Long time no bento

I have been neglecting my blog. (-_______-). But that’s because life is so exciting, fun and happy right now.So that’s a good thing right? (^____^)Y

I just had the most memorable long weekend, Perth Royal Show was especially nice this year because Rabbit, Mingsian, Jason, Wendy and co. were there as well and it was their first Perth Royal Show. Also, Jo won so many toys this year (or should I say HC won them for her, he is a very sharp shooter)! Even I received a Nemo from Richard, but it was a very cute Nemo (=^^=).

I haven’t put up pictures of my home cooking for a while. This is a Thai inspired basil chicken bento with half boiled eggs.

Mee goreng which Jo liked very much, she said it reminded her of the mee goreng back home, haha, happy. The limes were given to me by one of my managers who left them in my apple cup at work while I was away, so nice.

I hadn’t cooked this for soo long, I think it has been almost 3 years. This is a copy version of the infamous Alice Springs chicken with roasted herbed potatoes and carrots. The chicken is glazed with honey mustard mayo, topped with bacon, mushrooms, tasty cheese and baked in the oven. Bad for the hips but oh so sinfully good.

It’s been a season of change this year, and today is probably one of the biggest change of the year, good or bad, I’m not too sure but I’m prepared for the adventure, surprises and *fingers crossed* happiness ahead. Wish us luck ok? (^__^)

Camera weekend

It’s the long weekend !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But Friday is already over (T______T) but never mind, at least there’s still Saturday, Sunday and Monday ahead (^____^).

I thought I had better put up the photos from last weekend before embarking on this weekend. It was a fun one, on Friday, the guys met up for badminton.  Jason is very very good at badminton and was the star of the match.

Saturday morning was a yumcha session at Regal on Roe with the boys. Dimsum for Sunday brunch is always best.

The boys all look so stern and solemn.

After that Richard and I went to the city for camera shopping! It was so exciting, he finally bought the Nikon D90 DSLR which he has been coveting for ages. I brought him to Crumpler where he bought his new camera bag, very cute right, I think it looks like an owl.

Saturday was dinner at Al Sito’s with TGIF gang minus H. Jason was back from Geraldton, in fact, he’s back again this week and we’re meeting him for dimsum on Sunday (I think), it’s always nice when Jaso from Gero returns because it means lots of foodie adventures.

Jo and Hieng Chiong, try to ignore the bottles of wine in the middles, we didn’t drink that much this time.

Al Sito was really packed and I only managed to secure us a table outside, but with the heaters and candlelight, it was actually quite cosy.

After that we went over to Soto’s for coffee and cake where Gerry and Sandra joined us. Jason had fun playing around with the settings of my new camera. Do you like this photo he took of the cafe street?

Sunday afternoon we went to the Thai Perth Festival 2009. held at Russell Square in Northbridge.  It was my first experience at the Thai festival and it was really nice except it started to rain halfway.There were performances by the Ellington Jazz Club (not very Thai I know) which we listened to while hiding under the VIP tent.

I liked all the Thai food including these satay pork sticks which were tender and tasty, I think Bryan had about 3 of these.

Eggy strands of dessert, quite interesting and sweet.

My Som Tham salad which was made to order, it had bit of mini crab in it, very odd, I didn’t know how to eat it, but the salad itself was really spicy, sweet and sour, such an eye opener, I loved it.

Jason, Wendy and Richard engrossed with examining the D90. I don’t think they even noticed I was taking their picture.

Happy rabbit and his new camera.

This is a picture taken by his new camera of my new camera.  Seriously, after using a DSLR, all other cameras kinda pale in comparison. But I must say my new camera looks really pink and cheery here.

Ok, end of last weekend’s post, bring on the upcoming long weekend Y(^__________^)Y!

Gerry graduates

The long overdue Gerry graduation post is finally up!

