Wimbly Lu

Sometimes it rain on us when we least expect it.
And that's what happened this random evening when I'm about to head out.
Made an appointment with my awesome friend to finally, FINALLY, go to Wimbly Lu for dessert.
My gosh, I have been arching, wanting, 'desperating' to go to this dessert place for ages and till now I haven't step in.
To think it's that near to my place as well, but nope I just haven't made any effort to go there for afternoon dessert.
This week needed chocolate therapy from my studying so there it is, my perfect opportunity to head down, put myself on a guilt-free dessert eating and be happy.
After all, (dark) chocolate have anti-oxidant which is good. And in desperate times like this, you need chocolate.

So at 2.45pm, I message Shermin and told her I'm leaving home now, to see her outside our destination.
And literally I reached there within my scheduled time.
But moments later, it started to drizzle, rain, shower, thunder, lightning, tornado. Okay, exaggeration much, but you get the point.
And my freaking bike is suffering in the rain.

Moving on.
Their menu is already on the table so you're pretty much always staring at it. There's just no way you can not look at it the whole time you're inside the cafe.
Didn't really know what to order though, since it's my first virgin time inside the cafe.
Don't mind the cream cheese container in the picture, brought egg tarts for Shermin and I chose to put it inside this container.

 
I love the interior design of the place, and the effort put in to ensure that it takes your mind off things that bother you, but you're here to enjoy a good dessert, coffee and chocolate.
One lovely idea for me to decorate my room with. Black butterflies on the wall (yar right, my mom would scream at me first).

For the ceiling, it was decorating with mini kites and stuffed bird.
The more it makes you feel like you're in an outdoor cafe, but you're still indoor.
The glass ceiling further bring out the effort, and together with the sound of the rain, gosh, you kind of feel like you're away from Singapore for that moment.

But as the rain got heavier, they switched on more lights and the light just change the whole scenery of the place again.
Immediately you see people (like me) taking out their camera and taking pictures.

 
Oh come on. Admit it.
It's like every girl's dream to have a room decoration like that.
Freaking romantic moment please. A moment of silence to enjoy the romance.

We ordered three types of dessert to share; Root beer cake, molten lava cake and waffles with a scoop of rum & raisin ice cream.
And an add on order of fries.
 

Personally, I felt that the root beer cake is the same as lava cake, just that in terms of appearance, it's not as brown as the lava cake.
And I kind of couldn't taste much of the root beer, but that's just me.
Interesting presentation though, to be served in a wine glass.

Next up is the waffles.
I guess it's a must try think here at Wimbly Lu.
There are three choices of pancakes, waffles or crepes.
And topping choices include ice cream with a choice of chocolate or toffee sauce or the usual of maple syrup and butter.

 
What to say about this dish. It's waffles.
Crispy warm waffles with cold ice cream.
You can't go wrong with that.

 
Final dessert to arrive is the molten lava cake.
For me, I'm a hardcore chocolate lava cake person. And I'm still finding places which have the best lava cake.
Was a little shocked when it arrived without the vanilla ice cream, though Shermin did warn me beforehand that would happen.
And perhaps also why on the menu they state that lava cake cannot be takeaway, only dine in.
It's a lava cake alright, half melted chocolate inside.
It just wasn't enough, maybe its the ice cream part that is missing or that it was still inside the baking cup, maybe it just don't have the appearance.
I wouldn't say it's not nice, but it's a decent lava cake.
To me, I feel that it's disappointing. 

Personally, I still prefer the one I had at Wombat Cafe over this.

Last but not least, our fries order.
And they had to come in a dim sum style.
The table next to us ordered it, and at the beginning I didn't know fries came in such form, so I kept staring at the menu wondering where the hell do they serve dim sum in this cafe.
Ridiculous, yes.
And for that amount of fries, it cost us $4!
It's like maccas fries, just way better and more crisp in it.

Overall, it's a nice decent cafe. Definitely a nice place to spend a lovely afternoon enjoying dessert and taking a break from a fast pace lifestyle.
Service was a little slow, and upon payment, I was tempted to run out without paying. No one was at the counter anyway! HAHAHA.
But now that I tried it, it's a strike off my food hunt list.

