Sakura Jelly Beans! by Jelly Belly

   Now this is quite the pleasant surprise. I've been a Jelly Belly fan since ... well, A VERY LONG TIME. "What makes a Jelly Belly bean gourmet?" you ask. Well, simply put, they not only have 50 official flavors to choose from, but their flavors are as close and exact as Jelly beans go. And it's also one of the things on my bucket list to complete trying every single flavor. Hey, you are looking at the company who did Harry Potter's Bertie Bott's every flavor beans after all, so there's no competition to it if you're facing the Jelly Belly company (Though I wouldn't recommend that as a football team name).

    Alright, back to topic. Sakura flavoured Jelly Beans. Honestly, I really didn't know what to expect. I mean, do Sakura flowers even have flavours? And since I did a little introduction on Jelly Belly Beans, it's only right to do another one for Sakura, or Cherry blossoms as some people call them. 

Taken from Google Images.

      If you're big on anime, You should already know a lot about these trees. No it's not only an extremely cliched anime girl name, it's a tree. A really beautiful tree that's also joining the bucket list as something I definitely have to see. I'm not exactly an expert on this, so go all wikipedia on it if you have to.

    

     SO anyway, here's the introduction on the back of the package:

    It's Sakura Season, and this means the beautiful and delicate cherry blosoms begin to bloom. In honor of this event, Jelly Belly has created a Sakura-flavoured jelly bean! With a mild cherry flavor and pretty pink white coloring, this jelly bean is sure to bring out the spirit of the season.

    And here's an introduction I did myself without all the marketing gimmicks and ploys:

    Cherry flavored jelly bean with neat coloring.

    Because that's exactly what it is. I'm not trying to be mean or negative or anything, but I'm just stating my honest opinion. I was disappointed. Truly disappointed. I mean, we're talking about the company that makes pencil shavings and rotten egg flavored beans! I mean, compared to pencil shavings, how hard is it to really have sakura flower extract at least in your ingredients list? Okay, I'm being a complete whiny baby here, but at least it didn't taste all that bad. 

     They really took cherry blossoms literally this time. And cherry blossoms taste absolutely nothing like cherries. But if you like cherry flavored sweets, then I guess you wouldn't really mind having them. But my mum told me it tasted like cough syrup. And as I'm eating a bean now, I can't help but think that it does taste like cough syrup, though I know some people who actually like the flavour. I think i got used to it already, so I'm poppin' them in like popcorn as I type.

But If you truly want the real deal, the mind blowingly awesome Jelly Belly experience, I suggest sticking to the original 50. They come in a box, pretty expensive, but worth it for a share with your family and friends. 

Here's some extras on the other incredible flavours that they have:

Beanbozzled - Great for a neat game of truth or dare/spin the bottle

     

The big Five-Oh

And as always...

Hungry Bunny over and out!

Food Quest #1 Korean Sweet Potato Noodles Jap Chae(Part 1)

Note: I didn't make this exact one, but my goal is to make it something
like this. Hopefully. taken from google pics.

Jap Chae! It's something that I've always loved eating in a Korean restaurant. Non spicy! my favourite. So here's to me trying out this awesome dish, and giving you some tips and notes that I've made, so hopefully it'll help you with the other recipes you can find online.

The first site that caught my eye when I googled it was this . I don't know, Perhaps I should check out other sites just in case there are simpler ones, but this one looks pretty good.

OKAY. Overall, most of the recipes have similar ingredients, only varying with vegetables and meat. So I guess you could use the Vegetables that YOU like, and the meat that YOU would want to eat. That way, it'll be your own dish, and it's a hell lot easier too. Alright?

Anyway, Here's a list of vegetables/meat/other stuff that I found in most Jap Chae dishes, besides the noodles. They would probably work in any combination and amount, so treat it like an ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT Buffet. You might want all of them or just one.

Vegetables You Could Use:
-Onions
-Spring onions/green onions
-Carrots
-Shitake mushrooms (does that count as vegetables?)
-Cucumber skins (Might as well throw in the rest of the cucumber)
-Peppers (Red, Green or Yellow)
-Seaweed
-Spinach
-Scallions
-Garlic
-Toasted sesame seeds (Makes it look a lot more professional)

If you want it to look like Jap Chae, I suggest slicing everything you have into long, thin, shredded sticks. I guess the reason behind it is that it'll be easier to eat them sliced like that with noodles and chopsticks. 

*Jap Chae's supposed to be a vegetarian dish but I've seen variations with meat, which I suppose works either way

Meat That's Most Common In Non-Veg Jap Chae:
-Beef, Sliced (Best choice in my opinion, since it goes really well with the sauce)
-Minced chicken (Soaks up the sauce pretty well)
-Shrimp/Prawns

Now, the sauce for Jap Chae's pretty easy. Almost all of the recipes online give these three main ingredients:

Sesame oil
Soy Sauce
Brown Sugar

It's like the super combo pack of Jap Chae. So long as you've got these on your plate, it'll have more or less a similar taste to that of Jap Chae. That sweet, salty, homey taste. If that helps. Add salt and pepper to your own liking, but keep in mind that soy sauce is salty enough without any extra help. 

So here's a shopping list summary of the things you'll need. Just cancel out the stuff you already have.

