Cake 6 (another Vanilla Sponge Cake)

My sister couldn't forget the first vanilla sponge cake taste that I bought for my birthday so here she bought again the same vanilla sponge cake with different toping fruit, the price is same however its IDR 131.000 (US$13 or SGD$ 19). The taste was quite different without blueberry jam inside it, and yes I forgot to take a pic of the slice of the cake. The toping are from strawberries and peach at first I thought that it's mango not peach. The strawberries were not fresh anymore and rather spoiled, me and my sister are quite upset after tasting the cake this cake is still as sweet as before but the no blueberry jam and most of the strawberries almost rotten and the price is same like the 1st cake I bought. Not a nice cake after all, is shangrilla hotel bakery standard is decrease somehow after 3 weeks only, definitely it is.

Cake 5 (Strawberry Chocolate Shot)

This cake was bought in a rush by me for my sister's birthday, why in a rush because I didn't want her to know that I bought her a birthday cake so in turn I just bought it in last minute when the "Komugi" (a Japanese famous bakery in my hometown) almost close, and this cake was the only left. The price is about IDR 160.000 or US$16 or SGD$ 23.
















After tried a slice of the cake it turned out to be a really good chocolate mousse cake, the chocolate mousse is indeed sweet however the layer of chocolate cake is not sweet at all. On top of that could taste a bit taste of wine but not too strong alcohol like rum or sherry from this cake, the first layer of the cake top with chocolate mousse with strawberry fruit then put in the second layer of the cake. A really nice chocolate strawberry cake.

Cake 4 (Vanilla Sponge Cake)

This is my birthday cake, I bought it by myself from Shangrila hotel. The price after discount 40% (after 8p) is IDR 131.000 (US $ 13.1 or SGD $ 19), quite cheap cake for international standard hotel bakery. The cake called "Vanilla Sponge Cake" but I wondered because I hardly tasted vanilla from the cake, the cake is made from 2 layers of cake, first layer top with apple crust then put some blueberry jam at the middle of the cake then they put the second layer of the cake. The taste is ok but the cake is too sweet which not into my liking so that's why the chef put the apple and blueberry jam which have sour taste to balance the sweetness of the cake. The 1st birthday that I celebrated in my hometown after 5 years in Singapore, not bad cake after all.

Cake 3 (another chocolate indulgence)

I know the chocolate cake looks really simple, but to tell you the truth it's not just a common chocolate cake it's a liquor chocolate cake. The power of the liquor was just too strong until I couldn't feel the taste of the chocolate just could taste the sweetness only. However when I tried to warmed it up in the microwave the chocolate turned out to be liquid. That's unusual chocolate cake for me. Not to enjoy it when it's warm but really enjoy it when eating it cool.

Cake 2 (birthday cake)

9th of November is my beloved nephew birthday, and look my brother ordered a winnie the pooh cake. The cake was very big, we celebrated the birthday party at his school and everybody liked the cake. This cake was a 3-layer cake, traditional Indonesian favorite cake that everybody really enjoy.

Cake 1 (Chocolate indulgence)

This is a birthday cake for my mom's birthday on June. My brother and sister bought it together and it turned out to be too sweet good cake, they bought it from "Breadtalk" Indonesia for about IDR 130.000 ( US $13 / SGD $19) pretty cheap cake, but in Singapore I don't think there is this type of chocolate cake. Anyway when I ate the cake at first it's too sweet and common but when I warmed it up for about 1 minute in microwave it turned out like the "mud cake" from "coffee bean and tea leaves" in Singapore, really fantastic taste the chocolate just simply stay in my mouth and the indulgence turned out to be longer than I expected. This cake is perfect to just feel the happiness of eating a cake.

BBQ Grill Fish at Marina Square

I really like eating bbq grill fish original recipe from Indonesia but to find the really good one that suits my taste is a difficult job. The bbq grill fish is actually dorry fish fried with flour then grill for a while and served with bbq sauce, rice, egg, and cabbage. The bbq sauce and the fish tenderness are the most important things for this meal. I've tried a few bbq grill fish and here is my opinion:

1. In Plaza Singapura, kopitiam foodcourt. Indonesia bbq restaurant. The fish is hard and the sauce is a way too sweet and if want it with veggie (cabbage and carrot) have to add S$0.5 more, the price itself is about S$5. It is not a really good food and I wonder why there are always a long queue at the lunch time over there, may be because people see of other people queuing so they also do the same thing.
2. In Wisma atria, food republic food court, just opposite teppanyaki and beside dim sum restaurant and toast box. The food is decent, the fish is grill again with a brush of butter so the fish is soft and the size of the fish is quite big, the rice is soft, the chili is very good (the chili comes with anchovies), the egg is common, and the bbq sauce really taste good with generous amount, the veggie was a lot (no need to pay extra for the veggie). The price is s$5.8 but it's worth the price.
3. In Marina square, in the food court. The rice is hard, the fish tasted good and tender, the egg is common, the chilli is good, the veggie tasted good and the bbq sauce is really good. However the portion is quite small. The price is S$5.
   

