Ky Y Japanese Restaurant

After a boring 2 weeks' stay at home recuperating from my flu, M decided to cheer me up by yesterday having lunch at one of my favourite Japanese restaurants, Ky Y.

Located along the food street of Trieu Viet Vuong, Ky Y is an unassuming restaurant with neither fantastic nor impressive interior decor. Instead, it focuses on creating a warm atmosphere and providing affordable good food for its customers.

How does it appeal to you?

The restaurant was quite crowded when we arrived and we were shown to the third floor, where we got a room big enough to accommodate 6 people. The room was slightly warm but I guess it was good for me since I was still having a slight cold.

Our room with nice little decoration pieces

M quickly decided on a soba tempura set as he said it had been a while since he ate buckwheat noodles. After much pondering, I finally settled on my somen sushi set. My lunch set arrived pretty soon with the food items nicely displayed in a bento style.

My somen sushi set.. appetizing..

Unfortunately, M's set turned out to be udon instead of soba. The waitress was apologetic but she said M had pointed to the udon instead of soba set (which I thought was quite unlikely because M doesn't like udon). Well, there was nothing much we could do about it so M told her he would take the udon. Luckily, it wasn't too bad.

M's udon tempura set

After we finished our main course, we had the dessert i.e. coconut raisin ice cream, compliments from the restaurant. I am a coconut fan so I enjoyed it quite a bit! But M took half of my ice cream because he said I was still recovering and shouldn't eat too much. Well.. I guess that's true.

Except for the error made on our soba, I think we had a pretty satisfying lunch today.

Ky Y Japanese Restaurant
166 Trieu Viet Vuong
Hai Ba Trung, Hoan Kiem District
Hanoi
Open daily except Sundays for lunch and dinner

Real Life Ratatouille

Last Sunday, M and I watched the DVD "Ratatouille" since it was one of our "nuah-at-home" days. It was quite a funny show, about a mouse called Remy that wanted to be a chef. At first, Remy did it through a cute "partnership" with a chef wannabe called Linguini. But Linguini eventually gave Remy the recognition that it deserved, affirming the notion that "Anyone can Cook".

That very night, I had a strange dream that there was a rat in my house. It wasn't hilarious because I was chased around by the rat and screamed like mad. I woke up in the middle of the night in cold sweat! Here comes the best part... When I went down to my kitchen yesterday morning, it was in a mess! My dried herbs packets were gnawed open and the herbs spilled around the floor, coupled with a few tea boxes! I immediately suspected the presence of a rat and asked my maid to call for pest control service.

The guy came in the late afternoon and finished the "surveillance" in less than one minute. Basically, he took a scanty glance around the living room and knocked around the cupboards and refrigerator. Then he shook his head vigorously to signal to me that there was no sign of a rat (of course I can see that!) and there was nothing he could do. As a form of reassurance, he told my maid that I could come down at night to try to find the rat and if I did, to call his office number and alert him. I nearly fainted! Firstly, as a client, I must be mad to try to "search" for the rat! Did he think I work in a pest control company too?? Secondly, his office closes at 5pm daily. So how was I suppose to reach him???

Anyway, I was spooked the whole of yesterday and frustrated at the non-service delivery. But there was nothing much I could do! This morning, I gingerly went down to my kitchen and was relieved to find that there was no sign of a rat invasion. But before I could say "Thank Goodness", I just heard a piece of bad news from my helper, H. She spotted tiny footsteps in our bathtub on the third floor, which meant that the rat was still around! I immediately asked her to call the pest control company to insist on a rat trap. I just cannot live with the idea of having a rat as my "room mate" - or more appropriately, "roof mate"!

Now I am still waiting for the rat trap to come... Meanwhile, I have closed all my doors and windows. I know this sounds paranoid but I am VERY scared of rats! And the rats in Hanoi are quite BIG - I have seen them on the streets, so I know. EEEeeeekkkksss!

Did the rat really think that I can live with it like Remy and Linguini in Ratatouille and therefore, moved into my house prior to "seeking my consent"? FAT HOPE!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I woke up early today at 8am and felt lots better after a few days' of endless sleep + herbal tea + lozenges. After a wholesome meal of bread and oats, I had a sudden craving for cookies and recalled a fairly simple recipe found via the internet. So I decided to make my own oatmeal raisin cookies. :) I modified the recipe slightly because I didn't want my cookies to be too sweet nor oily.

My first batch of oatmeal raisins cookies turned out quite well. I liked the "coarse" texture though they were still slightly sweet for me. M commented that they were good which made me very pleased. I would reduce the amount of sugar added in my next attempt (i.e. 75 g) and perhaps use pear puree as a partial substitute for sugar.

My first tray of 6 cookies

A closer look...

