Category Archives: Destinations

copenhagen up close

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let’s start the show.

ok i’ve just got off a 3 hours youtube marathon of bravo tv’s work of art – which is honestly a really interesting/ridiculous/self-indulgent show – just for the pure fact that art tends to be so subjective and artists and media-whoring tend to be things traditionally not discussed within the same sentence. i don’t know, the premise of that show strikes me as odd, but i’m drawn to the notion of the creative process and watching how these talented people pull off their creative visions.

this being said, i blame youtube for wasting away so much of my life. haha.

but work of art did make me think of something. namely, what connotes art? and what attracts me to pieces of work in a gallery? it’s been my thing, trying to figure out the psychology of beauty and attraction, i guess. then the question is also – can a layman create art? i mean, i like my photography, but does it connote art?

hmm.

whatever it is, i’m presenting my own ‘art gallery’ here of my photography shots. and lets be “artistic” and self-indulgent with the naming shall we? =)

linear.

(realise how all the artpieces have like single-term names that seem to instantly make it uber-cool? lol)

lost in thought.

(taken inside the round tower, which is one cool public space)

 

can i just like color? otherwise titled the death of black and white.

(artsy names don’t have to make sense – but if your picture is the dullest of things and well.. just pretty, then you better give it a whimsical, long and nonsensical name. picture shot in tivoli gardens, which is a really pretty amusement park that i mistakenly paid money to enter, thinking it was some beautiful fantasmical garden. -_-)

picture of a picture of a picture.

(ahh.. confuse people as much as possible with repetition. haha. anyways, i love this shot, which was part of an exhibition of journalistic photos in one of the squares in copenhagen. what a beautiful portrait photography)

can i just like color, part II.

(of course, we need to use revisit themes and stuff)

 ahh that was fun. back to being an engineer now i suppose. lol.

vinoforum 2012

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image courtesy here

it’s time to pop the corks and drink ourselves silly!

one fine way to find out about events around town is really to walk alot, and peer at the many billboards along the streets. and boy does rome have a plethora of events – i missed the night at the museum (night where museums opened till 2am for free) and rome tennis open. but i ain’t gonna miss this -

vinoforum 2012, from1 jun to 16 jun

seems like more than 500 companies carrying 2500 wine labels have decended in Rome, in a 10,000 square metres wine village for people to sample, drink and be merry. count me in! =) tickets go at sunday – thursday (16 euros), friday (20 euros) and saturday (25 euros), and includes a glass, pouch and free tasting of the wines offered in the Village. err, does that mean wines from ALL 500 COMPANIES?

opening hours are sun – thurs, 7pm – 12am (hur hur..) and fri – sat, 7pm – 1am (wonder where’s the club after). avoid mondays though since its reserved for those in the industry (elitist!). its at lungotevere maresciallo diaz, near stadio olimpico (wah.. how am i gonna get home like this?)

victoria li, you need to fly over. like now.

rome sight-seeing: MAXXI

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laundry day!

today was a company off-day because saturday is Republic Day, so yay to a long weekend! and what sweetened the pot was that I was completely clueless of it until thursday morning when one colleague asked whether i was going to capitalize on the long weekend to head off somewhere. one of the rules of happiness: if you don’t expect something good and it happens, you derive much more happiness. =) let’s all live with less expectations and consequently, more joyful experiences eh?

but well i didn’t plan anything fancy. just a trip down to the MAXXI, the museum of 21st century arts, which was a welcome change from seeing renaissance churches and ancient ruins. =) set far away from the maddening tourist crowd, MAXXI seems also slightly out of place in what is a really quiet, nondescript residential neighboring. but once you step in through the gates, you get a refreshing whiff of tasteful design and a beautiful exterior play space for kids to play and interact and for parents to lie back , bask in the sun and relax.

i love such a concept of a museum to be honest — to double up as a public space where the public can interact with exhibits and not treat “art” as merely something that is encased in a high security frame with ubiquitous “do not touch” signs. MAXXI exudes an air of friendly amicableness and lightness, which continues on inside the building, with ergonomic curves as the predominant architectural theme.

