Osteria by Angie

I promised that I'd take photos of the food here after my first visit. And how I remember my first visit here so vividly with Joyce and James on a Saturday as I gave birth to Rayray the following Monday!

Since then, I've gone back a couple of times and I enjoyed on every occasion. We took Rayray there for lunch on Christmas eve and since it was only two days after I checked out of confinement centre, both T and I were still very new to the whole taking-baby-for-an-outing business so when she cried in the middle of our lunch, we panicked as we didn't want to get funny looks from people around us. As a parent now, I became absolutely aware about keeping baby quiet in public because I get paranoid thinking people would stare at us if I have a crying baby. Anyway, so I decided to feed baby even though it wasn't her feeding time yet. The restaurant staff were ever so kind and understanding that they told me to use their dining area on first floor and they would draw all the curtains so that we wouldn't get disturbed! We were so impressed as I thought customer service didn't exactly exist in Taiwan.

Freshly baked bread

Cold cuts and cheese platter with a glass of my long lost friend - vino

My Main - Home made tagliolini with vegetables, black truffle and parmigiano

T's main - squid, mozzarella cheese, cherry tomato, black and garlic pizza

Finishing off with coffee, yoghurt, and lemon sorbet - simply divine

Oh and we also ordered their delicious avocado and walnuts salad but was busy eating so forgot taking the photo! hehe

One Night Feast Hangzhou-nese Style

Stir-Fried Lotus Roots with Sugar Snap Peas

Roasted Spicy Pigeon

Fried Cod with Grapefruit - Light and Fluffy

My Absolute Favourite - Rice Cake in Chinese Dates

Hangzhou Style Pancakes

The 'Star' of the Evening - Braised Duck in Chinese Herbs

Edamame Beans with 'Stinky Tofu'

Fried Shrimps & Eel - interesting texture

Fragrant Hair Tail - A kind of fish, which tastes lovely despite the blackened skin!

Hangzhou Style Smoked Fish - A Real Delight

Hangzhou Lenten Goose

Together we had one other noodle dish and rice! As one can imagine, we all went home happy and very very full indeed!

The meal was scrumptious and set me off a good start in Nanjing!

Talise Spa

Here are some more photos from our Dubai trip. After the awe-inspiring, exhilirating birthday dinner - specially planned by Mr T (definitely will do a separate post on that and I will try not to take another month to write that up!!), we decided that we needed a bit of TLC for our mind, body and soul! Well, any excuses really. So off we went to the beautiful Talise Spa which is again, conveniently located within the resort.

This is the back view of the hotel, taken on the abras (water taxi).

On the way to the Spa. There are 3.7 km of working waterways with fully operational abras (traditional water taxis) which transport guests from their rooms to the restaurants, beach and the spa.

Inside the spa and this is just one of the many areas where you can relax and chill out.

After our massage treatments, we went to the vegetarian retaurant next to the spa for lunch. Someone clearly needed a bit of fuel as that someone snored throughout the treatment and we all know how snoring burns off calories!

They are complimentary bread from the chef and can I just say how tasty these are!!! Warm walnut bread on the left and rosemary bread on the right, served with pesto sauce and tomato butter.

Another complimentary starter - beetroot jelly with mango sauce. Really light and those two flavours compliment each other very well.

This is T's starter - flower & herb salad with three dressings: yoghurt & advocado; balsamic vinager and orange & pomogranate dressing.

my starter - roasted artichoke with topinambur puree, marinated tomatoes, rosemary and thyme oil served with topinambur crisps.

T's main - spinach pimento risott with roasted asparagus, moreles, deep fried parsley leaves and parmesan sauce

Mine - pan fried millet tofu cake, minted green tea puree with hazelnut oil baked cherry tomatoes and pak choi

T's desesrt - passion fruit delice with exotic fruit potpurri with coconut cream

Mine - iced cardamom coffee cream, fresh figs in vanilla grapefruit syrup, chocolate cake

This is just another one of the many reasons why we absolutely adore Dubai!

Parisian Feast

We decided to go to the Parisian restaurant within the resort we stayed on the first night for dinner and I have to say that it probably was one of the most enjoyable meals we had. Not only the waiters/waitresses were super attentive and friendly, they also made some very good recommendations!


