Whoa! Really tough question here since you’re talking to the Dessert Queen here! Ooooo how to choose how to choose? So many lovely pastries and cakes galore, and many more still undiscovered! It wouldn’t be fair really if I had to choose just one….

BUT. If i really really really had to choose one dessert for the rest of my life…. it would probably be…..

Good ol fashioned Chocolate Cake!

Why a chocolate cake of all desserts?

Because well, nothing beats a good dose of dark chocolate-y yumminess! Cloyingly rich and yet oh so soothing at the same time. And that boost of happy endorphins don’t hurt either!

Plus… there are so many ways you can bake a chocolate cake. It can be something as simple as a chocolate sheet cake (see Pioneer Woman Cook’s fab recipe here) and I can never go wrong with one of my favourite chocolate cake recipes – Midnight Christmas Chocolate Cake – courtesy of Amy Beh.

The chocolate cake can be light and airy or dense and fudgy. You can add cheese in it to make a cheesecake brownie.

Or you can add in a boost of alcohol and ta da! It becomes a sinfully good Chocolate Guiness Cupcake!

And if you’re feeling a wee bit adventurous, a simple chocolate cake can transform into something so much more with frosting and layers!

Pair it with ice cream and caramel drizzle… or

Fancify it up as a delicate lil treat complete with chocolate mousse and chocolate ganache coating.

And so yeah… if I could have one dessert for the rest of my life, it would be… chocolate cake! (all the other variations of the chocolate cake count too so technically it’s more than one dessert! hehe!)

So, what would your ultimate dessert be? Let Asian Food Channel know HERE and stand a chance to win Nigella Express Cookbook and other AFC goodies! Unleash your kitchen goddess now! Hurry! Contest on til 18 November 2009!!

*photo taken from Amazon.com

Oh and its Nigella as in THE Nigella Lawson – domestic and kitchen goddess!

Incidentally, the night we were there for the buffet was also the official opening night of Hard Rock Cafe. So there were lots of people, media and curious onlookers, lots of super bikes on display and literally no place to park. However, the security guards were nice enough to tell us that we could park across the street.

We arrived to a rather empty Starz Diner, probably because everyone else was hanging aroud in the lobby having some snacks and appetizers before the official do at Hard Rock Cafe. The chefs on duty at Starz Diner were also busy churning out tempura prawns and other goodies. But I didn’t complain about the lack of crowd for it allowed me to happily go about snapping photos!

The diner is done up in purple and white. And while I love the color scheme (purple’s my new pink!) and the waitresses cute diner style purple uniform, the place did look rather bare. Perhaps they were going for a fuss free mood?

Bread station with nice fluffy buns…no complaints there!

Appetizers, salads and starters table

Sashimi and oysters (which I skipped cos I’m not an oyster person)

Slipper lobsters on ice

Mains… and friendly chefs who wanted to stop and pose for my camera. The mains consisted of a few seafood dishes, lamb, stir fried broccoli and some carbs – pineapple rice and noodles.

Chilli crabs

The Buy 2 Free 1 offer at Spice Market Cafe is valid from now til December 17 for International Buffet (Mon-Thurs only)

The 2+1 offer is also available at Ferringi Grill and Pinang Bar.

Call Shangri-La’s Rasa Sayang Resort and Spa at 04-888 8888 for more details. Or click here for more info.

But in the end, I knew that I had to let go. I had to learn to fight my own demons, to love myself and to make a change. I didn’t know how I was going to do it for it all seemed too much, too hard. Where do I start?

Until a small voice told me, why not start with something simple? Something that you like. Something that would lift your spirits.

And so this morning I decided  bake. But it could not just be any cake. For a simple re-hashing of a cake I had baked before would not be enough. It had to present some sort of challenge, however minute.

Enter the layer cake complete with frosting.

I have always steered clear of such cakes because they seemed so very challenging to this novice baker.  And this was no ordinary layer cake. It was a cake by Rose. Anyone who has read her books would be slightly intimidated at the very least. For she goes so very much into detail. Measurements need to be exact. Ingredients need to be top quality. Substitutions were not encouraged…etc… and I have read many a forum where people complain that while her recipes are amazing, they are not always met with success, for  you really need to follow it to the T.

Nevertheless I decided that a challenge was in order, even if it was just cake. So I read and re-read the 3 page recipe in detail. Took a deep breath and…go!

The end result?

Pretty amazing I would say. Not perfect. But amazing nonetheless. I do need to work on that frosting just a lil more though (still too runny for my liking). And amazingly, I must admit I was reminded of a few important lessons along the way.

