Indian Cuisine

Day 5 & 6 were about Indian cuisine. Went to Tekka market/Little India for marketing cum breakfast today. It was a very different experience as it was my 1st time having breakfast there. Much better than having Dosai in the coffeeshops anywhere else. I found myself quite lost when it comes to Indian cuisine cos I have no idea what to cook at all. Chose prawns from the market without knowing what to do, then Chef S showed me how to do in class and wala.....

Prawn masala

Basmati rice w carrot poriyal & chicken masala

Restaurant in Little India

Masala tea

Dosai

Idly

Beginning of term 4

yah, i didn't update for the last 3 mths. working split shift makes me lazy to upload my pix cos my only time at home is 12midnight to 845am. sighs.....

the past 3 mths was v v busy in RB, lacked of staffs, 1 for 1 lunch buffet, western wedding dinner. F1, Chaine de Rotissier, etc. I'm fortunate to be put in charge of the pasta station due to lack of staff, that i can plan my own buffet items, ordering etc.

it's the beginning of term 4 and we are doing asian herbs & spices & cooking techniques. did laksa from scratch on the 1st day, 4got to take pix :( braised duck and bak kut teh on the 2nd day, duck was good, bak kut teh was a little sweet. i did chicken rendang yday while my grp mates did tumeric rice and sambal tempeh. pounding the herbs from scratch was tiring, and dirty (gotta bleach my jacket to get rid of the spice paste). the blender was right in front of us but we weren't allowed to use it. D**n....

Today, we went to chinatown market for 'excursion'. we were given 10bucks each to cook up something anything for lunch. so we bought jia yu (those use for turtle soup) for braising, pig trotters for braising also but not tender enuff so we leave it for tmr. pork liver, kidney & loin for stir frying, bean sprouts with salted fish, stir fried pandan chicken, wolfberry leaves for soup & kang kong tempura (inspired by zhu chao lai le). incidentally we found out that chinese celery tempura taste better. so sad that i 4got to take pix for today :(

food created in Nutritions & Garde Manger class

ACP pix I

Chef R who doesn't wanna appear in my blog

opps, Chef R in the pix

food from the past 9 mths

It's been 9 months....

wow, 9 months... I didn't realise that (Thanks to Chef R for reminding). The last post was 1 week before the Advance Culinary Program started and now it's the beginning of the work rotation of term 3. I just had my term 3 exam today and tomorrow I'll be back to MMS. I guess I've alot to update, I've been too lazy to update coz the pix are difficult to add.

well well.... where should I begin? ok, ACP course started Nov '08 & after a month of classroom rotation, we were supposed to be posted to Hotel partners. but due to crisis, not many hotels were hiring, especially trainees. I was arranged to have an interview with CP hotel which was @ Changi airport. I almost fainted when I heard the news. CCK to Changi everyday, might as well kill me. I turned down the interview of cos. I got accepted by MMS as trainee & had since apprenticed in the Italian restaurant (RB) for 5 mths & room service kitchen for 1 mth. Tmr I'm going back to the RB again :( I don't dislike the job there, in fact I learned alot. I just hate the split shift hours. I spent more time in the hotel then home.

ACP was intense but fun. I really like the lectures and practicals. My classmates are fun tho sometimes pain in the S. We started with 14 pple but left with 12 now, 1 withdrawn and 1 deferred. I hope the number wil be the same till we graduate, which is end Oct 09. @ times I've doubts cos of income, time sacrificed & physical but I really want to see myself graduate. Not just graduate but with flying colors. I'll persevere!!!!!

Go meaty, dinner 21/10

Bought some beef sausages from Carrefour last Sunday (special offer!!). Took out the meat & added thyme & chopped onions. Rolled into balls with mozarella cheese filling. Sauce was made of tomato paste, water, red wine vinegar & sugar. Made pork version (below pix) specially for my mum & bro-in-law who don't take beef.
Marinated with dark soy sauce, honey, pepper & salt. Didn't marinate long enough for the taste to penetrate, 3hrs was definitely not enuff. I did once last week marinated overnight & it tasted v good. Tonight was a little blend.

Wii wiiiiiii

Bot wii & wii fit last week. Had been thinking abt getting one since i was in china. why buy now?? cos with wii fit i can have some fun exercising at home, otherwise i'll surely become one fat chef someday, like many friends are trying to warn me of. Hopefully with wii i won't get too lazy... all the best to me :D

Here comes the food....

Lemon Passionfruit curd - I followed the recipe from straits time. Abit too sour but the taste isn't bad.
Tarts made with the lemon curd, mum did the crust. not bad for a start but many commented to sour lol.. will improvise.
1 fine day my mum decided to make sushi so by default I have to help. Brought her to NTUC finest in Bukit Timah Plaza cos CCK NTUC sucks. My mum ended up only cooking the rice & cutting the seaweed, I did the rest. Hmmm... I don't know how to roll properly yet, & the gunkan sizes were all different =( but taste was alright.
My 1st cake - Started with simple fruit cake 1st. I insisted to bake the sponge cake myself instead of mum helping cos I wanted it to be SOLELY my 1ST, lol.... It wasn't as easy as I imagined. I rarely try making pastry, I should start practicing now. Again, not bad for a start, sponge cake was nice & soft, fresh cream almost failed as I overwhipped the 1st round. My classmates liked it :) whereas my bro commented the cake being too um.... 'loose'.

The gift for my hard work

I was voted by my classmates for 'best kitchen staff' & awarded with this recipe book written by our CEO, Chef Megel. I'm thankful to my classmates for their support.

Buffet training


Forbes event


Formula 1

Long time no blog

wooowww... it has been 2 months since I last blogged. Just completed this F&B term 2 weeks ago. Too lazy to edit the photos which is why it took me so long to update :p

Past 2 mths was v busy for school. 1st we had our class tests for F&B, then we had our mock up 1 & mock up 2 for restaurant training (RT), right after was our actual RT with 'guests' from office, chef instuctors who gave us evaluation on our service, restaurant design, etc. After RTs came the end of term written & practical exams. In between all these, we were involved in Forbes event (rich men gala dinner), Formula 1 nite race (i was in the Honda box at the paddock =)) & lastly, buffet training.

RT was a very good training for my creativity, perseverance & of cos service. I'm not a very creative person, but I drained my brain trying to 'create' a nice restaurant. Everybody elses had a theme but I couldn't think of any. Worst or all I fell sick during the actual RT due to late nites designing the menu & over stressed. So I just did a restaurant called Muxe (Muse), meaning source of inspiration. Overall creativity wasn't fantastic but I'm glad that it suits the fine dining feel that I was trying to create. We all played different roles in one another's RT: Restaurant manager (design restaurant theme), servers (as captain), bartenders (create a mocktail), executive chefs & stewards.