Things to buy
1) Your choice of Vegetables
2) Your choice of meat
3) Sesame Oil
4) Soy Sauce
5) Sugar
6) Korean sweet potato noodles
    (Or Vermicelli as it's sometimes packaged in, also another great alternative if you can't find Jap Chae noodles specifically.)
7)Pepper/salt
8)Sesame seeds

Cooking's pretty self explanatory, boil the noodles, fry the vegetables, mix the sauce, add the sauce, stir fry the whole thing together. But here's a collection of useful tips I found:

1) Boil the noodles in salted water to give it more flavour
2) Remember to cut the noodles so that they're easier to slurp up
3) After boiling the noodles, drain and rinse under cold water before tossing them with sesame oil for flavour. Kinda like meat marinating, just that's it's noodles. So start with the noodles first so that they've got more time to soak in all them goodies. Also, it prevents the noodles from sticking together.
4)Dissolve sugar in soy sauce before adding it to your noodles. This way, you won't get the sugar scattered unevenly and all over the place.
5) Prepare your meat in bite sized slurpable portions. Chunky stuff just gets in the way from enjoying the wonderful slurping of noodles.

Here's the best site, and the easiest to follow (with step by step pictures), that I found, and would probably be following myself. Hope that saves you some time from scavenging in the mess of sites online. But if you're all smart and hardworking, This one's pretty detailed too. After all, the best recipe's the one that you yourself would put together with your own little tweaks and adaptations, so, GOOD LUCK! I'll be back with my finished product, which I'm going to be cooking for dinner with my family. I do hope they'll like it.

FOOD QUESTS! (For the Lazy)

You know how recipes online are really hard to follow? Well, they seem kinda cold and unfriendly to me, it's like as if they don't care if what you produce will be nice and all. So...

Perhaps I should start a whole NEW project. Sort of like a food quest. 

First, find something I've never tried cooking. Something random. Fun. But easy since I'm no Masterchef. 

Then, I'll get a recipe online, and cook. Done. Hopefully it'll be a legitimate recipe, so I don't end up with some scam of a dish. I wonder if there are people out there whose life ambitions are to screw up people's dinners. They would probably write fake recipes online while rubbing their gritty old mustaches and OKAY THAT'S NOT THE POINT.

I'll split this into two parts, Part 1 would be the recipe finding, and you can (whoever you are) follow me if you decide you wanna try it as well. Of course, this will be all through the eyes of a complete amateur, so you'll learn from the mistakes I would probably make and if the recipe's all professional and stuff, I'll break it up in layman terms. Plus, I'll add in some stuff I found useful and ingredients that you could substitute with if you don't have them. (Because I'm lazy, and you most probably would be too.) Part 2 would be the actual cooking and taste test.

I'm hoping that this will serve as a sort of informal recipe thing, for anyone who wants a guide to cooking stuff, that is if you have the same problem that I do: Trouble with online recipes that are so short and bare, it's like they don't even care. 

I'm working on one now, but you'll probably have to bare with my random rants and opinions, but HOPEFULLY they'll serve as somewhat of a form of entertainment! Hopefully. 

Hungry Bunny over and out!

Weird Japanese sweet #5 Watapachi grape candy

Who doesn't love cotton candy? It's one of the most beloved of all children's fantasies.

Who doesn't love pop rocks? It's the other one of the most beloved of all children's fantasies.

And so... some Einstein managed to come out with the idea of having this mutated version of a fantasy, by combining these two, very strange creatures into one.
Introducing, the Watapachi grape candy! Of course, it had to be the japanese that would do it, since all the crazy cool stuff comes from the land of the rising sun.

Now, as I sit here typing with pop rocks blasting away on my tongue, I tell you this. This is one awesome candy. seriously. The minute I opened the bag, a poof of grapey air escaped from within, and it smelled wonderful. kinda like those sour-ish grape flavoured hard sweets. 

At first I wasn't quite sure if I had understood it correctly. Are you sure it's a candy? It kinda looks like diaper fillings. a whole wad of purple, nice smelling diaper fillings. But no matter, I tore it open and it was like a less-sticky version of cotton candy. Not quite as airy as I had expected it. Perhaps it was because I made the huge mistake of stuffing it into the fridge. (Lesson learned: don't stuff cotton candy into cold, damp places.)

It melts straight away, as it touches the tip of your tongue, and if you're lucky to get some on your first bite, you'll have soft, tingling mini explosions ricocheting off the walls of your mouth. The pop rocks are sweet, but the cotton candy balances everything with its sour-ish grapey goodness (Probably artificial, so not that all healthy to be frank. Whoever frank is).

I guess this could be the japanese version of popin' cotton candy by Vat19.com 

Or maybe the other way round. BUT it doesn't matter who started it first, all I care is that it exists in the first place. I guess you could try getting it by whatever means is easiest for you, though I'd say get more than one packet, because you'd sure be begging for more! At least I did.

Hungry bunny over and out.

Thought of the day: I wonder if it's possible to make a weapon out of a mega pop-rock?

Next up: Bombalaska! (The dessert! the dessert! I have no intention of anything to do with international warfare.)

DIY Panda Dango! Suppanda!!

Looks simple enough. Really isn't.

       So, I was at this year's AFA(anime festival asia; which was awesome, by the way) and while I was walking down the Japanese food section, I spotted this familiar looking thing. Yes! Panda Dango! Score!!!

     And I had no idea what had gotten into me. See, I'm not really that crazed up about pandas. Ever since Kai Kai and Jia Jia (Pandas in singapore originally from China) came over I've noticed a lot of panda merchandise sprouting up all over the country. Maybe, just maybe, I was subconsciously affected by the craze, because here I was, buying yet another panda related Japanese candy.

