bonjour, paris!

we woke up to sunshine and panoramic views of the paris from our flat bedroom window today. it made it very difficult to get out of bed much less get out of the flat.


olivier and charlotte's little nespresso machine helped do the trick! and we were off walking along rue de bac through the tuileries and opera, awe-struck by the long lines at all the little japanese restaurants in the opera.
nestled not too far, we found one of the nicest travel bookstores: voyageurs. the interiors, the books, and the endless maps ... if i had a library in my house, i would want it to look and feel like this place :)

we walked from opera to the centre pompidou and le marais, a bohemian area with lots of cute shops and boutiques. this is also where we experienced the sloooooweeesssst parisian dining experience ever over a 2-3 hour creperie lunch. it turns out they had forgotten about kevin's dessert crepe! lol. despite it all, they were super tasty!

the rest of the afternoon was filled with bvh shopping ~~ i got some SANDRO dresses! and saw this adorable pillow which reminded me of rose & dustin. unfortunately it was EUR 50 or i would have picked it up for them @_@

we finished off the evening with falafel and kebabs in le marais. it wasn't l'as du fallafel which kevin's friend had recommended, because he got so excited seeing the falafel shops on rue des rosiers that we just entered the first one we saw and sat down immediately and ordered. lol. it's purple in this picture because it was purple in the restaurant. it was disorganized, we were sitting back to back and thigh to thigh with people around us, but the service was great and the food was excellent!

british museum & dishoom

so ... we got up extra early this morning to tidy up and head to st pancras int'l station for our 8:31am eurostar, arriving nearly an hour early due to the swifty tube. but we dwindled that time away at the station coffee shop as i was completely unaware of the 30 min prior check-in requirement. :( doh ... we would be put on the next train to paris, departing at 3:30pm.

i. was. bummed.

good thing one of us was level-headed and kept us in high spirits as kevin suggested we check out the british museum and dishoom, two places we hadn't had a chance to hit up.

after an EXTREMELY LONG circuitous walk to the british museum, we decided it would probably be better for kevin to navigate going forward. special note!! the british musem is a 15 minute walk from st pancras int'l and has a very reasonable baggage check-in, so take advantage as necessary :)

we checked out the germany: memories of a nation exhibit which was quite interesting, and enjoyed the beautiful architecture of the great court designed by foster+partners. it felt like you were inside and outside all at the same time, and in my opinion, the great court design enhanced circulation and the symmetry and shadows were beautiful to look at. 315 tons of glass!

next we walked around the shops in seven dials and were quickly seated for lunch at dishoom, a bombay cafe in london. we weren't familiar with the concept of bombay cafes, but after some reading, learned that they were actually irani cafes opened by persian immigrants in bombay and quite famous for their chai teas and tasty foods.

the decor was phenomenal. tiled floors, wood trim, pendant lamps, and tattered mirrors. the food was phenomenal! we had the pau baji, black house dahl, chicken ruby curry, and LOTS of garlic naan. my earlier frustrations from the train complication had melted away.

a few hours later, we arrived in paris's gare du nord! the last time i'd been here was during the summer of 2003 while backpacking with my friend, melissa. eleven and a half years and +25 countries traveled later, i felt empowered at the gare du nord, a place where we'd spent many hours checking schedules, trying to schedule and reschedule trains, and napping in my early twenties.

when we arrived at our st germain flat, our hostess, charlotte, was waiting and ready to give us the tour. it seemed like the eiffel was also waiting for us as it twinkled for 2-3 minutes as the clock struck 8pm :)

dinner was next on the agenda and we found it at a local cafe in st germain, on the recommendation of two parisians smoking out front. it turned out they worked at the cafe haha! kevin had something with sardines, and i had the most ~heavenly~ warm camembert cheese salad. i am definitely trying to trick at home! crispy, yet warm, tasty, refreshing, and hearty.

the morning sure didn't start off perfect, but the ending was going rather well.

g'day, london!

after a few hours rest on the flight, we arrived at london heathrow airport around 7am and at our notting hill flat around 9:30am. our host's friend, jinan, welcomed us and we started our first day in england with a long snooze. haha ... it felt so good though!

