D e l i s i o u c i t y

I had quite forgotten that I have this food blog until I received two emails a  week ago.  One of them was the occasional bake request which I, almost by default nowadays, had to decline. The second email was a wonderful letter from a fellow baker, whose words reminded me of how much passion I have for baking and pastries. It was like a cold splash of water that woke me up to the fact that it has been at least three months since I baked anything worth blogging about – or anything sweet for that matter. Unless of course you don’t mind reading yet another recipe for lazy day, uninteresting but effortless, chicken roast. That, my friends, I have plenty of.

I’ve also come to  realize that my visitor counter has been clocking in even when I’ve been extremely quiet the past months, and I really hate to have disappointed everyone with the lack of updates. It came as no surprise that I felt the pressing need to start writing again – which literally means baking again. So here it is, my much too delayed post that I promise will be a delight to your eyes as it was to our noses and taste-buds; sweet shortcrust pastry with vanilla creme patissier (pastry cream) and fruits of the season, and of course, my part-time love, french macarons (or macaroons, as some may insist) – in the most scintillating floral scent of crushed sugared violets; Belgian dark chocolate, and marron (chestnut) paste, straight from France.

Sugared Violets

Actually, the emails I mentioned came in perfect timing. I thought, apart from updating my blog, it was a good opportunity to introduce some of the products of my baking obsession during my turn to co-host a weekly Coffee & Cake Wednesday event at the Institute where I now study. It’s simply fabulous to have these social and informal gatherings, where we would take turn to bring cakes, biscuits and other baked goodies (or non baked, in the case of chilled cheesecakes, fresh fruits and cheeses!)

I was very excited at the prospect of baking for this event, but knew that I had to plan.. because I simply did not have all my paraphernalia from home save my trusty spoonula, medium balloon whisk, small rolling pin and measuring spoons (all safely flown in by hitch-hiking my luggage bag). I purposely chose to co-host the event at the very last bit of the Michaelmas term, so I could amass my baking arsenal that is so absolutely crucial  for my bake projects, especially for the purpose of the perpetually temperamental macaron. Even so, the macarons still gave me trouble.. because now I was deprived of  the oven at home that I painstakingly learned to master over the past year. Ah well, at least about 100 macaron shells were the right texture, while the rest  were chucked into the bin, accompanied with swear words I’d rather not mention here! (but is featured here).

For the macarons, I’ve always been captivated by the sheer ‘prettiness’ of the violet scent and the nuances of floral sweetness it displays, ever since I tasted Canele’s version of the violet buttercream. Duncan of syrupandtang.com also wrote a post on using violet syrup and liquer but it can be quite tricky to capture the robustness of its flavour. Of course, I was more intrigued when Helene of mytartlette.com (yes, one of my many pastry idols!) used crushed sugared violets to merely top the shells. So when I saw some crushed violets on display at a cake shop in the Oxford Covered Market, I was simply elated…

…but only to discover that the shells didn’t work!! For some reason I thought coarser violet particles would lend more than mere subtlety in flavours to the macarons, which isn’t too much of a long shot.. but the violets sunk into the smooth batter (especially baked at low temperatures of 150C), even after the batter puffed up! So in the bin they went. Basically, learning the lingo of a completely different oven involves A LOT of experimentation. With the low temperatures that I started with, it meant that I had to increase the amount of time to bake the shells. This substantially and in effect ruined the shells because they would by then produce ‘tough cookies’ that crunch upon each bite. NO way, hozay! Macarons are supposed to be very delicate with a super-light crack and not crunchy by any means. I can only be thankful for the cheaper prices of almond meal in UK, compared to Brunei.

Apart from the largely failed (save 10 pieces?) violet macarons, I also made the usual chocolate ones with the dust of cocoa… only this time I used Belgian dark chocolate instead for the filling. French Valrhona can get very expensive and after spending a hefty sum on my new baking paraphernalia, I thought I’d just stick to Belgian from Tesco’s (ooooooh the shame!!) which firmed up too well thanks to the cold weather and/or possibly some steam escaping into the chocolate whilst I tampered it into a ganache. Still, nobody complained; instead the wonderful people from the Institute were only too kind to say the nicest things to me ^_^

For the third macaron flavour, I used chestnut paste that I found at this awesome delicatessen also at the Covered Market; a purveyor of fine foods and ingredients that is forever going to be bookmarked in my list of places to go.  Every winter that I was in London, I always always had roasted chestnuts by Oxford Street from the stocky man with the charcoal-dusted fingers, who sells them at a pound per (tiny) bag. So chestnuts have become a traditionally winter flavour in my book, and yes, I did make sure that  I bought some of the roasted ones from the very same man last week! For the macaron filling, you may find that it can be a bit watery so I thickened it with white chocolate (ganache) and a few grams of almond to lend some texture. If you’re in the mood to make your own paste, you can find some good pointers from my favourite Singaporean blogger, Karen.

