Sweets & Cakes

Posted on October 12, 2021 by Nicole

Lady M Cakes — I love how the shelf has layers similar to a millecrêpe

It is funny (and honestly kind of scary) how quickly time seems to be passing me by. It’s somehow already been a month since my last post. I have gone back to Kinokuniya 3 or 4 times already–it’s something of a weekly pilgrimage for us now. There is also the most lovely cake boutique nearby there called Lady M, so after shopping I usually grab a slice or two to take home. They offer a variety of cakes, but their Signature Millecrêpe is far and away the best. I find that it is the perfect balance of feeling decadent while still not overly sweet.

Mini Wow-Tart from Keki

On the topic of sweets, I’ve had so many good ones recently. Cream puffs from Beard Papa’s, mango juice with sago at Mango Mango, black sesame shaved-snow with mochi and strawberries in Koreatown, and most recently, the cheese-filled “Wow Tart” from Kēki in Chinatown. Next on my list is Uncle Tetsu’s cheesecake, which looks unbelievably fluffy and soft. Ha…I’ve really made myself hungry writing this

Besides all of that, I don’t have much of interest to report. I tried going to Japan Fes a few weeks ago, but it was far too crowded (I can withstand a good queue now and then, but 90 minutes for takoyaki is pushing it). It was so bad that all of the lines were wrapped around each other, and we couldn’t tell which line was for what..so we just left. They are supposed to be hosting another one this month at a larger venue, so hopefully that will work out better. If I manage to go to that one, I will post pictures here.

I’m still salivating after reminiscing about sweets, so I’m going to go get myself a snack. Bye for now~

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Adventures on Roosevelt Island

Posted on September 12, 2021 by Nicole

Since publishing my last post, I’ve been quite busy with starting a new job, but thankfully not too busy to go on some more adventures. Yesterday I went to Kinokuniya Bookstores near Bryant Park. You may remember that I’ve written about Kinokuniya before; I previously went to the Edgewater location. The New York one has an even bigger selection, plus an in-house café selling Japanese sandwiches and sweets. My favorite part, of course, is the third floor which is dedicated solely to anime and manga. I don’t really collect manga anymore (although I still enjoy browsing), but something there that has really interested me is their light novel collection. I’ve always wanted to try a light novel, but most of them are of the “shounen” genre, which doesn’t appeal much to me. Luckily, I managed to find a couple of “girly” titles—or ones with female protagonists, anyway—and I’m really excited to read them~

Small Kinokuniya haul, plus my Tamagezi virtual pet that I’ve started playing recently!

Now to get to the title of this post—today my sister came to visit and we went to Roosevelt Island. There are two ways to get there: the subway train, or the aerial tram. I swallowed my fear of heights and opted for the tram. It definitely was a little scary, but I’m glad I can say I tried it 

I’ve never been to Roosevelt Island, but I’ve been interested in it ever since I read The Address by Fiona Davis, wherein the main character is admitted to the island’s insane asylum. The island used to be called Blackwell Island, and it has a very dark past. As I just mentioned, there used to be a women’s insane asylum, and the patients there were horribly abused. Thankfully, there was some level of reform after a journalist went to the asylum undercover and wrote a piece exposing the abuse. There was also a Penitentiary, where I imagine the living conditions were not much better. Many of the island’s buildings, such as the lighthouse and the Charity Hospital, were built by the prisoners. Most of these original buildings were destroyed in fires or demolished. The only thing that really remains today is the crumbling façade of the Smallpox Hospital. The ruins are simultaneously creepy and beautiful, and really look like something out of a horror movie!

The island as it is today is beautiful. It is much cleaner and quieter than the rest of the city, and there are relatively few cars, which made for a pleasant bike ride around the perimeter of the island. It was so lovely and so interesting to be somewhere so green, where I could hear the cicadas and smell the ocean, and still have a full view of the Manhattan skyline.

Manhattan, as seen from Roosevelt Island. The wooden structure is actually a box with a geocache inside!

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Afternoon at the Museum

Posted on August 22, 2021 by Nicole

I said in my previous post that I would try to document any interesting happenings during my week off. Overall, the past few days have been fairly uneventful, though at least it’s been restful. On Thursday I took a solo trip to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s a massive museum, so I really only explored the sections which interested me, which was chiefly 18th & 19th century European art. Of course this is only a fraction of the whole collection, but my feet were still aching by the end of it! Some highlights for me were: a mechanical table commissioned for Madame de Pompadour, the 18th century French interiors, and the new British galleries which include a display of one-hundred teapots.

