Easily one of mummy’s favourite restaurants. We chanced upon Dian Xiao Er at Vivocity one day, and have been back several times for a few of their signature dishes. Mainly the Roast Duck with Angelica Herbs and Dong Po Pork.

I highly recommend that you go for the set menu because it’s okay value and portions are just right. Food is churned out super fast too.We usually have the below menu for 4pax.
1. Steamed Rice
2. Duck Roasted w Angelica Herb
3. Baby Kai-Lan w Salted Fish & Lime
4. Mongolian Spare Ribs / Dong Po Pork
5. Soup of The Day
6. Hong Kong Style Steamed Fish Slices
7. Braised Assorted Mushroom w Broccoli

Dian Xiao Er

Address: #02-137/8 VivoCity

Tel: 6376 9786

see website for other locations

Discovering new café that serves a decent cup of Java is the best way to spend my Saturday afternoon. A worthy mention is Kith Café on Rodyk Street. It was a bit difficult to find at first, but just head towards the canal, and you will the row of shops. It’s located on the ground level of the Watermark condo on Robertson Quay, and parking is free if you mention that you’re going to the cafe.

Designed by a Justin’s company Hjgher, I would have not expected anything less. Hipster enough for my liking, great coffees and free wifi seals the deal. It’s a small place, so expect to wait for a seat during peak hours on weekends.

Oh and for cyclists, check out Vanguard Bikes just a couple of doors down. They sell some very pretty refurbished bikes, and accessories.

Kith Café

Address: 7 Rodyk Street, Watermark @ Robertson Quay #01-33

Tel: 63419047

Opening hours: 7am – 7pm

A very belated post, for a birthday back in July, but needs to be documented. Had a fantastic dinner at Cocotte, menu specially put together by Head Chef Anthony Yeoh. No one does chicken as well as he does!

No trip to Singapore is complete without Jono having his Geylang beef kway teow. Was Dave’s first time to Geylang, was in two minds about sending him to a pink neon lit house on the premise that it was a row of “cultural exhibits”. I guess they do exhibit bits.

At CM-PB for a more chilled evening with the boys, Elz and Danli. I remember this night, we were in stitches… something to do with Dave’s toe?

When Jono & Dave were in town, I was raving about Bedrock. We had a fantastic dinner, insisting they try the oysters. Wasn’t disappointed. Nom!

Looking for a good brunch place in Singapore? One of my favourites is Spruce on Tanglin Road. It’s a great place to cure your morning hangover. I wasn’t too impressed with the dinner when I went there in the evening, but brunch menu is delicious.

My Favourites

• Spruce Eggs Benny – Corn Waffle, Back Bacon and Hollandaise Sauce /S$15
• Banana Hotcakes – Honeycomb Butter and Blueberry Syrup /S$14

I’d recommend making a reservation first, they get quite busy on the weekends.

Spruce

Address: 320 Tanglin Road, Phoenix Park Singapore 247980

Tel: 6836 5528

Email:reservation@spruce.com.sg

Last year when Jono and Davo was in town, I took them to one of my favourite Japanese restaurants in town – Santouka Ramen.

Jonus the next few posts are for you, just to refresh your memory of the good times past and the ones ahead!

See you in a few weeks!

Circa 2009. Dim Sum at Wanchai Hong Kong with Danli and Evan. I can’t remember what the restaurant was called, but i remember us going there twice in a week. It was affordable and tasted really good.

Cookyn with Mervyn is now known as just Cookyn Inc.

Came across some photos on my computer with the girls earlier this year.

 On the menu

1. Pesto and butter escargots

2. Mushroom mille-feuille

3. Pan fried dory

4, Chocolate and berry tart

Tourism is really big in Bali, thousands flock to the island from all over the world to enjoy the tropical weather, good food and beaches. The Kuta, Legian and Seminyak area is busy busy busy, but if want to take it down a notch, Ubud offers a respite from the touristy hustle and bustle. BUT, I’m not saying that Ubud isn’t touristy, it is! But it’s a bit further away to get to, so not everyone will make the trip there. Furthermore, Ubud carries a different kind of atmosphere, it’s more chilled and slow paced.

