The Weight Loss Entry
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Bodycare, Food & Nosh
Aah so this is the entry everyone and their overweight uncles with beer bellies have been waiting for: How Ilyana Lost 25kg Without Losing Her Soul. Weight loss isn’t exactly rocket science but losing 25kg kinda makes me an unofficial expert in the field of calorie restriction so read this carefully and throw your Atkins Diet guidebooks in the bin cos weight loss tips like these don’t usually come for free.
Oh and because I don’t believe in going to extreme lengths for weight loss i.e starvation, this entry will be filled with yummeh food photos I illegally took at Carousel (photos aren’t allowed but they obviously don’t know who they’re dealing with, tsk) YES. A DIET ENTRY…WITH FOOD PHOTOS. I know, I know..I amaze myself sometimes.
I’ve always maintained a healthy weight since young, I don’t have skinny genes - I’m sorry it’s just not possible; I have boobs, an ass and I love my sushi too much to give it up for teeny tiny clothes. Everyone is probably going to expect some dramatic sob fest on the reasons behind my sudden 25kg weight gain but the answer is as easy and blunt as this: School sucks. I was really stressed up during my last year of school, we had our final project to complete and as I struggled with the many stipulated project deadlines, I turned to food for solace during the many long nights I had to stay awake to complete the project.
By the end of the final deadline, I was seriously overweight and I was living in grey sweats and giant sized tees…not a pretty sight. The worst thing was it didn’t register in my head that I had put on massive amounts of weight even though my thighs had grown to the size of a baby elephant, I was sadly living in denial until I asked my then-boyfriend, “Baby, do you think I’m fat?” and he couldn’t answer the question HAHAHHA SSSSHHHHHIIITTT.
When I first started out on a diet, I was really hard on myself. I was doing the Special K cereal thing where I ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast, a small meal for lunch and another bowl of cereal for dinner. I did that for two weeks straight and I’m still amazed that I actually had the determination to eat nothing but cereal *shudders* I lost a kilo after two weeks but I felt miserable despite the weight loss and told myself there was no way in heck I was gonna live on cereal for the rest of my life which brings me to the REAL dieting portion of this entry. The following “rules” are just an accumulation of what I’ve been doing so far, they work really well for me and hopefully they’ll do the same for you.
Rule 1: Eat breakfast for god’s sake!
I’m not saying you should be eating eggs benedict for breakfast every single day because it’s not quite healthy but not eating breakfast at all is much worse. They’ve been saying that breakfast is the most important meal for centuries now and with good reason, it kicks start your metabolism and gives you the energy you need to kick start the day bla bla bla you know this guys, you’ve heard it so many times before so EAT BREAKFAST, IT IS GOOD FOR CHU. Er if you’re curious about what I always have for breakfast…I usually have a traditional chinese breakfast back when I was still working: chee cheong fun minus the black sauce or 2 steamed chicken buns/baos.
Rule 2: Don’t go overboard with the salads.
Everyone assumes they should be eating a lot of salads when they’re on a diet, there really is nothing wrong with salads or vegetables but just don’t expect to eat a plain salad and fill full the rest of the day. You. will. die. It’s not healthy to be living on vegetables alone raw or not, you should always have some protein mixed in to make it a complete meal. I’m not fond of salads but I thought I should write a little paragraph about this because I know people who think they can live on vegetables alone…and they’re not vegetarians so that’s just crossing the line between trying to eat healthy and starving.
Rule 3: Focus on what you CAN eat and stock up on the soba.
If I could pick a certain type of food that would be the key to my weight loss, it would be the humble soba noodle. All of you should know by now I’m absolutely fanatical about Japanese food and I realized with great haste after my disastrous 2 week cereal diet that restricting myself to a certain type of food was just not my thing. Not all food is made equal but most of them are good for you, you just have to pick the ones you like and shut the supermarket down by buying an entire year’s supply like what I did with the soba.
I LOVE SOBA. I still find it remarkable that something so easy to put together (boil the noodles, drain and eat it with the dipping sauce) would taste so…GLORIOUS. All that buckwheat fills you up real fast and keeps you full until the next meal. There are other ways to serve soba too, my eternal goddess Nigella has a yummy soba salad recipe up on the internets.
Rule 4: Raw fish makes white rice less evil.
Ok white rice isn’t really evil but when you pair it with rich, oily dishes and deep fried stuff, it just gets ugly. The thing about us Asians is that we LOVE rice as much as we love our grandmothers and I’m not saying you should stop eating rice altogether and in a perfect world, I would be pairing rice with healthy dishes like steamed vegetables, oven-baked chicken etc but pfft who has the time?! If you do, then good on ye girlfriend but I am now a full-time uni student and that leaves me with barely enough time to make a sandwich. The solution: JAPANESE FOOD.
The Japanese eat a lot of rice but they pair it with raw fish slices and if the dish is cooked at all, it’s usually sauteed or broiled lightly with soy/teriyaki sauce. I don’t eat rice very often but when I do, it’s usually when I’m eating Japanese food or when my dear mother decides to cook something that doesn’t have a bucket full of coconut milk.
Rule 4: Drink lots of tea!
