Friday 19th Sep '08

Today I finally made it to the shops after a bit of dawdling around the house. I wanted to try to find some new clothes but after less than an hour of popping in and out of shops with no luck, I decided to try elsewhere. I hate shopping for clothes. I can stop at the shops every single day to buy groceries or crafty things, but I try to avoid shopping for clothes as much as possible. I'm just not a girly girl in that way. If I am to buy clothes, I'd rather go alone so I can get it over and done with quicker. No time wasted waiting for others to try things on and I don't have to feel bad keeping someone waiting while I'm trying things on.

Anyhoo...I started heading towards the city and decided to stop at Harbour Town. Nothing really caught my attention but I did end up buying a couple of singlet tops and a desktop calender for 2009. YAY - I always end up getting it well into the new year so I'm pretty happy to be a bit more prepared for next year.

I was meeting a few of the girls from work to watch the Beauty and the Beast musical at the Regal Theatre, Subiaco. It was only 5pm so I decided to head into Subiaco early to find parking and then find somewhere to have dinner.

I settled on the Witch's Cauldron. I've been here once before many years ago with Kong when we used to have our regular 'wine & dine' nights. The food was pretty good.

Innocent Bystander Pinot Gris by the glass

Appetiser - Cream of Dhufish Soup
This soup was absolutely beautiful! I wanted to lick the bowl clean...

Entree - Garlic Prawns
This is their signature dish. Delicous, plump, juicy prawns in a garlicky oil that arrives at the table sizzling.

Main - a Whole Crayfish with a selection of Salads
I was a bit overambitious in ordering three courses tonight, but luckily I had the foresight to not order a steak. The crayfish was perfectly balanced with the coleslaw and I finished the marinated artichokes. They also gave me some stuffed bell peppers and a potato salad but I couldn't bring myself to even touch them because I was so full.

Digestif - Limoncello

I managed to draw out dinner for almost two hours before crossing the street to meet the girls for the show. It was beautiful - funny and memory provoking. 'The Beauty and the Beast' is one of the first few Disney animated movies I've seen and I love the song that Celine Dion sang for it. A great night!


Back at home, I made supper.

Bee Hoon soup with Yong Tau Foo

Thursday 18th Sep '08

Today I was excited to use the clam meat I bought yesterday. I decided on a pasta dish.

Spaghetti and Clams with Garlic & Chilli

1. Sautee some sliced onion, chilli flakes (optional), and a generous amount of chopped garlic in some olive oil.
   
2. Add some mushrooms that are sliced thin, a good spoonful of butter and toss around until the butter melts.
   
3. Add some white wine to deglaze the pan.
   
4. Throw in some spaghetti (cooked al dente with a pinch of salt) and the clam meat that has been thawed.
   
5. Toss spaghetti through the sauce until it's covered. Add some olive oil if it's too dry.
   
6. Serve with fresh cut chilli.

You can add some herbs if you like, but I decided to keep it simple today. Just garlic and chilli.

In the evening I caught up with Marie over dinner at Spencer Village. I wanted to have biryani rice with some curry but they only had plain steamed rice. Bugga.

I decided on the combination which gives you rice with optional choices of the curries.

Tofu & Beans
Cabbage
Beef Rendang

We each had a fresh coconut juice, although I think when they say 'fresh' they actually mean 'fresh out of its packaging'. The food wasn't that great and it looked really sloppy the way the lady served it to me on my plate. Ah well...I suppose it's the case of you get what you pay for. Half way through my food, I was mid sentence and spotted a hair amongst my cabbage. *shudder*

I paid $8 for the dish...took it back to the stall to show the lady at the counter...in trying to get rid of me quickly so that her other customers didn't see, she quickly refunded my money and told me to leave the plate on the table behind me...walking back to Marie, I checked how much I'd quickly stashed away in my pocket and found that she gave me $9 refund - so I actually made a profit!

Back at home, I set about creating my supper (or my real dinner since I woke up so late). I'm having a seafood platter!

Whole Crayfish with Garlic & Thyme Butter
Scallops Panfried with Cajun and Garlic
Clams and Broccolini Leaves with Chilli, Garlic & Butter

Oh yes - I was spoiling myself tonight! I love my scallops with the roe...the orange coloured ones taste better to me. They taste sweeter than the white roe. Ooh - I just googled scallops and found out an interesting fact - scallops are hermaphroditic - the ones with the orange/red roe are females, the ones with the white roe are males. Females rock!

The broccolini leaves are from my garden - they're delicious tender and sweet, with just the right amount of crunch to them.

The VGT Omnivore's Top 100 List

I was just browsing a few recipes for bamboo clams when I came across a list created by the Very Good Taste blog - that's pretty much similar to those '100 Books You Should Read' or '100 Movies of All Time' lists that inspire people to be aware of new things to try them, or things they'd like to try again.

