Spending the morning of Day 2 in Rome

I love old-skool train with graffiti all over. 

So the morning of the 2nd day we decided not to waste any further time going back to the location of the booked hostel but to proceed our day 2 with a much fulfilling itinerary. We started our day at Flaminio-Piazza Del Popolo station as there were plenty of attractions nearby to each other. 

Apparently this sculpture was inspired by the legend of the founding of Rome. The two infants are Romulus and Remus whom were rescued by a she-wolf who cared for them until a herdsman found and raised them.  As they grew up they fought and build a new city at the side of the river Tiber. However Romolus killed his brother Remus for the disagreement over some defence issues over their new city. Hence naming the city of Rome after himself.

Flaminio-Piazza Del Popolo Metro Station.

Porta Del Popolo the medieval gate in the city wall

In Piazzale Flaminio. I was awe by how historical the every part of the surroundings but yet to discover more awesome surprises coming the way.

Santa Maria Del Popolo, an Augustinian church stands to the north side of Piazza del Popolo is on your left when you enter through Porta del Popolo entrance.

Some of the amazing paintings inside Santa Maria Del Popolo. On the left shows Crucifixion of Saint Peter by Caravaggio and the right is Assumption of the Virgin Mary by Annibale Carraci. 

We took some time sitting down observing the wonderful interior of Santa Maria del Popolo

The skeleton sculpture of Johann Baptista Gislenus' tomb (1670). The inscription reads "neither living here", "nor dead there".

Just right in front of the church of Santa Maria del Popolo, lies Piazza del Popolo, one of the most famous square in Rome. Standing in the centre of this piazza is an eqyptian obelisk of Ramesses II from Heliopolis.  A twin churches can be spotted in between the obelisk which on the left is called Santa Maria in Montesanto and on the right is Santa Maria dei Miracoli.

At the northeast quadrant of Piazza del Popolo you will see steps leading to Pincian Hill. There are some gardens which are good for some recreation activities or just to relax. We spent about 15minutes just to get some nice landscape pictures overlooking Piazza del Popolo and then get down back again using the steps at the other side.

The view above Pincian Hill overlooking Piazza del Popolo toward St. Peter's Basilica.

I wish I could jump from one rooftop to another without knowing where I were going and just get lost in this beautiful city of Rome.

Yeah did some not so proud moment of vandalism by signing off our names on the balcony while enjoying the beautiful view.

Well actually the balcony was full of random messages and names or else we would not be doing such unethical action. Just wanted to leave our names to shout out we were here in Rome and hopefully someday we going to return here again and find back our names.

Dont worry! We didnt do any vandalism on this poor lion statue.

Being silly in front of the fountain Rome between Tiber and Anio

Even statue of liberty can be found in Rome.

I just love walking randomly around the alleys in Europe! Getting lost without fearing instead feeling excited. You will see all sorts of people from all walks of life and you dont know what are their actual agendas.

Fresh fruit stalls. I think this narrow street is called Via Margutta.

Old lady sitting with two of her loyal companions. Somehow I felt pity and had some respect for her for taking good care of her pets despite having difficulties in life.

Piazza di Spagna or Spanish square is one of the most crowded and most famous images in the world. At the base is the famous fountain called Fontana della Barcaccia.

Crystal and I sitting on the Spanish steps the widest staircase in Europe.  It has 138 steps which were built by a French diplomat to connect to Trinita dei Monti, a French church situated on top of the hill.

A wonderful capture of a place full with elegant hotels, inns and residences which is said to attract artists and writers alike.

I wish I could have bought one of this beautiful top-notch painting from Rome.

Trinita dei Monti,  a French Church.

Upon climbing up the steep stairs we thought we deserved some gelato as a reward as it was such a great sunny day! Anyways that was our first gelato and believe me, that one day I had 3 gelatos in total . It was so freaking addictive and sooo yummy I could even give up on Haagen Daz ice cream and have Italian gelato for the rest of my life.

Anyways I got to stop jotting for today! It wasnt the end of Day 2 yet! Please stay tune and wait for me to finish up my gelato first! xoxo!

Wasting Day 1 in Rome

It is scary that it has been a year since I last posted about my trip in Rome, Italy. I started to develop some poor memories but sometimes vividly remember some of the details of travel while looking back to some pictures. So let the pictures tell the stories.

Continued from the previous post. So we headed down to the metro station called Basilica San Paolo. Metro map can be found here. Basilica San Paolo also known as Papal Basilica of St Paul's Outside the Walls is one of the four ancient major basilicas in Rome besides St John Lateran, St Mary Major and St Peter's. It is also called Ostian Basilica as it is located on the road leading to Ostia that is built over the burial place of Paul the Apostle.

The clocktower of St Paul's Outside the Walls

The beautiful interior of St Paul's Outside the Walls

The altar in Basilica of St.Paul's Outside the Walls.

