Let's bake: Green tea (matcha) madeleines

"... Ce goût, c'était celui du petit morceau de madeleine que le dimanche matin à Combray (parce que ce jour-là je ne sortais pas avant l'heure de la messe), quand j'allais lui dire bonjour dans sa chambre, ma tante Léonie m'offrait après l'avoir trempé dans son infusion de thé ou de tilleul. La vue de la petite madeleine ne m'avait rien rappelé avant que je n'y eusse goûté ; peut-être parce que, en ayant souvent aperçu depuis, sans en manger, sur les tablettes des pâtissiers, leur image avait quitté ces jours de Combray pour se lier à d'autres plus récents ; peut-être parce que, de ces souvenirs abandonnés si longtemps hors de la mémoire, rien ne survivait, tout s'était désagrégé ; les formes — et celle aussi du petit coquillage de pâtisserie, si grassement sensuel sous son plissage sévère et dévot — s'étaient abolies, ou, ensommeillées, avaient perdu la force d'expansion qui leur eût permis de rejoindre la conscience..."

Du côté de chez Swann - Marcel Proust

Hey guys!

Long time no see! :) Recently I spent most of my time studying for my exams at Starbucks, and of course most of the times I couldn't resist getting some French madeleines when I was there :") Since they're so expensive, I decided to try making them on my own (with a little twist, since I'm a green tea lunatic!). They were super easy to make, and I succeeded right at the first time!
Therefore, I just wanna share the recipe I used with you guys today. These madeleines are a great addition to an afternoon tea break!
Happy baking! ;)


Yields 12 Madeleines
Prep time: 30 min
Cooking time: 12 min

Ingredients

1/2 cup & 1 tsp of powdered sugar
1 egg
2 tsp of green tea powder (I used the special kind for baking so it wouldn't turn yellow/brownish after cooking)
2 tsp of milk (10ml)
1/2 cup & 1 tsp of self-rising all-purpose flour (65g)
5 tbs of unsalted butter, melted then cooled (65g)
Powdered sugar for garnish

Method

1. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C).
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat an egg, milk, sugar, and green tea together to blend. And set aside.
2. In another bowl, whisk the flour to make sure there's no big chunks. This eliminates the sifting process.
3. Pour the dry to the wet mixture, and fold turning the bowl just until moistened.
4. Beat in melted butter slowly until thick ribbon is formed.
5. Fill 2/3 of madeleine molds with batter (I used a non-stick pan but to be on the safe side I went ahead and buttered it anyways. Make sure you don't overfill the pan or otherwise the madeleines won't have their traditional seashell shape!)
6. Bake for 12 minutes, or until puffed and golden brown.
7. Let cool the madeleines in the pan for one minute. They should come out clean.
8. Dust the shell sides with powdered sugar (optional) before serving.

Book + Movie Review: Safe Haven

Okay guys so I'm back again with a combined book & movie review for you!:)
I saw the movie adaptation yesterday when I was halfway through the book, and after that I finished the book last night... I have to say if you haven't read the book, the movie should be pretty good on its own and there was enough suspense to keep you awake. I wasn't a fan of Josh Duhamel before but I have to admit that he really aced this role :P And the scenery was of course very romantic and beautiful, as usual. They even managed to insert a canoeing scene in (very typical Nicholas Sparks!).
The book itself was very interesting. I finished in within 3 days so that should say something! :D
To be honest, I like the flow of the storyline and the way the characters (especially Katie and Kevin) were portrayed in the book better (since they decided to change lots of things in the movie and Katie was too flirty from the beginning which I think doesn't psychologically make sense because she just ran away after being so traumatized).
Besides, they did decide to keep the twist at the end of the book in the movie too, and I personally don't like the twist. As I said, I haven't finished the book when I saw the movie, therefore that twist was kinda a spoiler to me, so when I was trying to finish the book, I had hoped that the twist would turn out better, but in the end it was pretty much the same as in the movie. Personally, I think with a little bit more descriptions and details added, no twist would be needed because the story was fine as it is in the book, although I do think that the twist makes more sense in the movie!
Well, this is a pretty long review/comparison so hopefully it wasn't too boring. I would give the movie 3/5 stars on its own but if compared to the book I would say 2.5/5 stars only.
Until next time everyone! :)

