A selection of Hors d’oeuvre

chocolate cubes

This is one of the most awesome chocolates I’ve ever had – it’s made of over 80% cocoa, very dark and bittersweet, with a dusting to finish it.

chocolate cocoa

I think a whole bunch of us in Singapore had way too much of these. I know I certainly did, totally ruined my appetite for dinner.

hors d oeuvre

This is pretty good too – it’s a layered chocolate cake and almost impossible to dissect but let me attempt to describe it – it contains layer after layer of moist and fluffy pastry covered with chocolate. I was impressed, it was so light it felt like I was eating mostly air.

lobster shots

Lobster shooters. I liked this one too – awesomely concocted pieces of lobsters with the accompanying sauces and garnishes in one ready-to-drink (eat?) shot.

liquor chocolates

This were the chocolates that had liquor in it – it’s infused with Bailey’s Irish Cream. I preferred the original high cocoa content chocolate cubes instead but a lot of others liked these. 🙂

3 interesting things I saw while grocery shopping in Jakarta

1. Two feet long aloe vera

huge aloe vera

It’s called lidah buaya in the local parlance, except these monstrosities grow up to 2 feet long (!). The shortest one is easily 1 1/2 foot and the girth is pretty impressive too.

2. Sukkari dates

sukkari dates

The appearance of dates means the fasting month of Ramadan for Muslims is around the corner. Sukkari dates hails all the way from Medina in Saudi Arabia and it’s hard, dry and intensely sweet. The appearance is conical and Sukkari dates are considered a delicacy – premium items that’s very much in demand according to the people at Hero (a grocery store chain in Jakarta). It retails for IDR 35,000 (RM 12) for 100 grams and I ate a couple thanks to the person manning the place.

They also sell Anbara dates – the largest date species in the world, and the polar opposite to Sukkari dates texture-wise. I had Anbara dates a couple of years ago and it’s soft and chewy unlike the “grainy” mouthfeel of Sukkari dates.

3. Short bean sprouts

short bean sprouts

This is something I’ve never seen before despite trawling the specialty grocery stores back home. It’s simply called “short taugeh” and you can see the bean with just a hint of sprout. The unusual retarded sprouting process is pictured next to regular bean sprouts for comparison. It looks like an adolescent trying to grow facial hair. smirk

Posted: 1:55 am Jakarta time (GMT +7)

An awesome pork loin dinner at Kim and Gareth’s

dinner kim

It’s a wonder to see Kim in the kitchen. She’s got everything down pat (even has a system for cleaning up dirty dishes).

kim kitchen

I was there for dinner on Friday, she had a pork loin going in the oven and I puttered around a bit in the kitchen doing nothing particularly useful until she sat me down in front of the awesome 55” TV with a beer in hand.

baked pork loin

Fruit of the loin. The beautiful pork loin with apple sauce. It was marinated for two days!

baked carrot garlic

Baked carrots and garlic. This is awesome! The baked carrots *looks* burnt and dried but it’s actually super juicy and wonderfully sweet. The garlic bursts with flavor too. Very nice.

kim potatos

You say potato I say potatoe.

buttered peas

Peas with slabs of butter.

yorkshire pudding

Yorkshire pudding.

kim dessert

Kim also made this dessert with molasses (?) – it had a bit of a crater in the middle, which I don’t think was supposed to be there but it tasted just fine.

kim dinner

However, the pork loin with apple sauce was the piece de resistance. I really enjoyed hitting that oink. It’s a good cut, nice marbling and tender to boot. The apple sauce does wonders to it.

pork loin

It weighed in at slightly more than 2.3 kg and the six of us (ST, Kim, Lainey, Fresh, Sin Loo and me) finished the entire pork loin. That’s about the equivalent of each of us eating a 400 gram steak…not including the other dishes.

That’s how awesome it was.

Glen Grant 16yo

There was Ben and Jerry’s ice cream brought by Sin Loo and some Hokkaido cakes from Lainey and we spent (well, at least me and ST did) the night drinking Scotch and beer. I got a bottle of Glen Grant 16 year old single malt and thought it would be funny to text Kim while stuck in a jam about bringing a 16 year old but she didn’t get it until several hours after. Picture nicked from ShaolinTiger’s Twitter.

