Month: August 2012

Chicken Katsu Curry Cheat

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One of my all time favourite Japanese cuisines is chicken katsu curry. I tend to order this when I’m in Wasabi because it’s just so good. ^^ Once in a while I like to make my own version of this, and I would tend to cheat with the chicken katsu (fried chicken part), because I can’t be bothered to use fresh chicken, mix it in egg and flour then sprinkle on the panko breadcrumbs… That’s just time consuming! I also use frozen vegetables instead of a fresh carrot and a potato. Here are the pictures first…
Southern Fried Chicken – I like this one because it’s spicy

This was less than £1

I like the Hot version of this – it’s not as hot as Indian curries though…

Comes in breakable blocks

It dissolves easily if you cut it into smaller chunks

Rice is cooking in my small rice cooker

Frying the Southern Fried Chicken – 1 got really burnt because I wasn’t paying attention!

Cooking the curry sauce – Yummy!

All finished – and it was absolutely delicious!!! ^_^


And now I’m going to show you how to cheat and still enjoy chicken katsu curry!

Ingredients:
– 1 or 2 pieces of frozen southern fried chicken – just because it’s spicy (or any type of frozen breaded chicken) – cheat!
– 1 (or 2 depending if you like the sauce to be very thick) piece of curry roux – chopped into small pieces (Japanese, Korean and Chinese supermarkets have these)
– 1/3 mug of frozen vegetables (this is a cheat too)
– 1 mug of water (for the curry sauce)
– Vegetable oil (for frying the frozen chicken)
– 1/4 cup of short grain rice (sushi rice) – washed

How to cook (for one person):
1. If you have a rice cooker (which I have – but most of my friends look at me dumbfounded and have never seen or used one!) use it to cook the rice, otherwise if you use a pot – make sure you keep a watch on it! I’m actually quite rubbish at cooking rice in a pot (I will burn it!), so I rely on a rice cooker heavily!!!!
2. Heat a frying pan, make sure it is hot and put about two tablespoons of oil into the pan
3. Place in the frozen fried chicken and fry as indicated on the package
4. Whilst the chicken is frying, heat the water into a pot; as the water starts to boil add in the frozen vegetables and cook for about 3 minutes (at this point keep checking the chicken and remove from the heat if ready – and  slice the chicken into 6-8 pieces)
5. Whilst the frozen vegetables is boiling, add in the chopped up piece of curry roux, and stir. Boil this for a further 5 minutes…
6. Hopefully at this point the rice has cooked (usually takes 15 minutes – I have timed a rice cooker many times!). Scoop out the rice onto a plate.
For display and showing off: Spoon out the rice into a small rice bowl, if you don’t have one use a teacup, then turn the cup over and gently remove (by tapping or shaking) the rice onto a plate
7. Place the fried chicken next to the rice (paper towel the chicken if there is excess oil)
8. Finally remove the pot of sauce (cool this for a few minutes so it thickens) and then pour the sauce over the chicken

Total cooking and prep time: 20 minutes

And there you go! My small cheat to chicken katsu curry! ^^””

My geeky rating (for my own cooking): 5/5 – even if one of the fried chicken pieces got burnt!

a LEGO comic

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I have been inspired!

Inspired by The Guardian’s LEGO animations of the Olympics… If you have not watched them, watch them here. They are pretty cool… 

And so, what did I end up doing after when I went to LEGOLAND? I made a comic out of LEGO figurines that I purchased on the day :D… Heheheheh… My friends probably think I’m a bit too geeky as they haven’t commented about it so far 😦 (so heartbroken)… T_T

Here’s my comic which is in 8 frames in 8 pictures. I tried to combine it all together, but unfortunately the font size in the speech bubbles is too small to read, and I figured it would be too hard to read as an all-in-one comic. I used a free photo editing software called PhotoScape (www.photoscape.org)… I have a feeling it’s Korean ^_^

Enjoy!

Origami OT

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So I haven’t done any origami for about 2 months. ¬_¬”” Just being lazy, studying and really just couldn’t be bothered… Well that means origami OT (overtime)! I spent 4 hours creating all these pieces and there are some that I skipped because it needed 1 dollar bills (which I couldn’t be bothered to get up and find) or printed paper… So fast forward to all these other ones… 😀 I am now up-to-date (actually a day ahead!) with the origami calendar.
Sweet Swallow

Offering Stand

Heart Place Card

Wedding Noshi

Boutonniere

Motorboat

Basket

Ladybug

Snail

Snake

Party Hat

Day Lily

Buffet Napkin

Catamaran

Catamaran x 2 = Flower

Goldfish

King Arthur’s Crown

4-Pointed Star

Message in a Bottle

Pagoda

Cat

Panda

Modular Unit Ball – had to use paperclips to hold the pieces together!

