Recipe #13 : Korean Japchae

Once in a month I would have extreme food cravings,

And it's odd that today I suddenly crave of Japchae. LOL.

And when it's Sunday, I usually have the urge to step into the kitchen.

This is when I should cook myself to satisfy my own craving. Haha.

I didn't really study and compare Japchae's recipe this time like I usually would.

I just simply watch one Youtube cooking video and I came up with my own ingredients and measurements.

Speaking of trying to act like a pro! HAHAHA!

Ingredients :

dried shiitake mushrooms
black fungus
small carrot
egg
green onions
castor sugar
light soy sauce
sesame oil
dangmyeon (sweet potato starch noodles)
salt 
vegetable oil

Directions :

1) Soak the shiitake mushroom and black fungus for 2 hours, then cut them into thin strips.
2) Slice carrot and green onions into thin strips as well and set aside.
3) Crack the egg and beat in a pinch of salt with a fork.
4) Add 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil to a heated non-stick pan. Swirl the oil around and make sure that it covers the whole surface of the pan.
5) Pour the beaten egg mixture into the pan and tilt it around so the mixture spreads evenly thinly.
6) Turn off the heat and let it cook using the remaining heat in the pan for about 1 minute. Flip it over and let it sit on the pan for 1 more minute.
7) After the egg has been set to cool down, slice it into thin strips as well.
8) Heat up a skillet and add 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil. Stir-fry the green onion with a pinch of salt until the onions wither. Transfer to the mixing bowl.
9) Heat up the skillet again and add 2 teaspoons of vegetable oil. Stir-fry the shiitake mushroom and black fungus with a pinch of salt, until softened and a little juicy. Transfer to the mixing bowl.
10) Heat up the skillet and add 1 teaspoon of vegetable oil. Add the carrot and stir-fry for 1-2 minutes. Transfer to the mixing bowl.
11) Put the noodles into the boiling water, cover and cook for 1 minute. Stir them with a wooden spoon so they don't stick together. Cover and keep cooking for approximately another 7 minutes until the noodles are soft and chewy.
12) Strain and cut them a few times with kitchen scissors or knife. Rinse the noodles with cold water to stop the cooking process.
13) Put the noodles into the mixing bowl as well next to all the other ingredients.
14) Add sesame oil, light soy sauce and sugar according to your own preferences together. Mix well by hand or a wooden spoon.
15) Add the egg garnish and continue for a final mixing. Transfer it to a big plate and serve.

In the process of soaking the shiitake mushroom and black fungus.

And I actually had a hard time looking for this baby.

Due to the existing korean groceries shop being located far away from my house, 

I have zero intention to head downtown just to get the dangmyeon.

I tried my luck in two of the largest supermarkets nearby my house,

And all they offered were similar products originated from China.

I wasn't amused and convinced by it, 

So I keep ended up driving even further.

Good thing I stop-by at The Peak's City Gourmet.

And eventually save me from driving so far downtown,

When I saw this Korea made dangmyeon seated nicely on the rack.

** Finally satisfied ** HAHAHA!

This is what my final product looked like.

I was so hungry the whole time I actually forgotten to add in my egg at the end. 

I only remembered about it after finishing my food. HAHAHA.

I couldn't say this is the perfect Japchae that I have made,

Because there is somehow either that missing ingredient or a missing taste that I cannot seemed to comment.

 I only know that my odd craving has been solved. LOL.

Shall attempt to cook for Oily next time and let him be the judge.

Original recipe also suggested ingredients such as garlic, toasted sesame seeds, spinach, onion, bell pepper, ground black pepper and even beef or pork meat.

It could differ accordingly to your desired taste,

So no worries, as you are in full control of what you would like to include into the cooking pan.

Drama # - The Innocent Man

Yes. I am one of the K-Drama fan who is currently drowned in the Song Joong Ki (SJK) fever.

And while I am waiting for the latest episode of Descendant Of The Sun (DOTS) to be released,

I need to soothe both my fever and my soul with another SJK drama. HAHAHA!

''The Innocent Man'' with a total of 20 episodes.

It was released in September 2012 and aired on KBS2.

Starring Song Joong Ki, Moon Chae Won and Park Si Yeon.

This is actually the second time I watch this drama.

Oily introduced this drama to me and I cannot believed he actually finished the whole drama in one go.

He is not a fan of melodrama and romance story,

He was only very much being attracted by SJK's drama character at that mean time.

I stopped at episode 8 when I attempted to watch it the first time.

Because the storyline is quite draggy and boring in front.

I still feel the same thing when I start watching it again now for the second time.

But I force myself to hold on until the end because my point is just to watch SJK's acting.

