what do you eat for breakfast?

After reading Almost Bourdain’s post on curry laksa, I started thinking about breakfast.

When I was really young, my mom would make me eat an egg and drink a glass of warm milk for breakfast. I stopped getting the glass of milk for breakfast after discovering that my lactose intolerance was one of the reasons why I was getting “unexplained” stomach aches. I stopped eating breakfast after high school started and when college rolled around, coffee and donuts were the breakfast of choice to give me that kick in the morning to survive the 8am pattern drafting class. It wasn’t until the last 5 years that I started eating breakfast regularly again.

Fredrik loves his Swedish breakfast. Boiled egg with caviar on bread. Cheese on bread. Shrimp cheese on bread. Ham on bread. Mackerel in tomato sauce on bread. He loves his bread. The Scandinavians all love their bread. They also love their foods that come out of tubes.

I on the other hand will eat anything for breakfast. Usually depends on what I’m feeling like and depends on what’s available. Every so often I like the bacon and eggs combo. Which makes me wish there were diners here in Sweden.

When Fredrik and I were in Hong Kong, we ate out for every meal including breakfast. Liver congee and plain rice noodle rolls were my choice of breakfast. Oh how I could go for congee and rice noodle rolls RIGHT NOW.

Speaking of breakfast. I’m getting hungry. Think I’ll go check out what I can have.

another cookbook

I picked this up in Gothenburg. I wasn’t so sure if I wanted it at first but for only 25kr. It was a hell of a bargain. I’ve seen a few episodes of Kylie’s Kitchen. She’s a Chinese-Australian chef and a lot of the recipes in the book are almost traditional Chinese recipes.

I’m running out of space for my cookbooks.

I have a copy of Martha Stewart Living Cookbook: The New Classics coming in the mail. It was a bit of a random buy. Not saying that I don’t want it. Just saying that now might not be the best time to be randomly buying things. You know how it is…

a supportive family

What the hell is that?

Sometimes I don’t think children from Asian families know the meaning of a supportive family.

Don’t get me wrong. I love my family to bits.

Sometimes it just would be nice if they could be a bit more positive and more supportive.

I’ve been having a hell of a time with preparing myself for dental school. It hasn’t been the easiest journey and there are times that I’ve asked myself if it’s all worth it. What I could really use  is someone who knows me to tell me that I can do this. That they have faith that I can handle it and that I can totally rock it.

Instead, my mother is asking me if I’ve thought about what else I can do if I don’t get into dental school.

I know that she’s just worried about my future but that’s not really something I need to concern myself with right now. I haven’t even tried and she’s already suggesting failure.

This is not something new.

When I started my relationship with Fredrik, she would go on about how things might not work out. We’re married now.

When I decided to go to college for fashion design, she had her remarks. I graduated with honours. Despite the fact that I decided afterwards not to continue with fashion, I was still awesome with the program.

Perhaps that’s her way of “encouraging” me. By telling me that it’s not going to work, I work extra hard at proving her wrong and it works out in the end. Still… it’s frustrating as hell. I’d rather have her talk about something else rather than add to the madness.

I know I’m not alone in this situation because I have friends whose parents still say things like “If he/she would just get a real job and get their life on track” despite having a job that they love doing.

Asian parents… they’re amazing in their own way.

meat in Hong Kong

This is actually a pretty common scene in a Hong Kong market. If you grew up with it, you wouldn’t think twice about buying meat from this stand. If you didn’t grow up with it, then it might be a bit scary. Especially if you consider that the man in the apron is standing on the sidewalk.

If you look through the “curtain of meat” there is a topless man. Dude is selling meat without a shirt.

Fredrik was a bit freaked out at first. Not totally ok with it but he does understand that’s how how things are in Hong Kong. But I will admit that I cannot imagine him buying meat from a stand like that in his life time.

all about the good eats

I kid you not when I say that Hong Kong has some seriously good food. Fredrik and I ate till our bellies hurt and then we ate some more. Surprisingly we didn’t gain any weight. We actually lost weight. Probably from all the walking and the heat.

so much awesome

We’ve all heard the usual airport food complaint. It’s crap and it costs an arm and a leg. Here at the HK airport they have REAL food at regular costs. What a novel idea!!
I’m gonna keep this short ’cause I really hate blogging via the iPhone. Prefer using a real keyboard. But we’re heading to Langkawi in Malaysia. Making a stop in Singapore on the way back. Fredrik says that Singapore airlines is supposed to be the best. We’ll have to see.
I miss the kitties. We’ve been going into every pet store in the city. Got them a toy helicopter to play with from temple street. That should cheer them up.

here comes the midnight sun

It’s 9:59pm RIGHT NOW.

The sun is still out.

This year’s midsummer will be my 3rd midsummer. I don’t feel the same kind of need to celebrate the midsummer like so many others in Sweden but that’s also kind of understandable. I don’t expect Fredrik to feel the same need to celebrate Chinese new year or the mid autumn festival.

Midsummer is falling on Saturday but the celebration takes place on Friday.

This year, we’re not going to be attending any parties nor will we be having one of our own. We’ll just have a nice quiet evening.

For now I’ll just feel a bit screwy because my internal clock tells me that it’s not that late but the reality is, I should consider heading to bed within the next couple of hours because I have to get up early tomorrow to go to work.

OH CANADA!

Not only does Fredrik comes home next week, we’ll be heading to Canada. 

It’ll be a bit hectic and busy for the first few days but I’m hoping that Fredrik and I will be able to get at least 1 day of quiet down time.

First thing on our schedule includes going to take wedding photos.

Yes… wedding photos. (My mother’s idea and insistence. Her argument is that I’ll never be this young and good looking. How Asian of her.)

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about. Here are a few examples.

See Niagra Falls as part of the background? CLASSY!

Can you imagine Fredrik wearing something like that???

There is part of me that thinks that this could be plenty fun. Especially since I’ll get my hair and make up done. Haven’t had that done before.

It’s like Glamour Shots with a wedding theme.

Speaking of Glamour Shots. Do they still exist? Do people still get that done? I remember some of really young girls and it was a bit creepy. Like those beauty pageants for little girls.

an ugly and a yellow

I was randomly browsing for restaurants in Stockholm that serves traditional Chinese food and looks like there’s a place we must try. The place is called En ful & en gul which translates to “an ugly and a yellow”. Looking at their menu, it looks like they have hot pot. 

Chinese new year dinner

Last night we went out for dinner with some friends of ours for Chinese new year. We would’ve done it on new years day or new years eve but Fredrik was off in Spain. This year we got a table at Dragon House.

I wanted to order thousand year old eggs but they were out of it. In fact there were quite a few dishes that they didn’t have. But we still got plenty of good food and had a great time. We did come very close to ordering the pig stomach.

The bill was actually quite reasonable too. We split the bill 7 ways and ended up paying 250kr per person including drinks and desert. For eating out in Stockholm, that’s really good.