Sleepless in Seattle

Where did summer go? I blinked and it was gone...I spent most of my summer busy on my internship in LA. The 3-hour (at least!) commute everyday was something that I was definitely not used to, other than that I had a great time interning and learning new stuff!

I went to Seattle last Saturday with KL. The two of us haven't had a proper vacation since...hmmm? Ever? :) This post is going to be filled with pictures, so be prepared!

Seattle by night, as seen from the ferry that KL and I took on our way to Bainbridge Island:

Morning on Bainbridge..KL and I were ecstatic to discover that blackberries and apples were growing all over the island!

What's a trip to Seattle without a visit to Pike Place Market?

The very first Starbucks store..it was crowded crowded crowded and the baristas were throwing the customers' cups over to the brewing station once the order was taken. They dropped my cup... -_-;;

Anyone knows why there's a pig in Starbucks?

Speaking of pigs, I made it a point to hunt down the Maximus Minimus food truck after seeing a feature on it on TV. The first thing that I saw as I turned a corner was its snot..how cute!

I love that its license plate says "Some pig"...a reference to Charlotte's Web?

Eating the pulled pork sandwich from Maximus Minimus by the viewing gallery at the Pike Place Market, with ginger lemonade and sweet, tangy slaw:

The pastry counter at Piroshky Piroshky, a Russian bakery at Pike Place Market. It's perpetually crowded whenever we were there, could be because Anthony Bourdain featured it on his show before. KL and I bought a savory chicken, mushroom and rice piroshky to try...it was okay :/

Chowder, seafood bisque and classic clam chowder to be exact, from Pike Place Chowder:

So good in the cold weather that KL and I went back the next day for more!

Double chocolate gelato from the Chocolate Box is super yums!

How cute are the chocolate truffles from Chocolate Box? A milk chocolate bunny and bittersweet dark chocolate lab:

A shoot of Seattle's underground..it was visited by Ghost Hunters from the Syfy channel before..so do you see anything in the photo??

Vampire killer kit...for the evil type I guess, not the sparkly pretty type :)

The biggest puffer-fish that I have ever seen at the Seattle Aquarium. He swam over to check me out as I was taking his picture!

Random shadow play:

Barefooting it all over Seattle in my Vibram Fivefingers.

Space Needle!

Snoqualmie Falls. KL and I completed a hike at Snoqualmie Pass.

Loading up on the caffeine. KL says there are always pictures of me eating and drinking on every vacation we take. Fo'sho!

The facade of the Experience Music Project building. Love the colours.

Waiting for my plane to take off....bye bye Seattle!!

Food fun and pictures galore! Vegas Dec 2009

My finals were over 2 weeks ago and I should be updating this blog obessively. But something happened that I'm not ready to blog about...before I received the news, KL and I managed to go on our annual get-away to Vegas. We always tell ourselves to go somewhere that we have never gone before and were debating between visiting friends in Seattle or Dallas..but somehow in the end we always end up in Vegas at the end of the year! We are definitely creatures of habit, I guess!

Unfortunately the drive to Vegas this time wasn't as magical as last year's. I swear, a layer of snow over anything just makes any place a gazillion times more beautiful..though I could be biased as I haven't seen snow that much in my life :) Before the Big Sur fire, KL and I used to drive up Highway 1 frequently - I love the ocean and the views along Highway 1 is easily one of the most breath-taking, but sometimes the desert just provides a desolate beauty that's all its own...

The view from outside my hotel room, Vegas is really a city made for the night.

Coincidentally, the latest development on the Strip, CityCenter was slated to open on the very first night that we arrived. Yes, there's a lot of noise about how CityCenter will be the savior of the Strip, despite its involvement with Dubai World and lackluster condo sales. But it's something totally new, so my husband and I had to check it out.

Strolling along the overhead bridge that near CityCenter, the cold weather was a good time to bring out my favourite Ann D multi-lace boots again.

Wearing Aoyama Itchome dress, Zara coat, Falke leggings, Ann Demeulemeester boats and Miu Miu Coffer.

An interior view of Crystals, the retail center of CityCenter.

Most of the shops are not fully open yet, but there's a Lanvin store that's slated to open in 2010 - I'm really excited about that, even though I don't see myself spending money there any time soon ;)

Me fooling around with the signage outside the Lanvin store..hey it featured an Alber Elbaz illustration! Hmm..I am such a fashion nerd :p

Wearing Rick Owens leather jacket, F21 grey sweater, Ann D skirt and boots, Miu Miu Coffer.