Now, you have to bear in mind that the creator of this list was born, raised and lives in London so there is a bit of a British and Western influence.

Here goes...

Instructions:

1. Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
   
2. Bold all the items you’ve eaten. I'm going to use this font colour for the foods I've eaten
   
3. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
   
4. Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. Peanut butter & jelly sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
my first hot dog from a street vendor in the Big Apple
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper - I had it dried
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
oysters in Melbourne
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
sliced abalone my Dad caught
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake


My tally: 49/100


A few surprises...

Oh my god! I used to think 25 (brawn or head cheese) was just leftover bits of regular parts of a cow or pig that were just thrown together - not actual parts of a cow, pig or sheep's HEAD! ...still tastes good but...=P

Some of the terminology is British so Wikipedia comes in handy. Not to mention for those dishes I've never heard of.

Wow...overall I'm quite pleased with my rating. I've eaten almost half the things on the list. I'm going to set a challenge for myself for the rest of the year. I will attempt to eat some of the things that I have not yet tried and redo the list next year. Call it a late new year's resolution if you will. Let's see...I'll aim to increase my score by twenty. Some of the dishes I'll be able to prepare myself, the others I will have to seek out in restaurants and while on holidays etc. This is going to be fun! It means I'll have to carry a list of these foods with me everywhere I go (including an explanation for some of them!).

You'll notice that I crossed out a couple of things though. I have never smoked a cigarette, nor do I ever intend to try one, let alone a cigar. Not just only because I've battled with asthma for most of my life, but also because I've made the conscious decision not to pollute my lungs with the toxins I'd be inhaling. However, I did try the shisha (otherwise known as hookah) while I was in Egypt. I didn't get one for myself but I tried a puff of it from someone else's. I didn't inhale the smoke...just sucked it into my mouth to taste the flavour (it was apple I think) and then exhaled. You can see in the photo that I didn't particularly enjoy it...


Roadkill...I can't say that the thought of possibly disease-ridden dead wildlife entices me. That and I can't see myself in a situation where I was so hungry I'd need to drag a dead kangaroo off the road to roast on my campfire. Might need to brush up on my bush survival skills...or make sure someone has GPS on our next road trip.

The things I do for food...

Wednesday 17th Sep '08

Aaah - I slept in until the early afternoon today. I really did want to get up earlier to get some things done during the day but just couldn't drag myself out of my warm bed. Needed to catch up on the sleep.

I went outside to water my plants and picked a few strawberries.

they're so munted!!

I went to the seafood store down Warton Road in Southern River and picked up a few things. I feel like seafood these next few days. I bought some clam meat without the shells this time. I'll do a pasta and maybe have some in a nice creamy garlic sauce. I also bought some bamboo clams to try. Let's see if I can google a photo of them...

Here we go...they're a tubular shape - I suppose that's why they're called bamboo clams! The clams in this photo look delicious! Maybe they can be our next Iron Chef ingredient!??

The store didn't have any lobsters and wouldn't have any until next month so I had to make a mad dash to Thornlie Square to pick one up from the Macrofish store. I also bought some mussels. Out of habit, everytime I walk past them on the way to Coles, I always glance at the oysters. Today they had some that were not yet shucked and I almost squealed in excitement. Last night I had come across a short online video on how to shuck oysters and now finding some oysters in need of shucking...it was just meant to be!

At home, I took Simba for a quick run around the park and back home. Mum had made some ho fun (again...she's really in the mood for this dish lately isn't she!?) and I ate some. Not too much though because I wanted to save room for some seafood I was going to cook later on.

Mum's Ho Fun with Fish, Beef, Prawns & Vegetables

I set about washing the mussels and then eagerly got the oysters out to try my very first attempt at shucking them. I used a butter knife because I didn't want to cut myself. I tried to wedge the tip into the 'hinge' of the shell but after trying a few I was beginning to think there would be no oysters for me tonight. I just couldn't seem to get the knife far enough between the shells to pry it open. I rushed to my computer and googled some tips on shucking oysters. The consensus was that practice makes perfect. Great.

I went back to the kitchen to tackle the oysters and after a few more attempts managed to pry one open. YAY! As I shucked each one, I could feel myself getting the hang of it. I don't think I'll be doing it again any time soon though. I think it would be easier to shuck them if they were fresh oysters.

enjoyed with a squeeze of fresh lemon and tobasco sauce


I made some chilli mussels using Teresa's sweet chilli sauce. That sauce is so versatile!! We didn't have any garlic bread so I improvised by spreading some slices of sandwich bread with butter, chopped garlic and a sprinkle of mixed herbs. I toasted them in my sandwich press.



