Project Ferrero Rocher Mooncake: Balls of Fire

Project Ferrero Rocher Mooncake was initiated to commemorate the Mid Autumn Festival tonight. I haven’t been cooking in a long time and I took advantage of the season to create a dubious sixthseal.com style culinary delight. πŸ˜‰

stuff

Ferrero Rocher chocolates
Top Gun Exclusive Wine
Dooley’s Original Toffee and Vodka liqueur
Ocean Spray cranberry juice
Golden Circle baby carrots
RugenFisch Mackerel Fillets in tomato sauce
Ideal milk (evaporated milk)
Pudding mooncake premix and molds

You don’t actually need the Ocean Spray cranberry juice, I got that for a friend for her UTI problems. πŸ˜‰

preload 
 
The first step is to pour out several shots of the Dooley’s Original Toffee and Vodka liqueur (RM 120 at respectable bottle shops) for consumption. You will need it for the tedious task ahead. πŸ˜‰

water

Next, measure out 300 ml of water for the pudding mixture. The recipe calls for 700 ml but I decided that the remainder should consist of Dooley’s Original Toffee and Vodka for more oomph, so don’t drink too much of that first, start with the wine.

top up

Top up the measuring cup to 700 ml with Dooley’s Original Toffee and Vodka. This will use up more than half of the bottle but fret not – it’s worth it.

clear

Dump the pudding mooncake mixture into a saucepan and put the H2O with ethanol beside it. This is to avoid mistakes during excessive consumption of the latter liquid.

first pour

Put the saucepan with the powder in it on low heat on a regular stove and pour the liquid in slowly.

stir

Stir the mixture slowly while keeping it on low heat for about 10 minutes. It is important not to let it burn or “bruise” the mixture by stirring too hard. I’m not sure about the latter statement, the person in charge told me that.

pour

Pour the liquid into the small mold after 10 minutes and let it set for about 15 minutes at room temperature before chucking it into the fridge for an additional 10 minutes.

small done

You’ll know it’s ready if it doesn’t fall out of the mold when you turn it upside down.

massage

There is a technique to extract the small mooncake without damaging the integrity and aesthetic design which involves massaging the sides, but I never picked up that skill.

small mooncake look

The small mooncake with Dooley’s Original Toffee and Vodka (which is meant to emulate the “egg yolk” in traditional mooncakes) should look like this when it’s done.

ideal

The next step involves making the larger mooncake, which uses a different premix that requires Ideal milk (evaporated milk).

pour into

250 ml of Ideal milk is added to 400 ml of water and poured into the powdered premix.

half capacity

The usual 10 minutes of stirring on low heat is applied before the mixture is scooped into the larger mooncake mold. It is essential to only scoop the liquid to half the mold capacity, as it has to hold the smaller mooncake as the “yolk”.

yolk

The smaller Dooley’s Original Toffee and Vodka mooncakes is to be placed into the larger mooncake mold upside down (design facing down).

ferrero rocher

I took the liberty of adding a Ferrero Rocher chocolate as the “yolk” of one of the mooncakes to make my own variation.

add fr

The Ferrero Rocher chocolate is surprisingly resilient…it doesn’t even melt in the boiling hot temperature of the liquid pudding.

unmelt

It’s much better than M&Ms – melts in your mouth, not on the stove. It’s amazing!

set in fridge

The larger mooncake mold is then filled to the brim and left to set in the fridge for a full 30 minutes.

ferrero rocher mooncake dish

Once that’s done, extract the Ferrero Rocher mooncake from its mold and place it on a plate. Garnish with baby carrots and the mackerel fillets in tomato sauce.

ferrero rocher mooncake

This is the “balls of fire” bit to the recipe – mixing in salty and spicy elements to the dish…and the alcohol (Dooley’s Toffee and Vodka) of course. Serve with wine for a complete meal.

bon appetit

Bon Appetit!