Finally, the fruit tartelettes were really done on a whim so I must admit that I did not use my usual pastry recipe  (although I did find there was no trouble in having cold fingers to work the dough, thanks to the weather). I have no shame to admit that I used ready-to-roll sweet shortcrust pastry from Jus-Roll (they’re good); and here’s a recipe for creme patissier (pastry cream) that you may like to try for your mini tarts.  Simply top with any fruit you like, excluding durian, I should think:

Remember to not overwork your pastry; make sure your fingers are cold; and that the pastry cases are baked blind with parchment and pastry weight/beans/rice to hold them down.

Till we meet again in another post, I shall now leave you with my co-host’s offerings, which were an absolute delight to the palate especially because the cheese was authentic and brought in straight from Parma, Italy, and the semifreddo was… what can I say? Simply bellissimo!

See you in the next gastroventure, and do tell me what you’ve been up to!

The event covered in this post happened yonks ago and I’ve finally finished editing the draft after so much procrastination ^_^ Happy reading, and glad to have met you that day!

Oh the sparkle in his eyes! What a stick of Cuppiepop can do to a boy.

It was the 6th anniversary celebration of ranoadidas.com on Friday 12th June, and I was very excited to have been invited by Rano himself to participate in one of the booths there. Actually that’s quite understated. I was over the moon, and simply couldn’t contain myself, as witnessed by my much understanding and extremely supportive husby ^_^ So on we went! We planned and we planned for the official debut of Delisioucity’s fine desserts and patisseries, and yet we still found there was SO much to learn out of the whole experience. Customer preferences, logistics, product testing… oh just to name a few. We did get a few things right though, exemplified by the 100+% turnover that I got out of sales. At the end of the day, it’s great to have been given such an opportunity, which is why I want to thank you, Rano! It helps a lot too that www.ranoadidas.com is the 3rd most visited site in Brunei, and not surprisingly, its author  is one the most popular figures in local innovative entrepreneurship in the country.

But most importantly, if you came to the soiree and ate from my booth, thank you too! Even if you just dropped by to say hello; I really enjoyed talking to all of you ^_^ I hope you liked the food… because some of you actually looked like you did (hehe). So here Im showing some pictures that husby took of everyone who seemed delighted with Delisioucity! Bless

Simply delighted with the Banana Crumble Tartelettes

Personally,  the event gave me an advantageous platform to gauge the market; albeit a small one. It was really my first time, proper, in running my own business unaided by the Internet. In making a presence in the blossoming local food industry, I feel slightly triumphant that day, because always in my mind since I opened up this blog, there is this desire to own a share of that lucrative food-industry pie. Besides, I’m known to easily tire of monotonous routines from work etc., and I think the food-blogging/business thing is taking my attention away quite successfully It’s sort of my take on balancing my life with reasonable doses of diversions and occasional difference… with the hope that I later get tired of it, and spring back to normality with much needed energy and inspiration.

Her daughter’s face tells it all!

You can’t fake a candid & genuine reaction to deliciousness!

Speaking of inspiration, I believe I got plenty from that event. I think chefs and cooks have the most satisfying jobs  in the world – because judging from the looks on peoples’ faces, I feel thankful and positively overwhelmed with their acceptance of the kinds of treats that I make.  Of course, my regular job can be very rewarding too ^_^ (note to my colleagues who are reading this :p ) But I suppose this is somewhat different; when you bake something and it’s made out of passion and love (and a whole heap of OCB), then  it’s completely fullfilling to see the looks of joy and contentment when the food is eaten. It’s kind of touch and go, I realise that too. All is well nonetheless. Why? Because number one, I’ve been getting a steady stream of an average 100 unique visitors per day to this website since the event, and number two, a barrage of orders right into my inbox. Unfortunately, I just do not have the capacity to make so much (believe me, the past days I’ve been wishing I had octopus tentacles). So as much as I am uber greatful for the attention, I am also very humbled and wish to convey that the reason why I put up recipes in this blog is so that everyone can try a hand at baking themselves It’s very therapeutic, mind you!

