It was a house hunting weekend disguised into a shopping and eating weekend, chomp chomp chomp.
Started with $1 hotdogs at Ikea for breakfast. I like mine with lots of mustard and tomato sauce. I wonder what Japadogs taste like in Vancouver? Hmm…
Then it was shopping with Jo which is always fun. A quick lunch at Viethoa before the house viewings
There was one that seemed pretty good and I think I’ll be putting an offer tomorrow. So scary but exciting at the same time. Wish me luck!
The next time I earn some extra cash outside of normal work, I’m buying myself a new camera.
It feels like a long time since I’ve had a real weekend. But it was a nice one this week. Started with a girlie shopping session with Jo and Sandra. We didn’t ended up buying much, but it was still nice to have a gossip and giggle with the girls.
Then it was the celebratory buffet with Jo and HC to thank them for helping us so much during the food stalls.
The food at Miss Maud, to be frank, wasn’t impressive. I’ve had better buffets elsewhere, but at least the atmosphere was warm and cozy.
And they had a wide tea selection much to the delight of tea lover Richard. While I’m a new found coffee lover, I must admit that I was an original tea lover and still love my milk teas.
Sunday was yumcha with the Wong family and co. The restaurant was bad and we won’t return. But the company was lovely. Dinner afterwards was much better, we went to a Hongkong style cafe that I hadn’t frequented for many years. They now have ramen on the menu, very ‘chinese’ ramen with pickled veggies and chicken strips, very comforting.
It’s been a while since I’ve packed proper lunch bentos as well. This was a very simple one, with my favourite sweet ginger pork, pickles and kailan with steamed rice. I enjoyed this for lunch the next day.
Mee goreng for dinner tonight. I must be thinking of Kuching and home, all my cooking seems to have a distinct Malaysian feel. I am enjoying being in the kitchen again.
It’s the weekend and I’m almost fully recovered! (^___^)Y.
You know things are getting back to normal when I’m back in the kitchen cooking the same ol’ simple dishes. This is one of my favourites, tomato and prawn omelette.
Doctor said I needed more fibre in my diet so I stir-fried two whole broccoli with minced pork sauce.
And there were mangoes for dessert afterwards, mango season is back! If it ever gets to the stage when it’s really cheap, I’m going to buy some to make the glutinous rice and mango dessert that we love to order at Thai restaurants.
A whole day of eating and shopping with the girls lies ahead, very excited. Have a great weekend guys.
If the key word of my 2009 was change, the keyword for 2010 seems to be volatility. Whether it’s my job, relationships, health, anything and everything has been up and down, hanging by a thread, emotions have been running wild and all over the place. Perhaps another word to describe 2010 so far would be exhaustion. I’m just hoping that the year ends quick and 2011 can be all about peace.
I’ve been thinking about home a lot. Maybe it’s because I always associate Kuching with peace and quiet. The place where I have dreamless nights and deep sleeps. The soft sinking couch with a good book. My funny ah ma with great anecdotes and fun chats. My wise ah pa with kind words and a lot of music. I miss the rest of my family too. The best part of the food stall events, truly, was selling food with Jo. That was the highlight for me. The thing about families, you know that at the end of the day, they will always be on your side, on your team.
Maybe because I’ve been thinking about family and home so much, I wanted to do another Japan post. It has been a long time since April but the trip is still very clear in my mind. To look back at the photos, of the food, of the silly hat pictures, it makes me feel much better. And everything suddenly seems more clear.
Day 5 was about shopping in the Namba area and the best tempura lunch. I can’t remember the shopping mall that this restaurant was located, but Jan and Andy ate the tempura lunch at this restaurant some years back and just loved it so much they swore to return. And so they did, and they brought us along too (^__^).
It was a posh looking restaurant and I remember that we got a beautiful room of our own. I can imagine businessmen having big parties and dinners in that room, getting drunk and eating lots which talking business. Lucky for us, they still had the tempura set that Jan and Andy so loved.
We didn’t even have to peruse the menu, the tempura set it was. And it was such a lovely set too. Even now, I remember that the tempura was perfectly battered, light and crispy. And the tempura dip was drinkable good, in fact, I’m not sure whether it was Jan or someone that poured the remaining dip into their rice.
My favourite bit of the tempura was the shiso leaf. How did they manage to coat and fry the shiso leaf I don’t know, but what came out was a refreshing, minty and crispy leafy bit, very yums.
We also ordered some sashimi which my mum loved, she really likes sashimi. It’s a pity she lives in Kuching where the best sashimi is err.. I’m not sure where. I do remember accompanying her to Sushi King in the Spring where there was a fly stuck inside one of the lids on the sushi conveyor belt thingys. Uuurgh. We do kolo mee so much better.
After the delightful meal, we walked around the shopping center, I think it was the day when Jo bought a lot of sakura themed hairpins and clips, and we bought pretty bracelets and cute postcards. Everything was so pretty and beautifully packed. Sigh.. dear Japan.
After that, Jan brought me to my idea of crockery heaven. I can’t remember the name and had to google it, but I think the place was called Doguya-suji (Jan correct or not?), a stretch of shops filled with cooking accessories, they had everything, pretty matching chopsticks, crockery and plates of all shapes and sizes, handy kitchen utensils. I wanted to bring them all home.
