Today I would love to introduce my friend who recently created a blog for those interested in about fashion and make-up. She has certainly come a long way and I hope her the best. Please visit her site and bedazzled by how awsome the world of fashion and make-up can be!

http://www.xchuvi.blogspot.com/

*Photo from her site, ^^

I lost my paring knife long ago, and thought maybe its time to replace it. Thus came a god send, the Shun Classic 6″ Utility Knife. First off, this knife is light as a feather, It uses 16 layers of special patented Stainless “Super Steel”  which has enough flex,  strong durability, and low weight metals that provides superb balance. With the balance and weight,  I often forget im even holding a knife, a comparable item of similar weight would probably a decently sized stainless steel table fork. The knife is handcrafted by master-craftsman in Japan, which means quality to the highest standard and each one is unique as no two knives are alike

The D Shaped handle provides steady and comfortable grip for both left and right handed users, as the D Shaped protrusion of the handle conforms around areas on your hand such as your palm or the puffy part above your palm. As stated above, both the steel and handle work in unison to provide you superb stability and maneuverability which makes this a strong selling point which other knives fail to achieve. The handle is also made of real wood which has been treated with a resin (Pakkawood) and polished to a fine shine to produce a look of plastic which can withstand some abuse and dishwasher safe.

The role of this knife lies in-between a Paring knife and a Chefs knife, such as cutting vegetables, slicing and dicing, peeling fruit, etc. Small yet tedious chores can be quickly done with this knife without ever changing to other smaller or larger knives since this knife is so versatile. The blade on this knife is fairly thin, which makes this knife prone to chips and dents, even breakage if not properly taken care of. Ive used this for a couple of days so far, and my it has been an honour to work with such craftsmanship for such a great price.

One disappointment is the lack of some sort of sheath/scabbard for the knife when you purchase it, forcing you to look for other alternatives to protect your knife, but i hold with great hopes that KAI/Kershaw will listen to its customers and provide us with one.

Price – 4.5

Balance – 5

Weight – 5

Performance – 5

Craftsmanship – 5

Summary – If I had to say anything more about this knife, Its a must buy even for housewives and novice chefs, its a indispensable tool that you will be trying to find time and time again, and here it is offered at a great price and availability.

Here are some links for more detail and the Store where I purchase from.

http://www.kershawknives.com/productdetails.php?id=247&brand=shun

http://www.warriorsandwonders.com/Shun_Kitchen/Shun_KAI_6_Utility_Knife

Thanks for Reading.

Good Smile Company Sakurai Twins, Yukino & Kanade

Good Smile Company Nendoroid Rianon

Good Smile Company Nendoroid Mio

Griffon Enterprise Airi

Alter Jubei (Retail Vers.)

Dengeki G’s Festival Vol.8

ARIA the Illustration: Avvenire

Replicant Vol.38

and….

Soniko and Airi Dakimakura~~~

Absolutely astonishing each figure, and no doubt very popular. As for Soniko… If i didnt get her, i would of really killed myself. Airi Dakimakura was kind of a impulse buy, kinda regret it now, dont like it as much as i did when i first saw it.

The books were also impulse buy but Replicant has always been on my list. I bought Dengeki one because it has Uesugi on the cover and it came with a mini figure, yay! ^^ and ARIA is just too much to pass up.

Between this and the Narika post, i havent gotten much. hmm……

And if your wondering about why theres no photos of the actual figure, I have alittle philosophy that i wrote earlier when i first started this website if you havent seen it. I view these models as collectables, and thus i will not open them, i buy them to just to have… Might sound alittle insane but they still retain their retail value in the end which i hope the day never comes if and when i have to sell some… but owning them just makes me feel happy.

PS: Sorry for the poor lightning, my camera sucks so bad. Crappy SD1000 XD.

As you progress through the story, you level up,  gain new skills and access to new weapons to destroy your enemies. There are 4 distinct classes which you may choose;

- Mordecai, The Hunter who specializes in Precision, Long range support and pet mastery

- Roland, The Soldier who excels in Mid-ranged firefights with Shotguns and Assault Rifles.

- Brick, The Fighter who uses his physique to slam hurt in Close-Quarters-Combat and occasionally his big bad bazooka.

- Lilith, The Siren who is born with magical abilities to Stealth and inflict dangerous elemental damage.

Each class has its pros and cons, and the choice is purely on what type of gamer you are, which I thought gearbox has thoroughly thought of.

