Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Peking Duck and Spiders
We went for Peking Duck yesterday to celebrate Gaz's mom's birthday. The restaurant was rated in one of the Melbourne daily as one of the best Peking duck restaurants in our area. The duck skin was crispy and fragrant, but very fatty and oily. Don't get me wrong, I love animal fat, I love lard and fried chicken skin, but after eating three pieces of the skin, I couldn't have anymore of it. Although the duck was crispy and the sweet sauce went well with the popiah skin, cucumber and scallion, the duck pieces were roughly cut and some are big and in irregular sizes. Some of them couldn't even be rolled into the popiah skin.
The flesh of the duck was used to fry hokkien noodles with beansprouts. We also ordered stir fried veges and drunken chicken. The chicken had good flavour to it, very silky and had a good dash of chinese wine. The stir fried veges were OK, some parts of it overpowered by bamboo shoots which I dislike.
After dinner, we went home where we found this giant spider which had descended about 5 metres from an electric pole onto Gaz's mom's rose bushes and built a gigantic spider web. It's awesome!
The flesh of the duck was used to fry hokkien noodles with beansprouts. We also ordered stir fried veges and drunken chicken. The chicken had good flavour to it, very silky and had a good dash of chinese wine. The stir fried veges were OK, some parts of it overpowered by bamboo shoots which I dislike.
After dinner, we went home where we found this giant spider which had descended about 5 metres from an electric pole onto Gaz's mom's rose bushes and built a gigantic spider web. It's awesome!
Sunday, December 28, 2008
My Vege Garden
It's a bright sunny day today, and this is what I found around my backyard.
The tomato plant is doing well - we're so excited about that one tomato that is growing. We've been told that home grown tomatoes have a distinctly better taste than store tomatoes.
My basil is growing taller and bigger by the day. I've used them in a pasta dish I cooked a couple of weeks ago. The coriander seedlings which for a while flourished, had died out. We're still not too sure why that happened.
My strawberry plant is bearing fruit! See the little flower - that's the start of a strawberry fruit.
It's amazing to see these plants growing, despite my lack of green fingers. Hopefully soon we'll be able to eat the tomato and strawberry!
The tomato plant is doing well - we're so excited about that one tomato that is growing. We've been told that home grown tomatoes have a distinctly better taste than store tomatoes.
My basil is growing taller and bigger by the day. I've used them in a pasta dish I cooked a couple of weeks ago. The coriander seedlings which for a while flourished, had died out. We're still not too sure why that happened.
My strawberry plant is bearing fruit! See the little flower - that's the start of a strawberry fruit.
It's amazing to see these plants growing, despite my lack of green fingers. Hopefully soon we'll be able to eat the tomato and strawberry!
Friday, December 26, 2008
Boxing Day Sale
December 26th, day after Christmas in Aust is almost always reserved for recuperating from the large lunch and dinner from the day before, watching the Boxing Day test cricket and... stampeding for the best bargains in the Boxing Day sales!
The Boxing Day sales is reputed to be the largest sale in the departmental stores' calendar, other than the bi-annual stock take sales. People queue up for the department stores to open their doors from the night before and then go into a shopping frenzy once the doors are opened. It attracts the same kind of crowd that killed a Wal-Mart employee in the US not too long ago. It is expected that this year's Boxing Day sale will rake in $26 million in Victoria itself, and $6.3 billion whole country over the next two weeks.
How about the bargains? I've heard, not seen (because there are limited stock and I'm never one of the first 100 to be in the store) about television sets going half price, $15 tops etc. This year, attracted by the craze of it all, Gaz and I went to our nearest departmental store to partake in this annual tradition. We saw a long line of people in front of Swarowski, the crystal shop. We had specific items we wanted to purchase, and crystals weren't one of them. We walked from shop to shop, department to department, and get this... two hours of walking around and all we got was a single pillow (half price).
The Boxing Day sales is reputed to be the largest sale in the departmental stores' calendar, other than the bi-annual stock take sales. People queue up for the department stores to open their doors from the night before and then go into a shopping frenzy once the doors are opened. It attracts the same kind of crowd that killed a Wal-Mart employee in the US not too long ago. It is expected that this year's Boxing Day sale will rake in $26 million in Victoria itself, and $6.3 billion whole country over the next two weeks.
