Mussels!

On the way back from Lorne, we stopped for a quick bite along the Geelong waterfront. Our options were a fancy schmancy French restaurant, a rather overpriced cafe, the obligatory fish and chip shop and a boat selling mussels. We ended up with fish and chips and an order of mussels. The mussels can be cooked in either red or white wine, or taken home fresh by the kilo in boxes. Maybe next time we'll buy 'em by the box...

Breakfast at the Flowerbed

Our Lorne accommodation was a cosy B & B, just up the hill from the Great Ocean Road and a couple of minutes drive from Lorne's shops. The Flowerbed is owned by Lyn and John Morrison, who were extremely gracious and helpful hosts. And as you can see, they prepared an awesome breakfast too! The breakfast table is by the window overlooking the ocean (you can just about make it out in the distance). Inspired, we looked at real estate in the area, but were brought crashing down to earth by inflated property prices. Oh well.

Weekend in Lorne

The timing of our Lorne weekend getaway (when Babes got a well-deserved break from her yoga course) couldn't have been better, with forest fires blazing in the opposite direction of Melbourne. It was warm and sunny, as opposed to scorching and hazy in the city. So Babes took the opportunity to get a lovely tan. Then it was time for dinner at Ba Ba Lu bar, mussels and a variety of yummy tapas. Topped off with a lovely sticky date pudding from Arab cafe up the street. Good stuff! It would have been an absolutely perfect evening if somewhere (anywhere!) had been showing the English Premier League on TV...

Fifteen!

After all the hype, and after making reservations many weeks in advance, it was finally time to visit Jamie Oliver's brainchild. The only option for dinner is a six-course tasting menu. Was Jamie there? Nope. Was Toby there? Nope. Was it good? Yup. Was the service good? Yup. Was it worth the money? I'm not entirely sure, to be honest, but I suppose it's for a good cause. Most importantly, did Babes enjoy it? Yup! And that's what counts :)

Melbourne Cup Eve - A Feast to Remember

We both look forward to Wei Leng's degustation dinners, and the most recent one was no different. It was a Chinese banquet, and our contributions (okay, okay, Babes' contributions) were the Jade Treasures (sang choy pau) and Buddha's Belly (slow-cooked pork belly). Twelve courses in all, I think (lost count lah), all magnificent specimens worthy of an Emperor's appreciation. Thanks again to Wei for being a gracious host as always. Looking forward to Christmas!

Dinner at Sarti

We'd been meaning to dine at Sarti Restaurant in the city, but somehow we never made it. There was always somewhere else to go, something else to try. Finally made our way there with Kenneth and Jen who were visiting from KL. I think we can safely place it in the "Highly Recommended" category! And it doesn't hurt that it was in the Entertainment Guide...

Chef Wong's Masterpieces

One of the meals Dad cooked (including a reasonably authentic KL-style Hokkien Mee, thanks Dad!) was this Asian banquet. Looks good, doesn't it? It was the second delicious (and extensive) home-cooked feast in a row; the previous night's was prepared by Bubs' brother James. Much food was consumed, much wine was imbibed. And a good time was had by all!

Ms Green Fingers

At least I hope she's got green fingers! The Senior Wongs (in between running off to Canberra, Mornington Peninsula and Adelaide) managed to do some major gardening, leaving us with a significant collection of plants (thanks, Mum and Dad!). But Babes did some planting of her own in the meantime, and now, a month later, the plants are still alive...

The Return of Laksa

Remember the empty bowl of Sarawak Laksa on July 31? There've been several requests from unsatisfied readers for pictures of the real thing, before it got gobbled up. So here you go! After the Peking Duck (mentioned in the previous post), we all sat down for some absolutely fabulous (and yes, still world-class) laksa. From platter to bowl to tummy in a matter of minutes...

Peking Duck for Starters

The Wong family (plus two Tings and one Susanto) got together for several fabulous meals when the Senior Wongs were in town. This was just one of them, but what a meal it was! It started with Peking Duck, specially prepared by the Ting twins...

The Wedding by the Lake

On October 7, our friends Ben and Lesa got married at The Lakehouse in Daylesford. People came from far and wide, and a good time was had by all. Congrats to the new Mr and Mrs Yeoh, you guys are great together and we luv ya both! Oh and Lesa, I don't think either of us realised what a nice back you have... unfortunately we don't seem to have a good photo of it to share with the rest of the world, which is probably just as well...

