggy ride, right into the show units which were located about 1km away from the reception/club area.

These are the Travelers Palm Villa, studio unit 520 sq. ft

Ivory Palm Villa - 1,192 sq ft (with three rooms)

Another room in the Ivory Palm Villa - note the Balinese style Alang-alang thatched roof!

One of the rooms from Canary Palm Villa (816 sq. ft - two rooms)

The other room in Canary Palm Villa with a deck that looks out to the sea.

All the villas span out into the sea in a palm tree shape (an icon for Sepang Gold Coast), hence named Golden Palm Tree Water Villas.

Great view from the beach, looking out to the villas on the horizon.

Well, after viewing the show units, it was time for dinner. There are two restaurants there at the moment, SGC Steamboat Restaurant and SGC Sunset Beach Restaurant. SGC Steamboat Restaurant not only serves steamboat but also local favourites like Satay and Ikan Bakar (grilled fish).

SGC Sunset Beach Restaurant leans toward Italian cuisine and has an additional pull factor - a deck on the beach where one can wine and dine. There are tables for families and also for two (a romantic time guaranteed unless it rains, ruining dinner plans, haha...)

I walked around the deck and took this shot - I like this shot of the sky's reflection off the glass top table :o)

For us, our long table was nicely set and we started off with a glass of dragon fruit juice each (Great stuff! Highly recommended)

By the time dinner started, it was already quite dark and I abandoned the idea of taking food pics (much to the "delight" of my non food blogger friends - err...actually not even bloggers for the matter!). We loved the Calamari Fritos (RM13/USD3.50)) - deep fried squid, the Al Olio Spaghetti (RM22/USD6) with sauteed mushroom in olive oil. The Lemon Sole Fish (RM48/USD13), pan fried and served with sofrito rice, asparagus and green basil sauce, was also a winner.

Well, for those readers of mine (locally or overseas) who are genuinely interested to find out more about this place and keen on the villas - write me at emailwmw(at)gmail(dot)come and I can arrange for a personal tour or my friend to tend to your queries personally.

It was a great outing for us, with a lasting memory of that sunset and those villas on the horizon. If I could, I would want to come home to this everyday, won't you? ;o)

Click HERE for Sepang Gold Coast website.

Wanna feel the warm breeze
Sleep under a palm tree
Feel the rush of the ocean
Get onboard a fast train
Travel on a jet plane, far away (I will)
And breakaway
- part lyrics from Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson

Yay! Weekend's Here!

The weekend is here again, Yay!!! And what a better way for me to "celebrate" than to give my desktop a new look. Went about it after reading Spare Change's makeover for his desktop. So, I decided to clear all my Windows Vista icons, install RocketDock and have 3 photos of my lovely gorgeous Daniel Henney staring at me! My Windows' desktop looks so clean and absolutely breathtaking now! Hahaha....

Have a great weekend everyone! I know I will ;o)

Florence's Nyonya Delights - Section 17, Petaling Jaya

A while back, I made a valiant attempt to wake up early when Ash told me about her relative's stall in Section 17 that sells Nyonya goodies. Since it's only open early in the morning (and I was told that usually all the goodies are sold out within the first couple of hours or so), I found myself standing in front of the busy stall one early Saturday morning at around 7 plus am (unbelievably so that I managed to wake up!).

I was amazed at the variety this little stall had. Florence, the owner, and her family runs this stall selling all sorts of Nyonya delights (with recipes passed down from one generation to the next!).

The Savoury Pumpkin Angku (glutinous rice flour cake with different type of fillings, in this case - Pumpkin) caught my eye but in my haste to snaps photos (as I was holding back customers!), I forgot about it till much later and it was gone...sold out! Sob!


Assorted Puffs - There's Chicken & Egg Curry, Chicken, Durian and also Baked Siew Pau too.

All the items are homemade - Chiffon Cakes, Assorted Puffs, Yam Cake, Nyonya Kuih and many others, using only natural colouring, natural flavours with no preservatives.

