Some of my favourite food pairings that come to mind for now:

1. Garlic & Butter: Can anything ever go wrong with this combination?

2. Chocolate & Coffee: Ever intoxicating Mocha

3. Strawberries & Chocolate: Perfect blend of sweet and sour

4. Vanilla & Chocolate: The yin and yang of ice cream. Caveat: I go only for vanilla ice cream made with vanilla beans. No artificial flavourings for me, thank you very much.

5. Basil & Mozzarella cheese & Cherry tomato: Fit all three onto a toothpick in that order and you get the perfect Italian ménage à trois.

6. Hot soy milk & youtiao (fried doughsticks 油條): Simple, comfort food. This combination even inspired a love song 《豆漿油條》 by Singaporean Mandarin pop star JJ Lin.

7. Soy milk & Chin Chow (grass jelly): So far it’s a combination I’ve come across only in Singapore. The drink is known as 黑白 (literally ‘black and white’) at the Mr Bean and Jollibean outlets. Another Singaporean item I miss.

8. Pancakes & Maple syrup: One of my breakfast favourites.

9. Scones & Devonshire cream: So fattening but oh-so-delicious when it’s the perfect buttery scone. And please, NO raisins!   

10. Spanish hot chocolate & Churros: This is, to me, the Spanish equivalent of 豆漿油條 but with 100 times the calories of the latter. I remember the delightful delirium I was in when I had this for breakfast – it’s never too early for chocolate – while holidaying in Spain. There is no higher sugar high from the sugary and crunchy churro dipped in viscous, gooey hot chocolate!