A Life Far Removed from Durian Trees

Been eating at a lot of food courts and hawker centres, but often disappointed. Found some gems though... Warung M. Nasir on Killiney Road for Padang food - love the rice (kinda sticky) and the dishes are really authentic-tasting, Johorean-like food. Really sedap. Like home cooking. For me, the best Malay food resto in Singapore so far. The portions are balanced i.e. not too much rice, the juices are not too sweet and the sweets are yumm. Muslim food stall @ Hopspot on Killiney for nice roticanai with good dhal curry. The best roticanai/paratha I've had here so far. Mee goreng not so good. But it doesn't beat my #1 Roticanai place of all time: Raju's in Petaling Jaya, Malaysia. Thick, fluffy and not oily. Raju... me love you long time!

Got a nice surprise in the post today! Future house guests - you have been warned. Chocolates are great... but nothing beats soto and mee bandung FROM MUAR, Johore, Malaysia! Thank you, rellies! You can visit any time...

When I was in Angola, I was surprised when our French friends didn't know what okra was... I thought to myself, Wha?? How can they say French cuisine is "the best in the world" when they don't know what to do with okra?? Well, there's a first time for everyone. At the supermarket last week, we saw some tomates coeur de boeuf (beef heart tomatoes) and bought one to try. (At the risk of sounding nerdy, the lemon is for scale!)

I'm mango-ed out. Finally finished a crateful from Taiz. Then hubby bought some more before he left (to make up for the fact that he's left me alone in Sanaa). These mangoes were much better. They're from a newly discovered fruit & veg stall close to his new office - better quality stuff and no crowds, but a little pricier. Photo: a typical "cafeteria" with fruity decorations outside

...forgot to add: durian counter reset to zero - had some while I was in Malaysia!!!

= Kannot Fry Chicken lah Remember KFC's Ramadan special offer? S went there two days in a row and came back with nada. The first day, he got there too late in the afternoon - they were closed. The second time, he went a bit earlier and they were open...but they couldn't cook until the electricity came back on. After waiting in the parking lot for 30 mins, S came home. Nevermind. Back in Malaysia in 10 days.

Bored with our own cooking, S and I went out for iftar twice a couple of times last week. Once at the Sheba Hotel and once at the Movenpick. Same price ($30 pp)but I thought the food and atmosphere of the Movenpick were better. Both places had the cheek to charge extra (500 rials/$2.50 each) for the small bottles of water that they open for you without asking first! Otherwise, it was nice. At the Sheba, we saw our old friends (the waiters) who were there last year when we'd just arrived. We stayed two weeks before we moved into the house. One, whose name happens to be the same as my late grandfather's, even remembered what I liked and plonked a heap of omm ali (like bread and butter pudding) in front of me. Bless. The Movenpick was snazzy (5 star hotel I think) and had a bigger spread. I think one of the chefs is from Malaysia because there was kuih sugee (my favourite) and the nasi goreng tasted really asli and I'd heard about him. Today, we're having KFC. There's...