Sometimes food tastes good simply because…of the company one’s with.

Fish and chips, with a unique set of dips. Tomato (I think), vinegar and tartar sauce.

Very unique tasting seafood pasta.

Dessert. There’s always space for that.

A great place to just let down your hair, chill and watch life go by. Oh and also if you’re into tai-tai watching, you’ll see some beautiful people there. Where at? House at Dempsey, Singapore.

But like I said, sometimes food tastes good because of who you’re with. And this meal tasted fabulous.

Don’t take my word for it, check out the place for yourself. Also, do visit the toilets, very nice and clean design.

Every Saturday’s spent with great food, great company with my family and well, the usual Taiwanese drama on TV. It’s what we call our Saturday culture.

Family time together should never be neglected. We come together coz of food? Or is food the reason we come together? I’d choose the latter.

I love close up shots of my food. Makes me feel close enough to smell it. *sniffs*

When you’ve got family with you, all you need is a good program playing on the tele, a merry heart and a series of random hawker fare. 

Such is bliss.

All’s not done up yet. Still waiting for a time when I’m free to get an oven. Think you’ll be able to spot the empty shelf space meant for my precious new oven. 

Theme’s metallic, cosy with wood finishes. Am lovin’ my white table top which hides out the scratches (yeah!). 

Am really diggin’ the new sink too.
 

Everything’s still in a messy state but I’ll make do for now. My favourite part of the kitchen? The island. Where the family meets to have breakfast, tea and supper.

It was a night for some food adventure. Calin and I were on a mission to try whatever our bellies can contain for the night.

The Taiwanese call this the “coffin bread” (棺材板 guān cái bǎn), which is bread stuffed with savoury filling, served toasted on the outside. I probably picked the wrong flavour (prawn & cheese) as I heard the black pepper beef filling was much better. Next time for sure! 

Amazing oyster omelet that’s very unlike those you find in Singapore. It has an amazing sauce on top of a pancake-like fried egg and fresh juicy oysters. Underneath, you will find stir fried vegetables. A must try when you visit the Shilin Night Market. 

DO NOT underestimate or be put off by these chicken backsides. 5 chickens had to give up their lives for me to stuff one stick down with glee. If you’ve never eaten this, you’ve never been to Taiwan. 
 

Lovely dessert.

What’s even better than lovely dessert? When Calin smiles till her cheeks cramp up with her cute dessert boy. 
 

When we could not eat anymore…we went to buy local goodies.
Freshly fried almonds infused with honey and other sweet fatty gooey stuff. Cooled and then packed and then purchased. 
 

Does this make you want to go to Taipei?

The tea taste was so lovely, especially when it was cold outdoor. In contrast, the Singapore bubble tea is, more often than not, just sugared water with a hint of tea.

Here’s me and my favourite red-tea, waiting for the shops at Wufenpu to open.

When Calin and I arrived in Taipei some two weeks ago, we were starved. This was mainly because we refused to eat plane food and wanted some real Tawinese cuisine. 

After an hour bus ride to the hotel at Ximending, we went to DanDan Wu (a direct translation is EggEgg House) nearby. 

Here’s a photo from outside the restaurant, so many floors of it! We were however too hungry to wait for seats on the upper floors so we settled for the ground floor.
 

Here’s my huge plate of ’spicy’ chicken, egg with rice, spaghetti with tomato sauce and some salad. The spaghetti wasn’t fantastic, tasted like it came from a can without much flavour. Also, if you’re a chilli-loving-Singaporean, you should not take their ’spicy’ too seriously. 
 

Here’s the view after I ‘broke’ my egg cap on my rice. In Taiwan, only Japanese rice is used…I love it!
 

Calin’s pork-chop rice with Japanese curry was much nicer, do try this one.
 

However, I would not advice you to eat large meals like that as you’d be missing out on the street food, which is SO delicious! More posts on that soon.

The view across the restaurant. I love Taiwan so much. It was a comfortable 12 degrees and boy was I excited for the next 7 days to come. 

My new home is in the process of being designed by my mum and I. I am most excited about how the kitchen would turn out. We are now awaiting the 3-dimensional mock up from our designer and this photo I found off the web best describes my new kitchen.  

My kitchen would have a dark tiled floor and a similar white kitchen top. The wood grain laminate on the cabinets would be of a darker zebra tone, in a horizontal fashion and without any metal handles protruding. My kitchen would have an ‘island-like’ work counter in an ‘L’ shape format, that connects to the stove. There would be a glass panel below the top-tier cabinet to allow for us to use markers to write recipes or notes. 

I am ecstatic, too excited to cook and bake in this new kitchen of mine. Just a mere three months to go. Breathe. 

p/s: I find this New York kitchen design really awesome too. Check out that fireplace in the middle of the room. Awesomeness! 

This beautiful deli is situated at Raffles Hotel, at the corner just across Seah Street. Moses and I went there for one of his favourite cakes: The Chocolate Decadent Cake. I assure you, it is not for the faint hearted and you’ve got to really be in the appetite for super rich chocolate. It was such as huge slice at S$14 (inclusive of taxes and service charge).

Check it out.
 

What I love about this place most is its ambience. The way it makes me feel like I’ve escaped back to New York City (where delis are plenty), in the winter (strong air-conditioning inside) and enjoying some good American soul food (large portions). Moses and I found it queer that these two men finished up their main courses and left, while we were still struggling to finish our chocolate cake.
 

And I was pleased with this jukebox standing at one corner. I love things of the good ol’ days.
 

*Dances to “Let’s Stay Together” in my head.

I had a good time catching up with old friends and making new ones this Social Media Breakfast, that took place at the Samsung Store @ Vivo City. Too bad I had to leave earlier for another appointment. The location was great and the food was not too bad either.

A view of the spread.
 

The beautiful chocolate log cake.

And I felt so blessed because I’ve been craving for bread pudding for the longest time and viola! Delicious bread pudding in front of me.
 

Photo taking with Mark and Dorothy.
 

And of course I needed a photo with my cute nadnut. What a pleasant surprise to see her there, as we’ve been missing each other at all these events.