From top to bottom: Rifle Paper x BHLDN's Botanical Garden Tablecloth,
Ferm Living Spear Tray, Sanna Annukka Mummola Silk Screen Print

Besides all the main meals, we visited one dessert place after our lunch which was really nice so I’d like to introduce to you, Passion 5. There’s Gelato, bread, cakes, chocolate, jam, pasta, lovely drinks. Purchase your cakes on ground floor, then go upstairs to enjoy your cakes/pastry with a cup of their beautiful drinks. How can you not love this place.

These are what we tried. My favorite ones from below four is the mandarin orange, I liked it so much I bought their jam of the same flavor so now I can also enjoy it at home.

Their version of Japanese cheesecake is a lot richer which I love, but the texture is a lot lighter than New York cheesecake.

Oh this one is good, the puff and ice cream, I only had the one with raspberry gelato in it and it was divine!

This is mille feuille, well, it doesn’t really have the layers, but is delicious, as I like the raspberry gelato so much, I picked that portion in this piece. Also tried the grapefruit, lovely I tell you!

If you still haven’t had enough, like me, bring some home with you. I chose the mocha and chocolate cake (just right next to the rounded pink cake in the picture). The cake was nice, the layer in the middle is like a layer of chocolate, which I think the chocolate one tasted better as the mocha chocolate was a little too sweet for me.

Where is it located?
Seoul-si Yongsan-gu Hannam-dong 729-74

It’s kinda hidden, so look for this red chick installation at their entrance :)

For more information, visit Korea Tourism Org

Ingredients include egg yolks, orange, lemon, sugar, a pinch of salt and that’s it. Simple, isn’t it?

Mix the egg yolks, sugar, orange zest and a pinch of salt together in a pan off the heat (I’m doubling the serving here as I wanted to give this out to friends as well).

Mix in the rest of the ingredients and start whisking on medium high heat, keep whisking until it’s thick enough to stick on your spatular and bubbles form around the edge of pan. I taste tested at this moment and it was way too sweet for me, so I added in another half cup of lemon juice (so basically double the recipe’s serving of lemon juice).

Sieve it and you’re done.

The outcome of the curd, I think I had too much lemon juice so the orange flavor is not as strong as I wish it would be. Next time, I will add in much less sugar, and instead of doubling the amount of lemon juice, I’ll have 1/8 cup of extra lemon juice and another half cup of orange juice for every serving in the recipe maybe, and just zest all those oranges you used as it adds that really lovely aroma and special flavor to your curd.

Package it nicely and you have a really nice gift for your friends, I’m thinking it’ll be great in smaller jars as wedding favors too.

Pros of making this, it’s quite yummy after you altered the recipe to your liking, plus your room will be filled with the sweet, fresh orange aroma. Cons, as in making any jam/curd, is to wash the sieve after you are done, those super fine holes are just a pain in the butt. Well, no pain, no gain, right?

Here’s my measurements for orange curd
1/2 cup granulated sugar
8 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons orange zest
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup lemon juice
Fine salt

Go here for the original orange curd recipe. So you are thinking, what to do with all the remaining egg white? You can make meringues to go with the curd as the recipe suggested, but I’m going to make macaroons! Stay tuned for the review next week.

And wouldn’t the above cookware go perfectly with these set of cups & wooden saucer by Höganäs Keramik. Oh how I love Scandinavian designs!

Other products I’m luring

Clockwise from top left: 
TOMTOM Shiny Rose Gold Pyramid Nova Ring, Kauniste's "Sokeri" fabric,
Wind and Willow Hone's Wooden Mini Bowls, West Elm's Swiss Dot Duvet Cover

Izukogen 伊豆高原

Stay:
Izukogen Hanafubuki Ryokan

We LOVE this hotel! Enjoy all their different Onzen available. When you entered their Onzen, lock the door and the Onzen room becomes private, they do not have a bathroom in your room, so you have to go to their Onzen for bath/shower. It feels very authentic.

Room charges does not include dinner, but their food is so good that it worth the extra money, both dinner & breakfast. We tried both their original dinner and their lobster set, the only difference of the two sets is the extra lobster and shark fin which we think was not that impressive, especially I am opposed to eating shark fin. All the other food were amazing though, I love its chewy tofu thing and also the cherry blossom Aji. www.hanafubuki.co.jp/e/index.html

Map of the hotel and staff showing us around as all the buildings are hidden in the woods

Chewy traditional Japanese-styled tofu

Cherry blossom Aji

Our breakfast – 9 assorted dish with congee

Our breakfast – Grilled Aji with rice (this is divine!!). I fell in love with this Aji fish after this trip.

Places we went:

A cat museum that we saw a sign along the way. There wasn’t much to do on a rainy day, so we went checking it out without knowing what it’s about. This museum includes a section with  dead wild cats, a section with cats character (hello kitty included), and also real cats, which was a fun thing to do/kill time with.

There are some shops around the hotel, including a teddy bear museum (we didn’t go in, but we shopped there) www.teddynet.co.jp

The next day we went to a cherry blossom festival which is only available during the period when cherry blossoms. And thank goodness the sun finally came out for us. This fair is only about 5 minutes walk from the train station, so it should be easy to spot.

Lunch next to the fair, I LOVE STREET FOODS!

Just had a dinner party past weekend and I was thinking to make a salad dressing from scratch instead of buying bottles of sauces for a change. I found this Roquefort Pear Salad from All Recipes, and it was DELICIOUS! It has everything I love, pear, avocado, blue cheese. I substituted pecan with honey glazed walnut (to save time making caramelized pecans and it tastes just as good).

Ingredients making the sauce is simple, red wine vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, I used honey dijon as the prepared mustard suggested in the recipe, sugar (I used brown sugar just because that’s the type of sugar I always use to replace white sugar), garlic, salt & pepper. Go here for measurements.

Combine all ingredients and whisk them to form the dressing.

This is what the dressing should look like, the mustard helped to combine the oil and vinegar so it forms a dressing and the oil will not be floating on top, so you NEED some kind of mustard to make this happen. Then add your desired amount of pear, avocado, blue cheese and honey glazed walnut. I used romaine lettuce, but I’m sure you can use any greens to your liking.

The final dish. So easy, so yum, the walnut adding a bit of color and sweetness to the greens.

This has become my new favorite salad, I’m sure I’ll be making it again soon!

via oh, hello, friend