Nice! Nice!

Cheyannemummy chose the outfit, Godpa rushed to order it, and Cheyanne modelled it. Nice!Nice!

And all in good taste too!

My favourite time of the day

A very fond walk down memory lane.

Browsing through some very old photos tonight. I fondly remember these yummy cookies.... Hershey choc chip cookies!!! Yummy!

Tomatoes ready for the boil......

Spicy (sometimes not too spicy, sometime numbingly spicy, depending on mood) chicken wings/drumlets (always fresh, never frozen). Lamb roast - on special occasions. French baguette with butter. Tomato Soup, of course.

Some leftovers for home delivery.

And the dream team that made this possible.

Tapas in Spain

One of my favourite tapas dinners with colleagues in Barcelona. This is some kinda bread with olive oil. It was so good!

We had loads of tapas that day, not all were captured on camera as my colleagues were getting impatient with all that photo taking. " This suaku asian takes photos of everything we eat!! "

This cup of cold gazpacho soup was so refreshing. Made of tomatoes and other herbs blended together and chilled before serving, a summer favourite.

In the background were chorizo sausages and fried egg. Again the sausages were delicious!

Here are 2 of my favourites : Calamari rings - the seafood there cannot be bad, no matter how hard they try it seems.

Smoked tuna with almonds. This is a classic!! Never have I imagined the salty tuna would compliment the fresh almonds so perfectly. And it was drizzled with fresh olive oil..... Ooooh! On my own I probably would not have thought of ordering it.

Happy dinner! For the food alone, I'd go back to BCN.

Eat and Sleep

I've noticed Trooper likes to do this to his brothers' food bowls lately. Either 1 or both his paws will be parked inside their bowls.

Trooper and his favourite comfort towel. He'll squeeze and curl onto this towel to nap if he's not sleeping with Bruno, or on the sofa for his afternoon nap.

Oh what a life!

Typical street food

It was a cold and chilly night, and my very last one in Xian. I just had to have something typically local -skewered meat 烤肉

This is a street full of skewered meat, and the skewers are all made of metal and fully recyclable as you can see. We sat by the roadside on low tables and low plastic stools, somehow it reminded me of Hanoi.

The meats kept coming - lamb, chicken wing, gizzards, fish lung, octopus.... you name it, they grill it. Seasoned with cumin and chilli, this skewered meat is highly addictive. Add in some light beer and cool chilly nights, wow this could go on forever. I lost count of how many sticks I had that evening. And lost count of the bottles of beer too. But it was a good combination. If only we had real glasses to down the beer instead of the little clear plastic ones you can see in the background.

The stall owners keep sending the skewers and you keep ordering. At the end of the night, they count the total number of skewers and charge you accordingly. Like the satay stalls in the olden days.

Now those wings really give Wala a run for the money. Deeeeelicious!

Local burger in Xian

百年老店 - 肉夹馍

This is a local version of a burger - one of the many street snacks found in Xian

This little run down store off one of the side streets is famed for its tender braised meat, and the bun made of some type of flour.

Perhaps I'm a sucker for healthy grains, or that the bun was freshly baked that was slightly crisp on the outside and somewhat dense yet chewy on the inside. It was like a freshly baked german pretzel, only softer, fluffier yet with enough bite. Oooh yummmmm! It was delicious.

Yes I know. This lousy photo does not do the Rou Jia Mo any justice.

At RMB 6 each, it was simply divine.

Meat has been boiled in a huge pot for I dunno how long. The bun is fresh from the clay oven, like a naan, only thicker and made of unrefined flour. I cannot tell what flour but it was definitely unrefined flour that one can taste the organic goodness of the grain. Actually I would simply have loved to eat just the bun on its own.

My business associate claims this is the best in Xian, with 100 yrs of history making this burger. And I cannot agree more.