In China, it is hard to find meals that taste close to home; but I'm not complaining because I have started to appreciate certain Chinese meals. Why certain? That is because I still can't really put my mouth to eat monkey brains or unborn chicken etc. And I probably won't eat that in my entire life. My second last day in China was the day I finally found a restaurant that reminds me of Singapore. The restaurant was located in a mall called Shui Liu Cheng in Nanjing and they have a lot of international brands such as H&M, Zara etc.




Dim sum anyone? :)



Can you guess what this is? This is fried durian puffs! I'm not sure how they fried it but the top flakey-looking thingy is durian and inside the puffs is filled with durian cream! #superb



Mango sago and mango pudding~ Well, it doesn't taste as nice as the famous ones you can find in Singapore, but I'm still not complaining :P



Omelette with stir-fried prawns :)



Does this look familiar? Yes, it is hotplate tofu! They added my favourite enoki mushrooms too~ Ahhhhh


If I go back to China, I will definitely want to try out more dishes from this restaurant. And it is a good change from all the bbq and fried stuff I've been gorging myself on for the past week. Hahaha :) Cheers!

Once again, I present you guys another one of my long overdue post. Enjoy! :)

PS: I baked these like a one week before Christmas and I finally got the time to post it up :P

What is the first thing that comes to your mind when I say 'Christmas'? Of course, many people will say 'presents', 'snow' etc etc ... But for me, the word 'Christmas' sparks 'COOKIES' for me!!! :) With such a festive holiday season, I found myself really craving to get into baking, and finally after arranging my schedule, I found enough time to crank out the oven. My mother, too, was really getting into the holiday spirit and we decided to bake cookies for the family :)





My mother's baking materials since she started many many years ago! There are so many tips and techniques inside that are considered family-secrets. Hahaha :)











With my love for chocolate chips, you can actually see how much of those I actually spammed into the cookie dough :)



Pre-baked batch: my mum and I had to use our hands to roll the dough into circle-ish shapes before pressing it down onto the pan.







First batch done! :)



After finishing baking all our batches of chocolate chip cookies, my mother and I realized we still had quite a lot of time before dinner started, so while we were pondering on what to do next, we decided to bake peanut butter chocolate chip cookies! My mother was really on a roll here. Haha so we started to bake again :) My mother literally took out all her other baking books and ran through the pages for her favourite recipe of peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. I was just swept along with her flow :)



My mother preparing the cookies base. This recipe requires no flour, no butter whatsoever! It is a really simple and fast recipe to follow, even a baking-idiot like me can follow through without any difficulties faced.



Chocolate chips time~!



My mother used a fork to press down the dough to make those tic-tac-toe designs on the cookies so that we are able to differentiate the peanut butter cookies from the chocolate chip cookies :)



Literally crispy golden brown :)







All done! Multiple batches of cookies all baked to sheer perfection in just one afternoon. Really, it didn't even take up my whole afternoon! It was just about 3 hours of mixing and baking: all in time for dinner :) I had never felt so efficient and happy in baking/cooking before. All the other time, I would take literally forever to bake one batch of pastry, but this time, there were literally MULTIPLE batches! Simply amazing~ Of course I could not have done all these without my mother's constant help and supervision. I was also really happy that I could spend some quality time with my mother and we bonded quite a lot during such times. Thank you mummy!

I know I am one person who doesn't particularly fancy Chinese food/restaurant even though my bf is of pure Chinese ancestry. Irony, I know. Even in China, I don't exactly eat China food, and I am a somewhat fussy eater. So I will always eat bread or something towards the Western or even Japanese culture. I know I am one troublesome girl :P But this time was an exception. My bf's business partner was around, and I went along with them to this particular Chinese restaurant. The place was nicely and elegantly furnished and it was crowded to the brim. Thank goodness we managed to get a seat without waiting for too long.





Totally love their interior designs: it seemed more inclined towards Japan actually.





My bf with his new haircut(:



I tell you: these steamed fish are the best I had ever tried. The meat was so tangible, it was just too good to be left aside, and I kept going back for more.



I didn't really eat much of this tofu, but my first bite of it was really memorable. The outer skin was crispy but the insides was so soft. To top if off, the sauce it was marinated with was just amazing. I can't really remember what sauce they used, but it was definitely not the normal kinds.