modern and sleek. i want those sofas in my house next time. haha

architecture aside, MAXXI showcases some really cool exhibits that makes you think. I think a part of the museum appeal is that you can go by yourself and not feel any bit lonely or ill-at-ease, because all the artworks are like friends wanting to talk to you and share their point of view. its an enriching experience indeed. my favourite exhibits would be doris salcedo’s plegaria muria and giorgio andreotta calò’s pitch black pinhole room.

plegaria muria (photo courtesy here)

both exhibits take up entire rooms and swallow the observer up within their art-spaces. plegaria muria is a sobering exhibit of multiple tables stacked on top of tables with soil in between and green grass growing from the top table, signifying the graves of the many “statistical” deaths in Columbia, in bid to restore some semblance of humanity to the lives, hopes and dreams lost. observers navigate through the haphazardly arranged tables, almost as though navigating through a maze, with the austerity of the design and just the repetition in pattern swallowing them into this art-space.

giorgio andreotta calo’s exhibit similar swallows the observer up, but this time in a completely black, dark room (unintentionally i guess), in order to create a gigantic pinhole camera (where the viewer is now inside the camera), projecting the scenery around the museum into this dark room, and using water below to create the righted-up image through reflection. it’s a truly immersive experience – its really pitch black initially and you have to grope at the railings the enter (guided by a guide) and there is a true ganzfeld sensation until u approach the main gallery and see the reflected image. to be honest, i initially thought the image was so drawing, and was astounded when it was explained to me that it was a actual picture of the scenery outdoors. pretty wild!

all in all, a fruitful day. enough to make cheewei (nate) ng seethe with jealousy i suppose. haha. =)

 

copenhagen: food glorious food!

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hot dawg.

to be honest, my impression of danish food wasn’t too good for a long while – associating the food with semi-raw herring and dry salmon. then came rene redzepi and noma, which piqued my interest as to what local danish food could offer. and boy, i was so willing to spend 400euro for a meal at the best restaurant in the world for 3 years running but alas, even with a two month advance notice, everything was booked up.

there must be quite a lot of foodies and/or rich people in the world eh?

well nevertheless, i was determined to have a taste of copenhagen’s food culture – and well, it wasn’t too difficult to do so actually at a fraction of noma’s price. copenhagen’s food culture seems to be one focused on appreciating what the environment has to offer and to put healthy, good food in your body. which to be honest, is a pretty darn good food philosophy to live by.

case in point: you don’t see much oily, fried foods around the area – most of those are accounted by kebab stores and greasy chinese take-out. copenhagen food seems to focus quite abit on the freshness of produce, having many fruits and vegetables to offer. even the seven eleven is stocked full with fruit smoothies, vitamin water and (healthy looking, protein filled) teriyaki chicken skewers.

so of course, one the cheapest and easily accessible food product is the hot dog, what with all the hot dog stands around. I recommend dop, easily found right next to the Round Tower which improves on the simple hot dog by using organic sausages on a sourdough linseed bun (see picture above). the result? a hot dog that is delicious and yet kinda healthy. kinda. the bread is crisp and sweet whilst the sausage hella juicy. yumm.

another  favourite is aaman‘s smorrebrod (open-faced sandwiches), which (once again) serves healthy-feeling, delicious open-faced sandwiches topped with a assortment of toppings. come here for lunch, by the way, cos they don’t serve the smorrebrod for dinner. the waitress (speaking perfect english and pretty, of course) recommended me getting two to three smorrebrods for lunch (which ain’t exactly cheap) and also recommended a really refreshing juice made of elderflower and lemon. i highly recommend the drink, to be honest, because it’s superbly refreshing and the elderflower is a fragrant, subtly sweet addition.

food wise, you have to get the sirloin beef, remoulade and fried onion rings (see right). the remoulade sauce is to die for, just the right amount of tanginess and sweetness and accents the beef perfectly. and well, you can’t go wrong with onion rings.

