Signs That Your Man Is Crazy About K Dramas

He suddenly wanted chicken & beer instead of chicken & coke...

He suddenly wanted jajangmyeon instead of Indomie Goreng as midnight snack..

He went for HK$68 kimchi ramyun breakfast instead of HK$29 Satay Beef Nissin Noodle set.

I am speechless for the next ones...

He's definitely gone kdrama kpop cray cray.

All thanks to the recently crazy popular drama My Love From Another Star :D

Nongshim Kimchi Ramyun Pack of 5 - A "Huh?" Moment at the Supermarket

Please excuse the ugly photos.
I just had a bit of a "huh???!!" moment at the supermarket, when I was buying my favorite instant noodle soup, the Nongshim kimchi ramyun.

Buy 5 packs HK$20.9...

And...

...or buy 5 in a pack for HK$24.50 (!!)

...from the same supermarket!
The value pack is more expensive than the loose packs?

I wonder if anybody still bought the value packs...

My Favorite Restaurant Dish on South China Morning Post Today

My few seconds of fame! ^_^


What other dishes do I like from Padang Indonesia restaurant? Check 'em out here.

Dining Out with A Baby 同傲B去食(望)好野

This isn't a "how to" post, I have no tips on how to dine out with a baby in peace. I am just sharing our recent dining experience.
相信大家有小朋友都知同小朋友出街食飯有幾唔容易, 由其係頑皮嘅BB..

It was a Sunday brunch at Wooloomooloo Elements, we brought our 8 months old, super naughty, super active, and rather cranky baby Marcus.

星期日, 我地同一個8個月大, 超級頑皮, 超級好動同成日攪攪震嘅BB去左圓方食Wooloomooloo

All sharp utensils weren't arranged elegantly, they were piled up in a corner, out of baby's reach.

全部餐具都要攞開...

So did hot liquid stuff like lobster bisque...which was decent...

龍蝦湯哩D危險野當然要攞走.., 我覺得幾好飲的

...and get that hot cup of coffee out of the way too...since babies do this.

咖啡當然都係要走..XD

One of us have to hold him all the time, since he climbs, touches, licks, and chews absolutely everything, as well as squirms and twist like a little worm :D
No, he won't sit quietly in a baby chair and adorably babbling "I love papa mama" with a smile.
Forget it :D

This is how we ate our brunch...

我地其中一個一定要抱住佢, 因為佢又爬, 又咬, 又拉, 又舔, 又好似條蟲咁彈黎彈去..

你睇吓張相就知佢有幾頑皮..而我地就係咁全程抱住佢黎食..

Dishes get cut up by one parent, and get shoved into the mouth of whichever parent was holding the baby :)

D野食要全切細, 得閑個個就喂今一個食..因為兩隻手都要抱抱個頑皮BB, 傲B..

Mochachocolata-Rita's on Facebook!

Finally! I've made a Facebook Page!
Why? Am I just being "trendy"? Is it just a carbon copy of this blog? Does it ever occur to me that my readers are already sick of me?
Hmm...good questions.
I don't know.
But I can tell you what you're going to see on the page.

Past Food
The yummy, the so-so and the yuckies that didn't make it to the blog, simply due to the laziness of the blog owner, such as this bowl of noodles that killed my palate...


Almost real time updates on stuff that I eat or made, just as these baked goods from last night...

...these were literally still in the oven when I posted it on the page.

Some ingredients that get me inspired...

...this was used in last nite's baked goods.
Can you smell the impending disaster?

Go on and like the page if you like ^_*

Mie Soa with Oyster Sauce Grilled Chicken, Shrimps, Napa Cabbage & Shimeji Mushrooms

I am not a big fan of beehoon (bihun/mai fan/rice noodle), but I am a huge fan of mie soa (min sin), it looks like beehon, but it is more...stretchy and softer. My mom doesn't really cook, but she makes really good simple mie soa with silk squash and a bit of broth. She always made me that dish when I get sick. I am not sick, but I miss the dish and decided to make a version of it with ingredients that I had in my fridge.


