Cooking Lesson

My friend, S, invited me to a cooking class today. It's actually a get-together for 5 culinary experts (excluding myself) to experiment on cooking recipes. While I was unable to help much in the preparation (except adding salt?), I contributed by helping to finish the end products. We had a home-cooked 3 course meal comprising of bread, pan fried fish with stewed zucchini and tiramisu. Can you believe this?

Here are the pictures to whet your appetite: Pan fried fish and stewed zucchini (on the bottom left), freshly baked bread out from the oven (on the right) and the bread dough after kneading (on top).

Fabulicious! :)

Does Size Matter?

Peach is the IN fruit these days for me. I absolutely love them.. and wish that they will be available every season. There are two types of peaches sold here in Hanoi, one from Sapa, Vietnam and the other from China. Initially, I was drawn to the China ones because they look so yummy! But after trying both types, my vote goes to the Sapa peaches for their crunchy texture. The China ones that are a tad too soft.

Can you guess which is which?

P.S. I think the backlash on Made In China products has affected my choice slightly. :p

Romancing Italy 2 - ReLaxing Lago Di Como

On our second day, we met C early in the morning to drop off our bags at her house before heading off to Lake Como (Lago Di Como). This lake is 50 km north of Milan and known for its stunning view and fairytale lakeside villages. How could we miss this? :) We took a 45 mins train ride from Milan Stazione Centrale to Como San Giovanni Station, walked to the ferry terminal (around 20 mins) before boarding a fast service boat to Bellagio.

Enchanting welcome to Lake Como

The moment we arrived at Bellagio, I thought the entire place appeared right out from a story book! Low, brightly coloured buildings coupled with generous flowers at the balconies, small twirling stairways, eateries by the lake... utterly perfect combination.

Only one word to describe.. pretty...

See the small stairway?

As it was a small town, we tooked our time to explore around. We saw many interesting shops around and I was tempted to buy souveniors all the time! Luckily, M was around to curb my shopping appetite. My eating appetite was beyond his control though. I succumbed to a serving of fruita fresca (fresh strawberries) from one of the shops. Perhaps it was the hot weather but they tasted rather yummy to me.

See the rows of shophouses on both sides?

Nice glassware but unaffordable for me :(

After much walking around, we were both hungry and decided to have lunch at one of Frommers' recommended places, Silvio. The guide says this family-run restaurant, located at one end of the town, was often frequented by the locals and serves great food at reasonable prices. Sounds good right? What we didn't know is that our walk there would take 30 minutes. Under the hot afternoon sun, I was grouchy and grumpy, openly blaming M (though I agreed to go there in the first place).

When we reached there, the place was really crowded. We managed to get a seat in the corner and ordered our food. I must say this place was a little over-rated as our food turned out only average. But the restaurant has a good view though. :)

Located right at the far corner of Bellagio...

The scenic view you can enjoy from Silvio

By the time we got back to the centre of the town from Silvio, we had just missed the 3pm boat ride back to Como. Well, we decided to do something relaxing for a change i.e. just sitting by the lake and enjoying the great view.

See what I mean here?

At 4pm, we boarded the fast boat back to Como and from there, made our way back to Milan, where we were meeting C for dinner. She brought us to a very delicious seafood spaghetti place where we indulged in a huge serving of yummy, appetizing seafood spaghetti, average salad and delicious but slight salty mussels + clams soup. I wanted to take a picture of the restaurant but somehow, it slipped my mind as I was chatting with C. In this case, C, not food, prevails. We haven't seen each other for a long while...

After dinner, we headed back to C's apartment where she kindly put us up for the night. We continued our endless chat but it wasn't long before I started feeling dozy, suffering from the effect of jet lag. The romantic city Venice beckoned the next day but for that night, I was contented catching up on my beauty sleep in the comfort of C's home. zzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Romancing Italy 1 - Magical Milan

Here's the first part to my 10 day sidetrack from Hanoi.

M and I went for a trip to Italy recently, covering Milan, Venice, Florence and Rome. Each city has its share of wonderful sights to see and it was definitely an "eye-catching" experience for us (esp for me since this was my first trip to Europe). Even the flight that we took to Milan was a new experience. We took the new SQ aircraft (heavily advertised) that boasted of newly launched Economy Class seats, wider range of inflight entertainment services and longer seat pitch. For long range flights, I must say all these are very important. So we started off our trip on a high note.

After a 12 hour flight, we arrived in Milan at 6am in the morning. The excitement of being in Italy gave me the adrenaline rush which kept me going (I couldn't sleep on the plane), only to be doused by the long wait at the immigration. I don't mean to complain but the wait was simply too long. By the time we cleared, it was close to 8.30am (yes, 2 long hours!). Definitely not a warm welcome. We took an airport shuttle to Milan Central Station (Stazione Centrale) before taking the subway to Repubblica Station. From there, we made our way to Windsor Hotel (recommended by my good friend, C, who stays in Milan). It was a fairly nice and sweet hotel, though a bit small. Immediately, we dropped our bags and started our exploration around the city.

Piazza del Duomo
Our first stop was the most famous cathedral in Milan, Piazza del Duomo. While parts of it was under restoration, the impressive gothic architecture coupled with pinnacle structures on the roof was still an amazing sight.

This is the front view of the Duomo.

On a closer look...