after the much needed nap, we walked around portobello street, shops in mayfair (love love loved the smythson shop - what great designs, nice leather, and minimal brand/logo'ing going on), and topped off the afternoon with the fanciest (and tastiest) fish & chips ever at the dorchester hotel, thanks to a great recommendation from my gf, liz! :)

we were lucky to be seated near the bar and piano player, who entertained us with contemporary pop and some traditional holiday tunes. and although out bar portions of fish & chips appeared meager upon arrival, kevin and I were both completely stuffed after we consumed te delicious wasabi peas, salted mixed but medley, and our respective f&c's.

what to do next? well, since it was boxing day aka the most maniacal day of shopping of the year in england (i hope), we decided when in rome ... let's just say although kev has been desperately trying to separate out which of +35 jackets to keep and donate, he added another one to the collection today (which honestly looks pretty similar to a couple other ones he already has). LOL. i almost joined him, but fought back the urge to spontaneously shop and came home with just a tweezer and a personlized jar of nutella.

we hiked out west to brick lane / shoreditch afterwards for an entertaining night of indian comedy and curry at T+L's number one rated indian spot in london: nazrul. the decor was cheesy and the waiters were a bit too jovial, but the food was flavorful and the mango lassi was sweet and filling. we had the "chicken tiki masala blast", a house specialty, which was much lighter than the butter double-cooked tiki masala.

kevin fell asleep on the couch when we got back and snored! ah ha - im not the only one.

ps. also got a cute hat from barbour today. it's so warm and hardy, i love!!

final red-eye

last night, we took our last red-eye flight for 2014!!! i'm not going to complain, it's been a really fun november-december seeing and celebrating with both our families multiple times on the west coast, but going to work after a red-eye can be exhausting and weaken the immune system. luckily, kevin is the level-headed of the two of us, ensuring that we get lots of sleep during and after these trips.

with my childhood friend, fran, in town from park city, utah for the week, i decided to take the afternoon off to catch up! fran, her little man zach, evie, ray, and i met up at sarabeth's tribeca and i had the lunch prix-fixe which was sooo tasty! i had the vegetable minestrone soup (soup of the day), a giant helping of crab spaghetti, and fruit for dessert. here is a photo of the little guy double-fisting two cookies from evie's dessert plate hahaha. fran looks way more excited than him for some reason :) 

but seriously, she is one of the coolest mom's i know. firm, but not fussy when it comes to her kids. i told her she's my idol and she laughed and told me to get higher standards.

office holiday party

woohoo! we had our office holiday party this evening at the ainsworth park ave, a sports bar that opened a few years ago in gramercy. the venue was great, drinks were flowing, and i was done after 3 glasses of piniot grigio.

though i dread going to company holiday parties, im usually pleasantly surprised because i end up having a pretty good time. i got to chat with a lot of people i don't usually interact with on the floor, and that's where you end up hearing all the juicy work gossip anyways :)

afterwards pumped the jjlin station in the apartment and forced kevin to do a slow dance with me in the kitchen :) time to pack for seattle! the last red-eye for 2014 ...

work and more work

it was pitch black out, but we ventured out for a quick run. this time it was much warmer, low 40s i think. kevin wanted to step it up so we did some fartleks. these running patterns are pretty boring though!

after work, i went home and started cleaning out the guestroom and hallway closets, and removing the existing shelves and rods. it was pretty tiring (i'm not used to manual labor!), but i had to get it done since the cali closet guys are coming on monday morning and i have my company holiday party tomorrow and we are off to seattle for the wkd!

dinner was tasty, but pretty pathetic. since it was late and i was feeling tired after laboring in the closets, i heated up leftover white rice and paired it with fish floss:)

superman came home around 8 and started working on the second half of the closets while i caught up on gilmore girls & tea.

ps, i forgot to mention that eagle-eyed-kevin locked in a refi rate for us today and we will start to save millions starting in 2015!!! woohoo ~ that brain of his never stops working.

blingin

passed by the new cartier flagship at central park south today so spontaneously got my rock steamed! it looks so sparkly and beautiful ~ really should have done it sooner. kevin says i was making him look bad by wearing a dirty ring oops. haha.

kevin set up our server and network :) i am macbook meg and he is macbook brian!

dinner menu

spaghetti with bolognese sauce and parmesan reggiano

broiled wild-caught alaskan salmon with lemon seasoning

back in the saddle

we went for our first weekday morning run this morning, after snoozing half a dozen times. time to get back in the saddle with just 13 weeks before the asics marathon on march 15th (and the last two weeks don't even "count" as you're tapering). we took it at a comfortable pace and i finally checked out the skate park at the piers! super cool - can't wait to go watch thinley and pema do those 10' drops!

