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.