Xmas!

I had a really nice heartwarming xmas this year. Nope, I didn't go back to Singapore, stayed here in California and spent Xmas with Deron and his family. It's just nice, with the giant xmas tree they have, and the chrissy food, and the company. His family is soooo warm, and they actually asked him for hints about what I wanted for Xmas, and I got two presents from his parents, one of which was signed off by "Santa". How sweet. :)

Deron got me a Wii playstation. Apparently I've been talking about it and how awesome it is, although I really had no idea I was doing that. But it's nice, since now we spend hours playing super mario bros on the couch. :)
Wii cheer squad. Possibly the lamest game ever.

And! He got me a present that I WAS hinting about, and it was a surprise present after the Wii (I apparently looked quite disappointed when I got the Wii, so he gave me the surprise gift earlier than he planned. Hehe.)

It's this brass and crystal necklace I fell in love with on the Nordstrom catalog, and was too cheap to buy. Plus, I think it's more meaningful to wear something given, not bought.

Tadaaa! Love!

And apparently all Deron said to his family was that Keira would like anything that 1) smells good 2) sparkles 3) or a mercedes keychain (cuz I broke mine a while ago, can't believe he remembered that). And they got me all that!

Santa gave me a mercedes keychain and a sparkly mercedes top to boot!

Yay! I love love it.

And his brother Nick gave me the prettiest scarve from Nordstrom.

And his other brother Jeff and his wife Annie gave me a philosophy bath set that smells gooood!

And his parents gave me a reed diffuser set...sweet tea flavored! I love love reed diffusers. :P For some reason, a lot of people spell my name wrongly. But I forgive them this time! :P

And Cindy (his sister) and Steve sent us a card, with pictures of adorable Oscar!! And a candy cane he made which was hiliarious. Have to post up pics soon.

And Lisa (Deron's bff) gave me the ring both of us were oogling in Nordstrom one day! Will post pics soon too! :)

Our bag of presents for his family. Joint effort in the wrapping! :)


This is her adorable daughter Adeline, the happiest toddler ever! :P

Found the best mani/pedicurist in town! She's Japanese (of course), learnt nail art in Japan for 2 years, and she's tres good. But a little takai.

Gel-based nails with 3-D flower design. Love! :)

In Hawaii (Oahu) now for the next 7 days or so! Happy! :) Will update soon. :)

I'm in a very happy place right now, despite my sucky work. ^__^ Not even because of my upcoming trip to Hawaii, it's just the little things in life that make me happy. When you offered to pay the electricity bill cuz I was too cheap to turn on the heater. When you offered to go to the store to get the full version of the game when I feel bummed that my trial for my new game expired. I'm just happy.

Who knows how long this will last?

I hope it'll last forever. :)

New post! Portland and blahh

I realize I haven't been blogging for months. Shame on me! :P It's just hard to find a time when I'm not feeling overly happy or overly depressed, cuz that's when I wanna blog the most. :P A lot of stuff has happened in the last 3 months, and now I'm just trying to find inner peace with my lab work in the midst of holiday festivities.

Went to Portland! We stayed with Deron's sister's family, and it was cold damp but very cosy! The food culture there is awesome. :)

Went to this best restaurant 2009 in Portland called "Beaker and Flask". Portland has a yearly issue of best restaurants, and people talked so much abt food and produce, it feels like Singapore. :)

The chanterella mushroom and bone marrow had such a delicate flavor, as the soft oily texture of the charred bone marrow complemented the rustic mushrooms to perfection, with a hint of lemon rind. Yum!

The risotto was great, with creme fraiche, and the roasted tomato was the best tomato every! It was sweet, and toasty on the outside, soft on the inside. Mannnn.

Even the deviled eggs were awesome.

The decor of the place, with barrels as seats. :)

The pork belly, with swiss chard (so fresh! in a cream sauce) and toasted kabocha pumpkin on top. Heavenly! I always enjoy a well cooked pork belly, the meat was tender and the fat was melt in yr mouth without being too oily.


My fav part of the trip, Deron's nephew Oscar! He wanted to be a xmas tree for halloween. Teehee! :)

Went to a farmer's market, where they sell the freshest produce ever. I bought the cherry tomatoes for 2 bucks, and Oscar and I finished it in 5 min. Sweetest tomatoes ever!