desserts anyone? try the delicious danish pastries from any local bakery, especially the snegle (snail), which is a gigantic cinnamon pastry with glaze on top. it’s really good and (need i say it?) yet again, it doesn’t ever get jelak make you feel guilty. it’s something in the air man… their coffees at cafes are surprisingly good as well (this coming from a guy living in Rome now)

for a more unhealthy, American option there’s Agnes cupcakes which is a really artfully designed, beautiful cafe with yummy, interesting looking cupcakes. i got the carrot cake cupcake one day, and a chocolate indulgence cupcake (see above) the next. and to be honest, this was the only meal i felt kinda guilty of and i could actually feel the sugar that i was ingesting down. tsk tsk.. Americans..

i want to return to Copenhagen. for noma. =(

dop | 52a kobmagergade, copenhagen | hot dogs

aamans | 10 oster farismagsgade, copenhagen | smorrebrod

agnes cupcakes | svaertegade 2, copenhagen | cupcakes

rome in focus: villa farnesina

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i’m so annoyed with my camera.

can someone please sponsor me a new camera? my current canon g10′s lens is scratched and introduces horrid light imperfections for certain shots. its really sad when you have that good shot but it is marred by splotches. -_-

anyways, that shot is the external view of villa farnesina, a renaissance surburban villa near trastevere that was built for Agostino Chigi, with parts decorated by Raphael. this attraction counts as one of the more low-key attractions but is actually one really cool, resplendently decorated villa that does transport you back to the renaissance era and sheds light on how the rich and famous in Rome lived.

the loggia of galatea, with Raphael’s galatea to the left

and extravagantly they did so.

my art history classes taught me that this was the era where the discovery of the ancient Domus Aurea (still closed currently due to drainage issues – sigh) brought about the trend of neo-classicism, with renaissance painters and sculptors all drawing inspirations from sculptures and architecture of Greco-Roman antiquity. and the rich and famous lapped it up like crazy — to have an ancient-Roman inspired villa was the “it thing” to have at that period, which explains the decoration within Villa Farnesina.

the loggia of cupid and psyche

beautiful frecoes depicting ancient Roman mythical Gods and creatures decorate entire walls and ceilings of the rooms, complete with tricky trompe-l’oeil architectural paintings. the effect is something really spectacular and makes you marvel at the artistry and attention to detail. in particular, the loggia of cupid and psyche literally extends the garden (seen from the floor-to-ceiling glass windows at one side of the room) right into the room with the frescoed vegetations on the ceiling. it’s a beautiful, startling effect. one can really imagine how awesome it would have been to have brunch in this loggia facing the garden and fountains. (ok my next restaurant shall be called the farnesina.. haha)

 the entire length of the ceiling in the loggia of cupid and psyche

  the loggia of galatea

the room of the marriage of alexander the great and roxana

this room, originally Agostino Chigi’s bedchamber, made me chuckle a bit. i mean, consider that the contents of the fresco is pretty much impish, playful puttis essentially nudging, pushing and stripping poor roxana toward our dear alex.

bedchamber, if i can remind you. it’s real cool how you can get a glimpse of the past, and realise that whatever the era, guys will still be guys.

Villa Farnesina is open Mon/Sat 9:00 – 5:00pm and Tue – Fri 10:00 – 2:00pm. this is the most updated information i have (end May 2012) and Frommer’s information is actually wrong (annoying because i was forced to wake up early on saturday cos i thought it closed at 1:00pm). It costs you 5euros (4 if you are a student) for a tour of the few rooms. Nice place, not as impressive as say, Villa Borghese or Sistine Chapel, but intimate, beautiful and weaves a beautiful story of the past.

bir&fud and the trastevere

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lost in the alleyways.

i’m taking a short break from blogging about copenhagen, and instead focusing on something a little closer to home (well at least for these few months, i’m ready to call it home).

people who haven’t been to Rome often associate Rome with majestic, masculine monoliths and beautiful buildings, as well as copious amounts of pizza and pasta.

