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fueled by two slices of pumpkin sourdough toast and a cup of milky tea, i am in the throes of... throwing out magazines. again. long-time readers may recall an episode -- more of a mini series really -- almost a year ago, when gripped by the fervour of impending baby, i shifted a pile of old magazines as tall as myself (ok, so that's not so tall) out of my wardrobe and into the recycling bin. at the time, i was like, what am i doing?? there's history here!!" but of course, aside from the odd early twinge of loss of my complete collection of "juice" magazines, i haven't longed for a single issue.
today i find myself much less traumatised as i attack a stack of "details" from the mid-to-late nineties. this was my favourite magazine from the era, and thus survived the previous cull. as i flip through them before casting them on the recycling bin pile, i am taken aback by how much i absorbed at the time. no, not just the chris heath celebrity stories or the articles addressing issues pertinent to brash young men (despite so not being a brash young man); looking at the pages now, it appears that every single design element (especially picture boxes with rounded corners sitting on coloured slabs) and typographic trick (testosteronic sans serif type forced into a slant, maybe even set on an angle!) in "details" filtered through my impressionable young brain and ended up on the pages of the magazines i was designing at the time.
i remember a reader's letter from 1995 or 1996, saying that i should stop copying "spin" magazine, but clearly they were mistaken. i should have stopped aping "details". in my defense, i would like to think that i inherited the practice from my predecessor... but now that both my collections of "details" and "juice" are n'more, who can really tell? well, ben. ben could probably tell.
anyway. there is no point to this story. i just wanted to remind myself that i threw out all my "details" magazines today. and found appreciative new homes for half my "new yorkers". it's all a lead-up to when i tell you that i'm gonna be offline for a little while: first to go overseas, and then to move house.
be seein' ya.
Served on Tuesday, June 28, 2005 at 10:14 a.m.
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i found myself in campsie the other day, gaping at a shop across the main road. it was called "cake world" but somehow i managed to not go inside. sure, i eventually crossed the road and stood for some time looking through the front windows at a bizarre selection of theme cakes, including a couple that could fit the category "mmm... erotic cakes..."... but i did not actually go inside.
because already i had a banh mi pork roll in my bag -- five kinds of pork by-products in the one sandwich! -- and the enticing delight you see here: red bean ice sandwich. like those japanese fish-shaped red bean pancakes, except this one was korean fish-shaped wafers filled with vanilla ice cream and red bean syrup. wondrous!
the pork roll i ate sitting on the train platform. the fish ice cream sandwich was slurped up on the train, whizzing through the inner west back towards the city.
Served on Wednesday, June 22, 2005 at 09:10 p.m.
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if you read saffron's much better and more indepth account of the excursion of the previous post, you would know that we ended up at lucky thai sweets and video shop, perusing the sticky, ricey, sticky ricey delights.
and then there was this:
clusters of vermicelli-thin threads of sweet potato and taro, deep fried and coated in sugar. thai people sure have a way with sweet. thinking up good names is a different matter though; these are called "crispy balls".
Served on Wednesday, June 22, 2005 at 08:55 p.m.
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what better way to make up for the virtuousness of a morning of yoga than to sit down to a cup of tea... and an ice cream sundae. no matter that it was a morning so chilly that the brisk fifteen minute walk between house and yoga class was time enough for the skin on my face to break out in cold-induced welts. a morning so nippy that my brain function slowed, and it was only halfway up the street when i remembered that i had forgotten to pack my camera.
so hurrah for saffron at writing on a paper napkin, for being the documentarian that she is, for it was she that sat waiting for me at passionflower yesterday lunchtime, and she who whipped out the camera when the ice creams arrived at the table. to make up for forsaking it the last time around, i had the rather unfortunately named "black and white seduction" -- a tall glass of black sticky rice [edit: indeed, as saffron points out in her comment, it was actually black sesame ice cream, rich and nutty like a hilton sister] ice cream, coconut ice cream, black grass jelly and evaporated milk, which you can see left-most in saffron's photographs. if i didn't feel so bad about saying the name out loud, i would have it again without hesitation.
saffron has been leaving friendly comments here for ages, and it was pleasing to finally meet the lovely lass in person. there are real people on the internet! and they will bring you cupcakes!
Served on Sunday, June 19, 2005 at 09:02 p.m.
