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Long overdue pictures from London when I was there in May and Marcus and I decided to make the best out of the whole dire swine flu situation by enjoying ourselves for a week there! More here.

Okay I’m being bugged to blog. Here’s some pictures I took on one of my -currently- rare excursions out to eat nice food. Halia at the Botanic Gardens currently has a really good promotion – set lunch for 4 pax at $88+, so Nat, Rous, Em and I went down last Friday for what Em calls our “last long lunch”. I sure hope not, touch wood. I really liked the environment, set admist all the greenery, even though I had to trek through the entire park at noon to get there because I parked at the wrong carpark (was too lazy to check out the place on the map beforehand). Btw, at noon on a scorching hot day at the Botanic gardens, you can only find random ang moh and taiwanese tourists wandering around in packs (and a local girl walking rapidly through because she is late and lost). The other, more oriented locals sensibly keep away.

We were given a choice of an appetizer, main and dessert from their full menu, and had an awesome (and very long) lunch. These were some of the more photogenic dishes we had amongst the 4 of us. The best though, isn’t here because it didn’t look good – the kurobuta charsiew and wonton capellini was really really tasty, even though it looked like normal wantan mee. I savoured every morsel. Tasty pork is the stuff of life. We also enjoyed rou’s coffee ice (I no longer remember the name, not least at 3am when I’m writing this) dessert very much.

First post from the spanking new imac! When the doorbell rang and I saw the TNT delivery guy at the gate holding a huge box, I was in such a fluster that I tripped and -almost- fell in my haste to run down to collect the parcel. I must say that editing photos on this humongous 24″ screen with a fantastic graphics card is such a joy and pleasure. This new computer’s increased memory and speed also means that my processes (which took my old powerbook ages to do) are completed almost instantly, making image processing such a breeze.

On a sadder note, my portable hard drive died, so the rest of the pictures of Scotland have sadly vanished with it.

These photos were from an awesome dinner at Nobu London. It was my first time there, and 2nd time dining at a Michelin-starred restaurant (the first was at Martin Wishart in Edinburgh which I shall blog about later). I’d always wanted to try Nobu, and was initially supposed treat myself for my birthday (which would have been spent in London/Pittsburgh if not for the swine-flu disruptions). When elective plans were ruined by the swine flu outbreak, we decided to just go anyway.

The restaurant was upmarket, minimalistic and chic, and the well-heeled crowd quickly filled the place by 8pm. The service staff were an international mix – apparently they have people who speak different languages so as to better serve their non english-speaking customers.

I got to try some unfiltered sake – another first for me. I ordered the Sashimi dinner – the best I’ve ever tasted, each slice was so thick, fresh and succulent. The salmon slices were buttery and flavourful, and the scallops surprised me with their overwhelming sweetness. The taste of each amazing bite lingered in my mouth, and I’d pause to swoon (inwardly of course), before eagerly reaching for more. I think conversation stalled at this juncture due to the frequent interruptions from my inner raptures of joy (and outward silence). For dessert, I had the Mango katsu with coconut cream noodles in an earl grey and yuzu broth – a wonderful recreation of the traditional katsu with udon noodles dish. The broth was subtly sweet with the citrusy flavour of yuzu with a hint of flowery earl grey to anchor it, and when paired with the coconut cream noodles and the fried mango, was really something to remember.

I also got to sample some of Marcus’s Wagyu beef tartare starter, which completely changed my mind about minced raw beef with spices- it is definitely much tastier and sweeter than I’d ever imagined it to be.

More photos to come!

Monday was an Easter public holiday for us, and the 4 of us took a bus down to Glasgow for our first venture out of Edinburgh. The journey took about 1h45min. Ambika met us at the bus station in Glasgow, and kindly brought us around! First on her itinerary was Buchanan Street, pictured above, the main shopping throughfare of the city. It certainly lived up to its reputation as the 2nd best place to shop in the UK just after London, with a wide array of stores available. We (being thrifty and trying to limit baggage weight for our flight back to London in May) only went into Primark, where I bought insanely cheap plain tshirts for only 1.50pound apiece!

After shopping, we went to Mussel Inn for an insanely good lunch of mussels and bread! It serves huge pots of mussels in your desired serving size of a bowl, half a kilo or one whole kilo, with really yummy sauces such as Shallot (my choice, containing garlic, white wine, shallots and cream) or Morrocan (a mix of really tasty spices such as coriander and cumin). With the mussels, they serve a free flow of crusty white bread and butter. The bread dipped in the mussel sauce was soo satisfying! Being absolutely famished, we kept eating and eating until even the waitress finally refused to bring us more bread, which was disappointing (we wanted more bread!) but hilarious.

We then took a short subway ride on the world’s oldest subway system (super quaint, the tunnels are so small and trains are barely high enough for me to stand straight! and it sways from side to side as the train travels!) to the West end, where the University of Glasgow is sited. I must say that the University here is really really beautiful. Some of the buildings pictured above were used in a Harry Potter set in one of the scenes where they were learning how to fly on the broomstick! It was completely lovely and happifying, even the weeds were pretty daisy-like flowers. I was so happy I just lay on the grass there to soak in the beautiful atmosphere. Luckily it was a public holiday and the campus was deserted except for the odd passerby.

It being spring, Glasgow was also abloom with flowers! We strolled through the campus grounds, and then through a park nearby, and completely swooned at the array of colourful daffodils and tulips and other plants that were all around us. It was a wonderful afternoon just walking about admist all this beauty. We then visited one of the science museums (free entry!) and had fun looking at all the exhibits of animals and dinosaurs.

