Sugarchic Revival

I'm happy to announce that I have some new accessories for sale now!

All the pieces in this post were designed handmade right here in Korea by two local designers.  There are both necklaces and earrings.  Enjoy!  (All prices in Australian dollars.)

First, I have some beautiful double-strand necklaces.  The layered necklace trend is still going strong, and this is a simple take on that style.

(Above pics from eliving.blogspot.com and usmagazine.com)

'Raindrops'

$30

'Birds of a Feather'

$30

'Water and Ice'

$25

Scroll down for matching earrings

The top stone:

The bottom stone:

'Silver Stones'

$35

Detail at the clasp of the necklace (this will hang at the back of your neck)

Here are the earrings!

'Water and Ice' Earrings (match 'Classic Stones' Necklace)

$18

'You Stud'

Two colors available

$20

'Baby Blues'

$18

Click here to place an order, or send those e-mails to sugarchic.shop@gmail.com!

Boring but useful :p -

Payment: I accept payment through Paypal or Australian bank transfer.  

Postage: I can arrange postage by air, sea or EMS.  

Please contact me for postage costs and options.

Let's Burger

When my parents came to visit me we stumbled upon a cute burger place in Sanlitun, in a lane between Sanlitun 3.3 and the Village.  It's a really gorgeous place and they have a huge variety of delicious burgers there.

Mmm onion rings

My Mexican burger

I remembered the place a few weeks later when I was goign around Sanlitun handing out notices of the puppy I saved from Yuanmingyuan.  

I went and left a notice there, and the owners of Let's Burger called me back and actually helped me find a home for little Benji.  Benji is now living with their friend, a photographer who runs the gallery just around the corner from Let's Burger.

I was really happy with the response I got when I went around randomly asking store owners to help me with finding the little puppy a home.  The management of Sanlitun 3.3 actually stuck notices at all their entrances and offered to e-mail their clients for me!  Starbucks and Subway both put up notices near their front doors.  I really appreciated that in the hustle and bustle of the Beijing business day, people took the time to listen to me and help out.

Big props to Sanlitun shops!

Nature Republic and Myeongdong

Just got home from a quick visit to Myeongdong in Seoul.  LOVE my new shoes.

The recently opened Nature Republic cosmetics store (I hear it was started by people from the Face Shop who decided to leave to do their own thing) was giving away free face masks to whoever went into the store.  They've been doing crazy marketing all over the place, free gifts, free water, just to get more people in stores.  

The face masks feature Rain, of course =p

I also bought this foot mask!  I've never seen one before, and it seems like a really GREAT idea.  My feet are in bad condition because I've been running around all summer in flip flops, so I'm excited to see if this will help.

I really hope it does give me 'peace of foot & heel'.. lol.

Candy Hearts

I went to Toda Cosa in Gangnam and bought some candy-coloured eyeliner pencils by VoV.  They reminded me of those candy hearts from junior school days... :)

Am really excited about all the shopping and makeup here in Seoul!  There is so much stuff here and I can't wait to have a proper look around.  

Playing with the green one!

Excuse the messy hair.. just got out of bed =p

Saveurs de Corée

This is a tiny Korean restaurant in Nanluogu Xiang (a small hutong I wrote about earlier near Hou Hai).  The food is pretty good and affordable, they have set meals as well.  Go early or book for a table upstairs for a view of the hutong.

My favourite dish was the tofu with some kind of onion dressing, pictured below.

Made in China, Grand Hyatt Beijing

Contact:

See website

(Located in Wangfujing/王府井)

We ate:

Peking Duck, Beggars Chicken, Kungpo Chicken, Fried Fish with special sauce, various cold dishes and vegetables, fried dumplings (饺子)

I thought the Peking Duck was one of the best I had in Beijing.  It was less oily and fatty than the average peking duck, and we were told that there are different ways to eat the skin - parts of the skin are meant to be eaten alone with the sauce or sugar, and the other parts are meant to be wrapped with the meat in a duck pancake.  The waiter will show you how!

The jiaozi (Fried dumplings/饺子) were really exciting because they had this 'lace' connecting them all, you can see it in the above pictures.

Food was really yum.  Actually, all the food I write about here is good - I don't bother writing about bad food, unless it's so disgustingly horrible that I want to prevent other people from suffering the same experience.

Hua Jia Yi Yuan/花家怡圆

Contact:

东城区东直门内235号

Dōngchéngqū Dōngzhímén Nèi 235 Hào

AnDingMen +86 10 6405 1908

We ate: (in order of the pictures below) Peking Duck, Papaya Soup with Snow Frog Jelly, steamed fish, vegetarian dish with mantou, HuaJiaYiYuan's signature spicy chicken and noodle dish.

I thought the peking duck was not good at all, there are places that are much better.  The duck wrappers were served all rolled up standing in a cute ceramic jar, but they dried out really fast that way, and the duck was very greasy and not great at all.  The rest of the food though, was really lovely and enjoyable.  Their signature chicken dish is really spicy. I love chilli and it was even a bit too spicy for me!

Tip: Go to the 'Ghost Street' (gwei jie) branch and book a table on the ground floor for the Chinese-y ambience - traditional Chinese music live, old Chinese courtyard decor.