Tuesday, November 28, 2006

lesson #057: project egg tart

1. Project Egg Tart

Attempted to make the dim sum dessert egg tarts today. Baked everything from scratch, including the pastry (instead of buying a ready-made one from Sains!). So of course, I am proud. Admittedly it's not all me because Zhi helped me lots with the heavy-duty stuff, like spreading the pastry:


The dough is so damn sticky and bouncy and tough! V hard to spread and have to use our fingers for lack of a roller to thin it out.


The custard mix. I used my Woman's Intuition and overdosed on the sugar. Result?


They tasted delish for a first attempt! Admittedly the crust is a bit thick but I'm very satisfied with the custard taste. Sweet and just semi-solid enough to bite into yet not wobble all over the place.


Why can't I look as good as Zhi in the picture?? Bah.


Looks can be deceiving!

2. Poker Winner

After the baking session I was in a good enough mood to play poker, despite having lost to Josh over a foolish hand just the day before. My luckiest hand was having a full house from the flop, a ten full of K's, and I think I milked it for what it's worth. From that hand on I knew I had a solid chance of getting first place. Anyhoo it felt good to beat Henrik, who's been winning way too much last week.

3. Thank God It's Friday

Went there on a Saturday for Thiru's farewell dinner. I'm not exactly close to this gang:


And there were a coupla more people besides.

Anyhoo, as I was saying, I felt awkward right from the get-go because I didn't know half of the people who came, and the half whom I did know, I wasn't exactly close to. It's kinda like pulling teeth actually, the whole dinner. But some people were nice enough to make small talk and make me feel more at ease.


Bad lighting inside TGIF. Oh and we waited 1 hour for our RESERVED table, which I think is ridiculous but that may be 'cos I'm too used to the Singapore way of treating reservations.

4. Italian Dinner

Nicola set the standard high for our upcoming Chinese / Asian fusion dinner. Last Friday, he cooked an amazing fusilli al ragu (he made his own sauce), followed by a second course of chicken with wine sauce or summat, anyway it just tasted so good that I ate until I was stuffed. The 2 courses were accompanied by the tastiest red wine I've ever drunk, it's Italian and called Chianti. Niceeeee.


Our housemate from France, Coralie, posing with the table Nicola had set. So pretty! Like having your own personal restaurant & chef. Italians certainly ARE purists.


Nicola, our wonderful chef.


The Chicken That Made Me Fat Yet Happy.


Burp.


After dinner, we started teaching each other phrases in the different languages that we know. Sherazade showed us our names written in Arabic!

5. Closing Statement

It's 4.14 am now and I'm sorely tempted to eat the remaining digestive biscuits sitting on my table. Digestives are bad, bad, BAD! I think I'd gained 5 kg so far being on this exchange! Anyhoo. Gonna be fastidious and wake up early tomorrow to start working on my lovely hedging program essay. Actually searched the school database and found 20 articles that may be relevant. I can just imagine how FUN it will be reading them. On the Scrumptilicious Scale of Fun Things To Do, I think it'll be in between a blind date with a Star Trek fan and a visit to the gynae.