Where To Go This Weekend? Island East Market, Hong Kong

Island East Market is such a sight for Hong Kong sore eyes. Here are some of the gorgeous things I've enjoyed there. I've bought a lottt of stuff, ate yummy food, enjoyed my friends' company, had a great time with my family, and I'm just so pissed off that I don't live anywhere near it. Grrrrrr.

Yummy things from Bread Elements.

I bought a loaf of sourdough. Love love LOVE it.


I've bought the croissants too. I absolutely adore how they are savory enough for me.

Next stop, Gary of Joie de Vivre's burger.

Look at the ordering form. How cute!


I had the duck cassoulet. Even the bread is homemade! OB robbed the chips off my plate T_T


Charlotte's AWESOME LEMONADE! Me. Want. More!

The cutest things in the market last week, Spark Studios' baked goods!

I say if it's too cute to be true, BUY IT!

Halloween is coming and these ghost cake pops are just too adoraBOO!


Gingerbread skeleton man!

Too awesome!

Some gorgeous neck candies...


More gorgeous jewelries.

Hello, wallet, get ready to be emptied.

Time for more savories.
Yummy baos from plusixfive Supper Club.

One is rendang, one is pork. Two for HK$70. I love the pork so so so so much!


I was too full but still wanted to try the laksa. The owners are kind enough to pack the laksa with one of the containers they had. I'm making a mental note to bring my own lunch box next time. I had the laksa at home for lunch ;)

I bought the valrhona chocolate caramel fig tart (HK$48). OMG. SO GOOD!

Can't wait to get my hands on them again.


Strawberry shortcake... next time, next time.

If you don't know where to go this Sunday. NOW YOU KNOW.

Visit their website for more info.
See you there!

Super Easy Mini French Toasts

The first French Toasts I tried was the Hong Kong style golden brown deep fried one. I do love it, but I didn't realize that I'd love these non-deep-fried ones, and they are so simple to make too!

Recipe
(yields 6 mini french toasts. they are very rich and filling tho)
- 1 egg, beaten
- half cup of milk
- 1cm thick slice of butter, cut from 1 stick - melted, and 1 tsp for frying (mixed with cooking oil)
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1 small mixed grain bun, cut into 1 cm thick pieces

Mix beaten egg, milk, melted butter and sugar, add slices of bread, make sure the bread pieces are fully soaked in the mixture, let them "marinate" for at least 15 minutes. Heat up frying pan with cooking oil and butter, pan fry pieces of bread until golden brown.

You should get very fluffy, creamy, eggy inner part and crispy outer part. Very yum! And as if these aren't sinful enough...I ate mine with peanut butter, cream cheese, and Nutella. Perfect for breakfast or tea time.

Leisurely Lazy Holiday Breakfast

Ahhh...it's been a while since I've prettified and properly photographed my breakfasts or any meals for that matter. I don't do it anymore, even on weekends! Sobs.

So, finally, I had a chance during my last holiday when my sister was in town. It's a lazy breakfast, because I didn't make anything. I just bought stuff and put them on the table. They are some of our favorites buns from Yamazaki bakery. 


The savory bun has a creamy filling with onion, sweet corn and corned beef with some crispy cheesy bits all over, super yummy! Another favorite of mine is the pumpkin donut with curry beef filling. Awh! Really...how can something so small be so sinful and so yummy?


I love ending every meal with something sweet, including breakfasts. Normally I just have coffee with some cream and sugar, but on a holiday, I had mini chocolate croissant and red bean donuts.

All those and my favorite local food magazine, Eat Travel Weekly (I adore their photography)...just perfect.

Sauteed Mushrooms in Butter, Garlic & White Wine on Butter Toasts - Vegetarian Party Option

Perfect vegetarian option for parties, tea breaks, snacks, or even breakfast!
Super easy to prepare and so tasty!

I got the mushrooms from a farmers market which we visited last weekend.

Wait. A farmers market in Hong Kong???? Really???
Yesss! I'll post about it soon.

Anyway, yes. Fresh produce. Lots of fun. Now, back to the snack.

Recipe
- Your favorite bread, cut the way you like it (I used Yamazaki Onion bread, removed the crust and cut into square-ish shape)
- Your favorite mushrooms
- Garlic, minced
- Butter
- White wine
- salt and pepper

Butter your bread generously, grill on a frying pan or oven until golden brown, set aside. Melt butter in a saute pan, saute garlic until fragrant, add mushrooms, cook until there's a bit of a brownage going, add white wine, cook until the white wine's reduced, season with salt and pepper, done. Add the mushrooms on top of the butter toasts.