A Bangkok ritual

Babes and I make it a point to dine at Zanotti whenever we're in Bangkok. It's top-notch Italian, arguably the best I've ever had outside Italy. As you can see, this time we brought a few other people with us. Lately that 'ritual' has also included a post-dinner drink at Sirocco, the spectacular open-air bar atop the Bangkok State Tower. Drinks aren't cheap (in fact, they're a bit of a ripoff), but then again, that view is priceless...

And more Thai food...

Firstly, apologies for the long silence. It's been a pretty hectic few weeks, with lots of visitors and activities. But normal service is restored, hopefully. Let's go back to Bangkok, and an absolutely terrific meal at Rut and Lek in Chinatown. Fresh, juicy prawns, delicious crabs, more seafood and quite possibly the world's best seafood noodles. Highly, highly recommended! Oh heck, I'm salivating already...

When in Thailand, eat Thai food...

Gotta eat a couple of Thai meals in Bangkok, right? This was one of 'em, the well-known Baan Khanitha. And good it was, so was the service, but it was somewhat expensive. Can't quite find it in my heart to recommend it, somehow. I'm quite happy eating beef noodles and phad thai from the stalls by the street, at 25 baht a pop...

KL's Wedding of the Century

No, not Siti Nurhaliza's. Our invitation must've gotten lost in the mail. The wedding we DID go for was even better. Sarena and Leo got married on Sept 23 at the Sunway Lagoon Duplex and Villa, a lovelier couple you'll be hard-pressed to find. Here we are at the wedding with Paul and Wei from Melbourne, Nick and Fan from San Francisco, and Adrian and Su, KL's glam couple. Mr and Mrs Leo Tan, we had a marvellous time, and here's wishing you a magnificent life together!

The Wongs and Tings together in Bangsar

Here are the people responsible for our existence, all together in KL at Blessings Homestay in Bangsar. It's a Malaysian-style bed and breakfast place, owned and run by a friend of Ann and Min Fook's. Where are Bubs and Babes? Babes took the picture, Bubs was snoring his head off. I was sleeping off a magnificent dinner the night before, with suckling pig being the obvious highlight. Any pix of it? Nope. Why? Too hungry lah...

This is how it's done, Melbourne!

Eat your heart out, Melburnians. Presenting the real McCoy, fair dinkum KL Hokkien Mee! With trembling hands and chopsticks (after a prolonged wait, for some reason, way after the wat tan hor fun had been delivered to our table), I gingerly approached it. After a respectful (and slightly fearful; what if it was crap after all that?) pause, I started shovelling it into my mouth with a complete absence of dignity. Months of pent-up frustration were released upon the poor, unsuspecting noodles. Paramount Garden's Hokkien Mee was genuine, it was awesome... and I was finally home, if only for a few days!

World's best chicken rice

Or so I think, anyway. And a year's wait did nothing to lessen the anticipation, of course. And was it still good? Of course it was! Although it helps that Malaymas in Melbourne has an adequate version. Anyway, that's the steamed chicken in front, and the roast behind for Ell and a couple of other people who prefer it. Wee Nam Kee rules! So naturally we went back there again a couple of days later... after all, who knows when we'll have it again?

Brand new domestic goddess

From left to right: Audra, my gorgeous Babes, Anita 'Diva' Kapoor. Audra has amazingly morphed into an incredibly talented chef and host in the past year. Thanks for a wonderful Thai dinner at your wonderfully decorated home, Audra. We look forward to more pleasant surprises from you!

Getting our money's worth

A perennial favourite of ours in Singapore is Hanabi along Bukit Timah Road. For $30++, you get as much Japanese food as you can stuff your face with. Sashimi, sushi, tempura, you name it, you can devour it. So of course we had to troop over there, all ten of us. And of course we had to be kiasu and make reservations while we were still in Melbourne, three weeks before! My apologies if this shot doesn't quite do justice to the sashimi, but take my word for it, it was stupendously delicious...

Making up for lost time

Not just in terms of food (especially after comments from certain individuals - including Babes - that there's too much food on this blog!), but also catching up with Singapore-based friends. We arrived on a Saturday night, (conveniently) just in time for dinner. Boon Kit and Ell picked us up and brought us to Canton Wok, where we met up with Yean, Jay, Chris and Elaine. Unfortunately our hunger (okay, greed lah) meant there was no question of photos...
As for Sunday morning, well, it started with several types of ham chin peng before venturing out to Ya Kun for some kaya toast and teh si. Then to PS Cafe for Sunday brunch with Pats, Mark, Gary and Steph. All within a two hour timeframe. Hence the title of this post...

