The Shoe

Have you guys seen "The Shoe", the latest colour illusion photo to take the Internet by storm after "The Dress"?

One look at the photo and I was super convinced that the shoe colour was grey and teal. Quickly showed the photo to Hubby who confirmed my suspicion that the whole world must see the shoe exactly as I see it. Grey and teal!

I jokingly showed the photo to Ian who mumbled something about black (haha!) and then briefly showed it to Aiden. Suddenly... He said. "It's pink!"

My jaw literally dropped. I gingerly asked, "Pink and...??" He answered, "Pink and white!"

Oh my god. Hubby and I were uber shocked. You see, the Internet is divided - some see it in grey/teal while the others in pink/white. And our son sees the shoe in a completely different colour than us. He's in a different camp! How come????

I then showed him "The Dress", and of course, he saw it in gold and white instead of black and blue like the rest of the world. *chuckles*

Oh my Aiden, you are certainly one special boy! I can't wait for Ian to be able to correctly identify non-basic colours so I can test it on him too!

Update: So apparently Ian can identify with the colour grey, and he clearly pointed to the grey as 'grey', and then the teal and called it 'blue'. So Ian is team teal and grey! :)

Brownies Kedut - Totally Destroyed My Diet

Since the cats out of the bag and I've officially disclosed that I'm trying for another baby, I might as well disclose that I've officially abandoned my diet and decided to embrace dessert with open arms. (Baby post has since been taken down, at least until we have a confirmed pregnancy; Hubby doesn't want to jinx it!)

Anyway, since we're on the subject of desserts, I made this mean brownies kedut over the weekend. Paired it with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream.... Heaven in a bowl I tell you!

I thought I should share the recipe with you... A calorie's only good when it is shared with many. No one has fun eating dessert alone. *chuckles*

Brownies Kedut
(Adapted from Azlita Masam Manis)

400 gm Beryl's dark chocolate compound
150 gm unsalted butter
100 gm brown sugar
100 gm castor sugar
4 eggs
1 tspn vanilla essence
100 gm self raising flour (I used normal flour and added 1tspn of baking powder)
30 gm cocoa powder

• Preheat oven to 160degC. Grease and flour a 10x10 baking pan. If you are not using a removable bottom pan, line your baking pan with parchment paper or aluminium foil, leaving an overhand on two opposite sides. This will help when removing the baked brownies from the pan, once cooled. 
• Cut the unsalted butter and dark chocolate into small pieces and tip into a heat-safe bowl. Fill a small saucepan with water and heat until barely simmering. Rest the bowl on the rim of the saucepan, ensuring that it doesn't touch the water. Put over a low heat until the butter and chocolate have melted, stirring occasionally to mix them. Remove the bowl from the saucepan. 

• In a separate bowl, combine the brown sugar, castor sugar, eggs and vanilla essence. Mix together with a whisk. Add to the melted butter-chocolate mixture. 
• Tip the flour (plus baking powder if used) and cocoa powder into a sieve held over a bowl. Tap and shake the sieve so they run through together free of lumps. Add this gradually into the earlier mixture.

• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin, scraping every bit out of the bowl with a spatula. Gently ease the mixture into the corners of the tin. Put in the oven.
• Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not over bake!
• Crack the oven slightly open and let it cool completely in the oven ~15 minutes. The top should have a shiny, papery crust - hence the name, kedut!

Check out that alluring kedut.

No anti-aging creams for this beauty. Kedut is the way to go! *giggles*

In this shot, I drizzled the top with some homemade salted caramel sauce - using just four ingredients i.e. sugar, butter, salt and heavy cream. Recipe here. But trust me, it is equally good with vanilla ice-cream!

Have fun embracing the kedut! Good luck :)

MY CyberSale

Oh my oh my oh my.

I am sooooo glad that today is the last day of the CyberSale. Kesian my bank account, dah nazak sangat nampaknya. Not only that - I am so obsessed with the sale, that I keep refreshing the page every half hour to see if they added anything new on the website. In the morning, the first thing I do before I step out of my bed, is to reach for my phone and refresh the Duck page. Crazy mazy.

This year, all of my online purchases are from FashionValet. Zalora didn't offer much, and I didn't bother hunting even further. (I did buy a top and a pair of jeans from Zara but shipping was a bomb hence I drove over to the store to pick it up instead.) Anyway, it has been raining parcels since Wednesday, to the point that my maid actually took a photo of the packages and sent it to me via whatsapp while I was at work. (She has never done that, ever!) Nampak sangat dia pun terkejut beruk with her employer's shopaholic ways.

