Photo by R I know how you're feeling when you first read the title.  Meh. I know. I felt the same way too. Vanilla Cookies? Isn't this what bakers call plain cookies because they're all out of other ingredients?  But wait. Just hang on a second. This ain't just any recipe you find on the streets. (Or the internet.) This recipe ain't shy about its pedigree. Known as Ovis Mollis in Italy, this recipe was from one...

I was flipping through an old issue of 8 Days (an entertainment magazine circulating in Singapore), reading up on the latest(-ish...) restaurants opening in Singapore when I read that one of the restaurants, Carvers and Co, sources their single origin beans from a Melbourne micro-roastery called Little Chloe. I did a quick web search of Little Chloe, and was pretty chuffed that it's just about 20 minutes from where I live. They enjoy pretty...

Words by Miss XS The Sushi Bar's first outlet was a small unpretentious joint in Far East Plaza, with a snaking queue at its shopfront during peak hours. I remember having to wait up to an hour to get in (on a weekday night!) and no one was happier than me when I heard that a more spacious branch is due to be opened in Takashimaya. The Sushi Bar is located on the fifth level of Takashimaya. We was there on a weekend afternoon...

A while back, J sent me a link for a Hong Kong-Style Custard French Toast recipe, which I'll get around to making. Sometime. Promise. But the Royce Matcha Nama Chocolate video tutorial, also by the same person, intrigued me more. And when I get an idea in my head, nothing can shake it out.  When I brought this to a potluck, everybody was pretty impressed that I made nama chocolate, although it really couldn't be easier. Heat up cream...

I remember at the start of this year before our hospital attachments begun, a cardiologist came to us and spoke on the importance of having a work-life balance (his words), and not just be a work zombie (slightly paraphrased). After all, happier doctors are associated with higher rates of patient empathy, greater patient satisfaction and lower rates of medical errors. One of his tips to avoid burn-out was to have two things to look forward to every...

While flipping through Melbourne's entertainment book one afternoon, I bookmarked several restaurants that looked promising, and I was surprised to find that Yokohama Teppan is in Glen Waverley, one of our favourite (and nearby!) areas of Melbourne. I must have walked past Yokohama Teppan half a dozen times without registering it in my pea-brain. Still, it's better late than never to discover something new, and we made plans to...

Just a hop, a skip and a (10 minutes) jump away from Brighton beach is Cafe Florentine, which I had the opportunity to visit recently with a friend. The idealist in me told me it's a spectacular idea to head to Brighton beach to catch the sun rays and sea breeze and have brunch with a cup of cappuccino.  When I got to Cafe Florentine, it was a little disconcerting to find that it's not actually a brunch cafe, but offers a more...

I had come across David Lebovitz's recipe before and bookmarked this as something I would like to try. After all, who doesn't like swirling patterns in their batter? But I was happy with my brownies recipes and didn't think they could be improved on, and cheesecakes had always been - with a couple of exceptions - too rich for me to fancy. So I never got around to trying this recipe, and it languished in my "maybe-one-day" p...