So many cafes

I enjoy eating out in cafes just trying out thier food especially if they have date scones, banana bread (which I miss sydney for) and good coffee!

There are so many nice cafes around Auckland it's so hard to try everyone of them! However, me and my friend thought we can target the whole of Parnell once a week! Haha..

I wished that there were more fusion cafes around here so that I could have the best of both world...

Had craving for something COLD and with red bean and green tea so went to Atrium to ISO which is at the foodcourt..It's something like ice kachang but the ice is so much lighter like clouds (not like i've tasted clouds before). I could do with more red bean but it was just enough. Everything tasted so nice with condense milk drizzled all over. YUM YUM!!



This one is a fruit cocktail which wasnt as nice...tasted sour, bitter and just wierd..

Easter Weekend

Easter we went away to Hahei with a few Life members.
We started off a Macdonalds for breakky and headed off to Hahei stopping for Lunch at this cafe.




Went to Hahei and the holiday park that we normally tent at was packed so we went to another one at Cooks beach which was further away from the beach but not as crowded.


It was a good one night trip!

life

Today I had a good catch up over breakfast with my friend. Went to this place called Brown Sugar Kitchen which has change their name to The Cake Shop along Royal Oak and had my usual date orange scone and mocchacino. Talking to her reminded me of how much Satan wants to rob of us our joy and our future by reminding us of our past and making us feel like we have no way out!

But praise God Jesus already paid for all at the cross ONCE and FOR ALL!!! We have that hope and faith to step out and to live a life that is abundant and victorious!

While talking to her my ex work mate text me to let me know one of the guys that used to work with us was stabbed to death while in Thailand. I have no idea why he got stabbed but tomorrow there will be a memorial for him at work and I guess i'll find out then. He was a good guy. Good heart. Good personality. Good friend. To think that I had all the time to share with him the gospel...to think that just because I work with him there is always an opportunity to share with him about God. Too late. He is gone. Cant turn back time.

This is the article of Chetan's stab:

World
Indian tourist killed in popular Thai resort
Bangkok | Sunday, Mar 23 2008 IST



An Indian national was stabbed to death in a popular Thai coastal resort here.

Chetan Dhadwal, 24, was trying to intervene in a fight yesterday during the famous Full Moon party at a beach in Koh Phangan in Surat Thani province, south of Bangkok.

The Indian embassy has been informed of the incident.

Embassy sources told UNI that the victim's relatives were informed and they were coming to Thailand. This is the latest incident of violence against foreign visitors to the country where tourism is the main foreign exchange earner, leading to expressions of concern by the government.

Last week, 27-year-old Swedish tourist Hannah Charlotte Bankluns was stabbed to death on a beach in Phuket.

The incident has shocked the Thai tourism industry, which is demanding stepped-up security for visitors.

Life is short, unexpected. Treasure each moment, what we have and who we have. So much to learn about Life...

Oh...something I thought is quite cool though : The Largest room is the world is room for improvement. So much in my life I know that I need to constantly improve...


Improvements include cooking and trying new recipies so because my cousin coming over tonight i shall attempt to try some simple dishes and hopefully it looks like this: Got this from Aromacookery's site...going to cook japanese soy sauce chicken too hope it turns out alright haha


Mine turned out like this :

To be more Christlike

It's nothing new but today just seems to be like a revelation to me haha. To become like someone we need to spend more time with them! Hence...to become like Christ we need to spend more time with him in his word, in prayers, in fellowship with others that are Christ like!!!

I want to have God rub off on me!!! I want to live more in the spirit and to walk in his power that lives in me!

Got to share this sermon that Paster Maree shared on Sunday 16th of March. I cried during the service it was so good.

Limitations of trapped unresolved hurts

We have the power to choose to walk and apply the spirit that lives within us by the power of Jesus Christ!!

Gal 5 : Living by the spirit

What happens when we have trapped hurts:

1) Our spikes goes out

We become defensive, harsh and say the wrong words to put people down
What comes out of our mouth is released in our hearts – we say words that will hurt.

Mat 12:34, Pro 4:23, Pro 15:4, Psalm 141:3

2) Our fences goes up

We fence ourselves up and keep others out and they are not able to relate to us
Fear: We have the feeling of something unpleasant may happen. We become suspicious of why others want to talk to us
Mat 4:21, Pro 15:13

3) Our spirit withers and we shrink

We live very small on the inside and it can get very comfortable there.
Jesus did not make us live small but tall standing oak trees!!
Isaiah 61:3 - we are called to display his splendor

We can't bear fruits and reproduce in the small place we are in
Pro 15:13 - A happy heart makes the face cheerful, but heartache crushes the spirit
(so have to guard and take care of our tender hearts huh!!)

God wants to tap into our other potentials in our other rooms that we have in our BIG mansion as they are being dusty.
Eph 3:14-21

A song that I used to sing in Sunday School : My God is so BIG so STRONG and so MIGHTY that's nothing my God cannot do. That's TRUE!
Sunday school does play a big part. Its actually little seeds that was sown in our lives but at that time it seemed like just words that came out of our mouths!

Eggs

I just felt like sharing my love for eggs especially the ones I get for brunch at cafes.

I love eggs with toast and the eggs has to be either scrambled or poached and drizzled with hollandaise or with sweet chilli sauce.