What's your dessert place to recommend for me?

Egg tarts and Pineapple fried rice

Another boredom in the kitchen and I decided to whip up something.
So technically I was that bored (somewhat) and when I was suppose to be studying instead. Tsk. So easily distracted.
Had a bit of a morning run this morning around my neighborhood and realized that after half hour of running aimlessly around, I was damn freaking bored!
Moving on, back home, just random thought decided to make egg tarts. Kind of craving for it since yesterday.

Didn't really take much picture of the process since this time I'm working alone, no photographer to help me take.
Plus buttery fingers.
Simple steps to make easy egg tarts, but of course not with the expectation that it will look like those awesome Cantonese or Portuguese kind. But enough for me to satisfy my cravings.

Super afraid that they wouldn't turn out nice.
Like it's been more than a year since I baked egg tarts and baking them again without any proper recipe is kind of a trial and error.
But hey, they passed!
A little brownish on the crust, but but but, the custard part at least look the part!

Last picture before I brought them inside to be cooled down, and the final taste test.
And and and...
DADDY LOVES THEM.
Like OMG, WTF. The past three baking and he didn't like any, so for him to enjoy this is a super big achievement for me.
Daddy's thumbs up achievement unlocked!
Okay lah, mainly also because it's egg tarts, that's why he enjoyed them. The previous ones were too sweet for his liking.

Let's see what I shall bake next that he would enjoy.
*brain storming*

Leftover custard that I just baked in a tin bowl. Too sweet for anyone's liking, although I did add less sugar already.
Thank goodness the egg tarts weren't that sweet.

Recipe:
For the crust;
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 cup icing sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence

For the custard;
1 cup milk
7 tsp sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence

I mixed the butter and icing sugar together first, before I add the egg in and finally the vanilla essence. The flour was estimated to be about to be more than a cup. Slowly add the flour in until it forms a nice dough and divided into twelve portions.
That's when I make the crust using my muffin trays and put them in the oven for about 5 minutes at 175 degree.
In the meanwhile, I made the custard. Heat the milk over low heat and add the sugar. Once the sugar has melted, remove from heat and add the vanilla essence and egg. Do not whisk till frothy. I'm suppose to sieve the custard mixture before pouring them into the molds but I kind of couldn't be bothered.
Baked for another 20 minutes or until the toothpick is clean when you poke the tarts to death.

Took a half hour power nap before I had to cook another dish for lunch.
Mummy was curious to try my pineapple fried rice which I cooked a month back while she was off on holidays.
Wasn't sure how it would turn out the second time, but at least I had better practice with it.
Though then again, I wasn't entirely satisfied with the end result.
Here to high expectations.

Main thing I felt was the pineapple pieces were still too big despite me cutting it again into smaller pieces and I didn't have enough raisins.

Recipe:
Chopped, cubed onions
Chopped, cubed garlic
Dried prawns
2 eggs
Cooked, overnight rice
Pineapple, diced into super small pieces
Raisins
Cashew nuts
Chicken/pork floss
Random sauces for taste

I stir fried the garlic and onions first before I add the dried prawns in. Putting the ingredients at the side of the wok, I added my eggs and immediately scrambled them up. Stirring all the ingredients together, I then add my cashew nuts and my cooked rice. More stirring around in the wok, add random sauces for the taste (mainly light soy sauce, sesame oil, salt) before I threw in the pineapple and the raisins. More flipping around and finally they're done.
Chicken/pork floss are to be placed last on top.

P.S. These recipes that I'm sharing, I found some online, and modified them accordingly to how I think I want to cook them. So it's not exactly the recipe to follow exactly, but to adjust accordingly to your style as well. I'm just taking a lazy method to recipes.

8 Degree

It's Thursday, almost reaching Friday. And guess what?
Tomorrow is my last day of school. That's damn fast that five weeks of school have passed and now I have reached the end of my first term. Next week would be all about studying and hopefully still some fun in between.
All study and no dessert makes Joyce an angry kitty.

