Time to bounce off the walls!

Homemade Sesame and Peanut Tong Yuen, Mango Cream Dessert, Lemon Cheesecake from Michel's

Looks like a Junkie Friday night to me!!!

Anyway, I have these amazing talented friends who can make yummy desserts [ignore Cafe Michel's cheesecake]. They make things sound so easy, for instance ''The mango cream dessert is a no baking one. Just chuck everything together." Oh, do I need to say that this friend of mine looks nothing like a baker? You would think he is a gym junkie. Before I drift off topic too far, I love the fresh mango in it!

We only had one main course and possibly 5 different desserts?! Besides these three, we had tapioca kueh, ice cream and fresh fruits [last minute change from a chocolate fondue]. Oh, six it is!

My secret stash

This is what happens when chocolates go on sale...

Okay, I rarely get that carried away but imported Meiji chocolates for $1?! And to be fair, these have lasted me for quite awhile, being my loyal companion throughout my stressful moments like tonight, hence the Junkie Friday post.

I did not buy the 95% dark cocoa, though. With each nibble (yes, nibble!), you can taste true cocoa and then the aftermath of bitterness hits you. Just think of all the antioxidants you have consumed! Hehe =P

How 'bout dyeing cake?

Okay, I don't literally mean dyeing cake but batik is a fabric dyeing technique This treat from Malaysia [specifically Sarawak] is known as the 'batik cake' [or the hedgehog slice in Oz]. Having said that, I never knew about it being 'Malaysian' until recently. Baked and brought to a gathering by my friends, I finally had a taste of this rich sweet goodness.

So why did I consider this a junkie treat besides the fact that sweets should always be taken in moderation? This batik cake requires only 4 ingredients and boy, they are seriously naughty ingredients; condensed milk, milo, butter and marie biscuits. The no-bake recipe can be provided upon request, however there are many similar recipes available on the web.

My parents would never introduce me to this and I did confirm it again. Mama goes "Condensed milk!''. After all, I was one of those kids out there with restricted access to sweets of all kinds in my childhood days.

I did enjoy little bits of it, but ''OMG, It's sweeeeeeeet.'' and I'm also not a big fan of butter! It does not mean it wasn't awesome though. =)

Junkie Friday #7

First of all, I would like to apologise for the late post! Had too much fun eating junk =)

Entree

 Cucumber and carrot sticks with hommus dips

[we had an extra chunky basil pesto as a backup] note: this is an attempt to be healthy.

Main course

 Honey soy chicken wings

 [extra BBQ Spareribs Chicken wings as backup]

Desserts

Trilogy cheese [Roasted Onion and Chives, Vintage and Smoked] and Maggie Beer's plum paste served with crackers, dessert cookies with melting middle [to make it simple, chocolate fondants] and crunchie bar chocolates.

Drinks

A bottle of cab sav and a bottle of light red.

Did you think we were going to finish all the food? There were only 2 ladies eating despite having more people in the sitting. We even had a movie on, however, we ended up talking sooo much I am definite we lost track of the plot despite saying females can multitask.

Tick tick tick. It was totally a junkie night even though we had vegie sticks.

I *heart* pink #2

This week’s entry is a bit different. It’s my week to dedicate to pink so I don’t intend to give a full blown review; but it's also the end of the week! Apart from featuring macarons as part of this week's Junkie Friday, I hope the yummilicious treats justify my version of *I <3 Pink*

Yummy cotton candy with pop rocks; raspberry with dark chocolate; and blueberry with orange filling

I bought these from Cimbalino at Enex 100 Food Court. The different shades of pink represent the different women in the world regardless of race, background, culture and belief. At this point, you might ask why I added a blue macaroon into the picture. Well, in very rare cases, men can also be diagnosed with breast cancer.

I am thinking P.I.N.K. this October. Are you?

Junkie Friday #5

I had a go at another of their safer new flavours, the Crispy Bacon as I previously reviewed the Pizza flavour. The other weird combinations I did not bother trying were Sunday Roast and Meat Pie & Sauce. They sound really weird and manly [thanks to the footy]. To be honest, it might be my last review on chips for some time being. Having said that, I saw Vegemite Smith Chips in Coles today! [according to Jin, it totally screams my name!]

Back to the Crispy Bacon, I was extremely excited when I saw Coles having these limited flavours on the shelves. However, it certainly lacked flavour despite all the flavour enhancers. It being in crinkle cut doesn't really help too. Anyway, crispy bacon isn't a new flavour to start with and I'm definitely not sure why it was labelled as a 'limited edition'. They have been in the markets off and on, and have been constantly repackaged.

To accompany a pack of chips is definitely a good can of beer. I have never tried Murphy's Irish Stout as Guinness somewhat takes all the limelight among my peers. I do love the creamy texture of this stout and found myself totally amused by the little nitrogen widget in the can [yes, I am aware that these cool widgets originated from Guiness]. Being an avid youtuber, I also managed to search for some Murphy adverts from those days.

I thought THAT was pretty cool, and THIS pretty awesome too.

If I have not said this before, Junkie Friday is getting trickier and almost impossible with my new personal commitment. There will minor tweaks but the blog will remain commited to posting Junkie Friday [if not mine].