But one of the main reasons why I was really there? I was told that Florence dishes out good Mee Siam (one of my favourite noodles!) and I just had to try it. At RM3.30/USD1 a box, it was tasty indeed and much better than the ones sold in malls like Ikano.

The sambal was good and aromatic with enough spices and onions. It added plus points to this "economy" style Mee Siam.

Most importantly, the rice noodles weren't the brittle type (using the right type of rice noodles for Mee Siam is essential!).

I tried the chicken & egg curry puff too which was delicious. I enjoyed this early morning breakfast stop in Section 17 and there are still many more items which I have yet to try. Now, there's one more good reason for me to get up early in the morning ;o).

Florence
Jalan 17/29
(in front of Teo Huat/Wah Cheong Coffeeshop, same row as Caring Pharmacy)
Petaling Jaya

Opens on weekends, early morning from 7 plus onwards ...
H/P : 012-296 6131

You have to have a dream so you can get up in the morning
- Billy Wilder

The Cooking House - New Zealand Natural Ice Cream Dessert Workshop, Part 2

After Part 1 of Chef Lee's lessons on biscuits and cake, he moved on to my favourite part - Desserts! It would seemed that ice-cream cakes are relatively easy to make! Best thing is that we can make one with our own favourite flavour and whatever brand we like. For this lesson, Chef Lee used New Zealand Natural's Ice Cream. Made me felt like whipping one up the moment I left that place...however, the key word here is "felt", hahaha...so, I guess I will just be "feeling" for a while longer!

You'll need a ring for this one....Walnut Butterscotch Surprise / Mango Heaven.
Flavours used Walnut Butterscotch / Mango Sorbet and Mango Passion.

Recipe for Mango Heaven

Create first layer with Japonaise biscuit disc
Then 70g New Zealand Natural's Mango Passion
Then another Japonaise biscuit disc
and lastly 25g of New Zealand Natural's Mango Sorbet

I love Mango Heaven the most amongst the rest as it wasn't as sweet as the others (offset by the sourness of the Sorbet.

Recipe for Walnut Butterscotch Surprise :

Japonaise disc first
Then 30g New Zealand's Walnut Butterscotch
Stick a quarter of a chocolate coated soft Amaretti biscuit in the centre (or broken pieces scattered inside
and lastly filled it up with 50g-60g New Zealand's Walnut Butterscotch

Recipe for Black Forest :

Chocolate Chiffon Cake for base
Then New Zealand Natural's Boysenberry (1kg).
Then Chocolate Chiffon
Then top up remainder with Boysenberry (1kg)

Spread top (and sides if preferred) of cake with whipped topping.
Top with chocolate curls or chocolate "cigarettes" and dark pitted cherries (canned)

A slice of black forest cake

Recipe for Ice Cream Tiramisu

6 tsp instant coffee
3 tbs Hot water
3 tbs Cold water
18 Saviordi Sponge fingers.
1 pc Chocolate Chiffon Cake about 1/4 inch high
200 g New Zealand Natural's Cafe Expresso
500 g New Zealand Natural's Hokey Pokey

1. Dissolve instant coffee in hot water, add in the cold water.
2. Trim the sponge fingers to about 3 1/4 inches length.
3. Line the sides of a 6" x 6'' tin (with a removable base) with the longer pieces of sponge fingers, cut side down. Place the chocolate chiffon, trimmed to the right size, at the bottom surrounded by the sponge fingers.
4. Press a layer of softened Cafe Espresso on top of the chiffon.
5. Dip the smaller pieces of the cut sponge fingers in the coffee mixture (dip once for each of the two wider surfaces), place onto the Cafe Expresso layer. At this stage, if the Cafe Espresso is very soft, the tin may be placed in the freezer for the ice cream to firm up.
6. Top with the softened Hokey Pokey and level the surface.
7. To serve, unmould the Ice Cream Tiramisu and sprinkle some grated chocolate on top.

