BRISSSSSY

Some piks were taken with friend's Canon EOS DSLR. Had lotsa fun using it. Looks waaaay better than piks with my digicam. Got some simple editting pictures lessons from friends too. Didn't get to edit any photos tho. Hope I get to improve, we'll see.

Brissy (1-9 Dec '09):

Whoaa really nice Spiced Carrot Cake at this cosy little cafe that was awarded Australia's Best Cafe 2009. Now I see why, good coffee and best carrot cake I ever had.

First night had Korean BBQ dinner. Wagyu beef and pork belly. Oooooooh sooooooo gooood!

Trying to show you what I mean. Pork cooked til extra crispy, absolute yummm

Uber tender wagyu. Tasted really sweet too especially without salt and pepper

Went to this Belgian pub after that and tried so many different specialty beers! Such a great experience sipping lotsa crazy kinds of beer with friends. Here's two of them. Conclusion (for non flavoured beer, that is): Belgian beer tastes either very light or very strong, nothing in between

Wooo... Awesome awesome lunch. The beef and chicken were especially gooood! Spent so long sitting down talking and just chilling. Best thing ever. @Hard Rock Cafe, Surfer's Paradise, Gold Coast.

Famous 12oz Burger. Not bad only that it came out slightly cold for some reason, boo... Just like Grill'd the other day

Best Bubble tea I ever had! The pearl actually tasted of tapioca and was nice and chewy mmmm mmmmm. Never thought I'd appreciate bubble tea but this was exceptional. Lotsa interesting flavours too. @Hazel Bubble Tea, Surfer's Paradise.

Bought this just to take picture of Cookie Monster, no really. Not really a fan of cupcakes to be honest. Always looks great and interesting but ALWAYS turns out too sweet =/. It's not them, it's me. I ain't got no sweet tooth

Breakfast for champions

Lamb rump for lunch

Make-your-own-sundae! I asked for nuts but oh well. Least it was a more interesting subject to take a picture of. Fun camera

AWESOME BBQ later that night much thanks to a friend who prepared everything. Chikky wing, lamb chops, salad, corn on cob, sauteed shrooms n onions, baked potato and wait for it.... PORK RIBS!!! Ohhhh man first time having BBQ with pork ribs and it was sooo friggin awesome! Never thought of it al this time and now I'm gonna have it at every BBQ. Great idea!!

My greedy plate

Oh, another friend baked us her signature cheesecake (unbaked)! Was soo tasty my goodness. Showed me how, so simple. Hope to try it some time

Went to this awesome Chinese Malaysian restaurant. All the dishes were sooo nice but piks turned out crappy so I'm just gonna show this. Best one of the night, butter prawn!! Though tasted more like nestum prawn mmmm... @Yahoo Restaurant, Sunny Bank

Went to this famous "Tau Fu Fa" place afterwards

Got back from Movieworld and was extremely starving. Finally went to this nice Chinese restaurant for dinner. This is Chicken Al-Kapitan, one of my favourite childhood dishes. It's basically chicken fried with curry spice powder. Mmmm. Massive portions too! 3 huge drumsticks with this. @Little Singapore, Brisbane

Another friend ordered this super yummy butter fried chicken with rice. Again, MASSIVE. And tasted so nice.

Dagwood Dogs for lunch. Meh. Short break from all the fun. @Wet 'n' Wild Theme Park, Gold Coast

CUP NOODLES FTW!!

Exquisite dinner prepared by friend on last night. Nice salmon imported from Norway (not Norwegia, folks. Or was it only me who got it wrong?). Cooked with blue cheese, Seeded mustard and Jack Daniel's sauce. MMMMM. For sides, cous cous with mushroom sauce and my measly salad.

After Brissy (10-12 Dec '09):

Pandan Chicken. MANNN. Was supposed to try and make this before I leave but no time =(. @Ying Thai 2, Lygon Street

Extra yummy Pad Thai Chicken

Proper Tom Yum soup

Too hungry before dinner that night so made one of my favourite snacks. Initially Oreo cookies with peanut butter. Then friend suggested Jam too. BRILLIANT idea!

