Monday, December 31, 2012

Flying Home...

Holiday came to an end and it's time to say "So Long!" to Melbourne! We packed our belongings and flew home last night. The face of Melbourne changed quite a bit over the past years and I am sorry to have to say that I like the city more in the past than the present. The changes in the demography of the city have changed the friendliness and the beauty of the place. The strength of the currency makes everything more expensive and less interesting. Having said that, I still had my getaway from home and it is always great to have an occasional break from our routines, from time to time. More importantly,  the five of us were together as a family and experienced all the goods, the bads, the frights, the fights, the laughs and so much more. We are also proud to have prevented ourselves from being cheated by an Indian money changer who tried to take away A$300 from us, in the form of 12.5% commission fee that he created by himself for himself. What a jerk! The last jerk we saw in 2012. 

Goodbye 2012, we are waiting for the arrival of new year in less than three hours.....


I try to make myself comfortable in the plane during a rather long flight, this one included. I put on the slippers from the hotel and sipped up some Solitaire Dreams served by a nice Flight Attendant of Singapore Airlines.


Friday, December 28, 2012

Queen Victoria Market

It was the day after Boxing Day and it was our plan to check out Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne. It a within walking distance from the hotel where we stayed.



Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Boxing Day

It's Boxing Day and our intention was to stay as far away from the shops as possible, we had no plan to go the malls and try to get good bargains. Let other people have them! We went to St. Kilda beach instead. Absolutely not to swim! It's windy and too cold for us and many people. We strolled along trying to enjoy the scenery and took some pictures. That's all. And had lunch. And did a bit of window shoppings.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas In Melbourne!

Merry Christmas from Melbourne! A view of Yarra river on Christmas day. Peace on earth and good health to everyone and their loved ones!

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Chicken Espetada From Nando's


This was our first and maybe the only time eating at Nando's at the Star Vista. I tried their Chicken Thigh Espetada with selected grilled vegetables and spicy rice for the sides. The food was okay but the service was really poor. Despite many empty tables, it was hard to get the attention from the waiters. When two out of the three meals ordered were served, nobody provided us with utensils. We had to ask and we could not get any waiter to do it until a while. We asked for water and the order was forgotten.  Very disappointing!



Friday, December 14, 2012

Yakitori Bento At Nanbantei


Back in the beginning of our marriage years when we were working in Singapore (before our adventure for many years in Jakarta!), we had started frequenting Nanbantei, a Japanese restaurant specializing in Yakitori, located in Far East Plaza. For more than 20 years we keep on coming here and we also take our kids and friends to this place. The Obento that we always order is still as good, the location is still the same and the price is still inexpensive. Our recent visit was last Saturday. These days, we always request that our quail eggs to be substituted with vegetable, we normally get grilled ocra.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

A Drive By


Living here does not mean that we have been to most of its attractions.  We are aware that this island has a new place for people to go to namely Gardens by the Bay. We just have not make it there yet. One Saturday morning, when we tried to check out Marina Barrage, we ended up passing by the Gardens and decided to drive around a bit and snapped some pictures from our car. That's it. Maybe we will be able to go there and walk around. One day. One fine day.


Tuesday, December 11, 2012

Sambal Chicken


Sambal Chicken is one of my favorite dishes that happens to be well liked by DH and Miss K too. I normally made the dish using the cut up chicken but this time, I only used the breast. No picking bones needed and that just made Miss K's day. I mixed in some Kaffir Lime leaves, simply because I love them. We had them with homemade Nasi Lemak. So wonderful!

Sunday, December 09, 2012

Saba Shio


Saba Shio or Grilled Mackerel with salt is simple, but tasty. The dish is widely available in many Japanese restaurants around. When I find myself in a situation where I just do not know what to order, I tend to get this one, together with a bowl of salad. This Saba Shio was from Sushi Tei at Raffles City.

Saturday, December 08, 2012

Driving In The Rain ...


It has been raining quite a bit here lately. We still some sun, especially in the morning, but then, rain will come in the afternoon before it clears up again later on in the day. We went out for lunch a couple of days ago and by the time we finished, it poured heavily. The traffic was affected, as always.

Wednesday, December 05, 2012

Back To Sweet Potato Chips!


I have been making conscious effort to live more healthily, I try to minimize the amount of less healthy food than I make and consume. Occasionally, I still indulge myself with more sinful snacks like these Sweet Potato Chips. They are deep fried (!) but eating just a bit, I hope, won't hurt too much.

Char Siu Su





It has been one of the longest weeks I have ever had and it is only Wednesday! My downstairs neighbor has decided that their place was not good enough so they are demolishing the whole house. The wooden floors were removed, the ceilings were torn down and the granite flooring is being hacked. All the works resulted in just super horrible noise and unpleasant vibration from the drilling and other machinery or tools the workers used. Other than that, my life is wonderful and as perfect as any other human being's life. Thank God for that!


One of my favorite dim sums is Char Siu Su or Baked Barbeque Pork Puffs. I love the combination of buttery-flaky pastry and the sweet barbequed pork inside. We had dim sum on Monday in Crystal Jade Dining In in Vivocity as we attempted to the get away from the nuisance coming from the unit downstairs.

Monday, December 03, 2012

Are We Close To Friday Yet?

That was the question I asked to Miss K when she was about to leave the door for school this morning. For a brief period, I had memory lapse, a glitch in my brain, completely forgetting what day today was. My daughter said, "Fat chance!" and I suddenly was made aware that it was only Monday. Which turned out to be a Manic Monday, thanks to The Bangles. What an utter disappointment! 


I happened to be in the neighborhood of Tanglin Mall after running the first errand of the day and took some pictures of their Christmas Decoration that the Mall put outside. It looked like it was not quite completed yet, I saw some work-in-progress nearby. The tree stood tall and the elves above were already there too, guarding the (fake) presents. They looked adorable, but warnings not too touch were pasted all over the place. Just look and be content!



Sunday, December 02, 2012

Tahu Sumedang


Back when I was younger, wayyyyyy.... younger, I used to eat a lot of this deep fried beancurd from a place in West Java called Sumedang. Sumedang is about 40km away from the Capital City of West Java, Bandung.  Today, after many years not eating them, I had the privilege of having some, courtesy of my sister who lives in Bandung. These are not the original ones, but I am grateful to have something close to them. You can read more about Tahu Sumedang from this Wiki page. Thanks to DH for bringing them to Jakarta and all the way to Singapore. Some of them are in my tummy! Yum. Yum. Yum.