Thanks for having us over Kim and Gareth!

party

It was a fabulous dinner and I totally enjoyed talking about everything from the good ol’ days of rave music to the murder of Canny Ong (I know right, diverse range of topics). We all ended up leaving at 8 am in the morning. This could be a start of a tradition, first time that happened was at Lainey’s birthday – just chilling, drinking and talking till the break of dawn coz that’s how we roll yo. 😉

hb kim

Kim’s a *great* cook. A delicious dinner with awesome company, you just can’t beat that. I had a laughing fit twice that night, can’t remember why but I haven’t laughed that hard in a very long time. Then someone said: You know you’re laughing at *yourself* right. It just made it funnier. Fantastic way to spend a Friday night even though I only woke up at 8 pm on Saturday. Totally worth it. smirk

Plumrose Premium Giant Hotdogs VS Ye Olde Oak American Style Hot Dogs in brine

plumrose vs ye olde oak

It’s a face-off of massive proportions, the sausage event of the century – sixthseal.com is proud to bring to you: Plumrose Premium Giant Hotdogs vs. Ye Olde Oak American Style Hot Dogs. It’s an evaluation between the two different brands of canned hot dogs (sausages) in brine. I hate this stuff. :p

plumrose premium giant hotdogs

This is the first contender – Plumrose Premium Giant Hotdogs
(RM 9.95) a tall and sturdy built cylindrical shaped can containing 6
(six) “Premium Giant Hotdog” (it’s not really that big, to be honest).
😉

plumrose premium giant hotdogs can

Plumrose Premium Giant Hotdogs has an image of a football player at
the back to emphasize the Americana in the product. It’s made primarily
of turkey (mechanically recovered turkey, that is, which isn’t exactly
people per se, but it’s turkey parts) and comes with a serving
suggestion of a conventional hot dog (in a bun).

ye olde oak hotdogs

The second contender is the Ye Olde Oak American Style Hot Dogs
(RM 7.80) a conventional can also holding 6 (six) “American Style Hot
Dogs” in the can. These are the common size hot dogs you see in the
freezers of supermarkets in both length and girth.

ye olde oak can

Now, the thing about Ye Olde Oak American Style Hot Dogs is that it actually has a mascot to go with it. No shit. It’s called Captain Hot Dog
and it’s a sausage dressed in Lincoln-era colors that’s partially
naked. There’s just something very wrong about this, but I can’t put my
finger on it (no pun intended).

captain hot dog

It is apparently UK’s favorite hot dog. Hmm…

Ye Olde Oak American Style Hot Dogs

ye olde oak hotdogs can open

The can is an EZ-open container with a snap off lid, that’s a major
thumbs up for Ye Olde Oak American Style Hot Dogs. I don’t want to use
a can opener unless I have to. The brine looks mighty oily though and
it’s like liquid fat, that’s how vicious the brine solution is…

Plumrose Premium Giant Hotdogs

plumrose premium giant hotdogs can open

The Plumrose Premium Giant Hotdogs requires a can opener to open up
the container. The brine looks more appetizing in this one – there’s no
large “oil slicks” or sudden bobs of fatty material – this one is
brine, and just brine, thank you very much. However, there are two
disturbing patches of brown colored froth at the sides of the can…

Ye Olde Oak American Style Hot Dogs vs. Plumrose Premium Giant Hotdogs

plumrose vs ye olde oak compare

Plumrose Premium Giant Hotdogs wins in both girth and length but is size really the deciding factor? We’ll see…

The Taste Test

Ye Olde Oak American Style Hot Dogs

ye olde oak hotdogs single

The Ye Olde Oak American Style Hot Dogs looks like what the normal
sized sausages looks like. There are wrinkly textures to the side of
the sausage, much like the ones out of the freezer. Bonus points for
getting the look right.

ye olde oak hotdogs bite

It tastes like what “real” sausages should taste like – the skin and
filling is firm and biting into the hot dog doesn’t cause any bursts in
brine (an all too common occurrence with sausages in brine) and it
actually tastes like a sausage. It’s good.

Plumrose Premium Giant Hotdogs

plumrose premium giant hotdogs single

The Plumrose Premium Giant Hotdogs looks like oversized sausages or
gourmet sausages (except we can’t really call sausages in brine gourmet
sausages, can we?). It has a slightly pink exterior and it looks like
its prime. It does look a little limp, but other than that, everything
is peachy.

plumrose premium giant hotdogs bite

This hotdog has one major flaw – the skin instantly slides off and
practically disintegrates when bitten into and the filling comes
pouring out in your mouth like an obscene…er, ejaculation. I did not
like that feeling. No, not at all…

“Who let the dogs out?”

hotdogs german shepherds

Captain Hot Dog, I’ll like you to meet the German Shepherds.

poor hotdog

I’m afraid they like you. I’m afraid they like you a lot…

Ye Olde Oak American Style Hot Dogs wins.

I realized with much regret that I’ve just taught the dogs to go after a weenie, er…I mean, wiener.

Note to self: Start wearing jockstraps.

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