tea adventure

I was told by my friend Corey that T2, that veritable wonderland, paled in comparison to a place called "Tea Leaves". I was sceptical at first when plans to visit were forming, but upon arrival I was sure that Tea Leaves was way cooler. Corey said he would pick us up at 8:30am on Sunday morning, which is ordinarily pretty early, but when preceded by a long night of house-party shennanigans it is just plain crazy... 

Luckily I had made the apricot cake and had some picnic fare ready and waiting for our lazy Sunday drive to Sassafras. Josh and I somehow woke up at 8:00am, not long enough after going to bed, and hurriedly got ready with only the promise of some fancy tea on the horizon to spur us on. Once we were ready, Corey called to say that he was running late and would be another half an hour. Needless to say, Josh and I used this precious time to go back to bed fully clothed for naps. When Corey rolled up in his parents massive new car, I already decided I would nap on the way- I didn't want people at the tea shoppe to see my bloodshot eyes! I was surprised to see this little gem in the car...

Takes me back to primary school days where I would not only think that this was a good way to spend $2.50, I would also think that it actually looked nice on and around my eyes. And when the glitter paste dried up and flaked off my face, leaving behind a dry itchy spot, who cared? Certainly not me. Point is, I was mystified by this little stack. Maybe I haven't been spending enough time in the make-up section of the Reject Shop lately because I thought they were long gone. I can't imagine who it belongs to in the family... anyway! I did eventually fall asleep for a few minutes, and was awoken as we started heading up into the hills. What beautiful scenery it is up there! First stop, of course, was the Tea Shop:

As you can see, they had everything you could imagine and waaaay more! You really will just have to go and check it out! They boasted over 300 teas and also had flavoured coffee beans and chocolates! I wanted to buy about 5 teapots, but alas I bought none. I ended up buying some apple and cinnamon tea, some sencha infused with rose, and some ceylon rose tea bags (from the wooden box range). After we picked all our teas we went for a wander around Sassafras, stopping in at the antique store, the candle store, the vintage rockabilly fashion store, and lastly... Miss Marple's Tea House. The half-arsed picnic didn't go ahead :P 

Unfortunately it was booked out and we had to wait 20 minutes for a table. So we just looked around some more. Which wasn't really that unfortunate, otherwise I would never have gotten this picture...

 or seen this toy store with puppets hanging by their necks...

Then we had to do some more waiting at the tea room...

We ate some cottage pies and pasties and contemplated dessert but we just couldn't do it. I slept almost the whole way home and Josh woke me up because my head had fallen back and i had started to snore :O good thing I was among friends! When Josh and I got home we went and had another long nap and i woke up to this late afternoon sunshine coming into the room... 

then had some cupcakes and watched the best Sunday night shows... Modern Family, Ninja Warrior, Unbeatable Banzuke... and then watched the first episode of the Walking Dead which was aaaaweeesommeeee!

Today at work I had my rose tea:

And it was soooo nice!! $6.50 for 25 tea bags is A-OK in my opinion... especially when they come in a fucking awesome box with a slidey lid!! I will definately be going back to this place and already cannot wait!

dish 21) Dutch butter cake with apricot filling

Why hello there doods, I have made the most amazing acheivement! I have managed to get out of bed, and get to work. This may not sound like much, but Mondays are often hard work for me. I don't want the weekend to be over on Sunday so I stay up late and exhaust myself then I wake up with bloodshot eyes and an inability to communicate for at least 2-3 hours. Sucks. But I'm not the only one, I'm sure there are millions, nay billions, of grumpy monday people out there nodding enthusiastically at this post.

Anyway, what better way to improve my current situation than to reflect upon my lovely weekend in a series of blog posts? It will either kill me slowly, or inspire me to once again live in the moment and enjoy my toothache and the stupid songs playing on the radio.

OK, so the first thing I will post about is the new recipe I used! It is from the Dutch cookbook Jim let me borrow:

 It is a dutch butter cake with apricot filling, mm-mmm! It's one of those recipes that you just KNOW how amazing it will be from only glancing at the accompanying picture. Unfortunately my pictures don't do it the appropriate justice, but heed my words: this cake is delicious! I forgot to bring the book in order to post the recipe, but the ingredients are something like: a cement mixer full of butter, a semi-trailer full of caster sugar, a dump truck full of flour, some apricots, almonds and ginger syrup. It is sweet and rich and fatty BUT of course, that's what baking is all about isn't it??
Here are a few photos...



OMG yum! It is so rich, but you know what.. it has re-affirmed my love of apricots. I love apricots. Fresh, dried, in jam, in cakes, in yoghurt. They are cheap and delicious and I need more right now. Oh my golly golly gosh, I just remembered a staple dish my mum used to cook when we were kids: Apricot Chicken. Haha, I need to find a proper recipe for this if one exists. I don't think i have ever made it.. wowwww.

