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My brother had some school project which involved cooking up some healthy dish. So he got this recipe for baked mushrooms by Jamie Oliver. My dad helped him out obviously but regardless the end result was superb. We substituted the Taleggio with some Kraft we had in the fridge but it was still great. Fries were extra. And we did have em on ciabatta like suggested.

Here's the recipe almost word for word from Jamie's website:

serves 4
• 8 large flat mushrooms
• a bunch of spring onions, trimmed and sliced
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
• a few sprigs of fresh thyme, leaves picked
• 250g Taleggio cheese, thinly sliced
• 2 thick slices of bread, made into breadcrumbs
• a small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
• 4 handfuls of rocket, washed and dried
• juice of 1 lemon
• extra virgin olive oil

Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/gas 6.

Lay the mushrooms on a large baking tray and sprinkle with the onions, garlic and thyme.

Top the mushrooms with the slices of cheese. Toss together the breadcrumbs and the parsley and sprinkle over the mushrooms.

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes in the preheated oven until breadcrumbs are brown and the mushrooms are cooked through.

Meanwhile, dress the rocket with the lemon juice and some olive oil. Serve the mushrooms with the dressed rocket.

Serve on top of toasted ciabatta. 

If you go to Bangkok, you just have to do one of those places set in some old house and lay back, relax. Crepes & Co offers just that as you sip your coffee and chomp your way through a breakfast in a tropical garden. Oh the crepes are pretty excellent and well embellished too!

It was actually about to rain but we didn't care. Ultimately, God let me have my crepe and eat it, much to the pleasure of these 4 Japanese tourists and a group of caucasians nearby.

Its on a stretch of road that also includes the Cabbages & Condoms restaurant and Q Bar, two rather famous places in Bangkok,  18/1 Sukhumvit Soi 12. 

The quaint little entrance.

Our garden view.

Since I ordered a coffee, it came with a tray full of goodies, like cold milk, honey, sugar cubes and that black pot has brown sugar in it.

Getting to the bees knees at last. That's my girlfriend's Banana Bailey's crepe. My Pear sauce and chocolate ice cream crepe is somewhere in there and partly in my tummy. Wish I'd tried some of the savoury crepes as well.

Another great place we stopped by in Siam Paragon was Vanilla Brasserie. It was a simple snack and a tea/coffee but it was enough to show the promise this little cafe had. The decor screams the very latest in style today. You feel like you're in a fake Parisian cafe almost, with vintage decor and details mixed with graphic applique in gold on the tables and windows. The two floors are joined by a winding staircase and the front of the cafe houses a little store as well, selling badges, flip-flops and jewelry that was so pretty my girlfriend spent a good amount of time picking stuff out.

Vanilla also has other outlets at Playground and Siam Square.

Their golden logo on the tabletop.

My iced latte. Notice the brown straw. Part of my girlfriend's tea set is in the background.

Ahh... Fried potatoes. That yellow liquid is actually melted down cheddar and butter. And its proper cheddar, not Kraft. 

One of the top shopping destinations for the trendiest in Thai fashion today is definitely Greyhound or any of its affliates like Playhound. But clothes aren't all they're great at either. In fact, I find their food to be just as good. Greyhound cafes are all over the town area but through some dumb coincidence, the one we went to at Siam Center had some fashion function. So the waiter there gave us a 10% discount card and pointed us in the direction of Siam Paragon and their newish outlet Another Hound. This place was up last time I checked. But when we passed by, we weren't particularly hungry. So we popped in for a late lunch this time round and were delighted to say the least.

You might be forgiven for thinking this place was seriously posh and therefore outrageously expensive. After all, the interior decor was pretty foreboding in its beauty. Still, it's far from being really expensive and when you add up the ambience, service and attention to detail, you just feel like you got pampered on a budget instead. The decor is decidedly black and dark. Each table comes with chairs of different dark hues like midnight blue, dark magenta and black. We got served some hot bread with butter before the meal proper, an extra something that added nothing to the bill. If I recall correctly, the mains cost about S$10 and the drinks were S$3. Total bill came under S$30 after the 10% discount, which is very good value for very good food in a very nice place.

The other tables ordered some intensely black squid ink pasta and several other beautiful creations that made me wish my stomach was bigger than it already is, which is very big.

You'll find Another Hound on the ground floor of Siam Paragon, right where this lobby area that's covered in a mix of jungle flora and marble. 

This grill was next to my table. Lovely chandelier behind made of bits of plastic with a wine glass motif. Other chandeliers had a roast pig motif among other things.

The table behind me. Their waiters all had shaven heads and multiple piercings as well. Kinda like a posh punk look.

This is my lunch, Pate and Bacon spaghetti topped off with some crunchy raw mango and dried chillies. Pineapple shake to go with it.

My girlfriend's lunch, Pad Thai with Scallops. Lychee shake in background.

Dessert. Choco Banana cake. Two layers of moist, tasty and very chocolate chiffon with a layer of banana mousse and a big dollop of cream on top.

