My Journey…

Sample # 13 - Haagen Dazs Limited Edition Sticky Toffee Pudding (Cost $2.50)

It has been awhile since I did an Ice Cream update… weather has been too cold for ice cream and I also have a waist line issue to cope with. I am back but at a slower pace.

History of the Limited Edition Sticky Toffee Pudding
Winner of Scoop: Haagen Dazs Flavour Search 2005. Judiaann from Brooklyn, NY was inspired by England’s most treasured dessert, the sticky toffee pudding (rich cake smothered with warm toffee sauce)

This is definately something for you who love caramel, toffee and creme brulee.

Rich vanilla ice cream, swirled with a sticky toffee sauce and morsels of moist, brown sugar cake.

Verdict: YUM! The first taste of the ice cream is like eating cold and soft creme brulee. Take a spoonful with some brown sugar cake and it taste like creme brulee + soft sweet cake + toffee! Just gotta have it!

Mardi Gras (French for "Fat Tuesday") is the day before Ash Wednesday, and is also called "Shrove Tuesday" or "Pancake Day". It is the final day of Carnival. It is a celebration that is held just before the beginning of the Christian liturgical season of Lent.

Galveston is home to a large Mardi Gras festival, the Island tradition begun in 1867, and which is held in the historic Strand District on Galveston Island on the Texas Gulf Coast.

We (Adam, Sue, David and I) were at Mardi Gras Saturday. A few streets were closed to traffic, they need to make way for parades, performances and such. We paid $20 each to get in.

Sue (Adam’s mum), me and David (Adam’s stepdad) just arrived at the Mardi Gras

Even the Navy was there

Once in, you walk around and see people throwing beads from balconies. If you want beads, you have to shout to get the throwers’ attention. Some require you to ‘work’ for your beads… most often you are asked to flash your boobies for beads. As they call it, Boobs 4 Beads.

Throwers up in the balconies; Catchers trying to get some beads

Frankie J performed the day we were there. Walking along the streets, shouting for beads I suddenly hear him sing. I caught a glimpse of him but as I wanted to approach the stage side, Adam suggested we go to a nearby bar for a beer and a Hurricane (famous Mardi Gras cocktail). I (ultimately) chose Hurricane over Frankie J.

History of the Hurricane:
Hurricane was invented during the World War II at Pat O’Briens bar in New Orleans and was named after the shape of a hurricane lamp. Pat O’Briens bar is still open today in New Orleans’ famous French Quarter and sells their original Hurricane cocktail mix at the bar.

Hurricane
- 2 oz light rum
- 2 oz dark rum
- 2 oz passion fruit juice
- 1 oz orange juice
- 1/2 oz fresh lime juice
- 1 tbsp simple syrup
- 1 tbsp grenadine
- Garnish: orange slice and cherry

It’s just a day of walking the streets, shouting for beads and drinking Hurricane. What a way to spend Saturday.

Beads we collected (without having to flash)

The year of the Pig is here, Gong Xi Fa Chai everyone!

This is my first CNY in Houston. As expected, there isn’t much happening here. There were some celebrations in Chinatown (and I believe one in Downtown) on Saturday but I missed all of them as I was at the Mardi Gras in Galveston Island.

On the first day of CNY, Adam and I went to Chinatown to see if anything is on and I was hoping that that would get me into the CNY mood. Once we got to the parking lot, we saw a lion dance setup in front of a Chinese restaurant all ready to go anytime!

The setup we saw when we got to the parking lot. Those lions up the building were held up by mannequins

After about a 15 minute wait with a big crowd of Asians (most of them dressed in their CNY red outfit) the owner of the restaurant lit the first set of red fireworks (bangers as Adam calls it). Smoke everywhere, alot of people coughing and then the lion dance begin!

I love lion dances. Here are some shots.

After that we had lunch at an authentic Chinese restaurant. We ordered Kung Pao chicken and Hong Kong Kai Lan stir fried by garlic. Very delicious, very big serving too! The dish that came can feed 4 people. Bill came up to $20 (plus tip) and we were given a fortune cookie each.

Great way to celebrate CNY though I do wish I was home, imagine the amount of ang pows I will be collecting especially since many of my friends are eligible to give them out now! Oh well, life’s a bitch, you can’t have everything your way. Maybe next year.

