School II

Table setting in a team

Menu for a lunch event

Nice table setting

Western kitchen

Having fun in the kitchen

Dinner 28th July

Hmmm, another week has past. School was great last week cos lotsa cooking & cutting, including cutting myself LOL... Today onwards will be fully F&B training & little bit of OJT in kitchen.

Ok, dinner tonite was Sausage patty sandwich with yellow zucchini. I minced the meat of sausage, mixed with sauteed shallots & garlic, dried mixed herbs, egg & flour to mold into patty. This picture is abit colorless.... I dun hv lettuce at home :(

School

ok.. today I have time to write, no morning quiz tmr (yippee!)

Alright, let me recap 1st day: Woke up 0545 but not as fresh as last "1st day" haha... 1st day and the 1st half of 2nd day was orientation. I felt nervous as I haven't been to school for a long time. We had a v heart warming welcoming session whereby the CEO Chef M, all the faculty Chefs and main office staffs stand in a line and introduced themselves. After which is the school policies, introduction of each dept etc... a bit boring at the end. Lunch was good. I like the way we have lunch at school. Lunching at the patio in the park, the staffs & chefs will mingle around the students and chat with them. Everyday will be a different duty chef (when they are not teaching) so we can have a taste of the chef's specialties. We have chefs from Indian, Malaysia, Thailand, China, Switzerland, French and of cos S'pore. All nice pple....

2nd day we had a spice garden tour at fort canning park. I never knew S'pore has such a garden. It was fun...then fun was over cos 1st lesson began in the afternoon...Chef M sat beside me with some others during lunch (to mingle), made me so nervous. Nvr had a CEO sitting beside me b4 LOL.....

We have quizzes everyday, today's the 3rd lesson and we already had 4 quizzes. Some graded and some not. Quizzes are not difficult but it has been a long time since I last studied so I'm kinda stress and I wanna do well. Today is the only day I don't have to study for quiz & we were released earlier today. I dun think I'll have such luxury too often especially when practical classes start.

Below is the knives set bought from school, it cost me $535. I've worked 3 weeks temp, earned $746 but paid $535 for knives, $52 for textbook, $171.2 for chef jackets, $21.4 for aprons. I hope there's nothing more to pay, no more temp job to cover :(

All in all, school is fun tho tiring, I'm enjoying it much more than working. Hopefully I can get more pictures to post, esp on the practical.

updates

School started 3 days ago but I haven't got time to sit down and write abt it. everyday is tiring but fun. will talk abt it later... off i go to study for the quiz tmr.......

Dinner 19th June

Diced Beef:

Cooked w butter, seasoned w salt & pepper.

Garlic: sliced and toast or deep fried.

Beer Batter Stuffed Chicken:

Minced prawn seasoned w rosemary, paprika, salt & pepper

Debone chicken wing & stuff with prawn mixture

Beer batter: Beer, plain flour, salt & dried herbs

Cover stuffed wings w batter & deep fry till golden brown

En route to school

Took some pictures yesterday for the '1st day of school'. Was contemplating whether to put up the pix since it wasn't it anymore. But then again, the feeling was there, and i dun think i can take pix again on the next 1st day, so I decided to post them. VOILA.....

wide awake at 6am

last look b4 leaving the house. black n white... can't rem when was the last time I wore like dat

Overhead bridge to the bus stop

190 bus stop. I'm glad to be staying in CCK for once.... just for bus 190 cos it's just 35mins to town.

Crossing the road to Park Mall

Taking the lift to the 4th level

Gotta walk thru this carpark (boring..)

Finally the beginning of more interesting route

From here onwards, I can smell some funny odour. I think it's from the trees around but I didn't smell it when I was here in the afternoon.

4 flights of stairs.... where the panting begins....

I was breathing heavily when I reach the top. Age is really catching up...

Nice trees leading to Fort Canning Centre

Um..... FCC :p

School's main office, classes & kitchens on the left & right

kitchens on the right, ground level. Will be sitting around there for lunches in future.

View to the spice garden

Beautiful sky.... it's a nice place for school :)

After all the walking & photo taking, I was still early..... well, I was 1 mth earlier haha...

What a day!!

Today is the 1st day of school, or rather was supposed. I've waited so long for this day but only got to know this morning that the class has been postponed to 14th July. I was mad.... not because of the class being postponed, but because of the poor administrating. The number of students is easily less than 20, how could they forgot to inform me? I was so excited about this 1st day of school thingy that I woke up a few times before the alarm rang at 5:45am, and I woke up wide awake, which is very rare. I reached the school so early that I have amber time to do some exercises in the park. Well I'm not so angry now cos there's nothing I can do abt it. Sigh... I dunno if I will have the same excitment abt the 1st day next month... it won't be the same I guess.

