wandernut

The gang came over on Friday for dinner. It was quite impromptu but it was fun to have them over, cooking and chatting and laughing and eating. Made simple stuff like choy boh with mince pork, some blanched broccoli, kung pao chicken (the real deal of course, with szechuan peppercorns).

Saturday morning, went apartment hunting with AW. We finally saw an apartment that fussy AW actually liked (after looking at, oh, I lost count). It’s quite near my place and real cosy. I hope she gets that one, then all of us would be staying very near each other.

Had lunch at La Creperie on Dong Ping Lu. It was not too bad, albeit pricey. I feel the pancakes at Paddington’s back home at The Curve are nicer though. Not to mention cheaper. It was RMB 108 (RM50) for a set brunch, which included a savoury crepe, a dessert crepe and cup of very bad coffee (the latte was so watery. Blek ).

Went around town doing a spot of window shopping with AW then went home to shower before I went out again for a FREE Jazz Repertoire Workshop organised by the JZ School (part of JZ Club, the jazz place near my apartment). The guest speaker was a saxophonist from New York, Murray James, and it was quite an interesting hour and a half. Made friends with a girl who goes to the church I’m planning to attend next week. Yay! New friend!

Cool thing is they organise these free workshops every now and then, and I’ll definitely try to attend as many as I can, since it’s practically at my doorstep. What I really miss now is having my piano with me. Felt the itch in my fingers in the room that day. A piano. A guitar. A sax. Wheeee…

After the workshop, I walked to CY’s place where we had dinner, and lazed around. Kieran and his mommy came as well, a boisterous almost 2-year-old, and he was our ‘entertainment’ for the night. Such an adorable, naughty boy. AT kept saying she wants to have a baby after playing with him. Gosh, I felt tired just watching him for those few hours. Imagine living with that little dynamo 24-7. *faint*

Sunday morning’s plan for a run was shelved, cos clever me pulled at some dry skin on the sole of my foot and it turned into a pretty deep tear. It hurt to even walk. Note to self: NEVER AGAIN! (yea right). So CY and I went to Carrefour to do some grocery shopping instead, and I bought a wok! Finally! Can fry rice properly. My non-stick pan is too shallow. I also bought a hair dryer! No more sleeping with wet hair. Woohooo! Panasonic Ionity summore. Ex-client. My ex-colleagues would be proud.

After that I went home to marinate my lamb cutlets and brought them over to CY’s for our masak-masak (cooking) session. CY made mash potatoes and sangria. I pan-fried my cumin-spiced lamb. And MY made lemon tart. The whites were going to waste (yolks used to make the lemon filling), so we attempted to make meringue. Without a proper round deep bowl or a cake mixer, it took us forever. But the results were worth it in the end. We had local kopi, freshly ground on my mini grinder/blender. So yes, we practically spent the whole Sunday afternoon cooking and eating.

For dinner (yes, we could still eat) we went to Di Shui Dong, our favourite Hunan restaurant for a nice provincial meal of Two Coloured Fish Head, Cumin Pork Ribs (seems like we couldn’t get enough of that spice), Winter Melon Soup, Spicy Bull Frog, Corn and Pine Nuts, and Stir Fried Broccoli with Century Egg. Yum yum yum.

CY and I walked back to our neighbourhood. We were so full we really wanted to walk it off. It was a slow 3km walk along Changle Lu, stopping by at a bookstore along the way (and I bought an interesting photo book about people’s homes in Shanghai).

More pics to come later.