Grapevine

A kitchen's life

2009-04-26T15:05:00.013+08:00

As part of the course, my college mates and I are required to fullfil a semester of practical classes in Cafe 87 kitchen for 6 weeks. At first I panicked because I have not many experience in the kitchen. All sorts of images came to my mind when I thought of all the possible accidents that might occur in this practical class. Fire accidents, cuts and maybe other major injury or damage might happen because majority of people are careless at times. But then, I decided to be brave and face this semester and be optimistic as I could widen my experience in the kitchen.

After experiencing the first class, I found out that it had not been as bad as I thought. We learned to cut vegetables, prepare different types of stocks, and dressings. At first it was rather difficult, but as time goes on, we found out that we could do it much better with practice. But that also means that the dishes that we were preparing during classes are also getting more complicated. We not only learn cooking, but also the way we present the food to the guest. We must always consider the colour factors and the placing of food. Cleanliness is also important in a kitchen as no one wants to work in a dirty kitchen

Apart from all the theories that have been thought to us, we also learned how to work in groups. Here are some photos from the kitchen.

Student doing preparation

The Result

by Diana

Dubai hotels in the dark for Earth Hour

2009-03-26T22:40:00.002+08:00

The lights will go off for one hour at many of Dubai’s hotels on Saturday March 28 in line with ‘Earth Hour’, the worldwide climate change initiative.

The Fairmont Dubai – like all 56 of Fairmont’s hotels– will flick the switch between 8.30pm and 9.30pm in support of the international event organised by the World Wildlife Fund, with the InterContinental Dubai Festival City doing likewise.

Steven Greenwood a hotel manager was proud to be a part of Earth Hour which supports the global initiative by switching off all public area lights for 1 hour. He is grateful to Al-Futtaim Motors for the opportunity to create an example and positive message for Dubai on the importance of reducing carbon emissions. Environment issue was also a hot topic on the day where the properties have been fitted out with the latest environmentally efficient equipment and fixtures. Water conservation is a core element of the hotels’ role in the environmental effort and all toilets, showerheads, and faucets are specially designed to help save water.

The hotel’s Anise restaurant will also be highlighting the event by keeping the lights off all evening, offering a candle-lit ‘Blind Dining’ experience. Diners booking at Anise are even offered a pick-up service in one of the InterContinental’s hybrid cars. The hybrid cars, which are both energy efficient and comfortable for hotel guests, are another step in the right direction to change the way that personal responsibility for climate change is viewed.

InterContinental and Crowne Plaza’s area manager Tom Meyer explained that ongoing environmental issues were just as important to the group as one-off events, such as Earth Hour. Modern construction materials withstand Dubai weather conditions easily. Other than that, he highlighted that the air conditioning than hotels in other parts of the world and incorporate a system to slow down the velocity of the air entering the properties to increase the efficiency of the cooling facilitie.

http://hoteliermiddleeast.com

2009-02-26T00:58:00.005+08:00

Mocktails for PaRtYs

Ingredients per person

3 oz Pineapple juice
3 oz Orange juice
3 oz Lime juice

8 dashes Angostura bitters
6 oz Fizzy Lemonade
Crushed Ice

Mocktail Punch Party Drink Recipe Instructions:

Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker / stirrer and pour into an unusually shaped glass. Add Crushed Ice and decorations to create a great speciality with easy to make instructions!

Mocktail Punch Party Drink Recipe

Everyone loves to have fun and celebrate special occasion. The most popular alcoholic recipes for parties include the Mocktail Punch Party Drink Recipe which generally consist of unusual cocktails and various punch mixtures

Quantities and Proportions

§ 1 oz (ounce) equals 2 tbsp (tablespoons)

§ 1 shot equals 1½ oz (ounces)

§ 1 cup equals 8 oz (ounces)

§ 30ml equals 1 oz

Exercise your bartending skills, use decorations and unusual drinking glasses and drink coasters to become the bartender of your own personal bar which serves
Mocktail Punch Party Drink Recipe .

http://www.drink-recipes.org.com.uk

Easy MAde PAssIOn fruit Mocktails

2009-02-25T23:11:00.005+08:00

Passion Fruit Mocktail

Passion Fruit Mocktail Recipe - a Non Alcoholic Drink ( Mocktail )

Passion Fruit Mocktail Recipe is a non-intoxicating beverage. The word 'Mocktail' is a derivative of two words - 'mock' meaning a copy or imitation of something and the word 'cocktail' meaning a mixed drink. A Non-alcoholic cocktail drink is also referred to as a Virgin Cocktail. The Passion Fruit Mocktail Recipe does not contain any intoxicating alcohol. A non alcoholic drink, or mocktail, is made of one or more kinds of beverages such as fruit juices or mixers. It is usually shaken or stirred before serving.

