Asakusa, Tokyo - Japan: Cherry Blossom, Temples. Happy :-)

I haven't been to Japan for more than 15 years! This last trip on my round the world meetings journey was great (although I was not feeling well and cannot eat as much I would love to).

Trip from Narita Airport to Agora Place Asakusa was pleasing via Limousine Airport Bus, luggage handlers can speak English and they assist you upload and download the luggage. Love it. Then, after leaving the bus at Tokyo City Air Terminal, right on the opposite side across 2 automatic doors, Taxi stand for taxi to the hotel. The hotel is clean, white, lime, warm, very comfy and fresh. It is a budget hotel and you can rent or purchase amenities (plus other things you need, e.g. hair dryer, extra cushions, etc.) at lobby. On the corner, there is a iMac. No problem, if you forget your laptop. A great convenient accommodation concept to me. Like it a lot. PLUS they have laundry room for guests with washing machine and dryer operated by coins. For ATM, inside the 7-Eleven (just a few mins walk from hotel), I can withdraw money from my HK account, a metro station is only a few minutes walk, and a supermarket is within 5 mins walk as well. So convenient, what else you can ask for for a picky traveller like me who does not like too much human contact, greetings, etc. from those 5-star + hotels, which sometimes are quite fake, to be honest.

My first exploration stated on Friday, taking metro to an office for meeting in Akasaka, hence, lunch around that area. Was taken to a super great ramen shop: 赤坂麺処 友 I haven't eaten such good ramen for so long, since my favorite ramen shop run by a Japanese in HK was closed. It raised my expectation for ramen next time. After meeting, I was taken to Cherry Blossom places. Stunning. I felt so lucky, they were open earlier this year, so I was in time to see them bloom bloom bloom. A good start of the Year of Snake, 2013? :-) I did not have much time to explore the city. Next time, I will be able to share more, when I go there again for leisure. So, just a few images to share. Haneda airport is about 50mins by taxi to Agora Place Asakusa http://www.agoraplace-asakusa.com and it costs about JPY8,000-9,000 without traffic. So it is worth it if you have luggages and if share with 2-3 others. Nowadays, when I travel, I will spend more on transportation from airport to hotel and save on accommodation instead, as there are more and better choices now than before. Enjoy.

Holiday - Lugano & Milan

When I was preparing for this trip, not long, only 10 days-nine nights. I was not able to make up my mind of going or not to London and was a bit sad that I finally decided not to go London but spent a few nights in Milan instead. Result: Unexpected. I did not regret. When the plane landed MXP, I started worrying how to get to Lugano...turned out, it was very easy and convenient. It was only about 1.5 hours away from MXP by the comfy bus and they assisted to load your luggage to the bus too. Loved it. :-) Then spent CHF18 for a 3-4 mins Taxi ride from the Lugano FFS to the apartment hotel I booked. It was actually only 10 mins walk from the Lugano FFS but spending CHF18, I did not need to waste time wondering where and how... I was happy to see that the apartment (Maraini Resort) was so big and for myself for 6 nights with a fully equipped kitchen and dish washer!! It also has an indoor swimming pool at the ground floor. Wish I could swim. Did not waste a second. I went straight out and looked for markets, supermarkets, shops, buses, preparing tickets for the other trips to Zurich and Milan,..etc.etc.. Spent a night at my friends place and had great dinner with them. I always like their sweet & sour tofu, very delicious and innovative, and the seasonal dish - braise duck with brussel sprouts. They tasted so good that I wish I had 2 stomachs! (China Restaurant ZEN, Adilswil, Zurich) On Sunday, went to Foxtown for a walk. A lot of people! And met a good looking Russian lady from Siberia, we found our way from the train station to there. But actually the bus stop was just opposite to the train station. Hey, it was so hidden, who will know where it is! Anyway, we had a good walk and chat under a sunny day which was enjoyable and good. A trip to Germany Singen & Konstanz was always so great with friends, although it always a shopping & eating trip. It was also full of people! Then, spending a hectic day to find Swiss Custom to stamp my tax refund forms so I can get tax back before going to Milan. Glad to find them at Chiasso. Then, went to Milan! Tutto Solo! Felt a bit scare but pretending not and walk like locals straight from Milan Centrale to hotel. Yeah! The stay at Crown Plaza Milan City was great, although the room is 50% of the size of the apartment in Lugano, it is right at the exit of M3 - Sondrio and tram/bus of 90,91,92, which its bus stop is just opposite to the MXP airport bus area. If follow straight this bus/tram line, you will find the shopping street Bueno Aries (like Nathan Road in HK! ;-p) There were not too many bakery, so I headed to Duomo for food, actutally, pastries & bread... On Sunday, last day in Milan, went to a market only open in the morning till 12pm, and I bought old HK coins dated back 1863! This market is near the main post office just a 2-3 mins walk from Duomo at M1 - Cordusio stop. The buildings and surroundings are stunning. Must more attractive than the shopping area around Duomo! After spending an hour or two on my plate of Ossobuco with Milanese Risotto, I went to another place which I have never been before, even I went to Milan for more than 5 times. That's Castello Sforzesco. I love it love it. I LOVE ANCIENT ROMAN & GREEK STYLE ARCHITECTURE! THE PILLARS, THE FRESCO, THE DOME, ROMAN SCULPTURE...Errrrr I made a correct decision to stay a few nights in Milan alone, so I can explore the city, not shopping. Next time, I will stay in Lugano and have a real relaxing 2 weeks holiday!

