Healthy Dragon Fruit Smoothie & Popsicle - Perfect For Summer

This smoothie is yummy & refreshing, and it is great for digestion ;)

It's fun for the kids to make too! OB had a great time helping out & he generally likes things more if he's involved in the process.

In goes banana... Mama's heart stopped seeing him using a knife, but papa closely supervised him. Phew..

In goes the chunks of dragon fruit..

And then yakult, ice & honey.

Pulse in blender 'til smooth.

Cheers!

How was it?

All smiles! 

(And hello, beautiful poo poo, bye bye constipation! - oh gosh, being a mom has reduced me to THIS) 

The same recipe can be made into popsicles. Hello, summer!

Recipe

- 1 banana

- 1 dragon fruit

- 1 bottle of yakult

- a handful of ice

- 1 tbsp honey

Pulse until smooth in a blender.

Drink up, refrigerate, or pour into popsicle mold & freeze.

Cheers!

A Night In Cuba - Sugar, East Hotel, Hong Kong

Need somewhere to go to celebrate hump day? Try out Sugar's A Night In Cuba - it's on every Wednesday from 5pm til late. Enjoy your choices of mojito, snacks, the company of your friends/favorite coworkers...

... and don't forget to show off THIS AMAZING VIEW of Hong Kong to your visiting foreign colleagues  or friends or those smug relatives of yours or work frenemies & enjoy looking at how their jaws drop in unison before they mumbled the word "WOW".

Breath-taking.

Enjoy some Cuban inspired snacks...






Enjoy the music and the beautiful people.


And most importantly, enjoy this.

Thanks for the invite, East Hotel.
Advance booking is highly recommended.
Call +852 3968 3738
Visit their website for more info.

Earl Grey Tea Cherry Soda - Refreshing Drinks

Last week, we had a couple of beautiful 23C days in Hong Kong, and I thought summer's over.
But of course I was wrong. We're back to hot summer days again :)
Time for refreshing drinks such as this one.

Recipe (for a glass)
- 2 bags of Earl Grey tea
- 1/4 cup hot water
- 2 tsp sugar (or more depending on how sweet you want it to be)
- 3-5 fresh cherries, pitted, halved
- soda
- ice cubes

Dunk earl grey tea bags into hot water remove after 2-3 minutes, add sugar (it should be quite sweet, considering that we will add soda water and ice cubes later), stir until dissolved. Pour into a serving glass, add soda water, cherries and ice cubes.

Of course you can add booze if you wish ;)

Have a great week!

Coffee Cream Soda Granita

You guys can probably smell my desperation to beat the heat this summer. I've been freezing everything I can get my hands on, including my caffeine :D

Back home in Indonesia, I used to love F&N's coffee cream soda, and it's too bad I can't get it here in Hong Kong. I am trying to recreate it and of course, transform it into a frozen form ^_^

It's super easy and I am very pleased with the result.
Some bitterness from the coffee, enough sweetness and a tinge of tang from the cream soda...in the form of ice!

Frozen coffee.

Oh yeah. My caffeine of choice.

Recipe
- 4 heaping tsp of instant coffee (you can use your preferred coffee)
- 4 heaping tsp of caster sugar
- 1/4 cup hot water
- about 1 - 1&1/2 cup of cold cream soda (it's not creamy at all, it's just sweet)

Dissolve instant coffee and sugar in hot water, pour into a 24oz/3cups/700ml freezer friendly container, top with cold cream soda until about 3/4 full or add bit by bit to make sure that you don't lose the coffee flavor from adding too much soda. Place in freezer for two hours, stir well, put it back into the freezer and simply scrape the ice with fork before serving. After scraping with fork, you can keep the leftover in the freezer, ready for next consumption.

You can serve it topped with a bit of cream or whipped cream, but I prefer mine as is.

My Bastardized Sangria

I could really use some of this right now.
Red wine, diced strawberries, peaches, pears, sprite and ice.
Cheers!

Watermelon & Mint Popsicles for Baby M

In an effort to beat the heat...
I made so many kinds of slurpee, popsicles, granitas, ice cubes, iced drinks, I basically iced everything, it's getting ridiculous!