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there are days where you just don't want to have ice cream or chocolate or cake (or leftover pizza) for breakfast. sometimes only a simple and pleasing cluster of circles will do. a toasted crumpet. a cup of milky tea. a new dish.
some of you may remember the post from earlier in the year, about my fourteen jams. i am slowly making my way through them, and have so far resisted the temptation to buy any more... um, except for that one time, in an italian grocery, with the peach jams in silver tins... gracing this crumpet is some very tasty st dalfour pear jam. it almost makes up for that trick the jam makers do where they put a layer of fruity bits right at the top to impress you when you first open the bottle, and then two bits of toast later it's just normal jammy jam down below.
Served on Monday, June 13, 2005 at 11:35 a.m.
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i'd been meaning to make spanakopita for ages. what's not to like? all crunchy pastry and salty fetta and dilly spinach. it seemed like the time was nigh when i walked past my local fruit shop and a table was piled high with $1.99 bunches of spinach. a week, two weeks, i walked by, always thinking, hmm... must get some filo pastry and then i'll be set. already there was a block of fetta in my fridge.
so, wednesday i finally remembered to get a packet of filo at the supermarket, and went by the fruit shop, and the spinach was back up to $2.49. but it didn't matter -- i was on a mission! when i got home, with my filo and two bunches of spinach and a bunch each of dill and spring onion, i was quite unthrilled to read the side of the pastry packaging, which said: thaw completely at room temperature for at least four hours, or overnight in the fridge and then two hours at room temperature. hrm.
so, thursday, i googled "spanakopita recipe" and spent an hour or so walking in between the kitchen and the computer, being methodical. and then there it was: spanakopita. yummy, crunchy, salty, dilly spanakopita.
the dinner was made all the more pleasant by the prospect of cakes for dessert. mmm... plural cake. these were purpose-bought that afternoon at christopher's cake shop, a tiny greek bakery behind taylor square. the evening's selection included something which was a chocolate rum ball mixture coated in ground almond cake coated in dark chocolate, a cherry strudel, and a couple of things involving cake and ground almonds and filo. as you can see, there is no such thing as too much filo (or too much cake).
Served on Saturday, June 11, 2005 at 05:05 p.m.
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i don't suppose it would surprise you that i signed up to the friends of krispy kreme mailing list. every now and again they send me some junk email telling me about a new limited edition doughnut. this month it is the caramel crunch doughnut.
i found myself in the city again today, due to my mobile phone jumping out of my bag while we were at david jones yesterday; someone nicely handed it in at the cashier's desk. of course had they decided to take the phone and ring up a great whopping bill, they would have discovered that i had all of $2.70 credits left. so, bah, there was no reason for me to upgrade to a shiny new phone with a colour screen and a camera. anyway, it's not like i have a spare $500 lying around.
fortunately, this afternoon i had a spare $8.80, which is what four krispy kreme doughnuts -- including a caramel crunch doughnut -- cost. and suddenly there i was at the store, trying to wrestle the urban warrior pram up to the counter.
i'm not a fan of caramel, but i thought it was necessary to have one for research and documentation purposes. so. this is a yeasty doughnut filled with rather less caramel kreme than you'd hope for even if you weren't a fan of caramel. the top is glazed with chocolate, and then sprinkled with crunchy bits. it was not as sweet as other kk doughnuts i've had (i usually go for the sugar glazed variety: the other three i got today were glazed sour cream, glazed devil's food and glazed blueberry), and in fact it was a pleasant doughnut experience that i would repeat, especially with a cup of unsweetened black tea. perhaps next time i will try not to crumb all over my desk.
in short, it was rather like eating a golden gaytime, in doughnut form.
which reminds me, you can now get a tim tam cornetto, but having only seen billboards for this new product, i can only imagine that it would be somewhat less good than a tim tam, and possibly a little better than a regular cornetto. has anyone encountered one?
Served on Thursday, June 2, 2005 at 04:29 p.m.
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this morning, the first day of winter, i found myself in the city, walking briskly up the blustery corridor that is martin place. it wasn't just the need to get out of the cold that spurred me on; specifically it was the need to get out of the cold and into the lindt shop. i believe the full and proper name for this establishment is "lindt concept store and café".
