Holiday Gift Guide 2013

This year I've gone slightly more atas than the last, I admit. But hey, as one ages, one would expect one's tastes to mature as well.

I personally own and regularly use everything listed here, and they just elevate everyday routines - be it a handsome coffee press that you can bring everywhere, luxurious tea, lovely but reasonably priced bath products, or that special piece that completes an outfit.

I have also tried to include stuff that are made or developed locally - it's nice to support local businesses and the quality of these products are really good. What's not to like?

1) TWG Teas and accessories
Good tea is life-changing, and for once, easily available. The Earl Grey is wonderfully fragrant without being cloying, and the Tokyo Singapore is my favourite way to end a long day. You know - me in pyjamas, the airconditioning on, the duvet on my legs, a good book and a steaming cup of tea. Bliss. Get your fix at Pavillion KL or KLIA.

2) Bodum Travel Coffee Press and/or Milk Frother
Simple, elegant yet durable, we spotted the travel press at Ben's Independent Grocer and purchased on the spot. The press comes with a regular cap, so it doubles up as a nice tumbler which I can fill it with my smoothie mixture for days when I don't have the time to brew coffee. The battery-operated milk frother is a nice tool for those barista wannabes.

2) British India home scented candle
Made from palm oil. I only have the citronella, a scent which never grows old for me and of which I am a little obsessed with. It reminds me of our spa vacation in Phuket - totally what I want for chilling out to.

4) Argan oil.
Purchase from here. I use it on my neck and to repair my horrible cuticles, which have never looked better. Attach an instruction sheet (copy it from the website).

5) 100% cashmere scarf
I am, I am proud to say, a most skilled eBay huntress. Some of my proudest purchases include my magnificient Tods Bauletto bag at 30% off its normal price, a Mulberry Bayswater, a beautifully waterproof Longchamp and a BCBG jumpsuit. I was busy scouring eBay for a soft blanket/throw for cosy nights in on the sofa, and came across this site. Delivery was fast and efficient, and the product is so so soft and light. But don't be fooled though - it does a much better job shielding me from the cold of the office than its cheaper but fancier-looking counterparts.

6) 34Thirtyfour leather cuff
A slightly edgy, but still elegant cuff made from buttery leather that ages beautifully, from this Malaysian-born brand that folks in the know are raving about. Their bags are slightly more expensive than I'd like, but there is no doubt on the quality of their work. Maybe next time....

7) Electrolux Powermix Silent Blender

I was actually forced to purchase this behemoth when my little Japanese blender devoured the last of its own rubber washers. That, my friends, is the problem with buying stuff from those noisy stalls in the mall that always seem to draw a curious audience - the stuff you buy from some obscure brand will probably be discontinued after a year and you end up scrapping a (granted, ugly and cheap) perfectly good blender just because you can't buy the washer that goes with it.
Since we were just getting into our smoothie groove, I had to get another blender. I knew what I wanted - a glass jug that stays clear even if I blend ice and other hard stuff, and a food mill attachment. I finally settled on this silent monster, and am really happy with its performance so far. Oh, and the blue light that comes on during the blending is kinda cool.

9) Tanamera toiletries and spice massage ball
I love this local brand. The brown soap is a mainstay in my shower. It has these wonderful rice beads that gently exfoliate as it cleans. Tanamera products are made with local spices ans herbs - citronella, rice, ginger, hibiscus, pandanus. Who needs lavender and rose and we have jasmine and citronella?
The massage ball is great for calming stressed-out muscles and relieving pain. So easy to use too - just heat in the microwave. As it soothes the aches and pains it releases some wonderfully spicy scent that comforts and warms (It goes very well with with the situation described in Item #1, as you can probably tell). Oh, and bonus - you can purchase online!

Oh, and what's Christmas without a little Wish List of my own? Here's what I would love to receive this year, for being such a good girl:

1) Kindle Paperwhite
2) The entire "Homeland" series
3) For Shonda Rhimes to produce Gray's Anatomy Season 10
4) Some time off to just chill at home
5) KitchenAid
6) Small copper pan
7) Zara shopping vouchers

Blending it down

I've recently started making smoothies for breakfast. I've been constantly exhausted lately, and I really don't want to be. There's just so much to do and accomplish! Work has been piling up and requires more energy than ever, I want to do all of the above plus bake and entertain (which I have, two weeks in a row), and go out with friends.

