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The whole object of travel is not to set foot on foreign land; it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.” – G.K. Chesterton

Monday 31 October 2005

A friend's wedding :)

Yesterday, one of my high school friends got married. And although I was the first to get married amongst all my groups of friends from both high schools and uni, the fact that I'm attending more and more weddings just kinda hits home the fact that we're all getting older!! The wedding ceremony was a traditional catholic ceremony, held at St Patrick's Basilica in Fremantle, and the reception was held at The Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle.

I was, of course, armed with my dSLR camera, and I took lots of photos. This is the first photo I took of the day, and it is probably my favourite one of the bride. We arrived at the church on time, but so did the bridal party, and that's how I managed to get this shot - Coralee's smile radiated amongst the frenzy (her nerves were probably quite rattled though, from the stories I heard from her brother and her bridesmaids). Her mum was very cool and funny :) - she had that cheongsam made 26 years ago in Malaysia two sizes too big (deliberately), and she didn't know she would be wearing it to her daughter's wedding.


Here are more photos taken with my camera by either Rob or friends.










This last picture was taken by the function DJ - he saw our group posing (nicely) for our cameras, rushed over and insisted that we blew kisses to his camera. Such a cheesey pose, isn't it?

Monday 24 October 2005

A Little Moorish Cafe, East Perth

Last night, went out with some of my friends from uni for a catch-up dinner at this quaint little Morrocan restaurant with a nice waterfront view in East Perth.

There weren't that many dishes offered on the menu for main meals, with more variety for entrees and light meals (eg salads) - which makes sense as it is a cafe setting. From memory, the following were available as a main meal with prices varying from around $21 to $33 (I don't remember the names of the dishes, just the description): eggplant moussaka, chicken with cannellini bean paste, beef steak of some sort, steamed lamb shanks, fish of the day, and the tapas plate. We ordered most of what was on the menu and we all had a little taste of everyone's plate.

The tapas plate (for around $27) had three variety of dips to go with the turkish bread - a chickpea-type dip, a yoghurt-type dip and a dip made with eggplant. There were also moroccan spiced chicken wings and squids in a chilli lemon sauce. For an extra $6.00, you can order meatballs with your tapas plate. The menu states that the tapas plate is a tasting plate for two or a main meal for one. I would say having one plate would be too much for me for a main meal (as it proved for both Amy (hers with meatballs) and Chrissy (hers without meatballs)), and probably would be enough to share between two relatively small eaters if extra turkish bread was ordered for the dips. The squids were done very nicely - not overcooked and chewy, but tender and juicy. The chicken wings had a tasty spiced coating, and although it was probably fried, it wasn't at all greasy.


The eggplant moussaka (cost around $21) is a vegetarian dish comprising of several eggplant layers with chickpea stuffing in between the layers. Kinda like a lasagne, except slices of eggplant are used instead of pasta sheets.
Tung proclaimed it to be a yummy dish. It certainly looked very appetising.


Rob chose the lamb shanks with red wine sauce (for around $24), which he thought was quite delicious. The flesh was very tender, but the smell and taste of lamb was far too strong for me to say that I liked it (the smell of red meat is the main reason why I prefer not to eat red meat).


For myself, I selected the chicken with cannellini bean paste (around $23). The chicken appeared to have been prepared in a stew until the meat was falling off the bones, served with a tasty sauce on top of cannellini bean paste. The meat was nice and tender, but the highlight of this dish to me was the bean paste, probably because I've never had cannellini beans before, neither have I had beans prepared in this manner. The paste had a thick-ish consistency similar to mashed potatoes but grainier and beanier. It was yummy anyway.


At around 8pm, we had entertainment in the form of a bellydancer. It certainly is an interesting dance to watch. We all admired the dancer's abs, which was quite pronounced.



The food was enjoyable, the company was fantastic - I had a great time.

Wednesday 19 October 2005

Pride and Prejudice - the movie

Yeah I know this is not a movie blog, but I was at a movie preview last night for Pride and Prejudice and have some opinions on the movie. When I won the tickets to see the movie about 2 weeks ago, I decided that I ought to read the Jane Austen book before watching the movie. So I searched the net to download the book (copyright to the book has expired and is freely available on the internet such as here). Heh, since Rob was accompanying me to the preview, he decided to read the book for fun as well (and finished it before I did! There's a first for everything!). The book, whilst isn't the most amazing or best book I've read, was interesting enough to keep me engrossed. The old english language can sometimes be a challenge but ever since reading Tolkien's Lord of the Rings series (where there are pages and pages just describing the scenery), I've learnt to read to get the general gist of the story. Besides, it's not like I'm analysing the book for Year 12 English Lit or anything :P

Some spoilers possible here (although not really spoilers if you'd already read the book :P).