Funny random things to do in class today. Since we were almost done with our essays and just left with the submission, we had free period instead, aka nothing to do for three hours.
The day before, I was playing Pokemon on my laptop. Super old school.
And today I was just on Facebook and Instagram, silently begging people to update their status or something for me to stalk. That is until my battery almost died.

Did random weird things in class like removing my piercing and OMG. It freaking hurts like crazy. I mean I just had two pierced last week, and one was healing alright, but the other is hurting me like a bitch. And the ear was kind of getting a bit swollen (Oh GOSH). So today I just did the worst thing to myself. The piercing was getting stuck into my ear, since firstly the ear was getting more swollen (I don't know why) so when it started swelling, the piercing depth is only that much, which mean it almost got covered by my ear skin. Great, I don't know how to explain or show. But pretty much, I had to rip the piercing out, yes literally, my friend beside me heard the ripping sound and got a shock. Almost cried in agony, and had to stop the minor bleeding session. Everything just sounded like a horror movie.
But just to make things sound nicer, nothing bad happened in the end, no infection (thank goodness!), just replaced the first stud with another and now it's look better. Blah blah blah. Moving on. I bought two new studs from nex today! And they had to be my favorite characters as well. Just fell in love.
One was a Batman logo stud. Another was Nightmare before Christmas.
And and and! I found that x-craft sells the Batman logo pendant. Super debate whether I should purchase it. SIGH.

ANYWAY....

It's been a while since I did a little blogging about food places I visited.
This evening I just tried out another new food place, and to think it's so near to my church and yet I didn't find the opportunity to try it.
Even heard my cousin talking about it, but yet it just doesn't seem to be on my food hunt list UNTIL.... The store put up a groupon deal. Damn.
I was won over, bought the deal and made a day out to eat at this place. Damn you cheap deal, making me buy you and making me go there to eat and fatdie.

Anyway, back to the point, here I am (like finally) to try the food out.
And it is said they named the restaurant after Jay Chou's song.
P.S. I never really listen to much of his songs so I'm not sure which one. But the whole place is decorated with his pictures, and even the background music was his songs. The owner definitely a big fan of him.

Ordered a milk tea with rose dips?
Taste pretty much like Bandung. But pretty much what I needed, something sweet and something refreshing for my throat.
Something like itching my throat the whole day and it's annoying.

Egg rolls with pork floss.
And Ashley was telling me about how he ate this in Taiwan and the awesomeness of this dish, but somehow I kind of disappointed him when I had one, and just went nah, don't find it that nice or special.
Maybe I haven't tried the one in Taiwan, so this one I just found it to be alright. Like it's a nice dish, egg rolls with pork floss, but I just don't see anything special about it.
They ought to add bacon, lots and lots of bacon to make it special and awesome.

Simple fried rice.
And again with pork floss. The secret to making dish taste nice? Add pork floss.
But this dish is nice, together with shrimps added.

And now here the beef noddles and the dish that my cousin told me I should try if I ever come here to eat.
So hey, I'm eating it!
The beef is so tender and soft, almost melting in my mouth. Damn, they need to add more pieces, and perhaps in smaller pieces so it seemed like I have more to eat. LOL!
Funny thing, we requested for small bowls so that we can scoop out half to share instead of sharing from one bowl. And they gave us this super small, short bowls, in which it seemed like those appetizer bowl. Erm much?

Our three main course to share.
Simple yet not too bad dinner.

But of course with every dinner, there's kind of a need for dessert.
I don't know about you, but I'm a super dessert person. But that of course depend on the meal as well, and whether they have nice dessert on the menu.

Tonight dessert slightly different. We're having honey butter toast, and topped with marshmallow and strawberries!
Sweetness overloaded! Damn. In one day I had too much fried and sweet food.
Gentle reminder to run it off tomorrow evening at stadium.

But it became flat tofu after Ashley murdered it into smaller pieces.
There goes giant toast, and now we're eating tofu-looking toast for dessert.