Keeran & dad running an analysis of my goods ;p They ended up being our biggest buyers!

Finally, here’s a log of some of the items available that day. If you did eat from our booth, get ready for a jog down memory lane!

Banana Crumble Tartelettes

Macarons

Cuppiepops, with Cookies & Cream cake inside

Till next time! xoxo

No, it’s not what you think. Or maybe it is. Depends really on what you were thinking. Either way, this post is not about the birds and the bees. In any case though, moms, can you please divert your child’s attention to the cartoon playing on Astro now? ^_^ Sometimes the tiniest teasers can invite unwanted questions from your children I digress much, as you can see.

Anyhow, I had an exciting project that was requested for a baby shower some weeks ago. I’ve actually always wanted to do this theme, especially after eyeing those gorgeous cutters online and the finished products in books by Peggy Porschen. Baby showers aren’t so common in Brunei, seeing that it’s not part of our traditional culture.. but I suppose a lot of transition is happening on many levels centred around the topic of fertility, ey? Not to bore you with that , here is the collection for a baby-themed cookie favour consisting of a baby onesie (jumpsuit), rattle, bottle, and block:

The tradition here however, takes in the form of a Papat Jambul ceremony (especially for the Muslims/Malays)  when the baby is a few months old, and I think there’s a specific ceremony for Chinese babies too (the name escapes me… anyone can help?). Anyhow, I reckon those would not be at all inappropriate for favours such as these

*Hopping off to my next project*

Dessert First! Blueberry-Lemon Tartelette

Somewhere in the cesspits of my exhausted cerebrum there lies a reminder that did not sound its alarm when it was supposed to. I had forgotten to “celebrate” Delisioucity’s first year anniversary! I knew the first time I published on blogspot was a year ago in May, but somehow I assumed it was somewhere mid-month… when it’s actually early May! Nevermind that, yes. Besides, when I moved to my own dot com, I vouched to celebrate that migration instead Nonetheless, who says you need to have a reason just to whip up some dessert? (And a whole dinner party for four!) BUT, the food needs to be eaten of course,.. so I thought it would be apt to call a couple of friends for a small din-din and a celebratory post.

We don’t often have people come around the house, other than my nephews and nieces who occassioanally come by to play the Wii and finish my baking surpluses. Dinners with family and friends, I can count. I am  therefore making it a point from now on to have more dinner parties (ok, eating fest?) when I can manage it. Reason? Because hosting can be so much fun. And because it makes my day to see satisfied faces and hear the sounds of “mmmmm~ it feels yummy in my tummy!” In fact, I have a new-found source of satisfaction: the heavy, drooping eyelids of a friend, ready to roll into bed, two minutes after finishing his main course. Pure joy that was. But let me start with the dessert first (as usual)

Blueberry and Lemon Tartelettes
(adapted from Desserts, Murdoch Books Test Kitchen)

375g ready-made sweet shortcrust pastry (I made my own pate sucree – mail me if you need the recipe and method)
125g caster sugar
3 eggs
3 Tbspns buttermilk
1 Tbspn lemon juice
2 tspns grated lemon zest
2.5 Tbspns custard powder
250g blueberries
Icing sugar for dusting

Roll out pastry, and press into tartelette moulds. Chill in the fridge for 20 minutes, then bake blind. Remember that if you are making your own pastry, do not overhandle or knead (just roll it out); and when baking blind, ensure that you put in a layer of parchment on the pastry, held down with rice or beans. Baking blind should take about 10 minutes at 200c. Remove parchment, and reduce heat to 180C and proceed to bake for another 5   minutes just to dry out the bottom of the pastry case. I somehow did not manage to do this still, so perhaps to start with 200C may be a bit too much. As a result the custard filling seeped through the casing and you can see the dried mixture at the bottom in the picture above! Remove the cases from the oven, and make the filling.

Filling: beat eggs and sugar till fluffy and pale. Addbuttermilk, juice, zest and custard powder. Fill in just enough into the pastry cases and bake at 165C for 15  minutes or until the  pastry is golden and the filling is set. Cool on a wire rack and top with blueberries. Dust the icing sugar when completely cool so you don’t get sugar melting into the tartelette, and just to ensure you get a nice snowy effect

This is a very simple recipe that requires little planning, except if you are making your own pastry crust.  The filling is made with custard powder. Since I am not a big fan of custards, the leftover tartelettes are testament to how some desserts can indeed be an acquired tase (gasp, i know). Next time, remind me to use a frangipane recipe instead..  personally this was uninteresting to my palate, but our guests enjoyed them, and that was all that mattered

Next, I’ll run you my own recipes for a chic appetizer, soup, and main course. Brace yourself for a long post and some food porn.