Dish 20) Japanese Curry!!

Howdy Pardners! So I didn't cook much last week because I was super social and busy and ate at restaurants about 4 nights of the week... so i started slacking off a little. Remember how I said that on Thursday at work, I had an exciting food day?? Well it was because the work experience girl Shiho cooked some Japanese food for us for lunch!! Here she is: 

She made Kare (curry) Katsudon! The name means Curry, cutlet and rice. It is one of those easy modern home style Japanese dishes.

My first experience with Japanese curry was in 2003 on my Year 11 school camp. We arrived in Osaka and made our way to our host school in the searing heat on little to no sleep. We arrived during 'Culture festival' (Bunkasai), so the school resembled more of a circus than a school. Culture festival is basically an annual event where students at most schools display their talents. Because most Japanese schools encourage students to join multiple sports and culture clubs, this festival offers them an opportunity to show off their skills to peers, family members, and in my experience - Australian exchange students. Classrooms are re-decorated to resemble shops, gameshows, kitchens, dance halls etc. I remember a verrrrry messy game show involving water and flour.. the place was crazy! But fun! One of the classrooms was transformed into a Curry hut, and I had my first Japanese curry with steamed rice amidst the culture madness. Good times.

My second memorable Japanese curry memory is when I went to Japan in 2008 and kept eating it at cheap 24/7 places like Sukiya. Oh I remember a cool place called Yoshinoya too, mmmm. Cheap and filling. I hear that there is a Yoshinoya in Sydney now... for those who are interested!! Anyway, I recently found out what makes the Japanese curry flavour so distinct. The answer, my friends, is Curry blocks. This is what they look like in packet form:

I bought this after trying Shiho's curry and decided to try my hand at the dish I love ever so much (^_^) It was about $3 or $4 or something from any random Asian grocer, and it makes about 5 serves. You can get bigger packets, mild or spicy and there are multiple brands! Directions were in English with this brand, and it was super easy to follow and make! Here is mine:

Here's what I did...

1) Cook diced chicken in a glug of olive oil until almost cooked, then add chopped onion, potato and carrot and stir for a few minutes,

2) Cover with water and bring to the boil.

3) Turn the heat down and simmer until everything is soft. The packet recommends 10 minutes but i did almost 30 minutes!

4) Turn the heat off, and crumble in the curry block. Stir through until dissolved and return to simmer for 5 minutes until the sauce is thick and fragrant.

5) Serve over rice and bury your face in the bowl until all eaten.

Josh and Maki were around when I made this dish and they absolutely loved it! I think they both were impressed by how simple yet tasty it was.

So now you've met my new friend Shiho ^_^ we have been emailing eachother and practicing our languages! She is studying English here until February so hopefully she can learn some stuff from me - and hopefully not the WRONG stuff. She already asked me what "yo yo yo" means, as she saw it on subarashiiblog's last post. Uh-oh now i'm teaching her gangster slang haha! Anyway, next week we are going out for dinner to eat some Japanese food, hoorayyyy! I told her how I like to call Takoyaki "TakoYUMMY" because I love them so much... and she thinks it is the funniest thing she has ever heard!! She also gave me lots of compliments and my head grew so big that I almost couldn't get on the train after work. But she is right... I AM cute, and funny and smart and my Japanese IS perfect, and i do know EVERYTHING about Japanese food... her words, people. Her words. Hahaha! (^_^)'

World Vegan Day 2010

Yo yo yo! I am totally getting behind in my posts! So much to say, so little time in which to say it... or somethin' like dat! So, anyway, on Sunday I went to World Vegan Day at the Abbotsford Convent - it was pretty cool. I found out from mum that my nana grew up there! Amazing. My ignorance is just amazing. Anyway, on World Vegan Day, you will see things like this:

Lots of proud people there, I must say! I really wish it wasn't raining so much, but it was a nice day despite that. There was music, talks, stalls and demonstrations but the main attaction for me was all the food!! There were lots of stalls selling hot aromatic vegan food!! The line for the pie place was epic, and snaked out into the rain so I had a squizz at all of the other places and ended up getting a vegie burger.. haha exotic...

But it had beetroot on it, and satay sauce.... hellooo!! yummy! Still no match for "Vego and Lovin it" in adelaide though! Also after lunch we ended up watching a demonstration on dehydrated 'cooking' and raw foods. Dr. John Green gave a demostration on how to make chocolate and a tomatoey/savoury slice. This was his dehydrated chocolate:

He basically ground up some cocoa beans and added nuts, banana, tahini, goji berries etc etc and then made a layer of it on a tray then put it in the dehydrator for a few days. it was really nice!! Now THAT is a lot of effort to go through for chocolate. Raw foodists are very thorough! Next I got a beautiful vegan smoothie and though i'd show you all how packed the food area was...