Breakfast has never been my suit. I love the idea of breakfast and breakfast foods (waffles, bacon, sausages, baked eggs), but my stomach has the tendency to react violently in the mornings. There was a point when I spent every morning rushing for the toilet. This went on for a couple of weeks. So I more often than not skip the meal, making do with a cup of coffee and a few biscuits.

In an attempt to feel better, I have been making myself smoothies, blending soymilk, oats and a banana in the morning and drinking this for breakfast. It's way more convenient than my usual hot oatmeal concoction - no need to cut up the banana and I can drink this during the drive to work. It gives me a nice boost of energy and helps me not feel like a ravenous lunatic by lunchtime.

I really love my morning fixes smoothie fix now - you basically get all the goodness of whole, fresh foods in a convenient, yummy mixture that tastes more like a treat than anything else. I expect I'll get bored with the combination soon, so of course other experimentations are in order. I'm thinking papaya, peanut butter, avocados, coconut milk/juice, almonds, chia seeds, toasted wheat germ, just to name a few of the stuff I might put in.

But all that fancy stuff can really add up, and it really doesn't have to. Just a few (mostly) cheap, basic ingredients have worked so well for me. .

The addition of the molasses really does it for me. I pay about 30 bucks for a large bottle, and consume 1 - 2 tablespoons today. Funny enough I purchased the molasses to bake Thomas Keller's chocolate chip cookies, which called for 1 tablespoon of molasses for an entire batch of cookies. So what was i going to do with the rest of the bottle?.

To my pleasant surprise there is a whole host of health benefits to consuming this stuff. A good source of iron, magnesium and calcium, plus the fact that it metabolises very slowly (unlike refined sugar)..

It makes a much better addition than honey or agave nectar, I think..

Your Basic, cheap, easy smoothie:.

1 banana (I refuse to buy the Dole brand bananas stores all over the Klang Valley are selling these days. Why pay for the fruit to be shipped all the way from South America by a giant American corporation when our own backyard yields sweeter, better-textured stuff???.

1 cup soymilk (organic and unsweetened).
2 tablespoons instant oats (I use Quaker).
1 - 2 tablespoons unsulphured blackstrap molasses (optional, but highly recommended).
Whiz everything in a blender and serve (duh). To bulk up Ak's smoothie I add 1 tbsp of peanut butter to his version. So I double the amounts above, whiz then pour out half for me. I then add the peanut butter and whiz again for AK's smoothie..

Avocado Smoothie (a meal in itself).

I made this for my younger brother, who loves avocado and is looking to bulk up. Just spoon the insides of 2 avocadoes (or 1 avocado and 1 banana) into a blender, add a handful of ice cubes and a teaspoon of sugar. Add a little cold water to help get everything going. You should get a smooth, sorbet-like texture. Taste and adjust the sweetness, or you might want to add a bit of lime juice for a little kick. If it's too thick, add more cold water and blitz again..

Oh, and as a general guide, here's a list of best and worst vegetables to eat I got off the web.

"Worst" List, buy them organic if you can afford it:

- Peaches
- Apples
- Sweet bell peppers
- Celery
- Nectarines
- Strawberries
- Cherries
- Lettuce
- Grapes
- Pears
- Spinach
- Potatoes

"Best" Produce, i.e. save your money and buy regular:
- Broccoli
- Cabbage
- Banana
- Kiwi
- Asparagus
- Sweet peas (frozen)
- Mango
- Pineapple
- Sweet corn (frozen)
- Avocado
- Onion

Foolproof granola

I'v made granola a couple of times now, and while I still search for that perfect savoury granola recipe, I think I finally landed on a recipe for the sweet version that's pretty much foolproof.

Granola Recipe (foolproof)

1 kg rolled oats (I buy them in 1 kg packets)
1/2 cup virgin coconut oil
1/2 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp sea salt flakes
2 tsps vanilla extract
1 egg white and 1 whole egg
3/4 cup natural sugar

Mix and match 2 - 3 of these (or all). Note all nuts must be raw.
1 cup peanuts, skins on
1/2 cup each of roughly chopped almonds and cashews
1 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

I don't add dried fruit, simply because I don't like most dried fruit (except maybe coconut flakes), but feel free to add them with the nuts.