The next day, KL and I ate at the Vegas outpost of Pink's, which is a hot-dog institution in L.A! It was our brunch so we decided to go for the works! At the bottom is the Mushroom Swiss Cheese dog, the name itself is pretty much indicative of what's inside. At the top was...hmm, the Mojave Desert dog? I'm not too sure about the name, but there comes a point where a hot dog stops being a hot dog and becomes a personal challenge...this hot dog was definitely that! A giant spicy Polish dog with jalapenos, salsa, guacamole, melted Swiss Cheese....hmmm the calories are definitely worth it!

KL and I also tried a new restaurant at Atria, the casino-hotel at CityCenter. There were so many choices but we only had one night, so we ended up going with Sage. Sage is a restaurant owned by Shawn McClain and markets its cuisine as "contemporary American". I'm never one to care about how my food is categorized, as long as it's great I'm happy! In this case I can honestly declare myself one happy customer! KL and I had a great time at Sage, our server was great and the meal started off well with an amuse-bouche from the chef. Unfortunately though it was really pretty, KL and I wolfed it down immediately, so no pictures! But I do remember tasting artichoke and foam :p

We got to choose from two types of bread, a bacon baguette and sour-dough baguette which we could dip into Australian sea-salt and house-whipped butter.

KL and I wanted to try as much of the menu as we reasonably could but there was no tasting menu...so we ordered 2 appetizers and one entree to share.

Appetizer 1...Escargot and Pork Belly Agnolotti.

The green foam that you see is actually parsley, blended with red wine sauce. I tried the escargot and agnolotti but not the pork belly. KL absolutely loved the mouth melting texture of the pork belly, I loved how the agnolotti complemented the escargot and the sauce and everything was tied nicely together with a taste of citrus..I suspect lemon?

Appetizer 2..Pacific Yellowtail Crudo.

This was my absolute favourite of the night! I loved it so much that if I had to choose one dish to eat for the rest of my life, this would be it! The dish contained hamachi slices which were so fine and light that it made for really great sashimi, with pine nuts, mushrooms and truffles that grounded the dish with its earthy flavor. The dish contained a yuzu sauce which worked surprisingly well with the nuts and mushrooms..I think this dish really brought the best of the earth and the sea together.

Entree..Roasted Day Boat Scallops.

I love scallops and I liked this dish. However after tasting the inventiveness of the 2 appetizers, I really wish the dish was wittier. The scallops acquitted themselves competently as a dish, though I felt that the red wine sauce might have been a little strong for the scallops, but it's a good dish nonetheless. However the red wine sauce did work beautifully with the oxtail, which was braised to perfection.

After that it was time for the sweet stuff. Sage offered a selection of pastries and dessert wines, but we decided to try the pastries instead. KL and I ordered 2 desserts to share...though I highly suspect that in the end, I ate most of them ;)

Warm sugared beignets with jasmine tea cider.

I have to say I am not a cinnamon fan, but this was good. The pairing of the jasmine tea cider with the beignet was clever as it balanced out the overt sweetness of the beignets. I loved the bitter sourness of the jasmine tea cider, the delicate scent of jasmine was really comforting.

Malted Valrhona Milk Chocolate Dome.

Dessert is truly not dessert with something chocolate :) The butterscotch foam and nuts went well with the chocolate dome and it provided a sweet ending to my meal, but overall I wished the desserts were able to delight me as much as the entrees. To end the meal, KL and I were given orange chocolate syrup, compliments of the chef. It really felt like we were drinking hot chocolate, with the aroma of orange coming in later as an after-taste. It was a great ending to a fun meal.

And to all, a very Merry Christmas and a



Take Care! :)

The Singapore Report - Food pictures galore and my very first giveaway

Hello everyone!

I have been absent from my blog for quite sometime but I am so deliriously happy to be back in Singapore. It's damn good to be home! I had forgotten about the heat and how densely packed this little island can be, but nothing beats eating Mum's cooking after being away from home for nearly 2 years as well as being in the company of my family again! The highlight has got to be meeting my baby nephew Tristan for the first time, I am constantly amazed by how cute and smart he is, he has everyone in the family eating out of his hands.

To share some of the joy, I am pleased to announce this blog's very first giveaway together with Chickdowntown.com. Some of you might have read about this website before from other previous blog giveaways and Chickdowntown is known for stocking trendy items such as the coveted scarves from Sir Alistair Rai and BB Dakota Clothing. I will pick one reader's comment on this post as the winner and this person stands to get the BB Dakota Battalion jacket in black:

Credit

I love the gold braided details and marching-band vibe of this jacket! It can be worn over pants or dresses and would be a fun signature piece to have for Fall. I am sorry to announce that this giveaway is only limited to readers in the US however :( Check out Chickdowntown's Twitter page as well as their Facebook page to be kept up to date on their latest finds and promotions!
This contest is open till Saturday, 1st August 2009, midnight PST and all US-based comments up to this deadline will be considered.