Ingredient:

4 oz Vanilla Yogurt
3 Tangerines
1/2 Cup Passion Fruit Juice
1/2 cup Cold Milk
1/2 cup crushed ice or Ice Cream (optional)
Honey to sweeten if required

Passion Fruit Mocktail Recipe Instructions:

Mix all ingredients in a cocktail shaker / stirrer and pour into an unusually shaped glass. Add Crushed Ice and decorations to create a great speciality drink from an easy to make recipe.

Quantities and Proportions

Quantities of ingredients tend to cause confusion. You can use a thimble, cup or even a pitcher ( if you are making this recipe for a group or a crowd ) when you make a Passion Fruit Mocktail Recipe! The following simple guidelines will also help with the different quantities referred to in authentic & original recipes:

1 oz (ounce) equals 2 tbsp (tablespoons)
1 shot equals 1½ oz (ounces)
1 cup equals 8 oz (ounces)

Best special effects with the classic Passion Fruit Mocktail Recipe

§ Serve in unusually shaped drinking glasses by giving your drinking glasses a frosted edge by dipping the rim with Lemon juice. Put the drinking glasses on colorful drink coasters.

§ The presentation is very important! Add colorful decorations and drinking glasses - drink umbrellas, swizzle sticks, paper flowers & many more. Drinking glasses, drink coasters and decorations are easy to get an the price is reasonable.

§ Use cocktail sticks to twist or skewer fruits and place on the rim of drinking glasses

§ Place on drink coasters and use slices of fruit to decorate drinking glasses and add a twist to your classic Passion Fruit Mocktail Recipe

§ Add crushed ice - To make crushed ice just place your ice cubes in a plastic bag and crush the ice with a heavy object

http://www.drink-recipes.org.uk

A healthy and tasty cookie

2009-02-24T06:13:00.008+08:00

If you're thinking that "Oats are only for health freaks", I think you're wrong! The crunchiness of oats is simply inevitable in this simple recipe. Not to mention, the sweetness of the raisins just compliments the oats like glue to paper.

When mixing water to the wet batter (step 3), it may look as if it will never combine. Remember, butter is a form of fat, and fat + water don't mix that easily. All you have to do is just keep mixing until it forms a smooth, slightly runny mixture. When mixing oats and sifted ingredients, its best to mix till just combined because working the gluten too much may harden the cookie when it bakes.

Baking the cookies at a moderate oven need not take too long, especially for these delicate cookies. I may suggest an extra minute or two, but not to the extend of 15 minutes. It'll brown too much and burn the raisins. When removing the cookies, it may appear to be soft, but it'll get to its crunchy state after leaving it on the wire rack for a while.

You can also substitute raisins for mixed peel, dried cranberries or even better, chocolate chips for the extra indulgence. As you come to see the recipe, I would actually suggest that you use less than the amount of sugar stated. For my case, I did cut less than 1/4 cup of sugar because the sweetness of the raisins is good enough to exhilirate the taste of the cookie. But if you prefer a sweeter cookie, by all means! You can even use honey for the rustic taste. Just substitute 1/4 cup of sugar with honey. Not too much though! You don't want the honey to take over the taste of the authentic oatmeal raisin cookie, do you?

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Recipe makes : 50-60 cookies

Ingredients :

1 cup wholemeal flour
1 1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup of water
3 cups rolled oats or quick cooking oats
1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celcius. Sift the wholemeal flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg into a bowl and leave it aside.Beat the butter and brown sugar till fluffy and creamy.Add egg and vanilla essence to the butter mixture. Beat till just combined. Then, add water and mix. Pour in sifted ingredients into the bowl and mix. Add the oats, and finally the raisins. Mix till just combined.Roll the batter into small rounds and flatten it onto a sheet of baking paper. Bake for 10-12 minutes until slightly brown. Be aware that the cookies do not expand that much. Flattening it will add the crunch to the cookie.Cool on a wire rack and munch away!