[ the phrase "concept store" irritates me, alongside "free gift", "authentic recipe", "special collector's issue" and "actual photos!". the other month i saw a sign in a window amidst a fancy apartment complex, which said "concept store opening soon", as though it didn't matter what the store was selling. i suppose it is possible that they actually would be selling concepts. but i mean, a store that sells the stuff whose logo is out front! what a concept! rrrr. ]
the lindt shop's been in business for months and months, but every time i've been past, it's been closed. this would be acceptable if i showed up every tuesday at midnight, but i've only ever pressed my nose up to the cold and dark glass doors on weekend teatimes. today, aladdin's cave finally opened. there were display cases along three walls (and a display island in the middle) and they all held chocolatey treasures that i wanted, all gloomy bear claws. in the end i showed moderate restraint, and when i stepped back out onto the street, i had a couple of madagascar dark chocolate truffles, a couple of pistachio truffles, a couple of 70% cocoa dark chocolate macaron, and a chocolate orange macaron. and a vanilla champagne macaron. and a dark hot chocolate, which was like drinking a hot lindor ball, mmm. like i said, moderate restraint.
what i left behind glass were: a raspberry-dark chocolate lindor ball, a creme brulee chocolate bar, an eclair, and a 70% cocoa dark chocolate tart adorned with a royal blue sash, like miss universe.
they will be mine, oh yes.
Served on Wednesday, June 1, 2005 at 03:56 p.m.
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you know that row of thai grocery shops near central? there's one whose name is something like "lucky sweets and video". i was lucky to find myself there on friday afternoon.
in the refrigerated shelf by the door there are boxes upon boxes of grilled pork on rice, or curried chicken on rice, or mixed vegetables and egg on rice, or fried fish on rice, or... anything and everything on rice. it's like a magical wall made of plastic takeaway container bricks filled with exciting tasty treats. the thing is, if you make your way past this wanton (not wonton) display and get to the counter at the opposite end of the store, there is another magical wall, and this one is maybe even more magical because the takeaway containers are filled with desserts!
it is always so hard to choose: the coconut milk jellies? the steamed semolina cake? the black sticky rice topped with custard? the white sticky rice topped with a tantalising sprinkle of crushed up dried prawns and sugar? in fact, if you cannot decide between those last two, there is a box containing both, as well as a third yellow sticky rice covered in another dried prawn-sugar mixture. this one is orange, and spicy.
and so, the triple whammy sticky rice extravaganza was mine. mine on friday, saturday, sunday, and finally, today, monday, when the last slightly chewy grains were reluctantly and joyfully devoured.
i also had to try this: a wedge of pumpkin stuffed with eggy custard. i guess it was constructed by cleaning out the seeds of the pumpkin, filling it with custard and then steaming steaming steaming until the whole thing was soft. the custard, the pumpkin flesh, the pumpkin skin -- all scoopable yum.
Served on Monday, May 30, 2005 at 07:12 p.m.
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i was reading technicolor.org yesterday, when the boy, seeing the whimsical drawing which serves as the page header -- who doesn't like whimsy? -- asked, "what's that?".
"um, it's just this girl's website," i replied. "just a blog." the boy does not approve of this blogging business. at the best of times, he shakes his head and rolls his eyes and mutters something about strange lifestyles of the young generation; at the worst of times i am chastised for my affliction of reading and writing on the internet, instead of interacting with real people.
yesterday, after he shook his head and rolled his eyes, i explained that my favourite fiction reading was that sort of first person chatty rambling, all that jay mcinerny, hanif kureishi stuff i read while growing up, and so it wasn't all that different reading blogs.
one of my favourite blogs is momo freaks out. o how i have laughed out loud reading it over the last couple of years. but momo is ending her blog in a month, and i feel a tinge of sadness. it is only a small tinge. after all i do not know momo, and chances are another blog will come along and win me over with wit and charm.
today he told me he hates me.
Served on Monday, May 30, 2005 at 06:40 p.m.
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note, if you will, that the level of purple beet brine in the jar is "half". o treacherous beet brine! how you conceal the fact that the number of pieces of pickled beets within your murky depths is "two". by the time this disagreeable fact was discovered, the turkish bread had been toasted, the avocado sliced and arranged, and the mind set on a crowning glory of pickled beets.
alas. the crowning glory ended up being mainly bits of onion dredged from the beet brine, and a slice of salami. of course, it was yummy nonetheless, so i'm not really complaining. alls i'm saying is sometimes you just really want beets...
tchk.