But that's our dinner tonight. Our total bill came up to about $39.
The groupon deal that I bought is paying $10 for a $20 voucher, so technically the dinner is $10 off.
Until the next time I purchase another online deal for a new place to try!

8 Degrees Taiwanese Bistro
164 Yio Chu Kang Road
Tel: 62848226

Puking rainbow

Another attempt at baking again, and this time I'm going with more colors.
From the previous traffic light cupcake/cake in a jar, I decided to go with 3 more layers. And finally I got my blue dye. Like super happy that Shermin bought it for me, after my pathetic attempt at finding it at Fairprice and Giant.

This baking session is going full scale as my friend would be joining me as well, and she is going to bake 15 cups of puking rainbow while I'm baking a dozen. With that in mind, I decide to cheat a little and rely on cake mix to get the work done faster, as well to know that it would be easier to get my proportions right for the total amount we plan on baking.

Three packets of cake mix bought just for this session. And I was still worried if it won't be enough. But my next attempt (I know again, omg right, so much cupcake) will be purely from mixing the flour, egg, milk and food stuffs. No more cake mix.

My pretty food coloring waiting to be used.

We gradually add in the ingredients into the mixture until they are well-mixed before they were divided equally (I tried to be as equal as possible!) into six bowls.

Once they are divided, that's when the coloring fun begins.
And it's seriously fun to see how bright or how much coloring you want to add to each bowl.
The purple at the beginning we had a little trouble and it turned slightly grey (horrified face) and after adding more red, it eventually turn to the right shade of purple. Thank goodness.
It's like a mixture of pastel colors!

I learned from past experience that it's a super tedious job to slowly scoop the mixture into the cupcake tray bit by bit. Super time wasting and you really got to have the patience for it.
Instead of repeating the mistake, now I rely on using plastic bag to get the job done faster, easier and cleaner.
Just pour the mixture all into individual plastic bag, and please remember to tie a knot at the end.
And once ready, snip off one end of the plastic bag, and of a right size to get the piping started.

After two layers... One third done.

The whole time, the color mixing just reminds me of sand art.
The kind where you just put sands of different colors into a bottle, and at the top, you plant a cactus. 

My pretty color layers before they are ready to be placed into the oven.
Super excited about how the color will turn out, and how pretty they would be.

But I got kind of too ambitious and decided to all into the oven at once, to save time on doing two batches.
So that's how overflowing my oven became.
And as mentioned in the previous baking post, it is important that when baking in a jar, to place them in a water bath, to ensure that the bottom part doesn't get burnt.
But my worst mistake as well.
At the top, my muffin got cooked too fast, and I wasn't watching them carefully and unfortunately, they got BURNT.
My heart just broke.
Couldn't bear to take any pictures of the burnt top, but even with cutting off the burnt part, my puking rainbow cupcake got reduced by two layers.
Really disappointed with myself for not looking at the oven regularly and taking note when my puking rainbow are ready to be puked at.

So that's kind of how it looked like after I slashed the top off. Not quite a pretty sight.

The 'rejects'. But least they weren't immediately deemed as inedible and be thrown away. Thank goodness.
Mummy to the rescue and helped me to cut off the top burnt part, so that the rest can be eaten as snacks instead.

When all things doesn't go well, quickly cover it with cream cheese frosting instead!
The rare times where you are grateful for frosting and rainbow sprinkles to take the attention away. But then at that moment, I was determined to not give away my baking. Like I don't think I would be happy giving someone my baking that isn't my best. But unfortunately that mean my family members have to eat a dozen cupcakes instead.

The rare perfect one! Must treasure it.

As for the cup ones, they turn out pretty.
From the top view, it's super pretty how the layers turn out. Reminds me of a science experiment.
Once they were out of the oven, I placed them in a water bath as well to cool them down fast.
Had to wait at least 20 minutes before I decide that they were cool down enough to put the frosting on top.
Main reason is that if you do the frosting straight after they are out of the oven, the frosting would literally 'melt' on them instead because of the heat. And we do not want that to happen at all.

Meow. Random picture of my failed cupcakes.
Can roughly see the purple, blue, green and orange. A little bit of yellow, but no red.
Okay, that's the only picture I shall post of my puking rainbow.

