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Day & Night in Manama

By day: Kite flying by the Sh. Isa bin Salman Bridge. Memories of the past in the desert with our crazy kites. Glad to see it's still happening, brings families together during the weekend.

By night: Al Fateh Mosque and the Isa Cultural Center and National Library in Manama. A sparkling monument by night.

Excuse the pictures, they aren't clear because I was in the car :)

Laduree's Charms

What a charming way to begin the new year with laduree's charms..Can't wait for you to open (sigh!) Lovely sweet treats from the creators of the delectable macaroons from the Parisian patisserie.
Available at Harrods and laduree..coming soon at Moda Mall in Bahrain World Trade Center :)



via Vogue

A fresh start

Start fresh with the new year..Happy New Year!

via evian( JPG 2009 Limited Edition bottle ), and me (hermes wish-list 2009- not telling! ;) )

Enchanting Log of Christmas

Each Christmas, Lenôtre entrusts his log " star" with a new creator. After previous designs from Philippe Starck, Nathalie Rykiel, Karl Lagerfeld, this year it is the elegant fashion designer Hubert de Givenchy who seized his pencils for the vintage 2008. After many drawings for a high-seam collection, and with the help of creative director of Lenôtre Guy Krenzer, they created a splendid and delicious composition framed by two heads of pailletté gold sugar male deers, worthy of the universal favorite film " The Beautiful one and Bête" of Jean Cocteau. From the bottom lies a crusty feuilletine, then a consistent crémeux with the cocoa of Tanzania and a fine biscuit chocolate.. with a sip of tea it makes this a perfect treat.

"A log of enchantment, all in light for a single Christmas!"

bon appetit!

I miss ..

High tea & High fashion in London..

Prét-â-Portea afternoon tea at The Berkeley..

bliss (sigh..)

Cupcake treat

Its Friday.. its the weekend..and I definitely deserve some treat after exhausting workouts during the weekdays :P..Sooo ..Have a CUPCAKE! oh and most importantly, a cup of tea after :) bon appetit!

*made by moi..

Fun ways to drink your cuppa

Someone once told me how there are so many fun ways of drinking your morning cuppa, one part of this experience comes from the mug or teacup that we drink from..She has shown me some interesting ways for making your coffee drinking or tea drinking more pleasurable :) Thanks t! :)

Pic 1: Kill time BANG BANG! Link
Pic 2: Heat-sensitive pigment on the mug..Pour the hot drink, it turns ON..when cold its OFF Link
Pic 3: A dunk mug..A mug with a hidden compartment to store some cookies with your hot coco Link
Pic 4: Handespresso, your portable no-electricity needed, espresso machine in your hand..no need to be a barista for this. Link
Pic 5: Attach your tea bag with this button, and there's no need for any handles because of the double-layered cup. Link

Food and Pure Enjoyment

When it has a profound effect on you ..
It has always been a part of me and always will..When I enjoy the presence of all the family together and it is so special, I stop and thank God how grateful I am to belong in this family..and hopefully you all do too. In this case, one of the enjoyments I get from being with the family almost always revolves around the dining table, when we're together sitting and eating, surrounded by good food, especially more if at least one of us has made a dish or two..so I want to share this feeling with you ..

From the beginning to the end of the meal:
Prepare the menu ..Now prepare the ingredients for your meal: touch, taste, smell, look, and listen..is it right? Is everything there? if so, proceed .. techniques you're going to use for the meal..chop, slice, dice, mash, what is needed.. then cook (it could be left out if no cooking is required)..so what? grill, saute, stir-fry, what you have to do..then put it on a dish, arrange, decorate, get it ready to be served..now serve.. put food in plate..looks good? if so, so far so good..now the final test..taste, feel, smell, look, touch, and listen..have you gone so far as of making a good tasty meal? Look at the people with you..are they liking what they're eating? What was presented to them? Gut Instinct.. Now by the end of the meal after dessert, the tea leaves have been steeped, it is ready to be served, now serve on a teacup, sit back while holding it in your hand look at those around you..
Are they happy living in this long moment of enjoyment around food with eachothers company? Happiness, Family, Together, Laughter? Yes?..Now you know that you have been living in the moment, a moment of Pure Enjoyment that cannot be described in words but with emotions..Enjoy bon appetit :)

