Color palate

Recipes to save and perfect: Arugula salad with cranberry-balsamic dressing
Steamed mussels with shallots, garlic and freshly chopped parsley
Coconut seafood linguine
Roasted asparagus with red pepper flakes
Arugula salad with cranberry-balsamic dressing
Sherry-cinnamon poached pears with vanilla ice cream
MMM!

Reeeefreshing!

My friends make fun of my overuse of the word, "refreshing." So, I decided to look up a few synonyms to REFRESH my vocabulary. Ha! Or shall I use, "enliven?" "Rejuvenate?" "Resuscitating" sounds like I'm trying to bring myself back from the dead...

Main Entry: refresh

Part of Speech: verb

Definition: make like new; give new life

Synonyms: brace, breathe new life into, bring around, brush up, cheer, cool, enliven, exhilarate, freshen, inspirit, jog, modernize, prod, prompt, quicken, reanimate, recreate, regain, reinvigorate, rejuvenate, renovate, repair, replenish, restore, resuscitate, revitalize, revive, revivify, stimulate, update, vivify

Bed {and} breakfast {in} bed.

Image via Apartment #34

Image via Apartment #34

Image via That's Chic

Above is some design inspiration as I begin packing and moving (once again) into my new home. I've always been attracted to calm, meditative palates: White, gray browns and blues, taupe, with occasional red.

Comfort food

Image via T-Mag

Th weather this week has been a mixture of snow, rain, mushy sleet and drizzle. I just want to be cooped up eating eggs, toast and oatmeal and drinking copious amounts of tea and coffee...

Wednesday {Coffee Break}

Image via tokketok

Putting the energy into a gray and dreary hump day calls desperately for an espresso and dark chocolate.

Picnic in the Park and other Weekend Tales

On Saturday afternoon, Lola and I decided to do an old-fashioned Picnic in the Park. This was our response to save money (restaurants really know how to clean our your wallet). So, we bought bread, crudites, yogurt, fruit, coffee, and nuts at a grocery store and camped out in Central Park. It was pretty cute. If you want to get hardcore about picnicking, you can even break out the real china and silverware. I saw a group of ladies next to us sipping white wine from plastic wine glasses. One tip, however: make sure you fill a few ziplock bags with cubes of ice (double bag the packs), and wrap them in towels. Food and drinks needs to stay fresh - especially in this hot weather! 

After-Work Eggs, Coffee, and Sex and the City

Just another day at the store yesterday, helping New York women of every age pick out outrageously-priced outfits for some graduation-engagement-birthday-dinner-benefit party - something like that. The only thing that gets me through a shift: my Israeli manager and aspiring designer, Nathalie. She makes the most hilarious comments after each rude or ridiculous (usually both) customer tries on half the store and leaves with nothing.

After work, she introduced me to an incredibly ADORABLE and artsy restaurant, named Cafe Lalo (I just found out it was featured in the movie You've Got Mail). Their brunch menu features everything from mango-nectar champagne to eggs with Brazilian feta cheese. Crazy, funky stuff... we had eggs and coffee, while discussing everything from family expectations, fashion, and traveling in India. Don't those spontaneous, colorful conversations in spontaneous and colorful places just make your senses go roller-coaster high? It's so... rich with culture. I love it love it. 

To top things off, we made the ultimate spontaneous move to watch the 11:15pm Sex and the City showing. I won't spoil it for those who haven't seen it yet... or maybe that's just my excuse for my speechlessness. It was amazing; go see it. Words of wisdom for the week...

When you leave New York, you ain't going anywhere

When I was in Paris in January, I was obsessed with finding the perfect hookah bar. I'm definitely not a big smoker, but there's something so exotic and rich in culture about hookah. It smells and tastes amazing. It was in Alice and Wonderland. And it is just an experience in itself to go to a hookah lounge. 

So I searched high and low for this perfect hookah bar in a city that is so obsessed with culture and art eccentricities... only to find out that Paris' newly established no-smoking-in-bars law made it impossible for them to exist. At least legally.

People say if Paris is a woman, and London is a man - then New York is a fashionably-dressed transvestite. It took around 2.5 seconds to get the exact address of a popular hookah bar in downtown New York. So, that is how I spent my Friday night - it was pretty epic. 

 

Max Brenner and the Chocolate Factory

Something's wrong with me. I'm weird. My new obsession: to host a fondue party. How it started: my first time at the Max Brenner restaurant near Union Square. 

My Cornell-friends-in-the-city, Angela, Lauren, and Karuna, got together for dinner the other night after work (ahh, we're so old now). We stopped at Max Brenner, apparently a famous CHOCOLATE restaurant - created by the famous bald Israeli chef, Max Brenner himself. What I experienced was culture shock: a complete CHOCOLATE cultural immersion. And, now I'm obsessed. 

Hit this place up if you need a cute date idea. Couples swarmed the place, sharing little pots of fondue and fruit over votive candles. It was so cutesy, I wanted to throw up. 

If that isn't enough, there's actually good food. 

The Gothamist writes, "Referring to his relationship with chocolate as a 'love story,' Brenner showcases an impressive repetoire of sweet treats, from melting marshmallow crepes and warm chocolate soup to danish with butter and melted chcolate cream and an endless stream of creme fraiche, fresh strawberries, nutty pralines." I had a slice of chocolate pizza; Lauren, a strawberry waffle (she's sadly allergic to chocolate); and Angela, a chocolate crepe. 

