Iron Chef

It's payback time!! In a good way of coz... the other two iron chefs in the house decided to introduce Carrie to the world of Chinese cuisine in return for her Korean feast 2 weeks ago!

So on Sunday (25 Nov) we prepared a simple dinner for her, in true blue amateur-style (that's only me though! Ivan is a pro!).

It wasn't easy thinking of what to cook to "represent" our type of cuisine... plus Carrie told us she wasn't really a meat-lover. How can anyone not love meat??! (We later found out it was a misunderstanding coz she couldn't understand what we were asking!! She is a normal meat-eating person!) Aaarrgghh... this made the task even more upheaval.

After keeping busy in the kitchen for a couple of hours - voila! The dinner looks decent, doesn't it?!

Here are Ivan's creations. He named them 'Creation One' & 'Creation Two' (how creative wor!). I have to take my hat off to him though... he put in a lot of effort in preparing.
I took the easy way out... wanted to prepare Bak Kut Teh (Pork soup with herbs and spices) but I became lazy and did these two. Thank goodness it turned out edible!

Overeating!

We went crazy one day to satisfy some major craving.
Sunnybank is the suburb in Brisbane where Asians are plenty plentiful! Serious Chinese grocery shopping goes on in Sunnybank... And that is also where The Singapore Restaurant is. The owners aren't Singaporeans though... I didn't get to finding out where they are from.

I have only been to this area twice coz it's really far from where I live... at least a 45 mins journey by bus.

Now back to "we were crazy", it started with my craving for nasi lemak... This was really decent. The beef rendang reminded me of what you can get in Malaysia, which also means it probably taste better than the nasi lemak in Singapore.


And then it went on to chicken rice... this was my friend's main course. I took a bite and thought the rice was fragrant and could certainly match the authentic chix rice back home. Chilli was a let down though!


And to a side dish of ngoh hiang, sambal kangkong... The ngoh hiang was awesome! As for the kangkong, by the time we got to it, we were on the verge of breaking point!


And we just couldn't resist adding on another side dish of roti prata! Breakpoint - we had to stop! Did take a bite of the prata dipped in curry... it was nice. Well it had better be nice coz it costs AUD10 like all the rest of the other dishes!!! Forget the Jalan Kayu SG1 prata!


And there were just the three of us!

My partner in crime, Winnie! The other party has chosen to remain anoynomous - haha!
The binge continued at Just Soy Cafe (which I wrote about earlier)!

State of mind at the end of the evening: Content and major guilt!

Well, this is why I signed up with the school gym and have been walking home religiously from the city twice a week. This had better darn work

Cairns

Never too late to post some photos of my Cairns trip from 3 - 6 Nov 07! It was a little treat to celebrate the end of semester and of course, I am now a grad dip holder! Yay!

Anyway, I travelled with a few new friends from Taiwan... and initially I was quite apprehensive coz (for those who know me) my Mandarin isn't all that great! But after that solid 4 day trip with Candy, Elaine and Jill, I can hold my head high to say that I can actually hold meaningful and solid 2-hour conversations in Mandarin!

Here's the four of us looking forward to the cruise to the Great Barrier Reef! More on the trip later...!

A little piece of home

I had an ang moh brekkie again today - Mcdonald's (Macs is also known as Macca's) sausage and egg mcmuffin with hashbrown and latte for AUD5.70!

It's a little different today coz I added Sinsin Garlic chilli sauce to the muffin and hashbrown, to relive memories of having Macs in Singapore. Somehow, it made this morning's breakfast so much yummier!

With my morning satisfied, it's now back to work!

豆浆 without 油条

All thanks to my resourceful friends who scouted out this 豆浆 dessert shop Just Soy Cafe at far away Sunnybank Hills in Brisbane. It was a 30 mins bus trip from the city and all worth it!

For a moment, I felt like I was in Taiwan or at some part of Asia. The cafe was filled with Asians, and mostly Taiwanese I suspect. Feels like home though... back to my comfort zone for a while. We had the classic plain soya beancurd and drink which could rival the quality of those back home. One major difference though was each serving costs us AUD3.50 & that is more than 3 times the usual price.

Well, I suppose that's the price I have to pay over here no matter what... *burn hole in pocket*!

Catching up...

I thought the end of semester 2 weeks ago would mean I have more time to catch up on sleep, blogging, shopping, cleaning my room and all that.
Not a chance! I don't even have much time to get my laundry done, which I thankfully had a chance to do this afternoon.

Some stuff that had been happening these couple of weeks:
- I have a new Korean housemate, Carrie!! She moved in 2 weeks ago and taught my other housemate, Ivan and myself Korean swear words! Darn cool... She cooked for us a meal too... I love Korean food! I am gonna get Carrie to teach me how to make kimchi...
- I went on some food binge (Singaporean fare) which I will post about later...
- I went to Cairns for 4 days and of course it comes complete with a dive at Great Barrier Reef.
- I joined the school gym and have been doing short jogs on the treadmill.
- I have been walking home from the city - it takes 45 mins and it really is pleasant coz the cool weather here. Twice a week and plus the gym, all in hope of shedding some pounds.

More to come...

Final Sprint of the Semester

Yay, my last assignment for the semester is due tomorrow! And I can finally do stuff I wanna do!
Counting down counting down...
Off to Cairns this weekend :D