For winter hols (that’s late December for you Southern hemisphere folk), the fam and I went to Vietnam (Hanoi, Ha Long Bay, Saigon) and Cambodia (Siem Reap). Yes, it was awesome, and yes, I practically lived on pho. I’ve uploaded some photos here and here, but you can also click on the photos for a larger size if 600×400 won’t cut it.

VIETNAM:

Ha Long Bay is a bay (duh) dotted by these lovely limestone karst formations and beaches. Upon our arrival, we took a boat ride along the water, but the sky was too foggy to really make out any of the limestone shapes.

Along the boat ride, we would encounter several smaller boats selling fresh fruit.

CAMBODIA:
If you’re really into ruins, I highly implore you to check out Cambodia the next time you’re hitting up the travel guides, because HOLY CRAP Angkor Wat will be like icing on the cake for you. They filmed Lara Croft here, but while traversing the ruins, I felt more like a contestant on Legends of the Hidden Temple looking for the Stolen Arm of Shiva, without a Pendant of Life than an Angelina Jolie namesake — which, for the record, is a far more awesome feeling.

In a way, Angkor Wat reminds me a bit of climbing the Great Wall or hiking Machu Picchu. But unlike those two places, it doesn’t come with the nasty side effects of fatigue from incessant uphill hiking (Great Wall) or altitude sickness (Machu Picchu). Instead, the temple complex is laid out across a huge expanse of flat land. And whereas the other two feel like a massive trail to hike or a wall to conquer, exploring Angkor Wat is less a show of your physical strength and more about appreciating the architecture. And fun fact: in the middle of writing this entry, I’ve just learned that it’s the largest religious building in the world.

But to be perfectly fair, there were stairs. In fact, you might be looking at this photo and thinking, “Gee, that staircase sure looks pretty steep!” Well! If the people grabbing the side of the rails for dear life don’t give it away…

…then this just might:

Once I was back on even footing, it was fun to watch in amusement (and horror!) as the other tourists held on for dear life as they tried to make the treacherous flight down.

We climbed this temple just in time for the sunset.

Anyway! That’s Vietnam and Cambodia for you. I greatly apologize for the dearth of food photos (after all, me and food porn are practically synonymous by this point) but after you take photos of five different bowls of pho, it gets to the point of “REALLY, CINDY, REALLY?” To make up for it, I promise I’ve got bucketloads of food photos that never really saw the light of day on this blog. Now I’m craving pho.

Anyway. I’ve got 357 more days to appreciate whatever the year has to throw my way, so no matter. Instead, I’ll talk about 2010, which was actually a pretty good year. Like most years, I did an absolutely shit job at remembering — let alone keeping — my resolutions, and there are still areas in dire need of self-improvement. However, 2010 wasn’t like 2009, which got off to a fantastic start only to fizzle out come September. Nor was it like 2007, which swung to pendulum-esque extremes of highs and lows. Nor was it like 2006, which uh — plain sucked, end of story. The fact that I made it through 2010 alive and enjoyed myself along the duration of the ride is probably a Very Good Thing, because usually during intropsective times like these, I tend to launch into hyper-critical mode where I’m like THIS YEAR COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER IF I (verb) AND IF I HAD BEEN MORE (adjective). Yeah, my super-deep entries about Life and Other Facets of the Universe are, in fact, glorified Mad Libs games. What about it.

Since pictures do a better job of speaking a thousand words or whatever, and I’m feeling inarticulate at the moment, I’m going to pilfer through my Flickr and present to you my year in pictures. So, let’s do the Time Warp (…AGAIN!) and relive my 2010. It’s picture-heavy and it errs on this side of rambly, so don’t say that I didn’t warn you!

(click on the photo to zoom)

JANUARY:

Still reeling from the hot mess that was the latter half of 2009, I rang in the New Year at Phuket in Thailand. I distinctly remember I had a delicious Pad Thai, pineapple rice, and Thai iced tea that dinner, and I watched the fireworks from the window.

