• crammed for my final projects and exams.
• got featured on Smashing Magazine’s May wallpaper showcase.
• finished my junior year of university.
• got an apartment in NY with two friends for the summer.
• flew back home to Shanghai.
• went to the Shanghai 2010 World Expo.
• went to Taiwan last weekend.

The last few weeks of school are always horrendous, because there’s one thing piling on top of another, and if you’re absolute pants at time management like I am, you end up pulling all-nighters and putting off tasks such as … um, updating this blog. But no matter! I mean, I rant about academia enough in real life to the point of annoyance, so let’s talk about something fun. Like the my Taiwan trip last weekend!

My mom and I were in Taipei for three days, where we visited a couple museums and temples, like the Chiang Kai-Shek and the Sun Yat-sen memorials. In a way, it was like revisiting my China Civ history class again. I mean, come on — in the gift shop, they were selling plastic dolls of a baby Chiang Kai-Shek in a diaper.

Oh yeah, we also happened to eat ridiculous amounts of food. Grass jelly, boba, stinky tofu, shaved ice, steamed buns … you name it. One thing that Taipei is known for is the night market. Street vendors have stands and stands of snacks that usually total less than $1 USD each.

Like these steamed pork buns!

Or these pancakes…

…or these noodles. Oodles of noodles!

I was mad bloated by the time I walked out of the market — and this was just the street food. We also ended up eating splendidly delicious things like:

…red bean cakes. There’s a stand where they bake the dough on the spot, and then they add the filling of your choice, whether it be red bean, vanilla cream, coconut, minced pork, or whathaveyou. And then they wrap the dough and filling into this nifty cake like you see here! The cake dough is also amazingly light and fluffy so it doesn’t sit in your stomach and leave you with the feeling that you suddenly gained 38 pounds.

Vietnamese spring rolls

… and grass jelly, taro, & red bean dessert at Meet Fresh. It might not look aesthetically pleasing from the photo above, but it was amazingly good, like eating bubble tea in a bowl with extra bubbles. It had the chewy tapioca-like texture and the sweet taste of a coffee-coconut-taro-hybrid. A bit like the sago I had a while back in Singapore, I might add.

Taipei was a refreshing change from Shanghai and New York. For one, it’s cleaner. Like, you get fined if you eat or drink or even chew gum on the subway. And there are so many bikes. Every time I crossed the street, cars weren’t so much the issue when there were 2384993 motorcycles and scooters zooming past me. Too bad the weather isn’t much different from Shanghai’s usual muggy heat. Though honestly, who cares when you have TONS of good food. Clearly I’ve got my priorities straight.

Anyway, I’ll probably make a post about NOM3 (the business venture) later this week. But for now — Paris pictures! This (March 17th) was my last full day of the trip, and the inner art history geek in me had yet to check out the Louvre and the Musée de l’Orangerie.

The Louvre is massive and chock-full of famous works of art that you’ve probably seen in your history books. Like the Winged Victory of Samothrace in all its … uh, winged glory. And this one painting that I randomly found at the Louvre:

Liberty Leading the People by Delacroix — a Coldplay fan would surely recognize this!

The thing about the Louvre is that it’s so easy to get lost. I literally spent half an hour scrambling around the different wings trying to find the exit. Smooth. After that, I walked a few blocks to the Musée de l’Orangerie, which might be a tiny museum compared to the behemoth that is the Louvre. But dude, this place has some of the most AMAZING curating. Case in point:

…you might be thinking, “Uh, why did you post a bunch of pictures of Monet’s Nympheas against a white wall?” Because this, my friend, is not just any ordinary Monet’s-Nympheas-against-a-white-wall exhibit! Work with me here and imagine you’re in a closed, oval-shaped room that’s completely stark white. In the center, there’s a bench. And you’re sitting on the bench. And these huge Monets are wrapped around the walls so that you’re sitting in the middle of Monets with a 360-degree view. And all you see are the waterlilies. It sounds like such a simple concept, but there’s something to be said about immersing yourself in the paintings. AND there were two rooms of waterlilies.

The Louvre (or any museum in NY, for that matter) was totally frenetic and crowded, with throngs of people trying to snap pictures of every remotely famous work of art. On the other hand, the Orangerie is very soothing. It’s very easy to just sit on the benches for an hour and be genuinely awed by the artwork.

