Cookbookmaniac
  • Wagaya – Modern Japanese Izakaya
    Wagaya – Modern Japanese Izakaya
    Asian Restaurant Reviews

    I am part of a food-obsessed family. My father is a former Yum Cha Chef. My mother is an amazing home cook. All my sisters and I think nothing of opening the fridge at midnight to fry up a meal from scratch. We do not hesitate spending an entire day making dumplings in the kitchen. When I decided to start a food blog, it seemed like I had just announced I was slicing an apple. Gastronmic connoisseurs? Nope, we are foodlovers. We travel far and wide looking for a great bowl of noodles, we pay no attention to the time of day when we are hungry, we bicker about who-ate-what and didn't share it, we gossip about who-went-where and didn't get to go, we fly across the world just to eat and shop, we each have a friend that thinks we are crazy food geeks. Its Chinese New Year and…

  • Magnolia Bakery – Greenwich Village, New York City
    American Restaurant Reviews

    If you didn't know already, I am a HUGE fan of Sex and the City. Its humour, clever writing, tongue-in-cheek fashion and witty characters, captivated my imagination and perhaps is a large influence in my writing today. When my sisters and I were arranging a trip to New York City, I was adamant that we go on the Sex and the City tour. They all agreed that it would be a lot of fun. We got to visit a few places that were featured in the TV Series. We bought a Manhattan drink at the place where they shot Steve and Aiden's bar. We walked past the stoop to Carrie's apartment (apparently Sarah Jessica Parker only lives down the street from there). We visited the sex shop where the girls bought Charlotte her infamous rabbit. The one place that we visited and left a lasting impression with me was the…

  • Lunar New Year – Tet Vietnamese Festival
    Restaurant Reviews

    Vietnamese Lunar New Year falls on the same day as Chinese New Year. It was (and still is) my favourite time of the year as a young child. My sisters and I would eagerly wait for the auspicious red packets to be handed to us from our parents and our older relatives. They were considered lucky money and were given to young children and the elderly. We would always compete with each other on who got the most money and red envelopes by the end of the day. It was a lot of fun teasing the least successful recipient. What were we to do with all this money? Personally, I couldn't wait to spend it all on food, rides and games at the Tet Festival! The carnival was once held at a park in Cabramatta, during the suburbs troubled times. It was occasionally overrun by gangsters and I recall on…