::muvesz::

[monday blue....i am not quite ready for work after a well fed weekends, but the reality is i am sitting in front of my computer. i have been doing good with the fasting, no tea or coffee so far, i am doing okay with plain water and vegetarian diet. for now, i will continue with my summer story of budapest...]

twenty fifth august

from new york caf�, you hop on to tram 6 to octagon. you are now ready to check out the opera house. well, not quite ready yet!

the opera house guided tour starts at 3pm, so you have plenty of time for lunch at m�v�sz caf� just diagonally opposite the opera house, has been around since 1898.

you enjoy your lunch there with a goulash soup as starter, this is the sort of goulash soup you like a dash of modernity not so hearty...

a m�v�sz salad that consists of cheese, duck meat, green, pine nuts and croutons. you like your salad, it is nice and refreshing even though the cheese is a little salty. when you are done with the savory fix, you make a quick tour inside the caf�.

you came across the cake stand at the entrance and you see the black forest cake, quite tempting but not tempting enough for you to have a piece...

more cakes on the parade...

some you don't even have the name for it but one thing for sure, you won't want another piece of cake after new york cafe. you walk straight in...

you like the chic interior that reminiscent of a 19^th century salon with gilded stucco, wall to ceiling mirrors, wrought candelabras and gilded picture frames.

now you are ready for the opera house.

pot.stickers.鍋貼.煎餃

the chef wants to make northern jiaozi (北方餃子) and so i have the blessing to enjoy these dumplings...

the japanese called this yaki-gyoza, a common side dish that goes well with a bowl of ramen.

i had the pot stickers plain for lunch today, accompany by crunchy radish kimchi which goes well together

the meat has a lot of chinese chive which give a distinct flavor and aroma as jiaozi should be.  when it is pan fried (like what we did for lunch), it is called pot sticker or guotie (鍋貼/煎餃).  we had it steamed tonight for dinner, so it is called steam-dumpling (蒸餃) but otherwise you can also have boiled, then it will be called boiled dumpling (水餃). 

it is all in the name isn't it? and when i come to think of it, the italian would called this a variation of their ravioli.

the weekend is almost ending... it has been a foodie weekend, but next week i am going to be sober as there is a call to fast again.  it will be an ' esther fast' which means one should completely abstain from food and drink for three days.  but i know my physical condition would not allow this, so i will do a four days 'daniel fast' on just fruits and vegetables like what i did two/three weeks ago...

!!till then a blessed new week!!

hakka.yum.abacus.beads.算盘指

this is definitely a heritage food. a taste of childhood. a delicacy of hakka clan（客家人).  i grew up eating this occasionally when my mum made it for us.  i believe this is not sold outside at the hawker stalls but pretty much home-made.  lately my craze for childhood food increase and this dish never occurs to me or at least i never make this in the last seven years that i am here in my adopted land.

but it is a taste that left a deep mark in my palette and i pretty much learned this from my auntie (my mum's elder sister) by heart while i was living in hong kong.  i never really learned any cooking skill from my mum because back then i hated cooking so much that every time she cooked i have to help in cleaning up and i hated cooking so much because of that and i never cook for many years after i left home for kuala lumpur, stafford, shanghai and hong kong...

i still don't understand why the yam needs to be in this shape that resemble an abacus bead /suan pan zhi (算盘指) and not in the shape of ball like tangyuan (汤圆)...  the yam needs to be steamed and than mashed and mixed with tapioca flour till the right texture... i did it by heart, by my feeling, no measurement as such... the yam is not purplish but pale here...

black fungus (黑木耳), dried mushroom and a lot of minced pork are used to make up this dish, the mushroom absorbs the juice of the pork and make the dish extra delicious.  i would call this dish the gnocchi for the east, made of yum as it is quite similiar to the italian gnocchi that made of potato, after all the world is round.  the chinese invented noodles that the italian made it famous to the world and called it differently...

suan pan zhi  (算盘指) or hakka yum abacus beads

!!my taste of childhood!!

