the.one.too.many

 unsafe? insecure? look familiar?

isn't that any of the big cities in the world will give you this feeling whenever you walk in the tunnel, in the subway station with dim light, graffiti, smell of weeds and pees every where?

a bench for the blind and the smelly trash... an urban landscape...

and he spotted this abandoned baby, well if he is a real baby he would have carry him/her home. 

you went for an exhibition "the one and the many" last saturday, not at the museum but at a ex-submarine plant somewhere in rotterdam. and you decided to check it out without knowing much about the them.

a typical portrait of post modern society and urban public space.

ire. depressed but that's reality.

each of the homes bears silent witness to the kind of lives led by many working-class and middle-class people. people work during the day, watch television in the evening and are too tired to maintain social contacts, all of these lives are lived next to one another in the same building but there seems to be minimal contact between the various households. every window has a story to tell, but a depressing one...

the dull, non-atmospherics ferry-wheel that represents boredom, it's definitely not a joyful ride, reality sucks sometime.  to be able to peep into the highest floor's window, you have to take a ride on the ferry wheel.

there are abandoned cars, real "gangsters" walking around putting on a show, it's hard to tell who are visitors and who are actors, it took you awhile to figure them out...

it's such a depressing scenes, but these scenes are many in different parts of the world.  if only the light of Christ will shine to these places, touch the people and give them the purpose of life then perhaps the world will be a little brighter.  after all there is always a light at the end of the tunnel...

edamame.fantasy.枝.豆.の.幻.想

perhaps it's the monday blue.  you are not very enthusiastic about your work.  the next two weeks is going to be a busy one for you, work wise.  there is this big thing coming in two weeks' time and after sourcing around the whole world within the company, there is no one capable in delivering the job. you made it clear to your management that you are not the expert on that subject but yet you appear to be the "best" resource to bear all the "burdens" or to be on the "spotlight". so, it's going to be a two week of learning, you are going to need the wisdom and understanding, perhaps a little fantasy won't harm either.

you love soy bean milk and you love edamame. and this is your edamame fantasy. you churn your own soy milk at home whenever you have the craze for it. and to get the best of both world you exercise a little bit of imagination and created this savory version of edamame (枝豆) rose (薔薇)...

 made of edamame and soy milk. both elements remind you of japan ^.^

 you infused the soy milk with dashi, konbu, soy sauce and kanten ...

and in no time your edamame roses are blooming...

edamame fantasy is conceived and served on the dinner table.  if the weather would have been a little warmer this would be a perfect dish to cool you down, something for next summer...
happy blue monday.

sunday.brunch

you usually do the brunch on saturday, but lately your saturdays are packed with program, so the brunch is only served on sunday when you sleep in a bit until you wake up naturally. 

today you served sunny egg bacon, home made carrot potato soup, mariage freres tea as brunch with bread, rock melon and some grapes...

the soup is thick and creamy. you scented the soup with generous teaspoon of coriander seed, cumin seed powder and a dash of red chili powder to chase all the depressions and fatigue away.

and your version of bacon and sunny side egg in a cupcake, bake and not fried, no oil, just natural for you, with a little parsley flakes for him...

 while he turns on the music on the internet and let the music fills the living room...

 a brunch is served...

saturday's roll

saturday, you went to helmond in the evening and were truly blessed there by the monthly service. you are glad that you are able to help a little there during the service and feel the anointing. people repented, healing took place, life touched and transformed. it's worth the time and effort driving the good two hours to get there and another two hours to get back home.

set that aside, you are in the rolling madness lately.

simply because it is so easy to compose.

very short baking time...

 you rolled up some chocolate swiss roll, using a tried and true proof recipe

 and melt some white chocolate to whip up white chocolate cream

and serve it as tea before you set off to rotterdam for lunch and museum.  and for someone who doesn't really like chocolate, he ate 3 slices at once during the morning tea break ^.^

apple.strudel

 autumn is in the air....

you got better september weather than july and august but they aren't the same. september is always crisp, it's no longer summer even when you got sunny days, the cloud are usually higher. you walk to your car in the morning and it's covered by a layer of morning dew...

autumn also means the very berries days are over, and apple is harvesting...

with still another three apples from your trip to ahaus you made apple strudel.

using ready made filo sheets, you didn't make the sheet it will be too big a challenge to handle.  you add raisins all the way from xinjiang soaked in cointreau and some chopped walnut...

a little messy, but yummy ^.^especially when you have some white chocolate cream to go with it...

happy weekend.

