Jesus describes His true family

Mark 3 : 31 - 35 is really interesting to me right now, as I ponder why some Christians believe we should keep ourselves within our own religious organisations when it comes to building strong relationships. To the extent of de-emphasizing our existing r'ships with other believers who're not in our organisation.

Logically, it doesn't make sense as we're all in the same family of God [as believers], and in heaven...we're gonna continue being in the same family for eternity! I hope God doesn't segregate us in heaven... like a section for each local church, and telling us not to mingle!

Anyway. Jesus says in v 35 that "whoever does God's will is my brother and sister and mother."

How should we treat others within the family of God then?

I take comfort in the knowledge that God knows our hearts, and if we yield to Him, and ask of Him, He will surely speak to us and give us His wisdom. [James 1:5]

30 minute meal

 I didn't need a Jamie Oliver book to come up with a 30 minute meal - most of our dinners take under 30 minutes to prepare anyway!
This one was so convenient as we used some freezer ingredients.

Tomato and scrambled egg chinese style - just cook up the tomatoes till they turn to mush and add some tomato sauce, chilli sauce and soy sauce! then mix them with some scrambled eggs.

Miso soup - from a packet, just add hot water!

Spicy chicken slices - from a frozen Steggles packet! hehe. the hot and spicy ones are the best!

Stir fried shrimp and snow peas with garlic and oyster sauce.

Melb CBD

Melbourne's become our new "malaysia" - a place for great food and shopping! and meeting old friends.

Above, the bulgogi at By Korea on La Trobe street. It was excellent of course. We paid something like $15.90 per serving [the minimum order is 2 servings though] Ambiance was nice for conversation as it was relatively quiet, and the waitress was sweet although I wasn't used to the non-eyecontact thing having lived in Tassie for awhile now. I'd forgotten what it was like being served by Asians -where making eye-contact is not a requisite to portraying polite-ness. But yeah, it felt a bit weird because we couldn't even smile or say thank you and ackowledging them whenever we were served something because they just wouldn't make eye contact! it's not meant to be rude though. it's just cultural I guess. It's the same with cashier chit-chat - it's just not done in asian cultures!

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Le Triskel in Hardware Lane is a nice cozy little cafe. We were there in the morning and there weren't too many people so it was nice and relaxing. Below, a mushroom and cheese galette, very nice. 

 and, a ham and egg one - also delicious. They were both yummy and filling -perfect for a lazy breakfast.

 Couldn't resist ordering dessert as well - below, the salted caramel crepe which was lovely as well.

On recommendation by a friend, we also went to Oriental Spoon on La Trobe st, which we noticed were always chockers full of customers no matter what time we went by!
We weren't disappointed. the wait staff were very efficient and we never had to wait for long. The lunch specials were surprisingly quite good value!
below, the Galbi Tang [pork rib soup] turned out to be the best pork soup we've ever had, was only $11! It came with a side of kimchi and chilli paste, and rice of course. I was a bit disappointed that there was only 1 side dish, but well, for $11 i guess we can't complain!

 We returned later that night for dinner and had the gamja tang [pork bone and potato soup] below, which came with 3 side dishes of kimchi, spicy eggplant and lightly cooked beansprouts.
 Actually I was hoping for the usual 9 side dishes we used to have in malaysia... ! is that just not done here?

It was nice but not as nice as the afternoon's galbi tang. One thing I wish they could do is make the portions smaller and cheaper - that way we could try more menu items. One serving of the spicy fried chicken is like...a whole chicken's worth! and $33! That just doesn't work when you only have 2 people dining together. It's the same with the bulgogi with the requisite minimum 2 serving rule - even if there're 2 of us, would've been nicer to have been able to just order 1 serving to share, and try other things. Anyway, we'd definitely return to try the other items if we ever had the chance to in future.

spaghetti and meatballs

I was in the mood for something American lately, after reading a few american fiction novels! there's something about reading about a certain food that makes you want to cook it. except if it's from Enid Blyton.... the food she describes in her books don't sound at all appealing... hard boiled eggs with cucumbers, raw tomato, rock cakes and... potted meat? no thanks! [not to mention cold chicken, cold sausages and bear tarts....]

what's the difference between spag bol and spaghetti and meatballs? wouldn't they taste the same? I always thought so, but now I think that the fact that the meat's rolled up into a ball  gives it a different texture and mouthfeel that adds to the experience. So, I'd say this is an improved spag bol. 