Dinner was at a quaint little Scottish restaurant tucked away in one of the back lanes – we would never have found it on our own if we did not have Ambika and Sarah leading the way. It served traditional Scottish fare, just a little more dressed up. I had a 2.5course meal (shared the dessert) which cost about 12pounds (it was the pre-theatre menu, and hence cheaper), and consisted of the traditional haggis, teets and tatties in a whisky sauce (haggis + potatoes + turnips), a main course of lamb, and sticky date pudding with butterscotch sauce for dessert. It was so absolutely divine and was just such a lovely end to the day.

Thanks Ambika and Sarah for being such lovely hosts!

The Edinburgh Farmer’s Market, held every Saturday from 9am-2pm at the Castle Terrace is such a delight. Its situated in the shadows of a cliff, with the Edinburgh Castle looming above, and consists of rows of stalls run by local producers selling their artisan produce. We ventured there with an empty stomach and an adventurous attitude, ready to try anything that seemed interesting.

Marcus and I got a Roasted Hog sandwich each (pictured above) that consisted of a huge heap of tender roasted pork flesh, with vegetable relish, a large piece of crackling and a generous dollop of chunky applesauce in a soft warm roll. It was supremely delicious, with us fervently copying down the address of the shop (Oink!, 34 Victoria Street) so that we could go search for it again in the city whenever we need a fix of roast pork. Li and Wenkien also got a Buffalo burger, with the juicy looking patty fried on the spot, which they said was very good too!

We also got organic chocolate from a producer who makes them in a village just outside the city – 3 bars for 6pounds, and I got Sea salt&caramel, Strawberries&pepper and Ginger flavoured dark chocolate bars. They also had the most delightful looking chocolate bunnies, which I regret not getting for Easter.

The boys got chips fried on the spot by a chatty guy who told us where to get the best Haggis in town. Li and I shared a pink cupcake, and camembert cheese that was superbly flavourful and melt-in-your mouth was purchased (3.50pounds) from an old lady who made them herself too.

Halfway through our visit, Li tapped on my shoulder and led me to a stall. She took a piece of cracker from the plate laid out on the table, selected a jar from the many varieties available, and placed a dollop of jam on the cracker and gave it to me. It was the most amazing jam I had ever tasted. Home made jam in about 20 different flavours from a farmhouse located just on the outside of Edinburgh. Even the simple Strawberry jam was more delicious than any that I’d ever tasted before.

I love Farmers Markets and purchasing produce from the people who make it themselves. Unfortunately, we won’t get the opportunity to come back to this Saturday market since we’ll be away the next few weekends, before heading to London, but there’s another market on Fridays at Ocean Terminal that I’m raring to go to next!

I don’t particularly like burgers, but boy do I LOVE Wannaburger. I first knew of this because its West End outlet is along the route my bus to the Royal Victoria Hospital takes every morning. Looking down from my seat in the upper deck of the bus, it always looked like a swanky, interesting restaurant to try. Yesterday, when the 4 of us were cold and hungry (having gone without lunch) walking back from the Edinburgh Castle, we passed by its branch at the Royal Mile and decided to give it a try.

My order of the Camembert Cheese burger – with an amazingly juicy burger patty, a huge piece of melty fragrant camembert cheese, chunky cranberry sauce, the usual burger toppings and a perfectly toasted sesame bun, was freaking mind blowing and completely satisfied my every pore. Li and Wk shared the Classic and the Cheeseburger, and Marcus had the Blue Cheese burger with Roquefort in it, were all completely happy with their orders as well. In our effort to save money (burgers alone ranged from 4.99 to 6.99 pounds), we didn’t order sides or drinks but the serving was large enough to satisfy us.

A quick search of this place on Google reveals it as the winner of Best Family Restaurant 2008, and that its availability is only confired to Edinburgh. Gosh. I’ll definitely be back here again before we leave this place!

Upon our arrival in Edinburgh and after exploring our new apartment and unpacking, we finally headed out to search for food. We stumbled upon this really quaint hole in the wall fish n chips cafe run by a really friendly Scottish-Polish guy. He used fresh haddock and deep fried it in beer batter, explaining us each step along the way. It made for a really filling and satisfying first meal, and even now, he still smiles and waves at me when I walk past his cafe. =)

Christmas for me was waking up early on Wednesday morning to bake these for Lawrence’s family party, Cel and Chiara, followed by the extremely fun party at Lawrence’s cousins’ place, and a restful Christmas day.

I think I made about 50 cupcakes in total, not all are pictured, which took me the whole morning to toil over by myself. As you can see, I went a little crazy over decorating them with hearts, sprinkles and white chocolate chips. But I was really happy with the yummy end result.

This year, I’m a little like the Christmas grinch – there’s no mood in me at all! Perhaps its because of the upcoming Patho exams in just a mere 2 weeks time that I’ve barely started studying for. The thought of all the post-Christmas sales starting today that I can’t go for (yet) does not detract from that too.

This is a little Shanghainese eating house tucked away in Duxton Hill. We’ve been going there for years and years, and every time, there never fails to be a queue forming outside this little eatery. The owner is a sullen guy whom sits by the door and is generally mean to people, but no matter, the food more than makes up for it. It serves great handmade dumplings, xiaolongbaos, Chinese pizzas amongst other things. How you order is also quaint, as there are photographs of the food placed on every table and all you really have to do is just look and point.

Had a wonderful lunch with Pooja today at the Swiss Baeckerei in Frankel Ave, one of my favouritest cafes in the East. It opens for breakfast-lunch-tea, and has wonderful scones, crossaints, cheese twists, cinnamon buns and eclairs. They bake their own aromatic breads, and serve decent sandwiches, soups and pastas. We had a fantastic time photowhoring over our Croques (she had a Croque Champignon and I a Croque Monsieur), and oogling at gorgeous Anglo-Chinese toddlers. This was followed by a jaunt to her new place in Kembangan and a shopping trip to town for some cosmetics. Yay!