what they don’t realize, is that getting to know Rome well enough to enjoy the above-mentioned pleasures is one helluva task. if cities like copenhagen could be compared to like a welcoming, cheery girl-next-door type of character, then rome is pretty much that haughty brunette girl that refuses all advances, plays it super cool and well gives you the impression that she’s much better than you.

part of the equation lies in knowing the language. another is that fact that I feel parts of Rome have been completely completely hollowed out by tourists — especially within the city walls, where the massive hoards of tourists have all but transformed Rome into a tourist-minded, culture-less and soul-less place at times. and it’s pretty sad to be honest. trastevere is often cited as a sad example of how a once Bohemian, chillax district across the Tiber was discovered by guidebooks as a great watering spot, and subsequently thronged by tourists and the ensuing peddlers and tourist-minded businesses.

true enough, whilst i was walking down to alleyways of trastevere, i couldn’t help but wince, looking at signs like “beer-pong for 10euro!” and cocktails like “manhattan, cosmopolitan” and the likes. it’s kinda.. sad?

grungy trastevere.

but well, all’s not lost. trastevere still holds alot of charms – be it the labyrinthine alleyways, graffiti art and really decent food offerings tucked among touristic ones. i went to one such place, called bir&fud, which i think kinda balances well the tourist effect and still maintains a little of their personality and food standards. servers here speak perfect english but you still see italians eating alongside with you. this place specializes in good pizza and regional artisanal beer. i tasted both offerings and well, methinks it pretty darn good at a decent price.

ok… detractors who wanna complain that a caprese salad pizza ain’t traditional are just splitting hairs. this pizza is different from the traditional roman fare, but its undeniably good and still retains alot of italian food sensibilities, that being that the ingredients really are top-quality and bring out the flavor of what can be considered a simple dish. the bread is soft and fluffy but still crisp (something like naan, to be honest) and forms the perfect base for the delicious olive oil, fresh tomatoes and awesome buffalo mozarella (you have to try buffalo mozarella in rome). what really makes the dish sing is the exquisite flavor from the olive oil and the buffalo mozarella.

awesome stuff.

for beer, i got myself an artisanal beer that was recommended by the server and tasted solidly good. and the damage all in all? 4 eur for the beer and 10 eur for the pizza which is not that bad to be honest. service was very pleasant partially because i went during lunch (and hence there were much fewer people) and because.. haha, perhaps i’m getting used to italian service (or lack thereof).

so yeah, come down to trastevere if you get bored of monuments and monoliths and just want some moments to get lost in the alleyways. nights here are packed with tourists and the place literally transforms into a grown-up’s college town filled with alot of buzz that’s somewhat charming as well, but afternoons are more laid back and the original trastevere soul reveals itself slightly.

bir&fud | via benedetta 23, 00153 Rome | pizza, artisanal beer

copenhagen: first thoughts

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“it’s something in the water.”

that was my friend’s final conclusion for our discussion on why the danish here were well, so perfect.

you see, it’s not just the exterior, though i’d admit it plays a significant role – from the well toned, fit physique of both the gals and the guys, the stylish, near effortless getups to the blonde hair, bright blue eyes and sparkling white teeth. seriously, 90210 could easily be shot here without bringing in any actors. what’s even more appealing is their laid-back attitude, their cheeriness towards life, their quickness to aid a hapless tourist and just.. the fact that they seem so darn right happy and contented!

i’m jealous.

and it’s not like immigrating here is a solution – in a certain sense, i feel like i’m trespassing into their happy-land with my ignorance of the cultural norms and language. i’m more jealous. i’m wistful – pondering the notion of whether singapore could somewhat be like this – laid back, chilled, happy, and not with all the venom, xenophobia and hatred being flung around online these days. =(

i didn’t stay long enough to nail the causes for their happiness but this is what i gleaned from a few days in happy-land.

(1) you don’t need to rush through life. relax. wait for the lights to turn green before moving. don’t horn at the old lady crossing the road or at a bewildered tourist. there’s time.

