Saturday 29 August 2009

Balmoral Bar, The Balmoral Hotel




The Balmoral Bar at the Balmoral Hotel had to be the chill out place before I headed back to Glasgow. This famous five star hotel was where JK Rowling finished the last book of the Harry Potter series but that's just one of the little trivials of its rich history that dates back to 1902 when it was first built.





Excellent service got the good impressions going. Generous portions of tibits just made me smiled wider than the royal mile. Oh.. not to mention it was refillable. We could not decide what we wanted to have and one of the waitress asked if we would like to have a sample. She brought not one but 3 shots-wine glasses to have a taster. Generousity at its best.





Here's some sky juice with a lemon wedge that has been striped to give it that touch of class. Water is free as well if you were wondering.





And the star of the night.... A chardonnary 2008. I am not going to embaress myself here by talking a whole of poetry about the wine because I obviously don't know the fine art of wine tasting, a hobby I probably will pick up later one. For now, I can say I definately like the wine. Recommended.



Balmoral Bar
-------------------------
The Balmoral
1 Princes Street
Edinburgh EH2 2EQ
Scotland
Monday - Thursday : 17:00 - 01:00
Friday - Sunday : 13:00 - 01:00



Tomato Coconut soup




Had a quick soup at some random shop on cockburn street off Royal Mile, after the interview. Was really hungry but the adrenaline that was still in the body killed all the appetite. I wasn't sure if I enjoyed the soup that much. It smelt really nice but lacked the tomato and coconut punch that the initial whim enticed. Oh well...

Thursday 27 August 2009

HAppy Birthday





Thank you mum, dad, ah kong sis for the card. Received it today. Don play play ah the card comes with light emitting words and a monophonic happy birthday tune lol.



P.S: Interview's tomorrow.

Tuesday 25 August 2009

Ubiquitous chip




Ubiquitous - "adjective existing or being everywhere, esp. at the same time; omnipresent" Scotland's Cornucopia in a relaxed ambience by informed staff.

We headed down to Ubiquitous chip on Ashton lane for dinner this evening. Booked a 5pm.co.uk 3 course meal for 16 quid. Items came from the 5pm menu and not the main menu. To be honest, I wasn't super impressed by the food but the ingredients were definately of better quality than alot of other restaurants. Afterall, its a 1 michelin star restaurant according to Aa. I'll have to come back someday to try the full menu.





Here's one of the starters. Steam egg with chicken inside. I am going to do away with the fancy names and just tell you what's in it haha. I am 1/10 drunk at the moment lol. Very light very smooth and has a gentle chicken essence within it. A small portion. WY finished it in 2 gulps.





PY made a suprise trip down today to join us. She had her all time favourite mussels. This was mussels Meniere style. I confused meniere with marinara which was a tomato based sauce. Meniere means cooked with Shallots, White Wine and Fresh Herbs. haha kinda thought of Meniere's disease for a moment which is totally different.





This is a terrine of duck and pork. Think of it like a lap cheong haha. Terrine's actually a term for teh earthware that they use but by extension it can also be used to describe the food that is made from it. Terrine normally consists of game meat, pates. It is pressed and chill then turned out and served in slices. My was quite nice. Aa would have liked it.





C had tomato soup. Simple but executed to perfection.





This is the colalr of ayrshire bacon with black pudding, roasted pineapple and bayleaf skewer and malvasia sauce. Yah thats a mouth ful. I had a little bite of the bacon. Super salty man. Aa finished it... Gulps..





I had the beef. No idea why its so red almost like it had been smoked. Definately tasted more salted than the usual meat. I wished it was more simple like a piece of grilled beef. The mash and greens were nice though.





Mullet. Hmm fresh and yummy.





Sctoch Madeira Trifle. Trifle's a mixture of cake, fruit, custard and whipped cream. The custard was lovely and well enriched with vanilla flavour. The acidity of fruit penetrates the sweetness of the custard so that you won't find it too "gelat"





Upside Down apple tart with cinnamon ice cream. Oo.. sugar overload. I din try this but from the looks of it looks quite sweet..





And Finally..

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MEeeee

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME !!!


Yup.. Its my birthday today. Treated myself to a bag from ALDO today. Big G kept asking me what I wanted haha I said nothing which is kinda true for now at least but there were things I needed and the bag's one of them haha. Pretty satisfied with it although it was a huge dent to the wallet. Oh well.. its my birthday gotta pamper myself a bit.





