Spring Cleaning and Cuts

I've got two weeks off before classes start up again, and the timing is just right for a massive spring clean. The weather has been lovely, but I've been too busy to enjoy it. Those baseboards aren't going to clean themselves!

I was pretty proud of the job I had done, but then I received my new issue of Martha Stewart, and I realised how much I had missed. That woman is insane, by the way. So now I'm roaming around the flat with a dust cloth attached to my mop handle trying to dust my ceilings. 

I managed to get most of it done, and I moved on to practicing my brother's wedding cake, which I'm making for him. I must have gotten overexcited at the prospect, and my knife slipped while I was leveling off the cake layers.

I cleaned out the wound and applied pressure, but the cut was pretty deep and it continued to bleed. I called J at work, and he thought I should head to the a&e. I really didn't want to go, but I've been told before that I have a ridiculously high pain tolerance. I decided to suck it up and head to the hospital. It was a good thing I did, as it turned out I cut through an artery, which explained the non stop bleeding.

It was my first time using the nhs, and the doctor was fantastic. The wait time, however, was decidedly not. The whole thing took nearly 5 hours! Luckily, J came to keep me company after he finished up at work and brought me lots and lots of popcorn to aid the healing process.

It felt a bit odd to be munching on popcorn while people were moaning in pain in the background, but I was waiting for a long time and getting hungry!

I had a lot of fun posing with my bandages and J amused himself by naming the various implements that made an appearance. There were sterile stingies, alcohol ouchies, etc. since he knew how much I was dreading the sting of antiseptics. Meanie.

It looked like I would have to get stitches since my finger wouldn't stop bleeding, even after applying a coagulant, but I asked for butterfly stitches instead. The doc was kind enough to oblige, and my finger is on bed rest for a week. In the meantime, I just look like I really like to point, and everyone looks pretty horrified when they see my misshapened paw.

It doesn't hurt, and it's really more itchy and annoying than anything else. I can't wait for the bandage to come off!

Basic Graduation

It's over! We took our written exam, which I didn't study nearly enough for, and we had one last relaxing practical where we made truffles, which meant we were elbows deep in chocolate.

And chef played a practical joke on me which ended up with chocolate on my face. I give him credit, I didn't think he had it in him!

Everyone was really relaxed, including the chef, and my partner got the chance to take some fun snaps.

The school put on a very casual graduation ceremony in one of the larger classrooms, and most of my section attended to receive our certificates and find out our final grades. I was more than pleased to receive Mention Bien! Woohoo!

Our section did quite well: about half of us received Mention Bien, which was harder than I thought as I saw that there were some sections that didn't receive any! School be stingy with their grades! 

The graduation was more of a photo op than anything else, but we were disappointed to find that only one of our pastry chefs was able to attend as the others were teaching classes. 

But that didn't deter us from hunting them down one by one and floor by floor. I'll never forget the look on some of the chefs' faces as they saw a bunch of girls charging at them from down the hall hollering,  'Cheeeeeeeef! Selfieeeeee!' They were all good sports despite us interrupting them and played along with some of our more ridiculous requests.

The hard part is saying goodbye to two of our classmates. My partner is going back to Malaysia, and I'll miss her and her always hilarious sound effects. She was also the one to reach the stuff on the high shelves. Sad.

We all commented on how lucky we were with our section, and we're all hoping that we get to stay together for the intermediate term. Fingers crossed!

Pancakes and Soho

J and I didn't get a chance to properly celebrate pancake day, so we decided to make up for the lapse by having breakfast with friends at the Clinton Street Baking Company on the lower East side, home of the famous blueberry pancakes. Unfortunately, everyone else in Manhattan had the same idea, and we ended up having to queue for 2 hours before we could finally get our pancake fix!

We would've gone elsewhere but it was 9am and we weren't quite sure what else would be open. Luckily, we spotted a little cafe across the street. Thank goodness! It was freezing out, and I was not looking forward to waiting outside.

We popped in and managed to squeeze into a table and sipped on our coffees to warm up. I probably would've fainted if I had to wait much longer for food so J got me an order of oatmeal to tide me over.

The place was actually quite charming, and I think I would've been happy having breakfast here, but we had waited long enough for those damn pancakes that I was determined to see it through. 

After two hours (half an hour longer than they told us), we were finally permitted inside where we could drool over the food on offer. I probably shouldn't complain about the wait so much since the wait time had increased to 3 hours by the time we were seated. Insane!

We finally got our table, and I ordered the blueberry pancakes straightaway. After waiting for so long, I wanted to taste fairies and chupacabras and unicorns in my mouth. 

Eh. It was good, probably the best pancakes I've had, but it wasn't "wait for two hours out in the cold" good. To be fair, I don't think any pancakes are worth that. 

J had the chicken and waffles, but he got to nab some of my pancakes as well. Aw, the perks of marriage. He thought the pancakes were better than the waffles; the chew of the waffles wasn't quite right, but the fried chicken was quite nice and a combo you can't get in London.

We had a lovely time and waved goodbye to our friend so we could do some shopping in Soho.

First place on my list: Yellow Rat Bastard. I didn't really know what they sold, but a store with a name like that warrants a visit from me.

I bought a Star Wars/ bacon shirt there, and a box of mints that was labelled "eat shit". Definitely my kind of store.

We hopped into some other stores like Bloomingdales to stock up on basics like jeans and socks. J warned me that he was getting a bit tired, so I made my last store count.

