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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

Wednesday 30 May 2007

"Goodbye Rob" dinner & Baking for charity

On Friday, we had dinner with most of the Noto JETs at our apartment as a chance for Rob to meet up with them before he left for Tokyo. I prepared a spicy Thai yellow curry and a non-spicy Japanese stew called Niku-jyaga (which literally translates to "meat and potatoes). Our guests brought salad, yummy bread, drinks, snacks and company. It was an easy-going night, and I think Rob enjoyed the food, company and the games.



The next day, a charity concert was organised by some of the Noto JETs to raise some funds for the Noto Earthquake relief. I was asked to bake some stuff to sell, so I spent a couple of hours on Saturday morning baking brownies and Anzac biscuits. It is not easy to get oats in Japan, and I used the remaining oats I'd brought over from our last trip to Perth to make these biscuits. I used the standard Anzac biscuit recipe, and since it is readily available on the internet, I won't rewrite the recipe here.

The third biscuit batch came out of the oven and straight into the sink because somehow I managed to burn my hand eventhough I used the oven mit which worked fine for the first two batches. I cannot describe the feelings of frustration as I stared (whilst cursing the mit) at the wasted batch in the sink whilst treating my hand under running water.

We wanted to spend Rob's last day in Noto together so we didn't go to the concert (besides, Rob hadn't yet packed his stuff) but instead passed the baked goods onto Alex who brought them to the concert. I think the concert went well.

Tuesday 29 May 2007

Nihon Kai Club, Matsunami

Nihon Kai Club is a unique diner with an onsite brewery in Matsunami (about 20 minutes drive north from our apartment). Nihon Kai Club have somewhat random features - there is a Czech guy who brews beer (he doesn't speak much Japanese or English), a playground adjacent to the seaside with a long slide, and an emu farm. There are even wallabies on display! (How do they get them into Japan from Australia?) I googled the term "Nihon Kai" and apparently it means Sea of Japan, which is fitting because the Noto is surrounded by the Sea of Japan. We've heard about this place ever since we got to the Noto as it is a favourite amongst the Noto JETs, but only had the opportunity last weekend to try the food. Fellow JET Kim and her hubby Richie took us out for dinner there as a farewell thing for Rob. I loved the slide! It was dark after dinner when we went to look at the emus and wallabies, so we didn't see any. But we ate some emu meat for dinner! Here at Nihon Kai Club, you can pat the animal before you eat them - how's that for a 'hands-on' experience?

The slide down to the beach level; playground by the seaside:


Nihon Kai Club is a yoshoku-ya - a diner that serves yoshoku ryori (western dishes that are often Japanised). The location is very pleasant, and the site is very family-friendly (playground, mini-'wildlife' park - which kid would want more than that?). The building that the restaurant was in looks a lot like a large oldern western countryhouse - you know, something that you see on period movies that only the wealthy could afford? Nice exterior, and the interior was more classy than we'd expected of a brewery/farm. Service was polite and professional.

Walking into the restaurant after having fun in the playground; the cutlery set was pretty amusing - the knife, fork and spoon had a tail and fin!


The menu included emu (of course) and various western-style dishes like pizza, pasta and paella. In fact, I don't recall seeing any Japanese dishes at all on the menu. There's the Italian cosu (course) for 1500 yen, which Rob, Kim and Richie selected, and I went with the seafood paella which cost 1300 yen. The Italian course was very filling and definitely value for money.

(The lighting inside the restaurant wasn't very good for photography so I apologise for the bad photos. I avoid using flash whenever I can, and have spent some time editing the photos, so hopefully they're decent enough).

A-la-carte

Although the Italian course included entree, we ordered a plate of smoked meat and karaage-style emu meat to share as starters, mostly for Kim and Richie to try emu meat. The plate of smoked meat included ika (squid), sake (salmon) and emu. I have not had smoked ika before, so it was an interesting experience - it tasted just like smokey squid (surprise, surprise :P). The karaage emu looked and tasted just like karaage chicken, except for the tougher texture and the stronger red-meat-taste of emu meat. It was pretty greasy (as expected of a deep-fried food) and the prawn crackers served with the dish had a thick layer of oil on them. I'm not a big fan of deep-fried greasy food, so needless to say I wasn't that keen on this dish.

