Travel: Italy: Florence: following Dan Brown

Anyone read Inferno, Dan Brown?

Well, let us put this on the line first, I hate Dan Brown.

There, i said it. His over repetitive style of writing, its always Prof Langdon on the run, who happened to be with a smart intelligent, but slightly dumb woman so that Langdon can explain his over-elaborated description of some building. Then the bad guy, is always the pseudo good guy who is ever so resourceful.

I hate this book with additional passion, for those who haven read it and is going to, well... jz be prepared to roll ur eyes.

So y i am reading this? Cuz i am being a part of the herd. His books are popular, so as much as i don his literature,  i still need to read up to kinda catch the latest conspiracy. lol.

So yeah, Inferno, is a book abt Landon running around in.... Florence! Well Venice too, but Florence mainly.

So, Florence. Its an hour or two from Pisa (click my story abt pisa and tower pushers here and evil bear in pisa here)

The most popular place in florence is obviously the florence square, Piazza del Duomo where a small square had more than 3 historical buildings, the duomo, the gate of paradise, the cathedral bla bla bla.... Meaning, there's no space to take pictures at all, just look at my poor attempts of taking photos. I have got to say though, the crowd is crazy.

If anyone read the book, you would definitely remember Dan Brown, or Langdon, in Inferno, talked abt the gates of paradise. The sheer beauty of it that will take everyone's breath away. Well, i think after the book, i think i have too high expectations for everything. Look at this. 

Its not like it made me in awe of its randiant beauty, but I guess give it a C for effort lol.

 

Though the book really made it quite popular. 

Though you cant take a good pic in the square, you can certainly climb to the top of the hill and take a nice pic. Climbing The Basilica of San Miniato al Monte is considered the number one thing to do and you get to see the bird's eye view of Florence. You do really get the feeling that you are in some kind of movie, running around the small alleys, yet still not far away from elegant artworks. You can feel the vibe, the sense of excitement envelopes around this city. 

There are certainly many other things to see. But being lazy, here are a very few photos. I spent 2 days in Florence, and i can say its definitely not enuf. Gotta come to this city once guys, jz don read dan brown. -.-

COMIC: Evil Bear in Pisa

I think i just saw bear's dark side..... If you guys don really understand, its basically him tricking me into doing the obligatory hand pushing pic at pisa tower. very embarrassing, very stupid. D= 

Sorry for the quality, i ended up just doodling on my work book lol. so pardon the lines@~

Travelling: Italy: Pisa: To the land of tower pushers

Well, just wanna talk abt a few trips i had with bear.

During my last summer, which sadly has been gone now, Bear and I went around a few places. So I am just going to talk abt it for the fun of it.

So Bear and I went for a honeymoon-ish (or honey week? i don know how the definition works), we both been to Rome on separate occasions (which i am going to talk abt it someday) so we wanna try to explore the rest of Italy together. Especially Venice, Bear was very excited abt Venice, because like, Paris, it is considered to be a romantic city... well.... sadly Paris didn't really turn to out to be stellar, so we hope tha Venice would be okay.

So anyway, we fly from London to Pisa, I would assume everyone here know wad's the leaning tower of pisa? Well, apparently the tower is in a separate, obscure town that requires an extended trip from one of the bigger cities. BUt it only take 30-1 hour from florence, so its fine, plus there's an airport there so you can always just start from Pisa and slower work your way to florence and the rest of the more popular cities.

We arrived at night, and I am already quite excited. You know... its one of the seven wonders!!! I forgot if its the ancient wonders or the modern wonders, but its one of them! But to be honest when I rush to the plaza which was just 2 mins away from our accommodation... well........ take a look.

I was like..... 'TAT'S IT?!?!'

I should have read more abt the tower, because a stupid boy like me who have been watching to many animes and have seen so many skyscraper would not appreciate that a cylindrical tower of this height is considered very grand during its era. But really....

