Kirien Sangha

I have really - like really, REALLY - gotten into Vietnamese food lately.

When I was New York last November during one horribly windy day when me and my friends were hungover, by chance we fell into Saigon Shack - if you're ever New York, you should definitely go here. Each of us ordered a bowl of Pho and it was exactly what we wanted; the hot spicy broth was full of different meats and vegetables. Since coming back to the UK I've been determined to make it, and despite what I had thought, it's quite easy to make. It takes about two hours in total, but well worth the effort. 

This is a great video I found on YouTube explaining how to make this Vietnamese thing of beauty....
 
The List
For the broth
16 cups of water
3 inch piece of giner
1 small peeled onion
2.5 tablespoons of salt
3 tablespoons of sugar
3.5 pounds of chicken

The Spices
1 tablespoon of corainder seeds
5 star anise
1 whole cinnamon stick
7 cloves
1/3 tea spoon of cumin seeds
1 tea spoon of black pepper corns

Noodles
Pho noodles or any of your choice

To serve 
Thai basil
Bean sprouts
Fresh coriander
Lime wedges
Sliced red union
Spring onions
2 tablespoons of fish sauce
Chilli sauce

Chopping boards out

Toasting the spices

The result

The first thing I do when I'm planning to go abroad is to decide which museums I have to see. Whether it's the MoMA in NYC , The Jewish Museum in Berlin, or the Louvre in Paris. This year however, I've decided to make an effort to see more of the Museums in England.

The BMAG is a free museum in Birmingham and was showcasing the "Love and Death: Victorian Paintings from Tate" exhibition. It's an exciting display of iconic paintings from the Tate. The most famous piece was the Lady of Shalott (1888), one of the Tate's most famous and popular works. The exhibition also featured other classical paintings by other great 18th century artists such as Frederic Leighton and Lawrence Alma-Tedema.

The exhibition is small - two rooms, but it's free and both rooms have enough seats that allow you to sit down and ponder over the art. If you're like me, that is you like to know the context behind the picture as well as the history, a guided talk is a must. Unfortunately, I missed the talk on that day but still, it was well worth the visit and I'm glad that I went. 

I had been meaning to write about some of my favourite adverts of 2012, well, back in 2012. But I've only managed to get around to doing it now; here they are any way. It's fair to say that most of the commercials I selected are charged with emotion, and I am sure you'll recognise them all. It's unsurprising that adverts from both Anomaly and W+K popped up, they're two of my favourite agencies. But here are selection any way. 

This Olympic ad had everyone talking, it was a great piece from P&G. Oh - and thanks Mum! 

This great piece by DDB New York took a look at the #First WorldProblems hashtag that was trending on Twitter. It showed people from Haiti say the problems we tweet about and it definitely made us all stop and think, which is what advertising is meant to do. 

Of course a Nike advert had to be mentioned, how it could it not be? Nike took over the Olympics, but that's a different post. Here W+K and Nike did a great ad about, greatness. 

This Paralympic commercial was phenomenal and so were the athletes who took part. 2012 was such a great sporting year for Britain. 

Just my favourite advert of 2012. 

So I had always wanted to go away for New Years. Like always. Whenever I stay in Britain and go out, it's forever a disappointment. You know: paying a ridiculous amount to get into a club, waiting a ridiculous amount of time to actually get into a club, and then paying a ridiculous amount for drinks. I'm also too old for that now, my patience is very minimal. 

And so, this year me and some friends decided to go away. Barcelona seemed like the ideal place and so we quickly booked it. 

Barcelona is a great place to go and visit. Here are some quick facts: 
1) The Aerobus from the airport to the city centre is excellent; it's frequent, cheap and quick. 
2) For an apartment, we of course, used Airbnb. 
3) As a rough guide, breakfast is about 5 euro, lunch is about 10-15euro and dinner is about 20-25euro, of course this depends hugely on where you eat. 
4) You must try Tapas, but search for some good ones before you go. 
5) Make sure you head over to Hotel Miramar for the best views of Barcelona 
6) Beware, pick pockets are rampant in Barcelona 
7) I went with RyanAir, who despite popular belief, are actually okay. Just read their small print, pay for your baggage before you arrive at the airport.  

                                     

Morning time in Barcelona

On New Years Eve we were luckily enough to be invited to a Spaniard's home - which was gorgeous - for dinner. These three Italians took the kitchen though to make main course and it was delicious.