I was quite surprised when Gerry handed me an envelope containing his graduation ceremony tickets. It’s been a while since I’ve attended a graduation ceremony and I must admit I didn’t enjoy this one because I was severely hungover from drinks the night before. Note to self : do not drink copious amounts of wine night before graduation ceremonies.

We bought flowers for Gerry, I think the colours were bright and cheerful, I love gerberras.

Happy looking Gerry. Earlier in the afternoon we went over to Gerry’s place to help him choose his suit and tie and also helped him with his graduation gown.

Gerry and his god family, we used to joke that his god brother was his son, it’s funny to see how he has grown over the years (Gerry, not the god brother, hehe).

The graduation hall was pretty packed but we had good seats with excellent views of the stage. Only I wasn’t really looking as my head was spinning and in dizzyland. I’m sorry Gerry, but I spent 90% of the graduation ceremony with my eyes closed.

After the ceremony we headed to the 2nd floor of the convention center  for refreshments but somehow never made it to the room.

Yeah! All hail the ECU graduate!

Bryan and Richard also attended the ceremony and were togged up in formal gear. I think men always look handsome in suits don’t you?

Hehe, lots of posing by the big red wall. By this time my hangover was clearing up and I was starting to have fun getting the boys to do silly poses.

Gerry and the ‘Andy Lau Tak Wah’ poses. My favourite photo is the one on the top right.

MingSian dropped by as well which was reason for more photos!

Waiting at the couch for Gerry who was returning his gown.

I really like this photo of the housemates, Rabbit and Mingsian. Mingsian looks especially happy here. Even though he’s actually a really cheerful and happy person, he somehow always looks quite fierce in photos, so this smile is very Mingsian.

I was fully recovered by then and starting to feel hungry after losing my appetite for most of the day. We headed to Festive Kitchen, one of the new Hongkong style cafes in Northbridge for dinner/supper. Bought the token graduation teddy for Gerry, hehe, I think he likes teddy a lot.

It was a really nice supper to end the night, good food, great friends, fantastic conversation and  most importantly, a wonderful occasion.

It’s taken Gerry a lot of hardship, sweat and tears  to get to this stage.  He is currently embarking on his Masters degree with gusto, I’m really proud to see the path he has taken, it is especially rewarding to watch him discover his new found confidence and happiness, very proud of you my friend. Please continue the good work and remember to never ever give up.  Congratulations, you’ve made it, you are now a 大学毕业生. I’m glad I was there to witness it.

Something’s different

I know, I’ve been neglecting my blog terribly :(. My new camera has 126 photos and I have yet to blog about Gerry’s graduation ceremony plus tons of restaurant reviews.

I can’t believe it’s the end of September already, this year has been racing by so fast that I don’t have enough time for anything. So many things are happening and changing that I’m rushing to keep up. It’s exciting, exhilarating and fun but I also feel scared because change, to me, is scary.

Anyway I wanted to blog because tt’s my mum’s birthday today. Happy birthday ah ma! I hope you have a wonderful birthday today and a fantastic, joy filled, healthy and happy year ahead.

It’s also Jo’s first official day at her full time job today, congrats Jo, very proud of you 🙂 . I am looking forward to having lunch with you at Kings Park and around the city once you’ve settled down, I promise lots of yummy lunch bentos and fun TGIFs ahead, now we can do the Friday dance together!

Something shifted in the past week and I am feeling confused and slightly worried. But life is too short to be constantly thinking ‘how now’ ‘what if’ ‘where to from here’ so I’m just going to stop thinking for a while, do a Beatle and ‘let it be’.

Work is massively crazy at the moment and everyone is running out of breath. But the long weekend is right around the corner, Grey Hoodie Boy and I are going out for dinner on Saturday night, everyone’s going to the Perth Royal Show, so more surprises, more fun and happiness ahead.