LOL I didn’t have a photo of the tea I drank in the restaurant so this photo of the amazing green tea mousse cake I had would just have to suffice. I’m not going to elaborate on the benefits of tea (I don’t want to start sounding like an infomercial kthx) so BREW IT. DRINK IT. LOVE IT.
Rule 5: A little chocolate won’t harm you.
The more you deprive yourself of a certain food, the more you’d want to gorge on it so whatever your diet vice is, chocolate, gummy bears, ice cream, whatever - you can eat them all but in MODERATE amounts people. Ideally, you should aim for one cheat meal at the end of each week. You can eat whatever you want during a cheat meal because you deserve it!
Rule 6: Stop hating yourself.
If you’re not overweight, chances are you’re fine the way you are. Nobody’s perfect and everyone was born with different bodies so it really gets to me when my friends who are impossibly skinny whine and complain about how “fat” they are. They don’t eat (except the occasional plate of vegetables) and resort to extreme means in order to lose weight. They’re on a constant crash diet and it gets to a point where they are so steeped in delusion that they actually THINK they’re eating healthy. The best thing is after all that starving, they haven’t lost a single pound >_>
It’s okay if you want to drop a few pounds and cultivate better eating habits but DON’T GET OBSESSIVE. I’m sorry but losing 5 pounds will not drastically change your life and make you a rockstar with the boys (or the girls, whatever catches your fancy) as much as you think it will. I know, I’ve been there, dropped 55lbs and lived to tell u guys that STARVING DOES NOT WORK PEOPLE. This self-hate has got to stop! Recognize that you are amazing in your own way and learn to love your body because IT’S THE ONLY ONE YOU’VE GOT.
Ok I hope that’s answered some of your questions on how I lost weight, it’s the best diet in the world I think lol. Oh and as for exercise - I have a Wii Fit and I used to exercise for half an hour every morning…until I got lazy erk. I make sure I walk a lot though, window shopping is the best form of exercise 8D
Remember to love thyself and eat the damn cake. I’d be happy to answer any diet-related questions, just ask in the comments! ;D
Oh and this entry is going to be littered with grammatical errors I’m sure and I’m too exhausted to check for them (plus this entry is so overdue!!) so I’m going to apologise in advance.
ANDDD BEFORE I FORGET I RUN A BEAUTY BLOG: Make-up for my Carousel lunch was kept really basic because I had a pretty strong lipcolor on lol (OCC lip tar in Indashio, LOVE LOVE LOVE OMFG), did a lil’ flick trick with the eyeliner and La Femme’s Nectar Peach blush ;D
LIFE UPDATE: Uni just started a couple of days ago, this is my third week in Melbourne and everything’s going crazy fast! I’m thinking of taking Japanese as my second major but I’ll see how that goes. We had our first class today and I got my ass kicked a couple of times during the character writing session LOL oh but what fun! I’ll write more about Melbourne in my next entry, I hope everyone’s doing fine. I’m slowly catching up on all your past entries so expect comments by this week!
Tags: diet & health, nosh: Carousel
Chocolate works in mysterious ways.
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Fashion, Food & Nosh, Make-Up & Beauty
So on Monday, I finally met Yumi for a pancakes and pasta brunch date - we were both from the same design school but never really knew of each other’s existence till she found me via tea noir and twitter. Coincidentally, we’re both going to be stuck in Melbourne for the next couple of years so I thought- ah what the heck, let’s quit being the cool, mysterious arty design bitchez we already are for a day and get to know each other lol!
Yumi’s half Japanese and prior to our date, she was trudging in the snowy mountains of Fukuoka, bravely battling the high winds to shop for the kitschy cute and weird Japan is known for. She told me she got me a couple of stuff which is incredibly sweet considering we’ve never officially met lol. I mean I could have easily been an unmarried 40 year-old man with a make-up fetish posing as a girl who writes beauty entries to lure other girls in but Yumi fearlessly decided that she was going to meet me despite the odds - you’re fierce, girl, just fierce.
LOL OK JUST SO WE’RE CLEAR: I am NOT a 40 year-old man posing as a girl mmkay. Anyway look at what Yumi got me:
HOLY. MOTHER. OF. OSAKA. When she handed me the bag (isn’t it the cutest plastic bag EVER?) I was like O__O dayumm, that’s like the whole of Japan in there rofl. She got me so many things from food to chocolate lip balm omg, thank you so much sweets!
She got me a bottle of her favourite leave-in hair treatment. I have no idea what brand this is but let me tell you girls, this is the SHIT right here. The treatment has a watery gel-like consistency and has the most amazing scent similar to that of sun-ripened fleshy peaches growing in the valleys of Persia. My life feels a little more complete now that my hair smells like peaches rofl XD Btw I am loving the engrish on the bottle - “Even turns high damaged hair from coloring and perm into moist, manageable, and shiny beautiful hair just by ‘Sa~tto’ applying it” HAHA WHUTTTT.
Yes, yes getting to the food bit now. ROYCE Fruit Bar Chocolate is a Hokkaido-exclusive, you can’t get it anywhere else except Hokkaido. Yumi’s mom received a box of ten from a friend and she gave me a piece to try. I don’t know about you guys but this feels as epic as someone giving birth to 10 beautiful babies and giving one of them away for the greater good. LOL WHERE AM I GETTING ALL THESE RIDICULOUS ANALOGIES FROM?
