Thursday 21 June 2012

3 easy fast hijab tutorials!!

Down here are three super easy and fast tutorials that need only one brooch. !!! seriously just one. and no inner/ bonnet too! you can wear them if you want because you feel more secure that way? but i haven't had much trouble with these styles, but the secret lies in the pashmina. I long cooling pashmina or the kind with a stretch to it is best! THIS WONT WORK WITH those flimsy cotton ones, or anything flimsy, because you need the weight for it to stay in place.

as usual, refer to my many pics for the tutorials





look one done! Kinda duh-obvious. Im sure all of you know this look anyways, its a handy standby:)









Look two complete! i like this style for school because it's out of my face! And its still pretty trendy la kan.. boleh lah.. its really good for windy days. We don't get much of that in KL, but I remember bad hijab days in Melbourne, so windy.







This is the super fast hana tajima whateveryouwannacallit- maybe khaleji look.





I just added these two pics, of the second look in a different scarf so you can see the folds better. HEHE, all my friends and family will testify that this is my new hijab look:)

I hope you guys enjoyed this tutorial!

love,
Far

Monday 18 June 2012

A Word From Farhana and engagement pics part 2

Hello blogwalkers!

Its been a really long while since I have put up anything on here! Please keep coming to see us here at The Awesome project, We have some events coming up so stay tuned for pics, my henna night + hens night being one still in planning. I have hijab tutorials, some easy food crafts and some more skin care tips coming your way so stay tuned! once I have the time, as well as the lovely writers of this blog have the time, you will be in for a treat:) SEE YOU SOON!

and just because I know you girls like pics anyways, heres some pic of my engagement (SNORE) but by the lovely Micole Goh who was my professional  photographer for the day:















Sunday 17 June 2012

Ad: Food Review: Antonio's Trattoria Calabria @ TTDI

Hello hello dear readers! How's everyone doing? Hope everyone's feeling jolly :) Today's food review is on my favourite Italian restaurant: Antonio's Trattoria Calabria at Taman Tun Dr Ismail (TTDI). I've been going there with my family for many years now and their food has been consistently scrumptious throughout the years! I don't know if many people know about Antonio's, but I definitely think you should give it a try if you love Italian food :)

Today's post unfortunately will not be full of photos (boo!) because unfortunately I've never brought a proper camera with me to this place. Also, no photos of the decor this time. However, don't fret; you can look at them at their Facebook page. Will post a link at the bottom of this review.

Right after we ordered, we were immediately served some sliced french bread with olive oil spread. Unfortunately, no photos were taken. We must've been really hungry hahaha. They are a nice start to any meal and if our orders ever arrive late, this is definitely a good distraction.

Creamy Mushroom Bruschetta
Ok let's start with the appertiser. We ordered the creamy mushroom bruschetta. It came soon after we ordered (quick service on most nights, unless they're super busy). It was extremely good. They were generous with the mushrooms and generous with the cream sauce too. Everything was just right, the bread had a wonderful crisp, it was not too salty, not too creamy that it overwhelms the dish...it was just perfect! Just a word of caution: it's extremely HOT! Do not make the mistake of immediately eating it after it's served. I know it's hard to resist good, fresh food but the cream sauce retains a lot of heat and you will definitely burn your tongue if you eat it immediately. You do not want to burn your tongue, especially before having the main course.

The other dishes we ordered for our main course were the spaghetti marinara, seafood tortellini and spaghetti gamberi aglio e olio. You can choose the pasta for most of the dishes. You can choose from spaghetti, linguini, fettucini, and if I'm not mistaken the last one is the multi-coloured fettucini (will have to check again the next time I come here). Again, the service was prompt. Oh and before our main dishes were served, they served a shot of concentrated citrus juice for everyone. This is to neutralise our taste buds so that we can enjoy the actual taste of our dishes for the main course.

