Porto Portugal's Mercado do Balhao

Porto is a city full of surprises. Nice little shops, good new restaurants, great seafood, nice people, nice sunshine, wine cellars, great view. I spent four days in Porto and surprisingly I didn't feel bored at all! 

Bolhao market is a must see place in the city!! It's a more than 150 year old local market in the center of the city. It's THE everyday market place for the locals (not just for tourists). You can literally find everything in this market and the seafood and meat can be with the best quality in town. And several shops are the meat/ham/seafood suppliers for many restaurants in the city. 

Walking through the market place, I can really picture myself retiring here and shop at this market everyday :)

Hainanese Chicken Rice Addiction after Singapore Trip

Hainanese chicken rice is a south China and south east Asia traditional dish. It originated from Hainan island in China and it was used to be called "Wenchang Chicken". The chicken is boiled with some seasoning and the tricky part is the rice. Unlike regular plain steamed rice, the rice for Hainanese chicken is always refered to as "oily rice". Before steaming, the rice should be stir fried with ginger and green onion. After that, pour the chicken fat oil on the surface of the boiled broth and some chicken broth into the rice to steam. In this way, the rice is very flavourful and it makes a great company for the light flavoured chicken.

If you are in Singapore, try one of the most famous Hainanese chicken rice at Tiantian in Maxwell food center at Chinatown. If you are short of time, it's very easy to find this traditional dish in all the hawker centers, in the airport and on the streets. When eating, don't forget to order a glass of healthy traditional beverage -- barley water!

Homemade first try :)

Mood for Dumplings

Dumplings making from scratch day. It's actually my first time making dumpling skins and it's successful! ;) #EverythingHandmade 

The Most Authentic Dim Sum Place in Europe

If you want to go to the most authentic dim sum place in Europe, this is the place -- Restaurant Full Moon in The Hague. They even have more varieties than many dim sum restaurant in Asia!

Scandinavian style in London -- Texture

Visited this Scandinavian style restaurant recommended by a friend in London. The presentation of the dishes is full of natural elements which gives the Scandinavian feeling. Favorite dish is the beef presented on hot coal!

Texture

34 Portman Street, London W1H 7BY England

 

Three Star Hidden Gem -- Victor's Fine Dining by Christian Bau

Visited this Michelin three star restaurant in Schloss Berg in Germany for dinner. Great experience and great food. It might be my favorite Michelin three star dining so far. You can see a lot of Asian inspirations in the dinner with Asian veggies, sashimi, curry, etc. 

The dinner started with three amuse appetizers. Then it followed the dinner menu with wine pairings. It ended with some extra sweets and coffee/tea. The wines are mostly german wines. I remembered having two really tasty crispy and sweet rieslings.  

Some of my favorite dishes:

The presentation of this dish incorporates the Asian plants pot landscape aesthetic design. It's a veggie dish containing 30+ different vegetables. Even the stone like thing in the dish is edible. The little green dots (peas look like things) are frozen mashed veggies. You can see things like these through out other dishes in the dinner. It seems like this is one of the presentation ways favored by the chef. 

One of my most favorite dish is this foie gras balls! Hazelnut flavor outside and foie gras inside. I never know these two things can match that well. 

Also foie gras. 

Lobster :)

Venison :)

I love this dessert so much. The middle part is a pandan flavored moose. The refreshing and subtle flavor of pandan leaves reminded me of vacation days in Southeast Asia!

New Yorker's Back -- Live Updates of Day One Back to NYC

Happy Easter everyone! I'm back to New York City! I instantly felt like home when  sitting in the cab from JFK to my place. I felt like I never left looking at the street views of Manhattan! 🗽

No matter how exhausted I am, first night sleep after long distance international travel usually sucks for me because of Jetlag. This morning  I woke up at 4am and stayed in bed till 6am feeling extremely tired but just couldn't get back into sleep no matter how. I decided to get up early at 6am and do a live update of my first day NYC vacation here in my website. I will keep my day updated here until I sleep tonight. It's gonna be a productive day for me! 

6am

Get up and get dressed. 

7:30am

Ready to get out for the day! Feeling completely fresh with no make ups. 

8:00am 

Breakfast at a nice random street deli. My all time favorite breakfast in NYC: bagel with eggs and sausage and black coffee. 

9:00am

Heading over to Union Square and getting ready for my yoga class. 

And I always love to take a look at the farmer's market at Union Square! 

9:30am - 11:00am 

Yoga class at Ishta Yoga Downtown. It has been a long time for me not doing strentching so I feel a little bit hard to follow our yoga instructor. 

11:15am 

Mani Pedi at Rehoboth Spa Lounge at Union Square. One thing I abosolutly love about NYC is that they have all the nail spa stores everywhere in the city and you can just randomly walk in anywhere and get your nails done! It's so enjoyable having some relaxing time doing mani pedi while sitting on the massage chair writing my blog.

 

1pm

Lunch with college friends. Ordered the cutest Chirashi Bowl at Hatsuhana Sushi. Always great to catch up with my awesome college people! 

3pm

Back home and rest in bed...Restore energy for later tonight. 

5:30pm

Did some shopping for my upcoming Caribean trip. 

7pm

Dinner time! Korean food! 

9pm

Dessert

 

10:30pm

Got home and pack for Puerto Rico. 

11:30pm

Sleep time! Need to get up at 4am tomorrow for flight to Caribean!