The Hungry Bunny

Everyone has their own version of chili, the all-American comfort food of choice during this Superbowl season. Aside from the basic ingredients of beef mince and kidney beans and chili powder spices, I like mine porked up, with the yummy trinity of bacon, ham and pork mince to amp up the richness. In addition, I dunk in a bunch of mushrooms for an earthy base. You can opt to spice up yours with your favourite stuff, like carrots (for a sweeter finish, take about 10 baby carrots, diced to 1cm lengths and added before step 4 below just before the mushrooms), capsicums (for a peppery kick, take 1 pepper and dice to 1cm cubes and fry with mushrooms below), and beans (for a nuttier element, take 1 can of kidney beans, drained and rinsed and add at step 7 below). This is a great party food that you can prepare in advance, so you get to mingle with guests without having to hover in the kitchen all night. In fact, I actually prepare this the night before a party, pop it in the fridge overnig

The Hubs says that my membership at the club is completely wasted. I don't play golf (no ball sense whatsoever and I try to stay away from the sun...too aging!) and ever since I signed up for Muay Thai classes at Impact, I don't ever use the gym here anymore. The rare occasions that I ever step into the club is really to use the dining levy to eat. While Silk is the arguably the best dining establishment in the club, The Lookout offers cheap(er) fare in a much more casual setting where there isn't a dress code to adhere to. The Fillet Mignon of Veal ($25.90), wrapped in bacon for an extra punch of flavour, was pretty good. Especially when you consider how cheap it is. This was sided by mashed potatoes, boiled root vegetables and drizzled with a thin but tasty red wine sauce. The Lookout Singapore Island Country Club 180 Island Club Road Open daily from 6.30am to 10pm

We were getting some last-minute groceries at the Cold Storage at Great world City when we popped in to Ichiban Boshi for a light bite. The cooked food at this mass-market, mid-priced Japanese chain isnt' top notch, but it's pretty decent. And this branch at Great World City is probably the best of the chain. During peak dining hours, there's always a line of hungry diners waiting to get into the casual restaurant. The Chicken Pirikara Udon ($11.90), a claypot laden with fried chicken pieces, smooth beancurd cubes, cabbage, shitake, enoki and chewy udon are topped with an egg in a garlicky spicy broth. The Dobinmushi ($7.90), teapot of dashi stock flavoured with shrimp, chicken and root vegetables, is delicate but rich in depth. A wedge of lime helps brighten the sweet broth. Ichiban Boshi 1 Kim Seng Promenade Great World City B1-07 Tel: 67343433 Open Mondays to Saturdays from 11.30am to 10pm; Sundays from 11am to 10pm Website: www.ichibanboshi.com.sg

I've never realized that there aren't many places that are dog-friendly. I've never had a dog, and the Hubs doesn't want any dogs (for the same reasons why he doesn't want kids...PM me for the full list). The cumulative conditions for us to get a dog were that, we're both retired, and no longer mobile to travel, and are lonely, AND have a huge compound for our goldie to run around. Since none of these were happening in the near future, there wasn't a need to know which restaurants are dog-friendly, and which ones aren't. Until we met up with a couple friend of ours, who'd brought their Japanese spitz puppy out (at my incessant begging) for brunch this weekend. I recalled having been to the Botanic Gardens eons ago where I'd seen a whole bunch of doggies running around, so I figured that at least one of the restaurants at the park would be dog-friendly. A quick call to Casa Verde , the casual bistro/pizzeria under the Les Amis Group, confirmed t

My firm celebrated Chinese New Year early this year, at the Empress Ballroom of Carlton Hotel , where we dined on the Fortune Menu ($758++ for 10 pax). Although dinner was catered from the hotel's in-house Cantonese restaurant Wah Lok, the food was disappointingly lackluster compared to our usual meals at Wah Lok . All of the dishes suffered from too heavy a sprinkling hand with the salt. I had to drown myself in coke all night to counter any post-dinner water retention.  The Salmon Yusheng here marked my second lo hei of the year, and this run-of-the-mill version paled in comparison to the one I had just last week at Crystal Jade Golden Palace . The fish were sliced so miserably thin they might as well have done a carpaccio instead. The Braised Fish Maw Soup with Crabmeat was 2 pinches too salty. I had to flood this with pepper to balance out the saltiness. Save for the saltiness, the fish maw was braised very well and crabmeat fresh and plentiful. The Deep-Fried Seab

