liebster award

collegetownkitchen was kind enough to give me this award (thank you!) – given to newbie bloggers – and it took me a while to decide what is safe to release into the bloggersphere and so here goes:

liebster award rules and requirements

post eleven facts about yourself.
answer the questions the tagger has set for you and create eleven questions for people you’ve nominated.
choose eleven people (with fewer than 200 followers) to give this award to and link them in your post.
go to their page and tell them.
remember, no tag backs.

facts about myself

I have an obsession with routine and exercise – mess with it and you’re a goner.
I have an obsession with geometry and parallel/perpendicular lines.
I have a problem with obsession.
I just graduated from university – and am trying to find my way to being an adult.. it’s not easy!
my weaknesses include cereal and nutella; open packages of either on hand render me a blithering idiot.
I need to do some form of running or exercise at least once every two days – I have a fear that my love for food will one day turn me into a rotund wanton (it rhymes! and I mean the chinese wanton aka dumpling, rather than any gutter-like denotation).
I have a weakness for books on history, women and food – and I use this to mask my other weakness for happy-ever-after romance novels.
I will consider a movie a waste of time if it does not end in a happy ending – I haven’t decided if this means I am a helpless romantic or a delusional idealist.
I went almost vegetarian once, until I starting eating beef again, and then there was that. I still can’t abide very strong tastes though – so no bacon for me, thank you very much.
my favourite city is london – the food, the people – everything about it feels like my spiritual home (because my physical one is now singapore).
I have a ever-abiding and deeply-entrenched dislike for the sun, sea and sand; but an ideal holiday does involve overlooking all of that from within a shaded villa.
and if you haven’t been reading this blog – then you should know I am clearly in love with food of all forms, and consider it a gift that I have been successful (mostly) in my kitchen experiments.

answers to eleven questions from collegekitchen

1. what is your favorite city for culinary adventuring?
   london, for sure. gourmet shops and pop-up restaurants and michelin establishments – there’s really nothing more you could ask for.
2. sweet or salty?
   definitely sweet. I have an everlasting love for cake.
3. if you could be one person, who would it be and why?
   while there are some things I wish I could change, I’m pretty much happy with being myself – I have great friends and an understanding partner, and I am finally getting a sense about myself.
4. what is the one kitchen gadget you can’t live without?
   an electric mixer. I have strong legs and terribly weak arms – can’t imagine baking without it!
5. why did you start blogging?
   I fell in love with photography a couple of years ago, and that melded very well with my love for baking and eating. I also worry that my language skills might deteriorate from disuse, so writing is a good way of using obsolete words.
6. what was your most recent discovery? (food-related or otherwise)
   I love jellyfish. I must order it whenever I see it on a menu; a sweet-savory marinate, crunchy strips and a rather healthy dish for all of it – incredible.
7. if you could receive a $500 gift card to any store/restaurant, where would it be and why?
   amazon. the next two things on my list are a cast iron skillet, a dutch oven and a standing mixer; my birthday’s in june if anyone’s offering!
8. where do you see yourself in 10 years? (super cliche question, I know)
   with a house of my own, doing something I love, baking like crazy.
9. what is your favorite type of food?
   I like sweet things – but in that wide genre I love salted egg custard buns and pancakes, both of which probably expose myself as a fat person in a trying-to-be-healthy suit.
10. if you were to have a dinner party and could only invite your five favorite people in the whole world, who would you invite?
    my partner, and girlfriends.
11. what’s one recipe you can’t wait to make again?
    I recently discovered an alice medrich receipe for toasted sesame cake (recipe coming up in the next post!) and the inclusion of sesame oil made for such an intriguing cake. I couldn’t stop taking seconds, and thirds, and I can still almost taste it. such a great recipe, and so different from the many I’ve made before, it’s pure genius.

eleven questions from myself

what would you keep as a heirloom recipe/technique?
how would you like to be remembered – or for what would you like to be remembered?
what’s your favorite regional cuisine – and what would you recommend?
what’s your oldest food memory?
what’s the most recent technique you’ve learnt – in cooking or whatever hobby you have?
where is your dream destination (budget aside)?
if you left only one thing for your children, what would it be?
could you recommend a great book – maybe a novel or even something based on your hobby?
stay in, or stay out?
what’s your pick-me-up? (or is that a pick-you-up)
what do you think will be the next food craze?

my nominations for the liebster award
(I’m not really sure if these are small blogs, but they are the ones I enjoy and so I hope they count!)

matthew midgley illustration
taste foto
kim’s healthy eats
erin made this
something beautiful
the couscous
mixthetape
the muffin myth
thelighterdays
our studio kitchen
suburban digs

thank you again, collegekitchen!