Preheat oven to 160 deg C. Spray 2 trays with nonstick spray.
In a glass measuring jug, combine the oils, egg and egg white, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Whisk to combine. I find pre-mixing the sugar with the wet ingridients easier - the sugar tends to pile at the bottom of the bowl if mixed with the dry.
Mix the oats and nuts in a large bowl.
Pour the sugar-oil-egg-vanilla-salt mixture into the dry, and stir to combine.
Try to make sure that everything is mixed as evenly as possible.
Pack the mixture into 2 trays (10 x 14"). Pack them as tightly as possible - this is what will make your granola cluster and clump.
Bake for 20 - 30 minutes, until the granola appears a dark golden brown.
Don't take them out too pale - it's the crisp caramelization that you want here. You might want to rotate your trays halfway through baking, or use foil to cover and prevent "hotspots" from turning too brown.
Cool, then break into clumps. I use a butter knife.
Store in airtight containers.

Keeping house, naturally

When we first moved in, AK's dad got us a whole suite of cleaning fluids - spray on glass cleaner, Vim (that pasty white cream thingy), insecticide spray. Well I ditched all of that.

I read snippets of the effects of the chemicals we use in our everyday lives while trying to decide whether or not to purchase Jessica Alba's book, The Honest Life, which I stumbled on while trying to decide if I should or should not get Gwyneth Paltrow's new cookbook. I do confess, I spend too much time on Amazon.com. Anyway, I didn't get Jessica's book.

Instead I just Googled homemade cleaners, and experimented on my own. Here's what I've changed:

- Used vinegar and water to clean tiles, disinfect washing sponges and best of all, on ant trails.

- To disinfect the tile countertops in my wet kitchen, I mix in half vinegar/half hot water and wipe the tiles. I also spray vinegar on where ants like to gather, like near Boo's food dish and the waste bin.

- Replaced VIM with coarse salt. For scrubbing grout, and (nothing works better, I swear) my stainless steel sink and pots, I just scrub with coarse salt. - Used hot vinegar to clean toilets

- Used a combination of vinegar and water to clean tile floors. They do need a second round with just water, though, to ensure that the vinengar doesn't stay and possibly corrode the tiles. I see no evidence of this happenning (the site claimed that it's safe for ceramic tiles, and mine are), and tested the solution on a small area before proceeding with the full thing.

- OK, why do glass cleaners even need to exist in the first place?? All I do is spray windows with water, wipe down with scrunched up newspapers and I have gleaming windows. It's been fun experimenting, and I love the fact that I have an (almost) toxin-free home.

I used to experiment with so-called environmentally-sound cleaners, but I really don't need to anymore.

Oh, and one more thing - if you plan on doing this, buy good vinegar, not the foul-smelling, super-cheap stuff that comes in plastic containers. Those smell foul. Good white corn-derived vinegar (I like Heinz) is what I use, and the smell goes away after it dries. The cheap stuff doesn't. It's not expensive, given its versatility and is probably still way cheaper than any cleaning solution

HOME-made Greek Yoghurt

Home.

I never thought I'd be savouring this word so much.

All the bits and pieces have finally come together. We took delivery or our new sofa and my newly beloved, full stainless-steel French-door Electrolux fridge (sometimes I feel like giving it a big hug), and purchased white Ikea shelves to store and display our book collection. Now there's plenty of food (and space) in the fridge, Boo has (rather quickly, I might add) reserved his spot on the sofa, and the shelves are filled with reads colleted over the years, with some space to spare. We even have a couple of plants - a giant money tree to fill the corner next to the shelves, mint in the kitchen and rosemary in the living room (because it's so perfect I want to show it off). I'll be sharing some photos when I'm ready.

What a long way we've come.

And I made Greek Yoghurt, following this impeccable recipe to the word (the one for the Greek version, that is). Smooth, thick and luscious, and with just a hint of a tang, it came out better than I expected. We've been eating big dollops of it with honey, and I've also been blending it into our smoothies (another post on that one coming up soon).

Now to get that wedding over and done with.

Super-easy soup for the soul/sick

What I made for AK, when he caught the flu. The fella has just returned from too much sun, booze and partying in Phuket and of course, fell sick as soon as he touched down.

It's really easy - I threw everything together on a weekday night. Oh, and I think not using my hands to roll out the balls, and using an ice cream scoop to form them and drop them in the soup (with that sweeping thingy attached) yielded a very tender chicken dumpling. Not pretty for sure, but surprisingly tender.