Okay, for me, the movie was pretty disappointing. The characters weren't as rich as I'd imagined them to be. For example, in the movie, Elizabeth Bennet wasn't portrayed as intelligent or as "impertinent" as she was in the book. Her change of feelings towards Darcy was not as extreme as it was in the book, and Darcy's apparent change in character wasn't quite as marked - so I felt that the movie ending didn't have as much impact as the book's ending. In the book, Mr. Bennet (the father) was a rather fun character - fun in the sense that he wasn't the typical fatherly or husbandly figure. In the movie however, he was portrayed as an affectionate, almost romantic person. Mrs. Bennet (the mother) was quite a bit more embarassing in the book than in the movie. The portrayal of Mr. Wickham was not as evil as in the book. And what have they done to the noble Mr. Bingley's character?! He is portrayed as a bumbling comic relief!

I felt that the dialogue and the plot were rather dysjunctive (if that's even a word?) - probably due to the fact that they are trying to fit a whole freakin' book into two hours. Rob and I agreed that we would be quite confused if we hadn't read the book prior to watching the movie, especially with the old english dialogue. I think the movie's weakness would probably be fitting in too much in too little detail in the two hours. And also romanticising everything!! Heh. I guess you can't really satisfy everyone. I truly wonder if I could enjoy the movie (or whether I'd be playing catch-up) if I hadn't read the book.

Sunday 16 October 2005

Agni Fine Cuisine, Innaloo

Friday night, I met up for dinner with my high school friends at this Indian restaurant in Innaloo. The restaurant is not situated near the Innaloo shopping strip so I got confused on my way there and was late for dinner (I'm soooo sorry, guys!).

Anyway, after some deliberation over the menu offerings, we decided on the following:

The three of us ordered mango lassi ($3.50). It was very mango-ey and thick, but probably a bit too sweet.


Chicken Korma - a mild 'curry' dish with very tender chicken meat. Honestly, the chicken meat felt like it melted in my mouth. This is a spicy dish, although I wouldn't say it's chilli hot.


Tandoori Chicken - probably the most well-known Indian dish. I believe this dish was prepared by marinating the chicken in spices, and then roasting/baking/grilling the chicken. I quite liked this one, although Anne and Rachael found it a bit too dry and charred. This is a good dish for those whose palates cannot handle hot spicy food.


Beef Vindaloo - we got this because Anne wanted something challenging. And sure enough, it was pretty hot and spicy for her but she liked it. I didn't find it all that hot for my palate, but I was brought up on chilli so that is to be expected. This dish was okay considering I don't like red meat, although probably a little bit too 'rich' for me as far as curries go. The sauce is pretty thick and quite oily. I probably ate more of this than the other two dishes, mainly because I know I need the iron and also because I could handle the spiciness and wanted to leave the milder dishes for my friends.


We had basmati rice flavoured with saffron and cardamon to accompany the dishes. Some naan bread was ordered as well as one of the 'rotis' (I wasn't familiar with this type of roti - it wasn't paratha or chapati).


When the food was finally brought to the table, the serving sizes of the dishes looked deceptively small. Rachael even commented that she may have to stop by Maccas on the way home. Heh, well, we had trouble finishing the food and had to take-away the leftovers of the vindaloo for Rob. So the serving sizes were quite sufficient. The cost of each of the dishes was around $16, the naan bread and the roti cost around $3.50 each and the rice was around $7 for the four of us. With the Entertainment Card discount (25%off?), the total bill came to around $60 ($15pp).

All in all, I had a fantastic time on Friday night. Although the food was great, I believe I enjoyed the company better.

Thursday 13 October 2005

Beautiful day at Lake Monger

The other weekend, Rob and I rode to Leederville, bought subway sandwiches and then made our way to Lake Monger to have a little picnic. I brought along my camera and here are some of the views we had:





Monday 10 October 2005

La Cascade on Stirling Hwy, Claremont

For her birthday, we took my mother-in-law (MIL) to the French restaurant, La Cascade which is not far from UWA. Rob and myself have been to this quaint little place maybe twice in the past three years, and we really enjoyed ourselves. It is one of the places on our list for special occasions, however it shall unfortunately be removed from the list after our last encounter.

We first ate at La Cascade about three years ago at Honey's recommendations. At that time, La Cascade offered a grand 4 course French meal for the price of $38. This was rather pricey for us as we were still uni students, but we found this place to be a rather nice indulgent treat. We visited the restaurant again earlier this year and found it acceptable that the price had increased to $43 for the 4 course meal. Rob had the wonderful opportunity to try escargot, which he absolutely loved.