Madame Grand (Noël Catherine Vorlée, 1761–1835)

This lovely portrait was done by Vigée Le Brun in 1783, long before painting was considered an acceptable occupation for women

The teapots at the British Galleries

Friday is now my favorite day of the week, because that’s when the new episode of Girls Planet 999 comes out~ I wake up early on Fridays just to watch the live-stream. This Friday I also took the extra time in the morning to bake pizza from scratch! That was the first time I ever made dough from scratch, and I must admit that it came out perfectly.

On Saturday, we went to Chinatown for dinner. I tried milk tea with mochi in it, which was an interesting experience, and not one I’m sure I’d wish to repeat. We also got caught in the pouring rain without an umbrella. I feel that sometimes, such as this one, it is actually fun to get caught in the rain. ☔️ Maybe because it’s been so hot and humid, that the rain felt more refreshing than a nuisance.

Which brings me to the present day. We are in the middle of a hurricane so I’ve been stuck inside all day. The rain and wind haven’t been too bad here, but the lack of sunlight is dreadful. I was feeling very brave after the pizza on Friday, so I decided to try baking my own bread; it is proofing now. Hopefully it will turn out well!

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Tea at The Plaza

Posted on August 18, 2021 by Nicole

It’s been several months since my last post, and quite a lot has happened in that time! Mainly: I live in New York City now! I must confess that I’ve always been of the too-common opinion that “I love to visit New York, but would never want to live there.” Well, one thing led to another, and here I am; and to tell the truth, I absolutely love living here, so much more than I ever thought I would. I hope to go on many adventures throughout the city, and to document them here.

The Plaza Hotel

One such adventure occurred today, as my Mother and I had a reservation for afternoon tea at The Plaza Hotel. I’ve been to many an afternoon tea service over the past few years, and all have been in gorgeous historic places, but none have been so grand a venue as The Plaza. It truly felt as if I were inside an Edith Wharton novel. The service itself was very traditional: scones, finger sandwiches, macarons, &c., nothing that I haven’t had before, but certainly not in so opulent a setting!

After tea I checked out the book shop upstairs. They don’t sell your typical novels, but rather art books, the kind with extra oversize pages and super high-quality photographs. There was one title in particular, The French Riviera in the 1920s, which I would have loved to sink into for an afternoon.

rose latte

I actually had this rose latte earlier in the week, but it was so pretty that I just had to share a photo of it here

We then spent the rest of the afternoon in the Bergdorf Goodman across the street. It is a truly glorious way to spend an afternoon, even if you don’t intend on purchasing anything. In some ways it feels more like a Fashion Museum, rather than an actual store (especially given some of the price tags—I saw one coat on the ground floor that cost $20,000). Even the children’s items are amazing, my favorite was this set of sidewalk chalk shaped like macarons. I actually did end up buying something; I’ve long been on a hunt for a good pair of white sneakers, and I finally found a pair I love, solid white all around except for a patch of pastel pink on the back of each shoe.

Those were the main events of the day. I have off work this week so I’m hoping to squeeze in a few more solo adventures—going to a Museum, or the library, exploring Central Park, etc. I will try to document anything interesting on my blog, but I shan’t promise anything. It seems anytime I publicly promise to a more frequent writing schedule, I’m just dooming myself to another long hiatus. What I would like to know, dear Readers, is if you have any suggestions for future blog posts. Is there anything in particular you would want to see? Please leave any thoughts or suggestions in the comments section~

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Lunar New Year

Posted on February 13, 2021 by Nicole

Gong xi fa cai! Yesterday was the first day of the Lunar New Year, and I went on a double date for dim-sum in NYC. I suppose it was sort of a dual-celebration of both the Lunar New Year and Valentine’s Day.

Our friends live in New Jersey, right near the Holland Tunnel, so it wasn’t too far from there to New York. I used to visit New York very often, to the point that it was kind of a second home for me, but I hadn’t visited since pre-COVID. Even so, I did get a sense that things were not quite what they used to be. You couldn’t really call it quiet, but it is certainly quieter than normal, especially considering we were in Chinatown during the first day of the New Year. It was also bitterly cold which didn’t help the gloomy atmosphere.

Despite this, I had so much fun! We ate dim-sum at a historic restaurant named Nom Wah Tea Parlor, tucked away on a side street in Chinatown. Supposedly it is the oldest running restaurant in Chinatown, and they’ve been selling frozen dumplings to increase revenue during lockdown. We went at an odd time (3:45PM) and there were still quite a lot of customers–there were even several people sitting outside! It is a very unique spot, and I am glad that they are still in business.