Not only it was draggy in front to me, 

But then all the excess level of flashbacks and evil dramas start to kick in.

To be frank, this wasn't my type of drama at all.

In the end, I did finished watching the whole series though.

And to me, the best part only started from episode 15 until the end.

So, I am giving it a 2/5 stars rating.

I loved both Joong Ki and Chae Won in this drama, they made a great couple on screen.

= Drama Trailer =

= Drama Plot taken from Wikipedia =

Smart and promising medical student^[7][8] Kang Ma-ru (Song Joong-ki) has been in love all his life with his slightly older neighbor Han Jae-hee (Park Si-yeon), a television reporter.^[9][10] He is an adoring boyfriend and she always considered Ma-ru her home.^[11][12][13] But when her situation takes a turn for the worse and Jae-hee becomes desperate to escape poverty,^[14] she meets a man who changes everything—a rich CEO who introduces her to a life of comfort. So she turns her back on Ma-ru, choosing money over love.^[15]

The brutal betrayal leaves Ma-ru fractured—not just angry, but a completely changed man. A few years later, Ma-ru is now 30 years old and works as a bartender and gigolo, no longer a "nice guy."^[16] He then meets Seo Eun-gi (Moon Chae-won), a young chaebol heiress who's being groomed to take over her father's conglomerate.^[17][18] Eun-gi is cold and calculating, business-savvy, and raised by her father to never show emotion to anyone.^[19][20] But Ma-ru intrigues her, and she becomes curious until she can’t stop thinking about him.

Ma-ru decides to take advantage of her as a pawn in his plans for revenge,^[21][22] and Eun-gi falls in love with him, not knowing that he’s using her to get back at his ex Jae-hee, who happens to be Eun-gi's young, gold-digging stepmother.^[23] Just when Ma-ru is beginning to genuinely care for Eun-gi, she finds out the truth and they break up. But a car accident causes Eun-gi to lose her memory, and she enters Ma-ru's life again.

Movie # : The Revenant

Yay, Movie day again!

Okay not really yay, it's another normal and boring day. LOL

and yes... movie night again with Oily. LOL.

Movie on the list for today is "The Revenant"

Which was released on 8th January 2016.

Ever since Leonardo's first Academy Awards news went viral globally,

It really got me curious how good is this movie that grant Leonardo to receive his first Best Actor Award.

So without any further ado, we decided to catch a glimpse of the movie ourselves today.

I am so sorry for the fans of this movie and Leonardo.

It's not that I am not a fan of Leonardo.

I do love his acting!

And I can even watch Titanic over and over again, crying like a baby when he died in the end.

But I fell asleep few times in this movie.

It could have been me being too tired today after all the work load in the morning,

Or else, I have difficulties to indulge myself in this kind of adventurous and survival movie.

Sadly, I can only give a 2/5 stars rating for it.

But I did watch the whole movie until the end, which is about 2.5 hours long.

One thing for sure is, YES, I definitely know why Leonardo deserves to take that award.

His acting in the movie was beyond amazing.

The only sad part was, me failing to enjoy a world-class quality movie. LOL.

= Movie Trailer = 

= Movie's Storyline taken from IMDB = 

While exploring the uncharted wilderness in 1823, legendary frontiersman Hugh Glass sustains injuries from a brutal bear attack. When his hunting team leaves him for dead, Glass must utilize his survival skills to find a way back home to his beloved family. Grief-stricken and fueled by vengeance, Glass treks through the wintry terrain to track down John Fitzgerald, the former confidant who betrayed and abandoned him.

Recipe #11 : Egg Tarts

Today's recipe was inspired by Tastemade after Oily shared me the recipe video.

It has been a while since I last baked something,

So, let's make some egg-cellent fun now!

I tried comparing few different egg tarts recipes online,

and in the end came to my own amended version of recipe.

But still, the result is not the most perfect one yet.

Ingredients :

= Pastry Dough =
250gm plain flour
80gm butter
40gm margerin
1 egg
50gm castor sugar

= Custard Filling =
4 eggs
3/4 cups water
6 tablespoon sugar
pinch of salt
1/4 cup evaporated milk
dash of vanilla

Directions :

= Making the Pastry =
1) Mix all pastry dough ingredients together and bring together until smooth. If the dough is too harden, add more butter / margerin. If the dough is too watery, add more flour.

2) Make dough into one giant ball, cover with plastic wrap and then refrigerate for 30 minutes until the dough is firm.

= Making the Custard Filling = 
1) Melt sugar and salt with water, mix until dissolved.
2) Whisk the 4 eggs. Stir in sugar water and also evaporated milk plus dash of vanilla. Stir and combine everything well.
3) Strain the filling to ensure no lumps and bubbles.