I like the puking rainbow in the cup instead. Much prettier and the layers are easier seen.

Puking rainbow recipe:
I used 3 packets of Betty Crocker super moist cake mix
9 eggs
1.5 cups of oil
1.5 cups of water
Red, Blue, Yellow, Green coloring

For the frosting:
1.5 container of philadelphia cream cheese
1 cup icing sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
Rainbow sprinkles

Until my next baking adventure... till then it's the start of a new week, and it's my last week of first term! Time sure pass very fast when you lease expect it. So next week it's my study week, probably going to bake when I'm bored from studying. And run in the morning to kill the calories. 

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mothers' Day to all mothers!

A personal post this Sunday for my mother. Today is Mother's Day and especially for my mother, I feel that she deserve all love and attention today, but not just today but everyday. After everything that she did for me, it's only fair.

From a year ago till now, and even longer back into time, I have disappointed, hurt, broken trust with her countless times and despite everything, she was still there trying to reach to me and showing me that she still cares.

Many times maybe the method that she used wasn't the one that I wanted, I just wanted her to do things my way instead and accept the way I am without asking questions or even controlling me. Those were the worst rebellious times and looking back, I wonder how much my mother was suffering then to bear with me.

I ran away from home, not once but twice. I remembered her face when I walked out of the home and told her I don't want to come back to this house ever again, and empathize on the word that it was nothing more than a house. Her face when I ran from the gate and refused to let her chase me, and even when she caught up to me, I ran again. It was horrible, it was mean and it was hurting. Staying away from home for a week, and not caring whether I have any plans to return home. Even at the airport, when I turned my back against her and ran away from the family holidays trip. How much more can a mother take, I really don't know. I saw her face when I ran down the escalator, I knew how much it is going to hurt, but at that point of time, I didn't care.

But yet time and time again, she didn't give up on me. She could have easily give in, surrender and said that she is washing her hands off me. Leave me to do whatever I want, and don't care anymore about me, let me live my own life, throw me out of the house and leave me to survive on my own. But why didn't she?

That's why when they said a mother's love knows no limit, knows no boundary, it is very true.
A year ago, when the biggest argument happen, and cause the biggest strain between us. So much that for months it was constant argument, frustration, anger and hurt. So much unhappiness occurring in the home. So much argument and so much shouting and screaming. Everyday was a constant pain to go back, that I rather stay out late outside than to return home. It's knowing how much my mood would change 180 degree the moment I step through the gates.

It took so much energy, reflection, time, forgiveness for both of us to reach back to the stage we are today. Only a handful of close friends knew how much happened a year ago, how much I went through, how much trouble was caused. And till today, I still have that police report against me. I still am in my one year probation. Yes, I am under probation. Can't believe it right?

But through that, I learned so much, I learned to open up much more, I learned to be stronger in life and appreciate my mother so much more. I learned to see how much she sacrifice for the family. How much love she have for me, and how much she wants me to calm down.

Then I didn't see it, all I see it is how she wanted me to suffer, how she wanted to bring me back from Australia. I dropped back into depression, I locked myself inside the room for a month, I refused to eat or do anything and days were spent mindlessly in front of the computer, in front of Skype crying,  and doing the worst of slashing again. The whole month was feeling down and I didn't want to talk to anyone in the house, all I wanted to do is get out and get the next flight back to Australia. So much negative thoughts and they all had to be suicidal.

Looking back to how I feel a year ago really makes me realize how much I have improved from that condition. How much I have grown. It's not any easy process, it takes time, effort and most of all, LOVE.

I laughed at myself with amusement when I realized that one of my new year resolution just got broken.
That is not letting life get me down.
When life finally hits me down and I struggled to fight it back.
Lately it's a step down in emotion again, and at times I don't want to wear the fake mask, at times I just want to step away from all emotional attachment and say that I won't let it bother it.
But even as much as I try, I know I can't do that.
I let it affect me, I let it bother me and now I let it take over my thinking.
Yes this is bad.
What is happening between us.