Last night, we sat down and discovered that the price had increased to $49 for a 3 course meal. The menu was very much the same except that the vegetables that used to come as a complimentary accompaniment to the main meal is now charged at $6.50 per person. And we had a rather unpleasant surprise later while paying the bill that there is a *compulsory* corkage charge for every customer of $2.00 per person regardless of whether you did bring your own drink or not. Hm. We think that the place may have changed management because we did not see the usual hostess whom we'd assumed to be the owner.

However, determined not to let the price increases and additional costs sour the birthday celebration, we proceeded to consider the menu offerings. I had unfortunately developed a stomach problem prior to dinner, so I decided that I would not be able to take full advantage of the 3 course meal and chose to go for the a-la-carte option. (I still had trouble with finishing my soup and main course so there was no way I could have enjoyed dessert as well).

I did take out my camera and placed it next to me so I could take photos of the food, but I didn't remember to take photos of our entrees until Rob and his mum were already finishing off their respective entrees (I was halfway through my soup, but soups aren't terribly exciting to take a shot of). Not to fret, I did take shots of our main courses and dessert before tucking in. As to be expected of a French restaurant, the presentation of the food was impeccable.

Obviously I cannot remember the dishes' names in French, so I shall only give a description of each of them. For entree, my MIL chose a chicken dish wrapped in puff pastry. It looked delicious (you have to take my word for it). She chose lamb cutlets for her main course, and it came out sizzling on a hotplate. I had a tiny taste of it, and it was nice, considering that I don't have much preference for red meat (especially lamb).



Rob chose a scallops dish for entree, served with bechemel sauce and cheese. The scallops were juicy and were done very nicely (had Rob's tick of approval for not overcooking the scallops). The sauce complimented the scallops perfectly. For main course, Rob chose young chicken in a spicy sauce. This was really yummy. The sauce was only a little bit spicy, and it went really well with the chicken.



I had a creamy vegetable soup, which seemed like the safest thing to go for in consideration of my (annoying) digestive system. It was surprisingly very nice (surprising because it sounded so plain and boring) and had a delicious and somewhat familiar taste which we could not quite identify. For my main course, I had pork wrapped in filo pastry with prune sauce. It was delicious, but both Rob and I agreed that when we ate the chicken dish after the pork dish, the chicken one was nicer in comparison.



For dessert, Rob and his mum both chose Bavarian chocolate with orange sauce. I had a tiny taste of it, and sure enough, it was far too rich for me to enjoy (what is wrong with me?!). I had another taste and it was already bordering on the overload so I stopped there. The orange sauce went really well with the mousse/pudding/? (we could not figure out what it was meant to be).



I'm going to go on a bit of a rant here, so stop here if you want to have leave with a good impression of La Cascade.

The three of us chit-chatted and had a really good time. When we decided it was good time to leave, we stood at the counter by the door for a good 10 minutes before someone attended to us. In all of that 10 minutes, I was so tempted to just walk out the door (and I think we would've gotten away with it). I could not understand why no one could have taken a mere couple of minute just to attend to our payment. That was just the beginning of it.

The chef finally came out (probably did not trust either of the waiters to deal with the payments) to show me the bill. I noticed he charged me as having had the 3 course meal instead of a-la-carte which would work out to be a bit more than $10 extra. I asked for explanation, and was actually considering not kicking too much of a fuss and just pay the said amount for my MIL's sake on her birthday celebration. However, the chef made an offhand remark to my MIL and Rob "All Asians do this to me - have to check everything" when I asked for an explanation.

I took offense at that rather racist remark and decided I was gonna stand my ground. I still cannot see how he could not comprehend his mistake. It was so logical, but probably blinded by his prejudice against my race, he kept insisting that if he charged me a-la-carte, it would only work out to be a mere $1 cheaper rather than the $12 I claimed he was overcharging. Basically his error was double-charging corkage (which should not be there in the first place), vegetables and drinks. He was rather arrogant - he wasn't even willing to hear me out. After about 5 minutes of this, he said that all he wants is for me to pay the said amount, and I could take the bill home to figure it out. Eheh, I don't think so, mister. The chef served other customers settling their payment at the counter whilst we explained the situation to Rob's mum. We all agreed that I was correct and the chef was wrong, and my MIL advised that I pay what I think is correct. One of the customers pointed out a mistake on their bill as well, so that must have gotten the chef thinking that maybe I was correct because when my MIL took the bill and told him that I was right, he readily said, "Ok, let's work it out". Either that, or he was willing to listen to a non-Asian. Or that he was really trying to confuse us into paying more (which he would have succeeded at if he hadn't made that racist remark). Whatever it was, he came to the exact same figure that I'd arrived at much earlier. He was so much more agreeable and civil as well, but he was mainly talking to MIL. Gotta make you wonder.

