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!