Binge - Heston Blumenthal Opens In London This December!

Where to lunch after shopping all morrning at Harvey Nics? Why, at Heston Blumenthal's of course. The UK’s gastro-alchemist who cooks by science and made his name at The Fat Duck, his restaurant in the little town of Bray, Berkshire, is opening a new restaurant in London this December.

Called Dinner by Heston Blumenthal, you’ll find it at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, just across the road and a couple of steps from Harvey Nics and Harrods. Featuring his usual style of cooking and heavily influenced by his ongoing research and discovery of historic British gastronomy, feature simple contemporary dishes inspired by Britain’s historic gastronomic past and recipes dating as far back as the 16th century, such as Scallops with Cucumber Ketchup and Peas, Bergamot cured Mackerel Salad and Slow Cooked Short Rib of Beef.

Overlooking Hyde Park and featuring lots of wood, leather and iron, the restaurant’s physical set up promises to be quite an experience too. Look out for the one-of-a-kind pulley modelled after the 16th century pulley system originally designed for the Royal British Court’s kitchens and 16th century British recipes sourced from rare antique cookbooks on display at the bar.

Seating 140 guests, there’s a private dining room for 10 and a chef’s table for six within the kitchen. As with these celeb restaurants, the main man won’t be there, but group executive chef of the Fat Duck, Ashley Palmer-Watts, who’s worked with Blumenthal for ten years, will be.

Expect to pay a very decent £25 for a three course set lunch, and a three course a la carte dinner from £55! Reservations open on 15 October 2010. Rush and call at +44 (0) 20 7201 3833!

For details: www.mandarinoriental.com 

- Ee Waun

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Buys – Naughty, Boozy Atomizers For A Spritz Of Glitz

You want to bring your bling to the extremes of fabuliciousness? Then you must have Laura Santinni’s alcoholic atomizers which she says, takes “the glamour of the boudoir to the table”. These tantalizing little bottles contain potent potions of alcoholic liquor with edible metals. One pump onto your food or drink and you'll turn from Ho-Hum Hostess to Madame With The Mostest. 

'Devil’s Breath' is a transformational mist of brandy liqueur with chilli and edible 23 carat gold flakes. Sweet yet fiery, a little spray turns steaks, pasta and chocolate mousse into tantalizing temptations, and makes a hot chocolate or coffee devilishly tempting. 'Angel Mist and Broken Halos' is no more angelic, combining heady grappa and edible silver flakes. Mist freshly shucked oysters or a trembling panna cotta with this wisp of wickedness, and dinner will never be the same again. There’s plenty more you can do – spray a cocktail with this breath of lusciousness, zip it onto carpaccio, sashimi or canapés…Sip with Champagne, perfectly matched with red stilletoes and racy teddy under a respectable outfit of perfect prudishness.

Santinni says you can bring the boudoir to the table, and SimplyFab says you can bring them right back into your scarlet chambers once again. With a simple push of a finger, what else can these little elixirs do to spice up the fun and games? Oooh – We can’t wait to find out!

And just in case you think the booze comes from less-than-luscious sources, rest, assured and inspired, that they are in fact produced by Distilleria Bottega, an award-winning Italian distillery that have been producing grappa for three generations, and based in the Prosecco area near Venice.

These culinary naughties are available at Selfridges in London, Birmingham, Manchester Trafford & Manchester Exchange Square or online at www.selfridges.com (tel: 0800 123 400) Each 100ml bottle costs £17.99 and contains a giddy 38% alcohol.

Just say it – “I Want!”

- Ee Waun

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Buys - Simply Fab Fashion Picks from TOPSHOP

Living in Hong Kong has its fashion advantages - one of them being that I get to see the trends come and go faster than the rest of Asia (with the exception of Japan). If its a trend the street stores here will have it reproduced and sold in multiples of a thousand before they even hit the high street stores as lets face it - with China at our doorstep, what's not duplicated and put together over night at a fraction of the cost in the people's republic, these days? 

In the next two weeks, my plan is to share my pick of wearables and interesting pieces from  various brands and show you some of their key looks for Autumn/Winter this year. Starting with TOPSHOP!!

According to the style maestros at TOPSHOP, there are 3 main looks in their collection, this season.

LOOK #1 - THE OUTSIDERS 

(which takes the best of British heritage pieces from sports like fishing, horse riding and hunting deconstructed with a modern feel)

LOOK #2 - INTO THE WILD 

(inspired by fur, bondage, patchwork, a dishevelled look that still appeal to style) 

LOOK #3 - DARK NOUVEAU 

(taking inspiration from the dark ages, think black with studs, chain mail and embellishments).  

