fun facts of tokyo

1. toilets here have huge toilet bowls.. mostly by toto
2. they mostly have the option of showering water up your butt if you choose
3. upon entry into each cubicle, they start making whooshing sounds so that others can hear you pee
4. i have yet to find rows and rows of pocky and instant noodles :(
5. people here dont dress in yojiyamamoto hahaha.... no block colours or drapery yet
6. girls here tote around their makeup bags.... keeping themselves looking awfully madeup and perfect all day long
7. men here can give french men a run for their money... other than the grunge look, the rest dress and look great

hello all

from tokyo.

where i'm spending too much money, its scary

national day weekend!

i didnt realise just how much of a break i needed till friday night rolled around then saturday... and now sunday! all i've been doing is eat, sleep, watch all the tv i want coz cable has opened up every single channel which is awesome and pretty much be a huge bum!

i cant believe all i've done the last few days is rot hahaha and its WONDERFUL! no commitments other than sending gina to the airport.... and wait with holding breathe all the spoils she'll come back with :)

and the countdown begins for my break! 6 more days and im off for 2 wks with jo jo to shanghai and tokyo and im absolutely excited! i was suppose to be finding out and finalising all the places we're going to eat at but i've been such a bum tt my laptop has remained shut and switched off all weekend except that sarah needed help so "on" it went this afternoon

need to decide what to make for tmr's traditional family gathering and since my mind and body have all switched off, im not really inspired to try to make my apple tart even thou tt's next on my list

for all my friends everywhere else, its a long weekend coz tmr, 9th Aug, is Singapore's birthday and its turning a young 45 years old

and then tues comes around and it'll be freaking stress for 4 days straight as i rush to get things done in order for me to leave on sat.... i'll be pissed otherwise

so frm tmr morning onwards i really do need to get off my butt, make dessert for dinner and settle meals on my trip :) wish i cld just do it all in my bed

i heart impromptu meetups

esp those that involves yummy truffle fries, pasta, a hot date and tons of mosquitoes

since gina was busy at her boss' birthday sarah and i decided on a whim to just meet for dinner tonite which really was a terrific idea! it makes life so much more interesting and exciting not being able to plan these things out... haha but i did haf to gif up jogging. oh well. i mean exercise can always wait rite? dinner with my gf definately not - this is why i'll never ever lose weight... ZERO self discipline

since i arrived slightly before sarah, i decided to take the seats outside as tonite was rather cool and i guess fresh air is good for a tired soul... bad bad idea... after abt an hour and a half later... sarah begged me to leave as she was getting eaten alive! whenever sarah's around... she's like my mosquito repellent, the little insects seem to stay away from me and go after her instead :D goes to show they arent that stupid afterall haha

while having dinner, sarah tried to convince me of the need for couples to spend alot more time together. and truthfully i never understood that, still dont. she tried explaining that by spending more time, you will understand each other more and therefore leave less to miscommunication and therefore will love each other more? or somewhere along that line.... while writing that out it just dawned on me why i cant seem to see it her way.... i tend to date guys who were/are friends first so i already know them on some level ah ha! the bulb just went off :D hahaha but i still dont quite get how spending so much time with just one person can be good for a relationship... afterall wldnt u just get on each other's nerves even more? there is a reason y there's a saying that distance makes the heart grow fonder
oh well it works for different pple.... of course to say, by the end of the night we agreed to disagree haha its always been the case whenever topics like this comes up. we just seem to view life differently which is good i guess and it seems to work out between the 3 of us despite our differences

think i'll try to make apple pie this weekend. cross fingers and toes including sarah's and gina's that it'll come out! esp coz it'll be my first time making a dough... this shd be interesting hehe

THANK god tmr's friday.... and then my boss will be away for a week! dont think i can take another week like this one :p

my one drink wonder + birthdays + surprise arrival

makes a great weekend :) haha now that the lack of sleep + alcohol haze has finally settled, and all the photos start streaming in.... of course many werent remembered :s and i knw i said it was terrible just a day ago but it really did feel like it!

friday's shenanigans

we had lishan join us after sooo long and i shall spare the embarassment of the brilliant pictures :)

sat started off at the rooftop opening of fullerton bay hotel - sarah was my gorgeous date for the night

the view from the top

when sarah saw this... she commented how this was one angle of fullerton hotel no one really sees

my fav picture of the nite

it was johanese's 25th and we were there celebrating it with his multiple girls

i really think i officially need to lay off alcohol while the older generations are arnd coz i find that i do really silly things that is fine with friends just not while the adults are arnd.... really need to remember this!

