Food is Powerful

Food is powerful! Generally people would say "You are what you eat!", but I say "You are what you want to eat!" That explains the state of my mind lately. You see, I was sick two weeks earlier and as I was recovering last week, everything seemed to come back to normal gradually, but one thing that could prove my getting completely well was my craving for food. Food, food, food!



Nothing seemed to be appealing to me the week I was sick, I couldn't bring myself to think about any food. In fact, the thought about food disgusted me. And dessert - the most profound food that would rise my heartbeat everything I look at them in the shop display couldn't seem to do any trick on me. Basically sickness was a total doom, nothing seemed to be desirable, everything was just pure gloominess and horror.



So what came as a remarkable sign that I was once healthy again? My thought about tomyum fried rice and spicy fried noodles! It was so intensely making its way to instant fulfilment. That lured me into taking a long stroll in my warm jacket, against the evening wind, heading to my favorite restaurant and found myself disappointed overseeing the unsupposingly closed premise. "Why on earth it is closed on a Wednesday night and where am I going to eat?".

The same disappointment recurred again on my second attempt two days later, pushing the restaurant door opened only to find staff cleaning up the floor. I almost screamed my head off as it was just 8:30 pm and they were supposed to stay open until 9:30. Hello!!!!!!!!!



Consequently, my recovering soul was looking for a quick replacement and insisting on the next most desirable pursuit. I had to settle on something else since I had turned into a big bubble of hunger and crave and was about to burst any moment then. I had abruptly turned greedy and desperate, two things that have been deprived from my vocabulary due to sickness and too much rests. So what was my next best thing?



Had to be a plate of salmon sashimi and a bowl of Tensaru Soba with tempura! I finally got what I wanted and they tasted just like how I expected them to be! True pleasure, nothing less! The munch into those slices of raw salmon brought back my memory of my most desirable tastebuds. My mind was exclamating "Boy, it tastes like heaven!", "Salmon sashimi is a blessing to the human race", "Life is worth living!". The recurring of these same old lines reminded me of my normal tasting experience........... "I am so back now!". And I couldn't help grin with my messy lips. "Thanks, Big Guy... for I am back!"

Meanwhile I like to thank Lynn of Cafe Lynnylu for hosting DMBLGIT October and giving the opportunity for me to take part once again and win the award. Thanks also to the judges: Asha, Denise, Nicole and Susan! Check out Lynn's DMBLGIT winner page.



YAM CAKE WITH LEMON GLAZING
Makes one 9 inch gugelhupf cake.



1.Yam Cake
Prepare: one 9 inch gugelhupf cake tin

Ingredients:
- Butter > 150 grams
- Granulated sugar > 108 grams
- Salt > 1/8 teaspoon
- Eggs > 2.5
- Mashed yam > 108 grams
- Granulated sugar > 15 grams
- Coconut milk > 50 ml
- Cake flour > 100 grams
- Multi purpose flour > 75 grams
- Baking powder > ½ teaspoon
- Purple coloring > 3-4 drops



Method:
- Preheat oven to 180C. Place a baking tray in the oven.
- Grease and flour a gugelhupf mould.
- Combine butter, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl and beat until light and thick.
- Fold in eggs and beat more until smooth.
- Add mashed yam, sugar, coconut milk. Beat at low speed to combine well.
- Combine cake flour and multi purpose flour in a bowl. Sieve flour into the yam mixture, add purple coloring and stir well.
- Pour into gugelhupf mould and bake at 180C for 50 minutes. If the cake surface starts to crack or already looks cooked after 30 minutes, cover the top with aluminium foil and continue baking to the desired 50 minutes in order to make sure the bottom portion is baked to perfection, or else the bottom will stick to mould and it will not look good when invert the cake to wire rack later on.
- Leave to cool a bit in mould before invert into wire rack. Set aside to cool completely.



2. Lemon Glaze

Ingredients:
- Icing sugar > 250 grams
- Lemon juice > 2 tablespoons
- Lemon rind > 2 teaspoons
- Softened butter > 40 grams



Method:
- Combine all ingredients together in a saucepan.
- Put saucepan over a pan filled with simmering water.
- Mix glazing until it reaches spreading consistency.
- Pour over yam cake.
- Decorate with orange slices and pomegranates.