Happy Birthday, Sis gk!

See you in five months! .... then again in six! Love you heaps! Have an awesome birthday!

Before and After

I MADE THIS................................. (actually I just assisted MIL)

Before:
After:


It requires so much skill; I would be really interested to see how I'd fare on my own.....!

A Feast for Kings!

The Husband turned 28 last Friday, and despite working full-time, needing to bake around 2.5 dozen birthday cupcakes (for home and work), needing to tidy up the house before the in-laws arrived past midnight, and needing to be 50km away for a hot-air balloon ride by 4:30am the next morning, I decided to attempt being superwoman and cook a banquet for 11 people!

Menu

Entree
Freshly shucked oysters served au naturale
Oysters Mornay

Mains
Chilli Mud Crabs
Steamed Fresh Barramundi in superior soy sauce
Steamed Garlic Tiger Prawns
Emperor Chicken
Hong Kong Kai Lan
- served with a combination of Jasmine and Brown Rice

Dessert
Chocolate Cupcakes with Peanut Butter Frosting

I would have liked my Oysters Mornay and Kai Lan to have been a bit more cooked, but everything else was almost perfect.

And I shall let the photos speak for themselves....

I'm still amazed by myself!

FOOD-OUT: Breakfasts at.......

THE EUROPEAN
161 Spring Street, Melbourne

The Husband, BIL (Brother-in-law) and I decided to try out Melbourne's supposedly best Eggs Benedict on Saturday. At $17.50, it definitely wasn't cheap, but neither was it considered exorbitant. The boys were ordering Eggs Benedict anyway, and I normally feel kind of yuck if I finish a whole plate of Eggs Benedict by myself (I tend to feel jelak halfway through), so I decided to have the Croque Madame (pronounced as crock mar-darm as I learnt on Saturday).

I was as happy with the Croque Madame as I could with bacon sandwiched between two slices of toasted white bread spreaded with bechamel sauce and mustard, topped with a fried egg.

The Eggs Benedict, admittedly, was very good. The hollandaise wasn't too overpowering or strong; and the eggs were perfectly poached. love-love-lovely. The husband wasn't particularly impressed though - but I reckon it's more to do with his lack of Eggs Benedict discernment. No photos not because it didn't look flash (it didn't); but because The Husband forbade me to ("Aiyer - don't take photos of half-eaten food lah!")!


Then, on Sunday...

(I didn't take this picture!)

MART 130
107a Canterbury Road, Middle Park

... another dear friend and I were off to the place which serves Melbourne's supposedly best corn fritters. I love love love the ambience and concept - it's actually at the TRAM stop 130 (geddit geddit? Tram - mart?). I wasn't too impressed the first time I was here though, but I can't remember what I had ordered that time.

This time, I ordered the French Toast with Berry compote, mascarpone, almond flakes and something-something-something:

French Toast with berry compote, mascarpone, almond flakes, some vanilla bean cream thing and something-something-something

She ordered the famous corn fritters, which was served with something-something, bacon and coriander:

Corn Fritters. With something-something, bacon and coriander

I really enjoyed what we ordered. I suppose the corn fritters would only be yummy if you like coriander though. But the corn kernels were really just as described on thebreakfastblog - juicy and fresh!


I suppose if I had to choose one cafe over the other; I'd generally pick to go to MART 130 because it just seems like a nicer place to catch up with friends over brekkie. But I'd definitely be returning to the European when I feel like yummy Eggs Benedict!

Happy Belated Thanksgiving!

I give thanks for my life.
For my family - my parents, my sisters, my nephews, my niece; and even the short time I had knowing my brother.
For my friends - my friends in Malaysia; in Melbourne; and beyond.
For my husband. For my marriage. For my family.
For my community.
For being able to catch a glimpse of what God sees in people and this world.
For being able to catch just a sense of it.
For being able to start carrying the passion (in almost every sense of that word) for people and the world.
For having hope.
For having faith.
I give thanks for my life.

Lemon Cupcakes

After a busy busy period then a big big holiday then a broken arm, I finally baked!

See A Touch of Frost Cakes blog for photos and details!

I realised that I much prefer baking than cooking!
Cooking's more like a necessity and chore; baking - a hobby!