* p/s I think I’m happy (=^_^=)*

C restaurant: ‘Pay what you think it’s worth’ lunch special (Sept)

C restaurant is extending its ‘pay what you think it’s worth’ lunch special till November! I’m guessing they will be changing their menu every month because their September menu is different from the August menu and in my opinion, tastes better 🙂

I have yet to blog about the August lunch where we tried every single item on the menu, but here’s a review of some of their September dishes for those that are interested to go this month. I only went this afternoon with my colleagues so these pictures are hot off the press.

Also, I was using my new camera to take the pictures. Jo, HC and H surprised me with this camera to replace my slightly wonky one last week, it was a ‘ we-know-you-will-refuse-to-get-one-so-we-got-one-for-you-instead’ present. It’s bright pink and very cheery, so thanks guys!

Please note that I’ve only just had a look at the manual and figured out how to switch off the date stamp which explains all the date stamps below (= ^___^=), also, in terms of the prices at C’s, it’s normally $45 for a 3 course lunch, we only chucked in about $20 each, hehe.

This was my manager’s entree which was potato and spinach gnocchi with a Napolitana and gorgonzola cream sauce, roasted tomatoes. She really liked this and said she liked the ‘touch of gorgonzola’ in the sauce.

T my lunch buddy had the grilled Exmouth prawns, garlic and herb butter, potato saffron pave with tomato and fennel concasse. I asked her how the potato thingy tasted like and she said it was like a polenta cake. Taste wise I think she thought it was alright, but the dish came lukewarm so she wasn’t impressed ‘they couldn’t decide whether to serve it hot or cold, but it would be nicer hot’.

Most of the hungry munchers in my team had the spring asparagus and forest mushroom risotto with crème fraiche and walnut crumble. They said it was good.

I knew I was going to order the brown sugar and lime cured salmon, avocado carpaccio with a blood orange and basil vinaigrette because I love salmon, avocado and orangey flavours, yeah, all my favs rolled into one dish. The salmon wasn’t great, avocado was well, avocado, but I still enjoyed the dish because it had some of my fav ingredients, plus the orange and basil vinaigrette was light and refreshing.

T’s main of garlic and rosemary smoked lamb shoulder with a pumpkin, English spinach,pine nut and feta salad wasn’t what I expected, I guess I was expecting a different presentation , something  like a lamb shank, but it was instead pieces of lamb tossed in a salad. She said it was nice though and I tried some of her lamb which was very tender.

D had the velvet chicken breast with kimchee cabbage, jasmine rice and a green onion sauce. I asked him for his comments and it was ‘good but not enough! I’m going to need chips afterwards!’ D is a big man who needs his meat and chips.

I was really happy that S ordered the cracked pepper Buffalo and red wine sausages, smashed potatoes, confit cherry tomato, basil pesto and roast garlic aioli because I really wanted to take a photo of the dish but thought no one would order sausages and mash for lunch, but she did! She said the sausages were lovely.

The rest of us had the crispy skinned saltwater Barramundi fillet, caponata vegetables, lemon basil aioli. Caponata is a Sicilian cooked vegetable salad made from chopped fried eggplant and celery seasoned with sweetened vinegar, and capers in a sweet and sour sauce, Z my colleague said that her impression of it was ‘veggies cooked in a pot’. I enjoyed the fish, it was simple, nicely seasoned, crispy skin, flaky texture. The vegetables were quite nice but the aioli tasted more like very thick tartare sauce with pickles. Everyone else who had the fish liked the dish too.

Dessert time also known as happy hour. Seriously, I was really stuffed by the time we reached dessert, I’m not used to such heavy lunches anymore and was starting to feel uncomfortable.

The favourite had to be the trio of ice cream filled profiteroles with chocolate sauce which was also on the August menu and the clear favourite then. Everyone just went ‘aah’ when the dish came and then there was silence as they scooped up the icecream profiteroles.

Z loves pavlovas and she really liked this pavlova with fresh seasonal fruits and a Chantilly custard cream. I am not a fan of pavlovas thinking they’re too sweet but this one was very pretty with custard in the middle, I half wished I ordered it as well. Z made little ‘ummm’ ‘goood’ noises and grunts while devouring her pavlova, so I guess that means it was great.