East-West Quick-N-Easy Chicken Soup Recipe

Serves 4 persons, or 2 persons over 2 meals with rice or noodles.

1 large carrot, or 2 small
1 celery stalk
1 yellow onion
3 tbsp dried goji berries
7 - 8 pieces dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked in 2 cups hot water
Chicken stock concentrate
Seasonings - salt/soy sauce, white pepper
500 g minced chicken
2 - 3 tbsp oats, ground in the food processor
1 egg
2 1" knobs of ginger White pepper


Soak the dried shiitakes in hot water for 10 - 15 minutes. 
For the chicken dumplings, mix the ground oats, minced chicken, egg, 2 tbsp soy sauce.
Grate one of the knobs of ginger into the mixture. Mix only to incorporate everything, adding more oats if the mixture is too damp.
Place the mixture in the fridge.
Finely dice carrot(s), celery and onion, and finely slice the ginger.
Heat up a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat in enameled cast-iron pot, add the sofrito of diced vegetables and a dash of salt/soy sauce. The salt element prevents the veggies from browning.
Soften the diced vegetables in the heat.
Add 2 cups of hot water and a few dashes of chicken stock concentrate.
Drain your now-rehydrated shiitakes. Strain the soaking liquid to remove any grit.
Add the shiitakes, their soaking liquid and the goji berries to the mixture.
Bring the soup up to the boil again, and drop scoops of the chicken mix in (I used an ice cream scoop).
Season to taste, and simmer for another 10 minutes. Check and see if the chicken is cooked.


 

Quesadillas, and what to do with leftovers

A great way to use leftovers.

For dinner the other day, I spread leftover guacamole I had made earlier onto onion and chive tortilla wraps, and piled on crispy bacon bits (crisped bacon rashers in the oven, drain and scissor into strips), leftover grilled chicken from a nearby Peruvian restaurant, and mozarella cheese. Heat up a nonstick pan (dry, no oil), fold the tortillas into half and grill until the cheese melts, pressing down the quesadillas to make sure you have a nice flat piece.

How a bad day became Thomas Keller's Chocolate Chunk and Chip Cookies

It all started when AK lost his keys. We were at a company event in the KL Convention Centre. We planned it all out - AK would drive me to work in the morning, then I would take the company-provided transport to the Convention Centre where the event was held, and we would go home together. It was a perfect plan.

Then he lost his car keys. At 5 pm. In the KL Convention Centre, which was crawling with more than two thousand of our colleagues, and people rushing to places after work. After about two hours of fruitless searching we gave up and took a cab home to get the spare keys. With the horrendous after-work traffic, by the time we reached KLCC again we were both starving. So we decided to have dinner there (Little Penang, where else?) before going home. Of course, Little Penang just happens to be one lot away from Kinokuniya. Given that I seldom venture in the city nowadays, so why not??? Might as well make the most of it.

My intention was to check out Jamie Oliver's Cook With Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better Cook. I had been eyeing it for the longest time.But Kinokuniya had the big, bountiful Bouchon Bakery displayed (conveniently) on its "promotions" table. I didn't even have to bring it to the front counter for the staff to remove the annoying plastic covers. The books were just lying there, waiting to be picked up. So naturally, before AK could ask if I was buying anything I grabbed one and paid the obscene amount of money (for a book anyway), and made AK lug this behemoth home.

Now, I own Bouchon, and have never cooked from it. The recipes just seemed too daunting - I mean, who has the time to make sure all the onion slices for French Onion Soup are all uniform in sized and shape? Maybe one day, when I quit my day job and go freelance :).

But back to the book. As soon as I got home and did all the things one must do before bedtime, I plopped into bed with my new best friend and read. Lovely little anecdotes from Thomas Keller's childhood about Oreos and his mum's pecan sandies, gorgeous photos of the food and even nicer, inside Bouchon Bakery. Really precise instructions (eggs are strained then measured or weighed, not counted in one or two, for example).

I decided to break in the book (and my spanking new Teka oven in my spanking new dry kitchen - love) in with these chocolate chunk and chip cookies. The recipe surprisingly doesn't contain any vanilla, but does make use of unsulfured blackstrap molasses. I added half a teaspoon of vanilla concentrate, because I think there is nothing better in this world than vanilla and chocolate, otherwise followed the recipe to the word. They came out with a lovely deep caramelized flavour, sophisticated almost. AK wolfed down 3 cookies as soon as he got home from work - always a good sign. What's more, my new oven, while a little fiddly at first, didn't let me down, and I really enjoyed having all that space on my new breakfast/work counter. A girl could ask for little else. Joy indeed!