Happy Mid Autumn Festival everyone! πŸ™‚

Ferrero Rocher – World Record Attempt

ferrero rocher

I have been thinking about beating the current record for Most Ferrero Rocher chocolates eaten in one minute which stands at a meager five (5) chocolates consumed. I have gone through the details and to quality, you have to unwrap, eat, and swallow the chocolates within one minute. This is my attempt:

I was too ambitious and ended up biting off more than I could chew (haha) but it’s quite possible to beat this record and get my name in the Guinness World Records book with a bit of practice. This was done in the afternoon while making mooncakes (post up tomorrow). I’ve been a bit busy lately making mooncakes, being the best buddy (which is different from best man – it’s a HK custom that has found its way here) for a friend’s wedding, attending said friend’s wedding, and the Mid Autumn Festival lined up tomorrow.

Here are some selected posts from HDS:

Telekom Malaysia – very efficient one!

Project Bachelor Breakfast – Bacon omelet with Edam cheese

Cheers all! Update again tomorrow.

The Grim Eater: Happy Family Ice & Refreshment House

grim eater

The Grim Eater reviews:

happy house

Happy Family Ice & Refreshment House is a small, sterile eating establishment occupying a side lot of a shop house unit. This is a vegetarian establishment that does not serve meat.

happy interior

The interior looks very common, with generic seating arrangements. The proprietor obviously believes in the absurd concept of having ceiling mounted air conditioning units in an open space. The air conditioning units are never turned on, which makes one wonder as to why they were installed in the first place.

happy warmers

The food warmer units ridiculously occupying the entire left counter is almost empty, suggesting that the place is doing less-than-brisk business for a reason. The original stickers were also left on, which displays deep fried cholesterol, carbon and oxidant laden chicken. I would think that the proprietor would have taken the trouble of replacing the placeholders with vegetarian fare, but apparently, the sliding mechanism proves to be too complicated.

happy retail

There is also an opportunistic retail section that offers vegetarian fare from the dubious food factories of China.

happy rojak

The Vegetarian Rojak is tasteless and has no redeeming value at all. It also seems that the concept of presentation is lost on the cook.

happy laksa

The Vegetarian Laksa did not bring back wonderful childhood memories of my late mother cooking for me.

happy laksa macro

I find the dish a putrid mockery of this established Sarawakian dish. It is not merely tasteless, but undercooked.

happy baked spag

The Roasted Cheese Noodle is translated as Italy Noodle. I would be amused if not for the blatant ignorance of simple pasta like spaghetti.

happy baked spag macro

The establishment also confuses the word “roasted” with “baked” and should take English lessons. The shitake mushrooms did not infuse enough flavors into the dish and the pasta was not al dente, which is essential to prevent sogginess in al forno dishes.

I find this establishment an insult to my taste buds!

The Grim Eater is not happy at Happy Family Ice & Refreshment House.

happy us

However, Autumn did bring a (single) tear to my eye. Hmph. It’s the only reason I didn’t look my usual grim self.

Jesus French Connection United Kingdom Christ

477

I went to pay my cell phone bill during lunch break just now and was presented with a rather impressive amount of RM 477.90. Jesus H. Christ. I remember my highest phone bill being about RM 2,000+ (converted from Australian dollars) back when I was in Melbourne but that was coz I was in a long distance relationship.

Oh, and I also defaulted on that payment. πŸ˜‰

digi bill

I’m surprised at how I can run up a RM 477.90 bill with my current usage and I think it boils down to the way I handle calls. I tend to call instead of texting someone due to the easier communication pathway. I’m also on a plan that favors same operator calls (DiGi 1Plan, which makes it free to call 016 numbers once the amount is past RM 123) but most of the calls I make are not within the same network.

digi receipt

I use my personal cell phone to make official work related calls as well, which is probably not a good idea and something I shouldn’t do doing anymore (since I don’t get reimbursed for it). I have to curb my spending habits and it should start with my cell phone usage.

