Butterfly Pink

TODAY'S THE BIRTHDAY OF AN OLD FRIEND of mine. She rang to say hello, out of the blue. Still the familiar voices and laughter. It brought back some memories to me .... good ones. In life we need good memories, the good old days of friendships that we cherish; no matter how far we are apart and how long we have not seen each other. We live for today, no doubt, but we create memories and things that last, forever .....

Happy Birthday Butterfly Pink!

Lunch At Vermont South

WE DECIDED TO HAVE LUNCH WITH FAMILY @ our Vermont South home. SM is responsible for cooking the roast chicken, pickled vegetables (acar), stir fried zucchini with dried shrimps and 东粉 and chiffon cake. I am responsible for cooking the "rice wine" chicken dish (鸡酒)。

Acar, pickled mini carrots, pineapple, onion and sliced red chilli

"Rice Wine" Chicken

Stir fried zuchini with dried shrimps and 东粉

Home made curry puffs

The kids enjoy the beautiful juicy free range roast chicken and potatos

The preparation for the 鸡酒 dish involves cooking sliced young ginger in olive oil for 1-2 minute. Fry 8 eggs with the ginger and set aside.

Then fry more ginger slices in olive oil and cook with the chicken pieces. I use 2 whole free range chicken from Lilydale cut into pieces. Then add some hot water to boil the chicken pieces in the broth for about 5-8 minutes or until almost cooked. Add in a generous amount of Stone's Ginger Wine (available from Dan Murphy's at $8.99 a bottle) to taste and cook for an additional 2-3 minutes. Do not over-cook the chicken or else the meat will be tough to eat. Since we don't have rice wine I use the ginger wine as a replacement ingredient. Finally lay the fried eggs on top of the chicken broth and pour the remaining broth over it. Then serve hot.

The "rice wine" chicken dish is a fantastic winter dish. All agree. In the end all the food is finished!

Hard at work on the Sunday puzzles

Reading a book after a big meal

Asbach Brandy - smooth, non-intrusive, gut-warming
JW Blue Label - aromatic, sharp and extra-smooth
Morris Muscat - aromatic, sweet, woody

Tea and coffee is served. We have curry puffs and chiffon cake for dessert. We also have on this occasion Asbach Brandy (German brandy), Johnny Walker Blue Label Whiskey (very rare whiskey) and Morris Muscat dessert wine (sweet after meal wine, $14.99 at Dan Murphy's). The alcohol is most welcome as we do enjoy a bit of a drink in the winter. It helps with keeping warm, and some say with food digestion and settle the stomach.....

The group says we will meet again next month to celebrate mom's and my birthday.

New Wheels

I TOOK DELIVERY OF my Toyota Aurion from Cannon Toyota today.

Movida

Today Darren, Linda, Emilie, SM and I went for lunch at Movida Spanish Restaurant in the city on my recommendation. Movida is a 2 chef hats restaurant. Arriving at the restaurant at noon we promptly placed our orders for some tapas and racions. We had the following tapas: Fried silky croquette flavoured with leek and mahon cheese, Hand filleted Cantabrian artisan anchovy on crouton with smoked tomato sorbet, and Baby leek wrapped in brik pastry served with a chicken liver parfait.

For racions we had the char grilled lamb, beef waghu and paella.

What a wonderful lunch! And thanks Darren! Every agreed the paella was the best dish out of the day's show but the lamb, the croquette and liver parfait also were high on our list!

We adjourned to Crown Casino and made our way for latte, cappuccino with baked cheese cake at Greco European Grill at South Bank. What a relaxing way to finish the afternoon with some nice company, great coffee and sweets!

A couple of weeks ago we were invited out to the Lows for a dinner of crabs ala Fatty Crabs style, fresh steamed prawns, 四季斗， and fried rice at their Vermont South home. We got to know their have sold their home and will be handing over the property to the new owners in mid July. They are moving to a St Kilda Road apartment to be closer to the city and to enjoy the conveniences of a city dwelling! The Lows are heading back to Asia for a few years but will continue their association with Melbourne no doubt. We are going to miss them.....