Hof (House of Flour), Shanghai

While walking around Huai Hai Middle Road, we stumbled upon this dessert shop tucked in Sinan Lu (off Huai Hai Middle Road - turn in from H&M). We thought it'd be nice to pop in for afternoon tea, but we weren't prepared for the sheer number of people waiting for a table. However, we were curious as to why this place had attracted so many people, so we persevered and finally got a table 30-45 mins later.

We later found out that Hof won some awards for the best desserts in Shanghai - mainly chocolate desserts as that's Hof's specialty. The waitress (a Singaporean university student doing her internship with Fudan University & Hof) told us some of their most popular items are the "Death By Chocolate" & "Chocolate Orange Mud Cake with Caramel & Sea Salt".

I got some hot chocolate with a shot of Bailey's ...

And to avoid a chocolate overdose, we only ordered one cake - the Chocolate Orange Mud Cake with Caramel and Sea Salt ...

Shanghai Harbin Food Store No. 1, Shanghai

Having read so many news articles on the quality of food in China, I have to admit I've been rather cautious of what and where to eat in Shanghai. It normally takes me awhile to get used to eating more like the locals, so I thought I was pretty brave to try the cookies from this store ...

... but then again, I was told that this was sorta like a government approved store, so ... guess it wasn't that big a risk? :) In any case, this was one of the few stores that was doing bustling business! We had to wait a looong while before being served cos everyone ahead of us was buying up boxes of the cookies!

We ended up choosing these ...

Almond shortbread/butter cookies, almond cookies (using the very Chinese "nan bei xing" or apricot kernals), pine nut butter cookies, choc-dipped viennese cookies and palmiers. All were pretty good!

The Festival, Xintiandi, Shanghai

As we moved during the Chinese New Year, several shops were closed or very minimally manned cos the bulk of their employees had gone back to their hometowns for this important celebration. One of the few restaurants that were still open was The Festival at Xintiandi.

We had this interesting cold dish - chicken with a spicy peanut sauce which reminded me somewhat of the satay in Singapore ...

Si gua or loofah with clams ... reminded me of Taipei ...

Tofu with crab roe ... a signature Shanghainese dish ... brilliant!

"Shui Zhu Yu" - a very typical Shanghainese dish ... basically fish cooked in hot chili oil ... yup ... that's a whole "soup" of chilies floating around ... perfect for warming us up on a cold Shanghai winter's day!

... and that's the fish beneath all those chilies ...

Big Move ....

The reason I've been terribly behind on my blog posts is that we've been incredibly busy saying our goodbyes to the dear friends we've made in Taipei, and planning a big move to this huge city ...

Here are a couple of iconic landmarks in our new home ...

The Pearl Tower ...

The Park Hyatt ...

A shot from my temporary apartment ... (it was snowing that day ... )

In case you haven't already guessed, that's SHANGHAI!!!!

(Incidentally, the shot from my temporary apartment is in Xintiandi ... another famous location in Shanghai.)

Villa32, Beitou, Taipei

So ... as you know, I'm a wee-bit behind ... ok ... a whole lot behind on my blog (reason to be revealed in future posts). This post should've been done sometime around Christmas last year (only 2 months ago ... heh heh heh ...).

25 Dec 2011 happened to be a cold and wet winter's day - perfect weather for a visit to Villa32 in Beitou to enjoy the hot springs, as well as to dine at their award winning restaurant.

I've always loved the design of the walkway towards the entrance of the hot spring resort ...

The beautiful wooden walkway leads to the entrance of the resort, while the area below with the lovely white canopies is where the restaurant is located.

We got a hot spring room for about one and a half hours ...

A closer look at our private hot spring bath tub - it has taps for the hot spring water that is piped into the room, and for cold water so we could regulate the temperature.

After a nice relaxing soap, we adjourned to the restaurant for our dinner. We ordered their set meal, and were first presented with freshly baked bread accompanied with various dips - an olive tapenade, an eggplant spread and a pesto mousse spread.

Delicious freshly baked bread ... so yummy, we asked for more (something we normally don't do as we try to leave room to enjoy the rest of the meal).

Warm ginger infused jelly with honey, with a generous sprinkling of cocoa on top ...

Pan-seared scallops with truffles ...

Mushroom soup ...

Truffle risotto ...

A lovely green apple sorbet to cleanse the palate in preparation for our main course ...

