Rachel & Cupcakes

I have found it hard, on several occasions, to understand why the inertia to travel far and wide is so much greater in some than others, as I’m equally sure that those who travel continuously for months on end find it impossible to comprehend why a person like me isn’t convinced of the feasibility of doing the same. Travel can be done on a shoestring, but it requires a willingness only certain personalities can provide. I’m not necessarily *that* person. What most of us need is to find the middle ground - where you can indulge in the little luxuries that qualify a vacation, but still do so within the confines of a budget, and not go crazy counting pennies.

Go to Italy.

Though my budget forecast had been sorely off base for my Italian escapade back in May, I feel compelled nonetheless to dole out a tip of the hat to the cities I’d visited for keeping certain simple pleasures terribly affordable. Food and wine, for one. On certain travels you find it necessary every so often to seek sustenance in fast food joints or sketchy takeaway vendors, in order to offset the cumulative damage from several nights of dining well. But we’re in Italy, people! S and I were all too happy to have every single meal at amazing restaurants; some off grand piazzas, some by the Grand Canal, some on cliffs by the sea, and so forth, with no restraint was necessary because it wasn’t expensive to treat ourselves as such.

Gustatory comforts aside, there are ways to rein your expenditure in. My list is specifically for Rome, which is notorious for being expensive and touristy, although not with the intensity of Venice. Navigate accordingly, and keep them Euros safe in your pocket.

Don’t wait till you’re starved to find a restaurant to eat. Shop around till you find a restaurant that doesn’t charge 20 Euros for Tagliatelle alla Bolognese or more than 5 Euros for a glass of wine. While Rome isn’t as pocket-friendly as other smaller Italian cities, it’s easy to find establishments where you can chomp down on a decadent amount of food and vino for less than 15 Euros per person.
Take the public transport. It’s hard to conceive of the fact that public transport anywhere else in the world could match up to Singapore’s standards of efficiency and cleanliness, but from my experience, the Romans know how to roll. It's the easiest way to save a penny while on vacation. The taxi cabs are expensive, hard to come by and expens…oh.
Airbnbs are the way to go. Of course you could very well prove this tip invalid by booking yourself an 18th century restored palatial Airbnb apartment in the vicinity of the Spanish Steps for an exorbitant nightly fee, but you’ll easily find apartments in the residential areas that are still within good reach of Rome’s centro storico at 50 to 75 Euros per night. They’re clean, comfortable and totally safe as long as you use some street smarts (read: get home at a decent hour and be prepared with directions). And Airbnb happens to be infinitely more affordable than hotels and even backpackers’ hostels, which can be surprisingly pricey for what they are.
Don’t buy bottled water. There are tons of drinking fountains all over Rome that dispense free potable acqua straight out of its ancient aqueducts, and even machines that fill up your bottle with still or sparkling water (heck yes you even get to choose how you want your complimentary Roman water!!) absolutely free. It’s clean and safe to drink.
Walk everywhere. At least in the historic centre where all the attractions are - this is totally possible and totally free of cost.
Buy tickets to major historical sites online ahead of time. This makes sense due to the time you’ll save from not having to join the snaking lines that form in front of places like the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum (and you’ve never seen a queue in your life till you’ve seen these ones), which also saves you from potentially succumbing in desperation to exploitative tour operators peddling skip-the-line tickets that are more expensive than they typically are online.
Do the Aperitivos. If you like your bubbly, this is the dream arrangement for you. Order a drink at happy hour and you’ll get access to a mini buffet line of finger food, which range from Arancini (fried risotto balls) to pizza slices and pastas. It won’t set you back more than 10 Euros for a drink and dinner.
Drink your coffee standing up at breakfast. Many cafes a charge a cover if you sit down at a table during breakfast, so make like a seasoned Roman and have your coffee and cornetto on your feet, at the bar.
Know the passes. There’s a ton of passes available for purchase which will save you money on admission and transport fares, but do your planning and research to determine if they’re worth investing in. Transport passes come in one, three or seven day options and a Roma pass affords you free and discounted admission to a bunch of attractions, which make for good money saving hacks.
Spend with caution on gelato. Apparently there is such a thing as bad gelato, even in Italy. There are gelato stands every ten feet, but stick to your guns and only buy from the shops with shining reviews. If you can’t access reviews, go with your gut. My favourite gelateria was Grom through and through, but a simple Google search should turn up a comprehensive list for you to check off.