/me tightens belt.

Hmm…come to think of it, I need a new belt. My two belts are both a little on the loose side, which I’ll like to think of as an indicator that I have lost weight. πŸ˜‰

Anyway, the HDS posts from 2002 – 2006 have been updated up to today. Selected posts:

Melbourne Spring Fashion Week

Sanctuary

Latest tattoo: For the devil my soul, for you, my flesh tattoo on back

Camwhoring with Ringo Tan of Cheeserland

ringo tan 1

I was in KL about a month ago to…er, attend to my sister’s wedding arrangements and met up with Cheesie at O’Briens before I was scheduled to fly back home. I have gotten a new external hard disk and while transferring photos over, I realized that I have several shots with Ringo after lunch.

ringo tan 2

Cheesie left me with a very good impression, she’s very down to earth and has a bubbly personality, which makes for a great dining companion. πŸ™‚ Anyway, we went outside for a bit of camwhoring after lunch – some of the photos were taken by passerbys at 1U but Ringo has perfected an excellent technique of taking photos.

ringo tan 3

She taught me how to take self portraits of us using one extended hand, which I never really got the hang of. It’s her 4th blog anniversary at her own domain so on head over and wish her a happy blogniversary. πŸ™‚

Hail to the Queen of Cheese! πŸ˜‰

Life in the fast lane

sorting head

I have been living life as if I expect to kick the bucket in 10 years. It’s not a subconscious thing either, it’s pretty obvious from the self-destructive tendencies manifested in my behavior and attitude. I drive recklessly, as if I want to get into an accident. I drink excessively and with abandon. I get into ludicrous situations and generally make a mess out of every good thing that I have left. I have fucked up relationships and pretty much destroy all that is good in my life.

…and I’ve been wondering why I do that. Suicide by hedonism?

I know my renal and liver function isn’t exactly at it’s optimal level (due to an unfortunate overdose resulting in an emergency dialysis done about two years back) but still the doctor reckons it’s all the years of substance and alcohol (a)buse that caused all that damage instead of a single isolated incident.

My friend recognized my self destructive tendencies despite knowing only a part of my life and asked me what made me this way. I couldn’t answer him – either I don’t know, or it’s so deep rooted that I don’t want to know.

He gave me a really good analogy though. It’s like I’m driving down a potential dead end 15 km down the road and since I know it, I’m banging up my car by knocking into the cliffs and roadsides and not caring who I run down in the process.

…but what if it’s not a dead end? What if I could navigate through but due to all the damage I’ve done to my car, I couldn’t anymore since the car is too banged up to make it though?

He has a point there. I shouldn’t be living my life as if there’s no tomorrow.

I shouldn’t be living from day to daze.

Coffee Garden @ Garden Hotel review

coffee garden

Coffee Garden is the anchor restaurant of Garden Hotel and is a successful F&B establishment in it’s own right. Although Coffee Garden doesn’t draw the local crowd to the extent of the wildly successful Peppers Cafe (Tanahmas Hotel), it does have its regulars and it’s a nice and (relatively) private place for lunch and dinner.

ambience

The interior of Coffee Garden has been given a major overhaul, with glass facades and mood lighting, creating a very pleasing ambiance. The post-modern architecture (actually, I don’t even know what post-modern architecture means, I just wrote it to make myself look more intelligent ;)) with reflective wall length mirrors looks amazing.

mirror

There are LCD screens placed strategically around the restaurant and an al fresco seating area outside for the nicotine brigade. Coffee Garden serves surprisingly good food, perhaps even better than Peppers Cafe. The measure of a successful hotel F&B outlet is the amount of locals patronizing the restaurant, and Coffee Garden has a loyal following.

garlic bread

The dinner menu at Garden Cafe is very comprehensive and covers Chinese and Western cuisine. There is complimentary garlic bread with every meal and the prices for most dishes are very reasonable.