The game play is fairly easy to get into, really action packed, lots of humour and unique characters that you meet along the way. And best off all, there is Multiplayer CoOp which allows you and 3 other friends/strangers to participate in story mode.  And if you dont like to play campagin with them, you can beat their ass silly in arena battles and obtain bragging rights as the best player.

The game may be overlooked by many gamers due to the release of Uncharted 2 and Modern Warfare 2 but if your a gamer looking for a good game to pass the time with without constant nagging of 12 yearolds and lust for mindless killing of creatures, this is for you.

And to add more mindlessness to this game, the new DLC: “The Zombie Island of Dr. Ned” includes new maps, story, and MORE mindless killing of ZOMBIES!, thats right…Zombies. And you thought Left 4 Dead was fun? Try this for size.

Gameplay – 4 , Simple and easy to understand, Classic FPS controls and good RPG elements.

Graphics – 3.5 , Some lag issues that occasionally happens when too many units are present coupled with loading times of new zones and maps.

Sound -4 ,The voice acting is superb, the background music is unrivaled, and the spamming of rounds fired is relaxing.

Playability – 5 , With a second playthrough with increased challenges, open online multiplayer Co-op, and DLCs keeping it fresh, this game will stay for some time.

Presentation – 4 , Easy to understand UI and vast array of weapons and multi-classes to suit your needs.

Overall – 4 /5

Koo-dos to Gearbox and 2Kgames for providing us with this gem.

Official Website – http://www.borderlandsthegame.com/

Pictures provided by Gearbox and 2Kgames.

Badass Encounter – Here is a sample of the Background music I mentioned.

Here’s my latest creation, Apple Charlotte which was built from 100% scratch. First I had to create a Brioche dough and bake it. Then prepare a Apple Compote for the filling and base of the dish. The whole ordeal took roughly 6hrs to prepare from scratch, assuming you have everything on “Mise en Place” (French, Prepared on stand by).

You may substitute Brioche if you find it too tedious to create with regular bread.

Recipe for Brioche (This should make enough for 2 Charlottes, Please stale the bread for atleast 1-2 days prior to makeing a Charlotte for Stability.)

250 Bread Flour

35 Milk

7 Fresh Yeast /or 3.5 Dry Yeast

7 Salt

25 Sugar

2.5 Eggs

150 Butter, Room Temp

Preheat oven to 350′F, First incorporate all the ingredients without the butter, once you have a dough start to smash in your butter chunks at a time, but keep kneading constantly. The buttering process takes a good rough 10mins so please be patient, The dough will start to feel very soft and stick to surfaces, dont worry, keep kneading it til it starts to separate from the table by itself. A handy tool would be to carry a scraper to occasionally scrape the dough off the table to work it out evenly. Once your dough becomes firmer and retains its shape, shape it into a dome and let it rest for a good hour with plastic wrap on top. After, proof for atleast 1.5hrs or until double in size. Cut up the dough into 100g pieces and one layer them into a breadpan, should resemble flat rolling hills. spray some water ontop and let it sit ontop of the preheated oven with a wet towel ontop. May need to re-hydrate the dough and the towel frequently. Once its all poofy, you may put it into the oven for around 15mins, or until golden brown. If you see your bread producing colour and still soft, wrap with aluminum foil and keep baking until desired firmess. Let it stale for 1-2 Days.

Apple Compote (Can be made in advance or prior to creating the Charlotte):

200 Water

100 Icing Sugar

15 Vanilla sugar (If you have some, if not just take regular sugar and some vanilla extract)

5 Corn Starch

2 Cinnamon*

1 Nutmeg*

2-3 Apples

* To taste.

Slice and dice apples without skin into small pieces, should be around the same size as your pinky nail. Boil water and sugars and place in apples. cook till soft but not broken up. Cool in fridge till ready.

When both Brioche and Apples are ready, you may start the Charlotte itself. You will need:

2 3in Diameter, 2in high steel rings. Easily obtainable from your local cooking store for like 2$ ea.

Plates

If you decied to use regular bread, please butter them on both sides, Brioche does not need to be buttered, unless you want to…and trim them down to 2x 3in circle Base pieces and 1-2 long strips to create a Hockey Puck shell inside the steel rings. Slice the bread pieces thinly as we dont want too much bread, more filling to go around…^^  To make the bread stick to one another, you may use some jam, adds some flavor aswell. once you have your bread pieces, assemble your ring without the top and fill with Apple Compote then close up and bake at 350″F for around 5mins or more, but dont burn it. only give it a nice golden colour.