This is the bbq grill fish from Marina square food court, everything is fine except for the hard rice.

Taiwan Beef bbq Noodle from Plaza Singapura

I often see this Taiwanese restaurant beef noodle at Plaza Singapura down stair and wondered about the taste of their menu. The restaurant located just beside sakae sushi, opposite mobile phone store which is beside Poh Kim dvd-vcd store at underground level (1 floor after KFC and DBS). At least my friend and I went to dinner there. We tried their signature dish beef brisket noodle, beef bbq sauce noodle, and not to forget Taiwan Mango sorbet ice with fruits famous dessert. Unfortunately due to the hunger I forgot to take picture of the beef brisket noodle and the dessert. However if I'm not mistaken the price range of the beef brisket noodle is about S$10 and it's quite a big portion, the bbq sauce beef noodle is about S$8.5, and the mango sorbet ice (the most popular one there) is about S$6.5.

My friend told me that the beef brisket noodle tastes good, too bad I didn't try it because it won't be approriate to take food from a hunger person.... (both of us were starving).


This bbq beef noodle doesn't look appetizing, it is indeed doesn't taste good. The beef is not fresh so I couldn't taste the real taste of the meat I was just like eating some tasteless food (even the sauce is tasteless just had a bit sour taste), the noodle cooked too long and really it's better to have yong tau foo noodle compare to this one. I don't feel like eating this noodle again.


However, the dessert is really nice and it is a big portion. Me and my friend were sharing the dessert, it came with a big bowl. The fruits are strawberry, mango, and kiwi soaked into sugar water and put into fridge I think it tasted good, and the mango sorbet is really nice.

Overall if I choose to go there again I would rather having only the sorbet since the other menu seems unappetizing and may be not their specialty.

Manhattan Fish Market Vs. Fish & Co.

Wow so I just found out that actually Manhattan fish Market owns by Malaysian and Singaporean whom were partnering to set up the restaurant, and I thought that this restaurant was some franchising from western restaurant.

Anyway I've yet to try Fish & Co. but I like dining in Manhattan fish market. The platter is big and more than enough for 2/3 persons and the garlic rice is a real yummy. I enjoy dining out in Manhattan fish Market with friends since we can order a seafood platter (Manhattan, fisherman) rather than go there alone and just order 1 menu only.

I heard that Fish & co. is not so different with Manhattan fish market, except that they offer more meals and the size per menu like fish and chips is bigger compare to latter. Well Fish & co. also offers raisin and saffron rice (interesting!), even though I bet the taste of fried calamari / squid / sotong and the fish and chips just probably similar to the one in manhattan fish market.

I can't wait to dining there again but I think I should wait for my exams finish 1st then I can celebrate it by dining there..... (Darn exam, Hope I will pass). STUDY STUDY STUDY.....

Thailand beef noodle 2

This Thailand beef noodle, I bought it from Thai's fair last time. The used 3 different parts of beef, the meat with tendon, the meatball, and the ordinary meat. Found that the meatball taste different because 1 tasted sour while the other tasted a bit sweet, wonder for the sour taste of the meatball if they're using not fresh one/ leftover. The soup was ok, the noodle was too much and tasted not nice. The beef meat was tasteless and the best part was only the meat with tendon. Overall the price just S$4 what more can I expect from that ??

Jackie Chan and Daniel Wu in Plaza Singapura (30th March)

t was truly amazing yesterday when I was in Plaza SIng, I just wonder and wanna see Jackie and Daniel in person. Turned out all the floors were occupied so I couldn't get a clear view of the stage and had to go to the highest floor to see them (blame me for came just on time), Daniel and Jackie late for 1 hr (they supposed to be there at 7p but they only there around 8p). See this pic:

Thank goodness I have Nokia N95 with 5Mg super clear shoot, believe it or not I took this pictures with my phone camera with the highest level of zooming in.

The crowd was very excited when Daniel and Jackie already on the stage, Jackie was super friendly and say hi 1st to the fans, he even say Hi to the fans upstairs while Daniel not to chattily and I don't know is it because he is shy or he's just too tired (they had to go to Plaza Singapura and Vivocity to promote their latest movie in Singapore). I barely could here what Daniel was speaking about but he got louder applause than Jackcie. Anyway I like Jackie. Hope the movie SHINJUKU ACCIDENT is good, since My Japanese favorite actor Masaya Kato (Naomi, Unfair, Kiss, etc) also starring in this movie.

