My first with snow // Beijing

I always visioned my first snow experience to be somewhere in Europe. I'd be strolling on barren land where the meadow once thrived. The air would be stale and metallic and a silent breeze would brush my skin. I'd look up and a snowflake would kiss my lips and I'd smile to myself in bliss. And then I'd continue making my way through the endless ground with drops of snow lifting my spirit with every breath I take.

But my first experience with snow went like this:

At the most bizarre sleeping hour a.k.a 3am, when we were all in PJs, makeup-free and sluggish,

Yuwen: Eh is it snowing? Look out the window.

Dawn: Omg YA IT IS HOR? THE WHOLE PLACE LIKE COVERED IN WHITE

- silence -

Everybody: OMG IT'S SNOWING IT'S SNOWING!!! LET'S GO DOWNSTAIRS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG!!!! IT'S SNOWING!!!!!!!!!!!!! *continues fits of screaming and bursts of excitement, changes into warmer clothing and rushes downstairs*

Sometimes, it's times like these that makes the most sense.

Tous Les Jous Bakery (多乐之日) // Beijing, China

Since the day I was placed at Beijing for my oversea attachment, I'd been scouting the net for interesting places around the capital of China where I can fill my tummy and delight my sights, so when I came across a post on the Totoro Bun on quirkybeijing I instantly knew I HAD to find it.

And I got lucky!

I was adventurously touring Wu Dao Kou (五道口) which is a pretty major area in Haidian, Beijing, when I unknowingly found myself at Tous Les Jous (多乐之日) bakery, which is actually a bakery originating from South Korea. It was a bakery fit for royals. Decorated beautifully with artificial trees and the smell of freshly baked breads wafting through the air.......... need I say more?

^ I was lost in transition when I looked down at one of the bread aisles and O.M.G THE TOTORO BUNS WERE STARING AT ME.  HAD.TO.GET.IT. It was SGD$1.30, which isn't very much cheaper than the normal breads you'd get from local bakeries but the details of the bread made it so much easier to part with the money. Heh.

^ Breadtalk had this for their christmas special, didn't it? Guess it's christmas in Beijing everyday, haha.

^ Pecan pie

^ The real chocolate whoopie pie. Emphasis on the 'real'. It's huge!!!!!!!!!!! Only SGD$2!!!! Immediate buy since macarons in Singapore easily costed twice as much for about half a third of the size.

^ My end buys - green tea muffin, totz bun and the whoopie pie.

^ This is how huge a whoopie pie should be. Step aside, Picque Nicque! Devoured the whoopie pie when I got home and it was luscious. Can't understand why sgp doesn't have this argh.

Anyway, I had the totoro bun for breakfast today! Such a delight to eat it, albeit unwillingly since it was cuteness overload. Nevertheless, it was literally a sweet start to my day! Sweet cream, some white chocolate icing and milk chocolate shavings. Now that's what I call, breakfast.

Check out Tous Les Jous if you're ever in China! They serve cakes and coffee too!

I believe they have a few branches but I'll just list the one I went to.

Tous Les Jous Bakery (多乐之日)

海淀区成府路35号

Hǎidiàn Qū Chéng Fǔ Lù 35 Hào

WuDaoKou

+86 10 6256 0783

Week 1 // Beijing

HI GAIZ AND GALZ. I'M THRILLED BECAUSE I CAN FINALLY

ACCESS BLOGGER FROM CHINA!!!!!!!!!!!!! I've been trying to do so for the past week but to no avail so imagine how excited I am now to share with you all the food porn I've shamelessly exposed myelf to in my first week of China!

But because time doesn't permit, and I'm afraid my connection might go off anytime, I'll be featuring foods by the means of instagram i.e highly edited, but still enticing pictures heh heh.

Believe me, I just got stuck for 5 minutes because the connection was sooo weak the image uploader wasn't moving. And so I decided to employ the help of html to upload the pictures. Oh the horror.

In a chronological order, I'll start with Day 1 a.k.a airport day!

Mom, sis and the boyfriend came over to send me off and I could've cried but KFC breakfast made it all better. We had blueberry pancakes and american twister sets and the buttery, buttery biscuits (which compared to Popeyes', was severely lacklustre).


That was breakfast.

Lunch came in a form of prison food, but to our amazement, was actually edible, unlike some other airlines *ahem ahem*. Apparently, the USA-Japan flights served worse than prison food.

I picked fish over chicken because it had rice heehee.

Dinner was steamboat which was good but I was too shy to take pictures because it was after all, our first night meeting our hosts for the next 6 - now 5 - weeks.

On day 2, four clueless students had breakfast at a random roadside stall right outside our apartment - 杭州小龙包 (hang zhou xiao long bao). We had hangzhou-styled xiao long baos and steamed jiao zi. Hangzhou xiao long baos have really thick bao skins, and they didn't have soup in it so it was a little disappointing but the jiao zi were good.

We were at hosting school (北京林业大学/Beijing University of Forestry) when it was time for lunch so that was where I had my first beef noodle soup! The portions in China are really huge. And btw, it costed me only 80 cents, sgp$. Talk about worth.

Dinner was once again, steamboat at 匣捕匣捕 (Xiabu Xiabu). Obviously, shabu shabu. For just $6/pax, we had zero complaints. Pictures soon!

On freezing nights you just can't help but want to eat some warm carbs, which explains the massive amounts of breads I had.

 

Strawberries are only about $2/box so for breakfast, that was exactly was we had in addition to some cereals that I brought over (in fear of having nothing to eat, which I evidently misthought).

Lunch was, AGAIN, shabu shabu hehehe.

From day 3 onwards our body clocks got kind of screwed and we only had lunch and dinner.

For dinner we took a cab to IKEA for about $8sgd, which means $2/pax!!!!!!! HOW AWESOME IS THAT BRO. We feasted like mad pigs and yup, yum yum for our tum tums. There was of course, drama, when Jialun misplaced his pouch which had his money and camera and phone...... He never got it back. Ahh well, lesson learnt.

 

I'll jump straight to Day 4's dinner since I don't actually have pictures. I googled for Japanese restaurants around where we resided (清华园) and found this place called the Green Mountain Japanese Restaurant. One of the BEST discoveries made so far! It's located in a back alley, pretty secluded, but it was nevertheless an authentic Japanese-style restaurant. We sat on cushions and all, and there were japanese decors...... bliss! We overordered...... but we finished it all. 173yuan for the 3 of us who went, which comes up to about $11 each. Makes us wonder why sgp charges exorbitant prices for Japanese cuisine.

Fastforward to day 5's dinner. We had yoshinoya! Yoshinoya here has a wider spread of choices which was good, because that meant for me a mushroom set!!!! #lovemushrooms4eva

Day 6's lunch at a newly opened stall just a stone throw away from our place. Again I have to say, huge portions.

We had baos for dinner, yay bao!!! We were at this place called 庆丰包子铺, which to us was an eye-opener because it was literally a fast-food bao chain. SGP Y U NO HAVE.

And today........ I haven't uploaded the photos yet. Heh.

So in the mean time, stay safe everyone!! I promise more food porn for you!

xx