Totally did not expect this haha. Normally I make the cakes and suprise people but today I got the cake instead. Nope not a cheesecake but a death by chocolate cake from Peckhams. Oh boy its super rich. Super super rich... I couldn't finsih it but I'll eat it over the next few days.

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes and all the effort for making my day a happy one.

26 years old now... 1 year older... none the wise... haha nah I don't think so.


Ubiquitous Chip
---------------------------

8-12 Ashton Lane
Glasgow, G12 8SJ
0141 334 5007

Open :
Mon-Thu 11am-10:45pm;
Fri-Sat 11am-11:45pm
Sun 12:30pm-10:45pm

www.ubiquitouschip.co.uk

Monday 24 August 2009

Roti Prata with curry chicken




One of the little home comforts that you get in Glasgow. Bought these roti pratas from See woo. You just need to heat them from frozen on a teflon pan and then pan fry them till its brown. Dont bother adding oil unless u like it unhealthy. We once added 5 tblespoon of oil hahaa and it all got soaked into the prata. Boy did it taste good .

Sausage and Mash




Was craving for something nice and simple but ended up spending lots of time making this. Its supposed to be simple but I din have a potato masher so I ended up using a spatula. Making it worst was the fact that the potatos werent boiled soft enough and I so conviniently poured away all the water. At least the tomatos were nice. very nice in fact.. The effort was worth it and there was enough for lunch the next day...





Sausages were lovely but i think its abit expensive. The quality was good though, proper meat fillings rather the starchy paste.


Saturday 22 August 2009

Chocolate vanilla cheesecake




It was my last day at the lab so I brought in a cake. Chocolate and vanilla.

Final year... At long last..

Friday 21 August 2009

Baguette Express not Panini Express!!

Align Centre


Yah I made the mistake of not reading literally into the stall name. Took me about 10 mins to queue up for the counter because of the lunch time crowd. Then it took another 10 mins for my panini to be done.





I had a standard tuna and cheddar cheese panini. What is a panini? Ah ha.. Here's where Prof wiki comes in. Panini is plural for Panino which is ITalian for bread roll which in French is called Baguette. It goes round in one big circle and ends up being the same thing. Anyway, in the UK at least, Panini is commonly described as a toasted flat bread with cheese. Kinda liek a toastie but using a bageutee Roll.

Was the wait worth it? maybe... something warm always taste nicer than the cold sandwiches but taste wise it was rather generic. Would I go back there again? hmm. tough one.. UNless I can find a panini that cost cheaper than 2.60 pounds I might do so .


Do you like Panini?


Baguette Express
-------------------------------
263 Byres Road
Glasgow
G12 8TL
Telephone: 0141 33 44 207


Spaghetti MeatBalls




Yum yum, couldn't help it when i saw these meatballs on the shelve. I had this a couple of times in Glasgow, most of the time for dinner at someone else's place. The meatballs taste like the ones you get in IKEA but feels softer in texture. (Think its because the meatballs in IKEA are fried so it gives it that firmer crustier texture. The generic tomato sauce from Sainsbury tasted alright too, much better than Morrison's house brand.





Ingredients
--------------
Garlic
1 onion
Sainsbury onion and garlic sauce
Swedish meatballs 1 packet
Spaghetti 200g
Cherry tomatos (as much as you like)
Parsley
Table spoon of tomato pesto
Dried Basil

Fry the onions and garlic in oil. Next give the meatballs a good stir fry. Next the tomatos to evaporate some of the moisture in them and to give that skin a nice scalded surface. Spaghetti is next followed by the sauce and pesto. I used Burtoni pasta, more expensive than house brands but taste much better. Wait for the buy 1 get 1 free sales and stock up like 10 packets lol. I boiled it 1min below the recommended time because I knew i will be frying it later, so the waiting time actually steams up the pasta. Chop parsley gives it a nice aroma. I really like parsley.

There's enough food for 4 small eaters or 2 big fat eaters or 1 glutton like me... opps.

Wednesday 19 August 2009

Herbal Chicken Night.




Its herbal chicken night again. This time with 2 chickens! I like Giant pots.





Quite cheap and feels cheaper when placed next to a 800g chicken which cost 3 pounds. hmm.. I wonder why?