I have to be honest here: I’ve never been fond of mixing fruit with chocolate so being the skeptic I am, I was really expecting the usual: pieces of fruit stuck in a bar of milk chocolate (mehhh) but what lies beneath the deceiving milky pink packaging is perhaps THE best fruit-based chocolate I have ever tasted.
It’s mainly made of puffy cereal with pieces of mango, banana and assorted berries lodged in between the minute gaps and covered with a light berry-flavoured WHITE CHOCOLATE. You guys have no idea how obsessed I am with white chocolate - I know it’s not really chocolate but who cares.
ROYCE, please accept my sincere apologies, I will never doubt your supreme chocolatey powers for as long as I live. I will tell the stories of your chocolates to my children and they will then pass on these stories to their own children, thereby continuing your chocolate legacy forever. God, I’m so high on sugar right now (I just ate 2 donuts), someone save me before I start rambling incoherently >_>
Milk-flavoured candy + keepsake tin can = happiness. It’s a magic formula!~
WHOO HOO JAPANESE CURRY! And at only 178kcal per serving, how can something so good be….diet-friendly?!! BRB MOVING TO JAPAN NOWS TTYL.
OMG another pack of royal milk tea kit kat!! T__T I’m hiding this one in my room to prevent chocolate thieves, I am not going to let this out of my sight.
Kellogg’s Cocoa Rice Krispies lip balm…I have no words - I’m completely out of adjectives to describe how awesome this is. It smells and tastes like chocolate, I’m awfully tempted to just eat the damn thing.
Yumi hooked me up with a copy of egg magazine which focuses on the gyaru fashion culture in Japan.
Japanese make-up tutorials are epic, they’re really detailed and give you step-by-step instructions on how to recreate a certain look. I think this page shows you how to apply different falsies, so fascinating lol.
Oh and Yumi, here’s proof that I have a cat LOL. He sleeps in the weirdest positions ever. Thank you so much for the Japan-in-a-bag treat lol, I LOVE EVERYTHING and er thanks to your filtering/packing horror stories lol, I’ve started to pack and I totally agree with you when you said..
PACKING IS A BEECH. OMFG YOU GUYS. My pretty glitter-flecked knits…my gold brocade skirt..my houndstooth sweater..my warm cosy layering basics…my sexy forest green dress my mother must never see T__T I think I’m going to have a serious clothing meltdown soon urghhh.
I’m going to take photos of my make-up collection before I start wrapping them up in bubble-wrap, that should be interesting lol. The MAC All Ages, All Races, All Sexes Collection is finally out in Singapore, I bought a couple of things from the collection yesterday so you girls can expect that in my next entry ;D
Tags: food: chocolate, japan, life, nosh: japanese food
Green tea tiramisu I would sell my Guccis for.
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Food & Nosh
I’m really not much of a baking person, I’m not one to fret over precise measurements of different types of flour, yeasts etc and I’m completely not bothered with the large-scale clean up that comes after the cake has been served. I love cooking because you’re allowed a sense of control when it comes to recipes, you can play around with the ingredients because there really is no need for accuracy (which is why most of my recipes don’t really have accurate measurements)
I like my food cooked fast and my desserts fuss-free. If I wanted anything fancier, I’d just eat out at a restaurant you know? My green tea tiramisu is something I’m very proud of- it’s a no-bake dessert, has everything i’ve ever dreamed (the only thing it lacks is a hot date to share it with but I guess my BFF Dejiki would suffice for now XD)
The only thing hard about it is probably the 5 hours you need to wait for it to chill. Aah that’s another reason why I’m not such fan of baking; I’m severely lacking in the patience department (something I have in common with 70% of the male population) I just can’t sit and fiddle in front of the oven waiting for the damn cake to rise.. I honestly admire and applaud you homebakers, how do you guys do it??
Mascarpone cheese has this perfect thick, whipped consistency right out of the container - don’t you think it looks heavenly already?
Purists would probably scoff at the idea of having a non-espresso, kahlua based tiramisu but I love my green tea and I don’t care for opinions made by old men who drink coffee in their sweats and catch flies all day (that’s how I’d imagine tiramisu purists to look like) Green tea tiramisu isn’t something new and the basic essentials of making a tiramisu still remain; I’m using lady fingers like all tiramisu recipes - italian sugar-coated sponge biscuits with a slight hint of vanilla.
You need to steep the lady fingers in a cup of matcha green tea and arrange them to make a base for your tiramisu. Try not to go overboard with the steeping like I did lol or the tiramisu would be overly moist…which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Smooth over the first layer of mascarpone..remember we are not aiming for perfection here people. If I was aiming for perfection, I would have opened a patisserie a long time ago selling slices of tiramisu at an inflated price of $9.99 ;D
Green Tea Tiramisu
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup white sugar
1.5 tsp vanilla extract
300g mascarpone cheese
1 packet lady finger biscuits
the best matcha powder you can buy
200ml hot water
1. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar and the vanilla essence until it turns a light yellow.
2. Fold in the mascarpone cheese and mix till smooth (it’s best to leave it out of the fridge for a bit so you don’t have to beat the heck out of a solid chunk of cheese.)