Anyway, that's my story, and if you do choose to go to La Cascade, make sure you check the bill and be prepared for disagreements. Rob said to me afterwards "The chef should have known better than to argue with an engineer, a scientist and an accountant on maths".

Sunday 2 October 2005

Seven

Oh dear me, I was 'tagged' by Honey to do this, and I'm supposed to tag seven people to do it, but I don't know many people with blogs! This is like a chain-mail version for blogs, isn't it? So I shall do the sensible thing and let the chain end at my end, but I can't be rude to my sister either so here are my answers:

Seven things you plan to do before you die:

1. Live in at least ten different countries for at least 1 year each.
2. Learn to fluently speak and understand at least three languages other than English, Mandarin, Malay and French and pick up where I left off with my Mandarin, Malay and French
3. Do at least one significant thing (that will be remembered) that contributes positively to the environment and the people of the third world countries
4. Visit Alaska, Africa and Antarctica (not quite hospitable enough for me to consider living in though!!)
5. Learn to cook at least one dish from each culture in existence around the world
6. Expand on my photography skills and my astronomy knowledge, and combine them to capture good astronomical photos.
7. Not to become jaded, cynical and bitter with life as I age.

Seven things I could do:

1. Pick up where I left off with my piano learning
2. Spend less time reading gossip articles on celebrities
3. Put on more muscle mass
4. Go to the doctor's, spend lots of time and $$ to find out what is wrong with my digestive system (I don't have a great fondness for doctor visits)
5. Be less concerned about taking artificial/processed/etc stuff and take iron supplements
6. Be more easygoing and less OCB-like
7. Quit my job, pack my bags and head over to Hong Kong to live there

Seven celebrity crushes:

Hm, I don't really have celebrity crushes as such, but the following list are of people whose work I've admired
1. Brad Pitt
2. Johnny Depp
3. Drew Barrymore
4. Cate Blanchett
5. Angelina Jolie (okay, she hasn't played any great roles, but her humanitarian efforts are commendable)
6. Jewel
7. Alicia Keys - great pianist and musician in general

Seven often repeated words:

1. Oh-noes!
2. Itadakimasu, Okaerinasai, So-desuka etc (any simple japanese phrase (used in the correct context, of course) that I picked up from watching anime)
3. Oh-man!
4. I dunno
5. sigh
6. Aiyoh-wan-lah (this is Rob's creation to amalgamate the three slang he has heard my family and myself say)
7. Dagnammit (another one I picked up from Rob)

Seven physical traits I look for in the opposite sex:

Hm, well this is difficult coz I don't really go for physical looks, and I don't really perve on guys. I suppose I can look at the physical traits I like about Rob to answer this question.
1. Eyes
2. Smile
3. Hands
4. Height
5. Build (not too fat, not too skinny, not too muscly, not too scrawny)
6. An honest, open face
7. ...

Seven things I do to make myself happy

1. Spend time with my Robbie
2. Cook
3. Eat
4. Go to movies
5. Watch cooking shows for ideas
6. Watch animes
7. Eat (I like food, okay?)

Saturday 1 October 2005

Almost Death by Chocolate biscuit with coconut



I decided to make a choccie biscuit using the remainder dark chocolote from making the Death by Chocolate cake, and hence the name Almost Death by Choc. I was going to add choc chips as well, but decided against it for fear of making the biscuit a little OTT.

Ingredients
80g dark chocolate
90g butter
100g sugar (about 50:50 ratio between castor sugar and brown sugar)
1 large egg
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
200g (1.5 cups) plain flour
1/2tsp baking soda
1/4 cup baking cocoa powder
50g (0.5 cup) dessicated coconut

Method
Melt chocolate with some butter in saucepan, stirring until smooth, taking care to make sure the choc doesn't burn [If you have the time, melt the chocolate in a glass bowl on top of a pot with boiling water in it, taking care not to touch the bowl on the boiling water (so use a steaming rack in the pot) and make sure the mouth of the bowl is high enough to prevent steam getting inside the bowl].
Preheat the oven to 180degC. Cream the butter and sugar. Mix in the egg and vanilla extract. Add the dry ingredients and mix well. Fold in the melted chocolate mixture until well combined with the dough mixture. Take tablespoonful of dough, roll into a ball and flatten before placing on a well-greased oven tray. This mixture should make about 20 biscuits.