GalanGal, Mount Waverley

I haven't had pictures of food on the blog for some time. So here's some from last night's dinner out at GalanGal at 12, Andrews St, sMount Waverley. This tiny restaurant serves Malaysian food. The whole place could only sit about 20 people. Most of their business as we observed while we were there was by take away.

Prawn spring roll. This is quite unique because it was prawn cheong fun wrapped with popiah skin and deep fried. Not bad. The chilli sauce didn't do anything for me.

Gaz ordered the Galangal Roast Duck because he knows I love duck. He might have thought it had their own twist to the classic Cantonese dish but it turns out he was wrong. Just an ordinary roast duck with some blanched bok choy on the side mixed with the duck's juices.


Sambal fish. Oddly, we liked the veges more even though it was a fish dish. The fish had been pre fried some time ago and was overcooked. The beans went really well with the belacan though, and good quality red shallots were used in the dish.


I would give it a rating of 6 out of 10 (saved by the spring roll!).

He Who Ate My Chillies Will Feel the Heat!

Yesterday night, as is my nightly ritual, I took my pot of chilli seedlings into the house to prevent them from dying from the frosty Melbourne nights. They were sprouting along nicely although some of the leaves showed signs of being gnawed by garden snails. I couldn't see any snails in the pot so I went to bed.

The next morning I checked on my chillies before I left for work.... DISASTER!!!! ALL my chillies are GONE!!!!!!! I was sooo upset, literally threw a tantrum!!! Some snail ate them, leaves, stalk, shoots, everything! It left a trail of gooey slimy evidence behind it. Worse, I couldn't see the culprit, so it must be still roaming around my house!!!

I can't believe all my chillies have been eaten by snails when they're supposed to be safe indoors. Snails are now my number one enemy! I wish I can turn the tables on them by eating them, like an online literature recommended (salt and chilli snails?). Instead, I got Gaz to liberally sprinkle snail pellets around the garden and hopefully my strawberries and tomatoes will be safe from them nasty creatures!

Living Away from Home

When you're 6,360kms away from home, you have to do everything yourself. Even creating your own happiness. At least back home when you walk through the door, your family will be in the house to greet you, which might bring a smile to your face. Then you sit down to a hot, tasty dinner with your family that the maid has helped prepare. Surely a delicious home cooked meal will leave some happiness after consumption, as well as indigestion. After dinner, a chat with the family to unburden any stress or worries related to the day.

Being so far away from home has not been easy. I go back and I feel terribly envious of all the domestic help easily obtained in Malaysia. I get back to Melbourne and for one week I expect to have a hot meal on the table for me when I walk through the door and for my laundry to be cleaned while I was away. Then I suffer from hunger pangs and grudgingly prepare dinner.

I can understand why I couldn't wait to be away from my parents during early teens - all that FREEDOM to do what I want to do!!! Everything was an adventure, even figuring how to operate a washing machine! But now I can't wait to go home to have FREEDOM... from housework!!!

Tomatoes

My first tomato harvest from the new plant (the old one didn't survive the winter). Can't plant cherry, so planted cherry tomatoes! So far we have coriander seedlings, chilli seedlings (crossing my fingers they'll survive the frost), cherry tomatoes and strawberries in the backyard. More to come - hopefully garlic and spring onions.