The toast has to be nice toast not burnt or hard, but just right and crunchy. I love my eggs with smoked salmon and cream cheese yum yum....I could have it for breakfast everyday if I had the time to make them! And I love having it on a sunny day outside at a cafe.

Below are some pictures of a few eggs I've had and how differently they are served at different places...

This was egg benedict at Pahia during my 1 year anniversary.

Below was egg benedicts at a cafe and in between the eggs and the salmon was a piece of hash brown. It was crunchy and tasted nice with the eggs and salmon to my surprise

The eggs below was not as runny as the ones I've had. I love my yolk abit runny and when I cut it the yoke has to run out.....this was at Blue Mountains Sydney at one of the cafes
















And below is scramble eggs with nicely done toast at Hahei beach where I was proposed to. The eggs were really yellow though like they added food colouring or something but otherwise it was scrumptious!

Brownies

Today besides making egg tarts, i also made some brownies to accompany ice cream for desserts at a church friend's house. I sprinkled some icing sugar on top and waited for it to be cooled to put in the fridge.

I dont know which I prefer...heat it up and serve with ice cream or just eat it while its chewy out of the fridge.

Actually besides baking I actually love arranging food so that it looks presentable and nice. I guess the food has to taste good too right?

I will try other types of brownies when I feel like being adventurous. I think I need a new and BIGGER kitchen and with all the utensils I need with a big oven so that I can bake and bake and bake....

If only I can eat as much as I want and not worry about getting diabetes etc etc etc....but then again why do I have such a sweet tooth?????

Egg Tart

After working 7 days straight in a row I finally have my day off. So...I decided to bake but this time try something new hence egg tarts.

This is my second attempt in making egg tarts but I didnt have the mould so it was quite hard to make the pastry nice and even. I am impress at how the egg set nicely but I ended up only using 1/4 of the mixture ;(

My first attempt was done about a year ago haha but all I could remember was how hard the pastry was!! So, I am quite pleased with this batch round. Next time I shall try portguese egg tarts.

Oh I cant wait to go to Hong Kong and Macau to eat in June!!!

Trip to Singapore

When I went to Singapore I tried a few of my favorite desserts but I should have updated myself with what is good around here so that I could try them. It's hard to eat when travelling by myself because you can't simly buy everything and eat everything! I didn't end up going to Maxwell or any other recommended places to eat.

This is thick toast topped with heaps of milo and drizzled with condensed milk. It was really really sweet but I love it. This was at the airport in one of the food places I don't know the name of. Honestly...my mouth was saturated with sweet and i did feel sick...

Very different to the good old roti and curry



Another breakfast famous here is Kaya toast and Ya Kun toast at tiong bahru is just a good walk in the morning before I indulge in this yuummy breakfast:



At Wisma food republic..so many choices for hot desserts...I wanted to try everything and I especially wanted red bean soup but I though hmm try other desserts with red bean with it???



so I tried...

Red bean with Tau Foo Fa ..first time trying it and it turned out nice not too sweet because of the Tau Foo Fa.

Rojak at Food Republic



The Hokkein Mee here always has a long queue or so I hear but it looks and taste so good so I guess there is a reason!



I keep hearing about toast box while in NZ from my friends in Singapore so I had to try it for sure! It turned out alright just toast that I could make at home I guess...But peanut butter tasted good with milo.

I love dried fruits and one of my fav is dried pepsimons that I can only find in Chinatown. Everytime i go back, i'll definately buy these. It is very popular during Chinese new year



Meepok in Chinatown: The fishballs here were big and soft. The noodle were nicely done with a very yummy sauce.



Another Mee Pok noodles

Sydney

Late last year we had a great time in Sydney exploring many places such as Darling Harbour, China town, Opera house, Manly beach, Bondi, Hillsongs church in the city and three sisters at Blue Mountains. To me Sydney was similar to KL or Singapore with the number of people travelling around.

Opera House:


Three sisters at Blue Mountains:


There are more variety of food there but because we did not know the place well and only a short time there we just made the most of what we can see.

On the first day we got there we just indulged in a big breakfast at one of the cafes which I have forgotten the place!


There were many flies flying around us and we had to move from outside to inside because we could never get a bite of our food!!


My fav food was the pancakes which was so deserving because it felt like we walked so long just to find the pancake shop! There were so many different pancakes to try so I ordered one chocolate one and one plain one to try both!

In china town and around there were a few chinese bakeries which my friend Ant brought us around to explore knowing I love bakeries so much!






It was unbelievable! The types of bread were different to those back in Auckland.
One thing I have observe is there are banana bread everywhere!!! I was so happy because I love banana bread! I couldn't see many date scones around though...which is something Auckland has so much of!

In Chinatown as well there were lots of dried fruits, again my fav I bought some dates (what a surprise!)


On our last night there we decided to have taiwanese food and it didn't turn out as nice as we expected. I was hoping the food was better than the ones in Auckland but it did not beat it at all! We ordered pork chop rice and seafood noodles




Ok enough of food now...feel like a banana bread toasted topped with melted butter with a cup of 3 in 1 nescafe.

Inspired

After reading some of the wonderful food blogs (and other blogs) Ive decided to give it a try one myself...

I am inspired by all the wonderful bakers out there and looking at pictures of yummy food I just want to try and bake myself!!! I also want to share my journey, thoughts and LIFE.