回家的感觉 @ Katasumi Koohii 一隅珈琲

Had my afternoon tea at Katasumi Koohii (一隅珈琲) situated within Grassroots Book Room (草根书室) since returning from my solo Tokyo trip. 
Going to Katasumi Koohii cafe gave me 回家的感觉. I found out by accident a while back that the owners are Taiwanese too, like my mother. No wonder. :) 
The cafe doesn't have an expansive menu but it didn't matter to me. The owners' 诚意 more than make up for the menu. I enjoyed the pairing of my Red Ruby black tea with the Salted Caramel roll cake which is soft, fragrant and not overly sweet. I enjoyed the quiet ambience of the cafe which is perfect for doing a bit of reading and/or doing a bit of work.    

Salted Caramel roll cake and Red Ruby black tea

Milk + More Milk + Tea

A cup of milk to the brim full for my tea. Maybe they were trying to open up a new carton of milk.

Coding, Cake and Cuppa

Coding my data while enjoying a Starbucks Local Delights, Ovaltine Chocolate Cake with a cuppa. 

Anything Odd?

Can you see anything odd? My girl said I was evil. Haha :D

Japan Trip 2016: Day 10 Part 1 11 Dec 2016 Sun - Teramachi-dori, Kyoto

We slept in a little before heading to have breakfast at 9:30am. There was some variety in the breakfast dishes from yesterday's. :)

We headed out to Teramachi-dori or Teramachi Street because I needed to pick up some Hojicha tea leaves for my friend from Ippodo Tea Co. which has been providing high quality Japanese tea since 1717! A real traditional tea house. :) I ended up buying some Hojicha tea for myself too. By the way, Teramachi-dori is not the covered Teramachi Shopping Arcade, it is further out. It is worth travelling out of the covered shopping arcade towards the street as there are plenty of traditional and modern shops to look at.

We have to pass through Teramachi Shopping Arcade to get to Teramachi-dori

Quaint shops on both sides of Teramachi-dori, both traditional and modern

A flea market in front of Kyoto City Hall

We did more shopping as we walked through both Teramachi and Shinkyogoku Shopping Arcades again. :P We were surprised to see that there was no queue at the Baked Cheese Tart shop so we went in and got one to try. It was quite delicious. As we spent a "little" too much time shopping, we were running late to meet my Primary 4 P 1999 student, Pamela at 3pm. So instead of having a sit-down lunch, we bought chicken onigiri and corn soup back to the hotel as lunch and we could also drop off our shopping bags.

Discovered another temple

Loved the drawstring bags from Hamamonyo

Tea Latte

I am an Earl Grey Latte. Interesting as I usually make this at home. :) I would have Earl Grey any time because I love black tea and the unique citrus bergamot flavour of Earl Grey.  

You Are an Earl Grey Latte

You are a person of refined tastes with a real eye for quality. You appreciate subtle details. You are intellectual but never showy about it. You have an understated brilliance that people see over time. You are a person of habits, and you find comfort in doing the same thing every day. You enjoy simple pleasures. You tend to have strong preferences, and you know what you like. You need a reason to break outside your comfort zone.

What Tea Latte Are You?

Red Tea

Personally, I love drinking black tea such as Earl Grey lol. But there are some things which are like me: I love travelling and I can have a wild streak lol. Most accurate of all: when I set my mind on something, it is very difficult to discourage me from it. A good friend described me as being a stinger missile, once I locked on to a target, there is no way to shake me off! Lol. :P 

You Are Red Tea

You are open minded, worldly, and a true adventurer. You are curious about the world and the people that live in it. You have a wild streak, but you are also emotionally stable. You are a good friend to anyone who knows you. When you get your mind set on something, you are hard to discourage - no matter how crazy your plan might seem. You adjust easily and seem immune from the culture shock others experience. Like red tea, you fit in anywhere.

What Color Tea Are You?

