It’s been a great holiday season but I’m kind of glad to have our regular routine going again!

We had a nice rainy weekend. I always appreciate those little bits and drips of rain we get here – having grown up in Singapore, rain is one thing I really miss while living here in bone-dry California.

We tried out a new Taiwanese restaurant near our place. We love eating xiaolongbao and in Singapore there are branches of the famous Taiwanese restaurant Din Tai Fung everywhere. I mean it – almost every shopping mall you go to has a branch. It’s always popular and it’s always consistently good (although my mum argues that the branch in Chinatown, which I’ve not been to, is really bad). So when the Din Tai Fung opened here in Santa Clara over a year ago, we were all really excited. But because it’s the only branch in the Bay Area (LA has more!) the queues are still ridiculous, even with Yelp check-in we still waited an hour or so. But the food at DTF is pretty much flawless. The xiaolongbao is always perfect, the fried rice is seriously some of the best fried rice ever, and my kids would each devour a basket of the taro xiaolongbao if I let them.

Anyway, this little place we discovered is just ten minutes’ drive and it was good and cheap. The xiaolongbao weren’t as pretty and perfect but tasted pretty damn good, and they had red bean pancake! So we were all pleased.

 

 

I made some raisin scones and chocolate chip cookies

 

 

 

 

Currently…

 

Reading:

 

Poppy War – RF Kuang

 

 

Watching:

A while ago I watched the first ep of The Magicians but couldn’t get into it, but somehow this time I did. I just binge-watched the first three episodes yesterday. Does that happen to you too?

Listening:

Happy sigh.

Eating:

A slice of buttered toast and a red bean pancake. Sadly not the pancake from the restaurant, which we finished, but this was something we had bought from the supermarket, it’s decent, but as my 7yo complained, not enough red bean.

Drinking:

I had Yorkshire Gold with milk – always my first drink of the day.

Cooking:

My kids have been bugging me to make Japanese curry and the other day while on Yelp I noticed this restaurant had curry udon on their menu. And maybe that’s what I’ll try this time – curry udon!

Possibly a linguini carbonara.

Last week:

I read:

I posted:

 

Mary B by Katherine J Chen

Patina by Jason Reynolds – first read of 2019

Severance by Ling Ma

Library Loot (January 2 to 8)

Best books I read in 2018 #amonthoffaves