Shanghai X Surrounding cities .China.

Over the past 2 1/2 years working with my current company I have been to Shanghai umpteenth times. However, sometimes, I spent the whole trip in meeting rooms, but not on this week-long trip.

 

This time I had the opportunity to travel to cities surrounding Shanghai on their high speed rail (动车）. I am impressed with the timeliness and cleaniness of the service. But being on a higher ground (the rails run through tall bridges) I also witnessed how polluted the country is. Imagine being in the train for hours and you don’t see even a glimpse of blue sky? It’s always dusty and gloomy, almost like passing through the districts in the hunger games.

Our supplier brought us to “西塘古镇” to see sunset after a day’s work at the office. It’s crowded with local tourists as the labour day long weekend was approaching. The old town doesn’t have the charm I wish to see, bars and restaurants have taken over the buildings polluting it with neon lights and loud techno music.

    

They are famous for smelly toufu in the old town. I love a good old smelly toufu, however the ones I had were too salty.        

Favorite part of my trips are visiting factories and mills. I always love the images I get walking through the factories. The workers are always so oblivious of me taking photos.  Anyway, hopefully I don’t have to travel to China anytime soon, the pollution level is so bad that I do not wish to be anywhere near the country again.

Savour extended. Part Two.

Gourmet [ g oo r- mey , g oo r -mey ]
noun
a connoisseur of fine food and drink; epicure.

Sure, one post isn’t enough to say it all, there was just way too much happening in a day!

Next up! We attended “A Pastry & Tea Pairing Experience by Michael Liu, Windowsill Pies” it was presented with Gryphon Tea Company. We were very lucky to get a spot for the class/ presentation. Chef Michael did an excellent job pairing the selected teas. (1. Earl Grey 2. Lapsang Souchong 3. Marsala Chai) We love the aroma of Lapsang Souchong, which we nicknamed it “hamsup lapcheong” (internal joke). It is a black tea smoked with pine wood from Wuyi Mountains, Fujian Province. It is distinctly smokey, with a hint of bacon. Chef Michael paired this with a maple flavored walnut madeleine. The flavors were so unexpectedly complimentary. Pair yours with a stack of fluffy pancakes over maple syrup it would work just as well!

We also met with my favorite relish producer from New Zealand! *Screams* Maison Therese, I fell in love with their tomato relish when I tasted them at Memphis Belle in Wellington, I had them with a pie I ordered, (long story, short) I brought them all the way home! Now, it’s great to see them on the shelves of Jasons and Cold Storage. We chatted with Monique and Emma Bradshaw about ingredients that are available in New Zealand and how their family history play a big part in the recipes they created. Silly me didn’t even properly introduce ourselves, even thou we chat like old friends for almost an hour!

We then attended “Italian Trippa” with Gabriele Pegaia from Burlamacco. He explained and taught us how to cook Trippa, not easy if you didn’t prepare it well. We probably were a little too enthusiastic during the presentation that he remembered us and when we saw him at his booth, he invited us for drinks and we talked about languages and travels. Funny guy.

Here comes the highlight of the day!!! Like, I don’t have enough exclamations in my post, yet. We got into “Playing with Chocolate” by Andres Lara from Pollen. What’s so exciting, you may ask?Firstly, it’s a fully hands-on baking class. Secondly, it’s only available for the first 16. We were number 11 and 12 in queue! So many that came after were disappointed. Yes, we did wait in the queue an hour or more before the class starts.

The very young but yet experienced Chef Andres explains and demonstrates 2 recipes. A travel cake which has a dense brownie bottom and a light citrusy green tea top. This recipe has a very interesting hidden hazelnut praline in the brownie part of the cake which gives a slight crunch to your bite. He also showed us how to make choc bon bons, there wasn’t any time for us to work on it hands on but we get to taste them. Erica was amazingly fast and she explains each step to me again when we were at it, for getting ready fast, we each won a “gourmet food on a budget by Chef Jason Atherton” cookbook! Woohoo! To see Chef Andres Lara at work head on down to the dessert bar at Pollen. Drop me a message if you need a partner in crime!

Savour the moment. Part One.

Foodie [foo -dee]
noun Slang.
a person keenly interested in food, especially in eating or cooking.