In Ume flavour! My favourite!

  I'll get into that later. For now, Panda dango!

So tearing open the package, this is what you'll get. A mixing bowl/container/whatever it is, a packet of black mochiko, a packet of white mochiko, a spoon and the powder for the sweet sauce.

I guess it's pretty much self explanatory. Well, except for the mixing-the-ingredients-part. Excuse me for my horrible Japanese, I got the spoon and the small little water measuring thingy mixed up. But I managed somehow.

The cute thing. All ready to get its head bitten off.

There came a point in time when I realised The yellow stick portrayed in the picture wasn't there. I was like, oh shucks, no stick, what now? To be honest I felt a little cheated. I mean, who doesn't include sticks with DIY dango kits? That's right, no one. Anyway, I made do with a chopstick and stuck the fella right through. 

     Making it was a pain in the butt though. I didn't really see the point of putting in much effort and making the dango look like a panda, since I'm going to eat it all up in the end no matter what it tastes like, right? The flour thingy? Not as malleable as I thought it would be. It sticks everywhere, and it's almost near impossible to get rid of the ugly crack lines and it was like trying to make stuff out of soaked play dough. Or maybe I added a little too much water. Well, the picture at the end of it all motivated me to make it presentable, so I spent a good half and hour assembling everything together (After much remodeling and sculpting)

     I feel like a Michelangelo. seriously. One of my best works yet, I must admit. 

   It tasted, alright, I guess. Nothing fancy, nothing surprising, in fact, if you've already tried the popin cookin sushi set, the dango has the sort of stickyness of the sushi rice. but tastes more like plain flour. But the sauce was crazy yummy. Just like the one you get in Japanese desert shops served with dango. You know, that syrup you thought was honey but ended up tasting more like someone dumped a hell load of sugar into a tub of soy sauce? Yeah, that's the one.

I'd give it a go, but if you used to be one of those kids who got so fed up trying to make play dough sculptures and squished them all together in one mush instead, Don't even think about it. Because that's all there really is to it, playin' with dough that's edible.

NOW, Suppanda!! I LOVED suppanda!! yes, The exclamation marks are there because it's part of Suppanda!!'s name. I was fortunate enough to find one of the rarer flavours, ume. (I think there was lemon and grape too.) Okay, so I wasn't able to get a picture of it because, 1) It was all melted together in the pack, 2) It was so good I finished it all before I felt like reviewing it. 

     It looks like a cute, pink, round ball of mochi, and from the package, it seems there's not one but TWO layers to it. So for scientific purposes, I tore the whole thing in half (which was really, literally, hard being stuck in the fridge and all) and yeah, it's true. The outside part's the chewy part, and it's kinda like those fruit plus sweets.  The inside part's made up of plum paste, I believe, a sour plum paste. It tastes exactly like the plum ball thingies I got quite a while ago. I thought it'd be as explosively sour as a warhead or sourbombs, judging from the poor panda's look of distress on the package, but it's really more of a hi-chew sour. a nice sour.

   This was truly and honestly one of my fave sweets of all time.

Hungry bunny over and out eating a homemade matcha pudding. OKAY it was a ready made supermarket packet, but I DID boil the water and I DID fill it into cute pudding cups myself. So it's homemade in it's own right.


P.S. I found the yellow stick for the dangos under the computer table. I wonder how it got there. Oh well.

Another Weird Ice cream! (Bamboo charcoal flavour)

Not the most appetizing looking thing there is

      Charcoal flavoured ice cream. How delectable. A soft black mush that sits melting into a muddy substance at the bottom of a glass bowl. Now, you might be wondering why I would order something like this in the first place, well, I don't know. I guess I was expecting something surprising.

     Honestly, this disappointed me a little, but I'm not saying that it didn't taste great. Its just like any other old ice cream, and I didn't find stray bits of charcoal in it like what I expected. It tastes really sweet and milky, and I hardly tasted anything different from your regular old vanilla ice cream, but after a few licks, I noticed some grainy substance collecting in between my teeth and on my tongue. Yes. That's the charcoal part of the ice cream. 

    Well, I suppose no one can really make something like charcoal taste good. I mean, it's burnt wood, so I guess I shouldn't expect too much. I wonder why anyone would want to create such a flavour though, I've heard of its detoxifying properties, but seriously, I wouldn't ever want to swallow down the stuff you put in barbecue pits.

      In case you're wondering and if you'd like to try this, you can find this in Malaysia at Warakuya Japanese restaurant in JB. And even if you're not a huge fan of Charcoal Ice cream, they have some pretty awesome food, and one of the thickest salmon slices i've ever been served in a japanese restaurant.

 

More pictures:

     

Hungry Bunny over and out~ (Well, in this case I was absolutely stuffed and I probably won't be hungry for... A VERY LONG TIME.

Weird Ice cream (Lavender, Mochi, and Fried!!)

Looks normal enough

    Lavender ice cream's not something you find in your average grocery aisle, and so when I came across it at a japanese restaurant, I just had to have it. 

   No, it doesn't taste like those pillows made for people who can't sleep at night, in fact, I find this pretty darn good. It has a really creamy, silky texture, and though I expected something along the lines of a sherbet, it was more on the milky side. Lavender goes really well with milk, and the scent of it filled up my nostrils when I was licking off the cream from my spoon. Now, I know some people who hate lavender, so if you do, I wouldn't recommend this because it tastes exactly as it smells - which is really weird. 

