Due to the COVID-19, everyone is encouraged to stay at home and not head out if not necessary. With so much free time on our hand, other than watching Netflix and chill it is always best to hold a book and get into some reading. Which make a reading corner the best place to set up at your home.
When it comes to reading corner the most important point is to set it at the best lightning place. Where your eyes won’t get tired if you’re too focused on your reading. Next is to have a good reading chair, however, we do encourage to take breaks in between your reading. Lastly, add some plant around you, not only it makes your room smell fresh, but green is also good for your eyes.
As the COVID-19 are nowhere to getting better, the best is to #stayhome.
Weekend mornings and you drag yourself from the bed, and slip into the kitchen because, well, you’ve invited family or friends over to brunch. While you are cracking your head what to make – here’s an idea. Why don’t you put together a pancake board?
Meanwhile, it is a new food trend hitting social media just as we speak, pancake boards are perhaps the natural progression from cheese boards, charcuterie boards and even meat boards. It’s certainly a gorgeous, Instagram-friendly way to serve breakfast. So we decide to try it and tell you it is not difficult at all!
Board and Utensils Joe and I, both of us are meat and cheese lovers and therefore we have been collecting lots of premium boards over the years. Choose a board that you like, it can be a round-shaped, squares, wooden or even porcelain. Be creative – anything that you found at home that is big enough to put all things in it. We also suggest to have some small plates or bowls for a dynamic effect.
Pancake Usually, we suggest making bite-size for your pancakes (unless you have an enormous board). Depend on your board size, you make your pancake accordingly based on the spaces you have. We go with bite-size pancakes as our plate wasn’t that huge to fill in all the ingredients we want.
Sweets Plan ahead and get the ingredients you like – get fruits and spreads you in love with! For this Spring, usually, we banana, grapes, strawberries and berries, also by chance we highly recommend figs, peach and kiwi! Maple syrup or honey and cream is a must! While those who prefer something else you can also consider coffee spread, peanut butter, Nutella.
Savoury Never forgot those prefer savoury, our favourite choice are chorizo, bacon but for the seafood lover, smoked salmon is a great choice as well. These days we avoiding raw food as much as possible for health reason! Roasted nuts (all kind of nuts that you could or you love), cheese and egg are great combos!
How to arrange a pancake board? 1. Decide the items you want to put 2. Place the main board following with some bowls for the cream and honey. 3. After that, you can put in the main star – pancakes. 4. with that slowly put in all the fruits, bacon 5.lastly the nuts and mint to fill in the blank.
This is the first time we hosted a Peranakan Popiah Party since with the reduction of hanging outdoor, spending time to make a meal has become so much exciting. We decided to make dinner more interactive with all the restrictions.
We have the party with both Popiah and Kueh Pieti hence we decide to separate both Popiah and Kueh Pieti in two different posts as both of us have a concept of presenting them so please pardon us!
Popiah is like a Vietnam’s spring roll, you’ll wrap vegetables and meat/seafood in the sheet of skin. While Vietnam’s spring roll made of rice flour, popiah skins made from plain flour. The popiah comes in two versions: the fried and non-fried. We always prefer the non-fried one and they always come with this sweet sauce that is really good.
It is the first time we making it from scratch but it wasn’t difficult at all. Fillings include omelette strips, cucumber, prawn, crab meat, crispy garlic, peanut, beansprouts, lettuces, braised turnip, carrots in prawn stock, coriander, sweet sauce, and chili garlic paste. A bit fussy to prep but so worth it!
Preparing the ingredients
While many like to have their popiah as simple as possible, we like to make a “fancy” version for our party. Well, you can have fun in adding or removing the ingredients in terms of your own preference. For us, the below filling helps us to create the most “fancy” popiah we ever have.