The square in front of Duomo

M, however, aptly reminded me that cathedrals of such scale were by far many in Italy and there would be plenty of chances for me to get awed subsequently (which I realised later was true!). We went into the cathedral to enjoy the interior decor and beautiful stained glass windows. Unfortunately, the pictures I took didn't turn out well. :(

Galleria Vittorio Emanuele
Next to the Duomo is the famous shopping mall in Milan, known as Galleria Vittorio Emanuele. This building was constructed in the 18th century and houses some of the world-famous brand names in Italy, such as Prada, Gucci and even McDonalds! We went for our first fast food meal at Mac (but only M ate because I am anti-fast fooder) and paid an exhorbitant 8 euros for a meal. Ouch!

Taken from the main entrance to the gallery. Impressive dome!

Notice that all the signboards are in black and gold?

It was definitely fun browsing through the shops but buying was a "no-no" for me. The prices were rocket high. We didn't spend too much time here though as there were lots more to see in Milan.

Castello Sforzesco
Our next stop was a famous fortress in Milan that now houses several museums, called Castello Sforzesco.

The horrible wires spoilt my picture!

As we didn't have much time, we decided to give the museums a miss especially since we were heading to Florence and Rome where greater museums can be found. We strolled around for a while and this was when I saw a tram!

I know this sounds funny but it is the first real-live working tram that I have ever seen in my life! I hurriedly fished out my camera to take a snap and I must say that Italian driver was really kind. He actually slowed down and waved to us when he saw me holding the camera. Grazie!

Santa Maria delle Grazie
Now, here is the first lesson learnt from my trip. When the travel guide says that you must reserve any tickets in advance, trust it. M and I thought that the queue to see "The Last Supper" shouldn't be that long in summer but we were wrong. The tickets for the following 2 weeks were sold out! I wasn't that disappointed actually since I already know how the picture looked like but was vaguely irritated by the rude receptionist who "shooed" us away. So we decided to walk around and take some pictures. We also had our first taste of ice cream in Italy, at a gelataria nearby. I chose a fruity flavour and thought it was not too bad...

Front view of the church.

Santa Maria presso San Satiro
Our last item on our "must-see" sight was a church called San Satiro. This church was commissioned from Milan's foremost Renaissance architect, Bramante, in 1476. The uniqueness of this church lies in its Armenian architecture, which made it stand out from the rest of the churches I have seen in Milan.

See, no dome!

Feeling a little tired from the jet lag, we went back to our hotel for a quick shower before meeting C for dinner. It was really great to see her again. :) C brought us to a nice pizza eatery called Pizza Big and we ordered two big pizzas to share. It's amazing how fluent C spoke in Italian. My Vietnamese is not even half as good. In my hunger, I forgot to take pictures of us and the restaurant for keepsake. Well... I always knew my stomach ranked high in my priorty list. We went back to our hotel after dinner and had an early night because the next day, Lake Como beckoned!

Relativity

Have been immersed in the sweltering heat in Hanoi the past few days. Temperatures range between 36 to 38 degrees in the afternoon. Dread going out in this heat, especially since most of the shops in Hanoi are not air-conditioned. Was down with flu since last week and it's taking a long while to recover. Irritated, I decided to brew some herbal soup for myself this morning (using Chinese herbs that my mum brought for me from Singapore) and go to the gym. Read from SHAPE magazine (my favourite!) that it's better to do a light workout when one has a slight cold or cough, instead of avoiding exercising completely. Not sure whether it was the herbal tea or exercise, but I really felt better after my workout.

Was enjoying my porridge lunch today when suddenly, there was a blackout. This is quite common in Hanoi because there is a shortage of electricity supply. At this crucial moment, I realised that contrary to what my housing agent claimed, there is no back-up generator at my house! Furious and hot, I immediately called M, who calmly told me that he would discuss this with me at night. Of course he was calm! He was talking to me in the comfort of his air-conditioned office! I stomped back to my seat to the amusement of my helper, H, and continued my lunch, using newpapers to fan myself. It was really quite a funny sight. Me and H, bathed in hot sweat, eating hot porridge and fanning ourselves furiously. We finished our lunch pretty quickly because both of us didn't have much of an appetite in this sauna weather and started chatting, weak attempts to divert our attention away from the heat.

Suddenly, the fan revived! We both yelped for joy and relished each moment as the wind pranced on our faces. I never appreciated the fan so much before. It was at this moment that I understood the meaning of relativity. Who says that the air-conditioner is better than the fan? Once you have been baked in the afternoon heat for close to 1 hour, you will realise that the fan is the most glorious electrical appliance ever. I should really learn to appreciate the smallest thing in life.

Back after 1 Month! Lappy has Revived!

I am back! It has been a really long while since I last updated my blog and the reason for this is the long break taken by my laptop. The screen just went blank for no reason a month ago and I couldn't revive it no matter what I did. (Of course, in between included my first trip to Europe which I will blog later.) Anyway, I got so frustrated with my Lappy that I banished it to the cold corner of my study room (though I will turn it on every day hoping that it will work). After 4 weeks of cold turkey, Lappy revived amazingly! This is the second time that I am experiencing life without Lappy and it's really plain torture. I hope I don't have to go through it again. (fingers crossed 10X)

On a separate note, M was telling me that there is a geeky forum that he reads which mentions Acer Travelmate (the model of Lappy) seems to have this problem of "blanking out" pretty frequently. "So how can I resolve this problem?" I asked anxiously. He smiled mischieviously and said, "You can either change a new laptop or hope for the best." Definitely not the answer that I want to hear. :(

Sigh.. I should have stuck to my choice of my white Sony Vios instead of succumbing to the persuasion of the sales staff at Harvey Norman. Sigh 4X.