After lunch, we got bubble tea at Tiger Sugar, which gets its name from the streaks of brown sugar syrup that look similar to a tiger’s stripes. 🐯  I also got this adorable Hello Kitty gashapon toy at a toy shop near St Marks Place. The rest of the evening was devoted to hunting for Pokémon cards, as all four of us are avid collectors. The hobby is experiencing a huge boom right now, and the demand far outstrips supply, to the point that it is very difficult to find cards at market-price. We didn’t find anything, but we still enjoyed the thrill of the hunt~

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Hello Kitty Tamagotchi

Posted on January 25, 2021 by Nicole

I love my Tamagotchi Sanrio Meets, and I was really excited when I saw Bandai announced yet another Sanrio collab: the Hello Kitty Tamagotchi. Like most modern Tamagotchi brand collaborations, the Hello Kitty Tama is a Tamagotchi Nano variant. It was released exclusively to English-speaking regions on December 1, 2020.

Appearance

The Hello Kitty Tamagotchi comes in 2 shell variants, a white design and a red. The red shell is called “Favorite Things” and has little pixels of Hello Kitty’s favorite things on it: some milk, an apple, a toy airplane, a rainbow, a bumblebee, and her pet goldfish. The white shell is more simplistic and has whiskers and a red bow, like Kitty herself. I personally slightly prefer the white shell design, so that is what I ordered.

Hello Kitty Tamagotchi size comparison with the Meets and Entama

This is my first Tamagotchi Nano, and I was surprised at how small it is. The buttons are approximately 1/3 the size of that of the Meets. The buttons are much more ‘raised’ than that of other Tamagotchis, which makes them a little easier to press. I do appreciate this design detail, but even with the extra height, I think the average adult will find the tiny buttons difficult to handle sometimes.

Despite the small size of the device, the pixel art is relatively large and clear. I found all of the pixels to be super cute. I especially like the character Close Ups.

Mametchi performing his Close Up

The sound on this device is probably my favorite of any Tamagotchi I have owned. The beeps sound more retro/8-bit compared to that of the Meets, but have a clearer, more satisfying quality compared to older Tamas. I especially like that when you clear a minigame, it plays a little 8-bit rendition of the Hello Kitty cartoon theme song.

Gameplay

Like me, you may have heard “Hello Kitty Tamagotchi” and assumed the device would center around raising Hello Kitty herself, but you would be mistaken. Actually, Hello Kitty acts more as a co-parent with you in adopting and raising a Tamagotchi. It’s kind of a weird concept, but very cute!

The gameplay for this device is very simplistic. The Tamagotchi only has 2 growth stages: baby and adult. The type of adult it evolves into depends on its gender as well as how well you take care of it. The Tamagotchi has 2 meters: Happiness and Hunger. Happiness is raised by feeding it milk or playing minigames, and Hunger is raised by feeding it apple pie. There are 2 different minigames:

  1. Piano game: Similar to a rhythm game, you must press the buttons as hearts fall to the left, middle, or right side of the screen. I found the difficulty to be very good on this game, not too easy but not too difficult either. My favorite minigame of the two.
  2. Balloon game: Help Hello Kitty fly through the sky by avoiding birds. The controls for this are pretty much identical to Balloon Kid for the Game Boy, which leads me to an interesting digression… Apparently, there was a Japan-only port of Balloon Kid called Hello Kitty World which used Hello Kitty sprites. That means that the Hello Kitty Tamagotchi, an English-only release, includes a reference to a Japan-only game (Hello Kitty World), which was in fact a remake of an English-only game (Balloon Kid). Weird, right?

After your Tama evolves into its adult form, it can receive a bow from Hello Kitty. The conditions to receive the bow are not clear, but it seems to be related to how many times you have cleared the minigames.

Overall, the gameplay for this device is extremely easy. In fact, one time I misplaced mine for a full 24 hours, and by the time I found it, it was still alive! I think if there is any difficulty to be found, it’s in getting the “average care” characters. On my first run I felt sure I had made a lot of care mistakes, but I still ended up with Mametchi (a “perfect care” character). You would need to be purposely neglectful to get some of the other characters.

Conclusion

Overall, I don’t think I will be running this Tamagotchi very often, as I find the gameplay a bit too simplistic. I will add that it is nice that it only takes 24 hours for each Tama to evolve, in case I ever feel like a quick playthrough. I also really like that it features some classic characters that we don’t see in other modern releases, like Mimitchi and Pochitchi.