Tiramisu - I found this a tad sweet for me but those with sweet tooth would love this one.

Overall, I enjoyed the session at The Cooking House and eating all that good ice-cream in good company ;o). Err...a bit too much ice cream actually, hahaha... Give me some time to forget, I'll be heading towards the ice-cream aisle in the supermarket soon ;o).

Age does not diminish the extreme disappointment
of having a scoop of ice cream fall from the cone.
~ Jim Fiebig

Weekend Video - Her Morning Elegance by Oren Lavie

I found out about this music video when Sandra posted this on her Facebook. I found the video so fascinating and love the way the video was shot with all that stop motion. And the song is pretty cool too. It was uploaded on YouTube on Jan 19 and has already been viewed over 2 million times! If you haven't seen it, go ahead, click the Play button...

Have A Great Weekend Everyone!




Her Morning Elegance - Oren Lavie

The Cooking House - New Zealand Natural Ice Cream Dessert Workshop, Part 1

A group of us had responded to an invitation extended to us by Babe_KL - to attend a baking class sponsored by New Zealand Natural Ice Cream. It was an invitation that I could not decline - Baking & Ice Cream plus with other floggers??? Sign me up quick! I look forward to the fun us floggers will have like we always do whenever we gather. Teckiee gave me a ride that Saturday and we were the first few to arrive after meeting up with Simon to lead him to The Cooking House in Desa Sri Hartamas.

Not only do we take notes, but we take photos too! Not being in a strategic place for photo taking, I could only take photos from the side. For more pics, do remember to check out the rest of the floggers.

Though we were there primarily for New Zealand Natural Ice Cream Dessert Workshop, The Cooking House got Chef Lee to take us through two simple recipes : - Chocolate Chiffon Cake and Butterscotch Cookies. After that, we were told to group ourselves and head on to our workstation and try our baking skills. Along with Precious Pea & Babe_KL, we had FBB in our group and we went about our tasks confidently. Errr....but later realised that we had put salt instead of sugar in our Chocolate Chiffon Cake! Horrors!!!!!!! But I must say that our Butterscotch cookies turned out yummy!

The Making Of Butterscotch Cookies by Chef Lee

The Making of Butterscotch Cookies by Floggers - here are Teckiee's hands in action! According to her, she said the cookies turned out yummy cos of the additional sweat from her hands...hahaha!

The Making Of Chocolate Chiffon Cake

We finished our two tasks in a jiffy (I know, we made a boo boo) and well ahead of all the other groups and were actually contemplating to whip up another Chocolate Chiffon Cake but didn't.

Here's the Chocolate Chiffon Cake recipe given by The Cooking House. Maybe some of you might want to try it out.

15 g Cocoa powder
1/4 tsp Instant coffee
50 ml Hot Water
35 ml Vegetable oil
1/2 tsp Vanilla essence
70 g Plain flour
1/4 tsp Baking soda
1/8 tsp Salt
2 Eggs, separated
1/8 tsp Cream of tartar
70 g Sugar

Method

1. In a bowl, combine cocoa, instant coffee and hot water until smooth, add in the oil and vanilla.
2. In another bowl, combine flour, baking soda, salt and two thirds of the sugar.
3. In a mixing bowl, whisk egg whites and ceam of tartar until frothy, add the remaining sugar and continue to whisk until stiff peaks form.
4. Whisk the egg yolks until light and pale, combine into a paste with the cocoa mixture and the flour mixture.
5. Fold in the egg whites.
6. Pour into a ungreased, lined 6" x 6" tin or a 9" round tin.
7. Bake at 180 degrees C for 20-25 minutes or until cake is done. Invert pan to cool cake.
   

After that session, it was back to class; with Chef Lee showing us how to make desserts with New Zealand Natural Ice Cream.

To Be Continued...