I was with my friend at Paul, the bakery on the 3rd floor of Takashimaya. I got there early enough to avoid queuing too long for a table. There were only 2-3 group of people in front of me and i got seated fairly quickly. It was 12.30pm on a public holiday.
Whenever i walked pass Paul, it was always crowded. After having a meal there, i would say it is decent but certainly not somewhere i will queue to get in. Maybe i didn't eat the right food? I jokingly told my friend Paul is a bakery but we didn't order any bread nor cakes nor tarts.
Paul Bakery @ Takashimaya
I had the Omelette ($14.90) and my friend went for the Salmon Salad ($18.90). The omelette came with turkey ham, sauteed white button mushroom and 2 bits of potato in them. It also came with a side salad full of fancy garden greens. Yes, the expensive type of garden greens. I found the dressing to be too sour. The omelette looked as if it was hastily put together and dished up. Something i would cringe to serve if i were the chef who had with too many orders, hence there was really no time to beautify it and secretly hoped the customer wouldn't think too badly of it. Yup, that probably went through his mind. To be fair, the egg tasted creamy and nice. Pity on the presentation. Apparently they used the same dressing on my friend's Salmon Salad. Although the salmon serving was generous, she found the dressing too sourish for her taste and could not finish the greens that were soaked at the bottom.
Will we be back? Maybe not between 11.30am and 3pm because they do not serve the breads during that timing. Maybe after 3pm on a lazy (or rainy) weekend or weekday afternoon to sip hot tea and have some dessert.
Le Creuset Family Sale Up To 70% Off @ Traders Hotel 25 – 27 Oct 2012
aLe ObL9Creuset will be havingpn4T a FamilyW SaleF from 256Q October XEto 27bBJg52October 2012,w6fx10am to 6pm at Traders Hotel (1A Cuscaden Road), PenangYVSRoomRwith uplto 70% off
ThesES saleMifeatures OELe Creuset kitchenwareQot products goingUwhat up toh0sJ 70%WaEL off.qYmp No xAH delivery service is provided. WhileB stocks lasts!
My sister has been pestering me to cook pasta at home. I finally obliged when i saw Leggo's Carbonara sauce on sale at Sheng Siong. 2 bottles for $7.40 (1 bottle for $4.50). The twin pack came with a free pack of fusilli.
I figured 1 pack of pasta makes 7 portions. 2 bottles of ready made sauce will probably provide enough for 7 portions. That means it's around $1.10 per portion without ingredients. Even with some mushroom and ham thrown in, a portion is still cost less than $2. A good deal! If i were to make my own sauce, 1 litre of greenfields whipping cream cost $10.80! It makes 5 portions. On top of that, i still have to get my own pasta and paramesan cheese for flavouring. The premix won this round.
Depending on how thick you want the sauce to be, 1 bottle of sauce is good for 3-4 portions with some water added. I did not need to add any more salt, just abit of ground black pepper for flavour. The sauce turned out to be surprisingly good! It was a little sourish (not that it has turned bad) which is weird for carbonara but still tasty nevertheless. On the whole, it was pretty effortless. I boiled the pasta until just before it is completely cooked. I chopped some garlic to stir fry with whatever ingredients i wanted to add to the pasta (mushroom and ham in this case). When the ingredients are cooked, i added the sauce and some water to heat it up. The pasta goes in last for a quick mix and the meal is ready to be served! If you are in the mood for baked pasta, do all the steps as above, put some morzzarella cheese on the pasta before baking it in a hot oven. You are in for a sinful treat!
Sorry for my period of absence! I'm back with this fantastic Cinnamon Bun recipe! I came across this at Chef John's website (www.foodwishes.com) and he came across it at Allrecipe.com. Here is a youtube video to show how to make the buns! I just learned how to put youtube videos on the blog! How cool is that?!
Here's the recipe to these delicious buns! Those words in brackets are some of my own additional notes.
Sticky Cinnamon Buns
· 1 teaspoon white sugar 8g instant yeast
·
1/2 cup warm water (45 degrees
C) 1/2 cup milk
·
50g white sugar 57g butter
·
1 teaspoon salt 2 eggs,
beaten
·
500g all-purpose flour 170g
butter
·
165g brown sugar 1
cup chopped pecans, divided (optional)
·
165g brown sugar 1
tablespoon ground cinnamon
·
57g melted butter
Method:
1.In a small
bowl, dissolve 1 teaspoon sugar and yeast in warm water. Let stand until
creamy, about 10 minutes. Warm the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles,
then remove from heat. Mix in 50g sugar, 57g butter and salt; stir until
melted. Let cool until lukewarm.
2.In a large
bowl, combine the yeast mixture, milk mixture, eggs and 180g flour; stir well to combine. Stir in the
remaining flour, 50g cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the
dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead
until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. (You may need quite abit of flour for kneading. If you are using a kitchen aid, this will be a breeze~~~)
3.Lightly oil a
large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a
damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
4.While dough is
rising, melt 170g butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir in 165g brown
sugar, whisking until smooth. Pour into greased 9x13 inch baking pan. Sprinkle
bottom of pan with 1/2 cup pecans; set aside.
5.Melt remaining
57g butter; set aside. Combine remaining 165g brown sugar, 1/2 cup pecans, and
cinnamon; set aside.
6.Turn dough out
onto a lightly floured surface, roll into an 18x14 inch rectangle. Brush with 2
tablespoons melted butter, leaving 1/2 inch border uncovered; sprinkle with
brown sugar cinnamon mixture. Starting at long side, tightly roll up, pinching
seam to seal. Brush with remaining 2 tablespoons butter. With serrated knife,
cut into 15 pieces; place cut side down, in prepared pan. (I used the dental floss to cut the dough. It is much easier. Put the floss under the dough, bring up the two ends and criss-cross them to cut. Repeat steps until you finished cutting the dough. Place the dough on the tray. Mine were not spaced out nicely because in my excitement, i cut and placed at the same time. What a bad idea. lol.) Cover and let rise
for 1 hour or until doubled in volume (They may take less than 1 hour to double in size. Watch out for it!) Meanwhile, preheat oven to 190 degrees
C.
7.Bake in
preheated oven for 25 to 30 minutes, until golden brown (mine only took 15 minutes to become golden brown! But for fear of the buns not cooked through, i lowered the temp to 160 degrees and cooked for another 5-10 mins. I guess how fast they brown depends on your oven). Let cool in pan for 3
minutes, then invert onto serving platter. Scrape remaining filling from the
pan onto the rolls.
Here are some pictures i took. Although my end result did not look as delicious as the video's, the buns were still very well received! Give it a try!
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