Mooncake Making Workshop - Scoopy's and Cream

Mooncakes (also known as yue bing) are a commonly featured treat traditionally eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Last Saturday, courtesy of a deal Michi found though Groupon, the both of us got to make our very own mooncakes in a hands-on workshop conducted by Scoopy's and Cream ice cream parlour.

They've got the cutest logo ever!

The workshop itself was a small, humble little class with a decent gathering. Aprons, gloves and ingredients were provided, self-explanatory worksheets were handed out, and the teacher and his assistants were always very helpful. In this class, we were taught how to make snowskin mooncakes, which unlike regular traditional mooncakes need no baking as their crust is made out of instantly-edible glutinous rice. The process was surprisingly simple - and really fun!

We were making tiny little mooncakes in this workshop, so the quantities of the ingredients are a lot lesser. For the crust: 35g of fried glutinous rice flour, 35g of icing sugar, and 10g of shortening should do the trick. 

Sieving the icing sugar and the rice flour...

...then adding the shortening. Mix well.

Next, prepare a mixture of 40ml of water, a tablespoon/teaspoon of condensed milk.

Add 2 drops of the food flavoring or food coloring of your choice - I used chocolate!

Make a "well" in the flour/icing/shortening mix and gradually add in the flavored liquid, kneading until...

...you get this. It's squooshy! And kinda gross looking.

I'd like to interrupt at this point to mention that although our worksheet called for us to have the kneaded dough sit in the fridge for 20 minutes (presumably to let the extra moisture in the dough evaporate or something), the time constraints of the workshop unfortunately forced us to finish up without the refrigerating part. While our teacher assured us that the dough was still edible (it was) amidst exchanged glances between our teams (it tasted like fresh lard), I think the exclusion of this step definitely made a considerable difference in how our mooncakes eventually turned out.

I'm also going to say that while most modern mooncakes have a wide range of fillings - from the traditional lotus paste to coffee fillings and even the local favorite/hated durian paste - we were provided with pre-made red bean paste in the workshop. Our worksheet has instructions on how to actually cook the red bean paste yourself, but since I'm not much of a cook and Michi doesn't fancy red bean, I'm not replicating it here. (Also, too much work.) Anyway, on to actually shaping the mooncakes:

From the kneaded dough, pinch out 28g.

From the red bean (or azuki, or hong dou sha, or that gross black-red thing), pinch out 24g.

Roll both the dough and the red bean into individual balls, then roll out the dough to a thin spread about the size of your palm.

Next, place the ball of red bean in the center of the dough, on top of a sheet of plastic.

Start wrapping it up. Twist the bag around at the top to "seal in" the red bean and...

Ta-dah!

Put the twisty ball of red bean dough into the mooncake mould, twisted side facing you (so the smooth side can capture the imprint). Squish the dough in gently but firmly so it fills the mould. Once that's done, flip the mould over, give it a few hits with your palm and the mooncakes will pop right out.

You're done!

Not going to lie, I had way more fun making the mooncakes than eating them (sorry Scoopy's). Like I mentioned earlier, I think the refrigeration could have made a difference in how the mooncakes turned out - they were a lot more like ang ku kueh in looks, texture and taste at the end than any kind of mooncake I've seen, and I kinda wish we were given a different paste instead of red bean. Still, the entire experience was totally worth it - we left the workshop feeling pretty chipper and accomplished. Maybe next time we'll sign up for their ice-cream making workshop...

Kite Festival 2011

I'm not much for kites and neither is Michi, but man does this site make for some pretty awesome photos!

Alright, I'll admit the only reason I considered re-attending the Kite Festival this year was because I'd missed out on obtaining the goodie bags the year before.

FREEBIES!!!

And a redemption stamp to ward off the greedy folk. I'm not kidding when I say I've seen people walk away with ten bags hanging off each arm.

Presented by Act 3 International, the NTUC Income Kite Festival Singapore 2011 was held at The Promontory at Marina Bay on 3rd and 4th September. Having been here the previous year I can safely say that the event was pretty much exactly the same this year as it was the year before, although not any less spectacular. Buskers were just one such attraction of the event:

The kites were, of course, the main attraction of the entire festival, and we were lucky to witness NTUC's own orange kite take to the skies. It was humongous!

It needed two people to hold it up!

Lifting off...

And up into the sky!

The tail was seriously long

...REALLY long

Flying a kite wasn't as easy as it looked... either that or I just really suck at flying them. Each goodie bag had a little orange NTUC kite, and getting that little 4" by 3" into the air was harder than I'd thought.

My best achievement: 6 feet off the pavement for 3 seconds

What I should have done instead

We didn't participate too much in this event (hence the complete lack of actual blog material in this post), but it was definitely worth the trip out to enjoy the beautiful breeze and to admire the picturesque scenery. If you're an avid kite flyer or enthusiast or just someone looking for a good place to get good photos, mark this event down in your calendar when it comes around next year.

Visit to the Singapore Zoological Gardens

I do face-painting as a side job, and sometimes the locations I'm requested to work at can be pretty awesome! I was lucky enough to be invited to a company function last week that was being held in the Singapore Zoological Gardens, and since my job was only for a couple hours in the morning it gave us enough time to explore the entirety of the zoo for the rest of the day.