PoTeaTo = Potato + Tea

Potato and tea - two of my favourite items together at this cafe in Tiong Barhru.:)
PoTeaTo is a nice, cosy and serene cafe in Tiong Bahru, just a few doors down from Forty Hands cafe. PoTeaTo has mostly potato dishes (they have other dishes too) and large selection of tea! It is not easy to find cafes that specialise in one of them, let alone both items. I tried its Tofu Potato Cakes with avocado tomato salad ($14) and its Raspberry Mint premium selection tea ($7.20). The potato cakes are simply delicious!

Although PoTeaTo is not as crowded as its neighbour, I much prefer PoTeaTo because of its more cosy and serene ambiance and more importantly, because of its potato dishes and tea selection! Yes, I am a potato lover and a tea drinker. :)

I am Chai Tea

I am a tea drinker and I like strong tea. Interesting results from Blogthings. :)

You Are Chai Tea

You're quite the charmer. You know how to get what you want from almost anyone. You are high-powered and spunky. You bring a lot to the table... sometimes too much! You are brilliant and pioneering. You never do things the normal way... you do them your way. Friends describe you as sensitive, spirited, and compulsive. Bright and blazing with intensity, you seem mysterious and moody to many.

What's Your Tea Type?

Kipling Craze II and Tea Break

We had lunch at home as my mother cooked chicken rice. We won't pass it up for anything, lol. After lunch, we decided to go "walk walk" but undecided where to go. My mother upon hearing we were going out, wanted me to get her the same Kipling bag which I bought from the Kipling boutique at Vivocity just last week. Ok, that's it, my mother has just decided that we are going to Vivocity but I dragged her along. Haha. Since she wanted to buy her bag, she might as go down to the boutique. Who knows, she might decide another bag is better. :)

At the Kipling boutique, the salepersons were clearing away some of the collections to put in new arrivals so it was a little messy and some shelves were empty. Unfortunately for my mother, the bag she wanted no longer had the blue colour. She looked around and did find something else that she likes but it wasn't on sale as it is a new arrival item. She decided she will wait for the Isetan private sale to get the bag from the Kipling counter.

We were tired as we spent an hour at the Kipling boutique lol. :P We went to Pacific Coffee Company for tea. We girls had gelato (strawberry, chocolate, vanilla and tiramusu) and we also shared a Ham and Egg Pie and a Molten Chocolate Cake. The gelato was nice and cooled us down as we were seated outdoors. The chocolate cake was really rich and sweet. It was a pretty relaxing afternoon. :)

Yum Cha and Tea

The girls' father was craving for his yum cha (yes, he has his cravings, he is sometimes more woman than a woman, lol) and so we went to our favourite yum cha restaurant, East Ocean at Shaw Centre. We were there at 10:30am because they would only accept walk-ins before 11am. After that, you would have to have made a reservation before you would be able to have a table.

Must-have dim sums at yum cha for Marieann and their father are: Char Siew Bao, Har Gow, and Siew Mai, Juliane must have her Fried White Bait (see photo), their father must also have his Fried Cheong Fun with Egg and my favourite (and Marieann's) is Steamed Turnip Cake. The girls ordered a dim sum from the speciality menu. In the end, they couldn't bear to eat the dim sum because they were too cute (see photo). Sigh. Never going to let them order anything again because the parents ended up having to eat them! Of course, the girls had their usual Mango Pudding for dessert, their father had Mango Sago with Grapefruit and I had the Almond Tea.




After yum cha, we went to Isetan Scotts to get the girls their new school shoes. It is really tedious buying shoes for kids. They can't really tell you if the shoes pinch at any part of their feet. They would tell you it is okay because they like the design of the shoes! No way! For growing feet, comfort must take precedence over design! They can look at the designs of shoes all they want when they can afford to buy shoes on their own! For now, they listen to me, their mother, muahahaha.