Even though I don’t think I will be playing with it very often, I am glad that I bought the Hello Kitty Tamagotchi. I think if you are a Tamagotchi collector who also loves Hello Kitty, you will definitely enjoy it. I would not recommend this to somebody as their first Tamagotchi, as I feel the gameplay is a bit too simplistic and doesn’t offer the full Tama experience. The Tamagotchi P1 and P2 re-releases are the same price ($20 USD) but offer more features; I would recommend those to a beginner instead. If you aren’t interested in Hello Kitty at all, I would probably skip this release, unless you are a hardcore collector.

Let me know in the comments what you think about this Tamagotchi. If you enjoyed this review, please also check out my Tamagotchi Sanrio Meets review here.

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Adventures on Sugarpop Island

Posted on January 14, 2021 by Nicole

Princess Peachie was one of my original inspirations when I first started taking interest in lolita fashion. I really admired how every part of her seemed to exude sweetness, from the way she dressed down to her bubbly personality. I was very excited when she posted a Dream Address for her Animal Crossing: New Horizons island; it looked to be the perfect sweet virtual escape into a candy wonderland~

Here is part of the Main Street of Sugarpop. Strangely, the only beverage the vending machine has to offer is strawberry La Croix.

Birthday cake castle~what a perfect spot for a birthday party!

I-is that a giant Jammie Dodger?

Taking a rest at the base of Matcha Hill ~ the zen-themed area of the island

At the entrance of the Museum, rumor has it that the fossils there are actually made of chocolate.

Here is a little Christmas-themed area. I love that the cushions look like presents

Peachie built in-game houses for her pet bunnies, Pumpkin and Pudding. I think that is such a sweet and creative idea!

Inside Pudding’s house. She appears to be a bit of a messmaker…

Magical heart-shaped pond, where you can find rare flowers and butterflies

Dreamy overlook of Peachie’s yard

You can visit Sugarpop yourself using the Dream Address DA-6714-4446-9306, or watch Peachie’s video tour here.

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Mochi and Magazines

Posted on January 4, 2021 by Nicole

Yesterday was about as eventful as a day could get while still following COVID safety guidelines. We made the 2-hour trek to Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater, New Jersey. This is a Japanese marketplace with loads of imported groceries, books, and other goods that are usually difficult to find in America. I’ve visited several times but it’s been years since my last visit, so it was great to be back, even though the current 25% occupancy limit meant we had to wait outside in the cold for a bit, it was so worth it!

After buying groceries we had lunch—I had a spicy tuna bun from the bakery, and Hokkaido-style “melty pork” ramen~ There was also a new stall selling “mochi donuts”. These are donuts made with tapioca flour, giving them a chewy mochi-like texture. The donuts had such a satisfying chewy texture and were not overly-sweet. My favorite was the black sesame flavor.

Besides food, I also bought some Sailor Moon stickers for myself, and some Japanese Pokémon cards for me and my boyfriend, as we have recently gotten really into collecting Pokémon cards. At the Kinokuniya bookstore, my boyfriend bought a volume of one of his favorite manga (Komi–san wa, Komyushō desu, it’s very cute and I highly recommend it) and I got something I’ve been wanting for a looong time now: my own copy of the Gothic & Lolita Bible. The issue I picked up is the Winter 2016 edition, and I must say it exceeded my expectations. It is full of gorgeous illustrations, outfit shots, makeup tutorials, reviews of various Japanese sweets shops, and even a gorgeous manga short story. I dearly wish I could read Japanese, so I could fully appreciate it ~ perhaps someday I will learn!

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Festive Reading: The Lost Staircase

Posted on December 22, 2020 by Nicole

A few months ago, I posted about the Chalet School children’s book series. EBD (as I’ll be referring to the author, for brevity’s sake) quickly made her place amongst my most favorite authors. She reminds me of another of my favorite authors, Frances Hodgson-Burnett, in that she has a way of creating fairytales without any use of magic or fantasy. She is best known for her Chalet School series which boasts an impressive 58 volumes, but she also wrote several spin-off books, one of which being The Lost Staircase.

This book is very loosely connected to the Chalet School universe, but can be read as a standalone.

Synopsis

The Lost Staircase is at its heart a family mystery. The Gellibrands are a wealthy family shrouded in mystery, and they have been residing at the huge and beautiful Dragon House in Wales since the Middle Ages. The story takes place in the 1940s, and the last living male heir to the Dragon House is one Sir Ambrose. He is elderly himself and, his own son having died in the First World War, knows he must soon find an heir. So he invites his cousin, 14-year-old Jesanne Gellibrand to come live at the Dragon House and learn the customs and responsibilities for when she will become Heiress. Jesanne is a hot-tempered modern girl (well, modern for 1946, I suppose) and is often at odds with Cousin Ambrose and his old-fashioned ways, but comes to love the Dragon House and all its quirks and traditions. The main plot point, as alluded to by the title, is Jesanne’s search for an ancient staircase hidden somewhere in the house.