Friend brought yummy lamb skewers (spicy and non-spicy) as well as Roasted Duck and Soy Chicken. Duck was really nice, even though it was take away! Gotta find out where they bought it. Somewhere on Clarendon or South Melbourne.

My soup for the steamboat. Made with dried scallops, dried anchovies, red dates, honey dates, chinese cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, ginger, onion and crushed peppercorn. Quite tasty =)

WHOAAAAAA was looking for place to eat and stumbled upon this restaurant and decided to give it a go. ATTENTION: I now have a new favourite Thai Restaurant!! Only sucky thing is it's all the way at Port Melbourne, gahhh. But seriously, I've never enjoyed Thai Food so much. So nice and authentic and apparently awarded too. Ambience was great for a nice slow dinner to catch up with old friends. This Thai Fish Cake so niceee. @Emerald Elephant, Bay Street, Port Melbourne.

Best Pad (i.e. Stir fry in Thai, I think) dish ever had. Veggie stir fried with Tom Yam sauce. Plate was completely clean after we were done, even all the sauce

Specialty of the place. Red Duck Curry. FOAHHHH extremely superb!! I really really enjoyed it. Who knew duck would complement this curry so well. Never have I eaten any curry dish that made me want to finish every single drop of sauce. If only I had more room gahhh.

Yellow Chicken Curry. Had potato inside which was so nice and soft BUT not mushy. Must've taken skill to get that right I bet. Such a yummy dish too. Had soo much rice with these two curry dishes you wouldn't believe. Overall $20/person. Money well well spent!

After today, will finally start food blogging from KK!! CANT CANT WAIT =D

Potluck dinner on 29 Nov 2009

Piks from potluck dinner we had the other night with the uni gang as promised.

Oh btw, was fooling around with my friend's Canon DSLR camera this afternoon. Just to test out the functions and stuff to hopefully get the feel of it. Must say that it's really nice. Pictures turn out exactly how I want it to most of the time. So, hopefully I'll be able to upgrade my photog skillzzz from amateur digicam user to try hard wannabe pro soon. Been reading up on photography tips and researching cameras today too. Really liking it so far =]

Anyway, back to piks. Also note that have decided to make the piks bigger compared to before for viewing pleasure. Enjoy!

Made creamy butter prawn. Managed to finish cooking the sauce before the butter started to brown which didn't manage to do first time I attempted this. Tip: Cut up butter to thin slices beforehand to melt faster. Also cause was in hurry, so didn't get to cook the prawns before the sauce. Will need to season and precook prawn with salt and pepper and also a bit of finely minced garlic instead of just tossing it in when sauce is ready. Curry leaves were packet ones cause the fresh once I had from an Aunty were all used up GAHH. These things would've made it much better but oh well. It was okay I guess.

Best lighting I could get zzzzzzz, no good no good. Need to learn how to edit and take better pictures =(

Calvin's roast leg of lamb. So yummy and cooked just nicely, medium rare! The vegs were also really yummy. Huge hit of the night.

Oh's signature Hakka Pork, aka "Zha Yuk". Seriously, lots of work go into this simple looking dish. But all worth it once you taste how good it is. Even better than the ones you get at restaurants, no joke.

Jackie's spring rolls

Calvin's other dish, Spaghetti Bolognaise.

Shin's potato salad

Before shot. Also missed out Jeff's shepherd's pie right there in the middle. Really nice too!

Round 1

Ken's Mauritian dish. Forgot the name but according to him it's a really authentic Mauritian hawker food. Always good to experience other culture through food.

Other hit of the night: BOILED RICE. It's so funny cause the rice was just going non stop but the pasta remained almost untouched haha. Feel bad cause it's not like the pasta wasn't nice which it was, it's just cause.......... we're Asian =]

Jade's authentic Malaysian snack, "Kuih Kapit" in Malay, aka "Qing Shing" in Chinese, aka "Love Letter" in English.

..... And it was sooo friggin' good!! MUCH lighter, sweeter, tastier and more importantly, CRUNCHIER than any you get back home during CNY! Hits home man, hits home. 10 points for making us feel nostalgic again

Given up. Too much good food. See what I mean about the pasta? Hehe

Lastly, Oreo Cheesecake made by Jeff! SO NICEEE. This guy can SERIOUSLY bake like nobody's business!