I stopped reading Harry Potter after the second book because I lost interest somewhere along the way. I might pick up from where I left off one of these days, but before I do that, I am going to read her detective novel, The Cuckoo’s Calling, written under a pseudonym. I am hoping that the book will be good ‘cos I enjoy reading detective novels a lot. 🙂
I am so glad that it is Friday. We are driving up to Melaka with some friends this weekend to eat some pretty awesome meals!
xoxoxo
Having discovered the eclectic Churro 101 in Hongdae which serves up some darn good churros, I wanted to see if I could find other churros bars in Seoul. I did some research and the one name that kept popping up on various blogs is One Chu, located in one of the back lanes of Garosugil. Thanks to the excellent directions on this blog, I managed to locate One Chu without difficulty on one hot summer afternoon.
One Chu has an edgy, masculine, industrial-looking vibe. Reminds me a little of Kaixo.
Sweltering from the heat, I was dying to plonk myself in a cool and quiet spot with a chilled drink in my hand. I was really glad not to see crowds thronging the place during the lunch hour and I could have some place quiet to hang out for a while.
Whenever I need motivation to spring clean my house, I invite friends over for dinner. 🙂
Due to Hari Raya Puasa and National Day falling on Thursday and Friday respectively, it was a 4-day long weekend in Singapore this week. (It’s going to be insanely difficult to crank up the engine to start work next week after this break.) I took the opportunity of the long weekend to invite some close colleagues over for potluck and *lots of* drinks. The good thing about holding such events in your house is that I can easily haul my inebriated self to bed, just several steps away.
Moscato. Champagne. Red wine. Moscato. In that order. 🙂 Drinks filled our bellies quite quickly.
Start of the pot luck. Succulent pan-seared scallops tucked between buttered rolls! Think lobster rolls, but with scallops instead. This is a great idea to serve as a canapé. I am gonna try making some myself soon.
Smoked salmon with sour cream and dill on blinis.
Pork and chicken satay. I loooove pork satay.
Damn good century egg from a one Michelin star Chinese restaurants in Hong Kong.
Roasted Spanish pork loin ribs. Oozing with fats and porky goodness.
Chinese-style pasta with flank steak, red peppers and an oyster sauce gravy. This is really yummy!
Platter of cold cuts, cheeses, fruit, nachos tangy onion-and-tomato dips, and an assortment of spreads from Little Provence. After eating jamon Iberico, I find prosciutto kind of tasteless. 🙁
We hate cute mini Cornettos for desserts. As usual, there was waaaaay too much food.
It was a tiring day but we had fun. When work gets overwhelming, all we want to do is to hide at home and do nothing all weekend. Once in a while, it is nice to get some friends over and enjoy good company. A little tiring to clean up the house for the guests but it’s worth the effort! 🙂 I have already scheduled the next massive clean up exercise to take place in September, for another group of old friends.
xoxoxoxo
Noryangjin Fish Market is a seafood PARADISE!
I visited the market several years ago and was amazed by the sheer assortment of fresh seafood available in the market. Piles and piles of shellfish, mussels, crabs, octopus, fish, prawns, sea urchin, conches, abalone, etc for sale.
How it works in this market is this: you pick what you like at any stall, pay for the seafood and the stall-owner will bring you to one of the restaurants located in the basement or the second floor of the market where they will cook the food for you, but at an additional price. I am not sure what kind of arrangement each stall-owner has with the restaurants.
The last time I visited the market, I didn’t eat any seafood because I had already eaten lunch. I made it a point during this trip to go to Noryangjin for a meal. I was so excited at the thought of picking out my own seafood!
Last month, K and I signed up for flower crafting classes with Wonderland For Detailed Planners. I saw the stunning paper flowers that WFDP made for the Penang Festival on their Facebook page and I was curious to learn how to make them. It was supposed to be a 2-hour class which ended up to be twice as long! We learnt how to make a paper rose, a dahlia and an anemone. We had loads of fun together! At the end of the 4-hour marathon, I ended up with a sore back, a rumbling stomach…and three lovely flower crafts.
We started with the prep work for making the paper rose by applying colors to a light brown ‘chwee kweh’ paper. We were taught to mix colour dyes with a white dye (the type that we used to paint our white canvas school shoes with to make them look very white) to create a thick mixture which we used to paint over six pieces of brown paper.