However, since its the night, and there was not a lot of people, we took a few lovey dovey couple pictures, which sadly u guys wont get to look at lol. 

When we went back during the morning, I was very pumped, because apart from the tower i oso wanna see a wave of ppl trying to make the sad pushing picture. something like this from the web:

source: http://www.maniacworld.com/Leaning-Tower-of-Pisa-and-tourists.html

Its not a many as i would have hope, but i wasnt too disappointed given that its quite early in the morning. 

WOOTS!!!!!!!!!! 

I still hav a bunch of tower pushers photos but it has me jeering at them, so i dont any tower pushers feel any hatred if they come across this blog lol. 

SO for leaning tower you hav to book a time slot to go up the tower, you will hav a brief story abt the tower, and hav to take a hike up. There's nothing to see or take pictures i have to admit, apart from bells, cause the top is encircled by fences to prevent stupid ppl from falling over. 

We went to the basilica beside it just to complete the visit, its free. =3 but you still need to book a ticket, i guess they are trying to keep track of the tourist, since we need to queue up and things.  But apart from the tower, there's nothing much to be seen.  

 But really, a half day trip is worth it, seeing all the tower pushers. =D

And its off to France!

Skiing: I was told I could hav died

Bear was quite mad when I told him this. But it really did not occur to me that I dodged a bullet there. -.-

Back to my skiing adventure. It was the last day of my skiing trip, and there was a snow storm. But put in a snow storm, slippery slopes and a couple of hot blooded guys, you obviously hav the recipe of a disaster. 

So yeah, a few of us went to the slopes despite the snow storm because it is our last day. And we deliberately chose a slope we never ski before and a level higher than wad we use to ski. Because.... It's the last day! 

The cable car was closed, it's easily a warning for us to turn back but noooooo we don give a crap. We took the chair lift which oddly was up and running. 

Anyway, when we are up there I tell ya, it was literally a survival movie. I can't see anything but snow. The bits of ice were piercing my face. Even after a few days I can still feel a later of dead cell layers on my cheeks. 

It was a horrible experience; I took off my goggles because the snow blocks the vision and it fogged up quite easily. Had to ski with my eyes half closed (Ching Chong mode) so tat the snowflakes won't enter my eyes. 

The slope is long, very long. There are 31 segments. The slope was marked by a series of blue sticks on both side of the road. The road is quite wide as I can't see markers from both sides within my sight. 

Although I am a beginner, I have above average skiing skill in the group. Due to poor arrangement, I ended up skiing alone because the better ones are either in the front or at the way back to help the struggling ones. 

So here's me, skiing in a new territory, all alone with my eyes half closed, without goggles in a snow storm.

Really, wad could go wrong? lol

So i tried a tactic, I skied in a huge S shape, I started off from the marker on the right and skied slantly towards the left, when i reached the marker on the left i took a sharp S and skied to the right. After a few junctions, I plopped myself onto the snow gently cuz i don want to tired my legs, sat up-straight and tried to see if i am heading in the right direction, then i repeated the whole process. Here's a pic in case my poor English confused you lol. 

Well, this seemed to be working for 3,4 times, albeit very tiring. Then one time i plopped myself down the snow and sat upstraight again, i saw something unnerving.

I saw two markers within my visual field.

This was different because there's is a good deal of distance between two markers, I usually need a good ten seconds of skiing to see another marker. 

So this could only mean that the road ahead is very very very narrow. 

I kept looking backwards, hoping the ones at the back had catch up, but to no avail. I shouted:"GUYS I DON KNOW WHERE TO GO!!!!" But there's no answer. 

"Okay," I told myself. "Stay calm. Even though this is a harder slope its still for amateurs. If its narrow, it shouldn't be too steep."

So i gathered my courage and skied right between the two markers. 

I immediately noticed the difference of the snow consistency under my and I started tumbling, I cant control my skis. Confused and nervous, i sank lower and lower as the powdered snow cannot take in my weight. 

