タッシュー Ta Choux

All Thanks to タッチャン, I could make Choux puffs inHiroshima.. These are kind of different from the usual ones I make, so they deserve a name! I decided to call them Ta-choux.. inspired by タッチャン.. Since I could make these while I'm in Hiroshima, I'm sure anyone could make it in Singapore! So here's the recipe!!!

Ingredients:
Custard
1/2 cup sugar
5 tbsp all purpose flour
1 pinch salt
2 cups milk
2 egg yolks
1tsp vanilla extract

Choux Pastry
1 cup water
1/2 cup or 110g butter
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 eggs

Directions:

For Custard

1. Combine sugar, flour, salt
2. Add1 cup of milk and bring to boil
3. When mixture boils, add the other half cup of milk
4. When entire mixture boil, pour some of the boiled milk mixture on to the two egg yolks (So it won't be too hot to cook the eggs instead)
5. Pour the egg mixture into the boiling milk mixture and continue to boil till mixture bubbles and thickens
6. Remove from heat. add vanilla and refrigerate

For Choux Pastry

1. Preheat oven to 230 degrees Celcius/450 degrees F
2. Put butter and sugar together in a sauce pan and bring to boil
3. Sift in the flour and salt
4. Stir vigorously with a whisk until mixture lifts off the pan and forms a dough
5. Remove from heat, add eggs one by one, mixing evenly before adding the next one
6. Drop spoonfuls onto baking sheet or pipe into desired shape
7. Bake for 10 mins in oven, reduce heat to 200 Degrees c/ 400 degrees F and bake 25 mins more
8. Cool and pipe custard into the Ta Choux or cut the choux from the top and spoon custard into the Choux

And there you have! Your homemade cream puffs!!

Last week of March

22nd March:Lessons and Youme Town!

After the curry dinner the night before, it was time to wake up to do so many things for my packed and filled day... To start off, it was lessons at the 広島国際センター again.. I have been missing afternoon lessons because I didn't realise that lessons in the morning were still on.. So I attended lessons here! There were many mainland Chinese at the centre.. But I have found my anti-China spirit fading off after I landed in Hiroshima.. At least the ones I meet here ain't so bad.. This photo consis of people from China, Korea, Domican Republic, Thailand, Phillippines, Indonesia, Singapore(me) and Japan!The girl in the centre squatting down is from Indonesia.. She was moving to Yokohama, so she bought doughnuts for everyone as a farewell gift.. **touched**
On the way back, I found this group of Japanese singing near the Atomic Bomb Dome.. And they were getting people to sign a petition for the government to write history the way it should be.. I was so touched by these efforts.. As you can see, I'm somewhere in this picture, joining them in Singing! I had to sign, because their efforts make me realise the Japanese are really repentful for the war sins..

As developed as Japan is, there are still a number of Japanese who remain homeless in Japan.. As you can see here, there is a man who have to sleep on the streets because he doesn't have a home..

After my afternoon of lessons and shopping at Mamachen, タッチャンbrought me to his favourite furniture shop in Ujina 宇品.. As you can see, there is the sea in the background.. And a nice structure here. Apparently, Ujina宇品 is really near the sea.. After the furniture shop at Ujina, タッチャン (Tat-chan) brought me to Youme Town!!! And I had to take a photo with this mascot cuz its cute, plus I dun see many mascots in Singapore... Makes me tempted to push him to the ground though.. Oops.. *EVil thoughts(`_')*

Shopping trolleys here look like that so that children can have a little fun while parents are shopping!!!

Youme town's ice cream is exceptionally cheap ($1) per ice cream!! And On top of that, dry ice is provided!!! You just have to put your plastic bag of ice cream in this machine and close the cover, press a button and voila!! Dry Ice!!!


23rd March: Walk at Sogo

I spend a Sunday in Sogo, reading at Kinokuniya, eating free sample at Sogo again.. The most interesting I have to share is this spiral escalator.. Ever seen an escalator that travels upwards in a spiral? Here's one!!
Like Junwei said, my blog is always full of food!!! So here are my breakfast for Tuesday and Wednesday morning!!!

On Tuesday morning, I had Hotateほたて(Scallop) with eggs rice bowl... The Scallops here are ususally fresh ones, not like dry ones we usually eat and they are good!! They are big and they're no expensive! Like one for 50 cents?