Served on Wednesday, May 25, 2005 at 09:11 p.m.
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and so the feta adventures continue. one of my favourite things to do with feta or goat cheese ... (or maybe any sort of spreadable or crumbly, salty white cheese, or maybe any cheese -- except blue or that maggoty sicilian stuff) is have it with bread and jam. oh that combination of sweet and salty, fruity and creamy, mmm... today's program was brought to you by a slice of light rye and sweet-tart cherry jam.
in other food adventure news... well, there must have been some food eaten, after all it has been like, 5000 years since the last update. what stands out the most though, has been the daily lunchtime treats of vegetable puree. i have run the gamut from carrot to sweet potato to pumpkin and back to carrot. yes. the child is being "introduced to solids", and now she probably thinks that all food is orange.
in between steaming and blending and getting it all into a very small mouth, it's been inevitable that very small spoonfuls have made their way into my mouth too. it really is just so tasty! and it's a bonus that i don't have to chew.
today's lunch of cauliflower puree (tinged orange because it got mixed in with some leftover carrot puree) was well-received by all parties, and ended with teething rusks all 'round.
well. i thought it was important i familiarise myself with these exotic new tastes and textures. (sadly this extended to a sip of the prune juice that the early childhood nurse recommended to deconstipate the child.)
ah this great big little baby-shaped hole into which all time and money are sucked. i am sorry, regular readers, all five? six? of you. sorry that you come here day after day only to find a stale bit of two-week old breadstory. perhaps this notifylist will be of assistance? if you sign up, i will send you a spam sandwich when i do post something new.
Served on Tuesday, May 17, 2005 at 03:11 p.m.
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at about 4am i was on the couch downstairs to escape the boy's snoring. it was to be the last time i would be asleep all day. i knew i was asleep because i was dreaming that i was sitting at my computer, and i heard the baby cry, and the boy brought the baby to me to be fed, and by "brought" i mean that he held her hand and walked her over, because evidently dream baby could walk. real life baby though, cannot, and so i sleepclimbed the stairs to the bedroom, where she actually was having a bit of a grumble. the boy optimistically thought he'd be able to put her back to sleep and sent me back downstairs, where for an hour and a half i lay awake listening to her emit sporadic beeping noises, just like that smoke alarm whose battery is running low. then at 5.40, when the boy decided that he'd had enough, child was unceremoniusly plonked back in the cot, and the boy appeared downstairs with a frown and a blanket. oh, unhappy baby! so. back upstairs, fed the child, who seemed to go back to sleep up until the point she was put back in her cot, when she decided to be awake for the day. it was 6am, there were birds chirping, fair enough. so. back downstairs, where the next two hours were spent entertaining the baby, washing the dishes and baking a batch of ginger ale scones. before i knew it it was time to put the baby back to bed and get dressed for yoga.
yoga makes it all better.
and so do instant noodles! it was all i could fathom "cooking" tonight following a post-yoga afternoon of a couple of not-quite naps inbetween laundry and the baby and dishes and the baby and the internet and the baby. the alternative was an old christmas pudding and cream -- i would only have felt a little bit guilty, and it would have been tasty i'm sure.
but in the end the noodles won. i resisted the temptation to follow the instructions on the pack -- "place the rice vermicelli, soup base and seasoning oil into a bowl. pour in 400cc of boiling water. cover up the bowl for 3 minutes. and now soft and appetizing rice vermicelli is ready for serving." -- yum. and instead put a pot on the stove. it only extends the cooking time to ten minutes, to add such things as pork dumplings, pumpkin, chinese broccoli, lotus root, bamboo shoots and a sprinkle of japanese chili pepper, and makes it a bowl of nourishment and comfort.
my preferred brand is a relic of my childhood: chu qian yi ding. tonight i had the artificial beef flavoured rice vermicelli, but look at all the flavours the normal wheat noodles come in. it's rather amazing what comes out of a little silver foil packet.
and maybe there is room for pudding and cream after all.
Served on Saturday, May 7, 2005 at 07:50 p.m.