How about the bargains? I've heard, not seen (because there are limited stock and I'm never one of the first 100 to be in the store) about television sets going half price, $15 tops etc. This year, attracted by the craze of it all, Gaz and I went to our nearest departmental store to partake in this annual tradition. We saw a long line of people in front of Swarowski, the crystal shop. We had specific items we wanted to purchase, and crystals weren't one of them. We walked from shop to shop, department to department, and get this... two hours of walking around and all we got was a single pillow (half price).
What is This?
I always look back at my Uni days in Aust with amazement. It is difficult to believe that I had lived such a sheltered live that when I arrived here for my undergrad studies, I had never cooked a meal for myself or washed my own clothes. During my first year, I spent much of my time eating foods that came out of a can or a packet. In my second year, my meals consisted mainly of rice (thanks to Dad's foresight to send me a rice cooker) and steamed egg/vege/whatever that will fit in a little plate atop my cooking rice). I can now cook a semi decent meal on my own and recognise most food stuff, although I still have my own adventures in that area.
The other day I bought a root vegetable which I thought was 'fen kot' which my mom usually buys to boil soup. It is sweet, and has heat reducing properties. When I got to the cashier and the produce was scanned, it appeared as sweet potato (white skin). Now, I have never seen a white skin sweet potato and have no idea what to do with it. There were 5 other people waiting in queue so I didn't want to return it. I got home and the sweet potato remained in my fridge for a week before my Malaysian friends paid me a visit. They told me that I can't hope to cook anything savoury with it, only sweets. It seems that the particular variety was cross bred with yam so it has white skin and purple insides. It was advisable to steam it and eat it on it's own or cook dessert with it, like bubur cha cha. That was a challenge. The last time I ever cooked a dessert was the gingko nut/sweet bean curd sheet dessert when I was trying to impress Gaz during our courting period. He didn't like it but finished his bowl anyway. It wasn't sweet or tasty enough. But I had to do something with the sweet potato so, this is what I did with it - cooked it with rock sugar and added sago to it. Not much of a sweets person, I gave half of it to Gaz's mom and had two bowls myself (was quite tasty). Gaz came home after work that night and polished off the rest. Not bad huh?
Purple rings in the sweet potato. I expected more purple
Sago swimming in the pot. Sago sinks to the bottom after it's cooked
The other day I bought a root vegetable which I thought was 'fen kot' which my mom usually buys to boil soup. It is sweet, and has heat reducing properties. When I got to the cashier and the produce was scanned, it appeared as sweet potato (white skin). Now, I have never seen a white skin sweet potato and have no idea what to do with it. There were 5 other people waiting in queue so I didn't want to return it. I got home and the sweet potato remained in my fridge for a week before my Malaysian friends paid me a visit. They told me that I can't hope to cook anything savoury with it, only sweets. It seems that the particular variety was cross bred with yam so it has white skin and purple insides. It was advisable to steam it and eat it on it's own or cook dessert with it, like bubur cha cha. That was a challenge. The last time I ever cooked a dessert was the gingko nut/sweet bean curd sheet dessert when I was trying to impress Gaz during our courting period. He didn't like it but finished his bowl anyway. It wasn't sweet or tasty enough. But I had to do something with the sweet potato so, this is what I did with it - cooked it with rock sugar and added sago to it. Not much of a sweets person, I gave half of it to Gaz's mom and had two bowls myself (was quite tasty). Gaz came home after work that night and polished off the rest. Not bad huh?
Purple rings in the sweet potato. I expected more purple
Sago swimming in the pot. Sago sinks to the bottom after it's cooked
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Merry Christmas
Having never celebrated Christmas when I was growing up, I never received any Christmas presents or partake in Christmas traditions such as writing hundred-page wish lists, or taking photos with Santa while seated on his lap. The latter always irks me when it is so apparent that the man in the red suit is so out of place wearing such a heavy garment in the sweltering heat that Santa cannot be real. Growing up not receiving presents for Christmas was a blessing because it casts aside the usual distractions during Christmas. While Christmas is synonymous with turkeys, mistletoes, Santas and presents, to me, it is about hope in desperate times and pure love that is sacrifice. This is well summed up in the bible verse John 3:16'For God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only Son, that whosoever should believe in Him shall not perish and have life everlasting'. Let's remember what it's really all about this season.
