EYES BLINK

Time flies. With a blink of an eye 2009 is here already.  Hope the year 2009 will be a good and peaceful year.  Will be back after the New Year to update on celebration and eating in this household.

Thank you for those who had been supporting this blog by coming back often and may I wish you all

A HAPPY 

&

PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR !

X'MAS DINNER

Spent a quiet day cooking a Christmas dinner for family.  The mutton were marinated the day before and stewed with red wine and tomato paste for 2-3 hrs in the dutch oven.

The stew was served with potatoes and baguettes.  The stew gave a slightly tannic taste due to the red wine but was delicious.

Dessert was chocolate pudding served with vanilla raspberry ripple ice-cream.

X'MAS EVE

Every Christmas Eve, as a tradition, we would adjourn for high-tea buffet and this year we celebrated at the 70th storey Equinox, the former Compass Rose at the Swissotel, The Stamford.  The high-tea started from 3.30 to 5.00 pm at $38+++ per person and the short time of 1.5 hrs spent is inadequate.

Outdoor seats to enjoy the view

Bird-eye view from the restaurant

The buffet was wide spread and food was replenished quickly once consumed.  Taste-wise was so-so nothing fantastic.  Service was good and wait staff polite.

The sushi was very fresh with provision of cold soba.

Sushi platter

Salad Bar

Dessert bar was not so wide spread compare to other hotels.

A good selection of flavour from ice-cream bar.

Limited kind of fresh fruits.

Traditional snack.

Sweet ending.

FESTIVE HOLIDAYS

Wishing All 

A

Happy Holiday

WINTER SOLSTICE FESTIVAL

Yesterday was Dong Zhi and according to Chinese custom, it is time for family reunion.  Most of the Chinese households are celebrating good harvest by celebrating with family, in which family members from faraway places will return home to join in the celebration.  In the olden days Dong Zhi was celebrated in style.  It was the time when farmers and fishermen harvested and gathered food in preparation for winter.  One of the must eat dishes is glutinous rice balls which represents round and full for the coming years.

This year Dong Zhi was celebrated a day earlier.  Normally it falls 3 days before X'mas, that is on the 22nd December.

Nowadays the rice balls come with varieties of fillings but I still prefer the plain rice balls boil in ginger brown sugar syrup.  It can be eaten in savory broth cooked together with chinese cabbage and mushrooms.

BUTTERY JAM COOKIES

One of the cookies baked for festive season were buttery jam cookies with recipe taken from Dorie Greenspan cookbook Baking From My Home To Yours.  I used blueberry jam with fruits and the cookies turned out chewy.

The batter is thick and sturdy which was scooped on the baking sheet with spoons.

It spread out into nice steady round shape during baking.

The cookies full of jam fragrance and delicately sweet.

A nice x'mas gift.

BUFFET LUNCH

Went for a wonderful lunch at the Marriott Hotel cafe with my colleagues as we were on leave.  Their wide variety international buffet was an attraction and it was crowded.  Please make reservation when you intended to eat at the place as it was very popular.  They also serve high-tea and dinner.

Fresh oysters

Beautiful and fresh sushi

Colorful salad bar

Captivating dessert bar

The cold crabs were fresh and meaty according to my colleagues but I did not try as I prefer chilly crabs.

Fresh smoked salmon and cold clams and mussels.

Cold prawns

Variety of cold cuts and condiments

Started off with cold cuts, shell fish, oysters, clams and smoked salmons.

The clam chowder was diluted and was quite bland.

The prawns were freshly caught from the tank and cooked in aromatic herbal broth.   Fresh and big.

With all the cold dish and salad we were already 3/4 full.  Only managed to eat some main dish : lamb stew with potatoes and lady fingers, fried spicy spareribs, braised duck and fried vegetables with prawns.

Lastly to indulge our favourite desserts - mint chocolate x'mas logcake, devoid of mint taste, walnut cake which is soft and buttery, pear tart, celery apple cake and fresh mango cake.

Earl Grey x'mas logcake, kueh lapis, cheesecake, glutinous kaya kueh and mango cake.

Overall the buffet was worth the price given the quality of food.  There were also breads, fruit juices and chinese desserts - glutinous rice bowl, chen-tng, bread pudding.  We were so full that we had to forgo alot of other lovely food.

X'MAS TREE

We treasure X'mas and al ways in cherry mood during this festive season. The children are very excited to decorate the tree. The ornaments had been with us since the children were young and every year new ornaments are added to the collection.  This year the decoration is in multi-colors.

The glass angel was bought from UK by my eldest girl who was on attachment this February.