It's always good to have a little bit of reminiscing on trips. Bouyed by the memory of certain flavors on my tongue, I dropped my bags off at the hotel and popped off to Kuppa for a well... cuppa. Instead of just plopping for the great calamari and garlic prawns like last time. This time I had calamari, garlic prawns AND crab cakes. Not to mention an absolutely kick ass lychee mint shake (girlfriend had a banana honey shake).

Kuppa is located on the 3rd floor of Playground, which is @ Thonglor, 818 Soi Sukhumvit 55 Sukhumvit Rd. Pity we didn't find anything super interesting and affordable there on this trip. They did have a lotta Droog Design stuff though.

Said calamari. Still good.

Garlic Prawns. Still unreal.

Crab cakes. As you can see, I can hardly wait.

Possibly the best thing on earth to slurp up after a shitty flight. Lychee Mint shake.

There was a recent article in the Straits Times which got my dad up and about, taking us to every other location in the article in our weekly ramen hunt. It lists the restaurants in no particular order of merit but I'll be kind and break it down for you. Its generally accepted that the best Japanese food comes from Japan. Still, you'd be surprised to find there's actually pretty good ramen in Singapore. The tendency is for me to see more Japanese than locals eating at the two places I'm mentioning, which are the pick of the bunch for me.

If you want super simple and accessible ramen which you'll keep going back to, its none other than Ohsho @ Cuppage Plaza. Tucked away in a blink and you'll miss corner, its packed all the time and the only ramen you have to try before you die is their tamago ramen. The stock is deceivingly simple yet delicious and its the main reason why you'll be smacking your lips when your bowl is empty and panging for more. I'd recommend not eating the egg until they've warmed in the stock. Resist any temptation to order anything with chilli or miso in it. Don't think for an instant that its more flavourful that way. It just covers the real taste of the soup. You're not getting bang for your buck that way. Some things are meant to be simple. Tamago or no go. At $10... this is the best value ramen and fabulous to experience on a consistent basis. Their location in Orchard just makes them all the more compelling.

If you want to spend a few more bucks, then hop over to Liang Court and dig into the ramen at Tampopo. If you didn't know, Tampopo is this Japanese movie about ramen. I remember watching it as a wide eyed 12 year old as the male and female leads exchanged an egg yolk in their mouths. Anyway, the main draw here is the black pig, or berkshire pork, ultra thin slices of char siew that seem to melt into the soup if you leave them there. In this case, I highly recommend ordering an extra order of char siew. Disregard foolish health concerns about fatty pork for a few seconds. Your tongue will thank you. At $13.80 a bowl, its pricier but with extras like roe going on top of the excellent noodles and soup, its still worth experiencing at least once. Their stock only pales very very marginally to Ohsho's but the overall package takes them over the edge for me.

I'm pretty certain I will never set foot in any old chain ramen store again.

*Update 5th Aug 2006! Somehow I got mixed up with the Tampopo ramen. The first time I went down, I actually ordered their Kyushu ramen as they ran out of the black pig shabu shabu pork. I went there again just a day ago and ordered the black pig shabu shabu ramen. This one comes with a chillified soup. The pork is even more melty and its great but I really prefer the Kyushu ramen.

Back in the day, we used to order a pizza for tea on Sundays and other than the same old hawaiian from the same old chain, we chanced upon Rocky's Pizza as well. It used to be at Sunset Way along Clementi Road and their pizzas were so so good. Thin crusted and smothered with delicious toppings and chewy cheese, they were warm pockets of heaven. So its much to my pleasure that we've recently rediscovered that they moved into our backyard (sort of) at the Rail Mall, somewhere past Upper Bukit Timah and Hillview. The pizza's still the same great stuff and I thoroughly recommend their Boston Special which comes with  pepperoni, sausage, beef, mushroom and extra cheese. There isn't any fancy schmancy sausage/cheese stuffed into the crust or heart shapes on Valentine's or 2 for 1 specials. This is just pizza at its base level, delicious comfort food. Simple and bloody tasty. They send to mostly the western side of Singapore and what's cute is I get my pizza delivered by a dude in a car, not some uniformed staff on a company scooter. Check the link for their full menu.

Hehe! I just baked my first ever loaf of bread. All thanks to Yakitate Japan!! The bread in question is Japan #2, which is made using a rice cooker. The reason why its called Japan #2 is because its the main character's second self invented bread. The name Japan is a pun on the Japanese word for bread, pan, which I presume is derived from the French pain. Its one of the few actual recipes you get from the show. I think one reason being not many people in Japan own a decent oven but everyone owns a ricecooker.

Yakitate Japan starts out announcing that its a "serious, biographical ballad of a boy who possesses Solar Hands". Its about a Japanese boy setting out to make Japan's national bread, punning his way to victory. I love how it approaches the issue of race, culture and identity in such a lighthearted manner. Its pseudo nationalistic view is expressed through food and again demonstrates the amazing Japanese ability of assimilation.

I actually made two loaves. My dad put the first one in the oven and it turned out really hard like biscotti. The second one we got right. Took 6 hours in total to make the damn thing but at least it tasted pretty good. Here's the recipe! Next up is some proper baguette!