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.