must love rainbows

メロンパン〜♪

No pun intended but, seriously, fruits of my labour..

Yakitate!! Melon Pan

I tried this other recipe but the dough wasn't right, so I reverted to the recipe I used last week for the bread but continued with the new actual cookie dough recipe. I still baked the first batch of dough (they came out as scone-looking little things with just-right softness inside) and I have a lot of bread at home now~

So finally - after months of wanting to bake melon pan and 2 tries, I get something decent (:

*tired*

Sydney / Adelaide Part IV

Day 4

Started the day late (: Went to the city and did some shopping before meeting my tour guide - Destination: Adelaide Central Market!

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GQ

JAP & QLD Pumpkin

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Lana Lang Shoes

I love fresh produce markets as well! Just the food, the vibrant colours...everything looked so yummy!

From left: GQ reminds me of GQ Men of the Year which in turn reminds me of Jun ^^; Jap & Queensland pumpkins but at first I thought the sign read Jap and Old XD; besides fresh fruits and veggies; and Lana Lang Shoes!

Carrots <3

Red-tipped Bananas?

I'm a carrot lover and gosh do those carrots look sweet and juicy! I was actually sad that I won't get to taste such fat, juicy carrots.

And I'm really curious about the red-tipped bananas. I mean, it's not actually naturally red but why would they paint the tips red? :s

They also sold books and whole pies that were pretty cheap. I would love to go to markets like this everyday! :D

it has little blue bits!

Blue Mountain tea which was very pretty! I bought some because I was curious about what it would taste like. It's a mild tea but sweet-smelling. I've got a pretty good idea what to do with it now (besides drinking it, I mean).

The Yoghurt Shop's

Cannoli

Hot Chocolate Shot Glass

We couldn't leave the Market without eating so we had some yoghurt. It was seriously yummy <3 They had original classic, low fat and I think one with reduced sugar and we could choose any toppings to go with it like mango puree, crumble, nuts, etc...

The surprising thing for me really was no matter how many toppings you picked, the price stayed the same. It's different from Yami Yoghurt here. If yoghurt snacks were more affordable, I'd have them all day over ice-cream <3 Anyway, I had mine with strawberry puree because the strawberry puree looked so awesome! We tried a Cannoli as well.

Ooh and Crys brought me to this shop that sold hot chocolate shots. I didn't get any but Crys did, except she took the cup version and it smelt really rich and heavenly.

Next stop, Antique Market!

Antique Market

They sold and bought antiques and the store is HUGE. It may look like some ordinary-sized shop outside, but it's really huge inside.

Antique Market's tiny store front

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And they had an entire floor for vintage clothing, bags, shoes and other accessories. Plus some vintage-y luggage bags at decent prices, considering their age.

They even had lots of wedding dresses or evening dresses and we joked about getting De one for Halloween so she could dress up as a runaway bride because she would suit the part XD

I tried on a pair of Sass & Bide jeans which fit me perfectly. But I chose to get a bag for De instead because I didn't want to spend so much money in one place.

HMV

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Star Wars Game

Really old and cool - His Master's Voice!

And OMG STAR WARS BOARD GAME!! It was in French I think and it's got something to do with Death Star.

Why would you not want your Star Wars game?!

We went to Henley Beach after that because Crys wanted to bring me to a beach with nicer waters than Glenelg. But Henley Beach was so beautiful, it deserves another post all by itself <3

 

Sydney / Adelaide Part III

Watching My Girl as I write this - ahhhh I like it very much! Have to see how it goes but I love the chemistry between Masamune-kun and Koharu-chan!

Day 3

Woke up later than we wanted to, so we walked 5 bus stops down to a cafe called Jenny's Lunch & Gourmet and had breakfast! I can't remember the two pastries we had but I know one had pumpkin in it and it was really delicious. I also had their ice coffee which is another "pride of Adelaide" I was told XD

I spent most of this day by myself. It was quite a lazy day shopping at Harbour Town, something like a shopping mall made up of brand outlets. I didn't get much but I did walk around a lot. There was a guy there who totally made my day because he just talked to me and wished me a great stay in Adelaide. So nice :)

Went back and checked into my motel.

Welcome Inn

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I took some photos of the area I live in because it was really pretty! I had some time to spare before dinner and the sun was setting - gorgeous light!

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I found it quite amusing and interesting, that this was how they sold cars!

Vacancy?

The night before, Crystal was scaring me with all the scary stories and movies regarding motels XD About how unsafe it would be and when we walked past this one on the way to my motel, she said this one really reminded her of Vacancy, the movie with Kate Beckinsale, which of course is about killers at motels =.=

Dinner was at Cha-Chi's, a Mexican restaurant in the area. They had all-you-can-eat buffet on Mondays. We went for that, but realized it was just a booth where a chef will prepare either nachos, tacos or burritos. Our choice is between chicken and beef, I think, and whether we'd like it nachos, tacos or burritos. Oh we can go back and ask for more helpings. But everything has the same ingredients, like the guacamole and bean sauce XD

Oh I had internet connection that night! It surprised my dad,that my 3-and-a-half star motel is a wireless hotspot whereas Holiday Inn charged for internet. Glorious Internet! The night was super cold and my motel doesn't provide a heater but the internet made up for it :D

 

Post-Christmas

Just a post on what I did on Aibachan's birthday. About a few years ago, my family started having turkey and we bought a Christmas tree too. Weirdly, though, we have turkey on Christmas Eve. So this year I spent Aibachan's birthday preparing for the dinner.