Pink! Blue! Purple! Yellow! I was greedy to have all the colours. On hindsight, I should have chosen only one colour for the paper rose, instead of creating a multi-coloured one. You will know what I mean when you see the paper rose later on.
After each piece was painted, we laid it on the floor to dry. While waiting for the paper to dry, we moved on to create the second flower craft, the dahlia. We had to use coloured tissue paper for this craft and I chose two shades of purple for the petals and yellow for the heart of the dahlia. To make the dahlia, we were required to do a lot of cutting using the scissors. I struggled to cut even strips…
Ta-daaa! Our dahlias!
Who said these things only interest women? We had male participants too.
By this time of the class, we were lagging very far behind the other participants so I didn’t have the time to take photos of how we made the anemone and the paper rose. But they involved more cutting, tracing, snipping and using the glue gun. The fruits of our labour. I loved the dahlia and thought the anemone to be quite cute, but the multi-coloured rose … just looked kind of weird! I should have stuck to one color.
Some of the other participants and their crafts. Pretty right? 🙂
This is Melissa Wang, the lady behind WDFP. I managed to get a photo of her and the bouquet that she was putting together for a client. 🙂
I really like her classes. Am looking forward to the next one!
xoxoxo
Other posts on Shop Wonderland:
Shop Wonderland / Wonderland For Detailed Planners
A Wild English Garden With Wonderland For Detailed Planners
Fell in love with this cute pair of sneakers when I spotted them at Muji. I like the polka dots and the shade of blue. Perfect for walking around in Seoul next week. 🙂
xoxoxo
I like staying in Myeongdong because of its bustling atmosphere and convenient location to shop and eat. I usually stay in Metro Hotel and if I cannot get a room at this hotel, Ibis Myeongdong is my second choice. I am so familiar with and comfortable in Myeongdong, I cannot envisage staying anywhere else in Seoul.
With so many quirky cafes to discover and hang out at in Seoul, I still make it a point to visit Starbucks for a cup of cafe mocha everyday. This Starbucks is a skip-and-a-hop away from Metro hotel and I drop by quite frequently, on my way to the subway station or back to the hotel. This outlet is spacious and brightly lit, with plenty of tables and a slightly hip vibe.
The Seoul Central Post Office in Myeongdong. From here, I begin my stroll from Myeongdong to the Namdaemun market.
A fangirl snapping a photograph of the TV screen showing her favourite idol or actor, perhaps…?
The entrance to Namdaemun market from the back of the Shinsaegae department mall.
I enjoy visiting the market, eating street food peddled by hawkers. I can never resist buying a stick of fish cake, dipping it in soy sauce, eating it standing by the roadside and finishing up with a cup of hot soup made with anchovies and daikon (some hawkers add red chilies to the soup which gives it an extra kick).
I like rummaging through the pile of clothes hanging on the racks, you never know when you might find something interesting.
Old grannies peddling their wares. Despite their age, they wear make-up and have nicely groomed hair.
A hawker selling…*gulps*…some kind of worm. Every time I past one of these street hawkers, I have to pinch my nose to avoid the stench that comes from these things, whatever you call them. I see plenty of people eat these things with great enjoyment. Ewwwwww…
See the ‘Alpha’ sighboard in orange on the right? That’s a stationery-cum-handicraft shop that I like to visit whenever I am in Seoul. It is a little wonderland for people like me who have a secret penchant for stationery such as pens, stickers, colored paper. It is a great place if you need to purchase materials for scrapbooking or for making handicrafts such as hair accessories.
In the vicinity of Alpha are several shops that sells ribbons, coloured tape (similar to the Japanese washi) in different textures and width, Kraft boxes in various shapes and sizes, paper bags in different shapes and sizes, rolls and rolls of wrapping paper. These are wonderful places for people who are running small businesses that require packaging. I always forget the time whenever I am in these shops and end up shelling out money for things that I never seem to use. But I love indulging in a little frivolity.
I could spend hours and hours in this shop…
Happy to know that I will be in Seoul again next week! Looking forward to more good times in cafes, ribbon shops and who knows what else. 🙂
xoxoxo
My husband shudders whenever I have to clear the fridge, ‘cos it means he will be eating something resembling ‘pig’s slop’ for dinner.
