Illustration Friday- Tales and Legends

Fished out one of my doodles for Tales and Legends this week!
Moby Dick, the legend of the great white whale.
Did this one in metallic ink, and it got reflected by the light from the scanner, which is how the funny tones came about.

So cute.. hahaha

Cute animals around the neighbourhood

Spotted these 3 kitties at the void deck of my mom's block somewhere around the end of 2007. So cute! Quite obvious they are siblings coz they all look more or less the same!
I think its 1 male and his 2 sisters. They must have been thrown out by some mean person. :( But its cute that they stuck together... so sweet! I fed them a few times too. But I have not seen them around for sometime already. Hope some kind soul took them in, but most important, that they are still together. Bye bye kitties!


And here's another cute fellow! This one I have seen a few times around my block. Wonder who keeps a doggie of this size in a flat. Always the maid walking it. I think its a Samoyed/Husky. And it always looks very friendly too! How cute! ^_^

2008!

We welcomed 2008 a day or so ago.
2007 has been a memorable year for me. Let's see...
I shifted office and also into my new flat, got married and went for honeymoon!
Lots of big events eh? Hope I didn't miss out anything =P

Wishing that 2008 will be another memorable one where all the unfulfilled hopes and dreams of 2007 come true! =)

Mango Pineapple Cheesecake

Tried another variation of my no-bake recipe!
This was for a party at my Godma's home.
I know they like mango, so decided to do this variation. :)
Looks nice eh? The yellow makes it look cheery too.
This is cheesecake number 4 already, and the third one that I've made for a party.
More to come I think! HAhhahaha.....

No-bake Strawberry cheesecake

Maybe more like a Strawberry cheese pie? Hehhee..

Had a sudden urge to make one of these over the weekend, but I wanted a no bake method, so I got together a few methods from various recipes and came up with my own 100% no bake cheesecake. :) Yummy!

No-bake Strawberry cheesecake

Ingredients for crust

2 tablespoon sugar
300g digestive biscuit, broken into fine crumbs
125g butter/margarine, melted
22cm or 9" cake pan/tray

Ingredients for filling

1 pkg (250g) cream cheese or strawberry flavored cream cheese if available
1 tablespoon unflavored gelatin
170g nestle cream
6 tablespoon strawberry jam (or any other jam you like)
1-2 tablespoon sugar (2 if your jam is from the low sugar range)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
150ml water
6-8 strawberries, sliced for garnishing

Method for crust
Add biscuit crumbs with sugar and mix well. Stir in melted butter and mix well.
Press the biscuit mixture firmly onto base and then sides of buttered cake pan/tray. Refrigerate to set.

Method for cheese filling
Whisk cream cheese till smooth. add in vanilla essence and mix well.
Add in jam and sugar and mix.
Boil water and add in gelatin powder and stir till dissolved.
Combine cheese and gelatin mixtures and stir gently.
Stir in nestle cream.
Remove crust from fridge and cover base with strawberry slices.
Pour mixture into crust.
Garnish with remaining strawberry slices and refrigerate for 3-4 hours till set.
You can also garnish the top with a layer of your chosen jam.

Mini pie pastries

I bought these from a shop at Narita Airport on our way back coz the sample looked really pretty and yummy! Hehehe.. I've been keeping them since as they were so pretty I kind of couldn't bear to eat them! :P (to make matter worse, its only one of each in the box)
But last week, I finally opened up the packaging (rather unwillingly) and we tried them. Oh.. they were rather yummy! But more pretty than yummy though! :P

Day 1- Ginza & Shibuya

Now that we are back from our honeymoon, its a bit hard adjusting back to reality.
Haiz, how I wish I can still be on holiday! :S Think I miss Kyoto most! (and maybe Hong Kong too, the shopping bits)

But i shall relish all those fond memories by looking at the daily collection of pictures we have and giving detailed accounts of our days there, maybe it'll offer those going there a tip or two! :)

We covered Tokyo, Nikko, Hakone, Kyoto & Hong Kong on our trip. (Which meant lotsa trips to and fro on shinkansens and planes.)

DAY 1- Tokyo (Ginza & Shibuya)

Day 1 in Tokyo was a wet one for us. Wet was one thing, cold was another! The rain drops here are icy compared to those that fell in Singapore, Bbbrrrrr...
We spent most of the day hiding in the malls and shops in Ginza. Stepping out on to the streets meant coming face to face with the cold blast of rain and wind. I think days are short here nearing winter, with the sun setting at about 4.30pm.


LION at Ginza, Tokyo's oldest beer hall. We chanced upon this outlet in one of the many underground malls in Ginza. That's where we had our first meal in Tokyo. A nice cozy restaurant serving from yakitori to spaghetti. And the best crab cream croquettes D said he has ever had. *slurp* =P~ (seen below hiding behind the breaded prawn) Appetizing plastic food display outside the outlet.