seafood platter

This is the Seafood Gala (RM 16 ++) which is similar to the Manhattan Seafood Platter at Manhattan Fish Market. It consists of baked mussels, pan fried fish fillet, deep fried calamari rings and grilled shrimp served with garlic butter rice (Mmm…) and lemon butter sauce. The only thing missing is an MFM waitress going all Firebat on the platter (StarCraft reference here). πŸ˜‰

mixed grill

The Garden Mixed Grill (RM 17 ++) has grilled lamb chop, grilled beef (otherwise known as steak), grilled chicken, sausages and beef bacon. There is a great portfolio of edible mammals represented in this dish and it’s perfect as a sample of everything they offer.

stout

Coffee Garden also serves a wide variety of beer and alcopops at hotel prices. Their Guinness Stout goes for RM 10 ++ per mug and RM 40 ++ for a jug but regular beers goes for RM 30 ++ per jug, which is pretty much the price you’ll expect to pay at other watering holes.

I have been going there regularly for lunch with Autumn to eat through their entire set lunch menu. The lunch menu is limited and priced at RM 8++ inclusive of a drink and soup.

chicken

Fried Chicken With Peanut Soup

first

Autumn had this during our first lunch date there. I’ve had it as well, it’s pretty good but a little on the bland side. It should be noted that some of the waiters and waitresses are not very good photographers so you may have to get them to take several shots. πŸ˜‰

bbq

Fried Fish Fillet with BBQ Sauce

first lovebite

This was also on our first attempt to eat through the set lunch menu. This is the best dish in the set lunch menu in our opinion. It’s the BBQ sauce…it tastes great. Notice the similar office wear but please do not comment on the lovebite. πŸ˜‰

squid

Fried Squid in Celery

second shared

I shared this dish with Autumn coz we were not both not really hungry that day. I think this was a couple of days after the first visit since I was wearing a tie to cover up the still visible hickey. The squid is probably the other dish I would eat, the others are pretty bland.

beef

Fried Beef with Garlic

third time

I had this during the third trip to Coffee Garden. It’s nothing to write home about. Astute readers will notice a new hickey on my neck. I swear, it’s not due to Autumn. I don’t know how it got there. πŸ˜‰

duck

Fried Duck with Black Pepper

third

Autumn had the duck during the third trip. It’s alright, but again, Coffee Garden’s lunch menu isn’t really as good as the dinner menu.

chiew fong

It took us about two weeks to get through the five (5) set lunch menu coz you don’t want to eat the same food everyday. It’s still one of our regular hangouts though due to the privacy of the place.

coffee garden end

Coffee Garden is a great place for lunch and dinner. The set lunch menu is cheap considering the air-conditioned comfort and privacy of the establishment and it manages to attract quite a few of the lucrative 9-5 crowd during lunchtime. Their dinner menu is excellent – it’s much better than their set lunch menu, which is mass produced. I give Coffee Garden two thumbs up.

Neko

neko

I saw a cat today at a grocery shop – it was very tame, sleeping on top of a plastic bin. I fondled, er, I mean caressed it and it didn’t flinch or even move but just gave a lazy meow. I love cats like these and it got me thinking about getting a cat. I have been deprived of feline company for too long.

I went to a pet shop and saw a Persian cat I really liked. I love her personality, she’s affectionate and playful, jumping at my fingers when I played with it and biting it (not seriously, just playfully). I love that cat and would have bought it home right away but it was going for RM 1,300 which is a little too high for my budget.

I’m still thinking about the cat right now. It’s very nice and her greatest asset is her playful and affectionate personality. She would make great lolcats posts. πŸ™‚

I love cats and I want to get one to put in my room. I’ll give it a litter box and find a lint remover to get rid of the fur she’ll shed on my clothes and sleep with it. RM 1,300 is a bit steep though…so I’m thinking about other options.

