Okay, I’ll admit right from the start. This is a pretty silly post. (It’s also a post that may really upset some very devout Buddhists out there but I’ll take that risk.) Last year, some rather crazy but always fun friends gave us a set of some of the wackiest jelly / pudding molds I have ever seen. The Il Buddino molds, as you can see, allow slightly deranged foodies like me to make Buddha-shaped desserts.
S’s birthday was this past weekend. One of our celebratory meals was a fantastic lunch prepared for us and several friends by Chef Jimmy Chok, who is hands-down one of the best guys in the country when it comes to catering exquisite meals for small groups. For fun, I also decided to break out the Buddha molds, which had gone unused since we received them a number of months back.
S suggested that I make Milo agar-agar Buddhas to serve as our apres-dessert course. Which seemed like a fine idea until I realized that not only had I never made Milo agar-agar before, I’d never even tasted it (hey, I grew up in New York). S assured me it was a simple thing to make. All I needed to do was get the ration of Milo, sugar, water and agar-agar correct. After a little experimentation, I settled on a 5g agar-agar, 450g water, 75g milo and 25g sugar ratio, which seemed to work just fine.
As you can imagine, the Buddhas went over well — that is to say, everyone laughed. Fortunately, our group of friends is pretty darned tolerant. And while a big hunk of Milo agar-agar isn’t the ultimate gustatory pleasure, it sure can be fun when shaped the right way.
About Aun Koh
Aun has always loved food and travel, passions passed down to him from his parents. This foundation, plus a background in media, pushed him to start Chubby Hubby in 2005. He loves that this site allows him to write about the things he adores--food, style, travel, his wife and his three kids!