   Also, the lavender milk tea at IOI cafe (a bubble tea shop) is really good too, so pick that up if you feel adventurous! 

   You know what, they should get cows to run along in fields of lavender, just a thought. I wonder how they made this?

I bought four boxes of these at a discount from
an aunty at a zebra crossing

     Actually, these have been around for a very long time, and I remember smuggling these into the cinema when I was really young, so it's not something new for me, but I thought I'd just share it. Yes, as the name implies, it's mochi with an ice cream filling. I don't really see these in supermarkets anymore, so I suppose these must be really rare now. Count me lucky to find some random aunty off a street selling boxes of mochi ice cream at $3 a box!
    

   

Cute sweet wrapper thing

    So they have about a dozen of mochi balls wrapped neatly in tiny packages like the one in the photo. I guess it adds to its charm or something.

It kinda looks like a moon now that I think about it

   Also, you're supposed to keep these in the freezer, so they can be pretty hard if you don't defrost them. Then again, I wouldn't want to risk leaving them out too long in the open. You don't want to end up with a soggy mush. By the way, this one's lychee flavoured (my personal favourite even though I don't like lychee because it doesn't taste like lychee at all), and they come in four flavours: Lychee, Peach, Black sesame and Yam (I know, weird)

     

Hmm.. I wonder who took a chunk out of it?
    Okay, so i'm kinda trying out a new way of sharing this, step-by-step. So now, as you can see, I have indeed taken a bite of the ball of mochi. The skin is matted with powdered flour, and it tastes and feels exactly like the skin of snowskin mooncake. Very lightly sweetened and chewy-ish. Also, it gets really sticky when wet, so it can be pretty messy if you like to take small bites out of things like me. 

A clam!

     Wedged inside a sandwich of fried batter and topped with strawberry jam is this wonderful creation - FRIED ice cream. I know, the irony. Fried. Ice? I wonder how that can work.

    IT JUST WORKS, OKAY?! By some magical spell the buttery-ness of the fried part and the milky-ness of the ice cream part go SUPER well together. It must have been som sort of miracle/accident that anyone actually came up with the idea.

   Well that's all for my Ice cream Trilogy. Next up - Halloween treats! from an Asian's perspective!!

Hungry Bunny over and out~

The Michael Jackson - Soybean milk and chin chow

       Here's to our old singaporean aunties and uncles taking a hilarious spin on a popular drink - The Michael Jackson. I'll give you some time to figure out why they named it that way...

...Found the answer...?

Yes...No?

BLACK OR WHITE! That's a hint. I'm giving no more.

       No one knows who started it, well, whoever it was, he/she must have been one pretty funky aunty/uncle. SO, what is this drink anyway? It's really simple, just soybean milk and a scoop of chin chow (a.k.a. Grass Jelly). Doesn't sound like much though, does it? And it is kinda easy to believe that this drink was created by accident. 

      Once upon a time, in a very ulu (remote) coffee shop somewhere in Yio Chu Kang, there lived an old uncle. He was the owner of 'Lucky Prosperity coffee shop', but this coffee shop was hardly prosperous at all. See, beside the old coffee shop sat an old graveyard (Like all ulu places in Singapore), and everyone just assumed the place was haunted. And so the old uncle sat down on a stool one day and sighed, bored in the sweltering midday heat. He turned on the radio (The old fashioned kind, probably made out of wood), and listened, waiting...waiting for someone, anyone...

    "Er, Uncle! I want one glass soya bean milk," there came the voice of a teenager. The old man was delighted! Finally, a customer. He shuffled hastily towards the kitchen and poured out some soya milk into a glass. "Hurry leh, uncle!" came the call of the teenager, again, this time, much more irritated.

   "Coming, coming!" The uncle, in all his hastiness, knocked over a jar of chin chow (now, what was it doing there anyway?) while he was putting back another jar filled with sugar syrup. The chin chow pieces fell into the cup of soya bean, splash! splash! splash! There was no stopping it. The deed had been done. "Hurry leh! faster faster faster!" He had no time to make another drink.

    "Oh no!" cried the uncle, that's it. No one will ever come to his coffee shop ever again, not when this teenager spreads word about how horrible the drinks he served were. No one in their right mind would like chin chow in soya bean milk!

    The uncle, with tears in his eyes, walked over to the teenager and served him the drink, praying that he wouldn't notice the black bits floating amidst the white. A song came out blasting out of the radio, and as the teenager gulped it down, he cried out, "Wah, uncle! This drink very nice leh! You give me free one ah?"

    The uncle just stared at the boy in front of him. What...? 

   The boy hummed along to the tune on the radio as he drank. (Okay, I know, this part's real corny) it was Michael Jackson's latest hit song, 'Black or white'.
   After finishing the drink, the boy left, but returned a few hours later with a group of friends.
"Er, Uncle! Can give us that time I drink one? The black and white drink, oh, that one when the Michael Jackson song got play on the radio. Aiyah, uncle, got name or not?"

   The uncle was puzzled at first, but thought that was a rather long name for a drink. It struck him, "Eureka!" he cried, (I'll just assume old uncles at that time knew who Archimedes was), "I found a name! from this day forward, Soya bean milk with chin chow shall be called, 'Michael Jackson'."
    And from that day forth, his coffee shop truly lived up to its name, people flocked from all over the country just to get a taste of this...erm... wonderful drink, and they all lived happily ever after. The End.

