Jo and HC’s birthday weekend

It was Jo and HC’s birthday last Sunday but her birthday celebrations started early with Saturday breakfast at Shots on Lake.

Shots on Lake is one of the newer cafes popping up all over Northbridge. I’m liking the coffee culture in Northbridge and Shots on Lake is a great new addition.

They use Five Senses coffee beans in Shots on Lake, the latte had pretty patterns and I enjoyed my coffee but HC’s latte was a little burnt.

This was their version of big breakfast, the portions here are quite generous and the prices are very affordable. I can’t remember the price of this though

This scrambled eggs with bacon ($12.90) was very nice, the eggs were nicely done, fluffy and soft. I would easily return to Shots on Lake again, the location is lovely and the service very good too.

Saturday night birthday dinner at Ciao Italia!! We were very excited about this dinner because it’s been quite a long time since we’ve been back to our favourite Italian restaurant in South Perth. The dinner crowd here is crazy, so we were there super early at 5pm. But there were already lines (o__o)! luckily we were able to get a table. Woo hoo for yummy Italian fare.

This was HC’s all time favourite Italian meat dish, scallopine marsala.

Spaghetti carbonara. There was this young Italian guy eating alone next to us, he must have been very hungry because when this dish came out he said ‘Wooah’.

Chilli mussels. I don’t think Ciao Italia’s chilli mussels are as tasty as they used to be, maybe less garlic and parsley in the sauce, but the mussels were big and juicy so that made up for the sauce.

Jo’s all time favourite Risotto Marinara, this was really yummy, filled with seafood flavour as always. This is probably my favourite dish in Ciao Italia and a must order.

Ciao Italia’s famous tiramisu. The young Italian guy was lapping up the cream spoonful by spoonful, Wendy couldn’t resist asking him whether it was any good. He gave it a thumbs up and said we would get tiramisu this good in Italy and it was a close second to his aunt’s Tiramisu.

Sunday night, yet another birthday dinner only this time it was just the four of us. Guess what was on the menu? Jo’s favourite CRAB! This crab birthday dinner idea has actually been in the works for err 5 years? Every year Jo the crab queen would say ‘ I want to have crabs for my birthday’. We would rock up to a Chinese restaurant and ask for the price of crabs, then Jo would go (O__o) ‘What?! So expensive! Don’t want to eat crabs anymore! Let’s just eat prawns’. So poorly. So this year we really had crabs! It was Singapore chilli crabs too.

Fried mantou to mop up the crab chili sauce.

Snow crab demolished by all!

Dessert after dinner was Jo and HC’s blueberry fruit cake.

All lit up and ready for the birthday song Y(^__^)Y.

The best part of all birthdays, birthday wishes and birthday cake cutting time. Happy birthday Jo and HC, hope it was a memorable and fun one this year!

Wanton Wednesdays. It was a public holiday today, a quiet day at home of doing housework and wrapping wantons. It only we had more holidays a year I would a lot happier!

Kuching Day 14 & 15: Kuching Tour + Kenyalang

Kuching Day 14 was the day after the wedding. Everyone was tired but buzzing from the excitement of the wedding. This unfortunately, was also the day that Jason started falling really ill.

After a really late night out celebrating with the boys, I was surprised that we could crawl out of bed to have breakfast at Chong Choon cafe.

Brio and Calv had done their research before coming to Kuching and were hankering for the famous giant teh c pengs in Chong Choon that I didn’t even know about *hang foodie head in shame*. I don’t even know how they managed to finish that giant class.

After a good breakfast of laksa and kolo mee, we rushed to Hilton to meet up with the rest of the tour group for our Kuching tour! Yes, my mother had organised for a 25 seater bus to bring the Singaporean relatives and my friends around Kuching. It was quite fun even for us Kuching-nites. We visited the cat museum, Sarawak musuem etc. But the best was probably the sampan ride across the river.

It’s been a while since I’ve had a sampan ride, I think the last time was when I was a teenager. Nowadays the sampans are very high tech and come with engines. The Sarawak river however, is still brown and murky. It was actually really nice being in a rickety sampan laughing and joking with good friends and family.

