All New People

Last weekend, I was fortunate enough to get tickets to watch a play written and directed by Zach Braff, called, "All New People."

Zach Braff is one of my favourite actor/writer. Of course, we all know Zach Braff as Dr John Dorian or J.D in Scrubs. Yes, he is the dorky geeky one! :) But he is also very funny. I could watch Scrubs every day, and will not get bored of it. I just love that all the characters are so different, and also the fact that they create banter in the hospital.

Ever since Scrubs, I have been sort of stalking Zach Braff....so I've watched his first ever movie, "Garden State," which starred Natalie Portman. It was an excellent movie. Zach also starred in "The Last Kiss," another movie that was written about the struggles in life as one gets older. They were all brilliant movies....so when I heard that Zach was coming to UK to perform his play, "All New People," I got really excited, and bought the tickets asap.

I got tickets for his performance in King's theatre, Glasgow. It was a sold out performance!

The play was about a 35 year old man attempting to commit suicide, after making a big error in his career....he didnt manage to end his life as he met 3 new people in his life, who changed his mind.

I love that the play was dark yet hilarious. I love that they played recorded clips in between the scenes of the play.... I love that the casts worked so well together, and the chemistry between them all was so good.

There were 2 minor glitches towards the end of the play. Apparently, at the very last scene, it was meant to be snowing, but the machine holding the fake snow failed to operate, and also made a loud grinding noise....but that aside, the play was fantastic.

At the end of the play, Zach Braff held a short 25 min Q&A session. One of the questions that made me smile was this, "Zach, have you tried the fried Mars bar yet?"

For those of you who have never heard of the famous fried Mars bar, I would not recommend it. The fried Mars bar is a delicacy of Scotland. Basically, it is a Mars bar.....deep fried.

Zach replied, "Yes, I've heard about it. I do not understand why one would want to make something already unhealthy, even unhealthier."

=) You can check out the website for the play here: http://www.allnewpeople.co.uk/

The Making of Pineapple Tarts

Following on my previous entry on baking for CNY, I decided to be more adventurous and attempt something I've never done before......The Pineapple Tarts.

Yeap....."pineapple tarts" in Malaysia do not look like typical tarts. The dough, when baked, is not flaky and crispy, and the filling is not made from custard or filled with fresh fruits. Pineapple tarts are basically biscuit filled with pineapple jam....i guess, you could say it is almost similar to fig rolls in the UK, just that the biscuit tastes more buttery.

Pineapple tarts come in different shapes. Some looks like cylindrical fig rolls, some looks like sushi (as in a roll filled with pineapple jam in the middle), and the others look like raspberry jam biscuits.

I grew up eating pineapple tarts. We have them as treats during Chinese New Year. I recalled watching mum making the tarts, and I all I have to do is to eat them! They tasted divine. I haven't had a pineapple tart for such a long time....and obviously, I have developed a sudden craving for them. So since I can't get any pineapple tarts at home, I shall make them! :)

I used mum's recipe. I was meant to make them last week, before Chap Goh Meh (the last day of CNY), but unfortunately, I fell ill at that time, and was not in the right state of mind and energy to make them. However, I recovered quickly, and decided to give it a go last weekend.

The most time consuming part of the process was making the pineapple jam. I grated fresh pineapples, and then, boil them slowly with sugar in a pot for more than an hour. The end result being a thick sweet sourish pineapple jam. I added cloves and a bit of grated nutmeg into the jam just to add some extra flavour. The jam was made the night before I made the batter for the biscuit, as it needs to cool down fully.

Pineapple Jam! :)

The next morning, I made the dough. Mum would usually use a mould to create a nice flower shaped biscuit with a small hollow in the middle to allow one to fill it with a tiny portion of pineapple jam. As I do not own one, I decided to make the ones that look like fig rolls. So the idea is to wrap some dough around a small portion of pineapple jam. I also made the rolled ones too.

This is how they looked before popping them into the oven.

I baked it in the oven for about 20-25mins....and here they are:

Don't they look like cylinder shaped fig rolls?

The end result! :D

Not bad for a first timer....But the looks can deceive you. It looks nice and brown...but I think I might have over baked it a little as the biscuit tasted a tad too crunchy for a pineapple tart. Nevertheless, the pineapple jam was brilliant! :D