Although I am a huge carnivore, no meat does not always mean no good :)

Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls 叮噹聲:神奇肉桂卷

If you've been reading my blog, you know my baking skills. It's pretty minimal. I am bad at following recipes, and generally can't do more than muffins. What the heck, I can even screw up muffins. This is why I hardly try anything more complicated that mixing stuff in a bowl and dumping them into the oven. This was an exception.
大家有睇開我個Blog都知我唔係阿茂, 所以唔係咁識整餅. 我嘅極限就只係整鬆餅啦..就算整鬆餅, 我都試過賴野..

Back in my college days in Jakarta, I buy cinnamon rolls from Cinnabon from time to time. Sweet and sticky on the outside, fluffy and soft on the inside. I miss cinnamon rolls so much, I decided to do the unthinkable and try to make some myself. God help me.
細個係雅加達讀書時成日去Cinnabon 買肉桂卷食. 出面又甜同黏, 裏面就軟同鬆化. 真係另人好懷念. 我決定自己試整, 希望成功啦!


I followed Pioneer Woman's Cinnamon Rolls recipe, because...well, she always makes everything sound so doable and extremely yummy! How did it go?...
今次跟Pioneer Woman個食譜, 因為之前試過幾次都成功

I couldn't believe myself! I did it!
一路整我都唔相信會成功, 因為個樣同完成圖差好遠..但係一焗完, 嘩, 似模似樣!!

Sweet, sticky, fragrant, buttery, golden brown, super yummy, not to mention extremely photogenic!
超好味, 大家如果得閑, 記得試吓

Lazy Weekend Breakfast

My breakfast today...Garden's honey & egg sliced bread...


...with a slice of "cheese" and blackcurrant jam, and a cup of coffee.

My first time trying blackcurrant jam ^_^
Hope you're enjoying your weekend~!

Rolled Toasties - My Low B Breakfast

Just my (another) low-b (idiotic) way to serve toasts.
Perfect for snack/teatime/breakfast.

Use white bread or wheat bread (I love them crustless), add any filling you like...roll them and place them on a lightly buttered pan (well, you can generously butter the pan if you want your toasts to be more golden), brush the top with more butter and grill in a preheated oven until golden.

Easy yummiliciousness! Buttery, slightly crunchy toasts with melted, gooey goodness oozing from the inside...oh lala!

What's inside my rolled toasties?
- the Classic: peanut butter & strawberry jam
- the Indonesian: butter & chocolate sprinkles
- the Savoury Sweet: cheddar cheese & condensed milk
- the SC: peanut butter & condensed milk

I'll try savory versions soon :)
Hello corned beef, sausages, spam, cheese and friends...see you next time!

Hong Kong All Day Breakfast - Hoi On Cafe, Sheung Wan

There are so many things which I love about weekends...
- Waking up early (NOT late), and actually feeling eager to wake up, so that I can start enjoying my weekend ASAP
- Working. (Whhhatttt???)...on something I love doing, such as cooking more intricate things, hand making goodies, and taking pictures with natural sunlight
- The ability to look outside my apartment window (the multimillion dollar view = a parking lot. Haha!)
- Wearing no make up at all or spending extra time (which I normally don't have) dolling myself up
...and so on, and so forth...but one of my all time favorite thing to enjoy on weekends is a pleasant and leisurely...

Hong Kong All Day Breakfast

Last weekend, I accidentally found this charming old cafe just beside the hideously renovated Western Market in Hong Kong's Sheung Wan district.

If you love anything old, this place will charm the heck outta you. It serves classic Hong Kong baked goods, such as cocktail buns (sweet buns with sugar and coconut filling), pineapple buns (sweet buns with crispy crumble-like topping), swiss rolls, and sponge cakes...


Hong Kong's classic beverages...such as bottled Kowloon Dairy milk, boxed vita soy milk and lemon tea.

The metal doors are marked with the shop's name...full of chips and rust


The original floor tiles, warped and faded. The "car seats" are painted red, in a shape I've never seen before. It's like a blast from the past in the midst of Hong Kong's hustle and bustle.

