Panasonic Cooking Demo: Homebaked Goodies for Christmas

I was so excited when I received an invite from omy recently, on a cooking demo by Panasonic to make some homebaked goodies for Christmas. And so, on a Saturday afternoon, I made my way over to the cooking studio at the Panasonic Customer Service Centre, along with a small group of other omy bloggers, to learn how easy it'll be to make some yummy breads with the Panasonic SD-P104 Bread Maker!

This is actually my first time seeing a bread maker and I was a little surprise to find that it actually resembles an elongated rice cooker. SD-P104 also comes with a handle, which added on to its handy-dandy convenience of being able to bring it around easily. 

And what's the plus point of being early for an event, other than being able to snatch the 'circus seats'? You can take as much photographs as you like, without snapping the weird backviews/sideviews/frontviews of any unknowing photobombers. 

And yes, that's 3 whole shelves of ovens and microwaves at the back of the cooking studio. 

Our cooking mama, Theresa, prepping up the place before the rest of the bloggers arrive. And yes, that's a freshly baked bread loaf you spot back there. 

A sneak peak of the ingredients needed for the cooking demo today....

And upon arrival of all bloggers, Theresa got the demo going by introducing to us how the Panasonic SD-P104 bread maker works. It not only mixes, kneads, rises and bakes the bread at one touch of the button, but also help to dispense raisins & nuts (left grey squarish contraption) and instant yeast (right black round contraption) automatically at the proper time. 

Not only that, it also allows us to choose the crust colour we prefer (light or standard) and has 13 baking menus (including rice flour bread and dumpling skin) to allow us to bake an array of goodies like bread, dough and cake. And according to Theresa, you can also make your own fruit jam using this bread maker as well! 

And other than the control panel and dispensers, the other remaining section of this amazing machine will be this bread pan.

And inside the bread pan comes with a detachable kneading blade. It's pretty surprising to know that such a small blade is enough to knead through the entire bread dough.

And while Theresa started off the class with showing us how she baked this perfect loaf of Fragrant Mixed Wheat Bread, Clarice, another friendly staff of Panasonic, helped to slice the freshly baked loaf for us to have a taste.

This bread is a little crispy on the outer crust, and totally soft and fluffy on the inside! And with a good dose of sunflower seeds, melon seeds, raisins and black sesame seeds, it totally added on to the sweetness and fragrance.... YUMS!

This is basically what happens after you dump all your ingredients into the bread pan and switch on the bread maker.
And in 2 hours under "Rapid" baking mode...

Viola~

And of course, we had a 2nd serving of this yummy bread loaf! Erm, okay I had a 3rd serving actually. xp

And if you think you can only make bread loaves with the bread maker, no that's not all! As mentioned, you can also make dough using the bread maker.

 and working on the ready made dough and allowed to rise further in a oven set at 40 degree C...

You can get some yummy flavoured bun rolls!

Theresa made cuts on top of the neatly shaped bun and stuffed in a good amount of canned tuna (minced), onions, cheese and a dash of paprika to make some yummy tuna bun rolls.

And even for a non canned tuna lover, this bun rolls were still yums! 

And next up... Guess what?

Yes, you can also easily make Muah Chee using the bread maker too! And the hardest part of it will definitely be cutting the ready made lump of muah chee and coating them with crushed peanuts. 

However, I felt that the muah chee was a little too soft and not chewy enough for my liking as a huge mochi/daifuku fan. 

And our last treat of the day...

Hmm, pizza?

No, it's focaccia bread! 

Covered fully with cherry tomatoes, olives and mozzarella cheese, the dough was left to rise at 40 degree C for another 50 minutes before baking.

And viola~

Fresh from the oven, fragrant and fluffy, it's so yummy that even those scalding hot cherry tomatoes couldn't stop our gluttony! 

For more information on SD-P104 Bread Maker and other Panasonic products, visit Panasonic's website HERE or their facebook HERE.

Till then,

Mia Foo

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Mia's Review: Alive Museum [Sponsored]

Just recently, two Korean 3D entertainment attractions, the Alive Museum and Trick Eye Museum, opened their Singapore branches separately at Suntec City and RWS. And needless to say, my facebook page was momentarily flooded with albums and albums of head-scratching, 3D vision illusion photographs uploaded by friends.

And all thanks to omy and Alive Museum, I was able to enjoy a fun evening at the museum on a Friday night after work, with T!

