Remember White Rabbit Creamy Candy? The super creamy and milky candy with nougat-like texture and edible transparent wrapping? For your information, this Chinese delight was banned internationally on 2008 when tests in Singapore on September 2008 proven this product has melamine content, which followed by positive confirmation from similar tests in Hongkong, Australia and South Africa.

Though deemed not as fatal as the similar melamine contaminated infant milk formula case happened earlier, many countries including Indonesia prohibit the import and selling of White Rabbit cream candy afterward.

While the brand passes health inspection and was back on international market in April 2009, it's a rare treat to find in Indonesia nowadays.

White Rabbit Bakpia?

That question immediately jump into my mind upon tasting this neatly packaged bakpia "Bakpiaku", in a modern design style, immediately distancing it from the more traditional Yogyakarta's bakpia with their must-have-numbers attitude.

The pia itself tasted excellent: crusty layers on the outside, with thick crumbly sweet milky paste filling. At the first bite you can tell that it is a very good pia, but seconds later if you're familiar with the White Rabbit then you'll know what I mean.

Should you are interested, there are several ways you can contact them:

From their twitter account, Epicurina also discovers that Bakpiaku costs IDR 35K/box, delivery to Denpasar is 30K/4 boxes, while to Bandung is 28rb/4 boxes. 4 boxes is their minimum delivery quantity.

Should you are visiting Yogyakarta ("Jogja"), you can also visit Bakpiaku HQ at Jl. Gajah Mada

Simply saying, this one is among best tasted cookie I had in 2012 (byms).

Reference:
[01] "Scandal-hit White Rabbit candy back in overseas market", from http://www.china.org.cn/business/2009-04/16/content_17615066.htm

Alila Villas Soori will held a special dinner this month, featuring chef Brook Petrie from The Commoner restaurant in Fitzroy, Melbourne, Australia, and Alila Villas Soori's executive chef Dwayne Cheer.

The theme of the dinner is "Whisky Business", one of The Commoner's favorite seasonal menu last 2012, where they setup a full year themed dinner, each titled just like movie titles.

I'm curious whether it will be the exact same menu presented back at The Commoner, or something rather different, considering the chef Brook's tendency of using locally sourced - what's in season ingredients.

Chef Brook is well know for his "Modern British" cooking style, some even adds "Quirky" to his style, as testament of his unconventionality approach: a style most probably honed during his years as the chef of Peter Gordon's restaurant Providores in London. Peter Gordon himself is often credited as the 'godfather' of fusion cuisine.

Before working at Alila Villas Soori, executive chef Dwayne Cheer held the similar position at At.mosphere, the highest restaurant in the world at 422 metres on the 122nd floor of the Burj Khalifa, Dubai. Interestingly both chef Brook & Dwayne are from New Zealand. (byms)

When in the past it's been dishes new to my palate: Sri Lanka, and Burma, this time Will Meyrick is going to present his take on one familiar cuisine: Balinese!

For it's eye opening and taste portfolio enrichment, needless to say that Kitchen Sessions is among the most anticipated events in my foodie's calendar. Thank you Raechel & Will for extending the invitation. (byms)

Celebrating Valentine Day, Portabella Bistro Bali offering special dining package for you:

Choose between:

Appetizer:

TOM Carpaccio
Thin sliced butter fish and mango shaves served with roasted pumpkin seeds

or

KATIE Salad
Smoked oxtongue salad with radicchio lettuce cucumber tomatoes and onion with mustard dressing

Mains:

PITT Steak
Beef fillet in almond crust served with crispy zucchini and gorgonzola fondue.

or

ANISTON Risotto
Italian Arborio rice cooked with champagne asparagus and topped with raw oyster meat

or

JOLIE Swordfish
Swordfish a'la Livornese sauce and crispy lasagna served with green beans

Dessert:

CHRIS Pannacotta
Passion fruit jelly pnnacota served with raspberry creme brule

or

PALTROW Mousse
Red chilly and dark chocolte mousse with peanut praline crisp

Including Soft drinks and Juices.

Cost: IDR 200K/pax (400K/couple)

To reserve contact Portabella Bistro at:
(0361) 894 7002
contact@portabellabistro.com

(byms)

{EAV:c298176063604c9c}

For the past few weeks, Epicurina has joined the Empire Avenue universe. Empire Avenue (EAv) is a stock market simulation social network game that allows users to buy and sell shares of people and websites.

Shares of people? Well since this is a social networking game you can either enter the market as an organization, or as a person. The game itself is quite easy to play, but difficult to master, because the rules of the market are quite similar with real stock market, only simpler.

Players have their own portfolio in a virtual economy. The price of a player's share depends on the ticker's stock buying and selling, along with social networking activity. So the more active you are in the social market, the higher value your brand will have.

From Google:

At Empire Avenue (EAv) players can choose their own ticker symbol. The players can have multiple investors, which will garner them a higher share price, and they can invest in other players. Players win Achievements for their actions, such as advertising and adding services such as Twitter. Players gain dividends from the other shares in players they invest in, which are counted as Credits.

Social networks supported by Empire Avenue currently include Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Instagram, Wordpress hosted blogs and the player's own blog and RSS feeds.

As for Epicurina, Empire Avenue is the fun way to expand, engage and evaluate your social networking effectiveness, not to mention gaining new friends and connections, which is social networking all about. It also gives a good insight on how a stock market works. Once you're in it, you surely don't want your stock price to go down.

So it is all just a game? Well not really, because you can use the credits accumulated as incentive for people to help you fulfill your "missions", including driving traffic and engagement to your online content.

Furthermore, as the websit explains, Empire Avenue (EAv) drives social networking progress upon its three concept:

Expand

Empire Avenue's comprehensive social media suite is powered by the Social Stock Market, where you use your virtual currency to expand your social media audience. Your virtual investors will share in your success as they earn valuable currency through your online activity and engagement.

Engage

Use Empire Avenue's powerful Missions to drive traffic and engagement to your online content and social profiles, and to gain relevant new fans, followers and subscribers on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Google+ and other networks.

Evaluate

Finally, use the built-in Network Scores and other metrics to gauge the effectiveness and progress of your social media efforts, to pinpoint areas of improvement and to keep an eye on your network growth.

If you're already on Klout, and frequently checking various online tools to check on your blog/brand/self popularity, you might want to give Empire Avenue (EAv) a try. It's free anyway. (byms)

Source: Wikipedia & EmpireAvenue