3. Make your green tea with the hot water and lightly soak the lady fingers in the tea.
4. Arrange the biscuits in the dish to make a base for the tiramisu.
5. Cover the biscuits with half of the mascarpone mixture and dust some matcha powder on it.
6. Repeat steps 3-5 until you get a duo layer tiramisu!
7. Cover with cling wrap and chill it in the fridge for 5 hours at least (no cheating guys, I’m watching you.)
The BFF LOVES this tiramisu and only eats it when I make it - he also happens to be the pickiest eater I know so it makes me feel almost godly whenever I give him a slice LOL. If you have any questions pertaining to the recipe, ask me in the comments!
Work’s finally overrrr!! I really should start packing for my move but unfortunately, my mind seems to be more interested in making lunch/dinner dates with my friends haha! I haven’t got the slightest clue on how I’m going to pack all my make-up and shoes x_x I thinking of wrapping everything (make-up, I mean) in bubble wrap and packing them in a box to be checked in as “Fragile”. Anyone have any better ideas?
Tags: nosh: desserts, recipes
green tea is the way to my ♥
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Food & Nosh
Remember that rad bunch of Japanese chocolates I got the last time? I’ve been going through each pack of chocolate slowly like a little ant savouring each bite of sugar like it’s his last meal.
I thought it would be a good game plan to make the chocolate last me forever but like how fairy tales don’t entirely exist in real life, this saccharine fantasy I had slowly melted in a pool of nothingness when I discovered one morning that someone or something stole the Royal Milk Tea Kit Kat I had carefully hidden beneath my mother’s bags of preserved fruit (don’t ask) and I was left feeling like a bitter old widow >_>
ANYWAYYYY, I thought I’d share some photos of this green tea chocolate from Meiji since I’m still unwell and not feeling my usual fierce self to blog about anything beauty-related. I’ve been reduced to a sniffing, coughing red-eyed monster wrapped up in blankies ;_;
Oh man, what a beautiful sight. Mini chocolate bars individually wrapped up in gold foil. Look at how they shimmer in the light!
NAKED CHOC BAR! If you haven’t noticed, Meiji changed their brand identity/logo some time back. I think it’s a great improvement from their previous logo, it’s modern with all the cute lil curves and yet it doesn’t take you away from what their brand represents: good everyday chocolate. I should stop now before I bore you guys with more design details lol, I can go on forever if I’m not careful.
Encased in the tiny bar of milk chocolate is a layer of epic green tea filling. Nobody does green tea chocolate better than the Japanese I can tell you that! The slight bitterness of the green tea balances out the sweetness of the milk chocolate perfectly and that is exactly the stuff I dream about you know? perfect green tea chocolate, a cup of turkish apple tea, a good book to read and hot Japanese men throwing themselves on the ground which I tread upon HAHAHA. A girl can dream.
Oh and if you look to your right, I have a new link section just for food blogs I love to read. One of them, pretty pretty yum yum, just celebrated its first blog birthday! I love pretty pretty yum yum, Amy blogs about some of the cutest food items from Japan everrrr and I love it whenever I get to read about some obscure kit kat flavour, I’m such a sucker for kitschy cute things ^_^; You know what Amy? I’m dedicating this Meiji chocolate entry to pretty pretty yum yum! Congratulations on your blog’s one year birthday/anniversary ♥
p.s that’s essie’s Mint Candy Apple on my nails. I’d like to think it’s an appropriate color for this entry lol ;D
Tags: food: chocolate, japan
Make yer own cheap furikake!
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Food & Nosh, Misc
It suddenly dawned on me a couple of days ago that the salmon onigiri I buy all the time with its mysteriously salty “ah I would never be able to do this at home” flakey salmon centre was nothing more than easy-peasy pan-fried flaked salted salmon furikake wrapped in sushi rice and a sheet of seaweed. It was a hoax cleverly orchestrated by my local sushi counter and I can’t believe I fell for it hook, line and sinker- damn those bitchez.
I will spare you guys any further theatrics but first, I must give credit where credit is due. This furikake recipe is based on two recipes I found on Just Bento: Salted Salmon Shiozake and Salmon Furikake. I’ve adjusted the recipe mainly because I don’t consume alcohol so I’ve replaced the sake with rice vinegar and totally left out the mirin. You can totally follow the recipes on Just Bento but I’d thought I’d list out what I used for my muslim readers.
Get a nice salmon fillet, no funny frozen ones please. We want it fu-resh! And no, I know it’s awfully tempting to get that discounted salmon fillet on clearance but don’t! You have to consume any discounted fish on the same day of purchase and unfortunately this recipe requires that you marinate the fish overnight so erm if you still refuse to pay that 4-5 odd dollars for fresh salmon, don’t blame me if you get a 5 ft tapeworm living in your intestines the next couple of months mmkay? ^_^
SEA SALT! Don’t let the whole “organic” thing on the package fool ya, I only bought this pack of organic rock salt/sea salt because it was surprisingly cheaper than normal sea salt lol. I won’t recommend using normal table salt because 1) noone makes salted salmon with table salt, trust me I googled 2) sea salt just sounds waaay cooler.
