The Hungry Bunny

I've resisted going to Beni for a while now. The parking at Mandarin Gallery is terrible ( navigating the teeny tiny squeezy narrow carpark is like being back at the obstacle course at driving school arghh! ), and if it was possible, contacting the restaurant was an even bigger pain. We rarely, if ever, plan our meals in advance, u see, so most of the time, we let fate decide the where-to for dinner...and usually end up at whichever restaurant has a last-minute availability. And Beni , in addition to its policy of requiring a deposit to secure a reservation, didn't take reservations over the phone, if you got through to them at all in the first place. Hiccups in accessing the restaurant aside, dinner at Beni was transcendent. Like I was cautious and all, because French-Japanese cuisine tends to the clinical and stuffy. But consider me mind-blown; just about every dish was extraordinary. It's like the chef took the best parts of his French training and Japanese heritage ...

Like every other person who learned that one of the culinary options at the Intercontinental Robertson Quay was the world-renowned Wolfgang's Steakhouse , I thought it was yet another concept of celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck's group of restaurants. Like a sister restaurant to the sublime Cut by Wolfgang Puck , maybe? Apparently not. While oft-confused for the other, Wolfgang's Steakhouse is instead, somewhat "related" to another steakhouse heavyweight: Peter Luger. Wolfgang's Steakhouse is named for Wolfgang Zwiener (zwee-ner, not a rhyme for the male appendage, please), a head waiter at Peter Luger Steakhouse who, for decades, served Tinseltown's biggest luminaries. I've never been to Peter Luger, but I sure liked Wolfgang's Steakhouse . The steaks were fantastic, even if the sides were a little bit of a hit-and-miss. I wouldn't say it's the best, but I think it ranks a close second to joint firsts Ruth Chris and Cut. And service...

So we'd just watched this rom-com "Little Italy", which chemistry between leads Emma Roberts and easy-on-the-eye Hayden Christensen ( say what you will about his disaster role as a young Anakin Skywalker in the gawdawful Star Wars prequel trilogies, but mannnn, he's sizzling hawt stuff ) played sideshow to the real star of the movie: pizza. Like Burnt with fine dining and Chef with food truck cubanos, watching this made us crave pizza. Like, we were struck with a serious hankering for pizza by the time the credits rolled around. And at 11 o'clock at night, no less. Lucky for us there was Blue Label Pizza , a late-night pizzeria that possibly serves up the best pizzas in town. Here, the Italian classic is given a modern twist, so you get hipster toppings like kale and manchego, and bases studded with sesame seeds. IT WAS AMAZING. We're not big on pizza, but we both agreed, while stuffing our face with pizza, that Blue Label Pizza made carb-loading satisfying...

I'm a big fan of using western ingredients in Chinese cooking. This is a fusion of Chinese-style fried noodles (admittedly already b@stardised) with Italian noodles. It may look like a lot of steps but it's a lot easier (and faster) than expected to whip up!! Ingredients (feeds 2-4): 1 cup tagliatelle (or any other string pasta like spaghetti or fettuccine will do) 1 head round cabbage, sliced into strips 3 cups julienned carrots 1 head broccoli, cut into bite-sized florets, makes about 5 cups 500gm chicken fillet, diced and marinated for at least 3 hours (marinade recipe below) 1 head garlic, minced 3 tbsp canola oil 3 tbsp sesame oil oyster sauce light soy sake ground white pepper 1 tsp dark soy for colouring sesame seeds to garnish fried shallots to garnish Chicken marinade: 1.5 tbsp light soy 1 tbsp oyster sauce 1.5 tbsp sesame oil 1 tbsp shaoxing wine dash of white ground pepper 1 tsp sugar Sauce for noodles (pre-mixed in a bowl): 2 tbsp oyst...

We always think of salads as a western concept, but salads can be an Asian thing, too. Like this warm vegetable salad redolent with garlic, soy, and sesame flavours, it's distinctively Chinese in style with the sauteed vegetables. There's the warm and soft, contrasted against the cold crisp of the mesclun greens. Ingredients (feeds 2 as a main, 4 as a side): 1 package of 150gm mesclun leaves, washed and spun dry 600gm mushrooms, sliced (I used a mix of white buttons, Swiss browns and portobellos) 2 cups carrots, julienned 1 large zucchini, diced 1 head garlic, minced 3 tbsp canola oil 3 tbsp sesame oil 3 tbsp light soy 2 tbsp oyster sauce 2 tbsp sake fried garlic to garnish Dressing: 5 tbsp ponzu sauce 3 tbsp toasted sesame oil 1 tsp wholegrain mustard Directions: 1) Fry 1 tbsp minced garlic in 1 tbsp canola oil and 1 tbsp sesame oil on medium heat until fragrant, about 30 seconds. 2) Turn heat up to medium-high and toss in mushrooms with 1 tbsp lig...