Wanderlust

Dear 2020,

You came and took everyone by surprise; no one expected you to turn out the way you did. Amidst all the chaos, I learnt to appreciate the smaller things in life. I often think of our lives before quarantine; the simple pleasures such as grabbing coffee, having a night out, visiting friends/family, having dinner out. All these were denied during our lock down and even so now that the rules have lifted slightly, these simple pleasures are practiced in a more cautious way. Things are no longer the same, and looking back these are the times I cherish the most. I learnt to appreciate people around me, including myself. We never know when the next person might succumb to the virus, it could be someone dear to us. During this year, I've had ample time (since we're all working from home) to work on the person I am and gain a little more appreciation for my own body and mind. I thank you for that. I pray that everyone around the world will find peace in their mind (and soul) and that we will overcome this difficult time together.

Goodbye 2020. Your time to come to an end.

Onwards to a new year, hopefully a much brighter one than the last!

Since the arrival of Covid-19, I have postponed my wedding TWICE! The final date that we're going to postpone it to is this year November. We can't send invitation updates to our guests as we're unsure the final number of guest pax that Gov will eventually allow during then. We might have to drop some guests from our list, which we really don't wish to (that's why we postponed our wedding twice), but we have to comply with the regulations. We'll see when the time comes... Also, my bto that was due to be completed last year got delayed as well, but thankfully I still have a roof over my head (at my parent's), and not too severely affected by the delay. Well, on the bright side, I get more time to save up and continue looking at design inspirations 😎

Throughout the last year, I picked up baking (self-taught) and I've come to realize that I really love to bake. I don't particularly enjoy sweets, but I do love looking at pretty pastries and dream of creating them in my own kitchen. I think my family has been very forgiving in being my guinea pigs :>

If you never try, you never know right?

Till date, I've done 2 bake sales and both of them are Macarons related bake sale. I do like the pretty looking macarons but they are a pain-in-the-arse to make! They are indeed nifty bakes which require lots of TLC or they might just rebel against you. 😂 Thankfully, I managed to master (self-praise) the art of making macarons, hence the birth of my 2 bake sales. I am, in no way, a professional chef btw, just a hobbyist.. Here's some photos of my Sushi macarons and Christmas themed macarons for my 2 bake sales. hehe. I'm quite fortunate to receive lots of positive feedback on my bakes and overwhelming orders during my bake sale launched. Thank you everyone for your contributions! 💓

Besides my crazy macaron baking days, I do try different desserts as and when I feel inspiration kicking in. hahaha. One of my very satisfied desserts is Durian Puffs! To be honest, I tried making the choux pastry once before (a few weeks before making this durian puffs) and they looked realllll bad. haha, yes they were pointy, not so good-looking and had no airy centre. It was a failure. I started looking at different recipes and watching youtube videos, trying to find out where my mistake was. I learnt, and tweaked my recipe a little and decided to try again. Thank God it was a success!

When I posted the photo of my durian puffs, quite a few of my friends asked me if it was difficult to make and they wanted to try. Honestly, it's not difficult at all! You just need to nail the choux pastry and you're good to go with the fillings. Fill them up with durian, or just regular custard/pastry cream. It's a very versatile pastry to make! Since it's the new year, I shall share my recipe here :)

To make the choux pastry, you'll need 118ml water, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp sugar, 55g unsalted butter, 2 eggs, 70g plain flour. For the durian fillings, you'll need 500g durian flesh (unhusked), 100ml whipping cream.

Making the choux pastry

1. Melt the butter, water, salt, sugar over medium fire.

2. Once melted, lower heat and add flour and start folding.

3. Fold for at least 2 min, until you see a thin film forming at the base of the pot

4. Transfer to bowl to cool to room temperature (approx 10min)

5. Add 1 egg at a time into paste, mix until it forms back together then add the next egg

6. Continue folding until you reach a "Pointy V" consistency in your paste. It's ready for piping!

7. Pipe onto baking sheet, press down, twirl and lift up to end

8. Wet finger to press flatten any tips. If desired, brush egg wash over puff tops (optional)

9. Bake at 180 degrees for 20-25 min.

Making the durian fillings

1. Grab 500g durian flesh out, place them into blender/food processor and blend till fine puree

2. Whip 100ml of whipping cream to soft peaks and add in durian puree

Assembling the puffs

1. Remove puffs from oven once done, leave to cool.

2. Cut open the puffs (I did them in half as I wanted to have more durian fillings oozing out)

3. Transfer durian paste into piping bag and start piping

4. Cool them in the fridge for few hours before serving. Store durian puffs in freezer for extended shelf life (up to 1 week), thaw before serving.

