Wyeth 2008 Gala Dinner (21.01.08)

Another non-photography-related post. But you know, it's a gala dinner, beside than everyone dressed up nicely, we - Prevenar central team got the pharma best team award that night, so, allow me to share our beautiful photos and happiness here.
Prevenar central team includes Benson (the boss), Samuel Cheng, Susan Lee, Ivan Wong, Elaine Chuah, Bryan Lau and me.

The best team with our product managers, Angeline (lady in yellow jacket), Lawrence (the guy stand on the most right hand side)

The 3 pa-jiam monkeys (Elaine, me & Bryan aka Benson's girls & boy) with pharma division secretaries - Stephanie & Vivian

The 3 monkeys with Alex (Northern Prevenar colleague) and Tazo girls (Sheilee & Joey)

The best team
Standing from left: Susan, Bryan, me, Ivan & Samuel
Sitting: Elaine & Benson

CSG7 Committees Gathering

During my college time, I joined the community service program - an adoption programme under Langkawi Project in year 2000. Our responsibility is to go to those rural villages, teaching those kids in their academy, trying to tell those parents how important education is... mainly we were there to close the educational gap between the students live in the village and city, but of course, closing the gap is not a project which can be finished in a day or a month.
Those who join this program need to spend a week in the assigned village. Each 2 of the committees will be placed and stayed in a family. But before that, we need to spend almost 3 weeks to prepare some training materials, rehearsals, plan and discuss some activities to the kids and their parents.
In the program, I was assigned to group 7, which all of the other committees were came from different faculties and courses. After spending about a month with each other, we were pretty close and even after we graduate, we still keep in touch and have a reunion gathering each year. This year, we planned to have our reunion at Awana Genting.

This time, I'm in charge of the food.
We have prawn, dumplings, fish ball, vegetable balls, meat balls, crab stick, toufu, mushroom and other steamboat stuffs.

Yummy, food readied to eat

This year, we have 13 members.

Tung long design at the entrance of Genting First World Hotel

Silly Mun Yee & me

Tat Neng, the happy just-married man

Yung Mei

Me & Vivian

Another happy couple

Wyeth 2008 National Sales & Marketing Meeting

I've been missing for about 3 weeks since my last post. Why? Because last 3 weekends I was being fully occupied!
On 12/1 - 13/1, I went to Genting with my community service group mates. This is our annual gathering, but this year we wanted something special, in stead of having dinner in KL, we planned a DIY steamboat dinner at Awana Genting. I didn't took much photos that day, because I was in charge of food... so, of course I'll be busying with the food, also the most important agenda is to catch up with my group mates, so, the "limited" photos that I took will be posted in my next post.
On 20/1 - 23/1, my company was having our yearly national sales & marketing meeting at Avillion, Port Dickson. The resort is very very beautiful. We were staying at the water chalet... wow wow!!! And I heard, the room charge is somewhere around RM500.

Welcome band at the entrance

A bar where they served us welcome drink. Isn't this photo beautiful? I love it.

Oh no, I forgot to bring my swim suit. When I looked at the pool, I wanted to jump in.

Walk way to our water chalet.
But, we have to walk extremely careful with our high heels, it nearly spoil my high heels.
(Some must be wondered why we wore high heels to beach resort. Hey, don't forget, we were there for meeting, of course ladies usually will wear high heel. And we were having a gala dinner there, so, I brought another even killing high heels)

The water chalet that we stayed

Sun chair (is this the name for this chair?) at the balcony.
My room mate said she and her ex-boyfriend were once sitting there, watching stars and listening to her ex telling her his favorite star. So romantic!!!

This was my romantic room. These rooms and water chalets were meant for those newly wedded couples to spend their honey moon here. You will know why when you see the shower room.
There's a window between the room and bath room, when you open it, you will be able to see your husband or wife showering inside. hehhee I don't have the picture, because we don't want to open the window AT ALL!

Our meeting handbook with beautiful phoenix on the cover.

No phoenix in the resort, but there are 2-3 peacocks.

Beautiful purple water lily. Must be very sweet, see, bee's there.

Hazelnut & Strawberry Jam Cake

PROJECT FAILED!
When I looked at the recipe, I thought that's quite easy, manatau...
I failed because, firstly, I don't have a proper oven to bake the sponge cake, end up, the cake was too dry on the outside and too moisture inside, so as a result, the hazelnut paste can't stick to the cake and the cake collapsed when I pressed too hard to apply the paste on the cake :(
Secondly, maybe the hazelnut paste that I made was too dry too.
Sometimes, when something look ugly but it taste good, but, my cake was ugly and taste bad :(
I'll still share the recipe here, see if anyone of you interested to do it, you can try it yourself.