work was sheer madness as almost every single index rebalance announced changes late friday night. the day went by in a blurrrrrr. i find myself so tired these days after work, probably because i don't get a break at work anymore. looking forward to hiring an analyst in jan!

quick dinner at chipotle where we got a free order of tortilla and guac, and i found myself back on the chaise with a cup of peppermint tea watching gilmore girls, with my tech geek hubby busy fiddling with the server, and commenting on my show which i think he's started to enjoy :) 

before the night was over, we baked a big batch of granola, this time, putting the sour cherries in only for the last 15 minutes of baking. they're chewier this way!

getting to know our neighbors

today kevin did the unthinkable - he accompanied me to the divine trinity: bed bath & beyond, container store, and home depot, all in one trip! hahaha ... walked into bbb with the intention to pick up some pillows and sheets, and came out with those, as well as a red kitchenaid stand mixer. yay! last weekend when daisy and i made cookies, we used a mixer that i'd purchased straight out of college which probably cost me less than $15 and felt like it had the power of a construction tool, not a kitchen appliance. haha. time to get our bake on! kevin was grimacing the entire time - sorry hubbs! :) apple red, on sale, i basically SAVED him money by buying it.

also, CHA-CHING! found my bath waste baskets at containerstore! for some reason, public bathrooms (yuck) and waste baskets in general have a huge ick factor for me. so when it came to choosing a waste basket for our baths, i was having a difficult time. the opening on top has to be the perfect size! not too large or you'll be graced with a view of its contents and not too small because then it's impractical for nonchalantly tossing items in. no lid, because then you actually have to touch it every time you want to use it (ick), and to find a waste basket that's actually proportional with the size of the modern one-piece european-style toilets is actually not easy. it felt like everything we saw in bbb and container store were quite large - "american" style. most of the openings weren't much smaller than the toilet bowl itself lol.

anyways finally found these simple white plastic square waste basket from the containerstore. i removed the flip-lids and they go pretty darn nicely with the toilet brushes we got from muji too. done!! woohoo ~~~ mini challenge complete.

enough about baths and waste baskets. kevin and i spent the majority of the morning cleaning, setting up the guest bedroom, and stuffing packed boxes into every closet possible so we could make the apt somewhat presentable for friends in the afternoon.

oh and kev found time to make us this simple yet delish soba lunch :)

around 2pm, the doorbell rang and we were greeted by some cold guests: vadim, monica, john, sonam, thinley, and pema! kevin gave the adults the tour while i hung out with thinley and pema. they are so much fun to be with - not shy, very open and happy kids. afterwards we all naturally gravitated to the island (or perhaps it was due to the cheese, grapes, and olive bread), with the kids perched on the stools. it was really nice to see everyone, since the last time we really all got together was wow over the summer.

a little later in the afternoon, we had our second set of chelsea neighbors, kris and jessica, swing by for wine and yumm maison kayser desserts! they are about to remodel a loft just two blocks north of us so it was fun to hear about their process and hopefully pass on some lessons learned from our process (so that no one has to go through that again)! it turns out that jessica has a good amount of experience managing these types of projects in line of work and she seems much more level headed than me so i think they will be just fine.

rest of the night? pecorino, gouda, proscuitto, pears, apple, and gilmore girls. winding down and ready to start one of the last weeks of 2014!

moving never ends

hi, we are the chengs, and the moving NEVER ends with us. haha. but seriously, today we ran the nyrr ted corbitt 15k race at butt freaking cold temps (35F) in the am and then drove down to my parents place for what was supposed to be the final trip moving a few of the items we missed last time like kev's mattress, desk, and a couple boxes to the apt.

we'd forgotten there were also two street-use / beater bikes, and my old refrigerator and washing machine from tokyo which i wanted to bring back to the city and craigslist or donate. basically just want to get it out of my parents house so they can have some of their basement/garage back! guess there will be another trip sometime in the future :)

anyways, my mom came into the city earlier in the morning to take care of some stuff at the taiwan embassy, and we finally got to give her a tour of the apt since its renovation! since they are also doing a pretty significant remodel of their master bath (combining their existing master bath and a separate jacuzzi area, and reconfiguring the locations of all the new fixtures), it was fun to talk about the stone and fixture selection process.

