toon

had brunch with a girlfriend and as part of my new thing about being present and not checking my mobile every few minutes (bad jo!) i ignored whatsapp for about 3h. as you might've guessed, it was one of those lovely leisurely catch ups with neither of us watching the clock. S is a bit of a bonus, having done her mbbs here and graduated in summer. however, singers being as small as it is, she and her father met mine at a 'do back home and my dear father was eager to connect us. funny how we'd been in the same place for the last three years but hadn't crossed paths till she was done with medical school. met for a coffee blind date when we were both back in the +44 and i like to think we hit it off.

after brunch we went to the christmas market and when we finally parted i checked my phone and realised that a friend was skiving in town! there's something about the christmas market that lures even the industrious (said friend is employee of the century, regularly working weekends and generally being all good and responsible!) and uh i suppose it's not necessarily a good thing that skiving friends think of me because there's a high chance i'd be free and in town too. but it was a calculated guess, and so i was. ducked round the corner to a hidden coffee bar that i'd not been to in about two years and felt adventurous enough to try the cold brew with tonic water this time.

the problem with a massive appetite

is that much as i go on about "eating less but better", eating less doesn't satiate. makes me wonder if there's something wrong with my leptin receptors because after a boozy three course meal (with extra pudding because the order got mixed up!) i was still ravenous. friends picked a lovely place in bethnal green for lunch. they're genuine foodie types who remain ahead of the curve, often on to the next big thing. they were keen to check out this restaurant before its awarded a star. then again, my local's just lost its star (haha) so maybe it'll be easier to get a table. it was one of those places that i thought was good and consistent but friends had varying experiences. but truth be told, i only brought visitors, and only when i was feeling lazy and not wanting to go too far so might not have been the most representative of experiences.

back to lunch! gorgeous quail with mushroom (above, done perfect!) followed by lamb breast (belly?) that was done just right as well. each dish was well executed and fault-less, apart from quantity that left me wanting more. guess it's one of those chichi things where you don't overwhelm the diner with a mountain of meat. but i'm a growing girl and it's getting cold which means i'm more ravenous than usual.

hence after lunch, the mister and i rather sheepishly went to a korean cafe under the railway and had sweet potato noodles, and coffee. much as i enjoy modern british, gimme azn any time. always happier with azn, there's no escaping our roots.

 (no, that's not the mister but dr. koo, orthodontist-to-be and photographer extraordinaire)

cafe grumpy

was originally intending to get some work done in NYC but halfway through the trip, i realised that wasn't going to happen and it was high time i stopped pretending. had been deliberately low profile and not gotten in touch with friends based in the city just in case i was deep in the throes of revision. but having thrown in the towel, i got in touch with V whom i last met in NYC easter 2012 when i was in town to buy my wedding dress. different story there - didn't tell anyone i was in town in case i needed the entire 5 days to find a dress, which eventually took all of 30mins, and unceremonious as it could've been. mission accomplished on day 1 and was left with 4 days to explore the city. not complaining! funny how history repeats itself. this time we met in the west village near where V lives and had a nice girly catch up over chai lattes. typical! she's a dear friend (12 years and counting!) and every time we meet, i learn so much about her and what she's been up to. the last time she had just graduated and just been accepted to grad school, this time she's a jobbing opera singer (!!!) who's teaching chinese through music on the side. busy busy with summer camps and i can see her warm nature and teaching heart even over coffee. always so encouraged by friends who step out of the typically singaporean box (you know what i mean) and dare to do something different.

tea garden

one of london's best kept secrets are the little back gardens some cafes have. sure, in summer, every cafe worth its weight in coffee beans advertises its terrace. but in spring, oh spring, the sandwich boards have yet to come out and these gardens are deliciously underpopulated. we stumbled upon maison blanc's a few weekends ago and felt like we were transported off busy fulham road and into a tranquil bamboo grove. we sat half-half (the mister in the sun, me in the shade), each in our element  as we talked about our respective weeks. 

when we were both lawyers*, we didn't talk about work very much (after a whole week at work, it's the last thing on our minds!) but now, talking about work is back on the table. it'd been a particularly harrowing week with some of the more sobering aspects of women's health (infertility, intra-uterine death and fetal abnormalities) and i was glad for the mister to bounce ethical dilemmas off. he's the kindest, most articulate soul i know and hearing his measured, utilitarian take on things always leaves me feeling comforted.