No, the leeks weren’t the appetizers. The pastry was. Like many things pastry, and I’ve said this before, they’re extremely easy to transform into wonderful pieces of artsy and chic food. This is provided that you make the pastry carefully (again, with cold fingers & plenty of ‘resting’) OR get them already made. The readily available puff pastries are pretty good, so don’t worry about making your own pate feuilletee, inversee or otherwise for this one. Lest you desire to stress yourself out

Mozarrella, Tomato and Capsicum with Poppy Seed Entree
(by Nikki. A @ delisioucity)

2 sheets puff pastry, cut into small squares
1 egg, beaten
120g mozarella cheese
1 tomato
1/2 yellow capsicum
Poppy seeds
Black pepper

Lightly brush one layer of pastry with egg, and place another layer on it. Brush the top layer again, and dump a tablespoon of shreaded mozarella on it. Cut the tomato and capsicum julienne, and place on top of the cheese. Sprinkle poppy seeds on top, and pepper to taste. Bake in oven for 10 to 15 minutes at 175C, or until the pastry puffs up adequately and turns golden. Serve immediately as an entree, on a fancy schmancy platter

Next, Creamy Pumpkin-Carrot Soup with Cumin and Cinnamon.

Now when I was calling H to invite him to the dinner, I told him what I was serving and immediately he said ‘MMmmmm! pumpkin soup!” I suppose the beauty of well-made pumpkin soup lies in the seasoning and the smoothness of the texture. I was floored when I tried Senor Pablo’s version at his abode, which is simple and healthy. This is my take on the soup that everyone loves, with the much added calories mind you

Creamy Pumpkin-Carrot Soup wih Cumin and Cinnamon
(By Nikki A. @ delisioucity)

Half a medium pumpkin, cubed
2 cups water
1 carrot, cubed
1.5 cup chicken stock (use the real thing by boiling chicken with onions, garlic, ginger, cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom, salt and pepper)
2 Tbspn cumin powder
1 Tbspn cinnamon powder
3 Tbspn Olive oil
1 cup cream
1/2 Tbspn black pepper
Salt to taste

In a medium saucepan, boil the pumpkin and carrot together in water until soft. Drain away. Heat olive oil and add cumin and cinnamon powder. Gently stir till fragrant. Add chicken stock, pumpkin and carrot. Let simmer. Add cream and seasoning and let sit on the stove on low heat until the carrots are pulpy. Cool, and use an immersion blender to smoothen the texture of the soup. Serve with croutons.

Croutons
(By Nikki A. @ delisioucity)

Day-old bread of your choice (I used country grain)
3 Tbspn clarified butter

Cut the bread into small squares or diamonds. Heat a pan with the clarified butter and toast the bread. Make sure all of the bread is coated by gently stirring and tossing them about in the pan.

I have to admit, the soup definitely stole the night as everyone agreed that it was really good. This is one recipe I am soooo going to overuse. Husby, being the perfect gourmand, thought the soup + croutons tasted like murtabak. Geez. On the other hand, H thought it tasted authentically Moroccan, and both he and M were very happy to have second and third helpings and ate this with their main course.  I need to research on this: is pumpkin soup Moroccan in origin?? Or was it the cumin. Hmm, scratching head.

Let’s finally move on to the main course! This was a Roasted Chicken with Cumin, Maple Golden Syrup and Parsley.

This dish is cooked twice. I boiled the chicken first (with the spices listed in the soup recipe before), and got a pretty good stock out of it. Then, marinate for two hours with the forthcoming concoction, and roast for an hour at 180C. The marinate nicely resonates the taste of the pumpkin soup.

Roasted Chicken Marinate
(By Nikki A. @ delisioucity)

For two chickens.

1 cup olive oil
Juice from half a lemon
2 Tbspns lemon zest
A bunch of fresh parsley, chopped
2 Tbspn cumin powder
1 Tbspn cinnamon posder
3 Tbspn Lyle’s Golden Syrup, maple flavour (or simply maple syrup or replace with honey)

Mix everything in and brush on the chicken. Leave for two hours in the fridge to marinate.

Make sure you include the spices from the boiling process into the roast. I also left the skin on this time so that it appears golden and he meat to cook nicely without drying too much.