Wipe the fillet to get rid of excess moisture and here comes the fun part: grab a handful of salt, start pouring it all over the salmon while gently pressing the salt into the firm salmon flesh. Make sure both sides are covered and you are well on your way to cheap salted salmon flakes.
Now’s the hard part: You have to leave it in the fridge overnight. I know, I know - waiting sucks but be patient, it will be worth the wait. Wrap the salmon up in a few layers of kitchen towel, place it in a sieve with a plate underneath to catch any drips and leave it in the fridge.
The next day, unwrap your little salmon pickle and pan-fry/grill it with a little oil and a few tablespoons of rice vinegar til cooked. Use a fork or your bare hands to flake the cooked fillet, removing any bones you may find. Wipe the pan and dump the flakes back in with a splash of soy sauce and rice vinegar.
Stir the flakes around to quicken the drying process; Just Bento suggests “you can leave the flakes fairly moist, or continue stirring until they are quite dry and finely flaked. The more you dry it out, the longer it will keep. Just do not let it burn or color too much.”
So there you have it! Simple and delicious salmon furikake~ Honestly it’s supposed to be a lighter orange color but I kinda OD’ed on the soy sauce LOL You can use this to top your rice or use it as a filling for your onigiri. I didn’t have the time to make pretty lil onigiri so I made some sushi rice, placed it in my bento box and sprinkled some of the salmon furikake + some strips of seaweed! Makes a really good, frugal lunch XD
This entry is dedicated to my homeboi Aaron who sent me some of his rough figure sketches he did for school, you make me so proud bb! Straight A’s at design school this semester, werk it!
LOVE THE SHOES IN THIS ONE!
Mmm what a hottie.
I’ve got more to show actually but I like these two best ;D (and this entry is getting seriously long) so I’m going to stop yakking, apologise in advance if this entry is filled with grammar mistakes (it’s almost midnight, forgive me!) and bid you all good night! If you’ve got any questions regarding the recipe, ask me in the comments ;D
Tags: design: sketches, nosh: japanese food, recipes
Attack of the Cherry Blossoms & my SK-II mask review
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Bodycare, Food & Nosh
This has got to be the prettiest product shot I’ve ever taken. I would have totally posted this up as a 1280 x 960 wallpaper sized image but that would make me seem obsessive, wouldn’t it?
Just some photos of the Bath & Body Works shower gels and body butter I got from Hid who flew out to San Francisco last month. There isn’t a B&BW store in Singapore so I’m happy I can finally try their products out ;D Doesn’t “Sea Island Cotton” sound so blissfully romantic? Long chilly walks by the beach at sunset, being carried on your boyfriend’s back as he sparkles and runs at superhuman speed through the mossy terrain..oh wait that’s just Twilight lol -Thanks Hid, you’re super!
I’ve been drinking a lot of tea lately (pictured above is my current fave, sakura! sakura! from TWG), it’s de-stressing especially after a long arduous day of making a student visa. I have the worst luck in taking ID card photos, all my photo ID cards e.g. my driver’s license, my IC- ALL of them have the most unflattering shots of me and today my visa is going to join my dysfunctional family of monster ID cards.
I actually look entirely different (in a bad I’m-about-to-murder-someone way) in my visa photo and that just sucks because I have to live with it for the next 3 years of my life! Mr Photographer dude, I didn’t just take a day’s leave from work for you to take a lousy photo of me!!!!!!! Fork this -_-
Anyway, I promised you guys a review of the SK-II Facial Treatment Mask and I finally got around to using it last night.
It comes individually wrapped in pretty silvery foil packaging, I actually regretted not taking a photo of it but it was night = shit lighting and I’d rather kick myself than put up a bad photo on this blog lol (yeah sue me for being anal).
Once you’ve ripped open the packaging, you can see the mask is completely soaked in Pitera, a top-secret key ingredient in all SK-II products and the sole reason why SK-II is so goddamn expensive. C’mon guys, the jig is up! WE ALL KNOW IT’S JUST RICE VINEGAR!
Ok ok, don’t sue me. I made that rice vinegar thing up. (tho I won’t be surprised if it’s actually made of rice vinegar lol, juz sayin’) Rice vinegar or not, THIS MASK IS EPIC. I left it on for 30 minutes and removed the mask to reveal the softest, glowing skin *_* The mask itself is made of thick, woven material which fyi, is even thicker than my Silk Whitia masks surprisingly. I LOVE the shape/cutting of the mask- it fits my face perfectly which is a good thing because I hate it when I have to constantly adjust a sheet mask in order to get even coverage on my skin.
This is my first time using anything from SK-II so I’m a little weirded out by the Pitera scent. It smells faintly of fishballs and vinegar LOL I’m not kidding this time! It doesn’t offend me as much as it offends other people so I’m not going to bitch about it.
Overall, I’m really liking the SK-II Facial Treatment Mask and I can seriously see myself emptying whatever remnants of money I have left in my bank account (which isn’t much to begin with >.>) to invest in these masks XD The only drawback is the price (SGD$21 per piece D8) so I think I’m going to stick with my Silk Whitia masks and only purchase this when I find myself a rich boyfriend for special occasions.