Jackie took pictures of the crowd using crew's camera, that guy is really good make the fans happy while Daniel just stand there. The MC was a female from a mandarin station radio in Singapore.




This pic I took it while I was coming down by escalator from the 2nd floor (35 seconds only to get quite near shoot). Then I try to zoom in, see the result



They left after about 30 minutes, then the crowd also over. Nice ending even though I was quite tired at that time.

Thailand Fair in Thailand Embassy in Singapore (Last day 30 March 2009 10a-9p)

Yesterday my friend told me about Thailand's fair in Thailand embassy in Orchard road (just beside Isetan and opposite Zara and Esprit building). So we went there after she finished working. My friend and I shared the food, we bought a lot.

We tried Mango glutinous rice S$5, oh yes the mango is really fresh and good with a similar taste like Indonesian mango (Arum manis). They just peel and cut the mango so it's definitely fresh. Choose the stall inside the food part, there are 2 stalls while the one at the outside food part sell bad mango glutinous rice (the color of the mango already changed).

My friend bought this fish cake, shrimp and crab balls. The taste is ordinary overall even though the small balls content shrimp and crab meat but it's not fresh but still edible to eat, well the price is just S$2 anyway.

I bought Pad Thai (Thailand version of fried kway teaw). They're using Thailand's special noodle that usually used for the beef noodle. The price is S$4, I bought it from the stall opposite Lerk Thai (Lerk Thai also open their food stall there). In Pad Thai, they also put raw bean sprout which is not into my liking so I didn't eat the bean sprout, and also medium cut of spring onion which is ok for me. There is only 2 shrimps in pad Thai and they also use chicken meat and last cover the fried kway teaw with egg. The taste is ok and I can smell the fish sauce.

Last I bought Tapioca with coconut milk from Lerk Thai only S$2, it's a small portion but since we bought a lot of food so it's enough for me and my friend. The tapioca is just too sweet and the coconut milk is already left too long in an open air so I wonder whether it's still edible to consume it or not, but I still ate the tapioca with the coconut milk.

I also tried the chiken wing S$1 each, really tasty, the taste was really nice because of the seasoning. Too bad I forgot to take picture of it.

I think this thai fair is ordinary, many stalls selling original products from Thailand like clothes, crafts, dried banana; pumpkin; and taro, massage oil (the smell is really strong), they even have bar garden where the guests can sit and chat in the tend while listening while the band is performing. However the band is not too good I barely understand their English song.

The food cannot be compared to the restaurant and snack stalls in Thai Village (just behind Lavender MRT) but it's still ok.

Chocolate fondue at home

I made this chocolate fondue and eat it with my friends.

Ingredients: Chocolate fondue in package (53% cocoa), strawberry, pear, fuji apple, blueberry, banana, orange, chocolate milk liquid.

How to make:

1. Wash all the fruits . Peel the pear and apple then cut to smaller cubes and soak it in salt water so the color of the fruits won't change. Cut strawberry into 1/2. cut banana to smaller pieces. Peel and clean the orange.


2. To make the fondue. Put the chocolate cube in small bowl (fondue bowl), put the bowl in the middle of the water in the pan (I used a pan). Wait until the chocolate melt then pour chocolate milk a bit so the chocolate will become more like liquid, do it until it's easy to stir the chocolate. Do not over-pour the chocolate milk because the taste won't be like chocolate anymore.


3. Light on the candle and bring the bowl of chocolate above it. Serve it with fruits.

Thailand Beef Noodle

Sawadika!

Thailand's fair in Takashimaya just finished about 3 weeks ago. At that time I tried Thailand beef noodle (around S$5). The taste was not impressive but the beef slices still juicy, the soup was good, however the meatball was salty and didn't taste like beef (seemed they cooked it too long). Overall the one that I tasted in Thai Village is better compare to this one and the beef noodle in Thai village just cost S$3-s$4 only. Not too mention Thai village restaurant has the best thai's food in town compare to other Thai's restaurant and the price is absolutely cheaper.

Forget about Thailand beef meatball, Indonesian makes the best beef meatball which is juicy, springy, and the soup is remarkable (too bad I don't have any indonesian beef meatball pic yet).

