Monday 9 July 2012

Late Post

Hello all,

I do apologize for the absence of my post since april. APRIL? Geez.. time flies, doesnt it? I'm busy these days due to my training in a french restaurant. Many things to learn, I've been on the floor for 2 weeks and now I'm in hot kitchen, starter section. Well, the working environment is nice and the food also nice! Many compliments were given when i was a wait staff though lunch not so many people come by. Anyways! Here are the picture updates..

Isn't it such a beauty?


Frozen quiche for event outside

Homemade cupcakes




Friday 27 April 2012

Food for a cause

Bon soire Foodies!

What a tiring day I had gone through, I went to The Big group company office located in Solari Duta mas for my interview, but it's not about the interview that I'm going to talk about. But THIS: B.I.G Independent Grocery store is a bloody hell massive store!! I love it. I love the concept and of course the product. Didn't get a chance to take pictures of the store but you can try click the link above. 

I bought Red cheddar, nutella, Natural fresh Gelato popsicles and Burnt Sugar!! It's kinda pricey if I may say, I spent about RM50.00++ for those lovely dovey.


It's a ROCKY ROAD people! Walnut Marshmallow with a taste of rich, dark, chocolate that will melts in your mouth. I'm not a fan of walnut but overall this is good! My friend bought the mango popsicles and it even taste better than this one, it was so fresh and it's like you eat a whole mango. 





Burnt Sugar for a cause!!! You can check out Burnt Sugar here. The packaging is really attractive and catched my eyes instantly, with no second thought, I did straightly buy it. But I'm kinda of disappointed of this product cause I just taste the caramel which is too sweet and overlaping the taste of the chocolate. Well, at least they got a nice packaging! 

Anyways, I Applaud them for using unrefined golden fair trade sugar. They source their sugar from Kasinthula Cane Growers in Malawi - one of the poorest countries in the world. Last year the Fairtrade social premiums they received from sales of Burnt Sugar paid for one of three boreholes to be dug — providing clean drinking water (reducing water borne disease) — as well as preventing crocodile attacks on the women as they collected water from the river (it’s the women’s job to collect water). As well as receiving a guaranteed fair price for their sugar, the farmers also directly receive a set premium per ton of sugar, which is to be used for social projects like building a clinic or school, for example.

For more info about Fairtrade - see www.fairtrade.org.uk

It's a good product for a good cause! Food matters after all folks! 

Bisous,
Agy.

Food Language Class: Food on the MAP

There's plenty of food on the map: Bacon, Georgia; Cherry, Nebraska; Rice, Minnesota; Pine Apple, Alabama; Orange, Florida; Orange, Indiana; and Orange, Texas for starters. Here's the right turn down the road to locations that sound appetizing enough to dig on.

We're going to talk about places named for foods, and foods named for places.

Mayonnaise : Mahon, Spain

Who doesn't know this basic dressing? Basically, mayonnaise is an emulsion (oil-in-water emulsions that are stabilized with egg yolk lecithin). It is made by slowly adding oil to an egg yolk, while whisking vigorously to disperse the oil. This sauce goes well with shrimp and chicken. But what is the relation between this dressing and a name of a place? 


Mayonnaise
Yummy mayo!














It must have been one fun parteyyy! The year was 1756. The french army, under the duke of Richeliu, had just defeated the British on the island of Minorca, off the coast of spain. Even the duke's chef honored the victory with some great food for the celebration, including a special new dressing. He called it mahonnaise, after the island's port city, which named Mahon. Later the name was changed to mayonnaise. 


Turkey : Africa
I wonder where did turkey come from? Was it from Turkey literally? Lets put in a little history here. 

400 hundred years ago, the African guinea fowl found its way onto English dinner plates. This tasty bird originated in Africa, but it had been imported to Turkey before being introduced in western Europe. Since it had come to England from Turkey, the English called it the Turkey-cock
Im a turkey but i'm not Turkish!

When the English came to North America, they was a native bird and assumed it was the same guinea fowl they were already familiar with, the turkey-cock! So the called the American bird a Turkey. Later it was discovered that this American bird was not the same species, but by then everyone recognized it by the name turkey. (Surprisingly, the natives called it a furkee.) 


So the american bird retained the name of a country it had never even visited. And today Thanksgiving would hardly be Thanksgiving without the un-Turkish Turkey. 

Sardines: Sardinia
Why can't you buy fresh sardines at the grocery store? The answer is surprising: Because a sardine is not a sardine until it is packed in a sardine can.

Actually, there is no living fish called a sardine. Any one of twenty different species might end up as a canned sardine. The most common are young herring and pilchard. The name sardine comes from the island of Sardinia, where sardines were first canned in 1834.


Can you point out where Sardinia island is?
Buffalo Wings: New York

They sound like part of some kind of mutant bird. But actually, this is a dish of chicken wings that was originally made in Buffalo, New York - Buffalo chicken wings, more commonly known as Buffalo wings. 


Teressa Bellisimo and her husband ran the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, New York, in 1964. One night her son and his friends came in and wanted a snack. So Teressa mixed a new sauce for the chicken wings she had on hand. She added some celery and dipping sauce and served the snack.