Adam’s a Valentine baby… no, he was not ‘made’ on Valentine’s Day, he was born on Valentine’s Day. It’s difficult when I have to plan something since it’s official his day but it’s kinda my day too.

This year I thought I’ll plan something for him, this year is going to be HIS day. So I schemed something with Adam’s mum, Sue. And what did the ladies came up with? A surprise visit by Sue and David (Adam’s stepdad) all the way from England to celebrate Adam’s birthday!

This is Sue and David

So on the 12th of February, I picked Sue and David from the airport at 3pm. We waited at home and I double locked the main door so that Adam couldn’t get in. When Adam tried to unlock the door, Sue opened the door and the look on Adam’s face was really a MasterCard priceless moment.

Sue and I have been planning this for 7 months and it’s tough work. It’s very tough because I have to make sure Adam does not plan any business trip the week of Valentine’s day and his birthday. Also I have to suppress the excitement and I have to constantly stop myself from making remarks like ‘Ok! Let’s do that again when mum’s here!’… and the list of things I can’t do or say just goes on.

Adam was surprised and is very happy with our plan.. phew! I am thankful everything went so well. Adam said this is a very lovely surprise!

Since Sue and David’s here, Adam and I exchanged our Valentine’s gifts in the bedroom.

‘So in love…
You are so to blame’

~Message in my Valentine’s card

I got Adam a black boxer short (sheer one ok) with alot of bright red hearts on it! I don’t think he will wear it though, it’s just something I got him for fun.

As for me, Adam got me a pair of Tiffany & Co Open Heart earrings! It matches the 3-Open Heart necklace he bought me for my birthday 2 years back. I love it!

Dinner tonight will be at home. All the nice restaurants are booked up and the streets will be crowded. Not to mention the fact that you only have the set dinner menu and nothing from the ala carte menu and is guaranteed poor service. Our plan is to stay in tonight and dine out tomorrow!

VALENTINE’S MENU

Appetiser
Hummus with carrot sticks, celery sticks and bagueatte

Main
Pecan crusted chicken (for the ladies)
Chicken Diablo (for the gentlemen)

Side salad and jacket potato

Dessert
Heart shaped shortcake decorated with hearts (came all the way from England)
Creme Brulee
Black and blue berries

Valentine dessert

We had a wonderful evening which we started with a bottle of Moet and the appetisers. Adam then unwrapped his gifts. I got Adam a Mont Blanc business card holder which he needs (he leaves them loose everywhere!) Mum got him 2 England rugby shirts (which he absolutely loves) and an England F1 type shirt for fun. Adam has the habit of not opening birthday cards until the day itself, so he was busy reading cards from family and friends.

We then adjourned to the dinner table for our meal with red wine (4 person consumed 3 bottles of red). Ended the meal with dessert, Adam’s creme brulee had a little pink candle on it.

It was a great night. Food was delicious as was the drinks, company was great. What a way to celebrate the evening. I will be making reservations for tonight soon, we are going to an Italian restaurant, Prego. We are ready to order some of our favourite dishes from the ala carte menu, not over priced, ensured quality and good service.

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

Adam and I have decided that we should embrace what Houston has to offer and enjoy what we have before we leave. Since Houston has a great concentration of museums and one of the best theater disrict in the US (2nd to Broadway), we have decided that we will do something cultural more often, at least once a month.

At the Theater District, we are now members of the Houston Grand Opera (have been to 2 operas), Houston Symphony (seen Yo Yo Ma perform) and Houston Ballet (yet to go for one).

As for the Museum District, I plan to go to at least one museum a month (have been to the Museum of Natural Science twice, Museum of Contemporary Arts and the Museum of Fine Arts) and one evening at the art galleries a month. The Schlumberger Spouses Association (SSA) plans visits to the museums and art galleries and Adam will definately join us at the evening events.

Last Thursday, Adam and I with 2 other friends went to the Museum of Fine Arts to see their special exhibition, the Masterpieces of French Paintings from 1800 to 1920. These paintings are loans from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Met) which is currently under renovation. Those of you who has been to Met knows that it has one of the finest French Impressionist and Post-Impressionist collection outside of Europe. Houston is the only city in the US to have this collection for 3 months and will then be moved to Berlin for another 3 months before they get to go home to Met.