Your creation is done, you may serve it hot or cold. ^^   Feel free to dress up the plate to your desire.

Hello again! Another gorgeous day in Vancouver, and another fantastic day in the kitchen. Today we have some nice Mixed Berry Pie, Creme Caramel, NY Style Cheesecake, and some puffy thing with cream and fruit on it…haha

Here’s the recipe to a nice Creme Caramel:

Caramel:

200g Sugar + 100ml water

Caramelize in pot til brown. Shock caramel with drops of cold water to prevent overcooking it. Pour into ramekins and chill on countertop. A good idea might be to measure out your Shock water to around 10ml, we want a nice consistency with the caramel so it will solidify but not stick to the ramekin after serving.

Custard:

375ml Whole Milk

375 Half and Half cream

3 Eggs

1 1/2 of an Egg Yolk

125ml Sugar

1/2 Vanilla Bean

pin of salt

Orange/Lemon zest to taste

Orange/Lemon zest and vanilla bean should be infused with the cream mixture on the pot to boil. Prior to boiling your liquids, take a small amount and combine it with the sugar and eggs and whisk. When cream is boiled, temper your egg mixture, whisking vigoriusly until combined and pour back into the pot and strain. Carefully pour your custard mix into the caramelized ramekins til the lower lip or desired amount.

In a large buffet pan or smiliar metal pan, fill it with HOT water. Place ramekins inside the hot water bath, make sure the water only reaches half way up the ramekin’s side.

Bake in a 300′F/150′C oven for around 15-20mins, when its around 15min open the oven and jiggle the pan and look for settling of your custard. Once satisfied with your product, take out the ramekins and place them inside your fridge over night and serve the next day. Custards last for around 3 days.

Wow…what a week it has been, so jam packed with delights this season. Blessed with several GOOD animes to watch, and now Santa has decided to give everyone envious of these figures; a run for their money.

First off, we have GSC’s Figma Reimu which is a Japan Exclusive and limited production like those who were able to obtain a Nedo Reimu. Defiantly a get for me, personally…Reimu? No contest…haha. The Figma line has always been popular as an actual “Toy” since the joints are movable, I myself opened my Hatsune Miku Figma and it now sits on my desk in a very cute pose.

Next we have Alter’s Jubei…Which is the prime portion of my rant today… I ordered the Original version, but seriously… Doesnt even come close in comparison. This is solely Exclusive for Hobby Japan DEC Mail-In order for aprox 7000￥ and in very limited run of only 1500. To add insult to injury, they dont ship overseas, but we all know that…haha, But that doesnt stop me from trying my darnest to get it.

Source:

http://hobby-channel.net/

So Yummy…  These have been filled with various fruits and creams.

Heres the recipie for the Choux Paste:

250ml Water

80g Unsalted Butter

120g Bread Flour

Pinch of Salt

10g Sugar

3 3/4 Med Eggs

Boil water, salt, sugar, and butter. Add flour after liquids have boiled. Keep on cooking the paste until the bottom of the pot starts to brown. Cool and pipe onto a cooking sheet and eggwash. Bake at 375′F until golden brown, refrain from opening the oven door until coloured. Once golden colour, turn the baking sheet if you need too for even colouring then lower the heat to 350″F for atleast 8-10mins. Let it cool, and then start being creative ^^

Recommended Types of Fillings:

Vanilla custard/Pastry Cream

Creme Chantilly

Today, I picked up my 2 figures from the post office today. I bought: Alter Narika , Griffon Enterprise Allean and…COSPA -Project DIVA- Miku Towel!

Personally, im a great fan of Alter’s work, flawless and unique. Griffon Enterprise has some casting issues but non the less, provides us with fantastic cast-off figures like Allean. I have a tendency to not open my figures, always believed that they should be preserved inside their boxes where if the time ever came…would still retain their full value, but that day will never come!

Overall, I must admit, I have never had such a fun experience eating fish’n chips locally. If you ever have a craving for Fish’n Chips and dont want to go too far (ie. Horseshoe bay) then drop by and treat yourself to some fresh local fishes.

Value – 4.5

Food – 5

Atmosphere – 4

Service – 4.5

Overall – 4.5

Tony’s Fish and Chips:

1511 Anderson Street
Granville Island
Vancouver BC V6H 3R5
Tel: 604.683.7127

http://www.tonysfish-granvilleisland.com/default.html

What we ate:

2x 1pc Halibut’n Chips

1x Salmon Burger

1x Half-Dozen Raw Oysters

2x Cokes

Total = $55, Tip included.