WHY HELLO, Singapore. I went with my mom on a business trip to the Lion City, and just about gorged myself on every delicious thing known to mankind: naan, grass jelly, mee rebus — no seriously. Check out the Flickr set if you think I’m merely listing deliciously good food solely for shits and giggles. Needless to say, all the abundance of good food more than made up for the swelteringly hot weather.

…and I turned 21 aka the legal drinking age in the US.

I also got a New York driver’s license that month and kicked off the spring semester of my junior year.

FEBRUARY:

(source)

Let’s see — February? I basically stanned the hell out of the Winter Olympics (2). There are few other forms of entertainment as gratifying as fangirling your favourite athletes and screaming at the TV, so thank goodness for those glorious two weeks.

MARCH:

PARIS, je t’aime! During Spring Break, I visited a good friend of mine who was studying abroad in the City of Lights (and Love!). I chilled out at her apartment, and while she was in class, I’d venture out in the city and stuff myself silly with macarons.

Which brings me to my new favourite European city: Brussels! During my week in Paris, I took a day trip to the EU capital and fell in love with the city. I can’t really put my finger on why the city appeals to me so much, but there’s something to be said about things like lambic beer, moules-frites, Le Pain Quotidien, art nouveau, and the Magritte museum.

Not too long after I got back from Europe, I gave this site a much-needed brand-spankin’-new facelift. And a couple friends and I worked on NOM^3, a student-run business venture to bring a food truck to our campus.

APRIL:

April was a relatively quiet month, as I had just wrapped up my midterms. I took two different weekend trips that month: one to D.C. and another to Princeton. I didn’t really take many photos during that time, so um, have a gratuitous photo of a meerkat that I took in the zoo at D.C.?

MAY:
I finished junior year, and let’s just say I was ever-so-glad to put that year to rest.

After exams, I headed home to Shanghai with a few friends in tow. We visited the Shanghai Expo, which consisted of super cool pavilions (like the UK one) that made my inner architecture geek swoon and super long lines that would put any major theme park to shame. I remember waiting around 3 hours for the Switzerland one. In my defense, it had a SKI LIFT ON THE ROOF, OKAY.

While I was on the other side of the hemisphere, my mom had a business trip in Taipei, and I tagged along. It was there I uncovered my love for night markets and rediscovered my love for grass jelly and steamed pork buns.

And then near the end of May, I had a weird fever/flu bug, which meant that I was basically confined to the house for the last few days of Shanghai. Boo. But on a plus side, I got featured in this wallpaper showcase for Smashing Magazine!

JUNE/JULY:

I’ve got two words for you: WORLD CUP. I don’t understand what is with me and organized sporting events that reduces me to a ridiculous level of excitement and fangirlishness, but we can discuss my sanity later and talk about the World Cup. Talking about the World Cup gives me pangs of nostalgia because I suddenly get “Wavin’ Flag” by K’naan stuck in my head and I fondly remember going pub-hopping for all the games and bonding with so many people over the beautiful game. (And for all the games that aired on weekdays, we’d watch them all on a projector screen in the office, so there was no way I was missing a game.) There’s no possible way for me to elaborate more without me blathering about how proud I am of Die Nationalmannschaft. Germany/Argentina — look that game up and watch it in its 90 minutes of amazing entirety if you don’t believe me! (And I’ll um, forget that 07/07 ever happened. Selective memory LA LA LA.)

In non-football related events, I got an apartment for the summer with two friends of mine, I started a new internship, and my brother came to visit me for about a week.

AUGUST:

If I had to make a list of the top 5 places that I’ve visited, Kenya would rank among them. It’s one of those places that renders words like “breathtaking” or “stunning” so prosaic and inadequate. I went with my family on a safari to Masai Mara, Nakuru, Aberdare, and Hell’s Gate, and I’ve been itching to go back.

Later that month, my friend and I finally fulfilled our dream of going to South America, and we went on a weeklong backpacking trip in Peru, where we trekked around the country through Huaraz, Cusco, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, and Lima. The high altitude got wind of me, but no matter! If you want an otherworldly travel destination with natural splendor and good food to boot, GO TO PERU and never be disappointed.

