Sunday Brunch - Bacar, Soho

 

A couple of weeks ago J was out on a weekend business trip, and I joined my friend Marie and her boyfriend Roger for Sunday brunch. Sunday brunch in Hong Kong is ok, but nothing special, as far as I see it. Paris is my favorite city when it comes to yummy brunches, with all those French pastries... heaven!! Anyway, we chose Bacar in Soho for our brunch and it was quite good, specially price/quality wise.

Both Marie and Roger went for the eggs benedict. They come with bacon but since Roger is a vegetarian got it changed to salmon instead, which looked way yummier! The price for the brunch sets is around HK$100, service charge included. There's several options to choose from, and I went for the Breakfast Pizza, which was good although very meaty, and I'm not such a fan of meat either.

The best thing of the brunch set is it's served with the drink of your choice, the regular tea or coffee selection or cocktails or smoothies. Marie and I had the strawberry and apple smoothie and it was DELISH! That smoothie is already worth half the price of the set.

Visited on: 10 March, 2013
Overall Quality: 4*
Price: Around HK$100 for a brunch set
Value for Money: 4.5*
Would I recommend it? Yes! It's a great choice at very competitive prices for a brunch in Soho. 

Bacar
38, Shelley St
Soho

Wedding Wednesday: I got my wedding dress!

J and I spent last weekend fully immersed in my wedding gown search in Guangzhou, China. Guangzhou has a huge avenue called Wedding Street filled up with all things wedding, mainly wedding gowns, totally awesome! I'll eventually have to do a full post on it because it's probably unique in the world. It should be called Wedding City instead, it's THAT big! But that's for another day :)

As I had previously told you, I was almost sure of the wedding dress I was going to get, and I just had to do some alterations to it so that it could be perfect, or so I thought. And then, on Saturday morning, I tried a wedding gown that took my breath away, and J's breath, too! {Yes, J saw me with the dress, we're doing this Chinese style rather than Western style, where couples go buy the dresses together!} It was totally what I was looking for. It brightened my face, it looked gorgeous on me, and it made me look like a royal princess. Yes, this is exactly the feeling both J and I had. And we loved it!!! We went back to the store of the dress I had previously in mind and realized the "new" dress was way more ME. 

So now you know that I got a lace wedding gown that makes me look like a princess... And that's all I'm allowed to say!

It was meant to be, I guess! :)))

Picture via David Jones

A great terrace at DG Cafe - 1881 Heritage

If you're in Tsim Sha Tsui on a sunny afternoon and are looking for a nice relaxing terrace to sip a drink or eat good food, DG Cafe & Wine Cuisine is a superb option. The food is very reasonably priced given the good location of the restaurant on the second floor of 1881 Heritage, with its spacious and relaxing terrace. Expect to pay around HK$130 for a pizza  and HK$90 for a salad, so that you get the price range.  The food quality is good, too, I approve! 

Cinnebar - Wynn Macau

During the Chinese New Year holidays {a month ago already!}, J and I went to Macau for a little getaway. It was as nice as every time we've been to the city. We won at the casino, had a wonderful Portuguese lunch at Escada and discovered a great outdoor lounge at Wynn, one of the most renowned hotels in Macau. 

J and I wanted to chill out for a while in a romantic atmosphere, and we found the perfect place! Cinnebar is located on the ground floor of Wynn hotel, and has both indoor and outdoor seating. I enjoyed the atmosphere very much, overlooking Wynn's pool and gardens in a warm February afternoon. Cinnebar serves nice cocktails at around HK$100. 

Last two pics via Cinnebar

Wedding Wednesday: Postable

Collecting the addresses of all your guests to send out the wedding invites can be exhausting. Emails back and forth, reminder calls, messages, and unnecessary stress, all just to make sure you get all the addresses on time. Well, no more! I'm SO glad I found out about Postable last week thanks to an article on Style Me Pretty.

 

 

Postable is an online address collecting system, where the bride and the groom have a personalized online address book and the guests fill in their info in a totally secured way. All you need to do is share the link of your Postable account with your friends, and wait for the addresses to come to you! I started sending out the link last week and have been very surprised with all the addresses I collected so far!

 

So please, if you read this and you know you will be invited to either our wedding in Barcelona or our wedding in Hong Kong... kindly fill in the info!!!

 

Just visit to https://www.postable.com/xeniajefflau and fill it in! :)

 

 

 

I hope this will be useful to other brides-to-be. It's definitely being a stress reliever on my side!

