A Fresh Start

Hello world.

Apologies everyone. My extended break from blogging has been unplanned, but necessary. Long story cut short. A business trip to China, a bout of illnesses and a mountain of work later, I'm back.

Breakfast is without a doubt my favourite weekend meal. Growing up, Sunday was the only day the whole family could get together for breakfast. Dad was running his business 6 days per week 7am to 7pm and weekdays were always full of school and tuition activities.

Kopitiams (Malaysian cafes) were aplenty in Ipoh but we usually went to a handful of favourites. The kopitiam selling double boiled duck leg in superior stock. The kopitiam selling thick curry with flat rice noodle. The kopitiam selling wonton noodles with char siew. The kopitiam selling the best Ipoh chicken rice noodles and delicious char koay teow.

Now that I no longer live with my family, breakfast takes another form. An ideal one would be having a hearty breakfast while reading the newspaper and sipping a good mocha in a cafe. Or cooking something simple like pancakes at home. There are many recipes that promise fluffier pancakes by beating the eggwhites separately, but I can't be bothered this time. This recipe is very easy and the end products satisfyingly good.

Mix 1 cup of self-raising flour, 1 tbps of sugar, 2 tsp of baking powder, a pinch of salt together in a mixing bowl. Then add 1 beaten egg, 1 cup of milk, 2 tsp of vanilla extract and 2 tbps of vegetable oil. Mix ingredients together. Then heat a non-stick pan over medium heat. Ladle batter onto pan (no extra oil required) and cook until one side starts to bubble. Flip and cook the other side.

Serve with anything you like. We have them with passionfruit butter and pear jam from the Hawkesbury region and St Dalfour's black cherry jam from Woolies.

Next posts: Shanghai, now one of my favourite cities in the world.