I met someone very fascinating when he spoke about the finest journeys of his lifetime.

CY shared with me some of his memorable food experiences when living abroad. It may felt no surprise to me anything ‘about food’ for some of the places kinda sound familiar to me. It’ s because I may have read, seen and heard about the food cultures and magnificent travels somewhere already. It s like an aroma coming from a Sunday roast or Tian Tian Chicken rice Stall in Singapore whenever one speaks about delicious delicacies. I love visiting the ‘eat streets’ of different countries one day.

I felt nostalgic when recalling the trip I should have embarked – New York City, ‘the city that never sleeps’ and Manhatten. How I love the busy streets, cafes, restaurants, posh apartments ,hotels and shopping, this city offer, not forgetting the places of interest.

The best bagels, best hotdogs in NYC and TGI Friday not to be missed. Well, regretfully, the fear of flight had held me up, so my other half went instead.

I could have plenty to write about and more to mesmerize too. It s the only City in the world, a must to visit in a lifetime. And don’t forget San Francisco too!

CY was introducing how the Taiwanese would eat a cold salad with simply bittergourd dipped into some mayonaise. Uniquely Interesting! I love bittergourd for its bitterness and goodness. The benefits of bittergourd in this link http://www.bitter-gourd.org/health-benefits/  I like it stir fried with eggs, made into soup adding some fresh calamari and a good stock. You can lightly stew pan fried chunky fish with bittergourd and black bean sauce. There’ s a Japanese Prefecture in Osaka where the elderly people consume plenty of bittergourd in their daily diet like a comfort food.The elderly are in their 80s and 90s and are very healthy. Apparently they owed it to the bittergourds.

Here’s CY s uniquely cold bittergourd salad with my own version.

It s simple. Get some fresh chilled bittergourd , cut into half ,clean and remove the pith inside. Sliced into rings(for decorate) and any bite size you want. I put plenty of ice cubes to keep it chilled. It’s best eaten chilled.

For dipping sauce, I used Japanese mayonaise and mix some tomato ketchup into it. The mayonaise mix compliments the bitterness of the chilled bittergourd. Enjoy. Voila!