Recipe
Oyster Sauce Grilled Chicken
- 1/2 - 1 chicken leg fillet per person
- Oyster sauce, sugar, pepper, oil
Preheat oven to 250C, rub the chicken fillet with oyster sauce, sugar, and pepper generously, add a dash of oil and rub well. Grill until the skin is golden brown and the meat is nicely cooked, set aside while preparing other ingredients


Broth
- 1 box of chicken stock (if you had homemade chicken stock, it'd be fantastic!)
- 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
- a cup of shimeji mushrooms
- a cup of napa cabbage, chopped
- a cup of shrimps (optional, I added this just because I had it in my fridge)
- a bit of oil, pepper, sugar
Saute garlic with a bit of hot oil, add napa cabbage, add mushrooms, add chicken stock, bring to boil, add pepper and sugar if you wish, add shrimps only at the last step and only until it's just opaque.


Mie Soa
- allow 1/2 to 1 piece of mie soa per person
- Boiling water, salt
Dip mie soa into a pot of boiling water with salt on stove top, just until it's softened, shock with cold water if not consumed immediately. Place mie soa into bowls, add broth, mushrooms, veggie, shrimps and sliced grilled chicken and...


...slurp!

Campaigning for Baby Marcus to win a photo contest to have his photo printed on Hong Kong Huggies Bus has helped SC and I take our minds off SC being in a hospital etc...
Thanks so much for all your support, guys. Greatly appreciate it!
If you haven't voted and you want to, here are the handy links:
First, click LIKE on this page:
Huggies HK Page
and then click LIKE on Baby Marcus' picture:
Baby Marcus' Photo

Thanks againnnn, we don't want Baby Marcus to miss the bus, don't we? ^_^

HELP Desperate & Shameless Mama...

Guys, I know you don't like to like stuff, but could you please please please....
1. LIKE Huggies HK Page> 
http://www.facebook.com/HuggiesHK 

and then 

2. LIKE Baby Marcus's photo>
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=179319918779117&set=a.179319748779134.44752.175747015803074&theater



...even if you don't like, so that Baby Marcus won't end up with no LIKE?
With a gadzillion thanks from Desperate & Shameless MAMA ^_^

Love - Happy Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's day.
Despite having nothing planned tonight, no fancy dinner, no carefully planned home cooked meal, not even an impromptu one...it made me think of love.

Today, SC didn't buy me no flowers, no chocolates, no branded goods, but he has done a lot to support me and my exhibitionist antics of blogging.

Normally, he's really careful with how we spend money (Regardless of whose money it is. His money, my money, is our money), but he encouraged me to get a DSLR, pushed me to upgrade to a better camera or lenses if necessary, never flinched at the expensive meals I dragged him to try (despite truly loving Cafe de Coral, Fairwood and Ajisen Ramen), taught me (a huge idiot and a slow learner) basic photoshop tricks to improve my photos, never complained about food getting cold as every dish get photographed from every possible angle, doesn't get embarrassed when I did my weird poses photographing food in public, doesn't mind being posted in my blog in various stupid poses...

...always willing to hold food in position for a longggg time while waiting for 29,876 shots to be fired...


...or hold a slurping pose...


...or hold a stretchy string of cheese off a pizza cone...


...went to dine with me despite swollen gums from recent wisdom tooth extraction...

...ordered and ate a whole fish despite his pure hatred towards anything with bones...

...joined super long queues under the rain, in humid summer heat to try "famous" eateries...


...and generally SUFFERED...a lot...

....all for me to get my money shots.

Now, all of the above, I think, is LOVE.
^_^

SC, there is no word to express my gratitude for all your support.
This blog is what it is today because of you.
Happy Valentine's Day.

Happy Chinese New Year!

The rabbit is almost here.

May the rabbit bring you health, wealth, happiness & deliciousness.

Whatever you eat, whatever you do, whatever you wear, don't forget to "document" and "share".
Just like this mad woman below, who often brought not only one, but three cameras (including the iPhone used to take this picture) to her special occasion meals.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Pizza Hut's Hong Kong - Meat Lover's Cheesy Volcano Pizza

Testing, testing...
1,2,3...

