Singapore chilli crab and Hokkien mee!

heheh, no, I didn't cook these dishes!

We went to a Singapore cafe last night for dinner (Shiok! cafe) with HL's classmate, Ben and his wife. Before the dinner, HL was already dreaming of his hokkien mee, and we did order that, plus sambal udang, nonya fish, poh piah, roti prata, beef rendang and of coz, Singapore chilli crab!

The waiter and waitress at the cafe are Singaporeans studying here - the cafe is owned by an aunt.

We were expectedly excited looking at the menu of Singapore dishes, and ordered as much as we could for 4 people. Boy, were they good! We think they are as authentic as they can be, considering it is here in the States (I did find some of the dishes too salty though - probably to cater to the taste buds here)...oh, but the crab used is their local Dungeness crab (which is not so fleshy) and not our big, fat, juicy Sri Lankan crabs - disappointing but better than nothing...

Anyhow, it was a very satisfying meal, and our first taste of Singapore dishes after 3 months!

Hopefully, we can venture out once in a while in the next few months to try other Singaporean or Malaysian dishes...

pancakes!

I made these for breakfast - cheap and good. A box of ready pancake mix cost only USD 1. For the 2 of us, I only need a cup of mix and 2/3 cup of water.

This reminds me of my hostel days in NTU, when me, my flatmate and floor mates used to have these "culinary" sessions in our common kitchen, cooking dinner and making pancakes for supper or breakfast.

I used to pride myself for making delicious pancakes with bananas and eggs (Wanli and Baoqi, you guys can testify to that right? ;P)

Christmas holiday outing

Outing to an American's home all decorated for Christmas, that is.

Christmas is an important season for Americans, as they celebrate the good year that has passed, and more importantly the bonds between family and friends, and the spirit of sharing and giving.

The I-center organized this outing, and we went to Charlene's house, which was really very lovely, set among lush greenery and decorated with all things Xmas! Each of us brought a snack to share - I baked some peanut butter cookies with chocolate chips.

I wasn't feeling too well, so did not eat anything when I was there, which is quite a shame as the spread of goodies there was simply mouth watering and appetizing!

Later, we sang Christmas songs and shared stories of how Christmas is celebrated in different countries, including Mexico and France, and also the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah.

cable car ride & view of SF city

went to SF city yesterday to meet Madeline and her friend - they are on a West Coast holiday from Singapore!

we went up to Coit Tower on Telegraph Hill, and had a fantastic view of the city (including the city's tallest building, Transamerica Pyramid, standing at 260m) and San Francisco Bay with the Bay bridge and Golden Gate bridge in the backdrop.

I had my first taste of the much touted cable car ride - the ride at night proved to be an extremely enjoyable experience, as the city lights up, including Xmas decorations which are already up!

This is the link to the pics taken:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLvY&notag=1

Christmas mood

It's amazing how fast the Christmas mood is spreading here.

Immediately after Thanksgiving, the radio stations started playing Christmas songs (almost non stop on certain channels) on the airwaves, and you can't help but feel the festive mood every time you hear these songs. It also reminds me time flies - we have been here for 2.5 months already!

Stores everywhere are selling Christmas decorations, winter clothes are on sale now, people are buying their Christmas gifts for family and friends, Xmas trees are being put up for sale...

Have a happy holiday everyone!

freezing cold

there has been a cold front coming in from Canada, and in the past few days, we have been living in freezing cold conditions.

The bright sun during the day is very deceiving, as temperatures during the day is maximum 15 degrees, although it often is very chilly especially in the early mornings until 12 noon.

At nights, it is frost biting cold, hovering around 1 or 2 degrees. Tonight, it is forecast to reach as low as -1 degree! You wouldn't want to be outside at night...

Thankfully, weather forecast shows temperatures rising slightly into the weekend

sick

not fun being sick here :(

recently caught a bug, and feeling under the weather, just as it is turning freezing cold (as low as 1 degree at night this week).

sore throat, runny and stuffy nose, some blood in mucus (from the throat)...and it is not like in Singapore where the GP is just near your block, to prescribe you medication - over here, you have to visit the medical center on campus, and a nurse will see you, not a doctor, and she will not prescribe you medicine, just show you a list of the suitable over the counter medications you can get at a pharmacy outside, and you go get yourself...

hope I will get better real soon! miserable to fall sick in a foreign land..

