ten-ele-ven

Peekture: Verbena In A Glass

Finally, there is countertop space in my bathroom to put a fragrance diffuser. So at a friend’s recommendation, I went out and bought a Loccitane fragrance. I really like the light, citrusy-floral scent as it is not too floral-sweet, or migraine-inducing musky, or cloying. And I also like the shape of Loccitane’s simple broad-based bottle – less likely to topple over with clumsy me around.

I have just bought another similar bottle for the study room, as this is the spot at home where I spend most of my waking hours.

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Peekture: Freaky Clouds In The Frankfurt Skies

This is a photo that I took on the plane of the skies as we approached Frankfurt.

Our flight out of Oslo was delayed by an hour because of poor weather conditions in Frankfurt (and as a result, we missed our connecting flight out of Frankfurt).

When the pilot announced that we were about to commence descent into Frankfurt, the plane flew past these clouds. These clouds were nothing like the nice, fluffy, cottony clouds that we see on a bright day. These clouds were thick, grey, like a bed of tightly entwined springs. They looked so freaky, as if they would suddenly swallow us up, and I was kind of scared for a while.

Maybe this is how dark clouds in a thunderstorm look like from above.

Peekture: Pork Chop Noodles

We finally arrived home early this morning from Oslo. I am trying to beat jetlag, so I came home, showered, changed and went to work, making sure that I adjust my body clock back to GMT+8.

I have only been away for 8 days and I miss eating local food. I came home tonight and made us some comfort food for dinner – fried pork chops (using the Happycall Pan) and ate it with a bowl of instant noodles.

It was yummy.

Brunch at Skyve Elementary Bistro

We went to Skyve Elementary Bistro, located in a quaint old school building, for brunch over the weekend. Having been there twice now – once before for dinner, I would say that I like the ambience and surroundings of the restaurant more than the food. The food is not memorable but I like the place. It is soooo pretty.

As it has been quite a while since I last used my Lumix GF2, I decided to take it along with me to brunch today. I didn’t take many photos of brunch, so as not to embarrass my brunch party. 🙂
No matter what people say about the excellent image quality of a four-thirds camera, I don’t quite think so. I feel that the image quality of the iPhone camera is still better.

I ordered the ricotta pancakes with bananas, maple syrup and passionfruit butter. The passionfruit butter was very yummy, but I can’t say the same about the pancakes. I found them to be a tad to dry. It is a shame, because I love pancakes…and I love ricotta pancakes even more! I have to try the ricotta pancakes at Bill’s in Sydney when I have the chance to.

French toast with soft-boiled eggs ‘kopitiam-style’.

Peekture: The Sail

View of The Sail from the Tower Club.

Peekture: Gochu Pajeon

I ate gochu pajeon (or Korean chili pancake) at a Korean restaurant called Todamgol located along Tanjong Pagar Road. It was delicious! The batter was very light and the chili was crunchy. I don’t know why this dish is called a pancake ‘coz it isn’t a pancake, at least, not the way I know it to be. I was expecting lots of chili encased in a huge piece of fried batter. This looks like ‘chili tempura’.

What made me really happy about eating at Todamgol is the larger selection of makgeolli (as compared to other Korean joints) AND it sells Hwayo soju! Many Korean joints in Singapore sell makgeolli but carry mostly one brand AND they do not sell Hwayo soju.

So, I bought a bottle of Hwayo soju for the husband who looks away whenever I suggest eating/drinking anything Korean, but for some strange reason, he likes this brand of soju. 🙂

Postcard From Bhutan: Wangdue Phodrang Dzong

I read that this beautiful and very old Dzong, perched on a ridge overlooking two rivers, was gutted by fire yesterday. 🙁 I remember passing by the Dzong either on our way to Punakha or back from Punakha. We didn’t visit the Dzong, but stopped by the roadside to admire the architecture of the old fortress-cum-monastery on way to/back from Punakha.

Peekture: New Bookshelves

Renovations have been completed and we moved home last week! So happy to be back home.

That’s me, lounging on a chair admiring my new bookshelves. With e-book readers, bookshelves are no longer in fashion for most people, but not with us. 🙂

Homemade Beef Rendang

I made beef rendang for dinner today, using a recipe from Mrs Lee’s cookbook.

