::attempts::

you had a team meeting today in lowlands, this is probably the first time you went back to your home office since may or june last year!  time has flown, and certainly flies in seconds, it's now the last day of january.

you're eager to try out the tofu fa again, following this recipe for a home made tofu fa. the first two attempts were total disaster, it never sets properly, so following your friend's advice increasing the dosage of gypsum powder and it finally set, but not as silky as you would expected it to be, but eatable. you had it a savory way for breakfast, generous pork floss, nori, sesame oil, light soy sauce, chili oil and spring onion. it's lovely albeit a little of chalky after taste.  perhaps it's the quality of the gypsum powder, perhaps it requires precision which is not your skill.  you probably will try again when you are not too busy...

your ticket to asia is booked^^.  you're not willing to pay more than what you think the price worth and thanked God that you manage to source the tickets at the exact price that you willing to pay.  sometime, you're amaze about timing and small little things that your God has provisioned for you. there're only 2 tickets left at this price and on the dates that you want to travel. so now the international route are set and paid, you still need to plan the domestic route but that's going to be easy.  can't wait for may!

::wind::

london is beautiful today, you went out during lunch hour and you really enjoy the early spring sunshine and breeze.  yes, the spring wind kisses your face.
you're back to lowland, but with an hour delay. so instead of arriving lowland at 8pm as scheduled, you landed at 9pm. traveling in winter is like that, wind, snow or rain could ruin the schedule. the early spring wind that kissed you in the afternoon in london has turned into a stormy strong wind in lowland.
the landing tonight was scary. rocky and the aircraft swaying left and right for the entire approaching duration. you almost thought you will never made it or for safety reason you will detour to another city. but all in all, you landed safely, a little dramatic but the captain has done a good landing in such a windy and turbulence weather condition. never mind the delay, most importantly you are back in one piece. you were praying during the entire descending period, the weather is windy and the fact you feel it more while you're on a small aircraft.

random.sights.of.london

it's a relief and you feel great to be able to put on your heels again

very soon you will take off your red winter jacket too (hopefully)

 the little alley, a short cut to your client office right in the city financial center

and the atmospheric west end in the evening where the red lanterns are up for the upcoming festival...

you vacation is approved today, in fact it took less than 24 hours for the approval to turn around. however you have lost all the golden opportunity for the bargain deal because of his delay in leave application.  it's frustrating searching for air ticket, not that there isn't any more ticket but they no longer at the price that you are willing to pay.

SCOOPido

you're back to jet set again.
you venture out in the evening (as you always do), you missed the tube stop where you suppose to get out and went on a station further.  it's doesn't really matter as where you plan to go is in between the two stations.

as you stroll along soho going towards china town, you chanced into scoop, a ice cream parlor,  an italian gelato parlor to be precise.

 it's really not ideal but you know you will not walk by again later in the evening, so ice cream is it!

 and the choice are plenty!

 3 scoops of gelato - caramel, cinnamon and coconut...

 you find the caramel a little too subtle almost nonexistence amid cinnamon which predominantly strong and coconut as well.

 the ice cream scoops as decoration ^^

this is a lovely  place for ice cream, a piece of cake or a pancake, even for breakfast if you have sweet tooth or want a sugar rush.  in fact there are a lot of little eateries in this area to explore. you will certainly drop by in the weeks to come. and when it comes to scoop, you will surely say "i do" and  hence scoopido ^^.

p/s: big news apparently the queen of lowland announced that she will pass on her throne to her son today.  that makes the last queen's day this year!

pineapple.tart

this is probably your last cny baking saga this week.  pineapple tart, your very first attempt ever!

however looking at the oversize pineapple jam ball on a rather small pastry, it looks like sunflower to you somehow. perhaps you had enough of winter cold and really looking fast forward looking to summer where sunflower is at its best!

the making of pineapple jam is consuming, you tried both making from fresh pineapple and from the can pineapple.  it takes about the same time, almost 2 hours of continuously stirring at low flame to get to the right consistency. your pastry is a success after checking on numerous blogs and finally settle to one that you want to try, really just based on gut feeling that this recipe would work for you.

when the dough gets too soft to stamp with the mould, you decided to play with free hand and wrap the pineapple jam balls with a pastry and shape them into a miniature pineapple shapes. taste wise, you love it! the pastry is flaky and the pineapple jam is sweet with a tint of citrus sourness, a perfect combination for your taste bug.

you will probably refrain from making pineapple tart if you have a few c gatherings around as your talented friends will probably made them, however, since you aren't going to any of those, and this is probably the only cny cookies that you missed, you have to make them.  you understand the time and effort needed to make these little goodies, certainly salute  friends who made and share with you unconditionally. that's said, you're happy you made the very first attempt ever, a pat on your shoulder.

happy sunday. you are jetsetting again, so it will only more stories of london and a pause to cny baking saga!

have a blessed week ahead!