Yes, last Saturday we brought out the inner foodie in us. Erica and I attended gourmet demonstrations, pastry & tea pairing, hands-on baking class, tasted signature dishes of many celebrity chefs, all at Savour.

Pardon the lack of images, I’m not a food photographer, I just enjoy eating, tasting, savoring them and not have clicks and snaps. Its a risk having the dish turning cold and losing the best moment, isn’t it?

We packed the day and selecting as many experiences we can fit in. Started off with “A summer menu with Roberto Galetti” executive chef and managing director at Garibaldi. A live demonstration of 3italian dishes where he encourages us to toss up for summer! Fuss free and easy! Chef Roberto is an Italian who only uses 100% Italian Olive oil!

Right after that we tasted some dishes at the gourmet village. Top 3 of my favorite experience would be:
#3. 55′ smoked organic egg by Julien Royer .Jaan. Singapore
An interactive experience you get to have, which is pouring the egg out into the dish where you mix it up! Well, who doesn’t love an egg dish?

#2. Cold Angel Hair Pasta by Gunther Hubrechsen .Gunther’s. Singapore
Can you imagine a cold angel hair pasta with beautiful truffle aroma seducing you under a 35degrees blazing afternoon sun? On first slurp, the bursting caviars, the freshly chopped chives, the cold angel hair pasta and the truffle oil flavor lingering in your mouth. It was like you never ever want that breadth of freshness go away.

#1. Beetroot sponge, wild rice and macadamia salad by Margot Janse .The tasting room at Le Quartier Fraçais. South Africa
It was exquisite! Beetroot juice made into a foam ball, it hold it’s shape despite the blazing heat. And yes, it was so refreshing, it melts in your mouth, with the texture of the wild rice and salad. No words will be able to explain the experience. Chef Margot was very friendly and explained the two dishes we ordered, on how she acquire the ingredients locally and the process of preparation. Thank you for preparing and presenting such an amazing dish.

It is such an amazing gastronomic day, with so many experiences and happenings, only being there and soaking it all in will do justice. Of cos, being there with the right company who enjoys as much if not even more then you do makes best out of it! Thank you Erica for asking me along, I will missed ya but with that said, lets plan for BBC Good Food Show in London!

A little road trip to Malacca .Malaysia.

Sometime last November, Susi and I met Béné over coffee and the next thing we knew was we were off on a road trip to Malacca! All I remembered was we ate 500 different meals and visited all the tourists attraction within the day!

We drove and we ate, we walked and we ate, we laughed and we talked, we shoot and we ate, we walked and we shoot, we talked and we laughed, we ate and we ate. It was not about where we went or what we ate, it was really the company that made this trip unforgettable. Hopefully we will all meet again soon! And perhaps in Paris?xoxo

Bandung X Jakarta .Indonesia.

Over the week I was in Bandung and Jakarta, Indonesia for meetings. Here are some of the snapshots I took during the trip.

Sundanese Lunch! I tried all those raw vege and now I think I know why the cows prefer watercress. The raw watercress has this “green” taste but it isn’t bitter and the flavors burst in your mouth as you chew on. We have rice to go with corn fritters, fried daohu, fried mashed potatoes and herbs, marinated fried kumpung chicken and an assam vegetable soup.

Fruits on the meeting table, erm, excuse me, how do you peel an orange and start eating it over meeting? And it is also pretty funny to munch on bananas, thou the company’s GM had a few over the meeting table.

While being taken around the factories..

Some street shots, this is starting to inspire me to travel Indonesia, have a trip from Jakarta to Bali it would be beautiful to travel from mountains to mountains, village to village and ultimately dive in Bali!

Some of you reading may be puzzled, I posted that I will be resuming my blog by tracing my foot steps. :P right, about that, I started on a new job in January and I am kinda putting alot of focus and energy in that. Honestly, I haven’t been working for over a year, have been living and traveling pretty freely, doing whatever I feel like, whenever. So it will take me awhile before I can really push my mind to be work focus. I have been to a few places since I was back from Australia/ New Zealand last August, I would try to post something out of it. Meanwhile, I would like this to be my free-spirited blog, just subscribe (I honestly don’t know if there’s such an option) or pop by when you feel like.