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, by rachelongliwen

DIY

DIY Smoothie Bowls

A couple weeks prior to my birthday, I semi-seriously told S that if no other gift ideas could be conceived in time for the occasion, I’d be perfectly happy if he bought me a blender. In part because I’d wanted one for the longest time for utilisation in whipping up nut butters and smoothies, but hadn’t yet had heart to devote any part of my shopping budget to actually purchasing one. But he went and did it! Almost four weeks have passed since the fateful day I turned 25 and he (amongst other things, but that’s for another time) handed me a massive gift wrapped box enclosing a blender that he’d taken pains to research on and ensure was crowd-approved, and in that time I’ve had some variation of a smoothie for breakfast nearly every day and cranked out several jars of almond butter, homemade Nutella and hummus.

Now that we’re in blender era, one of my favourite weekend projects to date has been making myself smoothie bowls and taking some measure of pride in making it pretty with stuff I hustle from all over my pantry. After all, as evidenced by Instagram, when it comes to smoothie bowls the proof of the pudding is in the beauty of its top view. While concocting the fruit base blend is fairly nondescript, the toppings you add on top are the decorative embellishments to adorn the mystical canvas that is your smoothie bowl and quite literally its crowning glory. Following the rules don’t matter as much as breaking them, because it isn’t so much a blitzed up bowl of fruit as it is an outlet for creative expression. For inspiration, there are heaps of photos on Instagram exhibiting smoothie bowls topped with banana slices cut into heart shapes, edible flowers, and all manners of colourful edible paraphernalia. Otherwise, you could simply go the low fuss route of scooping things from jars into your bowl with no regard for order or innovation. Which is what I do most of the time, unless my smoothie bowl is to be Instagrammed.

The key thing to note about making smoothie bowls is that the recipe is highly customisable and lends itself well to colouring outside the lines - you can swop, add and eliminate ingredients as you fancy. I’m sharing how I make mine, but I wouldn’t call it a recipe as much as a skeletal roundup of the lowest common factors that every smoothie bowl is composed of. I’m sure your next door health and wellness guru could go on all day about the benefits of smoothie consumption, but as far as I’m concerned, they’re refreshing, fruity and fun as heck to make.

Smoothie bowl base

1/2 cup of milk or yogurt | Need not necessarily be of the bovine variety, depending on your tolerance for or misinformed avoidance of lactose and animal by-products. I imagine almond milk or coconut yogurt would work well too.

1 cup of frozen fruit | Bananas highly recommended. Berries, figs, pink dragon fruit, mangoes optional. Avoid watery fruit like apples and oranges at all cost!!!

A handful of ice cubes | Eyeball it and/or use rational judgement

A squeeze of honey | Omit if above mentioned fruit is deemed to be sufficiently diabetic

[Optional] 1 tbsp of superfood seeds or powders | Like chia, maca, cacao, acai and so forth

Toppings

Sliced and diced fruit | I’m looking at you, berries, kiwifruit and bananas.

Cereals | Granola, chia seeds, cacao nibs or pepitas.

Nut butter | Oh golly gumdrops this is my absolute favorite! Safe bets are peanut or almond butter, but you could even use Nutella. Don’t tell anyone I said that.

CHOCOLATE* | Again, don’t tell anyone I said that.

*I’m sort of kidding, but you could definitely add a dash of something chocolatey as desired.

Method

Ensure all your fruit is frozen so that your smoothie bowl base has the consistency of soft serve once blended - otherwise, your output will be watery and your toppings will sink when added.

Blend all the smoothie bowl ingredients then top with fruit, cereals and nuts or seeds. Or chocolate. Get outta here.

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, by rachelongliwen

Photography

Travel Diary: Cinque Terre

Cinque Terre needs no introduction, but not to provide one would be an injustice to the wondrous fable that it is. These five idyllic villages nestled cliffside along the Italian Riviera are the consummate specimen of the ethereal beauty of Italy’s coastlines. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site and brims with the bustle of capricious tourists who make daily pilgrimages there to soak up the sunshine and salty Mediterranean breeze.

