ajisen ramen

Well, today started out rather oddly. Normally when you're working 9-5, you start to get into a bit of a droll repetitious routine, yeah. omg i'm one of those people. anyway, this morning i parked my car near the train station and started to walk along the path to the station. I only got a few steps when i saw a dead cat on the ground next to me. i was totally shocked. i consider myself lucky that i didn't step on it actually, that would have been beyond feral. I felt so sad for the cat, nobody cared about it, they just kicked it to the side of the road. And the owners must be wondering where their beloved pet is *sigh* what would a dying cats last thoughts be anyway? would they wish their owners could be by their side to send them off? or would they just go "woop, that must have been number 9..." ???

Also, when i came around into the alley where the side entrance to my work is, i was walking along the tiny path in my new red leather boots when a pipe burst on the wall and showered my legs with what i hope was clean drinking water. It did smell kinda funky so i have my doubts. fuck. it came from the apartment block next to us, and is the second flooding the alleyway has had in 2 weeks. ridiculous. It burst when i was RIGHT next to it, i bet there was a camera somewhere filming my reaction. I should have done something dramatic, like use my thermos of soup to smash the windscreens of the parked cars or something. hehe.

anyway, the THIRD weird thing was that i took my thermos of soup into the backpackers communal kitchen to heat it up, and when i walked in there was a guy sitting at a table sharpening his big (hunting) knife. I was washing out my bowl from the day before whe he said to my back "Today is the first time i have seen you around..." and i turned around and said something non-commital like: "errr, hehe, yeah..." and he said "why haven't i seen you at the reception desk before today?" and i said "oh... i work in the back office with group accommodation.." then he was like "i'm not a psycho... i'm a chef..." and i went "yeah cool... well you never know in this place he...he..." and then he wanted to know my age and where i lived. eeeeeeeeeeeeeep! i was outta there.

why all these random things?! I think i have upset the delicate fabric of space/time by doing some new things yesterday. For example, i spent the whole day looking at real estate and doing grown up things. Also when i got home josh was asleep (at 6:30pm!!!!!!) so i went to my dads place and let myself in to their deserted house then i grouted his bathroom. I had never done it before so i watched a very informative video on youtube first haha. I think i did a good job. If i can pass on any knowledge that wont bore you with the specifics and techniques, all i can say is WEAR GLOVES! my hands felt like the skin had shrunk a size and was about to split. yeah wear gloves..

OR maybe its like Final Destination where i was meant to die, and now the world is throwing weird/dangerous things at me. Like if i did step on that cat one of its bones could scrape my leg and its infected blood would get into my system, then i would die but most likely come back as a zombie or something. I hope you are all prepared for the zombie uprising anyway - just incase. Or maybe if i had bent over to tie my shoe infront of the pipe the water would have shot into my ear and scrambled my brains, or if it got in my eye it might pop my eye out and also scramble my brains. AND that guy was totally going to stab me so its just lucky i was so quick to get out of there! all those times watching the Scream movies have given me a solid understanding of what you should and shouldn't do when someone is chasing you with a knife.

Anyway, i don't know why i named this topic AJISEN RAMEN when i havent even mentioned it once yet!! Well, on the weekend Josh and I went for lunch at this ramen place on Bourke Street which i had heard about. They have tonnes of ramen and japanese favourites. This is the cute napkin:

We ordered Tori Karaage (Deep Dried Chicken) to start and it was SOOOOOO GOOOOOODDDD!!!!!!!

I ordered the VOLCANO RAMEN, but it was so spicy that i couldn't really taste much for the ensuing 2 days. Nah not really but i'm pretty sure my lips died and came back again re-born like a phoenix from the ashes. It was good stuff, but i probably wont get it again, i'll go for something where i can evaluate the flavour.

Josh got the CHAR-GRILLED BEEF RAMEN! I tasted a bit, as you do, and it was delicious! The beef was so tender and yummy! I rep this dish. I also got a Calpico grape soda, but i forgot that its a milky soda so i think maybe that combined with the chilli was why i had searing stomach pains later that evening. Hmm. You live and you learn.

Yum, that looks so good, i want another one. The menu was pretty well priced - Ramens went from $8.50 to about (im not sure but i think) $14.00 prob for seafood ones. You could even get SETTO for about $14 which was a ramen with a starter and tea. MMMM. So yeah i will definately be going back time and time again until i have favourites of everything!

HAZAAAAAAAAAAAH!

i'm about a D cup

in more ways than one. "d" also stands for "DAAAAAYM thats a cool cup", or "dirt cheap" because when i bought it in JAPAPPAPAPAPPAAAAAAAN it was only like 400yen, or "dotombori arcade is the best and puts me in the mood to buy cups" or "dude, that cup doesn't have a handle which makes it even more AWESOME than IT ALREADY IS!!"

