Photo Diary: Regent's Park

Hello! 

It's been a while since I've done one of these, and as today was such a lovely day, I had to go to Regent's Park for a walk and to feed the birds.

Song of the day: Talk That by Secret (I recently discovered Secret and love them~)

Regent's Park is one of the royal parks of London. It was designed in 1811 by John Nash and is 410 acres in size~ too big to see in one visit. It encompasses London Zoo, a boating lake, and as well as being next to Primrose Hill, it is about three minutes away from where I live, making it a very convenient place for me to visit!

Prepare yourself for some epic picspam! (✿◠‿◠)

First sighting of the park!

You can see the remnants of snowmen...how sad... :'(

It doesn't look like winter, does it?

I saw so many people today enjoying the rare sunshine.

This is the lake where I feed the birds whenever I come here.

The last time I was here (a week ago!) it was covered in snow and ice.

I love how graceful swans are.

This looks kinda prehistoric, like something from Walking With Dinosaurs.

Do you see the pillars in the middle of this building?
I was told that that is one of the most expensive houses in London!

I got excited because I don't normally see herons!

They started fighting with each other for my bread... :(

I love this scene from Clarence Bridge.

There was a mother and child feeding the birds and they looked so cute!

From an exhibition I went to later on in the day!

I hope you enjoyed these pictures, and I will definitely endeavour to upload more photo diaries in the future! Watch out for more segments of Regent's Park, including a snowy diary hehe! ｡◕‿◕｡

Yishi xxx

[絕對達令] Absolute Boyfriend~!!

Hello! :3

I've recently become addicted to Jue Dui Darling, the 2012 Taiwanese drama adaptation of the Absolute Boyfriend manga by Yuu Watase! 

I love love love this show! It stars two idols that I adore: the Taiwanese singer Jiro Wang, and the Korean actress Koo Hye Sun from another show I love called Boys Before Flowers (although her voice is dubbed because she is not fluent in Mando). Multi-cultural indeed.

Jue Dui Darling is about a young working professional girl called Xiaofei, who, fed up of being rejected by guys all the time, whimsically orders an online boyfriend from a shady company called Cronos but doesn't actually believe what the writing on the package says. Much to her shock, the next day he is delivered in a pod. She activates him, and learns that he is a robot that has been calibrated to be her perfect boyfriend and that he is free for a trial period of two days. She's like, what the hell and takes him out, happy to receive so much attention. Unfortunately, she forgets to return him within the two days and therefore is forced to buy him - at a price that she will never be able to afford. Dundundun...!

At the moment, I have finished episode 4 out of 13 and am looking forward to much much more~~

The theme song is called Mr. Perfect, and it is by Fahrenheit. Isn't it catchy?

This is my current deskie background, hehe! >:3

What I really like about this show is that firstly, it's in Mandarin which means that I can actually follow it (and improve my Mando skills hehe), secondly, the acting is completely and utterly overdramatic - just how I like my Asian dramas to be, and thirdly, it's about a perfect boyfriend...what more can you want? My housemates have criticised this concept, saying that it's building up unrealistic expectations, which...is true...but hey, a girl can dream, no? ^_^

Yishi xxx

Recipe for Lotus Patties [藕]

Hello everyone!! 

Every year at Christmas, my family and I go to a friend's house for dinner and we are served a delicious array of food, one of my favourite dishes being their lovely lotus patties. I never managed to get the recipe, but after enjoying their food for many many years now, I decided to try to make my own version.

Song of the day: Face by NU'EST came across this the other day and I can't stop listening to it now!

For those of you that are unfamiliar with lotus roots, this is what they look like:

Source!
(one point to be aware of is that the roots need to be carefully washed and prepared since the root could harbour nasty parasites)

Not only do they look pretty, they are crunchy, taste sweet too and also have loads of health benefits, such as being full of vitamin C, being able to lower fevers, and can be brewed with hot water to make a tea for coughs and respiratory problems. What more could you want?

So, to start off this new year, I thought I'd tell you how to make Yishi lotus patties! :)

You will need:

This!

A few lotus roots
One pack of pork mince
Soy sauce
Sesame oil
White wine vinegar
A chopped spring onion
A few eggs
Corn flour
Salt/pepper to season 

What to do: 

1. Wash and peel the lotus root, before chopping it into thin slices. 

2. Mix the mince with four tablespoons of soy sauce, a tablespoon of sesame oil, a tablespoon of white wine vinegar and a chopped spring onion.

3. Form the mince into little patties and sandwich them between slices of lotus root, like a burger. 

 

4. Make a batter out of whisked eggs, cornflour and black pepper. Dip the pattie into the batter, making sure to coat everything! 

 

5. Either deep dry the patties, or you can fry them with less oil but on a lower heat, turning them over frequently. They should take around 8-10 minutes to pan fry but you can test them by cutting one on half to see if the meat has cooked.

Voila!

I ate mine with some veggies that my housemate made, and they tasted delicious! This was the first time that I'd tried to make the patties so I'm really happy that they turned out so well, given that I was making up the recipe too (based on a lot of comparative Googling hehe).

I hope you enjoy this recipe, and let me know if you have any suggestions to improve it! :)

Yishi xxx

Happy New Year!!

Hey everyone!

I hope your new year was passed in style! This is the first time I spent New Year's Eve with friends instead of family - usually, I'm at a dinner party with family friends. Anyway, in my last post, I didn't review the resolutions I set myself for 2012, so I'll do a quick rundown here:

♥ Graduate with a 2.1

    - Achieved!

♥ Decide what I want to do with my life: score a job/get a vocational qualification/teach English abroad?

    - None of the above, eeek. If you could've told me that in a year's time I would be doing a PhD I would've laughed in your face, because in my own bittersweet words, "everyone knows how much I love chemistry". At that point in time, I wanted nothing more than to quit, that's how badly my year was going!

♥ Get some commercial awareness

    - Failed. I didn't even try this time.

♥ Become a better swimmer and master the front crawl

    - Failed. I think I went swimming once in 2012... :'(

♥ Continue with gym and try to lose body fat

    - Failed. I went to the gym a few times, but now that I'm at UCL I have to pay for gym which is a bit off-putting, oh well~

♥ Fix my skin so that it is not so dry

    - Still a work in progress, so 50%.

♥ Improve my foreign language skills laaaah~

    - Failed after a few months, I'm pretty disappointed that I didn't keep this one going but my degree was more important at the time.

♥ Learn how to cook ten new dishes to perfection

    - Congee, udon soup, miso soup, chicken Thai green curry, beef hotpot, potato and leek soup, kimchi fried rice, kimchi stew so 8/10... >_<:;

♥ Find a new style for myself

    - Erm, I'm still not sure what my style is to be honest.

♥ And live each day as if it is my last, with no regrets!

    - Kind of a silly one hehe.

Oh dear, I didn't complete many, did I? Well, here's to a fresh new start in 2013 and a fresh new (mostly) set of resolutions:

♥ Get published in academia.

♥ Go to yoga at least once a week.

♥ Explore London!

♥ Take up dancing classes.

♥ Learn to cook ten new dishes.

♥ Regain my level of fluency in Chinese.

♥ Finish writing one novel!

♥ Draw five new pictures.

♥ Make more effort to keep in contact with people, (write letters)!

♥ No more boys.

May your year be prosperous and filled with joy! :)

Yishi x