Valentine Meal

When you heard the word "Valentine" you'll think of February 14th, Saint Valentine's Day.
And of course, your mind will be filled with stuffs like roses, hearts, love, couples, pink, red, and of course, chocolates.

In the spirit of Valentine, I tried to put hearts and chocolates in my meal.
A generous heart-shaped chicken croquette with rice for the main and chocolate mousse cake with coffee mascarpone and ice cream.

I found the recipe for chicken croquette from a 20-minute meals cookbook and chocolate mousse cake online.

Here's the recipe for the cake (from http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/6438/chocolate+mousse+cake):

• Ingredients

• 500g dark chocolate
• 2 tbs golden syrup
• 125g unsalted butter
• 4 eggs
• 1 tbs caster sugar
• 1 tbs plain flour, sifted
• Melted chocolate, to decorate
• Chocolate sorbet, to serve

Coffee mascarpone

• 200g mascarpone cheese
• 2 tbs instant coffee
• 2 tbs pure icing sugar

• Method

1. Step 1
   Preheat oven to 220°C. Grease and line the base of a 20cm round spring-form cake pan with non-stick baking paper.
2. Step 2
   Melt the chocolate, golden syrup and butter in a bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water. Set aside to cool slightly.
3. Step 3
   Place eggs and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer or use an electric hand beater and beat on high for 10 minutes until very thick and pale. Gently fold in the flour then fold in the chocolate mixture until combined. Pour into the cake pan and bake on the middle shelf of the oven for 12 minutes. Remove from oven and run a knife around the edge of the cake. Remove collar from cake pan and transfer the cake to the fridge for 1 hour to cool (this step is important as it sets the middle of the cake).
4. Step 4
   Meanwhile, to make the coffee mascarpone, dissolve coffee in 1 tablespoon of boiling water and set aside to cool. Beat together the mascarpone, coffee and sugar in a bowl until stiff.
5. Step 5
   To make the chocolate leaf, brush non-toxic leaves with the melted chocolate. When cool, peel the leaf off.
6. Step 6
   Slice the cake and serve with a dollop of coffee mascarpone, a chocolate leaf on top and a scoop of sorbet on the side.

Recipe Courtesy of Taste.com.au

Enjoy!

Tous les Jours

Japan was lovely, but I have to face the reality to come back to my Birthland, Indonesia!
I used to hate this country a lot. But studying abroad and plenty of travelling had opened my eyes to accept most of the things.

What I love about Jakarta, the capital city is the hustle bustle that won't let you get bored of the city. Stores are open throughout the day till night too!

I tried a French-themed bakery, Tous les Jours, which means All the Time. It was pretty good and I love the presentation and concept, really appealing!

I love the authentic design of classic French with a twist of modernism around the vicinity of the bakery. If you are sitting down in the cafe area, you will be able to smell the freshly baked bread and pastries, absolutely lovely!

They also have Bonne Mamman, my favourite brand of jams! It is really a must-try brand! I couldn't use other brands since I put these jams on my toast!

I tried this chocolate pastry and an iced cappucinno. Overall it was good, they even provided sugar syrup if you love your coffee sweet (even though it was already terribly sweet). Loved the crunch of the pastry and on the chocolate!

This bakery is going to be one year old soon (as it is celebrating it), and I think it is doing pretty well. Hopefully it will maintain the quality (or even improve it) when I return to Indonesia after my study.

Brunch at Common Galaxia

I had brunch with uni friends at Common Galaxia. Nice coffees, I'll give you that.
To get to Common Galaxia (if you are catching the train), get of at West Footscray at the Watergarden line, it's just one stop from Footscray if you are catching the train from the CBD. From there, it is a very short walking distance. ;)

As for the food, I tried their oven-baked zuchinni fritters with smoked salmon. It was pretty good and unique. You can change the salmon into bacon, I tried my friend's and it was awesome. But hey, I never use fish in my cooking, so why not eat something different?

To be honest, I may think that it is overpriced though. Perhaps because I haven't been going out for brunch lately? Who knows. However, it's worth the money if you love this kind of food.

Lindt Celebration du Chocolate at VIP Night

Was having these Lindt delight in the middle of shopping.

Yes, it was Chadstone VIP night on Wednesday. I wanted to grab some Kikki.K stuff so I decided to come. My friend wanted to go shopping so I tagged along.

I got (much more) than what I wanted and after a short walk, we decided to stop by at Lindt cafe. I had this Celebration du Chocolate with Mocha. Was quite a bit too chocolatey for me but I kinda liked it if it wasn't that expensive.

I shopped quite crazily as usual, but it was a good thing that I got good stuff.