Pav-vlo-vah

Pavlova is like one of the best desserts creation ever made. I fell in love at the first bite. Seriously. It’s so delicious that it’s a sin not to eat a good pavlova. Hahah.

Pavlova is a meringue based dessert named after a Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. Yeah, I just googled that.😬 

But I know that pavlova is made of egg white and sugar mostly. It is crisp crust outside with light, marshmallow-ey inside. Heaven. Usually it’s topped with whipped cream and fruits.

It’s not easy to make a pavlova. I heard from experienced bakers that sometimes even the weather affects the outcome of the pavlova. Usually people don’t make it on rainy days because of the humidity. Unless you have a powerful oven that has all the settings. You didn’t know that did you? 🤔

Also, the type of eggs you’re using also plays a role. Usually we used the Grade A eggs. We tried with othees but it smell of egg too much and sometimes it’s a bit chewy. 

To make a meringue you have to beat the ingredients until it reaches stiff peak. Yeah, this is the part I failed. So I no longer make pavlova. I just eat them. I used to be so crazy about pavlova that I have 2 of them only for me. Or a whole cake. I did😬

But I’ve tried some of the best pavlova in KL and I’m proud to say Didie’s Kitchen has one of the best pavlova ever. But because I’m supposed to sell it I can’t really eat it all the time can I?

This is from Alexis bistro. I used to loveee this one until the recent price hike. 

This is like one of the perfectly symmetricaly made pavlova I’ve ever seen. OCD people will totally love this. This one is from Cake Jalan Tiung.

This is from the multi talented bakers of all time! Their pavlova is perfection! But they no longer made it because of the weather hassle. But still, other stuffs made by them is still the best. Search up shawn and ferdy on Ig and you’ll get what I mean.

This is Didies Famous pavlova. That’s a winner over there. So come on over and try it!

Coffee and It's Relative.

What type of coffee do you like ? I prefer to drink a Vienna over latte. It has a stronger body with a sweet ending. What's a Vienna?


Okay, so here are some basic types of coffee that you'll see everyday.

Americano : Black coffee or espresso with water

Espresso : Coffee extract. Usually they drink this in the Europe. It's more of a grab and go drink rather than sitting around and sipping a cup of it. Espresso only consists of the coffee extract with nothing else. This is usually the small small cup that looks stylish when you pose for pictures but not many can take the taste.

Latte : This is quite famous because of the term Latte Art.It's actually a combination of espresso, milk, and a little bit of foam.  Many people think that when you call yourself a barista means you can whip out your wand and drew a picasso on the coffee. No. It takes quite a skill to make even a simple rosetta let alone to create a swan or even a cat. But there are a position called Latte Artist. There's also a Latte Art competition. So you can guess how big of a deal it is. But usually when i pour an art, the coffee has gone cold. So I usually stick to a simple love or a flower. It is more important that the coffee is nice. You can have a Mona Lisa on the cup but if the coffee is shitty, what's the point?

Cappucino :  It's exactly like Latte but with more foam. But most customers I get during my time working at Starbucks ordered this like it's so western. "Can I get a tall decaf cappucino with 2 pumps of sugar" . Now read it again with an accent. Cappucino makes people feel stylish when drinking it. It actually just coffee with milk and half of it is foam.

Mocha : This is also one of people's favorite. It chocolate drink with espresso. Coffee with chocolate. However you wanna see it.

Piccolo : This type of coffee is in between an espresso and latte. It's espresso with milk but in a smaller cup. So the taste of espresso is stronger in Piccolo compared to a Latte.

Flat white : It's basically like a Latte with lesser or no foam.

Macchiato : It espresso with a dollop of foamed milk.


So what's a Vienna? It's a Piccolo topped with Whipped Cream and a dash of cocoa powder. Yum!

This is the typical rosetta.

 This flower with a heart.

#bewareofdroolingoverfood

Coffee - or こひ

Coffee. Who doesn’t likes it? Many people. But what makes it so phenomenal that for some people the day starts after drinking coffee? Well, to simply put, a good coffee can give a good head start for the day. Coffee can set out your mood for the day when you get the first sip. Imagine that sweet milk with that aromatic caffeine in your mouth, heading straight towards your throat. Gulp. Now I want coffee. Sigh.