SEPTEMBER:
I started senior year and immediately kicked into let’s-freak-out-about-the-LSATs mode. When I didn’t have my nose buried into an LSAT prep book, I went to Fashion’s Night Out (where I saw Marc Jacobs! In the flesh!), I met Anthony Bourdain at the 92Y (he signed my copy of Medium Raw!), and I stalked Joseph Gordon-Levitt who was filming his new film on our campus. But I mostly freaked out about LSATs. So much so that I have no photos to capture my alarming stress levels.

OCTOBER:
I finally took those darned LSATs. And I had midterms following that week, because academia is a cruel mistress.

For fall break, my friend and I went to Las Vegas, where we hit up the Strip and took a day-long jaunt to Death Valley. We didn’t gamble much because I’m of the risk-averse sort, but um, we ate a bunch of good food if that’s worth anything. And we went to a Halloween party at a club. In Vegas.

NOVEMBER:
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows got released, and I went to the midnight premiere and remembered why I love the series so much. Not that I actually needed a reminder, but you know.

On a suckier note, I got a nasty bout of food poisoning during Thanksgiving break, and subsequently spent the remainder of the break getting acquainted with the bathroom floor. And then I got a nasty cold right after. Now that I think about it, my immune system was a bucketload of FAIL this entire year.

DECEMBER:
I finally finished my exams! First half of senior year — complete! Cue the unnerving epiphany that I’ll be graduating in four months hitting me like a ton of bricks.

Later that month, my family and I went to Vietnam (Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City) and Cambodia (Siem Reap) for our winter break vacation. I ate enough pho to feed an entire family and went to many of the locations filmed in Lara Croft (Angkor Wat, anybody?), albeit not with the intent of going through the Cradle of Life.

PHEW. Typing this entry was like a whirlwind in itself because there’s something to be said about trying to recount what you did in X month of Y year especially when you have only the dregs of your immune system to combat this devil of a flu. Also, I realize that I never blogged about most of these events. FOR SHAME. There goes one of my failed resolutions from 2010.

Sickness aside, I’m curious to see what 2011 has in store. For one, I graduate, which is a daunting milestone event with possible side effects that include job-finding stress, existential crises, and a weird sense of nostalgia for the last four years. I don’t know where I’m going to be a year from now, let alone eight months. This is a fact that is both exciting yet extremely capable of raising my blood pressure levels. It’s crazy to think that four years ago, I was in the exact same position, not knowing where I’d end up for uni, and welp. Here we are again.

What do you have planned for 2011? Any resolutions or goals that you’d like to accomplish?

• In May, I went home for two weeks and managed to get myself sick with a fever.
• I worked for most of the summer doing webdesign for my school’s IT department.
• I went absolutely crazy over the World Cup. We installed a huge projector at work so we could watch all the games live, and during the weekends, my friends and I would go out to different bars/pubs in NY to cheer for our favorite teams (DEUTSCHLAND ♥!). Fun and merriment (and beer) were had by all!

Overall, my summer (June and July) was pretty low-key — pretty much just chilling out in New York. And studying for LSATs, but let’s think happy thoughts here! August was pretty exciting though, because I went to Kenya with my family! Out of all the places I’ve been, Kenya ranks pretty high up there on my All Time Favorite Places list. The people are genuinely welcoming, the weather is nice and breezy, the landscape is too gorgeous for words, and the animals, oh my god. I’m talking lions, zebras, gazelles, elephants, buffalo, giraffes, flamingos, hippos, monkeys, etc etc. It’s one thing to see them on the Discovery Channel or in a zoo, but it’s a whole different experience to stand right in front of a herd of zebras or walk balk to your tent only to find a monkey sitting right outside the door.

During the late summer, all the animals in the Serengeti of Tanzania migrate northwards to Kenya, so we came at a good time. We went on a safari through the major parks in Kenya: Aberdare for elephants, Lake Nakuru for flamingos and monkeys, Hell’s Gate for hippos and giraffes, and Masai Mara for everything else and then some. I posted all my photos in my Flickr set, if you’d like to take a look! Or you could just scroll down (click to view larger!).

I already miss it so much.

• 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.

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!