Thursday, June 30, 2016

Brown & white - the layers cake

This vanilla and chocolate layer crepe is so luscious, you would ask for more slices!


Made this simple cut of mille crepe over the weekend. Simple cut here means I did not make a thousand layers. Mille means "thousand" in French so this is my simplified layers cake. I couldn't possibly call this a mille crepe.

Of course, I got my little helper to help me with the batter and layering. After all the hard work, we all deserved a nice slice of the brown & white layers of crepe.

Ingredients:
6 large eggs
3 cups full cream milk
1 cup water
2/3 cup melted butter
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
4 tbsp. castor sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 cup dark chocolate powder
Pinch of salt
200 ml whipped topping

Methods:
1. All ingredients to be at room temperature.
2. Whisk together eggs, milk and water.  Add in butter, vanilla, pinch of salt and sugar. Sift in flour.
3. Whisk until no clumps remain. Strain the batter into 2 bowls.
4. Sift cocoa powder into one bowl and whisk together.

 

5. Pre-heat an 8"pan over medium heat. Pour in some of the batter into pan; swirl until cover the whole pan.
6. Flip after a minute and continue to cook for another 30 seconds. Stack crepes and cool at room temperature.

7. Layer the crepes, spreading a thin layer of whipped cream between each layer. Chill to serve.


After it chills, the crepes looked prettier and better in taste.  *wink*



Remarks:
1. Above amount makes 10 crepes. 
2. Double quantity of eggs, sugar (except milk, which just add another cup) to make more layers.
3. Chill the cake as it tastes better.
4. Whipped cream can be substituted with chocolate syrup, or any preferred whipping topping.

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Miscellaneous Picture #56: Random photos

Few photos found in my phone memory so I better share them here before deleted them for good.

Beautiful clouds

Can you see the little dragonfly on my pineapple plant?

Striking yellow bike!

A game of chess during recess time in my kids' school

Beautiful blue sky. Can spot the red dot in the sky? AA airplane

Abell Hotel at night

One of our favourite supermarkets

Sea shells from this month's outing to the beach

This mushroom reminded me of the famous Mario video game where the mushroom made Mario grew bigger.



Monday, June 27, 2016

Spending Sunday morning

We had a very early Sunday yesterday. A special ocassion called for an early day.


My girl has officially joined The Girl's Brigade band yesterday. We witnessed her acceptance in our church service. Few school mates joined and swore in as new members.
 

Jan joined the brigade as one part of her school's extra-curriculums this year.

The service started at 8am but I dropped her off at the church compound at 645am as breakfast provided. Then I went home to wake up the boys and daddy so we could be in time for the service.

After the service, my girl stayed back for her 1030am Sunday class as she had a Bible exam. Meantime, we went for brunch and book shopping over here to kill our time.


Forgot when were the last time we were here. Love browsing around for books. While the boys reading books at one corner, I went around looking for some books.


Did not find anything interesting. We spent an hour in the bookstore and walked out RM150 poorer. Lol.


3 things that hubby never mind splurging; 1. Food, 2. Clothing and 3. Books.

He always encourage the kids to read more and he does not mind spending on books.


We bought these books for the kids. Current crazes! Angry birds and Finding Dory.


Before we left, I managed to take a snap of the Hari Raya Aidilfitri decoration. Simple but nice.  Couldn't believe that Hari Raya is next week.  Time really flies and half of 2016 is almost over.



Saturday, June 25, 2016

Local fruits

Today, for the very first time, I've tasted nasi goreng dabai (black olive fried rice).  I got my fried rice from this Foochow fried stall in Ice Buddy Cafe.

 
Taste-wise, it was sweet and well-fried; enough wok hei.  The dabai made the fried rice slightly purplish and sweet but I liked the taste.  RM5.00 to satisfy my curiosity.  *wink*
 
 
In case you are wondering how "dabai"(local black olive) looks like, this is how it looks like.  I finished up my equal share of frozen dabai in my freezer when my freezer failed to work few weeks ago. All defrosted and ready to eat when my freezer was malfunction. 

 
Last night, my dad and mum fetched us for a late supper and shopping in Emart Hypermarket Batu Kawa.  As usual, they have the daily night market in the hypermarket car park so we had a look around on what the vendors were selling.  So many local produces on sale!
 
Like the local mango (above) which taste sour and great to go with belacan; and below jungle produce. Don't ask me what are they called because I am truly naïve about them.  Maybe someone would be able to shed some light to their names.
 
 
 
We also spotted bamboo shoots, midin and sweet potatoes too but I did not took any photos as busy keeping an eye on my 3 kids.  So many people walking around too so it was hard to take good photos. I did not buy anything from the night market but my parents bought home some bamboo shoots, mango and sweet potatoes.
 
