Would you buy a ridiculous item like this?

I WOULD!

Scenery I Miss from our Holiday

The sky as wide as the universe and the sea as blue as ink
Scottish Highlands (Gairloch)

Romantic landscapes nothing short of the kind 

I used to imagine about when 

I had my nose in a novel

Top: Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness, Scotland

Right: Driving around the great lakes in Scotland

Lazy, furry sheep
Near Red Point, Scotland

Going nowhere in particular
Cotswolds, Britain

The countryside
Cotswolds, Britain

Nippon Fever: Hokkaido Cakes

I love Japanese food and in several aspects, the Japanese culture as well. Nevermind that J-Fever has come and gone and K-fever, Face Shop and Gangnam style has invaded our shores. I still cling to Nippon Land for a ton of great holiday memories and greater food. 

View from our room at the Ryokan in Otaru-chikko (2008)

So, in tribute to the land of complicated origami pieces that I constantly YouTube about but never quite accomplish, I baked Hokkaido Cakes yesterday. It's fairly simple to make, I think once you have tried the Japanese Cotton Cheesecake or any Chiffon Cake, this one is nothing to sweat about.

Still, I was fairly nervous about whipping the cream. In the past, whipping cream has been a hit and miss  for me. Tragic thing is once over-whipped, the cream separates and you get a clumpy mess that you want to fling against the wall. This time, I refrigerated my mixing bowl and whisk beforehand and went about it in a calm and collected manner. I think calm and collected was the key for me, not so much the refrigeration. I just needed STOP worrying so that I will not suddenly sprout ten meddlesome thumbs. Anyway it turned out perfect, I did not panic unnecessarily and under-whip, or over-whip. It was just right.

Phew! That was alot of whining about cream. Anyway, Tada! Hokkaido Cakes!

Playing Favourites: My Favourite Song

I thought for awhile before deciding what I was going to talk about next. My Favourite Memory came as an easy first choice since I often think back about that day, especially when I see sunsets. So, I thought of My Favourite Food. That sounds easy enough, everyone knows I am a foodie. However everyone also knows I love fried chicken. So, not much of a revelation there. I didn't really have a favourite drink and neither do I have a favourite dessert. Hmmm 

While organizing some CDs during the weekend, the idea came to do My Favourite Song. In fact I love this song so much, its a no brainer that this is my all-time favourite. I never tire of listening to it and I never tire of humming it. So spit it out, what is my favourite song you say? Its La Vie En Rose, the Louis Armstrong version. I've always loved Louis' gravelly voice. It's perfect for jazz and love songs and it makes me think of a time when men were gentlemen and women were ladies. Romance was a journey you took towards wooing the partner of your dreams and love was alot less complicated.

I first heard La Vie En Rose while watching Love Me If You Dare with a classmate when I was about 17 or 18. I was mesmerised by the tune and immediately declared in the theatre "I think I just found my wedding song!" Over the years, my taste in music fluctuated from wanting to be oh so cool alternative, angsty rock and mindless pop but I never forgot my first musical love, jazz and blues and of course, La Vie En Rose. 

I know this song is synonymous with Edith Piaf and I love Edith too. Who can forget her dramatic performance in Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien? It always brings tears to my eyes when I watch her belt out the last verses.

However, I prefer the slower tempo and gentler swing of Louis Armstrong's take. I also really like how the song first starts off with the trumpet, that really lets me soak in the music before the lyrics come in. 

So, click on the video for my favourite romantic lullaby, La Vie En Rose. Waltz along to the tune and keep the romance alive!

Tea To Beat The Heat

    So, its not a secret that the heat has been CRAZY lately. I've been complaining endlessly everyday about it. Dosen't matter if its rains because the next day, the craziness starts again. Oh......I know we live in Sunny Singapore but isn't this a tad OTT? 

