Weekend #48

How was your weekend, lovelies? Hope it was every bit as delightful as what 48 hours worth of could offer.

Mine was good - salvaged by family and friends. I was supposed to be in Taipei for the weekend for kw's cousin's wedding but had to stay back for work and miss out on all the fun. Nonetheless, I was determined to make full use of it by meeting up with friends and sleeping early (sleep is a real precious commodity these days).

I kicked off my Saturday with dim sum brunch with my primary school friends Toon, Qin and Ming at Imperial Treasure Noodle & Congee House. I was third in line when the eatery opened at 10:30am - guess not everyone sleeps in over the weekend. You might be tired of hearing about me rave about Imperial Treasure but I never everrrr get sick of dim sum there. We ordered a bunch of stuff and these were my favourites.

What everyone should order at Imperial Treasure are their caramelized and buttery char siew soh. I would suggest you order enough so that everyone has at least one but this is the time to care and not share.

Egg tarts - these will served fresh from the oven. Well, that's what I like to think as they were a mouthful of warm, flaky, eggy pleasure.

We also tried one of their house specialities - braised beef with rice flour cakes. The braised beef was teethingly tender and the rice flour cakes reminded me of ddeokbokki. Isn't rice flour super versatile and yummeh?

And for dessert, pan-fried red bean pancake. This was more of a sampling portion and I could really do with more red bean, so luckily I was running out of stomach space.

Dinner was with my family at the very dependable Akashi.

Gyu teriyaki (one of my top three favorite beef dishes in Singapore), chicken wakadori (not just your boring ol white meat), a sumptuous Akashi bento and a sizable serving of tempura moriwase. Initially I thought this would be enough for the four of us but I got hungrier as the meal went on. For some reason, I was carb-loading on the rice, so much so that when I glanced over at my mum's bowl, she cradled it protectively and said, "I'm saving this for the tempura."

Still hungry, I decided to take things into my own fat fingers and ordered the katsu don, hoping that eggy, saucy fried pork and rice would somehow appease my hunger. It did - and more. It was the sort of fullness that would deliver a good 8 hours of sleep thereafter.

Sunday lunch with Diana at kitschy Food Republic. My tastebuds are a little off these days and I find myself cravings for local food. Strange huh? I like but never used to clammer for local food; these days, the thought of sandwiches, wraps and anything cafe-bistro-ish make me gag. This neat popiah from Food Republic did a good job of satisfying my cravings.

But of course that wasn't enough and being seated next to Toast Box that continually churns our warm thick toasts didn't help =)

Hope you had a great weekend too!