MY PERSONAL PICKS FROM TOP SHOP? I picked some of my favourites that I would probably invest in this season: 

Frayed jeans (from their OUTSIDER Collection) - from bell bottoms to skinny or drain pipe, wear them frayed. I call this the "slasher" look - and its everywhere this season. The more frays you have, the cooler your legs are (literally). Lucky for me, Hong Kong's Winters are at most mild or those knees might freeze! 

Skimpy Shorts (from their OUTSIDER collection) - get this season's Gilligan's island or LOST look - where your shorts look like you have worn them to death and they are skimpy, fraying. Make sure your panties are nice or if you have one too many folds, wear them over tight fit leggings for that carefully layered look. 

Grecian style dress - (from the OUT OF THE WILD collection) this is soft, flowy and romantic with some nice details - the romantic look prevails this season and with soft flowy tops both short and long and one-piece dresses made of georgette and chiffon with lots of detail in front paired with knit vests in cream, black and white that will keep you fashionable but never really warm. 

Aviator short cropped jacket (the OUTSIDERS collection) - this carries through from '09 into this Winter in more variations and colours. Say what you will, but the matrix long is out this season and short is no doubt very much in! Plus I have been looking for one of these forever. 

Beaded shoe (from the OUT OF THE WILD collection) I thought that the beads and embellishments would march out with the peep toe boots and the Steve Madden gladiators but instead the beads have migrated from sandal to sneaker and the stores here are filled with look alikes to this. 

BGoodbye Pashminas and Hello twisted knit wrap. These make their debut this season to warm up your evenings. 

Black dress (from the Dark Noveau collection) - I love the shoulder detail - perfect with a pair of tights and will draw attention to your shoulders instead of your flabby mid-drift (pardon me - I mean, MY flabby mid-drift)

Pictures courtesy of TOP SHOP, from their Autumn Winter 2010 collection. Currently available at all their stores in Asia. 


- Elaine

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By The Way - Our Full Reply To Urban

We are so glad that the editor of Urban published our reply on 3 September! But on a whim, we thought we'd post the full letter we had written her on what we think about being on the scintillating side of 35 right here....

"As a 42-year-old freelance journalist, I read with interest the cover story “Wrong Side of 35” in last week’s Urban. I found it very intriguing that so many women, including yourself seemingly, think of their younger days with a tinge of regret, and that they feel that their beauty is a thing of the past. As such I am compelled to write to you about how I, together with many women I know, celebrate being older. I do not feel I am on the wrong side of 35, and in fact I seem to enjoy myself much more the older I get.

Together with Elaine Yeoh – a fellow 40-something-year-old friend based in Hong Kong – I started a blogazine called Simply Fabulicious in January 2009, which celebrates being “on the scintillating side of 35”, or even 40 for that matter. The reason why we started it was because we felt, women in this age group have so much going for them – more confidence, beauty, means, amongst other things – but it is not adequately addressed. They can be as glamorous and fun loving as they want, or as comfy and laid back, with no apologies. They have ‘been there, done that and bought the t-shirt’ so to speak and there is a refreshing sense of acceptance and security that comes with it. We call this a happy ‘Coming of Age’ and Simply Fabulicious celebrates all that with news about luxury travel (because we can afford it), food (because we know more about it and we don’t always want to cook), fashion (cos we look good and we are no longer geeky), kids (we love them), sex (we love that too and we know more tricks than the young’uns), etc in a happy, tongue-in-cheek spirit.

With Elaine in Hong Kong and myself in Singapore, we fill it as often as we can with international content of relevance to like-minded women. While still in its infancy, SimplyFab has grown to an average of over 2000 hits weekly, which we feel shows there are plenty of happy like-minded women (and men) out there.

For your interest, some of the most well received stories that we have run include how to be photographed naked:

http://simplyfabulicious.blogspot.com/2009/02/naughty-but-nice-how-best-to-be.html

And an appreciation of older women by a particularly good looking guest writer: http://simplyfabulicious.blogspot.com/2009/03/special-edition-international-womens.html)

We are not being ageist, but we do enjoy life incredibly much, and it just seems one-sided to portray women in our age group as ‘formerlies’ to borrow the word from Dolgoff. I’d like to think we are at the prime of our lives – just that the girls in their 20s don’t know what’s in store for them yet!"

- Ee Waun
(Yes, we admit the pictures here do nothing for the post but just add some eye candy to break up the chunks of words!)

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By The Way – Seeing Stars at The Singapore Sun Festival

What happens when the children’s year-end exams are over and you can get a respite from helping them with schoolwork at night? The Sun Festival of course!

