Unidentified Climber from Bogor

New botanical illustration finished.  It is a beautiful monster I saw in Bogor garden.  Unidentified, if you know what it is called, let me know.

X'mas sweet things

European chocolate and candies, Green Tea Cake and Yspahan with rose and litchi and raspberry.

new shirts made!

These are the new shirts made in HK by the studio of my Dad's friend who has a tailor firm.

The fabrics are from Kyoto by a designer firm called Koha.  Wisteria with butterflies and Chrysanthemum.  I will wear normal pants with the the shirts at the convention next year in Indonesia but with the wisteria translucent, I think a light batik will be fine but with more pastel colours.

Merry Christmas came early

Thank you my friend Monika who sent me all the goodies from Germany.  I am so happy!  I will savory them slowly leading up to Christmas and I will share all the detail photos of each item soon.

Sweets to de-stress

Here are some goodies from French Made Baking and Chiffon Patisseries:

Lemon Meringue Pie, Pistachio Crumble, Hazelnut Tart, Chocolate Cake and Reindeer Macaron.

wagashi winter

Here is another of Toraya's beautiful creation.  The Oak Tree from Genji Monogatari Incense collection.  This is wagashi at its fineness.

Sweet things to de-stress!

These are the wonderful items from French Made Baking in Vancouver.  Raspberry Mouse with litchi, candy cane macarons, Fruit mouse with pineapple, violet macarons, and caramel eclair.

So good!

another perfume

I got this one today called Drama Nuui.  It is from Parfumerie Generale.  Bitter jasminade with a fusion of absinthe highlights.  Allegory of dawn, o floral temptation of tragic fragility.  Sensual stickiness of wood infused with spices... A spell arousing a libertine musk.

Tea Time Treats

This is the perfect eclair!  The french style.  Inside is filled with chocolate mousse and outside is not just dark chocolate but a beautifully done glossy layer of glace only french chef can do.
Then also the Italian nougets, so nice and soft and full of nuts and fruits.  I love the tin with chocolate chips cookies inside.  The design of the tin is so pretty.

Vietnamese shrimp cake

This is the deep-fried shrimp cake I love.  Inside is filled with green beans and carrots. 

wayang dancer custom from old print

new painting of wayang dancer

This is the character Jatayu.  I like the blue colour costume with Garuda symbol. 

Pelabuhan Ratu

There is a beautiful temple at Pelabuhan Ratu of south coast of West Java.  Here, the temple is kind of a thai style with Naga decorated staircases and other buddhist statues.  But as it is located at the south coast of Java, there they also worship Nyai Ratu Kidul, the Goddess of the Southern Sea.  I am painting a picture of the scene.  This is not finish yet.  But in Nov. I will work on my Botanical Illustration first and try to get it done.

nice shirts

more candies for halloween

I got a few design of the paper napkins for high tea.  They are printed with design of flower, seashell or peacock, with vivid colours.

Gua Langse

This is the dramatization of the visit to Gua Langse of Parangtritis of Central Java at the coast of South Indian Ocean. 

characters

Here are the cute little tins I bought full of little candies.  Hot cinnamon, green apple and watermelon sours, mint and blue rapsberry sours.

Green Dream

This costume is modelled after Ashura statue of Koufukuji in Nara, Japan.  I painted an image based on Yamagishi Ryoko's rendition in manga of Ashura before.  And now, this is the second image but just with normal 2 arms.  The costume is of Indian origin.  But the crown is Indonesian.  I imagined this follower came from the Southern Sea.  He is one of the followers of Nyai Ratu Kidul.

more candies!

I got more French and Italian candies!
There are blood orange jelly drops, rose candies, blackberry and pear covered in chocolate, chocolate rose creams, cinnamon hot mints in the hallo kiddy devil tin, sour apple mints in keropi tin, mints in mustache tin, gummy cars, poppy candies and pink confection praline almonds. Mont St. Michel cookies, and many fruit gummies and candies!
The store I got it from is called Grenadine and Co. in Kitsilano, so much fun in there.

fall plants

There is Merremia sibirica in bloom and then Akebia quinata "rosea" in fruit.  Today is cold with only about 12 to 15 degrees during the day and about 7 degrees at night, but cloudy with a little bit of sun.

