Wednesday 28th October '09

DAY THREE

Lunch
gnocci in bolognaise sauce from Ciao Italia

Dinner
bee hoon soup with prawns
seafood dumplings
bok choy

Tuesday 27th October '09

DAY TWO

Lunch
bacon & leek penne in a rich tomato sauce

Dinner
Mum's braised pork hocks

Monday 26th October '09

DAY ONE

Breakfast 1 x packet spicy mushroom instant ramen a few frozen seafood dumplings bok choy Ling & Shallen's chilli

Lunch
egg omelette with onion
sambal kang kong
rice porridge

Dinner
last night's rosemary potato bake
jelly

Sunday 25th October '09

DRAGON PALACE
66 Francis Street, Northbridge
I've eaten here once before, and we were seated on the ground floor. Today however, they were really busy and we were shown upstairs to their karaoke section, where we sat at high tables on bar stools. The room was large, the seating well spaced, and lots of natural lighting was making its way through the glass windows. Being a karaoke room, there was a central circular dance floor and customers were seated around this dance floor. There were also tables to the sides and several screens around the room on which they played karaoke music.

The first thing I noticed when we sat down, was the damp table cloth. It was draped over my lap and it felt disgustingly cold and damp against my legs. We asked to get the table cloth changed but perhaps they didn't believe me that it was wet. One guy went to bring us a new table cloth but it wasn't our intention to be a 'pain' so I just folded the table cloth under itself so that it didn't drape over the side or come into contact with my legs. I still had to be careful not to lean against the table though, because my left arm came away feeling moist and sticky where it had touched the table cloth.

	We ordered the usual...

The service wasn't the greatest...the food was incredibly slow to make it up from the ground floor kitchen. We tried to order but were told by one waitstaff that they don't take orders. The second waitstaff we asked took our order but we still picked the items off the trolleys as they arrived. We eventually had enough to eat and rolled out of there.

The hot dishes were good - but the grass jelly I had for dessert needed to be sweeter.


Afterwards, we drove to Fremantle and wandered the markets. We searched for the stall that sold the frozen fruits that we had last time we were there, and finally found one. It wasn't the same stall, but we were still enticed to sample their wares.

Strawberry & Mango

We had drinks at Gino's.

Soy Macchiato

Can you spot what's wrong with this photo!??

Bum crack!

We eventually made our way to Vebas Aquarium where I couldn't resist buying some new additions for my tank.

Endlers Guppy
image from Goodeids.com
Isn't it gorgeous!?
I also bought a couple of cory's and a guppy who's on the verge of giving birth! Since I've solved the problem with the water, my tank's been rather empty so I need to increase numbers and liven it up a bit. I'll try to get some new gravel next weekend and perhaps more live plants.


Dinner
Scotch Steak with a Creamy Green Peppercorn Sauce
Panfried Asparagus in Butter
Rosemary & Thyme Potato Bake

Supper
Chilli & Garlic Prawns

I wasn't really still hungry but I had these prawns in the fridge that I needed to use. Plus I wanted to finally get the chance to use my new Le Chasseur cast iron dish that I bought at a really really discounted price some time ago - $20! It retails for about $70 or $80. Very happy Jan!

A generous amount of olive oil, crushed garlic, chilli flakes, peeled prawns, and a handful of fresh basil leaves thrown in at the last minute.

Saturday 24th October '09

Mum's Siu Mai

I searched for some chilli sauce - but not just any chilli sauce. Lingham's chilli sauce. It would have been perfect but alas - I could not find any.

Friday 23rd October '09

HOGS BREATH CAFE
21 Lake Street, Northbridge
On the spur of the moment, I headed out for dinner with Benoit and Ivy.

my Garlic Prawn Prime Rib
with curly tail fries & salad
I asked for my steak medium-rare and it came out absolutely perfect!! The meat was so tender and pink all the way through. I'm salivating just remembering it!


We went to get bubble tea afterwards. While we were waiting for our order, I noticed these two sacks of sugar beside the counter - it's awful to imagine just how much sugar is really in each of these drinks!

Now, a few years ago a typical Friday night for us would have been having dinner, then hitting a bar for a few drinks, then heading back to someone's house for more drinks. Tonight, I enjoyed one beer with my steak, then we went to Long's sister's house to help him babysit his nephew. Yes, the cute little boy was in bed while we sat around discussing finances...times have changed.