This is the first meal that I made in our new kitchen, and also the first time I made beef rendang. Am happy as punch that it turned out quite well. Except that I should remember to pound/blend the rempah longer next time to get a smoother and more consistent texture. 🙂

Weekend Trip To Bangkok 2011

I was doing some housekeeping on my notebook and found some photos that I had taken in Bangkok last October. I was there with my colleagues for our annual department weekend getaway.

Department trips are usually free-and-easy. There is one group dinner and for the rest of the time, everyone is free to do whatever pleases them. A few of us decided not to stay at the group-designated hotel, but at the Metropolitan. It is quite a nice boutique hotel, with rooms that have a modern contemporary vibe that I like. I spent most of that trip eating at various places. If I wasn’t out eating, I was soaking/sitting in the bathtub in my hotel room with a book. I don’t usually do very much shopping in Bangkok and I try to limit my visits to the Thai spas to at most one time per trip.

Immediately after checking in and throwing down our luggage , my colleague made us go to Lenotre in Siam Paragon for breakfast. We ordered coffee, croissants and several other pastries to share. I thought that the pastries were not bad, but they were not exactly outstanding.

Then we walked around the Erawan area and I decided to visit the famous Erawan Shrine. It was very crowded with worshippers and I could barely breathe as the air was heavy with incense fumes.

Thai coconuts used as offerings.

I didn’t take many photos on this trip, just some random ones along the way.

The lobby of Metropolitan. I love lotuses and was really pleased to see vases of these flowers in the lobby.

There are two things that I must eat everyday when I am in Thailand, preferably in every meal if I can help it. One – tomyum goong.

Two – Krapow kai or chicken in basil leaf with rice and topped with a fried egg.

A Plate of Steak And Sides

Another delicious dinner cooked by my friends. Steak, brown buttered corn (sooooo good!), mash potato, cheese grits (mmmmm…I have never eaten this before and it is yummy!), salad and tiramisu for dessert.

This is one reason why I don’t think I will ever be able to become a raw food vegan. I don’t want to give up meat. I have no problems cutting down on my meat intake, but to eliminate it entirely from my life….*gulps*

Green Smoothie Power Drink

^ 1 cup of baby spinach, 3 bananas, 1 apple, 4 strawberries and a handful of blueberries.

A couple of weeks ago, I attended a half-day workshop run by the Love Life Laughter Academy on how to make raw chocolate and raw chocolate desserts. The Academy promotes raw food living as a way of life and conducts classes to teach people how to prepare raw food. A friend saw that this workshop was on Groupon and asked me to join her. I thought – why not? Have an open mind and I may learn something.

After attending the class, I still wasn’t sold on the idea of raw food living. I am aware of the benefits of going raw, but I am not ready to sign up to this way of life. Not yet, and I am not sure if I ever will. But there is one part of the raw food diet which appealed to me, and that is drinking large amounts of green smoothies everyday.

I like my green vegetables and fruits, but I find it difficult to eat sufficient quantities of both everyday. Blending raw green vegetables and fruits as a smoothie sounded perfect. I might not be able to eat 2 cups of spinach, a bunch of parsley, 1 avocado, 2 bananas, 5 strawberries, 1 cup of blueberries every day, but I can certainly drink all of this in a smoothie.

Since moving back home, I have been making green smoothies twice a day – once in the morning and once at night. A tall glass of green smoothie in the morning is very filling and lasts me from 7am to 12 noon. Green smoothies look awful to most people, but they taste better than they look. And because there is so much fruit in the smoothie, it tastes like any other fruit smoothie, and does not have the raw, grassy taste that we mentally associate with raw vegetables.

I think I am going to be a green smoothie convert. 🙂 Time to invest in a Vitamix…?

Fratelli Pesto Dinner

I love it when my friends invite me to their home for a home-cooked meal. No matter how much a person enjoys cooking or how simple the meal is, it still takes time, effort and a lot of heart to put a meal together for friends. I am always grateful for these invitations – grateful for the thought, for the company and for the food.

It has taken me a while to post photos of this Italian meal that my friend put together last month. She brought some good pesto sauce back from London and wanted to share it with us.

‘Red’ was the theme of the evening! Very festive, Christmas-y feel. We ate bruschetta topped with prosciutto, made with Poilane bread!

Love these Coke glasses.

One of my favourite desserts. I would have eaten tons of it if not for the fact that my tummy was full of pasta.