Gorged out over President's Day Weekend! *BURP!*

As of yesterday(wed), I was still FULL from Monday night's dinner.

I think my digestive system went on strike after our Max Brenner's sinful lunch.
Chocolate fondue with melty marshmallows, sweet strawberries and banana cake!!! Their signature cafe in NYC is A-mazing. A chocolate pipe runs through the ceiling of the restaurant and they serve chocolate slices with peanut butter between 2 slices of bagel for breakfast. Welcome to Max Brenner's "Feed-the-Models" cafe.
Yeah, if you are a stick thin insect and walk through those doors, I guarantee you walk out like a normal human being like the rest of us. Guaranteed. Did I mention their asparagus melty cheese waffle is absolutely to-die-for?

Our dear Spanish friend, Rafael, dropped by town over the weekend and we took to the ice for some serious skating business! It is his first attempt at ice-skating and I must say he did very well indeed! Kudos to Kim for being a very effective teacher! Now Rebecca and Rafael can do some "figure" ice skating to impress the socks off their child when he grows up!

It's been 15 years since I last ice-skated but it is kinda like roller blading except everyone's going around in a very small circle and the kids are extremely reckless and lawless. The traffic police should give them fines for the way they behave on the rink. If they are not curbed when young, they may turn out to become very dangerous drivers when they finally come of age.

The hail/snow had stayed over the last week and I didn't realize how beautiful central park looked while I stayed holed up in my apartment(or the gym, er-hem). Everywhere else in the city, the piles and blocks of snow on the sides of the road had mixed in with the grime and dirt of the cars, it was starting to look really murky. No snowman building and snow fights here for sure.

Finally, the first day of the Lunar Calendar has arrived and there is no other way to celebrate it except with a hot and spicy tom yum steamboat dinner, complete with abalone, bak kua and my grandmother's teochew braised duck(which I made, of course). Between the four of us, I think we ate half an abalone each. *burp!* Thanks to our dear sponsor, Kim and her supplier from HK, we received air flown Bee Cheng Hiang's bak kua and HK's best selling brand of abalone! Xie xie, xie xie... :)

Here's wishing everyone a prosperous and boisterous Pig's Year ahead in 2007! Oink! Oink!