The Dewi

The rainy season we're currently enjoying here in Singapore is not exactly perfect for roast chicken. But roast chicken is perfect for any occasion in my opinion. The other day I tried a Chinese style roast chicken recipe. Reading the ingredients, I was sure this is the taste of the roast chicken of my childhood. When I was young, my dad used to buy roast chicken quite often at this small shop near our house in Jakarta. The taste was incredible. I could finish 1 whole chicken by myself any day. I was a peckish child, developing the gusto to eat into adulthood. Unfortunately, it seems out of everyone who lived there, I was the only fan of that roast chicken. As such, the shop finally closed and I have since been missing that taste. When I chanced upon this recipe, I thought this was it, the recipe to make what I can safely call the greatest roast chicken I ever had. So I went ahead and tried it with anticipation. The original recipe actually is not halal, so I had to make some ...

These 2 are in no way related, except for the fact that I was munching on the roast chicken while watching BTS made history on TV (not the other way around). I knew MAMA 2019 was coming on days before the show and was somewhat waiting in anticipation for it. I made sure I cleared my schedules, getting the choirs done early, and also decided to make for the family something simple, tasty, yet does not require so much my full undivided attention. Hence, the Italian Roast chicken. I stumbled upon this recipe from https://www.nigella.com/ . Lovely lovely Nigella, whose cooking shows sooth me to sleep most nights. This was my 2nd time making the recipe and around the 5th time that I used the oven (it has been with us for 5+ years). The first time I made it, I was not sure how it will turn out. First, there was my irrational fear of cooking anything in the oven. So the oven has not been used other than for toasting bread slices and/or baking sweet potatoes. There was also the fact that...

What I like the most about Chinese food is the light, simple, and the clean taste of most of their dishes. Sure it can be greasy at times, but the taste always leaves me feeling 'light'. I'm sure to some, this can be a bit confusing, but allow me to explain. Being practically raised by my grandmother who was born and raised in Bengkulu, Sumatra, I have been accustomed to the Bengkulu, Sumatra cuisine which utilizes a lot of spices, herbs, not to mention coconut milk in most of our dishes. Even my grandmother's famous chicken soup involves at least 7 different type of herbs and spices that I know of. Unfortunately, after she passed, none of us are able to figure out the recipe to her wonderful soup. This is a something I truly regret until this day, because that means I could never replicate the soup, I won't be able to experience again that familiar, soothing taste, and this makes me miss her just a little bit more. Foods from Bengkulu are mostly spicy, cooke...

Believe it or not (perhaps at this point, you'd believe it), our trip to Kuala Lumpur was mostly driven by our desire to eat ribs at Tony Roma's. Both Jourdan and I are big fans of beef, especially the ribs (for him), and beef tongue (for me, but this is saved for discussion another time okay :P). Unfortunately, Tony Roma's in most parts of the world is not a halal establishment, which is totally reasonable considering they are famous for their baby back ribs. So where to go if we're craving for some juicy, meaty, tender, mouth watering ribs if not the Tony Roma's in Malaysia? This was basically the main idea of why we made that trip to Kuala Lumpur the other day. Yes, we definitely are willing to travel for some good food. How I wish we could do this for a living, travel to eat :D. It'd be great if this were also supported by a hobby of exercising and keeping the body fit. Alas, we can't have the best of both worlds. Well, technically we can, but we...

Good news and bad news for this post. To get it out of the way, let's start with the bad news first. The bad news is, in the process of saving the pictures for the post, I ended up deleting them instead (whaattt? idiot right....?). But, the good news is, I was able to retrieve some to at least make this a decent post. How did I manage to delete the pictures? I have no idea myself, I think I was still half asleep when I pushed the button*raawwrrr. It was 23 seconds until I realized what was going on, but by then, everything was too late T-T. Oh well, such is life. We move on, right? So anyways, learning from our adventure at Padang Padang Beach, we decided to purposely visit one of the more famous beach in Bali, the Kuta beach. If you've ever been to Bali, most likely either you have heard of it or visited this beach yourself. But before that, I want to share with you this affordable halal dim sum eating place that we visited in Denpasar. Living in Singapore, it's diff...

No trip to Bali is complete without a trip to the beach. Or so I say now :D. I was never a fan of the beach, and so even when we go to Bali, I'd avoid the beach. Personal preference really, I think the beach is too hot, the sand gets sticky, the air is too humid, I just feel my skin is melting off of me whenever I go there :D. Anyways, this trip though, was in December, the weather was nice, the air was cool, the sun was not too strong, which means I did not have any excuse for not going to the beach. But I guess it was a good thing, as my family really loves the beach as it turns out. Look at them enjoying, with my husband's undies hanging out (he's not gonna be happy with this haha, oh well). Before this trip, I heard a friend of mine said that she took her kids to the beach in Uluwatu, because it's prettier and cleaner there, not to mention less crowded. But, I wasn't sure which beach she was talking about. So, we just typed in 'Uluwatu Beach' on...

This trip to Bali, we had a chance to get ourselves checked in into two hotels (we just realized on this trip that we love hotel hopping! I think we'll do it again next time). The Ubud Village Resort and Spa is a 5-star boutique resort designed for total relaxation, that has won the Bali Tourism Award for 2015 - 2016, World Luxury Hotel Awards for 2014, Asia's Best Romantic Boutique Hotel Awards for 2014, achieved the certificate of excellence from Tripadvisor in 2015, and a bunch of other awards that basically says that this hotel rocks, romantic to the max, and so this is THE reason why I chose to book this hotel for the remaining part of our Bali vacation. The front lobby One of the reasons why I love coming to Bali so much is because this place has many boutique hotels with private pool villas! I get to swim in private with my family in normal swimming suits instead of the covered ones :). And they usually provide top notch service, guaranteeing maximum relaxation ...