BBC Season 8

HK is great!! tummies for both of us – Amanda digs the cuts of some of the dresses she has got; Philip digs the fake Rick Owenzz at I.T.

this is why shoes cost so much

martin margiela hi-tops FW09

they have this in a great patent grey too..

achilles low white

Lanvin FW09

This makes me feel like I can’t wait for December sales to come!. Staff were right to say that the fall colours would probably suit me more, just waiting for the shoe catalogue to turn up soon.  I like the polished captoes as something that seems to capture the mood more than past seasons of patent and satin/nylon – the idea is probably to convey a nice worn in mood that is at the same time with that feeling of something well kept and cared for. Most likely these will look even better with wear. The blue seems too similar to my high tops but it is still my favourite colour palette – goes with everything in my wardrobe; the purple ones are bold, brilliant and young (found alot of white hair) – set things off. Yum yum! Maya blue boxes! Maybe we should stop by Luisaviaroma while we are in Florence this week…

it took me a while…

and about 5 tries before i figured out the password to this site. SORRY AMANDA. hur.

i’ve just been lazy sitting on my plump arse with my distended belly becoming ever so…distended. yes..the niceties of civilized life.

I don’t really like New York. its too..ugh. BIG. Transport is defective and the accent irks. But one thing fo sho is that the food is bloody brilliant.

pictures courtesy of wikipedia.

The website isn’t kidding when it advertised that Katz Deli at 205 East Houston Street is the best delicatessen in town.  For the hefty price of $15 a sandwich it better as hell taste heavenly. and OH BOY. a bite of the densely packed sandwich jammed full of pastrami with melted cheese invoked happiness and joy and loveliness and goodness and more joy. The pastrami literally melted in my mouth it was so beautiful. One sandwich coupled with a can of cherry soda is the perfect combination to go for when you hit this joint. The atmosphere is true to the picture forever bustling with ordinary new yorkers who don’t give a rat’s arse about you and who only care about enjoying their food.

and if you consider trekking all the way there just for a sandwich might not be worth it…just a few doors down from Katz deli is Russ and Daughters , ‘the louvre of lox’,  that sells smoked fish of every kind, caviar etc. The smoked salmon bagel was ridiculously expensive BUT, yes BUT, there’s a whole array of cream cheese you may choose from (scallion, original, caviar, horseradish and much more) which they generously slather onto the bagel plus an equitable amount of hand slice smoked fish (salmon from many regions, sable , trout, etc) when combined produce a SERIOUSLY awesome and scrumptious smoked salmon and cheese bagel. no kidding.

picture courtesy of the russ and daughters blog

spring sprang sprung

so… spring is supposed to be round the corner, although judging by the current weather its kinda hard to believe. anyhoo, since this blog is kinda dead and chaiyee has yet to update since… new york, i shall fill it with pretty spring-y, happiness-inducing pictures of inspiration and wallow in self-pity until the exams are over in 8 weeks’ time.. until then, here’s what i look forward to this spring/summer… 

i really like this last one.. makes me miss my sister

all hail topshop!

i’m not shy to say, i am unbearably in love with topshop, as i am with american apparel. they – topshop- have fantastic collaborations (other than the increasingly intolerable one with kate moss) and i think they’re really so called ‘pushing the envelope’ with high st fashion. just looking at the structural design of the following heels and how aggressive they’ve been in moving high st AWAY from the usual river island, aldo, blah blah trash i’m actually pretty proud to have somewhat ‘grown up’ with the whole concept of topshop since i was maybe 15?? anyway, ok im just going to shut up now and let the shoes do the talking

here’s an upclose of my favourite version

just as i was deploring the state of high st today (and the lack of nothing to buy in this period of so called recession chic) topshop comes along and plonks all of the above shoes, of all days,  on a miserable snowy thursday evening. there are so many fashion bloggers out there going positively mental at the moment at the sheer amount of choices they’ve been saddled with??! oh well, as am i, i suppose haha. i was rather tempted to get the studded booties in black but then they are pretty faddish and hipster-ish and will probably prove to be too popular for me to wear them in a couple of months.. but anyway, i got 2 others eventually. btw if anyone’s reading this, you better get clicking quick, some of the above have already completely sold out online and i’m sure it’s worse in store.

p.s. – i’m really secretly loving the 80s vibe on the blue and lilac heels!!!

minimarket

in all honesty, i really didn’t want to generate more publicity for the wedge boot from minimarket but here are some lovely photos of them and i think my hopes of getting my paws in size 38 are shot. so if anyone’s actually reading this and wants the boots, you and i are now both severely incomplete individuals because the only place that stocks them online is closed for a revamp.

credits: fashionsquad

hideous.