I know, it's a stupid theory, but hey! give me some credit people, I made this up on the whim. Well anyway, if you haven't tried this yet (and I assume you live in the graveyard next to 'Lucky Prosperity Coffee Shop'), go on, try it! It's almost as good as bubble tea. You'll only be a true Singaporean after having the one and only Michael Jackson.

Hungry bunny over and out with a moonwalk!~

Next up! The weird Ice cream Trilogy!

MAGIC Ice cream for a dollar! - The pasar malam

Oooohh, what's this I see?

      Ahhh... Singapore's very own traveling night market, a carnival that pops up out of nowhere in the middle of town. The pasar malam is a charming array of food, daily essentials and (slightly outdated) fashion, set up under rows and rows of tents that will, if you're lucky enough, stretch out for long distances, winding its way between HDB flats and streets.

    Of course, it disappears just as suddenly as it appears, so whenever one does come around, I will make sure I get my stock of stuff. Every pasar malam sells almost exactly the same things, from Ramly Burgers to taiwanese hot dog on a stick; deep fried mushrooms and mua chi (pieces of glutinous rice flour coated with crushed peanuts), but occasionally, something special makes its way into the menu.

   Now, this isn't the first time I've seen them selling *MAGIC* Ice cream, but it is a rare phenomenon. "So, what's so magical about this Ice cream anyway?" you ask. Well, I'll show you.

Do you dare take a closer look?

    As you take a step closer to that mysterious looking pot, you see rows and rows of equally mysterious looking potion bottles. hmmm...I wonder what's in them? Boiled unicorn hair perhaps?

   You see the wizard bent over his cauldron, muttering some strange words, "One for a dollar...one for a dollar..." It must be some powerful spell!

    He prods the sticks bobbing up and down in the cauldron and you feel a little more brave. You peer into the cauldron.

    The wizard takes a bottle and uncaps it with a twist. You hear a soft, sizzling sound from the opening of the potion bottle and you see tiny bubbles swarming out of the yellow liquid. That potion must be of unicorn origin! How else would it display such power?

    You dare yourself to touch the cauldron while the wizard's not looking. You immediately jerk back your finger as the surface is freezing cold. The power...oh the power!

  You can't stand it any longer, and you order one stick of that yellow liquid. The wizard gives you a yellow, crooked smile and grabs onto one of the sticks sticking out of the pot. He slides it out, and amazingly, the yellow liquid you saw earlier had somehow hardened onto the stick! 

    

Finally! you have your share of power

   The wizard hands the stick over to you as you give him a dollar coin in return. You lick it gently, and magically, it tastes exactly like Kickapoo! How odd! The wizard is a genius!

So... do you see now? I hope my little narrative was good enough in displaying its awesome magic. One can never truly express how magical MAGIC ice cream is. Well, I tried my best.

Hungry Bunny Over and out *with a magical poof!*~

Do You Dare? #2 Spicy Korean Rice Cake

A red that shade shouldn't even exist in food. It's a miracle!

    

     I'm not really a big fan of spicy food, but I am a HUGE fan of all things chewy. Unfortunately, some things just have to be together. It's like trying take out the cream out of ice cream. The same goes for spicy rice cake. You just can't have rice cake that's NOT spicy, you know?

I admit, the boiling pool of lava flooding the plate kinda scared me a little. See, I'm the kind of person that thinks a packet of McDonald's chilli's spicy. So you can tell I'm not exactly 'volcano' material. Yes call me weak, call me a pussy, I know.

BUT, I am willing to do anything for a nice chewy snack (except throwing myself off a building), and I'm willing to bear the searing pain of liquid lava shooting down my throat.

Honestly, I don't even know why I even like spicy rice cake. It's not exactly nutritious, it's just- plain old rice flour, a few slices of carrot, and a small handful of shredded lettuce. The rest of it's just inedible for the average human (I'm talking spicy gravy that's so hot it'll make a pro wrestling champion cry).

But the chilli sauce just goes so well together with the rice cakes! It's a nice, sweet sauce that hits you the minute you take a chow off a slice of rice cake, but of course, that pleasant feeling only lasted seconds before the spiciness kicked in. I was soon left gasping for breath and I even started stuffing down cubes of ice down my throat. It is life. Sacrifices have to be made, I guess. Oh well. I am extremely proud of myself for having managed to finish the entire thing, though I can't say it was plate-licking good (my tongue would have died all on its own if it was).

One stick of rice cake lasts about half a minute in your mouth, if you're a slow chewer like me. If you're a mochi/gummy fan, and if you have an uncanny knack for inflicting pain upon yourself, this is the dish for you. In fact, it's perfect.

Spicy Korean rice cake that's so hot it makes mount Kilimanjaro feel inferior? Yes I dare. Heck, I even finished a bowl of kimchi along with it!

Hungry bunny over and out~

Coris Whistle Candy

A charming pack of deadly weapons

Whistle candy-Terrorising parents of little kids all over the world. Why you ask?

I got this while wondering around the super market like I always do, and I chanced upon this interesting pack of sweets. I've heard of these before, but I just never got around to trying them

Yet. I wasn't very keen on these though, with all the marketing gimmicks that came along with this candy, I was convinced it didn't taste all that good.

These sweets were probably made to drive adults insane. To whistle, all you really need to do is to wet the candy a bit with saliva before placing it between your lips and then blowing. If you don't wet it, You'd end up with a coarse, high pitched wine. It's really, really ear piercing and LOUD. Glass shatteringly loud. I wouldn't recommend eating this at the library. You'd probably get a lifetime ban.