I was determined to continue skiing again when my friend called out:"Bunny!!! You r off course!!!"

Wuddddd?

Apparently the slope took a sharp turn, the two markers i was looking at were actually on the same side. D=

So i voluntarily skied out the course. And given that this is 2000m high and most of the sides are cliffs, I was very lucky that i din ski off one (the cliffs i mean). And if my fren din make it in time and i cont skiing from where i tumbled, I will eventually ski off the mountains. 

Woaaaaahhhhhhhh

So moral of the story, DON SKI on a new slope. You may perish. 

lol. 

I need to start praying now zzz. 
  

Skiing skiing

As I said I am now trying out skiing in France (French Alps ppl!) for the first time in my life. 

The first two days was torture I tell you. Torture. It much more painful than I thought. For the Malaysians out there, have you guys try skating? Did you guys complained about the skate boots being too tight? 

Well. This is ten times as worse. And I am skiing for five days. So imagine my horror the moment I fit my legs into the shoes as I can foresee myself limping for many weeks to come.

You start learning how to stop and snow plow AKA brake to your hearts content. However it's taxing to the knee so you have your legs being wobbly after a day's worth of hard work. 

I hav to say if anyone of you are going to ski do buy paddings for your tibial (front of your calfs) called tibial protector. I can't be bother to explain. But please heed my warning. 

Anyways, you started to get the basics, you really start to appreciate harder, scarier tracks. 

As you progress through the slopes, it gets harder and harder. It gets longer and longer. I actually had to ski through a track for one and half hours. It's no longer just your legs screaming, it's your brain, as you have to concentrate while skiing around the white steep mountains. 

And when u reach the bottom, you will b like whoa, did I really just skied that slope? It was a satisfying and proud moment. 

The sad thing is i can't really take photos to scare bear. Hehe. But I really hav fun and I really recommend all the speed demons to try it out. 

Cornered by robbers in Paris

Sorry sorry, this shall b the last post abt paris.

Well hav you heard about tourists getting conned by the locals?

Well, wad I have here is almost an equivalent to day light robbery. -,-

Bear and I met up with a few friends of mine during my trip in Paris. The plan was just to float around with them for a day (and I think I would love the idea of having someone taking pictures of bear and I without fretting over my fear of pleading to strangers for help.)

So we went for a few not so mainstream tourist spot and we decided to go to a chapel. Since it is winter, Paris was already quite dark to have a random exploration.

kudos to Alex =D
source from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bf/Sacre-coeur-paris.jpg

As we walked up the chapel, suddenly a bunch of Afro-Carribean surged to our group. I traveled alone before, so naturally I understand what they are trying to do, so I started striding towards the entrance. One caught up with my pace.

Dude: ‘Brother I have something to give you.’

Bunny: ‘No thanks,’

Dude: ‘respect my religion brother.’

Bunny: *keeps on walking* (thinking): ‘gosh, he is persistent, I wonder wad is he offering… No I shall not be tricked!’

Dude: ‘Free of charge!!’

Bunny: (thinking) free of charge, I suppose one look wont hurt. NO NO. I should walk faster.

As I managed to reach the entrance, bear grabbed my hand and pull me away from the dude, growling at the guy.

When I looked around, all the girls were with bear and I, but a few guys were missing. Uh-oh.

I made my way back and saw my friend was cornered at a fence by 5 or 6 of the tourist touts. The other friend tried to grab him out of there. Bear and I rushed to the crowd and tried to reach our hand into the tout circle to grab my friend so that we can yank him out of the lion’s den. But when I held out my hand, one of the guys smacked my hand and told me in a menacing tone: ‘don interfere.’

Gosh, I was lost at words. And the fact that we were at the main street, someone later told me that a passer-by even video recorded this whole scene. I heard ppl screaming, I think it's the shop vendors along the road. Ironically, all of this chaotic scene right in front of the chapel. I could see tat Bear was trying hard to protect me as more and more Black guys started swarming as they got a whiff of their prey.

