Pizzeria Mozza in Singapore

For our last night out, we wanted to enjoy a night out with good food and a bottle of wine.  Mozza at the Marina Bay Sands was the perfect place for a girls night out because of its casual, yet classy atmosphere.  Pizzeria Mozza, opposite the more formal Osteria Mozza, has a great selection of appetizers and pizzas for the whole table to share.

The service was friendly, thanks to fellow Filipinos happy to serve with their warm hospitality.  The food comes out at a good pace to enjoy the sequence of antipastis, appetizers, pizzas, and the sweet endings.

The food quality is up to par with Batali, Bastianich, and Silverton restaurants world wide (at least those that I've tried in NYC, Vegas, LA, and Hong Kong).  And, the pizza ranks up there with some of the best texture and tasting of pie crusts and quality of toppings.

Marina Bay Sands has a great selection of restaurants from international chefs.  Mozza is definitely a place to consider for a tasty night out.

Bone marrow al forno

A San Francisco legacy reborn

A San Francisco legacy reborn in the hands of a world class celebrity chef.  Tosca Cafe is a low key legend for its late night patrons like Sean Penn, Johnny Depp, and other celebrities and politicians dating back to the 80s.  As decades passed and food became a greater priority, the bar reopened as more of a restaurant bar in the hands of April Bloomfield and her trustworthy partners.

After seeing Bloomfield's Instagram photo that she was in SF for the week, I jumped at the chance for an early dinner at the no reservations restaurant.  A short 20 minute wait later, which flew by at the bar with a delicious Negroni, we were seated at a cozy booth that had a great view of the kitchen and restaurant while remaining private.  Even though we didn't catch a glimpse of Bloomfield in the kitchen, you can tell she was there because of the energized vibe of the whole staff.  They were all performing their best because the big boss was in town.  This was a great first impression of the restaurant and April Bloomfield.

Tosca Cafe is a great place to relax, enjoy sips of drinks, and bites of food.  The cocktails are crafted with a depth, many of which are classics of the bar.  The pastas are both traditional and some have a world class touch.  My favorite dish of the night was a chicken liver pasta with balsamic and sage - so simple and brilliant.  (And knowing that she is inspired by the Filipino adobo, you can totally taste the influence.)  The night was comfortable, tasty, and awakened my taste buds.  I'll definitely be going back for more, and now I'll also make a greater effort to dine at Bloomfield's Spotted Pig and the Breslin in New York City.

A negroni while reading the menu
Casino Bar Negroni 1919.  Beefeater Gin, Campari, Antica Formula, Orange Peel, Hand Cut Cube

A relaxing meal at the Oxbow Public Market

Napa Valley is a place not just for wine, but also for fantastic food.  After all, it's only natural because of how perfectly food and wine pair with each other.

Before, after, during, or instead of a day of the usual wine tasting around the valley, downtown Napa offers a haven for food lovers in the Oxbow Public Market.  This market brought me back to Spain - how it's set up, the cleanliness, and the variety of food vendors selling their dishes and products with passion.

You can nibble around the various small dishes or you can also sit down for a meal.  Ca'Momi is the perfect place in the market for a relaxing meal, and it's great for families and parties.  The Italian restaurant specializes in Italian pizzas, but also offers some memorable slow cooked plates.  They serve one of the best places of liver and onions I've ever tasted.  I'm a huge fan of quality liver and onions, and this topped it in my list.  Even if you don't like the dish, you just might be a convert with how clean and smooth it tasted.  The restaurant also pours delicious wine on tap, and has a variety of fun desserts including cream puffs for a light ending to a big meal.

Glass of Bianco di Napa on tap

Manhattan eating in Hong Kong at Michael White's Al Molo

If you're looking for a place to dine with a stunning view of Victoria Harbour and Hong Kong Island, Ocean Terminal and it's connecting buildings (Gateway Arcade, etc) are an excellent option and the restaurant selection is becoming increasingly appealing.

