Thursday, December 31, 2015

Every Day

We have finally arrived on the last day of 2015, the year that practically has passed in front of my eyes, so extremely past, that I could barely keep up. It has been a very busy year and I am thankful for that. I am thankful for all things that I have experienced this year, the goods, the bads and the 'somewhere in between'. There's no way to turn back the clock and I would not want to speculate on doing things differently in the past. I am looking ahead.

I do not do new years resolutions, I simply move on. I appreciate everyday and 1 January is the same. Yes, it is the beginning of new year, but everyday is a new day.

There are good things every day. There are different good things everyday. You just have to recognize them, because if you don't, everyday is like the same.

With good things, there are challenges everyday. Different days bring you different challenges. Some are harder than the others, some are more interesting than the others, but lets hope that they will make you a stronger and better person, no matter how much your heart break and how lonely you probably feel.

The sun will rise again tomorrow and you will be presented with new good things and new challenges. Just open your heart and open your mind. Appreciate the beauties and think little, if not nothing, of negatives. Because life is too short. Excessive anger, frustrations, worries and negative people are not worthy. Surround ourselves with positive things and people and make the best of every thing and every situation you are in.

Tuesday, December 29, 2015

So. It's Getting Together Time

So, Christmas was here again. We baked, we cooked, we made drinks, we made plans on what to do. Now, we got together. We wished each other a happy and joyous time and it's all good. Merry Christmas everyone! It's all good time, smiles and laughter.

Then that are some people who are tired and might have an unpleasant day, started to take it on other people. People that do nothing wrong at all. Or maybe people that also are having bad day but keep it to themselves.  There are people that are simply negative and focus on negatives and with or without their knowledge, spread their negativity. Bad things began to unfold. Happiness vanished. Christmas was no longer a merry one, getting together turned into an unpleasant event.

It's almost like cancer. It's easier for outsiders to theorize on what to do and what not to do, but for some people, the word for it is "being stuck". Yuck.

Friday, December 25, 2015

Pineapple Tarts

This Christmas, we are having people over. People that live away from her and constantly miss Chinese New Year in this country, where pineapple tarts are commonly served. I could make pineapple tarts anytime, as long I have the ingredients and the time.  I decided, this year, to bake pineapple tarts this Christmas for them. Christmas time is the time when family and friends get together, supposedly to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ our Savior. I know there lots of cookies and cakes will be served and available, but let's include pineapple tarts too. Because, why not?






Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Caramel Sauce

I love caramel sauce, I love having them at home in my fridge. I use it for my cinnamon rolls, I put it on my pancakes, waffles and on ice cream and on anything I want to.  There are many endless ways  in which I can utilize caramel sauce. Or I just spoon it out and have it. Just like that.

My caramel sauce supply was finished so I had to make another jar, especially now that Christmas is just around the corner. 







Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Homemade Ciabatta



When I was in London, I missed home-baked bread so much. One of the first few things I did after I got back was to bake a couple of Ciabatta.


Monday, December 21, 2015

Pho Lunch At Pho, London

It was our last day in London, we were flying off in the evening. Cool weather, gloomy London, made us long for some soup for lunch. Pho was our destination for lunch.

Both of us had Pho brisket, but I added meatballs on mine, because I love meatballs on my pho. We also shared Spring rolls, filled with crab meat, pork and prawn. The food was not bad. 







Sunday, December 20, 2015

A Christmas Parade

London, Saturday, 28 November 2015.  We were  walking  to our appointment and we saw that the traffic on Regent St. was halted.  Apparently there was going to be Hamley's toy parade. We tried to avoid the main street and opted for a smaller one that led us to Liberty. Somehow, by the time we got there, the parade started. We did not mind that and we stopped to enjoy the parade and took some pictures. It was a good fun.  