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Strawberry Season
It's summer and strawberries are in abundance right now. When young in Malaysia, strawberries and cherries were like a magic fruit to me. Not seen often, and it supposingly posseses an extraordinarily sweet taste. I remembered being really excited to go to Cameron Highlands, a cool mountainous area whose climate supports growing strawberries. It mustn't have been in season, because I didn't see any. That was then, things are different now. Two years ago when I went back to Malaysia, I brought two punnets of strawberries home for my family. I felt really foolish when I went to the local supermarket Tesco and saw a whole pyramid of strawberries for sale. So much for being uppity - 'you can't get it there, so I'm bringing this back to let you try it'!
All my childhood desires of eating strawberries were fulfilled once I reached Aust. I had a rude shock when I tasted my first strawberries bought from the local supermarket. Some strawberries are actually not sweet. Store bought strawberries are even sour or does not have much taste to them. I only eat them dipped with honey. I started believing that all strawberries are not sweet. Until this year when Gaz brought home some strawberries given to him by his customer. They were organically grown at home. It seems that strawberries are hardy plants, almost like weeds and it looks like many Australians like to grow them at home because Gaz's customers took turns bringing bucketfuls into the shop distributing it to anyone who would take them.
These are the strawberries we were given. They are gigantic and aesthetically unpleasing. But goodness me, my fridge smells like the sweet sweet scent of strawberries everytime I open it with them in it. The taste is so unbelievably sweet, and it is very juicy. So that's what a REAL strawberry should taste like! I got so hooked that I've started growing my own. Hopefully in time I will be able to reap the fruits of my labour!
All my childhood desires of eating strawberries were fulfilled once I reached Aust. I had a rude shock when I tasted my first strawberries bought from the local supermarket. Some strawberries are actually not sweet. Store bought strawberries are even sour or does not have much taste to them. I only eat them dipped with honey. I started believing that all strawberries are not sweet. Until this year when Gaz brought home some strawberries given to him by his customer. They were organically grown at home. It seems that strawberries are hardy plants, almost like weeds and it looks like many Australians like to grow them at home because Gaz's customers took turns bringing bucketfuls into the shop distributing it to anyone who would take them.
These are the strawberries we were given. They are gigantic and aesthetically unpleasing. But goodness me, my fridge smells like the sweet sweet scent of strawberries everytime I open it with them in it. The taste is so unbelievably sweet, and it is very juicy. So that's what a REAL strawberry should taste like! I got so hooked that I've started growing my own. Hopefully in time I will be able to reap the fruits of my labour!
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Train Etiquette
2 hours of my life each day is spent on the train commuting to and from work. That equates to 20 days in a year. That's like spending the total amount of my annual leave each year sitting in the trains 24 hours a day. Recently I encountered an extreme bad manners from a fellow commuter - I was sitting happily in my seat reading my papers, when I suddenly felt a blow of air coming from a man standing near me who was coughing. I felt so grossed out that the first thing I did when I entered my home was to step into the bathroom and have a long hot shower. Maybe his mother never taught him to cover his mouth and not to cough into other people's faces?
What about the young women who catches up on life events on the mobile in the train? I really don't need to know about the unreasonable boss at your work and definitely not about your planned weekend pub crawling activities. Eavesdropping is interesting but I'm trying to cut down on things I'm not supposed to do right now.
I really dislike it when people do not know where to put their legs. I don't care where they decide to put it, but not directly pressing against mine, thank you. There was a man yesterday sitting opposite me who pressed his knees against mine even after I've shifted my leg position. Luckily this game of knee tag didn't last long because he got off the next station.
And then there are the starers. The ones who look at you as though you had just stolen their right to eat in this world. I often have no idea what they're looking at on me, and I don't feel right staring back at them so I let it go. But I can feel them staring at everyone in the train with a very angry face.
Last but not least, people with a kiasu attitude when getting on the train. This happens even though it is the first station the train is stopping at, and there are plenty of seats. Invariably these people are Asian ladies. They push me from behind with their umbrellas or poke me with their palms, they push in front of me because I'm not fast enough when I get on the train, and they dash into the train looking for a prime seat. Whichever it is, it definitely won't be next to me because I'll be too slow for them if we happen to get off at the same stop.
