我家另一半

我家另一半 is a pretty good cook. 

For the first time she has cooked a roast chicken for me for today's lunch. 

The only contribution from me for this meal is that I this morning I went to Coles to buy the roasting potatoes for her.I reckon what she has cooked is juicy, succulent and fantastic.

Back home -

It's good to be back home .... boy it's cold! Can't wait for Spring to come sooner.

This photo was taken with Air Asia pilot Mitch and would-be-Air-Asia pilot Miraz @ Seri Petaling driving range restaurant some time back in June.

Mitch's new wheels ..... A lovely M sport BMW.

SM and her mom on the day we were leaving

back home.....

The Eiffel Tower I bought from 紙 箱王 shop at the 高雄火车站 is completed. Yeah.

 

SM & friends

Somewhere in KL today ..............

Somewhere in Laos a week ago ...............

I didn't go on this trip because I did not want to "entertain" a group of females & their whims, all at the same time ..... I don't think I could heck it.

9/5/12 Lunch @ Gotong Jaya and coffee @ Awana

Soo Weng + Family

Soo Weng and her family (husband Peter, Alicia and Michael) are in Australia and have met up with Kin Fong, Foong Peng (Ivy) and SM for lunch to catch up on the latest happenings.

It was good to have them in Melbourne. 

 

Vietnamese Broken Rice Dinner

Vietnamese spring rolls

Vietnamese Broken Rice with pan-fried pork chops, a fried egg, shredded pork skins 猪皮 and cucumber. Special fish sauce is poured over the rice and condiments and mixed together well before eating

SM baked a cake for the dinner

WE WERE AT MARY AND JIM'S GLEN WAVERLEY HOME for dinner. This was planned a week ago when we had home-cooked pho. Mary is a cook cook. I requested Vietnamese Broken rice 越南碎米饭 and it was something we had before and enjoyed.

One other pleasant surprise was we were also served Vietnamese spring rolls which are basically shredded chicken with Vietnamese mint, vermicelli, and cooked prawns wrapped in Vietnamese rice papers. How we eat is we dip them into a bowl of fish sauce mixed with peanuts and chili.

One of the things we talked about was how hard life was in Saigon back in 1975. Mary's parental family had had a big piece of land near Da Nang which they had to forgo when the commies confiscated South Vietnamese people's properties. She still has the land title but it is now a waste paper.

Life was very hard.........

Nice Day Out

SATURDAY 5 MARCH 2011. NICE DAY. 23 degrees, very sunny. We went to Vic Market to get the usual seafood, veg, fruits, cheese, bread, ham, eggs. Mom and dad came with us and we had a nice lunch near the Market. Had our latte's and lemingtons.

Off to get the stuff whilst mom and dad waited for us.

All done in 2 hours. Vic Market was chock-a-block with people. Shoppers, locals, tourists, gawkers, people walking in fast paces, toing and froing. Busy little spot. And I did not even have my usual favorite, bratwurst with mild mustard and fried onion. I don't like sauerkraut.

My favorite bratwurst stall is the Melbourne Bratwurst Shop. It's at 99 Queen Victoria Market. Phone No: 03 9328 2076.

My favorite part of QVM - the delis. I bought some d'affinois cheese today. D'affinois is a French double-cream soft cheese made from cow's milk. It is produced by the Fromagerie Guilloteau company

See French Moments Sydney site for more info on d'ffanois cheese. You will love it.

Off to mom and dads to drop them off and to get some chili plants.

Nice antique car. Could not see what make because it was on the fast lane doing > 100kph. Must have had a different engine mounted in from its original?

We had our lunch in a restaurant along Elizabeth St. It was sunny and we decided to have our meals alfresco.

Chiang Mai & Bangkok

My buddy Kee Mun + his family and us went to Chiang Mai and Bangkok in March for a holiday. We met at KL's LCCT and left as a group. This was the first time we holidayed together and initially it took a bit of getting used to each other. We stayed at the Centara Duangtawan hotel in the heart of the city and near to the night markets.

Kee Mun and I immersed in Thai traditional massage and foot massage during our stay whilst Jun wanted to try the fish massage. I didn't see her asking for more after that experience .....

We also went to the Long Neck Village and elephant sanctuary, did a bit of rafting (very benign) amongst other visits to the orchid farm, Thai temple, morning market, antique market, craft markets and the night market stores.

Bullock cart ride .... bumpy ride

The Long Neck Village is very commercialized. The tribes people are still foreigners in Thailand. Confined to the hills. No way of finding other employments.

Finding food was easy, all it took was us to do a bit of homework looking for the right restaurants and cafes. And there were so many of them. We enjoyed particularly Keoy Teow Phat (Thai fried rice noodles) and mango rice pudding. There was a cafe right next door to our hotel selling ice cream and mango delights. We also went to a seafood restaurant two nights out of three we were there. The seafoods were sourced and flown in from Haatyai. We had the most beautiful steamed fish (Thai style of course), crabs, tiger prawns, oysters, a kind of lala or clams, fresh vegetables, and fresh fruits. All for not more than A$50 a meal.

One Official Photographer for the tour and one not so official photographer .....

Mini Pumpkins

Met Kee Mun's Thai friend, Khun Wat, and visited his home. He also took us to two of the Harley Davidson outlets run by his friends. He was a good man and an artist. He draws painting of deities, monks and religious scenes for Buddha temples. He is obviously a Harley enthusiast. Got a lovely son and wife.

Clowning around on stage with Wat

Harley enthusiast

Wat's Fat Boy

Having a nice Thai lunch by a lake with Wat

Kee Mun .... stop worrying so much!

Having a leisurely time - nice