::friendship::

 ladies lunch on saturday. finally all your friends return to lowland after months of exodus.  one try to avoid the winter or the other merely go back to homeland for festive celebration. a chinese dimsum lunch couldn't be wrong. it's that much of food you ate, so much giggles and news and updates. it's good to meet up again.

today in the care group gathering, you discussed about understanding God's love.  you shared in the meeting how the dimension of God's love has protected you. the width of His love (john 3:16), the length of His love (psalm 103:17), the height of His love (psalm 103:11) and the depth of His love (romans 8:35) has protected you

it's this love that protected you from the recent situation.  you're not shaken, you're not angry (well, may be a little) but you definitely didn't take the worldly path of "an eye for an eye", instead you choose not to be bitter, attack but to keep distance, keep silence and intercede for her silently.

that said, you received a goodie bag with snacks and goodness from your friends.  it's the thought that count ^^.

you thanked God you life have friendship.

bittersweet moments

you still stick to yours truly strawberries in the weekend. something you want to bake for awhile but just have no time to do it when you literally spent just weekend at home.

 you baked the genoise roll on friday evening after you return from london.  and just whisked up lactose free whipped cream and roll the cake over the strawberries

 it's really simple and super easy.  only it takes awhile to let the cake cooled completely.

 and you literally served these for breakfast.  a saturday's special!

 and another slice for tea in the late afternoon with a cup of milky darjeeling tea. the bitterness from thejapanese pure high grade matcha green tea powder, sweetness from strawberries is a big contrast. a balanced one!

it's actually represent your feeling about japan early in the week.  a bittersweet moment, the experience is sweet yet the tsunami has brought a tint of bitterness to entire journey. then again, it's a closed chapter.

dessert.for.dinner

dessert for dinner? yeah, it's been a cold, long and tiring week. you have full dress rehearsal for four workshops in a week.  that really drains you down.
you didn't venture out to any where this week, that made you a very full and boring city girl.
after the long dry run, when you looked at the notes taken by your colleague from india and couldn't understand a single sentence, you decided enough is enough!
you pack your bag and walk out the door. fresh air is what you needed, the cold air in the city is bitterly cold, you walk in to you favorite french bakery and grab yuzu and ispahan tarts and walk back to your apartment.

so, dessert for dinner! though you thoroughly enjoyed the classic ladurée saint-honorés with
 ispahan taste

you didn't enjoy  the yuzu polonaise , finding it overly sweet with the meringue.

you don't do this very often, but swapping dinner for dessert works for you. all things are permissible but not everything is beneficial. your life is sweet but with a little tweak you can still enjoy the sweetness in life.

carrot.cake

carrot cake, well in this case, chinese style steamed carrot cake (蒸蘿蔔糕）
not the western style bake carrot cake coated with cream cheese and walnut.

 this carrot cake is coat with a layer of dried shrimps, chinese sausage, spring onion and mushrooms.

you didn't make this, but he did. and he's getting good with this steamed carrot cake.
with you away on most weekdays, you really enjoy cooking together with him, each showcasing and complementing the dishes or bakes that you are good at.
you normally bake and make the weekend brunch and comfortable with western style cuisine. he is more into cantonese and lately china cuisine.  it's a joy to be busy in the kitchen. you missed this sometime....

london is freezing.  in fact the entire europe is freezing cold this week, it's already march, sigh! you really can't wait for spring weather to come, and bulbs to pop up! let's hope this is the last cold wave you have to endure this winter/spring.

home.cook.by.friend

you're at a friend's place two weekends ago. for a home cook dinner.

 this is quite a unique dish with tofu, bacon and tomato. you really do enjoy eating other's home cook meal as this will extend your palate and you got the chance to try new dishes.  dishes that you never thought of....

 the oatmeal fried prawns were really nice, crunchy and delicious. he got a new idea to cook shrimps other than his usual cantonese style chili pepper shrimps

the mixed veg, a good source for fiber and green.
it's really a simple meal, three dishes with a white pepper chicken soup for the four of you.  what a nice way to spend the saturday evening. and get to know the couple.

