Hello?

I might be talking to the spiders creeping around the corners of this blog, but I'm here to turn on the lights and wipe the dust away – second year at college has been crazy, but these are all you need to know about the past few months of the gastronomy of student life:

The most important things I've learnt from student living:

1. Cream cheese and honey on toast makes a bangin' breakfast. Richard claims it to be "like cheesecake on toast". TIP: Stuff warm pita with the same stuff. It's ridiculous.
2. If you don't buy it, you won't eat it. Do you really need a pack of McVitie's Chocolate Digestives every time you pass (or delibrately browse) the biscuit section in Tesco's?
3. Light butter spread is pretty useless. I dunno, it might help with the calories and saturated fat and whatever, but it barely tastes like the real deal!
4. Never let yourself run out of milk. Milk is the loo roll of the refrigerator. Gotta have it at all times. No milk means dry cereal, black coffee, black tea, no means of making hot chocolate, pathetic scrambled eggs, no impromptu pancakes... and the list goes on.
5. Abstain from purchasing cereal. Mostly if you're someone like me who cannot resist eating cereal out of the box, cinema-popcorn style. I've opted for porridge oats, which are less edible straight out of the box.
6. Frozen food is your best friend. Meat, veg, pizza, pies, ready meals – the best thing to do after a long day at dance college is sticking something into the oven for dinner which hardly cost anything.
7. Sweet potato fries are the ish. Slice them up, stick them into the oven with oil, mixed spice and salt, and you're ready to go.
8. Portion minced meat before freezing. It's not much fun digging your pathetic knife into a solid block of meat when all you want is just enough for two portions of spaghetti bolognese.
9. Raw mushy sausages can become meatballs. Feeling like bits and bobs instead of rods? Worried that sausages and pasta don't look very sophisticated? Cut up raw sausages before cooking.
10. You can indeed accomplish an epicmealtime 'handle it' recipe. I've done it, and it was glorious.
11. Just take the mould off the cheese, nobody's going to die. Cream cheese and cheddar alike – I'm still here, aren't I?
12. Don't look down upon a roasted onion half. It's gooood.
13. Make and keep tons of tiny pancakes to use up expiring milk and leftover chocolate chips. You're welcome. Keep them in the freezer for an eternal breakfast backup plan.

It's been two years of student-living in an English country, but there are wonders undiscovered, the gaps of which my English boyfriend has happened to fill with his superior knowledge.

1. Fire ovens still exist. Richard had one in his student house.
2. Gravy granules! I'm learning.
3. Golden syrup or honey with beef and gravy. *Melts*
4. Mixed herbs can save your life. A sprinkle does magical wonders to almost anything.
5. Sweet and sour sauce with spaghetti is legit.
6. Actually, anything with pasta can be dinner.
7. Yes, even gravy.

Other stuff you should totally try making:

1. Peanut butter and banana milkshake: Blend two generous dollops of peanut butter, a chopped up banana, one or two tsp of sugar, and milk to cover 3/4 of what you've already got in the blender.
2. Peanut butter and banana porridge: Stir in mashed banana and however much peanut butter into your warm porridge for an energising start to the day! Much needed when you start with a ballet class every morning at college.
3. Nutella and peanut butter sandwich: I don't know why most people I speak to haven't tried this yet. Spread one slice of warm toast with nutella, the other with peanut butter, and stick them together. Watch them ooze and fuse. Enjoy.

The best pancakes ever

There are pancakes, and then there are crispy-edged, light and fluffy American pancakes.

My flatmate shared this recipe with me, and it has been somewhat of a morning mantra – a guarantee of no more lousy breakfasts, as long as we've got eggs and milk in the fridge, and I'm willing to get out the mixing bowl.

This recipe is the one. If you're still looking for the perfect recipe, look no further than below.

Ingredients:

135g/4¾ oz plain flour

1tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 tbsp caster sugar

130ml/4½ fl oz milk

1 large egg, lightly beaten

2 tbsp melted butter (allowed to cool slightly) or olive oil, plus extra for cooking

Instructions:

1. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar into a large bowl. In a separate bowl or jug, lightly whisk together the milk and egg, then whisk in the melted butter.
2. Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture, and using a fork, beat until you have a smooth batter. Any lumps will soon disappear with a little mixing. Let the batter stand for a few minutes.
3. Heat a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add a knob of butter (or olive oil). When it's melted, add a ladle of batter (or two is your frying pan is big enough to cook two pancakes at the same time). Push fruit into the batter in the pan now if you wish. It will seem very thick but this is how it should be. Wait until the top of the pancake begins to bubble, then turn it over and cook until both sides are golden brown and the pancake has risen to about 1cm (½in) thick.
4. Repeat until all the batter is used up. Add butter or oil to the pan before each pancake for a better result.
5. Serve immediately with maple syrup, chocolate, or extra butter.