Book Review: Hidden in Paris by Corine Gantz

Another book review for today!
I'm supposed to talk to you about this a long time ago (like last month or so! :P) but I've been so busy so it had to be delayed until today...
I used to live in Paris before, therefore I'm naturally attracted to anything Paris-related, hence this book :") Annie, the main character of the book, had to face many challenges - both emotional and financial -  after the death of her husband, so she finally decided to rent out rooms of her house in order to take care of her kids. And along came other interesting characters who would eventually become an important part of her life.
To be honest, I started this book way back in October/November of last year, and I wasn't very into it at first. However, when I actually had some free time last month to sit down and really read it, I fell in love with it. The story became so much more interesting after the other characters came into Annie's life, and I found myself so curious about what was going to happen to them to the point that I couldn't put the book down :)
It's obviously a chick-flick type of book, so there's no deadly adventures or vampires involved, but give it a try if you're crazy about Paris, like me!

Book Review: Warm Bodies by Isaac Marion

Hi everyone!
Sorry for being away too long but I'm back with a new book review today!:) As you may know, the movie adaptation of this book is currently shown in cinemas so I wanted to read the book first to see what it's like. Overall, I like it, but I wasn't crazy about it. I don't think I've ever read books about zombies before though, so may be that's why I wasn't into it as much as I thought I'd be, since this is still something new for me...
Well, the story is about a zombie named R. He met a human girl, Julie, and fell in love with her. That somehow slowly changed him back to a living and together, they tried to cure other zombies from the plague. There were a lot of descriptions in the book, and sometimes it was kinda hard for me to imagine the characters while reading the book, so may be I'll like it more when I watch the movie! ^^
On the side note, I'm not sure about the original print of the book, but I have the movie tie-in version, and I think it's really funny that they included an anatomical image at the beginning of each chapter! :P (at least to a science geek like me!:D) 
Let me know what you think if you have read the book or watched the movie! :)

Movie Review: The Lucky One

So yes, I'm back with another review for you guys. I know that this movie was out in the theaters a long time ago, but I didn't have a chance to see it, so I decided to watch it in DVD since I'm a fan of Nicholas Sparks' books in general :)
To be honest, I haven't read the book yet :"), so I can't tell you guys how close the movie is to the book. However, I think the movie was actually pretty good on its own (I'm not a fan of Zac Efron so I'm not biased, trust me :P). The storyline was pretty easy to understand (I won't go into details about it since you can pretty much read everything on the Internet), and the autumn scenery was incredibly beautiful. I feel like Zac Efron was so out of it in some of the scenes though, or may be it's just me haha!
Overall, it's a decent movie to check out, especially if you wanna have a night in with your girl friends ;) I'll give it 3/5 stars, and until next time guys! :)

Book Review: The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

Okay, this is the last book I've just finished reading. As much as I wanted to like it, I'm sorry to say that I didn't enjoy reading it as I thought I would. Since it was composed of letters from Charlie, the main character, to a secret friend, I felt that it was just one-sided and there wasn't enough interaction/conversation between the characters to maintain my focus in the book. Personally, I like books that have the "suspense" element to it; however, I still have to say that I also enjoy reading books with a romantic storyline or some sorts of autobiography or reflective kinds as well. Nevertheless, I couldn't really identify myself in this book, and I think it's just because my high school experience wasn't like that where I lived. Also, I've seen enough of this type of story in movies - teenagers struggling with drugs and relationships - and so I didn't find this story as interesting anymore. I have to agree though that the idea of writing it in letters was original, and the feelings of Charlie towards his friends and family were touching, but in the end I still had to force myself to finish the book just so I could say that I've read it... I haven't seen the movie version of this book though, but I think I might like it more than the book, since there might be more of the interaction that the book didn't have enough (?). Let me know about the movie if you've seen it :)
I know that many people have raved about this book, but it just wasn't the type of book I like :|

Phu Quoc, the Pearl Island

Located in the Gulf of Thailand, Phu Quoc is the largest island of Vietnam. Although it is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Vietnam, I have to admit that I've never been there before, until this year :") We had a great overall experience during our 3 days there, despite the fact that I did get some mosquito bites :| Therefore, I thought it would be nice to do a little review on all the places I had the opportunity to visit for you guys. Hopefully this blog will be helpful for you if you wanna come to Phu Quoc one day :)

Phu Quoc International Airport
Well, if you came to Phu Quoc before December 2012, then you probably haven't seen this airport yet. I didn't realize it was just opened a month ago, therefore I was very impressed when we first arrived. Overall impression: modern, clean and new (of course!). I'm not sure what international flights there are for now (as of January 2013) though, but I believe they have domestic flights to and from major cities in the mainland like Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh city.