*If you'd like to see the full video tutorial, Click here to head to my IGTV for the video!

Enjoy the chilled puffs! It's finger lickin' good 😁😋

Xoxo,
Chye

January 23, 2021 No comments

It's been a good whole year since my last visit to Hairplus Korean Salon before my NZ road trip in August last year. During my last visit, I did the Cinderella treatment as part of Amos product filming for the salon. And now, 1 year later, I'm finally back with a hair change. This time I chose to do the Korean Digital Perm + Treatment (3-Step). Coincidentally, the salon had brought in a new perming machine which helps to achieve bouncy curls. Yay for me, I get to try out the new machine!

It's Covid times so please do remember to keep your face masks on during the whole hair session, and don't forget to practice safe distancing!

Since I wanted to perm my hair, I couldn't get it coloured as it would be too much for my hair to handle. So I'd have to come back to the salon another day to get my hair dyed. My hair grows really fast, and in just 1 year, it has grown to almost half the entire length! p.s. it is really obvious in the photos/video.

Before I got started with my perm, my stylist accessed the quality of my hair first to determine whether it's okay to perm. Most people are afraid of perming their hair for fear of damaging it or becoming frizzy over time. All hairs have a cuticle that protects it from UV rays as well as other external pollutants. Perm lotions are usually an alkaline solution which opens the cuticle layer and breaks the bonds within the hair so that it can be restructured during the permanent straightening or curling process. The specialty perm lotion at Hair Plus Korean Salon was created to solve problems such as Incompatibility with other treatments e.g. keratin treatments, brittle or bleached hair not being able to be treated, Highly alkaline pH solution causing irreversible damage to hair fibres. The perm lotion also has a neutral pH (7) which maximizes the respect to hair integrity without making it look too stiff/ unnatural or artificial look.

With the technique done by their senior hairstylists from Seoul, I am very confident that my hair structure can be modified without excessively opening the cuticle layer and causing irreversible damage. The final result will leave me with soft and frizz-free hair that is easy to maintain, which is what I'm looking for when getting a perm. Fuss-free and Frizz-free!

Watch the vlog of my actual visit to the hair salon on Youtube!

My stylist first layered my hair since it's grown too much, then we got started with 1st of the 3-Step treatment followed by the chemical perm. The smell of the chemical perm wasn't too much to handle, so it was quite alright for me to watch my show in peace and not be disturbed by the smell. After some time, my hair stylist came to check if the curls could hold. Once it's okay, I went to wash it off followed by 2nd of the 3-Step treatment and back to my seat to blow dry my hair. Here comes the new and cool looking perming machine which will help achieve bouncy curls. *gleams*

After setting for 20min, the ceramic curlers were switched to the plastic ones and off I go to the basin to have the neutralizer applied which helps to set the curls. Lastly after washing off the chemical perm, I got the 3rd of the 3-Step treatment applied then back to the chair to blow dry my hair completely.

And here's the results of my perm!

I used to be afraid of perming my hair as I had a nasty experience many years ago. It left my hair very damaged, with tight curls and it just wasn't pleasant looking at all. I wished my hair would grow quicker so I could chop it off sooner. But ever since going to Hair Plus Korean Salon, I am always in awe of my hair when I step out of the salon. Whether it's a treatment, perm, c-curls or even just changing hairstyle, it's always a good experience. Not only do they use premium products which helps to maintain the hairstyle, it also prevents my hair from being damaged. I love the specialty premium perm lotion which creates natural bouncy curls that adds volume and is easy to maintain.

Also, I got this bottle of curling essence from the salon which helps with the upkeep of my bouncy curls. Just squeeze a sizeable amount on your palms and rub it in to the hair before blow drying it (while twisting it away from the face). It smells soooo good and it works really well too!

This is an update of my curls approx 2 weeks later...

xoxo,

Chye

September 24, 2020 No comments

Singapore turns 55 years old!
We've come a long way, through ups and downs, and we're still going strong. Happy Birthday!!

