HG

had heard good things about HG and as we were already having dinner and breakfast at the belsfield, thought to venture out for lunch. to risk sounding really classist, it was rammed with posh southern types talking loudly, which didn't make for the most pleasant of dining experiences. didn't help that someone had latched the main door from the inside (???) so we were stuck on the stoop for a good five minutes in the hail as with frozen fingers i tried to find the contact number of the restaurant then the hotel (didn't work) and then when it did work was made to listen to the automated woman talk me through 27 (ok i exaggerate) options. no thank you. the best part was that this was in full view of some of the guests who conscientiously ignored us despite it being blatantly obvious that we were locked out. rang the door bell, rang the bell for night porter and only finally by chance a party was exiting the building and they'd to unlatch the door from the inside and kindly let us in. not fun! maybe funny in retrospect but not enough time has passed for me to see the humour. i've only just regained sensation in my extremities...

again not to sound like a complete spoilt brat (i am, the mister would be the first to acknowledge that he's frankenstein and i'm the monster) but wasn't blown away by the food. the experience was great. we were (eventually) met at the lobby and ushered to the lounge for aperitifs and petit fours, had time to look at the menu and place orders before moving on to the main dining. all very nice and civilised. had expected it to be more crowded but we were one of three pairs in the restaurant on a bank holiday sunday. hmm. corkage was £25 so we brought a bottle that my winemaker friend had gifted us on our wedding almost four (!!!) years ago. it was a lovely bottle and i'm so glad we finally opened it.

there was a parisienne waitress/somelier and a younger, less experienced french-accented waiter who seemed clumsy and kept dropping things. meal was punctuated by crashes every so often :/ parisienne waitress was wonderful, oozing french charm and sophistication. she complimented us on our english (!!!) and comp-ed the coffee, probably unrelated.

the food itself was so-so. mackerel in satay sauce might've appealed to some but it just made me crave proper satay. nothing mind-blowing, good solid food. modern british really doesn't appeal to me so hm i'm not the best judge.

mackerel with satay sauce and watermelon

ham hock

pork

beef cheek

the highlight was by far the wine from ming. he knows i'm partial to pinot noir and when he was working at flowers, they'd such a good year that employees were limited to six bottles each. and in the ming's wine pecking order, getting married bumped me up a few spaces and he kindly gifted us a bottle when we got married. been meaning to save it for a special occasion and hm almost-fourth wedding anniversary seemed like a good one :)

belsfield

i'm not the biggest fan of the lakes but its proximity (haha) means i've accidentally found myself there more often than one would think. went immediately post exams jan 2013 because we'd exams after christmas break and it wasn't really a holiday (only that i refused to be cheated of festive cheer so still had a nice holiday hehe). was also in the lakes a couple of times for wilderness medicine events, during the october junior doctor strike that didn't happen and now over the early may bank holiday weekend two weeks from finals, and maybe 36h before my surgical exam.

so i hoped this wouldn't bite me in the backside and live in fear of hedonism catching up with me. not wanting to jinx it but so far so good hehe. surgical exam cleared (woohoo!) and all raring to go for finals now. it was the last of six in course assessments we've had and we need to be wholly competent across four domains to progress to finals. for friends who've had a run of bad luck, this last one was pretty darn high stakes because a third strike in any one domain would mean failing the year before even sitting finals (!!!) which to me is more than a little unfair but hey, i don't make the rules. silly, nevertheless. 

the belsfield is a lovely grand hotel and recently undergone a massive refurb. prime location overlooking the lake with beautiful views all round, living up to the mental picture i had of the lakes. cute town of windermere and when the weather cooperated (day 2) we had some lovely scenery and boaty action on the lake!

the library is gorgeous settings for a spot of tea - all muted palate and brand new furniture.

bay windows at the brasserie, the more casual dining option

our suite was inviting and almost too big for two! but with the weather the way it was, i was refusing to budge.

sole custody eggs and joint custody fry-up at breakfast

we'd room with dinner and breakfast and found it incredibly good value for what we were paying. dinner was an elaborate five course in the well-appointed dining room, lovely grand setting with huge windows overlooking the lake etc. can't fault them! would defo recommend for a quick getaway and i only wish we'd time to have cream tea in the afternoon. well we did have time but i was sleepy and full from a 3h lunch so maybe on our next visit :)

weekend visit

had friends in town for the weekend and it started with bubbles on the train. love how despite the finals rush (sorry, i try not to talk too much about work on this blog but it does creep up now and then!) there's still time to take it easy, to check out and check in. it'd been a long week on trauma orthopedics and really enjoyed kicking back on the train journey with some bubbles. took the edge off the commute (i'm such a baby, it's hardly far!) and started the weekend on a good note.

