I was working in the kitchen as usual.

I broke 1 glassware and 1 plastic.

The prawns and scallops dropped onto the floor.

The Africans are hungry.

So I reused the prawns and scallops.

Don't waste food.

My friends were hungry.

I decided metal was the best.

I hope they still love me.

Porridge, anyone? ;)

P/s. Thank god for bushes.

I love volleyballz.x.z.z.s..x.xzfdslkjfalsjdajsdjasdjaslkjdklasjdklasjklsajdlksa bye.

20/6/09

The feedback's in for my project:
"...the kids love the cup cakes as colouful n cute. Ate all. Cookies was nice too."

That was like feeling the rain in a hot and humid afternoon. A surge of joy. I find the 2 words "Ate all." extremely comforting, because I hate to throw food away, especially food that I make.

Huge thank you to all who congratulated me or told me a good job was done. It makes my day each time.

For every grain of rice you leave uneaten, a child in Africa dies. HAHA, remember that people.

Anyway this blog is going to be empty for a while as every JC student gears up for the upcoming exams. Common Tests end by 2 July, but I have my piano exam on 10 July. I pray that my arm/ wrist / fingers do not injure during training. If I pass, WE GO TO SHANGRI-LA BUFFET.

I still want to learn how to cook Hokkien Mee from my aunt, and cook it for my babysitter whom I have yet to visit. It's weighing on my mind.

Lastly, my mum subscribed to Asian Food Channel. So now I can watch recipes. Awesome.

Sakura buffet (Clementi branch)

Another buffet! Gosh, what am I turning into, a fat fat fat pig. So our long awaited Sakura buffet finally happened with MR1. It's so fun to hang out with them again, they are one of the best things that RJC has given me.

This is apparently the best Sakura branch around and there are 2 levels of food, so that's a plus. The ambience is great, just remember to make reservations or else you'll have to eat without aircon and sweat all the way.



Here's the group shot where Mingzhe was missing cause he was paying first. It's such an efficient system I think to make people pay before eating. Buffets should do that more.



We played some forfeit game after food and the disgusting food includes:



Raw prawns = Giant lice, cause they come from the same family
Raw sotong = Solidified saliva
Colourful thingy = Plastic
Disgusting mochi
Durian (it baffles me why durian is considered a forfeit)

And Siyuan eats durian for the first time in 5 durian-less years while Shannon wolfs down beef-lamb-chicken-fish meat.



Let's just look at what turned to crap in our stomachs:






Bamboo clams are nice and so special. Anyone who goes there should try it.




Such a fun bunch of people.



Quotable quotes:
"When you burp, you can still smell the durian. Damn sick." - Sentiments of siyuan and shannon after eating durian.
"Let me smell the durian so that I can puke." - A very full Amos
"Sungming! ..... Dory! .... Sungming!.... Dory! Dory!" - Amos
"Do you know that prawns come from the same family as lice, they are crustaceans." - Smart Siyuan
" Fiona: I want to eat insects someday.
Mingzhe: Ya, me too. But I something with more meat, cause insects are too dry.
Fiona: Like worms right, or maggots.
Amos: There! -points to raw prawns- Isn't that a giant worm already? "
"Beef chop, lamb chop, chicken chop" - Shannon's response to what he ordered
"When I came in, my skirt was hooked at the 3rd hook, then it became second. Now cannot even hook the first one." - Gladys
"Whose plate of grass is that?" - Cheryl

My first project ACCOMPLISHED!

My big project is accomplished! Awaiting for feedback always makes me nervous, but whatever the outcome, I just feel so proud of myself. The products of fiona being inthekitchen for 13 hours:



The three layers of cupcakes!



Thousands and Hundreds on cupcakes...



M&M on cupcakes. Erupting like a volcano, into a myraid of colours!



And the top layer with my blessings. =)

12 packets of chocolate chip cookies, each a 100grams.



Sushi: crabstick, cucumber, egg. And another plate for extras.



The finished products all together. It just brought so much joy to me when I took that picture.



Of course, it's not all sunshine and rainbows while making it.
Rolling the sushi was harder than I thought, since I was using only half a piece of seaweed to do this kind of roll.



But giving up is not an option, so I wiped the sweat away and conquered the almighty sticky rice and flimsy seaweed!

It's time to do some reflections, something rarely seen in this blog of mine, saturated with pictures of food.

Firstly, throughout this whole experience, I never once questioned myself why I was doing this. I never thought about all the things I could accomplish with the time if I didn't accept this task. The thought that kept surfacing into my head was how Melinda would remember her 2nd birthday. And when I think about the permanent memory this would be captured as in pictures, that I made this memory with my own hands, I realise that this is what makes all the sweat worth.

I will never regret doing this and even though I sold everything at a hundred bucks, the opportunity to do this was priceless. Simply because people trusted that I could do it.

I know this post will mean a lot to me. Just like how much this blog will mean to me. 3 years ago, I started off with the image of my mum screaming at me, telling me that I will never be able to make anything and that I should not waste my time. 3 years on, I proved to myself, with this blog, that what I do is going to be something bigger than what everyone initially thought.

It's possible sometimes, with encouragement from all those dear ones, to make your dream come true. So dream big, and stay happy.

Sakura buffet

Sakura buffet(Orchard branch). $30 for dinner, cheaper than I thought it would be. With a wide variety of food, definitely worth a second visit.

I tried taking some pictures of the buffet, but I gave up after a while. Think I got too hungry.






Lamb chop is awesome, but you must be able to stand the pungent smell of mutton first.



I saved 20% of stomach space for desserts and tried out almost all their cakes. Oreo cheesecake, chocolate truffle, durian puff and their mochi was yumyum.



Raw prawns are really great. Must try!



Buffets are places to over indulge, so just TRY EVERY DAMN THING.

Nihon Mura buffet

Nihon Mura high tea buffet at The Cathay. S15.90++ for student.



Service is SLOW. So order as much as you can and get 2 servings of drinks because they take forever to deliver the food. And sometimes your orders get lost halfway so, just order.

I'll let pictures tell the story.








With hungry clan.

Kueh Bahulu

One thing I learnt about this experience - I am more of a perfectionist than I think I am.

It started off so fine. Delicious, spongy and absolutely a joy to make.



Then suddenly, as if I don't deserve to have everything going right for me today, it started to stick to the mould. And I tried so very very hard to remove it, so much that my fingers are now red and sore from the heat.



It's not all sunshine and rainbows sometimes. It feels like someone brought me up to cloud nine, and then just before I could take it all in, gave me a push down. And it hurts so bad to get your hopes dashed.

I just want to know what went wrong. It's so frustrating to see hours of effort gone down the drain. And times like this makes me want to give it all up.

But on a positive note, I just found out that my green tea checkered cake which I didn't think was good at all, brought much joy to the receiver. And I shiver to think of all the smiles that would be lost should I abandon the one thing that makes me feel alive.

So I'll keep going, for all those who believe in me and for all those whom I want to see smile.

And a big thank you to everyone who took precious time off to read fionainthekitchen!

For Joyce

Doing the only thing I do best and hoping that she'll like it.



An afternoon's work with Emelyn.

With love.