Thinking it was rather late after the shoes shopping, turned out it was only 12:30pm. Their father complained of extreme thirst so we ended up at tcc. He had an Iced Lemon Tea while I had a Pomegranate Ruby (beautify) tea: blend of white tea, pomegranate, pomegranate blossoms and magnolia. It was really fragrant. Of course, what is tea without a sweet to go along, lol. We had the Pear-fect Melody ($6.90): pear mousse with aromatic spiced orange sauce and berries. The mousse was perfect: light and not too sweet, you could still taste the pear.



It was only 1:30pm when we finished tea. So we brought the girls to Borders to read. I managed to have a browse around and saw some books which interested me. Maybe during the week, I might pop down to Borders again to get those books. :)

Aussie Day

I woke up rather late this morning around 10am. I thought might as well take the girls out earlier and maybe come back earlier to continue my work again.

We couldn't decide where to go, wasted half an hour thinking. The Central? Nah, been there so often. Hmm, Liang Court? But not much choice there. Vivocity? Too far, by the time we get there, will be quite crowded. Holland Village? Would be quite crowded too. We couldn't decide on the place so we switched to thinking about what food to eat, maybe that would make thinking about where to go easier. Lol. Japanese? Aiyo, eat almost every week. Korean? Girls were whining, "We don't want Da Chang Jin". Chinese? NAY! Western? Hmm, can consider. Ok, so we could have Western. Now back to where to go? Sigh. Another thinking session. Lol.

We just decided to drive around. First stop to Dempsey Road to have a look. Lots of eating places there, bound to have one that suits us, no? Well, quite a number of possible places but next time perhaps. All seemed quite crowded because people were there for brunch. Before we left, hubby said to me, "You like this Dempsey place, don't you?". It caught me off guard for a while. Huh? He continued to say, "It is so Aussie-like, so carefree and relaxed". Hahaha, he is right. Dempsey does remind of places I have been in Australia - Sydney, Melbourne (Lygon Street, etc) and especially in Brisbane where I was studying, like Milton, Paddington. The non-hurried, relaxing, carefree kind of atmosphere. Sigh. I miss Australia. I want to go back :(

Hubby decided to go to this restaurant at Time@, Millenia Walk. Sigh, anywhere also can, now that I am feeling down. He brought us to Outback Steakhouse, an Australian theme restaurant. OMG! It's, it's so AUSSIE!! Hahaha. That brought some cheer back in me. The decor, the atmosphere, the spirit - all so Aussie, so relaxing, so casual, so laid back! G'day, mate! Lol. I was actually snapping photos round the restaurant like a darn tourist. Hahaha. Fair dinkum, mate! Lol.







Looking through the menu was even more fun - names of Australian states and cities (Cairns, Queensland, Alice Springs, etc), lol. We ordered the following:

For Aussie-tizer: Bushman 'Shrooms ($14.90++) - fresh mushrooms breaded and deep fried and served with a spicy ranch dressing dip. This one is a winner! It tasted a lot better than it looked which wasn't fantastic. The mushrooms were really fresh and the juices are sealed in within the mushrooms. So be careful when you bite into it. :) You should eat this dish while it is hot too, otherwise, it becomes a little soggy because the juices has seeped out (but it's still ok). The mushrooms went really well with the dip which was a little spicy but creamy and yummy. The crunchy outer layer and the mushroom, together with the dip, makes it a great appetizer and it certainly whet up the appetite for MORE. =)


I ordered from Down Under Favourites: Alice Springs Chicken ($22.90++). It is grilled chicken breast and bacon smothered in mushrooms, with melted Monterey Jack and Cheddar cheese on top. It came with a honey mustard dressing and Aussie chips. But I had the chips changed to cole slaw. The chicken is really DELICIOUS. LOL. The chicken breast was grilled just right, not too dry with its juices sealed in. The bacon was crispy and the cheese was cheesy but not over-powering, which is nice, lol. When taken together, it is perfect. I found the chicken tasty enough on its own, without having to dip into the dressing, which I found a tad too sweet.