Back for the fourth year, the Singapore Sun Festival is rolling out star-studded excitement from 29 October to 7 November. If you don’t already know, it’s a series of events and performances covering seven areas – music, visual arts, film, literature, wine, cuisine and wellness. But from the looks of this year’s line-up, the emphasis seems to be on music.

I’ve already bought tickets for the opening act and main draw of the festival, ‘HITMAN – David Foster and Friends’ and dragging my mother, kid and hubby along as a treat! Multi-Grammy award winning musician, producer and composer David Foster (top) will be performing for two nights (29 - 30 Oct) with Natalie Cole (above), young singing and ‘botox-me!’ sensation Charice, American Idol winner Ruben Studdard, Peter Cetera and The Canadian Tenors. (We saw a sneak peek performance by Foster and Charice via a live online feed during the press conference, and it’s superb! Foster also waved a little Singapore flag on his piano which was real cute for us in the audience, and which makes us sooo believe him when he said he was excited to come to Singapore – and not for the first time either!)

Other performances include Natalie Cole’s greatest hits concert (31 Oct) where she performs duets with her father projected on a screen, jazz great George Benson (above, 4 Nov - I wanna go!) and The Creole Choir of Cuba (below, 5 Nov), an acclaimed vocal and percussion ensemble.

World renowned tenor José Carreras will be performing in an Italian gala performance (2 Nov) with the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory Orchestra and soloists from the Accademia Del Maggio Musical Fiorentino, conducted by Paolo Olmi; and the Singapore Chinese Orchestra will stage a an East meets West Gala Closing Concert Silk Road Odyssey (6 Nov) with rising stars – guanzi soloist Han Le, violin soloist Rachel Lee, pipa soloist Yu Jia (above) and guitar soloist Miloš Karadaglic.

(José Carreras)

(Miloš Karadaglic)

If that’s too uppity-uptight for you, pack your picnic mat and champagne, kick off your shoes and watch free screenings of classic films at Singapore Botanic Gardens or head down to the Esplanade Outdoor Theatre for two outdoor concerts by Tambuco and Indialucia – for free! Make sure you take a walk round the Marina Bay precinct during the festival evenings and see the light art installations – the First of its kind in Asia and promises to be a pretty sight.

And for literary buffs, meet two authors Li Cunxin (above), author of Mao’s Last Dancer, who will share his life story as depicted in his book of which a film has now been made and Tishani Doshi as she talks about her various poems, short stories and her first novel.

(Rachel Lee)

Sharon Stone (sorry, no pix)  fifties and fab, will also be in town for the Symphony of the Stars gala brunch at Fullerton Hotel to conduct a charity auction of luxury items to support Action for AIDS Singapore. The event will also feature Aussie celeb chef Kurtis Stone (right) who will also be conductint cooking classes and other events.

Singapore is The Sun Festival’s home in Asia, but it also takes place every year - I didn't know this... - in Tuscany, Italy and the Napa Valley, California too.

Tix: SISTIC at www.sistic.com.sg or Tel: 6348 5555. For those living outside Singapore, there are travel agents around the region which offer special packages including hotel accommodation and Festival tickets. Details on www.singaporesunfestival.com

-Ee Waun

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Breakaway and Buys - Explore Europe Village Chic Outlet Shopping@!

'

Here's something new for the fabubuliciously jaded 'Euro-traveller'. When planning your next European breakaway to London, Dublin, Madrid, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Munich, Milan, Paris, Brussels or Maastricht, make sure that you detour from the city's main high streets and instead book a Chic Outlet Shopping@ adventure on board their Shopping Express to one of the city's outlying villages. 

What is this? The Chic Outlet Shopping@ adventure basically has a luxury shuttle service that brings shoppers from the heart of all the above European cities to each of the nine corresponding Chic Outlet Shopping® Villages in partnership with some of Europe’s leading travel excursion operators. In short, you get to enjoy a relatively inexpensive ride in luxurious comfort to an idillyic village that you would normally never venture to, passing by some of the most scenic countryside and best of all when you get there, you get outlet shopping at its 'bestest'.

Word has it that these luxury outlet Villages have become the new style hot-spots for savvy shoppers from around the globe, and have become tourist destinations in their own right. Each Village is located no more than an hour outside of a major European city, and has been designed to reflect the charm and sophisticated ambience of the region in which it lies. Elegantly appointed boutiques from a constantly evolving selection of the finest international designer brands, mixed with niche European collections and prices reduced by up to 60% and sometimes more off the recommended retail price, all year round, combined with restaurants and cafés serving local cuisine make for a perfect day out and a little escapism from the urban pace of the city.

