hot choc no.2

Previously written abt intercon hotel hot choc... so this time i went to mandarin oriental cafe causette highly recommended by my sis! its just a simple coffee shop with cakes. As you walk in, there are statues of cakes in different sizes, One is as big as the size of a 5 year old! Obviously those are for decoration only but still its rather interesting! We specially went in for the hot choc cos theres a choc spoon which you melt in your hot choc ...ummmmmmm... licking my lips again!

To be honest I could have had a better experience... I ordered hot chot with ginger flavour!!! oh well its not too bad but I can imagine how good the vanilla hot choc will be...

By the way, i will go to vietnam next week (free air tics, free hotel why not ????) surely i have a planned a stuffing myself silly with pork rolls, spring rolls and PHO trip! will definately do a vietnam special here... WHO IS EXCITED ??????????? I AM !!!!!!!

Ko.

yoga cat

it's so appropriate to have a cat in a yoga studio, isn't?
think cats are just natural-born yogi.

this dude is called pu-yi, yes, name after the last emperor of china.
he certainly got the attitude happening!

D.

The fashion simpsons

I came across this site while searching for info for my Vietnam trip (dont ask me how I got into this page, i dont even remember myself!) Its got everything about fashion like models, magazines, blogs, websites and they put in pages from different mags in the site. If there is job offers anywhere in the fashion industry, they will mention it as well!

The Simpsons mag article is something I found from the fashion pig! ITS SO DAMN HILARIOUS HAHA!!

one thing i have to complain is the pics on the site are too big... makes me fuzzy, like i have to move my eyes around the whole computer screen to see the whole pic!

http://www.fashionpig.com/

Ko.

hugs and kisses to JACOB BABE!

its jacob's bday today and auntie dova & ko wants to send lots of hugs and kisses to jacob to celebrate his special 1st birthday!! (wat a lucky guy!!! hahaha)

I know jacob is in taiwan but im sure he has felt the love from us!

Miss you babe! (and miss you too YC!!)

Dova & Ko

lazy sunday lunch

since I am leaving sydney soon, I made a (LONG) list of all the reatuarnt I want to try before I go. So hopefully I will try most of them and be good and write abt it here!

I tried Bathers Pavilion at balmoral beach on sunday.
when you are by a beautiful beach, I guess seafood is all I want to have!

lunch at bathers are very busy over weekend, we opted for the restaurant, instead of the cafe next door, because we can book for a table at the restaurant.

we had a asian pork belly and scallops with a peking consumme.
this was so delicious, the scallops was cooked to perfection and the pork belly is very flavourful (I mean, who doesnt love pork fat?)

for main my friend had the barramundi with a ginger crust, with pancetta, creamed fennel and potatoes. I had the john dory with daikon and a beetroot boullion.

more and more I found in restaurants, the entrees are better than the mains, so next time, I think I will have two entrees instead of mains. the other alternative is to have a degustation, so you try everything, but honestly I cannot stomach 7 courses at lunch!

the dessert was heavenly, it was a light lemon brulee with rasberries sorbet, it had just enough tartness and sweetness to finish off a light meal!

I highly recommend going to bathers on a sunny weekend! the place was so well lit (with natural light), it is made for photographs and there are cushions on the seats! very special!

D.

Thank you and sorry!

I am so happy actually we have viewers from outside my tiny circle of friends who read our blog. From my last article of "Xi Yan vs Club Qing, we had a very sincere message from the owner of club qing, AC. AC, thank you for being so sincere to leave us a message and I am very happy to see someone so dedicated and passionate about their food. A big thumbs up for you!

Thanks for your message and I realised from your message I had a huge miscalculation!!! My sis and my sis in law had their bday dinner and the table was for 6 of us, so cos it was their bday, 4 of us paid for the birthday stars which ended up being 700pp..... its actually 500pp..... really sorry !!

By the way, if our blog offended you in anyway, its purely just our own thoughts. Our aim is to share what we love in our life to our viewers....

Keep up the good work!