A (above) checked into a fancy pants hotel while i made a beeline for bloomsbury and waited for girlfriends to arrive before doing thai in the 'hood. squid and their version of pad thai? count me in! not for purists but i was famished.

and because i'm a one-trick pony, i drag all my friends to regent's park and primrose hill. it's not a trip to london without them seeing my spiritual home heh. perfect weather for sauntering and because they didn't have plans, they humoured me. probably regretted the walk after haha but we got waylaid at a pub near by and what was meant to be a 9pm (ooh, fashionably late!) tapas reso was not kept.

undeterred, we went to eat*tokyo in soho instead which in retrospect was a better call because uh, just check out my massive oyako-don for £8.50 (!!!). call me cheap / greedy or both but it seriously does not get better than a mountain of eggy chickeny goodness bigger than my head.

swung by drink shop do near kings x the next day and had cake galore too!

cheater fish tacos

inadvertently found myself in a cooking rut comfort eating or relying on take out, both obviously doing wonders for the waistline ;) and felt like something exotic. not like tacos are very exotic but hey, beggars can't be choosers! stumbled upon what i'd initially written off as a deceptively easy recipe that was indeed simple (love when i'm wrong!) and got going. although making coleslaw was a feat. who'd have thunk one tiny cabbage would expand in the blender and i ended up with boxers of blitzed cabbage. so much so i was giving away coleslaw to friends in the neighbourhood! and the cilantro crema? sounds so fancy but absolute doozy. and because it was (already good) fish it became better with fish sauce aplenty!

party animal

have a dear friend in singers who first clued me into the joys of a roasted pig. the mister and i would traipse round to his bearing hawker centre goodies and a roast suckling pig to celebrate getting into medsch / his phD / numerous other life-changing achievements, and occasionally just because because being young and alive is reason enough for celebration, no? so it was kinda cool when our hosts took this a level up by slaughtering the fattened teenage (as opposed to suckling?) pig because there was lots more pig!!! and come on, how dramatic is watching it slow roast on a spit for hours and hours? delayed gratification at its best ;) also, i can sorta get why mark*zuck made a thing about only eating animals he'd slaughtered himself. not that i did any slaughtering but there's something less guilt-inducing about eating an animal that was born and bred in supreme comfort, treated really well during its (short) life and killed humanely. makes me want to avoid supermarket bought pork now and only have pork if it's from a farm shop and reared on site.

but this is quick evolving into a husbandry / responsible farming + consumption lecture so no! needless to say, piggy tasted amazing. roasted to perfection (our hosts are not new to this game, oh no...) and lechon as they taught us was customary for them. the skin was crispy, crunchy and chewy at the same time. they very kindly gave me the ear (!!!) which i enjoyed thoroughly and hm i don't think i can go back to duck*waffle pig ears in a bag after enjoying the real deal.

dusty roads

friendly locals! the people are such a warm and giving bunch .our hosts told us that if you were to be their guest, they'd surrender the sole bed and borrow money for a feast in our honour. our former help retired a few years ago and returned to the philippines. she's a long term health condition and we brought her medication with us to mail to her. in a way wish we could've visited but she's in a different part of the country. coming from singers we've such warped sense of distance and i fail to appreciate how remote somewhere could be. it's a country made up from 7102 islands (and counting) so don't even get me started on how its governed!

farm life

makati was overwhelming, and that's already the most chichi part of metro manila. hosts explained that when people refer to manila they probably mean metro manila which comprises a number of different districts, of which manila itself is one. we were in makati and even then i was amazed by the obvious poverty / lack of infrastructure. the taxi queue at the airport spanned the length of the building (!!!) and the train queue was beyond the platform, out of the station and round the block. our hosts said people even use adult diapers (!!!) because it's so time consuming a commute they can't afford to waste any time on a comfort break. crazY ! and i do think she was being serious :/

needless to say, it was a welcome relief to escape to the countryside after lunch at greenbelt.

is that not the cutest kurobata piglet ever? only two weeks old and so intelligent ! the moment it heard the ostriches being fed it scuttled through the holes in the fence and out of its enclosure to eat with the ostriches. i fell for its intelligence and wanted to bring it home, saving it from certain death, but alas was not allowed to :( they're not domestic and would've loved cuddles but couldn't catch them! 