Sadly, common sense prevailed and I was only able to pick out a few little bowls for home. And some matching chopsticks as well. It was such a shame to leave all those gorgeous plates, bento set boxes behind.
The alley sold everything a restaurant might need, even these lanterns that we see hung outside Japanese restaurants. If I were ever to open a Japanese restaurant, this would be place to be at.I can’t remember what we did for the rest of the day, but I’m quite sure a lot of shopping was involved. Osaka had lovely spring fashion then, and even now Jo and I are still wearing our Japan purchases with pride and joy.
Day 6 started with Universal Studios. Since we’ve been to Universal Studios in other parts of the world, we weren’t so keen on the rides but did go for a special few.
Such as the new Spiderman ride. My favourite thing about theme parks, is that everything is themed, i.e. you’re in a completely different world, far away from the realities of life. For example, the best part of Disneyland, is when you’re walking in and suddenly everything is Mickey mouse shaped, all the buildings and rides are out of this world and Disney songs are piping out from every corner. Universal Studios is the same, except you’re immersed in the movie world where movie theme songs pipe out from every corner.
Even theme park food is extra colourful. Note how their carrots are cut out in the shape of stars haha. I think this was my mum’s pork medallions dish.
Some of us went for hambagu, but it wasn’t as good as the one we had at royal host. I remember it being very very oily, there was a pool of oil on the dish afterwards.
Most fun part of Universal Studios has to be trying out silly hats and taking photos with all the characters. Our favourite characters were the puppets from Sesame Street. I like Cookie Monster, reminds me of myself, hehe.
On the way back from Universal Studios, we went to the Takoyaki musuem and tried a variety of famous takoyakis. I can’t remember why I didn’t take photos, but here’s one of Jo outside the entrance of the museum with the cute takoyaki mascot.
I remember for our last night in Osaka, we returned to the 130 yen conveyor belt place for sushi . I also remember that we ate almost double the amount from the first time (=^___^=). Sigh, dear salmon toro.
And so that’s the end of our Osaka leg of the trip, I love love Osaka, everything about it was fun, the food was so yummy and good, best of all it was fun, they have cute round takoyaki balls, thinly fried shiso tempuras, okonomiyakis with all sorts of fillings, and not to mention 130 yen conveyor belt sushis! And who can forget the gorgeous sakuras, the majestic elegant ones in Himeiji castle, and the beautiful shades and colours at the Osaka mint.
Next up on the Japan post is Arima Onsen! One of the best experiences in Japan yet!
So it all started the night before with lots and lots of prep work.
This time we let Gerry’s family off the hook and I roped in my own family members Jo and HC (I bet they were wishing that they weren’t part of my family).
Richard was busy with laksa preparations, throughout the events he has been the Laksa Man.
My adopted family, the Wong family also had a representative in Calv. Poor guy was teased by us all night.
Our oodles of noodles and stacks of drinks. Can’t believe we were left with nothing at the end of the night.
The next day the weather was bright and sunny, perfect for a outdoor food fair. Set up was chaotic to say the least, Curtin ISC staff were very under impressive.
Hc and Richard don their aprons again and get to work. By the end of the night, I was in the food prep area too and so was Sandra and Calvin’s mum. So paiseh.
The sun goes down and hungry masses start lining up. We couldn’t feed them fast enough, which also explains the lack of photos afterwards.
Let’s just say it was a success (^___^).
So the good news is we sold out on everything, even the last can of Coke. In fact, we were so thirsty at the end of the night that Gerry had to buy drinks for us from another stall! Hahaha.
I wish I could have spent the rest of the weekend recuperating from the crazy chaotic moments (we had lines! we even had to rope in Calvin’s mum and sister and Sandra to help with the selling while I retreated to food prep)but there were other tasks on hand including a visit to the Fremantle hospital to visit a dear ex colleague.
So I’m still very tired lah. Hopefully the rest of the month will be very very quiet and uneventful.
Only I have another event coming up, but it’s a relaxing and should be fun event. We’re hosting a thank you/celebration bbq for our helpers and friends, next Sunday at South Perth ok?
Thanks for all your help and support!
It’s past midnight, Jo, HC and Calv have just gone home after helping us with food prep the entire night. There will be more work tomorrow morning, but we had fun (^__^).
I’m pleased with the cooking so far, all the food taste much better than the UWA fare, I guess you can only improve with experience and in time.
Ready for tomorrow! Wish us luck!
I spent the weekend planning for the upcoming Pasar Malam this Friday.
New menu items include:
Agar-agar! We’re adding on a small dessert section, Jo and HC are in charge of making these pretty jellies, they make the nicest agar-agar.
I’m also baking Kuih Bingka, yum, looking forward to eating this buttery coconut cream laden kuih again. Poor Richard spent the weekend grating tapioca, hahaha.
New main menu item! This one is a bit risky, not sure whether it will be popular, it’s Loh Bak sarawak style, braised pork belly with hard boiled egg, pickles and steamed rice. Do you think it’s a good idea?
We’ve added on new drinks to our drinks menu too, there’s the ever popular mineral water and green tea. Very exciting, can’t wait for Friday to come. (^___^) Y.
daitaoha 