Obviously, I looked forward to driving home and opening my packages, like a little girl on Christmas morning. Or rather, macam celebrate birthday hari-hari. Anyway, here's my loot that arrived on Wednesday and Thursday. More will continue trickling in cos I was still purchasing Ducks on Thursday morning, and still waiting for some scarves and lipsticks to arrive. Hopefully I don't find anything else to buy today!

Broke a record. Six packages in a day!

Ducks in the first day.

Took the opportunity to try out the new Duck Cosmetics. I tried the Nude palette, a lipstick in Dreamy Nora and their #NoFilter makeup remover.

Loving the colour palette. Sooooo pretty! I heard they're really pigmented too. Can't wait to try them out.

Second day's loot. Terkejut tengok siap kotak bagai this round.

More Ducks, some inners, Melba top and Verus pants from Aere, and a pair of Sera low block mules from Nelissa Hilman.

I'm literally sitting on my hands to stop myself from clicking the 'Place Order' button. Wish me luck, fellow shopaholics!

Update: The packages from Friday arrived and my helper surprised my yet again with this photo below. Broke the old record; this time it is 9 packages! But before you get any ideas, this loot is mostly for my fellow neighbours who wanted to join in the shopping madness. #PStakberbayar *giggles*

Text from my helper: "Iya minta d ambil gambar. Ohh so many.. kata Ian.. Pastu d kira dengn Ian... No one sampai nine.. betul la Puan.."

"Ohh so many", says Ian!

Birch @ DC Mall

A friend took me out for lunch recently, and she insisted on trying a place that she found through the internet. I was initially skeptical, but decided to trust her instincts.

Birch is located in DC Mall - a new mall right smack in the Damansara Heights area, close to where the government offices used to be. When we arrived, I was super convinced that the restaurant was going to go belly up after a while. Why? Because the mall was absolutely deserted. But surprisingly by the time we ended our lunch, the restaurant was completely packed with patrons!

Birch, DC Mall.

Having Huckleberry as a sister cafe doesn't hurt either. Birch is part of the team who also owns Huckleberry and Mezze, all of which is within the Damansara Heights vicinity.

Honestly, I wasn't dead impressed with the menu. They didn't have much choices, and they certainly didn't have any Asian options other than good ol' overpriced nasi lemak. (I need my dose of rice for lunch!) Aiden wouldn't be impressed either, as they didn't have any pasta too! Plenty of choices for sandwiches and wraps, though.

In the end, I settled with the Birch Benedict. Spicy pulled chicken (tulis jer serunding ayam kan lagi senang), barbecue sauce, poached egg, hollandaise sauce on toasted 7-grain sourdough, with charred cherry tomato and green salad on the side.

The Birch Benedict.

Creamy hollandaise sauce.

It was definitely right up Hubby's kind of alley. His kinda comfort food; but definitely not mine. I whatsapped to him a photo of my lunch, and he got super excited. Jeez! The taste was good, and they had the poached egg perfectly done. But again, not my idea of a great lunch.

My friend had the Birch Burger - sirloin and brisket burger patty, swiss cheese, jalapeno, chipotle aioli with a side of sweet potato fries. Again, acceptable taste but not my choice of food for lunch. If I had craved for a good burger, I would rather run over to KGB Burger for a great one.

The Birch Burger.

But, the dessert was a completely different story. And probably the sole reason for this blogpost. The Burnt Cheesecake (RM18++ per slice / RM200++ for a whole cake of 12 slices), is probably one of the best cheesecakes I've ever had in a while. It has a brûlée crust, a spongey layer wall, but beautifully contrasted with a gooey creamy center. Absolutely divine. Definitely a must try.

Seriously, this picture does not do justice to the cake.

Last weekend, I decided to take Hubby out for lunch at Birch. I figured that he would appreciate the Birch Benedict more that I would. Imagine my surprise, that upon my arrival, there were at least 15 people milling outside of the cafe and we were listed as number 7 on the wait list. Decided to takeaway the Burnt Cheesecake instead, and we enjoyed the dessert out of a takeaway box in the car. Needless to say, Hubby echoed my sentiments about the cake and we played fencing with our plastic forks for dibs on the last cake crumb.

Quite pricey, but worth every bite.

Verdict? Hubby would have loved it. I would probably come again only for the cheesecake. And if they added more Asian choices and a mean Carbonara for Aiden.

Birch @ DC Mall

Lot G10-11, Ground Floor, DC Mall, 

Jalan Damanlela, Damansara Heights

Monday to Thursday: 9am-1am; 

Friday to Saturday: 9am-2am; 

Sunday: 9am-5pm.

T: 03-2011-5966