Ko.

xi yan vs club qing

xi yan and club qing both are famous "private" restaurants in hk (restaurants which are situated in commercial or household buildings) xi yan is the creator of private restaurants in hk offering original fushion set dinners, cosy atmosphere and main chef serving its own customers. As xi yan got more popular, they started to sell their book at the restaurant and bookstores giving away secret menus and which club qing had exactly followed. Altho club qing is a follower i still loved their dishes very much! each and every one had their own special flavour followed by matching teas... Only thing i had to complain is the price! 400 per person excluding drinks! somehow we ended up paying 700 each (miscalculation, see above blog)

Private restauarnts which are recommended by me:
1) Xi Yan - not so original dishes cos they never changed their menu but xi yan is the reason why all restaurants started to have cold tofu and "yeung chi gum lo" but I must admit theirs is the best
2) Club Qing (above pics)- very similar (almost exact) style to Xi yan but different menu, altho I dont like the idea that they copied but I do applaud for creating their own unique dishes. The chef is actually an IT guy!
3) Gung Guan - Shanghainese fushion, Shanghai cuisine is my fav... has diff menu for diff seasons!! I went twice, once in winter and once in summer:
Winter specialty was "dong bor meat" the skin of the meat is not a fatty piece of skin that melts into oil, its actually got elastic feeling!! Another fav was big gate crab with stir fried rice cakes, their sauce for that was heavenly. Summer special was their big prawns in salty egg sauce on sticky rice. However the queue to book the place just makes you give up and must have at least 8 ppl per booking (quite annoying)
The owner is the waiter and is the chef (who is western raised shanghainese guy, my family tested his shanghainese and it was good)... there is a secret to how he manages to do this ALL at once but its quite a long story... please tell me if you want to hear... i dont want to bore people with this long lonnnnnnnnnng blog

To be honest I have to say that Im very pessimistic about private restaurants, normally they are so overrated and very expensive. My rule of thumb is only go to ones that are recommended by friends!

ok i guess everyone knows how much i love food by now!

ko.

where is my creativity ?

Im back !! have been staying home most of the time so suddenly i felt like arts and crafts.... but then my mind was blank ! where did my artistic side go? where did the creativity go? I realised it wasnt about me, its cos I have lost my tool (junk) box!

Lincraft was use to be my favourite shop, i go there and just grab anything interesting I can see, including fabrics, buttons, ribbons, beads, plastics, paint, sequins, lace and anything you can think of! so when i have time i will just try to sew bits and pcs together to form a piece.

Above is some badges and pins that I have made for my top (I even made the top dont ask me how.... i just sewed fabric togther haha ) I even made a wrist band out of my junk ! I wish I still have the time for these stuff but now my life is all about work. I really miss the school days when I had 2 months of absolutely brainless holidays where I can just be at the sewing machine and play my junk!

Ko.

cooking for one

cooking for one is hard! This blog is dedicated to our friend S, who recently moved to the bog ol' london town.

principles of cooking for one *according to me*
1. shop wisely - only buy what you need and think carefully abt how you can use up everything.
2. one pot cooking is best, oven is good, too. Lined oven trays with layers of aluminium foil, I think foil is a miracle to men. this means less washing up.
3. think abt food prep, stir fry might sound easy and fast but who has time after school/work to peel vegetables!?
4. use what you have in pantry! no point buying some dried spices you will never use again
5. cook big batch of soups and curries over the weekend and store in freezer, so you have weekday dinners ready, too. (good tip from my sis)

I made this lamb dish last night and all I did was marinade the lamb, peel carrots, chopped potatoes and carrots, bung everything in the oven!

1. marinade 500g organic lamb rump (rump is cheaper than chops): mince ginger and garlic; one tablespoon each of ground coriander and cumin, salt and pepper to taste, drizzle olive oil and mix. set aside best to leave it for 20 mins, while it is marinading, move on to your veg

2. peeled 4 carrots. get potatoes (x4) that doesnt require peeling and scrubbing (kipfler, desiree and nicola is good). chop them into small bite size pieces and keep them in the same size to speed up cooking time.

3. drizzle olive oil, add salt and pepper on veg, put in two cloves of garlic (skin on, so you get soft and sweet garlic later on), bung in oven for 30 mins at 200 degress

4. in 20 mins, check how the veg is doing, taste it!

5. bung in the lamb, on a separate tray, but on top of veg, crank the oven up to 250. cook for 5 mins, turn the lamb. take the veg out. cook the lamb for another 2-3 mins.

I hope this is easy for everyone! the meat and veg can always be substituted. happy cooking!

D.

more audrey

I love her!
for some reason, smoking seems to look good in the old movies!
(not that I am advocating smoking is good)

the sunnies are almost like wayfarers.

I added the another character from the movie in here, too, cos she looks so damn hot in the turban (so prada this season) and the cape! love the colour combo and the big buttons!

george peppard looks very good with a skinny tie, too!

most of this outfits still work today, dun ya think?

D.

my dream coat

I watched breakfast at tiffany's for the 10th time over the weekend, it was on cable again. I just cant seem to take my eyes off what Audrey Hepburn wore in that movie.

This is my favourite coat, ever. this is the holy grail of coats, i reckon.
Isnt the back the cutest?

sometimes I hope people still dress like that, it's so nice.

If I haven't mistaken the coat should be designed by Givenchy.

D.