This apse mosaic was painted by Venetian artists showing Christ is flanked by his apostles Peter, Paul, Andrew and Luke.

The tabernacle of confession of Arnolfo di Cambio (1285). 

The outside of St Paul's Outside the Walls

In front of St Paul's Outside the Walls.

This was actually the first basilica that I went so I was totally awe by the interior architecture especially the ceiling. To people who have plenty of time to explore Rome, I recommend you to pay a visit to this basilica of St Paul before going to St Peter in Vatican City to feel the significance of it.

Mc Donald for dinner and you will be surprised we had Mc Donald even for almost every meals. It's cheap and delicious for backpackers like us who didn't have so much money. I super love the strawberry milk shake so much that I ordered it every time even for breakfast.

We were already cautious enough to avoid any unwanted incidents such as being pick-pocketed however still someone almost opened my backpack from behind while inside the metro. Luckily a local woman who knew some basic english told us to be careful as she spotted him acting suspiciously behind our backs so we turned around and scared him enough to get down to the next station. But not everyone in Rome was as scary as we were warned. Just 3 girls in their early 20s could send some signal of vulnerability to be taken advantage of so we were extra alert with our surrounding. However we still met great new friend along the journey including a good looking man who offered us free drinking water and inviting us to sit inside for free whenever he spotted us spending almost an hour waiting for the bus every night. I forgot your name but would like to thank for trying to help us getting train tickets to Pisa. xoxo.

Easy broccoli and chicken stir-fry

This easy stir-fry chinese style brocolli serves up to 2 people.

Ingredients

1. 1 chicken breast (sliced to thinner pieces)

2. 1 bulb of garlic(chopped finely or minced it)

3. 1-inch piece of ginger (sliced thinly)

4. 2 tablespoon of soy sauce

5. 1 tablespoon and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch

6. 1 1/4 teaspoon of salt

7. 3 tablespoon of dry sherry or shaoxing cooking wine

8. 2 tablespoon of sesame oil 

9. 1/2 cup of water

10. 3 tablespoon of olive oil

11. 1 floret of broccoli

12. 1/2 big carrot

13. 2 tablespoon of oyster sauce or hoisin sauce

14.1 teaspoon of black pepper

Method:

1. Marinate chicken with half of the chopped garlic and ginger, soy sauce, 1 teaspoon of cornstarch, 1 teaspoon of salt, sherry/shaoxing wine and sesame oil and leave it for at least 15 minutes.

2. Heat the non-stick frying pan over high heat and add a tablespoon of oil. Add in the remaining garlic and ginger and fry until fragrant. 

3. Add in broccoli stems and carrots and stir-fry for about 30seconds. Add in the remaining florets, 2 tablespoon of water, 1/4 teaspoon of salt and season with black pepper. Stir-fry for about 2 minutes until brocolli is bright green but still crisp. Set aside.

4. Heat the frying pan again and 2 tablespoon of oil. Add in the marinated chicken and stir-fry until a little brown for about 2 minutes. Add in oyster sauce/hoisin sauce and return the brocolli and carrot into the pan. Also stir in mixture of 1 tablespoon of cornstarch dissolved in 1/2cup of water into the pan.

5. Stir-fry for another 1 minute or until the sauce thicken. Serve while hot with steamed rice !

Japchae (Korean Stir-fry Glass Noodle with Mixed vegetables)

It was my first attempt making this korean glass noodle dish and I would say it tasted pretty good! I guess because of the nicely marinaded chicken and also the power of sesame oil ! I love putting using sesame oil for frying my fried-rice too because it makes the rice taste just like from the chinese restaurant! Hope you guys love this noodle recipe ! This recipe serves up to 4 people.

Ingredients:

1. 250g of Korean glass noodles. (you can get the normal glass noodle from your available store) 

2. 150g Chicken, beef or pork sliced thinly

3. 1 Carrot

4. 2-3 handful of Spinach (I forgotten this for this recipe though!)

5. 1/2 Onion chopped finely

7. 4 cloves of garlic chopped finely

6. 5 dried chinese mushroom (soaked and chopped into thinner slices)

7. Sugar

8. Salt

9. Black pepper powder

10. Soy sauce 

11. Sesame oil 

12. 1 egg

13. Olive Oil

Method:

1. Marinade the meat with 1.5 tablespoon of soy sauce, 1 tablespoon of sugar, 3 teaspoon of garlic, 1 teaspoon of black pepper and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil and leave aside for half an hour at least. And soak the glass noodle in cold water for half an hour as well.

2. Parboil the spinach in boiling water, wash with cold water and drain out any excess water. Season with dash of salt and 1 teaspoon of sesame oil. Set aside.

3.  Boil the glass noodle in boiling water with 1 tablepoon of olive oil  for 5 minutes. After that rinse the noodle gently in running cold water twice. Drain the noodle and add in 1 teaspoon of sesame oil, 1.5 tablespoon of soy sauce and 1 tablespoon of sugar and mix well. Set aside.