Taste wise- it wasn't all that great. Just plain old artificial strawberry flavour I guess. Texture? Really chalky and crumbly when you bite into it.

Oh yes, see that box at the bottom? It came with a free gift! A cheap plastic toy crane about the size of half my thumb.

Whistle candy. Why not? Annoy your friends. Annoy your mum while she's doing the chores. Annoy your neighbours. I'm sure they won't mind having squeals even higher pitched than dolphins in distress.

How To Make Caramel Apples (Easy)

These apples make me feel as if I'm that witch from snow white, cackling away in front of a pot of bubbling death goo. Fortunately, these apples don't boil with evil at all. In fact, I could eat these every day as long as diabetes doesn't catch up with me.

What you need:
1) apples, small ones. You don't
Want to choke yourself.
2) caramel cubes. Mine were vanilla flavoured but anythings fine.
3) cookies, for making the crumb coating
4) ice cream sticks
5) two pots, big and small

Boil some water in your big pot. While waiting for your water to boil, gather the caramel cubes into the small pot, and add a little water so that it's easier for the caramels to melt.
Also, stick the ice cream sticks into the apples, it's easier than you think!
Next, crush the cookies into chunky crumbles and store in a wide bowl.
When the water starts to boil, place the small pot into the boiling water and let the caramels melt. When it starts to get all gooey and sticky, stir it with a 'twist' like motion, it helps in breaking up the caramel.
When the caramel melts into a smooth, silky texture, dip the apples into the Caramel and evenly coat them by spinning them round slowly until the caramel starts to harden. Dip the apples into the crumbs and you're done!

Now you must be wondering about what you should do with the caramel left overs, well, there's a whole lot of things you can do, don't waste! Make caramel tea! Stuff them into ice cream! Fruits, biscuits! Anything really.

I bet the person who made this was totally feeling guilty about eating so many caramels. I mean, anyone would feel better just eating these. "oh, look! Here's an apple! I'm not being overly indulgent, I'm being...HEALTHY. Yes, that's right."

Enjoy!

Hungry bunny over and out~

Do You Dare? #1 Lassi - the indian spice drink

Looks reasonably normal? Think again. That green thing's
CORIANDER. In a drink.

   There's Lassi you find in your average Indian coffee shop, and then there's this.

What's better than washing down the heat from your plate of chicken masala with a tall glass of explosive spices? Nothing, that's what. The more heat the better, eh? Now, for all you non-cultural people out there, Lassi is an Indian drink based from yogurt, blended with water and a ton of spices.  

   I'm used to drinking the usual salty Lassi you find in any Malaysian coffee shop. It's kind of bland, but really salty, like cream cheese mixed with sour cream. Amazingly, i kinda like it like that. So, that was what I was expecting when I ordered this at an Indian restaurant back home here in Singapore. WRONG! So, so wrong.

   The Lassi I ordered looked normal, but when I took a large gulp of it, I immediately choked. Spices. Spices everywhere! The spices soon extended its reign over my taste buds, even going on to filling up my nostrils, a sharp sting of smoke and heat. My throat dried out as soon as the liquid touched my tongue. I could see them, bits of thingys floating around amidst the white. I had a fun time guessing how many spices there were.

   Most cocktails get garnished with a fresh sprig of mint, well, that's not good enough for Mrs. Lassi, apparently. She just had to choose CORIANDER. In a yogurt drink. How weird is that?

   Okay, after awhile, I got used to it. I finished the whole thing. Don't believe me? Here's proof.

Okay, forgive me for not finishing the coriander.
I tried my best.

Yogurt, water and spices. Yes I dare.

Hungry bunny over and out~

How to Fry the Perfect Bacon

Bacon Bacon Bacon Bacon Bacon YUMM

   Yes, everyone adores fat, thick slices of bacon just oozing with rich yummy oil. Oh, and also not forgetting the crispy edges, teeming with salty goodness. Now, the question is... How do we get that?

  Sure sure, I may like my Bacon sweet and chewy, but you might like it salty and crunchy. Heck, someone out there probably likes it boiled in vinegar. The point is, there are NO RULES when it comes to bacon, anything goes! Yeah, I mean it. If there's Bacon lip balm and Bacon ice cream, I doubt anything can stand in the way of the unrelentless quickly advancing Bacon kingdom. 

   Well, Here's MY approach to frying up the perfect Bacon slice. If you're up for sweet, chewy Bacon, then this is for you. It's really really simple.

  

What you Need:

1)Bacon (yeah duh.)

3)Oil (Whatever oil's fine. But if you're feelin' classy, EXTRA virgin's good)

2)Garlic (Chopped)

2)Honey

3)Rosemary (fresh if possible)

4)Basil (finely chopped

5)Some freshly squeezed lemon juice

6)Pepper(optional)

   

     So, Once you've got everything sorted out on a table, (You don't want to end up burning your babies just because you left the pepper in the fridge) Preheat your frying pan. Then, Add a little oil (Very very little. Your bacon's got enough oil in it to cook itself, so don't worry) to coat the pan so that it doesn't stick. 

     Now, throw in your garlic and let sizzle until you can smell the heavenly aroma.

  Place your Bacon strips onto the pan, and then drizzle honey over the slices. Make sure everything's evenly coated before you flip them over.

