VANILLA LATTE is a blog dedicated to food & travel with occasional random stuff thrown in. It is managed and written by me, Maggie Ha.
I love paris! It’s my favorite city in the whole world. Of all the times I’ve been to Paris, this was by far the… coldest. I’m talking gloom, snow, and ice. The last time I was in France in late November, I wore a jeans, t-shirt and a jacket. This time, I had on every piece of clothing I could layer on (about 4 before cutting off my circulation), a coat, scarf, double socks and boots. Besides that, it was also quite magical and delicious. Who can say no to butter and bread at every meal?
Mmmm Barcelona. I think I ate the whole city. This was my second visit to Barcelona, I had a done a weekend trip there back in college when I studied abroad in London. This time, there was much more eating and way less drinking. I had my list of must-visit and must-eat’s and even though we didn’t get through the entire thing, we did some serious fooding.
I know… I’ve been missing in action for a while. I’m not going to give a long list of excuses but there’s been lots going on! First, I have a new job, well it’s not that new anymore but it’s still exciting and I am loving it. I no longer need to spend half my time commuting! Woohoo! Which leads me to the second news, I moved! Just to a different part of Manhattan but I’ve got a bigger kitchen now! I have been cooking non stop since moving in. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to take pictures or post any new recipes. Guess this means I’ll have to remake everything to post it! The next big news is that I bought a new camera! I’m very excited to start blogging again and hopefully take beautiful photos of my creations.
This is the first year I am not cooking Thanksgiving, well at least for the past 3 or 4 years. This year we’re going to Barcelona and Paris! Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because I get to spend 2 weeks planning, a week shopping and then 2 days cooking. I would never trade that in… unless it was for a trip to Paris! So stay tuned for my next travel posts!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Au revoir!
Dear beloved readers,
First I’d like to say, I sincerely apologize for the recent lag of posts. Second, I have BIG big big big news! I have been running around like a crazy person the past few weeks because, drum roll please, we’re moving to New York! Ahhh!!! It’s taken me a little while to make the announcement but I’ve been really swamped. We had a short but lovely snow holiday in New Zealand where we ate, drank and snowboarded ourselves silly. Then came back to Sydney where I spent this last week putting most of my possessions (including my cooking toys) on sale and arranging for the big move. Whew! I’m exhausted just recapping all of that.
I’m ecstatic about the move even though I’m incredibly stressed about it. We only have 3 more weeks in Sydney before we start our journey home. As of this week I will have no cookery so my culinary experiments will be on hiatus until I get settled in my new home in the Big Apple. Until then, I plan to post some of my last-time Sydney food adventures, some of my long awaited fast food runs while stopping through LA and I might even have some guest bloggers lined up! So stay tuned and happy eating!
One of the touristy things to do… take the old tram up to the peak for a fabulous view of the city. Well, unfortunately, it was all covered with fog by the time we got up there. We got some great shots of the fog though!
I did this tram/peak thing when I went to Hong Kong about 15 years ago. It was actually one of the few things I remembered from the trip. Perhaps because my mom and I had one of those touristy picture-on-a-plate things made from up there. I think it still sits on her dresser.
The peak was completely redone a few years ago and now has a shopping mall attached with some gourmet restaurants and fancy pants dessert places. It’s pretty much expected that in Hong Kong, anything worth while will have a shopping mall attached.
Boy was I in heaven. There are plenty of vegetarian restaurants around Hong Kong. Might not have very much luck with street stalls but restaurants are open pretty late and you’re bound to find something. And there’s a street market in just about every area. Most markets have a section that sell fresh fruits.
On our second day in Hong Kong, we hoped on the MTR to Tung Chung on Lantau Island. Took the cable car up to the Tian Tan Buddha. It was a super foggy day and it was beautiful the way the fog sat over the mountains and over the statue. Once we made the pilgramage up to the top, we stopped at the vegetarian cafe for some snacks before heading back to Kowloon. YUM!
Singapore was exactly the type of trip I wanted: SHOPPING & FOOD! We only had 2 days in the city but boy did we take advantage of it! And we sure did eat a lot!
I love that in Singapore, it’s perfectly okay to have about 8 meals. Unfortunately you can’t chew gum, spit or be gay. Not gay as in happy, gay as in homosexual. Apparently it’s illegal?! Well, we still happened to stumble upon 3 lesbian bars on our last night so I guess it can’t be that bad.
We landed in Singapore around 1pm, got to the fabulous Scarlet Hotel and ventured off to do some shopping. We went a little shopping crazy on Orchard Road – I missed Zara so much – and after about 5 hours of shopping we decided, it’s time for food. We made our way back to Chinatown and found the hawker center in the Chinatown Complex. Vini had chicken rice and roast pork with rice for about $5. I had some vegetarian plate for about the same price. SO CHEAP and SO GOOD!