Entree: smoked meats and the karaage emu


My Seafood Paella was served in its paellera (paella pan) with prawns, shellfish (clam?) and squid. The saffron rice was Japanese short-grain rice, instead of the medium grains used traditionally for paella. Not an authentic dish, but still quite good in its own right. Serving size was not huge, as you can see in the photo. For dessert, I had Kuro Goma Aisu (black sesame ice-cream) which was indeed quite yummy in all its sesame goodness.

The paella and ice cream:


Italian course

The entree of the Italian course was liver (perhaps emu's?) served with pancetta and simply dressed with olive oil. The liver was darker and grayer than chicken's liver, but tasted similar to chicken's. After the entree, diners choose between pizza or pasta. The pizza had an unusual oblong shape, and the topping was a simple combination of cheese, tomato and pesto. It was pretty substantial, and quite good too. Pasta was spaghetti stirred with seafood and tomato sauce.

Italian course: entree and pizza


Red Wine Beef Risotto was served after the pizza/pasta course. This risotto was (of course) cooked with the Japanese short-grained rice instead of the traditional grains used for risotto like arborio, and it worked quite well since the Japanese short-grain rice are quite starchy and sticky. The beef was stewed in a red wine sauce, and was quite lovely and tender. Nice dish, but I thought the risotto was rather plain and quite bland. The dessert was Creme Brulee, which must have been yummy because Rob finished it all off while I was in the bathroom. I had a taste of Kim's brulee, and it was done quite well. The Japanese know how to do custard very well.

Italian course (continued): Red Wine Beef Risotto and dessert



It was a lovely dinner, and a beautiful night. The sky was clear and we could see brilliant Venus right next to the moon high in the sky. Finally, I'm in the right hemisphere to see Venus in all her glory! (In Perth, Venus rises with the sun and sets with the sun so that you either get to see Venus for a short moment, or not at all).

Monday 28 May 2007

*sings* I'm so ronery...

And so it's official: I'll be living on my own for the next two months. I realised last week that I've never lived on my own before, so it'll certainly take awhile to get used to grocery shopping and cooking for one. With no one to cook for, I'll be eating quite simply. Sent Rob off at the airport yesterday arvo and I felt sad as I watched his plane take off into the sky for Tokyo. At least one good thing will come out of this period of separation - we'll appreciate each other more and hopefully learn to not take each other for granted.

[The title of my subject was taken from the movie Team America: World Police, which is a great movie by the way..]

Thursday 24 May 2007

Final two months in Noto..

Sorry, I don't mean to go AWOL. Rob leaves this Sunday for Tokyo, we're hosting a farewell dinner at our apartment tomorrow night and have been quite busy with preparations. I do have photos to blog about so will do them up soon..

In the meantime, I may as well do a little update sans photos. The weather right now has been gorgeously sunny and warm. It rained maybe 4 days out of 16 days since we returned from our trip to Perth, which is pretty good considering that Ishikawa is the most rainy prefecture in Japan. The scenery is quite green at the moment - while we were away on our Perth trip, all the pink cherry blossom trees shed their flowers replaced with brilliant green new leaves. The scenery is looking more like what welcomed us when we first arrived in Japan last August. I'm really not looking forward to the upcoming rainy (typhoon) season in June.

Rob begins his new job in Tokyo this coming Monday, and we will be apart for a couple of months. This will be our longest separation period, and I'm not looking forward to it. We will try to see each other every two weeks - not too difficult since I have the Noto Airport, and Rob will be located relatively close to Haneda Airport. It'll be strange to have no Rob to come home to and no Rob to cook for... On the other hand, I certainly need the next couple of months to do all the preparations that need to get done to wrap things up here and pave the way for my JET sucessor. I will find out on Monday who will replace my position!

Monday 21 May 2007

Yoshichi Bistro, Ushitsu

There is a group of Japanese ladies whom we meet on Saturday afternoons for a casual class of English conversations. I really enjoy these classes, as we have learnt a lot about the Japanese culture from them. We would often leave quite sugared up because these ladies sure love their sweet treats! They also have such gracious things to say about the homebaked biscuits and brownies that I'd bring along to these classes. Upon hearing that Rob would soon be leaving for Tokyo, they insisted that we have a farewell dinner (they'll hold another one just for me when I finish my contract on JET in August - yay!). They chose Yoshichi Bistro which is located in the town of Ushitsu very close to where we meet for these English convo classes. It seems that the ladies are frequent patrons of this place as they are on quite familiar terms with the master-san and mama-san of this restaurant.