Your eyes aren't wrong.
You aren't having a nightmare (or are you?)
This is really a pizza from... (gasp!) Pizza Hut.

I tried Pizza Hut for the first time back when I was in Indonesia. I was in high school. Yes, we're that slow. I haven't tried McDonald's until I was 18 and I tried (cooked) sushi for the first time when I was 23. I was so fascinated by the sushi train, it was ridiculous.

Eating at Pizza Hut was such a luxury for me. I remember loving creamy beef fettucini so much, licking the baking dish it was served in clean. Gleaming clean, I also remember the garlic bread...and...the meat lover's pizza, thick crust. Ahhh...nostalgia.

I have a confession to make.
I like Pizza Hut's meat lover's pizza.
Why? Why? Why?
Maybe it's the high-in-sodium-ness, maybe it's all the processed "meat" on top of its mass produced "crust", maybe it's all the "cheese" topping of stuffing, or maybe it's the sugary, chemically engineered "tomato sauce".

I dunno.
It doesn't mean that I hate good pizza...handmade, fresh ingredients, rustic or avant garde ones...I love them too. But deep down, there's always a place for this little junk in my heart trunk.

I am not trying to justify myself.
Just saying ;)

Will you stop reading my blog after you've seen this post?
Heheheh.
I hope not.

An Impromptu Post - Soto Ayam Lunch

Just to let you know...

...what I had for lunch today ^_^

Soto ayam. Made using Indofood instant spice pack ^_*

What was your lunch?

Best Meal I Had in 2009, Warung Pregina Bali & Happy New Year!

The process of naming the best meal I had in the year 2009 has been...a pain in the ass.
I think you'd all agree.
2009 has been delicious, I've had fancy schmancy burgers to ghetto sandwiches, glory of successes as well as misery of failures in the kitchen, and everything in between.

But if I had to name one meal...it's gotta be the meal I had in Warung Pregina, Sanur, Bali.

We might've been famished from all the beaching...
It might've been the place, the fake scooter right in front of it...
It could've been the holiday, the soft breeze on our faces, the friendly people...

But nah, the food was truly the star of the day.

Can't wait to go back there.

2009 has been great, but 2010 is gonna be a more delicious one.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYBODY!

My Naughty Food Diary

I've never really been a diary writer.
When I was young(er), my sis read my freakin' diary, and from that moment on, I stopped writing. Damn, it was embarrassing.

I realized that my blogs are somehow my public diaries...sometimes I write embarrassing stuff about myself, but surely, I've got secrets. Plenty of them.

Let's take food, for example.
I post memorable things that I ate or cooked, even if they sucked. Reading a few posts, you may have some ideas about what kind of food I like to eat, what kind of food I manage to cook/bake.

Some people may think I eat healthy, while others know exactly how unhealthy my diet is....but I've got food secrets, for sure.

So, I've decided to bare it all, tried documenting what I ate the whole day, yesterday.
Every single bite, no cheating, no eating less than normal, no censoring, no omitting. Except maybe a couple glasses of plain water.

Frankly, the result scared me a little.

The first picture was my breakfast, one cup of capuccino from office's coffee machine with 1 cube of sugar, and a couple of coffee buns from Yamazaki bakery. I like dipping my bun into my coffee, while reading the headlines of my free morning paper in the office before work. This breakfast will fill me up until about 11 am when I felt hungry.

Since I didn't cook the day before, I didn't bring a lunch box to work. None of us wanted to go out in these rainy, hot summer days, so we ordered lunch from a Vietnamese food eatery. I had Grilled Chicken Fillet with Tomato Rice plus Fried Egg and washed the meal down with a cup of hot jasmine tea.
The single slice of cucumber and tomato were the only vegetable/fruit I had so far.

I tried my best not to finish the delicious tomato rice, ate about half of the rice and finished everything else in the box. After this big lunch, I had to struggle to stay awake at work without another cup of coffee.
How many times did I hit "backspace" to correct typos? Uncountable!


