Professor Layton and the Unwound Future

Another year, another Professor Layton game.  Professor Layton and the Unwound Future is the latest installment in the series and it has kept me busy over the past two months of sporadic play.

Professor Layton is main reason for dusting off my Ninny and giving the battery a bit of a workout.  Gameplay is the same - work your way through the story and run into puzzles galore.  A good brain workout I must say.

In this game, the Professor and his assistant Luke travel to the future after the Prime Minister goes missing - exciting stuff!  I won't tell you how it all pans out but I must warn you, it's quite an emotional conclusion and the Professor cries at the end.  He cries!!!  His little beady cartoon eyes cry!  Poor Professor :`(

Anyway, I can't wait for the next one.  Fanks Smee!

Brandy Snaps (update)

They're better today without the icing sugar overload.  Think of it as a very thin Anzac biscuit.  I still probably won't buy another bag again though.

Brandy Snaps

I remember when I ate my first Cookie Man Brandy Snap.  I can't pinpoint the exact date but it was significant enough for me to recall the event.  I was still a student and doing my thing at my part time job in Chatswood.  The boss asked one of us to buy her a bag of brandy snaps and then treated us to a few.  It was crispy, brandy-ish, anzac biscuit-tasting and yum!

That was about 7-8 years ago.  I haven't managed to eat anymore brandy snaps since then despite walking past many Cookie Man stores.  However, each time I did go past I would always think, 'I should get a bag of brandy snaps.'  That day has finally come and after eating a healthy grilled chicken salad tonight, I decided I needed a sugar fix and that Cookie Man was going to fix it.  (Actually I lie.  I went with the intention of buying more ice cream but then also made a detour to Cookie Man).

I got a bit carried away and decided to buy a bag of 10 and also a brandy snap cream.

Cream sandwiched between two brandy snaps, hence the name.  Original!  With the cream content in mind it was wise that I eat it first.  

So errrr.... after my first bite I realised the 'cream' was cupcake icing.  With eat bite, I felt myself inching towards diabetes.  On top of that, the brandy snap wasn't as nice as what I recall!  :(

I ate a plain brandy snap afterwards just in case the cupcake 'cream' ruined the biscuit.  It still didn't bring back a flood of good memories.  It wasn't bad, it just didn't make me want to buy another bag.  Maybe my tastebuds were burnt out with the sweet stuff overload.  Now I gotta eat the rest of the bag.  Let's see if they taste better tomorrow.

GÜ Puddings

I thought I'd seen Gü puddings in Australia before I left for London back in 2006.  I definitely saw them in most Waitrose, Tesco, Sainsburys and other supermarkets while I was living in the UK but it was only upon seeing Gü today in Woolies that I'm doubting my memory.  Hmmmm.....

I've eaten some of their puddings before but that was ages ago, so I treated myself today with the 'healthy' fruit option of key lime pies.

It's all a bit fancy for packaged desserts (but I like it fancy) and these pies 'throw caution to the wind'.

Some Gü puddings are served in reusable (but not baking proof) ramekins.  Handy!  I shall find a use for them while I'm in Rad-City.  Like Häagen-Dazs, Gü has no true claim to being a German/Scandinavian product.  Those umlauts are fake!

Each ramekin is covered with a foil seal.  I do like how the umlauts and the 'u' make a smiley face though.  It says 'Eat and enjoy me!'  Peeling away the seal - it looks edible enough.  My spoon doing it's job.  

The pies were nice enough.  It was really just a cheesecake.  Would I buy this particular Gü pudding again?  Very unlikely.  At $6 for the two 85g desserts and the fact that they are MADE in the UK (wtf, this cheesecake has travelled the globe!) kinda puts me off a little.  Though, I might just refresh myself with some their other products first.  I do remember the chocolate puddings being quite nice.

Things You Eat When You're Alone Part X

I'm back to the ice cream phase of life.  I have a legitimate reason now - it's Summer!  Also, there was an ice cream sale at the supermarket.

After debating whether to buy a tub or ice cream on a stick, I settled on this:

Sara Lee Hazelnut Fudge ice cream.  It's new! 

It tastes like ferrero rocher!  Or nutella!  It's yummy.  Go and buy some.

Hanjuku Egg

I like to eat but I'm not big on cooking.  I mainly cook to survive and for me to attempt re-creating a restaurant dish in my kitchen, well that means I'm really putting in effort and I really, really want to eat it.  That being said, I could see myself becoming interested in cooking if I retired from my job and had access to a better kitchen.

I really like hanjuku eggs.  Up until five minutes ago they were better known to me as "that ramen egg with a runny yolk but hard white and I think it's marinated in soy."  Much googling was required to find out that they are called hanjuku eggs.

I got upset recently when I didn't get a hanjuku egg with my ramen order.  Hence I decided that 1. I needed to satiate my hanjuku egg craving and 2. I needed find out whether these eggs are really that difficult to make.  

The result?  Well if I can make them, anyone can!

So proud of my hanjuku eggs.  That'll do, Egg, that'll do.  

I found a few recipes and some were just ridiculously technical.  I really couldn't be that bothered - it's a boiled egg!  This recipe was pretty good and had some good links to eggy pictures at different stages of marination but in the end I pretty much followed this recipe exactly.

When I say I followed it exactly, I lied.  The marinade required mirin, Japanese soy and sake.  I only had the Japanese soy.  I had soba sauce though!  My soba sauce contained soy sauce, water, mirin, fish extract, sugar, kelp extract and MSG (oops).  Screw the sake and mirin.  In the end my marinade was three parts soba sauce, one part Jap soy sauce and a dash of rice vinegar.  I zapped it in the microwave for 30 secs and then dissolved three sachets of brown sugar into the mix.  It was a bit random but I tasted the marinade and it went down well.  I let it cool while I boiled my eggs.

I nearly stabbed my hand trying to pierce the bottom of the eggs but I do think that this is a very worthwhile step.  I never knew that this would stop eggs from cracking!  What an awesome cooking tip.  The egg boiling process is pretty exact.  You boil the eggs for 6 minutes and 30 seconds.  No more, no less.  As recommended by the other recipe, I stirred the eggs occasionally to ensure the yolks cooked evenly and stayed centred.  I peeled my eggs and they felt firm yet squishy.  Exciting!

I didn't have the recommended zip-lock bags and no other appropriately sized marinating vessel/bowl.  So I improvised and made my own marinating bag with some cling wrap.  

I left my eggs to bathe in the marinade overnight.  (It wouldnt hurt to let it marinate for 48 hours to achieve a more browny egg white.)  I unwrapped my eggs and realised my cling wrap had been a bit tight which left my eggs slightly deformed.

A bit flat on each side.  Kinda like a bullet.  

The final test - slicing the egg in half and checking the yolk consistency.

I was so happy to see a firm white and a runny yolk!  Num nums!

Needless to say, the egg was yum and there will be many more hanjuku eggs to eat in the future.  Now, if I can make it, I can no longer excuse any ramen joint for not serving them.  Hmmph!