Pancake mornings

Want to make pancakes from scratch? 

Here's how I make mine :) 

Ingredients needed: 

- 2 cups of self raising flour (around 250g) 

- 2 cups of milk

- 2 eggs 

- pinch of salt 

- 60g butter

- maple syrup/ silan / chocolate sauce / honey 

- any fruits 

- ice cream 

Easy step by step instructions: 

1. sift the flour and salt in a large bowl

2. make a well in the middle of the flour 

3. whisk egg and milk together until it is mixed well

4. pour this egg milk mixture into the middle of the flour 

5. stir until smooth 

6. melt the butter 

7. pour in the melted butter to the batter and mix well

8. leave this mixture in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. 

9. Heat up your pan at medium heat. ( i used the same pan i used for melting the butter so that I do not have to add anymore oil to the pan) 

10. Flip the pancake only when you see bubbles appearing everywhere on the pancake and the sides are curling in. 

11. Pair it with some butter, maple syrup or silan: date syrup which I love and is very commonly used in Israel (see the picture below) 

12. I added a scoop of vanilla ice cream with some chocolate syrup on top and some cherries ( in season now) on the side! 

13. Enjoy :) 

This recipe makes really delicious pancakes, just like the ones I like from Macdonalds! Been missing Macdonalds breakfast for the longest time and I can satisfy my cravings using raw materials :) 

This is so easy to make, you don't need to buy ready made pancake mix anymore!!! 

Have a wonderful morning, 

Kay 

How to make yum woon sen!

Yum Woon Sen or bean thread noodles salad is a popular dish both inside and outside of Thailand. The bland noodles absorbs the hot spicy sour dressing and the peanuts and other ingredients give it just the right amount of saltiness and fragrant! Try this if you are a Thai food and salad lover!

Main ingredients needed!

• 1-2 bundles of Clear Noodles (depending on how much you want to eat)
• 1/2 cup dried shrimp
• some fresh shrimps
• 2 tablespoon fish sauce (you can find it in some Chinese supermarket in Israel) 
• 2 1/2 tablespoon limes/ lemon
• 1/2 cup of lightly salted peanuts
• 2 teaspoon of sugar
• 1 chopped chili 
• variety of vegetables (tomatoes, lettuce etc) 
• * If you don't eat shrimps, you can replace the fresh shrimps with minced meat! 
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The noodles I used is the bean thread noodle I bought from the Chinese supermarket in shuk Carmel! Start by soaking an appropriate amount into water before boiling it till it turns translucent. When it's translucent, take it out from the water and leave it to cool. 

Next up, you have to prepare any ingredients you would like to put into your Thai salad! Here I used tomatoes, lettuce, carrots and cucumbers. Chopped them up into small pieces just like how you will chop them for salad use! 

Next up, pound the lightly salted peanuts, dried shrimps and chilli until they are mini sized just like what is shown in the picture below! 

Heat up your frying pan, add some oil and garlic, pour in your pounded peanuts, shrimps and chilli and also add fresh shrimps and fry them all up! 

In a large bowl, place all the raw chopped vegetables into the bowl followed by the cooked glass noodles. 

After which, place all the stir-fried ingredients on top of the glass noodles and you are almost done! What is left is just the dressing for the salad. For the dressing, just mix the lemon/ lime juice, fish sauce and sugar together and stir well till the sugar is dissolved! 

Mix it all up and enjoy! Look how good this is!!! 

That night, I also made desserts. I cut out some watermelon as a base and added two scoops of ice cream with some chocolate sauce on top! Mmmmmm…. 

Thai food lover,

Kay 

Last day in Madrid!

Morning in Madrid today started with a visit to calle Serrano, house to numerous luxury boutiques! 

After shopping, I stopped by at the biggest and most beautiful park in Madrid, park retiro! 

Drinking sangria in the park was simply enjoyable! 

Last night in Madrid calls for an elaborate dinner so we came back to Qing ping guo restaurant for a feast! Steamboat dinner, my all time favourite!

Fishballs that are so hard to find in Israel! 

Orange for desserts! ;)

Presenting to you the cute boss of the restaurant! He told me to take a picture of him this way and upload it on the facebook page I created for his restaurant!

Night fell and it was a party on the streets because Real Madrid just won a game that day and we heard the players were coming to the square in their double deck bus to meet the fans! 

When you are in spain, you got to love soccer!

Missing spain, 

Kay

Making Sangria

If you don't appreciate red wine and think it is too bitter and overwhelming, try making sangria adds a fruity taste to the boring old wine that you don't like! I went to spain and instantly fell in love with sangria because it brings out the nice aroma of the red wine yet it is a much sweeter version of the usual wine! You can also try it with white wine!

Ingredients needed:

• A glass pitcher 
• 1 bottle of red wine (you don't need the finest wine here) 
• 1/2 cup of brandy 
• 1/2 cup or more of sugar (depends on how sweet you want it to be) 
• Fruits including oranges, lemons, melons, apples (any fruits in season and any fruits you like! remember not to include fruits that disintegrate quickly like watermelon) 
• orange juice/ lime juice or grapefruit juice 
• Fruit liqueur (not required) 

Just a disclaimer, actually there isn't a 'correct or authentic' way of making sangria, it's basically a sweeter and fruitier version of wine so you can mix whatever you like and come up with your own concoction! 