my great family friends.... i've had them around for forever! and hopefully this will continue to be so

then it was off to butter factory.... this time i made sure sarah at least made it up the stairs and into the club :)the it was downhill all the way into a spiral of oblivion

from one family of childhood friends to another group of boys who haf really seen me thru alot... i really did enjoy sat nite and now everyone has to go back to life

another week just passed.....

and what happened over the week?

i dont quite remember....

i basically spent all day today sunday in bed recovering from a very very very bad nite out.... i've realised that everytime dre's back, my liver takes a huge workout and last nite was no different whatsoever. ben says that even thou i always curse and swear at the end of it, i still will continue on coz i love them too much hahaha which is true. one thing i remember for sure commenting to sarah about how looking on at them, some things just dont change and after all the dust has settled, we're still good friends

but this weekend was spent with my one drink wonder :) johanese's bday, a new rooftop with pretty pple all of which was documented by sarah of course which picture shall come soon enuf and not to forget the major flooding that occured

my life would really be so different if it werent for my friends

breaking in the kitchen officially :)

i've been really busy entertaining my dearest cousin lauren... she's been staying with me for the past few days and i'm really going to miss having her arnd. as an older cousin, i never understood how parents do it but with just a blink of an eye, all these young kids all grow up so fast esp coz i only see her once a year. and like her brother, the next thing i knw, she'll b in her teens and dating......

since the cece sarah and cece gina haf been busy all week, i had them over to my new place to break in the kitchen

i think i've definately gone over my spending limit this month......

do u spy my new love? i freaking spent a fortune on it... and it weighs a ton too sigh

the next heartattack i had was when i was buying the beef.... i cant believe crappy beef was soooo expensive here in sg its pure daylight robbery! i think it was just made worse coz grocery shopping in LA would not cost me that much esp with the quality of beef i had just purchased

anyway menu for the night was....

beouf bourguignon

garlic mash

blanched asparagus

mac&cheese (for the cousin)

a platter of cheeses and pate

sausages and onions (frm a cousin)

and dessert i attempted key lime pie!

into the beef bourguignon was a whole bottle of red wine.... and just a tiny bit of beef stock -  not even a cup!

of course since im such a scatter brain now.... i totally forgotten that i needed a blow torch for the meringue. so as always when im in need of extra ingredients.... sarah comes to the rescue! she went all over sg helping me find one for the meringue

do u see the cool browning effect? hahaha

and the result of it! heh

my sat didnt quite end there as sarah and i adjourned to zouk for a bday gathering of all the ac boys and after sending my few drinks wonder of the nite... i joined my own group of more ac boys where a good surprise lay in wait for me :) i cant believe all the young girls these boys haf hanging on them! one even looked freakin 12 with her braces on.... yeesh

oh well.... what good are these kind of girls for other than to play with?

anyway its really late and i really shd head to bed as tmr is a start of another week. hopefully some good news will happen tmr!

Friendship is certainly the finest balm for the pangs of disappointed love.




Jane Austen

tmr's 3rd July 2010!!!

or actually i shd say now.... i haf to be up in a few hours to head over to my cousin's for her wedding but im still in search or the perfect love quote
these are just some i've found so far tt i like but not really looking for

Friedrich Nietzche: There is always some madness in love. But there is also always some reason in madness.


Bertrand Russell (Marriage and Morals): To fear love is to fear life, and those who fear life are already three parts dead
 
Bette Davis: Love is not enough. It must be the foundation, the cornerstone - but not the complete structure. It is much too pliable, too yielding.
 
Diane Frolov: There's a lot to be said for self-delusionment when it comes to matters of the heart.

Erica Jong in 2004: Love is everything it's cracked up to be…It really is worth fighting for, being brave for, risking everything for.
 
HL Mencken: Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.
 
Robert Frost: Love is an irresistible desire to be irresistibly desired
 
Robert Heinlein: Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own
 
Kathryn Nelson: Passion is seldom the end of any story, for it cannot long endure if it is not soon supplemented with true affection and mutual respect.
 
