I've always been conscious of the need for blogs, IMHO, to be a spontaneous (read, unedited) experience. So it feels a bit surreal to be in a wi-fi Starbucks, on a beautiful sunny day, in Edinburgh, Scotland, looking aout the gorgeous bay windows at Edinburgh Castle in front of me, and reflecting on the events of the day before.
7/7.
The consummate writer and journalist in me feels an overwhelming need to record (for posterity? Or just for the momentousness of the occasion?) my thoughts. I feel a bit perverse about it all - because part of this blog doesn't feel like a spontaneous outpouring, but a somewhat copy edited (how does that read, ooh, nice turn of phrase) entry.
But then again, this is one of those personal events in one's life that almost merits recollecting in entirety.
(oh, and if you're wondering where the Food bits come in to this blog, I'm afraid they don't)
The aftermath of 7/7 (my personal 9/11 seems to be inappropriate - after all, I wasn't there - and that's the whole point surely of this blog?) is a remarkable calm in Britain. Damn, you have to hand it to them (and i'm proud to say at this point, this is what a British education gives you - a don't let the bastards get you down, stiff upper lip resolve) - the news coverage on the Beeb was respectful, informative but none of that over the top hysterionics American overanalysis, ask the same question 60 times, coverage. It was focused, it was calm and it was the bedrock for people who didn't know what was going on. Trust the Brits to never, never, ever, allow themselves to descend into the drama queen, analyse ever damn speckle of information, approach that CNN personifies. Even CNN's coverage was remarkably subdued, perhaps because the Brits simply didn't play into the over-the-top habits of Americans. The calm of the doctors, the police officers, the analysts that spoke on the Beeb (and Sky) shows - just another day at the office. I feel a great pride at seeing them react this way, because after 5 years of education here, I have always, almost, felt like one of them.
Yesterday was...interesting. No, that doens't quite capture it.
A part of me wonders if I am exaggerating when i say, it was a narrow escape. (Paddington was one station from Edgware Road - and as I discovered in the newspapers today, 200 yards from the tube station. Now, I was on the Main Line Paddington Station, but possibilities, indeed, what could have happened...boggle the mind).
I reached Gyle Shopping Mall from Edinburgh Airport, DESPERATE for a television. I suppose it is again, testament to the news junkie habits of Generation CNN. But also partly it was the newshound journalist in me that felt a compelling need to find out what was happening simply because I was a part of it. A momentous event in history had taken place and I had somehow, in my mind, been connected or to some degree, a part of it.
I searched desperately, with an almost wrecking sense of anxiety, for a television. Any DAMN TV would have done me. Just to find out what the hell was happening. It didn't help that I couldn't get through to anyone on my mobile phone, Maxis SIM or Virgin SIM. I felt totally cut off. And the fact that the people around me seemed to be oblivious didn't help my increasing irritation and need to KNOW what happened.
I do wonder, in hindsight, what prompted me to write an e mail to Jeff Ooi to share my account.
Now, this is the me who reckons the whole 'share my account' thing is a bit of a squidgy soft warm and fuzzy feeling thing. And I've often wondered why people who share their first person accounts with the newspapers ( I mean, it seems so weird, even if I, like many other reads, eagerly devoured the first person accounts in the papers). Now I realise, or at least, understand why.
It is a momentous event in your life. To be in the middle of a momentous event in history. You want to talk about it, you want to share it, you want people to know what was going through your head, a blow by blow account of the thoughts going through your mind, you want to capture every sensation, even feeling, even heartbeat. (here speaketh someone who considered blogs to be, too public, and who is about, to write to the Star to share my first person account - go figure).
I think it would be perverse, indeed, trivial, to say that yesterday, was my personal 9/11. (though it makes great copy). It feels over the top to think of it as a close scrape, a narrow escape. (again, make great copy but...really, how close was I?). I probably will never know and don't think I want to know...)
My hurried, uncomposed, spontaneous thoughts, I recorded for posterity in my e mail to Jeff. This I suppose is my more composed reaction.
A thought has to go out to the way the Brits are handling themselves. With absolute fantastic composure and calm. The don't let the bastards get us down stiff upper lip class that they have always displayed. I'm not a Brit but 5 years amongst them in my schooling days, has certainly made me always feel like one of them. And in times like this, you can't help but feel proud to be if not one of them, amongst them. None of this bullshit American over the top news coverage, analysing everything to bits and asking the same question 60 times over. Auntie, was fantastic. Straight coverage, no panic, facts only, constantly keeping the information flow open but steady at the same time.