Book your Shopping Express tickets at www.chicoutletshopping.com/planyourvisit, 48 hours prior to departure (with the flexibility to amend a booking also up to 48 hours prior to departure as well).

What's available: 

Bicester Village® London

Kildare Village® Dublin

La Vallee Village® Paris

Las Rozas Village® Madrid

La Roca Village® Barcelona

Fidenza Village® Milan

Maasmechelen Village® Brussels

Wertheim Village® Frankfurt

Ingolstadt Village® Munich

- Elaine

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Breakaway - Eloise and The Plaza Suite in New York

New York is the city that never sleeps, and if I’m checked into the Eloise Suite at The Plaza, in New York, I am not sure if I can get much shut-eye as well! But it’s good fun, isn’t it? And surely every girl, young and not so young, would lurve a night or two in this over-the-top haven of pink!

 

Designed by equally excessive Betsy Johnson, this suite is all about Eloise, the fictional character from children’s book series, who lives with her Nanny, pet pug Weenie and turtle Skipperdee at The Plaza and has free run of the place.

 

Set on the 18th floor, the Eloise Suite is all pink extravagance – with a signature Plaza chandelier fitted with pink bulbs, candy striped walls, black and white zebra-print carpet, king-size bed with bedspread covered with scenes from the books, a padded pink headboard sparkles with “trinkles” and comfy chairs upholstered in Johnson’s signature rosebud prints. Guests here get a disposable Eloise camera, Eloise DVDs and books, a tea set and Eloise and Weenie dolls, Eloise robes and towels complete with appliqués of Weenie and Skipperdee.

If that’s not enough, there’s Eloise shopping to do at the massive 2,100-square-foot Eloise shop down at the concourse level. Made out like a playhouse, you can relax in the Living Room, try out clothes in the Fashion Room or watch Eloise movie clips in the Library Room. Then if you’re feeling peckish, take tea at the shop’s Tea Room or, if you’re a resident in the city, organize parties there too.

"'I absolutely loooove The Plaza!' as Eloise would say,” says Betsey Johnson. “Now I hope she says, 'I absolutely loooove my new room decorated by Betsey Johnson! She's so pink, so fun...neon, and stripes, and flowers, and yipes!!! ...petticoats, princess crowns, and even pink chandeliers! Ahhhh...absolutely home-sweet-home.

 

To help you with your Eloise experience, the hotel has a dedicated ‘Eloise Ambassador’ to assist in booking a stay in the Eloise Suite. (Contact her at eloiseattheplaza@fairmont.com) Adjoining the Eloise suite is the Edwardian Suite for the grown ups and comes with a comforting bottle of Champers and truffles to soothe you from all the pink!

- Ee Waun

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Gadgets – Bodum Beauties On The Go

They may not be electronic, but these chic culinary curiosities which come in edible candy colours are essentials for the fabulicious girl, whether cooking at home or consuming on the run.

If you’re having a barbecue in your garden, or a little private dinner grill for two on the beach, we think this portable picnic grill is just to die for. With an enamel-coated steel body, chrome plated steel legs and heat-resistant silicone handles, and dimensions of 15.4 inch by 15.4inch by 14.2inch, it’s perfectly built to fire up those little sausages while you look good….Grill a little, sip bubbly on the side, grill a little….you know the drill. Makes a nice prezzie for your sweetheart too! Priced at $168, the FYRKAT Picnic Grill comes in black, lime green, orange and white.

Push, push while you move!….How about some nicely plunged coffee on the go? The Bodum Travel Press Coffeemaker lets you pump and push your gourmet coffee on the run, with double walls for insulation, non-slip silicone grips and a safety lid to prevent any spillage of liquids. No more three in ones, darling. I’ll take the lime green please! $47.80 for 12oz (about 360 ml) and $57.80 for the 15oz (about 450 ml) coffeemaker.

 

Finally, and on a more sober note, let’s admit it, our Inner Aunties – and admit it, every girl has one – just lusts after every plastic container there is on this earth. Well, the new line of Presso Storage Jars just glams up our food storage needs. Made with temperature safe silicone and borosilicate glass, it’s microwave safe and is resistant to high acidity levels – which means – blessing of blessings! – we can marinate with them! Ranges in size from 0.25L to 2.0L, and costs $19.80 to $39.80.

- Ee Waun

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Breakaway - Club Med 60th Anniversary Party - We Were There!

This year, Club Med celebrates its 60th birthday in a huge way and Antoinette was at its Cherating ‘village’ on a sponsored trip earlier this year to celebrate. She gets us a rundown on its new openings!