Korean Rice Cake (making it by yourself)

I like Korean rice cake but when I tried for the 1st time in korean snack counter in Takashimaya basement, I found the taste of the soup of the rice cake just too bland and the rice cake was overcook and the portion was really small (in a small bowl) for S$3. So I decided to cook it by myself and first I have to find where is korean supermarket in Singapore? Turned out that it is in cathay cineileisure, Orchard in basement just beside Kabayashi japanese restaurant. The name of the supermarket is Seoul if I'm not mistaken.

Anyway Found the rice cake in a big package for about S$7 approximately, and the red pepper sauce is about S$4. Then I cooked it at home and usually it is cooked with korean fish cake, but I don't want any fish cake which is quite fishy so I changed it with chicken (less skin) sausages.

Ingredients:

Onion, garlic, sesame seed (already fried), korean rice cake, rice cake red sauce in package, water, olive oil (just a bit will do)

How to cook:

1. Put the rice cake in the hot boiling water, and bring it boil for about 2 minutes then threw the water and rinse the rice cake with water, leave it.


2. Cut the onion to smaller pieces. Cut the sausage to smaller pieces. Smash the garlic.


3. Pour olive oil (other type of oil also can) into the frying pan (non-stick) then put the onion, saute until the onion soft then bring in the sausage and saute it until the color of the sausage change. Bring in the water (1 medium mug), then pour the sauce but not too many. It deepens actually, if you cook the whole package of rice cake then pour in all the sauce but if 1/2 package of rice cake just need 1/2 package of the sauce. Bring it to boil and put salt because the sauce is already sweet. Taste it.


4. Pour in the rice cake to the frying pan, low down the fire and bring it in to simmer. If the liquid already left just 1/2 from before then pour in the garlic and mix it well. Simmer it again (low fire), try the taste.


5. Put down the fire when the liquid is already 1/4 of the pan. Put the rice cake in the bowl and sprinkle it with sesame seed.

note: Don't forget to always try the rice cake whether it's already soft or not because it's still hard when it was inside the package. By bring the fire low (simmer) then the rice cake will absorb the stock of the chicken sausage.

Because I like spring onion so I also put it into my rice cake.

HOUSE OF HARMONY aka. Das Haus der Harmonie synopsis / summary (Cast. Fann wong, Maggie Q, Philippe Brenninkmey, Daniel Morgenroth)

This drama basically is the story about love surpassing many boundaries across countries, races, traditions, and cultures. The summary is here:
Singapore, Mei ling was a pure Chinese sweet girl, grown with strong traditional values from a wealthy family. One day she met Richard Barclay through faith and fell for him while taking care of him because he was stabbed on the road and she rescued him. Richard lost his memory, but even before he lost his memory he already attracted with Mei ling and once again he fell in love with her. Both conquer their loves but Mei ling was engaged to another Chinese guy from a wealthy family forced her to tricked her family that she was dead and left to look for. It's a taboo to be with a guy who is not your race at that time, unfortunately Richard already left to U.S. leaving her a letter that he had to settle some problem in U.S. before come back to Singapore to marry her whom now pregnant with his child, but years pass Richard never come back still Mei Ling was waiting for his return....
After the child born 24 years passed, no news of Richard made Harmony (Maggie Q) their daughter decided to searched for him in Los Angeles. In Los Angeles, Harmony who was pretty and had nice body charmed Gideon Barclay, Richard's step-son. Gideon told Harmony that Richard died after the ship which supposed to brought him from Singapore to U.S. sunk off, Harmony sent letter to her mother about the truth made Mei Ling finally died as well. Harmony hence wanted to live her life in Los Angeles, Gideon who fell for her helped her to set up a factory with partnership the factory is "House of Harmony" to produce traditional Chinese medicine. Gideon hopelessly in love with Harmony and so was she but Fiona (Gideon's mom) who wanted her son to marry with woman with same race and equal status ruined their relationship. Harmony married her best friend, Michael (Jason Chan)just when Gideon back from Singapore to Los Angeles. Gideon wanted to withdraw the partnership but he saw that Harmony was pregnant and thought that she pregnant with his child even though she said it's her husband's child, finally he understood that Harmony wanted to marry with another guy just to save her and the child from embarrassment(another taboo thing at that time, pregnant before marry) and cancel the withdrawal. Just the time when Gideon married to Olivia, Harmony was in labor, Gideon didn't consummate his first night with Olivia but went to hospital to see Harmony and the baby. There, Gideon knew that he had a daughter, the baby didn't look like a Chinese (while Michael was Chinese) but a Caucasian. Harmony even said that her daughter's eyes looked like her father which was Gideon's and named her Charlotte Mei Ling in front of Gideon and left him afterward non-speech.
6 years passes, faith once again brought Harmony and Gideon to see each other again made Olivia became jealous of Harmony. Michael died to save Harmony and Harmony left Los Angeles to Singapore with her daughter, living Gideon in vain because no matter how hard he tried to love Olivia and forget Harmony he failed to do so. When Harmony need Gideon help about the partnership problem with a company in Singapore Gideon flew as soon as he can to be with her. There Harmony admitted that she never stop loving him and that night they were making love again but say good bye on the next day. Fiona had heart attack rush Gideon to come back to L.A. from Singapore. In her dead-bed Fiona told Gideon that actually Richard Barclay was married her out of pity because she was pregnant with Richard's best friend, but because of her greediness she ruined Gideon's, Harmony's, even Olivia's happiness and ask for his forgiveness. Gideon told her that Harmony's daughter was her granddaughter and she said she knew and asked Gideon to get happiness and mend the things from the past. Olivia agreed with Fiona and talked to Gideon that it's OK for him to leave to pursue his happiness, Olivia accepted Alex's love her childhood fried who was in love with her since they were kid.
On the day of opening of "Hose of Harmony" in Singapore eventually Harmony's grandfather Dr. Sung, Mei Ling's father accepted her as his granddaughter, then she had a phone call that one of her relative was sick so she rushed to go to her home. In aunt Wah's home, Harmony received a letter that said Gideon was ready to be with her made her crying and wished that he was there with her and Gideon showed up, they hugged and kissed.... the end.