Like many of the eating establishments in Japan, there are private party rooms that you can book in advance. You can also have the option of sitting and eating at the bar. It is a very cozy little place, and I can see why it's a favourite of the ladies. The food served at Yoshichi Bistro are prepared, cooked and personally served by the master-san and mama-san - I did not see any other waitperson or kitchen hand around. A personal touch is always nice - always ensures a good service as the servers are always keen for feedback or questions. Dishes served mainly Italian-inspired Japanese food. Or very Japanised Italian food. I can't quite figure which one is the better term. There is a Japanese word to describe this type of food - yoshoku which means western food which are often modified to suit Japanese tastebuds. You'll see what I mean in the shots I took. The chef (i.e. master-san) is very creative in his dishes, and many of the ones in tonight's course are his originals.

The ladies chose the "4000yen course", which included many courses of dishes as you shall see in the following photos.

The cold dishes: [First photo] Entree platter included breadsticks with raw tuna, smoked salmon and cabbage layers, and some vegetables - I particularly liked the smoked salmon and cabbage layers. [Second photo] The carpaccio (as the master-san called it, although tartare is probably the better term) contained a variety of fish roe which we were meant to thoroughly mix before eating - it certainly was an interesting texture. It was a bit on the slimy side, but this is quite the coveted texture in Japanese cuisine.


[First photo] Bruschetta with a cheesy seafood topping. [Second photo] Ebi (prawn) soup innovatively served in a tiny teacup with a pastry cover. Both were very delicious.


Fried gobo with juice-infused pork. This was clearly the star dish for our table - everyone was fascinated with the variety of sweet flavours permeating through the meat, which was very tender.


[First photo] Fish (perhaps a type of sea bream) and ebi (prawn) served within a ring of crisp-fried corn noodles - this was my favourite dish. The prawns were large and succulent, and the fish was lovely and tender. [Second photo] Roast beef with potatoes - tasted like roast beef. The potatoes were served with sauteed onions which was quite tasty.


[First photo] Lasagne - very Japanised, as you can see in the photo. The lasagne sheets were very thin, and I wouldn't be surprised if the chef used the dough for gyoza (Chinese-style Japanese dumplings). More creamy and less cheesy than more authentic lasagne. [Second photo] Dessert, which was a profiterole with a piece of chocolate mudcake inside and topped with custard and strawberries. 'Twas pretty good.


For 4000yen (~AU$40), this was quite a good feast. However, Rob and I agree that for the same price, we prefer the fare at Flatt's.

Friday 18 May 2007

Fruity curry

I love curry and there are so many different types of curry out there. I have eaten and cooked many types of curries, but not a fruity type. Rob often said that he has eaten curry with sultanas, and I have often found the idea of a sweet curry to be a bit odd. This particular curry recipe is an original, which sorta came out in an attempt to be innovative with my cooking. Many Middle Eastern cuisines often feature fruits in their spicy dishes (Moroccan tagines is one example that comes to mind) so I quelled my doubts about fruits in curries, took a deep breath in and a surprisingly yummy dish resulted. I actually wanted to add a can of beans, but decided against the idea as I did not want to make this dish too complicated.

This is a simple dish, with no extravagant methods. I was thinking Middle Eastern flavours so I didn't use potatoes, coconut milk or yogurt that have often featured in my curry recipes. Don't worry if you don't have the additional spices - the curry powder ought to suffice for flavour. You can use fresh fruits and tomatoes, but canned ones are convenient and perhaps cheaper. And like I keep saying for all my curry recipes, this curry tastes better the next day - gives the curry time for all the flavours to develop and meld together.

Oh, and a sidenote: since there aren't any potatoes in this dish, it is safe to freeze it. I froze a portion for the couple of weeks we were in Perth, and interestingly, the sauce in this portion was quite a bit sweeter than when we had it fresh. A bit of science here to attempt an explanation. The sugary components of the fruits in the dish thawed out quicker than the water (think of an icypole - you can suck out all the sweet stuff and leave behind the bland ice; same idea with frozen juice - the ice itself takes longer to melt) and hence was expelled into the curry sauce. That's what I think anyway.



