And the challenge for December is .... a French Yule Log!
Yes! Here is my attempt. All friggin parts of it: Mousse, creme brulee insert, crisp insert, ganache insert (which you can't really see, shame really) hazelnut dacquoise and dark-choc icing. And strange hemispheres on the top. I started off with only 2 (only had one Lindt ball left) but then realised that it ... umm ... didn't look quite right and then had to go buy another box of the stuff to make it a total of 4!
Anyway, I hope you like it as much as I want to destroy it. OH HOW I WISH TO RECIPROCATE ALL THE PAIN IT HAS CAUSED ME. I am so damn tired. I don't even want to taste it LOL.
This challenge was brought to you by the letter F. For fun. Not. Ok really now: This month's challenge is brought to us by the adventurous Hilda from Saffron and Blueberry and Marion from Il en Faut Peu Pour Etre Heureux. They have chosen a French Yule Log by Flore from Florilege Gourmand. Happy now demon program?
I went to a lebo wedding for the first time today! It was SO MUCH FUN. I learnt so many bellydancing moves. LOL! My ears are still ringing slightly from the music. The food sucked, as usual. That's one thing Malay weddings have that will make them stand out. Good food!
Hey slutinas. I went on a "business trip" with a few "business associates" the past weekend. We went to an amazing foresty/bush-place called Govetts Leap (an absolutely amazing STUNNING view of the Blue Mountains valley. ARGH it was so crazy good) and then we went adventure caving at Jenolan Caves (the Plughole Tour through the Elder Caves).
All in all, quite a fun trip, except the part where I ate a stale burger and got food poisoning and had intense vomiting the whole day and a mind-destroying fever at night. The sight of red meat still makes me want to puke. I can't eat food without paranoia anymore.
I'm going to the Gold Coast in 13 days, my one-month plan to lose 10 kilos failed miserably (Abs Diet book collecting dust on my new shelf), I'm still bald (hair grows slower than I thought) and I still haven't told my dad that I'm going.
Joy!
Still have half a mind to ditch all my friends and not go. But for stupid reasons. Mainly the clubbing issue. I don't want to go clubbing in Queensland! LOL! Can't we all just be young and naive and "boring" and stay home and be completely anti-social? I am seriously hardly clubbing material. I hardly listen to music, I can only dance when I'm in Sayed's movie room on his hot red couch, alcohol and skanky girls really are not part of my life, so I dunno! I just don't think I will enjoy it.
Unfortunately, due to the magnetic pull of peer-pressure, most likely I will succumb and be dragged to a night out of red-faced "fun". If I come out alive I'll do a little dance. Just for the irony of course.
Well, looking on the bright side, there's so many fun things we will do in the daylight hours! Like theme parks, pristine white sandy beaches and snorkelling and funnel cake (OH MAN I hope there's funnel cake. I've only seen it in documentaries. It's SO American!)
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Wednesday, December 24, 2008
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One of my close friends has left Australia to go study Medicine for 6 years in Bangladesh. We all went and sent him off today at the airport. It was kinda sad. He went all teary! I got a card for us all to write on (cards are the best presents) and forced him to only read it on the plane. Hopefully he'll be alrite.
As life goes on, poor Ahmad notices more and more how weird this World he lives in is. The perils of blowholes, the lameness of dry skin, ah! What an adventure. Click here for Part One. I love this type of post! Enjoy.
1. Bath bombs aren't very bomb-like. They're actually quite lame. After years and years of wondering what they were like I gave in and bought some, prepared a bath, jumped in, dumped in the bath bombs excitedly, all for less bubbles than if I had farted in the water. LAME!
2. If you ever happen to meet Abu Caristmas, the Father of Christmas Beetles, do not kill him lest he sends his army of ants to come and kill your cats...
Oops! He's dead!
NUUUU! MY POOR KITTIES!!! :(
3. Box jellyfish have eyes. And can see you. And stalk you. And sting you. And eat you. Ok, maybe not the last one. But still. Freaky. What happened to brainless sacks of water??
4. I used to think I had amazing skin. Now I realise I have very dry skin. As in ridiculously dry skin. Like I flake more than weetbix. Old weetbix. Here's my arm peeling at IKEA (I seem to live at IKEA these days):
Don't look at the hot furniture look at ME!