Trip to LA & Disney

finally the Thanksgiving break was here, and we set off on our LA and Disney trip!

to avoid the potential traffic jam, and also meet my friend Daphne for lunch, we set off at 630am on 19th Sun...it was a fairly smooth ride down south, and we were at Daphne's place at 1230pm, 1 hour earlier than expected.

after lunch, we headed to Hollywood walk of fame, and took quite a lot of pics there! next day, we went to Disney - was there from 9am to 10pm, leaving only after watching the fireworks and water/lights display - had a lot of fun trying the rides and taking pictures! :)

following day, we drove to Venice and Santa Monica beaches - Venice was a bit of a letdown, but Santa Monica is pretty nice...but on our way back to the hotel, we were stuck in traffic and the journey from Santa Monica to Anaheim took more than 2-3 hours!

Wed - we headed back via coastal highway 1, but the journey took longer than we expected and so we decided to stay one night at Monterey Bay, as it was already dark when we reach there, and both of us were exhausted after so many days of driving and sightseeing...it was quite good, and we went to the Monterey Bay aquarium the following morning, before heading home!

All in all, it was a fun trip, and we are now looking forward to our NY holiday next month!

These are the links to the pics taken:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLjo¬ag=1 (album 1)

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLlw&notag=1 (album 2)

Football game!

Sports is an important part of most Americans' lives and American football is no exception. It is an evolved form of rugby and played during fall and winter seasons.

We decided to experience this football mania and got tickets to the last home game of Stanford football (against Oregon state) on 18 Nov. Sadly, Stanford football team's performance this season has been dismal - they have lost most of their matches this year.

Although the team didn't win this time round again (and the massive Stanford stadium was only about 30% filled), we had a great time soaking in the game and atmosphere!

This is the link to the pics:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLpA&notag=1

Run up the Dish!

The Dish refers to the satellite dishes perched on top of the hills at the foot of the campus.

This is one of the favorite running/walking trails here, although the steep slopes will almost guarantee to take your breath away, apart from the fantastic views once you get on top. This is the link to the photos:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0AcNGThi1ZNGLn4&notag=1

Great experience, once you get past the sore and aching thighs and calves...

easy dessert

I think this is the easiest dessert i have made so far...warm caramel bananas served with ice cream

you only need butter, maple syrup and ripe bananas, sliced into thirds on the diagonal...i found it too sweet though, maybe will cut down on the maple syrup next time.

lemon cheese pie

learnt how to make this dessert during my American home cooking class, and tried it last Sunday.

the batter was not smooth enough, and you can still taste bits of the cream cheese in the filling, but it was edible...gave 2 slices to a Chinese couple on the 8th floor, 3 slices to a Singaporean friend and her family, i had 2 slices, HL's classmate had 3 slices (I brought it to his place for dinner after their project discussion)

I am making it again this Thursday for a Thanksgiving dinner organised by HL's school (everyone has to bring a dish to share for 10-12 people), so hopefully I can improve on it...

birds!

different kinds, even imaginative ones.

we had a most unusual drawing class last Monday. The teacher brought in a box of brushes and painting "equipment" - all sorts of brushes, including toilet brushes, paint rollers, and other items like tree branches, sponges, baby pacifier, cooking utensils like whisk, spatula, and even a mini octopus beanie toy (which we used to dip in paint and "throw around" on the paper to create a pattern)...

it was quite therapeutic and enjoyable to do that painting class - we used only 3 primary colours (blue, red and yellow), and had some fun mixing the colours around.

i am quite pleased with my "artistic" output - all 6 of them...4 of them are now "gracing" our apt walls...

computer headaches

this laptop is like a jinx - ever since the first day we arrived here, it has not stopped giving us problems (and now I feel a little guilty I persuaded HL to get an IBM laptop instead of an Apple Mac) :(

yesterday we had planned to go out (the first for HL in 2 weekends as he was cooped up on campus for his various projects and studying for mid term exams, which ended last week) for a little shopping nearby in Hillsdale. But the computer acted up again on Friday night, and we asked a friend over to help us sort it out yesterday...

what was originally thought to be a 1 hour fix turned out to be a 4 plus hour time wasting nightmare! sigh! and we had to reconfigure and recover the original settings, which meant our whole C drive was wiped out. Because our back up has no more memory, we couldn't save a lot of the newly created files (my documents and ALL the photos we have taken since 25th Sept - sob sob - that is a LOT of pictures gone)

now, we can only pray the laptop "takes pity" on us, and stop "misbehaving" - at least until we go back to Singapore...