No, we haven't gotten lazy

Those of you who follow our blog will know that we've spent the past two weeks in Singapore, KL and Bangkok. Which would explain the lack of posts on Bubs n' Babes. The original intention was to keep everyone up to date from wherever we happened to be, but a combination of hectic schedules and Babes' various ailments (toothache, cough etc) prevented that from happening. Anyway, we arrived in Melbourne at five in the morning, and have been doing all kinds of things unrelated to blogs ever since. To all who spent time with us, and whose company we thoroughly enjoyed (and to whom I hope I haven't spread any nasty viruses!), thanks so much. It was a blast! Visual details to follow in the days to come...

Mostly we eat, occasionally we fall off a cliff

From this blog, it looks like pretty much all we do is eat. And after we eat, we eat some more. Which isn't too far from the truth! But once in a while we get out. This shot of me falling off a cliff was taken by our future-MBA friend Sandra, who paid us a visit en route from San Francisco to Maastricht (Netherlands). A very slight detour, no doubt, but I'd like to think she found the trip worthwhile. So there we were in the Dandenongs, on a lovely spring day when tragedy struck. But I lived to tell the tale... looks pretty convincing, doesn't it. All offers and scripts for Hollywood roles can be emailed to wongfn71@yahoo.com. Don't call me, I'll call you.

Unsung hero

It goes brilliantly with instant noodles at 3am. In fact it goes brilliantly with pretty much anything. In fact I’d add it to almost everything if I was allowed to. In fact I’ve taken to eating it as a snack all by itself, to Babes’ utter disgust. What is it? Fried onions, that’s what. Or shallots, to some people. Why buy it in tiny plastic bags when you can buy a giant plastic tub? YUM! And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes this tribute to one of the great unsung heroes of modern cuisine. May fried onions forever be available at Asian food stores all across the world.

Brunch at a tram station

Take a Melbourne tram station. Add a view of Albert Park. Then order oven-baked corn fritters and Genovese coffee. Sit and wait, with the Herald Sun and The Age, and Sandra who's en route from San Francisco to Maastricht to do her MBA. Oh and a cafe-full of funky people for company. That's Mart 130 in Middle Park. Food comes, gets devoured, wish Babes was with us but she's off to yoga. Never mind, I'll bring her some other time. Billiam and Joose, you guys are coming too! PS. How come their Genovese coffee tastes better than my Genovese coffee? Hmm...

The search is over

Not for KL-style Hokkien Mee (here I go again!) unfortunately, but for the next best thing: chicken rice. And I found it at the same place as Melbourne's best Char Kuay Teow. That's right, at my local, Malaymas! The last time Babes, Mans and I went there, we were flabbergasted when informed that they had run out. No doubt it was part of some elaborate conspiracy to keep me coming back, and come back I did last night. It's about 8.43 times better than any other chicken rice I've had in Melbourne. My only complaint would be that the rice could be slightly more fragrant, but of course that would mean slightly oilier too. But with such tender, tasty chicken, I can see why they usually sell out so quickly. Next time must call and 'chope' if possible...

Salad in the style of Capri

Otherwise known as Insalata Caprese, I first experienced this amazing yet simple dish at Kaz's place in Singapore. That was a good five years ago, and I've enjoyed it many more times since then. It's something non-chefs like me can prepare fairly easily, yet rather impressively! This version, however, was made by Babes. And yes, it tastes as wonderful as it looks!

Great in a sandwich, but not on our blog...

Looks like one of the negatives of modern technology has started to rear its ugly head. Some of you might have noticed dodgy sounding comments about some of my posts, with click-throughs to dodgy sites. *sigh* If any of you web-savvy people out there can tell me how to prevent 'em (instead of deleting them one by one), I'd be very grateful! Personally, I'm more than happy with Ma Ling Pork Luncheon Meat, but that's just me...

Hot chocolate, discounted lunches and AC/DC.