::something::

it must be more than a year since you last attended the thrusday night prayer meeting. tonight you went because an anointed speaker from your home country is going to speak in the meeting.

matthew 6:33 seek first His kingdom and His righteousness and all these will be added unto you.

simple message about God's kingdom, powerful truth and great impact.  the speaker gave everyone a book mark to denote our commitment in making a different to God's kingdom. that different can be a little thing as saying a prayer for your friends and love ones, sharing your testimony, inviting someone to church, to fill up the empty seats in your car or even being a listening ears to to others. small things that may have potential great impact to people's life and impact to God's kingdom.

yes, you missed those moments, those moments seem to easily comeby when you are in tokyo but back here in lowland you are missing the little actions in life. yes, want to do something for the Lord.

when.ex-collegues.become.friends

lately you keep bumping to some people that you know at your work place, at your customer site, either  in person or over the phone, either the names sound familiar or the faces are familiar to you.  in short, the world is small and round.  you reconnect to them with great delight, after all friend or friendly colleagues are better than enemies.

these must be taken sometime in 2010 april just before the queen's day. when an ex-ex-colleagues came from germany a gathering was called.  so you met in this small place in amsterdam, very near to dam square.




wyland fockink is an old establishment




serving fruit liquors/gins all home brands...

the friendly owner who is very passionate about everything in the shop

and you take turns in ordering, for a series of tasting session, and good catch up, chatting in different languages

they are your colleagues from your first job in the lowland. in an international setting with people all over europe and asia.

when the cafe is closed, you adjourned to a fun fair for more laugthers and catch up....

and these two gentlemen who were  your ex-ex colleagues are now your colleagues again. the world is small ^.^

mochi.not

 japanese mochi?

 mochi not!!

 well, it does look and taste like mochi, at least the one above

in reality, these are just another batch of snow skin mooncake, a cooked version since you still have another pack of cooked glutinous rice flour at home and some sweet potatoes that you can turn into sweet potato paste.

it turned out as you expected, the cooked version has a better skin texture, a lot tastier. in fact it almost taste like the japanese mochi to you.   

you like the green color from the japanese green tea (matcha) powder and the bitter taste from the matcha in combination with sweet potato.  

well, something that you will do again next year.

tsukimi.お.月.見

full moon was clearly visible last night...

you really feel like making some tsukimi dango (月見 団子) tonight but you ran out of glutinous flour, and you are tired after a day of work, so you let go of the idea as long as the moon represents your heart....

 you were out for a wok dinner with your family last night, a belated birthday celebration for your MIL and also to commemorate the mid autumn festival. you have never been passionate about all these chinese festivals, but lately you started to pay more attention to the tradition.  it's also strange that you relate it to the japanese festival which in a way very similar to the chinese ones.  that's exactly why the idea of making tsukimi dango surfaced after the mooncakes...

anyway, enough of thoughts ramblings...

mid.autumn.中.秋

happy mid autumn festival! the actual date is tomorrow, but it's never too early to wish your friend a happy lantern festival.

 

here are some of your home made baked moodcake. it's teochew style mooncake (潮州月饼) with flaky crust.

 made with oil and water dough and your first attempt as well with such dough.

you made some with sweet potato and ginko (番薯银果), some with sakura scented azuki paste, and a small batch with taro (yam).

you love the purple swirl on the crust, it looks so pretty. and these mooncakes are round enough to resemble the full moon.

together with the rabbit print on your furoshiki, rabbit is also one of the symbol for mid autumn festival together with a legend that associates with it.

but it's way too late to tell the story that you probably already know somehow. you have been on two days of food marathon and all you need is a good night rest for the new week.

.花.好.月.圆.庆.中.秋.

get.together

saturday lunch get together at a friend's place in amsterdam.

your host made a lot of dishes for lunch.  it's again a long table parade...

 super delicious beef rendang, you really ate a lot because you don't know how to cook rendang yourself

 the super moist and tender bread crumbs fried chicken fillet

 curry fish, you just so love the gravy...

 kaylan in oyster sauce, a very common home dish but essential for the green intake.

 kangkung belacan, malaysian style green in chili shrimp paste...

on the host's request, you brought the signature roasted pork belly over to amsterdam too, made by your other chef at home. this is not the sort of food you will cook either.

another talented guest, a mother of three made these mini snow skin and baked mooncakes with yam and coconut filling... yummy small bite...

 you just fancied the jade green snowskin mooncake...

a vietnamese dessert by another guest, made of glutinous rice, salted coconut cream with some beans... very filling.

it's an afternoon to get to know a few other friends from your home country, a lovely afternoon of socializing with one another, playing with the kids and chowing down yummy food...

barista.breakfast.view

this is what you missed sometime in the weekend...

elaborated breakfast that doesn't need to be a buffet or something substantial. but just some quality time together in a weekend setting...

this is  in ghent, sometime last year during the queen's day long weekend...

by chance we discover this lovely cafe....

with a view and along the canal

and they serve decent and tasty continental breakfast that you really enjoyed.

this week you work from home all week! the plus is you are able to run the errands in between, the downside is you ended up working long hours...
anyway, it's friday ^^! happy weekend!