On Wednesday morning, I had Oyako Don 親子丼.. It has chicken and eggs, So the name oyako don means like th emother and the child because the mother is the chicken and the egg is the child.. So you have the mother and the child!!!

And on Wednesday, I had something really nice again from my dearest 豚姉.. Cookies!!! Look at the range of colours!!! Ain't they beautiful!?!?!?! I'm really sure my mother would love these cuz they're not sweet, soft and chewy!!!! After a long week of work, Friday finally came.. and タッチャンwas so nice to buy me ice cream to reward my week of hardwork!!! Look at the amount of ice cream he bought me!!! It was from You-me town.. So each of these cost about $1 only... But still!!! That's alot of ice cream!!!!

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21March 2008-Curry Dinner at Bombay Restaurant

Dearest AKiko-chan was so sweet to invite me along for indian food at Wanjari-san's brother restaurant.. Wanjari-san is an Indian colleague who speaks fluent Japanese.. How cool is that? He speaks Indian and English and Japanese as good as a native! I can only speak English as a native.. :S

This is the stairs leading the bombay restaurant...... The restaurant is actually opened by Wanjari-san's brother... So here is the humble indian setting.. The place was really nice and comfy to eat in..
And eating Indian food means there must be NAan!!!! And being friends of the owner's brother, we got to see how Naan was made!! Its actually made in this furnace with tempertures raised by charcoals to 40o degree celcius!!!
And we got a photo in the kitchen!!! Can you see the furnace?
These are th food we ate the restaurant.. The ingredients in Japan made me enjoy Indian food than ever.. Even Wanjari-san said that Indian food here was better than those in INdia.. Curry.. Tandoori, Lassi!!! Cheers to Indian Food!!!

19th March Thai Food Dinner

I didn't prepare bento today.. So I was so hungry I had eat a meal outside.. So Akiko-chan took me to the mapo tofu restaurant the first time we ate.. I ordered this bowl of Chinese Rice bowl.. It had alot of rice, but the amount of dish on top of the rice was qite pathetic.. At least I had soup.. :S I thought this little display looked cute.. And Akiko-chan realised that I'm always taking pictures of condiment racks.. Apparently she's right.. XP

I met a Thai guy recently in the apartment I stay... He stays one level below me.. So This gave me a good chance to practise my Thai.. But he was nice to take for dinner in a Thai restaurant.. Food was expensive though.. Thik these five dishes totalled to about7000+ yen.. But it was a treat from Num(prounounced Noom)
This was the day I finally learnt to take spicy food!! In Japan, the ingredients are so good that any other foreign cuisine tastes better than the original location.. So I guess that's why I enjoyed the thai food at lemon grass!

17th-18th March: DinnerS wiTh 亜貴子

All right!! i'm gonna catch upon my blog and ensure I finish all March entries before May ends!!! XP

I finally had the chance to take picture with the prettiest girl in the work building.. (Or at least i think so!!) Here's sweet and pretty Akiko!!!! She's pretty and kind!! And on top of that, she's like a sister to me!!! Poor Akiko had to work overtime today cuz she started work really early.. And because of that.. she treated me to dinner!! Isn't that sweet and nice of her? She actually treated me to dinner because she had extra pay from overtime.. So touched.. :')


And she treated me to a meal of かつ定食!!!(Ka-tsu-Tei-shoku) This meal is fantastic!!!! The katsu had cheese wrapped with vegetable and pork!! And it was super delicious.. Yes!!! I feel the wasteline!! But i'm following Janan's notion that to enjoy good food, you can't miss out the fats.. Haha!! Stop looking at my double chin!!

I was so touched, that it was time I did something in return! Even my mummy asked me to give my Piggy sister a treat.. Piggy sister=豚姉 (Ton-shi) In Chinese, she would have been 猪姐.. Well, I'm 猪妹 aka 豚妹　(Ton-mai) and we're 猪姐妹 aka 豚姉妹　(Ton-shi-mai)!!! All right, time to stop my lame jokes.. But we had 回転すし(kai-ten-su-shi) which means conveyor belt sushi!!

I loved this photo.. Its simple yet the angle made the sushi really stand out on the conveyor belt.. And the sushi on the plate is actually my favourite dish at the 豚姉妹's favourite 回転すし　restaurant...

