Shanghai Fei Fei Adventures Day Two

DAY TWO! It was Boxing Day but no, Chinese people don't care so no crazy sales or anything of that sort. Parentals were arriving that afternoon so knowing how Father would not like non-Chinese food throughout the trip, Sister No.1 brought us for fine-dining at a restaurant opened by... the world-renowned chef... wait for it... it is none other than...

credits to accidental apicurean.

credits to accidental apicurean.

Located at Three on The Bund, it is a building with the sole purpose of indulgence, luxury and to pamper. The entrance of the restaurant is a dimly lit which opens up to a lounge area complete with a bar, leather seats, complimented by a rich oak brown wood finishing complete with the whole Russian (or should I say Chinese?) mafia feel. The walkway continues to an open area with a big glass window allowing the afternoon sun to stream in and the diners to enjoy the Shanghai skyline view.

the hardest part of a meal is waiting for the food

We had their Lunch Special which was a choice of any 2 dishes from a long list of appetisers and entrees plus dessert for RMB188. The great thing about eating w many people is being able to try many different items on the menu.
WARNING: You are about to catch a glimpse of a foodie's heaven.

sea scallops with caper-raisin emulsion, caramalised cauliflower

brother-in-law very much enjoying his caramelised foie gras w strawberries, sesame, galangal, horseradish

my taste buds went to heaven and came back; tuna tartar w avocado, spicy radish and ginger marinade

bottom: seared beef sirloin w soy, garlic and coriander; medium rare at its prime

top: crab meat balls which sister no.2 says was okay

there was something highly addictive about this one; must've been the shrooms ;OP
slow baked salmon w steamed wild mushrooms, sake-ginger dressing

JG Burger w Fries

The classic never goes wrong but nothing to shout about though the meat patty was without a doubt 100% pure beef. Then again, the master's name is in it! - isn't that something to entice you to sample a burger named after the man himself? For my main... I, being the biggest risotto fan in the world could not pass up on this...

It may look like a mash of nothing but to my taste buds, it was everything. Risotto is an art, you need the right ingredients, the right amount of cheese to make this rice pasta which is something so easy to mess up (if done wrongly) into something wonderful.

right: shanghai skyline
brother-in-law gave me an interesting verbal tour. see the tallest building in the picture there? that's the bottle cap opener ahaha and next to it is the spiky alien thing. Now, for dessert!

JG Molten Chocolate Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream

Yet another classic with JG's name on it. It never goes wrong and will bring satisfaction to any tongue at any time. The Sisters are traditional that way while I am a bit more curious with an adventurous kick.

a mesh of flavours - meringue, grapefruit, lime, crisp caramel i-really-can't-remember-the-name-of-this!

The Sisters were immediately turned off by the word "meringue" and refused to try it; well, MORE FOR ME! It went well wonderfully and was a great finish to such a rich meal. Another fantastic palate cleaner would be their selection of sorbet.

not your everyday flavours:

tropical fruit, pepperd-yoghurt, hibiscus coconut "isle flotante" and passion fruit sorbet

left: crème fraiche cheesecake with sour cherry compote; it was comparable to Mummy's cheesecake so yes, it is definitely of high standards ;P

The meal was sublime! The only kind of excellence you can expect from a chef such as Jean George. Of course, he was not in the kitchen but he most definitely will when I pay a visit to his other restaurant in New York! That day will come soon enough ;) For now, Shanghai will do.

p/s i'm trying something new w the whole picture layout thing to be perhaps a bit more "reader-friendly". i'm not really feeling it but maybe you are - let me know, drop a comment, share the love :) x

I'm So Cool

Work has been crazy and I know a lot of you wondering what work am I doing, where and so on so forth.. which I intend to tell you all about soon enough. We haven't had "Donning" in a while now eh? This is pretty old - December 2009.