Complimentary fresh herbal salad with feta cheese

My starter - Grilled aubergines with yoghurt and mint

T's starter - Pistachio soup : silky, smooth, really delicious!

Hammous (a kind of fish) fillet kebab with pomegranate rice, grilled tomatoes and pita bread. The portion was huge, I could hardly even finish the fish, let alone the rice and bread! However, the fish was really beautifully cooked, very moist and tender.

T's gigantic shank of lamb with herby rice and chilli sauce. According to T, it was one of the best lambs he had and just look at the size of it....I don't need to say more!

Rose petal tea - absolutely divine!!! It was so lovely that I had two glasses of them!

desserts made from chick pea and pistachio - they literally melt in your mouth!

After dinner, we had a quick drink at the hotel lobby.

I had a Loulabelle (left) - 'an exquisite mix of strawberries, rose & white grape juice shake and topeed up with lemonade

Mr T opted for a Camingo (right) - 'A refined combination of fresh strawberries, vanilla and the Arabian touch of camel milk'. Camel milk actually doesn't taste as bad as we thought, in fact it doesn't really taste of anything, apart from it's more cloudy than normal milk.

It was a perfect end to the day and evening before we retired to bed.

It must be one of the very few nights that I had a really good sleep!

A Stroll on the South Bank

I meant to share this terrific little place last weekend when we visited there but we were slightly inebriated as you would after a few glasses of wine and cocktails. We’d walked pass by this restaurant every time we visited Borough Market but there was either a long queue or we already had our lunch.

The restaurant is on a corner site just around the Borough Market, although it might lack in space but there is something about it that makes you feel like you are in Spain, having a few tapas and a jar of Sangria with friends. The food is simple yet extravagantly tasty, especially the sea bass with orange blossom honey and beetroot. One of the specialties is deep fried goats’ cheese served with honey, but none of us liked goat’s cheese so we didn’t get to taste the famous dish.

After lunch, we wandered to the South Bank and found a Greek restaurant/bar. We then had few more drinks before heading home.

ooooo, we bought these divine caramelised egg custard at Borough Market. They are not too sweet, just the right consistency. I have always been a huge fan on caramelised egg custard but had not found any in London until Jocelyn pointed out that they were highly recommended by a food blogger!

Tapas Brindisa
18-20 Southwark Street
Borough Market
London SE1 1TJ
Tel: 020 7357 8880

Mad Moroccan Lamb

I'd never been fond of lamb even when I used to eat meat and so I never even tempted to cook it. However, we bought one of Jamie Oliver’s cook books, Cook with Jamie Oliver last week and thought we’d be adventurous to endeavour new dishes.

I decided to give the ‘Mad Moroccan Lamb’ a go. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought especially I’d never cook lamb EVER! According to the ‘tester’ - it was divine! (yes, he might be lying but he did finish the WHOLE dish, which was quite extraordinary considering the amount) The mister says the meat really melts in your mouth and the intense flavour was just delicious. The whole cooking process could be a bit of a nuisance particularly the time required was around three hours.

Although I didn't get to taste the dish but the smell of this wintry-feel combination of lamb, couscous and the herbs was incredible.

The reason why I used to enjoy cooking is because I love my food and I take pleasure in the course of action; making food from scratch. Nowadays, I feel almost more at ease when I cook. I can totally relax (well, almost) and I seem to be able to let go of whatever I have on my mind. Talking about stress, eh?

Happy cooking, everyone!!

Declaration of Guilt

I had my first taste of the Jamaican spice bun today and I have to say it was deliiicious! Traditionally on the island they usually serve the spice bun with processed cheese (Tastee Cheese) but it was just as yummy with some butter and cheddar on them. It tastes almost like malt loaf but minus the stickiness and sweetness.

It has been a constructive day today, or rather a very good week for me as I’ve met some interesting people and also spoke with some really remarkable individuals. Hopefully I can say the same about the outcomes too.

My car is due for its very first MOT tomorrow and with a bit of luck I shall come to a decision on its destiny.

Oh, and HORRAY! It's the long weekend!

The only thing is that I've been slacking off this week that I'd only practiced yoga once and even with that one time, I was too lazy to do postures properly that I might as well not being there – yes, it was THAT dreadful! I ought to make more efforts next week.

Taiwan IV - Food, Food and More Food

The effect of the prominent food culture in Taiwan seems to have left obvious trail on someone. Well, to be fair, the amount of food that someone wolfed down bounds to pay off.