This year is indeed a very different year of national day celebration. Not only do we have almost ALL Singaporeans present in the country on this day, we also experienced a different type of celebration. Normally during the national day period, I'm usually not in the country. Not that I don't love Singapore, but working adults have to try to fully maximize the use of their annual leaves, combined with public holidays. Hence, national day public holidays are always used in conjunction with my AL to go travelling. hahaha. This time last year, I was at New Zealand. The year before, I was diving at Malapascua... Oops. But this year, everyone is grounded because of Covid-19!

Welcome home (and stay home), Singaporeans.

Since we can't travel, let's make full use of this holiday. Started the morning of 9th August with my usual sunday morning run. I usually take my run to the waterway park connector, running past my future house and checking out the construction progress, and rounding back to the mall. Total distance 5 KM. Easy run, just to keep my stamina going and heart pumping. Its a weekly affair and I do it with my parents, to encourage them to exercise together.

This year's national day parade will be taken to the streets, where the military will showcase their battleships/tanks/vehicles. It is usually done at the parade grounds itself (during the NDP show) but since this year there won't be any NDP show for the public to attend due to crowding restrictions, they brought the vehicles to the heartlands! We learnt that the mobile columns would be passing by our area at Punggol (right infront of waterway point), so after our morning run, we stayed at waterway point to have breakfast and waited until 1130 AM to catch the mobile column passing by us.

It was very crowded!!!! I wonder if it's only Punggol area that has such big crowds or it's the same for the other areas where the mobile column passes by... Military personnel were broadcasting safe distancing measures all around, but no one bothered moving. Everyone was elbow to elbow from one another. We stood by the grass along the road and caught the mobile column, waving our hands/flags/cheering them on. I reckon it must be super hot for them operating the tanks/vehicles under the sweltering weather. And it was almost noon! The weather was incredibly uncomfortable and hot yesterday.

Did our seemingly patriotic part by cheering at the roadside, and headed home to wash up. Hooray! Since it was national day weekend, my bro & I decided to cook the dinner feast. I prepared Molten Lava Cake (for dessert), made fresh pasta from scratch and baked lasagna! Since the molten lava cake was supposed to be dessert, I made the batter ahead and refrigerated it. To have oozing molten lava, you need to bake it hot & quick and eat it while it's still hot so the lava will ooze out. Making the batter was easy, so I started early at 1 PM, got it done and out of the way. Next was to make the lasagna pasta sheet. I wanted to buy store bought sheets, bcos it's not costly and less time consuming. But for some weird reason, all the supermarkets in Punggol seemed to be sold out/OOS of the noodle sheets! I was so mad, i walked to 7 different supermarkets all over and I still couldn't find. Some friends suggested that I make my own lasagna noodle sheets, and so I did. It's actually super simple, you just need plain flour and eggs. But, the actual work comes with you need to knead the dough and flatten it out. I don't have a pasta maker machine, so i had to go old school and use a rolling pin. This is tough work.

After making the dough, you gotta let it rest for 30min, then portion out to flatten. After flattening, cut the sheets to desired size and then let it dry for at least 1hr. Once the sheets are dried, it's ready to be cooked and the leftover sheets can be frozen for future use.

It took me really long to make the pasta dough and I was sweating all over. The weather was really unfavorable yesterday. But after seeing the end product, my pasta sheets drying nicely outside, it's quite satisfying! Once my sheets are cooked, I started to assemble my lasagna! Cooked my ground beef with onion & garlic, poured in tomato puree and paste, added my seasoning (salt, pepper, oregano, thyme) and simmered for 15min. Mixed my ricotta cheese with mozzarella, parsley and it's go time! Beef sauce > pasta > beef sauce > cheese mix > mozzarella > pasta > beef sauce > cheese mix > mozzarella (finish all), cover up with foil and bake for 45 min at 180 degrees. Remove foil the last 3-5 min and bake till golden brown crust. Rest for 20 - 30 min before serving. DONE!

Super yummy, and i tell you it's a dish that everyone will want second servings. Did i mention it's damn filling too? Bro made sushi and tamago for the dinner feast, and we had plenty leftovers. lol.

Everyone was soooo full after dinner. Watched the national day performance on TV, fireworks, sang national day anthem & pledge, tried getting baby claire to follow too. She is growing up way too fast! When we were feeling less bloated, I placed my lava cake batter into muffin trays and baked them for 5 min at 230 degrees, and violaaaaa, oozing molten lava cake! Pair it with cookies & cream ice cream and it's YUMMMMM.

I'm loving this year's national day celebration. Totally loving it as I get to cook and bake yummy dishes. Till the next time guys. Happy Birthday once again, Singapore!