Mix and match

Japanese Kimono and Javanese Belt

new collection of batik made into shirts

These are the new shirts cut from kain batik collected from Bogor, Solo, Yogya.  I like them all.

New batik design

I have finished the new major kain phytocrene for Batik Komar to work on in 2014.  Now I am working on a stole design of Phytocrene that is based on partly my botanical illustration and an old one that was done in Wallace's old book.  It will be a long selendang.  But I have no idea who I can give it to produce as it is a most complex work that needs supervision every step.
Let's see what results I get from Batik Komar and Hartono in 2014 before I made a decision.

Batik

There is my painting from 1995 with the strangely beautiful light green colour.  I love this green since then and now my shirt from batik komar is this green with wayang motif.

surjan

I am wearing surjan as part of my normal everyday clothings now. 

Vietnamese cuisine

I made a few new dishes.  They are easy and very good taste.
Deep-fried chicken wings and also seaside prawns with betel peppers.

Violetta

This is the new Summer French Iced Tea from Mariage Freres, Paris.  The galss jar is beautiful with a cap that doubles as a measuring cup of the tea leaves which is black tea with white blossoms and violets.  In a jug of about 4 cups or 1 litre filled with room temperature water, add the pouch of tea leaves and then put the jug in the fridge for at least 1 hour or 2.  Take out and add liquid sugar if needed.  The cool tea is fragrant and pure enjoyment.
I also got a cook book of cuisine using tea.  I will try.

Vancouver's garden

I went to UBC botanical garden today in the morning to have a quick walk in the forest.  Sinofranchetia chinensis is flowering.  I love this plant.  I have 3 in my garden now all came from the same source.  One is a plant from cutting and 2 others from seeds.  So far, the plants like climbing onto trees the best.  It is hardy here in Vancouver.

tea

Mariage Freres' Violetta (Summer French Iced Tea) is going to go on sale mid June.  The other day I found an import of tea from France at Granville Island and I bought Violette in Love (green sencha with violet and raspberry) and Violet rooibos.

spring cleaning

I took the terrarium apart in my room and cleaned up the mess and get the vines good hair cut.  Now you can see Phytocrene macrophylla, Illegera and mucuna.

New Tea

I received my order of Mariage Freres Tea from France.  Muguet is beautiful, Ylang very fruity and Cannele I still need to try. 

wagashi spring 2013

Beautiful ganache chocolate from La Chocolaterie.  I have passionfruit, matcha and sakura.  The fan is my own make featuring aristolochia grandiflora and other species.  The gold dust on it is real gold! 

Early Spring in Vancouver

Magnolia trees are flowering right now at UBC botanical garden.  They are pink and beautiful, but laterly it rains a lot so it is still cold and wet.

Indonesian Pecel

This is the assorted vegetable dish with a peanut sauce to be eaten with rice.  For the vegetables: baby corn, pumpkin leaves and young stems, bean sprouts, telosma flowers, winged beans, but I am missing the sesbania flowers which are a bit bitter.  Anyway, it is a good dish to prepare in the morning, steaming all vegetables and then arranging on a dish and when ready to eat, heat the sauce and spoon onto rice and vegetable.

Easter Chocolate from Germany

Thank you my friend Monika for sending me all these lovely chocolate and candies from Germany.  The Mozart Bombs are to die for.  I love the exotic taste of the beautiful little eggs in the carton.  The childhood themed candies are classic.  Everything is so beautiful and tasty!  I will share them with my co-workers at work.

celebrating Easter

Spring is here and Easter is early this year at the end of March.  I love bunnies and sweet stuff!

To celebrate Macaron Day

Here is my take to celebrate Macaron Day.  I got the beautiful bedsheet made by my Mom.  The fabric is from Japan.  You can see my family in the background!

Forest of Vanilla

Today, I tried some perfume with my friend at the Perfume Shoppe.  I like the brand Parfumerie Generale the best, so we tried many of those.  I finally settled on Ilang Ivohibe which is a easy going Ilang scent with the base of a very edible Vanilla.  I also tried Absinth by Nassomatto.  It is beautiful but I don't think I can wear it for long, a bit too bitter on my skin.  I am more of a floral kind of guy.  So good floral perform better on me.
15 Ilang Ivohibe is a woody floral Vanilla
Born of a fairy-tale union of Madagascan ylang-ylang, Californian orange and Egyptian jasmine, the poetic fragrance of an imaginary flower releases its perfume against the exquisite sweetness of a forest of vanilla plants.
Vanilla is a very familiar scent.  Everytime I make Caramel, the last step when done is to pour Vanilla into the caramel and then the cloud of scent will be going upwards scenting my face and chef uniform. 
This is the image of the forest.

Early Spring Flowers

I bought some cut flowers from Granville Island's florist.  My favourite is Hyacinth.  There are many colours such as white, yellow, pink, and magenta but I like the blish purple the best and the fragrance is heavenly.

more italian candies

These are the Pastiglie Leone candies made using sugar, gum arabic and the most beautiful essense of the world.  My favourite kinds are violet and absinthe candies.