cute story - our hosts were gifted a pair of kurobata pigs and the pair had a litter of seven (they killed one for dins!) and the 'children' pigs went on to have another litter of four grand-pigs. the meat was lean and tender, and i didn't experience carnivore remorse because we saw the piggies in their pen. happy, running freely, lovingly fed fresh leaves from the farm, great environment and that's when i realised the origin and good husbandry is so important.

had half a mind to pretend the palm trees were coachella but realised i was a couple of weeks off!

gutai collection

the purpose of the trip was ostensibly to see our hosts art collection at the museum. call me left-wing but i think it's such a waste when collectors buy premium artwork for their personal collection, as if such national treasures are a social good and should remain in the public sphere for communal appreciation. maybe that's the point of collecting i.e. to have something coveted that no one else does. so i found it very generous of our hosts to lend their private collection to the museum for everyone to enjoy.

they've incredible foresight and acumen, always one step ahead of the curve and supporting artists just before they become commercial successes. hosts shared some pretty jaw-dropping anecdotes, like how they were the only one to bid for a certain piece at an auction, securing it for a steal and a fraction of what they'd have been willing to pay should there have been a bidding war. i wish i had their ability to peer into the  crystal ball. the sort of appreciation (60x in a couple of years... OMG) is unheard of in stocks / property etc. and it's hard not to be swayed by the potential upside to such investment. 

also, i realised how appallingly little i know about art and wished i was more aware of what's out there. it's almost as if art's a luxury few can afford as we pragmatic singaporeans focus on bread and butter professions. i can tell you about medicine, and maybe a little about law, but am far from being well-versed in the art scene. would very much like to be able to hold my own, to look at a painting and instantly appraise the confidence with which the brushstrokes were made, the emotion it conveys, the concept behind it, why the artist did it that way etc. aware that so much of it is marketing, about grooming and pushing more bankable artists but do feel it's an area i need to know more about. feel shallow, otherwise.

manila

was in manila for less than 48h. recounted the brief getaway to F who described it as 'bleisure' (bizniz+leisure) which's supposed to be the latest buzzword i'd yet to hear about. as usual, slow on the uptake! had the most gracious hosts who spoilt us rotten, taking care of everything. it was nice to go into man mode, army-speak for being a follower. they're old friends who very kindly let me stay in their berlin apartment when i was on exchange in stockholm all those years ago, so to finally visit in their home in makati was a real treat. the scale of which they've acquired art is nothing short of awe-inspiring. the level of curation, thought and expression of pure taste and class was sublime. 

will be the first to admit i know scarce little about art but always happy to learn, and no one better to learn from than experienced collectors with decades of good calls under their belt.

we'd dins at makati*garden club then 2h massages. silly me, only ever having had 1h massages thought 2h would be too long. turns out that they're onto something good and the 2h massage was a game-changer. 120min of pure bliss and left feeling like a very relaxed noodle. can't go back to hour-long massages now! relatively late night (past midnight! i zz by 9ish usually so this was wayy after my bedtime!) and early start at the polo club. delicious brekkie and i loved the arroz caldo (like porridge!). the thing about filippino food is that it's different yet familiar. same same but different? oops wrong SEA nation. defo shared elements with chinese / straits chinese cooking i'm accustomed to (garlic, ginger, sugar) and it was new but still comforting, to say the least.

ladies who lunch

this abandoned wives club is fast expanding! had the two darling Cs in london and while briefly in the far east, had J whose other half works away in the week. J and A are no strangers to this blog, in fact they're the founding cast members over on mysterymeatballs where this all started in september 2009. we met as law undergrads in stockholm on exchange years ago and have gone on to criss-cross the world, albeit at different times. she's french and he's aussie and i've had many happy summers at hers in aix. they very kindly hosted me at their current base then her parents came to singers last summer and i was thrilled to finally return the favour. the mister and i have met them in perth (twice!) and sydney (oops missed them in sydney) and A has passed through singers on his SEA adventures, and london, and i met them in munich just before christmas. funny our our paths have crossed more than we ever anticipated and it's a great thing to have old friends who're forward-looking. we hardly talk about stockholm now because there's so much else to talk about. catch ups are brief because we're on imessage every couple of days anyway, and we talk about the present and the future. the barometer of true friendship because having to continuously re-establish a connection by bringing up the past must get old. 

so while our men were hard at work we had a lavish coffeeshop lunch of ban mee and limau ice, followed by cake. and she's coming home with me today! because the men are still at work and we'll hop on the plane for an adventure while the boys arrive later night. 