A and I had the vanilla bean crème brulée, blackberry compote and almond tuile. I like crème brulées because I like eggy custardy textures, this one was quite nice but I found it too sweet and a little too watery.

Close up of the crème brulée.

My colleagues were all very amused at my photo taking and A told them it’s because I have a food blog, so shy (=^^=). They asked for the address, I thought of my Grey Hoodie Boy posts and said ‘sorry, it’s kinda private’. Come to think of it, GHB has also asked for my blog address and I had to reject him. They were all really nice about it though and humoured me by letting me take all their plates before digging in.

We had a really nice lunch, service was speedy unlike the last time and the food I thought was better than the August menu. BUT .. it could be because my colleagues are much kinder food critics than my foodie friends. Overall, I wouldn’t go to C restaurant at their normal rates, the view at the revolving restaurant is great, I’m told it’s super romantic at sunset, but while their food is quite nice, it wasn’t outstanding.

Still, their lunch specials are really a great deal, I’m quite keen to find out what their October menu will be now, anyone up for an October C restaurant visit?

p/s Book in advance if you’re going for the lunch specials, they’re very popular!

Daitaoha ratings:

Food :6.5/10 daitaohas

Service 6/10 daitaohas

C Restaurant
Level 33, 44 St Georges Terrace Perth (located inbetween Barrack St & London Court)
Phone: (+61) 08 9220 8333
http://www.crestaurant.com.au

Over and out

I was planning to use the weekend to blog about C restaurant, Gerry’s graduation etc.

But I fell sick instead and spent Sunday in bed. Just when I was patting myself on the back for surviving the winter without any major illnesses (-_______-).

Things deteriorated from there and something drastic happened on Sunday night.

Thanks to Gerry, Richard and Jo for being there. Special thanks to Gerry who was first on the scene. I will be a better friend in future. I promise to be your faithful nurse whenever any of you are sick in future *hopefully you all never get sick lah!*

The Grey Hoodie Boy Part 10 : Dinner at Seizan

I was the first person at work today.

I walked into the office and it was all darkness. Since I brought my camera today, I couldn’t resist taking a photo of the empty office. The weather was terrible today, raining heavily and strong buffeting winds.

My favourite  ledge in the lunchroom, I like sitting there chatting to T while she makes her cup of tea and drinking my glass of water. But T wasn’t at work today, she’s off sick, so  it was a very busy, hectic work day with no friendly colleagues around (-___-).

I wanted to shop around the city before meeting up with Grey Hoodie Boy, but I only managed to leave work late and was rushing to meet him on time. Luckily he was off work late as well. We walked to Seizan together. Seizan is Grey Hoodie’s Boy top three favourite restaurant in Perth, in fact, he told me that he only went there last week. I thought it was interesting that he booked us for seats at the teppanyaki joint instead of a normal table, he told me that he had never tried the teppanyaki there so thought it would be special.

He greeted the chef in Japanese but he was from Malaysia (=^^=), in fact, from Kuching! Still, he was a very skilled chef and entralled us with his skills and twirly utensils. Really fun to watch.

Grey Hoodie Boy ordered as a Seizan Teppanyaki set each ($65) which in hindsight we should have just ordered one set to share because there was so much food. First up was the simple salad which was light and vinegary, a real eye opener.

Tempura with sweet potato, pumpkin and prawn. I thought the tempura wasn’t great because the vegetables weren’t tender enough, but the batter was light so that was quite good.

Sashimi which Grey Hoodie Boy loved because he said it tasted really fresh. I couldn’t tell really. He is the second person I know who is a salmon fanatic, the first being Richard, so maybe we can try the sashimi here next time Rabbit?

Teppanyaki seafood which had medium rare salmon, scallops, oysters, prawns and beansprouts. I’ve never been a real fan of teppanyaki (or any form of grilled food really), all the seafood was tasty but I think next time I’ll try their normal menu.