Whew! What a way to “celebrate”. I wasn’t kidding when both my husby and our friend H started to look like a pair of sleepy snakes by the end of the meal. Finally, our two friends left with a favour: remember the sables that I made in the previous post? So plenty of people actually asked what the pegs were for. And no, I did not use them for kneading the dough :p Here they are, et simple too! Instead of ribbons, use tiny decorative pegs to secure your favour bags for a chic twist. I wouldv’e used a glassine paper bag but I just could not find one here other than make them myself. Ah well, perhaps next time! In the next years to come, hopefully I’ll develop more creative things to share

The April 2009 challenge is hosted by Jenny from Jenny Bakes. She has chosen Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake as the challenge.

Whew! Nearly didn’t make it for this month’s Daring Bakers Challenge (again!) April has been a right heck of a month and my oven is well worn out from all the baking. But one finale – in the form of a cheesecake baked in a water bath, well deserves to be the ‘cherry on top’ as my series of baking culminates to its end (well, at least for April that is). This cake is awesome too, by the way! Thanks Abbey and Jenny

The challenge this month was to create a cheesecake based on a basic winning recipe by Jenny’s friend, Abbey. Initially I wanted to make something completely off, well at least to my taste buds… and that’s durian cheesecake. Just imagine the pong! It would’ve been daring indeed, you see But I couldn’t find durian paste in the supermarkets and didn’t bother about the bulky Thai durians either.  Also, I realise that this I had wanted to make a pear frangipane tart earlier, so the pears went in to this challenge instead. They are poached in water, rose syrup, 2 pieces of cinnamon sticks, and a couple of cloves till tender. You then cool the pears and continue to reduce the liquid until you get a syrupy mixture. Slice the pears to top off the cheesecake later on.

And here’s the full recipe:

Abbey’s Infamous Cheesecake:
crust: 2 cups / 180 g graham cracker crumbs
1 stick / 4 oz butter, melted
2 tbsp. / 24 g sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract

cheesecake:
3 sticks of cream cheese, 8 oz each (total of 24 oz) room temperature
1 cup / 210 g sugar
3 large eggs
1 cup / 8 oz heavy cream
1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract (or the innards of a vanilla bean)
1 tbsp liqueur, optional, but choose what will work well with your cheesecake

DIRECTIONS:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (Gas Mark 4 = 180C = Moderate heat). Begin to boil a large pot of water for the water bath.

2. Mix together the crust ingredients and press into your preferred pan. You can press the crust just into the bottom, or up the sides of the pan too – baker’s choice. Set crust aside.

3. Combine cream cheese and sugar in the bowl of a stand-mixer (or in a large bowl if using a hand-mixer) and cream together until smooth. Add eggs, one at a time, fully incorporating each before adding the next. Make sure to scrape down the bowl in between each egg. Add heavy cream, vanilla, lemon juice, and alcohol and blend until smooth and creamy.

4. Pour batter into prepared crust and tap the pan on the counter a few times to bring all air bubbles to the surface. Place pan into a larger pan and pour boiling water into the larger pan until halfway up the side of the cheesecake pan. If cheesecake pan is not airtight, cover bottom securely with foil before adding water.

5. Bake 45 to 55 minutes, until it is almost done – this can be hard to judge, but you’re looking for the cake to hold together, but still have a lot of jiggle to it in the center. You don’t want it to be completely firm at this stage. Close the oven door, turn the heat off, and let rest in the cooling oven for one hour. This lets the cake finish cooking and cool down gently enough so that it won’t crack on the top. After one hour, remove cheesecake from oven and lift carefully out of water bath. Let it finish cooling on the counter, and then cover and put in the fridge to chill. Once fully chilled, it is ready to serve.

I halved the recipe and made sure the cheesecake batter was filled with half of the poached pears. I also used brown sugar in the crust mixture, along with an addition of almond meal. I think all cheesecake bases should have some nutty input Husby is not a big fan of cheesecakes, but actually loved this one as the cheesiness isn’t overpowering. I just thought this recipe was fantastic except that it was a bit creamy and felt undercooked as I was expecting a drier texture from the baking. However, it does produce a lovely moist cake because of the water-bath method. Not too bad, and I think you should try this recipe too if you like the combination of fruit and flower

For other bloggers’ submissions on this cheesecake recipe (and boy, you will see so much yummy variations!) head over to the Vanilla Fairy badge on the right sidebar to access the Daring Bakers website.

