beloved bel

Explored Marylebone High Street with Lucy last Sunday afternoon. She lives in the neighbourhood and has been raving all about it to me amongst many others, and I knew I had to see it for myself. It runs perpendicular to the ever so crowded Oxford/Bond Street area but such a different world altogether. There are no crowds. No tourists. No high street chains. Just an English neighbourhood with people doing their own things.. brunches, grocery shopping, spending time in quaint little shops. I can't believe I've never explored this area considering it's so near the usual shopping stretch I frequent. Lucy said when she saw this neighbourhood, she just knew that "This is how England should be." And I couldn't agree more. We had brunch at Le Pain Quotidien, a french cafe (above). Will definitely come back again soon. I spotted some quaint little shops which I want to explore more.

Brunch on Saturday @ my place. Realised I haven't invited Liandi and girls over since I moved in and it's almost a year now. I woke up at 730am, went to Tesco at 8am to get breakfast ingredients, started baking muffins at 9am, prepared the other ingredients for the egg benedict, and set the table. Table all set with freshly baked muffins :) I needed Liandi to help me make the poached eggs using the special apparatus she brought over since making poached eggs is a skill and none of us have it. I've never seen anything like this before but it's proving to be very useful. The end product- Egg Benedict. Yums, glad everyone loved it. We chatted, talked about life, and time just passed by quickly. I just love having brunches.

My current favourite Hillsong United song. We've been singing it for ages in church ever so often and I only found out last Tuesday which album it is from. Take my moments and my days Let each breath that I take Be ever only for You oh God Oh here I stand Arms open wide Oh I am Yours And You are mine My whole life is Yours I give it all Surrendered to Your Name And forever I will pray Have Your way Have Your way

Eight Precious Jewels Winter Melon Soup ("Dong Qua Tong") http://www.urbanfare.com/ featured_fare/recipes/ EightPreciousJewels.html Found a recipe online to cook the portion of winter melon I bought from Chinatown. Changed a bit to what I could find in my kitchen.. here's my list of ingredients: Winter melon Chinese mushrooms Dried scallops Prawns Crabsticks Carrots Ginger Chicken stock/broth Light soya sauce Salt White pepper Sesame oil Throw all into the pot, really simple. Finished product It was so good, so glad I bought the winter melon. Definitely will cook it again. ************************* Cooked two other dishes the other night (to show my grandma) 1) Chicken with black pepper tofu fishcake 2) Chinese leeks Only remembered to take a picture after finishing most of them. These were my leftover portions actually.

Some people tell me that they have to build friendships all over again after being away from home for some time. And I always think I won't have to because I'm surrounded by really good friends back home... however I think recently I am a bit wavering. No doubt I am still enjoying being in London, enjoying my new friends, but I still do think of my friends back home from time to time. As the old fashioned saying goes, "one is silver, the other is gold". I always blog about happy stuff as you can tell, but being human, there are down times too although I choose not to dwell on them too long. Maybe it's because I am spending my first CNY in London alone, I am craving for that bit of warmth from friends back home.. because sometimes I feel that I'm forgotten. Now I feel that this blog is getting more one sided now (I don't even know who's reading it anymore except for the same few people commenting every now and then, which I am thankful for...) and ...

I had a pre CNY dinner on Saturday at Jos' place with her and the Queks because all 3 of them won't be in London next weekend. :( And they are my only Singaporean friends *sniff* Sad, very sad but I shall not dwell on this for I know my Heavenly Father provides :) We had arranged to go over to Josy's about 4pm. And I had planned to bake some surprise muffins for tea before dinner. Pig out day, might as well lah. Besides my surprise muffins, my main dinner contribution was a pot of chicken curry. I volunteered for this because my dear grandma would always cook chicken curry for CNY eve reunion dinner amongst her many dishes. Plus it is difficult to cook a whole packet of Prima Taste just for myself. I cannot imagine finishing that whole big pot all on my own. Call me crazy but I've been looking for a suitable muffin recipe to go with my hot pink silicon muffin tray given to me by Faith over Christmas. So when I saw Pris' pinky raspberry and white chocolate mu...

Almost 2 years ago when Cynthia and I were raw and new to London, it happened that Kwee Lin was posted here by her company for a few months and it was her who helped integrate us into London. Fast forward 2 years later, she is back again on a 2 week assignment. It was good to see her after so long, and especially so because we missed each other when I was back last October. Oh and did I mention she was also my shifu and lunch buddy at work when I first started, because it was her who taught me PnL stuff from Day 1 when I knew nothing. We spent last Saturday together, having dim sum for lunch with my ex-intern. Wen's studying in Bath and specially came down to London with her bf and another friend. Kwee Lin's colleague recommended her this restaurant called Phoenix Palace and turns out Wen & guys were also thinking of going to the same place. How coincidental is that considering how big London is and how many Chinese restaurants are there! Plus this is not in the usu...