gourmet burgers

This cool burger joint (called The Counter - Gourmet Burgers) is located at California Avenue, a 10 min walk from our apartment on campus.

We strolled to the cafe yesterday for lunch and ordered the "make your own" burgers where you get to choose which meat patty you want, along with the type of cheese and fillings and bun to go with it.

these 2 burgers cost us USD18! But I must say they are pretty delicious, and I liked the minimalist and clean presentation of the dishes.

wonton noodles

does it look like the real stuff from Singapore? :)

fried carrot cake

we saw a pack of the carrot cake on sale at Marina supermarket and decided to grab it and try our own version of fried carrot cake here...

turned out it tasted ok - we simply added eggs and chai poh (salted turnip bits) - although it is not as good as the Hougang market version, it did taste like a Singaporean dish! :)

ground coffee

I felt like the biggest idiot in this world last Wednesday morning when I woke up for work, and happily wanted to brew myself a nice steaming hot cup of organic blend Starbucks coffee.

As I kept on stirring the coffee, I was wondering why is the damn coffee powder not dissolving in the hot water....then it struck me as I was staring at the coffee package! Ground coffee IS NOT instant coffee!!!

I am sure I am probably the only "goon du" in this world who will mistake ground for instant coffee, although I am sure my "non-Starbucks coffee-drinking" background in Singapore has more or less attributed to this silly mistake!

Actually I bought this from the supermarket as it was on offer, and I decided to "pamper" myself with some "real coffee" while I am here in US, instead of always drinking instant coffee (since there is no kopi tiam coffee here)...

So now, I have to take an extra step every morning to stir the coffee, let it settle down, and try my best to pour out the drink (sans ground coffee residue) into another cup before I can enjoy my drink - sigh, what a price to pay for this silly mistake

daylight savings started!

Daylight savings started yesterday (Sun 11 March at 2am), so we have to turn our clock/watch forward one hour - this means the time difference between Singapore and SF is now back to 15 hours (we are behind).

To help people remember, they came up with this phrase "spring forward, fall back" - so you turn your clock forward an hour in Spring, and turn it back one hour in Fall.

you know spring is coming when you see this...

ikebana #3

This is the best of the 3 flower arrangements I feel...iris and forsythia flowers - spring flowers!

The picture at the bottom was taken when I brought the arrangement back home. The next day, the iris flowers bloomed gloriously! What a beauty!

According to the teacher, there is a 2nd bud below the 1st iris flower, so when it withers, we can pluck away the petals, and the 2nd flower is supposed to come out! Amazing isn't it? :)

studying

not HL, but me...sigh (I mean HL is studying as well, but then that is what he is here for right? As for me, I think it is called "asking for it myself" when I decide to sign up AGAIN!!!)

Started studying for my CFA in late January when I got my books. I think I am reminded all over again of the torturous process of studying for exams, having to memorise and regurgitate! Arrgghh!!!

Anyhow, this is a picture HL took when we went to the Green library to study last Friday. Quite a conducive place to hit the books - quiet with lots of natural light streaming in through the large windows...ideal place for me to look up and day dream once in a while...

thai dessert

Learnt how to make coconut milk sticky rice, thai custard and sweet fish today (the thai custard in this picture looks like the steamed egg dish my mum always cooks at home - here, the 3 desserts are all packed into the container bowl I brought to class, so they are not very pleasing aesthetically)

I was the only student who signed up for this one day class. Needless to say, I got the teacher's full attention! :)

We made the sticky rice (which is pre soaked for 24 hours, and then drained of water) by cooking it in microwave for about 5 mins, then stirred to make it dry). Coconut milk (heated in a pan with lots of sugar and a pinch of salt added) is then added to the rice, stirred and left to infuse.

Thai custard is simply eggs, coconut milk and sugar stirred together and then microwaved/steamed (somehow the ones we made today didn't taste too nice - too much of the egg taste I feel, maybe because we didn't have the pandan essence that was stated as "optional" on the recipe). The sweet fish has to be "compromised" as well, in terms of ingredients. The teacher could only find dried salty fish at a Korean supermarket here (instead of dried fish that is not salty), so we had to add lots of sugar to the fish after it is crushed to lessen the salty taste, so it is actually pretty "unhealthy"!

There are a few ways to serve the sticky rice as dessert - one is with fresh mango by the side with coconut milk drizzled on top of the rice, other options include serving the rice with thai custard or sweet fish.

Simple and delicious dessert - but can be too "jer lut" when too much is consumed - *burp*

Basketball game

One of the sports that Stanford is pretty strong in traditionally is the womens' basketball.

We had the chance to go to a game at the Maples Pavilion on campus some weeks back. Organised by the I-Center, we paid only USD6 per person - a 50% subsidy was granted by the Riddle Foundation.

Lots of cheering was heard for the womens' team as they played against Washington state. They won - which was great! (the last Stanford game we went to - the football game - we lost) And I think the girls really played their hearts out...all of them are here on a basketball scholarship, which means basketball comes 1st, studies 2nd...