My friend in question was quite calm, apparently the tout grab his hands and shoved in a cheap looking bracelet and demanded for a donation of 20 euros. He did not dare to take out his wallet, fearing that it will get snatched away. He ended up trying to fish 5 euros from his jacket. Whenever he fished a 5, the group shouted MORE MORE MORE. It was quite terrifying witnessing the barbaric scene.

He eventually managed to produce 20 euros, and the group dispersed as they went looking for more prey. We ended up not going to the chapel as it left us with a bad taste in our mouths.

But yeah, to those who are travelling abroad, it’s sad but you cannot trust anyone. Laws can only protect you from afar. And keep a bunch of small change with ya. =x

Ps: bear quite heroic, he told me tat one of the guys managed to made him wear the bracelet and he just took it off and coolly threw it away. Tat's my bf lol.  

Paris Restaurant review: Jean Restaurant (one michelin star)

Bear : We went to Paris for about 5 days, 3 of which were in Disneyland Paris. Disneyland is quite a journey away from the city itself, so we knew we only had 2 nights where we can venture for French food. With this in mind we booked a French restaurant even before we left the UK lol. 

This is the restaurant we've booked: Jean Restaurant.

The ambiance was nice, we got seated after waiting for a while, and we chose the 4 dishes tasting menu as usual.

Free entrée: tempura potato balls , cheese cake with vinegar sauce, squirt leg with cream and pudding soup. 

Bear: Small bites with interesting combinations of taste and texture. A mind-f**king start to showcase the chef's capability. Mixed well overall.

Bunny: pudding soup? tats cabonara cappuccino dear. And it's ducking disgusting D: . I like the first three but the weird texture of the cappucino makes me feel like I am eating overdue milk tat is in the process of becoming into a stinking cheese. But really the first three gives the restaurant a good start, it reminds me the two star restaurant pier a Terre haha. 

Bear: the pudding tasted well wa... I never had anything like this before so I kinda liked it hehe 

Starter: Raw Oyster and foei gras in chicken soup

Bear: Fresh oyster bedded on a foei gras, flooded with chicken soup, with lots of cheap vege made into a somewhat classy presentation. Doesn't mix that greatly although all food are good on their own.

Bunny: come to think of it, this is my favourite dish of the night. Mayb cuz I like oyster and foei gras. Hence by putting them both together it's so good tat I am willing to overlook the icky vegs tat float in the nice chicken soup they prepared. I like the fact tat they din sautee the foei gras. The rawness of the foei gras and oyster really packs a punch. 

Bear: vege are healthy and delicious! D: but I agree with you on the oyster hehe

Fish Dish: Fried cod fish fillet and classy vege (zucchini, peppers, mini capers, sea grape, and julienned leeks.)

Bear: The first time I heard about sea grape. Sea grape tasted like lady finger with its gooey texture. Fish fillet is like fish n chip's fillet, without the batter. The 'classy vege' (that's what the waiter said) sauce was ok but doesn't really relates to the fish. Fish with the soury sauce + deep fried ginger gave excellent texture but not excellent taste.

Bunny: I do not know tats grapes from the sea, too busy playing the updated version of plants and zombies lol. But frankly speaking the soup is too oily, reminds me of the Spanish way of cooking prawn tapas by using olive oil as a base. But at least the ones in Spain add white wine to curb the oiliness. I know they try to do tat here with the vegs, but it's clearly not enough. The turbot is tough and chicken-like by nature so no complaints there.  The grapes are like sweet caviar haha so I enjoy that.

Meat Dish: Roasted French Piglet Belly and Rib with pumpkin puree, celeriac fondant, pippin apples fried, truffle juice Autumn, brioche chestnut and rosemary.