10th Mar 08-14th March 08 Counting Down to White Day and Chocolate Potato Chips

10th March 2008: Hi Yo Ko　ひよこ Look at this.. Itsn't cute? What does it remind you of? A chick!! Isn't it cute? This is actually a famous product from Tokyo.. One of my colleagues bought it from Tokyo and treated everyone.. Its has lotus bean paste on the inside, and the outside its a baked layer of cake like material..

11th March 2008: Chocolate Potato Chips

Ever heard of Royce? Many people love theis chocolate potato chips!!! Especually here in Japan.. You can actually purchase the chips online.. Royce potato chips are also available in Singapore.. I wikipedia-ed Royce and found out that their first international store was actually in Singapore. But it is pretty insane to pay $10 for a small box of chocolate potato chips.. So why not make your own? Its simple.. And since I'm in Japan, and there is no oven in my poor apartment, it swas something I could make!!

Recipe

Ingredients:
A pack of your favourite flavour of potatochips (about 60-80g)
80 g Dark or milk chocolate

1. Boil a pot of water, and put a bowl over the boiling water
2. Chop the chocolate bar to fine pieces (You can use chocolate chips too!)
3. Place the chopped chocolate or chocolate chips in the bowl of simmering water
4. Dip the chips in the chocolate and place in on a mat
5. Leave the chocolate to cool and solidify
5. Enjoy! So here is what I made!!! It tasted better than the ones by Royce actually cuz I found the crinkle cut chips to be too thick.. :P

12th March 2008: Lunch with Akiko

My dearest Piggy sister treated me to a fantastic set meal. The prices were pretty reasonable.. Like $8 for a set meal? And this place is run by a mother and daughter pair.. So you can see the setting of the humble shop is really nice and sweet.. :) It follows the setting of Indonesian tyle of furnishing..

And to make things simple, there are only two items to choose from the menu.. One is fish with Japanese style curry, and the other is beef roll potato croquette.. Both Akiko and I felt that beef roll potato croquette sounds tastier.. So we both ordered the same thing.. And there are these little baskets at every table to put your bags.. so you dun experience problems of discomfort of putting your bags on your laps or behind your chair..
And the food came!!! I promise its worth every cent of the $8 you pay.. In this case, the amount that dearest Akiko-chan paid.. Yes.. It was again another fantastic meal with compliments of Akiko-chan!!! And the food is so good, this was what's left!!

13th-14th May 2008: White Day (ホワイト　デーHo-wa-i-to Dei)==> That's how you prononce it in Japanese...
Its white day tomorrow and I received something really nice with compliments from my supervisor in advance since he wqas not coming to work tomorrow..

I dropped by at Sogo on may way home and I saw guys buying cakes and gifts for girls.. Talk about last minute shopping.. But they have buy something for girls who gave them chocolate on Valentine's day.. It ued to be a tradition to buy something in return when they accept the girl's declaration of love, but the tradition has been changed to buying it as an obligation.. And its called an Ogiri choco..

On white day, the guys fromt he finance team bought cakes for all the girls in the office and of course I had a slice too!!!
This was really good.. Alterating later of cake and vanilla was fantatic. I'm really fascinated by how they sliced the cakes so thin...
And night was another Soka meeting to join.. So I went to the Hokkaido fair before heading for the Soka's Zadangai..I took a photo with Kani Oyaji, aka Uncle Crab.. He peaks pretty fair level of English and he offered me fresh Hokkaido Zuwai Kani!!!
After Zadangai, we had dinner with Hashimoto-san and wife.. It wasa another treat from Hashimotosan and we had a little celebration for his birthday which was on the March 9th..
We ate at Hakkenten again.. FOr some reason, Hashimoto-san and wife likes it there.. I had this porridge looking dish... What's it called? Hmm Let me ask Tat-chan.. According to Mr Tat-chan, its called Zou-Sui　雑炊

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DOWN with everything!!!

The page has been remained the same for almotst two months since tha last entry... School has been really busy... Really really busy.. no time for baking.. No time for anything.. 23 AUs did not mean more turotials for me to complete, but rather, more projects and more content to catchup. Its a really good thing that my Malay elective never ever felt like a lesson to me.. Its a lesson I look forward to attending.. I think my interest really lies in languages.. That's why attending language lessons are not too taxing for me... But after being so`down with all the work I had to catch up due to my bad commitment the month of school, spending time on saving my relationship, I'm glad to say that the time and effort to save the relationship was all worth it.. He no longer have to waste his time and money on the stupid job and great eastern, and neither do I have to hear his worries on the job....