What about the young women who catches up on life events on the mobile in the train? I really don't need to know about the unreasonable boss at your work and definitely not about your planned weekend pub crawling activities. Eavesdropping is interesting but I'm trying to cut down on things I'm not supposed to do right now.
I really dislike it when people do not know where to put their legs. I don't care where they decide to put it, but not directly pressing against mine, thank you. There was a man yesterday sitting opposite me who pressed his knees against mine even after I've shifted my leg position. Luckily this game of knee tag didn't last long because he got off the next station.
And then there are the starers. The ones who look at you as though you had just stolen their right to eat in this world. I often have no idea what they're looking at on me, and I don't feel right staring back at them so I let it go. But I can feel them staring at everyone in the train with a very angry face.
Last but not least, people with a kiasu attitude when getting on the train. This happens even though it is the first station the train is stopping at, and there are plenty of seats. Invariably these people are Asian ladies. They push me from behind with their umbrellas or poke me with their palms, they push in front of me because I'm not fast enough when I get on the train, and they dash into the train looking for a prime seat. Whichever it is, it definitely won't be next to me because I'll be too slow for them if we happen to get off at the same stop.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
U Pick U Eat
Seeing that the berry picking season is upon us and I was itching to go out, Gaz and I took a short drive to the closest cherry orchard. As we got out of our car, we were greeted by a horde of eager tourists buzzing around the cashier area. The cost per entry to the orchard is $6 while cherries picked sell at $8 per kg, $2 cheaper than cherries that size on special in the markets. The place also packs cherries for sale, ranging from super big ones nicely arranged in cardboard boxes ideal for gifts, to medium sized ones starting from $10 per kg. There were different varieties, the sour cherries for cooking, the pale red ones which are lighter but sweeter, and the dark red cherries normally found in the markets. Their produce are sold in the centre as well as to supermarkets. Besides cherries, the orchard also grows lemons, boysenberries and blueberries.
Rows of cherry trees
Cherries on the branch
I couldn't wait to get out in the fields and start picking. I must admit to my love affair with cherries which is unfortunately short and platonic, and happens only during December and January when cherries are in season and discounts are usually available. When not in season, cherries can sell up to $19 per kg. We were ferried into the orchard by a bus provided by the place, and we were loosed into the fields. At first, I struggled to pull the stems away from the branch. Each time I pull, the motion swings the branches and ripe cherries (yum!) drop off the branches onto the ground which seemed like a waste of good cherries. After a while, I got the hang of it, twisting the stems till they detach from the branch. While picking, Gaz and I stuffed cherries into our mouths, dripping purple juices down our mouths and shirts. The cherries were very juicy and sweet.
A variety of cherries - the pale red ones which are sweeter
We picked for about an hour and could have picked more but as we went quite late, the orchard was approaching closing time and we had to get onto the last bus back to the centre. It was a terrific experience, and I would probably go back a couple of times, only during cloudy weather!
Our haul
Raspberries
Raspberries up close
Rows of cherry trees
Cherries on the branch
I couldn't wait to get out in the fields and start picking. I must admit to my love affair with cherries which is unfortunately short and platonic, and happens only during December and January when cherries are in season and discounts are usually available. When not in season, cherries can sell up to $19 per kg. We were ferried into the orchard by a bus provided by the place, and we were loosed into the fields. At first, I struggled to pull the stems away from the branch. Each time I pull, the motion swings the branches and ripe cherries (yum!) drop off the branches onto the ground which seemed like a waste of good cherries. After a while, I got the hang of it, twisting the stems till they detach from the branch. While picking, Gaz and I stuffed cherries into our mouths, dripping purple juices down our mouths and shirts. The cherries were very juicy and sweet.
A variety of cherries - the pale red ones which are sweeter
We picked for about an hour and could have picked more but as we went quite late, the orchard was approaching closing time and we had to get onto the last bus back to the centre. It was a terrific experience, and I would probably go back a couple of times, only during cloudy weather!
Our haul
Raspberries
Raspberries up close
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