Columbia Road flower market

London’s east end is an area full of charm and character. Sadly, it’s usually on the bottom of many visitors list. Hopefully these pictures would tempt you into visiting the east end.

This is the place for all flower lovers. You’ll be left spellbound even if you don’t like flowers.

This last picture is not Mamosa. It’s one of my favourite Hydrangea.

Look at those beautiful mosaic work on the walls outside the school

These are the few eccentric shops along Columbia Road

Entrance to a vintage shop. Creative.

Some charm for your home..

On the way to Brick Lane.. Someone just had to cross the ‘i’ out..

Will post more photos on Brick Lane and the eastend. Stay tuned!

Mee rebus & sambal aubergine

One fine Sunday I invited a couple of friends over, and decided to make some Malaysian food that is easy and yummy. The first thing I did was to look for recipes; and which is a better blog for good Malaysian food recipes than my favourite site, ‘rasamalaysia’. Off I go, and found one of the easiest recipe, also the food I miss. MEE REBUS!! Wonderful! Best of all, the method of making this is so brief, I looked at it again to make sure i did not misread it.

Mee rebus. Click here for the recipe.

Look at the picture! Doesn’t it look authentic? It tastes good as well, even without the prawn fritters. I was too lazy to deep fry anything so left that out =P.  I cooked sambal aubergine instead. Cut the aubergines and put them in salted water so they don’t turn brown. Heat the wok with some oil and fry some chopped onions and dried shrimps until fragrant, then add in the sambal made earlier for the mee rebus. Add in the aubergines and cook until they soak in the juices but not too soft. Voila! Done! Sprinkle some chopped spring onions to serve.

Sambal aubergine

Long weekend with ‘peach & chamomile mousse cake’

The long awaited bank holiday weekend has finally arrived. Most people will be out of town or be doing something more interesting. But I’ve opted for a quieter day in. No alarm clock! Just wake up whenever I’m all charged up, be a total slop wearing my pjs most of the day until I sink into a warm fruity bubble bath. But of course with clean teeth. Can’t have my lovely hot choc in my morning breath. =) Took out my well loved Bodum milk frother to froth hot milk for a thick cuppa hot chocolate! Yumm…

…reading on my balcony in the perfect weather of blue sky with white fluffy clouds and a good view…

This is a very special bank holiday weekend! My dear flatmate has guestSss over at ours for more than a month. It is as if, they’ve taken over my flat, with fully stocked up fridge with little space left for my food and kitchen top filled with food as well. There’s so much food, you’d think they are planning to hibernate for a quarter of a year! And I don’t even have space and tele to wind down after work. Guess who’s been hogging the tele! So this particular weekend is when all of them including my flatmate are out of town!! How lovely! I finally have the place to myself and relax all I want. But before I start doing all that, a thorough cleaning was needed!

It felt more like home after some cleaning and tidying! Time for brunch then!! Big fat juicy mushrooms with scrambled eggs and toast with butter…  forgot baked beans but it doesn’t matter. The main ingredients were all present. Once I was well fed, it was time to make some indulgent dessert, the ‘Peach and camomile mousse cake’! It’s a recipe I got from the lovely blog, Tartelette with her ever so attractive photos.

…my attempt of the peach and chamomile mousse cake…

My mousse cake turned out quite well although it didn’t set as well as I’d like them to. I used gelatin sheets instead of the powdered form she used so maybe four films wasn’t enough. The mousse layers on hers is more differentiated whereas the peach colour on mine was a little lighter so I’ve added a drop of red colouring to make it more vibrant. What’s most important, it looks lovely and tastes heavenly. My dear friend who was lucky enough to try this cake went mmmmm…. mmmmm… and more mmmm…. finished with a big smile on the face! That makes me happy!

…bliss.. does include sinking in to a warm cranberry bubble bath.. =) would be even better if the bathroom has a lovely view instead of just 4 blocks of walls..

I was thinking of bringing some of these mousse cakes to work but one of my colleague is a vegetarian. So she won’t be able to have anything with gelatin. Since there were extra lemon olive oil cake that was yielded from the cake recipe, I’ve created something out of it. I  sandwiched it with strawberry jam and topped with slices of peach. It was a lovely combination. The peach slices bring out the olive oil flavour.