The Good ol' Food

Sliced Beef Noodles topped with fried egg, plus a cup of milk tea.
I know...you might say, why having this outside if you can easily do this at home? Nononono. It's just not the same, I don't know why...but I bet the antique culteries made all the difference!

How charming! I was sooo tempted to steal (nono), ehm, ask to buy these babies off them. But, I don't want to be the person who turned this old place into one of those joints who serve plastic disposable cutleries.


...and for me the sugar tasted sweeter scooped by this lovely old tea spoon. Those are all feasts for my eyes!

Spicy pork noodles topped with fried egg.
The perfect combo of MSG laden noodle with canned spicy pork. My weekly junk food treat!

Hong Kong style French Toast with butter, topped with gloriously golden syrup
The new versions included peanut butter in between two slices of bread. This one consisted of just one thick slice of bread which was so fragrant and creamy from the milk marinate. Heaven! This must have like a gadzillion billion calories. (Did you see the way we pour the golden syrup from the top picture?)

I bet such an old place should have a regular crowd of customers... where everybody know each other's names, chit chat about the golden olden days of Hong Kong, the brits, the economic crisis, their biggest mah jong win, the flat chested girls/skinny boys they went after/who went after them...

I bet this uncle was the loner, seated separately from the other groups of uncles, fiercely concentrating on enjoying his food...and talk about enjoying....check out this uncle below...

His expression defined the word "orgasmic" to describe how good his pineapple bun + cup of hot milk were.

Grilled (Burnt) Cheese Sandwiches

I was thinking quick, easy, tasty & satisfying when I decided to make sandwiches. I told my sous chef of the decision, and the words "upset" and "disappointment" were plastered all over his face.

SC's thoughts = sandwiches = cold = tasteless = going to bed hungry = insomnia = depression = suicidal

Little did he know that those words he thought of were too far from the sandwiches I had in mind HA-HA! Look at these babies, lack of which might really cause depression.

I started with these, my favorite, Maxim's 5 Grain Bread, a pretty healthy start, eh?


Then I added (on each sandwich) 2 slices of cheddar cheese, 2 strips of bacon (nuked to heat up), fried egg, slathered each slice of bread with butter, mayo, ketchup. Slather butter on outer part of bread, press and let each side sizzle on hot pan until the slices of cheese melt and the bread turned gloriously golden.

If you had Discovery Travel & Living ON while grilling the sandwiches, just like me, this is what's gonna happen:

Funnily, SC loved the burnt ones, and discovered a newfound love for sandwiches, albeit unhealty ones *grin* (turning healthy things into tasty-unhealthy-treats, my blessing, my curse *double grin*)

A Leisurely Br-EGG-fast

A day off! A day off! A Day OFF!!! Woooo hoooo hooo!! Oh yeah oh yeah!! Ho yea!! Hoooo yeaaa!!

From the above emotional-nutty outburst, you must realise that I don't get weekdays off very often. So, a leisurely breakfast is a luxury for me.

A weekday breakfast is normally a HK$3.5 tuna-mayo bun (my current favorite, it is gorgeous, I will take a pic and post tomorrow) bought from a small shop called Sakurashima, eaten at desk out of a plastic bag, while checking out work email inbox, the content of which isn't always a pleasant breakfast reading material.

Sooo, a nice more-than-just-one-item breakfast combo, eaten while watching my current favorite series Top Chef, is a major luxury.

The Br-EGG-Fast Combo
- Home made egg and honey bread french toasts, slathered with butter, condensed milk & chocolate sauce
- Beddar Cheddar sausages (sausages filled, bursting with liquid cheddar cheese), boiled
- Scrambled Eggs

Egg and Honey Bread French Toasts
(serves 2)
- 4 slices of Garden's Honey and Egg bread, halved (can be replaced with normal white/grain bread)
- 1 egg, beaten, add a bit of sugar and teeny bit of salt (we are going for sweetness)
- butter/cooking oil
- condensed milk/chocolate sauce/strawberry jam/Sam Talbot of top chef season 2, whatever you fancy on your toasts

In case you forgot how gorgeous it looks, here comes the photo again. In case you're bored of this, well, bite me. Ha-ha!


The scrambled eggs were done over low heat, stirred from time to time to form a nice texture, season, serve. Do NOT overcook. Dry fried eggs, me no likey.

*Other drool-able breakfast posts: Jollibee's pancake sandwich & Hong Kong Big Breakfast*