Cupcakes for Marthina's Birthday Celebration

These vanilla cupcakes frosted with vanilla butter cream were for our birthday celebrant. Blue butterfly cupcakes were for boys, pink flower for girls. Each kid was given one. A candle was put on each cupcake and the kids got to blow their own candle.

Marthina turns 4

Our Marthina is no longer a baby. She turns 4 today. She's the apple of the eye of everyone in our group. When she requested a "princess cake"  for her birthday, I said YES right away. Who could turn down a request from an adorable little girl like her?

Her mother brought home the six Disney princesses from her trip to Uncle Sam and I put them all on her cake. I "built"  2 towers to make the cake look more princessy.

Mini-reunion

Yesterday, some of my pastry friends and I met for the first time since we left culinary school in July 2010. One of our classmates was back after a 6-month  stint on Disney Cruise in Florida. We agreed to have a welcome dinner for him at Siam Paragon, a  place which has extensive choices of restaurants.

Choosing a good place for a meal would always result to a never ending conference among my culinary friends as each of us prefer different taste. We couldn't decide  where to eat so we walked around for a bit to check out some places and discuss their menus, a habit we have grown to love. Then we spotted a restaurant  we'd gone to several times while we were still students at Le Cordon Bleu. We figured it would be nice to take a trip down memory lane so everyone agreed to go.

Kate ordered Lad Na, a Thai Rice noodle in gravy. Naung ordered a set of Thai dish. We were so focused on catching up that she finished almost 3 quarters of her  food  before I remembered to take a picture of it.

Charlie Brown on Sukhumvit 11

Mexican food had been the subject of conversation for many months among my circle of friends. There is one place foreigners frequent on Sukhumvit Road so Mags suggested we go. Due to our schedule differences going Mexican with every one in our group seemed impossible.

Then came the big day, the 13th anniversary of Mag's 25th birthday. Figure that out! It didn't take much convincing when Mags said we  celebrate it at Charlie Brown Mexican Restaurant on Sukhumvit 11. The six of us went.

We were greeted by David, the manager of the restaurant, as we arrived. The tables were booked. We were told. We didn't know that booking was necessary before going there but the manager was kind enough to give us a table. We were ushered to our seats after David and a waitress put two tables together.

We ordered drinks and while sipping them, we busied ourselves discussing what to eat. After a long conference, we hailed a waiter to order.

Nachos were served first. Only after a few moments of munching nachos, there came the parade of the entrees. People looked in amazement when our orders arrived.  All main dishes were served with Mexican rice and refried beans.

 A toast for the birthday girl!

Cheesecake House

July 18 was national holiday in Thailand. Unlike my sister who gets loads of holidays due to the nature of her job, I seldom get holiday at work. That's the catch of being a chef. So when my supervisor at work informed me Monday was holiday, I was delighted. I took advantage of my one day break by going to a garage sale with my sister, friend and her daughter. A friend of a friend is moving out to a new apartment. She wanted to get rid of some stuff she might not need at the new place.

After our purchase, we said our goodbyes and headed back home. We were just half a mile away when all of a sudden my sister proposed we have our afternoon snack at Cheesecake House. We were already in the area so why not maximize our time there. My friend was quick to make a U-Turn. The next thing we knew , she was pulling over in front of an old building which housed the shop.

As we entered, the shelves of cookies, pastries and cupcakes greeted us.