*he insists i was merely a pupil and never a lawyer. i insist i've been called to the bar and am therefore a qualified lawyer.

lazy saturdays

we're fast forming a little group of london transplants and there's no better way to catch up than over brunch. it's a group so academic (with phD candidates, university lecturer, masters student and continental lawyer) that the mister and i are put to shame. but the beauty of having friends way brainier than you is that i learn so much just being with them. from discussing the statutes that governs karang guni (rag and bone) men in singers, to contrasting it with the lucrative lifestyle of 'scrappers' in the UK. i mean the last time i delve into hansards and relevant parliamentary intentions was in freshman year of lawsch!

after a heavy brunch at the modern pantry, we somehow managed to transition straight to coffee and more food (???) at workshop coffee. clerkenwell is a neighbourhood i have sentimental attachment to and don't seem to tire of. long before we moved to london, i was in stockholm on exchange and visited london for the first time. my host brought me to clerkenwell but misread the modern pantry opening time and we ended up at workshop (formerly st. ali!) instead. over four years later, i'm the old-timer, taking friends who'd just relocated to clerkenwell. it was some time coming but i finally got a taste of MP, and still ended up at workshop. funny how things work out. 

we started at 11, had brunch till 1ish, coffee till 3ish then decided it was a respectable time to start drinking. so the mister and i made our way to a cute bar in the area (snooty service so they don't get a mention!) and had a few before going home to put up our christmas tree :)

barca coffee

now the mister is just about the most resourceful person i know, and with his boundless energy, traveling with him is not for the nua. knowing i'm inherently nua and would be a very happy hermit if not for him, the mister has long learnt to manage me. unlike our earlier action papa (because action mama is not the word here) galapagos honeymoon, barca was meant to be a relatively chilled anniversary break, until i realised the mister had no intention of taking the metro. which meant we walked everywhere and from morning till night. probably the only exercise i've gotten in months (shame!) but it's precisely because of the mister's dogged determination to cover as much of the city on foot that we chanced upon this little tucked away gem. coffee collection (?) was down a quiet alley and we were en route to caravelle for the best aussie brekkie since, well, sydney 2010 when the mister's coffee senses went a'tingling. 

now there's granger&*co in londontown and it is our go-to for crack-of-dawn breakfasts. any later and be prepared to queue with the disgruntled notting*hill hipster set! neither the food nor service is amazing but it'll have to do when we want aussie coffee in london. so you can only imagine how thrilled we were to have proper aussie in barca :) even the mister's papa, who so kindly let us crash his holiday, was impressed! this coming from a former kitchen hand then waiter down under back in the day. if nothing else, his aussie palate is pretty well-tuned!

what the wind blew over

so in the previous post i talked about how T had come by for the weekend! one of the nicest things about being in london is how everyone and their mother seems to pass through. and we've friends in town literally every weekend. i'd last seen T when i was back in stockholm on my graduation trip but she's a sweetheart and we'd kept in touch through postcards and over fb. we were in the same discussion group in stockholm and spent many happy hours discussing swedish law along with the previous night's erasmus shenanigans... she hasn't changed one bit since we were bright-eyed and bushy-tailed undergrads but don't mess with this clever cookie. she's on track to becoming an administrative law judge (!!!) in austria and i'm so very proud of her. i mean, if i'm never going to be a judge, at least i can live vicariously through her. am also most touched that she resisted the siren call of the london shops and chose me over an afternoon of indulgence. the first thing she said when she stepped into the flat was how surreal it was because she's seen all the photos on fb and knew what it looked like before even being over. i tried to make scones to give her a right royal london welcome but that didn't go so well. so i made up for that with coffee and lots of sake, then we went to the diner for pineapple mojitos while waiting for her sister to join us for dinner. 

so, this is the cool part! T's sister is just about to graduate from lawsch and my sister just started lawsch. and the way T is with her sister reminds me so much of how i am with mine. there's just something about fellow big sisters that i identify with and like very much :)

coffee with a side of steamer trunk

i often complain that singers is faddy, that london is faddier and every single hipster and their mother is off on the great coffee hunt, flitting from one single-roaster to the next in search of the holy grail of coffee. i don't like coffee fans who take themselves, or their coffee too seriously. it strikes me as pretentious and but maybe that's just me being sour grapes because i can't tell the difference between your fanciest single origin and nescafe 3-in-1. in fact, i'm not much of a coffee fan because i'm caffeine tolerant. a trait that left me high and dry as an undergrad because when most other people could power up with red bull or a cuppa, only abject fear and desperation would keep the zz monster away. and honestly, i don't think i've ever been so scared that sleep didn't prevail. but now i'm married to one of the aforementioned coffee aficionados (see, god has a sense of humour...) i do find myself going to cool little coffee hidey holes in spite of myself. and this was one of the better finds. but it's never coffee for me, always a hot chocklit with full fat milk because life's too short for skinny lattes :)

double decker restaurant

when the weekend rolls round, all i want to do is curl up on the sofa under our mountain of throws and watch brainless teevee the mister faithfully records during the week. after spending the whole week in school and occasionally venturing into the far flung reaches for clinicals, the last thing i want to do on saturday morning is go out. most times, i succeed in reigning the mister in with the prospect of a huge breakfast. crumpets slathered with truffle honey, perfectly soft-boiled eggs, fresh buttery croissants stuffed with burrata, prosciutto and basil from our herb garden, organic juices and gourmet coffee and whole milk... you get the picture :) pretty darn tempting, isn't it? but other times, the mister needs to be free. occupational hazard of working long hours, perhaps. if he's lucky, he gets me all the way to a brand new neighbourhood. other times, he's to be content walking down the road and checking out finds in our kampong. and this double decker restaurant was one such place!