::again::

just as you thought the snow is slowly melting away, it's snowing again this morning...

 that didn't stop you  to go to the city center to run some errands, getting the things that you need, a sort of groceries cum miscellaneous shopping, nothing to shout about.

look at the thickness of snow, it's not a lot but enough to keep the city white...

enough  to know that winter is still evidently here...

you fancy a slightly different sort of breakfast in the weekend, there isn't much choice when come to breakfast in the lowland.  so you settle with a large cuppa and a dutch nutty apple pie, more nuts than apple.  it's all good

back home, the snow still falling from the sky... your garden is once again all white and level again, coated with a new layer of snow....

you really have enough, it's cold and wet when you go out, the road is slippery and it takes extra 10 to 15 min to clean and warm up the car in the morning.  snow is pretty from a distance but in reality it has brought you a lot of inconvenience,  can't wait for spring!

melting.moment

a week has gone by quickly.  you've been busy all the time, not so much about work but more of a mega saga in the kitchen.

that said, you had good workout this week. three days of power zumba with wednesday evening where you did 2 sessions at one setting.  2 hours of zumba and much to your surprise your body and stamina could take it. you sweat a lot, that's necessary given that you are munching and eating whole week.

it's now friday, you walked out from the gym today, looking at the slowly melt away snow, you know this scene will definitely be gone next wednesday when temperature rise to 10c.
you're really looking forward to spring, to much longer day light.

something is bothering you behind your mind. you saw a cropped photo a few days ago and you sort of recognized it.  you follow your instinct and dig your archive and you found the same photo, only the photo get posted is without you. sometime you wonder about the friendship that build over social network. you do know this friend way before the hype of social network, but cropping you out in a group that you both belong to seem like declaring certain message? perhaps you are over sensitive? you don't know, it's doesn't really bother you much, perhaps it's about time for a confrontation.  you don't know what to do or the fact that if you even want to do something about it. would you let the friendship melts like the snow slowly melting away?  all you ask is what would Jesus do in situation like this.  a confrontation? overcome evil with good? or just smile and move on knowing that you are not trap in the plan of the evil one?  the time will prove it all. What's more important is this verse, which your God gave you "whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable--if anything is excellent or praiseworthy--think about such things."
just a thought musing!

fish.maw.soup

it's never your intention to turn this into a food blog, just that this week you're really in a food saga mode. you spent more time in the kitchen or thinking about food than really on your work.  it's no good because you will put on weight as you bake all the chinese new year goodies.  yesterday was a brief pause, but today you have been cooking again.

fish maw soup. this is the soup you drink at the new year's eve reunion table, with many other dishes. in fact you totally forgotten about this soup until last year a friend cooked this for a gathering and that trigger your taste bud and memory again. the memory around this soup is always festive, happy, merry and overflow. overflow as mum usually add a lot of goodies to the soup until the very edge of the pot.  when your honey went to malaysia in october last year, you deliberately asked him to buy fish maw.

the fish maw you have is not of high quality, in fact it's thin and greasy.  nevertheless it is fish maw that you missed. you made a pot of soup, use the recipe that your friend shared with you. you could still roughly remember how this soup is made when your mum was around. the ingredients were about the same.
you're happy as the flavor developed overnight.  you had a very flavorful soup, the aroma of pork, chicken, dried squid and fish maw is a perfect harmony to you.  drinking this soup today (both lunch and dinner), you're down your memory land. you can only recalled the happy occasions with this soup. and deep in your heart, you give thanks to God and for your family. even though you may be separated around the globe, it's this soup that bring you and memory of your family together.

purple.chiffon

so many things going on in your mind and they are all about food. you are like obsessed by food, not entirely in eating them but definitely in making them.  perhaps you have caught a cny bug, that drives you to run to your kitchen and produce something nostalgic. you make a point not to bake anything today, yet he has went ahead to bake his beef jerky (chinese style).

here is the okinawan purple potatoes chiffon cake. first portion went to the japanese inspired wagashi, the remaining went into this chiffon cake. it's been awhile since you last baked one and you know your cake will not rise as high as it should be whenever you add some solid element into the batter.

that said, this is still rather fluffy and airy with a bit of bite whenever you eat the potato cubes.

there're still a number of things you would like to try... you wonder why sometimes festival or even food can bring up so much memories. memory of the past, memory of childhood. and it's such thoughts and memories that drive you working in the kitchen, reproducing the taste and the aroma of home, of childhood.

