The Hungry Bunny

It's great that NYDC opens late till 12 midnight on the weekends to cater for late night hunger pangs and cravings for desserts. We both had a really early dinner, so by 9 pm, our stomachs were growling again and hankering for something sweet. We don't usually order the savoury dishes here but some of their appetizers are pretty alright. We had the Buffalo Chicken Wings ($8.50), seasoned, breaded and crisp fried till a reddish-brown, and dipped in a sweetish, Thai-chili-esqe, buffalo sauce. Chicken was well marinated, so the flavour soaked through to the bone. This was a pretty well done rendition. I really liked the Mushroom Munchies ($6.95) with ham and mozzarella cheese smothered in a garlic sauce and delectably baked in white button mushroom caps. This was a sure-win formula, with favourites like ham, melted cheese and mushrooms in an explosive combo mix. No meal here would be complete without an order of That Boney Cake ($9.80) with French vanilla ice-cream

We spent the weekend with 2 of my best friends, Cho and Kang. We needed to get them fitted for their best men suits, so we conveniently arranged to have dinner afterwards. Cho wanted some place with alcohol, and Kang wanted his protein fix, so we headed to Bistro du Vin , the casual French arm of the Les Amis group of restaurants. I have to say that we've never had anything less than an excellent meal at their restaurants. It's little wonder Les Amis consistently ranks high on the international dining scene. We all got side dishes to share and supplement our mains. The Sauteed Mushrooms ($4) would have been excellent, except it was marred by the taste of flat leaf parsley generously sprinkled all over the dish. This was otherwise brilliantly seasoned and sauteed. I loved the French Beans ($3), simply cooked in butter for that luxurious feel. The Pan Seared US Scallops ($16) may have been a bit pricey, but the succulent sweet and plump shellfish, perfectly seared,

I've long thought that Conrad Centennial is 1 of very few hotels one would hold a wedding banquet that actually serves good food. Having been to so many wedding dinners, I've found that the food is usually quite substandard and crappy. The at-least-$150 pricetag of each red packet given to the wedding couple really doesn't commensurate with the quality of the food. I think the reason why the food at a wedding banquet held at Conrad is memorable and satisfying is because their food is catered by their in-house Cantonese restaurant, Golden Peony . This venerable Cantonese dame is quite the understated and underrated hidden gem of a find. The food is exquisite and refined, albeit a little pricey. Service is excellent, attentive but not intrusive. Ambience is low-key, fairly intimate and classy. We really liked the Sauteed and Golden-fried Sliced Grouper ($24), the smooth and mild fish was cooked 2 different ways for variety, set on a bed of crunchy sugar snap peas. This w

What used to house The Tapas Tree is now Octapas Spanish Tapas Bar . According to the grapevine, there was a slight change in management, which resulted in the revamping of this beloved Spanish institution. This restaurant is the reason why I love Spanish food. I'd never had Spanish food until The Tapas Tree came along to our sunny shores. While the decor is largely the same, the menu has had a mini re-haul. Rest assured the quality of the food has been maintained, if not improved. All the dishes we sampled that night were pretty fabulous. We had a thoroughly satisfactory meal. We started off with the Pan-fried Snapper ($15.50) thinly coated with a flour batter and flash-fried, so the crust was delightfully crisp and golden, while the fish remained moist. Spanish romesco sauce, a heady mix of olive oil, pinenuts, almonds, roasted garlic and sweet red peppers, was drizzled over the fish for a little kick and spice. We also liked the Skewered Scallops ($16.50) plump, sweet and

If you want ayam penyet (Malay-style fried chicken that's smashed before serving), you've gotta go to Lucky Plaza. There must be at least 5 different eateries selling this Indonesian fare. I'd previously eaten at Ayam Penyet Ria , and for a change, Jal brought me to this other eatery that's really quite popular with the lunch crowd.  This eatery is really quite a hole-in-the-wall, with a seating capacity of about 20 people, but fret not, they have a separate shop unit, about 3 shop units away, that can house another 10 diners. We both got the Ayam Goreng Set ($6.50), crispy juicy fried chicken loaded with delectable batter crisps and served with a beancake, fried beancurd and rice. They have 2 types of sambal chilli, one with kecap manis (sweet black sauce) and one without. Mix them up together and you get a potent fiery mix that's lipsmackingly good with the fried chicken. I liked that they served a side of belinjau crackers with the Soto Ayam  ($4.50) Malay-