Preparing the stuffing / the cranberries / picking almonds out for amaretti biscuits

The final cranberry sauce / mushroom soup! My younger cousin very cutely thought all the mushrooms were bubbles / and the turkey when it was just out of the oven.

 

And the night before I was at a Christmas party and when I got back I had very little sleep. Was so exhausted throughout the day while preparing the dinner.

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I went to sleep pretty early that night I think. And I didn't get to do an Aibachan celebration. But I made it up the next day by watching Oshareizm because I was told it was really good ^^

 

-

Today I went to Amanda's house and my friends from poly gave me my Christmas present! It was wrapped and flat in a book sort of way. Immediately I asked, Is it a book? And my friends said, Well...sort of?

In my mind I guessed either a photobook..(Boku wa Imouto ni Koi wo Suru?) or a notebook that has Japanese words
and cute designs on it.

Peugeot?!

They said it was something I like. So when was opening the wrapping, I saw Japanese words (expected) and PEUGEOT...?!? Something about cars?

 

LOL but no, my friends are so crazy... what they bought me for Christmas was

JUN

They told me they bought it from the Okashi shop I saw it at, the one at Bugis. And then I was like, Ohmygod you're the ones who bought CUT? Because I brought Amanda there on the 23rd and it was gone and I was o.O someone actually bought it...

 

As it turns out it's my friends..

And I wanted to save up and buy it for Amanda because I wasn't very affected by the photoshoot and she is the one who said the photoshoot was sexy.. XD

This is kinda close to Jun wrapped-up-and-tied-with-a-ribbon sort of a present isn't it? XD

M&Ms

Question: Why don't they come in purple?

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Notes To Self:

 

1. Stop eating these...useless sugars

2. Camera - either send for repair (is that even possible?) or borrow one to bring to Taiwan!

Photobooks *glee*

I was pleasantly surprised by Kino yesterday when they called me up just before my work ended for the day and told me that my photobooks have arrived. I was expecting them around October. So I swung by Kino to pick them up before meeting Sui for Round Three of Hanadan.

Photobooks GET~

Received them one week apart ne ^^  So now there's an influx of photobooks...I have no idea how to fit my Arashi stuff into one puny shelf/cupboard anymore. I have to start looking for a new home for them.

Because I had my camera out yesterday...here's something I've been procrastinating for ages:

Leftover cookie dough for Dom's hair

I attempted to bake Doumyouji cookies awhile back. I had way to much chocolate dough left so I used cutters and made heart and star cookies, hehe :D There was a container full of it but there were five hearts left last night, so...

Doumyouji cookies

These were some of the more presentable looking Doumyouji cookies by the way. My sister said he they look better frowning.

 

すあま

"Suama is made out of non-glutinous rice flour ( or jyoushinko or dumpling flour), hot water, and sugar. And it's shaped by Sudare (a bamboo matt---in the us this is known as sushi rolling matt) so the outer shape looks very bumpy. The original coloring for Suama was actually white. But these days, people love to color Suama in pink or yellow other than just white."

- Taken from here (Answerer 2)

Again from Yahoo Answers, someone was looking for a recipe for Suama because she can't get a recipe in english. Instead she found one in Japanese here (haha from the picture I confirmed it's suama in Stand Up!!)

I was randomly searching Cookpad.com for suama recipes. I guess there are slight variations here and there. In some the amount of water used is less or more. But roughly the amount of rice flour and fine sugar is about the same. The only recipe in english (I found so far) was from festiveideas.org:
 

• Rice flour(or self raising flour or add some yeast to it)—150 grams
• Sugar(fine powdered texture)—150 grams
• Regular water—120cc
• Red food coloring—up to you

1. Sift the four if neccessary and put into a bowl
2. Add the water slowly and kneed the flour until it is dough like.
3. Put the dough into another bowl and sprinkle the sugar onto the dough. At the same time use your hands(or some other instrument) to kneed the sugar into the dough.
4. Break the dough into small pieces(the size is as you desire, but the smaller it is, the faster it cooks. About slightly smaller than your palm is recommended.)
5. Dilute the food coloring with some water and dip the dough into it or brush the coloring over the dough.(Whether you want to add the coloring is up to you.)
6. Put the round dough pieces into a steamer and cook until the dough has lost it’s stickiness and when you poke a finger at it, the dough rises up from the indent.(Of course don’t poke so hard that you make a hole!)

 

What does Chie keep eating?

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Does anyone know what these taste like, what they're called and how to make them?

Nino Nino Nino Day :D

I need to admit: I had plans to download the scans for the calendar cookbook but never got around to doing it. Although I still have not done it, I came up with a plan to do some of the Nino recipes in it and promptly went to find them.

When I saw the recipes he provided, I was like (-.-). This is so Nino! But then again, they really are easy to make and great for times when I need to cook no-brainer recipes.

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The Strawberry drink and Fried Chicken were attempted~! Although I have to say, I left most of the frying to my brother and busied myself with making the drink :P

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The Nino cake I bought specially. This is a first for me, cause I've not actually bought a cake specially to celebrate any of the member's birthdays. Well I haven't eaten it yet...will enjoy it a little later to sort of have a final Nino Day party by myself (I realise how sad that sounds xDDD).

 

Happy 25th birthday once again, Neener!

Din Tai Fung

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Finally got to eat XLBs at Din Tai Fung.