I am not criticising at all as I am happy that he enjoyed the food there and hence the quantity of food was consumed. Oops, did I say he? Oh, dear – sorry Tao, I didn’t mean it! Though one thing I do need to point out is the pearl milk tea which is T’s absolute favourite. He would have one before lunch; one after lunch; one in the late afternoon and one after dinner. (yes, I do know how calorific they are !)

I don't really need to introduce the famous niu rou mian, but we did discover something that I didn’t know about and apparently it’s been around since 1950! It was some sort of specially cooked & smoked goose with noodles/vermicelli in Ximending. According to the duck expert, it was the BEST ever bird he'd tasted!!!

However, Tao didn't enjoy Ding Tai Fong. To quote - '’the food was okay, nothing spectacular; didn't really have the wow factor!’' Well, I enjoyed my shitake mushroom dumplings as well as redbean dumplings - they are my all-time favourites.

Nevertheless, we utterly thoroughly adored the meal we had at 雞家莊 the day before we left. Traditional Taiwanese cuisine, just by looking at them now makes me dribble.

Here's the spicy steam pot we had with the girls.

To be honest, we had so much food that I just can’t name them all. All I would say is that we had some serious indulgence.

I just want to say huge thank-yous to Benson, Chasel, Ming, Kuan, Joyce and Andrew. If it wasn’t for you guys, our trip would not be as enchanting as it was.
Thanks again and we looking forward to seeing you very soon!

Taiwan I

Right, here it is…the beginning of my ten-intensive-day-trip. We arrived home at around 7.30pm on Friday and we headed straight to the steam-pot restaurant near by since both of us were soooo hungry that we literally ordered everything on the menu and washed them down with bottles of icy cold plum juice (yum!) We were also really greedy that we kept ordering while we were eating and there was a point that we thought we would have lots of leftovers. But then it rarely happens when T and I are present and not to forget that mum was there and she is also a steam-pot lover, so we actually finished most of the food on the table! It was amazing! The shocking thing was that the total bill came to around NT$2,500 which was equivalent of £40. It might not sound a lot but NT$2,500 for steam pot for three people is considered dear, even in Taipei. However, we truly enjoyed the meal and went to bed with satisfied tummy as well as happy taste buds.

We woke up early on Saturday morning to get ready for the two days excursion organised by Benson and Chasel. T had a ‘Taiwanese’ burger with soya milk for breakfast before jumping into C’s car. We then picked up Ming in Hsin-Chu and headed to Nan-Tou. We had our lunch (street foods) there and T had various things including the famous ‘little sausage in big sausage’ as shown above, a grilled sweet corn, oyster vermicelli, stinky tofu, ice-cream, and some sweet bean curd soup with red beans (YES, all in one go!)

This is an interesting photo, not the three of us looking rather indolent after all the food but the temple behind! The way it collapsed due to the infamous 921 earthquake back in 1999! It is now one of the tourist places to see there!

okay, I am having a few issues with uploading photos here and hence I thought I'd publish this short post first and follow up later on....with more pics and hopefully will figure out a way to do it.

Zaytun

Bought a tub of marinated olives stuffed with very hot small red chillies and some marinated crunchy garlic today .. yum!
Now I just need to get a nice bottle of red and my Friday evening is settled.

Olives are rich in vitamins (particularly vitamin E), minerals, monounsaturated fat etc. Though I am not sure if the marinated ones still have those but then I guess they are probably better than crisps.

No special plans for the weekend, just want to chill out and do a bit of shopping in preparation for my trip in three weeks time! (Yeh, really really can’t wait!)

Hope everyone has a fab weekend!

Käsekuchen

Had some German cheesecake on the weekend and I have to say it was absolutely delightful. The cheesecake was made with a yeast dough bottom and in the cheese mix there were raisins and a light egg-white snow on top. What I enjoyed the most with this cake was that it was not too rich. Too often cheesecakes are uber rich and sweet and often give you a sickly feeling after a few bites.

One downfall is that…I had it AFTER the yoga class which just kind of defeated the purpose of exercising.

So I told myself that life is too short and there is nothing wrong to have treats every now and then, only the ‘every now and then’ just turns out to be every single weekends in my case.

But hey, what the heck! At least I enjoyed it!