Faves from the VMA's

Long radio silence, I know. I bumped into a friend who was in Miri and also moved to KL, and we agreed, there just isn't enough time. There's always someplace to go, some movie or live performance to catch, something on.

I recently managed to watch a repeat of the MTV VMA's. Award shows are kinda my guilty pleasure, along with reality cooking shows, chocolate, instant noodles...you get the rift. No nourishment and all guilty pleasure. I think enough has been said about Ms. Cyrus's twerking. Hey, she'll go down in showbusiness history. I always manage to see one or two performances that I can't forget in this type of show, and this year, my favourites are Macklemore's Same Love and Katy Perry's Roar, sung live under the Brooklyn Bridge.

I loved Katy's performance - man, it's not easy to dance, skip then sing your heart out onstage.

But there's another reason why this song resonated with me, at this point in time. These days, I admit, one of the main reasons I am so freakin' bogged down by work is because I just can't say no to whatever people choose to throw at me. Then there's the pockets of bullying. People who think they can get away with raised voices and by expressing outrage at the slightest issue. In the beginning I tried to be the better person, to stay calm at all times. There came a point when I felt like I was heading for a nervous breakdown - I honestly felt like I was losing control of myself. I realise now, sometimes you just gotta push back and NOT take it. Stand up for yourself, take charge.

I did, in pockets. This song, and Katy's boxing-champion performance, is going on my playlist and embedded in my brain. .

These lyrics, I could be singing them and they would all be true.

I used to bite my tongue and hold my breath

Scared to rock the boat and make a mess

So I sat quietly, agreed politely

I guess that I forgot I had a choice

I let you push me past the breaking point

I stood for nothing, so I fell for everything

You held me down, but I got up

Already brushing off the dust

You hear my voice, you hear that sound

Like thunder gonna shake the ground

You held me down, but I got up

Get ready cause I’ve had enough

I see it all, I see it now

And Macklemore and Mary Lambert - wow, what a beautiful anthem the fight for equality now has. Hip hop and homosexuality don't exactly mix - you got your man-man Jay-Z and (psycho) Kanye, violent good-for-nothing woman-beater Chris Brown, angsty Eminem and super-smooth Drake (who is looking super hot btw - howcome I never noticed before?).

Well now we got Macklemore. Hip-hop just got a whole lot cooler. Back to the song, I find the climax was Mary and Jennifer Hudson crooning "Not crying on Sundays...Love is Patient". According to Mary, it was referencing her feelings about being gay and a church-going Christian. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I don't believe in my heart that God created same-sex loving people to be hated and discriminated upon.

Get More: 2013 VMA, Artists.MTV, Music, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis

 

Late night noshing

Slowly but surely, I am getting back into my cooking groove.

There's so many things I want to do! So many links I've bookmarked, so many lists I've made, so much to get done.

I haven't finished unpacking - we decided on our built-ins so late that now we have to wait until the Eid season is over for our carpenter to come and install our wardrobe and dry kitchen. So my clothes and part of my kitchen items lie in boxes still.

Also, work has been craaaazy. It's coming to the end of a 3-week slog-fest, and this is on top of the last of the reno craziness and unpacking and sorting. I've lost weight and the bags under my eyes will need some time to disappear. But we've moved in! And last week was my big workshop, and I think my efforts paid off.

Now I am in a sort of recovery mode. Taking things a little slower, a little easier.

Things I need to continue - unpacking, and putting stuff where they belong. Work, it has its highs and lows but it doesn't end.

Things I need to start doing again - exercise. It has taken a 2-month backseat and the momentum is too big. Sigh. I've been making a pathetic efforts - a bit of sun salutations but I really need to get my a** moving again.

Things I want to do: Cook! Garden! Lie in bed all day, take long morning walks. Plant herbs, make ice-cream, make my own cleaning solutions. Throw out all my unused junk. Try to live a little more simply.

Anyways, I had a good weekend for once. We stayed home mostly, and watched Zero Dark Thirty on Saturday night instead of traipsing down to some mall for dinner and a movie with friends. I made guacamole, which went down very well.