Bear: Pork Tasted like roasted pork (燒肉) outside my house's chicken rice stall, truffle sauce and flakes did nothing on the pork as the pork is somewhat marinated to good taste already. Vege is good but disposable. Pumpkin yolk is very petit and special but cookie seems weird in a main dish.

Bunny: I hav to disagree about bear's opinion about the presence of the cookie. The pumpkin and the cookie help elevating the dishe's taste by adding another dimension. The pork is too rough, so the petite-ness of the gooey pumpkin tart thingy gives the taste a bit if quirkiness, which is a good thing.

Dark chocolate cake with crispy praline pecan nuts, chocolate ganache, almond milk "molecular" and lime sorbet.

Bear: Chocolate mix well with hazelnut crust at bottom as always. The 'almond milk molecular' thing is awkward. Lime sorbet doesn't match with choc, being sourish to the supposedly sweet chocolate.  

Bunny: I am not happy with the dessert, really. Z the lime is sour, the chocolate cake is bitter. How can u put them together? Ugh the bitter sour taste lingers in my mouth. They try to go for layers of different texture with the care. I appreciate that but the really, the mild taste of the cake should not go with the strong taste of the sorbet. It's not just awkward, it makes a disastrous end of its flow, washing away the customers' memories of the good dishes zzz

Bear: I smell a grumpy bunny >___<


Overall: Mixed review to this restaurant. I would like to praise the chef for his (or her, who knows?) effort in mixing and matching different ingredients to produce some of the finest dish I've had in France. I do liked some of them to be honest. Good effort there.

Paris restaurant venture: le violon d'ingres (one Michelin star)

Bear: As mentioned, we DID get a walk near the famous Eiffel tower, but we do so at the very late hours, so by the time we're done, its already near dinner time. Being the asian-tourists looking for food around the world-class tourist spot at around a Sunday dinner-time without any reservation, we're quite lucky to get a spot in this restaurant, le violon d'ingres by Christian Constant, after being turned away from 198639827091820381 other restaurants due to our lack of reservation.

Bunny: to be perfectly honest, we did not choose this restaurant, we were wet and grumpy and we jumped into this restaurant without giving much thought (after verifying it has a good ranking in trip advisor of course lol.) We did not know its a one star Michelin restaurant until we ordered out food and overheard other customers. 

(NB: Because the dishes on the tasting menu did not appeared the menu, we cannot get its proper name for some of the dishes. We named it based on what we remember on the description by the waiter.)

First dish: Lamb ravioli thingy 

Bear: The ravioli looks great, and to make it better they topped it with a heavenly creamy sauce (I would happily say that it is a cream-soup dish, but they insist that its just the sauce... i mean look at the picture, it flooded almost the entire ravioli!!!) There is no sign of lamb in it however, but I liked it for the soup sauce. 

Bunny: I have vague memories of the dish, but definitely no memories abt it being heavenly -,-. I only rmb dipping bread into the cream to curb my hunger since there's only one freaking ravioli in the dish. Granted tat its fine dining, so i cant really complain z. The cream is cheesy, tat is all i can say. 

Second dish: Scallop with a dash of ginger and lemon, served with Osciètre caviar, herring roe and grapefruit.

Bear: Refreshing combination... as in it tasted refreshing, but not surprising. Definitely not the first time I had scallops in such citrus based combinations, but I'm glad to eat this dish. Herring roe is nice~ Grapefruit tasted like grapefruit.
Bunny: Wad do u mean grape fruit taste like grape fruit? Does it suppose to taste like something else?

Bear: What I meant is that the grapefruit is there to taste like grapefruit, without aiding other ingredients of the dish. So its dispensable. 