   Drizzle more honey onto the other side. When the oil from the bacon slices starts oozing out, toss in your rosemary leaves and take care not to shove them into one corner of a pan (They'll get lonely) Rub them into the bacon, and make sure the flavours mingle. 

  Add a squeeze of lemon, and pinch of pepper, and once your Bacon's ready, turn the fire off and let cool. Sprinkle some basil (Well, anything looks great with basil) and you're done!

 It should look something like the picture above, unless you're a horrible cook or if you've left the pepper in the fridge even though I warned you. TIPS! Don't add too much honey. You will be tempted to, trust me. But JUST don't. really. 

Have fun! Hungry Bunny over and out~

Today's Sweet Haul: Morinaga Caramel and Ramune

Looks like a cigarette box... Smells like Matcha!

     I found a mini japanese sweets haunt today!!! Hidden away underneath the busy streets of Clarke Quay at The Central (a Mall), is the store YAMAKAWA SUPER. yes. that's the name of the store. It is quite as SUPER as they claim it to be. Rows and rows of shelves stocked with Japanese snacks and treats, plus, a section with imported Japanese drinks like the ever-so-popular Calpis, Ramune sodas and gasp! sake (Which i'm not old enough to even touch).

    They have a wide selection of interesting looking sweets, half of which I can't even tell if they are sweets or kid's toys. SO anyway, I was allowed to buy just two. 

   First up, Morinaga Caramel in Matcha flavour. If you're a big fan of sticky, chewy caramels, then this is the sweet for you (If you can find it, it's a particularly shy creature.) They come in all sorts of flavours, from the usual chocolate and milk, to the surprising sweet potato, pudding and Azuki (red bean). Also, they come in a really neat packaging - a slide out match box. Personally,  I like the Matcha flavour best. It's really nice and milky, kinda like green tea ice cream. 

Decorative Totoro figures not included (I made them myself)

Also made by the same company is this bottle of Ramune flavoured tablets. Ramune, for those unfamiliar with the drink, is a japanese soda. It's sort of like a sweeter version of sprite, and it's a flavour that's very popular wherever Japanese sweets are concerned. These sweets taste very much like your average soda tablets, and they dissolve pretty fast too. not surprising in the very least.

     

   If you ever want to try out some other interesting japanese morsels, here's the address to the place:

6 Eu Tong Sen Street #B1-28B

The Central Singapore 059817

Tel: 6534-9518

(Haha I got this from the receipt)

BEWARE the place is like a maze, and it's kinda hard to find your way around the basement. The Mall's fairly easy to locate though. All you have to do is to alight at the clarke quay MRT station. Good luck! 

Hungry Bunny over and out~

 

Star Candy - Old sweets #1

Magic faerie dust perhaps *~*

   This has probably got to be one of the most charming looking sweets I've ever come across in my entire life. Really! They look magical, mystical, and they've even been given the all-so-fantasy-ish name of "STAR CANDY" . Hmmm... maybe you'd have the power to glow if you consume this.

    You must be wondering how I got this. No, I did not open a portal to another universe, all I did was just head down to a convenience store - No Kidding! They sell these in quite a few colours, but these two seem the nicest looking. Plus, I didn't have to trade in a unicorn horn for this (Okay, I promise i'll stop with the exaggerated jokes soon). It only cost me about 40 cents. cheap really.

   You must also be wondering, "What the heck is this stuff?" well, put simply, it's just sugar crystals. COLOURED sugar crystals to be exact. They don't taste like much, really. They are pretty crunchy, but they only last for like, 4 seconds since they dissolve so fast, but at least they have the manners to leave behind a sweet aftertaste. Taste wise? Not much. But just eating these make you a whole lot awesomer.

   Apparently these have been around for quite some time, probably since the time of Ol' grandpa. They're really Really old sweets, I mean, you can't expect much of the old days other than a simple rock of sugar right? I guess times then were very straight forward, and sweets literally meant something that was sweet, and nothing more. Well, anyway. it's worth it considering I get a free glass bottle and a cork. Not bad for 40 cents now eh?

Hungry bunny over and out ~

 

Popin Cookin Review - Curry rice set (カレーセット)

Sorry about the picture,
I hope your necks don't crank from the angle...

Yes!!! The all new Popin Cookin Curry rice Set!!! That actually TASTES like Curry rice. Anyway, this set includes:

1) Curry sauce (Duh.)

2) Rice (Ditto)

3) 'chicken nougats'

The process in doing this is REALLY really easy. It's so easy that it's almost impossible to mess this up. I should know, just scroll down and take a look at the popin cookin Sushi I ended up with. Not good. But this? It's so straight forward that you don't even need to watch any video tutorials even if you can't read the japanese instructions on the back. well, at least my friend and I didn't have to and it ended up lookin' quite appetising. The hardest part of the whole set would most probably be moulding the nougats into...gasp! spherical balls. How difficult.

   I gotta say, Kracie really outdid themselves with this addition to the popin cookin family. This set has got to be the best tasting set amongst all of them. (The burger one was good too, but that one was just plain weird) and also, the most believable and swallowable one of them all. The curry sauce is as good as any other instant curries you can get in the supermarket. The rice tastes like rice but slightly more seasoned (Still good anyway) and the nougats, well, some of you may not like it because of its doughy texture. But it tastes SOOOO goood. The nougats are coated with rice crisps, and I thought that to be quite ingenious of them. It really did have a fried texture to it with the rice crisps, and the flavours mingled well with one another when mixed. If you ever get this set, I'd recommend trying each part out individually just for the experience, and then mixing in the curry and the rice together. They taste WONDERFUL together. really! Okay, so the texture and the lack of heat might take some time getting used to, but once you are, (If you're a seasoned popin cookin taster like me) Then you'd really really enjoy this one. I advice first timers to get this one if you're searching for something easy and magical tasting. Then you can move on to harder ones like the hamburger set and ...gasp again! Sushi.