White chicken with garlic: I know I don't really fancy garlic unlike my father and bf. You should see how the two of them would spam mountains of garlic onto their food. Their similarities are simply uncanny. Anyways, this chicken was really quite different from the ones you have at a normal chicken rice stall. It was simply on an entirely different level: there were no bones inside this chicken and each sliced was evenly coated with the sauce which really brought out the flavour in each slice. It was simply delectable.



And here is my bf giving a good demonstration on how to lie the meat in a nice order on a slice of cabbage, with just a hint of garlic on top(:



And here is my most favourite dish no matter where I go, where I eat, where I venture: if there is golden fried mantou, I will always order it. They were fried to sheer perfection and I particularly liked how this one had really crispy skin. Most of the time, the outside of the mantou would be steaming hot, but the insides would be a different story. However, I am glad to say that this ones were not the same.



Lastly, desserts arrived! It was quite a simple dish, and I can't remember what it was exactly. But having a cooling dessert just after a full dinner is just the kick I need to end such a perfect meal.

This restaurant had really changed my perception on Chinese restaurants, and if I were given a chance to return to this place, there would not be a single doubt I would do so. I guess from that day onwards, I can find myself appreciating Chinese food a little. Afterall I am half Chinese too. But of course, no meal will be the same with amazing company around. I just want to thank my bf and his business partner for being such graceful hosts :D

And so I find myself lacking a social life, how unfortunate that may sound, it does not pose as something surprising to me. Well, and of course when I have cravings, I do try my best to satisfy them and they are mostly surrounding Japanese food.

On a sidebar, I would like to caution you to the amount of pictures I have of nothing but Japanese food and you will be very much surprised at how much I adore Japanese cuisines. These pictures have been accumulated for quite a number of months, all dined at different various restaurants/eateries. I can't remember every single dishes, but I assure you I will definitely recommend the really worthy ones.

The first stop: Sakae Sushi. I remembered it was a rather dreary day as it was raining quite heavily and I just got out of school which was quite tedious and exhausting. So my darling bf decided to bring me to Sakae to brighten up my day(:




This drink is simply delightful; the pink color jelly-looking things are not jelly, instead they are filled with really sweet juices that will burst once you place them inside your mouth!(:




The sashimi was simply bliss. You can taste its freshness despite it being raw.\










And no Japanese dinner is the same without chawamushi!(:

My second stop on another day was to Ichiban Sushi at Jurong Point! I had just finished another tiring day in school and my bf so graciously came all the way to Jurong Point just to have Japanese cuisines with me! Even though I paid for the meal, having him accompany me was more than I could ever asked for.






Another chawamushi for the record! :)


This set may seem rather simple but the flavour literally burst through the roof! The curry itself was not hot, neither was it spicy, but after mixing with the chicken, everything felt like it fell into place.


Ice-cream soda pop!^^


Bf ordered this dish: it was some salmon skins fried to utmost perfection. I know it looks really unhealthy but trust me, you will not feel guilty after eating this.



Third stop of this post: I can't remember the name of this restaurant but I distinctively remember this being at Raffles City Mall Basement 1. I tell you, that place is a true heaven for all foodies! There are so many different cultures and types of food to eat! It was really difficult to choose what to eat, but once you make up your mind, you won't regret it!


I was craving for gyozas and despite it having a weird looking shape, I ensure that taste is authentic!(:




I do recall having a post about the exact same restaurant before as whenever I go to that restaurant, I will always choose this dish - curry noodles with cheese!! Simply amazing.





And there you have it! I think I have finished satisfying one whole month's worth of Japanese food, because as of these past few weeks, I have been craving for Korean food. I am seriously going to get fat from all these food trips, but hey! I live to eat~ :D Plus no meal will be complete without having them with your loved ones, I really do appreciate all my friends and my darling bf for accompanying me to eat all those amazing Japanese cuisines and I am definitely hoping to have another food outing soon! But of course, I have to lose the weight I've gained from those food trips first! Hahahahaha :P Third stop of this post: I can't remember the name of this restaurant but I distinctively remember this being at Raffles City Mall Basement 1. I tell you, that place is a true heaven for all foodies! There are so many different cultures and types of food to eat! It was really difficult to choose what to eat, but once you make up your mind, you won't regret it!

Third stop of this post: I can't remember the name of this restaurant but I distinctively remember this being at Raffles City Mall Basement 1. I tell you, that place is a true heaven for all foodies! There are so many different cultures and types of food to eat! It was really difficult to choose what to eat, but once you make up your mind, you won't regret it!

Toodles for now!