press launch

swedish colours, english design. 

too cool.

munchies!

i still get confused between singapore supper and english supper. english supper is what i usually call dinner (evening meal) and supper is after dinner, before bed. this is supper singapore-style, mind you. figured there was no better time than this to break open a bottle of vino the manfriend picked up on a recent trip to rome, paired it with good parma, monterey jack and multiseed from cocomaya (my newfound bread haven).

domesticity

a little slow posting but this is the bird that christened our oven. love the freedom food range - cheaper than free range but assuages my conscience better than regular battery hen. it was gorgeous, if i may say so myself, and after dinner i got the thickest, tastiest stock out of its bone. incidentally, this baby lasted us a good three days haha. cooking for two really isn't as taxing as it seems. also, the resident chef was impressed by the drastic improvement in my cooking. once upon a time in summer 2008, i landed on his doorstep in leuven for two months, promising to cook and clean in exchange for living there rent free. two months later, all i'd cooked was indomee (the dry type! still comfort food!) and skinned 1kg of grapes for him. neither of which qualified as long term sustenance. and the cleaning? let's just say the building was later condemned for demolition the summer after.

laduree

while i'm firmly in the pierre hermes camp, i can't resist some this laduree baby. the fortune / misfortune of having wonderful friends bust out the goodies and insist on fattening me for the kill. have had the privilege of hanging with the coolest aunty ever - she's X going on 16... she's present, carves time out of her busy wheeler dealer schedule, takes me for spins in her convertible and is always up for makan. i swear she's the worst influence ever. i thought i was bad enough but no, she stops on the hour for a 'snack' and somehow we power our way through burgers and cakes and macarons. must be all the sambal belachan coursing through our peranakan veins :)

aubrey

ever on the bargain hunt, we tried the GBP10 for 2 course lunch and a glass of wine at aubrey in the kensington hotel. in true singaporean fashion, didi had the appetiser and main, while i'd main and dessert. photographed is my victoria sponge with clotted cream and berry coulis :)

 

the restaurant has gorgeous wood panels and a luxurious country feel to it.

monkey see monkey do outside the embassy hotel where we went for dinner at kitchen joel antunes another night. the menu was simple but very well executed. enjoyed the fresh take on traditional dishes and the re-conceptualisation of mainstays like gazpacho and pork pie. so clever!

edamamoustache

my darling didi was in town last week and we went on a feeding frenzy. gripped by the biggest ramen craving, we found a quaint japanese hole-in-the-wall just off oxford street. the lunch sets were great value and because we were so hungry, we ordered four lunch sets to split between the two of us. we each had a ramen set (it came with gyoza!), a sashimi set and a tempura set which came with generous bowls of japanese rice and soup. one of the best things about my little brother is how he gives me the bigger bed despite being bigger than i am, lets me use the bathroom first and on an unrelated note, he also lets me eat as much as i want i.e. my share and then what i want of his. he is massively indulgent, allowing us to stop every few steps for ben's cookies, ice cream and cupcakes, and hugely entertaining. i'm so glad i didn't get rid of him while i could've ;) but that's a murderous story of first born jealousy for mama to tell.

roka - best meal in london so far

we'd family in town and i'd booked a GBP10 for 3 courses and wine offer for dinner. the manfriend took one look at the dubious neighbourhood, cancelled my reservation and booked us into roka instead. gotta love him and his high maintenance ways :) he possesses the most discerning palate i know and i'm the better for his picky wicky nature because roka was sublime. hands down the best japanese i've had in a long time and i even preferred it to nobu in milan. the mui fan looking rice dish at the end was my absolute favourite and when i saw how much dessert i was getting (mine, all mine!) i was catapulted further into gastronomical heaven. we liked it so much that we're going back next week with more family, flagrantly disregarding our "no repeats" policy because london has so many great restaurants and so much to offer that it'd be a waste to go back to one when we could be trying something new. then again, i could probably re-live our roka dinner over and over again...

medlar

lived up to the already very high expectations! enjoyed the creative menu and how it was such great value for money. didn't take many photos but the company was lovely. 

in addition to the excellent cuisine, they also had cute lights!

and the best prosecco jelly with grape granita and raspberry sorbet for dessert

highly recommended if you're ever in london!

muriel's kitchen

the wonder that was exchange in stockholm university remains a wonder three years later. i love the global family it afforded me, and how i know i'm only ever a whatsapp away from a friend. my first memory of G was his awesome house party the day we finished our swedish law exam. it was a corridor party like no other with magnums of champagne (!) and lots of shouting over the music. complained as i might've then, there's a certain grungy charm about corridor parties and second-hand smoke :) we just missed each other when G passed through singers over the f1 weekend last year. i was already in the UK and he was en route to a friend's wedding in phuket. but never fear! fast forward six months and G's relocated to abu dhabi from brisbane and came to london for 'the long weekend'. what a jetsetter, considering the 8h flight for a mere 2 days in the city. and where G is, J was too so i got a bonus when J came in from plymouth to hang. caught up in this sweet little cafe and i'm so grateful for low-maintenance friendships and the shared understanding of having spent a little time together in stockholm. i love how some things change - G's a high flying sales manager in the middle east, J is en route to being a solicitor and, uh, i'm back in school. the manfriend was with us, of course, and we laughed about how despite all having LLBs, J was the only one using his.