Busy week ahead. Posts might come in a little slower.

Gregg's For Lunch




Hi all, back from my short hiatus. Since I worked from home on monday, I managed to finally escape the dreadfood hospital food. (still trying to take some pictures for ya all).

Let me introduce you to Greggs. There is nothing unfamilliar about this with the locals but for people outside of UK this is one of the most common lunch options.

Actually, the first time I came to Glasgow I had a Gregg's egg sandwich for lunch and I think dad had a beef sandwich or somesort. All of these on top of the little red bus whilst touring the city. To be honest, I was not so impressed then.

Having been here for 5 years, you know if you can fight it u adapt to it. This has become one of my favourite lunch options because its relatively cheap. Its healthy (minus the excess mayo they put sometimes) and its quite tasty too.

Here's a link on wiki if you want to learn more about it -->>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greggs





Ok here's a red thai chicken bloomer (1.79 pounds) . Quite authentic thai flavour. reminds me of a creamy red thai curry but in this case "ang-moh-fied" with mayo crisp salad in between 2 slices of brown bread. There's 2 options of bread: brown and white but i like the brown one better cos there s more fibre and taste more complex. The crust is a little dry but once u get past that its fine. There are other flavours like chicken and mango, new orleans chicken and tuna crunch. Apparently, they have revamped the packaging and taste recently.





Well.. the sandwich wasn't enough so I had to add on something. Ah ha this is one of those less healthy stuff you get in Greggs. its really carb and fat loaded and only had one piece of chicken in it a wee tiny piece. Introducing..... Chicken bake... In simple terms. puff pastry with cream of chicken . POlar chicken puffs beats this hands down feat down everything down anytime.


Anyone up for Gregg's?

Sunday 16 August 2009

Teriyaki Chicken Drums





Yum yum. Chicken drumsticks are one of those meats that I enjoy eating. So fun to eat and so delicious as well. Aa and C went "pa tohing" so I ended up eating on my own ... haha its ok that means more for me.

Ingredients
----------------
6 Chicken drums
Kikomann Teriyaki Marinate
Sesame seed oil
Sugar
Garlic mince

Just mix all the above items together and let it marinate for an hour or overnight if you can afford the time. Basically, just pour enough teriyaki marinate to coat them through once. drizzle the oil over the chicken. Sugar gives it a nice caramalised flavour. garlic provides a nice fragrance and burnt touch. rotate them so that the marinate is evenly distributed. bake in the oven for 25 mins at 180 degrees celcius.


*I ended up eating all six myself haha. it was good... Burp!

Friday 14 August 2009

Dinner with the flatmates and WY!!




Er.. This is a mince beef rendang pancake with sweetcorn. Aa was totally wide eye when he saw this. For a moment, he thought I had gone bonkers but I reassured him that mine dish will definately be safer than some of his "unique" past creations. Anyhoo, I used this Asian gourmet rendang paste and mixed it with some mince beef and sprinkled some tumeric over it. Give it a good fry and then add some sweet corn. It tasted ok lor... a bit bland and lacking in the rendang flavour. It was edible but I don't think I will be making it anytime soon. Just one of those bad cooking days lol.





Luckily, Aa had something to supplement the meal. And guess what TOFU again . This time it was mapo tofu though but without mince pork but in its place, some prawns. Hmm. This was the spicy sourish version. I think i prefer the savour version much better.





WY joined us for dinner and he contributed a dish of fried broccoli with fish cake and mushroom. I think he likes fishcakes with veges, seems to order it quite often when he's eating at chinese restaurants.

Well... not a good day for food... but its ok rite. Still got food to eat... lol.. Tomorrow will be a better day.

Wednesday 12 August 2009

Spaghetti Bolognaise Aa Style




This was Aa's version of spag bolognaise. Basically like mine a tomato meat sauce plus his touch of "what ever i can find in the fridge i'll put in". You can probably see from the pic there's corgettes not cucumber, tomato, celery, olives and red onions. Ppl cook for me of course I will say nice rite but it was nice la and I finished it all up except for the olives. Yikes.

Tuesday 11 August 2009

Dinner with the flatmates




Hey hey the curry didn't burn this time round because I learnt my mistake. Added more coconut milk this time round before I went off to surf. I used one of the asian gourmet spices but felt that there wasn't enough paste after frying it and decided to spoon in 3 dallops of sambal chilli. The end results was suprisingly shiokingly hot but pleasant. Will have to stock up more of that potent sambal chilli the next time I go back home.





