Towzen began in Kyoto in 2004 as a small soy milk ramen restaurant, with its roots in shojin ryori, the traditional vegetarian cooking connected to Zen Buddhism. Kuala Lumpur is its first venture outside Japan.

But enough history. The food is so damn good. What I particularly love is that nothing is pretending to be meat. I have never really understood fake meat. A mushroom is perfectly capable of being a mushroom, and the fried mushrooms here are phenomenal. Somehow they give you that same deeply satisfying feeling you sometimes miss when you don’t eat meat. Crispy, substantial and delicious, but still very much a mushroom.

And then there is the soup.
The soy milk and sesame broth is creamy, rich and incredibly comforting. The kind of soup where you finish the bowl and immediately start wondering what everyone else ordered.

I had the black charcoal sesame soy milk ramen. Completely black. Not necessarily the prettiest thing to photograph, but absolutely delicious and very pretty to look at !

Some things really are better in black and white.

This is also one of those restaurants where I would recommend going with a whole group. The menu makes you want to try everything, so order too much, put it all in the middle and share.

I certainly didn’t manage to eat my way through the menu. Which is a very good reason to go back.

Tucked away on Yanping Road in Jing’an, Sloppy Gin is one of those places you wish you had discovered on day one. It was started by self-taught baker Gin Yuanjie, who apparently called it “Sloppy” as a joke to lower everyone’s expectations. A rather dangerous strategy when everything coming out of the kitchen is this good.

They’re famous for their doughnuts and cinnamon rolls, but the flavours are anything but predictable. I had a cardamom bun, a bit like cinnamon roll’s more sophisticated Scandinavian cousin, and an absolutely phenomenal lemon and sage doughnut. Lemon and sage sounds slightly odd until you taste it, and then it makes complete sense. I also tried their spelt croissant, which was really, really good. Their pastries change with the seasons, so there is always something new appearing on the counter.

And then there is the shop next door, owned by Gin’s girlfriend, which makes the whole visit even better. It is a tiny treasure chest filled with beautiful French finds, little antiques, objects and gifts. The sort of shop where you go in “just to look” and inevitably leave carrying something.

So, should you find yourself in Shanghai and suddenly think, I cannot eat another dumpling, head to Yanping Road. Have a croissant. Have the cardamom bun. Definitely have the lemon and sage doughnut.

And then go next door.

Sloppy Gin
425 Yanping Road, Jing’an, Shanghai

Actually… I found it in Dille & Kamille while spending the day wandering around the beautiful city of Delft. It’s one of those shops I can happily lose myself in for hours, and this time I walked out with Bubala by Marc Summers, published in Dutch by Good Cook.

The moment I started turning the pages, I knew this book was coming home with me.

The first recipe that caught my eye was the cauliflower steak, followed by January King cabbage with shiitake, Jerusalem artichokes, sweet potatoes with tahini, burnt butter hummus, and page after page of recipes that completely changed the way I look at vegetables.

What I love most is that this isn’t a cookbook trying to make vegetables taste like meat. It’s a celebration of vegetables in all their glory. Every page reminds you just how endless the possibilities are when you start with fresh, seasonal ingredients and a little imagination.

I haven’t cooked from it yet, but I already know it’s going to become one of those books that’s permanently open on my kitchen counter. If you ever come across Bubala, do yourself a favour and pick it up. I have a feeling it’s going to inspire me for years to come.

I had every plan of taking beautiful photographs at MADRE in Amsterdam for this newsletter, but somewhere between the table side guacamole and the artichoke tacos, I simply forgot. The food demanded my full attention. Spending the evening there with my daughter made it even more special.

Tucked away in Amsterdam’s Jordaan district, MADRE is a modern Mexican restaurant with one small detail: everything is 100% plant based. They don’t make a big fuss about it. There are no lectures, no compromises and certainly no feeling that you’re missing out. The restaurant simply serves beautiful food that happens to be vegan.

