It’s all about the prints!

This season, prints are all the rage! From paisley to stripes, florals to lace.  Basically, anything goes as long as you look gorgeous.  For me, the print that I’m falling hard and head-over-heels with is birds.  It’s just a fun and whimsical print that makes me feel happy just by wearing the dress.

I picked this dress up from Warehouse on our last trip to London.  I saw it in a magazine and desperately wanted to get my hands on it, thankfully, the store still had a couple of pieces left.  At first I wasn’t too sure about the length and the pleats but the 25% discount off the normal price kinda sealed the deal for me.  Brought it home, styled the dress with another belt and I thought it worked pretty ok.  So I decided to pack the dress to New York and it made it’s debut in the park styled along with my trusty mouse-grey leather jacket and these navy blue booties.

What do you think?  Haven’t had a chance to wear this out in Singers yet.  Still wondering what sort of foot-wear the dress should be paired with for the length of the dress is slightly longer than knee-length.  Any ideas?

noma

And just like that, 10 months of my expat wife stint passed by in a flash. I guess we are really grateful to have this experience of living in Geneva. It really was the perfect springboard to many of our adventures around Europe. And the icing on the cake to mark the end of ‘Swiss life’? A dining experience at noma!

noma has been ranked as ‘The World’s Best Restaurant” for 2 years in the running now since 2010. As you would imagine, reservations would be rather difficult to secure. So when E managed to secure reservations for a party of 15 and sent us an invite along for the dinner, the Man said yes without much hesitation.

Expectations?

Mary Katrantzou

She’s the new designer that’s rocking my world.  I first spied her work while flipping through the fashion mags.  Her bold floral prints captivated me and I was thrilled to learn that she was going to collaborate with Topshop and Longchamp on a capsule collection.

Born of a greek descent – Mary Katrantzou’s intelligent use of illusory digital print, inspired by the art of trompe l’oeil, has wowed the fashion world since the launch of her label in 2008.  I stopped dead in the tracks when I saw her collection from afar while shopping at Selfridges during our recent trip to London. Each piece was like a piece of art, one that captures the floral pop trend aptly.  I didn’t bother trying any because the price point was too high for me.  The high-street collaboration on the other hand might be more suitable for the pocket.  Hehe.

Photo credit: Topshop

When the capsule collection was launched in the UK, it caused quite a stir and was sold out within minutes.  Apparently, the collection is also available on our sunny shores from 10 March 2012 onwards. I heard the collection is way smaller than the Marni at H&M collection.  It didn’t cause quite a frenzy unlike the former but all items were sold out within the hour.

Photo credit: Longchamp

Here’s another item from her designer collaboration with Longchamp that I so wanna get my hands on.  I’ve never been an avid fan of Longchamp bags but I have the travel-sized one that I love to bits for it makes a very good weekend bag.  So loving the bright and cheery floral digital print on the bag.  Does anyone know if this range is retailing here in Singers?

Table for one, please!

This was what I proudly said to my server when I arrived at Bar Boulud London on a Thursday night. ‘Table for one?‘. Heck, make that dining for one – a concept that would be totally shunned by yours truly years ago.  But something that I’m comfortable with doing now.  Yikes, could this be a function of aging?

The Man was in London for a work trip, I tagged along but couldn’t join him for his work dinner.  So it was either going to be room service or suck it in and enjoy dining in one of the celebrity restaurants at the hotel that we were staying in.

Dining alone?  Would you do it?  As mentioned earlier, it was something I never dreamed I could do.  ‘It was a ‘loser’ kind of thing to do.’ or ‘I’d rather dine at home alone than be seen dining in a restaurant on my own!’, the younger version of me would say.  The ‘mean girl’ version of me could also say ‘Look! That person is pathetic to dine on her own!’

The concept of dining alone became comfortable only when I moved to Tokyo.  The city was vibrant and I noticed that many girls actually dined on their own.  I took baby steps, first, dining in a fast-food joint on my own, then having coffee on my own in a crowded cafe and lastly dining on my own in a nice little restaurant.  I was warming up to this concept and could enjoy a leisurely lunch by myself in this city without inviting stares.

It was a Thursday evening and  Bar Boulud was crowded so I was half-expecting a counter seat.  Instead, I was shown to a table situated rather centrally in the room.  Suddenly, I felt a little conscious.  ‘Could I really do this?’  My server asked again, ‘Are you sure you are dining alone?’  ‘Yes.’ and affirmed further with a nod.  ‘I’ll bring you a paper’, she smiled and cleared the remaining cutlery off the table.  Well, I guess she probably felt sorry for me.

But you know what?  Dinner on my own here in Bar Boulud didn’t turn out all too bad.  I had the paper; I had my iPad (as a back-up; I had my iPhone; I had my camera – I had things that could clearly be my ‘companion’ for a simple meal.  So, I surveyed the menu, picked out a starter and a main for myself.  Then moved on to the wine list and selected 2 glasses of wine – a white and a red – for the meal.  The Cevelas Lyonnais en Brioche as a starter was really yummy.  It was a Lyonnais pork sausage with pistachios and truffle stuffed and baked in a brioche.  I kinda wished that I had someone to share this with for it felt a little too big for me as a starter.

For the mains, was feeling a little greedy and since Bar Boulud is pretty much famous for its burgers, I went with the Piggie burger with BBQ pulled pork, green chili mayonnaise served on a cheddar bun.  Server recommended that I add on sides with the burger, so I chose the fries to accompany the dish.  Was pretty pleased with my choice for the burger along with the pulled pork, it was simply amazing.  The green chili mayonnaise was special too but not too overpowering.

