Bubur Sagu - Indonesian Sago Pearl with Coconut Milk Dessert

This is so worth ruining my diet.
I miss this dessert all the time. It is something I always had back home in Indonesia. My grandma would bring us to the wet market in the morning (Pasar Gang Baru) and brought us a pink version of this (made using pink sago and caster sugar instead of palm sugar).

So I tried making the palm sugar version last weekend and... it's so easy to prepare, and so satisfying. The sticky sago pearls have the caramel-esque flavor from the palm sugar, and the coconut milk "sauce" is slightly savory. Perfect!

Recipe
- 3/4 cup sago pearls
- water
- 4 chunks of palm sugar (add caster sugar if needed) or you can use brown sugar
- half a cup of coconut milk + pinch of salt

In a pot (preferably non stick), drop sago pearls into boiling water, bring to boil, and simmer until they turn translucent (with minimum stirring if you are using non stick pot). Using a sieve, drain the water, place the sago pearls back into the pot. While the sago pearls were cooking, prepare the palm sugar by dissolving them in a bit of hot water. Pour the palm sugar syrup into the sago, stir until mixed well. Taste and add sugar if needed. Let the sago pearls absorb the palm sugar syrup. To prepare the sauce, mix coconut cream with a bit of hot water, heat it up (I did in a microwave) and add 1-2 pinches of salt, add enough salt to balance the sweet. Place a serving of sago pearls on a serving bowl and add a bit of the coconut milk sauce.

Weekends aren't meant for dieting, right?
I ate at least 2 bowls of this bad boy.
Oppps.

Hearty & Creamy Chinese Soup - Fish, Tofu, Coriander & Century Eggs

I am not normally excited about Chinese soups but this one had me going gaga! (Sorry, I spent too much time trying to buy tickets to Lady Gaga's concert this morning. All sold out. I didn't get one. I'll have to scream & dance to the fancam videos on youtube later)

It's so creamy from the fish, hearty from all the chunks of velvety smooth century eggs and tofu, and the coriander made the whole thing so refreshing. I adore! I asked SC's mom for the recipe and it goes pretty much like this...

Pan fry your favorite fish. Add some rice wine, add water, bring to boil. Add tofu cubes and century eggs pieces. Season with salt and white pepper, add (lots of) coriander only at the last minute to keep them green.

Slurpsss.

Homemade Yumminess from Guang Zhou Trip

Just here to show off share all the yummy homemade food I had during our trip to Guang Zhou.

We stayed at SC's grandma's place in China and we were absolutely spoiled by all the awesome homemade food. They still try their best to always make everything at home using the freshest ingredients. Amazing! Look at those little pieces of dry shiitake. They're little bites of heaven!


Fresh veggies, simply stir fried.


Tasty stir fried tofu with pork. I ate almost half of this. The weather was cold and digging into this with steaming hot rice...oh my. I miss rice. I hate my 2nd day of low carb diet. Ugh.


Awesome soy sauce chicken.


Tasty tasty soup.

As soon as we finished lunch, uncle started to make radish cake.


Look at all the goodies to go into the radish cake.

Chinese sausages, preserved meat, dry shrimps...fragrant!


The pickled vegetables that inspired us to make our own in Hong Kong. Not as good as grandma's!


A typical breakfast during my holiday...pan fried radish cake, pickles, yogurt...


...and homemade sticky rice dumpling chock full of precious things!

We gotta go back to Guang Zhou again soon!

Pickled Vegetables

I fell in love with SC's grandma's pickled vegetables when I visited Guang Zhou during the Chinese New Year. We asked for her recipe and decided to make some at home. These aren't as good as hers...but pretty close.


We were greedy, so we chose lots of different vegetables to pickle :)


We just used the inner part of the mustard greens, and boiled them for a bit. The rest of the veggies didn't need boiling. I think we can get away with not boiling them, but I just followed SC's mom and granny's instructions. These are drained after boiling to be joined by the other veggies.


All the veggies were mixed in the wok, we scattered some sea salt on them and let them be for about an hour. The salt helps draw the water from the veggies so they'll absorb the pickling liquid better.


After an hour, we squeezed the veggies dry. Lots of water came out!