I normally started to feel hungry around 5 pm. I didn't keep any food at work on purpose, preventing me from snacking. I didn't cook yesterday...due to...(thinking hard to find excuses)...well, just didn't feel like it. My dinner was from Maxim's fast food, it's a kiddie meal I always love. Spaghetti Bolognaise with fried chicken drumstick, fried cheese potatoes and jelly cubes, with low sugar iced green tea.
It's a kiddie meal, but it doesn't mean that it's small. The portion was rather big, and I ate almost everything, except a couple cubes of jelly. Again, all meat, lack of fruits or vegetables. I felt guilty.

So, I went to the supermarket and grabbed a bunch of grapes to eat while surfing the net, updating my facebook and tracking the course of typhoon Goni.

Stopping there would've been bad enough for me....but I went on my eating rampage.

Sous chef asked if we should have some ice cream while watching my current favorite TV show, my guilty pleasure...

...who could say no to that?
I couldn't. I had half a bowl of this fruit sherbet.
Very summery, super refreshing.
I was too happy to feel guilty.


Sous chef didn't stop there. He poured a glass of red wine, which was supposedly healthy. BUT, opened a bag of cuttlefish corn snack, which is pretty much the epitome of unhealthiness, and we proceeded to pop these crunchy balls while watching TV (very dangerous, please don't try this at home). Didn't finish the whole bag, but the damage was done.

Loads of bad food, barely moved my ass.

I should never question why I weigh this much. The reasons were all clearly written here. Hehehe

Bag-a-razzi Exclusive!!! An "It" Bag in HK Wet Markets

I used to have a thing for designer hand bags. So, despite being so irritatingly stingy, I managed to build a small collection.

However, people's priorities change. That's bound to be the reason, isn't it? I simply grew wiser (I am hearing people saying "that can't be it" LOL).

Either that or maybe I realized that...
- "the collection" so far has been sitting at the dusty corners of my tiny flat. I got the drift when Little miss Louis Vuitton Trouville screams "OH YAY YAY YAYYYY...I AM GOING OUT!!!" every time I took her out (which is so rarely, if you told her that Hong Kong's sky has now turned shocking pink instead of blue, she will probably believe it)
- although most Hong Kongers clad themselves head to toe with brands (the country should have the highest population of LVs, it can be seen from morning peak hour train rides to the CBD, almost 4 out of 5 girls are carrying branded bags of some sort), I could choose to be the rare ones who do not
- branded hand bags do NOT improve my appearance of confidence. Yes, I am THAT hopeless
- the cost of 1 latest and hottest "it" bag = the cost of multiple short but luxurious culinary trips
- I spent all of my dough on food and shall not even dream about getting a new bag, let alone a designer bag

So, now, the latest "It" designer hand bags do not allure me anymore, not as much as luscious and rich dark chocolate does LOL.

But, recently, I got something in my mail from the good fellows at Foodbuzz. It's an echo friendly bag, which is wayyyyy hotter than Anya Hindmarch's "I'm Not A Plastic Bag" Bag, because IT HAS MY NAME ON IT! Hohoho! OK it's a pin with my name of it, but still...hehe...

So, one fine Saturday, I took it out shopping (I saw Miss LV Trouville went green with envy, poor thing)...and arranged for a bag-a-razzi to catch it in action.

Here's the bag, and me with absolutely no make up, no plastic surgery/botox (just yet), messy hair, and don't even mention the outfit...the bag-a-razzi reported:


Here's Mochachocolata-Rita at a Hong Kong's wet market, she seemed dazed and confused, probably was still hung over from last night's meal of carbs, carbs and more carbs. She should fire her stylist (if she had one), put on a decent face before stepping out of the door, and schedule another much needed lipo


She was a total MESS, but look at the bag she was carrying! Absolutely adorable and eco friendly. This is it. It is the new It bag!


She was in this fish stall, looked puzzled and clueless, until she finally selected a live mangrove red snapper. We bet she had to google the name of the fish.


It took her just a few seconds before she snatched this bunch of corriander. She seems to be addicted to this "substance". We think she's gonna get high later (on corriander!).


