Terrific Cooks

What a day it was yesterday! Murphy sent the wrong dining table the day before the event, messed up the socket where my new KitchenAid mixer was plugged, not letting any current through (thank God I checked the day before and the electrician came after work hours), messed up the fridge too because it got warmer and warmer...basically everything went wrong. Even my carrot cake, which I've made hundreds of times but this time made a mistake of measuring by weight rather than volume. Oil is lighter than water and the resulting cake was so soggy it broke apart when turned out. I threw it out and started on another one early in the morning, after a sleepness night when I realised that the reason why my jellies gelled so quickly--and messed up the cherry mousse--was that I had mistaken agar powder for gelatine. Begone, Murphy!

But nobody seemed to notice the flaws and I am so happy and thankful for the 40 specially invited readers and friends who came for the opening. I am especially happy to meet some of you who have written to me through the years, either by email or to this blog, and by so many of you who came to tell me about the success you had using recipes from this blog. Do leave comments because I want a relationship with readers. I don't want this to be a monologue blog; it's lonely.

Anyway, here are some of the photos Eric (5 guys confirmed their attendance and 3 backed out last minute)  took of the party. I am not putting our group photos here (although you can find them on Facebook--hungerhunger) because I don't have all your permission but there's a photo where everybody turned away so yeah, that should be okay to post.

I'm going to call my classes 'Terrific Cooks'. Those who come will all be terrific cooks:) Btw, I sincerely apologize for not replying some of you, and even omitting some friends from the list--inadvertently--because I was so busy getting the new place ready. My hub is in Shanghai and it would have been tons easier with him around but I decided that I must start because it's already September, and the holidays are dawning.

Another thing. Sorry we totally forgot about milk and sugar for the coffee and tea. I didn't even leave coffee cups out because the store where I ordered the cups weeks ago did not tell me that they couldn't source the cups anymore. It's great to live on Borneo Island, but I can't even get 50 good tea cups.


Devilled eggs made by my son Wey. Everybody liked it. I think the yolks could be piped fuller.


This was a surprise hit. I just thought I'd make crostinis using the same ingredients that I'd use for pizzas. There were toasted baguette slices, assembled by Eric, Francis and whoever wanted to help, spread with anchovies-infused oil ( a great tip from my reader-friend, David, who's a chef in Bangkok), sliced cherry roma tomatoes, toasted pine nuts, Thai basil and shaved parmesan. After the crostinis were gone, I realised that I completely left out the balsamic glaze which would have made the crostinis beyond excellent!


The serimuka was made about 4 hours before the class, which meant they had hardly cooled down, let alone set firm. I also had to hand-blend the custard because they turned lumpy when cooked too quickly, and the blending made the custard foamy.


Green tea swiss roll with white chocolate (Valhorna) ganache filling. This was my demo cake.


Sakura jellies. Not everybody liked this because of the saltish taste and dried plum flavor but I thought it would be interesting to serve as dried sakura is rare and not many people have tasted it.



Carrot cake with flowers (chrysanthemums, someone said) made from pineapple.


My friend Elaine makes the best scones so I had her make lots of mini scones. They were great I heard--gone so fast.




I know, but this is the only photo I have of the curry puffs that my friend Tina brought. And nobody took photos of my name cards...

I want my classes to be enjoyable and interactive. I will gladly teach and share my cooking experience (aka mistakes). The home setting (although I don't live there) is more comfortable and personal than a shoplot and I hope will be a place where you relax, have fun, meet new and old friends and eat great food.