A glimpse into life in the lab

I believe that there are two driving forces behind scientific research. One is humanity, the wish to improve medical science and to better the quality of lives of those who are not so fortunately blessed with optimally functioning bodies. The other is curiosity, almost the same curiosity that pushes an explorer to travel to corners of the world ungrazed by travel catalogues.

Call me a geek, but little things like this assay haven't ceased to be less beautiful in my eyes no matter how many times I see it. Just imagine, there are infinite more other beautiful sights to observe that I am yet to encounter. This is one of the reasons why I get out of my bed in the morning (despite grudgingly). The anticipation of translating the intensities of colors into analytical digits often invades my sleep. Fingers crossed they will fall into places like hoped. Fingers crossed. How unscientific, but old habbits, especially harmless ones like this, die hard. Hehehe.

Beautiful dough

I think throughout the entire stage of the making, bread is the most beautiful as they are dough at proofing stage. That's not to say that they're not beautiful as final product.

The itch to bake really hit today. I don't know what triggered it but I'm glad to be actively baking again. My apartment smells so much better when I bake compared to when I cook fish or do some true South-East Asian stir fry.

Shown here are vegetarian sausage bread, a typical Asian bread. I try to make the dough a bit sweeter to complement the sausage but as it turns out the sausage itself is sort of sweet anyway. I'm happy with the outcome. :)

Attempt x to eat healthy

I think this is a pretty balanced meal. In the bottom box is rice, hot smoked trout salad, carrot and tomato and on the top box are blue berries, mandarin, grapes and dried cranberries. I can't decide if I should have this for lunch or dinner.

forgotten photo

blame it on the weather

retail therapy would have to wait for another day seeing as my motivation to shop was at a low and anyway, it's not like i deprived myself all these times. i bought a pink summer dress last night at the market at the rocks and a pair of mesmerizing earrings.

today i ended up just going to the market for a browse, picked up a bottle of vin rouge that had a lot of award stickers on it, the weekend paper that came with a "real (food) handbook" and a pineapple.

making cookies is definitely not the same without my mother's magic mix. to cream the butter and the sugar by hand/manually, first you have to get the butter soft enough by leaving it at room temperature. then before you use the whisk, you have to use a strong spoon to initiate the process of creaming until the mixture is light enough not to stick inside the wires of the whisk. tricks like this were re-discovered and re-learnt, further cementing the importance of continuous practice. of course like riding a bicycle, once you get it you'll always be able to do it, but it is a question of quality which has no equivalent in bike riding.

i can't wait until i go home to brisbane to feed my family again. :)

There's something soothing

I love it when it rains at night. It set the mood right for baking and it doesn’t matter what there is to bake be it cookies, brownies, bread or tarts. There’s something soothing about mixing flour and sugar together, kneading the dough. I’ve wanted to bake something for a few weeks now. I bought the ingredients, simple items on the list that make the staple of every pantry and it is only tonight when the time is right.

There’s something soothing about baking, an art that has been practiced and perfected and dare I say, invented by, women for centuries. I wonder. I wonder if it’s encoded in our chromosomes, like a biological clock that overrides self conviction of being something else. There’s something soothing about the scent of cookies in the air. I think that something soothing is a sense of home.
My aunt, 大姑媽 (Tua Kow), passed away suddenly one morning in July this year. She was a great woman, a kind person, how loving and giving she was. There was always a space for chance in her eyes to start over no matter how awkward a girl I was. It is through seeing conviction in others that one often finds the faith to believe and to achieve a better self. She upheld a wholesome and true sense of justice in her that neglected even herself. She was loving and warm, a great many things that I could only aspire to be. There’s a something soothing about baking, the memory of her words, “chip yi… chip yi kin khe” (knead it, keep kneading). There’s something soothing. There’s something soothing about baking and grieving.

Ravi the massive ravioli

my asian-fusion ravioli.
some people eat when they're jittery, i cook. there's something soothing about chopping, stirring, mixing, getting second degree burn on my finger. the feeling is simply grand (no, not the burn). i tried making a fusion ravioli (you'd never get the authentic stuff out of my kitchen) with prawns and vegetable filling and chinese dumpling wrapper that i found in the supermarket. may i just confirm store bought wraps are crap. repeat after me... store bought wraps are crap. store bought wraps are crap. amen.

butter chicken

Butter chicken that I made tonight. Despite how obviously wonderful the people I work with are in Sydney, I miss my Brisbane lab. I miss how we used to go to Punjabi Palace for nearly every celebration... and especially Rekha's Monday Indian lunch.