Hong Kong, being one of the food capitals in Asia and the world, is also welcoming more and more foreign celebrity chefs.  Hailing from New York with refined Italian influence, Michael White brings his Al Molo.  Classic Italian cuisine with homemade pastas, pizzas, and signature entrees.  You really feel like you're in eating in Midtown Manhattan with food worthy of the address and the chef.

Two rounds of pizzas and a couple of his signature dishes proved that he's more than a celebrity chef, but a chef that knows good food and how to serve it well abroad.

If you can't see the slide show here, check out my Flickr album: Al Molo HK

Eating my way through Tokyo

When I travel I tend to let go of my health conscious eating.  I eat more salads than usual and workout double time prior to these trips.  As a result, I fly into the city a couple pounds lighter just so I can freely gain a few pounds over the next days of travel.  All to I eat carbs, fats, and sugars with no abandon.

Tokyo was certainly no exception.  I felt like I ate 5 meals a day, including soba for breakfast from 7-11 (it's so fresh and a clean way to start the day).   Every one of these "nibblings" are still ingrained in my head as some fantastically memorable bites.

The handmade ramen noodles from Ramen Street in the Tokyo Station, the tonkatsu and katsudons, curry over rice, fresh sushi and seafood from the department store grocery, a huge piece of karaage from the department store food hall, Korean food with loads of vegetables, Japanese Italian pizza done to perfection, beer beer and more beer, convenience store soba, the tastiest salted caramel crepe, the fluffiest cheesecake, and sinful croissants that are worth all the butter intake.

Whew, I cannot wait to go back to Japan and eat all this and more finds.  In the meantime I'll look fondly at these photos and workout for the next big weight-gaining trip.

If you can't see the slide show here, check out my Flickr album: Tokyo Nibblings

Birthday Eats in Lupa Hong Kong

A birthday celebration in Hong Kong – and it’s not just anyone’s birthday, it’s my birthday!  Eating memorably is imperative.

Mario Batali’s Lupa was the best place to celebrate another year in my life because it was a great opener to another year of amazing eats.  In fact, my birthday lunch at Lupa was so good, my family and I came back that very same day to celebrate my birthday dinner there.  Yeah, it’s seriously that fun to eat there.

It’s all in the food AND the friendly service.  The food is consistent to all of Batali’s places that I’ve tried in Las Vegas and New York.  And he has the best pizza I’ve eaten so far in Asia.

The service is imported from Batali’s other restaurants from Los Angeles and Singapore.  These guys know the ins and outs of the restaurant and they know all about the food and wine.  Plus, they were so generous to us when we came back for dinner and when they found out it was my birthday.  Thanks, guys!

Batali is one chef I’d love to dine and wine with because of how fun it is to eat in his restaurants.  Eating so well while drinking so well – that is the only way you should celebrate your birthday.

If you can't see the slide show, check out my Flickr album: Lupa HK

Pastas at Home

I love eating pastas and I love cooking pastas. It's a fun challenge trying to recreate, and even better, pasta dishes I've enjoyed in restaurants all over the world.

A couple of my favorites are vodka sauce and carbonara.

I love that sweet, salty, and slight creaminess from vodka sauce. I really wanted to make it at home on a couple occasions even though we ran out of vodka. I decided to use white rum as opposed to gin because it has less of a distinct flavor, which is why vodka is traditionally used.

With carbonara, I love the garlicky flavor mixed with pancetta and fresh raw eggs in the end. Our batch was whipped together with pappardelle straight from Italy (thanks to my world traveling best friend.)

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: Pastas at Home

Abu Authentic Cuisine for Special Occasions in Taipei

When it comes to traveling for food there are various resources online to guide you: Trip Advisor reviews, Yelp reviews if you're in the states, newspaper and magazine articles, and of course bloggers.

The best resource is having a friend who is a renown blogger in that city. The ultimate local experience and a guarantee for good eating.

If you find yourself in Taipei, A Hungry Girl's Guide to Taipei is your go-to source to research your trip's good eats.