Look how ridiculously OLD my toes look! YUK! Someone hand me some moisturiser. Urgh. I hate moisturiser. So greasy. According to my Dad, cracked feet can be cured by a long soak in water, which is something I tried. Which didn't work. Another great piece of advice.
I thought, why not soak my feet WHILE PLAYING COMPUTER GAMES! Genius! Not! Maybe I should have just got electrocuted and won this year's Darwin Award.
5. I found out what cats do when the silly hoomans are away:
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Wednesday, December 17, 2008
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Earlier today, an Iraqi reporter threw not one, but both his shoes at George Dubya Bush's head. News sources from all around the world felt the need to emphasis how, in Arab culture, it is so very rude to throw shoes at people, and so thus, this was an extremely rude thing to do!
LIKE HELLO!?! Last time I checked, throwing your shoes at someone's head is quite rude, no matter where you live. It was so weird how every single news source emphasised that part so much!
P.S. if there does exists a mythical Shoeaklabaad where hitting someone over the head with shoes is a sign of greeting, I want an invite. Just for the lulz.
[N.B. I just stole that line verbatim from CNN. I kid you not.]
He's got some pretty good reflexes aye??
In similarly momentous news, my nose bled for the first time in my life today. I think (ok I know) I was picking my nose with unmatch gusto, and accidentally severed something tender. Blood ensued. And we all know in Australia, blood is often seen as a sign of bleeding.
It rose from the Deep, churning violently, Spewing forth its contents; mist, drops of spray, Upwards (mostly), drenching, distractingly. 'Twas the day the sea took my slipper away.
So soft on the skin in the mornings bright, Cold, liquid invigoration; Cleansing. Yet through ancient stone of unequalled might, It cuts and scrapes, a brutal dispensing.
Too lazy, am I, to write four more lines, And so you must bear, With these words of mine.
So mighty a force, there is none rather, So satiate the beast! Throw in the other!
Hey ya'll! GUESS WAT. My cats are allergic to fleas. Yes. After all these years (4+ they're so old!) of giving us fleas and spreading flea-ness everywhere, they're immune systems seem to have died and now they are allergic. It's so slack! Unlike silly hoo-mans with nails, they have claws and so they tend to scratch their skin into bleeding sores which get infected. And their hair falls off in awful patches so they look REALLY REALLY raggedy.
So after learning why their hair was actually falling off in bloody patches and learning what to do to stop it ( -$200 to happy vet man! CaCHING!) one by one we had to catch the kitties, put them in the toilet as they cried (yes they make crying noises. It's so pitiful. Makes you sad.) shave off the hair around the sore and rub in some funky cream.
Not fun.
So now the cats are paranoid, hate us heaps and don't trust us when we come closer. And don't listen to evil Dr Harry. FRONTLINE IS NOT AS EASY TO PUT ON AS IT LOOKS!! Especially when you cats are psycho lunatic street sluts who only come in for food and strokes. Eww.
Bad joke time. My sister called the cats cutters. Cos they cut themselves. LULZ LULZ! I know if life is so fair why do cats have claws. And cos the cats would only let the girls touch them (the cats are girls too) and they make all weird noises when it happens, my brother calls them the Pervy Lesbos. LULZ LULZ!
So anyway, my long-held belief that I couldn't get sunburnt turned out to be crap, I shaved off all my long luscious locks in a Britney-esque mental breakdown moment, and all subsequent attempts at making macarons have failed miserably. So basically my face is peeling off, I'm bald and I have a crapload of dishes to wash-up, with no reward. FRAKKERS!
Me and the school mates had a BBQ/beach-trip yesterday. It was a lot of fun. We left really early in the morning because they wanted to see the sunrise. It was so beautiful. Surreal. It was so nice to hang out with the guys again and totally go nuts without a care in the world. I felt like such a kid again, going wild in the sand.
And they really liked my smoked salmon sandwiches too!
Just think of a mountain of sugar. Then cook it till the smells drives you so wild you dip a spoon to taste it and realise BLEH! This isn't SWEET!! Then pour it into a batter, stir, cook, and enjoy!
