Heartbeat

They say that you can hear your own heartbeat when you're lying on the ground. I tried it myself, but I didn't hear anything. I wonder why, then it hit me; you stole my heart the moment we met.

Mincemeat with Potatoes and Bowties Carbonara

Mouth-watering dishes.

Hallo. Last week, I made two perfect dishes. One of them was bowties carbonara and the other one was mincemeat potatoes for appetisers. As you know, I was doing it for my upcoming test and it was based on our own creativity. I had my own idea when my chef told me to use all the ingredients given on the trolley (everything was provided). It was really fun. At first I was kind blur and didn't know what kind of dishes I should cook. Then, I tried searching for recipes that can I use to get through it. Well, I found it, it was carbonara. So, I thought that carbonara was for the main course while for appetiser I can make chicken nuggets or something much easier to cook. It was challenging for me. In the end, I managed to complete the test in a short period if time. Just so you know, my chef ranked me the best second class for these mouth-watering dishes. Alhamdulillah, I've made it!

Ice Cream & Whatnot

What does it take to make a perfect ice cream?

Last weekend I had the chance to put on my favourite pair of shoes and travel around Johor Bahru. The Ice-Cream Project (TIP) was one of the best place that I've been to and I gotta say it once and for all; this is the kind of place that I've been waiting for all this time, the kind of place that has something that we called magic. You can have ice cream and hangout at the same time, you know, catching up with friends and everything. Not to mention its amazing small-but-nice concept kinda store where you can take selfies. 

The thing is, I'm not a big fan of ice cream; just a few times in a year, especially during hot weathers. When I wanted to eat ice cream, I preferred Baskin Robbins (but Wall's will do, too). But the ice cream from TIP is special, you can actually taste the real milk inside that tiny scoop ball of ice. There was a flyer on the table where I sit and they mentioned they were trying their best to maintain the quality of their ice cream. I thought that was the best way to handle their customers and I couldn't agree more.

All in all, I will return to this place soon. I hope they open up a new branch in Melaka. Well, they should.

Spaghetti Carbonara

There's no sincerer love than the love of food.

Recently I've been asked to cook one of my favorite dishes of all time and it's spaghetti carbonara. It's not hard as long as you follow these steps and you have all the right ingredients.

100g pancetta

50g pecorino cheese

50g parmesan

3 large eggs

350g spaghetti

2 plump garlic cloves, peeled and left whole

50g unsalted butter

Maldon salt and freshly grated black pepper

1. Put a large saucepan of water on to boil. Finely chop the pancetta, having first removed any rind. Finely grate both cheeses and mix them together. Beat the eggs in a medium bowl, season with a little freshly grated black pepper and set everything aside.

2. Add 1 tsp. salt to the boiling water, add the spaghetti and when the water comes back to the boil, cook at a constant simmer, covered, for 10 minutes or until al dente (just cooked).

3. Squash the garlic with the blade of a knife, just to bruise it. While the spaghetti is cooking, fry the pancetta with the garlic. Drop the butter into a large wide frying pan or wok and, as soon as the butter has melted, tip in the pancetta and garlic. Leave these to cook on a medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring often, until the pancetta is golden and crisp. The garlic has now imparted its flavor, so take it out with a slotted spoon and discard.

4. Keep the heat under the pancetta on low. When the pasta is ready lift it from the water with a pasta fork or tongs and put it in the frying pan with the pancetta (see left). Don’t worry if a little water drops in the pan as well (you want this to happen) and don’t throw the rest of the pasta water away yet.

5. Mix most of the cheese in with the eggs, keeping a small handful back for sprinkling over later. Take the pan of spaghetti and pancetta off the heat. Now quickly pour in the eggs and cheese and, using the tongs or a long fork, lift up the spaghetti so it mixes easily with the egg mixture, which thickens but doesn’t scramble, and everything is coated. Add extra pasta cooking water to keep it saucy (several tablespoons should do it). You don’t want it wet, just moist. Season it with a little salt, if needed.

6. Use a long-pronged fork to twist the pasta on to the serving plate or bowl. Serve immediately with a little sprinkling of the remaining cheese and a grating of black pepper. If the dish does get a little dry before serving, splash in some more hot pasta water and the glossy sauciness will be revived.

Enjoy your spaghetti carbonara!

p/s: Don't forget to put the extra ingredient in it; love.

Up & Down

The road up ahead is going to be bumpy, but I know my loved ones will stay by my side no matter what. There's a reason why we called them our loved ones, there's always love when I'm with them. That's the thing about love, you can't see it, but you can feel it. You can feel it with your heart and trust me, when you do, you don't want that feeling to go away. There's nothing better than love and being loved. Love is the highest power in this universe.