Cool down with some fresh coconut juice

You will see a lot of tourists strolling down Jalan Raya Ubud, the main street which is lined with shops selling souvenirs, shawls, jewellery, craftwork and art.

If you’re in Ubud, don’t forget to check out Naughty Nurie’s, arguably the best BBQ pork ribs you will ever have.

Naughty Nurie's - all things pork is amazing here!

Simple restaurant, with delicious delicious food.

Naughty Nurie's - all things pork is amazing!

Address: Jl Raya Sangiggan (opposite the Neka Art Museum half way up the hill heading north out of Ubud).

Opening hours: 10AM-11PM daily.

Crowded roadside watering hole. Microbrews, great martinis and slabs of BBQ ribs. This is very much a standard stop for Korean or Japanese tour buses.

 Another big attraction in Ubud is the Monkey Forest. It’s a nice place to walk through, but don’t expect to find anything special here. Just enjoy the walk and fresh air. Websites warn tourists not to bring any food to avoid any human-animal conflict, the monkeys are not that friendly. Look out for the Pura Dalem Agung Padangtegal, a temple of the dead.

Monkey Forest

Tree upshot

aerial roots

Look at how vibrant and green the rice paddies are!

Rice paddy field at Ubud

Travel get up. Princess monkey toe.

Helmed by Singaporean Mark Kuan who left the hustle bustle of life behind to “find himself”, lost in a world where he was simply not happy, Delicious Onion is the perfect example of living and loving your work till it doesn’t feel like it is a job.

 

In 2007 with a recipe for Hainan chicken rice, my mums prized onion chutney and a firm belief that the Universe will provide, I arrived on the shores of Bali to set up the Delicious Onion. It was the beginning of a beautiful journey of self-discovery and a dance between the Universe and me. Layer after layer as I started to peel away at the “whom” I thought I was, the Onion grew. Miraculously great teachers walked through our doors and everyday I learned bout being a restaurateur and most of all bout being a human being. Thanks to the Onion I got in touch with what was important to me and learnt that it was the same with many others too.

- Mark Kuan, Owner

Mark’s credo remains that food here nourishes your body and soul, conversations and people you meet there. I salute him for having the courage to just go for it, and wish him all the success.

The entrance of Delicious Onion. Indoor & Outdoor seating available.

From the road

Romantic atmostphere at night

Inside

Must try, their roast pork is heavenly. Juicy Crispy.

Take a closer look.

Mark Kuan

Beautiful artwork on one of the walls

Painting the space just outside his restaurant.

Max, Mark's Son.

Max staying up way past his bedtime on a school night chilling with us girls.

Thanks for hosting us Mark and Max for always entertaining us!

*Update

Delicious Onion has now expanded to Ubud with a Bed & Breakfast set up.

Find them here on their Website, Facebook, Twitter.

Address: Corner of Drupadi & Dyanapura | (Next to Haromony Hotel), Seminyak, Bali 80361, Indonesia

Tel: +6281337894243

So it’s not a secret, I LOVE COFFEE! And I am admittedly a coffee snob.

A barista brewed coffee is essential, a instant coffee machine is acceptable, 2-in-1 is coffee blasphemy and used for emergencies only.

I’ve done my coffee slut rounds, soliciting coffee joints all over the country. From restaurants to coffee franchises to hipster cafes, I have fondled with them all. So you can trust me when I am reviewing a coffee product.

Out  of all franchised coffee houses i.e. Pacific Coffee, Coffeebean & Tea Leaf, Gloria Jeans, The Coffee Club, TCC, my favourite is Starbucks. And I always judge coffee by my two consistently ordered drink which is latte or cappuccino. So when Starbucks/Edelman PR contacted me about a new product to be launched in Singapore, I applauded them for identifying the right “ambassador”.

Just last week, Starbucks Singapore launched Starbucks® VIA Ready Brew instant coffee packets. I was thinking “Oh No! Have they just cheapened the brand by selling instant coffee?” I was invited to do a taste test. Skeptical. Skeptical indeed.

