moving. . .

i've decided to move my blog elsewhere.

you can now find me at http://lifesagasp.wordpress.com.

sanctuary! 04.13.07: notre dame de paris

gargoyles!


brat in the belfry.


yet another beautiful day in paris.

we started the morning at the internet café. from there we made our way through the latin quarter, past the church of st. stephen the martyr, crossed the bridge to the square in front of notre dame de paris. the light on the water was so bright -- my pics are a bit overexposed.

we got into a long, but quick moving line and made our way into the church.

this was my second time at notre dame. i went to the cathedral for the first time about 5 years ago. it was my first work business trip. on my first free moment, notre dame was one of the first places that visited. my first impression of the great church was one of amazement -- i had been to the vatican and the great churches of italy and spain. i had visited the old cathedrals of england.

what amazed me was the sense of purpose that i could feel emanating from the walls of the church. this was not a church built to celebrate the gloriousness of His presence on earth. this was not a church built off the spoils of conquest or war. this was a church built to convert. to educate. notre dame is graphic in it's own right -- austerity is the first word that comes to mind, but it's not really the word i'm looking for.

on this trip, we made our way through the church. again, i was filled with the same sense of piety and purpose. we went into the treasury room and got to look at the fragments of bone in the reliquaries. but the most amazing part of the cathedral wasn't inside.

we spent about 45 minutes in the line to get to the roof.

i can't remember how many steps we climbed to get to the roof, but i do remember that my leg muscles felt like they were going to explode.

on the roof, there were grotesque gargoyles on every corner. we made our way around the roof, our bodies as close to the wall as possible, especially on the narrow corner edges of the rooftop. the gargoyles loomed above the street; some eating small animals, others grapes.

we made our way to the belfry, home of quasimodo's bell. eileen went up the rickety wooden stairs. i stayed inside, much to the convenience of the other tourists who wanted their picture taken next to the famous illustration of quasimodo swinging from the bell.

paging lynndie england. . .come in lynndie england.

eileen at sacre coeur.

so. . .we're back. and i have a lot to post, but not now because i have to shower and go to work. if you want a sneak peek, check out the pics i posted on boogr flickr.

04.12.07: bar fontainebleau, hotel meurice

i decided to take eileen to the bar fontainebleau at the hotel meurice.

beautiful old hotel -- i think it was built in the 1800s. i think someone told me that during the occupation, the nazis took over the hotel and made it into their paris hq.

they might have thought that we were hookers at the hotel. kind of funny. they hesitated at first when we asked for directions to the bar and i think i distinctly heard a hushed prostituee. i think.

anyway, all perceptions were easily dispelled when we placed our order. funny how that works.

i ordered a meurice millenium. i know, it is 7 years past the turning of the new millenium, but what the hell. rose champagne, jus de rose, and cointreau. eileen had la fontainebleau: calvados, apple juice, and get vert. we also ordered a small plate of appetizers: an amazing ravioli that was simply prawn tartare in a prawn gelee, a pea soup that does not sound exceptional unless you were there to taste it, some gnocchi with asparagus in a buttery foam, and an anchovy salad.

the dessert tasting plate was also amazing: pistachio eclairs, little mini cakes with cherries, a rose flavored marshmallow topped with a fresh strawberry, and the coconut macarons. for the finish, i had a glass of armagnac, darroze 1978.

i've got a pic of the savory plate, but, alas! we devoured the dessert once it arrived!

04.12.07: la tour d'eiffel

i almost chickened out at the second level.

as we rose up, up, up above the city of paris, we could feel the ascent. both eileen and i have a fear of heights. mine is definitely much more acute. with all of the people shoving, i was ready to just call it a day and wait for eileen on the second level.

eileen was in line; i watched the line make the slow creep to the summit elevator and started to acclimate myself to the height. so i jumped back in line.

the line moved slowly, so we amused ourselves by laughing at the really old people trying to cut the line. it was like geriatric gymnastics. climbing over, swinging under -- i'll bet those oldies hadn't moved their bodies like that in years.

some other funny observations: old asian women are shovers. it could be the buffet line in vegas or the line for the eiffel tower. doesn't matter.

so we made it to the top of the eiffel tower. amazing view of the city. for a city filled with green spaces, unless it's a wide open field, you're not going to see the green. paris looked compact, all beige buildings pressed together by street angles. other beautiful sights? the fourteen-year-olds on a field trip making out at the top.

nous sommes à paris...

eileen and i are in paris.

will post pics later, when i'm back. am quickly remembering how wonky the french keyboard is -- i keep hitting "q" when i want to hit "a."

we got in at around 2:30pm yesterday. we quickly freshened up and ran around.