Housework Gripe

I GRIPE ABOUT:

• Never-ending housework. What's the use?! You wash a load of laundry; another basket fills. You iron a mountain-pile; there's yet another fresh load. You mop the floors and vacuum the carpets; it's still gonna get yucky the next time you cook. You wash the toilets; it instantly gets dirty with yet another skid mark (note: not my fault).

I don't know how people can work full time and have somewhat of a social life and yet manage to keep a house non-pig-sty-looking.

I'm particularly griping now, as I gave up a Friday night out of drinks to stay home and clean the house!

The King of Fruit

Just came across this video on how smelly a durian is.



I know it's smelly, but no way can it beat stale vomit, rotten eggs and a sweaty shoe combined!

Here's a couple of durian-related quotes!

• Anthony Bourdain, while a lover of durian, relates his encounter with the fruit as thus: "Its taste can only be described as...indescribable, something you will either love or despise. ...Your breath will smell as if you'd been French-kissing your dead grandmother."
  
  
• Its odour is best described as pig-shit, turpentine and onions, garnished with a gym sock.

I don't know what they're talking about - I love it!

Will work just work out?

Why do we work?

Our church is currently ploughing through this at the moment - don't think we have a definitive answer - just lots of ponderings. Adam was mandated to toil the land and take ownership of it literally since the beginning of time. So maybe we were meant to *gulp* work? ("NooooooooooOOooooo........")

The Husband recently found out he's been held back for a promotion yet again, despite good performance reviews and feedback from left, right and center. He says it's not so much about the money, but rather the opportunity to grow and develop (though OF COURSE the money wouldn't be a bad thing, either!). He was feeling really down and underappreciated and stifled at work - and so the wife plagiarizes and emails some encouragement:

Ecclesiastes 9:10 Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might, for in the grave, where you are going, there is neither working nor planning nor knowledge nor wisdom.

HOWEVER,

Luke 12:22-28 Don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes or if the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There is far more to your inner life than the food you put in your stomach, more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body. Look at the ravens, free and unfettered, not tied down to a job description, carefree in the care of God. And you count far more.

Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can't even do that, why fuss at all? Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don't fuss with their appearance—but have you ever seen color and design quite like it? The ten best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers, most of them never even seen, don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?

We are certainly not confined to our jobs, although we are mandated to be best at what we do. So press on to be all you can be, but do not worry or fuss about it.

I suppose it's somewhat a balancing act - if we don't care about our jobs, we end up being total slackers and bludgers; however if we strive in our careers a bit too much, we risk losing out in our other areas of life, since we're not confined to our jobs.

FOOD-OUT: Pepper Cafe

Pepper Cafe
44 Pin Oak St, Flemington VIC

There’s a great little café near our place which opens for dinner on Wednesdays to Fridays. For dinner, they serve really nice gourmet-ish pizzas for a pretty decent price. For $8, you could get a yummy, homemade thin crust pizza. We went last Thursday to grab an early dinner, and guess what? They actually have an awesome deal from 4-6pm – A pizza and a Peroni beer for 10 bucks! Unfortunately we were there at half-past six so we had just missed out. I had their cheapest beer for $4.5 so it didn’t set me back too much anyways.

By the time I remembered to take a photo, we had wolfed down most of our pizzas. No pictures of their homemade Trio of Dips – We did a David Copperfield and made it disappear straightaway!

I had the Roasted Potato Pizza, and The Husband had a Tandoori Chicken Pizza.

Roasted Potato Pizza

Tandoori Chicken Pizza

As gourmet pizzas go, there wasn’t a whole heap of dough and topping (a mountain pile of strips of processed ham, anyone?) so he could have easily eaten another pizza. Think later at night, he had to eat a bowl of cereal before he could go to bed . But it definitely was worth going!

Child Abuse!

A dear friend of mine just found out she’s having a baby- that, and a forum which I stumbled across recently, got me thinking about baby names. Embarrassed as I am to admit it; I am possibly 3 years away from having kids of my own, but I have my kids’ names picked out already – now it’s up to me to convince The Husband of them, as I’m sure quite a few people don’t necessarily like the names I’ve chosen.

To each their own; but some people really name their kids the awful-est names! Never mind celebrities, but even normal people too! Here’s just a list of REAL names I think worth mentioning in this post!