then we walked over to the uhaul place on 23rd street and my mom and i squeeze into the front passenger seat, secured by the passenger seat belt. hahaha ... it was a tight fit :) had a quick lunch at our go-to spot for breakfast, lunch, or dinner: shanghai bun. actually its the go-to spot for basically every asian in a 20 mile radius! tasty and cheap :)

the move itself was alright - kevin and i are pretty good now when it comes to moving (lots of practice ha) and can move somewhat swiftly. i think if i were about 5 inches taller and 50 lbs heavier and stronger, i could be more helpful, but oh well.

finished the night off with some tappo thin crust pizza around the corner and i started to clean and set up the guest room.

one beef dish, three nights' dinner

after work drinks, braised beef with daikon noodle soup dinner, sweet corn and black raspberries ice cream, and gilmore girls.

dinner menu

braised beef and daikon noodle soup with bean sprouts

chicken with chili soy sauce

asian cucumbers with chili oil

toilet brush

FINALLY ...

found the toilet brush of my dreams. simple design, inexpensive for frequent replacing, and small enough to conceal in the corner of the bath. picked up three after work and now my bathrooms are a little bit more complete - thank you, MUJI!

also found the perfect umbrella stand, which i've been looking for for a while now. in 2009, i returned from japan with +20 umbrellas, and that collection has been growing strong. lol. this simple stand - sturdy and rust resistant - is now inside our coat closet helping us to stay a bit more organized.

i've got to say though, with the yen around 119 jpy/usd, there's something wrong with MUJI's math when the product is marked JPY 2500 and they charged me $42.75. my math says it should be half that, $21.00. ha! anyways 

dinner menu

豆苗 (pea shoots)

braised beef with daikon and beancurd

asian cucumbers with chili oil

chawanmushi (not pictured)

select kagayaki short-grain white rice

mmh mmh mmh

baking + cooking + jeni's ice cream + chinese music + gilmore girls = relaxing sunday

daisy came over around noon and we whipped up a batch of these delicious chocolate chip cookies from the not-without-salt blog! i think it was equal amounts sugar, butter, flour, and giant chocolate chips :) note the sea salt!

 

and we had our first meals on the new dining table! spaghetti with bolognese for lunch and taiwanese for dinner :) she's a beauty!

dinner menu

地挂葉 (sweet potato leaves)

braised beef with daikon and beancurd

broiled wild-caught alaskan salmon with koji

select kagayaki short-grain white rice

best: daisy brought over two pints of jeni's ice cream for us to try: intelligentsia black cat espresso and sweet corn with blackberries. they were BOTH DELICIOUS!!! yes, we pigged out from 11am onwards on 蛋撻, spaghetti bolognese, straight-out-of-the-oven chocolate chip cookies, jeni's ice creams, satsumas (yes they're in season again!!!), and more. and didn't get our workout in - darn.

worst: surfing online searching for toilet brushes, but they are all pretty ugly. well, i saw a couple nice ones which cost upwards of $150, and since we need three of them and will need to replace brush-heads, i'm not sure i'm reading to go that route yet. still looking ...

smile: kevin felt inspired and set up his computer on the new dining table and set up our server! soon we'll be able to access a common storage space for files, movies, photos, etc. i love my nerdy hubby :)

double down

kev ran the nyrr 4 mile jingle bell jog this morning at prospect park and a jog it was NOT! with a couple of jingling bells on his right sneaker, he finished the race in 27:43, or 6:56 min mile pace! i've never been more proud! :) a super PR and in some of the worst conditions imaginable: 45F, 92% humidity, puddles and loose jingle bells all over the course.

and me ... i enjoyed spectating and cheering at the start, 2-mile mark, and finish line, warm in my jeans, hoodie, and down sweater, and doubled-wrapped in kevin's down sweater. haha. i was double down!

met up with hode & susan for a spontaneous brunch at lafayette, ran some errands along sixth ave in the pouring rain, and lazed around in the apt for the rest of the afternoon. it was the first time in many weeks where we found ourselves with no engagements and it was lovely!

little fat sheep friends

we left work a tad early today to take the njtransit down to edison to have dinner with pete, esther, karis, and ellie at 小肥羊, which opened recently.

pete and i grew up together in holmdel and our parents worked together at at&t, so we have known each other since we were 6-7 years old, though involuntarily initially ha. 

