Hello thirties!

It’s the 25th of February, and I’m now 30 years old! (^_^)

Happy Birthday to me!

The delicious chocolatey cupcakes were baked by Emily and with a little surprise session by the gang for me. *sniff* Thanks guys! (^_^)

Back in the kitchen.

Devin whipped up a quick dinner today – Mexican tacos burritos. Boy oh boy, he does such a good job of making delicious food to eat. ^_^

Made from an Old El Paso Taco Dinner Kit, we added minced pork to the taco seasoning and stir-fried for about ten minutes. Then we lined a couple of tortillas with some bits of lettuce, added chopped baby Roma tomatoes, and sprinkled on some Tasty cheese. Yum!

We had a lot of really good food to eat in KL (maybe too much). I think we won’t be cooking Malaysian food for a while now. Hehe.

Good morning from Cafe Sweetheart!

We finally made to Cafe Sweetheart for breakfast today. Finally, because we had tried last week, but it was packed to the brim and we couldn’t get a table. I had to make a reservation for us here today.

This place is yet another popular cafe here in our suburb and heartily recommended by a fellow dragon-boater for their delicious pancakes.

I had poached eggs with avacado and grilled ham on an English muffin.

Devin had the recommended ‘Lumberjack’ of pancakes with bacon, egg, hazelnut butter and maple syrup.

Dennis picked the classic scrambled eggs on toast with bacon.

And Ah V had poached eggs with grilled mushrooms on an English muffin.

Ryan had a savoury pancake, but my photo of it didn’t come out well. So it’s up to you to imagine a savoury pancake of wilted spinach, corn and I’m not sure what else. Hehe.

Ah, what a good brekkie it was today. On some days, all you can think about is really… thank God for the good food we eat. (^_^)

Brunch @ Fandango

A bunch of us descended on Fandango Café today. We had a late brekkie, which turned into lunch – and so became brunch. Hehe.

BY and WL had decided to visit Melbourne this weekend, and that’s how we got ourselves a preeetty large group of hungry people out for brunch. We were seated out back in the courtyard, and it was a nice cold winter day. Plus I got to plonk my bum right next to the heater. Ahhh… it was really nice and toasty warm. Unfortunately, or not – we had rushed out, and I forgot my LX3. Sigh. Just the iPhone and me again. (>_<)

the food // Fandango Café was recommended by KH who absolutely fell in love with the home-made maple butter. Yum, it tasted exactly like butter, salted but had a slightly sweet aftertaste to it. We both heartily agree that it was absolutely delicious as well.

Top right // Poached Egg with Avocado – just grabbed a photo. forgot to ask for a bite!
Top left // Pesto Scrambled Eggs with Bacon – delicious!
Bottom right // Pancakes with Bananas and Strawberries – too busy eating our own dishes, forgot to grab a bite as well!
Bottom left // French Toast with Home-made Maple Butter – my favourite dish of the lot, a wonderful combo of sweet and savoury.

the atmosphere // very cosy, tiny little cafe with plenty of warm and welcoming touches. The teapots had tea-covers! And I loved the quaint red-brick courtyard out back, and there were very friendly and welcoming staff. It was crowded, but we still felt loved. Hehe. Thumbs up!

It was a great meal with wonderful company – especially so when you can catch up with friends from back in KL. (^_^)

Grill’d

Grill’d is a popular burger franchise here in Melbourne. And they serve some really GOOD healthy burgers.

the food // It’s healthy because the patties are really lean and grilled (duh!) and there’s plenty of fresh greens squeezed between a variety of breads which you can pick from (including wholemeal). In my book, burgers = fries, so of course we ordered some. I’m not sure which part of the fries are healthy but they sure tasted delicious! Different types of sauce come separately for a $1 for a tiny tub. Or maybe it was $0.70. We never paid for sauce in KL, is it still like that?

beef // And since I don’t take beef in general ( I’ve grabbed a bite from Devin’s beef burger – it’s really good ), I’ve ordered both chicken, lamb and gone vegetarian. Chicken is WAAAY to dry. Yuck. Nothing can save dry chicken. It needs FATS to be eaten, lean chicken is a nono! Lamb on the other hand, was nice and juicy. Yum, it’s the closest to the beef. Very tasty. And the vegetarian options are really good too. Eggplant works so well in a burger. I’m hungry now.

atmosphere // The restaurant has a funky atmosphere – from STERN BUT FUNNY instructions not to steal their magazines, and I quote, “With theft comes bad karma!” – to walls of cow and chicken-related graffiti on the right below. I think it’s too tiny to read in the photo, but some of them are seriously funny. Hehe. Can you see the cow dreaming of a chicken trying to make out with the pineapple?

i love ice-cream.

