Maybe. 
Today we had our second obstetricians appointment which I might add went well. It was a routine check up. I didn’t have many questions for the Dr. so we were ushered into the ultrasound room, and because we (our collective household here in HK) were keen to find out the sex of the baby, we were happy to move quickly. The baby is growing within healthy parametres. The Dr. couldn’t see any abnormalties. I eagerly asked him if he could determine the sex of the baby and he said ‘he would try’.
As would be typical of a child from my hubby’s and mine loins, the baby again was not cooperating! The Dr. said he couldn’t see any male structures so as far as he could tell he thinks we might be having a girl. Might being the important word here. He also said the ultrasound was not 100% clear so we shouldn’t go purchasing girls clothes and decorating the nursery in pink just yet. Of course at that point I laughed and told him that it ‘wasn’t our style’ which I realised after I said it could mean a million things. But for me, right then and there, I was thinking that we’d be lucky if we had a cot organised by the time the baby is born. Organisational skills, or lack of, aside we left the clininc feeling pretty damn chirpy and excited for our next appointment so we can find out with a little more certainty the sex of the baby.
As I mentioned my better half and I were feeling excited and since we haven’t really ‘gone out’ since the diagnosis of Little t we decided to have a late lunch date.
We settled on Thai as the hubby felt like something spicy. So off we went to a little place called Cafe Siam on Lyndhurst Terrace just near the escalator.It wasn’t busy at all which made our ‘date’ all the more cosy. 
And the food was divine! Given this was a late lunch for us and were were starving… well maybe not starving but definitely hungry… we probably ordered a tad too much food for just the two of us but we enjoyed taking our time eating a delicious, decadent meal.
I wish I had our camera so you could see how delectable everything was but you’ll have to settle for the inadequate description. We ordered a chicken larb, which was yummy. They left the lettuce on the side which I liked as it meant the lettuce remained crisp. Then we ate our way through a delicously marinated tender pork neck. And before we could even consider being full our massaman beef curry and drunken noodles with chicken arrived. And because I obviously watch way too much Dora the Explorer in my time all I could think to say after our meal was “Yum, yum, yum, yum,yum. Delicioso!”
Definitely I could recommend Cafe Siam to anyone who finds their way to HK.
Feeling a little too heavy to do much else I decided to do some blog surfing. I had a look at some of the Daring Baker’s blogs which convinced me to sign up to The Daring Kitchen which then in turn led me to the Clean Plate Club’s Cookie Carnival. I guess more importantly the Cookie Carnival led to Black Bottomed Coconut Bars. These things looked delicious so right then and there I decided to that I was going to join up to the Cookie Carnival. Unfortunately though I didn’t have the ingredients to tackle making this Month’s challenge so I decided to bake some old favourites, Ship biscuits ( as they are known in our household) aka ANZAC biscuits to the rest of the world.
We can’t really eat these things as the last time Little t had one it sent his sugars through the roof but our helper, M, loves them and since tomorrow is her day off I thought it would be nice to to make a batch up for her to share with her friends over coffee.
So this is the recipe I used:
Ship Biscuits this recipe is one my Mum has been using for years, I believe it was first revealed in a school newsletter from my primary school days.
1 cup (90g) rolled oats
1 cup (150g) flour
¾ cup (65g) coconut
¾ cup raw sugar (For chewy cookies substitute raw sugar for brown sugar)
125g butter
2 tablespoons (30g-35g) honey
2 tablespoons (25g) water
1 teaspoon bicarb
Method
Preheat oven 180℃
Mix the oats, flour coconut and raw sugar in a large bowl.
In a saucepan over medium heat melt butter, honey & water. Once melted take off heat. Incorporate the bicarb quickly into the butter mixture.
Add oat mixture to the butter mixture.
Form 1 tablespoon sized balls of dough and place on cookie tray (no need to grease or line tray).
Bake for 8-10 minutes until golden.
And this is how they turned out today. Depending on how wet/dry the mixture; and temp of the mixture before placing it in the oven depends on how thick or thin the biscuits are.
As I’m trying to show you, today’s batch was a little wet and hence turned out thin and chewy. According to M it doesn’t matter what they end up looking like they taste just as delicious!
One of the good things about today’s baking is that I noticed the bottoms didn’t burn but they may have been due to the fact that I watched those biscuits like a hawk and kept modifying the temperature of my temperamental (I want to add crappy to the description but too afraid I might jinx myself and make it worse) oven!
On a baking role and a quick visit to the shops by M. I decided to tackle the Cookie Carnival challenge of the Black Bottomed Coconut Bars. The recipe can be found here.
And this is how they turned out.
This recipe for me is a keeper. I love the fact that the ingredients are common enough for me to be able to get at my local supermarket which in HK can be a feat in itself! Also, the bars were not too sweet which was pleasant for the palate and unfortunate for the waist line as you could easily follow up on having a second piece without feeling too overwhelmed. But the texture was delightful. Moist, soft and a little chewy. AWESOME!
Nonetheless, with the Ship Biscuits and these Black Bottomed Bars there should be some very happy, sugar pumped helpers in HK tomorrow!