By Sabrina

Easy homemade dessert

2009-02-23T10:32:00.006+08:00

Apple Crumble

Apple crumble is one of the simplest desserts I have ever come across to make. Apple crumble consist of cooked apples as the base and a crumbly top. To begin making your own apple crumble, you first need these ingredients:
· 50g rolled oats
· 50g rice flour
· 35g butter, cold and cut into cubes
· 50g brown sugar
· 400g granny smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into small chunks.
· 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
· 1 tablespoon sugar
· 1 dessertspoon of water

First you need to peel the apple, take out the core and cut the apple into small chunks and place them into saucepan. Add the sugar, water and cinnamon. Cook the apple for 5 minutes at medium heat. Once the apple is done, let it cool down and place them into a baking dish. Then preheat the oven to 180 degree Celsius.

For the crumble, mix the rolled oats and rice flour into a bowl. Place the butter cubes into cubes and with your fingers, start incorporating the butter into the mixture. Then add the brown sugar into the mixture and start mixing until it forms a crumbly texture. Place the crumble over the apples and spread it out evenly. Place the baking dish into the preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes or until the crumble turns golden brown.
You may serve this with either custard sauce or a single scoop of vanilla ice cream.

By Giri

Valentines Special in KDU

2009-02-23T10:11:00.014+08:00

In this lovable month of February, we had organized a charity event on the romantic week of the year at KDU SQUARE. We carried out 5 different projects on that week itself and they are Valentines Charity Auction, Love Potion, Cupid Magic Beans, Valentines Roses and Wishing Tree. We started off with the Love Potion and Cupid Magic Beans. Cupid Magic Beans are actually red beans with words laser on it.

Before the week of Valentines, we had to make preparations where it was held in a beautiful Saturday morning where most of them had to sacrifice their Saturday to wake up early to help. Each member were given different task where some help to prepare the Cupid Magic Beans. Some help to do the cutting and drawing of the love shape. The sewing of the Valentine Roses was one of the most difficult task.

The preparation was a good starting for the members because the Valentine project is our 1st project working and cooperating together. The preparation ended about 6 pm where most of the task had been accomplish.

THE LOVE POTION

The 1st task of the week, we carried out the Love Potion project. It consists of 5 different types of drinks which represent relationship which are Attraction, Commitment, Romance, Passion and Intimacy. Romance and Passion are made from fresh fruit juices, where as, Commitment, Attraction and Intimacy are mocktails. The responds of the drinks was good and we manage to sold all the drink.

THE AUCTION

Other than just selling roses and drinks, we have try something new for a chance like auctioning students and lectures of SHTCA where our beloved mother Wong was one of the participants. The auction was the most well respond for our Valentine project and was held for 2 days. The auction was held about 12 pm - 2 pm at the KDU SQUARE. During the 2 days, the cafeteria was crowed with many students of KDU and the responds towards the auction was good where student from other Courses help to rise the fund. Some of our SALE has reaches the amount that we didn't experted.

The Valentine week was a very sucessful and the responds toward it was unimaginable where students helped to rise funds to aid others who needed help. This project is very meaningful for the members of Grapevine because is our 1st task working togather as a team and we had accomplish it togather.

The Dinner

2009-02-22T15:05:00.021+08:00

Before Chinese New Year's holiday, our beloved Mother Wong had organize a dinner to welcome all the new members and committees of Grapevine. The dinner was held at Chinese Halal restaurant 'Aladdin'. The environment of the place was comfortable and relaxing. The food was so different from most of the Chinese restaurant i went before, but taste was unforgettable and really good.

This dinner means a lot where it will be starting of a new and fresh blood to lead. Every year new talents will be create and opportunities will be given.

the new and fresh

Mother Wong and her new born

I'm RICH.......... I"M RICH

MY Angels

ANNNNNN.....GuArdddd

The Evil Twin Sister

Beauties & the Beasts

So busy................ NO time to eat

on Your Mark

Get READY!!!!!!!

GO....GO.....GO.....

Even thought the dinner is not as luxury as the 5 Star Hotel's Restaurant, but it was awesome. this is our 1st dinner together and at the spot we try to understand each other and introduce ourselves to other members. The dinner ended about 9 pm.

The Happening

2009-02-22T14:53:00.001+08:00

From a small ambition became an issue to help Malaysians and other youngsters to pursue their dreams or goal in life. KDU College was founded by Teo Hang Sam. Constructed in 1981 by Richard Ho, the building was situated at a strategic place between Petaling Jaya and Kuala Lumpur. The college was fully operational by 1983 with the motto “To Succeed Is To Excel”.