A lot of people were complaning about how sweet the cake was. Maybe they didn't realise that the caramel was meant to be cooked to smoking point, which kind of removes much of its sweetness to leave that deep burnt caramel flvour.
Well that sort of summarises my first attempt at recreating the Caramel Cake, this month's Daring Bakers challenge, a creation of renowned pastry chef Shuna Fish Lydon, hosted by Dolores (from Culinary Curiosity) and co-hosted by Brownie (from the Blondie and Brownie duo), Jenny (of Foray into Food) and Natalie (the alternative baker from Gluten-a-Go-Go).
Phew. Well that was a mouthful. Don't won't to give any itty bitty little evil computer programs any chance to mess up and get me booted off the DB's. *
ANYWAY, moving along, the cake was really strange. Dense and strong. I would most likely describe it as an "adult cake". Very strong mature flavours. I think with a bit more practice, and more patience, if I could master this cake, it would be quite popular!
The buttercream was quite good as well. Burnt butter was an amazing flavour. Maybe I will try to incorporate it into another type of buttercream. Icing-sugar types are often too sweet!
You can find the recipe on any number of blogs on the Daring Baker's blogroll.
. . . .
In other news, I manage to make my first batch of MACARONS!!
Hey ya'll. My results for semester 2 came out. Let's just say Ahmad is currently not a happy boy. So now, I'm going to introduce you to the new love of my life. In sickness and in health, meet:
I dived head-first into the world of demonic MMORPGs and let's just say it's a littttttle bit addictive. At least its not WoW! All you WoW FOOLS! I command you to convert to WAR!!
Anyway, I've always ALWAYS had this idea since forever that being a vegetarian is haram. Like full-on forbidden. I thought everyone thought this way too! In my head it was something to do with "making something forbidden to yourself from that which was made as a provision for you." I didn't bother asking anyone (which btw ppl is a bad habit).
Then recently, after an Arabic class I asked my sheikh, "Is vegetarianism haram?" and he looks at me funny (like I'm delusional). Then he said, "No! Of course not. There's nothing wrong with it." I was like HUH WTF? BUT BUT. Then he goes on and explains how in Islam meat is considered an extravagance and how meat cultivation is a major environmental detriment which is against Islamic principles and I was all like HUH HUH SINCE WHEN.
So suddenly after all these years of viewing vegetarianism as that weird but cool concept that appealed to me and which I might have like to have done but never seriously would have has suddenly become something real and concrete. Weird sentence, I know.
Hi friends. Are you having fun? I'm not. Yay! Now that exam period is almost over, my obesity will soon reach its peak. In crude limit notation this is expressed as:
weight ----> infinity as t ----> exams
This is due to the Ahmad-Weistrauss-Laplace-Lapdance theorem, which states that the mass of an individual is directly proportional the the distance from the nearest MacDonalds. Now, lets use the epsilon-delta definition of a limit to rigorously prove this theorem.
Because we all know that mathematicians like it rough!
Anyway, I am SO bored of exams right now (but strangely loving maths). I want to play computer games till the sun goes down. My dad came from Singapore and so my mum left the house and is living with her friend. Everyone was expecting dramas but it really isn't so bad.
Once, when I was about 6 years old, back in Singapore, I walked past this man who was talking to his teenage son about his job. The man said to his son, "Work hard and you'll get bonuses!" I remember thinking "LOL WAT AN IDIOT! BONUSES ARE ONLY IN GAMES FUFUFU!"
Do you know what I do when I'm procrastinating from study and being all lazy and fat? I cook! Haha! My family feels all lucky (well SHOULD feel all lucky) during my final exam periods (and I feel like crap) as the kitchen miraculously turns into a production line for all a manner of baked, steamed, fried, poked and prodded tasties.
Unfortunately for me, that has led to ahem "equatorial engorgement" as I like to call it, so I'm trying to cut back on baking a little bit. BUT I CAN'T! It's in my BLOOD! I wonder if I had any bakers in the family line...