Shanghai Jade, Exchange Square, Hong Kong

Shanghai Jade, Exchange Square. Minutes of food. :-) Great food!

My mushroom risotto. Best consistency I have ever head so far....because I made it. :-) My second attempt was disaster, as I was lazy not pouring soup ladle by ladle. So don't be lazy, if you want to make wonderful risotto yourself!

Alternative Solutions to Sharing iWorks Files

Spent a day to look for different solutions. Now quite happy with the solutions found. Keynotes on iPad is one of the best apps which I always use, apart from Flipbroad. I spent money on the app and then money on the connector to projector....so of course now, need to think about how I can share the file easier without using email but something like Dropbox. Unfortunately, when you try to share the presentation though sharing function on Keynote, you cannot share through Dropbox but WebDAV and Dropbox does not have WebDAV yet. Hence, searching searching..... Below may be probably the best solutions: *Sign up an account smestorage.com *Pay USD5 to install iSMEStorage app on your iPad *Setup the mapping to Dropbox *Send a screenshot of iSMEstorage installed on your iPad with your smestorage account login name to support and request for activation of the WebDAV service That's it. Like it so far. :-)

Natural Pain Killer

Not sure if this is good or bad. I can't stop myself from digging for natural pain killer instead of keep taking Ponstan or Panadol every month. After much Googling in the past 2 days, I learnt about Cyclooxygenase (COX). Inhibiting COX can provide relief from pain and inflammation. Cooked Maitake (Grifola frondosa) may inhibit both COX 1 and COX 2. And flavonoid found in a variety of fruits and vegi (apple, apricots, blueberries, pears, raspberries, strawberries, cabbage, onion, parsley, tomato, citrus fruit, tea, cacao) can inhibit COX2. Now, I have a bag of great mushroom, going to make it in rice, risotto, etc. etc..Make it as pesto is better so can be kept in a bottle and eat when require. Will buy fresh one more from Japan now regularly.

Flashing my Vodafone 845 to Gingerbread

It was a daunting task, which I always tried to avoid. BUT because of the error that can't be fixed without flashing either to a new Android ROM or to factory ROM. Of course, I selected to flash it to a higher version of Android and the result was great and everything seems responding faster then before when it was installed with Eclair.