Teppanyaki crayfish which lots of grilled garlic. This was quite tasty but not much meat. Grey Hoodie Boy was very puzzled and stared at the crayfish saying ’emm this crayfish is very weird, it’s very small, more like a baby crayfish’.

There was also rice, miso soup and dessert which was vanilla icecream, very ordinary stuff. Grey Hoodie Boy was so stuffed that he rejected dessert. It was a rather nice dinner, I think Seizan is actually a nice quiet place to have an intimate cosy dinner with friends, I’m sure their ordinary menu will be much better so I would love to return some day.

Daitaoha ratings:

Food 6/10

Service 6.5/10

Seizan Japanese Restaurant

566 Hay St
Perth WA 6000
(08) 9325 5980

I know it was suppose to be a Grey Hoodie Boy post but I couldn’t resist blogging about the food 🙂 . Truly, I had a nice time with Grey Hoodie Boy, he is still the perfect gentleman, letting me in through the door first, ordering for me etc. He also refused to let me pay the bill telling me that I can treat him next time.

While waiting for the cashier to round up the bill, he made him atm card disappear from his left hand and appear in his right 🙂 .

During dinner we chatted a lot about different cultures, cooking and I told him that I think Indonesian girls are very pretty. He said ‘I think Malaysian girls are prettier.’

It was raining heavily when we left the restaurant and we had to share my teeny umbrella which he carried for me. We still ended up getting drenched anyway. Even though I told him that my house was a short walk from his place, he insisted on going over to his place first, picking up his car and driving me home. It was either that or he walked me home from my bus stop.I was so tempted to take a photo of him in his grey hoodie jacket but I thought he would think I was mad, so here’s a side shot of him instead. I think he’s pretty cute.

We had to wait for his windows to defrost, so we sat his car for a while listening to Fang Da Tong and the heavy rain outside.

He sent me home and I thanked him for dinner and the ride. Will we go out again? Maybe. I think I’ll bring him for Chinese next time.

Four Seasons Roasting Duck Restaurant

The dinner at Four Seasons was probably a month back. So long ago that I don’t remember the prices or the names of the dishes, I remember that everything was quite affordable though, around the $18 – $22 price range. I’ve been talking about trying out Four Seasons for a long time, when it first opened, I went there for dimsum and wasn’t overly impressed. But then, the name kept cropping up in blog reviews, newspapers and articles, they were winning awards left and right,some even said that they had the best roast duck in town.

You know how I get when people start saying something is ‘the best’, the foodie flowers start floating and I started thinking ‘ was it only good in terms of Westerner’s version of Chinese food?'(since Aussies were raving about it) or was it actually really good? I just had to try it for myself.

First up was soup on the house, I think it was pork ribs soup, sweet and tasty. I always like the complimentary soups served at Chinese restaurants, I can’t seem to recreate the same comforting taste at home.

We had to order the roast duck at the ‘Roasting Duck’ restaurant. I am told that their Peking duck is one of the most awarded in town but we didn’t order that. The roast duck was really quite good, tender, juicy and moist. I think some of my foodie gang said they prefer the duck at Good Fortune (the other best roast duck in town restaurant) but I personally preferred Four Seasons roast duck.

Toothfish, probably my favourite fish besides salmon. This was was well done, crispy on the outside and tender juicy fish on the inside. But I think the sauce wasn’t flavourful enough and I would have preferred it pan friend instead of deep fried.

The healthy dish for the night, seafood tofu hot pot. I can’t remember whether this dish was any good, it definitely wasn’t bad and I love everything tofu.

The crispy chicken was surprisingly good, the skin was crispy thin and the chicken flesh was juicy and tender. I was actually quite impressed and thought ‘ok, maybe it’s really is good after all’.

Pork belly with yam, I expected this dish to be very oily and rich, but the flavours were surprisingly tasty but  light, not oily, the yam was soft and went really well with the tender pork belly. Since I have tons of pork belly at home, this is a recipe that I will try to recreate in the near future.