Let us take a moment to wipe the drool off the keyboard. 

Definitely worth checking out. It's at 841 Broadway, between 13th and 14th. More updates on my chocolate fondue obsession to follow...

Cuisine and the French Alliance

15e arrondisement

"Everyone has two countries, his or her own-- and France."


A lot to write about since I last opened my journal, yesterday afternoon. After a dessert and cafe, I walked through the Eiffel Tower and took a metro back to the apartment for a siesta. Had tea, checked email and read somewhere that there's a flower market in front of Notre Dame. There was still plenty of time before dinner (9pm tonight...) so I went.


La Seine during the day.

Notre Dame and la Seine at night is a whole different experience. I couldn't find any sort of market and promptly got lost wandering the narrow streets of the 6th. Amazing places to eat there and a lot of bookstores- very artsy!

The apartment was smelling delicious when I returned. That's the strange thing about France: the men can cook. And not just like spaghetti with tomato sauce... or dialing the pizza delivery.

This kind of debate with Frantz for a while before we heard someone at the door: Pierre and his girlfriend, Jessica. Kisses all around and we stepped into the kitchen. Jessica is actually American and we started chatting right away, giggling at how the men are preparing the food. She's been in Paris three years now, one of which was a study abroad. I can tell she's thriving; her French sounds so natural. It made me wonder if I'll ever be that ambitious enough to completely adopt another culture as my own.

Great food, drink, conversation, and people. The next day, I had to wake up early to go to Alliance Francaise and take my registration exam. I was a little nervous to be honest but I got through all right (except for le sujonctif) and I've signed up to take an intensive course in General French next week (20hrs!). Wish me luck... classes start Monday.

The National Fruit and Company

We were at the durian stall at nine o’clock at night. So much sticky humidity layering my neck, arms, and forehead. But still, the durian addicts come out. Why? It smells so bad. It's hot and humid and shady and kind of tiring to trek all that way here to this durian stall. What’s durian, anyway? Why, the national Malaysian fruit, of course!

Durian stalls like these are purely meant for immediate consumption. At night, they use florescent lights that make this futuristic glow-y feel. It’s a simple set-up. There are plastic chairs and tables around a pick-up truck. The back is converted into a vendor with stacks of durian dumped on top. All around are sounds of traffic, lights of neon street signs. Feels busy, smells like gasoline, sounds like Malay jargon. I feel so… local and national geographical.

The strange thing about this fruit is not only its structure (big, spiky, green… sounds like the hulk) but also the ability to smell so bad but taste so good. Well, it didn’t always taste so good. When I was little, I hated the smell and taste. I couldn’t understand the Malaysian obsession with it. But I guess after growing up in a durian-eating family, I “acquired” the taste, as Michelle would put it. Like sushi, bloody Mary’s, and curry- durian is definitely an acquired taste.

Lots of other fresh, tropical fruit here- not only watermelon, cantaloupe, and honey-dew: the standards. But also, papaya, jackfruit, guava, lychee, pineapple, pomegranate- all fresh and available. It’s heaven to me. I love fruit. I’m definitely taking advantage of it because back in the US, it’s so expensive, rare and above all… not as fresh!

Too Much Delicious Food

Last Saturday morning, I awoke to another rain-cloudy day. Hmm, there hasn’t been a single nice day yet.

My sister and I went to Warisan Square, a shopping plaza across the street, for the afternoon. We bumped into a few of my classmates from Maktab Nasional and then headed to Yogurberry for dessert. The place is really cute. You can make your own kind of yogurt sundae. There’s a checklist to make your order; you can choose all sorts of fruits and other toppings. Very yummy.

In fact, all the food places around here are very trendy. Ever since I got to KK, I’ve been eating nonstop (what a way to get started on the Freshman 15). I’m eating as I write, in fact.

The previous night, we went to Atmosphere- the revolving restaurant. It was one of those strange, but exciting experiences. Atmosphere is a tall tower-like building. We took the elevator to the top floor and saw that the floor actually rotated around a central platform. A jazz pianist was playing and I could see the whole view of KK despite rain (once again).

Afterwards, we went to the cinema to see Transformers. Malaysian cinemas are definitely something one needs to experience. They’re big, loud, and chilly. We came home around 2:30 am- the reason we were so tired the next day.

Saturday night, we finally met the rest of our family for dinner at a restaurant they call “Steamboat.” You can actually cook your own food. In the center of each table is a fondue-like cooker. The buffet table has all sorts of uncooked food: beef (plain, marinated, spicy), seafood, vegetables, noodles and also sauces, condiments, etc. You pick whatever you want and cook it! It’s pretty fun. And also yummy.

Sunday morning, I experienced an unexpected attack of jet lag. I went to church with Sim Yee and suddenly started nodding off… in front of the pastor! I felt really rude. Later that night, I went to a concert for peace called "1,000 voices Concert." It was at Likas Stadium and there were actually 1,000 performers!

1,000 Voices for Peace Concert

Sunset at Likas Stadium

I’ve been trying hard to improve my Mandarin but I could still only understand 50% of what the pastor was saying. I’m hoping to study Chinese more seriously in college. But for now, still trying to master these languages. What’s amazing about Malaysia is the diversity of languages spoken. Malay, Hindi, Chinese (different dialects, too), and English- school is taught in all these tongues. Most people speak at least three different languages fairly well. It’s impressive and intimidating.

Darn Chinese.