Popiah Filling; this is the only portion of the popiah that we suggest you prepare it freshly on the day
Eggs; heat up oil in a pan. Beat the egg in a bowl, add in some salt for flavor. Fry it till golden brown. Set it aside to cool and cut it into a long strip. If you have a smaller pan, an egg will be enough as we want it as thin as possible
Chinese Sausage; soak it into a bowl of hot water to remove the excess oil in the sausages. It is done soaking when you are able to see the casing of the sausage popping away. Remove the casing and cut the sausage into the strip. Heat up the pan and fry the sausage till fragrant
Fresh Crab; drain the water of the crab, squeeze out excess liquid in the crab. Heat up the pan and fry the crab till fragrant
Bean Sprouts; remove the tail of the bean sprouts (optional). Cook it in the hot water for a minute. Drain and set aside
Green Bean; heat up the pan and fry the green bean till soft. Set it aside, cut it into strips when cool
Green Lettuce; wash and drain it the night before. Cover it with a cloth in the fridge to keep it cool and crispy
Prawn; deshell the prawn (don’t throw away the shell, keep it to make prawn stock for the popiah filling), cook the prawn and halved it
Coriander leaves; while many have the fear of coriander leaves but it is a must for us to have it in our popiah since the guest will be wrapping it themselves, those who dislike it can omit them
Crushed peanut and white sesame for garnish
Tips on how to easily make good Popiah Filling
Grate the veggies; the majority of the muscle work for making popiah filling is in shredding the turnip, radish, and carrots. While many of the fillings in the store only have turnip and carrot, we added radish to add more sweetness to the filling. Peel the turnip and then use a box grater if you have one to shred it into strips
Use dried shrimp; dried shrimp adds that nice umami flavour to the overall popiah taste
Shallot is the key; you don’t want to miss this, it will totally change the flavour of the popiah filling
Lose the juice when wrapping; there will be some juice oozing out when you cook the jicama, it’s normal. Just make sure you don’t scoop that juice when you wrap the popiah, or you will end up tearing the wrapper and wet popiah
Head to the end of the blog post for the full recipe for the popiah filling.
How to wrap homemade Popiah?
Place 2 pieces of popiah skin on a clean working surface. (You can use one if your popiah skin is thicker)
Brush the skin with some sweet sauce and chilli sauce(if you choose to use) and sprinkle with some crushed peanuts
Place one piece of green leaf
Scoop about 2 – 3 tbsp of the turnip mixture on top of the leaf – remember to drain the liquid well
Add strips of egg omelette, 1 tsp of crab meat, strips of green bean, cucumber, Chinese sausage, 2 pieces of prawn and 1-2 sprigs of fresh coriander leaves if you choose to use.
Fold the side near you up and then fold the two sides in firmly tuck and roll up tightly.
After making our very own version of Popiah we can never head out to get the store made one. Sometimes we are never satisfied with just okay when we have the best. Take a photo of your version, send us an email, tag us on Instagram, tweet us, anything. We love to see you trying out our recipe!
We can’t believe that it hit “the” 4th years since the day we decided to start this blog – it has been an outlet for us to share our love for food, art, and lifestyle. It documents how we spend time during our free time to cook, pack and create beautiful things. It is one of a very humble blog compare to those amazing blogs out there but we always want to share and build a relationship with our community. So we excited to know more of you and exchange more in the near future. Please drop us emails or connect us via Instagram to help us know what you love to see from us.
This year we decide to celebrate today with a Pan’Cake’, not a sweet one but with our favourite chorizo flavour. For those who want to remake with the recipe, please check out the recipe below! We hope that you will like it, like us. Thank you for your support and have a great day ahead!
During the Corvid-19, we try our best to eat healthily to avoid getting sick. Cutting down sugar is one of the ways to help us to have a healthy lifestyle. While sweet pancake is still our favourite, this time we gave savoury pancake a try. We decided to use our favourite chorizo as the main topping this time. Some of our favourite chorizo dishes are Spicy Chorizo Prawn Pasta, Chorizo Hotdog, Roasted Tomato Chorizo Pesto Pasta, and Seafood Paella.
While we were not sure how well chorizo would go with syrup, but OMG, it have an exploding flavour!! Add in the chorizo bits topping, a little cheese, and that salty spring onion butter too? This is a seriously good recipe for pancakes with a twist.
So how do we make these savoury pancakes?
Make some spring onion butter by mixing salted butter with a finely chopped spring onion. You can leave the butter at room temperature, or refrigerate it if you prefer it cold. You could even use the leftover to bake a chicken as we did.
Next, we fry off the chorizo. Once it’s cooked, transfer to a plate.