(2) eat healthy, drink healthy and glow. i seriously am awestruck by how healthy these people eat — i mean stripping away the touristy shwarma joints and pizza places, people here seriously eat platefuls of salads paired with salmon, seared tuna or some protein variant, and drink vitamin water or elderberry juice. (ok fine, there’s beer too. and yeah i know it’s a bit of an exaggeration – but the proportion of salad eaters is quite startling) and indeed, copenhagen has a f&b infrastructure that reflects this healthy trend – i see tons of fruit juice bars selling  delicious, freshly squeezed juices (exorbitantly priced though) and i also noticed that their 7-eleven stocks protein shakes, protein bars, a whole array of vitamin drinks and fruit smoothies. i mean.. wow.

(3) ride a bike. my tour guide mentioned that this was probably the reason why even the average dude seemed so fit – everyone, from the girls with long flowery skirts to men in executive attire travel around by cycling – in fact, you’re more likely to get into an accident with a bicyclist than a car!

(4) take care of one another. this was reiterated many times by my tour guide – the danish believe in strong social and familial ties and bonds — this translates to massive taxes in order to provide for a near-perfect welfare system. the thing is, such a scheme will work only if everyone believes in such bonds, and selfishness is not rampant – cos you just need an accumulation of people gaming such a system before others get tired and annoyed. so… double wow.

conclusion? “it’s not just the water. but it’s happy-land here fer sure.”

bicycles are everywhere.

clean, pristine parks that invite you to slow down and relax in the sun.

cheery blue skies

a day in the life of

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waiting to go home.

i’ve been massively busy the past few days just getting back to terms with work, my italian studies and just settling daily life issues. which explains this post coming out at 1:23am i suppose. haha, but i guess the photography is fun, and i kinda feel committed to keep this blog chugging along even when i’m overseas.

one thing awesome about being overseas, is really the range of stuff that you get to see and experience, especially if you are willing to be decidedly untouristy about matters. i mean like ditching tour-buses, shunning crowded, touristy choked places and just walking off the beaten path, trying a variety of food and other stuff.  if there’s one industry i want to go into, it’ll be to set up a tour agency that creates un-touristy itineraries for the new-aged travellers. you heard it here first — business partners please come. =)

and yeah photography to me, is one way to capture the essence of the culture and vibes of the place, and hence it is very dear to me. =) now, speaking of the culture of copenhagen, i could simply snap alot of really good looking, blonde-hair, blue eyed girls and their equally perfect, muscled, low-key fashionable guy friends but ermm, i’m too hum-chee (afraid) to do such direct shots and well.. i don’t wanna be accused of as a stalked or whatevs.

but goodness. if you wonder why people here in these scandinavian countries are so darn happy and chillax, well, i offer the reason that they got pretty much the best draw from the gene lottery. it’s as though ugly danish is as rare as a black swan. (ok weak, geeky joke, pardon me)

nevertheless, as i was reviewing my photos, i realised i did take shots of the danish going about their daily lives and well, here they are:-

otherwise titled, copenhagen photoseries (1) – people shots

the hangover.

quayside.

pedal power.

fun in the sun.

 more coming soon.

the copenhagen marathon experience

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to be honest, you can’t really see scenery through the pain. lol

i’m back in Rome now after spending my past weekend gallivanting around Copenhagen and literally running a Jericho-like ring round the city for the 42.195km Copenhagen marathon.

why the idea of a marathon, you might ask? well, the Rome Marathon was held in March and from a viewer’s perspective, having the opportunity to run around a beautiful city and acquaint yourself with every nook and cranny in a short time seemed like plenty of fun. and plus, yeah, there’s a little bit of bragging rights involved in nonchalantly commenting -

“ah yes.. copenhagen.. i ran a marathon there.”

 just sayin’

but.. to be utterly honest, there was too much pain for me to enjoy the scenery especially in the later half of the marathon. it was more an “omg.. are we there yet?” kinda sensation at every turn of the street. i made a few mistakes in my preparation for the marathon – one was obviously not preparing enough – having barely hit 18km for my longest run.

