Chocolate Cream Mousse - by Chef Leigh Ann Seto

Ingredients :

200 ml Cream

180 ml Milk

40 gr Sugar

5 Egg yolks

200 gr 65% Chocolate

25 ml Brandy (optional)

Method :

1) Chop chocolate into 1 cm pieces and place into a blender or processor.

2) Combine milk and cream in a sauce pot and bring to a scald.

3) Mix yolks and sugar well. Pour some of the warm milk into the yolk mixture and blend well.

4) When cream mixture comes to a boil, reduce heat to low and pour yolk mixture into the pot while whisking. Stir for an additional few seconds.

5) Remove pot from fire and strain mixture into the blender with the chocolate.

6) Let cream settle into chocolate for a minute.

7) Cover blender and blend until the chocolate is melted. Brandy may be added here.

8) Pour mousse into serving dishes. Cover with plastic wrap letting the wrap touch the surface of the mousse
    to prevent a 'skin'. Chill for at least 4 hours.

To serve: Garnish with soft whipped cream, fruit, and/or chocolate shavings.

** FOR a READ of Chef's "An Encounter With...Chocolate" Interview - click HERE!

 

** Photo of Chef and her Hazelnut Chocolate Mousse Cake! Simply heaven!!

Giving Thanks

I never grew up with Thanksgiving and Christmas. Since moving to Cambodia 3 years ago, a lot of the expats who are left in town to celebrate the occasion without their families and loved ones often seek solace in each other's company and host their own Thanksgiving / X'Mas parties.

Last night, I had a fabulous, fabulous, FABULOUS home-made-from-scratch Thanksgiving dinner courtesy of Chef Leigh Ann and Nicole - our upstairs neighbour :) It being their first celebration away from home, they invited us over for the scrumptious meal. For Chef & Nicole, entertaining guests was like second-nature to them and they have really nice dinner wares and themed table-settings (Chef can be rather particular about how her food is presented - even off work!!) - so you imagine how stressful it was when I invited them over for a home-cooked Bak Kut Teh dinner just last weekend. I had no matching plates nor cutleries. At least I was "civilized" enough to have place mats! (And Nicole actually brought STRAWS - just in case I didn't have straws to drink the Mojitos which they prepared and brought over as well!) Not to mention - I still do not know if Chef approved of the Bak Kut Teh meal :P At least Nicole said she did :)  

Anyway, whilst I've had my fair share of turkey and all the fixings, this was actually the first time I'm having an entire Thanksgiving meal that had been passionately prepared from scratch - from the bird being given a one hour 'spa bath' of sea salt, lemon & garlic to the freshly made croutons and turkey drippings for the stuffing and gravy right down to the pumpkin cheesecake!

Those who know me would know that my "healthy days" (when it comes to food) are Mondays to Fridays and yesterday being Thanksgiving Thursday and all, I had to break the rule. Chef did indeed "try" to go easy with the ingredients she used - freshly baked WHOLE WHEAT rolls as opposed to plain white rolls (take my word for it - the rolls were to-die-for) and light sour cream for the cheesecake as opposed to the full-fat version (and despite the "healthier version - pumpkin cheesecake was to-die-for too!). And a bowl of grilled brussel sprouts and carrots too! But then of course, she had roasted a leg of ham as well and I couldn't resist the crispy skin and then, she had to serve the pumpkin cheesecake with a scoop of ice-cream. To top it off - she told me after the meal that she rubbed butter underneath the bird's skin before putting it into the grill to make sure it was moist.

Weigh-in before dinner was 46kgs and weigh-in the morning after dinner was 46.6kgs. But you know what? It was 0.6kgs well worth putting on because truly, it was a remarkable meal. So - I ran an additional 5km this morning for my training (maybe all that food had given me extra energy after all :P). Big deal. I train so hard, surely I deserve an additional "bad food day" in the week if I wanted to, yes?

Well, as Nicole said - it IS Thanksgiving. And I for one, have lots to give thanks for. For great friends who can whip-up such a lovely meal (I can't get over this meal - it had been really too superb), for the great love of a dotting hubby, for the unconditional love of my family, and for being a lucky, lucky girl - in so many ways but mostly, for all the love I have around me. So life's a bitch sometimes - but I still have a lot of love in my life. Is that lucky or what?

I got the almost Yaba-daba-doo drumstick!! :) :) And

the to-die-for whole wheat roll and stuffings *smack lips*

 

Grilled Turkey and Roast Ham.... mmmmm

absolute divine pumpkin cheesecake and I also learnt what is
plated service "stacked 2 high / 4 high / 6 high / 8 high / 10 high" :P 

Charity Work - A Delusion?