Placed the veggies in a pot, ready for pickling.


During the salting time, you could prepare the pickling liquid. We started with about a cup of vinegar and a cup of sugar...continue adding sugar and vinegar bit by bit until you achieve the perfect balance of sweet and sour. Once done, let cool. Once cooled, pour the pickling liquid into the pot with veggies and let them pickle away. They'd taste fantastic the next day. I love them chilled in the fridge.


In Guang Zhou, we had these with almost any dish...or even eat them as snack.
I gotta make more soon!

Valentine's Day Dinner - Lots of Heart Shaped Food!

Here are some pictures from our Valentine's day dinner. This year, a week before Valentine's day, I jokingly (no, seriously) told SC that everybody has booked their table for Valentine's day dinner, and I would be really sad if he didn't have anything planned. I was joking. No, I was serious. Heheheh.

That's right. I don't wait for surprises, I just blatantly ask him.

I was thinking of something like...a Hong Kong style steak dinner. Below HK$200 per pax max, but SC decided to treat me for my favorite kind of meal. Quantity > Quality. Buffet dinner! Yeah! So sweet of him! I love love love it! He also did something so dorky-sweet, just check out below.

Here are some pictures from the dinner.
WARNING! Lots of heart shaped and pink food pictures coming.

Heart shaped red balloons everywhere. Awesome!


Something pink and fizzy. I love.


Heart shaped "Caprese". This didn't taste good but it surely looked dang cute!


LOVE is...peeling crab shells for me, because I don't wanna ruin my sparkly red nails :)

...and he proceeded to make me...

....a heart using the crab shell!


SWEETEST THING EVER!


Sashimi. Nice!


Heart shaped smoked salmon appetizer and caesar salad. I LOVE that parmesan covered pastry stick!! I wanted to get the whole container!


Obligatory foie gras...this was meh.


Best lamb I've ever had in a buffet. Meat still tender and juicy with crisp crust. YUM!


Pretty looking Japanese seafood stew, but tasted too sweet. The only thing I love was the heart shaped tofu. For photographic purposes only ;)



Some heart shaped cheeses.


I snack on these in between grabbing different sweets.

More heart shaped pink food from the dessert section.

This was so pretty and it's yes, heart shaped! Too bad I didn't get to try it. No more room in my tummy!


Heart shaped tiramisu. This was meh.


Now I know that I don't dislike macarons. I just dislike bad macarons. These were not good T_T but they surely look pretty.


The cake was dry... so sad.


Orange jelly, dark chocolate mousse and chocolate covered panna cotta. These were lovely!


Unlimited supply of Haagen Dazs Ice cream. Perfect if you love Haagen Dazs.


Another heart shaped dessert.


This was served to us as we asked for our bills. We ate so fast because we wanted to hurry home and see baby M (actually, to play mahjong T_T), they didn't anticipate us finishing so fast.


We were given this box of Shiseido skin care too! Wow! SC was upset he didn't get anything manly...

Despite some of the mehs, will I come back here again? I will. For a buffet, this is actually more than acceptable. Service was attentive, and I did appreciate all the pink heart-shaped stuff. This was the perfect choice for me.

Anyway, it was a lovely evening, this time, I really didn't mind being ripped off a little. As long as we're happy, right? I did feel a little guilty not bringing the baby with us, we ended up bringing home the heart shaped balloons for him to play him.

Oh, to maximize the cheesiness of the day, we actually got each other some el-cheapo gifts. What are they? Check them out here.

The Cafe (Sheraton)
香港喜來登酒店咖啡廳
2/F, Sheraton Hong Kong Hotel & Towers
20 Nathan Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Hong Kong
尖沙咀彌敦道20號香港喜來登酒店2樓
Tel: +852 2369 1111

Nutella Cheesecake with Peanut Butter Crust FAIL

Failure is merely a delayed success.
That's what I keep telling myself every time.

The idea is not too bad, but the execution is crap. I made too much crust (I used only half of the whole thing I made, and look at it, it's half of the whole cheesecake!) and it falls apart even after a night of staying in the fridge. Ugh. And I didn't put enough Nutella in the cheesecake batter. Sigh...

Ah well...better luck next time ^_^