Saturday, December 19, 2015

Honest Burger, London

Thanks to Miss P's recommendation, we went up and down looking for an Honest Burger outlet nearby after failing to get our stomach satisfied eating the pork buns from Bao. This was our second lunch. What can I say but yummmmmmm. ........  Burger was good, chips were great. 


Friday, December 18, 2015

Bao, London

I had Bao in my list of places to eat in London and we made it the day before we left London. We tried to get there before 12, because this place is known to be crowded at peak times. The restaurant is small, we knew that.  Somehow, despite our effort, we could not make it and we had to queue. So we did, hoping that it wouldn't be too long and promising that if it took too long, we would leave. The wait was not terribly long and we got our seats finally. 

We merely wanted to try first, so we order two buns to share, one Classic and one Pork Confit.  They all were small. The waiter advised us to order two each, but we did not want to, because we wanted to know how good the food was first. We also ordered scallops, because we wanted to. Actually it's DH that wanted them. They were all just fine for us, not too extraordinary. We were still hungry so we ordered a bowl of Guinea Fowl rice and shared it again. It was just alright too, so we decided to leave. We were still hungry and we decided to have another lunch. Yes. Two lunches again. 











Thursday, December 17, 2015

Fat Cow, Lunch

We revisited Fat Cow for lunch again. We rarely have big dinner, so we normally go out for lunch. We do our best to keep our dinner smallish, hoping we will be in better shape. 

I love Fat Cow's Wagyu and Foie Gras that I had before, but at the same time I wanted to try their other dishes too. Such a tough choice, but I finally decided to try their Chirasi. DH stuck to his Sushi, but we also ordered a bowl of Wagyu Beef appetizer that did not impress me much. 

Dessert was ice cream by default as we had set menu. 







Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Breakfast At The Club

We had our breakfast at the Club (of the hotel) when we were in London every day. We thought it would be easier that way, because a lot of breakfast places do not open early enough. It was also rather cold to go out, especially in the morning. We wanted little effort and in-house breakfast was our best option. 

There were some items that were constantly on supply, but some changed a bit here and there. There were always vegetables and fruits with hummus and cheese as well which I was quite happy of. They had cereals, bread and pastries too.  I normally tried to start with piling up fruits and veggies on my plate with a cup of coffee on the side and a glass of orange juice before nibbling other items available, because it's always tempting to try them. 









Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Lunch At Hakkasan, Mayfair

We had a reservation for four in this modern Cantonese restaurant. Hakkasan is a well known Michelin restaurant and we were basically dying to try. No. Not really. But we were curious and we we hungry too. The restaurant is in the vicinity of New Bond street, but we were not familiar with the area and we missed the restaurant and had to turn around. 

The food was great. We had Baked Venison puff below, they were fantastic.


We also Scallop Shumai with tobiko caviar and they were delicious too.  We had a couple more dim sum, Har Gau and Crispy Beancurd Cheung Fun.





From the ala carte menu, we had steamed seabass, stir fry vegetable and Singapore noodles. It's all quite a bit for all of us, but we were happy to sample quite a few varieties.





Monday, December 14, 2015

Homemade Noodle Soup

I was involved in a chat about noodle soup and got myself a very bad craving for it. What else to do but making them at home.


I got the meat balls from supermarket. At home, I prepared the soup with some chicken breast. I love to have my noodles with lots of greens and some sliced red chilies to spice it up. It was so good to have it on a cool rainy day.


Sunday, December 13, 2015

Four Seasons, 2nd Lunch

After our first lunch at Eat Tokyo was done, we walked to China town to get a table at Four Seasons.


DH always loves to eat their roast duck and soya chicken. We ordered a plate of those two and roast pork that I happen to rather eat. We also had a couple of vegetable dishes and a bowl of wonton soup (no picture :( ).   Their service is their honest feelings i.e the waiters did not try to pretend that they were happy to serve us, as usual. We got our food and we pay. We were full and quite contented with the food and we left. Nevertheless, we keep coming back for the food anyway, not the service.