Books!

I joined the army of Sydney siders on their weekly ritual of late night shopping. Together with Ayse, we indulged in our sick little obsession with homewares and I found my new chopstick rest and a square plate. I thought about getting two but I'm slowly coming into terms with the fact that I live alone and I'd never cook for anyone else but my selfish-selfish self.

Last night's hunt is today presented here in dinner. I wouldn't call this low fat, but I do believe strongly that it is quite healthy. I've been so obsessed with making bento lately and contrary to my preconception, that was perhaps based on my inability to plan and shop smart, it doesn't have to cost more than usual. Instead of planning my plate beforehand, I'd plan it after I do my grocery shopping. That way, I could buy things that are on special that week (eg. tofu, strawberry) but also keeping in mind that I need variety in colors (ie. vegetables and fruit). It works out quite well, as things that are on special are often seasonal best.

This is rice porridge/congee, (Ingham's frozen) chicken steak, a salad of asian greens topped with seaweed salad and tofu (that threatens to go bad if it has to live another day in my fridge), strawberry and green grapes with a tablet of Lindt 70% chocolate. If my mother could witness my eating habbit, perhaps she'd stop worrying that I'm on an eternal diet and thus on my merry way to a lifetime of diseases and illness.

On the side are two books from two of my most favourite people who have both taught me much and inspired a passion for science. Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking by Harumi, Kurikara from Masa and Envie de grands classiques, brought over as a gift from Laurence's recent trip home to France. Thank you both so much. :)

In awe of the phantom

I went to watch The Phantom of the Opera last night with my friend, Silvia. When I heard last year about it coming to town I was enthusiastically determined that I would go and see it, but as time went, I decided against it especially with the ticket so expensive. I justified my decision by the thought that the show was overrated, until guilt got the better of me (of cancelling... again...).

As I entered into the dark theater, the stage was dull, dull and dark, but not for long. It began with an auction that I could barely recall from the movie and then the chandelier took flight and the stage was unmasked. I was terrified by the blasting organ music and horrified of the golden colored ornaments that framed the stage (strange inexplicable childhood phobia), but awe took over. Oh the music was wonderful and Anthony Warlow had played the phantom so so well that I couldn't help but feel disturbed by his eerie peculiarity, sympathize with his struggle, weep at the recognition of myself in his fallen quest. Amidst this collection of feelings, I realized that no one is made of just one substance. The phantom is not purely evil, just misunderstood... which led me to buy Wicked - The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire, a book on which the musical Wicked (currently playing in Melbourne) is based.

I'm obsessed with making bento these past couple of days and pictured is the ones I made today: grilled salmon marinated in my kecap manis mix, steamed bokchoy on a bed of steamed rice.

nyam nyam nyam

If there is a food that I hold dear to my heart, dearer than bacon, it would be salmon, simply grilled with a sprinkle of salt. You don’t even need oil for this fantastic source of protein for there between the threads of protein lies precious goodness of unsaturated fatty acids.

something fishy

this is called baramundi something something.

just kidding.

je vous présente "miso-lime sauce over garlic panfried baramundi with sides of lime potato and baconed green beans". i've been thinking about sauces a lot lately though it has very bad effect on my expanding waistline. i've been eating a lot since i came back from my trip. *sigh*

so what's in the sauce? i've given away my secret to a friend who inspired this recipe so i may as well give it out. in the sauce is mayonaisse, sesame oil, chinese cooking wine, whole grain mustard, lime juice and miso paste. i used it to cover the fish while reserving the rest for later. as for the potato, it's quite simply boiled briefly... in snobby term, it's blanche (hehe) then panfried with my favourite garlic infused oil with a dash of curry powder, finely chopped shallots and mild chilli and of course the main theme.. generous shower of lime juice. the bean is quite simple.. blanche, then toss quickly over heat with caramelized diced bacon and garlic. the fish is also panfried and later, while the pan is still hot and containing the juice from the fish, i poured the reserved sauce over quickly.. quickly... aw the sauce is breaking!!! stir-stir-stir and pour over the fish and potato.

cut 2 slices of thin sourdough bread (not shown here) to mop the sauce with as a finishing touch. cubes of cucumber (also not shown here) also does wonder to contrast the heavy taste of potato, fish and sauce. the lime is simply simply sublime. excuse me if i'm biased in judgement over my own food.

bento magique

my bento 1: black sesame & brown rice onigiri (rice ball) topped with umeboshi (pickled japanese plum), braised lotus root marinated in sweet soy sauce, all on a bed of shredded cabbage.

my bento 2: omelette bed, tuna salad, Korean pickled raw squid and vegetarian sausage.