So, there.. my dinner for one on a solo night out about vibrant London.  Didn’t turned out all too bad and people-watching from my side of the table made it a fun and interesting evening for me as well. 

London in a jiffy

Part Deux of my birthday weekend getaways planned by the Man, we spent the weekend in London and here are the highlights from the trip:

Shopping in Selfridges. M&S. Topshop | Asian food galore | Best roast duck found at Four Seasons Restaurant | Sleeps at the newly-renovated Four Seasons Hotel at Park Lane | Loads of exploring on foot | Dinner by Heston

My vintage buys

I’ve been to London a couple of times but have always just hung around the High Street and most tourist sites, so this visit to London, I wanted to explore other parts which I’ve never been to.  So when R from The Pleasure Monger offered to play host-cum-guide on what I would be keen to do during our meet-up, I asked if she could bring me to check out Portobello Market.

A little destination infor – Portobello Market is one of the most famous street markets in London making it a popular destination for locals and tourists alike. Portobello Road goes straight through the heart of Notting Hill, the trendy area of London made famous by the film of the same title.  The main market day for antiques is on Saturday which was perfect for me on the hunt for some vintage buys.

Lookie at what I bought and what I’ve done with them in our loft:

Vintage Silver Tray : £4.50 [Great as a candle-holder]

Vintage plate : £3 [For dressing up those mini jars of jam]

We came back to the store the second time round and I walked home with this vintage-looking plate that would be great to dress those small desserts with.  When I came home, I found another use for them as a decor piece on my kitchen table.

Intricate vintage teaspoons : £6

R eyed these spoons but they were selling for £12 for 6 pieces which she felt was too many for her.  So I split the buys with her and went home with 3 of these which I will attempt to incorporate in my food-styling shots.

Vintage Kodak Camera : £33

This is the last of the buys.  A cool vintage Kodak Camera, also thanks to R’s keen sense of vintage-hunting.  Man, she has an astute eye for sussing out these vintage buys.  This is used as a book-stand in our apartment for now.  But when we head back to Singers, am going to put this in our study room.

Ta-dah, there you have it.  An eventful afternoon at Portobello Market with cool vintage loot to boot! 

London in a flash

When the Man told me that we were going to London for the weekend to visit Mr B, I was really excited!  It meant – hanging out with our dear and crazy friends for the weekend – check!  Shopping – double check!!  And a chance to meet up with super-talented baker extraordinaire and blogger – Ms R from The Pleasure Monger – triple check!!!.  We’ve exchanged loads of comments and had chats over twitter but nothing beats meeting this lady in the flesh.

The weekend literally passed by in a FLASH!  Of course, London greeted us with grey skies and the occasional showers, but I went prepared with my brolly.  Here’s a quick round-up of the weekend in pictures:

Friday Evening:

We were stuck at the customs for 1.5 hours and after that another hour in the weekend traffic. We arrived tired and a little hungry at Mr B’s place where we polished 3 bottles of Vino before heading out for Japanese at Roka. Made a ruckus at Roka and we were nearly chased out. That’s what you get when you put these 2 boys together who are best of pals for almost 10 years.

Chu-toro and O-toro sushi cravings satisfied at Roka

Saturday:

Blog-meet with R and I was tres-excited.  Left home an hour earlier as I was worried about getting lost, but still I was slightly late due to the closures of some of the train lines.  Minutes later, the lovely R emerged from the crowds, we exchanged greetings and she handed me a box of macarons freshly baked from her kitchen that very morning.  Aww..I was extremely touched by the gesture but was even more thrilled to have the pleasure of actually tasting her bake-treats after ‘drooling’ over the goodies that she’s made and wrote about on her blog.

Lunch was a cosy affair with loads of girlie-talk exchanged over yummy Lobster noodles at Mandarin Kitchen.  I also managed to get some really good baking and food-styling tips from the Baking Princess herself which she graciously shared.  And Cat – I finally got to sample those lobster noodles that you’ve raved about. 

Weather was starting to hold up, so we took a nice walk to Portobello Market for some vintage-hunting.  Had a good haul of vintage buys which I will share in my next post.

The Hummingbird Bakery at Portobello where I got the Hummingbird Cupcake Recipe book

I had wanted to get a pair of rain-boots, so R brought me to Selfridges to check out the massive shoe-gallery.  The Summer Sales had just started and there were some really massive discounts that we spied, but we exercised a certain amount of self-restraint.  Hehe.. And before we knew it, the 4-odd hours that we had spent flew by.  I had such a wonderful time just hanging out with R that we arranged for another one – this time in Singapore to stuff ourselves silly with local food.

Red velvet cupcakes from The Hummingbird Bakery

The Pleasure Monger’s hazelnut, black truffle and salted white chocolate macarons

My photos of the macarons don’t do justice to R’s home-made sweet delights.  We’re staying with our friends and I didn’t want them to think that I was insane bringing out all their cutlery and photographing them with the macarons.  This was the best shot I could come up with before popping them back into the refrigerator.  To me, macarons are best enjoyed after dinner!

And after dinner as we were all sitting around watching the US Open 2011 with our wines in tow, I excitedly proclaimed it was time for ‘Petite Fours’.  Brought out the macarons and split them amongst the 4 of us.  As I bit into the macaron, I was blown away by the different flavours that R has created and infused in this tiny treat.  I’ve tried the Pierre Herme White Truffle and Hazelnut Macaron once and the memory lingered on.  Now I can add on the macaron that R created and etched into this sweet memory of mine. 

Absolutely heavenly and delicious!

So that’s London in brief, I’m looking forward to our next trip there to catch up with friends and hopefully try out some new restaurants.