baity's

don't you love the shabby chic? we were walking home from harrods (no, we don't live in knightsbridge, it was just a lovely day for a long walk) when we passed baity's. 

was lured in by the cool interior and beautiful crowd. i'd the yummiest, oiliest salad ever - pumpkin and watercress with prawns and chorizo. however, also watched in horror as four grown men picked at a teensy sliver of chocolate cake and still left half of it behind. calorie counting patrons aside, i felt no shame savouring my mushy un-complex carbs. and baity's serves truffle mac&cheese too! sadly, another glossy posse picked at their plate and left the bulk of it behind (first photo). 

sigh. the price of chelsea living.

a bit of this

and a bit of that. 

has it already been three weeks since the exams?! someone asked me last week how i spend a lazy friday morning and there's (thankfullY!) no one answer. every day has been different, and what i lack in routine now is more than made up in variety.

without going into too much detail, it's been an exciting week. some very grown up things have happened and i've been sworn to secrecy because the manfriend is private that way. one of the qualities i admire most in him. i'm sure we'll get round to talking about it eventually. just like how it was about 7 months before i even alluded to how we'd gotten engaged awhile back. i like this early part and being able to deliciously nurse a secret. i'm terrible with secrets! but thank goodness for the manfriend :) 

speaking of grown up things, the manfriend unilaterally decided that because we're getting married soon, it was time he bought me grown up shoes!

have scheduled a small london series* about cafes and restaurants visited so do come by tomorrow if you'd like to see.

*because we are leaving tomorrow to marry in greener pastures over midsummer and will be on honeymoon till july. however, i don't think i can tear myself off instagram so if you'd like to follow the journey, holler over @mysterymeatballs

please wish us plenty of sunshine and good times!

the restaurant, coworth park

it was already a late dinner, but the sun set even later. there's something so novel about sunlight streaming in over supper. we went halfsies and that mammoth tarte tartin you see was merely my share. and then the manfriend was unable to finish his half, so guess who ate enough apple tart to sustain an african village for a week? :) dinner was divine and what i love about eating out here is how it's not exorbitant to have a fancy schmancy meal. the same money would've gotten us no where in singapore. proud as i am to be singaporean, i don't like how some times you pay for exclusivity instead of quality. GBP30 goes so far as to get you a four course lunch at a michelin star-ed restaurant here. S$60 won't even pay for the good chirashi at inagiku back home...

coworth park, ascot

i knew the manfriend had something up his sleeve when he said he'd booked a 'nicer' place for the third night but i sure wasn't expecting this! coworth park is one of the most luxurious placer we've stayed at. little wonder, seeing how it's part of the same group as the dorchester in london, plaza athenee and le meurice in paris but oh wow oh wow oh wow. what a treat! it was english opulence at its most understated and so elegant without being stuffy. they didn't mind muddy boots at the restaurant! how awesome is that? and for a country house, it had all the trappings of modern luxury like the B&O surround sound system in the room and our own nespresso machine. the grounds were beautifully manicured and we stumbled upon a polo match soon after we arrived. the hotel also boasts a michelin star-ed restaurant but more about that tomorrow. much as i try not to be overly keen on stars, it's a good guide, if nothing else and we were well pleased with dinner :)

glastonbury

we'll be back at festival time :)

country walks

was a little ambitious and asked michael if we could have breakfast at 9am. he laughed and said, 'we'll see...' and see we did! rolled into the magnificent kitchen complete with huge aga after 10, had a leisurely breakfast chatting with his mother and sister and before we knew it, it was noon. so much for getting an early start! michael gave us wonderful directions to some good walks in the area but my less than wonderful hearing and memory got us wonderfully lost. what we ended up doing i would not ever recommend. saw an elderly couple (because that's my fitness level...) in walking gear near the church and asked if they could point us to a path. and oh boy they did. after walking in circles and battling waist-high stinging nettle and pokey pokey plants, we ended up back at our car. never making it to the village that was a mere 1.5miles away. disgruntled, we drove back to keepers cottage and got lost again, only to find ourselves at the national park michael had directed us to.

determined to redeem our 'walking holiday', we went for a stroll on the proper path through the woods and were rewarded with some good views :) whew!

keepers cottage

the manfriend has an amazing ability to suss out the best places, like this little stone hide-away in the middle of nowhere. well, not exactly, it's 5miles from glastonbury and we joked how we're so cool we go to glastonbury the only summer there's no festival. jokes aside, keepers cottage was by far the best b&b i've ever stayed in. each room (we got to try two!) is beautifully decorated and scattered with art from michael, the owner's, tasteful collection. michael bought the main house (with no wiring, nothing!) five years ago and has spent all the time since building the extension and fixing up the interiors. what had me sold was his magnificent boiler room that he conceptualised and built himself. it runs on scrap wood from the area so the mills pay him to dispose of the wood for them, and he uses it to run the place. basically, he's being paid to save electricity. wow.

energy generation aside, michael was a perfect host, welcoming us with glasses of wine and then continuing to ply us with the good stuff during our stay. it was almost as if there was an open bar going! we arrived in the afternoon and he offered to cook dinner! breakfast was a full english fry up (yum!) and michael let us pack lunches to take walking. more about our walk tomorrow, but i'm still so amazed how we not-so-accidentally had unlimited wine and full board at what was only supposed to be GBP85 bed&breakfast. testament to michael's graciousness and we'll definitely be back in winter to make full use of that log fire.