Cooking Adventures

L: Prawn noodle soup w/ abalone + Salad w/ ham and quail eggs
R: Grilled quails

L: Fresh langoustines (15€ for 2)
R: For the first time since our Le Cordon Bleu course in April, we recreated what we learnt! - Langoustine tartare w/ salad

L: Grilled langoustine heads and claws. Felt a bit like eating mini crab claws.
R: Our first taste of chicken rice in 4 mths! VERY yummy.

24 hours in Berlin (2)

Part 2 - Near Berlin

Actually, the main purpose of our Berlin trip was to attend S' friends' wedding. So the next day at noon, a coach was sent to pick the guests up from Berlin city to the Castle Hubertushöhe at Storkow. Bus journey took about 1+ hour. The wedding ceremony was held at 3pm, after which a cocktail party followed. Small & intimate gathering of about 60 people. Extremely different from our traditional Chinese banquet! But I love it. Romantic private setting tucked away in some faraway land...  Aww. *dreamy*

Sean anticipating Nadine's arrival..

in the castle garden by Lake Storkow. R-o-m-a-n-t-i-c....

Cocktails and a little dance put up by the newly-weds. Sweet.

After that, we returned to our rooms and rested for a couple of hours before getting up again for dinner. Superb 3-course meal with excellent wine-pairing carefully chosen by Sean. It was then followed by cake-cutting, which we all ate! (Was a little surprised as I've never eaten a wedding cake before.)

And here comes the highlight:

Their very own fireworks display!! Right in the center of the helicopter landing area. How cool is that. Lovesss. The beautiful night ended with some music and dance... :)

24 hours in Berlin (1)

Part 1 - 24 hours in Berlin

What's germany without some sausages and pork knuckle and beer? ;) Murked around at one of the two city centers - Alexanderplatz. Found the TV Tower but didn't go up the observation deck. Apparently the view is nice but the windows are dusty. Hmm...

Bought some made-in-germany stuff like Birkenstock and WMF kitchen accessories. Nice. Walked down a bit more and reached the Radisson Blu Hotel, at which time we decided to take a break & rest our feet. As we entered the hotel, we were surprisingly greeted by this huge...

aquarium, yes! Atop a bar in the middle of the hotel and surrounded by rooms on all 4 sides. Impressive! Ok it's called the AquaDom which is part (or rather the finale) of the 'SEA LIFE Berlin' exhibition. [Info at http://www.sealifeeurope.com/local/index.php?loc=berlin] You gotta queue up at a booth next to the hotel and get tix to enter the AquaDom. Obviously we were too tired..so we just admired it from below while having some wine & cakes :) Really cool to stumble upon something like this - the world's largest cylindrical aquarium.

After the recharge session, we continued our quest down Karl-Liebknecht-StraBe and towards Unter den Linden, a super long road that leads to the Brandenburg Gate. Passed by the Berlin Cathedral and Altes Museum.

Then we got distracted and turned right into a small street market at Hinter dem GieBhaus. From there, we wandered forward and unexpectedly found ourselves on Museum Island! Spoilt for choice. But we decided on the more popular one called 'Pergamon Museum'.

JIT to do a 1h tour before they closed at 6. We really loved how original-sized fragments were pieced together to form reconstructed monumental buildings like the Pergamon Altar and the Market Gate of Miletus. The free audio guide was a great help. Highly recommended!

We also had the chance to take a stroll along the main shopping street called Kurfurstendamm in the other city center. Stumbled upon (again) the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church. As you can see, the original spire of the old church (damaged in an bombing raid during WWII) was retained.

And that's the end of our Berlin discovery. A pity we couldn't get to see the other recommended attractions like the Brandenburg Gate, Parliament house etc. Nonetheless, think we did pretty well for a day!

Bastille Day

Home alone today. S is off in Manchester for an overnighter business trip :s

July 14:
France's Bastille Day. Had wanted to watch the parade along Champs Elysées but we couldn't wake up in time. Blessing in disguise though, because we realized people from all parts of France came into Paris and started to "queue" as early as 6am! By the time it started at 10, the crowd was around 20-people deep and unless you're 2m tall, there's no way you can see anything. Plus, it started pouring, like really pouring hard. So we were extremely satisfied catching it on TV on our nice comfy sofa. Even better, we managed to see fighter planes fly past our place. Oh, here's just a photo of our nice little courtyard.

In the night, people gathered at Trocadéro to celebrate and also to watch the fireworks near Eiffel. (Again, we didn't make it there. I know..we sound lazy to not participate in the fun. Crowd-phobia cannot be an excuse :( But we promised each other to go next year!) Anyway, the fireworks display was MAGNIFIQUE! 30 minutes at one shot. Beat that. I swear I anticipated the end of the display for at least 5 times. But no, it just kept going.. Climax after climax. Whooo. Nonetheless, the real finale was awesome.

NB: As you can see from the little shadowy figures, our next building neighbors actually climbed onto their rooftops to watch! The view must have been to-die-for.

How I love Paris....

New toys

#1

Not the TV, not the Wii, but the 2 elegant speakers at the sides! They are called Parrot by Philippe Starck, available from Apple Store. Fantastic clear sound. Love 'em.

#2

Ipad with 3G. Most useful for reading ebooks & news (especially since English papers in France are rare), playing games with the "enlarged" effect, and quick surfing. Least useful for websites that require the Adobe Flash Player - quite a limiting factor - and applications that are only compatible with iphone & ipod touch (they'll appear to be the size of your iphone or ipod). But we still love it anyway :D

#3

Limited Edition Nespresso coffee machine under the brand Krups. Bought the Paris edition (naturally), while the other available design was New York. We made it well worth our money by drinking coffee at least 2-3 times a day!

Fifa Fan Fest; Hotel Le Parc Trocadéro

Fifa Fan Fest Paris (big screen for World Cup!) at the Trocadéro square just 15 mins' walk from our place. We were refused entry cos no wine/bottles/sharp objects allowed (we actually prepared a picnic basket) but managed to settle on some grass patches along the side, so no biggie :) In fact, happy to not squeeze with the crowds!

Dinner at a hotel near our place with a nice hidden courtyard. The French are really big on courtyards and I like the concept. Quiet & peaceful yet natural & open. Makes a really tranquil dining experience. A huge contrast from the busy roads just on the other side of the building.

There is a surprise menu in which the chef will decide your 2 or 3-course meal. I tried it and recommend this option only if you REALLY have no preference/nothing on the menu interests you. This place is rather value for money. 3 of us (with S' friend Sofia) had a 2-course meal each, as well as a bottle of wine, and the bill came up to be less than expected.

Name: Hotel Le Parc Trocadéro

Location: 75116 Paris

Expenditure: 165€

Last night's home-cooked steak dinner:

First pineapple rice

my first pineapple rice:

House AFTER

As promised: Photos of done-up apartment!

 Extremely contented :)