Popular posts from this blog

Moong dal and pumpkin curry

Image
Mum left some moong dal in the fridge, I've never cooked with it before so I wanted a recipe to use it. This was probably one of the easiest curry I have ever cooked! So simple yet so delicious :)

Recipe adapted from: http://www.steamingpot.com/pumpkin-moong-dal/
I modified the recipe as I did not have some of the mentioned ingredients.




Ingredients
1 TB EVOO
1 cup of boiled moong dal (1/2 cup raw)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 tsp of garlic and ginger paste
Turmeric powder (sprinkled)
Curry powder (sprinkled)
250g pumpkin, finely chopped, skin on 
1 red capsicum, small cubes
1 tomato, small cubes 
Cumin powder (sprinkled) 
Few green or red chillies 
Fresh coriander


Method
1) Boil moong dal (refer to instructions above- easier if done beforehand)
I already had my boiled moong dal so I started from step 2

2) Add EVOO oil
3) Add onions, garlic/ ginger paste and turmeric powder once oil is hot
4) Stir for a few seconds
5) Add pumpkin, boiled lentils and chillies once onions are cooked 
6…
Read more

Derailed December

Image
This month has been a very relaxing month for me. I travelled to Melbourne for International Congress of Behavioural Medicine conference, click here to read more about my wonderful trip. 
I did very little cooking this month as I have been away for most of this month. I have been trying to rest as much as possible, and not think about the work I need to do when I get back. I told myself I would not be hard on myself for the things I couldn't do this year and enjoy the break, for now. To be honest, I feel like I have gotten out of track and but it does feel nice to be letting my brain go.  
Here are my December eats :)











Read more

The Vogue Cafe

Image
I've been thinking about going here for a while now but somehow never end up going because Macquarie is far and out of my way. I've seen so many Instagram posts displaying their ever so fine looking drinks which always gets me drooling!

I took my time to pick a drink, trying to choose between Nutella, peanut butter and Oreo. I decided to go with Nutella as a safe choice because Nutella is one of those things you can't go wrong with.
The veggie AF dish looked great but I was slightly disappointed after I tasted. The dish had multiple ingredients- falafel, tomato, cucumber, lettuce, rocket, Spanish onion, cashews, quinoa, poached egg, garnished with mint, lemon and olive oil.
The combination of quinoa, cashew, rocket and falafel wasn't as satisfying as I was expecting it'd be. It wasn't bad, but at the same time, it did not stand out to me. I found the falafel flavours a little dull; it wasn't as authentic as the Lebanese ones. 


The salmon slice looked stun…
Read more

Our Wedding Day

Image
Engagement + wedding band: I did not have any specific requirements, except I wanted something in yellow gold and a solitaire. Mashayek went with Australian Diamond Brokers and revealed very little as he wanted to keep it as a surprise. I absolutely adored both rings and how beautiful it turned out. 

Wedding planning
Planning duration: four months
Our approach: we set ourselves a very tight goal and we found ourselves on go-go mode the whole time. The upside was that we did not dwell on one task for too long. We picked a job, assigned responsibility, completed the work and moved on to the next one. However, this also meant that many of the tasks were rushed and we did not have time to do it as well as I would’ve liked.
Vision: my own first priority was finding photographers who would understand our culture and would be able to follow with our style. Photography is very close to my heart and I looked into this right from the beginning. I wanted to keep the styles different so decided not…
Read more

International Congress of Behavioural Medicine | Melbourne

Image
My flight faced major delays due to severe thunderstorms in Sydney. We had to wait for over two hours, most of which were on the plane so it was incredibly exhausting. Thankfully, the weather in Melbourne was much better. It was pretty cold and windy, it felt nice to get out of the scorching heat :) After reuniting with the bestie, we went out for dinner to a local Malaysian restaurant close to our home. I had one whole day to myself before the conference began on Wednesday, and we wanted to make the most out of this. 





Next stop was archery, my bestie has been an archer for sometime now, and we have been wanting to go for a long time. But majority of the archery clubs don’t offer try outs. I loved my first experience of archery, it was initially challenging to get my arrow to go in the right direction. It did not look like a much of a physically demanding sport to me, but it does get quite exhausting after sometime. 


Read more

Black Star Pastry (Strawberry Watermelon Cake)

Image
Some of you might know about the desperate attempt I made last year for the Strawberry Watermelon Cake (see previous post at Black Star Pastry). 
Yesterday I had the privilege of tasting this cake at a party. I got super excited as I’ve been wanting to try this for almost a year now. I was so tempted to just skip the mains but I patiently waited for dessert time and made sure I left space for the cake :P
In the meantime, I went to take a close look at the cake (could not resist, for obvious reasons) and I was amazed at how magical it looked. It was constructed beautifully starting with a layer of almond dacquoise followed by cream, then a slice of watermelon with cream,almond dacquoise and cream again. Finally, it was topped with strawberries, pistachios and dried rose petals.


It was a quite a delicious cake but unfortunately, it did not meet the expectations I had. I liked certain elements, such as the lightness of the cream layers, fresh watermelon and the nutty base. The topping h…
Read more

(Un) Organised October

Image
This month has gone by way too quick! (Okay, I know I said that last month too but this month went even quicker)

It started off with me madly writing my results, then doing discussion. Discussion took me about a week :/ I was rushing to finish my draft because I had to send it to my supervisor and leave enough time for feedback.

I allowed myself two weeks time (which I thought was too much, at the time!) But I was so glad I did this later because it can take a couple of days to get feedback as supervisors are too busy to read it in one go.

Anyway, now let me move onto the other fun things I did. Starting off with the most important highlight of the month: I WENT TO CENTRAL PERK!!!!

I was so bogged down with writing, I almost didn't realise it was finishing and made it in the last weekday after handing in my draft.

I had to wait for about an hour but I would say the wait was worth it because I'm such a 'friends' obsessed freak. Getting my butt on that couch was just phenomen…
Read more

Jittery January

Hope everyone is having a good year so far?
I cannot believe the first month is over already!

Unfortunately I don't have any food pictures to share this month because I haven't cooked much at all. Even when I did, it was something that I had no time to take a photo of.

My mind is preoccupied with something else, and it has been really difficult to get things done. To be honest, this month has been a hell of a month for me. It was stressful, exciting, crazy, painful  depressing...(the list goes on).
There were times when I was very close to giving up. I don't think I have felt the range of emotions I experienced this month in any other time in my life. I can't really explain how overwhelming it was, without bringing in the context (will reveal soon).




Read more