Rainer Rilke: For one human being to love another; that is perhaps the most difficult of all our tasks, the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
 
Marvin Taylor: Love is not singular except in syllable
 
Dr Seuss: You know you're in love when you don't want to fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams
 
unknown: You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving
 
Victor Hugo: The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved - loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves
 
Unknown: You learn to like someone when you find out what makes them laugh, but you can never truly love someone until you find out what makes them cry
 
unknown: True love is when you put someone on a pedestal, and they fall - but you are there to catch them.

a tea ceremony, 1 mth old bday and everything in between

the countdown for a beloved cousin's wedding has officially started today with her tea ceremony
lauren and ku flew in for the rehearsal so as with our guests, it was expected that i would haf to be awake as early as my weekdays... i really dont function while the sun is up...
lauren has grown so much since last year... i wish time cld stop and she stays tiny and cute always
started the day with a trip to Papa P's to show ku this place for coffee :)
then it was a total mad rush to get ready and i cldnt make it down to get my hair done so salon le Pris was all time cld afford
ivan and i made it down to shang at 140 which was 10 mins later then promised. i knw my bad but my outfit of choice was totally based on what was available as everything is still in the boxes! argh

my awesome shoes that totally slowed me down hahaha

i was tittering all over sg in these gorgeous Margielas 4 inches high

but some pictures of my beautiful family:

we've long decided that the TAN genes are very strong coz we all look alike...

as this is only tea ceremony, not all were told to be there, but since lauren had to be with mom and ivan was dragged by me coz i had to be there to help, we were the only cousins there. the real wedding will be next wk.

i wish weddings were just occasions for celebrations without the family politics included. its so sad that things like this haf to ruin such a joyous gathering.

my dream wedding will have all my closest aunties and uncles, all my cousins and all my good friends all in one place together. if anything, i think weddings are meant to be just a once in a lifetime chance to have a gathering of all the pple you love in one place. the only problem with me is that everyone is all over the world. i will be needing to book pple a whole year in advance and chartering planes for them to come haha

then i spent all afternoon taking care of lauren as ku had to take care of the wedding details. we played at ce michelle's then it was off to taka to find a present for julian - g's 1 mth old nephew

sarah and i compromised on a rocking horse (with lauren as the swaying vote as she is a kid afterall) that goes "neigh" and "clip clop" i think but i knw it comes with a cool saddle and the mouth moves when the noises are made.... when ahia and elena opened it up we realised that we cld haf totally kept tt present for 1 year old birthday coz it was for a 3 year old? hahahaha oh well

this was taken as sarah and i rushed off for the bday party... i love it!

this was the first time ever sarah and i wld see julian and he's sooo hairy! which is good... tons of hair on the head for a mth old baby

the picture was missing ghia and it sucks that he's working coz i miss having him arnd to say the most retarded things... can u see the head of the baby?
i cant believe ahia's a dad already! it seems like only a few days ago that i rushed home frm LA only to land, drop my luggage at home, run to the hair salon to get my hair done, then off to the hotel for the wedding! i still remember having to order coffee to keep awake but they charged me for it and coz i had only landed i cldnt pay for it so i think KS had to pay for me hahaha

dug this photo up frm my external hahaha with er no wrng person in it  :D

as always when the 3 crazy aunties get together... its gossip time and pure madness. sarah and i had only planned on staying for a little while but the next thing we knw... we were the last few to leave!

need to wake up early again.......................... sigh haha

L'atelier

L'atelier (pronounced as la-tel-yea) by Joel Robuchon.

quick facts:
L'atelier is French for a workshop for an artist.
it has attained 2 Michelin stars for this branch in HK

JS and i were trying to decide between Le Jardin or L'atelier but we decided that we wanted to try the ala carte with more choices so off to L'atelier we went...

upon arrival, the place was packed and JS was brilliant to request for the center counter seats to be able to see into their open kitchen

kitchen wise, i wasnt too impressed by the design... it all seems so similar now and right in front of us was...

it was kinda useless and redundant turf of plastic grass with flowers and quails' egg

but on to the food.....

an amuse-bouch of cream with bacon and bacon foam and more bacon wrapping something really yummy

our bread basket was an interesting mix of hits and misses... but i have to say i particularly like the mini crossiant in the middle :)

instead of ordering with their set menus, JS and i decided to order smaller dishes and share

first off were...

half a dozen of fresh oysters frm somewhere in the world served on grey salt in between really salty seaweed

this has got to be the first time ever ive eaten oysters this good... i now understand y pple are willing to pay so much for really good oysters coz they arent fishy at all and huge and they taste literally like the ocean

this was a mouthwatering order of Le Jambon - iberian bellota ham served with toasted bread and tomatoes

of course the ham was good, but what caught my attention was the chopped tomatoes... they were chopped so finely yet still maintained their shape and crunchiness... i wondered how they were able to cut it so uniformly and with that size, not come out mushed