Dr. Green gave us some cocoa beans to eat, and i did not like them at all. So strong and bitter!! This is what it looks like on the inside:

Also, on the way back to the station I saw this funny graffiti. It was funny because the guy I was with is named Avery... and he was just SHOCKED and appauled haha

He and his bag of apples just marched on by in a huff! Not really, he doesn't often get into a huff, I made that bit up. I also took a video of how dirty train seats are, he was hitting one with this little steel instrument and clouds of dirt were coming out. feral. unfortunately i am having trouble uploading videos here for the time being so you can't see it, or the videos i took of missy and chester fighting! On an unrelated note, but sort of related, but not really... this morning as I was getting ready for work, Josh woke up and said "There is also fish oil in pencils..." and i asked if he was sleep talking and he said "No, it helps bind..." and then went back to sleep. what a crazy guy! ^_^

October Poem + various things from my weekend

October is over and I was quite slack

All week I cooked nothing, I need my groove back.

This poem's a day late, I was too busy eating

and having strange dreams - my weekend was fleeting!
I dreamt of the death of Josh's friend Jim
He was at our house at the time, so we had to bury him.
We were crying our eyes out, and trying to find room
in my front yard for his eternal tomb.
There were too many graves, and because he was tall
We couldn't find space in the front yard at all.
When Josh told Jim last night on the phone
He said his mum does not condone
He's not allowed over to our place anymore
Looks like we no longer have a good rapport

*frown*

I imagine that this strange dream was triggered by the fact that Jim let me borrow his Dutch cook book and I was reading it in bed. I spent Saturday morning painting my nails, drinking tea and reading this book:

 It has everything you want in a specific cuisine cookbook... recipes from OTHER cuisines:

Pictures of people in the midst of PDA's...

 and some cool notes and flags for the best recipes!

Cannot WAIT to start cooking some of these dishes! Thanks again Jim, expect some facebook comments asking for advice :D

So not only did I think about food on the weekend, I also ATE lots of food! Thursday night i got dumplings and beers with Josh and my friend corey, but didn't have my camera to take photos of his cool house and Indian game Carrom!! CRY! His housemate Kristian gets free cheese through a culinary connection his dad has, so Corey made us cups of tea and put out these 3 amazing cheeses: Brie, Triple Cream, and Blue. The Blue, surprisingly, was my favourite. There is a first time for everything! Kristian also had the same model car that I used to have before it was cruelly stolen from me, so I may have sat in the drivers seat for a minute or 2 and had a moment when Corey left to get biscuits. I didn't tell Kristian this when he arrived there later of course, it was the first time we met so I didn't want him to think i'm weird. That's the fun of life - finding out on your own what people are really like haha. Although, after publishing this info on my blog, it's tempting fate for him to find out. meh. Anyway Thursday was an awesome food day at work too for reasons I cannot explain just yet! And I had to borrow another girl's camera to take some pics which will hopefully appear on here on Wednesday...?

Friday night I ended up going out after work with Corey again! Again there was no plan, and we were just wandering around and ended up here in Chinatown:

YAMATOOOOOO! I realised as I walked past that I have always wanted to try this place! So we did. I got Nabeyaki Udon:

I also bought some tea from T2:

And thought about eating the chocolate Claudia bought me back from Belgium. Look how pretty it is:

Saturday I stuffed my face at a BBQ at my friend Trav's place. It was all cold and rainy, so a pile of Raybans formed on the bench..

And Stevenz jumped in the pool fully clothed for a dare. He gained $30 and probably pneumonia too. That below is Trav making Stevenz earn his money...

Oh and then I went out for Indian food with my family for dinner!! Yikes! OMG this morning when I was walking from Josh's place to the station, I saw this and had a slight freak-out...

It took me a while to notice the fake cobwebs - all i saw were bloody handprints and tape. I think I actually stopped dead in my tracks!

Well there you have it folks! A whole bucket load of information to digest. Hope it's tasty!! I'll be back on Wednesday with some more good posts WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE :D

piece of art for the house

Well, although it is not your traditional piece of artwork ie. painting on canvas, i think it still constitutes as art - cruddy as it is. I selected pictures and frames, then Josh and I arranged them in an order we thought looked best. There are some road-trip memories in there, a picture from Nagano in Japan, one of Chester, one of my Grandpa, one of Josh and I in McLarenvale wine region in SA, and some other nice ones.

I drew this a while ago, and i got the frame from an op-shop. Love it!



Got this from an op-shop too. So cute, and it makes me want to escape there sometimes!

 So what do you think? Does this act as a TICK off my list??