of course, we had to get something to eat. grabbed a bite at le comptoir de relais st. germain. eileen had a delicious looking veal with buttery pasta, artichokes, and carrots. the veal had been rolled then roasted to a golden brown with crisp, fatty edges. i had the house charcuterie plate -- blood sausages, some head-cheesy looking sausage, some sopressata, paté, and some fatty duck lardons. the charcuterie was made in house. killer plate; can't wait to post the pics.

walked around st. germain. made our way to the river seine and we walked a little before crossing over to the right bank. made our way to the entrance of the louvre. it was getting close to around 4:30, so we didn't go in. i really hate the glass pyramid.

made our way to the carousel de louvre and from there, to the jardins tuileries. we could see the eiffel tower in the distance. of course, it looks deceptively close, but we decided to make our way there anyway.

we crossed the seine yet again. we walked along the quai d'orsay, passing the beautiful pont alexandre iii. someone told me that there is a restaurant or bar built into the bridge. need to find it. we made our way through the little residential streets, passing the quatar and south african embassies until we finally made our way to the tower.

if it weren't for eileen, i probably would not have gone up -- i may never ever make my way up the tower ever again. don't get me wrong. it's worth doing. but after a 45 minute wait in line just to get a ticket plus 15 minutes more waiting to get into the elevator to the 2nd level plus yet another 45 minutes to get to the summit, that's a lot of time.

i am stuffed.

monday night: dinner at wd-50. pretty good. loved the beef tongue, but doesn't everyone?

tuesday night: pan roasted pompano with puttanesca sauce. i guess it's my version of what a puttanesca sauce is. two tomatoes, a chopped onion, few cloves of chopped garlic, some chopped roasted peppers (i cheated and bought 1/2 pound a citarella), some olives, 3 or 4 anchovy filets and some dried pepper flakes. savory + salt first -- sauteed the garlic, onion, red pepper flakes. threw in the anchovies for a little bit, and then the tomatos and roast peppers. oh, yeah. threw in some white wine for good measure.

brian got home a little late and made a snack of the pompano. he might have also eaten the fish for breakfast.

wednesday night: ate the leftover pompano.

thursday night: brian brought back some turkish curry powder that he had bought at the spice market in istanbul. i haven't gotten around to using it until now. i browned some chicken in ghee, set it aside. sauteed some onions and garlic in a pan, added the curry powder. threw in some salt and dried hot pepper flakes. added some water, white wine, and the chicken. after the liquid started boiling, i threw the pan in the oven and cooked the chicken slowly at 350-degrees.

friday night: well, we had a disastrous lunch at morandi's. god awful. talk about soul-less italian food! and the ambience! christ! i felt like i had walked into one of the epcot global village restaurants -- welcome to southern italy, suckas! but i digress. we were so unsatisfied with the meal, we ran to citarella and bought groceries for dinner. we bought some scallops with their roe. i think i'll fry that up tomorrow. but for tonight's dinner, we found a lobster that was almost 3lbs.!

i've always been a little scared of killing my own meal. i've never gone hunting. the only prey i've killed are soft shell crabs (death by sautee) and uni (death by evisceration). the damn lobster was too long. i practically had to fold him in half and stuff him into the boiling water. a little blanched broccolini tossed with lemon and olive oil to accompany and voila! fifteen minutes later, we were in lobster heaven.

we finished the meal with some cheese for dessert. we found an australian triple cream called seal something-or-other. the texture and flavor is brie-like, but there's something in the milk. paired perfectly with a glass of corbieres.

enough eating for now. next week, i'll be in paris with eileen, so who knows what i'll devour!

stelly!

tasty cakes.

wedding planning is a pain in the neck.

except for when it's time for food tastings!

we received a box from april reed. the box was filled with 4 types of cake (chocolate, almond, vanilla, and lemon) and 8 types of icing (chocolate ganache, orange espresso ganache, buttercream, lemon buttercream, latte buttercream, pistachio buttercream, apricot preserves, and raspberry preserves).

tasting was a blast! i'm not going to tell you which flavors we're going to go with. you'll have to taste the cake for yourself this october.

tasty cakes

icing!

a look inside the icing jar

the carnage

haiku of the day

aargh. . .i'm still at work.
client meeting tomorrow.
getting so sleepy.

meez so crazy, i brush da shoulda

i was supposed to be breakdancing, but then i realized that i'm in a skirt. so here i am, brushin' the shoulder.

from meez.

my (not so) new favorite show.

i'm a little obsessed with bizarre foods on the travel channel. it's hosted by a rotund, bald guy named andrew zimmern who bears a striking resemblance to brian's friend, uncle chuck.

uncle chuck

come to think of it, he also looks strangely like george "machine gun" kelly, the chicago mobster.