::purple.love::

you got some okinawa purple potatoes last weekend during your brief visit to the asian store.  you just know the chance is hard to get by where you can buy the fresh purple potato, so you just bought some not knowing exactly what are you going to do with it. given the situation that you are supposed to fly to london and can probably only work on them in the weekend.

in reality, you stay put this week thanks to the bad weather.  you wasn't sure why, some how you are love spending time in the kitchen, not cooking the normal routine lunch or dinner but let your imagination running wild with the ideas you have and finding time to conceive them.

 this is one of them, you could have settle with bubur cha cha, a heavily coconut milk based dessert very popular in south east asia. but you just refuse to do so, so wagashi is it!

 you would rather called these japanese inspired wagashi and you regretted you didn't buy the normal orange sweet potato, otherwise the color would be lovely,  but purple color alone is good. it's such a deep, intense dark purple and it's so sweet by nature that you literally omit the sugar in making this...

you do miss this! the japanese tea ceremony. a cup of bitter matcha and a simple wagashi. and this is the best you can reminisce in europe, with what you have. still you are thankful for the life changing experience in japan, although the time has passed and you should just look forward to london.

it.begins.to.look.a.lot.like

it begins to look a lot like Christmas chinese new year.
your flight were cancelled due to bad weather, you were informed at 8pm last night.  you went to sleep happily as you can sleep in a little longer and don't have to braise with the snow, slippery road. you woke up at 9 am this morning (you know it's late, but you work in uk time zone) and saw an email from the airline that you're re-booked to 8 am flight this morning and the email was sent at past midnight! of course you didn't make your flight, not that you want to.

you made some soy milk, it's been awhile since you last had a cup of freshly made soy milk.  but you did this because you want to make the bean curd version (tofu fa).  you certainly enjoy the soy milk but you are looking forward for a bowl of savory tofu fa, the first batch was not successful because you did your math wrong.  the second batch is still in the setting and hopefully your wish will come true...

you marinated the 500g minced meat last night, so this morning you just pressed them to thin sheet and baked them.  these are seriously yummy, delicious and unbelievable easy to make.
this is the treat that you got to savoy during chinese new year.

that said, it's still wintry and chrismassy here, and you can't wait for spring to arrive.

::choices::

夕阳无限好，可惜近黄昏

you chanced into oprah life class link the other day, click on the link and watch it.  to your surprise it's a program with pastor rick warren, the author of "purpose driven life" which is quite a book that has created some impacts on your life few years ago and also impacted a few of your friends.  you just recently gave this book to another friend who are seeking the meaning of life.

It's interesting to learn about the five cards like the
1. chemistry
2. connections
3. circumstances
4. consciousness
5. choices

watch it here if you are interested.

the message may be shallow or subtle to please american audience, and you didn't follow through the first 4 cards although from the headlines you could probably figure out the message. it's the fifth card that strike you.  yes, you have a choice and in fact life is all about the choices you had made and making and going to make in the future.  your situation may not change but you have the choices to choose from, you can choose to confront the circumstances positively or you can nag about it negatively.

you have made your choice and the fact that choices is the free will that the Lord given to men when He created them. so for now, you choose to be happy with london and you choose to approach the project positive.  and if that's your choice, it shall happen accordingly.

freezing.saturday

your house is in a mess as the small renovation is still going on, it's utterly dusty and the smell of the wet paint fills the air.

 you went out with your girlfriends for chinese dim sum. it's still a relative cold day and the snow is not willing to melt away...

 since they're only 3 of you, so this is just about the dishes you ordered, well plus one or two that had been cleared away ^^.

 and adjourned to a cafe, just above a furniture shop for further catch up... a piece of cake to share. you all are full from the lunch, so this is just to satisfy your sweet tooth... not sure exactly what it's called but it has chocolate, caramel, biscuit in it... not extra ordinary but a tad better than the usual dutch cream cake.

 your naughty french coffee with grand marnier to spice up the afternoon

in the evening you went to his friend's house for dinner, while the men were busy discussing some serious matter, you just amuse yourself with this little boy...
it's a cold cold night, even just a short walk to the car park is freezing cold.

ice.age.holland

you're not here when the it snowed. you came back last night and it's the -5c freezing cold air that welcomed you home. you'd to walk a long way to the car park, found your car and took the parking ticket and walk a long way back to the machine. you're totally exhausted when you reach home.

 this is how the surrounding look like.  holland covered in snow.

 it looks very serene and pure...

 for dutch, they are waiting for the moment where the water is frozen deep enough to start the ice skating...

 the lamp and the thickness of snow...

 the magnolia tree, coated in white

and your flower patch... let's say it has become a snow patch

well...ice age holland.