Beautiful people: Gemma Arterton

I love beautiful people and this year, Hollywood has more newcomers which caught my attention. They are so gorgeous on screen that I can't help but wonder how their parents look like. How come two persons of different looks can produce such fine beauty. Ok, my definition of beauty may be different from yours. When I mean beautiful, I mean individuals with either well-proportional features or such interesting features that when combined, it makes them unique yet memorable.

This girl belongs to the first category. Her name is Gemma Arterton.

Who? Which one? You may ask. Honestly I don't remember her name too but when I watched Clash of the Titans, I was struck by her beauty. Let me tell you why.

I was watching Clash of the Titans and I remembered how bored the movie would turn out as I don't really like action movie with ancient settings (eg. Gladiator, Prince of Persia). Anyway, while I was dozing off, I saw this fair lady appearing in the show.

Is it the lighting or what? She looks so fair and has a classic beauty look. Oh and that glitter in her eyes when she smiled in the movie. I totally understand why the male character will fall in love with her, a witch.

She looks so sweet and elegant right? She may look skinny because of her small face but in actual fact, she has a full figure. You know, those Bah Bah kind.

Apparently, Gemma Arterton is an English actress who rises to fame with her character as the Bond Girl in Quantum of Solace, the James Bond movie starring Craig David. At the age of 22, she was the youngest girl ever to be the Bond Girl. I don't remember her then.

More about her, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemma_Arterton


More real-life pictures of her:

Gemma Arterton then in Quantum of Solace:

She looked a bit Chao Lao back then and I think she is more suitable for those roles in those epic films.

Anyway, her next appearance will the role of a princess in the movie, Prince of Persia. I would love to see her again but I hope they won't give her that fringe! haha

A VERY HEALTHY Korean dinner at Gaia Korean Restaurant

If you were to ask me to describe this dinner, I'd think of this phrase "backside very itchy." LOL In case you don't know what it means, it is a sarcasm translated directly from this chinese phrase "屁股痒！"

It all started with me craving badly for Korean food yesterday night. I felt so hungry that the minute I thought of food, Bibimbap came to my mind. Bibimbap is the kind f hot stone rice with egg york and lots of different types of vegetables where you will mix with chili bean paste and eat it straight from the hot stone bowl. My only exposure to Korean cuisine were the bibimbap that I always have at Bugis Junction food court and the hot plate black pepper beef at Raffles City food court that my father used to bring me so often. Anyway, I couldn't sleep and spent half of the night online-searching for restaurants that serve authentic Korean cuisine. I went to hungrygowhere.com.sg and Gaia Korean Restaurant is the one that is highly recommended with good review. "Gaia Korea Restaurant shall be it!" I told myself and des went to make reservation.

Being so excited about our first time having authentic Korean food, des and I went straight to Suntec City right after our movie. I read from the review and it is stated that the food is so good and healthy at the same time. It just made me happier since I'm supposed to be on diet!

The restaurant is owned by a middle-aged couples and the waiters there are mainly Koreans! Very cool indeed. You know they serve authentic Korean food because there are so few choices from the menu and the Korean names just made it sound so complicated.

In the end, we decided on just a bibimbap, beef soup and a seafood pancake (since they are highly recommended in the reviews).

We were so excited ok!
While waiting for our main dishes, side dishes were served. Looks so good right? But honestly, other than the homemade Kimchi and Lotus Roots, they just tasted funny. The taste was very simple and hard to describe. There was nothing unique to it but you see, maybe that's the taste of authentic Korean fare.

I asked des if he liked it, he said yes but I knew he was lying because he kept blinking! haha. Honestly, I don't like it too but I tried to refrain from commenting as I did not want to spoil my dinner mood. haha

The seafood pancake was first served. It costs around $18 and it's humongous! 5 eggs were probably used to make this. But the thing about this pancake is, it tastes a bit like oyster omelet as the base is like dough texture and the top is egg.