I have been pretty busy with quite a few things. work for one thing has been incredibly busy. Then I was planning the trip to Palm Cove/Great Barrier Reef/Daintree Rainforest. Then I was on the trip. and now that I’m back, I’m slowly getting back into the pace of things.
I have something planned to cook and post very soon. Please stay tuned and in the meantime, enjoy some pictures.
back to tokyo. now this half of the trip was really a blur. as soon as we get back, we meet up with Blake for more exploring. we ran through the streets of Harajuku but this time, we hit up everything designer. louis vuitton, chanel, prada, comme des garcons, and marc jacobs. and for Vini, the GAPE and billionaire boys club shops. oh boy did i drool.
that night we ended up going to what Blake and his friends called “the chicken place”. it was in the korea-town of tokyo, apparently a place you don’t really want to go to. so of course around the corner, down some alley, up some unmarked stairs, we find our way to this “chicken place”. i had some vegetable dishes and Vini gorged on various dishes of chicken on skewers. the best part was that they had steins of beer for $2.80. the table next to us had some very loud and obnoxious japanese college students. we thought it was this dating thing that japanese youngsters do – it’s like a double date but with 5 guys and 5 girls. this is how they date. one of them knew english and was eaves dropping on our conversations about them. it was absolutely hilarious because at one point, we rescued him from his crazy drunk friends. ends up, he lived in diamond bar for 5 years!
the highlight of the night was one of the drunk girls dancing beyonce. needless to say, our dinner parties were some how intermixed, we had some beers, had some laughs, and had some more beers. somehow we all make it home safely.
the next day was absolutely useless. we finally got up and out of the hotel at around 3pm. made our way to the taxi depot to pick up our backpack. so…. before leaving for yugawara, we had accidentally left our backpack in a taxi. the concierge at the hotel we were staying at after yugawara helped us track down the taxi and gave us an hourly report on the status. it was amazing customer service. they found our bags, and we slowly inched our way to get it back. we were baffled that no one could remember what happened after japanese beyonce. how did we get home? who paid the bill? where am i???
our backpack had nothing but a bottle of water missing from it. that’s just amazing. you would never be able to find a missing bag anywhere else in the world. there is just so little crime in japan, it’s mind boggling. vini and i wander through the malls connected to Shinjuku before meeting up with Blake for dinner. at this time we were still feeling awful from the night before, so what’s best to cure a hang over? SHAKEY’S! yes that’s right, we went to shakey’s again.
the next day, nice and refreshed, we hit up Roppongi. this place was weird. i mean don’t get me wrong, i love seeing american things. banana republic made my day. but after the past several days with Blake showing us all the “local” spots and going to yugawara… i don’t know, i just wasn’t ready to be a westerner again. Roppongi Hills is a weird place. you live there, work there, eat there and shop there… that was the intention. don’t get me wrong, i like having things close but this was a bit too close for me.
we had lunch at Suji’s. it’s american home cooking, owned by a korean-american lady. and the funny thing is that the USC alumni association was right upstairs. we tried to pop in for a visit but we couldn’t figure out how to use the buzzer. then we went to mid-town roppongi where Vini drooled outside the Konami building and i found some funny art things. after that we made our way over to Ginza to meet up with Blake.
oh Ginza. gigantic flagship stores for every single label i can dream of. i fell in love in the burberry store… i was so close to walking out with a raincoat. if i was going back to America, i would have made the purchase, but since it’s going to be summer in Sydney… i couldn’t justify it. we also went into the chanel building, the sony building where they had all the new products on display, and a really big department store. there is just so much shopping everywhere you go, i’m in heaven.
we made our way to Gody’s for dinner which was okinawan food. it was amazing food, definitely a cuisine i had never tried, egg with bitter melon, shredded green papaya salad, seaweed grape things and okinawan beer. i couldn’t have asked for a better way to end the trip. oh but wait! in true japanese form, we weren’t done for the night. we ended up going back to Baba (the area around Waseda) for a bowl of ramen. well the boys had ramen while i sat waiting patiently. we had missed the last train but the walk back to the hotel wasn’t too bad. we had a nice last walk through Shinjuku in all its lights and red light district shadiness. tokyo is a crazy place filled with fantastic food, generous food and lots of alcohol. i don’t know when i’ll be back but i sure hope it’s soon.
My local favorite is currently Ground Support in SOHO. I go there almost every day for a smooth creamy soy cappuccino or if it’s hot out an iced soy latte. When I’m not in a hurry to run out, I try to take a few extra minutes to enjoy the coffee in the shop… you know, chat with the staff, catch up on some calls and best of all… people watch. Always some interesting characters in NYC!