Now to offer everyone a peek into a day of my life when I am in Singapore, these are photos from when I was out for lunch together with my sister. We choose to hang out at Orchard Road, which is a well-known shopping belt in Singapore. Lunch was at Sakae Sushi, which is a successful Singaporean conveyor-belt sushi franchise store that has taken off in Asia.

We picked the branch at Wheelock Place which is located at the start of Orchard Road. To me, Wheelock Place unofficially marks the start of Orchard Road and we fueled up for the day as we attempted to tackle the shops and malls ahead of us:

Potato croquette and agedashi tofu - deep fried and so unhealthy but I love it! I tell myself that anything tofu can't be thaaaaaat bad!

Octopus sushi - this was my first time trying it..apparently my sister is a fan. I am very partial to seafood and I enjoyed this one immensely. It really tastes better than it looks! ;)

Salmon sashimi and soft-shell crab handroll - perennial favourites, give me wasabi and I am a happy camper. And why can't all crab shells be soft? One thing I hate about eating crab is having to crack open its shell, so the soft shell crab suits my lazy self just fine!

Chawanmushi - a steamed egg dish flavored with toppings like mushroom and fish cake. It's comfort food, done Japanese style, to me.

After lunch, it was off to do a bit of shopping!

This picture shows the start of Orchard Road itself. The building in the picture on the right is ION Orchard, which just opened last week. I haven't been there to check out the place yet, but I guess it will host the usual mix of designer boutiques and mid-range brands that Orchard Road malls is known for, despite its hype :S

Stopped by Topshop and M)phosis, which is a chain of clothing stores in Singapore.

For those who are visiting Singapore, I urge you to check M)phosis out, it stocks interesting, asymmetrical drapey pieces in a limited colour palette consisting of black, white, pink, grey and yellow. The prices are reasonable and I always pick up a few pieces whenever I visit. Not this time though, as I am on a student's budget ;) Topshop didn't yield anything interesting for me too, I'm not sure if that's due to my mentality of a self-imposed shopping ban or just that there aren't anything interesting in the stores lately.

But we did stumble across a food festival when we were at Ngee Ann City (a shopping mall in Orchard Road).

This mall frequently holds events in its atrium and I guess we were lucky that it was a food festival that day! (Translation: lots of yummy sampling and delightful sights and smells to be had!)

Cute Japanese candy in all their colourful packaging:

The selection was mind-boggling especially since I had to make-do with the limited selection in US!

Hong Kong street food!

Food on a stick is just great for walking around and eating..some of the food sold included pig intestines, cow's stomach, pig's skin and the usual fried chicken, fishballs and cuttlefish balls. The pastry counter on the right had me salivating, I have such a soft spot for Cantonese pastries.. it was a visual feast!

A dorayaki machine in action:

Dorayaki is a type of Japanese pancake with a sweet red bean filling in the middle. I love to eat it with a cup of strong green tea, because the taste of tea balances the sweetness of the red bean paste. But I didn't get any that day because of.....

ICE CREAM!

Straight from Singapore's very own ice-cream factory, Udders. There are a host of weird and wonderful flavours at the stall. Wonderful because they have decadent toe-curling liqueur flavors like orange-choc bitters, amaretto black and lychee martini! Weird (to some) because they also carry local flavors such as durians (Mao Shan Wang and D24) and cempedak which I found to be the highlights of their ice-cream selection. Personally, I loved loved loved the Mao Shan Wang（貓山王）flavour, so much so that my sis and I purchased a tub home after sampling what Udders had to offer:

Mao Shan Wang is considered an extremely high-quality durian cultivar in South East Asia. I realize that durians can be a controversial fruit to some. Some people love it, while some people just hate it with a passion. Me? I belong in the first group! Hey, I grew up in Singapore and I can never understand Singaporeans who do not love durians. That's like a Frenchman who doesn't love cheese!

Check out the creamy, luscious scoops of yellow goodness:

Last spoonful, good to the very last aromatic mouthful:

The taste is hard to pin down in words, but it's wonderfully complex with layers of sweetness, creaminess combined with the milkiness of ice-cream. For any adventurous foodie who happens to be in Singapore, this ice-cream is a must-try. Heck, for those who truly dare, go for the actual fruit itself!

P.S. I will be replying to all my emails and comments shortly! Sorry for the delay, but I guess you can say that I was in a food coma! ;)