Again, nothing special about it. I thought it's written as seafood pancake because I can find prawns and squids in it but I can only find very few pieces of squids with lots of spring onion. Not savoury enough. :(

Next was the beef soup. It came bubbling and I looked forward to tasting it. I watched too many Korean drama where you see the mother-in-law scooping one big scoop of bean paste and stirring in the pot of boiling water. Next thing you know, your tummy will be grumbling and craving for that bowl of soup. I was initially glad to see that the soup matched the one that I always wanted to try. It contained lots of vegetable, tang hoon (glass noodle) and beef. Indeed, it does look appetizing in the photo but honestly, I'm disappointed once again!

There was only 4-5 small pieces of beef slices (absolutely tiny ones, so small that I think some probably dissolved along the way). The soup is not rich like those we had at Japanese restaurants where the menu reads beef soup and you really taste beef in the soup. This, tastes of chili powder and plain water. Yum Yum *sarcasm*

Just when I lost hope of this dinner, the bibimbap was served. Not bad afterall but I doubt anyone can go wrong with preparing this dish. It's easy to prepare and practically involves no fuss at all. The chili bean paste an be bought commercially so we had no complaints about it.

In conclusion, we found the dinner too bland, disappointing and expensive.

1. Maybe, authentic Korean food is supposed to taste like this.
   
2. Maybe, I did not do enough research or try other restaurants before.
3. Maybe, the reason why they served only 5 tiny mini beef slices is because they are trying to discourage people from eating beef as cows fart too much and the gas will contribute to global warming and the restaurant is just trying to save Gaia as the name suggests.

I'm crazy but I'm sure I will just stick to food court Korean food as it's more suitable for my tastebud. To make sure that our tastebuds were still functioning after such a bland meal, we went straight to get ourselves ice cream.

Yes, ice creams taste so much better than the meal.

Vesak Day 2010

Sorry if you hear this so many times but I just can't stop complaining about the weather!!! It's HOT, VERY HOT and MEGA HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just came back after a long day out with my family and I felt satisfied and yet my heart hurts a little. That's because I think today is the first time I spent almost $300 on clothes alone! I will talk about that later. Meanwhile, here's what I have done today...

First a picture of ME!

We went to Joo Chiat for breakfast and a short praying trip to one of the GuanYin Temple. Sis and Melvin had FeiFei Wonton Mee while Mum, Bro and I had a very old-school Prawn Mee. Not too bad and they only served the noodles in soup.

On our way to the temple: Look how crowded it is! Lots of students asking for donations and people flocking all the way to this temple to take part in some praying session. Very crowded indeed and it was so hot that we started perspiring the minute we stepped into the temple.

After that we went to Ngee Ann City for shopping. Well the shopping trip started with a voucher that Sis had gotten fro her birthday. She is a G2000 member and so on the member's birthday month, she will receive a voucher that allows her to shop for items at 50% discount and the expenditure can go up to a maximum of $500! It's good deal don't you agree? So, she gathered Melvin, Bro and me to shop at G2000 together so we can use the voucher at one go. With my teaching practice coming up, it's time to stock up on my working clothes! The trying session went like this: pick, try, get a new piece! I'm not sure what went to me but I totally missed the most important step: check the price!!!!!

When I realised that, it was too late. Mum and sis cajoled me to buy all because the discounted price made the clothes worthy to buy. That was the longest receipt I have ever seen. Together, we spent a total of $489. $289 came from me!!!! Crazy right? But the clothes are so comfortable and fit so well, very hard to reject!What a long receipt!

This pile belongs to me: 2 spaghetti tops, 1 cardigan, 3 dresses, 1 working shorts, 3 working pants!

Is this the first day of Great Singapore Sales or what? There are so many sales going on! Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Kate Spade, Gucci, Coach and many more! These big brands are having sale! *hyperventilate* Take for example, Kate Spade's sale was 30-50%! Almost did something impulsive again! I saw my dream bag (I mean the design) from LV and I vow I will get IT one day!