For a special occasion (my mom's birthday - it can't get more special than that), we were taken to Abu Authentic Cuisine for some modernized French/Italian style cuisine.

When the bread and butter arrived at the table, we knew we were in for a real treat. Why? Two words - Echire butter. This is some of the best butter you can slab onto your bread. This chef knows his ingredients.

The menu is comprised of 2 degustation (tasting) choices. Every dish is high quality and delights your sense of sight and taste. If you want to splurge on a special occasion, this is the place to go.

A restaurant like this is why I love eating in Asia. There are so many restaurants and chefs that easily rival "celebrity" chefs in the states who can tend to be overly hyped from their PR teams. Asia seems to be gaining more and more Michelin stars each year compared to the western countries. Go #TeamAsia!

Place your cursor above "Notes" below to read the captions for each photo.

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: Abu

Home Made Porcini Risotto

Dinner time! When it comes to cooking dinner at home for my family, I have a few recipes saved for when I'm in the mood to cook. But most of the time, dinner is created after I peak through the pantry, fridge, and freezer. I love cooking with whatever is left. It's a fun challenge and I try to figure out the possible tastes in my head and how everything can come together.

So after a stroll through the kitchen, I found we had arborio rice in the freezer and dried porcinis in the pantry. It's mushroom risotto for dinner!

After stirring in the last cup of broth, I finished the risotto with a little slab of butter to bring it all together. (A little tip I learned from watching Mario Batali on TV.)

And to intensify the mushroom taste, after pouring and stirring in one cup of white wine, I tend poured in the mushroom juice which I used to hydrate the dried mushrooms. Wow, it had an excellent bold porcini taste!

The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: Risotto

Grappa's for Italian, and a Good Beer List

Grappa's in Greenbelt is not a new restaurant, but it is newly renovated with a change of ownership. It's now directly tied to the original Grappa's in Hong Kong. Change is good! Grappa's is now one of my go-to restaurants in Greenbelt.

Great food, great wine list, and a great beer list. They have west coast brewsand IPAs! Whenever I see good beer on menu, I have to order at least one..or two.

Overall, the pastas are nicely al dente and the appetizers are memorable. The service is excellent and they remember their repeat customers. The prices are definitely high. You really have to appreciate the quality of the cooking and the dining experience. It's whole experience that encourages me to keep coming back.

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The slide show here runs on Flash. If you can't see it, check out my Flickr album: Grappas

A Sunday Dinner Italian Style

For our last meal in New Haven and in the east coast, my family and I enjoyed some comforting Italian food for our Sunday dinner at Basta. We dined here before when we first visited New Haven. With the feast in front of us, it was truly an Italian Style Sunday Family Dinner. The portions are so generous - perfect for family style eating.

I should have busted out with my Italian accent to make the meal even more authentic.

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Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slideshow here.

Il Pesce in Eataly

Prior to our second meal at La Pizza & Pasta, we dined at Il Pesce, the seafood eatery at Eataly. All fresh in raw, roasted, fried, and so on. The few orders we got were all memorable. This was some of the best fritto misto (fried seafood) and whole roasted fish I have ordered in a restaurant. Cooking seafood is all about the timing, and the chefs got it perfectly at this eatery.

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La Pizza & Pasta in Eataly

For two dinners, my family and I visited La Pizza & Pasta in Eataly. It's quite simple - pizzas, pastas, and some salads paired with Italian wines and/or beers. With Batali and Bastianich's expertise, everything was so delicious! The pastas were perfectly cooked and properly coated with the right amount of sauce. And the pizzas were so thin and topped with high quality ingredients. Plus, the pairing with Bastianich wines makes for a most enjoyable dining experience.

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Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slideshow here.

Italy is Eataly!