When I first read the recipe, I had thought that it was too complicated and too much work. I had initially let it intimidate me thinking that it was too difficult. I was afraid to fail. But I was determined to bake that cake no matter what.

So, I broke it down and visualized each step. Then I made all the necessary preparations,  getting together the ingredients etc  and just started it off. I was skeptical about the frosting, for I was afraid of burning it. But I told myelf not to panic and kept my cool.

Finally, when I was almost done, and the cake was baking away beautifully in the oven, I realized, hey this isn’t so hard after all! (the cake probably isn’t but i just thought that it was)

With the confidence in myself renewed somewhat, I knew that things would be ok. The road ahead may seem dark and scary, but I was reminded not to be overwhelmed by the circumstances, to stay calm and not panic (as I am prone to do).  There are always things in life that you cannot control. So best to let it go. And instead, make improvements on the things that you can control. Change is a good thing.

And yeah, I’m still a rock star!

Oh and I do apologize if you came here looking for a german chocolate cake recipe, and instead got this whole mumbo jumbo about change and challenges. But since I’m such a nice person, go here for the recipe with some step by step photos too!

A long time ago (way back in 2007) I naively proclaimed that this stall had the best pan mee in Penang. But no longer! For I Mum Mum Pan Mee came along and has de-throned Hou Mei Yuen (in my opinion at least!)

Don’t you just love their cute logo with a clever play on the letter “M”? Very nicely done!

During our visit, we chose to try their more unique pan mee varities instead of the usual soup/dry version. I chose the Mince Pork Pan Mee with Special Sauce (dry version) RM3.50 (small portion)

I was a little disappointed that there were no fried ikan bilis in this dish. But the excellent taste more than made up for it. The mince meat is done with a slightly sweet sauce which reminds me of the meat topping found in Taiwanese ‘Zar Jiang’ Noodles. I chose the thin noodles which were cooked just right. Firm and not too soggy. A good pick if you love your pan mee but need to cut down a lil on your cholesterol (no ikan bilis). But if you simply MUST have your dose of ikan bilis, you can always order a side portion.

I Mum Mum Pan Mee also takes on the wildly popular chilli pan mee with this Spicy Pan Mee offering (RM3.20 small portion). Instead of chilli paste, this version comes with lots of chilli flakes.

You can ask for extra chilli flakes if it’s not spicy enough. For us, we found the portion we were served with, plenty spicy! However, I do still prefer Super Kitchen’s version. Credit must be given though to their fresh crispy ikan bilis! Yummy~~~

We arrived at Seri Kembangan, to this rather unassuming coffee shop…

And me being the ‘banana’ that I am, couldn’t read Mandarin, so I exclaimed ‘hey this shop selling bak kut teh la! where got fish head bihun?’ Little did I realize that the shop has TWO signboards – the white Fish Head Bihun signboard (written in Mandarin) above the green Bak Kut Teh signboard.

I honestly would not have walked into this place had it not been for the recommendation, for even the menu is entirely in Mandarin…

Of course the star attraction was the Fish Head Bihun, so we immediately ordered it. You would notice from the menu that only RM0.50 separates the small and large bowl of noodles. Perhaps it’s just an addition of more noodles for the larger bowl?

We ordered the small portion…and boy was it big!! And very very creamy due to the generous amount of evaporated milk! (Do note that there is an additional RM1 charge for fish head bihun with evaporated milk, which would make it RM7.50 a bowl) I couldn’t stop drinking the flavorful soup base even though I was already filled to the brim!

Delicious crispy fried fish! (there’s a mix of fish head as well as fish meat) We were told that they import their fish from New Zealand.

Clear soup fish head bihun for those who don’t take milk… the soup base is equally tasty but much lighter with more prominent taste of ginger. But of course I would choose the one with evaporated milk! *tee hee*

The organizers were none other than one of my favourite channels of all time – Asian Food Channel!

The venue – the ultra chic Neo at Jalan Sultan Ismail….

And I do mean ultra chic! Take a look at one of my favourite corners in Neo…

Breathtaking view in a spacious high ceiling-ed room… minimalistically modern… can’t get enough of the gorgeous chandelier? Well, neither can I!

Us bloggers got to do a lil mingling and greet and meets before the pre-screening of Daniel Boulud’s visit to Singapore to whip up a gastronomic delight of a lifetime for Singapore’s elite.

(photo credits Taufulou.com and what2seeonline.com)

And of course we got to do a lil eating and drinking…. Kudos to Neo for the lovely refreshments!