I want a cat, it would make me less lonely. πŸ™‚

A feline companion, so to speak. I hear it does wonders for depression and mood swings too. πŸ˜‰

The evolution of Chinese names

gf writing

This is my Chinese name as written by Melody. I don’t know how to write my own Chinese name except for the middle character (coz it has less strokes and thus, is easier to remember). The translation is “Fu Huai Bin” – pronounced “foo why bin” but it’s written as Poh Huai Bin officially coz that’s how the Heng Hua translate the Chinese character for “Fu”.

Poh (the first character) is my family name a.k.a last name. It’s inherited and does not have any significance to it. Someone told me a very interesting anecdote about family names though – he said that we don’t actually have family names. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (actually, just Ancient China) we only have one name e.g.

Bin

Those are feudal times, so the lesser ones amongst us went to work for the richer (land owning) ones. Let’s say that I was born in a very poor family and went to work for a landowner named Poh. Back then, it wouldn’t be a 9 – 5 job but some backbreaking Biblical toil and labor stuff.

chinese name 1

Now, there are probably a lot of Bins out there so I’ll be called Poh’s Bin – to avoid being confused with, say, Tiong’s Bin. Thus, my name will literally be “Poh Ah Bin” e.g. The Bin from The House of Tiong.

Once, I’ve made it big and have my own property, I will have my own plot of land and have slaves working under me e.g. Fong, Tang, Ching, Hong. Tang will be called Bin Ah TangTang from The House of Bin“.

chinese name 2

Over the years, we evolved with the times and started getting customized names. However, the Chinese never dropped the surname (family name) so the ones that are in current circulation were the rich and land owning folks from the feudal times.

I don’t know how historically accurate the anecdote is, but it’s quite interesting nevertheless. Anyway back to my name, the Poh doesn’t actually mean anything – it’s the family name/last name so my name would be Huai Bin.

phb chinese

Huai means Caring
Bin is made up of two words – Wen (Scholar) and Wu (Warrior)

so my name is The Caring Scholar-Warrior from The House of Poh.

…but please, just call me Huai Bin. πŸ˜‰

Rosanna

rosanna

Rosanna means gracious rose and it’s a pretty unique name. I remembered it the first time I met her while playing Counter-Strike a good 8-9 years ago. I bumped into Rosanna at Delta Mall again and I’m pretty bad with names but I recalled her straight away due to the unusual moniker.

rosanna eyes

She is sporting a curious pair of contact lenses that makes her eyes look like ladybugs. It’s bright ruby red and has specks similar to that of the beetle (a ladybug is basically a beetle).

rosanna me

It was good to catch up with her again after such an extended absence. It turns out that she’s also working in Sibu now. πŸ™‚

Note to self: Remove tongue piercing before public speaking engagement tomorrow so I don’t slur my words.

HDS:

2002:
Assignments galore!
I finally managed to update after assignment week.

Gedera
Sri Lanka cuisine in Melbourne. My first attempts at a food review. I was pretty bad at it, compared to the reviews I do now. Oh well, baby steps and all that.

2003:
Nestle Fitness Promotional Giveaway @ Kenanga International, KL
Nestle Fitness promotion at the place where I work. They were giving out free samples.

Photos of Jalan Sultan Ismail – Jalan P. Ramlee – Suria KLCC – Bangsar
I like this one – it’s a photographic journey of the route I used to take to work when I was in KL. I work in KL and lived at Damansara (opposite HELP Institute – the university for those who requires exactly what the name suggests ;)) so I had to take the bus, LRT, and walk. It’s a “peek in the daily life” post.

2004:
The Garden of Adem
Love is in the air? The title is a wordplay on the restaurant’s name and the Garden of Eden.

2005:
No one wants to see your fucking weekend night out photos!
Self-parody and satire at it’s finest. I coined the term. πŸ˜‰

2006:
I was still in the hospital, so no updates. I was hospitalized a lot of times in 2006 – guess it wasn’t really my year. πŸ˜‰

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