I sure am glad I was there for the huge Club Med 60th anniversary party at Club Med Cherating earlier this year. Thanks Club Med! After four days of activity Club Med style, our programme ended with a “star-studded” red carpet night with lots of great company, awesome food, cocktails and drinks, and dancing ‘til the wee hours with Village Chief Ugo Damiani and Mr Olivier Horps, Managing Director Asia-Pacific, plus a special appearance by “Michael Jackson” himself!

Marking their anniversary, Club Med Cherating has rebranded itself as Club Med’s first Eco Nature Resort, and launched a new Jungle Walk and Natural Rock Wall Climbing this year – fun for both nature lovers and city dwellers like myself – plus a revamped Mini Club Med for the tiny tots. To counter the vast buffet spreads that are laid out to fatten guests three times a day, the resort has just introduced a Healthy Cuisine section (as if!) where ingredients going into each dish, and their accompanying calories are clearly labelled for good measure! (Check out their low GI foods. Healthy and yummyyy!)

Beyond the Andaman Sea, the resort chain is launching new villages and concepts too – like the new Club Med Yabuli Ski Resort in China we just wrote about, the first villa concept in Albion, Mauritius, and upgrades at other Club Med resorts: Bintan’s got a gorgeous new spa (Watch out for our news on that – we’ve already checked it out!), Club Med Phuket has renovated its Mini Club Med and launched its new Baby Club Med (more couple time while kids get to have their own fun and games!) and Club Med Bali has also been renovated. For those who like their dose of exotic, 2010 is also set to see new resorts like Club Med Taba in Egypt, Club Med Buzios in Brazil and Club Med Oman in Senegal.

And if top-notch luxury is your thing, Club Med Kani has introduced a dedicated 5 Trident space, the most lavish of their ranks, complete with premium amenities; while Club Med Albion Villa is the first ever Club Med Villa. Situated on a protected Mauritian coast, Club Med Albion Villa adjoins the 5-Trident Resort La Plantation d’Albion for complete and overwhelming luxury.

It’s funny how a concept that started over half a century ago is still successful these days. But pioneers Gerard Blitz and Gilbert Trigano had wanted to create an all-inclusive holiday concept way back in 1950, where guests didn’t have to worry about a thing - just relax and enjoy quality time doing what they liked, and weave in a bit (or a lot of) crazy fun. And those are things which still make a great holiday today. Thanks to this vision in 1950, there are now more than 80 Club Med destinations around the world.

 

Oh, and on top of the all-inclusive meals and activities and private beaches, did you know that the average space of a Club Med resort is about two-and-a-half times larger than other resorts?

For the rest of this year, Club Med continues to celebrate with special activities and events at all their properties, to celebrate 60 years of fun. 

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Beauty - 25 Giveaways from AESOP! Just say 'SIMPLY FABULICIOUS'

I first noticed Aesop when I visited London in the late 90s sold at an uber cool High Street store called Space and I fell in love with its understated apothecary style packaging and almost holistically pure product ingredients. Yes, it IS all about marketing!

The brand actually hails from Melbourne, Australia (who would have guessed?) and since 1987 has made its way around the globe onto some of the world’s top cosmetic shelves because of its mission to create products for skin, hair and body that are made from the highest-quality plant-based ingredients and anti-oxidants, all with exquisite scents.

I have seen it selling in Hong Kong at the very upmarket Joyce stores and now am happy to announce that it has sailed to Singapore’s sunny shores with stores at Millenia Walk (#01-43), Ngee Ann City (#B1-50) where they are launching two fabulicious products, their all new B and Tea Toner (S$43 for 100ml) and the ultimate DIY facial in a bottle that they are calling (you guessed it), ‘A Perfect Facial’ (S$147 for 60ml).

The Perfect Facial contains the richest and most intensive vitamin C hydrating cream and oils including Jojoba, Rosehip and Shea Butter. Great if you have dehydrated skin and need an injection of moisture to combat the effects of that air conditioner blowing daily into your face.

If you are looking for a toner that is not choked with alcohol, try the B and Tea. This is an every day all-climate toner that has Provitamin B5, Green Tea extract and Sodium Gluconate to assist cell turnover and hydration. Use after cleansing the skin to remove any remaining grime and let it rebalance the natural moisture level in your skin.

WHATS IN IT FOR YOU? There is a free consultation and complimentary samples waiting for the first 25 SIMPLYFAB readers. To collect, just go to any two of the Aesop stores at Ngee Ann City and Millenia walk in Singapore and say the secret password. What’s That? why, “SIMPLY FABULICIOUS” of course!

- Elaine

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