But of course, the highlight of the event was the pre-screening itself. We got to meet the very affable and approachable Managing Director of AFC who made us feel very much at ease…

Mr Hian Goh giving us a lil background about the show.

Daniel Boulud is hailed as one of the top chefs in America, whose clientele include President Obama and Beyonce. Regular viewers of Asian Food Channel would be familiar with “After Hours with Daniel” where we get a sneak peak of where chefs go to for meals “after hours” (or after the mad rush when the restaurant closes for the day)

In “Daniel Boulud’s One Night in Singapore”, viewers get a rare opportunity to watch the master chef in action, behind the scenes, in an unfamiliar Singaporean kitchen of the Fullerton Hotel, in preparation for a unique meal for 50 guests. I was amazed at the amount of detail Daniel Boulud puts in into ensuring that the guests have the ultimate Daniel Boulud culinary experience. While he is laid back and friendly to his fellow chefs and colleagues, he turns serious and no nonsense when in the kitchen, running a tight ship with almost military like precision.

Needless to say, I enjoyed the pre-screening much more than I expected as I gained new found respect for Daniel Boulud.

Daniel Boulud’s One Night in Singapore premiers on Asian Food Channel (Channel 703 on Astro) on Tuesday 29 September at 9pm. I’m really looking forward to watching the show a second time! Be sure to catch it!

Many thanks to Mr Hian Goh, Co-Founder and Managing Director of AFC as well as Maria Brown, the Managing Director of Acquisitions & Programming for AFC for this event. (Huge fan of AFC here!! lol)

Also thanks to Neo and Alice George Communications.

To kick start the Romantic meal, take a bite into these delectable dumplings – deep fried prawn dumplings and cheesy dumplings…

The prawn dumplings were tasty but the cheesy dumplings took center stage for me. Biting into the cheesy dumpling revealed…. cheeeeese!! lots and lots of it oozing out from the dumpling! Yum! So remember to eat it while its hot! These dumplings kinda reminds of fried cheese sticks

Next on the menu – Young Heart’s Deep Fried Chicken Wings. I have always loved their chicken wings! Fried til golden and served piping hot. No cold fried chicken wings here!

The Enoki Mushrooms with Brocolli are lightly stir fried with minimal seasoning, just the way I like my vegetables This vegetable dish is almost always ordered whenever we eat here!

The Yin Yang Stuffed Egg with Sweet & Sour Sauce is a pretty unusual dish – Egg stuffed with minced meat.

Yin Yang Egg cross sectional view… (the term ‘cross sectional view’ so reminds me of Biology class for some reason or other!! lol)

It is still the place I go to when I need a lil sanctuary to sooth my nerves. And it is also now a place my family and I go to for a healthy wholesome meal.

Recently, I had the opportunity to be invited to try out their Mid Autumn Special meal packages. I may think I know most of their menu by heart from my many visits, but with their new menu launched about 2 months ago, I found myself trying new things I didn’t know about! Young Heart’s Mid Autumn Specials contain 2 meal packages – A reunion package (for 4pax at RM123nett) and a Romantic package (for 2 pax at RM55nett)

We were ushered into Young Heart’s private function room (which is available for bookings).

Pu Er tea to start the meal…

Overview of the Mid Autumn Special Reunion Package for 4 pax. This post will concentrate on the reunion package, while the Romantic Package will be introduced in the next post

The evening of food tasting was indeed a welcoming one as it helped re-acquaint me with their food. When a group of girl friends who were back from overseas for a holiday wanted to meet up for lunch, I knew Hot Wok would be perfect!

The restaurant is done up with loads of Peranakan/Nyonya decorations and nostalgic items. From old advertisements (these are my favourite) to antique cookery and intricate woodwork desigsn, diners will feel like they’ve been transported back in time as they dine at Hot Wok.

To kick off our girlie lunch meet, we started with a plate of crackers (RM2) served with homemade chilli dip which was more sour than spicy. We loved this dip and polished it off in seconds while browsing the menu.

I insisted that we order the “Kiam Chye Ark” Soup (RM10). “Kiam Chye” is vegetable preserved in brine and is very salty. But it makes for good soup. Meanwhile, “ark” is duck. So it’s essential preserved vegetable and duck soup. The piping hot Kiam Chye Ark soup at Hot Wok is sour and salty. A real treat to the tastebuds and is an excellent way to kick off a hearty meal. One of the best Kiam Chye Ark soups that I’ve had in a long while!