the other, more critical rookie mistake, was really to feel utterly strong and superb for the first 20km of the race and really run at a pretty fast pace. i had started at the back of the pack since I had no clue (no goals in fact — i just wanted to finish) what sort of timing I was supposed to be looking at. so yeah, i started right behind the 5.00hr pacer group and initially felt the pace being too slow for my normal run-pace. so i sped up, started overtaking the pacer groups – 4:50, 4:40, 4:30 and even caught sight of 4:20 at around the 16km mark.

but that was when things started spiraling out of my control – my legs simply starting cramping at all possible places and really hurt. really. stretching helped initially — stretching my quads helped loosen them sufficient for another km or two, but after awhile that stretching led to more cramps at other areas. lol. it was like i was discovering new muscles of the lower half of my body and having them introduce themselves to me by cramping. -_-

i think my refuelling plan worked out – tons of powerade and fruit to replenish the energy – to the point where the top half of my body was perfectly fine and raring to go, but my lower half felt like a long drawn out seppuku.

but somehow, through the envisioning of my cute niece kaykayla cheering me on, through listening to my church cd tracks from my itunes (very apt lyrics at times) and through using each song within my itunes to motivate myself to run for reasons linked to that period of time (though i couldn’t find any period of my life to link with britney songs and slowed down during her tracks) , i finally finished with a timing of 4hr 52min. =) don’t ask whether i’m gonna consider another marathon for now.

i’m just very glad it’s over.

copenhagen pics and food coming up shortly, but as a sampling, here goes -

       aamans open-faced sandwich – the remoulade sauce on the beef was to die for.

balsamic-garlic mushroom chicken

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i’m getting quite proud of myself.

to be honest, cooking for myself is turning out to be quite the joy, considering that most meals are actually pretty decent and most of my improvisations have actually worked without the taste becoming too odd, piquant or something of that sort. somehow the ingredients here and this kitchen seem to sing to me. i think i’ll be getting more ambitious soon. =)

anyways, this dish is the typical last-minute i-need-to-clear-all-the-food-stuff-from-my-fridge” dish, which is made kind of a difficult task when my kitchen isn’t exactly well stocked – i lack flour, many sauces, bread crumbs and the likes, so alot of recipes couldn’t work. furthermore, i don’t have an oven where i can just chuck some meats and vegetables in and wait for something magickal to occur (that was my default action plan in my kitchen in US).

so it was time to improvise, and i did a balsami-garlic mushroom chicken from this recipe.

ingredients – chicken: 4 x chicken fillet, marinated briefly (10 minutes) in pepper, soya sauce and olive oil

sauce: 3 cloves of garlic, 1/2 a bowl of chicken stock (to be honest, the recipe mentioned 1/2 a cup.. and i honestly don’t know what half a cup is, so what i did was to use the myojo chicken stock thingy and make my own chicken stock, which amounted to roughly 1/2 a bowl), some balsamic vinegar (to be honest, i just squeezed in an amount i felt was ok..) and some lemon juice, followed by a plate of porcini mushrooms

as you can see, ingredient amounts don’t mean anything to me, cos half the time i don’t understand them, and the other half of the time, my ingredients are not exactly the same/i forget etc.. so to be honest, every single dish that turns out right.. is kind of a “praise God” moment. =)

anyways, this dish is really simple and tastes pretty good!

first pan fry the chicken with some olive oil and butter till the both sides get golden-ish (something like teppanyaki eh?), cut through the thickest piece to see if it is fully cooked then take off heat. the good thing about fillets as that somehow the time taken to get it browned is roughly the time the entire piece gets cooked, since it is sliced quite thinly.

next for the sauce, use the pan with the remnant oil and dump in the rest of the ingredients to make the sauce. hmm, my sauce didn’t exactly thicken and i question whether flour is needed to do so (anyone knows?) but nevertheless when the mushrooms looked cooked (the mushrooms went in last), and the sauce was kinda diminishing due to evaporation, i took it off the heat and drenched the chicken fillets with the sauce.

yummy stuff. yay!