we've passed it so many times and kept making mental notes to go in. this time, we finally did! love the clever concept - what a way to double floor space. and of course, everyone wants to sit "upstairs". the appetiser portions were huge (you've a choice of having each dish as an appetiser or main) and what was initially meant as a light lunch (we'd french*supperclub after!) turned out to be enough for lunch and dinner, for two days.

but it was good fun, we paced ourselves, washed everything down with sangria and rolled out so full we'd to walk to harrods. for avoidance of doubt, and to pre-emptively quash any labeling, no, we don't live near harrods, we just walk very far. so off to harrods we went to check out the nespresso*compatible*capsules. wish we could've had a taste, but oh no. brought them home and they were AWFUL. which posed a small problem because in our enthusiasm, we did buy 12 sleeves :( managed to return them but there was a heart-stopping moment where i thought we'd be subjected to bad coffee for awhile. eeeyur :( and tails between our legs, we humbly topped up our nespresso stash. looks like nespresso is safe for now!

bryggen

so bergen is all about the bryggen moneyshot - the row of hanseatic houses by the water. there's also a fish market that's cleaned up its act and moved indoors since i visited in 2009. we climbed up to the church behind the funicular ticket house and had a good view of the rooftops, followed by a cheeky cup of coffee at a cosy cafe tucked among the windy windy lanes.

rainy wednesdays

there was one afternoon last week when i'd absolutely nothing to do but watch the rain fall. what a luxury :) had a steaming cup of chai, scented candles and google reader for company. love wednesdays because we're done at 1pm, latest, and it sort of makes tuesdays the new thursday because wednesdays feel like friday, if you get what i mean. had a chilled afternoon in before succumbing to cabin fever and making coffee plans.

while the coffee here wasn't much to scream about, i'd another cup of chai while resisting a big slab of brownie with vanilla bean ice cream. this used to be stuart*&co but it's been renamed over summer. glad they kept the cosy interior though. 

on the coffee trail

proud as i am of my adopted toon, there comes a point where i recognise that the best flat white, unforch, resides in the next town.

it was a trip down memory lane, having first visited exactly a year ago when the mister came to settle me into uni round 2. we'd already spent a couple of days on the toon when his wanderlust got the better of him and we hopped on the train south. 

this time, while on the wilderness walk from hexham to corbridge last week, J and i decided we were long overdue for a catch up. she's quite the connoisseur herself, having gone to cooking school in london (!!!) at the tender age of 18. such foresight her parents had :) she'd been meaning to check out flat white and i was more than happy to return.

love wednesdays, in fact, tuesday becomes the new friday as we're done by 1pm (at the very latest!) on wednesdays, and what better way to spend a free afternoon with good coffee and better company? the weather was gorgeous, also a treat, and after coffee and yummy sandwiches, we found ourselves strolling along the river. we may or may not have lingered in the shady groves to sneak a cheeky peek at the fit rowers (wednesday is reserved for sport, naturally...) and chattered nineteen-to-the-dozen :) yay for lovely lovely girlfriends - and J has to be one of the sweetest, least complicated and, well, issue-free people i know. have great respect for her immense sense of self-worth (so admirable!) and sheer sense of security. she's gorgeous, but also so many other things (like brimming with lovable personality, charming intellect and character) that i sometimes forget just how pretty she is too. can some one say "girlcrush"? :)

award-winning barrista

 

a few months ago a posted about chancing upon a barrista (a good 40minutes from the city centre!) who competed in the national coffee competition. and he referred me to his friend should i want a fix that was closer to home. took me some time to follow up on this invaluable tip off and what better occasion than an early thursday. our last lecture for the day ended ahead of schedule and i love how everyone so spontaneously decided that revision is for pansies and we're better off getting tea. 

undeterred by the spitting rain, we made our way to this tiny gem tucked away in the basement of a new age shop. and when our cuppas came with tasting notes, we knew we were in the right place. that monster scone with cream and jam didn't hurt, either ;)

FML

no, it's not what you think. 