george "machine gun" kelly

anyway, the show is fantastic. zimmern is a gourmand who will devour most anything. some of his featured local delicacies aren't surprising -- balut in the philippines, moroccan kefta, possum on the gulf coast. but his unabashed fearlessness when it comes to the more daring of the foodstuffs (usually rodent, phylum arthropoda, or some kind of funky offal), he is absolutely fearless. he sighs in appreciation over a course of bull testes freshly prepared in spain. by the same token, when he runs into a dish that disagrees with him, like the k'lia he had for breakfast in morocco, he's never disrespectful. he's honest.

i have to admit, i'm a little envious of the man. to get travel to exotic places and really dig in and sample all of the obscure foods that are a little hard to come by? life's rough.

this past week-end. . .

1) kr turned 21. pretty funny. we started the night off at the red bench, the waiting room for blue ribbon sushi. brian bought him a 24-year-old scotch. after 45 minutes, blue ribbon called us back with a table. kr and brian were downing the sake. i left them at 11:30; they went on to second on second where they drank and sang until 4:30am. there might have been a little bit of the boot 'n rally, but i wasn't there to bear witness.

2) elvin came by after his 10 days in denmark. we mostly went out and ate. he got a longish faux-hawk at hoshi coupe. apparently, he had a blast in denmark. you can find his pics and blog here.

downtime.

i can't believe that we're already in march.

the past 2 months have taken me from singapore to manila to hong kong to punta cana to morgantown/pittsburgh.

thankfully, i'm going to be grounded in new york for a little while -- maybe focus on wedding crap. maybe cook a meal. . .i'm not sure if my stove still works. i think i'll give it a test run this week-end.

holy shizz. . .

. . .it's snowing.

and of course, i've forgotten my camera. so i can't capture the swirling snow outside my window.

i really don't know what to say. . .

i'm on a freaking unicorn. check out meez. i've also got a couple more meezes posted on myspace.

bars i went to in singapore.

1. long bar, raffles hotel: home of the singapore sling. cheesy band upstairs with people gyrating awkwardly and enthusiastically.

2. exhibition, swisshotel: drinks at an ear-popping height above the city (72 floors!). crazy views.

3. la cave, somewhere 2 blocks away from exhibition: outdoor drinks. went with a couple of guys from my program and a friend of theirs who is a steward on quantas. lots of airline personnel around.

4. harry's bar, boat quay: two guys from the jazz music session of the program were playing at the bar. went with some of the guys from my program, and met up with sheau lih, who used to work at the y&r singapore office.

5. brix, grand hyatt: subterranean bar/club at the hotel. the moment some song called "spank me" came on, the entire vibe changed and the hos were out in full force -- they were lingering in the background over lonely glasses of wine, but when the song came on, it was like some unspoken code to seal the deal.

night at jumbo crab!

with the folks in singapore.

and without further ado. . .

. . .i give you the mangosteen:

the elusive mangosteen.

no longer elusive.

finally had one on thursday night. actually, i had two. words simply cannot describe the flavor. not because it was super good and i'm embellishing (it was, though), but i really cannot find the words to describe the flavor.

the last night of the conference, they split us up by company -- y&r with y&r, wunderman with wunderman, etc. after the dinner, we crashed the wunderman dinner at straits kitchen. there were fruits on the table, jackfruit, dragonfruit, rambutan, and mangosteen!

the mangosteen looks somewhat like a round eggplant, about the size of a tennis ball. you have to put a small slit into the side and kind of push the shell open. it gives quite easily to pressure, but you need to be careful not to squeeze to hard because the purple shell is filled with a plummy colored juice that stains hands and fabric.

inside the shell looks like a whole bulb of garlic. the fruit is cream colored and in sections like an orange. one or two of the of the sections has the seed. the flavor is slightly tart, but the tart quickly turns to sweet.

this post really isn't expressing the enthusiasm with which i devoured not one, but two of the fruits.

pic of me with my two mangosteens a little later. i'm waiting for someone to send it to me.

singapore, 01.24.07

wow. wasn't able to fill you in on yesterday. all i can say is duck, duck, duck, more duck, and lobster @ min jiang on robertson. fantastic meal.

had an even more mind-blowing eat fest today. but first, i had two hours free, so i ran off to chinatown and little india. i was surprised at how small the chinatown is, considering how large the chinese population is in singapore. but then again, maybe that's the reason why.

the sri mariamman temple is truly amazing. deities around loom down at you from the rooftop. a little scary.

food street was also truly mindblowing. i had to have something from one of the hawker stalls, so i stopped and had some carrot cake. it's not really made of carrots and it's not really a cake (at least the singaporean version of it isn't). it's more like a scramble of daikon radish with eggs and prawns. awesome. i couldn't finish it because i had to save room for dinner later.