*Update: This cheesecake is truly one of a kind, as I sit here with my slice that had stayed overnight in the fridge, I can’t help but feel calmed  and somewhat de-stressed! *ecstatic eye roll*

Note: This is a very sweet coincidence: a recipe win and my 100th post. I present to you now, macarons (yes, again!) and a report on the recent Foodie Bloggers’ Challenge, in celebration of my 100th blog entry!

Oui, ouui, absolutement! Troisieme place! These Pandan (pandanus plant) French-Malay dessert fusion were among the macaron flavours that I entered in the Foodie Bloggers’ Challenge on Sunday, 26th – and subsequently won third place for! I was so excited that I couldn’t stop grinning like a fool. It was like getting a healthy dose of endorphine (ok, sugar rush rather), especially after meeting up with people whose written words you read on a regular basis. These bloggers, amongst who I lurk/stalk in the comforts of cybertopia, are all the nicest and most generous people you could get possibly acquainted with! The amount of knowledge and information, food-wise, that was inherently part of the din yesterday, were all but not muted by the scraping off of Pablo’s pumpkin soup, Reeda’s champion lamb, and Eleanor’s roasted garlic & anchovies. Ouh my God, you know. The spread was amazing. I truly am very honoured to even achieve a third spot seeing that the competition was in effect a showdown of everyone’s culinary talents. And it was mixed genre too!

Here is a full list of the winners:

1) Quick & dirty lamb – Anak Brunei.
2) Roasted Garlic & Anchovies – Foodie Tales
3) Macarons – Delisioucity (Homygosh!)
4) Sea bass - Chef Pol of Self taught Chef
5) Lolita Macaroni – Hajah Zarinah
6) Cheesy Fruity Triffle – Hajah Tom
7) Tangy Prawn delight – Maria Rahimin
8)  Herbal Chili Chicken – Zulfadly of Soul Connection
9) Chinese Chicken Salad - Foodie Tales
10) Lamb Herb Jus - Creative Chefs
11) King prawn tomato – Hajah Sabtuyah
12) Red Snapper – Creative Chefs

As you can see from the list, only two were desserts! I am so tempted to have a desserts showdown in the future, and wonder if there would be many to participate? Other people who brought desserts that day included Maurina (lovely & funny girl!) with her chocolate pudding and some other entries that I was too busy going here and there that I didn’t get to taste them. In fact, I shamefully didn’t even get to eat the winner’s entry But no matter though. The book that is to be the result of this event will be available soon, and will be sold for charity Double excitement ^_^ A recipe for the French method macaron shell (au blanc monte) is going to be in the book, so I can finally sleep well at night with the thought that I at least have brought this piece of dessert to some well-deserved attention (hehe). I mean, many have called macarons “gifts from the Gods” on one end, and on the other, (especially those who have tried at least 7 times before they can get a perfectly domed and collared shell), often call these “divas” or even devil cookies. Sigh, such repute.

Here are some pictures from the event itself, which includes the desserts entries, the main dishes, and a cooking demonstration from local chefs from the infamous Empire Hotel (omg, woooot!!) Flambe-d too, they did!

The host, Senor Pablo’s wife, Bunny, has a business selling all sorts of desserts. I absolutely loved her apple maple cakes (top left), they’re so gorgeous and classic. They just melt and melt in your mouth… *rolling in fields sensation* And it is no surprise she is also a sweet lady Just imagine the aromas coming out of Pablo’s house thanks to her!

The following are some main entrees, sans Reeds’s winning lamb. Sigh. Drool.

And finally, the Creative Chefs. Work it!

It was such a fun evening, and the weather was also simply beautiful. I’d like to thank Pablo for hosting this event and hope that the good deed of the charity recipe book sale will bring you and your team great blessings! A final shout out to Eleanor, Chef Pol (I had a good chat with this guy and thank you for putting my macarons on par with that of Laduree’s! I’m humbled), Maurina, Thanis (omg u are such a foodie!! fun talking to u), Hani, Azian, and Reeds’ lovely wife!

Oh and the local paper, the Borneo Bulletin also did a coverage (albeit an erronous one: apparently I am an  ingredient in Eleanor’s roasted anchovies dish!) Cheers for that.

P/s: Macaron flavours that day: Le Signature Chocolat (nude, cocoa-dusted shells), milk chocolate (pink shells), pandan (green, with painted shell), and a rather daring mango cinnamon in cream cheese base (dense yellow). This one went soggy fastest, and I have to say, needs terrible adjustments. Oh well, food is after all about experimentations too!