Sponge cake:

170g sponge mixed
4 eggs
30g ground hazelnut
1/2 tsp cake emulsifier
50g corn oil

Hazelnut paste:
200g ground hazelnut
35g caster sugar
3 tbsp rum
3 egg yolks
1-2 egg whites

Some strawberry jam

Method:
1. Sponge cake: Beat all ingredients (except corn oil) until fluffy. Pour in corn oil and stir until well mixed by using hand.
2. Pour batter into a 7" round cake tin. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree for 35 minutes until cooked. Remove and leave to cool (pic 2 & 3)
3. Slice sponge cake into 3 layers (because my cake is too short, so, I only sliced cake into 2 layers). Spread some strawberry jam onto a slice of cake and cover with another slice of cake (pic 4).

4. Hazelnut paste: Combine all ingredients (except egg white). Add in some egg white and stir well. If the paste is too dry, add in more egg white until the paste is spreadable. Spread hazelnut paste onto whole cake.
5. Pipe the remaining of hazelnut paste onto the surface of cake. Bake in a preheated oven at 180 degree for 8-10 minutes until the paste is turning into grey.
6. Remove and pipe strawberry jam onto the cake. Serve (pic 5, 6 & 7).

Recipe from Yum Yum Magazine

Hazelnut & Strawberry Jam Cake

I'm now baking a hazelnut & strawberry jam cake for my 2001 CSG7 (Community Service group7)members. We are going to Genting for our yearly gathering this afternoon. I'm posting this while waiting for my cake to be "ding" in the oven. So, stay tune! Will share the recipe and pictures out when I come back from Genting tomorrow.

Kelvin & Siow Hui's Wedding

Gong Hei, Ho Hei...
This is the beginning of their wonderful lives, another little life is coming...

NOTE: Please mute the playlist before click play this video

Photos were taken by Redblish photographer

Hollander Torte 荷兰杏仁派

I'm in the mood of baking today and this recipe is related to almond too (seems like I like almond very much lately). When I was flipping my mom's recipe book, I thought this is quite easy, that's why I wanted to give it a try, but...

RICH SHORT CRUST PASTRY:
100g butter/margarine
60g icing sugar
1 egg yolk
200g plain flour, sifted
2 tbsp strawberry jam (or any fruit jam)

FILLING:
120g butter/margarine
80g castor sugar
2 eggs
80g plain flour, sifted
100g ground almond

DECORATION:
30g flaked almonds

METHOD:
1. Pastry: Cream butter and icing sugar till light, add egg yolk and cream till well-combined. Add flour and mix into a pliable dough. Rest for 20 minutes.
2. Roll pastry in between two sheets of plastic till 3mm thick and big enough to line a 22cm/9" pie dish.
3. Remove the top plastic sheet, invert and place the pastry over the pie dish. Press neatly and remove the excess pastry from the sides. Brush strawberry jam on the base.
4. Filling: Cream butter and castor sugar till light, add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Fold in sifted flour and ground almond, mix till well-combined.
5. Pour filling mixture onto the pie dish and spread neatly. Sprinkle flaked almonds on top as decoration.
6. Bake in a pre-heated oven at 180C for 35-40 minutes till golden brown. Remove, leave to cool before serving.

(Recipe from Baking Made Easy by Agnes Chang)

The toughest part was when I wanted to invert and place the pastry over the pie dish. The pastry was a bit dry, I think most probably is because it is suppose to be very crusty, I tried to place the pastry twice over the dish, but failed, then my mom was suggesting me to place the dough on the dish and spread the dough on the dish.

Another suggestion is, you can choose those jam with fruit inside, when you bite the pie, you can eat the fruit too! I think I'll try to slice some fresh strawberry and place on the jam layer. Yum...

So far, my neighbor children and my parents have tasted it, and yeah, they reviews are positive! hehehe.

December Photos

Oh no, I ate so much in December, I've been non-stop craving after my good friend's wedding. After 2 posts of Hajime and Basil Leaf, I still got a lot of food photos in my folder. And, you see, this is the reason why I have gained so much of weight and my wallet has become slimmer. So, my new year resolution for 2008 are, deng deng deng deng...
SLIM DOWN & EARN MORE MONEY!


Chocolate Éclair @1920
Look nice, taste... erm...

