shear

I feel slightly accomplished:

Of course this was throughout the semester.
I should really study harder for finals ;_;

MUJI

Waited in line for a long, long time.

Very much worth though.
I need to refrain myself from heading into MUJI often.

edibles

Here's to clearing my backlog of food related photos:

 African peanut soup at Harvest Kitchen. Very tasty soup, great brunch spot overall. Service is very very slow, but the food and ambiance balances that. I've heard that their breakfast burrito is amazing.

 The best pasta sauce I've made to date. It was also the most time consuming, but definitely worth it.

1. Base layer of the flavour is really browned onions. By really browned I mean around half an hour of gently sweating it, with some sugar. Admittedly I'm rather bad at this and burnt some pieces. Will follow these tips next time.
2. Next layer of flavour is some herbs and spices. This time I've used a combination of oregano, rosemary, and garlic, for no reason other than the fact I had them. The trick is to first crush them with a mortar and pestle with some salt before adding them to the pan.
3. Next is meat, ground beef to be exact. I added it in along with the herbs and spices, and seasoned it with some soy sauce for bonus umami.
4. The first appearance of tomatoes is in the form of tomato paste, to add some depth. This is also added with the meat.
5. After the meat is mostly cooked, add in tomato sauce, with some more onions (cause I'm a fan) and some finely chopped carrots. Simmer for as long as you can stand, which for me was about 15mins. 

The above steps will make a pretty good sauce, but the important part is to get the flavour absorbed into the pasta. This is accomplished by draining the pasta slightly undercooked, and transfering it into the sauce to finish cooking. Also add a few ladles of the starch-rich pasta water to  help the sauce stick better.
It's a lot more trouble than dumping a jar of ragu, but trust me it's worth.


Next is roast meat, which I've previously talked about here.

 Here's a photo of all the ingredients to make your life easier. The quantity of spices is exactly how much I used, for umm... 1 chunk of shoulder. I realize not quantifying the meat defeats the purpose of quantifying the spices. Also note that the middle jar is not jam, but chili oil.

 As much as I love potatoes (which beautifully thickens the sauce), carrots are my new favourite vegetable add-in. It becomes incredibly sweet after a long braise.


Finally, upping my breakfast game with some steel cut oatmeal:

They require a very long soak in case you want to avoid cooking them. I rather like how chewy they are without cooking, but that results in taking a longer time to eat breakfast which is not desirable on school days.
They're also better overloaded with toppings, in this case: apples, walnuts, flax seed and honey.

wind

A couple conclusions I've recently come to:

• Baking is a great stress reliever because I can take out my frustrations while creaming butter and sugar. Doesn't hurt that there's a tasty by-product. 
• Success is being able to be there for what I care about, and having the freedom to walk away from what I don't. 
• The perfect amount of keen is being ahead enough to take breaks without falling behind.

shui xian

I'm so sure that yan cha is my favourite tea type. They're perfect.
Thanks to Tien who gave me some shui xian to try side by side with my da hong pao.

They look so similar that the different gaiwans are my only way (well aside from taste) that I can tell them apart. Actually the first brew tasted pretty much the same too.

 水仙 (shui xian)
Overall this was very smooth, with a strong floral flavour (it is named from a flower). This would be my perfect daily drinker as it has the floral component of greener oolongs, but also the earthier notes from more roasted oolongs. Can't wait to try this in my yixing to see if it taste any different.

大红袍 (da hong pao)
Definitely more mineral tasting than the above, with sour notes coming through the later steepings too. This one is tricker to brew right as well, which I need lot more practice on.

waiting

A train platform and window.

The curtain would be fun to render in pastel.

floor area

The last design of apartment buildings in Malaysia is brilliant. By designing the building in the form of an inverted pyramid, he minimized the low value bottom floor spaces and allowed for significant tree coverage.
I am so impressed.