No appetite to eat breakfast?

Hi Everyone!

Today, I would like to share some suggestions to those of you who lack the appetite to eat breakfast. I must admit. I really hate eating breakfast! And I frequently get tempted to skip it so I can snooze some more but still arrive in the lab on time. However, if I don't throw anything in stomach, after 2 hours in the lab, I already feel like fainting. And so I learned that eating breakfast is really a must!  My breakfast combos typically consist of fresh cheese/yogurt (I choose the brands which are not very sweet; I hate sweet yogurt by the way), nuts, eggs and fruits. I chose these because they do not need preparations--except boiling the eggs of course. Other than eggs, nuts and tea bags, I normally take everything out of the fridge.

strawberry yogurt + strawberries + walnuts + dried fig fruits

Fresh cheese (cherry) + strawberries + cashews

cashews + egg + spicy olives + dried plums

milk + brazil nuts + sweet potatoes + butter

vanilla yogurt drink + muesli

fresh cheese (blueberry) +eggs + pear

black tea + pancake + vanilla yogurt + eggs + strawberries

I normally don't drink coffee for breakfast. If you badly need coffee for breakfast, it probably means you're not getting enough sleep and you need to hit the sack again. ;)

Gotta hit the sack now. Until next time! :)

Macaroons vs Macaron

Hi Everyone! Today I went to the Sunday Market in Heverlee, Leuven and bought five Rochers de coco for 2 euros. I must say it's the most well-spent two euros I've ever had in Belgium. Rochers de coco means "coconut rocks." I love these cookies so much because they remind me of my childhood. My mom used to bake these when I was young. But in the Philippines, they call it macaroons. The Philippine version of these rochers de coco is a bit different; they are too soft. European rochers de coco are very chewy. I must say I prefer the European version. Nevertheless, I would still prefer to eat my mom's macaroons because they are not too sweet.

This dessert is often confused with the popular french pastry called "macaron." Macaron and macaroons are very different; and you will immediately understand when you compare photos of the two. Macaron is a soft meringue that immediately melts in your mouth. It comes with different flavors and colors. Macaron fillings are chewy--well most of them at least. I really love eating macarons because of the contrasting texture between  the fillings and the meringue layers!

Berlin Ball

My class on Plant Yield went a bit rough for me today. Sadly, I have gotten so engrossed with DNA and protein that I have neglected the basic morphological and physiological plant concepts. I have probably already developed "myopia" when scrutinizing things in this world. Like when I see a flower, it's no longer a beautiful soft object with ostentatious colors. It's more like a fascinating entity composed of redundant genes which had rewired million years following several whole genome duplications. XD

Anyway, to stimulate dopamine release, I bought processed polysaccharides loaded with saturated fats. The supermarket calls it, "Berlin Ball". They taste like the Bavarian doughnuts. The filling is creamy--and isn't as sweet as it looks like. The soft dough sprinkled with confectioner's sugar has a bewildering sweet but salty taste. Sugar and salt always dance around my taste buds whenever I eat pastries.

Seafood Risotto and Grilled Salmon

Since the semester started, I made sure that on the two-day weekly vacation (Saturday and Sunday), one day should be devoted for rejuvenation and the other day for assignments and projects. Yesterday I went to the market with my girl friends and bought lots of fresh fruits, vege and seafoods! And so I did kitchen experiments using the ingredients I bought. I cooked seafood risotto! Actually, I was planning to cook fried rice, but I ended up cooking risotto. Sometimes my pan does magic-- it turns one dish into another. :D

I also grilled Salmon. I love salmon so much! But salmons sold in supermarkets are very expensive. That's why I prefer buying from the wet market. Probably the best place to buy seafoods in Belgium is at Clemenceau wet market in Brussels. They're open Saturdays and Sundays from 9 am to 2 pm.

Australia Beyond the Windshield

Watch out for kangaroos and wombats!

 Hi Everyone!

Last week was really hectic--and I think it will be worse in the weeks to come. I have gotten used to going home from the lab at 9 or 10 in the evening. And somehow I have gotten used to walking alone in the dark "forest" while the strong wind tickles monster trees to dance. It's a dreadful scene, really. You never know when the trees will collapse.