Bunny: .... okay. Deep stuff there. First thing i gotta say is the presentation is pretty, there is quite an array of colours, and i am always a fan of floral decors. Taste however, its raw scallops, so basically it comes down to whether it is fresh or not, and given tat it is a Michelin restaurant, it has to be fresh enough. Then the blend of accompaniments and the scallops cones into factor. It is actually almost based on the same concept of adding lemon to raw oyster, to give a bit of zing. They try to make the zing unique, but really, you cant really stray too far away, I did not notice a huge difference. The roe is a nice touch though. 

Third dish: Soft boiled eggs rolled in breadcrumbs, truffled butter toasts. (proper name)

Bunny: ... Its an egg.

Bear: It's apparently the restaurant's (and the chef's) signature dish!

Bunny: Its still an egg... tat *checked ala carte menu* costs 25 euros!

Bear: That egg has its own webpage!! (link)

Bunny: ... I think Parisian never taste a soft boiled egg before, because it sure tasted like any soft boiled egg i hav eaten, with additional bread crumbs of course. -,-

Bear: I agree with bunny with this... it tasted like soft-boiled egg from cha-chan-ting (茶餐厅), but I think the breadcrumbs gave a great dash of saltiness to the egg... I must say its hard for the chef to maintain the egg's shape though, even when its soft-boiled. 

Bunny:.... It is STILL an egg. 

Forth dish: Freshwater perch mousse with light lemon sauce, butter savoy cabbage and Osciètre caviar. (proper name)

Bear: The mousse tasted like the... erm... lobster/crab's fatty meat? I liked it!! Nice cabbage to top it up, the sauce is creamy as well~ My only complain is that its too small of a portion >___<

Bunny: I really really don wanna seem negative throughout the whole tasting course, but really they not doing very good right now. The taste is too one dimensional. The texture might woo some Caucasians, but its like toufu so it certainly did not impress this Asian boy. Think: salty toufu with caviar on top, no synergy, no different taste, nothing. 

Fifth dish: Dombes duck roasted with almonds and pistachios, roasted pears with verveine. (proper name)

Bear: I don't like this dish. :( pistachio and duck... doesn't go well... poached pear and red wine sauce might be good with each other, but not when there's also duck-meat. A very complicated taste, and unfortunately not to my liking... 

Bunny: The presentation is weak in this one, but i appreciated the fact tat they try to accomplish the 'burst of flavours' epiphany. Not happening. I like duck meat, always do, i am however not a fan of poached pear. The taste is quite common, as u know duck always goes with red wine. The pistachio provides more of an annoyance than assistance. The duck is well cook though, and appropriately flavoured. 

Final dish: Vanilla Cream-filled napoleon cake with caramel drizzle.

Bear: The cake is so sweet... too sweet to be enjoyable.. :( the caramel makes it even sweeter, causing an overall sweetness overload... :( so... not a very good ending to the tasting menu... 

Bunny: I find the sweetness okay... la.... i think.... Basically it is like mille feuille on its side with cream on top. Vanilla cream.... with caramel. Not too creative aren't they? 

Conclusion:
Bunny: skip this one, unless u are a boiled egg fanatic, Or, just get the ala carte. -,- Plus the price (90 euros) is not attractive at all. 
Bear: I would be willing to go back for its ala carte menu actually, just to try on other signature dish of his... the crab and the fish (which is not on the tasting menu) looks nice~
Bunny: quite ironic, since a chef is suppose to add all of his best dishes into his tasting menu. z

COMIC: HERE WE ARE AT DISNEYLAND!!!!

Yup, same experience like the post before (link here), HEY, disney park wei!!! the characters more important wei!!!!!

misspelled dejavu i think lol

Ok la, we did go for the rides later la, very much later. =3=

COMIC: HERE WE R IN PARIS!!!!

sorry a bear, when ppl ask me abt paris the only thing i can think abt is how paris's macaroons taste like. hehehehhehehehehehhehe

In case u guys felt sorry for him, we did go to the towers and wad not la. (=3=) compromise, folks.

Damn satisfied with the desserts. ^_______^

But we r all much much poorer now zzz