It was a hot day in Kuching and all this traipsing around mesuems etc. wasn’t actually cooling. So we stopped for afternoon tea or should I say afternoon ice kachangs at the famous stalls behind Chung Hua Primary School No.3.

I must admit the location wasn’t my first choice because we always prefer the ice stalls at Song Kheng Hai which unfortunately wasn’t open due to Chinese New Year. Still, Gillian and the others enjoyed their ice kachangs very much.

Calvin has his first taste of Sarawak belachan beehoon a.k.a. ‘it tastes like the bottom of the sea’ as dubbed by Andy my brother-in-law. This dish is of course an acquired taste but a firm favourite for many Sarawakians. I know Brio didn’t like this, but everyone else seemed to like it.

I don’t know why ice kachangs, belachan beehoon and rojaks are always eaten together or sold in stalls next to each other. Maybe it’s a typical Kuching afternoon tea fare. Our rojak (I think you could  call it a mixed salad of some sort) was a special because it had cuttlefish in it, yums.

I remember Day 14 ended with a trip to the airport to send off my Singaporean relatives and my brother Darren. Jo started the waterworks and the women in the family were all teary eyed when we farewelled my brother who is off to start his career in US. One of the reasons why this holiday was so memorable was because of all the time that I got to spend with my brother. I will remember the funny conversations that we had, him teasing my mum, us teasing him about his harem of girls, listening to his music in the car while waiting for him to order road side burgers for us, teaching him how to cook even though he fell asleep halfway! Aaah,  it was a wonderful summer holiday and I really miss him.

Day 15 was quiet and a little sad because everyone was leaving or had left. It was the last night in Kuching for Brio, Calv and Cheng. Perhaps it was the perfect day to visit my favourite Kenyalang, with the festive Chinese New Year market over, the normal sleepy Kenyalang of my childhood returned.

Most people visit Kenyalang nowadays to buy pirated dvds/cds. I still remember when we were young, we visited Kenyalang almost everyday because we hired TVB/Singaporean drama video tapes from the video store. Everyday we would bring in the tape that we had watched the night before to exchange it for a new episode of TVB drama. This was a huge part of my childhood, watching dramas with my parents in their bedroom.

These little shops have been around in Kenyalang forever. Sin Kui Seng sells all sorts of knick knacks, from junk food to kites to electric fly killing bats (I bought this!). I can’t remember whether my father ever cut his hair in this barber shop, I’m sure he would have at least once, but I remember his regular barber shop was another shop in Kenyalang. I wonder whether he still gets his haircut in Kenyalang nowadays. I’m guessing the answer is yes. It’s so nice that some things never change.

Speaking of things that never change, I was so upset when many years ago, the icecream stall of my childhood ‘Moonlight’ moved away from Kenyalang. Whenever we had our daily stops in Kenyalang, my ah pa would sometimes give us $1 each to buy pandan icecream with chocolate sprinkles from Moonlight, we always had an extra $1 to get one for him as well. My ah pa still loves soft serve icecreams to this day, and so do I.

Guess what?! Moonlight moved back to Kenyalang!

I was so excited when I discovered this a week ago, and swore to return to try the pandan icecream again. So I did! It was manned by the same husband and wife!! And the icecreams still cost $1 haha.

I bought a pandan icecream for all of us. It was still wonderful and a blast from the past. I must tell my ah pa about this so that he can come and get some for himself in the future. I’m so happy that Moonlight is back in Kenyalang.

At night it was time for my birthday gathering. All my close friends came and there was lots and lots of food. We spent the night chatting, playing cards, eating, drinking and eating some more. The core bunch Jaso, Gill, Cheng and co. insisted on waiting till midnight so they could wish me happy birthday. My ah pa waited with them too. I felt especially bad for Jaso who was feeling so sick.

But midnight came and they all wished me happy birthday. Thank you for being there and waiting till the stroke of midnight dear people. I was very touched and happy.