Tags: bodycare: B&BW, nosh: TWG, review: masks, skincare: SK-II
Nihon ni ikitai! [日本に行きたい!]
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Food & Nosh, Make-Up & Beauty
Yet again I’m put in a spot where I have to spontaneously declare my love for a country I’ve never been to but have heard/read about it so much (all this with a slight tinge of envy) that I have embraced its culture as though it were my own.
Everything about Japan fascinates me, it’s a nation obsessed with attaining perfection in a sense that everything they do is done with careful grace and everyone is well-groomed and dressed to the nines.
You can pick out plenty of fashion styles in Japan, some are so chic (it just stabs me in the heart to think I live in a country where flip-flops and shorts are the norm) while the others look like they were from an entirely different time/planet/dimension/the space between spaces which amazes me sometimes because all of them are so immaculately dressed despite their slightly warped kooky sense of fashion. Now that is just made of epic fashion win.
I have to keep reminding myself that this blog isn’t entirely about my terror-inducing beauty-related spending habits and my knack for playing pretend chef every once a while but also to document the many things I find intriguing from fashion (dude, I’ve not blogged about fashion in the longest time!) to design-related stuff. So today I bring you a couple of photos of Tokyo from one of my favourite photographers on Flickr, Chillhiro.
img credit: chillhiro@Flickr
There is a certain elegance and beauty to his photos which I love and it’s strange because his photo compositions are so simple yet he manages to capture the rare stillness of a fast-paced metropolitan city like Tokyo. If you like what you see, check out Chillhiro’s photostream here for more visual splendor ;D
*cough* k back to my ridiculous spending habits. (What? You can’t expect me to talk about artsy stuff 24/7, can you?) A colleague of mine, Jas, went to Japan over the Christmas holidays so I gave her a shopping list of stuff I was interested in and she came back with a bag full of yummy goodies for me YAY!
Milk tea is my fave drink in the world and Japanese milk tea is the absolute best!!
Chocolates! Meiji Matcha chocolate, Matcha Kit Kat and Royal Milk Tea Kit Kat (MILK TEA KIT KAT O.M.F.G!!!!!) Of course, you can’t leave Japan without buying some oddly-flavoured Kit Kats. They have different seasonal flavours each year, ranging from the brilliant (milk tea Kit Kat, MILK TEA KIT KAT /o/ /o/ /o/) to the downright bizarre lol (ginger ale Kit Kat anyone?) Honestly I won’t be surprised if they came up with a clam chowder flavoured Kit Kat lmao. Only in Japan guys, only in Japan.
BENTO GOODIES ♥ ♥ ♥ I have pretty technicolor soy sauce bottles to fulfill my wild bento fantasies! The flat plastic thingum you see on the far left is actually a sandwich box (no more soggy bread for me whee!) Jas actually got me a two-tier bento box too but er I kinda left it in the office so I couldn’t take a photo of it, sorry.
Bihada Ichizoku masks! I’ve heard so MUCH about these masks, I think the girly manga illustrations on the packaging’s amusing lol. I’ve not tried them yet but when I do, I’ll write a short review.
That’s all for my Japan haul! But I’m not done yet haha, I’ve got some past purchases I’ve not shown you yet so here they are:
VOV masks! I’ve tried almost all of them and I’m pretty happy with their quality. From L to R: Volcanic Ash Wash-off mask, Black Charcoal Peel-off mask and the Apple AHA Peeling Gel mask. I like the Black Charcoal mask the best so far, i think it’s comparable to the KOSE Seikisho Mask White, works the same way and costs a fraction of the price.
Did I mention I’m officially swamped in masks? Yep. I’m up to my neck in sheet mask nirvana. Here’s the queen of all masks, the SK-II facial treatment mask I bought on a whim at Sephora the other day. I’m just waiting for this little pimple on my chin to evacuate off my face before I try this one out; there is no way in heck I’m going to waste an SK-II mask on a stupid clogged pore.
The Body Shop’s Christmas LE Nutmeg & Vanilla body scrub! I got this during their post-Christmas sale when everything was at 40% off! Not that I need another body scrub but…
Doesn’t it look like a yummy smoothie? It’s got honey, nutmeg and ground walnut in it, I used this yesterday and came out of the shower potentially smelling like a French bakery. That. is. just. so. AWESOME. All my life I’ve wanted to smell like freshly-baked croissants and cream-filled crepes and the body scrub leads me one step closer to my dream. God bless Dame Anita Roddick, RIP. (Ok I’m kidding about the wanting to smell of croissants and crepes lol but the scrub really has a lovely scent!)
I think I shuld end this entry now before it gets any longer than it already is and people start throwing rocks at me lol. It’s TGIF! Have a great weekend and I’ll catch you soon ;D
Tags: bodycare: The Body Shop, food: chocolate, japan, skincare: bihada, skincare: SK-II, skincare: VOV
How to impress your BFF (who has everything) on his birthday
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Food & Nosh
Say you’ve got a BFF who’s of the opposite sex, someone you can talk just about everything to, watches the same shows you watch (except Gossip Girl, bless his heart), has a very healthy saving habit so he can buy whatever his heart desires (which sadly is short of a CHANEL 2.55 for me ;_;) so what the heck do you give someone who most probably has everything he’s ever wanted?
