I’m not trying to avoid writing a review.
Oh who am I kidding, I so am.

So here’s my avoiding-a-review post.

Which is full of photos of food!

Our friends joined us at Tanto in Sunnyvale for an early dinner. We had some really great dishes like a Kurobuta pork pie, Uni Tamagotoji (sea urchin simmered with egg), beef tongue, grilled rice balls with mentaiko (spicy cod roe), clams in broth, sashimi salad… and more! So good.

And finished up with chocolate cake from what is probably my favorite bakery in my neighborhood.

 

 

A small cake but quite decadent!

 

 

 

On Sunday, the husband and I decided to finally try out the new-ish Singapore/Malaysia cafe called Kopitiam (which kind of means coffee house ). As it’s not really a full restaurant, there were only a few choices and the husband picked nasi lemak (coconut rice – usually cooked with pandan leaves, fried chicken, some token veg like cucumbers, ikan bilis and a spicy sambal which the owner made sure was replenished with an even larger portion)

I went for the laksa, a coconut-y gravy (made from all kinds of spices like lemongrass, candlenuts, belachan etc – if you’re interested, there are plenty of great examples online, such as this one) with rice noodles (although they used the wrong type of rice noodles), tofu, fish cake and bean sprouts. Oh and a hard-boiled egg. It was incredibly spicy and I quickly gulped down my iced teh tarik (milky tea).

Inspired by the rather Singaporean lunch, we made some fried carrot cake for dinner. I know that when you hear ‘carrot cake’ you’re probably thinking of that sweet dessert, but the Singapore version is actually a steamed radish cake (which I had bought from an Asian supermarket) that we then panfried with garlic, pickled turnip and beaten eggs.

The pickled turnip adds saltiness and a bit of a crunch to the dish. It was a simple but hearty taste of home to end the all-too-short weekend.