We're trying to eat lightly in the week leading up to the Chinese New Year festivities. A sort of balancing act to counter the amount of sinful, indulgent, artery-clogging feasting come 31 January 2014. Soup Restaurant fits the bill nicely in our bid to eat a little more healthily this week. They have a rotating stable of traditional soups that are wholesome, as well as a range of double-boiled herbal soups that are nourishing, and their heritage fare tends to the simple and homespun. The Beggar Bowl Steamed Rice ($5.90), loaded with blanched kailan, sauteed chicken and Chinese sausages, was indeed a humble dish. A side of thick gooey black soy imparts just that little bit of flavour to the plain rice. The Traditional Boiled Soup-of-the-Day ($15.90 for 2-4pax) was a sweet corn, carrot & pork rib soup . Delicate, yet with sweetness and depth of flavour from the simmered corn and stewed carrots, this was very comforting. Soup Restaurant 290 Orchard Road B1-07 P

We were in the Bukit Timah area and the Hubs took the opportunity to revisit Violet Oon's . We'd arrived just as they'd begun operations for the day. Like getting a car warmed up in winter, I think the kitchen needed a bit more time to get their engines revved up. Our orders took inordinately long and some of the food was a lil' bit choppy. They didn't quite hold up to their usual standard. The Asian Big Breakfast ($20), a brunch item, was basically an upmarket nasi lemak. It can't quite compare with the authentic hawker stuff, but it was relatively decent. The otak was heavily textured with large chunks of fresh fish, the fried chicken wing was fairly succulent, but the sambal egg was the best of the lot, perfectly boiled with nary a rubber consistency. A mound of yellow flavoured nasi kuning and a cucumber & ikan bilis salad sided the substantive platter. The Ngo Hiang ($14) was as good as ever though, incredibly juicy insides with a good crunch on

The Crystal Jade Group of restaurants is one of those reliable chain-name restaurants that one can always depend on for a good meal. Of the lot, the biracial Teochew-Cantonese Golden Palace branch at Paragon is the most refined and my pick for a meal that'll definitely impress. The imposing décor with deep red and sexy black hues, luxurious chandeliers and large cavernous hall, is matched by the exquisite fare and generally faultless service. The Roasted Crispy Chicken ($22 for half) was very commendable; moist and succulent with a thin, paper-crisp skin. Still, I thought Wah Lok's version is marginally better; so tasty it didn't need any salt at all. CJ Golden Palace's version still needed the occasional salt dips for full-on flavour. The Braised Mushroom with 2 Types of Vegetables ($26) was unexpectedly delicious. I usually shy away from those thick fibrous crunchy stalks of green veggies but these had been braised to a denture-soft texture so it required t

The Hubs and I generally don't plan our meals in advance. Most of the time, we let our stomachs decide, barely 15 minutes before we eventually arrive at the restaurant of choice. That's why we're not in the habit of making reservations. There's just not enough time to place one! Usually, our spontaneity (and lack of planning) isn't a problem, because it's just the 2 of us, and most restaurants (even if packed) are able to accommodate just another 2 persons without much fuss. Not this weekend at Long Beach though. Trying to get to Long Beach's salted egg yolk crabs turned out to be an hour-long hunt of those elusive crabs. Our usual haunt, the Long Beach King outlet at Kallang had shockingly run out of Sri Lanka mud crabs. At 8.15 pm, no less! So, we called the main branch at East Coast Park, and were told that the waiting time for just 2 persons was over an hour. Even takeaways attracted a waiting time of at least an hour because the dine-in patrons took p

I was thrilled to receive an invitation from the Crystal Jade Group to preview some of their Chinese New Year offerings at their fine-dining Golden Palace branch. It's one of my favourite restaurants and I generally love the food and service here. A huge bonus of this tasting was that I got to bring the Hubs as my plus-one. It's possibly the only part of my blogging hobby that he truly appreciates. (Usually, I'll have to strap him down and "force" him to read my blog posts!) As per S.O.P. of my invited tastings, we returned twice, in order to sample all of the dishes tasted. While service at the tasting was that little bit more attentive and personalised, it was, afterall, a VIP room, and I expect that most VIPs would get the same treatment. That said, service at both revisits, in the main dining hall and not private rooms, were still above-par, efficient, speedy and so thoughtful and nice they helped me stage the dishes properly when they noticed that I was t