high.tea.round.and.about.rotterdam

we both need a long overdue haircut so rotterdam is the destination!! after the haircut, since we didn't want to hang around in the city center so we thought of some arty fix and drove to the museumpark area.

this is a bronze sculpture nearby kunsthal, a public art

i asked him for this perfect pose... well not quite, perhaps i could do it better :)

with just slightly over an hour and a half, we first thought of going to kunsthal museum but on second thought it probably won't worth the rush before the next appointment.

so we just settle down at the kunsthal's cafeteria, each of us ordered a cuppa and a soup and say a little prayer of course!

then we decided to take a short walk to the other museum, the autumn view is evident and visible, and the low temperature (10c) and the chilled wind just confirmed that autumn is here while we walked from kunsthal to boimans van beuningen museum...

there, we just hang around the museum book shop, browsing, touching this and that and playing with gadget ...

life can have different perspective when you look at it through another lens. i quite like these images... then we take our stroll back to the car park and drive to hotel new york where we will have a high tea with a friend....

at hotel new york, it took us awhile before we are seated. the venue is crazily packed and the queue is long even for those with reservation like us.... we asked for a window table, so we got one at a not too noisy corner....

english dutch hightea for three... not too elegant, not finese either... english traditional hightea is not something that easily imitate by other country... nonetheless, here we have some huge sandwiches with tuna/cucumber, pompodori (sun dried tomato) and egg assortiments. some decent scones but dissapointing jam, the middle tier is alright, all sweet and/or sour bites...

me and S, and johannes of course as camera man....

then again, sometime high tea is not about eating but rather the rituals of drinking tea and enjoying the small bites and chatting away with good conversation....
i will visit ritz carlton london for a real english traditional afternoon next time when i step in to london again...

beef.sukiyaki

one-pot meal. usually cooked in a japanese hot pot - nabe, a perfect dish this time of year. quick, easy, and warm one-pot meals.

japanese beef sukiyaki is easy to make but the correct type of beef is hard to get here, so we settle rib eye beef steak, cut into strips. in the nabe pot pan (we don't have nabe pot) there are lightly seared tofu, napa cabbage, enoki mushroom, shiitake mushroom, konnyaku noodles, leek, chrysanthemum leaf and the home made sukiyaki sauce

and i am not a big fan of dipping in raw egg, so i requested chef to make me the onsen egg instead...

simple dinner with a big portion of udon to share... the udon is simply oishii when dipping into the egg that runs with the sukiyaki sauce that contains the beef juice....

!!happy weekend!!

double.chocolate.cupcakes

another friday, another working from home day that spared me from traffic jam and give me a little extra time. extra time to sleep in till 0900, and extra time to bake.

double chocolate cupcakes with mascarpone cheese frosting and a dash of blue... was thinking of a dash of pink but finally settle with blue so that it doesn't appear as too girlish...

the rich chocolate aroma fills our home because of these double chocolate cupcakes

the blue looks a little greenish in the photos

but the mascarpone cheese is really yummy and match perfectly with the aroma of the chocolate

be.lifted.up

we went to a praise concert tonight at den haag with a few friends from our church.

 

the atmosphere is high but in a righteous and godly way where the songs and praises are for God

a few members from the GMB indonesian band group were performing together with sharon kip, one of the dutch idols winner... she is a rather renown artist in the christian community

then finally the decommissioned (as of today) dutch deputy prime minister - andre rouvoet who also happened to be there at the concert came on stage for a few words..

it's an enlightening night with praise and worship where the name of the Lord is lifted up and lifted high!!!