most elaborate (and painful) dinner to date

as I have been cooking dinner almost every day, I am game to try out new recipes that I come across (otherwise, the standard meat staple every night is baked salmon fish, baked chicken or stir fried beef, with the occasional pork).

anyhow, I decided to try out this dish (the recipe was from an organic supermarket
http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/list_value.html that we will patronise sometimes, but not too often as it can be quite expensive)

it is called "pork chops with maple apple acorn squash" - the recipe looks simple (but then again, all recipes always look easy until you tried them), but I think the difficult part is the acorn squash - it was so hard and I had a difficult time trying to cut it open. Then I had to melt butter and combine with apple, maple syrup and cinnamon to form the filling for the squash, and then bake them.

the pork chops was ok, except a drop of hot oil spilled onto my neck (ouch! left me with a small burn scar, which I am hoping will heal soon) when the pork chops went into the pan. Then i had to cook onions and thyme after that...

All in all, it was quite a "chaotic" kitchen scene that night, with so many pots, pans, plates, utensils around - all this for just one meal! anyway, check out the dishes...

happy hour

HL's faculty (CEM/DCI) had a Happy Hour last friday at a pub in Portola Valley (first round of drinks were on the school). These are some pics of the event...

one foggy morning

this was taken a week ago at about 8.40am when we were waiting to take the shuttle bus - it was the first time we have seen fog around this area...it is quite a nice experience to see misty surroundings

muffins!

successfully baked my chocolate muffins w choc-cherry ice cream (erm, I cheated a little by using ready made Ben & Jerry's cherry garcia ice cream instead of making my own with vanilla ice cream and choc-cherry bar)

But there is always a little story to tell...

I actually baked twice for this dessert - the first time, I can't explain why, but I was so muddle headed and put in 1/8 cup of baking soda instead of 1/8 teaspoon of it!

this is the"chao ta" version - Needless to say, it was a flop - the muffins sunk in the middle... it actually tasted very bitter and "soapy" - yucks!

this is the second try - yummy! brought 4 muffins to HL's project discussion for his team mates - I think they gave the thumbs-up too! :)

nature hike

Last wednesday, I went on a nature hike organised by the I Centre at the Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve http://jrbp.stanford.edu/), which is located near Stanford's campus in the eastern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The weather was perfect - we had an old lady as our docent (she has been one for the past 19 years!). The trail she led us through was very easy to walk, and we can see different types of plants and various stones as we were led through the northern and eastern sides of the hills. Occasionally, we will spot colourful tags on certain plants, indicating some form of research was being done on those flora.

Didn't see any animals, even though we were told deers, rodents and other small animals are found here (and there is a rumour mountain lions inhabit the hills).

portrait

if you are wondering what this is, this is supposed to be ME (although I have to say this is in no way representative of the real me - I like to think I am much prettier than this)!

today is the 4th drawing class (i skipped the 3rd one) - we were told to flip through old arts magazines and tear out pages that are interesting or that we think we can use to come up with a portrait of ourselves.

I only had 3 magazines to browse through, so not that many pictures to choose from (ok, I know these are probably just excuses - I am just not the creative sort) and this is the end result! Awful right?

daylight savings

daylight savings has ended yesterday (Sun 29 Oct at 2am), so we have to turn our time back one hour - this means the time difference between Singapore and SF is now 16 hours (we are behind)

2nd trip to SF city (4 of 4)

some more pictures taken that day...near Yerba Buena Gardens which is part of a city landscape with museums and arts venues beside office, retail and hotel spaces...

2nd trip to SF city (3 of 4)

Next up on our list was the Cable car museum (http://www.cablecarmuseum.com).

It was a rather unappealing tourist attraction, smelling of steel and metal, with the whirring sound of cables running, as it actually houses the real cables used to pull and move the cable cars in use in today's SF city!

Nonetheless, it is a historic monument that is preserved for future generations, so we are glad we made the trip there.

2nd trip to SF city (2 of 4)

after lunch, we went to the Metreon (one of the top attractions according to "Fodor's SF 25 Best guidebook"), but it is nothing more than an entertainment arcade (think Orchard Cineleisure) with theatres, IMAX, games...

the streets of SF are REALLY steep! Look at these:





To get to Grace Cathedral (http://www.gracecathedral.com recommended under Fodor's book as well), we had to walk (no, climb) up the many steep streets before reaching this cathedral perched on the top! But the experience was worth it - it is a massive and impressive building, with beautiful stained glass and decor.