 

 

Yung Shue Ha - Lamma Island

Last week I went to Lamma Island. It was chilly, drizzling, and I woke up way too early. This added to the fact that I hadn't been feeling well the previous day, was the main cause of the flu that knocked me down for several days this week. Oh well, at least I got some pics to share with all of you. These pictures were taken in Yung Shue Ha, a distant and sparsely populated village on southern Lamma Island. Most of the village is abandoned, and some areas are now Hong Kong heritage.

We always like to go to The Bay whenever we go to Lamma Island. It's a charming restaurant in Mo Tat Wan, with a perfect terrace and the best homemade lemonade in Hong Kong! 

My interview on Bella Magazine

I'm very excited today because the March issue of Bella Magazine, with my interview on it, is finally out! 

Woop, woop! 

Bella Magazine contacted me some weeks ago asking whether I'd be interested on being featured in their Far Far Away section, about people living abroad. I took a look at this inspiring lifestyle magazine and knew I just couldn't say no.

Below are two close ups of my interview. For better resolution you can also read it directly on Bella Magazine's site here, pages 56-57.

A special thanks to Martina, the charming editor of Bella Magazine who made all this possible! 

Wedding Wednesday: Simply Bridal Giveaway

My wedding is exactly 7 MONTHS away today. In one month from now, I'll be totally freaking out. I mean, there's so much to plan, and half a year is nothing! So far I've been enjoying my wedding planning without much stress, but the clock is ticking!

Anyways, today I have great news for all the brides-to-be out there that read my blog and still have some planning to do. Today, in partnership with Simply Bridal, I'm thrilled to offer a discount coupon of 15% that can be applied to all the products on simplybridal.com  

I was really glad Simply Bridal contacted me to host this discount coupon giveaway, because after taking a look at their site I thought it was wonderful. Frankly, I would never consider buying my wedding gown from an online store, even if there is a 30-day return policy as in Simply Bridal. But bridesmaid dresses, accessories...? I'd totally go for it! There's some gorgeous bridesmaids dresses and they just cost USD99.99! Apply my 15% discount and... whoa, you've got an unbelievable price! Did I mention they are custom made? :)

Simply Bridal is based in the US and ships to most countries worldwide. If you live in America or Europe, I think you can benefit from this site the most, since prices in Asia are overall more reasonable.

The discount code you need to enter when checking out in order to enjoy 15% off is: SBL111FW. The code will be valid for a month, until April 5th, for a total of 10 uses. 

Please do let me know if you use the code for anything at all, I'll be thrilled to know! Enjoy :)

Freebie {Grab Your Opportunity} Wallpaper

I've spent these last few days improving my Adobe Illustrator skills to be able to design our wedding monogram and wedding invites, and I'm oh-so loving it! I decided to create a simple desktop wallpaper to put my basics into action, and this is what I came up with!



 

Thomas A. Edison has to be one of my favorite sources when it comes to motivational quotes. There are so many opportunities around us every day, to do things in another way, to change our lives for good, to pursue our dreams. Yet, we do so little to go after those opportunities, it's ridiculous. We all seem to be afraid to take action, as if by staying were we are, we could protect ourselves from the pain of the unknown. But, you know what? We only get to live once, and the ones who understood this are the ones getting all the opportunities for themselves. It's nothing about how talented they are, it's about daring to be the best that they can be.



Download below and start living fully! Enjoy :)

 

2560x1440 / 1680x1050 / 1440x900 / 1280x800 / iPad / iPhone 

 



The Herbivores

I love Staunton Street. There's so many small, cozy restaurants to choose from, it always takes me a while to choose which one to go into. Some days ago, Chloris and I went to The Herbivores, a new vegetarian restaurant, for brunch.

Brunch consists of a choice of a main dish, a drink and a set dessert. There are 5 dishes to choose from, and we got the Eggs Benedict and the Bruschetta to share. Both dishes were not up to our expectations. The eggs benedict were a bit sour because of the tomato, and the bruschetta was actually on toast bread {I mean, really?!}

 The dessert was a chocolate mousse which was more of a chocolate paste, and it turned out to be my favorite part of the meal. I wonder if their a la carte menu is any better, but as far as the brunch set goes, I wouldn't recommend it.

Visited on: February 23, 2013

Overall Quality: 3.5*

Price: HK$128 + 10% service charge per head for the brunch set

Value for Money: 3.5*

Would I recommend it? Not really, at least not the brunch

The Herbivores

35 Staunton Street

Central