Now that I've bought a few baking equipment over the holidays, I've been baking more frequently just so I can justify my purchases to myself. And also to a few other people as well. Why yes, as it happens, I do need a third cake pan. Stop questioning me.  I made a recent batch of brownies with my spiffy new cake pan, and I learnt the happiness that comes along with using cake pans with removable bottoms. Once the brownie...

Now that I've moved onto accommodation on campus this year, I meet a few friends for potluck on the weekends. It's something to look forward to; and frankly, I get sick of my own cooking sometimes. At times like this, I am happy to pass the savoury mantle to others, and just bring along a dessert.  Last week, I made (yet another!) flourless chocolate cake, and this recipe from David Lebovitz was a hit.  Like my favourite flourless...

So I had kind of a crummy meal out last weekend, which was all the worse because we were celebrating a friend's birthday.  I don't usually write about restaurants that I don't like (or complain about their service), but this one really takes the the (figurative) cake. I have never encountered such disdainful service, not in fast-food joints (rarely frequented for excellent service) or even Asian restaurants reputed for bad service...

It's been two days since my friend introduced me to the delight that is Frangelico, and my life has changed with this so-easy-to-make-it's-almost-cheating Italian dessert. A splash of Frangelico liquor brought this up to another level, and made it one of the most delicious dessert I had.  When we got to the bottom of the cup, I felt pangs of anxiety that it was all gone. Then I looked around at the tub of ice cream, liquor, coffee,...

This brownie recipe, which uses cocoa powder instead of chocolate, has been lingering in my do-to list for the longest time. The sweetness found in chocolate bars are replaced by increasing the amount of sugar, and butter takes the place of the inevitable fats in chocolate. I was tempted to cut down on the amount of sugar, but I'm glad I didn't. The recipe makes for a brownie with an intense, dark chocolate flavour, and wasn't...

For the past couple of weeks, I've been reading Dolci: Italy's Sweets, a dessert cookbook that details the regional desserts of Italy. The recipes are compiled by Francine Segan who took the time to test recipes from anybody and everybody's grandmother (and from pastry chefs, and classical Italian baking bibles..).  Try as I might, I couldn't really see big names (and egos!) like Gordon Ramsay endorsing another person's recipe,...

After hearing so much good things about 49 Seats, a new restaurant on the block selling pasta, Miss XS and I went over for lunch one day. We beat the lunch crowd (Aha! Perks of being on holiday) and we chose a sunny spot along the glass walls of the restaurant.   We had the Cheese Fries, which looked - and tasted - gorgeous. It was rich and generously covered in cheese.  One glaring sign that I'm not cut out to be a food critic...

Okay, I gave it my best shot. We really did. But it's hard to stay up the entire night after walking for a whole 12 hours on the previous day, and the combination of a heavy dinner, an hour's massage and a hot shower was too much for us. We called it quits at 4am and crawled back into our own beds. We woke up just a couple of hours later, because I wanted to eat Jian Hong Beef Noodles one more time before we go. Walking to the beef noodles stall...

Yangmingshan (陽明山) was something EJ has been looking forward to, so we put on our trekking shoes and made an appointment with the same cab company to bring us there. It was about an hour's drive away, but we made good time on the drive in the early morning traffic. The actual trek, however, took us quite a while to complete. Perhaps we indulged one too many times at the night markets? There is some serious walking to do, but after...

The roads of Taiwan are a game of chicken. Drivers pull into the next lane without signaling, and switch lanes willi-nilly in intersections.  Want to cross the road when the green man is flashing? How dare you. There are cars waiting to turn. Keep eye contact so they know you're going to cross, and you best move that ass. And yet, there is order in chaos, and we haven't seen any car accidents - or even heard the sound of a car horn - in...

Okay, the hotel room wasn't so bad. So people walk through the bathroom to enter the bed area. But at least the shower and toilet had frosted glass walls to cover the most important bits. And you can draw a curtain between the bathroom and the bed area when you take a shower. (Although, bad luck if you started showering without locking the front door first.) But all in all, Puri Hotel is a clean, affordable stay.  We didn't linger...