Cupcakes & Muffins

There's a child in everyone because everyone loves cupcakes. If you don't, maybe you were born big and grouchy. Cupcake Royale is a shop in Seattle that sells nothing but cupcakes, and awesome ones at that. Well, if you're only gonna be selling 1 thing, it better be unbelievably good. My sister was having a particularly sweet tooth yesterday so she drove all the way to Madrona get her cupcake fix. She also swung by Louisa's bakery in Eastlake Ave to get herself some of their awesome muffins and broccoli & cheese croissants. My sister is efficient and determined like that.

That's her muffin & cupcake with its mound of yummy icing.


A box of muffins from Chocolat 'N Spice in Tanjong Pagar Plaza. I know the hawker ctr branch has notoriously long lines. I'm not sure if they are that fabulous that I'd queue a long time for them. Maybe they need a hot pink box... My favourite muffin is the double choc from M&S in the UK.

Siem Reap: More Temples

Bayon is famous for its smiling faces but this one is particularly worth noting. This smiley face graces a Cambodian Riel note. I think our guide said it's the 200R.


A kiss for the silent and stone-cold.


Death by abandonment and strangulation at Ta Prohm.


Small and pretty Banteay Srei. Salmon pink stones with the most intricate and beautiful carvings.


Bas reliefs.
Clockwise from top right: grilling sate, Banteay Srei detail, Chinese soldiers (note the topknots), elephant with the forerunner of the bullet-proof windshield!

Siem Reap: Angkor Wat

People have asked me if I saw Angkor Wat in btwn my meal times in Siem Reap. I did see the Angkor Wat! And many others.


Angkor Wat,kissed by the rising sun.


I discovered acrophobia here.


The view from the top, after My Climb Of Terror.


A bas relief showing how scale cheats get punished in Hell. One nail for every gram you lied about. I wonder if lying about your own weight is punishable in the same way?


Templed out.

A Bowl of Dog

My mum and I were in Central Market when we saw a busy stall with a huge stock pot. The stall owner was doing a brisk business selling soup kuetiaw and claypot hotpots. My mum ordered 1 bowl of soup kuetiaw and it was delicious. The kuetiaw was broad and roughly chopped and the meat was kinda like sliced beefballs.

When we came back to S'pore, my mum decides to tell me that that was dog meat! She only found out when she walked by the open kitchen and saw them preparing dogs. She didn't wanna tell me then bc she thought I'll puke or imagine a tummyache to reality. Our guide did tell us that Cambodians eat dog a lot. I am pretty horrified. I don't really know why though. It's not like I ate my own pet. I am not squeamish abt eating cow or battery-farmed chicken so my disgust seems a bit hypocritical.




Khmer hot dog

Siem Reap: Celebrity Sighting

If you've watched Tomb Raider, you must know that a part of the movie was filmed in the Angkor temple complexes. Angelina Jolie, who adopted Maddox from Cambodia, had done a scene in the famous Ta Prohm temple, which has been kind of left in the state it was discovered - crumbling stones, collapsed corridors, almost entirely covered by huge trees and vines and all. Ta Prohm is a photographer's dream when it's not overcrowded by tourists. So, guess who I saw there?

No, not Angelina Jolie. It's actually a guy and he's not an actor. More like, I guess, a model. His face has sold many many books...


The Lonely Planet Cambodia cover boy!


See, that's him.


Personally, I think my pic is so much better. The guy is counting greenbacks and selling tourist trinkets. It's as real as it gets. This is tourism boomtown Siem Reap! When you're that old a model, you need a more stable mode of income.

Siem Reap: Laboratory Primary School

No one knows how you'll turn out.


The calm before the bell.


The rush. Even lab rats get hungry.


My mum had to pick the fattest one to pose with. That's his school 'bag', not a lunch tray. Everyone has the same 'bag'.

Siem Reap: I Loaf It!

I loved how there was so much good bread in Siem Reap! I fell in love with the pork baguette sandwiches. I saw and ate two types - one is stuffed with meat sliced from a block of something like hammy SPAM or SPAMMY ham and another is made from cubed roasted meat. It's piled into the bread with a thick baton of cucumber, a sprig of spring onion, onions, lettuce, drizzled with some sort of lardy gravy and a mound of green papaya & carrot relish is put last on top. They are so addictive!


At least the bloody colonials left behind something good.



A sandwich peddler outside the Jayavarman VII Children's Hospital. He's putting the baguettes into the tin drawer which is an ingenious oven!


It's gonna get messy.



Another Au Bon Pain outside the hospital. She sells the chopped roasted meat variety.



This was the best sandwich and the most expensive one too. It was from a stall in the Central Market. She had kickass chilli paste and excellent relish.

Celebration

My lovely new ring from Howie. Isn't it pretty?