Then we make the pancake batter by mixing the pancake mixture, egg, and milk.
Once combined, stir in a bunch of chopped spring onions (scallions).
Brush the pancake pan with a little butter and heat until hot. I find a non-stick pan works best for these pancakes (to prevent the cheese that you’ll sprinkle on later from sticking). Then spoon blobs of pancake batter in the pan (about 1/4 cup per pancake).
Cook for about 1 minute, then sprinkle a little of the cooked chorizo and some cheddar cheese onto each pancake, then turn the pancake over and cook for a further minute or two, until the pancakes are cooked through.
Once they’re all cooked, stack the pancakes up and sprinkle on chopped cooked chorizo and a few more spring onions (scallions). Top with the spring onion butter and drizzle over maple syrup/ honey before serving.
Huge thanks for those who have been following us! Please continue to show us your support! Take a photo of your version, send us an email, tag us on Instagram, tweet us, anything. We love to see you trying out our recipe!
In recent years, monochromatic rooms have been all over the place. And while these spaces are often quite nice, sometimes they can look a little bland or a little too matchy-matchy. However, lately, monochromatic rooms with bold color schemes have been popping up everywhere. Think entire rooms draped in royal blue, emerald green, and other deliciously bold colors.
It’s no secret that we’re big fans of colorful interiors, so this is definitely a trend we can get on board with. Below we’ve rounded up a few of my favorite bold monochromatic rooms.
WHO has advised the best way to stop Corvid-19 is to be hygienic and boost up your immune system. Here are some tips on how we can protect our loved ones and ourselves! First things first, just to remind everybody this is a virus, not a bacterial infection. Viruses only respond to our immune system, so taking an unnecessary course of antibiotics will not help, but can actually harm – as antibiotics can lower your immune response by affecting the stomach! The following tips are also helpful as the world enters the (normal) flu season!
What you can do through what you eat?
High levels of Vitamin C – viruses cannot survive in an environment high in Vitamin C. Take 2000 to 3000mg a day and foods that are high in Vitamin C. (If anybody gets a rash or reaction, just reduce its dose.)
Zinc – children up to 12 years – 8mg, Adults – 15mg. If you prepare to have it naturally – foods that are high in Zinc are Ginger, Pumpkin Seeds, Meat (suggest those that are good in quality), Lentils.
Vitamin D3 – 2- 4000iu’s (less dosage for children but higher for adults) and get out and enjoy the sun!! Avoid crowds but do not stay indoor every day, exercise and absorb some natural Vitamin!
Probiotics (multi-strain) – 10-50 Billion cells a day (Strong stomach strong = strong immune system!!) We are having this every day for 1 month now, every day is healthy and strong in the family!
Manuka Honey (UMF +15) – 2 tsp a day – one teaspoon in the morning and one teaspoon at night.
What you can do every day?
Essential oils – EOs are excellent to start burning in your room, homes or even workplace! Our first point of contact for viruses is our nose. If you are burning antiviral essential oils around you this will kill off the virus before it enters your system.
Inhalations with the oils is a great way to make sure that if there is any virus lurking in your nose, you kill it before it has a chance!
Rub your mix daily on the spine and the soles of your feet. Concentrating at the top of the spine, behind the back of your head, on the ‘Big Bone (those who have my book its acupressure point, Du16 point).
What oil you can apply to boost your immune system? – Tea Tree, Lavender, Wild Orange, Lemon, Ravensara and Eucalyptus Globulus – use all or choose three from this list – diffuse in your house, spray into the rooms with a spray bottle and make your own mix (1 Tablespoon of base oil – Olive, Coconut, Almond – add in a mix of up to 10 drops of the above oils).
Nonetheless, drink lots of good quality water! Water is crucial for everything but especially to help flush things out of our body! Keep good hygiene, washing hands after you have been out and wearing a mask if you are going to crowded places (which we highly suggest avoiding if you can)!
Most of all, please do not panic – stress lowers our immunity! And not every fever or flu-like symptoms is the coronavirus, go to a doctor for a proper diagnosis! It is also flu season so be vigilant and smart but doesn’t panic!
It’s a self-care routine for everyone be it if there is a virus or not! Personally, hygiene is just important.