Lake or creek?

Moving on to our brief feature story today... Last year, when I visited my bf in Australia, we had to do a lot of driving. One was the extremely long drive from Sydney to Melbourne. But I didn't find it exhausting because--well, I wasn't the one driving! :D And the sceneries beyond the windshield were inexplicably breathtaking! I had to tell my bf to stop every now and then so we could take pictures. 

Hills.

The kookaburra.

 In all places in the world, I think Australia has the most number of road signs. You will probably find signs every 10 meters! And some of these signs are very unique too. In the first picture above, you will see that the sign is telling people to watch out for kangaroos and wombats. In the countryside where marsupials outnumber the human race, car accidents rarely occur due to collisions between two vehicles. It's usually between a bullet-fast car and an indifferent marsupial crossing the road! Australians seemingly care about preserving the natural environment that they put all these signs just to warn drivers. I even saw a tiny bridge dangling above the road which was intended for koalas. But of course, instead of using the hanging bridges, some koalas choose to "jaywalk" and run the risk of getting hit by a car.

Sunbathing cow.

All sorts of birds are flying everywhere. My bf would frequently point towards a hawk which flew so fast, my poor astigmatic eyes could not even see. Many times he asked, "Did you see that? Did you see that?" When you have poor eyesight, it's hard to spot a flying bird against the beautiful clouds. I only see birds when they fly as a group and make the V formation.

And of course, I can see huge animals like cows and sheep! This last picture really makes me smile. The cow is peacefully resting after a good feed. Everyone of us deserves a good life. :)

Brugge, Belgium

The whole day I was imprisoned in my room, trying to finish revising the second draft of my thesis introduction. Because it was bright and sunny, I kept glancing outside my window, daydreaming about aimlessly loitering around Leuven. 

A view from the boat.

Horse carriage.

I also daydreamed about travelling to Brugge, one of Belgium's touristic spots. It would be a waste not to share these photos taken by my sister's bestfriend when she visited me last year. We went to Brugge on such a beautiful sunny late autumn morning. Because we envied the people riding on the boat, we took a 20-minute cruise around Brugge. The canal scenery was more like the one in Venice, Italy. The boat drivers in Brugge, on the other hand, were not wearing striped shirts. If I remember it right the boat ride was around 15 euros. We also wanted to ride on the horse carriage; unfortunately, day length was too short as it was approaching winter. By the time we finished walking around and we wanted to ride on the horse carriage, the sky was already bleeding darkness. 

Glancing at people on the boat.

I also enjoyed looking at the swans. So huge yet so graceful. Because they have gotten used to being around people, they were very tamed. While I was feeding them with bread crumbs, they accidentally bit me! It felt like two hammers pounded my finger tips from two sides.

Swans in the middle of the canal.

Feeding the swans.

I would love to go back to Brugge this Spring. Can't wait to see my swan friends again. In the meantime, I need to head back to the lab tomorrow. They told me it's a holiday. But who cares about holidays if you're living alone in a foreign country and the people you love are miles and miles away?  

Bedroom in Arles by Vincent Van Gogh

Bedroom in Arles, 1888

Bedroom in Arles, 1889

If you happen to visit Amsterdam, perhaps you can drive away from the Red Light district for a while and visit the Van Gogh Museum. The museum houses countless paintings of Vincent Van Gogh and some other artists whom he influenced and who influenced him. Ninety-five percent of the paintings and sketches in the museum were all created by such a prolific artist. Some of his other paintings (such as the Starry Night) were not even there.

Other than painting a portrait of himself over and over again, Van Gogh is seemingly fond of recreating his artworks. One example is the Bedroom in Arles which he painted three times (once in 1888 and twice in 1889). The museum, however, only housed two of the three paintings. What is worth-mentioning is that, he originally painted Bedroom in Arles in 1888 when he still was psychology stable. A year later, he unfortunately lost his sanity. Once again he painted his bedroom. The strokes and play of colors in the 1889 painting were messier but more dynamic. It seemed to me that insanity unleashed the genius in Van Gogh.