also, if i close my eyes and pretend hard enough, it could be NYC. no? ;)

working on sunday

junior doctors in the UK are up in arms about unsociable hours and pay (in a nutshell) and can't say i disagree. in fact, i'm glad there are people fighting for my rights (i don't have a say just yet) and sure hope the contract that's eventually imposed will be better than the one we're being threatened with. however, time and place for political observations and commentary. this isn't it. also, i do think lawyers have it worse, minus the life/death responsibility unless they've a criminal law / human rights practice. in fact, it's not just lawyers but other industries. the mister has left legal practice for greener pastures (hence the view haha) but was still in the office on sunday. he's used to it, i was used to working weekends all those years ago and a senior consultant friend got a bit snippy and said their first weekend off was as a senior registrar, having worked weekends through school (camera shop), medsch (they could locum) then on call every weekend through training till senior reg level. that said, working weekends isn't something i'd want to do. how crazy does someone need to be to willingly sacrifice precious down time with loved ones in less nutty industries. but it's part and parcel of the job, no? and if it's something i knowingly (or unknowingly) signed up for then really can't turn around and complain now.

airport rituals

it's easter break but as i keep repeating to anyone who can be bothered to listen, it's not a holiday. finals in just over a month (!!!) and meant to get good work done, full throttle etc. unfortunately that hasn't happened and i don't like talking about work nor projecting self-righteous medic that annoys me no end when other people do so i shall stop now. suppose it's different. i've a husband, and family halfway round the world who are a priority. who i won't see much off once i start work in a couple of months. so time with them takes precedence, for now, and i'm wanting to maximise every moment at home. but sometimes it all gets too much and i'm at yet another airport. food is and has always been comfort (uh oh) and i'm partial to kaya toast (with butter!!!) and liang li (two soft boiled eggs). 

god bless you, kiliney kopitiam for being an ever-present salve to the ever-present ache for home.

fresh off the boat in more ways than one

the mister is one of the most resourceful people i know. it's one of his most attractive qualities because who doesn't want to mentally check out and completely relinquish control to someone who's bound to do a better job (guilty!). when i'm with him, my brain goes on holiday and i know whatever it is will get done, and done well. read something recently about how a couple needs to decide who drives the bus on individual issues. like a couple can agree to do something but someone needs to step up and actually deliver, be it planning a holiday / investment / sorting out dinner etc. without going into too much detail, i'll admit the balance is horribly skewed and the mister overperforms in every area. so hey, why not play to strengths and let him drive the bus (of life)?  

where is all this going?! well was craving japanese because goodness knows it comes at such a premium in the UK and he found that tuesday was the best day for omakase. undeterred that we were in a brand new city, fresh off the proverbial boat, he made a couple of calls, got a friend's friend to recommend someone, made direct contact with the chef who was happy to oblige and bam! helloooo uni fresh from tsukiji, amongst other goodies. in fact he managed to charm the chef (oh ho ho good sake is such a social lubricant) that they're now on 'brother' terms. this is looking mighty fine ;)

and view from the hotel. meh.

steamboat

after repeated failed attempts, finally made it to imp*treasure steamboat. felt bad cancelling the previous times and poor SIL would make a reso only to have to call it off later. inlaws had been raving about the stock and sauces, two things they know i'm crazy for, and they're so sweet to want to take me there. continuously humbled by how their thoughtfulness, and how they indulge my strange tastes so. really should've taken a photo of the steamboat cauldrons and spread but forgot. was a little -_- at the price because steamboat is cheap and easy (AND I CAN MAKE IT TOO!) but i wasn't paying so best to hold peace ;)

child

my extended family is small. father is an only child, mother has an elder brother. uncle has three daughters so we've grown up close to our three cousins. they're such lovely people and they married equally lovely partners so it's all very happy families when we meet, and i say that without a hint of irony. people joke about how friends are the family we choose? well i like to think we'd all be good friends even if we weren't related. cousin#1 has the most adorable little boy (and now little girl too!) who is the apple of all our eyes. he's a sweet skirt-chaser (must've gotten that from our grandfather...) and only likes pretty girls! naturally i'm immensely flattered that he's taken a shine to me, despite not being around much. he remembers me! and is the biggest manja pup wanting cuddles, much to sister's chargrin because she sees him almost every week and lavishes him with attention but even after all that relationship cultivation he prefers me to her -smug smile- jokes. sure it's only because i'm a novelty and he'll tire of me soon after. it's no secret that i'm not a huge fan of children and like them subjectively. i love S because he's my cousin's son, and there are a few other little things i feel. the game-changer is without a doubt little L who i formed an instant emotional connection with (can't explain why) and of course my godson (!!! someone trusts me with their offspring !!!) E. but other random kiddos? hmm. less convinced.