Pig's Anyhow

Sunday, 4 November 2012

MaKaLong part2!

In part 1, I wrote about my MakaLong's journey from beginning to success(I think la). So now it's time to show off my end product. :)

The first picture was the last batch of MaKaLongs which were made with the "no brand" parchment paper. The next one was where I used a "branded' parchment paper, which was thinner and smoother. Color was also added to the MaKaLong.

As it turns out, the batch of pink MaKaLong was a success! It's hard to describe the happiness and satisfaction as the MaKaLongs started to rise in the oven beautifully, especially after a series of failures. They had even feets and looked really nice. :D Also, I had made some lemon curd which I assumed it would fit well to this sweet dessert, and I believed that this combination did not disappoint after hearing to comments from my wonderful people around me who were willing to makan my stuff, thanks!

As one of my friend's R.O.M was nearby, I have decided to make this for her! Long story cut short, in the end, had tried making out one more filling type which was orange buttercream other than the inital chocolate ganache. They in total, I had three flavors for my multi-colored MaKaLongs. Not to forget, my own D.I.Y box~

A few things to note from this experience:

1) This MaKaLong is quite delicate; every step needs to be properly done.

2) Many factors affecting the end result; just have to trial and error.

3) Putting the MaKaLong is air-conditioned room is a good place to rest the MaKaLong before it goes to the oven. Leaving it in this humid country would take forever.

4) Have tried putting a pinch of salt in the process and it seems like the MaKaLong is less sweet(not sure on this).

5) Coloring has an impact on the time to bake, and the appearance of the MaKaLong; original ones have higher feets as compared to colored ones for my case.

Lastly, I would like to thank my friends who helped to try out, my sec. school friend who lend me the coloring and another of my long time friend whom with her artistic talent helped with the overall design of the whole gift.

Monday, 29 October 2012

MaKaLong!

One fine day, my friend and I were chatting and suddenly the topic of makalong pops up. She wants to make it and hence, I also started my makalong journey...

Not a smooth sailing one though as it was considered successful after a number of failed attempts. Before that, studies were made on the internet and soon it was realized that this is a very delicate dessert. Many factors could cause the failure and what's more some issues seems explainable!?!?

Anyway, my first attempt looks OK before baking. But after it was out from the oven, it's easy to see that it was a failed attempt; there's no feet!!! Still remember that it was left resting for hours before a skin was finally formed before it could be brought to the oven.

Forget the taste already but went to do more research after the first attempt and days later it was time to heat up the oven again. It seems better but there's still no feet and it cracked on the top surface!

Back to the internet world to read more, study more and ponder on which areas could be the root causes... not long after another attempt was made. This time round finally there are feets! But the negative sides are still the cracks on top and the feets are lopsided. As usual, it's back to the internet and try to back track on what went wrong.

A couple of more tries in the kitchen yields the same results, but finally the cracked issue was solved after placing another tray below the makalong tray. Guess it prevents the bottom heat from becoming too hot, thus cracking the top, but that wasn't after playing around with the oven temperature, timing and positioning of the tray -_-...

And finally, after trial and error, the issue of lopsided makalong is also solved! The root cause is due to the baking sheet... cannot believe it sia. Apparently the "more expensive" ones are thinner, and flatter maybe, that's why the feets were evenly spread round the bottom!!!

To be continued... :p

Thursday, 16 August 2012

Food I like, I makan.

Yes... this is about the food that I like/ate from young till now. Sad to say good things don't last, some stalls have gone into the history books. :(

The following might not be the best, or even average in others' eye, but in my opinion they are nice and I am glad that they are around~ no need to be the best to be satisfied, nice means nice and that's sufficient.

Anyway, this will mainly be about food in the western town(and those food that i could think of while writing this :p)

1) Eunos market's Roti Prata: When I was young, there used to be a prata stall near my house, and what's so special was that they have chilli(ikan billis) to go with it. It was perfect to my taste. Sadly, it closed down after some time and I never got to eat it till I get to work in the east(around 10 year gap). In my memory, the chilli is exactly the same, prata is freshly made and nice! And teh tarik is the perfect beverage to complete a wonderful breakfast. :)

2) Bukit Timah's Beauty World shopping center, Mutton soup: Another one of those that I ate since young. I think I forget the taste already as it has been very long since I last taste it. There was once I went there just to have it, but unfortunately it was not opened! Will definitely find a time soon to go makan this long lost soup that I loved.

3) Yuhua Village Food Center's porridge: Xiang Ji's porridge is another food that has captivated me. It's just a simple, traditional congee yet so nice. Simplicity at its best. I always order the fish porridge as the fish is big, fresh, nicely cooked with generous portion. If I remember correctly, it's just 2.70 without egg.

4) Jurong West Blk 505 Market's coffee: There are many nice coffee stalls all over Singapore, but whenever I want to buy kopi I would head to this particular stall located at a corner. It's nice, and sometimes they use milk cans to make the kopi. Also, they would "tarik" the kopi to make it smoother, and somehow nicer I guess. It cost 90 cents. :)

Interior-1

Got tons of nice food to write out, but...that's all folks for this post... till next time ba! :)

Monday, 28 May 2012

Exam Result...

This is a story of a guy who came from a rich family and think that he's the king. So during the A level Chinese examination, he got 35 marks only... although he got the best tutor and somehow got to the best school.

Luckily, there's a chance for him as we all know he can have another shot at it. But instead of looking at the real cause of his failure, he went on to blame the exam paper, the school and have his tutors replaced. As he got the $$, this is nothing to him.

Soon, it's time to face the battle again. And as expected, he fails yet again. But this time, he got a slightly better mark of 38. Under normal mindset, this scoreline would not mean to be much of a positive sight. However for him, he felt quite happy that he has improved! He kept on harping on it, broadcasting as if it is a victory but to the world outside, it's a complete failure with all the necessary resources around him.

In his own living world, the world is always at fault, not him.

In the end? We shall see...

Thursday, 10 May 2012

何为天荒地老，

誓言有时候还是不说的好。。。

今天在电台97.2听到这首老歌，好听! 不知他为何没唱下去。。。还是把这首歌的歌词放在这儿吧! “爱你不是爱给别人看” 还有 “我总是听你说” 也是很棒的歌! 歌手叫做-->叶良俊。

我还能想到的新加坡歌好歌，如新谣时代的歌曲啊，还有梦飞船。。。

看来老了，但对我而言只有好听和普通和不好听的歌! :)