Retirement Ramble

Well, I’ve been overworking my tiny brain tonight by thinking about how to achieve my retirement goals by 50. It could jolly well be those late twenties hormones, but well, yes I’m in panic mode now. Thou, I did choose to live young and dangerous last year with some solo traveling (it wasn’t really that dangerous at all, apart from that ultra close encounter with that adult male kangaroo that charge in my direction while bush walking in Barwon Downs). All these should have been planned out a decade ago, but i didnt, so, well, I can’t afford to have any further delays. And no, I do not mean I need to start a family now, I am not build that way, anyway. However with that said, I love kids, wouldn’t mind to have my own, so, if you are smart, handsome and witty, you may like to send me your résumé for shortlisting your sperms donation, thank you very much.

So I am mind mapping how to achieve retirement goals without much burden to anybody later on in life and live the lifestyle I enjoy. Which is to be living in the country, have my own B&B and meet travelers from all over the world and bring their travels to me when I can no longer travel.

Anybody have better insights for a good head start, we should meet up for coffee sharing session, but no financial consultants please.

Yes I did put a pause on my travelog. And it will resume to retrace footsteps on 7th Feb. This is just my random rambling post, which you will get more from now on (maybe, possibly) until I get paranoid about people who talk like they know me cos they read my blog. :) Friends who know me will know how paranoid I can get sometimes, and how I hate people who pretend that they know you without real conversations.

So, I will just have to fight for my goal(s) and push through any bad weather that comes my way.

.pause.

you may have noticed that things have gone silent in a whole long while. I have been thinking. my journey isn’t complete when I only post my photos taken with my iPhone. I will relive my journey, day by day starting Feb 2013, recounting the footsteps, my journey that changed me and my values of life.

Springfield X Porters .New Zealand.

This was two weeks ago guys! I’m now at the Auckland International Airport waiting for my flight back to Melbourne. <3

The last two weeks I spent with my sister in both north and south island. So much to tell you guys about! I shall do so when I am back in Singapore, cos many amazing photos were taken with my camera instead of my phone. (ps: cannot multi-task and use multiple cameras.)

So, yes yes, this was two weeks ago when I spent a week in Springfield, Canterbury. Springfield is about an hour away from Christchurch and Porters Ski Fields is about 30min from Springfield. It is the nearest ski field to Christchurch. Being the nearest to cc, you get many locals on the slopes on weekends and school holiday, not too many tourist nor too crowded. It is a nice and neat ski field with platters (beginners area, which I did spend some time when learning/ practicing) and T-bars (intermediate/ advance area, a horror to ride on, as it pulls you upwards in between your legs.) I spent three days of lessons and another three days riding on the slopes, infact, on my last day I managed to made my way up to the top of the mountain! Great day with an amazing view, one of the best views I've seen in New Zealand!

So, goodbye for now, I will disappear for another two weeks enjoying the best coffee culture and gourmet food that Melbourne will offer! Cheers!

Kaikoura .New Zealand.

i

The translation for Kaikoura is eating crayfish. It used to be a town where people go whaling. It is now a quaint little town where tourist packed onto boats for whale and dolphin watching, walked the amazing kaikoura peninsula walkway and watched the seals busk in the sun at the seal colony.

Kaikoura have been the most picturesque location I’ve been to in New Zealand till now, magnificent snow capped mountains as a backdrop, beautiful nook beach. The beach is not a sandy beach as the sea level drops really deep about 5-10 meters from shoreline, there is not enough distance for the waves to break the stones to sand. Hence, the abundance of huge marine life can be viewed not too far from the town.

I stayed at the Albatross backpackers which is nice and cosy, they also have great communal spaces. I had a wonderful time hanging out with the other travelers, having company for the peninsula walk was great! Was also asked to join for a fish and chips hunt in town, where I’ve had very fresh and yummy fish and chips from Don’s Asian Kitchen, apart from the freshness of Don’s seafood, this is the first and ONLY fish and chips shop in NZ that a wide variety of sauce are at the counter for you to enjoy your meal with, Free Of Charge!!!!!! Yes, most of the time you will need to pay a few dollars for even vinegar, tomato sauce or tartar sauce. I would stay at Albatross backpackers and visit Don whenever I am in Kaikoura!

Wellington .New Zealand.

Wellington is absolutely brilliant! A city that is so easy and friendly to walk about. Packed with great cafes that serves great coffee! Te PaPa, Zealandia, the botanical gardens and Moore Wilson’s is a must visit! Shall update with addresses of the cafes that I have visited.