Ice Cream Sampler - Kinokuniya Cafe

One of our current favourite dessert is the Ice Cream sampler in Kinokuniya Cafe. Consist of three flavours, red bean, green tea, and ginger, it's pretty, it's cool and most important of all, it is delicious! The cafe itself is chic and elegantly done, with well lit spaces. 

 red bean

 green tea

 and ginger...

goes very well with cappuccino or latte...

Dubai Marina

Perhaps one of the highest floor area ratio or plot ratio development in the world, here are some pictures of Dubai Marina, almost fully developed with mixed use program and quite community centric. Served by a highway nearby, the Dubai Marina has a rather pedestrian friendly environment, especially for car-oriented town such as Dubai. 

Vietnamese Spring Rolls

One of our favourite quick and easy to make snack is the Vietnamese Spring Rolls, well, at least our version of it. It's quick, healthy, easy to make and it taste great! One may need some practice in rolling rice paper to get a hang of it.

The rice paper is first dipped entire into a bowl of water, for a mere few seconds, removed and place over a clean surface to work on. Add 1/2 a teaspoon of oyster sauce and prime over it.

 You can add a variety of fresh ingredients to it. Our favourites are bean sprouts, sliced cucumber and carrots, boiled shrimps, blanched Chinese vermicelli, mint leaves and crushed peanuts.

 Rolling the rolls requires some practice. The key is to keep them tight and not too stuffed, to make sure that there are enough surface to wrap it securely.

 Voila!

You can also deep fry them to give it a bit of crunchiness! Our favourite serving is with Thai chilli sauce.

Happy rolling! 

Pelikan 20-pen-case review

A recent release from Pelikan, a 20 pen case seems to be a great addition to the range of leather products from this pen maker. Made from high quality leather, the pen case holds 10 pens on each side with a velvet divider, good for almost any size of pens. I've tested it in the shop with a MB149 and M1000 and they seems to be able to fit in snugly enough to avoid them from hitting each other during transport. Some may prefer to clip over the holders but I prefer to just fit in the barrel this way. After all it is tight enough to hold even a medium size pen (say M400).

The leather surface is beautifully crafted and seems very well made. 

Pelikan also does writing instruments and accessories for Porsche Design, there was an exact same cutting with that premium brand name with a premium price and metal zip components. Personally, I feel that the Pelikan logo here is a bit more classy and hold true to the manufacturer.