Balmain rip-offs. From Zara. Apparently Aldo and Bebe also have copies.

I actually saw these in the window display today on my way to uni and stopped for a moment. Once I got over the false sense of euphoria from seeing all those shiny bling bling studs, the cheapo quality jolted me back to earth. Ughh.

What’s worse, this lady has on sheer tights and red nail polish under that. I mean, seriously??! Hooker much??

Space Age

Girl

VERSUS

 

Boy

Credits: stillinberlin, lookbook

Food in London?

Philip and I had (or will be having) a couple of meals in the following places and I thought I’d jot it quickly down.. 

1. Joel Robuchon A’telier

This was with Chai and Dax. Originally thought it would be great since.. Robuchon was just recently awarded 2 Michelin stars… but ohwell. Ok, the egg that Chai was pretty crazy about was original and rather nice. So was the quail stuffed with foie gras. Urm, that was it. Sorry Chai! I know you love Robuchon!!

2. Buca Di Lupo 

Is this how you spell it? Not sure. But damn good food and lovely unpretentious ambience. We had the bone marrow risotto and foie gras + pork sausage as starters.. and then we shared some meat with blood oranges and roasted potatoes and chestnuts. All in all, lovely italian stuff. 

3. Sake No Hana

Another joint by Alan Yau.. will it be another Yautcha? I’m guessing it will be slightly pretentious and irritating since we have to do the whole take off our shoes and sit on japanese mats thing But it might prove to be fun? 

4. Nahm 

The only Thai restaurant in the world with a Michelin Star. Haha, i’m a bit worried but apparently Thaksin was spotted here and so was the Thai Royal Family on holiday.. so it can’t be too bad? 

Other than these few.. I keep going back to ten ten tei, wahaca and barafina. Fino’s been closed for renovations.. and i can’t be arsed to try gordon ramsey’s again.

Alexander Wang SS09

Over hyped, predictable, done its fair round all over fashion blogs already.. and yet I’m still a fan?? On a side note, despite the absolute loveleeenesss of that meshy black angora sweater, Jessica Stam looks so out of place here..

Sweater – alexander wang, clutch – ysl, heels – nicholas kirkwood, pants – les chiffoniers, eye kohl – givenchy, necklace – f21

Balmain

Balmain has been the absolute darling of the fashion world over the last.. 2 years? But other than their famously glam- rock crystal studded dresses and impressively expensive collection (15,000 Euros for a dress anyone?), I am beginning to fall in love the the pieces above.. 80′s acid wash military denim jacket, studded dinner jackets, high-waist exposed-zip skirt and heels as well as the beautiful lace detailing on the top. The play on the shoulders is so exaggerated and reminds me so much of the crazy shoulder pads in my mum’s day that it’s difficult not to love..

Jil Sander SS09

Today I happily received my Jil Sander mailer and the Jil Sander SS09 Collection is without a doubt, my favorite by far. I can really appreciate the strong, structured silhouette juxtaposed by the soft fringing that almost seems to drape over the wearer and lends an element of surprise. Imagine walking into a room full of women with crazy elaborate bling dresses with your Jil Sander pique jacket and to kill them all off just by simply turning your back and revealing that exquisitely beautiful black waterfall fringe. The only drawback of course is the price. It’s difficult to justify spending 2000 Euros on a dress or jacket when the whole world is in recession isn’t it.

whining

I know this is meant to be a happy blog filled with our -ahem- delightful musings about food and life but hear me out.. after spending my December break in Singapore, returning to London has quite frankly been a frigging chore. To say that it has been frightfully cold is a gross understatement. All I get in London is lousier food (most of the time), lack of proper nutrition since there are no parents and maids around to spoonfeed me my daily serving of 5 types of fruits and vegetables and then ok, there is the better shopping. But I would gladly trade the shopping for continual summer all year round and have a house that is actually my own and not some miniscule rental apartment with shitty central heating. Covent Garden location or not, I am miserable.  My fingers and toes are so frozen I can barely type let alone write and walk around the house without wanting to make a mad dash for the covers. So after close to 3 years here, enough is enough!!! I want home and yeah all that bull is correct, you appreciate home alot more once you’re away from it. Gimme orh lua and char tau kuei over pan seared foie gras and aubergine caviar ANYDAY. 6 more bloody frigging months and I’m doneeeeee. I’m convinced that nowhere in the world is better than Asia and if anyone tries to reason that there are more opportunities here in Europe or there is real freedom of speech etc I’d shove my Singaporean accent up his arse.

meat

In a 2,000-square-foot industrial walk-in cooler, famed porterhouses have been dry-aged to perfection for more than 100 years.

