Italian Night at Il Mare.

Present day living is dictated by dense urbanity, a landscape of high rise units and fast paced lifestyle. But the city life, no matter how good it sounds or how colorful Carrie Bradshaw cunningly puts it, could sometimes makes us feel like an embattled heroine in a crappy telenovela. Sure it would be nice if we could get whisked away to exotic places and take a breather, but we all know that rarely happens. So what do you do when the city life gets too tough? I say explore what the city has to offer, find interesting spots and plunge head long to it, millions of people didn't choose to live here for nothing. You don't have to always get away from the city to unwind, for all you know, the next adventure is literally right around the corner.

Say for example the case of Il Mare. We've been seeing this restaurant for years, but somehow, it never occurred to us to actually try it. One Saturday evening, for lack of better place to go, we decided to pay this restaurant a visit. "Il Mare" roughly translates as "the sea" in Italian, and unlike your quintessential restaurant hiding under the pretense of 'authentic Italian cuisine', Il Mare is way ahead of it's competition.

Outside, Il Mare looks no different from any other restaurant.

Inside, walls are adorned with paintings of famous Italian actors and panoramic view of the streets of Italy.

I love the casual, laid back vibe of the restaurant. The interiors hinted that young people frequent this place.

Light fixtures mounted on each table are muted and easy on the eyes. I particularly love it's design.

Dinner is their busiest time, so expect to wait a little for the food to arrive. These heavenly bread would keep you occupied while waiting.

It's always good to start off with a glass of wine, it gets the conversation flowing. Chris got a glass of "Villa M" Italian white wine, while I got myself their house wine.

I always thought good food is about balance of flavor, texture, and appearance. This Seafood Pasta in Cream Sauce, an Il Mare Special, has it all.

Their charming Pizza creation tastes divine! One bite and your hooked forever!



Because of it's classy and quaintly-decorated interiors, you'd think it's a snobbish, steeply-priced restaurant. You'll be surprised to know that everything is reasonably priced here. And with music so cleverly-chosen playing in the background, it creates a relaxing ambiance fit for a nice romantic meal.



I'm closing this entry with a phrase that best describes the experience you get at Il Mare: "It's love made edible."

Not just another Birthday.

I celebrated my 28th birthday yesterday! I can't believe that I just turned 28 cause maturity-wise, I feel like I'm forever stuck at sweet sixteen. Half of the day I spent moping in front of the computer cause Chris seemed to forget that it was my special day. At noon he called to greet me "Happy Birthday" (he even sang the "Happy Birthday Song" in korean). To cheer me up, he gave me a one-day, guilt-free shopping pass, turns out it was totally useless considering the heavy rain...

When Chris came back home, he gave me a bouquet of flowers. I was in awe cause he's so not the type who gives flowers. All I could say is "you remembered!"... He bought it during his lunch break, and kept it in a plastic bag while he was working, so some of the flowers were damaged a bit. I guess he hasn't heard of the word "DELIVERY" yet?! ^^



Despite the rain, Chris wanted to have dinner at some restaurant, so I changed into an orange bohemian-inspired dress which I bought on impulse the other day (blame it on Tessa cause while we were at ZARA last Sunday, she said orange is my color, and when I saw an orange dress on my way home, I remembered what Tessa said and bought it without thinking..^^). When Chris and I went out, the rain was so strong that part of the street was flooded. We had to go back and change into something more comfortable (by comfortable I meant house-wear). It didn't really matter what we wore cause at an instant, we were totally wet from the rain.

We went to a Japanese restaurant that serves all-you-can-eat Tuna sashimi. The guy who cuts up tuna was very welcoming, he even gave us towels to dry our hair. The restaurant is really nice and cozy. It's lucky that we were the only customer at that time as we got the best spot and the privacy we needed. I wasn't able to take a picture of the whole restaurant, but it looks a little something like this..



Like any other tuna sashimi restaurant, they first served some crab porridge and miso soup.



Their tuna is really good! The quantity looks small in the picture, but did I mention they serve this non-stop?



This is one delicious Japanese salmon egg roll.



Since it's my birthday, and we're both shivering from the cold, we had to have some alcohol to go with the tuna.. Ok, I know I said a hundred times before that I don't drink anything besides beer and wine (and a few cocktails), but this is a rare exception where I actually craved for something to warm me up.



While eating, we talked about politics, a bit of history, Lee Myung Bak, and North Korea. It seems boring, but not if you happen to see Chris making funny facial expressions as he try his best to articulate difficult words such as "expatriate" and "solidify".

After dinner, we spent the night at Noblesse. Chris woke up early and got ready for work. He said I should sleep more so I stayed there till 2.

The only thing that's lacking in my birthday story is the gift right? Well, in the middle of writing this, the delivery person came and brought it.



It's NIKE DUNK 6.0 in brilliant magenta and vivid blue color!!! I like how they said "BRILLIANT" and "VIVID" in the box, it sounds so enticing, LoL. So it's cute (CHECK!), outrageously different (CHECK!), color so bright it'll give you eye-sore (CHECK!), but this shoe is so me and I could totally see myself wearing it in the mall, up in the mountain, at the park, or by the beach!

Apart from the flowers, dinner, and the gift, the thing that I'm most thankful for is having Chris in my life. (Picture taken somewhere in Pocheon, Summer '08)



To Oppa,

Last night, while we were talking about lottery and you were doing all those mathematical equations, I realized one thing, and that is having you in my life is like hitting the jackpot! Thank you for making each day better than the last!