Now I've to worry abt what to do for another month. I've been idling for 1.5 months and I'm getting bored. It's good to have a break but this is too long since I've already had 1 mth break in CZ. Today clocks 2.5 months without a job... I've broken my record, my last record was only 2 weeks. tsk tsk tsk... I'm getting too lazy....

Dinner for family 27th May

Cooking dinner for my family is a big chore bcos my sis doesn't eat pork, my parents, BIL & future SIL don't eat beef, & my bro doesn't like fish. The best thing to cook is chicken but I wanna do something else this time. So I decided to cook pork for my bro & BIL, fish for my mum & future SIL & beef for myself & sis :p Working in kitchen is definitely not easy...

some pix...

some gifts for my frens in Changzhou

Using my idling time I've made some gifts for my friends in CZ, who are also leaving quite soon. Table soccer is for Sang & Phuong, poker table is for Andri. I miss those moments I had with this group of friends, we had so much fun together. So even I'm back to SG, I wanna make something memorable for them. It has been donkey years since I last made something for a gift. I hope I will have time & creativity to do more.....

Chocolate Orange Sticks

These chocolate sticks are quite easy to make and they are quite tasty, for those who like citrus.

2 large thick-skinned oranges
1 cup sugar
1 cup water
125g dark chocolate

1. cut orange peels into 1/4" strips
2. drop strips into boiling water, return to boil & strain, repeat 2 more times
3. combine water & sugar in pan & stir over heat until sugar is dissolved. do not boil
4. add strips, bring to boil, reduce heat & simmer uncovered until strips become tranlucent. stir from time to time while simmering
5. remove strips & leave on wire rack to dry overnight
6. melt chocolate over simmering water, add strips to coat evenly
7. shake off excess chocolate & place each piece on alu foil, stand at room temp until chocolate cools off. put strips into the fridge to set.

Breakfast today

Simple but healthy & nice :)

Crème brûlée

This creme brulee is my 2nd attempt. The 1st one didn't succeed bcos I just follow the oven timing from the recipe but it wasn't set at all. I use a diffferent recipe for the 2nd attempt. This time I checked, not just following the timing blindly. To me it turned out so-so, I think it's too creamy. I'll have to explore again to make a less creamy yet delicious one, cos my mum was complaining it's not suitable for folks with high blood. My mum even requested to try the 'original' one from restaurants so that she can compare. No wonder I wanna be a chef......

Dinner Party 10th May

I invited 3 May babies to my house for dinner. Along w my mum, my sis, bro-in-law, my sis's friend & me, it's a total of 8 pax. It was the 1st time I'm preparing a full course meal for more than 5 pax. I was quite stressed abt it & it was tiring....but I enjoyed it cos while doing all these, I learned something in the processes. I'm trying to keep track of the cost of the food too so as to aid me in menu planning.

Entrée
1)Tomato basil soup - tomatoes($3), basil($1), vege stock($4)
2)Bruschetta - baguette($1.3), pest0($3), toppings($0.6)
Main
1)Baked chicken w terragon - chicken($12), potatoes($1), tomatoes&onions($0.5), terragon&oregano($4), misc seasoning($1)
2)Salad (no pix) - avocados($3), olives($0.3), yellow plum tomatoes($4.10), honey tomatoes($2.5), walnuts($2.5), basil($2), mozzarella($1.5), dressing($0.3)
Dessert
1)Lemon sorbet - lemons($3.6), sugar($0.5)
Others
Pita bread ($4), Lychee martini ($9)

My impromptu dinner - Fried udon w basil shrimps

Wasn't planning to have dinner at home tonight but was so tired walking in the street 'measuring the road' so I came back home. My mum's fridge is always stocked with meat, fish, shrimp, etc..(yah I know it's not so fresh) so it's convenient, esp when I'm famished :)

Fried Udon

1 pkt of udon

1/4 red pepper

1/4 green pepper

1 tsp pesto

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

3 tbsp stock

salt & pepper to taste

Heat garlic w oil in pan, add peppers & stir fry for abt 1min, add udon & fry for 1min, add stock and simmer until liquid dries up. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Basil Shrimps

Shrimps

olive oil

salt & pepper

white wine

basil leaves

Season shrimps w salt & pepper. Heat oil in pan, add shrimps & basil leaves. Add white wine shortly after. Cook shrimps until it's just done.

Donuts with choco almond & lemon icing toppings

1st time my mum & I try making donuts. We used the pre-mix flour so it wasn't difficult. The shape is a little bit tough to control tho, the sizes are irregular, both of us were like chicken hands duck feet, haha.... but it'll be better I believe, when we try again :)

Stuffed chicken maryland

This is the 1st oven baked food I've ever tried... turned out quite alright :)

Welcome to my foodie blog

This is a blog which I've been wanting to create, to record the food that I've cooked and the process of my 27 mths long culinary course. hmmm.... also bits & pieces in life...