whine & dine

I’m having a little do after my exams, and letting the bunny relive her days of british pub fare. having a bit of a problem deciding on what dessert to do, ‘cos I had originally intended to do bread and butter pudding, but can’t really decide if I should now. Just did it twice in a row, but I do love b&b pud. Can’t really think of many others which are categorically british, but here are the choices:

• bakewell tart
• rice pudding
• trifle
• eton mess
• sticky date toffee pudding

The problem with bakewell tart is that if I’m doing any sort of tart with frangipane in it, I’ll probably wanna try out making a pine nut torte, which won’t be as british as I’d like. I know a simple solution would be to just STICK to the damn bakewell tart, but that’s what’s gonna happen. So there. I’m not THAT huge a fan of rice pudding, it’s a little to gooey and messy and jelat for me. But then again I doubt I’ll have that much space for dessert. Trifles and eton messes aren’t my favourite dos either, but then again that could be ‘cos I’ve never eaten really yummy ones. The fruit always tended to be a bit too sour. And anyone who knows me knows I can’t handle sour. Not to save my life. Sticky date toffee pudding I’d LOVE to do, but it’s very difficult to find fresh medjool dates. Or dried ones for that matter.

So. Any suggestions on what the quintessential british dessert is? Or, for that matter, do any of you who are coming have any preference as to your favourite british dessert? Let me know. I could be swayed. Especially if you’re bringing extra beer. :D

i’ve been feeling extremely woolly headed for the whole of today – and most of yesterday – and it’s probably thanks to my new tonsillitis meds. or something. singing nonstop and creeping up on the poor unsuspecting bunny. AHM AHM AHM.

silly feelings are compounded by me being whizzed off here SOON SOON hee hee faster exams finish marharhar and i get to fly business class HEE HEE HEE HEE HEE.

THE 10TH OF MAY IS A HOLIIIIDAYYYYYYY.

bunny: *shakes head. is very silly the bear.

one day i will make the wabbit guest post. then you can see how silly the wabbit is. IS A LIDDLE WABBIT. AHM AHM AHM. we like wabbit stew. bubble bubble.

because i’m so fucking drained right now, from 2 hours of sleep last night, 3 the night before, and 2 the night before that. i’ve had time for 3 cigarettes today (not altogether a bad thing), and i had lunch at 3-something when everything was in the clear.

i think i’ve just lived through the longest 3 hours of my life. and i’m so sorry baby that i wasn’t there when you woke up. but i’m here. i’m right here. and i’m not going anywhere.

PS: thank you blackie for waking up when i was mildly hysterical, and whitey for cheering me up after i was done huffing-and-puffing but still looking like rudolph, and steph for keeping me distracted. i love you guys. *gives you an ostrich egg each.

PPS: thank you #11 for letting me huff and puff to you again and just listening to me and telling me lewd stories to distract me. and you know you can call me anytime too. like today. :) love.

(I was suddenly struck with the realisation that I didn’t know what SAR meant so I had to go google it before coming back to write this post. Good to know that my title is inaccurate as Hong Kong is just one of the two SARs.)

Anyhow. I’m back from Hong Kong, duly stuffed a la turducken with wonton mein, dan tart, the tang-yuan-without-filling-covered-in-coconut-sesame-peanut-and-sugar, roast goose, and XO sauce. I also have 3 new cookbooks to add to my shelf (I need to find space before they can be added), a new camera for HK$100 (it’s a build-it-yourself pinhole camera with kind-of-interchangeable lenses! Okay actually all I get to change is the “aperture size”, aka how sharp a needle I used to poke the hole in the 1cm square of aluminium foil, but don’t be a wet blanket!) as well as 30 macarons, and 9 dan tarts! Okay well 8 now. :p

I was also welcomed home by a brand spanking new Herman Miller (which I have now tweaked to my preferences so if any of you visit me, PULL A KNOB ONLY IF YOU WANT TO DIE), and a deadline (or two or three) coming up in a few days!

So off and away I go, to write my very inspired essay in my new comfy chair, surrounded by lovely cookbooks which I will examine in minute detail errr once I get on the plane for Shanghai.

So I had a pretty bad week last week, and couldn’t wait to fly off to Hong Kong on Thursday afternoon. I was salivating at the thought of running away to one of my favourite neighbouring cities – a place that never makes me feel touristy, but feels more like another part of Singapore that I just don’t know that much. Of course, it also helps that I have friends living here (and by the end of this year I should have about 4 or 5 places to stay if I don’t want to splurge on a hotel) though I didn’t manage to meet up with one of them this time round.

Running away has always been a way of life for me. I know it’s not healthy, and I’m the first to admit that I’m a coward when it comes to these things. When I face a crisis, I’ll try to stand my ground for a bit and show off that bravado I pride myself on pretending I have, but, more often than not, I’ll end up fleeing the scene (preferably to a different country). A lot of things have happened in the past few days, and it’s just perfect that we had this trip scheduled. Bunny’s actually attending some work thingiebob, so I’m just tagging along and amusing myself. Relax, recharge, and spend time in one of my favourite cities. Sounds like a plan, yes?

Little did I know that by Saturday circa 12 or 1pm (yes – right now), I would have stepped out of the hotel room exactly once: for dinner last night. It’s almost sacriligeous that I’ve come to the land of food and eaten so much room service, but apparently I was a lot more tired than I thought. The weather outside is lovely (about 23 degrees in the day, dipping to 19-20 at night + the windchill.. yum!) and I really wish I’d had the discipline to push myself out the door.

Anyway, it’s now Saturday afternoon, and I’ll be dragged out later to central. I’m also hoping to get some shots of the buildings that will be stealing two of my beloved friends from me later this year. All I have to show (pictorally) of this trip so far are a couple of snaps of the Conrad OH-SO-CUTE bears, the world’s meanest weighing machine, and my view out the hotel room window. HEY AT LEAST IT’S A NICE VIEW.

If all goes well, I will be done coding and designing (yes: evidently that’s my idea of relaxation shut up I’m freaked out enough at what a dweeb I’ve turned into) by tomorrow morning. I’ve been helping a friend do up a landing page for his site, as well as working on a few other personal projects of mine. Then it’s back to school for me for 3 days, and then I’m off to Shanghai to run away once more!

Food Checklist:

• jü pa fahn
• dim sum
• congee with pei tan & salted eggs
• seafood (which was in pasta so that’s cheating a bit but nevermind)
• wonton mee (coming up at lunchtime!)
• roast goose (to be had tonight)
• egg tarts (hopefully squeezed in somewhere later today)

w00t. This is totally the kind of holiday I love. :)

Edit: The food checklist is complete and I’m back in SG. I had wonton mee TWO DAYS IN A ROW (okay technically I only had it today for lunch – but I ate at Mak’s yesterday’s as well and their zha jiong mein is FUCKING AMAZING. I also have a box of 9 egg tarts that I dabaoed home (ALL MINE STAY FAR FAR AWAY) and a box of 30 macarons I’M IN HEAVEN. Oh yes. Speaking of heaven. I discovered the joy that is the scrambled eggs and prawns with xo sauce from yung kee: HEAVEN ON A PLATE.