After the Orangerie, I went to the Pompidou and sat outside for a little bit while I ate lunch. I then met up with my friend to visit the Catacombs, where we walked past stacks and stacks of bones that made up the walls underground. It’s amazing how many skeletons were kept there!

After the Catacombs, I went back to good ol’ Pierre Hermé and Ladurée for a final macaron fix.

Isn’t the packaging adorable?!

Pistachio, green apple, rose petals, and licorice (my personal favorite!) macarons. I got a bit hungry, and subsequently, a cassis and a second licorice macaron never got to be a part of this photo.

After dinner, it was time to pack up and go home to New York. Thank goodness I didn’t run into any flight troubles like I did with my arrival flight. And so concludes my Paris trip! I miss it already. As I’m writing this now, I’m craving macarons again, except it’s not as if I can walk around the neighborhood and easily find a place that sells them. Sigh, such is life!

I started off the day with a trip to the Musée d’Orsay. It’s one of my favourite museums: a former train station filled with works of my favorite artists (Gauguin! Courbet! Renoir!) but sadly, they don’t allow photos. But if you love Impressionist art (or art history in gen) and happen to be in Paris, it’s every bit worth the visit!

Next up, I went to Musée Rodin which had this neat sculpture garden along with the actual museum. The weather was nice enough for me to sit outside and appreciate the famed sculpture below:

…The Thinker. I’m so used to seeing this on campus that seeing it in Paris didn’t really resonate with me. But once I stepped inside the actual museum, there were several sculptures that caught my eye:

Come lunchtime, I was starving and went to L’As du Falafel, where I ate one of the best falafel pitas that my taste buds have ever encountered.

A pita chock-full of eggplant, lettuce, cucumbers, and falafel? Um, yes please. After that, I did lots of window-shopping and not a whole lot of actual shopping. And I ended up at the Arc du Triomphe, because … well, just because it’s the Arc du Triomphe. Here, have some painfully tourist-y photos!

I wasn’t too keen on paying the ticket to stand right under the arc, so I passed and resorted to taking photos from the street across. I then went to Place de la Madeleine, where they had Maille. Maille has the best mustard ever. I mean, come on, their boutique has mustard on tap. And their mustard ranges from plain to fig & cilantro to berry to vanilla. If that isn’t brilliant, then I don’t know what is.

clockwise from left: red berry, apricot & curry, pesto & rocket (arugula), fig & cilantro, parmesan & basil, and dried tomato & pepper

Anyway, the next and final installment of the Paris posts will be coming soon! There will be macarons.

I’m usually not one to change layouts often. I’m quite stubborn about it. I usually spend a lot of time working on a layout that it just doesn’t feel right for me to suddenly switch layouts after a few weeks. But a few weeks ago, it occurred to me that I had had the previous layout for well over a year. I did like the layout, but in all honesty, I felt it was time for a change!

Back in autumn, I remember when Alexander McQueen (RIP) released his super amazing Spring/Summer RTW 2010 collection, and I knew that I had wanted to do a layout with a similar color palette: bright aquas and yellows mixed with muted browns. It took a while to figure out the concept of the layout, but a drawing, a marble texture, and several days later, this layout was born! It’s a little different from my previous layouts, but I hope the style is still recognizable! Anyway, feel free to give me some feedback! I’d like to hear what you think, and I’ll be updating all the pages in the meantime.

Interestingly enough, this layout is water-themed. The previous layout was earth-themed. The layout before that was air-themed. Do mine eyes detect a fire-themed layout for the next redesign? Hmmm…

And now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Outward journey: Paris Nord to Brussels Midi
Inbound journey: Brussels Midi to Paris Nord

Basically, I ended up taking advantage of the Eurostar and bought tickets for a day trip to Brussels! An hour and a half later, I was no longer in France. Purse in tow and camera in hand, I made my way out of Gare Midi and walked my way up Anspachlaan, the main road in downtown Brussels. Along the way, I came across Bourse/Beurs which is basically the stock exchange.

A lot prettier than the NYSE, if I do say so myself. And that was just the side view.