Must get on with my piece for the Star...will they publish it? (ugh, ever the writer to the end)
Friday, July 08, 2005
Sunday, July 03, 2005
God save the Queen
After 2 years since my last trip back, I'm bleery eyed in Starbucks, Leicester Square, the din (murmur would be too gentle a word) of thousands of conversations mingling with that easy listening music you get in Starbucks) in my ears. (and an overdose of ICON, the Steve Jobs biography on the brain).
Trawled Gerrard Street, where Chinatown is but sadly, where apparently only the dreck Chinese restaurants are left - the good ones apparently have all migrated to Bayswater. An interesting experience - something of a meander down memory lane for me. Nice memories of the place although the familiar spots have all disappeared - I couldn't even find the infamous Wong Kee (I'm sure its there, I just didn't quite look hard enough). But the bakery where years ago I remember buying Chinese pastries and buns was still there. Hmmm, might merit a visit tomorrow morning. It would be interesting to have an experience of eating Hong Kong food in the middle of London.
Ironically, my first meal in Britain was not toad in the hole or some quintessentially British dish (the to die for all day breakfast, nah, pass). Instead, I decided on a Bacon Double Cheeseburger at Burger King. There's something about the allure of piggy bacon, having been countless times, offered the appalling 'beef bacon' that demanded I make Burger King my first port of call.
Not proud of it, but hey, its as good a way as any other to kick off a visit to Merry Olde England...
Trawled Gerrard Street, where Chinatown is but sadly, where apparently only the dreck Chinese restaurants are left - the good ones apparently have all migrated to Bayswater. An interesting experience - something of a meander down memory lane for me. Nice memories of the place although the familiar spots have all disappeared - I couldn't even find the infamous Wong Kee (I'm sure its there, I just didn't quite look hard enough). But the bakery where years ago I remember buying Chinese pastries and buns was still there. Hmmm, might merit a visit tomorrow morning. It would be interesting to have an experience of eating Hong Kong food in the middle of London.
Ironically, my first meal in Britain was not toad in the hole or some quintessentially British dish (the to die for all day breakfast, nah, pass). Instead, I decided on a Bacon Double Cheeseburger at Burger King. There's something about the allure of piggy bacon, having been countless times, offered the appalling 'beef bacon' that demanded I make Burger King my first port of call.
Not proud of it, but hey, its as good a way as any other to kick off a visit to Merry Olde England...
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
1am Irreverance....(and late night stomach rumblings)
I remember many moons ago, when I was on a fitness trainer imposed diet, late nights working thinking about food invariably led to reading recipe books. It works for some of us...
A little irreverence appetiser I think to start off the late night ramblings (yes, my stomach is rumbling too)
Sunday on Father's Day went to Paddington House of Pancakes in the Curve. I must admit, I was apprehensive about the food. I went there once and thought, so so. In fact, I thought they were a) overambitious with their menu and b) honestly, pancakes and half the stuff in there wouldn't work.
I have been proven wrong. (there was an Alas before the sentence, but then I realised, hmm, not quite the right context)
Surprisingly, a lot of the ideas in there, actually execute well (hmm, critics can be their own, worse, critic). Try the Sloppy Joe (okay, a weird way to eat waffles, and I must admit to being a bit of a purist) but quite good. Blinis with mashed potatos, salami and chives was good too (can't remember the number but the description is about right). Warrants visiting again but I think in hindsight, the mistake also was to go by myself. This is the sort of place to take the brood to, for Sunday lunch, at a long table, with everyone having a nibble of everything.
I've recently added to my condemn list Oh Sushi in MidValley. Once the place for decently priced (Chinese palate friendly) Japanese food and a decently priced bento, it is now the home of limp tempura bento, bad service and lifeless sushi, despite the redecorated appearance.
How does a restaurant qualify for the condemn list...sounds like material for another late night ramble...
A little irreverence appetiser I think to start off the late night ramblings (yes, my stomach is rumbling too)
Sunday on Father's Day went to Paddington House of Pancakes in the Curve. I must admit, I was apprehensive about the food. I went there once and thought, so so. In fact, I thought they were a) overambitious with their menu and b) honestly, pancakes and half the stuff in there wouldn't work.
I have been proven wrong. (there was an Alas before the sentence, but then I realised, hmm, not quite the right context)
Surprisingly, a lot of the ideas in there, actually execute well (hmm, critics can be their own, worse, critic). Try the Sloppy Joe (okay, a weird way to eat waffles, and I must admit to being a bit of a purist) but quite good. Blinis with mashed potatos, salami and chives was good too (can't remember the number but the description is about right). Warrants visiting again but I think in hindsight, the mistake also was to go by myself. This is the sort of place to take the brood to, for Sunday lunch, at a long table, with everyone having a nibble of everything.
