SRYSRYSRYSRYSRYSRYSRYSRY!!!

Once again, I need to apologise for being a complete douche for breaking my promises to upload more regularly for the Nth time. Also, I REALLY have to stop procrastinating to clean up the layout and design for this food blog. It's just so empty not having the big header design so I can't wait to finally be able to get right down to it this winter break.

So, here's more piks from the time Mum visited for almost two months and a bit of everything else. Enjoiiii~~~

Home-cooked meals:-

This was from yet another dinner party at our place. Mum brought over some yummy curry paste from KK. Not too spicy but so tasty. It's funny how I was telling my other KK friend the other day that I've never actually enjoyed/eaten so much curry till I came to Australia. Especially the really really yummy ones where you can eat it with a mountain of rice flooded with sauce. YUMMM.

My creamy butter prawns. If you don't mind me saying, just keeps looking and tasting better each time I make it. Still as simple as ever, anyone can make this yummy dish. Highly recommend it.

Tips: (i)Use GOOD butter, I have experimented enough with the good and bad to tell you that it makes a helluva difference.

(ii)Use Fresh SHELLED prawns - the flavour comes from the head. Never buy deshelled/deveined prawns, especially in Australia. There's no more taste at all and the texture is totally off from being washed too many times.

Mum's spinach dish in anchovies broth with salted eggs. In Cantonese it's called something like, "Shiong Tong Yuen Choi".

Dinner setup

Mum's Mee Siam - YUM!!!

Sis' Donna Hay's Chocolate Mudmuffin MMMM

Fish Head Curry - YUMM!!! More rice and sauce, prease

Lemongrass Chicken. Mum went to Springvale and Boxhill with a friend and got so much YUMMY food! DID YOU KNOW THEY SOLD CORN FED CHICKEN IN SPRINGVALE?! Yuuuuuuumm... Totally nostalgic now. Here, I thought Aussie chicken sucked all this time but now there is hope... In Springvale.

One of mum's favourite thing to cook this trip - Ox Tongue... YUM!!! MORE MORE MORE, PREASE. You have to clean the ones you get from Vic Mark yourself. But according to Mum in Boxhill Market, if you pay an extra $1, they will clean everything for you and all you have to do is just to whack it in the pan and COOK.

Fish Maw Soup. I loveee homemade soup

Mum also bought a treat for us from Springvale. REALLY fleshy lobster. I made this Cheese Baked Lobster using a recipe I found from one of my favourite Food Blog site, Rasa Malaysia.

Made it for the first time and was complete success. SUPER EASY and YUMMY!!! Now, I'm just thinking of what else I can bake with this recipe. SO GOOD. MMMMMMM

Mum is awesome. She cooked EVERY single thing that Sis and I requested during her trip here. And one of them was fried quails. I absolutely love this dish - since I was a child. YUMMMMM. Thanks, Ma!!!

Lamb Shank and rice after 50km run

One of mum's favourite dishes to cook this trip - Assam Ox Tail. Wish I had gotten a better picture though. It's like every time my parents come, they always are in the season/mood of cooking a particular meat/recipe for that trip. This time is definitely Ox Tail and Tongue MMMMM... Wonder what it'll be, next trip =)

Just thought I'd put up this picture. One of our many, MANY dinner parties at our place during the 7 weeks that Mum and Dad were in town. So many group photos were taken, memorable meals were had over that dining table that you see over there. What a blessing.

Lunch with Annabella and friends:-

Have you ever seen Italian Pizza garnished with Shallots? Lol. So Chinese lah. But still tasted good =)

Spaghetti Al-Funghi

Forgot the name of this pasta whoops. Pretty good tho

FREE Choc Pizza. Too bad they don't give out free ones anymore. I love any Hazelnut chocolate/ice-cream/dessert. And what can be better than melted Nutella... Oooooooh...

Mercadante Woodfired Pizza

123 Lygon St Carlton VIC 3053

(03) 9347 6974

Calvin's Birthday dinner with the ENG gang:-

Yummy... I love this prosciutto and semi dried tomatoes pizza... Always go back for this one

Pesto based pasta #1

Pesto based pasta #2. Both oh so good.

Chocolate Banana Cake (without banana) from Secret Recipe ;p. Was only about $35 for this MASSIVE cake cause a friend managed to get it for us CHEAP woot!!

Finally had an occasion to order Secret Recipe cake. We were so close to just ordering one anyway and just eat it at uni during one of our Monday lunch breaks. Now can't wait for next person's birthday. We got so many cakes we wanna eat from there mannn...

One really good reason for celebrating your birthday here. Cause if you do, you get FREE sparkling wine for the table!!!

Emporio Della Pasta

Ground Floor, Crown Casino

(03) 9292 7815

Dinner with the KK Szechuan Gang =D :-

This dish is called, "Ant Up the Tree". Don't ask me why - would love to know too. Basically stir fried glass noodles with spicy minced meat. SO TASTY. A little salty though but still good.

We HAVE to have at least one non-spicy dish each time we eat Szechuan food. Otherwise, we'd die, seriously. Would always be this fried beans with minced meat. Sounds simple but really good lol. Life saver, I swear.

Chilli Beef on Toothpicks. I LOVED this one. So incredibly crispy and delicious. YUM.

You gotta have fried pork intestines in Szechuan meal. This one was killer. Looks more mild than previous one but WAYYYY hotter.

And EVERY Szechuan meal is incomplete without the Water Boiled Fish!!!! YUMMM... Out of all the ones we've tried, the one at this restaurant is hands down still the BEST.

Before, we've been really open minded about giving other Szechuan restaurants a try, time and time again. Thing is EVERY TIME we go somewhere different, it just disappoints. And this is what happens after you've had the best. And this restaurant is by far much better and authentic in every sense possible for this cuisine. Next time you want to enjoy a Szechuan meal, don't even bother going anywhere else. And I bet you almost every one who knows Szechuan in Melbourne will tell you the same thing.

Dainty Sichuan Restaurant

176 Toorak Rd, South Yarra, 3141

(03) 9078 1686

Lunch after church today:-

Combination of Spicy Seafood and Blackbean Noodle. I loveee Korean noodles. So much smoother and chewier.

Beef slices. This is what I love most about Korean BBQ - it's that belly cut of Beef/Pork. To die for, seriously.

Han Guuk Kwan

13A Victoria St Melbourne VIC 3000

(03) 9639 1747

Some not-so-healthy-post-mama food =(

Bak Kut Teh. Whoah damn nice weh the pork ribs after being cooked for about 4 hrs. So tender and soft that falls off the bones but not mushy. Can't wait to make this again - this time with Singaporean Teochew Bak Kut Teh

And, uh... Dinner tonight. I know, I know. Not the healthiest thing. But damn nice weh the chicken schnitzel from Vic Mark and I can't control myself when it comes to curly fries =X

Will TRY to upload more often from now on - hopefully with more good stuff to see! Definitely gonna spend more time at home to experiment this winter break. Looking forward to it! Cheers, everybody!

Much Love,

Winston.