Among the paintings in the exhibition are three canvases each by van Gogh, Matisse, and Picasso; four each by Ingres and Bonnard; six Renoirs; eight by Degas, nine works each by Cézanne and Manet, and ten each by Corot, Courbet, and Monet.

I was never an expert when it comes to art, though I have heard of the names of some artists featured I have never seen their actual work. The tour was really good, everyone gets an individual earpiece for a personal audio tour. The audio earpiece helps alot, they have very good explanation of the art work and the artist. Just brilliant!

As I walked into the exhibition hall, some art does look really normal but there are many which are really very good and it makes me go ‘Wow… Now I know why this person is so famous’

Some of my favourite pieces at the show are

Vincent van Gogh (Dutch), 1853-1890

Cypresses 1889

Oil on canvas

It looks pretty mediocre here but the real thing is fabulous. You can see each brush stroke so clearly. This is a WOW painting to me

Georges-Pierre Seurat (French), 1859-1891

Study for "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte" 1884-85

Oil on canvas

This is another awesome piece. The painting looks really blury and that’s the whole concept of this piece, it’s made up coloured dots to form an object which seems so perfectly done at the actual piece. This painting is Seurat’s most famous work and is widely considered to be one of the most remarkable paintings of the 19th century

Jules Bastien-Lepage (French), 1848-1884

Joan of Arc 1879

Oil on canvas

I love this piece because the longer you look at it, you find more intricate details on it.

Joan of Arc in this piece was so well painted that it does not look like a painting, it looks like a photo taken of her, yes that’s how real she looks!

I enjoyed this exhibition alot. I wished I had more time to read about each painting (we were there an hour before the museum closes) Some paintings are actually leaving Met for the first time and most likely the last. I will definately go back again (maybe next week) before this show leaves Houston for good.

All of us grew up with fairy tales like Cinderella. It is arguably one of the oldest and most widely distributed folk tales in the world. Did you know that there are more than 500 versions of the story in Europe alone? The story of Cinderella actually goes back into Egyptian hieroglyphs and Chinese story telling long before it hit the European continent!

Why the sudden fascination? Adam and I went for Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Cinderella) opera performance at the Houston Grand Opera on Wednesday. These facts are part of the pre-show lecture.

La Cenerentola is part comical and rather than a fairy godmother there’s a court philospher who is also a tutor to the Prince. There isn’t a wicked step mother but a wicked step father instead. Also, no glass slippers but there’s a pair of diamond bracelet (the prince have to find the girl with the matching bracelet). The show was excellent! We were just 7 rows from the stage and the orchestra. We saw much more than we did when we had our first operatic experience 2 weeks back (then we bought the cheapest ticket, it cost $55 each and the story of Faust was boring)

Scholars point out that there are 3 diferent strands of this story from the colleaction of Cinderella tales found around the world.

1) Girl’s father remarries a wicked woman and the girl is made the maid of the household
2) A king wants his 3 daughters to say how much they love him but the youngest daughter gave him an answer he didn’t like, so she was thrown out of the kingdom
3) A king desires his daughter and she runs away to a neighbouring kingdom for safety (an incest variant which is kinda sick)

The Cinderella tale we know has a fairy godmother, a midnight warning and a pair if glass slippers. These elements were only added into the original story in the 17th century in France. And the singing mice? It’s only in the Disney version.

In the Chinese version, and old man and a magical carp came to Cinderella’s aid rather than a fairy godmother, while in other European versions of Cinderella, there’s the fairy godmother, a good godmother and even the ghost of her mother giving Cinderella advices or magical help.

What about the Prince having to find Cinderella with her small feet and she has to fit into the tiny glass slippers? Europeans never have small feet, so experts believe that part of the story came from the Chinese version where in China they perform foot binding and the lotus foot is originated.

Also, glass slippers sounds very uncomfortable. Why glass? It’s believed that Cinderella had fur slippers but one day a translator of the script made a wrong stroke of the pen and instead of writing de vair (for fur) he wrote de verre (for glass).

Interesting isn’t it? I didn’t know much about Cinderella until now. Operas can very entertaining but if the song’s are boring or the storyline is slow, you will find yourself yawning halfway through it. I am looking forward to our next opera performance in April, Verdi’s Aida. This is supposed to be very good.