Tried to flash to IceCream Sandwich, but the ROM and everything seemed not working very smoothly with this low end phone

So, Gingerbread - Healthy and tasty ;-) Below were what I did, after 2-day-overnight testing & trial....sorry, sister, don't have time to try and find out how to bridge the digital TV to other wi-fi devices.... It was difficult for me as the error also causing, nothing can be downloaded & installed on the phone, so I can't download anything that can help. One particular tool is - ROM Manager. I will suggest you to install it now and back it up when you still can now for just in case. Steps by steps FYI: 1. Rooted your device (non manual process is to use z4root, but it is no longer available in Android Market, otherwise, follow the manual steps which you can easily found the information via Google) 2. Installed ROM Manager 3. Download cyanogenmod ROM cm-7.2.0-RC0-U8120-KANG-signed-update16a.zip, latest update is 16a, you can find it in xda-developer website. 4. Download G-apps, also can be found in xda-developer 5. Last file to download is recovery clockwork 5.0.26 zip file and then rename it into update.zip Mis en place completed. Now 'making & baking it'.

The make & bake process: 1. copy all the zip files onto SD Card root. 2. Switch on the phone by pressing Call+Volume Up+Power buttons. ROM Manager menu will come up. Select the option to make a 'fake' recovery action to recover from the update.zip file. Complete, Reboot, then turn off the phone. 3. Switch on the phone by pressing Call+Volume Up+Power buttons. ROM Manager menu will come up. Select Install zip from SDCard and select the cm-7.2.0*.zip (Ginger bread Vodafone 845 ROM. Complete, Reboot to system (may take about 15-30mins, make sure your phone has the power to wait.) 5. Switch on the phone by pressing Call+Volume Up+Power buttons,again. ROM Manager menu will come up. Select 'Install zip file from SDCard, select the gapps*.zip file, so essential Google apps can be installed too. Done. After the installation, last time to boot to ROM Manager menu to wipe all data with factory reset to basically clear up all the stored data in the phone that will create issue on accessing Android market and install any apps to the phone. It was not too difficult but just confusing (sometime and different people may encounter different bugs/error during the process...), thanks to the ROM Manager. So if you are interested to flash your older Android phone to Gingerbread, enjoy! :-)

My trip to Seoul - Enjoy being lost.

Upon arrival, I was lost already. Ummm...where was the bus station to hotel...online it reads first bus from airport is around 5am...so most of us waited till the service desk open around 6am, so we asked "Where is the bus stop?" The 'luxury' of taking this bus was that bus driver will assist you to load and unload your luggage. Korean men are usually very helpful (probably older generation?), they will assist any female with their luggage. Thumbs up. Lost again after getting off the bus...where is the apartment...ummm...looking left right front and back....all Korean, no Chinese, no English. Guess-Walk-Go. Fortunately, found it in 5 mins. with my luggage. The weather was nice but very cold, down jacket with cashmere was not enough. Now I understand what there are so many shops selling fur. Went straight out trying to get ticket - T-Money...Got it at 7-11. Funny, someone asked me where to get ticket at the MRT...do I look so much like Korean..? The area I was staying - Daelim seems like a residential area and close to factories area via Line 7. Every night after 10pm, MRT was packed. And there is a 24hr Korean restaurant near the apartment, so felt quite safe walking back to hotel every night after 11pm. Headed to Dongdaemun. Lost again. Couldn't find the MRT. Whatever. Really looking forward to going to Seoul and will spend morning at Dongdaemun to experience how Korean spend overnight in this area. Learnt how to make kimchi. Very interesting, but preparation may take longer than really making it. To prepare the huge chinese cabbage, it needed to be prepared one day ahead and with heavy object on top of it to try get rid of the water inside it and one needs to turn the kimchi every 4 hours...Happy that Ryoko can join me for fresh seafood lunch and then Korean BBQ dinner. So great. Trying to walk from MRT to Hermes through short cut....ummm...lost again, no map, nothing. Fortunately, met a guy who took me there and he can speak fluent English, because he studied in UK and US before. Nice. Next time, really should have a good Seoul map. A map that should have korean & chinese street name, english pronunciation, bus stops.

Hong Kong Street Food

Ha. That's me! ;-) But I am not from Taiwan.

We are on Swiss Newspaper!

Someone took a picture of us and used it in the Jun 2011 Gastro Journal. I remembered this stall. The lady was very nice and they made very great Gruyere.