By ALAN FEUER
NY TimesPublished: December 22, 2008

The New York porterhouse — that cut of meat found between the prime ribs and the sirloin of a cow — is a specialty dish as local and distinctive as the London broil, the Viennese schnitzel or the Parisian steak frites. It is thicker and more marbled than a T-bone, infinitely more tender than sirloin and, according to the greatest chefs, likely to be even more flavorful than the best filet mignon.

It is also — and consensus is fairly widespread on the point — New York City’s signature cut of beef. While the provenance of its name is steeped in doubt (some say it derives from Martin Morrison’s 19th-century porter house, or travelers’ inn, on Pearl Street), there is no mistaking that the dish has always found its truest home and fullest flower of expression in the enormous — and enormously crowded — meat box at Peter Luger Steak House, that Brooklyn gastro-institution, at 178 Broadway in Williamsburg, where porterhouses have been dry-aged to perfection for more than 100 years.

A 2,000-square-foot industrial walk-in cooler, the meat box is larger than many city domiciles, and is equally congested, packed from floor to ceiling at any given time with 30,000 pounds of raw, aging meat. Its smells are earthy and specific, a mineral combination of hazelnuts and sea salt, and the fatty pink short loins resting on the clean steel racks like the promise of abundance give the impression of a gluttony so bountiful and imminent that one can feel its reverberations coming through the floor, a full flight up, in the front of the house.

“It’s our sacred place,” said Jody Storch, the meat buyer and a granddaughter of Sol Forman, the Brooklyn manufacturer of metalwares who bought the restaurant from the Luger family for “a whimsically low bid” nearly 60 years ago. “It’s the heart and soul of our business. It’s almost like our vault.”

Buried under Peter Luger’s kitchen, the meat box does possess a stony vaultlike coolness, mechanically enhanced these days by oscillating fans and a softly humming Bohn refrigeration unit, which keeps the air chilled between 32 and 36 degrees. Dry-aging is essentially a process of controlled rot: at near-freezing temperatures, the natural enzymes in the meat deteriorate the muscle, inflicting it with tenderness and leaving behind not only that enriched nutty flavor, but also a delicate brownish crust.

With its old-world furnishings, its blunt, gruff-mannered staff of servers and a starkly (almost unattractive) industrial locale, Peter Luger, which opened in 1887, has always had a traditional appeal. It is at once a memory and an incarnation of everything old and steadfast in New York, on a par in its augustness with antiquities like the Oak Room, the waterfront, La Cosa Nostra and the corner Irish bar.

But perhaps foremost it is a present-day reminder of an era when the city actually worked: when tin and sugar were produced in its factories, when garments were assembled in its textile lofts, when cargo freighters full of sofas and bananas were unloaded at its docks. If that’s the case, then one is tempted to consider Luger’s meat box — despite its practicality — as an atavistic symbol. For down there in the basement, 15 tons of beef are literally working on themselves: They are growing richer, inching ever closer toward their day upon the table in the silent, patient labor of their toil.

Twilight

Who cares about the cheesy dialogue when you have THIS to look at??!!! hahaha

oh the land of the freeee

and so i have this exam tmr. err. get it over and done with already. these past few days have been agonizing. sucking the life outta me. But as always. the light as the end of the tunnel which i have been waiting for err 4 months??!!? is finally here.

So since i owe it to whoever who reads this, and amanda, and happychups..i am going to muster some enthusiasm and … i WILL post my day to day adventures in the Big Apple (all the ra ra stuff, touching bulls’ balls; street meat; christmas !; shopping; alot of GORGING and everything I see really) the next few days.

lets hope i get through immigration first. x

farking hell

The MAIN and perhaps only reason why i really love london is because of the shopping and the fashion. you wear whatever you want how ever you want and no one bats an eyelid because everyone looks equally crazy and weird. and the SALES. the sales in london are… glorious and so so brilliant. so now it brings me much much pain to say that since flying back to SG yesterday, i have and will be missing 4 frigging incredible sales. please check this out (and cry) if you missed it as well -> the angels sale (http://stylebubble.typepad.com/style_bubble/2008/12/the-angels-sale.html)  - vintage clothes from every imaginable era were sold from as low as TWO QUID. and then there are the following this weekend:

if you happen to read this and you ARE in london this weekend, then DAMN YOUUUUUUU. I am infinitely jealous and killing myself slowly over here. i want my preeen!! and my jon saunders!! and todd lynn!!!! and mcQ!!! and erdem!!! ARGHHHH.