Like EBD’s other books, the plot meanders a bit in this one, but the imagery and atmosphere are top-notch. I absolutely loved reading about the Dragon House, its valuable artwork, its hidden rooms and passages, and of course all the history surrounding it.

The Festive Bits

From the synopsis above, you may be thinking that this book doesn’t sound particularly festive. And, well, it’s true the plot doesn’t really have anything to do with Christmas. Yet there are several chapters devoted to the Christmas festivities and rituals particular to the Gellibrand family, and these are incredibly lovely in their own right.

There is a beautiful scene of Christmas Eve caroling and wassailing. Afterwards, Jesanne and Ambrose invite the carolers into the house and pass around “great slices of the famous Dragon House Christmas cake, which was made from a recipe three hundred years old, and smoking mince-pies”. I’ve no idea what is in that Christmas cake, and I’ve never even tried a mince-pie, but that description just makes my mouth water. Then on Christmas-day Jesanne receives maybe the most lavish present I have ever read of — a whole house to herself. Ambrose has an old lodge on the grounds renovated for her, fitted with a working kitchen and a sewing-machine and fresh wallpaper. It’s all very over-the-top, but that’s EBD for you.

My favorite scene is of the secret Dragon House Ritual which is performed every Christmas Eve. I won’t even describe the ritual as I think it is so much more magical if you read it yourself, but I will say that it involves some very old robes, which you can see Jesanne wearing on the book’s cover.

Christmas at the Dragon House

My edition, which I purchased from Girls Gone By, comes with a bonus short-story: “Christmas at the Dragon House” by Katherine Bruce. The story takes place two years after The Lost Staircase, and describes Jesanne’s first Christmas at the Dragon House after Sir Ambrose has died. It’s actually quite a melancholy read, but a very realistic follow-up to the original story.

I just absolutely love this magical little book and can see myself returning to it for many Christmases to come. Definitely a must-read if you enjoy EBD’s works, but I would recommend picking this one up even if you have never read her other books.

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Snowed In!

Posted on December 17, 2020 by Nicole

Yesterday, we had our first big snowstorm of the season~ We got about 9 inches in total — less than the forecast called for, but exciting nonetheless. I decided it was time to break out this bottle of Christmas wine that I had been saving. This is called “glühwein”, or “glow wine”, and it’s basically a traditional German mulled wine drunk around Christmastime. I just absolutely love this bottle, which shows a gorgeous illustration of a Christmas market. Here is the description from the label:

From all over the world they travel to the old Imperial city of Nurnberg in Bavaria, for the Christkindles Market, to partake of the revelry and enjoy Nurnberg’s secret, “Gerstacker Gluhwein” or Glow Wine. A tradition in Nurnberg for untold years.

Nurnberger Christkindles Glühwein

Nurnberger Christkindles Glühwein

If you’ve never heard of mulled wine, it is basically red wine mixed with various spices and dried fruits. You can make it yourself, or buy a bottle like I did. Then you just heat it in a saucepan until it is hot, but not boiling, and pour it into a warm mug and garnish with slivered almonds and/or raisins. 

Even though this wine contains only 10% alcohol, it has a very rich flavor which makes it taste more like a strong cocktail. It has a little bit of bitterness as well, I think probably from the oranges used to make it. So I think this is best served with something sweet on the side, perhaps some gingerbread! I had mine with Biscoff cookies as that is what I had on hand. 

Eleanor enjoyed a little drink of her own!

Feeling warmed from the inside out after my festive treat, I finally finished the puzzle I had been working on. A few years ago my father received this beautiful wooden puzzle as a gift from a colleague, and now it is a family tradition to complete the puzzle around this time of year. It’s made up of the most gorgeous thickly-cut wooden pieces, which are uniquely shaped to match the theme of the puzzle. I have uploaded full-sized images of the puzzle so you can see this for yourself (click on each picture to view it in full size).

Then, I snuggled up with my cat and watched some TV program about a Christmas lights competition. It was very over-the-top and thus very fun to watch. Then I laid in bed and I tried to get some reading done — Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher, which I am reading as part of Miranda Mills’ book club. I ended up falling asleep an hour before I usually do. I’m not sure if it was due to the cozy atmosphere, the alcohol, or both, but I slept better than I have in several days. Overall it was a very festive and comfy-cozy sort of evening!

I hope you are all staying warm and safe this holiday. I think this year in particular we all could use some extra holiday cheer, and I hope that my posts can provide a little bit of that comfort. Finally, here is a bonus photo of the aftermath of the snowstorm this morning:

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