in high school, we started running around with the same group of math-science olympiad, frisbee-tossing, cross country friends (for the record, i wasn't smart enough to do the math-science olympiads, but i tagged along). eventually our mutual love for ultimate (frisbee), mcdonald's/taco bell, doritos, choir, and terrible jennifer aniston movies blossomed into a friendship that's lasted across the US and pacific oceans.

peter, esther, and the girls moved to redding, ca from taipei almost two years ago, so strangely while they're closer in distance, i don't know if we'll get to see them as often as we won't be able to meet during our annual pilgrimages to taiwan. sad! anyways, it was wonderful to catch up, see how much karis has grown, meet ellie for the first time, and see pete's mother for the first time in +15 years.

to hotpots every year with you guys, with tons of lotus root and wood ear for karis :) hope to see you guys soon again!!

gilmore girls

best: figuring out how to use the remote for our living room tv. JK :p eating 汤圆 and watching gilmore girls season 1 with dais! a relaxing wednesday evening ...

worst: so busy at work again today that i didn't have a chance to buy lunch. i had phil's leftover sweet potato fries and a kitkat bar from the snack machine. terrible :/

smile: dais arrived to our place with her handbag and a huge box of jeni's ice cream - 5 pints ordered from their ohio headquarter! they were delivered to her office that day and the ice cream is carefully packed with dry ice so it can withstand a day of non-refrigeration. so cool! i've found someone else that loves ice cream as much as me ;)

live-edge

busy quiet tuesday at work. 2hr lunch downtown at client's office where i got to nibble on 1/10th of my turkey club. busy afternoon - S&P is not letting up with the index changes!

dinner menu

short-grain rice with booster

roasted wild alaskan salmon with lemon herbs

tomato and eggs

sauteed kale with garlic

bottarga paired with daikon

after researching and mulling over hundreds of dining table options and wood slabs along the east and west coasts, we finally bit the bullet and ordered our chilton 84" walnut live-edge dining table from room & board! it is built from a solid slab of walnut braced with butterfly joints so each table is one-of-a-kind. below is a photo of the exact top we chose. i love the richness of the color and the fibrous smooth grains, and the imperfections in the wood texture.

can't wait for it to arrive next week so hotpot season can begin!!!!

best: mikhail at artlookglass reached out to let us know that the backsplash is finished and ready for installation! woohoo. it took about 8 business days to be completed - what great turnaround time.

worst: skipping lunch and having a bag of doritos in the afternoon. gross. it was cold and rainy out though and i did not want to venture out there again.

smile: kev made a HUGE batch of bolognese sauce last night while i was browsing wool blanket sites haha. i have recently been obsessed with woolrich, pendleton, and faribault woolen mills and blanket designs. they're lovely! looking forward to some warm woolen blankets and easy pasta dinners!

double red-eye

after a restless 4.5 hr flight, we landed at newark on time and chatted briefly with friends, will and janet, who similar to one year ago on the sunday after thanksgiving, were also on our returning flight from seattle! hopped in an uber and the rest of the day was a haze as the first of the month is always full of tons of month-end stuff to take care of at work. in addition, there were so many forecasts to prepare and send out. ahhh ...

one of the highlights of my day was getting lunch with dais. LARGE spicy meatballs + kale apple salad + quinoa with squash and i was treated a delicious yakimochi for dessert. life's little treats.

despite our weariness, kevin and i prepared a simple dinner after work. it's really nice living so close to whole foods.

dinner menu
short-grain rice with booster
sauteed shrimp with edamame
steamed chawanmushi
sauteed kale with garlic
bottarga paired with daikon

after dinner we skyped with my parents and learned that they will be remodeling their master bath soon! *exciting* looking forward to seeing the transformation of their +25 year old bath.

best: having two dishwashers was one of my little treats in designing the new place :) we don't usually need to use the dishwasher when it's just kevin and me having dinner alone, but i think they will come in handy when we're hosting!

worst: not remembering which dishwasher is loaded up with clean or dirty dishes. ha! it turned out they were all clean but i just hadn't put them away yet. need to think of a system for this ...

smile: when we sat down to eat dinner, i realized that kevin had cooked all the dishes and put the finishing touches on them all as well! while i was busy preparing the shrimp and kale, he had cooked the rice, steamed the chawanmushi, prepared and lightly baked the bottarga, and sauteed two dishes. it's nice to have an extra pair of hands in the kitchen :)