Here's my recipe, which was more than enough for two with a bag of corn chips:-

I don't use tomatoes for two reasons - I hate them, and Emily doesn't as well. Oh, and I used a bit of soy. I know it sounds weird, but I was tasting and tasting the mixture with salt and felt that it lacked something - a savoury roundness. So I tried mixing it a bit of soy sauce, and it worked a real treat. By all means omit it, but, if I may suggest, try it with a small batch and see what happens...........

Twisted Guacamole

2 ripe avocadoes (firm but slightly yielding to the touch)

1/2 cup cilantro (before chopping) stems and leaves

1/2 clove garlic

2 spring onions

1 bird's eye chilli (this is all I had), deseeded

Juice of 2 - 3 small limes, or to taste

Sea salt, and a little soy sauce (I swear this is not a typo nor hoax)

Finely chop up the cilantro stems and leaves. Scoop the avocado into a bowl large enough to mix everything in. Grate the garlic finely into the avocado mix, add chopped cilantro. Finely slice the chilli (and I mean finely, they should be threads of chilli)and spring onions into the mix. Using a fork, mash the avocado up, mixing in the other stuff as well. Squeeze in the lime juice and add the salt. Taste and adjust seasonings (add the soy last) as you see fit.

Where the heart is (and baked eggs)

We've moved in! So our built ins are not ready yet, and we still need to buy a new sofa and a mattress, but the wet kitchen is more than functional, so armed with my microwave convection oven, and the plethora of imported produce one can find in the Klang valley, it was more than easy to whip something up.

Finally we're here. No more early morning meetings with contractors, shopping frenzies, thronging psycho home fairs and stressing. Sure, there's still work to be done, but now that we've moved in, the sense of urgency is very much reduced. Now I just have to re-establish my fitness routine (haven't properly worked out in more than a month), just to make it complete.

Breakfast today - baked eggs. So easy - I used lamb merguez sausages that I cut up and browned in a hot pan and placed in an ovenproof dish. Broke 3 eggs over, a teeny splash of milk and chopped chives. I didn't salt the eggs - the sausages are tasty/savoury enough to carry the dish.

Boo making himself at home.

Progress!

More house shots

So close

No I did not die nor go into hiding of any kind. Here's what we've been super busy with!

The end is so near I can almost smell it.

After the roller coaster ride we went through to get this place, the stress and energy spent during the entire renovation process, we're almost there. Almost. My hope is that we can move in in time to celebrate AK's upcoming big day.

Front facade before - note the angular side wall

The back

The dry kitchen, which has sliding doors that open to the teeny wet kitchen

The front extension - our contractor removed the pesky angular wall, pushed the door out and centralized our windows. I love my big windows!

View from the inside. Oh, and note the plaster ceiling. We decided to only do the sides, to keep the ceiling as high as possible

The back extension added an indoor drying cum storage area and made my wet kitchen HUGE

Wet kitchen after the extension.

View from the back of the house

We used Niro Granite wood plank lookalike tiles for the countertop and grey volcanic stone-like wall and floor tiles

A lighter colour scheme for the guest bath

Beijing Haunts

We just got back from an 8-day trip to Beijing, or as it played in my mind before we went, The Motherland. Beijing is THE place to start with if you're thinking about discovering China. I am have been far too wired to concentrate on work this week, so I focused on writing this little piece instead.

Of course we visited the requisite Great Wall, Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven and Tiananmen Square, and they were all great. We also had great fun just walking around these places that should definitely be part of your itinerary should you pay this city a visit:-

Nanluoguoxiang

….i.e. Hutong Central. As per my previous post we roomed at this quaint but elegant little place for 4 days before switching up to the Traders Hotel in the CBD area, and while it had its little faults (no space/hooks for hanging our stuff, no kettle for hot water), its location more than made up for it. It is smack right in the middle of a historical alley (or hutong) converted into totally unique little shops. We tried all kinds of street food - traditional barbecued lamb and chicken skewers, barbecued squid, egg white pancakes, Beijing-style yogurt (so creamy and gooood) and steamed milk, breakfast pancakes made with egg, spring onions, stuffed with a deep fried cruller and three types of sauces (fermented bean, chilli oil and something else – hoisin, maybe?), deep fried tofu in a sweet chilli sauce, Taiwanese deepfried chicken tenders (puts McDonald’s nuggets to shame), drank neat “mojitos” and milk tea, and dropped by the local Starbucks for much-needed, super hard-to-find, expensive coffee.

