Macadamia Nut Crust Chicken

The last time I was in Stamford, CT, USA, I tried this wonderfully delicious macadamia nut crust chicken at Kona Grill, and the memory of it has stayed with me since. It's usually pretty hard to find this kind of food (parmesan or nut crusted anything) in Asia, so I decided to try to recreate it in my kitchen. Here's my attempt ...

Erm ... sadly, it looks rather burnt, but tasted delicious! Next time, I'll put more oil so hopefully it'll be less charred.. am determined to perfect this dish!

Dumpling Festival 端午節!

Today's the Chinese Dumpling Festival or 端午節 "Duan Wu Jie", and a public holiday in Taiwan. Honestly, I tend to forget the legend/history behind this festival, and just enjoy the celebrations - in Spore, it's usually celebrated by the dragon boat race and eating these special rice dumplings or "bak zhang".

Since moving to Taiwan, I've discovered that although Chinese everywhere in the world make these dumplings, they are different everywhere. In Singapore, one of the most popular varieties are the nonya zhang, which is my personal favorite. In Taiwan, there are the northern and southern zhangs. The northern variety is made of harder rice, whilst the southern zhangs are made with softer rice. The fillings are also very different from the Spore ones. Then there are the sweet zhangs, which I recently learnt how to make ...

Black Glutinous Rice Dumpling with Red Bean Paste ...

(Courtesy of the award winning chefs from Regent Formosa Hotel, Taipei)

After my session learning how to wrap these zhangs, I've decided that they are truly too time consuming to make them myself. Apparently, the chef had soaked the black glutinous rice for 6-7 hrs, then cooked them till semi-cooked. And after we had wrapped them in the bamboo leaves, we still had to cook them in water for 4 hours! I never knew how much work was involved in making zhangs till now!

For those who are interested, I decided to do a lil research to refresh my memory as to the origins of this festival, and this is what I found:

端午節 was to commemorate this ancient hero/Chinese scholar "Qu Yuan" in 3rd Century BC who was maligned and framed, and as a result drowned himself in this Milo river in China. As the people believed him to be righteous, they starting throwing rice dumplings into the river to feed the fish so that they wouldn't eat his body ... this is one version. But there are other versions which you can find here.

Happy Dumpling Festival!

Kagetsu Arashi Ramen

The other day, we had ramen at Kagetsu Arashi.

We ordered one set meal which came with rice and sliced pork with garlic and spring onions ... it was really tasty!

This was my spicy ramen with a special order of a hot spring egg ... which is basically like a poached egg ... yum! (this was super spicy though ... even for me!)

We also ordered a miso ramen ...

Jiu Ru Shanghai/Zhejiang Cuisine 九如台北101

Jiu Ru (九如) is apparently one of the more famous restaurants in Taipei for Shanghainese/Zhejiang cuisine. We went to the one at 101, and ordered some simple dishes:

Beancurd with pork slices

Fried Fish Slices in a spicy sauce

Beancurd skin with veggies

For more pics of the restaurant and other food served, check out this blog.

Weekend Outfits

I had actually started my blog to indulge in my love for clothes and all things related to fashion, but somehow it ended up with a mish-mash of everything ... mostly food I have to admit ... I guess it's cos I'm usually in my "housewife" garb consisting of shorts and t-shirts, so I end up with nothing to post except for all the food I cook/eat everyday.

However, I do love dressing for my weekends out of my apartment - that's when I get to take out my accessories, new clothes, shoes, and team them all together to form the most appropriate outfit for my day out :)

So, to "return to my [fashion] roots", here are my outfits last weekend ...

A/X Backless Sleeveless Top, Orange Tank Fm Jardine's Bazaar (HK), Isabelle Wen cardigan (Tpe designer), Urban Outfitters BDG Skinny Jeans (which I ended swapping out for my Gap jeans that went better with the whole look), Watch Ring and Drop Earrings (self-made)

... oh! And cutest hanger fm Narayana, Bangkok!

Printed Maxi Dress fm a roadside stall in Taipei, Isabelle Wen Cardigan, Drop Earrings (self-made)

Cheese n Crackers

When we were in Newport on the duffy boat, our hosts very considerately prepared a little picnic onboard. We had cheese with crackers and grapes. And the crackers were so great with the cheese that I started hunting for them when I got back to Taipei. However, the cracker selection here is pretty slim, so I got hubby to buy some of these back when he went to the States not too long ago ...

Nabisco Wheat Thins Flatbread - Tuscan Herb Flavour ...

And I picked up some deliciously tasty and creamy cheeses from Jasons - they actually have a pretty wide variety of cheeses, and the girl selling them is very knowledgeable!

Yum!

Mad About Jewelry ...

After a Rachel Zoe Project marathon, I was accessories crazy. While I'd love to have drawers full of Chanel and other nameworthy jewelry like Rachel Zoe has, I decided to settle for making some myself:

Purple Jade Teardrop Earrings ...

Gold Knot Chain Earrings ...

(In case you're wondering, when experimenting with new designs, I like to make just one side first to see if I like it ...)

Buttercup Danglies (Left) and Lil Bow Daisies (Right) ...

Jade and Freshwater Pearl Necklace ...

(My mom gave me this piece of jade, and I saw a cool design with pearls like this in Shanghai a loooong time ago. But I'm going to try to restring the pearls when I figure out a more aesthetically pleasing way to attach it to the gold bit where the jade piece is.)

And this simple freshwater pearl necklace is for a dear friend, C .... in lieu of a proper Mikimoto :)