New York 2011 - On 'half' shoe string :-)

Arrived in NYC on 6Aug late. Ran out of the hotel - Courtyard Marriott Times Square South. The location of hotel is great. Turn left is Broadway & Garment District. Turn right and walk about one block is 5th Ave and NY Public Library. Found 'Korea area' at 32th street. Very busy, 'ha li ah sei yuo' 'com sa ha me da'. Thought I was in Seoul. Have to go try one of the restaurant for Bulgogi. Sunday, I went to Woodbury Common Outlet. Ha. Bought a Rimowa 29" Salsa Air and a small bag from Bottega Veneta. If tax could be refunded, these would be a very good value (including the Tod's bag bought in Washington DC). Monday, bought a 7-day unlimited metro ticket. Went to Apple store and bought an iPad 2 (then realized it is available again in HK :-(() and looking for seeds for sprouting...then Customer Service suggested me to go to a shop that re-open on 8Aug! Can't find it anywhere in the shop and anywhere in NYC. Sad. Rushed to Grand Central during rush hour! I felt like 'Salmon' swimming up from basement to exit against the 'human current'.

Tuesday, weather was so nice, not hot. So went to Central Park. Tried looking for bikeandroll but instead found T.J. Maxx and Times Warner Center and WHOLEFOODS Supermarket!! Yeah. Very happy. Healthy and organic food are all available with a small area for people sitting down and eat their hot, cold food etc. etc.. I LIKE THIS PLACE!Spent half day in Central Park, so comfy. I did not rent a bike at the end, as spots are not accessible by bike but have to be on foot. So 3 hours walking, finished half of the Central Park. Exit at MET. No more strength to continue. Wednesday, went Upper East wanted to finish the next half of Central Park from 106th street. Felt scary. So took bus to Guggenheim. Really like this museum. Saw Lee Ufan exhibition...thinking...I can be an 'artist' too when I retired and start working on the art pieces. Then, to Chelsea market. Getting nicer but still lack some 'charm', don't know how to say it. But funny how, I saw DVF office/warehouse. Some sort of karma between me and DVF. Wish I were taking a week course on fashion design with her. ;-p On the way to the bus stop (yes, I don't take underground. It's smelly, dark, and hot and stuffy. NO. NO. Taking underground without knowing the city well is like 'loosing your eyes on the city' and no way you know where is where and how to get there on the ground surface!) Thursday, weather is great. Very blue sky, windy and cool! Love this weather. Took a bus trip from 40th Street to Battery Park, passing through Greenwich Village, Soho, Noho, Financial District. Then, back via M15 at 1st Ave passing through East Village, Murray Hill. Definitely, East side is better than West side, may be I am getting 'mature'. So East side may suit me more. But of course, you will have to be a bit patience, when e.g. buying stuff, getting on and off buses. Elderly has the privilege, so be a good person. :-)) Went to MET, nothing is very interesting, so when to their big store. WOW, it is like going into MET. Saw Alexandar McQueen catalog (missed the last exhibit at 7th Aug) too big and heavy. Have to let go but bought an interesting book showing you how to turn a piece of cloth into 3D dresses or shirt or clothes. Only 1 more day then my colleague from Singapore will be joining me for last full day in New York going to Lower Manhattan before leaving on Sunday back to HK. I will miss this trip. P.S. On 'half' shoe string: Staying in downtown hotel in safe and good area and spend less on food and do more walking. On purpose - a good diet trip. ;-p

Singapore - Durian Malay Breed

I have to declared that all those durian I ate cannot be categorized as authentic Mao Shan. Today I walked from Studio M, crossed the colorful bridge, along Havelock Road. Arrived at En Tong Sen Road, turn right (opposite to Chinatown Point). Walked pass 2 chinese medicine stores. Found an old man hawker store opposite to the chinese medicine store, with quite a good numbers of small durians....Here I bought 2. One is Mao Shan (red meat) and one is XO (white meat). WOW. Heaven. Eating Mao Shan was like eating very rich texture custard sweet with the nice smell of durian. And XO was a bit bitter but it is bitter sweet! If you are new to durian and really want to try. Go to this old man store and buy a Mao Shan, you will not regret it and you will not (very hard) to find something similar. It may also because this is in season so it was so GOOOOOOOD. :-)

Chocolate Cake - No Flour

Ok. Need to write it down before I forget. Not programming script but SCRIPT for a no flour cake. :-) Hardware - oven, good whisk, good whisking bowl Software - 3 whole egg with sugar beaten over simmering water until think, melted chocolate with rum (I added almond powder instead), beaten full fat cream, fold in the melted chocolate into the egg mixture, then fold in the beaten full fat cream. Process - pour the final mixture into a bowl bake in oven for an hour on baine marie style Run it with any other decoration you want. Shouldn't have any BUGs. ;-p

Wild Target (2010)

A very 'classic' British movie. Love it. Recommend to see. ;-)

My Android - is golden!

