Sunday lunch with my dearest

Last Sunday we visited mom and dad, as we do, and enjoyed a lunch with them. We took them to I Spicy on Victoria St, Richmond for Thai. 

We had a beautiful Pork Shank cooked slowly, apparently, for 3 hours; in five spice herbs and then deep fried until crispy and served with a spicy sauce. Hmmm, yum.

We had a poor dish, deep fried kang kung served with something like a tom yam. yuck.

We had a deep fried barramundi, an ok dish.

We had some fish cakes, which are always good, as a Thai entree. Mom and dad thought the dishes were tasty.

After lunch we had a cuppa in nearby Abbotsford. Lovely, quaky atmosphere in this cafe and I always have a weakness for Abbotsford. There is a mix of old Victorian homes and newer apartments and units. There is also so much human activity going on in Little Vietnam and there are plentiful cafes and restaurants. So in my view, a place to be, and a good day.

Melbourne STOBA dinner at Box Hill 富摇 last night.

We did not get to meet as a group for Boxing Day last year because of various factors. Chief amongst the excuses - no one organized the function. 

When this photo was circulated amongst STOBA class 78 one of our mates Chut Chut commented as below:-

"Start with the guy with 福相 on the bottom left. He looks like somebody I knew, only 1.5 times wider. Maybe it's the trick of the wide angle lens, he may not be so chubby in real life. Ha ha."

"@#$%$#&&^%"

Burmese House

Tonight 19/07/13 we drive 068 in the rain to Richmond for dinner. We first head out to Hawthorn trying to find Penang Coffee House but can't find it in the rain, and in chock-a-block traffic. What do we do next?

"Shall we just head out a bit further to Richmond? Let's be adventurous tonight and find a restaurant we have never been before."

So we keep going and finally and eventually I park on Bridge Road in Richmond and we step out in the showery rain to the sidewalk. We look around, and then we look up at the the restaurant signs around us trying to see what we can find to eat. Out of the blue, and I see "Burmese House" right where we are standing. We say, "let's give this a try".

That is how we end up eating in this charming restaurant, in a rainy and chilly Friday night in Melbourne.

And the food is extremely tasty and unique. It is supposed to be ethnic and traditional but I have never tasted Burmese food before so I cannot comment on its originality. I can say that we have eaten a lot of different types of curries and spicy food before and the dishes are definitely unique. And on a wintry night, the Burmese food is absolutely heart-warming.

The restaurant is small and cosy, the service great. There are two lady chefs cooking in the open kitchen, I later find out in their website that the owner/chef's name is Mimi, a Burmese. We only order 2 dishes tonight for our meal; chilli chicken and Burmese sliced fillet of fish curry, and coconut rice. It urns out the dishes are more than what we could eat.

Burmese House is a real surprise to us and we are happy tonight.

Burmese House revisited 2 weeks later ....

We went back to BH for dinner because we thought we liked its food and were sure we wanted to try some other dishes that we saw patrons eating.

Tonight we try the MOH HIN GHA which is the NATIONAL DISH OF BURMA - essentially it's rice vermicelli in fish soup.

What a dish, its thick soup, s flavorsome and warming. It reminds me of Sarawak laksa or mee Jawa. 

We also have GINGER SALAD. Lots of ingredients are used to make this salad - ginger with fried mixed pea, peanut, garlic and roasted sesame seed, dried shrimps, roasted chick pea powder, vegetable oil, tomato and cabbage. This dish is very special, and so inviting as a salad.

Lastly we want something spicy and so we have CHILLI SQUID. This dish is a bit of a let down. The chilli is great but the fresh squid is overpowered by excessive use of bicarbonate. 

Melbourne School of Fine Woodworking

In my busy work and family schedules I manage to take time out to re-charge my batteries. This time I think outside of the box and over 2 days on 13 and 14 July, I attend a "Intro to Furniture Making" at MSFW, Box Hill.

Why furniture making? I don't really know. I am thinking, "maybe I can make a bookcase or a nice piece of furniture for the living room". Actually it's not that easy. This is only a 2-day course on some concepts and principles of furniture making. To make a real nice piece of furniture one  has to join a tutor group (3 hours a week for 11 weeks) and work from conceptual designs, to final design, to material list, to buying the timber, to cutting, planing, making joinery, sanding, oiling; to final product.

In Intro at least we get to experience cutting timber, surface planing of timber, sharpening tools, and making two types of joints. 

There are 6 of us: John, Jon, Bruce, Glenn, Chris, and me. All novices. 

Over cups of tea we are engrossed in our own world for 2 days talking, observing and learning how to make joinery. I forget work and I forget stress. I enjoy the new knowledge. Will I go for the tutor group to make my own piece of fine furniture? Probably not.

TONY V AND EVA V

今晚老天爷还在下毛毛雨，我们在卡尔顿见面。TONIGHT WE HAVE A FANTASTIC TIME WITH Tony and E who are our long time friends from Belgium. Tony and I were colleagues, he in USA, I in Singapore, then Malaysia, then Australia. 不知不觉 I have known Tony for 22 years. Tony worked as a specialist at the Ohio factory and helped me in the initial years of selling narrow aisle products in Asia. When Tony retired he and E decided to move back to Europe. Tony & E were born in Holland but they preferred to live the rest of their lives in Brussels.

上一次我们与他们俩在墨尔本见面的时候是在六年前的今天。那次 we went on the Great Ocean Road drive and looked after them.