It’s a bit scary turning older each year and thinking of all the dreams that I have yet to achieve, but I know I’m really lucky, because I will have the love and support of my wonderful family and friends supporting me all the way. I reckon, it will be pretty great growing old with you guys (^___^).

Kuching Day 10: CNY Day 3

I know.. it’s a bit late to blog about the third day of Chinese New  Year considering Chap Goh Meh was yesterday. Chinese New Year is officially over. Which also signals the end of my holidays. SIGH. I only just finished unpacking today and am still suffering from post holiday blues. I have a feeling it’s going to take me a very long time to recover.

Day 3 of Chinese New Year went by in a blur. I still remember there was a dreamlike quality about it which sort of remained throughout the rest of the holiday. It was a very rainy day and most of us at home woke up sick!

Even Jo the bride-to-be was sick! It was terrible, my parents were really worried and this resulted in the above traditional remedies. Sad to say, this crazy bout of sickness persisted throughout the remaining holiday and no one was spared. By the end of the holiday, even our houseguests Jaso, Gill fell ill. Jo and I are still recovering from cough even though we’re back in Perth.

In order to get better before the wedding, we turned to the dark side and I had chinese cough medicine from my dreaded doctor of my youth (Wang Shi Hua), his horrible medicine used to cause me nightmares and 20 years later, it’s still horrible. It also didn’t work (T___T).

But happier things also happened on the 3rd day. It was my father’s birthday! His siblings decided to hold a ‘surprise’ party for him at our house (not much of a surprise since my mum told him about it *duh*). My mum was roped in to help my dad cut the cake, as you can tell from the pics, there was lots of laughter

The birthday feast! All the aunties cooked, my mum and I also contributed some dishes. Obviously, we all like cooking in the family. Can you guess which dishes are mine?

And that was Day 3! The next day Jaso arrived so there are more food photos. Jason is now in UK where he will be based for a year or so, sigh, I miss him already. It’s going to take a while for Perth to feel like home again.

First Day of 2012 + Nine Fine Food

So it’s the ninth day of 2012 and I’m finally finding some time to blog about the first few days of the new year.

2012  started with a giant bowl of char siew ramen from Dokusui in Freo. Just how the boys like it.

WA Maritime museum at sunset. We didn’t actually visit the musuem, it wasn’t open anyway. But this was our fishing ground! We ended up with 30 mackerels and even some crabs. It’s so odd to think that Christmas Day and New Year Day was spent fishing, and I don’t even fish during the year!

A week later R and I were in Nine Fine Food for my early birthday celebration. We chose Nine Fine Food because I love Japanese food and I’ve been wanting to try this place for ages. We both decided on the four course set menu, R’s first entree was the goose mousse which was foie gras mousse with tobiko caviar. It was also our favourite dish of the night, gorgeous taste of foie gras and I love the crunch of tobiko, yums.

Apologies for the bad photos in advance. It was a very dim restaurant and we didn’t do the food any justice with blurry photos. My entree was the Sashimi Nine Style which included squid, salmon, tuna etc. The sashimi wasn’t too impressive, but I’ve never been very impressed with the quality of sashimi in Perth. Otherwise I liked all the sauces on the squid, the prawn, very moreish.

R’s 2nd course was the Lamb and Scallop (picture too blurry so not up) which was marinated grilled sliced lamb round steak, blended spiced miso braised lamb shoulder, seared scallop with balsamic, soy & truffle oil dressing. The lamb was very tender and flavourful, scallop was pretty good but not outstanding.

My 2nd course was the Kinocho Caviar Pasta. More caviar for me please!I was really surprised at the taste of this pasta, it felt oddly familiar, like the rice wine chicken soup that we have for Chinese New Year, but there was this creamy and rich texture to it which must have been cream. The mushrooms were silky and lovely, giving it that extra Asian flavour. I loved the extra tobiko crunch too. Now looking back at the menu description, it says sake rice wine cream sauce, so my guess was right. This was pretty heavy so I felt quite full afterwards.