Anyway, in my attempts to save time cooking to get more time studying (making bloody creme brulee and lemon meringue pie from scratch really gets time consuming with the washing up and may contribute to a substantial drop in my WAM) I went to the super market and bought instant pancake shake mix and some maple syrup to satisfy my gastronomical urges.
UNFORTUNATELY THE DAMN MAPLE SYRUP WAS SOME FAKE SHIT THAT DIDN'T EVEN HAVE SUGAR IN IT! I realised I was buying the fake stuff (i.e. not the real stuff from Canada or watever) but seriously, this is taking this sugar-free business just a little bit too far don't you think! I don't want to be pouring sorbitol all over my pancakes.
And to make things worse, the pancake mix was the worst I've ever had. It couldn't take being soaked in syrup and turned into mush. Uber low gluten content maybe?? Who knows. At least it wasn't gluten free urgh.
Ah well. To be fair, the faux-maple syrup was the best tasting sugar free thing I've ever had. Which is really not that much of a prize.
Anyway, back to study.
"Regulation and Professional Ethics for an Actuary..."
And the challenge for October is ... is ... PIZZA!?
!! LOL. NO. YEAST. ARGH. AHMAD + YEAST = FAIL. !!
This month's challenge is hosted by Rosa, of Rosa's Yummy Yums. When I logged on to the forums and saw it was pizza I *groaned*. Sigh. Yeast. Yeast. Slimy little buggers. All they do is eat your sugar and fart out gas. Haven't quite yet got a hold of them. Last time we did something with yeast (well besides the crackers) it was a disaster.
Anyway, might as well get on with it I said! There is "daringness" in DB after all :P. I tried the recipe a few days after it went up and had a few problems. 4 cups of flour does not equal 605 g where I live. LOL. So I made the mistake of taking 4 cups as 4 x 250 g. Silly me. So I ended up with things in the bin. Or being left outside so long it fermented into demon soup.
Sorry no millions of pics + explanations today! One, I really don't have any expertise at all LOL and two I've been way WAY too busy (in final exams now gah) to spend a lot of time so this will have to do!
I made 2 pizzas: A desert pizza (an AMAZING peanut butter, chocolate, pecan, banana and cream-cheese explosion) and and a regular margarita. You can see I attempted to do a stuffed crust (but it didn't turn out. LOL!)
Well, clearly the dough turned out eventually (LOL :P). It was SO stretchy but still held together! It was AWESOME. I think I might have just tossed it around a biiiit too much. Excuse the funky-fied brightness/contrast of the picture. Didn't feel like showing any face.
As a result I look like a demon trying to catch your souls with my purpley membrane thingy. Humour me. LOL.
I'm about to stay up studying the whole night and the only emotion I'm feeling right now is desperation. Is that even an emotion? I'm almost 100% sure I'm not going to be able to attain a high enough mark to pull up my WAM to 80, and yet I keep on trying.
I'm so jacked up on caffeine (thanks RedBull) that my left eye will not stop twitching. Remember, only 2 cans a day if you're sane! I'm pretty sure I've gone over the limit. A few times over.
I recall telling you the story of how I ate a rosebud sometime in the past but I can't seem to find the post and so I will assume I didn't. Somehow in the midst of final exam studying madness this story popped into my head.
For some reason or another (actually I know the reason but it's just too random/weird/occult to confess on the internets) I had to eat a rosebud. Yes, a rosebud. Somewhat against my will. And very much against my better judgement.
Anyway, here I was sitting on the floor at the apartment we rented for a while in Singapore during certain eventful times of my life I rather hate to relive, with a rosebud in one hand, and 5 people looking at me waiting for me to munch on it.
And so I did.
Nom.
Nom.
Nom.
Little did I know that the I didn't really have to munch on the whole damn thing, just the petals. Don't ask why, I won't tell (and I really don't know myself). And so I accidentally the whole economy (lol jkz) I accidentally ate all the stamens and fugness and bitter shit and so I was gagging to death but see I was still obliged to eat it. I asked the person if I could spit if out but he obviously he said no and he went and got me a glass of water to help it down.
You know how much I hate drinking water on its own, but I took a gulp anyway. Turns out the genius got me a cup of warm water (YUCK) and so now swirling around in my mouth was a warm soupy mixture of rosy filth.
