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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Joy Cafe in Northbridge

It has been cold weather in Perth, especially the mornings and the nights.  I’ve went to Perth international airport just recently to drop off my friend who was going back to Jakarta.  It was around midnight and the air was freezing cold.  Inside the airport wasn’t that bad, but I still couldn’t take off my jacket.  On the other hand, the friend seemed to be ok with it and took off his jacket and put it into his check-in luggage.  If it was me, I would keep wearing it or at least keep in a cabin luggage in case it becomes cold in the plain.  I sometimes have to ask for an extra blanket to a cabin attendant.

It often takes some time for me to decide what to wear when getting on a plain.  Mostly, the countries I’ve been flying from Perth is either Japan or Indonesia.  The climate in Indonesia is always hot and humid.  The seasons in Japan and Australia are totally opposite.  So, whenever I fry, I always have to think about the climate and the season of the destination.  If I fly to Japan in February, I have to bring a thick coat or jacket with me on the plain, otherwise I’d be freezing from the snowing weather.  But I wouldn’t be able to wear even a long sleeve clothes to Perth airport as the temperature would be around 40 degree in February here.

Anyway, he was flying to Jakarta, a place where you start sweating right after getting off the plain, so he was just wearing half sleeve shirt until the boarding time.  The reason for him taking off his jacket could be also the sweet ginger dish that we ate at Joy Cafe in Northbridge before going to the airport.  As he was flying with Jetstar, and it was his last night in Perth, we all had dinner together at this Chinese restaurant.

We ordered a banquet for 4 which comes with today’s soup, choice of 4 main dishes, steamed rice and Chinese tea for four.  It was $62.00, so we thought it’s a pretty good deal.  It was only three of us when we got to the restaurant, but we were expecting three more people to join us.  In the end, two canceled and one showed up with full stomach, so three of us had to finish up the four dishes. :p  We ordered stewed beef brisket, honey king prawn, spinach with two kinds of egg, and Peking pork ribs with mayo.

The food was good, but what surprised me was the speed of their service.  It may be because of the time we arrived the restaurant (late night), but they served the soup and 4 main dishes within 5 minutes we ordered. All the ingredients were ready to be cooked, I guess.

You can’t imagine how full we were!  But, unbelievably, my husband and the friend ordered dessert (#0#).  They ordered peanut balls in warm ginger syrup soup, and Chinese pancake with sweet red beans and vanilla ice cream….  and we also finished them up too.

With warmed-up body, he flew back to his home.

Chinese New Year 2010

As you may know, this Chinese New Year is the same date as Valentine’s Day.  We, Japanese, don’t celebrate Chinese New Year (as our New Year Day is the 1st of January), but I attended the dinner with in-laws last night at a Chinese restaurant in East Perth, called Han Palace.  The outside and interior of this restaurant is just about what I imagine of “China”  

We had a course meal, which contains 13 dishes.

Yu Sang – Prosperity Raw Fish Salad

Shark Fin and Crab Meat Soup

Ginger and Shallot Western Rock Lobster with Yee Meen

etc etc.

The food was …. to me, not really special.  Maybe it’s because those food are special New Year’s food, I don’t know.  Well, I did enjoyed the atmosphere though.  There was a big screen of tv showing a New Year’s event show, and we started the course meal by mixing up the Yu Sang together while yelling “Happy New Year”.

While we were about halfway through the course meal, it started … – dragon dance!  

Two dragon started to look for ang pows (red envelop with money) and all the customers in the restaurants were feeding ang pow to those dancing dragon.

Dragon must get the ang pows : a customer stood on a chair and held an ang pows in high position, and dragon also has to stand up and get the ang pows.

It was a fun night.  I didn’t eat much, but the service was great.

Fun Experience at a Chinese Restaurant

The other day I went to Hon Kong BBQ in Northbridge with my friend for dinner.  I just wanted to have a chat with her as we hadn’t seen each other since I came back from holiday.  We had so much to talk about!

It was still early when we went in, so there’s just few customers inside.  We sat down, and had a look at their menu.  Then we noticed that the menu is written in 3 languages: English, Chinese, and Japanese.  Naturally we were browsing the Japanese words, and we both couldn’t stand but laugh…  We didn’t want to be rude, but the Japanese description was really funny.  I don’t know how they translated the menu into Japanese, but if they are thinking to remake menu books maybe I can help to write Japanese for them.  All the Japanese words on the menu does make sense, but are really funny…  It was a good laugh though, not trying to make fun of them!  

BTW, Japan also do the same thing to English.  We sometimes use English for sign boards, business cards, posters etc, but some of them are wrong-spelled or totally doesn’t make sense.  Like engrish.com, people make fun of it … and I agree, it’s funny!  

At Hong Kong BBQ we ordered braised beef with oyster sauce, and Chinese vegetable with mushrooms.

They’re delicious.  With just those two dishes and steamed rice, we stayed there for 2 hours!  Then we noticed some customers were waiting for the seat, so we left the restaurant.  

We still had 30 mins until my friend’s bus, so we looked for a place to have a quick coffee… Chutney Garden – an Indian restaurant.  Unfortunately they didn’t have any coffee menu, but they offered us Masala tea.  We didn’t really have time to move to another place, so we decided to have the tea.  The restaurant was filled with some kind of spice smell …  Indian Curry?  After few minutes very polite wait staff came to our table with 2 cups of Masala tea.  The spicy tea was fragrant, delicious, and warmed up our body.  It was really nice.