My main was The Land which was a special of the night and consisted of all things meat. There was lamb cutlet, lamb steak, beef tenderloin steak and pork belly. The pork belly wasn’t as tender as I would have liked it to be and not very well spiced. Beef tenderloin steak was tender. In fact, besides the pork belly, everything else was very flavourful to the extent that I found it slightly too salty, heavy, I think everything would have tasted great with a bowl of rice

Blurry pic again R’s main was also a special, Oceans East which included all things from the sea. There was unagi (eel) which was nice, barramuni in miso and soft shell crab. We were most impressed with the soft shell crab which was lightly battered and crunchy but not in the overly deep fried sort of way that you get at many Chinese restaurants.

Final course of the night, I had a green tea brulee which tasted nice (strong green tea flavours) but texture wise was a bit lacking. R’s tiramisu was a surprise as it didn’t come out looking anything like tiramisu, but it sure tasted like one and was very nice with strong coffee flavours, very refreshing.

Overall we had a really good time at Nine Fine Food! In terms of the food there were hits and misses but I had lots of fun trying everything and like the idea of modern Japanese ‘fine dining’. Plus service was good and that’s a definite plus for me.

Nine Fine Food
227 Bulwer Street Highgate
Tel (08) 9227 999
BYO, corkage $3.50 pp

4 more days till Jo, HC and I fly home, but who’s counting? I’ve been cooking up a storm over the past few days and freezing everything. I don’t know why I think R will be starving when I’m not around, he is actually a pretty good cook and was functioning perfectly well before he met me. I think it’s really because I feel sorry for him that he’s alone this Chinese New Year and food is my soothing balm for everything.

I wish it was Friday already …..

Gill’s bday @ Arirang

I know I haven’t been blogging much recently, but honestly, it’s been a struggle to keep my brain working and eyes open after working hours in the night.

With all the last minute assignment cramming and the infuriating situation at work, it was nice to have some time out to celebrate a very special and lovely friend.

Since it was Gillian’s birthday celebration, the birthday girl got to choose her lunch venue. Since she had a hankering for Korean food, we headed to Arirang in the city. It’s my first time eating at Arirang even though this Korean restaurant has been around for ages.

To tell the truth, Korean might be my least favourite Asian cuisine, especially Korean bbq, I hate the smokiness and the greasiness of the whole event. I especially dislike coming out of the restaurant smelling like a charcoal pit. But.. Arirang’s grill pit was surprisingly good, no smokiness, no greasiness, it was all so clean and well ventilated, I was pleasantly surprised.

In comparison to popular Korean places such as Took Be Gi, Arirang’s prices are on the steeper side. But their portions are generous and generally pretty tasty.

Never mind the food, the birthday cake is always the highlight of any birthday celebration. Gill’s cake looked very pretty and festive, it was a chestnut cake from Regent’s, quite a special flavour I thought.

Finally pictures of the happy birthday girl. I thought her birthday celebration was exactly what all birthday gatherings should be about, the special person of the day, celebrating her general loveliness and her special day. I wish we got together with Gill more often, she’s such a nice friend and so fun to be around with (Gill are you reading this?)

Happy birthday Gilly! I’ve really enjoyed  celebrating your birthday with you for the past 4 years, here’s to more fantastic birthdays to come and wonderful years of friendship ahead

Celebrating Jo & HC

I’m so sad, Easter is almost over (T______T). Luckily there are still two days left, I shall savour every minute.

It was also Jo and HC’s birthday this Friday. We had a double celebration, it started on Thursday night at Sebastian’s with Gill and co. Lots of yummy Italian food and nice taro birthday cake to finish with. What a nice way to start the Easter holiday.

The happy  and smiley Swarovski clad  (they received lots of Swarovski as bday presents) couple.

The next night we had their second birthday dinner at Wei Zhong Wei (a.k.a. Endless Delight), a new Szechuan restaurant that I’ve been wanting to try for a while. It was very busy and the dishes were spicy and tasty except for a lamb dish that tasted very bizarre.