Alive Museum first opened in June 2009 at Jeju Island (I've been there in October 2009!), and is the original 3D visual illusion museum from South Korea. They currently has 8 branches in South Korea, 3 in China, and 1 each in Thailand, Vietnam, Turkey and Singapore, with the Singapore being their 15th branch and standing at 10, 000 ft, the largest of such 3D museums here so far.
Alive Museum also boasts of its own dedicated R&D team, who studies different techniques and paints for the best quality masterpieces. All the artworks are hand-painted and handcrafted by their own talented artists from South Korea to exact standards, so as to ensure unparalleled quality.
What's more, the Alive Museum in Jeju even appeared in an episode of the popular 2011 Korean drama, Heartstrings.

 I dropped by at 6:30pm on a Friday night to collect the tickets and there was just a handful of visitors loitering around the counter. By the time I returned with T at 8 plus, there was already a small queue to enter and a mini-jam right at the entrance due to the first art piece that was exhibited right at the entrance.

There are a total of 84 masterpieces, of which 9 are uniquely Singapore. Alive Museum plans to increase the total number to over 100 pieces by early 2015 through the Singapore 50 project, with more details to be released in time to come.

And before I start sharing some of my pictures taken, I have to first apologise for being at one of my cui-est moment, due to a fcial IPL session just hours earlier. :(

Oh well, here goes....

To each art pieces, there will be a 'instructions board', 'pose point' and 'photo point' displayed alongside to guide you the best angle to snap your photographs, or the best way to appreciate the trickery.
The reason why this trick art piece caused a small jam at the entrance, was because we have to stare at the black figure on the right for 20 seconds before quickly shifting your eye gaze towards the blank white head on the young man's hand.
What will you see? Well, you got to try it out for yourself to find out!

Other than trick arts, the musuem also exhibits digital art pieces like so, showing 2 Mona Lisa blowing the scarf towards each other.

There's also object art, which features sculptures and installations that challenge our senses.
ALL HAIL THE QUEEN!
And yes, you're seeing Bruce Lee, Beckham and even Spidey bowing down to me.
HA HA HA!

Seriously, where do you get such a big UNBORN baby girl anywhere else? Fully dressed in a pair of skinny jeans somemore!

That's what T gets for always bullying his dogs at home.... Revenge time for the pup!

And then I transformed into Little Mermaid! Fellow contact lens wearers, beware, for the spurt of air to blow up your hair is actually quite strong. I couldn't open my eyes at all.

He swallowed the guts of a wolf (or maybe another dragon, Toothless maybe?) to find the courage to stick a finger up the nostril of this ferocious-looking dragon.

And then I bumped into the forever throwing up Merlion, and almost got myself drenched in her vomitus. NOoooo!

And yes, while you take these fun pictures, you'll find lots of pesky 'unclaimed' bags lying all over in the background/foreground/whatever.

Or even blur visitors walking straight into your pictures (and staying inside for a good while).
But hey, it's pretty crowded and they will make full use of the space to cramp about 2 to 5 art pieces in a pretty small section, so let's just be gracious about it and wait for a while. :)

And then, we moved on and I found myself on the floating house from UP!

And then, I found a bench to take a rest and look who found me! What an adorable giraffe!

Have I told you that T was a canoeist? *rofl*

Took a blow from Ryu!
Yet another strong spurt of air from the hidden nozzle here to blow up your hair. But this wasn't as bad as Little Mermaid earlier.

Busy catching all the falling penguins while T pours them out.

Well, I'm obviously not going to post all the pictures so as not to spoil your surprises. But other than the types of art I've mentioned above, there's also Experimental art, which combines new technology with various digital art concepts for visitors to actively interact with each other. (hint: look out for The Camera Obscura exhibit. Queuing time might take a while too...)
In addition to the 4 art types I've mentioned, Alive Museum's R&D team is also getting on a brand new development, called the Dark Room, with more news to be revealed real soon!

To stay current and exciting, Alive Museum will refresh about 30% of their collection 12 to 18 months, and special exhibitions will be held during major holiday seasons, such as Christmas Day and Chinese New Year.
What's more, Alive Museum even provides free Wifi within the compound for social medial whores like me visitors who are avid users of social media to upload all their quirky photographs immediately after snapping them!

So what are you waiting for?
Like Alive Museum on their facebook page and get a free meal at Burger King (located next door) with the purchase of a full-priced ticket.
Alive Museum is located at Suntec City #03-372, between Towers 3 and 4 (nearer to Promenade Station). 
Tickets are priced at $25 for adults and $20 for children of 3 to 12 years old.

Till then,
Mia

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