Joy.
I almost lost control of my mouth and spat it all out but that would have had very unfortunate consequences and so somehow I managed to force myself to swallow it all, even though I was almost about to cry from how unfortunate the feeling was in my mouth (urgh the taste still torments me).
So, basically, the moral of the story is, if you offer me sugar-crusted candied rose petals, please don't be offended when I say, "f*ck off."
Semester 2 is over! And I didn't ditch my last lecture! I am AWESOME. Ending this semester on an unsure note. How will I go!? I need an ultimate ultimate performance in these finals or else I am gonna be analised.
In other more random news, I rode in an Australian taxi for the first time! I know right?? I've been living in this country for more than 12 years and the first time I ever ride a taxi is when my cousin is too lazy to catch the Wynyard train to Circular Quay and so we take a cab. Cost $10! Bejaysus! I wonder how much it would have cost to come back to Lakemba.
I think Singaporean taxis are a lot cheaper. And better.
In other news, I am SUCH a bad employee. My quasi-boss called me up for training on Saturday but my cousin came so I wanted to go to Parramatta and eat waffles with him (Max Brenner *droool*) and so I DITCHED WORK. OMG. I SUCK. I felt so bad afterwards.
Totally embarrasing thing happened today. 7 out of 10 embarrasing.
ANYWAY. One of my random through the family acquaintances on Facebook gave me the idea of free education at uni (a.k.a. jumping into random lectures to learn stuff). I thought YAY I ARE SO SMARTS LETS JUMP INTO A BIG JAP LECTURE AND NO-ONE WILL NOES US!
Except NO.
Turns out the lecture was a Jap-1B lecture (as in ppl already could speak rudimentary Japanese) and so it was a total wtf experience. Add to that the fact that the classes were really small and the lecturer knew everyone by first name basis and we stuck out like BIG FAKE SORE THUMBS.
The lecturer went up to ppl during the class and the whole time I was praying PLZ PLZ don't come up to me but damn HELL Murphy's Law she came up to me. Sigh! Then she started asking me stuff in Japanese and I had no idea what was going it was SO BAD. I tried to do some astral projection which totally didn't work so I was stuck there totally embarrased rambling nonsense ARGH FAIL FAIL FAIL!
In other news, I'm chewing a Mentos now and it hurts. Frakking ulcers.
P.S. Did you know Jehovah's Witnesses are banned in Singapore? LMAO WTF?!
Uni started again today. Midsemester break was so amazing. As in relieving. Today was another amazingly fun day of uni. Totally radical joyful sexed up fun times.
Skipped lectures again even though I swore (for the 967578th time) that I'd go to every single one as a result of my crap-tascular results. ARGH! Studying sucks!
Anyway. I felt stupid again today. No-one can make me feel more stupid that bloody effinfg Vladimir. Why does he have to be so smart for? In MY domain too. Why, oh why. In other joyful news I get that exam result tomorrow and that will determine if I jump in front of a train or not.
Far out. It's so bloody hot these days. Summer came so fast this year. Hell, it's not even Summer yet. Bah! Clothes are sticking to my skin againnn it feels so nasty. Well at least waking up early is a lot easier. No point staying in bed if it feels like a sauna. Maybe I should stop using a blanket.
But it's way too comfy.
Hmm. I was driving home from my friend's place in the evening and it was all Summery stuffy and the clouds were all red and dark and ready to pour and then my mum sends a txt msg telling me that there's a black out of the whole street at home. How fun. I like blackouts. I didn't think they happened anymore. So much for modern technology and watever.
Blackouts remind me of more innocent times. Running around in the dark with candles. Being too terrified to go to the toilet because there was light and something might rape me as I was sitting on the dunny. No television? Hmm. Not really.
Anyway, as I was driving back it turned out that the traffic lights had gone out too. All the big intersections had no lights working. I swear there was an accident about to happen anytime. Dumb cops were so useless! Lucky I was on the main road so I could just keep driving straight throught the lights (win for right of way). All the side roads had to wait and try to sneak in an entrance.
Happy Eid! Eid Mubarak! Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Fitri!!