Remember the watermelon and mint slurpee from yesterday?

I also made it into popsicles for baby M to enjoy.

Did he like?


Sweet, refreshing, homemade, no scary chemicals involved.


Lick, lick, lick!

He couldn't get enough of it :)

Happy weekend, y'all! Stay cool!

Watermelon and Mint Slurpee

Something easy and refreshing to slurp loudly while watching my late night bad TV after baby M went to bed. Watermelon and mint slurpee!

Simply throw some chunks of seedless watermelon (I used about a quarter of a watermelon), some fresh mint leaves, and a bit of honey (if needed) into food processor/blender, pulse/blend until smooth, add a splash of vodka if you want, pour into a plastic container, place in the freezer for about 90 minutes - 2 hours, and slurpppppp~!

Happy weekend, everyone!

Pearl Royal Coconut Water 帝王椰子汁

A friend of mine bought this super refreshing drink at a recent Thai food fair in Times Square, Causeway Bay and I love love love it! It tastes almost as good as the real thing. Very refreshing, summery, and oh-so-tropical! But let's focus on the most important thing. That packaging! How cute!

我老友係銅鑼灣時代廣場既泰國食品節買比我既帝王椰子汁. 真係同真既一樣咁改, 好消暑! 但係最正都係個包裝!

Try it out when you have a chance.

(This is not an ad, nobody's paying me to write this ^_^)

有機會見到就買啦

(哩個唔係廣告, 冇心比錢我的...)

Girls Love Roses - Rose Latte from Caffe Habitu, Hong Kong

Let me reiterate the following...
I am not a coffee expert.
...nor I am an expert in anything.

But as an ordinary girly girl...
Whenever I see something with pink flowers, I'd order it.
I can't help myself.

Despite numerous disappointments of trying something with the word "rose", I keep getting attracted to it.
You know my self control, it's nonexistent!

So, when I saw that Caffe Habitu serves rose latte, rose milk tea, rose cake, rose etc, you bet your ass I was gonna try them. This time, I gave the rose latte a try, and boy oh boy, I was so pleasantly surprised.

I LOVE IT!
The scent of rose is super fragrant, it's perfect with the flavors of rosy sweet milky coffee, not to mention that it looks so damn pretty.
I don't care what is it made of. Rose extract? Rose syrup? Rose water?
I just know that I love it.
That's how bad I am at food reviewing ^_^'

SC ordered mixed berries habbiccino...

...and we love it too.
Fragrant, refreshing, not too sweet and not too tart. Just right.

While we were enjoying our drinks, we kept hearing girls ordering endless cups of rose latte.
Caffe Habitu, how clever of you!

Boys, do you like flowery drinks too? Would they be your choice from the menu? Or you'd prefer something uber manly, such as..AXE dishwashing soap or something? Heheheh

Caffe Habitu
Shop 1001, Elements, 1 Austin Road West
Tsim Sha Tsui
Tel: +852 2196 8466

Chocolate Konyaku Jelly & Teh Botol - Stupid Stuff Makes Me Happy

Stupid stuff makes me happy.
What sorta stupid stuff?

Chocolate konyaku jelly in the shape of a rose...
I used Nutrijell Chocolate Konyaku Jelly Powder (available in most Indonesian stores in Hong Kong), and a silicon rose cake/jelly mold I bought in Jusco $10 plaza :D
Very chewy, not too sweet, easy to make (just follow directions on the packet)...plus, it's very pretty!

...and...

This classic Indonesian Teh Botol Sosro bottle, which my sister brought all the way from Indo. It was pretty challenging for her to even get a bottle, since most eateries do not allow her to buy the bottle as they have to return the bottles to the manufacturer. Luckily she could buy it from an eatery...we don't wanna steal the bottle, despite being desperate ;)

Stupid, right?
Any stupid stuff makes you happy?

Shiok-ing Experience: Turning Char Kway Teow to Nasi Goreng Campur Campur

Still feeling a little silly from my not-too-successful attempts at Singapore Char Kway Teow and Dry Fishball Noodles, I saw something that made me feel even sillier...

