dccokinn

One of my favourite Korean food is Bibimbap ??? which is "Korean mixed rice with meat and assorted vegetables" and served with a sauce mix of gochujang. But I seldom eat it outside because most of the time the rice portion is very big and after mixing the meat and vegetables, the entire serving is too much for me to finish. I eat very little rice and would prefer more ingredients than rice :p Last year when I went to Korea, I flew by Korean Air and for supper they served bibimbap in metal bowls!! I don't eat supper so skipped it. Most of the passengers took it and I could hear the entire plane went "tok tok tok tok" (sound of mixing rice and ingredients using the spoon) during meal service hour. It seriously sounded yummy and I regretted not eating it :( During the trip, I had wanted to try authentic Korean bibimbap at one restaurant in Myeongdong that's highly recommended by many, but the HB didn't like bibimbap so I couldn't eat it until the last d...

Happy Valentine's Day! After baking the Bandung Cupcakes with Rose Buttercream yesterday, I wasn't very satisfied with the overall taste and texture. My hb and kiddo had the same thoughts. Well, I guess my family still prefers more tender and moist cakes like Strawberry Shortcakes :p Well, I'm not really prepared to bake any of my signature rainbow or ombre cakes today so decided to make swiss roll instead. Since I'm so into rose syrup, decided to add it to my usual Japanese-style genoise sponge. I don't know why but my preferred sponge cake is always the genoise sponge; somehow it turns out very well and I'm very comfortable using it for my layer cakes or in this case, swiss roll. Adding rose syrup to the sponge cake creates a lovely pink hue which I adore :) Tender and moist cakes like swiss rolls are best paired with whipped cream or chantilly cream. I also added rose syrup to the chantilly cream and to further enhance the sweet look of the swiss roll, I us...

 All you need is Love... and cupcakes to get rid of Monday Blues! I thought of making these sweet-looking Bandung Cupcakes with Rose-Syrup Buttercream because hb and the kiddo love rose-syrup drink and we always have a bottle at home. Kiddo calls it "delicious drink". Personally I like bandung drink, but don't drink it often since it's so sweet and fattening :p Anyways, I thought these adorable petite-size cupcakes are quite apt for Valentine's Day as well, which is tomorrow! The cupcakes are baked using a basic vanilla cupcake recipe, just that instead of milk and vanilla extract, bandung drink is added. As for the frosting, initially I thought of my favourite chantilly cream with some rose syrup, but because I'm packing the cupcakes as a snack for the kiddo's recess, I reckon buttercream would last longer at room temperature than chantilly cream. And to make the cupcakes look even sweeter, I stamped cutesy little hearts out of strawberries and topped the...

Valentine's Day is just one week away! And today I'm in the mood for some love in the form of these adorable Teddy Bear Cookies \(*o*)/ I hardly ever bake cutesy character cookies because I don't eat much cookies in the first place. But I thought the kiddo might appreciate it :) Baked just a small quantity of twelve pieces in four flavours, original, chocolate, matcha and yam. I thought stamping a heart in the teddy and filling it with some candy makes the teddy look so sweet :) Wanna join them in a garden tea party? The trio spreading their love :) Just one sweet teddy bear is enough for me :) The cookie is actually easy to make, just a bit tedious as I wanted to have four flavours/colours. If making just one or two flavours, should be quite straightforward. After combining and sifting cake flour, icing sugar and salt, I divided the mixture into four portions, and added the different flavours accordingly. I bought the matcha and yam powder from a Japanese food fair at Iset...

Continued from Part I - Stay at Kyoto Part II - Fushimi Inari Taisha For this trip to Kansai, I had planned for Plum (Ume) Blossom viewing because I roughly know that it's during the February period, but we might be a tad too early as plum blossoms typically bloom from mid Feb onwards till Mar, before the Cherry Blossom. Luckily I came across an article about Ume Blossom at Kitano Tenmangu Shrine in Kyoto and their FB page announced that some of the ume blossoms had started to bloom and others budding. Kitano Tenmangu Shrine is built over 1000 years ago, in honour of Sugawara no Michizane, a scholar and politician who is known as "god of agriculture", "god of honesty and sincerity", "god of dispelling false accusations", "god of performing arts" and most importantly, "god of academics". Many students would visit the shrine during the examination period to pray for good passing scores and improvement of their abilities. Kitano Tenma...

Continued from Part I - Stay at Kyoto Fushimi Inari Taisha (??????) is a must-visit place for me this trip. Previously we had always went to Kiyomizudera, Kinkakuji, Ginkakuji, but missed out on Fushimi Inari, or rather I didn't know about it until the recent years. I learnt that Fushimi Inari is an important Shinto Shrine in southern Kyoto, famous for its thousands of torii gates, leading into the forest of Mount Inari. The shrine is dedicated to Inari, the Shinto god of rice and as foxes are thought to be Inari's messengers, there are many fox statues around the grounds of the shrine. The day we went to Fushimi Inari was 3 Feb, which happened to be Setsubun ( ?? ) meaning "Seasonal Division", signifying the beginning of spring. At Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines, there will be a special ritual called mamemaki ( ???) by the Priests and invited guests where they would scatter roasted soybeans called "fortune beans" (?? fuku mame). This is said to cleans...