24 on the 24th

又再過了一年了...
我今年已經畢業, 工作. 希望明年可以順利繼續念PhD... 再三年, 年級已經大了. 就是要專心得鑽錢照顧爸媽. 恩, 就這樣.

今年的生日過得很開心. 謝謝大家. (^_^)

Egg Benedict

Happy new year! Insomnia has striked again and I find my self reading recipe books and watching cooking shows on YouTube. Things on my mind at the moment are 1. worrying about the never arriving contracts from the new lab. 2. wanting so desperately to plan my getaway from Brisbane and 3. a little drama in my private life. I tried jogging, cooking and gardening to calm my mind a little but they don't seem to help. Last night I managed to sleep a bit after midnight but I ended up having this unpleasant dream about making egg benedict on my bed and ruining my beautiful white sheets. I used to get these unpleasant sleeps when I worried about my experiments or about a month before piano recital or exams.

Anyway, so why egg benedict? A few days ago I was unable to sleep until about 6AM; I Googgled "breakfast" and landed my self on Breakfast Blogger. My favourite entry is Room Service at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan: NYC breakfast #3. I love staying at hotels though sometimes I get a bit scared and sometimes paranoid. There are so many entries which feature eggs (naturally) and the author(s) kindly inserted a Youtube video on how to make Truffled Egg Benedict. I'd heard of this name before and I think I even have the recipe somewhere in one or two of my books but I never really paid attention to it or knew what it is exactly.

After the nightmarish dream, I decided that I MUST make egg benedict, but first I need bread. I had left bread out of my shopping last night because I'm such a bread snob. Well, not really. It's just that, why buy commercially made bread with preservatives and funny chemical in it when I can make my own fresh loaf the way I like it (with tons of salt, chilli and garlic). So first thing was making bread. It was a good loaf, unlike the one I made 2 nights ago that ended up being like a really massive cracker (>"<).




Egg benedict as I understand it is essentially poached egg presented on a tower of toasted bread or English muffin and bacon, topped with a generous dollop (or whatever it is supposed to be called) of Hollandaise sauce; while the asparagus serves as a garnish and nutritional booster.

This is my first time making Hollandaise sauce; it's a bit like mayonaise except the egg is whisked with some heat involved. I didn't use clarified butter of course and the egg was fried sunny side up instead of poached. Maybe I'll follow things more religiously when I start cooking as a career. Hehehe. On the side is tomato, quickly pan fried (Yes, it looks soggy. It was soggy. I'll try better next time) and some potato cubes that I boiled for about 30 minutes then pan-fried with some curry powder and lemon grass. 30 minutes sounds a bit excessive and I had never done it before but they were soooooo soft with slightly crunchy exterior. It sort of just melted in my mouth after I broke the crunch. I should eat more potatoes (or maybe I should stick with my low calorie vegetable soup for a while, considering my escalating weight).

I tied my sister to the dining chair and made her eat it. Just kidding. She is, as always, my voluntary guinea pig, my sweet sweet kitchen test rat. She liked it. I'm happy. Let's hope tonight I could sleep in peace. Amen.

knottin' noodle

自己做麵條真好玩. 今天晚上我又再做. 照片上的是香菇味跟Bonito 味的.

剛剛 YouTube 上有看到一個 CHEF 做麵條. 看起來好像在看人家表演功夫. Click here to watch the noodle 師傅.太利害了!!! 現在會了自己做, 希望不會再吃 泡麵... 但我還是做不到泡麵的湯那麼 yummy. (>"<)

Aku sedih, nga jadi ke Korea.

fresh new year, fresh noodle

Happy new year!! (^o^) I hope everyone has had a great 2006 and a fantastic holiday. My parents came over for my graduation and left on Christmas day. I got miserably ill that day and couldn't stomach anything solid for a few miserable days. I recovered just in time to welcome the new years with my cousins and their cousins, one of whom came from Adelaide for the Christmas break. I went along with them to the city and on our stop at Borders I found a recipe book for pasta. I knew I shouldn't buy another recipe book so after hugging it for about an hour, I let go, keeping in my memory the basic recipe to make fresh pasta.

