The Hungry Bunny

The Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Taipei is one of my favourite hotels in the world. Notwithstanding my love for the Mandarin Oriental brand, or that I've never stayed in any other hotel in Taipei, it very possibly is the most luxurious accommodation in Taipei. I mean, if it's good enough for Coldplay (we'd bumped into them, and their entire entourage, when they were on tour in Taipei), it sure is more than good enough for mere mortals like us. The hotel is the epitome of understated elegance and posh. Marble everywhere, with clean, modern lines. Opulent but never garish, the hotel's polished refinement design aesthetic is right up my alley. Service is warm and genuinely so.We'd given them a list of must-eats in Taipei, and the concierge came up with a self-guided route for us to explore, replete with opening times, shortest queues, nearby landmarks, and even wrangled reservations for us at some insanely popular hotpot restaurant, and on a New Year's Eve no les...

The Hubs balked when I suggested Dempsey Cookhouse & Bar for dinner. You see, to all Singaporean males who have been conscripted, a "cookhouse" refers to the canteens in the barracks. And I think, to ensure our Singaporean males get "the full war-time experience", these cookhouses simulate the type of garbage available as food during deployment. The particular sort of slop they had to stomach for two whole years will forever be seared in their collective memories, and a 'cookhouse' will consequently be forever associated with swill. But, you know, I'm the self-proclaimed food blogger right, so he follows where I say we go. Besides, I was at the adjoining bar a few weeks back having work drinks to toast a new venture, and The Big Kahuna had rhapsodized about "the fantastic egg caviar". And because this guy is legit high-SES, it's safe to assume he knows his haute cuisine. Also, I love caviar. I may not care for many expensive delica...

I love charcuterie, and to make it a little less unhealthy, and a lot more nutritious, I thought I'll add the lot to chunk up a pasta salad with lots of greens. Here's a quick and easy recipe for a one-plate meal. Ingredients (feeds 2): 2 cups rotini pasta 2 cups roasted coloured peppers 3 tbsp-heap sundried tomato pesto 4 tbsp EVOO charcuterie, I used a mix of prosciutto, coppa and salami here 250gm arugula leaves handful fresh basil leaves Directions: 1) Toss roasted peppers with extra virgin olive oil and pesto. 2) Boil pasta in salted water till 1 minute before cooking instructions for al dente. Drain into cool water and toss with pesto-peppers-EVOO mixture. 3) Assemble salad, starting with the arugula and basil, followed by the pasta-peppers-pesto medley, and finished with as much chacuterie as you like.

Lucky House Cantonese is a private dining destination that's garnered a fair bit of interest lately, and the recent rave review by the Straits Times food editor may be why. Whereas it used to be a sort of secret supper club exclusively popular through word-of-mouth, its previous 2 months advanced reservations requirement has now burgeoned to a 3-4 month-long waitlist. Again, it was fortuitous that I got to dine at Lucky House . The Type A planner friend who got us reservations at Chef Kang's had heard about Lucky House through a foodie colleague, got the dates first and then gathered whichever available troops for dinner. I would have never bothered with making such advanced reservations otherwise. At $80 per head for 5 dishes, Lucky House  was notably more economical than the prices at Chef Kang's. But, dinner was inordinately draggy. It was a good half hour before we were served the first dish, and lapses between each course was cause for hangry-ness. According to ...

Bedok Fengshan Market , or "that hawker centre at Bedok North Blk 85", or "that soupy bak chor mee hawker centre", is one of our all-time favourite food centres. Yes, it's all the way in the far-flung East, and yes, it takes a while to get to (especially if you live in the West), but its stalls are mostly open till the wee hours, and offers a gamut of local foods, many of which are outstanding. Besides, it's Singapore, 'far' is really more a local construct, and if you've lived anywhere else, travelling to Bedok North is actually relatively short, objectively speaking. And I like that parking at Bedok Fengshan isn't as nightmarish an endeavour as Chomp Chomp at Serangoon Gardens, it sure is a whole lotta less touristy than East Coast Lagoon, and isn't an overrated tourist-trap like Newton. Minced Meat Noodles (Bah Chor Mee) It is well publicized the two stalls, located side-by-side, that serve up nearly indistinguishable bowls of s...