There's actually a Singaporean Kitchen and Bar that serves exactly what I failed to recreate at home!
:S

Naturally, I booked a table ASAP to see if they can help me with my Singapore food cravings...

We had the Char Tow Kway (Fried Carrot Cake), the white version. I was really happy with this dish, it's very close to what I had in Singapore, tasty carrot cake chunks fried with eggs, and I especially enjoyed the delicious sambal (chilli paste) it was served with.


Their Bakuteh isn't the brown, Malaysian type I normally make at home (with ready-to-use instant spice pack, of course), it's the peppery clear broth version. The broth was not too bad, and I like the intestines, but the ribs were nowhere near tender enough. I won't order this again.


The Bak Chor Mee (Dry Fishball Noodle) I tried to make at home...after simply mixing the whole bowl, something still wasn't right...something's missing.


Yep! It's the thick black sauce with chilli they served on the side, after mixing everything, bingo! The flavors were exactly the ones I've been missing. In terms of flavor, I'd totally go back for this bowl of noodles, but the noodle itself lacks the chewy quality the Singapore version has. If I managed to find the correct vinegar for this dish, I'll try to recreate this again at home using fresh fettucini.


When I saw Singapore fried rice noodles with see ham (cockles) was the Tuesday Special, I ordered it immediately! When it was served, I had my doubts seeing how pale the color was compared to Singapore char kway teow. Seeing how it is served with sambal and half piece of lime, I was wondering if they made this the way they make mee goreng, instead of char kway teow? Mee goreng or char kway teow, it lacked flavors. I had to ask for another serving of sambal for more flavors, and it still ended up flavorless.

I gave up, but no way I'm gonna waste a good amount of noodles. I had most of the dish packed to be "tweaked" at home.

Since I still have some leftover rice...I turned the kway teow goreng/char kway teow leftover into a version of...
Nasi Goreng Campur Campur (Mixed Fried Rice)

I simply added 1 clove of minced garlic, sauteed in a bit of olive oil, added a bowl of leftover rice, a dash of fish sauce, light soy sauce and sweet soy sauce....and I could pack two servings of lunch.

^_^
Absolutely delicious, nothing's wasted.


The barley drink isn't sweet enough, maybe it's the healthier less-sugar Hong Kong version ^_^ but the kaya smoothie was a delight! The pandan is very fragrant, and it's mixed with sweet and rich coconut milk (it should probably be named pandan smoothie though?). Anyway, absolutely sinful and delicious!

PS. I was extremely disappointed when I was informed that they didn't have grilled stingray that day. Sad, sad, sad.

PS2. Have you ever doggie-bagged less-than-satisfying restaurant dish to tweak at home?

PS3. If you wanna try...
Shiok
G/F, 66 Peel Street, Central, Hong Kong
中環卑利街66號地下
Tel: +852 2899 2001

Hot Winter Drink - Ginger, Palm Sugar & Clove

OK, Hong Kong is currently experiencing the coldest November in...hmm...many many many years.

It's on the news.

It's what people talk about.
It's become the standard greetings...

"Morning. Isn't it cold?" (while making a dramatic hand gesture to the air)

"Morning. Gosh, aren't you cold?" (staring at exposed boobage/thigh)
"Morning. Oh, you live in the New Territories (patronising once over), must be cold out there eh?"
"Morning. No, I've moved to ..*insert a fancy schmancy city flat name here*..so it isn't that cold"

"Morning. Oh, can't wait for my (expensive) exotic tropical island getaway (which will only happen next summer, but tried to make it sound as if it is happening tomorrow)"

Enough already!

I get it! It's cold!
It's still only a little below 10C, people!
Relax and drink your hot drinks...

This time, it's something exotic, something spicy (unlike me).
A little Chinese, a little Indonesian (just like me).

It involves ginger, clove, and this...

Indonesian palm sugar.
They aren't so hard to get. In Hong Kong, you can get these babies at any Indonesian grocery shops (they're all over the city) easily. Much easier than finding a plate of decent scrambled eggs in local char chan tengs.
These babies are mildly sweet, very coconutty with a hint of smokiness.
Perfect for making exotic food and desserts....when I am in the right mood.