It’s smack right in the middle of winter, and especially windy today. And I mean reeeeaaaally gust-blasting windy.

And I wanted an ice-cream. Not just any ice-cream, but a scoop of yummie Movenpick ice-cream. I picked chocolate. And it had bits of reaal chocolate in it. Not too sweet with a rich and creamy texture, it was absolutely delicious.

Definitely worth the drop in body temperature for this little icy peace of heaven. It warmed my heart. Hehe.

On another note, Devin got stalked by a little man in red today. I’ll have to ask his mommie if the little cutie pie can appear on my blog, but for now… little red hood, meets giant black hood. lol.

the shoot // I had planned to get out and take some shots today, but we rushed out for our lunch appointment and left the LX3 at home. So, you make do with what you have – and the best cammie is the one that’s with you all the time. Hehe. All shots taken with the iPhone today. Unfortunately – it was way too windy to hit the docks for some scene shots.

Ready, Set, Sail!

Devin, myself, Ivy and Ryan went to the Docklands to try our hand out at sailing today!

It’s an event which is held as part of the Summer Fun in the City event by Melbourne city. We saw the signboard during dragon boat practice on Saturday and decided to come back on Sunday to give it a go!

Two of us got into a little single-seater yacht after a quick explanation of how sailing works – off we went! As you can see, it’s short enough for us both to put our feet up, and just big enough to put a person on each side. Devin’s side was the heavier side. Hehe.

ZOOOM, ZOOOOM. It was surprising fast, and taking corners really took us by surprise! We were almost drifting like race cars! Woohoo! Winds were really strong occasionally and we were zipping across the water at moments like those! Hehe. Almost capsized a couple of times when ‘turning’ or ‘cornering’ as I felt it. Luckily for us, our guide explained that it’s not really possible to capsize the yacht. The rudder below weights a good 65kg and balances off the top part of the boat very well. You won’t end up in the water unless you jump off.

Devin handled the yacht for the first half and hour. You have to pull the sails to catch the wind, and there’s a joystick that controls the rudder. I took the next half hour. It was fun!

At my command – we sailed into a group of swimming seagulls and sent them flying in all directions! MUAHAHAHAHA! Take that you squawking stalkers!

We had some beautiful views from our little yacht. Took some photos. This is our dock. It’s just by the Bolte Bridge.

Turn your head around and there’s a great view of Melbourne City from the water.

Here’s Ryan and Ivy enjoying their sail… slowly cruising by in their little yacht with a green sail.

There are the big luxury yachts all around too. You can see the Southern Star in the background. It’s a huge ferris wheel, newly opened in Melbourne.

After a good hour or so of sailing merrily about in the harbour, we were nice and relaxed. Sticking our feet and arms out of the little boat. This where I reckon’ we started to get nice and toasty. Devin’s arms and my knees were sunburnt. (>_<)

Time to head back to the pier as our bellies started to rumble in hunger. Ryan and Ivy got a head start, and I got a nice picture. Hehe. But anyway – the race was on!

We headed back, sailing at full speed! We trailed steadily behind for most of the journey back, but the wind was on our side as we took over in a sudden gust of wind! Woohoo! We docked first at the pier! Hehe. The little yacht #222 on the far left is our winning boat.

And here are the sailors of the day – all macho after their one hour experience out at the seas.

Me and Devin. Hehe.

After that – it was off to the city in search of food for the rumbling bellies. We went hunting for some Malaysian mamak food.

Hehehe. Saw a red bowling pin walking on the streets. It was funny! Had to run a little to catch up with it for the photo.

We had lunch at a restaurant called Bismi’s Gold An Fork. They had a weird signboard.

We went in, and on first impression – it didn’t look very inviting. The interior was dim and smelt slightly curry’ish. They had a counter like McDonalds or KFC and you had to order your food and take a number. Nothing at all like a mamak store back home in Malaysia but most importantly – the food was pretty good. It was too dark to take photos, but we tried the roti canai (plain and with egg) and nasi goreng and nasi briyani. Teh tarik was good too. It passes the test. Yum!

Ivy gives it her thumbs up! Me too! (^_^)

My Dad’s Cup of Tea

Ever since visiting UK last year, I’ve been getting used to a cup of tea a day. We had about 4 – 10 cups a day in UK, but I’m only drinking 1 – 2 cups here at office now. The team in UK would be overjoyed at their success in converting me to their tea drinking ways.

Tea seems to be an acquired taste. I never used to like it.