Just cook it the same way you would a spag bol, but instead of browning the mince, you mix it with an egg, breadcrumbs and any seasonings you like such as grated parmesan, salt, pepper, oregano, basil and minced garlic. I think I added paprika and garlic powder to mine! Roll them into balls and simmer them in the tomato sauce until cooked. 

Serve with extra grated parmesan on top.

to make it healthier, add chopped capsicum, grated carrot, peas, green beans or even spinach to the tomato sauce! 

interesting? boring? these are the little things in life...

 the hardiwork of my little boy. who knows what he was thinking when he did this. perhaps he'll be an abstract artist.......

 trying to delay bedtime......

 helping to "rake" the garden.........

 again, he thought that the oven was a good place to display his shoes...........

and everything has to pass the "chew test" that he runs.that and the loudness, breakability and throwability tests...........

Dining out in Reservoir/Rosanna

 We happened to pass by this place on Plenty Rd, Reservoir on our way to Preston and couldn't resist trying it out. We'd had nepalese momo in KL before and loved it. It's basically chinese steamed jiaozi but with a bit of an indian twist- the curry like spicy sauce!

 above, the pani puri $6.50 which I wasn't that impressed with as they were cold. but the onion dip was nice..I think we didn't quite know how to eat it. were we meant to dip the crackers into the brown liquid?

 the menu. this is just a takeaway outlet so nothing fancy looking...

 but the mask display on the wall might interest some...

the deep fried chicken momo which was the best thing ever! loved the spicy sauce. we gobbled it up so quickly that we needed more sauce! 

 this is the chilli momo with a chilli sauce which was REALLY hot!

I'd come here again just for the momo. the girls who waited on us were lovely - smiling and friendly.
I really like that they're open till 9pm [it's nearly impossible finding anything in hobart that's open that late apart from pubs and macca's]

They have a facebook page here
708 Plenty Rd Reservoir VIC 3073‎

Edit details

(03) 9943 9229 

After that, we were still greedy hungry so we went to Rasa Chinta on Waiora Rd that opens till 10pm! and had their nasi lemak special $11 which had the best beef curry ever.

Our only gripe was that there wasn't enough sambal but we asked for more and were given a nice generous glop more so we were happy.

 For dessert, we had the roti pisang with ice cream and maple syrup. Not a very malaysian way of having it, but yummy.

Address: 233 Waiora Rd, Heidelberg Heights VIC 3081, Australia

Phone:+61 3 9456 9328

trying out American recipes

One night I decided to go American and made tator tot casserole. It's basically a modified shepherd's pie - instead of mash on top, tator tots are used. [they're like frozen hash browns but shaped into a little cylinder]
In most recipes, only 4 ingredients are used - beef mince, cream of something soup, shredded cheese and tator tots. but there's no way I could brown beef mince without adding garlic, onions, pepper, chopped carrot and peas and worcestershire sauce..

So, that's layered on the bottom with the soup, cheese and potatoes on top and baked in the oven for it to heat through, the cheese to melt and the potatoes to crisp.
Not the most balanced meal around, so it has to be served with a salad.

Jim Lahey's book really got me intrigued and I've been making a few rounds of his no knead bread. These I shaped into long sticks and baked on a tray. They're still not as soft as store bought though...perhaps bread improver really is necessary after all?

birthday

I was lucky enough to have been gifted some treats from Lipscombe Larder in sandy bay. The lemon meringue tart [left] had  impressive towering blobs of baked meringue on top, with rich, tangy lemon curd underneath atop a nice crisp pastry. The fruit tart was also gorgeous, with just the right amount of zing from the fruits, and sweetness from the glaze and custard - and rich pastry that wasn't too sweet.

 for my birthday dinner, the hubby made wonton noodles from scratch. well, almost! the wonton skins were bought, but other than that it was all from scratch.

This is a very simple fruit custard I made for the baby. Just whisk an egg with some milk and pureed fruits [I used apple and raspberry] and bake until set! He loved it. I was glad to have gotten some protein, fat, calcium and fruit into him. I reckon this would work well with pureed vegetables and cheese added to it as well [then it would sort of be a quiche rather than a custard]

Moonah treasures

 We love going to the Moonah Island markets - especially if you go early, the fresh veggies from this stall are plentiful and beautiful! We love getting our kailan, coriander, choysum, bokchoy, kangkung and daikon radishes from him.

 this roasted pork belly piece from the Vietnamese stall $2 was yummy. even comes with 3 hot chips!