I've always wanted to make my own fresh noodle. I have this Korean DVD and its opening scene is of a guy making noodle in a really peaceful and homey kitchen. Today I made my first batch of noodle/pasta (call it whatever you like). I flavoured it with dried chilli. It turned out well except I think I needed fresher eggs and I should have rolled out the noodle a bit thinner (I don't have pasta maker, so I rolled it out with baking pin).














I quickly tossed the final product in my garlic infused olive oil, lemon juice, freshly cracked black pepper, dried chilli and flat parsley and topped it with a bit of shaved parmesan.

Hanyeong Haseo

I'm leaving for Korea in about a month time and after reviewing my pantry, I realise that I've got a lot of cooking. Tonight I made chilli and black sesame onigiri, chawan mushi and straw mushroom udon with chilli-wine sauce.

Honours year

(Back: James, Norelle & David. Front: Kiki, Prascilla & Masa)
2006 has been a great year. I completed my Honours in Biochemistry and Structural Biology. With the tremendous help and support of everyone in the lab, I achieved a First class Honours. Thank you to everyone in the Craik group especially Masa, my supervisor. I've learnt more than peptide science from her. She is my role model and a friend. I couldn't have survived this year without her constant guidance and support. Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Thank you also to Jonas for his faantasteek jokes and Richard for his never ending patience and answers to my silly questions, Crystal for her life advices and friendship and Prascilla, my best friend in the lab. Also to David Craik who has given me this opportunity to join his lab first as a student and then as an research assistant (RA). Thank you to Norelle, my first supervisor in this lab whose guidance never stops. Thank you to Sunithi, Kathryn, Conan, Ivana, Justine, Maria Felizmenio-Quimio, Michelle Colgrave, Rekha, Shane, J Lo my little brother, Christian Gruber, Phillip, David Ireland, Josh, Chia-Chia, Ray and Cameron for advices, words of encouragement and friendship.

It has been one great year.

birthday & engagement party

Congratulations to Masa and Miguel.

kopi coklat

kopi coklat
Originally uploaded by kiki.yulyaningsih.

冬菜包

This is Kiki's 冬菜包. Initially, I wanted to make Chinese style garlic bread, but because the 冬菜 flavour is much more persistent I decided that I should try harder to make it next time. For the dough, I had mixed in a little bit of 五香粉 (5 spice powder) and lots of garlic. I think it's fantastic and it definately will feature in my (future) cafe.

冬菜 (dong cai) is Chinese preserved cabbage. It's brown and salty.

paradis bleu

gina's 23rd

tomorrow gina (the nem) turns 23. above is the nem and her cake( blackberry cheesecake, topped/garnished with strawberries)

hating charsiew

It's Saturday and I wanted nasi goreng. I have this vegetarian charsiew meat in my fridge that I bought a while ago from the local Taiwanese grocer. I still don't like the taste, I think I just don't like charsiew flavour. So I tried masking the flavour with tom yum paste.

Result: very faint hint of the charsiew flavour. i wouldn't put that much tom yum paste in next time and perhaps green peas would help the color and nutritional content a bit more.

sang merah putih

Can't really celebrate this year. Gina is out with fever all week, I have a tonne of thing to do.

moshi moshi bento

Chawan mushi with prawns, onigiri, tuna salad, prawns & smoked trout, cucumber

bekal monster

I love japanese animation, but my cooking mood seems to always emerge when I'm watching them. Last night I made pandan bread after watching Yakitate Japan from episode one again. Anyway, I let my dough rise twice in hope that I'd achieve that snowy softness, it came out very cakey, soft nevertheless. The pandan essence smells nothing like pandan. Yuen's market sells frozen pandan but that won't do. I dream of being able to cook with real pandan again.

Tonight I'm watching Ichigo Mashimaro. I had to pause it every now and then to try to read the Chinese subtitle that seems to flash by. The itch to cook took over and then off I went to the kicthen. My ingredients are limitted, I'd like to have some cucumber, that would go well with the tuna salad. For more details, please click on the picture. That will take you to my Flickr page and you'd be able to see little notes.