Le Caviar Oscietre - the surprise of the oscietre caviar

it was served really impressively... at the bottom was crabs' meat with a thin layer of lobster jelly and topped with of course caviar

L'oursin - Sea Urchin in lobster jelly, topped with califlower cream

this was a brilliantly clean dish.... the uni was sooo fresh and surprisingly the lobster jelly did not over power the uni

La Langostine - Crispy Langostine papillote with basil

this was ordered frm the recommendation of the server coz i didnt know what langostine was haha and it turned out wonderful... it looks like wontons but tasted great... googling langostine = a type of lobster and papillote = french for being wrapped in a parchment. the skin was nice a thin and crispy thou the basil sauce was kinda too soft, that the taste of lobster overpowered it... not that im complaining really

Le Foie Gras - warm goose foie gras with season's fruit

this was JS' order.... he was very happy with the size of the foie gras that was placed before him... and even thou i picked at it... i still dont understand how he managed to eat most of it

Le Risotto
Sea urchine risotto with spiky artichokes

this was actually a dissappointing end to the dinner... its good, just not great. it was really very uni-fied haha the sauce was made frm uni... topped with more uni and gold flakes

thankfully.... there was dessert

Le Chocolate Sensation - creamy "Guanaja" chocolate, coco sorbet on chocolate cream

OMG this was AMAZING... ever since my chocolate craze, i havent really been able to eat too much chocolate but this was soooo good. i cant help but rave abt this. the presentation was absolutely gorgeous too

La Rose - Rose golden sphere with rose cream,"Dita" jelly and rasberry sorbet

i thot this was brilliantly done... thou JS found it a little too sweet afterawhile. the sphere in the middle was a very very thin layer of rose flavoured candy i think, containing lychee foam and rasberry fruit

we actually had a very hard time choosing our desserts coz every thing looked awesome... since we were seated by the counter, JS and i were peeking at other pple's dessert when it was being served... their souffle looked absolutely amazing too. i wish i cld make it as well as they do - that shall be my next next conquest i think hahaha and the guy next to me ordered their surprised chocolate ball with caramel icecream. it got served looking like a huge chocolate lollipop and the server then poured warm caramal on the top melting the top of the thin chocolate sphere exposing the caramel icecream inside

other things worthy of raving was their never ending wine selection! hahaha we were given a book of 294 pages of pure wines to choose frm. too bad their sommelier was not arnd and the server wasnt helpful at all but we ended up choosing a 2003 Chateau Pichon-Longueville - a deep not so dry bordeaux

this was truely a wonderful experience and im desperately looking forward to them opening theirs here in sg

ps i just found out today that one of my most favourite restaurant in LA is opening here!!! im ssssoooooo terribly excited. i just hope they will keep their standards otherwise i'll be very dissappointed... now only to make friends with the concierge/head server

a nice saturday with my girlies

its been awhile since sat was spent without much stress.....
woke up to talk to my contractor, then it was off to a very late brunch/lunch with the girlies.... for the first time sarah forgot to bring her camera so no pictures to remember this day by oh well

we left for ps dempsey at 330 only to find out that they wld stop serving lunch at 4 so we rushed there and since our main goal was their truffle fries we had to order those first.  s tried their key lime pie and its yummy! when my oven works... tt shall be one of my receipes to get rite! i've had their breakfast club before and previously it was good but for some really odd reason, yesterday's didnt turn out quite as good... it was rather dissappointing. raph was nice as always and surprised us with glasses of champpie to enjoy

then it was off to town in search for my brides maid shoes and g's father's day gift....

in a bid to not drink this weekend, or at least not go crazy, i went over to my cousin's just down the st to hang out there.... hahaha its always good fun with them and we ended up watching alice in wonderland and it was great having a ginger cousin-in-law to tease :) ce michelle and i stayed up all the way to 3 just gossiping abt our family and stuff

sat was a good day :)

my respite into hk

thks to a great friend, i managed to escape over the weekend to one of my favourite places ever.... unfortunately since i am now working, i only managed to spend 2.5 days there and had to squeeze all my friends in during that time... catching up with all their lives, gossip etc and of course eat and shop. i think my week long diet just basically went down the drain the minute i landed

considering i actually hadnt planned on eating dinner, my dearest driver had brought along her mom's awesome laksa so obviously i had to have that before the flight took off... and being the ever greedy me, upon landing, i had my fav fried rice from Tsui Wah and Lamb kebab frm Eberneezer's. these food was my one stop place for supper the whole time i was in HK and still cant seem to find the equivalent in sg... which come to think of it might actually be a good thing coz then i just might blow up like a piggy balloon i am