Usually, I chop up the ingredients and throw them into a frying pan as a stir-fry to be eaten with rice and a fried egg. Nothing tastes really bad when there is a fried egg to accompany it. 🙂
Today, I threw together sliced tamanegi, momotaro tomatoes, bunashimeji, organic curly kale and minced beef into the frying pan, made a sauce using dashi, shoyu and cooking sake, and served it with soba and nori.
I like the taste very much!
xoxoxo.
Mango and passionfruit sorbet. Dark chocolate. Vanilla. Three yummy scoops of artisanal ice cream from Creamier in Toa Payoh.
Creamier is currently my favourite place to eat ice cream. They make very good ice cream. The ice cream has a very smooth texture and great flavours – creamy but not overly rich or sweet. While I like the waffles – they are crisp and have a nice bite – I like the cone wafers even better.
I have tried quite a few flavours. Though I like them all, my all-time favourite combination is the mango and passionfruit sorbet with dark chocolate.
I have long admired the work of Wonderland for Detailed Planners. I like their classy-with-a-touch-of-whimsical event and table styling creations. As part of their services, they also do gorgeous, lush floral arrangements which appeal to my sense of aesthetics.
If I could turn back the clock, I would have used them for my wedding and hired their Tiffany chairs! I wouldn’t have been able to escape from having the usual Chinese-style wedding dinner, but perhaps, I could have done something different for my friends. Maybe I could have hosted an intimate lunch event at a slightly more interesting venue, instead of the usual hotel ballrooms. Oh well, it’s all too late.
When I learnt that Wonderland was conducting floral arrangement classes, I decided to sign up for one on the whim 🙂 This was my first floral arrangement class.
The class was held at Maple and Market, the bakery where I go for my occasional baking classes and to buy delicious and interesting birthday cakes. Signing up for these classes help to fill my weekend with some ‘productive’ activity (and I don’t consider housework to be ‘productive’ weekend activity…!). Otherwise, I would find myself lazing at home the entire weekend in front of the computer or on the couch.
Wonderland turned a small area in Maple and Market into a mini flower marketplace with numerous vases containing an array of flowers for the class. Every guest who walked into the bakery was treated to a vision of white and fushsia peonies, white and purple matthiolas, purple delphiniums, white and purple hydrangeas, sweet william, cream, purple and champagne eustomas! Lucky me that peonies are now in season ‘cos they are my favourite flowers. It is a pity that our weather isn’t very kind to peonies, and these weren’t going to last for more than a day, two if we are lucky.
It was wonderful to be surrounded by the fragrance of flowers, coffee and baked goods on a *haze free* Saturday morning. I could feel my spirits being lifted up instantly.
The theme of the class was to create a floral arrangement that was akin to a wild, lush English garden using the flowers that had been provided. Every participant was allocated with a fixed number of flowers which we picked from the vases. I picked a purple hydrangea, two white peonies, a delicate stalk of delphinium and a bright orange pincushion as my main flowers. We were taught to trim the foam (that had already been thoroughly soaked in water) to fit the pretty blue European-style vase, to condition the stalks of flowers and how to place markers in the foam using the wax flowers.
Then it was free play for all.
I huffed and puffed over my arrangement, mostly ‘cos I couldn’t decide where I wanted to place each stalk, and trying not to destroy them with my clumsiness. Some of the participants in my class were very deft with their fingers and completed their pieces in half the time that I took.
My messy work area…
This arrangement was put together by the lady whom I was sharing a workspace with.
That’s Joyce from Wonderland admiring some of the creations.
And this is MINE! 🙂
I had plenty of fun for 2 hours. I am thinking about signing up for their table styling classes…
xoxoxo
Other posts on Shop Wonderland:
Shop Wonderland / Wonderland For Detailed Planners
Flower Crafting Classes with Wonderland
My friends and I have a regular ‘adults only’ night dinner whenever someone’s birthday is around the corner. They leave the kids at home and we all go somewhere to have a quiet meal for a couple of hours.
This month, we had dinner at a Japanese restaurant followed by super delicious ice-cream at Creamier. But before ice-cream, we had cake. We always have a birthday cake with candles and sing *silly* birthday songs for the birthday girl or boy. This is how we stay young at heart.