I bought this cup in Osaka in a cookware street whose name i have momentarily forgotten. It isn't Kappabashi-dori (that's in Tokyo) but it's LIKE that. oh fuck! Anyway every shop was for tableware, cookware, crockery, weird cooking devices etc. Ah i love it there :)


Yeah this is clearly the coolest cup ever, and it was also the cheapest - soooo, lucky for me hey?

check it.... it's my sushi cup:

Chair $5-

I went to Camberwell Market yesterday and we got there a bit late so had to rush, BUT i still managed to get a super bargain! In fact it is the second best bargain i have ever got - the first was the desk i found on hard rubbish collection which was, obviously, free! The guy at the market wanted to get rid of everything in his stall including a really old chair that he had priced at $5.00. All it needs is some re-upholstering! I will skip the zebra fabric this time, but seeing as the chair was so cheap I can afford to get an awesome fabric to re-cover it in :)

It's a bity skanky, I mean, the fabric on the top corner is all worn away and its really grubby. It is really old as well, you can tell because of... well... everything about it! I said at the time that i reckon its like maybe 1920's - or at least it is made to that style. but what do i know?? It could have been made last year to LOOK old for all i know. You know how companies are these days with teir "vintage" looks. Jeans designed with rips and scuffs. lol. Anyway Chester made himself right at home on it as he always does with new things!



Oh Chester, what a cute little gentleman. Jesus Christ... professing my love for my cat in print makes me realise how lame i really am. sigh.

Anyway stay tuned for another DAFTLY DIY PROJECT with this chair. I have some great ideas :)

mulled wine and beetroot salad

Last Thursday we hosted a roast dinner for mum's birthday. It was really yummy! I whipped up this cool beetroot salad thing with the beetroot leaves - and it was great! I just wilted them in a pan with a bit of oil then added pine nuts and goats cheese. Mmmm

Then the mulled wine was also awesome! I used a Cab Sav, and sort of made up the recipe based on all the ones i saw online hehe. I think i put in 1 stick of cinamon, 4 Tbsp brown sugar, orange zest, lemon zest, 1 squeezed orange, 1 sliced lemon, 1 orange studded with cloves, 1 whole nutmeg and a few shavings of it, a few crushed cardamom pods, and some vanilla bean. Anyway it was hot and sweet and delicious!

preparing for the big roasting

It was my mum's birthday two days ago, but she has been holidaying in Daylesford so we are catching up tonight. Instead of going out to a restaurant she wants me and my 2 brothers to cook her a roast dinner. They didn't sound very impressed when i told them, i think they like coming over to my house and simply eating what i have prepared.

Tonight we will be having roast lamb with roast veg (including roast beetroot) and cheesy broc/cauli bake! Mmm-mmm! ALSO I will be attempting my very first mulled wine recipe! It seems simple BUT there are a billion recipes out there which all contradict one another with methods and rules and flavours, so I am totally confused. I think i will just wing it a little bit and see how i go ;)

I just got back from the Queen Vic Market now, with all my lovely fresh produce, hooraaaah! Should be fun :)

tokyo garden restaurant

I went out for lunch with some people from work to the Tokyo Garden Restaurant on LaTrobe Street, Melbourne. We went there one other time but we never got to SIT ON THE FLOOR!! YAAAAAAAAAAY! We even took our shoes off and everything!

We got the lunch banquet for $16.00 which had Miso Shiro, Sushi, gyoza, teriyaki chicken, and tempura! oh and rice! Pretty good value IMO. Pretty delicious as well.

One criticism was that they had this instrumental muzak playing, and it seemed like there were only 2 songs. Over and over they went haha..

Wow, I realised i take a lot of photos of food... haha. Obsessed much...??

pies and tea towels!

Last night Josh made dinner, and had it ready for when i got home! YAAAAY thats my favourite thing ever! anyway, he made these delicious vegetarian pies!

They were so good. The flavours totally remind me of my nanas cooking, thus it was comfort food! It was cheesy and creamy and had yummy soft vegies in it! mmm, i'm making myself hungry! Anyway after that i took some pictures of the teatowels i bought from Savers the other day. Chester kept getting in my way and was being funny.

These tea towels, I think, are amazing.

They were like 99c each, except the Golden Jubilee one was $2.99 for some reason... I'm getting sick of op-shops jacking the prices on things they assume are good. One time at Savers i saw a baking tin that looked really old and antique, it even has raised lettering on the base so that your cake would have imprints of the brand... pretty sure it was "Willow". And do you know how much this tin was...? $30... THIRTY BUCKS!? SHAM SHAM I SAY! Anyway...



