Food Review: Macaron from Epicurean Cuisine and Patisserie

Nigella Lawson introduced me to Macaron. Watched one of her show where she made them and from that day onwards I have this weird craving for Macaron. When Cupcake Chic introduce their Macaron, I fell in love with the Chocolate, Peanut butter and jam, and Salted Caramel. I have ever since put CC's Macaron as number one on the list. Have tasted few others but I found out that they often make the fillings too sweet or the meringue not delicate enough. 

Went for an Easter production earlier in CHCKL and after that, while waiting for a friend's friend, a guy in a Chef uniform (Le Cordone Bleu's uniform) walked up to us and offered a tiny bits of macaron for us to try. I tried the Vanilla one and straight away fell in love with it. Decided to splurge and get a box and do a mini review here. :) 

I bought a box of 6 macarons for RM25. To be honest, the most expensive Macaron i have ever bought in Malaysia so far. Had six different flavors. (from L-R: Raspberry, Vanilla, Pistachio, Mango, Caramel, Chocolate) 

Chef David Lee, the creator of these magic babies suggested that I have to start it from the caramel first. So I did. Pinch a bit of everything to get the initial taste and as I am typing it now, I am going to eat it as well so I can give you the fresh out of the oven experience. 

Raspberry: 

Summer. 

David said he made the raspberry jam from scratch. As soon as you bit to it, you can taste the sweet and sour taste from the jam, the light and fluffy meringue will balanced out the sourness of the jam. As you continue eating it, you will bite the seeds and for those who loves Berries, this one is for you. You know when you are craving for something light, fruity with a hint of sourness? This is it. Summer fruit in a meringue and jam. 

Vanilla:

Smooth. 

Man, you can see the vanilla beans spots all over the place, it taste so nice like ice cream. Sooooooooooo Smooth!! :) It melts right away and gives you a big smile as you finish it and once its finish, you wish you have more. :) 

Pistachio: 

Sweet. 

I know, I know it doesn't make sense because it has to be sweet in the first place. Nothing much from this flavor, actually. The pistachio filling is smooth and sweet, the taste of the pistachio is there but not dominating it. I can't even say its nutty. 

Mango: 

Strange. 

This have to be my least like out of the six flavor. No doubt it taste like Mango, but it comes in a pretty weird angle (if you know what I mean). After you linger around the taste then you will get that light bulb moments (Ohhh!! Mango!!!) ;) 

Caramel: 

Salted. 

Which means LOVE! I love Love LOVE Salted Caramel. Balanced flavor between sweet and salt always brings a big smile to my face and honestly, the longer it lingers in your mouth, you can taste the saltiness even more. 

Chocolate: 

Superb. 

The Chocolate ganache in the inside is sooooooo yum! Its so chocolatey and it is hard to deny the yumminess of this one. My housemates ate it all so I only had a bite and wish I bit more before I showed it to them. hahahahaha... 

Overall, I love the fact that the meringue is so light and chewy at the same time. I love how generous he put the filling in every Macaron. I love how the filling taste so fresh and genuine. Apart from Mango and Pistachio, every other flavors I tried really showing off their flavor. It shows that David really put his love and passion while making these babies. I wanted to try the Black Sesame and Earl Grey as well but I guess I gotta wait 'til next time. 

I have to say, I am really blessed that I get to try the yummy Macarons and you know, I think one don't have to fly to Paris anymore to try this yummy meringues sandwich ;) 

He is available for catering purposes and to get to know him more, please contact Chef David Lee at  60123391500 or email chefdavidlee.my@gmail.com. 

#2 Sambal Tempe-Corned Beef

    Ok, here is the deal. My family loves corned beef. I grew up eating Ox&Palm corned beef and to tell you the truth, it's HEAVEN!! :D one of my ma's famous dish is Sambal Tempe and Corned Beef. She is a great cook and honestly, this simple dish will have all of our attention whenever she cooks it! :D 

Here we go and once again, no measuring from me and i've added few ingredients (*) just because i have to add them in. :) 

Ingredients: 

1. Tempe 

2. Corned Beef

3. Garlic (*)  

4. Chilli Padi 

5. Lime Leaves 

6. Lemongrass (*)

7. Curry Leaves (*)

8. Cooking Oil 

9. Salt and Pepper 

Steps

1. Cut the tempe into small cubes. 

2. Crushed the garlic and chop it small, chop the lemongrass, lime leaves, and chilli. 

3. deep fry the tempe with few of curry leaves, take it out when it changes color. 