Aa made a special XO sauce fried with tofu and egg. Quite nice leh. Must be the combination of XO sauce and fried red onions that provided a sweet savoury glaze to the onions.

Overall, a satisfying meal with white rice and good company.

Monday 10 August 2009

CrabShakk




So good was this restaurant that apparently you need to make a reservation 2 months ahead before getting a reservation. That however did not stop us from getting a table one fine saturday afternoon. It wasn't a planned outing at all. Somewhat impromptu when we were passing by the place and I mutter to Aa, "hey there's no one in crab shakk". "Really!" Aa.. The next thing I know he had already made a detour and was ready to park the car and called C to meet up with us.











Its almost impossible to spot this restaurant on Argyle street with its greyish dull exterior that spells more "I am a paint stall rather than HEY FRESH CRABS INSIDE COME GET ME" but trust me as you open the doors, you will be spell bounded by the clean wood and steel finishes that will instantly remind you that you are walking into an expensive restaurant.

My expectations were high and I so much wanted to try every single bit of crustacean on the menu. Unfortunately, I knew that was impossible and we opted to share a few dishes amongst the 3 of us.





We had 2 soups. The one in the foreground is the crabshakk bisque. Pretty much a crustacean bisque that was in every essence full of a smokey shellfish flavour and embedded with a handsome portion of crab meat. I found it abit too overwhelming at times and if it could be diluted down by 15%, the magic would been better. The seafood chowder on the other hand hit every single tastebud in me. Do not be fooled by the plain appearance in the picture because beneath that milky cream, you will find muscles, fish and crab meat. It was probably the best seafood chowder I have had in Glasgow.





Fried food is always nice. This dish is an example of how presentation and portioning can allow you to sell food at 10 times the price you normall pay at street hawkers. There's nothing complex about this dish. Whitebait, salted heavily and deep fried. So good and tasty you wish the portion was doubled but before you jump on to say please give me another plate, I would like to remind you that this starter cost 7 quid.. !!!!!!!! ( I can almost hear my mum screaming wah you know how many kilos of ikan kunning I can buy . hahaha)





Moving on... we have crab cakes. Yup how can you not have something crabby in crabshakk. These little patties are about an inch in diameter. I can reassure you i tasted only meat and none of that starchy stuff that you find in frozen crab cakes. These were alittle disspointing as they were over deep fried and tasted really dry.





Lastly, a plate of vongole pasta to share. Simple, clean and tasty. If only there were more clams hee ;)

Well... I can't say I will come back here anytime soon mainly because its just too expensive to do so and it dosen't feel you up. Food is good and certainly one of the best place for scottish seafood. Definately want to come back someday to try the scallops and brown crab . Going to have to save some $$ first....

CrabShakk
---------------------------
1114 Argyle Street
Finnieston
Glasgow G3 8TD
0141 334 6127

Crabshakk on Urbanspoon


Friday 7 August 2009

Vegetables are so expensive!!!!



All these vegetables cost 2.75 pounds. How is that possible man!!!!. .. Honestly, if veggies are going to be so expensive how do you expect people to maintain 5 portions of fruits/vegetables a day. I really should have bought them from cheapo iceland or tesco and not from "atas" roots and fruits..

My mistake... then again they tasted really good . especially the tomatos.. (P.S: I don like to eat raw/semi cooked tomatos but these were great)


Blackbean Sauce Chicken




My first cooked meal since coming back. The luxury of a cooking mum is unavailable at the moment so I'll have to make do with my own hands. Afterall, why did God give us hands ? (yes picking our nose is one use lol)

So... I rummaged through the sauce bag and found this packet which mum threw in. Looks simple and tasty enough to use.





Threw the rice into the cooker, chop the ingredients and within half an hour, a nice meal.


Ingredients
------------------------
1x Lee Kum Kee sauce packet
sesame seed oil
sugar
1 packet chicken (6 drums inside approx 600g)
spring onions
Onions

Deboned the chicken and chop into pieces. Fry the onions in oil, throw in the chicken give it a good bath. Smear the sauce all over the meat and drizzle some sesame seed oil over if u like and maybe add a pince of sugar. Serve with spring onions.



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