= Baking the Tarts =
1) Take the dough out and divide equally into smaller portions.
2) Wipe a layer of margerin unto the tart mould / pan tray with your fingers.
3) Press the dough into the ready mould / pan tray and try to keep the dough layer uniform in thickness and avoid a thick bottom. Trim off the excess pastry.
4) Use a fork to prick the base of pastry before baking, which will prevent the pastry from puffing up.
5) Bake the pastry at 180'c for 10 minutes until half baked.
6) Pour the prepared egg filling into the half baked tart pastry, and bake at 180'c for another 15-20 minutes.

I have snapped some of my masterpiece progress and found few little tips while baking :

I am using these single steel tart moulds for my egg tart baking.

And if you don't have these, you can also use an egg tart pan tray with the flowery shape.

I coated my moulds with a thin layer of margerin,

Which you could use butter as well. 

Starting the recipe from scratch.

In the process of mixing all the raw ingredients.

In the process of whisking 4 eggs.

After dough is ready, they are being filled into the steel mould,

And pricking it with a fork.

As you can see from the photo above, my dough is over oily,

Which only means I have used unbalance portion of margerin / butter over the flour.

 And the fact that my tarts base is being too thick. HAHAHA.

After that, they are being put into the oven,

In order to half bake the pastry first.

 

After 10 minutes, the half baked pastry are being taken out, 

And to be poured with the custard filling in the middle,

And another round of baking again for the final product.

After the first successful batch, I decided to do more of it with different moulds and sizes.

And I also try another version of tarts, where you can see from the photo above,

The first five round tarts on top of the tray are tarts with un-baked pastry.

I wanted to know what will happen if I am to bake my pastry together with the filling in one go.

Tarts in the process of baking inside the oven.

This is the actual result of my first batch egg tarts.

As you can see, the tarts should have a small gap between the outer crust and the steel mould.

And when you turn the mould downwards, the tart should pop right out from it.

Thereafter, only that you can transfer the tarts to colourful paper cups.

The thing is due to my over thick crust base,

My custard filling seems to be ugly and looked quite stingy on the portion itself.

HAHAHA!

But after trying out the taste of it, I am pretty glad that it was good.

The crust was nice too, but it would be perfect if it can get a little more crispier.

Even my colleagues said that it tasted like outside selling egg tarts.

If you are wondering what happen to the five round ''experiment tarts'',

It failed to look or taste nice.

Either it was over-baked crust + bubbly custard filling,

Or else it would be un-baked crust + watery un-cooked custard filling.

LOLness.

So okay, next round I shall improve on my dough making and tarts moulding skills. LOL. 

Movie # : My Name is Khan

Wednesday is movie day!

Oily is not joining me for movie tonight after work.

So I have chosen an Hindustan movie tonight "My Name is Khan"

Which was released in year 2010.

It's an rather old movie but brings a deep an meaningful moral.

Talks a lot about the difference in religions and how people are mistreating each other because of the difference. 

I give it a 5/5 stars rating.

Since I am a huge fan of Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol.

SRK's acting as an adult with Asperger's syndrome is totally fabulous.

And from how the movie will actually touches your heart,

And also reflects the humanity value in our everyday life.

My favorite script line in the movie would be the teaching from Rizwan's mother : -

"Remember one thing, son. There are only two kinds of people in this world. Good people who do good deeds. And bad people who do bad. That's the only difference in human beings. There's no other difference. Understood?"

= Movie Trailer = 

= Movie's Storyline taken from IMDB = 

Rizwan Khan, a Muslim from a Borivali section of Mumbai, suffers from Asperger's syndrome, a form of high-functioning autism that complicates socialization. The adult Rizwan marries a Hindu single mother, Mandira, in San Francisco, After 9/11, Rizwan is detained by authorities at LAX who mistake his disability for suspicious behavior. Following his arrest, he meets Radha, a therapist who helps him deal with his situation and his affliction. Rizwan then begins a journey to meet US President Bush to clear his name.

Haul # : Purchase from Little Lady Boutique

Just when I have already give up on buying more new clothes for CNY 2016.

I just realized I have ordered 3 dresses online after I came back from my UK holidays.

And I have totally forgotten about it!

Because... at first they wanted to cancel my order due to out-of-stock.

But the page owner said she will try her best to rush my order for me since I have already made the payment for her.

And guess what? The parcel reached just in time right before CNY!

DPE International Express Counter Service from China.

They even provide you with a clear tracking service on their website.

My dresses being wrapped nicely in transparent plastic bags.

Just so if you are curious what my 7th piece of Cheong Sam looked like.

This is it.