S and I had worked our way down to the Liguria region after travelling up to Verona and Venice from Rome, and we spent just a day tripping between the five villages. Getting to Cinque Terre was quite a feat; the six hour journey by train necessitated transfers in Bologna and Parma, and our layovers were mostly spent taming growling stomachs and being on high alert for pickpockets that both cities were purportedly rife with. Besides, Venice had been so wonderful and lifted our expectations so significantly that the experience of every other city we visited after that seemed destined to careen in a downward trajectory. By that point in our trip we were fairly spent from the long intercity train rides and nonstop meandering around every city seeing and doing as much as we possibly could, so Cinque Terre was a reinvigorating midpoint breather for the both of us.

Fortunately, this leg of our vacation didn’t involve commuting to and lining up for entry into an unending lineup of tourist sites - everything that it had to proposition with was already all around you. If Venice was larger than life, Cinque Terre was a technicolor dream. The glimmering Italian Riviera was the most breathtaking backdrop for our laidback getaway. We’d wander around seeking out vantage points in the rock formations by the sea and terraces in the cliffside to watch the crashing waves and busk in a spot of sunshine with teeth chatting from the cold. We’d take turns getting in front and behind the lens of my camera framing and constricting as much of the pastel landscapes as we could into every shot. We’d pop in and out of quaint little shops buying olive oil soaps and jars of truffle paste.

At lunchtime we settled into a restaurant perched by the side of a cliff and had standout pasta dishes and 5 Euro glasses of local Prosecco, and our culinary exploits didn’t stop throughout the day. Cinque Terre is known for seafood and produce that come from the rolling hills and seas surrounding it, but the capacity of your stomach will be put to the test every ten steps or so at the many stands serving up nosh like gelato, fresh strawberries heaped with sweet whipped cream, explosive Nutella crepes and cones of fried seafood and chips.

The most visceral memory I have of Cinque Terre is how chilly it was despite merely being a mild Spring day in the middle of April. You can even see how red my nose is from the cold! I can only imagine how dreamy this place must be in the summer, where the warmth will allow you the luxury of renting kayaks to paddle from village to village, or even go sunbathing or diving. But then again, the option of partaking in all these activities would have eroded the unhurried nature of our visit. La dolce vita is, after all, about not troubling yourself with doing anything at all isn’t it? Perhaps this was the most compelling of Cinque Terre's allure - it feels as relaxed as people watching by a cafe window, except the sights make it infinitely more picturesque and invaluable.

Tips for visiting Cinque Terre

How to get there | Take a train from La Spezia Centrale, which is well connected and accessible from major cities including Verona, Pisa, Florence and Bologna.

Where to stay | You could stay in Cinque Terre, but I suspect getting to your hotel would involve backbreaking climbs up precipitous slopes and narrow flights of stairs with your suitcases in tow. For that reason, I was thankful we’d fortuitously discovered La Spezia, the popular alternative for accommodation for visitors to Cinque Terre. This tiny port town is located just under ten minutes from Riomaggiore, the first of the five villages and it's superbly convenient and cheap. And because it wasn’t erected cliffside in the manner of Cinque Terre, you won’t have to worry about hiking up steep inclines.

Making your budget work | Get a Cinque Terre card, which allows unlimited travel between the villages and access to hiking trails.

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, by rachelongliwen

21st Century Thoughts

In defense of pasta

Public service announcement: turns out pasta doesn’t make you fat after all.**

The world’s greatest study of all time has vindicated the famous Sophia Loren quote that goes: ‘everything you see, I owe to spaghetti.’ How poetic and vaguely liberating is that line? Apparently it’s now scientifically proven (big shoutout to the folks at the IRCCS Instituto Neurologico Meditterneano for the confirmation) that a diet saturated with pasta can indeed contribute to smaller waistlines, plus a whole string of other health benefits that aren’t worth mentioning for nothing is quite as compelling as the one that’s directly correlated to outer appearances.

Hardy har har guys! The fact that this study needed to be done must surely be worth a study of its own. But first, some context on the pasta zeitgeist is essential.

For a long time the Italians have been contending with an indestructible force of dietary self righteousness that is the archetypal Californian millennial. At some point at the turn of the 21st century, thanks in part to the American youth and their fad diets, food was no longer deemed good for you unless it was at least three quarters protein or fibre and had the flavour appeal of a sprouted potato. There was no longer room for pasta on the nutritional spectrum because carbs were officially the devil. Somehow this concept diffused into our collective contemporary consciousness, so now we need permission slips from the health authorities of the world declaring that pasta is indeed worth eating before we care to indulge.