Shirt- Burberry, skort- thrifted, belt- thrifted, bracelet- CC Skye, bag- Sportsgirl Australia

It was a day out w Tsen and all plus Carrie's cousin from Singapore who is responsible for the title. He told Carrie, "Eh that girl with the short hair dress quite cool." Ahahah, *ego grows*; I JOKE I JOKE.

sister no.4 has gone cc skye crazy. will share the collection soon ;)

nautical sportsgirl shoes which are NOT for shopping. super painful.

That's one of my favourite skorts but one button fell of and I lost it in Shanghai boohoo :( and I haven't gotten to finding new buttons and sewing all of them on yet. I have not gone shopping in a while sigh. For the past 3 weeks, it's been work work work church work party work and oh, the wedding was somewhere in between all of that. It was beautiful and I've got so much to share but time only permits such. I have only eaten at home ONCE in the past 3 weeks :( I miss home-cooked food. Ah well. Just a little update but until then, follow me on Twitter @sandoi x

I just might have to start blogging via images. The y-axis represents number of blog posts as well.

Pangkor Laut Escapade; Day Two

Talk Bits: Started my internship at AYA on Tuesday and for the first 2 days, we were kinda stoning. When the 3rd day came BOOM we had way too much to do and the list goes on. That's work; at home, Sister No.3's wedding is THIS WEEK ZOMG. I have lots to do.. Sorry friends a.k.a Boobies. WILL CALL YOU I PROMISE x

It scares me how my PLR 09 trip was over one month ago already. Tsen has left us :( and I miss her dearly. Anyways, day 2 of Pangkor, we slept blissfully (by that, I mean slept IN ;), had very good pastries for breakfast (Resh & I attempted to half everything) and left for the beach! This time, we headed to Emerald Beach and it is literally, EMERALD.

look at that gorgeous green!

Lalz and I quickly picked a spot to work on our tan while the sun was still up. IT WAS HOT. I felt like a burger patty being flipped from time to time. Eventually, we returned to the shade, sipped on ice lemon tea and took a stroll on the beach. I REFUSED to enter the water because a GIANT jellyfish washed up on shore. We kept prodding it. It felt like agar, ew. Looked like whale's sperm or something, double ew.

dead jellyfish :X

lovelies walking into the emerald sea
my photography ;)

my masterpiece! carmen turned into a mermaid with boobs, six pack and one ball?

love bitten

The beach, the Sun, girlfriends.. it was the life as you can say it. I slept, okay, I admit, I slept all the time, every moment I got and the number of sleeping pictures are endless. Then again, what's new? :P To my dear friends, sleeping pictures of me are getting oldddd :P So, evening came and so did water sports!

on the u-tube

I NEARLY DIED ON THE JET SKI. I kid you not. So, I was driving with Carmen behind me and the other guy behind her. I was going really really fast and it's really fun when you turn and brake - inertia bla bla, scary, very fun bla bla - and well I did that doing a really sharp turn and BAM we flew 8 meters away. I LITERALLY saw my life flash before my eyes. I got a really bad bruise on my hand and a bleeding bruise on my chin due to collision with the handle ouch :( :O I was really paranoid after that; I didn't want to drive it and eventually, just got off it.

jet skiing into the sunset

That night, we had good dinner at I can't remember what's the name of the restaurant but there are only 2 and it's the non-Uncle Lim's one ahaha. We ate, laughed, talked - it's AMAZING how we never run out of things to talk about! We took a stroll by the suites near the sea and talked some more! Got back to the room, watched 500 Days of Summer and talked SOME MORE. A good day it was x.

hungry carebear

as lala as we try to be, it's just not in us :/ :D

when everybuddy goes, "i wanna see the picture; nice or nottt?"

it might be a while till my next update but don't give up on me yet x

Shanghai Fei Fei Adventures Day One

I spent Christmas in Shanghai. Many come up to me and go "Wow, you had a White Christmas!" Cold? Yes. Freaking freezing? Yes. White snow? Far from it. Though there was one occasion when it started to rain and because it was so cold, it turned into snow. The hilarious thing was US. We were ooh-ing and aah-ing while every other Chinese were running for shelter whilst shooting us weird looks.