European candies

I found in town a candy shop which sells french and italian candies.  I bought a lot!  The store is such a gem ran by 2 french gentlemen.  I found so many violet candies, unique chocolate bars and many treats great as gift items or self indulgence.
Here are some of what I bought.

carnival in Cirebon, Java

Here is a video from youtube about the parade in Cirebon city.  I love to be there at that time.  The chariots are so nice and regal.  The dancers are fun too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_eTcoG_lcc&feature=related

new painting of a Sunda Priest

A very early Kingdom exists in West Java near the present day Bogor called Pajajaran.  I reconstructed the costume based on the currently revived batik from Bogor and some old documents and artifacts found near Bogor.

more tea

Kusmi Tea from France.  Kusmi Tea founded by a Russian family before the Revolution in Russia.  I love the tea called Anastasia with lime, bergamont and orange blossom.  Violet is very mild and smooth.

Vietnamese moon cakes

Here they are:  really good!

Wagashi Fall 2012 1st

The weather is definitely cooling down.  It is only 12 degrees in the early morning... noon is still climbing to about 20 degrees but cooler for sure and I am sad to announce that Summer is over!
Here is the beautiful wagashi from Toraya.  Oshimono called Fall Leaves Celebration from Genji Kou Collection.

Then there is Unpei from Yamamoto Wagashi of Kyoto, near Kiyomizudera.  This leaf like confection has an elegant taste and called Rakuraku.

new painting

I am sketching a new painting of ancient costume of the Majapahit Kingdom of Java.  The look of the costume is very closed to Indian as Majapahit is an ancient Hindu Kingdom.  I need to get more books on the subject from UBC to look up the jewellery and clothes being worn then.

High Tea at my place

I held a high tea at my house today.  It is a long weekend holiday but I was busy working and so there was little time to prepare anything.  I went to Urban Tea Merchant to get the TWG macarons and then next store to Thierry's to get more macarons, nougets, french Madeleine, Pistachio tea cake etc.  I also brought in the chocolate bombs that I made: blue Curacao and Passionfruit.  We have some Vietnamese spring roll and french bean salad to start along with Hawaiian cocktail punch.  Then the sweets are accompanied by Lily of the Valley White Tea from Mariage Freres of France, and Soursop Black Tea from NY.  TWG macarons are so good, perfect in texture and generous with the fillings of ganache.  Thierry's macarons are more soft in the inside with the buttercream fillings.
Then we also have Japanese tea ceremony of matcha with dried confections of rakugan.

High Tea

Today, in the afternoon, I have high tea with my friend Betty.  We went to Kerridale and found a place called Adonia Tea.  It looks like a small boutique shop with small tables and tiny chairs but nicely decorated like an English tea room.
The menu is quite good with value for money compared to the other tea house in town.  We ordered each a mini afternoon tea set which includes a pot of tea each and 7 mini savories / sweets each.  I ordered a Litchi flavoured white tea with peony flower.  My friend has a tropical fruit white tea with a coconut accent.
The tea is good but initially wrong serving method.  It is bad to have tea leaves left in the pot after the steeping time, no matter how much more water the server offered to top up time after time.  It is simply not good.  For fruit infusion, maybe it is great, but for green, black and white tea, it destroyed the fine taste.
The food is alright.  Value for money with $17 includes a pot of tea and the pastry.  The cucumber sandwich and ham and cheese sandwich is ordinary.  The scones are great, very tasty.  The other sweets on the two tiers are uneven.  There are red and black mini muffin cakes, so sweet and forgettable.  The mini brownie is great, the fruit tart is good.

The service is terrible.  The server is very unfriendly.  Her approach to us is snobbish.  I have high tea before and she asked after putting down the food, whether she needs to explain anything.  The way she said is so rude and I simply asked anything made with cheese which is ultimately irrelevant so that she can answer and walk away and leave us in peace.
I will not return to this place at all, there are better places around with better service and attention to detail and better understanding of the art of tea. 
The picture is my own tea service not taken from Adonia's.  My friend was taking many pictures there but I wasn't in the mood because of the service and their treatment of tea.