Girl, you do what I do every year: You take him out for a nice meal some place posh and swanky. Trust me, there will be less drama, your sanity will remain intact and all of humanity is saved.
If the place you’ve chosen happens to have a sorta old English thing going on in their chosen interior design theme then you know it’s a safe bet to take your best friend here especially if he a) also happens to be a designer b) appreciates good brand identity that’s reflected in their store design c) likes all things English.
It’ll be even more awesome if the restaurant has a couple of randomly hung crystal balls around the dining area because that’s just cool and hey it doesn’t matter if the chances of you being impaled by a large, probably very heavy crystal sphere thing just increased ten-fold - IT’S YOUR BEST FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY SO SUCK IT UP!
And you gotta make sure the restaurant specializes in something e.g. french cuisine or whatever. In this particular case, tea is the poison of choice so you betta make sure the menu has over 800 different varieties of tea blends, doesn’t matter if you don’t know or can’t pronounce half of them (wtf is “Happy Flute Tea”? srsly.) because these 800 tea names will be listed out in an excruciatingly small but elegant font spread over 5 pages and that would totally impress the BFF.
All you got to do is just squint your eyes, randomly select a tea you think sounds delicious - in my case, the Pomme Prestige tea (cos Pomme is like apple in French duh) and when your BFF asks “Erm what do you recommend?” You clear your throat and smoothly reply like a true tea connoisseur - “You should check out the Happy Birthday tea!” And he orders just that XD
SO WHAT if the place charges exorbitant amounts of money for their tea time sets (smartly named “Chic” and “Celebration” to justify their prices) which include chi-chi tea sandwiches smaller than the size of your palm?! Remember they’re made from tea-infused crème fraîche and that tiny smile on your BFF’s face when the sets arrive? PRICELESS BB. He’s trying to hide his best to hide his excitement but you can almost see it bubblin’ from deep within LOL.
Ok ok TWG will always be me and the BFF’s favourite tea haunt, we both love tea (dude my domain name has the word tea in it rofl) and although we usually get our tea fix from there, LK/Dejiki/Nicholas (dude has a lot of aliases) and I have never actually sat down and enjoyed one of their infamous tea time sets before so what better excuse to do so than on his birthday right? Depending on which set you order, you get to choose 3 macaroons, 3 tea sandwiches and a patisserie.
I had 2 Cucumber with “Earl Grey Fortune Tea” infused cream cheese sandwiches and a Smoked Salmon with Mascarpone and Chive sandwich, loved both of them but the cucumber one’s my fave! It’s very light and the cucumber + cream cheese made quite a happy marriage of flavours lol.
My choice of pattiserie was a slice of their Singapore Surprise cake tart which is apparently their signature cake. LK had a few bites and thought it to be like a “crème brûlée but the EXTREME version” and I wholeheartedly agree. It’s got raspberries in a light, airy cream that’s been infused with their “Vanilla Bourbon” tea and the top is made of burnt brown sugar, love it.
The real star of the show was actually the Chocolate Meringue cake LK chose for himself. It’s essentially made of an insanely smooth and dense semi-dark chocolate cream topped with crumbly layers of…more chocolate! I think TWG chocolate cakes are a force to be reckoned with, I tried the Chocolate Macadamia cake with Hid some time back and it was just as good!
Teas are their main forte of course, I’ve tried a couple and I would seriously recommend the Pomme Prestige tea (black tea with apple), Happy Birthday tea (black tea with berries - order this on your birthday, it’ll make you feel special!), Silver Moon tea (green tea with vanilla and strawberries, my ultimate fave!), Crème Brûlée tea (green tea with vanilla and berries, similar to Silver Moon but is sweeter to resemble the decadent dessert) and Sakura! Sakura! tea (green tea infused with sakura petals, jasmine and berries - very flowery and how adorable is the name?)
TWG Tea Salon & Boutique
Raffles Place, #01 - 22
Republic Plaza
Singapore 048619
Tel: +65 6538 1837
I realized yesterday that I totally forgot to blog about my trip to the KRYOLAN Cosmetics store in Melbourne, geez. I’m so absent-minded D: I’ll talk about that in my next entry + other random beauty stuff. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Thank you so much for reading Tea Noir, it’s been great knowing all of you! Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2010 - cheers to love, peace, beauty and food xoxo
Tags: life, nosh: desserts, nosh: TWG
There’s no escaping the food - Melbourne Part 2
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Food & Nosh, Misc
As you can tell from the title, this entry is mainly a jumble of food porn photos so I do not recommend reading this on an empty stomach. Run along now and get to the nearest source of food, your fridge, your momma’s stew, whatever you like. It’s nearly Christmas so there’s no need to watch the diet.
I figured I should start off this entry with fruits because it doesn’t clog up your arteries like all the other food stuff I’m about to show you baha. Don’t say I didn’t try to make this entry healthy.
We drove about half an hour away from the city to Baccus Marsh, a small town where you find vast fields of plantations, fruit farms and pretty lavender fields. We got to pick our own cherries and strawberries! You only pay after you finish filling up the plastic container they provide and it goes by weight so it’s very affordable. No funny entrance fees, yay!