The worst thins is being down on technology... Notes to people:


DO NOT BUY FUJITSU LAPTOP


AND SONY ERICSSON PHONES PDA/TOUCH SCREEN PHONES!!





Fixing my sister's comp costed me $106++ and $86 is for engineering fee!!





Worst part is that it takes them like forever just to get it fixed, the fujitsu tablet is down and its been sleeping in eight flags, NTU computer shop for three weeks!!! just because its waiting for parts arrival to fix it.. At least the guy is really nice to replace some parts of my computer...





Next in the bad tech line is my sony ericsson w960i


DO NOT BUY!!


The service at Sony ericsson i pretty good. Its fast. But Despite my valid warranty, they did nothing!! THey held my phone for 5 days, gave me the trouble to travel to and fro 3 times! Once to sign an agreement that my warranty is not valid and in the event the phone cannot be recovered, Sony will not be responsible.

And the problem was unresolved.

My battery drains in 2 hours, jog wheel scrolls down even when I scroll up, insensitive touch screen.

The customer service girl told me:
"Sorry Mdm, Your phone cannot be recovered and it cannot be used anymore. The motherboard is very unstable due to the corrosion (Due to winter conditions in JApan I suspect, BUT HOW THE HELL I KNOW THE METALS USED IN PRODUCING MY SUPER EXPENSIVE SONY ERICSSON HANDPHONE WILL BE SO LOUSY?)
But I guess I can't do much since their cutomer policy is to be lousy and being irresponsible for product quality. If the mother board is not stable or corroded, i expect them to replace it if I did not drop it into water!
Next, I'm force to buy their media manager program to convert my video files to MP4 to view it on handphone. Why do I need to buy? Normal MP4 converters convert to MP4 files but the phone does not read that kind of MP4. That is simply ridiculous.
SO, DO NOT BUY SONY ERICSSON PDA PHONES!!

Next! DO NOT BUY SONY CAMERAS! My camera is down too!!!

After only one year usage, my lens spoilt just after the expire of my warranty. Its usuable but the lens vibrates, and of course, my images are blurred...

And now, I'm down with a cold, sick from pia-ing for accounting and its ENS presentation now... 11.5 hours in 4days.. no sleep the night before, not even a wink... I'm really down and ill...

8th and 9th Mar 08: Movies and Takehara

8th March 2008 We're supposed to go Takehara today, but Ookubo-san aka Tat-chan overslept. So we lazed the day away.. I dozed till Tat-chan woke me up for a free movie. Movies are 1000 yen (S$13) once a month and those are the cheapest.. Lucky that tat-chan had movie passes, so we watched it for free!! As you can see movies aren't so different here.. Even the pop-corn counter..



9th March 2008: Takehara



Tat-chan woke the both of us for a great trip to Takehara. Well, Choon suggested to go there to see the older infrastructure and the display of dolls for Doll's Day. It was the last day for the week for Doll's Day, so we had to check it out..

These are some photos taken from Tat-chan's car.

And we finally landed in Takehara!! Takehara is the name of a village in Hiroshima prefecture. You will get to see older infrastructures..Like this little garden in a jap-style house..

These flowers are plum blossom, ume.. They bloom before Sakuras.. Its an indication of spring coming when these bloom...
As lucky as we are, we had the chance to see some dolls for dolls day!!!! So people with dolls collection will display their dolls like that during dolls day..

I caught a cute pom pom pomeranian!! Well, its someone else's.. But it was cute and reminded me of Tinky!!

This is the olden times post office..
This is actually the old Toshiba logo.. and as you can see, the macot for Toshiba whom many people probably never seen before..
And... More photos of dolls!!!
Here we have an Aikido learning place.. Or some do.. not sure what do though... Maybe jyuujitsu?

And of course, I have to have a photo with Tat-chan who was kind enough to take us to this village in Japan..

Lunch was at Sukiya, a place like our yoshinoya.. Food here is yoshinoya priced, but its considered cheap.. Plus ice cream here is from hokkaido!!!

Tat-chan was nice enough to drive us to the Hiroshima international airport.. Not sure what this red structure, but according to Tat-chan, its to guide the planes to landing..

And ta-da!!! Here is the Hiroshima international cum domestic airport.. :D

That's all for this entry!! Come back soon k!!