New phone

Our Sunday oyakodon lunch. I was reminded of Goldilocks and the three bears when I took this photo. Obviously the size of my bowl was ‘just right’. Saitaoha finished her bowl too, can make this for her in the future.

Standard loh bak lunch bento. I asked R whether he’s sick of pork belly, he said he can never get sick of pork belly. Ah Ma is always nagging me about skipping meals or being the last to eat my own cooking. The truth is by the time I’m done cooking, prepping bentos, washing up and feeding the kid, I don’t feel like eating my own cooking anymore!

It is good that she likes brushing her teeth. I’m worried about her open bite which is a really of her dummy addiction. I want to wean her off her dummy but her papa said to give her a little more time. I think it’s because our friend told us a horror story about how her child cried for three months when she weaned him off cold turkey 😓.

This is my first post written on my new iPhone! I’m so excited and pleased with it. All my backups worked and my old photos,apps and contacts are alive in my new phone. I’m so bad with tech stuff I thought I would stuff it up, but luckily R pretty much did it for me.

Can’t wait to try out the camera on the kids tomorrow 😍😍😍. I’m usually not excited about tech gadgets but there’s something about this phone being my Mother’s Day gift that gives me a warm and fuzzy glow inside.

Vego lunch bento

Sundays are always very productive days for me in the kitchen. I know friends and family think I’m a bit nuts cooking or baking after work even when it’s been a crazy week, but really, it relaxes me, I call it cooking therapy.

This was a while back, making a tray of ricotta and spinach cannelloni.

Finally managed to tick off one of my 2013 kitchen resolutions, also my first time baking a layered cake, it wasn’t as pretty as I would have liked it to be, but I will get better I hope :). This was a double ginger cake with cream cheese lime frosting.

It was actually fragrant and moreish. Double whammy of ginger with fresh ginger in the batter as well as crystallized ginger pieces as garnish. The lime zest and lime juice in the cream cheese frosting cut through the richness of the cake. I’m not sure I will bake this again because there are so many more cakes to bake, but I did like the combination of ginger and lime.

R’s favourite pork belly loh bak again. With braised eggs and tofu.

I have a good friend at work who is vegetarian and a sweet tooth so I’ve been bringing her lots of sweet treats. But tomorrow I’m making her a vegetarian lunch box! Teriyaki tofu, tamagoyaki and grilled eggplant dengaku style (sweet miso sauce) with rice. I hope she likes it Y(^___^)Y.

I will be trying chocolate caramel slice and macarons next!

Japanese weekend

Aargh, I can’t believe the weekend is over! Then again, it’s one more weekend to go before we’re jetting off to Hongkong! I can’t wait… egg tarts.. milk teas…

Tuesday $15 steak nights at Bentley hotel. This time we went with Karen and Bryan, lovely people with lots of good HK tips. We will be visiting Gerry in his hometown too, so exciting haha.

Simple lunchbox of stir fried satay chicken with snow pea sprouts and button mushrooms.

Sunday night dinner was Western style Japanese themed, teriyaki hambagu with spaghetti bolognese. Jo wasn’t feeling fantastic though and only managed one hambagu (*gasp*). She did bring some home though so hopefully it will still be yummy for her dinner tomorrow.

Chirashi sushi at daitaoha’s. The best part about making your own chirashi sushi bowl? You can be very very generous with your ingredients and salmon sashimi slices are thickly cut haha.

Bonus collage of baby Tristan! Getting naughty he is, but still very cute, aaaah, so lucky to have cute nephew and niece Y (*___*)Y

Chicken rice Sundays

Sigh….and another weekend bites the dust.

The braising and glazing of teriyaki chicken, my favourite Japanese dish to cook.

What is good teriyaki chicken? The ultimate balance between sweet, salty, and sticky goodness.

The teriyaki chicken was for our homemade pizzas for Jo’s second (haha) housewarming gathering. It was a fuss free dinner of teriyaki chicken and avocado pizza, ham and pineapple pizza, baked chicken wings and waldorf salad.

The pregnant lady had been craving chicken rice all weekend. So Sunday was Hoibo chicken rice day.

Yummy chicken rice! Jan and Andy, we are definitely bringing you guys here when you next visit Perth.

Been a while since I’ve featured the mummy-to-be with her signature V sign on the blog so there you are! Ready to pop as you can see. It’s both scary and exciting at the same time, I’m looking forward to baby’s nephew arrival this Christmas (^__^)Y.

Day 3 & 4 London: Croydon

Day 3 and 4 was about Croydon which is our neighbouring town,it’s a great place for shopping and best of all, only two train stops away from home!

Dimsum at Tai Tung. We were there to buy asian ingredients from the oriental supermarket next door. The supermarket was pretty impressive, I think I could survive pretty well in London.

Asian ingredients meant I could cook dinner that night. Dinner had a Japanese theme with tamagoyaki, silken tofu with spring onion and coriander dressing and teriyakic chicken udon. First time cooking for a baby too, Kaka’s dinner was stir fried udon with chicken, carrots and cabbage, basically our teriyaki chicken udon without any seasonying or teriyaki sauce.

