MY RECENT DINING-OUT FOOD

Recently my time has been mostly occupied by works. But now I can breathe pleasantly and want to steal some moments to share my recent food activities with you.

No much time to say much, sorry!

Firstly in middle of January 2014, I had a chance to enjoy dinner at Ly’s Club on the occasion of Year-end Party of the Company. The food here was good, but being the organiser for the party, I could not enjoy it to the fullest!

Here is the menu:

Strawberry juice



Crispy fried spring roll (Chả giò chiên)

Crab and pumpkin soup with lemongrass, ginger and mushroom (Súp cua trong trái bí đỏ)

Deep-fried squid paste with spring onion, plum sauce and garlic breading (Chả mực chấm sốt mận)

Grilled free range chicken with tropical honey sauce, herbs, mixed salad and deep fried sticky rice (Gà nướng mật ong nhiệt đới)

Steamed snowfish with soy sauce and steamed rice in lotus leaf with sautéed mixed mushroom with garlic (Cá tuyết hấp xì dầu, cơm hấp lá sen và nấm các loại xốc tỏi)

Banana fritters with vanilla ice-cream (Chuối chiên với kem vani)

Then Sunday I went with Lien to Binh Duong Province to pay a visit at my old colleague who had just opened up the Ice-cream shop. She served us some amazing icecream and drinks.

Thanks Chi Thanh a lot for your sweet treats! ^ - ^ ! Don’t know when we can meet again, of course we will miss you a lot. Wish you all the best and success!

Finally, I could not imagine our Conference was held in Ho Chi Minh City on 14 – 15 February! Valentine day you know! After finishing my shift on 14 February, late at night riding to home, I saw many couples hugging each other on the road! How lonely! But one thing which comforted me was that all efforts for working overtime were compensated for the good meal!

These were my dinner at Ly’s Club on 15 February:

Bird nest soup in a coconut (Súp tổ yến vị mặn)

Seabass salad with onion, lettuce, galangal, Vietnamese herbs and peanut sauce (Gỏi cá gộc)

Soft shell crab with tamarind, shallot, garlic & pepper and grilled free range chicken with tropical honey sauce, herbs, mixed salad (Cua rang me và gà nướng số mật ong nhiệt đới)

Steamed snowfish with soy sauce and steamed rice in lotus leaf with freshly steamed artichoke flower with mustard dressing, Da Lat asparagus, mushroom and carrot (Cá tuyết hấp xì dầu, cơm hấp lá sen ăn cùng với hoa tisô và nấm các loại, măng tây, cà rốt hấp)

A glass of Alba pure spring drinks (Nước suối Alba)

It was too late at the time of serving the main dish, so I went home and could not wait for the desert - Pandan, coconut milk, taro, sticky rice, coconut ice-cream, cookies (Chè khoai môn và kem dừa).

Anyway, due to that one big job was done, I could take a good sleep at that night!

LOL! ^ - ^ ! I am too busy to try any new recipes, just share with you my recent dining-out food for pleasure!

Have you a good day and good food!

WEEKENDS WITH SOME INTERESTING ACTIVITIES AND FOOD

I can’t believe that I enjoyed so much my weekends with my friend! There were a lot of friendly and open talks and activities, and then we baked an orange chiffon cake together. This was the first time that I didn’t feel tired after preparing and baking a cake. So thanks my friend a lot for support!

Here is the recipe of orange cream cheese chiffon cake:

Recipe for Tube Pan 7 inches:

·         3 egg yolks

·         35gram cooking/vegetable oil

·         45ml fresh orange juice

·         1 tablespoon/15ml cream cheese

·         100gram cake flour

·         30grams white sugar

·         ½ tablespoon baking powder

·         1/4 teaspoon salt

·         About 1 tablespoon grated orange zest (outer one orange skin)

·         3 egg whites

·         60grams white sugar

·         ½ teaspoon lemon juice or cream of tartar (I always use lemon juice)

·         ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

This cake was so good! My friend really liked the cake baked by myself. Hope you find time to bake a cake or cook a meal for your friend or your love! This is extremely amazing and so much fun! ^ - ^ !