When my partner-in-crime Leticia ran the idea of doing the Wedding Wishes Campaign as part of the AWP Malaysia's social responsibility programme, I was extemely keen. I'm always for supporting a worthy cause and so - with the support of our members who sponsored their bits as well as TV3 who joined us as media sponsors, we embarked on our plans.

The "Mahligai Impian" project aimed at helping single couples where one or both are terminally ill because getting married presents to be a challenge as money is put aside to finance treatments and as a result, couples forgo the idea of having a complete wedding with the whole works. Briefly, the "Mahligai Impian" campaign was aired on TV3 in July 2010 and invited participation from Malaysians aged 20 and above. The condition was one or both the couple needs to be terminally ill to qualify and they need to submit a piece of their story as to why they would like to get married in any languages. Finally, after much scrutiny of the results, TV3, as the judges together with invited NGOs selected the final winning couple. They had their grand wedding reception just last night - which coincided with it being Thanksgiving.

However, I am truly saddened and maybe disheartened at how the couple, as well as their parents treated the entire crew and team during the entire planning stages right down to the implementations yesterday. Mind you - the entire wedding was fully-sponsored by all AWP Members and it was well worth over RM100,000. Some members even sponsored their products / services / cash to the value of RM10,000 each without a bleep because we all held to one believe - that this was for a good cause.

Instead of the "thank you" - which societal P's & Q's would dictate as the norm, we had the family saying very unpleasant things to the wedding planning sponsors - rather rude and loudly in public. No, we do not expect to be thanked because we did this from the bottom of our hearts. But neither did we expect to be called "disgusting" or generally being insulted in public view that way. Being professionals, everyone kept their cool and the show went on without a glitch. But STILL - the families were not pleased. Right to the point that they actually walked past the Sponsor's table without SO MUCH AS AN ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, let alone a THANK YOU.

I saw some frustrated FB statuses today. We all have the right to be. As sponsors - we gave up our time, money, effort and most importantly - heart to make sure the project ran smoothly and the well-deserving couple happy. As professionals, we maintained our professionalism and poise by grinning and bearing through it all. When they say this is a thankless profession, INDEED it is. But as professionals too - whether on a pro-bono basis or a paid basis - we do not expect to be mistreated. We are not your slaves nor servants. Period.

What got me frustrated and disheartened is this : - There is a whole wide world out there for us to try to help in whatever ways we can. How many more will turn out to be like this? I know what your answers will be : "You try to save them all. You don't care about who they are or what they give you in return." That's not the point, you know. The point is our means as individuals and even as small groups / companies / associations are limited. We can't save them ALL. As such - I much prefer to save those who are well-deserving of it.

I mean, this is me writing in frustration but if you asked me now, after the incident yesterday - the RM10k cash & value sponsorship that some of the sponsors forked out - between an orphanage for HIV+ children and an ungrateful and rude family member of a deserving couple, I choose the orphanage! Need I say more?

** image courtesy of showersmile.wordpress.com

A Cambodian Tragedy

I'm one of those who hates reading tragic news. For some reason, it greatly disturbs me. In a lot of cases and at most times, there is very little if at all, that I can do. And yesterday's stampede, amidst the festive celebration of the Bon Om Teuk in Phnom Penh was a disastrous tragedy indeed.

Whatever the investigation outcome turns out to be - the people do not deserve to... be in this tragedy. When the island was opened, when the bridges were opened - already people were questioning the "crowd management" during the Water Fest. The bridge was - in essence, tiny. For those who has ever experienced the Cambodian Water Fest, you would know that we're not talking about crowds of just thousands. We're talking about millions. Phnom Penh alone has a population of 5 million. During the Water Festival, close to 1 million Cambodians travel from the provinces (they save up their meagre income and make the trip once a year) to catch the festivities and celebrations.

So - was there a proper 'crowd management' system in place? What about proper disaster management? Were these in place? Were the authorities given the right training, the right briefing to manage and control a disaster should it take place? Some 5-star hotels here do not even provide basic first aid training for their staff! You do the math. Who shoots water cannons at a crowd standing less than 0.1mm away from electrical wires and cables? (which were installed, not with safety in mind, I believe - I could be wrong, but you do the math again!)

I'm just a frustrated expat. Of course, I can always turn a blind eye and say - "Fuck, this ain't my country, this ain't my problem. I'm alive and thank you." But I come back to the point that these people do not deserve it. I call for better safety management, better disaster management and I call for them to be implemented in the best possible way, with the Cambodian people in mind. Always.

My prayers go out to all those affected by this tragedy. There is no way for me to even begin to comprehend nor understand what they are going through. My heart goes out to those who have suffered losses. Be strong.

