Food For My Belly

I may have lived in Melbourne for the past 15 years of my life but I will always call Malaysia, home. "home is where love resides, memories are created, friends always belong and laughter never ends" Whenever I am back, there are always so many new food places that I discover on people's blogs or instagram that I want to eat at but other times, I like returning to my old favourites :)

I remember once as a kid in Malaysia; my mum whisked me from school and took me to Singapore with her for the day as she had some business meetings to attend to. Did I remember her attending business meetings? Not really but I do remember the both of us sitting in a restaurant overlooking Orchard Road where we observed the people who went by. We had Japanese food; I had an ebi don and mum had an unagi don. I am blessed that at a very young age, I was exposed to different types of cuisines and I enjoy eating as much as I can. It's not the first time that I have been to Singapore but the past two times that I was there, I did not get to explore the food scene as much as I wanted to. So, this time I made it a point that I would try to hit up as many food places and eat as much as my stomach will let me. Below are the list of places that I visited whilst in Singapore:-

It's been the longest of times that I have wanted to dine at Tetsuya's but never got the chance till my recent trip to Sydney. Initially, I wanted to make a dinner reservation but it was fully booked, luckily enough, they had an opening for lunch which I happily snapped up! :) Tetsuya's is no stranger to controversy; losing its third chef's hat in 2011 and unable to regain it's "glory" since. That may be the case but it didn't stop me from wanting to visit the place. According to John Lethlean's article in 2013, "risk is not on the menu", I understand why some people may think that but to an extent, I think "if the man himself has perfected what he has created, why mess with it?". My dining experience at Tetsuya's was nothing short of amazing, the food was delicious and the service was impeccable. There are so many dishes from their degustation menu that I would gladly go back for more :) sourdough baguette truf...

In July, I made my way up to Sydney specifically for the Game of Thrones Exhibit. I may have waited 10 hours in line just to sit on the Iron Throne and enjoyed the "Ascend the Wall 4D Experience" but it was worth it as I made new friends. Who knew that friendship could blossom from spending 10 hours of waiting in line with random strangers :) I am definitely a Melbournian at heart and always will be but I love spending weekends in Sydney when I get the chance. Why? The food. It's always about food when it comes to me. If I am not already eating or have just finished a meal, I am already thinking of what I will be eating next. On my recent weekend getaway to Sydney, I managed to try some new food joints but also, visited my oldies but goodies. If you find yourself up in Sydney any time soon, try dropping by these places...you will not regret it!

It is no secret that I love Bangkok. The food is amazing and so is the shopping. I usually go to Platinum Fashion Mall and buy my years' worth of clothing. My two favourite shopping places is Platinum Fashion Mall and Chatuchak Weekend Market, you go there and you don't have to go anywhere else. Anyways, back to the food. Every single time I go back to Bangkok, there are always (too many!) different food joints that I want to eat at. This time around, I only managed to eat at half of the places I wanted to eat at due to some time constraints :( It's OK, there is always next time! Here are a few of my recommendations on where to eat whilst in Bangkok:-

While prepping for dinner yesterday, the main race for the Melbourne Cup was about to start so I was just guessing who would win the race. Given that I heard over the radio, Dunaden was a favourite to win the race so I just picked Dunaden. And low and behold, the bloody horse won...I should have just gone to the TAB and placed a tiny bet, it was worth $8.50...I could've made some extra pocket money! >_< gahhh and hearing on the news doesn't soothe my soul :P Anyways, back to what I cooked for dinner... Spare Rib Watercress Soup with dates and goji berries Stir fried beef with brocolli Silken tofu topped with minced pork with pickled mustard and spring onion And the other dish we had was tempura: eggplant and cauliflower served with sweet chilli sauce and wasabi mayonnaise. I did not take a photo of because everyone demolished 90% of it by the time I finished cooking the other dishes :( Overall, an awesome dinner and I'm really happy that they enjoy ...

I decided to cook this dish for everyone who lived at home and a couple of guest, that comes to a total of 9 people. My lesson learnt? Choose another dish to make if I was to cook for a big group of people. I did not realise how expensive duck breast fillets were, I certainly choked when it came to the time that I had to pay for my goods. If I was to make this dish again, I would keep it to a maximum of 4 people, the less people the better coz it ain't cheap. Adding to it, salted duck eggs ain't that cheap either...depending where you buy them from, it can range from $1.10-$1.30 just for one. Was it worth it? I would say so coz everyone certainly enjoyed it and that put a smile on my face :) parent and child duck rice bowl Adam's recipe: 81 Steph's completed: 10