Strawberry milkshake is probably something that you wouldn't want to have in winter, but I am simply somebody who can eat ice cream or drink cold beverages all year round - and in fact, I am actually not very fond of warm drinks, even in winter. To make strawberry milkshake you just need fresh strawberries, milk, ice cubes and vanilla ice-cream. You're free to adjust the measurement to your liking.

Ingredients

• 8-10 fresh strawberries
• 500 ml cold milk
• 15-20 ice cubes
• 1-2 scoops ice cream
• Sugar (optional)
  

Toss all ingredients into a blender. Blend until smooth. Serve immediately!

Jus alpukat is Indonesian for avocado juice. Avocado juice is a very popular drink/dessert in Indonesia. I used to think that it's a very typical Indonesian beverage which could only be found in Indonesia, but after a few years of food-blog reading, I found out that it's not true at all. Apparently you could find avocado juice or smoothie in some other South-East Asian countries.

For some people, who are used to think of avocado as fruit used only for savoury dishes or salads, the idea of having avocado as a sweet dessert might be weird. But believe me, cold avocado smoothie is a real treat for a hot summery day! Well, it's still a real treat for me in winter ;-) . In Indonesia, avocado juice/smoothie is made by mixing avocado with water, ice cubes, sugar and condensed milk. It's normally served with chocolate condensed milk or chocolate syrup. You can also add some vanilla essence to make the smoothie smells nicer. Adding a scoop of vanilla ice-cream might also make this drink more smoothie-like, but I prefer mine less thick and less glamourous...:).

Ingredients

• 1 avocado, seeded and peeled
  
• 250 ml water
• 3 tbs sugar (or to taste)
• 2 tbs condensed milk
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 15-20 ice cubes

Mix all ingredients in your mixer!

I didn't have chocolate condensed milk/syrup, so I used grass jelly as the topping for my avocado juice.

AWARD

By the way, two weeks ago, Slywia from Unsifted, gave me the Honest Scrap award. Thank you Sylwia, and I am sorry for the delay in posting the award. During the last two weeks I had been occupied by the arrival of a new member in the family - a very sweet, adorable bunny, called Charlie :-).

Isn't she a darling :)??

What's your favourite flavoured-milk brand? Müllermilch is my favourite one currently (no, no, this is no advertisement and I don't get paid !;) - I just like the flavour!). There are many milk brands in Germany of course, and I am sure there are also other good ones beside Müllermilch, since Germany does have high-quality dairy products, but I haven't tried them yet. I have the tendency to buy the same things over and over again once I know a product is good instead of trying other brands as well - so in this area I'm not that very adventurous. But I am sure one day I'll try other flavoured-milk brands as well.

Müllermilch has various flavours - my most favourite flavour is chocolate, followed by strawberry and vanilla. There are also other flavours like banana, coffee, passionfruit and so on. But as I have mentioned before, I am just not that adventurous - For my milk and ice-cream, I normally never go beyond these three 'safe' flavours (well, except green tea or sesame for ice-cream - but they don't have these flavours in Germany ;)).

What I like about Müllermilch is, the taste is not too overpowering and sweet yet flavourful, especially when served cold. My favourite Australian milk brand is Moove. But I think Müllermilch tastes even better!

Baileys Irish Cream is my most favourite alcoholic drink, maybe because its creamy taste just somehow reminds me of ice-cream :). My preferred way to drink Baileys is to mix it with milk, so that it has a milder flavour. I also like to drink it ice-cold. My Baileys milkshake recipe is extremely effortless to make and it's a perfect drink for a warm summery night.

Ingredients

• 200 ml Milk
• 100 ml Baileys (original)
• 25-30 ice cubes

Mix all ingredients in your mixer. Finish!

Pearl Milk Tea or Boba Milk Tea originates from Taiwan. Traditionally it is a beverage containing tea with creamer/milk plus tapioca balls. It is actually one of my all time favourite beverages. My first time trying a glass of pearl milk tea was in a Chinese restaurant in Sydney. I eyed somebody having an interesting purple-coloured drink with black balls swimming at the bottom of the glass. It looked somehow charming and appealing. I asked the waiter what drink it was and then decided to order the drink. The drink was fantastic - I got addicted afterwards. At that time pearl milk tea was still not that popular in Sydney, you normally could only grab it from a few Chinese or Taiwanese restaurants available around. A few years later, pearl milk tea started to get more attention in Australia because there were more and more milk tea franchise outlets appearing - the most successful one is I guess Easy Way.

There are many varieties of milk tea, the most popular ones are the normal black milk tea, Jasmine milk tea and taro milk tea (the purple drink that I tried in the restaurant). My favourite milk tea is black milk tea with pearls, I also like Jasmine and Taro milk tea - but Jasmine and Taro can be overpowering sometimes in fragance (for jasmine) and taste (taro). It really depends on which milk tea outlets you go to though, because different outlets have their own different 'milk tea taste'. It's nevertheless also just my personal point of view. I find the Taro milk tea in Easy Way way too sweet and thick, but I know many many people who love it to death.

As far as I know there are no pearl milk tea outlets in Germany - which is a pity... There are so many delicious things missing here...! I even cannot find uncooked pearls (tapioca balls) in Asian supermarkets, the only types of pearls I can find are the ones from Thailand, which are white, instead of greyish black. I had to ask my mum to send a packet of pearls from Australia, that I can finally satisfy my craving for a glass of milk tea. Some people might wonder, why I need to wait for my mum to send a packet of pearls if I really crave to drink a glass of milk tea, anyway it's just tea with milk, you can always have it all the time, even in Germany...But, hell, no, the highlight of this drink is not really the milk tea, but it's the tapioca balls. Yes, some people might think: "What are those ugly, slippery and disgusting looking black balls?". But for me tapioca balls are just superb. They taste chewy and just so addictive... But of course it's important to cook the pearls well, and pearls cannot be stored for a long time, because they will get hard. So after you cook and cool them, eat them all, or you can throw them away the next day.

I guess, after 3 days of blogging I finally get the feeling of being a blogger - I just noticed it from the amount of blabbings I have written today...;-)

Pictures

Uncooked pearls

First boil the pearls, add sugar and wait till pearls caramelise

Yummy, luscious pearls

Yum, yum, yummy, pearl milk tea

This is a perfect drink for summer. Add lots of ice cubes to your milk tea plus sugar and put this mixture in a blender. Serve it with pearls in a glass.

I personally think that milk tea tastes better when you use creamer than milk. With creamer, the tea just mixes so well together.

Update (5th August 2010) - I have recently found two online German bubble tea shops: Chooba Bubble Tea and (20th February 2011) Botschafter Fairer Köstlichkeiten :). There is also a bubble tea shop in Frankfurt called Chakka Peanut Butter Sandwiches and Bubble Tea...!! Double Yay!! Finally :). I will try it for sure in the next few days:). Thanks to Token, because of her informative blog regarding Japanese/Asian foods, I was able to find out that there IS a bubble tea shop nearby, here in Germany:)!