Spaghetti Marinara

The spaghetti marinara is a seafood dish. You can choose to have it served in garlic-based sauce or tomato-based sauce. As you can see, this time we went for the tomato-based sauce. Personally, I usually prefer the tomato-based sauce. I think the natural flavours of the seafood blends very well with the tomatoes and herbs. As you can see from the photo, the restaurant is very generous with the seafood. You definitely will not be disappointed with the portions. If you're not a big eater, you should probably share this with another person haha. There were plenty of clams, calamari, prawns and a few muscles here and there. Overall, a very satisfying dish. The tomatoes in the sauce do not overpower the seafood flavour, and that natural sweetness from the prawns make the dish even more drool-worthy. The pasta was cooked al dente (just right); it has never been under- or over-cooked in my experience :)

Seafood Tortellini

The seafood tortellini is a cream-based pasta. I can't remember if we could choose the type of sauce, but yeah we went for the cream-based one. It was delicious. The tortellini was tender but not too soft; it definitely did not break apart when i cut them. It's packed with flavours and the creamy sauce makes you drool for more. The tortellinis are stuffed with seafood mixed with a variety of herbs. I can't really tell what exactly is in them but it's super good and that's all that really matters (unless you have a food allergy then please please ask the waiter/waitress what's in it before you order!). However, I do not recommend it if you are super hungry. It's not that the portion is small, it's just that unlike pasta noodles, you can count the number of tortellini pieces on your plate. It is quite likely that you'll finish your dish before anyone else finishes theirs! Even if it's easier to finish this dish, believe me it'll make you full. Only you probably won't realise it til it's too late lol.

Gamberi Aglio E Olio

Last but not least is the gamberi aglio e olio. Aglio e olio is actually a very simple dish that primarily consists olive oil, garlic and chili flakes. Antonio's also has the aglio e olio by itself; the difference between the two dishes is that the gamberi aglio e olio comes with prawns - giant prawns! Ok well not giant prawns, but you get what I mean (look at the photo!). It's a simple dish that appeals to a lot of people. If you want a relatively safe dish, I don't think the aglio e olio can go wrong anywhere. It's a rather light dish, not in terms of portion, but in the sense that it is unlikely that you will get sick of it before you finish what's on your plate. And what I mean by this previous sentence is for example not everyone can take a lot of a cream-based sauce, because they tend to get sick of the taste, especially if the portion is huge. This dish is pretty light, though sometimes a bit oily to some people, as olive oil is the main ingredient. The broccoli adds a nice touch to the dish with its texture.The prawns brings a flavour up a notch, which, to me, makes this dish better than the regular aglio e olio.  Definitely a must-try!

We usually have tiramisu for dessert (if we have any space left in our tummies!) which is absolutely amazing. We didn't for this particular trip though. I'm not sure if the tiramisu contains alcohol, but to be safe, be sure to notify the waiter/waitress that you do not want alcohol in it, or any of your food (if you don't take any alcohol that is). My family and I are regulars at Antonio's so they know to exclude alcohol in all of our food :) Oh and the price range for the pasta dishes are around RM20-RM30 on average. They also serve lamb shank, and steak too if I remember correctly. Those dishes will of course cost a little more.

Overall, the service is excellent, the ambiance is warm and cozy, the decor is simple and the food is extraordinary! I definitely recommend this place for a pleasant Italian dining experience. The next time you are craving for Italian food, make sure you give Antonio's a try!

Verdict: 5 out of 5
Note: This restaurant serves halal meat, but does not have halal certification because it serves alcohol.
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AntoniosTTDI

Til next time,
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Wednesday 13 June 2012

Ad: Food Experiment: Home Made Hummus

Hey all! hope you enjoyed our previous post about the Bachelorette party! as the introduction suggests, we've been gone for way way too long. Well now most of us have more free time, so you can expect more posts! So I realised that it's been a while since I last did a post on a food experiment! I've done quite a few, though not as many as I'd prefer, so today I'll share with you my experience on my first and second attempts of trying to make hummus at home!

Ok some of you may already know what is hummus, especially if you are familiar with Middle Eastern cuisine, but for those of you who do not know, hummus needs some introduction! Hummus is a dip that is primarily made of chick peas, or garbanzo beans, or kacang kuda in Malay. People usually eat it with bread. Some prefer to have it with flat bread, some like it with those fluffy Arab breads, some like it with rice. Personally I think hummus goes well with a lot of things! I've had it with all those mentioned above, and also paratha or roti canai, normal white bread or whole-meal bread and chapati too. If you can't already tell, I love my hummus!