I had a blind taste of two coffees. One which was a normal brew from the outlet (not espresso, just regular brewed coffee/long black), and the other was the Starbucks VIA Ready Brew. I straight away knew which was the brew from the outlet because of a tinge of burnt coffee taste. But besides that the coffees pretty much was of the same standard.

Still skeptical. I have been trying the coffee in the office for 4 days now, and it’s actually pretty good. You know what I think makes this product as well? You can dissolve it in cold water, which means you can make iced coffees.

The Starbucks VIA Ready Brew range of products

My conclusion is, it is of a superior quality than all those nescafe or super brands of coffee powder, but with quality comes a price.

The suggested retail price for Singapore will be S$3.90 for three and S$13.90 for twelve. A bit steep you might say? But if you calculate, it works out to be a bit more than S$1.00 for a cup of good coffee. At the end of the day, it depends on your propensity to spend on a good instant coffee or how big of a Starbucks fan you are. It’s not an espresso so don’t expect that taste, but this is still good.

Products with the VIA packets in them

The VIA products like the Thermos cups and packet holders are nice, but not completely mind-blowing. But I do like the packet holder pictured above right, just because the colours go well with my furniture and it’s a classy looking container. Just letting you know about the new stuff you can find at Starbies

Had my first momos after rafting. We went back to the same restaurant by our guest house because we needed to get out of our wet clothes.

Momos are like steamed dumplings, jiaozis or potstickers usually found in the Nepali parts of the Himalayas and Tibet. They usually have veg and non-veg versions, but somehow the vegetable ones taste better. The non-veg ones sometimes tastes too game-y. I particularly dislike the buffalo momos.
They are usually served with a dipping sauce, usually a bit spicy.

Besides Momos, we also had cauliflower curry, fried rice and some chicken curry to go along with it. say YUM!

So the Ben & Jerry’s team informed me that a new ice-cream flavour is about to be released, and a group of us would be the first in Asia to try it out. Great! Arranged for a delivery time, and this sure wasn’t what I was expecting! Woody the cow came to deliver the ice-cream himself!

I wasn’t given any clues, but my guess was peanut brittle and some sort of rice crispy puffs. A week later, it was revealed! It contained a little peanut butter, caramel and marshmallow named “Clusterfluff”.

“Clusterfluff” is slated to be launched on 4 April. As part of the launch of this ice cream flavour, Ben & Jerry’s is giving away free scoops of ice cream to all who play this mini game created on their Ben & Jerry’s Singapore Facebook page.

ROADDDTRRRIIPPPPP!

We were going to be travelling for days from Delhi to Himachal Pradesh, and instead of taking turns to drive, we opted for a rented van and driver for the 10days.

Here are the reasons why:
- It really doesn’t cost that much
- We can all relax, rest, chat and enjoy the ride
- Some of the driving requires us to be on mountain roads at night, best to leave it to the expert
- Less likely to get seriously lost
- We still could stop any time we like
- Our driver sometimes gives us little snippets of destination info

It’s officially Day 1 of our trip.

We arrived in the wee hours of the morning, so we only had a few hours kip before we were up and about preparing for the day ahead. We were reunited with Tobs and Sas who flew in from UK at breakfast after 5 1/2 yrs. Nope. Nothing has changed same ol Smellies.

First task of the day was to hit the shops and load up on any last minute essentials for the long drive ahead. Spare batteries, the forgotten toothpaste, water, snacks. So we rickshawed to the nearest Khan Market for a lil walk around.

Tips when packing for your road trip

• Nick the toilet roll from your hotel, trust me it will come in handy at some point
• Keep plastic and paper bags for rubbish, be a responsible traveller and don’t throw things out the window.
• You can save alot of space in the van by putting your backpacks on top of the van, just remember to ask them to prepare rope and a rainsheet to secure and keep your belongings dry.
• ipod FM transmitter so you all can take turns to dominate the airwaves. At the end of the trip, you’d realise there are certain songs which you all can relate to. Perhaps you were all singing to it or it the music went perfectly with the scenery outside the window. Put together a travel CD afterwards for memory sake!

Personally, I’d like to buy a lot of biscuits. Many times when we meet people enroute, it’s nice to share some biscuits with them. Especially the kids, it makes them happy.