4. Separate the egg white and yolk and beat individually. Pan-fry separately into very thin layer like pancake.Slice into strips and set aside.

5. Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil and stir-fry onion, carrot and add in dash of salt and pepper to taste. Add in the marinaded meat and slices of mushroom and stir-fry at medium heat for until cook. 

6. Add in the marinaded glass noodle, spinach and mixed well with other ingredients. Garnish with egg strips. Serve and eat while its still hot from the wok!

Making your own homemade plain yogurt

The advantages of making your own homemade yogurt are easy, healthier and cheaper! Firstly you just need to have some milk powder and spoonful of plain yogurt as the starter which will be the source of beneficial active cultures. You do not need to go to the store again to buy a new bottle of plain yogurt once you have your very own homemade yogurt as you can use it as the starter for the new batch and so on.

Make sure the bottle of plain yogurt which you going to purchase has the label saying containing "active live cultures" and also doesn't say "pasteurized". This is due to the process of pasteurizing would have kill off the good bacterias aka the active live cultures/probiotics present in the yogurt.These live cultures in yogurt are good for our body as their inhibit the growth of harmful bacteria. They are fermented in milk at warm temperature turning the milk into pudding-lie consistency as lactose is converted to lactic acid thus giving yogurt slight acidic flavour. Hence people with moderate lactose intolerant can digest yogurt without a problem as the process of turning milk into yogurt transforms the lactose into lactic acid, which means our body don't need to process the sugars in the original milk product.These good bacterias can also relieve the symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome and prevent urinary tract infections. Other than that yogurt is also a source of various beneficial nutrients such as alcium, protein, and vitamin B2. It also helps in restoring the balance of your body's yeast levels thus preventing yeast infections. It can help prevent urinary tract infections.

You can eat your yogurt plain, or mix with some fruits. Eat with your oatmeal or you can also make delicious smoothie! Yogurt is also said can be the substitute for sour cream in cooking/baking. So how do we make our homemade yogurt?


Ingredients


1. 1000 ml milk
2. 33 g milk powder
3. 50 ml plain yogurt with active cultures



Directions


1. Pour milk and milk powder into a large saucepan at medium heat. Stir the milk powder until fully dissolve.

2. Do not boil the milk mixture but heat it until you see small bubbles start to surface at the sides of the pan because we do not want to kill of our good bacterias. Or remove the mixture from the heat when the temperature of the mixture reaches 82 degree Celcius.

3.Cool the mixture until the temperature has dropped to 45 degrees Celcius.
Add in the plain yogurt to the milk mixture and mix well.

4.Pour the overall mixture into a thermos flask to maintain the temperature of 45 degree Celcius for up to 8-10 hours. Another trick to maintain this temperature is by simply setting your oven to the temperature of 45 degree Celcius while your yogurt is kept in jars/thermos. The longer time of fermentation allowed the more sour your yogurt will turn into.

5.Do not worry if you see a thin layer of yellowish liquid on the top but mix it back into the mixture. Voila and your yogurt is ready! You can keep your yogurt in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 weeks.

6.Save a little extra out as a starter for the next batch. But over time your homemade yogurt will start to lose it's potency as starter, hence every fifth batch you may want to use store-bought yogurt as starter. Do make sure it says ''live active cultures'' on the bottle!

Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

This is a non-butter chocolate chip cookies with oats added for health benefits. Instead of butter I used Canola oil. This recipe yield about 40 pieces of medium sized-cookie. Hope you guys like it!


Ingredients:
3/4 cup of wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/2 teaspoon of baking powder 
1/4 teaspoon of salt
Some cinnamon to taste
1/2 cup brown sugar 
1/4 cup of chocolate chips
3/4 cup of oats
1/4 cup of canola oil
1 egg
1 teaspoon honey




Method:


1. Preheat oven to 175 degree Celcius. 


2. Mix together wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, brown sugar, chocolate chips and oats. 


3. Make a well in the center and add in the canola oil, egg and honey. 


4. Mix together with a spatula. Form the dough into balls and flatten them slightly on the cookie sheet.


5. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes

Carrot Apple Yogurt Drink

I have been experimenting and making various of smoothies with different type of fruits using my homemade yogurt every morning. This is a refreshing drink especially for the health-conscious ones due to its vitamins,minerals and fibres benefit. In any of my smoothies, I do not use sugars but substituted with honey due to health concern.Hope you guys enjoy it!

Ingredients: 

1. 1 carrot (chopped into small cubes)

2. 1 apple (chopped into small cubes)

3. 100ml plain yogurt

4.  Dash of cinnamon to taste

5. 2 teaspoon of honey

6. A pinch of salt

7. 5 pieces of ice cubes

Method:

1. Blend everything except ice cubes until all well mixed.

2. Add in the ice cubes and blend for few seconds and it is ready!