Overall we were impressed with Four Seasons and the food was a lot better than I expected it to be. The service while not impeccable was alright and passable. I thought to myself that I would return pretty soon.

BUT…. a couple of days later, I went into Four Seasons to takeaway some char siew and the service was atrocious, as in unforgivably rude and deserving of a walk out. I think Richard who was with me wanted to walk out immediately but only stayed because I was the one purchasing the char siew.

So now I’m having second thoughts about returning, maybe for the food, but the service… nah, I don’t think I could.

Daitaoha ratings:

Food: 7/10

Service :4/10 (I am averaging based on 1st and 2nd visit)

Four Seasons Roasting Duck Restaurant
Shop 8-9
375 William St
Northbridge 6003 WA
Phone: (08) 9228 9883

The Grey Hoodie Boy Part 9: Just like magic

We’ve been bumping into each other either on the bus or on the street lately.

His latest song to hum is ‘Isn’t she lovely’.

 He likes Fang Da Tong so much that he’s looking for guitar tabs to practice on his guitar. He confessed shyly that he is no longer listening Jay Chou and has switched to listening to Khalil everyday. I told him I was doing the same thing and we both laughed at ourselves.

 He used to love magic tricks when he was young. Today while walking on the street, he made a coin disappear from his hands. It was pretty cool (=^_^=).

 He always greets me with ‘Hello Diana’.

The weekend Jo and I were very very happy ….

As usual, the weekend started off innocently enough. It was dinner at RIA’s which is a very popular Malaysian restaurant in Leederville. Xinlong has been working at RIA  for the past few years and we’ve always had yummy samples from his takeaway dinner boxes. The lady chef is from Sarawak.

The food didn’t blow me away  but it was still pretty good Malaysian fare, and there’s something really comforting about chicken curry and rice.

It started raining when we finished dinner so we walked down the street to 130 cafe for cakes and coffee. The cakes weren’t very good and the coffee was a bit too strong for us. So strong that Richard and Bryan had trouble sleeping that night and even felt a bit ill.

It was a night of exchanging lame jokes, actually I think it was only me telling lame jokes, I will never live down my image as the Lame Joke queen. ‘Char siew bao and mantou went to watch a sad movie, char siew bao came out crying but mantou didn’t cry, why?’

Guess who’s back? Jaso from Gero dropped into Perth for the Father’s Day weekend and we met up with him for dimsum at Royal Seafood restaurant on Saturday. It was really nice seeing Jason again albeit for a short while, he’s coming back again in 3 weeks so hopefully we’ll get to hang out again soon.

Nightfall came and Jo and I started getting very very happy. For some reason on Friday night we decided that we would have a wine drinking session on Saturday. So even before the rest of the guys came over, Jo and I were already drinking our bottle of rose (those pink sweet drinks are deceiving and pack a punch!), snacking on roasted chestnuts and happily watching Die Hard 2 on tv. Before midnight, we were smashed.

See how Jo got happier and jollier as the night went on? To be fair, I was even more drunk than her, I have tons of photos that I took of everyone and anyone, and I don’t even remember when I took these photos! Sunday I suffered from  my first hangover in five/six years, it was truly horrible and transported me right back to my uni days.

Gerry and Richard who have become close over the weeks. It was the night before Gerry’s convocation which was another reason to open a bottle of wine *slaps forehead*

The guys were a lot more sober than us girls.In fact Xinlong sat in front of the computer  letting out little giggles and sniggering all night. I’m told that he has already told all the others about my drunken escapades, oh dear 😦

The caretakers of the night, Rabbit and HiengChiong who hardly drank at all! I remember being cocooned in double layers of quilt, I think it was to protect me from the otherwise really chilly night but also cushion me from my falls. I normally fall about a lot even when I’m sober so you can only imagine what I was like when I was drunk.

This picture pretty sums up the night. It was a night to remember.