In a feeble attempt to beat the heat and cool down our heaty bodies, I made some Chrysanthemum & Ginseng tea. Well, I said feeble attempt because it worked. For awhile. Until the sun came up and started to clog the crap out of my pores again.

Note: The photo on the left is not an ad for Ya Kun. My choice was purely based on the fact that this little cup and saucer is sooo cute. The truth is also that I have absolutely no use for such a mini-sized cup and saucer set except for taking photos with.

Cured Salmon Update

After 24 hours

Homemade Citrus Cured Salmon

Okay verdict on my citrus cured salmon experiment: Loves! Been having lots of this with salad or on toast, plus its so cheap to make compared to buying it in the supermarket. Next time, I will be more generous with the zest. Was a little more cautious here because I don't want my salmon to turn out like I soaked it in Mama Lemon overnight.

I'm so glad I decided to revisit making this again after my last two attempts. I've always loved salmon especially in the form of sashimi or cured or smoked. However I must confess that it has been disappointing the few times I bothered to order any salad or sandwich with smoked salmon in it. There was so little salmon that I might as well be eating plain bread, which everyone knows I am not fond of.

So, hoorah for this latest success. Who cares if cured salmon is sometimes regarded as the poor man's smoked salmon? I'll be making this again soon! Yummeh!

Cured Salmon

I have tried making my own cured salmon on two occasions before. The first time I used an Asian inspired recipe of soya sauce and spring onions. It didn't work out too well, the salmon was much too salty and the sauce only served to hide the flavour of the fish. The second time, I stuck to the traditional Gravlax recipe of sugar, salt and dill. It turned out great but I learnt that I was not a fan of dill.

I then abandoned my efforts till I came across this recipe from Martha Stewart. I tried making it yesterday and since the salmon is still curing, I don't have any photos of the finished product yet but that will be coming up real soon!

* Martha's recipe calls for lemon, orange and lime zest. I didn't have orange and lime at home so I used lemon and calamansi zest from my calamansi plant instead. The salt/sugar rub ended up smelling pretty good so I assume it went well. Fingers crossed.

Playing Favourites: My Favourite Memory

I love old movies. Roman Holiday is my favourite because the old-fashioned storyline gets me everytime and because when you watch the movie, you understand why Audrey Hepburn was born to be a star and why Gregory Peck is the ultimate gentleman. 

Yesterday, I watched The Sound of Music again (I can memorize the lyrics to almost all the songs in the movie) and inspired by Maria and her favourite things, I shall blog about one of my favourite things weekly for the month of October. Here's my first entry!

My Favourite Memory

When I was 22, my husband or boyfriend at that time brought me to Europe. It was the first time I ever travelled out of Asia and it was on this trip that I found one of the greatest loves of my life, travelling.

We were still in the beginning of our trip, at Santorini in Greece and were strolling around on our first afternoon on the island. I can't remember if we decided to follow a crowd but we soon found some people waiting by the water for the sunset. This was apparently touted to be the best sunset watching spot and everyone was eagerly waiting, camera in hand.

We could have waited there with the rest but knowing us, we snuck off onto somebody's rooftop and there in our own private space (or rather someone else's private space), I saw the most breathtaking sunset I ever saw in my life.

The magical moment

As the sun slowly dipped into the horizon of the sea, the waters became really still. For a moment, I could almost believe that I would be able to walk over the water on my tippy toes and touch the sun with my finger. It was that still and it was our magic moment. For when that moment passed, I knew that it was so special and that I would never be able to capture that again. I actually told myself to remember this moment and to remember how we felt, watching this magnificent sunset together. I also secretly thought that if we ended up together we would go looking for the best spots in the world for sunsets as magical as this one. We ended up together alright but we never went sunset hunting.  :)

I am not sure why the water went all still during the sunset, probably an optical illusion? But it seemed to me like it was holding its breath waiting for the sun to touch it. And that, is my all-time favourite memory, our first time to Europe together, our first sunset and the most beautiful moment of our entire holiday.