Dorayaki Obsessed

Dorayaki refers to a Japanese confectionary, which is made up of two mini pancakes sandwiching a generous amount of azuki red bean paste in the middle – think dessert hamburger.

Before coming to London, I had never heard of dorayaki, and now I'm wondering: how many other great things in life have I missed out on!?

The first one which I encountered was from Japan Centre near Piccadilly Circus, which is a Japanese supermarket and restaurant. Knowing that a combination of strawberries and cream makes everything better, I decided to purchase a Wagashi (brand name) Strawberries & Cream Dorayaki from the fridge. (£1.59, maybe?)

I couldn't help but let my eyelids fall in ecstacy as I took a bite off the dorayaki. The pancakes are just so soft, light and fluffy, while the cream filling with strawberries blended and infused is smooth and delicious. What. A. Treat. It was love at first bite.

For a while, I was worried that I'd have to specially make a trip to Japan Centre every time I had a dorayaki craving, but my worries subsided when I realised that Wasabi, the express Japanese food franchise, sold different types of dorayaki as well. (£1.50 each)

Having had to pass by Hammersmith Broadway Shopping Centre for eleven days straight (long story short, I had rehearsals in town everyday and didn't want to spend £40 on transport in total, so I took a 2-hour bus ride to and fro my rehearsal venue throughout Easter break), I grasped the opportunity to try out the dorayaki from the Wasabi in the shopping centre.

The one filled with red bean was nothing special for me, but it was satisfying and yummy indeed. I'm aware that many non-Asian people are sceptical about red bean paste, and that for most, it is probably an acquired taste. Red bean paste is sweet, has the consistency of mashed potato, and has a very mild level of bitterness to it. (I'm a person who can't take any sort of coffee stronger than a chocolate Starbucks Frappuccino, keep that in mind.) There is a strong fragrance which you have to experience on your own in order to understand the taste of red bean.

I bought a Green Tea Mascarpone dorayaki because I love mascarpone cream cheese (long live tiramisu), and was curious to taste how the green tea would work within it.

This. Dorayaki. Is. Just. So. Good. I. Hope. That. All. These. Periods. Emphasize. My. Point.

Much like the dorayaki with strawberries and cream, the lightness of the pancake compliments the creaminess of the mascarpone, and the green tea powder adds a pleasant fragrance to it. My favourite thus far.

Fuyumi brought some authentic dorayakis from Japan when she went home for Easter break, and promised that they were the 'real' kind.

These are considerably different, mostly in the fact that the pancakes are yellower and richer, probably with more use of egg yolks, which added moisture to the dorayaki, gave it a slightly denser texture, and an eggy smell and taste.

These were nothing too far away from the Red Bean Dorayaki from Wasabi, which is a relief, considering how I've had sweet, un-spicy curry and bland stir-fry noodles here in London. However, I slightly preferred the dorayaki from Wasabi and Japan Centre, mainly because of the stunning, Europeanised fillings and the lighter pancakes.


Japan Centre
Address: 16 Regent Street, London SW1Y 4PT
Phone:020 7255 8255
http://www.japancentre.com/


Wasabi (Hammersmith)

Address: 77 Rannoch Rd, London W6 9SX
Phone:020 8748 8675
http://www.wasabi.uk.com/

La Creperie Bretonne Part 3

Click here for part two.

La Creperie Bretonne is becoming a weekend ritual for Emma and I, and this particular weekend, it was a must.

It's zero degrees here in London, and snowing. April begins in a week and here, it is snowing. It's not even good, fresh snow which leaves everything white and fluffy like a scene from 'Home Alone', it just makes puddles everywhere and comes with wind which makes your thighs feel like ice blocks.

I also needed a good lunch because I had a Skype session with my family in the morning which got a little emotional. (If you really needed to know, they were having a post-eldest-sister's-wedding-cum-dad's-birthday-dinner, during which Dad sang two love songs to my mum with my second brother on guitar, all of which I got a live-stream of) I braved the cold as quickly as possible and barged into La Creperie Bretonne with puffy eyes and a runny nose, making sure the first thing I got was a hot chocolate. (£2.10 for an reasonable, average-sized mug)

I got bacon and cheese Ciabatta (£3.something) which was a reasonable size, served with crisps.

This was average, really. The filling just fell short of enough, and the bacon was not mind-blowingly flavourful like bacon is supposed to be. There just wasn't enough goodness in the filling.