At the Sawak cafe stall [next to Churros] this is the best char kueh teow in Hobart at $7.50 - stir fried by a Penang boy!  He's always very cheerful and helpful. Great customer service, great food, great price - what more can you ask for? Every serving comes with big juicy prawns, slices of chicken, bean sprouts and wok- fragrant noodles.

some of the fresh fish on sale.

 The prices here are definitely much cheaper than Coles or Woolies.

 We had lunch at Kawasemi at Dickenson’s Arcade off the main street in Moonah. This place is so nice and cozy with interesting Japanese decor like bonzais, noren curtains, Japanese paintings and ikebana type flower arrangements.

 above, the tonkatsu with rice. Very nice and at just $10.50! could that even get you a greasy fish n chip takeaway box at flippers?

this bento box at $15.50 was gorgeous - there were so many little elements to it that it keeps you interested right till the last mouthful. It had salmon and tuna sashimi, some tsukemono pickles, tempura-ed prawn, capsicum, onion, broccoli and eggplant, sweet tamago omellete, simmered sweet potato sticks, cauliflower and an octopus tentacle, a bundle of smoked salmon slices wrapped in nori, a mound of creamy potato salad, a generous piece of breaded tonkatsu [pork], a little beefburger, some coleslaw, 4 pieces of sushi each with different fillings including smoked salmon, avocado, cucumber, seaweed, omelette and ikura, and bits of salad and wasabi as garnishes. also it came with a delicate bonito stock soup and dipping sauce for the tempura. Both our meals came with a pasta salad starter that I didn't much more.

The star of the meal for me was the dessert - an elegant green tea pancake filled with custard served with green tea ice cream and slivers of apple and grapes [$4.50]- but alas i didn't  take a photo!

I would definitely come again and try the other items. Service was great and they provided a high chair for the baby. It was very popular for lunchtime takeaways so I'd recommend coming in at 10.30am if you're after a quiet meal.

Kawasemi Japanese Tea House

Dickenson’s Arcade 109 Main Rd
Moonah TAS 7009
(03) 6278 1322

zucchini

this week, i cooked up a quick "Jeyuk-bokkeum" [Korean pork stir fry with chilli bean paste]

to have with kimchi and kangkung.

 we got given a huge zucchini [above!] so i used it in a quiche below. We also had zucchini rice porridge, zucchini pizza and zuchinni slice.

 below, some of the mush that Jo gets for dinner - pureed apple, pureed chicken with tomatoes and oats, and mashed raspberries in greek yoghurt. He refuses to drink from his sippy cup so i feed him water using a spoon.

shortcut char siu

 The maple syrup scone recipe from this book is awesome! also i love this book's photography. They were so buttery and crumbly, it was almost like eating shortcrust pastry.

 We usually buy a pork leg roast then divide it into 4-5 portions to freeze. The fatty parts from this one we made into char siu. The seasoning was from a packet from Thailand.It was quite good! tasted as good as any char siu i've ever had in malaysia. perhaps better coz I sliced ours more generously! 

Very easy as well - mix the powder with some water and marinade the pork for at least 3 hours. [I just left it in it overnight] then roast it and slice it up.

a typical night's dinner  -  rice with a vegetable dish, a meat dish and soup.

special fried rice at Kelantan Delights

Every time I come here there are people waiting for their takeaway orders of the special fried rice ($11.50). I generally don't order fried rice when I'm out since we often make it at home using whatever leftovers we have, but I finally decided to see what so great about it. I was not disappointed! It's freshly stir fried after the order is taken and arrives at the table smoking hot, with a fragrant omelette on top with crisp browned edges. Each bit of chicken, rice or vegetable is nicely "wok caramelized" and I had no trouble polishing off the whole plate.

I asked the chef why their roti canai was so popular, he says it's because each serve is freshly made after the order is taken, not cooked from a frozen state.



Kingston Plaza Channel Hwy  Kingston TAS 7050, Australia

chinese new year

We managed to recreate a Chinese Malaysian Lunar new year feast quite well I think...! the only things we didn't have were firecrackers and bad karaoke.

even this little man got dressed up in red!

summer

 I made this light, refreshing "creme caramel" using agar agar instead of eggs. really nice without the guilt! of course it's not as rich and creamy as the real thing but good for a change.

This is a japanese inspired dinner for the hubby- rice, with stir fried greens, fried chicken, simmered radish and vegetable soup.