Han’s Cafe in Carousel

Han’s Cafe is a casual dining restaurant chain that you can find across Perth WA.  They serve Asian cuisine – mostly Malaysian, Singapore, and Vietnamese.

Actually, Han’s Cafe was the place where I had my first date with D!  It was Han’s Cafe Northbridge, and it was my first time to eat something Malay/Singapore/Vietnamese in Perth.  I remember we both ordered broken rice with pork chop. (I just ordered what he ordered as I had no idea what the food were like on the menu)  I could barely speak English at that time.

Despite the sweet memory, I have to say that not all the Han’s Cafe restaurants serve the same level of food…  I really don’t like the one in Willetton – every single visit I made in the past, I regret that I spent money on the food there.

Although Han’s Cafe is not really in my favorite restaurant list, I do go there sometimes when I feel like something Asian (non Japanese/Korean/Chinese).  Among over 20 locations across Perth, my favorite one is the one in Carousel shopping centre.

It’s just because of the atmosphere.  The place has many tables inside, and there are sofa seats with screen where you can place and check your order without leaving the seat.

On my last visit, I had pad thai and D had char kway teow.  The place wasn’t busy at that time, so the food came out really quickly.

The foods there are not really special, but it fills me up when I want an easy, quick, reasonably-priced food.

Sunday Lunch and Heartburn from Oily Food

This is one of my favorite lunch - bihun sup ayam (rice noodle soup with chicken).  Mother-in-law makes lunch on every Sundays and it has been this family’s tradition (?) for a long time -since my husband was a baby.  Sometimes the food is chicken porridge, sometimes it’s egg noodle soup, but I like this bihun sup ayam the best.

If someone asks me what noodle I like, I would say “bihun”.  I don’t hate egg noodles, I just prefer rice noodle.  I also like kway teow noodle.  Some rice noodle is thick – like those you get at Vietnamese noodle house.    I’m not really a big fun of the thick rice noodle as it’s easy to break (different to udon noodle which is supposed to be chewy).  Rice vermicelli noodles doesn’t fill my big stomach enough, but I like eating it as snack.

Still now, oily food (e.g. deep-fried food) and garlic make me feel sick.  I don’t think it will go away while I’m pregnant！  It’s one of the things that I feel uncomfortable about living with in-laws, as they like eating Chinese food very much (everyday) and you know Chinese foods often contain lots of oil.  Besides the fact that I am Japanese who loves plain Japanese food, I’m an extreme on-oily food lover.  (tempura, karaage, only once a month!)  I really appreciate D’s mum cooking every day as I don’t feel like cooking at all these days, but she cooks deep-fried stuff almost everyday and if the food is in front of me I’d eat anything.  Afterwords I suffer from heavy heartburn. (*_*)

Hearty rice noodle soup is what I crave for quite often.  As I don’t cook myself much now and eat Chinese food often (e.g. chicken stock based soup, not udon soup), I’m thinking my baby may like Chinese food when he grow older!  There is a saying that what you eat during pregnancy could be baby’s favorite food.  I’m not sure if it’s true, but 85% of what I eat is Chinese food now so I’m guessing it could be true! (@_@)

Mood for Beauty

My friend recently had eyelash extension and she kept saying that she now loves looking at her face (eyes) in the mirror.  She had the extension by a Japanese lady – friend gave me the information about the lady but I’m not sure if I ever get eyelash extension.  It sounds very interesting, but I’m not sure if it’s 100% safe, and it is also pricy and not permanent.

But, after hearing from the friend I looked at my eyelash and realized that my eyelash has been falling off quite a lot!  I believe I had more eyelash when I was younger (>0<).  I never cared (I should…) about these things, and now I think I should do something about it.  

I bought L’Oreal Lash Boosting Serum to help my eyelash grow! L’Oreal brand seems to be quite popular among Japanese girls too.  Let’s see how it goes… 

I’ve been wearing the serum on my eyelash for 2 weeks now, twice a day.  I haven’t worn mascara for the last two weeks, and I think that my eyelash has became stronger –  less failing.

By the way, one of my friend in Japan is also pregnant (around 3 months) and they are having the wedding party on January next year.  She is already married to her husband, but they didn’t do any party or ceremony. (which is quite common thing in Japan these days)  They chose the following dress:

… yes, not white.  Wine color!  These days people in Japan don’t really care the color of the wedding dress much…  I’ve seen many brides wearing pink, blur or red dress in their wedding, not white.  I really like the dress and I think she will look great in this dress

These days my appetite has been strange.  I feel hungry, but don’t know what I feel like eating.  And, I get heartburn very often now.  If I eat a lot in the morning, I can’t eat anything until late night.  So, I just eat light food or snack little by little during the day.  

But, yesterday I really really wanted to eat chicken rice!  I couldn’t do anything but thinking about it.  It was around 3 PM, and D and I headed to Ten Ten.

I ordered Hainanese chicken rice, and D ordered roasted chicken rice.  We must have had looked like two starved little kids….   I ate it up all and so did he (^^).  It was very satisfying afternoon!

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Ume’s Today

This morning I went to see my doctor.  She called me up yesterday saying that she wanted to talk to me about my blood test.  I was so worried if something was wrong!

She said that Vitamin D level in my blood is quite low, and suggested I should take Vitamin D supplement.  The average level of Vitamin D level is 50 – 120, but mine was 40.  It’s not really a dangerous number, but if the number doesn’t change in future my body will have some problem, such as breakable bone.

You get Vitamin D from the Sunlight (natural Sunlight generates Vitamin D in your skin)  But, I don’t normally go outside in the Sun, especially in Perth, just to stay away from the UV and having skin problems.  If I do, I’d wear sunscreen or some jacket to cover the skin.  I actually haven’t been outside much since I started to work , around 15 years old.  That could be the reason..

After seeing doctor, we went to Emperor’s Kitchen in Leeming Shopping Forum to have Dim Sum.

There are things I always and only get when I go to have Dim Sum.  Fried squid, steamed prawn dumpling, chicken feet (if I’m with my husband), and ginger tripes (if I’m with my husband).  But this time, we were starving (probably from the worry I had since the doctor called me), so we ordered A LOT.  Perhaps we ate equal amount to what 4 or 5 people eat.  I ordered some vegetables too, just to help cleansing the oil in my body from those oily Dim Sum food.

The price was more expensive than the place we normally go to in Northbridge, but we were satisfied

Can you see this?  ….  maybe not :p  When we were at the house someone released tens of balloons to the sky!  There are many balloons … but by the time I grabbed the camera they’re too far already.

Happy weekend to everyone!

Saigon in Northbridge

On weekends we went to Saigon for lunch.  That’t type of food is my favorite (Chinese/Vietnamise/sometimes Malay)

At Saigon, Saigon Chicken Rice is the popular dish.  When I just came to Perth, my classmate took me to this restaurant for lunch and told me “Ume, you should try this Saigon Chicken Rice.  It’s really yummy!”

“Chicken Rice”…  I didn’t know what chicken rice was at that time, as there is not such dish like Hainan chicken rice or roasted chicken rice in Japan.  At first, I thought chicken rice was the stir-fried rice with chicken pieces in tomato sauce.  That’s the chicken rice in Japan.

It is really “chicken” and “rice”.

But, it’s really yummy!  The chicken skin is crispy, and the sauce is… addictive.

I can eat it every day, but I’m sure this dish contains quite lots of sugar.  Vietnamese food are high in sugar and I can taste the sweetness in the sauce.  But… very yummy!

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