Had the home-made chicken and potato curry. It was very flavorful, and not too oily. Very homestyle. :)

They had a live band playing too. So cool. :)

Went to Deron's broter in law's cheese shop. Such a cool logo for the shop!



Went on a hike to a waterfall in the middle of a forest. It was breathtaking, the air was moist and crisp, and it was soo peaceful.

Walking...
Chui Kueh taking a break. :P

walking...


There! :P

Went to another waterfall too. Deron looking very "rustic" in his plaid shirt. :P


Went to this purely local produce restaurant called Ned Rudd, where EVERYTHING is cooked in this giant charcoal oven. So cool.

Had the best pork pie EVER. The crust was sticky and flaky, and the pork was soooo tender and bursting with flavors!

Roasted turnips and carrots. Yum!

Went to this other breakfast place that was great too, but a little lazy now... heh!


Like Oscar. He wanted me to take a pic of him while he pretended to yawn. Hee!

Blah.

Sorry that I haven't been blogging of late, I think my life has become very domesticated and monotonous. Ha. Not that I'm complaining. It's kinda nice, taking a backseat, and letting my friends go on about their own drama. :) I like my life now, even though my project might choke and die any day now, and my stomach's still kinda acting up. Cuz I'm surrounded by my friends, by Deron, and people who loves me. And I'm healthy, not handicapped in any way, and don't have to worry much about financial matters.

Anw, the only highlight so far was a dinner at Pamplemousse Grille in Del Mar on Sunday night with Jenn. Jenn's boss wanted to give her and her "significant other" a treat, so she decided to take me along. Heh.

Between the two of us, we ordered so much food, the waiter tried to ask us to order less. The bill came up to 300 bucks. Whoops!

We both had the seared foie gras. We ordered two orders cuz we didn't want to share. It was served on top of a house-made brioche, with boysenberry jam in the middle, and accompanied by a fried encased quail egg, with wine jelly. It was heavenly. Seriously,

Then we had the 40 bucks grilled cheese sandwich, which was essentially truffled cheese, chock full of lobster meat, in between perfectly buttered and toasted bread. To die for.

We had the lobster pot pie, and jumbo sea scallops on the grill, served with a delicate goat cheese pumpkin ravioli, and some persimmon salad. They were a-okay. We decided to shy away from the usual entree we get, which is the chilean sea bass, served in a basil tomato torched sauce, with fingerling potatoes. That I love.

For desserts, I got the blackberry brown butter tart, served warm with berries. And Jenn got the peanut butter bombe, which is a choc peanut butter cake. All desserts are made from scratch in-house, so they tasted pretty good.

Yes, that is all I have to update. Plus I just put in a link to my earrings blog, which will showcase all the earrings I've made so far. :)

Oh, and I'm headed to Portland, Oregon this weekend. Apparently they have a strong food culture there. Love!

你没想像中爱我

你小心翼翼 牵我手
其实是担忧 藏不住我
自尊也投降 活在她之下
我 好傻
你字字句句说 你不爱她
那又是什么 让你害怕
我疑惑但是原谅 因为你留下
我 好傻
不是我不说就不在意空等候
原来 你没想像中那么爱我
我不懂该拿什么安慰我的难受
你的存在 让我更寂寞
你寸步不离 像天使的她
挥霍我的爱 从不放心上
我有一丝无奈 也有一些明白
该 放开
不是我不说就不在意空等候
原来 你没想像中那么爱我
我不能再从你的怀抱感觉到什么
不爱我别再说 假装爱那是撒盐在伤口
啊~~ 谁说我不在意空等候
原来 你从来都没深刻爱我
我才懂不是我不心痛
其实是心没了感受
你没想像中爱我

My DIY earrings (and random foods)

I was so sick of paying 50-70 bucks for a pair of crystal earrings, so I trooped down to the bead and jewellery store to buy supplies for my own earrings. Came up to a bill of 130 bucks. Shit. I think the cashier was so affected by my look of dismay that he gave me 40% off my tools. Oh well.