Sat started out with a major shopping spree at a new shopping find in TC and OMG the 1 shop there just basically zeroed me out...... hahaha i call it my shoes heaven

 this is a new bridge according to JS.... he literally had to drag me out of the mall complaining he was starving and since where we had planned for lunch was quite a distance, he wanted to leave after the first shop but he was nice enuf to let me run into 2-3 more shops before heading off

where else to start off my trip really with my most favourite wonton noodles hole-in-the-wall?
i had totally forgotten that they were called ping pong wontons but sarah didnt! :)
*urgh* looking at these pics just make me want to go back there again :(

since time was precious... i had to plan my shopping spree arnd the places i wanted to eat at. after a very satisfying lunch of great wonton noodles with yummy wontons and springy noodles... it was off to habourcity and all the IT shops heh... as always my first stop was Y's. fell in love with another of their wonderfully cut pants but was told not to get it :( then to another fav jap brand store that i suddenly cant seem to remember hahaha but anyway all were at harbourcity. then it was off in search for the IT stores!!! heh damage here wasnt very pleasent either :D i feel in love with the display of IT and wish it could be done at my home

feeling rather tired, we went back to TC to rest before the best dinner in awhile! JS treated me to my restaurant of choice.... L'atelier (pronounced as la-tel-yea) by Joel Robuchon. but this will be saved for a later post coz it really deserves one

JS made a comment that i hadnt realise i've been doing.... every trip up to HK, i seem to plan a meal to try one of their world famous restaurants.... this trip was L'ateliar, previously was spoon and somewhere else i cant remember now hahaha
then if was off to drinks at the peninsular with karen and christine :) this was the bell that had to be pressed to enter pretty cool haha

it was great catching up with the girls... on their lives etc. found out karen might be heading this way soon but it looks like i just might miss her :(

sunday was spent at home coz i had some work done... i was really contemplating visiting the asian counterpart of my favourite store in LA or heading to mong kok to look for shoes but decided against it coz i really had to finish up my work. in between i caught a movie about coco chanel and her affair with igor stravinsky... i never realised they were involved and truthfully when i first saw the title, i didnt even think it was stravinsky the famous composer! the movie was alrite... ive always been in awe of how composers were able to compose pieces for a whole orchestra thru their imagination.... finally i headed out for dinner with darren and steph!

i really miss them.... even now

darren took me to a yakitori place then we tried to go to this bar called sugar at the east hotel only to find out it was closed already haha so JS came to get us and we ended going to a HK street dessert restaurant :D haha another cannot miss

and i have to say this is the first time i have seen both steph's and darren's homes... and omg.... darren lives in this really big estate, in the middle of nowhere! well not really... but i still get so surprised at the way pple live in HK hahaha.. he's going to haf his own penthouse soon and the next time i visit i can go stay with him thou considering his location.... i dont knw if i want to coz it'll just be cabbing everywhere. i wonder how many cars have gotten into accidents going up... esp since most of them would be driving really nice cars

i took these for gina and sarah :)

monday was really short coz of course i had to come back to reality :(

since i had sooooo much shopping, i had to resort to hand carrying the orders of century eggs and eggtarts... in total i carried on board 6 boxes of half dozen yong kei century eggs and 4 boxes of 8 egg tarts. i was really crossing my fingers and hoping they wld not check me on sg side or else it'll definately be confiscated and i'll be pissed heh

lunch was of course at yong kei and steph came to join us! i was sooo happy.... we definately over ordered as usual... my fav fried rice, steamed egg whites with crab, a veggie dish, ohhhhh my first time ever trying steamed pomelo skin with roe and it was yummy and not to forget the awesome goose

after all of that... i was rushed to the airport only to nearly miss the flight that everyone wanted me to miss including myself hahhaa... i was the last person to board! such a close call...

i really do miss hk and all my friends there.... sigh maybe i'll just fly up again soon heh i really do need to thank JS for taking such great care of me... hk is really never the same without him arnd

the spoilts of my great trip