Steps: 

1. Chopped all the fruits you want to include in your sangria. Cube shaped will be good! 

2. Pour all the fruits into the pitcher and pour the bottle of red/white wine in. 

3. I cooked hot water and mix it with sugar to get sugar water so it is easier for the sugar to mix with the liquid. 

4. Pour brandy into the mixture 

5. I also added a cup of grapefruit juice as well as 1/2 a cup of non alcoholic apple liqueur that I bought from Spain! 

6. Stir well and keep it chilled in the fridge for about a day! 

7. Add lots of ice into your cup and pour your sangria in! 

8. Enjoy!  

Authentic dim sum at furama (tel aviv)

It's been a long time since I've eaten authentic dim sum in Israel! There was once when I was craving so much for dim sum that I went to try the dim sum shop in dizengoff and believe me, it was really bad. The skin of the dumpling was hard, the soup was too salty but it was only 22 shekels so I guess it measures up to it's price! I've also tried the dim sum station yehuda halevi in tel aviv but still it wasn't what I was looking for until I finally learnt about Furama!

I went to the store in Tel aviv which was recently opened and I heard the original store is at Askelon, which offers set meal other than Dim Sum.

Address: 7 Ben Yehuda, Tel aviv

It's a rather small shop with no air conditioner so i wouldn't recommend coming in the afternoon but in the night it's nice there. However, i feel that it may not be very popular amongst Israeli because the ambience of the place is not very nice and it resembles more of a coffee shop commonly found in Singapore. 

This is the wanton soup! I would say the skin of the wanton is still a bit too thick but the meat filling was really good and the soup was just right! (26 shekels) 

Don't ever underestimate this 3 little white dumplings because they are THE BEST EVER! These are called Har gow and for those of you who are able to eat shrimps, you definitely have to try this! I am so in love with this because they are 99% authentic. The big and juicy shrimp was nicely wrapped in this thin and translucent skin. I really enjoy eating dumplings that have thin skin because you won't have to keep munching on the skin till you reach the ingredients! I'll give this 10/10 :) (26 shekels)

Next up is called siew mai. You have a choice of chicken, beef or pork. I'm non kosher so I ordered the one with pork. I'm sure all of them will taste great because this was really tasty too! One of my all time favourite dim sum! (26 shekels)

Next up is called fen guo. In Singapore, we call it chee cheong fun. It's simply made of liquid flour and then steamed. I used to eat this for breakfast every sunday morning because it's one of my favourite food! Although this is still a little too thick compared to those in Singapore, the sauce was really similar and I was really touched when I ate this after 3 months of not eating my favourite food! I ordered the one with shrimps, there are also choices of vegetables, chicken or beef. (26 shekels)

Last but not least, I also ordered beef rice noodles (white thin noodles, aka bee hoon in Singapore) soup! There is also a choice of wheat noodles instead which I assume is thicker. There is also a choice of other ingrediants like chicken, fish ball, meatball or wanton! If you just want a bowl of quality noodles soup, this will definitely satisfy you! I also really love how they give a huge serving of vegetables especially seaweed which is rarely used in Asian restaurant here! 

My final verdict? The food served here is definitely worth coming for even though it does not offer a great ambience! People who really like the Israeli-style asian food might be disappointed because in here, they serve the most authentic Chinese food which makes me think of home! I'll definitely visit whenever I crave for dim sum! So happy I found this place :) 

Still a Chinese at heart, 

Kay 

Day 3 Madrid

Day 3

1st stop at the 3 storey H&M in Madrid! It's much larger than the one near ceni-leisure in Singapore! Definitely a must visit when you are in spain! The interior is also extremely beautiful and they have a special corner just for their conscious collections (the cream of the crop clothings of H&M)

After combing the whole 3 storeys, I had no more energy to find a nice place to eat for lunch so I went to Burger King! What was nice was that they offered free refills for drinks! 

After lunch was just random walking around the area! I must say madrid does not have many interesting attractions but they have many big and beautiful parks! 

After some walking, I decided to rest in a cafe and tried a really special drink which is actually Cinnamon soya milk! 

After a small tea break, I continued walking around till I was hungry and went back to the Chinese restaurant that was my absolute favourite when I was in Madrid! If you love Chinese food, make sure you visit this wonderful authentic Chinese restaurant at C/ la reina 31 Madrid, Spain

Since they have so many choices of food on the menu, I made it a point not to order the same dishes so that I can try as many dishes as possible! 

Today I tried the Seafood soup! So fresh and yummy! 

This is called 回锅肉, a famous dish in china which requires so much effort to prepare and cook! It was so comforting to be able to eat such a delicacy in spain! 

A really exotic vegetable which tasted like cooked broccoli stems 

Steamed fish which was so delicious I swear I could finish the whole plate myself! The sauce was so fragrant, I could just eat a bowl of white rice with it. 

On the house, homemade by the owner of the restaurant! Caramel flan! 

That's how I ended my 3rd day in Madrid! :)

Adios, 

Kay