Ingredients

600g chicken breast fillet, cut into bite-sized chunks
2 tablespoons Malay-style curry powder for meat
1 tablespoon soy sauce
a pinch of salt
2-3 tablespoons oil (I use olive)
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoons chopped ginger
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon ground paprika
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon ground cinammon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1x410g can of chopped tomatoes
1x410g can of peaches in syrup, drained and chopped into chunks (reserve syrup)
a handful of raisins/sultanas

Method

1. Marinate the chicken chunks with half the curry powder, soy sauce, and salt for a few hours or overnight.
2. In a pan over high heat, fry the onion with the oil until the onion begins to brown.
3. Turn down the heat to medium high, add the ginger and garlic and stirfry for half a minute.
4. Add the spices and toast them for half a minute, then add the chicken chunks to the pan and stirfry for a minute or two.
5. Turn down the heat and stir in the chopped tomatoes (juice and all) and the chopped peaches and bring to a bubbling simmer.
6. I would usually add a bit of sugar to cut the acidity of the tomatoes, and in this case I used perhaps 1/4 cup of the reserved syrup. You can add more to taste, but I wanted only a touch of sweetness to the dish.
7. At this point there should be plenty of liquid to cover the chicken chunks (if not, add water). Simmer on low heat (it should be barely bubbling) for a good 20 minutes, stirring only occasionally - I wanted all the flavours to blend well together for a more flavoursome dish.
8. In the last 5 minutes of the cooking, add the sultanas/raisins and stir well.
9. Serve with rice and veges for a healthy and balanced meal.

Thursday 17 May 2007

The Greek, Northbridge

This is the last restaurant review from our recent trip to Perth. Rob organised dinner on Saturday night with his friends prior to clubbing the night away, and I tagged along with a couple of my friends who'd promised me some karaoke-ing. Rob has wanted to try The Greek in Northbridge on James St for some time, so we took the opportunity on this trip to book dinner at this restaurant.

We had a peculiar encounter with the guy who took our booking. We walked into the restaurants a couple of nights prior to our planned dinner, and informed the manager that we wanted to book a table. He looked at us almost suspiciously before proceeding to ask the usual questions like booking time and number of people. He then requested in an almost reprimanding manner that we honour the booking or contact them should any of the booking details change. It was bizarre, because it made us wonder if he wanted our business or not. Believe me, we were very tempted to spite the guy to go elsewhere on the night, but we are good people and honoured our booking like we said we would.

Like many cafes, restaurants and diners on James Street, The Greek had an al fresco dining area. The facade gives an impression that the interior is quite small, but once inside, you discover a spacious floor set-up. The table arrangements are quite spacious, which makes for a nice relaxing atmosphere. Service of the waitstaff was friendly and reasonable, but we had to ask several times for water. I think we probably waited half an hour before we could have a drink.

The food was excellent and compensated well for the questionable service. I chose the Seafood Pot ($32.50), which was served in a huge bowl and included crabs (in shell), prawns, calamari, mussels and pieces of fish in a beautifully rich tomato seafood soup. The seafood was fresh, the soup was delicious, and yeah, the crab legs were messy to eat, but oh-so-good!



Rob has been quite keen to know more about Greek food, so he chose a standard Greek dish: the Lamb Souvlaki ($29.50), which came with toasted pita bread and tzatziki. We thought that the price was a bit steep for a souvlaki, but the serving size was quite big. It tasted good, but not being a red meat person, I have a definite preference for my seafood dish. You can't find lamb anywhere on the menus in Japan (not easily anyway) so this was a good chance for Rob to try a Greek dish and savour some lamb meat.



We had a good time over dinner, chatting and catching up with our friends. After dinner, we brought them to try some icey treats at Icey Ice, then Rob & Co. played some pool whilst my friends and I enjoyed some singing at Utopia. We then headed to our favourite club for some clubbing action at the Rise, and surprisingly, Rob wanted to retire before I did! That doesn't happen very often with Rob! It was a good way to spend our final night in Perth - thanks guys!!

Wednesday 16 May 2007

Munz Swiss Premium 70% Cacao

Another one to add to my chocolate-related entries. This is one of our favourite not-so-expensive dark chocolate bars - a 100g block of Munz Swiss Premium Chocolate (70% Cacao) costs around 200 yen. Very smooth texture, and a rich chocolatey taste with just the right touch of sweetness. When we first tasted this, we were pleasantly surprised by the subtle hint of hazelnuts because it is not advertised on the packaging (it's not even in the name!). An inspection of the ingredient list reveals that hazelnuts are indeed used, which is a nice bonus because we love hazelnuts.

The Swiss sure know how to make good chocolate - they were pioneers in many of the techniques of chocolate processing, including inventing the conching method to produce smooth-melt-on-your-tongue chocolate, which was invented by none other than the great Lindt. Indeed, Swiss chocolates is at the top of our list of favourite chocolates, and will probably remain there.