Then we headed to VivoCity to continue our shopping session. One word: CROWDED! SALE SALE here and there! Myphosis is packed like a can of sardine!

Oh and there is this fashion design display of mannequins in different types of clothes.

What does this reminds you of? Dracula's wife! hahaha...

We went to T2 staff canteen for dinner again and guess what? Uncle 5 is there with his family. Then, mum asked Uncle 6 to join and he did.

After that, we went to Uncle 2's house. He just came back from Beijing and he bought so many things. According to him, there's so much to buy (funny becos he kept saying he won't spend alot before the trip but ended up buying so much)! Fake branded bags, shoes, coat and all those winter clothings are on sale. And there's cheap clothes, painting, pearl cream, snacks... He bought me a dress too!

Not bad actually though I find it a little too tight at the top. Very nice of them anyway!

It was a well-spent Vesak Day and I really enjoyed myself! May everyone 平平安安 ok!

Peanut Butter and White Chocolate "Blondie" with Missy KT

What a fun and successful baking session! I kept mentioning this on my twitter that I wanted to bake something the next day. But the problem is, I kept delaying it due to this terrible+horrible weather! I'm melting at the moment!!!

Anyway, I invited my dear KT over to my house for a baking session since she said she wanted to learn. Honestly, I can cook well but not baking. Though I'm proud to say that whatever I bake, it's always successful at the first try but I still think there is always room for improvement.

Before we started on our mission, Missy KT had to first find her way to my place. It's not very complicated if she followed my directions but apparently she said that I sent her too many SMS so it was quite hard for her to follow the direction. But it did not take her too long to reach my house!

My Mum, being so friendly all of a sudden, cooked lunch for us. I think KT enjoyed it.

After lunch, it's time for baking! I chose the Peanut Butter and White Chocolate Blondies because I watched a tv show called Rachel Allen's Bake on Discovery Travel and Living and I noticed how easy it is to bake those. Personally, I'm not a brownie lover thus I wanted to try because I know Des like peanut butter (see i'm so nice). The recipe and instructions are pretty simple. You may refer to them at the end of the post.

As you can see, the recipe was very sloppily written down on the back of an envelope, the best that I can find at that point of time.

Arranging the ingredients

KT cutting the butter

Scooping peanut butter to cream with butter. Sounds confusing but super easy to do. Just have to keep mixing.

I let KT do the job while I took photographs

You should get this creamy.

Cadbury white chocolates to be chopped

Put the chopped chocolates into the creamy mixture.

Add in sugar.

Crack an egg.

1teaspoon of vanilla essence

Flour: I don't have a weight balance so I have no idea how much is 125g exactly. So I roughly gauged.

Sieve in flour.

1 teaspoon of baking powder

Mix the previously done mixture with the sieved flour.

Mix well

Fill the containers.

Smooth the top

Bake it.

While waiting, I took a photograph of KT. We were busy chatting, totally forgetting about our blondie. It was until we smelt the fragrance of peanut butter then KT reminded me about it!

Tadaaaaaaaa! Not bad huh?

Can't wait to try our masterpiece!

Well, the "blondies" did not look that blond afterall as we used a darker coloured sugar and peanut butter (unlike those seen in the video at the end of the post) but we were so proud of the final products as they tasted really good. Anyone who loves peanut butter will definitely like it. HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients

• 125g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 100g butter, at room temperature, plus extra for greasing
• 150g crunchy peanut butter
• 175g light brown sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 75g white chocolate, chopped

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/gas 3. Butter the sides of a 20 x 20cm square cake tin and line the base with greaseproof paper.

2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a small bowl and set aside.

3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and peanut butter together until very soft. Add the sugar, egg and vanilla extract and beat until well combined. Add the flour, baking powder and the chopped chocolate and mix to form a dough.

4. Place the dough into the prepared tin and bake in the oven for 25–30 minutes, or until golden brown and almost firm in the centre.

5. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tin, before removing and cutting into squares.


Still find it hard to understand? Watch this before you try!