我在想。。。 台灣便當跟日本的 bento 有什麽分別呢?

chocobomb

Lagi ngantuk pas selesai bikin kue ini. menurut rencana tadi maunya mocha mousse cake, tapi akhirnya error mulu. moussenya nga jadi karena tadi coklatnya kiki masukin ke microwave (karena males dipanesin pelan-pelan). begitu kuning telur dimasukin kok coklatnya tiba-tiba jadi keras...! nothing ever goes according to plan. telur yg udah disiapin buat mousse akhirnya buat quiche bawang. kemudian, kue ini jadi mocha cake bersandwich whipped cream dan dilapisi hazelnut ganache. yg bulat diatas itu hasil coklat yg dimicrowave tadi, dihiasin biji kopi.

pizza

I like to be a rebel when it comes to create traditional dishes. Far back is pizza al funghi with aiolli sauce base. The one on the front has prawn topping marinated with morrocan seasoning that i found in my spice cupboard. I hadn't made my own mayonaise for quite a while now and i really enjoyed it. I love the feeling of dough sticking to my hands, it's like a clingy puppy that you need to treat with love.

I'm graduating again in December, this time from my Biochemistry Honours degree and I'm going to move to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia for 2 years. My parents are going to be really upset (I haven't told them, thank god they don't believe in internet). I still really want to do a phd, but not straight away.

I visited KL twice this year and I absolultely love the city, the environment, the pace. Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia are really similar culturally; Indonesia is slightly different. Singapore is a bit fast even though it's the perfect city for biotech. Indonesia is out of the question; I'd have no freedom. Malaysia is just right. :)

The most delicious thing I had while I was there in June was the deep fried oyster mushroom in Jalan Alor. I stayed at the Royale Bintang (previously known as Novotel) and the place is just a 5 minute walk away from the hotel.

l'ennui

i decided to bake, at 8.58 tonight. it's peanut butter cream sandwiched between layers of mocha sacher. i accidentally added too much ground coffee... happy birthday, chére blier.

le petit volcan

i call this the little volcano because of the dangerous amount of chili involved in the making. the chilli dough wraps tomyam flavoured vegetarian mince and chili. only for the brave and chili resistant mutants. if you can eat one bird eye chili (cili padi [malay]/cabe rawit [indo]) without crying, you can take this.

anti social

for the anti-social in all of us:
pan fried black sesame crusted ocean trout on a bed of spaghetti.
who says cooking for one isn't fun?

croissant

My first successful batch of croissants. In the picture is Gina's stuffed pig, Zai-Pi, with a mini croissant that I experimented with. I made them with lower fat content than the conventional croissants and increased fibre power. The texture was just as flaky and inside it's soft... so soft. (^o^)

For my own croissant recipe please click here.
To find out more about yeast and solution temperature click here.
For other illustrated croissant recipe click here.

Happy baking! I apologize for the lack of illustration guide. The next time I make croissant, I’ll get pictures of the stages.

cece and her birthday bouquet

Not completely unrelated to food or the midnight bakery.
This is my sister, my original taster, and her birthday bouquet.

quiche

新年快樂

call it good sign, i dreamt that the tree in front of my house, on the right side of the drive way, was fruiting with massive red ripe tomatoes. gina arrived just in time when i took out a rather strange looking ladder and we spent a bit of time setting it up to make sure it was stable. when i was up closer, i noticed that the tree was bearing rambutan, tomatoes, red capsicum, purple plums....

(^o^) happy new year everyone. wishing you happiness, health, wealth, love, luck and world peace. :P

spaghetti marinara

For Cece, a seafood addict, the funnest sister in the world, a funky banker and an awesome photographer.

Boentoet Jahoet

tadinya mo kiki kasi nama roti buntut, tapi rasanya kok boring gitu.. kaya ikut-ikutan sop buntut. wehehehe, jadi ganti aja namanya yang unik dikit. buntutttt yahuttt [boentoet jahoet]. *lol* spicy marinated prawns wrapped in bread dough. the dough is glazed with the marinate and sprinkled with black sesame seeds. i love the spiciness in this, but maybe next time i should mix in some chopped red chili into the dough to really bring out the indonesian flavour. nyam!