::ponder::

second year, even though japan seems.to be so far away from you now but you guess you will forever remember today.

two years ago while you were busy enjoying your short term expat life in the ever busy enchanting tokyo, the quake woke you up shockingly. perhaps the constant shaking and moving of the ground had tormented you. perhaps the scenes from the television and broadcast of tohoku's tsunami has frightened you.  in short, you woke up from your spiritual slumber, realize the urgency and acknowledge the in great remorse and mourning throughout the evacuation, "stranded" in lowland period.

during that period, you learnt about your greatest calling, you learnt about intercession, praying unconditionally for people of japan, urging to return to tokyo to finish what you have started despite of many situations of uncertainty. you remember spending sleepless nights weeping, or woke up by the scenes of waves and people swept away by the tsunami in the middle of the night. you sometime imagine the earth was shaking in lowland.
 
then it's the time to return, you remember you boarded to an almost empty flight bound for narita. you remember how somber  dimmed and uninteresting tokyo was when you reach the city center after the earthquake. life was never be the same again for many japanese, life has changed as well even for you.

and two years later, on this day, japan is indeed very far away distance wise, yet some memories of your time in japan will last for a very long time.

today, writing this thought while you're on your weekly travel to london,  you know this is where you are now, life in europe, doing the similar day job with another company for another financial client, in the financial district. instead of tokyo, the scene continues in london.

today you just want to pray for japan, for many who survived and live on, for a country that able to stand up quickly and recovered, and most important for many souls that went missing, lives that were lost and the hardships that the survivors have to endure post tsunami.
if you were to choose again, you never regret a day for such awakening experience if this natural disaster is unavoidable.

::random::copper::

you can't wait for spring weather to arrive. this weekend the temperature has taken another deep drop and snow is coming back as well.

you picked this up from london among many other things.  you just want to enjoy this cordial in a more pleasant temperature, imagine yourself sitting at your garden, drinking this cordial with sparkling water or even top it up with sparkling wine.

and this lovely red iron cast pan. it's not from the most famous french brand, but this is a uk brand that you know it will be good enough for stew or make any slow cook food more delicious. although the original intention to carry this home is meant as a gift for a girlfriend who invited you to her 12.5 year wedding anniversary. and the giant seashell is a creation from a talented friend who not only artistic to paint but also very much into ceramic.

these are the oranjekoek (orange cake), a specialty from the northern province.  you had a privilege to sample this and witness a friend's copper wedding anniversary yesterday. in the culture of lowland, 12.5 years of marriage is a significant milestones and certainly worth the celebration.

home.coming

with five work days in london, it does feel good to be coming home.

home to a bowl of zha jiang mian

 not with the hand made noodle, but with store bought flower petals noodles

 equally delicious, taste of home, prepared by your honey even though he's not home when you warm up the noodles and the minced meat

and a perfect ending with marie-antoinette blue macaron. sweet ending to a long week. and not forget happy women's day!

naughty.thursday

you haven't been here in london on thursday evening for awhile.
thursday evening is always a social evening, prime time for pubs and restaurants.
it's not an exception for you. you did your dry run aka full dress rehearsal, it went okay, after all you have a difficult counterpart to please.
so an evening out is a good way to unwind, plus a super naughty drink to start.the evening and a good Indian meal to finish the night.

things.of.london

super green and super mean juice. it's unsweetened and only meant for the brave ones like you. you kinda like it, it's a mixture of all green veg's  like kale, celery, green pepper and many more.  a good detox or booster to your body. you won't take this empty stomach, but it's actually quite delightful to drink and you instantly feel the effect.

browsing london supermarkets have always been delightful to you. it brings back a lot of memories. memory of home, childhood and adolescence.

you do feel much better this week, not that you slept really well the past few nights, but you're calmer and less stressful.  perhaps it's the drink, but you know there's a legion of praying armies praying for you and you are thankful. never take prayers or God's protection for granted.

you wanted a walk, just to refresh your mind, but not fancy venturing to west end. so you took a stroll, or rather brisk walk to waitrose. it's about 20 min walk away, not too long but just nice to let go of work.

mother's day is a big thing now, but that's just uk who celebrates mother's day in march. easter eggs, bunny, chocolates are also on the show case.
you have something in mind that you want to grab, but it just turned out to be a big bagful. some are necessary for your daily life in london, some are meant to carry home, some are just added to your basket out of curiosity or because they shout out familiarity in you.

that's said, tomorrow is your first day of dry run. let's hope you will be able to impress and make a big milestones.  3 more to come next week.

island.of.spices

 a recreation of something closer to home.

it's supposed to be something closer to his home and childhood but because he couldn't pin down the recipe, while he was still searching, you started to compose the spices you need for your taste of home.  you need island of spices but you have all of them.

so it turned out to be a reminiscence of a taste of home. not necessary home cook, but one of the hawker food that you really love. one that heavily influence by teochew or hokkien clan in south east asia. kueh chap was it!

it's dark but not intense.  the taste is almost there but not strong enough to your liking. you're counting down to the day to taste a bowl of perfect kueh chap at your hometown, the meow meow city.

morning.has.broken

morning has broken, like the first morning.