Anyway, a few turns eastward, and I finally got to Manneken Pis, which translates to um, “little man urinating.” If London has Big Ben and Paris has the Eiffel Tower, then Brussels has Manneken Pis. I remember when I was younger, my dad came back from a business trip in Belgium and brought back a wine bottle opener of the Manneken Pis with a strategically-placed corkscrew. So I suppose that was my first impression of the much-beloved icon. Anywho, I digress. I was expecting some huge, elaborate fountain but it was actually quite small — it barely took up a tiny corner of the street block. And no, that’s not what she said. For such a little guy, he drew a quite a large crowd.

Apparently there is a Janneken Pis (a female counterpart!) out there, but I didn’t get to visit. Maybe next time!

A few blocks north and I made it to Grote Markt or Grand Place, which is pretty much the main square of Brussels. Again, to make an analogy, Times Square is to New York as Piccadilly Circus is to London as Grand Place is to Brussels. Except Grand Place doesn’t have the garish neon lights or absurdly large billboards; instead, it has some of the most beautiful architecture, dating back to the 17th century. Suffice to say, the buildings definitely brought out my inner art history nerd.

This is the Brussels Town Hall, which is situated in Grand Place. Ugh, the details are totally mind-blowing.

These buildings also surround the perimeter of Grand Place; they used to be guildhalls back in the day, but now they mostly consist of different shops and boutiques.

Because food always manages to worm its way into my entries, I’ll talk about brunch that day. I’d totally talk about breakfast, except breakfast was a mere croissant and a coffee on the train. How exciting. Anyway — brunch. Brunch was had at the flagship Le Pain Quotidien. Basically, Le Pain Quotidien (or Het Dagelijks Brood) is a chain of restaurant-bakery-lovechildren with some of the most fabulous baked goods out there. The scones and spreads are incredibly delicious in all their sweet, fattening glory, and they can make some amazing tartines (open-faced sandwiches). There are a couple locations scattered around New York and I’ve even been to the one in London, but when I found myself at the Grand Sablon neighborhood, the all-too-familiar sign of Le Pain Quotidien came calling and I figured what the hell, might as well dine at the original!

Raspberry limonade!

My boeuf basilic tartine: beef tartare, pesto, parmesan, and cilantro on wheat bread! The beef tartare initially threw me off guard, but I really liked it! Might have been the pesto that sealed the deal.

After brunch, I walked over to the Grand Palais. The gates were locked (thwarted!), but I was still able to snap a couple pictures, like the one above.

One of my favorite aspects of Brussels is the architecture, by far. Brussels is so photogenic; it’s hard to take a shitty picture of the city when there’s so much art nouveau. And the detail! So, so stunning and picturesque.

I went on a Monday, so nearly all the museums were closed. I was a little disappointed when I found this out, but I’m kind of glad, because I spent most of the day walking around and ooh-ing and ah-ing over the amazing architecture and I know I probably would have spent the entire day in the Magritte or the Horta museum and missed the train. So there!

By the late afternoon, I was hungry yet again, and I got the moules-frites at Chez-Leon. Three words: mussels and fries.

So basically, I had this huge platter of fried mussels and a helping of fries on the side … I’ll let the photo speak for itself. After this meal, I was reminded once again that the best comas are food comas.

Oh, and I also had a glass of lambic raspberry beer! I love beer but holy mother, raspberry beer seriously tastes like juice. Brussels definitely has some amazing-tasting beer, and I ended up buying some bottles of Trappist beer and lambic beer (cassis and apple flavored!) to bring back home.

I then went back to Gare Midi, my newly-bought chocolates, pralines, and beer in tow as I headed back to good ol’ Paris. All in all, a good day.

But before I get started with the photos, let me just say that getting to Paris was an absolute hellish, frustrating nightmare. The original plan was that I had a flight from New York to Paris with a brief layover in Zurich. I would leave at 6pm, arrive at Charles DeGaulle at 1pm. I ended up in Paris at 7:30pm. Here’s what went terribly wrong:

• I left my campus at 3pm, hoping to make my 6:10pm flight. Normally it takes 30 minutes by cab.
• Surprise! It took 3 hours to get there, thanks to a killer combo of NY rain and Friday afternoon rush hour. Needless to say, I missed the flight to Zurich.
• I was put on a new flight to Zurich (and later, Paris), except this one would be 3 hours later, at 9pm. Okay, no big deal. I got dinner and patiently waited at the gate.
• Except it totally became a big deal when this flight was delayed by 2 hours…
• …and I missed my connecting flight by a mere 15 minutes.
• I got put on a new connecting flight to Paris, except I had to wait 3 more hours for this one. I was not amused in the slightest, but at this point, there’s nothing you can really do except take advantage of the complimentary 20 euro meal voucher. And wait.
• I barely made the flight because I had stupidly written down the gate for a Paris flight from a different airline, when I had to go to a different gate at the opposite end of the terminal. Let’s just say that two bags, two separate check-ins, and a 20 minute sprint do not mesh well.