Never in my life have I seen a cherry tree before! The cherries are pretty easy to pluck because they grow on low trees so the fruits are at your eye level. Fyi the “cherries” you get on ice cream sundaes are fake, I can’t remember what they’re made of but they should be banned. I hate their plastic sweetness. Give me the real deal anytime bb.
Strawberries! The ones we get in the supermarket here are usually not very sweet and more on the sourish side but oh my god, strawberries in Australia are DIVINEEEEEE. They are absolutely perfect, sweet with a bit of a tang.
LOOK MA! APRICOTS!
Muffins are EVERYWHERE. Apple muffins, chocolate, vanilla coconut (I hate coconut but this was gooood), banana, caramel, white chocolate raspberry (another winner!)…this is why my diet’s non-existent anymore.
HOLY FRICKIN’ OYSTERS! Granted they’re an acquired taste; some people like it grilled with a little sea salt, some people like it just like that, some people like it baked with a little mozzarella. I like mine raw with a lil lemon, nothing can ever beat that.
It’s sad that you can only find dips here in upperclass supermarkets and they’re not made fresh at all. Dips over there are made with care, from secret family recipes passed down from generation to generation so each store has a different set of dips for you to choose from.
Time for a water break! Finally got my hands on a bottle of vitaminwater…it was nothing special to be honest but I have been in love with the bottle and label design since forever, sorry I’m a designer - I can’t help but be drawn to good packaging and pretty things.
Cotton candy ice cream! so yummy and it makes me happy just looking at the swirl of purple and pink.
HOLY FRICKIN’ PIZZA! Soft, fluffy dough with copious amounts of my favourite toppings: salami, fresh mushrooms (holy crap they even used fresh mushrooms! not the canned shit we get here!), olives and a combination of mozzarella + edam cheese. This large pizza was only $8 EIGHT DOLLARS GUYS, where can u buy a decent large-sized pizza in Singapore for $8?!
Fish n chips which was $6. Look at the size of that fish. Would you rather have a mcdonald’s burger meal for $6 or an insanely huge and fresh battered white fish fillet cooked the minute you order? Ok so they’re both not exactly healthy but whatever, I’d take the latter.
One last flower power image to go before I end this entry :3 Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as the last one! The food in Melbourne is amazing although I have yet to try out the Asian cuisine over there ‘cept for a few sushi rolls ;P I think I’m going to have a really hard time maintaining my weight when I eventually move down under, erk.
Anyway, Christmas is just 2 days away now! What are your plans for Christmas? I’ll be traveling out of the country again, this time to the capital of Malaysia which is just a 3-4 hour drive away to visit my aunt and do a little bit of eating + shopping! I don’t celebrate Christmas but I am feeling the holiday cheer ;D I would like to wish everyone a merry christmas, spend time with your family and have a good time opening those presents!
Tags: holiday: australia, life, nosh: western food
Nigella’s Lemon Butter Linguine
Posted by ilyana | Filed under Food & Nosh
This is something I whipped up this morning to eat for breakfast! Nigella Lawson’s lemon butter linguine, perfect for cold mornings when you don’t feel like doing any real cooking at all but still wanting something comforting and warm at the same time. This pasta dish is much like a dieter’s carbonara but making it is nothing as complicated.
I’ve actually modified Nigella’s recipe to make it er slightly more healthy by using whipping cream instead of the heavy/double cream she listed and cut down the amount of cheese and butter so just think of it as a lesser sin! Most “diet” recipes call for low-fat plain yoghurt to be used in place of cream but I think it’s an even bigger sin to even THINK about substituting cream with something else, especially in pasta. There is absolutely nothing wrong with eating a little cream, it’s an instant mood-lifter, something yoghurt will never be able to give you so please stop worrying about gaining weight when you eat this because a plate of pasta is not going to make you gain a kilo overnight.
Nigella Lawson’s Lemon Butter Linguine
Ingredients
Enough linguine for 2 people
1 egg yolk
1/8 cup of cream
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1/8 stick of unsalted butter
Some pepper
1 tablespoon chopped parsley leaves
Take note that all the measurements I listed above are just rough estimates!
1. Fill a pot with water and bring to the boil. Add some salt. Tip in the pasta and cook til al dente.
2. In a bowl, put the yolks, cream, grated Parmesan cheese, zest of the whole lemon and juice of half of it, a pinch of salt and a good grating of pepper and beat together until just combined.
3. Remove a cup of cooking liquid, drain the pasta and then, off the heat, toss it back in the pan, throw in the butter and stir and swirl about to make sure the butter’s melted and pasta covered by it all over.
4. Stir in the egg, cream, cheese and lemon mix and stir to coat pasta.
5. Sprinkle over some just-chopped parsley and serve now, now, now!
Note: Please for the love of god, I beg of you: do NOT use pre-packaged grated parmesan - I know it’s cheap and convenient but it is certainly not the same as buying a wedge of parmesan cheese and grating it yourself. It’s dry, tastes bad as heck that you might as well not cook the pasta at all >.>
If you’re not into simple, light pasta like me, you can add shrimp and field mushrooms sauteed in a little olive oil - guaranteed to hit the spot mmm!
Tags: nosh: italian food, recipes