Raccoon

Windsor Castle

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This is going to be a fairly short post. As I went to Windsor, I took a picture of Windsor Castle on my way home to share… The Queen was not in by the way 😛
Side view of Windsor Castle


Here’s also the shopping arcade. Miss Pinky wants to go back there in September to start her Christmas shopping!!! 😦 It’s almost Christmas already!!!
Windsor Royal Shopping Arcade


LEGOLAND – Windsor

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LEGOLAND. Originally from Denmark (which I didn’t know until a work friend pointed it out!). I actually never knew LEGO came from Denmark… (that shows my ignorance on where things come from!). I have never been to LEGOLAND before, but an opportunity struck when Miss Pinky’s little brother, Master H, had to write a 50-word summer project for his school! (Yes, you read right, 50 words!). (This paragraph contains 73 words in total!).
Forgot to take a picture from the front!!


So you could imagine what Master H wanted to do during this summer. Yep. Go to LEGOLAND! And that’s where we went. If it’s your first time, expect to be spending around £100+ per adult (entry fee, train ticket, food, drinks and most likely LEGO toys in the end!). But if you can find special vouchers – then definitely use them! National Rail has a special 2 FOR 1 voucher where you just pay for one adult fee plus rail tickets. Get it now before the offer ends towards the end of the year!!!


Saturday 18th August had to be one of the hottest days of the year in England! 😦 And queuing for rides in this heat is not fun! Plus it was the weekend! And of course it’s the summer holidays for school children… Master H and I went on 6 rides, and Miss Pinky decided to skip 3 of them and continue reading her book… So I did most of the babysitting! 😛
Ride 1 – not very good, sprinklers wasn’t working! 😦

Ride 2 – an ok experience, it will get your tummy swirling around


Forgot to take a picture of Ride 3 but that was a really fun one!
Ride 4 – This was fun! 


By Ride 5 I was exhausted and didn’t like this 90 minute wait (it was about an hour) for a 3 minute ride to get splashed!

Ride 5 – 90 minute wait!!!!! Not impressed!!!

Ride 6 – Short but sweet


Here’s some pictures of around LEGOLAND…
Star Wars ^_^

R2D2

Massive Dragon!

The Pirates!

A Knight and Dragon

Don’t forget to recycle!

Miss Pinky was so happy with this PINK LEGO…

£6 bottle that you can get refilled all day long!

Fire Station

These guys are funny 🙂

The loo signs! Hahahahah

Miniland!!

Miniland – Covent Garden


Miniland – London!

Unfortunately we didn’t go everywhere, so I missed out on the driving and loads of other parts of LEGOLAND.

Finally, all three of us were hungry, and we ended up eating at one of the cafes. This is my shoddy Goats Cheese and Mash Pie meal for £7.95. It was not worth its money. Crust was too hard, and the knife couldn’t even cut the crust!!!!!!!! I think I have had better pies than this!
Goats cheese pie ‘n’ mash


My geeky rating (for experience): 3.5/5 (I know I don’t usually rate shops and other stuff, but in this post it definitely deserves my rating)

Good points:
Free refills if you purchase a £6 LEGOLAND water bottle

Bad points:
Long queues for a measly few minutes ride
Bad hot food experience
Toys are too expensive 😦
Shuttle bus to LEGOLAND is also expensive 😛

Website: www.legoland.co.uk
2For1 offer: http://www.daysoutguide.co.uk/

Nearest Station: Windsor and Eton (when you come out of the station, go up to the traffic lights, turn left towards the fountains (you’ll be beside Windsor Castle), then go up the small hill, you will see a bus stop. These buses take you to LEGOLAND!.


Mooncakes 月餅

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I know this is an early post but it’s that time of the year when the Chinese (and other Asian countries) celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival 中秋節 (jung chau jit) early with mooncakes 月餅 (yut beng)!! The festival is on every 15th day of the 8th month of the Chinese Lunar calendar… So it’s actually on October 1st September 30th this year!
Loads of different mooncakes!

Majority of mooncakes on sale are from Hong Kong

What are mooncakes? Mooncakes are “cakes” made with a filling of lotus or mung bean paste wrapped in a crust. Some have one or two duck egg yolks inside or none at all. Unfortunately mooncakes are generally fatty because lard is used to make the crust and a lot of sugar is used.