Monday 14 May 2007

Hawker's Cuisine, Chinatown Northbridge

Hawker's Cuisine is located in Chinatown in Northbridge where Chin Chin Eating House used to be. Chin Chin was a special place for us and we were very sad to see it close. It was where Rob and I went for dinner on my 21st birthday more than 3 years ago, and impressed with the food [the Hainanese chicken rice was fantastic!] and service [the best in Chinatown - the Chinese restaurants in that area ought to have taken lessons on customer service from them], I decided to have my 21st dinner there with friends and family. It was also where we had our celebratory wedding dinner 2 years ago with family and close friends who'd helped out with the wedding.

Hawker's Cuisine opened in its place shortly after the owners of Chin Chin decided to close shop. Serving Malaysian and Singaporean food, we tried it when it first opened last year (before coming to Japan) and quite liked the food. However, when we went a second time shortly after our first visit, the same dishes tasted different, and the quality wasn't as good as our first visit. Needless to say, we weren't too impressed with the inconsistency. We thought that they were definitely not fit to replace our beloved Chin Chin.

When organising to meet up with some of my university friends on our recent visit to Perth, they suggested we go to Hawker's Cuisine for dinner. Ah, why not? Perhaps by now they would have a more consistent formula for their dishes. The place has certainly gained popularity, particularly with the non-Asians. There is an outdoor al-fresco dining area, which would be nice during the warm weather. It's not a flash and fancy place, and likewise the service is typical of Chinese restaurants - it could be better, but it could also be a lot worse.

We ordered some spicy Belacan Fried Rice (belacan is fermented shrimp paste with chili), Singaporean-style Chilli Prawns, Sizzling Japanese Tofu, and Szechuan Beef. We also ordered a chicken dish with a supposedly special sauce, but it will not be included in this review as I did not find it at all special (and I can't remember the name).

I quite liked the Belacan Fried Rice, which was very tasty although very greasy as to be expected of a fried rice dish. There were bits of shrimps and the usual vegetables like diced carrots and peas. The Chilli Prawns wasn't that spicy, and I wasn't impressed by the fact that the prawns were literally drowning in the tomato-based eggy sauce - the feature of the dish ought to be the prawns, not the sauce.



The Sizzling Japanese Tofu was quite nice, but Rob reckons that the same dish at City Garden two doors away was perhaps better. This was my favourite dish at dinner. The Szechuan Beef was served covered with dried chilli and Szechuan pepper berries. I thought that the dried chilli made the dish look more chilli hot than it actually was, and certainly made it look very Malaysian/Singaporean. The smaller Szechuan pepper berries were plentiful and were scattered throughout the dish and was very spicy. Probably not an authentic Szechuan dish, but quite good in its own right.



I have to say that although the food was decent and better than average, it wasn't outstanding. What makes Hawker's Cuisine a bit different than the other Chinese restaurants in Chinatown is perhaps the fact that they serve unusual dishes like Marmite Chicken (Marmite tastes similar to Vegemite), which I've heard is delicious, but did not get to try on this occasion as one of my friends present at dinner wasn't too fond of the dish. I would come here again if only to try the more unusual dishes.

Saturday 12 May 2007

Reflections, South Perth

During our recent trip to Perth, we went out for dinner with my high school friends and their partners at Reflections. Gorgeous venue, which is to be expected of a classy restaurant in the rich suburb of South Perth. It was a Wednesday, and the restaurant's "1/2-price-steak" weekday special was on. Personally, I found the food offerings to be quite plain, ordinary and perhaps boring - there are already many restaurants around Perth serving similar Mediterranean-influenced dishes. I guess the restaurant was sticking to 'safe' dishes to ensure good business since many Perthites tend to not be such adventurous diners. Service was friendly and personable, and food presentation was very good.

I chose the Char Grilled Chicken Breast ($26.50), which came with prawns, spinach and asparagus in a tomato-based sauce. It was an ordinary dish beautifully presented.



Rob and a few others ordered the Pork Spare Ribs doused with "traditional barbecue sauce", and he loved it. It was messy eating the ribs, but Rob enjoyed it so much that he did a superb job of picking the bones clean (usually I'd pick at Rob's bone-picking efforts). It was pretty yummy.



For dessert, we shared a Chocolate Mudcake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It was so rich and chocolatey, and I was glad we shared it because I would not have finished one serving on my own.



