The Wolvesmouth Dining Experience – Where Food Meets Art
The phrase “dining experience” is one that you see thrown around in restaurant reviews all the time and we all think we know that it means until we get to have a real dining experience – like the one I was lucky enough to have last night with Wolvesmouth X NYC. Wolvesmouth is an underground … Continue reading
Athens & Greek Islands city guide: A Greek local’s perspective
We were pretty excited when we found out our good friends Tim & Bri were getting married and I must admit I was even more excited when we found out it was going to be in Athens, Greece with an open invitation to crash part of their honeymoon in the Greek Islands – Hello Grecian … Continue reading
Los Angeles city guide: Embrace your inner LA (with an egg-white omelette)
I was certain I’d hate LA with its sprawling suburbs, endless driving and plastic people. And maybe I’d still hate to live there but as a New Yorker for the last almost-year without a proper holiday, a long weekend in LA was the perfect way to de-stress and re-energise. Sure, there are those LA cliché’s … Continue reading
New York City restaurant guide: Fifteen Favourites
It’s probably impossible to distil all NYC restaurants down to the best 15, but I’m ambitious so I’m going to go ahead and do it anyway. Besides, it’s my blog so I can take it back if I change my mind. These restaurants are the top-15 that really impressed me in the 10 months I’ve … Continue reading
Amsterdam city guide: Why I love Amsterdam, the greatest little city in world
We finally did it. We moved to New York City! I’ve been so caught up in the excitement of the big move in the past months that it wasn’t till our last week in Amsterdam that I got to really reflect on what an amazing little city it really is and more importantly, what an … Continue reading
Mid-week clean and lean catch-ups: Lemony leeks with kidney beans and feta
My latest obsession is with maintaining a clean and lean lifestyle. Thankfully all of the ladies in my life are on the same post-holiday health kick so it’s been a real group effort to start the year on a health high (we’ll forget the few momentary lapses we’ve had on a couple of the weekends … Continue reading
Paris city guide: What puts the “gay” in Gay-Paree
A couple weeks ago I was lucky enough to indulge in a girls-and-gay-best-friends weekend in Paris. The plan was to see and do as much as possible since one of the girls (Hoa) was a Paris virgin, but somehow we ended up spending most of our time at GBF’s place stuffing ourselves with foie gras … Continue reading
Berlin city guide: How to blend in with the cool people (or try to)
I jumped at the chance to spend this last weekend in Berlin with Mikee, who had been there all week schmoozing with industry folk at Bread & Butter. I was really in the mood for a dose of Berlin’s attitude; you know, cool, laid-back, edgy yet stylishly hedonistic – the kind of attitude that cool … Continue reading
The roasted vegetable tart that started it all
This roasted Mediterranean vegetable tart was the beginning of my latest cookbook obsession. The Yotam Ottolenghi Plenty book was a birthday present from my brother in London who loved Yotam’s bustling Islington restaurant and felt that I should own his latest cookbook (Thanks Robert!). To tell you the truth the book sat there collecting dust … Continue reading
Crispy pork belly with apple sauce: A worthy mission
I learned something very interesting about the Dutch this weekend: that they don’t tend to appreciate roast pork with a good piece of crackling like many other countries of the world do. You’re probably asking who on earth wouldn’t love a piece of crackling other than vegetarian? Well according to the butcher at the Noordermarkt, … Continue reading
Mum’s abalone & chicken congee is a trip down comfort lane
Congee is to comfort food as chicken soup is to comfort food. It’s a rice porridge that the rice eating nations of the world prepare in different ways and is usually eaten for breakfast or fed to you by your mother when you’re feeling sick. It was a blast right into my childhood when mum … Continue reading
Vietnamese broken rice: if it’s broke don’t fix it, eat it.
During my 3 weeks in Adelaide I had a mild twice-a-week obsession – broken rice and avocado smoothies at a Van Restaurant. This is a Vietnamese restaurant tucked away in a quiet residential street deep in the inner-western suburbs of Adelaide where many Vietnamese settled in the mid-70s. It’s the kind of restaurant you’d never … Continue reading
Gaucho’s Argentinean Restaurant and everything you need to know about steak
Adelaide was the starting point of our Australian food odyssey and Gaucho’s was the first restaurant to grace the all-important food schedule that I put together on our yearly Australia trips. This restaurant is a true Adelaide institution famous for it’s house-aged steaks and its chimmichurri sauce – a tangy combination of olive oil, lemon, … Continue reading
Curry night sides: citrusy carrot salad with herbs and toasted almonds
A few weeks back I held a curry night at my place to catch up with a bunch of friends before heading home to Australia for a somewhat impromptu holiday-slash-food-odyssey. Curry nights are a great low maintenance dinner party to throw especially on a cold wintery evening because you’re bound to get a fantastic selection … Continue reading
Hawarden Estate Farm Shop and the romantic side of chutney
One of the most beautiful aspects of a relationship is the sharing of food and food experiences, which ultimately influence each other’s day-to-day food habits. I know I’ve influenced Mikee’s eating habits with my Vietnamese heritage by introducing rice as a regularly enjoyed ingredient in our household and he has also influenced and enriched my … Continue reading
Crispy tiger prawns with honey and garlic sauce: A new household favourite
This was the first of what will be many times that I cook this dish – It was an instant hit in our household. The cornflour and egg mixture creates a chewy crunchiness when you deep-fry it with the prawns and the honey and garlic sauce is wonderfully sticky and caramelises from the heat of … Continue reading
Eataly inspired long fusilli with Italian sausages
During our visit to Eataly in New York, we ate a very memorable plate of fusilli with ragu. The fusilli was long like a long unravelled phone cord making each bite an extraordinary textural experience where your mouth feels the pasta spring out, filling it with the flavoursome ragu and the al-dente pasta. We had … Continue reading
Seafood & Chorizo Paella for an easy impromptu dinner party
Paella probably isn’t the dish that comes to mind when you’re having an impromptu dinner party, but it should be. I can understand why you would first look at a pan of paella so beautifully decorated with shellfish, with its brilliant colours and immediately put it in the ‘too hard’ basket but this dish is … Continue reading
Why chicken tikka masala is Britain’s no. 1 dish
When a dish is not considered to be authentic, like Chinese lemon chicken for example, is it right to say that it is inferior? I have always thought so… at least in the case of Chinese food. We’ve all had one of those terrible anglicised chicken stir-fries with thick gravies full of corn flour and … Continue reading
Sushi eating tips I learned from Mr. Yasuda
Sushi Yasuda is hands down, the best sushi experience I have ever had. It’s probable that this is because I have yet to visit Japan, but this does not devalue my opinion as Mikee, who visits Tokyo frequently, makes the same claim. The restaurant is notoriously strict with reservations. Not only do you have to … Continue reading
melting butter 