She was sooo gonna overstuff the bag, which remained fabulous


She wandered in to this food supply store, probably looking for some easy way out such as instant spice mix packets or instant noodles or feeding her addiction to non diet sodas


Unexpectedly, she got herself a box of powder. We smell some lousy baked goods coming.

Hmmm, the bag does make her look better.

Thanks so much, Foodbuzz!

From Crappy to Yucky - The Evolution of My Food Photo Taking

This original version of this post was initially a comment on Jaden's Steamy Kitchen Food Porn post...and now she wants to see more! Then I thought...well you guys probably might wanna know how I take my crappy pics...hmmm, if I could recommend, it's better NOT to know...
I must warn you, it ain't pretty!

...and I am sharing this wacky post with the folks at Dita's event: STUDIO

Crappy Food Photo Studio - Version 1.1
Circa November 2007

This is just too professional to believe:
- Set camera (canon ixus 850is) to macro, vivid color, turn off flash
- Hold dish under halogen light attached to the exhaust fan on top of stove
- Endure the heat from hot dish on hand
- Try not to shake (holding breath helps)
- Hold balance while the other hand try not to drop the camera into the stew/soup/kitchen sink
- Prep the model "work it, girl...work it! yeah u look faaaabbbulousssss"
- Click shutter 100-150 x for each pose, hopefully some aren't so blurrrrrrrrryyy
- Sort and select 1 file out of 10001 out-of-focus ones
- Open selected file/s in microsoft photo editor
- Select 'image', then 'auto balance'
- Upload
HAHA, you amateurs can just eat my shorts (i am not wearing any)
*now i know why ur food pics suck and mine are so fab* LOLLLLLLLLLLLLLL
PS. i hope u guys dig sarcasm?

POSE 1
Sufficient when I still had my natural light (only on weekends, on weekdays, just impossible)

POSE 2A
Started to feel unhappy with the lighting

POSE 2B
Need to switch to the other, less shaky leg for support

POSE 3
Back damage control

Version 1.1 yielded the following shots:
- Golden Nuggets with Creamy Corn Sauce
- My First CNY Feast
- Prawns in Indonesian Sweet Soy Sauce

Crappy Food Photo Studio - Version 1.2
Circa March 2008

Had enough of cramps and backache, decided to try an alternative method (moved "studio" to the living room, i.e sofa, procured a study lamp for lighting when there's no natural light), which was not much of an improvement LOL!


Version 1.2 yielded the following shots:
- Peanut Butter Chicken Wings
- Licky Leek Spring Rolls
- Snacks in Black

Crappy Food Photo Studio - Version 1.3
Circa April 2008

Still feeling unhappy about my crappy photo results (In theory, this is good for improvement, right?), I decided to go through a major restructuring again. Procured various colors of background papers...

...stick 'em on a message board on top of my chest of drawers, which means removing all the happy pictures of me and my pals from it (sob! sob!), cleared various rubbish off the chest of drawers, used the cheap study desk for lighting, and got myself an L-POD (no offense, but tripods are just too out of date!), ...and still curled like a shrimp, thus the back pain persists!...not to mention ass gets bigger due to all the cooking, baking & eating!


The L - POD! Extra light, extra flexible, extra mobile, extra unstable, easy installation, and...

...absolutely FREE! (at least mine is)


...and...standing by my side all the way through version 1.1 to 1.3...
my humble, tried and tested, trusted, and beloved camera! CANON DIGITAL IXUS 850IS

Version 1.3 yielded the following shots:
- Steak & Tortellini in Creamy Mushroom Sauce
- Spicy Chayote in Coconut Milk (Sambal Goreng Jipang)
- Cellophane Noodles with Mushroom Fritters

...there will surely be version 1.4, 1.5,...100.1, etc ...as I love to take crappier pictures to make you guys feel better ^_* (sarcasm, sarcasm)

Now...brainwashing you into joining my event...

(I am not pushy in person, so I compensated by being extra pushy on the net LOL!)
See you there!