Now all I want is to drink something sweet, hot and gingery.

It's so easy, I can't believe I am writing this down. Feel free to adjust the amount liberally, I know that sweet for me is probably bland in your books. Bring a couple cups of hot water to boil (you can make more and refrigerate), I made about 4 cups. Then throw in the rest of the ingredients, used about 5 cm ginger (peeled, sliced and crushed), 4 pieces of palm sugar, 2 tbsp of sugar, and 3 pieces of cloves. Feel free to add nutmeg and cinnamon etc. If you're in the mood for something creamy, add coconut milk. Whatever makes your toes curl, baby.

The palm sugar is pretty grainy, so don't forget to pour the drink through a sieve before serving.

Now that I'm all warmed up...I want ice cream.

Shake Shake Fanta Jelly - Loving My Jiggly Bits

I love my sodas. If it's up to me, I wanna be drinking sodas all the time.
No fancy couple-of-thousands-per-bottle wines for me, just gimme my fizzy-chemically-flavored-icy-cold-sugar-water....or in this case, jelly.


I've never been a fan of anything jiggly...especially if they're on my body. But I changed my mind after I tasted Japanese konyaku jelly, and this fanta jelly has quite a konyaku-jelliness to it.

Wait...Fanta? Jelly? Shake-shake? Wwww...what?

Yes, once they've done the Self Iced Coca Cola and Sprite, we were all kinda wondering what else you could do with carbonated drinks...and they came up with this.

Get them chilled, take 'em out of the fridge, shake 'em 10 times, and you'll end up with fanta jelly. Look at that evil slug of jelly pouring out of that cute lil' can. Yes, baby. That wasn't liquid, that's jelly! and they're still so amazingly fizzy!

Sounds mega brilliant, but, how did it taste?

Amazing! Refreshing, wonderfully chewy, it's more than a cold fizzy drink, it's a refreshing dessert!

Keep this in mind and go nuts next summer.
If Shake Shake Fanta Jelly isn't available in your area.....cry.
...or buy it off eBay ^_*

Icy Cold Fizzy Coca Cola, Welcome to Hong Kong!

Some like it cold.
Some like it hot (in Hong Kong coffee shops, they really serve hot coke with ginger and lemon to combat cold and flu).
Some like it without ice (fear of losing "money" paying for a little coke and lots of ice).
Some doesn't mind if all the fizz has gone.

Not me.

I like my coke icy cold (there's gotta be ice) and super fizzy.

There's no other way.

Nothing's more upsetting for me than being served un-cold/lukewarm/fizz-less/un-iced coke (most of them aren't real words, but I trust that you get what I meant)....hmmm except being served KFC fried chickens without skin...that'd be equally upsetting.

Thus, although I am a huge coke fan, I hardly buy my coke from vending machines, except the ones that also dispenses ice, which can be found in some 7-11.

You guys can imagine how ecstatic I was when I heard the news...

...that now I can buy coke off vending machines...WITH ICE.

W...wwww...wot??? You're joking?!

Eits...you know I'd never joke about coke 'n ice combo. Seriously, I think I have never been more serious about something since my primary school history exam (I was about to fail it miserably)!

So, how does it work?
Feed the machine with some cash, or wave your magic octopus card, and select your icy fizz drinks as usual.
1. Grab the bottle (you can see that it's all liquid inside, no ice)
2. Open it
3. See ice forming in the bottle, right before your eyes

Such a wonderful sight...in scorching hot days like these...

...it felt like I was witnessing a modern day miracle.

Sous chef and I debated about what's the deal with this ice thing. Liquid nitrogen? Something in the bottle? Something in the machine? Something in the coke?

Meh. We concluded that we ain't no scientists....so we'll just...

...Gulp. Gulp. Gulp. Ahhhh....

Hail all icy cold fizzy coca cola lovers in Hong Kong! Get a bottle from some vending machines in locations listed on iCoke Hong Kong site and let's all rejoice!

Update: there's an explanation on how it works (wow!), check it out here