a beautiful morning and sun rise since many months.
a promise of God's grace and mercy are new every morning. a promise of spring to come.
your prayer for today is that you gain new strength to complete another week in london.

your mundane travelling. hopped onto the aircraft, sleep for the first part of the journey, had a healthy apple as snacks as offered by the inflight service and finished off with this pure dark chocolate.

the weather is definitely spring today, the temperature is still hovering at the single digit but certainly at the higher end. you didn't intend for this afternoon walk but since the support couldn't resolve your technical issue over the phone last friday, you have to walk from your client's office to your office.

 not a long journey, probably 15 min but a really pleasant one... the sun is shining, you can feel the warmth on your face

 and in fact feel a little warm when you arrived at your office. the issue is fixed in less than 15 min and you head back to the client's office. feeling mundane but a little less dreadful somehow.  you know people are praying for you, and you'll never take God's grace for granted...

you don't bother to venture out, just go to the supermarket to grab some green and fruits. the spanish strawberries are also here too in london. and they are even bigger, almost the size of your palm.

so much of the thoughts musing! and thank you Jesus for a good start of the week!

n.o.o.d.l.e.s

home made noodles. he has been wanting to try this noodles, the northern china style noodles.  after much research, he finally got around to do this on sunday.

until now you have no clue whether this is 刀削面 or 炸酱面. pardon for lack of english equivalent words as you really don't know the translation.

preparing the noodle dough

 cutting the noodles...

 making the toppings and this is the most important part besides the noodle making

 your plate of noodles. the normal toppings are cucumber, carrot and the minced meat. you added sliced radish to have your portion of red.

 mixing the noodle...

the noodles are good, much better than you expected, you're a little skeptical at first but after the first bite, you know you will like it and eat the noodle. a super delicious bowl after all.

you didn't have much share in making this dish, you're tired again even though you just wake up.  you're just a little worry about your situation.  you almost broke down last wednesday in london. emotionally at least. you may have a lot of work to complete but that should not put you to this state of mind. you try to remain positive but it has been hard.

today, you woke up thinking you will have enough strength the day but little you know your body is yearning for rest. after a mind struggles, battling between staying home and going to church, you finally decided to listen to your body, for there's another busy week ahead. you wish to be at the church, attending the sunday celebration but you know rest is all you needed.

little you know you slept from 1pm to 5pm. may be you are just physically and mentally too tired. may be the newly prescribed medication has got the side effect on you. you don't know the root cause but you are about to breakdown.

psalm 36:5 Your steadfast love,o Lord, extends to the heavens, Your faithfulness to the clouds.
isaiah 40:31 but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall  mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run, not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.

you know this very well,  and you will just spend more time to pray, communicate and wait upon the Lord, for He will renew your strength.

and you do feel much better after the afternoon sleep. perhaps you're just too tired after all? time will proof itself.

strawberry.bread.pudding

one of the thing you look forward to the weekends is to enjoy your strawberries. spain breed but that's your preference anyway.

you just want to try this recipe that you have been eyeing for awhile from donna hay magazine. a rich berries brioche pudding. only you replaced the brioche with dutch milky bun

it's rather easy to whisk up, just need to boil the cream and milk, mix them to egg yolk and pour over the dish and off to the oven for 25 min.
you are not sure if it's mean for breakfast but you recognize it won't harm anyway for a saturday elaborate breakfast.

all you wish is you could enjoy this silky smooth  and scrumptious pudding a little longer and slower, but your helper is here to do the house cleaning, that left you no choice but hurry and move on.

indulging in berries is definitely a weekly highlight that you wish could last a little longer.

while running errands in the city center, you discovered a thai massage parlor in the old city.  you're thrilled with joy because this is exactly what you needed a good body massage to fight the fatigue of your body. you couldn't tell you're too tired (physically tired or it's just the side effect of the medication). but you know a good massage would help anyhow.

from now on, you don't need to get to the other city for this, admittedly you do feel so much better and energized after the hour.

abacus.beads

friday working from home is still stressful and dreadful. you have been thinking on working 4 days. after all, it's a norm in lowland.

may be it's just this project that you are working at, may be age is catching up, may be there's something else.

you try to be pragmatic and refrain from getting too occupy with kitchen. but this is something you missed, the hakka abacus beads.  after all  the yum has been purchased a week ago and begin to rot, you just never got the chance to make it last week.

with every ingredient at hand, you managed to whisk this up during lunch break. so a smaller plate for lunch. making this dish is always a journey down the memory lane.  your sister told you this is the signature dish of your mum and uncle (who passed away end last year). but in your distinct memory, this is actually a dish that your elder auntie made for you when you're living in hong kong.

you feel a sense of relief when you have your plate for dinner. that's mean work week is finally over.