Once I got to Paris though, everything went by smoothly. I was a little disappointed because 6 hours worth of plans were set aside thanks to me being late to the airport by 30 minutes, but hey, what can you do. After meeting up with my friend, we went to dinner and then a friend’s birthday party. Surprisingly, I fared pretty well amidst all that jetlag.

The next day (Sunday!), my friend and I went to Marché Richard Lenoir, a Thursday/Sunday market that sells all these fresh foods! Perhaps my favorite stall was the chicken lady, who sells these amazingly savoury chickens like the ones below:

My friend and I devoured the thyme chicken in a matter of minutes. I even broke the provided plastic fork in the process of my gluttony, because the chicken was that good.

After lunch at the market, we went to Berthillon on Ile Saint-Louis for some ice cream. I don’t think I can ever eat ice cream again without comparing it to Berthillon, because for the love of all that is holy, they have the most wonderful ice cream. Normally, I avoid using superlatives, especially when it comes to describing food, but this is way justified.

I had a scoop of pink grapefruit sorbet and another of gingerbread ice cream, topped with chantilly. The sorbet actually had the tartness of real grapefruit, and the gingerbread had the tiny pieces of — well, gingerbread. Such a shame that I can’t buy it in America!

Notre Dame — the much beloved Gothic spectacle — was only a short walk away.

Gothic architecture isn’t really my favorite, but I’m always in awe of the amount of detail. Stunning!

Very close to the cathedral was Shakespeare & Company, a very cute little bookstore in the Left Bank. The owner lets young writers stay in the bookstore, as evidenced by the beds and writing desks nestled between the bookshelves.

I was getting a little hungry again, so I went to Pierre Hermé which makes the best macarons known to mankind (again, me with the superlatives). I had originally planned to go later in the week, but I figured I could use a little snack.

I bought the olive oil macaron and the wasabi-strawberry macaron. The olive oil macaron has a very rich, buttery taste, but it has a little olive-y kick to it. Definitely a new favorite. The wasabi and strawberry macaron sounds horribly gross, but I go crazy for wasabi-flavored things, so I wasn’t going to pass this one up. There’s a sharp hint of mustard, but it’s balanced out by the sweet strawberries in the middle, so the overall effect is this slightly spicy strawberry taste. It’s not as disgusting as it sounds; I actually liked it quite a bit!

Ladurée also makes some mighty good macarons and other baked goods (as evidenced by the pink cake above!), so I ended up stopping there to buy a box to save for later. Afterwards, my friend and I went to Le Grand Colbert, where I had a nice dinner of steak-frites! A fun fact: we were sitting in the exact same booth where they filmed Something’s Gotta Give!

After that, I went back to snooze because I was headed for a trip to Brussels the following day. More on that later!

SIMON AMMANN, why are you so awesome. :’)

He’s definitely my favorite athlete of the Games. Why? Because this mf sweeped both ski jumping events with the gold, and now he has the record number of medals for any ski jumper. He did the same exact thing in Salt Lake, and I’m so glad that he’s in top form for these Olympic Games. In the Large Hill event (which was today), he got the best jumps in both rounds and he was over 14 points ahead of Adam Malysz, the silver medalist. If that isn’t a testament to how great he is, then I don’t know what is! What an amazing, amazing comeback.*

Can I just say, I freaking LOVE these Olympic Games. A lot of my favourite athletes (Ammann, Kramer, Bilodeau, Kearney, Shen & Zhao, etc.) have been doing so well this time around. My friends and I have been watching the games every single day; we’ll bring our homework and food to the lounge so we can cheer and shout at the TV screen and er, attempt to multitask.