Jo and HC’s birthday cupcakes from Velvet Cupcakes. We had them for Jo’s birthday two years ago when Jan and Andy were in Perth and they were gorgeous. They’re still very pretty two years later, but somehow the taste didn’t taste as good. Haha, maybe coz Jan and Andy aren’t here.

The cute couple  outside the restaurant. Everyone’s always very surprised to discover that they’re born on the same day, same month and same year. But I guess that’s why they’re made for each other ? Hehe. Happy birthday both, hope it was a good one this year.

Weekend brunches and the zoo

Yesterday an old friend told me that he reads my blog and thinks that I have an interesting life. While most of the time life feels pretty mundane and all about work and sleep, I have to admit, some weekends have been pretty great.

Like last weekend when we celebrated MingSian (also known as Ah Kiam)’s birthday. One of Richard’s best friend, Ah Kiam is a really lovely guy, if only he weren’t such a social butterfly, I wish we could meet up more often and have more weekend gatherings together.

His cake was very pretty, it was a pistachio and chocolate mousse cake cake from Francois. I really like how they decorated the cake with a chocolate maccaroon.

So last weekend was pretty great but this weekend was even better. It started with catching up with Jo and HC for yumcha and shopping. Feels like ages since they have both graced this blog. HC couldn’t smile with his teeth because the poor guy is suffering from tooth ache.

Weekends are always good when they start with yummy eggtarts. Later we visited the newly opened Apple store in the city, where Calv refused to leave and couldn’t get past the ipad zone. Seriously, Apple geeks are scary. And no sign of economic recession at all because Apple products were flying out the store.

For those that complain that I never put up photos of Perth scenery, here’s the new building smack right in the city and above the underground train station, apparently my organisation is going to move there  in 2011, but I won’t be there!!  Argh.

Sunday was even better because I received the nicest present, the entire set of James Herriot books!! I love James Herriot so much, he is the epitome of the nicest vet in the world. I’ve re-read his book so many times (and still love them) that my old third hand books are falling into pieces so I was getting very sad and repatching them with scotch tape. Now I have this new set which I’m going to wrap with pretty paper and treasure forever. James Herriot and Chibi Marukochan, two things that make me very very very happy (^____^).

Sunday brunch at Millpoint Bookshop Cafe with the cute couple Jason and Wendy. Err in case you didn’t notice, that’s not Jason and Wendy, that’s Jason and Richard, haha.

Jason’s Big Breakfast, I like this cafe because it’s surrounded with books and best of all, they serve nice coffee. And they’re in the Entertainment book, so we get 25% discount (Jo and HC you guys should go, it’s so near your place).

But the nice brunch was only a prelude to the main event, we were going to the zoo! Jason’s company’s social club gives free tickets to the zoo for it’s members, so the couple very nicely invited us to come along (^___^). Ok, that’s Jason and Wendy…

Even though we’ve all been to the zoo at least a couple of times (except for the rabbit, it was his first time which also explains why he was snap happy and we have millions of animal photos) it was still really fun trying to spot the animals. One of our favourites was the meerkat, look at his michievous grin!

We wanted to hug a koala since Wendy told us about her experience of hugging a koala in Adelaide. But this koala refused to stop eating and get off the tree…

but Richard managed to hug one in the end. Very soft and cuddly right?

It was a lovely day out and something special to end the last weekend of June. Thanks a lot for inviting us Jason and Wendy!

It was back home with our new housemate Gerry, lots of bowls of bak kut teh (yums) and pork belly with pickles. Porky night as you can see. I’m thinking of really setting (and not talking about it as I have been for the past few years) a stall during the annual uni food fairs in September, any extra money earned will go into my holiday fund for Christmas. So far I’m tossing between selling laksa, chicken curry with rice and bak kut teh. To family and friends that have eaten my cooking or at least seen it on this blog, any ideas on what I should sell or what will be popular (and guarantee lots of $$$)?

Ok, it’s time to sleep and the end of the weekend for me (T___T). I won’t be able to watch the England vs Germany match tonight (the rest of the boys are at Burswood, so unfair) but this is what I’m wearing to sleep tonight, so my heart and spirit is with England all the way (sigh, to be frank, I’m very worried), so please get through England!!!!