One of my chef instructors mentioned that Marie Belle is a great American chocolatier that's a bit hard to find, and they supply Neiman Marcus. Lo and behold, I discovered they have an actual storefront in soho!

We walked in, and the place is absolutely stunning. 

I seriously think more people were taking snaps than buying chocolate, but not me! I bought a few thank you gifts for my instructors, and I goggled the chocolate drinking bar as I waited for them to wrap up my purchases.

J was pretty much done at this point, and we hopped in a cab to head back to the hotel to wash up before having dinner with my best friend from law school.

It was so great seeing him after so long and finally meeting his girlfriend. As I expected, he's a very successful patent litigator, and seeing him made me nostalgic for the good old law school days. It's funny how we were always so different but got along, and it's nice to see that time doesn't change that relationship.

I still can't believe it's been over 5 years since I graduated from law school, and I could never have predicted that my life would've turned out the way it did. Pastry school in London? No siree. Best laid plans and all, I guess. Nuts, just nuts.

New York, New York

J had a work thing in Manhattan this past weekend, and I insisted on tagging along when I found out he was staying at the Waldorf Astoria. It's a landmark hotel, and I figured it'd be a long while before I got to stay there ever.

It's got the feeling of a grand ole dame, and the communal areas are absolutely beautiful. So posh, even the lifts had chandeliers!

As grand as it is, it definitely has the feel of a former diva getting on in years. We even found some old school rotary phones!

The rooms feel a bit tired, and the internet was so slow that I could've sworn it was dial up! Kind of strange for a hotel that caters to a business clientele. It has that sad feeling to it like it knows its heyday has come and gone. 

J was also pretty unimpressed with the service, and you'd think it'd be top drawer for the price. And it reminded me of how much American hotels nickel and dime you for everything like water and internet access that you usually get for free in Europe.

On my first day there, I got to enjoy a day on my own roaming around midtown. First stop, lunch. I saw a bunch of people wandering into this deli so I decided to follow suit. 

It was a typical New York deli, and the food was great and cheap. My kind of place! I got a full meal for only $6! I think I can just get a sad little sandwich at a Pret in London for that price.

Tummy sorted, I headed up 5th and popped into St Peters cathedral. They were in the middle of some massive renovations so it was difficult to appreciate the architecture. 

I was really surprised to see that they were still holding services and even more surprised to see a construction worker wandering around on some scaffolding over the priest's head. I guess when you need to pray, you need to pray.

I wandered into some of my old standbys like Sephora (why aren't they in London yet?!).

But my favorite shop by a long shot was this one:

I think I spent a good 2 hours or so just browsing! I spent most of that time in the candy section.

I almost bought some bacon and pepperoni pizza flavoured lip balm but eventually decided that the grossness outweighed the novelty of it all. I think that was a good call on my part.

FAO Schwartz is a must see if you're a fan of the movie Big with Tom Hanks. They have some of the most iconic props from the movie.

I desperately wanted a turn on the big piano, but I promised J that I would behave myself, which includes not pushing little kids down. Boo.

And is it just me, but did toys for kids get much cooler?!

Sucks to be old. But at least now I can afford teeny tiny doll furniture that costs hundreds of dollars! WTF?! That's more than actual human furniture!

I consoled myself with the kitchen section at Crate and Barrel (I even shop old) and a mini shopping spree at Duane Reade. I love me my drugstores.

It was disgustingly cold so I finally had to pack it in and leg it back to the hotel in time to enjoy some overpriced room service spaghetti bolognese with J and I was sound asleep by 8pm. This is how I roll.

Practically Over

We finished the practical exam portion of the Basic course today! Hooray and Hallelujah! 

We were all dreading the possibility of getting the genoise for our exam dish, so of course, that's what we got. To tell the truth, I was bumming pretty hard when I saw the recipe but it didn't turn out as bad as I feared. My buttercream could've been less yellow, but there was nothing else I could've done better. I feel like I left it all out there, and that's all I can do. I'm just so freaking glad it's over! Now I can stop filling my fridge with sweets that I'm sick of eating by now.

I could've practiced more, sure, but I spent the day before at the salon looking like this:

And now I look like this:

Sorry, Mom! At least I didn't shave it!

And now I'm off to spoil myself with some of the best macarons in the world per our chefs. Apparently, you can't get them out of Switzerland, but J just happened to go to Geneva for work, and brought me this!

I am a lucky, lucky girl.

Ice Cream and Practice

I woke up bright and early Monday morning to attend ice cream class at school. That sounds weird, right? It was freezing cold, but I still managed to taste all of the ice creams, sorbets, and parfaits on offer.

I didn't have too much since I didn't want to walk out drunk and gassy. Why? Most of the ice creams were flavoured with alcohol and I'm also lactose intolerant. Oopsies.

I've been trying to practice the exam dishes such as the coffee eclairs, but I usually end up with more questions than when I began. The recipes are also a bit much so I always end up with leftover batter and stuff.

Wasting food is a pet peeve of mine so I made a gateau st Honore with the leftover choux dough and creme patissiere. I cooked up some caramel for the gateau and I used the leftovers to attempt some spun sugar. It turned out alright, but I definitely see the advantage of having a sugar tool for the job instead of just a fork. My kitchen shopping list keeps growing by the minute!

J's office couldn't believe their luck when I showed up with eclairs and a bonus gateau! I'm just glad that I have people willing to eat my practice pieces or I'd have to start rolling down the pavement!