#113 A Journey with Silk Road

Soooo, I woke up one fine morning and was about to hit the road to get some errands done, and then I received a message from Michelle saying that I am invited to Silk Road MY - a Chinese oriental themed event. Oh boy, was I thrilled! First event of the year! It definitely made me felt like this event is going to give a great kick-start to my 2016.

The moment I walked into the event hall, I was warmly greeted by a few beautiful usherettes in conspicuous yellow cheong sam (Chinese traditional dress) and ushered me to the Silk Road MY backdrop to snap a picture of myself and post it on Instagram to stand a chance to walk away with a bottle of XO Hennessy. 

So anyway, here's my ootd! Red dress from G2000 (to blend in with the Chinese oriental theme since I don't have a cheongsam/qipao), clutch from ZARA and heels from Voir. 

I was immediately ushered into the other hall right after the photo sesh and was served with free-flow of Gold Label cocktail.

The room was a hive of activities and the first activity that caught my attention was The Art of Calligraphy. I was wholly amazed with the calligraphy master's masterpiece and immediately requested one for myself.

Moving on to the Tea Ceremony activity. Little did I know, Chinese tea has its complexity and this activity has definitely taught me a thing or two on savouring Chinese tea the right way. Do you even know that different teas require dissimilar temperature, technique and period? Well, not that I know of until the tea master educated me with a thing or two about teas - which was very interesting tbh. Like, how green tea takes only 30 seconds for it to be ready to be served whereas Oolong tea takes about 40 seconds. It's amazing, isn't it?

And according to the tea master, the first layer of the tea was never meant to be drank and teas must be served from left to right. It's a Chinese traditional culture since a millennium years ago. 

After exploring all of the activities that were held in Silk Road, I got the chance to speak to the ever so beautiful and entertaining emcee of the night; Julie Woon. Sure she is beautiful from inside out. It was a good chat with her thou.

Not long after, we were ushered into the dining hall with the Chinese orchestra performing before everyone settled down comfortably. 

It was truly a privilege to be able to dine and wine with all of the other amazing people in the hall whilst savouring the finely crafted cuisine prepared by Chef James Won and Enfin Culinary Team.

First entree                                                                                                                           

Scallop, calamari, citrus, mints and petals.

This dish was utterly appetizing even at first bite whilst pairing with a good glass of whiskey. Mm mm.. A good one to begin your meal with.

Second entree                                                                                                                       

Green tea salmon 40°, smoked cucumber, textures of potato and green beurre Blanc.

I honestly can't decide which is my favourite because i'm a salmon loverrrr! And this dish definitely made me wanting more. Like I wish I could ask for another plate of this goodness. It was seasoned with green tea but I like how the green tea was not too overwhelming. It gives a nice, refreshing and aromatic balance to it. And the salmon skin was well caramelized and it was so crispy! Gosh.

Plat Principal                                                                                                                        

Cordyceps chicken on chlorophyll carpet, porcini mushrooms and pates de riz. 

Do you get what I mean now? When I said I couldn't exactly decide which was my favourite dish of the night because everything tasted so magnificent. Cordyceps chicken breast (oh how I love eating this part of the chicken!) + cordyceps broth!! Yeah you heard me! Cordyceps brothhhh. It was soooo good that I bet a lot of us wish to have more of the broth :P

Dessert                                                                                                                                 

Plum, cheese, chocolate and basil sauce.

How can a meal ever be complete without dessert? Dessert is always the best part of a meal which I totally look forward to. I really love this dessert so much which gives another plus point to my dining experience with the Chef James Won and Enfin Culinary Team. Plum? Cheese? Chocolate? And then basil!? At first I was thinking to myself, "how do all of these come together?" Boy it friggin worked. It was down-to-earth gooooooooood ok! It amaze me how all of the 4 different components complement each other. 

I really wanna thank the emcee; Julie Woon for keeping us all entertained, the Chef James Won and his culinary team for putting up such delightful and delicious fine cuisine and not forgetting..

Diana Liu, who entertained us all with her pleasurable singing ability. Singing from classical Chinese songs to classical Jazz throughout the night.

It was a great experience all in all. From the activities such as Rainbow Calligraphy and Tea Ceremony to the Chinese oriental dining experience and even to the very core of this event. I have now discovered and experienced the blissfully unaware culture and art of the Eastern. 

Xx.

#112 A Walk with Silk Road MY

The Eastern culture is a continent which consists of an exceedingly broad geographic, and the Silk Road, which is also known as Silk Route, is an ancient network which served as a means of carrying out cultural trade among the civilizations along its network connecting the West and East of China and India to the Mediterranean Sea.

Some of us believed that a culture is the set of concepts that help us to navigate our world despite the differences in nationalities, societies, beliefs, lifestyles and ethnic groups in the region. Most of the time, people are heavenly unaware of these incredible influences of their culture. By knowing more and adopting the way different culture affects one's thought, all of us can change the typical way of working things out. When on has the tendency to focus on an individual people and objects, then start paying attention to the way people and objects interrelate. These relationships are often an abundant source of unknowing innovative ideas.

In the modern world today, not only the Western has successfully influenced the world, the Eastern emerged into the economy and has also successfully impacted and influenced everyone worldwide through culture and art. Unlike the olden days where the Western has always out-shined the Eastern in many ways.

By adopting and adapting to the different cultures from all around the world, people get inspired which later turn all that into many innovative ideas in many different sectors. One of the best example is art – whereby the Eastern and the Western have been actively collaborating with each other in terms of technology, education, calligraphy, interior and many more.

Let me show you a couple of differences between the Modern and the Traditional Eastern's furniture.

The traditional:

And the modern:

Another great example of how the Eastern culture influences the world is the number 1 famous Korean cosmetic brand – Memebox (which is my personal favourite btw) has been doing collaborations with the Western companies such as The New York Times, XTM, Cosmopolitan and Allure Magazine.

Collaboration between Memebox and Samantha S.

Another successful impact of the Eastern - China is the current rave of XiaoMi smartphone which was first launched in the year 2010. I believe many of us uses XiaoMi as a substiture of Apple's iPhone as it is almost as efficient and effective as of Apple's iPhone. Even I myself, am a XiaoMi user and to be honest, I am very satisfied with its functions and efficiency. 

I'm really proud of how the Eastern has been impacting the world in positive ways. What about you?

-

Well, stay tune for more updates from me with Silk Road oraites! Will be back with more and interesting updates! Pinky promise xx.