Yay, another email from my course coordinator, which calls for another blog post. Actually, these weekly emails from the university really does push me into blogging because I really don't have very many weeks before it starts. Quite a lot has happened this past week, with my brother and dad flying off to Hong Kong for a week, YJ's birthday dinner and a friend's meetup at Beecroft.

As usual, a pretty picture for the front page before delving into the events.

From Week 6, 2010

I absolutely -love- the perfectly charred surface of the Kazandibi with just a sprinkle of cinnamon. It's a dessert from Istanbul, translated into Caramalised Milk Pudding. I just searched up the recipe and it doesn't seem too hard... but it's quite troublesome, and disaster is almost sure to ensue if I did try making it (think sugar burning past its caramel stage and stuck to the pan), so having it at a Turkish restaurant for $5 is the safest way to consume this beautiful dessert. This was at Mado- revisited.

From Week 6, 2010

I don't believe I posted many photos about the first time I went to Mado. Its interiors are as Turkish as I remembered it to be, with different ornaments and decorations placed around.

From Week 6, 2010

Those patterns are often seen on rugs. I never really understood the beauty of these designs... they pretty much all look the same to me, but then I've never been all that into art and designs, much less those from the Orient.

From Week 6, 2010

We also ordered a sweets plate. It came with three different types of Turkish sweets, and a block of Kesme Maras- famously known as being the chewy ice cream that is eaten with a fork and knife. That's an exaggeration, just use a fork.

From Week 6, 2010

Out of pure curiosity, I ordered a Turkish coffee. Curiosity killed the cat indeed, this coffee came in a small little cup full of dark matter- expresso style. Usually, I'm ok with expresso and black coffee, but this one was... I don't know what they put in it, but it was super strong. We took our time eating and I certainly took my time sipping this, which was a very bad idea. Half the cup filled with dark precipitate of what must have been finely grounded coffee beans, which I choked on upon trying to drink the last of the liquid (which was still very strong). =(

From Week 6, 2010

Cay Tea- Turkish tea, which also tasted like strong black tea. The two blocks of sugar really makes it taste a lot nicer, but that's up to individual taste of course. After the coffee, something sweet really saved me. What is with extremely strong Turkish drinks that come in small little cups? Looks are so deceiving.

From Week 6, 2010

Tt's Keskul- also $5. An almond rice-flour pudding. Not a huge fan of rice puddings, so I didn't try this one, but tt didn't finish it, so I'm guessing it's not that great. Again, this is really up to individual taste.

That morning, it was raining really heavily, so we took refuge at Grace Hotel... and took the opportunity to have some...

From Week 6, 2010

chicken rice (for me~) and...

From Week 6, 2010

tt's beancurd and vegetable laksa~

I haven't forgotten from my last post about the pork belly recipe, though pork belly isn't something that most people make often, so I doubt it's really useful, but the meat does turn out quite nice and it received pretty positive reviews at YJ's dinner party, so~ here goes.

Starting from the szechuan pepper and salt that goes with it. This recipe was from NQN's website btw, so it's really just following a set of instructions... can't go wrong there =D

2 tablespoons szechuan peppercorns and 1 tablespoon sea salt.

From Week 6, 2010

Dry fry the peppercorns to release aroma. The black seeds are bitter so usually it's been removed, but not all are picked out, so I did take out a few... the smell of peppercorns set my nose going off.

From Week 6, 2010

From Week 6, 2010

Into mortar and pestle they go, grind into fine sand. I put them through a small sieve to filter the ones that are small enough before putting the bigger bits back in there and grinding them again.

From Week 6, 2010

Now for the marinating. 800g of pork belly is usually good. Score the skin every 1cm or so, put it into an oven bag (or you can just put it into a big pot, container, anything that doesn't leak) and add 3 cloves of garlic, 1 knob of ginger- both peeled and sliced, 150mL soy sauce and 100mL of rice vinegar. Leave it inside for about a night or so, turning every now and then. Fridge it.

From Week 6, 2010

Slice some onions thickly (about 1/3 an onion per slice) and place in pan. Put the pork belly, skin side up, on the onions. Oven it at 200 degrees C for 10 minutes, turn it down to 170 for 40 minutes.

From Week 6, 2010

Yay. Done.

Of course, it's not crispy because it's not a salt crusted pork belly, but you can always fix that with a blast of butane flame. Most people don't bother, but it really does go well with the szechuan peppercorn salt, so the extra effort really isn't wasted. People who are afraid of spiciness, don't be, you're only sprinkling a tiny amount onto the pork belly, not coating it entirely.

Now featuring some of my high school friend's personal cooking:

From Week 6, 2010

MS's fried noodle. This was really nice, I think I had two servings of this that night, haha. Since it was YJ's birthday, noodles for longevity!

From Week 6, 2010

MF's nacho salsa dip. He brought guacamole too, which was really really nice. I don't think it was home-made though =P cheat!

From Week 6, 2010

JL's Bulgogi. A lot of onions can be seen, but it's really quite nice =D His first attempt at making it, turned out well anyway~

From Week 6, 2010

MamaJiang's tomato tofu vegetable soup. It was really good. Quite peppery and spicy, feels extremely healthy, it was great.

From Week 6, 2010

MamaJiang's pizza~ cheese, chicken and mushrooms. By then, everyone was so full... but it was really nice. I managed to eat one piece of this cheese-laden pizza before finally giving up on all other food.

From Week 6, 2010

SM's casserole. Not a big fan of casseroles, it's like "let's chuck all the ingredients together, rice and all, into a pot and let it cook for hours!" which feels a lot like my mum's way of cooking (ahem, no offence, mummy dear). Casseroles, risottos... hm... not my thing. I like my rice plain and soft, with dishes separate.

From Week 6, 2010

FL's sausage roll, which she kept taking one after another throughout the course of dinner =)

From Week 6, 2010

Happy, YJ's dog, looking quite forlorn, with his toy.

From Week 6, 2010

Happy birthday, YJ!! We skyped some friends who were overseas in Japan and ended the night with Charlie the Unicorn (the first one, candy mountain one) youtube clips.

Shunnnnnn!!! Shun the non-believer~!!! Shhhuuuunnn----na.