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you know how sometimes you want pancakes for breakfast, but you're too sleepy to chew? guess what!
yes, it's creamy blueberry pancake yoghurt, which is a delicate purple colour and studded through with actual blueberries. it comes in a six pack with strawberry pancake and lemon pancake yoghurt, and i was walking down the dairy aisle of the supermarket a couple weeks ago, and suddenly the block of yoghurt was in my hands.
i was telling my sister about this quite impressive alchemy, but she interrupted me with an unpleasant gagging noise and said, "stop! do not tell me anymore, i don't want to hear it". the thing is, it really wasn't horrible at all.
Served on Friday, May 6, 2005 at 08:36 a.m.
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on a day when there happens to be a block of feta in the fridge, as well as eggs and milk, it may pop into your head that a feta omelette needs to be had. and if you were also reading a particular foodblog that morning, it might spur you on to ensure that such an omelette would be had for lunch.
and so such and such were placed in a pan, and topped with a couple handfuls of incidental rocket (sadly, supermarket rocket, which seemed to have no taste of rocket, or anything), and then folded over and plopped onto some soy-linseed sourdough. and a forgotten jar of pickled beetroot at the bottom-back of the fridge was happy to oblige.
but why so lucky as to have feta in the fridge? it's just that when my mother was here the other month, one of the things she left me was two slimy mackerel in the freezer. bet that mackerel thought that calling itself "slimy" would be some sort of deterrent, a survival tactic. HAHA fishy, the joke's on you! we will eat you nonetheless, for you are not only not slimy, but quite meaty and tasty, with that feeling between my molars, of oily fish.
"just brush them with olive oil and season with salt and pepper," said my mother before she boarded that plane home, and so i did. while the boy cooked them up on the balcony barbeque, i roasted some thick slices of desiree potato and threw together a greekish-nicoiseish salad of cucumber, green beans, the afore-mentioned rocket, some oven-roasted grape tomatoes and smooth creamy feta. mmm...
Served on Friday, May 6, 2005 at 08:10 a.m.
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hmmm. does it seem like i haven't posted in a week, and all of a sudden there is a deluge of four? well, maybe to you, not now. but it will when you're done reading this and the next three down.
it's just that i had an extremely tasty second breakfast of mushrooms on toast this morning, and i had to share it with you. regular readers probably already know that breakfast is my favourite meal of the day (such a favourite meal that it is not uncommon for me to have two, three or even four of them in the span of a morning), and that mushrooms on toast is my favourite favourite. today i was even lucky enough to have an avocado handy as well as a second loaf of bread.
two loaves of bread? i bought a loaf for 89c at the supermarket on "fresh friday", and on saturday the boy decided that supermarket bread was objectionable enough not to mention supermarket bread that had been bought yesterday, and procured himself a whole new loaf from the mall bakery. please note that this is the same boy who has, in the past, returned from the supermarket proudly bearing a 50c reduced-for-quick-sale-before-it-expires ham and cheese pizza roll. the bread i bought was baked fresh on "fresh friday", and um... it was 89c. but see, it wasn't like he got a fancy artisan loaf. it was just plain old cottonwoolly white bread; it couldn't have been that much better than the supermarket vienna, could it?
as it turns out, yes, his bread was much better because when i went to cut a slice of mine for the toast component of breakfast, i noticed with horreur that there were tiny little cockroaches crawing all over it. they had infiltrated the bag, which was sealed with one of those bread clippy things and were crawling all over it!
i don't know that there is a moral to this story. i mean, the moral could be "always have a spare loaf of bread in the house in case of unexpected cockroaches" but that would just be silly.
do you ♥ breakfast? do you flickr? perhaps you are a breakfast fiend.
Served on Sunday, May 1, 2005 at 03:18 p.m.
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i have just been listening to "daisies of the galaxy" by eels, the first time in over a year. it is lovely and amazing, and i really should listen to my CDs more instead of having, like, dr phil on in the background during the day.
yesterday, i finally went back to yoga class. it has taken almost this long to get the kid to the stage where she might not have to eat for the duration of a yoga class and the walk to and fro.
there was a sense of trepidation: does nigh on seven months of no yoga render me all unpliable? could i muddle through a general class, or would i have to go back to beginners all over again?
as it turned out, joy, i could keep up with the generals, and all those months of pregnancy yoga meant that i could still squat like a chinaman during squatting pose. by the end of the class i was feeling rather good -- muscles all warm and wobbly, like.
the best part about yoga is that it is just down the street from cafe banchetto, on devonshire, where some days you can get a takeaway sandwich with a large grilled mushroom in it.
there were other roasted vegetables thrown in as well, some salad greens and ricotta -- see how the giant mushroom has left a fossilised imprint of itself in the creamy white. oh how it glistens!