The birthday cake for the month was a caramel popcorn cake! I bought this cake from a bakery, Maple & Market, located at Old Airport Road. It is a vanilla cake with a caramel-buttercream frosting, topped with Garett’s popcorn and drizzled with home-made caramel sauce. The hand-made cake topper is cute.
I am not a fan of caramel or popcorn, and I was surprised to find out that I actually like the flavours of this cake. The taste wasn’t too sweet or cloying. I was tempted to polish off a second slice but decided to reserve space in the stomach for ice cream.
xoxoxo
I have been so busy and stressed out with work over the last 5 months, I have hardly the time or the mood to make anything fun in the kitchen. I try to put together fuss-free meals during the weekends for sustenance. Apart from that, I am reluctant to do anything else in the kitchen which requires quite a lot of washing and cleaning up. You should see the dirty pots and plates stacked up in my sink. I am not proud of it…
I bought a box of peaches from the supermarket last weekend and they are languishing in the refrigerator. I decided use them to whip up some peach ice cream this weekend, using a recipe from Williams-Sonoma. I need to do something fun!
xoxoxo
Ingredients:
250g (2 cups) peeled and pureed peaches (about 2 large peaches) tossed with some lemon juice.
125g (1/2 cup)
250ml (1 cup) whole milk
250ml (1 cup) heavy double cream
3 large egg yolks
1 tsp vanilla essence (or 1 vanilla bean)
Method:
1. Place the milk, 3/4 cup of heavy double cream and sugar in a saucepan.
2. Whisk the egg yolks and remaining 1/4 cup of heavy double cream in a small glass bowl for 1 minute, until they are blended.
3. Place the saucepan over a medium fire and cook, stirring frequently with a wooden spoon, for 4 – 5 minutes. Until bubbles form around the edges, the liquid just begins to ripple in the centre, and the sugar is dissolved. Do not allow the mixture to come to a boil.
4. Remove the saucepan from the heat. Slowly pour 1/4 of the hot milk mixture into the yolk mixture, whisking the mixture at the same time.
5. When 1/4 of the hot milk mixture has been blended into the yolks, start pouring the warmed yolk mixture back into the saucepan, whisking constantly until well-blended. Place the saucepan with the milk-and-yolk mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for about 4 – 5 minutes. The mixture should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. The custard should come to a bare simmer, with steam rising from teh surface and the surface rippling, but it should actually bubble or come to a boil.
6. Remove the saucepan from the heat and stir in the pureed peaches and vanilla essence. Pour the hot custard through a sieve, leaving any grainy solids in the sieve.
7. Fill a large mixing bowl halfway with ice cubes and cold water. Place the bowl with the custard into the larger bowl, nestling the bowl into the ice cubes. Let the custard cool until it reaches room temperature.
8. Once cooled, remove the bowl and cover with a piece of cling wrap. Refrigerate the custard for at least 3 hours, then churn the custard until it reaches the consistency of whipped cream. Remove from ice cream maker and freeze ice cream for at least 3 hours, until firm.
9. I added some crushed ginger snap biscuits as garnish!
^ Someone sent me this cute picture.
The horrors of the last weeek when the entire Singapore was shrouded in a thick layer of smog due to forest fires raging in Indonesia. The Pollution Standard Index (PSI) reaching hazardous levels. N95 masks, air-purifiers, air-coolers flew off the shelves in the pharmacies, supermarkets, clinics and hospitals. All of a sudden, everyone was hunting high and low for a N95 mask or an air-purifier.
Instead of the stock markets and prices of COEs, everyone was monitoring the PSI.
“Please Stop (the forest fires), Indonesia!”
^ This was the view from my workplace early in the week.
^ Visibility plunged a day later. In some parts of the CBD, you could hardly see anything more than 100m ahead. Other parts of the CBD looked like a sandstorm had swept through the area.
^ By the time the PSI hit the peak, you could see almost nothing from the windows. People were really panicking.
The haze receded today. We are hoping that it will stay that way going forward, that the Indonesian authorities are doing something sustainable to keep the forest fires down, and the wind direction is in our favor. It was a huge relief to see a shade of blue in the skies in the afternoon today. This view from my living room window looked normal. Armageddon had come and gone.
Clean, fresh air. Clear blue skies. Sunshine. White fluffy clouds. Something that I have always thought we had in abundance. I never though we could lose something so basic within a matter of hours. I will never take for granted fresh air and clear blue skies again.