The first principal of KDU College was Mrs. Terri Hew. The first enrolment was advertised in major local newspapers in March 1983. By April, the same year, a total of 650 students formed the pioneer batch. The college became an educational pioneer in Malaysia with its American Credit Transfer programme. The first batch of American Degree programme students numbering 150 in total transferred to various universities across the United States in August 1984 was indeed a proud moment for the college. In the same year, the Business School became the first in the nation to run the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) course in a full-time basis. At the same time, Middlesex Polytechnic (now Middlesex University) offered partnership to introduce the very first overseas twinning programme

In 1987, another building which is the School of Hotel and Catering was established because of the growing number of students. Most parents and students were attracted to the facilities, dedicated staff and various courses. There were other factors which they were interested of was that the soothing environment and the support services. As the early years, students and staff had a hard time managing their studies and teaching times. Every year, the college will host an exciting event which is the “Serbanika” for everyone to relax and have fun after the hectic times. Usually, it was held to relax the students and have fun after the hectic times. Usually it was held at year ends where all the exams were over.

In the 21st century, technology was expanding rapidly. In a world that was increasingly interconnected, KDU College continued to forge strong relationships with its students, partner universities and the community. It would be a partnership for life as the college endeavored to give the best possible education to those who had entrusted it with their aspirations for the future. As the time comes to expand the college, in 1991, the Penang branch campus was ready to be set up. In July 1991, the campus was filling with students from 350 – 850. By 1999 – 2000 foreign students from 25 countries such as Indonesia, Mongolia, the Maldives, South Korea, China and Oman were pursuing different courses in both the PJ and Penang campuses.

In 1999, KDU College aligned itself with the country’s ambitious goal of developing SMART schools with its 3 years upgrading exercise costing RM 10million. With its SMART initiative, KDU College become the only private college in Malaysia to offer its students and staff quick access to the internet at the speed of 2mbp/s. students developed leadership and organizational skills through course assignments, club activities and community service projects.

When the new millennium rolled in, KDU College had to ensure that it continued to provide quality education and services where there are far more players in the industry. In 2001, KDU College became the first institute to be accredited by the Lembaga Akreditasi Negara (LAN) for its American Universities Transfer programme. The Malaysian Government also recognized the college’s contributions in IT by conferring the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) status in June 2000. To better support the range of courses, the academic departments of the college was streamlined into 3 schools: the School of Arts and Social Sciences (SASS), the School of Hospitality, Tourism and the Culinary Arts (SHTCA) and the School of Engineering, Science and Technology (SEST).

The days of the Idealist

2009-02-22T14:51:00.000+08:00

KDU College was born in the 1983 where it becomes the stepping stone and the further for Malaysian students. For the past 25 years, KDU College had produced over 42,000 graduates like our one and only undisputed champion who dominated the bowling alley Esther Cheah, and the sexy with the looks that can kill a man instantly and a sharp mind like Hannah Tan.

Our story begins in the year of 1928 where a Chinese migrant from the province of GuangDong with the heart of a lion come and step his first foot on the place where many people said to be ‘The place of untold opportunities’, Malaya. He took his family along to cross the dangerous water of the South China Sea to this unfamiliar place where he heard stories about the place only. Like any strong survivals or bravehearts, he took up the challenges and had dreams of building his own empire. He understands where a conqueror will do, to see, to come and to conquer. He was different from the others business personal, he is a risk taker with a sharp mind and accurate judgments in decision makings.

The late Dato Teo Hang Sam begins his empire by selling goods from doors to doors than he sold eggs in the Central Market which is known to be Kuala Lumpur now. After 8 long years of struggling and hardship, he was able to build his empire where See Hoy Chan group was founded which means ‘a warehouse full of wealth across the four seas’. By the year of 1960s, after achieving his primary goals, he wanted to do something different which he can show his gratitude towards his achievements and hardship, by helping the society who needed aid. He understands the principle of to give, to take and to return by building schools and associations. After the formation of Malaysia, he was elected to be the chairman Benevolent & Welfare division of MCA.

But sadly he did not have the chance to look with his own eyes to establish his own school but his will and wishes was passed down to his generations. Where his grandchildren Dato Teo Chiang Quan had fulfill his dreams and will.