Amanda's Masterpiece

Time for another of Wei's epic banquets, this time a Malaysian celebration. Amanda's contribution? That classic Malaysian favourite, Bak Kut Teh. Which was the ideal opportunity to test my new toy, a Nikon D40 dSLR which I had been eyeing for quite a while now. The dish was a masterpiece, and I'd like to think the picture isn't too bad either...

Japanese Women Don't Get Old Or Fat

This book by Naomi Moriyama provides useful eating advice (hot on the heels of - and one up on - 'French Women Don't Get Fat' by Mireille Guiliano), including the Japanese principle of "Hara hachi bunme," or "Eat until you are 80 percent full." Funny cos' we Malaysians usually eat until we're 115% percent full! It also features light and healthy recipes like this one; soba noodles in a warm dressing of mirin, soy sauce and dashi, garnished with spring onions, seaweed, spinach leaves, beanshoots and toasted sesame seeds which Babes whipped up to accompany panfried salmon marinated with mirin and sake. It was Ichiban, babes!

Des and Sue in Auckland

Thanks guys for your hospitality, and for bringing us with you on your relentless pursuit of authentic Malaysian and Singaporean cuisine. They found me the best doggone KL-style Hokkien Mee outside of KL, at a place called Bunga Raya. It was awesome, probably within 81.64% of the KL benchmark. The curry laksa was pretty good too... but oh, that Hokkien Mee... especially after our special request that they use pork lard to cook it, haha! See you guys in Melbourne soon, where we'll make sure the two-and-a-half of you (two-and-three-quarter by then) are well-fed!

Chocolate Fish

This Wellington cafe was one of the favourite hangouts of the Lord of the Rings cast and crew. So with an inevitable kiasuness developed after years of living in Singapore, off we went lah. It wasn't hard to find, and the drive along Scorching Bay towards and away from it is pretty awesome. We were in between meals, so we didn't try their (rather overpriced) paninis or other food, but the latte was pretty good. There was a guy sitting in the corner who looked like Peter Jackson, but... naaaah... or was it?

The Sushi Crawl

Some people go on pub crawls. In Wellington, well, we went on a bit of a sushi binge. I guess we found ourselves starved of good Japanese food in recent weeks, so this was the inevitable result. The plan was actually to have some 'starters' at one place (called Wasabi, owned and run by a Malaysian, with excellent soft shell crab hand rolls), then visit the local supermarket for some world-famous Bluff Oysters and some beautiful NZ beef or lamb for a home-cooked meal. Unfortunately said supermarket had no oysters, nor did the beef or lamb look particularly inspiring. So off we went to another sushi bar (this one was called Catch) for Part Two of our dinner. And while we're on the subject of crawling, Wellington sushi trains go exceptionally fast! If you look at a plate and hesitate, it'll already have passed you by. Suppose that's good for developing decisiveness...

Windy Weather in Wellington

I thought Chicago was the Windy City, but Wellington was just as bad! Gale force winds aside, we both loved it there, it was probably our favourite part of New Zealand. Well, fave part of North Island anyway. The host at our B&B laughed when I asked if we could borrow an umbrella. I guess she had visions of me doing the Mary Poppins thing and getting blown away across the ocean. Fortunately we had one lovely clear day to explore, and we made the most of it. We loved the Wellington vibes, and the Japanese food too. But that's another story...

Beaches and Vineyards

Napier's a pretty cool place, not just because of Bay Bach. After an earthquake destroyed the whole town in 1931, everything was rebuilt in the Art Deco style which was all the rage at that time. You'll also find lovely beaches and numerous wineries, including Black Barn, Mission Estate and Te Mata. Too bad we only scheduled one night there, one more would have been nice.

Bay Bach in Napier

We found ourselves a beautiful bed and breakfast place in a beautiful town. Jill and Iain have created a stylish, inspiring, eco-friendly residence in the Hawkes Bay area, and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly there. They were really good hosts and also made the perfect dinner recommendation; Provedore in Ahuriri which was one of the best meals we had in NZ. Thanks for the wonderful stay, guys, and if we ever build our own home, we'll be thinking of Bay Bach...

Not the Tongariro Crossing

We had planned to do the Tongariro Crossing, which is reputed to be one of New Zealand's best one day walks, but didn't end up doing it. So we ended up doing Tongariro Lite instead! It was a two hour walk to Taranaki Falls and back, still within Tongariro National Park, but much less intense. And because we had prepared for the Crossing, we were really well-equipped, with trekking boots, daypacks, a Subway sandwich each for lunch, lots and lots of water, protein bars, nuts and more. Kinda like killing a fly with a shotgun... Babes even found the time to answer a couple of work-related calls from good old NAB in Melbourne.

