During the summer of 1994, I was lucky enough to land an internship with the International Herald Tribune in Paris. Even better, the studio apartment that I subletted from a friend who was studying there—she was gallivanting across Scandanavia that summer—was right over a wonderful little patisserie. Well, actually, it was 6 floors above, and […]

Over the weekend, my wife and I took a Thai Spa Cuisine cooking class at Chiva-Som. It was, for me, an important part of the research I needed to conduct in order to be able to contribute intelligently to the resort’s forthcoming Thai Spa Cuisine cookbook.
I won’t go too much into the details of the […]

Before coming to Chiva-Som, I don’t think I would have ever considered eating a whole grain croissant. And not especially one made with as little butter as possible. The idea alone is off-putting. It sounds like something a peasant-skirted fem-hippy with unshaven legs and armpit hair would make (um… no offence intended to unshaven fem-hippy […]

Chiva-Som means “haven for life”, and for the well-heeled guests who frequent this gorgeous spa in order to relax, de-stress and detox, that description is perfectly apt. Chiva-Som, located in Hua Hin, Thailand, is one of the world’s most famous spas, and its range of treatments, physical, mental and spiritual are well-reputed. For people seeking […]

I was in Thailand over the weekend, having gone there to check out uber-health spa, Chiva Som, in Hua Hin (more on that in a later post). The drive to Hua Hin from the airport is 2.5 hours, so I had quite a bit of time on my very idle hands. Fortunately, I had my […]

I love it when work and pleasure come together. I’m off tomorrow to spend a few days in one of the world’s best spas, Chiva Som, in Hua Hin, Thailand. They’ve asked me to contribute to a cookbook they’re producing on their famous Thai Spa Cuisine. I’ll post substantially on the resort and the food […]

Okay, it’s not the world’s greatest photo or the world’s prettiest dish, but this is my all-time favourite stay-in-and-have-a-simple-meal-at-home food. It’s a steamed egg custard with minced pork and salted duck egg yolks and is one of the few things that I’d be more than happy to eat a couple times of week for the […]

Last night, we got together with a whole host of friends at Mag’s Wine Bar-Bistro. I’ve mentioned Mag’s before, in my post on my favourite Singapore restaurants. Mag’s is a wonderful little restaurant that’s a bit of an anomaly in Singapore. It’s tiny, with one big communal table and a couple small ones; it’s […]

In a very commendable display of domestic goddessdom, S, world’s coolest wife, spent part of this weekend baking goodies for both me and the always-greedy golden retrievers. Yesterday, for Sascha and Alix, she whipped up some delicious looking blueberry muffins. She made two dozen mini-muffins (pictured below, with the red muffin liners) and a half […]

When I was a journalist, part of my job required me to go to a lot of launch parties and receptions. While many of these were fun, the food at most of them was, sadly, forgettable. Of course, the food was rarely the point of these events, so neither I, nor I suspect the other […]

I’ve always loved risotto. I love the way it tastes, the rich starchiness of it, punctuated with the umami-ness of freshly grated parmesan. I especially love risotto made with home-made stock. It’s comforting in a way few other foods are. I also love making it. It’s a dish that forces you to slow down, and […]

We recently purchased a copy of The King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion, a great big volume full of yummy recipes. After a quick dinner (soya sauce chicken noodles—yum!), we decided to make something. I had some Reese’s peanut butter chips that I wanted to use. I had originally bought these to put in a home-made […]

This weekend, my wife and I made dinner to celebrate the visit of two close friends, now living in Turks & Caicos, where they run one of the world’s best resorts (yah, tough life!). Four other friends joined us. At the suggestion of N—one half of the couple being celebrated—each couple brought along a bottle […]

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to tag along with my wife (the food writer) and her editor as they checked out one of the city’s newest restaurants. Townhouse is an airy, comfortable and civilised space that ironically sits above one of the loudest and most popular Irish pubs in town. A joint venture between the […]

Being Chinese, I love pork (well, there’s a sweeping generalization). So, when my wife and I spied some Kurobuta pork belly slices at our local Japanese supermarket, we knew we had to buy some. For the uninitiated, Kurobuta pork is darker in color than other pork—the color is a lovely red—and it is also well-marbled.
The […]

Ah, I’ve just discovered that The Guardian has kindly posted Mr Barnes’ essay on the Chocolate Nemesis here in case you want to read it. Enjoy!

One of the best food books I’ve read recently is Julian Barnes’ The Pedant in the Kitchen. Here’s a shot of its cover (click on the image to go to the Amazon UK site to buy it).

This little non-fiction book covers Mr Barnes’ attempts to learn to cook fabulous food at home. In it, he […]

I’ve complained quite a few times about my Treo’s camera. While it may be fine for snapping quick cute shots when walking the dogs, in low light situations and for shooting close-up, it’s awful. I have one other digital camera, a Fuji S1 Pro I bought years ago, and it is great. Takes fantastic shots. […]

The other day, I had a quick lunch at Ajisen, a fast food Japanese ramen place in Funan Centre. To my great amusement, one corner of the restaurant was taken up by a makeshift photo studio set-up. I grabbed a table facing this set-up and watched as the hired photographer snapped a variety of sushi […]

April 2nd was Alix’s second birthday. Alix, as you can probably tell from the picture below (hovering in the background) is the younger of our two Golden Retrievers. To celebrate, my wife S, in addition to feeding her a special breakfast of scrambled eggs, decided to whip up a batch of doggy cookies.

The cookies are […]

One of my favourite restaurants is also one I rarely go to. And that’s because it’s harder to get a table there than any other in town. Not that it’s super-chic or anything. In fact, quite the opposite, Buko Nero is a small, humble 20-seater run (and staffed) by Oskar and Tracey, a lovely husband […]

It’s been a slow couple of days. My wife is down with a nasty bout of food poisoning so we haven’t been cooking anything exciting nor going out to eat. In fact, we’re missing out on a large dinner with close friends tonight at Oso, one of our favourite Italian restaurants in town.
So, this is […]