 



AK and his steamed milk





Yogurt in clay jars

 


Starbucks in the Hutong

We also oohed and aahed at the creative means the Chinese use to decorate their interiors – the use of traditional tea display racks to showcase Brazilian coffee, how they maintain their Chinese identity in design of bot the interiors and facades. And oh, and the stuff they were selling – from household items (French countryside inspired décor, traditional and modern takes on Chinese teas and teasets, Mao prints on everything from enamel mugs to coasters), to clothes and accessories (super-arty origami-inspired local designs, ming pottery made into jewelry, cheap shoes, handmade leather bags) and Chinese-y souvenirs. I bought French-country inspired enamelware (for planting herbs in) and sleek teaspoons at the adorable Kodo.



Nanluoguoxiang shop display - modern take on Ming pottery







The glasswares section of Kodo



 

It was great fun walking here, taking in the cacophony of sights, ducking every now and then into aforementioned shops. I highly recommend spending some lots of time in this area (half a day is ideal) and really loved the fact that the hutongs were literally at our doorstep. Every shop was unique in its own right, and there was some repetition, but overall minimal. I do feel that Malaysian retailers pale in comparison in terms of creativity and uniqueness, and will never be satisfied walking in Malacca’s Jonker Street/Penang’s Batu Feringghi markets again.  

 

Pangjiayuen Antiques Market  

We went faux-antiquing twice at this huge market, once on a weekday and on a Saturday morning. I much prefer going on a weekday. There aren’t that many stalls (but still number at the hundreds), it’s less crowded thus it’s easier to navigate/get shopkeepers’/stall owners’ attention, and most importantly, less foot traffic means more relenting sellers. No doubt, the variety is definitely larger on the weekend, and someone who relishes the challenge of the bargain would prefer to go on a weekend, so do what suits you. AK went a little crazy over these cute wooden stands/bases that are designed for holding teasets and I bought some really pretty celadon bowls. What else were they selling? Chinese locksets, vintage suitcases/ice buckets/gramophones, reproduction furniture, stone sculptures, faux-bronze vessels and figurines, beads of amber/turquoise/tiger’ eye/jade/amethyst and who knows what other stone, pottery (I bought celadon ones), artwork, silverware (from huge cauldrons to traditional headdresses), and who knows what else.

Tribal embroidery



Bargain bargain bargain!

Tribal neck and headpieces - real statement, these things



Antique locks and curtain hooks

Wangfujing


We skipped the Malls at the Orient Plaza, but managed to locate Hai Di Lao in the Intime Lotte mall. All the stories of the courteous staff are true. We ate our way through more than ten plates of mushrooms, two types of beef balls, minced beef with egg (highly recommended), slices of lamb, squid and vegetables cooked in “heaven and hell” broths (bone stock and fiery sezhuan), accompanied by a plethora of dipping sauces (minced beef, mustard, XO, satay, minced garlic, vinegar, you name it). On the way back to the train we stopped by the warren of stalls/shops at the back of street. AK picked out two pairs of shoes that he would normally never consider – but they were fun and so unbelievably priced that he scooped them up. I couldn’t help checking out the three-storey Forever 21 behemoth on Wangfujing. Everything there is Made in China anyway so it makes sense that they’re super cheap. In fact I returned twice to Wangfujing just for the store alone. What I got - comfy shorts for lounging around the house, lots of cute earrings, a funky belt and a striped tee.

Oh, and not China-related but I have to say something anyway. Our house is slowly but surely coming together; the tiles are up in the two upstairs bathrooms and we are going to pick out the flooring for the upstairs rooms as well as decide on kitchen cabinets and built-in wardrobes. We are so close! AK has already picked out the menu for our first home-cooked dinner (lor bak, lotus root soup). 



In the Hutongren Courtyard

Where we roomed for four nights. The place is tucked in a bustling area filled with super-creatively refurbished shops and it's tons of fun exploring.

The hotel itself is an inspiration in Zen design, so I thought I'd share some shots.

Welcome tray filled with loose-leaf tea and sweet bean paste cakes

In the Courtyard, looking up at twilight

The little corner where all the teasets and accessories on display are for sale

Blackie the dog

We loved this setting, and plan to emulate this (on a smaller scale) in our new home