I love walking at the night market.  Used to do that a lot when I were young where we went to Satok market. Prefer to walk at night as it would not be too warm; seeing those vendors and people busy negotiating prices. My favourite spot in the Satok market??  The wild animal area!! If lucky, one can see bats, wild boars and other exotic animals. Alas, those were the days.



Friday, June 24, 2016

Once upon a cafe

My mum suggested to have breakfast in this café few days ago.  Of course I obliged to her request.  For one, I have never stepped a foot into this café before and secondly, I heard and read so much reviews on the food; both good and bad. 

Mum has been there few times and she likes the food and the environment there.  And what we love the most is that it opens as early as 8am daily (opens 365 days, as it claimed), so what a better and nicer cooling café to sit and enjoy our breakfast?  Away from the warm morning sun.

Serve no pork and lard!

We were the only customers that day.  It was around 8.30am, so expected no crowds then. We basically had the whole place to ourselves. After placing our order, I had a quick walk and look at the café's wall.

Spotted my mum and Jamie??

Like their table stickers

This café is a something.  It is simple; nothing extravagant in set-up but its wall is what distinguish it from other cafes.  One would be busy looking through all those wall pictures; old pictures of actors and actresses, comic strips, old movies and singers and so forth. I guess that is why the name of the café.  Once upon a café. A café where you could sit back and enjoy the time, with its 90s ambiance.





I had its tomato noodle special (RM9.90) that morning. A very big plate of crispyly fried noodle in the sweet and sour tomato gravy. They brought the fried chicken later instead of putting them on top of the dish.

I were glad that they served the fried chicken separately as I could not finish them and had to order take-away.

Mum had its fried mee hoon (RM6.50) which was very delicious-looking too. 

We were both stuffed from the noodle dishes that morning as the portion was big for us. I would love to come back to taste its nasi lemak.  Mum said the nasi lemak with curry was good. Looking at the flyer, the photo of the nasi lemak curry chicken is tempting. Another day, another time.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Bazaar of food

Together with a friend, we dropped by this Ramadhan bazaar in Emart Hypermarket, Batu Kawa like how we did last year.

However this year, the bazaar is smaller than last year.  Nevertheless, they have varieties of food to choose from, unlike where many stalls sold the same food last year.

Let see what I bought for dinner that afternoon.

RM2.00 fried kway tiaw for Jay

RM2.00 fried mee hoon for Jan

Snack of vegetable spring rolls and sausage rolls (RM1.00 for 3)

RM2.00 roti telur

RM1.00 deep-fried squid

This Kelantan famous rice dish, nasi kerabu for me (RM5.00)


And I think this was something unique that I have never seen before in a Ramadhan bazaar.  Deep-fried crabs!!!  If I am not mistaken, it is flower crab.  RM10.00 for 2 big-sized crabs.  My friend and I took one each so we could taste the deep-fried crustacean.


Turned out, it was good.  Nice and sweet flesh.

 

Monday, June 20, 2016

Spoon of each

On one Sunday afternoon after our church service, we came here for lunch.

Spoon Cafe & Restaurant located opposite The Spring Mall in Jalan Simpang Tiga serves wide spread of seafood, local and Western dishes to cater to your taste and preferences.

Spoon Cafe opens everyday from 830am to 1030pm. 


It was my first dining in this cafe and waiters and waitresses were friendly and eager to serve you. Hubby has been there few times; he commended the food was nice and reasonably priced.


I spotted the ulam midin on the menu so I quickly placed order for this local vegetable.


It was good. Hubby and I enjoyed it very much. A bit of spiciness, then there was the sweet and vinegar in the ulam. Midin was crunchy and appetizing; a lovely starter.


Jay went for its Cantonese fried mee hoon. He couldn't wait to dig into his plate. 


The brother may be more Chinese where as the sister is a big Western lover. Fish N Chip. Jan never go bored eating this.


I spotted claypot chicken under the chef recommends page and my first thought was "Wow! Clapot chicken rice. Long time did not have it". And yes, somehow at that moment, I thought it was claypot chicken rice. 

But only when it came like this in a claypot, did I realised my blunder. Oopps!


However, it was nice. Warm, tasty and the chicken meat was well-seasoned. Not bad for my blunder; I did enjoyed it.

Not only that, hubby and I also helped ourselves to some of Jan's and Jay's plates. They could not simply finish theirs. So both of us have few spoonful of their dishes. Now you know why daddy and mummy grow fatter and fatter each day. Trying to finish up the kids' food so it would not go to waste! *wink*