The most anticipated destination for our family trip to New York City was Eataly. Established by Mario Batali, Lidia Bastianich, Joe Bastianich, and Oscar Farinetti. These Italian-loving geniuses creating one of the coolest food markets! It's a market for fresh ingredients (fruits, vegetables, seafood, meats), for fun Italian goodies (homemade nutella!), for a snack (some salumi and wine in the afternoon - why not!), for a variety of meals (pizzas, pastas, seafood, vegetables), for drinking (beers, wines, espressos), for desserts (gelato and panetonne!), and so much more.

This place was like our Disneyland, our "happiest place on earth". In the course of a week, we visited Eataly four times to shop and to eat. I highly highly recommend this place if you love food, especially Italian food!

Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slideshow here.

Linguine alle Vongole at Home

I love when a night's dinner menu is created spontaneously in a grocery because of the freshness of the day's ingredients. Walking through Whole Foods can be so inspiring. At the seafood counter, we saw there were some great looking fresh Manila clams. We had to get it. It was so fresh (as in, if you hit the shell a little, the muscle would move inside) that we had to eat it for dinner that night. So what to make with fresh clams? Linguine alle Vongole!

With a tomato, some garlic, parsley, and delicious white wine, the clams were tossed in and steamed to open. Then we mixed in the cooked linguine. The result: A flavorful pasta with dimensions of flavor from the clam juice and the white wine.

To cap the meal, we enjoyed a cheese course, thanks to the great cheese selection at Whole Foods. And, of course, it was paired with some port which is a fantastic way to balance and heighten the experience of a cheese plate.

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Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slideshow here.

Home-Cooked Italian Pastas

My style of cooking is to challenge myself to not use any recipe and cook with whatever is in the fridge, freezer, and pantry. I guess that's why pastas have become my specialty - because we always have dry pasta, onions, and tomatoes in the kitchen. So to whip up a quick meal, I made a couple of pastas with the ingredients we had in the fridge. Half hour later, Buon Appetito!

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Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slide show here.

Bellini Pasta Pasta

My parents and I have become frequent patrons of Q Square Mall in Taipei, mainly because the hotel we have stayed at is located right next door. We have thoroughly enjoyed the Shabu Shabu restaurant, so we decided to give another restaurant a chance.

Thanks to a great video in front of the restaurant promoting the menu selections, we quickly decided to try out Bellini Pasta Pasta. Its concept is Tokyo Italian. I love the Japanese influence on Italian cuisine! And this restaurant executed it very well. Everything we ordered came out fresh, hot, and delicious!

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Check out my Flickr album if you can't see the slideshow here.

Home Cooking after a Trip

Whenever I come back from a trip, I always spend majority of that week at home with some comforting home cooked meals. I always crave a lot of vegetables! I guess I consider these meals to be my "post-trip cleanse", even though I try my best to eat healthy during trips.

I really enjoy eating at home because the food that is made, whether by myself, my parents, or my brothers, is as good as in any quality restaurant.

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Meals at Home

After going on trips and frequently eating out, it's really nice to have that balance and cook some fresh homemade meals. You know the quality of all the ingredients and you can control the amount of ingredients.

Here are a couple picture from an "Italian Night In":

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Here are a few pictures from our "Hainanese Night":

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Cibo

From the same owner as Pepato, comes Cibo Restaurant. There are several Cibo restaurants across Metro Manila. We went to the one in Greenbelt 5. The food is comforting and decently priced.

The Back of the Place Mat
For kids to color.

Chips
Instead of bread, they give homemade chips with a homemade mayonnaise dipping sauce. A nice light start! The chips are thinly cut and not overly fried.

The Pairing
A white wine to pair with the pizza and pastas. Light and refreshing.

Pizza
Half with anchovies and half with squash blossoms. We requested to split the pizza with two sides of toppings. It was tasty, but at the same time it doesn't compete with Settebello or Pizzeria Delfina.

Penne
With mushrooms and a tomato cream sauce. Topped with goat cheese. The best dish of the night. A tasty plate!

Spaghetti alla Romana
The sauce could have had more olive oil, but other than that it was a pretty good pasta dish.

Chocolate Cake
A semi-flourless cake. Pretty good, but the chocolate could have had more depth.