I've recently added to my condemn list Oh Sushi in MidValley. Once the place for decently priced (Chinese palate friendly) Japanese food and a decently priced bento, it is now the home of limp tempura bento, bad service and lifeless sushi, despite the redecorated appearance.
How does a restaurant qualify for the condemn list...sounds like material for another late night ramble...
Tuesday, June 14, 2005
The Revenge of the Cream Puff
I spotted this when I cruised into Yahoo.com and glanced at the news headlines, as you do! As Yahoo news links sometimes expire, I have excerpted a bit of the article from USA Today.
Cream Puffs Rise to Meet New Demand
A nation of allegedly nutrition-conscious consumers has some serious explaining to do: The cream puff is making a comeback.
Two competing Japanese chains - both new to the U.S. market - are selling fresh, hot cream puffs like, ah, hot cakes. Other big names are starting to peddle cream puffs via mail order. Even Bon Appetit magazine has pegged the cream puff - a puff pastry with flavored cream filling - as the hot dessert for 2005.
"We all talk a good game, but less than 2% of us are actually eating what the Food Pyramid tells us to," says Tanya Wenman Steel, New York editor at Bon Appetit. Watch out, Krispy Kreme, she says, "cream puffs will be the next big thing."
The biggest driver: America's irrepressible sweet tooth. Helping is marketing machinery pitching the puff - now about as popular in Japan as doughnuts are here - as an American institution. Even in an era of better-for-you dining, the cream puff's clearly no cream puff.
At a handful of Manhattan locations, customers lured by the smell of fresh-baked puffs willingly wait in long lines that snake outside Beard Papa's Sweets Cafes to pay $1.45 for one of the chain's trademark vanilla cream puffs.
Each oozes about 230 calories - about 30 calories more than a Krispy Kreme glazed donut. But unlike donuts, the cream puffs are baked, not fried. The filling is a whipped-cream-and-custard combo. The company, already a success in Japan, plans to open another 20 U.S. units domestically during the next year - including in Hollywood and San Francisco.
Some stores sell 5,000 cream puffs a day, though sales here have lagged for one variety - the green tea-flavored cream puffs, admits Craig Takiguchi, executive vice president of Muginoho USA, parent company of the chain.
"The funniest thing," Takiguchi says, "is seeing shoppers who leave our store with cream and powdered sugar all over their face."
--
I have tasted Bearded Papa's Cream Puffs while in HK - my brother took me to eat them - he said at first he didn't get the point of eating like a 20HKD (around RM10) cream puff but when he had his first one, he totally understood. I have also been converted to their cause. The puffs are amazing - expensive but worth every penny (although at that time, I didn't know how many calories they had!).
In HK, Beard Papa is located on the ground floor of Sogo, which is in Causeway Bay. Skip the chocolate covered ones because they don't quite work - the creme patisserie (which is the secret here - typical Yanks! Don't know the difference between whipped cream and cream patisserie) is too rich with a chocolate covered cream puff. The puffs are great hot but also very nice cold. Their Creme Horns (similar to a puff, but filled into a horizontal pastry) are also great! They do a weird Cheesecake item, which is cheesecake, sort of shaped like a ruler and which has bits of pineapple in it. Quite good but not exactly blow your mind away.
In KL, Beard Papa can be found in Jusco, 1 Utama and Midvalley. I have been observing their progress since the franchise has been brought in and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will survive. For starters, in HK and Japan, Beard Papa usually has a queue of people. But even on Saturdays, I don't see Beard Papa, either in Midvalley or Jusco, commanding a queue.
Without a doubt, the RM3.30 pricetag is what is making consumers think twice. Especially in Midvalley where there is another cream puff stall that probably retails for half the price although personally, I think the quality is not quite there. Is it Malaysians are just not ready to splurge on good quality items (a contradiction in terms given that they happily splurge for Coffee Bean coffee) or could it just be that word hasn't gotten around about how good they are? Or could it simply be that Malaysians sweet tooths prefer to be appeased by kuih or ice kacang?
In any case, only 230 calories...SIGH. Marginally more than a KK doughnut!
Cream Puffs Rise to Meet New Demand
A nation of allegedly nutrition-conscious consumers has some serious explaining to do: The cream puff is making a comeback.
Two competing Japanese chains - both new to the U.S. market - are selling fresh, hot cream puffs like, ah, hot cakes. Other big names are starting to peddle cream puffs via mail order. Even Bon Appetit magazine has pegged the cream puff - a puff pastry with flavored cream filling - as the hot dessert for 2005.
