Shopping Sunday!

Are you going shopping today? If these signs were on a store's door or window, I'd find it really hard to resist shopping in their store!

This door sign made me laugh! I'd enter this store, for sure!

Aaahh, retail therapy.

And yes! [Sniff.] I do deserve new shoes!

Happy Shopping Sunday!

Photos from here via acupofjo, matteroftaste and annnniegirl.

hongkong's best buns

Surprisingly, my favorites from my recent gastronomic adventure in Hongkong are primarily all buns.

Deep-Fried Creamy Buns with Egg Yolk from City Hall Maxim's Palace - It's a custard bun with salted duck egg yolk. The sweet creamy goodness of the custard filling balanced with the saltiness of the duck yolk is to-die-for! In my 2 visits, I have not seen these buns in the dimsum carts (carrying the 2010-HK-Readers'-Choice-Award-worthy dimsum) being pushed around the restaurant. Both times, my friend needed to stand up and order them while pointing to the buns on the menu (thankfully, with English translation and a photo). Three buns come in one order.

Baked Bun with BBQ Pork from Tim Ho Wan - The baked bun in itself is already pretty good. Moreso with the BBQ pork filling. I love the mix of saltiness from the baked bun and the sweetness from the pork. It is a pretty perfect bun! Three buns come in one order too.     

Pork Bun from Ippudo - I've only been able to taste Ippudo's pork buns in their New York and Singapore branches. But since Ippudo recently opened in Hongkong, I thought it should be included in this list of Hongkong's best buns. Unlike the previous two buns, this one is a steamed bun. But I think the secret is in the Japanese mayo that comes with the pork. 

There's a line at each of these restaurants but their buns make the wait worth it!

City Hall Maxim's Palace (Opens at 11am, Sunday 9am)

2F  City Hall Low Block (but more like 3F based on the escalator flights you need to take)

Edinburgh Place, Central

Tel: +852 2526-9931

Don't make the mistake of going to any Maxim's restaurant, not even the Maxim's Cafe in the same building. I suggest you read through Cindy's very specific directions here.

Tim Ho Wan
FLT 8 G/F Phase 2 Tsui Yuen Mansion 2-20 Kwong Wa St.
Mongkok, Kowloon
Tel: +852 2332-2896
This branch is not an ideal place to bring kids because it is a pretty small place. Am not sure about their other branches because rumor is that they don't taste the same as the original. Oh, and apart from their Char Siu Buns, you have got to order their Pan-Fried Turnip Cake! That is what turnip cake should taste like!

Ippudo

Shop 210, Silvercord Tower, 30 Canton Rd.
Tsim Sha Tsui, Hongkong
Tel: +852 2957-8893
They also have a branch in Causeway Bay, if that is closer to where you are in Hongkong. Oh, and make sure you order ramen since that is what they're known for. I remember loving their Akamaru Ramen in their NY branch but didn't quite like it in Singapore. I cannot quite recall the ramen I did like in Singapore, but they said it was their bestseller. So I suggest you ask the HK staff which ramen is their best and order that one.

Photos are my and my friends' own.

Click here for another gastronomic experience in Hongkong.

some polka dots i spotted...

I love the mishmash of chairs in this place Mikka of A Mischmashed Life once visited. The whimsical hodgepodge of chairs - polka-dotted, striped, solid-colored - is just delightful!

Just last week, I moved things around the house to break the matchy-matchiness of our bedroom. But let me start from the beginning: how we began furnishing our house when we first moved in. At that time, I just wanted clean, sleek, minimalist lines. If I had my way, our house would completely be in minimalist Zen. But remember here how the hubby wants things to have significance? Well, he grew up in a house with traditional Filipino furniture - with capiz windows and sulihiya recliners - so he wanted our home to be reminiscent of an old Vigan house.