There are actually many stories surrounding the origin of the mooncake, but they are used to celebrate the lunar moon. And so mooncakes are shaped into a “moon” (although mainly squared and cubed shaped) and are eaten whilst gazing at the moon.

So on my trip to Wing Yip, I bought a tin of mooncakes, which usually consists of four mooncakes and a plastic knife (I took the knife out of this picture)…
The cheapest mooncakes on sale at the moment

There are always 4 in a tin

Always read the label before you buy them!

It says 大同月餅 (the name of the company) on top 

Double yolk!

Because I don’t really like the egg yolks as they are usually salty I bought myself a pig shaped mooncake filled with only lotus paste ^_^ (I still haven’t eaten it yet!).
Piggy mooncake 

Last year instead of the normal mooncakes, I bought these “icy crusted” mooncakes 冰皮月餅 (bing pei yut beng). With these you put them in the freezer instead of the fridge and you eat them as if they were ice cream cakes… ^_^ These I had bought in the bakery at Wing Yip…

Icy Mooncakes ^^

I can’t remember the fillings… ¬_¬

If you have never tried mooncakes before, try the ones without the duck yolk first – be careful to look at the labels first before buying. Prices range from £20 – £30+. Best time to try them out is probably after the festival because that’s when the mooncakes go on sale! ^_^ They are sold in all / most Chinese supermarkets / foodstores.

Wing Yip Centre 榮業行 – Purley Way, Croydon

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I travelled a long distance to get to Wing Yip! Well I took 2 buses just sitting there with my MP3 player on… It’s about an hour plus journey from where I live (but it depends on when the bus decides to come!). When I got off the 154 bus at Fiveways, I almost forgot the way to the place (only because I went via two different routes on two previous occasions!)…
Wing Yip Centre

Wing Yip is very different to China Town (well obviously). It’s everything rolled into one! One restaurant, one supermarket, a Chinese kawaii store, agencies / business centre upstairs and a parking lot (which I think is dangerous for pedestrians as there’s no pavement for us journey makers).

Adverts of what’s inside

Wing Yip opening times

The Restaurant – 大同大酒褸

Taipan Chinese Bakery – 大班餅家

Going upstairs to the business area and other parts…

I went all the way to Wing Yip to try and find frozen prawn cheung fun – but they didn’t have any! T_T So disappointed at my misfortune. In the supermarket, there are aisles and aisles of food, and a warehouse like area where they sell all the bulky stuff…

Inside Wing Yip Supermarket

But thankfully in the Chinese kawaii store New Times City they sell things that I was looking for!! (^_^)b

New Times City Shop – I love it!!!

My USB fan for £4.50

Hello Kitty vacuum flask for £12.99 ^_^

So not a complete disappointment by travelling all the way there! It’s a place where people around the deep south would travel to instead of going to China Town (and I travel there to go to the Chinese kawaii shop ^_^).

Buses: 119, 154, 157, 289 (Get off at Fiveways)
Nearest Station: Waddon Station

Forbidden Planet – London Shaftesbury Avenue

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My 100th post! 

Coz I’m a geek I must know some geeky shops around London right? Yes that’s right!! (^_^)v … For me Forbidden Planet, which is located in Shaftesbury Avenue (on the other side of China Town) is one of the most geekiest shops in London!! Comic fans may disagree and call it a comic shop, but nah, it’s a geek shop… Forbidden Planet used to be located in New Oxford Street (that’s how long I’ve been a fan of theirs :P) but I think due to the increasing amount of customers and the little space they were in, they moved to a bigger venue – which was just around the corner. That was many years ago…

Forbidden Planet in Shaftesbury Avenue

Window display – Dr Who figurines

Another window display of … ?


I really love this place… They have a big lower ground floor which is full of comics and manga, and the ground floor has all the toys and figurines (sorry I didn’t take any pictures of the inside). One main reason I tend to go in there is to buy manga or birthday gifts for my geeky sci-fi fanatic friends (hope he doesn’t read this blog!). So here’s my birthday gift to one of my friends (Mr Games)…
A talking Dalek and a Playstation with sweets inside

Dr Who T-Shirt


I know I was there for gift shopping, but I couldn’t help myself in getting a Hello Kitty item ¬_¬”

Hello Kitty earphone clip 


So if you’re in London, and you really need to find a comic / manga store and you’re in the area, go and experience Forbidden Planet… There’s also one in South Croydon and some around the UK!

Website: http://forbiddenplanet.com/