Thursday, January 24, 2013

Spicy tuna on crispy rice sushi

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Every time that I go to L.A, one of my must do's is to go at least once to the japanese restaurant Katsuya in Brentwood, their crispy rice spicy tuna sushi is seriously one of the best I have ever tried!! 
Unable to find a close enough replica in any Japanese restaurants here in Singapore, I decided that it was time to try out this mouthwatering (and also healthy) dish. I searched the net for recipes and then I came across the perfect recipe on Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop blog, the recipe is tasty and full of flavors, I really recommend that you try it if you are a sushi/Japanese/raw fish fanatic like myself :) 
(click here for the recipe) 

Personal notes: 
*I couldn't find the Sriracha chili sauce so I used a local Thai chili sauce (see picture 5)

*For those who are not familiar with Japanese cuisine, Gwyneth's recipe uses Furikake to season the rice (picture 6). 
There are different kinds of Furikake seasonings some of the most common ingredients are seaweed, bonito flakes, sesame seeds and dried & ground fish. The Furikake I chose for this recipe also contained horseradish and powdered green tea.

*When frying the rice make sure that you cover your pan as the oil will splatter around and it can be dangerous.

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Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Homemade cherry sugar scrub

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One of my favorite pastimes when I was a child was to go to my great grandmothers house in the French countryside and climb up her cherry tree to pick up the cherries, find as many double cherries as possible and eat them!!
Here in Singapore there are no cherry trees but in the winter time we get delicious Australian ones; last week I bought a box of them but unfortunately I forgot about them at the back of the fridge and as they were a little too soft and too ripe to eat I decided to make a sugar body scrub out of them.

Ingredients:
6-8 cherries (pitted)
1 cup of fine brown sugar
1 tbsp (approx.) organic coconut oil
1 tbsp (approx.) of dried coconut flakes

Method:
*Grind the pitted cherries in a mortar until smooth (picture 7)
*Add the sugar, coconut oil + flakes and mix well, if the mixture is too liquid add more sugar until it reaches the desired consistency 

Benefits:
*Cherries are considered a super food, as well as having exceptional nutritional values when eaten, it is said that cherries are an anti-inflamatory, smoothen your skin and that they may provide benefits for skin problems such as acne and rosacea.
(To read the benefits of the other ingredients click here)

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Monday, January 14, 2013

A night at the Globes


Yesterday the awards season officially kicked off in Hollywood with the Golden Globes, a prestigious ceremony that recognizes both films and TV shows.
For those of you who have been following me for a while you know how much I love the red carpet arrivals, for those who don't know me that well, I like to call myself a RedCarpetaholic! 
Here is my best dressed list of the 2013 Golden Globe awards:

1st picture above: Eva Longoria - Wearing an Emilio Pucci dress. I'm pretty sure that Joan Rivers and her rangers are going to compare it to Angelina's infamous bare leg dress but for me Eva looks absolutely gorgeous and she is definitely my number 1 best dressed.

Black & Gold:
Kate Hudson - Wearing Alexander McQueen

Ivory:
Lea Michele - Wearing Elie Saab

Coral:
Jessica Alba - Wearing Oscar de la Renta

Black sequin:
Sofia Vergara - Wearing Michael Cinco
  
Shades of blue:
Nicole Richie- Wearing Naeem Khan

Golden:
Emily Blunt - Wearing Michael Kors


*All pictures from: http://www.people.com/people/ 

Friday, January 11, 2013

Coup de coeur - Chloé booties


They have been around for some time but I still can't get enough of the Chloé Susanna studded booties! Seen on fashionistas and celebs, they are one of Chloé's best sellers and have been a global hit in fashion world, I absolutely adore these rock n roll booties!!

What do you think about them?









Wednesday, January 9, 2013

Winter spices - part 2


Hi all!
Here is my final post on my winter baking week. These past few months have been pretty busy ones so I decided to take the time I had to make various gingerbread goodies.
I made mini gingerbread houses to accompany a delicious eggnog (recipe here), the only modifications I made to Martha Stewart's recipe was to add cinnamon instead of nutmeg, whip up some homemade whipped cream and as for the alcohol I added an amazing local Rum that we bought in Anguilla when we were in the Caribbean a couple of years ago... it really made a difference ;)
 I also gave a second go at making a big gingerbread house (click here to view last years house) and baked various shapes of gingerbread cookies including some gingerbread men to hang in the Christmas tree :) 

After all this sweet indulgence during the holidays it's time to kick in with the New Year's resolutions which for me means getting back in shape ;)

Enjoy!