Xmas Eve Dinner

Finally got the time to unwind and focus on something else other than work.

Christmas Eve was on a Friday, what better way to spend the day with few close friends and home cooked food!

I woke up at 11am and headed straight to Carrefour to get what I needed for the preparation. Before I know it, it’s already 1pm and my trolley is piled with ingredients and food enough to feed a classroom! Not to mention the amount of money I had to spend…food in Shanghai is just expensive, period.

I was afraid I wouldn’t have enough time to prepare the food I wanted to cook for the night, but at 5pm, I found that I finished everything and dinner wasn’t going to start until 8pm. That’s when I got bored and started calling my friends to come over already. I’m definitely not the best cook nor the best host, but overall, I’d say dinner worked out pretty well.

Bruschetta's

Lasaaaagne (Sorry picture a little blurry)

 

Pork Chops and Mushroom Gravy

Last but not least, no-bake Rasberry Oreo Cheesecake!

I’m definitely not made for food photography but I’m made for eating.

Attack of the unneccessary details

It’s quite nerve-wrecking when people try to tell you something and can’t really get to the point. It’s either they’re afraid that without any background context, you wouldn’t get where they’re coming from, so they take you on a long and tedious almost like a roller coaster kind of ride before coming down to the main point of the conversation, or that they’re just very bad at story-telling.

Ofcourse in most cases it’s good to know a little bit of a background context before diving into the main issue or point of the conversation, but if you stay on too long with unnecessary details, people become less interested in what you have to say. A dialogue becomes a monologue. A monologue becomes a soliloquy.

The most important thing to becoming a good conversation maker is to be considerate. May it be giving a speech, leading a meeting or even down to telling anecdotes, you want to be aware of the point you’re trying to make and most importantly, who is listening to you. Whereas, to become a good listener is to be empathetic. And often, empathy comes with being silent, as it plays an important part in effective conversation just as it does in music.

This also applies to online chats. Interestingly, online chats have allowed people to express more but also at the same time become absorbed in their own minds, thus leading to conversations that involve a lot of unnecessary details. The fact that you can’t see the other person easily lets you become disregardful of your listener while you type away, bombarding the entire conversation box with messages coming only from you.

But, like in every situations there is always a counter-balance. You as a listener can simply ignore or close the conversation box and the problem is solved. If only there were a lesson or two on conversation etiquette, then our world will probably be more understanding of each other.

This was my nickname when I was younger.

All I really want to do is…

EAT! Well, cook first, then eat.

A friend introduced me to Taste Spotting, an obsessive, compulsive collection of eye-catching images that link to something deliciously interesting on the other side…which is…recipes!

I need my daily dose of taste spotting simply because looking at mouth-watering food images makes my day. I get inspired by these images/recipes to further experiment on my own cooking, and sometimes I wonder if the possibility of creating new dishes is actually infinite.

For me, food is the ultimate recipe to happiness. Here are a few delicious dishes that gave me my inspiration for the week that I’d like to share with you:

 

Curried meatballs and potatoes. (From soupbelly.com)

 

Chocolate Profiteroles. From Chichoskitchen

Pork and Chorizo Chilli. From Pink Parsley

Lemon, Lime and Garlic Shrimp. From Seasaltwithfood

Planked scallops with ginger and bacon. From Anotherpintplease

YUM! I can’t take this anymore, I know what I’ll be doing tonight.

My relationship with technology

Owning technology is like having a boyfriend.

Honeymoon Phase:
I got my first ever Mac product, an iBook G4, and I was in love. I loved it’s white glossy cover, the crispy click click sound the keyboard makes and the long-lasting battery power that seem to just never die. Celebration of the novelty.

Knowing him more and loving it:
I started spending a lot of time and began finding out all the cool stuff I can do with the iBook. I’d go out shopping for softwares to pimp the whole thing up. And yes, whenever I have to be somewhere with my laptop, I’d show it off and am proud of it. Sony Vaio? puhhh, my iBook is better.

Time for flaws:
I started finding tons of them. I found that I cannot use MSN at the same time as Microsoft Word or else my computer will freeze. I cannot type Chinese on my Powerpoint or else my computer will freeze. I can’t listen to iTunes and use iPhoto at the same time or else my computer will freeze. What the hell is wrong with you iBook?!

Still patient:
But I compromise. I came around to you. I stopped chatting when I use Word, I never type Chinese on powerpoint and I never listen to music and edit my pictures at the same time. Happy now?

Can’t take it anymore:
Why do you still freeze on me?! God I hate you! I slam my iBook shut and throw it far into the corner of my bed.

But I still need you:
You suck, but I need you. I can’t work without you, I can’t update my iPod without you, I can’t do anything without you.

After a while:
I took a long glare at you and realized…you’re not as white as I thought you were, you’re becoming lazy because all you do is freeze on me. You’re getting really big and fat, I can’t carry you around with me anymore. And then when people ask me about you, I go “Yeah I have a Mac, it’s alright, nothing special.” I don’t think I’m in love with you anymore iBook…

Time to move on:
I didn’t want to admit that it’s over with my iBook, but when I saw that new white glossy Macbook sitting in the store window…I knew it was really over. Yes it’s time to move on.

I’m like this with my Nokia Phone. I’m currently in the “I still need you” phase with my Nokia N81, give it one more year and I will be spotting for a new replacement.

Relationships are complicated. Let alone ones with technology, it won’t last, it never will. And don’t even try talking monogamy with technologies…

Skills not to be looked down on

My mom, sister and I visited a mini textile factory just outside of Yangzhou, a lovely, historically rich tier 2 maybe 3 city, let’s make it 2.5. The owner, who is a good friend of my uncle’s, welcomed us when we arrived at Yangzhou, so we thought it respectful to pay his factory a visit.

When we got there, the factory was empty because of the National holiday but a seamstress was around finishing up work. We were introduced to each other by the owner and found that she happened to have lived in Thailand for 12 years doing the same job for a different factory. As we talked, I learned that a lot of European designers usually outsource seamers and seamstresses in China to do the sewing and then have the dresses shipped back to Europe for sale. She showed us the brands they work with and the actual dresses that they’ve been producing – my god are they beautiful, as if they were handmade by the designers themselves. But hold on there, that’s not the right way to think things, which brought me to write about it. I may sound like an ignorant brat who just came to realization the reality of things, but hey you can’t blame me for not knowing.

So, the factory hand-produces wedding gowns and evening gowns sold in the States and France. I’ve always known that a lot of clothes are being produced here in Asia, like Gap, H&M and such, but what I wasn’t aware of was even beautifully, couture wedding and evening gowns are also being produced here. You have workers who are skilled through decades of experience, who may not know much about the latest trend like Anna Wintour but who knows every details of what makes a dress, a dress. The seamstress knows what fits you and what compliments you. She understand perfectly your size and your proportion just buy looking at you.

Then you have people like me, who have always thought that classic looking beautiful couture gowns that are worth so much money are hand made by the designers themselves. But I’m fooled like many other people that couture is only great because it’s ‘original’ from Europe, but the reality is, the best often come from third world countries. In fact, the best of many things do come from third world countries, and this should be made known. Not everything from the west means that it is good. The east can be as good, and even sometimes better, in terms of skills, talent and quality.

Mini Textile Factory

Mannuequins

Factory on holiday