T works for the UN (taking into account how he used to run RMUN, the irony isn't lost on me!) and was subjected to Fast Midtown Lunches on a daily basis. despite linking up on a sunday, we happened to be in the vicinity of said FML, i.e. cambodian sandwiches! having just fit into a wedding dress i hadn't dreamt of ever fitting into, it was time to celebrate with a massive pig out. then again, i'd pre-emptively pigged out too so maybe i was just looking for an excuse. fearing that said dress would no longer fit after my NYC binge, T told me lunch should be more "last supper" than celebratory. true, but the gown glory had rendered me impervious to logic.

and because FMLs aren't quite the culinary delights they could be, T value-added by finding a lovely rooftop terrace to have lunch on. it was a wonderfully sunny afternoon and it felt like i'd been let in on a little secret because the terrace was full of other smug-looking locals. as if they were guarding this little oasis in the middle of the midtown madness.

after lunch, we followed the yellow brick road (ok, not quite but it'd the coolest quotes!) to the library.

and while T went back to work, i met E at broadway for some jamba juice.

tea in the 'hood

 

first chanced upon this gem of a cafe during one of my weekend wanders. have so much time on my hands that i make a point to stroll around the neighbourhood, hoping to familiarise myself with my surroundings. this time, instead of pathetically peering longingly through the big glass windowpanes, i could actually go in! with the manfriend in tow! not that i couldn't check it out any earlier. hey, i'm all for the romanticised self-image of solo coffee sippin' with only a good book for company. but this, like the other cafes that will be making an appearance over the next few days, was an experience i was saving to share with kai when he visited. and we weren't disappointed. he'd some home roasted coffee and i'd an intriguing apple tea with maple. of course, we'd a brownie with ice cream (yum!) and there were even postcards on sale. chanced upon the cutest design and just might somehow incorporate it into our wedding invites :) what a find!

yumcha and cupcakes

meant to wake at 820 for my 9am class but it was dark when my alarm rang. and to me, dark = sleeping time so i silenced the buzzer and went back to bed :) woke proper at noon with sunlight streaming through my window and didn't feel in the least bit guilty. and to make the day even better, i got a text asking whether i was done for the week (would've been done at 10 if i'd rolled outta bed in time...) because a friend wanted to do coffee and cupcakes. two things i'd never say no to! better yet, when we did meet up, it was lunch time and having not had yumcha since leaving home, it was high time to get my fix of cantonese goodness. stuffed ourselves with bao, personal mountains of cheong fan, chicken feet and beef balls. yummy! and yumcha was strangely better at 2 degrees than it is in the tropics. well, can't compare with hong kong but pretty darn good this far north.

chased the yumcha feast with cupcakes instead of egg tarts (only available on sundays, boo!) and wasn't disappointed. last week, i decided S is a true friend for not showing me this cupcake store when it was open. cruel as it may sound, taken in context, we'd just had a massive japanese diinner and there was no way i could've had a cupcake binge without compromising my health in some way. but today we went round to make up for cupcakes denied last week. and because 1/2 and 1/2 make 2, we had 4!

parallel lives

one of my favourite people here is a final year medic who, guess what, wants to do a law degree after graduating.

dundundunnn... :) is it any wonder we get along.

we each think the other is completely nuts, but at the same time, agree that life would be a lot easier if we just swapped degrees. if only!

much as i'm getting to like my coursemates, it's nice to have a friend who gets me and what makes me tick. being pre-legal / legal is a strangely quantifiable quality. in a funny way, i do miss the legal eagles and their articulate precision. i miss their witty charm, their shrewdness, their incisiveness and the way they cut to the chase or prolong the agony of being chased according to their mood. sadistic lot, they are! caveat: have plenty of non-legal friends who possess the above (hello guys, not belittling you in the slightest! please don't come after me...) but my pseudo professional pride leads me to think that team law has that edge lacking in largely right-brained medsch :(

but back to newfound friend who's given me the bestest introduction to the city. i now know which restaurants in chinatown to go to, and what to order at these safe havens. i know where the winner winner chicken dinners are (one of them is better than nando's and sells for half the price. how valuable is such info!) and which asian grocer to trust. having a pig out buddy with an almost identical palate is such a godsend. we'd fried rice with salted fish and chicken two weeks ago, the greasiest pub lunch (bangers and mash for me!) washed down with costa iced tea and muffins, followed by tesco cream cakes and gregg's sausage rolls last week, and milkshakes, roast chicken and a maelstrom of mcflurries today. kinda bummed that we're taking turns to be outta town for the next few weekends but already planning the next binge (congee and roast duck... mhmm ^^) in late november.

support network score!

not exactly daikanyama

but i'm quite liking the coffee van just outside the faculty because nothing warms the hands quite like a hot cuppa' does.

(and for the daikanyama reference, click here.)

what's your usual pick-me-up in the a.m.?