Egg Tarts (warm your heart~)

"Friendship is the most important ingredient in this recipe of life". 

They may take different paths in life and walk in opposite directions to you, yet they continue to remain by your side, close to your heart.

Pineapple Tarts

Pineapple tarts (鳳梨酥) are treasured as a festive dessert in Taiwan. It is commonly exchanged around Chinese New Year, Mid Autumn Festival, and for visiting family and friends. Pineapple tarts consists of a sweet jam filling enclosed within a rectangular butter pastry. There are other variations of jam fillings apart from the traditional pineapple flavour, such as honeydew melon, taro, lotus, and seaweed. Sometimes, salted egg yolk is added to enrich the flavour and this creates a beautiful balance between sweet and salty.

Whenever I take a bite into one of these sweet delicacies, a sense of happiness warms me and reminds me of home. The crisp buttery pastry melts in your mouth and the soft pineapple jam filling satisfies anyone with a sweet tooth.

Dark Chocolate Drop Cookies

One of the most versatile party foods are freshly home baked cookies, and you can never go wrong with Chocolate Chip Cookies. :) They are comforting and perfect for the family, catering to the young and old. These cookies are definitely a hit with the children, teenagers devour them, has remained as a secret indulgence for adults, and is the perfect sweet with a cup a tea for the elderly.

There are many different variations of chocolate chip cookie recipes floating on the internet, written in cookbooks, or passed down through generations as precious as rubies. One of my favourite recipes which are proven as a crowd pleaser is a product of many hours surfing the web and flipping through pages, and experimenting. (I’d like to take a moment to say thanks to my friends for being my guinea pigs, and it is a relief to see the results are far from a disappointment).

Kung Fu Noodle House

A good friend of mine and I always love to wander about and explore the indie and local face of the bustling Auckland City. We went on a spontaneous foodie road trip to Dominion Road in central Auckland. The hub of cheap and good quality Asian cuisine.

With no particular destination, we took a bus and got off at somewhere-along-Dominion-Road, among an abundant of restaurants on both sides of the road. Our target was simple: 

1. Chinese food
2. Non-oily
3. Cheap

After about half an hour of strolling up and down the long stretch of road, we walked into a small restaurant situated in a corner. The restaurant front does not look very flash, and the inside decor was not any better. But there were people, and that was a sign of good business considering it was already 3pm.