Hmm. In the consistent swarm of contradicting health claims that surface on my newsfeed every other day, it only makes sense to take declarations like these with a heap of salt. But then again, it’s funny that anyone ever needed to be told that it’s okay to partake in the great joy that is pasta consumption. You wouldn’t have to ask me twice to inhale some spaghetti!

I love my pasta. If you've ever remedied a bad day or wounded heart with a dish of tagliatelle drowning in a basil scented tomato sauce then you too would attest to its all purpose psychological and emotional curative prowess. It’s such a potent force for comfort that it can easily overthrow your post-gym resolve to lay off the calories with a single swoop of a garlic-laced cream coated strand. Have you ever had gnocchi covered in gorgonzola and butter? I have, and it’s like eating actual tangible happy feelings. When S and I took our tour of Italy in April, one of the things that struck us was that in spite of the stick-to-your-ribs richness of Italian cuisine, no one was morbidly obese. We didn’t gain any weight from eating pasta two or three times every single day for sixteen consecutive days, and the Italians who sat beside us in the ristorantes didn’t seem to have that problem either.

Pasta is one of the greatest foods to have ever graced our palates. And there’s never been a better time to stop being so terrified of it.

**Must be eaten as part of a holistic Mediterranean diet featuring olive oil, nuts, fruits and vegetables, fish, poultry, and limited red and processed meats. Does not include diets which solely feature pastas to the extreme exclusion of any other food types. Common sense and moderation apply.

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, by rachelongliwen

Photography

Travel Diary: Venice

How do I put this delicately...Venice is basically Disneyland.

Apparently Disney theme parks are supposed to be the happiest places on Earth, a claim though compromised by horror stories of its Florida joint apparently crawling with alligators from nearby rivers, is actually very much true. It feels much like being in a dollhouse, except everything that was supposed to only exist in moulded plastic is somehow in front of your eyes, in life size. And its entire appeal lies in the fact that it removes you completely from the real world, and puts you in a very malleable frame of mind free to enjoy a world of fantasy and pure fun. You could hand anyone a Mickey-shaped cookie ice cream sandwich or a headband fashion with Minnie Mouse ears on the street and they wouldn’t think much of it, but when the same happens in a park crawling with ecstatic tiny human beings and equally ecstatic couples, honeymooners and sweet 16 revellers, you get right in the spirit of it and it feels completely magical.

Now for Venice.

In Eat Pray Love Elizabeth Gilbert wrote that she didn’t take an easy liking to Venice, because of its dreary and sedative qualities. She labelled it a city that seemed to have stagnated decades ago and is merely awaiting some sort of descent into watery oblivion. I took her word for it, because a woman who spins beautiful words with such ease must surely know what she’s talking about, duh. But in the end, I was completely sold.

Dammit Venice! I had myself cloaked in a dose of skepticism and apprehension but you slowly picked every thread of that loose and chipped away at my resistance with your otherworldly magnificence. I now get that I was always meant to be enchanted by you, Venice, which you effected so easily by putting S and I in a fantastical parallel universe complete with all the trimmings - the romantic cobblestone alleys and trattoria-lined streets and a soothing Spring chill that pervaded every nook and cranny of the city, along with the balmy swoosh of canal waters that truly was music to our ears.

Now, not to undermine the value of its rich art galleries and museums in any way, but the best memories you will have of Venice are likely to be the little moments you will experience knowing that you couldn’t experience them anywhere else. See, just like Disneyland! One night, S and I found a narrow alleyway facing the canal where we ate our dinner in view of passing gondolas, mutually amusing tourists and ourselves with the sight of us hiding in a cramped corridor with our takeout boxes. The next morning, we took the vaporetto to Murano island and watched a glass blower take all of five minutes to tweeze a mass of molten glass into a figure of a horse. We also wandered around Piazza San Marco on several occasions, chasing pigeons and trying to create lens flares with the classic Venetian sunset. We had a Korean housemate who would feed us espresso-filled chocolates and strawberries every night. We went back to the same pasta takeout and gelato spot so many times that the servers chatted with us like friends. In the grand scheme of things, these little vignettes didn’t make up the bulk of our visit, but they were the stocking fillers that only Venice could present. It’s the magic of the sinking city.

I'm done. I’m trying my darndest but I don’t even have words for how special Venice is.