The modified recipe that I used is as follows:

Ingredients
- 150 g plain flour
- 150g rolled oats
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 90 g of raw sugar (which I would reduce to 75g in my next attempt)
- 50 g raisins
- 1 egg
- 50 ml of olive oil (Unsalted butter could be used too)
- 4 tbsp soya bean milk

Method
1. Preheat the oven t 200 degrees Celsius. Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. Sieve the flour and mix together with oats, baking powder, sugar and raisins in a mixing bowl.
3. Whisk the egg, milk and oil in another bowl.
4. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and slowly add in the egg mixture. Mix well.
5. Place spoonfuls of the dough on a baking sheet and press lightly with a fork.
6. Bake for 15 mins or until the cookies turn brown.
7. Let the cookies cool for around 10 minutes and they are ready to serve!

Weather Changes

The weather in Hanoi has been changing drastically these few days. Just last week, we were experiencing winter-like temperature of around 13-18 degrees Celsius. But the sun is out and blazing this week. Temperatures are expected to rise to around 30 degrees over the weekend. I reluctantly kept my winter coat. Winter has come and gone.

The change in weather has resulted in many people falling sick, including myself. Have been sleeping a lot these days. So much that I feel 2/3 of my day is spent on sleep instead of 1/3 for a normal person. I have been downing all kinds of medicine in a frenzied attempt to get well. So far, they seemed to be working because I am feeling better today. I miss my morning workouts at the gym and afternoon gatherings with friends. L is leaving for Singapore today for a 5 days holiday so I won't get to see her till next week. *Sulks*

Yucks. I hate falling sick.

Welcome to Taipei (Part 2) - Chiang Kai Shek Memorial and Taipei 101

Our second day in Taipei began with a highly recommended lunch at the original 鼎泰丰 (the restaurant that left Singaporeans in a craze for 小笼包) in Taipei City. It's located 2-3 bus stops aways from the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, where L and I planned to visit after lunch. Mousie suggested that we have an early lunch, at around 10.30am, to avoid having to wait, and so we did.

When we arrived at 鼎泰丰 (a three-storeyed shop house), we were shown to our seats immediately. The menu in Taipei was pretty much the same as the one in Singapore, though we caught a few special dishes here and there. We ordered a serving of 小笼包, 卤豆腐, 海藻小菜 to share and I had a 蛋花汤 while L tried the 酸辣汤. I quite liked my egg soup though L's soup was not spicy at all! In fact, it should be more aptly named the "sour" soup as I tasted nothing but vinegar. The 小笼包 was quite "juicy" and delicious but my favourite was the braised beancurd (卤豆腐). It was very well done! The seaweed salad was alright though not fantastic.

Top left: Braised beancurd; Top right: The famous dumplings
Bottom left: Seaweed salad; Bottom right: The snaking queue formed outside

We noticed quite a number of Japanese tourists in the restaurant, in fact, more than the locals. Perhaps the fame of 鼎泰丰 is more attractive to foreigners. When we came out after a sumptuous meal, I was shocked to find a long queue formed outside the restaurant. It was so crowded that we could hardly move! Mousie really wasn't kidding...

On our way to Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall, we browsed through a few shops to satisfy our shopping craze. Because of our "shopping anxiety syndrome", we forgot to dry the mango ice (芒果冰) nearby which was apparently quite famous. Well, girls will always be girls...

As the name goes, the Chiang Kai Shek Memorial Hall serves as a monument to the First President of Taiwan. The exhibits detailed the journey of his life: including his army days and life with his wife, Song Meiling. We took our time to browse through the artefacts before rushing out to catch the "changing guards" ceremony. Unfortunately for us, it had started raining and the ceremony was cancelled! What a disappointment!

The miniature version of CKS Memorial Hall...

And the real thing!

Snapshots of other pics taken around the memorial hall

Entrance of the CKS Memorial Hall train station

Inside the train station.. Along the walls..

Very impressive decor huh?

Our next destination was to 台北车站. You might be thinking now what was so interesting about a train station right? Actually, our objective was to shop at the numerous underground shopping malls at the vicinity of the train station! Alas.. things didn't go as we planned.. because what happened was that we ended up spending close to 4 hours at the underground malls instead, and emerged on the surface only in the late evening! By then, the rain was quite heavy due to the typhoon so Mousie's mother, who was afraid that we would be trapped in the rain, invited us home for dinner. Thus our Friday evening was fairly quiet.

The rain raged ferociously the following day, spoiling all our plans. We had to stay indoors at Mousie's house and ended up playing Wii as well as watched "The Day After Tomorrow". Was a little disappointed at having to stay indoors as we were on holiday! But well, there was nothing much we could do since Mother Nature was against us.

By evening, the rain had subsided slightly so Mousie, L and I decided to brave the intense drizzle to 台北101, where we would see the tallest building in Taipei. We had dinner at a Japanese restaurant and it was there that I had my first taste of Mister Donut, a Japanese donut franchise. The donut was yummy! We shopped at a few shopping malls around 台北101 and of course, I made victory purchases again! It was really hard to resist the draw of fashion in Taipei.

On our way back home, Mousie suggested we make a day trip to the outskirts of Taipei City since the rain was still pouring. We tossed around a few possible destinations and eventually decided on one. So where did we head off next? Keep reading to find out! :)

Coming up.. A mystery drive in the outskirts of Taipei City