It's okay Emma, you tried.

Emma got a 'Mexicana' Panini, which apparently contained 'chic & mozz', but we spent the whole meal wondering whether it was salmon instead of chicken.

 Either way, after trying a little bit of this, we both concurred that the paninis by La Creperie Bretonne are one of the most satisfying things you can ever have. Crispy and fluffy, buttered bread with cheese seeping into it, just like the previous panini from a few weeks ago, with soft, tasty filling. The thing is, the colour, texture and flavour of the meat in the filling was, I swear, something like salmon. Either that, or the texture of the chicken was so soft and tender, with unique flavours. Whatever it was, the filling simply tasted amazing, with a hint of chilli to add a kick into every bite.

L-R: Emma's crêpe and mine. Each design represents our life ambition – Emma's fate is headed towards spaghetti-making, and I have a true flair for assembling scaffolding.

Emma and I ordered a single chocolate crêpe (£3.50 or something like that) to share, but the waitress kindly served the crepe to us, divided and decorated separately.

I much preferred the maple syrup crêpe which I got in the previous visit. The chocolate drizzle and filling tasted cheap, and didn't have enough cocoa fragrance. However, the crêpe was warm and yummy, freshly made on the spot, glass wiper crêpe spreader and all.

At one point, we both found ourselves nodding along to a song which was playing in the cafe, and Emma whipped out this really nifty iPhone app called Soundhound, which instantly recognises the music which is playing. The music wasn't even that loud, but the app could miraculously pick it up. (To be fair, the cafe was quite empty.) The song was 'Latch' by Disclosure. I downloaded the app there and then, and tried it on the next song – the app quickly told me that it was 'Release Me' by Agnes. I felt like time-travelling caveman who had just realised that he could press a button to get light.

La Creperie Bretonne

113 The Broadway
St Margarets

United Kingdom

La Creperie Bretonne Part 2

Click here for part one.

I didn't take a picture of the crêpe which I had for lunch, because I gobbled it up in what felt like three seconds.

This was my second time in La Creperie Bretonne, the humble café situated next to the St Margarets Railway Station. I'm with Emma this time, who also happens to be the lucky recipient of my best Drawsomething attempt ever:

I can't believe I didn't take a picture of my crêpe pancake, but you should have seen it. It was big and drizzled with light-coloured maple syrup and powdered sugar, with a light, spongy texture despite its thinness. Emma thought it was rather sweet, but I really enjoyed it.

Emma had a Chicken and Mushroom Panini, which was cut into quarters and served with potato chips.

It was so. Good.

The white bread was grilled to perfection – crispy (but not too crispy) on the outside, with dark grill-lines, and the chicken and mushrooms were simple but tasty, and there may have been some cheese in it which caused a real melt-in-your-mouth effect.

It's hard to resist dessert in a café with a display cabinet. I chose some sort of honey layered sponge cake, while Emma got a classic Billionaire Shortbread Slice.

The cake wasn't made by the café, as there was a label with a brand name in the display cabinet which started with an "M", but I simply can't remember what it was. (Update 11/16/13: This is called Medovik, and is a Russian Honey layered cake.) Anyway, this was one of the fluffiest cakes I've ever had. The fork squeezes the cake about three quarters of the way down before anything is cut. The cake is moist and delightfully fragrant, and the icing on the top creates a nice...

I never know what the word for it is. It isn't a crunch, but you can still hear something when you bite into icing.

... er, texture. 

A Millionaire Shortbread Slice can almost never go wrong. For those who are unfamiliar with this British/Australian triple-threat, it is basically a layer of shortbread, soft caramel and chocolate, all combined into a calorific slice of death. The texture of the layers go brilliantly with each other, with slightly crunchy chocolate, smooth caramel and soft, crumbly shortbread. It is decadent.

La Crêperie Bretonne hasn't disappointed me yet, and I can't wait for my next visit. 

La Creperie Bretonne

113 The Broadway
St Margarets

United Kingdom

Click here for part three!

Death by pancakes

I don't know what the worst pancakes ever are, but I might have ventured close to that field today.

Remember the time I tried making pancakes without a recipe at Adel's house? Those were made of milk and flour. I tried that again today by getting a big bowl, pouring in the remaining milk we have at home, spooning in an unknown amount of whole wheat flour, cracking in an egg, putting in some sugar, and two tablespoons of baking powder, in hope that they'd fluff up in the pan.

Oh, and I put in three crushed Oreos as well.

I swear, I buttered the frying pan, but the first pancake – I don't even know what that was, other  than something like a grey and squishy heap of scrambled eggs.