[sorry about the photos, they are not sharp as i only have my mini point and shoot with me and the room are very dark...]

a.new.york.cafe.in.budapest

 you were told that new york café is a must in budapest...

so you make your way to this famous café for the sweet treat. this place has exists for more than 100 years, a café with a character. the exterior lives up to the expectation....

so you step in to the café, you look around you, it is like you are transported to some classical interior, somewhere in austria or to be precise vienna. then again you are hearing this new york jazz music playing in the background.

today is the “tell-day” where you need to make a few phone calls to your counselees informing them their performance outcome, salary increment and promotion if any. you sit down, make your order and start calling one by one, thankfully you only have four to call. likewise you have a missed call from your counselor informing you your performance outcome. you were rather surprise by the result that you still get a good banding considering you were sick for nine months last performance year. together with the news there is also a decent salary increment and a surprise bonus. you feel blessed, not over the moon but you are thankful.

your cake arrives. it  looks so pretty, like a piece of art, a masterpiece from a pastiserie chef, fresh from the kitchen.  however you are not impressed by the taste, perhaps you made the wrong choice. you don’t really like the texture or the taste. it looks beautiful, you must admit that but taste wise is rather primitive and textures more towards hard and dry. perhaps these cakes are just over rated!!!

nevertheless, you love the cappuccino and the ambience, you enjoy your time sitting in this café listening to the jazz music and let the interior design transports you to the past. you imagine how this café got its fame for the literary and artistic table societies and coffee house editorial group that met here from early 1900s.

you ask for the bill, it arrives like a book with the big imprint 'new york'.  this is where you got really confused!! you still wonder if you are sitting in new york (the name of the café) or in vienna (the interior classical grand design and the taste of the cake) or in budapest (where you are supposed to be this week)?

the next moment, you tell yourself, you are in budapest, sitting at new york café that has nothing resemble new york apart from the café name and the background music.  this place is heavily influenced by austrian like interior and you are here enjoying your cup and a sweet treat of hungarian invention that is heavily influence by austria

you step out for a reality check by going to the connected building which is the hotel lobby, so it's time to wake up and continue with your journey not in new york or vienna but right here in budapest...

dohany.synagogue.budapest

the weather has turned cold quite significantly, autumn is definitely here and i need to dig out my autumn clothing soon.  work and life is a little balance this week, we are planning a new trip soon (a long weekend so to speak).  For now, i bring you the summer story...

twenty fifth august

the weather cools down a lot. now it is in the midst of pleasant 26c or 27c! no sun glass or contact lens, your nikon is giving you a lot of problems today, your netbook also decided to call a day off by graphical interface failure. 

you take tram 4 to a synagogue at dohany street. 

the dohany synagogue is also known as the great synagogue is a very pleasant church/cathedral style synagogue in byzantine-moorish style, apparently it is also the largest synagogue in europe.  you bought your ticket, you stand in the queue, the security is strict, you have to go through a thorough search and x-ray.  not so welcoming, you don't expect treatment like that...

the white and red brick along with a wealth of ceramic decorative elements are attractive

and two onion-dome towers are quite impressive too

the interior is a little unusual than the other synagogues that i visited in madrid, this looks like a church really....

there are plenty moments for photography, simply because the use of light, colors and stained windows are the best parameters to capture artsy photos....

inside the 'church', this place really reminds me of the church that i used to attend when i was living in shanghai, the international church (国际礼拜堂) at hengsan road (衡山路).

there are a number of guided tours and you opt for english tour, all the tour guides are jewish or with Jewish blood.  later you realize that almost every visitor here either has jewish blood or related to jewish background, that makes you the only one who came in just in the name of the architecture.  the people in your group asks a lot of questions but not really relating to this monument but rather how the jewish lived or survived the second world war. 

although your spirit is a little heavier due to the history that this synagogue has witnessed and a few photos you saw where the dead body is lying on where you are now standing.  you are not put off by the historical element, you try your best to appreciate this synagogue from a different perspective. 

another nice spot for photo moment

and playing with aperture...

the guided tour finishes at the back garden where there is this stained glass work by a famous artist with a title that relating to flame to remember the suffering and the sacrifice of the jews during the second world war period

and this metal tree with metal leaves are impressive, each blade has a name engrave to it for every jew that died in this tragedy.  it is very sad indeed although the interpretation of the sadness is nicely done through the art work so that the lesson and history is known to the future generations...

as usual, every synagogue has a story to tell and this one certainly has a sad one (God bless them).  one last look at this 'tree', and you leave the compound from the back door.

from jewish quarter, you hop on to a tram and transport me to a place where I lost myself in between the cities…