Anyways, coffee beans have 2 types of categories. Arabica and Robusta.

Arabica beans tends to have more flavor with lower acidity. It’s grown in a higher altitude and costs more to produce hence making Arabica coffee beans a bit more expensive.

Robusta beans however, have a harsher taste with a higher level of caffeine and acidity. It’s grown at a lower altitude than Arabica beans. This type of bean is also a lot more cheaper. Most commercial coffee uses this type of beans.

Our cafe uses the premium Arabica coffee beans. That is why our coffee doesn’t have the same price with mamak. Because the beans itself is expensive. And the machine. And the milk. That’s why we can sell it at RM 2.00 per cup. How to cover the cost then. Haha. Okay back to the topic.

Aside from the beans, the roasting level also plays a factor in determining the taste of the coffee.
There are 3 general rosting level which are :

Light roast : This type of roasting gives out more of the original flavor as it has not been roasted for a long duration. It also has a higher acidity level with more delicate taste in the beans. The colour of the  beans would appear lighter brown with dry features.

Medium roast : This level of roasting is more popular than the other 2 types of roasting level. It gives more mouthfeel flavor than the Light roast beans, and also has a lower acidity level because it is roasted longer. The colour of the beans will be chocolate brownish. Because of the balanced between the flavor and acidity, most people tends to use Medium roast beans in their coffee.

Dark roast : Now for the people who like strong and smoky coffee taste, this one is for you. Dark roast coffee beans gives out stronger coffee taste with lower acidity, but because of the longer roasting time, the original flavor of the beans is overpowered. Usually, Robusta coffee beans is roasted with this level. The beans will appear with dark chocolate colour with oily surface.


That’s all for the types of beans. My preference is Arabica beans with medium roast level because it gives out the nice flavor without the bitter aftertaste later. The milk also plays a part in making an awesome coffee. But let’s talk about that later!

Why Barista?

I always get the question why become a barista? Why not do something else?

So let me tell you a story first  about my background. You see, I wanted to be Doctor when i was in high school. Don't all of us had that dream. Sigh. Anyways, fast forward to college life, I did not get the results that is good enough to pursue my dreams. So I studied the closest that I can get to become a doctor. I studied to become a Physiotherapist. It's no glam title like Dr Munirah but it was good because I still get to treat people. I became one for 3 years. And then I quit.

I quit my job and became a barista after that. Where do I start? Starbucks Lingkaran Karak. I was a part timer there. I worked as a barista for about 6 months. And then I joined this cafe that I'm currently working in. Didie's Kitchen and Coffee. I learned from the basic of making coffee to what I'm able to produce today. And I owe it all to Masa-san. Yeah, I learned how to make awesome coffee from a Japanese. Because aside from my coffee, Masa-san's coffee is how I describe to-die-for-coffee-because-it-is-always-nice. Trust me.

Okay,back to the question. People who knows me from being a physiotherapist asked me why would I became something else after all that study? My answer is, why can't I? Being a barista is as respectable as any other job in the world. And I enjoyed that. I also enjoyed treating people but when you make something and serve it to people and get to change their perception of coffee always taste bitter, you feel like you achieved something.

And i get to challenge myself in a new area. An uncharted water. Who would've thought that me, Munirah, get to be the 2nd runner up of Malaysia's 2017 SPECIALTY COFFEE BREWER  KO TOURNAMENT? There were 72 contestants and I placed 3rd out of them all. Yeah, I did that😊

First place got RM 6000. That could have paid for my Japan trip.😐

The top 3 get to perform again a week later at Beans Depot cafe for public to 

taste our coffee. 

Introduction

Hello!

So here in this blog I'm gonna post about coffee, food, art of coffee making, food, why I become a barista, food, and desserts. And more about food. You get the picture. It is call It's All About The Tummy for a reason.😉

So why do I decide to make a blog about all these delicious things when there are so many other blogs written about food out there? Simply because I worked at a cafe called Didie's Kitchen and Coffee located at Danau Kota where they served awesome food and desserts with me making awesome coffee. Heh. Also because Aina persuades me to do this. So here's to Aina drooling all over this blog. 😋