But! I spent the whole day making earrings yday and it was soooo fun! A lot of chipped nails but it was all worth it. I really like what I made. :)

I've always wanted looooong earrings, but I could never find any that was long enuf without being garish, so I made this one as my first pair. I love it, and how it shows even with my hair down.

I love this, cuz every crystal was wound with sterling silver wire and attached loosely to the chain.

I like this piece because there's a lot of dangling pieces, so as you walk, they glitter a lot.

This was inspired by the shape of a monkey toy. I put a little dangling tail and a smoked amber bead as it's head.

I just made this because the ice blue crystals go so well with the red crystals.

And I know this sounds dorky, but I wound the wire into a DNA helix psuedo shape. And added the dangling parts to intertwine with it.

Me with one of my creations. :)

In short, I loved everything I made. :) So if anyone likes what I made, lemme know, and I could make to custom. :) Think imma sell every pair for around 20 to 40 bucks, depending on crystal quantity and friend status. :D

Went to Whisk and ladle for a drink or two and tapas on Friday.

Tom staring at the huge tv screen showing this *yawn* football game.

Ariana and me and mike and deron!

BTW I love love love Okan. Seriously that place just gets better and better and better. Everytime I go, there's a new dish that tastes out of the world. There's a difference between good flavor, and amazing flavor, and I think Okan gets the latter tag. Everytime I put food from there in my mouth, it's a mixture of pleasure from the 10 diff flavors that hits your palate, and the texture too. I love love.

They have this local spotted amaebi (sweet shrimp) sashimi that was out of the world. The shrimp heads were still moving, and their pinchers were moving around and everything. Can sashimi get any fresher? The flesh was still clear and succulent....

They cook the shrimp heads after you're done with the sashimi, two ways, either in a miso soup or tempura style. Super good.

They have this grilled pork jowl that was awesome. It looked so boring, but the sauce was heavenly, and the pork was grilled to perfection. It was tender, with the pork fat oozing out of your mouth, with a hint of lemon to it.

The cold chawanmushi I love. It has seafood stock in it, and served with a strong lemon rind flavor. Sooooooo good. :)

I would have more pics but I keep eating and spoiling the arrangement of the food before I could take pics of it. For the record, the ramen noodles with mayo and perilla dressing and local ranch tomatoes was frigging awesome. The ramen noodles were al dente, and the soy ginger and mayo dressing was AWESOME.

And the earl grey tiramisu was really good as well.

And we went to this REALLY good Italian restaurant called de medici in the gaslamp quarter, and seriously I think it's the best italian restaurant in San Diego, hands down. On par with Pamplemousse Grille in my opinion.

The lobster langostino we had as an antipasti was AWESOME.

Langostino
Baby Icelandic lobster sautéed in extra virgin olive oil and roasted garlic butter, served with fussili pasta in a béchamel sauce

The lobster meat was sweet and the sauce was so delicate. Not heavy at all. Sooooo good.

Sole Portofino
Fresh fillet of sole stuffed with lobster, crab and shrimp, then oven-baked to a golden brown

This was the signature dish of the restaurant and it deserved its name. I've always thought sole was a boring fish and usually overcooked too easily, but in this dish, it just melts in your mouth, with an explosion of sherry butter sauce of delicious lobster, crab and shrimp meat. Even the mashed potatoes on the side was the best I've ever tasted. It was made with a rich chicken stock and rosemary and burnt on the outside, and melty on the inside. On top of it, the baby carrots were just wild. I don't even like baby carrots to begin with, but it was soaked in a rich butter brown sugar sauce with a red wine reduction that it was just fabulous. Melty, rich and nothing resembling boring carrots.

And the lobster risotti was a dish the owner brought back from Sardina a month ago, and it was crazy good. The rice was al dente, and the lobster sauce was light, rich and sooooo delicate. Attacks your palate left, right and center. This was the first time I like the rice more than the lobster meat on a dish. Cuz I'm such a lobster whore.

Anw in short, no complaints about this place, except that maybe the lobster meat wasn't top grade, but the culinary skills put into every dish just outshines the quality of the materials. Antipasti is around 26 bucks and mains are around 30 to 50 bucks. Def a go for a special occasion. :)