The holy fasting month of Ramadan ended yesterday, so today is the Muslim holiday of Eid! Everyone's all joyful and celebrating and kiddies running about happy that they have tasty food and cash from parents.
Whole family stayed up late last night making the traditional set of Malay Eid food, i.e. lontong, kuah lodeh, beef rendang, sambal udang, ayam masak merah, etc. Sigh! Malay food is SO GOOD. Not really as widely known as say Chinese food but it is SO good.
It was so funny having to organise everyone to cook all the dishes simultaneously disaster. 6 PEOPLE in one tiny kitchen!! HELL. I like it though. Everyone has to contribute, male or female (don't you just love the gender equality??) My brother isn't so kitchen friendly and didn't cook the chilli properly in a certain dish and so quite a few people are going to have upset tummies. But happy tongues. XD XD.
It's so funny our house is always so packed out on Eid cos all the local families my mum knows come to our house cos we famous on Eid and eat and be merry.
And sooo I had to make a cake! DAH!
I made a traditional Malay cake called kueh lapis (literally "layered cake") which is made from a CRAP load of unhealthy fatty ingredients (20 egg yolks. In one small little 25 x 25 cm cake. LOL! Not to mention half a kilo of butter. But anyway...) but tastes SO GOOD.
My cake really wasn't as pretty as this one, but according to all the old Malay mummas (there were a LOT of them) it was very much moist and tasted very authentic. Awww! That made me happy. Apparently they sell for a crapload. $70 a cake. Oosh!
The challenge for September is ... *drum roll* ... Lavash Crackers!
...
*crickets chirping*
...
WHUT??
Haha. If that too was your reaction when you saw Lavash, then don't worry we're both similarly ignorant of Armenian-esque cuisine. I logged on to The DB forums after washing the chocolate pastry cream off my hands full expecting to be hit with another diabetes inducing round of chocolate, cream and butter, but was pleasantly surprised by my first savoury challenge!
More bready than cracker-ish but still tasty!
No lengthy pic-fest this time guys SORRY I'm too lazy to photoshop and prettify all the pictures like I usually do. I'll just leave you guys with a video of how you work your lavash dough in the true armenian way!!
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Thursday, September 25, 2008
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I HATH BEEN REDEEMED!
LIFE ONCE AGAIN HAS MEANING!!
I was so upset that the Lindt macarons sucked so frakkin much that today after uni I caught the earliest bus to The Rocks and navigated the winding paths of the Old City area to find a little French patisserie French-Man told me was quite exquisite.
Yes. I take my food seriously.
This patisserie, Le Renaissance, which sounds amazing pronounced in the true Francais accent, is according to French-Man a very decent place for pastries, comparable to true Parisian pastries (he would know).
When I walked in the shop I was really nervous cos I knew this was where all the rich business dudes hung out for coffee and I was in full povo wear with not so much cash on hand. But I went in anyway.
The cakes were so beautiful! Oh! The presentation! Ah! The prettiness! What patisseries in the inner west (a.k.a. The Ghetto, i.e. where I live) so miserably fail to realise is that it is ALL about the presentation. And the taste too. Of course.
I bought an Opera Cake (just for the sake of all you Daring Bakers ;D I just had to!) as well as one of their resident creations, whose name I can't quite remember.
Not to sound too bitchy or anything, but the cakes were not all that great. I think I could have done better with alternate choices. Opera cake had a strangely high ratio of jaconde to buttercream and chocolate creme patisserie so the experience was too much of overwhelming greasy mouthfeel. Maybe it's meant to be like that. The other cake was amazingly well presented but the outer sponge was quite dry. They could have done much better.
And now, to the core of my post.
They had...
Macarons.
*Heart skips a beat*.
I bought 6 macarons. 2 chocolate, 2 passionfruit, one jasmine and one vanilla. I was out of the dreamy fantasy state. Like a divorcee who is no longer under the illusion of blind romance.
But I had hope!
I went home, and when it was time to break my fast, I tried the chocolate maracon.
Joy!
It was good! Full and chewy and strong and chocolatey and enjoyable to eat~! The shell was crunchy without being dry and the inside was soft yet chewy and not sickly sweet and smooth but with texture ah!
