2. These Zara Balmain knock-offs:
I finally got them after stalking the Zara store in South Coast Plaza for the past 3 weeks! And while the magpie in me admires the original ones on the runway, I feel that my money would be better spent on a certain pair of lace-up boots by a certain female Belgian designer ;)
So this inspired version will do nicely..and honestly this pair of shoes is really well-made and I can't stop fingering the studs and sparkles. Can't wait to wear this out with something white, grey or nude...or maybe all of the above ;)
Edited to add: I've received quite a few queries about these Zara heels, so this is what I know.
They retail for USD$169, not inclusive of sales tax. The article number for this design is 1369201040, so it's worth a shot calling your nearest Zara and quote this number to see if they have this pair and your size, in stock. Lastly, for anyone in the Orange County area, there were still 2 pairs left in a size 39, at the Zara in South Coast Plaza as of Friday, February 27th. Good luck!
3. Cooking carrot cake
No, not the sweet carrot cake that most of the world knows as a dessert.
I'm referring to the Singaporean version, which is a savory dish known as fried carrot cake or colloquially referred to as "Chai tow kway"(菜头粿). Its main ingredient is flour and radish, which is combined together and steamed to create the cake. The steamed carrot cake is served in dim sum in huge slabs, but in Singapore, we stir fry it together with eggs, sweet dark sauce, chilli sauce and pickled radish to make fried carrot cake!
KL and I discovered that the secret to getting the authentic Singaporean taste really laid in getting the right sweet dark sauce and chilli sauce. For the dark sauce, we used kecap manis, which we finally located in an Asian supermarket. As for the chilli sauce, we combined 2 types of sambal (spicy shrimp paste) sauce, one for the heat, one for the garlicky flavour.
This is my favourite breakfast dish (KL's too in fact!) and we are just darn proud of ourselves for being able to recreate it in the US! ;)