Tonight we pick them up from their hotel on Queen St and have our dinner at Lygon街, Carlton. I thought they would enjoy the Saturday night atmosphere and restaurant scene there. And they do. We decide to let our noses do the picking and eventually settle for the Seasons Provedore reataurant on Lygon St. It's a cosy little Italian restaurant and the table service is excellent. We order spaghetti Tagliatelle and lamb shank and sip our BYO De Bortoli Windy Peak Semillon Sauvignon Blanc and Brown Brothers Moscato.We prefer al fresco dining and mingle with other diners and passers by. The night is chilly but not very cold, besides, the outdoor heaters are in full blast .....

"The Lygon St atmosphere here is so much like the night scene in Rome", Eve comments. "There's nothing like this place in Sydney, is there?"

We catch up on their happenings, their recent trips to India, Bali, and their impending trip to Ohio. One of their daughters work as a volunteer in Sulawesi and has recently returned to the US in frustration with the lack luster responses she gets from the locals on the environment programs she is implementing there....

"You must come visit us in Belgium!"

"But I find the task of finding the places to visit in Europe daunting!"

"If you decide to come to Europe we will help you plan your trips. We will take care of the itinerary for Belgium, Holland and France. There are so many things to see and do!"

看来我们一定要去欧洲走一走啦！

晚餐过後我带队去Brunetti for dessert，但 Brunetti 店里边人山人海，我们找不到座位坐，只好走回去 Seasons Provedore 隔墙的 Gelatisimo 吃意大利雪糕当我们的甜点。

希腊区 － Oakleigh

星期五晚上下着毛毛雨，我的另一半说不如我们去希腊区吧。我们在网上看了一遍资料後就决定去 Backbone Grill 用餐。

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希腊区 is located at Oakleigh, specifically on Eaton St. After the WWII many migrants from Italy and Greece came to Australia and settled in Melbourne. The Italians in Carlton and the Greeks in Northcote and Oakleigh. I don't want to have Souvlaki or kalamki for dinner and I feel like meats. SM obliges me and we settle for Scotch fillet grass-fed beef from Launceston and she, suckling pig with lemonates potatoes and fasolakia.

Backbone Grill is warm inside even on a rainy night. We select a private table and watch the chefs prepare our meals. SM's suckling pig does not look appetizing but looks are deceiving. It is so tender and fragrant. My steak is cooked medium and goes well with English mustard.

"How did you like your meal", the cashier asks. "We love it, especially the pork was so tender!". "You know, the lamb and the pig have been on the rotisserie since 8 this morning so it is tender."

Wow, that's wonderful food. We love it.

Outside Backbone Grill, "Let's go and have dessert", SM cajoles. Righto and we duck across the pedestrian mall to a place we enjoyed going from years before; Vanila cakes and lounge.  

I am looking for my Baklava but they can't find it on display. But they have Varitou which is very similar, and SM goes for two types of desserts which I have forgotten their names. Oh they are heavenly nice. So sweet and so calming.

OF MT DANDENONG, YARRA VALLEY AND LITTLE BOURKE ST

FRIENDS RICKY + JENNA, LEE + JORENE came to Melbourne last week end from KL. This was their first trip down under. Rick bought a CBD apartment for his kids so that they can live in it when they come for their studies. This is now such a common practice and the parents are able and can afford to offer their kids such accommodation and education.

Back in the old days we did not have such facilities offered to us by our folks. 

But I am grateful we got an education, nonetheless.

First stop on Sunday we took them to Mt Dandenong in 068. Lucky we have 068 so we can accommodate 6 people in one truck. We stopped for some photo opportunities at a garden to admire some beautiful sights especially the brown and red leaves. Then we took them for lunch at Olinda, at the Pie in the Sky, Victoria's #1 and Australia's Top 10.

I think they enjoyed the meat pies - a first for them.

We spent some time in the Yarra Valley after some brief shopping at Olinda; visiting the De Bortolli vineyard. They went for the wine tasting like duck in water and loved it. Dinner was at West Lake Chinatown enjoying Goat stew pot.

MONDAY NIGHT WE TOOK THEM OUT to visit the Italian section of our town - Carlton. Lygon St was quite 凄凉 as some proprietors elect to not open on Mondays. Nonetheless we enjoyed the atmosphere, the cool evening and our pastas and risottos.The De Bortolli wines were pretty good too. They bought pinot noir as per my suggestion and it paid off. I brought a bottle of Penfolds Koonunga Hill Shiraz and it was well received.

All in all a good show and good companionship .....

This time, Devonport

How I landed with the job I needed to do today I had no idea.

I am beginning to feel like I am a Fly In Fly Out materials handling "expert".

Anyway I reached Tullamarine by 7am for my 8.25 to Devonport (Tassie, of course). By 9.25 I was on the ground in Devonport to do the site survey job. Paul from Berry Exchange picked me up from the small airport.

After an hour of surveying his facilities and understanding his needs for handling, packing, storing, freezing berries and a obligatory cup of coffee we bid farewell and he sent me to the local airport again. I tried to get on an earlier flight home. Lucky for me I got on the 1.15pm flight or else I would have to spend the next 5 hours waiting for the following plane.

The service today was operated by Qantaslink and it was my first on a Dash 8 400 series (74-seater Turboprop). I just loved it. From MEL we flew out on runway 27 towards the west and then turned a big left hand arc over Port Philip Bay towards French Island. The pilot then turned South and flew over Bass Straits this morning towards the Big Apple Aisle. Same way on the return sector in the afternoon except we flew North from Devonport, of course, past the northern suburbs and landed on runway 27 again.

It reminded me so much of flying a high wing Cessna.

Approaching Melbourne Airport

Berry Exchange loading docks