"We all talk a good game, but less than 2% of us are actually eating what the Food Pyramid tells us to," says Tanya Wenman Steel, New York editor at Bon Appetit. Watch out, Krispy Kreme, she says, "cream puffs will be the next big thing."
The biggest driver: America's irrepressible sweet tooth. Helping is marketing machinery pitching the puff - now about as popular in Japan as doughnuts are here - as an American institution. Even in an era of better-for-you dining, the cream puff's clearly no cream puff.
At a handful of Manhattan locations, customers lured by the smell of fresh-baked puffs willingly wait in long lines that snake outside Beard Papa's Sweets Cafes to pay $1.45 for one of the chain's trademark vanilla cream puffs.
Each oozes about 230 calories - about 30 calories more than a Krispy Kreme glazed donut. But unlike donuts, the cream puffs are baked, not fried. The filling is a whipped-cream-and-custard combo. The company, already a success in Japan, plans to open another 20 U.S. units domestically during the next year - including in Hollywood and San Francisco.
Some stores sell 5,000 cream puffs a day, though sales here have lagged for one variety - the green tea-flavored cream puffs, admits Craig Takiguchi, executive vice president of Muginoho USA, parent company of the chain.
"The funniest thing," Takiguchi says, "is seeing shoppers who leave our store with cream and powdered sugar all over their face."
--
I have tasted Bearded Papa's Cream Puffs while in HK - my brother took me to eat them - he said at first he didn't get the point of eating like a 20HKD (around RM10) cream puff but when he had his first one, he totally understood. I have also been converted to their cause. The puffs are amazing - expensive but worth every penny (although at that time, I didn't know how many calories they had!).
In HK, Beard Papa is located on the ground floor of Sogo, which is in Causeway Bay. Skip the chocolate covered ones because they don't quite work - the creme patisserie (which is the secret here - typical Yanks! Don't know the difference between whipped cream and cream patisserie) is too rich with a chocolate covered cream puff. The puffs are great hot but also very nice cold. Their Creme Horns (similar to a puff, but filled into a horizontal pastry) are also great! They do a weird Cheesecake item, which is cheesecake, sort of shaped like a ruler and which has bits of pineapple in it. Quite good but not exactly blow your mind away.
In KL, Beard Papa can be found in Jusco, 1 Utama and Midvalley. I have been observing their progress since the franchise has been brought in and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it will survive. For starters, in HK and Japan, Beard Papa usually has a queue of people. But even on Saturdays, I don't see Beard Papa, either in Midvalley or Jusco, commanding a queue.
Without a doubt, the RM3.30 pricetag is what is making consumers think twice. Especially in Midvalley where there is another cream puff stall that probably retails for half the price although personally, I think the quality is not quite there. Is it Malaysians are just not ready to splurge on good quality items (a contradiction in terms given that they happily splurge for Coffee Bean coffee) or could it just be that word hasn't gotten around about how good they are? Or could it simply be that Malaysians sweet tooths prefer to be appeased by kuih or ice kacang?
In any case, only 230 calories...SIGH. Marginally more than a KK doughnut!
All things Korean (and some irreverance)
There's serious work to be done but somehow, I'm having a bad case of work avoidance.
After being addicted to this brilliant Korean drama, Jewel in the Palace (DaeJangGeum), I have joined the ranks of Korean soap opera fans everywhere. Actually, probably have not really become a Korean soap opera fan. Just a DaeJangGeum fan. Probably the numerous cooking sequences in the show are what hooked me but the show is also well made (okay, I have nitpicks on the plot, and nitpicks on the ending but all part of the hazards of being a scriptwriter). Korean food - I think its time to trawl one out in KL. I remember one we used to go to when I was a kid (still alive, I think - at Life Center). Time to find another one - the food looks interesting on the show (although, far too many steamboats for my liking).
Got the DaeJangGeum soundtrack - definitely prefer the original Korean to the Kelly Chen version. I am inspired!
After being addicted to this brilliant Korean drama, Jewel in the Palace (DaeJangGeum), I have joined the ranks of Korean soap opera fans everywhere. Actually, probably have not really become a Korean soap opera fan. Just a DaeJangGeum fan. Probably the numerous cooking sequences in the show are what hooked me but the show is also well made (okay, I have nitpicks on the plot, and nitpicks on the ending but all part of the hazards of being a scriptwriter). Korean food - I think its time to trawl one out in KL. I remember one we used to go to when I was a kid (still alive, I think - at Life Center). Time to find another one - the food looks interesting on the show (although, far too many steamboats for my liking).
Got the DaeJangGeum soundtrack - definitely prefer the original Korean to the Kelly Chen version. I am inspired!
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