To be more specific, come to an ad agency called SEE in Port Melbourne. Lots of ad agencies have cafes of some kind or other, but here's the only one I know of (and that I've done work for) that has one that's open to the public. What you're looking at is Wesley's famous hot chocolate, marvellous for cold winter mornings. And his Lavazza coffee's pretty good too! But wait, there's more: full-time employees get first-class cooked lunches for a mere $3.00! That doesn't sound like that big a deal coming from Malaysia or Singapore, but it's ultra-cheap by Aussie standards! Especially for a cafe that's been featured in The Age's Cheap Eats food guide for the last couple of years. As for freelancers, well, we get 20% off which isn't too bad, I guess! And for the rock aficionados amongst you, there's even an exhibition of AC/DC's lead singer's photos and letters to his wife, "Bye Bye Bon Scott". Read more about it here: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/08/09/1154802962874.html and it's on the cafe walls as we speak!

Practising for the (not-so-near) future?

For a few hours last Sunday, the Bubsnbabes residence was transformed into a playland for five kids between the ages of one and four. Which is quite normal for a lot of (superhuman) people, but relatively new to us. Fortunately there were eleven adults to look after 'em. Oh and there was also a ton of excellent food prepared by Babes, Mans, Ngoc and Gin, including: beef and prawn rice paper rolls, seafood skewers, mee pok noodles, chicken wings, cucumber and gelatin salad, as well as THREE cakes. Happy Birthday Lulu!

An extremely professional blog!

No no, not ours obviously... Bubs n' Babes is just for fun, food, friends and family (well, mainly for fun to be honest) but check out the amazing www.chubbyhubby.net for exceptional production values and top-notch content. The food is incredible, and the photography does it justice! This, for example, is the breakfast he cooked for his wife just last week; Bill's corn fritters. Alamak, spoil market lah! Singaporean food lover Aun Koh really knows his stuff. And he's even got sponsors and everything. Well done man, keep it up...

Cafe Bubs n' Babes

It's kinda ironic that we bought (OK, I bought) this espresso machine in Singapore, land of kopi-O, and shipped it all the way to Melbourne, coffee capital of the Asia-Pacific region. But I couldn't resist (it looks pretty cool) and it was on sale. Not that I expected very much, as it's not a Gaggia, Francis Francis or one of those other hard-core espresso machine brands. But whaddyaknow, it's been giving me (and our guests) pretty decent coffee for the last few months. Think it's also due to the smooth, lovely Genovese grind that I first had in a local cafe, then went out and bought. Makes me look good, when all I do is fire it up, load and tamp the grind, press a couple of buttons and frothe the milk! So the next time you're in Thornbury, pop by for some latte. It ain't world-class or anything, but it'll do. Unless you're some coffee connoisseur, in which case we'll go down to a real cafe!

Where's this Hokkien Mee from?

I've spent quite a bit of time on this blog bemoaning the absence of authentic KL-style Hokkien Mee here in Melbourne. (I know, I know, here I go again!) Well, here's a commendable effort, with prawns, pork, cuttlefish, cabbage, lots of garlic and the all-important pork lard. The sauce isn't quite thick and black enough, but the cook (who's actually from KL, and grew up on Jalan Ampang) is working on it. He hopes to have it close to perfect by the time he gets here in October. All the best, Dad, see you and Mum soon!

Now THIS is 100% authentic!

Two minutes 53 seconds before this shot was taken, it was a world-class bowl of Sarawak Laksa. RM3 in Kuching, RM15 or thereabouts at Alexis in Bangsar (KL), absolutely, magnificently priceless here in Melbourne. There's no way my photography could do justice to my wife's amazing noodles. And besides, I was too busy scoffing it down to think about a camera. So here you go, the aftermath of tonight's dinner. The only reason there's about 15ml of soup left in the bowl is because of Babes' (un)timely reminder about my cholesterol level.

In search of cod

Here's something I really, really miss! Just like the KFC Hot n' Spicy variant, it never occurred to me that I wouldn't be able to find cod here in Australia. Well, at least not in Melbourne anyway. Some of you would know that steamed cod is one of my specialties, one of the few items in my (very) limited repertoire of culinary delights. And. I. Can't. Find. It. Here. Instead, there's some dodgy thingy called Murray Cod, which looks and tastes absolutely nothing like the real thing. Oh well. Guess I've gotta wait till September...

Back to Malaymas

You might recall an earlier post ("Chicken season continues" on June 30) where I mentioned this Malaysian restaurant in North Fitzroy. Well, I've been meaning to go back there and test the authencity of their other dishes. So tonight I tried the Char Kway Teow, and guess what? It's 96% authentic, I kid you not! With clams, 'lap cheong', just the right texture and blackness, and even that familiar 'wokky' flavour. Never mind the fact that it costs A$8.90, which is somewhere in the region of RM24. Ayuh, if I calculated everything, I'd starve! Anyway, Char Kway Teow's sorted, now if only someone could get the KL-style Hokkien Mee right...