And then there was the passionfruit macaron! Ah! What a dance on the tastebuds that was. Amazing amazing AMAZING flavour. Vanilla was very enjoyable as well. Jasmine was a bit too floral and too sweet but still enjoyable in small amounts.
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Wednesday, September 24, 2008
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[Due to popular demand I HAD to finish the story :P]
My brother works at the Reserve Bank in the city at Martin's Place and it happens to be right next to one of the Lindt Cafe's in Sydney. He gets to eat their tasty stuff often. Lucky!
Anyway, one day I found out that Lindt Cafe has MACARONS! Yes! Those evil little circular devil pastries that dance all over the internet and poke their creamy little tongues at me full knowing I'll never get to taste a real one any time soon. Did I tell you how I bugged my french-uncle/soon-to-be-boss to get me some Laduree macarons from Paris??
YES I AM THAT OBSESSED.
So one day I bugged my brother enough and he finally went and got some for me. Man I was like crapping my pants in excitement. I was like SO WET. I practically smashed the door down when I got home to taste one.
I carefully took one out of the box...
...and took a bite.
[Edit]
Where was I? Oh yes.
I took a bite...
And was crushed. So many hours of fantasising about wonderful flavours and Lindt's reputation and whatnot but unfortuntately only one word can describe the experience.
Meh.
Just so incredibly boring. The shell was so dry and felt very flaky and gross in my mouth. Not a pleasure to eat at all. Such an unfortunate texture. So hollow! It was like a air bag that once the shell cracked it just all fell apart in my hand.
Right now I'm consoling telling myself that it's just Lindt that sucks and that in Paris they'll taste like I fantasise but until I go there, we'll have to wait and keep trying to make them.
I made that blog post title just cos I felt like it.
And it feels bloody hot.
One of my uni friends is really pissing me off lately. Sigh damn emotional religious people! So bipolar!! Far out. And I'm totally allowed to make bipolar jokes mind you. It runs in the family. I'll tell you that story another time. ^^;;
Dude I totally didn't fail accounting. HAHA.
And I had an actuarial exam today. TOTALLY SMAsHED IT. Studying hours and hours straight totally works people. Try it!
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Wednesday, September 17, 2008
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I voted for the first time on Sunday. Local elections. I felt like, all important and stuff. And oh so democratic. It was really strange too. Like my opinion actually counted or something. And not having to vote the way anyone else voted or wanted me to vote, but voting for who I felt was the right candidate (or who I was fooled into voting). And all that other happy jazz.
It was funny cos I didn't know the policies of any of the candidates at all. People were crowding around me and everyone else handing me pamphlets of how to vote for Labor or Liberal or this particular independent or watever. I comtemplated voting based on how aesthetically pleasing the candidate was but then I realised that that was a tad bit too Fahrenheit 451 than I'd like to be comfortable with.
When people ask me who I voted for I say, "Obama".
Lehman Brothers files for bankruptcy and Merrill Lynch is bought by the Bank of America for $50 billion dollars. Who would have thought that within 6 months there would only be two of the Big 5 investment banks left. If something as big as Lehman Brothers can fail, who is safe? The gigantic farce of financial derivatives is slowly being unravelled! They always seemed slightly dodgy anyway. I would be quite scared if I was living in America. Nonetheless, exciting times for finance students!
L-O-L. Did YOU KNOW that MS TRUNCHBULL (a.k.a. the physical manifestation of ALL THAT IS EVIL) is actually Laura Thyme from Rosemary & Thyme?? LIKE WTF! Amazing what a bit of make-up can do haha!
From eating babies...
...to all Prim and Proper! LOL!
Have I ever mentioned how much I love Roald Dahl's novels?
And the challenge for December is .... a French Yule Log!
Yes! Here is my attempt. All friggin parts of it: Mousse, creme brulee insert, crisp insert, ganache insert (which you can't really see, shame really) hazelnut dacquoise and dark-choc icing. And strange hemispheres on the top. I started off with only 2 (only had one Lindt ball left) but then realised that it ... umm ... didn't look quite right and then had to go buy another box of the stuff to make it a total of 4!