Bubs and Babes in Rotorua

We're back! Spent 10 wonderful days in New Zealand, but now it's back to reality. I was going to start this post with a comment about how Rotorua stinks, but I guess that would be too obvious. Anyway, we spent one night there, and enjoyed the geyser and Maori thing at Te Puia. Food-wise, we tried the traditional 'hangi' meal but were decidedly underwhelmed...

Bubs and Babes are off on holiday!

We're off to New Zealand, for the first time in our lives. This trip never happened when we were living in Singapore as we were waiting for when we moved to Melbourne. And so we depart tomorrow on NZ8 at 12 noon, courtesy of Krisflyer. That means no posts for a while; it's fun and all to say we'll post something from every town we visit, but you and I both know that's not gonna happen... so until we return, Happy Easter everyone!

Matteo's, finally

We drive past Matteo's on our way to work every morning, and we've heard good things from a number of people. So we finally made our way there (with the lovely Kaz), taking advantage of The Age's Food and Wine Festival Express Lunch deals to indulge. $30 got us two courses plus wine and coffee, which is a pretty good deal for a place like this. Good deal aside, the food was pretty good, and so was the service. While it doesn't hurt that parking is not a problem at all. Simple pleasures lah. We'll be back. (Picture reproduced from www.yourrestaurants.com.au)

Eighty Minutes by Car

We enjoyed a leisurely Saturday lunch in the Mornington Peninsula, taking a pleasant drive down (and getting slightly lost on the way) to a lovely winery called Ten Minutes by Tractor. (The name comes from the fact that their three vineyards are all ten minutes apart by tractor. Likewise, our humble Thornbury townhouse will hereon be known as Ninety Seconds on Foot.) Anyway, I say "leisurely Saturday" but In hindsight, one of us (who shall remain unnamed to avoid embarassing her) took things a little too leisurely, and Bubs ended up twenty minutes late for his Mandarin class. I suppose that's probably a good measure of how good the food was, like the pork belly pictured here. And sorry you're not in either shot, Andrew, but we thoroughly enjoyed your company anyway.

Another Paternal Birthday

Not Babes' dad this time, but Bubs' dad. Mum took him to Citrus (in Ipoh) for a steak. Looks really yummy and medium rareish, just the way I like it too! Happy Birthday Dad from across the miles, here's wishing you good health and prosperity for many, many more years to come!

Bistro Vue

Not many restaurants (well, not many that we can afford anyway) request credit card details when you make a reservation. Bistro Vue does, and charges a $50 cancellation fee per head for a no-show. I find that somewhat annoying, but am willing to let it go if the food is good. And was the food at Bistro Vue good? Yes! Very good in fact, all the way from the steak tartare right down to the chocolate souffle. Although paying $8 for a paper cone of fries (even if they are delicious fries, cooked in goose fat) seems a wee bit excessive...

Hunger vs Pictures

There we were at my brother James' apartment on St Kilda Road, staring intently at a delicious spread of food. The camera was right there next to James, but none of us noticed and dug straight in. Hence the lack of photos in this post. That's right, no photographic evidence of the amazing ikan pepes, bak kut teh or any of the other goodies he prepared. I'll try and remember next time...

Dad and The Twins

Off we went on a daytrip to the Mornington Peninsula, on Day One of CNY which also happened to be Dad's birthday. This was one of the back beaches on the way back. Jack and Mars had walked off into the sunset (well, not really, but you know what I mean) while Mum was trying to decide whether to get her feet wet or not.

The Big Feast

That's right, yet ANOTHER one! But what else would you expect on Chinese New Year's Eve? Although I must say Amanda's photography here isn't of her usual high standards... she must've been dizzy with anticipation. Can't say I blame her, with a humongous spread that included Yee Sang (yup, my first in two years!), roast duck, ngoh hiang, salmon sashimi and a whole lot more! Gong Xi Fa Cai!

We're on a Chinese New Year hiatus

That's a polite way of saying we're too busy to post anything right now. But it won't be for too much longer! It's been a busy few weeks with CNY, in-laws in town, work etc. Speaking of CNY, we had our first Yee Sang fix in two years. Yummy! More details and photos (thanks, Mans) before too long. Meanwhile, Kong Hee Fatt Choy to one and all!

Our Windy Weekend

When we were living in Singapore, we used to plan waaaaay ahead for long weekends. Seems like we don't do that any more, for a variety of reasons, such as a lack of cheap flights to exotic places. Phillip Island was somewhere neither of us had ever been to, so we thought we'd give it a shot. Thanks to Peter and Gin for helping us find a holiday home to rent at a very reasonable price! So off we went during the Australia Day weekend, for what turned out to be a lovely relaxing time. But most remarkably, the winds were strong and unceasing... Mary Poppins would have had a gala time! In fact, I half expected to see strollers flying off the pier at Cowes. Did we see the famous penguins? Well, neither of us felt particularly inclined to rub shoulders with a couple of thousand tourists. Maybe next time!