christmas day, location? shanghai, china

check out the density. think mont kiara in kl x10

I hate winter for one too many reasons. Mainly because I have to put on layers and bundle up like a ball which causes my handbag to constantly slip off my shoulders but it allows more fat to be burned. Then again, it makes no difference because I kept eating. In fact, my whole trip was eat eat eat which is why my Shanghai posts are all gonna be fei fei (fat in Mandarin) or basically, about the food I enjoyed and the eateries I visited.

Day one, we left on the night of Christmas Eve at a 1.30am flight. It couldn't be any more kill me now than that. I just slept the whole way and the plane was smelly so imagine 4 girls in a row with blankets over their head. We arrived in Shanghai on Christmas morning and took the train to the city. It's called the Maglev a.k.a. Magnetic Levitation which is FREAKING COOL. It went from 0km/h to 300km/h in less than 2 minutes. It felt like a roller coaster and the fact that Nadal played miniature tennis on it before makes it even cooler.

a must no matter which country you're at!

While waiting for Brother-in-law to pick us up, we bought McDonalds. They served Pork Sausage McMuffins for breakfast but it tastes the same. They had a pork ribs special but we didn't get to try that :( I did try their chicken burger which is a greasy marinated chicken fillet with a whole layer of fat on it. It could be cat for all I know; seeing that it is China and all :P but it was sickeningly good. After we checked in yada yada, we headed to Bellagio Cafe which was our first love when we were in Beijing.

68 taicang lu, xintiandi, near songshan lu, metro line 1 huangpi nan lu station

orgasmic minced pork with an entire salted egg yolk

dan dan mian (sorta peanut soup noodles)

[insert picture]
because sister no.4 thinks she looked uggs -.-
must must eat peanut ice dessert thing to share

all bundled up! and freezing!

Bellagio has good comfort food. It's reliable, relatively cheap and has plenty of choices. You know, those chinese places which menu has everything that it's a miracle how they keep up! After feeding our 5 girly asses, we headed to make some dresses. Imagine stalls and stalls of fabrics (THREE whole floors!) and all of them tailor-making suits, jackets, coats, pants, shirts, whatever it is that is made of cloth... I made a dress and a cheongsam but in total, we made about 10 dresses.

getting measured; check the fabrics, HEAVEN

We spent wayyy too long there but I will be visiting there soon, April, soon. Since it was Christmas Day, we decided to have a real Christmas meal at the hotel. While everyone opted for the buffet, Sister No.3 decided to cut the carbs and go with a la carte menu.

with her japanese hot soba

sea urchin, melts on your tongue, it's like i died right there and then

The buffet spread was pretty good complete with the usual roast turkey and all but the highlights of the meal had to be three things. One, the roasted chestnut and candied pecan soup - it was a thick and hearty orange broth which had hints of nuttiness but had a pumpkin-sweetness to it as well. Two, la mian - Sister No.1 informed us of how the hotel took this man off the streets and into the coffee house to cook his specialty. He pulls, kneads, pulls and cuts the noodle dough right in front of you with his bare hands. Chinese skills right there man.

three, snow crab legs

The flesh was so sweet and simply delicious but that's not the story here. It's a funny thing, really.. Sister No.2 and I were touring the buffet selection when we come to the hot pot area with the legs sticking out of the ice. She remembers Sister No.1 mentioning how delicious it was and she asks me to grab the legs. I hesitated because it didn't exactly look like it was for us to grab but whatever. Back at the table, we had to ask for nutcrackers AND I pulled a Julia Roberts in Pretty Woman - yes, my crab leg flew across the marble floor which the waitress very professionally picked it up and walked away quickly (to laugh I'm guessing). Besides the point, we quickly polished the snow crab to only find out that they were meant to be cooked and shelled for us. Story of my life.

