Raining Chaos

Category: Random

  • The New York Dream – Part 2 – Empire State of Mind

    Or something like that. Well, now that I’d landed, what should I do?

    I actually was waiting for a friend, who was landing a few hours after me, and since I knew it would take a while to clear customs, I decided to spend my remaining time just chilling at the airport. Firstly, I had to change terminals, and I could do that using the AirTrain. Wow, the train has really tiny carriages. By tiny, I mean that it seats 4 people and maybe a maximum of 4 standing? Once I’d boarded, I can’t remember exactly what happened, but basically, I ended up in a conversation with the other passengers, and they immediately asked where I was from because of my accent, and then they talked about stuff and things, but I no longer recall what it was about! Anyway, I got off on the next stop and proceeded to discover a Starbucks at this terminal, which seemed to be least boring eatery around, if you could even call it an eatery because it was a tiny stand that served only takeaway. I paid far too much for a sausage and egg muffin, and sat down in an out of the way spot to eat it, since all the seats were taken. As I was minding my own business, I hear a voice really close to me, and when I turned to look, I realised it was just some person talking on the phone. He sounded disgruntled because his flight just got delayed and so he was stuck at the airport now, and something about it becoming expensive for him because he had to make alternative arrangements? I’m not too sure since I didn’t really care to eavesdrop. However, after a while, I got the odd feeling he was talking to me, because he was still there and no longer talking about his flight. He was saying something about how he’d had one too. One of what??

    So I look again, and he really is talking to me! He saw me eating the sausage and egg muffin and felt the need to comment on my one? So he repeated himself and said that he ate one too, and that it wasn’t all that tasty, and I basically said “yeah, but it’s better than nothing” and he agreed or something along those lines. I was more bewildered that he randomly started speaking to me even though I wasn’t paying any attention to him! Then he started telling me about the call he’d just had, and repeated much of what I’d already overheard, and then as I was politely acknowledging his comments, he finished up what he was saying, bid me farewell and walked off. Wow, that was random. Please tell me not all Americans are like this?? Like, sure, it’s normal that sometimes you strike up conversations with strangers, but this was sort of really one sided… what a first impression!

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  • The New York Dream – Part 1 – The Flight

    Wow. Where do I even start when it comes to recounting this incredible trip? Usually, the “begin and the beginning” is where I’d be… so let’s start there. The idea of going to New York probably started almost 10 years ago, though back then I wasn’t sure what I actually wanted to do there, so it was a very faint idea. It wasn’t until I became an actual coffee and food enthusiast that New York began to look really appealing, and there were restaurant names that started to appear, like Per Se (#6 in 2012), that I noticed once I started paying attention to the World’s 50 Best awards. Eleven Madison Park made my list shortly after too (at #4 in 2016). After having travelled for the past several years, and getting a taste for a super hipster lifestyle, my dream holiday to New York was budgeted at a cool $50k, for three months’ stay in an apartment overlooking Central Park, and working as a part-time barista to help pay for food.

    Well, that didn’t quite work out the way I wanted, but I got close! The other title I wanted to call this blog was “The 20k holiday” but I wanted New York in the title. I’m pretty sure that’s how much my holiday ended up costing, from start to finish, and it was worth every dollar. Except for maybe my final taxi ride since I bribed a cabbie to take me to their airport lol.

    While there wasn’t a specific reason to finally go, there were a number of factors that added together that made it worthwhile:

    • Singapore airlines just released the world’s longest flight from Singapore to New York.
    • This flight was fitted with only business and premium economy seats.
    • This was my last opportunity to use my existing passport, as the first entry in it was also to USA, so I wanted to bookend my passport with American stamps.
    • EMP finally hit #1 a couple of years ago so I really needed to go!
    • It’s as safe as it ever will be I guess XD
    • If I didn’t go now, I might never end up going!

    And thus, I ended up with my dream holiday. Business class there, on the world’s longest flight (SQ22), living in Manhattan for 3 weeks, and splurging on restaurants! Let’s get started with recounting my trip!

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  • OK last one

    wip time 🙂

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  • One More Light

  • Study – Mike and Chester

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  • EMP

  • Dabbling in shares

    Only took me about… 7 years? to actually finally pay attention and try it out.

    Yeah ok, I was only supposed to “experiment” with $1000 but I got too curious and excited haha.

    Success!! Except I guess now it’s all gonna go downhill, cause that’s how shares work, amirite? 😀

  • Chinese New Year festivities

  • Earl grey panna cotta

    I wanted to make some earl grey and rosewater panna cotta, and then garnish it with blueberries, blackberries and some sort of green leafy thing – I was thinking shiso rather than mint. But I didn’t want to spend money or time buying rosewater and shiso, so I used what I had instead – which was dried rose petals from a shopping spree ages back, to give the rose aroma without needing rosewater. I can’t figure out how to homogenise the panna cotta yet though, I always get the separation….

  • A rant about the internet

    Attempting a “rant” for a few reasons. The two main reasons are: practising actually writing things, and because I’ve been reading articles about influencers and “Instagram-worthy” cafes/restaurants.

    Today I read an article about how chefs feel about Instagram, and how a fair few actually now have presentation at the forefront of their minds when creating menus.  They commented that they’ve received feedback that customers would see their dish online and that’s how they chose whether or not to go to a restaurant, or, upon receiving a menu, would check Instagram for how the dishes looked, before deciding what to eat. Then I stumbled across a post where a cafe had a tagline of having “Instagrammable interiors”. Then there’s also a restaurant critic’s humorous posts about “influencers who ask for free stuff”.

    Really?

    I love being a hypocrite. I really do, and I think it’s human nature. I love sometimes feeling superficial and ordering a milk coffee simply because I want some pretty latte art. I like seeing pretty food at cafes and restaurants. I like making stupidly pretty food too.

    I also avoid spoilers (I didn’t actively look for reviews and pictures in anticipation of Noma Australia, or Attica. I’m also not researching the big-name restaurants I’ve planned to book this year) where I can because I want to be surprised and really get to know a place by living it instead of just seeing it. I still love talking to waitstaff and baristas because you get great info that way. I love reading menus and imagining what the flavours and textures look like. I don’t want to know what it looks like most of the time. I just hope it’s nicely presented.

    There’s always going to be a group of influencers who get stuff for free, and maybe even get special plating for their food. But for chefs to almost need to make their dishes instagrammable just so that their restaurants can fill tables? I appreciate that it’s a good move for restaurants to stay alive, but it sounds more and more like restaurants are being pressured to make pretty food or no one will go. That’s kind of sad.

    Maybe I should start up an exercise in writing about stuff instead of taking pictures. I guess that’s what restaurant critics do, and sounds like a major challenge, especially in this day and age! But I like taking pictures. Maybe that’s why magazines like Drift exist? Recipe books are pretty picture-heavy too, but the last one I read, A Very Serious Cookbook, was super enjoyable because it talked about the history of the chefs of Contra/Wildair and how they interacted with each other, and how their restaurants evolved. That was the really exciting stuff!

    I guess I’ll keep doing what I’m doing, enjoying the best of both the digital and non digital worlds 😀

    YAY rant over