"One word frees us of all the weight and pain in life. That word is love." - Sophocles

Exhibitionist

When MOH and I took our wedding nudes as part of our wedding portraitures last year, we ended up with a collection of photos that we utterly loved, loved, loved. Of course, the photography process was not as simple as it seemed. Firstly, one needed to get rid of the awkward-ness of being stark naked in front of ... the photographer and his team as well as any body hang-ups that you may have. And then, you needed to get a little creative with the poses. Lastly - the tricky part - you needed to HOLD the poses while the photographer tries different lighting and angles to achieve perfection. Believe me, after a 3-hour session, you will find muscles you never knew you had quivering.

So when Yeh, our photographer asked for permission to exhibit some of our photos (of course, most are still kept under lock & key) at his first solo exhibition - we said Yes. I mean, after all, the ones which were rated "U" were already on FB. Ahhh.... but we certainly did not expect Yeh to have chosen some of our butt-shots for his exhibition! And definitely did not expect there to be a price tag on the photo!

The exhibition which was opened just last Saturday on the 6th November 2010 at Small Talk With The Moon was jointly organized by my partners at Nupts & Such and endorsed by AWP Malaysia. Canon also came in with a show of support by sponsoring the event. Being all the way in Cambodia, I was skyped in - because I wanted to see WHAT was on display. MOH & I had a right good laugh when we found out our buttocks were on sale for RM2,500. Who would purchase a photo of somebody else's butt? Hmmm....

Nevertheless, the opening of Yeh's first solo exhibition went about successfully and he had talk sessions on wedding nudes, creativity in photography styles and it even evolved to the more technical topics like lightings, angles, equipments and technology.

For me, while only on Skype, it was still nice seeing our nudes showcased in a little exhibition (Yeh - next time, do a bigger show, ok?) and seeing them used as part of Yeh's learning / skill-sharing session - in other words - case study :P Talk about being an exhibitionist eh!

Believe me, we are all exhibitionist in one way or another. We all want the world to see us in our most delightful angles or profiles. We want the world to acknowledge that something or some part of us look good. But the world also expects us to be modest about it. "Oh, no... my legs are too skinny..." when in actual fact - all you want to do is jump up and down at the compliment. After all - we do care and love ourselves enough to present the best of ourselves for the world to see.

So go on and tell yourself right now - You're Fucking Beautiful.
I know I will. Just that - I don't think it's time to trade my current career with modeling at the mo'.

** Photography of Wedding Nudes by Yeh Poh Chung
** BELOW : Yeh's "Nude Case Study of us - Screen Captured from Skype :)

** Further reading on A Journey To Forever in Lyrical Poses and Tantric Artistry - click HERE

 

Dark Hours Part 1

I once exclaimed "The world is under my feet!" and a wise retort came back : "Just don't let it get on your shoulders."

Sometimes, I don't want to keep it so together.
I think it's great that the world is under my feet.
Shouldn't it be ok too when the world is on my shoulders?

Sometimes, I don't want to be responsible.
I think it's great that I can lead.
Shouldn't it be ok too when I just follow?

Sometimes, I don't want to wake up.
I think it's great that I'm even awake.
Shouldn't it be ok too if I want to hide under the covers?

Sometimes, I don't want to be diplomatic.
I think it's great that we agree.
Shouldn't it be ok too if I told you that you were a scumbag from the stenched-womb of the earth?

Sometimes, I don't want to think about money.
I think it's great if I have some.
Shouldn't it be ok too if I had only bread and water?

Sometimes, I don't want to be on your side.
I think it's great if I see your point.
Shouldn't it be ok too if I went against you?

Sometimes, I don't want to make the effort.
I think it's great when I work on it.
Shouldn't it be ok too if you worked on it instead?

Sometimes, I don't want to be bubbling.
I think it's great when I am energized.
Shouldn't it be ok too if I'm zapped?

Sometimes, I don't want to be the best.
I think it's great if I am somewhere there.
Shouldn't it be ok too if I were last?

Sometimes, I wish to hurl profanities at you.
Sometimes, I wish to tell you to screw yourself silly and have a post-coital cigarette.
Sometimes, I wish to just say "Sod It!"
Sometimes, I wish to shut down, mentally, physically and emotionally.

But instead, I curse at the ears of the walls.
But instead, I smile and tell you it's ok.
But instead, I say "It will all be better."
But instead, I make myself carry on because I have to keep it together.

The dolphin leaps into the air, and does a triple sommersault.
The show must go on, eh? She winks.

*copylefted photo by Stephan Uhlmann