It was a nice meal as we caught up with friends. A few of my friends had their Entertainment Book vouchers, and we were informed that the "1/2-price" for the ribs would actually be counted as "full-price" if we wanted to use the vouchers. Those who ordered the ribs said they didn't mind because the ribs were worth it.

Friday 11 May 2007

Cool treats at Icey Ice, Northbridge

After reading about this new Icey-Ice store in Northbridge on myrial_pearls' livejournal, I wanted to give it a try. It took quite a bit of convincing to get Rob to come with me because he kept insisting that it would be just like snowcones. It wasn't really like snowcones, and in fact Rob was quite fascinated at the texture. I like the fact that it's so light - it's something sweet that you can have after a big dinner and not feel like you've over-indulged. That said, it is really nothing more than superfinely shaved frozen water with added ingredients, so I can understand if some people would think that the $4.50 pricetag for a regular-sized serving is a bit steep (how's that for a high profit margin?). Nonetheless, we liked it so much that we went back three times (and brought our family to try it too).

We tried Mango, Green Tea and Peanut, and by far our favourite is the peanut one. The mango one was nice, but mango flavour is too common (a bit overused IMO). The green tea type would probably have been a bit too plain on its own, but we opted to have some red beans (adzuki) topping for an additional 50c - the girl at the counter was surprised when Rob used the word 'adzuki', and did not believe him when he said that he lives in Japan. The Peanut Ice came with a chocolate syrup topping, and you could have additional peanuts for an extra 50c. Peanuts and chocolate go very well together.

Peanut Ice and Green Tea Ice

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
:


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)!

A couple of days in Sydney..

We stopped by our fave Aussie city Sydney for a couple of days at the beginning of our trip to visit my two sisters and nephew. First thing we ate was dimsum (yumcha), complete with the oh(not)-so-hospitable service of a Hongki (nickname for Hong Kong people). Indeed, Rob relished each bite. The food was typically sodium-laden and greasy, bringing back the nostalgic memories of the good ol' days when we could just stroll into the city on a weekend for some dimsum lunch.

Got to know Lynn's boyfriend a little better over the roast dinner we cooked for them at Lynn's apartment in Campsie. I was pretty tired from the hours of air travel and did not even make a half-arsed attempt at presenting the food. Found out after that dinner that he'd worked for the world-acclaimed Tetsuya before! Haha, wonder what he thought of the dinner we cooked! We also had some decent (but pricey) Chinese food for dinner on our second and last night in Sydney with my sisters, nephew and Lynn's boyfriend. Enjoyed other yummies we've missed like delicious Gelatissimo gelato.

Food photos! The first few dishes of dimsum; and the dishes we had at the Chinese restaurant:


People photos: with my gorgeous sisters (we look nothing alike, right?); Rob and Seth hanging out together playing Shrek on Xbox at Faye's apartment:

Tuesday 8 May 2007

I'm baa-ack!

So, after a short trip to Australia, I'm back to the daily grind of lesson planning and teaching unmotivated classes. We were busy every single day meeting up with friends and family, so it wasn't really a holiday for us. Right now, I'm still exhausted from the hours of air travel and lack of sleep. What else did we do? Ate lots of food (keeping well away from Japanese food), didn't do much exercise (I've put on a couple of kgs) and brought back a few things that we'd left behind. I bought a jar of Vegemite to bring to Japan but it was confiscated at the Perth Airport security. We aren't allowed to bring much liquids in our carry-on baggage (a silly security rule enforced since March), and apparently Vegemite is liquid - since when is Vegemite a liquid? So we're gonna have to go without Vegemite until somebody brings some over for us when they visit (hint hint).

Anyway, one of the first things we noticed during our trip to Australia was how dazzlingly blue the sky was. Truly, that was one of the things we took for granted. The sky is never that blue in Japan. We wonder if it has to do with the hole in the ozone layer over Antartica and Australia... When we got back home to Japan, one of the first things we noticed was how nice the weather was and that all the cherry blossom trees are now completely green. Amazing how much changes in only a couple of weeks. I am really liking the spring weather at the moment, and dread the change to summer.

I'm in the process of sorting through the photos I took on this trip and will blog about them later. For now, here are a couple of photos I took yesterday at Haneda Airport while waiting for our flight to the Noto. Both Rob and I agree that Haneda Airport is definitely better looking than Narita Airport, which is strange because Haneda is mainly used for domestic flights and Narita is used for international flights... and yes, that is a plane covered with pictures of Pokemon characters.