Served on Sunday, May 1, 2005 at 01:57 p.m.
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what is better -- and more efficient -- than ice cream after lunch? i think you will agree that the answer is, "ice ceam for lunch".
when i met anna at passionflower at lunchtime, as planned, it transpired that she, feeling peckish a little earlier, had already eaten a crepe uptown. huh. it only briefly crossed my mind that i should maybe order something savoury and nutritious before having ice cream for dessert, but then i came to my senses: anything other than ice cream would take up too much ice cream space in my stomach.
the passionflower menu is the kind with pictures in it, which may or may not make things harder. when the waitress came 'round the third time to take our orders, i asked for the black and white seduction, but by the time anna had made her choice, i had already changed my mind. an eastern banana split, please!
see? it is a scoop of maccha ice cream, a scoop of taro ice cream, a scoop of sticky rice ice cream, a banana, lychee-orange compote and a waffle bowl. so that's what a $12.50 dish of ice cream looks like.
passionflower went through a stage where it was like something had gone wrong in their freezer and made the ice cream less creamy and more icy, but now everything is well and good. they also have a flavour which wasn't there the last time i visited -- a while ago -- lychee and rose petal. it is pink and creamy with bits of actual lychee mixed through. you can see a scoop of it there, across the table, in front of anna. it was yummy, and made me smile.
Served on Sunday, May 1, 2005 at 12:40 p.m.
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and so a week goes by...
anyway. thursday, i received an email from the baker's wife, so to speak. a girl who had googled "bourke street bakery" as you do (or, as i do from time to time to see if they finally have a website up, with pictures of chocolate tarts), found an earlier posting i made about said bakery, and being the ladyfriend of the bourke street baker, wrote to say she was pleased i like the bakery.
i was quite a little bit thrilled to get this email. it was as though a celebrity, say eric stoltz, had responded to something i had said about him without knowing he was behind me all the while, listening.
the eric stoltz story is that a friend of a friend was in new york once, in a cinema, and before the film began, one of those ads with trivia questions had the answer "eric stoltz", which prompted a conversation between this girl and her companion, along the lines of "whatever happened to eric stoltz?". a discussion of eric stoltz ensued, and they noticed that every now and again the guy seated behind them would laugh a quiet little laugh in response to something they had said.
do i need to to continue this story? you already know that the film kicked in, and then it was over, and as they exited the cinema, they came face to face with eric stoltz, who nodded in greeting and smiled and said "hello ladies".
mmm... eric stoltz. oh wait! i mean, mmm... chocolate tarts.
Served on Sunday, May 1, 2005 at 11:42 a.m.
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ohmigod i am just famished today. it was only four? ish? hours ago that we returned from grocery shoping, and i was dizzy with hunger, and still managed to stumble about the kitchen cracking open eggs and cans of salmon and straw mushrooms. it was the bean sprouts that done it. in the car i had said out loud, "maybe i could make an omelette."
"like a banh xeo?" asked the boy.
"um, no. i was thinking, like, a goat cheese omelette."
"a banh xeo with pork and prawns?" he was relentless.
we had neither pork nor prawns, but in the pantry there was a tin of salmon, and in the back seat there was a bag of bean sprouts and a bag of vietnamese rice crackers covered in pork floss, sesame seeds and dried prawns.
and so there it was in the pan: two beaten eggs topped with salmon, straw mushrooms, bean sprouts, crushed rice crackers, a few squirts of sesame oil, fish sauce and chili sauce. em. i'm calling it banh xeo anyway.
but now i am dizzy with hunger again! any tales of roadside cakestops will just have to wait.
Served on Friday, April 22, 2005 at 06:24 p.m.
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in case you were wondering, i've been away. i meant to give you a headzup, really, but all of a sudden i was in the car, heading off to where the grass is green and the air is clean and the birdsong is plentiful and incessant.
this cream horn was the last cake of the journey, devoured yesterday afternoon in a grassy spot in the shade of the centrelink building at bateman's bay. more updates soonish, but first, three or four loads of laundry must be addressed.
thank you. thank you. it's nice to be back.
