Giovanni Italian Restaurant

Its winner's week for Restaurant Week Shanghai, so when the reservations open, with a strok of luck the best restaurant was at Sheraton, just a 5 mins walk from my office, so I quickly made a reservation for lunch at Giovanni Italian Restaurant.

It was on the 27th floor, a very nice view when we got the window seat and the temperature was just right with the right amount of sunshine. For 118rmb, a four-course lunch is definitely value for money.

First was bread and bread sticks, not too bad.

Warm Octopus and Potato Salad with Cherry Tomato and Black Olives
I had warm octopus salad, which was pretty well done with the octopus. I'm a big fan of seafood, so I know a lot about well cooked octopus which becomes too hard, or raw ones which is too rubbery, but this one's just nicely done!

“Paccheri” Pasta with Cuttlefish and Clams with Mild Spicy Tomato Sauce
I just love seafood. This is one of the best seafood pasta I've had in Shanghai and the pasta is so special!

John Dory Fish Fillet with Artichoke and Potatoes Casserole
This was just ok, not too bad nor too good. I have no idea how to appreciate artichoke though.

White Chocolate “Panna Cotta” with Mango Thyme
It is one of the best panna cotta I've ever eaten, very rich milk flavour and goes very well with the mango

Started cooking

Me: posts picture

Friend: Which restaurant?

Epic.

So I started cooking... (cue "FINALLY" and applause).. coz i figured i need a good diet with a lot of protein to keep up with my gym. I just simply bought some meat, a bag of french salad vegetable mix, pepper and a bottle of italian herbs, and wala! my famous pan fried salmon fillet and omelette in a bed of salad. The previous is chicken breast on a bed of salad.

Just some simple 10 mins cooking with minimal preparation, nothing fancy for my protein and fat free diet. hee hee

Ukulele

Meet Slutty the ukulele!

Yeah, my schedule everyday has been constant.

I have been going to the gym on 1,3,5 and 7, if not i will subsitute 5 and 7 to 4 and 6.

After gym it's dinner, then I have  a few hours of free time and then 1 hour of show and sleep.

So during the free time I have decided to use it wisely and create some music with Slutty!

So far so good, I need to learn to strum better and change cords faster, so at the end of my 2 years I will have mastered ukulele. Woohoo!

Nougatine Jean Georges

After a disappointing and overpriced dinner at Bon Vivant, I was determined to search for another restaurant to go for Shanghai's Restaurant Week.

With persistence in refreshing webpages and a pinch of luck, I managed to get dinner on the last day at Nougatine, which was the same restaurant me and Lynn went the last restaurant week.

The food was absolutely amazing, as always, and I still think the free flow raisin walnut bread is the best bread I have ever eaten in my life. Haha

Foie gras brule with candied pistachio and dried sour cherrie - melts in your mouth, expanded in a rainbow of flavours and taste.

Salmon tartar guacamole with crispy tortillas - Raw salmon mixed with guacamole, very nice.

Wild mushroom soup - they poured the soup over some parmesan cheese, a fusion of asian soup with a tint of cheese and cream.

Slowly cooked cod with sweet garlic-lemon broth and brocolli - Very nice broth, although I hate garlic, the cod was nicely done, crisp on the skin and tender fish.

Grilled beef tenderloin with cherry mustard and crunchy potato - it was cooked medium, very well grilled and very fresh. The beef itself was so amazing and paired with cherry mustard sauce, which brings out another kind of surprise.

Milk chocolate moose with soft caramel and nougatine ice cream - very nice but too sweet for me. I love the nougatine ice cream.

The meal was so satisfying, with the best raisin walnut bread ever and value for money, I'm coming here for restaurant-week every time.

The regular life

I don't know why I'm waking up at 4.30am just in time for the sun rise these few days. I think I'm just not tired enough or I didn't use my brain-juice enough.

It's the same question over and over in my head. When I was back in Singapore I told myself to change my lifestyle and create stories when I'm back in Shanghai.

But when I'm really back here I couldn't bring myself to make any changes. I don't feel like making any stories, I just wanna do my Singapore lifestyle but at the same time I'm excited to be overseas and feel that I should make use of my time here. 

Youth and energy doesn't last forever. Now I have youth, energy and money, I just need to find time to do things I want to do in my free time, like learning the ukulele or Japanese.

Money and time is a trade-off. Health and food is also a trade-off.

At the end of the day, when I look back on these 2 years in Shanghai, I don't want to regret on the things I didn't do, nor sigh and say I should have done this and that.

But there's a catch, its only 2 years, after that I gotta return to the regular life in Singapore.


Life is such a confusion.

argh co-worker

Its official: I hate my co-worker!

As I had stated, having the one-child policy has its negative impact on the family, and in turn affects the society on the whole. 

Being pampered from young, the only child shows anger/throw tantrums when things don't go her way, indulge in excessive wastage of resources and becomes a total control freak. Or maybe she's just showing her displeasure for doing those miscellaneous jobs like writing the newsletter or booking hotels for managers etc while I face the pressure of handling key accounts or coordinating important meetings or writing company policies. 

So luckily for me, she's leaving the position in less than 4 months, and my manager agrees with me in many ways. Its really too bad for her and I feel sad that her bf has to handle this all the time. 

No matter, I will do a celebrate in her last day in the position. woo hoo!

Momentum

Its already March!

A quarter into the year and I have not even done any planning or things I planned!

For work I have been productive.... in my personal life.

I have re-gained my healthy lifestyle, gym and subway every night. The first thing I did when I arrived home was to visit the gym without unpacking because my joints were aching.

Its the CNY break. I'm very used to letting my brain rest in February when I was in university. I need to find my momentum back, to travel and for work.

Some travel plans have changed, we realised we can't travel much during the public holidays in China because it would be worse than being in a peak hour train. Therefore I have to sacrifice my pathetic days of leave to explore... bummer.

I've finally got a bolster and I have been sleeping very well with it. Guess I'm really used to a bolster during my sleep, and the weather's really good for sleeping in. Mmmm mmm.

Hello weekend!