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.