Here's a pic of the finished product:

Yes thats right. Mini peas and carrots in the curry. 

Ahhh....I wish i had a Maximising ray gun. Then I could blast this baby into a fully sized lunch meal for one. Along with the other miniature Barbie toys so that they'd ACTUALLY be useful.

Hungry bunny over and out~

Weird chinese Sweet #1 Hard plum candy

BEHOLD! Yellow heart plum (Direct translation)

   Today was the first time I've tried this even though it isn't the first time I've seen such a thing. You can find this in any old convenience store and sometimes even supermarkets. First off, It doesn't exactly look appetising, it kinda looks like a bug preserved in prehistoric resin to be frank.

    I FELL IN LOVE WITH IT IMMEDIATELY. I'm a sucker for sour things. Literally. So basically, this sweet is made up of hard sugar, and encloses a little plum gem inside, but just so that you'll still be able to taste it without dissolving everything first. It's like a lolly, just that you've got small bursts of sour plum along with the sweetness of the sugar. I never knew such a taste! the best of both worlds, the sweetness of a flower garden in the cold winter, or maybe the glaring sunlight against the warmth of my skin. Or maybe I'm just exaggerating. 黄心梅...Yellow heart Plum. If you see it. GET IT. Unless you've already had the fortune to have eaten it already. Today, I learnt that we really shouldn't judge a sweet by its wrapper.

Hungry bunny over and out~

Singapore Food & Beverage Fair 2012 (美食与饮料展)

Just look at the CROWD!!!

   Alright, so the best thing about Singaporeans is that WE LOVE OUR FOOD. Okay, maybe not the best, because that just means that there's more competition for all of us. So you can tell that I was not surprised when a whole stampede of people charged right through the doors of the convention hall. This fare is not for the claustrophobic at heart. seriously. But if you're willing to stand the heat, the noise, the occasional rude uncle shoving you aside or the stepping of one's foot on your littlest toe, then why not? TWO HALLS filled with Singapore's best food? Not such a huge price to pay now is it?

THE one thing we're ALL here for

Yes. Free food. That's why half of the people there ARE there. They're the stalls bombarded with people coming for more and more of their free 'samples'. Trust me, people actually come here for lunch and they can actually get filled up with just the samples. It's even come to the stage where they don't even bother with politeness and actually listening to the sales personnel. They just TAKE and GO. and the TAKE again. OKAY, I admit, I was one of them. But the food was just soooo so good that I just had to come back for more.

Some odd wheat stuff

Now this was something that got me hooked on coming back for fifths and even sevenths. They are kinda like a wheat staple, made of soy beans and oats. This stuff, is DA BOMB. Or maybe its just the way the lady cooked it. I wouldn't have ever imagined dried soy beans could taste this good. They taste plain on their own, but with a drizzle of oil, a pinch of spices and a handful of chilies and onions, These things turn into addictive little munchies. I could eat these everyday for lunch. They just taste so warm and cosy and homey. kind of like hot chocolate in front of a fireplace kind of cosy. Home-cooked meals kind of cosy. If you ever decide to stop by the Fare, be sure to check these out.

Close up of the bean-curd-like-thing

BEWARE!

So, I feel I must warn you. NOT everything that's free tastes good. In fact, this stuff shouldn't even be allowed for the public to sample without a warning. Well, unless you like the taste of rotting garlic, of course. YES. Fermented garlic. It seems that (according to the brochure) garlic, when fermented, slightly alters in its chemical properties and therefore, one would gain more antioxidants when he or she consumes this foul thing. Pfft. As if Garlic on its own wasn't foul enough. Adding FERMENTED to the equation would do it no better. I tried it thinking that it'd be as brilliant as the other free stuff, but I immediately recoiled at the moment the thing touched my tongue. Its sweet, but not pleasant. its a very sharp, acidic sweet, like what you get with anything rotten. Imagine the sweetness of rotting onions, combined with the taste of sour putrid vomit, that leaves you with a bitter aftertaste that smells like sewage. I think I'd rather miss out the Anti-Oxidants.

POP!

 There are many interesting sights, sounds and smells to experience at the food fare, and I came across this particularly interesting piece of machinery. The machine fills in grains of rice into a small circular hole, and then compresses it while electrocuting the grains until it they fry like pop corn. And its REALLY LOUD when it does this. When the rice reaches a certain temperature, the cooked rice cracker it then sent flying out of the machine where it crashes into a container full of the other rice crackers. With a LOUD BANG. It scared me the first time as it was just a really unexpected way of making rice crackers. Here's the failed photo I tried to take of the flying disc of rice. trust me its hard. I took like ten shots and this was the best one, which isn't really exactly nice since its all blurry and stuff.

OF course, thats not all. Not even close. So here's to me saying goodbye and leaving the rest of the stuff there as surprises for you to discover. Sharksfin soup going at $5 for 3 bowls? Thai tapioca/ coconut desert? fried squid on a stick? you're just going to be spoilt for choice. 

Hungry bunny over and out~

Venue: Suntec City convention centre.  Halls 403-404

Admission is free!!! (and that's the best part.)