Yay elephants! ...alright, these are just statues. Real life ones further down the page though!

The Singapore Zoological Gardens (or simply the Singapore Zoo, or the Mandai Zoo) occupies 28 hectares of land and plays host to about 315 species of animals/reptiles/birds, most of which are housed within spacious, naturalistic "open" exhibits. Upon alighting at the zoo you may choose to explore the site on foot or on tram, the latter of which is slightly more expensive - at the time of posting normal tickets are S$20 per adult and S$13 per child, and S$25 per adult and S$16 per child if traveling by tram. Personally, I would recommend going about on foot as this allows you to take your time with the individual exhibits, and perhaps even first-hand close-up encounters with some of the tamer creatures that are allowed to roam the zoo freely:

A small number of peahens and peacocks can always be found strutting leisurely all over the zoo.

And within the exhibits too:

A shy mousedeer that came out of the fauna to greet the visitors. We were seriously only inches from it! Mousedeer are housed within the Fragile Forest exhibit.

I suppose I don't have to go into detail on all the different animals we have in the zoo, although you can be rest assured that it has a lot of big cats, African wildlife, reptiles and even amphibians on the list:

 

You're never going to get a clear shot of this beast.

The zoo also has regular shows that feature elephants, seals, monkeys and more:

The elephant show at Elephants At Work and Play. Be prepared to get sprayed if you sit in the front.

The sea lion show at Splash Safari, Shaw Foundation Amphitheatre. Prepared to get soaked here too!

However, if watching animals from behind a glass screen or from a bench seat just doesn't quite do it for you, you can also take part in feeding some of the mammals straight out of your hand for a small token fee of S$5. Feeding was definitely the highlight of our trip to the zoo! 

Michi's feeding them in this one but MANATEES ARE MY NEW FAVORITE ANIMAL

LOOK AT THOSE PUPPY FACES. SERIOUSLY HOW DO YOU RESIST A FACE LIKE THAT

Giraffes have really, really long tongues that are about as prehensile as an elephant's trunk and a monkey's tail combined. Also, slimy.

Those were the only two animal feeding times we managed to catch, but as biased as I admit I am I would still recommend feeding the manatees over the giraffes. There was definitely a much larger crowd in demand for the giraffes, but feeding took only all of ten seconds since the keepers only gave us like... five tiny sticks of sliced carrots. We were also asked to feed and leave quickly to make way for the next people in line, and according to the keeper we were not allowed to pet the giraffes as they "could get nervous and hit you with their necks". The manatees, on the other hand, took at least five minutes to finish feeding - we were given a full basket of sliced potatoes and carrots, and since there wasn't a crowd we were allowed to take our time as long as the food would last! Being allowed to pet them was also a huge plus (they feel like wet canvas). 

The zoo closes at 6pm daily, and if you're the more adventurous type you can continue your trip to the Night Safari which is right next to the zoo. I'll save that for another blog post when we actually get to explore it - if I'm lucky, maybe when my next face-painting job calls me there.

Subliminal last image post~

Hair for Hope 2011 - Shaving for a Cause

I'd heard of people shaving their heads to show support for cancer patients before, and though I'd played with the idea for a little while I'd never actually given it any serious thought. It wasn't until a friend of mine (let's call her W for now) mentioned that she was planning to sign up for the event, but didn't want to do it alone, that I decided this was probably the perfect excuse chance I was waiting for.

Now into its 9th consecutive year, Hair for Hope is "the only head-shaving event in Singapore that serves to raise funds and awareness of childhood cancer. Every shaven head represents an understanding by an individual of the ordeals that a child with cancer is subjected to." Participants can either register via their website, or attend the event as a walk-in shavee, which was what W and I did.

It was surprisingly but amazingly crowded, considering the goal of the event! The displays on the stage are live counters and show exactly how many male and female participants were and are being shaved.

Michi and I made our way down earlier even though W was only supposed to meet us at 1pm, and it was lucky we did. The walk-in shavee queue was limited to 300 slots, and there were at least already 200 people in the walk-in shavee queue by the time we arrived only an hour after the event had officially begun!

It went from this...

... to this in about twenty minutes.

The queue didn't actually start moving until 2pm though, and W had joined us by then, along with her mother (who had also decided that impromptu shaving sounded fun). It took a while, slowly drawing closer to the main event taking place on the stage, but it was finally time to get bald.

Exhibit A: Before shaving

And after! I was given the HfH shirt during the sign-up process.

It wasn't too bad of an experience for me since I'm not a very appearance-conscious person myself, but I can't imagine how W or her mom felt (I've known W for about five years now, and she is very vain!) going under the razor. I'd like to think it's the courage of people like them, and all the other shavees at the event, especially female shavees, who really underscore the HfH message to people with cancer that it's okay to be bald.

The event is open today (Sunday, 24 July) as well, from 11am to 7pm at Vivocity (Harbourfont MRT station), if anyone reading this is interested in signing up. I think I'm definitely going to add this to my list of yearly events to attend and participate in. Plus, I'll be saving on shampoo and haircut costs!    

Going in to work on Monday with my head shaved is going to be awesome

edit 09 Aug: We have a few additional pictures from the event including our friend W and her mother who also shaved!