OMG. Bought a low price Android as needed a true webkit based browser for demo and testing. Ended up. Got my iPhone now which is perfect for next week to use. But I am already addicted to the Android phone. So iPhone will be in the drawer and use when it is needed. Spent 2 overnights to get my Android setup with SIP phone so I can receive and call my brother in U.S. via my Google Voice NYC number. And then my curiosity killed me again that was to dig for access to root and have the little, light Android phone rooted. Then turned it into wifi hotspot-able device, when it is needed because it is on Android 2.1 (2.2+ version will have the ability to change it into a handy, useful, wifi router in case... you are in a meeting room no internet with colleagues and clients but only your phone can connect to internet via 3G and you need to do a demo of your app...). I am a happy sunflower now with a big smiley face to welcome 2011 :-)). For anyone who is interested, below are recommended apps to use/install on your Android (warning: some of them requires good technical knowledge to use somehow, so don't complain if you want to use it. Google it and learn it and write it down.)

1. Appinstaller (allow you to install apk files stored on your SD card. i.e. apps that can't find in Android Market any more..) 2. Google Voice Application 3. Sipdroid 4. GVoice Callback 5. Lookout 6. QR Droid 7. Quick System Info Pro 8. TweetDeck 9. FX Camera 10. appRemover 11. Color Flashlight 12. Realcalc 13. FXcurrency 14. World Clock 15. z4root 16. Android Terminal Emulator*root 17. Barnacle*root 18. Titanium Backup*root..... Waiting for a calendar with Chinese calendar and worldwide holidays, then that will be perfect. :-) Have fun with Android! My next attempt will be.....pretending as an lovely quiet dumb lady like person and go to bed early, exercise, shopping, high-tea, and facial.... ;-p

Amsterdam-Berlin 2010

This year. I will be going to Amsterdam and Berlin with mom, after my grand mom died about a month ago. Thinking it will be good to take her out of Hong Kong for a walk in Europe, when she still can travel far. Hence, I need to select good nice apartment with fully equipped kitchen and washing machine, which is also needed to be close to grocery, supermarket, and almost everything. A bit nervous and tense at the moment, as I have never been to Berlin. Not sure which is good area and which is not. And will be spending over two weeks in Berlin to explore, study German, and relax at the same time. So have to be very cautious. Berlin! Berlin! Hope the weather will be sunny and cold, so we can hire a bike to cycle a bit too. :-) More to share in mid November, when everything is confirmed. :-)

Cake - no flour :-)

- grounded nuts - 6 organges 1 lemon, cooked - 250g sugar - some cinnamon powder - some baking powder - blend cooked organges and lemon - add in the grounded nuts into the blender with the halfly blended organges and lemon - add the rest of the ingredient into blender - add 6 eggs - blend blend - pour into cake mould - into oven 170 degree cel 45 min. middle shelf

Food Experiences

Finally got a simple setup for my www.melpocafe.com It is not a real cafe yet but just sharing some food, drink, travel experiences in flash...