Jocelyn's boyfriend's parents own a fish and chip shop and he bought me a bag of CORNJACKS! I've been trying to get someone to buy me some in bulk for over ten years but no one has ever come through for me until tonight! You can't buy cornjacks from the freezer section of the supermarket. I absolutely love them!

"As corny as you can get"
they even come with the little paper bags to serve them in!

I deepfried one tonight to eat as my 'dessert', if you will.

*smirk*
awww - sorry babe

Tuesday 16th Sep '08

Takeaway for dinner at work again tonight. I stopped by the food court at Westfield Carousel and ordered the unagi don from the Japanese stall. While waiting, I picked up some hot chips from the Chicken Treat stall - hee hee.

I managed to get away for a dinner break despite being really busy. My dinner was a disappointment though. There was one small very thin piece of unagi (eel) amongst a pretty bland assortment of sliced vegetables. This salad (I italicise the 'salad' because I dont believe it even passes as a salad) consisted of a few slices of cabbage, red cabbage and carrot. The slices of white cabbage were the tough stalk part of the cabbage - the part I usually cut and leave out of my cooking because of its toughness. There were a few slices of some sort of pickle which tasted pretty much just like the vinegar it was pickled in. All in all, I have to say it was a really crap meal.

For the last night of my 4-midnight stint, of course everything had to go wrong. Marissa was run off her feet in transfusion and there was still alot to be done when she left for home. The coagulation machine died on me and I spent a few hours trying to fix it while balancing all the urgent work coming in. I had to perform a calibration on the biochemistry analyser, then change a sensor. I didn't get out on time and felt bad about leaving two trays of blood films for the next day. It was one of those shifts where I feel I'm running around on my feet the entire time and I just feel so physically exhausted I don't know how I'm going to find the energy to even drive myself home afterwards.

But I made it. I need something special to pick up my spirits and celebrate the end of my night shifts. I felt like a cocktail so dug out my vodka. I mashed as much juice as I could from a few strawberries and added it to some ice and vodka. I sliced a chilli in half lengthways and threw it into the mixture for a few minutes to let the chilli flavour infuse into the drink. I didn't have any soda water so a can of lemon squash had to suffice. The chilli I used is from our garden so it's a really really hot one. I didn't leave it in for too long otherwise it would overpower the whole drink. Not bad. Would have been better if I'd had some actual strawberry liqueur and sugar syrup.

I had some leftover wantan soup but my Mum had precooked the wantans so they all broke up when I reheated them in the soup. Didn't make for a pretty photo so I didn't take one.

To bed!

Monday 15th Sep '08

I got called out to work early this morning so couldn't get up early enough to do some grocery shopping. Not that it matters...I still wouldn't have had time to actually cook anything to take to work for dinner tonight. It ended up being a quick stop at the Good One on Albany Highway, Victoria Park. I bought the combination roast meats with rice and opted for a choice of three different meats.

roast duck
roast pork
BBQ pork

The lady at the counter doesn't seem to smile very much but she was actually less abrupt with me today than on previous occasions! She gave me a spoonful of chilli oil over the meat and I found some fried Chinese greens in there too.

The two types of pork were great! The duck was on the bony side though.

At home, I opened a bottle of wine and looked for leftovers. This bottle I picked up at the Woolworths liquor store while grocery shopping several weeks ago. The label caught my eye. It was a harrowing night at work and I just am not in the mood to cook. I found some chicken my Mum had boiled and a stirfry of cabbage and dried shrimp. I try to avoid the dried shrimp because of my prawn allergy. For some reason I'm less tolerant to the dried shrimp than I am to the regular prawns. However, tonight I wanted some vegies with my chicken so I took a small spoonful, trying to avoid the shrimp pieces.


Simba was hoping he'd get some of my dinner

Sunday 14th Sep '08

Today I got up and plodded into the kitchen to see what I could take to work to eat.

Nothing.
I made a sandwich with butter and sugar. Yes, that's right. Butter and sugar. It's an old favourite of mine dating back in the days of primary school. My mum made it for us as a snack during recess. She'd use white bread, butter each slice and sprinkle some white sugar evenly over the bread. I love the taste of the butter and the sweetness of the sugar. I used to go home from school complaining that there wasn't enough butter until one day my mum just sliced the butter as thick as those Kraft cheese singles - PERFECT!


I also found some leftover roast chicken in the fridge so shredded that up and made another sandwich to have for dinner.

Back at home, I found some wantans waiting for me. Mum had made them and set some aside for me. I just had to make a quick soup with the last bit of the wantan soup stock powder, throw in some chinese vegetables, serve with deepfried shallots, chilli and coriander, and bon apetit!