4. pour the remaining oil in the oil container or bowl, and use about 1tbs of that oil again for the rest of the cooking. 

5. when the oil is hot, put down garlic in the wok and just stir it around until its fragrant. 

6. put the lemongrass and stir it until its fragrant

7. Put both lime leaves and curry leaves with the chilli as well. 

8. Once all the spices in the wok, put the corned beef in it. Mix it around. 

9. Take the tempe, put it down and mix it well with everything in the wok. You can taste it a bit to see whether it taste good or not. Use Salt and Pepper to season it. :) 

10. Turn your stove off, move everything from the wok into a plate, serve it with rice. :) 

I honestly love the taste and it's a yummy way to eat tempe. :)
PS:
if you don't like tempe, you can replace it with potato as well! :D

Try it out and let me know how does it turned out. :) 

#1 InTerNet (Indomie Telur Kornet) aka Cooking 101

After a long day or in the middle of rainy day, a simple heart warming bowl of noodle would lighten my mood. :)

I simply love noodle and Indomie is my favourite. It's kinda tricky when I moved to Malaysia and can't find the real Indomie here... Supermi on the other hand, have the Indomie taste here. :)

So yea, here's the first recipe here. It's VERY easy n sorry, i don't really use measuring.. :)

Ingredients: 
1. Instant Noodle
2. Egg
3. Corned Beef *if u can get Ox&Palm, it will be the best option. but normal will do*
4. Chilli Padi (if u want that extra spicy kick)
5. approximately 2 cups of water

Steps:
1. Boil the water in the pan and as soon as it boils, put the noodle and corned beef.

2. Put the egg in a small bowl before putting it into the pan. You can beat it, you can just keep it like that, it depends on your own preferences. :) Again, depends on your own preferences, if you want to have properly cooked egg, put it in straight away with the noodle or else, wait for about 1.5 minutes before putting it in.

3. put all the seasoning separately in a bowl that you are going to use.

4. After 2.5 minutes, your noodles should be ready. it will have the pale yellowish color and it will somehow glow. :) i don't like my noodle to be too soft, i like it just nice. springy. :)

5. Pour the noodle and beef and egg into the bowl and make sure u stir it well and put the chilli padi in. u can crush the chilli padi in the soup to add that kicking hot flavour. :)

6. you can garnish it with everything, actually. fried shallots, extra sambal, few drops of lime juice, as long as you like it. :)

PS:
- I believe by putting the seasoning in the bowl, you won't lose all the flavour.
- If you can only cook with microwaves, you can put the noodle with the normal temperature waters and cook it for 5 minutes OR boil the water and cook it for 3 minutes. :)

have fun trying it and let me know if you tried it. :)

Hello

Gaby here. :) 

This will be my first attempt to have a blog that will be fully filled with food. :) 

Watched Julie and Julia the other time and honestly, it inspires me to cook more. I've always love to cook and oh how i wish one day i'll have my own huge kitchen filled with hundreds of spices and all the ingredients that i need to cook everything that i wish to cook on that day. :) 

Right now I am still studying and cook base on my mood. Love to take pics of it and share it in FB but i'm thinking its about time to try and pick it up seriously. 

Cooking is fun and I find it interesting. It's simply amazing when you put two different ingredients together and voila! it turned out to be something yummy.. :) 

well, it won't be all fancy cooking here cuz usually i'll cook simple stuff and edible at the same time. for uni students, its a really good deal. you don't spend lots of time to cook, you eat, and yes, you can go back to your assignment right away. :) 

So yea, enjoy it... :) 

love, 

gabz