Ginger Milk Curd 薑汁撞奶

Going to make it this week. *freshly pressed ginger juice *heat up milk to around 85 degree cel using bain marie *pour milk into ginger juice *wait for 2-3 mins DONE. The milk curds as ginger contains protease and when pouring hot milk into ginger juice, it catalyses hydrolysis of the protein in the milk and the milk becomes milk curd. ;-)

New York - Snap Shots ;-)

The Potato, Miro 1928
Woman Head, Melpo 2010


Inside MET

New York 3 nights 2 days

Arrived on 8April. Too tired due to jet lag. Yes. Serious. Whenever flying East instead of via Europe, jet lag. Fell asleep all the time. ;-p Spent 7 hours walking because my hotel is in Midtown E 39th St.. I kept telling myself take bus, take metro...but...don't want to take metro as I can't see what's on the ground...to take bus, I need to wait....I may have arrived 42th st.+Park ave=Grand Central, so why the wait?! Bought NY City Pass just want to skip the queue. MET is big. To me, it needs 1 day. At MoMA, Tim Burton exhibition tickets sold out (why on the dates that I am going @#$!#X*&!!!). Interestingly, wherever I go Monet is around :-). Been to his collection in London long time ago. This time in MoMA is a mini version of it. Another very impressive exhibition is from Marina Abramović. It has some sort of sense/strong statements on - violent and self-destruction, obsession of sex and nudity (subconsciously). Different from other video works, I feel some uneasy 'pressure' of receiving the messages from them. I feel scare a bit but on the other hand, it is very impressive and somehow kind of like it.... Perhaps, it has been long time not seeing 'good real stuff' that are not pretentious. Went to Chelsea Market. Well, sorry to say. It still needs some time to be great and nice to be appreciated place,where I can spend a whole day and go there again and again (get addict). It can definitely be better, why can't it be evolving into something like Borough market in London(probably the best open market in the world ;-p) where you can buy cook food, great bakery products, raw fresh fruits and veg, traditional pie & terraine? I am addicted to Borough market. The problem of Chelsea Market is probably because of space confinement (?). Expend and focus. e.g. Barn 1 = art & craft, Barn 2 = cooked food & bakery, Barn 3 = fresh fruit & bakery, etc. 'Connect' them. There are still a lot of room to improve. Guggenheim, it is superb. 'Exhibitions in spring-form.' ;-p No start or beginning. Just keep 'rolling' down or 'scrolling' up. I think I will arrange the works following the circular 'movement' to push the emotion up or lead you to 'a wrong way' of illusion using that circular corridor and 'deposition' rooms for introspection. ;-p So, Guggenheim, it is a must go in New York. Because of all these must go and hence, I did not manage to go to Natural History Museum :-( to be continue......

M&M Travel - Switzerland, Milan, Munich 2009 - Update

Scary. October trip in 2009. Only now have tiny little bit of time to update it and I am trying out some new flash tools building website without flash knowledge. And it is free. Very nice one. Going to try their eCommerce but no trial :-( Also trying another one, which is a bit boring but faster. So using this Wix.com. Here is the result adding a bit of myself and highlights of the trip in October 2009: http://www.melpowong.com/melpo-wong.html Next stop. New York. :-))

My Carrot Cake

I don't like eating very dried carrot cake. The best version I had was when I worked at Zurich Flughafen production kitchen. Unfortunately, I lost the recipe and it was all in German. One key thing I remembered was they use mixed of different cake 'leftover' (e.g. any cake base we made on that day, we can't use them all after trimming, then that trimmings will be kept for making the carrot cake). I saw this one on TV today, no measurement was mentioned. But anyway I will try and than tweak it a bit. Carrot Cake: Ingredients: Mixture 1 -Brown sugar -dark sugar syrup -some olive oil -some apple puree (so it won't be too dry) -grated/jullienne of carrots -whole eggs Mix them. Mixture 2: Flour, baking soda, cinnamon powder (but I think adding some grand almond will be good too...) Pour the mixture 2 into mixture 1. Mix them well (but don't overmix it, otherwise, it will become too hard. Like any dough kneading, you would not knead the dough frantically, otherwise, your bread will be so hard and we can use it to kill dogs...) Pour mixture into stanless steel container, cover it and put it into oven. Bake it in bain marie style. Done.

