There was once a man with an appetite
Who wanted his eggs to come out right
He fried his bread
He scratched his head
His croque madame was out of sight.
Okay, so I stink at limericks! For this month’s EoMEoTE, Jeanne challenged us to write a limerick to accompany our recipes. Sigh… Well, as said, I made one […]

Comfort foods turn me on. Most nights, I’d much rather have a chicken pot pie, a hearty lasagne, a big plate of fried rice, or a steamed egg custard with minced pork than a multi-plated, multi-course culinary extravaganza. Comfort foods are delicious. They also activate our sense memory, transporting us back in time—to our own […]

The best macarons I have ever eaten were from Pierre Hermé. Unfortunately, getting to either Paris or Tokyo to buy these amazing pastries is pretty difficult (anyone out there wanna sponsor me with a Marquis Jet card?), so I make do with what is available locally. Sometimes though, I do end up rather shamelessly begging […]

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email from a friend of mine. He’s the local distributor for some pretty amazing kitchen-related brands. After seeing my blog—which I had never mentioned to him—written up in the local daily newspaper, he dropped me a line asking me if I had some ideas on how to […]

I’m a big fan of Viognier. It’s a wine varietal that I only discovered 4 years ago, and I’ve been hooked ever since. The first one I had was a D’Arenberg “The Last Ditch” Viognier. It was one of many wines served at an amazing al fresco lunch thrown for a bunch of foodies and […]

I love ice cream. Always have, and I suspect, always will. Lately though, I haven’t been eating a lot of it. Trying to eat a slightly more nutritious and healthier diet has meant that ice cream, instead of being a regular treat, has become a reward of sorts. A week of eating well means I […]

For this month’s IMBB challenge, hosted by Simply Recipes, I tried out a recipe for a Panna Cotta Parfait and Red Fruit Jelly from Patrick O’Connell’s Refined American Cuisine. When O’Connell makes this dessert, he uses a tall, skinny glass and layers both the jelly and panna cotta twice. For two reasons, I opted for […]

A couple of days ago, a friend of mine who owns a fantastic little restaurant nestled in Fort Canning Park called me to ask a favour. She needed some photos done of one of her chef’s signature dishes; a local high-society magazine wanted to run it. Always happy to help a friend and equally thrilled […]

It’s great to be married to a food writer at times. Take today for example. S was invited to a fabulous lunch and Champagne tasting and was allowed to bring me along. It was a double treat for me. The lunch was held at Iggy’s, one of my favourite restaurants in Singapore, and the Champagne […]

What a weekend of eating! On Friday, my wife and I met up with two good friends for a delicious yakitori dinner at Ahodori (which I wrote about in March). Saturday night, we had a feast at a friend’s new (and really amazing) apartment. The food, cooked by his gorgeous fiancé, was beautiful. We started […]

It’s not every day that a respected and discerning professional critic calls someone a genius, so it was incredibly thrilling to hear that this past Friday, a close friend was described as such by none other than the International Herald Tribune’s food writer Patricia Wells. The friend in question is Singaporean chef Jereme Leung, who […]

This morning, my wife, S, decided she’d bake us up a quick breakfast. We had some bananas that were turning just a tad too ripe and had to be eaten right away, mashed up and turned into something, or thrown out. She decided she’d try option 2 and turned to Nigella’s How To Be A […]

I think everyone has certain foods that they’d travel the world for. We all have cravings. And when those food items are in far-off countries, we often crave them even more. My gorgeous greedy friend L, for example, is a total Penang food fanatic. (Then again, who isn’t?) One of her favourite Penang food items […]

I read a really sad little announcement in the newspaper this morning. Tai Cheong Bakery, in Hong Kong, is closing on the 25th of May, after 51 years in business. Tai Cheong, famous for its egg tarts, is, for those that haven’t heard of it, an institution in Hong Kong. Ex-Governor Chris Patten was just […]

Couple days ago, Anthony over at Spiceblog shot some of his cookbooks. Like all things on the web, this has kicked off a fun new meme, asking foodies on the web to post pictures of their cookbook collections and answer the below questions. For more info, check out Anthony’s original post here. I hope all […]

I’ve written in previous posts that Iggy’s is one of my favourite restaurants. Maybe it’s because I’ve known Iggy—Ignatius Chan—for more than a decade. Maybe it’s because I’m a sucker for (and total believer in) the culinary world’s latest gastrotrend, the counter-dining experience. (Going to L’Atelier de Robuchon last December was a religious experience.) But […]

Earlier this year, a good friend working in a publishing house emailed me and asked if I’d be interested in contributing to a book on hotels. The book, it turned out, had been commissioned by Institutional Investor, a US-based magazine started by a friend of my family’s. How’s that for a small world! Called The […]

For Christmas last year, my wife and I gave my mother a dinner voucher. More specifically, we offered to cook a dinner party for her and her friends whenever she wanted. This past weekend, she cashed in the voucher in order to celebrate her best friend’s birthday.
We hosted 7 people and cooked them a 5 […]

Colour me flattered. This morning, I was surprised by an SMS from a friend telling me my blog was in the paper! (Our paper service, because of heavy rain, was delayed today, so my wife and I had left the house before it was delivered.) Sure enough, there it was, featured in the Straits Times’ […]

I’ve always been a big fan of owner-operated restaurants. And one of the best in Singapore is Restaurant Ember. Owned by Chef Sebastian Ng and his always cheerful wife Sabrina, this small restaurant on the ground floor of the Hotel 1929 serves up delicious fusion food at moderate prices. We visited Ember this week to […]

Two great new food shops are up and running in the Lion City. Hediard, the fab French food purveyor has just opened up on Tanglin Road and Bunalun, a super-cool, Irish organic food store has surfaced in Holland Village.
Bunalun has been open for a while now, and while my wife’s been shopping there for a […]

Every April, a close friend of ours goes a little nuts. She’s usually a great gal. Beautiful, funny, sweet, generous, and, of course, as you might expect as a criterion of our friendship, wonderfully gluttonous. But April marks the beginning of the all too brief Alfonso mango season. And this gal, L, is mad about […]

Last week, Bonny Kang, a very frequent poster and member-in-great standing on Flickr started a new and fun community. Similar in some ways to Is My Blog Burning? (IMBB), this new group, Friday Food Fiesta, asks its members to photograph a specific food/dish each week. Unlike IMBB, which is more recipe driven, this group is […]

I just heard some really disturbing news from a close friend. Last night, he and his wife went to a restaurant that my wife and I had introduced to him, Trattoria La Fiandra, on Prinsep Street. It’s a tiny little Italian place run by a husband and wife team. It serves good food at reasonable […]

Until I discovered this recipe, my favourite roast chicken recipe was a rather unhealthy but delicious version picked out of Nigel Slater’s Real Food, which is also one of my all-time favourite cookbooks. Nigel’s version asks us to rub our chicken inside and out with butter (herb butter, granted, but still butter).
The recipe my […]