Category: food

So one of my major 2019 aims was to understand my body and health a bit more. I have enrolled in a free Uni course around how food is your medicine and also taken an intolerance test to understand my specific needs. I already new that I was intolerant to dairy after my vegan detox where my skin cleared and my stomach stopped feeling so bloated and uneasy. But cutting out dairy didn’t stop the pains completely and with two of my close friends finding out about Candida and yeast overgrowth, I was interested to learn more. Not only did my test results show an intolerance to yeast and dairy, it turns out that I am intolerant to Soya, egg yolk , pepper (wtf), walnuts and rasberries. The idea behind intolerance tests is to cut out the food items for 4 to 6 weeks and reintroduce them into your diet one at a time to see which item/ingredient is causing you discomfort, as not all of them do.

There are many other side effects people encounter from yeast and that could be dry/flaky skin, itching and irritation and thrush! My biggest heart break was thinking that I couldn’t have rice or bread, my two favourite carbs and comfort food. But thank god for all the alternatives that exist in this world.

Happy Hump Day!

Winter is here, and so is the cold crip air and annoying silky rain. My friends know that I am largely affected by the weather, like my hair, the rain makes my mood go frizzy and dull and I begin to trade in my long summer nights out and about with movie nights in with a meal and glass of wine. However, with Christmas nearby my social calendar has started to fill up again.

I do not have a single evening free from Wednesday to Sundays for the rest of the year – this is giving me somewhat anxiety especially since I also only have three weeks left until I travel back home to Singapore and have my lovely (also very judgemental) father greet me with the usual “have you put on weight mel” phrase. I swear he does this even when I’ve lost weight (parents hey).

Anyway, over the weekend the girls and I went for a bottomless brunch at the sipping room. It was our little treat to IJ who hosted us in New York City  and is now living back in London and what better way to have a post New York celebration than to booze away with some fried chicken and waffle?

Continue reading “Boozy Brunchin – Igloo’s in London”

So since summer 2017 is over and all that, it’s been really grey and wet, all my body craves is sugar and I don’t want chocolate or lemon drizzle, I want something a little more exotic. Just so that my tastebud’s can at least continue to experience some kind of sunshine.

So I decided to try a recipe of one of my Dad’s favourite malaysian dessert – Kueh Dadar. Simply put it is a pancake made out of coconut milk and pandan filled with extra sweet coconut. So yes, in case you haven’t already noticed, you need to like coconut to like this little treat from the corner of Southeast Asia. Kueh (or also Kuih in Indonesia) is a malay word for Cake and most malay treats use the term followed by another word, in this case dadar, which means omelette or pancake. Continue reading “Coconut Crazy – Pandan Pancake recipe”

Now we all know I am a big fan of boozy brunches and I have decided to live by the motto of going to brunch (boozy brunch ahem) at least once a month. There are so many options that have been popping up recently so it would be rude not to try them…. all. At the same time, I still need to restrict myself as I am cutting down my alcohol intake in hopes to get closer to my body goals.

In this post I’ll sum up a few of the great boozy brunch options in London right now that you should put in your diary and then I’ll do a series of “Boozy Brunch with Mel” where I’ll rate everything in terms of price, quality and taste of food, healthy food options, service and how great the drink options are along with the refill rate.

Every boozy brunch adventure ends with a story to tell, whether it is a story you regret or one that you cannot stop laughing about, or one you simply can’t remember or forget.

So why is bottomless brunch really that great? Well first of all it combines two of the most amazing things – food and alcohol. Then it also brings out the competitive side of things – how many glasses can you drink in 2 hours? And if you want to take it to the next level – how much time can you get extended to your bottomless limit? Continue reading “Bottomless Brunchin in London”

The UK has always had a bit of a negative stereotype when it comes to food. They only like big breakfasts, fish and chips, and the occasional roast dinner. So it’s time to dispel that notion because according to the Evening Standard, London is a haven for foodies. In fact, they even went as far to say it’s the “most diverse and exciting food capital of the world.”

Continue reading “London – the Food Capital of the World”