I am going for red color this year :)

Dress 1 - A combination of pink + violet + purple body fit dress.

Dress 2 - White + red dress.

The warehouse made a color mistake on my dress for this one.

Was kinda disappointed that I couldn't get the red one.

The owner even apologize many times and offer to refund me for the dress.

But since the dress has reached my place. 

I just told her that I am glad to take it as what was given to me :)

Dress 3 - Black skater dress

This is my second time shopping at Little Lady Boutique.

And I must say, the page owner did a very great job in serving her customers.

Fast, friendly and polite service first of all,

Which is also the main reason why I like to shop at her page.

Very clear instructions from the page owner.

Clothes are sold at a reasonable price and the actual product looks exactly like what was shown inside the picture.

Quality is above average but is good enough for me with what I predicted and can get in such prices.

Here is her direct instagram page : - https:// www.instagram.com/littleladieee/

Do support her and may you enjoy your online shopping at Little Lady Boutique ;)

Foodie # : > Grilled Pork Chop Set > Zinox Bar & Grill

Happy New Year 2016 to all my family, love ones, friends and my lovely blog readers as well!!

If you have been following my primary blog, 

I have just came back from a long holiday.

And today is actually my first day of back-to-work.

Upon reaching the office in the morning...

I am being invited to join a small dinner together with my long-time-no-see colleagues.

Thanks to them, I suddenly get the chance to write my first foodie post in 2016.

We decided to try out The Western Menu in Zinox Bar & Grill.

It's situated at 1st Floor, Block H of Plaza 333 Millenium.

The restaurant is very full tonight! Despite it's a Thursday night.

 We were given an outside table after being put on the waiting list for 25 minutes.

One important advice from me : It is very advisable to make a table reservation first via phone call before you come. Or else, you will be put the waiting list by first come first serve basis.

 But the waitress who serve me is very kind enough to calm us for waiting outside.

Although I seems like being a little heavy questioning,

She still answers all my questions politely with a smile.

I should have asked for her name, then I can highly recommend her in my blog. HAHA.

For tables situated outdoor, they have an extra service bell being fixed on top of the table lamp. 

Which is actually a must for all restaurant, to improve their service.

I really don't like it when I have to wave my hand and call for service over and over again, 

but still they didn't notice me at all in the end.

For tables situated indoor, no service bell but the night light is being switched on :)

Front and back page of the menu was taken from Zinox Bar & Grill Facebook page here : https://www.facebook.com/Zinox-Bar-Grill-1661829017393581/timeline

After placing all of our orders,
We were moved to the indoor table, Thank God :)
It was kinda dimmed inside with all the red tanglung lights.
The whole environment looks reddish in colour.

One big projector screen and one TV is provided inside the restaurant.
Not only the place is suitable for dinner,
the owner is also making the place suitable for chill out session with buddies too especially during football seasons.

Our food start to arrive one by one after approximately 10 minutes.
Mine appears to be the last, only arrived after 25 minutes.
Gawd I am already starving at the end of edge. LOL

The first one on the top left of the photo is Bird's grilled chicken chop, which costs RM 15.90.
The second one on the top right belongs to Shirley, which is the crispy chicken chop, costs RM 15.90 too.
The third menu at the bottom left is Lina's grilled lamb chop, which costs RM 19.90.
While the last one on the photo is my grilled pork chop, costs RM 15.90.

All tasted so-so only for me.
I personally think that both the grilled chicken chop and lamb chop are more preferable in taste.
But my marketing supervisor, Bird strongly suggested that the lamb chop tasted the best among all of it.
The crispy chicken chop need a little more improvement in my opinion,
The fried flour layer is too thick and the over fried texture has covered the tenderness of the chicken.
As for my grilled pork chop, the meat is seriously too thick,
Causing the overload harden texture,
My teeth instantly work as a chopper and meat grinder for the whole night.
I bet I have lost at least 1-2 kgs on my cheeks tonight due to the excessive jaw exercise. HAHAHA.

Since it is going to be Bird's birthday tomorrow,
We decided to give her a little celebration in advance.
Due to the ''no-chance-&-no-time'' for preparations,
I just simply grab a muffin and some macaroons from the nearby bakery house while I am on the way back home.
It only looked good inside the photo, but the taste is very very off.
Definitely will not recommend it to anyone at all, sorry.



A series of the birthday girl's photos.

The night will never be complete without a group wefie.

It was a night full of crazy laughter, heavy dinner and light beer,
And together we released all the office stresses and issues.
5kgs of weight directly being drained off from all of our heads tonight!
Thank you once again to Bird who was the sole driver of the night, and Happy Birthday Bird!
May you stay awesome always and be blessed with many returns :)