Hubby ordered from Grilled on the Barbie: Chicken on the Barbie ($18.90++). The chicken breast is seasoned and grilled, served with BBQ sauce and fresh veggies but hubby changed it to mashed potato. He said his grilled chicken was a tad dry but still acceptable. Instead of dipping his chicken into the BBQ sauce, he preferred to dip into the honey mustard dressing. The mashed potato was quite good. It is the first time I have eaten mashed potato that has its skin mashed in too. It gave the mashed potato an extra bite.


The girls shared from Joey Menu: Kookaburra Chicken Fingers ($9.90++). It has three strips of chicken, served with chips and honey mustard sauce. The girls enjoyed eating the chips and the apple juice that came with their kids' meal. Lol.


We were given a free dessert because we had spent over $60 (and paying by credit card). It was a real surprise! We ordered the Cinnamon Oblivion ($12.90++ but free for us). It is vanilla ice cream covered with pecans and cinnamon apples topped with whipped cream and caramel sauce. There were little bits of Bushman Bread (toasted and cubed) tossed in. Thumbs up for this dessert! The bread really added a different dimension to this dessert. The caramel, the cinnamon apples, the pecans all blended well with the vanilla ice cream, making it exotic in taste. Yummy, yummy. (Yes, yes, I know I am over my sugar intake for the next two weeks. Lol. Let me indulge, JUST for today. I promise.)


On the whole, the food was great. The atmosphere was really relaxing and friendly and Aussie. Hahaha. Coupled with the excellent service too, we will definitely be back again, soon. :)

***
With a sugar high, I walked a bit at Millenia Walk (with family tagging behind, lol). I haven't been here for five, six years. Not enough, needed to walk a bit more.

We went over to Marina Square. Again, I haven't been here for just as long! So MANY new shops, and the layout is all different. :P After walking around for about an hour, we took a break and had tea at Chocz. The girls shared a Black Forest cake, hubby had a Mocha while I had my Lavender Flower tea. Lavender is good for lifting exhaustion, stress and anxiety; soothing headaches and migraines; calming of nerves. The tea is just perfect to round up my day. =)

***
So much for going out earlier to return home earlier to do work. We only returned home at 5pm. Looks like I have to burn the midnight oil again. :P

Drinks

Sorry, I am not referring to drinks as in alcoholic drinks. Not interested in those, as I am allergic to alcohol. Hahaha. Here I am talking about drinks such as tea, coffee, and other concoctions whereby you can still drink and drive safely.

My favourite drink is TEA. Any kind of tea - leaves, herbal, floral BUT never tea from tea bags if given a choice. You would balk at the "quality" of the tea if you have seen how they process the tea bags. Yikes! I have been drinking tea for more than 20 years, all thanks to my mother who brews Chinese tea at home. Too bad, I never really learnt the art of brewing tea from her. lol. My favourite Chinese tea is Pu'Er, which is fermented tea. Did you know that there are six types of tea (leaves), depending on the stages of fermentation? Yup, it is true, not lying.

Being health conscious, my mother is also into herbal and floral tea. Herbal and floral tea suit me fine as most of them have some medicinal properties which are not invasive to my system, unlike some western medication. Some of these herbal and floral tea are acquired tastes. It took me a while before I got used to drinking Lavender Flowers tea. My favourite herbal and floral tea are Mint and Rose respectively.

Coffee, you asked, don't I drink coffee? Well, I don't. It is too bitter for my taste. And get this, for whatever reason unknown to me, I fall asleep when I drink coffee. Yes, I know, it is very strange indeed. Hahaha.

So if you see me at cafes - Coffee Bean (my fav), Starbucks, tcc, Bakerzin, etc, you won't fail to see me with a cup or glass of something that is tea or herbal or floral or combination. Hahaha.