Everyone loved the wings. Their popularity spread first across town and then across the nation. They became known as Buffalo wings, and today people everywhere ask for them. Chillis, TGI fridays also have buffalo wings and it's really goodddd.. Thank you Teressa :)

Saturday 21 April 2012

Late lunch: Seafood Angel Hair pasta.

Evening folks,


Don't misunderstanding me when I put late lunch for this post title. No kidding, I cooked this yummy pasta this afternoon but I just got time to write about it now, I hope it's not too late. Anyways, it's a very simple recipe I do after found several ingredients I left in the fridge.


Recipe for: 1-2 Person.
If you left these:
  • 5 Prawns
  • 1 Bell Pepper --> I do only left one! 
  • Angel Hair Pasta
  • 1 Lemon
  • 50 gr Butter
  • Garlic
  • Cajun Seasoning
  • Olive Oil

10 Minutes. That's all what it takes:
  • Mise-en place: Chopped up garlic cloves and bellpepper. Setaside.
  • Boil up the prawns until it's pinkish and half cooked. Meanwhile, in the other bowl, boiled up angel hair pasta (only took about 4 minutes for this pasta until it's al dente)
  • Set a hot pan with butter (around 1 tablespoon), put garlic into it until it's aromatic smell come out then you put your half cooked prawns, then pour 3 tablespoon of Olive oil. let it stand for a while. 
  • After that, you can put the cajun seasoning and paprika. 
  • Put your cooked angel hair pasta into the mixed prawn. Finish it with a squeeze of lemon juice. 
  • Voila! C'est Fini !

Note:
I do only left one bellpepper and it was red. Moreover, the thyme that I put on my dish was just for additional since the dish was lack of "green." Overall, the dish taste good and spicy. If you don't like it to be spicy, just put less cajun seasoning and you're done! The spiciness of the cajun, freshness of the prawns, crunchy of the paprika and last, tangy and freshness of the lemon juice. It works out all together. 

I hope you can try this at home and just do a simple cooking yet tasty. ;)
bon appétit & bonne chance !!

Bisous,
Agy.

Friday 20 April 2012

Voyage à: Paris (Finale)

Salut à tous !!

Sadly, this is the last part of my study trip to France. I just had one day to go around Paris this time, not good not good. Yeah, I know it's a very limited time especially when it comes to P.A.R.I.S. but I can do nothing. Anyways, I will put our trip to carcassone and albi as well. It's another region in France :) 

In Paris, we went to Montparnasse to see Paris city in 56th floor. We could see the entire city on the top of the tower. It's breathtaking. You could see the eiffel tower, arc du triomphe which is very small from the top, notredame, jardin du luxemburg, etc. It's one of the top list places you should go whenever you travel to Paris.



After we went to montparnasse, we're heading to see Mona Lisa artwork in Musse du Louvre. Well, I'm not an artist, I'm just a connoisseur. Looking into thousands of painting, sculpture, artwork, it's just unbelievable and amazing. How they did that? I mean, that's a really a true talent. I kept walking in silence, being amazed of each of the painting, it looks so real, artistic,and beautiful. I bet it's worth a thousand miles for me to see these divine paintings. 

It looks like they're being photographed, not painted








The mystical Mona Lisa















After saw those impresive artwork, it's time to see the icon tower of the city. you know. Eiffel Tower! Let me give you a true fact of this icon tower. 






Eiffel, or Eye Sore?

When eiffel tower was built, there were many people who thought it would be the ruin of the great city. The famous tower was build for Paris Centennial Exhibition in 1889. It was scheduled to stand for only 20 years-but for critics, that was 20 years too long. Construction was barely under way when a committee of fifty writers and artists launched a public campaign against what they called "the useless and monstrous Eiffel Tower." They bemoaned its "barbarous mass overwhelming and humiliating all our monuments." Other critics referred to the tower as a "a lamp post stuck in the belly of Paris" and "a giant ungainly skeleton." Can you imagine that? 

People didn't approved and kept up a drumbeat of criticism, until radio was invented and proved to be the tower's salvation. The thousand-foot structure turned out to be an excellent radio tower that could receive messages from far... farr.. away. In 1907 the French government decided the tower couldn't come down-it was too valuable as an antenna. Function followed form this time around, and saved a Paris monument from certain destruction. What a fact!

At night, we went to Sacre coeur. It was a lovely night and we spent sometime to have dinner there. A splendid view yet very relaxing. I wish I still had time to go back there. *finger crossed*


















Here I do include the other pictures that I took from carcassonne, albi, and around Paris (notredame, jardin du luxembourg, etc)
Albi, southern of France
I miss bread in France. really
Jardin du luxembourg
It makes me envy. :p 
Carcassonne. Freezingg
Cassoulet. Traditional dish in France 


What I bought


Laduree or Pierre Herme? Pierre herme sil vous plait!
Bought the sucre Livre of Laduree

What a trip. amazing sight, delicious food everywhere, shooping galleries. It's a wrap!! I'll be back to France. Someday! ;)

Blogging + Cookies = Epic
Bisous,
Agy.