To end the night, we decided to stand in the freezing cold. We believe it helps us burn fats, oh you know, to make up for how little we ate that day but either way, every bite was worth it. What can I say? I love food.

Grilled Three Cheese Sandwich

It's been almost a year since I cooked or at least, a year since I officially blogged about something I made. This one was rather spontaneous. I was hungry and all we had were instant noodles in the pantry so I decided to take matters into my own hands. Behold the grilled cheese sandwich! You've read it in books, you've seen it in movies but heck, such foods have never been much of an Asian delight. It is however, a much preferred option to pasta which I made today and cut my finger when the knife slipped while I went chop chop chop upon the onions. The onions don't like me. Anyways, this recipe is almost idiot-proof. I say almost because it still involves fire and a saucepan. Trust me, I would know.


Ingredients:
2 slices High 5 wholemeal bread
3 kinds of cheese (cheddar, Parmesan, mozzarella)
Extra virgin olive oil
Bovril (optional)

Instructions:
1. Pour the olive oil into a saucepan and wait for it to heat up.
2. When it is hot, put one slice of bread into the pan and ensure that it soaks up every bit of olive oil. This will make your bread nice and crispy with a nice golden brown.
3. Put your cheese on top of it. You can use any cheese - the conventional sliced cheese or for a more gourmet version - blue cheese, brie etc. and wait until it turns nice and brown at the bottom.
4. When the bread feels crispy enough, spread a dollop of Bovril over the cheese. That is entirely optional but I assure you that it is good.
5. Put MORE cheese on top of that and lastly, the other slice of bread.
6. Turn over the sandwich and repeat Step 2. The amount of olive oil is by estimation. Me? I put A LOT. I actually tried using butter but it turned my toast black - not very pretty so olive oil is not only the healthier option BUT it gives a lovely colour too.

It is easy, fast and damn good.
Spread the Sandra Tan syndrome, spread the love.

Sister No.3's Bridal Shower

Ah, 2010, the year of wedding bells pealing all around me. An exciting year it is going to be though it has started off rather solemn with friends leaving and all but this post and those to come will explain my absence. Also, a brand new look for the blog to come ;)

the sash says it all!

Sister No.3 is getting married in TWO weeks. ZOMG. Before any wedding, there will be the Bachelor's Night (did anyone see a Superman at The Curve on Sunday?) and the Hen's Night (soon to happen muahaha). My sister being the girly, sweet, fairytale-wishful one (aren't we all wishing?) wanted a bridal shower. Well, ask and you shall receive! It was held last Sunday evening at this beautiful bungalow called Full House in the heart of KL.




We had tea (by that, I mean ice lemon tea, bubble tea, green tea, some funky teas etc.), cakes, cupcakes and all of it were pretty good. DO NOT eat their Caesar salad but their tomato bisque with Cognac is heavenly which reminds me, I must try making it!

writing their love messages

Imagine a bevy of girls all dressed in pink and sparkles having tea, laughs and plenty of chatter. We played a few mindless games which were all very fun but gosh, the interesting part had to be when the Bride dished on how she met the groom etc. etc. Some of the things said are too juicy to be posted up here but you get the drift.


A bridal shower is not a bridal shower if the bride is not showered - that'd make a nice tongue twister, no? So, it came to the time when the bride would unwrap the gifts. All very pretty gifts! Lets just say that Xixili, La Senza and the like definitely made some profits :P and the Bride has many choices of apparel on the wedding night. Ahh.. the guests were given treats as well!

everyone received a lil "hot chick" bracelett

sister no.4 took time to make these little cards from scratch w all her scapbooking shiz
i stuck the message inside and trimmed the sides
they all came w beautiful flower clips

poppers were never women's favourite

I had fun and I certainly hope Sister No.3 did but oh, I know that come Friday night a.k.a the Hen's night.. it will be the talk of the town! We're gonna paint the town, shut it down and do it again.. ;)

2, 4, 3, 5
i miss her already..