A week in the life of ....

These few weeks have been hectic. After our holiday in Hanoi in February, we really needed to catch up with our friends. I realised that I don't really talk about what I eat on a weekly basis... Let's give it a try and see if it is interesting for you or not.

Here is a brief of where we've been in the last week:

Monday: Lunch was a sashi don from Don-Don on Swanston Street. For dinner, I made a beef stew using Harumi Kurihara : Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking cook book. It was a little bit salty, so I think I will cut down on the soya sauce a little.

Tuesday: Lunch was at Groove Train, Melbourne Central. My colleague recommended the smoke salmon salad there, and indeed it was fantastic. Roasted potatoes in a smoke salmon salad - yum!! For last minute dinner out, we were recommended to go to Olive Tree Bistro in South Melbourne for steak. It's near Tempura Hajime. We cheekily went to Hajime to see whether there were any spots before heading to Olive Tree. No luck... The steaks at Olive Tree were not bad... 400g steaks!!! .

Wednesday: Lunch was at Tokio, in the city. Love their ebi-don! For dinner, we ate at home, not very healthy but had roast chicken drumstick, Vietnamese style stir fried mung beans with onion, bean sprout, and mince pork, with fluffy rice. Made a mojito but didn't have soda or lemonade so substituted it with white wine... hehehe

Thursday: Lunch was at A1 Cafe on Russell Street, one of my favourite Chinese cafe. I had the lemongrass chicken and pork on rice. Delicious! For dinner, I had a work function at Centro Ristorante, South Melbourne. It was nice to catch up with my colleagues socially. I had the fish of the day, which was grilled ocean trout. That was followed by banana souffle. I liked to banana souffle better than my main.

Friday: I usually have home-made dumpling in my fridge when we don't want to eat out... So Friday night dinner was simple, boiled pork and shrimp dumpling and edamame with a little twist - sprinkling of sesame seed, dried sea weed and sea salt ... Best edamame so far is from Fuji Mart.

Saturday: Lunch was at Aka Tombo Sushi Bar in Prahran. My sister ordered the Sushi & Sashimi Bento, and I had the Tempura Bento. Aka Tombo can do no wrong :) I think next time I really want to try the special bentos that you have to pre-order... For dinner, my sister was kind enough to cook for me. We bought mussells and other ingrediants from Prahran and she cooked a lovely batch of steamed mussells with a chili coconut tom yum sauce to go with it. She's got magic hands :) I made rosemary and garlic roast potatoes to go with it (following Stephanie Alexander : The Cook's Companion recipe) and some roast corn corbs. Why I made rosemary potatoes for an Asian dish, I don't know. *Sigh*

Sunday: I love the weekend, don't you. Yummy food all day long.... We had yum cha at David's, Prahran. The tea there is really nice. We had the Jasmine and Pu-Er tea. Sometimes the dumpling can be over steamed... but the atmosphere there is just so inspiring. After that my cousin bought a roll for his sister at Amici Bakery Cafe (-love their breakfasts) while I went to look at a few houses around the area before heading off to a baby's 1st birthday. H was very cute and endearing.

That was all for last week.... this week also promises lots of yummy food, good company and good wines.

Have a great week!

New Food Blogs added to List

After devouring the latest on the Obachan's Kitchen and Balcony Garden blog, I decided to click through her large food blog list and found some gems, which I have added to my own list:

1) Bento News / Tokyo Food Page - The Tokyo Food Page is a complete guide to Japanese cuisine and eating in Japan. With great recipes, tours of Japanese markets, and tips on the best places to eat in Tokyo and Yokohama.
2) Blue Lotus - A Canadian girl eats her way around Tokyo and showcases her daily meal(s).
3) Kuidaore - Beautifully pictured and wonderful culinary creations by Joyce Lyn in Singapore.
4) Nordljus - This site is just breathtakingly beautiful. Keiko's photos of her life in UK is art. Her culinary creations are imagination.
5) Ono Kine Grindz - Detailed reviews and pictorials of mainly Hawaiian eateries.
I was so inspired by the content and format of these blogs that I decided to change the layout of mine. I tried to add a background image to my Title but found that I couldn't do it in Spaces. Oh well.
I also borrowed Maurizio Terzini's "Something Italian" from my Italian colleague today. She swears by this book. It's the only Italian cookbook that she uses. This was in preparation for a European dinner to be cooked at a friend's house early March. I am thinking of owning the dessert. I started to think about the Cafe Vue Chocolate Tart and searched for a recipe for it. I found a delicious one on Chocolate & Zucchini for Clotilde's Absolute Chocoalte Tartlets. I will attempt these on the weekend once I get hold of the tools and ingredients! However, if in the end the mains are heavy dishes, I will opt for a seasonal fruit pannacotta, using the vanilla pannacotta recipe in "Something Italian".

Harumi Kurihara's "Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking"

Recently I went to Dymocks to look for the "Cooking of China" book that my sister has because I just got married and I want to start being able to cook better food for my hubby. What better than to start with my own cuisine. Unfortunately, they didn't have the book but I came across a very clean cut simple booked called "Harumi's Japanese Home Cooking" (see pictures).

I looked through the book and saw that she had a recipe for baked cheesecake, I snapped the book and went straight to the counter. The book is making it's round at the office at the moment.. But I've photocopied the baked cheese cake, chilled noodles with pork and cod roe with noodles recipes for this weekend. Probably will use my salmon roe instead of the cod roe :)

23/3/07 Update: My friend loved the cookbook and has since made the delicious dumplings from it. Now that he wants to keep it, he has to find me another copy.....

The Science and Lore of the Kitchen - New EditionA friend forward this to me. Very interest book.

To buy visit Amazon.

My favourite cookbook is still Stephanie Alexander's A Cook's Companion. There is a new edition with more recipes... Check it out!