This is my favourite one, I don't want to use it as a tea towel- I want to frame it, yessir! I thought I got a good pic of it but turns out it's blurry, hot DAMN!

It has a Spanish looking lady holding an accoustic guitar, next to a fire place and some plants. There are also some tips for cooking fish well (pictured)

You can kinda see it below, when chester is laying on it. He always lays on the stuff you dont want him to lay on!

He was fascinated / scared by the globe. I did roll it at him when he was trying to groom himself.. but that's no excuse. He should get a pair of stones!

I'd tell him as much, but it would strike a raw nerve i think, as his testicals are inverted. Poor boy.
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Yes that is me giving the peace sign, and yes that photo of chester looks ridiculous >>>>>>>>>

LOL

LOOOOOOOL

all you can eatta greeka

This new family owned Greek restaurant opened in Werribee called "STATION PLACE TAVERN", so a bunch of us wanted to try it out. It was kinda funny cos they totally want to make such a good impression, so the waiter remembered our orders without using a notepad, and he came and sat down and described the food and joked around with us. It was nice actually. dont think for a second that im disrespecting, god forbid i would ever do that (lol)

so yeah he talked us into the banquet so we could try a bit of everything! It was $35 a head, and yeah we all went into food comas i think.

Starters:

Plate of dips: Tzatziki, Beetroot, Eggplant, Caviar dip

Plate of Pita Bread

Plate of flame grilled octupus

Plate of Saganaki grilled cheese

Plate of Fried Calamari

Main:

Bowl of chips

Bowl of Greek salad

Dips

Pita Bread

Meat Platter: Chicken skewers, lamb skewers, chicken kebab meat, lamb kebab meat, pork and garlic sausages

Dessert:

Choice of a cake from the cake display - i chose a vanilla slice

Choice of hot beverage - i chose peppermint/green tea

To top it all off, the old man that owns it brought out a tray of shots and he said he would be honoured to serve us our last drinks. i think it was port mixed with something...? It was kinda funny when my friend Maslin said "is it alcoholic, i have to drive!" (cos she is on her P Plates so BA has to be ZERO) and he went "haha, dont worry about that, just drink it!" maybe he was planning for it to really be our last drinks in this lifetime. ah.

I didn't take many photos but here are some... you can see the giant mountain of meat hehe. We did not finish the meat, the chips, the pita bread, the dip OR the salad. How pathetic.

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Pumpkin Scones

Yay i made pumkin scones!!





In the first picture, i thought they would look nice on my FUCK table. Don't be fooled, it isn't our outdoor bed for when we are feeling frisky or anything. It's this old desk my mum found or bought or something, anyway she gave it to me, and i wanted to make it look shabby chic so i started trying to get the baby blue paint off with paint remover and sandpaper and an electric sander. It took actually forever and i got nowhere, it is so stubborn. So on the top of the desk i used the electric sander to sand the word FUCK into it. and thats when i gave up trying to make it look pretty. Now it's the FUCK table.


Back to the scones, I ate mine with butter and marinated goats cheese, mmm. My mum came over to see if i was feeling better and saw that i was actually jumping around the house all excited about my chair and the scones and whatever else was happening that day. She saw the litte tub of cubed goats cheese in an oil marinade and was like "mmm, i dont want any of that stuff on my scone..." and i went "really? its nice!" and she was smiling in a weird way and went "no, i dont think i'd like it..." and i was like "its only cheese, like fetta..." and she went "nah, nah" then she took it and read the label and was like "oh, ok i'll have some. i thought you were trying to trick me into eating tofu!" oh mum...

vintage chair

Ahoy-hoy! Well, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL WEEKEND! I went opshopping twice and this is what i got the first time:

It is a 60's vintage armchair, and guess what! It was only $45 Australian gumleafs! Fair Dinkum. Ok i'll stop that, i'm making myself sick. Everyone knows that only people on Neighbours and Home and Away really talk like that. Although when i worked at the backpakcer hotel reception desk i started saying "G'Day" to almost everyone. They loved it, i was their Aussie Slang whore.

Anyway this chair is so amazing, it has a slight tilt to it, its like you are chilling on a 60's beachscape with a daquiri and big sunglasses :) Chester immediately loved the new chair, and he started to claw at it which caused me to run at him like a banshee trying to get him to stop. He just kinda closed his eyes and leaned away with his claws still sunk into the back of the chair. dick.

Oh, also I went to Savers on Sunday and i got a bunch of quirky tea-towels but i forgot to take photos, i will put them up in a few days!