1. Ronald and Donald McDonald
2. Justin Case
3. Mike Hunt
4. Jermajesty Jackson (Son of Jermaine Jackson)
5. Tu Morrow (Rob Morrow's son)
6. Jasmine Rice
7. Brock Lee
8. Indiana Jones (for a girl)
9. Cholera Peace
10. Harry Pitts
11. Holly Wood
12. Candy Kahne
13. Felanie (as in Melanie with an F)
14. E- (that's it. E hyphen.)
15. Talula Does the Hula From Hawaii
16. Number 16 Bus Shelter
17. Dick Assman (A Canadian petrol station owner)
18. ESPN (pronounced as Espin!)

Seven-Eleven 2009

Seven years ago today, the husband and I first got together.

It's been a great 7 years, and he's been an awesome husband for the past (almost) 11 months!

FOOD-OUT: Izakaya Chuji

165 Lonsdale St, Melbourne
179 Clarendon Street, South Melbourne

I enjoy eating here, izakaya-style (which I am told, involves ordering several small dishes to share, similar to ordering tapas). Don't tend to come here often, as it can be a bit more pricey, because of the variety of dishes.

So on Thursday, a friend and I decided to eat in the South Melbourne outlet and ordered several small dishes:

Yukke
(it's pronounced as yoo-keh, not yuck!)

The Yukke was great; just as the last time I had it. Raw minced beef with a raw egg and raw cucumber strips, it was AUD9.90 (even without having to cook it!). Sounds gross, but it's nice!

Fried octopus tentacles with Japanese mayo

It was a bit oilier than I remembered - but the taste was still yummy!

Salmon sashimi

Salmon sashimi is salmon sashimi is salmon sashimi; what else is there to say? It was fresh though, not ... errr..... fishy?

Okayodon
(Chicken with egg and onion on rice)

This, I thought, was nothing special. We only ordered this because I felt we needed something substantial (like rice) to share for dinner. We really should have ordered the potato croquettes instead.

I'd definitely still go again, but will just stick to the small dishes and the Japanese-style steak (which is what I normally order).

....am craving for the croquettes already, actually.

Restaurant Gripe

I GRIPE ABOUT:

• when you ask for something (be it hoisin sauce or sambal) at a restaurant, and the wait staff bring you a small dish of it. Then once you've finished it and ask for more, they bring you a hugeass dish overflowing with sauce.

Seriously - can't they just:
(a) bring you two small dishes, because there's no way you can finish the second hugeass dish two-thirds into the meal; or
(b) bring you one decent-sized dish of sauce?

Okay - so this isn't the most profound gripe, and rectifying this probably won't change the world (except maybe waste reduction on a small-scale) - but it's a gripe nevertheless!

The Toilet Bowl Effect

You need to go to the loo, but decide to wait 'til you get home.
All's fine and dandy, right until you reach your stop.
Suddenly, it all starts to get desperate - the desperation increases exponentially as you approach your house.
You're just about explode as you fumble about with your keys; thanking God you're actually at your door.
You open the door, run towards the one-and-only-toilet in your house, and - your housemate is on the dunny.

The exponential desperation that I am talking about is, what I call - the Toilet Bowl Effect.

Current real-life example of this, is my plaster cast. I managed quite incredibly well, having my arm first in a back-splint for 2 weeks, then in a plaster cast for 2.5 weeks. But now, with only 2 days left to go before I will (hopefully) have my cast removed (fingers crossed), the Toilet Bowl Effect is oh-so-real and true. The itch is suddenly killing me; it's feeling incredibly hot; I have sudden impulsive urges to slam it against a concrete block to get it off.

Fuss For What??

Don't fuss about what's on the table at mealtimes, or if the clothes in your closet are in fashion. There's far more to your inner life than the food you put in your stomach; more to your outer appearance than the clothes you hang on your body.

Has anyone by fussing before the mirror ever gotten taller by so much as an inch? If fussing can't even do that, why fuss at all?

Walk into the fields and look at the wildflowers. They don't fuss with their appearance - but have you ever seen colour and design quite like it? The 10 best-dressed men and women in the country look shabby alongside them. If God gives such attention to the wildflowers most of them never even seen, don't you think he'll attend to you, take pride in you, do his best for you?

A Spotted Blog?

Well -
1) You've spotted it
2) It's spotted.

Yay for Multiple Meaning words (says the Speech Pathologist)