Begging should not be encouraged, instead, ask them if they are hungry, you can buy them something to eat. If you’re having lunch, they can join you for a meal.

I’d buy some biscuits for the stray dogs and cats as well. Breaks my heart to see them scavanging in rubbish for scraps, a few biccies will make them your instant best friend.

I think the most important tip when it comes to road trips, is to go with someone you love, or like…ALOT! And also with people who share the same attitude and expectations on travel.

We were lucky. We all kinda liked each other

Roh swears by it, this place that serves up the best Banoffee Pie in Delhi. Pretty strong call saying it’s the BEST Banoffee Pie in the WHOLE of Delhi!!! OK LET’S GO! Customers were already waiting outside before the doors opened.
.
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I had to ask innocently… what is a Banoffee Pie? Never had one and was afraid it might turn out to be something gross like durian puff or Cempedek pudding, my best guess was a Banana+Coffee pie.

I was close.

Banoffee pie (also spelled banoffi, or banoffy) is an English pastry based dessert made from bananas, cream, toffee from boiled condensed milk (or dulce de leche), either on a pastry base or one made from crumbled biscuits and butter. Some versions of the recipe also include chocolate and/or coffee.

Its name is a portmanteau constructed from the words “banana” and “toffee”
source: wikipedia

While reading the wiki page, there was this interesting fact:

Banoffee and India
Banoffee pie is a popular dessert on the backpacker trail in India, thought possibly to have arrived as early as 1978 or 1979 with the influx of young westerners to the region, who shared their favourite comfort food recipes with the local restaurateurs who catered to them. The banoffee pie is a fixture in most budget and tourist towns from McLeod Ganj in the northern Indian state of Himachel Pradesh to the resorts of Goa.

So the verdict?
Ok…it was pretty darn spectacular, it was a party in my mouth. I had no benchmark, but if I had to just assess it based on ingredients, I think Bananas, toffee and cream are best of friends.

The Big Chill
Address: Khan Market, New Delhi
Opening hours: 12 pm – 11 pm

Here’s a recipe i found online if you’d like to recreate it:

Preparation time: 3hrs (including toffee making time)

Ingredients:

• 140 gm (1 and 1/4 cup) Marie biscuits powdered coarsely
• 4 bananas
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1/3 cup butter
• 350 gm sweetened condensed milk
• Whipped cream
• Grated chocolate

Method:

• Mix biscuit crumbs with sugar and melted butter. Press down the crumbs at the bottom of a pie pan and refrigerate it for about 1 hr.
• In a big vessel, bring water to boil. Drop the condensed milk can (unopened) in water.
• Close the lid and let it cook for about 2hrs. (If the can gets exposed to air while cooking, it explodes. So make sure it is immersed in water all the time. So ideally use a very big vessel with water filled up to the top). Cook for more time to get a semi-hard toffee which will be a bit difficult to spread.
• Let the toffee cool
• Meanwhile, take out the pan with crumbs. Spread a thick layer of sliced banana on it.
• When the toffee is cooled, spread it on top of banana layer.
• Top it with whipped cream. Sprinkle chocolate over the top.
• Refrigerate it for 2-3hrs and serve cold

Just some snaps from Nat’s engagement dinner at La Braceria Pizza and Grill. Food was not bad but not great either, but it was a perfect location for a more intimate dinner with girlfriends. Don’t bother on the house wines, they weren’t that good. If you want, ask one of the staff to recommend a bottle to go with dinner.

La Braceria Pizza and Grill
5 Greendale Ave
Tel: +65 6465 5918

Awhile back I attempted to make dark chocolate truffles for a dinner party at home and sowered the internet for a simple recipe. In the end, Martha Stewart was the choice. Went out to the supermarket to get all the ingredients, started the day before, everything look promising until it was time to mold the truffles.

See what happens is, you heat the cream, chocolate and rest of the ingredients and pour it into a tray to cool. By the next day, it should be ready to be scooped and molded into little lumps of happiness.

That wasn’t the case. I’m not sure if it’s because of our climate, but the truffles kept melting in my hand before I could even coat it with cocoa powder?

Can you tell I was disappointed?

Anybody knows what could have gone wrong?