There's a time when I told my friend, Stephanie, that I love chicken/duck rice (烧腊饭), she asked me to try out this shop in Taman Connaught (same row with Domino's Pizza) - Sun Ming.
So, I brought my mom out to eat with me. When we were there, there's a long queue "da bao", I lazy to find a table (I don't like to squeeze my fat body in that jam packed shop to look for a table), so, we "dap toi" (share table) with 2 ladies at the corridor.
We ordered their best seller - roasted duck and my favorite bbq pork (烧肉). The food came after 30 minutes of waiting. I told my mom, it better be nice to shut my bitchy mouth.


My favorite - BBQ pork (烧肉)
For me, too much of fat... forgot to ask them to give us lean meat

The roasted duck with crispy skin... oh, the more fattening, the more I like

Wanna know if it is nice? oh yes, definitely...
See, I gained another kg there

Christmas time, baking time...
My own baked almond cookies, some of my friends said nice, part of them said not good enough... ok, will try again next time

Le Meridian Hotel, KL sent these cupcakes to my company, and my big big boss's secretary gave 2 for us to try...
Now I'm thinking, shall I try baking cupcake too?


Marmalade Kafe (Bangsar)
Address: 1F-18, 1st Floor, Bangsar Village II,
1, Jalan Telawi 2, Bangsar Baru, 59100 K.Lumpur.
Telephone: 03-2282 8301

My colleagues know that I like Pizza Uno's breakfast set, but I can hardly go there because I live in Cheras, and Pizza Uno is in Taipan, USJ. Lazy Sam is not going to get up super early and travel all the way to Subang for the breakfast set. So, she said Marmalade in Bangsar Village II (obviously Bangsar is nearer to me) has very good and healthy breakfast set too.
On Christmas, next day after we all came back from Langkawi, we decided to bring our Penang colleague (yes, he joined us to Langkawi and followed us back to KL) to try out their breakfast sets.

Nice view
But my colleague said:" make sure you sapu sufficient sun block lotion, or you will get burn"
Aiyo, nobody ask you to sit there for 4, 5 hours ma.

Nice interior

The breakfast sets
The bottom set is a super large breakfast...
I like the soft boiled eggs, yummy
Everything was fresh, fresh vege, alfalfa, whole meal bread, sausage, bacon, baked bean, sautéed button mushroom, served with juice and coffee or tea
My comment: Fresh, Healthy and Nice!

After a month of non-stop craving, I gained 4kgs... gosh...

Basil Leaf

My 1st post in 2008. Actually should post this last year, but December is a happening month, there were too many things to post, so, has dragged this post to this year. Happy New Year to all! May this year of ratatouiee bring you lots of luck and love, health and wealth.

On Christmas night, I was having dinner with some of my high school close friends at Basil Leaf - one of the fine dining restaurant in Jalan Damai. I felt kind of... strange, because last time when we were studying together, we used to hang out in fast food restaurants, or the most Nando, that was considered very luxurious, but now, we were going for this fine dinning... Well, I think we have really already grown up, we earn our living and spend the money that we earn. I wish that our friendship will never change, friends forever...

Actually the food in Basil Leaf isn't too expensive, we ordered 2 appetizers, 6 main courses, 2 desserts, a bottle of wine, 5 plates of rice and 2 bottle of mineral water (guess what? a bottle of mineral water is RM6 whereas a plate of rice is only RM5), and we spent only RM338. Ok ma, right? And in overall, we think that the food is nice, we like it!

The menu
Basil Leaf - Thai & Indochinese Indulgence

Golden Calamari Rings (RM17)
My favourite
(opps, it's time for me to check my cholesterol level)

Mango Salad (RM14)
Saliva flowing down to my throat...

Asparagus with Garlic (RM17)
Omnivores like us ordered all meat dishes, so, the waiter suggested us a dish of vege. So, I picked this.

Smoked Fish Pineapple Curry (RM26)
Thick curry, can't really taste what type of fish they use, and I think it is not spicy enough

Pha-neng Roasted Duck (RM14)
(Something like rendang roasted duck with lychee, yum...)

Pandan Chicken (RM27)
Aromatic juicy chicken wrapped with pandan leaves

Banana Flower & Chicken Tom Kha (RM13)
Chef recommended dish, but the soup is too creamy for us

Mixed Seafood Tom Yam (RM14)
Oh, another favorite of mine!

Water Chestnut & Jack Fruit Dessert (RM10)
I love this Thai dessert

Pan Fried Banana with Honey and Ice-cream
It's an Asian style of banana boat

F.R.I.E.N.D.S
(from left, standing: Choo, me & Weng Hing; sitting: Stephanie & Soo)

Basil Leaf Restaurant
35, Jalan Damai,
Off Jalan Tun Razak,
55000 Kuala Lumpur.
Tel: +603-21661689
Fax: +603-21432689