Photo taken from: hummus-recipes.blogspot.com

I decided to make hummus at home because I could only have it whenever we (usually me and my familiy) went to Middle Eastern restaurants, and that certainly is not often. Then sometime last year, I was in Village Grocer, a supermarket, and found that they were selling commercialised hummus imported from Australia. Lol I found it funny too. So I bought it and was quite happy with it, although of course it did not taste as fantastic as freshly-made hummus. It was quite expensive. One small container of it (not sure how of the net weight) costs around RM15. Maybe even more. My mom was not planning to put it in the grocery list every week that's for sure. So a couple of months ago I was having this crazy craving for hummus in the middle of the night. Obviously I couldn't go out to get it, so I had to settle with Googling recipes. Then I realised how easy it is!

Ok so what you'll need to make hummus at home are:
1. 1 can of chickpeas
2. A few cloves of garlic
3. Fresh lemon (for lemon juice)
4. White sesame seeds
5. Olive oil (around a few table spoons to 1/4 cup)
6. Water (around 1/3 cup)
7. Salt to taste!

The main equipment you need is a blender!

Photo taken from: aidan.com.my
I used Kimball's chickpeas simply because it was the cheapest I could find. Any brand of canned chickpeas will do. I suppose you can also use fresh chickpeas and boil them, but according to a few websites, canned chickpeas work better and gives a better texture.

Ok so the first thing you need to do is to roast the sesame seeds. How much you need depends on how much hummus you want to make, but for one can of chickpeas, around 2-3 table spoons would be enough. Just heat a pan, add the sesame seeds to the pan and toss them. You only need to heat them up. This only takes a minute or so, because you must take it off the stove before the sesame seeds turn brown. Once that is done, put the roasted sesame seeds in the blender. Add in two table spoons of olive oil.

Next, empty the can of chickpeas into a sifter so that the liquid in the can is drained out. Then, run some water over it to rinse it. After that, add the drained and rinsed chickpeas to the blender. The next step is to chop some cloves of garlic. It doesn't have to look pretty, because after all, everything is going into the blender anyway! Again, add that to the blender. After that, add about a teaspoon of salt and squeeze some lemon juice into the blender. Be careful not to add too much, because sometimes lemon juice can be bitter. You don't want the hummus to be bitter (that was what happened to my first batch of hummus..thankfully it was only slightly bitter). If you think there isn't enough olive oil, you can add more later.

Now that everything is in the blender, switch it on and start blending. Continue blending until you think all the ingredients has mixed well and until you are satisfied with the texture. It's ok to stop and check the hummus as many times as you want. Once you're satisfied with the texture, check its taste. If you think it needs a more citrus taste, squeeze more lemon juice in. If you think it needs more salt, add a little bit of salt at a time. But yea, basically you're done! I was really satisfied with the overall taste. I had hummus every day for two weeks lol. Definitely was not bored of it! Oh yes, keep it in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. It will last about two weeks. I wouldn't recommend keeping it for any longer because it may go bad.

Now let me help you run through the cost of making hummus at home. One can of chickpeas costs around RM2.70. Garlic..well I don't know how much is garlic, but you only need around 2-3 cloves so maybe add RM0.20 for that? Then you need about 1/4 cup of olive oil, maybe that costs around RM3.00. Then one lemon costs around RM2, but you won't need the lemon juice of the whole lemon, so maybe RM1 to that. And salt..well you already have salt at home. Sesame seeds..doesn't cost too much, maybe RM3.00 but that's for about a whole cup of sesame seeds, so maybe RM1.00? Ok that totals up to be around RM7.90...much cheaper than the commercialised one and you get double or maybe even triple the portion! So easy to make too!

I mentioned that my first batch went wrong because the lemon juice made it a little bitter? well I made a second batch and made a big mistake of adding too much water so it was too runny. The taste was still ok, but just runny. Of course the only way to not make it so runny is to blend more chickpeas, but since I didn't have anymore, I had to have it just like that, which was still bearable but maybe I love hummus that much. Unfortunately I didn't take photos, but I can always add that the next time I make more. Hope you'll have fun making hummus at home.

Alright, I gotta go now. I'm actually in the middle of another experiment now. It seems it's not going all that well, but I'm going to see if I can salvage it! Til next time!

Ad :)
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