I *heart* pink.

It's the start of a Looonggg weekend! #4

Things have been hectic lately and planning for dinners has been rather difficult; what more to plan for Junkie Friday? Normal weekday dinners have been instant ramen or rice crackers, as if it has been a huge junkie week.

Pizza always does it for me. =) And this time, it is Dr. Oetker's Pizza Quattro Formaggi! [Honestly, it has always been Dr. Oetker's] A perfect cheat dinner; it is a combination of 4 cheese pizza, a blend of mozzarella, edam, emmentel and blue cheese. With all the cheeses, it made the pizza really creamy.

I am honestly no big fan of blue cheeses but I do not mind this one. The flavour wasn't as intense as certain blue cheeses I have tasted previously. Having said that, my girlfriend once told me the good blue cheeses are the ones with a strong intense taste or flavour to it.

A frozen pizza which doesn't taste frozen, it was a dinner totally worth the money- AUD $3!

It's the end of the week. Junkie Friday #3!

In a span of a week [or less], I went through a 'journey' on Kettle's Multigrain Chips. I thought I'd go wild with the chips by tasting the Honey BBQ [photo not taken], Sweet Chilli & Sour Cream as well as Sour Cream & Chives.

In short, these little ones are 'Grainwaves' wannabes but totally fell short of it. Are those ''flavours'' you can see? [steals quote from Arnott's]. Sour Cream stood out a lot more with citric acid listed as an ingredient. Having said that, Honey BBQ had citric acid listed too! So it was a lemon-y BBQ flavoured packet of chips.

I discovered this interesting website which also had the author's personal "Chips Rankings''. Totally inspiring! Despite that thought, I might actually be staying away from my foes [or friends?]; the flavour enhancers [just naming a few; 621 and 625] for some time. This is a horrible love-hate relationship!  

The next question is "How is all these related to Junkie Friday?'' Well. the binge began on a Friday.

Have a great weekend! We, on the other hand, are very occupied for the upcoming weeks but will definitely try to keep up with the posts. 

It has begun! Junkie Friday #2

Yay! And the night is still young. *dances*

If you could not tell the new flavour of Smiths' from the picture, it is their limited edition of Pizza (or pizza flavoured) chips. It tasted just like any other pizza flavoured snacks and it definitely reminded me of Arnott's Pizza Shapes. It appeared as if it was marketed in accordance to the footy finals happening this weekend too (it is written at the back of the packet after all) and yes, we are least excited for the footy finals. I have to say I am not as adventurous as I thought I would be because I could not bring myself to buy their other limited edition flavours such as Meat Pie & Sauce as well as Sunday Roast (o_O) Pizza and Crispy Bacon are just much safer flavours and I quite enjoyed eating the whole pack of chips with the stout *note: I am still drinking the same bottle while writing this.

I have to justify myself here, I am not a drinker of stout but for personal reasons, I am drinking it now warm (literally means at room temperature). I thought it was an easy stout to drink and took it as a light beer. I always remembered bitterness as a strong character of stout (thanks to Guinness!) but 4 Pines definitely has balanced its bitterness along with its other flavours. Having said that, Guiness has now changed their recipe and has a much preferred smooth finish too (ooo...and also less alcohol percentage).

And did I say the night is still young? Bring on more junk. =D

Courtesy of animecrazy.net

No, I'm not thinking of mapo toufu, although I do love that dish a lot. It is just going to be a weekend I commit myself to 'Chūka Ichiban!', also known as Cooking Master Boy. I've watched the anime series a gazillion times now really, after all it's more than 10 years old.

It's the end of the week! Junkie Friday #1

If it is not obvious enough, I reward myself constantly on a Friday. Jin and I came up with this term, 'Junkie Friday' and I have been doing it for weeks now. I just never made it official till now. Amusingly, my body appearred to understand such reward [okay it is really my mind and in psychological terms this is a form of operant conditioning] and the tummy goes crazy on a Friday evening.

So, my initial plan yesterday was to watch 'Like stars on Earth' and order the largest size available at Dominos with a friend of mine. Last minute changes, I ended up watching the movie on my own with two pieces of tempura battered fish and a side of McCain's seasoned curly fries [hate the photo, I blame the lighting].

This is my first time actually buying a pack of frozen chips from the supermarket and baking them at home [literally means ''let's chuck it in the oven'']. I will fail as a Masterchef contestant in the frozen and canned food challenge of Season 3. Anyway, they did satisfy my need for junk while reminding me of the curly fries I used to buy from McDonalds. What was extremely deceiving was the serving size suggestions; 5 servings in a pack of 500g. Its either my problem or theirs but the figures suggest an extremely small portion size. Along with the broken bits at the far end of the picture, my portion was already half the pack!

The broken bits were the yummy bits. By the time I got to the stringy curly bits, it was cold and slightly soggy [well of course, I was playing with our version of 'toon spencer' and trying to feed him but he obviously wasn't very pleased with the soggy curls].

On a note, Like stars on earth was a beautiful movie on a misunderstood boy who had to go through a rigid school system despite being a dyslexic. Inspirational for someone like me.