Sigh, but the same dilemma occurs each time I make a cup of tea (or any hot drink for that matter). It always TASTES DIFFERENT! Either too much hot water, or too much milk, or not enough sugar. I thought of the perfect tea cup the other day. Hehe. I sketched my idea out.

But anyway – today, I had a thought and realized that my Dad’s cup of tea is always perfect. Just the right color, texture and taste. EVERYTIME. Kinda miss it now. He’s had years of practice, a cup of tea everyday. (^_^)

I still love my coffee, it’s a undeniable fact – but tea is a lot lighter and you don’t feel so heavy or sluggish, especially at work.

Gourmet Pizzas!

Today’s lunch was delicious.

Devin picked me up from work, and we headed over to Banff on in St Kilda’s to try out some gourmet pizzas. It’s a type of pizza with a light thin crust and uses delicious ‘gourmet’ ingredients on top – thus the name, gourmet pizza.

Devin ordered my recommendation of Squid, Chilli, Capers, Lemon, Garlic, Feta & Rocket. This is my favourite. I had it the last time I came here with some colleagues. Can you see the squid pieces?

And I ordered cheese, cheese and even more cheese. Four types of cheeses to be exact: Feta, Mozzarella, Goat Cheese, Parmesan with a couple of juicy Cherry Tomatoes.

Sigh, it was really good.

Perhaps a little too much cheese for a single person, but it would have been great to share.

Rated as super yumm. \^_^)/

Happie New Year!

It’s New Year’s Day!

My first New Year celebration that wasn’t in KL. I think it was Devin’s too, he’s usually in KL this time of the year as well. And now… as I blog, I’m parked in front of the TV, my notebook hooked up to it and I’m using it as a giant monitor. Shioks!

Hehe.

Last night, Kok Hoe and Mei Lee graciously invited us to their home for a pot luck New Year’s Eve dinner. Devin had to work, so it was just me.

A potluck… and Kok Hoe was going to prepare pasta. I thought to bring something that would go with that, and we decided to bring baked pumpkin, carrots and sweet potato – seasoned with Devin’s special recipe of home-grown rosemary, thyme and a bunch of other ’secret’ stuff. I think he had some garlic in there.

We got it ready, and then he went to work. I set the oven and put it in for 30 minutes…. bake, bake, bake.

Tada! Here’s the end result which I carried over to Kok Hoe’s apartment down the road. I sneaked a few to snack on before going to Kok Hoe’s and it was DELICIOUS! I felt like I had eaten some juicy lamb…!

Other dishes of note for the night included a delicious home-made veggie pizza:

And cheese appetizer that tasted great but I can’t recall what it’s called.

And pasta with basil pesto, with a side of chicken or mushrooms.

This were all the dishes which arrived on time. And we started eating! Yum!

Kok Hoe served some Rosemount wine. It was pretty light in taste, and unusual in the sense that it was meant to be served on the rocks.

And then came the latest addition to our dinner party – last, but not least, the salmon, prawns and some fruit slices. As expected, the salmon with capers was delicious.

Dessert was a little unexpected, but very welcome indeed. A little taste of home, kuih talam – made without the pandan leaves. It was good, but a little too sweet for me.

After dinner, we adjourned to Kok Hoe’s Wii and started off with a little Wii Play, moving into Wii Sports with bowling and tennis and then came MARIO KART. I brought our Wii remotes and driving wheels so that four persons could play. (^_^) They look so serious… as they concentrated on racing away with their little steering wheels. VROOOMM!

At about 11:30pm, we walked out to Princes Bridge in front of Flinders Station for the countdown and watch the fireworks. We took the tram (which was free! hurray!) and arrived at our destination with 5 minutes to spare! A few moments later, the fireworks show began! It wasn’t well designed or grand, but the experience of having fireworks exploding all around us was incredible. I couldn’t decide where to look first or second, or third! It was amazing! (And smoky too).

Took some photos with my iPhone.

It was pretty crowded, but we still had lots of space to stand comfortably and the view was good. Once it was over, exactly 10 minutes later, we walked home – which was a lot nearer than where most people parked their cars.

Back at Kok Hoe’s apartment – the race was ON! Tension was high, and as you can see, the drivers had gotten closer to their cars on screen.

I picked up Devin from work at 2:30am, and we went back to Kok Hoe’s place to celebrate New Year, Malaysian time! And then, we continued racing. Racing, racing, racing.

What a way to start the New Year of 2009. Racing in! (^_^)

My New Year’s resolution this year is pretty simple, I’m going to look forward to everything that I do and experience, in a bright and positive manner everyday.

Ganbatte! Here’s to us all achieving our New Year resolutions!