There are no pictures in this post. I couldn't bring myself to digitally record today's pancake "adventure".

I swapped to a non-stick pan, and the pancakes turned out as one flat piece...

... of grey rubber.

That was literally what it felt and looked like. The oreo biscuits 'dissolved' into the batter, turning it grey, plus the whole wheat flour made everything brown, so we have the two least vibrant colours in the world plus a bad texture, in a circular shape – that's nothing too far from a rubber disk.

To make myself feel better about the pancakes, I sprinkled chocolate chips on top of each pancake while it was in the pan, so that I can say, "these pancakes are bad but hey look there are chocolate chips in them," which I did, to my mum and brother.

They were edible, but I think I'm going to stick to recipe the next time I try to make pancakes.

Oreos in stuff

For the first time since coming to London, I am actually feeling sick of food. At the rate I was going at all the cookies and cakes, I didn't think it was possible for this day to finally arrive.

This sudden crisis is also due to the fact that I had an all-snack-and-no-meal Saturday. Yesterday's diet consisted of a crumpet and several chocolate digestive biscuits for breakfast, cereal bars and more biscuits for lunch, and oreo-chocolate pancakes for dinner at midnight. I didn't have anything savoury, and after the pancakes, my stomach felt extremely uncomfortable, and I really felt the need for something proper like chicken or pasta.

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That was yesterday, Sunday the 2nd of December. I'm feeling fine now, after having some proper food, and I'm back to normal (i.e eating 6 10 cookies and a cup of rice pudding before dinner). Anyway, enough with making myself feel guilty. Here is what I got up to during the weekend:

My friend Adel lives with a middle-to-old-aged (let me know if anyone finds a better term for this age group, thanks) Singaporean lady who lives in a house full of high-tech gadgets and complicated kitchenware. The trashcan opens automatically when you pass your hand over it.

One of these fancy gadgets is a £500 blender. The container is made out of plastic, surprisingly, and not Swarovski crystals. Anyway, Adel has the privilege of using this blender, and likes making smoothies with it. In her world, smoothies consist of a large variety of fruits such as berries, bananas, oranges, apples and the like, blended with milk, and ice. In my world, smoothies  have to consist of crushed oreos, and, unless readily available, with harsh weather or no grocery stores in close proximity, ice cream.

So after Adel blended her gazillion species of fruits, we washed out the blender and put in 3 or 4 oreo cookies, some crushed ice, milk, whipped cream, and the secret ingredient – peanut butter. It was just a knifeful (I am creating some revolutionary, essential vocabulary over here.) but it added such a lovely touch to the drink. To top it all off, I sprayed a generous amount of whipped cream on the top, and Adel threw on a pineapple cube to turn it into a piña colada wannabe.

I do like that cup.

The oreos came in a long packet, so when we decided to make pancakes in the middle of the night, I simply couldn't waste those extra oreos, could I?

FIgure 1.1

What you can observe in Figure 1.1 is three pancakes containing chopped oreos topped with melted chocolate topped with whipped cream topped with more crushed oreos. If the topping is bothering you, here's how the pancake looks like on it own:

It looks diseased but who cares, it was a great idea.

The batter mix

I'm usually a wuss who follows recipes word-for word, as I am afraid of screwing up the outcome and wasting the ingredients to create something barely edible. This time, Adel said that she usually made pancakes without a recipe, and I decided to go with it as well. I'd made pancakes before, so I knew how the batter should look and how the frying should go.

We added milk to flour until it was liquidy and creamy, and I put in chopped oreos while Adel added cinnamon powder to hers. Then all we added was sugar and vanilla extract, and that was it. I guess this pancake is the most basic pancake ever, if you're lacking eggs and it is 12am in the mornight.

The pancakes turned out slightly moist, dense and squidgy on the insides, but they tasted fine. Adel's turned out better because her mix had more milk, so the pancake spread more, and came out of the pan thinner, so the denseness of the inside wasn't too obvious. I think eggs were the major missing factor, and the fluffiness would have been there if we had used some self raising flour or bicarbonate of soda.

But if you are low on ingredients and are looking for a quick fix to your pancake craving, then just throw some flour and milk together and whatever else gets the taste in, and you have a basic pancake good to go.

Oh, don't be impatient and turn up the heat on the stove, I did that out of impatience and it killed my last pancake. Be sure to cook pancakes on low heat and flip them over when you see a number  of popped bubbles forming on the top.

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On a side note, I can't wait until this Sunday, when I will be taking a flight home on my own for the first time, back to Singapore and back to my mum's supply of ingredients and a kitchen for me to bake in!