An evening with a gourmet chef

Sometime last month, I had the privilege to learn directly how to cook up some fine cuisine by the chef of LaFite, Shangri La Hotel’s fine dining French Restaurant. The Shang together with BMW organised an event of drunkedness and good food, that I was so privileged to be a participant of.

This here is a candy floss making machine. Yes!! You can make candy floss anything in that machine!! We had the most amazing tastes for starters such as pomegranate surprise, gin tonic jelly, fresh oyster balls…….and more but I was so drunk, I can’t even remember. All I remember was having seen the most different shaped wine glasses I ever have and having a continuous flow of alcohol.

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This is how our cooking table was set up. The chef at one end and the rest of the participants along the length of the table with a big mirror angled at the top so all participants could have a good view of the chef and what he was doing. I thought that was quite clever. All the cutlery and crockery were of top quality, I could only wish I had the same at home *swoon*

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Making avocado beads with liquid Nitrogen. We learnt some tricks with liquid Nitrogen and the different things we could do with it like how to make carbonated fruit to add to a salad, for instance. You could make carbonated anything really…….just experiment if you have one of those gas gadgets.

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Avocado beads close up. They were delicious and froze immediately on contact with the liquid Nitrogen.

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Food was readily prepared for us most of the time, to save time. The chef kept complaining how he wished he could have HIS cooking prepared for him everyday. Such is not the case for a chef. You do it from scratch.

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We used these cool Khind cookers which heated up real fast and easily cleaned. Wish I had one at home but hear they eat up a lot of electricity. We were simmering the corn juice here to make some sauce.

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My first dish - crab salad. Nice? We had a free hand to decorate it however we wished.

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Some parts of the HOT kitchen. I don’t know how they survive in there wearing their uniforms and their hats because it was HOT!!!!!

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That’s what the Chef’s office looks like. With a big dustbin just outside. Not very glamorous, I can tell you that!!

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Chef wannabe’s in action.

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Making tomato balls. The liquid in the tupperware is algae juice and when you put another liquid into it, forms a ball with a thin skin. This enables a surprise taste, like a tomato bubble that bursts flavour when you burst it in your mouth. Pretty cool.

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And this was my main dish - a white fish dish with corn juice and a tomato ball

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Last but not least, dessert - mango and pineapple sago. Really drunk by then.

Recipes to follow………watch this space.

The Hubs and I spent our honeymoon in Paris but it seemed like a continuous honeymoon before Tee came along because we were always going places as carefree adults, like leaves blowing in the wind, feathers from a scented pillow, confetti on a happy day. Here’s one of our ‘honeymoon’ trips to an exotic high end resort that is quintessentially Malay - Tanjong Jara………

We absolutely loved it. The place was sparse with humans and that was great because it meant we got more attention, more peace, more loveliness……

We were greated by name by the gardener, smiles radiated throughout the resort, service was impeccable and the massages to die for. We stayed at the individual villas with the ensuite open sky bathroom which was so luxurious, I could live there forever! Food was superb and really, there was not one thing to complain about but lots to rave about.

However, this was in 2002 and since then, I’ve heard mixed reviews about Tanjong Jara today. I still maintain though that it was Heaven sent for us.

We spent all of an hour there and were already impressed. Big and spacious rooms. Even bigger bathrooms. Lots of amenities at the hotel premises like spa, shops etc but most importantly, the hotel had great water views. Service was fantastic and everything was all nice. For the same price as a Disney Hotel, but much, much better……………..

Here is where we stayed in Orlando for seven days with a four year old. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me at mamapumpkin@gmail.com I’d be happy to answer your queries.

This is where we lived in New York, on Bedford Street - Greenwich Village. When we were there, Uma Thurman was shooting her latest movie, Motherhood, right at our doorstep. How cool is that! When we told the owner about our excitement, he wasn’t the least bit excited because he’s been through it a million times.

My only gripe about the above apartment was that when we arrived, the lift had gone bust. Thus we had to cart extra heavy suitcases (from all the shopping in the Orlando outlet malls!!!) MANUALLY up FIVE FLOORS!!! Then, we had to walk up and down all five floors, sometimes several times a day, for the next two and a half weeks!!!!!! So many times, I tried looking for a short cut; like sliding down the balustrade or climbing a rope down but never had the guts. And of course, as soon as we left New York, the life was up and running again.

And then on the next block, 100 meters up, there was the apartment where the TV sitcom FRIENDS were shot. Supercool. New York is so exciting!!! You can bump into Madonna at Central Park or see Sarah Jessica Parker without make-up.

Just for informations sake, a shoe-box sized apartment opposite the Friends apartment is priced at USD650,000 for literally 480 square feet.

I kid you not.

We went to Magic Kingdom purely for Tee’s sake and boy, did she LOVE it. We spent an entire 16 hours there from the moment we left the hotel to the moment we walked through the hotel doors again. It was one hell of a tiring day but oh, so worth it!!!

Tickets into Magic Kingdom cost US60 per person and yes, Tee is considered a person so she doesn’t go in free. That’s like paying RM700 for the three of us. Ouch.

Disney is SO BIG that you really have to plan your journey within Magic Kingdom if you wanted to do it within a day or two. Some people spend a whole week in Magic Kingdom alone, no kidding. We identified on the map exactly where we wanted to go, what we wanted to see and our exact routes to tie in with the show times. Obviously, we only did stuff that Tee would appreciate and didn’t waste time doing the rest, which is a shame but……we still did a helluva lot!!!

Actually, why am I rambling on? Let the photos talk.

Below is the Disney parade which lasts about an hour where all the Disney characters come to life. Good to have height and a set of binoculars for this.

It’s a small world was Tee’s favourite ride and it was mine too! Do you know the song, “it’s a world of laughter, a world of tears, it’s a world of hope and a world of fears, there’s so much that we share and it’s time we’re aware, it’s a small world after all!!!”? There was a boat ride in the dark encompassing the global village of cultures in miniature form and included every culture you could imagine. I almost cried at the end of it because it was just so touching, especially in the world that we live in today, which is so different from what it could be at It’s a small world.

My guess is that it was a favourite of many people as the queues were incredible. Tee wanted to go for a second round but unfortunately a 45 minute wait for round two was just too long for us. There was nothing thrilling about the ride but the mere concept of togetherness and friendship made a big impact on both children and adults of every race.

Entrance to it’s a small world boat ride…….

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Another ride that Tee loved was the Magic Carpet ride with Aladdin. Till today, she loves the song “A Whole New World” and every time she hears it, she’s almost in tears and asks to go back to Disney World……It makes me so sad to see her when she is in that mode because I almost wished we lived there! It was truly, truly magical and definitely worth a visit for every 4 year old!

Then she had a big thrill hunting for all sort of pretty jewels that were embedded in Aladdin’s world on the ground. You know, if I could have my way, I’d have been a Disney World designer. How cool to be able to design such fun stuff!

Welcome to what I hope will be a potentially useful blog to people the world over who love to indulge in some of life’s ultimate pleasures - travelling, shopping and dining…….

I know they are certainly things I love doing, apart from laughing; and what could be better when you laugh with the people you love whilst travelling, shopping and dining!

Does anyone disagree?

Yes? No?

What the fuck?! Lets’ celebrate!!!

*clinks champagne glasses*