Grilled steak with mushroom sauce ... delish!!!

Black cod with prawns ... also delish!!!

For dessert, we had a mixed berries yogurt ... a nice light way to end a perfect meal!

I had some chamomile tea as like a nightcap ...

I was most suitably impressed by the quality of the food and top-notch service at the Villa32 restaurant. Did I forget to mention the exquisite china and cutlery are all from Hermes? Ahem ... Given all the above, how could I possibly not want to come back here again? :)

Peony Japanese Cuisine, Taipei

We spent Chinese New Year in Taipei, and were extremely glad to hear that we could still get a good meal at Peony, which was open all throughout the CNY. Wonderful!

I have to say that my dining experience at Peony seems to get increasingly better (it was good to begin with) with each visit.

First up: Sashimi platter

California rolls ... I was craving for some avocado, and was surprised by the added little wolfberries atop the rolls ... a nice Chinese twist :)

Absolutely delicious soba! Just look at that luscious green buckwheat noodles!

Tempura ... oh, this was sooooo wonderfully crisp and delicious! They had a very interesting tempura - if you look at the yellowish-n-greenish vegetable at the top of the pic, that's actually the flower of a loofah! It looked and tasted really good! And my fav sweet potato tempura ... I can't say enough good things about the sweet potato in Taiwan!

For dessert that was on the house, we had some red bean "kueh" made with glutinous rice flour to give it that chewiness or "QQ" (as the Taiwanese say) texture :) Served with a juicy slice of jumbu or rose apple.

Matcha green tea ... lovely!

On a side note, a nice, generous and kind colleague of Hubby's had treated us to Peony's about a week before this meal, and I so regretted not bringing my camera cos the meal was soooo good! Chockful of interesting dishes which he had specially ordered (we had a pte room). So, there are actually way more interesting dishes at Peony apart fm those I'd blogged about above and in earlier posts. I hope to return there one day to try them all again :)

Joel Robuchon L'Atelier, Bellavita, Taipei

During our last few days in Taipei, we didn't have our usual kitchenware to cook at home, so we mainly ate out. One of the places we had wanted to try for the longest time was Joel Robuchon at Bellavita in Taipei. (The last time we made an appointment, a typhoon swept into town and we couldn't make it.)

We chose from a selection of set menus, and were started off with this concoction, which was with compliments from the restaurant. I believe it was a corn soup* with parmesan foam ... yes, parmesan foam! Not being accustomed to such gastronomic fanciness, I was quite intrigued by this :) It was basically parmesan cheese that's somehow whisked into this light frothiness. All the tastiness of parmesan with all the lightness of a foam ... fascinating!

We were then presented with a beautiful bread basket. I kid you not ... this is exactly how it looked! Like it just came from the pages of a glossy food mag! The very warm and friendly waitress advised us that it was a sampler of their breads, and we could request for more of the ones we liked. For me, my fav was the brioche. Yum yum yum!

My choice of mains: Grilled Lamb* ...

I originally wanted to opt for the black cod which I'd heard was a big fav in the restaurant. But our server recommended the lamb. I was a tad hesitant cos I'm not a big fan of lamb esp when it's not done well. However, I figured, this is Robuchon afterall, so I went for it.

I thought it turned out really well. Look at that tender pink perfection! Although pink, it was most definitely cooked through. Was so tender, it was a breeze to slice through them.

The sidedish that came with the lamb ... immensely well whipped potatoes with lots and lots of butter. Soooo smooth!

Hubby's main: Lobster linguine in lobster bisque sauce* ...

Wow ... I did a double take when I first saw this dish. Was it what we had ordered? Then I saw the lobster claw and decided it was! I've certainly never seen this dish served in this manner. The lobster bisque foam was a very nice touch, counteracting the richness of the bisque and making it more palateable. Delish!

Dessert was a rice pudding with fresh figs, ice cream and whipped vanilla cream* ... this was soooooo good!!!

Hubby had a green apple sherbet with fruits* and a gold leaf on top :)

A latte to round off a most satisfying meal ...

Just when we thought we'd come to the end of our meal, we were so graciously presented with canneles, courtesy of the restaurant. Wonderful!

(* Sadly, my very dory-like memory couldn't recollect the exact names of the dishes and all the ingredients used, so these are to the best of my recollection. I know I know ... I should be more up-to-date with my blog posts ... blush blush ...)