Photos courtesy of Steve Brown and Mark Roper

Lending a helping hand

While sipping my morning cup of chai 7alib (milk tea), i got an email from my good friend Ko who had something that touched me when I first read it. First off, even though this blog is all about artsy stuff and whats in and relevant to the audience, I'm also a person who loves it when locals create beautiful unusual things..its when you see the hope in their eyes, authenticity, quality and uniqueness in their products that really gets to me.

From this I would like to point out what Mrs. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy did as part of her first official overseas visit to Khayelitsha, South Africa back in February. She was presented with a Township® bag made out of hessian and cotton from her visit to Zenzele training and development center (a women's sewing cooperative). The bag has colors of yellow, red, blue, green, white and black, that symbolizes this country. Available now and as a limited edition numbered from 2 to 421, this township® bag is an accessory that is not only an ethical choice but is right on trend. Proceeds of this sale will go towards financing a new sewing center creating meaningful and sustainable employment for 10 previously disadvantaged women.

For more info, contact info@township.co.za

Its Raining on a Sunday

Smile on a Rainy Day
Sing on a Rainy Day
Laugh on a Rainy Day
Cry on a Rainy Day
Dance on a Rainy Day
Love on a Rainy Day
Play on a Rainy Day

;)

Culinary Adventures

Being a gourmand foodie, I have to note some of the most interesting yet weird to bizarre places to dine around the world..For the fun of it.

1. Passionate about apples at Pomze, Paris. A gourmet restaurant devoted to apples! created by Daniel and Emmanuel Dayan. With more than 120 varieties, this innovative cuisine adds flavor to all its menu items by bringing out the best in apples. Treat yourself on the likes of gazpacho soup with granny smith juice ice cubes, or the swordfish skewer with grilled veg, with a light red apple curry sauce.

2. How about a chance to dine uh..blind?! Dans Le Noir offers just that. Made to increase awareness of the blind, you get surprise menus that come in four colors and themes: white for normal, red for no seafood, blue for no meat, and green for vegetarian. In other venues, you are being served by the blind.
3. For those of you who know Heston Blumenthal’s Fat Duck and Chef Ferran Adrià’s El Bulli, where food takes the form of weird science experiments: foams, liquid nitrogen, even an ultrasonic mixing technique used to create unique emulsions. The Clinic in Singapore has taken a bizarre step further. Designed like a hospital, the chefs “operate” on gourmet oddities in an open demo kitchen under the glow of operating room lights! Food is served on stainless steel surgical tables, and diners are seated in gleaming gold-plated wheelchairs.


4. One of the most difficult places to reserve a table is Fortezza Medicea. Why? that’s because, in addition to serving fluffy gnocchi and robust Chiantis, most chefs, waiters, and sommeliers are also serving 25 to life! Launched in 2006 in a 500-year-old prison outside Pisa, Fortezza Medicea is a kind of social experiment: can a restaurant staffed by some of Italy’s most hardened criminals provide viable job training? How about being served in a big room filled with plain benches, guards (no really) survey the crowd. Oh yea..NO CELLPHONES! and you have to eat with plastic cutlery..worth it?! Um..to me..maybe for the scary fun of it maybe not for the sake of my life!

Mini bonbons

Nice view, romanticness "love", hip laduree bar at champs elysees, cafe au lait, and iced macaroons with rose icecream .. Mini bonbons of pure happiness ;)

Relaaaaaxx..

Eid is almost here!!...The hassle of preparing for it couldn't be more excruciating for some..
Now's time to get yourselves ready, facials, manicures, pedicures, massages, last-minute eid clothing shopping!, etc..and last but not least, panic the day before with fusses about hair, makeup, clothes being ready, accessories ready etc.. How do you treat your week before?

I say relaaaaaaxxxx.....