A short trip to Konstanz, Germany

Must go restaurant: il Boccone iL Boccone Gaststettenbetribs GmbH, Bodanstr 20-26 78462 Konstanz t: 49 (0)7531 284 6744 e: mangiare@ilboccone.de www.ilboconne.de (Picture to follow....;-))

In Zurich for a few days

A short note to record down how I get connected to the Internet world. So I won't forget and can be shared with you all. Sunrise has different rate plans. As I need a local phone number and also a number for Internet connection via 3G/Edge (depending on the reception of your location), I applied for 2 numbers. For the internet, it costs only CHF3 per hour. You can connect it to your laptop and use your 3G phone as modem. Swisscom also has plan for Internet connection. Reception is much better BUT charges are base on bytes of data transfer=Expensive. You can top up any numbers you are using at any train station's ticket selling machine, apart from going to the Sunrise shop. Extremely convenient. To keep the number, you just need to dial a call each year and it will be kept for you.

Mulled Wine - Gluehwein

Hot Red Wine for cold weather... Ingredients: -One bottle of Red Wine -Grand Marnier / Contreau / Kirsch -Cinnamon 4g (divided into 2 portions) -Mulled Wine spices (including cloves, nutmeg, cardamon, star anis) -1 Lemon and 1 Orange -Cane Sugar -some honey To make it: -Cut lemon and orange into slices (skin on) -simmering red wine in a pan -put 2g cinnamon, 1 teaspoon cloves, 1 teaspoon cardamon, 3-5 pieces star anise -3-5 soup spoon of cane sugar -2 soup spoon of Grand Marnier / Contreux / Kirsch -graded a bit of nutmeg to the mixture -put some of the lemon and organge slices int the simmering mixture when it is very hot. -let it simmer for another 45 mins. If you want it sweeter add more sugar and then honey. Filter the mixture to another pot for serving the mulled wine. Add the remaining slices of orange and lemon to the mulled wine as decoration. DONE! I will not suggest to drink this in HK, as HK water is heaty enough to make a person too 'heaty' without the need to eat chips, deep fried chicken, chocolate, etc.. With 3-5 star anise and nutmeg....this is a very heaty drink. Soar throat, pimples, headache, coughing are signs of eating too much heaty food and/or mix with flu/cold. So beware, if you can't eat heaty food / have heady drink in HK. ;-)

Hong Kong - Zurich - Dallas - Zurich - Hong Kong

That's the routing I will take in Jan 2010. Not the 'usual' one. Not surprising that lower fare and not too many hours overlay. If we can book the ticket while promotion fare is still available, much better price! Most importantly, less worse jet lag for me. (or no jet lag)

Guess airlines should start thinking these routing options instead of the 'traditional'...considering not just base on the flying hours...?

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M&M Travel - Switzerland, Milan, Munich 2009

Since my name is so Google-able, why not sharing my amateur website sharing our photos, videos (please bear with me, as this is the first time I created video. It was so fxxxing difficult to get the format converted x converted x converted and keep somehow the quality and to make it work in MAC too!! If you are using MAC and can't see the video properly, please let me know where has gone wrong...and I will try to figure out and fix it whenever I have time. Thanks! http://mmtravel.melpowong.com

Chocolate. Chocolate.

Sister wants to make a moist chocolate cake. Found recipes BUT all with scary amount of butter...Suggested to try now: 1. blend egg with sugar till it get volume (meaning with a lot of air inside the mixture) 2.melt chocolate flakes (bain marie style) 3. mix in grounded almonds into melted chocolate 4. pour 1 into (2+3) mixture. 5. pour into cake mode 2.5 inch height layered with baker paper on the bottom and the side. 6. bake it 160 degree cel about 25 mins Ok.. Now something similar to chocolate fondant, with soft center served in ramequins (we used to call ramequins 'coque' in school....not sure why...) 1. Use the same mixture as in above 2.melt butter over bain marie and add butter 3. mix ground almond into 2. 4. fold 1 into (2+3) mixture 5. pour mixture into ramequins 6. bake in 160 degree cel for about 15-20mins. Will have to try these in next few weeks!

Timbale de Volaille - new version

Not exactly a timbale look but in other type of mold and modified recipe to make the roses. And then 4 different kinds of jelly made from chicken essence from itself and vegi and herby sauces to create a rollercoaster experience of taste. Healthy and fun when eating it. We played it with simple natural molecule of food. Distilled, mixed and blended. It was fun, although a bit tiring. :-)