Hung Long Tu Pagoda

A peaceful place to stop by if you have some free time on your trip! There is a naturally huge stone in the form of a tiger so they painted the tiger face and stripes on it, which is quite interesting. The temple itself is quite small and simple comparing to other more sophisticated ones in the mainland though.

The Fishing Village
Apparently you can get fresh seafood for a pretty good price here; but we actually didn't get anything so I can't really give any recommendations.

Dinh Cau

A place where fishermen usually come to pray for their safety before their fishing trips. This place overlooks the sea and the view is pretty awesome, so it's something not to be missed!

Thien Hai Son Resort
We booked this hotel because we got pretty good deals on it (~$140/person for the whole stay + tour, meals included). It's a 3-star hotel and it's located on the same street as other big resorts such as Saigon-Phu Quoc Resort. The rooms are pretty standard, but I would give this place more like 2 stars because the bathrooms are a little bit old and poorly maintained and there are always mosquitoes in the rooms. Otherwise, they have really good services - the staff is very friendly and helpful, and they give you a small complimentary basket of fruits daily in your room! :) The beach of the resort is okay, I wasn't very impressed because I've seen more beautiful beaches. They also have a tennis court and a spa (but I didn't try it).

Squid Fishing
It is not recommended if you usually have seasick! I have seasickness myself but I let them talk me into going and I kinda regret it (I did take some medications beforehand but still got some nausea!). They recommended us to stay on the top floor of the boat and that did help with the seasickness. Otherwise, you can get a really nice view of the sunset from the boat, and they also serve squid porridge towards the end of the trip. However, I found the fishing part quite boring (I didn't find any squid T_T). You literally have to spend around 2 hours to fish, and the amount of squid you can fish also depends on the precipitation that day. There were around 15-20 people on our boat that night, and we only found 1 squid! On the side note, our tour didn't include this part, so we had to pay extra to go squid fishing (~$15/person).

Pepper Farm

Pepper is one of the most famous specialty foods of Phu Quoc, and visiting a pepper plantation is pretty interesting. You can also buy some pre-packaged pepper as gifts for people back home :)

Sim Son Myrtle Liquor Factory

They have different types of liquors there (even sea horse liquor?!), and they offer wine tasting too, so try it out! :)
 

Pearl Factory

As many of you may already know, Phu Quoc is very famous for its pearls. Therefore, visiting a pearl factory should be on your list during your stay there! I can't really remember the name of the factory we went to, and since we didn't buy any jewelry, I can't really recommend any tips, but it was a quite interesting experience, so check it out!  

Fish Sauce Factory

Who haven't heard of Phu Quoc Fish Sauce? So if you are wondering how they come up with all the fish sauce you use to dip your food in, then make a stop at a local fish sauce factory. They will offer fish sauce tasting too, but since it's very concentrated, you shouldn't taste it if you can't tolerate fish sauce normally.

Sao Beach

We were told that this is one of the most beautiful beaches of Phu Quoc, and we loved it! The water was much cleaner than the beach at the resort, and you can enjoy a fresh coconut at the bar by the sea after swimming :)

Dinh Cau Night Market

Come here for fresh seafood (You can pick anything you want and they will grill it for you on the spot!). This place is quite crowded with tourists, and you can buy some souvenirs too. It's about a 15-minute walk from our hotel, which is not bad at all! ^^

Well, I guess that's all I have to say about Phu Quoc. Again, it's one of the most friendly places I've been to in Vietnam and we really enjoyed it. All the pictures in this blog were taken by me, so hopefully you guys won't find them too bad. Let me know if you have any questions! Until next time guys :)