It's great that the Fiance gets along so well with all of my friends. My friends are very important to me, and they've been a huge part of my life. I really wouldn't be the person I am today without them. To be honest, it isn't as easy as it was when we were all in school together to meet up and catch up with my friends. It takes effort to keep up a friendship. That's why I've started this habit of ensuring I meet up with my friends at least once in 2 months, or every month if schedules permit. That way, I see my friends at least 6-12 times a year. We met up with Ry for dinner at La Strada . We were all feeling like Italian that day and this place is great for chatting as the restaurant is never really full and you usually get quite a bit of privacy to carry on your chat. We shared everything. The starter of Scamorza alla Piastra con Proscuitto di Parma ($18) was our favourite. Mild creamy smoked scamorza cheese was lightly pan-fried and served alongside

It's been a while since we last had dim sum for lunch. Tung Lok Signatures , in my view, offers the best of the Tung Lok group of restaurants. I mean, the restaurant's garnered an impressive number of culinary awards and is consistently on the "Best of" lists, so it's not just me who feels that the food's good. We like the dim sum here, and feel that the standard of the dim sum's on par with that of Hua Ting and Wah Lok . Of course, as with most delicious food at upscale restaurants, the food's consequently pricey. We started off with the Deep Fried Beancurd Skin Rolls with Shrimp ($4.50), the beancurd skin was fried to a crisp golden crust, be-ribboned with a seaweed strip, while the fresh prawns inside remained juicy crunchy and succulent. The sunny yellow hue in the Century Egg Porridge with Duck ($4.80) is from the yolk of salted duck egg swirled into the porridge. The porridge was smooth, gruel-like and flavoursome, and the duck was f

Gurney Drive , a new restaurant named after Penang's most famous food street, located in the food basement of Suntec City Mall, aims to bring the authentic taste of world-renowned Penang cuisine to our sunny shores. Apparently, their chef hails from Penang itself, so the food's bound to be good right? Besides, we were curious to see how this would measure up to the food at Copthorne King's Hotel, our favourite place to get our Penang food craving fix. Generally, food was fairly authentic, portions were substantial enough to satiate your hunger but not overwhelmingly so, and prices were very easy on the wallet. We thought this was a relatively value-for-money option amongst the many food choices at Suntec.  We ordered several Penang staples to share, starting with the Penang Fried Koay Teow ($6.90), which was commendable but not mind-blowing. It just lacked that smoky accent and oomph factor of a really hot wok. The addition of the 3 fried pork lard pieces was an authen

No visit to Seoul would be complete without eating Italian food. Italian cuisine is HUGE in Seoul, there's like one pizza and pasta joint everywhere you turn. Di Oliva Pizzaria was really near the hotel, like a 5 minute stroll, and we tookaway a pizza one night for supper. The Pizza Rossa Cipolla (15,000 Won), with olives, tomatoes, onions and mozzarella, used the simplest and barest of ingredients, to create an unbelievably yummy and aromatic pizza. Crust was thin, smoky and crisp, indicative of a good wood-fired oven. Considering the incredibly cheap price, we were also very pleasantly surprised by the generous portion of the pizza. The restaurant facade for reference Di Oliva Pizzaria Nonhyeon-dong Gangnam-gu Seoul South Korea

Prego , being an Italian joint, really isn't a place one would go to for steak. But as we found out the other day, their grilled beef fillet is easily one of the most value-for-money steaks around. There's only one cut of choice, and that's the tenderloin, which suited us just fine because this cut is known for its extremely tender qualities. Prego's Tenderloin Beef Fillet ($42) is really huge, so it's best to share if you're a small eater. This was a lovely piece of red meat, tender without being too fatty, hearty with distinctively beefy flavours. This wasn't the Japanese type of beef, as it had a more robust smell and taste. A generous sprinkling of salt made the steak extremely tasty. A drizzle of red wine jus, savoury chick pea and carrot mash, and a bunch of crunchy green leafy vegetables completed the wonderfully satisfying dish. I'm not as huge a fan of red meat as the Fiance is, and got the Catch-of-the-Day, a grilled Seabass Brazino ($