Day 4, shopping at Croydon!

We had something ‘meaty’ and ‘fishy’ for lunch at Marks and Spencers.

This was Jan’s fishy meal, fish finger subroll, haha, literally, fish fingers wrapped in a roll. This was actually pretty good.

Jo and I had our ‘meaty’ cheeseburgers, a recommendation from Jan, succulent and juicy burger.

Jan and Kaka enjoying the train ride and watching the world rush by. It has been pretty cool watching my sister being a mother, she is a really good mum with very strong arms and good singing, dancing and reading skills haha. As I am typing, she is reading Kaka a story and making lots of cool noises.

Andy bought us Thai takeaway for dinner. The green curry was yums and everyone drank the last drop with their rice.

My thai style pork belly and pickles.

Siew pao for dessert. Only we were too full so they will be having this for breakfast tomorrow. What should I make for dinner tomorrow?

Andy gave me a lovely present tonight, a Masterchef apron! So now I don’t have to join Masterchef to get one! Hahaha, it’s nice to have lovely brother-in-laws who are appreciative of your cooking :):)

Equilibrium

Half of 2012 is almost over. For the past few months I’ve been desperately trying to get back to feeling like this again. I think I’m gradually getting there again, or at least, I’m making a better attempt at it.

Weekends are the best times for getting my act together. A stolen Saturday. A really good latte. Messy but healthy burgers at Grill’d.

Bento of the week is gyudon (beef bowl) with a half boiled egg and garlic long beans.

Something to look forward to? Masterchef is back on Australian tv (^__^).

Sushi Fuji Station is back!

I can’t remember whether I’ve ever blogged about the dearly departed Sushi Fuji Station. I have fond memories of this little gem in Victoria Park, always popular and buzzing with patrons,we used to snag seats by the sushi bar and watch the chef at work while sipping on a glass of wine, enjoying bowls of yummy udon and soba.

To our surprise, Sushi Fuji Station suddenly closed down for no obvious reason and we could never find such a good, conveniently located Japanese restaurant again.

But Sushi Fuji Station has returned! Only this time it’s named Buen 151 and has shifted to St James. Not too far away at all. The menu is still the same except for the new addition of ramen. Buen’s ramen is heavy on the pepper and tasty, I liked how they managed to get the half boiled egg right, lots of Perth ramen stalls seem to get that wrong.

Jo was happy that her favourite nabeyaki udon was still on the menu. This piping hot udon is a good dish to have on a cold winter night 🙂

This sushi was quite interesting in the sense that it had fish powder in it. Buen’s sushi may not the best sushi in Perth but it’s always consistent.

My favourite soba is still on the menu! This soba wasn’t cold enough but still as yummy as I remembered it last. I love soba (*__*).

We’ve already been to Buen a few times since we rediscovered it. I think it’s going to be a comfortable favourite again.

Buen 151
26B Chapman Rd Map
St James, WA 6102

Our visit to Buen inspired the homemade chirashi dinner that weekend. It’s been a while since I’ve made my tamagoyaki rolls and happily they still taste good! I feel like eating this again …

The Pressure Cooker weekend

Or should I say it the weekend where all the stress and pressure of the past two weeks melted away. And also the weekend I bought a pressure cooker! I love my pressure cooker, it is so handy, hours of braising on the stove are over, now everything can be smack bang and done in less than 30 minutes!

And the rock sugar and vinegar spareribs are still yummy!!

Braised pork belly, done in 25 minutes … we also managed to cook a whole pot of bak kut teh and make litres of chicken stock in an afternoon. I love my pressure cooker Y( *   V   *)Y

Teriyaki hambagu, stir fried long beans and rice. Not cooked in a pressure cooker but done traditional style. Don’t worry Jo, I will be making these for you when HC is away in Kuching.

Saturday brekkie with Jo and HC 🙂

Vietnamese dinner with Gerry and the cute couple on Saturday night. Teh tarik at the bad Makan2, teh tariks still good but service still very very bad.

Weekends should always be this good.

Getting over the hump day

We had an abundance of apples in the house.

So I baked an apple strudel with frozen puff pastry and apple slices. Yummy with vanilla icecream (^____^).

Wednesdays teriyaki beef bowls = comfort food. Finally we’re over the middle of the week, two more days to the weekend and 3 weeks of bliss away from work!! Getting excited ….

Herbs

Recently I’ve been spending a lot of time at home and in front of the computer. But I’ve finished my assignments for the week so light is at the end of the tunnel!

Tried a new recipe,braised belly pork with yam. Took ages steaming the belly pork, next time I’m just going to chuck everything in the slow cooker, or invest in a pressure cooker 🙂

Kiam chye chicken soup. My mum’s version is much better but beggars can’t be choosers.

Another new dish, eggplant which I braised with miso, dashi stock, rice vinegar, sugar, soy and sesame oil.

My little herb patch is growing! Hopefully that’s a sign that the rest of May will be better ..