The second-best burgers in Melbourne

As Mietta's review says, "Some come by foreign convertible car, others by tram, from far and wide they come for Andrew's burgers". So of course, I had to try it lah. Incidentally, I was going to use a shot taken using a co-worker's brand new Sony Ericsson K800i (with a 3.2 megapixel camera), but for some reason the shot he took focused more on the oil-soaked wrapper. So sorry, no free plug for a mobile phone manufacturer, I've taken an image from www.burgerquest.com instead. Anyway, Andrew's Burger (I ordered the one with "The Lot") WAS pretty awesome, and yup, it's the best I've had in Melbourne, other than my wife's yummy gourmet versions. But when it comes down to it, it's still not a Ramly Burger. For the non-Malaysians among us, the Ramly Burger is Malaysia's gift to the world of fast food. You've gotta try one...

Flashback to our honeymoon, Part One

Someone recently asked for accommodation recommendations in Tuscany and Umbria, where we went on our honeymoon two years ago. (We also went to gorgeous, spectacular Santorini, but that's a different story, and possibly a different post.) Here's an interesting one in the beautiful hilltop town of Orvieto, which was featured in Conde Nast Traveller. Palazzo Caravajal was built in the 15th century for an Italian cardinal, and here's our room with its 18th century frescoes. That lovely room plus a delicious breakfast was just 60 Euros, quite a bargain especially for Italy. It's not flash or anything, just cosy and steeped in history. And it just so happened that Orvieto was the venue for a Slow Food celebration while we were there. So of course we stuffed ourselves silly with a special menu that night, including the region's specialty: wild boar.

Doing our bit for the Victorian tourism industry

Amidst reports of declining tourism numbers in Victoria, the Bracks Government will be pleased to know about our recent (well, fairly recent) visitors. And here we all are on the beach in St Kilda! Thanks for coming, guys, we miss you all... I know these are the kind of photos that would only interest the people in them, but what the heck, this is our blog! And thanks to Will and Joose for sending the lovely pictures to us, taken with the outstanding Nikon D70S. There you go, free plug for Nikon...

Friday night in Heidelberg

After a quick stop at Ikea for some home essentials, it was time to decide on a dinner venue. The Chinaman that I am suggested an old favourite: Pacific House in Richmond, home of excellent roast duck (yes, duck again, so sue me) and other Chinese delights. But then the Entertainment Guide was brandished in front of my face, and I remembered reading a very favourable review about Cafe Matto in Heidelberg. So off we went, and it was pretty darn good. Babes had Hapaku (NZ fish) wrapped in prosciutto, while I had the Osso Buco. Round 'em off with a glass of Italian wine (can't remember what it was called lah), a slice of lemon tart with King Island cream, the Entertainment Guide offer of buy-one-main-get-one-main-free, and we both left extremely happy. And only a wee bit poorer. We'll be back for sure, this time to try the potato gnocchi - which has been getting rave reviews - and probably the pizza. Anyone care to join us?

Malaysia Boleh!

Say hello to Chris and Joel, ex-colleagues of mine at DDB Singapore. Chris is a Kepong boy who's also my personal Mac consultant, while Joel is a part-time wine connoisseur from Kuching. Here they are at the recent Osim Triathlon in Singapore, medals and all. Well done, boys!
Sorry girls, they're both taken... well, Chris is anyway. As for Joel, he tends to get quite secretive about his social/love life. I'll find out and get back to you!

A Night at the Old Kingdom

Six days a week, chef Simon (not me lah) puts on a show for Peking Duck lovers. It begins with a quick lesson on how to prepare the first course; "First, put the crepe on the plate." Or if you're across the table, he might even toss it over. Unfortunately his aim isn't as true as it used to be, as mine landed two inches short of my plate. "Next, one piece each of spring onion and cucumber, placed at a quarter past three." Once the duck has been sliced onto the crepe, fold up the crepe, "six o' clock up, twelve o' clock down, nine o' clock across." It's just a little bit of theatre before the serious business of eating begins. Crepes, sliced duck and beansprouts then soup, all for under thirty bucks per person. And you get to take the carcasses home, which we all did, including Kieren.