When the parents got home, we headed out to grab a bite to eat at Maccas.

my Cheeseburger

We called it a night at about 11pm and I headed home, albeit it took me a few detours to get home since they had closed the entry onto Tonkin Highway from Guildford Road due to roadworks. *Aargh!*


Supper
Creamy Saffron Seafood Soup with Lobster & Prawn Tortellini

Last night, I had made a huge pot of lobster stock using the head of the lobster that remained from when I had lobster the other night.

I made the tortellini with some raw prawns that I had chopped, as well as the lobster meat in the head of the lobster that I used for the stock.

My Aslan! You've done it again, Saz!

Thursday 22nd October '09

Jocelyn and I went to Carousel today. While driving I realised that since waking up (in the early afternoon) I hadn't had anything to eat yet, so our first stop was the food court.

Alas! I forgot to bring my camera with me. And my wallet. I took a few photos on my mobile but unfortunately, I have no way of transferring the files across to either of my computers. Doh!

There are several new food stalls in the food court. The one that caught my eye in particular was the 'Ms Shanghai' - dim sum! We were going to try some dishes from there but we looked at the prices and shrank away. They were asking for $4.50 for three har gows (steamed prawn dumplings) that are about half the size of the ones we usually get from a restaurant in Northbridge. Understandably, they got alot of keen onlookers, but no takers.

Well, Jocelyn was keen to try to the potatoes from the Spud place. I forget the name but it was opposite 'Ms Shanghai'. I couldn't believe how much they were charging - $9 for a standard potato with a choice of up to 10 of their fillings. Jocelyn's cost $10.50! The portion was less than half of my lunch! I don't think this stall is going to survive for very long. I could make 2kg of baked potatoes with different fillings for $10.50!

I had a 1/4 chicken and chips from the Chicken Treat.


Spicy Vietnamese Beef Noodles

Ingredients:

Soup

2L water

2 x lemongrass stalks

1 small brown onion, halved

2 Tspn dried shrimp

2 x star anise

1 beef stock cube

1 Tspn soy sauce

1 Tspn fish sauce

1 Tspn sambal belachan

200g sirloin steak, thinly sliced

frozen beef balls

1 small brown onion, thinly sliced

1 cup cabbage, chopped

fresh Vietnamese mint

Vietnamese rice noodles, cooked

fresh cut chillies

Method:

1. Combine the ingredients for the soup in a pot and bring to the boil. Turn the heat down low and simmer while preparing the other ingredients.
   
2. Cook the Vietnamese rice noodles according to the packet instructions. Drain and set aside.
   
3. Add the frozen beef balls and cabbage to the soup to cook for a few minutes.
   
4. In a large soup bowl, add the noodles, slices of beef** and onion.
   
   
   
5. Ladle the soup (with beef balls and cabbage) over the noodles.
   
6. Garnish with the fresh mint and chillies.

**The beef will cook when the hot soup is added. This is how Vietnamese restaurants prepare it - they allow the raw beef to cook in the hot soup. However, I used a ladle with holes to partially cook the beef in the soup before adding it to my noodles.

Wednesday 21st October '09

At work yesterday, we were talking about...you guessed it. FOOD!

At one point we broached the subject of Subway so on the way to work today, I bought some for dinner at work.

6" Meatball Sub on Wholemeal
with cheese, all the salads hold the tomato, extra jalopenos & mustard honey

After my recent trip to Swan Valley, I was able to make some additions to my wine shelf. It's almost full. I've organised the wines by order of year. Starting at the bottom, wines from the year 2001/2002, all the way up to the year 2008 at the top.

Glorious, isn't it!?

Simba was watching me admire my above collection of wine.

After tonight's shift at work I have my days off ahead of me. I planned on having a lobster for dinner tonight. It was a late dinner since I only got home just after 9pm.


I separated the lobster tail from the head and removed the shell from the underside of the tail. I removed the meat, made a slit along it and removed the 'string of poop'. I returned the meat to the tail shell and drizzled it with some olive oil to which I had added lemon zest and chilli flakes. In order to have the tail sit properly and not roll over on its side, I propped the tail on an upturned bowl and baked it in the oven for about five minutes while I cooked the pasta to go with it.

Dinner
Lobster Tail with Lemon & Chilli
served with Spaghetti in a Rich Tomato Sauce

When I removed the tail meat, the oil infused with lemon and chilli remained in the shell for me to dip the lobster meat in!