And so our living room became a fusion of clean Zen lines and traditional Filipino pieces. We had a Zen-themed sofa made - with built-in shelves and detachable cushions for easy laundering. The focal point of our 'sala' was a crushed bamboo armoire we had custom-made for our TV - in mixed wood finishes to tie everything together. Our Vigan-inspired pieces - our baul and even our narra bench outside - did not have the intricate curly-cue carvings to keep with my clean, minimalist aesthetic. We replaced the door-panel of our fuse box with a Vigan capiz window from Tiendesitas and it served as a wall panel, giving character to our foyer. We also got ottomans for added seating & storage - in wicker & rope for more native textures.

Our bedroom though was completely minimalist Zen. It was practically lifted from an Ethan Allen catalogue - with the Lotus bed, the big round mirror above the headboard and Lotus dressers as huge sidetables (you see, I'm obsessed with storage space). For a while now, I have been wanting to get new sidetables but I wasn't keen on spending when I had perfectly good ones - just lacking charm & character. Then it struck me to move things around the house. So one sidetable moved to the other end of the bedroom as a dresser, the other moved up to Isabella's room to hold her TV, my wicker ottomans moved up to the master's bedroom as sidetables and our narra bench from outside became part of our living room.

While it was really more of an accident - a compromise - that made us design our living room in an eclectic Asian minimalist aesthetic, I love how our living room has always had so much personality and meaning. And I love that years later, it continues to breathe life throughout our whole house - breaking the matchy-matchiness of our bedroom into a stylish mishmash with so much more character than before. 

Photos from amischmashedlife, here, here, here, here, here and here. Layouts are my own.

Click here for previous posts from the Some Polka Dots I Spotted series.

     

Whimsical Wednesday!

It's the middle of the workweek once again. Check out J.Crew's latest answers to a woman's daily morning question of "What am I going to wear to work today?"

While I totally love these work outfits (particularly the telegraph pencil skirt and the tailored 1035 suit), I think we should dress differently today. Because it is the most whimsical Wednesday of all... it's the rare leap-year-Wednesday! So wear some J.Crew glitter to work today...

Have a whimsical leap-year-Wednesday!

Photos from J.Crew.

Click here for previous posts from the Whimsical Wednesday series. 

pretend play

You know how people can't resist capturing (on cam) an illusion at certain tourist spots? Like pretending to hold up the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Or pretending to catch the water spewing out of the Merlion in Singapore. Or even just pretending to hold the Madhatter's giant teacup in Disneyland by its handle. I myself have a photo where I am "nose-to-nose" with one of the giant statues of a Hindu god in a Siem Reap temple. I guess people just never outgrow pretend-play.   

Imagine how fun it is for the people in Le 104 in Paris with this installation by illusionist Leandro Elrich called Batiment - which is French for building. A gigantic tilted mirror reflects the huge building facade laid out on the floor where people can pretend they are hanging from ledges or make like Spiderman and crawl up the 4-storey house.  

How fun is this?

Photos from blackeiffel and here.

Click here for a previous post on my Siem Reap trip.

Noah says...

When I got home from work one day, I asked Noah if he took a nap that afternoon so I would estimate what time we were going to bed that night. He replied, "Yes, but I think it was too early." I corrected him, "You mean 'too short'?" He exclaimed, "I don't know! Because I'm not awake when I'm asleep!"

Photo from nyctaughtme.

Click here for previous posts from the Noah Says... series.

my pretend closet: khaki coat

The khaki coat has been haunting me these past few weeks. My first sighting was on a chic little girl on the Hongkong MTR last weekend.

Then while shopping in Zara after hopping off the MTR, I spotted this khaki trench in the kids section...

Then Manila Fashion Observer's Christine Dychiao lured me into the khaki coat obsession with this half-sleeved coat with a stylish oversized collar. I love how effortlessly smart this look is.

I think the half-sleeves make it perfect for Manila. After all, it's not like we get cold Hongkong weather here.

It's from this New York brand called Hatch made for women who are expecting or not. So they're perfect for during and even before & after pregnancy. And since I'm at my fattest these days (see related posts here), its swing silhouette can hide my bulges. :)

Actually, am loving it in every color. Even in this olive green...

Ooohh, I wish these Hatch coats were in my non-pretend closet!

Photos from acupofjo, zara, manilafashionobserver and hatch.

Click here for previous posts from the My Pretend Closet series.