Dinner was one surprise after another. Fresh guacamole prepared for us at the table. Fried cauliflower with an unexpected white chocolate sauce that somehow worked perfectly. Artichoke tacos packed with flavour. And then came the 3D printed vegan “pork” tacos, a dish that sounds completely impossible until you taste it and realise that the future of food might actually be delicious.

What impressed me most wasn’t the technology or the fact that everything was vegan. It was the confidence. MADRE doesn’t try to imitate anything. It simply creates exciting, colourful food that makes you forget you’re eating plant based.

Over dinner, my daughter and I kept wondering whether a restaurant like this could work in Malaysia. I’m not entirely convinced the market is ready, but I would love to be proven wrong. A place where beautiful interiors, inventive food and good conversation come together without taking themselves too seriously. It feels very much like my dream restaurant.

I left with a camera roll full of terrible photographs, a very happy stomach and a lovely evening with my daughter. Come to think of it, that’s probably the best review a restaurant could hope for.

The other day, while wandering through the beautiful, and eerily empty, Market at the Four Seasons Hotel Kuala Lumpur, I stumbled across a little collection of cookbooks. There weren’t many left, but every single one looked thoughtfully chosen. One, in particular, caught my eye: Your Daily Veg by Joe Woodhouse.

I didn’t buy it but I should have.

Joe Woodhouse grew up on farms in England, became a vegetarian at the age of ten, trained as a chef, and later worked as a food stylist and photographer before turning his hand to writing cookbooks. His approach to cooking is wonderfully simple: let the vegetables do the talking.

This isn’t one of those vegetarian cookbooks trying to imitate meat. Nor is it about complicated techniques or impossible-to-find ingredients. It’s about making everyday vegetables exciting, seasonal, and utterly delicious. Think roasted aubergines, comforting potato dishes, creamy mushrooms, grilled asparagus, and clever little combinations that make you wonder why you never thought of them yourself.

Even Nigella Lawson is a fan, describing the food as joyful, seasonal, and full of flavour without being fussy. That’s probably the best way to describe the whole book.

The irony isn’t lost on me. I found one of my favourite discoveries of the month in what might be the loneliest beautiful supermarket in Kuala Lumpur. I still don’t know how the place is surviving. During my visit, I was the only customer. Nobody came in. Nobody left. But perhaps that’s exactly why it’s worth a detour.

You might discover a beautiful ingredient, a wonderful bottle of olive oil, or a cookbook you didn’t know you needed. And if you’re lucky, perhaps you’ll even persuade them to give you a little discount.

As for me, I think I need to go back. Hopefully the supermarket will still be there.

And hopefully, so will the book.

Dempsey Hill, during the day, is surprisingly quiet. Almost too quiet. You walk through beautiful spaces, but many feel a little empty, waiting for the evening to come alive.

And then there is PS.Cafe.

By far the best place to sit on the entire hill. It has that rare quality where everything just works. The greenery, the layout, the light, but more importantly, the people. Everyone looks good. Relaxed. Happy. And that changes everything. You feel it the moment you sit down.

We had lunch, and it was exactly what it needed to be. Simple, well done, comforting. The lemon yoghurt cake deserves its reputation. Light, fresh, and very easy to justify ordering.

But what stayed with me was not just the food. It is the kind of place where you realise, halfway through, that you could stay the whole day. Work a little, think a little, watch people, reset. No pressure to leave, no rush, just a very easy rhythm.

We also stepped into Dover Street Market Singapore, and that alone is worth the trip. It is not just a store, it feels like a gallery. Everything is so carefully curated that you find yourself wanting to take everything home. It is rare to walk into a retail space where every single piece feels considered, and yet nothing feels heavy.

Together, these two places create a reason to go.

And it made me think. Why do we not have something like this in Kuala Lumpur? Imagine this exact energy in the Lake Gardens. The space is there. The greenery is there. The city needs it. A place where you can sit all day, where people come with their dogs, their laptops, their children, where business and leisure blur naturally. It would work. It would do extremely well.

So here is a simple suggestion.
Open a PS.Cafe in the Lake Gardens in KL(and a fashion store).

I would be there all the time.