My Belfast Impressions

My original aim to visit Belfast was to get a sense of the tragic history behind Ireland and to see the Giant's Causeway. Spending just a short two days was too short in a city that was rich with little historical nuggets such as the city where the Titanic launched, the coast where the Spanish Armada sunk, the Peace Line, Bloody Sunday in Derry.

Instead what i saw was what all the tourists see, I missed out on the museums ( sad to say ), went for the famous historical pubs, visited Bushmills briefly, missed out on the Peace Line (closed on weekends.. WHY Tourism Board WHY?). Maybe one day soon, I'll head back to Belfast again to cover it all.

Here's what I did though,
Visited the iconic Crown Liquor Salon

Went for Dinner there for an uninspiring Irish Stew (carrots, meat and potatoes)

Tried Champ - a Northern Ireland Creation (felt conned, it was mashed potatoes with Spring Onion)

Visited the Old Bushmills Distillery, the home of the world's first Whiskey distillery. I really liked the smell of the hops in the air. It was just so aromatic.


The rest I have more or less covered in the earlier entry. One thing I liked about their restaurants was the large number of sauce sachets they had. (tomato sauce, brown sauce, mustard, mayo, tare tare)

University Halloween Party

Just went for my first Halloween Party in Ireland. Thanks to the university student committee for organizing this ! The venue was small and cozy, people streamed in gradually. High, costumed, and happy ! Still, i'm wondering how Zouk and our own funky Singaporeans will dress up this year ~ Here's missing home a little bit...

Back from Belfast

Belfast. The last of all my trips in Ireland. Don't get me wrong, Ireland is a beautiful country by itself. But stunning scenery after stunning scenery, after a while, all the coastal views + natural wonders + green pastures look the same.

The city by itself was pretty cool, much bigger than Dublin, buildings are taller, shops open later. Pubs are better ! Looking around, you will not get the sense of the legendary violent history that went past this city just a few years ago, protestant versus catholic.


Little lucky things happen to us on the way, like suddenly seeing this street march on the road.

Finding the Belfast politically charged murals

Locating the restaurant, Morning Star, named as Ireland's Best 100 pubs, and also for its pub food.

Finding the famous rope bridge open in the last week of the year.



Now for the unlucky, getting pelted by HAILSTONES when I was making my way back on the rope bridge. It was a cold, windy day to begin with. I was wearing my overcoat, jacket, 2 long sleeve shirts AND still freezing my ass off. As we made our way to the rope bridge, the sun came out. It was beautiful... blah blah blah.


The night before, we met a bunch of happy backpackers in the dorm that we were staying in. Happy, because they were all a bunch of strangers playing drinking games. The three of us already had a bottle of whiskey among ourselves, popped out the bottle of gin that I bought, started to drink their beer, cider and vodka. The night went by in a really hazy way, the next morning = HANGOVER. While hungover, I lose my contact lens down the sink. Hungover + Blind.

After we crossed the bridge over to the island, it started raining. There was no shelter. As we crossed the open, exposed bridge, rain started coming down on us. Then it felt like someone was literally slapping my face. Then i looked down and saw little white stones at my feet. HAILSTONES. Such is the nature of Irish weather, you get something new every 5 mins.



The Giant's Causeway was stunning, but after the rain and hailstones (Cold + Hungover + Blind + Wet), i was looking like a deranged person wondering around a bunch of rocks.

Acquiring a love for ...

There are so many little details in my latest trip that I want to share, but impossible to do them all. Some of the foodie highlights that I appreciated was discovering pearl barley.

I love innards, you can give me hearts, kidney, liver, intestines whatever any day. I blame it to my Cantonese upbringing where there is a "leave nothing behind" mentality, and "fear factor" tasting where my grandma would ask me to close my eyes and taste different exotic foods. So I order a beef tripe Hungarian style stew, when offered potatoes or pearl barley. I naturally went for the 'different' one.

Beef trip stew was so-so but the real wonder was the pearl barley in the picture. Eaten like rice or risotto-style, I never knew that you could cook barley like that. Was so inspired, I bought a pack of pearl barley from my local Tesco and it is one of my staples now. It is not soft or squishy or sweet. The pearl barley just sucks up and complements the taste of the stew. By itself, it is like rice, tasteless but with a good chewy texture.


Another different thing that I have learn to appreciate was Poppy-seed. Being a person who simply likes new experiences, I just randomly picked out pastries, since there was no labels nor do the staff speak any English. I suppose it is partially my good fortune that a)I have no allergies that I know of and b) I eat literally everything. One of the most pleasant surprises that I had was finding a strudel in Budapest that had a poppyseed & apple filling. Tasting somewhat like sesame, with that aromatic goodness, but yet slightly lighter on the palate, I seriously liked it alot and started to look for all sorts of pastries with it. Some items that I found throughout was grind-up Poppyseed with sugar on bread, poppyseed filling with nuts. When i do buy my first oven, this is on the list of things that I will try to bake.


Alphonse Mucha, I know that I left a piece of my heart with him over in Prague. Discovering his works all over Prague in souvenir shops, I was wondering who this artist was and then, I found his exhibition. It was love at many many sights. Now i swear that once I get my own apartment, I'm buying high-quality prints of his works, frame them and put them around my apartment. This collage from a bunch of images that I grabbed online just doesn't do him any justice at all.

Getting the biography of Alphonse Mucha from this website, Alphonse Mucha(1860-1939) was during his life-time the most famous artist of the Art Nouveau period; indeed, his imagery was so inextricably entwined with Art Nouveau that the entire movement was referred to by Goncourt as the'Mucha Style'. Famous throughout Europe and the Americas, he inspired other artists and designers who copied him and plagiarised him so that for years the image of the Muchaesque beauty surrounded by her characteristic symbols was enshrined in advertising, magazine covers and illustrations, book jackets, posters, paintings and numerous artifacts.

My Prague Absinthe Experience

I was randomly walking around Prague ( meaning: lost !) when I found this pub. I have heard about absinthe from many people, and tried it once in Shanghai. But in one of the few countries still making absinthe, I just had to try it.

Absinthe, also known as the Green Fairy, has thujone, compound inside wormwood that is used to make absinthe, giving it its kick. Normal absinthe has already 70%- 75% alcohol AND thujone. Two shots of absinthe and I will be in LaLa-Land. At the height of its popularity, many writers and artists based in Paris drank this for its hallucinogenic properties and claimed that many a famous work was credited to this amazing drink.

From the absinthe pub that I was in, there was two ways to prepare it. One was to do it via water. You drip water onto the sugar cube and let it slowly flow into the drink. Once you think that the water is enough, just enjoy!.


The next method was more kick-ass, it was the fire method. You down it like a tequila ! Almost. Heh. First, you have to quickly dip the sugar cubes into the absinthe. You set aside one on a plate. You let the other one burn, and use it to light the absinthe. Once the sugar cube is dissolved, you down it, then suck on the other sugar cube you had earlier set aside on the plate.


Instant drunkenness guarantee ! It gave a good buzz, tasted quite like sambucca. But i like the water method much better than the fire method. The fire method was nasty, meant to be purchased as a drink for people on their birthdays, stag nights, and other occasions where you want to mess around with them.



The next time if you are ever in Prague, after 7pm when most of the places are closed. Do check out the little lanes behind the National Theater. It is filled with many little local pubs and restaurants, away from the usual tourist areas. Home brewed beer, local food, wine bars, I could see many of the local people just chilling out in them.