Some thoughts on the men’s free-skate:

• So glad Lysacek won the gold. I love a determined, hardworking athlete, and he’s really deserving of the medal. My heart broke when Takahashi fell in the beginning of his free skate and Oda Nobunari had the bizarre incident with his laces. I’m glad that Takahashi still got a place on the podium, especially since it was his last Olympics. Despite the fact that I’m generally happy with the way the results turned out, the judging on figure skating continues to baffle me (they totally underscored Johnny Weir).
• Speaking of, I was completely turned off by Plushenko. His free skate was quite sloppy, and I’ll be damned to hell if I ever see another pelvic thrust from him. Not only that, the real kicker for me was his sour attitude after he got the silver. A quad does not a gold medal make, especially if you fall or get a wobbly landing. Evan still had the better program, and Plushenko needs to stop calling the wahmbulance. Nobody likes a sore loser.

Anyway, I can’t wait for the 1500m speed skating (GO SVEN!) tonight.

—-

* — Yes, I’m a huge ski-jumping fan. I wish it got more coverage in the US, because those leaps are AMAZING. Is anybody else a fan?

… the Opening Ceremony! My favourite parts were k.d. lang singing “Hallelujah” and the fiddlers. A pretty good way to kick off the Games, if I do say so myself.

And then the next morning, I watched Simon Ammann ski-jump his way to the gold medal. I’m such a huge fan of Simon; it’s so great to see him make such a strong comeback after Torino. I love how he knew he had the gold once he landed his final jump.

Not long after ski jumps came speed skating. I have two words for you: Sven Kramer. His skate was amaaaazing, and he pretty much blew all his competitors out of the water. Svencouver, indeed.

Alex Bilodeau is also a favourite, not just because he kicked ass on the moguls, but because he seems like a genuinely nice guy who really deserved that gold.

Last night, I was on the very edge of my seat as I watched the pairs figure skating. While I do like watching the free skate programs, the ~scandalous~ judging and the backhanded commentary on TV kind of spoil the figure-skating-watching experience for me. Nevertheless, I was so, so, so anxious for Shen and Zhao. The short program was stunning, and I was absolutely ecstatic when they won gold!

And how adorable is this quote from Zhao after the victory?

“I think it’s kind of hard to continue skating. So maybe it’s time to have a baby.”

I can’t wait until the LH ski jump (SIMON!), the speed skating events, luge, skeleton, and the ladies’ free skate. Expect more incoherent Olympic squeefests from me! In the mean time, let’s bask in the Oly love and tell me about your favourite moments during the Games!

Case in point: the duck rice (and soup, gratis!) below.

Grand total? $3 SGD, which translates to $2.16 USD. Back in NY, $2.16 could probably buy me the soup, but definitely not the duck nor the rice.

Anyway, I think we could all use a bit more food porn in our lives, so without further ado…

(click on images to enlarge)

Sago with strawberries and mango, on top of ice. Don’t be fooled by the fluorescence — the dessert had a coconut taste to it!

NAAN. I don’t think it will ever be possible for me to remotely dislike naan, especially not in its fluffy, buttery, garlicky goodness!

Mee rebus is this dish where they combine noodles, a spicy/sweet gravy-like sauce, chili, cilantro, egg, peppers, and bean sprouts to full-blown deliciousness. I need to look up recipes so I can try to replicate it back in the States.

Naan again, because it totally deserves another appearance.

Grass jelly and IQ balls for dessert. The name and colors kind of funky, but um, you’ll have to take my word that it’s really good, especially when you’ve been walking around in circles under 80-some-degree weather. It has the same coconut-esque taste as the sago above, if that helps.

Besides eating myself to a bloaty stage, I did other things in Singapore. Like ride a zipline! And a segway! And a cable car! And a toboggan! I also did lots and lots of window-shopping, walking, and picture-taking.

Anyway, I leave you with a photo of my breakfast companion and another of the beach at Sentosa!

Until then, there are more photos in my Flickr set — enjoy!

And so describes my first 12 hours in Singapore. Warm weather (compared to the usual slosh in NY) and so much good food to pick? I’m pretty much set for the next two days!

Because I’m one of those weird people that prefers to eat dessert first, this photo goes before all other food photos, hah! This was apple gelato with a hand-painted white chocolate coating made to look like an apple. The best part was definitely the chocolate “core” in the middle, hands down.