little india was also fascinating -- i loved the stalls where they sold indian desserts and the indian flower garlands.

but on to the good stuff. had dinner this evening at jumbo seafood. the big name in seafood. chowed on chili crabs -- dungeness crab cooked with a chili curry sauce. kick ass. fatty crab has nothing on this place, sorry to say. also had black pepper crabs, some kang kong with a spicy sambal, rice, of course (needed something to through the chili sauce on top of). good eating all around.

pictures posted on booger flickr.

singapore, 01.22.07

i woke up this morning with some serious jetlag -- my eyes popped open at 4:30 and it was impossible to fall back asleep, so i surfed around the internet catching up on the news.

at around 7, i hopped in the shower and got ready for breakfast. breakfast was a bit of a disappointment. the room service menu offers everything from local malaysian and chinese breakfasts like nasi lemak (chile omelet, coconut rice, fried fish and sambal) and congee (blech) to the standard american breakfast. the buffet was complete: pastries, sausages, poached eggs with truffle hollandaise, cereal, fruit, etc., but no malaysian or chinese food in sight.

the greater part of this morning was spent in lectures. we took some time to introduce ourselves, acclimate ourselves to the program objectives, meet the client. standard training fare. but let's move on to the fun
stuff: LUNCH.

lunch was better than breakfast. tandoori chicken, vegetables, sweet and sour fish, some malaysian noodle dish. much, much better.

but nothing beats the snacks.

i finally tried dragon fruit. the flesh is white with tiny black seeds. the dragon fruit is a little bit like the bastard child of a kiwi andjicama. there's a bit of bite with the weirdly crunchy seeds that give the faint sweetness a bit of a sour bite.

i also got to eat fresh longan. longans are about the size of grape, but they're encased in a shell that's easy to peel. their texture is similar to a lychee, but their flesh is slightly chewier. they're also not as sweet.

the highlight of today's snacks, however, were the fried taro balls (woo kok) stuffed with pork and chopped shitake mushrooms. my guess is that they make a taro paste and fill it with the pork and mushrooms. then they dip them in shredded taro so that it forms a crispy, yet thin, crust around the filling. dip them into sweet hot chile sauce and they are absolute heaven. i wish i took a pic, but that probably would have been embarassing, what with all of the other folks around me.

spent most of the afternoon in lectures and small group sessions. had some fun today, because i got to play the role of the difficult client. i'm not going to bore you with details.

went to dinner with my group. a restaurant called straits kitchen. i've linked to a girl's website whose pics kind of capture the ambiance and sheer abundance of food. they whole place is a buffet with steam tables separated by type of cuisine: malay, chinese, and indian. the variety is astounding and it's really hard not to overeat. i really wanted the fruit but i was too full. thankfully, there were no mangosteens in sight, otherwise i would have had to make room.

well, off to my status call with my team in ny.

i'll post again tomorrow.

in singapore. . .

just got in after 18 hours -- nyc to london to singapore.

can't wait to see my american airlines miles after this journey.

my flight was delayed by an hour in nyc, so i missed my british airways flight to singapore. i have to say, flying first class does have its privileges. there was someone to meet me in london once the flight landed and she escorted me to my new flight on quantas.

even better, though my luggage didn't make it to singapore with me, the airline gave me $200 singapore dollars to spend on clothing (app. $130 usd). that rocked. so i won't look completely awful tomorrow.

my cousin, monette, met me at my hotel. i haven't seen her in over a decade. i feel horrible -- i dragged her up and down orchard road searching for clothing for tomorrow. in my search for replacement clothing, i did get to explore quite a bit of the area around my hotel. i'm staying at the four seasons (airfare and hotel not on my dime, so i'm not complaining). i had heard that singaporeans are nuts about two things: shopping and food. damn! saw the shopping because my hotel is right next to orchard road, which is a shopping mecca. name the designer and he or she probably has an outpost on orchard road. lots of goodies to be bought.

the cost of clothing is less here than it is at home. the cost of cosmetics, however, is inflated. i passed by a drugstore selling revlon mascara for $17 singapore/$11 usd. talk about highway robbery!

i ended the evening with dinner at the hotel in the restaurant. grilled prawns, broccoli. pretty good, particularly since the prawns were crawling around in a tank minutes before they set them on the grill.

and so ends day 1.



dinner with monette at 190 in the four seasons.

up, up and away.

so. this is the 5th blog that i've started in the past 6 months. talk about follow-through.

maybe i'll be good and actually stick with this one.

no promises.

leaving for singapore tomorrow. will be gone for 2 weeks as i make my way from singapore to the motherland to hk. then back to nyc.

keep you posted.