Served on Friday, April 22, 2005 at 10:27 a.m.
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who wants to breakfast on supermarket bread on a fine saturday morning? not i.
with munchie maevis, who'd been up for two and a half hours since five-thirty, obliging us with a morning nap, i patted my bedhead down with a sprinkle of tapwater, checked for eye crusties, and set out jauntily and carefee for the bourke street bakery.
it is a pleasurable thing to run through in your head the kinds of bread you might come away with, while walking to the bakery. it makes the trip pass quickly, and keeps the mind free of such concerns as the fifteen or twenty muggings reported on our street over the last few weeks, some in the daylight hours, one involving my little mother three weeks ago, and one that happened to the boy just this past thursday night as he ventured out to bring us back thai food. yes. vile muggers. however, it is only eight a.m. -- any self-respecting mugger would probably still be lying in a ditch somewhere, wasted from shooting up his nightly profits.
today is the earliest i've been to the bakery; one window is full of fresh sourdoughs, and the pattern of sweet tarts and muffins in the other is as yet unbroken. also, there is a whole flourless chocolate cake sitting on a cake stand, biding its time.
this is a common story no? go in for a loaf of bread, come out with a loaf of bread -- multigrain sourdough -- and a passionfruit and grape muffin, a plum and meringue tart, a wedge of that chocolate cake and a bottle of raspberry and apple juice. i am $20 poorer, but wealthy with baked goods. it is not such an affliction. i think this girl would understand.
Served on Saturday, April 9, 2005 at 09:23 a.m.
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if you do not hear from me in the next... whenever, it could be because the "yoshi's island" cartridge that i "won" on ebay for my gameboy advance sp finally arrived. woohoo.
the story with the cartridge is that i already have a "yoshi's island" cartridge. what i mean by that is i already have a cartridge called "114 in 1, no repeats", on which one of the 114 games is "yoshi's island". a couple of years ago, when i fronted up at the counter of a cartridge shop in singapore asking for the latest super mario game for my shiny new gameboy, the guy behind the counter asked quite sincerely, "why would you want to pay $60 for just one game, when you can buy this one --" reaching into a hidden drawer under the counter "-- with 114 games for $100?"
yeah, it only kind of made sense back then too.
incidentally, "no repeats" means variations on a theme are rife, for example "mappy" is on there three or four times, where mappy is replaced in each version by mario or a rabbit or someother random 80s-style pixelated arcade type character. but, also, there are two kinds of tetris, yay.
anyway. so one day, "yoshi's island" lost the ability to save the game progress, and i was doomed to spend eternity wandering world 1-1. let's call it karma. or, "oh, so that's why i would want to pay $60 for one game instead of $100 for... oh never mind.
fast forward to a couple weeks ago, when my latest ebay trawl for "yoshi island gba" yielded "new in box" for $8. before too long, the price was up to $9.50, and it was mine! it showed up in my mailbox yesterday, and after i tore it out of the envelope, i noticed that a line of print on the box read, "not compatible with other gasme boy systems". yes, gasme.
hem. at least it saves game progress.
Served on Friday, April 8, 2005 at 08:47 a.m.
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yesterday it was a rather overwhelming 31 degrees, sunny and humid. so there were no steamy bowls of hot soupy noodles at the end of the walk to chinatown as the sun began its descent. instead it was a large plate of vietnamese roast pork and barbeque pork and porky-glass-noodley garnish on rice -- three kinds of pork! and tangy pickled carrot and um, radish? and sweet-salty fish saucy dip! slices of cucumber and tomato! how did they fit it all on the plate? how did this overladen plate fit onto the tray with the obligatory bowl of msg and spring onion soup, and a large plastic cup of dried longan drink? how did i eat it all?
i don't know.
also, i don't know how today it is 19 degrees and cloudy and drizzly, but it is the perfect weather for getting out of the chiller all those prawn heads left over from yesterday's farewell-mother lunch, putting them in a pot with some garlic, and simmering away until a rather concentrated prawn stock results. this i will save in the freezer for a(nother) rainy day.
what with the oil burner i lit to temper the prawniness in the air, the house is now filled with a heady aroma of prawns and lavender. it really is not a bad thing.
and since i've just had to archive it, i thought i'd gleefully announce once again that santos made me my very own cupcake!
Served on Monday, April 4, 2005 at 11:12 a.m.
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