After filling our tummies, it was time to do some shopping! Yes, even in rainy conditions, the shopping has to go on! This nice spanking building caught our eyes from across the street (even in the rain) and D just had to go in to have a look at the Apples in Tokyo!

And next stop was Itoya, some way down the street. With a large paper clip beckoning this is a must go if you love and I mean LOVE stationary, like me! 8 or maybe 9 stories of stationary heaven! From pens, organisers, paints, character stationary and calanders, they got them all under 1 roof!

All well over dosed on stationary, next stop was Hakuhinkan Toy Park. Now this one is Character Heaven. Home of all characters and toys you can think of, all 8 floors of it. Breathe hard and resist the urge to cart everything off the shelves! :P
With a bit more stash, we stepped out onto wet and windy Tokyo,
hmmm, time to start looking for dinner.

We stop by at an eatery located on the 2nd floor of a mall near Toy Park, attracted by its plastic food display. Hah.. we're such suckers for these plastic food displays! :P But there's nothing better on a cold evening then Oden and Yakitori!
Yummy! :)

Oh and I forgot to mention one thing. The Japanese, always taking pride in their packaging and presentation, would never let their paper carriers bearing their brands get all crummy in wet weather. So they have devised 'rain-bags' for their carriers! Wow! nothing like a 'raincoat' to keep my buys nice n dry! And I can get to keep the carrier bag too! Double wow! hahahha....

It was still raining after dinner but we ended the day dropping by Shibuya.

I wanted to visit Loft which had a branch there. 7 floors of anything and everything. From toiletries, cosmetics, stationary, (yes, more of it) home ware and furniture!
With enough excitement for the day, we headed back to our hotel tired and frazzled by the wet weather and hoped that tomorrow would be sunny.

Tired but happy me holding on to the day's shopping and our trusty Tokyo City Atlas, which guided us around confusing Tokyo. I'd recommend this to anyone going there!

Some tempting yummies in the vending machine at the subway station! :P~

Day 12- Kyoto–HongKong

Today we left our hotel in kyoto real early at about 7am.
1st time we had to get up so early and drang ourselves out of the hotel, with baggage in tow.
Phew, only then did I realise how the stash has built out and gotten a little out of hand.
It was heavy and a chore lugging it down kyoto street. :(

We made our way to the subway station to catch the train back to Tokyo. Its took about close to 2 hours on the train.
And we had to transfer at Tokyo to the Airport Express train to Narita.
If you have not been to Tokyo, let me tell you Tokyo station is a big challenge.
Especially when you have like only 20 min to get from 1 platform to the other!!
But we made it! With mad crowds and silly luggage in tow. But it wasn't the least bit fun :S

From Tokyo, it took close to an hour to get to Narita.
After which we climbed aboard our plane to get us to Hong Kong.
Geez... a whole day of travelling/running around!
But here we are in Hong Kong!
My foot's hurting a little from all the walking we've been doing. Really hope I'll be ok tomorrow...
got shopping to do and things to see! heeehheeee....

Can't post pics up coz we have to use the hotel's internet lobby as they charge for in room internet connection.
Haiz, another reason to make me miss Japan! (They provided us internet over there for FREE! :S)

Day 11-Kyoto

Tomorrow we will be leaving Kyoto for Narita Airport.
Think we will both miss this place. Hehhehe...
D already said we'll be back again :P
Hehehe... already making plans for a return! :P

Going to have an early night, so no time to load up pics of our stash for today.
But, well, let's just say its a good stash! Hahahha...
Went out and bought whatever I wanted to buy. :P
Luggage getting heavier... uh-oh..:P

Day 10- Kyoto

Today we went to Fushimi Inari Shrine, which is famous for the countless torii gates it has. It was a long walk and we didn't even cover the whole hill.


We also visited the Kiyomizudera Temple("Pure Water Temple"), which is one of the most celebrated temples of Japan.
We got to see 2 Maiko on their way to the shrine too.

Part of the fun of visiting Kiyomizudera is the shops on the way to the temple, that are along the steep and busy lanes.

This shop sells very nice fabrics!

We went to Gion after that and managed to catch glimpses of Maiko and Geisha going about their evening appointments. Pity it was raining and we could not stay longer. :S



For dinner we decided to try Okonomiyaki! Hehehe... looks not bad ah? It was rather yummy too!

Once again, a look at today's loot! :P hehehhehe....

Day 8 & 9- Kyoto

We LOVE Kyoto!!
Hahahhahaa... yes, I mean it. If we do come back to visit Japan, we'll be sure to visit Kyoto for a longer time.
Our hotel though being smaller than the one in Tokyo, has a fabulous location near the
Nishiki Food Market. This market sells much more than food. And it branches out into smaller street markets too! I don't think we'll have time to really finish walking it.






From fresh food, to cooked food, sundries and candies and a whole lot more!
Hehehhe... and here's a look at the day's loot. :P