Nice drama with not so nice ending. After long hours (4 hours to be exact) watched within these 2 days I expect more for the ending. Guess because of the tight budget so they decided with THIS SO SIMPLE ENDING. How i wish they could shoot one more scene where Harmony, Gideon, and their daughter Charlotte together.

Overall it's a good drama, the acting of the actors are great। Especially for the actor who was acting as Gideon, he deserved the word "EXTREMELY GOOD" FOR his romantic role। Maggie Q had improved a lot compare to "Naked weapon", but now I think she already lost her touch when acting in those Hollywood movies as the sweetness only. While Fann acted really good portrayed a young traditional shy Chinese girl emotion, which is difficult to do now because the truth is we're living in a free-modern country Singapore. Yang Pei Pei good acting as Mei Ling's loyal servant. The actor who was acting as Richard Barclay who showed a direct affection toward Mei ling which was nice just that his scenes were to short, and the actor who's acting as Dr. Sung aka Mei Ling's father who portrayed really good emotion as a father but also man who respected Chinese traditions and values at the same time.

I hope that there are more drama like this kind of love story, so romantic, so sweet, and shows us the STRENGTH OF LOVE. The building where Gideon met Harmony in restaurant was the building that I usually saw of my way to go to Orchard, thought that building was scary because it's old but in the movie it became a beautiful
place.

SEX WITH FORCE

I did my research these few days about RAPE. Why Man Rape woman? Each country has different opinions about it, but cultures have deep impact of sex with violence.

In Japan like many other Western countries for example France, Unites States , doing porn movies is ok and it's legal for the artist to show off their bodies for the photoshoot. Most of this days now movies about rape are popular within numbers and that's quite worrying. Because what most of the rape movies had shown was at 1st the victim refused to satisfies the rapist' desire but by the time the victim begun enjoying the sex with the rapist. Well none of it are proven to be the true because it just movies which shown to people how to stimulate their desires before doing sex. Most of all, in Japanese movies the rapist are widely known as pervert (old guy who likes young girl in senior high school) hereby the rapist will seldom use violence but jut threat the victim to satisfy his desire. Terrifying things are it happened within the people that the victim usually meet within her environment( ex: uncle, teacher).

Different with United States movies, The rapists are well known as the sex maniac and mostly are some strangers. The rapist will do harsh things to force the victims to satisfy its desires, and more violence hence used.

This researc that I've done only best from rape porn movies not from actual life story. In an actual life story the victim will be forced to satisfy the rapist' desire and may be killed after it's done which is happening a lot all over the world. This dangerous situation occur when the victim live alone and the rapist knows about that, a stalker has also big probability to be a rapist.

The rapists don't think much especially about the consequences. They could have disease that transfer to the victims through sexual relatonship , the traumatic experience that makes the victims isolate their lifes from others, the pregnancy cases, and even the insanity both by the victims and the rapist. It's truly horrifying to know about this rapist issues, and enjoying sex is not with force and violence but with love and trust.

I'll do more research about this topic, becaus this topic is irresistibly interesting.

creating new blog

what the heck! I cannot access my old blog daysoflive.blogspot.com because of the new rules so I have to make a new blog. anyway the blog still there so anyone who wants to read about a mobile love story (cast han xue, wallace huo, cristopher lee, yvonne lim) can check it.