Besides, I served my friend with "homegrown and homemade suong sam"

By the way, I would like to share with you that last Saturday I and my colleague went to 23/9 Park near Ben Thanh Market to join in Holland Village Exhibition in 2013. This event is open for visitors from 16:30 – 21:00 every day until 01 December 2013. You don’t know that we went there at 11:00 AM and then realised that it wasn't the open time. LOL. We ended up with wandering around the park, took some pics of flowers which were all real except for tulip pics that I took from a poster and finally went home! Ọ - Ọ ! Next time, we are of course sure of open time before joining any event!!!!



CREAM CHEESE LEMON CHIFFON CAKE FOR A SPECIAL DAY

Hi, friends, how are you doing these days? About me, I am feeling so good now because this is the first time that I have written an English post in FruitieCake Blog. You don’t know that I have desired to create an English food blog for a long long long time! But I don’t really want to leave this blog, I start thinking of writing English together with Vietnamese posts. Now this is it! Hope you don’t find it messed up. And I am sorry if there is any mistake in my English post. Promise that I will improve!

I realise that recently I haven’t posted any recipe yet, so sorry!! But now I would like compensate you for the best chiffon cake recipe which I have ever made so far, this is cream cheese lemon chiffon cake. Actually, I came up with this recipe so accidentally. Because I like the greasiness in cream cheese and the flavour of lemon zest, a few days ago I decided to mix these two ingredients together to make this chiffon cake. Luckily it turned out to be so good! Its texture, moistness and flavour fulfilled my expectation.  

Here is my recipe for the chiffon cake this time:

Recipe for Tube Pan 7 inches:

·         3 egg yolks

·         35gram cooking/vegetable oil

·         45ml fresh milk

·         1 tablespoon/15ml cream cheese

·         100gram cake flour

·         30grams white sugar

·         ½ tablespoon baking powder

·         1/4 teaspoon salt

·         About 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest (outer one lemon skin)

·         3 egg whites

·         60grams white sugar

·         ½ teaspoon lemon juice or cream of tartar (I always use lemon juice)

·         ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees C (the actual heat in oven) and have ready a 7 inch tube pan.

1.      Mix well the cake flour and baking powder (1), then separate the eggs while they are in room temperature. Place the egg yolks in one bowl and the whites in another.

2.      In the bowl of egg yolks, place sugar (30 grams), salt, and lemon zest, oil, fresh milk and cream cheese, vanilla extract (2). Beat until combined. Divide flour (1) into three and shift and mix each with (2).

3.      In a separate bowl, with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the lemon juice and continue to beat until soft peaks form. Gradually beat in the remaining 60grams of sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.  With a large rubber spatula or wire whisk, gently fold the egg whites (in three additions) into the batter just until blended (being careful not to deflate the batter). 

4.      Pour the batter into the tube pan and bake for about 55 to 60 minutes, or until a wooden skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. (When lightly pressed, the cake will spring back). Immediately upon removing the cake from the oven invert (turn upside down) the pan and place on a bottle or flat surface so it is suspended over the counter. Let the cake cool completely before removing from pan (about 1 - 1 1/2 hours).

5.      Can be stored in an airtight container for 2 days at room temperature or for about a week in the refrigerator.

Are you wondering why there were baguette breads there? LOL because we ate them with my homemade pork liver pate.

I and my best friend enjoyed it so much with some blackberry jam! She complimented “This cake is really delicious!”. Finally we called it a special day with a special cake!^ - ^!

If you like chiffon cake, please get a try of this recipe! I am sure that you will like it!

I intend to make this chiffon cake again for my special guest this weekend and hope (keep my fingers crossed!) it will taste amazing also!