The Tuck's Ridge Wedding

And this is why everyone was in Melbourne for the New Year; Alison and Waling's wedding. Held at a Red Hill winery in the Mornington Peninsula, it was a charming, memorable occasion with surfer-dude guitarists (!), great views and roo meat on the barbie. And a great bunch of people, as you can tell from the picture. The only person who couldn't be bothered to look at the camera? That's Gary, who's too busy kissing his lovely new girlfriend Melissa.

Patsze in the Peninsula

We had the pleasure of Miss Jetsetter Teo's company for a few days, when she flew over for Alison and Waling's wedding after spending Christmas with her boyfriend Mark and family in South Africa. Here she is looking quite the samseng at the Arthur's Seat viewpoint, and then with Babes after a spot of cherry-picking. (The girls went nuts on the trees, and we were eating cherries for days.) Anyway, I think she made the most of her time here, and we hope to see her back in Melbourne again before too long. Mark, you're cordially invited too!

Makan at Montalto

Here we are at one of the Mornington Peninsula's best-known restaurants. The food was yummy, and so was the setting. Actually neither Babes nor I realised quite how nice the Peninsula was until now, with wineries and beaches in such close proximity. We shared a lovely farmhouse in Flinders with views of rolling pastures and the sea in the distance. I dare say we'll be spending quite a bit more time in the region...

New Year's Eve at the Beach Club

No, not the SPG hangout in KL, but the club at the Docklands. Which is where a lot of us gathered, due to the number of people in town for Alison and Waling's wedding. Just look at the number of lovely young women, especially that gorgeous one seated extreme right in the top picture. Sorry guys, she's married. All in all, not a bad place to welcome 2007, and the food was halfway decent too.

Oops, rewind to Christmas Eve!

Babes has 'gently' reminded me ("Buuuuuuuuubs, you didn't put it in the blooooooogggg...") that I left out the Christmas Eve banquet we hosted (which she did a heck of a lot of preparing for). Sorry, babes! Anyway, here's photographic evidence of an extravagant spread - the tail-end of it anyway - including grilled prawns, glazed ham, salads and antipastos. Thanks to Simone and parents, Jack and Mars, Gwen, Audra, Harris and Kate for celebrating our second Aussie Christmas with us!

Mars turns 28!

Happy Birthday Marlene! We enjoyed your birthday breakfast at one of our fave places, the cafe at Studley Park Boathouse. Thanks also, I think, to Erica for her stories about toilet experiences in China. I don't think this blog is the place to repeat any of those anecdotes though...
Mars chose a lovely summer's day to turn 28, so we walked off a bit of our brekkies with a (short) walk along the river. And in true Asian fashion, we made several stops right in the middle of the bike path to chat and gossip... our apologies to all the inconvenienced cyclists that morning!

Wei's Annual Christmas Degustation

So there we were yet again at Wei and Paul's place, celebrating Christmas with a massive gourmet banquet. Our contribution was this yumlicious, humongous glazed ham you see on the right. Babes had never done one before, and did very well. What did I do? The glazing! Many thanks to Wei and Paul once again for being such amazing, generous and gracious hosts. Here's to many more celebrations with great food, wine and company! And as you can see, gorgeous young ladies too...

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...