He who sleeps

Yes I still blog. Just not that frequently anymore (=^^=) I know. The weekend flew by as all weekeneds do. It was a special one too coz it was Xinchen’s birthday.

The aftermath of the celebrations.

I reckon it was a good one. More tomorrow I promise.

31.01.2010

So it was my birthday. And I am an emerging fossil.

First birthday card of the year from Jan and Andy. Thought of Lobbie immediately.

The Dego at Jacksons. Amazing.

Shades of pink and cream birthday flowers make me happy.

Mango mousse birthday cake from Francois. So pretty and yummy.

Wii makes me go weee. Soon I’ll be kinda fit too.

Hand made birthday decorations.

Four big watermelon grins.

One big drinking roulette game.

The countdown cocktail session with friends and family.

More cookbooks for the collection. (^___^). When in doubt, go for the cookbooks.

Totoro themed presents to a hippo from a unicorn.

Birthday brunch with good coffee and an afternoon romantic comedy.

One can never have too many scrumptious mango cakes so I had two slices.

Countless birthday cards, gift cards and heartwarming greetings.

One can never have too many family and friends who will gather together and celebrate your birthday with you.

I’m so lucky to have so many wonderful and special people in my life. Thank you everyone. From the bottom of my heart.

Jason’s birthday @ Royal Seafood Chinese Restaurant

I hate summer. I really really do. It’s a horrible 42 degrees day today and I’ve been wilting from the heat all day. When will autumn arrive?!

On a cooler day last week, we had a belated birthday dinner for Jason’s birthday at Royal Seafood Chinese Restaurant. We like going to Royal for their dimsum and I’ve heard good things about their dinner fare so it was a good occasion to try it out. Most of the boys were there including Richard, Ming Sian and Calvin.

The food was really quite good. The chilli and pepper squid was deep fried perfectly and the squid was still bouncy and tender with a light batter coating. Sizzling Japanese tofu is always a favourite and this one was thicky sliced and yummy. I can’t quite remember the Gui Fei chicken but I think it was alright but not the best chicken I’ve had.

The deep fried honey prawns were quite nice, but I think prawns are wasted if they’re deep fried. Perhaps the most special dish of the nice was the pork trotter which I expected to be braised in soy and the like but it came in a bowl of peppery soup and reminded me of the pork intestine soup that my mum used to make, very flavourful.

I love everything yam but while I liked the yam in the yam duck, I couldn’t really taste the duck at all. The vegetables in crab meat sauce was a nice change from the normal oyster sauce ao I enjoyed this. I was told that the mei chai kou rou (pork belly with preserved mustard greens) was a must order but for some reason, our pork belly didn’t come out in the usual tender glutinous texture but was kinda dry and hard like barbequed pork, perhaps that was what was special about ? I’m not sure.

Everything was beautifully presented similar to their dimsum fare. Royal will probably fall into my category of better and more refined Chinese food in town.

Daitaoha ratings:

Food: 6.5/10

Service: 6.5/10

Royal Seafood Chinese Restaurant
91 Aberdeen St
Northbridge WA 6003
Tel: (08) 9328 7738‎

Birthday cake time. We bought a chocolate blueberry cake from Utopia which looked really pretty and had layers of pudding, blueberry and chocolate.

I really liked the candles that Wendy bought, so cute and colourful.

It even had a cute birthday boy candle, I guess because Jason bought a birthday girl candle for Wendy’s birthday.

They’re a really sweet couple.

Wendy even bought a birthday badge for Jason but only remembered to pin it on when the singing was over. Ah well, better late than never right? Hehe.

Gerry and Mingsian in front of the restaurant. Royal has really nice and elegant surroundings.

The group!

The birthday boy. Jason always impresses me with his maturity and patience and devotion to Wendy. It’s been a real pleasure getting to know him and Wendy throughout the year, happy birthday Din Yaw, let’s hope it’s a smooth sailing and fantastic year ahead for you.