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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

Thursday 10 May 2007

... and a week in Perth

A couple of hours after landing in Perth, we had a dinner engagement at Miss Maud's - an all-you-can-eat smorgasbord, which was a great place to have a variety of western-style food that we missed in Japan. And as mentioned before, we had lots of Chinese and Malaysian food when we met up with friends and family. We went to Billy Lee and Hawker's Cuisine, both in Northbridge's Chinatown (if you didn't already know, Chinatown is one of the best places in Perth to try authentic Chinese food), and also to our old favourites like Malaysian Gourmet at the Broadway Shops near UWA (the best hofun and charkueyteow in town!), Penang Foods on William Street, Northbridge (great laksa and nasi lemak) and Hong Kong BBQ. During our trip, Rob frequently commented how he missed flavoursome food. We love Japanese food, but they can be a bit on the bland side. Indeed, we miss having a huge variety of authentic cuisine available to us - multiculturalism in Australia is indeed a blessing for foodies.

Seafood laksa and nasi lemak at Penang Foods in Northbridge:


[First photo] Combination tofu claypot is one of my favourite dishes to order at a Chinese restaurant, and I think we had that dish at least 3 times in the span of 10 days. [Second photo] We had some very yummy (but oh-so-greasy) roast duck, charsiew (bbq pork) and very fatty roast pork at Hong Kong BBQ:


For a change from all that Chinese/Malaysian food, we had good pasta at our favourite Italian eatery Siena's in Leederville, and tried some new places like Reflections in South Perth and The Greek in Northbridge. Reviews of some of these restaurants to follow in the next week.

My favourite dish at Siena's: lasagne. A lil 'Jean' history here - the first non-Asian dish I ever had was a beautiful homemade lasagne at a school friend's birthday party in Malaysia when I was about 8 years old. My friend's mother was from Sweden and she'd made a yummy lasagne for the party. I imprinted in my brain the name of this delicious foreign dish so that I could have it again. I have had lasagne since at many places, but Siena's lasagne is my favourite:


[First photo] With my younger sister Honey. She's not really that much taller than me (she in heels, me in sneakers). She has an amusing shot of me taking photos of food in a recent entry on her xanga. Indeed, I must make a strange sight when I whip out my chunky dSLR to take photos of food.
[Second photo] Enjoying one of my mum's delicious homecooked meals
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It was great catching up with our family and friends. I was kinda sad to leave Perth - I don't think 1 week was long enough, and I didn't have enough time to meet up with everyone I wanted to see but 1 week was definitely better than nothing. I will miss everyone (and the food)!

10 comments:

  1. Good lord. I've only ever heard about Honey, never actually seen any photos. Two gorgeous daughters - I feel really sorry for your dad. He must have had to earn a degree in jodo to fight off potential suitors for his two daughters all the time.
    Sounds like you had a great time in Perth, and I'm looking forward to your restaurant reviews - it's been a long, long time...

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  2. Haha thanks *blush* Growing up I was often considered (not just by me) the one least blessed with good looks amongst my sisters. I think that's still the case since I don't fuss about my appearance as much as my sisters do.
    That's the first I've heard of jodo. You obviously know a lot more about Japanese culture than I do, eventhough I'm the one in Japan.. :)

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  3. I know lots and lots from anime, so generally useless stuff in terms of academics but useful in terms of real life application. And jodo does come up a fair bit in anime... it also helps when some of your friends compete in it.

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  4. I keep hearing that about you and Honey, but you know what, I dunno if that's the case. It's like looking at two diamonds that are two different colours - both are beautiful, just in different ways... and I never met Honey, but I really hope that they didn't break the mould when they made you - I can only hope that I'm as lucky as Rob in the future :)
    --Kris

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  5. Awww, you sure know how to make girls feel nice :) I'm surprised you don't have girls falling at your feet!

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  6. Hmm... in order for that to happen there needs to be the opportunity to meet the right kind of ladies... and opportunity like that doesn't happen for me very often. I guess you could say that for me it's more of a case of being in the right place at the right time...?

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  7. All in good time, my friend.. after all, you're still young :) [p.s girls in Japan are nice, and they like gaijin boys...]

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  8. Aye, young I am, and patience is a virtue I possess, but there is much truth in saying we make all opportunities for ourselves.
    And tell me about the girls in Japan!!! I have no idea why they like the gaijin boys so much... is it because we treat them differently? Or perhaps for... *cough* other reasons? Either way, sometimes I wish the girls here were as nice as they were to us... It's just like Colin from Love Actually says - "I am Colin. God of Sex. I'm just on the wrong continent, that's all."

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  9. LoL! :D
    I think the reason is not unlike why gaijin boys like Japanese girls.. it's a novelty thing - something different to the norm. I've heard from fellow gaijin girls who have Japanese boyfriends that Japanese guys are... different. Not just *ahem* physically, but also the way they treat relationships. Not very consistent - either hot or cold. Or something like that.. not quite sure..

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  10. Like take it for granted? Or they just don't know how to REALLY stir the fires of passion in a lady? Because... you know... I'm all for showing them how it's done. Even Miyagi-sensei could learn a thing or two. And it's nice to know that if I went over there, I'd only be novelty of sorts, like a dog as cute as a button or hello kitty yeah, really raising the confidence levels here...

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